Everlasting

 

The youngster was of a medium stature and lean. However, his pair of eyes were like blades, shining and giving off a coercive presence. His arms were crossed before his chest and a sword could be seen there. He gave off a powerful suppressive feeling just by standing there. 

“You are the guy Zhao Quan found?” Chen Feng asked coolly. He did not view this newcomer as a threat. Chen Feng had noticed him the moment he utilized his unique movement technique to approach them.

A guy who hasn’t even condensed out his Soulflame dares to send himself to death’s door, Chen Feng thought.

“Earthfiend Sword, Pang Ming, Extreme Celestial Sect’s inner disciple,” the youngster said calmly.

“Extreme Celestial Sect’s disciple?” Chen Feng and Lu Ta exchanged glances. Reflexively, a frown appeared on each of their faces. They had yet to join Extreme Celestial Sect, but now someone had come to trouble them.

Shua!

A bright light suddenly flashed through the air. Like a crafty and dextrous snake, it attacked both Chen Feng and Lu Ta at the same time.

Pang Ming had launched his attack while the two of them were preoccupied with their own thoughts.

There was no overpowering force or extraordinary sword intent. However, both Chen Feng and Lu Ta felt as though there was a viper pouncing at them. Should the viper’s fangs clamp down on them, they would die.

Ding!

Lu Ta’s Endless Sky of Turbidity staff blocked their opponent’s attack. As for Chen Feng, he took a step back to dodge the opponent’s sword luminescence before observing the fight between Lu Ta and Pang Ming.

Chen Feng could see that this fellow who had suddenly appeared – this Pang Ming fellow – was at level 4 of the Concealed stage. He was one level higher compared to Lu Ta. Most importantly, he was Extreme Celestial Sect’s disciple. Thus, Chen Feng wanted to observe how powerful this fellow was and observe what kind of techniques the disciples from Extreme Celestial Sect cultivate.

After one breath’s worth of time, however, Chen Feng became somewhat disappointed. Although this fellow known as Pang Ming had the upper hand in the battle, he was not displaying the power that a disciple from a great sect should possess.

“Is this fellow an impersonator?” Chen Feng grew suspicious.

“Ha ha ha ha. And here I was wondering how powerful you might be. It turns out your strength is only so-so. Are you just an impersonator?” Lu Ta ridiculed him.

“Humph! The technique I used earlier is the Spirit Snake Swordsmanship. It is merely the introductory sword technique of Extreme Celestial Sect. Now that I have warmed up, you two can bear witness to my true might,” Pang Ming replied with a sneer.

“If so, let me witness your so-called true might. Don’t get beaten up to the point where you cannot even get up,” Lu Ta replied with a laugh. His skill with the Endless Sky of Turbidity staff had practically reached the acme of perfection. Swinging back and forth, he blocked off every one of Pang Ming’s attacks.

As the two of them fought, they limited the emanations of their power. If not, the aftermath of their exchanges could have levelled the small courtyard. 

“Do you know why I am called Earthfiend Sword? Because I am cultivating the Earthfiend Swordsmanship!” Pang Ming barked out. Strands of black light abruptly burst out from the sword in his hand. Thrumming sounds rang out and the aura from Pang Ming’s body began surging out.

“Eh? This is a type of fiendish energy.” Chen Feng could clearly sense a vast amount of fiendish energy flowing out from the earth to fuse into the sword in Pang Ming’s hand. The sword became increasingly powerful.

“Ha ha ha ha! This is the Earthfiend Swordsmanship that I have cultivated. It is capable of absorbing the fiendish energy underground to increase my power.” Pang Ming laughed loudly. He was very pleased with himself. Facing the attacks from the Earthfiend Swordsmanship, Lu Ta was quickly on the verge of losing. 

“So, it is the yin energy within the soil.” Chen Feng finally understood what happened. With a thought, he sent a ripple of energy out from the Magnetic acupoints in both his foot, which spread into the soil through a radius of tens of zhang.

