Chapter 832: Secluded Cultivation

Chapter 832: Secluded Cultivation

Only after an extremely long time did Jian Chen finally return to his senses. He looked around at the surrounding monster cores. He felt like this pleasant surprise had just come too suddenly.

Before, he was still worrying over the lack of monster cores yet currently, the artifact spirit had directly helped him find vast numbers of them. The number of Class 7 and 8 Monster Cores among them had reached an unimaginable level, even for him. It made Jian Chen feel like he was currently living in a dream and that everything happening before him was not real.

Jian Chen sucked in a deep breath, slowly calming himself down. He looked around at the neatly stacked monster cores which had plugged all the corridors. Without any hesitation, he began to put them into his Space Ring.

There were monster cores from all classes. After placing several thousand into a Space Ring, Jian Chen finally calmed down completely. Shortly afterward, he seemed to think of something, immediately stopping what he was doing. He thought, “If I shove all the monster cores into one Space Ring, wouldn’t that mean I would lose a lot of monster cores if I happen to lose that ring? Right now, I’ve already become the master of the artifact spirit. The artifact spirit is hidden in my mind; it’s impossible to lose it. It seems like leaving these monster cores in the artifact space is the safest.”

Thinking this through, Jian Chen stopped shoving monster cores into his Space Ring. He turned around to face the artifact spirit. “Find me a large room for storage and place all these monster cores into it. Also, grab one hundred Class 7 Monster Cores for me.”

“Yes, master!” The artifact spirit replied immediately. With a wave of his hand, the mountainous piles of monster cores in the surroundings all disappeared. Only exactly a hundred fist-sized Class 7 Monster Cores remained floating in the air.

Jian Chen looked at the one hundred Class 7 Monster Cores, before frowning slightly. He walked up and grabbed a core but it had completely gone dull. The thick layer of dust on it had already formed a thin rock shell, tightly encasing the monster core. From a single glance, the fist-sized monster core seemed just like a round rock.

Jian Chen squeezed his hand gently, crushing the stone layer into pieces. It revealed the monster core hidden inside. The core remained dull, with only tiny ripples of energy hidden extremely deep within.

Seeing this, Jian Chen’s eyebrows immediately furrowed tightly.

“Master, these monster cores have already existed for hundreds of thousands of years. Quite a lot of the energy inside has leaked out over time and the remaining energy had basically solidified.” The artifact spirit explained from one side.

Jian Chen stared attentively at the Class 7 Monster Core in his hand. “You’re right. A lot of the energy in the monster core has leaked out. Only about sixty percent remains.”

Monster cores were different from Ruler Armaments. On the Tian Yuan Continent, every Ruler Armament was a powerful weapon valued by people and would be stored carefully. People would treat them like their own children. Additionally, Ruler Armaments could absorb the energy of the world to repair themselves, so Ruler Armaments could be preserved for a very long time. However, monster cores could not. They were only helpful to humans and were of no use to magical beasts, as magical beasts were unable to absorb the energy in them like humans. As a result, after powerful magical beasts pass away, the monster cores left behind could only be consecrated as holy relics, as a way to express respect to their ancestors. Once monster cores were stored for a long time, the energy within them would slowly leak out and then solidify.

“Although some of the energy has leaked out, these monster cores are still extremely helpful to me. Artifact spirit, I will be going into seclusion immediately. I will naturally call you when I need you. Also, in the period I go into seclusion, pay attention to the activity outside. If anything happens, call me right away.” Jian Chen said.

“Yes, master!”

…

In the quiet hall, Jian Chen sat cross-legged on the cold floor. The sword spirits had already appeared, currently cross-legged above Jian Chen’s head, refining the first Class 7 Monster Core with difficulty.

The speed of refinement was extremely slow, even several times more difficult than refining the Ruler Armaments at the beginning. The remaining energy in the hundreds of thousand years old monster cores had already solidified completely. During the refining process, Jian Chen felt like the energy in the monster cores had turned into an extremely tough ice cube. Currently, he had the ice cube in his mouth, sucking any moisture from it with difficulty. It was extremely exhausting.

The first monster core was finally refined after an entire day. It turned into a tiny strand of Chaotic Force, entering Jian Chen’s body. The strand of Chaotic Force was clearly less than what he had obtained from refining the Ruler Armaments before.

Even though it was like that, Jian Chen felt extremely satisfied. The artifact spirit had produced a total of several tens of thousand Class 7 Monster Cores, and even quite a few Class 8 Monster Cores. If he could refine all of them, his Chaotic Body would definitely rise up to another level. At the very least, it was more than enough to reach the second layer.

Jian Chen did not stop. Finishing with the first monster core, he immediately pulled out a second Class 7 Monster Core, continuing his refining.

In the blink of an eye, another three months passed. Jian Chen spent the entire time in secluded cultivation, refining the monster cores into Chaotic Force. The one hundred cores he had originally brought in were all consumed, which allowed the chaotic neidan in his dantian to expand by quite a lot.

“If we continue with a speed like this, reaching the second layer of the Chaotic Body is just around the corner.” Seeing how his chaotic neidan had grown much bigger, Jian Chen experienced unconcealable joy. Soon afterward, he left his room of seclusion, directly summoning the artifact spirit outside.

The artifact spirit appeared before Jian Chen without any sound. Jian Chen asked immediately, “Has anything happened outside while I was in seclusion?”

