Everlasting

 

Maybe I can figure a way to cultivate for a while. Having reached that line of thought, Chen Feng kept the sword in his hand away. Next, his hand moved about and energy streams flowed out to quickly transform into a sword. It was the Longevity Sword. Next, a Longevity Blade was condensed out in his other hand.

Shua! Shua!

Blade and sword shot out and the one-zhang-tall block of ore in front of him was suddenly cut apart. After that, both of Chen Feng’s hands kept swinging around and bars of shiny Starlight Stone quickly piled up side by side (1 zhang = 3.333 m).

In face of the weapons Chen Feng condensed out, the hard ores became extremely fragile.

Chen Feng did not stop. The luminescent energy from his blade and sword kept flashing about. In less than two hours, a small mountain made from the cut out Starlight Stones appeared behind Chen Feng. There was a total of 100 bars there. His task for today was complete.

Ignoring the shocked gaze from the others, Chen Feng then found a place where he entered a state of silent contemplation.

The power of his Soulflame was growing at a very slow rate. The immortal wine he drank a while back had increased his cultivation base by 100 years and the quality of his longevity-type primary energy. However, Chen Feng was now feeling dissatisfied. He felt that his recent rate of cultivation had become slow.

Chen Feng knew that the cultivation process must follow a prescribed order, a steady path. Additionally, the rate at which he was cultivating himself was already Heaven-defying when compared to others. And yet, Chen Feng remained unsatisfied. He kept getting the feeling that he was extremely weak. It was a feeling born from the depths of his heart, one that came without any reasoning. Chen Feng himself did not understand why he would have such thoughts. In fact, this feeling was causing him to feel irritated during his cultivation processes.

Him using the blade and sword to quickly cut down the Starlight Stone earlier was a way for him to vent the frustration in his heart.

“Tower, is my cultivation path deviating due to inner demons?” Chen Feng asked secretly.

“A little. However, this is a very normal occurrence,” Tower said.

“Why do you say that? Am I really suffering from cultivation deviation?” Chen Feng grew concerned.

“Every cultivator who had cultivated the Tristar Crown would face the same feeling that you are now feeling. Just think about it in detail,” Tower said with an amused voice.

Chen Feng was shocked and he quickly understood. He thought about the three stars known as Celestial Yang, Celestial Metropolis and Celestial Fate. The image of something vast and endless appeared in his mind. That was especially true for the two ancient stars that he had already sensed and faced, the Celestial Yang and Celestial Metropolis. Before them, Chen Feng felt like an existence that was a million times weaker than even an ant.

I understand now. So, that is what this is. In the face of the vastness of the starry sky, anyone would feel insignificant, especially when looking at the ancient and seemingly living stars. If this situation festers, it will later on develop to become a very powerful inner demon, Chen Feng thought.

“But how to I get rid of this feeling?” Chen Feng then felt confused.

“Accept the stars and devour the starry sky,” Tower slowly said.

“Heh! What boastful words! Even Immortal Humans don’t have such an ability, do they?” Chen Feng scoffed.

“If you don’t even have this kind of mindset, how can you reach the apex of cultivation? Remember, in the path of cultivation, the brighter your mindset, the farther along the path of cultivation you can go,” Tower said coldly.

“Besides, devouring the starry sky is not that big of a deal,” Tower continued.

“Accept, devour.” Hearing Tower’s words, Chen Feng felt his mind turning somewhat. It felt as though the mist before him had shook slightly from that. Even though the mist remained, Chen Feng could feel the feelings of frustration lightening considerably.

Although I still cannot understand this concept for now, Tower’s words hold a certain merit. I will slowly figure it out when cultivating tonight, Chen Feng thought.

Observing the others cutting the ores with ardour, Chen Feng then stretched out his hand and a powerful energy flow seeped out from his palm. A chain slowly appeared before Chen Feng. It looked like an ordinary chain, made of rings connected to each other. However, its surface was filled with strange runes and drawings and it exuded an aura of ancientness, grandness and endlessness.

In the beginning, the chain appeared inch by inch from Chen Feng’s palm. Later, however, the rate at which it appeared grew until there was more than one zhang of the chain.

Two zhang, three zhang… finally, when it was five zhang, Chen Feng stopped.

Chen Feng held the chain - over 10 metres long - made from primary energy in his hands. To casual eyes, it would appear like a whip.

Shua!

Chen Feng’s hand abruptly lashed out and the long chain quickly whipped out to wrap around a stone weighing up to tens of thousands of jin. Next, by channelling his primary energy, the long chain instantly unleashed sharp, blade-like luminescence (1 jin = 0.5 kg).

Cha! Cha! Cha! Cha! Cha! Cha!

Stone chips scattered and the unsightly ore became round and smooth. Then, Chen Feng slowly placed it on the ground.

“This is my limit. It is far worse compared to the Longevity Sword,” Chen Feng whispered.

He had successfully condensed out the Longevity Chain.

Next, Chen Feng continued exploring the mysteries of the Longevity Chain. The Longevity Blade could cleave all and the Longevity Sword brought an overbearing yet balanced firmness. As for the Longevity Chain, Chen Feng sensed a swirling aura of restriction from it.

