After getting heavily battered, the Immortal Clearsky Palace was sucked into the Longevity Tower. As for the Immortal Astralmax Sword, several of the astral swords it fired out were already suppressed inside the Longevity Tower. Furthermore, the Ancient Flame Beetle had killed off a good number of the Earthen Immortals from Nine Firmaments Palace. Everything changed so quickly that the only thing left of the ambush from Nine Firmaments Palace was an immortal sword. No, it was an emasculated immortal sword.

Naturally, now that it had come to this, there was no way Chen Feng would let the immortal sword leave. The Immortal Skylodge Palace, Ancient Flame Beetle and Longevity Tower acted simultaneously to easily collect the Immortal Astralmax Sword.

Before the immortal sword was collected, however, the attacks levelled at it smashed it into fragments. While it was somewhat regrettable, Chen Feng did not think too much about it. At any rate, Immortal artefact fragments were still highly useful for him.

With this, Nine Firmaments Palace had suffered from a serious loss. They lost tens of highly formidable Earthen Immortals and two Immortal artefacts. Even for a pinnacle power like the Absolute Academy, this was truly a massive loss, let alone Nine Firmaments Palace.

If they had only lost the Earthen Immortals, that would still have been acceptable. However, Immortal artefacts were simply too valuable.

Magic treasures of that level were sect guardian treasures, the apex of power, magic treasures that would tempt even Ascendant Immortals. And yet, Chen Feng had absconded with two of them. If the Sect Master of Nine Firmaments Palace were to find out about this, he would surely end up puking blood.

Despite the intense feelings of excitement roaring within him, Chen Feng did not allow this victory to cloud his mind. He knew that it was time he left.

In the earlier battle, Chen Feng had practically achieved a flawless victory. However, he had also taken damage in the process. Moreover, it was quite serious. He had forcibly over exhausted himself to utilize the Immortal artefacts. Thus, he sensed a palpable wave of weakness washing over his entire body. He knew that this was due to severe depletion of his vitality.

Even so, Chen Feng gnashed his teeth and continued to utilize the Longevity Tower’s power to investigate his surroundings.

Chen Feng’s divine sense became like a tangible blade of light to instantly scan his surroundings, up to a radius of half a million kilometres. Next, however, Chen Feng roared and his divine sense extended yet again to cover a radius of one million kilometres.

Woah!

Blood flowed out from Chen Feng’s nose while his temples palpitated. It looked like a beating drum.

Chen Feng’s actions proved worthwhile. Through it, he managed to sense that some cultivators were heading towards him. These were formidable cultivators.

Given my current state, I can no longer continue fighting

. Chen Feng then deployed the Longevity Tower, using it to break open space and jump away.

Boom!

As Chen Feng was in the middle of jumping through space, a cultivator arrived.

This person was a high-level Earthen Immortal. Additionally, he held in his hand a pseudo Immortal artefact.

A pseudo Immortal artefact. It was not a real Immortal artefact and can only be considered as a half-step Immortal artefact. Even so, grade wise, it was superior to a top-grade Dao artefact.

Upon his arrival, the Earthen Immortal looked around briefly and his face instantly contorted. Wisps of fire – born of rage – sprayed out from his eyes. 

The commotion caused by the collisions between the Immortal Skylodge Palace and Immortal Clearsky Palace was simply too great. The shockwaves from the collisions reached a radius of millions of li and countless lives had been killed without even knowing why. The number of cultivators from Nine Firmaments Palace who died from the shockwaves had reached a monstrous number.

That said, the deaths of those men were of no concern for this newcomer. The loss of the Earthen Immortals, though, stunned him somewhat.

Most importantly, however, was the disappearance of the Immortal Clearsky Palace and Immortal Astralmax Sword.

That was the most shocking part here.

“Where are you going?!”

This newcomer was only stunned for a brief moment. Instantly, he recollected himself and waved his hand, sending the pseudo Immortal artefact in his hand forward to attack Chen Feng, who was in the midst of jumping through space.

