Chapter 534: Boundary
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Jian Jinsheng was dead. Although there were some twists and turns along the way, Jian Jinsheng fought back in adversity. However, in the end, he couldn’t withstand the combined strength of Tong Zhongqiu and Qin Haishan.
In terms of talent, Jian Jinsheng was no less than the geniuses from top forces. In terms of luck, he was able to discover a secret cave that had been hidden for hundreds of years, a feat that is extremely rare.
No matter how you look at it, Jian Jinsheng seemed destined to be a prodigy.
But in the end, appearances can be deceiving.
First, he fell into a demonic path, then he was severely injured by Chen Fei’s sword, and finally, even his magical treasures and Qiankun bag were taken away.
At the moment of escape, Jian Jinsheng was already at his wit’s end. Without any strong background to rely on, his fate was sealed.
Jian Jinsheng was aware of this fact himself, but he still wanted to make one last attempt, to grasp that slim chance of survival. Yet, in the end, he couldn’t seize it.
In the face of absolute strength, many things become insignificant.
Chen Fei understood this, so he constantly improved his own strength because he didn’t know when he might encounter such a situation.
When that time comes, only one’s own strength can truly be relied upon, and everything else becomes mere illusion.
“Congratulations!” Chen Fei looked at Tong Zhongqiu and said with a smile.
“If it weren’t for you and Brother Qin, I would never have been able to deal with Jian Jinsheng on my own.” Tong Zhongqiu bowed to Chen Fei and Qin Haishan.
Killing Jian Jinsheng finally resolved a grudge that had troubled Tong Zhongqiu for nearly a decade.
Tong Zhongqiu had always been worried that Jian Jinsheng, once he broke through to the mid-Combined Aperture Tempering realm and came to seek revenge in the Boundless Sea, would be unstoppable, and the Immortal Cloud Sword Sect would have no means to defend against him.
Now that Jian Jinsheng was dead, the Immortal Cloud Sword Sect was finally free from the risk of destruction.
“Now that the matter with Spiritual resonance is settled, shall we return to the Sea Peak City?” Qin Haishan gestured to Tong Zhongqiu, but then turned to Chen Fei and asked.
If even Jian Jinsheng, in his condition, could still escape, then Qin Haishan’s many years of cultivation would have been in vain.
Tong Zhongqiu also looked at Chen Fei. Although the alliance didn’t have any explicit rules, many decisions were indeed made based on Chen Fei’s opinions, a natural change brought about by his strength.
In the world of martial artists, the strong were always respected.
“I have some matters to attend to. You two go ahead.” Chen Fei thought for a moment and replied.
Qin Haishan and Tong Zhongqiu each held a piece of Spiritual resonance and naturally wanted to return as soon as possible to deal with it, to avoid any further complications down the road.
“Alright, then you be careful on your own,” Qin Haishan nodded without asking Chen Fei about his private matters. It was best not to pry.
A moment later, Qin Haishan and Tong Zhongqiu soared into the sky and disappeared from Chen Fei’s sight.
Chen Fei watched them leave and took out a jade box from his Qiankun bag. It contained the black stone he had obtained earlier by refining the Fourth-Tier Evil.
Looking at the fact that almost half of the black stone had dissipated in less than half an hour, Chen Fei felt a headache coming on.
Directly absorbing it was definitely out of the question; after all, that would be toying with his own future.
The main problem was that the Fourth-Tier Evil was too strong. It was equivalent to a Mountain Sea Realm existence, and the meager Seventh-Level Heart Refinement Formation would find it difficult to completely refine the contamination within it.
After some consideration, Chen Fei took out a sword blade from his Qiankun bag, which had once belonged to Jian Jinsheng.
Under the sunlight, the blade emitted a faint glow. Among lower-grade magical treasures, it might not be top-tier, but it certainly belonged to the upper-middle range.
Compared to the magical treasures of Heavenly Sun True Immortal and others, it was slightly better and not much different from the Qianyuan Sword he now possessed.
