Chapter 77 Cultivation

  On the second day, Lin City seemed to have calmed down. The streets and alleys no longer had people discussing the Ye family and the three major families, as well as the city lord's mansion. It was as if this had become a taboo topic that no one dared to mention.

  Everything seemed to have calmed down, and Ye Chen didn't bother with any of it. The three families still had illegitimate children in charge who were holding down the fort, while Ye Xiao Tian directly took people to take over all their industries. Later, without firing a single shot, he let everyone from the three families leave Lin City safely, without resorting to extermination.

  The three big families, apart from the direct descendants, those born out of wedlock didn't have much thought of revenge. Moreover, even if they wanted to do something, they didn't have the power to do so. Therefore, Ye Xiao Tian let them go, leaving a good reputation in Lin City.

  The current highest commander of the castle, Lige Xiao, had a large number of reliable soldiers under his command who came to surrender to the Ye family last night, totaling around 1,000 people. These were hot-blooded soldiers, although their individual strength was not strong, but in one aspect they were unmatched by the Ye family's guards.

  Under Ye Chen's suggestion, Ye Xiao Tian selected 1,000 excellent individuals from this group and the guards. After a series of assessments, they finally kept 500 people, who were intensively trained and later became the strongest fighting force of the Ye family.

  Five hundred low-grade high-quality spiritual herbs, one for each person, would be enough to bring the average strength of these five hundred people to above fifth rank within a few months.

  That afternoon, Ye Chen came over and personally selected a hundred people. These hundred people, Ye Chen asked Ye Xiao Tian to train them into archers, and required them to be able to use ordinary black bows within a year.

  The Ye family is dominant in Lincheng, and later on, it's inevitable that other families from different cities will want to take a share of the pie. The only way to ensure the Ye family's stability is to strengthen their power and make them have strong combat capabilities. In a few months, Ye Chen will also leave the family, at which time he won't be able to bear any responsibilities, and everything will depend on Ye Xiao Tian and his own efforts.

  Ye Chen came from Huaxia country, knew a lot of military training methods, wrote them in a notebook and handed it to Ye Xiao Tian, letting him train these people according to what he had written, then he went back to the small courtyard at the back mountain.

  The time for the arrival of the strong from the royal city is getting closer and closer, Ye Chen can't delay any longer, he must hurry up to cultivate and break through to the ninth stage boundary. He bid farewell to Nan'er and informed Ye Yan that he was going to the back mountain to cultivate. Then, Ye Chen took Ye Yan to the waterfall pool at the back of the mountain.

  "Yan Jie, have you memorized all the roads here?" Ye Chen said.

  "Remember, this is indeed a good place to cultivate, but why is the spiritual energy here so thin and sparse? It seems a bit abnormal. According to reason, the spiritual energy here should be much thicker." Ye Yan looked around and then ran to the edge of the water pool and sat down, taking off her shoes and socks, revealing a pair of crystal-clear and delicate jade-like feet, with skin as smooth as condensed fat, plump ankles, and sparkling toes, stretching into the water and gently stirring it.

  "The spiritual energy here was originally very dense, but I cultivated here for a period of time and absorbed all the spiritual energy, so it became so thin." Ye Chen walked to the edge of the water pool and sat down beside Ye Yan, whose jade-like feet were stirring in the water, making him dizzy.

  Ye Yan's eyes gazed at the layered ripples on the water's surface, her jade-like feet swimming like two snow-white fish in the water. She softly asked, "Chen brother, are sister's feet beautiful?"

  Ye Chen was startled and quickly shifted his gaze elsewhere, saying nothing to indicate silence, but his heart was sweating.

  "What's wrong?" Ye Yan was insistent, lifting one of her delicate jade feet out of the water. A drop of water rolled down from her ankle to her toes and fell into the water. "Didn't you say before that my sister's feet were the most beautiful? Now that you're older, you must have seen other girls' feet. Are you tired of me and think my feet are ugly now?"

  "How is this possible." Ye Chen denied, but he did recall the scene of Du Mu dancing naked that night, and compared to Ye Yan's feet, Ye Yan's seemed even more beautiful.

  "Is that so? Then why don't you even want to take a look, is the scenery on your left beautiful?" Ye Yan's voice carried a hint of anger, but her eyes flashed with an inexplicable smile.

  "No, just now my eyes felt a bit sour and I needed to move them." Ye Chen gave a very awkward reason, then turned his head, stretched out his hand and grasped Ye Yan's foot, putting it on his own leg amidst her cries of surprise.

  Smooth and delicate to the touch, like holding a beautiful jade, with a slightly cool and tender feeling.

  "Chen Di, what are you doing?" Ye Yan's face was slightly red as she smiled at him.

  "Put on your shoes." Ye Chen replied, "You're so big now and still like to play with water, when you were a little girl."

  As he spoke, he picked up the shoes and socks that had been placed aside and slowly put them on Ye Yan. Ye Yan's eyes were fixed on him without blinking until Ye Chen finished putting on her shoes. Only then did Ye Yan smile and say, "I feel like we don't look like siblings at all?"

  "What does your sister look like?" Ye Chen replied casually.

  "Like a pair of lovers." Ye Yan smiled brightly, with a hint of teasing in her eyes as she looked at Ye Chen.

