“Who am I? I am… Long Chen!”

“I look down on the very heavens, the arrogant nine heavens’ peerless Pill God – Long Chen? … I am someone who is cheated and bullied by everyone, a spineless, good-for-nothing cripple incapable of cultivating – Long Chen?”

His mind was a whirl of confusion, and at the same time, severe pain came from all over his body. Long Chen was unable to stop his mind’s chaotic thoughts and emitted a pained groan.

“Chen-er, you’ve finally awakened? Thank god, your mom was worried sick for you! If you want to brag about how strong you are, then fine, but why did you have to go duel with those people!?”

A kind and gentle voice sounded beside Long Chen’s ear. That voice was full of happiness and comfort, but towards the end, it also became choked with emotion.

Long Chen slowly opened his eyes. His blurry vision gradually became clearer, and a woman’s face appeared before him.

The woman appeared to be in her thirties and she was extremely beautiful. However, in the corner of her eyes were some deep wrinkles that did not match up with her young age.

Currently, this woman was tearfully looking at Long Chen with eyes that were full of love, making Long Chen’s heart feel a burst of warmth.

“Child, you scared your mom to death.” As the woman spoke, her eyes became even redder and her tears streamed down.

“Mom???”

Long Chen looked at this familiar yet strange face. He doubtingly said this one word, his face filled with confusion.

“Child, don’t scare your mom! Don’t you recognize me?” The woman’s face immediately became panicked.

At this moment, an elderly man appeared beside the woman. He examined Long Chen and he said, “Mrs. Long, Long Chen suffered a blow to the back of his head so it’s possible he will need to rest a bit to recover his memories. Don’t be too worried; just now I gave the young master some medicine. The medicinal energy still hasn’t completely dissolved, so just let the young master rest for a bit longer.”

Mrs. Long worriedly looked at Long Chen. Reluctantly, she nodded her head and followed the elderly man out of the room.

Long Chen heard the elderly man advising the woman softly in the distance, “Mrs. Long, the fact that young master Long managed to return with his life is already infinitely lucky. Don’t force it too much.”

Mrs. Long tremblingly replied, “Master alchemist’s meaning is that my son will…”

The elderly man, who had been called an alchemist, sighed, “The young master’s hindbrain received an acute shock. To tell the truth, being able to wake up is already extremely lucky; however, the repercussions will definitely still be very severe. Losing his memory is quite possible in this situation…”

The two people gradually walked further and further away so Long Chen could no longer hear them clearly… But what was barely audible to him was the sound of Mrs. Long’s sobbing.

Long Chen gazed blankly at the ceiling above as he felt the severe pains throughout his body, especially at the back of his head which was bursting with swollen, aching pain.

Just what happened? I’m Long Chen, and so Mrs. Long is my flesh and blood mother. How could I have such an unfamiliar feeling?

And all these confusing memories, where did they come from? I have memories that I’m an arrogant, exceedingly powerful person… but at the same time, I remember that I’m an often bullied and extorted bitter trash?

Pill God Long Chen? Trash Long Chen? Which is the real me? Am I the Pill God’s reincarnation? Or am I a fusion of the Pill God’s soul with a trash weakling?

Long Chen’s mind was full of endless questions. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter. I am Long Chen. Whether I’m Pill God Long Chen or the old, crippled Long Chen doesn’t mean anything right now. The most important thing is that I’m still alive.

“I have two sets of memories that have mixed together; how would I even try to fix this kind of insane problem? Instead, what I need to do now is to let myself recover as quickly as possible.”

Sensing his body’s current condition, he quickly located many fractures. He had three broken ribs, one arm broken in two places, and most severe of all, his hindbrain was injured to the point where a large portion of his scalp had caved in. He had definitely been victim to an extremely vicious assault.

“Huh, although I have no way to condense energy, my Spiritual Strength appears to be extremely powerful. I can actually sense everything within thirty meters of my body.”

Long Chen was pleasantly surprised. According to his garbled memories, Spiritual Strength was invaluable, especially to pill cultivators!

Profit, profit! Whether he was the reincarnation of the Pill God or his soul just contained a mix containing the Pill God’s memories, the present him had definitely greatly profited.

The Pill God had lived an entire lifetime already, and now that allowed him to possess an exceptionally strong soul; just what kind of awesomeness was this?

However, when he carefully examined his body, his expression changed. “My Spiritual Root has been taken away. My abdomen’s Spirit Bone is also missing a piece that appears to have been dug out. And my heart has a hole? Just who would be this ruthless and take my Spirit Root, Spirit Bone and Spirit Blood? No wonder I can’t cultivate!” Long Chen was completely infuriated.

His current Spiritual Strength was much, much stronger than his old self. It was now strong enough for him to immediately figure out the mystery of why he was a cripple who couldn’t cultivate.

The Spirit Root was located in the Dantian; it was the foundation for all cultivators. Without the Spirit Root, there was no way to sense heaven and earth’s spiritual energy, let alone absorb it for cultivating.

Spirit Blood was something that people were born with; it was a trace of blood that gave you innate talent. While basically all people were born with it, the majority of cultivators didn’t know anything about it.

The Spirit Bone was found in the pit of a person’s abdomen and slightly bulged out. Ordinary people wouldn’t have a Spirit Bone. Even amongst cultivators, maybe only one in ten thousand would have one, which marked them as a genius.

However, Long Chen’s Spirit Bone was obviously missing a piece and had clear marks of being dug out by someone.

His face became exceedingly unsightly. If his memories were not all mixed up, then how could he not remember who had done this to his body?

Although these three things were precious to him, they wouldn’t have any use once they left his body. If they wanted to harm him, why did they have to use such a harsh method? Using this kind of method was practically causing him to live a life worse than death!

However, anger only brought on more anger, and since he was already missing them, being angry did not have any use.

You better not let me find out who did this.

Long Chen couldn’t help but gnash his teeth in anger. This was an extremely great blow to him. With him possessing a Spirit Bone, even if he had been an idiot, he would still have been an absolute genius.

But now some despicable bastard had caused him to become a useless person who was incapable of cultivating, causing him to be humiliated and receive condescending looks from practically everyone.

Just when Long Chen was about to furiously erupt, the door of the room was gently pushed open, and a pretty thirteen-year-old maiden walked in. This was Long Chen’s maid who was called Bao-er.

“Young master, it’s time to take some medicine.”

“Medicine? What medicine is it?” Long Chen nose sniffed slightly as he asked.

“This is something Mrs. Long paid an enormous price for. It’s a Tiger Bone Pill that can quickly heal young master’s injuries.” Bao-er replied.

She opened the small, elaborate case in her hand, revealing the medicinal pill inside. “It is said that this medicinal pill came from grandmaster Yun Qi. The medicinal strength is very strong.”

Looking at the thing, Long Chen’s face became a bit strange. Even this kind of plaything could be called a pill? Its shape was extremely uneven and seemed more like a meatball.

Even not talking about the shape, its color was completely black and there wasn’t even a trace of luster. If it wasn’t emitting a very faint medicinal aroma, then Long Chen might even suspect that it was a ball of sheep dung.

After staring at the thing in his hand for a long time, Long Chen finally sighed. Someone who had ending up losing over eighty percent of the medicinal pill’s essence could still be called a grandmaster? Long Chen bewilderedly wondered how someone could have created something so soft and mushy.

Pills could be divided into five grades: low grade, middle grade, high grade, top grade, and peerless grade. As for the pill in his hand, it couldn’t even count as one of the five grades. Long Chen suddenly realized that this was just a defective good. It was a trash pill. Normally, alchemists would definitely not sell these kinds of medicinal pills since they couldn’t afford to lose their customers. Oftentimes, they would be turned into medicinal liquids or just directly thrown out.

