Chapter One Hundred and Eleven: Growth

The Demon Emperor Palace was the core stronghold of the demon race, the residence and place of cultivation for every Demon Emperor throughout the ages. It stood as the symbol of the highest authority over the entire demon race.

Yet since the Demon Emperor vanished a hundred years ago, no new ruler had ever been chosen.

For all matters concerning the palace, the seven great elders of the demon race had, for the time being, taken over its administration.

In the main hall of the Demon Emperor Palace, the elders arrived one after another. They all sat below, while the Demon Emperor’s throne remained forever empty.

Soon, six elders had gathered. All six wore grave expressions, and on the tables before them lay a book, its cover plainly marked with the words “Sword Dao.”

After a while, the final elder arrived as well. Once he was seated, the eldest of the demon race asked, “During this period, has anyone managed to grasp even a sliver of the mysteries within Sword Dao?”

It turned out that not long after the human race’s Trial of Sanctity ended, the demon race had received word that the secret of Sword Dao had been deciphered.

Only a handful of people in the Spirit War Pavilion knew that the secret of Sword Dao had been revealed. Clearly, a demon spy had already infiltrated the pavilion; otherwise, the demon race would never have learned of it so quickly.

That a demon had managed to slip into the heavily guarded Spirit War Pavilion would have been difficult even for the upper ranks of the human race to believe. But for now, they still could not have known this secret.

Xiao Butian had once been one of the strongest Saint Spirit Warriors of the human race. The Sword Dao he left behind had long since fallen into the hands of the demon race, yet just like the humans, they had been unable to comprehend even the slightest part of it.

Not only had the demon race learned of this secret, they had also discovered that Sword Dao was connected to the Path of Heaven.

Thus, the eldest elder had immediately ordered the others to devote themselves to Sword Dao and let the genius talents of the demon race attempt to comprehend it.

Seeing the elders grow increasingly solemn, the eldest knew the answer already. It seemed that for more than two months, they had gained nothing at all.

He sighed inwardly and said, “It is only to be expected. How could the Path of Heaven be so easy to touch? In our entire demon race, only the seven of us have truly set foot upon that road. Who would have thought that the human race would produce such a prodigy?”

At that moment, the second elder spoke. “For a figure like that, once he truly grows into his own, he may not be weaker than Yu Yang. We must be careful.”

The eldest elder nodded, then said, “The reason I summoned you all today is that I have received new intelligence.”

At his words, everyone’s expressions shifted, and they all turned to look at him.

The eldest elder said, “Sword Dao has long been regarded as inseparable from profound sword techniques. Now the Spirit War Pavilion of the human race has established a Sword Dao Hall specifically for it, and Chu Feng has become its first hall master.”

The others frowned upon hearing this. This was far from good news. Although Sword Dao was difficult to comprehend, if someone like Chu Feng led the way, there was no telling whether similar figures might emerge in the future.

In terms of overall strength, the demon race still stood above the human race. But if the Sword Dao Hall succeeded, the power of the human race would likely grow little by little.

Yet regarding this move by the human race, the seven elders found themselves unable to devise any response. After all, it was nearly impossible for the demon race to produce a sword master like Chu Feng.

The third elder said, “The Path of Heaven is so difficult to tread. What does it matter even if they have Sword Dao? I believe that although Sword Dao cannot be ignored, finding the Demon Emperor is what matters most right now.”

The others all nodded, thinking that this was indeed the proper course. The seventh elder sighed and said, “It is just that the last plan failed. The human race may already have sensed our intentions, and that place is no longer easy to investigate.”

Though the Demon Emperor had been missing for a hundred years, the seven elders knew very well that he was not dead, for his soul jade slip had never shattered. The reason they had gone to such lengths to plant spies within the Spirit War Pavilion was precisely to search for the Demon Emperor’s whereabouts.

“This matter must be considered carefully,” the eldest elder said gravely. “But I believe the Demon Emperor will return sooner or later.”

Since the end of the Trial of Sanctity, four months had already passed. During this time, Chu Feng’s body had grown steadily through training, though the progress was slow and his combat strength had not improved all that noticeably.

As for the second realm of Sword Dao, where man and sword become one, it was even deeper, more profound, and utterly elusive than the first realm. No matter how long Chu Feng had contemplated it, he still had no clue at all. Still, he felt that the second realm was also related to the sword, so he did not stop practicing sword techniques.

Meanwhile, Chu Feng often visited the spirit herb shops throughout the Holy City. He spent more than five hundred spirit stones and over seven hundred contribution points in the Spirit Herb Hall, and at last prepared all the spirit herbs and common medicinal materials needed to break through the second extreme realm.

However, he was still far from that realm, and his progress in Sword Dao had stalled. So Chu Feng shifted his focus primarily to body refinement and decided to return once more to the Ten Thousand Mountains for training.

At the mention of the Ten Thousand Mountains, Chu Feng thought of the half a purple-red token he had obtained there, the one engraved with the words “Heaven Lord.”

Chu Feng felt that the fragment of the token, which even after the death of a demon expert had still been clutched tightly in its grasp, was certainly no ordinary object. Recently, when he had gone to the Spirit Herb Hall, he had asked Hall Master Jin about it, but even Jin did not know its origin.

The elders of the human race were not people one could simply ask to meet. Hall Master Jin suggested that Chu Feng could try the Treasure Hall, which seemed to contain some highly secretive texts, even records from the ancient era.

