Chapter 0703: Five-coloured Star Splitter
Although this black arrow contained immense power, it’s been stuck here for many years, indicating that it was most likely an ownerless item. Therefore, even though its murderous aura invaded Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness, it quickly lost its intimidating nature after Ning Cheng’s Everlasting Blue Thunder City automatically blocked its rampage.
When Ning Cheng took a step forward again, this black arrow seemed to have sensed Ning Cheng’s intent to approach it. It started to vibrate even more and gave out even more ‘weng’ sounds. As increasingly powerful killing intent poured out from this black arrow, it continuously formed into more and more arrows. However, this time, the arrows did not target Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness but surrounded Ning Cheng.
Even if Ning Cheng advanced to the Life and Death Realm, his Celestial River Domain couldn’t completely block the residual arrow intent’s murderous aura.
“Puff-Puff-Puff-Puff……” The arrow intent’s murderous aura quickly slammed on to Ning Cheng after sealing off all the escape routes.
However, despite the power contained within the murderous aura, it could only tear through Ning Cheng’s robes and not hurt him at all. This also highlighted the strength of Ning Cheng’s Starry Sky Body.
Ning Cheng gave out a dark sign in his heart. If he still had a Celestial River body, then in the face of this arrow intent’s murderous aura, he would have had to bring out weapons and fight with his life on the line to defend against these arrows. If he had to bring out weapons to guard against it, it would be better to give up on the thought of refining this black arrow.
No wonder this black arrow remained here for so long and no one refined it yet. Not to mention the powerful killing intent that could ignore everything else and invade one’s Sea of Consciousness, even the materialised arrow intent could rip apart one’s domain. Just these two factors made it extremely difficult to defend against it.
Fortunately, he had the Everlasting Blue Thunder City in his Sea of Consciousness supported with a Starry Sky body. Therefore, even if others found these obstacles insurmountable, it did not pose too much danger to him.
As Ning Cheng kept approaching it step-by-step, the black arrow continued to vibrate more and more fiercely. It seemed to have turned even angrier and gave out even more powerful ‘weng’ sounds. The arrow intent exuding from it brought up even more powerful killing power with it.
However, Ning Cheng still kept moving towards it, ignoring the black arrow’s killing intent. With a Starry Sky body, this arrow’s killing intent couldn’t do anything to him.
When Ning Cheng finally came to a stop in front of the black arrow, he suddenly raised his hand and placed it on its shaft, to allow his spiritual consciousness to pour into it.
However, the moment Ning Cheng touched the shaft of the black arrow, a traceless strand of killing intent suddenly rushed into Ning Cheng’s Starry Sky Sea of Consciousness that even managed to avoid the blockade formed by the Everlasting Blue Thunder City.
A tearing pain suddenly erupted, shocking Ning Cheng to the core. He immediately understood that if this strand of killing intent pierced through his Sea of Consciousness, it might not kill him, but it would definitely cripple him. Even if he had the Sifting Ferry Grass, Ning Cheng would not be able to use it.
Without any hesitation or consideration, Ning Cheng’s thoughts immediately connected to the Imperial Jade Seal filled with the Power of Hope.
Only the Imperial Jade Seal within his Sea of Consciousness could help him right now, apart from the Everlasting Blue Thunder City. Although his sea also contained the Celestial River Flame, its grade was still too low for any use against the current enemy.
With Ning Cheng’s thought, the Imperial Jade Seal immediately erupted with golden light before turning into a giant seal and smashing down on the shadowless killing intent in his Sea of Consciousness.
“Boom!” A horrific explosion raged in Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness, which almost sent Ning Cheng into a shock. His Sea of Consciousness trembled as if an earthquake passed through it.
The shadowless killing intent fired by the black arrow gave out a faint but sharp tweet but under pressure from the Imperial Jade Seal, dissolved into nothingness.
Ning Cheng breathed out a sigh of relief, and started pouring more of his spiritual consciousness into the black arrow and began refining.
After Ning Cheng’s spiritual consciousness invaded the black arrow, it felt as if the black arrow had exhausted its power and could no longer attack Ning Cheng. Instead, it could only form one blockade after another in the form of restrictions to protect itself.
