Cultivation: Start From Simplifying Martial Arts Techniques

“Back off!”

The old man muttered under his breath, then quickly stepped back.

If it had just been a matter of sharing a name, the old man wouldn’t have reacted like that. Although sharing the same name was occasional, it wasn’t entirely unacceptable.

But on the tombstone, besides the name, it also inscribed the date of the deceased’s passing, and that date was today.

Having the same name and the anniversary falling on today, this was beyond what could be described as a coincidence. Coupled with the eerie atmosphere of this place, there might have been some trouble brewing.

The young Combined Aperture Tempering realm cultivator didn’t inquire further, promptly following the old man’s retreat until they were several miles away. Nothing unusual had happened, and both of them had breathed a sigh of relief.

“Wait, hadn’t we been here before?” The old man suddenly squinted his eyes, looking around cautiously.

The young Combined Aperture Tempering realm cultivator was also startled, gazing around, sensing a familiar sensation.

“Let’s go!”

The old man soared into the sky without hesitation, disregarding the expenditure of elemental energy at that moment. It had been better to leave that place first and then figure things out. The young Combined Aperture Tempering realm cultivator hurriedly followed suit.

“Senior Zhao, your aura…” The young Combined Aperture Tempering realm cultivator looked at the old man, his eyes widening slightly.

A sense of deathly stillness emanated from the old man, permeating the air with not only his presence but also a smell—a smell of earthiness that was impossible to mask.

It was as if someone had shoved dirt directly into their noses. With every breath, they were greeted with a nauseating odor.

On the mountain path, a group of five individuals proceeded cautiously, their eyes scanning the surroundings vigilantly. At the slightest rustle, they were ready to react.

“There’s a tea pavilion ahead. Should we go around or check it out?” whispered the person leading the group.

The others turned to look and indeed spotted a thatched hut nestled in a mountain hollow. Several tables were set up outside, and faintly, they could see a figure moving inside the hut.

“I’ll take a look!” one of them said, eyes glinting faintly as he brought the scene of the distant thatched hut closer to his vision.

Within this space, due to the inability to manipulate the elemental energy of heaven and earth, the power of many techniques was severely restricted. Even casting a sword aura or flying a short distance would dissipate into nothingness.

Despite all being Combined Aperture Tempering realm cultivators, their destructive capabilities here were reduced to that of Body Tempering realm. They could still fly and swiftly escape in critical moments.

“There’s someone inside, but there’s something odd about that hut. I can’t see through it,” he said, retracting the glint in his eyes and turning to the other four.

The five individuals exchanged glances, displaying a hint of hesitation.

This space was definitely abnormal. They had already tried various methods, but none seemed to work. The usual means simply couldn’t get them out of here.

They had been walking along the mountain path for some time now, all paths seemingly identical, without encountering any sign of artificiality. Finally stumbling upon a thatched hut, if they continued to avoid it without investigating, they might end up empty-handed.

After all, their elemental energy was steadily depleting, unable to sustain them for more than a few days.

However, rushing in recklessly could lead to danger.

The Fallen Heaven Pavilion had dragged them all into this space, indicating its extreme danger.

Caught in this dilemma, the five individuals were deeply conflicted. If the elemental energy of heaven and earth were normal, they wouldn’t be in this predicament. But now, with most of their strength drained, their courage had naturally diminished.

“Let’s go around. We’ll wait until there are more people before proceeding!” the leader hesitated for a moment before speaking in a low voice.

The other four pondered for a moment, then nodded in agreement, choosing not to insist on advancing further for investigation.

The five of them changed direction, heading towards another mountain path.

“Chop, chop, chop…”

A strange sound echoed in the ears of one of the individuals in green robes, jolting him awake. He looked up at the others, only to find that the other four were oblivious.

“There’s a strange sound in my ear,” the man in green robes quickly alerted.

“What kind of sound?” the person in front turned back and asked.

Just as the man in green robes was about to describe the sound in his ear, his eyes suddenly widened. In his sight, the person in front of him was slowly disintegrating, flesh separating into pieces.

With each sound in his ear, another chunk of flesh detached from the person in front of him. Yet, oddly enough, the person seemed completely unaware of it.

“Run!”

Without hesitation, the man in green robes shot into the sky, but before he could truly ascend, his body began to disintegrate. Yet, even he himself remained oblivious to it.

Chen Fei pushed his Heavenly Eye technique to its limits, ready to shift positions at the first sign of trouble ahead.

Luckily, Chen Fei’s Combined Aperture Tempering realm abilities were sufficiently robust to contain the elemental energy within him, so using the Heavenly Eye technique didn’t burden him too much.

Relying on the Heavenly Eye, Chen Fei continually changed directions, without encountering any more of those eerie occurrences.

Gradually, Chen Fei noticed an increasing number of traces of human activity ahead.

In this space, it wasn’t just eerie or the Combined Aperture Tempering realm cultivators who had been dragged into it previously. There must be people from other realms as well, otherwise, the slightly aged traces couldn’t be explained.

Following these traces, Chen Fei continued forward until a city wall appeared before his eyes.

“A city?”

Chen Fei’s brow furrowed. At this moment, he couldn’t determine the composition of this city.

Was it an eerie city, or were people living inside?

The possibility of it being an Evil city seemed unlikely. Many of the traces outside the city were not caused by anything eerie but rather by human habits.

