After entering the Longevity Tower, Chen Feng focused on healing himself. He did not bother inquiring about what was happening. In his opinion, with Tower there, escaping from this situation should not be an issue.
Chen Feng was correct. The Longevity Tower managed to escape from the entrapment that their enemies had set up.
Naturally, during the course of escaping, Tower had to resort to some secret techniques, using up some True Immortal"s blood essence and two True laws. When Chen Feng finally found out about that, he felt his heart aching for quite a while. Thankfully, the True laws used to create the Longevity Whips were intact.
By the time Chen Feng"s injuries were more or less healed up, the Longevity Tower had already reached the skies of East Dragon Island. Seeing Chen Feng recover from those horrible injuries so quickly shocked Heavenly Premier Absolute and Heavenly Premier Eternal somewhat. Bi Qing was the only one who did not appear fazed by it.
It had to be said, although the Longevity Clan did not have the most Heaven-defying attributes amongst all the Heaven-defying races within the Celestial Planes, it could be considered as the best. The Longevity Scripture, in particular, was one of the top three scriptures amongst all the cultivation scriptures of the Celestial Planes. The essence of the Longevity Scripture was the longevity-type primary energy. By cultivating the longevity-type primary energy to a certain level, even if the cultivator in question only had a minute bit of his or her body left, that cultivator would be able to rapidly recover. It"s function far surpa.s.sed that of the Undying Talisman.
Only, the present Chen Feng possessed but a very superficial understanding and knowledge on how to utilize the wondrous longevity-type primary energy. The number of secret techniques recorded within the Longevity Scripture was simply too high. It took up too much of Chen Feng"s efforts. After all, there wasn"t a single person in the Longevity Clan with the qualifications to cultivate the entire Longevity Scripture.
But Chen Feng was different. The Longevity Tower had accepted him as its master and the Longevity Scripture was within his sea of wisdom. Thus, Chen Feng was free to cultivate whichever one of the techniques recorded within it.
“The longevity-type primary energy can be considered as the number one primary energy in the Myriad Celestial Planes. Only, it is something that others cannot cultivate, otherwise their bodies would blow up, killing them in the process,” Bi Qing said.
Chen Feng nodded. In the past, many people had wanted to cultivate the longevity-type primary energy. However, whenever those who were not a member of the Longevity Clan cultivated it, all of them would – without exception – suffer from cultivation deviation. In the end, their bodies would blow up. The stronger the cultivator in question was, the more devastating the result.
Not even a Heavenly Immortal could cultivate it. Naturally, the same held true for the cultivation techniques of the other Heaven-defying races. No matter how hard a cultivator worked on cultivating the cultivation techniques, without the genes of those Heaven-defying races, the cultivator would be unable to succeed.
That said, this was not an absolute. Some cultivators with special const.i.tutions were capable of cultivating some secret techniques. Only, such circ.u.mstances were rare. It was like Chen Feng cultivating the Demonic Heavengorging Art.
After recovering, Chen Feng began utilizing the Longevity Tower to help Patriarch Heavenly Enigma rebuild his body. Strand after strand of longevity-type primary energy circulated within Patriarch Heavenly Enigma"s primary spirit a few times and his primary spirit began growing stronger. Wisps of his primary flames began burning.
“His soul"s primary flames are burning. He will be fine now,” Bi Qing said. Now that Patriarch Heavenly Enigma had entered the Longevity Tower, it will be hard for him to die, even if he wanted to.
“There are people fighting in void s.p.a.ce. I"ll go check it out,” Bi Qing said, leaving the Longevity Tower. The sword in his hand slashed forward to cut open a small dimension. Looking through the opening, they could see some Ascendant Immortals fighting one another there.
“It"s Heavenly Sword and Hegemon Sword. Their enemies are displaying the power of lightning. They must be the cultivators from the Lightning Plane. Let"s go help!” Heavenly Premier Absolute insisted.
Chen Feng nodded and both Heavenly Premier Absolute and Heavenly Premier Eternal rushed forward. Patriarch Heavenly Sword and Patriarch Hegemon Sword had been in a disadvantageous position against the Ascendant Immortals from the Lightning Plane. However, with the a.s.sistance of three mid-level Ascendant Immortals, the situation changed.
