Chapter 623: Dark Arts

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

“Qiluo Spirit Tree?”

Qu Qingsheng looked up at Chen Fei. With the growing strength of the Primordial Sword Sect, Qu Qingsheng’s access to various sources of information had become increasingly refined.

“Yes, the Qiluo Spirit Tree!”

Chen Fei nodded, pointing to three fruits on the tree. “One of them, you can give to Elder Zhou. As for the remaining two, handle them as you see fit.”

“What about you…”

Qu Qingsheng was about to speak when he realized that one of the fruits was probably meant for Chen Fei himself. However, upon seeing Chen Fei’s youthful face, he suddenly remembered Chen Fei’s age. It seemed that Chen Fei was only around forty.

With a lifespan of three hundred years in the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, Chen Fei had already reached the late stage of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm. Such an age, such strength, couldn’t be called young but rather excessively youthful.

“I have other longevity elixirs; there’s no need for me to take this.”

Chen Fei knew what Qu Qingsheng was about to say and couldn’t help but chuckle softly.

In the realm of longevity items, the Qiluo Spirit Tree wasn’t actually the top-tier item. Its value lay in the fact that it could be consumed by practitioners in both the Combined Aperture Tempering realm and the Body Tempering realm.

Many spiritual materials and elixirs required the practitioner to be at the Combined Aperture Tempering realm to digest the medicinal power and enhance one’s lifespan.

When Chen Fei killed Shi Yuanmin, he found a longevity elixir in his Qiankun Bag, capable of extending life by forty years.

Among the various longevity items available in the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, this longevity elixir was considered top-tier.

According to the Thousand Feathers Alliance’s experience over the years, the effectiveness of various longevity items diminishes with use. Beneath the Mountain Sea Realm, extending life by fifty years is the maximum, beyond which it becomes unsustainable.

Unless one can find more potent longevity elixirs, which are not accessible to those in the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, and even the question of whether they exist within the Thousand Feathers Alliance is uncertain.

Apart from finding the longevity elixir in Shi Yuanmin’s Qiankun Bag, Chen Fei also discovered one in the Qiankun Bags of Tan Chunyi and the other person he killed today.

Therefore, the Qiluo Spirit Tree wasn’t particularly significant for Chen Fei, but for some elders of the Primordial Sword Sect, its importance was immense.

Take Zhou Zixuan for example; although he had previously consumed pills refined with Spiritual resonance, extending his life by several years, the efficacy of Spiritual resonance was limited, and producing so many pills further weakened its effects.

However, if one were to consume the spiritual fruits of the Qiluo Spirit Tree, extending life by thirty years, then it was inevitable for Zhou Zixuan to advance to the peak of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm in his cultivation.

Even though he had suffered serious injuries due to attempting to break through the Combined Aperture Tempering realm in the past, with the resources available to the Primordial Sword Sect today, these injuries could all be healed.

Zhou Zixuan’s talent was definitely not lacking; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to cultivate to the later stage of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm initially. With his lifespan extended, there might be opportunities for him to break through to the Combined Aperture Tempering realm in the future.

This old man, who had dedicated his entire life to the Primordial Sword Sect, only cared about the prosperity and decline of the sect. Now that the Primordial Sword Sect had become even better, he deserved the appropriate rewards.

“Alright!”

Qu Qingsheng nodded, exchanged a few more words with Chen Fei, and then carefully placed the Qiluo Spirit Tree into his Qiankun Bag.

Qu Qingsheng needed to find a suitable location within the sect to plant this Qiluo Spirit Tree. Every eighty years thereafter, there would be a chance to harvest three longevity fruits.

In the future, those in the Primordial Sword Sect whose lifespan was nearing its end and who had made significant contributions to the sect would have the opportunity to increase their lifespan and break through their original martial arts realm.

Chen Fei escorted Qu Qingsheng out of the door and returned to the courtyard. Sitting cross-legged, a pile of jade slips appeared around him, all containing the martial arts techniques obtained today.

Chen Fei’s current task was to roughly browse through these martial arts techniques, select the ones he needed, and integrate them into his own techniques.

Those that he couldn’t use would serve as the foundation of the Primordial Sword Sect, available for disciples to choose for their practice.

This was how a sect developed, gradually improving its own foundation so that strong individuals could emerge within the sect continuously.

Of course, Chen Fei’s direct emptying of other sects’ secret repositories was undoubtedly a significant advancement for the Primordial Sword Sect’s foundation.

He quickly skimmed through the techniques for the Body Tempering realm and the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, not investing too much thought into them.

At this level, even if some techniques had peculiar insights, they provided minimal assistance to Chen Fei, if any at all.

However, Chen Fei still spent some time scanning through these jade slips.

After all, even if the assistance they provided was minimal, there might still be one or two exceptional techniques among them.

Just like the Slaughter Spirit Technique he learned in the Mysterious City. Despite being in the later stage of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm now, this technique remained incredibly useful.

There was also the Sword Return Eye, serving as the precursor technique for the Heavenly Eye, which was an indispensable part of the Heavenly Eye technique.

An hour later, over ninety percent of the jade slips in front of Chen Fei had disappeared, leaving only dozens still on the ground.

Under the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, surprises were rare. Only a few techniques had notable conceptual insights, but most of them overlapped with Chen Fei’s current techniques. Even if integrated, they wouldn’t provide any new assistance.

Chen Fei continued to examine the remaining jade slips for the Combined Aperture Tempering realm. Compared to before, he was much more serious this time. He spent some time contemplating the profound meanings contained within each jade slip.

After a day, only three jade slips remained in front of Chen Fei.

