Chapter 399: World Hostile

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

With Chen Fei’s current cultivation level, following a systematic and gradual practice approach is entirely feasible. After all, Chen Fei is still around thirty years old, with plenty of time for cultivation.

Even if there is a shortage of elixirs, at the rate of opening one acupoint per year, Chen Fei can reach the peak of the Aperture Tempering realm in just over twenty years.

In twenty-plus years, even with painstaking effort, Chen Fei estimates that he can identify the positions of the two missing acupoints in the Primordial Sword Scripture and completely restore the missing parts.

However, twenty-plus years is quite a long time. Considering how much time Chen Fei has spent on his current cultivation, which is less than ten years, the prospect of spending over twenty years slowly refining his cultivation is hard to accept.

Then there’s the matter of the Qianyuan Sword, which is currently only a mid-grade spiritual sword. For a cultivator in the later stages of the Aperture Tempering realm, a mid-grade spiritual sword offers limited enhancement, making it no different from an ordinary blade.

Only a high-grade spiritual sword can provide significant enhancement to Chen Fei’s current abilities, ensuring that he doesn’t fall behind when facing peers of the same level.

Since the Sword Return Tower has a vendetta with the Primordial Sword Sect, and Chen Fei’s strength is now sufficient, there’s no reason not to pay them a visit. This journey is necessary for both the Primordial Sword Sect and Chen Fei himself.

After practicing together with Chi Shuqing for a night, Chen Fei left the Primordial Sword Sect early the next morning.

“Zi!”

With a flicker of electric light, Chen Fei’s speed increased further as he activated the Great Thunder Sword. Even the distance he could traverse while airborne increased significantly.

Chen Fei suspected that if he could increase his speed a bit more, he might actually be able to fly completely.

However, this type of flight was not very controllable and made it difficult to use leverage in the air. Unlike the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, where practitioners could fully harness the elemental energy of the heavens and earth and move freely without constraints.

After running for over a thousand miles, completely distancing himself from the Primordial Sword Sect, Chen Fei stopped in a remote area where few people had treaded.

His clone stepped out, holding the Qianyuan Sword, remaining vigilant.

At this moment, Chen Fei’s clone had undergone a significant change in aura compared to the past. Initially, Chen Fei had always believed that the strength of the Phantom of the Soaring Heaven Technique wouldn’t increase once his own strength reached a certain level.

Now, Chen Fei had discovered that the basic strength of the Phantom of the Soaring Heaven Technique could be augmented by the Primordial Sword Scripture. After all, the Phantom of the Soaring Heaven Technique was separated from the Primordial Sword Scripture, and they shared the same origin.

With the foundation of cultivation coupled with mental techniques, the strength of the clone at this moment was much stronger than the majority of early Aperture Tempering realm cultivators. It could even contend with mid-stage Aperture Tempering realm practitioners to some extent without falling behind.

Chen Fei lightly tapped the ground with his right foot, and the Suppressing Dragon Elephant spread out, enveloping him.

In the next moment, Chen Fei formed hand seals, slowly closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, the world had turned gray, and Chen Fei had entered the Strange Heart Realm.

Inside the Primordial Sword Sect, Chen Fei had slain a second-stage Evil and absorbed its origin. The sensation of the Strange Heart Realm had become somewhat different for Chen Fei.

Chen Fei wasn’t sure if it was accidental, so far from the Primordial Sword Sect, that he entered the Strange Heart Realm again to investigate.

Whispering voices echoed in Chen Fei’s ears, and it had been a long time since he had heard such clear and manic whispering voices. Especially since Chen Fei had broken through to the Aperture Tempering realm, the whispering voices had almost disappeared.

However, today, these whispering voices had become increasingly distinct.

Not only the whispering voices but also that inexplicable hostility. After Chen Fei appeared in the Strange Heart Realm, the inexplicable hostility began to manifest in Chen Fei’s perception once again.

At first, Chen Fei thought that this hostility came from some higher-level Evil. After all, he had killed many first-stage Evils in a certain area, and it was quite possible that higher-level Evils had taken an interest in him.

That’s why Chen Fei had deliberately crossed a distance of over a thousand miles to come to a new place.

Although the Strange Heart Realm was not a one-to-one reflection of the real world, the distance in the Strange Heart Realm should not be significantly smaller than that in the real world, even if the two were not entirely proportional.

Despite the considerable distance separating them, if the hostility were truly caused by a higher-level Evil, it should have dissipated by now due to the distance. However, the hostility arrived promptly as Chen Fei entered the Strange Heart Realm, without any delay.

Chen Fei looked up at the sky, and a speculation formed in his mind.

What if the hostility wasn’t coming from a specific Evil but rather from this Strange Heart Realm itself?

The idea of an entire world harboring hostility toward you was enough to send shivers down one’s spine. It meant that the entire world was rejecting you.

While they say “Man proposes, God disposes,” if the world is against you, there’s hardly a chance of success because all fortune favors your adversaries, and everything is working against you.

Perhaps even taking a sip of water could lead to choking, and a single cough could be fatal. Objects from the sky could fall inexplicably and strike you, people you encountered on the street might look at you with disdain.

Or it could be the clashes of high-level martial artists that you couldn’t avoid, directly causing you harm from the aftershocks.

If you were exceptionally unlucky, natural disasters like landslides and tsunamis might head your way, leaving you with no escape!

