Nine Astra Skies

Ye Chen had no knowledge of the movements of these kingdoms as he had been training for little over a month on the island. Both his Celestial Chi cultivation base and Astral Body had undergone tremendous improvements. Especially his Astral Body, thanks to his sparring with the Purple-fire Astra Lion, had been rapidly improving. He also gained a better understanding of Palm Shattering the Milky Way. Eventually, he was able to develop a brand-new Astral Body martial art technique. He called it Raging Fire Fist - Palm Shattering the Milky Way

Just as he had done previously, Ye Chen repeatedly summoned his Astral Body to fight with the Purple-fire Astra Lion. Each time, his Astral Body was destroyed into pieces.

"Your cultivation base had become distinctly stronger but it's still far too weak." The Purple-fire Astra Lion leaped forward and violently tackled the gold-armored soldier materialized from Ye Chen's Astral Body.

Whenever the Purple-fire Astra Lion launched an attack, its body was enveloped by an invisible force. It may seem like nothing special but each attack and technique were incredibly intricate and were impossible to avoid.

The Purple-fire Astra Lion smirked, victory would be his again. Ye Chen's astral spirit was going to break any moment.

After countless tries, Ye Chen's Astral Body was still not able to dodge the Purple-fire Astra Lion's attack. Hence, it was assaulted again and again.

Ye Chen felt as if his Astral Body was held in place by countless invisible chains as he was unable to move at all.

The Purple-fire Astra Lion was far too powerful!

In the past, to prevent Ye Chen from imitating its martial art techniques, the Purple-fire Astra Lion had always held back. He had only exhausted two-tenths of its full strength when it sparred with Ye Chen. After the discussion with Ye Chen which Ye Chen promised to help him find the lioness, he started to use up to four-tenths of his full strength. He had also occasionally cast some basic martial art techniques of the Purple-fire Astra Lion clan.

Ye Chen benefited greatly from his fights with the Purple-fire Astra Lion. However, no matter how much he had improved, his Astral Body was still hardly able to last three rounds against the Purple-fire Astra Lion.

There was a deep bitterness in Ye Chen's heart. He knew that he was still far too weak. The Purple-fire Astra Lion still maintained his strength at near Mystique Adept rank. If he still was not able to keep up with the Purple-fire Astra Lion for just three rounds, how could he expect himself to be able to face the powerful fighters out there?

"I don't believe this!" Ye Chen's eyes flashed. With a low grunt, he invoked the Flying Dagger inside him. The Flying Dagger hummed as a majestic power shot into the air above, merging with the gold-armored soldier. The gold-armored soldier furiously roared as it suddenly rose. With a loud "bang", it broke free from the invisible bindings.

The mighty Purple-fire Astra Lion tackled forward. Just as it was about to hit the gold-armored soldier, it missed and hit the air instead. The Purple-fire Astra Lion was shocked. He had never expected Ye Chen to be able to dodge.

"Take this!" Ye Chen shouted. The longsword in the gold-armored soldier's hands vanished as it took to the skies. It thrusted its palm in the air toward the direction of the Purple-fire Astra Lion.

The gold-armored soldier's palm carried the secrets of Palm Shattering the Milky Way. As the palm struck forward, rays of purple light erupted like clustered stars and surrounded the Purple-fire Astra Lion from all sides.

The purple rays were condensed tightly together like the Milky Way.

Even though there was nearly twenty to thirty meters of distance between them, Ye Chen was still able to feel the enormous power from the palm attack.

The Purple-fire Astra Lion did not expect Ye Chen to be able to master Palm Shattering the Milky Way so effortlessly with the gold-armored soldier. Besides, the gold-armored soldier was an Astral Body, not Ye Chen's real body. Therefore, the difficulty of casting the martial art technique was at least several folds higher.

