Here is your second chapter of the day!  I'm sure you guys enjoyed Feng Yun trashing Zhou Yanling in the last chapter. Well, I'm gonna go to sleep now cuz I am dead tired from this shit and, I have a damn swim meet later.

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The following parts of the day was quite eventful though Feng Yun was dead tired from fighting and merely wished to cultivate in peace. He had found out from Dong Fuzhen that he would be transferred to a different tent. Feng was surprised at first but then realized that he would have to sleep somewhere else due to his new position as commander. He requested Dong Fuzhen for permission to place his tent in the original place he slept, with the 5th Battalion and Xia Qing. He wouldn't be really that comfortable being anywhere else and he was happy where he was. When asked by Dong Fuzhen why he replied,

"I wish to be near my companion."

"Hoh, that girl eh? So, what's the relationship between you and that girl? Is she possibly your..."

"Don't spit such drivel old man. She is my best friend. How can I have such profane thoughts? Furthermore, we are only twelve." Feng Yun had been shocked by the question and fiercely rebuked him while letting out some of his killing aura. Dong Fuzhen snickered and said,

"Oh, just a friend? Well, with your looks, it's only a matter of time. It's never too late to do things like...well...I don't want to talk about in front of a little kid but, you will have to know sooner or...."

"Old man, your mouth is full of intensive diarrhea! Shall I paste it shut?!" Feng Yun said angrily. The killing intent grew even stronger, to the point that it could be seen making a tyrannical illusion behind him. Dong Fuzhen laughed and walked away, off to handle the movement of the tent. He was quite amused by the expressions that Feng Yun had made. Feng Yun however, was exasperated with the old man's nonsensical remarks and thought a bit about the matter he had discussed. Xia Qing huh? She was just a friend. Besides, it's not as if she liked him in turn. Shaking his head, he cleared all thoughts about that and headed back to his previous area to cultivate and relax his body. At the same time, he was curious to find out the special features that the Ensealing Cloudvine Symbol had and why this was so. As he thought about this, he became excited and hurried back in a good mood. He had gained quite a treasure from his duel with Zhou Yanling.

As he got to his living quarters, he noticed that the atmosphere around the 5th Battalion was much heavier than usual. Not heavy in the sense that everyone was filed with gloom, but heavy in the sense that there was tension. Meng Rou and Cang Lin had been sharpening their blades and Duo Ling had been training his sword arts. Only Xia Qing had been quite leisurely and merely cultivating for sometime. When she saw Feng Yun approach the camp, she smiled brightly and exited her cultivation session. Meng Rou, Cang Lin and Duo Ling however had different expressions on their face. There was reverence, pride but also tension and a lack of familiarity. Feng Yun almost frowned at this. It seems that they were having trouble adjusting to the new position Feng Yun held. They all stood up and shouted,

"Welcome back Commander!" Even Duo Ling, who was supposed to be the leader of the 5th Battalion wasn't disrespectful at all. Feng Yun let out a sigh that was filled with regret and exasperation.

"Calling a twelve year old commander, don't you guys feel any shame at all? God, just call me how you usually call me, Qiu Yun! We are people who have been through conflict together. There is no reason to stand on formalities." Feng Yun firmly told them. The three were surprised and impressed with the level of maturity that Feng Yun showed. They then began to chuckle slightly to themselves. They had gotten the point. Duo Ling, however could not help but say,

"Roger that...Commander!" Feng Yun turned around and narrowed his eyes. 

"God damn it, don't call me that. It makes me feel uncomfortable and a bit old. When I reach a certain age, then you can call me that."

"You mean you will still stay with the Death Singer Mercenaries?" Duo Ling asked.

