Chapter 32 - The Four Lords’ Arrival (1/2)

‘Palms Puncturing the Cosmos’ described an enigmatic cultivation system that was largely superior to a lot of its contemporaries, as it was likely to be at least Sixth, Seventh or even Eighth tier martial arts.

Yet, should it be juxtaposed with the Nine Astra Skies, it would be instantly and woefully relegated. This cultivation system could not even match any single technique mentioned in the latter!

Of course, Ye Chen was pretty sure that there was simply no cultivation system that could match a paragon such as Nine Astra Skies. To even try finding anything more superior than it would be nothing but a fool’s errand.

However, barring the cultivation system, ‘Palms Puncturing the Cosmos’ also featured six martial techniques. Each of them was at least Sixth or Seventh Tier materials while others bordered on being Eighth Tier.

For now, Ye Chen felt that trying to learn the cultivation system in this book was not very practical as learning these martial techniques would be too forward for him. After brief contemplation, Hence, Ye Chen decided that he would only learn these martial techniques after he had mastered every cultivation system in Nine Astra Skies.

After all, the biggest boon of the aforementioned discourse was that, as the arete of martial arts, a practitioner’s mastery over Nine Astra Skies automatically entailed mastery over every martial technique under the sun.

As there was no hurry to practice the techniques found in ‘Palms Puncturing the Cosmos’, Ye Chen tucked the book back in his cupboard together with the ‘Grand Supreme Way of Alchemy’.

‘Now, I’ll just focus on mastering every First Grade teachings in the Nine Astra Skies Discourse!’

With that, Ye Chen and Little Tanuki returned to training themselves again. It started with Ye Chen sitting cross-legged on his usual spot as he trained, switching between four kinds of elemental Celestial Chi.

Ice, wind, thunder, and lightning — they formed a formidable aggregate called “The Four Forces of Nature”, sharing the trait of being the composite nature that was derived from the Five Agents.

As he practiced, Ye Chen could feel four of these elementals spinning increasingly faster within his body like a whirlpool of their own, gulping in large amounts of Celestial Chi supplied by the Flying Dagger.

Little Tanuki stopped reading its book as soon as it noticed Ye Chen’s training. Eagerly, it hopped next to him and started to absorb his surplus of Celestial Chi. Unlike normal practitioners whose cultivation process would require them to salvage every Celestial Chi found in nature for themselves, whenever Ye Chen trained, his Celestial Chi leaked into the environment instead.

That was why everytime he started to train, his room would be ten times more saturated with Celestial Chi than any natural environment.

In the Patriarch Residency.

“I think I heard some noises outside of the castle just now. Do you think Chen’s experimenting with that Explosive-Seed-thing again?” Ye Zhanlong chortled.

Hearing the muffled boom from a distance, he could not help but recall the time when Ye Chen’s first experimented with that Explosive Seed. Back then, he had thought it was a coordinated attack from a Ninth Stage enemy!

With that incident serving as precedence, the seniors had become much more relaxed about it.

“As a father, I really should put a stop to his idle hobby, especially when it’s starting to distract a prodigy like him from his own cultivation.” Ye Zhantian mumbled disapprovingly after a pause, “I’ll talk to him later when I see him during lunch.”

“Relax, there’s no need to stop him from having some harmless fun every now and then! If it wasn’t for Chen, we would have never obtained something as potent as Thunder Emperor Discourse, you know,” Ye Changxuan replied mirthfully.

Their powers had been improving even more in the past few days. Should they finally be able to match Yun Yiyang and his men, they would be securing a safe future for the House of Ye for at least a decade to come. With Thunder Emperor Technique, the House of Ye could once again return to glory in the near future!

It was this optimism that made Ye Changxuan show more leeway to the younger generations.

Though they had no idea what had transpired outside Ye Castle, and neither did they find the need to discuss it, since they had reasoned that it was Ye Chen on his experiments again.

“That Explosive Seed that Chen’er sure packed a punch, huh? In fact, I doubt a Ninth Stage fighter would be able to brace an explosion head-on!” Ye Zhanlong recalled, smiling as he did. “I’ll say his experiment would ultimately be beneficial, Big Brother. Don’t worry.”

“Yes, Explosive Seeds are very useful, but it’s still limited in its use when going against a real Ninth Stage fighter. Besides, Ye Chen is just so talented and gifted, I really want to see him attain the Tenth Stage or even beyond while I’m still alive,” Ye Zhantian rebuked. “I want to see him reach a level that we’ve never imagined! This is why I’m worried that he is not focusing on his training and instead, investing his time and effort in his ‘hobby’.”

After all, was it not generally true that parents would always push their children into well-meaning adherence to arbitrary excellence?

“Big Brother, Chen’er is a very mature young man. Have faith in his ability to use time wisely,” Ye Zhanxiong said, reassuringly.

“Mm,” Ye Zhantian gave a terse reply with a strict expression. Yet, within his heart, Ye Chen had made him proud as his father.

A couple of hours had passed. As Ye Chen’s Lightning Pneuma Technique was slowly reaching consummation, he was starting to wonder which cultivation system to pick as the fifth to be practiced.