Chapter 0682: To Each Their Own Scheme
When Tian Muwan’s gaze fell on him, Ning Cheng understood that Tian Muwan had recognised him. Although he wanted to ask how Tian Muwan got here, Ning Cheng knew that there was an insurmountable gap between him and Tian Muwan. Since Tian Muwan managed to reach this place, then it involves a huge secret, something that he felt unqualified to ask.
But when he looked up at Tian Muwan, he found Tian Muwan’s eyes staring back at him. She did not retract her gaze and kept staring. However, her gaze felt like it had some pity mixed in with yearning. Ning Cheng guessed that Tian Muwan must have felt some sympathy towards his current ‘situation’ and gave out a sigh in his heart and turned his gaze towards the blue-robed female cultivator next to her. Tian Muwan lived on Earth, was it this female cultivator who brought her here?
The blue-robed female cultivator had a frown on her face, letting Ning Cheng understand that she was turning impatient with everything going on in this place.
Shui Guangxi also seemed to know that the blue-robed female cultivator was starting to grow impatient. Therefore, after Shui Wuchang retired, he quickly stepped up and spoke, “Let’s start the Item Exchange. I will have to ask Dao Friend Ye to show your stuff first.”
No one would refuse to participate in this level of item exchange. Everyone here was an overlord of a region; therefore, the things they possessed would not be too bad. Moreover, just being able to witness this level of item exchange was truly a rare opportunity, especially for the younger generation.
After Shui Guangxi said his piece, all the people shifted their attention back to the blue-robed female cultivator. Not only was this female cultivator extremely beautiful, but her cultivation was also unfathomable. If it were an ordinary cultivator, he or she would never dare to even talk about teaching a lesson to the two cultivators in the Heaven Seated Realm, let alone actually beat them down, and live past another day. And yet, Shui Guangxi still treated this female cultivator with kindness. This was not out of Shui Clan’s generosity, but because Shui Guangxi feared this cultivator.
The blue-robed female cultivator didn’t care about what others thought or even how they looked at her. She stood up and took out a small grey airship, “This is a high-grade flight-type Spirit Artefact. I want two things in exchange for it. The first is a Starry Sky Spiritual Grass called Sifting Ferry Grass…”
Not waiting for the blue-robed female cultivator to say the rest, the entire guest hall suddenly exploded like pouring cold water into a boiling pot of oil. Everyone’s gaze immediately shifted from the blue-robed woman’s face to the tiny grey airship hovering over her hand.
High-grade Spirit Artefact? This was simply the stuff of legends. In the Mysterious Yellow Starland, a low-grade Spirit Artefact could become the defining treasure of an established clan. Even a pseudo-Spirit Artefact would end up instigating a blood bath. But this blue-robed female cultivator turned everything upside down by directly bringing out a high-grade Spirit Artefact.
For a moment, greed, envy, longing, eagerness….
All kinds of emotions flowed through the room, focussed on the small wooden boat in the hands of the blue-robed female cultivator. Even those cultivators far above the Heaven Seated Realm could not contain the heavy longing for this object.
Even Shui Guangxi, who recently became an Eternal Starry Sky Emperor, couldn’t hide the light of longing in his eyes.
Ning Cheng already owned the Starry Sky Wheel and thus did not hold much interest for the high-grade flight-type Spirit Artefact. However, as an Artefact-crafting Master, he still felt shocked by this high-grade flight-type Spirit Artefact.
He couldn’t figure out how the airship came into being, but the natural and flowing style of its outer shell gave him a one-of-a-kind feeling. Apparent that an Artefact-crafting Master had created this airship, Ning Cheng also understood that this expert had managed to combine his or her technique with a worldly law, making it so that it had no flaw at all. This was something only a top-grade Artefact-crafting Powerhouse could accomplish. Even Zhongli Baichi’s Artefact-crafting Techniques were akin to that of an infant in front of this powerhouse.
Ning Cheng quickly retracted his gaze and shook his head. Although he admired the high-grade flight-type Spirit Artefact in the hands of the blue-robed female cultivator, he did not agree with the antics of this blue-robed female cultivator. If it were him, even if he had the same cultivation as her, he would not do such a thing.
