<h4>Chapter 101 - Great Harvest!</h4>


    Since Long Chen had entered the Human Core Realm, he had been promoted from a Level Four to Level Three disciple. He had also moved out of the Level Four disciple quarters into the Level Three disciple quarters.


    However, since entering the Lingwu family, he had spent all his time either cultivating or outside thepound, so he rarely interacted with the other members. Therefore, he could barely recognize the other Level Three disciples.


    His room wasrger than before and he even had his own yard, which was a tranquil ce with beautifulndscaping.


    Once he returned, he hurried to his underground room and sat cross-legged. He was clutching the Universe Pouch Ling Xi had stolen tightly.


    “Quick, let’s see what’s inside. This is the Universe Pouch he pulled the zing Thunder Crystal from. That bastard has another Universe Pouch, but I couldn’t steal that. I think that one contains the rest of the stuff he owns!”


    Long Chen had only just opened the pouch when a gust of electrical and fiery energy flew into his face. Although energies like that were stored in zing Thunder Crystals, and considered very controlled energies, they were still powerful.


    Heid the familiar crystals out in a row. Both of them were very excited.


    “A total of forty-seven crystals!”


    Ling Xi was beside herself with joy when he finished counting them.


    Long Chen knew that he only needed ten crystals to cultivate the zing Thunder Combat Body and be a zing Thunder Warrior!


    These forty-seven crystals were enough for him. “I’m guessing the Dawn Trading Alliance’s headquarters only gave him fifty crystals. He gave me one, then he gave other people two more, so we’re left with forty-seven.”


    After he left the quiet room at the Dawn Trading Alliance, Long Chen returned the four remaining crystals back to Zhao Tianfang.


    But they ended uping right back to him.


    If Zhao Tianfang ever discovered the truth, he would vomit blood. “When he saw the number of steel hearts I earned, he knew that my body was tough and that I possessed extraordinary abilities. He treated me well only because he wanted to test me using these zing Thunder Crystals. If he were to find out my body did well with them, I’m afraid he would use them to rope me into the Dawn Trading Alliance ...”


    Long Chen could see through Zhao Tianfang as a person, so he wasn’t too torn over it.


    “Long Chen, there are only a few days left until the training exercise. You should hurry up and merge with the zing Thunder Crystals and test your body. Let’s see how many you can merge with!”


    He nodded. The private quarters of the Lingwu family members could only be opened with identity jade tokens, so privacy was guaranteed. Long Chen put away the other crystals and left only one in his hand. “When I merged with the first crystal, although it was agony, I wasn’t at my limit. Based on that, merging with the second crystal should not be a problem.”


    He had made up his mind. Taking a deep breath, Long Chen then merged the crystal into his body. He was afflicted with the same agony asst time. He was suffering, but he was happy.


    The surge of energy generated by the second merging was muchrger than before, approximately more than two timesrger than the first. Long Chen was gritting his teeth in pain as the energies of lightning and fire shed and battered his body.


    Ling Xi was initially a little worried, but when she saw that Long Chen’s body looked fine despite his expression of anguish, she felt a little schadenfreude, giggling as she spun in circles.


    The power of lightning and fire rolled through his whole body, destroying it and building a new one in its ce. Step by step, his body slowly solidified and strengthened.


    Merging with the first crystal had taken him less than an hour. While the second crystal was essentially the same thing, the zing Thunder Crystal was strange in a way that merging the second would be twice as hard as the first.


    And if Long Chen merged with the third, it would be twice as hard as the second.


    The level of difficulty rose exponentially, so one could imagine how difficult it would beter on.


    He spent more than two hours merging with the second crystal. By the time he was done, it was alreadyte at night.


    He stood up, stretching happily. “I am indeed much stronger. There’s also more zing Thunder Power in my dantian’s Qi.”


    “How are you feeling? Can you withstand one more?” asked Ling Xi expectantly next to him.


    She sensed that this was not his limit.


    “Yes.”


    The suffering that came with the crystal disappearedpletely after a sessful merger. All that was left was a numb sensation in his muscles.


    Although this feeling creeped him out a little, it wasn’t enough to scare him.


    Afterwards, his body absorbed the third crystal. Indeed, it was much more difficult to merge this time.


