ISWI Chapter 734-735

Chapter 734: Just a Casual Gift!

Luo Bingling ultimately couldn't muster the resolve. Raised from childhood in the War God Clan, she prized chastity above all—upholding lifelong fidelity, pouring one's soul into a single bond. Other things could bend. But this? It cut too deep to dismiss.

Her worldview fueled a deep contempt for the human race as well. The War God Clan didn't stop at scorning humans, though. Even among the myriad races, they looked down on any race they deemed lesser.

Ye Chen, meanwhile, itched to test the Nine Transformations Heavenly Furnace's effects. On top of that, Yao Yuezhi had delivered so potently, casting Luo Bingling's allure into sharper relief by contrast. He had no attention left for her swirling emotions.

Just then, Yao Yuezhi arrived alongside her parents. After a few murmured thanks from them, Ye Chen said he needed rest. They led him to the Heavenly Demon Clan's cave mansion reserved for esteemed guests.

...

In the quiet chamber, his dual pupils scanned the space, confirming no traces of surveillance. Ye Chen vanished in a flicker, entering his own cave heaven. Spiritual Qi misted thickly through the domain, and high in its vaulted sky, two new immortal artifacts now hung. One was a divine staff, its ends rimmed in purple-gold while its core gleamed inky black. It spanned hundreds of thousands of meters in length and hundreds in width—like a pillar upholding the firmament. Killing intent surged from it in waves, eclipsing the old Compliant Golden-Hooped Rod by orders of magnitude.

Ye Chen needed only to gaze upon it to sense its seamless harmony with the Secret of the Battle. Swapping the Compliant Golden-Hooped Rod for this Sea-Calming Divine Treasure had been an absolute coup. The other artifact was a profound, pitch-black divine furnace. Faint silver patterns danced across its obsidian surface, twisting like galaxies through the night.

The furnace itself towered over a hundred meters, engraved with nine divine silkworms. They evoked the silkworm's sacred path of metamorphosis. Profound mysteries of heaven and earth pulsed from every inch. It rested on three sturdy legs, anchored in the void, where ethereal flames flickered—as though poised to cleanse all the world's impurities. This was the Nine Transformations Heavenly Furnace.

Drawn by its singular aura, Ye Chen stepped inside with keen anticipation. The divine fire burned pure and fierce, yet it scorched him not. He settled cross-legged in the inner void and began circulating the Heavenly Emperor Scripture to cultivate.

In the blink of an eye, a full week slipped by.

Ye Chen opened his eyes slowly, a shadow of disappointment crossing them. Just as he had foreseen at the outset, the furnace's power to refine aptitudes slid right off him. His physique had long outstripped this cultivation world's bounds; no single immortal artifact could nudge it higher.

Raising the limits on breakthrough gains, however? That much, it could manage. A week immersed in its depths had unveiled deeper layers of the Nine Transformations Heavenly Furnace to him. Its gifts reached beyond personal evolution: it purged every impurity too. A poison's grip? A plunge inside would burn it clean.

It excelled at forging artifacts and refining pills as well. The metamorphic essence worked miracles there, birthing purer results and loftier grades. In raw destructive force, it fell far short of the Sea-Calming Divine Treasure. Yet in its subtleties, its wonders abounded. For Ye Chen as he stood now, it promised immense value.

...

A week passed, and the system's gift cooldown finally lifted. Ye Chen emerged from seclusion accordingly. He had planned to gift something to Luo Bingling, to see what he could coax out of it. But word came that she had entered her own retreat.

Yao Yuezhi, too, remained deep in refining the Qiankun Cauldron. Turning it into her cave heaven's core would demand at least a full month.

Yao Yuekong rushed over the instant he learned of Ye Chen's release. He fawned over his brother-in-law with unusual warmth, eager to show Ye Chen around.

Ye Chen pondered briefly, then nodded. The Myriad Races Immortal City teemed with the great houses of the myriad races—essentially the concentrated essence of them all. High-multiplier female prodigies should abound. Along with myriad race-exclusive treasures of every stripe. He might just uncover something suited to him, or perhaps spot an agreeable female cultivator for a casual gift.

...

Yao Yuekong truly felt boundless gratitude toward Ye Chen, accepting him fully. But he knew his brother-in-law's temperament all too well: a hopeless philanderer. With no women at his side now, the man must be itching.

So, once they left the Heavenly Demon Clan's outpost, Yao Yuekong leaned in and murmured, "Brother-in-law, first time in the Myriad Races Immortal City—how about I take you to the Charm Demon Clan's immortal pavilion? Let me tell you, the women of the Charm Demon Clan wield endless allure, their arts beyond imagination. And they gain strength from entertaining guests. So no worries about them turning down a human like you. I carry some pull here—I'll hook you up with the best. Word is their princess is around too; her favored guests are all peerless prodigies, and they rave about it afterward..."

Ye Chen eyed the burly man with utter disbelief. Was this any place for a brother-in-law to drag his sister's beau? Utterly ridiculous.

