After receiving Long Chen’s approval, Manager Zhao laughed heartily.
“Fusing with the Thunder Flame Crystal here is a little inconvenient. Long Chen, I’ll bring you to a quiet place!”
Long Chen nodded, and then left through the backdoor of the Daybreak Merchants Union and came to a courtyard. Manager Zhao found an unbelievably large and quiet room for him.
There wasn’t anyone here, yet Long Chen wasn’t worried that Manager Zhao would attempt to harm him in any way. On one hand, he was dirt poor and nobody would bother with him. Secondly, Lingxi had refined two Spirit Recovery Fruits, and had two more on the way. Lingxi would be able to exhibit her power, and there was little chance of him encountering any life-threatening danger.
“I’m going to put five Thunder Flame Crystals here. I hope you can tell for yourself how many you can fuse with, and if you know you can’t take on another, do not force yourself, understand?”
Manager Zhao spoke and produced five Thunder Flame Crystals from his cosmos pouch and placed it on the floor of the room.
Seeing these five beautiful crystals that were emitting traces of lightning and flames, Long Chen nodded. “Don’t worry, Old Zhao. I’m not an idiot and have no reason to be so greedy that I would compromise my own life.”
Manager Zhao gazed at Long Chen in admiration, “Then I won’t bother you in fusing with the crystals. I’ll wait for you in the courtyard outside, so if anything happens, just shout for me!”
After Manager Zhao had left, Long Chen couldn’t hold it in anymore and asked Lingxi, “Little Xi, since you wanted me to fuse with this Thunder Flame Crystal, does it mean it’s something amazing?”
Ling Xi had had to stay quiet for a long time, and now that she could speak, she was very emotional, “Of course it’s amazing! It’s better than amazing! Long Chen, you’re a dragon cultivator and your body is a lot sturdier than the usual human. I estimate you should be stronger than a regular human, and after you fuse with a Thunder Flame Crystal, you’ll probably know what your limits are.”
Long Chen did not immediately try to fuse with the crystal, but picked it up and held it in his hand. The tiny streaks of lightning and flames gave off a numbing feeling when it swept by his skin.
“The good thing about the Thunder Flame Crystal is that the more powerful you are and the stronger your body is, the more crystals you can fuse with. There isn’t a limit to the number of crystals you can fuse with either, and it’s a lot stronger than the regular technique meant to refine the body!”
Everything that Lingxi said definitely got Long Chen interested, but he was not impulsive by nature. He thought through it carefully, and asked, “Little Xi, I’m unrelated to Manager Zhao, and yet he’s getting me to try this Thunder Flame Crystal. Do you think he’s trying to test my talent? If I fuse with a lot of crystals, he’ll try his utmost to rope me into Daybreak Merchants Union, and perhaps even use the backing behind the organisation to convince me. If I reject, they might kill me…”
“Is that so?”
Lingxi was startled and became a little frightened, before quickly tapping her little chest and sticking out her tongue, “You’re a dragon cultivator. The brand in your body naturally has the power to subdue the Thunder Flame Crystal. The number of crystals you can fuse with safely will be a lot more than a regular person, so what you said might actually happen.”
There was all this good stuff in front of his eyes, but Long Chen did not dare fuse with all of them. Such tempting yet terrifying thoughts made Long Chen want to vomit blood.
“By the way!” Lingxi suddenly became excited, “Hey, did you see that? He took out the five Thunder Flame Crystals from his cosmos pouch without batting an eyelid and actually gave it to you to test you. That implies that there’s a lot of this stuff at the Daybreak Merchants Union, and they might even have a mining site for this crystal! You can just fuse with one or two, and after you leave, I can turn back and steal his cosmos pouch!”
Long Chen was flabbergasted by Lingxi’s brazen thoughts, and quickly answered, “Don’t do this. I finally managed to get four Spirit Recovery Fruits and have been serving you well. If you come back to me half-dead, how am I supposed to continue living?”
Lingxi pouted, “You idiot, am I so useless in your heart? I have the strength from four Spirit Recovery Fruits. Stealing the cosmos pouch of someone at the initial mastery stage of the Earth Dan Realm is just child’s play to me.”
Lingxi, who was usually cowardly, was now brimming with confidence. At the thought that the Thunder Flame Crystal could make him much stronger, Long Chen’s resolve began to waver and he suspiciously asked, “Little Xi, are you sure you’re able to steal that cosmos pouch without anyone noticing?”
Lingxi glared at him angrily, “Of course! Though I’ve never cultivated that seriously before, I’m number one when it comes to this kind of thing! Even my father couldn’t stop praising me. How dare an idiot like you belittle me!”
With Lingxi’s words, Long Chen felt a lot more relieved. Without further ado, he looked at the five Thunder Flame Crystals on the ground and spoke, “There’s not much time left. I’ll try this Thunder Flame Crystal and see what’s so special about it!”
The five crystals on the ground spread out, and Long Chen picked up one of them, placed it in his palm, and then sat cross-legged. He sucked in a deep breath, and glanced at the crystal.
