Everlasting

 

“Pot Mountain. What is the story behind this mountain?” asked the white-robed elder as he hovered up in the sky, looking down at the Pot Mountain beneath him.

“There should be no story behind it. It is just an ordinary mountain.” The black-robed elder shook his head. Utilizing their soul powers, they had long since searched through Pot Mountain in detail. And yet, they were still incapable of finding anything special about the place.

“Should we dig into the mountain? Maybe there is another dimension inside this mountain,” the white-robed elder suggested.

“We should wait a while longer. Let’s do this. I will contact the sect and ask our sect’s seniors to divine it out again,” the black-robed elder said.

“Looks like we can only do that. Let’s wait for a few more days, then. Within the Northern Plains, no one can offend our Nine Firmaments Palace and get away with it,” the white-robed elder said.

“By the way, even now, it seems Extreme Celestial Sect has not responded at all. I wonder, what will the Sect Master of Extreme Celestial Sect do after he emerges from his cultivation retreat?” the black-robed elder said.

“Humph! Would Extreme Celestial Sect dare offend our Nine Firmaments Palace? If Extreme Celestial Sect does not give us a reasonable explanation for the incident, he he, we can just start a war with them. However, I think Extreme Celestial Sect does not have the guts for it,” the white-robed elder said.

“Hard to say. Extreme Celestial Sect’s Sect Master is not someone we can easily offend.” The black-robed elder shook his head.

“Extreme Celestial Sect’s Sect Master, Wan Jiecheng. He is indeed powerful. However, he is the foremost leader of a sect. No matter what decision he makes, he has to take into account what would happen to the sect. He will not recklessly offend our Nine Firmaments Palace,” the white-robed elder said with a smile. 

“According to some reliable news, that Jian Xiaotian hails from Heavenly Sword Faction from the Central Plains. Heavenly Sword Faction is a very famous sect in the Central Plains. In terms of strength, it is even stronger than our Nine Firmaments Palace. If we kill this Jian Xiaotian, won’t we end up bringing more trouble for our sect?” the black-robed elder said, knitting his brows.

The white-robed elder considered the issue for a moment before saying, “If Heavenly Sword Faction possesses the ability, they would have taken care of Sword Hall long ago. And yet, they have been dragging the issue for so long. Enough! These are not the issues that we should be concerned about. If it comes down to it, we can just capture Jian Xiaotian and let the sect handle the matter.”

As the cultivators from Nine Firmaments Palace and other loose cultivators were furiously searching for them, Chen Feng, Jian Xiaotian and Lin Shaokun continued to cultivate peacefully within Pot Mountain.

Lin Shaokun was the first amongst the three to get up. After a few months, Lin Shaokun abruptly got up. The staff in his hand grew in size. With a swing of his hand, he created a sky-encompassing number of staff silhouettes. Next, Lin Shaokun’s figure floated upwards. In the blink of an eye, he was over 1,000 zhang away from Chen Feng and Jian Xiaotian. 

Lin Shaokun could feel himself benefiting greatly from this period of cultivation. There were even signs of a breakthrough. Fearing that it would affect Chen Feng and Jian Xiaotian, he moved farther away before continuing his cultivation practice.

Immediately after that, Jian Xiaotian, too, stood up. He released a lengthy exhalation. Then, he could not stop himself from breaking into a smile. “I didn’t think that I can stabilize my cultivation base so quickly!”

Generally speaking, some time was needed to stabilize one’s cultivation base after overcoming a Lightning Tribulation. However, due to the immortal energy, the amount of time Jian Xiaotian needed for that was greatly shortened.

Additionally, there were many other benefits to cultivating using the immortal energy. The most important one was that the entire body would feel as though it had been reborn.

At that moment, Jian Xiaotian felt as though his whole body had become lighter. Meanwhile, the power within his body continued to rise. Feeling the rising power within him, Jian Xiaotian felt so happy that he felt an impulse to whoop loudly.

However, when he saw the nearby Chen Feng, he held himself back. Next, he waved his hand and the great sword slung across his back transformed into a stream of light, which circled before him. After that, Jian Xiaotian flew upwards to ride his great sword, flying into the distance. Drawing a line of light through the sky, he then disappeared from sight.

