Chapter 0664: The Strange Statue
From the looks of it, Song Chengbo, Bian Shiyan, and Qi Qiubing seemed to have come here for a significant thing. Therefore, when he heard Ning Cheng say those words, he also felt a little unwilling to speak with Bian Shiyan about Ning Cheng. Instead, he simply spoke up, “In that case, let’s go ahead. Dao Friend Ning, take care of yourself when you step inside. Also, keep in mind that you would not be able to use your Spiritual Consciousness inside the Temple of Falling Stars, and even your cultivation will be suppressed due to the laws inside.”
After Song Chengbo finished, he quickly walked through the space between the two pillars without even exchanging a word with Bian Shiyan. Apparently, he felt quite dissatisfied with Bian Shiyan’s words. Seeing Song Chengbo walk inside, Bian Shiyan and Qi Qiubing also followed suit. From the beginning to the end, Qi Qiubing did not speak even a single word.
Ning Cheng didn’t immediately follow them inside. Instead, he prepared things that might come in hand and clipped them to his waist. Song Chengbo mentioned that one would not have access to their Spiritual Consciousness after entering, and even one’s cultivation would be suppressed, which made Ning Cheng feel very grateful towards Song Chengbo.
What if he couldn’t use his storage ring after going inside, what if he needed medicinal pills and weapons? If one couldn’t use his Spiritual Consciousness inside, then Ning Cheng decided to bring out the Nirvana Spear beforehand. In the absence of Spiritual Consciousness, the Nirvana Spear would definitely be more potent than ordinary weapons.
With everything prepared, Ning Cheng then walked through the space between the two pillars and entered the Temple of Falling Stars.
Just as Ning Cheng walked inside, a violent storm immediately swept towards him, not giving Ning Cheng any time to put any defences.
Without a foothold, one would definitely be swept away by these knife-like stormy winds. This storm even carried countless rubble that struck the body causing light pain to emerge from the impact points. When Ning Cheng looked back, he could no longer find the two seemingly endless pillars. If felt as if, even if he wanted to go back now, this place would not allow him to leave.
Moreover, he really couldn’t use his Spiritual Consciousness. Even if Ning Cheng had the starry sky Sea of Consciousness, he truly could not utilise his Spiritual Consciousness. Moreover, he could only barely keep his body steady as he fell to the ground.
Only at this moment did he have the opportunity to look around and found himself surrounded by grey coloured and uneven-sized stones and dust. The roaring winds kept swirling around with seemingly endless rocks and dirt. It gathered everything up and shot it through space in a completely random manner.
This rubble would occasionally strike Ning Cheng from time to time, and if Ning Cheng were not a body-forging cultivator who hadn’t experienced nirvana, these rubble swept up by the raging winds would have definitely hurt him. Fortunately, this storm was not a spacial maelstrom. There was nothing space-related to it and was just pure wind. Occasionally, the wind carried over one or two huge stones, which Ning Cheng managed to block using the Nirvana Spear.
Ning Cheng took a few steps forward but simply could not get any sense of direction. After entering this place, it felt like he seemed to have stepped into some sort of a desert. But the sand here was not like the fine sand one would find in a desert, but gravel and other small irregular stones.
Since entering the Graceful Star Mainland, Ning Cheng had experienced numerous crisis. As such, although these gales and the rubble it carried looked strong, strictly speaking, it really couldn’t hinder him much. When he entered the Time Wilderness, he had also experienced suppression of his Spiritual Consciousness within the Sea of Twilight. But just like back then he relied on himself and eventually managed to stretch out his Spiritual Consciousness slowly. He had to thank his Starry Sky Sea of Consciousness for this.
Thinking back to that moment, Ning Cheng kept gradually pushing his Spiritual Consciousness forward while also cautiously moving forward one-step after another.
Ning Cheng’s efforts did not go to waste. A day later, he finally managed to bring out a part of his Spiritual Consciousness. First it only a foot around him, then the range slowly extended by another foot. On the tenth day, Ning Cheng could extend his Spiritual Consciousness to about ten feet; at the same time, the storm around him also gradually grew weaker.
From the looks of it, he seemed to have reached the edge of the rubble desert. Just as Ning Cheng breathed a sigh of relief on noticing this, a high-speed Spacial Blade Light tore through his Spiritual Consciousness. In a hurry, Ning Cheng could only take a step back, causing the blade light to brush past his chest.
Ning Cheng felt shocked and broke out cold sweats. If he had not managed to bring out his Spiritual Consciousness, even if this blade light did not split him in half, he would still suffer severe injuries. Thankfully, he still had the Nirvana Spear in his hands; otherwise, he would be in an even more risky situation. Sure enough, it was just as Song Chengbo had explained. One would find dangers everywhere here. If one decided to step inside, then he or she had to prepare himself or herself mentally to fall in this place at any time.
Most likely, the only reason he did not meet much danger before was that he was still lingering around the periphery. And just when he stepped inside from the perimeter, a sudden Spacial Wind Edge interrupted his way forward. Since this was the first, then there would definitely be many more.