Ning Cheng had already determined to refine this black arrow. Even if this black arrow created more obstacles, his spiritual consciousness, together with his celestial essence, tore through one obstacle after another, just like a spear passing through layers of shields without showing any indication of stopping.
Time continued to pass since the moment his consciousness invaded it, but it caused the killing intent around the black arrow to start shrinking steadily. As the arrow’s killing intent continued to shrink in on itself, the black arrow’s defences grew even stronger. Yet, even then, it could not stop or slow down Ning Cheng’s refining speed.
Not knowing how much time had passed, the black arrow suddenly gave out a ‘katcha’ sound that reverberated in Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness, following which the black arrow’s resistance weakened almost immediately.
Ning Cheng finally felt somewhat happy. He understood that he had managed to refine the first layer of restrictions covering the black arrow.
Everything looked fierce in the beginning, but after refining the first layer of restriction, Ning Cheng quickly tore through the latter segments of the restriction layer like cutting through bamboo. ‘Kaka’ sounds continuously resounded as the black arrow slowly started to fall under Ning Cheng’s control.
This was already the 37th day since Ning Cheng sat down in this place and started refining the black arrow. As Ning Cheng focussed on refining the black arrow, he completely forgot about all the interference around him.
Because Ning Cheng had started refining the black arrow, the killing intent surrounding the arrow continually converged on itself causing feelings of alarm, shock and surprise to run through the hearts of the cultivators going through that area.
After the first cultivator discovered someone refining the black arrow, and that the killing intent around it had started to weaken, more and more cultivators decided to make their way to this place. At this time, many cultivators had already surrounded the periphery of the shattered star where the black arrow lay embedded. These cultivators could not help but look at Ning Cheng in awe as he refined the black arrow in the distance.
“Is he a supreme master? How can one refine the Foreign Heaven’s Arrow?”
“It should be a Dao Confirming Powerhouse. It has to be one. Even Eternal Starry Sky Emperors cannot do such a thing.”
“I wish I could be that senior’s disciple….”
“Stop dreaming. Experts at that level would never take in disciples from this place.”
……
Previously, they could not even get close to this shattered star; however, now that someone had started refining the black arrow, everyone could now finally see the black arrow up close.
Initially, of the cultivators watching Ning Cheng refine the black arrow, most of them were rogue cultivators who flitted around the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land. However, the news quickly spread and more cultivators started pouring in from afar. Even some Eternal Starry Sky Emperors received the report and promptly rushed towards the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land.
Who did not want to obtain a treasure like the Foreign Heaven’s Arrow? Now that someone had started to refine it, who would willingly not care about it?
However, they were not destined to see the scene of Ning Cheng refining the black arrow, and even less able to participate in the competition for the black arrow. After refining the black arrow for around a month, Ning Cheng had already taken control of the black arrow. He then suddenly stood up and raised his hand to pull it out. The large black arrow gave out a whistling sound before finally coming out of the shattered star.
“Boom…..” With the black arrow pulled out of the shattered star, the star then turned into dust dissipating into the endless void of the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land.
After the black arrow fell into Ning Cheng’s hand, it quickly became smaller, and even its colour started to fade. In just a few moments, the black arrow had shrunk down to the length of a few feet.
Ning Cheng put the black arrow into his storage ring with a happy feeling and at the same time brought out the Starry Sky Wheel. In the next moment, the Starry Sky Wheel seemed to have split open the void around it and disappeared from the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land. Even one’s spiritual consciousness could not find the slightest trace of it, let alone catch up to it.
Just when Ning Cheng left, some of the nearest Eternal-level powerhouses finally arrived. However, they reached a step too late and could not even see the black arrow.
“Someone actually refined and carried away the Foreign Heaven’s Arrow?” An Eternal-level powerhouse stared at the spot where the remnant star had dissipated into dust and spoke with a voice fused with killing intent.
Who did not want to obtain a treasure like the Foreign Heaven’s Arrow? Now that someone unknown had refined it and taken it away, how could he tolerate such a thing?