“Young master, don’t daydream. In order to obtain this precious pill, Mrs. Long already sold off her own precious jewelry. You should hurry and take it,” urged Bao-er.

Long Chen couldn’t help but feel some pain in his heart. His impression of his mother was that she loved him very dearly to the point where it was like he were drowning in love. It had reached the point where his mother would basically never refuse any of his requests.

His mother had done everything and anything for him. She had given birth to him while she was still young. She had been gifted with great beauty growing up, but now she was barely thirty-something years old and already had wrinkles in the corner of her eyes. Seeing those deep wrinkles, Long Chen knew that she had already sacrificed far too much for him.

Looking at the medicinal pill in his hand, he observed that even though it was a defective good, at least the medicinal ingredients inside it were not bad. Impurities took up over eighty percent of it, but it wouldn’t have any problems healing his injuries.

Taking the medicinal pill, Long Chen ordered Bao-er to not leak any news of him out, excluding to his mother of course.

Although Bao-er didn’t really understand why, she still trusted Long Chen and obediently nodded.

After taking the medicine, although Long Chen had no way to use cultivation to absorb the medicinal strength, he managed to guide the medicinal energy to his wounds by using his formidable Spiritual Strength, allowing him to recover extremely quickly.

The second day, Long Chen slowly opened his eyes. He had a smile plastered on his mouth as he exercised his muscles.

“Excellent! Although that medicine was pretty bad, the medicinal ingredients themselves were of high quality. Other than my hindbrain, the majority of my injuries have already healed, and the amount of energy left is more than enough to heal me completely.”

He slowly walked towards the mirror. Looking at his reflection, he saw a nothing-out-of-the-ordinary, handsome youngster with eyebrows like swords and bright eyes. Long Chen took a deep breath, “From today onwards, I, Long Chen, will no longer be the previous Long Chen. I will rise above others.”

Although his body was still slightly weak, walking was no longer a problem. Long Chen left the room and saw that the sun had already risen from the east.

After pondering deeply for an hour, he called over Bao-er and gave her a list of medicinal ingredients for her to find.

However, Bao-er’s expression became a bit embarrassed. Long Chen wondered what it was before quickly remembered that the current Long family was extremely hard-pressed for money, and Bao-er had no method to get a loan.

Otherwise, his mother would not have had to sell off her own jewelry, a part of her exceptionally precious dowry. The present Long family had already fallen into extremely dire straits.

Feeling around in his pocket, he found slightly over eighty silver coins. Although this wasn’t a lot, it was enough to buy those medicinal ingredients on his list.

Bao-er worked diligently, and not even two hours later, she had managed to buy the medicinal ingredients. Long Chen immediately set about to measuring and dividing them into different portions before boiling them in a large bowl.

Six hours later, a very thick medicinal liquid was releasing a medicinal aroma. As Long Chen looked into the bowl with the cheap medicinal liquid, a smile appeared on his face.

“I, Long Chen, will rise above others, starting from this one bowl of medicinal liquid.”

Chapter 2 Despicable Scum

The medicinal liquid entered his stomach, and Long Chen hastily used his mind to guide the medicinal energy throughout his body, allowing it to merge into his bones.

Normal martial artists would let the medicinal energy assimilate inside the Dantian in order to absorb it, and only later would they spread it throughout their body. However, Long Chen didn’t have a Spirit Root; thus, his Dantian was completely empty and had no way to store energy.

The only thing he could do was to allow the medicinal energy to scatter into every cell. Although this medicinal liquid was formed only from ordinary medicinal herbs, it displayed a surprisingly remarkable medicinal effect after going through Long Chen’s pairings and proportions.

As the medicinal energy rushed throughout his body, countless pores opened up. It was as if every single cell had been in a state of starvation as they all began to crazily absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

BOOM!

A muffled explosion came from within Long Chen’s body. His originally sealed meridians were all forced open and Long Chen couldn’t stop himself from letting out a muffled groan.

When others cultivated, they would use the Dantian’s qi in order to gradually open up their meridians in a step-by-step manner which would not cause any pain.

However, Long Chen couldn’t do so; he could only borrow an outer energy source. This energy was like the ocean’s water flowing into a river field; its violent and ferocious nature wasn’t something that just anybody could withstand.

“This pain… I will definitely remember this pain.” Long Chen gnashed his teeth. If it weren’t for some vicious person stealing his Spirit Root, how could he have been forced to choose such a crazy method?

BANG BANG BANG!

Continuous explosions echoed out from his body as his meridians opened up one by one. Every time a meridian channel was opened, intense pain would wreck his body.

When all his meridians were finally opened, Long Chen almost fell into a coma. He had to rest for two full hours before he slowly revitalized himself.

With the pain now past him, Long Chen felt that the pores from his toes to his head were all open. With every single breath he took, he absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

“Excellent, I can finally practice cultivation now that my meridians have opened.”

Long Chen sensed his body’s condition. With his meridians opened, he could finally absorb spiritual qi from the world through his pores in order to nourish his body to become stronger.

In fact, although his meridians had only just been opened, that single change filled his body with strength.

He punched out, and the whistling wind that came with it made Long Chen smile. He hadn’t endured that pain for nothing.

For ordinary cultivators, they first had to enter a so-called qi sensing realm. Only once they were able to sense qi were they able to enter the Qi Condensation realm.

However, Long Chen had taken an alternative path. By using medicinal energy to forcibly link himself up to heaven and earth’s spiritual qi, he had managed to completely open his meridians, which was equivalent to stepping into Qi Condensation with a single step.

However, it couldn’t be said that he had truly stepped into Qi Condensation. Although his body had been strengthened to the point that it was on that level, the Qi Condensation realm involved condensing cyclones of qi within the Dantian. Without a Dantian, he was not truly in Qi Condensation.

“Although I’ve forcibly opened my meridians, my useless Dantian is still unable to hold the true qi. When I fight with others, there’s no way I can keep it up for more than a few moments. This still isn’t good enough.”

Long Chen went through his new memories. Almost all of his new memories were only about alchemy. But eventually, he found the only memory he had that pertained to martial arts: the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art.

What surprised Long Chen pleasantly was that the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art was practically custom-made for him. It was a secret technique capable of excavating even more of a person’s potential. It didn’t cultivate the Dantian, but the nine stars.

Those nine stars were contained within the body. Once they were all formed, they would be equivalent to nine Dantians. When he saw that in his memories, he almost jumped in joy.

But then as he continued comprehending this technique, he immediately felt as if a bucket of ice water had been thrown over him. To cultivate the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art required countless medicinal pills.

In order to condense the first star, the FengFu Star, he would practically need an endless amount of energy. If he wanted to rely on just absorbing the energy from the air, not even a hundred years would be enough to condense it.

In order to condense the first star, he would need an enormous amount of medicinal pills. Without such a huge number of medicinal pills, he wouldn’t be able to cultivate in it.

His Long family was broke, and there was no way for them to purchase a huge number of medicinal pills.

“I should first think of a method to make some money,” Long Chen muttered to himself. After switching his clothes, he left his room. At this time it was already past noon, but there were unexpectedly few people to be seen in his huge noble estate, making it seem like an extremely desolate place.

Long Chen’s father was the Border Suppression Marquis. He was currently gone to the barbarian border. Long Chen and his mother had had to suffer many condescending gazes from everyone in the imperial capital over the past few years. Although they had the position of a noble family, but compared to before, they were completely destitute. In their entire estate, there were only ten or so maids who did some part-time work for them since they couldn’t afford to employ more people.