This blue-robed female cultivator took out the high-grade Spirit Artefact Airship without fear, which showed her might, and indicated that she was not afraid of the Eternal-level experts present here. Although there was nothing inherently wrong with such a display, she was wrong to use this high-grade Spirit Artefact Airship for the Sifting Ferry Grass.
As a Grade 6 Celestial River Pill King, Ning Cheng was too clear about the use of Sifting Ferry Grass.
Sifting Ferry Grass was a top-grade Starry Sky Spiritual Grass among the top-grade Starry Sky Spiritual Grasses. In fact, it was an existence that went beyond the Grade 9 Starry Sky Spiritual Grasses. However, it only had one use, and that was for healing.
Sifting Ferry Grass could only heal one type of injury, i.e. a damaged Zifu. Moreover, the damage to the Zifu had to be quite significant; only when one’s Sea of Consciousness suffered intensive damage, to such an extent that it resulted in one’s cultivation to decline continually, only then could the Sifting Ferry Grass could show its effectiveness. The Zifu gave birth to the Sea of Consciousness, so it was not wholly wrong to say that one’s Sea of Consciousness resided within one’s Zifu.
This blue-robed female cultivator clearly wanted to obtain the Sifting Ferry Grass as quickly as possible judging by the way she acted till now. Therefore, the only possibility was that she had a severely damaged Zifu, which affected both her Sea of Consciousness and her cultivation.
This blue-robed female cultivator had high cultivation; however, without the Sifting Ferry Grass, her cultivation would eventually fall to a point below even ordinary Eternal-level cultivators. At that time, let alone exchange for Sifting Ferry Grass, it would be a miracle if she could even keep the high-level Spirit Artefact in her hand.
This blue-robed female cultivator did not seem to have noticed the greedy gazes directed at her. After taking out the high-grade Spirit Artefact Airship and showing it, she then put away the airship as if it were completely normal.
“What’s the other thing this friend wants for the exchange?” A red-faced bald male cultivator stood up and asked.
Those words immediately sobered up the powerhouses still submerged in the illusion of owning the high-grade Spirit Artefact. In any case, that bald male cultivator was also an Eternal-level expert. If even such a powerhouse feared the blue-robed female cultivator, then it indicated that it was not something ordinary people could afford.
“I need a detailed Directional Jade Strip, which contains all points of intersections of this positional plane with other positional planes.” The blue-robed female cultivator spoke out calmly.
With those words, all the cultivators in the guest hall who had some understandings about the positional planes understood that this female cultivator should most likely be a cultivator from another positional plane.
Ning Cheng knew that if one wanted to look for the points of intersection of the positional planes and interfaces, one could go to the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land, which was a location supposedly filled with such areas. Either that or one could go to the Eternal Night Single File Gorge, which he had passed through previously, and enter the Eternal Night Domain’s void, a void area that supposedly connected many positional planes.
After listening to the blue-robed female cultivator’s demands, the red-faced male cultivator immediately took out a jade strip and said, “Dao Friend Ye, I have a jade strip here, which records the four Grand Starry Skies and most of the possible intersections between the various interfaces and positional planes around the Mysterious Yellow Starland.”
The blue-robed female cultivator shook her head and calmly replied, “One jade strip wouldn’t be enough for it.”
Everyone already knew that a single jade strip would not be enough for what she offered. Not to mention a jade strip, even if it were a jade strip plus the Sifting Ferry Grass, it would not be even remotely enough to exchange for a high-grade Spirit Artefact. However, no one here could take out even a strand of Sifting Ferry Grass.
Shui Guangxi suddenly spoke up, “Dao Friend Ye, the positional jade strip would be something easy to obtain, but the Sifting Ferry Grass would be much more difficult. Although I can get a strand of the Sifting Ferry Grass, Dao Friend Ye would have to wait for a while.”
The red-faced male cultivator begrudgingly put away the jade strip. Although Shui Guangxi didn’t explicitly say that his jade strip was worthless, he had already indicated to this woman surnamed Ye that she could obtain this kind of jade strip at any time and at anywhere. But if she wanted the Sifting Ferry Grass, she can only come to find him, Shui Guangxi.
