Chapter 44: Assailing the Concealed Stage

Translator: podao001

After Sage Goldenlight disappeared, the three cultivators from Dark Light Island exchanged glances and released sighs of relief. The suppressive atmosphere they felt from Sage Goldenlight was too strong.

“So, this is an expert who has cultivated himself up to the Sky Human stage. The atmosphere he exudes is simply too strong. It felt as though there was a mountain pressing down on me.”

“That is right. It is said that Sage Goldenlight is an expert who had overcome Lightning Tribulation. Additionally, the Divine Goldenlight Net in his hand is an even more powerful magic treasure. Did you see how easily the Greenjade-eyed Gold Toad was swooped up? That yao beast is one that is on the verge of reaching the ability to transform into a human.”

“This time around, we suffered so many deaths and wounds only to gain nothing. How unfortunate! How unfortunate!”

“There is nothing unfortunate about this. The ability to preserve our lives is good enough. Besides, the ones who died are not our men. We just lost some materials. I remember that kid who is not even at the Concealed stage. We can secretly search for him, just don’t bump into Sage Goldenlight.”

“Let’s go!”

...

“Phew! I am finally safe!” Chen Feng was seated cross-legged in the cave within the stone mountain, gasping heavily for breath. He had pushed out all his internal strength to rush all the way there, even going way beyond his limit. Now, a feeling of exhaustion surged through every part of his body.

Suddenly, Chen Feng’s face turned red. It even appeared as though he might begin to bleed. His thick blood vessels were continuously swelling and twisting. Chen Feng’s heart itself was palpitating furiously and the sound of his heart beats echoed constantly within the cave.

Not good, this is a precursor to cultivation deviation! It seems I am too excited.

Chen Feng’s face flickered. Immediately, he threw everything on his person to the ground, closed his eyes and composed himself. He concentrated on circulating the primary energy within his body. Only after a whole hour did he manage to calm down his heart and stabilize his emotions, suppressing the deviating thoughts from earlier.

“It seems my level of cultivation in the area of the heart is still insufficient. It cannot even resist such a small temptation. If this keeps up, it will seriously affect my future cultivation efforts. It seems there is a need for me to properly hone myself. If only there is a meditation technique for cultivating the heart,” Chen Feng mumbled softly.

Next, Chen Feng turned his gaze towards the items on the ground. Despite having calmed down his heart, seeing the items on the ground had still caused his rate of breathing to turn slightly ragged.

Truth be told, there were not many items on the ground. There were only one spatial pouch, one sword, one black arrow and two Water Prevention Pearls. However, the number of items stuffed into the spatial pouch was huge. Back then, Chen Feng had stuffed in around 10 other spatial pouches into it. However, after opening the spatial pouch, Chen Feng could not take anything out. Even after putting his hand inside, he could grasp nothing.

Huh, I actually cannot take anything out. Could it be that I will have to cultivate up to the Concealed stage before I can access it? Chen Feng became crestfallen and he placed the spatial pouch aside before picking up the black arrow.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that, without this black arrow, Chen Feng would have died back in the bottom of the pool. This was the black arrow that helped Chen Feng break through the sphere imprisoning him and enter the Greenjade-eyed Gold Toad’s lair. It was thanks to the arrow that he could have gained so much.

I wonder where this black arrow come from? Chen Feng touched the black arrow. It remained as black as ink, still and seemingly no different from any other arrows. There were no patterns on the surface of the arrow, giving it an extremely ordinary look. However, when Chen Feng’s eyes fell upon the black arrow again, he could feel as though there was a vortex swirling within the surface of the arrow, a vortex that wanted to absorb human souls into it.

This arrow is really bizarre. Only after diverting his gaze away did he recover his normal state.

For there to be such bizarre arrows. I wonder, is there a matching bow? If there is, how powerful will these arrows become when shot out using the bow? Chen Feng thought.