But who controlled this city, the Fallen Heaven Pavilion, or someone else?

If it was the Fallen Heaven Pavilion, Chen Fei entering would be walking straight into a trap. The three Combined Aperture Tempering realm cultivator-level peak practitioners from before hadn’t died yet.

If there were prohibitions inside the city, even with Chen Fei’s innate teleportation ability, he might not be able to escape.

Chen Fei didn’t rashly approach but instead began to walk around the city wall, gathering various information. An hour later, he saw someone walking out of the city, and Chen Fei immediately followed.

“Who goes there?” Yan Wendou heard movement behind him and instantly turned around, spotting Chen Fei.

Meeting Chen Fei’s gaze, Yan Wendou’s eyes showed confusion. After a moment, Yan Wendou gradually came to his senses, only to realize that there was no one in front of him.

Furrowing his brows, Yan Wendou wondered why he was standing here just now. Could it be that he had encountered something eerie?

Yan Wendou’s expression changed instantly. While it was rare for anything eerie to appear inside the city and near the city walls, in recent days, there had been reports of Evil occurrences even within the city. Many people had been devoured entirely by these Evil.

Yan Wendou dared not stay in place and quickly returned to the direction of the city.

Compared to the wilderness, although the city was no longer completely safe, it was undoubtedly much better.

A hundred meters away, Chen Fei stood under a tree.

Under the Dream Entry Technique, Chen Fei roughly understood some information about this city.

This city had no name, but the vast majority of people referred to it as the Bewilderment City.

Most of the residents inside were ordinary people. Interestingly, these ordinary people didn’t come from generations living within the Bewilderment City; rather, they suddenly found themselves here one day.

They were originally members of the Thousand Feathers Alliance, from various maritime regions. However, in the blink of an eye, they inexplicably appeared here.

Every once in a while, new people would arrive in the Bewilderment City, while some old residents would be sacrificed, offered up to the city itself.

This rule, passed down at an unknown time, dictated that only through sacrifice could this city shelter everyone from the encroachment of the eerie outside.

Being sacrificed inevitably led to death, and not only death but also immense suffering before it.

Survival was a human instinct, and naturally, no one wanted to be sacrificed to secure the survival of others.

However, within the city, there were law enforcement teams, all composed of warriors. Ordinary people were powerless to resist. The slots for sacrifice were determined by drawing lots, purely based on luck.

Whoever had bad luck was chosen.

But how could the world possibly be entirely fair?

Chen Fei learned from Yan Wendou’s memories that the so-called drawing of lots actually involved many hidden tricks. Yan Wendou understood some of these tricks, which was why, over the years, he had never been chosen.

Meanwhile, some ordinary people who had recently arrived in the Bewilderment City might be chosen directly for sacrifice.

“They didn’t seem like members of the Fallen Heaven Pavilion. Where did the Fallen Heaven Pavilion’s people go? And what was this eerie space used for?”

Chen Fei’s mind was filled with questions. The people who came to the Bewilderment City were most likely those captured by the Fallen Heaven Pavilion and brought here, just like the Combined Aperture Tempering realm cultivators who were teleported here from the Fallen Heaven Pavilion’s mountain gate.

“How did some of the warriors inside the city maintain their elemental energy despite being inside this eerie space?”

In the memory scenes of Yan Wendou, Chen Fei could deduce that there were some warriors inside the city who maintained at least the strength of Combined Aperture Tempering realm cultivator-level peak practitioners.

Since they maintained this level, it was highly probable that there were also Combined Aperture Tempering realm cultivators.

Chen Fei didn’t immediately enter the city. Although he had roughly determined the situation inside the Bewilderment City, it was best to search a few more people for final confirmation.

Half an hour later, Chen Fei saw three people walking out of the city, and he followed them.

After a brief moment, Chen Fei returned.

The information he obtained was almost identical to Yan Wendou’s, except that these three individuals held slightly higher positions in the Bewilderment City than Yan Wendou did, so they knew a bit more about the situation.

“To allow people to absorb the limited elemental energy of heaven and earth here, some special items are needed as mediators.”

Chen Fei frowned slightly. The elemental energy of heaven and earth here was definitely problematic. Even if there were methods to absorb such elemental energy, Chen Fei wouldn’t dare attempt it.

Another hour passed, and Combined Aperture Tempering realm cultivators began to appear in the vicinity, precisely those who had been teleported here together previously. After probing for a moment, these people entered the Bewilderment City.

No signs of battle emerged from within the city, matching the information Chen Fei had obtained.

After another hour, having obtained similar information from another group of people, Chen Fei finally made his way towards the Bewilderment City.

As soon as Chen Fei stepped into the Bewilderment City, an extremely oppressive feeling weighed down on his heart. Chen Fei instinctively looked up, but above the Bewilderment City, there was nothing but darkness. In his black-and-white vision, it was already pitch black up there.

“What is this? Resentment?”

Chen Fei lowered his head and continued forward.

“I need to find a way to safely utilize the elemental energy of heaven and earth here.”

If he could remove some of the foreign substances from the elemental energy of heaven and earth, Chen Fei could directly absorb the pure elemental energy through the characteristics of the two spatial grids.

The Heart Refinement Formation wouldn’t work; Chen Fei had just tried it.

Suddenly, Chen Fei’s steps halted. It seemed he didn’t need to deliberate on how to remove the foreign substances from the elemental energy of heaven and earth here..