Ning Cheng had just returned to the Stately River Star when he met Yi Jiufeng waiting for him outside.
“Senior Apprentice Sister Nine Phoenix, why are you here?” Ning Cheng put away the Starry Sky Wheel and asked a question.
The instant Yi Jiufeng saw Ning Cheng, relief washed over her face, “Senior Apprentice Brother Ning, I knew you’d be fine. Therefore, after finishing up a few things, I came here to wait for you.”
Ning Cheng quickly said, “Senior Apprentice Sister Nine Phoenix, let’s head to my Mysterious Yellow Sect to have a proper conversation. Staying outside and talking is not the way we treat guests.”
Yi Jiufeng shook her head, “Senior Apprentice Brother Ning, I came here to say my farewell to you. I’ll immediately leave after I finish what I came here to say and will not enter the Mysterious Yellow Sect. In truth, I was going to wait for you here for another month. If Senior Apprentice Brother Ning didn’t return even after a month, I would have already left.”
“Farewell?” Ning Cheng looked at Yi Jiufeng suspiciously. He didn’t understand what Yi Jiufeng meant. If Yi Jiufeng wanted to return to Spirit Heaven, she wouldn’t need to say farewells to him. Although he and Yi Jiufeng shared a relatively good ‘friendship’, none of them would bother with a small matter like a farewell. Much less wait for a few months outside to convey such a thing.
Yi Jiufeng understood Ning Cheng’s doubts. She sighed, “I plan to leave this side of the starry sky permanently. I’ve already handed over the reins to others. Not only me but Chuan Xinlou, Qiao Jierui and even Zhangkang Tianji have already left this place. If I didn’t guess wrong, they’d probably never return to this place. Just like them, once I leave this place, I will also not return.”
“Levelled Heart Heavenly Emperor is willing to leave Culmination Grand Starry Sky? I thought he would never give up unless he killed me.” Ning Cheng said with a chuckle.
Yi Jiufeng didn’t ridicule Chuan Xinlou this time. Instead, said with a lonely tone, “Compared to the vaster law worlds, even if we dominate this place for countless epochs, what could we even accomplish? We used to hide in this place and fight with each other. But we now understand that we were just frogs sitting in a well and watching the starry sky above. We had already known about the existence of positional planes with higher-levelled laws. But we now know that we wouldn’t need to reach Dao Confirming Realm to reach such positional planes. Therefore, who would willingly stay in this place?”
“Is it the five grand realms?” Ning Cheng understood a few things. Who’d willingly stay in this place for the rest of their lives while knowing about the existence of the five grand realms with much more complete laws? Among cultivators like Chuan Xinlou, Yi Jiufeng and the others, who among them did not have unique and brilliant talents or high ambitions? Such people would never stay in this place to die after knowing about the existence of more powerful positional planes.
“The grand realms?” Yi Jiufeng repeated the words in doubt. But she only spoke up after a long time, “I don’t know about them, but you can look at this.”
After Yi Jiufeng finished speaking, she took out a crystal and put it in Ning Cheng’s hand. Ning Cheng held the crystal and immediately felt the higher-grade Spiritual Qi swirling within it. Even Permanent Essence Pill’s pure Spiritual Qi felt inferior to it in quality. He looked at Yi Jiufeng in shock and asked, “What is this crystal?”
Ning Cheng had a vague impression that if he used these kinds of crystals for cultivation, he could enter the late-stage Eternal Realm within a short time. He wouldn’t even need to spend a lot of time in secluded cultivation.
“This is a cultivation crystal native to those people’s places. This kind of thing is as common as ordinary Starry Sky Crystals in our place. Even Dao Fruits aren’t a rare thing in that place.” Yi Jiufeng spoke with a sigh.
She thought back to the time when they all had ventured into the Ancient Shadow Temple together. Chuan Xinlou had obtained a Dao Fruit, yet it thoroughly surprised him and everyone else. Moreover, Chuan Xinlou even succeeded in reaching Dao Confirming using this Dao Fruit. This achievement far exceeded the three of them.
“You mean the place where that Ninth Prince came from?” Ning Cheng asked after returning the crystal to Yi Jiufeng.