Then, Chen Feng placed the black arrow on the ground and picked up the powerful sword. The sword sheath appeared very ordinary, without much adornment on it. However, Chen Feng knew; should he swing out the sword, it would unleash out a mighty force. It was a mighty force capable of instantly killing off a Concealed stage expert.

“How strange. Could my luck be so good? A weapon that I had picked up at random turned out to be a treasure?” Chen Feng was unable to stop himself from blurting out with a smile.

Slowly, Chen Feng exerted some force on his arm to pull out the sword. A dazzling, eye-piercing light radiated outwards, forcing Chen Feng to close his eyes. The light from the sword illuminated the surrounding stone walls. Soon enough, Chen Feng could hear sounds coming from the walls as stone powders slipped down the walls. It did not take long before a layer of stone fell off the walls.

It truly does possess a mighty power. Just the power it naturally radiates could instantly kill off a cultivator that has yet to reach the astral energy (6th) layer. Chen Feng was secretly shocked and pleased at the same time.

Thankfully, Chen Feng had been able to condense out astral energy long ago. If a cultivator who was not at the astral energy layer were to pull out this sword, he or she would be reduced to meat paste by the sword energy emitted by the sword.

Eh? There are words on the sword. Chen Feng forced his eyes open and saw words revealing itself upon the surface of the sword. The calligraphy style was broad and wide, giving off an atmosphere of vastness.

“Overwhelming Astral Sword,” Chen Feng said slowly before keeping the sword back into its sheath. Immediately, the sword energy within the cave disappeared and everything returned to a calm state.

“So, this sword’s name is Overwhelming Astral Sword. No wonder it could give off an impression of overwhelming vastness. However, I wonder what this weapon’s grade is? Additionally, it is obvious that I cannot unleash its full power,” whispered Chen Feng as he looked at the sword in his hand.

“Now, with this Overwhelming Astral Sword in hand, I can instantly kill the average Concealed stage experts by surprise,” said Chen Feng with a smile.

“If so, the items within the spatial pouch will have to wait until I reach the Concealed stage.

“At present, what I need to do is to break through to the Concealed stage as quickly as I can.”

After considering that, Chen Feng found it impossible to hold back anymore. He pulled out the Imperial Blood Grass and stuffed it into his mouth. Originally, he had two Imperial Blood Grasses. He had taken one when he was at the bottom of the well. Thus, there was only one left. Originally, Chen Feng had intended to only take it after he had stabilized his cultivation base for a while. At present, however, Chen Feng felt the need to quickly reach the Concealed stage. Firstly, by doing so, he could send out his own divine sense into the spatial pouch to check out his harvest. Secondly, Chen Feng felt a faint sense of impending crisis. Thus, he made the resolve to take the Imperial Blood Grass to break through.

Chen Feng had already experienced how it felt to take the Imperial Blood Grass once. Additionally, his present level of strength was much higher compared to back then. He waited for the medicinal powers to diffuse outwards before exerting control over them to assail his mind, assailing the thin layer of fog over his sea of wisdom.

𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Boom!

The thick medicinal powers became like an erupting volcano, a raging river, as it heavily bombarded the fog.

“Mmph!”

Chen Feng grunted. Just now, he had felt as though his head was heavily struck by a hammer. It was a most unbearable sensation. Stars exploded within his vision as his ears buzzed. Every nerve within his body trembled. Not a single corner of his body was exempt from pain and ache.

“Sii! It is so unbearable!” Chen Feng could not stop himself from crying out. The first time he took the Imperial Blood Grass, the blood energy within his body would unceasingly attempt to assail his sea of wisdom. However, nothing like this had happened back then.

Despite the unbearable feeling, Chen Feng was pleasantly surprised to find out that the impact earlier had shaken the fog protecting his sea of wisdom. That signified that it was possible for him to break through to the Concealed stage. Should his attempt to break away the thin layer of fog succeed, his sea of wisdom would be revealed to him. He would be able to utilize various powers and secret techniques to further open up his sea of wisdom, giving him divine sense and access to the source of mysterious powers concealed within the human body.

