Bang!
Within the teeming forest, a large tree - big enough that two people would be needed to wrap around it - suddenly burst apart. Wooden chips scattered all over as Chen Feng strode out from within the tree. Just now, Chen Feng had been hiding within the tree and had successfully broken through. The layer of fog defending his sea of wisdom had been utterly shaken away by Chen Feng's a.s.sailing blood energy. At that moment, his sea of wisdom was completely revealed. Innate spiritual energy continuously flowed out from his sea of wisdom to mutually support his fleshly body, developing together to ceaselessly stimulate the potential of Chen Feng's fleshly body. This resulted in the transformation of Chen Feng's body, becoming stronger and more resilient.
"Phew! I have finally cultivated up to the Concealed stage. Only now do I understand; the sea of wisdom is such a mysterious existence. It can be said to be the most powerful source of power within the body," saying that, Chen Feng waved his hand. Above his head, a branch that was as thick as an arm was cut down. Next, his finger quickly flicked about. Powerful energy condensed out to form a sharp blade. Immediately, the branch had been cut into a one-metre long wooden stick.
Observing the wooden stick in his hand, Chen Feng's expression constantly changed. It did not take long before the wooden stick in his hand slowly floated upwards. It floated unsteadily in the middle of the air before finally falling down.
"Is this the technique that Concealed stage experts use to control flying swords? However, my comprehension of the Concealed stage is too little. Hopefully, the spatial pouches contain the things I need," whispered Chen Feng.
Although Chen Feng had successfully broken through to the Concealed stage, he did not possess the cultivation technique and knowledge for the stage. Thus, Chen Feng was in a state of confusion regarding how he should go about cultivating himself after this. Chen Feng's knowledge of the Concealed stage experts' abilities were limited to controlling flying swords and flying through the sky. He knew next to nothing about their other abilities.
As Chen Feng was about to fetch some items out from the spatial pouches, his face suddenly flickered. Next, his figure leapt several zhang to the side (1 zhang = 3.333 m). A tiger, whose body sparkled with a golden colour, descended from the sky as it pounced towards Chen Feng.
Bang!
A two-metre radius crater appeared at the spot that Chen Feng had been standing upon just now. Dust floated and soil scattered about. Next, the tiger turned and leapt again at Chen Feng, who was not far away from it. The swing of its two paws, sharp claws brandished, brought forth sharp winds. Chen Feng, who was 10 metres away, felt a searing pain across his face. It felt as though a blade had cut his face.
Wings made of primary energy unfurled from Chen Feng's back and he abruptly shot tens of metres up into the sky before descending. He sent a heavy punch down upon the body of the tiger.
Kw.a.n.g!
Chen Feng felt as though his fist had landed upon a piece of hard metal. A shock ran up his arm as the rebounding force sent him flying backwards.
As for the tiger, it merely shook itself a little, seemingly undamaged by that attack. Once again, it pounced at Chen Feng. This time, the golden light shining off the tiger's body flared out, the fur on its body straightening themselves like steel needles. Its pair of dark gold eyes, the size of copper bells, stared intently at Chen Feng.
With a roar, a powerful soundwave struck Chen Feng's body. Cracking sounds rang out as the layer of astral energy enveloping Chen Feng's body was shattered.
Shua!
Its large tiger paw swiped towards Chen Feng and five sharp edges, seemingly containing an essence of its own, bore down on Chen Feng.
"Discharge of power from the body! This tiger has formed spirit! Judging from its appearance, it must be a Red-Gold Tiger." Chen Feng had already guessed what type of yao beast the tiger was.
The yao beast, Red-Gold Tiger. Its whole body was as hard as the toughest steel and possessed an extremely strong defence. It could easily block off the killing strike from some flying swords. Additionally, it was very agile, capable of gliding through the air for a short amount of time. The power of its paws could easily break stone and steel. Its weakness was its repet.i.tive attack styles. It was quite a common yao beast in the cultivation world.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
Chen Feng's palm swiftly shot out to block the five incoming sharp edges, smashing them apart. Next, Chen Feng suddenly dashed forward. With both his legs standing steadily upon the ground, he exhaled noisily and both his arms drew backwards like bows being pulled. After that, he quickly sent his mighty fists forward. Those two punches had been unleashed by mobilizing almost all the strength within his body, the blood energy melded together with his divine sense, the powerful primary energy and the overbearing force of his fleshly body. They shot out with lightning-like speed, piercing through the air to create thunderous sounds. Wherever his fists went, faint air ripples would spread out.
Chen Feng could feel it. His punch was 10 times stronger than when he was at the 9th layer. He was confident that, even if the tiger before him was made of high-quality steel, it would still be broken by his attack.
Bang!
Chen Feng's fists clashed against the Red-Gold Tiger's paws. Fact was, the Red-Gold Tiger's body, hide and bones were even stronger than high-quality steel. After receiving Chen Feng's attack, it only retreated around 10 metres backwards. As for Chen Feng, his figure tumbled in the air a few times as the blood within his body roiled about. In terms of strength, Chen Feng was at a disadvantage.
"Roar!"
The Red-Gold Tiger bellowed out and charged at Chen Feng once more. By then, however, a sword had appeared in Chen Feng's hand. It was none other than the Overwhelming Astral Sword.
The Red-Gold Tiger was about to descend upon Chen Feng when it suddenly sensed a world-annihilating power bombarding it. The Red-Gold Tiger was a capable yao beast. Despite the fact that it was in the midst of charging Chen Feng, it twisted its body and made to flee as far as it could.
