Chapter Five: Awakening

  Ye Chen felt the cell slowly growing larger, causing his entire body to have a strange swelling sensation. Ye Chen hastily used his inner vision and saw that the cell had become visible to the naked eye, about the size of a sesame seed. The spiritual energy continued to pour into it, and the mysterious seal's spiritual energy seemed endless.

  Half a minute later, the spiritual energy that had entered the cellular particles was at least dozens of times stronger than when he had just washed and refined his skin. Each cell particle was like a bottomless pit, which could never be filled to the full.

  At this time, the mysterious mark on Ye Chen's chest glowed with a grayish-white light, and within a hundred meters of him, the air was accelerating its flow. Countless tiny green lights were gathering towards his chest, as if being sucked in.

  The mark on his chest was sometimes icy cold, and sometimes fiery hot, making Ye Chen feel like he was in a world of ice and fire, extremely uncomfortable. His body also had a kind of swelling sensation, but within that cellular particle, Ye Chen felt an enormous power, as if there was a fierce beast lurking inside.

  It was now high noon, the sun was shining brightly, but Ye Chen's face didn't have a single drop of sweat. Although he had his eyes closed, one could still see a hint of excitement on his face. He had finally discovered the special aspect of his physique, something that even his second personality couldn't suppress.

  Under a large tree about two hundred meters away from Ye Chen, Nan'er stared with wide eyes at the green dots that filled the sky within a hundred meters around Ye Chen, her heart racing with shock.

  "Master has gathered so much spiritual energy!" Nang'er thought to herself, her hands clenched tightly, her fingers white with tension. She muttered to herself: "Who says Master is useless? Master is the most powerful! My Master must be the most powerful man in the world!"

  At this time, Ye Chen did not notice Nang's arrival. The mark on his chest was still continuously transmitting spiritual energy. The cells in his body that absorbed spiritual energy had grown to the size of a thumb and were about to awaken like a fierce beast. Ye Chen felt that the cell had expanded to its limit and was almost about to explode.

  Another moment passed, and suddenly, a dull thud echoed within Ye Chen's body, as if something had exploded. The sound startled Nang'er, who was hiding in the distance to sneak a peek, causing her whole body to tremble with fear, thinking that something unexpected had happened to Ye Chen. Her small face turned deathly pale, but she didn't dare disturb the young master who was still meditating.

  That cell finally burst open, exploding in an instant, and a strong life energy surged out, merging into Ye Chen's body. The energy flowed through his entire body, automatically cleansing and refining his flesh, especially his skin, which had already begun to radiate a subtle glow.

  His skin had a tight feeling all over, becoming tough and thick. Ye Chen looked at his arm, the skin was no longer that pale, the color had deepened a lot, but undoubtedly became much stronger.

  "Physical Body Third Stage!" Ye Chen felt a bit unreal, thinking that he still needed to go through several more spiritual energy refinements before breaking through to the third stage. But after that cell particle awakened, the powerful blood and energy refinement of his physical body strengthened his skin, allowing him to directly enter the third stage of Refining Skin Realm.

  Ye Chen felt as if he had transformed into a fierce beast, possessing the strength of one. And after that cell exploded and then returned to its original shape, it became normal size again. Only the color changed to gold.

  "A cell awakening is equivalent to the power of a beast, how many cells are there in a person's body?" Ye Chen himself didn't dare to imagine, if all the cells in his body were awakened, how much power would he possess? Tens of billions of beasts? Would he still be human?

  It's just that thinking about it, awakening a single cell requires so much heavenly energy, and in the future, every awakened cell will need even more energy, perhaps increasing exponentially. So for Ye Chen, awakening all cells seems too far-fetched and unrealistic.

  "Cheers!"

  Ye Chen suddenly opened his eyes, let out a soft shout, and sprang into the air, punching with a swirling aura around his fist, forming a whirlwind that slammed into the trunk of a tree as thick as a bowl.

  Ka-chunk! With a loud noise, that big tree arrived on cue and was struck by Ye Chen, the spot where it was hit splintered into fragments!

  "A beast's strength should be comparable to a fifth-stage cultivator!" Ye Chen muttered to himself, a cold glint flashing in his eyes. "If I were to face off against Ye Qing again, I wonder who would win or lose!"

  "Who! Come out!" Ye Chen shouted, his voice like the cold wind of a winter's night, causing Nang'er, who was hiding in the distance and had been staring blankly at this point, to shudder all over, her legs weakening, and she almost fell to the ground with a thud.

  "I...I...Young Master...it's me..." Nang'er was frightened, having never seen her Young Master's icy side before.

  "Nan'er?" Ye Chen turned around, his face suddenly easing up, a hint of concern flashing in his eyes as he rushed over and pulled Nan'er up from leaning against the tree trunk, "How did you get here?"

  "Master asked me to come and call you for dinner..." Nang'er's voice was very small, she didn't dare look into Ye Chen's eyes, and weakly said: "Young master, your expression just now, Nang'er is so scared."

  "Silly girl, I'm still the same as before, what are you afraid of?" Ye Chen stroked Nang'er's head and said mysteriously: "What you saw just now can't be told to others, it's a secret between us."

