“What a formidable power of darkness! Unexpectedly, there was a peerlessly savage creature sealed within the Twospan Mountain Range. However, there is also Chen Feng's aura together with this creature's aura. This does not bode well. East Dragon Island has been developing at an increasingly fast pace. And now, it has a formidable ally.”

“Humph! What can a minor East Dragon Island do? Not even the entire Central Plains can stop our attack. Only, now is not yet the time for it.”

“You can't say that. We are indeed not worried about those Ascendant Immortals, but this Chen Feng is a different story. He is from the Longevity Clan. If the Longevity Clan chooses to interfere, there will be nothing our Immortal Plane can do.”

“Isn't the Longevity Clan no longer as strong as it used to be?”

“What do you know? No matter how badly the Longevity Clan has fallen, it is still not something that we can afford to provoke, not unless we mobilize our entire Immortal Plane's might.”

Although they had figured out what happened, the cultivators from Heavenly Firmaments Palace had no intentions of pursuing Chen Feng. If Chen Feng was somewhere in the Northern Plains, they could have fought him. However, Chen Feng had entered the Central Plains. Heavenly Firmaments Palace was not yet ready for a war on such a scale.

After returning to East Dragon Island, Chen Feng simply sent the Dark Kirin into the Longevity Tower. There was no better place for cultivation than the interior of a Divine artifact. Upon discovering that it was the Divine artifact of the Celestial Longevity Plane, the Dark Kirin was astonished. Next, though, he grew elated. He had a.s.sumed that some time was needed for him to recover his strength. At that very moment, however, it would seem that it would no longer be an issue.

Truth be told, Chen Feng was feeling somewhat frustrated. Heavenly Firmaments Palace was gathering its strength while he was working on developing East Dragon Island's strength. Chen Feng knew that it was just a matter of time before Heavenly Firmaments Palace attacked the Central Plains and they would have to meet one another in battle. He had to admit, Heavenly Firmaments Palace's strength was very strong. Even though there were 12 mid-level Ascendant Immortals and an even stronger Dark Kirin on his side, Chen Feng was still not confident in his ability to stop Heavenly Firmaments Palace.

As for uniting with the other sects, that was likely impossible. The entire world of cultivation was presently still in a state of chaos. Getting those fellows to stop fighting one another and join forces? Even if he had already reached the True Immortal stage, Chen Feng believed that it would still be impossible for him.

In order to deal with this incoming issue, all Chen Feng could do was to give it his all to develop his own force. As he did not know when Heavenly Firmaments Palace would attack, Chen Feng had to temporarily put aside his plans to go exploring. Thinking about that caused Chen Feng to feel even more dejected.

Chen Feng had many places that he wanted to explore. The Spirit Essence Tower, Ancient Battlefield, the mysterious zone that the Ascendant Immortals of Extreme Celestial Sect were in and the Draftsky Star Region, where another Longevity Tower had appeared in the past.

However, Chen Feng was also aware that he was still not strong enough to be exploring outer s.p.a.ce. More importantly, before leaving, he had to make the proper arrangements for East Dragon Island.

Truth be told, at Chen Feng's level, it was very easy to free oneself from distractions. A chaotic state of mind would cause one to suffer from cultivation deviation.

Due to that, whenever Chen Feng found himself incapable of continuing with his cultivation efforts, he would not force himself. Instead, he would head out to relax himself, wander around the ocean region or find some friends to chat with. Only, Chen Feng felt that, as his cultivation base kept rising, his circle of friends gradually grew smaller. Most of his time would be spent chatting with some Ascendant Immortals. Even if he wanted to, his old friends would no longer be able to act in the same casual way in front of him as they used to.

Chen Feng was aware that this was all due to the difference in strength.

Ascendant Immortals can ascend to the Immortal Plane. Although I am only at the Earthen Immortal stage, I should already leave Eternal World. But before leaving, I still need to solve the Northern Plains' issue, Chen Feng thought.

