Everlasting

 

“Is this massive tower built using sand? Unbelievable!” Jian Xiaotian said, stepping forward to scoop the wall as well. Similarly, a handful of sand could be seen on his palm.

“However, it’s quite tough,” Chen Feng said. When Chen Feng had scooped out the handful of sand from the wall, he could clearly sense that not even tough rocks could match up to the hardness of the massive building standing before them.

“Eh, look at this!” Jian Xiaotian suddenly exclaimed. The two holes that they had scooped out earlier were actually closing up. In just half a breath’s worth of time, the section of the wall had returned to its original state. Not a single abnormality could be seen on the wall.

“It could actually recover by itself!” Chen Feng was surprised. He was reminded of the damaged buildings he encountered back in Demon Soul Valley. It was similar to the situation he had experienced back then. A wondrous power was seemingly enveloping this massive building to allow it to automatically recover from any damage.

“That’s weird. If that’s the case, why are there fallen sections on this massive tower? Not to mention, it feels dilapidated,” said a puzzled Jian Xiaotian.

Chen Feng considered the issue for a moment. Next, he stretched his palm out to press the wall. After sensing carefully for a while, he abruptly unleashed a wave of power. Like a volcanic eruption, the formidable power flowed through his arm and palm before exploding outwards.

Boom!

A loud sound rang out. Next, with Chen Feng’s palm as the point of origin, the wall then trembled outwards. It was as though someone had slapped a palm down against a muddy surface. Next, layer after layer of sand poured down. A circular concave hole with a radius of one zhang and a depth of one metre appeared before the two of them.

After just one breath’s worth of time after Chen Feng retracted his palm, the circular concave hole rapidly closed up. After two breaths’ worth of time, the hole had disappeared and a smooth wall stood before them.

“Let me try as well.” Jian Xiaotian held out a hand, its five fingers joined tightly side by side before stabbing with lightning-like speed towards the wall. A sword beam charged out to instantly leave a very deep hole on the wall. However, the hole quickly closed up and the wall was whole once more. 

“It doesn’t look like there is anyone inside this building. I suggest we enter and check it out,” Jian Xiaotian suddenly said.

“I believe our only option is to enter the tower.” A wry smile had appeared on Chen Feng’s face.

Peering into the distance, they suddenly saw a fiery-red wave appear within the limitless desert. Additionally, this fiery-red wave was extremely long. In just several blinks, the wave of fiery-red wave grew stronger and more violent. It was as though there were raging flames burning within the desert and the flames were rapidly spreading towards the tower.

“Desert fire scorpions! There are so many of them!” Jian Xiaotian blurted out in shock.

As the fiery-red wave grew closer, the two of them could finally get a clear view of what had created the wave. Surprisingly, there was an uncountable number of fiery-red scorpions. They were similar to the scorpions that Chen Feng and Jian Xiaotian had encountered earlier. However, there were so much more of them this time around.

A searing aura assailed them, causing Chen Feng and Jian Xiaotian to feel flustered. Although the two of them were cultivators with formidable cultivation bases, the sight of this tidal wave-like swarm of scorpions was still capable of bringing them feelings of shock and dread.

“There should be over 10,000 of them,” said Chen Feng as he backed away. Soon enough, he was leaning against the wall of the tower.

“More. I can’t even see an end to them. Say, are we about to get rich? How many of those fire scorpions have yao cores?” Jian Xiaotian said, shivering slightly.

“I think we would do well to enter the tower and hide first,” Chen Feng said grimly.

“I don’t know how safe it is inside the tower.” Jian Xiaotian looked at the nearby entrance to the tower. It was still and dark.

Hu! Hu! Hu! Hu!

It was then that the endless fire scorpions finally attacked. Every one of them sprayed out a stream of flames, which converged together to form even bigger streams of flames. Next, seemingly due to some chain reaction, the bigger streams of flames merged with one another again. In just the blink of an eye, countless streams of flames, massive in size, shot towards Chen Feng and Jian Xiaotian.

For Chen Feng and Jian Xiaotian, it felt as though there was a world-encompassing sea of flames surging towards them. Should they be pulled into it, the two of them would be burned to ash.

“Sword energy barrier!” Jian Xiaotian swung the sword in his hand and layer after layer of sword energy rose up to form a barrier of sword energy before them.

Crack!

The surging flames struck the barrier to instantly bring about a series of explosions. In less than half a breath’s worth of time, the sword energy barrier that Jian Xiaotian created had shattered. Next, the flames became like a fire beast, charging forward to devour Chen Feng and Jian Xiaotian.

“Fire-type domain!” Chen Feng abruptly unleashed his domain power. This time, the domain Chen Feng unleashed was different from the past. It did not contain other attributes. Rather, there was only a pure power of fire inside it.

The streams of flames, having arrived before the two of them, were instantly spun away. As the domain around Chen Feng began expanding, an open space appeared around the two of them.

However, it only lasted for a brief moment. Chen Feng’s domain, which was expanding, seemingly reached its limit. Then, it furiously shrank down. After that, several of the desert fire scorpions swiftly charged forward. Their sharp stingers and horrifyingly large pincers attacked Chen Feng and Jian Xiaotian.

Bang!

Chen Feng’s domain exploded outwards. Next, Jian Xiaotian’s body flared with sword light and the nearby desert fire scorpions, which were attacking them, were all knocked backwards.

