Chapter 170: You Really Are a Monster

At this moment, in the eyes of Qu Mei, Xu Chen was like a monster that kept exploding.

The apertures all over his body were bursting open in strings along different meridians like firecrackers; blood, Yuan Qi, and white light sprayed and intertwined, making his whole body look as if it were wrapped in a mass of blood-red clouds, with an additional faint, illusory Blue Starlight—the whole person looked incredibly bizarre.

Meanwhile, Xuanchen Zhenjun and Xuanhe Zhenren, who had been monitoring Xu Chen with their Divine Sense, were likewise so astonished that their jaws dropped.

Originally, when Xu Chen's Shan Zhong Xue exploded, Xuanhe Zhenren had been given a great fright and stood up in a hurry, intending to go over personally to protect and look after him; however, he immediately discovered that Xu Chen showed no signs of injury. Instead, as the apertures shattered, his aura surged sharply; he had actually found the location of his life-aperture and completed the first step of Foundation Establishment and aperture-breaking, which was why he suddenly relaxed and sat back down to continue observing.

And the subsequent process of Xu Chen's Foundation Establishment could be called bizarre and miraculous.

Even the Dao hearts of the two old cultivators, which had been as steady as old dogs for over a hundred years, almost couldn't hold up and fell into a state of chaos.

Because all one hundred and eight life-and-death vital apertures of Xu Chen's body were exploding with flesh and blood in almost the same way.

And as these apertures exploded, the aura Xu Chen emitted grew stronger and stronger, clearly in the process of rapidly completing his Foundation Establishment.

That is to say, the process of Xu Chen's Foundation Establishment had actually blasted open the flesh and blood of his apertures as well.

This was absolutely a wonder of the world.

Not to mention that the two old Daoists had never heard of it, in the entire Great Song and even the Shenzhou region, such an inconceivable method of Foundation Establishment had never been heard of in thousands of years.

But what was incredibly surprising was that Xu Chen had actually succeeded.

And the speed was incredibly fast.

While others needed at least one or even three days for the Foundation Establishment process, he had completed it in just under two quarters of an hour.

Xu Chen was fully focused, continuously guiding the white Qi to strike his apertures, until at one moment, he felt his whole body suddenly lighten, as if the Yuan Qi within his entire body had a sudden sense of clarity and comfort; only then did he stop the Demon Refining Art and look inward with his Divine Sense, discovering that, unknowingly, all one hundred and eight major apertures of his body had been broken through, and all his main meridians were now unobstructed, with no more barriers.

However, soon the ease and joy on his face turned into immense surprise.

Because he discovered that after all the apertures whose flesh and blood had been blasted open healed and recovered rapidly, a mass of Blue Starlight had condensed and appeared at the location of each aperture in his Divine Sense; depending on the aperture, they were of different sizes, slowly flowing like illusory clouds at the aperture locations, independent of each other yet seemingly connected.

All one hundred and eight vital apertures of his body slowly turned into clusters of faint starlight, presenting themselves on the nodes of the crisscrossing meridians; with spirit light flickering and Yuan Qi surging, it was just like a magnificent and vast strange starry sky presented in the dark universe.

He used his Divine Sense to touch the starlight clouds at these aperture locations and actually felt a connection of heart and mind, as if they all had a thousand threads of connection with the Blue Light Treasure Bottle in his Sea of Consciousness, but this connection was very vague, impossible to touch or perceive carefully, just like an illusory illusion.

Xu Chen roughly recalled the origin of these Blue Starlight clouds: it was when his Divine Sense had intruded into the interior of the Blue Jade Bead that these Blue Starlight merged with his Soul and completely hid within his body.

But now, with the success of his Foundation Establishment, after these apertures were broken through, the starlight condensed and appeared, and could be clearly seen with his Divine Sense.

He did not know if the apertures becoming like this would affect his cultivation in the future.

Xu Chen was a bit at a loss.

Because after all the apertures of his body were opened, apart from forming a closed Yuan Qi circulation system with his meridians and dantian, the apertures could also be controlled to open and close freely through Yuan Qi, thereby forming different Yuan Qi channels, which could exert greater effects of Yuan Qi, especially when applying Magic Spells and Magic Treasures, where the power would be greater and more precise, with less waste.

