“Brother Wen, I think you should spend some more time on your recovery,” Chen Feng said after looking at Wen Shaoxiu’s state.

From what Chen Feng could see, although the surface wounds on Wen Shaoxiu’s body had healed up, the primary energy inside his body was still weak and even the wounds on his internal organs and meridians had yet to fully heal. If he were to get into a fight, he would only be able to bring out half of his usual strength.

“We don’t have much time. I fear that the others will beat us to it,” Wen Shaoxiu said solemnly.

“What do you mean?” Chen Feng's eyes flickered.

“Look at this.” Wen Shaoxiu brought out an item, which he tossed over to Chen Feng.

It was a palm-sized fragment of something. Silvery-white in colour, it was dull and bereft of lustre. There were several dented spots on its surface, a result of corrosion. Chen Feng had no way of identifying the materials used to make it. However, when he held it in his hand, his eyes immediately shone with light.

“It’s so heavy! It weighs over 5,000 kilogrammes. What materials were used to make it? Even Mystic Ironcore could not have achieved this, far from it!” Chen Feng was surprised.

Next, Chen Feng’s soul moved as he attempted to check the fragment in detail. However, he found that there was a layer of invisible power stopping his soul from entering the fragment.

He increased the power of his soul power and transformed it into the shape of a spiral to drill through the layer of invisible power.

Weng!

A milky-white light rose up from the fragment. And yet, despite the softness of the light, it contained an overwhelming and unopposable atmosphere.

Naturally, it did not contain tangibility. Rather, it was something that only Chen Feng’s soul could sense. Reflexively, Chen Feng’s eyes shone as he activated his eye technique.

Seemingly triggered by Chen Feng’s eye technique, the atmosphere of power emanating out from the fragment grew stronger. In the end, Chen Feng felt a stinging pain in his eyes and his mind quaked. He could not stop himself from closing his eyes and he returned the fragment to Wen Shaoxiu. 

“Ha ha! Back then, the same thing happened to me.” Wen Shaoxiu laughed.

Hearing that, Chen Feng complained inwardly.

If you already knew, why didn’t you say anything?!

However, he quickly understood that, despite Wen Shaoxiu’s warning, he would still have wanted to check it out.

“This is a fragment of an Immortal artefact,” Wen Shaoxiu said proudly.

“How could you know that? Just by sensing the power contained inside it?”

“No, I could sense a minor bit of immortal dao laws inside it,” Wen Shaoxiu said smilingly as he stroked the fragment in his hand.

“Brother Chen, you possess a formidable combat power. In fact, your combat power is even superior compared to us half-step Human Immortals. However, in terms of cultivation level, you are still below us. You need to remember, we, the half-step Human Immortals, are only half a step away from reaching the Human Immortal stage. Successfully reaching the Human Immortal stage means taking one step into the world of immortal daos. Due to that, I am capable of sensing the immortal dao laws inside it while you cannot. This is a very normal thing,” Wen Shaoxiu said with a smile.

“So, that is how it is.” Chen Feng nodded, not asking anything else.

As the fragment was something that Wen Shaoxiu had obtained, there was no need for Chen Feng to study it.

“Tower, do you know what materials were used to forge it? Surely, it can help you,” Chen Feng secretly asked Tower.

“It is indeed the fragment of an Immortal artefact. Starstone. However, it is too small. Additionally, the immortal dao laws contained inside it are already on the verge of disappearing. Still, it will be of use to this kid,” Tower said.

“Starstone? I have seen Starstones before. However, Starstones are not so heavy, right?” Chen Feng became puzzled.

“Humph, what do you know? The Starstones you saw in the past are simply the Starstones from some meteorites. You will need a meteorite that is at least 1,000 metres in diameter in order to refine out the piece of Starstone fragment in this kid’s hand,” Tower said disdainfully.

“So powerful?” Chen Feng was shocked.

“Speaking of which, I was quite lucky. I was teleported right into this grassland right from the start. This grassland is quite dangerous. There are a few yao beasts and monsters lurking around here and I nearly died to sneak attacks a few times before. Then, I inadvertently came across this fragment. However, as I was searching for other fragments, I was besieged. If you hadn’t come when you did, I would have died to those cultivators,” Wen Shaoxiu continued.

“You are saying that there are more fragments lying around where you found that fragment?” asked a shocked Chen Feng.

“That is just my speculation. If an Immortal artefact is shattered apart, there should be more than one fragment,” Wen Shaoxiu said.

“That makes sense. Let’s head out, then.” Chen Feng nodded his head. He was originally planning to capture the Soul Devouring Beast. However, the fragments of an Immortal artefact were clearly more attractive compared to that.

The two of them were very fast and they dashed through the grassland. However, in order to avoid attracting other cultivators, they chose not to fly.

At any rate, Wen Shaoxiu had been staying in the grassland for quite some time. He knew quite a bit about the place. According to Wen Shaoxiu, the grassland was very large, spanning a radius of thousands of li. However, the most dangerous creatures here were not the yao beasts and demonic beasts. Rather, it was the plants.

Their present situation was a testament to that. Not long after they began dashing through the grasslands, they found themselves surrounded by a high number of Man-eater Vines.

Sou! Sou! Sou!

They fired out sword beams and thick vines were constantly severed apart. However, even more vines assailed them.

Every one of the vines was as thick as an arm and a high number of thorns protruded from their surface. Additionally, poisonous energy streams could be seen seeping out from the vines.

