Everlasting

 

“Someone is coming.” Chen Feng, who was in the midst of cultivating himself, snapped open his eyes. He could sense the presence of two cultivators. They were quickly approaching the mountain.

“The ones approaching should be a male and a female. The two of them have already entered the glimpsing the profound realm. They must be inner disciples.” Chen Feng spread out his divine sense and quickly analysed the power of the two cultivators.

Sou! Sou!

As expected, a male and a female cultivator, both young, flew through the sky before quickly landing before Chen Feng.

The male had a handsome face and wore white clothes. His chin was slightly raised and a hint of arrogance could be seen in his eyes. As for the female, she was tall and had a graceful bearing. She sported arching eyebrows, jade-like skin and wore soft, gauzy clothes which faintly revealed her perfect and alluring body shape. The sight of her partially visible twin peaks was capable of invoking an irresistible impulse in others. At the same time, a thick fragrance emitted off her, flowing all the way into Chen Feng’s nostrils.

“May I ask, who are you two?” Chen Feng asked coolly.

“Where are the disciples of this mountain?” The male disciple merely gave Chen Feng a glance before asking haughtily, giving off the impression of a lofty figure.

Chen Feng was immediately displeased.

Just two disciples at level 5 of the Concealed stage. What is there to be arrogant about?

“Brother Chen, what happened?” Lu Ta rushed over. 

“I will ask again, where are the disciples on this mountain?” the male cultivator asked once more. This time, a trace of impatience could be seen in his eyes.

“We are,” Chen Feng calmly replied.

“Just the two of you?” The young female disciple’s voice was slightly glacial.

“Just the two of us. Is there something going on?” Chen Feng asked with a frown.

“Humph! It seems the two of you have some means. Receive the orders from the sect! The two of you are to immediately head to the Congregation Summit and assemble there.” After saying that, the male disciple gave Chen Feng and Lu Ta one more glance before turning to leave.

“May I ask what is going on?” Chen Feng quickly asked.

“When you arrive, you will understand.” Next, both male and female disciple ignored Chen Feng. They turned, leapt into the sky and left. Carefully observing them, Chen Feng saw that the two of them were going to the other outer disciples’ mountains.

“Humph! What is there to be arrogant about? They are just running errands,” Lu Ta said with a sneer.

“All right. Let’s go to Congregation Summit and check it out. Maybe the sect is finally assigning us tasks. At any rate, we disciples don’t get to eat and stay here for nothing,” Chen Feng said with a grin.

Congregation Summit was a thousand-zhang mountain located within the cultivation zone of inner disciples. The mountain surface was smooth and buildings could be seen at the centre of the mountain. That was the place were outer and inner disciples often come to communicate with one another.

By the time Chen Feng and Lu Ta arrived, there were already over 100 disciples assembled at the platform atop the mountain. Moreover, all of them were outer disciples.

“Fellow brother, do you know why they summoned us here?” Chen Feng asked, pulling one of them.

“I do not know either. However, I hear that they are probably going to assign tasks to us.” The one that Chen Feng pulled over was a young cultivator who was only around 15 to 16 years old. Although his cultivation base was already at the Concealed stage, the childish features on his face had yet to disappear completely.

“Finally, a task. I have been suffocating to death here,” a disciple said, looking elated.

“Humph! What is there to be happy about? Getting assigned with a task is not necessarily a good thing. I would rather be able to continue cultivating in peace,” another disciple retorted.

“Blindly cultivating alone will not allow you to improve. Only by constantly honing yourself, constantly fighting and killing can you quickly improve your strength.”

“It seems you newcomers still do not know what outer disciples need to do. Hey, we outer disciples are the lowest of existences here. This task is probably nothing good,” a veteran suddenly said. He was an outer disciple, but he was someone who had joined Extreme Celestial Sect for several years.

“Senior brother, do you know something?” a nearby disciple quickly approached him to sweet-talk him.

“Heh. Truth be told, the most important matter for us outer disciples is to work hard on our cultivation and become inner disciples. If not, we will not have any standing within the sect. If we still cannot become inner disciples after hitting the limit, where can we go? Do not think that we can keep on staying here after joining the sect. It is not that simple. Besides, there would be endless amounts of menial chores and an indescribable amount of bitterness. Let me tell you, it has already been five years since I joined this sect. If I still cannot break through in a few years’ time, I will probably be chased out,” the veteran said loudly.

“Senior brother, your words don’t seem right. We have already been here for many days now. There is nothing to do every day except practice cultivation. It feels quite carefree to me,” a newcomer said in disbelief.

“Humph! It is fine if you don’t believe it. I won’t be talking much about it as well. You fellows will understand later on.” The veteran disciple shook his head.

Hearing his words, Chen Feng’s heart thumped. He had once been part of Iron Sword Sect, after all. He understood that sect disciples, especially the ordinary ones, were like unskilled labourers. Sometimes, lives will be lost while performing some of the more dangerous tasks.

“Quiet down. Someone is here.”

Finally, inner disciples appeared there. Chen Feng looked at them and saw that the pair of male and female disciples from earlier were also part of the group.

There were two rows of disciples, totalling up to 20 disciples. To Chen Feng’s surprise, the ones in the lead are heir disciples. Chen Feng could sense Soulflame emanations coming from two of them.

