Everlasting

 

It did not take long for the Concealed stage experts from the various forces within Black Origin City to receive the news. They immediately set out towards the valley that Chen Feng had appeared in to search around. By then, however, Chen Feng had made his way hundreds of li into the forest (1 li = 0.5 km). It was impossible for ordinary cultivators to find Chen Feng. Unless, of course, if the Concealed stage experts chose to utilize their divine senses to search through every inch of the forest.

“What is Chen Feng’s present cultivation base?” asked Tie Jianfeng, the Sect Master of Iron Sword Sect.

“I think he should have broken through to the Concealed stage. However, he has yet to truly open up his sea of wisdom. At present, he still does not have the ability to control flying swords.” The one to speak up was a cultivator in blue robe. It was none other than the one that Chen Feng had shocked into running off, a high elder of the Liu Family.

“Breaking through to the Concealed stage so quickly?” Everyone there was taken aback and their eyes shone as they all began having thoughts of their own.

“What a pity! He was a disciple of my Iron Sword Sect. To have things come to this.” Tie Jianfeng felt a twinge of regret. With the addition of Chen Feng, the sect would have had another Concealed stage cultivator and the sect’s power within Black Origin City would be increased by a notch. Given time, it was not impossible for the sect to surpass the City Lord Residence to become the number one force within the city.

“Humph! As it is, we have already become enemies with the little kid. In order to prevent him from taking revenge, we should nip this in the bud!” said Hu Lie, the Tiger Form Sect Master, with a sinister tone as he gave Tie Jianfeng a glance.

“Hey, it is not easy to kill a Concealed stage cultivator. If you end up enraging Chen Feng instead and he decides to massacre the normal cultivators within Black Origin City, who can stop him?” someone else spoke up. It was a high elder from Flash Wind Hall.

“Although Chen Feng has broken through to the Concealed stage, he has yet to fully open his sea of wisdom and cannot control flying swords. This is a good opportunity. As time goes on, he will surely grow stronger. Do not forget, he is practicing an immortal-tier cultivation technique,” said the Giant Spirit Faction Chief.

Hearing the words ‘immortal-tier’, the eyes of every cultivator there grew with passion once more.

“Cough! Cough! Everyone, although Chen Feng does not know how to control flying swords, he is not to be underestimated. He seems to possess a Godly weapon in his hand. He could blow up my flying sword with one strike,” interjected the high elder from the Liu Family. 

“What? He blew up your flying sword with one strike?” Everyone was shocked.

“In other words, Chen Feng possess a good Magic artefact on him. If that is the case, taking care of him will be difficult.”

“No matter what, we need to figure out a way to capture Chen Feng. This cannot be delayed.”

“That is right. Additionally, I believe there must be other good stuffs on Chen Feng’s person.”

“Let’s not return to Black Origin City. Spread out and search slowly. Once there are any traces of Chen Feng, immediately inform the others.” 

After discussing the matter, the cultivators there spread out and used their divine senses to search for Chen Feng.

…

“I understand now. The sea of wisdom is the equivalent to the mouth of a spring and the layer of fog atop the sea of wisdom is the equivalent of the lid covering the spring water. Some of the spring water can be absorbed and used as power. At present, I have opened up the lid, but although strands of power are coming out, they are but the equivalent of water vapour. In order to truly improve my strength, I need to guide out the spring waters so that they can spray out. Then, study the mysteries within them and comprehend the essence of their power. Only then can I truly be considered as having reached the Concealed stage.” Chen Feng sat cross-legged on a cliff as he silently studied the state of his body.

“The first level of Concealed stage, controlling objects. No wonder cultivators can ride flying swords to fly through the sky after reaching the Concealed stage. All right! Now, let me test this.” After saying that, Chen Feng pulled out the Overwhelming Astral Sword and began using his divine sense to link with it. 

“Argh!”