“Senior brother, please help out. We simply cannot complete our tasks,” said a few outer disciples who approached Chen Feng.

The outer disciples had spent the whole day exhausting themselves but some were still incapable of completing their tasks. As they were helplessly exhausted, they put on a thick skin and went to ask Chen Feng for help.

“Not a problem. You fellows can take these Starlight Stone bars first.” Chen Feng pointed at the 100 bars lying before him.

“Thank you, senior brother!”

When evening came, Zhao Qiang came to the valley. Producing a spatial pouch with a large storage space, he kept all the bars that they had cut out.

“Not bad. I didn’t think that you all could actually complete the task. Now, all of you may return and rest.” After saying that, Zhao Qiang gave Chen Feng another glance before leaving.

Is he looking at me due to what happened during the day? Chen Feng wondered. He kept getting the feeling that there was something amiss with the way Zhao Qiang was looking at him.

After returning to their quarters, Chen Feng rejected the invitation from several outer disciples. He did not even go for the meals prepared by the sect. Instead, after swallowing a few Pure Yang Pills, he found a quiet peak and began cultivating himself.

Although Chen Feng’s level of cultivation base had yet to reach the realm of surviving without eating, he basically no longer required normal foods. Even if he did eat something, it would be items like medicinal pills or other cultivation materials.

To be more specific, Chen Feng only required Magic crystals, Pure Yang Pills and other similar medicinal pills to continue with his cultivation efforts.

After Chen Feng’s cultivation base had reached a high level, he could simply devour the worldly spiritual energy. Naturally, in order to increase his rate of cultivation, he would require a lot of high-grade medicinal pills.

At that moment, Chen Feng was attempting to sense the faraway Celestial Fate. That was the only star missing on his Tristar Crown.

Celestial Fate, containing the numerology of Heaven, the power of fate. By establishing a connection with Celestial Fate, he could grasp his fate. It was the equivalent of cultivating a fate divining technique. Grasping fate, changing fate, delaying fate. Of course, such an action would require an extraordinary amount of magic power.

This star was the hardest one to sense. Even after one month had passed, Chen Feng was still incapable of getting a single clue pertaining to the star’s whereabouts. Firstly, it was due to the bad cultivation environment. Secondly, as the final one of the Tristar acupoints, it was quite difficult to sense.

During the night, Chen Feng would secretly cultivate the Tristar Crown. When day came and he had to cut out the Starlight Stone ores, Chen Feng would practice the techniques from the Longevity Scripture. Longevity Chain, Longevity Spear, Longevity Pike. All of them were condensed out. However, he was only able to form them. Their power had yet to rise. Still, Chen Feng was not feeling anxious. At any rate, the work he faced was nothing. He could cut out over 100 pieces of the Starlight Stones with a few casual swings. Other than the fact that the surrounding spiritual energy was not as thick as when he was in Extreme Celestial Mountain, there was no other difference.

For Chen Feng, having the time to cultivate was enough.

During that one month, Chen Feng’s prestige amongst the outer disciples grew to its pinnacle as he would always cut out hundreds and sometimes over a thousand pieces of Starlight Stones out, thereby greatly reducing the workload on the other disciples. Those with lesser cultivation bases felt very grateful towards Chen Feng.

Zhao Qiang and Ma Wu had also found out about that. Strangely, the two of them did not voice any opinions on that. The only difference lay in the way they looked at Chen Feng.

“Humph! Do you all know? We should have gotten 15 Pure Yang Pills a day, but now we are only getting 10. The remainder have all gone into Zhao Qiang and Ma Wu’s hands.” At that moment, they were gathered together to rest. It was then that one of them whispered out.

“What, there is such a thing? This senior has been breaking his back every day, but someone is deducting our wages? When we return, we should report this to the sect’s higher-ups!” an impulsive disciple shouted.

“I know about that as well. However, we can only talk about it in private. It is useless. This is a form of rules. Be it our Extreme Celestial Sect or any other sect on Eternal World, it will be the same,” a calm-looking disciple said.

“Senior Brother Chen, what do you say?” The others then turned to look at Chen Feng.

“He he, this kind of thing is inevitable. The two of them are going a little overboard by deducting one-third of our Pure Yang Pills. However, it is useless to report this to the higher-ups of the sect. We are outer disciples. Firstly, we have no background. Secondly, we have no strength. If we end up offending those heir disciples, they can just find an opportunity to kill us. No one would care for us at all,” Chen Feng said coolly.

“Senior Brother Chen is right. In order to turn things around, we will have to give it our all in our cultivation.”

“Hey, cutting Starlight Stones every day is so exhausting, where do we find the time to cultivate?”

“That is right. We have already been here for a month now. I wonder when can we go back.”

“Go back. Who knows how long it will take? From what I can gather from the inner disciples, at best, it will take up to one year. If it is a long one, it will not be surprising for this task to last up to ten plus years.”

“How can that be? Ten plus years? Without any time to cultivate, we will surely be kicked out from Extreme Celestial Sect!”

“Damn it! Only now did I realize. This is just exile.”

Chen Feng watched as they chatted amongst themselves emotionally. Even Chen Feng was feeling emotional. These lowest-ranking disciples did not have any background or connections. Even if they did possess some talent, that talent will slowly be buried.