Chapter 19: Infinite Spirit Ring
The flame inside the Blood Eagle Mansion soared to the heavens; the fire crackled, and it was unknown as to when it would be extinguished.
The servants, who were originally tied to the pillar, had long been rescued and the five thousand city guards carrying black banners had long been in an ambush outside the mansion.
"Kill!"
"Tonight is the night of the Eagle Claw gang's demise!"
"Young Master Feng is wise with heavenly might; he beheaded San Ye, destroyed the Eagle Claw gang, and he protected the people from evil!"
"Kill them without leaving even a scrap of armor behind!"
***
Five thousand city guards were adorned in black armor with long spears in hand, and they were riding red tigers; they were truly as fierce as a black dragon flying to this place. Wherever the black dragon touched, bodies would drop to the ground one by one.
The sound of their chants shook the earth.
It was already determined that tonight would not be peaceful; the whole Spirit State City was shrouded in smoke as it became a battlefield filled with soldiers possessing morale as high as a rainbow. [1. Describes the spirit is extremely high, extremely heroic spirit.]
"San Ye is dead, and anyone who surrenders will be spared!"
Someone brought the bloody clothings of San Ye on top of a spear head, and that person yelled at the top of his lungs. The gang members of the Eagle Claw gang, who were already scared, became even more frightened; their morale was completely shattered, and they lost the will to fight against the city guards.
In this war, Feng Feiyun didn't have to waste too much effort. Even though the Eagle Hawk gang had a few thousand members, they crumbled in the end. First, he used the five thousand city guards left outside the city to confuse San Ye's eyes, then he hid a group of elites inside the treasure chests on top of the gift carriages brought into the Blood Eagle Mansion; the whole attack caught the enemies with their hands behind their backs, and he later used the expert from the Yin Gou Ward to slay San Ye and completely destroy the rest of the enemy's morale.
Sieging the castle was secondary, sieging the hearts was essential! [2. Originally from the Sun Tzu, rephrased by Ma Su.]
Making the enemy lose their confidence, that was half the battle.
This perfect battle had demonstrated Feng Feiyun's courage and excellent planning; he risked himself to infiltrate the enemy's nest. Using himself as bait to attract San Ye's attention, this was the key to defeating the enemy.
Within only one hour, the battle had concluded. The Blood Eagle Mansion was left with more than one thousand corpses, and the remaining gang members had all surrendered; they were escorted by the city guards to Spirit State City's prison.
When the battle ended, Feng Wanpeng, Feng Suiyu, and Strategist Ge all rushed over. A row of black clothed men were squatting along the street, signaling their surrender with both hands in the air — a few thousand people surrendered.
This was the Eagle Claw gang that was always terrorizing the people?
Feng Suiyu couldn't believe his own eyes. He clenched his teeth, both eyes were red, and his heart was filled with rage:
"Feng Feiyun is just an idiot, how could he have such strategies? Let alone such courage? This is absolutely impossible!"
However, the were facts laid in front of him; he had no choice but to admit that Feng Feiyun was indeed an expert at military strategy. He had exceptional intelligence, and he was definitely not a mediocre person.
As Feng Feiyun became more and more like a genius, Feng Suiyu felt an even greater crisis; his eyes flashed with hints of obscured killing intent.
In recent times, Strategist Ge had witnessed the intelligence and the instantaneous growth of Feng Feiyun. In his heart, he was ecstatic; sighing:
"Good and well hidden schemes; a strong heart and mind; sieging the castle; deceiving the enemy; even I couldn't lay such a perfect plan. Governor, the future of Young Master Feng is without limits. If Young Master participates in the Military Strategy Iron Council, he will definitely make a big wave. He will be suddenly renowned like a phoenix flying in the nine heavens.
Feng Wanpeng's mind, at the moment, was even more agitated. His eyes were accompanied with a myriad of feelings, and his fingers tapped on his armor again and again; he lifted his head, looking in the far distance, and he bitterly said:
"Feng Xuan, do you see? Feng Feiyun has truly grown up. If you could see this, would you smile just once?"
Feng Wanpeng's throat motioned up and down and his watery eyes had tears running freely, but they were clear tears of happiness.
He was too excited! He couldn't stop being ecstatic even if he tried!
***
The night was like a delicate silk pattern, swallowing the entire heaven and earth.
Feng Feiyun flew out from the sea of flames, passed the high walls, and disappeared into the small forest outside of the mansion. In his hand was a black ornamental ring, and on it was six or eight engravings of ancient runes. [3. It's clearly 7 but the author uses "6 or 8" to be poetic.]
The black ornamental ring was taken from the hand of San Ye's dead body.
Even though it was only an ornamental ring, it weighed more than ten pounds; the density, compared to black steel, was greater by tens of times.
"A quasi-spiritual treasure cannot be underestimated; however, outside of the heavy weight, I can't feel any other mysteries that could be hidden within it."
Feng Feiyun held the black ornamental ring in his hand; whether it was injecting spirit energy or placing blood on it, there was no sign of change. It was as if it was indeed an ordinary stone pebble.
"These seven ancient runes... Quite mysterious!"
His eyes noticed the seven ancient runes on the body of the ornamental ring; each of the words were as big as a fly's leg. With the eyesight of an ordinary person, one wouldn't be able to identify these runic words. Even with Feng Feiyun's current cultivation, he could barely see them; however, he couldn't recognize them or their meaning.
