parentshiftbook Chapter 1954 Eternal Flourishing and Decline
Chapter 1954 Eternal Flourishing and Decline
Chapter 1954 Eternal Flourishing and Decline
The sparsely populated viewing area around the arena of life and death began to ripple frequently.
One after another, figures of varying strengths and shapes, each radiating a scrutinizing gaze, solidified and appeared.
The number was far greater than in Chen Fei's first duel.
There were even a few figures among them whose auras clearly surpassed those of the early stage of the Sovereign Realm.
All this was because before the duel began, the All-Heavens Martial Arts Arena issued a reminder to the spectators who had set specific information: a duel between the consecutive winners.
Spectators can choose to watch specific matches, which is something the All-Heavens Martial Arts Arena can do perfectly well, even down to how many consecutive matches one side has won.
Therefore, all the spectators here know that neither of the two on the stage are fledglings who are new to the arena, but true powerhouses with a winning streak who have stained their hands with the blood of their peers.
Such confrontations are often more intense, more brutal, and more entertaining and informative.
Not all cultivators or demonic cultivators who come to watch the battle on the arena are there to place bets.
Countless gazes instantly focused on Chen Fei. The first thing they noticed was the unique, incredibly clear, blood-red aura emanating from Chen Fei.
This is the rule of the life-or-death arena, the mark given to the winner.
One path represents one victory.
"Oh? Only one win?"
"Hmm? No, the concentration and texture of this crimson aura..."
"Five consecutive wins! The opponent he defeated in his first match was a strong player with five consecutive wins."
"What? They secured five consecutive victories in their very first match?"
"The markings on the training ground can't be wrong, this is getting interesting."
After a brief silence, a sudden burst of discussion erupted.
The gazes of all the spectators towards Chen Fei instantly shifted from casual to one of shock.
What does it mean to win five consecutive games in the first match?
This means that this entity, which appears to come from a "lower plane," has a strength and foundation that cannot be fathomed by common sense.
Some quick-thinking individuals have already begun to analyze rapidly and consider how to place their bets.
Just as everyone was discussing this, the space at the other end of the life-or-death arena violently distorted.
A figure, shrunken and gaunt, with its face hidden in the shadow of a wide cloak, slowly materialized, enveloped in a dense aura of death.
With his appearance, a chilling, decaying, and terrifying aura that seemed capable of devouring all life instantly spread out.
What caused the onlookers to gasp was that seven even more dazzling crimson auras were wrapped around this figure.
Seven-game winning streak!
This is someone who has already killed seven powerful individuals of the same level.
"It's Gu Huai'an, that demonic cultivator who practiced the Eternal Withering and Flourishing Technique."
"He's already on a seven-game winning streak? Last time I watched him play, he only had five wins."
"The outcome is now uncertain. Gu Huai'an is no ordinary person with an empty reputation."
After recognizing the attackers, the atmosphere in the spectator area became even more intense.
On the stage of life and death, Gu Huai'an slowly raised his head. Two ghostly green flames suddenly lit up under the shadow of his cloak, instantly locking onto Chen Fei opposite him like venomous snakes.
Gu Huai'an's gaze first lingered on Chen Fei, on the traces that clearly carried the unique aura of a "lower-level plane." But the next moment, Gu Huai'an clearly sensed the resentment and powerful grudge left behind by the fallen five-time champion in the scarlet aura around Chen Fei.
The eerie green will-o'-the-wisps of the ancient Huai'an suddenly contracted, marking the fifth consecutive victory in the first battle?
How could a native who has just come from a lower plane and may not even be fully adapted to the laws of the heavens possess such strength?
This is so weird!
However, the rules of the Life and Death Arena are infallible. The clear mark of his five consecutive victories and subsequent downfall was imprinted on his opponent, leaving him no choice but to believe it and to be cautious.
Gu Huai'an stared intently at Chen Fei, as if trying to see right through him.
"My name is Gu Huai'an."
A dry, hoarse voice, like the friction of withered wood, came from beneath Gu Huai'an's cloak: "How shall I address you, sir?"