Ning Cheng, however, did not believe Shui Guangxi at all. He had experienced such things many times in the past. Since Shui Guangxi said those words, then Shui Guangxi probably knew that this female cultivator’s cultivation was weakening, which was why she pressed for the Sifting Ferry Grass with this much urgency. The reason he asked for this female cultivator to wait was just to weaken her cultivation to a certain extent before making a move.
“How long would it take?” The blue-robed female cultivator had a calm expression as if utterly oblivious to Shui Guangxi’s thoughts.
Shui Guangxi replied, “I can’t give an answer to that immediately. I’ll have to send out a lot of messages. But I can give you a reply by tomorrow. However, if my judgement is correct, it would take at least a month to obtain it.”
Ning Cheng sneered; a month would turn the dishes cold. Ning Cheng did not believe that this blue-robed female cultivator would agree to this long of a delay.
The blue-robed female cultivator pondered over it for a moment and said, “In that case, I’ll be imposing on you for today and wait till tomorrow.”
Since Shui Guangxi was the host here and had taken the initiative to delay the exchange with the blue-robed female cultivator, no one else spoke at this moment, even if they coveted the high-grade flight-type Spirit Artefact.
The item exchange went on, and despite the high-grade Spirit Artefact taken off the exchange temporarily, the dialogue still maintained a good standard.
From the beginning to the end, Ning Cheng did not put up anything for exchange, nor did he exchange anything with others. Even if he saw a few good things in between, he did not buy them. However, Duan Gantai, as always, showed off his wealth and steadily acquired a variety of treasures. As it reached the end, some of the cultivators in the Eternal Realm started paying attention to them. It got to the point that many people even started paying attention to Ning Cheng, who didn’t do anything.
The item exchange ended a few hours later and a Heaven Seated Steward from the Shui Clan, with a bunch of cultivators who wanted to marry Shui Wuchang, made their way to the private residence.
As for the blue-robed female cultivator and Tian Muwan, someone else led them away to rest. Tian Muwan tried to talk with Ning Cheng several times, but finally stopped herself and left with the blue-robed female cultivator.
As for Ning Cheng, who had no chance of going to the private residence, an ordinary Shui Clan member took him to a regular room to rest.
……
Upon arrival in the room, Ning Cheng immediately activated the restrictions inside. Tian Muwan had that blue-robed female cultivator, who looked like an expert, by her side. Therefore, he naturally did not have to be too concerned about her. His main concern right now was Shui Wuchang. He was not worried about who Shui Wuchang would choose as her husband, but about how he could get the white Perpetual Moon Time Key with her. Only by obtaining the key from Shui Wuchang, could he and Duan Gantai occupy the upper hand.
Although he had left a Spiritual Consciousness Imprint under Shui Wuchang’s finger, he had no intention of using it right away. Currently, there were numerous powerhouses in the Shui Clan. If even one of them found out about it, it would end up bad for him. Although they might not be able to take his life, it would be more than enough to force him to part ways with the Perpetual Moon Time Key.
Moreover, Ning Cheng didn’t know if he could use the Spiritual Consciousness Imprint to break open the restrictions covering Shui Wuchang’s storage ring and peek inside with this huge of a distance. It was only a conjecture at this point, and he wasn’t entirely sure if he could successfully execute it.
Fortunately, Shui Wuchang’s cultivation could not compare to him. While he was not only proficient in a variety of array formations and restrictions, but he could also use his Spiritual Consciousness to attack.
Therefore, to make his plan a success, Ning Cheng repeatedly experimented with a variety of things in his own room. As two hours passed by, and just when Ning Cheng had started to feel sure about the most suitable approach, he suddenly sensed his Spiritual Consciousness Imprint move towards him.
He had left a Spiritual Consciousness Imprint on Shui Wuchang, and now this Spiritual Consciousness Imprint gradually moved closer to him, which meant Shui Wuchang moving towards him.
Ning Cheng frowned and stood up. Supposedly, Shui Wuchang should still be picking her husband from the potential candidates. How come she came here? Did Shui Wuchang find his Spiritual Consciousness Imprint? If that were the case, Shui Wuchang would not come here alone.