The insidious-looking man seemed like the leader. After he spoke up, Ling Long a.s.sumed a more serious expression and she retracted the air of dissolution that she was exuding.
Ling Long paused for a moment before saying, "If I am not mistaken, the two youngsters are Chen Feng and Jian Xiaotian."
"Chen Feng, Jian Xiaotian!" The four fellows were taken aback. Next, their eyes lit up.
"It"s the two of them!"
"Ling Long, are you certain?" the insidious-looking man asked solemnly.
"There should be no mistake. Their appearances match the bounty portraits," Ling Long said, nodding her head.
"It is really those two fellows? They are so brave? They were actually brazenly flying up in the sky! Are they not afraid of encountering other cultivators and getting pursued?" the middle-aged scholar exclaimed.
"He he. The biggest incident in recent years is the emergence of Driftcloud Immortal Mountain. The only thing that could come close to it is this Chen Feng. The leading disciples of the great sects" junior generation have all fallen under his shadow. He dares to even kill the disciples from Nine Firmaments Palace. I have to admit, he has got guts," the bald muscleman said with a chuckle.
"It"s not just that. I have heard that a considerable number of disciples from Purple Firmaments Palace and Transcendent Firmaments Palace have died to him as well. As for the suicidal loose cultivators, even more of them had died to him. Speaking of which, it is peculiar. It is said that Chen Feng does not possess a high cultivation base. Why is it that no one could capture him after all this time?" the middle-aged scholar said.
"Boss, what do you think? This is a good opportunity." Ling Long turned to look at the insidious-looking man.
"It is indeed a good opportunity." The insidious-looking man pondered the matter.
"Be careful of having the tables turned on us." The young sword cultivator who had remained silent all this time finally spoke up.
"Xiao Jian"s concerns are not unfounded. It has been so long, and yet, the two of them could avoid getting captured by Nine Firmaments Palace. Additionally, they could also kill so many people along the way. They are surely no ordinary characters. Perhaps, they possess some powerful magic treasures on them. Or perhaps, there are experts backing them up," the middle-aged scholar said.
"Humph! Don"t forget, they have already fallen prey to my Hidden Soul Fragrance. Moreover, they are currently within our territory," Ling Long said scornfully.
"Yes. This is a Sacred artefact, after all. After coming inside, they will have to allow us to do whatever we want. The way I see it, the two of them must have good items on them. At the very least, they must have the cultivation techniques from Extreme Celestial Sect. These two are big fishes!" the bald muscleman said excitedly.
"Additionally, we can also hand them over to Nine Firmaments Palace. Do not forget how high of a bounty Nine Firmaments Palace is offering for them. It is enough for us to stop working for 10 years," Ling Long continued.
"Humph! I still think this is risky," the young sword cultivator, Xiao Jian, gave a harrumph.
"You are afraid that there"ll be wolves in front and tigers behind. And you call yourself a sword cultivator? At any rate, I agree with killing off these two kids," the bald muscleman said scornfully.
"I agree as well. I would not have left the Hidden Soul Fragrance inside their bodies otherwise." Ling Long nodded.
"I have no objections. This is our line of work anyways. It is just that our targets this time is a little special," the middle-aged scholar said.
In the end, everyone turned to look at the insidious-looking man. At any rate, he was the leader of their small team. He was also the one with the highest cultivation base.
"Naturally, we cannot let such a good opportunity slip through our hands." The insidious-looking man"s eyes shone with light.
With four out of five agreeing to it, they began discussing the details of how they should deal with Chen Feng and Jian Xiaotian. They would not have exercised this level of caution if their targets were some other characters. However, Chen Feng and Jian Xiaotian had been able to escape Nine Firmaments Palace"s pursuit for so long. Thus, these two fellows must surely possess some life-saving means. They had to proceed with caution.
"We"ll take action after entering the Sta.r.s.ea Region." Finally, the five of them concluded their discussion and went their separate ways.
Chen Feng then retracted his soul power.
Heh! As expected, you fellows do not have good intentions. However, I have already found out about your schemes. What else can you do? As it so happens, I was wondering how I should go about leaving the Northern Plains. This flying-type magic treasure belonging to the Heavenly Origin Trade a.s.sociation is a good item. Chen Feng made up his mind.
"Brother Chen, how is it?" Jian Xiaotian moved over and asked.
"The other party consists of five people. They were planning how to deal with us earlier." Chen Feng then recounted what he heard earlier to Jian Xiaotian.
"Hah! Looks like these five fellows are bandits specializing in robbing cultivators. Strange, how did they get their hands on a flying-type magic treasure belonging to Heavenly Origin Trade a.s.sociation? Did they steal this as well?" Jian Xiaotian felt puzzled.
"It doesn"t matter how they got their hands on it. If we can take it for ourselves, the chances of us leaving the Northern Plains will rise greatly," Chen Feng said.
"Yes. Having the ident.i.ty of Heavenly Origin Trade a.s.sociation will reduce a great deal of troubles," Jian Xiaotian said, nodding his head.
"We"ll be reaching the Sta.r.s.ea Region soon. This is a good place. Countless cultivators would come explore this place. We might gain some harvest here," Chen Feng said softly.
The Sta.r.s.ea Region, a forbidden zone on the same level at the Seven Kills Direlands. There were rampaging yao beasts and lurking monsters there. There were also danger zones that not even Human Immortals would dare to casually enter. Although it was dangerous, it was also filled with riches. Spirit stones, spiritual herbs and various types of cultivation materials were aplenty there. There were also the legacy grottoes left behind by ancient cultivators. Due to that, a high number of cultivators would come over from all over the world to explore and train themselves there.
