Chapter 716, Starry Sky Tempering
Amidst the endless Starry Sky, the beige coloured light curtain that was surrounding Yang Kai and Di Yao thinned slightly and allowed in a wave of violent energy that tore at their bodies.
Immediately, both of the young men showed pained expressions, their bodies trembling as countless small, bloody wounds appeared on their skin.
Although Di Yao had the face of a gigolo and was prettier than most women, his physique was actually quite strong, far surpassing what an ordinary Alchemist would normally possess. It could be said that Di Yao was the same similar to Yang Kai in that not only was he proficient in Alchemy, but also in combat.
Both of them sat within the protection of the defensive artifacts and while they tempered their physiques they also tried to perceive the mysteries of the Starry Sky’s energies, trying to glean some benefits from it.
Quickly, two days passed since they first came to the Starry Sky. For the past two days, Di Yao had been occasionally weakening the power of his defensive artifacts to allow the Starry Sky’s ambient energies to leak in, each time increasing the amount slightly. For him, the harvest was not small.
These two days worth of tempering had made his body a lot stronger.
However, Yang Kai gradually felt somewhat dissatisfied. The Starry Sky energy which was allowed into the defensive shield now had essentially no effect on him at all while Di Yao was obviously being pushed to his limit.
If Yang Kai were to continue cultivating here, it would be impossible for him to make any significant progress.
After thinking about it for a while, Yang Kai suddenly said, “Brother Di, let’s act separately. I can see that maintaining this artifact consumes a great deal of your True Qi, but if you don’t need to protect me as well, your expenditure should decrease significantly.”
These past two days, Di Yao had been constantly taking pills to supplement his True Qi, otherwise, it would have been impossible to maintain this artifact’s shield.
Fortunately, he had apparently brought many high-quality pills, obviously in preparation for this situation.
Hearing this, Di Yao frowned, “Acting separately is fine, but do you have a Saint Grade defensive artifact? It can’t be Saint Grade Low-Rank either, it has to at least be Mid-Rank to withstand the ambient energy here.”
“I think… I probably don’t need to use an artifact,” Yang Kai replied hesitantly.
“…what?” Di Yao apparently thought he had heard wrong, “You want to resist the strength of this Starry Sky energy directly with your flesh?”
“Let me try it first, if I can’t then I’ll think of something else,” Yang Kai suggested.
Di Yao’s brow wrinkled and only after a long silence did he nod slightly, “Then you be careful, although I also think that your physique is stronger than mine, this is no joking matter. This is the Starry Sky, if one’s physique is not strong enough, the only result will be death, even Saint Realm masters are no exception to this!”
“I know,” Yang Kai smiled, “I’m heading out.”
As soon as he said so, Yang Kai left the scope of Di Yao’s artifact.
Now fully exposed to the Starry Sky, Yang Kai immediately felt a drastic difference. From all directions, indescribable energy surged towards him, as if he was surrounded by an invisible enemy that was mercilessly attacking every inch of his body.
*Xiu xiu xiu…*
Atop his firm muscles, countless small wounds appeared and blood began flowing out, but Yang Kai not only felt pain, but excitement as well.
Sure enough, with just his body alone, he was able to withstand the destructive energy of the Starry Sky; in fact, not only did he not have to worry about his life, if he continued tempering himself like this, the benefits he would obtain were simply unimaginable.
Di Yao’s face went blue in an instant, his expression twitching violently for a while before he let out a long and envious sigh, “Monster!”
He did not dare to leave the scope of his artifact’s protection. Although his physique was indeed above average, it was far from the freakish level of Yang Kai.
Even if he were to take a few more years and dedicate them to tempering his physical form, he may not be able to achieve such a standard.
“How do you feel?” Di Yao quickly calmed down and asked curiously.
“Terrible,” Yang Kai’s face made a pained expression as shot a grin towards Di You, “Would you like to come out and try?”
“Yeah right, I still have some self-knowledge!” Di Yao quickly refused, “Good, since you don’t need the assistance of my defensive artifact, we’ll act separately and see who finds the Void Corridor back to Tong Xuan Realm first.”
“Good!” Yang Kai nodded.
“It’s not convenient for us to contact one another here if I find the Void Corridor and reach my limit but you still have yet to appear, I’ll take my leave first.”
“Brother Di doesn’t have to worry about me, when I’ve had enough, I’ll leave here on my own.”
“Then be careful not to die out here,” Di Yao reminded, “Keep in mind that the ambient energy of the Starry Sky is not evenly distributed, there may be some places where it is far more concentrated and violent, you should avoid such places at all cost or you really will die without any chance of burial!”
“There are such places?” Yang Kai’s showed an expression of eagerness and excitement.
Seeing this, Di Yao rubbed his forehead and felt a big headache coming on. He found that Yang Kai indeed had a similar personality to his own but there was one big difference between them. When faced with great danger, he was the type that liked to approach it from a stable position while Yang Kai was the type that liked to dive in and take risks.
“Good, I’ve said what I needed to say if you still die then that’s your own fault. Goodbye, let’s meet again in Floating Clouds City!” Di Yao was too lazy to care about Yang Kai’s recklessness any further and simply cupped his fists, turned around, and prepared to leave.
“Take this with you,” Yang Kai threw something out to Di Yao.
“What is it?”
