Cultivation: Start From Simplifying Martial Arts Techniques

Hundreds of paper figures stared in the direction where Chen Fei and his companions had disappeared, slowly straightening up. The rouge smeared on their cheeks grew even more vibrant.

Hundreds of miles away, the outer layer of the gigantic sword blades around Chen Fei and his companions shattered, causing their speed to suddenly slow down.

Peng Huaitao and his companions didn’t know what had happened, but they could see the change in Chen Fei’s expression. Obviously, whatever had just occurred was significant, otherwise it wouldn’t have affected Chen Fei so visibly.

However, Peng Huaitao and his companions didn’t inquire further, afraid of disturbing Chen Fei.

Chen Fei remained silent, quickly forming hand seals to forcefully gather the shattered sword energy back together.

The speed of Profound Heavenly Escape was astonishing, but it also had its limitations. Traveling a hundred miles had already reached its maximum range, which was also why the sword energy had shattered.

However, Chen Fei had already cultivated the Profound Heavenly Sword to the Great Completion stage, and his control over sword energy had reached a profound level.

Normally, Profound Heavenly Escape would no longer be usable at this point, but Chen Fei relied on his understanding of the Profound Heavenly Sword to forcefully activate it once again.

A giant sword blade, just like before, appeared around Chen Fei and his companions.

The decreased speed suddenly surged, and the four individuals disappeared into the air.

The peculiar behavior of those paper figures was extremely eerie. If it were just Chen Fei alone, he would have had plenty of ways to avoid them.

But now, with Peng Huaitao and his companions added into the mix, Chen Fei’s options became significantly limited.

It had been quite a challenge to rescue Peng Huaitao and his companions from the Qinguang Sea. Chen Fei had to kill two third-tier late-stage sea monsters, including a descendant of a Monster King.

If they were to be intercepted by these Evil beings within the territory of the Thousand Feathers Alliance, resulting in the death of Peng Huaitao and his companions, it would be a huge loss.

A hundred li away, the sword energy of Profound Heavenly Escape shattered once again, and Chen Fei continued to forcefully gather it.

After repeating this process three times and bypassing the hundreds of miles occupied by those paper figures, Chen Fei finally returned to his normal speed.

Several hours later, a massive city loomed in the distance, unmistakably Thousand Feathers City.

Chen Fei’s tense expression eased slightly. Although the process of rescuing the people had been troublesome, the outcome was finally positive.

Half an hour later, Chen Fei arrived with Peng Huaitao and his companions at the courtyard of Peng Xuming.

Before Chen Fei could speak, the courtyard door swung open, revealing Peng Xuming standing behind it. He looked at the three individuals beside Chen Fei with a pleasant surprise in his eyes.

Peng Xuming hadn’t expected Chen Fei’s efficiency to be so high. In just a few days, he had already brought the people back.

Initially, when Chen Fei accepted the task, Peng Xuming was happy, but he was also filled with worry about whether Chen Fei could truly bring the people back.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Chen Fei, but the situation in the area occupied by sea monsters was extremely complicated.

Although the strength of a mid-stage Combined Aperture Tempering realm cultivator was not weak, compared to sea monsters, there was still a significant gap. Unless one had the power of the peak of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm and the Monster King didn’t intervene, the likelihood of successfully bringing people back would be quite high.

However, although the Heavenly Lingzhi was extraordinary, it wasn’t to the extent that it would compel someone at the peak of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm to risk their life to rescue others.

Within the Thousand Feathers Alliance, those at the peak of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm were all top powers or direct disciples of the Mountain Sea Realm. If they wanted Heavenly Lingzhi, they had their own means and wouldn’t need to approach Peng Xuming.

Peng Huaitao and his companions, upon seeing Peng Xuming, also appeared extremely excited. After enduring countless hardships, they had finally escaped danger. Now, in Thousand Feathers City, it was undoubtedly the safest place within the entire Thousand Feathers Alliance.