  "Uh, Nannan didn't say anything and wouldn't tell anyone." Nannan raised her small face, with tears still in her eyes, but Ye Chen saw determination in those pitiful big eyes.

  "Let's go, let's go back for lunch." Ye Chen scratched Nan'er's nose and then turned around to run.

  "Wait for me, young master..." Nann'er immediately chased after him.

  Ye Chen was running at a moderate pace, teasing Nannan, he was very happy, as if his mood had become that of a teenager again.

  For a month, Ye Chen had been cultivating in the back mountain and had never gone out once.

  In the past, stone pillars were used. Since that awakening of a cell particle with the power of a fierce beast, the stone pillar was honorably laid off. Those heavy black iron weights came in handy. From the beginning, Ye Chen hung an iron weight and ran, punched, to now hanging five iron weights and running, carrying nearly two thousand kilograms of weight.

  On the empty land of about 100 meters, there were footprints of Ye Chen everywhere, with varying depths. The deepest one reached three inches deep. Within this month, Ye Chen's physical body had been raised from the third stage to the fourth stage through hard work.

  。

  He was constantly exhausting his physical strength every day, and the way he cultivated was almost cruel, far from what ordinary people could bear. Every time he was so tired that his whole body seemed to be falling apart, sweating like rain. Within a radius of ten miles behind the mountain, Ye Chen's figure was everywhere, either running with weights, climbing, punching with weights, or jumping. Except for eating and sleeping, he was cultivating at all times.

  In twenty days, after a dozen or so spiritual refinings, his skin had completely turned into ancient bronze, tough as copper skin. Two cell particles awakened again, increasing the power of two fierce beasts. After that, the strong life blood gas refined his skin to the strongest stage of flesh, and then refined the body muscles, breaking through three segments and entering the fourth segment of refining muscle realm.

  After entering the four-stage refinement of the flesh, Ye Chen's physique became much stronger and looked like a fourteen-year-old boy.

  Now Ye Chen's physical body is difficult to hurt, also a four-stage physical body, far stronger than the average same-level cultivator. His strength is even more terrifying, possessing the power of three-headed ferocious beasts.

  Such a cultivation speed has already far surpassed that of ordinary people. In the secular world, without high-grade spiritual medicine, even if one spends a huge amount of money, they can only buy low-grade superior products or extreme-grade spiritual medicine at most. If a single first-grade inferior spiritual medicine were to appear in the secular world, all the major aristocratic families, including the royal family, would go crazy trying to get it.

  In the secular world, a disciple of a noble family can break through from the third stage of physical body to the fourth stage within one year with the support of spiritual medicine, which is already considered to be quite talented. A speed like Ye Chen's has almost never appeared in the secular world.

  However, Ye Chen is now also worried about the problem of cultivation. Since his promotion to the fourth stage, the speed of his cultivation has decreased significantly. His body was like a bottomless pit, and the amount of spiritual energy he needed was tens or even hundreds of times that of an ordinary cultivator. This quantity was too terrifying, and if not for the mysterious mark on his chest, he might not be able to reach the peak of the ninth stage even if he cultivated for a lifetime.

  He had broken through to the fourth stage of physical cultivation for ten whole days, during which he had been constantly exhausting his physical strength. The seal on his chest remained as it was, and every time he ran out of energy, spiritual energy would surge forth, but the amount had clearly decreased significantly. In the mortal world, spiritual energy was scarce, and there were no spiritual veins. Almost all the spiritual energy within a hundred miles had been absorbed by the seal on Ye Chen's chest, leaving no effective replenishment. The mysterious seal could no longer allow him to take whatever he wanted as it had before.

  "If it were an ordinary person who possessed you, they might not even need to consider the problem of spiritual energy supply." Ye Chen stroked the mark on his chest and muttered to himself: "Only someone with my special qualities, being a bottomless pit myself, can absorb heavenly spiritual energy, but it's still not enough to meet my needs. It seems I'll have to find a way to get some first-class spiritual medicine, otherwise, at this rate, it will take at least several months to break through to the fifth stage, and who knows how long it will take to make another breakthrough after that."

  "Master! Master!"

  Just as Ye Chen was thinking, Nan Er's small figure appeared in the forest, like a happy butterfly, quickly rushing towards Ye Chen with an excited look on her face.

  "Nan'er, is something good happening? You look so excited." Ye Chen smiled and said, watching as Nan'er ran closer and closer.

  "Master, Nang'er has something good for you." Nang'er had one hand behind her back and the other wiping her face. It was only then that Ye Chen saw that the little girl's face was covered in mud and her clothes were also dirty.

  "Nan'er, how did you end up like this." Ye Chen reached out to wipe the mud from her face, his tone slightly reproachful, "You've gotten yourself looking like a little beggar, what have you been doing?"

  "Hehe." Nang'er smiled brightly, not minding the mud on her face at all. She stretched out the hand she had been hiding behind her back and said, "Young Master, look what I picked! This is the highest-grade low-level spiritual medicine 'Blood Ganoderma', with this, Young Master might be able to break through to the fifth stage!"