As expected, Pang Ming’s face immediately sank. No more fiendish energy flowed out from the ground and the wild momentum from Pang Ming’s body slowly faded.

“What is happening?” Pang Ming’s face was extremely ugly to behold. He shouted as he gave it his all to attack Lu Ta. He wanted to finish off Lu Ta before the power in his sword dissipated.

“I thought that it is some high-level magic technique. It turns out you are just borrowing power from external forces. Without that external force, you are nothing. If all the techniques from Extreme Celestial Sect is like this, flashy but without substance, then it will really be meaningless.” Chen Feng shook his head as he revealed a sneer.

The two of them had been fighting for some time now. The resulting ruckus had long since attracted the attention of others around them. Chen Feng could already sense several divine senses coming over to scan their courtyard.

“No time to play with you anymore.” Chen Feng gently stamped his foot and a powerful force flowed through the earth to strike Pang Ming.

Bang!

The ground exploded and a potent force slammed into Pang Ming’s figure. The impact nearly sent him flying.

“Just scram.” Lu Ta swung his Endless Sky of Turbidity staff, striking Pang Ming’s body with it. The sound of bones breaking rang out right and Pang Ming cried out wretchedly while puking out blood.

“Just you fellows wait. I, the Earthfiend Sword, Pang Ming, will never let this slide.” Pang Ming, wielding his Earthfiend Sword while still coughing out blood, quickly jumped out from the courtyard. His figure flashed a few times and he disappeared. 

Chen Feng and Lu Ta did not give chase. If Chen Feng had wanted to kill him, he could have taken action against Pang Ming early on.

“Is that fellow really from Extreme Celestial Sect?” asked Lu Ta, who gasped for breath. In the earlier fight, he had been unable to gain any advantage. Instead, he was constantly in a disadvantageous position. Only at the end did he managed to give Pang Ming a vicious blow.

“It is possible,” Chen Feng said seriously.

“He is probably someone that Zhao Quan asked to come. How unexpected. Even before entering Extreme Celestial Sect, we already have a series of problems,” Chen Feng said with a smile, shaking his head.

“The way I see it, he is not too powerful. If it is only opponents of this level, there is simply no need for us to worry,” Lu Ta said nonchalantly.

“Your words are correct. If the ones coming to trouble us are all at this level, we will be able to constantly hone ourselves with them. However, I think that probably won’t happen. There are who knows how many disciples in Extreme Celestial Sect. The experts amongst those are already at an uncountable number. This time, the one we got is just a wastrel. If a Sky Human stage cultivator steps forward, we will end up getting defeated and forced to run,” Chen Feng replied with a smile.

“That Zhao Quan is an inner disciple. The way I see it, there is a high chance that the Earthfiend Sword fellow is really an inner disciple too. After entering Extreme Celestial Sect, what kind of disciples will we become?” Lu Ta wondered.

“There is no need to ask. We will surely become outer disciples,” Chen Feng said with an air of certainty.

For the next ten or so days, Chen Feng and Lu Ta visited a lot of places within First Origin City and found out many things regarding the city and Extreme Celestial Sect. Unexpectedly though, Zhao Quan and Pang Ming did not come to trouble them anymore.

“They are not taking action against us. This may not be a good thing. Maybe, they are planning how to deal with us. We should also be making our move and head to Extreme Celestial Mountain,” Chen Feng said.

Extreme Celestial Mountain was in fact, the collective name for the entire Extreme Celestial Sect’s site. Extreme Celestial Sect required places filled with spiritual energy for its site. It spanned a mountain range with its own spiritual ley line. For example, Extreme Clarity Mountain, Jade Sun Mountain, Extreme Celestial Summit, Limitless Cliff, etc. Together, all those places form the site for Extreme Celestial Sect. Any one of the spiritual mountains was a blessed land, an immortal mountain with its own spiritual ley line.

In other words, in the entire Northern Plains, only the Ten Great Immortal Dao Sects can truly be considered as genuine immortal dao sects. The other smaller and medium-sized sects were simply incapable of comparing against them.