A quarter of an hour later, Chen Fei and Peng Xuming appeared in the task hall, and Chen Fei received two jade boxes.

Chen Fei opened one corner of the jade box and looked at the Heavenly Lingzhi inside, a smile unconsciously spreading across his face.

“I will remember this for as long as I live. If you ever need my assistance in the future, please don’t hesitate to ask!”

Peng Xuming said as they left the task hall, bowing respectfully to Chen Fei.

On one hand, Peng Xuming genuinely appreciated Chen Fei. If it weren’t for Chen Fei, all of Peng Xuming’s relatives would have been buried within Wind Lake City.

On the other hand, Peng Xuming recognized Chen Fei’s formidable abilities.

To easily come and go amidst the sea monsters was a capability that surpassed many in the Combined Aperture Tempering realm. Forming a relationship with such a person would bring more benefits than drawbacks.

“You’re too kind!” Chen Fei replied with a smile, returning the gesture.

A moment later, Chen Fei returned to his own courtyard. Tong Linyun, upon seeing Chen Fei’s return, displayed a look of pleasant surprise.

Previously, Chen Fei had said he would be gone for ten days to half a month, but unexpectedly, he had returned after just a few days.

Although Tong Linyun knew that with Chen Fei’s strength, ordinary places wouldn’t pose a threat to him, there was still some worry in her heart.

Now, seeing Chen Fei safe and sound, that worry naturally dissipated.

“When we came to Thousand Feathers City before, didn’t we encounter a evil ship on the way? I heard that recently, in several places within the Thousand Feathers Alliance, these evil ships have appeared again.”

Tong Linyun said, leaning against Chen Fei affectionately.

“Evil ships?”

Chen Fei recalled the day they encountered the ship with red silk fluttering, then suddenly thought of the paper figures they encountered today.

On the evil ship, there were also paper figures, but the ship itself was the evil entity. As for those paper figures, they were merely extensions of its power.

However, the individual strength of the paper figures they encountered today was already remarkable, and there were around a hundred of them at the time.

When those paper figures bowed, a mental suppression fell upon Chen Fei, but his mental strength was already exceptional, and his spiritual wisdom was not suppressed.

Otherwise, if there had been even a slight delay, he would have had to face the bowing of over a hundred paper figures.

What would happen when the paper figures bowed was unclear to anyone.

“Not only the evil ships, but other evil occurrences are also increasing lately,” Tong Linyun turned to Chen Fei, speaking softly.

“Haven’t the disciples of the Shadow Abyss Sect been clearing away these anomalies? But recently, it’s rumored that the Shadow Abyss Sect has suffered heavy losses, with many disciples being directly consumed by these anomalies.”

In the Thousand Feathers Alliance, if you were to ask which faction was the strongest in dealing with anomalies, the Shadow Abyss Sect would probably have claimed to be second, and it was unlikely that any other power would have dared to claim the first position.

Over the years, almost half of the anomalies appearing within the Thousand Feathers Alliance had been cleared by the Shadow Abyss Sect. This indicated the effectiveness of the Shadow Abyss Sect’s techniques in countering anomalies.

Chen Fei had possessed remnants of the Shadow Abyss Sect’s inherited techniques, which indeed contained many methods to deal with anomalies.

Unexpectedly, after the incident with the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul, the Shadow Abyss Sect had suffered losses once again due to anomalies.

“Were there any tasks issued within the alliance to clear anomalies?” Chen Fei had asked softly.

“Yes, there had been an increase in tasks related to clearing anomalies in the task hall, and many people had already gone out to slay them,” Tong Linyun had nodded. Among these tasks, many rewards had been tempting to Tong Linyun.

Compared to slaying sea monsters in the sea monster group, killing evils, although not easy, had undoubtedly reduced the level of danger. This had also been why so many Combined Aperture Tempering realm cultivators had been willing to take action.

Chen Fei had nodded. Just now in the task hall, he had only been focused on obtaining the Heavenly Lingzhi and hadn’t paid much attention to the tasks issued by the task hall.

