NINE STAR HEGEMON BODY ARTS

Long Chen examined the jade bottle in his hand. Inside was a ball of liquid, yet it released a strong warmth.

But Long Chen knew that this ball of warm liquid was the beast flame. That was the essence of a Magical Beast's flame.

Beast flames were exceptionally precious. A beast flame was equivalent to the Magical Beast's life, and only second rank or higher Magical Beasts had the ability to nourish a beast flame.

Long Chen used his divine sense to examine the beast flame. The flame element inside was extremely dense, and according to Long Chen's memories, this beast flame was probably from a peak second rank Magical Beast. It was no wonder Wei Cang's expression had been so extremely ugly when he had handed over the beast flame.

His Pill Flame spread and enveloped his whole body. Opening the jade bottle, he swallowed the ball of beast flame essence.

BOOM!

When Long Chen swallowed it, its original appearance of a ball of water changed. The gentle as a rabbit beast flame suddenly became wild and berserk.

A beast flame was a Magical Beast's life essence. It contained the berserk nature of the Magical Beast, and for a normal Pill Cultivator to force it to surrender required a great deal of time to grind down the berserk willpower.

When that berserk willpower was ground down, only then could you use your Pill Flame to join with the beast flame and slowly make it give up its resistance, gradually refining it one step at a time.

But Long Chen wasn't the same. The battle today had caused him to disclose every single one of his hidden trump cards. He needed some stronger ones to protect his life.

Xia Changfeng had lost his most trusted lieutenant and Wei Cang had lost his beast flame. Even an idiot would know they wouldn't take that lying down.

The only person Long Chen could rely on in the imperial capital was grandmaster Yun Qi, but as the head of the alchemist guild, he couldn't interfere directly with the nation's struggles.

Unless Long Chen completely gave himself to the guild and no longer partic.i.p.ated in the empire's affairs, Yun Qi wouldn't be able to do anything. But after being repressed for so many years, how could Long Chen be willing to give up on finding who was the villain hiding the shadows?

And how could he possibly abandon Chu Yao? Chu Yao had also met such bitter experiences, making him think of his own troubles. Was the person who had secretly schemed against Chu Yao also the one who had stolen his Spirit Root?

Before everything became clear, Long Chen couldn't give her up or his own enmity. He couldn't just swallow this hatred. So his time was extremely limited and he could only use the most berserk and direct method to refine the beast flame.

BOOM!

When beast flames were extracted, they couldn't be suppressed or they would weaken, causing their quality declining.

Long Chen was now basically facing a peak second rank Magical Beast flame's roasting. The berserk energy caused Long Chen to spit out blood.

As soon as that blood was spit out it turned to vapor. Long Chen's body had already been turned into a burning stove.

"Hmph, a small second rank Magical Beast also dares to resist me?"

Long Chen snorted and his FengFu Star was activated, the seven cyclones revolved wildly, and his whole body's flame energy was like a giant net that forcefully enveloped the ball of beast flame.

That beast flame now entered its most violent state, but Long Chen's Pill Flame, while not very powerful, ended up becoming incomparably firm and forceful with the support of the FengFu Star and the larger seven cycles.

At the beginning that beast flame was capable of das.h.i.+ng around, but in just a couple breaths' time, it became just like a captured beast, and no matter how it struggled, it was useless.

After all, that ball of beast flame didn't have any further energy as support. Under Long Chen's full effort refining, its violent aura was gradually eroded and it slowly calmed down.

Although Long Chen had antic.i.p.ated this result, he still relaxed inside. Right now he was covered in sweat and his clothes were drenched.

He felt as if his personality had split. Part of him had contempt for the beast flame, while the other greatly looked forward for it. One side was happy and the other felt disdain.

He bitterly laughed. Long Chen knew that he had fused with a Pill G.o.d's soul, and naturally that Pill G.o.d looked down on such a beast flame.

But it was what he needed urgently. This beast flame was the first step along the path of the pill.

Under Long Chen's continuous refining, it gradually became completely calm, as calm as a ball of water. It was extremely docile now and was considered to be completely purified without a trace of that berserk aura.

An ordinary Pill Cultivator's first flame was actually created by using the Dantian's spiritual qi to follow specific paths and be released outside as a high temperature.

Such a flame was more accurately a kind of hot gas. Only those who could form this gas had the potential to be Pill Cultivators.

Less than one in a thousand people could do this, so Pill Cultivators were extremely rare. But some people had a special Dantian that already possessed a trace of flame energy. Through training it could be condensed into Pill Flame. Such a Pill Flame was true Pill Flame.

But such people weren't one in a thousand, but less than one in a million. So amongst Pill Cultivators, most of them were like Long Chen, and for them to rise suddenly required refining a beast flame as a start.

Even so, beast flames were extremely precious and could not be measured in terms of just gold coins. Perhaps in all of Phoenix Cry, only Yun Qi possessed a beast flame.