Excellent! Even though it is somewhat agonizing, all of it will be worthwhile as long as I can open up my sea of wisdom. Chen Feng smiled with gritted teeth.

“Again! I don’t believe I cannot break through to the Concealed stage!” Feeling that his body had mostly recovered from the pain, Chen Feng mobilized the blood energy within his body once more, merging them with the medicinal powers of the Imperial Blood Grass into one unified clump of energy. Then, he sent it charging towards his mind.

Boom!

Chen Feng’s whole body jolted. This time, his eyes, ears, mouth and nose began to bleed.

“Tsk tsk! This is really hard to bear,” said Chen Feng with a wry smile before circulating his primary energy to restore his strength.

“Again!”

Once his strength was more or less restored, Chen Feng began assailing his mind once more. His surging blood energy, like tidal waves, bombarded the fog protecting his sea of wisdom.

There is a stone mountain here. The kid should be hiding inside.

As Chen Feng was assailing the Concealed stage, the charming woman from Purplecloud Sky Grotto finally tracked Chen Feng down.

Humph! This kid is quite crafty. He actually dug a cave into a stone mountain. But did he think he would be safe by hiding inside? Circling around the stone mountain, the charming woman quickly discovered traces of digging left by Chen Feng.

Yet, despite having confirmed that Chen Feng was inside the stone mountain, the charming woman did not immediately charge inside. The image of Chen Feng using the sword to kill off Fifth Senior Brother was still fresh within her memories. If she were to charge in just like that, she may end up getting killed by Chen Feng with just one blow.

The charming woman’s pupils darted about and she quickly thought of a plan. Reaching out with her hand, she pulled out a black-coloured medicinal pill from her body. With a snap of her fingers, the medicinal pill transformed into a thick clump of black smoke. Then, with a wave of her hand, the charming woman sent the black smoke floating towards the surface of the stone mountain where it seeped in through the cracks on its wall.

“Humph, if you can bear with it after getting affected by my Silent Destroyer Pill, then you can just die quietly inside.” After saying that, the charming woman flew to the top of a distant tree. She quietly waited atop the large tree for Chen Feng to exit the cave. Should Chen Feng exit the cave, the charming woman will take lightning-like action to capture him. The charming woman knew just how potent the Silent Destroyer Pill was. After sucking in just one breath of the Silent Destroyer Pill’s smoke, even a cultivator at the Concealed stage would suffer from a great drop in cultivation base. As for Chen Feng, he was merely an ‘ordinary’ human.

At that moment, Chen Feng had reached a critical juncture in his attempt to assail the Concealed stage. This was his 99th attempt. The fog surrounding his sea of wisdom was showing signs of becoming scattered apart. Chen Feng could also sense a wondrous power desiring to emerge from within the fog. Chen Feng knew, that was the power of his own sea of wisdom. Forget cultivators, even the sea of wisdom of ordinary humans would innately contain vast, mysterious powers. Should the ordinary human stumble upon a lucky event, one allowing him or her to break apart the fog and open up the sea of wisdom, that ordinary human will become a Concealed stage expert, capable of displaying all forms of magical powers.

Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!

This time, the blood energy within Chen Feng’s body was like a raging dragon as it smashed into the fog defending his sea of wisdom. Finally, a needle-like hole was successfully made upon the thin layer of fog. Next, an unfathomably mysterious power sprayed out from the hole to instantly merge with Chen Feng’s blood energy, transforming into a unified clump of energy.

It was the equivalent of pouring icy water into boiling oil. They immediately sizzled upwards. Chen Feng felt as though he had been struck by lightning and every bone in his body ached to the extreme. The blood energy within his body grew increasingly wild as it thrashed about within his body. Chen Feng felt as though he was losing control of the situation.