Chapter 5360: Empty Their Coffers
“I will beat you up if you continue being so distant,” Chu Feng said with a chuckle.
“All right, I shall drop the formalities,” Bai Yunqing replied with a smile. However, his face paled shortly after. “What the hell? Is this palace the incarnation of hungry ghosts? Why is it devouring so much psyche? Is it still not satisfied yet? Big brother Chu Feng, I… I’ll run out of my psyche at this rate.”
They had gotten a sense of how much psyche it would take for them to clear a test from the past tests. At the very least, they could tell if they were close to meeting the psyche requirement of a test. Yet, this black palace felt like a bottomless black hole.
Even as Bai Yunqing was on the verge of depleting his psyche, the black palace didn’t seem to be anywhere near satiation.
To make things worse, Chu Feng had insisted on fully satisfying every single test along the way, having used ten times as much psyche as Bai Yunqing had to this point. Bai Yunqing couldn’t help but worry if Chu Feng had enough psyche to fill up this bottomless pit.
“Don’t worry, I’m here,” Chu Feng assured the worried Bai Yunqing with a smile.
He waved his sleeves, and the entire palace began to tremor.
His psyche began flowing out at an insane pace, reaching such a tremendous level of concentration that it was almost visible to the eye. It was as if a humongous volcano had finally erupted, just that it was psyche and not lava that was being released.
Bai Yunqing was stunned.
It took mere moments for Chu Feng to satisfy the black palace’s bottomless appetite for psyche… and even so, Chu Feng still looked unfazed despite his immense exertion.
It was so inconceivable that Bai Yunqing thought that he was going to have a mental breakdown.
“What’s with your expression?” Chu Feng asked.
“Big brother, I’m glad that I acknowledged you as my big brother. Otherwise, I’ll be dying of envy now. I always thought that I was a prodigy, but I’m practically a cripple compared to you!” Bai Yunqing cried.
Just the psyche Chu Feng had released in those few short moments was already twenty times of what he had expended thus far… Clearly, he had still been underestimating Chu Feng!
“Big brother Chu Feng, how much psyche do you have left?” Bai Yunqing asked.
“I’m almost out too,” Chu Feng replied with a smile.
The truth was that he hadn’t even exerted half of his psyche capacity. He had lied to avoid traumatizing Bai Yunqing.
Boom!
The gates at the other end of the black palace finally opened, revealing yet another palace.
“This isn’t the end yet? Is this test trying to murder us?!”
Bai Yunqing’s face paled in horror. How could he possibly not panic when his psyche was almost emptied out? But when he took a closer look, he noticed that something was amiss.
Unlike the previous tests, there was a pedestal at the center of the next palace, and an object was floating atop the pedestal—the Life Crystal.
There was a spirit formation gate inside the palace, and there was another open entrance at the opposite end. While the palace was currently empty, the lingering auras of the Seven Realms Sacred Mansion’s juniors could be sensed inside the palace, including Jie Yu’s.
“Have we finally reached the end?” Bai Yunqing was overjoyed.
From these little details, he could deduce that the palace ahead of them marked the end of the trial, and the spirit formation gate was the portal out. It was likely that Jie Yu and the others had been to this palace too, just that they had already left the area.
Chu Feng stepped into the next palace and found that it was still absorbing his psyche, which suggested that it hadn’t been fully satiated yet. But unlike the treacherous black palace, he was able to completely restrict his outflow of psyche here, so it was absolutely safe here.
“Holy! This is simply too unfair! How can this even be considered a trial? They are practically getting cultivation resources for free here!” Bai Yunqing cursed.
His heart palpitated in fear when he thought about the close shave he had with death earlier. If not for Chu Feng, there was no way he could have reached the endpoint alive. In comparison, the trial that Jie Yu and the others went through was practically a walk in the park.
Naturally, he felt indignant at the unfair treatment.
Chu Feng took a moment to examine the Life Crystal before attempting to communicate with it through his psyche. Moments later, the Life Crystal began to quiver. It was a lackluster response that indicated that he hadn’t won the Life Crystal’s acknowledgment yet, but he wasn’t worried in the least.
Instead, he turned to Bai Yunqing and said with a smile, “Release all your psyche.”
“All right.”