“Retreat!”

The two of them exchanged glances and swiftly retreated. In just the blink of an eye, they had arrived before the entrance to the tower-shaped building. Moving into the entrance passageway, the two of them immediately sensed a wave of cool air. It was as though they had stepped into a shady spot, free of sunlight, after getting exposed to a midsummer’s sun for a period of time. The cooling feeling was deeply pleasant.

That was how Chen Feng and Jian Xiaotian were feeling at the moment. This feeling washed all over them, from top to bottom. Every part of them, every inner bit and every outer part felt incredibly refreshed.

“It’s a little strange.” Jian Xiaotian then looked at the desert fire scorpions. They were moving around, but none of them dared to charge forward.

“It is very strange. These fire scorpions dare not charge in. It must be due to this building,” said Chen Feng, who strode forward to unleash a lightning-fast punch. A condensed fist blast exploded within the swarm of scorpions and at least ten plus desert fire scorpions were blasted away.

The swarm of scorpions fell into a momentary state of chaos. However, they simply stared at Chen Feng and Jian Xiaotian with their fiery-red eyes. They did not rush forward to attack them.

“Hey! If this is how it’s going to be, then we’re in a good spot!” Giving each other a glance, Jian Xiaotian and Chen Feng immediately unleashed formidable attacks at the scorpions. Instantly, several of the desert fire scorpions were killed and one yao core after another flew into their hands.

“To think that there could be such a good bargain!” Chen Feng said smilingly as he looked at the yao cores in his hand.

Due to the slaughtering session that the two of them had just executed, the remaining desert fire scorpions backed away. A large area was cleared out before the entrance to the tower-shaped building. Even so, the countless desert fire scorpions were still swarming forward. In the end, they began pilling up again and again to quickly form a tall wall of scorpions. Additionally, the wall was continuously growing in size. It seemed as though they wanted to envelop the entire building.

Although Chen Feng and Jian Xiaotian knew that the scorpions would not rush in, seeing that had still caused them to feel uneasy. Thus, they took a few more steps back, causing the surrounding feeling of coolness to grow thicker.

The two of them did not rush into the tower. Instead, they inspected their surroundings for a moment. It was clear that there was something strange about this massive building. There was no way the two of them could casually walk inside.

Although the two of them were inspecting their surroundings, the two of them had actually made up their minds to enter the tower. At any rate, there were countless desert fire scorpions gathered outside, making it impossible for them to leave this place. Not to mention, they had encountered a massive building inside a desert. Any cultivator would be desirous of entering and exploring this building.

“I’ll go out and hunt some yao cores first,” Chen Feng said, bringing out the flaming sword before charging outside. Displaying the Longevity Sword Technique, he instantly killed three desert fire scorpions. Next, the desert fire scorpions reacted, quickly surrounding Chen Feng as their various attacks engulfed him.

Chen Feng was in no rush to charge out from the encirclement. Instead, sword light shone ceaselessly as he fought the incoming wave of desert fire scorpions.

Puchi!

A desert fire scorpion was killed, but a fine cut appeared on Chen Feng’s body. Still, it was not something that Chen Feng would worry about. Instead, he snickered and swung his flaming sword to skewer another fire scorpion.

Next up, whenever Chen Feng killed a desert fire scorpion, a cut would appear on his body. As time went by, over 100 cuts could be seen all over Chen Feng’s body. It meant that Chen Feng had already killed off over 100 of the desert fire scorpions.

“What a formidable level of endurance! It’s been more than two hours. Is he not tired?” Jian Xiaotian was surprised.

Shua!

A thick sword beam swept forward and two desert fire scorpions were sliced apart. Next, Chen Feng’s figure re-appeared within the passageway leading into the building.

“Are you all right?” Jian Xiaotian asked with an uncertain tone, observing the criss-crossing cuts on Chen Feng’s body.

“They are all just flesh wounds,” Chen Feng said, shaking his head while gritting his teeth. One by one, the wounds on his body began disappearing.

Although the wounds were all very shallow, it was still very uncomfortable for Chen Feng. All those wounds were the handiwork of the desert fire scorpions. The attacks from the scorpions contained not just formidable, searing fire-type energy, they also contained invasive poison. If it weren’t for the fact that Chen Feng had already tempered his nerves with tribulation lightning in the past, those fine cuts could already bring about a terrible amount of pain for Chen Feng. 

Chen Feng recovered at an extremely fast rate. It did not take long before his skin was completely whole once more. Then, he began counting the yao cores he managed to obtain.

“A total of 123 yao cores. Tsk, tsk. Not a bad haul.” Chen Feng grinned.

“It’s my turn.” Jian Xiaotian had long since gotten impatient. As someone who possessed the Absolute Combat Constitution, he had an innately powerful desire for combat.

Without waiting for Chen Feng’s reply, Jian Xiaotian seemingly transformed into a sword as he charged into the swarm of desert fire scorpions. This time, however, the desert fire scorpions were already prepared. Due to that, the attack that Jian Xiaotian had been preparing for a long time missed. Seeing Jian Xiaotian attack, the many desert fire scorpions swiftly dispersed before rapidly converging once again to surround Jian Xiaotian. Next, countless needle-shaped energy blasts furiously shot towards Jian Xiaotian.

1 zhang = 3.333 m