After entering the Human Dan Realm, Long Chen was promoted from being a fourth grade disciple to a third grade disciple. From his previous residence in the area where the fourth grade disciples lived, he had now moved to where the third grade disciples were.
The whole time he was in the Lingwu Family, he had spent most of his time cultivating or going on excursions, rarely socializing with others. Hence, he did not recognise most of the third grade disciples.
His new residence was bigger than the previous one, and there was even an independent courtyard. With birdsong and fragrant flowers, how could it not be beautiful?
After returning, Long Chen quickly entered the basement and sat in a lotus position, tightly holding the cosmos pouch that Lingxi had stolen.
“Quick, look at what’s inside! I remember this is the pouch from which he took out the Thunder Flame Crystals! That fellow also has another cosmos pouch that I wasn’t able to obtain. I imagine it’s where all his other valuables are!”
The moment Long Chen opened the cosmos pouch, a very concentrated sense of the power of lightning and flames attacked him. Though all this power was contained within the Thunder Flame Crystals, it was already quite formidable.
He spread out the Thunder Flame Crystals, and excitement appeared in Long Chen and Lingxi’s eyes.
“There are 47 of them here!”
After counting them, Lingxi was extremely excited.
Long Chen knew that with 10 Thunder Flame Crystals, he would be able to attain the Thunder Flame Physique and become a Thunder Flame cultivator! These 47 crystals were definitely enough for his use.
“I think the headquarters of the Daybreak Merchants Union gave him 50 crystals. He gave me one to fuse with, and two to other people, leaving him with 47.”
After leaving the quiet room in the Daybreak Merchants Union, Long Chen had returned the remaining four crystals to Zhao Tianfang.
However, it was now back in his possession.
If Zhao Tianfang knew the truth of what had happened, he would definitely be coughing blood.
“Through the steel hearts, he found out how durable my body is and that my potential was out of the ordinary. He wanted to use the Thunder Flame Crystals to test me and so, treated me very well. If the results showed that I was suited to the Thunder Flame Crystals, he would probably make use of the crystals and get me to join the Daybreak Merchants Union…”
Long Chen had seen through Zhao Tianfang’s intentions, and no longer had any inhibitions towards him.
“Long Chen, there are only a few days left to the Sky Martial Realm Competition. You’d better fuse with the crystals and see what your limit is!”
Long Chen nodded. In the individual rooms of the Lingwu Family, doors could only be opened with jade identity cards, so there was a certain level of privacy. In the basement where he could cultivate, Long Chen kept the Thunder Flame Crystals and left one in his hands.
“When I fused with one crystal, I could endure it despite it being very uncomfortable. It shouldn’t be a problem for me to fuse with another one.”
With a deep breath, Long Chen immediately fused with the crystal. At that moment, the pain similar to what he had experienced the previous time rushed into his body. During this entire process, Long Chen was in pain, yet still happy.
The attack of the second Thunder Flame Crystal was even more powerful than before. It was basically twice the power of the first crystal, and with the destructive force of lightning and fire, Long Chen could do little but grit his teeth in pain.
Lingxi had initially been a little worried, but upon seeing that Long Chen could handle it, she joyfully danced in circles and giggled at the suffering look on his face.
At this point, the power of lightning and fire was circulating throughout and destroying his body. At the same time, it was also reconstructing his body, and with every step, his body became even more solid and durable.
Long Chen had spent less than an hour fusing with the first Thunder Flame Crystal. The second crystal was essentially the same as the first, but the Thunder Flame Crystal was a strange thing where the difficulty in fusing with the second was more than two times more challenging than the first.
If he fused with three crystals, it might even be twice as difficult as the second crystal.
The difficulty multiplied every time he fused with another crystal. One could imagine the difficulty that came with fusing with numerous Thunder Flame Crystals.
The second crystal took Long Chen a total of around two hours. By then, it was already deep into the night.
Long Chen stood up and happily stretched his body.
“Compared to before, the strength of my body has increased a lot, as expected. Of course, the power of lightning and flames in the real Qi in my dantian has also increased.”
“How is it? Want to try another one?” Lingxi waited by Long Chen’s side and asked in anticipation.
She could sense that this was not Long Chen’s limit.
“Sure.”
All the pain from fusing with the Thunder Flame Crystal vanished after the process was successful. All that was left was a numb feeling in his muscles.
Though this feeling made Long Chen a little worried, this was not enough to scare him.
The third Thunder Flame Crystal was absorbed into his body. As expected, the difficulty in fusing had increased by a lot.
This time, Long Chen took about four hours to finish fusing with the third crystal.
Whether it was his physical body or real Qi, both had increased in power by a certain amount. However, the pain this time was much more terrifying than before. Long Chen had gritted his teeth and, after much difficulty, pulled through and endured the process of fusing with this crystal. This experience was rather scary.
