Zhanxian (Immortal Executioner)

Seven by seven, forty nine raised flying swords made people in Yang Chen’s previous life terror-stricken at the news of the seven steps enchanting deadly array. This place was left behind by the mountain god for later generations before ascending to heaven, but due to some unknown reason, it couldn’t be passed on. Not to mention that Yang Chen at present had cultivated only to the first qi layer, even for Yuanying Beginning Stage experts, one wrong step and they would also be killed by those forty nine flying swords. In his previous life, the sect which discovered and occupied the Yang Mountain medicinal garden paid the price with several Yuanying experts.

At this moment, Yang Chen was confronting such a frighteningly great enchantment. However, Yang Chen knew the key to entering the spell, thus in his opinion it wasn’t the least bit dangerous.

Within the enormous palace hall, there was not a single object or soul apart from Yang Chen present. The floor beneath his feet was made up of uniformly patterned square tiles, as smooth as a mirror. However, it gave off a kind of warm feeling as it was being stepped on. Here the spirit power was pretty close to ordinary, no longer resembling the thin spirit power outside.

Yang Chen was exactly in the middle of palace hall. Passing through it, he came across that camouflaged large tree which spread up until here. This exact piece of the slab under his foot should be the starting point of the seven steps enchanting deadly array.

Forty-nine steps, every step having its fixed position. With a single wrong step, a life would end. Although Yang Chen had planned everything in advance and also had accumulated a lot of experience, he was still extremely nervous as he stood at the edge of death.

But after carefully taking a few steps, Yang Chen’s mind finally regained its calmness. He was taking one step at a time, moving carefully towards the center of the sword spell. Finally, when he was at the forty ninth step, he stepped on a white stone, following which his silhouette flashed and disappeared from its original place.

Just a moment ago, Yang Chen’s step landed on the ground with a crash. He still hadn’t distinctly seen anything under his foot, but apparently he had stepped on a lump of something that crashed apart with a thunderous sound. Although he was surprised, his spiritual awareness had already started to sense his surroundings. At once, he found himself in some sort of space.

There was one very large palace in the center, on top of which the familiar dome resided. The interior of the palace, however, wasn’t entirely empty. Rather it was filled with a large pile of skeletons from all kinds of beasts.

The center of this huge palace was densely packed with skeletons. There were entire skeletons from various sorts of beasts, some still hadn’t decayed and maintained their original appearance, some had already turned into piles of dried up bones, however. All of the beasts shared a common trait: There were sword scars present on the skulls of every beast, leading to their death.

Yang Chen quickly realized that a sword was used here to kill the intruders and then throw off their corpses. Nobody had come here for a long time, however. Only a pile of skeletons which might have been strong or weak beasts or demons was discovered after the bursts of the large, camouflaged tree arrived. Unfortunately for them, if just one strike from the sword could kill a Yuanying expert, even though they were ferocious demon beasts it was still impossible for them to escape.

Previously, just by a glance, Yang Chen had already discovered those who had died immediately, as their corpses had not rotted. Clearly all of these demon beasts had surpassed foundation stage.

There was a serpent which was several tens of feet long and had two raised wings on its back. One look could confirm that this was precisely a flying dragon serpent. Although the flying dragon serpent was already dead, between its eyes was a hole, pierced through by a sword. The snakeskin covering its whole body was completely intact. Both its raised wings were equally long and narrow, only its flesh had dried up. Beneath its snakeskin, its snake bones were completely intact. Only its inner dan could not be found at any place, neither could it be seen.

There was a golden peng bird, the wingspan of which was several tens of feet, on top of its head was a similar scar. It’s golden body was still upright, preserving its whole life’s appearance. Its flesh had also dried up similarly; only the skeleton was left over. Its internal dan had also similarly disappeared.

A large tiger with its head in a posture as if facing the heavens was also present. The tiger’s skin was completely intact, as were his bones, and once again the inner dan couldn’t be found.

……

Unexpectedly there were several tens of such high ranked skeletons. Yang Chen was extremely amazed. Initially, he was under the impression that this was a simple medicine garden, he hadn’t anticipated this kind of a pleasant surprise. Among the several skeletons, just by a quick glance, Yang Chen had determined that several of them had even exceeded the golden dan phase. All the leftovers were several foundation stage beasts.

These demon beast skeletons were the best materials for refining. Remains of skin, flesh and feathers may or may not be useful. Yang Chen’s only regret was that these ferocious demon beast’s inner dan had already disappeared. They had probably all been absorbed by this medicine garden’s spell, transformed into pure effective energy to provide nutrients for these herbs.

Hurriedly looking over these skeletons, he stored them all in his Achievement Ring. Yang Chen felt quite relieved. Skeletons of ordinary demon beast’s were also left over, yet every part of these beasts was totally rotten an absolute waste.