One vine after another shot forward like spears and the hard ground on the rock were filled with holes, becoming like a sieve.

“Impressive! The attacks from these vines are comparable to the attacks from a level 7 Sky Human stage cultivator. Even a half-step Human Immortal could be drained of his or her energy before getting killed by them,” said Chen Feng, who drew a circle with his hand. Next, strands of grass essence were pulled over to form a sphere of bluish-green energy ball, which he held in his palm.

After that, the energy ball melded into Chen Feng’s palm.

What a pure power of wood! I can use them for cultivation purposes!

Chen Feng activated the Heavengulping Absorption Technique and became like a black hole that was devouring everything. Even the spiritual energy streams in the air were incapable of escaping his gluttony.

Shua! Shua! Shua!

The vines that were crushed by the sword beams he unleashed did not even get the chance to fall to the ground before transforming into ash, their energies utterly drained away.

In the end, the Heavengulping Absorption Technique that Chen Feng utilized reached its limit and there was no longer any need for him to even attack. He simply strode forward. All the vines attacking him would wither before they could approach him, like moisture in the air in the face of scorching heat. They kept withering until they were reduced to ash.

Weng!

An invisible ripple spread out from Chen Feng’s body before spreading into his surroundings. As the range grew, even more power of wood was absorbed.

Sou! Sou! Sou!

Countless Man-eater Vines in every direction withered up. In the end, even the weeds growing all around them withered up. Even the wet ground had become dry.

It was as though a blazing sun had descended to scorch the lands.

“Sii!”

By then, Wen Shaoxiu had stopped attacking. Instead, he looked at Chen Feng in shock.

What kind of technique did he cultivate? How can it be so overbearing? The way I see it, it is even more demonic than demonic arts

, Wen Shaoxiu thought.

Step by step, Chen Feng advanced. No matter how many Man-eater Vines there were, they could not even elicit a blink from Chen Feng. As for Wen Shaoxiu, he followed Chen Feng closely.

Sou! Sou! Sou!

In the beginning, the Man-eater Vines were only as thick as an arm. As Chen Feng and Wen Shaoxiu continued venturing forward, however, their numbers kept rising. Additionally, they also grew twice as thick.

The vines twisted around one another to quickly form a vine net, which then flew over to envelop Chen Feng.

At the same time, the thorns on the vines became like arrows, shooting towards Chen Feng. They also fired out streams of poisonous energy forward. Everything in the path of the poisonous energy streams would be scorched.

Shua!

Chen Feng and Wen Shaoxiu took action simultaneously and one thick astral blade after another swept forward to continuously slice about. Immediately, severed vines flew about.

“What a ferocious attack! Looks like we have reached the lair of the Man-eater Vines,” Chen Feng said with a chuckle.

Chen Feng was already using the Heavengulping Absorption Technique, however, the Man-eater Vines here were too strong and numerous. Due to that, Chen Feng had a hard time dealing with them.

Not to mention, Chen Feng’s body was already filled with a thick power of wood. Even his insight acupoints were already absorbing and refining the power.

“Kill! Boltlight Shockwave!” Wen Shaoxiu used both hands to grip his sword before slashing out with it and a lightning sphere emerged. Then, it charged forward before abruptly exploding into waves of lightning. Everywhere the lightning shockwaves went, the Man-eater Vines would be reduced to ash.

“Storm of Sword Beams!”

Chen Feng unleashed his killer move as well and surging sword beams swept forward to carve out a path.

“Found it. It’s here.”

A huge, humanoid monster appeared before the two of them. It was a true Man-eater Vine, with a height of over 100 zhang and a body covered completely with vines. With every wave of its hand, even more vines would swipe forward.

“This monster is as strong as a Yao King. It must have a yao core inside its body. Let’s work together to kill it!” Wen Shaoxiu shouted.

Monsters that had reached a certain level of cultivation would all be classified as yao beasts while the difference between yaos and demons was whether they would produce yao energy or demonic energy. Either that, or whether they needed yao energy or demonic energy to cultivate. Of course, some human cultivators would also absorb demonic energy to cultivate themselves. There would also be those who were addicted to killing. These cultivators would be labelled as demonic cultivators and become the target of orthodox cultivators.

For Chen Feng, however, it didn’t matter if one absorbed yao energy, demonic energy or practiced some other secret techniques. All of them were simply the many types of paths for cultivation. Chen Feng himself was capable of absorbing and refining various types of energies in the world, after all.

Although this huge Man-eater Vine had gained intellect, it was still incapable of speaking the human tongue. Even so, thanks to its great soul power, it could communicate with others.

“Humans, leave. I will not kill you.” A soul wave spread out as the Man-eater Vine began communicating with Chen Feng and Wen Shaoxiu.

Chen Feng and Wen Shaoxiu exchanged glances. They felt amused. They had already fought their way to reach the enemy’s doorstep. It would not be an exaggeration to say that they now held the upper hand and would soon be able to kill off the weakened Man-eater Vine. Unexpectedly, this Man-eater Vine would say something like this.

“You’re the one who attacked us first today, but you want us to leave just like this? As if!” Wen Shaoxiu was the first to reply.

“What is it that you two want? I can give you some spirit stones.” The surrounding vines began retracting back into the grasses, disappearing from sight. It looked as though the other party truly wanted to stop fighting.

1 li = 0.5 km

1 zhang = 3.333 m