Zhanxian (Immortal Executioner)
chapter-172

This trip to annihilate Lin Chenghe had brought great fame and fortune for Yang Chen. Regardless of what happened, in the end, Yang Chen’s name was still written together with those Da Cheng and YuanYing stage experts, even though it was only written in the last place.

In the end, Gui Shanyou, the expert from the Pure Yang Palace, aside from looking weaker in front of others, still had his name spread far and wide.

Pure Yang Palace’s Eccentric Hall’s hall master had not only accurately discovered the position of Lin Chenghe, allowing everyone to surround him, but at the crucial time, he had also saved the lives of more than ten YuanYing stage experts. Such a contribution was indeed one of the largest.

Although Yang Chen didn’t appear to be very important, the credit of making the final attack on Lin Chenghe was still regarded as Yang Chen’s. After all, those YuanYing and Da Cheng stage cultivators were not so thick-skinned as to falsely claim Yang Chen’s credit.

Naturally, obtaining the reputation was a trivial matter. The main benefit was that Yang Chen’s Blood Phantom Vine flying sword had passed through the flesh of Lin Chenghe at the Da Cheng stage and had completely become a second wood flying sword, this sword was the flying sword with the most potential in Yang Chen’s armory, even higher than the Immortal Executing Blade.

But the second wood flying sword was still one of the sword souls of the Immortal Executing Blade. Both of them would be fused together in the future, but this was not something which Yang Chen should get a headache over.

In addition to that, he had also received another great harvest: Lin Chenghe’s qiankun pouch. With his actions, that devil must have obtained a lot of treasures in exchange for the Heavenly Meteor Heart Crystals.

This could be called as obtaining both fame and fortune. Nobody could claim having obtained a higher harvest than him. Apart from this, another advantage was that Gui Shanyou was now acknowledged by other experts.

The reason why Gui Shanyou had taken the initiative to resist the first attack of Lin Chenghe when he exploded these experts was because Yang Chen had told him so. This was firstly to get the reputation of saving their lives, but at the same time also to use this opportunity to collect pieces of flesh and blood, just that it had to be done secretly without letting anyone know.

Although their cultivation had been absorbed by Lin Chenghe, they were still two Da Cheng stage experts. Their flesh was the best kind of nourishment for the master root and the master vine of the Blood Phantom Vine, which were lying in the Medicine Garden at their last breath.

After the events when these were delivered to Yang Chen, he immediately went to where the Blood Phantom Vine was planted. After meticulously taking care of them, the Blood Phantom Vine finally showed some vitality and did not appear as if dying at any moment.

Perhaps after a few hundred years, the badly damaged Blood Phantom Vine would grow luxuriant again. But that was a long time away. Currently Yang Chen only wanted to ensure that the Blood Phantom Vine did not die, other things could be discussed later. In any case, Yang Chen already possessed the Blood Phantom Vine flying sword, which could also be upgraded similarly and was many times more powerful than the original Blood Phantom Vine.

The only thing left was the matter of Shi Shanshan, which was giving Yang Chen endless headaches. Even his master was continuously frowning and knitting her brows. This kind of matter would not be solved that easily. Even Green Jade Immortal Islands’ elder Min Huafeng had spoken about this, so it was nearly impossible for the Palace Master not to go.

Initially, he had intended to delay the matter until everyone forgot about it, but unfortunately the Green Jade Immortal Islands seemed to be determined. He could not understand if they were doing this to prove that they wouldn’t go back on their words or if there was another motive, but in any case, the matter of Yang Chen and Shi Shanshan being dao companions had already spread across the entire world because of elder Min Huafeng.

Yang Chen was convinced that, in the near future, he would start receiving challenges from countless admirers of Shi Shanshan, which would make this matter even more of an annoyance.

Apparently nobody knew if Yang Chen had some plan in advance, otherwise why would he act as if he knew the result of the battle when making the wager with Cheng Wencai. But no one could believe such a nonsensical notion. Could it be that Yang Chen knew where Lin Chenghe was going to pass and had put his flying sword there in advance and moreover made that bet earlier?

Rather than believing that he had planned this, everyone prefered to believe in Yang Chen’s heaven defying luck. After all, everyone who knew about Yang Chen’s past endeavors knew how frightening his good fortune was. Only, something like this was not under the control of anyone, even Da Cheng stage experts couldn’t control it.