“You can keep this crystal. I have a few more.” Yi Jiufeng pushed the crystal back to Ning Cheng and said once again, “Yes, the person who traded with us using these crystals is called Ku Sheng. Chuan Xinlou had severely injured Ku Sheng, so to save his life, he traded a lot of spiritual grasses with us. At the same time, he also helped us understand that the few of us were just frogs sitting at the bottom of a well and looking at the starry sky above.”
Ning Cheng felt even more puzzled, “Wasn’t Chuan Xinlou fighting Yi Mingyuan?”
Yi Jiufeng replied, “I’m not as good as Levelled Heart Heavenly Emperor. During the battle with Yi Mingyuan, he pretended to be severely injured and escaped. But in fact, he didn’t leave at all but hid outside the Mysterious Yellow Starland. Zhangkang Tianji and Qian Jierui also noticed Levelled Heart’s actions, and they too quickly rushed out of the Mysterious Yellow Starland. With all three gone, I naturally wouldn’t stay.”
“Ku Sheng already had some severe injuries, but he didn’t expect Chuan Xinlou would hide outside the Mysterious Yellow Starland. Ku Sheng wanted to escape, but we four had immediately trapped him within the starry sky. He held up the Escape Talisman and spoke about trading it for his life. He also said that if they didn’t agree to trade, he would immediately escape using the Breaking Boundary Talisman.
“Did he guide you on how to reach the high-grade interface, and even give you a top-grade Boundary Breaking Talisman?” Ning Cheng asked.
Yi Jiufeng nodded. “Yes, he took out a top-grade Breaking Boundary Talisman and said that using this talisman, we can approach the positional plane from where they came. Truthfully, I still don’t understand why he didn’t use this talisman to escape but decided to trade it with us. Was it because of that Ninth Price?”
Ning Cheng didn’t explain. He knew why Ku Sheng had to trade with Yi Jiufeng and the others. Ku Sheng stayed with the Ninth Price, probably for the same purpose as Yu Yuechen, for the Life Essence Place. Since Ku Sheng stayed beside the Ninth Prince for a purpose, he naturally wouldn’t escape to that place. It was quite a ridiculous idea that Ninth Prince thought that he had subdued all these people. Funnily enough, that Ninth Prince never thought that his ‘subordinates’ would all decide to follow him only to acquire his things one day.
“Since Chuan Xinlou and others have already left, would you be able to leave by yourself?” Ning Cheng thought that they only had one talisman. Yet, Yi Jiufeng didn’t go with Chuan Xinlou and the others. So now, even if she wanted to go to the Grand Essence Realm, she might not have a way to go.
Yi Jiufeng smiled, “I obtained an Opening Heaven Talisman’s Child Talisman in the Ancient Shadow Temple. I didn’t know what it was back then, but I know about it now. My talisman is much better than Ku Sheng’s talisman. So, I’m quite confident that I can reach it without their help.”
“Then I wish Senior Apprentice Sister Nine Phoenix a smooth journey.” Ning Cheng understood that Yi Jiufeng was determined to leave.
Yi Jiufeng, “Senior Apprentice Brother Ning, in addition to telling you this, there is one more thing. If you want to go together, you can come with me. I can tell that the Ninth Prince’s background is somewhat unusual. Therefore, even if we escaped from him back then, he wouldn’t stop pursuing us.”
Ning Cheng smiled, “I won’t leave for the time being, but Senior Apprentice Sister Nine Phoenix, you don’t have to worry. That Ninth Prince’s body has already collapsed. Even if he wants to recover and take revenge, it will take him many years. I suspect that Ninth Prince has already left this part of the interface. Unfortunately, I don’t know where he hid himself to heal.”
“What?” Yi Jiufeng felt truly shocked this time. Although she wanted to leave this place to pursue strength, she also worried that Ninth Prince would find her first. Now Ning Cheng said that he had severely injured that Ninth Prince, and that he didn’t even have a body anymore, it felt utterly ridiculous.
Yi Jiufeng naturally thought that it was Ning Cheng who had severely injured that Ninth Prince. She didn’t even know about Pan Qian.
“Is this true?” Yi Jiufeng asked again. She simply couldn’t believe what she heard.
