Fear.

Feeling his strength leaving him without respite, Liu Shaolong’s mouth opened due to fear only to find that he was unable to make a single sound.

By the time Chen Feng arrived before Liu Shaolong, his body had already shrunk by a notch. His sturdy muscles had shrivelled, as though the water inside them had been utterly drained away.

“Mm, mer, mercy…” Seeing Chen Feng, Liu Shaolong’s eyes shone and he struggled to stand up. However, the act of standing up felt like an impossibility.

Sou!

Chen Feng pulled Bloody Soul out and the last vestiges of Liu Shaolong’s strength were drained away as well. In the end, Liu Shaolong’s eyes were left wide open as all traces of life within him disappeared. All that was left was the deep amount of hatred and unwillingness within his eyes.

“You only have yourself to blame for opposing me.” Observing Liu Shaolong’s death, Chen Feng felt no sense of sympathy. He also did not have a burdened conscience for his action. In the world of cultivation, it was either kill or be killed. It was truly the survival of the fittest.

Next, Chen Feng stepped forward to collect Liu Shaolong’s spatial pouch. After giving it a casual glance, Chen Feng grew shocked to discover that there was a considerable number of good items inside. There were over 30 spiritual trees, over 1,000 medicinal herbs and some other miscellaneous items. Due to that, a thought emerged within Chen Feng’s mind.

Instead if running around and working so hard, I might as well do this and easily reap the benefits. Hopefully, the cultivators I encounter next are this wealthy. Chen Feng could not stop a smile from forming on his face.

Chen Feng did not stop there for long. After collecting Liu Shaolong’s spatial pouch, he moved again. Everywhere he went, spiritual trees and spiritual herbs would disappear as he collected them all. To Chen Feng’s disappointment, no other cultivators came to trouble him.

As Chen Feng was going about his activities, the Longevity Tower had already uprooted the Domain Tree and the surrounding lands up into the sky. Due to that, the Domain Tree shook a few times before firing out several pillars of light at the Longevity Tower. However, the pillars of light disappeared the instant it struck the surface of the Longevity Tower. Next, a quaint and grand aura descended upon the Domain Tree, causing it to grow silent. It obediently allowed the suction force to bring it up into the Longevity Tower.

Looks like there is no problem. With this Domain Tree, the energy needs for my future cultivation efforts will not be an issue anymore, Chen Feng thought happily as he watched the Domain Tree disappear into the Longevity Tower.

Despite the Longevity Tower’s display of peerlessly hegemony, some fearless cultivators had still chosen to make a move. As the Domain Tree was about to completely enter the Longevity Tower, two attacks shot towards the Longevity Tower, one from the left and one from the right.

One of the attacks was a 100 zhang long, incorporeal sword silhouette while the other attack was from a steel mace, seemingly creating an image of a small mountain rushing forward.

The sword was thick, containing a restrained sharpness. Everywhere it went, it would seemingly affect the spatial laws around it.

As for the steel mace, it was large and it emanated an aura that could shatter space. It was like a Heavenly God’s steel mace, lashing down from the firmament and space itself erupted with booming sounds in its wake.

They could actually borrow the surrounding worldly powers and stir the spatial laws. The two Sacred artefacts that Mo Hong and his pal possessed cannot even be compared to these two Sacred artefacts! I wonder what grade they are at? Chen Feng thought. The formidable atmosphere of the two Sacred artefacts, which had appeared all of a sudden, was extraordinary. However, Chen Feng did not feel too concerned for the Longevity Tower. When Chen Feng was entering this pocket dimension, a high number of Sacred artefacts had attacked the Longevity Tower only to fail to take it down. Not to mention, the ones using the Sacred artefacts right now were certainly not Human Immortals.

Boom!

Boom!

The incorporeal sword silhouette smashed against the base of the Longevity Tower while the large steel mace struck the top of the Longevity Tower. The two Sacred artefacts struck the tower almost simultaneously and the resulting shockwaves rocked the surrounding mountains. It was unknown just how many of the spiritual trees and medicinal herbs there that were damaged in the process. As Chen Feng’s perception was stronger, he could sense that the surrounding space itself was shaking in the aftermath.

To Chen Feng’s shock, there were actually people hiding around the place, observing the Longevity Tower. Unfortunately for them, they failed to flee from the resulting shockwaves and every single one of them were quaked by the shockwaves into a mist of blood before dissipating into nothingness.

“Tower, those two Sacred artefacts are good items. Don’t damage them and be sure to collect them. Breaking and devouring them won’t give you much value anyways.” Chen Feng hastily sent a secret vocal transmission to Tower.

“Don’t worry. I don’t need you to tell me that,” Tower answered.

Truth be told, Tower was secretly weeping. Thankfully, they could not unleash the two Sacred artefacts’ full power. Also, I am lucky that my body is sturdy enough, otherwise this would have been a problem.

The long and incorporeal sword silhouette, formed using sword energy, shattered and dissipated away. However, another incorporeal sword silhouette was quickly condensed out. This time, it was even bigger, at least 200 zhang in length. Even from afar, Chen Feng could sense minute waves of power – seemingly capable of tearing everything – rampaging in the sky. The body of the sword shook, causing sword energy to radiate outwards as sword intent spread out. The sword energy enveloped the incorporeal sword silhouette before continuing to radiate into its surroundings.

