Chương 308: Protection fee

Long Feng licked his lips and began to approach the cave entrance with his heart beating in anticipation. He had a feeling that he would be able to enter the cave for real this time. He would no longer be returned outside. Right as he stood before the cave entrance that was just large enough for a person to walk through…

"Two hours are up. Exiting now!" He heard a metallic voice in his head. Long Feng's eyes instantly widened.

"No wait! …" He exclaimed, but that didn't work. His gaze darkened and when light returned, he was back in the Dao Heaven Hall, standing right before the metal door with the sword carving. Long Feng stood blankly for a few seconds before he felt like shedding tears. How had two hours passed so quickly? He felt like it was just several minutes!

Little did he know that he had entered a trance twice; first time while trying to answer the question on the stone stele and second time was while making his sword concept breakthrough. Both had taken long, especially the first time. He had lasted more than an hour without realizing it. Now that Long Feng had a taste of the Dao comprehension grounds, he realized that they were truly of inconceivable value to disciples. He wouldn't refuse to spending months inside there, but unfortunately…

ten thousand Heaven runes for just two hours! That was… It was only now that he began to fell what every other disciple felt after using the Dao comprehension grounds. Then he remembered that he had one more opportunity!

"That's right! I was given the chance to enter two Dao grounds for two hours each. Can I enter the ancient sword legacy remnant once again?" After a few minutes, he shook his head.

"It'll probably work, but it'd be best if I leave that for another time. I just reached the peak of sword concept. I should take some time to stabilize everything I've comprehended." This was the peak of the concept level and also his foundation upon which he would form his sword intent. Long Feng wasn't willing to take chances.

"I can also take some time to raise my demon and light Daos to rank eight each. My overall strength should increase slightly after that." With this thought, he turned around and walked away, leaving the Dao Heaven Hall. Just as when he entered, no one cared to give him a second glance as he left. Long Feng held his token and glanced at the map of the outer peak within it, thinking of where to go.

"It's not important for me to collect the cultivation manual and Dao skills yet. They can wait. Raising my strength is if utmost important right now. After a while, I'll take a mission to gain resources and gather as much Heaven runes as I can." Only now was Long Feng beginning to realize that Imperial crystals were absolutely nothing here. No one would exchange even a single Heaven rune even for a million imperial crystals unless they urgently needed the crystals.

Long Feng sighed and increased his pace, returning to his pavilion an hour later. Entering his Seclusion room, he activated all of the defensive formations before diving into his comprehension. He slowly let the insights he had gained into the sword sink in his soul while simultaneously deepening his understanding of the heaven firmament skill.

After a few days, Long Feng had fully understood all of his sword insights and also comprehended almost thirty percent of the heaven firmament, courtesy of his peak sword concept level. Then he delved into his Dantian and began to comprehend the demon and light Daos from the Demon Dragon and Azure Dragon respectively. This was even faster than comprehending the sword Dao from the Firmament Sword Saint's memory fragment and he soon pushed his demon and light Daos to rank eight concept each.

After that, Long Feng focused on his cultivation. The natural energy in the seclusion room was extremely dense; he couldn't bear to not utilize it to the fullest. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Within three days, his cultivation reached the peak of rank five spirit realm. His foundation was already stable, so all he needed was enough natural energy to breakthrough. He didn't hesitate and instantly pushed for a breakthrough to rank six spirit realm.

Right now, he couldn't afford to waste time. Any opportunity to increase his strength must be grasped tightly.

Half a month had passed since Long Feng entered seclusion. The seclusion room was filled with natural energy fog, and through the fog, his figure could be seen absorbing the dense natural energy at a great speed. After a few hours, he suddenly paused his cultivation and opened his eyes.

"Hm?" He reached out and grabbed his token which was suddenly glowing and releasing a subtle wave of energy. He curiously sent his consciousness into it and a message instantly appeared in his mind.

"All disciples are to head to the Resources Hall to receive their monthly cultivation resources."

"Monthly cultivation resources…? That's right. It's about time." Long Feng slowly rose to his feet, feeling refreshed.

"Rank six spirit realm cultivation and my demon Dao and light Daos have both reached rank eight… not bad. Let's go see what these resources are." Long Feng clenched his fists, sensing the energy flowing through his veins. The feeling of growing stronger was really enjoyable. It was unfortunate that it never lasted. He quickly rushed out of the seclusion room and left the pavilion. He stopped in the public restaurant for a quick meal before he headed for the Resources Hall.

The resources hall was a rather large palace, though it would lose out to the Dao Heaven Hall in terms of size. There was a long line of youths already present, waiting to receive their resources orderly. Long Feng calmly hid his aura to the best of his abilities and joined the long queue. The outer peak disciples were plenty, and Long Feng hadn't arrived very early, so it took a while to get to his turn. When it reached his turn, he handed over his token to be scanned and received a void ring.

He accepted the ring and left the palace while scanning through the contents of the ring.

