Chapter 370: Challenge to Battle

Looking at the brilliantly colored flower buds-like plants in his mental sea, which were completely unlike any plant on Earth—without roots or stems and having only nine leaves that tightly wrapped around itself and floated in the mental sea—Ye Feng could sense that it was slowly absorbing information about him.
When he sent a beam of mental energy toward it, the nine leaves began to react to it. The leaves, which had been tightly wrapped together, seemed to come to life, gently fluttering with excitement.
“It reacts to mental energy. Could it be activated using mental energy?” Ye Feng guessed.
“But if it only flutters inside the mental sea, it probably can’t serve as much of a defense or attack tool, right?” Ye Feng wasn’t sure how to use this plant properly.
With no other choice, he withdrew his mental energy and directed it toward the Void Realm. “Yuhuang, that seed has germinated in my mental sea and grown nine leaves…”
“As expected, nine leaves!” Yuhuang was delighted. “Nine leaves mean it belongs to the top tier of Sacred Realm plants.”
“But I don’t know how to use it,” Ye Feng said, revealing the purpose of his inquiry.
“There are many types of Sacred Realm plants. After forming a contract with humans, they choose different locations to reside in—some in the heart, some in the dantian, some in the limbs, and even some in the spine… Your case, where it resides in the mental sea, is rare but not unheard of.”
“So how should I use it?” Ye Feng pressed.
“Since it chose to reside in the mental sea, its primary attribute is mental power, allowing it to perform mental attacks and defenses. Its usage principle is similar to mental weapons—just activate it with mental energy.” Yuhuang clearly had prior experience with such plants and weapons, so he knew quite a bit about them.
“The stronger your mental energy, the more powerful it will be. Of course, in addition to that, I think you should also find one or two secret manuals on using mental energy. Such manuals can help you use mental energy more skillfully, enabling you to accomplish more with less effort. They can also improve your control precision.” Yuhuang offered good advice.
“Thank you. I’ll think about it first. I don’t have any manuals on mental energy yet, and it probably won’t be easy to get them.” Ye Feng slowly withdrew his mental energy from the Void Realm.

He once again delved his mental energy into his sea of consciousness to further study the seedling growing there. Ten days passed quickly, and for Ye Feng, these ten days were relatively easy. During the day, he wandered around with Pearl and others, shopping, while at night he hid in the cultivation realm to test the plant’s effectiveness in actual combat. Despite having no guidance from any secret manuals, Ye Feng made significant progress. At least, he could now successfully use his mental energy to make the plant strangle and defend against targets. The nine leaves of the plant he controlled possessed the hardness and sharpness of top-tier divine weapons in the real world. Even if used by a three-year-old child, their lethality would be astonishing. However, according to Yu Huang, even in their juvenile stage, the most advanced plants of the Sacred Realm could rival lower-tier sacred weapons in strength. But Ye Feng’s mental energy was too weak, allowing him to achieve only the strength of top-tier divine weapons—this was the limit he could handle. Additionally, manifesting the plant in the real world required enormous mental energy. Ye Feng’s ability to activate it increased from twice a day to ten times a day. After each bout of mental energy consumption, he would fall into a coma, and upon waking, his mental energy would improve to some extent. Yet even after ten years in the cultivation realm, this improvement only raised his mental energy from the early stage of the Semi-Divine Realm to its peak. Although there were few techniques involved and each use demanded a great deal of mental energy, the power of this ability was terrifying. Imagine nine top-tier divine weapons, comparable to the treasures of the Heavenly Realm, being controlled by Ye Feng’s mental energy—what a dreadful sight that would be. Ye Feng had tested this in the cultivation realm, and opponents who he could only defeat with all his strength before now were no match at all against this plant; a single strike was enough for instant death. This gave him even more confidence for the upcoming journey to the secret realm.

It was the day when Ye Feng’s top-grade divine crystal would be auctioned. He left the Training Realm early. Without the guidance of any secret manuals, he could only rely on training to enhance his control over his mental power. Ten nights in the real world were equivalent to another ten years in the Training Realm. Ten years of continuous practice had already enabled him to master his mental power with extreme precision, and he had also figured out some techniques for using it. Staying in the Training Realm for a few more days or fewer made little difference. Moreover, he was somewhat eager to see what price his top-grade divine crystal would fetch.

After settling Pearl and Long Yue in the Flowing Jade Hall, Ye Feng slowly walked out of the restaurant. He could guess what would happen on this day, because ever since news of the auction spread, the presence of powerful beings in this City of Darkness had grown increasingly dense. It was rare to find even a few demi-god-level strongmen throughout the entire Demon Realm, yet now thousands of them had gathered in this city, including nearly two hundred at the peak of the demi-god level—without even counting those who had hidden their auras. Among them, nearly ten people exerted a tremendous pressure on Ye Feng; it wasn’t the kind of pressure that demi-god-level strongmen could impose—it was a completely different level of power, one that could intimidate even the energies of the Heavenly Realm.

“Those nine people must be those who have condensed divine essences, right? What an overwhelming aura!” Ye Feng frowned slightly. “Although they’re tough to deal with, I’m not afraid at all right now. Even if they’re true god-level strongmen, I doubt their divine bodies are harder than top-grade divine artifacts! If they dare to provoke me, I won’t hesitate to use this as a warning to others!!!”

The moment Ye Feng stepped out of the restaurant, many people sensed his aura. His strength was evident to all—although he was only at the demi-god level, his power was likely comparable to that of early-stage true god-level strongmen. He was the kind of person many strongmen preferred to avoid.