That Spacial Wind Blade had nearly split him into two, but he still hadn’t even found the slightest trace of the Great Heaven Essence Fruit. In Ning Cheng’s opinion, if someone wanted to grow spiritual grasses in this seemingly boundless gravel desert, it would be impossible.
If Song Chengbo had not deceived him, then it only meant that he had invariantly strayed onto the wrong path. Unfortunately, Ning Cheng did not have a map or any jade strip of the inside of the Temple of Falling Stars. The only thing he could do was to keep moving forward.
The maelstrom that swept through the gravel desert had already weakened considerably; instead, sharp and dense Spacial Wind Blades took its place. These Spacial Wind Edges were invisible and appeared without any warning. If a cultivator had access to their Spiritual Consciousness, although mighty, these would not pose much danger. But if cultivators couldn’t use their Spiritual Consciousness, then these attacks would represent a significantly higher threat to his or her life.
Although Ning Cheng could extend his Spiritual Consciousness to a range of about ten feet, he still had to tread carefully. His Spiritual Consciousness’s ten feet range did not give him much freedom to avoid dangers.
After walking a few dozen miles, although the gravel desert still extended out under his feet, the storm had disappeared entirely. He also saw one statue after another fallen over the gravel desert, and occasionally some half-cut columns between the ruined statues. This scene gave one a completely desolated feeling.
Just then, a yell sounded somewhere. In this place, where space was not sealed, Ning Cheng could clearly hear the shout and immediately realised that this was Song Chengbo.
Looks like Song Chengbo met with an accident, Ning Cheng thought as he became even more alert. He slightly shifted his direction and immediately started walking in the direction from where Song Chengbo’s scream originated. If he could, Ning Cheng didn’t mind helping Song Chengbo.
After half an incense stick worth of time, Ning Cheng stopped and looked at the statue in front of him and felt a chill run through his heart. In front of him was a statue with half a face missing. It lay tilted on the ground at an angle where one could not see its feet and only one of its arms.
Arguably, Ning Cheng had seen enough of such statues on the way, but those statues couldn’t induce a chill in his heart. What made Ning Cheng feel a cold chill on seeing this statue was not the statue itself, but its hand.
This statue’s hand had red blood covering almost every inch of it with a piece of rag hanging over one of its fingers. Although Ning Cheng and Song Chengbo had only separated for a few days, he could still tell at a glance that this piece of rag definitely was a part of Song Chengbo’s robes. Most likely, Song Chengbo’s scream from before might have something to do with this statue in front of him, which looked as if it had grabbed onto him.
It was a bit weird that a clay statue would actually manage to grab a Heaven Seated expert like Song Chengbo and even injure him.
Ning Cheng’s Spiritual Consciousness penetrated the clay statue and soon felt something wrong. This statue definitely was made out of clay, but it had clay blood vessels, clay muscles and bones, and even a clay heart inside of it.
Since the time Ning Cheng entered the path of starry sky cultivation, his nerves had already grown extremely tough. Yet, this clay statue still made his scalp numb. As an Array Formation and Artefact-crafting Master, although he couldn’t make puppets, that didn’t mean that he didn’t know how to make puppets.
But he also realised that this statue was not a puppet, it absolutely was not a puppet at all. He simply couldn’t find any array formation inscribed over the figure or any sign of artificial refinement.
As he pondered over this strange scene, Ning Cheng subconsciously took a step back but found that his surroundings had mysteriously solidified. The space he was standing in no longer seemed to accept him. A moment later, it suddenly pushed down, forcing his chest to approach the blood-soaked palm of the statue without any restraint.
“Laws of space….” Ning Cheng felt thoroughly shocked. It felt as if this palm wanted to rip him open.
In a panic, Ning Cheng could no longer care about anything else. Quickly manipulating the Nirvana Spear in his hand, he smashed it down towards the blood-soaked palm, using his most potent Spirit Technique, Sunset’s Twilight.
The space pushing down on him paused for an instant, and the blood-soaked palm did not pass through Ning Cheng’s chest. During that instantaneous pause, Ning Cheng’s Nirvana Spear struck the statue’s palm.
“Bang….” As a dull explosion erupted, the powerful counter-force immediately blew away Ning Cheng.
When he was about to hit another statue, Ning Cheng swept his Nirvana Spear backwards and struck out once again allowing Ning Cheng to barely land on the gravel-filled ground.
Ning Cheng held on to the Nirvana Spear and couldn’t help but feel horrified in his heart. Just now, the space in front of the clay statue had compressed, forcing him to move forward. Although it was not purely related to the Laws of Space, it had some similarities with his Maximal Flame Spirit Technique. In other words, a spirit technique that simulated the effects of Spacial Spirit Technique. If it truly were a Spacial Spirit Technique, then even the instant pause induced by his Sunset’s Twilight would not have reversed the situation.
But what scared Ning Cheng, even more, was not the simulated Spacial Spirit Technique, but the palm of that clay statue. When his Nirvana Spear and that clay statue’s palm collided, Ning Cheng did not get the feedback that it was made out of clay; rather, it felt as if it was an actual corporeal body. That is to say, although these clay sculptures looked like statues, in fact, they were more like real living beings, having physical bodies.