It could be said that in all the aristocracy, they were the family in the worst straits, and Long Chen himself was the most destitute of the poor.

Phoenix Cry Empire was currently in a golden age of martial arts. Basically, everyone practiced martial arts. But as it had turned out, Long Chen’s trash physique meant that he was incapable of practicing martial arts, making him someone that everybody would sneer at.

Opposite to Long Chen was his father, Long Tianxiao. He was the strongest of his generation and with him guarding the barbarian border, even if the barbarian tribes were to savagely attack, they would not have the ability to step even half a foot within the Phoenix Cry Empire.

Long Tianxiao was the Phoenix Cry Empire’s military god of this generation, whereas Long Chen had been a trash who couldn’t even sense qi. It was impossible to prevent people from feeling that this tiger father had had a dog of a son.

Countless people would jeer at him, but Long Chen wouldn’t care. However, that day, the Savage Marquis’s son, Zhou Yaoyang, had ridiculed Long Chen by saying that he wasn’t his father’s son.

Long Chen’s anger had immediately soared to the heavens. Zhou Yaoyang had obviously been insulting his mother as unfaithful! Long Chen’s anger had even caused him to become muddle-headed and he had recklessly challenged his opponent to a duel.

However, his opponent was a strong person at the seventh Heavenstage of Qi Condensation while he was just an ordinary person incapable of even sensing qi. He had basically been asking to be disgraced.

As a result, he later was beaten to the point of losing consciousness and almost dying. He was sent home and the news caused Long Chen to be an object of ridicule for quite some time in the imperial capital.

Leaving his noble estate, Long Chen went directly to the imperial capital’s Hundred Herb Market. That was the place where all kinds of precious medicinal ingredients were sold. Right now what he needed to do was to get an understanding of the medicinal herbs’ market situation.

Along the road, there were quite a few people and when they recognized Long Chen, they couldn’t help but to point at him behind his back; however, Long Chen was already used to this.

But at the same time, he smiled bitterly inside. His own father had suppressed the entire barbarian border, which was an amazing, meritorious deed that protected the entire empire.

However, what had he obtained for that? This mother and son duo had been left to suffer from bullying and humiliating stares in the imperial capital, and Long Chen had almost been beaten to death. How could this be considered repayment? A group of people that were protected by his father had all gave his son condescending gazes. This was his repayment?

Long Chen quickened his footsteps. Although he wasn’t afraid of these kinds of stares, he would always end up a bit gloomy. But at this moment, his path was suddenly blocked by a group of people.

“Aiya, are you actually Long Chen? I heard you were beaten to the point where you couldn’t even recognize your own mom, so how are you so lively that you ran out today?”

In front of Long Chen was a sixteen-year-old teen wearing gaudy clothes and sneering at him with two guards.

This person was also born as a noble heir in an aristocrat family and was called Li Hao. However, his position within the aristocracy was not high and his status was incomparable to Long Chen’s. After all, in the Phoenix Cry Empire, nobility and status were only secondary as strength was still the most important thing.

Li Hao was standing right in the middle of the road and if Long Chen wanted to go through, he would need to pass through him.

If it was the previous Long Chen, he would have turned around and walked back, but today’s Long Chen looked at Li Hao, shook his head, and sighed, “People say even well-trained dogs know not to obstruct the road. Looks like you’re not even as good as a dog.”

“Long Chen, it seems you didn’t remember the lesson that I gave you last time! If you want to be beaten within an inch of your life again, then let’s fight in the martial arena.” Li Hao’s expression changed before taunted him once again.

“That’s why I said you were a dog. Just go eat crap with Zhou Yaoyang.” Long Chen shook his head. He didn’t want to waste his time on this kind of person. He needed to handle his own affairs, so he started to walk around him.

“Long Chen, you are asking for it!”

Li Hao’s couldn’t help but become angry. He was not expecting that the always cowardly Long Chen would actually act in such an unyielding manner that basically didn’t even pay attention to him. He stuck out his arms to bar Long Chen’s path.

Long Chen frowned slightly, but just as he was about to say more, a person walked over and cursed Li Hao, “Li Hao, you’re the one asking for it! Just who do you think you are to dare threaten my brother?”

The person who had come was an extremely tall eighteen-year-old. His height was especially extraordinary at seven feet tall, which was taller than either of them by over a head and very intimidating.

“Shi Feng, this isn’t your business! It’d be best if you didn’t meddle around.”

When Li Hao saw Shi Feng, all he could do was to act tough even though he was weaker. Shi Feng was also a noble heir whose status was about the same as his, but Shi Feng was a strong person who had reached the eighth Heavenstage of Qi Condensation while he was only at the third Heavenstage of Qi Condensation.

In addition, Shi Feng had an innate strength, which meant that amongst people in the same rank as him, only a few were an equal match for him. Therefore, Li Hao didn’t have the guts to challenge Shi Feng.

“Brother Long Chen, I heard that that bastard Zhou Yaoyang beat you up. How about I go help you vent your anger? “ Shi Feng looked at Long Chen and his expression became indignant.

Long Chen looked at the huge person in front of him, and his heart felt a bit of warmth. Shi Feng was the only one in the imperial capital who would consider him as his brother.

“No thanks, my enmities are something that I will pay back myself. Just don’t worry about it.” Long Chen faintly laughed, patting Shi Feng’s shoulder.

When Shi Feng heard Long Chen say this, he thought that Long Chen might be worried about his image and so he didn’t raise the issue again.

“Let’s go, come with me for a stroll,” said Long Chen with a smile, and he brought Shi Feng for a walk.

When Li Hao saw that the two of them considered him as just thin air, he couldn’t help but angrily cursing, “Long Chen, you little bastard, if you have the guts then you’ll fight me in a duel!”

They had just walked a couple of steps when Li Hao said this and they paused. From deep within Long Chen’s eyes, a strong murderous intent was radiated as he slowly turned his head.

“You want to have a duel with me?” Long Chen’s voice was extremely cold. Each word he spoke was just like ice shards that caused people to tremble in their bones.

Li Hao couldn’t help but shiver. For some reason, he felt that today’s Long Chen was a bit different, but his big words had already been spoken so if at this time he was to act like a coward, then he would become the entire imperial capital’s laughingstock.

Moreover, he was already used to bullying Long Chen over and over, so with those experiences, he ignored the trace of fear that arose in his heart.

“Not bad, you dare to accept the duel?” Li Hao mocked in a loud voice.

“Not a problem, however, I want to add some stakes,” said Long Chen after a moment’s thought.

“Adding stakes? Haha, your Long family is almost unable to feed yourselves, what are you going to take out as stakes? You could use your family’s estate, or how about you become my slave?” mocked Li Hao coldly.

However what he didn’t notice was that in the corner of Long Chen’s mouth was a callous smile that seemed to have some hidden intentions.

“Brother Shi, can you lend me your martial sword?” Long Chen asked.

“Take it.”

Shi Feng did somewhat hate to part with it, but he still handed his sword over.

Long Chen nodded, and he quietly recorded this favor into his heart. Towards Li Hao, he said, “This martial sword isn’t top quality, but it is still worth eight thousand gold coins. For today I’ll just count it as five thousand gold coins. If you win you can take the martial sword, but if you lose, you have to give me five thousand gold coins. How’s that sound?”

Li Hao’s heart shook; Shi Feng’s sword was made from top quality steel and was forged by a master. It was definitely worth at least eight thousand gold coins.