Chen Feng had only just sent his divine sense forward to wrap around the sword when he felt strands of sword energy radiating out from the sword to cut his divine sense apart. Instantly, Chen Feng’s divine sense was damaged.

Chen Feng quickly calmed himself down and began to steadily mobilize the divine sense within his sea of wisdom. Under Chen Feng’s guidance, strands of divine sense flowed out ceaselessly from his sea of wisdom.

After one hour, Chen Feng felt that he had accumulated a sufficient amount of divine sense to perform the object controlling method. Once again, the divine sense flowed out from his body to move towards the Overwhelming Astral Sword, which was on the ground.

Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa!

Soft explosive sounds rang out as Chen Feng’s divine sense was once again shattered by the sword energy. The pain from this caused Chen Feng to cry out as his whole body trembled. It appeared to be a most unbearable experience.

“Huh! I understand now! The level of this sword is too high while my divine sense is not strong enough. I am still incapable of controlling a magic treasure of this level.” After pondering the incident for a moment, Chen Feng figured out what had happened.

Next, Chen Feng stabilized his rate of breathing for two hours before slowly recovering. After that, he pulled out a damaged flying sword and attempted to form a link with it.

This attempt proceeded smoothly and the flying sword that was before him slowly floated up. Under Chen Feng’s guidance, the flying sword hovered, jumped about and circled around. Later, Chen Feng controlled it and sent it flying far into the distance. It continued travelling a distance of over 100 metres before slowly flying back.

“Can it only fly a distance of 100 metres? This is far from my limit. This is a matter of proficiency.” After saying that, Chen Feng once again controlled the flying sword to send it flying into the distance. This time, it flew 150 metres in one breath’s worth of time. Then, it swayed about before falling to the ground.

“Phew! This is an ability from level 1 of the Concealed stage, controlling objects with divine sense. If a flying sword is made into a lifebound magic treasure, the power of the sword will be increased by several hundredfold. However, a lifebound magic treasure is something that is closely linked to one’s self. I must be extremely cautious when making a lifebound magic treasure. At present, none of the weapons in my possession have the qualifications to become a lifebound magic treasure. The Overwhelming Astral Sword is qualified enough, but my divine sense is not enough for it.”

“I wonder, though, what about the little tower on my person? Once I am almost done with my sword controlling practice, I will check up on the little tower.” Chen Feng made up his mind.

Truth be told, the moment Chen Feng reached the Concealed stage, he had felt an eager desire to check the little tower. However, Chen Feng decided to suppress that desire in the end. Good items must be explored when one was in the best state. The little tower had been accompanying him all this time, it must possess quite the origin. It may be that the little tower had something to do with his own life. As Chen Feng was not quite ready, his heart was not quite calm enough then, he decided to add some life-saving techniques to his repertoire before doing that.

…

“Just where did the kid go to? It has been three days and we have yet to see him. There is no sign of him at all,” said a high elder from the Liu Family with an anxious tone.

“Black Origin Mountain Range has a radius of hundreds of thousands of li with rolling mountains and a flourishing forest. Some of the old trees can grow to a height of hundreds of metres high, some even to thousands of metres. After going into the forest, the kid can simply find a spot to hide and it will be like trying to find a needle within a sea for us. It is an extremely difficult task,” Mo Yuan, the City Lord of Black Origin City said slowly.

“City Lord, you don’t seem to be anxious,” said Patriarch Liu with an enigmatic tone.

“What is the point of being anxious? We still need to slowly search for him, don’t we? Or, could we succeed in finding him just because we are anxious?” answered Mo Yuan calmly.

“Do not worry. I believe Chen Feng could not have gone too far. The depths of Black Origin Mountain Range are filled with yao beasts. Even for us, death is a certainty if we venture into those places. I guess this Chen Feng must be nearby,” said the Sun Patriarch with a smile. He, too, did not appear anxious.

“I wonder, what suggestions does the Iron Sword Sect Master have?” the Tiger Form Sect Master suddenly said.

