C9

Outside the valley where the Chinese sage root used to exist, Zi Chen stood silently.

Adjusting his mood, he wanted to kill the bear today.

To kill a Grade Five Vicious Beast.

After taking in a deep breath, Zi Chen entered the valley. Unexpectedly, he discovered that there was only one ice bear, and not the previous two.

"Roar!"

The ice bear that had just fallen asleep let out another roar. As a Grade Five Vicious Beast, it naturally had its sharp senses, no matter how careful Zi Chen was, he was only detected by the ice bear after he got close to the valley.

Its body was over three meters long and its hair was like steel needles. Each hair stood erect and its pitch-black eyes emitted a cold light.

Upon seeing Zi Chen, the human, the ice bear immediately rushed towards Zi Chen. Its large, fan-like palms swept towards Zi Chen's face along with a gust of wind.

He hated human ice bear s very much. The attack he was delivering at this moment was definitely his full power.

"Good timing."

Zi Chen's eyes lit up, the aura around him immediately increased, like a tiger that was in hibernation, ready to strike at any time.

"Roar!"

With a roar, the three types of Fierce Tiger Fist were instantly unleashed. In an instant, Zi Chen seemed to have transformed into a fierce tiger that pounced towards the ice bear.

A tiger and a bear collided head-on.

"Bang!"

A dull sound of impact echoed in the valley. Zi Chen's fist made contact with the ice bear's palm, and his body abruptly trembled. He involuntarily took a few steps back, and the blood in his body churned.

In the third level of the zhenqi, relying on his tough body, Zi Chen was actually able to fight evenly with a ice bear that was known for its great strength. This was simply inconceivable.

Zi Chen retreated a few steps, while the ice bear's body also shook violently, and could not help but retreat two steps. Within its cold eyes, it seemed that something unexpected happened, but soon after, it became even more furious.

The ice bear roared, and once again flew towards Zi Chen.

"Roar!"

The fierce tiger's roar also appeared once again, and the aura of a King of the Mountains instantly spread throughout the entire valley.

A tiger and a bear. The two hegemony s began to clash.

A dull thumping sound repeatedly resounded over the entire valley.

"Alright, again!"

Once again, Zi Chen was forced back. Blood was already at the corner of his mouth, but his eyes were shockingly bright; after continuously attacking several times, his zhenqi had been completely used up. Until now, he had only relied on his strong physique to maintain his undefeatable state.

To be able to compete with a Grade Five Vicious Beast in physique, Zi Chen's body could be said to be terrifying.

As the fist wind swept across, Zi Chen struck out once again.

The bear paw descended, creating a massive pressure.

"Floating Cloud Step."

Zi Chen stomped his foot on the ground, his figure suddenly flashed, and suddenly dodged the ice bear's attack. The Fierce Tiger Fist instantly hit the ice bear's body.

"Bang!"

The massive body of the ice bear had been knocked down by Zi Chen for the first time ever …

With a roar, the ice bear stood up once again.

During this period, the two sides had a mutual victory or defeat.

Two hours later …

With a roar, the two of them clashed again, following that, Zi Chen's body flew backwards, and after flying for more than 10 metres, he finally fell into the snow.

After an entire two hours of battle, Zi Chen was already exhausted. After fighting with the ice bear, Zi Chen could feel that his physique was stronger than the Level Four, but weaker than it by a little bit. He was now in the middle of Level Four.

Seeing Zi Chen being knocked flying and spitting blood, the ice bear's cold eyes finally fluctuated. It roared towards the sky, as if it was expressing its joy, and then, it quickly walked towards Zi Chen.

Humans were already exhausted and no longer had the strength to fight again. It could tell that it was time to reap the rewards.

Zi Chen was indeed exhausted, and was no longer able to continue fighting. He did not even have the strength to escape, he had already reached the limit of his energy consumption, just like when his life was at its limit.

However, when Zi Chen saw that the ice bear had not come, he did not feel much fear. Instead, there was some hope.

"Buzz!"

Just at that moment, Zi Chen's heart suddenly trembled, from within, a pure silver energy appeared, the energy instantly surged towards Zi Chen's body, like a dried up desert suddenly encountering water.

Every part of Zi Chen's body, blood, and bones, were absorbing the energy to their heart's content, but the strength that Zi Chen had just used, instantly recovered, as though he had eaten some miracle medicine.

"This is the fastest way of improving Heavenly Thunder Body Tempering Art." Zi Chen's eyes lit up. Under the nourishment of this energy, Zi Chen could feel the growth of his own strength.

This allowed Zi Chen's strength to increase rapidly. This rate of increase also far surpassed the speed at which Zi Chen was meditating in the lotus position earlier.

Zi Chen's tired expression had been completely swept away. His eyes shone as he jumped up from the ground and shouted angrily, "Again!"

Looking at the ice bear in front of him, Zi Chen seemed to see an extremely precious opponent, a sparring partner as his eyes emitted a green light.

"Roar!"

The tiger's roar shook the mountains. Zi Chen was like a fierce tiger, rushing towards the ice bear once again.

The Grade Five Vicious Beast had gained some intelligence, but it did not understand why the human, who was clearly exhausted, would suddenly be refreshed and release a stronger aura.

