Chapter 199: Another Breakthrough
In the blink of an eye, Jian Chen had spent at least an entire month in Huang Village. In that month, Jian Chen had rarely walked out from his room, choosing to spend the entire day within his room to cultivate in peace. Every two or three days, sometimes every four days, he would eat some meals with the family. But other than that, he remained indoors and after finishing his meal, he continued his cultivation. Heading out into the village itself was even more rare.
After spending half of the month in cultivation, Jian Chen’s Saint Force had been readily increasing in strength at the expense of going through multiple monster cores quickly. However, he still had an ample sum of Class 3 and 4 Monster Cores along with the monster cores from the Space Belts of the Great Saint Masters he killed back in Phoenix City. With so many monster cores, he wasn’t afraid of running out of them. There were still two Class 5 Monster Cores within his Space Ring as well which were better than over a hundred Class 4 Monster Cores. This large amount of monster cores would definitely help bring him to the Great Saint Master realm.
Right now, Jian Chen was at the very peak of the Peak Saint Master level. The only thing preventing him from making it to the Great Saint Master level was a frail boundary.
At this final juncture, Jian Chen didn’t dare to stop cultivating. Opening his eyelids, there was a calm look in his eyes with only a small tint of emotions. It would only take another month before he could break through. It was a shame that the hidden dangers in his body before had delayed his breakthrough. As soon as he broke through to the Great Saint Master level, taking revenge on the Tianxiong Clan in Wake City would be possible.
Taking in a deep breath, Jian Chen calmed his body and took out another dozen Class 4 Monster Cores from within his Space Belt and placed them between his legs for his cultivation needs.
Because he was at a critical point before the breakthrough, the amount of energy he needed was absolutely massive. At the same time, he wouldn’t have time to constantly take out monster core by monster core from his Space Belt, so he would need to have a large amount of them on hand.
With all preparations done, Jian Chen held a Class 4 Monster Core in each of his hands as he closed his eyes and entered a state of meditation.
Closing his eyes, another day again passed for Jian Chen. The next afternoon, Rosco sat with his wife and children at the table eating lunch.
“This Jian Chen is far too hard working at his cultivation. It has been half a month already, and he only comes out every three days or so to eat a meal. I don’t know how he has managed to endure this, but it’s been four days this time and he hasn’t stepped out of his room even once. Ai, I’m worried he worked himself into an illness.” Fang Hui looked at the closed door to Jian Chen’s room with a look of worry on her face.
Rosco laughed at her words, “Fang Er, you’ve never come into contact with Saint Force, but it is an incredible yet mysterious force. Jian Chen is at the very least a hundred times more hard working than me, but he still won’t work himself into an illness. As for not eating, that doesn’t need to be said either. On the Tian Yuan Continent, the stronger experts could go ten days without eating a meal with no problem. I myself would occasionally go without a meal with my comrades for five days and still be able to fend off the bandits with a ferocity of a dragon and the vitality of a tiger.”
Fang Hui stuck her nose up in disdain, “You are you, and Jian Chen is Jian Chen. Don’t forget that time was when you were 30 years old. Jian Chen is only a 20 year old youth with a physically weaker body. In what way can his body compare to your stature at that time?”
Rosco let out a sigh and replied, “Fang Er, you’ve never walked the continent, so you won’t know how this works. Let me explain this to you, a person’s strength is not determined by how old a person is. A few men with talent but no hard work could condense their Saint Force into a Saint Weapon after a lifetime, and a few men with the talent and even the resources may never be able to reach a high level.”
“Take our Huang Village for example. After over 100 years, the strongest person in the village has only been a Great Saint at the most. Many of the academies within the Tian Yuan Continent have standards in which a Great Saint is the minimal level for graduation at the very least. There’s even many men that aren’t even at the age of 30 that have the same level of strength as our village head.”
Fang Hui nodded her head as if she understood, “Although what you say seems right, Jian Chen’s strength can’t be said for certain, he is still far too young.”
Just as Rosco was about to open his mouth to explain once more to Fang Hui, a strong gale suddenly flew out from Jian Chen’s room, causing dirt to fly everywhere–including the food on the table.
