In the blue sky, a figure could be seen flying at a fast speed.
Yang Feng looked around himself while he was flying back to the sect. Many places showed signs of fights. Many building were destroyed and forests damaged, with smoke rising from many places that had been burned.
With a sigh, Yang Feng laminated how cruel the world can be, even to the innocents. Although he had killed and massacred himself, he hadn't killed any innocent as of yet, not like there were many innocent cultivators in any reality.
The process of cultivation is filled with death and even betrayal. He had read, heard and even seen how cultivators would kill and betray their own family and friends just to gain more strength.
But right now he saw many cities filled with ordinary people killed, ordinary people who have nothing of value for any cultivators.
After passing a few cities with such cases, Yang Feng grew numb and as the cities were already destroyed he didn't find any 'evil' cultivator to vent on.
As he was halfway through to his destination ... he felt something. He felt a shift in the space some distance away from him. Intrigued, Yang Feng followed the disturbance and in a minute he reached a place near the foot of a mountain.
As he arrived, he spread out his divine sense along with actively using his spiral sensing technique to feel from where the disturbance was exactly coming from.
Now, although he had developed a passive Spiral Sense. he was only able to tell the approximate direction of any spiral disturbance. So if he wants to be accurate about the position of the disturbance, he has to actively use his Sensing Technique, for now at least.
As he spread the two methods of sensing his surroundings, he felt it was coming from a a boulder attached to the mountain.
So Yang Feng stood Infront of the boulder and urged his space laws to get a reaction from it. As he did so, the boulder shook and glowed. He felt 10% of his Qi sucked by the boulder and felt his space laws resonate with another place.
The next moment the glow subdued and in front of him appeared a wormhole, like the one that appeared from the array under the Dragon Revine.
Excitement and Surprise were what Yang Feng felt as he gazed at the wormhole. He knew he had just discovered a secret realm. After the initial excitement died down, Yang Feng took a deep breath and looked at the wormhole seriously.
It was because there were only two ways a secret realm could form. One, it naturally forms by gathering the world energy for countless years. Two, a powerful cultivator makes one for various purposes, mostly being for inheritance or healing.
'I don't know if it is a naturally made one or if someone made this for whatever purpose. It could be a inheritance or could also be a trap. I have to remain cautious.', thinking of this, Yang Feng slowly stepped into the portal.
On the other side of the portal, Yang Feng exited vigilantly and observed his surroundings. He then saw the portal close suddenly but he could still feel the spiral shift and deduced with relief that he could make a portal again.
He saw that around him was no longer a forest, but a rocky, mountainous terrain. In front of him was a mountain that was emitting a great amount of heat, showing signs of volcanic activity.
He also felt a sudden increase in the Qi around him. The Qi in this secret realm was atleast thrice abundant than the outside world. The place also had a great amount of five attributed Qi that Yang Feng attributed to the volcanic mountain.
Eager but still vigilant, Yang Feng flew at a lower height. After raising to the sky, he saw patches of red colored trees in the distance. Looking back at the mountain, Yang Feng chose to first explore those patches of trees.
He didn't know why, but he felt some degree of threat from approaching that mountain, even if he didn't sense any life activity from the mountain.
Flying towards the trees while observing anything of note, which he didn't find, Yang Feng arrived near his destination. Looking at the strange red color trees with scarlet leafs, Yang Feng looked through all his knowledge but still couldn't find any information about the trees.
While surveying the trees, he saw a fruit that looked basically like a strawberry, but had a few golden patterns on it. These fruits were also excluding a bit of heat that would have burned a normal tree branch, unlike the unusual tree.
Curious about what the fruit was, Yang Feng picked one of it from the tree and felt it. The fruit was warm to the touch and the golden patterns on it gave it a majestic sort of vibe.
He raised it to his mouth and ate it. Instantly he was assaulted by it's sweet taste, along with a such a warmth as if he had just swallowed a flame and a great amount of Qi. He felt the 'flame' travel from his mouth to his throat, his chest, arms, stomach and then throughout his body.
Quickly mobilizing his strength, he started to refine that flame like feeling. As he refined the flame, he felt the great amount of Qi being absorbed by his body and dantian.
The Qi was strong and pure, pure beyond what he had felt till now. After he finished refining it, he saw a thin layer of black and a oily substance on his skin. He instantly knew that these were some impurities that had been left in his body.
Not only that he also felt as if his Qi had been purified and his body strength had also increased by just a tiny bit, which he attributed to the impurities. He also felt his realm fully stabilize.
'Just what is this fruit! A single one was enough for me to have this much of a change, which is not normal as my foundation, Qi and Body are really powerful.', he glanced at the dozens of trees with atleast a few of these fruits on them each.
