"What the..."
Chu Feng's actions left the onlookers slack-jawed, their eyes wide and mouths agape. The bearded man in particular looked ashen-faced, his expression utterly wretched.
Spirit Pearls were extraordinarily valuable. That man had scraped together everything he had just to exchange for a single Spirit Pearl to buy the Ferghana Horse. Who would have thought that this unremarkable-looking youth would casually produce two of them—and toss one to the attendant as a tip, no less? It practically made the man want to vomit blood, because he knew the Ferghana Horse he had desired for so long was now destined to belong to someone else.
Compared to the bearded man's silent rage, the rest of the crowd was consumed by envy and jealousy—not toward Chu Feng, but toward the attendant. What a windfall! A single Spirit Pearl was worth a hundred taels of gold, and it had been given to the shop boy just like that, enough to live a life of wealth and comfort without a care in the world.
In that instant, every gaze directed at Chu Feng had changed. No one dared show even a hint of disdain. Instead, they regarded him with utmost respect, and some were already putting on smiling faces, hoping that if they pleased Chu Feng, he might reward them with something as well.
"Young master, the Ferghana Horse is yours. I'll go prepare fine wine and a feast for you right away!" The attendant was beaming so hard his grin nearly reached his ears, completely unable to stop smiling.
"Also prepare a premium guest room for me," Chu Feng said with a wave of his hand.
"Absolutely! I'll make sure you get the finest room for your rest." The attendant first returned the bearded man's Spirit Pearl, then carefully tucked Chu Feng's two Spirit Pearls away before hurrying off in high spirits to arrange the room.
Chu Feng glanced at the bearded man with a smile and said, "Does my Universe Bag still look fake to you?"
"Hmph, so what if you have money? Taming this Ferghana Horse requires a certain level of cultivation. Be careful you don't even make it out the front gate," the man snorted coldly.
"That won't be your concern," Chu Feng replied with a slight smile, then walked toward the guest quarters. And the most comical part was that the group of commoners actually swarmed around Chu Feng, fighting over who would get to lead the way.
"Boss, are we really just letting him have the Ferghana Horse?" The burly men all gathered around as they watched Chu Feng walk away.
"Letting him have it?" The bearded man stuffed the Spirit Pearl the attendant had returned into his pocket, then lowered his voice. "Find out which direction that brat is headed. A fat sheep like that—we can't just let him slip by."
Chu Feng arrived at the guest quarters, where the attendant had already prepared a premium room. Soon after, fine wine and a sumptuous meal were delivered, the service enthusiastic and attentive beyond measure.
Having learned his lesson from the incident with the spiked tea, Chu Feng was now cautious. He carefully scanned everything with his Mental Power first, and only after confirming the food and wine were safe did he dig in.
After finishing his meal, Chu Feng did not rush to leave the inn. First, he set up a barrier within the room, then began refining the Spirit Pearls and Yuan Pearls inside his Universe Bag. With the journey's dangers still unknown, it was best to raise his cultivation as much as possible beforehand.
He started with the Spirit Pearls. As his strength had grown, his speed of refining them had become increasingly terrifying—several thousand Spirit Pearls were devoured by the Divine Thunder within his Dantian in no time at all. But after consuming thousands of Spirit Pearls, though his Dantian had changed significantly, he felt no sign of a breakthrough.
"Heavens, your appetite just keeps growing. Who could ever afford to feed you like this?"
Chu Feng was left speechless, suddenly nostalgic for the days when just a few Spirit Herbs were enough to push him to the next level. Now even several thousand Spirit Pearls couldn't help him break through a single stage.
If this was how things were now, he shuddered to think about what it would be like once he reached the Yuan Wu Realm, the Xuan Wu Realm, or the Heaven Martial Realm—the amount of resources he would need to grow was staggering, a monumental challenge he would face both now and in the future.
"Stop complaining, kid. The Divine Thunder inside you is no ordinary thing. If I'm not mistaken, you're probably a Heaven-Bestowed Divine Body," came Egg Egg's clear, pleasant voice.
"Heaven-Bestowed Divine Body? What's that?" Chu Feng was startled.
"A Heaven-Bestowed Divine Body is a special constitution. When such a body is born, celestial phenomena appear alongside it. Those phenomena often reveal the unique ability the divine body possesses, as well as the strength of that ability."
"If I'm not wrong, Qing Xuantian, the one who created the Emperor Tomb, was a Heaven-Bestowed Divine Body. His extraordinary achievements back then were inseparable from his special constitution," Egg Egg explained.
"So you're saying the Divine Thunder in my Dantian has always been part of me?" Chu Feng was elated. He had always sensed the Divine Thunder within him as something alive, something that had forced its way into his body, and its purpose had remained a mystery.
But hearing Egg Egg's explanation put him at ease. The Divine Thunder was most likely an innate part of him—it had entered his body to help him grow stronger and would never do him harm.
"Don't get too excited yet. A Heaven-Bestowed Divine Body is something one is born with—the phenomena appear at birth, and the unique ability manifests as soon as one begins cultivating."
"But look at you. While there were indeed phenomena when you were born, the Divine Thunder didn't enter your body until after you had already grown up. And since you started cultivating, aside from your faster cultivation speed and Spiritual Energy quality far superior to others, no special ability has emerged."
"So I can't say for certain that you are a Heaven-Bestowed Divine Body. However, what I can confirm is that the Divine Thunder inside you is a good thing—it will make you stronger. As long as you can obtain the resources within the Emperor Tomb, you might even surpass Qing Xuantian," Egg Egg cautioned.
"Mm. Whether or not I'm a Heaven-Bestowed Divine Body, as long as I have enough resources, I can grow stronger at incredible speed." Chu Feng's confidence surged, and he began refining the Yuan Pearls.
As a Yuan Pearl dissolved within him, what it released into his body was not Spiritual Energy but Yuan Force. There was no denying the vast qualitative difference between Yuan Force and Spiritual Energy.
However, inside Chu Feng's body, Yuan Force converted into massive amounts of Spiritual Energy. For the current Chu Feng, consuming a hundred Spirit Pearls would barely cause a ripple in his Dantian, but a single Yuan Pearl produced a noticeable change—testament to the Yuan Pearl's incredible potency.
"These Yuan Pearls really are remarkable." Delighted, Chu Feng swallowed every last Yuan Pearl in one go.
Once inside his body, the Yuan Pearls instantly transformed into surging Spiritual Energy, but that immense energy barely had time to rampage through him before the Divine Thunder in his Dantian devoured it in a single gulp.
And it did so with absolute ease, as if even such powerful energy was utterly insignificant before it—not even enough to fill the gaps between its teeth.
But what truly excited Chu Feng was that after the Divine Thunder consumed that torrent of energy, his aura began to surge dramatically, undergoing a qualitative transformation. He had broken through to the peak of the Spirit Martial Realm—Spirit Martial Stage Nine.
And what thrilled him even more was that the sensation of growing stronger showed no signs of slowing. It was still accelerating.
"Could it be... I can break through all the way to the Yuan Wu Realm in one go?"