“Crap, how could there suddenly be a large gust of wind?” Rosco cried out before bounding to the door to close it.
“Wuuuuu…. wuu…dad, mom, my eyes has dirt in it, I can’t see!” Rogue buried her face in her hands and began to cry out with tears.
Fang Hui hurried on over to where Rogue was and began to comfort her, “Hush, don’t cry, your mother is here. Let mother help you clean out your eyes, open them slowly for me.”
Rosco looked back to the table where all of the dishes were now filled with dirt with some confusion before speaking seriously to his family. “You should all stay here, I’ll go and check. This gale was far too sudden, this must be an omen for danger.” Rapidly opening and closing the door, Rosco headed out.
Outside, the sudden gale had caused trouble everywhere. Dust flew around the sky and covered it so that the fierce sun above it could barely shine down below with the exception of a few weak rays of light. Some of the clothes that were hung outside to dry had been sent flying into the air and fluttered away. Even the tiles on the roofs had been lifted by a small degree while some of the older huts had been completely demolished by the gale.
“What happened, why was there a great gale all of a sudden…”
“What a strange wind this was, to come so suddenly and yet so fiercely…”
From a distance, the Huang Village men were all coming out of their houses with confusion.
Rosco looked around before his eyes landed upon the little room Jian Chen was cultivating in. His eyes narrowed as he realized that the dust had all blown out from the direction of his room.
After traveling the continent for many years, Rosco had learned to deduce things quickly thanks to his experience as a Saint Master. His eyes grew wider as he began to think about what could have caused the gale of wind. “Could…could this be the result of Jian Chen’s cultivation?” The thought of that had caused Rosco’s heart to waver, he knew what could have possibly happened to bring about such a result. 10 years ago when he was a Saint Master, he had experienced this before on a smaller scale. He couldn’t believe that Jian Chen would have long since surpassed him in such a way.
“What a mistake in judgement, to think that such a youngster would be far past the Saint Master realm. He has to be at the Great Saint Master realm by now.” Rosco thought. Even though he was a cripple, his experience was far more than enough to understand what Jian Chen had just done.
“Look everyone, the wind’s coming from that direction.” An elderly voice called out as everyone looked at the direction of the finger the elder was pointing at.
Hearing this, everyone studied the direction that had been pointed out before realizing it was the house of Jian Chen. “The village elder is right, the wind is coming from that direction! Just look, the smoke is spreading out from over there.”
“Let’s go quickly then!”
“Right, let’s find out what’s happening…”
In the end, a group of people had headed toward the area of Jian Chen’s room. Instantly realizing what was happening, Rosco hurried forward to block them, “Village elder, it’s best if we go elsewhere for now to avoid disturbing Jian Chen.”
“Rosco, just what exactly is going on here? I can see that this gale is coming from here.” The village elder asked Rosco with some confusion. His elderly face was filled with a serious expression.
“That’s right. Rosco, just what is happening within that room? Are you hiding some sort of treasure?” The village elder asked once more.
“Right right, Rosco, you best be honest here. If you have a treasure, you should show it to the rest of us.”
“Hurry up and let everyone see this treasure. I’ve never seen anything that could cause such a wind!”
As each person joined in, everyone else wanted to look at what treasure was hidden within the room. Their voices each crying out over one another.
“”Shh…everyone be quiet.” Rosco couldn’t help but to try to quiet them down. “Please, don’t misunderstand me, everyone. I don’t have any sort of treasure hidden away. This is the result of that youth Jian Chen’s cultivation. This was something I came to understand after my experience of being a traveler of the Tian Yuan Continent. This has to be the result of Jian Chen’s cultivation almost reaching a breakthrough. This current moment has to be the most critical point, so if he is disturbed, then a disastrous result might happen for Jian Chen. Come now, let’s all walk away from this area so we won’t disturb Jian Chen’s cultivation.”
“Oh, so it was like that?”
“No way, I’ve seen that Jian Chen before, but I didn’t think him to be that amazing to be able to call down the winds like that.”
“Rosco, are you trying to trick us?”
