Zhanxian (Immortal Executioner)
chapter-70

Hearing these words, everyone realized whose voice this was: Elder Wu of the council of Five Elders, a Da Cheng stage expert, the great cultivator who was admired by all of the ancestors of everyone’s sects, the overseer of the Immortal Falling Well, the person who made all of the rules here.

Since everyone had set foot into the Immortal Falling Well, nobody had ever seen this legendary Da Cheng stage expert, everything was entirely conducted according to the rules without the slightest accident. Gradually everyone seemed to have forgotten the existence of Elder Wu, the rules were only followed at the Li Lou Village, when going into the depths of the Immortal Falling Well, the sun was high and the emperor far away.1

Obviously Elder Wu had not shown himself, he just controlled the flying sword of Peng Hui to kill him. Seeing that, everyone realized within their hearts that compared to a genuine expert, they were still very far away. Thinking about that incident, what would have happened if Yang Chen hadn’t shouted to stop them, their whole bodies were covered in cold sweat.

Even if their strength was higher when compared to Peng Hui, when all was said and done they still had their limits, at least no one among them would have been able to control Peng Hui’s flying sword to kill him. Not to mention achieving this, they did not even dare to think about trying it. Everybody on the scene did not dare to say anything, in the entire Li Lou Village, there wasn’t a single person who would have dared to even move.

One sentence from Elder Wu made everyone clearly understand that, at the Li Lou Village, at the Immortal Falling Well, regardless of the situation, complying with the rules of Elder Wu was the best choice.

Similarly Yang Chen also didn’t make any unnecessary movements or say anything, he had long ago anticipated Elder Wu’s appearance. When his Spiritual Awareness Thread had suddenly come in contact with a formidable, but hidden, Spiritual Awareness, which left immediately after contact, he realized that this surely had to be Elder Wu’s Spiritual Awareness. Elder Wu had begun to investigate the traces of that frightening killing intent years ago, Yang Chen clearly understood this point. Seeing his sudden appearance just a moment ago, Yang Chen reckoned that he must have returned from the outside world.

At the time when Yang Chen had turned around to walk away, when Peng Hui used his flying sword to attack him, Yang Chen immediately shouted to stop everyone because of the rules of Elder Wu. As for the recently returned Elder Wu, he did not care about right or wrong, the important thing to him was that people had to comply with the rules he had laid down.

Peng Hui had suddenly revealed his flying sword but the group of people didn’t do anything because of Yang Chen’s advice, no other outcome could’ve made Elder Wu happier. These people not doing anything indicated that they adored him, they adored the rules he had laid down. That person who had attacked was surely a person who would recklessly break the rules he set down.

The person who had been attacking surely had resentments, but Elder Wu had already made it clear long ago that after entering into the Immortal Falling Well, even if they had resentments as big as the sky, they had to suppress it and not indiscriminately kill Fellow Daoists. Since Yang Chen and the other had upheld the rules, naturally Elder Wu would punish the person who was breaking them.

“I do not care what kind of grudge you have, even if you all want to attack or kill each other outside of the Immortal Falling Pond I do not care about that. But if you try to attack anyone within the Immortal Falling Well, I will kill you!’

That awe inspiring voice echoed within everyone’s ears again, but nobody was able to see his figure. Nobody dared to start discussing about Elder Wu, even if one was a JieDan expert, when facing a Da Cheng stage expert, they wouldn’t even dare to turn look them in the eye, let alone act recklessly.

“Youngster, you are pretty good!”

His voice resounded in everyone’s ears, but this time it was pointing towards Yang Chen in particular.

“I see that your cultivation is quite low and you don’t have any flying sword, I bestow this flying sword to you!”

Following Elder Wu’s words, the flying sword which was hanging in the air after killing Peng Hui flew in front of Yang Chen, following which the qiankun pouch on Peng Hui’s belt also flew towards Yang Chen.

“I also see that you don’t have a sect provided qiankun pouch, which sect’s disciple is so poor? Take this also as a reward!”

Yang Chen extended his hand and grabbed the flying sword and the qiankun pouch in front of him. Under everyone’s envious gazes, he bowed towards the sky and said:

“Many thanks, Senior, for your kindness!”

“The road of cultivation is extremely hard, though it’s ultimately not very important, you should still try not to arouse enmity with others.”

A trace of guidance could be heard within Elder Wu’s voice, but it was not in a commanding tone.

“Do your best!”

“Yes, Senior!”

Yang Chen again voiced his gratitude respectfully, but as if Elder Wu had disappeared, his voice could not be heard anymore. Everyone sensed that the earth shattering pressure had also disappeared so it was safe to assume that Elder Wu had already left.

Hu! Hu!

A series of sighs could be heard, apparently everyone had relaxed. Although Elder Wu had not appeared in person, the expressions of everyone were as if they had been fighting for a whole day with all of their strength, sweat could be seen dripping from their bodies. All of them immediately sat down on the ground and were unable to say anything for half a day.