Chen Fei looked at the blade, and with a slight movement of his right hand, the black stone slowly approached the blade.
Since he was unwilling to attempt it himself, he could only use a magical treasure for experimentation.
Just as with the Slaughter Spirit Technique, which yielded Spiritual Essence with various fragments of consciousness, Chen Fei couldn’t absorb them. However, for the Qianyuan Sword, it didn’t pose much of a burden.
Magical treasures possessed their own spirituality, but this kind of spirituality was fundamentally different from humans and wouldn’t be damaged by those fragments of consciousness.
However, when faced with the Fourth-Tier Evil’s black stone, Chen Fei didn’t use the Qianyuan Sword for experimentation. He had plenty of low-grade magical treasures at his disposal, and any one of them would suffice for the experiment.
As soon as the black stone touched the blade, it seemed to melt, directly permeating into the blade.
“Hmm!”
The blade trembled slightly, and the contained spirituality surged continuously, with extremely intense fluctuations.
At its lowest point, the spirituality almost seemed to fall out of the magical treasure’s range, while at its highest point, it seemed to break through the boundaries of a low-grade magical treasure.
In the midst of these fluctuations in spirituality, Chen Fei noticed that the material of the blade in his hand was gradually improving as if some force was refining the material of the blade to a purer state.
After a moment, the spirituality within the blade finally stabilized. Chen Fei sensed the condition of the blade, and a hint of surprise appeared on his face. The grade of this blade had actually advanced a small step.
It hadn’t reached the level of a middle-grade magical treasure, but considering that the blade itself was already quite good, this small improvement brought it closer to the middle-grade magical treasure category.
“There’s still some contamination that hasn’t been cleared!”
The beam of light at Chen Fei’s brow was almost like a solid substance, completely enveloping the blade in his hand. It was this extreme observation that allowed Chen Fei to detect a trace of impurity within the blade.
This impurity was not obvious and was exceedingly rare.
For a magical treasure, it would only take a little time to refine this slight impurity, and it wouldn’t affect the material in any way.
However, if this impurity were inside a martial artist’s body, it would merge directly into the intangible and wouldn’t be detectable. By the time it was discovered, it would no longer be something that could be easily refined.
A smile appeared on Chen Fei’s face. Fortunately, he hadn’t blindly absorbed it into his body; otherwise, it would have been troublesome.
The fact that magical treasures could absorb this black stone was an important discovery.
Chen Fei put away the blade in his hand and looked at the Qianyuan Sword.
The Qianyuan Sword had only recently been upgraded to the level of a low-grade magical treasure a few years ago, and for magical treasures, it was difficult to undergo any significant changes in such a short period of time.
However, since Chen Fei had infused all the Spiritual Essence he had obtained from killing others into the Qianyuan Sword, its growth rate had been exceptionally fast compared to other people’s magical treasures.
Especially today, having absorbed four portions of Combined Aperture Tempering realm Spiritual Essence consecutively, as long as he completely refined these Spiritual Essences, the Qianyuan Sword was on the verge of reaching the threshold of a low-grade magical treasure.
As for whether it could be further upgraded to a middle-grade magical treasure, it would depend on luck and opportunities. Simply having enough Spiritual Essence wasn’t sufficient.
It was similar to how martial artists couldn’t break through from the early-stage of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm to the mid-stage just by having pills; their own foundations had to be sufficient.
However, with this black stone now in his possession, the Qianyuan Sword might not be incapable of reaching middle-grade magical treasure status. This was because the black stone’s grade was exceptionally high, coming from a Fourth-Tier Evil. In normal circ.u.mstances, where could you find a Fourth-Tier Evil to refine for you? It was simply wishful thinking.
But today, there was a readily available Fourth-Tier Evil in the distance.
As for the slight impurity within the black stone, it wasn’t a significant matter for a magical treasure. Especially with the Qianyuan Sword currently possessing a large amount of Spiritual Essence, it could easily wash away that impurity using the Spiritual Essence.
