“We are partners. As long as you speak up, I will definitely help you,” Immortal Pining Butterfly said smilingly.

“A partner would help even if I didn’t say anything,” Chen Feng said, abruptly standing up. Like a star that had existed for a trillion years, a power erupted from him to soar upwards.

Lightning radiance flared and winds swirled. The lightning waters spread out. Chen Feng shouted and fired out a punch to unleash the Lightning Bead’s full power.

As for the Deepsea Maelstrom, it had long since developed spiritual attributes. Thus, due to Chen Feng’s actions of mobilizing it and the pressure it sensed bearing down on it, it swiftly grew in size, creating a maelstrom which encompassed the entire Lightning Pond [1].

Chen Feng did not utilize any other magic treasures. He did not bring out the Immortal artefacts.

Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!

All the insight acupoints within Chen Feng’s body spun into action and sounds of eruption kept ringing out. They were like volcanoes erupting.

“Come! Let me see just how strong these fellows are!”

“Madness! This fellow’s crazy!”

Seeing Chen Feng take the attacks head on, the light of shock shone from Immortal Pining Butterfly’s eyes. However, she was quick to follow suit. Tugging out the whip on her waist, she then sent it out in circles to form what appeared like a black hole. At the same time, the butterflies on her clothes danced about before splitting out from the clothes to fly into the whip. Every flap of their wings would cause hurricanes to emerge.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Finally, all the attacks from the cultivators landed, the formidable power behind them smashing against the maelstrom and moving through the lightning waters to reach the Lightning Bead.

However, Chen Feng’s fist silhouette charged upwards, breaking its way through the water surface. Carrying an atmosphere of the indomitable, it then smashed through several attacks before charging into the crowd of cultivators.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A series of explosive sounds rang out as the fist silhouette blew up several of the cultivators there.

An extreme amount of pressure pressed down on Chen Feng, causing his whole body to tremble. Creaking sounds began ringing out from his bones and even his muscles felt as though they might be torn apart.

Cracks began spreading out across the surface of the Lightning Bead. As for the Deepsea Maelstrom, even though it was still rotating quickly, the affected area was constantly shrinking.

When cracks appeared on the Lightning Bead, a vast amount of lightning powers was immediately absorbed into the Lightning Bead and it instantly repaired itself. However, even more cracks appeared.

The formidable pressure began pushing the Lightning Bead downwards. It was as though there was a towering mountain pressing down on it. In just one breath’s worth of time, the Lightning Bead had fallen over 1,000 metres down the pond. Some lightning beasts residing beneath the pond did not even get the chance to move up when the formidable power pressing down the pond quaked them to death.

Seeing that, Chen Feng rapidly deployed the Blood Mustering Bead. A suction force swept out to suck in all the blood of the killed lightning beasts.

“Another Dao artefact!” Immortal Pining Butterfly was not having an easy time herself. The whip she sent forward was continuously getting pushed down as well. Additionally, the area affected by her move was constantly shrinking while the butterflies she sent out kept bursting apart.

Carefully sensing the situation, Chen Feng grew secretly shocked to find that Immortal Pining Butterfly was taking care of 30% of the power bearing down on him.

This woman is truly something else, Chen Feng thought.

In the end, the pressure gradually lessened. Chen Feng and Immortal Pining Butterfly had been forced over 5,000 kilometres down the pond. The might of the lightning powers there had reached unimaginable heights.

However, Chen Feng didn’t care about that. On the contrary, the stronger the lightning powers were, the better it would be for him. He could feel that the Lightning Bead’s power had already reached a critical point. It would be levelling up to become a high-grade Dao artefact soon.

Chen Feng then waved his hand and Immortal Pining Butterfly was sucked into the Lightning Bead as well.

“This lightning-type magic treasure of yours is quite decent. It possesses pure grand dao powers. It must have been refined for quite some time now. It is already about to level up.

“However, it is far inferior when compared to the maelstrom.” Immortal Pining Butterfly regarded her surroundings.

“I’m not the one who forged it. There is nothing wondrous here.” Chen Feng began retracting his strength. In the end, his raging atmosphere disappeared as he returned to his normal state.

“I think the cultivators above will be coming down next,” Immortal Pining Butterfly said.

“If they disturb me, I will just kill them.” Chen Feng appeared nonchalant. No formidable magic treasures appeared in the earlier wave of attacks. That said, Chen Feng only became more wary.

“These fellows are all geniuses from your Eternal World. The Planar War is already about to begin. Every death is a loss.” Immortal Pining Butterfly smiled.

“The world of cultivation is very big. A few deaths will not affect it by much. Naturally, if they do not attack me, I will not kill them.”

“All right, let’s not waste anymore time chatting. I want to head into the depths of this Lightning Pond and see what is down here.”

“You really are a madman. It is said that even Earthen Immortals have never made it down there. That said, I do want to follow you and see what’s down there.”

It didn’t take long for Chen Feng to sense movements above. He knew then that the cultivators had begun entering the Lightning Pond. Although the lightning waters were strong enough to kill off the cultivators, there were some amongst them who were experts. Chen Feng was not the only one who could enter. In fact, by borrowing the power of their magic treasures, some were able to descend at an incredibly fast rate.

“Ha ha ha! We’ve snatched away all the Glassy Lightning Flowers here. If they catch up to us, they will surely go all out,” Chen Feng said, waving his hand. Lightning radiance flared out to form lightning currents around the Lightning Bead once more.

“Chen Feng, I know it’s you! This action of yours is tantamount to offending every cultivator in the world of cultivation!” Sword Immortal Azuretip’s voice reached them.