Now that he had obtained the Heavenly Lingzhi and had condensed the second flower, breaking through to the Combined Aperture Tempering realm’s Eighth Transformation had been no problem. What Chen Fei had needed to consider then had been how to gather the spiritual materials for condensing the third flower.

During the previous period, Chen Fei had already been gathering the spiritual materials for the third flower, and he had collected most of them.

However, just like the issue faced with the second flower, many of the spiritual materials required for condensing the third flower of the Unfettered Matrix Technique were extremely rare. Gathering them in a short period was not an easy task.

It wasn’t that these materials had become extinct; rather, it simply required some time.

However, Chen Fei practiced the Unfettered Matrix Technique precisely to save time. If it took several years to collect the materials, Chen Fei might have been able to cultivate the third flower on his own.

This wasn’t an empty claim from Chen Fei. Once he successfully reached the Combined Aperture Tempering realm’s Eighth Transformation, breaking through to the ninth stage, condensing the third flower atop his head, Chen Fei wouldn’t need more than five years.

Furthermore, if he used some other more aggressive methods, this time could be further shortened.

Suppressing these thoughts for the time being, Chen Fei decided to focus on condensing the second flower first.

Half an hour later, Chen Fei entered the secret chamber, activated all the formations, and then sat down cross-legged.

For the second flower, Chen Fei decided to condense the Flower of Spirit.

In terms of the three aspects—essence, spirit, and energy—Chen Fei’s spirit was the strongest, followed by his mind, and his energy was the weakest.

Previously, at the Combined Aperture Tempering realm’s Seventh Transformation, when Chen Fei condensed the Flower of Essence, his essence naturally increased the most, but his spirit and energy also grew significantly along with his realm.

Now, choosing the Flower of Spirit for the second flower, the difficulty of the breakthrough naturally would be lower compared to the Flower of Energy, and when he broke through to the Eighth Transformation of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, his energy would also increase. By then, condensing the Flower of Energy would be further facilitated.

Chen Fei formed hand seals, closed his eyes slowly, and when he reopened them, he was no longer in the secret chamber.

What he saw was a murky grayness, devoid of any vitality. This was the desolate destination of deathly silence.

If one were to describe the appearance of hell, this Strange Heart Realm undoubtedly fit the bill.

Chen Fei didn’t immediately use the Unfettered Matrix Technique technique. Instead, he came to the Strange Heart Realm with the intention of hunting down some third-tier Evils to obtain some Strange Heart Origin.

When it came time to condense the Flower of Spirit, if he encountered any obstacles, he could directly use the Three Flowers Technique to extract Strange Heart Origin and incorporate it into the Flower of Spirit.

Undoubtedly, the Three Flowers Technique was a huge pit, extracting one’s own essence, spirit, and energy to condense the three flowers, which could be considered self-destructive.

However, using it in a different way, extracting a small amount of Strange Heart Origin and integrating it into the Flower of Spirit, wouldn’t pose significant issues and wouldn’t damage Chen Fei’s own foundation.

With the Heavenly Eye technique in operation, a beam of light emanated from Chen Fei’s brow, and after glancing around, he flew towards the direction to his left.

Within the Strange Heart Realm where Thousand Feathers City was located, there were no Evils in sight. It was unclear whether it was due to the area’s unique positioning or if they had already been forcibly eradicated by the Mountain Sea Realm.

After flying for an indeterminate amount of time, Chen Fei sensed the aura of an Evil.

It was at the late third stage. With Chen Fei’s current mental strength, while it wouldn’t be easy to slay it outright, it also wouldn’t pose too much trouble.

Suddenly, Chen Fei’s body hesitated slightly as he looked ahead at the Evil.

The Evil’s body was twisting continuously, and countless black mists were emanating from it.

It was self-damaging its own power. The aura of this Evil was rapidly declining, and in the next moment, it vanished from Chen Fei’s sight..