Chen Fei calmly met the two balls of ghost fire. In his perception, what emanated from Gu Huai'an was not only a deathly demonic aura, but also an aura of bloodlust so dense that it could not be dissolved, and the faint, mournful howls of countless remnant souls.
It was as if billions of living beings were suffering eternal torment within the body of the ancient Huai'an.
Demonic repair.
Whether it is the demonic cultivators of the Primordial Continent or the Yuan Demons of the Xuan Yu Realm, their essence is to devour and plunder the essence and souls of living beings, and use them as resources for their own cultivation.
Furthermore, they especially favor cultivators who cultivate orthodox primordial energy. While they can devour their own kind who cultivate demonic energy, it is tasteless and offers no enjoyment whatsoever.
A demonic cultivator who can cultivate to the fifteenth level must have trodden upon mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and the number of living beings they have devoured is already countless.
For all cultivators, demonic cultivators are always the greatest natural enemy, and their struggle is one of mortal conflict.
In the Xuan Yu Realm, if it weren't for the arrival of extraterrestrial demons, the situation between cultivators and primordial demons would also be a life-or-death struggle.
Because, in essence, demonic cultivators treat cultivators as food.
"Chen Fei".
Chen Fei spoke calmly, giving his name, his voice completely devoid of emotion.
"Brother Chen's ability to kill a five-time champion is truly remarkable." The ghostly flames flickered beneath Gu Huai'an's cloak as he tried to glean something from Chen Fei's expression, but all he saw was an unfathomable calm.
"Just lucky." Chen Fei's tone remained calm. Upon hearing this, Gu Huai'an's eyes flickered slightly with a hint of ghostly fire.
lucky?
Breaking a five-game winning streak cannot be summed up by mere luck.
Chen Fei was either extremely calm and composed, or he simply didn't take him seriously.
Neither of them should be underestimated.
Gu Huai'an fell silent, and a deathly demonic aura began to slowly rise and brew around him, quietly waiting for the moment when the duel would officially begin.
Outside the arena, many spectators had already placed their bets, with the majority choosing Gu Huai'an as the winner.
After all, their seven-game winning streak cannot be ignored; they have been a formidable force for a long time.
However, many cautious individuals chose to wait and see and did not place any bets.
Chen Fei's bizarre performance of winning five consecutive victories in his first battle left them feeling uncertain. After all, the Immortal Crystals in their hands were not something that came easily and could not be squandered.
Time passed slowly, and the power of the rules above the arena of life and death grew stronger and stronger.
Finally, the entire arena of life and death trembled violently, and the battle patterns on the surface shone brightly.
The duel has officially begun!
The moment the rule was invoked, Gu Huai'an moved. The deathly aura around him underwent a dramatic change, and a surge of vitality mixed with an even deeper sense of death erupted.
Behind it, the phantom of a towering ancient tree, dark green in color, with gnarled branches like a dragon, and withered and yellow leaves, suddenly appeared.
The ancient tree's illusory image exuded an incomparably profound meaning of the cycle of life and death, the foundational method of the Profound Origin Dao, the cycle of life and death throughout the ages.
Gu Huai'an let out a low shout, and most of the huge ancient tree phantom instantly merged into his body, making his originally thin body seem to be injected with infinite vitality, his muscles slightly bulging, and his aura rising steadily.
"The Profound Origin Dao Foundation is close to completion."
"As expected, Gu Huai'an's seven consecutive victories were all thanks to this foundational Dao technique."
"Once the illusory image is fully integrated, his Xuan Yuan Dao Foundation will be completely successful, and his strength will increase dramatically."
A low murmur arose from the spectators; the profound strength displayed by Gu Huai'an met their expectations.
On the stage of life and death.
Gu Huai'an merged into the Dao Foundation's illusory image, his gaze instantly locking onto Chen Fei. Without the slightest hesitation, he formed a strange hand seal with one hand.
"rise!"
At Gu Huai'an's command, the entire void surrounding Chen Fei began to tremble violently.
"Boom!"
The next moment, countless thick, dark green tree roots, their surfaces covered with ferocious suckers and barbs, exuding an aura that devours all life, seemed to force their way in from another dimension, covering the sky and the earth like a torrent, frantically stabbing at Chen Fei from all directions.