A sword domain. Extraordinary. This is most likely the handiwork of those from Sword Hall. However, Sword Hall is going to suffer this time around, Chen Feng thought.

The incorporeal sword silhouette finally completed its preparations to attack again. Meanwhile, the thick and large steel mace began attacking as well. It spun rapidly and the surrounding energy streams began gathering. After absorbing the surrounding energy streams, the steel mace grew thicker and bigger and the atmosphere it emanated grew even stronger.

By then, the Domain Tree had completely entered the Longevity Tower and it began taking root within the first floor of the tower. It was peculiar. After sensing the Longevity Tower’s aura, the Domain Tree actually emanated an aura of excitement and joy. At the same time, the rate at which it was absorbing domain power grew. Countless roots extended their way into the void to begin absorbing domain power from various folds of space.

When the Domain Tree finally entered a state of tranquillity, the rate at which it was absorbing domain power was 10 times higher than before.

Big leaves shook constantly and the spiritual fruits growing from its branches shone with a faint lustre. The Domain Tree grew by absorbing domain power. Thus, with the increase in its rate of domain power absorption, its rate of growth would also increase.

Naturally, given how massive this spiritual tree was, the vitality that it was exuding and the domain power it absorbed were also partially benefiting the Longevity Tower. This allowed the Longevity Tower’s power to keep climbing.

“Great! With this, my power will grow with every passing moment. Unfortunately, this Domain Tree is too small. It is only 3,330 years old. However, once I have recovered some more of my powers, I will be able to utilize some secret techniques to improve the growth rate of this Domain Tree,” Tower shouted gleefully.

“Tower, how do we make this Domain Tree grow faster?” Chen Feng asked.

“The Domain Tree mainly requires domain power from the various folds of space. Naturally, it can also devour some other spiritual objects and divine objects. For example, waters from the Spring of Life, Chaos energy, Mystsource energy, high-grade longevity-type spiritual energy or liquid, etc,” Tower said.

“Hah, as if it’s those things are easy to obtain. If those things truly do exist, I would be able to cultivate up to the Human Immortal stage just by staying inside this pocket dimension for some time,” Chen Feng retorted with a scoff.

As Chen Feng was chatting with Tower, the incorporeal sword silhouette and the steel mace attacked the Longevity Tower again. The simultaneous attacks were faster and stronger than before.

This time, however, before the two Sacred artefacts could get close to the Longevity Tower, Tower took action. Several Longevity Chains flew out from the Longevity Tower. The trajectory of the Longevity Chains appeared random, but they then criss-crossed one another to form one magic array after another. The Longevity Chains and the magic arrays they formed contained an extremely viscous restraining power. More shocking was the fact that the Longevity Chains were extremely fast. In just the blink of an eye, they had bound the sword and steel mace.

The hidden cultivators then grew shocked. After their two Sacred artefacts made contact with the aura on the chains, the cultivators began losing control over them. At the same time, the might of the magic treasures was constantly falling down as they slowly moved towards the Longevity Tower.

Tsk, tsk. Looks like we’ll be getting these two Sacred artefacts. While Chen Feng was not surprised with this result, he did feel overjoyed. Just what artefact tier was the Longevity Tower at, Chen Feng did not know. However, he was certain that the two Sacred artefacts could not possibly match up to it. Just by releasing a small portion of its aura, the Longevity Tower would be able to utterly subdue the two Sacred artefacts.

It was an innate form of coercion. Naturally, this was also because the Longevity Tower had yet to fully regain its powers, otherwise the two Sacred artefacts would have obediently allowed themselves to be collected long ago.

“Everyone, attack! Do not allow the Sacred artefacts to be taken away!”

“My Sacred artefact!”

Two groups of cultivators who were tens of li away charged towards the Longevity Tower. They were the owners of the two Sacred artefacts.

One group had six people and all six had swords slung across their backs. One glance was all it took to see that they were from Sword Hall. The other group had more people, a total of 13 people. They were from the three Palaces.

Naturally, the sword belonged to Sword Hall while the steel mace belonged to the three sects. As they were charging forward, they spurred their powers in an attempt to pull back the Sacred artefacts that were bound by the Longevity Tower.

However, they were quickly horrified to find out that the connection between them and their Sacred artefacts were continuously weakening. Moreover, the amount of resistance that their Sacred artefacts were putting up against the Longevity Tower was slowly diminishing.

“Pu!” One of them coughed out blood. It was unknown if it was due to rage or over exhaustion.

“Just what artefact tier is this magic treasure at? Could it really be a Dao artefact?”

“I told you we shouldn’t do this! But no, you fellows just have to go do it! This tower could even take away the Sky Meteorite, you think it would be easy to handle? What do we do now, huh?”

“Enough! The most important issue right now is to take back the Sacred artefact. If we lose it, we’ll be punished by the sect once we return!”

“Exemplar Sword Technique!” The group of cultivators from Sword Hall shouted simultaneously and a large, semi-transparent sword silhouette radiated out from each of them. Sword intent soared as every one of them seemingly transformed into invincible swords.

Note: I’m just going to start calling the Nine Firmaments Palace, Purple Firmaments Palace and Transcendent Firmaments Palace the three Palaces.

1 zhang = 3.333 m

1 li = 0.5 km