NINE STAR HEGEMON BODY ARTS

In the Phoenix Cry Empire, martial customs were very

popular, and disputes were unavoidable. Therefore a life and death stage was

built outside the imperial capital where people could resolve their personal

differences.

As long as you had both parties' agreement and signed the

martial arena contract, once you entered into the martial arena even if you

killed your opponent you wouldn't receive any punishment from the imperial

capital.

During most days this place would be filled with a

bustling crowd, and today was the same. However after a couple matches had

ended, two youngsters walked onto the stage which caused an uproar.

"Isn't that person Long Chen? Why would he come here?"

"Right, yesterday he was almost beat to death, why would

he come back here today?"

"Hmph, I bet he doesn't want to live anymore and wants to

get someone to beat him to death here."

Senior Long Tianxiao might be a border general and be called

this generation's Military G.o.d, but the people who gave him the t.i.tle Military G.o.d

were all poor people who had to suffer through wars and conflicts.

In

the imperial capital, which was filled with rich people all in peace and prosperity,

people didn't place the Long Tianxiao who was born in a commoner family on the

same level as them. Thus towards Long Chen the entire imperial capital also

didn't have respect for him.

"Long Chen you piece of trash, why did you come back,

aren't you just holding up the work for no reason? Who would want to see your

martial arts, hurry and beat it!"

"Yeah, if you want to kill yourself find somewhere

without people. No one wants to see such a piece of trash, stop wasting our

time!"

In just a moment the audience of several hundred people

were all cursing loudly; clearly they were extremely displeased with Long Chen.

However, in an unremarkable corner further away, two

maidens wearing veils were raptly watching the arena's figure.

"Sister, that one is your fiancé? Why does he look so

lacking, with not even a bit fluctuations around his body." Observed one of the

maidens disappointedly.

"Hmph, it wasn't for grandpa acting

selfishly he wouldn't have arranged my marriage back when I still wasn't even

born. Seriously infuriating." The other maiden said in an extremely irritated

tone.

On the martial arena, Long Chen didn't

notice that two maidens were spying on him, and towards the shouts and screams

he also did not respond at all, only indifferently looking at Li Hao.

Li Hao pointed out the people's

uproar and coldly smiled, "See? You're an unwelcome trash, and if you were

Long Chen only indifferently stared

at him, not saying a word.

"Dong."

The sound of a bell rang out,

signalling the start of the duel. When the bell tolls, life and death are

separated by only a fine line.

Due to the tolling of the bell, the

originally rowdy crowd became silent; after all it was a life and death battle.

Who would know just one someone's life would end?

"Sister, this fiancé of your seems

doesn't have any cultivation base, while his opponent is at the Third Heavenly Stage

of Qi Condensation, aren't you worried?" The maiden asked.

"Hmph, what's the point of me being

worried, if he dies then it's fine. It doesn't have anything to do with me."

The other maiden indifferently snorted. But although she said these words, in

her hand she had already taken out an extremely eccentric silk screen.

"Heehee, don't say you don't care,

you've already taken out your martial weapon. Looks like you do still care. And

you know, although his cultivation talent is trash, he's not that bad looking.

How about if you don't want him you can just give him to me?" The maiden

laughingly said.

"You're speaking rubbish, how can such

a person be just randomly given to you. If you like him you can wait for me to

withdraw from the marriage. After that you can do whatever you want." The other

woman angrily responded.

"Heehee."

On the martial arena Long Chen from

beginning to end had remained as calm as water, and when compared to yesterday's

him that was gnashing his teeth in complete anger the difference made it seem

like a completely different person.

"Long

Chen, with your death near you decided to become calm? Don't worry, due to the

stakes you proposed I won't beat you to death today." Li Hao's face was proud

and arrogant as he spoke.

"You

sure say a lot of c.r.a.p. Hurry up and come at me, I still have things to do

later." Long Chen slightly impatiently responded.

