Jiang Xian had long since cleared out a thousand li of the Australian Continent's interior. The desolate wilderness was utterly deserted.
Sitting cross-legged at the center of the area, Jiang Xian took out two Immortal Blood Pills from the chat group.
Without further hesitation, Jiang Xian opened his mouth and swallowed the Immortal Blood Pills.
Vast torrents of energy, laden with rich Immortal vitality, surged wildly through Jiang Xian's limbs and bones. Every cell, honed and transformed over his long time at Planetary Level, craved energy desperately, voraciously absorbing the blood essence flowing throughout his body. The pure medicinal power seeping into him was devoured completely by his cells in an instant. This cycle of refinement continued without a moment's pause.
The Immortal Blood Pills continuously released surging medicinal power, filling the nine Miniature Planets in his Sea of Consciousness and dantian, which had long since reached energy saturation, to the brim. The enormous excess energy kept compressing the planets themselves. The nine Miniature Planets collided with and crushed one another until they all shattered.
An immensely powerful devouring gravitational force arose at the center of the collision, gathering the shattered planetary debris together with vast amounts of Immortal blood energy and continually compressing and condensing them inward.
When the compression reached its critical limit, a transformative qualitative change in his cultivation realm arrived as expected.
Three miniature stars were the first to emerge within his dantian, shining with their own light and generating energy without end. A stellar configuration resembling a "three-body system" formed there, with the three stars slowly revolving around one another.
Within his Sea of Consciousness, however, only a single independent, stable miniature star condensed, operating perpetually.
Jiang Xian's warrior cultivation successfully broke through to "Stellar Level Three." His spirit reader cultivation successfully advanced to "Stellar Level One."
Jiang Xian opened his eyes and thought, It looks like these Blood Pills mainly improve physical cultivation. Their effect on spiritual power is weaker.
Jiang Xian eagerly opened the chat group.
[Jiang Xian: "@Ye Fan, thanks for the invite. I'm in Swallowed Star, already half a step from 'Celestial Emperor.'"]
The moment the message appeared, Ye Fan saw it from far away in Spirit Ruins Paradise in the Shrouding the Heavens World and immediately sent a puzzled reply.
[Ye Fan: "Wait, Brother Jiang, what are you talking about? Weren't you still at Planetary Level before?"]
[Jiang Xian: "I just took the Immortal Blood Pills and broke through to Star Level. My lifespan has already exceeded a hundred thousand years. If that isn't half a step from Celestial Emperor, what is?"]
[Ye Fan: "Haha, I know you're joking, Brother Jiang, but every time I see the lifespans in the Swallowed Star cultivation system, I turn green with envy. Aaaaah!"]
[Ye Fan: "All right, Brother Jiang, let's talk business. The way Elder Han looks at me is getting stranger and stranger. It's disgusting. I'm planning to leave Spirit Ruins Paradise and deal with him outside. Want to come have some fun while you're at it?"]
[Jiang Xian: "Sure, I'll come back you up. My current Star Level roughly corresponds to Dao Palace or Four Extremes over in Shrouding the Heavens."]
Jiang Xian soon submitted a request to travel to the Shrouding the Heavens World.
Seeing Jiang Xian's request, Ye Fan quickly accepted with practiced ease. Soon, Jiang Xian stepped out of the Space Gate and walked over to Ye Fan.
Ye Fan wore a plain blue robe, the faint golden light surging in his Bitter Sea concealed within his body. Seeing Jiang Xian appear, he immediately stepped forward and cupped his hands. "Brother Jiang, Elder Han has been secretly watching me inside the paradise, testing me covertly several times. He can't hide the greed in his eyes at all. Today is the perfect time to lure him out and put an end to this threat."
Jiang Xian replied, "Ye Fan, where are you planning to lure him?"
Ye Fan looked toward the vast mountains in the distance, his expression calm, with a trace of certainty born of plans already laid. He answered slowly, "Lingxu Cave Heaven has shallow foundations and scarce resources. It stopped being enough to support my further cultivation long ago. There's no point in staying here. I was already planning to leave the paradise and lie low near the Primordial Ruins to cultivate and wait for opportunities. Since Elder Han keeps spying on me with ill intent, I'll lure him out along the way today and deal with him on the road. Pang Bo has been with me since childhood, so of course I won't leave him alone in the paradise. The three of us will head to the area near the Primordial Ruins together."
Jiang Xian nodded slightly in understanding.
Before long, the burly Pang Bo hurried over with a simple pack on his back, some wariness on his face. The sight of Jiang Xian immediately put him much more at ease. Here was a truly powerful backer. He strode up beside them. "Brother Jiang, Ye Fan, I've packed all my belongings."
The three lingered no longer. Side by side, they left Lingxu Cave Heaven and walked unhurriedly through the ancient mountain forests toward the Primordial Ruins.
The mountain forest was deep and secluded, with ancient trees towering overhead and weeds reaching their waists. Their surroundings were deathly still and deserted-the perfect place to murder someone and silence them.
Suddenly, Ye Fan stopped, turned to look behind him, and spoke.
"Well, you really can run into someone anywhere in life. Elder Han!"
He was a skeletal old man whose white hair obscured his face. He stared at Ye Fan in shock. "Ye Fan, how did you discover me?"
"Hehehehe! A villain doesn't need to know so much." Ye Fan felt that Brother Jiang had been a bad influence on him.
"Brother Jiang, back me up. I'll go see how strong I am now," Ye Fan said to Jiang Xian.
"All right. Go, Pika-Fan!" Jiang Xian shouted. Hearing that, Ye Fan nearly lost his composure.
Elder Han could not understand what they were saying and decided to strike first. He suddenly shot through the air, unleashing the full force of his Divine Bridge Realm cultivation. Gray, turbid energy churned around him amid gusts of sinister wind, his face filled with malice and greed. He had been secretly watching Ye Fan all this time and knew full well that the boy had eaten a Sacred Fruit. As long as he seized his foundation and refined him into a pill, his own cultivation would soar, allowing him to break through his bottleneck.
Previously, the paradise's rules had kept him from daring to act. Now that Ye Fan had voluntarily left its gates with others, this was his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Watching Elder Han charge at him, Ye Fan, who had no prior combat experience either, hastily swung his hand hard and slapped at him.
Smack!
Elder Han caught the slap squarely with his face, then flew dozens of meters away. He landed in the distance and seemed to stop moving.
Ye Fan looked at Jiang Xian in utter bewilderment. "Wait, is Elder Han trying to scam me? Why did he stop moving after just one slap? This isn't what I imagined. His realm is higher than mine. Shouldn't I have been forced into a tough fight before turning the tables and killing him?"
Jiang Xian looked at Ye Fan, speechless. "Ye Fan, you have the Desolate Ancient Sacred Body. It's a tier-one physique in the entire Shrouding the Heavens universe. Beating up an old man one minor realm above you should be a breeze, shouldn't it?"
Understanding dawned on Ye Fan after hearing that. He had underestimated his own physique a little.
"By the way, Brother Jiang, what do we do with Elder Han's corpse?" Ye Fan still had little experience with such matters.
"The full-service treatment, of course. Send him straight to Fang Han to be refined into Blood Pills so nothing goes to waste. But this old man is so ugly that I don't want to use any Blood Pills made from him. We'll save them to feed Black Emperor later! He wants to eat anything good anyway," Jiang Xian replied.
Before you continue