Since these people had stuck out for him in his predicament, Yang Chen was not even a little bit stingy and immediately took out a jade bottle and gave every person a second grade yang qi pill. After the pill entered their stomachs, a little bit of Spirit Power was restored in everyone and one by one they began to stand up.

“What a narrowly escape!”

Blurted the person who was pointing his flying sword at Peng Hui’s neck just a moment ago, but he immediately realized his mistake. If this was heard by Elder Wu, wouldn’t this create a grave misunderstanding? Thinking this, he covered his mouth at lightening speed and did not dare to speak anymore.

Other people’s expressions were also as if they had been given a new lease on life, they had realized that if it were not for Yang Chen stopping them a moment ago, they would also have been killed by the flying sword. They could not help but rejoice and felt extremely grateful towards Yang Chen.

“Great master, thanks for what you did just a moment ago!”

As soon as they sobered up, people immediately came to thank Yang Chen. Yang Chen didn’t consider it as a great favor and similarly cupped his hands towards everyone and said:

“The one expressing his gratitude must be me, everyone had only spoken out for justice. Many thanks, everyone!”

Both sides were courteous to each other, but when pushing the credit around, those who had previously overstepped their limits to show off in front of Yang Chen were extremely delighted within their hearts. This had once again given them a chance to further their relationship with Yang Chen and leave a stronger impression on him.

There was nobody who envied Yang Chen for obtaining the flying sword and qiankun pouch. If everyone were made to experience Elder Wu’s pressure again to obtain a flying sword afterwards, Yang Chen reckoned that they would be ready to do anything to not have to suffer from that nightmarish experience again. Those among them who originally believed themselves to be figures who could shake the world, only now discovered that they were just a mole, who didn’t even have the ability to choose whether to live or to die, in front of those real experts.

The only person who was fine among them was Yang Chen. Not to mention his previous life, even in this life Yang Chen had beheaded many great experts, even the Jade Emperor, so how could he be afraid of the pressure from a Da Cheng stage cultivator. For him that was basically just a piece of cake.

Three years had already passed since Yang Chen had entered the Immortal Falling Well. Currently he was considering how to spend the rest of the time. He definitely could not waste even a single second of those ten years.

Yang Chen did not have any lack of Spirit Essences, he even had an amount which was sufficient to support a sect. The spirit power was also plentiful here, so this was a good place for cultivating, but from the time when Yang Chen had entered the sect, only six brief years had passed and he had already reached the peak of the qi layer in the fire attribute, this kind of speed was already heaven defying.

Even the speed of a cultivation talent like Shi Fairy could not compare to this. When he had stepped onto the peak of Heavenly Stairs, people had said that, since he had killed so many his will had become quite firm and illusionary spaces could not affect him, but as for cultivation, he would never be able to compare to Shi Fairy, who had a metal attributed full spirit root.

Previously Yang Chen had planned to reach the foundation stage within ten years, which would already surpass the speed of all kinds of cultivation talents, so naturally he could not allow to show off his aberrancy for now. If he did, it would give rise to endless jealousy and other such trivial matters when the other sects thought about it and decided that he, a cultivation talent, had to be trampled while he was still sprouting, so that he would not be able to influence the equilibrium between the sects in the future; then it could only be called a grave injustice to him.

As for killing underground beasts, he only needed to do that in order to fuse with the XianTai stage’s will, but that had already been done, so Yang Chen didn’t feel like troubling those underground spirit beasts. It seemed as if he could only forge himself into a pill concocting talent.

Fortunately his reputation had already spread somewhat, at least within the Li Lou Village, nobody could question this. Yang Chen refining second grade foundation stage pills was something that had occurred before everyone’s eyes, so there was definitely no possibility of him being a fraud. Afterwards, he had exchanged some ingredients with other people and refined some low level pills like the yang qi pill, the yuan cultivation pill and so on, all of them second grade. So by now, nobody had any doubts regarding Yang Chen being a pill concocting master.

Days kept on passing calmly until half a year had passed. Everyday, Yang Chen would do one heavenly circulation and afterwards use the Universal Treasure Raising Secrets on the Profound Spirit Furnace and the Sword Box.

Since his fire attributed cultivation had already increased by one step, the Heavenly Stars Treasure Refining Secrets and the Earth Fiend Sacrificial Formation Secrets could be used to conduct an even higher layer refining. But what made Yang Chen astonished was that, apparently, whichever attribute of Spirit Power he used to refine, it would only enhance the Spirit Power of that attribute. His fire attributed Spirit Power had already attained the fourth layer of the Heavenly Stars Treasure Refining Secrets and the sixth layer of the Earth Fiend Sacrificial Formation Secrets, accordingly, the third fire and the fourth fire attributed Heavenly Stars and Earth Fiend Spirit Power threads had already strengthened four times and six times respectively, but there was no change in the spirit power threads of other attributes.