The crowd murmured in confusion. They were people of the village and had never once traveled out to the Tian Yuan Continent so many of the people there were very suspicious of Rosco’s attitude. They couldn’t believe that a youth like Jian Chen would be capable of having such strength. To them, this was a mystery that deserved some research.
The village elder looked at the room Jian Chen resided in with a look of shock before taking in a deep breath. “Everyone, what Rosco said does have some merit. But whether or not his words are true, we’ll find out soon enough. Let us wait for now and avoid disturbing Jian Chen.”
The village elder’s words had a very strong weight in everyone’s eyes. His words were something many people didn’t dare to go against. Silently, everyone began to walk back, no longer walking toward Jian Chen’s location.
The gale of wind continued to wreak havoc within a smaller range of a few hundred meters which was still enough to cover the entire village.
Everyone backed away another 50 meters and watched for a little longer. After a while, the elderly, children, and women all left and the middle aged men stayed to observe the mysterious dust storm.
Right now, there were about 100 people within Huang Village. All of the able bodied were left observing the area with a strange expression. The sight in front of them wasn’t something that would attract attention in the Tian Yuan Continent usually, but for this village which was cut off from the rest of the world, this was especially strange.
“Why do I feel like my heart is feeling more and more painful? It’s to the point where even breathing has become extremely difficult.” An old man suddenly said in confusion as he reached out to massage his chest.
“Yea, I also feel like my chest is stuffy, to the point where I’m becoming agitated. Moreover, I feel like I’m carrying something really heavy on my back.” A middle-aged man chimed in.
“Me too. My chest feels so smothered, as if a large rock is exerting pressure on my chest. I can barely breathe.”
“How strange, you guys are feeling this sensation too? I had thought it was only me who was feeling such a symptom.”
“I also have this feeling…”
“Me too…”
Hearing everyone talk, Rosco’s heart skipped a beat. Immediately realizing the situation, he cried out, “Everyone, get away. This is an invisible air that only an extremely strong person can emit. It can majorly affect all surrounding people. Some peak experts are even able to use this air to constrict people’s airways and suffocate them to death.”
Everyone’s expressions changed drastically, including the old village chief’s. All of them hurriedly retreated until they were 100 meters away. Although most of them didn’t even know what this air was, they had clearly understood one thing: some peak experts could use this air to directly suffocate a person to death.
“Peng!”
Just after everyone had retreated 100 meters, a loud sound suddenly rang out. The small wooden house that Jian Chen had been living in instantly shattered into scattered pieces. Then, a human figure broke through the roof, shooting up into the air like a bullet, and reaching a height of over 50 meters in the blink of an eye.
“Ah!”
Jian Chen floated about 50 meters in the air, and emitted a long whistle toward the sky. The sound resonated without restraint through the air, crossing over a vast distance. At the same time, powerful Saint Force surged and gathered in his left hand. With a wave, a pure ball of light energy completely formed from Saint Force whizzed out of his hand and off toward the distant ground.
“Bang!”
When the ball of light energy crashed into the ground, a large bang resonated through the air, and a great amount of smoke and dust began to rise. Only after it had dissipated were people shocked to discover that a 2-3 meter diameter hole around 5 meters deep had formed.
The surge of Saint Force once again appeared, in Jian Chen’s right hand this time. It quickly condensed into a silver sword that shot out piercing glows as it caught the sunlight, forcing people to look away. This sword seemed to be even more dazzling than the sun.
In an instant the silver light flashed and died out, the sword had already pierced through the air as fast as lightning. A sharp amount Sword Qi along with dazzling light broke away from the sword’s bonds, and quickly shot at the empty ground 100 meters off into the distance at lightning-fast speeds. It silently went through the solid rock, leaving only an extremely thin crack on the surface. There were absolutely no signs of cracks in any the surrounding areas.
After this attack pierced through, Jian Chen’s body began to slowly descend to the ground. Although he could jump up 50 meters in a single bound, he was only able to stay floating in midair for a breath’s time.
Jian Chen landed on the ground with a trace of a faint smile on his face. It was a smile of self-confidence; after cultivating non-stop for over half a month, his strength had smoothly broken through from the Peak Saint Master level to the Great Saint Master level.