Chapter 118 - 4-Star Astral Spirit
Yaan spent some time practising flying whilst observing his energy expenditure.
Once he felt his energy depleting yet again, he landed on the ground and nodded to himself.
“Amazing, by combining my various powers together, I could potentially utilise flying, even on the 4th level! Only…I won’t be fighting just on the 4th level from here on. On the higher levels, the pressure will continue to increase, as will the expenditure of energy. Once the Spiritual Pressure and gravity reach a certain point, flying is simply too slow and inefficient to actually be of much use in battle, maybe aside from evading upwards.”
Although he felt tempted to continue practising, or even to leave the tower so that he could fight once again and test himself, Yaan avoided this desire and instead sat back down.
“Those fellows on the 9th floor are definitely monitoring my actions, and since I cleared out the 3rd and 4th levels, then immediately entered the temporal chamber, it’s obvious that I’m trying to grow stronger quickly without any distractions. When I entered the chamber, the 3rd and 4th levels were still empty, so I should have at least a couple of days…”
Whilst Yaan had been within the chamber for three months now, that was three months under the 108 fold accelerated flow of time. In the outside world, not even one day had passed by.
Yaan spent some time examining his internal condition and confirming that his foundation was firm enough that he could safely continue training. Compared to Qi refiners, the foundation wasn’t as important for body temperers, but it was at least necessary to confirm that his Vital Core was fully formed and undamaged.
Next, Yaan decided that the best course of action was to increase his strength as rapidly as possible. For this endeavour, there was only one choice.
Astral Power!
“Whilst Astral Power can’t assist my progress through the Four Paths Cultivation Technique, it’s still my best option right now. So far, I’ve only had to face two Demon Core Realm cultivators who were demoted from the 6th level, at least one of them was likely a probe manipulated by those on the 9th level…I don’t know why they didn’t send anyone stronger, but now that I’ve entered this chamber, they’ll definitely act if they’re able to do so. I need to become stronger as quickly as possible.”
Yaan would prefer to focus on further improving his constitutions, or building up his blood essence, which he now possessed over 5,000 drops of, or even training his Psyche Power. Unfortunately, these were all longer-term goals, they required time that he did not have right now.
Being an inheritor candidate had its perks, but it was also accompanied by a great deal of pressure. This was likely the intention of the being who left behind this inheritance, to teach their ‘inheritor candidates’ that sometimes, they needed to grow whilst living under immense pressure.
And so, Yaan retrieved a 4-Star Astral Crystal from his spatial ring, which he could now operate with either his Astral Power or Vital Energy.
4-Star Astral Crystals were both rare and expensive. The exchange rate for 1-Star through to 3-Star Astral Crystals was 1,000 times that of the previous rank, even though each higher rank of astral spirit was clearly around 100 times stronger than the last. The difference in price was apparently due to the high difficulty in imprisoning astral spirits in this black crystalline form.
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For 4-Star Astral Crystals, it was even worse. If you wanted to buy a 4-Star Astral Crystal from the 1st level pagoda, it actually cost 10,000 3-Star crystals! That, or you could exchange for rare treasures, in which case you would likely get a better deal.
Yaan was in no short supply of Astral Crystals, but 4-Star crystals were still exorbitantly expensive. Even so, he made sure to accumulate 120 4-Star Astral Crystals before entering the chamber this time. Some of these were used as payment to run the chamber, the rest were for Yaan’s Astral Power cultivation.
After taking a deep breath, Yaan stared at the crystal, then shattered it in his palm.
“HAAAAAA!”
A deep ominous growl, or perhaps it was better described as a roar, exploded outwards as soon as the crystal shattered. In an instant, all light faded from the room, seemingly absorbed into the enormous shadow of a figure that now loomed over Yaan’s small body. The difference in size between them was simply too ridiculous, but Yaan remained composed and stared forwards with a narrow gaze.
