Ever since the Phoenix Cry Lantern Festival, knowledge of Long Chen and Huang Chang’s peak battle had spread in every direction. Long Chen’s fame had spread not only throughout the capital but even throughout the entire empire. There was practically not a single person that didn’t know his name.

This was especially true of the younger generation. Long Chen was their idol. Whenever his name was brought up, they would be worshipful and envious.

Of course, in any world, there was no lack of geniuses. And of course, geniuses didn’t all have to be on the martial path.

You could also gain fame in other specialties. Now, just over ten days had passed since Long Chen’s battle. However, in just these few short days, there had been a genius who had used Long Chen to make a crazy profit of millions of gold coins.

That person was originally just a master painter. Although such a person wouldn’t be in a state of poverty within the capital, such a profession could not be considered high level. The income was rather meager.

But after that person had seen Long Chen’s battle, he had immediately returned home and spent three days and three nights without pause to draw over ten refined drawings.

The person in those drawings was precisely Long Chen. Originally, Long Chen was handsome enough and had an easy-going confidence. Following that master painter’s backgrounds and lighting exaggerations, he had been transformed to practically look like a divinity.

The scenes of his pill battle and subsequent fight had been especially exaggerated by him to appear extremely vivid and exciting.

After he drew those, he went directly to the largest printing workshop. After that, an extremely impressive drawing of Long Chen became available in the capital, and the young men and women went crazy for it.

Thousands of drawings were immediately sold out. Some people who hadn’t managed to snatch one had already begun to stalk the printing workshop. The entire staff of hundreds of people worked incessantly, but the crowd of people waiting only grew larger.

The printer workshop actually had to hire more people as time went on, and only after a week had passed did they just manage to satisfy most of the demand.

But if that had been all, then that master painter would have only counted as an average businessman. He had a brilliant plan, and after that first painting had been sold off, he added another.

This new drawing was even more refined than the first. What it pictured was even more impressive, and it was printed on an extremely expensive animal hide paper. That meant it could survive for hundreds of years without fading. It had been advertised popularly as being a limited edition collector’s item.

Of course, this limited edition collector’s drawing was sold at a considerable price. But countless youngsters came to buy it, and the sales were positively shocking. 

But what no one expected was that after this limited collector’s painting had sold enough, a graphic novel called the Phoenix Cry Divine Battle silently appeared on the marketplace.

That comic was a record of that day’s scenes which contained the third princess’s confession, Xia Baichi’s pill battle, Huang Chang infuriating Long Chen, and Long Chen’s bloody battle with Huang Chang. That entire story had been expressed through pictures perfectly.

From the pictures to the graphic novel, that painter and the workshop basically emptied the pockets of all the youngsters in the capital. 

Over just a few weeks, they had profited at least millions of gold coins. That originally poor painter immediately became a celebrity within the capital. Other than Long Chen, he was probably the most famous person in the capital now.

Long Chen was not aware of this matter along with countless other things that had occurred in the capital. After a couple of weeks, Long Chen had already broken through to the ninth Heavenstage of Qi Condensation a few days ago.

It went without saying that this fast speed was absolutely related to that life and death battle he had had with Huang Chang.

Only by experiencing life and death trials and only by facing the pressure that came with them could you make your Dao-heart steadier and firmer. And only then would your cultivation speed increase without causing your cultivation base to become unsteady.

Currently, Long Chen was pushing his nine cyclones to the max in order to absorb the world’s spiritual qi into his FengFu Star. As long as his FengFu Star became maxed out on energy, he would be able to draw out Blood Qi and enter the Blood Condensation realm.

The so-called Blood Condensation realm was named so due to the intention of condensing the blood and qi. Blood was one of the most important parts of the body. Only by reaching the Blood Condensation realm could you count as a true martial artist.

You condensed blood by circulating real qi to purify your blood. All the various foods that people often ate caused impurities to form within the body. Therefore, the blood needed to be refined and condensed in order to expel those impurities, letting your strength become greater.

But before entering the Blood Condensation realm, you had to reach the peak of the ninth Heavenstage of Qi Condensation. Only by compressing the spiritual qi in your body to a certain level could your qi transform the blood. This gave birth to something known commonly as Blood Qi. 

Once blood and qi combined, the energy that was released was inconceivable. At the same time, it was the most important foundational level for cultivators.

BOOM!

Currently, Long Chen’s FengFu Star was starting to surge, a sign that he was about to enter the Blood Condensation realm. Long Chen couldn’t help rejoicing, but he hastily stabilized his emotions and slowly circulated his cyclones, steadily absorbing energy.

This was an extremely critical moment. There could be no mistakes. The slightest error would cause a backlash that would injure him, and it was very likely that some of those nine cyclones he had managed to form would break apart, causing his realm to fall.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

His FengFu Star repeatedly boomed. His spiritual qi was continuously being compressed. Having reached this critical moment, Long Chen didn’t dare to be the slightest bit careless. All of his attention was completely focused.

But what Long Chen had not expected was that these explosive sounds continued for six whole hours, yet nothing changed within his body.

“What’s going on?”

He was completely astonished by this. This situation was completely different from what was recorded in the literature.

It was definitely not supposed to be this difficult. Within the Battle Skill Pavilion, he had paged through several records regarding cultivation. When most people tried attacking the Blood Condensation realm, there was usually a single pair of ‘shackles’ that prevented them. But as long as they had enough spiritual qi, they would be able to break those shackles and advance to Blood Condensation.

