Chapter Twenty-Five: Breakthrough Again

  "Ye Fengyu, Zhang Ziliao!"

  His face changed slightly, and he said in a gloomy tone.

  "Brother Li!"

  The newcomer was none other than one of the outer sect disciples who had fought alongside Li Chen against the pack of wolves in the mountain valley that day.

  "Hello, seniors!"

  Li Chen nodded weakly, looking like a servant who was used to being bullied.

  But those who knew him looked at him with a straight face, the meaning of which was self-evident. You little scoundrel, what are you pretending to be in front of us?

  "What? You also want water? Alright, I'll give you another bucket!"

  Knowing that several of them were top-notch existences in the foreign gate, this young man was confident in his strength, but he also didn't dare to provoke them all at once.

  "We both want two buckets of water!"

  Liu Ziqing took a step forward, and on that day at dawn, he had saved his life. Although he had been recuperating for nearly a month, after all, he was a sixth-level martial artist, and with his own people by his side, there was naturally nothing to be afraid of.

  "It's impossible!"

  Under the gaze of onlookers watching the show, Chen Zuyin said coldly.

  Behind him, there were also a number of people gathered, but none reached six layers, all were four or five layers, and their age was not great, obviously his younger brothers.

  "Chen Zuyin, stop being shameless, know when to quit!"

  Ye Fengyu was even more unyielding, coldly shouting loudly.

  "You..."

  Chen Zu Yin's face was completely red with anger, but he didn't dare to erupt. He really couldn't understand why the other side would use a bucket of water to fight him.

  "Whatever, a bucket of water, everyone is tired from practicing martial arts, let's just take a cool shower!"

  Li Chen hastily waved his hands back and forth, afraid that both sides would fight, looking embarrassed.

  "What's it to you, you damned dog?"

  In an instant, Chen Zu found a place to vent her anger and slapped Lei Chen's face with a swing of her hand.

  Bang!

  "Big brother, I think you're getting too worked up, why don't you calm down with some well water!"

  Li Chen grasped his wrist in one swift motion, his tone neither salty nor bland.

  Although so, in the heart already had anger, for Li family as a slave for more than ten years, every day can't be less beaten, old Lei head for Li family to sell life for a lifetime, before old age alive suffering from illness and death, inspired Lei Chen Yong's determination not to be a slave all his life.

  "Looking for death... let go!"

  Chen Zu Yin was slightly startled and immediately turned pale, wanting to withdraw his palm, but no matter how hard he tried, even using his inner energy, he couldn't break free by a single hair.

  That thin hand grasped his wrist as tightly as an iron hoop.

  Anger rising from his heart, evil born on the edge of his gallbladder, Chen Zuyin suddenly lifted one foot and kicked towards Li Chen's abdomen.

  "Be careful!"

  Several cries of surprise were followed by a loud and mournful wail.

  Chen Zu-yin was already curled up on the ground with his legs covered, and several younger brothers rushed forward to support him.

  "Sorry about this, but Brother He's alchemy still needs water!"

  Li Chen slowly lowered his knees, as if that was not what he had intended to do. He picked up the wooden bucket and nodded at Liu Ziqing and the others before disappearing into the forest without looking back.

  "Who is he?"

  "That's amazing!"

  "His clothes seem like those of a named disciple!"

  Everyone saw Li Chen leave and they all started discussing it, pointing fingers at him.

  Liu Ziqing and the others exchanged a glance, all of them seeing the shock in each other's eyes. Although they knew that their opponent was very strong, they had never thought that he would be so strong as to knock down even a sixth-level warrior with just one move.

  Although Chen Zuyin has a tendency to underestimate his opponents, it ultimately shows that Li Chen's strength is already above theirs.

  How can such a talented disciple be willing to serve under someone else?

  In the crowd, Li Yuexiang looked at the back of Li Chenyuan's departing figure with a complex gaze, which eventually turned into a faint chill.

  "Slow down, Zhang Shixiong!"

