Chapter 274 - Carving Out The Space Within The Body

It seemed like Emperor Yuan had taken serious damage, but it was a superficial wound. Even though it looked horrendous, it could be healed easily with spiritual herbs and a bit of time. Long Chen’s injury was different.

Emperor Yuan’s final hit had struck Long Chen’s abdomen, right on his dantian. Even though the damage to Long Chen’s body wasn’t serious, the sharp Heavenly River Qi had pierced his dark-red Heavenly Core like a sword.

Emperor Yuan wanted to pierce Long Chen’s Heavenly Core and cripple him! If Long Chen lost his Heavenly Core, all of his Qi would leak out. Emperor Yuan’s goal was never to kill Long Chen!

The Ninth Prince is betting on Long Chen’s potential? He will never accept Long Chen if Long Chen is crippled!

Mo Xiaolang didn’t know what to do after seeing how bad Long Chen looked. Emperor Yuan used this time to start healing himself as he laughed maniacally. As the strongest cultivator in Yuandi City, he carried numerous spiritual herbs and treasures at all times. He was using Earth-tier spiritual herbs, so his injuries were mending themselves at a fast speed.

Long Chen was very shocked too. All he could do was watch as the sharp Heavenly River Qi penetrated his Heavenly Core and saw that it was slowly cracking. The Qi he had been cultivating painstakingly was starting to leak out and permeate throughout his body before dissipating. If this went on, he would become a cripple in less than an hour!

Emperor Yuan’s laughter made him mad!

Shit! That damn old bastard is crazy! I underestimated him! I will become a cripple soon since my Heavenly Core is slowly shattering. What should I do?

Mo Xiaolang was circling Long Chen. He had sensed what had happened and was distraught too. If Long Chen hadn’t been injured, Xiaolang would’ve continued attacking Emperor Yuan, making it much harder for him to heal.

Long Chen had a daring thought.

When I ascend to the Heavenly River Realm, I will have to shatter my own Heavenly Core as part of the process. Only then can I carve out the space within my body and expand it. Even though I was only at the late Heavenly Core Realm for a short period of time, I have an abundant supply of Heavenly River Pills to supplement the small amount of Qi that I have accumulated. This is my only chance at saving myself!

Long Chen struggled to stand up. His eyes were filled with conviction. “I’m going to try to break into the Heavenly River Realm! Go and distract him!”

Mo Xiaolang’s eyes lit up. This was the only solution. Mo Xiaolang didn’t hesitate to attack Emperor Yuan.

However, Emperor Yuan’s injuries had healed substantially. He smiled when he saw the Sun Devouring Wolf trying to attack him recklessly.

It knows that Long Chen is doomed and wants to fight me to the death now? But a beast is a mere animal. This is my territory; how can you beat me here?

Although he didn’t think highly of Mo Xiaolang, he didn’t underestimate him. Emperor Yuan was certain that if he touched the fire that the wolf had spat out previously, he would die.

Thanks to the various combat techniques in the memories of the Sun Devouring Wolf, as well as the threat of the Nine Devils Ancestral Fire, Mo Xiaolang could fight against Emperor Yuan on equal ground.

Long Chen used this opportunity to sit down and started carving out the space inside his body with the shattered Qi.

Emperor Yuan chuckled when he saw what Long Chen was doing. “What a naive fool. Shattering your Heavenly Core to carve out the space inside your body is an extremely difficult and dangerous thing to do. And you even need eighteen Heavenly River Pills! You just entered the late Heavenly Core Realm. What right do you have to try and enter the Heavenly River Realm?”

If Long Chen shattered his Heavenly Core, his Qi would dissipate even faster.

But it was his only choice. In this dire situation, Long Chen calmed himself and accelerated the shattering of his Heavenly Core.

Under his control, the Heavenly Core shattered, and a large amount of blood-red Qi exploded outwards and filled his body. It circulated through his veins and capillaries.

But it was too much Qi for his body to contain. Numerous wisps of blood-red Qi leaked out of his skin and orifices, enveloping him in a blood-red mist.

Long Chen was in pain. If it wasn’t for his Level Three Blazing Thunder Combat Body, his body might’ve exploded from the sheer amount of Qi. This was the most dangerous step of advancing into the Heavenly River Realm!

Now I need to guide all of the Qi to converge through my capillaries. This way, I can carve out the eighteen Star Veins. The Star Veins are the basis of the space inside my body. I will then need to absorb the power of the constellations and merge their energy into my Qi. Once my Qi becomes a liquid, I can then use it to form the heavenly river inside the space of my body. If I succeed, I will advance into the Heavenly River Realm!

