Nine Astra Skies

'Palms Puncturing the Cosmos' described an enigmatic cultivation system that was largely superior to a lot of its contemporaries, as it was likely to be at least Sixth, Seventh or even Eighth tier martial arts.

Yet, should it be juxtaposed with the Nine Astra Skies, it would be instantly and woefully relegated. This cultivation system could not even match any single technique mentioned in the latter!

Of course, Ye Chen was pretty sure that there was simply no cultivation system that could match a paragon such as Nine Astra Skies. To even try finding anything more superior than it would be nothing but a fool's errand.

However, barring the cultivation system, 'Palms Puncturing the Cosmos' also featured six martial techniques. Each of them was at least Sixth or Seventh Tier materials while others bordered on being Eighth Tier.

For now, Ye Chen felt that trying to learn the cultivation system in this book was not very practical as learning these martial techniques would be too forward for him. After brief contemplation, Hence, Ye Chen decided that he would only learn these martial techniques after he had mastered every cultivation system in Nine Astra Skies.

After all, the biggest boon of the aforementioned discourse was that, as the arete of martial arts, a practitioner's mastery over Nine Astra Skies automatically entailed mastery over every martial technique under the sun.

As there was no hurry to practice the techniques found in 'Palms Puncturing the Cosmos', Ye Chen tucked the book back in his cupboard together with the 'Grand Supreme Way of Alchemy'.

'Now, I'll just focus on mastering every First Grade teachings in the Nine Astra Skies Discourse!'

With that, Ye Chen and Little Tanuki returned to training themselves again. It started with Ye Chen sitting cross-legged on his usual spot as he trained, switching between four kinds of elemental Celestial Chi.

Ice, wind, thunder, and lightning — they formed a formidable aggregate called "The Four Forces of Nature", sharing the trait of being the composite nature that was derived from the Five Agents.

As he practiced, Ye Chen could feel four of these elementals spinning increasingly faster within his body like a whirlpool of their own, gulping in large amounts of Celestial Chi supplied by the Flying Dagger.

Little Tanuki stopped reading its book as soon as it noticed Ye Chen's training. Eagerly, it hopped next to him and started to absorb his surplus of Celestial Chi. Unlike normal practitioners whose cultivation process would require them to salvage every Celestial Chi found in nature for themselves, whenever Ye Chen trained, his Celestial Chi leaked into the environment instead.

That was why everytime he started to train, his room would be ten times more saturated with Celestial Chi than any natural environment.

In the Patriarch Residency.

"I think I heard some noises outside of the castle just now. Do you think Chen's experimenting with that Explosive-Seed-thing again?" Ye Zhanlong chortled.

Hearing the muffled boom from a distance, he could not help but recall the time when Ye Chen's first experimented with that Explosive Seed. Back then, he had thought it was a coordinated attack from a Ninth Stage enemy!

With that incident serving as precedence, the seniors had become much more relaxed about it.

"As a father, I really should put a stop to his idle hobby, especially when it's starting to distract a prodigy like him from his own cultivation." Ye Zhantian mumbled disapprovingly after a pause, "I'll talk to him later when I see him during lunch."

"Relax, there's no need to stop him from having some harmless fun every now and then! If it wasn't for Chen, we would have never obtained something as potent as Thunder Emperor Discourse, you know," Ye Changxuan replied mirthfully.

Their powers had been improving even more in the past few days. Should they finally be able to match Yun Yiyang and his men, they would be securing a safe future for the House of Ye for at least a decade to come. With Thunder Emperor Technique, the House of Ye could once again return to glory in the near future!

It was this optimism that made Ye Changxuan show more leeway to the younger generations.

Though they had no idea what had transpired outside Ye Castle, and neither did they find the need to discuss it, since they had reasoned that it was Ye Chen on his experiments again.

"That Explosive Seed that Chen'er sure packed a punch, huh? In fact, I doubt a Ninth Stage fighter would be able to brace an explosion head-on!" Ye Zhanlong recalled, smiling as he did. "I'll say his experiment would ultimately be beneficial, Big Brother. Don't worry."

"Yes, Explosive Seeds are very useful, but it's still limited in its use when going against a real Ninth Stage fighter. Besides, Ye Chen is just so talented and gifted, I really want to see him attain the Tenth Stage or even beyond while I'm still alive," Ye Zhantian rebuked. "I want to see him reach a level that we've never imagined! This is why I'm worried that he is not focusing on his training and instead, investing his time and effort in his 'hobby'."

After all, was it not generally true that parents would always push their children into well-meaning adherence to arbitrary excellence?

"Big Brother, Chen'er is a very mature young man. Have faith in his ability to use time wisely," Ye Zhanxiong said, reassuringly.

"Mm," Ye Zhantian gave a terse reply with a strict expression. Yet, within his heart, Ye Chen had made him proud as his father.

A couple of hours had passed. As Ye Chen's Lightning Pneuma Technique was slowly reaching consummation, he was starting to wonder which cultivation system to pick as the fifth to be practiced.