'This is a great herb for purification. I can tell that if my body wasn't already this strong, I would have benefited greatly.', he finished his thoughts as he picked all the strawberries he felt were ripe and left the others.
After he was done with that. He started to explore a bit more, but didn't find much in a few thousand miles from the portal, not even a single beast.
Suddenly, he felt a sense of threat from above. Instinct took over as he felt the threat was too fast for him to dodge or stop it. On instinct, his arms rose in a 'X' and he shifted his body slightly.
The next second, he felt something tearing into his body, just an inch away from his heart. Getting his bearing back, he swiftly used his Void Steps and travelled a few tens of meters away from his position.
After teleporting, he swallowed a few pills he took out of his inventory and spared a glance to his injuries. His right arm had been punctured through and had a hole through it, he also had a deep wound on his upper abdomen, just below his chest. Blood was leaking from both his injuries.
Hearing a sharp shreak from his previous position, Yang Feng looked towards the source. He was shock by what he saw.
In front of him was a orange-scarlet colored eagle that was more than a hundred and fifty meters tall. It's wings spaning for more than three hundred meters wide. It's golden beak looked like it could tear though a mountain without a problem, along with the pair of golden eyes that glowed like sun and the same golden colored claws, it was a beast that would struck fear into anyone.
Looking at the beast that looked like a nerfed and uglier version of a phoenix, excluding an aura of a second-order Transendant. Yang Feng grew solemn.
'The Hell ... is this beast. It seems to be an eagle, but it's attribute and looks are similar to that of a phoenix. *Haah* no matter the case, one thing is certain ... This is no ordinary monster. Heck the danger I feel from it even more than what I felt from Meng Wu Ya...'
though he was certain that the old man didn't really use all of his limited power just to pressure him nor had he seen him display all of his pressure. From what little he had seen, the bird looked to be more of a challenge.
His thoughts was cut short as the beast charged at him with great speed. Being swift but also unwilling to dodge as he wanted to see how powerful his enemy was, he punched out with all his body strength.
All aspects of his mortal body vibrated as his punch connected to the razor claws of the eagle ... Sending him flying back and almost crushing onto the land.
"*Ugh* that certainly could have gone better." He uttered, feeling some pain in his fist. He looked at the eagle that looked down on him from the sky, unharmed.
He immediately steadied himself and took out his spear 'windstorm'. Looking at the spear, he felt it ... out of place? '*sigh* looks like I will have to refine a spear for myself now as this one will likely not hold beyond this fight.'
He could tell that if he exerted all his strength ... the spear will be broken beyond repair, as it was only a heaven grade artifact and considering that his strength was higher then most in the same realm, it was a miracle he was even able to use it.
Shaking his head, he shifted his focus to the eagle that seeing him taking out the spear spread it's wings as if asking him to try and attack it.
Just as Yang Feng moved, so did the eagle. As Yang Feng charged at it, he saw that from it's wings, many things fell towards him with incredible speed. Reacting on instinct, he deflected the first of those 'things' that reached him.
*Clang* *swesh*
He felt like he had hit a fast moving metal projectile and before he had anytime to think, he saw the rain of those same things coming towards him. The next instant, he deflected the second projectile, then the third, the fourth, fifth and so on...
By the time that 'rain' ended, Yang Feng stood in air with many feathers stuck into his body like blades, and around the wounds from those feathers, small section of flames could be seen. But although in pain and his body riddled with these feathers that burned his skin, Yang Feng was unmoving as he looked at the beast still in the sky, well on the inside at least.
'F*ck, it Hurts! The bastard can use it's feathers to attack. And what the f*ck is this shit imitating a phoenix in all it's attacks!', Yang Feng thought as he gathered his Qi and forcefully pushed these feathers from the wounds.
As soon as the feather were out, the flames surroundings them also extinguished and his wounds, he felt them stop bleeding. Calming his mind, Yang Feng didn't give the eagle anytime to react and used Void Steps to the fullest and appeared just below it's beak.
The moment he reached there he used his spear, coated with gold and earth Qi's that elevated it's power and sharpness. *Clang* But things didn't go as planned, the eagle had felt his intentions and shifted it's beak to intercept the spear, blocking it with it's razor sharp beak.
Yang Feng didn't look down that his attack failed and still holding his spear, sent out a punch, "Dragon Fist!!". The next moment, the eagle freed his spear and screeched as it was sent flying with a dragon phantom pushing it back.
After being thrown back nearly two hundred meters, the eagle stopped as the dragon phantom desipated, leaving behind a wound on it's crimson feathered body.
Looking at it's wound, where all it's gorgeous feathers had gone missing, falling as it was attacked. It grew angry and screeched loudly. "*SCREECHHHH*"
Hearing the screech Yang Feng took a deep breath as he new that the serious battle starts now.
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{ Pics of both the fruit and eagle on discord.}