Today, this idiot Long Chen actually decided to use such a thing as a bet; Li Hao had long since started laughing cheerfully inside.

He once again sneered, “I don’t know. If someone were to lose, will he renege out of the bet?”

“Don’t worry. I, Shi Feng, will guarantee it.” Shi Feng coldly smiled.

“Good, then let’s go to the martial arena to sign the contract. If today I don’t beat the teeth out of you, then in the future I wouldn’t be Li Hao.” Li Hao couldn’t help from being extremely exuberant as he high-spiritedly spoke.

Long Chen’s face was still calm; however, within his eyes appeared some darkness. Li Hao was just one of Zhou Yaoyang’s dogs, so Long Chen never paid any attention to him. But nowadays, they were always plotting against him; just what kind of hidden conspiracy was there?

However, no matter what kind of conspiracy it was, the truth would always come to light one day. Long Chen walked directly to the martial arena outside the imperial capital.

Chapter 3 Revealing his Sharp Side

In the Phoenix Cry Empire, martial customs were very popular, and so some disputes were unavoidable. Thus, a life and death stage had been built outside the imperial capital where people could resolve their personal differences.

As long as both parties agreed and signed the martial arena contract, then once they entered into the martial arena, even if they killed their opponent, they wouldn’t receive any punishment from the imperial capital.

During most days, this place was filled with bustling crowds, and today was no different. However, after a couple matches had ended, two youngsters walked onto the stage and caused an uproar.

“Isn’t that person Long Chen? Why would he come here?”

“Yeah, yesterday he was almost beaten to death. Isn’t it weird for him to be here today?”

“Hmph, I bet he doesn’t want to live anymore and wants to get someone to beat him to death here.”

His father Long Tianxiao might be called the Border Suppression Marquis and was this generation’s military god, but the people who gave him the title ‘military god’ were the poor people who had to suffer through wars and conflicts.

In the imperial capital, which was filled with rich people, everyone was in peace and prosperity; therefore, people didn’t place Long Tianxiao, who was born in a commoner family, on the same level as them. And thus, only a few people in the entire imperial capital held respect for Long Chen.

“Long Chen, you piece of trash, why did you come back? Aren’t you just holding up the action for no reason? Who would want to see your martial arts? Hurry and beat it!”

“Yeah, if you want to kill yourself then find somewhere without people. No one wants to see such a piece of trash, so stop wasting our time!”

In just a moment, the audience of several hundred people were all cursing loudly; none of them hid their disgust for Long Chen.

However, in an unremarkable corner further away, two maidens wearing veils were raptly watching him.

“Sister, that one is your fiancé? Why does he seem so lacking? There are not even the slightest fluctuations around his body,” observed one of the maidens disappointedly.

“Hmph, if dad hadn’t been so selfish, he wouldn’t have arranged my marriage back when I still wasn’t even born. It’s truly irritating…” responded the other maiden.

On the martial arena, Long Chen didn’t even notice the two maidens who were spying on him, and he also did not respond at all to the jeers of the crowd. He merely indifferently looked at Li Hao.

Li Hao pointed out the people’s uproar and sneered. “See? You’re an unwelcome piece of trash, and if you were smart, you would just bash your head in and die.”

Long Chen continued to only indifferently stare at him, not saying a word.

Dong….

The sound of a bell rang out, signaling the start of the duel. When that bell tolled, life and death were separated by only a fine line.

Due to the tolling of the bell, the originally rowdy crowd became silent; after all, it was a life and death battle. Who would know just when someone’s life would end?

“Sister, this fiancé of yours doesn’t seem to have any cultivation base while his opponent is at the third Heavenstage of Qi Condensation. Aren’t you worried?” The maiden asked.

“Hmph, what’s the point of me being worried? Him dying is fine. It doesn’t have anything to do with me.” The other maiden indifferently snorted. But although she said these words, she had already taken out an extremely strange and ancient silk net.

“Heehee, don’t say you don’t care, you’ve already taken out your martial weapon. Looks like you do still care. And you know, although his cultivation talent is trash, he’s not that bad looking. How about this, if you don’t want him, you can just give him to me.” the other maiden laughingly joked.

“How can a person be just randomly given to you? If you like him, you can wait for me to withdraw from the marriage arrangement. After that, you can do whatever you want,” responded the other woman angrily.

“Heehee.”

On the martial arena, Long Chen from the beginning until the end had remained as calm as water. When compared to yesterday’s him who had been gnashing his teeth in complete anger, it was as if he was a completely different person.

“Long Chen, with your death near, you decided to suddenly become calm? Don’t worry, due to the stakes you proposed, I won’t beat you to death today.” Li Hao was extremely arrogant and confident.

“You sure say a lot of crap. Hurry up and come at me, I still have things to do later,” responded Long Chen in a slightly impatient manner.

Because the entire audience was very quiet, every single word of Long Chen’s managed to enter the crowd’s ears, and in a split second everyone watching the martial arena burst into jeering derision.

“Li Hao, what are you still waiting for? Hurry up and beat this kid to death! He’s really causing us to feel too embarrassed for him.”

Some of the people present recognized Li Hao, so they called out to him.

A cold sneer appeared on Li Hao’s face, and he was no longer hesitating; the power of his third Heavenstage of Qi Condensation completely exploded out. His foot pressed down slightly on the martial arena, and he immediately shot out towards Long Chen, punching out his fist.

When Li Hao started attacking, the crowd below burst into cheers; the current Li Hao’s appearance appeared very dashing and handsome.

“Nice attack, it’s the Wind Jade Tree Fist.”

Some of the people recognized the move and cheered. However, the distant two maidens’ expressions were both filled with contempt and ridicule.

Long Chen similarly also sneered. This kind of idiot move—filled with mistakes—could still be used against enemies?

The fist was smashing towards him and a strong wind whistled as it approached, but Long Chen seemed to not notice it at all and didn’t move even an inch.

“Haha, this trash doesn’t even know how to dodge,” sneered some people under the stage.

However, just when that ridicule had just been shouted out, Li Hao’s fist came to a complete stop just an inch away from Long Chen’s face.

The originally ridiculing crowd suddenly came to a complete silence. They noticed that one of Long Chen’s legs had struck out and violently kicked Li Hao in the area between his legs.

The originally beaming with happiness and elegant Li Hao now had an expression like a purple eggplant. Long Chen’s kick clearly caused him an extremely severe pain, making his facial features warp and preventing him from moving.

However, he might not be able to move from the pain, but Long Chen could. In just this brief pause, Long Chen grabbed Li Hao’s hair, forcefully pulling on it while also strongly kicking out with his knee.

SLAM SLAM SLAM!

Long Chen completed his actions in an extremely refreshing manner and in a short time, his strong and fast rhythmic actions gave people a very intense show.

The unpleasant sound of bones breaking came out from Li Hao’s body. His nose was already caved in, his whole face was covered in blood, and he himself had already lost consciousness.

For a moment, not even one voice could be heard from the crowd. Nobody had expected that a strong person at the third Heavenstage of Qi Condensation would be beaten by a trash, who had no cultivation base, in such a quick manner.

Moreover, he had done it in the cleanest and most efficient manner. This kind of result was a firm slap in the face towards the crowd that had been ridiculing him.

Even the distant two observing maidens were completely shocked. Although Li Hao was nothing to them and could be easily killed with a wave of their hands…

But Long Chen was not the same as them. From the very start, not a trace of spiritual energy had been used by Long Chen and he had completely relied on an ordinary person’s abilities to defeat Li Hao.

“Long Chen wins.”

A voice came from an elderly man below the stage who was often in charge of the martial arena and its registration.