“I have no suggestions. Just search slowly,” replied Tie Jianfeng with a cold scoff. 

…

Sou!

A one-chi length sword flashed forward and a cracking sound came from a tree that would require two people to encircle. Next, the tree slowly fell to the ground. After that, the flying sword circled around constantly. Light flashed out intensely as the branches and leaves on the tree was cut into pieces. Soon, only a tree trunk remained of the tree that had once been at least 20-zhang tall (1 chi = 0.333 m; 1 zhang = 3.333 m). 

Shua!

The flying sword quickly turned back to fall into Chen Feng’s palm. There, it continued hovering, sharp light undulating on the surface of the sword.

Phew! After practicing for seven days, I can finally skilfully control this flying sword. Additionally, the distance that my flying sword can reach has been increased to one li. However, I fear it will take longer for me to fly on a sword. Chen Feng thought to himself.

“What a pity! The original grade of this flying sword should be quite high. However, it is likely not even grade 1 right now,” said Chen Feng as he regarded the exquisite little flying sword in his hand.

The flying sword was something that Chen Feng had collected from the bottom of the pool. Although it remained sharp, with a faint stream of light flowing through it, its surface was filled with cracks. In all honesty, it was just a broken flying sword. Unless it was refined using valuable materials, the spiritual energy within it would disperse with time, turning it into no more than a piece of scrap metal.

There were some undamaged weapons within the spatial pouches that Chen Feng obtained, some appearing to be quite strong. However, given Chen Feng’s current level of strength, he was still incapable of refining any of them for his use. For the time being, he could only use this damaged flying sword. He would need to wait until he had unlocked the potential of his Heavenly Origin acupoint, then use it to guide his divine sense out from his sea of wisdom, strengthening his divine sense. Then, he would naturally be capable of refining those high-grade magic treasures.

After the chat he had with Bai Ziyan, Chen Feng had gotten to know about the grading for magic treasures. The weapons used by cultivators in the Training Body and Energy stage were all common weapons. No matter how good the materials used for the weapons were, no matter how sharp they were, without the nourishment of divine sense, spiritual attributes and unique forms, all would fall into the category of common weapons.

Above common weapons were Magic artefacts. They were generally used by cultivators in the Concealed stage. Normally, these artefacts would be nourished by the Concealed stage cultivators’ divine sense and blood energy. Either that or be made into their lifebound magic treasures. While the materials of the weapons be improved, there was something more important. The body of the sword would contain a great deal of spiritual attributes and energy. 

For example, if forging a normal sword required 10 jin of high-quality steel, then the forging of a flying sword would require at least 1,000 jin, 10,000 jin, perhaps even 100,000 jin of high-quality steel. Only by extracting the iron extract from all those jin of steel can a flying sword successfully be forged (1 jin = 0.5 kg).

Common weapons were graded from one to nine.

Likewise, Magic artefacts were also graded from one to nine.

Prized artefacts, which were above Magic artefacts, were also graded from one to nine.

The Overwhelming Astral Sword in Chen Feng’s possession was a grade 1 Prized artefact. Back then, Bai Ziyan had checked it for him. Originally, the Overwhelming Astral Sword itself was not quite at the grade 1 Prized artefact level. However, after being imbued with the will of an expert and melding with the expert’s blood essence, the sword’s sword energy became extraordinarily formidable and could reign unchallenged despite the lack of magic powers from its user.

If it were not for the fact that Bai Ziyan already had a better weapon on her person, she may be tempted by the weapon as well.

That was also why Chen Feng could not utilize divine sense to control the Overwhelming Astral Sword. In order to refine the Overwhelming Astral Sword, not only must his divine sense be strong, even the blood energy within his body needed to be at a highly vigorous level.

[TL: I made a mistake. The unit of measurement for jin has been standardized to 0.5 kg. I’ll be rectifying the earlier chaps soon. Sorry for any confusions.]