Chapter 146: Breakthrough Into a Saint Master
Jian Chen looked through all of the monster cores the Black Leopard Mercenaries had. Among the 100 monster cores, a great amount of them were Class 3 Monster Cores and the rest were Class 2 Monster Cores. Just seeing the amount of monster cores painstakingly collected was proof of how long the mercenaries had stayed in the mountain range.
It was a shame that because of their greed, many of them had lost their lives by Jian Chen’s hands, and their bountiful harvest of monster cores was taken from them for Jian Chen to use. Their rewards for their painstaking labor had been taken by someone else.
Jian Chen happily stored the 100 monster cores into his own Space Belt. Although he could personally get 20 or 30 monster cores in a single day, these 100 monster cores were not a small amount. With this amount, he would be able to sustain his cultivation for a few days.
“I hope that mercenary has accomplished the task I gave him. Ten thousand purple coins as a bounty, isn’t a small amount at all. I’m willing to bet many mercenaries will be tempted by it.” Jian Chen muttered to himself before revealing an expectant smile. “I hope there are enough monster cores in their bags, this will be a great source of profit. The wage for avarice is death. Since they are trying to deal with me as a result of being unable to resist temptation, they can’t blame me for being merciless.” As he spoke, a flash of murderous intent radiated from Jian Chen.
“For the next two days, I should work hard to improve my strength. Otherwise, if I come across a strong group, even though they may not be able to seize me, dealing with them will be quite difficult. Moreover, I still need to be able to defend myself from Peak Great Saint Masters. With my current strength, going against Peak Saint Masters isn’t a problem, but if I come across a Peak Great Saint Master, that could potentially be dangerous. If it doesn’t go well, I might have to run away.”
“While Wake City is only a Class 3 City with a few Great Saint Masters, that doesn’t mean there are none to be seen. Just like the rarity of phoenix feathers and unicorn horns, nobody can guarantee that there wouldn’t be any Great Saint Masters would come at me as a result of being unable to turn down the temptation of ten thousand purple coins. It seems that I need to quickly breakthrough into the Saint Master level so that if I were to fight against Great Saint Master experts, I would still have a chance.”
After he made his plans, Jian Chen decided to not kill any more magical beasts and instead walked over to the side of a hill, where there was plenty of vegetation growing through the cracks of a steep rock face.
Jian Chen walked up to the wall and gently pushed away the tall grass to reveal a hole. This cavern had been discovered by Jian Chen 2 days ago.
Taking out a few materials from his Space Belt, he fashioned a torch and walked straight into the cavern. The passageway was very narrow; only one person would be able to walk over the uneven surfaces. Traces of handprints and footprints could be seen all over the place, showing that this cavern had been artificially expanded.
Following the curved, 30 meter long pathway, Jian Chen finally reached the end of the cavern. The circumference of the dead end was around 10 meters, and it had a height of 3 meters. The ground was very flat, and a stone table and bench sat nearby.
Two days before, when he had just discovered the cavern, Jian Chen had already known that others had stayed in this cavern for quite a while. However, a thick layer of dust covered the ground, clearly indicating that it had been ages since a person had last come here.
After inspecting the cavern and confirming the security of it, Jian Chen stuck his torch onto the wall and sat down in the central point of the dead end while taking out a few Class 2 Monster Cores to cultivate. He was definitely safer in this hidden cavern compared to the open outside mountain range, and it allowed Jian Chen to freely enter a state of cultivation as he pleased.
After hunting for a few days in the Magical Beast Mountain Range, he had amassed a large amount of monster cores. Adding onto the hundreds of monster cores he had gained from the Black Leopard Mercenaries, the amount of monster cores in Jian Chen’s possession was enough for him to cultivate for one full month. Jian Chen wasn’t at all worried about a shortage of monster cores.
The energy within the monster cores became absorbed into Jian Chen’s body at alarming speeds. The powerful energy gathered around his body, and was already gradually condensing into an extremely weak light. Because of the azure and violet glows within his dantian, Jian Chen’s cultivation rate had improved a hundred times over, but at the same time, the two glows robbed him of his cultivation. Jian Chen would only see a small part of what he absorbed and cultivated. Despite this, his cultivation speed was still a bit faster than before.
Within Jian Chen’s dantian, the strong Saint Force began to form the hazy shape of a “sword”; although very blurry, it actually looked very similar to his Light Wind Sword to the point where even the handle of the sword could be more or less distinguished. As Jian Chen continued to absorb the stream of energy within the monster cores, the sword within his dantian began to condense with Saint Force slowly as it expanded outwards.
“According to this speed, I will soon be able to breakthrough into the Saint Master level. I estimate that it should take me from ten days to half a month. But still, that won’t do, that is too slow.” Jian Chen furrowed his eyebrows in thought. Because of his dantian, all of the energy from the monster cores was being robbed from him, causing him to feel a bit dissatisfied.
“Let’s see if I can take that energy back.” Suddenly, Jian Chen’s heart shook as he began to concentrate on stealing the energy back from the two glows in his dantian. However, the speed in which the azure and violet glow was absorbing the energy was far too fast. Even when using all of his strength, he was only able to take back a small amount of energy.
Despite this result, Jian Chen was still extremely satisfied. With this small amount of energy, his cultivation speed had improved by a good ten or twenty percent. If he were to continue with this speed, it wouldn’t take him more than a few days to make the breakthrough.
In the cavern, Jian Chen was in a deep state of cultivation, but outside of the Magical Beast Mountain Range in Wake City, the entire city was in an uproar.
When the news had escaped from the mercenary’s mouth, no one knew whether or not it was genuine, but it had still caused every single mercenary to give it some thought.
This person had a bounty placed on him for ten thousand purple coins. Although he was in the Magical Beast Mountain Range, he was alone and badly injured, so his strength would be sharply declining.
This piece of unconfirmable news had made many mercenaries travel to the Magical Beast Mountain Range in hopes to confirm it. They had to make sure since it was ten thousand purple coins, and since the target was only a young man who was barely 20 years old, this was a simple task in the eyes of many people. The only trouble they would have would be to locate him.
With a mission that had a target like this, there weren’t many people that could resist the temptation of ten thousand purple coins. Despite many people telling them that the target this time was not weak at all and had even caused the Tianxiong clan to take a heavy loss, these mercenaries still had no fear.
After a few days of Jian Chen staying in the Magical Beast Mountain Range, many cities around Wake City had already heard the news of Jian Chen being seriously injured. Many mercenaries had already begun to rush towards Wake City in huge numbers.
Seeing the situation swell up like this, a few of the lone mercenaries who had confidence in their strength and luck looked toward the Magical Beast Mountain Range. To them, they would take advantage of this situation for their own advantage.
In a flash, 7 days had passed.In the caverns of the Magical Beast Mountain range, Jian Chen was sitting with his legs crossed on the ground while he cultivated. The torch on the wall had long since been extinguished, causing it to be completely pitch dark to the point of not being able to see his hands in front of his face.
These past few days, Jian Chen had been in a cultivational state for almost the entire time. With the continuous increase in his inner Saint Force, Jian Chen could clearly feel that his strength was improving by leaps and bounds. While he had cultivated, he didn’t move a single inch, aside from the times he needed to change the monster cores in his hand. Although, once he swapped the monster cores, he would go straight back to cultivating.
Jian Chen hadn’t eaten a single meal or took a sip of water while cultivating. He had sunk into such a deep meditational state that he had almost felt no hunger or thirst.
In those days, a third of the monster cores in Jian Chen’s Space Belt had already been used up. Surrounding him was the dust left behind by the spent monster cores piled up in a fine layer, especially on his crossed legs.