Long Chen’s stomach fluctuated rapidly a couple of times, and it was only with great willpower that he managed to stop and suppress the killing intent inside him. Right now was not the time for killing people.

He had been oppressed for such a long time, and now that he had exploded out, it was hard for him to withdraw it. But as the rest of the world saw it though, Long Chen’s actions appeared to be from lack of strength like he was gasping for breath.

Long Chen walked off the stage to the elderly man and received the sword that he had used as his stakes as well as a crystal card with five thousand gold coins on it.

The rules here stated that they had to hand in the stakes to the referee before the match; in order to show that it was equitable and also lowering the chance of anyone backing out during the battle.

After receiving the martial sword, Long Chen directly returned it to Shi Feng. Placing the crystal card into his robes, he couldn’t help but become somewhat excited.

Although five thousand gold coins weren’t very much, it could help settle a bit of the desperate situation his family was in. It had been very long since they had received a stipend from the empire, and nowadays the Long family was quickly reaching the point where they couldn’t even afford decent food to eat.

Under the attentive gazes of countless people, the two of them unhurriedly left. The two maidens watched Long Chen leave and immediately afterward, they also disappeared.

The news that Long Chen had beat Li Hao seemed to gain legs as it rapidly spread. In just a short time, the entire imperial capital learned of it. The news puzzled countless people; how could a trash who couldn’t practice martial arts possibly have become this difficult to deal with?

But even with so many people personally seeing it as well as the news that Li Hao had to be carried back to his estate, quite a few people were still incapable of completely accepting it.

Long Chen had wanted to split his earnings with Shi Feng, but Shi Feng was completely unwilling. In the end, he quickly made an excuse that he had things to do before hastily leaving, not even asking Long Chen how he had suddenly become so powerful.

Remembering this favor in his heart, Long Chen directly went to the Hundred Herb Market. Entering into the Hundred Herb Market, Long Chen requested a catalog of their medicinal ingredients.

On it were very clear recordings of the various medicinal ingredients’ names and prices. Long Chen saw the majority of the medicinal ingredients required to refine the FengFu Pill^[1]. It was quite lucky that the medicinal ingredients for the FengFu Pill were not especially uncommon.

However, looking at the price, Long Chen’s heart practically dripped blood. The gold coins he had now were only enough to buy three portions of the medicinal ingredients.

But he couldn’t spend it all on these medicinal ingredients since he still needed to buy a medicinal furnace for refining, as well as to buy some other spare medicinal ingredients. The few gold coins he had were like a cup of water trying to put out a burning cart.

However, not buying it was also unacceptable, so Long Chen clenched his teeth and spent twelve hundred gold coins to buy a bronze furnace of the worst quality.

He also bought one set of the medicinal ingredients for the FengFu Pill as well as a large amount of medicinal ingredients for the Energy Recovery Powder. By the time Long Chen left the Hundred Herb Market, the amount on his crystal card was only five hundred gold coins.

After returning home, Long Chen went right to his own room. Firmly locking the door, he ordered Bao-er to tell everyone that he was not to be disturbed.

He knew that his mother would hear the news that he had once again gone to compete in martial arts. Afraid that his mother would worry, he purposely told Bao-er to block her. In any case, nothing had happened to him, and his mother shouldn’t become too concerned.

Right now, he had to seize every second of every minute to quickly increase his strength. He was sure that the current Long family’s predicament was not as simple as it seemed, and he sensed the coming of a crisis.

The spiritual energy in Long Chen’s body started moving, and a cluster of flame appeared within his hand. This was a pill cultivator’s agglomerated Pill Flame. But when Long Chen saw this ball of flame, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry; this flame was far too weak. The Pill Flame was formed from a pill cultivator’s spiritual energy, and through special operating methods it was condensed into a spiritual energy flame. However, the current Long Chen’s Pill Flame’s temperature was extremely low, even when compared to other ordinary Pill Flames.

In addition, Long Chen found that without his Dantian to support him, he couldn’t maintain the Pill Flame for more than a quarter of an hour, which was far from enough time to refine medicinal pills.

Long Chen bitterly smiled. However, luckily he had his backup plan, which was first refining the Energy Recovery Powder. Placing the medicinal ingredients into the furnace, he refined them one by one. This time, he didn’t use his Pill Flame, but instead used a normal fire from the wood.

When all the medicinal ingredients had been refined, he placed them into a jug of water to form Energy Recovery Liquid and after resting for a short period of time, Long Chen took a deep breath and prepared himself to officially begin the refining of FengFu Pill.

Chapter 4 Condensing the FengFu Star

Nine Yin Grass, refinement complete.

Earth Dragon Root, refinement complete.

Flame Seed, refinement complete.

….

Over thirty types of medicinal herbs were refined one by one, using up over two hours of Long Chen’s time and causing him to be covered in sweat.

Refining pills was not the same as simply decocting medicine. Every single medicinal herb’s essence had to be extracted while at the same time removing the impurities, forming a powder.

However, the flame in Long Chen’s hand was of far too low of a quality and the refined powder still retained too many impurities to be ideal. Still, this was the only method that he had.

First of all, Long Chen’s cultivation base was nonexistent, and thus he didn’t have the necessary strength to sustain the Pill Flame, making its strength weak.

Second of all, currently, Long Chen didn’t have the opportunity or capability to subdue a different flame, so he could only settle for what he had.

But wanting to train in alchemy methods required not only a strong Pill Flame but also forceful spiritual energy, and the most important requirement was an exceedingly powerful Spiritual Strength.

The other two requirements were not that difficult. As for the Pill Flame, as long as you made all the proper preparations, you could seize a fire-attribute Magical Beast and gradually tame it into a house pet. Drawing on the Magical Beast’s flame, you could subdue it and cultivate it to become your own flame.

Over ninety-nine percent of capable alchemists used beast flames. Only a handful of people, who possessed extremely ancient inheritances of powerful strength, could control those extremely mysterious and mystical Spirit Flames found within heaven and earth.

Spirit Flames were flames that possessed their own soul and according to Long Chen’s memories, he had previously controlled an extremely formidable Spirit Flame.

But no matter how formidable he was in the past, right now he could only use this trash flame for his pill refining. After all, the things in his memories were not things he could take out.

After resting enough, Long Chen took a deep breath. He placed a candle into his hand and a yellow flame appeared.

“Not bad, after going through the refinements, the flame’s strength has increased by a slight amount. Whatever, it’s better than nothing I guess.”

After consecutively refining seven different medicines’ essence, he threw them into the furnace. His Spiritual Strength erupted out and the flame in Long Chen’s hand suddenly fluctuated. Compared to before, it was now several times stronger.

“Using Spiritual Strength to support the flame. If other alchemists saw this, wouldn’t they get shocked to death?” Long Chen bitterly smiled.

Spiritual Strength was the foundation of any pill refinement. At the time of refining, a large amount of Spiritual Strength was needed in order to control the temperature. If even a slight deviation occurred, it would waste all of your previous efforts and you would end up refining a pile of pill ashes. Moreover, if the medicinal pill had a very large medicinal strength, then you might even cause a furnace explosion.

Most alchemists wouldn’t start using their Spiritual Strength right at the beginning of the refinement. They would only use it towards the latter stages, when the pill was about to take form in order to very carefully control the flame’s strength.

After all, that was the critical time in the formation of the pill. At that time, the flame’s temperature had to constantly change, sometimes high and sometimes low, and doing so required a large consumption of Spiritual Strength.