In the blink of an eye, everything in Chen Fei's sight was filled with these terrifying tree roots, as if he had fallen into a desperate tree root purgatory.
The energy fluctuations emanating from each tree root had clearly reached the level of someone who had just entered the early stages of the Dominator Realm.
And the number of such tree roots is far more than tens of thousands.
In a daze, it seemed as if Chen Fei was facing an attack from countless early-stage Sovereign Realm experts.
A decisive victory!
Outside the arena of life and death.
Many spectators, who were also at the early stage of the fifteenth level, felt their hearts tremble and their scalps tingle when they saw this scene and simply put themselves in Chen Fei's shoes, imagining themselves facing this overwhelming attack of tree roots.
"How...how can we block this?"
They could almost see Chen Fei's tragic end, with his heart pierced by countless tree roots and devoured completely.
However, Chen Fei, who was at the very center of the torrent of tree roots, remained completely unmoved in the face of this attack that was enough to make his peers despair.
Chen Fei slowly raised his head, his gaze calmly sweeping over the hideous tree roots that were tearing through the void and howling towards him.
Behind him, a projection of his future true form, radiating an aura of eternity and immortality, quietly appeared. The next moment, the projection instantly merged perfectly with Chen Fei's main body.
"Qiang!"
A clear and resounding sword cry echoed through the sky, and the Qian Yuan Sword, radiating brilliant sword light, appeared in Chen Fei's palm.
With a wave of his arm, Chen Fei sent the Qian Yuan Sword into a dazzling sword beam that tore through the heavens and earth, slashing upwards against the overwhelming torrent of tree roots without any fancy moves.
"Hey!"
Wherever the sword light passed, those seemingly powerful tree roots were easily sliced apart as if a hot knife were cutting through butter.
The sword's momentum was overwhelming and unstoppable, forcefully carving a huge gap in the dense torrent of tree roots, revealing the figure of Gu Huai'an behind the gap.
In Chen Fei's eyes, not every one of these overwhelming tree roots possessed the power of someone newly entering the Dominator Realm; only nine of them truly contained that level of power.
They were mixed among countless tree roots, concealing other seemingly powerful tree roots that actually only possessed the maximum power of the fourteenth rank.
Coupled with the deliberate grandeur created by Gu Huai'an, those with limited vision were unable to discern the differences in an instant, thus being intimidated and filled with despair.
However, under Chen Fei's insightful gaze and the discerning power of the Chaos Reverse Lotus, all these illusions were as clear as lines on the palm of his hand.
That sword strike just now precisely struck the most crucial point where the power of the nine main roots connected, breaking through the entire area with a single point and defeating them in one fell swoop.
Otherwise, if all these tree roots truly possessed the power of a Sovereign Realm cultivator, then Gu Huai'an, who had cultivated the Heavenly Origin Dao Foundation, would have been able to easily defeat those in the mid-stage of the Sovereign Realm.
After the gap appeared, Gu Huai'an watched as his carefully laid-out killing move was so easily broken by the opponent, his eerie green ghost fire filled with surprise and uncertainty.
Chen Fei's insight is truly remarkable.
Chen Fei and Gu Huai'an locked eyes, clearly seeing the shock in each other's eyes.
Chen Fei took a step forward, his figure blurring instantly, and the next moment he appeared directly in front of Gu Huai'an. The Qian Yuan Sword, with its sharpness capable of cutting through all laws, pierced straight into Gu Huai'an's heart.
Facing the sword, a fierce glint flashed in Gu Huai'an's eyes. Instead of dodging or avoiding it, he suddenly spread his arms wide.
"boom!"
Gu Huai'an's body instantly swelled up like an inflatable balloon, and then exploded with a bang.
A violent energy, a mixture of extreme vitality and deathly stillness, swept outwards from Gu Huai'an like a nuclear explosion, its power reaching the peak of the early stage of the Dominator Realm and even touching the threshold of the middle stage of the Dominator Realm.
At such close range, Chen Fei was practically facing the full force of the self-destruction head-on.
However, faced with this terrifying energy that was enough to blast an ordinary early-stage Dominator Realm cultivator to smithereens, Chen Fei's expression remained calm and composed.