Slowly withdrawing his flames back his body, Long Chen examined the ball of beast flame that was now docile in his body and couldn't help feeling a bit embarra.s.sed.

When most Pill Cultivators finished refining a beast flame they would let it merge into their Dantian and use the beast flame as their only cultivation path.

But Long Chen couldn't do so. For one thing, the main source of his spiritual qi was not in his Dantian but his FengFu Star.

Furthermore, he used the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art and this technique was extremely mysterious and powerful. It allowed him to fight people several realms above him, and even if someone beat him to death, he wouldn't give it up to follow only Pill Cultivation.

"I got it!"

Long Chen suddenly thought of an idea and placed the beast flame into his Dantian, using the seven cyclones to slowly envelop it.

"Let's test it."

Taking a deep breath, he started a very audacious test. He slowly used his cyclones to absorb the beast flame.

That beast flame didn't have any resistance to the absorption. Following Long Chen's orders, it dissolved into the meridians all around his body.

This was flame merging. Dissolve the beast flame and send it throughout the entire body. This allowed one to become the most familiar with the flame.

Since it had already been completely refined, this process occurred extremely easily. Just like that, the beast flame dispersed throughout his meridians.

This method of his was definitely never used before. Even in the memories of the Pill G.o.d he had, there was no mention of such a thing.

After dissolving the beast flame throughout his meridians Long Chen was pleasantly surprised to find that his meridians had actually became several centimeters wider.

You definitely couldn't underestimated those few centimeters. Each meridian was like a ca.n.a.l. The wider the ca.n.a.l was, the greater the amount of spiritual qi it could support during battle, allowing you to explode with greater power.

The Dantian could be compared to the ocean while the meridians would be channels. During battle you needed to draw the ocean's water throughout the channels before converging them back together. This was also how Battle Techniques could be so explosive.

But the more powerful the Battle Technique, the greater the amount of energy required. If the channels' capacities weren't sufficient, they would burst. Without even harming your enemy, your meridians would break down.

That was also why while Long Chen knew how to use Split the Heavens, he was still unable to display it. It was because his meridians weren't wide enough.

His test today almost made him jump with excitement. He now used his own meridians as carriers to nourish the beast flame, the two of them complementing and a.s.sisting each other.

As he cultivated and became stronger, his meridians would be constantly enlarged by the beast flame. Long Chen had truly profited this time.

Although other Pill Cultivators who brought the beast flame to the Dantian would be able to cultivate quickly, that wasn't even comparable to the benefit of having one's meridians become thicker.

"Okay I still have to see whether this is all good or bad."

Taking a deep breath and praying inside, he slowly collected the beast flame that had merged into his meridians back into his Dantian.

A flame appeared in the middle of his palm. It had a light red color, and as soon as it appeared, it caused s.p.a.ce to twist.

He nodded pleased. It already had this much strength just after refining it. It truly was worthy of being a beast flame; it was many times stronger than his original flame.

Hesitating for a moment, he ground his teeth in the end and slowly circulated a small strand of spiritual qi from his FengFu Star to his cyclones.

The slowly revolving cyclones immediately grew larger and began to wildly spin.

"I wonder if this will work…"

Long Chen was worriedly looking at the flame in his hand. It would be a lie to say he wasn't nervous.

But he still decided to send those seven cyclones' energy to the ball of flame that he had condensed in their middle.

Long Chen felt his body jolt as if it were about to explode. The blaze in his hand that was originally one foot long immediately grew ten feet tall.

"c.r.a.p!"

Alarmed, Long Chen hastily took back the flame.

That eruption of his Pill Flame's terrifying temperature had immediately scorched the roof.

Flapping his hand, he created a wind to put out the flame. But although the flame was extinguished, the entire rife was also sent flying.

Looking up at the three-sixty panoramic view he had of the starry sky, Long Chen felt the urge to cry. Almost as soon as he had come to a friend's house, he had ended up not burning the house down, but actually tearing it apart! That wasn't good…

As expected, footsteps came running as the people from the s.h.i.+ household were all alarmed. There was no way around it; the entire household was awoken. Even a deaf person would have awoken.

Seeing Long Chen's embarra.s.sed face, s.h.i.+ Feng's father covered up his shock and smiled. Without saying anything to him, he told someone to prepare a new room for him.

Long Chen wanted to say something, but s.h.i.+ Feng's father just patted him on the shoulder and laughed, "You and s.h.i.+ Feng are brothers, so just treat this place as your own home."

After a new room was arranged for him, Long Chen didn't dare test more techniques he didn't understand. Sitting on the bed he started to use his cyclones to absorb heaven and earth's spiritual qi and sending it into his FengFu Star.

The next day before the sun had even arisen, Long Chen's body suddenly emitted an explosive sound.

Long Chen slowly opened his eyes happily. He hadn't expected that after the battle with Huang Chang he would have break through the bottleneck so quickly and reach the eighth Heavenstage of Qi Condensation.