Nine Star Hegemon Body Arts

Chapter 5234 Advancement

As Long Chen consumed a medicinal pill, the starry sea within his Dantian quivered ever so slightly. The change was so subtle that without close observation, it would be imperceptible.

Long Chen sighed softly. “I thought that borrowing the power of the heavenly tribulation would let me condense the Eight Star Battle Armor in one go, but it’s still incomplete.”

He knew that perfecting the Eight Star Battle Armor would require an immense amount of energy, but it was far more than he had anticipated. It was like a bottomless pit, constantly demanding more.

The Eight Star Battle Armor was still in its embryonic stage, far from its full potential. The last time Long Chen summoned it, he felt a power so overwhelming that it even frightened him. When the starry sky descended and covered the nine heavens, it felt like he was connected to all the stars in the universe, as if they were one.

However, despite this vast power, Long Chen felt insignificant, like a fish swimming in an endless ocean. Even though he was the only fish in that sea, it was frustrating to have access to such immense power but only be able to attack with mere “bubbles”.

To possess such a great force yet be able to wield only a fraction of it was unbearable for him.

Last time, Long Chen could directly crush the so-called Human Emperors using his Eight Star Battle Armor. According to reason, he should be in high spirits now, yet no one knew that he was actually extremely despondent. Thankfully, Dragonbone Evilmoon had encouraged him, giving him the patience to continue cultivating the Eight Star Battle Armor without haste.

After all, between Dragonbone Evilmoon and the Nirvana Scripture, Long Chen had powerful trump cards to play. They allowed him to slowly cultivate the Eight Star Battle Armor.

As one pill after another entered Long Chen’s stomach, eight stars appeared behind him. However, those eight stars were illusory—mere projections of the stars in him. So, the true power of the stars remained dormant.

Each of the eight stars was roughly the size of a plate. As Long Chen consumed more pills, divine light from his starry sea slowly flowed into these stars, causing their rough surfaces to gradually smooth out. However, the process was excruciatingly slow.

“It’s a good thing I had the help of the Heavenly Flame energy and heavenly lightning energy. Otherwise, condensing the embryonic form of the Eight Star Battle Armor would’ve taken forever,” sighed Long Chen.

The pills Long Chen was consuming were all Nirvanic Charge Pills refined by the Earth Cauldron and Huo Linger. He had already entrusted all alchemy tasks to the Earth Cauldron. If Huo Linger weren’t preoccupied with refining Heavenly Flame energy and the Earth Cauldron with purifying the faith energy it had absorbed, they would have refined even more pills.

The Earth Cauldron hadn’t only refined a vast supply of Nirvanic Charge Pills; it had also created an ocean’s worth of Saint pills. They were categorized into various tiers: Eternal Golden Pills, Saint Golden Pills, Sage King Golden Pills, Mortal Saint Golden Pills, Earth Saint Golden Pills, and Heaven Saint Golden Pills.

The Dragonblood warriors had previously relied on Yu Qingxuan’s pills, which allowed most of them to reach the mid or even late stage of the Eternal realm in a short time. Their cultivation speed had been shockingly fast.

Most importantly, after merging with their dragon souls, they had extremely solid foundations. As long as they had enough medicinal pills, they could accelerate their cultivation speed as much as they pleased.

As Long Chen focused on ingesting the medicinal energy flowing through his veins, his body quivered slightly. To his surprise, his eighth star was fully satiated and pushed his cultivation realm into the first Heavenstage.

Despite the advancement, there was no visible change in the eight stars. Long Chen sighed. “It seems I don’t need Eternal Golden Pills for now. Nirvanic Charge Pills alone are enough to raise my realm. I just hope I can complete the Eight Star Battle Armor before breaking through to the Saint realm.”

As he continued cultivating, Bai Shishi focused on her recovery. Her golden manifestation shone, and the goddess in her Heavenly Fate Disk became clearer as it evolved.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Dragonblood Legion was also busy cultivating, except for Guo Ran and Xia Chen. Guo Ran was doing all sorts of stuff in the forging room. While he was normally a slacker, this time, his full attention was on his work.

Xia Chen was also immersed in his work, his brush dancing across the pages as he created more talismans. Hundreds of materials lay out in front of him, and the ground around him was littered with various scrap talismans. Clearly, Xia Chen was inscribing very high-level talismans, or he wouldn’t have such a high failure rate.

The entire war chariot had become a cultivation hub, and Gold Rhino pulled them forward at an incredible speed. When they invaded the territory of some Human Emperor demonic beasts, the demonic beasts shrank back and only let out a growl of warning.

Every three days, Long Chen checked on Gold Rhino’s condition and fed it medicinal pills. After nine days, Gold Rhino no longer felt the Netherdragon energy and faith energy in its body, and it expressed its immense gratitude toward Long Chen.

Even after it was healed, it continued pulling them forward enthusiastically. On the fifteenth day, Long Chen had it stop.

“Respected human experts, there are still three days until we reach the Dragon Domain. Why stop here?” asked Gold Rhino.

“I have something good to tell you. I’ve tested it several times now. The impurities in the Netherdragon energy and faith energy have been expelled, and the essence is sealed within your body. Your body has fully recovered, and I believe you’re ready to return to your peak power. I’ll release the essence for you,” Long Chen explained.

“You mean... I’ll return to the two-vein Emperor realm?” Gold Rhino’s voice quivered with excitement.

Only humans would call this realm the two-vein Human Emperor realm. Since Gold Rhino was a demonic beast and already freed from the bindings of the human form, it called this realm the two-vein Emperor realm.

For a long time, it had struggled with the Netherdragon energy and faith energy, and now Long Chen was promising to restore it to its former peak. It could hardly believe its ears. However, since Long Chen had said it, Gold Rhino trusted him. Its body was shaking.

“Just to be safe, I will have you consume a few meridian-guarding golden pills,” said Long Chen, giving Gold Rhino six golden pills.

To prepare for the release, Long Chen gave it six Meridian Guarding Golden Pills, which Gold Rhino consumed immediately. Then, Long Chen handed it a large black pill. Without hesitation, Gold Rhino swallowed it.

BOOM!

The moment the black pill entered its body, Gold Rhino swelled, and a terrifying burst of Blood Qi exploded forth, instantly shattering the surrounding mountains.