"You finally had a breakthrough. With this Astral Body martial art technique alone, most mid-Mystique Venerable rank fighters would not be able to handle it!" Purple flames shot out of the Purple-fire Astra Lion's body and formed a barrier.

The gold-armored soldier's Palm Shattering the Milky Way had landed squarely on the Purple-fire Astra Lion's body.

With a booming "bang", purple flames streamed and sent sparks flying everywhere.

The Purple-fire Astra Lion was shoved several steps backward but he was visibly impressed. "Kid, I may have underestimated you. With your natural talent, it's no surprise that you have been able to reach this point. One more!"

The Purple-fire Astra Lion finally showed some fascination in Ye Chen. It leaped up and opened his mouth wide open and a column of purple flames shot out.

Bang bang bang!

Ye Chen had been controlling the gold-armored soldier sparring with the Purple-fire Astra Lion for eight whole rounds before the gold-armored soldier was finally obliterated by the Purple-fire Astra Lion.

Watching the gold-armored soldier scattering away, Ye Chen was out of breath. The battle had used up all hundred and twenty percent of Ye Chen's strength and he was exhausted. Despite his body being used up, he was in high spirits. He felt that he had finally taken the first step in mastering his control of the Astral Body.

"I'm exhausted, let's spar again after I rest," Ye Chen said. He sat down cross-legged and proceeded to channel his Celestial Chi to rejuvenate his Astral Body.

When the Purple-fire Astra Lion saw Ye Chen sitting down, he walked around out of boredom. He lifted his head and glanced at Ye Chen. His eyes seemed like he was deep in thought, in contrast to his usual look where he seemed like he could not care less. He sighed faintly and muttered, "Who would've thought this brat could learn Palm Shattering the Milky Way so quickly. I wonder how far this little brat could go."

Within Ye Chen's dantian, the Nine Astras continued to channel and continued seeping out Celestial Chi from the Flying Dagger. The Celestial Chi within his dantian began growing thicker and stronger. Although Ye Chen's current Celestial Chi cultivation base was only beginner Heavenly Venerable Rank, when it came to the Celestial Chi volume inside his dantian, even a mid-Heavenly Venerable Rank fighter could hardly compete.

After sitting for close to half an hour, Ye Chen's strength had been restored to peak condition along with his Astral Body. Just as he was about to get up and spar with the Purple-fire Astra Lion again, the chirping of the Golden Sun Condor could be heard from outside. His Astral Body headed out of the Heavenly Astra Seal to investigate and quickly locked onto a person. It was one of the two fighters that showed up on the battleship previously. This was the one who had shot the Golden Sun Condor with an arrow!

This person looked horrendous like he had only recently came out of the sea. His body was dripping wet and his hair was messy with weeds sticking out. He probably had been sleeping on grassland when he was discovered by the Golden Sun Condor.

"I'm going to head out for a bit!" Ye Chen invoked his Astral Body and exited the Heavenly Astra Seal.

Lin Qiu was extremely fed-up at this point. The past few days were filled with memories that he would rather not recall.

On the journey here, Lin Qiu had been hunted by six octopus sea monsters. He fought and swam in the sea, exhausting every ounce of energy from his body. Even though he had suffered some injuries, he fortunately survived. When he noticed an island ahead, he swam toward the island with all the strength left in him. It was only when he was approaching it when Lin Qiu noticed that the island was the exact island where he had encountered the Golden Sun Condor previously. He was certain that the one who had instructed the sea monsters to attack the battleship and the master of the Golden Sun Condor was the same person!

As much as Lin Qiu was unwilling to set foot on the island, with the sea monsters pursuing him, he had no choice. After he had arrived on the island, he very carefully hid and rested himself in the underbrush. Lin Qiu was planning to wait until the octopus sea monsters had left, then he would figure out a way to get out of the island. He did not expect that he would be discovered by the Golden Sun Condor after having just arrived on the island for a short while.

The Golden Sun Condor stood on a large boulder faraway, its gaze locked onto him.