Violet Supreme had moved to another restaurant as early as the day after the auction ended, joining other strongmen from the Immortal Realm. Pearl, however, was left behind by Ye Feng, and Violet Supreme didn’t say anything more about it.

Ye Feng strolled leisurely toward the auction venue, clearly sensing the impending storm. This City of Darkness was no longer what it used to be.

Suddenly, a powerful mental force swept over him. Ye Feng frowned slightly and tried to trace the source of the mental force—it was a dark-clothed warrior with a divine aura. When Ye Feng detected him, a killing intent flashed in the warrior’s eyes. Ye Feng’s lips curled slightly, and his own killing intent vanished as quickly as it appeared.

After sensing that killing intent, the warrior retracted his mental force, clearly believing that if Ye Feng dared act like this, he must have some backing. Though he was unwilling to be suppressed by a semi-divine being, he had no choice but to endure it.

Many other powerful beings also observed this scene and were secretly shocked by Ye Feng’s actions. Although he could kill divine-level warriors despite being at a lower rank, provoking them as a semi-divine being was unwise and could attract the displeasure of other divine-level warriors.

Of course, Ye Feng didn’t care about any of this. First, he knew the other party definitely didn’t want to conflict with him at this moment. Second, in such a place, he absolutely couldn’t show weakness, otherwise, he would only attract more attention and trouble.

“Blade Edge,” the Purple Extreme Venerable called out from afar as they approached the auction hall entrance.

“Purple Extreme Venerable, you’ve arrived early!” Ye Feng said with a smile. He glanced around at the dozen or so people beside the Purple Extreme Venerable—two were at the divine level, while the rest were peak semi-divine beings. Finally, his gaze settled on the Purple Extreme Venerable. He faintly sensed that the Venerable seemed different from before, though he couldn’t explain why; he simply felt that the Venerable had become much stronger.

“Hahaha, this is a major matter concerning our Immortal Realm, so of course we had to get up early,” the Purple Extreme Venerable said, his smile genuine, seemingly unfazed by the previous dispute over the pearl. This made Ye Feng feel a bit strange.

“Come, let me introduce you to them. These are the strongest beings in our Immortal Realm,” the Purple Extreme Venerable began introducing them one by one. “First, let me introduce two elders who have already achieved divine auras: Pure Yang Immortal Ancestor and Six Paths Immortal Ancestor.”

Ye Feng bowed slightly to the two of them. Although they might not be his match in a real fight, they were stronger than him at this moment, and with the Purple Extreme Venerable by his side, it would be impolite of him to neglect them out of courtesy.

“No need for such formalities,” the two divine-level warriors said with satisfied smiles. Clearly, Ye Feng’s bow had lifted their pride a bit. They had also seen that the powerful demon realm divine-level warrior from earlier had been outmatched by Ye Feng.

“These are all peak semi-godly realm warriors from the Immortal Realm,” said Violet Extreme Venerable, pointing at a middle-aged man in blue robes holding a sword in his arms. “He is the Heavenly Sword Immortal Venerable—a powerful swordmaster who has even slain early-stage true gods. You should get to know him well.”
“Oh,” Ye Feng’s eyes lit up. If a semi-godly realm warrior capable of fighting an early-stage true god was one in a hundred, then one who could kill such a being was one in ten thousand. After all, being at the true god level meant they already had some control over divine realm techniques. Even if they couldn’t be defeated, it would be difficult for semi-godly realm warriors to catch up if they tried to escape.
But this man here could kill a true god—this could only mean his cultivation method had something special about it.
The man glanced at Ye Feng with a sword-like gaze, and Ye Feng met his stare without flinching. The powerful sword intent from his eyes reached the outskirts of Ye Feng’s mental sea, only to be shattered instantly by the plants within. The man was slightly surprised before offering Ye Feng a slight smile.
“What a formidable guy. Just with his gaze, he can implant sword intent into others’ mental seas, making them think the opponent is invincible. But my mental sea isn’t so easy to invade. Not to mention the martial manuals, cultivation realms, and void realms hidden within, even just one plant is comparable to nine top-tier soul-based defensive artifacts. Moreover, after all this time of training, my mental strength is now almost on par with that of a divine realm warrior—only slightly weaker. It’s completely impossible for him to influence me with this.” Ye Feng also nodded and smiled at him.
Violet Extreme Venerable briefly introduced the other peak semi-godly realm warriors, but Ye Feng didn’t pay much attention to them. Among those in the Immortal Realm, the only one who posed a slight threat to him was the Heavenly Sword Immortal Venerable, but he still treated him with courtesy.
“Heavenly Sword Immortal Venerable, after this is over, would you be willing to have a duel?” Ye Feng subtly moved closer to the Heavenly Sword Immortal Venerable, though his voice was clearly heard by the other warriors.
“Sure!” the Heavenly Sword Immortal Venerable agreed readily. “I was just thinking about how to ask for a duel without being presumptuous. It seems you were faster than me.”
“Then it’s settled!” Ye Feng smiled and entered the auction hall first.

“As expected, the blade wielder possesses strength on par with that of a true god.” This challenge confirmed to many powerful figures their previous suspicions. If it had been just Ye Feng who issued the challenge, it wouldn’t have proven this idea, but since the Heavenly Sword Immortal also expressed a desire to fight, it meant he recognized that the opponent’s strength was no less than his own. Thus, Ye Feng’s true strength was finally recognized by the outside world.