Time jump!
Everything around Chen Fei, including the impending self-destruction energy, seemed to be paused, completely frozen in place.
Chen Fei's gaze swept over the solidified self-destruct energy in an instant, clearly seeing many details of its internal energy flow, and also seeing through the self-destruction at a glance that it was not a true mutual destruction.
It is a secret method of shedding one's skin like a cicada shedding its shell.
Gu Huai'an's true form had already quietly escaped into the depths of the void under the cover of his self-destruction.
Chen Fei's gaze turned directly to an extremely hidden spatial node tens of thousands of miles away.
Although Gu Huai'an's self-destruction was powerful, it did not involve the higher-level power of time, so it could not have much impact on Chen Fei's time jump.
Chen Fei's figure vanished from his original spot in an instant, appearing before that spatial node, and thrust out the Qian Yuan Sword without hesitation.
At this moment, the self-destruction of Guhuaian, hundreds of thousands of miles away, finally erupted completely.
The void rippled like water, forcing Gu Huai'an's true form to emerge from its concealment. His face was filled with extreme horror and gloom.
He couldn't understand how Chen Fei could be completely unaffected by the self-destruction and still be able to find his true form.
Everyone else is only displaying power at the Profound Origin Dao Foundation level, so why am I so restricted in terms of understanding the laws of heaven and earth and controlling the rhythm of battle, as if we are not on the same level at all?
Before he could think, a flash of light appeared in Gu Huai'an's hand, and an ancient shield, completely black, carved with countless hideous ghost faces and exuding a strong aura of resentment, instantly appeared in front of him, blocking the attack.
Countless remnant souls sank and screamed upon the shield, forming a powerful spiritual impact.
"clang!"
The Qian Yuan Sword slammed into the shield, producing a deafening clang of metal striking metal.
The next instant, Gu Huai'an's expression changed drastically. A terrifying force far beyond his imagination came through the shield, making his arm numb and his blood churn.
What terrified him even more was that the shield in his hand, which was almost at the limit of the fifteenth-grade low-level, actually cracked under the weight of the sword tip.
Fine cracks spread out at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Gu Huai'an let out a startled roar and retreated wildly without hesitation.
At the same time, he frantically formed hand seals with one hand.
"Boom!"
Countless massive tree roots emerged from the void once more, like a swarm of frenzied pythons, surging towards Chen Fei in an attempt to hinder his pursuit.
However, when the ancient locust tree moved, Chen Fei moved as well.
The two figures appeared simultaneously tens of thousands of miles away. As for the surging tree roots, they were cut into pieces and turned into dust by the sharp sword energy naturally emanating from Chen Fei's body before they even got within a mile of him. They could not stop him in the slightest.
Chen Fei stared coldly at Gu Huai'an, who was standing close at hand, and thrust out the Qian Yuan Sword once more.
"boom!"
The shield could no longer hold and was pierced through by the Qian Yuan Sword. The sword's momentum did not diminish, and it stabbed fiercely into Gu Huai'an's chest from behind, instantly creating a huge, bloody hole that was both open and closed.
"what!"
Gu Huai'an let out a shrill scream, his breath plummeting wildly like an avalanche.
Outside the arena of life and death.
All the spectators stared wide-eyed, especially those who had bet on Gu Huai'an to win; their faces turned pale, and their hearts were filled with disbelief.
"It's a one-sided battle, a completely one-sided situation."
"Gu Huai'an was completely powerless to fight back?"
"Just who is this Chen Fei? Is he some hidden power's peerless genius?"
"He's too strong! His movement, his eyesight, his attacks—all of them completely overwhelm Gu Huai'an!"
On the stage of life and death.
Gu Huai'an felt the fierce and rampant sword energy within his body, and his heart was filled with utter horror.
"I'll die! I'll die like this!"
A glint of madness flashed in Gu Huai'an's eyes, and his body erupted with dense black light once more, attempting to repeat his old trick and self-destruct.
Relying on the characteristics of his Xuan Yuan Dao Foundation, he dissipated the sword energy within his body through self-destruction, while simultaneously recovering most of his injuries.