There were also some people with two or even three shackles that they had to break out of before entering the Blood Condensation realm. It was said that the more shackles that had to be broken when advancing, the greater potential that person would have.

Long Chen had broken through nine shackles right at the beginning and went mad with joy, thinking he must be an absolutely peerless talent. But as he broke more and more shackles, Long Chen’s delight turned to shock.

He didn’t even know how many shackles he had broken through after these six hours. He didn’t count precisely, but it was definitely a number in the hundreds.

This completely toppled common sense. In those recordings he had read, the maximum number had only been three.

It had already been six hours. It would be a lie to say that he wasn’t afraid now. Those shackles kept coming endlessly.

“I don’t believe I won’t overcome you!”

Long Chen ground his teeth. Since it had already reached this point, giving up halfway would only hurt his confidence in himself. In addition, the next time he tried breaking through would at least be twice as difficult.

He could only force himself to continue. After a full day and night had passed, Long Chen had practically gone insane.

Who knew how many shackles he had broken through. He was already numb now. Even with his perseverance, he started to feel like giving up.

He had even started to form some doubts about the FengFu Star. Was it possible that the FengFu Star couldn’t be treated like a true substitute for a Dantian?

BOOM!

While Long Chen’s mind was going crazy, his FengFu Star suddenly blossomed with light. Could it be that he had finally succeeded?

Following that explosion, his Dantian surged. Long Chen watched dumbstruck as another cyclone slowly appeared beside the other nine. He had actually formed a tenth cyclone!

“What kind of joke is this?”

Long Chen couldn’t believe this. Couldn’t there only be nine cyclones in total, representing the nine Heavenstages of Qi Condensation? What was going on now?

After this full day’s torment without breaking through to Blood Condensation, he had actually ended up forming a tenth cyclone. 

There were nine Heavenstages to Qi Condensation. This was something that had been true forever. Even amongst the countless freaks of the cultivation world, there had never been anyone who had heard of condensing ten cyclones.

Anyone who had this happen to them would be flabbergasted. Long Chen was no exception. He looked foolishly upon those ten cyclones in his body and was unable to say anything.

Long Chen suddenly noticed that after the tenth cyclone appeared, his other cyclones all started to gradually grow larger. Although it was extremely slow, they were definitely expanding.

Whatever size the cyclone formed at the beginning was supposed to be its set size forever. That was also just common knowledge. 

“Could it be because of the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art?”

Long Chen could only attribute these anomalies to the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art. Now that he had cultivated in that technique, his entire cultivation path had deviated from the norm.

He watched them as they slowly doubled in size over the course of less than an hour. They were now around a foot wide.

Although he didn’t know what was causing this, Long Chen knew that the larger the size of his cyclones was, the more beneficial it would be to him. 

The larger they were, the faster he could absorb heaven and earth’s spiritual qi. He wouldn’t have to use up so much energy during a battle, and his recovery speed would be much greater.

But he was still scared by what had happened just now. Originally, something celebratory should have happened today, but instead, he was alarmed. The Nine Star Hegemon Body Art was just too strange.

At just the seventh Heavenstage of Qi Condensation, he could jump a whole major realm plus its minor realms to fight Huang Chang who was at the seventh Heavenstage of Blood Condensation. That was already an extremely frightening battle strength.

It seemed as if the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art was like an endless treasure house. What he had found out about it so far was just the tip of the iceberg. And yet, just that tip contained delights and horrors. Even Long Chen himself had both high expectations and fear for his future. It was a very contradictory sensation.

The fact that he had ten cyclones definitely could not be revealed for fear of his life. Such a defiant technique was something everyone would become jealous of. When he fought in the future, he definitely couldn’t use such explosive techniques like last time and reveal the ten cyclones.

But what Long Chen was most unsure of was just how many cyclones could be formed in the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art’s Qi Condensation realm.

On one hand, it was possible to say that the more cyclones he had, the better. But if he didn’t advance to the next realm, then his combat abilities wouldn’t truly progress. Even if you had ten thousand cows, they wouldn’t be able to beat a single tiger.

The most alarming thing was how much danger he was in. He couldn’t even tell who his enemies were at this time. It was unknown just when they would pop out and try to take his life. He had to quickly raise his cultivation base.

Looking at the cyclones within his body that were still slowly growing, he couldn’t help but sigh. Perhaps, this was what it meant to have mixed feelings.

Long Chen no longer wanted to continue cultivating today. In any case, the current mood he was in was no longer suitable for cultivating. He had to adjust himself.

Suddenly, his stomach let out a loud rumble. Only now did he realize he hadn’t eaten anything today.

Opening his door, he took in a breath of fresh air. Noticing it was noon, he shouted for Bao-er to prepare lunch for him.

He was a bit afraid to see his mom at this time, so he went about it sneakily. Bao-er appeared to have figured that out and laughed, bringing him lunch.

He ate a plate of white cut chicken, a plate of fish, two vegetable dishes, and a bowl of soup. It was both simple and rich.

After finishing, he felt his mood improve by quite a bit. His irritation with the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art also had decreased greatly.

“Young master, someone’s looking for you.”

“Who is it?” asked Long Chen.

“I don’t know. You should go take a look. You looked like you were eating happily so I didn’t disturb you,” laughed Bao-er.

Long Chen also laughed. Now that the Long family was richer and happier, Bao-er had started to become a bit naughty. She even dared to give guests the cold shoulder.

Arriving at the guest room, Long Chen was absolutely shocked to see that this person had come to find him.