Bai Yunqing did as he was told and released every last bit of psyche he had left. He had pretty much depleted his psyche in the earlier two palaces, so it didn’t take long for him to empty out his load. It wasn’t enough psyche to satiate the final palace.
“Big brother, I’m out. You should do it.” Bai Yunqing awkwardly scratched his head.
“No worries. Wait for me here,” Chu Feng said before abruptly flitting off.
Instead of releasing his psyche, he headed for the other entrance where Jie Yu and the others likely came from. The many open gates along the way indicated that Jie Yu and the others also had to overcome many tests too before arriving at the endpoint.
Bai Yunqing was confused as to what Chu Feng was up to. He looked toward the other entrance and found that he couldn’t see the other end, though he did notice that the furthest palace was glowing.
Soon, he noticed another palace had started to glow, followed by another one, and another one… Starting from the furthest end, the palaces were lighting up at an incredible pace! At the same time, a silhouette could be seen zapping across the tests.
It was Chu Feng. He was the one lighting up the palace by satiating the psyche requirements of the tests!
It was clear to Bai Yunqing now that those palaces that weren’t lit up earlier were tests that Jie Yu and the others cleared but failed to fully satiate.
It didn’t take long for Chu Feng to return to the final palace. He released his psyche once more, and the final palace swiftly began glowing with brilliance.
As soon as that happened, the entire underground cavern, from the palaces to the corridors, began to shake. The Life Crystal rose from its pedestal and floated toward Chu Feng.
“You did it, big brother! You won the acknowledgment of the Life Crystal!” Bai Yunqing cheered.
He was overjoyed to witness Chu Feng’s accomplishment, especially since the old woman who had ushered them here had told them that it would be nigh impossible for them to acquire the Life Crystal.
On the other hand, Chu Feng wasn’t surprised in the least.
When he communicated with the Life Crystal earlier, he learned that he could win its acknowledgment and awaken it by satiating the remaining palaces with his psyche. Without any hesitation, he sent the Life Crystal into his World Spirit Space.
“Why don’t you keep it first? You ought to show them what you’re capable of so that they’ll stop looking down on you!” Eggy said.
“I don’t trust them. I’d rather use the Life Crystal right away than risk them snatching it away. Besides, I have the crystal that I can convert into cultivation resources here. That’s more than enough to prove my capability,” Chu Feng replied as he began channeling the energy inside the Life Crystal to treat Eggy.
The energy contained inside this Life Crystal was amazing, surpassing even the one on the Undying Peak. Yet, Eggy’s complexion only improved slightly upon taking in the energy. She did regain some of her cultivation, but not much.
It was just as Chu Feng had previously thought. A single Life Crystal wasn’t enough for Eggy to make a full recovery. Even so, he was glad to see that the Life Crystal worked, for this meant that all he had to do now was to acquire enough Life Crystals for her.
“There must be even more Life Crystals here. I’ll find a way to get my hands on them,” Chu Feng said.
“How do you know?” Eggy asked.
“It is well hidden, but that pedestal over there, where the Life Crystal previously sat, is an extremely powerful formation. The Life Crystal was probably transported here via that formation. My gut feeling tells me that the Seven Realms Sacred Mansion isn’t the true master of this place; they are merely occupying it. In fact, I suspect that the Ancestral Martial Realm Sect that came before it wasn’t the one who created this place either,” Chu Feng said.
Are you saying that this land was created by someone else?” Eggy asked.
“Yes, that’s what I’m thinking,” Chu Feng replied.
“This land doesn’t harness the aura of the Ancient Era, so it should be created after the Ancient Era… but the strongest world spiritist organization to have existed after the Ancient Era should be the Ancestral Martial Realm Sect, no? Does this mean to say that there was a post-Ancient Era world spiritist organization that was even stronger than the Ancestral Martial Realm Sect?” Eggy asked.
“It could be possible, but that isn’t important right now. What’s important is that there are likely to be more Life Crystals here… and I feel that there will be a lot of them. Milady Queen, you might just be able to make a full recovery this time around,” Chu Feng said with an excited smile.
“Won’t the Seven Realms Sacred Mansion come after you if you empty out their supply of Life Crystals?” Eggy asked.
“So what? It’s only a matter of time before I have a falling out with them anyway,” Chu Feng replied.
“Very well. Let’s empty out their coffers then!” Eggy nodded in excitement.
