Everlasting

Chapter 1112 Star Spirit Stone Mine

Translator: podao001

Chen Feng chose to join the Six Daos Sword Faction in order to avoid troubles. He had already hidden himself there for several hundred years now, experiencing a tranquil life there. He had planned on first undergoing his tribulation before thinking of a way to leave the Six Daos Sword Faction. Unexpectedly, another mission would be given out so quickly.

Loose cultivators who joined the sect had to accept missions such as these. Chen Feng could not reject this. He also had no reason to reject it.

Hopefully, my pursuers have gone to another region. That was the only way Chen Feng could comfort himself.

This mission was very simple. And that was to head to a spirit stone deep inside the Primordial Mountain Range and stand guard over it for a hundred years.

A hundred years. For cultivators like them, it could not be considered long at all. But what if that spirit stone mine was a dangerous place? Upon receiving the mission, Chen Feng was quick to figure out that someone had secretly arranged this.

Although the loose cultivators who joined the Six Daos Sword Faction must indeed take on various types of missions from the sect, giving the loose cultivators such a dangerous mission was very rare. This group that Chen Feng was part of had a total of a hundred men. There were only 10 newly-joined loose cultivators amongst the group. As for the rest, they were all disciples of the Six Daos Sword Faction who had committed certain mistakes.

Upon understanding the situation with the spirit stone mine, Chen Feng also understood that the rate of mortality for this mission was very high.

I wonder. Is it because I am unlucky, or did someone deliberately arrange this behind my back? Having reached that train of thought, Chen Feng utilized a secret divination technique for the matter. After a while, a derisive grin appeared on his face.

Humph! These fellows are still not behaving themselves. To think that they would secretly take action. What a sloppy move. Against an ordinary True Immortal, this could indeed work. But against me, it is still somewhat lacking. Chen Feng did not feel too worried about his enemies in the Six Daos Sword Faction. He was just worried that leaving the Six Daos Sword Faction’s territory would cause his pursuers from the Celestial Longevity Plane to come over.

With the pressure exerted by the Celestial Longevity Plane, there was no way Chen Feng would care about the Six Daos Sword Faction, not unless the high-ranking members of the sect decided to take action against him.

Once again, strength was all that mattered.

Not long after Chen Feng’s group left the sect, another group of cultivators flew forward to join up with them. Amongst them were Patron Mountriver and the Dragon Slaying Daoist. Seeing them, Chen Feng revealed a wry smile. No questions were needed to know that they were here due to their association with him.

Looks like there is a need to compensate them. Chen Feng felt somewhat guilty about what happened to them. Thus, he started making some plans.

The spirit stone mine that they were heading to could already be considered as a medium-large mine by the Immortal Plane’s standard. The spirit stone mine was located inside the Primordial Mountain Range. And therein lay the issue. The Primordial Mountain Range used to be completely under the Six Daos Sword Faction, but due to the fall in the sect’s strength, other forces had managed to take control over parts of the Primordial Mountain Range.

This particular mine was located between the territories of the Six Daos Sword Faction and the Starsource Order. If this had been an ordinary spirit stone mine, the Starsource Order would not have openly waged a war against the Six Daos Sword Faction over it. At any rate, the two sects were nearly equal in strength and there was no need for the Starsource Order to offend a sect with such a profound foundation.

Moreover, the Starsource Order had only managed to seize the territories it had in the Primordial Mountain Range thanks to the help from other forces back then.

But this was different. The spirit stone mine they discovered this time contained not just the average Immortal crystals. Instead, this was a large spirit stone mine containing concentrated power of stars. Due to that, the Starsource Order was unable to hold itself back. After negotiations failed, the two sects began starting mining operations on that one spirit stone mine. Naturally, there were also other forces who tried to fish in troubled waters. Due to that, a battle was inevitable.

Since mining operations began 3,000 years ago, both sides had lost over hundreds of thousands of disciples over it. This was also why the two sects would recruit more loose cultivators in recent years.

Take this batch of cultivators assigned to the mine for example. This was a frequent occurrence for the Six Daos Sword Faction. The Six Daos Sword Faction would not be taking a step back in regards to the spirit stone mine. That said, most of the cultivators sent forth were unlucky fellows who failed to establish themselves in the Six Daos Sword Faction.

And so, Chen Feng accompanied these unlucky cultivators who swore along the way. Naturally, there were also those who remained silent. By keeping guard for 100 years, they will be able to return to the sect again and be rewarded.

In the face of the pressure, however, there were also those who chose to flee from the Six Daos Sword Faction. But in doing so, they would have to flee to a place far away, lest they be looked down as one who would casually betray their sect.

Their present situation was one such example. Two True Immortals suddenly sped up and they fled instead, one to the left and one to the right. Just as they were about to disappear, however, the two cultivators leading the group swiftly took action. They casually grasped their hands and the two fleeing cultivators were blown up.

Seeing that, the others grew shocked. Some of the other cultivators had been thinking about running away as well. But when they saw that, they had to reject the idea.

Tsk, tsk. There are actually five high-level True Immortals and two half-step Heavenly Immortals leading the way. Looks like the spirit stone mine issue is quite pressing. A smile appeared on Chen Feng’s face and his gaze swept across all the cultivators there. When his gaze fell upon an unassuming youngster, it paused for a moment.

There’s a Heavenly Immortal as well. He’s hiding himself very well.

Along the way, Chen Feng did nothing to stand out at all. He did not even say much. However, he was still able to gain a general understanding towards this small team.

Patron Mountriver and the Dragon Slaying Daoist followed Chen Feng. Since finding out that Chen Feng could even defeat high-level True Immortals, the Dragon Slaying Daoist became somewhat in awe of Chen Feng.

