Nine Astra Skies

After Ye Chen slipped on his clothes over the silk shirt, most people would not be able to tell that he was wearing a silk shirt with extreme defensive abilities underneath.

Ye Chen joyfully rewarded Little Squido with a few Soul-consolidating Pills. Ye Chen was certain that there were quite a few useful items that had sunken to the bottom of Lake Nekros. He wondered if he could dredge up even more! Ye Chen sent Little Squido to continue the search while he cultivated on the shore.

This time, Little Squido was in the lake for a longer time. Ye Chen sat silently on a large rock, recalling in detail his recent experiences, his understanding of his Astral Body, and so on. A thought suddenly occurred to Ye Chen. Was his Astral Body similar to Celestial Chi, both being a form of energy? That would explain why the Celestial Chi exuded from the Flying Dagger contained a substance that could replenish his Astral Body and why Little Tanuki's Astral Body could be merged and strengthened with his own Astral Body.

Compared to Celestial Chi, an energy form like his Astral Body was even more profound and mysterious!

What should Ye Chen do to improve the extent of merging between his and Little Tanuki's Astral Bodies?

Ye Chen thought about it. Little Tanuki's Astral Body could fuse with his own because both of their Astral Bodies were very similar. In other words, an Astral Body had something akin to a frequency and Astral Body energies with the same frequency could be merged?

Of course, this was all conjecture on Ye Chen's part. He felt that the key to this was to attempt merging even more times. In that manner, the compatibility between his Astral Body and Little Tanuki's would increase.

It was just a shame that this place did not meet their requirements. When they had time, they should look for a secluded, uninhabited place and cultivate in isolation.

In terms of his Celestial Chi's cultivation base, Ye Chen had strengthened it to mid-Earthly Venerable Rank. To progress further, he had to continue consolidating.

When Ye Chen was cultivating, his body seemed to completely fuse into his surroundings. White sparks of light gradually emerged and drifted around his body. From a distance, they looked like stars in the night sky.

Ye Chen went through each cultivation system once. When he circulated to the Water God Technique, he suddenly felt as if he was in the middle of a vast ocean. When his Psyche focused and looked out, he saw that the entire Lake Nekros was like a lake of Celestial Chi. Waves of various energies surged and flowed.

It turned out that this was Lake Nekros' essence – it was a special Water-type Celestial Chi! When this Water-type Celestial Chi was condensed as water, it had an intense corrosive quality!

Water-type Celestial Chi ceaselessly diffused into the air, hovering and fluttering before being dispersed by the wind.

From this, Ye Chen had a further, connected insight. All living things in this world were, in essence, created from metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. In the end, everything could be transformed into Celestial Chi! The sediments from different types of Celestial Chi would also produce soil, water, metal, and other substances. At the same time, the five types of Celestial Chi counteracted each other in a never-ending cycle!

This was the law of the world of cultivation!

When he thought of this, Ye Chen gained new comprehension. Was it the case that, upon cultivating to a certain level, one could transform substances into Celestial Chi by exercising a cultivation system?

Of course, Ye Chen was only hypothesizing. Currently, he did not have a capability like this.

With his eyes focused ahead, Ye Chen wielded the Water God Technique to its fullest might. His eyes gleamed with a sharp light and he cried softly, "Gather!"

A whirlwind took shape above the water. The Celestial Chi emanating from Lake Nekros was gathered by the Water God Technique Ye Chen had activated, forming a Celestial Chi Vortex that was hundreds of meters in diameter.

The Celestial Chi coming off from Lake Nekros was very pure. If it was wasted just like that, it was rather a shame.

Ye Chen could mobilize the Water God Technique to assemble all of this Celestial Chi, but it was challenging to absorb them all because Ye Chen's dantian could not accommodate so much Celestial Chi!

As he looked at the Celestial Chi Vortex with a diameter of hundreds of meters, Ye Chen thought to himself, must he let this all disperse?

If Ye Chen could somehow devour this Celestial Chi Vortex, it would be much more effective than any miraculous pills!

After some thought, Ye Chen cried out, "Swallow!"

Ye Chen opened his mouth wide. Streams of Celestial Chi broke off from the Celestial Chi Vortex and surged wildly into his mouth. He was like a magnificent whale of the sea, gurgling as he swallowed a large amount of Celestial Chi.

After this Celestial Chi entered Ye Chen's body, it rushed toward his dantian. Ye Chen's dantian was like a withered balloon. As the Celestial Chi flowed in frantically from the outside, this balloon was rapidly blown up. His dantian was filled to the brim and felt as if it was about to burst.

Ye Chen had absorbed enough. If he continued swallowing, his body would not be able to take it!

Ye Chen looked toward the gigantic Celestial Chi Vortex in the sky. This gulp of his was not even one percent of this entire mass!

Just as Ye Chen was about to close his mouth and stop swallowing Celestial Chi, the Flying Dagger in Ye Chen's mind suddenly started to buzz. The Flying Dagger seemed to sense something and turned into a massive whirlpool of Celestial Chi. Soon, the Celestial Chi that had filled Ye Chen's meridian channels was sucked into the Flying Dagger.

Huh?

Ye Chen was flabbergasted. He had thought that the Flying Dagger would only release Celestial Chi but had never expected it to absorb Celestial Chi!