Boom!

Due to the attack from the pseudo Immortal artefact, space broke and the spatial passageway that the Longevity Tower created began collapsing.

This is troublesome.

Chen Feng knew that he must not get into a fight with this newcomer. If it was only this newcomer, there was nothing for Chen Feng to fear. However, if a few more cultivators from Nine Firmaments Palace come, Chen Feng would no longer be able to leave. And Chen Feng could already sense the auras of more cultivators heading towards his location.

Previously, Patriarch Yan Mo and the others were able to bring out Immortal artefacts to fight Chen Feng. Thus, these newcomers who were even stronger than Patriarch Yan Mo’s group might also possess Immortal artefacts.

“Scram.” Chen Feng did not take action. Instead, it was the Ancient Flame Beetle who attacked. Although the Ancient Flame Beetle’s cultivation base was not as high as this Earthen Immortal, it was an extra-terrestrial beast. Furthermore, it was also wielding an Immortal artefact. Thus, it was able to knock this Earthen Immortal aside with just one attack.

It had to be noted, however, that the Ancient Flame Beetle only managed to knock the Earthen Immortal away and not kill him. The Ancient Flame Beetle had utilized the Immortal artefact to unleash a series of attacks earlier, after all. Those actions had exhausted it considerably.

Thus, after beating back the Earthen Immortal, the Ancient Flame Beetle instantly transformed into a ball of fire, which flew back into the Longevity Tower. There, it fell asleep once more.

The Netherbone Lance returned to Chen Feng’s hand.

Boom!

The Netherbone Lance stabbed out to break space and the semi-transparent silhouette of the Longevity Tower encased Chen Feng before bringing him into the spatial passageway created by the move. His figure flashed about several times, jumping through tens of millions of li through void space. He was constantly changing his trajectory as a defensive measure against his pursuers.

As Chen Feng was jumping through void space, several formidable attacks shot towards him only to miss. Some contained the power of an Immortal artefact.

Impressive! What is up with Nine Firmaments Palace? How did they become so strong? This is not right. Did something big really happened to Nine Firmaments Palace?

However, if that is the case, I will have to reconsider my plans. If Purple Firmaments Palace and Transcendent Firmaments Palace also possess such power, the men I have brought with me are far from sufficient. They might really be capable of unifying the entire Northern Plains. The only exception would be if the rest of the sects in the Northern Plains unite against them. Only, there is no way that could happen. 

Then, they will first destroy Extreme Celestial Sect before taking down the other sects, one by one. Only, just how did Nine Firmaments Palace’s strength rise so quickly?

This is bad. If Sword Immortal Great Wind and the others encounter experts like these, they will surely be in danger.

After considering all that, Chen Feng stopped hesitating. He swiftly entered the Longevity Tower, where he modified the flow of time to give himself more time to heal his wounds and recover his strength.

The Longevity Tower had long since unlocked the ability to change the flow of time. At that very moment, it was already at the Immortal tier. Thus, doing so was a piece of cake for it.

By the time Chen Feng emerged from the void, he was already completely healed up. Rather, he had made some improvements as well.

Only, some more time was needed before he could achieve a breakthrough.

As Chen Feng was healing his wounds, he had also refined all the astral swords suppressed within the Longevity Tower.

After refining the astral swords, Chen Feng then fused them into the Steel Enigma Sword, allowing it to rise from a mid-grade Dao artefact to a top-grade Dao artefact. This increase had gone beyond Chen Feng’s expectations.

Naturally, with Chen Feng’s strength alone, it would have been very difficult to refine the astral swords. However, with the help of his Immortal artefacts, suppressing and refining the astral swords was quite the easy task.

As for the fragments of the Immortal Astralmax Sword, they were all melted and fused with the Longevity Tower.