Even though they had to go to the star spirit stone mine, following someone like Chen Feng meant that they had a backer, giving them a much higher chance of survival.

It took them one day and one night to reach the star spirit stone mine. In the beginning, Chen Feng had been wondering why they did not use a teleportation array for the trip. However, after what happened on the way there, he came to understand that the trip was meant to weed out those without sufficient resolve. Moreover, the sect’s enemies had also launched a sneak attack on the star spirit stone mine, resulting in the destruction of the existing teleportation array. Reconstruction of the teleportation array could not be accomplished anytime soon.

After arriving, all of them were assigned to the barracks there. As the defenders there, they have the responsibility of defending the spirit stone mine. Should the enemy attack, they would have to charge forward to fight the enemy. Killing the enemy was an act of merit. But if they end up getting killed, they can only consider themselves unlucky.

“A hundred years. It’s not that long, but it will not be easy.”

“Yes, the recent battles have been very fierce. The Starsource Order actually managed to get the help of the Immortal Sword Sect. This is very dangerous. I really regret joining the Six Daos Sword Faction. Life is more important here.”

“Don’t say that. You’ve spent the past hundred years cultivating inside the Six Daos Sword Faction and your cultivation base has improved somewhat. Besides, this is not necessarily the end for us. Fighting bloody battles is something we do all the time. When it comes to a fight with our lives on the line, we are in no way inferior compared to those formal disciples.”

“No matter what, we came here together. We should unite. That way, we will be able to fight whatever danger comes together.”

On the first day, Chen Feng and a few other loose cultivators had to go patrol the outer edges of the Six Daos Sword Faction’s mine. This was the most dangerous task there where they had to act like soldiers. Patrolling there meant that they would have to face not just the enemy forces, but also the other brutal loose cultivators who chose to come here and snatch the spirit stones.

For the sake of obtaining valuable spirit stones, some cultivators would be willing to risk their lives.

Chen Feng was inwardly sneering. The moment he arrived at the spirit stone mine, he had sensed that the supervisor here harboured malicious intentions towards him. Sword Premier Heavensura, whom he had offended back then, did not appear to be such a narrow-minded person. As such, it could only be Wang Yunxiao and his ilk behind this.

At times, schemes and deceptions are truly effective. But in the face of absolute power, all of that becomes illusory existences. Chen Feng’s divine sense had already scanned the entire star spirit stone mine. While he was shocked at the size of the mine, he also gained a rough understanding of the force stationed there to defend the mine.

There were some Heavenly Immortals standing guard over the mine, but they did not pose much of a threat to Chen Feng. Rather, by utilizing the Longevity Tower, Chen Feng could even defeat them.

Chen Feng didn’t think too much about the plot against him. He did, however, become interested in the spirit stone mine. After secretly investigating the star spirit stones here, Chen Feng knew, his Bedazzling Star Map had chanced upon a sumptuous meal.

The Bedazzling Star Map could already advance to the next level. And while Chen Feng was feeling quite confident about it, the Bedazzling Star Map had still needed vast amounts of the power of stars. As it so happened, this massive spirit stone mine would provide just that.

I can already be considered as a disciple of the Six Daos Sword Faction. While defending this mine from the enemy, absorbing some spirit stones should not be an issue, no? Chen Feng grinned.

The restrictive arrays there were very complicated. Some were set up by high-level Heavenly Immortals. Even so, they could not stop Chen Feng’s secret techniques.

Like an awl, Chen Feng’s soul power penetrated deep into the spirit stone mine. Then, Chen Feng’s soul shook. The spiritual energy there was simply too pure, several grades higher compared to the average Immortal crystal. No wonder these large sects would wage both an open war and a secret war for it.

Next, Chen Feng’s divine sense moved and streams of spiritual energy surged out from the depths of the mine. All of them poured into the Bedazzling Star Map.

The Bedazzling Star Map that was floating silently within Chen Feng’s body suddenly became alive. Emanating notions of delight, it began to furiously devour the streams of spiritual energy.

For fear of being discovered, Chen Feng’s divine sense kept moving deeper and farther away, until it was beyond the territory controlled by the Six Daos Sword Faction.

“Senior Brother Chen, some people have come.” It was then that Chen Feng received Patron Mountriver and the Dragon Slaying Daoist’s secret vocal transmission.

Even though Chen Feng was secretly devouring the spiritual energy from the spirit stone mine, he did not miss what was happening around him. He was aware that there were several cultivators slowly making their way to their mine. There were also several who were secretly utilizing secret techniques to plunder the spiritual energy there to cultivate themselves.

“They’re just a bunch of small fries. You fellows can go handle it,” Chen Feng replied.

The strongest amongst them was only a starter-level True Immortal. There were even some Ascendant Immortals amongst them, nothing more than a bunch of pitiful loose cultivators. For them to be discovered, they could only blame themselves for having bad luck.

Patron Mountriver and the Dragon Slaying Daoist took action and they swiftly finished them off.

As Chen Feng continued to extend his divine sense outwards, however, he noticed something interesting. There were some other cultivators doing the same thing as him, sending their divine senses into the spirit stone mine to plunder the spiritual energy there. Additionally, judging by how well they could conceal themselves and how strong they were, Chen Feng determined that they were Heavenly Immortals.

Unexpectedly, there are some big fishes here. Only, I wonder where they are from? After reaching that line of thought, Chen Feng sent his divine sense forward – taking the shape of a soul vortex – to rapidly snap apart those cultivators’ divine senses before devouring them. They had failed to even put up a fight.

Following that, the other party panicked and disappeared.