Cultivating while studying the Immortal artefact, Chen Feng felt his cultivation base progressing at a breakneck speed. Additionally, Chen Feng had also cultivated the Heaven-defying Heavengulping Absorption Technique and Demonic Heavengorging Art. Not to mention, there were also the various magic treasures within his insight acupoints, all waiting to level up.
Chen Feng's strength grew with every pa.s.sing day.
Speaking of Chen Feng's present cultivation base and status, obtaining some higher-tier magic treasures would be easy for him. Even so, he was still bitterly working on refining the magic treasures within his body. There were many benefits in doing so. Firstly, the magic treasures had been together with Chen Feng since his weaker days. Due to the refining processes they had to go through every day, they had become connected to Chen Feng's fleshly body. As Chen Feng grew stronger, all of the strokes of comprehension he obtained had left deep imprints within each of the magic treasures. It was not something that could be replicated just by replacing them with stronger magic treasures.
Additionally, Chen Feng had also come up with a plan recently. After refining the magic treasures to a certain degree, he would have them fuse together with the Longevity weapons. That way, they would be able to unleash an even greater level of power. Naturally, that would take a long time.
At the end of the day, the Longevity Scripture was the strongest and most important cultivation technique for Chen Feng.
Due to the refining process, using the lightning powers containing the aura of an Immortal artefact, the magic treasures within Chen Feng's body began to level up.
Lightstream Shield. Thunder Sword. Poison Needle. Lofty Mountain Seal and the other Sacred artefacts began levelling up again and again, rising up to grade 8 of the Sacred tier before stopping.
Some others like the Eight Trigrams Fire Sword and Lightstream Sword went all the way up to grade 9 of the Sacred tier.
This soaring speed secretly startled Chen Feng. However, when he considered the conditions involved, this became a matter of course.
Half a year quickly went by and more than half of the magic treasures within Chen Feng's body had levelled up to grade 9 of the Sacred tier. Every time the magic treasures levelled up, Chen Feng's fleshly body would become a notch stronger. However, due to the constant increment in their levels, Chen Feng started worrying that his body might blow up from overload.
Boom!
A formidable wave of energy fluctuations spread out from Chen Feng's body and a ma.s.sive octagonal geocompa.s.s flew out from Chen Feng's body. At the same time, his domain was unfurled to fuse with the geocompa.s.s.
Heaven and Earth, wind and lightning, water and fire, mountains and lakes. The domain powers kept emerging, transforming in unfathomable ways. It seemed as though a world was forming. It was a somewhat dazzling sight to behold.
Why did he fuse so many magic treasures into his body? Not to mention, their artefact tier is so low. However, this magic treasure is actually levelling up to the Dao tier. Although it is just the low-grade Dao tier, it is still something else. Immortal Pining b.u.t.terfly, who was seated far away, mumbled to herself.
Bi Qing smiled. He was aware that Chen Feng was cultivating the Longevity Clan's Acupoint Aegis Art. Even so, seeing the magic treasures level up continuously had still left him somewhat shocked.
Finally, the Domain Geocompa.s.s has levelled up to the low-grade Dao tier. This is my biggest harvest in recent days. After some time, Chen Feng kept the Domain Geocompa.s.s back into his body.
The Domain Geocompa.s.s harmonized with Chen Feng's domain, allowing Chen Feng's strength to rise by leaps and bounds once more. Due to that, Chen Feng felt an impulse to undergo his next Heavenly Tribulation to rise up to an even higher cultivation level.
However, Chen Feng was aware that this feeling was illusory. His insufficient stockpile of power aside, he would still want to continue cultivating himself for a while longer even if it was sufficient.
Next up, more cultivation. Chen Feng's strength kept rising as he became completely immersed in cultivation.
The second magic treasure to break through to the Dao tier was the Demon Sealing Sword. Though surprising, Chen Feng did believe that this would happen. The Demon Sealing Sword possessed the power of astral lightning. Thus, breaking through was only a matter of course for it. Furthermore, it was one of the earliest high-tier magic treasures in Chen Feng's possession.
The third to break through to the Dao tier was the Steel Enigma Sword. This was unexpected for Chen Feng. It was a metal-type magic treasure. To refine it, Chen Feng had brought out a high number of high-grade materials. Add the astral lightning into the refining process, it finally broke through to the Dao tier, shocking Chen Feng quite a bit.
It had to be said, for magic treasures that had reached this level, levelling up further would require more than just having precious materials. In most cases, it was due to the sweat, blood and tears poured into refining the magic treasure. Then, as time went by and the magic treasure grew stronger, it would be able to level up. Of course, even with all that, success was also not a sure thing.
Naturally, borrowing the power of an Immortal artefact to refine lesser Sacred-tier magic treasures was the fastest way to go about it.
Truth be told, Chen Feng had believed that the one to level up first should have been the Twin Swords of Life and Death. The two swords had long since levelled up to grade 9 of the Sacred tier. By fusing together, they could already fight against a low-grade Dao artefact. They were the strongest amongst all the Sacred-tier magic treasures. However, even though three of his magic treasures had broken through to the Dao tier, the Twin Swords of Life and Death – despite the great increase in their strength – showed no signs of breaking through. Seeing that caused Chen Feng to become somewhat anxious.
Looks like they need the power of life and death, after all. Chen Feng knew what the problem was. However, there was nothing he could do about it. The power of life was easy to find. The longevity-type primary energy that he cultivated contained a formidable power of life. The power of death, on the other hand, was quite difficult to procure.
And even though there were a lot of cultivation materials piled up inside the Longevity Tower, there were not many that could be used for this. There were indeed a few spiritual herbs containing the power of death. However, there were too few of them and Chen Feng did not want to waste them.
