Chapter 0697: Hard To Survive
After flying around with the Starry Sky Wheel for about an hour, Ning Cheng determined that his current location was not within the void between interfaces. Instead, he should be somewhere between starry skies, but Ning Cheng was not sure whether he was still in the same positional plane.
However, instead of continuing, Ning Cheng stopped the Starry Sky Wheel.
After going through the previous experiences, he became more aware of his own shortcomings and wanted to improve his cultivation.
Moreover, he now had some cultivation resources; unfortunately, he had no way to set up a Time Grand Array, unlike Cang Wei. Otherwise, if he could set up the Time Grand Array, he could cultivate inside it for ten years and only a year would have passed outside. However, it was just a dream. Even if he was a Tier 7 Array Emperor, he was still too far away from setting up even a small scale Time Grand Array.
Fortunately, he also owned the Mysterious Yellow Bead. If he cultivated in Mysterious Yellow Bead, he could achieve a much faster cultivation speed compared to improving outside.
……
Half a month later, Ning Cheng set up several Shielding Array Formations in the depths of a remnant star within the void before entering the Mysterious Yellow Bead to start cultivating.
Nevertheless, Ning Cheng knew that despite arranging many Shielding Array Formations, people would still discover him if they wandered within a certain distance of him. This made him feel a little helpless. Who let his Mysterious Yellow Bead lack the Wood Origin Bead? Despite that, he did not put too much importance to it now. ‘Time’ was just too valuable of a resource to him right now. Moreover, with his current cultivation, even if someone in the Eternal Realm discovered him, he could still manage to escape calmly.
Although he was at the middle-level of Heaven Seated Realm, it was not worth mentioning in front of some of the major powers. However, Ning Cheng was now no longer the ant he was when he first stepped into the Heaven Seated Realm. At this moment, even if an Eternal Starry Sky Emperor coveted his things, they would have to put their life on the line to obtain them.
After setting up the array formations, Ning Cheng did not immediately start cultivating. He first began to organise the things at hand. He had obtained two rings from Eternal Starry Sky Emperors, one during the siege at Shui Clan and the other from Interdependence Chamber of Commerce’s Zhu Zhengfeng.
The storage ring he had picked up from the Eternal-level cultivator during the siege in Shui Clan contained quite a lot of things. In addition to the sizable collection of artefact-crafting raw materials and alchemy-related spiritual grasses, it also included two top-tier starry sky-class battleships. Cultivators at this level of cultivation did not usually carry purple coins. Instead, most of them had a large amount of Perpetual Moon Pills and Permanent Essence Pills. Just from this storage ring alone, Ning Cheng obtained millions of Perpetual Moon Pills along with a little more than a million Permanent Essence Pills.
Although considered as an ordinary level of wealth among Eternal-level cultivators, it was still a huge harvest for Ning Cheng.
However, the harvest from this storage ring could not match up to even a tenth of the things from the storage ring of the Interdependence Chamber of Commerce’s Zhu Zhengfeng. Zhu Zhengfeng’s storage ring not only contained ten times more artefact-crafting raw materials, but even the average grade was a lot higher.
However, these were not what Ning Cheng valued the most. Ning Cheng found nearly ten million Permanent Essence Pills and approximately a billion Perpetual Moon Pills in Zhu Zhengfeng’s storage ring, the most essential resource to him right now. Although Ning Cheng gave away two pots of None-to-depend-on Wine to Bao Xi, the storage ring still contained more than a dozen jars.
Whether or not Zhu Zhengfeng’s storage ring contained the real Mutual Dependence Wine, Ning Cheng did not know, nor did he care. Even if all the Mutual Dependence Wine in Zhu Zhengfeng’s storage ring were fake, he still had a barrel of the real stuff.
However, what surprised Ning Cheng, even more, was that he found a fist-sized Polar Star Nucleus. Polar Star Nucleus, also known as the Star Flame Nucleus, was the core of a fire-attributed planet. However, not every fire-attributed planet had a Polar Star Nucleus. Moreover, to obtain the Polar Star Nucleus, one must destroy the fire-attributed planet. This treasure could help a Grade 3 Nirvana Flame to evolve into a Grade 4 Starry Sky Flame. Unfortunately, his Celestial River Flame has still not achieved nirvana. Its level was too low to use this material.