Chen Feng continued to cultivate quietly. Surface wise, he appeared still. However, an overwhelming change was actually happening inside his body.

The insight acupoints that he had opened, the Heavenly Origin acupoint, Twin Magnetic acupoints, Tristar acupoints, Four Extreme acupoints, Five Elemental acupoints, Six Unity acupoints, Seven Aperture acupoints and Eight Trigram acupoints were all swirling, each of them was like a maelstrom connected to an endless pit as they kept absorbing immortal energy.

Even after Lin Shaokun and Jian Xiaotian had left, Chen Feng continued to absorb and refine the immortal energy around him.

Sou!

With a thought from Chen Feng, the Longevity Tower, which was hundreds of li away from him, shook slightly and a bluish-green light flowed out, creating a ray of aquamarine light in the sky as it headed towards Chen Feng. In but a few breaths’ worth of time, the bluish-green light had arrived before Chen Feng.

Chen Feng reached out and performed a grasping motion. A bluish-green staff appeared in his hand. It was a magic treasure that he had obtained by killing off Grotto Master Astral Poison. It was the Aquamarine Poison Staff, a grade 1 Prized artefact [1].

Chen Feng’s palm moved slightly and a stream of primary energy seeped out. Next, the Aquamarine Poison Staff quickly sank into Chen Feng’s body before swiftly flowing into his Four Extreme acupoints’ North Extreme acupoint (left foot).

Chen Feng then channelled the Acupoint Aegis Art. In the beginning, the Aquamarine Poison Staff kept jumping around, wanting to run away from Chen Feng’s body. However, as the North Extreme acupoint kept stirring the Aquamarine Poison Staff, it did not take long before the staff eventually grew still. Finally, it hovered quietly within the North Extreme acupoint. The Prized artefact and insight acupoint began working together as they began melding as one. Due to that, Chen Feng’s strength rose sharply.

A few days later, Chen Feng repeated the same move and the distant Longevity Tower shook slightly once again. Another stream of light flew out from the Longevity Tower. It did not take long for a sword – shining with a brilliant radiance – to appear in Chen Feng’s hand.

It was the Lightstream Sword, the one that Chen Feng had lent to Luo Bo during the Grand Competition. It was a decent grade 2 Prized artefact.

As Chen Feng continued circulating his power, the Lightstream Sword slowly shrank. Finally, it transformed into a stream of light again and flowed into Chen Feng’s body to quickly make its way into the Six Unity acupoints’ Essence acupoint.

Chen Feng’s power soared once again and the rate at which he was absorbing immortal energy grew increasingly fast.

“This kid. He might not be outstanding in other aspects, but his luck is definitely good.” At that moment, Tower was hundreds of li away from Chen Feng. He hovered above a range of mountains, seemingly in the process of finding something.

Refining the Lightstream Sword into his body took Chen Feng nearly 10 days. As he was fully immersed in his cultivation process, Chen Feng did not feel the passage of time at all. Sometimes, due to how much he enjoyed the cultivation process, he even thought that time was passing too quickly.

After refining the Lightstream Sword into his body, Chen Feng felt the power in his body reaching a certain apex. Sensing that, he knew that he could not continue absorbing the immortal energy anymore for now. Thus, he concluded his cultivation session and slowly got up.

Next, his domain abruptly unfurled, spreading continuously into his surroundings, only stopping after reaching a radius of 1,000 metres.

The time spent cultivating here is the equivalent to cultivating for several years in the outside world. The difference in grade between the two spiritual energies creates too much of a disparity. It is like two cultivators. One gets to cultivate in the Immortal Plane since his or her younger days while the other has to cultivate in an ordinary world with lacklustre spiritual energy. Thus, there is simply no way to compare the accomplishments that these two cultivators can achieve. No wonder the ultimate objective of so many would be to ascend to the Immortal Plane. Immortal Plane! It is the ultimate stage for all cultivators, Chen Feng thought.