Ye Chen held little interest in those zero-multiplier private rides anyway. Take Fan Qinghe's master, for instance—without her aid in digesting his cultivation, she wouldn't even get a nibble. As for a bona fide public coach like the Charm Demon princess? Even less appeal.

Ye Chen had never fancied turning public into private. He waved off Yao Yuekong's suggestion and simply wandered the Myriad Races Immortal City at leisure with him.

...

Female cultivators dotted the streets in numbers, but their multipliers ran low. Likely because it was broad daylight—most serious ones stayed in cultivation, leaving only the dregs to stroll about. They passed shops too, but treasures useful to Mahayana experts proved scarce, failing to stir Ye Chen's buying itch.

Ye Chen himself drew stares wherever he went. After all, the Heavenly Emperor's heir arriving in the Myriad Races Immortal City wasn't some secret. Thanks to the Emperor, the myriad races had been forced to relinquish Central Continent, herded into the frigid wilds of the Northern Domain. So even races untouched by the Emperor's purges harbored no fondness for his heir. Cold glances raked him, some muttering slurs behind his back. A few female cultivators, peering down from the second floor of an immortal pavilion, whispered among themselves.

"This Ye Chen—word is he's a total womanizer, loves toying with them..."

"The Heavenly Emperor was no saint back in the day. Like father, like son!"

"That Yao Yuezhi and Luo Bingling—they're a disgrace, throwing themselves at some lowly human."

"He looks the part of a gentleman, but he's filthy through and through. All humans are like that..."

"I despise men like him!"

"Me too. I'd sooner die than end up with one. Can't fathom how Luo Bingling and Yao Yuezhi stomach it."

The women gossiped freely, their scorn for Ye Chen plain.

Ye Chen, meanwhile, listened as Yao Yuekong described the Myriad Races Immortal City's upcoming auction. His eyes lit up. For him, auctions were pure stock-up ops—he adored these high-end gatherings! He mulled staying longer to join in. His gaze drifted casually to the second floor, and his brows arched faintly...

A system prompt chimed in his mind.

"A three-thousand-fold? Close enough—time for a casual toss."

Ye Chen's lips curved in a faint smile at the notification. These days, three-thousand-fold female cultivators barely registered on his radar. But they could fill a gap just fine. With that, he turned and headed up to the second floor!

Chapter 735: We Seem to Have Met Somewhere!

The three myriad race female cultivators—who had just been trash-talking Ye Chen—froze in place the moment they spotted him approaching. All three stood at the Mahayana, with one even at the third level. They weren't peerless prodigies by any stretch, but they carried some renown among the myriad races. Even so, as Ye Chen drew nearer, they held their breath, a flicker of unease stirring within. Had he overheard their jabs at the Heavenly Emperor's heir?

The thought left all three feeling a twinge of guilt. After all, Ye Chen was the sort who could swindle and slaughter peak Half-Saints without breaking a sweat. He operated on an entirely different plane from them.

As he closed the distance, the middle woman—broad-framed and voluptuous, her fox-like eyes sharp—rose to her feet. Her voice carried a forced steadiness as she spoke. "Heavenly Emperor's heir, what do you want? This is the Myriad Races Immortal City—no private duels allowed!"

Ye Chen offered a gentle smile at once. "Miss, you've got it all wrong. I just thought your face looked familiar, like we'd crossed paths before. So I came over to say hello. Perhaps you've watched one of my battles?"

The woman blinked in surprise. Then disdain deepened in her heart. She had never spectated any of Ye Chen's fights—in fact, she'd only emerged from seclusion a month ago upon breaking through to the King realm. How could she possibly have met him? Ye Chen must have simply found her attractive and cooked up this lame excuse.

Her features hardened into icy aloofness. "I've never laid eyes on the Heavenly Emperor's heir before. And I know all about your... reputation and ways. So, please leave. I'm not like Luo Bingling or Yao Yuezhi—those women too weak-willed to know better."

Ye Chen's lips curved faintly as he nodded. "Miss, you're mistaken. I truly just mixed you up with someone else. Take this as my apology, a gift for you! Farewell."

With a casual reach into his cave heaven, Ye Chen withdrew the items and arranged them in a neat row mid-air. He gave the woman one last calm nod. Then, without a hint of reluctance, he turned and strode away.

The woman scoffed inwardly. "I don't accept random gifts from strangers. Heavenly Emperor's heir, you'd best take them back!"

She'd heard tales of Ye Chen's lavish generosity, but her standing in the Heavenly Fox Clan ran high enough. She hardly needed some token apology. His swift departure smacked of the classic feint to pique interest anyway. Still, rumors painted the Heavenly Emperor's heir as discerning to a fault—only the finest caught his eye. That much sparked a quiet swell of pride in her chest. But the next instant, gasps of shock erupted from her two companions.

The woman focused her gaze at once, finally discerning what Ye Chen had left hovering in the air. Her pupils contracted sharply as she drew in a sharp, icy breath.

"This is Starlight Spirit Celery!"

