Ninth In the World

When Di Jiu walked up to him with his flying sword, Ouyang Tao came back to his senses and shouted in fear, “You can’t kill me, Di Jiu! My Great Uncle is the head of the Creek Metal Peak. If you kill me, he will find out immediately. No matter where you go, you will be chased and killed.”

Di Jiu’s heart started palpitating. Although he had originally planned on killing Ouyang Tao after asking him some questions, Ouyang Tao’s words made him a little apprehensive.

“That’s true…” Di Jiu muttered.

When he sensed that Di Jiu seemed to be moved, Ouyang Tao said hurriedly, “It is. I wouldn’t lie to you.”

When he felt Di Jiu’s killing intent weaken, Ouyang Tao took a jade bottle out of his storage bag. Before he could open the bottle, the flying sword in Di Jiu’s hand vibrated. “Are you thinking of sending this information back?”

“No, no. I just wanted to drink a healing elixir…” Ouyang Tao’s hand shook in agitation.

He had never encountered such a situation before. Ever since he had entered the Galaxy Sect, Ouyang Tao had always been the one to threaten people, never the other way around.

“Drink it. I want to ask you some questions after you do.” Di Jiu allowed Ouyang Tao to drink the elixir.

Ouyang Tao swallowed it quickly. “Go ahead and ask. I will tell you everything I know. We are both from the same sect. Even though there have been some misunderstandings, we can talk everything out.”

Ouyang Tao’s nervousness decreased a little when he sensed that Di Jiu would not dare kill him.

“Alright. Senior Sister Moshuang left earlier than you. How did you know where she would be?” asked Di Jiu with a smile.

If Ouyang Tao said that he had followed Jing Moshuang based on the information on her mission, Di Jiu would not mind teaching him a lesson once more.

“I left a Spiritual Force imprint on her storage bag.” Ouyang Tao dared not lie.

What was a Spiritual Force imprint? Di Jiu, who was worried that Ouyang Tao was lying to him, casually threw the Tiny Treant out of his ring. “Tiny Treant, what is a Spiritual Force imprint?”

“Have we left the Big Dipper Palace, Big Brother?” Little Tree shouted excitedly once it was out.

Di Jiu gave it a slap. “Stop chattering. Just tell me what a Spiritual Force imprint is!”

Little Tree finally reacted. Its Big Brother sometimes had a bad temper. The fella with the chopped-off legs on the floor was a victim of his bad temper.

“Big Brother, Spiritual Force is also considered a form of restriction…” Di Jiu understood as soon as Little Tree uttered one sentence.

“I have a jade slip on the Spiritual Force imprint here. You can take a look at it.” Ouyang Tao was about to take something out of his storage bag.

Di Jiu gave Ouyang Tao a slap that rendered him unconscious. Then, he took his storage bag away without hesitation.

“Brother Jiu, I never expected that you would be so good at fighting. What is this Tiny Treant anyways?” Geng Ji said excitedly when he came back to his senses.

Di Jiu lifted his hand and created a fireball that removed any trace of evidence. Then, he dug a hole, buried all residual dregs and said, “For a few years, I used to pick a fight with others every now and then. This sort of thing requires experience. We cannot stay here long. Let’s find a remote, quiet place before we continue this conversation.”

“What’s your name?” Little Tree was a conversationalist, so when it saw Geng Ji follow its Big Brother, it could not help but ask who he was.

“I am Geng Jihua. Brother Jiu thought my name was not nice, so he changed it to Geng Ji. Why do you look like a tree root?” Geng Ji was really honest, so he said whatever came to his mind.

Little Tree tutted. “What do you mean when you say that I look like a tree root? I transformed from an immortal tree.”

Geng Ji was shocked by Little Tree’s words. He was not sure what else to say, when Little Tree added, “Your current name is not that impressive either…”

Little Tree remembered that the name ‘Geng Ji’ had been created by Big Brother halfway through his speech and quickly said, “Big Brother’s name is very good. My name is lower in status than his. I suggest that you call yourself Di Shi ¹ . Di Shi would be alright.”

Geng Ji touched his head. He was not sure how to answer, when he suddenly saw Di Jiu carry Ouyang Tao into the tiny forest. “Brother Jiu, why don’t we kill him instead of carry this burden around?”

“He could be telling the truth just now. The sect is quite close. If I killed him there, his Great Uncle might come after us. Let’s wait here for a while. I want to see what his storage bag contains,” Di Jiu explained casually.

Ouyang Tao’s storage bag was locked by restrictions. However, Di Jiu was a level-four Array Great-Master, so the presence of these restrictions made no difference. It only took him a few seconds to open the storage bag.

“We are rich! This is an unexpected profit!” laughed Di Jiu. He had never seen so many Spirit Stones before. Inside Ouyang Tao’s storage bag were at least 400 Spirit Stones. There were also more than 10 Spirit Stones with denser Spirit Qi. Di Jiu could guess that they were middle-grade Spirit Stones.

“Let’s keep making this kind of unexpected profit in the future, Big Brother!” After staying on the Fairy Planet for so many years, Little Tree could sense that it was no longer there. Although it did not know how they had arrived here, flattering Big Brother was still necessary.

Di Jiu slapped him again. “A man of honor knows that some things must be done and other things must not be done. I only killed him because he tried to kill us first. We would be no better than bandits if we seized things from people without reason…”

Di Jiu suddenly remembered something and stared at Little Tree with a cold smile. “I forgot that you used to be a mindless murderer that killed countless innocent people in its old nest.”