Ning Cheng said affirmatively, “It’s true. If you don’t believe me, you can go to Sacred Light City to confirm. I have already razed the entire Sacred Light City to the ground.”
“Many thanks, Senior Apprentice Brother Ning. This time, I can feel completely confident in leaving behind Spirit Heaven.” Yi Jiufeng’s face filled with joy. Yet, she still talked about leaving this side of the interface.
Ning Cheng watched Yi Jiufeng leave before returning to Stately River Star’s Covered Snow City in a daze. Most of them, whether enemies or friends have all left one by one.
Ning Cheng knew that the highest cultivation he could achieve in this place would be Dao Confirming. But he couldn’t leave now. Even if Ning Cheng wanted to go, Ning Cheng would take at least Luofei and Ruolan with him. Moreover, he still had a few things to do. One was to enter the Ancient Shadow Temple, and the other was to study array formations in seclusion.
He had to become an Array Dao Master, and then go to the place where Yan Ji had teleported away.
……
Time flew by, and in a blink of an eye Ning Cheng stayed in Stately River Star for over three years.
In three years, in addition to improving his cultivation, Ning Cheng also focussed on refining better array formations while discussing the Dao of Pills with Cang Caihe. At this point, Ning Cheng’s cultivation sat firmly at the pinnacle of early-stage Eternal Realm, only one step away from middle-stage Eternal Realm.
But because of the unavailability of top-grade Starry Sky Spirit Grasses, his attainments in the Dao of Pills remained stagnant. Therefore, even if he came up with a bunch of theories, Ning Cheng couldn’t verify it. As for reaching the level of Array Dao Master, Ning Cheng understood that he still needed more accumulation.
Ji Luofei occasionally came out to meet Ning Cheng for a few days but spent most of the time in secluded cultivation. Ning Ruolan’s cultivation still was too low, so she put every scrap of available time into cultivation. Even Ning Ruoqing hadn’t come out of secluded cultivation. Ning Ruoqing’s seclusion needed a massive amount of Starry Sky Essence Spirit Qi, so Ning Cheng placed ten star veins under her seclusion cave.
But what puzzled Ning Cheng was that Duan Gantai didn’t come looking for him even once. It stood to reason that since Duan Gantai suffered such a significant loss, Duan Gantai would do everything he could to settle the account with him. Now that Ning Cheng remained in Stately River Star for a few years, Duan Gantai never appeared anywhere near it. It felt as if this person had disappeared out of existence.
After three years of consolidation, Ning Cheng knew that his cultivation couldn’t go any further after reaching this point. He had a different problem compared to others. Maybe other cultivators would eventually get to a breakthrough after accumulating enough and cultivating in seclusion for a long time. But for Ning Cheng, he couldn’t wait for so long. He didn’t have enough time to accumulate experiences for cultivation.
Moreover, that Ninth Prince had not truly died, which meant there was always a blade hanging over his heart. If this fellow returned to Culmination one day, no one here would be able to stop him.
Seeing that Ning Ruoqing showed no signs of waking up from her secluded cultivation, Ning Cheng decided to speak to Cang Caihe once again. After that, he wanted to prepare to enter the Ancient Shadow Temple alone.
Moreover, Grey Toottoot was also somewhere inside the Ancient Shadow Temple, or at least somewhere in Stately River Star. If he didn’t figure out this place, Ning Cheng wouldn’t be able to leave this place in peace.
……
Ning Cheng’s array formations had wholly concealed the Ancient Shadow Temple’s entrance. Therefore, even if it wasn’t far away from Covered Snow City, no one could find or enter that place except for Ning Cheng.
When Ning Cheng entered the Ancient Shadow Temple, it looked and felt the same as before, still extremely cold. The black poisonous mist covered everything, but the killing power had grown much weaker compared to the last time. Even before Ning Cheng returned, this poisonous mist didn’t have much effect on him. Now that his cultivation and body had improved by several grades, the poison mist no longer posed even the slightest impact on him.
Ning Cheng soon arrived outside the five-sided great hall. After he escaped from inside, he had sealed this area tightly. Now that he returned here again, he found the seal still intact. It seemed as if nobody had touched it.
