Everlasting

 

After just three days, Chen Feng received an invitation from Wen Shaoxiu and the others, stating that they had already found the outposts of Killer Palace.

“So fast?” Chen Feng was surprised.

“Although these assassin organizations are more secretive and ghost-like in behaviour, it is still very easy to find their lesser outposts. Naturally, finding their lair would be unrealistic,” Wen Shaoxiu said smilingly.

“This time, we found a total of three outposts. Each of them is defended by half-step Human Immortals. They are just right for us. Heh! They act as they please here in our Heavenly Sword Faction. Let this be a lesson to them,” Liu Quan said with a smile of his own.

In addition to Chen Feng, there was a total of eight cultivators. The other seven cultivators were all half-step Human Immortals: Wen Shaoxiu, Jian Luobo, Jian Zhiqiu, Liu Quan, Situ Nan, Li Shilong and Ma Tianfang. That was particularly true for Wen Shaoxiu, who was already very close to reaching the Human Immortal stage. He was someone that Heavenly Sword Faction was spending a great deal of efforts to nurture.

“Truth be told, this is quite shameful. The first of Killer Palace’s outpost that we found is only 1,000 kilometres away from our Heavenly Sword Mountain Range. Additionally, according to the information I received, it is a newly established one,” Wen Shaoxiu said, looking at Chen Feng.

“In other words, they are here for me. Heh! Unexpectedly, they would regard me so highly. To think that they would display such a show of force in order to kill me,” Chen Feng said, chuckling.

“Killer Palace, Assassin Palace, Shadow Palace and Void Palace. These are the four topmost assassin organizations in the world of cultivation. They all have their own ways of conduct. Once they are given an assassination target, they must succeed. If the first assassination attempt fails, there will be a second attempt. If the second attempt fails, there will be a third, a fourth, a fifth, all the way until the target finally dies to them. Additionally, these assassin organizations are all crazy. Even if their employer retracts the assassination order, the assassins will not stop,” Wen Shaoxiu said.

“There is such a thing?” Chen Feng was shocked. It would appear that these assassin organizations were truly mad. 

“In other words, even if Nine Firmaments Palace reconciles with you and decides against hiring the assassins, Killer Palace would still not let you go. They will continuously dispatch assassins after you until they succeed in killing you. Those are the rules of Killer Palace,” Li Shilong, who was standing beside Chen Feng, interjected.

“Doesn’t that mean I’m screwed? In the future, I will always have to face the assassination attempts from Killer Palace until the day Killer Palace is destroyed. Are there no exceptions?” Chen Feng’s eyes bulged out.

“There are exceptions. However, those are very rare. For example, if an Earthen Immortal comes out to protect you or if you bring out a treasure that is good enough to move these assassin organizations. Then, they might revoke the assassination order,” Wen Shaoxiu said.

“A treasure that is good enough to move them? A Dao artefact or an Immortal artefact?” Chen Feng gave a bitter smile.

“Many of the assassins from Killer Palace have already died under my hands. In the future, even more will die to me. Looks like there will be no possibility of reconciliation between us. Very well. Their constant attempts to assassinate me will simply be the acts of honing my cultivation base!” Chen Feng chuckled as he no longer concerned himself with it.

“Well said! A good show of courage. Truth be told, there are also competition between the assassin organizations. Brother Chen will be able to make use of it. The competition between them is so fierce that we can just leak the location of their outposts that we found. It is possible that other forces and even the other three assassin organizations would send their men after Killer Palace’s outposts. There will be no need for us to do anything,” Wen Shaoxiu said.

They chatted as they set forth and it did not take them long to reach the place.

Observing the small valley resting before them, Chen Feng said dubiously, “Is it here?”

This was a most ordinary valley. There were even ordinary humans residing there. Some of the locals there carried medicinal baskets filled with the medicinal herbs plucked from the mountains. Glancing around, Chen Feng could see tigers preying on wild rabbits, pheasants and other smaller animals on the mountain.

The spiritual energy there was so lacking that Chen Feng could not find any cultivators there. All of them were ordinary humans.

“The information is correct. They are inside this valley. We need to exercise caution. Every one of these assassins possesses a high level of vigilance, so we must not alarm them. If we are to attack, we have to kill them all. Not a single one must be allowed to escape,” Wen Shaoxiu said.

“Ha ha, don’t worry. I have prepared a great array for this. It can seal up an entire area, covering a 50-kilometre radius. We’ll be able to capture all those criminals in one fell swoop,” Li Shilong said, waving his hand. A finger-sized, eight-banner command flag appeared on his palm.

The eight banners looked similar. However, each of the banners was shining with a different and wondrous light. The powers within them were arranged in an orderly manner. Just one glance was enough to tell that it was a carefully-refined magic treasure.

“Sacred artefact, Great Domain Magic Array!” Chen Feng was surprised.

“Brother Chen truly knows his stuff. This is indeed the Great Domain Magic Array. Additionally, it is also a grade 5 Sacred artefact. Ha ha! I had specifically gone to borrow this from someone else for the sake of this expedition,” Li Shilong said proudly.

“Good! With this magic array, even a Human Immortal would be trapped inside,” Chen Feng said smilingly.

“I’ll go set up the magic array. You fellows get ready,” said Li Shilong, his body disappearing from sight.

Chen Feng spread out his soul power and was able to quickly sense a change coming over the surrounding space. Waves of invisible power were sealing up the place. However, the power contained a fleeting quality, making it very hard to notice. If it were not for the fact that Chen Feng’s Soulflame had transformed into the Lifebound Flame, he would not have been capable of noticing that.