    Long Chen spent almost four hours on the third one. His body’s strength and Qi had increased substantially. However, the agony was much more frightening. He had clenched his teeth hard to suffer through this merging. After the ordeal was over, he was indeed a little afraid.


    “Three zing Thunder Crystals. This is already beyond Supervisor Zhao’s expectations of you. Long Chen, we can stop here. I don’t think you can hold on any longer,” said Ling Xi with concern when she saw him finally catching his breath.


    “That was only three crystals; that’s not my limit yet. There are four more hours till dawn, I want to try again!”


    Long Chen was stubborn, and he had a determined look in his eyes. Ling Xi couldn’t convince him, so she let him do what he wanted. Although the third merger was scary, he looked like he still had the energy to go on.


    The fourth merger was about to begin. As expected, it was much more frightening than the previous crystal. He felt like someone was waving multiple swords inside his body, chopping it to pieces.


    His face turned green with pain. Ling Xi watched lightning and fiery sparks emerging from his body, as well as his pained expression, anxiously, clenching her fists tight.


    Time passed slowly. Long Chen gritted his teeth in pain. Indeed, the fourth crystal would not be tamed so easily. When its power entered his body, it seemed to merge with the other three to fight his Dragon Soul Qi together.


    <i>Fight it! Stay strong! This is what’s needed to be extraordinary!</i>


    The desire to be stronger remained in his mind.


    He needed to be powerful to save the Yang family and protect Ling Xi. That was why he had to be strong. <i>You’re just a tiny crystal! You think you can defeat me?</i>


    Long Chen was willing to give everything up to be stronger. To a normal person, this pain would feel like their heart and lungs were torn apart, but Long Chen gritted his teeth and held on with a green face!


    <i>Based on this, I can only merge with four crystals at most. I’m still so far from attaining the zing Thunder Combat Body and bing a zing Thunder Warrior ...</i>


    He wasn’t satisfied. However, he didn’t know that there were very few teenagers at the initial Human Core Realm in the Dawn Trading Alliance who could reach four crystals.


    Also, those were the ultimate top prodigies of Yuanling County!


    “Right, Long Chen, how could we have forgotten about the Dragon Soul Transformation? That form is the true form of a Dragon Warrior!” Ling Xi suddenly cried.


    He suddenly remembered that his body post-transformation had a few times more dragon brands and that his Qi would be ten times stronger than normal Qi instead of just four. He could definitely merge with more crystals if he used his Dragon Soul Transformation!


    His eyes brightened, then hepleted the transformation an instantter. Perfectly arranged red scales and sharp spines emerged from his body.


    He’d turned into this majestic being in just the blink of an eye.


    Long Chen could feel the aura of countless dragons surrounding him.


    The pain from merging with the fourth crystal dissipated quickly afterpleting the transformation!


    The power of the fourth crystal was nothing significant now; it was easily absorbed into his body. Long Chen’s body then changed drastically. “It merged so quickly. It’s even going a lot smoother than my first merger?!”


    He was amazed by his Dragon Soul Transformation, that his body could merge with a few times more crystals nowpared to before. That meant the sky was the limit.


    “It’s indeed working!”


    After a while, he hadpletely merged with the crystal. It was a drastic changepared to the four hours he spent on the previous crystal. Ling Xi was also astonished by the mystery and power of a Dragon Warrior. “Hey, how many crystals will you be able to merge with like this?”


    “I’ll find out if I just carry on, won’t I?”


    Long Chenughed. He initially thought he wouldn’t be able to make it to five, but he was merging his fifth crystal and looked rxed.


    “This strange man ...”


    Ling Xi was speechless at his look of enjoyment, but her eyes were glued to him, and they contained a sense of achievement.


    After all, without her, Long Chen wouldn’t have gotten so many crystals in the first ce.


    Less than an hourter, the fifth merger wasplete. Long Chen opened his eyes, looking smug. “Merging with the fifth crystal was even easier than my first one. Hey, girl, I’ll show you exactly how strong I am tonight. I guarantee I’ll look very cool.”


    “Tsk, the seventh and eighth crystals are more than a hundred times harder than the first. I’ll see how you fare then! What’s there to be smug about?”