During the past few years, Chen Feng's cultivation base did not improve by much. Firstly, it was because he had reached a bottleneck. Secondly, Chen Feng himself felt that his rate of cultivation was too fast and there was a need for him to temper himself properly for some time.

One day, Chen Feng, who had no other plans in motion, decided on something. Tower, who had been in a state of deep slumber, had finally awakened. Thus, Chen Feng once again turned his attention towards the Immortal Plane.

He wanted to extract immortal energy from the Immortal Plane.

Truth be told, by reaching the Human Immortal stage, a cultivator would be able to establish a link with the Immortal Plane, extracting the immortal energy there for cultivation purposes. Only, while they were capable of linking up to the Immortal Plane, the amount of immortal energy they could extract was pitifully small. For many cultivators, the amount extracted was not even enough for their own needs. This was why many cultivators would choose to head to outer s.p.a.ce for adventures after reaching the Earthen Immortal stage. All of them hoped that they could get lucky out there, allowing their cultivation bases to soar. That way, they would be able to ascend to the Immortal Plane.

If such was the case for Human Immortals, what then could be expected for the average cultivators? As for obtaining Immortal crystals for cultivation purposes, the chances of that happening was even smaller.

The reason why the Immortal Plane would be called the Immortal Plane was because the environment there was far superior compared to the other worlds. In Eternal World, an ordinary human with no cultivation could only live up to 100 years. In the Immortal Plane, however, by breathing in the immortal energy there, even an ordinary human would be able to easily live up to 1,000 years. More, they would not fall sick as well.

Due to that, an idea had been formulating within Chen Feng's mind. He wanted to create the Immortal Plane's environment within his own territory. Rather, he would make it surpa.s.s the Immortal Plane. By doing so, East Dragon Island's strength would be able to develop rapidly.

With that idea in mind, Chen Feng quickly took action. He did not allow Heavenly Premier Absolute and the others to partic.i.p.ate. Their cultivation levels had reached the limit of tolerance for Eternal World. By standing out in this situation, they would definitely be discovered by the Immortal Plane. Should the Immortal Plane pull them up, Chen Feng would end up losing big time. Their strength will be needed later on.

Bi Qing, on the other hand, was part of it. Like Chen Feng, Bi Qing was also someone from the Myriad Celestial Planes. He possessed his own secret techniques to counter the actions of the Immortal Plane.

Even so, Chen Feng had also chosen to gather up the cultivators from Extreme Celestial Sect, Four Great Academies, Heavenly Sword Faction and some other forces with good relationships with East Dragon Island within East Dragon Island's territory. In the beginning, the cultivators were puzzled at what was happening. However, when streams of immortal energy began gushing down from the sky, they all came to understand just what kind of fortune they were faced with. Some cultivators who had been unwilling to go to East Dragon Island instantly galloped there.

Even though the number of sects partic.i.p.ating in this appeared small, the number of cultivators was high. East Dragon Island itself already had 10 million cultivators and countless water yaos while the entire Extreme Celestial Sect was within East Dragon Island's territory.

As for Heavenly Sword Faction, it was not just a single sect. It has also merged with the Northern Plains' Sword Hall. Not to mention, it had been waging wars and taking in cultivators from some other sects as well. The Four Great Academies were the ones with the least number of cultivators there. That said, when the world of cultivation fell into a state of chaos back then, the students of the Four Great Academies had grown even stronger. The Four Great Academies were the pinnacles powerhouses in the world of cultivation, known as the Holylands. This was all due to the fact that the students were all the most talented of cultivators.

On this particular day, Chen Feng made use of various Immortal artifacts to deploy a secret technique, forming a great array. Tower had been the one to provide the details for this great array while Chen Feng and Bi Qing worked on setting it up. They had to work on it for nearly one month before succeeding.

The name of the great array was the Great Heavenstealing Array. At least, that was what Tower said. Although Chen Feng did not know how effective this magic array was, judging by how gigantic and complicated the magic array was and how many precious materials it needed, Chen Feng knew that it would surely blow his mind.

As for Bi Qing, he did not appear too surprised. Only, he would occasionally enter a pondering state as they were setting up the magic array. Most likely, it was either because he had received some strokes of inspiration or because he was recalling some of his past.

