Everlasting

 

Chen Feng’s Immortal-binding Rope was already a grade 3 Sacred artefact. Golden light flashed as it easily tied up the black silhouette. No sign of corrosion could be seen on the rope.

“Come, let’s see what this is.” Chen Feng beckoned to pull the Immortal-binding Rope over. However, the black silhouette suddenly exploded with a boom before disappearing and energy streams flowed out to fuse with the surrounding malevolent energy.

“Eh, it disappeared? Just what is it?” Jian Xiaotian had also fired out several sword beams at it earlier, but his attacks missed.

“I don’t know either.” Chen Feng channelled his eye power. However, with the exception of the malevolent energy streams hovering in the air, he was incapable of seeing anything else.

“How strange!”

His eyes swept the place again and again and his vision of the space there took on a layered quality. He became capable of seeing the flow of spiritual and malevolent energy streams and the rate of their flow.

A clump of malevolent energy was rapidly condensing and it quickly formed yet another black silhouette. This time, the black silhouette directly charged towards Chen Feng. Its movement speed surpassed that of the previous one, creating rumbling sounds in its wake.

Kacha!

Chen Feng waved his hand and a sphere of lightning slammed against the black silhouette.

Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi!

Like a volcanic eruption, lightning powers spread out and the black silhouette dispersed. Next, a round bead fell into Chen Feng’s hand.

“It must be something formed through the condensation of the malevolent energy. Because malevolent energy is of the yin-type, it fears lightning powers the most. However, what is this bead?” Chen Feng said, assessing the round bead in his hand.

“Could it be a Form Assembly Bead formed by the malevolent energy?”

“Possible. This bead contains very pure malevolent and death energies. Additionally, there are also some complex magic arrays inside. It seems like these magic arrays are naturally-occurring arrays. They have some research value.”

“Assembling the surrounding malevolent energy to take form and attack. How wondrous! I have only heard of it in the past. This is my first time seeing it.”

“This is probably not the only one.” Chen Feng’s eyes kept sweeping the area.

“I’ll go collect the spiritual herbs first.” Jian Xiaotian’s figure dashed forward to appear before a one-chi-tall spiritual grass. Next, he extended a hand to pluck it up.

The spiritual herb shone with a silvery-white lustre and it sported a total of 13 leaves. Every leaf was seemingly moulded from steel, its splendour put on full display.

That was the Spiritual Astroyang Grass. This spiritual herb could be found in the outside world as well. However, as this grass was growing within a place filled with malevolent energy, it had undergone some changes.

As Jian Xiaotian was in the process of collecting the spiritual herb, the malevolent energy around converged once more and three black silhouettes pounced upon Jian Xiaotian.

“I’ve been waiting for you! Skywheel Shattersword!” Jian Xiaotian fired out the move that he had been preparing and sword beam after sword beam sprayed out like a volcanic eruption. Like an exploding meteor, the move instantly engulfed the three black silhouettes.

At the same time, Chen Feng finally noticed the small, grey-coloured beads floating in the air. The round beads – formed by the malevolent energy streams – had fused with the surrounding malevolent energy streams. Moreover, there were also the spatial fluctuations there. Due to all those factors, Chen Feng had actually failed to notice them with his Magic Eyes of Darkness earlier.

The moment the beads appeared, the surrounding streams of malevolent energy converged. Instantly, the surrounding space became empty as all of the malevolent and death energies disappeared completely.

Next, over 100 black silhouettes appeared inside the cavern. Several of them were constantly twisting and roiling about. They were showing signs of attaining solid form.

“There are so many!” Chen Feng was somewhat shocked.

Next, the black silhouettes attacked Chen Feng and Jian Xiaotian, seemingly enveloping the entire cavern. Despite their disorderly actions, the black silhouettes were actually capable of formidable physical attacks. At the same time, they could also unleash attacks using death energy. The death energy spread out through peculiar energy waves, capable of entering a cultivator’s sea of wisdom to erode one’s soul and transform one into a mindless monster.

“Heavengulping Absorption Technique!”

Chen Feng stretched his right hand out and a rapidly rotating vortex appeared on his palm. Next, strands of death energy were pulled into Chen Feng’s palm.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

One by one, the beads exploded, the malevolent energy contained within them dissipating in a flash. As for the death energy, they could not endanger Chen Feng. Rather, Chen Feng stored the death energy within his Death acupoint.

Shua!

The Death Sword swung out and one bead after another exploded.   The Death Sword roared, seemingly having caught a whiff of something delicious. Next, it sent out a formidable suction force to suck in the surrounding death energy.

For Chen Feng, dealing with the black silhouettes was very easy. However, it was a different matter for Jian Xiaotian. Three black silhouettes surrounded Jian Xiaotian and they kept launching attacks at him.

Formidable attacks mixed with peculiar attacks using the death energy made it hard for Jian Xiaotian to defend himself.

However, Jian Xiaotian made use of his Absolute Combat Constitution, powerful blood energy, formidable fleshly body and condensed soul to fight back. Although he was somewhat flustered by the attacks, he was not grievously wounded.

“Thunderclap Bead!” Jian Xiaotian was finally incapable of holding on. Swinging his hand, he sent a bead out. The bead exploded and three black silhouettes that were struck by the explosion of lightning instantly dispersed.

As expected, this is not a place for the average cultivator. There are probably only a few like me, a cultivator at level 7 of the Sky Human stage. Logically speaking, entering this place is just suicide for someone like me. Thankfully, I have some magic treasures granted to me by my master. That is how I managed to endure this long. Having reached that line of thought, Jian Xiaotian then turned to look at Chen Feng, who was having an easy time against the black silhouettes. 