The unlucky Cheng Wencai didn’t even know what kind of mess he was in. Since even the YuanYing stage elders of the sect knew, this matter wouldn’t just stop with just Cheng Wencai. When the YuanYing stage elder had gotten to know about the affair, he wanted to severely scold Cheng Wencai at once.

The bet between both sides was made after Cheng Wencai had mocked Yang Chen, so even the elders of the Greatest Heaven Sect didn’t know what to say. After all, nearly all of the sects had sent all their disciples at that time, so Cheng Wencai mocking Yang Chen was equivalent to mocking all of these sects. If the matter went public, then surely the Greatest Heaven Sect would lose a lot of face.

Thus Cheng Wencai was immediately turned into a scapegoat by the elders of the sect, in order to stop the matter from spreading. First of all, being a JieDan expert, making a bet with a Foundation stage junior was itself immature. Moreover, even at the Heavenly Stairs Assembly, he had questioned Yang Chen and accused him of cheating, losing three JieDan expert of the Greatest Heaven Sect thereafter.

He had such a bad record only his sect could clean up his mess. Naturally, the experts of the Greatest Heaven Sect would not allow for Cheng Wencai to kneel in front of Yang Chen and Gao Yue under the eyes of so many people, after all the Greatest Heaven Sect also had to save some face. This matter could only be dragged out, but it could also not be kept hanging. The only one to blame in this case was Cheng Wencai, who had spread the matter since a long time ago, sure of the outcome.

Leaving such small matters, all of the experts began to seriously summarize the lesson from this time’s event. All of the sects had begun to learn Pure Yang Palace’s way of handling matters. On one hand was wariness against devil cultivation, while on the other hand was their Eccentric Hall to rope in demon beasts. The merit of the Eccentric Hall could be seen from Gui Shanyou’s contribution.

The genuine evaluation of merit was the work of the experts, so the Foundation and JieDan stage cultivators present had started to return to their sect. Yang Chen and Gao Yue were no exception and, after informing Gui Shanyou, they also returned to the MeiQing Mountain.

Regardless of however they distributed the contributions, Yang Chen had matters to deal with, for example using the flesh of these Da Cheng stage experts to completely forge the edge of the second wood flying sword.

On the journey, he had told Gao Yue that he had something to do first, so as soon as they returned, Yang Chen entered closed door training. Gao Yue on the other hand, anxiously went to find her master to consult him regarding the matter of Yang Chen and Shi Shanshan.

Speaking of which, when elder Min Huafeng had asked if Yang Chen and Shi Shanshan were dao companions or not, Gao Yue felt an insufferable pain in her chest for some reason.

She couldn’t describe this sensation in words, but she became extremely uneasy, as if her treasure was being robbed by someone. Every time she felt this sensation, she would remind herself that she was Yang Chen’s master and there could not be anything between them. On the contrary, she should be glad that her disciple would have such an exceptional dao companion.

But unfortunately, no matter how hard she tried, Gao Yue was unable to feel happy. Moreover, she also could not talk about her feelings to anyone, so she could only push them down in her mind and suffer the unbearable pain.

But Yang Chen didn’t pay any attention to Gao Yue’s mood. Currently, his entire mind was concentrated on the second wood flying sword. After absorbing the blood of the Da Cheng stage expert, the flying sword was showing all of the characteristics of a flying sword, just waiting for Yang Chen to complete the last step of the procedure.

In the room, Yang Chen cautiously took out the blood phantom vine sword embryo. Looking at the blood colored ripples on the sword, he couldn’t the describe the joy of his heart in words.

This was the first weapon Yang Chen had refined by himself and also a component of his destined magic weapon. In his previous life, even if he wanted to, Yang Chen would not dare to think that he could refine a flying sword from a Blood Phantom Vine. Holding the flying sword’s embryo in his hand, he even felt that he was in a dream.

Releasing his spiritual awareness to the limit, Yang Chen entered his spirit sea. The flying sword was magnified within his spirit sea, allowing him to have a panoramic view.

With the support of the Second Fierce Yang Courtyard’s enormous spirit power, Yang Chen controlled the Geocentric Flame to remove the impurities inside and outside of the sword embryo bit by bit.

All of these impurities had appeared after absorbing Lin Chenghe’s blood. Lin Chenghe’s own cultivation was not pure, as all of it was formed by stealing other people’s cultivation, thus impurities were to be expected.

