Nine Astra Skies

Ye Chen wondered what exactly the function of this boulder formation was as he could not understand why all these combatants seemed so crazy about it. He walked along the path between the boulders and kept moving forward in an exceptionally cautious manner as Ye Chen was worried that he might accidentally do something forbidden.

After having cautiously walked along the path for some time, Ye Chen found that he was perfectly safe as he did not encounter any dangerous situation.

"Little Tanuki, have you ever come across such a formation elsewhere?" Ye Chen asked. Little Tanuki was very knowledgeable, so whenever he encountered something he could not understand, he would ask Little Tanuki about it.

Little Tanuki shook its head and responded with a few squeaks.

Ye Chen understood part of its reply. Little Tanuki said that although it had never seen such a formation, it could be sure that this formation was harmless to humans.

Ye Chen stopped worrying and continued to find his way toward the center when he heard that this was a harmless formation. The closer he got to the center, the richer the Celestial Chi around him grew. Eventually, it felt as if his chi flow was also starting to react to his surroundings as his Celestial Chi kept circulating and growing stronger inside him. His Astral Body seemed to be stirring restlessly as well.

Given that it could even affect the chi movement in his body, it seemed like there was indeed something profound and mysterious about this formation.

Little Tanuki suddenly let out an excited squeak as though it had sensed something. Then, it leaped out of Ye Chen's embrace in a flash before rushing toward the center of the formation.

Ye Chen followed closely behind it. A few moments later, he reached the central part of the formation and a golden round plate with a radius of over ten meters appeared within his view. This golden plate was engraved with numerous mystical-looking patterns. There was a desolate and ancient feeling about these densely packed patterns that made them seem inexplicably magical and stately. Among these patterns, two ancient words consisting of complicated character patterns were engraved onto the plate. Nonetheless, he could vaguely recognize the words "Chi Amassing".

A Chi-amassing Formation?

Ye Chen understood this intuitively. Could it be that these two words were referring to the gathering of Celestial Chi?

The Celestial Chi here was incredibly rich and dense. Of course, it could not compare with the Celestial Chi contained in Ye Chen's Flying Dagger. However, this could still be considered quite a useful formation since it could not only affect the flow of chi in his body and immensely increase his cultivation rate but could also strengthen his Astral Body.

Ye Chen walked toward the golden plate and as he stepped into it, his mind immediately became calm and still. This golden plate had a special soothing effect and quieting a chaotic mind.

Ye Chen glanced at Little Tanuki and found it standing at the center of the formation with its eyes slightly shut as though it had entered a strange meditative state.

This was a good place to cultivate. Ye Chen wondered if this formation could help him enhance his cultivation base and break through the Tenth Level as he walked to the center of the golden plate before sitting down to begin cultivating. Then, as the Nine Astra in his dantian started spinning while his Celestial Chi surged around in his body, Ye Chen felt detached from this world as if everything going on outside the formation had nothing to do with him anymore.

As time passed, more combatants and mystical beasts gathered outside the Chi-amassing Formation. After having launched multiple attacks to no avail, some of them finally decided to give up, so a few of them sat cross-legged on the ground at a distance to rest and recover while others left the area.

Du Lang kept staring intently at the formation but never saw Ye Chen come out. He had also repeatedly tried to force his way into the formation and failed every single time, so in the end, he reluctantly retreated.

The battle dragged on and never stopped as more time flew by. Those six enormous evil spirits did not seem the slightest bit exhausted as they diligently carried on protecting and guarding the Chi-amassing Formation.

It was around five hours later when someone in the crowd exclaimed in astonishment.

"The formation is moving!"

The combatants looked over and saw that the boulders in the formation were moving around slowly and mysteriously as their positions changed irregularly. As the boulders continued moving about, the ground shook and rumbled loudly.

The formation would be activated once every day. This was also why so many of these combatants and mystical beasts were unwilling to leave this place.

Whenever the formation was activated, its surrounding Celestial Chi would instantly become rich and concentrated since the Celestial Chi within the first floor of the Sunken Jade Tower would gather around the formation from all directions to form a massive cloudy ball of Celestial Chi.

All the mystical beasts and humans hurriedly found themselves a spot somewhere around the Chi-amassing Formation and began cultivating. Many Ninth Level and Tenth Level combatants started to fight among themselves and were even ready to kill each other to acquire a closer spot to the formation.

