Chapter 761 – The Plot

Chen Xu quickly nodded and said, “Brother Situ, what are you talking about?! We are brothers; how could you ever doubt me? I will accompany you tonight. If you need to attack, then I will join in and give him a stab with my knife too.”

There was a flash in Situ Yu’s eyes, then he smiled. “It’s an excellent thing that you are willing to help me. Quick, change into your outfit. I’ll give you twenty seconds.”

“Yes!” Chen Xu nodded excitedly and quickly changed into his getup. Both of them vanished into the darkness. It was not long after Long Chen’s departure, so they quickly went in the same direction as he did and gave chase. In the dark of night, no one noticed them.

***

This ancient tree was stupidly tall. Long Chen was surrounded by white mist like when he was at the Immortal Sea, but the mist here was even thicker. He could not see objects around him clearly, but thankfully, there was a sea of stars in the sky above. It was due to the starlight that the visibility increased.

“This tree is so tall!” Long Chen was speechless. He hiked even farther to pass through layers of clouds before finally approaching the peak of the tree.

At this point, there were few leaves around him, and his whole world was covered in white mist. Then, at some point, his field of vision suddenly expanded and he discovered that he had climbed past the cloud layer. Below him, the cloud layer was like the sea with countless waves in the mist. Thick branches from the ancient tree protruded from the sea of clouds here and there, and Long Chen was perched on one of them.

The magnificent sight left him in a daze.

This world really is too huge to comprehend. When will I be a presence as gigantic as the heavens and earth? This thought suddenly popped into his mind.

He chuckled bitterly, then he looked up. The stars in the sky were beautiful and shone brightly. Standing so high up, Long Chen felt like he could touch them with his hand.

All the demonic beasts above Heavenly Wood City had probably been chased away by Bai Lan already, so he did not need to worry about them. Long Chen could probably fly up to this altitude outside Heavenly Wood City, but he would be torn to pieces by demonic beasts.

Next, I shall cultivate Seven Star Essence.

Long Chen had learned the Big Dipper Step from the Seven Star Manual, but it wasn’t easy to use without Seven Star Essence. Furthermore, Seven Star Essence was the foundation for cultivating the Seven Star Body.

In order to cultivate the Seven Star Body, he had to cultivate the foundation first.

While cultivating the foundation did not require absorbing celestial Qi, he still needed to be under starlight to cultivate Seven Star Essence successfully.

Long Chen sat cross-legged on a hard branch beneath the stars.

The foundation of the Seven Star Lord’s inheritance is the Seven Star Manual. The Seven Star Body, the Big Dipper Step, and the Three Thousand Star Clusters are all part of it.

Long Chen had already looked through the foundation chapter of the Seven Star Manual and understood it in depth. He never had an issue with understanding cultivation concepts, so what he needed next was actual practice.

The Seven Star Manual taught a cultivator to merge the power of the stars with their own essence instead of changing their essence into the Seven Star Essence. Long Chen’s dragon soul essence’s special characteristics came from the Ancient Bloodsoul Dragon, so nothing in the world could completely change his essence. The Seven Star Manual could only help merge starlight into his dragon soul essence and add the Seven Star Constellation’s properties into it. The dragon soul essence could be used as Seven Star Essence, but Seven Star Essence could not be used as dragon soul essence.

The Seven Star Manual described a technique that absorbed starlight into Long Chen’s essence. Absorbing starlight was different from absorbing celestial Qi. Celestial Qi was something that contained powerful attacking abilities like the Metal Devouring Wind, while starlight was the power that came from the stars. The power he absorbed when he was at the Heavenly River Realm was actually just the surface-level energy of the Star Rivers. This time, he was absorbing energy from a deeper level.

The Seven Star Manual was not difficult, because it was only the foundation. That was why Long Chen only had to follow the standard procedures. The Big Dipper Step and the Seven Star Body were much more troublesome.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

He sat cross-legged with his “five hearts” facing the sky, then he guided his Qi through his body using the Seven Star Manual’s methods to absorb the energy of the endless stars in the sky. There were nine star rivers[1] in the sky, and they formed lines as star power aggregated in the air then descended into Long Chen.