If at that time, the alchemist’s Spiritual Strength was already exhausted, then the furnace of pills could basically be considered as scrapped. However, Long Chen actually started using his Spiritual Strength right at the beginning of the refinement.

In addition, he used this precious Spiritual Strength just in order to increase the flame’s power, treating it like firewood. Any alchemist would definitely rage and curse at him for doing so. Even if someone was a reckless and frivolous spender, no one would actually spend it like this.

But Long Chen wasn’t worried. According to his memories, his Spiritual Strength was already not lacking compared to ordinary alchemists.

Pill cultivator ranks were Pill Apprentice, Pill Adept, Pill Master, Pill King, Pill Emperor, Pill Ancestor, Pill Venerate, Pill Saint, and Pill God.

The FengFu Pill was a first tier medicinal pill and generally, pill cultivators who had reached the Pill Apprentice rank could refine a first tier medicinal pill.

Long Chen’s current memories also included those of a Pill God, so he was completely clear on his current capabilities. When Long Chen had awoken, his Spiritual Strength had changed to become abnormally strong compared to his previous trash self; therefore, Long Chen was qualified to use his Spiritual Strength in such a manner.

The pill furnace in front of Long Chen faintly trembled, emitting a slight buzzing noise.

“Hehe, by increasing the power of the flame, the speed has increased by quite a bit.”

He hastily threw in three more medicinal ingredients into the furnace; however, Long Chen’s forehead was already perspiring at this moment.

Hurriedly taking out a straw, he placed one end into the medicine jar which was filled with Energy Recovery Liquid and quickly drank a mouthful.

When the Energy Recovery Liquid entered his stomach, the pores all over his body opened and began to crazily absorb the spiritual energy between and heaven and earth. His originally about to be exhausted spiritual energy rapidly recovered.

This was what Long Chen had prepared earlier. Without it, there was no way for him to refine the FengFu Pill. With his current level, it would be a joke if he could actually refine a pill on his own without some kind of assistance.

With the straw in his mouth, every now and then he would draw in another mouthful of Energy Recovery Liquid to replenish his body’s spiritual energy.

With Long Chen’s spiritual energy being replenished, his Spiritual Strength could show off how extremely powerful it was, and it was only two days later that Long Chen started to feel a bit exhausted. That was a sign that his Spiritual Strength had been largely used up.

However, at this time, the medicinal ingredients had already been absorbed into the pill furnace, so all that was left was finishing up. The medicinal aroma was also starting to fill the air.

Although Long Chen’s impression of a first tier medicinal pill was that it was so easy to refine it could be done with his eyes closed, the current him was no longer the same Pill God in his memories. His destiny had already been completely changed and saying that he wasn’t nervous would be a lie.

Buzz.

Suddenly, the pill furnace’s interior started to vibrate, emitting a series of buzzing noises. The energy within the pill furnace also started to become berserk.

Long Chen didn’t become even the slightest bit panicked; on the contrary, he even started to smile. This was the indication of the pill’s formation and also the most critical time of the refinement.

His Spiritual Strength was completely activated with not even a trace of it held in reserve. The flame in his hand suddenly exploded out, and an incorporeal strength tightly sealed the entire pill furnace. This technique was called ‘Heaven Seal Earth Lock’ and was something that he had come up with from his memories. It was something used in order to prevent pill explosions and also, furnace explosions.

Moreover, this technique was very practical and could in the shortest period seal the medicinal energy within the pill furnace, not letting too much leak out.

Normal alchemists would all do this at the last step because when the medicinal pill would go berserk, it was possible to stabilize it by taking a more gentle action.

Although doing so would decrease the danger by a lot, a large amount of the medicinal essence would be lost, and therefore, the medicinal pill’s quality would just be ordinary.

Bang!

Following the full suppression of Long Chen’s Spiritual Strength, the pill furnace emitted a smothered noise. After that, everything turned silent.

The pill furnace had already turned tranquil. Long Chen couldn’t help but to gasp for breath. His whole body was drenched in sweat, and he was so dizzy that he felt the sky was spinning.

When he felt a bit better, he excitedly opened up the furnace. His hand was even trembling as he picked out five extremely round pills. Holding them in his hand, a dense medicinal aroma completely filled the whole room.

“Two low-grade pills and three trash pills. Tch, saying it out loud really makes me lose enough face to die.” Long Chen’s face was showing how excited he was, but he still sighed.

Staring blankly for a bit, he couldn’t help but laugh. He had a mixture of a lifetime’s worth of memories from a Pill God along with the memories of his current self. Apparently, that Pill God was truly excessively arrogant.

He himself didn’t care about losing any face though, and he hastily carefully examined the pills in his hand.

There were two low-grade medicinal pills with their bodies completely round and their pill aroma filling the air. The aroma refreshed the mind and raised a person’s spirit when smelled.

Long Chen couldn’t hold back a burst of elation. After all, one successful medicinal pill could be sold in the imperial capital for at least ten thousand gold coins.

In addition, even the three trash pills in his hand were much better than the medicinal pill his mother had bought for him, especially since at least thirty percent of the medicinal essence had been sealed into the pill.

A medicinal pill that had locked in fifty percent of the essence would be termed low grade, and over eighty percent of all medicinal pills were only low grade.

If the medicinal essence reached sixty percent it would be middle grade, seventy percent would make it high grade, eighty percent would make it top grade, ninety percent would make it peerless grade, and as for one hundred percent… hehe. Right now Long Chen didn’t think too much about it as it was simply too far for his current self.

Some people might wonder about the difference between fifty and sixty percent content of medicinal essence. Was it a significant difference?

Wouldn’t consuming two low-grade medicinal pills be much more effective than one middle grade? If someone heard you ask this question, they’d probably choke on their own spit.

Inside a medicinal pill was not only its medicinal essence but also impurities. These impurities were unable to be absorbed by the body, and most importantly, these impurities would cancel out a portion of the absorbed essence.

The saying that each medicine had its own side effects was not just a colloquial saying but a hard truth. During the formation of a pill, it was difficult to avoid accumulating pill toxins. These kinds of toxins, if not taken very often, would not have a large effect.

But for cultivators, medicinal pills were often life-saving measures, and who would know just how many pills you would consume in one lifetime. When the body’s pill toxins reached a certain degree, it would become a life-threatening poison.

Pill toxins were one of the most difficult to eliminate poisons. They penetrated deep into the flesh and bones and even the spirit. But the higher grade a medicinal pill was, the fewer toxins it would have.

It was for this reason that the medicinal effect of a middle-grade medicinal pill was over ten times greater than a low-grade medicinal pill. As for the price difference, it was at least a hundred times greater.

After collecting the five medicinal pills and cleaning up the medicinal furnace, Long Chen could no longer endure it and collapsed into slumber.

After sleeping for an unknown amount of time, he felt two hands caressing his cheek and could hear some low-pitched murmurings, but he was too exhausted and incapable of waking up.

When Long Chen once again regained consciousness, it was already three days later. His stomach was growling with hunger, and he wolfed down his food before once again starting his seclusion.

Consuming one trash pill, he used his Spiritual Strength to guide the medicinal pill’s energy to enter the YongQuan point^[1] on the bottom of his foot. That was the location of the first Star of the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art – the position of the FengFu Star.

BANG!

Long Chen’s left foot shook. The intense energy came from the bottom of his foot, and the ground under it became covered in cracks.

“Excellent, I’ve already found the meridian channel as well as the exact position. Now I can genuinely attack it.”

Long Chen faintly smiled, and he took out a low tier FengFu Pill and directly consumed it. The pure and perfect energy erupted and under Long Chen’s pull, it went straight to the YongQuan point on the bottom of his foot.

