Truth be told, mid-level Ascendant Immortals were not that big of a threat to Chen Feng. He was also confident in his ability to defeat them. Only, that required time. If he were to get entangled, the arrogant cultivator coming after him would be able to catch up.
However, as Chen Feng was trying to go around the two Ascendant Immortals, another cultivator attacked him. s.p.a.ce rippled as this cultivator silently emerged. Waving his hand, he sent a mountain – with light swirling around it – flying forward.
It was his magic treasure.
Helpless, Chen Feng had to fire out a punch to knock the mountain away. They had successfully intercepted him.
A total of two mid-level Ascendant Immortals and one high-level Ascendant Immortal besieged Chen Feng. After a few exchanges, the arrogant cultivator arrived. Upon seeing what was happening, he did not say anything before firing a punch at Chen Feng.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
They fought and Chen Feng shook his head. It would appear that leaving was not possible for now.
Sou! Sou! Sou!
Several more enemy cultivators appeared to join the fight. There were even several Yao Overlords amongst them. Those cultivators, afflicted by the hex power, did not attack each other. Instead, they only attacked those who were not afflicted by the hex power. Thus, Chen Feng and the arrogant cultivator had to join forces to deal with the siege.
The both of them were already wounded to begin with, though Chen Feng was in a better state. The arrogant cultivator"s wounds were more severe compared to Chen Feng. Thus, in the face of the siege, he found it hard to break out.
“You really have a death wis.h.!.+ Hurting others even when there is no benefit!” Chen Feng swore.
The arrogant cultivator snorted and said nothing. That said, he was secretly feeling anxious.
Puchi!
An attack left a big hole on the arrogant cultivator"s body and the power within him fell into a state of chaos.
“Do you want to live?” Chen Feng asked.
“Nonsense, of course I want to live!”
“If so, let"s work together to charge out. We can deal with the matter between us after.”
“Given our current situation, even working together will probably not work.”
“I have a secret technique, but I need your help. Stop them for one breath"s worth of time.”
“What, are you trying to screw me over here?”
“It"s up to you if you want to believe me or not.”
“Fine! I will believe you this once!” the arrogant cultivator said and his aura grew 30% stronger. A unique dimensional power spread out from his body to help Chen Feng block the attacks.
World power! This fellow is not to be underestimated. Chen Feng nodded and swiftly swung the Upright Heaven Sword. This time, Chen Feng"s actions with it were even faster. In less than one breath"s worth of time, he had created a Soul Subduing Talisman.
Weng!
The talisman floated up and the eyes of the surrounding cultivators shone. That was especially so for two cultivators there, who suffered the least from the hex power"s corrosive effect on their minds. For a short time, they were able to recover themselves.
“What happened?”
“Friend, help me!” The two were quick to react. They immediately asked Chen Feng for help.
Weng!
Chen Feng directly utilized the Soul Subduing Mantra. Although far inferior compared to the talisman created with the Upright Heaven Sword, it gave them greater spiritual clarity.
“Let"s go!” Chen Feng called the arrogant cultivator as he quickly flew away.
“Whether or not you can recover is up to you now!” Chen Feng shouted at the two. He did not possess an altruistic mindset of risking his life to save others, after all.
“Kid, what kind of secret technique did you use just now?” After catching up, the arrogant cultivator asked.
“It cannot be disclosed! Now that we have gotten out, I hope you can stay away from me.” Chen Feng did not want to pay the arrogant cultivator any attention, but his behaviour ended up provoking him.
“Back then, you launched a sneak attack on me. I haven"t settled that score yet. Hand over the secret technique you used earlier and I can forget about this.”
“You want the secret technique? Even if I hand it over, I don"t think you can cultivate it. If you want to fight me again, so be it. But when those enemy cultivators come again, we will probably have an even harder time trying to break out.” After that, the Longevity Wings flapped and Chen Feng disappeared without a trace.
“Humph!” The arrogant cultivator hesitated for a moment, but he did not give chase in the end. Instead, he turned around and began looking for a place to recover. Even so, he had made up his mind. After recovering, he would go after Chen Feng again. That secret technique was simply too astonis.h.i.+ng.
One day later, Chen Feng emerged from his hiding spot. He had finally recovered, having fully rid himself of the hex power within him.
Given how big this city is, I had a.s.sumed that there would be some treasures. Unexpectedly, I have yet to obtain anything so far. More, I"ve had to face an endless number of murderous pursuers. How terribly depressing! Chen Feng shook his head.
Putting aside the fact that I failed to obtain anything, I even failed to find Bi Qing and Huo Yunlong. Of all the cultivators I"ve encountered so far, only a small handful were not corroded by the hex power. Most have become mindless combat puppets.
I"d be great if I can find the source of the hex power.
“It"s actually very simple. Just go after the hex power. The place with the highest concentration of hex power means that the source is there,” Tower suggested.
“Easy for you to say!” Chen Feng sighed. He knew that Tower was right. However, thinking about facing those cultivators who could appear at any moment gave Chen Feng a headache.
“I"m still not strong enough. Why do I get the feeling that, although I am becoming stronger, the enemies I encounter also become even stronger?” That said, Chen Feng continued to move forward. He unleashed his soul power with all his might and began exploring the ancient city, the Upright Heaven Sword in his hand.