"Starlight Spirit Celery grows only on select celestial bodies, making it exceedingly rare. It resonates with stellar power and, when refined into pills, aids cultivators in breaking through bottlenecks!"

"Not only that, but planting it in one's cave heaven reportedly infuses vast spiritual essence while nurturing fragments of stellar force. This lends the domain greater vitality, greatly accelerating the host's cultivation speed."

"As the cultivation world fades into decline, even Starlight Spirit Celery grows scarcer. Each stalk fetches hundreds of thousands of top-grade spirit stones!"

"Ten whole stalks—that's a million top-grade spirit stones! The Heavenly Emperor's heir is far too lavish; a mere apology runs him a fortune?"

Her two companions traded words in a frenzy, their envy bordering on madness.

The woman herself reeled from the shock. She had just broken through to the King realm and desperately needed resources to bolster her cave heaven's foundation. Her clan had subsidized her with five hundred thousand top-grade spirit stones—a veritable fortune. Yet Ye Chen, upon their first encounter, had gifted her spirit plants worth a million.

This...

The woman fell silent. In that moment, she suddenly understood Luo Bingling and Yao Yuezhi—highborn daughters of the War God and Heavenly Demon Clans—why they would lower themselves to a mere human's side. This man was truly magnanimous.

Before, she had dismissed Ye Chen as all show and no substance. Now, reconsidering, everything felt utterly transformed. The Heavenly Emperor's heir carried a singular charm. If she could become his woman, would she even need to strive along the Immortal Path?

The thought filled her with profound regret. She peered ahead at once, but Ye Chen's figure had long vanished from sight. A deep melancholy settled over her.

...

Meanwhile, a system prompt echoed in Ye Chen's mind.

"Gift: Starlight Spirit Celery!"

"..."

"Three-thousand-fold feedback in progress!"

"Critical hit reward triggered!"

"Feedback: One hundred stalks of Starlight Divine Celery!"

"Starlight Divine Celery: After two hundred thousand years of growth, Starlight Spirit Celery births sentience and evolves into this form. Drastically bolsters cave heaven foundations, wards off heart demons, heightens breakthrough efficiency, and strengthens soul power. It can also substitute as core material in many stellar array formations, autonomously emanating moonlight essence..."

Upon reviewing the feedback, Ye Chen arched a brow, a smile tugging at his lips. The Starlight Divine Celery ranked among the pinnacle spirit materials just shy of immortal roots. And it had burst forth just like that. Planting it in his cave heaven would surely yield substantial gains.

From there, Ye Chen's mood soared even higher. He wandered the Myriad Races Immortal City with keen interest alongside Yao Yuekong.

Yao Yuekong, walking at Ye Chen's side, wore a complicated expression. He had always assumed that Ye Chen's hold over so many female cultivators stemmed from some extraordinary prowess. But from what he'd just witnessed, where were the skills? It was all brute-force spirit stone bombardment.

That woman, upon accepting the gift, would likely fill her thoughts with nothing but this brother-in-law of hers. Every waking moment spent yearning for their next encounter. Such a tactic—ordinary folk could never master it. Truly, never.

...

The pair strolled on like that. Before long, they arrived at the gates of a racial outpost aglow with seven-colored radiance. Even from outside, spiritual energy misted thickly, marking it as anything but ordinary. The interior evoked a lush rainforest, exuding an air of serene comfort.

"This is the Peacock Clan's outpost. Brother-in-law, care to see the Little Peacock King? I can have someone announce us."

Yao Yuekong offered the introduction. Ye Chen raised a brow at that, the Little Peacock King's mother's parting transmission flashing through his mind at once. So he shook his head without a second thought.

Truth be told, even if that Yan Ruyu stood there right now, Ye Chen wouldn't seek her out. The gulf in their cultivations remained far too vast, after all. He couldn't possibly offer a fitting gift. The meeting would serve no purpose. This round of gifting had wrapped up anyway, with fine yields.

Ye Chen planned to return and plant the feedback spirit herbs properly. That thought summoned Lu Jing's image to his mind. His handmaiden had always longed to trail at his heels, slacking away in his cave heaven. Now, though, that suited him perfectly. When tasks arose, she could tend the spirit plants and rear spirit beasts. In idle times, he could give her a proper prod—toss her into the Dao Cauldron or the Nine Transformations Heavenly Furnace for a refining session, lifting both her cultivation and talents in tandem. On this trip back to Greater Yan Continent, he'd bring Lu Jing along.

Ye Chen followed Yao Yuekong back to the Heavenly Demon Clan's outpost and resumed his secluded cultivation.

...

Meanwhile, within the Peacock Clan's grounds, a servant reported that Ye Chen and Yao Yuekong had passed by without entering that day. The Little Peacock King pursed his lips.

Ye Chen's womanizing ways were legendary—he must have designs on his aunt. With her absence, it made sense the man couldn't be bothered.

The Little Peacock King's mother stirred faintly at the news. Her thoughts wandered to who-knew-where, a delicate blush coloring her cheeks...