Puff, puff, puff—
Ye Chen began refining his first Monarch Puppet. With his previous experience refining Quasi-Monarch Puppets and his own strength having reached a level comparable to an Ancient Monarch, the process naturally presented little difficulty.
Of course, it couldn't be completed in a short time either; it would require many days.
Moreover, Ye Chen also took out a large number of supreme treasures, including various divine materials for artifact forging.
While refining the Monarch Puppet, he continuously used the power of the Flame Emperor's Origin to transform into streams of metallic liquid, which he poured over the puppet's body.
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—
The Monarch Puppet's flesh body immediately emitted wisps of green smoke, accompanied by a foul, bloody odor.
But it also melted the metallic liquid, and faintly, a thread-like metallic luster appeared on its surface.
Swish, swish, swish—
With a wave of his hand, the other ten Monarch Puppets also entered and began to be refined.
Ye Chen glanced helplessly at the corpse of the Yan Shen Monarch. Not only was its Origin World gone, but even its Monarch Heavenly Soul had been refined by Ye Chen back in the day. This resulted in it not even being able to rank among the top three tiers even if refined into a puppet.
Precisely because of this, Ye Chen had not attempted to refine it into a puppet.
At the same time, he multitasked, refining Monarch Puppets on one hand, refining Monarch Great Worlds and Emperor Great Worlds on another, and comprehending Monarch Rules on yet another.
The several days of lecturing by the Supreme One of the Lawless Great World back then had truly benefited him greatly. Many of the Great Daos within his body had evolved into God King Spirits. With just a little more time, they would be enough to evolve into Monarch Rules.
He understood that one day, the expansion of his Origin Universe would reach its limit. Even with a Chaos Primordial Great World placed before him, it would be impossible to devour.
However, the comprehension of Monarch Rules was, for him, merely the starting point.
He was confident that among Eternal Quasi-Monarchs, the number of Monarch Rules he comprehended would reach a level even higher than that of ordinary Ancient Monarchs.
In this life, he wanted to push his potential to the absolute extreme within the Quasi-Monarch domain, to find out exactly where the limit of his Eternal Quasi-Monarch state lay.
While multitasking, Ye Chen's strength once again began to increase at a speed that would terrify outsiders.
...
Upon the Immortal Hall, Ye Chen's true self remained seated upon the monarch's throne, his eyes slightly closed as if in a light sleep, motionless, like an eternal, unchanging divine statue.
However, he had sent word to the other Ancient Monarchs that he would be in closed-door cultivation for a period of time and should not be disturbed.
All the Ancient Monarchs across the nine Immortal Halls of the Flame Emperor Domain were aware of this, and they were all amazed.
This Battle Saint King's monstrous talent seemed as if he was born for cultivation. How long had it been, and he was going into seclusion again?
Moreover, none of them believed the Battle Saint King would put on airs or engage in pointless seclusion.
From their understanding during this period, the Battle Saint King never did meaningless things.
It was likely that after this seclusion, his strength would see some growth again.
Although they all believed that unless it was over thousands of years, the improvement couldn't be too great, it was better than nothing. Many Ancient Monarchs didn't even have such an opportunity to improve, so they were quite envious.
Naturally, during this time, no one dared to disturb Ye Chen's seclusion.
Besides, the Emperor himself had given the order; who would dare disobey?
...
In the blink of an eye, ten years passed in a flash!
This year marked the eleventh year since Ye Chen arrived at the Sacred Prison Domain battlefield.
Within his body, in the Extinction Emperor Realm, lay the Emperor Star Secret Realm that had been transplanted inside many years ago.
Three thousand six hundred Dao Stars.
On one of the tenth-level Dao Stars radiating with soaring fiery light, a Chaos God King Spirit stood up.
Boom, rumble, rumble—
All the Dao might of the tenth-level Fire Dao Star converged inward, devoured completely, turning it into an ordinary star.
The Chaos God King Spirit's body radiated blazing light, every inch of its form seeming to contain a blazing sun, dazzling and eye-catching, like a sun hanging in the sky.
Finally, all the blazing light converged inward, everything returning to normal. The Chaos God King Spirit opened its profound eyes and said softly, "Ten years, refining ten tenth-level Dao Stars. Not a bad harvest."
Each tenth-level Dao Star was the strongest Dao Star, containing dozens of single-attribute Monarch Rules.
Moreover, they were the unowned Monarch Rules left behind by the five Supreme Ones back then, sealed within by heaven-defying means.
Refining just one tenth-level Dao Star allowed one to directly extract dozens of Monarch Rules for personal use.
This was the fastest method to increase strength.
Ye Chen's current personal strength was no less than that of a Second Heaven Monarch. Combined with him being a Chaos cultivator, all these factors stacked together resulted in his Dao comprehension ability being comparable to a Third Heaven Monarch. Therefore, the time needed to refine one tenth-level Dao Star was several times shorter than back in the day; he could refine one in a year.
Ten years, ten tenth-level Dao Stars.
The number of Monarch Rules Ye Chen had refined reached a full five hundred. Added to the many God King Spirits that had listened to the Supreme One's lecture and become Monarch Rules...
In summary, over ten years, Ye Chen's number of Monarch Rules had increased by a full six hundred.
Combined with what he originally comprehended and mastered, the total number of Monarch Rules he controlled exceeded seventeen hundred, approaching the number mastered by a First Heaven Monarch.
Of course, the greatest harvest during these ten years was actually completely devouring and refining the Origin World of an alien Emperor.
His Origin Universe expanded by a full twofold!
Yes, it increased by a full twofold on the original foundation!
This also resulted in both his physical and spiritual power and his Origin Universe power increasing by a full twofold!
Physical and spiritual power comparable to ten thousand Monarch Rules, Origin Universe power comparable to ten thousand, mastered Monarch Rules at seventeen hundred, plus the Chaos Great Cauldron comparable to six thousand (corrected earlier), reaching a total of twenty-seven thousand seven hundred!
In his strongest state, he was even more powerful than an ordinary Third Heaven Monarch.
Over ten years, his combat power had increased by a full ten thousand Monarch Rules. If this got out, it would absolutely scare people to death!
However, correspondingly, the later the stage, the harder it was to improve.
Just from the fact that Ye Chen refining one alien Emperor's Origin World only doubled his expansion, one could imagine.
Of course, a vast majority of the world's origin power had also settled as foundation, which would erupt fully when he advanced to Ancient Monarch.
From this, it was also evident that for Ye Chen to reach a level comparable to a Fourth Heaven Monarch, he would need to refine two Emperor Worlds...
That said, in just ten short years, Ye Chen's strength had almost doubled again. This improvement was undeniably significant.
At the same time, he also felt that his Eternal Quasi-Monarch state was about to reach its end.
The Eternal Quasi-Monarch was not without a limit; it was just that this limit was far greater than that of the Inverse Heaven Quasi-Monarch.
Ye Chen sensed in his heart that even after continuing to devour and refine two more Emperor Origin Worlds, he would be close to reaching the ultimate limit. Even having one-tenth of the Ancient Emperor's essence blood continuously strengthening his physical and spiritual form and raising the limit wouldn't work.
This point made him feel slightly regretful, though he didn't find it too unfortunate.
Being able to reach this step within the Quasi-Monarch domain was already quite remarkable.
Probably even that fellow Eternal Quasi-Monarch, Di Yongheng, couldn't reach this step.
"Ten years. It should be about time for the refinement to succeed."
Ye Chen's figure flashed, appearing within the Extinction Emperor Realm.