It did not take long before three of the four Ascendant Immortals from the Lightning Plane were killed off while one fled. Chen Feng did not feel elated at this victory. Those enemy Ascendant Immortals had not sent their real bodies over. Thus, their enemies had simply lost some energy from this. Through time and some spiritual herbs, they would be able to recover from this.
Both Patriarch Heavenly Sword and Patriarch Hegemon Sword were wounded and there was a bereaved look on their faces. Chen Feng already found out what happened.
“We were besieged by 10 Ascendant Immortals. They were from the Lightning Plane. Premier Stupa and Patriarch Redsand were killed in battle,” Patriarch Hegemon Sword said.
Premier Stupa and Patriarch Redsand were both starter-level Ascendant Immortals. Their cultivation bases and combat powers were far inferior compared to that of Patriarch Heavenly Sword and the others. Thus, it was only natural for them to end up dying in a siege.
“Sigh! We are constrained by the Heavenly dao and cannot display our full might, lest we be pulled up to the Immortal Plane,” Patriarch Heavenly Sword said.
“Looks like I will have to bring out some goodies. The situation is becoming even more chaotic now.” Chen Feng did not feel too saddened by the loss. He simply felt that the situation had become somewhat grim. At any rate, these fellows were originally meant to be cannon fodders. Only, due to the urgency of the situation, they will need even stronger cannon fodders.
“The Ancient Daoist and Ascendant Immortal Nine Extremes, who only recently joined us, led their subordinates away to submit to Heavenly Firmaments Palace. Those ungrateful animals!” Patriarch Hegemon Sword suddenly swore.
“That is a normal occurrence. Heavenly Firmaments Palace is very powerful. Some fellows would not be willing to accompany us as we risk our lives for this. Still, to be leaving after getting some benefits? Not to mention, the benefits of our East Dragon Island? Such a good deal does not exist in this world,” Chen Feng responded.
“That"s right, we must kill them to set an example for the rest! Without doing so, the state of our army will become unstable. However, Heavenly Firmaments Palace"s strength is indeed very strong. If you fellows hadn"t returned when you did, the best two of us could do was to force a mutually-destructive scenario,” Patriarch Heavenly Sword said.
“Let"s go handle the other enemy Ascendant Immortals first. We will not interfere in other matters for now.” Chen Feng finally decided.
There were some unwritten rules that would normally be followed in the world of cultivation. Ascendant Immortals would not casually interfere in wars. Naturally, during the critical moments of their sect"s survival, those Ascendant Immortals would step forward. Of course, if the enemy could destroy their sect, it was highly likely that the enemy would have more Ascendant Immortals on their side.
East Dragon Island had allied itself with several other forces. Thus, it possessed a high number of cultivators to call upon and formidable power. In Chen Feng"s opinion, even if Heavenly Firmaments Palace were to send all of its cultivators forward, East Dragon Island would still be able to give them a run for their money. The one issue giving Chen Feng a headache was the Ascendant Immortals on Heavenly Firmaments Palace"s side.
By itself, Heavenly Firmaments Palace did not have that many Ascendant Immortals, but the Immortal Plane was supporting them. Moreover, they have now joined forces with the Boltfiend Clan as well. But there"s more. There"s even the True Immortal from the Demon Plane lurking around, casting predatory gazes at them. Whenever he considered all that, Chen Feng would feel himself a.s.sailed by a feeling of extreme anxiety.
“Truth be told, I"ve been thinking. Why did those fellows choose to partner up with Heavenly Firmaments Palace? There must be something going on here,” Bi Qing said.
“I did consider that as well, but I just can"t figure it out.” Chen Feng shook his head.
Due to the large-scale invasion by Heavenly Firmaments Palace, the chaos within the Central Plains grew in intensity. The war between Heavenly Firmaments Palace and East Dragon Island continued unabated. Without further interference from Ascendant Immortals, the tens of millions of cultivators in the Central Plains kept fighting and the sky above – covering a distance of millions of li – was dyed dark-red as a result.
