Chapter 361: Recovery, One Step Closer
Translator: 3heryl Editor: Hitesh_
"Two thousand mid rank soul stones. I know you have it. Take it out, or I will do it myself. By then, don't think I will leave one or two behind for you."
The man did not want to go all the way as well. If Ye Chen decided to do everything and escape from here and get to the Grand Elders, then he would probably stay alive, since he had already paid the three thousand mid rank soul stones plus the one thousand five hundred extra.
Without an expression, Ye Chen took out another pile of mid rank soul stones, which really made it seem like he had not got much more. The man revealed a smile immediately.
"There should not be that much more. An Early Astral Reaching Realm warrior should have about this much."
"Alright, this is your identification tag. Now, get out of here!" Putting away the mid rank soul stones, the middle-aged man waved his hand impatiently.
Ye Chen took a deep look at the man before leaving the registry.
…
On the streets of the first level city, Ye Chen in his blue attired walked at a calm pace.
"First of all, I will have to recover my body condition and increase my attacking power to its peak. On this island, only the powerful ones can have a say; it is just the rule. Without enough power, I will be exploited forever."
Letting out a frustrated breath, he increased his walking pace towards the restaurant at the end of the street.
"Sir, are you eating or staying?" The waiter welcomed him immediately.
"How much to stay?" Ye Chen asked.
"Ten low rank soul stones per day!"
"I will book a month for now. Here is the deposit and your tip." There were a lot of empty yards in the island, but Ye Chen did not want to deal with the authorities again, so he planned to stay in a hotel.
Walking to the second floor, the waiter led Ye Chen to an empty room, then asked while standing by the door, "Sir, how else can I help you?"
"Just bring me a table of food and some alcohol."
After eating days of dried wheat bread and barbecued fish, he felt like needing some change.
"Alright, please wait."
After the waiter left, Ye Chen found the washing room.
There was a hot water switch in the room. After switching it on, hot water dripped down through a bamboo tube into the tub.
After taking off his clothes, he jumped into the tub.
By the time he finished showering, the food and drinks were already there. There were mainly meat and very few vegetables. After eating and drinking a lot, it was already night time.
It was late at night, the thick fog accumulated from different directions drowning the island within. Day and night, there was an obvious different.
Sealing the door and windows shut, Ye Chen sat on his bed with his feet tucked under his body.
In order to increase the speed of recovery, he used both methods available to him; he took out the Sky Demon Flower after swallowing a meridian-recovering pellet, and absorbed the power through the flower petal.
Looking into the body, he could clearly see the meridians within his whole body.
There were main ones and secondary ones, thick ones and thin ones; some of them were even hidden in the deeper part of his body. If not sensed carefully, it would be hard to notice them, since some of them were even tangled together. Sometimes, there would be two meridians on one route, which would be like a complicated road map. Normally, the best martial arts did not even use all of the meridians; it would be excellent to use seventy percent already.
The black Sky Demon Flower spread out towards the damaged parts under his control. Soon, all of the meridians that it touched looked nourished. Meanwhile, the pellet was working as well.
Within a blink of an eye, five days had gone past, and all of his meridians seemed to have recovered by about seventy percent. His recovering speed was like a rolling snow ball. It was slow in the beginning, but it got faster and faster as time went by, since the quantity of the zhen yuan had a tremendous effect on the recovery of the meridians.
On this particular day, a hurried knocking sound was heard.
"What happened?" Ye Chen frowned.
"Sir, the tax people are here."
"Taxes?" He was a bit confused and said, "Let him in."
Crack! The door had been pushed open, and a group of warriors showed up behind.
"You are the guest? It is time for paying tax."
"What tax?"
The waiter explained, "The island pays their taxes once a month. One low rank soul stone for the Condensing Reality Realm warriors, ten for Clasping Yuan Realm warriors, five hundred for Astral Reaching Realm warriors."
Hearing him, Ye Chen sneered in his mind. This so-called party of the island really treated his people like sheep in the barn, harvesting once a month. Plus, it costs a lot to just get in and out of the city as well. Perhaps it meant nothing for him, but for those of who had survived here for a long time, it would be quite a burden.
"Here." He did not want trouble, so he took out five hundred low rank soul stones for the leading warrior.
…
Days came and went by. Ye Chen's meridians and his wound had finally cured completely.
After so many days of bathing in the power of Sky Demon Flowers, his body condition had reached way beyond before he was even in the forbidden island. But of course, body condition had nothing to do with qi and power; it only meant his physical body had strengthened, and would not be wounded again that easily.
Perhaps it was because he was wounded for so long, his zhen yuan core had been in a depressed period for a long time. His recovery now had freed his zhen yuan like it had never done before, and it was now full of life.
"Perhaps, in a week's time, I could try to challenge the peak level Mid Astral Reaching Realm."
The difference between the peak level and the normal Mid Astral Reaching Realm was the richness of his zhen yuan. Once it accumulated to its extreme and with no leverage to move forward, it would mean he had reached the peak level. If he wanted to jump to the next level, then it would mean making a breakthrough.
Holding a mid rank soul stone in each of his hands, he took a deep breath, accumulating his zhen yuan according the thirteenth level of his Green Lotus Sword Spell.
One full circle.
Two full circles.
…
Seventy-two full circles.
The zhen yuan inside Ye Chen's body grew richer and richer. It was almost like the ocean, not looking like it was going to die out soon.