“I’ve stopped absorbing blood ever since I joined you, Big Brother…” Little Tree murmured timidly.

“Those were wise words, Brother Jiu. I understand now.” Although Geng Ji listened to Di Jiu, his understanding of good and evil was not incisive.

Di Jiu took out all the contents of Ouyang Tao’s storage bag. He had acquired two Dharma weapons, a middle-grade long spear and a supreme-grade long sword. Other than these weapons, there were also some bottles of elixir. After smelling the bottles, Di Jiu concluded that the elixir would help along his cultivation.

Even though he had not studied alchemy before, he could sense that there were many impurities inside the elixir.

The thing Di Jiu was most pleased about was a small flying boat that seemed like a Dharma weapon.

Flying Dharma treasures were considered the most valuable kind of Dharma treasure. The materials used to refine flying Dharma treasure were rarer and the crafting process demanded more from the blacksmith, which was why there were less flying Dharma treasures in the world.

“I will refine this flying boat immediately. Please wait here for a while.” Di Jiu gestured for Geng Ji and the Tiny Treant to wait aside as he started to refine the flying boat.

Di Jiu managed to refine it completely after slightly more than an hour. After he activated it by using his Spiritual Force, the flying boat transformed into a huge boat that floated in front of Di Jiu. The boat had a breadth of nearly seven meters and a width of three meters.

“This is good stuff!” shouted Little Tree, which knew all about flying Dharma treasure, with pleasure.

“Let’s board the boat and leave this place.” After informing Geng Ji and Little Tree, Di Jiu carried Ouyang Tao aboard the flying boat.

The flying boat was much faster and stable than using a flying sword to fly.

“Where are we headed now, Brother Jiu?” When he felt the speed of the flying boat increase, Geng Ji felt uneasy. This uneasiness was not caused by Di Jiu’s presence, but by the fact that he could not cultivate.

Di Jiu, who had looked through the jade slips in Ouyang Tao’s storage bag, had an idea. “Let’s head to the Marsh Ocean Forest first.”

The Marsh Ocean Forest was a good distance away from the Galaxy Sect. After travelling with the flying boat for three days, they reached a small city. From there, they teleported to the Marsh Ocean Town.

The Marsh Ocean Town was the gathering point closest to the Marsh Ocean Forest. Many cultivators had a test trial in the forest before returning to the town to rest and restore their energy.

After using the flying boat for a day, Di Jiu threw Ouyang Tao into a small forest. Instead of killing him, he severed his life-force meridian. Ouyang Tao would die one day later. Although this kind of thing could not be taught, Di Jiu was a medical grandmaster.

He would not show mercy to someone who had tried to kill him.

…

Four days later, Di Jiu and Geng Ji stepped out of the Teleportation Array.

Although this was the first time he had ever teleported, Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force was so powerful that he had felt nothing. Geng Ji, on the other hand, had a great stature but no cultivation experience, so he started vomiting violently as soon as he stepped out of the Teleportation Array. Di Jiu dared not let out the Tiny Treant, so he had put it in the spiritual herb garden ring instead.

Fortunately, there were quite a few people just like Geng Ji. Thus, no one was really bothered by it.

The first thing Di Jiu did when they reached the Marsh Ocean Town was purchase a map and a jade slip on the Marsh Ocean Forest. These items could be found at any shop in the Marsh Ocean Town, as they were vital for any cultivators visiting the town. They were not that expensive either. The simplest map and Marsh Ocean Forest jade slip were worth one low-grade Spirit Stone.

The items Di Jiu purchased were slightly more elaborate, so he paid three Spirit Stones for them.

No one recognized him there, so as soon as he and Geng Ji found accomodation, Di Jiu immediately reconstructed the restrictions at his lodging. This made him more determined to collect large amounts of blacksmithing materials so he could learn to refine all sorts of array flags when they entered the Marsh Ocean Forest.

Although he was a level-four Array Great-Master, his array flag skills were still stuck at the standards of a level-two Array Master.

“I can’t cultivate, Brother Jiu. I am only dragging you down by coming here…” Geng Ji said worriedly when they had settled down. This thought had been on his mind for days.

Di Jiu waved his hand. “You need not worry. If you really couldn’t cultivate, Elder Yu would not have allowed you to enter the Galaxy Sect. Once I am aware of the situation inside the Marsh Ocean Forest, I will help you try to cultivate with me.”

There was still a gray stone within his Spiritual Sea, so Di Jiu had decided to use it to help Geng Ji later. If the gray stone did not work, he would search everywhere for methods that would allow people like Geng Ji, who had impure Thunder Spirit Roots, to cultivate.

“But Senior Sister Moshuang…” When he saw that Di Jiu had started to analyze the jade slips, Geng Ji stopped talking.

Although he could not cultivate, he had some theoretical knowledge. After attending a few days of lessons, he had learned that jade slips recorded many things.

After a short while, Di Jiu put down the jade slip. He now had a rough understanding of the Marsh Ocean Forest.

Calling the Marsh Ocean Forest a forest was actually not entirely accurate. The forest intersected with a swamp, which could be deadly if one accidentally stepped into it. This was something that even Golden Core cultivators could not avoid. However, opportunities always came with danger. The Marsh Ocean Forest was vast, so many northern province low-level cultivators went there for test trials.