Chapter 457: 429 Thousand Years of Sword Energy Stored

It wasn’t that Li Chenfeng had stopped flying.

But between him and Li Fan, there seemed to be an insurmountable gap that had suddenly appeared.

A tiny distance but an immense gap, no matter how angered Li Chenfeng was, no matter how furiously his two pairs of wings flapped at his back.

He was still unable to escape from this invisible cage.

Invisible Dust Array!

Although what Li Fan had laid was just a simplified version, it was more than adequate to trap Li Chenfeng who ceaselessly relied on his strong body that was bonded with an Exotic Beast and was at the Initial Stage of Energy Refining.

“The Binding Worm actually failed.” Li Fan, observing Li Chenfeng’s fierce expression, looked rather interested.

Taking a step forward, Li Fan’s figure swiftly appeared inside the array, arriving behind Li Chenfeng.

Before he could even react, the Great Five Elements Annihilation Sword in his hand sprung into action, cutting off a large chunk of chitinous material as hard as armor from one side of Li Chenfeng’s body.

Li Chenfeng cried out in pain and anger, wanting to launch a counter-attack, but Li Fan had already left the Invisible Dust Array, causing his attack to fall empty.

Ignoring the dissatisfied roar of Li Chenfeng, Li Fan held the chitinous piece he had cut off from his body before his eyes, observing it carefully.

It still felt warm to the touch, like a living organism, but its texture was incredibly hard.

Li Fan manipulated the spiritual power within his body, condensing a Water Blade and shot it at the chitin.

“Ding!”

With a crisp sounding echo, the Water Blade was actually deflected back.

The chitinous piece only had a faint scratch on it, which soon disappeared as the flesh at the edges of the chitin began to squirm.

“An attack equivalent to an ordinary mid-stage Golden Core cultivator’s strike couldn’t even break through the defense.” Li Fan was a bit surprised.

“It is very active and seems to have a separate consciousness. Given enough nutrients and time, it might even grow into another complete body.”

Having never seen anything like it before, Li Fan’s gaze turned entirely different when he looked at Li Chenfeng and others.

“A Small World capable of commanding a hundred thousand Splitting Realm Whales is indeed not that simple.”

“Now, let me see what stage of development your Empire has reached.”

Li Fan’s Divine Sense suddenly enveloped Li Chenfeng and the other two.

Mistwater Mirage Technique, activate!

The struggling Li Chenfeng instantly calmed down.

The layer of Exotic Beast chitin on his body slowly receded, reverting back to his harmless and handsome young man look.

His eyes were tightly shut and his facial expressions kept changing.

On the other hand, the Foundation Establishment Master and the man surnamed Xiao were already lost in a pleasant illusion, unable to break free.

Time slowly passed.

Three days later, Li Chenfeng finally let down his guard, revealing a satisfied smile.

Li Fan slowly opened his eyes.

“This is…”

A flicker of confusion crossed his mind.

The Small World where Li Chenfeng was located was a peculiar world filled only with an endless ocean.

In the ocean, there were no islands.

Only giant Sky-Support Turtles dwelling with humans on their backs, constantly swimming in the ocean.

In the sky, there was a huge corpse of a Three-Headed Divine Bird floating.

Almost occupying a third of the sky.

The Three-Headed Divine Bird had been dead for countless years, yet its corpse was still immortal.

Originally, it was occupied by various strange Exotic Beasts that fed on the Divine Bird’s corpse.

Many years ago, a unique genius emerged from a tribe on a Sky-Support Turtle.

He possessed the ability to control Exotic Beasts and selflessly taught it to other human tribes.

Under his leadership, humans successfully defeated the Exotic Beasts that dwelled on the corpse of the Three-headed Divine Bird.

Ever since, on the Divine Bird’s corpse, humans established a unified empire.

After thousands of years of development, the Empire’s development and utilization of Exotic Beasts had almost reached its peak.

The Exotic Beasts had penetrated every aspect of the Imperial People’s lives.

People could conveniently ride on the newly cross-bred Exotic Beast Broad-Backed Peng to travel anywhere in the world.