"Hmm, I will leave the group perhaps temporarily to get stringer. When I am done with my training, I will come back to help you guys out. I never did say I would just quit. Even more so now because that old bastard Dong Fuzhen gave me a damn position!" Feng Yun replied. In truth he had thought about this for a while and decided that he sort of liked these people. He felt that once he grew powerful, he would support this group and help them rise. Feng Yun then walked off and found a spot to cultivate elsewhere. The other three besides Xia Qing were dumbfounded. They hadn't expected such an answer. However, they let out happy smiles. If they had someone as talented as Feng Yun supporting them, it would not be long before the Death Singer Mercenaries became one of the most prominent groups n the continent! Who would not be happy knowing of this? The three members also had a new found respect for Feng Yun. He was incredibly strong, he wasn't arrogant and he was easy to get along with. With these qualities, how can you not like him? The three resumed their preparations in a good mood.

Meanwhile, Feng Yun was busy cultivating. He had realized that during the battle with the bald commander and the bandits, if he had a higher level of cultivation, then perhaps, he would have been able to deal with the man by himself. Unfortunately, his cultivation was only at the third layer of the Xiantian realm. He was a bit too weak in comparison with the other commanders' level of cultivation despite his techniques and Void Element backing him up. He needed to raise his cultivation at least another layer or two in order to stand with the others and be able to defend himself better now. Feng Yun submerged himself within the Universal Bindings technique and layer there, among the stars, dragging the energy of Heaven and Earth towards him. Feng Yun decided to cultivate for a few hours as he still wanted to investigate the artifact. During these few hours, he pushed himself to get closer and closer to the fourth stage of the Xiantian realm. Unfortunately, he didn't make it to the end, however, he had made progress and it wouldn't be long before he could break through. Since he had already been accumulating energy within his dantian for a long amount of time in order to stabilize his foundation, just a little more would be enough. 

Feng Yun exited the session with a calm expression on his face. The Universal Bindings technique did not cause you to suffer pain while cultivating or breaking through, as many techniques do. On the contrary, it gives you an extremely refreshing feeling that rejuvenates the body's functions and makes one feel cool. At the same time, it rapidly sped up cultivation and even gave you techniques. Still, the process for obtaining these techniques was quite hard. You had to obtain the recognition of the universe. Who had ever heard of such a thing? And how was it possible to have an eternal and incomparably powerful  celestial body like the universe accept you? But heaven was fair and it actually did accept Feng Yun, at least one of the techniques. However, he was determined to find other ones as he became stronger. 

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Feng Yun shook away all thoughts of this as his attention focused on another thing. The artifact he had won from Zhou Yanling. He was truly curious about the origins of such an artifact. He opened up his Void Universal Manual and willed the artifact to appear. There it was, a small jade colored seal with the embroidery of a cloud and several azure vines. It still gave off a terrifying aura despite the energy having been depleted quite a bit by Zhou Yanling. As expected the aura of a Truth realm cannot just dissipate lime that. How fearsome! Feng Yun's eyes shined with yearning. He would become that powerful as well.

Feng Yun honestly did not know exactly how he should inspect it. He didn't even know how it works! 

"Hm, well first, I should probably check out the runes. Those were what Zhou Yanling activated to bring upon that terrifying power." Feng Yun stroked the runes slightly, feeling the grooves in the jade and seeing if he could find some way to activate it. He decided to our his Yuan energy into it to see if it would respond.

Sure enough, it did.

The Ensealing Cloudvine Symbol began to glow and raise it's terrifying aura another level. The energy that was being released was clearly not a joke moreover, Feng Yun realized that using this artifact was quite taxing. It already took a toll on his Yuan energy. Zhou Yanling was able to maintain it for as long as she did mostly because her cultivation was greater and her pool of Yuan energy was much larger. However, Feng Yun's cultivation was low and he couldn't possibly hold onto it for too long. However, it was still enough for him to understand the object. While inspecting the aura, he noticed a yellowish color coming from deep within the manifestation of the vines. That was obviously Earth elemental energy coursing through the emblem's runes. Feng Yun had a strong affinity for all the elements so he would know when he saw earth elemental energy. Furthermore, this energy appeared to be shaped and configured in order to match the runes on the emblem. This meant that the earth elemental energy was used to create the real life vines from the emblem.