When he realized this, Ye Chen did not close his mouth but frantically inhaled the Celestial Chi in the sky instead. After the Celestial Chi had entered Ye Chen's body, the Flying Dagger's buzzing became even faster. Whoosh whoosh whoosh – wave after wave of Celestial Chi gushed into the Flying Dagger. Within ten minutes, the hovering mass of Celestial Chi that was hundreds of meters in diameter had been fully swallowed by Ye Chen.

Only then did the Flying Dagger stop absorbing Celestial Chi and calmed down once again, appearing to be as usual.

Ye Chen stopped activating the Water God Technique. He was dumbstruck. He could somewhat understand where the vast, boundless sea of Celestial Chi in the Flying Dagger had come from. Previously, the owner of the Flying Dagger had refined a large amount of Celestial Chi in this world, so a colossal sea of Celestial Chi had accumulated in the Flying Dagger! No matter how much Celestial Chi Ye Chen had used up, the Celestial Chi within the Flying Dagger would never be exhausted!

This discovery had delighted Ye Chen to no end. Before this, he kept worrying that he would use up the Celestial Chi within the Flying Dagger. It looked like from now on, he must have more faith in the Flying Dagger in his mind.

Ye Chen was about to refine the remaining Celestial Chi in his body when he looked down and saw Little Tanuki and Little Wingsy, staring at him with mouths agape.

"Big Brother Ye Chen, you're so impressive!" Little Wingsy gasped with admiration. Even when he had been a Daemon King, he could not consume such an enormous amount of Celestial Chi in one go. If one had swallowed so much external Celestial Chi in one gulp and did not refine it in time, even the body of a Daemon King fighter might explode from the pressure. However, Ye Chen had successfully pulled it off!

Little Tanuki's eyes were also filled with shock. She could not understand how Ye Chen's body could absorb such an immense amount of Celestial Chi energy.

Ye Chen awkwardly scratched his head. In truth, it was not he who was impressive but the Flying Dagger in his body that was so powerful. Ye Chen had no way of explaining it to Little Tanuki and Little Wingsy that there was a Flying Dagger of unknown origin in his consciousness. Even if he had explained, most people would find it difficult to believe. Why would a Flying Dagger be in his consciousness?

The recently absorbed Celestial Chi was likely just a drop in the ocean of Celestial Chi within the Flying Dagger. There was no disturbance at all. Thus, there was no need to continue absorbing the Celestial Chi evaporating from Lake Nekros.

Right now, the crucial thing was to advance his strength, not the Celestial Chi within the Flying Dagger! After that round of practice, Ye Chen's Water God Technique had somewhat achieved a breakthrough.

Ye Chen continued cultivating. After an hour or so, Little Squido came up once again.

This time, what Little Squido dredged up was a small, golden cauldron. This tiny cauldron was only the size of one's palm and could be gripped in one hand. It was like the shrunken version of those alchemy cauldrons. It was dull and murky all over. If it had not been fished out of Lake Nekros, Ye Chen would probably think that this was just some common stall product.

After cleaning the tiny cauldron, Ye Chen used his Celestial Chi and Astral Body to examine it but did not find anything special about this cauldron. He could only put it aside for now and placed it in the armguard's space. He would investigate its function in the future.

Following that, Little Squido did not manage to find anything else. Ye Chen looked up at the sky. There was already the first glimmer of dawn. He could only stop for now. Still, he was pleased with the harvest of the night.

Ye Chen led Little Tanuki, Little Wingsy, and Little Squido back to the courtyard of the imperial lodgings. With a sweep of his Astral Body, he saw that Master Apothecary Xuanyi and Senior Brother Li were still refining and producing pills.

Whether it was Master Apothecary Xuanyi or Senior Brother Li, they were obsessed with alchemy. They did not interact much with other people outside and their thinking was also more guileless.

When Ye Chen thought about the selflessness of Master Apothecary Xuanyi and Senior Brother Li, he was somewhat ashamed. What could he do to repay them? How could he forget about this? The Grand Supreme Way of Alchemy came to mind. The methods of alchemy described in The Grand Supreme Way of Alchemy were relatively advanced. Although they could not compare to the ancient alchemy methods, there were still many things that would be helpful to Master Apothecary Xuanyi and Senior Brother Li. Even if Ye Chen had passed on the ancient alchemy methods to Master Apothecary Xuanyi and Senior Brother Li, it would not do much good, for they would not be able to find any True Yang fire! On the other hand, The Grand Supreme Way of Alchemy had just what Master Apothecary Xuanyi and Senior Brother Li needed.

Ye Chen had to keep The Grand Supreme Way of Alchemy in the armguard's space. He would surely have use for it in the future when he refined and produced medicinal pills. However, he might as well lend it to Master Apothecary Xuanyi and Senior Brother Li and let them make a copy.

"Master, Senior Brother Li," Ye Chen greeted Master Apothecary Xuanyi and Li Xu who were in the midst of refining pills.

"Ye Chen, you're here? I've refined into medicinal pills the fishes you caught a few days ago. Lately, my alchemy has greatly improved, mostly thanks to these fishes you caught." Master Apothecary Xuanyi gave a candid smile.

In the past, Ye Chen could not understand this. Since Master Apothecary Xuanyi knew that he only had about twenty years left to live, he could just quietly enjoy his remaining years. Why did he still work tirelessly at alchemy? Master Apothecary Xuanyi had no children. The closest ones to him were the apprentices under his tutelage. However, Ye Chen had a flash of insight. Perhaps alchemy was Master Apothecary Xuanyi's favorite thing in his life. It had nothing to do with the benefits that other people perceived. It was simply what he was fond of.