Chapter 198: A Promotion in Strength
Within a nicely cleaned wooden house, Jian Chen sat with Rosco’s family around a wooden table to eat lunch. The food was rather simple; a few plates of vegetables and a big plate of wild beast meat.
Rosco had a family of 4, him, his wife and their two children, who were both around 10 years old.
At the dining table, Rosco and his wife continued to chat with Jian Chen, while never mentioning the topic of how Jian Chen came to be injured. Instead, they only talked about what interesting events had occurred within the Tian Yuan Continent. The continent was relatively dangerous. Rosco’s wife Fang Hui had grown up in the village and never once left it. Despite once being a mercenary, when his Saint Weapon had been shattered turning him into a cripple, Rosco had lived in seclusion in this village for the rest of his life. From that moment, he had never ventured outside the village and so never heard anything new about the outside world.
Jian Chen had only traveled the Tian Yuan Continent for one or two years, and he had mainly lived in the more isolated cities and towns. However, he was able to answer the majority of the questions Rosco and his wife had while also managing to answer the occasional questions from the children.
After the meal, Rosco led Jian Chen around the village for a small tour to introduce him to the village people and get familiarized with the history of the village.
This village was once called the Huang Village with a history of over a hundred years. A hundred years ago, a family with the surname of Huang established this village with only a few settlers. Even though it had around hundred years to develop itself, it had never gone beyond 30 families. The total population remained around 100 people, and aside from the elderly, children, and the wives, there were only around 30 to 40 strong, robust men.
This village had worked to survive by farming the lands, while occasionally a strong young man would hunt in the forests to kill a few wild beasts or fish for food in the river. Other than that, the village would isolate itself from the outside affairs of the world.
In a single afternoon, Rosco had led Jian Chen around the entire village and introduced him to almost everyone in the village before calling it a day.
At night, Rosco brought Jian Chen back to the house and the five people sat down at the table once more to eat dinner. Like lunch, the dinner was relatively simple with a big bowl of rice and some vegetables.
At one point during the dinner, the little boy sitting next to Jian Chen lifted his head and spoke shyly, “Brother Jian Chen, I heard father say that you are really amazing.” Listening to her brother speak, the little girl right next to Fang Hui lifted her head as well with her black eyes brimming with curiosity.
This little boy was called Roger, and the girl’s name was Rogue–these two were the children of Rosco and Fang Hui.
TL Note: Both children have the same sounding name in chinese.
Hearing this, Jian Chen’s eyes fell upon the child and laughed, “Little Roger, the outside world is vast and there are many more amazing people than your brother Jian Chen. When you grow older and stronger, Roger, you should head out to the outside world and see it for yourself.”
“Then brother Jian Chen, against daddy, who is stronger?” Hearing Jian Chen’s answer, Rosco’s daughter Rogue couldn’t help but ask with curiosity.
Rosco began to laugh before turning to look at his daughter, “Rogue, don’t look down on brother Jian Chen. Although he is much younger than your father, he is much more amazing than me.”
Rosco’s wife, Fang Hui suddenly gained a shine in her eyes as she said, “Ah, Jian Chen, if you don’t mind our impoverished lives here, why don’t you live here with us? The Tian Yuan Continent is dangerous, but the village here is very peaceful and safe. One of these days, I can even help introduce you to a pretty lady in the following village!”
Jian Chen gave a small smile as he thought about Fang Hui’s words with a secretive thought of disapproval, “This one thanks elder sister’s idea, but I still have things to do in the outside world. So for that reason, this one won’t stay here longer than necessary,” He replied with a bitter smile.
“That’s fine, every young man has things they need to do. For a youngster like Jian Chen, they should travel the continent a little longer and enjoy the world, don’t walk blindly in an area like this.” Rosco spoke to Jian Chen. He had traveled the world as a mercenary himself, so he knew how Jian Chen felt about this idea.
Fang Hui glared at Rosco with a disappointed look. In her mind, if she could find a nice lady to have Jian Chen married to, he would stay behind in this village and thus help the other men of the village go hunting. This way, a healthy harvest would be guaranteed.
After dinner, Jian Chen returned to his little room to rest for the day. This room was originally intended to store away junk, but with Jian Chen occupying the room temporarily, Rosco had cleaned out the room. For the sake of letting Jian Chen rest, Rosco had placed a bed in it.
Closing the door to his room, Jian Chen sat cross-legged on his bed and took out a few Class 3 Monster Cores from within his Space Belt to cultivate.
Before the half month of rest, Jian Chen had done his best to remove any of the hidden dangers in his body. After that, he was now once again free to try to improve his strength without needing to worry about increasing his strength far too fast or that the berserk elements from the monster cores adding to the hidden dangers.
Jian Chen continued to absorb the energy from within the monster cores at a terrifying speed. The moment it entered his body, the berserk elements within the energy stream were immediately absorbed into the cyan and purple glows within his dantian along with a good amount of the energy.
Perhaps it was because Jian Chen was taking the energy within the monster core at an even faster and more efficient rate than before, but the dantian was also absorbing the energy at a larger rate than before as well. At the current moment, Jian Chen could take in about ten to twenty percent of the total energy within the monster core, compared to the past one percent when he was a regular Saint.
Right now, Jian Chen urgently wanted to improve his strength so that it would reach that of the Great Saint Master level. For the next couple of days, Jian Chen didn’t leave his room and continued to cultivate. Though he would leave to eat meals every two or three days with the family, since he was a Saint Master now he didn’t need to eat every day like the average person.