The seven runic words were truly ancient; it was as if they were seven symbols from an old age.
"Oh!"
Feng Feiyun lightly mumbled. When he put the ornamental ring in his right palm, he felt the spirit vessel, hidden in his hand, become startled. It started to jump around; It was like the spirit vessel had hopped into his blood vessels and decided to take a stroll.
Maybe there was a connection between the Infinite Spirit Ring and the Bronze Azure Spirit Vessel?
Right now, Feiyun was both surprised and scared. The spirit vessel was truly mysterious; to be able to merge with the body was definitely something only a Holy Saint Spirit Treasure could do. If the Infinite Spirit Ring could be connected to the spirit vessel, then it couldn't just be a simple quasi-spiritual treasure.
Feng Feiyun, full of excitement, brought the ornamental ring onto his right palm, on top of the spirit vessel, and a magical event happened.
The seven ancient runes on the Infinite Spirit Ring slowly rotated like they were seven fishes swimming in a river.
"Phoosh!"
"Phoosh!"
From the Infinite Spirit Ring came a black blooming brilliance; it was as if they were strings of evil black ghosts, causing the dark night to become even more gloomy and sinister.
The remnants of the Bronze Azure Spirit Vessel in Feiyun's palm, that had disappeared in his bloodstream, also emitted a bright azure light like a heavenly blue lamp.
The black aura and the bright azure light appeared at the same time within the palm of Feng Feiyun!
"Hghhh! Hghhhh! Hghhhh! Hggh... Hggh!"
The seven ghosts from the Infinite Spirit Ring wouldn't stop flying. They turned into different shapes becoming seven mysterious pictures: "Dragon Horse River Diagram", "Eight Trigrams Mysterious Language", "Four Yang Ancient Cauldron", "Netherworld Spirit Pagoda", "Heavenly Flying King", "Hundred Ghosts Banquet", and "Ten Thousand Lights".
It was fortunate that Feng Feiyun's knowledge was vast, otherwise he would be extremely frightened by this scene; all seven paintings created a divine pressure, and the ideas behind them were profound. Only a simple strand of their power would have given people difficulty in breathing.
The seven ancient runic words turned out to be seven different paintings, no wonder why no one had figured it out. Without the help of the spirit vessel in waking them up, Feng Feiyun would most likely not have been able to solve the secret of the Infinite Spirit Ring using his whole lifetime.
"Boom!"
The seven ancient paintings hovering in the air, shattered. They turned into small strands of black smoke, and they flew back into the Infinite Spirit Ring; they became the seven tiny ancient runic words engraved into the ring.
Feng Feiyun didn't have time to think about what exactly happened; inside his body was another sky shattering and earth shifting change.
The spirit vessel's remnants also sunk into the body and its imprint, from the palm, disappeared without a trace.
At the same time, Feiyun's blood seethed with excitement. There was a blue light within his blood vessels, and his blood started becoming jet black like ink; hidden with a magical shining aura, enumerating dazzling black mysterious rays.
"Boom!"
Feiyun's dantian exploded, the spirit pathway in his dantian quickly expanded, and the spirit energy in his blood frantically poured inside.
Inside the spirit pathway, each strand of spirit energy was like a small river converging into a sea as big as the Yellow River.
The spirit pathway that connected the heart to the dantian caused his breathing to increase by nine times in a short span of time; it was as if a divine waterfall had taken over his bloodstream.
This was a sign of Spirit Realm grand completion!
Feng Feiyun had stepped into the peak of the Spirit Realm.
Everything had not ended as the Bronze Azure Spirit Vessel, which was smaller compared to a grain of rice, kept on moving through his bloodstream. Each of its full revolutions doubled the spirit energy inside the body of Feng Feiyun.
The spirit vessel was like a pool of spirit energy for him. It continuously completed circulations throughout Feiyun bloodstream; when it would stop was unknown.
Feng Feiyun's cultivation continued to rapidly grow; little by little it increased!
The spirit pathway in his dantian, that connected to his heart, also had a new subtle change; it slowly condensed into the form of an immortal plant sprout. This was the process of going from the "Spirit Realm" into "Immortal Foundation."
Many practitioners who cultivated for decades were blocked by this blockade, but Feng Feiyun borrowed the strength of the spirit vessel; thus, it was possible for him to break this blockade. His body would now begin forming its immortal foundation.
Once the immortal foundation was condensed, then he would be at the first step onto the true road of cultivation. One could practice many magical and unbelievable methods such as: "Target Seeking Sword", "Wind Pressure Saber", "Thousand Miles Seeing Eyes", "All Hearing Ears", "Water Treading Steps", and "Spatial Traversing Grasp".
Once one reached the Immortal Foundation rank, they could obtain spirit beast as slaves, excavate mysterious spirit stones, search for spirit plants, and refine spirit pills...
The strength of an Immortal Foundation cultivator was ten times that of a Spirit Realm cultivator.
The second level of the cultivation world was Immortal Foundation; Immortal Foundation was the beginning — the essence of becoming an immortal.
Reaching the Immortal Foundation rank allowed for one to become a governor of one city and dominate a region, just like a true master. In a few cultivation sects, once this rank was reached, one could leave his apprenticeship and freely roam the world.