“Manager Zhao said that as long as I manipulate real Qi and guide the Thunder Flame Crystal into my body, I can fuse with it!”
At this thought, light red real Qi spilled over from Long Chen’s palm and twisted around, eventually surrounding the Thunder Flame Crystal. The crystal, which had been lying dormant all this while, suddenly seemed to awaken, and ferociously turned into blue flaming electric currents, and from Long Chen’s palm, entered Long Chen’s body!
“This Thunder Flame Crystal is not simple at all!”
This flaming electric current entered Long Chen’s body and rapidly extended to every corner. Long Chen’s body was bathed in the liquid-form of the electric current that was still flaming. Streams of blue light overflowed from his body, and Long Chen could gradually feel the numbing pain beginning to appear at every part of his body.
It was first a numbing feeling that attacked Long Chen in waves. Next was the pain, pulsing and even more intense than before, and it turned into acute pain at every part of his body. Whether it was his blood, internal organs, muscles, bones or flesh, he could feel himself burning and being ripped apart from the inside by the electric currents and flames.
How could this feeling not cause one to fall apart?
It could be seen that blue streaks of lightning and flames had surfaced on Long Chen’s body, flowing all over his body rapidly. In his dull red eyeballs, one could even see flames and electric currents contained within, and electricity suddenly surged up and shot out!
“Under the tempering of the lightning and the burning of flames, my body is gradually becoming stronger despite the unbearable pain I’m feeling. This is even more terrifying than when I had been trying to cultivate in the Celestial Core Technique!”
“No wonder Little Xi made me fuse with it. So this Thunder Flame Crystal is actually something so great!”
The effects from a Thunder Flame Crystal finally passed in about an hour. Long Chen heaved a sigh and exercised his limbs, and discovered that his body’s sturdiness had increased. Within his real Qi, there was a blue force hidden within. With the help from the lightning and flames, this blue force had become extremely powerful!
“Manager Zhao said that after fusing with the Thunder Flame Crystal, the power of fire and lightning in my real Qi will vary in its nature. He wasn’t lying!”
However, compared to the light red real Qi, this blue force was just too meagre. This thread of blue had not even entered the Human Dan Realm, and could only exist within the blood-red mist at the Human Dan Realm.
“Like she said, one Thunder Flame Crystal is not my limit!”
Though that feeling just now had been terrifying, he would need to experience a lot of pain and suffering if he wanted to become stronger. Long Chen had long since come to terms with this fact.
“How do you feel?”
After Long Chen had fused with the first Thunder Flame Crystal, Lingxi enquired nervously.
Long Chen grinned, “Good, very good! Little Xi, when I get back, I’ll reward you handsomely. You’re just too amazing!”
He turned his gaze to the other crystals and laughed, “I’ll leave the four crystals here. Little Xi, I’ll leave the rest to you. Just remember, the crystals are not as important as your safety. Don’t strain yourself too much!”
Hearing Long Chen caring for her so much, Ling Xi felt warmth in her heart, but his next words caused her expression to darken.
“If you don’t succeed, I’ll have to do a lot to deal with it and become exhausted. You definitely can’t let that happen.”
“You scoundrel, you huge scoundrel!”
Thinking of Long Chen’s repulsive face, Ling Xi grinded her teeth. At this pointed, Long Chen had already decided to leave the room to find Manager Zhao.
Upon opening the door, he could see Manager Zhao in a pavilion far away. Long Chen quickly walked over, during which Manager Zhao saw him as well. Seeing that he had come out in less than an hour, Manager Zhao had a bad feeling about this.
“How did it go, Long Chen? How many did you fuse with?”
With a helpless look in his eyes, he answered, “I’m sorry for being so useless. I only managed to fuse with one.”
“One?”
Manager Zhao couldn’t quite believe it. He knew that Long Chen’s physical body was very sturdy, and based on his estimations, it was entirely possible for him to fuse with two or even three, but Long Chen had only fused with one. Manager Zhao couldn’t help but feel disappointed.
He had originally thought that Long Chen was a rare talent, and if he managed to steal him away from the Lingwu Family and Long Chen managed to prove himself in the future, he would also reap benefits. It looked like he had gone through all this trouble for nothing, and Manager Zhao was a little discouraged as he waved at Long Chen impatiently, “In that case, you should leave.”
From the enthusiasm at the beginning till the cold indifference after finding out he had not met his expectations, Long Chen truly admired Manager Zhao’s abilities in changing his facial expressions so quickly.
This was not a bad reaction. He had initially felt guilty about stealing Thunder Flame Crystals from Manager Zhao, as he had treated him well and viewed him highly. Now, however, there was nothing holding him back.
“In that case, I shall take my leave!”
Long Chen gave a sarcastic smile and calmly left.
“There’s probably a lot of Thunder Flame Crystals in the Daybreak Merchants Union. It wouldn’t be too mean of me if I let Lingxi steal a few…”