But ice bear was still a beast after all. With its cruelty, if he couldn't figure it out, he would directly fight.

A tiger and a bear once again fiercely battled.

This time, another two hours had passed. Zi Chen gradually occupied the top, and even though more and more blood was flowing out from the corner of his mouth, his eyes were still extremely bright.

"Buzz!"

After exhausting himself again, Zi Chen's heart beat once again. This time, the pure energy entered his body and Zi Chen felt his body undergoing a transformation. This was a metamorphosis that had improved, and also a metamorphosis that had broken through.

"A physique comparable to a Grade Five Vicious Beast." Zi Chen's eyes shone with an incomparably bright light.

After fighting for four more hours, the ice bear had exhausted all of its energy and had reached its limit. However, when it suddenly saw the exhausted human that was still in high spirits, it became alarmed and started to feel like retreating.

However, at this time, Zi Chen's body exploded with an aura comparable to that of a Grade Five Vicious Beast, as though his entire person had turned into a five levels tiger. It was exceptionally frightening, and that king's aura made the ice bear tremble even more.

This was the aura of a king that was released from the Fierce Tiger Fist.

"Roar!"

Another tiger's roar, Zi Chen consecutively released three moves, like flowing clouds and flowing water, it struck onto the ice bear's body.

"Bang!"

Amidst the dull sound, accompanied by the sound of bones breaking, the three-meter-tall ice bear was actually sent flying by Zi Chen's fist.

With a three level zhenqi and the physique of a Grade Five Vicious Beast, the combination of Zi Chen's energy and his fist was simply frightening to the extreme.

In the valley, the cries of ice bear sounded. ice bear, who had already consumed a lot of energy, had no strength to dodge Zi Chen's attacks that were like a torrential rain.

"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"

After a few consecutive attacks, the ice bear was finally lying on the ground without moving. It was unknown if it died from exhaustion or was forcibly killed by Zi Chen.

With the death of the ice bear, Zi Chen sat on the ground and panted heavily.

Today, he had actually killed a Grade Five Vicious Beast. This was something that Zi Chen did not even dare to think about in the past.

Taking out Lin Ying's long knife s from afar, in the time it took the zhenqi to surge, Zi Chen cut off the bear's paw.

One big bear was enough for him to eat for a very long time.

It was not easy to start a fire in a world of ice and snow, but as long as one had the heart, it did not seem that difficult.

Smoke rose as Zi Chen roasted the bear's paw and ate the bear's meat in the snow and ice.

With the death of the ice bear, this valley became Zi Chen's territory.

After eating and resting for a while, Zi Chen took out the long knife s, threw away the ice bear's body, and took out a black bear gall.

Bile was a great tonic, and was also an essential ingredient in refining some special Pills. It was also extremely useful to friar, although it would be a little wasteful to directly consume it, Zi Chen had no other choice.

After splitting open the bear's gall bladder, within were sparkling and translucent little circles of light. Occasionally, a faint golden radiance would appear.

"This is actually light gold. It really is a good item."

Looking at this pale golden round ball in the bear's gall, Zi Chen was a little surprised. The gold in the bear's gall was the best, followed by copper, black and dark green. As for the light gold, it had already been copper colored even better.

Zi Chen's luck was good.

Without any hesitation, he directly swallowed these small round pieces.

A strong bitterness spread out from his mouth. When the small round piece reached his stomach, a faint fragrance filled the air.

The Heavenly Thunder Body Tempering Art, once again channeled, Zi Chen began to refine these light gold bear gall things.

A warm glow with a faint golden glow appeared from within Zi Chen's body. It flowed along his meridians and started to circulate its energy.

Half of the energy was absorbed by the heart after the cycle was over. After Zi Chen survived, he discovered that his heart was like a high-speed filter, and all the natural energy that reached this place were absorbed, resulting in a purer silver energy appearing.

Although Zi Chen did not understand the reason, he knew that all of this was naturally caused by the fortuitous encounter back then. Maybe there was something in his heart, but strength was only a Genuine Qi Stage and he did not have any perception, so maybe by the time he reached Inborn Stage, he would be able to discover the secret to his heart.

A moment later, when his heart was still trembling, he completely refined all of the bear gallbladder's energy and transferred it into his limbs and bones. Some of it even passed through his meridians and reached the dantian.

The Heavenly Thunder Body Tempering Art mainly focused on refining the body, so the energy that entered the skeletal body would always surpass the energy that entered the dantian.

If he completely refined the energy within the bear's gall and entered the dantian, Zi Chen would definitely be able to recover back to his previous state of being at the fourth level of zhenqi, and even reach the peak of the fourth level. However, more than half of the energy was completely absorbed by his body, and after that, Zi Chen would only be at the peak of the third level of zhenqi.

"Peak of the third level of zhenqi, just over ten days of effort."

However, Zi Chen was very satisfied with this. Other than his strong physique, Zi Chen had gone from a cripple with his dantian to the strength of a third stage Zhenqi in just ten days. The speed of his growth was terrifying.

"There's still the ice bear. I must find it. Although I don't kill it, I can use it as a training partner to strengthen my physique a bit more."

Expectation filled Zi Chen's eyes.