In addition, after the apertures were blasted open, there was another greatest benefit: in the future, he could absorb Spirit Qi from the outside world through the broken apertures to cultivate; Qi Replenishing Pills would relatively speaking no longer be indispensable items, and on ordinary days he could use Spirit Stones to set up a Gathering Yuan Array to assist in cultivation, which would be much more convenient.

However, soon, Xu Chen threw this thought to the back of his mind for the time being.

After all, the success of Foundation Establishment marked a qualitative increase in his realm and strength; for now, he needed to stabilize his realm first, and the changes regarding the apertures could be left for later to study slowly.

When the cart reaches the mountain, there will be a road; when the boat reaches the bridge, it will naturally go straight.

The Blue Jade Bead was a true Immortal Treasure, and for now, it seemed to have only benefits and no harm; there was no need for him to question these things that he couldn't wrap his head around—as long as there were benefits, that was enough.

Therefore, Xu Chen tried to release his Divine Sense; suddenly, the Blue Light Treasure Bottle in his Sea of Consciousness brightened slightly, and its texture seemed to become a bit clearer, while at the same time, a faint blue light like illusory clouds swept out in all directions like a tide.

Xu Chen's body shook violently, his face full of an expression of disbelief.

Because he discovered that his Divine Sense had reached over a hundred miles away in the blink of an eye, and the entire hundred-mile area of the Taiyuan Sect was presented in his Sea of Consciousness, and even the situation near the Spirit Fox Valley could be seen clearly.

Under such powerful Divine Sense, he naturally also easily sensed the two Divine Senses of Xuanchen Zhenjun and his master, Xuanhe Zhenren.

When Xuanchen Zhenjun and Xuanhe Zhenren were touched by this wave of Xu Chen's Divine Sense, they immediately felt as if they had been scalded; while each quickly withdrew their Divine Sense, they sat in their respective cave dwellings, their faces full of dullness, their mouths open so wide that a large duck egg could be stuffed inside.

This brief contact of Divine Sense was even more unbelievable than the inconceivable Foundation Establishment process of Xu Chen they had just witnessed.

Was this the Divine Sense strength of the early Zhenyuan Realm? It was simply stronger than the Danyuan Realm.

And this Divine Sense was not ordinary; it actually carried a strange lethality, and upon touching it, one felt a stinging pain in the soul, just like being poisoned.

Sensing that the Divine Senses of his master and the Supreme Elder had retreated, Xu Chen was surprised but also a bit anxious, thinking to himself that he had made a huge fool of himself by actually discovering his Master and the Supreme Elder.

Therefore, he hurriedly withdrew all his Divine Sense.

And just in that moment of Xu Chen withdrawing and releasing his Divine Sense, all the inner and outer sect cultivators of the entire Taiyuan Sect seemed to feel at the same time that they had been looked at by an invisible gaze without any restraint; their souls trembled slightly, and they felt a chill in their horrified hearts.

This feeling was very bizarre, but when they released their Divine Sense to investigate the source of the heart-palpitating aura, they found that within the range of their Divine Sense, it was empty and everything was as it had been; the sky was clear and the sun was shining brightly, and the entire mountain gate was completely normal.

Xu Chen let out a long breath and opened his eyes.

He discovered that his eyelids were actually stuck together, and as he opened them, blood scabs fell off with a pattering sound.

What met his eyes was the strange expression of Seventh Senior Sister Qu Mei, who was staring at him blankly with a pair of large eyes.

"Seventh Senior Sister, what's wrong with you? Are you not feeling well?" Xu Chen was startled and asked hurriedly.

Qu Mei stared at Xu Chen for a long time before saying: "You really are a monster. To think there is someone like you in the world who undergoes Foundation Establishment like this; I have truly seen something new. You are all dirty; go take a bath and change your clothes quickly. I am going to Master's place first."

"Oh, then go ahead. By the way, help me get something to eat; I'm so hungry!"