“Master, the situation outside remains the same as before. There have been no changes,” the artifact spirit said.

“Perfect. Then I can keep up the secluded cultivation for some time more. Artifact spirit, please fetch another five hundred Class 7 Monster Cores for me. Please try to pick those from magical beasts that have passed away recently,” Jian Chen said.

“Yes, master!” The artifact spirit replied courteously. Afterward, with a thought, five hundred Class 7 Monster Cores appeared out of nowhere before Jian Chen. Every monster core radiated with a powerful energy ripple and the energy inside was extremely active. It was not solidified. Clearly, their masters did not pass away too long ago.

Jian Chen took the five hundred Class 7 Monster Cores, turning around to return to his secluded cultivation.

“Master, the seal for the origin energy of Radiant Saint Force will open in another half a year.” As Jian Chen turned around, the artifact spirit’s voice appeared in Jian Chen’s head.

With that, Jian Chen froze slightly. His father and mother immediately flashed through his head and he said, “When it happens, you must notify me.” As soon as he finished speaking, Jian Chen disappeared into the hall. The heavy door also closed slowly.

In the empty room, Jian Chen sat on the ground with his legs crossed. He muttered softly, “There’s still over half a year before I can obtain the origin energy of Radiant Saint Force to reach Class 7. I’ll be able to revive my parents when that happens.”

“But before that, I need to increase my strength as fast as possible. I can only return to the continent after I possess a strength that can rival the ten clans. Otherwise, not only will I fail to revive mother and father, even Xiao Bai would be pulled into trouble. It’ll be hard to keep my own life intact too.”

Jian Chen quickly dismissed his emotions. He began to continue his refinement of the monster cores. Now that lack of monster cores was resolved, he needed to power up as fast as possible.

In the distant Tian Yuan Continent, the waves that brewed for the search of the Winged Tiger God did not bear any signs of weakening. The matter had already caused a great commotion on the continent. Everyone knew. Not only did the ten protector clans move out for this, even ancient clans and hermit clans that had spent many years hidden had reappeared, joining the search for the Winged Tiger God.

During that time, the ten protector clans did not just sit around. They had worked together several times in the past to use secret techniques to scan the entire continent. They attempted to find the Winged Tiger God and Jian Chen’s presence but the outcome would be disappointing every time with no exception.

Although the Pure Heart Pavilion had gained Changyang Hu, causing some slight shifts in their relationship with the Lore City Changyang clan, they did not give up on the search. The matter regarding the Winged Tiger God was extremely important. It touched on the fate and future of the entire continent. As one of the ten protector clans, the Pure Heart Pavilion definitely would not ignore the safety of the continent over just Changyang Hu.

However, the protector Changyang clan’s relationship with the other eight clans, excluding the Pure Heart Pavilion, became much colder. The eight clans all harbored ill intentions. None of them wanted the Changyang clan to obtain the Winged Tiger God successfully, all of them having the intention of eliminating the clan.

The Changyang clan naturally discovered this long ago. However, they did not do anything in response. They did not care at all. Instead, they were even more frantic than the nine other clans in their search for Jian Chen because not only was Jian Chen an unprecedented genius on the entire continent, the Winged Tiger God had followed him, a descendant of the Changyang clan. As long as they found Jian Chen first, it would mean that they directly gained control over the Winged Tiger God.

Meanwhile, Changyang Zu Yunxiao, one of the seven great elders, always remained in the Changyang clan of Lore City with his wife, Changyang Zu Yeyun. They silently guarded the clan their son had founded all those years ago in this urgent period, as well as waited for their son’s return.

The situation of the Flame Mercenaries was also much better. The group essentially strengthened every day. The news of the tungsten alloy mine they possessed was leaked as the ancient clans had all appeared but even the ancient clans did not dare to desire the tungsten alloy mine with the shadow of the protector Changyang clan behind them and the grand elder of Mercenary City supporting the Flame Mercenaries. Only the Tianmu clan, after discussions with You Yue and Bi Lian, obtained some tungsten alloy in exchange for some equally-valuable items.

The Flame Mercenaries never stopped their mining and refining of the tungsten alloy; they already had a large quantity of the refined alloy stored up. Their plan to build city walls had been dismissed and they were now undergoing a plan to build a city. They wanted to build a city just for the Flame Mercenaries completely out of tungsten alloy.

Meanwhile, Ming Dong remained in secluded cultivation in a desolate area; he had never come out since he had entered. Huang Luan had also returned to the Huang family to cultivate after Jian Chen left.

Tie Ta, Fatty, Wang Yifeng, Dugu Feng and the others also went into seclusion. They used the monster cores left behind by Jian Chen right before he had left to quickly power up.

In the Tianqin clan of Walaurent City, Qin Xiao originally planned to go searching for Jian Chen. However, as the ten protector clans publicized Jian Chen’s images throughout the entire continent, his movements were immediately suppressed by the great elders of the clan and he was forcefully placed under house arrest.

Meanwhile, the young lady, Qin Qin, continued just like before. Every day, if she was not playing the zither, she would be drawing. Her music no longer carried the serenity of before, instead, there was now with a vague longing and gloom. Other than the beautiful scenery in her drawings, there would be extra drawings of a young man. The young man seemed staunch; he was handsome and smart, and the drawing was life-like, as if he was real.