There were eighteen Star Veins in the body, corresponding with the eighteen heavenly rivers in the sky. Nine of them appeared during the day and nine appeared at night. A pair of Yang heavenly rivers and Yin heavenly rivers form the Yin and Yang heavenly rivers. It was only when the first pair was formed that a cultivator would be recognized as reaching the First River Stage.

Now that it was daytime, Long Chen’s only option was to form the first Yang heavenly river.

The enormous amount of blood-red Qi pulsed in Long Chen’s body. He controlled the Qi while sensing where the first Yang heavenly river was located. The sun made it difficult to spot, but Long Chen had already memorized where it was located.

The Dubhe Starry River.

This was the name of the first heavenly river. There were Yin and Yang versions of it. The Yin Dubhe Starry River and the Yang Dubhe Starry River ran parallel to each other in the sky, never intersecting. Long Chen had to carve out the space inside his body before absorbing the power of the heavenly river to merge with his Qi. Only then could he form the first Yang heavenly river inside his body.

The method to carve out the space was called the Star Consolidation Method. When he obtained the huge pile of Heavenly River Pills, Long Chen knew he would advance into the Heavenly River Realm in the near future. That was why he had sought out the Star Consolidation Method in advance. It was not a rare method, but there were very few people who needed it. With it, Long Chen could use his Qi to carve out the space inside his body. But an important ingredient was required to use the method: Heavenly River Pills!

In order to carve out the eighteen Star Veins, a normal person would need eighteen Heavenly River Pills. However, Long Chen had heard that some talented cultivators with special bodies required even more. Some of them even used up hundreds of Heavenly River Pills! A Heavenly River Pill was a rare resource. Usually, those at the First River Stage only had ten or so to their name at most. Long Chen having two thousand of them was down to pure luck. He was extremely lucky to have found the true inheritance of the Burning Heaven Emperor.

Long Chen was currently using the Star Consolidation Method, but he was surprised to see that everything was going smoothly. The only issue he had was the amount of Qi flowing through him, which prevented him from carving out all eighteen Star Veins at the same time.

Using the Star Consolidation Method, Long Chen planted eighteen Star Veins seeds into his body. The seeds spanned throughout his entire body, and there was no issue while he did so. Next, he needed to use Heavenly River Pills to carve out the true Star Veins inside his body.

When he planted the seeds into his body, Long Chen realized that his body had features belonging to dragons! He was currently in his transformed state, so he saw many inhuman features inside his body. Long Chen suddenly had a feeling that it would be extremely difficult to carve out the space inside his body.

But I have to do it, or I will be crippled!

Long Chen focused and started showing signs absorbing the power of the constellations.

He took out eighteen Heavenly River Pills and placed them on his palm. Once the Star Consolidation Method was ready, Long Chen guided his Qi towards where the seed of the Dubhe Star Vein was. He then consumed one pill.

The Heavenly River Pill’s energy was soft and tame. Since the energy had been refined before, Long Chen didn’t feel any discomfort, but rather a cool and powerful force inside his body. It flowed like liquid and merged into his Qi.

Time to start carving!

Using the power of the Heavenly River Pill as the primer and his Qi as the main force, Long Chen started carving out a specific path inside his body. Even though his Qi was not sufficient, the superior quality of his unique Dragon Soul Qi made up for it. Long Chen was happy to find that it might not be a hard thing to do at all.

But he suddenly met his first obstacle. Halfway through the process, the energy that came from the Heavenly River Pill met an obstacle in his body and started being consumed rapidly. Thankfully, the consumption of his Dragon Soul Qi was acceptable. After just a moment, the energy from a single pill was depleted.

Theoretically, the energy from a single Heavenly River Pill was enough to carve out the first Star Vein. But Long Chen had barely carved out a tenth of it when the energy was depleted, so he had no choice but to consume the next pill. Thankfully, he had enough pills, or he would be dead.

If the process was interrupted in any way, his body would explode and he would die.

But this is good! That means my body’s potential and quality is superior!

With the support of the Heavenly River Pills, Long Chen swiftly carved out the first Star Vein. When he was finished, he saw that he had consumed more than ten pills! There were very few left in his palm.

Wait, does that mean I need to consume almost two hundred pills just to carve out the eighteen Star Veins?

Long Chen grumbled.

[1]

The process of advancing into the Heavenly River Realm is like this:

1. Shatter Heavenly Core and carve out the space in the body.

2. Plant the eighteen seeds inside the body which acts as a primer and the channel of where he should carve out the Star Veins.

3. Use Heavenly River Pill’s energy as the primer and your own Qi as the main strength to carve out the eighteen Star Veins.

4. Fill the first pair of Star Veins with your Qi and the power of the constellations to advance into the First River Stage. ?