He recalled that the only remaining cultivation systems would be of those five — Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. Then, he frowned. Owing to their nature, cultivation systems based on the Five Agents implicitly sealed off the practitioner's chance to train with the second element that contrasted the first elemental cultivation system.

This quandary had been absent in his previous foray with the Four Forces of Nature because training with one of the Forces would not tank attempts on the other three elements in the set. However, training with the Five Agents was not going to be as clear-cut and easy simply due to their interwoven, non-linear connections with each other.

"They simultaneously give rise and destroy a fellow Agent in their own set…" Ye Chen muttered. "Wait. Could it be that the only way to train with all of them is to practice all five of them simultaneously?"

There was a bright glint in Ye Chen's eyes as soon as the idea hit him. Quickly, he memorized all of their five discourses before formally practicing them.

Practicing all five cultivation systems together was no less a challenging feat. Yet ever since he had awakened the power that lay inside the Flying Dagger, Ye Chen's dormant intuitive insights in cultivation seemed to have been awakened. Not only was it not going to be too daunting for him, Ye Chen even found immense pleasure in his cultivation.

Despite him juggling with nine different cultivation systems, the feat had not impose any tax on Ye Chen's speed in mastering them. On the contrary, it seemed that practicing all of them at the same time had only accelerated his cultivation.

After consummating all of the First Grade Teachings of the Four Forces of Nature, Ye Chen's Celestial Chi had once again improved to the point that he had already attained the peak of the Sixth Stage and was about to break through the Seventh Stage rank barrier. Maybe he could even break into the Seventh Stage before the Grand Tournament itself!

Regardless, Ye Chen had one ultimate goal: He must attain powers equivalent to the Seventh or Eighth Stage before the Grand Tournament, so that he could defend himself against his enemies, both during the tournament and outside of it!

Just thinking of the Grand Martial Tournament of the Eighteen Houses of Lianyun sobered the young man, as a calm determination was set in his eyes. The reasons behind the sudden Grand Tournament, especially when one remembered that it was to be hosted by the House of Yun, could not possibly be for something as simple as friendly sparring. No, Ye Chen was sure that they were just using the pretext of the Grand Martial Tournament to hamstring the House of Ye!

With impending troubles approaching, Ye Chen tacitly knew that his time for improvement was closing in fast.

His father had once told the young man that should he put effort into his training, it would be easy for him to surpass the Fifth Stage in a month and attain the Sixth Stage, before breaking into the Seventh Stage in the same year. How would his father react if he knew that Ye Chen was already at the verge of breaking through the Seventh Stage right now?

To be fair, Ye Chen agreed that his cultivation speed had exceeded any known logical speed within his cognition. Admittedly, he was a little fearful of how fast he was breaking through the Stags, too.

'There isn't going to be any drastic, unknown side effects to this… Right?'

Nevertheless, at this juncture, the young scion had no luxury of time to question his progress. His fear for the pernicious side-effects was tempered by the demand of rapid empowerment so that he could help the House of Ye during their direst hours!

After finally consummating the First Grade Teaching of Lightning Pneuma Technique, Ye Chen found his astral form to be further strengthened, which was much to his delighted surprise.

Just as his astral body was floating in the air, he turned his attention to outside of the Ye Castle and found an envoy of three or forty men. A few of them carrying some corpses with them.

'The corpses belonged to recently-perished Yun Laoliu and his people!' Ye Chen's pupils constricted at the sight. 'Baying for blood now, aren't they?'

He quickly returned to his body and gave a glance at Little Tanuki. The creature had just opened its eyes as well.

"Little Tanuki, those people from the House of Yun are coming to visit us now. Let's go and meet them."

In an instant, Little Tanuki leaped up onto Ye Chen's shoulder. Then, Ye Chen walked towards the direction of the main hall of Ye Castle.

"Report! The Second Lord of the House of Yun, Yun Yixuan, is coming to us as we speak. His companies include the Lord of Qin, Lord of Yan, Lord of Lin, and Lord of Wei." In the Patriarch Residency, a clansman was quick to herald their arrival to the upper-echelon.

In response, Ye Zhantian gave Ye Changxuan a somber glance.

"That Yun Yixuan fella had just 'visited' us, didn't he? Why is he here again so soon?" Ye Zhanlong remarked, frowning.

"Hmph. If troubles are dying to visit us again, we might as well as greet them eagerly," Ye Changxuan sneered. Five Ninth Stage fighters coming to pay them a visit at once? What was the meaning of that?

By now, Ye Zhantian had successfully attained the Ninth Stage while Ye Changxuan had progressed to the Mid-Ninth Stage; The combative power of the House of Ye was now several levels better than they used to be before. Due to that, the upper-echelon of the family had started to become even more brazen with their disregard for the Yuns' claimed superiority.

Besides, the House of Yun may have brought four other Lords with them, but it did not mean that these four would be willing to pay their lives for the Yuns either.

'So let us see what's the purpose of your visit this time.'