Chapter 220: Changes
Along with each beat, green blood coursed through the newly formed vessels, flowing all across Yi Chen’s body.
As the green blood completed a circulation, the pain which had consumed Yi Chen’s mind started to dissipate slowly but steadily.
Clearly feeling this, his knitted forehead began to relax as his breathing turned normal eventually.
Ten minutes later, all the internal injuries he was riddled with were gone, and so was his exhaustion.
Standing up, he couldn’t help but feel the changes in his body.
His vision had improved tremendously. Even though he was standing, he was able to observe the minute details of the red sand particles near his feet. Along with this sharpness, his vision’s range had also significantly enhanced.
"This..."
Yi Chen muttered while clenching his fists. His strength had also improved significantly.
Seeing these changes, he was about to open his status panel to get a proper gauge. However, just then, a door materialised in front of him.
’Yes...the trial is over,’ he thought in realisation, and not wanting to spend another second in this wretched place, he immediately walked straight through the door.
The next instant, he found himself in the same hall.
SLAM!
Just at that instant, the door behind him collapsed.
"This..."
Seeing the stone door frame collapse into smithereens, Yi Chen immediately took a few steps away.
However, at that instant, he realised that it wasn’t a one-off case.
Out of the ten doors that were embedded on the walls around him, seven, including the one he had just exited from, were in this collapsed condition.
As for the remaining three, they were the exact doors through which Gao Zhen and others had made their way and were still standing intact but without exuding any white light.
’So, I’m the first one to make it back...’ Yi Chen thought with a subtle nod.
The very next moment, his eyes widened, and he immediately pulled up his right hand.
"Phew..."
He exhaled in relief when he saw that his storage ring was back. It was the same case with his sword, which was resting on his waist at the moment.
GROWL~
A deep growl resonated in the hall, making Yi Chen look at his stomach.
"Yeah...let’s eat something first."
He immediately took out a variety of dishes he had stored in his storage ring and began munching on them with great relish.
For the last two days, he had only been relying on the demon’s blood to take care of his hunger. If not for that, he would have long collapsed.
However, now that he was finally able to taste these delicious dishes again, all his pent-up frustrations began to die down.
A while later, he cleaned up his body and, after changing into a fresh pair of robes, sat in the centre of the hall, his back leaning against the waist-high pillar.
"I finally feel like a human..."
He muttered now that his body was no longer a bloody mess of red and green.
The next instant, he opened up his status panel. It was time to check the changes that had taken place in his body.
=== Godly Cultivator System ===
Name: Yi Chen
Age: 18 years
Strength: 180 -> 330
Spiritual Sea: 3.78 / 48.67 [Recovery: 8 hrs of Sleep]
Qi Pool: 0 / 350 [Recovery: 24 days]
Cultivation: Fifth Level of [Meridian Refinement Stage]
Qi Nature: Fire, Darkness
Innate Ability: Eye of Truth Lv2 (Active) [Progress: 0 / 1,000,000,000 EXP]
EXP: 22,245 -> 765,000
[Cultivation Arsenal]
=========== End ===========
"So many..." Yi Chen’s attention was immediately pulled by the huge amount of EXP he had with him now. However, when he looked back on how many demon soldiers he had dealt with over the last two days, the numbers indeed made sense.
In fact, it even started to seem less compared to the thousand-plus demon soldiers he had slain.
His gaze then fell on a huge increase in his strength, making him nod in agreement. His body indeed felt stronger by a large margin, and these numbers only confirmed it to him.
"Darkness Nature? This... weren’t there only five basic elements?" Yi Chen couldn’t help but mutter with a frown.
’Maybe it’s something distinct to demons...’ He pursed his lips.
However, before he could think about it any longer, his gaze fell on his cultivation level.
"My cultivation level...it’s still the same?" A confused expression immediately formed on his face, "Aren’t special physiques supposed to raise one’s cultivation as well?"
That’s what Gao Zhen had told him. With knitted brows, he opened up his cultivation arsenal.
======Cultivation Arsenal ======
#Weapon Arts
1) Advanced Swordsmanship [Progress: 901 / 1000]
#Cultivation Arts
1) Crimson Fire Arts [Comprehension: 79%]
2) Myriad Fire Swords [Comprehension: 33%]
3) Bursting Fire Steps [Comprehension: 92%]
#Special Physiques
1) True Demon Physique (Dormant) [ Acquired: 1 / 9]
#System Items
NIL
============ END ===========
Realising that the reason his cultivation hadn’t progressed was that the physique was still dormant, he softly muttered, "One out of nine, huh..."
"The other eight parts must be in the depths of this tom-"
A frown of realisation soon formed on his face, which soon became one of frustration, "...Don’t tell me."
He was immediately reminded of the remark he had read while checking the status panel of the Black Tower.
’Rests one of the Nine Abyssal Sovereigns.... Nine...’
The more he thought over it, the more sense it made, much to his frustration.
"So I’ll have to find and clear the other eight tombs as well in order to activate the physique..."
He muttered, despondency apparent in his voice.
With only two years until the Silver Cloud Tournament, the idea of looking for these tombs and clearing them felt like a mammoth task that tilted more towards impossibility.
’With all these ancient ruins having their own specific time for opening...even if I possess the strength to clear them all, I doubt I’ll be able to do it within two years...’
He sighed deeply in disappointment.
’No...I must not lose hope so quickly. This tomb is yet to be fully cleared...maybe I’ll be lucky enough to encounter more physiques.’
Glancing at the serial number in the new ’Special Physiques’ section in his cultivation arsenal, he was able to guess that he could possess more than one physique.
"Yes, there’s indeed that possibility," He nodded firmly as his chaotic mind calmed down.
"Now, about this darkness nature..."
Yi Chen muttered and decided to test it out. Sitting cross-legged, he absorbed the Qi from his surroundings, but no matter what he did, the innate Qi that entered his Qi Pool was still of the fire nature.
"Even the rate of Qi absorption is the same... Is it because I do not have an appropriate Qi Absorption Art?" he mused to himself with pursed lips before taking out a few high-grade spirit stones.
Putting the matter of the Darkness nature at the back of his mind, he started replenishing his depleted Qi pool.