"You want to run?" Chen Feng snickered. His figure pounced forward and he sent a swing of the sword towards the fleeing Red-Gold Tiger.
Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi!
Sword energy rampaged about, enveloping the Red-Gold Tiger's tail. Following a wretched cry from the Red-Gold Tiger, its tail, one-zhang in length, was pulverized. The fur and flesh of the tail were all evaporated by the sword energy.
After that, the Red-Gold Tiger dared not even turn around. Instead, it released a wretched whine and fled as fast as it could, disappearing from sight with the blink of an eye. All it left was a puddle of golden-coloured blood on the ground.
Chen Feng did not give chase. Given his present level of movement speed, chasing up to the yao beast would be hard. Additionally, the Black Origin Mountain Range played host to a great deal of dangers. If he were to encounter an even stronger yao beast the likes of that Greenjade-eyed Gold Toad, he would end up getting devoured in one gulp. Should that happen, Chen Feng will be unable to regret it even if he wanted to.
With the sword in hand, Chen Feng moved instead towards the outer areas of the Black Origin Mountain Range. Although that place was within Black Origin City's sphere of influence, it was relatively much safer compared to the depths of Black Origin Mountain Range. Moreover, Chen Feng was more familiar with the valley area there. Also, Chen Feng was not fearful of encountering others, not even the City Lord, Mo Yuan.
Without saying anything, Chen Feng quickly reached the valley that he would often visit. To his surprise, there were various forces from Black Origin City there searching for something.
Iron Sword Sect, City Lord Residence, several of the great sects and families, all of them had sent forth cultivators to constantly patrol the place. Chen Feng could even see teams of soldiers standing guard before the various roads.
"Could they all be searching for me?" Chen Feng guessed. Then, he slowly approached a few of the cultivators who were in the midst of conversing amongst themselves.
By their uniforms, Chen Feng could tell that they were cultivators from the Giant Spirit Faction. There were three of them, all at the astral energy (6th) layer. They slowly walked through the forest while chatting amongst themselves. At the same time, their eyes would occasionally shine out with light as they a.s.sessed their surroundings.
"Say, do you guys think Chen Feng may have died inside?" one of them suddenly asked with a rather loud tone.
"The chances of him dying inside is high. Just think about it, the yao beasts in the depths of Black Origin Mountain Range could even devour Concealed stage experts. Last time, when Faction Master and the others tried to capture Chen Feng, they too, were attacked by a Yao beast."
"I know about that. It is the Red-Gold Tiger. Even the Patriarchs of the Li and Wu Families ended up dying. The City Lord himself was wounded."
"Do you guys think Chen Feng really practiced an immortal dao sect's cultivation technique?" One of them changed the topic of discussion.
"I think it should be true, otherwise how could the kid's rate of cultivation be so fast? He used to be the trash of our Black Origin City, you know?"
"If only we can encounter him. Capture him and get the immortal dao cultivation technique from him. Then, we will be able to cultivate ourselves to become immortals."
"He he, could it be that simple? Let's not even go into whether or not he actually does have some immortal dao secret, even if Chen Feng does appear, the three of us can only end up dying. I hear that kid has already cultivated up to the 9th layer of the Training Body and Energy stage."
"Enough! Don't think too much about it. Let's take advantage of the fact that there is no one here. Find a place to rest up. Truth be told, I hope that Chen Feng does not appear. If he does, weak cultivators who are not even at the Concealed stage like us can only end up dying."
After hearing all that, Chen Feng stopped following them. His figure floated above a tree and he watched as the three of them slowly left.
Next up, Chen Feng became like a ghost, flashing through the various corners of the forest. Given his level of strength, cultivators beneath the Concealed stage were simply incapable of even noticing his shadow.
"As expected, they are looking for me. I didn't expect these fellows to be so persistent. Their desire to capture me is practically unending. It seems the desire for an immortal dao sect's cultivation technique is vital to them."
During this time, Chen Feng had also seen Sun Ming, the City Lord's Iron Guard Army Commander. He led a group of 10 other soldiers and were resting. After considering it for a moment, Chen Feng decided not to go down to meet him. Although he had saved Sun Ming before, the human heart was hard to predict. There was no telling if Sun Ming could resist the temptation of an immortal dao sect's cultivation technique.
Finally, Chen Feng transformed into an azure-coloured smoke to fly to a quiet place. The place was a rather steep and dangerous spot within the valley. There were naturally-formed cracks on the surface of the cliffs and Chen Feng casually found one before entering it.
At that moment, Chen Feng finally had the time to bring out the items within the spatial pouch. Chen Feng had looted a total of 18 spatial pouches from the Greenjade-eyed Gold Toad's lair. As for what items were inside the pouches, that was something that Chen Feng had been wanting to know all this time. From what Chen Feng could deduce, the Greenjade-eyed Gold Toad had taken the effort to collect those spatial pouches. Those were the belongings of Concealed stage cultivators. Given that, there must be some good items within the spatial pouches. At the very least, they must be really good stuff for the present him.
Chen Feng spread out his divine sense, moving it into the spatial pouch in his hand. He felt himself arriving within a s.p.a.ce with a 10-metre radius. The s.p.a.ce was grey and blurry. Some faint-looking energy flow could be seen as well. Within the s.p.a.ce were weapons, medicinal pills, food, water and other a.s.sortment of items. Amongst the items was a pile of spatial pouches that he had tossed inside when he was within the Greenjade-eyed Gold Toad's lair.
So, this is a spatial pouch. Although the s.p.a.ce inside is not particularly large, it is enough to store some commonly used items. However, I wonder, how was this s.p.a.ce opened up? Chen Feng thought to himself.