Time flew like the breeze caressed the hill. In a blink of an eye, more than three weeks passed.
Jiang Yi’s plans for enhancing passive defense went well. Ji Tingyu couldn’t do anything to him. Ling Xue and her group didn’t dare to take any action. Anyway, the Martial Arts Hall would deal with Jiang Yi. Then again, they were no fools—why should they get involved? They could just sit by and watch the show.
Therefore, over the past few months, the continent was horribly quiet. The Summer Rain City was even quieter. Jiang Yi devoted himself to refining celestial stones. Last night, he finally managed to refine over a hundred celestial stones, and the essence force within the third star sphere was almost full.
He intentionally went out from his seclusion to alert the Yazi Beast and to ask Jiang Xiaonu to pause her cultivation. He was preparing for the final push. At such a crucial moment, there was no room for mistake. If the enemy attacked, the Yazi Beast and Jiang Xiaonu could stall them for a while.
After arranging for everything—!
He resumed his seclusion again. Rapidly refining the celestial stones one by one allowed the essence force inside the third star sphere to reach the maximum. As his essence force increased continuously, the third star sphere started to expand as expected. The essence force absorbed by the rest of the seven star spheres surged to the third star sphere at full speed, accelerating the expansion of the third star sphere.
Tsk-Tsk!
Above the Summer Rain City, the sky changed color; and the essence of heaven and earth rushed towards the city wildly. A bitterly cold wind blew over the entire city, and the white clouds gathered around. Even a common folk could sense the difference, let alone a martial expert.
There were many ordinary citizens inside the Summer Rain City, and they were frightened at the moment. After all, such a heaven-and-earth anomaly was terrifying. From the perspective of common folk, it could be easily linked to the punishment from the god.
Buzz!
Above the Nine Heavens, another star sphere lit up. A ray of light shot from the Nine Heavens, penetrated the cloud, and aimed at the royal palace of the Summer Rain City before disappearing.
“The god reveals himself. Hurry and worship him!”
“The mighty God, please bless and protect the Great Xia Kingdom and your people…”
“…”
It wasn’t only the ordinary men, but also many martial artists and soldiers were intimidated. One after another, people in the Summer Rain City threw themselves on their knees.
Just now, when the force of the star sphere was forming, everyone felt like dying because of the unstoppable atmosphere of demolishing the whole world. However, when this light ray shot down, there was no blast in the royal palace—not even any sound at all. One hundred of Soul Travel Realm guards didn’t show any reactions either. It meant that the royal palace was fine.
Who lived in the royal palace again? Jiang Yi—the King of the Great Xia Kingdom, its protector and its Regent.
There were so many legends about Jiang Yi. Now, he could even lead the god to descend and make miracles? Apart from the shock, people became excited and fanatical. At the moment, the crowd might willingly die if Jiang Yi asked so.
Once the heaven-and-earth anomaly showed, the continent was shaken.
Many had long been suspicious that the abnormal strength of Jiang Yi was related to two previous heaven-and-earth anomalies. Now that Jiang Yi triggered another, it went without saying that his strength had improved once again.
The Patriarch of the Ling Clan, Xiao Longwang, the Northern Liang Kingdom’s Sha Di, the Supreme Marshal of the Saint Spirit Kingdom, Principal Yu, and the group all paled with shock. Only three months had passed, and Jiang Yi’s strength increased again? When the three-year promise was due, could they—in total—win against Jiang Yi?
Two Elders of the Martial Arts Hall were surprised as well. In contrast, Ji Tingyu remained calm. She was extremely carefree and spent the time playing musical instruments for fun in her inner sanctum on her own.
Shui Youlan stood in the Clear Sky Pavilion. Her eyes were filled with sorrow. The more celestial stones that Jiang Yi had refined, the greater the impact it had on his future. Though she didn’t know how Jiang Yi triggered the forces of the Nine Heaven Stars, she was certain that Jiang Yi began to refine celestial stones again and in great quantity. He was going to keep refining until he was incapacitated.