"If you want food, go find your Thirteenth Senior Sister. I don't know how to cook, though I do have some dry cakes!"

"Dry cakes will do... wait, how did my clothes get torn like this!" As Xu Chen spoke, he saw his body covered in blood scabs and his clothes in tatters, and he couldn't help but exclaim and jump up.

However, he immediately felt a chilly breeze on his lower body; looking down, he hurriedly covered his crotch and soared into the air, heading toward the Medicine Garden waterfall. Only after flying into mid-air did he realize and hurriedly use both hands to cover his backside.

"Seventh Senior Sister, you can't blame me; just pretend you didn't see anything..."

Amidst the lingering echoes, Xu Chen disappeared in the direction of the back mountain in the blink of an eye.

"Woo-ya~"

The Spirit Fox Xiaobai, who had been lying at the door, let out a joyful cry and hopped along the path toward the Medicine Garden waterfall as well.

"Pah, what's there to cover about a bare butt!"

Qu Mei chuckled, spat, threw out her Flying Sword, and headed toward Zhaoyang Peak.

And at this time, Xuanchen Zhenjun and Xuanhe Zhenren had also more or less come to their senses.

"Senior Brother, what do you think?" Xuanhe Zhenren asked.

"What else can I think? Let's observe slowly. This matter has completely exceeded my understanding; I fear that even if Chixia Zhenjun were here, he would definitely not be able to understand it!" Xuanchen Zhenjun said after a long silence.

"Sigh, it seems that is all we can do!" Xuanhe Zhenren sighed heavily.

The two strongest Elders of the Taiyuan Sect could neither understand nor fathom it, and there was simply no way to communicate, so they could only continue their secluded meditation separately, yet their minds were in a complete state of chaos.

As Xu Chen's realm grew higher and higher, the anomalies manifesting on his body became increasingly obvious.

Furthermore, with the improvement of his cultivation, the growth of his strength was also terrifying.

With cultivation at the entry level of the Zhenyuan Realm, he surprisingly possessed the Divine Sense strength of the Danyuan Realm; matching this must also be a powerful Soul comparable to the Danyuan Realm, and to support such powerful Divine Sense probing, he must also have thick and substantial Yuan Qi to sustain it.

He has only just succeeded in Foundation Establishment; if he were to cultivate to the late stage of the Zhenyuan Realm, wouldn't even Danyuan Realm powerhouses be unable to do anything about him?

And when he cultivates to the Danyuan Realm, could he perhaps even contend against a Spirit Transformation Great Cultivator?

The more he thought, the more chaotic his mind became; Xuanchenzi had no heart to continue meditating and cultivating, so he simply stood up and sent a voice transmission to Xuanhe Zhenren: "With Junior Brother sitting in charge of the mountain gate now, I feel more at ease. It just so happens that my Magic Treasure has also just finished being refined, so I might as well go out for a trip to scout the situation of the Soul Beast activities, and at the same time get to the bottom of this matter, so as to avoid being kept in the dark by Yuqing Hall and Longmen Mountain."

Xuanhe Zhenren was similarly in a state of mental turmoil; he stood up and replied: "That is also fine. Currently, Black Wind Ridge and Spirit Fox Valley are still considered stable, and there is also a Danyuan Realm Daoist Friend sitting in charge of each, so I imagine nothing will go wrong. Senior Brother need not worry about the affairs of the mountain gate."

"Mm, regarding Junior Brother Xuanfeng's Golden Core formation, I ask that you please carefully guard his cultivation; if Junior Brother Xuanfeng also succeeds in forming his Golden Core, only then can our Taiyuan Sect truly gain a firm foothold in the territory of the Song Kingdom."

"Rest assured, Senior Brother. The effect of that Seven Spirit Pill is extremely miraculous; I imagine there will not be any major problems. I will definitely guard him carefully and protect the mountain gate well."

"Very well, I am off!"

After Danchenzi gave a few words of instruction, he took a step forward, his body transformed into a gust of clear wind, and he vanished from the cave chamber in a flash, disappearing without a trace in an instant.

(End of this chapter)