Chapter 232: Dragon-Elephant True Immortal
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Chen Fei couldn’t help but pause in his steps. Just a moment ago, he had heard the sounds of an attack from a distance, but upon arrival, he didn’t find Xu Wangliang and the others engaging with the demonic beasts.
Now it seemed they were all besieging this barrier, attempting to break it and obtain the black box inside.
“The outer white mist and the earlier sensed fluctuations, are they caused by this formation or something else?”
Chen Fei observed the barrier carefully, not rushing to attack immediately. Instead, he circled around it, discovering that the barrier sealed off the entire area without any gaps.
Not only on the ground but Chen Fei also noticed several pits around the barrier. Obviously, Xu Wangliang and the others had even attempted underground but still couldn’t break through this formation.
Chen Fei pondered for a moment, and black energy enveloped the blade of the Qianyuan Sword. In the next moment, with a flash of black light, the Qianyuan Sword struck the barrier.
“Bang!”
A muffled sound, but the barrier remained unaffected. A reactive force surged back, causing Chen Fei’s body to tremble slightly. The Dragon Suppressing Elephant automatically activated, dispersing this force.
“It’s so sturdy!”
Chen Fei furrowed his brows. This attack didn’t even qualify as a disturbance to the formation. After some thought, he took half a step back, and the black energy on the Qianyuan Sword concentrated entirely on its tip.
This could be considered the most extreme application of the Zhongyuan Sword technique. Back when he was in the Immortal Cloud Sword Sect, Chen Fei couldn’t fully control this move and could only use it as a burst technique.
With nearly ten months of practice, although Chen Fei’s realm hadn’t changed much, the Dragon Suppressing Elephant was now perfected, and his mental power had become more refined. His control over power had become extremely precise.
Now, Chen Fei could easily control this technique, both its release and retraction.
In the next moment, Chen Fei’s figure flickered, and the Qianyuan Sword thrust out, pinpointing its target, fully displaying the power of the Zhongyuan Sword technique.
“Bang!”
The barrier shimmered, and although it didn’t waver as it did earlier, Chen Fei could now sense the movement of the formation.
However, this only meant that Chen Fei’s technique had slightly provoked a reaction from the formation. Breaking through this barrier and obtaining the black box inside was still a long way off.
Chen Fei sheathed the Qianyuan Sword and stood upright. The ground beneath his feet had cracked. Even with the Dragon Suppressing Elephant, he had to channel the force into the ground to protect his body from damage.
Chen Fei stared at the barrier in front of him, his brows furrowed. He tried to sense the changes in the formation with his mental power but stopped after a while.
Formation techniques like this required specialized knowledge and were generally only comprehensible to those at the Aperture Tempering realm or higher. Below that stage, one could, at most, set up simple formations using pre-made formation discs.
That kind only required a basic understanding of formations.
However, trying to break through a formation like this using cleverness alone was incredibly difficult for those below the Aperture Tempering realm. It was like searching for a needle in a haystack; it was nearly impossible.
Even among those at the Aperture Tempering realm, most martial artists remained unfamiliar with formations. Even if they had some knowledge, breaking this formation would likely be beyond their abilities. Most of them would resort to brute force to open it.
Chen Fei, in his current state, couldn’t break it with brute force either. His understanding of formations was almost nonexistent.
Chen Fei gazed at the black box beneath the barrier, taking a deep breath. It was so close; not being able to obtain it felt extremely frustrating.
“The original beast hide could be seen with a little more careful observation. This barrier is purely for protection and doesn’t seem to have any offensive effects. Obviously, this person wants to pass down the Dragon Suppressing Elephant’s legacy. Does that mean they only intend to pass it down to those at the Aperture Tempering realm? Those below it aren’t worthy?”
Chen Fei’s mind was filled with various thoughts, and the idea that those below the Aperture Tempering realm weren’t worthy did hold some merit. After all, mastering the Dragon Suppressing Elephant was exceedingly difficult from the start. To cultivate it successfully, one needed a substantial reserve of spiritual energy; otherwise, the body would not be able to withstand it.
Under these circumstances, reaching the Aperture Tempering realm was almost a prerequisite for achieving success with the Dragon Suppressing Elephant.
For Chen Fei, reaching the Aperture Tempering realm was likely not an insurmountable obstacle at this point. It would just take a bit of time to open up his meridians.
If this were before Xu Wangliang and the others arrived here, before the mist emerged, Chen Fei might have been able to wait. After all, so many years had passed, and this place had remained undisturbed.
But now, with the mist thickening and occasional fluctuations, it was easy to attract the attention of other martial artists, even those in the Aperture Tempering realm or stronger.
Perhaps by the time Chen Fei reached the Aperture Tempering realm and returned here, this place would be empty.
As for breaking through to the Aperture Tempering realm here, Chen Fei didn’t dare to. Even a slight disturbance could damage his meridians. Moreover, it was unknown whether breaking through to the Aperture Tempering realm would enable him to breach this barrier.
Chen Fei stared at the black box and then at the body sitting cross-legged. With clothes so torn and yet the body not decaying, it was a sign of an extremely high level of physical cultivation.
While Chen Fei had perfected a part of the Dragon Suppressing Elephant, his body wasn’t immune to decay. Further practice of the subsequent techniques was needed to strengthen his physical form.
“The Dragon Suppressing Elephant… Inheritance…”
Chen Fei looked at the figure, and suddenly, a thought crossed his mind. He remembered the entrance, the Dragon Suppressing Elephant hide inserted into the spherical object. The sphere, the formation barrier, and the Dragon Suppressing Elephant – could they be connected somehow?