Of course, all of the above would only happen in the most severe cases of the world’s hostility. Creating an environment where the entire world is hostile to you is not something an ordinary person can achieve.

The heavens and earth are impartial to all, and generally, a world treats everyone equally. Only some incredibly fortunate individuals become the pride of the heavens.

The existence of something that hates the heavens and despises the earth is not something Chen Fei had come across in his readings.

The Strange Heart Realm might not be a complete world, but if it genuinely harbored hostility toward Chen Fei, he would encounter significant difficulties.

It wouldn’t necessarily affect the real world, but it would make it extremely challenging for Chen Fei to freely draw on the Evil’s origin here.

Chen Fei had slain numerous first-stage Evils without any reaction from the Strange Heart Realm. However, after killing a second-stage Evil and refining its essence, the Strange Heart Realm’s response had emerged.

In Chen Fei’s mind, he suddenly thought of that mysterious school. Could it be that the school had perished because they couldn’t withstand the hostility of the Strange Heart Realm due to killing and refining Evils excessively?

If the Strange Heart Realm indeed had severe hostility, it didn’t need cataclysmic events like landslides and tsunamis. Simply making nearby higher-level Evils hostile towards you could be extremely dangerous.

Chen Fei furrowed his brow, sensing the hostility emanating from his surroundings. Upon careful perception, he noticed that this hostility had actually weakened a bit compared to a month ago.

In other words, as time passed, this hostility could be gradually diminished. As long as Chen Fei refrained from continuing to kill and refine second-stage Evils during this period, the hostility would dissipate.

However, if it took a month just to reduce the hostility by this small amount, it might take several years for it to completely disappear.

“I only have the Star Gazing Art and the Heart-Refining Formation.”

Chen Fei thought about that mysterious school, which must have had methods to conceal this hostility. Unfortunately, Chen Fei hadn’t obtained these methods.

The Star Gazing Art was acquired because his character panel was strong enough to simplify and refine it; otherwise, Chen Fei wouldn’t even have it. “Let’s try it again!”

Chen Fei activated the Star Gazing Art, and a faint gleam flashed in his eyes. In the next moment, Chen Fei’s figure disappeared from where he stood.

Fifteen minutes later, a pitch-black Origin Essence appeared in Chen Fei’s hand, extracted from a second-stage Evil.

However, simply killing the Evil did not intensify the surrounding hostility. It was only when refining it on the spot that the hostility grew deeper.

Chen Fei stared at the Evil’s Origin Essence in his hand, his brow furrowed. Without refining it, the purpose of coming to the Strange Heart Realm would be significantly diminished. But if he did refine it, he suspected that after only a few refinements, the surrounding hostility would become overwhelming.

If the hostility were to reach a critical level, Chen Fei might be targeted by higher-level Evils as soon as he entered the Strange Heart Realm, and they would easily eliminate him.

Inside this Strange Heart Realm, high-level Evils were not in short supply, and Chen Fei would occasionally sense that spine-chilling aura from afar.

A third-stage Evil was already equivalent to a Cultivator in the Combined Aperture Tempering realm. If a fourth-stage Evil were to appear, wouldn’t that be comparable to a Mountain Sea Realm Cultivator? Killing Chen Fei would probably be as easy as a sneeze for a being of that level.

“What if I drag this Origin Essence back to the real world and refine it there? Would it be better?”

An idea popped into Chen Fei’s mind. The problem now was how to transport it back to the real world. The Origin Essence was highly contaminated and couldn’t be directly touched by Chen Fei’s consciousness.

However, without contact with his consciousness, nothing from the Strange Heart Realm could be brought out.

“Perhaps if I perfect the Ninth Layer of the Thousand Thread Technique, there might be a new feature, ‘Sever and Connect’?”

Chen Fei looked at the Evil’s Origin Essence, stepped forward with his right foot, and the Heart-Refining Formation appeared layer by layer, quickly forming into a four-layer Heart-Refining Formation.

Chen Fei placed the Evil’s Origin Essence into it, and as soon as he began refining it, the hostility from all directions started to increase.

Indeed, even refining wasn’t working. He hadn’t noticed it last time, probably because the hostility was so light when he first refined it that he only realized after absorbing it. Now, with his full attention on this matter, he immediately noticed the abnormality.

Chen Fei’s hand movements didn’t slow down but accelerated.

After a moment, an Origin Essence appeared, and Chen Fei grabbed it with one hand, disappearing within the Strange Heart Realm.

In the real world, Chen Fei opened his eyes, deep in thought. The second refinement of a second-stage Evil had significantly deepened the Strange Heart Realm’s hostility towards him. It wasn’t a simple accumulation but had multiplied several times.

If Chen Fei dared to refine a third second-stage Evil within the Strange Heart Realm, the hostility surrounding him would likely attract the attention of higher-level Evils.

“Thousand Thread Technique!”

Chen Fei stood up, his figure flashing, heading in the direction of West Cloud City.

Several hours later, Chen Fei appeared on a mountain peak outside the Sword Return Tower, where he could see the main peak of the pavilion.

A long bow was held in Chen Fei’s hand, and the iron arrows, entirely made of metal, were placed on the bowstring, aimed at the main peak of the Sword Return Tower.

“Sizzle!”

Electric currents crackled, turning both the long bow and the arrows entirely black. Beyond the black, thunder raged.

Chen Fei’s aura began to rise, and the power attached to the arrows began to gradually increase..