Though curious, Chu Feng held himself back for now and decided to visit the Treasure Hall later. There was no need to rush.

This time, Long Yue went with Chu Feng to the Ten Thousand Mountains. During this period, she had mainly been consolidating her cultivation and studying the human race’s supreme secret art, the Sixfold Metal Spirit Transformation, which she had obtained from the Treasure Hall. Since Chu Feng was leaving, she decided to accompany him for a while.

Though the Sword Dao Hall was small, it was still one of the halls of the Spirit War Pavilion. As its hall master, Chu Feng naturally enjoyed certain privileges. Besides receiving generous contribution points, he was also specially assigned a small Falcon Warship, so that he could travel out with ease whenever needed.

The Falcon Warship was famed for its speed. Although this smaller version could only carry a hundred people, it was still a little faster than the large Falcon Warship, which could hold three thousand.

The warship had dedicated guards to operate and manage it, so Chu Feng need not concern himself with any of that during his travels.

On this day, Chu Feng and Long Yue boarded the Falcon Warship, which carried only a dozen guards.

“Hall Master!” the guards said respectfully. They all held some measure of admiration for this young hall master.

Their cultivation was not very high, only at the sixth level of the Earth Spirit Warrior stage, but operating the Falcon Warship was effortlessly simple for them.

In just one or two hours, the Falcon Warship had reached the outskirts of the Ten Thousand Mountains.

Standing before the Ten Thousand Mountains once more, Chu Feng could not help but feel a touch of emotion. Back then, in this very range of mountains, he had nearly lost his life.

But now Chu Feng no longer needed to fear any tricks from the Eastern King. After all, he was now the hall master of the Sword Dao Hall, and he had a warship accompanying him. Even the Eastern King would not dare take such a risk.

When the Falcon Warship had penetrated to a certain depth into the Ten Thousand Mountains, Chu Feng no longer relied on the ship. He and Long Yue leaped down and began traversing the mountains under their own power.

As for the Falcon Warship, it merely followed overhead. The guards could take turns controlling it, while the rest could cultivate on their own. Before Chu Feng jumped down, he even left two hundred spirit stones for them, which made everyone overjoyed.

For Long Yue, the Ten Thousand Mountains were no longer all that challenging. Her main reason for following Chu Feng was simply to keep him company.

Of course, she had also taken on several tasks in order to earn contribution points, and these tasks could only be completed in the deepest part of the Ten Thousand Mountains. There, Chu Feng advanced slowly toward the depths, and battling these exotic beasts honed his body very well. Naturally, he fought only with his bare hands, never using the Town Domain Sword, and even less borrowing the power of heaven and earth.

Chu Feng improved rapidly, and the two of them were happy in each other’s company day after day. In the meantime, whenever she was free from cultivation, Long Yue could also learn sword techniques from Chu Feng.

Before long, a year had passed. During this time, Chu Feng returned to the Sword Dao Hall a few times, but soon came back to the Ten Thousand Mountains.

Over the course of that year, Long Yue’s cultivation had advanced swiftly, reaching the late stage of the third level of the Heaven Spirit Warrior realm. She had also cultivated the second transformation of the Sixfold Metal Spirit Transformation. Once unleashed, her combat power would double, a truly terrifying increase.

Chu Feng’s growth was even more astonishing. The dozen or so guards aboard the Falcon Warship were utterly shocked. They had witnessed a miracle with their own eyes: Chu Feng fighting exotic beasts with bare hands, all the way to the deepest part of the Ten Thousand Mountains.

One must know that the beasts in the deepest reaches of the Ten Thousand Mountains were comparable to ninth-level Earth Spirit Warriors. This could only mean that this young hall master, even without a sword, already possessed strength on par with a ninth-level Earth Spirit Warrior.

Not only the guards, but Long Yue, who had been with Chu Feng all along, was deeply astonished as well.

Chu Feng now was equivalent to a late ninth-level Earth Spirit Warrior, and his physical body had already reached the level of a top-grade earth-tier spirit weapon. If empowered by the force of heaven and earth, his combat strength was nearly approaching that of an ordinary early third-level Heaven Spirit Warrior.

After that, Chu Feng continued for nearly another month. During that month, his body no longer grew in the slightest, and at that point he was certain that he had already reached the second extreme realm.

At last, Chu Feng and Long Yue boarded the Falcon Warship and set off for the Holy City.

During that year in the Ten Thousand Mountains, the two had stayed together day and night, and life had been very joyful. Besides cultivating, they had also found quite a number of spirit herbs, more than a hundred varieties in all.

At present, it was still unclear which of them would be useful and which would not, so Chu Feng kept them all. Long Yue also knew that his path of body refinement required a great many spirit herbs.

Upon returning to the Spirit War Pavilion, Long Yue went to handle the tasks she had taken on, while Chu Feng headed for the Spirit Herb Hall. A year earlier, he had already handed the prepared medicinal materials to Hall Master Jin, and now that he had reached the second extreme realm, it was time to ask Hall Master Jin to refine the medicine.

Truth be told, Hall Master Jin was genuinely surprised. He had not expected Chu Feng to reach the second extreme realm so quickly. The second extreme realm was equivalent to a ninth-level Earth Spirit Warrior; once that extreme realm was broken through, Chu Feng, without borrowing the power of heaven and earth, would be a being capable of contending with Heaven Spirit Warriors.

Having already experienced refining medicine through the first extreme realm, Hall Master Jin told Chu Feng directly, “Come back in half a month.”