“You’ve managed to fuse with three, which is already past what Manager Zhao expected you to be able to do. Long Chen, let’s leave it at this. It looks like you can’t endure for much longer.”
Seeing Long Chen catching his breath, Lingxi was rather worried.
“That was just three Thunder Flame Crystals! It’s not my limit yet. There are still about four hours till daybreak. I want to try again!”
Long Chen was stubborn and his gaze showed his resolution. Lingxi could not persuade him against this and could only let him be. In addition, though the fusion with the third crystal was quite terrifying, Long Chen evidently still had the strength to challenge another one.
He began the fusion with the fourth Thunder Flame Crystal immediately. Unsurprisingly, this was even more terrifying than the third crystal. Long Chen felt as if there were swords hidden in his body, constantly being swung around and slashing his body to pieces.
The pain this time made Long Chen turn green. Lingxi noted the electricity and flames emitted out of his body, his pained expression and tightly clenched fists, and gazed at Long Chen nervously.
Time flew by. Long Chen endured the intense pain and, as expected, it was difficult to make the power of the crystal submit to him. The force from the crystal entered Long Chen’s body, and it was as if the force was combining with the power from the previous three crystals and fighting against Long Chen’s Dragon Soul Qi.
“Struggle! Persevere! Only then will I have a chance at succeeding!”
Within Long Chen, his conviction was as solid as ever.
The Yang family needed him to save them, and Lingxi, too, needed him to save her. He knew he needed to become stronger for them.
“Does this tiny Thunder Flame Crystal think it can stump me, Long Chen?”
To make himself stronger, Long Chen was going to throw caution to the wind. For a regular person, this pain could tear his heart and wreak his lungs, but Long Chen gritted his teeth, steeled his expression and pressed on!
“At this rate, I can only fuse with a maximum of four Thunder Flame Crystals. This seems to be quite a distance from the Thunder Flame Physique, and becoming a Thunder Flame cultivator…”
Long Chen was dissatisfied, but what he did not know was that in the Daybreak Merchants Union, the number of young cultivators who had just entered the Human Dan Realm and were able to fuse with four Thunder Flame Crystals, was few and far between.
Those were all the top geniuses of the Yuan Ling City!
“By the way, Long Chen, how did we forget about Dragon Soul Transformation? You’re a true dragon cultivator only when you’re in that form.” Lingxi’s voice sounded.
Only after Lingxi brought up this, did Long Chen remember this. There were many brands related to dragons on his body while he was in his Dragon Soul Transformation form. The real Qi in his body increased by 4 to 10 times the usual! This meant that he could take advantage of this fact and fuse with the Thunder Flame Crystals in that form!
At this thought, Long Chen brightened up and in an instant, completed the transformation. Perfect, orderly red scales and sharp bony spikes surfaced upon his skin.
In a moment, Long Chen had transformed into a very flashy appearance.
After transforming, Long Chen could feel as if multiple dragon auras were surrounding himself.
The suffering that the fourth Thunder Flame Crystal was giving him actually vanished after his transformation!
Long Chen realised that whether it was his Dragon Soul Qi or current dragon body, they completely overpowered the crystal!
The power of the fourth Thunder Flame Crystal was nothing at all, and Long Chen easily absorbed it into his body, causing an enormous change in his body.
“The rate of fusion seems to be a lot faster than when I fused with the first crystal?”
Long Chen was stunned at this Dragon Soul Transformation.
After turning into this form, even the number of Thunder Flame Crystals he could fuse with had multiplied. This could be said to be opposing the heavens!
“It’s effective!”
Seeing that Long Chen had taken just a bit of time to fuse with the crystal that he had already spent four hours trying to absorb, Lingxi was astonished by the mysteriousness and strength of dragon cultivators.
“Hey, how many Thunder Flame Crystals do you think you can fuse with in this form?”
“We’ll know if I continue trying!”
Long Chen laughed brightly. He had first thought he would not be able to fuse with the fifth crystal, but the fact was that he had already done it. From the looks of it, it had been effortless.
“This freak…”
Seeing Long Chen enjoying himself, Lingxi was a little speechless. Her beautiful eyes were fixed on Long Chen, pride obvious in her expression.
After all, without Lingxi, Long Chen would have never been able to obtain so many Thunder Flame Crystals.
In less than an hour, he fused with the fifth crystal. Long Chen opened his eyes, looking satisfied.
“The fifth Thunder Flame Crystal seemed to be even easier than fusing with the first. Girl, just see how I’ll do tonight. I promise I’ll be so cool and charming that you wouldn’t know what to do with yourself!”
“Tsk, by the time you get to the seventh or eighth, the difficulty will become a hundred times that of the first. How do you think you’re going to deal with that? Can you stay so arrogant?”