Chen Fei looked at the black light that shone on Gu Huai'an again and slightly raised his eyelids.
Everything returns to its source!
With a thought, Chen Fei conjured up an ancient, bronze-colored cauldron with three legs, two handles, and countless Daoist inscriptions on its surface, which appeared out of thin air above his head.
An unparalleled aura, seemingly capable of suppressing the heavens and freezing time and space, instantly spread out.
This is a characteristic of the Sovereign Realm that Chen Fei replicated in the illusory image of the River of Time using the characteristic of all laws returning to their origin: Eternal Prison Suppression.
As the illusory image of the bronze cauldron trembled slightly, an invisible suppressive force instantly enveloped the space around Gu Huai'an, causing Gu Huai'an's imminent self-destruction to pause slightly.
Chen Fei's Qian Yuan Sword drew an arc from top to bottom.
"laugh!"
The sword light flashed and disappeared in an instant, and Gu Huai'an's body, along with his soul, was cleanly and decisively split in two by this sword.
Gu Huai'an stared intently at Chen Fei with his ghostly green flames filled with resentment and fear. The next moment, his body and soul were completely annihilated by the Heavenly Decree contained in the sword light, leaving him utterly destroyed.
The demonic cultivator Gu Huai'an is dead!
Outside the arena of life and death.
Many spectators stared blankly at the figure standing on the stage, sword in hand, their shock like a raging storm that lingered for a long time.
too strong!
From beginning to end, Gu Huai'an was almost completely crushed. All his trump cards and schemes were like child's tricks in front of Chen Fei.
This is not even in the same league!
"His strength is definitely beyond that of a typical Xuan Yuan Dao Foundation Perfection cultivator."
"I'm afraid only those geniuses who have cultivated the Earthly Dao Foundation can defeat them."
After a long while, the discussion resumed, the tone now filled with awe and disbelief.
On the stage of life and death.
Chen Fei collected the broken shield left behind by Gu Huai'an, as well as the condensed demonic essence. At the same time, he skillfully used the Purple Extreme Divine Eye to plunder fortune and used the Myriad Paths Judgment Decree to peel away the fragments of his rank.
After doing all this, Chen Fei's figure swayed slightly and disappeared from the life-and-death arena.
A moment later, in the trading area of the Martial Arts Arena of the Myriad Realms, Chen Fei's figure reappeared in front of a ball of light.
He communicated with the sphere of light through his consciousness, and the surrounding scenery changed in the next moment. Chen Fei once again arrived at the octagonal stone pavilion atop the cloud-covered mountain.
The old man in the gray robe still smiled, as if he had never left.
"What does the young hero need this time?"
"The Sands of Time!"
The old man smiled slightly, flicked his sleeve, and a sand-like ball of light, radiating hazy ripples of time, appeared on the stone table. Inside, it seemed as if countless fragments of time were flowing, being born and dying.
Looking at the Sands of Time before him, Chen Fei finally saw a glimmer of anticipation in his eyes.
Three breaths later, Chen Fei appeared in the square. In his palm, the Sands of Time floated quietly, emanating waves of time that made one's heart tremble.
Without a moment's delay, Chen Fei moved slightly and appeared at the edge of the bustling square of the All-Heavens Martial Arts Arena. He glanced around and found a relatively quiet corner.
The surrounding scenery changed instantly, the noise of the square was replaced by absolute silence, and in the depths of the void of the Guixu Realm, the radiance of the Time Pavilion, like the unchanging stars of ancient times, quietly fell.
Chen Fei sat cross-legged in the void, clearing his mind of all distractions and calming his mind completely. He slowly opened his palm, and the clump of sand of time seemed to be drawn to float automatically to a spot about an inch in front of his chest, emitting an increasingly rich rhythm of time.
Chen Fei began to activate the Undying Calamity, and strands of light peeled away from the Sands of Time, flowing into Chen Fei's body like rivers flowing into the sea.
More accurately, it is to merge into the projection of the immortal true body that exists based on the present world but is anchored in the future spacetime.
Nourished and cleansed by this pure power of time, Chen Fei clearly sensed that the immortal true body located on the future timeline had begun to grow slowly but steadily.