After pondering for a moment, Chen Feng once again linked up with the Longevity Tower. This time, no magic treasure flew out from the Longevity Tower. Instead, it was the three cultivators that Chen Feng had subdued in the past.

They were Knight Yaoblade, Sage Beastdrive and Grotto Mistress Hypnosis. Saying that they were subdued was not quite accurate. Chen Feng had forced them to obey him using force. Fearing that it would stir up unnecessary troubles, Chen Feng had kept them inside the Longevity Tower all this time. Well, Chen Feng had only just remembered them, otherwise he would have let them out the moment he entered this place.

“I actually forgot about them.” Chen Feng shook his head.

“What is this place?” Knight Yaoblade, who was riding his black tiger, looked around in confusion.

“What a potent spiritual energy! No, this is no ordinary spiritual energy!” After just taking one deep breath of the air there, Sage Beastdrive nearly became intoxicated.

“Look, the tower.” Grotto Mistress Hypnosis stared at the Longevity Tower hovering before their eyes, a look of immeasurable shock on her face.

“You three, come over here.” Suddenly, Chen Feng’s voice rang out within their minds. The three of them flinched. Quickly exchanging glances, they then flew towards Chen Feng’s location.

It did not take them long to reach Chen Feng.

“Greetings, Young Master.” All three saluted Chen Feng. There was no helping it. Chen Feng held their lives in his hands, after all. If they end up upsetting Chen Feng, he could annihilate their bodies and souls with just a thought.

“Hmm, you fellows have already sensed the environment here, right?” Chen Feng asked coolly.

“Yes. The spiritual energy here is very special,” Sage Beastdrive said.

“This is not your average spiritual energy. What you are sensing is immortal energy,” Chen Feng said.

“Immortal energy?” The three of them exchanged glances, looks of shock and excitement on their faces.

“Is this the Immortal Plane?” Knight Yaoblade speculated.

“This is not the Immortal Plane. However, the immortal energy here is the real deal. Enough! Do not ask so much. This is an opportunity that only comes once in a blue moon. Cultivate yourselves here. One day’s worth of cultivation here is the equivalent of one year’s worth of cultivation outside. Hurry up and cultivate.” After saying that, Chen Feng then ignored the three of them and flew into the distance.

“It really is immortal energy.” After Chen Feng was gone, Knight Yaoblade and the other two nearly jumped up and down from excitement.

“How fortunate! This is an insanely good stroke of fortune!” Knight Yaoblade’s face turned red from excitement.

“Yes. I didn’t think it could be immortal energy. This is the spiritual energy from the Immortal Plane, something that only Immortal Humans can get to absorb.” Grotto Mistress Hypnosis’s eyes shone as well.

“Sigh! This is indeed a stroke of fortune. However, do not forget, we are currently under someone else’s control,” said Sage Beastdrive, who shook his head and sighed.

Hearing those words, the joyous looks on Grotto Mistress Hypnosis and Knight Yaoblade instantly disappeared, to be replaced with bitter smiles.

After pondering for a while, Grotto Mistress Hypnosis said, “What is it, Sage Beastdrive? Are you thinking of doing something?” 

“Of course not. What other thoughts could I have?” Sage Beastdrive replied, a rueful smile on his face.

“Although I do not know what kind of seal Chen Feng placed upon us, I do know that everything about us is under Chen Feng’s control. Just a thought from him could obliterate our souls. With that in mind, I would advise you two to not try anything,” Grotto Mistress Hypnosis said smilingly.

“Ha ha ha ha! Maybe following this Young Master is a stroke of fortune in itself. Look, are we not blessed with great fortune right now?” Knight Yaoblade laughed loudly. It was unknown just what was on his mind.

“Right. Guys, don’t waste any time. This is a rare opportunity. We should hurry up and cultivate ourselves.” Sage Beastdrive too, laughed out.

 1 Under He Tian’s lead, Grotto Master Astral Poison and a few others ambushed Chen Feng back in Chapter 303. Knight Yaoblade, Sage Beastdrive and Grotto Mistress Hypnosis were captured while the others were killed. And looted.↩

1 zhang = 3.333 m

1 li = 0.5 km