Nine Star Hegemon Body Arts

Chapter 188 Absorbing the Neidan

Translator: BornToBe

The first level of the Xuantian pavilion was filled with medicinal ingredients and pills. But the second level was filled with various Battle Skills and cultivation techniques.

But after arriving at the second level, they saw it was mostly devoid of people. There were just over ten white-robed senior apprentice-brothers guarding this level.

Bookshelves covered the walls, each bookshelf separated from the others and filled with secret tomes.

Below the tomes were an introduction of the technique as well as its price.

Long Chen gasped when he saw the prices. Seventy-six thousand eight hundred…

That was an Earth class Battle Skill. But of course the Xuantian Monastery’s collected Battle Skills were all first-rate, a completely different level from the Three Style Parting Wind Long Chen had learned.

But even so, this price was far too excessive. Tang Wan-er also shook her head.

It was no wonder there was no one here. Everything was far too expensive. In their present circumstances, there was no way for them to buy anything good.

Their current points had to be used to raise the collective power of the faction. They couldn’t just waste it all on one person.

If they did, then their faction would drop in power in comparison to the others. In their future competitions, they would be oppressed and end up losing out.

Tang Wan-er herself also possessed fifty thousand points for her own usage. But even that many points were unable to buy anything she needed. It would be better for her to just save them to use later.

Those senior apprentice-brothers guarding this place only indifferently glanced over at them without saying anything. Obviously the kind of shock they had displayed was already a common occurrence for them.

“Looks like we came for nothing,” sighed Tang Wan-er.

“Let’s just take a look,” smiled Long Chen. He started to rove around the bookshelves, finding many secret techniques that had mostly all reached the early Earth class.

There were also several mid grade Earth class Battle Skills, but Long Chen didn’t even bother looking at them. That was because those tomes had prices in the hundred thousands.

Long Chen wasn’t even paying attention to what level the Battle Skill or technique was. He was only looking at their prices. If it was only in the ten thousands, he would read the introduction.

All the lower priced ones were just a couple secret techniques or arts. They weren’t true Battle Skills, and their class was also not high despite their prices still not being that low.

Suddenly Long Chen’s eyes brightened as he stopped before one shelf: Spiritual Space Opening Art.

I finally found it! Long Chen celebrated. He had really found what he had been looking for.

Opening a spiritual space was a fundamental skill of Beast Tamers. Using their Spiritual Strength, they would open a special space to store their housepets so that they could carry them around at all times.

There were no such secret techniques circulating within the secular world. Long Chen had searched for a long time within Phoenix Cry without finding any.

And back when Lu Fang-er had sent Little Snow to him, she had been limited by her sect’s rules and couldn’t give him a true inheritance. And so Long Chen had been unable to learn this technique up till this day.

With Long Chen’s Spiritual Strength, he had long since met the requirements to be able to open a spiritual space. Once he did, he would be able to keep Little Snow by his side without anyone being able to argue.

The price was sixty-three thousand points. Long Chen really wanted to hatefully spit on the ground at that price.

This was an entry level technique that was only for Beast Tamers, but it was already so expensive. He had seen shameless people before, but he had never seen such a shameless price.

Tang Wan-er looked at it and curiously asked Long Chen, “You want to learn this?”

Long Chen nodded, “Yup.”

Tang Wan-er smiled, “Then go ahead. We still have enough points. I still haven’t touched my own.”

“Thank you. Just let me take care of the Heaven Earth Faction,” gratefully thanked Long Chen.

Long Chen was using their faction’s points to buy personal items. But opening a spiritual space was extremely important to him. Once he did, he would have a powerful helper by his side.

At that time he would have another status: Beast Tamer. When he fought with others, he could call out Little Snow to fight with him.

Even if people were jealous about it, it was useless. That was because without a spiritual connection to a Magical Beast, it was impossible to absorb them into your spiritual space.

And that was why the other disciples’ Magical Beasts could only count as mounts, while Long Chen and Little Snow had a housepet agreement between them. It was just that Long Chen hadn’t placed a slave imprint into Little Snow. But with their spiritual connection, it was no different from a contract.

Now that everyone had advanced to Tendon Transformation, Long Chen had immediately become one of the lower leveled members. But if he had Little Snow with him, although he might not leap to the top, he definitely wouldn’t be oppressed by anyone.

“I’m really not used to you being so polite. In any case, you’re the executive manager in charge of the Heaven Earth Faction. If our Heaven Earth Faction’s power ends up dropping, hehe, well I’ll be coming to you for blame,” laughed Tang Wan-er.

“Don’t worry boss, I will do my fullest!” Long Chen put on a great act of saluting.

Tang Wan-er merely hit him a bit in rebuke. “Move on from your wackiness.”

At this point someone walked over to them. He gave Long Chen a reminder, “This thing isn’t very useful. Are you sure you want to buy this?”

If you know it’s not useful, then why is it so expensive?! But Long Chen knew that these senior apprentice-brothers didn’t have anything to do with the prices.

Long Chen nodded. “I’ll have to trouble senior apprentice-brother.”