“That’s right! There are so many cultivators here. Every one of them has a backer! You dare dream about taking the Glassy Lightning Flowers for yourself? Do you want East Dragon Island to face destruction?” Immortal Skyfire’s voice rang out.

“Threatening me? How laughable. I’ll kill you fellows now!” Chen Feng said, deploying the Deepsea Maelstrom to send a formidable undercurrent charging forward.

“Let me!”

Grand dao powers emanated outwards and an astral sword slashed forward to cut the undercurrent that the Deepsea Maelstrom sent out.

“Top-grade Dao artefact!” Chen Feng was somewhat surprised. “Are you finally going to use your trump cards?”

“Chen Feng, did you think you’re the only one with Dao artefacts? We made thorough preparations for this. Not just to snatch the Glassy Lightning Flowers, but also to kill you!” Sword Immortal Azuretip shouted.

“Ha ha ha! Kill me? What a joke! You and what army? You just have a death wish!” After that, Chen Feng fell silent. Instead, he controlled the Lightning Bead to move down. The pressure exerted by the surroundings at that depth was a serious obstacle for others. For Chen Feng, however, the pressure on him – exerted by the cultivators – lessened instead. Not to mention, the Lightning Bead also contained the grand dao of lightning.

“Cut!”

Seeing Chen Feng descending at an increasingly fast pace, Sage Aquafire and Sword Immortal Azuretip exchanged glances before simultaneously firing out their attacks.

Sword Immortal Azuretip fired out a 100-zhang-long astral sword. Sharp, solid and azure in colour, it slashed through the concentrated lightning waters, desirous of cleaving Chen Feng’s Lightning Bead into two with that one slash.

As for Sage Aquafire, a lance of water and fire – cyan and red in colour – had appeared in his grasp. With a casual wave of the lance, the surrounding lightning waters were pushed back to swirl around it.

Surprisingly, it was also a top-grade Dao artefact.

Sage Aquafire swung and the lance of water and fire flew out from his hand, spinning rapidly while the grand dao of water and fire emerged. The force behind this attack surpassed the astral sword from Sword Immortal Azuretip. Even though it was launched after the astral sword, the lance was the first to strike the Lightning Bead.

Upon making contact, the Lightning Bead instantly began cracking apart while the sea of lightning inside the Lightning Bead began churning.

“Not good!”

Chen Feng’s expression sank. He knew that failure to deal with the situation properly would result in the destruction of the Lightning Bead. At any rate, the lance was of a higher grade compared to his Lightning Bead. Not to mention, there was also the astral sword coming right behind it.

I cannot use the Immortal artefacts here. That’s my killer move. I also cannot use the Longevity Tower to attack. In that case…

“Open!”

Chen Feng opened up a passageway leading to the Longevity Tower. With a flash, the lance of water and fire and the astral sword charged into it, disappearing from sight.

Even Immortal artefacts would end up getting suppressed after entering the Longevity Tower, let alone these Dao artefacts. Not to mention, the Longevity Tower had grown a notch stronger since then.

Upon entering the Longevity Tower, the lance of water and fire and the astral sword instantly turned meek. Rather, there was no need to even suppress them. The auras emanating out from the Heaven Piercing Lance and the Netherbone Lance inside were enough to make the two Dao artefacts quietly submit.

“What? What happened? Where is my Aquafire Lance?” Sage Aquafire was flabbergasted. His sea of wisdom felt empty as he lost his connection with the Aquafire Lance. Next, his whole body shook and his soul roiled. Blood surged upwards and sprayed out from his seven orifices.

“My astral sword!” Sword Immortal Azuretip shouted as well. Although he did not lose the sword itself, the astral sword he fired out contained half of the Dao artefact’s power.

After resolving the attacks, Chen Feng sent out a suction force. As a result, the lightning powers within the Lightning Pond poured into the Lightning Bead, engulfing it entirely. In just an instant, the Lightning Bead had completely recovered. Next, Chen Feng fired out a punch.

The lightning waters roiled and surged like a tsunami as a massive, fist-sized power of lightning charged out from the Lightning Bead. It was aimed at Sage Aquafire and Sword Immortal Azuretip.

Seeing Sage Aquafire and Sword Immortal Azuretip on the verge of being killed, Immortal Skyfire took action. A massive fist, formed with the power of fire, collided against the lightning fist that Chen Feng sent out.

The shockwaves from the collision sent the cultivators who were also entering the Lightning Pond flying upwards.

Sou!

The Lightning Bead then flashed and disappeared far away as it began performing consecutive spatial jumps to head deep into the Lightning Pond.

“Chen Feng, how did you do it? You could actually collect a top-grade Dao artefact. Do you possess an Immortal-tier cosmos pouch?” Immortal Pining Butterfly asked, still somewhat dumbfounded at what she saw earlier.

Seeing Chen Feng fail to stop the attacks with the Lightning Bead earlier, she had wanted to take action. Unexpectedly, Chen Feng would be able to turn the situation around in a flash.

“Just a minor trick.” Chen Feng then sat down and directed his attention into the Longevity Tower.

“This Aquafire Lance is indeed a top-grade Dao artefact. However, there are the imprint and restrictive arrays left behind by an Earthen Immortal within it. The way I see it, Sage Aquafire is not the one who refined this.” Chen Feng waved and the Aquafire Lance flew into his hand. After shaking a few times, it then turned still. With two Immortal artefacts standing guard there, this Dao artefact could do nothing else but submit.

1 Developing spiritual attributes also means developing intelligence/ awareness. ↩

1 zhang = 3.333 m