These things, Yang Chen naturally felt disdain for them. After having swept around with his spiritual awareness for any items worthy of being collected and having found nothing, Yang Chen started to observe his surroundings more carefully. Since there was a door here to enter into the medicine garden, surely there also had to be a pathway.

Very quickly, Yang Chen discovered a white stone, identical to the one which he had stepped on within the sword spell, underground, beneath the main hall. After having observed his surroundings for some time, he did not find anything, so he stepped on the white flagstone once again.

Suddenly, the landscape which was painted in front of him had suddenly changed into a small room. Inside the small room, Yang Chen found one transparent, clean bottle. It looked very sophisticated on the white stone slab. When looking at the clean bottle’s bottom, one could see the traces of a light-blue colored liquid, looking almost dried up.

On seeing this, Yang Chen became determined to enter into the medicine garden’s center. The bottle before his eyes was the backbone of the medicine garden. That meant that it was the item which supplied all the drugs in the medicine garden with power.

This clean bottle was that celestial being’s refining tool, it absorbed spirit force and circulated it around its circumference numerous times, before concentrating it in here according to clear rules defined by its original master, tending to the plants’ requirement requirements for spirit power in order to grow. The binding of this clean bottle signified that this Yang Mountain now belonged to Yang Chen.

In his previous life, it was said that, that the sect which discovered this garden required the abilities of four Yuanying experts to successfully collect this bottle, nevertheless Yang Chen did not need to go through so much trouble. The Mountain God had already told all the secrets of medicine garden to Yang Chen when he was facing death’s door. Knowing these secrets, Yang Chen bound the medicine garden almost effortlessly.

As it should be, the most crucial secret of medicine garden’s secret methods was the power of this liquid. Despite the fact that Yang Chen only had the cultivation of qi layer, he used a secret method to bind the clean bottle and still had ample power to spare. When Yang Chen used that secret method on the clean bottle for a while, the clean bottle issued a burst of energy, then became light and fell down into Yang Chen’s palms.

Feeling the clean bottle in his hands, Yang Chen’s heart was stirred. His body appeared in the center of the large medicine garden. After a quick glance, he was so stunned, that he could not help blankly staring around him for a while.

No matter who it was, when looking for the main ingredients for refining foundation pills, even one Profound Yang Fruit would cost at least several thousand spirit stones. But in front of Yang Chen, they were planted like cabbages, covering his entire field of view. He was looking around blankly, so shocked he couldn’t even utter a single word.

The reason why foundation pills were so precious was because of the low availability of Profound Yang Fruit. Even with large amounts of money, it was not easy to find. A superior concocting master would only use a single profound yang fruit to manufacture at most two foundation pills, which led to the price of foundation pill remaining so high.

In front of Yang Chen’s eyes, however, there was an area of at least several tens of hectare, planted entirely with Profound Yang Fruits. Though Yang Chen did not know the methods used by that Mountain God, but it usually was quite difficult for the roots of the profound yang fruit to grow and survive. The leaves on all the branches were also quite thick and on top of every tree, there was one bright-red profound yang fruit, each and every one of them resembling a tiny, red lantern.

There were incredibly too many Profound Yang Fruits, perhaps there were several tens of thousands? Yang Chen simply did not dare to imagine how many foundation pills could be refined from this many profound yang fruits. If so many foundation pills suddenly appeared in the city markets, how many foundation experts could it create?

Reaching out his hand, Yang Chen plucked a Profound Yang Fruit, placed it on his hand and carefully scrutinized it. The Profound Yang Fruits which Yang Chen had seen before had all been about the size of a strawberry, but this fruit was, at least, three times bigger, about the size of an apple. Even just holding it, Yang Chen felt a heaviness pressing down on his hand.

These Profound Yang Fruits were definitely matured for a thousand years or even more, thus, the medicinal effect would increase more than ten or maybe hundred fold. But are these truly Profound Yang Fruits?

Looking at this bright-red, plump Profound Yang Fruit, Yang Chen’s appetite seemingly increased. Unexpectedly without really thinking about it, Yang Chen immediately put that fruit into his mouth, taking rapid bites.

A familiar sour taste filled his mouth. All of Yang Chen’s five senses narrowed on one feeling: sour. This was the flavour of Profound Yang Fruit’s outer skin though it wasn’t entirely bad. The reason why the flavor of the foundation pill was so unpleasant was due to this outer skin. However Yang Chen once again wanted to confirm it:

“pah!”

After spitting the outer skin, he once again took a mouthful, his teeth penetrating through the entire outer skin, exposing the strawberry sized core of the red fruit.

Yang Chen used his tongue to taste the flavour of that core. A sweet flavour roused his spirit. Sure enough, after the flavour was determined, Yang Chen immediately took out the core of the fruit and started chewing, almost swallowing it directly into his stomach.