But Yang Chen wanted a perfect flying sword, so these kinds of impurities could not be allowed to exist. Yang Chen could tolerate using ordinary materials, as they could be replaced later by high grade materials, but he could not allow these impurities, as they would not only lower the quality of the flying sword, but also become a potential problem whenever he would try to increase the grade of the flying sword.

These impurities were caused by Lin Chenghe’s impure spirit power, who was at the Da Cheng stage, so Yang Chen had no option but to spend a great amount of time and slowly refine and remove them. This was not a matter which could be solved overnight, even with Yang Chen’s current strength. It was still a matter which required him to spend a lot of effort.

Fortunately, because of the mutation in his spirit sea which allowed him to enlarge the magic weapons countless times, Yang Chen could find even the minutest of flaws.

The effect of the pair cultivation for spiritual awareness was astonishing. During the refining process, the impurities were refined bit by bit, but not even a fraction of the sword embryo was harmed.

Just as a small amount of impurities were removed, the Blood Phantom Vine flying sword revealed an intense blood-thirsty pressure and began to shake incessantly within the spirit sea.

Yang Chen didn’t dare to be careless and at this stage successively used forbidden techniques and formed unique seals on each of the spirit power ripples of the flying sword. After the last seal was formed, the Blood Phantom Vine flying sword emitted a glaring red light and then the red light dispersed, the flying sword itself turned black and didn’t have that red color which scared people anymore.

Finally the second wood flying sword was complete. It had a delicate handle, a long unilateral edge and, although it did not have that frightening color anymore, in exchange it had undergone many changes and turned black. It was simple but elegant, yet it had a crazy killing intent concealed beneath the surface, which made Yang Chen almost go mad with happiness.

Looking at it from a distance, the fierceness of the flying sword could be seen at one glance, but that person would very quickly think that it was a misconception. Yang Chen knew that this was the first accomplishment of the flying sword and it still hadn’t shown its complete brilliance.

With a thought from him, the flying sword turned into a black dragon which seemed incomparably soft and began to soar in Yang Chen’s spirit sea. The main ingredient of this flying sword was the Blood Phantom Vine, so apart from the blood sucking ability of the Blood Phantom Vine, it had also retained its toughness and flexibility.

Seeing the flying sword sometimes turn into a ring and then into a small coiled serpent, Yang Chen was unable to contain his joy.

He had finally obtained a suitably strong flying sword! Although its level still wasn’t very high, just the potential of the sword made this flying sword many times more formidable than the flying sword which elder Wu had given him. Henceforth, as Yang Chen’s cultivation increased, this flying sword could also be limitlessly upgraded.

Apart from using the Geocentric Flame to remove impurities, he had also used second wood spirit power at the time of refining the flying sword. As a result, after the flying sword had been finished and Yang Chen had relaxed, he discovered certain changes in his second wood spirit power.

Yang Chen was at the second layer of the Foundation stage, but currently , his spirit power was very clearly increasing, slowly attacking the boundaries of the next realm. With his ample experience, Yang Chen recognized that this was a clear sign that he was going to make a breakthrough. Calming his heart, he slowly circulated his spirit power a few times, when suddenly those formless shackles disappeared and the second wood spirit power dashed towards the next level in a flash.

The second wood spirit power reaching the third layer of foundation stage also stirred up the spirit power of the other attributes, but, in the end this was not some major breakthrough, so the spirit power of these attributes only rose by half a grade, but didn’t attain the state of a breakthrough.

Such a bonus made Yang Chen equally happy. From reaching the Foundation stage’s second layer and then the third while consolidating his realm had taken him around ten years. An increase of two layers in the Foundation stage within the short time of ten years had already made Yang Chen pleased beyond expectations.

But cultivation should be stabilized and properly consolidated. It was not as simple as one just comprehending a realm and reaching that level without stabilizing it. Otherwise Lin Chenghe wouldn’t have died from spirit power backlash in his previous life.

With this speed, Yang Chen could determine that, within the next hundred years, he would certainly be able to congeal his dan and enter the JieDan realm. Yang Chen would not have even dared to think of such speed in his previous life. Such speed of cultivation was almost comparable to Gongsun Ling.

Thinking of Gongsun Ling, Yang Chen suddenly remembered that, from the time she had entered the Immortal Falling Well to now, a whole ten years had already passed. It should be about time for her to return.