That person took Long Chen’s badge. Seeing his points sharply drop, Long Chen’s heart dripped blood.

Taking back the badge, that person opened the shelf and took out a jade tablet from beneath the tome. Handing it to Long Chen, he said, “This is a spirit jade tablet. Inside is the information of the tome. The content will only remain in the jade for three days.

“If you still haven’t learned it after three days, you can come get a new one here one more time. But if you fail to learn it twice, then you won’t get any further help.”

Long Chen nodded. If you really couldn’t learn it after two tries then you really were useless. He suspected the second opportunity was most likely there only for those who lost or damaged the tablets.

After saying thanks, the three of them didn’t waste any more time there. Seeing things they wanted but not being able to buy them was a kind of torment.

Although Tang Wan-er hadn’t touched her personal points, as the leader, she had to at least keep some savings in reserve.

The faction’s points had basically all been used up by Long Chen. Tang Wan-er didn’t even dare look at anything else for fear that she wouldn’t be able to control herself.

Once the three of them walked out of the Xuantian pavilion, Tang Wan-er told Long Chen, “We’ll go get some new talent to make up the numbers.

“Currently our faction has seventy-nine members, so we can get twenty-one more. We must get top elites.

“During the trial, there were a great deal of people who hadn’t joined any faction yet managed to pass.

“Most of those are only outer disciples with only a couple rare inner disciples. But even twenty-one outer disciples will be able to boost our strength.”

Long Chen said, “You and Guo Ran go get more people. I have to hurry up and prepare to refine medicinal pills. We can’t stall the matter of increasing everyone’s strength.

“Also, when you go get new members, it isn’t strength that is important. Perseverance and determination are the most important things. Also, they definitely must be loyal.

“And also, if you end up finding someone as weird as Guo Ran, don’t let him join. Just having one such person in our faction is enough.”

Guo Ran was speechless while Tang Wan-er laughed. She brought Guo Ran over to the Xuantian plaza. That was where the majority of the people who had yet to join a faction were.

Long Chen directly returned to the immortal cave. Seeing Qing Yu was present, he told her to go the plaza as well to help recruit people.

After all, those recruits would be their eternal companions, so it was extremely important to pick properly. Having more people helping out with the recruitment would be best.

Once Qing Yu left, Long Chen took out his pill furnace as well as a large pile of medicinal ingredients. Extending his hand, a light red flame soared into existence.

“It’s been a while since I’ve refined pills. I better not screw up… I only got one set of ingredients.”

Once he finished warming the furnace, he increased his flame strength, beginning to slowly place the medicinal ingredients in the pill furnace.

What gladdened Long Chen was that his alchemy arts seemed to have sunk deep within his bones. He was not the slightest bit out of practice. And because his cultivation base had risen, his Spiritual Strength had also increased, allowing him to have even greater control than before.

Two hours later, he lifted the lid and saw a longan-sized medicinal pill.

That medicinal pill didn’t have any lustre. It looked like a rusted old ball of copper. But Long Chen smiled.

“This Fire Gathering Pill’s quality is not bad.”

Putting away the Fire Gathering Pill, he once more began refining medicinal ingredients. But this time he wasn’t refining pills, but a kind of medicinal liquid.

That medicinal liquid was red as blood and was strangely viscous. Only once that liquid changed color three times did Long Chen stop his flame.

Once the medicinal liquid in his pill furnace cooled off, Long Chen took out the Flame Salamander’s Neidan and gently began to drip drops of that liquid onto the Neidan.

The egg-shaped Neidan began to crazily absorb the medicinal liquid. Its original white color began to darken into a blood-red.

As the Neidan’s color changed, a terrifying heat began to circulate within it.

By the time all the medicinal liquid had been absorbed, the Neidan had become extremely bright. The fluctuations coming from within it were incredibly intense, like a volcano on the verge of erupting.

“Okay, the fire attribute energy has been completely activated. I hope I can manage to absorb the runic power within it as well.”

Long Chen hesitated a moment, and then decided to leave the immortal cave. Closing the door, he hurried to the back of the mountain.

Finding a secluded place, he took out the Neidan and swallowed the Fire Gathering Pill he had just refined.

As soon as that medicinal pill entered his stomach, it immediately dissolved. A light heat flowed through his meridians.

Long Chen looked within him and saw his meridians had been plated with a layer of gold. It was a protective membrane for the insides of his meridians.

That was why Long Chen had never absorbed the Flame Salamander’s Neidan up to this point.

Even someone as powerful as him didn’t dare absorb it without this medicinal pill’s assistance. A Flame Salamander’s Neidan whose energy had barely been used at all contained a flame that could heavily injure his meridians.

It was a third rank Magical Beast’s beast flame, and it was also number ninety-seven on the beast flame rankings. Long Chen didn’t dare be careless.

Furthermore, what Long Chen wanted wasn’t just the beast flame. He wanted something even stronger than a regular beast flame.

Taking a deep breath, he adjusted himself into his peak state. Placing his hands atop the Flame Salamander’s Neidan, he began to circulate his spiritual qi, absorbing the violent energy within the Neidan.