The “five hearts” referred to the top of his head, his palms, and his feet. There were two martial meridian points on the top of his head, namely the Earth Yang and Earth Yin, while each palm and foot also had a martial meridian. Five streams of starlight had formed, and they flowed into his five meridian points, supplying starlight to them.

Endless starlight flowed. Under Long Chen’s control, continuous streams of starlight merged with the five streams and poured into his body.

Under the Seven Star Manual’s guidance, the starlight slowly merged with his spinning meridian cores. Rays of blue starlight started to appear in his essence and dots of starlight gradually added a blue glow to his red essence, making it shine beautifully. The essence flowing in his eighteen meridian veins was like the beautiful star rivers in the sky.

An hour later, the Seven Star Essence was beginning to take shape. There was already a small portion of Seven Star Essence in Long Chen’s essence. If he continued this process, he would fully complete the Seven Star Manual’s cultivation by the end of the night.

Afterwards, he could absorb celestial Qi the next day and start cultivating the Seven Star Body.

More time passed. Everything was within Long Chen’s control.

Long Chen had not expected things to progress so smoothly after his arrival at Heavenly Wood City.

While he was focused on cultivating, two shadows wove through the clouds and the mist. They were still about six hundred meters away, and Long Chen could not use the Soul Swallowing Gaze while cultivating. That was why he did not notice these two.

The duo had secretly followed Long Chen here, and they were Situ Yu and Chen Xu. Since they did not know Long Chen’s specific location, they had taken many wrong paths and were currently very frustrated. Finally, after finding some traces Long Chen had left behind, they identified their target’s location.

“What is that?” Chen Xu looked up at the streams of bright starlight. It looked like the stars were falling from the sky.

Chen Xu was a Seventh Earthly Martial Stage cultivator, while Situ Yu was at the Eighth Earthly Martial Stage. Both of them were at higher cultivation levels than Long Chen. Chen Xu was considered a talented disciple in the Demon clan and usually received a lot of resources. He had received far more mentorship than Long Chen, who had to grow on his own.

Since Situ Yu was stronger, he had more powerful senses. He halted and studied the starlight for a while. Suddenly, he said doubtfully, “There’s ... There’s someone in the starlight.”

His eyes lit up. “That must be Long Chen. He is probably immersed in cultivation right now. Looks like he came all the way up here to cultivate. Isn’t he just looking for death?”

“Brother Situ, he’s cultivating, but it looks like a very strange technique as he’s filled with starlight. What is he even cultivating?” Chen Xu asked in confusion.

“I don’t know either. Probably something satanic.” Although both of them had heard of the Seven Star Lord, they did not quickly connect this with the Seven Star Lord’s inheritance. Even if they had great imaginations, they would not have guessed that the Seven Star Lord’s inheritance was right before their eyes.

“What do we do now? He’s cultivating. This is a great chance ...” Chen Xu licked his lips. It was clear that Situ Yu was very annoyed by Long Chen. Not only was Situ Yu powerful, he was also the only alchemist of the Demon clan. He was surely going to be one of the most powerful people in the Demon clan in the future.

Chen Xu’s father, Chen Yang, had once told him to form a good relationship with Situ Yu, hence why Chen Xu was so enthusiastic on this night.

Chen Xu’s words reminded Situ Yu of their objective.

Situ Yu’s mind was racing because he wanted to kill Long Chen, but if he did that, Suyan would be finished. While Suyan’s life was technically not related to him, it would still cause a huge commotion in the Demon clan. It would be a serious matter, so he did not want to make decisions recklessly.

However, the humiliation from earlier was still fresh in his mind.

This bastard humiliated me, and now he’s cultivating some bizarre technique. If I let him continue staying in Heavenly Wood City, where will I end up? He might also snatch away that woman, Suxue. Suxue is my most important ticket to becoming the future Demon clan leader, so I must not let Long Chen take her. However, I just had a conflict with Long Chen today. If Long Chen died, people would surely think that it was me ...

Situ Yu was torn.

“Brother Situ?” Chen Xu was waiting for Situ Yu to make his decision.

When he looked at Chen Xu, Situ Yu’s eyes lit up and he said, “Chen Xu, are you willing to do a favor for your brother?”

1. 星河 / Star River refers to a view like the Milky Way in the sky. So in this novel’s universe, there are nine of these ‘star rivers’ in the night sky. ☜