As expected of a Sacred artefact. Now, let me check out what is going on inside this valley.

Chen Feng utilized his eye technique to investigate the valley.

“Magic Eyes of Darkness. Brother Chen is truly extraordinary. I will investigate as well.” Wen Shaoxiu cast a shocked look at Chen Feng before tapping his glabella with his fingertip. Next, a slit appeared on his glabella and light escaped the slit to pierce through space, moving ahead to investigate the area up ahead.

“Eye of Heaven!” Chen Feng was taken aback.

After reaching a certain point in cultivation, a cultivator could open up his or her third eye. That was the Eye of Heaven, capable of exploring the Nine Heavens, the Nine Hells, the Six Paths and the Eight Wilderness. It was even capable of breaking falsehoods. Some cultivators could even utilize the Eye of Heaven to cultivate out various types of magic arts. In some cases, these magic arts could match up to even some of the Heaven-defying eye techniques.

However, Chen Feng also knew that only Human Immortals could open up the Eye of Heaven. Immortal dao laws and immortal dao will were required to spur the opening of the Eye of Heaven. In Wen Shaoxiu’s case, he was only a half-step Human Immortal. And yet, he had managed to open his Eye of Heaven. Additionally, he appeared fairly proficient in using it. Seeing that shocked Chen Feng.

“There should be no Human Immortal here.” Chen Feng swiftly inspected very part of the valley in detail. He even went so far as to investigate the situation outside the valley.

“There aren’t many assassins here. Only around ten,” Chen Feng said.

“Over ten of them. This is already quite a high number. Every assassin trained by Killer Palace is the equivalent of ten cultivators. Their ability to kill far surpasses even disciples of first-rate sects like us,” Wen Shaoxiu said.

“There are only eight of us here. Number wise, we have less then them. We’ll have to exercise caution.”

“Naturally. In a straight-up fight, even if we manage to kill them all, we will be wounded as well. However, by borrowing the power of a magic array and the element of surprise, things will be different.”

Sou!

Li Shilong returned.

“I have already set up the Great Domain Magic Array. Junior Brother Zhiqiu, it’s your turn now.” Li Shilong said, gasping for breath. Obviously, setting up the magic array had exhausted a great deal of his energy.

Jian Zhiqiu nodded and he quickly started work on setting up his own magic array.

The magic array that Jian Zhiqiu was setting up was the Autumn Waters Sword Array. After the sword array was set up, it would unleash an unending stream of attacks. Like the waters of autumn, they would ensure that the enemies had no way of escaping.

As they were secretly gathering their strength while waiting for the time to attack, Liu Quan’s face abruptly sank.

“This is not good. Unexpectedly, there are actually assassins outside.” Liu Quan sent a secret vocal transmission to Chen Feng and the others.

Three black-clad men appeared from afar. Moreover, they were moving very quickly. By the time Liu Quan noticed them and issued out the secret vocal transmission, the three black-clad men had already appeared before their group.

“How careless. I didn’t think that assassins would appear at a time like this. We’ll have to attack now,” Wen Shaoxiu said.

“Attack!”

Wen Shaoxiu, Liu Quan and Situ Nan attacked simultaneously, unleashing their strongest moves to intercept the three black-clad men. They wanted to kill off the three men as fast as possible.

At the same time, Chen Feng’s soul power abruptly spread forward, condensing into great hands to grab and move the hunters and ordinary humans still inside the valley far away.

As for Li Shilong, he activated the Great Domain Magic Array, causing the surrounding space to twist about. A dimension space appeared to envelop their surroundings, spanning a radius of 50 kilometres.

As for Jian Zhiqiu, he continued to set up the sword array at an accelerated pace. 

Jian Luobo and Ma Tianfang utilized their stealth techniques before darting into the valley. Next, a loud noise rang out as the two of them began fighting against the assassins inside the valley.

Sou!

After he was done moving the ordinary humans away, Chen Feng quickly rushed forward. Appearing behind one of the black-clad assassins, he unleashed a punch.

The assassin was already wounded after taking on Wen Shaoxiu’s attack earlier. Thus, he could not endure this attack from Chen Feng and was easily killed.

“Go help Jian Luobo!” Wen Shaoxiu shouted.

Chen Feng nodded as he sped forward as fast as he could into the valley.

In just the blink of an eye, Chen Feng had reached the centre of the valley. Waving his hand, the Heaven Measuring Ruler rushed out and a loud noise reverberated around. The entire valley shook and a deep crater – it was unknown just how deep it went – appeared at the centre of the valley.

The small teleportation array there had been destroyed.

When he was investigating the valley earlier, Chen Feng had discovered this teleportation array. Fearing that the assassins would make use of the teleportation array to escape, he decided to do this the moment he entered the valley.

Jian Luobo and Ma Tianfang were fighting against two black-clad assassins. There was no way to tell which side was winning.

Seeing that, Chen Feng felt concerned. Both Jian Luobo and Ma Tianfang were half-step Human Immortals. And yet, they were incapable of taking down two assassins.

“If every assassin in this outpost possesses this level of strength, we will be in for a tough battle,” said Chen Feng, who abruptly twisted his body. Both his hands shot out and grabbed. Streams of energy surged, primary energy sprayed out and lightning clashed as he stopped two swords, which had appeared all of a sudden.

 

1 li = 0.5 km