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Ning Cheng had just returned to the Stately River Star when he met Yi Jiufeng waiting for him outside.
“Senior Apprentice Sister Nine Phoenix, why are you here?” Ning Cheng put away the Starry Sky Wheel and asked a question.
The instant Yi Jiufeng saw Ning Cheng, relief washed over her face, “Senior Apprentice Brother Ning, I knew you’d be fine. Therefore, after finishing up a few things, I came here to wait for you.”
Ning Cheng quickly said, “Senior Apprentice Sister Nine Phoenix, let’s head to my Mysterious Yellow Sect to have a proper conversation. Staying outside and talking is not the way we treat guests.”
Yi Jiufeng shook her head, “Senior Apprentice Brother Ning, I came here to say my farewell to you. I’ll immediately leave after I finish what I came here to say and will not enter the Mysterious Yellow Sect. In truth, I was going to wait for you here for another month. If Senior Apprentice Brother Ning didn’t return even after a month, I would have already left.”
“Farewell?” Ning Cheng looked at Yi Jiufeng suspiciously. He didn’t understand what Yi Jiufeng meant. If Yi Jiufeng wanted to return to Spirit Heaven, she wouldn’t need to say farewells to him. Although he and Yi Jiufeng shared a relatively good ‘friendship’, none of them would bother with a small matter like a farewell. Much less wait for a few months outside to convey such a thing.
Yi Jiufeng understood Ning Cheng’s doubts. She sighed, “I plan to leave this side of the starry sky permanently. I’ve already handed over the reins to others. Not only me but Chuan Xinlou, Qiao Jierui and even Zhangkang Tianji have already left this place. If I didn’t guess wrong, they’d probably never return to this place. Just like them, once I leave this place, I will also not return.”
“Levelled Heart Heavenly Emperor is willing to leave Culmination Grand Starry Sky? I thought he would never give up unless he killed me.” Ning Cheng said with a chuckle.
Yi Jiufeng didn’t ridicule Chuan Xinlou this time. Instead, said with a lonely tone, “Compared to the vaster law worlds, even if we dominate this place for countless epochs, what could we even accomplish? We used to hide in this place and fight with each other. But we now understand that we were just frogs sitting in a well and watching the starry sky above. We had already known about the existence of positional planes with higher-levelled laws. But we now know that we wouldn’t need to reach Dao Confirming Realm to reach such positional planes. Therefore, who would willingly stay in this place?”
“Is it the five grand realms?” Ning Cheng understood a few things. Who’d willingly stay in this place for the rest of their lives while knowing about the existence of the five grand realms with much more complete laws? Among cultivators like Chuan Xinlou, Yi Jiufeng and the others, who among them did not have unique and brilliant talents or high ambitions? Such people would never stay in this place to die after knowing about the existence of more powerful positional planes.
“The grand realms?” Yi Jiufeng repeated the words in doubt. But she only spoke up after a long time, “I don’t know about them, but you can look at this.”
After Yi Jiufeng finished speaking, she took out a crystal and put it in Ning Cheng’s hand. Ning Cheng held the crystal and immediately felt the higher-grade Spiritual Qi swirling within it. Even Permanent Essence Pill’s pure Spiritual Qi felt inferior to it in quality. He looked at Yi Jiufeng in shock and asked, “What is this crystal?”
Ning Cheng had a vague impression that if he used these kinds of crystals for cultivation, he could enter the late-stage Eternal Realm within a short time. He wouldn’t even need to spend a lot of time in secluded cultivation.
“This is a cultivation crystal native to those people’s places. This kind of thing is as common as ordinary Starry Sky Crystals in our place. Even Dao Fruits aren’t a rare thing in that place.” Yi Jiufeng spoke with a sigh.
She thought back to the time when they all had ventured into the Ancient Shadow Temple together. Chuan Xinlou had obtained a Dao Fruit, yet it thoroughly surprised him and everyone else. Moreover, Chuan Xinlou even succeeded in reaching Dao Confirming using this Dao Fruit. This achievement far exceeded the three of them.
“You mean the place where that Ninth Prince came from?” Ning Cheng asked after returning the crystal to Yi Jiufeng.