Heh! I already have a few top-grade Dao artefacts on me. However, levelling them up to the Immortal tier will be somewhat difficult.

 Chen Feng’s cultivation level was too low, after all. Levelling up a magic treasure to the Immortal tier required more than just energy. It also required the power of laws and essence laws.

However, Chen Feng was not worried about it. Given enough time, Chen Feng would be able to open up a portal to the Immortal Plane, utilize a Heavenstealing technique to steal immortal dao laws from the Immortal Plane and insert them into the magic treasures. That way, his magic treasures would be able to level up to the Immortal tier. Only, Chen Feng did not have enough time. Not to mention, he also needed to improve his own cultivation base first.

Chen Feng’s plan was to first settle Extreme Celestial Sect’s issue before cultivating himself with peace of mind for some time. Then, he would temper his body and improve the level of his magic treasures.

Chen Feng could sense it. Several of the magic treasures in his body had reached a bottleneck. In order for them to continue levelling up, they will require energy.

I’ll go find Sword Immortal Great Heaven and the others first.

A distance of several million li was nothing to Chen Feng. Thus, he quickly found the forces he brought over to the Northern Plains.

The four groups had already grouped up as one to take down everything in their path as they marched towards First Origin City.

The 20,000 cultivators that Chen Feng brought with him were the elites amongst elites with formidable combat powers. Many amongst them were capable of fighting ten cultivators on the same level as them. Thus, their march had resulted in the fall of countless cities and the deaths of far more enemy cultivators.

To them, the quality of the cultivators from the Northern Plains was somewhat low.

However, no matter how strong they may be, there was no way for them to remain unscathed. After a few days of fighting, they had suffered from a small number of casualties. Before setting forth, Chen Feng already knew that this was inevitable. Even so, his plan was to keep the number of casualties as low as possible. At any rate, many of them were not his subordinates.

The casualties on their side were mostly the water yaos. It was to be expected. The water yaos that Chen Feng brought with him were mostly not even at the Human Immortal stage. Not to mention, they were presently on land. Thus, the water yaos were incapable displaying their full strength.

By the time Chen Feng found them, they were already very close to reaching First Origin City. Along the way, Chen Feng also entered some other cities to obtain some more information.

After finding what he wanted to know, his face grew dark. Earlier, he had found out that his master, Sage Enigma Flame, was in First Origin City. At that very moment, however, all news showed that the situation in First Origin City was terribly grim.

When the war first began, it did not take long before the Extreme Celestial Mountains was completely surrounded. First Origin City was the only other place that could keep on resisting the invasion. If it weren’t for Sage Enigma Flame, who led a force to assist First Origin City, and the emergence of some of the experts in First Origin City, it would have fallen long ago. 

Should the city fall, the Extreme Celestial Mountains would truly be cut off, surrounded firmly by Nine Firmaments Palace’s forces. In order to break out, they would have to fight their way through layer after layer of barriers. In the face of such a situation, the only two option for Extreme Celestial Sect would be to either surrender or be destroyed.

Looks like saving Extreme Celestial Sect will be impossible. It is simply no match for Nine Firmaments Palace. The difference in strength between the two is simply too big. What Extreme Celestial Sect needs to do right now is to charge out from the encirclement and find a secluded place to hide. After that, what they need to do is not to wait for an opportune moment to counter attack, but to figure a way to pass on its legacy.

Along the way, Chen Feng had been constantly utilizing the power of his Immortal artefacts to investigate Nine Firmaments Palace’s territory. To his shock, he discovered several hidden forces on Nine Firmaments Palace’s side. These forces were simply too formidable. However, Chen Feng did not understand why Nine Firmaments Palace did not deploy those forces into the battlefield.

Chen Feng was certain that, even if only a small portion of the forces he found were deployed to the battlefield, Nine Firmaments Palace would be able to win the war. 

And those are just the ones I managed to discover.

 Chen Feng grew shocked and wary.

1 li = 0.5 km