Putting away the Polar Star Nucleus, Ning Cheng no longer had any qualms. Entering the Mysterious Yellow Bead, he immediately went into secluded cultivation.
……
Covered Snow City.
This was a city in Kun Zhuo Celestial River’s Second Revenant Star.
Second Revenant Star was Kun Zhuo Celestial River’s primary star. Initially, when Ning Cheng wanted to search for his sister Ruolan, he first came to the Second Revenant Star. However, the city Ning Cheng went to was the premier city of the Second Revenant Star, the Descendant City. He had even stayed in the city for a few months.
Compared to the Descendant City, Covered Snow City was not a major city within the Second Revenant Star. It was just a remote city, located at the edge of the Second Revenant Star. Because the city was under snow perennially, it ended up getting the name Covered Snow City.
In Covered Snow City, there was a famous grand bridge, called the East Gate Grand Bridge. The East Gate Grand Bridge spanned across a river that ran through the Covered Snow City, dividing the city into two parts.
The eastern part had scarce starry sky Essence Qi and was the home to ordinary and rogue cultivators. As for the west part of the Covered Snow City, it had a relatively vibrant starry sky Essence Qi and was full of sects and other forces, along with residences of the more wealthy cultivators.
Despite the scarcity of starry sky Essence Qi in the eastern part, every inch of land within the Covered Snow City was worth its weight in gold.
A few miles away from the East Gate Grand Bridge, one would find a relatively small restaurant called ‘Cheng Ruolan’.
Although Cheng Ruolan Restaurant was a restaurant, only three people ran it. The owner of the restaurant, Helian Mingzhe, his granddaughter Helian Dai and a helper, Ning Ruolan.
Cheng Ruolan Restaurant might have looked small, but many rogue cultivator liked to come here to drink. Mainly because this restaurant provided good quality wine at low prices. A hundred blue coins could get one a pot of some quality wine.
Obviously, Ning Cheng’s sister, Ning Ruolan, was the one who came up with this name. Moreover, the reason Ning Ruolan chose such a name was so that Ning Cheng could find it easily.
According to her original idea, she wanted to establish this restaurant in Descendant City. However, the price within Descendant City was not something she could manage. Rather, she could not afford it at all.
Therefore, she decided to look for establishing a shop somewhere near Descendant City; however, the prices still posed a prohibitive barrier. As she kept looking, she finally reached Covered Snow City. Fortunately, although Covered Snow City was in a remote location, it was still in the Second Revenant Star.
When Ning Ruolan came to Descendant City, she was not alone. She had come with Rui Baishan, Luo Ziyan, Que Hongshui, Taishu Pinghao, Meng Jingxiu, Xian Caixue and others. However, Ning Ruolan insisted on staying in Second Revenant Star to keep searching for her brother Ning Cheng. She believed that her big brother could find her in Second Revenant Star.
In the beginning, others were willing to wait with Ning Ruolan. However, Rui Baishan suddenly went missing, and the rest started to feel that staying in this place would not have any future. When Ning Ruolan decided to remain behind long-term in Covered Snow City, everyone started to separate and go his or her separate ways.
In the end, Ning Ruolan was the only one left in Covered Snow City. She later met with Helian Dai and decided to work at Helian Dai’s small restaurant. Moreover, since Ning Ruolan had experience in operating a business, she quickly helped double the profits of this restaurant. This won the trust of Helian Dai and her grandfather Helian Mingzhe.
Finally, the no-name restaurant officially named themselves as Cheng Ruolan Restaurant on Ning Ruolan’s suggestion, mainly catering to the less affluent rogue cultivators.
However, today, the Cheng Ruolan Restaurant, which usually opened on time, remained shuttered.
Inside the restaurant, a man with a sickly-looking face sat with a melancholic look over his face.
“These people are too shameless. Our restaurant has been running here for over a hundred years. Now that a mystic realm has opened up in the eastern part of the Covered Snow City, everyone wants to come here and move us away. We are not moving. What can they do about out Cheng Ruolan Restaurant?” A green-robed woman sat on the side and spoke with a face filled with anger.