Feng Yun thought hard about where he had seen such a thing appear before. An artifact that can take properties given to them by a Truth Realm expert and create manifestations of the runes engraved on the object. This all connected back to when Feng Yun was still residing at the Cloudscale Sect. At a meeting between the elders of the sect, he had seen the people walking in to the meeting room. There was thirteen elders in all that went in. However, there was one of those elders that caught Feng Yun's eye. He was quite young, about thirty years old and had a strength only slightly weaker than Feng Luo. The man was what Feng Yun referred to as his Uncle Ming Chen. He was the thirteenth elder and also the latest elder to join the sect. He was very renown for his battle prowess and skills with a spear. A spear, that was it!

Every time Ming Chen would go somewhere, without fail, he would bring his spear along. However, this spear was not normal. Feng Yun could tell because he had gone near it and it had immediately oppressed him until he was face down into the floor.  The spear possessed a tyrannical might and Feng Yun had seen faint traces of a red like energy coursing through runes placed on the spear. Thinking back on it, that had to be fire energy! And the runes that were placed on it were similar in terms of type of writing yet different in terms of style when comparing it to the Ensealing Cloudvine Symbol. It seems the runes possessed a different meaning that the runes on the symbol. Feng Yun had gotten curious after seeing this when he was younger and had went to the library to see if he could find information about it. What he had found was...unexpected.

For he had found a Truth Artifact!

Truth Artifacts were basically objects which could come in any form or shape. They possessed an unfathomable power and were fueled by the elemental energy placed on them by their owner. They also had to have runes inscribed on them to become a full fledged Truth Artifact. The runes on a Truth Artifact were responsible for drawing out the special power of the object and using its ability in combat. The abilities could be either defensive, offensive or supportive. The Ensealing Cloudvine Symbol was an offensive artifact as it used the vines to attack. Every object had some ability within it. However, only Truth Realm cultivators could truly bring out the ability from it. What he had found, was a genuine Truth Artifact! Truth Artifacts were incredibly rare. Although all Truth realm cultivators had the capacity to do it, not all actually had the skill to form one. Xiantian realm cultivators used spiritual tools to assist them in battle. However once you got to the higher realms above that, they would become useless. That was where Truth artifacts came into play. If a Xiantian realm cultivator came into possession of a Truth artifact, then they would be virtually unstoppable for a period of time. This was because the artifact causes one to lose an incredibly large amount of Yuan Energy each time it was used. Therefore, in combat, they weren't always that good to use. If you couldn't defeat your opponent before you lost your Yuan energy, then you would be finished.

Feng Yun also remembered that there was a counterpart to Truth artifacts for the Tyrant realm but he did not know much about that. He was overcome with excitement for a bit before gradually cooling off. 

"Could I possibly be able to activate it?"

Feng Yun pure in his Yuan energy into the runes and tried to activate it. Sure enough, the glow appeared once more to respond to his will to activate the artifact. He smiled as he saw the copy of the runes begin to appear. The vines gradually began to grow lifelike until they were real. The same azure vines that had once tried to kill Feng Yun now served him and would attack on his will. 

"Haha, my own Truth Artifact. who would have known I would gain something like this from that piece of trash Zhou Yanling." Feng Yun was incomparably happy at this point. After all, with this, his combat power has risen up. Feng Yun, having already seen the results of the Ensealing Cloudvine Symbol, decided to put it away for now. He waved his hand to return it to the Void Universal Manual. Strangely enough, it did not react. The symbol stayed in the same place it was before. Feng Yun was confused. Why would it not go in?

"Return!" The symbol still did not move. Feng Yun narrowed his eyes and tried to figure out what was happening. He didn't have to think long as something completely unexpected happened the next moment. A black aura began to engulf Feng Yun and erupt from his body. This was the Void aura, but why was it out of his body? Feng Yun had not summoned it at all. He looked over at the symbol, which seemed to be shaking all over. The artifact looked like it was being strangled by something. The Void aura then, to Feng Yun's astonishment, then extended outwards towards the artifact. Feng Yun could not understand why such a phenomenon was happening, but when he saw the Void aura head towards the artifact, he received a bad premonition. 

"Shit!" He shouted, but it was too late. The Void aura had already reached the artifact.