Chapter 5378: The True Performance Begins The energy that had surged into his body earlier ensured that his spirit power was on the same level as Jie Ranqing’s. Under such circumstances, the one with superior world spiritist techniques would emerge victorious. While Jie Ranqing’s first attack was not weak, it was nothing more than a move for her to probe her enemy. Not allowing Chu Feng any time to rest, she began preparing her second move. Countless beautiful lotuses began forming around her, but behind their beauty laid a deadly threat. It was a powerful offensive formation that surpassed the might of the previous one. Chu Feng hurriedly constructed a protective formation to shield himself. Once the lotuses had finished forming, their petals suddenly shot toward Chu Feng. Each and every one of these innocuous petals contained incredible destructive might. To make things worse, these petals didn’t just assault him from the front but instead encircled him. This was an extremely powerful formation that surpassed every single formation Chu Feng had grasped. After all, Jie Ranqing was a prodigy of the Seven Realms Sacred Mansion, so her formations were bound to be much stronger than what Chu Feng had learned. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺 Chu Feng didn’t have formations that were on par with Jie Ranqing’s, but he had inherited Lord Qin Jiu’s world spiritist techniques. That allowed him to draw incredible power out of weaker formations. Even so, it would still have been difficult for him to withstand his mother’s attack. So, he decided to construct a smaller shield-shaped formation instead of a conventional spherical barrier. This shield-shaped formation could not comprehensively protect Chu Feng from all directions, but its condensed defensive prowess allowed him to better withstand the might of the flower petals. It was just that the shield-shaped formation’s coverage was too small that Chu Feng had to flit around together with the shield in order to avoid being attacked by the flower petals from his opening. This wouldn’t have been an easy feat for normal world spiritists, but it didn’t pose a challenge to Chu Feng. While his formations were weaker than Jie Ranqing, his control of spirit power surpassed her. It looked like Chu Feng was in an advantageous position in this clash, but only marginally so. “How is it going, Chu Feng?” Eggy asked worriedly. Even though Jie Ranqing’s battle sense was inferior to Chu Feng’s, she compensated for it by easily pulling out all kinds of powerful formations through her overwhelming talent. This was the prowess of a true prodigy. Jie Ranqing was far stronger than any prodigy Chu Feng had ever encountered. It would be difficult for him to defeat her. “She’s my mother, after all. It’s only right for her to be this strong. But I’ll have to defeat her in order to claim this Ancient Palace’s fortuitous encounter. It looks like I have no choice but to resort to other means …” Chu Feng quickly fell into a disadvantageous position right after. It looked as if he had lost his strength to counterattack. He was either frantically dodging Jie Ranqing’s attacks or barely putting up a defense against them. It looked like he had reached his limit, but somehow, he was somehow still managing to evade all of her attacks. Jie Ranqing started to panic when she saw how her powerful formations were failing to wound Chu Feng. She subconsciously assumed that she might be maintaining too big a safety distance between them, thus giving him the chance to react to her attacks. Thus, she began to close the distance between them. As soon as Jie Ranqing attempted to get close, Chu Feng charged at her. While this was only Jie Ranqing’s illusion, it was modeled based on her back when she challenged this Ancient Palace, so it possessed her battle sense too. She immediately realized Chu Feng’s intention and attempted to retreat so as to widen the safety distance once more. However, Chu Feng wrapped his body with a thick layer of spirit power, which allowed him to accelerate even further. At the same time, he manifested a formation sword out of a powerful slaughter formation. He had only fallen into a disadvantageous position earlier because he was busy constructing these two formations, but his efforts had now paid off. It was time for him to counterattack. The current distance between Chu Feng and Jie Ranqing was perfect for him to showcase the prowess of his movement formation. Morphing into a ray of light, he instantaneously caught up with Jie Ranqing. It was such a swift maneuver that the latter didn’t have time to construct a protective formation to defend herself. Perhaps realizing that she had been defeated, Jie Ranqing didn’t bother to counterattack anymore and instead stood motionless on the spot. “Pardon me, mother. I have to clear this stage, and I have no choice but to defeat you.” Even though Chu Feng knew that the Jie Ranqing before him was an illusion, he was still reluctant to raise his hand against his mother. Much to his surprise, his mother suddenly turned around to look at him with narrowed eyes. His heart shuddered. Could it be that this illusion of my mother is able to comprehend my words? “Who could have thought that I’d be defeated here? I reckon that you’ll achieve great things in the future. If you are acquainted with me, you should quickly come to claim your reward from me. Otherwise, I’d love to get to know you too,” Jie Ranqing said. Chu Feng knew right away that he was thinking too much. These words were clearly left