Once the group of disciples appeared, all the outer disciples there immediately turned quiet. Not a single sound could be heard as the entire scene turned solemn.

“Everyone, hurry over and greet our two senior brothers,” one of the inner disciples shouted.

Only then did Chen Feng notice the special badges on the two heir disciples. It must be a type of symbol to represent their identity as heir disciples.

“Greetings, senior brothers.” Everyone moved forward, cupped their hands and bowed simultaneously. Although Chen Feng was inwardly sneering, he also put on a façade of bowing.

Chen Feng’s actions, however, was noticed by one of the heir disciples. Chen Feng could immediately sense a blade-like gaze upon him.

“Eh? It seems this person is cultivating the blade dao. Moreover, his cultivation base is quite good and his Soulflame is stronger than mine.” Chen Feng was shocked. He did not expect the other person to take note of him right after arriving.

However, that person quickly retracted his gaze. It was as though he simply did not view Chen Feng as a threat.

“You newcomers have entered the sect for some time now and have had enough rest. Today, the reason we summoned you all is because there are tasks to assign to you all. At any rate, the Pure Yang Pills we give you every day is not for free,” one of the heir disciples, Ma Wu, said.

He looked somewhat kind and there was a warm smile on his face. Even his voice was very gentle. However, Chen Feng could sense that the aura coming from him was even stronger compared to the disciple cultivating the blade dao. As for what type of cultivation dao he was cultivating, Chen Feng could not sense it.

The heir disciple with the warm smile on his face was Ma Yu while the one cultivating the blade dao was Zhao Qiang.

“Naturally, if your performance is outstanding, the sect will give out some rewards,” Ma Wu continued.

“What kind of rewards are those?” one of the disciples asked.

“Magic treasures, magic techniques, medicinal pills, spirit stones and some other items. Do not forget that we are one of the Ten Great Immortal Dao Sects of the Northern Plains. The rewards given by the sect will surely be good items. I still recall how an outer disciple received a grade 5 flying sword for his outstanding performance last time,” Ma Wu said with a smile.

“Grade 5 flying sword.”

The outer disciples immediately began talking amongst themselves. The eyes of some disciples revealed passionate looks.

“All right, let’s start assigning the tasks,” Zhao Qiang said solemnly. His pair of eyes kept sweeping around and his divine sense, backed by the power of his Soulflame, swept around as well, causing the others to feel fearful. Immediately, they went silent.

“You, you and you fellows, come out.” Zhao Qiang then began selecting the disciples there. It did not take long for him to select 20 disciples out. They were then led away by two inner disciples.

As Zhao Qiang was performing the selection, Ma Wu began dividing up the disciples present. It did not take long for him to split up the disciples into teams. Some were in threes and fives while others went up to tens. Some were even selected out to be alone.

To Chen Feng’s surprise, he and Lu Ta were split up. Lu Ta was split into a 20-man team. 

“Senior brother, what will our task be?” Lu Ta could not stop himself from asking.

“You will all be going to Spiritwood Valley to pick medicinal herbs,” said the inner disciple tasked with leading the team. 

“What, picking herbs?” Lu Ta could not restrain himself from shouting out.

“What are you shouting for? This is a good task. If you are unwilling, I will have others take your spot.” The inner disciple grew displeased.

Chen Feng, who was standing some distance away, gave Lu Ta a look. Seeing that, Lu Ta fell silent.

Soon enough, only 30 outer disciples were left on the mountaintop, Chen Feng included. There were also 8 inner disciples and the 2 heir disciples.

“You fellows will follow us and leave the sect mountain,” Zhao Qiang said with a serious tone.

Leave the mountain? Are we leaving Extreme Celestial Mountain? Chen Feng wondered.

Their next actions affirmed Chen Feng’s guess. Under the leadership of the two heir disciples, their team, totalling up to 40 disciples, quickly made their way out of Extreme Celestial Mountain before heading towards First Origin City.

After arriving at First Origin City, they joined up with another 10 inner disciples. Then, they used the teleportation array there to travel forth.

They teleported a distance of 200,000 li to a mid-scale city under Extreme Celestial Sect. Not long after arriving, they moved forward again. This time, they flew by riding their flying swords. Sword lights covered them and they kept flying forward (1 li = 0.5 km).

They flew for thousands of li before resting in a small-scale city for half a day. Then, they continued their journey.

Finally, Chen Feng and the other outer disciples were no longer able to restrain themselves and they began asking.

“Where are we going? We are already hundreds of thousands of li away from Extreme Celestial Mountain. What kind of task is this?”

“That is right. Senior brothers, where are you taking us?”

“Shut up, do not ask too much! We will be arriving soon,” Zhao Qiang snapped.

After flying for over 1,000 li, they finally stopped. They landed in a valley. The valley was slightly hidden from view and there were plenty of clouds covering the panorama of the valley from the sky. After entering the valley, Chen Feng immediately sensed a peculiar aura.

Most shockingly was the existence of a small town within the valley. Some cultivators could be seen walking around the town.

Why did they bring us here? Chen Feng felt puzzled.

“He he. I think I understand what you will be doing here.” Suddenly, Tower’s voice rang within Chen Feng’s sea of wisdom.