Of course, monstrous characters like Brother Chen are very rare.

At the very least, Jian Xiaotian had never seen anyone more monstrous than Chen Feng. Although Chen Feng would often resort to using his magic treasures when facing formidable opponents, a cultivator’s magic treasures were considered part of the cultivator’s strength in the world of cultivation.

In truth, seeing that would not cause other cultivators to despise Chen Feng. Rather, they would feel highly envious of him.

“Finally, we managed to finish off these ghost-like creatures. Hopefully, that is the last of them,” Jian Xiaotian said, extending his hand to pull out a Spiritual Astroyang Grass.

This time, nothing appeared to stop him.

The two of them swiftly collected the spiritual herbs there. As Chen Feng’s soul power was strong, they were able to quickly find all of the spiritual herbs inside the cavern.

“Ha ha! There is a total of 13,215 spiritual herbs here. Over 3,000 of them are over a thousand years old while a total of 50 are over ten thousand years old.”

“There are around 30 types of spiritual herbs. Because they are growing here, they have been contaminated by the malevolent and death energies, triggering a mutation in them. However, that only increases their value.”

The two of them moved quickly, plucking up one spiritual herb after another. Even the soil beneath the spiritual herbs was pulled out. It did not take long for the two of them to pluck out a considerable number of the herbs there.

“Eh, there are so many spiritual herbs here! What luck!”

“You two, hurry up and stop what you are doing! Hand over everything on you. That way, we can spare your lives!”

Suddenly, two cultivators appeared. They moved quickly to charge at Chen Feng and Jian Xiaotian, one from the left and the other one from the right.

Two suicidal fellows. Chen Feng smirked as he simply fired out a Great Longevity Palm and grasped to capture the cultivator charging at him.

Too weak. He is not even at the half-step Human Immortal stage. I wonder which sect he is from? Chen Feng wondered.

The other cultivator had been charging towards Jian Xiaotian. However, upon seeing how powerful Chen Feng was, he was immediately terrified. Turning around, he attempted to flee.

“You can forget about leaving.” Chen Feng waved his hand and the Immortal-binding Rope flew out to easily capture the cultivator.

“This one is a half-step Human Immortal. He is at least worthy of my time.” Chen Feng nodded.

Jian Xiaotian looked at them for a moment before saying, “One of them is from the Zhao Family, but I do not recognize the other one. He is most likely a loose cultivator who is subordinate to the great sects.”

“If so, let’s just kill them,” said Chen Feng, who moved to kill them off.

“Please wait! I have a piece of important information! I believe you two will be very interested in it!” The half-step Human Immortal suddenly shouted.

“Oh, what kind of information is more important than your lives?” Chen Feng said smilingly.

“Hurry up and spit it out! If you are lying, I promise you, you will suffer a fate worse than death!” Jian Xiaotian, who was standing beside Chen Feng, shouted at them.

“You two are from Heavenly Sword Faction, right?” the half-step Human Immortal quickly said.

“Yes.” Chen Feng’s eyes glinted with light as he began guessing what this cultivator was about to say.

“I know where some of the disciples of Heavenly Sword Faction are at. However, they are trapped. If they are not rescued soon, they might die inside,” the half-step Human Immortal said.

“Go on,” Chen Feng said coolly.

“If I tell you about it, you must promise to let us go.”

“That would depend on the value of the information. If you don’t tell us, you two will die now.” After saying that, Chen Feng’s eyes shone with killing intent. The chilling atmosphere contained within the killing intent caused the two cultivators to reflexively shiver.

“There are six of them in total. I only recognize the one known as Wen Shaoxiu. They are somewhere 10,000 zhang below this crack, trapped within a dangerous spot. Rather, two from their group had already died when we were there,” the half-step Human Immortal cultivator said through gritted teeth, hoping that it would save their lives.

“Below?!” Chen Feng sent his soul power forward. However, he could only sense a constant distortion within the power of space there. Due to that, his soul power was incapable of doing much. He could not even locate the spot 10,000 zhang below.

“How can I tell if you aren’t lying? Looks like using a soul-searching technique will be more convenient,” Chen Feng said, making ready to perform a soul-searching technique.

“I swear! Everything I said is true!” the cultivator shouted in a panicked tone.

Although getting subjected to a soul search would not end with death, accidents could happen. It was even possible for him to become a blithering idiot from it.

Chen Feng quickly made his move. Next, the two of them fell to the ground, their eyes closed. It was unknown if they were dead or alive.

“Forget it. I will not be killing you two. However, whether you live or die next will depend on your luck,” Chen Feng said, keeping the magic treasures he took from them.

Next, Chen Feng and Jian Xiaotian sped up, quickly collecting all of the spiritual herbs inside the cavern before leaving. As for the two cultivators, they remained lying on the ground, waiting for the seals on them to unravel.

“10,000 zhang below. That’s not far. However, due to the chaos in the space here, I fear it would take quite some effort,” Chen Feng said with a frown.

“Maybe we’ll get lucky and find the place quickly.”

“Hopefully so.”

The malevolent energy at the spot 10,000 zhang below them was even thicker and black-coloured energy streams kept moving about. The ability to see was severely impeded. 

However, within this wicked and dangerous-looking environment, a sizable lake could be seen. The waters of the lake were clear, seemingly uncontaminated by the malevolent energy there. And yet, one of the cultivators who arrived here had – in his carelessness – been pulled down into the lake by a water monster. In just a few breaths’ worth of time, the cultivator and even his body armour were completely dissolved.

 

1 chi = 0.333 m

1 zhang = 3.333 m