The YongQuan point trembled. Following the rushing medicinal energy, it was just like a dry riverbed receiving water, and it crazily convulsed.

BOOM!

A booming noise reverberated, and the frightening energy filled Long Chen’s whole body. The tyrannical energy exploded out of its own accord, shaking the room into smoke and dust, with waves of energy surging about.

As the smoke and dust slowly scattered, it exposed a tranquil and refined Long Chen; his eyes filled with excitement. He could sense a pea-sized body on the bottom of his foot from which endless energy would flow out into his body, giving Long Chen a desire to lift his head up to the heavens and roar.

The activity from Long Chen’s room caused the entire noble estate to be disturbed, and everyone rushed over.

Seeing his mother also coming over, Long Chen hastily said, “Mom, today is the day that the noble heirs can enter the Imperial College to study, I have to hurry over.”

After saying this, he left behind a group of dumbstruck people and a pile of destroyed ruins, as he changed into clean clothes and left directly for the Imperial College.

Chapter 5 Imperial College

The Imperial College opened its doors one day every month for the imperial capital’s noble heirs. In the morning, they would practice poetry and etiquette, and in the afternoon, the palace’s martial arts depository would be available to everyone free of charge.

The previous openings of the Imperial College held absolutely no meaning to Long Chen since even if he attended, he would just be the object of ridicule for everyone there.

But now that was no longer the case. After consuming the FengFu Pill, Long Chen had already condensed an embryonic form of the FengFu Star.

Although it was just an embryonic form and couldn’t store that much spiritual energy, it was still able to store much more than what could be stored in just the body’s meridians. After all, the meridians were like rivers while the Dantian was like the ocean that fed the rivers, even sometimes being called the ‘energy sea’.

Although a river might appear large, its capacity was limited. Without the Dantian to support it, it would quickly be used up. But this problem was completely resolved with the condensing of the FengFu Star. And the most important thing was that now that the embryonic form of the FengFu Star had been condensed, as long as there was enough energy, it would eventually become a complete FengFu Star.

At that time, Long Chen would have something unique to himself to use as a ‘Dantian’. This was the most unique point of the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art.

When all nine stars were condensed, it would be equivalent to having nine Dantians. Anyone could understand just how powerful that kind of forceful spiritual energy source was.

Long Chen was in possession of the entire Nine Star Hegemon Body Art. Unfortunately, such a cultivation technique was something that defied the heavens, and his understanding of it was still very low, so he still needed to spend an endless amount of meditation on it.

Once he managed to completely condense his FengFu Star, he would be able to store an extremely large amount of spiritual energy. Then he could attempt to agglomerate his blood vessels and enter the Blood Condensation stage, thus becoming a true martial artist.

The Qi Condensation stage was just the first step of training in martial arts. Only by stepping into the Blood Condensation stage, having your blood and qi surge, and having your martial powers sharply rise, only then could you be considered a genuine martial artist.

Long Chen didn’t know what Heavenstage of Qi Condensation he would count as, but with the formation of his embryonic FengFu Star, his body’s strength had been increased by a surprising amount.

The current him could let out a very simple punch, and it would cause the wind to whistle, so much so that the force it generated would have enough power to break apart a vase even two meters away. Essentially, it was like his whole body was brimming with strength.

His goal in going to the Imperial College this time was to enter the martial arts depository. With his FengFu Star’s embryonic form, his body’s spiritual energy had risen, and he could already begin to train in martial Battle Skills.

These so-called Battle Skills were all created by extremely powerful seniors. They were powerful fighting techniques that used a person’s spiritual energy, qi, and meridians.

Battle Skills were extremely terrifying. They could allow a martial artist to release an extremely formidable power that was several times stronger than their ordinary strength. It was impossible to be courageous in front of them.

Therefore, each Battle Skill was extremely important to a martial artist. Now that Long Chen had spiritual energy capable of training in Battle Skills, he was itching to obtain one.

The Imperial College was located to the north side of the imperial capital. It spanned tens of kilometers, and other than the Imperial Palace, it was the grandest and most imposing building in the entire imperial capital.

After Long Chen showed off his identification plate, he entered into the Imperial College and went straight to the literature hall. That was where the morning lecture took place and where the noble heirs would listen to the studies of the Dao from lecturers talking about everything and anything, from etiquette to poetry, and even to ancient theories of literature.

Entering into the literature hall, he saw that due to how early he was, the extremely large literature hall only had several dozen people.

“Haha, brother Long, you came.”

Just as Long Chen entered, several youths came over and cordially greeted him.

These youths were similar to Long Chen; for various reasons, they also had no way of cultivating. Although they couldn’t be considered best friends, they were still fellow sufferers who empathized with each other.

In the golden age of martial arts in the Phoenix Cry Empire, these youths might not have been bullied in such a miserable way like Long Chen, but they were also frequently sneered at and suffered from a cold and indifferent treatment.

Thus, these people who suffered from similar torments ended up becoming closer to Long Chen. They were especially glad to see him now since it had been a long time since they’d seen each other.

“Haha, you guys came here pretty early,” Long Chen laughingly greeted. With the success of the condensation of his FengFu Star, his mood had improved greatly from the formerly depressed him.

“I heard a few days ago that brother Long put up a huge display of his awesome power, defeating Li Hao. Ah, you really make us admire you. Don’t tell me that brother Long can actually genuinely cultivate now?” one skinny teen extremely enviously asked.

Originally, they were all the same level as Long Chen. Hearing that Long Chen could actually defeat Li Hao who was at the third Heavenstage of Qi Condensation, they were all extremely shocked while also feeling a slight jealousy.

“Hehe, it was just luck. But most recently, I did learn a new Divine Technique.” Long Chen didn’t want to continue on this subject, so he brought up a new mysterious topic.

“Divine Technique? What’s that?” Sure enough, everyone immediately became distracted by this new change in subject.

“Hehe, this little brother recently obtained a rare clairvoyance book, and after painstakingly reading this book, I learned quite a few things,” Long Chen said somewhat complacently.

“Clairvoyance technique? Isn’t that just what the fortune tellers on the streets use to scam people?”

“Not quite. With what I learned from that clairvoyance technique, I saw that Li Hao’s face had a dark omen of misfortune on it, and it was only then that I decided to duel with him. And as for the result… hehe.” Long Chen laughed and stopped there.

Everyone momentarily was dubious for a moment when someone suddenly brightened with understanding and exclaimed, “It seems to be true! I heard that Li Hao seemed to have been bewitched that day, and his whole body didn’t have even the slightest bit of energy before he was defeated by brother Long. “

The details of Long Chen and Li Hao’s battle were known to everyone, but there were many people who felt that Li Hao’s defeat was quite a deep mystery. Nowadays, there was a great deal of discussion over Long Chen.

“Hehe, brother Long, since you are proficient in reading faces, can you help take a look at me and tell me why my fiancée always avoids me? Why won’t she agree to see me?” one person somewhat vexingly asked.

“No problem. Come, come, let’s first find a place for us all to sit. Standing here is somewhat unsuitable.”

Their group found a table in the corner to sit at, and the table even had some refreshments for them.

Long Chen pointed towards the table’s desserts and laughingly told everyone, “Let’s all eat a piece.”

“Okay,” the other people didn’t stand on courtesy and all took a piece. Everyone seemed a bit confused as they looked at Long Chen.

“How’s the taste?”

“Very good.”

“Let’s eat another piece?”

“Okay.”