The sickly-faced man knew the reason behind his granddaughter’s anger. He gave out a sigh before turning his gaze towards the yellow-robed woman sitting in the left, “Ruolan, what do you think?”
This beautiful woman, in a yellow robe and sitting on the left, was none other than Ning Ruolan who come from Graceful Star Mainland to search for her brother Ning Cheng. She had stayed in Covered Snow City for many years, on the hope that her big brother could find her. She understood that searching for her elder brother Ning Cheng within the vast universe would be impossible with her current cultivation of Celestial Novice Realm.
This place was not Earth, but the endless starry sky universe.
Ning Ruolan hesitated for a moment before speaking up, “Grandpa Helian, Junior Apprentice Sister Dai, we have to leave. If we stay here, I’m afraid the three of us wouldn’t even know how we died.”
The sickly-looking man nodded and said to the green-robed female cultivator, “Little Dai, Ruolan is right. We have to leave. You and Ruolan both have Celestial Novice Cultivation, and I am at the Celestial Gatherer Realm. However, I am still injured. Anyone in the Celestial Gatherer Realm could easily wipe us out, let alone people with strong family background. We will not only lose our restaurant by staying here but also our lives.”
“But, but….” Helian Dai wanted to refute. Even her expressions showed that she did not want to leave, but she could not find any logical reasoning or words to deny it. She knew Big Sister Ruolan and her grandpa were right. They had to leave.
Ning Ruolan also knew that Helian Dai did not want to leave. She gave out a sigh, “This time, the Ancient Shadow Temple’s Mystic Realm suddenly appeared and that too not far from the Covered Snow City. Many people would definitely come here to explore it, which means the locations outside the Covered Snow City would turn into precious commodities. Although we will have to leave the restaurant, we can still set ourselves outside the Covered Snow City if we still hope of doing any business in the future.”
Helian Mingzhe also nodded, “Let’s do as Ruolan said. When the Ancient Shadow Temple finally opens, it will definitely attract many cultivators to Covered Snow City. Maybe our business could improve outside.”
Although the three of them knew that those were just words of self-consolation, they had no choice but to hope for it. Instead of waiting for someone to snatch the Cheng Ruolan Restaurant through force, it would be better to let go of it early.
“Boom…..” Just when Helian Mingzhe’s words ended, the entrance to the restaurant burst open.
A scarlet-robed woman stood at the entrance with three male cultivators standing behind her. The scarlet-robed woman’s gaze swept over Ning Ruolan’s trio before she spoke up in a cold tone. “I already sent you my words yesterday, but you still haven’t rolled away. Do you want me to personally kick you out or have you gone deaf?”
Seeing Helian Dai suddenly stand up, Ning Ruolan quickly rushed ahead and said, “This Senior Apprentice Sister, please calm down. We have already planned to move away and were just discussing where to go.”
Ruolan knew that she could not let Helian Dai speak at this moment. In case Helian Dai’s words angered the people in front of them, none of them would see the light of the next day. She already had a good understanding of the forces represented by the people standing in front of her.
“Fuck off….” The scarlet-robed woman did not even bother to look at Ning Ruolan and slapped her palm horizontally.
Ning Ruolan only had a Celestial Novice Cultivation, while this scarlet-robed female cultivator had a full-circle Celestial Gatherer Cultivation. How could she avoid it? The force from the scarlet-robed woman’s palm slap caused Ning Ruolan to fly back and crash into the wall stacked with bottles and jars of wine behind her, breaking them all to pieces.
Seeing Ning Ruolan starting to grow angry as she stood up, Helian Mingzhe quickly stood up and planted himself in front of Ning Ruolan. He then spoke up, “Little Dai quickly help up your Big Sister Ruolan. We’re leaving.”
Even if Helian Mingzhe had turned stupid, he knew that staying here would mean death for the three of them. Moreover, before Helian Mingzhe finished speaking, Helian Dai had already rushed up and helped Ning Ruolan up. Then following Helian Mingzhe’s lead, the three of them quickly moved out from the side door, without even bothering to take their things from the restaurant.