In the palm of his hand, the energy of the Dragon Suppressing Elephant began to circulate slightly. Chen Fei carefully placed his palm on the barrier.
“Hum!”
Earlier, even when Chen Fei had attacked with all his might, the barrier had only exhibited slight fluctuations. But now, it started to tremble, and the flow of light within it became frantic.
“This could work!”
Chen Fei’s eyes brightened. He began to channel the Dragon Suppressing Elephant’s energy with all his might. The frequency of the light within the barrier became increasingly rapid, but it still showed no signs of shattering.
Chen Fei raised an eyebrow, not rushing. He carefully observed the pattern of the flashing lights on the barrier and gradually, a slight smile appeared on his face.
The flowing light in this formation was actually revealing a trace of the mysteries of the Dragon Suppressing Elephant’s cultivation. Chen Fei no longer forcefully exerted the Dragon Suppressing Elephant to its limit. Instead, he established a connection with the flowing lights.
It was like solving a puzzle; the barrier posed a question, and Chen Fei was providing the corresponding answer through fluctuations in his energy.
This formation was a test of Chen Fei’s level of mastery over the Dragon Suppressing Elephant’s cultivation. As he progressed, the frequency of the flowing lights increased, demanding corresponding adjustments in Chen Fei’s energy.
If Chen Fei’s mastery of the Dragon Suppressing Elephant’s cultivation was insufficient, he would be unable to cope with such a test.
Fortunately, Chen Fei had already mastered the foundational aspect of the Dragon Suppressing Elephant to perfection, and he was intimately familiar with all the details. It was impossible for him to be stumped by this challenge.
Ling Hanjun had been hiding in the corner, quietly observing Chen Fei’s actions. He had initially thought that Chen Fei, like Xu Wangliang and the others, would be unable to do anything about this formation, as even his powerful attacks had failed to break it.
However, now he couldn’t believe what he was witnessing. Chen Fei seemed to have used some method to elicit such a strong reaction from the formation.
Judging by Chen Fei’s changing expressions, it seemed that he was on the verge of breaking the formation for real.
Plop!”
Ling Hanjun was engrossed in watching when, suddenly, a sound like a bursting bubble echoed through the air. The barrier had shattered into starry fragments and disappeared in front of Chen Fei.
Chen Fei slowly withdrew his right hand and looked at the black box on the ground and the silhouette of the person. He slightly bent his body and used his sword to lift the black box from the ground.
There were no poisons or anything unusual. The black box was made of an unknown material, extremely sturdy. Chen Fei put on gloves and carefully opened the black box.
“This…”
Seeing what was inside the black box, Chen Fei couldn’t help but furrow his brows. It was still a piece of hide, identical in material to the one he had obtained earlier.
However, the hide inside the box had been evenly divided into hundreds of pieces, not a single intact sheet. Chen Fei took out one of the fragmented hides, and it had only a few words written on it.
Each fragmented hide contained only a few characters, and the handwriting was identical to the earlier part of the Dragon Suppressing Elephant’s cultivation technique. It was indeed the subsequent techniques of the Dragon Suppressing Elephant.
But with it fragmented like this, how could it be pieced together?
A jigsaw puzzle? The size of each fragmented piece was identical, and the natural patterns on the hide had disappeared, making it impossible to reassemble.
At the bottom of the box, there was also an intact piece of silk fabric. Chen Fei took it out and found that it had a different text from the Dragon Suppressing Elephant’s script. It was clearly written by someone else.
“I am the Dragon-Elephant True Immortal of the Qianyang clan…”
Chen Fei carefully read the content on the silk fabric and realized it was an introduction to the life of the corpse in front of him. The fabric also provided some background about the person who had set up everything here to find a successor for the Dragon Suppressing Elephant.
Only by mastering the Dragon Suppressing Elephant’s foundational technique to perfection could the formation barrier be broken. Using brute force would destroy everything inside the barrier, including his body.
“Combined Aperture Tempering realm, impressive!”
Chen Fei put away the silk fabric. The person in front of him had reached the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, a level achieved after the Aperture Tempering realm, where all the opened acupoints were fused into one.
At that stage, every movement and action contained the power of all acupoints in the body, allowing one to move mountains and rivers with ease.
As for the fragmented hides in the box, it wasn’t a test set by the
Dragon-Elephant True Immortal but rather the state he had found them in when he obtained them. The Dragon-Elephant True Immortal had spent over a decade trying to piece together the correct Dragon Suppressing Elephant cultivation technique but had ultimately failed. Or, in other words, he had not fully succeeded.
The Dragon Suppressing Elephant’s technique was incredibly mysterious. Even if it was pieced together incorrectly, one could still cultivate it. However, after reaching a certain point in cultivation, it would stagnate. At this point, returning to re-cultivate it was no longer possible.
This was why the Dragon-Elephant True Immortal had set up this formation. Only by mastering the foundational aspect of the Dragon Suppressing Elephant to perfection could one access the subsequent parts. Success would depend on the individual’s intelligence and whether they could piece together the complete Dragon Suppressing Elephant.
As for what would happen if no one succeeded in mastering the foundational part of the Dragon Suppressing Elephant or if someone succeeded but couldn’t find this cave, that was unrelated to the Dragon-Elephant True Immortal himself. It was simply the destiny of this particular martial art..