In his previous life, how could Yang Chen be willing to spit out that thick peel. Despite its bad taste, that peel was also an important ingredient in concocting pills of immortality, even though the capability of the core of the fruit was most significant. The bitter peel, however, still had one tenth of the efficacy and three tenths of the spirit power of the fruit. Even that one superior master who concocts pill of immortality at the time of refining foundation pills would also be unwilling to peel out the core. Even though it was bitter, he would still demand to use it to the fullest.

Yet facing the hundred of thousands of Profound Yang Fruits, Yang Chen could eventually experience the taste of an unmixed core of the profound yang fruit. Sweet juice, as well as a smooth taste, really this is a rare delicacy, ah! Even after eating one he still wanted more.

Only now, did Yang Chen become aware, that just to satisfy his appetite for good food, using this core was a bit too much. Afterwards, Yang Chen immediately began to refine that fruit’s core, which contained great medicinal power within.

The five yang phases method began to circulate at the same time, moving in five different directions, frantically trying to absorb the spirit power within the profound yang fruit. Due to the growth of thousands of profound yang fruits, the spirit power in the medicine garden was abundant. Just then, out of the fiery gold pellet, an unending stream of herb’s spirit power started rushing out.

Due to five yang phases method, spirit power from five directions forcefully entered Yang Chen’s channels simultaneously, following the way of five yang phases method and began to circulate incessantly. These five attributes frequently provoked one another. The spirit power slowly began to strengthen. Yang Chen immediately sensed the feeling of spirit power permeating his channels increase substantially.

A large amount of spirit power began to circulate in Yang Chen’s channels, frantically rushing towards numerous bones in his four limbs. Afterwards, all channels in Yang Chen’s whole body were filled entirely with vigorous spirit power. However, that one profound yang fruit’s medicinal ability hadn’t completely spread out and was still continuously releasing spirit power.

Taking a foundation pill is same as having a great success in refining qi which can be used later to attack the foundation stage bottleneck. It contains sufficient spirit power to support him in reaching the foundation stage a few times over, successfully. At present, Yang Chen had only cultivated to the first qi layer. Thus, due to the core, the spirit power quickly rose to the limits of the first qi layer.

If he was in his previous life, Yang Chen could use this portion of formidable spirit power to attack the second qi layer directly, but at the moment, Yang Chen was only cultivating the five yang phase five types of the five yang phases method, as such, the five yin phases hadn’t been cultivated at this time, so he inadvertently allowed his yin and yang to become unbalanced. Impatiently sitting in the room, Yang Chen was beginning to become aware of his misfortune regarding the five attributes. The yang five phases restricting each other slowly began consuming more and more spirit power.

Five attributes overcoming each other and dividing completely is wishful thinking. The five types of different attributes spirit power coming in contact with each other had become his own bane. Spirit power began to surge up and grind, so as to reverse the motion of yang five phases method, slowly being consumed.

In this way, even that one profound yang fruit’s medicine power had still cost Yang Chen half a day of time, slowly being used up so that almost nothing was left. Later Yang Chen unexpectedly reversed five phases method, consuming his spirit power frantically. At the last stage, however, all the five phases possessed their own portion of spirit energy which couldn’t be removed.

Yang Chen specifically paid attention to this remaining tiny portion of spirit energy and was pleasantly surprised to discover, that this was the pure essence of the five portions. The spirit energy of the five phases, when refined into spirit power of the five phases which are able to pass each other mutually, became more condensed with pure essence. This spirit power, when compared to the past had two or three times higher quality.

The five great yin and yang phases, five phases trying to engender each other, raising spirit power, rather than consuming it. But, regardless of cultivation level, all had huge benefits. This was something Yang Chen had recently discovered. Yang Chen also found a reverse cultivation skill that could even hide his cultivation. This was another huge benefit for him.

As a result, his plan to join his teacher’s sect again was completely within his grasp.

When one Profound Yang Fruit’s core was exhausted, Yang Chen also stopped his cultivation. Furthermore, the channels in his body were all filled. His whole body had a high temperature, but it seemed as if he was taking a comfortable bath in a sauna.

A fragrant smell was coming from his mouth. The profound yang fruit’s core still left an aftertaste in Yang Chen’s mind. This one core had increased his cultivation. Even lightly drawing air, the sweet fragrance entered his mouth, piercing through to his abdomen. Unable to contain his emotions, he continued to linger on enjoying such a rare delicacy, feeling as if he had become tipsy due to wine.

“It seems this fruit tastes delicious after peeling! Ah!”

Yang Chen, who gazed towards the profound yang fruit, couldn’t help but say this loudly a countless number of times, pausing only to sigh.