"What're these?" Long Feng quickly noticed several oddly shaped stones. He had seen them before. The stones were less than half the size of Imperial crystals, just slightly larger than a thumb. No matter how he looked, there didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary about them except for the faint glow they exuded. Among the rewards he received from the Overlord continents, Long Feng remembered seeing similar stones.

There were just ten of them and Ao Zhentian had refused to explain what they were, telling him he would understand them soon. Now, he found another ten within this void ring he received just now. There was no Imperial crystals, just ten of these stones. This caused Long Feng's curiosity to rise. After the ten strange stones, there was a single pill bottle with one smoothly round pill inside it. The pill emitted a gentle fragrance that soothed Long Feng's energy. The grade of this pill was definitely not low.

Unfortunately, Long Feng had no idea what both the stones and the pill were used for! He was left speechless, unable to decide what to do. How exactly was he supposed to use resources he didn't know about? Take the stones for example. He couldn't sense any energy to absorb from them. He wouldn't need to chew them to uncover their uses right? … As he slowly walked towards his pavilion, he suddenly looked up, sensing several auras before him.

Five youths jumped out from behind the nearby trees and stood before him, staring at him with hostile gazes. Long Feng was startled by their appearance and instantly began to circulate his spirit energy cautiously while staring at them. The youth who appeared to be the leader of the five glanced at Long Feng and frowned.

"Rank six spirit realm? Could I be seeing things?" He murmured. He could really sense the weak aura of a rank five spirit realm warrior from this kid. But was that even possible? How could such a weak cultivation be within the outer peak? One of the four youths behind the leader stared at Long Feng with a weird gaze before he stepped forward and muttered something into the ears of the leader. The leader was obviously astonished briefly before he glanced at Long Feng again.

"A rank five spirit realm warrior joining the sect? Is that a joke? It appears that he made a breakthrough recently to rank six." The others were startled after hearing that and they burst out laughing after sensing Long Feng's cultivation.

"He really is a rank six spirit realm warrior! What's he doing here?"

"Kid, are you here to clean the sewers? Or did you lose your way?" The leader also found this extremely funny. He stared at Long Feng and took a step forward, releasing some of his aura. Rank eight Imperial realm!

"Kid, I am Xu Kui. I don't want to waste time. Hand over the low grade essence stones you received as well as the spirit purifying pill and we'll let you go." He spat coldly. Long Feng stared at him with a narrowed gaze while he thought, "low grade essence stones? Are those what those stones are called? And spirit purifying pill?" The names sounded grand. It would be great if their uses were similarly astounding.

"Kid, are you deaf? The rules may prevent me from killing you but keeping you bedridden for a few months isn't against the rules!" Xu Kui exclaimed coldly after taking Long Feng's silence as hesitation. The other four youths spread out and surrounded Long Feng. Each of them was a rank six Imperial. Long Feng watched them calmly. Such a lineup… even with his recent breakthrough, he wouldn't be able to face this. After pondering for a bit and weighting the pros and cons, Long Feng sighed and shook his head.

"All of them?" He asked calmly. Xu Kui frowned slightly and thought for a few seconds before shaking his head.

"I won't take advantage of you. You're very weak here. I will take eight of your essence stones as protection fee each month. If you need help or fall into trouble, find me and I'll help you out. As for the spirit purifying pill, you can keep that one." He shamelessly said with a straight face. Long Feng fell silent for brief moment before he nodded. Then without saying a word, he took out eight of the so called essence stones and threw them at Xu Kui.

Then without waiting for a second more, he left their encirclement and continued on his way to his pavilion. No one could see the extreme chill in his pupils at this moment. Long Feng's pride was unbelievable great. For him to quietly hand over his essence stones was already very restrained and calm of him. He remembered that Ao Zhentian had told him repeatedly not to make enemies and stay low key. He shouldn't even argue with anyone, no matter what.

He also thought about his weakness and the fact that he had absolutely no backing here. It was best to stay calm. If it was before the Limitless blood assassin's chase, then Long Feng would have never handed over his essence stones even if he was going to suffer. He would rather get beaten up than to let his pride get hurt. But now… he knew that too many things were at stake. Recklessness wouldn't help him at all. Right now, he needed to be absolutely calm and rational.

That didn't mean he would let anyone take his things.

"Xu Kui… hold my stones for me. I'll collect them back with interest soon." Long Feng's eyes glimmered coldly as he walked away. What protection fee? They were just trying to take his essence stones every month. If he really got into trouble, Long Feng didn't doubt one bit that Xu Kui would not even spare him so much as a glance, not to mention give a hand. He changed his direction after that. There was no reason to return to his pavilion just yet. He has quite a few things to do.

"First, I'll visit the missions hall and pick one or two missions I can complete to earn some Heaven runes. Then I'll visit the shop shown on the map. According to the jade, the shop has almost everything, from resources to treasures. I'll see what a few heaven runes can get me. It'll be good if I can get some body tempering and soul cultivation treasures. I have abandoned both my body and soul cultivation for a while now.

Once my cultivation reaches rank nine spirit realm, I'll enter the ancient sword legacy remnant once again and try to comprehend my rudimentary sword intent."