At this moment, Lin Qiu could retrieve his bow from his Heaven-Earth Pouch to shoot down the Golden Sun Condor. However, he did not dare to do so since the master of the Golden Sun Condor was probably on the island as well. It was probably a powerful Celestial Beast. Lin Qiu's action of wounding the Golden Sun Condor was at least excusable but if he had killed the Golden Sun Condor, then there would be no way out of it.

Lin Qiu carefully took out a Tier Four spirit artifact. It was a sharp-edged sword. Since the Golden Sun Condor had already noticed him, it was only a matter of time before its master showed up. He gulped down a mouthful of saliva. Having scuffled his way here the past few days, Lin Qiu already used up a lot of Celestial Chi and had no time to recover yet. If he faced another formidable foe, he worried he might not even have strength left to fight. He quickly took out an Earth Quintessence Pill from the Heaven-Earth Pouch and swallowed it. Lin Qiu's eyes sparkled with concentration as he carefully observed the situation around him.

After Lin Qiu's long years of service in the Tribunal Council, he had seen a lot of things. He knew that Celestial Beasts were far more difficult to deal with than humans. Humans were proficient in the arts of combat and martial art technique. Celestial Beasts, on the other hand, had many different forms of approach to combat. Many of them were proficient in ambushing and assassination.

Far away, there was a sudden Celestial Chi movement. Ye Chen suddenly appeared out of thin air beside the Golden Sun Condor.

Lin Qiu felt his heart immediately tighten. He did not even notice how Ye Chen suddenly showed up. Even though Ye Chen's appearance was just a seventeen to eighteen-year-old teenager, Lin Qiu was certain that Ye Chen was just a form that a Celestial Beast had assumed. How else could it command so many mystical beasts?

Lin Qiu did not know what tricks Ye Chen was capable of as he only saw that Ye Chen was able to appear out of nowhere. In addition, due to the previous terrifying experience of being hunted down by sea monsters, he assumed that Ye Chen was an extremely powerful Celestial Beast.

Ye Chen appeared from the Heavenly Astra Seal. His eyes sparkled with purple flames as his piercing gaze landed on Lin Qiu.

"My dear Celestial Beast friend, I'm an officer from the Tribunal Council. How should I address you, my friend?" Lin Qiu was so terrified that he had subconsciously brought up the Tribunal Council. When he was outside, his identity as a Tribunal Council officer was his crutch. Most people, whether they were patriarch of super families or masters of sects, would behave courteously in front of a Tribunal Council officer. Up till now, there was not a single person who dared challenge the authority of the Tribunal Council.

Right after the words had escaped his mouth, Lin Qiu wanted nothing more than to slap himself. The powerful Celestial Beast had identified the Tribunal Golden Sword on their battleship and still ordered the sea monsters to attack. If he had revealed his identity, would that not just inspire the Celestial Beast to silence him by killing him?

Lin Qiu's eyes were filled with fear. He thought of a way out of here but there was only the vast ocean outside of the island. The ocean was filled with sea monsters under the control of Ye Chen. His only option was to tough it out. He started channeling his Celestial Chi and prepared himself to face his enemy.

"Tribunal Council?" Ye Chen's eyes flashed with anger. It was the Tribunal Council that had created a place like the Exclusion Zone. They were the reason that he could no longer be certain whether Little Tanuki was dead or alive, and that he could not see Little Wingsy again.

When Lin Qiu saw the anger in Ye Chen's eyes, Lin Qiu's heart cried out in sorrow. The man in front of him did not even have the slightest bit of fear of the Tribunal Council. He no longer had his crutch and he did not know just how powerful Ye Chen was. Amid his panic, he blurted out, "I don't mean to offend My Lord. Previously the reason I had wounded My Lord's Golden Sun Condor was that I was forced to do so by another person. That man is the son of an elder, I can't defy his orders!" He quickly absolved himself of his ties.