Chen Feng was really feeling dejected. He had killed a good number of Ascendant Immortals. However, due to the hex power, he dared not let the Blood Mustering Bead devour them. He feared that the hex power would adversely affect the Blood Mustering Bead.
What a pity! That much power of blood from Ascendant Immortals is enough to let the Blood Mustering Bead level up again.
Cautiously moving forward, Chen Feng avoided several groups of Ascendant Immortals. Along the way, he also saw an Ascendant Immortal who just entered getting corroded by the hex power. Seeing that, Chen Feng quickly took action, wanting to save the Ascendant Immortal. Unexpectedly, not only did he fail, the Ascendant Immortal attacked him in the end.
Huh! The hex power could even corrode the mind of a high-level Ascendant Immortal. Looks like the source of the hex power is something else. After finally – with great difficulty – avoiding the enemy cultivator"s pursuit, Chen Feng no longer dared to recklessly take action again.
Sensing about, Chen Feng finally managed to find the hex power within the ancient city. It was very weak and seemingly non-existent. Without borrowing the power of his magic treasures, Chen Feng would have been unable to discover it with his divine sense alone, even if it was several times stronger.
After finding the hex power, tracking down the source became a simple issue. By tracing the concentration of the hex power, Chen Feng began advancing into the central area of the ancient city.
Not long after that, Chen Feng sensed Bi Qing"s aura. More accurately, he had sensed the aura of the Celestial Clearblue Plane.
Senior Bi Qing is able to establish a link with the Celestial Clearblue Plane. This means that the restrictive arrays of this ancient city are not as strong as I had imagined. However, it also means that Senior Bi Qing has met his match. Chen Feng sped up, but he then sensed a fiery aura rising up from the distance.
Riding on a fire dragon with a lance in hand, Huo Yunlong charged out, giving off a majestic air of ferocity. Behind him were tens of Ascendant Immortals.
“Sigh! Why did you go cause such a ruckus?” Chen Feng was astounded. This Huo Yunlong"s behaviour was truly unexpected.
“Chen Feng!” Huo Yunlong saw Chen Feng as well and a look of delight appeared on his face.
Chen Feng shook his head and waved his hand. Next, sword energy spread out like water ripples. It was as though s.p.a.ce had frozen over. The affected area continued expanding and the speed of the cultivators pursuing Huo Yunlong slowed down the moment they entered the affected area.
“Is this the Longevity Dimension Technique of your Longevity Clan?” Despite the display of might from Huo Yunlong, he had actually over exhausted himself greatly. When he arrived beside Chen Feng, he began panting.
“And a sealing technique.” The sword in Chen Feng"s hand pulsed and a ma.s.sive "seal" character emerged from mid-air. Like a portal, it split the s.p.a.ce there into two.
“Not bad. I say, Chen Feng. Can"t you just give teach me the secret techniques? I can bring out some items to exchange for them,” Huo Yunlong said hastily.
“It"s useless. You already know that this is the Longevity Clan"s secret technique. Even if I teach you, you will not be able to cultivate it.”
“Enough, let"s get out of here. Also, keep that fire dragon of yours. Don"t make such a scene.”
“Where are we going?”
“To the source of the hex power.”
“What, hex power?! Why didn"t I sense it?”
Chen Feng was left speechless. Still, it was thanks to Huo Yunlong"s luck. If it weren"t for the power of fire that he cultivated, he would have been affected by the hex power, even with the cultivation base of a high-level Ascendant Immortal.
“Here"s what I know.” Chen Feng swiftly informed Huo Yunlong of his findings.
“Chen Feng, you"re here as well.” It did not take long before Chen Feng received Bi Qing"s secret vocal transmission.
“Senior, are you all right? How is it going?” Chen Feng quickly asked. After advancing through a certain distance, the hex power grew increasingly concentrated and Chen Feng was able to sense it even without the help of his magic treasures.
Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi!
Huo Yunlong used his power of fire to keep on burning his surroundings. The power of fire flowed and the sound of s.p.a.ce getting burned rang out.
“A peculiar hex power. Could this be an ancient city left behind by those from Hex World?”
“Like you said, it"s the Hex World. If so, why did they come to Eternal World? Just to leave behind an ancient city?” Chen Feng responded.
“That"s right! I have not seen a single treasure!”
“Don"t worry. There are treasures here. It"s just a matter of whether or not we can get it.” Chen Feng laughed. Earlier, by chatting with Bi Qing, he was able to obtain some information.
“What kind of treasures?”
“Does the corpse of a True Immortal count?”
“What? Let"s hurry, then!” Huo Yunlong sped up, going even faster than Chen Feng; his whole figure becoming a fireball. Due to the hex power around them, the area ravaged by the fire increased.
Arriving, they saw that there were three cultivators fighting Bi Qing. Two were ordinary cultivators while the other one had strange-looking patterns on his body. The patterns moved about constantly. One look at the patterns was all Chen Feng needed to tell that it was hex power.
By linking up to the Celestial Clearblue Plane and receiving its support, Bi Qing"s cultivation base was already very close to the half-step True Immortal stage. However, in the face of the siege from the three cultivators, he was unable to gain the upper hand. As time went on, he would certainly end up losing.
“Where did these three fellows come from?” Chen Feng asked Bi Qing while unleas.h.i.+ng a sword attack at one of them.