In the dim underground chamber, the rich medicinal fragrance had almost condensed into tangible mist.
Qin Chen sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, with a full ten thousand mutton-fat jade bottles arrayed before him.
Without pausing, he poured bottle after bottle of Dragon Power Pills into his stomach, like a great whale drawing in water.
These were supreme-grade Xiantian spirit pills containing a trace of flood dragon blood essence. An ordinary Xiantian Paragon martial artist would need several days to carefully refine the medicinal power of just one, fearing that its violent energy would burst his meridians.
Yet Qin Chen chewed and swallowed these precious pills like candy.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
As hundreds upon thousands of Dragon Power Pills entered his stomach, rumbling like muffled thunder erupted within Qin Chen.
The violent, dark-golden medicinal power transformed into enormous energy dragons, baring their fangs and brandishing their claws as they rampaged through his limbs and bones.
But the next instant, the already ignited Micro Star-Dust particle deep within his Shanzhong acupoint suddenly erupted with dazzling starlight, becoming a bottomless black hole that mercilessly tore apart and devoured those energy dragons.
One thousand pills, three thousand, five thousand...
By the time he swallowed his eight-thousandth Dragon Power Pill, Qin Chen's skin had turned blood-red, and visibly distorting waves of heat rose from his body.
He could feel that the first Micro Star-Dust particle had reached absolute saturation. That tiny point of light was now as brilliant as a blazing sun, radiating a terrifying gravitational pull that made the heart tremble.
"Now! Open!"
Qin Chen's eyes flew wide as he let out a low roar and swallowed all two thousand remaining Dragon Power Pills in one go.
Terrifying energy vast enough to level a mountaintop instantly exploded within him.
Enduring the excruciating pain of his meridians tearing apart, Qin Chen guided this torrent and slammed it hard into another dormant cell within his Shanzhong acupoint.
Crack-
Under the frenzied compression and infusion of boundless energy, that cell underwent destruction and reconstruction tens of millions of times. Finally, a faint but pure glimmer of starlight lit up within it.
The second Micro Star-Dust particle had successfully been created!
Hum!
The instant the second Star-Dust particle ignited, an incomparably profound resonance arose between it and the first.
Like a binary star system, the two Micro Star-Dust particles slowly revolved within Qin Chen's Shanzhong acupoint, weaving together the phantom image of a miniature nebula.
A surge of Star Force more than twice as vast as before poured back out like floodwaters bursting through a dam, instantly circulating throughout Qin Chen's body.
Fine stellar patterns began to emerge across his already indestructible bones, his muscle fibers became as tough as divine metal, and even the sound of his flowing blood surged and roared like mighty rivers.
Qin Chen slowly stood up. That simple movement alone compressed the surrounding air into a series of explosive cracks.
He lowered his head to look at his hands, then abruptly clenched a fist.
Bang!
Even the space within his palm seemed to twist slightly under his grip. A visible ring of white air blasted outward, shaking countless spiderweb cracks into the chamber's hard stone walls.
"My physical strength has doubled-a full twofold increase!" A satisfied gleam shone in Qin Chen's eyes.
If igniting one Star-Dust particle before had only given him the physical strength to contend with someone in the early Golden Core stage, now, with two Star-Dust particles shining upon each other, he felt that his body alone was enough to pin a Golden Core mid-stage cultivator to the ground and grind him into it.
That sense of pure strength, as though he could tear apart mountains and rivers with every movement, was utterly intoxicating.
Pushing open the chamber's heavy stone door, Qin Chen ended this period of secluded cultivation.
Outside, Qin De, the King Who Guards the East, had long been waiting.
The moment he saw Qin Chen emerge, Qin De's pupils abruptly contracted. Although his son still looked like the same handsome fourteen-year-old youth and gave off no earthshaking fluctuations of true qi, in Qin De's eyes, Qin Chen now resembled a primordial savage beast draped in human skin. Merely standing there, he gave Qin De an intense feeling of suffocation.
"Chen, you... broke through again?" Qin De swallowed, unable to hide his shock as he asked.
"Just a little improvement." Qin Chen smiled faintly and reined in the stellar aura inadvertently leaking from his body, once again becoming that youth as gentle and refined as jade. "Father, how is the collection of ingredients for the Dragon-Tiger Pills coming along?"
At the mention of business, Qin De immediately perked up, a trace of fervor flashing in his eyes. "I mobilized every secret trade channel and intelligence network the Qin Family had, practically sweeping clean the stocks of hundred-year-old medicinal herbs in several neighboring dynasties. All the ingredients are piled in the underground storeroom, enough for you to refine another thirty thousand Dragon-Tiger Pills!"
"Good. Leave it to me." Without wasting words, Qin Chen turned and threw himself once more into the tedious yet enormously rewarding undertaking of pill refinement.
Time passed like a white colt flashing past a crack, and in the blink of an eye, another year had gone by.
Throughout that year, Qin Chen was like a tireless pill-refining machine, turning the enormous quantities of medicinal herbs Qin De had gathered into Dragon-Tiger Pills.
Meanwhile, the Qin Family's already elite Fierce Tiger Army had undergone a transformation down to its very bones under the weight of tens of thousands of Dragon-Tiger Pills.
A full fifty thousand soldiers, every last one at the Houtian Peak realm!
Deployed on the battlefield, this force would be enough to tear through the Chu State's million-strong army as easily as a hot knife through butter.
What excited the Qin Family even more was that, after over a year of consolidation, Qin De also intended to break through to the Golden Core Realm.
To ensure that nothing could go wrong, Qin De chose the Gale Mountains on the edge of the Primordial Wilderness, thousands of li from Yanjing City, as the site for his tribulation. Fierce gales raged there year-round, demonic beasts roamed unchecked, and people seldom ventured there, making it an excellent hiding place.
The Qin Family kept an extremely tight lid on news of this tribulation, deploying almost all their covert agents to sow confusion.
However, the Great Chu Imperial House had ruled the Chu State for centuries, and its accumulated resources and intelligence network were equally unfathomable.
In the Chu State Imperial Capital, within a secret chamber deep inside the imperial palace.
Xiang Guang, the emperor of Great Chu, stared at the bloodstained secret letter in his hand, his face so dark it seemed water might drip from it.
"Qin De... is actually about to break through to the Golden Core stage! No wonder the Qin Family has been making so many moves this past year, secretly shifting so many supplies!" Xiang Guang slammed the secret letter onto the desk, his eyes flashing with mingled terror and madness.
The Qin Family already relied on its troops to defy authority. If Qin De were allowed to enter the Golden Core stage and become an exalted immortal, he would threaten the Chu State's realm!
"He must not be allowed to survive his tribulation! Attendants, prepare my carriage for the imperial ancestral mausoleum!"
Half an hour later, Xiang Guang knelt deep within the gloomy imperial ancestral mausoleum and struck his forehead against the ground three times before two gaunt old men sitting cross-legged with their eyes closed.
"This unworthy descendant, Xiang Guang, pays his respects to Court Elders Wu De and Wu Xing! The Qin Family rebel Qin De is about to break through to Golden Core and intends to overthrow our Great Chu! I implore you both to leave seclusion, slay the rebel, and preserve our Xiang Family's foundations!"
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