He could feel the pressure released by this astral spirit. Whilst the spirit itself was not his match in battle, to form his 2nd 4-Star Astral Tattoo, Yaan would need to let this monster into his body, then to subdue it from within…
He had a feeling that this would not be easy. He could choose to back out now and simply kill the spirit, but he did not do so…although Yaan was sure that this would be difficult, he was still entirely confident that he would prevail.
Whoosh!
In an instant, the astral spirit rushed into his body. Yaan’s eyes widened as his entire system felt shocked by the impact. The shadow filled his body, but he quickly adjusted, narrowing his eyes into a deep glare whilst gritting his teeth.
Yaan immediately began utilising his Psyche Power, using it to batter the spirit back down as it attempted to enter his mind. He then quickly cycled his Astral Power and Vital Energy to combat the astral spirit within his body.
There were many methods that could be used to subdue astral spirits, but Yaan found this to be the most effective. In the past, he once allowed astral spirits to enter his mind…this was the most stupid and least effective method. Attempting this with a 4-Star astral spirit would probably lead to his death, not to mention the fact that even if he succeeded, it would simply take far too long.
Others would struggle to maintain their willpower as the astral spirit fought to enter their mind whilst also wearing down their body, but this was much less of a concern for Yaan. He had Psyche Power, and although Psyche Power didn’t exactly correspond directly to willpower or mental resilience, it acted as a sort of buffer, allowing the cultivator to use their Psyche Power before needing to rely on their willpower.
Yaan’s Psyche Power rapidly wore down as he urged it ceaselessly, fighting against the astral spirit whilst forcefully restraining it at the same time. This battle dragged on for some time, it was actually a full hour before the astral spirit showed signs of weakening.
After another hour passed by, finally, the astral spirit completely lost to Yaan’s assault. Its will gave in before it was subdued by Yaan and forcefully compressed into his flesh, forming a black tattoo on the back of his left hand. Yaan exhaled deeply as the tattoo sank into his body, vanishing since he was not actively using his Astral Power any longer.
“That was more difficult than expected…everything at Rank 4 is substantially stronger compared to Rank 3…”
Yaan was extremely exhausted right now, all of his energies had been worn down, and that was even after he repeatedly consumed recovery pills to supplement and support his usage. This was the first time that he had actually subdued a 4-Star astral spirit, since his first 4-Star Astral Tattoo was formed by the fusion of 100 3-Star Astral Tattoos.
“Unfortunately, the body can only contain a maximum of 100 Astral Tattoos at one time, otherwise I would rather just subdue another hundred 3-Star astral spirits.” Yaan murmured to himself.
Yaan took a few hours to completely recover, but hesitated before continuing to cultivate his Astral Power further.
“I ended up in a worse state than expected, fighting in that condition would be too difficult…I should check on the situation outside before continuing. If the 3rd and 4th levels are still empty, then I’ll go on. If they’re not empty, I’ll find out how people are reaching these levels before deciding on my next move.”
With that, Yaan departed from the cultivation chamber which was located beneath the tower of the Temporal Acceleration Pagoda. He ascended the staircase and walked outside, pausing briefly for a moment when he noticed that the inside of the tower was completely empty. This was extremely unusual, because there were always trial spirits present within the pagodas…
The moment he stepped outside, Yaan was stunned.
The previously pristine, imposing tower was now covered in cracks from top to bottom. Clearly, the cracks had not managed to split through the tower completely, they were only surface level and did not damage the tower’s functionality, but it was still shocking to see such an incredible construct in this condition!
As Yaan looked around, his eyes widened in shock and for some time, he couldn’t quite understand what was going on.
It wasn’t just the tower, but the entire surrounding area; everything was completely decimated! The previously well-kept scenery was now in tatters, valuable herbs, flowers and plants torn apart and burned to ash, spreading out for hundreds of feet around the tower!
What stunned Yaan even further, was seeing both the old trial spirit and the devil spirit levitating in the air, staring down at the tower.
The moment he emerged, both spirits’ gazes locked onto him intently as a deep burning look swelled up within their eyes.
Yaan felt completely bewildered by all of this…
Just what happened whilst he was training?!