On the balcony of the Thearch Palace at the Fairy Peak, the Demon Empress opened her eyes and glanced towards the south. Signing softly, she said, “This boy is completely wasted. The third star sphere has transformed. He has reached the limit…”
…
“Wow, what happened just now? Why am I feeling so scared?”
The royal palace in the Summer Rain City was in a state of chaos. Qian Wanguan was the weakest. Frightened by the horrible forces of the Nine Heaven Stars, he fell on the ground and couldn’t recover from his shock for quite some time. He woke up just now and couldn’t stop exclaiming.
Zhan Wushuang, Yun Fei, Su Ruoxue, and Jiang Yunhai looked at one another in surprise. On the contrary, Jiang Xiaonu was composed. In her mind, Jiang Yi was always the most impressive one. She would be surprised even if he suddenly became an immortal one day. She would just feel happy for him.
“Again?”
The Yazi Beast that was previously sleeping on the square outside the Drifting Snow Palace was woken up in shock. It looked at the palace with some fear, and its bell-sized big eyes were full of zeal. The Witch God once said as long as it followed Jiang Yi wholeheartedly, it would have the chance of breaking through the final step. Now, it looked like the chance was very promising.
“Huuu…”
In the bedroom, Jiang Yi let out a deep breath. He looked at the star sphere that shimmered with yellow light in his dantian and nodded in secret. Three stars had transformed. Finally, he reached the Vajra Realm.
Vajra Realm!
He got slightly thrilled. Although he killed a Vajra Realm martial expert months ago, he accomplished that by sorcery. The essence force within the first star sphere amazingly turned into the Nine Heavens’ Dragon Flames. He always felt unreal. Now, his essence force reached the Vajra Realm, and he realized the mid-grade Dao Pattern. He truly became a Vajra Realm martial expert.
“No… Vajra Realm martial experts can fly, but I can’t.”
Jiang Yi’s zealous eyes immediately darkened, but he wasn’t demoralized as he could almost fly with the help of instant shift. Exploring the outside with his divine senses, he made sure nothing was abnormal. Then, he began to inspect his body and check for any malfunction.
After careful screening, he was even more pleased—there was nothing abnormal. Casually, he circulated a trace of red essence force to his palm and turned it into the Nine Heavens’ Dragon Flames. Instantly, the temperature in the bedroom increased. Indeed, his body was alright.
“Ah… the red essence force within the first star sphere can turn into flames, can the orange essence force within the second star sphere turn into some other magical powers? What is the use of the yellow essence force within the third star sphere?”
An idea suddenly struck Jiang Yi. Following the original transformation method, he moved the orange essence force within the second star sphere in an attempt for transformation—what if a kind of more powerful flame was produced?
It turned out that the orange essence force couldn’t be transformed. There was no sign of spark on his hand. Jiang Yi had no choice but to withdraw the red essence force. Then, he circulated the yellow essence force within the third star sphere and was ready to give it a try.
Just at that moment, an unexpected change suddenly happened!
Once essence force emerged from his dantian, Jiang Yi arbitrarily mobilized it towards his meridians. As a result, the essence force dashed frenetically along his meridians—as if it had lost control. His meridians ruptured as the yellow essence force passed by.
“Pfff!”
Jiang Yi’s vision turned black; he spat a mouthful of blood and almost passed out. At the crucial moment, he pulled himself together and tried his very best to expel that essence force from his body. Otherwise, if it continued to move along his meridians, all of his meridians would be broken.
Boom!
As soon as the essence force left his body, it squirted onto the wall beside him. The entire palace shook, and the walls collapsed—alarming the people guarding outside.
Swish! Swish!
Zhan Wushuang and the rest rushed in hurriedly. Seeing Jiang Yi, who was constantly spurting blood, all were terrified. Jiang Yi was finally relieved after seeing the crowd and blacked out.
Before becoming unconscious, the words of Shui Youlan, the Demon Empress, and Zhuge Qingyun suddenly echoed in his mind. All of a sudden, he realized the problem—he had refined way too many celestial stones, and finally… something went wrong.