This time, Heavenly Firmaments Palace seemed determined to destroy East Dragon Island and take over the entire Central Plains. It sent forth an endless number of reinforcements from the Northern Plains. In the eyes of the other cultivators from the world of cultivation, the Northern Plains was like a bottomless pit. A group of tens of thousands of cultivators would charge into the Central Plains every few days. In just one year, the number of cultivators that Heavenly Firmaments Palace sent into the Central Plains had exceeded 100 million! Even so, it would appear that Heavenly Firmaments Palace was still able to maintain this ferocious display of might.
By then, the other forces within the Central Plains were already capable of noticing that something was amiss. All of them had sensed danger. Although some forces did choose to submit to Heavenly Firmaments Palace, more chose to unite against Heavenly Firmaments Palace. Some even sent out their representatives, proposing an alliance with East Dragon Island. With the exception of Heavenly Firmaments Palace, East Dragon Island was the only other force in the entire world of cultivation with a formidable strength. Most importantly, this force that East Dragon Island possessed was not that of East Dragon Island alone. Rather, it was itself an alliance of various first-rate forces. Thus, they were not afraid that East Dragon Island would have any ambitions of annexing them.
Naturally, East Dragon Island had welcomed those who wanted to form an alliance with it. East Dragon Island"s strength was rising every day, thanks to the immortal energy there. But Heavenly Firmaments Palace"s strength was simply too great. Due to that, they had lost countless men to the war. As Chen Feng put it, The more allies we have, the less casualties our side will suffer from.
That said, there were several incidents that Chen Feng did not expect. Three other forces had risen to prominence during the chaos. And while the three forces could not be compared to Heavenly Firmaments Palace or the East Dragon Island Alliance, every one of the three forces possessed at least 10 Ascendant Immortals. This shocked Chen Feng to the extreme. He could not understand how there could be so many hidden Ascendant Immortals in Eternal World.
Generally speaking, cultivators who reached the Ascendant Immortal stage should have ascended to the Immortal Plane.
“There is good fortune to be found in Eternal World!” This was the answer that Bi Qing finally came up with.
“Good fortune?” Chen Feng grew even more puzzled.
“That is true,” Heavenly Premier Absolute chimed in.
“Give me the details!” Chen Feng hastily asked.
“When I advanced to the Ascendant Immortal stage in the past, I had this distant feeling. This is also one of the reasons why I chose not to ascend immediately,” Heavenly Premier Absolute said.
“A distant feeling? That"s too mysterious.” Chen Feng found it hard to believe.
“That really did happen.” The other Ascendant Immortals nodded as well.
“Seriously? Senior Bi Qing, you are not exactly someone from Eternal World, did you feel it as well?” Chen Feng asked again.
“The fact that I could be reincarnated on this world is proof.” Bi Qing laughed.
“That counts?” Chen Feng then shook his head.
Truth be told, there was an important reason behind Chen Feng"s actions of summoning the Ascendant Immortals over. He planned on bringing out some goodies to improve the strength of these Ascendant Immortals.
True laws were a necessity. Additionally, there were also the blood essence of the True Immortal. Of course, the Longevity Tower had refined all of them beforehand. Given the strength of these Ascendant Immortals, fusing with the items left behind by a True Immortal would have taken them at least 1,000 years.
When they found out why Chen Feng had gathered them up, all the starter-level Ascendant Immortals there – not including Heavenly Premier Absolute and the others – became excited.
Previously, Patriarch Heavenly Enigma had been seriously wounded and a small clump of his primary spirit was all that remained of him. However, he was treated inside the Longevity Tower and his fleshly body was rebuilt. Even his cultivation level had improved to the mid-level Ascendant Immortal stage. Seeing that, the eyes of the other Ascendant Immortals turned red with envy.
Chen Feng had spent quite the effort on Patriarch Heavenly Enigma. Not only did he use a True law to help Patriarch Heavenly Enigma improve his cultivation level, he also brought out a drop of True Immortal blood essence to rebuild Patriarch Heavenly Enigma"s body.
1 li = 0.5 km