Diffracted Heavenly Eye Technique!

It observes meticulously, seeking weaknesses. It utilizes one’s strengths to overcome the weaknesses of the enemy.

Although there were many practitioners of this eye technique within the Death Shadow Sect, only Pu Chunxu managed to cultivate it to a profound level. Unfortunately, when facing Chen Fei, this eye technique did not help Pu Chunxu.

This Diffracted Heavenly Eye Technique could be integrated into the Heavenly Eye, strengthening its effectiveness in observing enemies and also providing numerous uses in breaking formations.

The Conjoined Body Technique!

This technique wasn’t meant for solitary cultivation; it was a method for sharing injuries among practitioners. It was somewhat similar to formations, but compared to formations, the Conjoined Body Technique was undoubtedly more flexible, and there was no need to worry about it being forcibly broken by others.

However, one crucial aspect was that the difficulty of cultivating the Conjoined Body Technique was extremely high. The first step required practitioners to have a strong mental connection with each other, which was necessary to fully manifest the subtleties of the technique.

But with the complexities of the human mind, maintaining a mental connection with another person was incredibly challenging. Therefore, within the Conjoined Body Technique, there was a complementary secret method that forcibly established a mental connection between two individuals for a certain period.

Achieving what the Wu brothers did, being able to cultivate this technique together and reach such a level, had never been accomplished since the inception of this technique.

Chen Fei had no intention of cultivating the Conjoined Body Technique with others; instead, he would directly apply it between himself and his clone.

After all, his clone had reached the initial stage of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, a feat that other martial artists hadn’t achieved.

If he encountered an opponent he couldn’t contend with, the Conjoined Body Technique could at least withstand a fatal blow for Chen Fei. And as long as he didn’t die instantly, Chen Fei could use teleportation to escape to another location.

This technique was akin to adding an extra layer of armor to Chen Fei, making him somewhat safer.

In this world, danger lurked everywhere. Even in the Mountain Sea Realm, one couldn’t guarantee complete safety. Having an additional layer of protection for oneself was undoubtedly worth it, without hesitation.

The Conjoined Body Technique and the Diffracted Heavenly Eye Technique were both witnessed by Chen Fei on individuals from the Death Shadow Sect. However, the last jade slip seemed somewhat sinister and demonic, likely untouched by any practitioners within the sect.

The Three Flower Technique!

True to its name, this technique was the method for late-stage Combined Aperture Tempering realm practitioners to cultivate the Three Flowers.

However, it differed from the orthodox method of cultivating elemental energy, then allowing the essence, energy, and spirit to condense into the Three Flowers on the Combined Aperture Tempering realm before achieving the pinnacle.

This Three Flower Technique took a different approach, forcibly plundering a martial artist’s essence, energy, and spirit and condensing them into the Three Flowers on the Combined Aperture Tempering realm to achieve the effect of gathering the Three Flowers at the pinnacle.

This was akin to robbing Peter to pay Paul. Although it might indeed result in the culmination of the Three Flowers, the martial artist’s own essence, energy, and spirit wouldn’t have truly grown; they would have merely changed position. Moreover, due to the forcible plundering, the foundation would weaken.

In such a scenario, although the elemental energy realm indeed reached the pinnacle of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, and the power of elemental energy also advanced, it was no different from a typical Combined Aperture Tempering realm peak.

However, because the essence, energy, and spirit hadn’t truly grown, reaching the Mountain Sea Realm was out of the question. Additionally, lifespan would also be significantly affected, with a decline of several decades being quite common.

“Dark arts!” Chen Fei exclaimed with some emotion.

This technique, one couldn’t say it was entirely useless. After all, just the concept alone was extremely bold. For some individuals in need, it could even be considered akin to divine techniques.

But precisely because it was so bold, the actual cultivation process was incredibly challenging.

After all, the normal process of condensing the Three Flowers involved continuing to grow one’s essence, energy, and spirit, thus expanding the overall quantity. However, with the Three Flower Technique, one would be digging into their own foundation. If one misjudged, and the Three Flowers failed to condense, they would be severely injured.

This was hardly different from being critically injured by an opponent, perhaps even more severe. After all, it was challenging for an enemy to simultaneously damage one’s essence, energy, and spirit. Only oneself could achieve such precision.

Naturally, Chen Fei would never undermine his own foundation in such a way. Even if he were eager to advance in his cultivation, he would never sacrifice his future for it.

Moreover, achieving the pinnacle of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm through the Three Flower Technique would likely result in the weakest existence at that level. It might be stronger than the typical late-stage Combined Aperture Tempering realm, but it would still be far inferior to the normal pinnacle of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm.

Chen Fei was already stronger than the average late-stage Combined Aperture Tempering realm practitioner. This Three Flower Technique was even more redundant.

As Chen Fei’s right hand caressed the jade slip of the Three Flower Technique, he was about to stow it away in his Qiankun Bag when his palm involuntarily paused.

Chen Fei himself wouldn’t practice this Three Flower Technique, but what if he were to give it to his clone for cultivation?

His clone’s body didn’t possess a genuine Combined Aperture Tempering realm; it only had a projection of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm. It was precisely by relying on this projected Combined Aperture Tempering realm that the clone could lock in the elemental energy within its body and unleash the power of the initial Combined Aperture Tempering realm.

“Now, the clone is only at the initial stage of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, far from the late stage. Besides, the projected Combined Aperture Tempering realm can’t withstand the power of the Three Flowers; the clone would collapse immediately.”

Chen Fei lowered his head, looking at the jade slip in his hand. Unless there was a way to strengthen the Combined Aperture Tempering realm of his clone..

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