150,000 kilometres from north to south and 140,000 kilometres from east to west, the region was filled with various lakes of varying attributes and forces. From a high enough vantage point, one would find that the lakes dotted the surface of the region, giving off the impression of a sea of stars. Thus, it came to be named Sta.r.s.ea Region.
"Come. Let"s go sit in the lobby." After resting for a while, Chen Feng and Jian Xiaotian walked out from their room.
The lobby was quite large, tens of times larger compared to the room that Chen Feng and Jian Xiaotian were staying in. There were ten plus cultivators seated in the lobby in twos and threes. They chatted as they drank some refreshments.
Chen Feng did not pay attention to them. He had already thoroughly seen through their cultivation states earlier when he was scanning the s.h.i.+p.
Casually finding a table, Chen Feng then brought out the gourd of wine he had bought back in the auction house. After pouring out two cups of wine, a faint aroma of wine wafted out to quickly permeate the entire lobby.
"What a waste. 60,000 spirit stones for this wine," Jian Xiaotian blurted.
"He he. This was brewed using rare medicinal herbs. It is capable of strengthening one"s soul and cultivation base. It can also satisfy one"s wine addiction. It is not something that can be bought with spirit stones alone," said Chen Feng, who took a gulp of it.
It felt as though a stream of fire had slid down his throat and into his stomach. Finally, it exploded violently, transforming into clumps of raging fire, which a.s.sailed Chen Feng"s internal organs.
"That feels good!"
Chen Feng praised it. Then, circulating his primary energy, he refined and absorbed the medicinal power within the wine. As expected, he could feel a slight growth in his longevity-type primary energy. At the same time, his blood energy began surging. His Soul and Anima acupoints began stirring and even his sea of wisdom began churning slightly.
Gulping down one whole cup in just one breath"s worth of time, Chen Feng then closed his eyes to slowly savour it.
Seeing Chen Feng"s actions, Jian Xiaotian grew curious. Thus, he too, gulped down one cup of the wine in one breath. Next, he closed his eyes and began refining the wine.
When Chen Feng was done refining the medicinal powers of the wine, he was surprised to find that he had gained one year"s worth of cultivation base. After realizing that, he could not stop himself from feeling overjoyed and excited.
Although it was completely no match for the cyan-robed man"s wine, something that could increase his cultivation base was worth spending 60,000 Prized crystals on.
"Incredible! It could actually increase my strength! It really is a good thing!" Jian Xiaotian opened his eyes and said.
"Fellows, what kind of wine do you have here? Can you share some with us?" Suddenly, three cultivators came to stand before Chen Feng and Jian Xiaotian. The one who spoke up was already moving his hand to grab the wine gourd placed before Chen Feng.
Shua!
The wine gourd disappeared and the man"s hand grabbed empty air.
"You haven"t even obtained the owner"s consent, and yet you are casually trying to touch someone else"s item? That"s not very polite of you," Chen Feng said smilingly, his hand holding onto the wine gourd.
"Heh! Kid, I was talking to you just now as a show of respect. Now, hand over the wine. If I am in a good mood, I can spare your lives." The one who spoke was a two-metre-tall beefy man. He sported two ugly-looking scars on his face. When he spoke, his body emitted a wave of killing intent.
"That would depend on whether or not you have the ability." Chen Feng smirked, tossing the wine gourd up and down.
"Since you have a death wish, don"t blame me for being rude," said the beefy man, who swung his hand out to seize the wine gourd in Chen Feng"s hand.
When there was still one metre between his hand and the wine gourd, his hand flashed to instead form sky-encompa.s.sing palm silhouettes, which moved to seize Chen Feng. It would appear that the beefy man intended on dealing with Chen Feng first.
Sou!
Chen Feng flicked a finger and a fiery-red sword energy flashed out. Like the image of a moon on the surface of a lake, the sky-encompa.s.sing palm silhouettes instantly disappeared. The beefy man cried out miserably, clutching his hand as he backed away. There was a look of fear on his face and blood kept dripping down from his palm. The sword beam Chen Feng sent out earlier had left a round hole on the beefy man"s palm. At that very moment, the beefy man could sense a formidable power of fire invading his body through the wound to destroy his vitality.
"You!"
The faces of the other two fellows sank and they took a few steps back. Astral energies surged out from their bodies as they stared intently at Chen Feng, uncertain if they should attack or not.
"What? Do you fellows want to attack as well?" Chen Feng flicked his fingers playfully.
"Why bother exchanging nonsense with them? Just kill them." Jian Xiaotian sneered.
"We were too presumptuous. Please forgive us." The two of them exchanged glances. Then, without coming to a prior agreement, they simultaneously stepped back to a corner. The other cultivators who were watching them felt shocked as well. The beefy man who attacked Chen Feng earlier had 3 Lightning Tribulations under his belt. And yet, he was defeated after just one confrontation.
Thankfully, I did not join in earlier. The same thought came to the minds of several of the cultivators there.
"Humph!" The wounded beefy man glared at Chen Feng. Then, he turned to move away.
"What? Did I say you could leave?" Chen Feng said, spreading his five fingers out. Next, five Longevity Chains swiftly shot out from his finger tips to bind the beefy man.
"You"re going overboard!" The beefy man grew furious. He brought out a blade, s.h.i.+ning with black energy, and hacked. A cascade of astral blades surged forward and the Longevity Chains that Chen Feng sent out were instantly hacked to pieces. Finally, the broken fragments transformed into wisps of energy and dissipated away.