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 bodies. 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 external 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 wrack 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 could they 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 number of medicinal pills. Without them, he wouldn’t be able to cultivate in it.

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

“I should first think of a method to make some money,” Long Chen muttered to himself. After changing 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 away at 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, 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 into the Phoenix Cry Empire. 

Long Tianxiao was the Phoenix Cry Empire’s military god of this generation, whereas Long Chen had been trash that 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 was later 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 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 given his son condescending gazes. Was this his repayment? 

Long Chen quickened his footsteps. Although he wasn’t afraid of this kind 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 don’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 taunting 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 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 guy. His height was especially extraordinary at seven feet, which was taller than either of them by over a head. He looked very intimidating.

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

When Li Hao saw Shi Feng, all he could do was 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 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 curse, “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 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 won’t be Li Hao.” Li Hao couldn’t help being extremely exuberant as he spoke high-spiritedly.

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.