“You can keep this crystal. I have a few more.” Yi Jiufeng pushed the crystal back to Ning Cheng and said once again, “Yes, the person who traded with us using these crystals is called Ku Sheng. Chuan Xinlou had severely injured Ku Sheng, so to save his life, he traded a lot of spiritual grasses with us. At the same time, he also helped us understand that the few of us were just frogs sitting at the bottom of a well and looking at the starry sky above.”
Ning Cheng felt even more puzzled, “Wasn’t Chuan Xinlou fighting Yi Mingyuan?”
Yi Jiufeng replied, “I’m not as good as Levelled Heart Heavenly Emperor. During the battle with Yi Mingyuan, he pretended to be severely injured and escaped. But in fact, he didn’t leave at all but hid outside the Mysterious Yellow Starland. Zhangkang Tianji and Qian Jierui also noticed Levelled Heart’s actions, and they too quickly rushed out of the Mysterious Yellow Starland. With all three gone, I naturally wouldn’t stay.”
“Ku Sheng already had some severe injuries, but he didn’t expect Chuan Xinlou would hide outside the Mysterious Yellow Starland. Ku Sheng wanted to escape, but we four had immediately trapped him within the starry sky. He held up the Escape Talisman and spoke about trading it for his life. He also said that if they didn’t agree to trade, he would immediately escape using the Breaking Boundary Talisman.
“Did he guide you on how to reach the high-grade interface, and even give you a top-grade Boundary Breaking Talisman?” Ning Cheng asked.
Yi Jiufeng nodded. “Yes, he took out a top-grade Breaking Boundary Talisman and said that using this talisman, we can approach the positional plane from where they came. Truthfully, I still don’t understand why he didn’t use this talisman to escape but decided to trade it with us. Was it because of that Ninth Price?”
Ning Cheng didn’t explain. He knew why Ku Sheng had to trade with Yi Jiufeng and the others. Ku Sheng stayed with the Ninth Price, probably for the same purpose as Yu Yuechen, for the Life Essence Place. Since Ku Sheng stayed beside the Ninth Prince for a purpose, he naturally wouldn’t escape to that place. It was quite a ridiculous idea that Ninth Prince thought that he had subdued all these people. Funnily enough, that Ninth Prince never thought that his ‘subordinates’ would all decide to follow him only to acquire his things one day.
“Since Chuan Xinlou and others have already left, would you be able to leave by yourself?” Ning Cheng thought that they only had one talisman. Yet, Yi Jiufeng didn’t go with Chuan Xinlou and the others. So now, even if she wanted to go to the Grand Essence Realm, she might not have a way to go.
Yi Jiufeng smiled, “I obtained an Opening Heaven Talisman’s Child Talisman in the Ancient Shadow Temple. I didn’t know what it was back then, but I know about it now. My talisman is much better than Ku Sheng’s talisman. So, I’m quite confident that I can reach it without their help.”
“Then I wish Senior Apprentice Sister Nine Phoenix a smooth journey.” Ning Cheng understood that Yi Jiufeng was determined to leave.
Yi Jiufeng, “Senior Apprentice Brother Ning, in addition to telling you this, there is one more thing. If you want to go together, you can come with me. I can tell that the Ninth Prince’s background is somewhat unusual. Therefore, even if we escaped from him back then, he wouldn’t stop pursuing us.”
Ning Cheng smiled, “I won’t leave for the time being, but Senior Apprentice Sister Nine Phoenix, you don’t have to worry. That Ninth Prince’s body has already collapsed. Even if he wants to recover and take revenge, it will take him many years. I suspect that Ninth Prince has already left this part of the interface. Unfortunately, I don’t know where he hid himself to heal.”
“What?” Yi Jiufeng felt truly shocked this time. Although she wanted to leave this place to pursue strength, she also worried that Ninth Prince would find her first. Now Ning Cheng said that he had severely injured that Ninth Prince, and that he didn’t even have a body anymore, it felt utterly ridiculous.
Yi Jiufeng naturally thought that it was Ning Cheng who had severely injured that Ninth Prince. She didn’t even know about Pan Qian.
“Is this true?” Yi Jiufeng asked again. She simply couldn’t believe what she heard.