  Ye Chen also smiled, looking directly into her eyes, saying: "Really? Then shouldn't we do something that couples like to do?"

  Just as Zhang was about to pounce on Ye Yan.

  "You stinky brat, you even dare to take advantage of your sister's kindness! You're really radiant when given some attention." Ye Yan teased, giggling and running off.

  Ye Chen didn't go after her, just teasing Ye Yan earlier. The closeness between them allowed the two to speak without much restraint, and occasional jokes were nothing out of the ordinary.

  "Yan Jie, you'd better go back now. Remember this place and come to inform me immediately if anything happens." Ye Chen stood by the water pool, looking at Ye Yan more than ten meters away.

  "Uh-huh, sister knows." Ye Yan nodded and reminded her: "You're alone in this deep mountain to cultivate, be careful. Sister is leaving, hoping that next time I see you, you'll already be at the 9th level boundary."

  Ye Yan left, Ye Chen saw her off until her figure completely disappeared from view. With Ye Yan's current strength, there wouldn't be any danger on the way back, so Ye Chen was at ease and didn't go to see her off.

  After Ye Yan's figure disappeared for a while, Ye Chen climbed up the waterfall and into the cave behind it, just like last time. He sat cross-legged on the wide ground at the deepest part of the cave, took out that one first-class spiritual medicine from his storage bag which he had stolen from the City Lord's mansion.

  This strain of spiritual medicine is different from the first-class spiritual medicine that Ye Chen used last time, and Ye Chen feels that it contains a stronger spiritual energy, and its volume is several times larger than that first-class spiritual medicine.

  Ye Chen took off his clothes, placed them aside, and stood naked. He calmed his mind and spirit, placing the spiritual medicine on his chest's acupoint. A suction force emerged, causing it to firmly attach to his chest. A circle of emerald green spiritual energy appeared, gushing out from the medicine, quickly forming a spiritual energy sphere larger than a fist, enveloping the spiritual medicine within.

  Spiritual energy entered his body, crazily surging into Ye Chen's body. Every meridian, every block of bone, and the five internal organs were all being strengthened. Especially the internal organs, which shone with a bright orange-gold light, their color deepening bit by bit.

  Ye Chen was shocked in his heart, the spiritual energy contained in this spiritual medicine was stronger than the previous first-class spiritual medicine in both quantity and quality. The purity of the spiritual energy in this spiritual medicine almost made him unbelievable.

  "Could it be that this isn't a first-rate inferior spiritual herb, but rather a single stem of first-rate medium-grade spiritual herb?"

  Yechen's heart skipped a beat as he thought about it - a first-class middle-grade spiritual medicine, that was the kind of spiritual medicine used by powerful cultivators who had experienced three Naihe Mijing (Mysterious Boundary of Life and Death) rebirths, and now it was being used on someone in the Mortal Realm.

  In the mountains, time flies by. Half a month later, Ye Chenbao's body shone with golden light, his internal chaotic blood and energy surging, his five organs and six viscera becoming as hard as refined iron under the refinement of spiritual energy and blood energy. His physical body became even stronger, to the point that even if someone who had experienced the first surge of the Naihe Secret Realm's life spring were to exchange blows with him, they would suffer heavy injuries.

  At this time, Ye Chen's cultivation had already rushed to the peak of the eighth stage, and the cellular microparticles in his body awakened again. From the beginning of his practice until now, there were already ninety golden light points in his body, which was equivalent to the power of ninety fierce beasts.

  The spiritual energy can no longer help Ye Chen break through his cultivation by cleansing his viscera, and now he can only rely on the continuous awakening of cellular microparticles to wash and refine his blood energy in order to enter the ninth stage realm.

  The spiritual energy in that spiritual herb was extremely abundant, completely enough for Ye Chen to impact the ninth boundary, and even not use it up at all. At this moment, Ye Chen finally confirmed that this spiritual herb was absolutely a first-class medium-grade spiritual herb, making him overjoyed beyond measure, never expecting to obtain such a treasure from the City Lord's Manor.

  Day by day, Ye Chen's cells awakened one by one, and the strong vital energy surged out, washing his internal organs until they were extremely tough. As the blood and energy circulated inside him, it sounded like a river flowing.

  On the twentieth day, a loud explosion sounded in Ye Chen's body. The ninety-ninth cell particle awakened, and his blood energy surged like a sea, churning turbulently within him. The golden light on his skin grew even more intense.

  Bang! Bang! Bang!

  Ye Chen's internal organs throbbed, emitting a loud rumbling sound, as if war drums were thundering, shaking the stone walls of the cave and causing the gravel to fall off with a rustling sound.

  At this moment, Ye Chen felt that the entire world had brightened up a lot. He was clearly closing his eyes, but he could see everything around his body. That was the perception of divine consciousness, the mark of the ninth stage. Only by entering the ninth stage can one scan the surroundings with divine consciousness and see everything at a glance.

  The spiritual energy continued to flow into Ye Chen's body, and he was shocked to discover that the ninety-nine cellular particles in his body had floated independently, forming a scene like a star map. He could no longer control the spiritual energy flowing into the cellular particles, which were now autonomously pouring into a certain acupoint in his body.

  Seeking flowers, today at three watches, the second watch is around 8 o'clock, and the third watch is around 10 o'clock.