Du Lang was merely a top Ninth Level combatant so he had no hope of getting a closer spot to the Chi-amassing Formation and could only sit cross-legged some distance away to cultivate. Although he was quite far away from the formation, the rich Celestial Chi in his surroundings still enabled him to cultivate over ten to twenty times faster than usual!

As Du Lang glanced at the formation, he felt amazed at how rich the Celestial Chi around him was when he was so far away from the formation. This made him wonder how much more concentrated the Celestial Chi could be at the center of the formation. It was probably over a hundred to a thousand times richer compared to the Celestial Chi outside! He could imagine just how happy Ye Chen was to be at the center of the formation at that moment! At this thought, Du Lang felt suffocated with envy. He was willing to give up all of his belongings as well as his beautiful wife and concubines in exchange for an opportunity to cultivate at the center of the formation for just one minute! If only he could do that, Du Lang might have some hope of achieving a breakthrough and advancing to the Tenth Level!

The moment the formation was activated, no one would be able to enter it anymore. Therefore, the battle finally ceased.

At that moment, while Ye Chen was still cultivating at the center of the formation, his eyebrows twitched slightly as he suddenly felt the effects of the formation growing stronger by almost a hundredfold. With that, his chi kept circulating at high speed within his body while his cultivation rate increased by more than ten times!

Before this, Ye Chen had already been cultivating at an incredible speed. Thus, his current cultivation rate could be described as terrifying.

Ye Chen could feel his Celestial Chi slowly rising and surging around like waves within his body. Then, with a thunderous boom, he finally broke through the mid-Ninth Level and advanced to the top Ninth Level. The threshold of the next level was right in front of his eyes. Once he passed this threshold, he would become a Tenth Level combatant!

Since Ye Chen had been capable of going up against a beginner Tenth Level combatant when he was still a mid-Ninth Level combatant, he wondered if he could defeat Liu Kan, who was a mid-Tenth Level combatant, after having reached the top Ninth Level. If Ye Chen managed to attain the Tenth Level, he might even be capable of engaging Qiu Ying in battle!

'Second-rank Prince Liu Xun of Donglin, Liu Kan, and Prime Minister Qiu Ying, I shall settle accounts with you guys once I leave this Chi-amassing Formation!' Ye Chen thought while his dantian kept frantically absorbing Celestial Chi like a rapidly rotating whirlpool.

With a loud explosive sound, Ye Chen's mind suddenly became extremely clear while his Astral Body gradually floated into the air. He kept the presence of his Astral Body hidden and did not form any astral knights to avoid causing a disturbance among the crowd of mystical beasts outside. Nonetheless, Ye Chen could sense numerous Psyches quickly flocking over from the sky.

These were remnants of the souls of countless combatants who had died in the Sunken Jade Tower. These souls had lost their sense of self-awareness after their deaths and so had become like Celestial Chi. Such soul remnants were wisps of energy in this world that would gradually fade out of existence with the passage of time and would eventually vanish without a trace while part of them would be transformed into Celestial Chi belonging to the world.

Ye Chen's Astral Body proceeded to devour these souls and transform them into his own energy. Although these soul remnants used to belong to powerful combatants in the past, their energy had almost been depleted over the years, so Ye Chen could only harness an insignificant amount of energy from each soul. Thankfully, there were a great number of such soul remnants here. Indeed, too many lives had been lost in the Sunken Jade Tower.

As his Astral Body grew increasingly stronger, he found that he could finally extend his Astral Body over a radius of a mile and a half! While this was still not enough for him to go up against a Daemon King Rank adversary, at least he would not be as powerless as before.

The formation spun rapidly for five minutes before stopping and returning to its original state.

Those mystical beasts and humans became all the more eager and impatient to force their way into the Chi-amassing Formation after having witnessed how powerful it was during their cultivation earlier. They hoped to enter the center of the Chi-amassing Formation before its next round of activation so that they could benefit from the incomparably rich Celestial Chi there!

Thus, the mystical beasts and human combatants persistently began launching waves of attack again. However, after having been recharged with Celestial Chi earlier, the six evil spirits seemed to have become even more powerful and tougher as they guarded the Chi-amassing Formation firmly. Several combatants would occasionally collapse to the ground after suffering a blow from them.

None of these combatants could imagine that while they were risking their lives to enter the Chi-amassing Formation, Ye Chen was sitting leisurely at the center of the formation and had been cultivating for five to six hours in that rich ball of Celestial Chi.

Ye Chen had completely lost track of time while cultivating, so those five to six hours felt like a fleeting moment.