  In front of the courtyard, He Kuangming saw off a young warrior with a slightly respectful attitude. Without even looking at Li Chen who was returning with water, he immediately turned his head and went back into the courtyard.

  "Brother Chen, you are knowledgeable and experienced, who is that brother?"

  Li Chen hurriedly walked past the young martial artist with his head hung low, and arrived at the gate of the courtyard, calling out to Chen Songtai who was about to leave.

  "Not even he knows, what a country bumpkin. Let me tell you, that person is the number one disciple of the Southern Institute's inner sect, Zhang Chulung, Brother Zhang. I heard that recently he obtained a bottle of Monkey Wine and was preparing to break through to the Refining Reality realm."

  "At Zhang Shixiong's age, after breaking through, he will inevitably become an elite disciple!"

  Chen Songtai looked at him with disdain, smugly showing off as if he was the one who got the Monkey Wine instead of Zhang Shixiong.

  "Monkey wine!"

  Li Chen's eyes flashed with a hint of sharpness, and his right hand involuntarily clenched into a fist.

  As he came over, he saw clearly that the boy in blue clothes was ignorant and very similar to the person who had taken his backpack in the town that day.

  Although it was just a fleeting glance, Li Chen's eyesight was extremely good, and he saw it clearly. Adding to what Chen Songtai said, it was already 80 or 90 percent certain.

  "Cut it out, I bet you don't even know what huāngjiǔ is!"

  Chen Songtai burst out laughing and swaggered back into the house. Before entering, he turned around and said coldly: "He Shixiong said we'll set off in three days!"

  "In three days? That should be enough!"

  Li Chen narrowed his eyes slightly and walked straight into the courtyard in front of the water tank, filling it with water.

  In the dead of night at noon, in the mountain pass where water is fetched.

  "Next, let's see just how much this demon core can help me break through!"

  Li Chen looked up at the starry sky, his eyes filled with determination. He picked up a box in front of him and took out a demon core, swallowing it down. He began to circulate the "Rong Yang Jue" technique to absorb and refine it.

  "Hmmph!"

  With a muffled hum, what surprised Lei Chen was that when the demon core just entered his abdomen, there was only a slight stinging pain, but no severe pain like that night, and even as he refined the demon core, his body felt a tingling sensation, an indescribable comfort.

  Hmph!

  As time passed, more than half a time had passed, and the demon core was absorbed more and more. The fine meridians in Li Chen's body kept making a response, and the milky gray vortex on his head suddenly stopped for a moment, then accelerated to rotate several times.

  Without stopping, he continued to operate the technique, absorbing the remaining essence of that demon core. According to his observations, that demon core was at least a top-notch existence among late-stage demon beasts, and its body contained an essence that could be compared to the internal energy of about half of the eighth- or ninth-layer warriors.

  Although the internal breath in the meridians of every warrior in the Cong Xi realm is roughly the same, Li Chen is now only at the sixth layer peak. With more than a dozen days of tempering, he has already become familiar with it, and the essence of the demon core is enough to give him a major breakthrough.

  When half a time had passed again, the beeping sound became more urgent and suddenly disappeared completely.

  At this moment, Li Chen felt that the demon core in his body had disappeared without a trace. He got up with some excitement and doubt: "No way, according to this demon core, I should have been able to break through to the eighth layer, how come it's only the seventh layer peak?"

  Staring at the night sky, Li Chen thought for a long time and finally could only blame it on his own special physique, with his inner breath gathering slowly and wasting a lot of heavenly yuanqi.

  According to his estimate, with the two swallowed demon cores and the obtained Gathering Dan, he roughly estimated that the effect of the demon core on him was several times stronger than that of the elixir.

  "Li Yueqing, Zhang Chulung, you wait and see, one day..."

  Suddenly clenching his fist, with a loud crackling sound, Li Chen gritted his teeth fiercely. "There are still two months left before I turn fifteen and exchange my identity card to enter the outer gate. Now it's crucial to seize the time, enhance my strength, and settle Hei Kōmin's affairs. Once that's done, I'll definitely re-enter the ancient Qing Song to cultivate martial skills!"