On the second day morning.
Whoooo!
The air vibrated as the growing zhen yuan spread out different direction, pushing out everything besides the bed. The whole room was shaking.
"What is going on?"
The vibration had alerted the other guests of the hotel.
Inside the bedroom, he walked down from the bed and stretched, making cracking noises rise everywhere within his body.
"I am at peak level Mid Astral Reaching Realm now. Although I cannot still compete with unbeatable Astral Reaching Realm paragons, but Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warriors should not be a problem."
Earlier, when he had still not made a breakthrough yet, he could already compete against Shen Tujue. But right now, his zhen yuan had gotten twice as rich as before, which was a brand new improvement for Ye Chen's battling power. When facing Shen Tujue again, he still would not dare to say he could kill him for sure, but he knew he would not lose now.
Boom!
Throwing out an air punch and breaking the flower jar in the living room, he smiled lightly and walked to the door.
"It is time for revenge!"
…
At the registry…
"Sir, a Mid Astral Reaching Realm warrior would only have to pay nine thousand mid rank soul stones. Why do I have to pay twelve thousand?"
In the hall, a new Astral Reaching Realm warrior said with a hint of anger.
The middle-aged man sneered, "You are at peak level Mid Astral Reaching Realm, so, you will have to pay three thousand more mid rank soul stones than normal warriors. What? You don't want to? You better think this through. This is the foggy island; it is no longer unto you."
The reason that he dared to be this reckless, besides the fact that he was a Late Astral Reaching Realm warrior himself, he also had a Grand Elder and plenty of masters looking over him. Of course, eighty percent of the extra soul stones went to them, and the remaining twenty percent would still have to be calculated. In the end, he mostly only got about ten percent of the income.
Being forced by the man, the new Astral Reaching Realm warrior had to cave in, so he handed in twelve thousand mid rank soul stones. However, it was still not the end. The man wanted him to pay five thousand more, again. He did not want to stop until it was the last soul stones of the warrior.
"How can you exploit people like this?"
That Astral Reaching Realm warrior was mad.
"You are looking for death!"
The man flashed his body before appearing in front of that warrior. He threw out a palm attack with a horrifying aura. The air had been torn apart.
Poooh!
That warrior puked out a huge chunk of blood before backing out, looking pale.
"I am already going easy with that palm, but the next one would not be light."
Landing lightly on his seat, the man looked down at the warrior again.
"How prestigious!"
Right then, a bright voice found its way into the ears of the man.
"Who is there?"
The man yelled immediately.
A blue figure blurred in; it was Ye Chen appearing in the middle of the hall.
"It is you! Eh? You are at peak level Mid Astral Reaching Realm! Great, how dare you to fool me? Do you know what kind of trouble you are in?" The man was first shocked, then turned furious.
Ye Chen said calmly, "What kind of crime did I do? You are the one in trouble."
"Rude. Since you are at peak level Mid Astral Reaching Realm, then you will have to pay another seven thousand five hundred mid rank soul stones. Add to it my extra five thousand, not a single stone less. Otherwise, I will take your life." The man started to think about killing Ye Chen, who had shocked him too greatly. He had a bad feeling about it, and without a choice, he knew he had to kill Ye Chen before anything bad happened to him.
"Sorry, I am here this time not for paying soul stones. I came to take soul stones… Thirty thousand mid rank soul stones, not a single one less."
"Have you gone completely mad? Die now!"
The man was mad. He smashed his chair into pieces and attacked towards Ye Chen.
Using fist to face the palm attack, Ye Chen performed his Five Mountain Godly Fist, which he hadn't used in a long time. Judging in terms of perspectives, he had also made quite a huge progress. There seemed to be a huge mountain flying at an extreme speed towards his opponent.
Crack!
The hall broke down while the man was blown backward as he puked out a huge amount of blood.
"How can this be? You are only at peak level Mid Astral Reaching Realm!" After smashing into a wall, the man could not be more shocked.
Locking onto his target, Ye Chen said, "Thirty thousand stones, you are going to give them to me or not?" He did not want to kill him after all, since the man was a mid rank staff indeed. Killing him would be a huge slap in the face to the power party of the island.
"You are dreaming! Wave Palm!"
The man jumped into the sky, throwing out another palm attack. The water perspective spread out as a huge hand attacked towards Ye Chen like a huge wave of the ocean.
"Five Mountain Lone Peak!"
He did not have to use sword arts against the man, so he used the last movement of the Five Mountain Godly Fist. The rich mud perspective spread out the area as five surreal mountains layered up together. It broke through the palm attack brutally, then pressed his opponent on the ground.
"You are dead. I have Grand Elder Sun taking care of me. If you mess with me, then you will be dead." The man had been pinned to the ground without a chance of moving as he yelled.
"Without Grand Elder Sun here, you will get what you deserve."
Ye Chen did not say much more as he took the storage ring through the air and poured his zhen yuan in. All of the wealth in the storage ring revealed itself.
"This guy is so rich…" Through his mental observation, he saw six huge boxes of mid rank soul stones, each one of them having about ten thousand stones. There were sixty thousand stones in total. The loose ones also made up thousands of them. As for low rank soul stones, there were not much.
"Who dares to make trouble here in the registry?" The battle had made quite a bit of noise, and attracted the two Elders of the island nearby. On the island, the identity of the Elders was valued a lot, as each one of them were top Astral Reaching Realm warriors.