Divine Strength Reaches Great Accomplishment

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After about half a quarter of an hour, the heat finally faded. Ye Chen felt strength fill his body from the inside out, brimming with energy, as if he could punch a fierce tiger to death with one blow.

"Could the flesh of this strange fish have the effect of strengthening the body?" Joy appeared on Ye Chen's face. He wolfed down the fishtail in huge bites, chewing each mouthful only three times before swallowing.

Hiss, hiss!

His body rapidly grew hot and scalding. Sticky black impurities seeped out from the pores of his skin, carrying such a foul stench that Ye Chen nearly fainted.

"I can't take it. I have to bathe!" Ye Chen could no longer care that there were strange fish in the river. He stood up and leapt lightly, and his body had already fallen into the water.

Splash!

The cool river water touched his skin, bringing incomparable comfort. All forty-eight thousand pores across his body seemed to open wide, greedily breathing.

But the owner of the river was unwilling.

The nearby strange fish heard the sound and attacked in a frenzy.

Ye Chen gave a cold laugh, took out his treasure saber, and swept it out horizontally, cutting a ring of arcing saber energy through the water.

One, two, three...

A total of nine strange fish were cut in two, without the slightest ability to fight back.

Ye Chen grabbed them one in each hand and tossed their corpses onto the bank, preparing to use them as future food.

Seeing Ye Chen so ferocious, the other strange fish scattered like birds and beasts, fleeing in every direction. It seemed their courage was not as powerful as their appearance.

After taking a refreshing bath, Ye Chen jumped up from the river. Subconsciously, he lifted his foot, and his whole body had the illusion of being light and healthy. Aside from that, the fish meat in his stomach had already been completely digested, leaving it empty. He had to replenish his food again.

The largest of the nine strange fish was no more than three feet long. Ye Chen picked up three of them, sliced open their bellies, poured out their intestines, washed them clean, then skewered them on thin branches and set them over the bonfire, turning and roasting them.

Fragrance spread through the air!

Before long, the fish was cooked again.

"My strength has increased quite a bit now. I wonder if I can reach the Divine Strength stage by eating fish meat." Strength above two thousand jin all belonged to Divine Strength. Some people were born with gifted Divine Strength at eight or nine years old, while some could not achieve it even in their twenties or thirties. This was the difference in aptitude. Originally, for Ye Chen to reach such a level, he would have needed at least around a week, and that was still relying on the effects of the Jade Tempering Body Strengthening Art. Now that eating fish meat could achieve the goal and save a great deal of time, why not do it?

After three fish entered his stomach, black impurities once again seeped from Ye Chen's body, but they were much less than the first time, faintly translucent.

At the same time, Ye Chen's stomach churned violently, aching unbearably. He hurriedly rushed toward the latrine in the underground world and squatted down impatiently.

Only a continuous string of pfft-pfft sounds could be heard, and the surroundings filled with a foul stink. Once everything had been expelled, Ye Chen did not feel too weak. Those things just now were merely impurities that could not be discharged through the pores, black and red in a patch, something he had no desire to look at a second time.

Bare-bodied, Ye Chen poured some fragrant herb powder nearby to cover the foul smell in the air, then immediately walked toward the river.

As the black impurities were washed away, Ye Chen's skin became smooth as brocade, tough and densely woven, as though even blades and swords would not be able to cut it open. His still somewhat immature body seemed to have been tempered countless times, his muscles sharply defined, his broad shoulders sturdy and powerful.

Ye Chen calmly sensed it. His body was continuously absorbing Origin Energy; even the river water could not block it. Moreover, the Origin Energy was undergoing subtle changes. The amount he inhaled and exhaled had increased by more than thirty percent compared to before, almost pouring into him automatically and rapidly merging together with his Internal Energy.

The qi vortex in his dantian gradually tightened, and the pressure at its center greatly increased, as if it wanted to turn his Internal Energy into liquid True Qi ahead of time and strengthen himself.

"It seems it's not just my physical quality that has increased greatly. Even the speed at which I absorb Origin Energy has risen. This is not as simple as Divine Strength."