The trouble with impurities was that they couldn’t be detected at first, and when they acc.u.mulated, it became difficult to get rid of them.
Now, as long as he absorbed the black stone once and cleared the impurity, he could naturally prevent the magical treasure from being completely polluted.
Chen Fei’s figure flickered as he arrived in front of the black mist, noticing that there were fewer Combined Aperture Tempering realm ent.i.ties here than before.
Clearly, even for this Fourth-Tier Evil, even if it was heavily injured and reduced to just instinct, the methods of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm ent.i.ties were unlikely to have any effect on it.
If he didn’t have the Heart Refinement Formation, Chen Fei didn’t know what he could do against this Fourth-Tier Evil.
Inside the black mist, Chen Fei made sure that there was no one else spying around and then took out the Spiritual resonance from his Qiankun bag.
In just a moment, a ripple appeared in the surroundings, and in the next instant, several phantoms flashed and rushed toward Chen Fei.
Swordlight flickered in Chen Fei’s sea of consciousness, and the approaching phantoms hadn’t even gotten close to him when they turned into black solid substances and fell to the ground.
The Heart Refinement Formation activated, one layer, two layers, in the blink of an eye, it was already at the sixth layer Heart Refinement Formation.
Chen Fei oscillated his consciousness, and at the limit, he incorporated the seventh layer Heart Refinement Formation into it.
A smile appeared on Chen Fei’s face; he hadn’t failed, and he had even saved some heart and soul stones. With a wave of his right hand, he swept the black solid substances on the ground into the Heart Refinement Formation.
The Heart Refinement Formation emitted a faint light, and soon, the black stone appeared inside the Heart Refinement Formation.
With a wave of his right hand, Chen Fei floated the black stone out of the Heart Refinement Formation and placed it in front of him.
The Qianyuan Sword appeared in Chen Fei’s hand, emitting a deep sword hum. In the next moment, as the black stone touched the Qianyuan Sword’s blade, it completely merged with it.
Just like the previous blade, the Qianyuan Sword’s spirituality began to vibrate intensely, and during the vibration, the material of the Qianyuan Sword’s blade gradually improved.
Perhaps it was because the Qianyuan Sword contained too much Spiritual Essence at this moment, or perhaps it was because the black stone was considerably larger than Jian Jinsheng’s sword, but the degree of improvement in the Qianyuan Sword’s material was clearly much greater than before.
After waiting for a while, the Qianyuan Sword finally quieted down, and both its spirituality and material had improved slightly compared to before.
The eye in the center of Chen Fei’s brow flickered, and he saw the trace of impurity inside the Qianyuan Sword.
With his right hand formed into a sword finger, he lightly tapped the Qianyuan Sword, activating the Slaughter Spirit Technique. It swept out the area where the impurity was, along with an unrefined portion of Spiritual Essence, directly from the Qianyuan Sword.
Inside the black mist, the hostility towards Chen Fei deepened, and the density of the mist in the surroundings had clearly increased significantly.
This Fourth-Tier Evil was heavily injured, and if it were any other Evil, it would have torn Chen Fei to shreds long ago. Now, it seemed that all it could do was this.
However, with caution in mind, Chen Fei still moved himself to the edge of the black mist. If there were any anomalies, he could leave directly.
Chen Fei took out the Spiritual resonance from his Qiankun bag once again within the mist. In the mist, the Evils reappeared, and whether it was due to increased hostility or not, this time, there were slightly more Evils than before.
However, the additional number of Evils didn’t pose any trouble for Chen Fei. Instead, it allowed him to refine more black stones.
After a quarter of an hour, another black stone appeared inside the Heart Refinement Formation. This one was slightly larger than the previous ones, and Chen Fei merged it into the Qianyuan Sword.
“Clang!”
The Qianyuan Sword vibrated violently, its spirituality fluctuating intensely, and its material visibly improving at a speed discernible to the naked eye, continuously approaching the threshold of a low-grade magical treasure..