Because the entire audience

was very quiet, every single word of Long Chen managed to enter the crowd's

ears, and in a split second everyone watching the martial arena burst into

jeering derision.

"Li Hao, what are you still

waiting for? Hurry up and beat this kid to death, he's really causing us to

feel too embarra.s.sed for him."

Some

of the people present recognized Li Hao, so they called out to him.

A

cold sneer appeared on Li Hao's face, and no longer hesitating a Third Heavenly

Stage of Qi Condensation's power completely exploded out. His foot pressed down

slightly on the martial arena, and he immediately shot out towards Long Chen,

punching out his fist.

When

Li Hao started attacking, the crowd below the arena burst into cheers. The

current Li Hao's appearance was very dashing and handsome.

"Nice

attack, the Overlooking Wind Jade Tree Fist."

Some

of the people recognized the move, however the distant two women were both

filled with contempt, with ridiculing expressions appearing.

Long

Chen similarly also sneered; this kind of idiot move filled with mistakes could

still be used against enemies?

The

fist was smashing towards him and a strong wind whistled as it approached, but

Long Chen seemed to not notice it at all and he didn't move even an inch.

"Haha,

this trash doesn't even know how to dodge," sneered some people under the

stage.

However

just when this ridicule had just been shouted out, Li Hao's fist came to a

complete stop just three centimetres away from Long Chen's face.

The

originally ridiculing people suddenly came to a complete silence. They noticed

that one of Long Chen's legs had struck out and violent hit Li Hao in the area

between his legs.

The

originally beaming with happiness and elegant Li Hao now had an expression like

a purple eggplant, and clearly Long Chen's one kick caused him an extremely

severe pain, making his facial features warp and preventing him from moving.

However

he might not be able to move, but Long Chen could. In just this brief pause

Long Chen grabbed Li Hao's hair, forcefully pulling on it while also strongly

kicking out with his knee.

"SLAM SLAM SLAM."

Long Chen completed his actions in

an extremely refreshing manner, and in a short time his strong and fast actions

along with the sounds gave people a very intense show.

The unpleasant sound of bones

breaking came out, and three consecutive bangs came from Li Hao. His nose bone

was already caved in, his whole face was covered in blood, and he himself had

already lost consciousness.

For a moment, not even one voice

could be heard from the crowd. n.o.body had thought that a strong person at the Third

Heavenly Stage of Qi Condensation would be beaten by a trash who had no

cultivation base, and in such a quick manner.

Moreover he had done it in the most

clean and efficient manner. This kind of result was a firm slap in the face towards

the crowd that had been ridiculing him.

Even the distant two observing

maidens were completely shocked. That Li Hao was nothing to them and he could

easily be killed with a wave of their hands.

But Long Chen was not the same as

them. From the very start not a trace of spiritual energy had been used, and he

had completely relied on an ordinary person's abilities to defeat Li Hao.

"Long Chen wins."

A voice came from below the stage

from an elderly man who was often in charge of the martial arena and its

registration.

Long Chen's stomach fluctuated

rapidly a couple times, and it was only with great willpower that he managed to

stop it and suppress the killing intent inside him. Right now was not the right

time for killing people.

But he had been oppressed for such a

long time, and now that he had exploded out it was hard for him to withdraw it.

As the rest of the world saw it though, Long Chen's actions appeared to be from

lack of strength like he was gasping for breath.

Long Chen walked off the stage to

the elderly man and received the sword he had used as his stakes as well as a

crystal card with five thousand gold coins on it.

The rules here were that before the

match they had to hand in the stakes to the referee in order to show it was

equitable and also lowering the chance of anyone backing out during the battle.

After receiving the treasure sword,

Long Chen directly returned it to Shi Feng, and placing the crystal card into

his bosom he couldn't help but to become somewhat excited.

Although five thousand cold coins wasn't

very much, it could help settle a bit of the desperate situation he was in. It

had been very long since they had received a stipend from the empire, and

nowadays the Long family was quickly reaching the point where they couldn't

even afford food.