Ning Cheng said affirmatively, “It’s true. If you don’t believe me, you can go to Sacred Light City to confirm. I have already razed the entire Sacred Light City to the ground.”
“Many thanks, Senior Apprentice Brother Ning. This time, I can feel completely confident in leaving behind Spirit Heaven.” Yi Jiufeng’s face filled with joy. Yet, she still talked about leaving this side of the interface.
Ning Cheng watched Yi Jiufeng leave before returning to Stately River Star’s Covered Snow City in a daze. Most of them, whether enemies or friends have all left one by one.
Ning Cheng knew that the highest cultivation he could achieve in this place would be Dao Confirming. But he couldn’t leave now. Even if Ning Cheng wanted to go, Ning Cheng would take at least Luofei and Ruolan with him. Moreover, he still had a few things to do. One was to enter the Ancient Shadow Temple, and the other was to study array formations in seclusion.
He had to become an Array Dao Master, and then go to the place where Yan Ji had teleported away.
……
Time flew by, and in a blink of an eye Ning Cheng stayed in Stately River Star for over three years.
In three years, in addition to improving his cultivation, Ning Cheng also focussed on refining better array formations while discussing the Dao of Pills with Cang Caihe. At this point, Ning Cheng’s cultivation sat firmly at the pinnacle of early-stage Eternal Realm, only one step away from middle-stage Eternal Realm.
But because of the unavailability of top-grade Starry Sky Spirit Grasses, his attainments in the Dao of Pills remained stagnant. Therefore, even if he came up with a bunch of theories, Ning Cheng couldn’t verify it. As for reaching the level of Array Dao Master, Ning Cheng understood that he still needed more accumulation.
Ji Luofei occasionally came out to meet Ning Cheng for a few days but spent most of the time in secluded cultivation. Ning Ruolan’s cultivation still was too low, so she put every scrap of available time into cultivation. Even Ning Ruoqing hadn’t come out of secluded cultivation. Ning Ruoqing’s seclusion needed a massive amount of Starry Sky Essence Spirit Qi, so Ning Cheng placed ten star veins under her seclusion cave.
But what puzzled Ning Cheng was that Duan Gantai didn’t come looking for him even once. It stood to reason that since Duan Gantai suffered such a significant loss, Duan Gantai would do everything he could to settle the account with him. Now that Ning Cheng remained in Stately River Star for a few years, Duan Gantai never appeared anywhere near it. It felt as if this person had disappeared out of existence.
After three years of consolidation, Ning Cheng knew that his cultivation couldn’t go any further after reaching this point. He had a different problem compared to others. Maybe other cultivators would eventually get to a breakthrough after accumulating enough and cultivating in seclusion for a long time. But for Ning Cheng, he couldn’t wait for so long. He didn’t have enough time to accumulate experiences for cultivation.
Moreover, that Ninth Prince had not truly died, which meant there was always a blade hanging over his heart. If this fellow returned to Culmination one day, no one here would be able to stop him.
Seeing that Ning Ruoqing showed no signs of waking up from her secluded cultivation, Ning Cheng decided to speak to Cang Caihe once again. After that, he wanted to prepare to enter the Ancient Shadow Temple alone.
Moreover, Grey Toottoot was also somewhere inside the Ancient Shadow Temple, or at least somewhere in Stately River Star. If he didn’t figure out this place, Ning Cheng wouldn’t be able to leave this place in peace.
……
Ning Cheng’s array formations had wholly concealed the Ancient Shadow Temple’s entrance. Therefore, even if it wasn’t far away from Covered Snow City, no one could find or enter that place except for Ning Cheng.
When Ning Cheng entered the Ancient Shadow Temple, it looked and felt the same as before, still extremely cold. The black poisonous mist covered everything, but the killing power had grown much weaker compared to the last time. Even before Ning Cheng returned, this poisonous mist didn’t have much effect on him. Now that his cultivation and body had improved by several grades, the poison mist no longer posed even the slightest impact on him.
Ning Cheng soon arrived outside the five-sided great hall. After he escaped from inside, he had sealed this area tightly. Now that he returned here again, he found the seal still intact. It seemed as if nobody had touched it.
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