Operating the magic array was very simple. It was something that Chen Feng could do on his own. This great array had 36 Immortal artifacts to serve as array cores. Chen Feng, who was in control of the great array, was confident that he could even put up a fight against a True Immortal with this. Naturally, Chen Feng himself did not possess that many Immortal artifacts. A good number of the Immortal artifacts had been from Bi Qing and the others.

Besides the 36 Immortal artifacts serving as array cores, there was also the Longevity Tower safeguarding the central position. This was Chen Feng's biggest move yet.

“I'm wondering how the Immortal Plane will react to his,” Bi Qing said with a smile.

“We'll find out soon enough.” Chen Feng's palm suddenly pushed forward and the great array activated. Even cultivators who were five million kilometres away could see a thick pillar of light charging up from the ocean region into the sky.

The pillar of light had a diameter of over 500 kilometres. It looked as though it was made from gla.s.s. That was also how big the entire great array was, else Chen Feng and Bi Qing would not have needed to spend so much effort on it.

Boom!

The astral winds of the high heavens were dispersed and the pillar of light, possessing a unique power, made its way through layer after layer of s.p.a.ce to reach the Immortal Plane. Next, Chen Feng watched as it punched a large hole into the Immortal Plane. Following that, concentrated streams of immortal energy surged down through the pillar of light.

“Too slow.” Chen Feng abruptly pressed his hand forward and the 36 Immortal artifacts thrummed at the same time. The Longevity Tower shook, deploying the Heavengulping Absorption Technique before applying it onto the great array. Instantly, the rate at which the pillar of light was extracting immortal energy became 10 times higher. The surging streams of concentrated immortal energy flowed through the pa.s.sageway to enter the Great Heavenstealing Array. After going through the great array, the immortal energy then surged outwards. Naturally, the great array also had a filtering and refining effect. At any rate, the streams of immortal energy were so concentrated and ferocious that they could overload even Human Immortals to the point of blowing them up.

After just one joss stick's worth of time, with Chen Feng's position as the central point, the surrounding area – encompa.s.sing a radius of 5,000 kilometres – became filled with immortal energy. All the cultivators there had cried out in delight the instant that happened. Next, they promptly began cultivating. This chance was something that would only happen once in a blue moon. Every moment wasted was a reprehensible act.

Finally, the great array was fully operational and the rate at which it absorbed and spread immortal energy out became increasingly fast. In the end, the descending streams of immortal energy became like azure dragons and gigantic pythons.

After one day, the immortal energy spread to a radius of 0.5 million kilometres. Going farther ahead, the rate at which it spread out began slowing down.

Chen Feng's objective was to fill up an area encompa.s.sing a radius of 1.5 million kilometres. This area was the most stable place within East Dragon Island.

“This rate of extraction is the equivalent of several True Immortals cultivating together. I believe that the Immortal Plane will not be able to detect this anytime soon. Only, there are cultivators from the Immortal Plane in the Northern Plains. I fear that some unexpected incidents might happen. Thus, we should speed it up some more,” Bi Qing said, his figure flashing forward to re-appear beside Chen Feng. He took action and the might of the great array rose to an even higher level and the rate at which the pillar of light was extracting immortal energy doubled.

“This is already its limit. Hopefully, we'll be able to absorb some more,” Chen Feng said.

Five days later, an area within East Dragon Island's territory, encompa.s.sing a radius of 1.5 million kilometres, was completely filled with immortal energy. Additionally, a thick layer of barrier had also suddenly emerged around the area to stop the immortal energy from flowing out.

Seeing that caused the cultivators outside East Dragon Island to drool with envy as their eyes turned bloodshot. Some cultivators wanted to enter the area as well. In the beginning, Chen Feng did not care about that. Truth be told, even if ten million more cultivators entered, it would not matter. However, some of them went too far. They actually wanted to send their whole sect into East Dragon Island to cultivate. There were even several Earthen Immortals amongst them.

1 li = 0.5 km