The information that Chen Feng possessed about Extreme Celestial Sect all came from the books. Even so, this information had left him shocked. Additionally, immortal dao sects at this level possessed many hidden pocket dimensions. They possessed tremendous powers that the outside world did not know of.

“Tsk, tsk. Now this is what you call an immortal dao sect.” Chen Feng could not stop himself from sighing.

There was a distance of around 500 kilometres between First Origin City and Extreme Celestial Mountain. Chen Feng and Lu Ta rode on their flying swords, moving forward quickly. It did not take them long to cover half that distance.

Naturally, the flying swords that they two of them were riding were the newly-bought ones. For safety’s sake, Chen Feng did not want to expose his full strength. It was always a good, life-saving choice to have a trump card.

Along the way, they encountered many other cultivators. Chen Feng noticed that the majority of them were Extreme Celestial Sect’s disciples. There were experts amongst them. However, most of them were on the average side.

Flying through the air, Chen Feng regarded the clouds drifting past him before looking down at the ground; the buildings and mountains below zoomed past him. And then there were the occasional cultivators, flying back and forth while enveloped in sword light. Chen Feng sighed. This is the world of cultivators.

Most of the cultivators there chose to fly by riding flying swords. Only some with high cultivation bases would choose to fly on their own. Chen Feng and Lu Ta also encountered a large number of cultivators flying forward in a flying-type magic treasure. The powerful auras seeping out from the magic treasure secretly shocked even Chen Feng.

“Tsk, tsk. In the past, we were too ignorant. Back in Black Origin City, when the occasional Concealed stage cultivator flew by, I would feel incredibly shocked. For me to be able to see so many Concealed stage cultivator now, what a stirring sight,” Chen Feng said smilingly.

“It is a little strange, though. This is one of the Ten Great Immortal Dao Sects. How can there be so many low-level disciples?” Lu Ta became somewhat curious.

During this time, the two of them had encountered over 1,000 cultivators. Amongst those, there were around 900 cultivators at level 1 or 2 of the Concealed stage.

“This is normal. In any sect, experts only make up the minority. Those disciples at level 1 and 2 of the Concealed stage must be the outer disciples of Extreme Celestial Sect. They are also of the lowest ranking. If you want to talk about it, the ones making up the largest number of disciples are the outer disciples. They have the lowest ranking, receive the worst treatment and are usually in charge of only menial tasks. Only after becoming inner disciples can they truly be considered as formal disciples of the sect.” Chen Feng recalled what he had read about the matter.

“What about us, then?” asked Lu Ta.

“Naturally, we will become outer disciples. Additionally, that will also depend on whether they are willing to accept us or not,” Chen Feng replied with a smile.

“We have encountered so many cultivators along the way. It seems that Zhao Quan will no longer be doing anything.” Lu Ta shook his head and sighed. 

“I feel that Zhao Quan is someone who will want revenge for even the smallest grievances. There was originally no grudge between us, but he hired assassins to kill us. When we reach Extreme Celestial Sect, he will surely make his move,” Chen Feng said solemnly.

“Wherever there are people, there will surely be conflicts and competition. This is the unchanging truth of the ages. If they want to come at us, we will just have to greet them in kind,” Lu Ta responded with a sneer.

“What an imposing presence!” Chen Feng suddenly widened both his eyes as he stared up ahead.

Faint outlines of mountains rising up into the sky appeared before Chen Feng’s field of view. As Chen Feng approached, the landscape before him grew clearer.

There was a thick and lofty aura around the mountains. They were tall and steep, with clouds swirling around them and spiritual birds flying about. The pouring waterfalls were like strands of silk while strange rocks filled the wondrous mountain peaks. It was a scene of beauty, covered with layers of spiritual energy.

Wave after wave of thick aura kept assailing Chen Feng, causing a thought to immediately appear in his mind. This is the land of cultivation!

They have finally arrived at Extreme Celestial Mountain.