That person once again picked up a piece and took a bite. But when he had only eaten one bite, his face suddenly brightened, and he respectfully turned towards Long Chen and said, “Many thanks for brother Long’s advice. This little brother understands now. I was being too greedy and brother Long was reminding me that people need to be content with their situation, right?”

Everyone looked at Long Chen in admiration. Who would have thought that Long Chen had the profound skills to use some small desserts as food for thought? However, Long Chen still sighed and shook his head. “Wrong. What I wanted to remind you of is that you’re already this fat, and yet you’re still eating this much. Soon you won’t even be able to fit through the door. The fact that your fiancée is still with you and hasn’t left you is already an enormous accommodation; you should be happy with just that. With a body shape like yours, any woman would be scared to sleep beside you. What if you roll over in your sleep? You’d crush her so hard, she’d turn flat.”

That person’s face reddened, and with Long Chen’s reminder, he looked at his five foot tall height with his four and a half foot wide stomach. Apparently, he had previously felt that he had only fattened by a little bit.

“Fatty Yu, don’t waste brother Long’s precious time; hurry up and go lose some weight. Big bro Long, hehe, how about you take a shot at reading my face?” A different slender youth respectfully asked with a smile.

“Oh, you?” Long Chen made a big show of acting very seriously as he looked at him for quite a while before saying, “Your face ordains that before you are thirty, you will be destitute and frustrated, but the good thing is that after you are thirty…”

That person became jubilant, saying, “Is it possible that after thirty I can suddenly rise in my cultivation?”

“No. After you are thirty you will slowly become accustomed to your situation and will no longer be frustrated,” said Long Chen.

“…”

Everyone couldn’t help but to burst into laughter, but just as they were laughing, they suddenly saw two bitter eyes staring at them, causing everyone’s laughter to break off.

Long Chen had long since noticed that person. Turning around, they all saw Li Hao glaring daggers at them.

“Senior Li Hao, are your wounds better now? Congratulations! Your outer wounds are all healed, but what about your inner wounds?” Long Chen asked, seeming deeply concerned.

Li Hao’s face twitched. That day, his face had been smashed flat by Long Chen, and he had needed to be carried home. The Li family had hurriedly asked for the help of an alchemist from the alchemist guild and paid an extremely large sum of gold coins to let Li Hao recover.

Having money was truly good; in such a short time, Li Hao had already returned to a point where he looked the same as a normal person.

But after Long Chen brought the subject back up, Li Hao’s groin started to hurt as if he was remembering that one kick from Long Chen.

At that time, Long Chen’s kick had been very vicious, just a little bit off from turning him into a cripple. The thing that pissed him off the most though was that only after he got carried home and healed did he notice that he was missing a certain something. When his estate noticed this, they hurriedly rushed back to the martial arena, but by that time, they found that the arena had already been cleaned, and it was reported that that something had been taken away by a wild dog.

When Li Hao had woken up and heard this news, he almost died from his anger. But now there was no way to fix it, and no matter how amazing an alchemist was, there was no way for them to fix what he had lost.

What had been two was now only one. Although the loss of one family jewel wouldn’t tilt him while walking, the loss of the originally symmetric pair was hard on him.

And now that Long Chen had brought it back up, his face became exceedingly ugly. He glared daggers at Long Chen, his teeth grinding in fury. “Long Chen, you son of a bitch. I challenge you to a life and death duel! Do you dare to accept?”

Long Chen’s originally amused expression tensed immediately. Being called in such a way was exceedingly insulting, especially since it also insulted his mother.

It really was the case of not knowing to value one’s life. Fine, if you want to be free from the mortal world’s worries, then I’ll help you.

“Same thing as before. I want to add stakes.”

Long Chen stared back at Li Hao. Since you want to die, you had best offer me up some benefits. Although they came from the same empire, he didn’t care about Li Hao, and his death would be trifling to him.

“Fine! No matter how high you make the stakes, I, Li Hao, will accept.” Sneering in his mind, he thought to himself that no matter how high the stakes were, once Long Chen was dead, there was no way he could spend it. Li Hao was under the impression that last time he had simply been careless, and Long Chen had grabbed onto that opening and thus he had lost. Now he would definitely not make the same mistake, so this fight would definitely not go the same way as the last fight.

In addition, this time was different in that he had declared a life-or-death duel; in last time’s duel, although you would not be held responsible for killing your opponent with a blow, as long as the opponent conceded, it was not permitted to continue attacking them.

But in the life-or-death duel, once the two people went onto the stage, it was equivalent to putting their lives on the line. Even if someone admitted defeat, it would be useless. The victor could do as he pleased. The loser’s life would be in their hands.

“Okay, tomorrow, three quarters after noon, we will meet on the life and death stage.” Li Hao coldly laughed, and when he looked at Long Chen, it was like he was staring at a dead person.

Long Chen coldly sneered inside. Now was the time for him to kill the chicken to warn the monkeys. Seeing Li Hao leave, he slyly laughed, “Careful to stay balanced while walking; don’t trip.”

Hearing Long Chen’s words, Li Hao, who had already turned to leave, stiffened, and his face became contorted as he inferred the hidden meaning behind Long Chen’s words.

Taking a deep breath, he acted like he hadn’t heard anything as he slowly walked to a different part of the literature hall.

But Long Chen’s words seemed to be like a steel needle piercing through his sensitive parts, and every time he lifted his leg, it would trigger memories of that bone-chilling attack.

He continued to act as if nothing had happened, but the more he tried to do so, the more unnatural his gait became, which caused everyone to stare strangely over at him. In the end, Li Hao waddled away similarly to a duck.

One person turned to Long Chen and reminded him to be careful, “Brother Long, why did you accept his challenge? This is a life and death battle you’re going into; one of you will end up dying!”

“No problem. Today I read his face and saw a dark aura of death around his him. With it twisting around him, it’s basically like a ghost sealing his life; he’s doomed to die within two days. That’s right, I now have something that I need a few people’s help for,” whispered Long Chen.

Everyone exchanged glances and in the end, the person who had been nicknamed fatty Yu clenched his teeth. “Brother Long, since you’ve asked, I’ll give you my entire savings.”

Saying this, he handed over a crystal card to Long Chen. Long Chen hadn’t expected that this fatty Yu would actually have such a strong spirit of brotherhood with him. His crystal card had over eighty thousand gold coins on it.

Although they were all noble heirs, mostly they were born in far off branches, so they weren’t considered very important. These gold coins should be an extremely large sum to fatty Yu.

“Fine, I have sixty thousand here, take it.”

“I don’t have that much here, only thirty thousand. Brother Long, I only have this little capability.”

“I have…”

Originally, Long Chen had thought that just borrowing ten or so thousand gold coins would already be quite a lot. He hadn’t thought that they would actually completely empty their pockets to help him.

“Everyone, if by chance I were to die, then your money would basically be lost.” Long Chen looked at the crystal cards in his hand, and he couldn’t help but to give everyone a reminder.

“Does brother Long look down on us? None of us are capable of cultivating, and every day we have to suffer through other people’s torments. Brother Long, the fact that you dare go all-out in a battle against one of them means you have the courage that none of us possess. Even if we don’t have your courage, helping you out this little bit is still something we can do.”

When these people saw Long Chen agreed to the life and death battle, they couldn’t help but become excited since they were fighting a common enemy. Seeing Long Chen begging for help, they became even more heated and in the end, they didn’t even care about the consequences.

Long Chen nodded. He recorded this feeling in his heart as he held the over two hundred thousand gold coins in his hand.

At this moment, a group of people walked into the literature hall, and the originally noisy literature hall immediately turned completely silent.

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Edited and proofread by audiowuxia.

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