Having Elder Wu overseeing the Immortal Falling Well, Yang Chen was afraid that this Da Cheng stage expert would discover the fact that he cultivated both Yin and Yang of all Five Phases, therefore he did not dare to reveal much and only concentrated on improving his fire attributed Spirit Power.

Within the short period of half a year, Yang Chen’s fire attributed spirit power had already reached the pinnacle, vaguely touching the boundary of the foundation stage. After that, Yang Chen used his formidable Spiritual Awareness and no longer increased the fire attributed Spirit Power, instead he began to increase the Spirit Power of the other phases.

Those people who had chased to kill Yang Chen, appeared in the Li Lou Village during this half year in succession, which caught Yang Chen’s attention. When both sides met each other, even though sparks radiated all around, because of what happened last time, with Peng Hui being killed by Elder Wu, nobody dared to fight within the Li Lou Village. All grudges had to wait until the time when they went into the Immortal Falling Well again.

Yang Chen had stopped appearing at the market, instead he stayed within his room. On the doorstep, he hung a board made of wood, on which a pill concocting furnace was drawn, acting as the sign for the shop. I any case, everyone was aware that Yang Chen was a talented pill concocting master, if they wanted to find him, they could directly go to his room.

On that day, Yang Chen had just sent off a Fellow Daoist, for whom he had refined a furnace of yang qi pills and sat down for a moment, when suddenly someone knocked on his door. After receiving permission from Yang Chen, a square faced, middle aged man opened the door and walked in.

Once he came in, Yang Chen had a feeling of Deja vu, but he didn’t have any impression of this person from before, which baffled Yang Chen.

“You are a pill concocting master, can you refine any high grade pills?”

The middle aged man was blunt and came straight to the point.

Yang Chen had answered this question many times, but he had never seen this person before, apparently he was new, so not knowing him was normal. Yang Chen replied with a nod, without showing any signs of impatience

“At most I can refine foundation stage pills, the cultivation of Myself is limited, so I do not dare to waste Senior’s ingredients.”

Yang Chen’s answer was within the middle aged man’s expectations, after all Yang Chen was only a peak qi layer cultivator at the moment; to be able to refine second grade foundation stage pills was already an astonishing performance, he also couldn’t make any extravagant demands.

“What if you only have to refine and purify a single type of ingredient?”

The middle aged man asked.

“That depends on the kind of ingredient!”

Although he hadn’t given a clear answer, the tone of his voice was full of a confidence which couldn’t be hidden.

“What about this one?”

The middle aged man opened his hand, which held a green-blue zoysia2 and placed it in front of Yang Chen. A faint expectation could be heard in his tone.

“Top grade blue-green zoysia?”

Yang Chen was stunned, after which a passionate look appeared within his eyes. This top grade blue-green zoysia only grew in the depths of some kind of underground jade ore and could only be found by chance. It was protected by formidable demonic beasts. If one did not have great strength and heaven defying luck, then it is impossible to obtain this kind of heavenly material. And this kind of zoysia just so happens to be the main ingredient of the extremely rarely seen dual heavenly pill.

The dual heavenly pill was only used in one circumstance, and that was during the time of the tribulation during the ascension from the Da Cheng stage to the spiritual world. This middle aged man had unexpectedly taken out this kind of item. Finally Yang Chen realized why he had felt that kind of familiarity from him. This middle aged man was actually Elder Wu! Back then Yang Chen’s Spiritual Awareness thread had a slight contact with Elder Wu’s Spiritual Awareness, that’s why he felt that he was vaguely familiar with him.

Yang Chen had shouted the name of the blue-green zoysia without hesitating, which had startled Elder Wu. An ordinary cultivator simply did not know about this kind of thing, but Yang Chen had identified it with just a glance. This could only mean two things, either Yang Chen had a very extensive knowledge of herbs, or he had seen this before. Elder Wu would prefer if it were the former. Seeing this kind of thing was not easy, even for a person at the level of Elder Wu.

“Can you refine and purify this blue-green zoysia?”

Elder Wu was closely watching Yang Chen’s expression, somewhat impatient for Yang Chen’s reply.

“Refining the zoysia without harming the medicinal property requires almost perfect control over fire, if there is even one tiny mistake then it will burn down at once, leaving nothing behind.”

Yang Chen didn’t reply directly, he rather first spoke about the trouble with refining the zoysia, then he continued to speak:

“For refining the blue-green zoysia, the most suitable flame is precisely the Geocentric Flame.”

While speaking, Yang Chen brought his hands in front of himself and a ball of flame appeared within them. The dark red color allowed Elder Wu to immediately identify the type of the flame.

Meanwhile, that ball of flame seemed as if it had come alive under Yang Chen’s control. It turned into a person whose appearance was exactly like Elder Wu sitting in front of him.

“Elder Wu, take a look at my skills, do you think I am worthy of your kind intentions?”

Yang Chen smiled and asked Elder Wu, whose gaze was fixed Yang Chen’s hands.

1. This means to become more audacious because you’re further away from authority ↩

2. Zoysia is a kind of grass