That was right. Ye Chen's strength had already surpassed two thousand jin and was advancing toward three thousand. If comparing strength alone, Core Disciple Xu Jing might not necessarily be much stronger than Ye Chen, at most only three or four thousand jin.

Eating fish meat, practicing boxing, cultivating Internal Energy—time flowed by neither fast nor slow.

On this day, Ye Chen stood before the dusty gray big tree.

"If I can break this big tree with one punch, it means my strength has reached around three thousand jin. At that point, cultivating the Third Art of the Jade Tempering Body Strengthening Art should be easier. And once the Third Art reaches major completion, I can use Spirit Stone Origin Energy in place of Heaven and Earth Origin Energy to cultivate, and my cultivation will advance a thousand li in a single day."

Ye Chen's heart was like a bright mirror; his plans for the future were quite complete.

"Hah!"

Exhaling and exerting strength, Ye Chen's fist slammed into the big tree.

Crack!

The big tree instantly snapped, its upper half tilting crookedly as it fell, crashing to the ground with a boom.

"It worked!" Ye Chen took a deep breath. "Even stronger than I imagined. It should be three thousand five hundred jin."

Although he did not know how much time had passed outside, with Ye Chen's intuition, he did not think it had exceeded three days. It might even have been less.

In just two or three short days, he had cultivated the Second Art to major completion. This terrifying speed left even Ye Chen himself rather shocked. He was thinking that by relying on eating fish meat, just what level could his strength reach? Could it exceed five thousand jin, ten thousand jin?

Shaking his head, Ye Chen could not keep imagining it.

As time passed, irritation arose in Ye Chen's heart. This place was too oppressive, cut off from the world. One or two days was fine, but living here every day, Ye Chen suspected he would go mad.

Having made up his mind, Ye Chen prepared to leave this place.

His gaze landed on the river. Before searching for a way out, Ye Chen planned to catch more strange fish and put them into his Storage Spirit Ring. One had to know that the value of these fish might very likely exceed ten thousand taels of silver, especially that half-zhang-long giant strange fish. The effect of just one tail had surpassed that of the other small fish, showing just how obvious the effect was.

Thinking it, he did it. Ye Chen drew his treasure saber and neatly dove into the river water.

The river was extremely deep, and inside it was pitch-black, so dark one could not see one's fingers before one's face. Ye Chen had long anticipated this situation. He took out several Night Glow Stones and threw them down.

The valuable Night Glow Stones slowly sank, emitting a soft fluorescent glow that illuminated the environment within a radius of more than ten meters.

Buzz!

The river water rippled, and a huge shadow swiftly swam off into the distance.

"Where do you think you're running!"

Ye Chen stirred up his Internal Energy and slashed out with his blade.

The bright, gleaming blade energy was something even the river water could not stop. The current split apart on both sides as it chased after the shadow like lightning. With a soft pfft, the shadow froze in place.

Afraid there might be some trick, Ye Chen sent out another blade energy slash.

Sure enough, the huge shadow struggled, churning the river water into a turbid mess, impossible to see through with the naked eye.

Of course, that was no difficulty for Ye Chen. Relying on his powerful Soul Force, Ye Chen easily locked onto the shadow, kicked both feet downward, and shot upward with his whole body.

Breaking out through the water, Ye Chen threw the Strange Fish corpse in his hand onto the shore, then continued diving.

One, two... five...

Only when there were no more Strange Fish to be seen in the river did Ye Chen finally stop.

"It's about time to head back. That Crimson Blood Evil Beast should have gone somewhere else to hunt by now, right?" Ye Chen was still a little worried. The strength of a Level Four Demonic Beast was simply unimaginable. Even with ten thousand jin of strength, he would not dare fight it unless his cultivation advanced to the True Condensation Realm.

Following the path he had taken here, Ye Chen carefully walked back.

Light shone from the distance; it was the great crack in the rocky mountain. Ye Chen held his breath, his hand tightly gripping the hilt of his blade as he walked without a sound.