behind for the other members of the Seven Realms Sacred Mansion. She probably could have never imagined that it would be her son who would clear her formation, especially considering how young she was back then. After saying her piece, the formation dissipated into the surroundings as spirit power. This encounter further strengthened Chu Feng’s determination to become stronger. Only then would he be able to meet his mother and save her. Despite having won the battle, he had to concede that his mother was truly powerful. After all, his mother was much younger than him when she left this formation behind. “Eggy, I’m still far too weak. My mother has already reached White Dragon God-cloak at such a young age, whereas I have only reached her level now,” Chu Feng said with a sigh. “You dumbo. Your mother was a prodigy who enjoyed the best resources in the world of cultivation from a young age, whereas you started your journey from the backward Nine Provinces Continent and had to vie for resources on your own. Don’t forget how difficult it had been for you to obtain even a single Immortal Spirit Flower back then! It’s already a miracle that you are able to reach your current level of cultivation at this age.” Eggy meant these words from the bottom of her heart. She had been together with Chu Feng thus far, so she knew better than anyone how difficult his journey had been. “Milady Queen, I’ll start getting arrogant if you continue praising me like that!” Chu Feng laughed gleefully at the high evaluation he had received from Eggy. “Go ahead then. I permit it,” Eggy said. The fog began to dissipate, but the keen-eyed Chu Feng noticed that it was forming several patterns in the midst of doing so. As a world spiritist, he recognized them as runes. He focused his attention on the patterns, even activating his Heaven’s Eye to avoid missing any detail. These patterns changed so quickly that the slightest lapse in attention could result in him missing a transformation, which could just prove to be vital. Moments later, the fog fully dissipated. Chu Feng gathered his spirit power right away to construct a formation in accordance with the runes he had gathered from the fog. The formation manifested into a formation blueprint. “Great, I succeeded!” Chu Feng was overjoyed when he saw the formation blueprint. Weng! Countless specks of light flowed out from the hall to surge into Chu Feng’s container, causing it to glow several times brighter than before. It looked almost like a mini sun by itself, lighting up the entire hall. “Waa, is this the reward you received for constructing that formation?” Eggy asked. She could tell that the reward was immense. “No, it was the reward I received from defeating my mother,” Chu Feng replied. “What’s the use of the formation blueprint you comprehended from the fog?” Eggy asked. “There’s a secret to it.” “What secret?” “It is a secret formation. Eggy… there might just be a chance I could decipher the true secret of this Ancient Palace,” Chu Feng said. “The true secret of this Ancient Palace? Will it be… dangerous?” As excited as Eggy was, she was also worried for Chu Feng. She didn’t think that it would be easy to obtain the secret. “It doesn’t seem like it’ll be dangerous, though it will be troublesome. I won’t be able to do it alone. I’ll need to gather the strength of everyone inside the Ancient Palace,” Chu Feng said. “Everyone inside the Ancient Palace?” Eggy asked. “Yes. I’ll need as much help as I can get for the next stage,” Chu Feng said. “Do you mean to re-enter the Ancient Palace?” Eggy asked. “There’s no need for that. Once I activate this formation blueprint, everyone will be brought into the next stage,” Chu Feng said. “Oh? That’s convenient,” Eggy said. “But before then, I’ll have to become a little stronger lest I lose control of the situation,” Chu Feng said. He sat cross-legged on the ground, and the light specks inside the black container began to flow out and enter his body. He refined the light specks he absorbed and assimilated them into his own energy. It didn’t take long for the black container to be completely emptied out. “How is it, Chu Feng? Did you manage to achieve a breakthrough?” Eggy asked. Instead of answering the question, Chu Feng opened up his palm and released a whiff of spirit power. “Waaa!” Eggy screamed in excitement. She could sense that the spirit power was comparable to that of a Blue Dragon God-cloak World Spiritist! “Chu Feng, you… have reached Blue Dragon God-cloak?” Eggy could hardly believe it. She knew that Chu Feng needed a huge amount of cultivation resources to make a breakthrough, but somehow, he managed to skip right past Gray Dragon God-cloak to reach Blue Dragon God-cloak! That showed how great the cultivation resources he had stored inside the black container were. “I also didn’t think that I would reach Blue Dragon God-cloak just like that. It looks like it has been a fruitful trip,” Chu Feng said. “What about your fighting prowess? Is it still the same?” Eggy asked. “It is. My spirit power is comparable to that of a Purple Dragon God-cloak World Spiritist and a rank four Half-God level cultivator. In terms of formations, I can rival a Gold Dragon God-cloak World Spiritist,” Chu Feng said. “That’s wonderful!” Eggy was glad to hear that Chu Feng retained his heaven-defying battle power despite having advanced his spirit power. “It’s time for us to show the juniors of the Seven Realms Sacred Mansion what we are capable of!” Chu Feng said as he turned his attention toward the formation blueprint.