Using the Life and Death acupoints to slowly nurture them would also allow the Twin Swords of Life and Death to level up. However, this will take a very long time.
Chen Feng felt his head aching. Looks like I will have to buy some spiritual herbs or treasures containing the power of death after I leave this place.
As there was nothing else he could do, he simply continued cultivating himself with peace of mind.
It was then that Bi Qing suddenly flicked his finger and a stream of black light flew into Chen Feng's body, entering the Death Sword.
Weng!
The Death Sword shook, causing the Life Sword to rumble in response. A formidable power of death scoured the Death Sword again and again. Every cycle would bring about an immense change to the Death Sword.
What an immense power of death. With this, there should be no problems anymore. Left with no time to think too much about it, Chen Feng swiftly began working on it.
With the power of death issue now dealt with, Chen Feng began mobilizing the power of life. In order for the Twin Swords of Life and Death to level up, both the Life Sword and Death Sword had to level up at the same time. That meant a need to provide the pair of magic treasures the equivalent amount of power, one of life and one of death.
Seeing the immense power of death scouring the Death Sword, Chen Feng gave it his all to channel the longevity-type primary energy while bringing out some spirit stones containing the power of life. He even made use of the Longevity Wood.
At long last…
After over 10,000 refining processes, two swords – one black and one white – appeared above Chen Feng's head. Sword energy spread out to slice s.p.a.ce, causing a chilling sensation to crawl up the distance cultivators' skin.
The stir caused by the Twin Swords of Life and Death's breakthrough was much bigger compared to the previous three magic treasures.
All of the cultivators who were cultivating there were alarmed by the commotion and they all cast a peculiar look at Chen Feng.
They had been cultivating there for quite some time now. During that time, there were indeed some who chose to refine their magic treasures. However, seeing Chen Feng and his magic treasures level up again and again left them somewhat speechless.
If it weren't for Bi Qing acting as a G.o.dlike force of deterrence, some of them would have chosen to take action against Chen Feng already.
“Thank you, senior.” After collecting the Twin Swords of Life and Death, Chen Feng then moved over to thank Bi Qing.
“That was just a wisp of death energy that I refined out. It does not benefit my cultivation. That it could let your magic treasure level up is a good thing,” Bi Qing said coolly.
“Refined death energy.” Chen Feng understood. After cultivating to a certain level, a cultivator would be able to convert yin and yang, seizing control over life and death. Everyone's body contained life and death energies, even the legendary Heavenly Immortal.
It didn't matter if that person had lived for a million years or tens of millions of years or even hundreds of millions of years, there was a limit to that person's life span. Upon reaching that limit, that person's life would come to an end. One of the main reasons for that was the death energy existing deep within the cultivator's body and soul.
Even though Chen Feng cultivated the longevity-type primary energy, there was still death energy within. Thus, after reaching a certain cultivation level, Chen Feng would have to refine his life energy and expel the death energy.
Of course, only those with highly formidable cultivation bases would be able to understand that.
Bi Qing was a peak-level Earthen Immortal. Additionally, he also possessed the memories of his past life. Thus, he had been seizing hold of his own life and death long ago to refine and expel his death energy.
Naturally, that was only for 99% of those on the path of cultivation. There were a few who specialized in cultivating the power of death. The majority of them were highly formidable characters with extremely peculiar techniques.
Additionally, there were also some who cultivated the dao of balance between life and death. Only, this was much harder. Once there was an imbalance, the consequences would be dire. Utter obliteration was a very normal end for them.
With this, I now have four more Dao artefacts. My trip to the Lightning Pond has been highly fruitful. For Chen Feng, it felt as though he had grown ten times stronger when compared to before entering this Lightning Pond. That was also due to the fact that his cultivation level was incapable of keeping up with the increase in his strength, leading to a suppressive effect on his overall strength. If he could stop suppressing his aura and overcome his Heavenly Tribulation to increase his cultivation level, he would be able to fully unleash his strength. Then, Chen Feng was confident that he could even fight Patriarch Turbid Heaven.
Weng!
Chen Feng had a.s.sumed that he would be able to continue cultivating peacefully when something unexpected happened. On this particular day, the great halberd suddenly shook. An aura sweeping through the universe swirled around, causing s.p.a.ce to break apart and the many cultivators who were cultivating there were all swept aside, even Bi Qing.
Next, the runes on the altar began flashing. Its appearance alternated between that of starlight and lightning radiance. The surrounding astral lightning powers became like blades and swords and wounds instantly appeared on the bodies of the cultivators who were struck by the astral lightning powers.
This is bad! The Immortal artefact is shaking. Is someone secretly behind this, or is something happening to the Immortal artefact? Chen Feng brought out the Lightning Bead to protect himself. Next, he also brought out the Deepsea Maelstrom. It was clear that chaos was about to unfold. Even with Bi Qing's protection, there was a possibility that accidents might happen.
During the time Chen Feng spent cultivating here, he had sensed a considerable number of gazes aimed at him. He could also sense some wicked thoughts through the gazes.
“Retreat!”
Bi Qing pulled, bringing Chen Feng and Immortal Pining b.u.t.terfly up in an instant. With a flash, they appeared outside the Lightning Pond. This level of speed shocked Chen Feng.
As expected of a peak-level Earthen Immortal. His evasion technique could so easily and swiftly jump through s.p.a.ce! Chen Feng praised.
Sou! Sou! Sou! Sou! Sou!
One by one, the other cultivators who were cultivating beneath the Lightning Pond emerged as well. Continuing to stay down there at a time like this was suicide.
As the Immortal artefact below continued shaking, the entire Lightning Pond roiled violently. Next, the water level began dropping. In just one breath's worth of time, all the lightning waters within the Lightning Pond had disappeared.