Its physical core structure became increasingly complex, and the vitality and power it contained seemed to have broken free of some shackles, beginning to leap towards a higher level.
For Chen Fei, who had already cultivated the Undying Tribulation technique to its peak, this step of cultivation presented no bottlenecks whatsoever. All he needed was enough spiritual materials capable of manipulating the timeline.
Time flew by rapidly under the acceleration of the Time Pavilion. Chen Fei was completely absorbed in guiding and promoting the advancement of his future true body, and no one knew how much time had passed.
Finally, when the sands of time in his hand were nearly 80% depleted.
"boom!"
Chen Fei was deeply shaken, as if he heard a roar from the distant future. The aura of his steadily growing, indestructible true body suddenly broke through an invisible threshold, reaching a new, more vast and powerful level.
A vast amount of vital energy, an incomparably resilient physique, and a profound sense of weight that seems capable of bearing even more rules and power, subtly emanate from across endless time and space.
The future true body of the mid-stage Dominator Realm has been formed!
Feeling the leap in life level brought about by his future breakthrough, Chen Fei did not stop cultivating.
Chen Fei continued to circulate the Undying Calamity, guiding the remaining 20% of the Sands of Time energy to slowly integrate into his newly broken-through future true body, striving to polish this mid-stage Dominator Realm future true body to a perfect state under the current conditions.
When the last grain of sand in time faded completely and turned into ordinary dust, Chen Fei slowly opened his eyes.
A glint flashed in Chen Fei's eyes as he carefully observed the changes within himself.
Although his physical body's realm remains at the peak of the early stage of the Dominator Realm, his connection with his future true body has become even closer.
"As for the effects of the Sands of Time, they did indeed weaken significantly after the mid-game."
From the early to the middle stage of the fifteenth rank, eighty percent of the Sand of Time was consumed, and the remaining twenty percent only slightly stabilized the future true body at the middle stage of the fifteenth rank, still far from the peak of the middle stage.
If one were to expect to use the Sands of Time to elevate their future true body to the late stage of the Dominator Realm, the required amount would likely be astronomical, or perhaps, they would need to find spiritual materials containing even more powerful mysteries of time.
The road ahead is still long, but the leap we've taken has already brought a tangible boost to our combat capabilities.
With a thought, Chen Fei's figure disappeared from the Guixu Realm and reappeared in a corner of the square of the All Heavens and Myriad Realms Martial Arts Arena.
Without any delay, Chen Fei headed straight for the area of the life-or-death arena.
Along the way, some of the spectators recognized Chen Fei, their eyes filled with awe and curiosity.
With two wins in two matches, especially his decisive victory over Gu Huai'an, who had won seven consecutive games, Chen Fei's name has already spread in certain circles.
Chen Fei ignored this and soon returned to the sphere of light responsible for receiving and placing bets.
Upon connecting with the sphere of light, one immediately sensed that it contained two hundred thousand Immortal Mystic Crystals that had not yet been claimed.
One hundred thousand of them was the bet he won in the previous match against Gu Huai'an, and the other one hundred thousand was the return of his original bet that he had won.
"Bet on Chen Feisheng, 200,000 Immortal Mystic Crystals."
He silently recited the command and, without hesitation, bet all 200,000 Xuan Crystals on himself. According to the rules of the martial arts arena, after achieving two consecutive victories, the maximum bet per match has been increased to 200,000 Immortal Xuan Crystals.
Resources should be used wisely. If there were no limit to the bets, Chen Fei would have bet all the Immortal Crystals.
The betting is complete; the light sphere flickers faintly, confirming that everything is correct.
The next moment, the guiding light pillar fell, and Chen Fei's figure disappeared from the square, reappearing on the life-and-death stage, stained with countless blood and filled with a chilling aura.
……
Several dozen breaths later, the light of victory descended, and the light representing the source point merged into Chen Fei's body.
Three-game winning streak achieved!
Chen Fei's figure slowly faded from the life-or-death arena, leaving the spectators outside looking at each other in bewilderment.
The match ended so quickly that many people didn't even have time to react.
All they could see was that the cultivator named Chen Fei seemed to be even stronger than in the last battle!
(End of this chapter)