They could also domesticate Exotic Beasts to hunt in the ocean, the sky, and even beyond the Small World, into the Void.

The Empire had even developed a technology that combined the power of exotic beasts with human beings.

Hence, the [Armor of the Beast Deity] donned by Li Chenfeng.

However, despite obtaining so many accomplishments, a shadow constantly hovered over the Empire.

It gave the Imperial people sleepless nights.

Because the [Three-headed Divine Bird], which they regarded as a deity, did not die naturally.

Moreover, it did not just have three heads when it was alive.

The so-called Three-headed Divine Bird should actually be the [Nine-headed Bird].

This horrific existence, unimaginable to the Imperial people, had six of its heads forcibly slashed off by someone.

Then, its corpse was dumped here.

The Imperial people were not entirely ignorant of the culprit.

They knew it was an entity known as an Immortal.

Stories of the Immortals banishing their ancestors to this place are still circulating within the clan to this day.

The Imperial people harbored both fear and admiration towards the Immortals.

Because, although the Empire was already highly advanced, it was still unable to solve the issue of human lifespan.

In the Empire, living a hundred years was already considered a very long lifespan.

Hence, the Empire greatly coveted the Immortal Laws rumored to possess both great power and the ability to prolong one’s life.

After numerous life-costing attempts, the pioneers of the Empire finally broke through the blockade of the Immortal Forbiddance Formation and arrived in the Xuanhuang World.

Unfortunately, the information they gathered was a disappointment.

To cultivate Immortal Laws, one must possess Spiritual Energy.

The world in which the Empire resided did not have the existence of Spiritual Energy.

Moreover, there was a restriction that different laws could not be cultivated simultaneously.

For the Imperial people, who found it extremely difficult to even gather a single Cultivation Technique of Immortality, Immortal Cultivation and Longevity seemed like an unreachable dream.

However, the tenacious Imperial people did not give up.

Instead, they continuously dispatched people to infiltrate the Xuanhuang World to gather more information.

Meanwhile, they assembled an Intelligent Group to research possible methods for achieving Immortal Cultivation.

As such, after the efforts of generation after generation, an unbelievable plan was proposed.

The first issue was regarding Spiritual Energy.

The solution to the problem was purely coincidental.

The Holy Land of the Empire, where the heads of the Divine Bird were located.

At the breaking point of the six heads, there was still a remnant of the mark of the sword that had slain the Divine Bird.

This sword was unbelievably powerful.

Thousands of years had passed but the sword energy remained uninterrupted, suppressing the resentful soul of the Nine-headed Bird.

All exotic beasts would sense it and instinctively avoid the sword energy.

During one incident, an Imperial citizen violated the law and brought a domesticated exotic beast to visit the sword mark.

Unexpectedly, this triggered the sword energy.

The citizen was unscathed, but the exotic beast was instantly killed by the sword energy.

As the Imperial Guard Team arrested this citizen, they unexpectedly discovered a shining Crystal Core left behind by the exotic beast which should have been obliterated by the sword energy.

If they hadn’t come into contact with the Xuanhuang World, the Imperial people might still not have been able to identify what this Crystal Core was.

But those who had delved into the Taoist Techniques were shocked to find that the energy in this Crystal Core could replace the Spiritual Energy necessary for their cultivation.

Subsequent research by the Empire revealed that only a very small number of species of exotic beasts had Crystal Cores within them.

Luckily, one of the species known as the [Flying Orb Creature] was rapidly reproducing and easy to domesticate.

After the first large-scale farming, the Empire harvested hundreds of thousands of Crystal Cores.

They even discovered a mutated, enhanced version among them.

An Initial Stage Energy Refiner, by utilising these Crystal Cores, successfully advanced to the stage of a Perfect Energy Cultivator.

Unfortunately, due to the restrictions of Immortal Law Cultivation, he couldn’t progress further.

However, despite this, it allowed the Empire to see the dawn of Immortal Cultivation and Longevity.

Next, they needed to solve the problems related to the various media required for Cultivation using the Heavenly Monarch’s Law and the co-cultivation restriction of Immortal Laws.