Under the attentive gazes of countless

people, the two people unhurriedly left. The two maidens watched Long Chen

leave, and immediately afterwards they also disappeared.

The news that Long Chen had beat Li

Hao seemed to gain legs as it rapidly spread and in just a short time the

entire imperial capital learned of it. The news puzzled countless people; how

could a trash who couldn't practice martial arts possibly became this difficult

to deal with?

But even with so many people

personally seeing, as well as the news that Li Hao had to be carried back to

his estate, quite a few people were somewhat incapable of accepting it.

Long Chen had wanted to split his

earnings with Shi Feng but Shi Feng seemed to be completely unwilling, and in

the end he quickly made an excuse that he had things to do before quickly

leaving, not even asking Long Chen how he suddenly became so powerful.

Remembering this favour in his

heart, Long Chen directly went to the Hundred Herb Hall. Entering into the

Hundred Herb Hall, Long Chen requested a catalogue of the medicinal

ingredients.

On it were very clear recordings of

the various medicinal ingredients' names and prices. Long Chen saw the majority

of the medicinal ingredients required to refine the FengFu Pill[i]. It was quite lucky that

the medicinal ingredients for the FengFu pill were not especially uncommon.

However looking at the price, Long

Chen's heart practically dripped blood. The gold coins he had were only enough

to buy three portions of the medicinal ingredients.

But he couldn't spend it all on

these medicinal ingredients since he still needed to buy a medicinal cauldron

for refining, as well as buy some other spare medicinal ingredients. The few gold

coins he had were like using a cup of water for a burning cart.

But not buying it was also unacceptable, so Long Chen clenched his

teeth and spent twelve hundred gold coins to buy a bronze cauldron furnace of

the worst quality.

He also bought one set of the medicinal ingredients for the FengFu

pill as well as a large amount of medicinal ingredients for the Qi Recovering

Powder. By the time Long Chen left the Hundred Herbs Hall, the amount on his

crystal card was only five hundred gold coins.

After returning home, Long Chen went

right to own room, and firmly locking the door he ordered Bao-er to tell

everyone that he must not be disturbed.

He knew that his mother would hear

the news that he had once again went to compete in martial arts, and afraid

that his mother would worry he purposely told Bao-er to block her. In any case

nothing had happened to him and his mother shouldn't become too concerned.

Right now he had to seize every

second of every minute and quickly increase his strength. The current Long

family's predicament was not as simple as what it appeared to be, and Long Chen

sensed the feeling of a crisis.

"Huu."[ii]

The spiritual energy in Long Chen's

body started moving, and a ball of flame appeared within his hand. This was a

Pill Master's agglomerated Pill Flame. But when Long Chen saw this ball of

flame he didn't know whether to laugh or cry; this flame was way too weak.

The Pill Flame was formed from a

Pill Master's spiritual energy, and through special operating methods it is

condensed into a spiritual energy flame. However the current Long Chen's Pill

Flame's temperature was extremely low, even compared to ordinary Pill Flames it

was much weaker.

In addition Long Chen found that

without his Dantian to support him, he couldn't maintain the Pill Flame for

more than a quarter hour, which was far from enough time to refine medicinal

pills.

Long Chen bitterly smiled, however

luckily he had his backup plan, which was first refining the Energy Recovery

Powder. Placing the medicinal ingredients into the cauldron, he refined them

one by one. However he didn't use his Pill Flame, but instead used a normal

fire from wood.

When all the medicinal ingredients

had been refined he placed them into a jug to form Energy Recovery Liquid, and

after resting for a short period of time, Long Chen took a deep breath and

prepared himself to officially begin refining the FengFu Pill.

[i] 风府 (FengFu) is an acupunctural point at the median point where the back

of the neck meets the scalp. Literally it means wind pavilion.

[ii] Exhaling

noise.

Scholar, Pill Master, Pill King, Pill Emperor, Pill Ancestor, Pill