“Something good,” Yang Kai smiled, “If you suffer any grievous wounds, apply this to them and they’ll soon be healed.”
“Thanks,” Di Yao smiled and nodded before quickly drifting off into the Starry Sky.
Staring at his disappearing back, Yang Kai smiled.
Yang Kai was quite fond of Di Yao, he had received a great deal of help from the latter regarding this time’s quest to obtain the Thousand Year Demon Flower’s medicinal liquid. Without Di Yao, Yang Kai knew it would have been impossible for things to have gone so smoothly.
So before they parted, Yang Kai had gifted Di Yao some Myriad Drug Milk.
The Yang Kai from before, who had not delved into the Alchemic Way, could not tell the grade or preciousness of various high-quality medicinal herbs, but now that he was an experienced Alchemist, his vision had become much more refined.
He could now somewhat identify the various grades of the Myriad Drug Liquid series.
The lowest level Myriad Drug Liquid could be considered Spirit Grade while the Myriad Drug Milk was Saint Grade. As for the small amount of Myriad Drug Cream he possessed, Yang Kai was still unable to completely classify it but he always felt it was somewhat different and beyond the scope of Saint Grade.
Giving Di Yao some Myriad Drug Milk was just a simple exchange of gifts between friends.
After quietly standing in place for a moment, Yang Kai turned around and flew off in the opposite direction of Di Yao.
In this endless Starry Sky, the only point of reference he could count on was the first sized Tong Xuan Realm, so Yang Kai has to keep an eye on it while simultaneously searching for the Void Corridor and quenching his body.
The power of the Starry Sky was constantly tearing at his flesh and although this tearing was not life-threatening to Yang Kai, it was enough to cause him significant pain.
In the fresh blood that flowed from his wounds, there was a faint golden radiance.
This was the blood of the Demon God.
Li Rong and Han Fei also said that one day, when Yang Kai’s blood turned completely golden, he would have the same ability as the legendary Great Demon God.
Yang Kai was greatly looking forward to that day.
Time flowed by and Yang Kai lost track of just how long he had been wandering around the Starry Sky. In the beginning, the power of the Starry Sky could wound his body, but gradually, as his flesh became tougher, this destructive energy could only leave behind small scratches on him.
As for the Void Corridor, Yang Kai had still yet to catch even a glimpse of it, so he concluded he was searching in the wrong direction. Apparently, the way Di Yao went was the correct one.
However, Yang Kai wasn’t in a hurry to find the Void Corridor; shuttling freely through the Starry Sky, he continued looking for places to temper his flesh and comprehend the Heavenly Way.
As Di Yao had said, amongst the Starry Sky, the distribution of the mysterious destructive energy was very uneven; there were places where it was dense and places where it was sparse.
Now, places, where this energy was thick, had become Yang Kai’s goal, only such regions of the Starry sky could effectively temper his physique now.
In this long and boundless journey, Yang Kai’s mood underwent some invisible changes and his Divine Sense became more and more acute.
One day, Yang Kai was sitting in an energy-filled region, quenching his flesh, and allowing his Divine Sense to explore the mysteries of the Starry Sky, when he suddenly felt something was not quite right.
Quickly immersing his consciousness into himself, after a careful inspection, he finally discovered the source of this strange sensation.
It was actually coming from his Wordless Black Book.
Or rather, it was coming from the Black Book space.
The ambient power of the Starry Sky was very slowly pouring into the Black Book space and disappearing without a trace as if it was being absorbed by something inside.
Examining the objects inside the Black Book space for a while, Yang Kai was amazed to discover that the power of the Starry Sky was actually being absorbed by the two strange black stones.
As energy flowed into them, the two dark stones actually shimmered with a dim light and suddenly felt as if they were full of vitality.
Yang Kai was stunned.
He quickly realized that if he wanted to understand what these black stones really were, the power of the Starry Sky was the key!
The old friend of Old Man Du who obtained one of these black stones several decades ago had never managed to learn anything about them because he had never been to the Starry Sky.
This was really a big coincidence, Yang Kai secretly thought, unable to concentrate again on his cultivation as he focused on the changes the two stones were undergoing.
However, after quite some time had passed, Yang Kai slowly gave up.
Because the two black stones seemingly did not change at all from beginning to end, they simply continued to draw in the energy of the Starry Sky while emitting dim light, other than that, nothing else happened.
Shaking his head, Yang Kai no longer wasted his time paying attention to them. Standing up and glancing around casually, he eventually decided on a direction and once again travelled across the Starry Sky.
Any time he sat in one spot, quenching his flesh, the power of the Starry Sky in the vicinity would be consumed and eventually could no longer be used to temper himself.
Time after time Yang Kai changed location, each time seeking out places with increasingly dense Starry Sky; in this way, the intensity of his physique soared upwards.
The wounds he suffered layered against one another. Each time a wound healed and left a scar, another wound would tear open in its place. The ongoing process left his body tattered with horrendous marks. However, this did not bother him. He understood the benefits of this act and continued to suffer the agonising pain, looking forward to the benefits later on.
Gradually though, Yang Kai was unable to find places suitable for his cultivation and regions that had once almost brought him to the edge of death could now be strolled through without suffering any harm.
Although Yang Kai believed there would be more violent energy further out into the Starry Sky, he was worried that if he went any further, he would be unable to find his way back.