“Brother Peng, although we all want the Foreign Heaven’s Arrow, I know a bit more than you. The person who took away the arrow is only at the Heaven Seated Realm, hehe….” A newly arrived Eternal Cultivator spoke up after hearing those words.
When the other Eternal cultivator heard those words, he gave out a sigh and even the killing intent in his eyes gradually dissipated. He understood what those words implied. If that person could refine the arrow with a Heaven Seated Cultivation and even managed to take away the Foreign Heaven’s Arrow, it meant that he could not compare to that person. If one day he really started a fight with the expert who took the Foreign Heaven’s Arrow, he might actually die.
……
Since Ning Cheng dared to take away the Foreign Heaven’s Arrow, it showed that he naturally did not fear the Eternal cultivators wanting to hunt him down. It was just that he did not want to start a fight with other Eternal cultivators right away. Therefore, the moment he gained control over the Foreign Heaven’s Arrow, he decided to leave immediately.
Moreover, Ning Cheng had already refined the Starry Sky Wheel’s 81st layer of restrictions, making it several times faster compared to the past.
After leaving, Ning Cheng called out Chasing Bull and let Chasing Bull control the Starry Sky Wheel to head to the Culmination Starland, while he continued to refine the Foreign Heaven’s Arrow.
This black arrow seemed to contain an endless amount of restrictions. After Ning Cheng refined one layer of restriction, it immediately formed another layer of restrictions. However, the more Ning Cheng refined it, the smaller the black arrow became.
Seeing this, Ning Cheng suspected that one day, when he completely refined this black arrow, this black arrow might turn into nothingness.
Ning Cheng, regardless of the suspicions, decided to refine the black arrow to its limit. Even if the black arrow turned into nothingness during the refinement, he would not give up on it.
70th layer of restrictions, 71st layer of restrictions… 80th layer of restrictions…
92nd layer of restriction… 98th layer of restrictions…
As another month passed by, Ning Cheng had refined up to 106 layers of restrictions. By this time, the black arrow had already turned into a faint shadow, yet the refinement showed no sign of coming to an end.
107th layer of restriction, 108th layer of restriction…
“Katcha…..” A faint sound emerges, and Ning Cheng looked at his palm in shock. The black arrow that looked like a soft shadow before had now disappeared entirely after he refined the 108th layer of restrictions.
How could the Foreign Heaven’s Arrow disappear after refining? However, before Ning Cheng could ponder over the reason, a stream of information flowed into Ning Cheng’s mind.
‘Five-coloured Star Splitting Arrow, no bow, no arrow, no star, no split!’[1]
This arrow obviously had a black colour initially, yet it had the name ‘Five-coloured Star Splitter Arrow’. Even if it had the title ‘Colourless Star Splitter Arrow’, Ning Cheng would not have felt surprised, but ‘five-coloured’, where were these five colours?
No bow, no arrow, no star, no split! What did this mean? Moreover, where did the recently refined five-coloured Star Splitter Arrow go?
Ning Cheng quickly found out where the arrow had gone. Observing his hand carefully, he found an extremely faint, almost indiscernible shadow on his wrist, so weak that even his eyes missed it initially. Focussing all his concentration, Ning Cheng finally felt the arrow sitting on his wrist. Yet, it still looked colourless. Nevertheless, Ning Cheng confirmed that this arrow was the same Foreign Heaven’s Arrow that he had just refined.
Ning Cheng’s thoughts then concentrated with the intent to try out the power of this arrow. However, the moment he tried it, he felt the majestic and boundless murderous aura filling the entire body of the arrow. Ning Cheng had a hunch that if he wanted to bring out this arrow, he would have to exhaust almost all of his celestial essence and spiritual consciousness. Even then, he felt that he might not manage to bring out its full power.
The Five-coloured Star Splitter Arrow definitely contains terrifying strength, Ning Cheng thought as he took in a deep breath. He naturally had a clear understanding of his cultivation and had always held enormous confidence in his spiritual consciousness, yet he understood that he could not bring out the full power of this black arrow. This definitely implied that this arrow held terrifying powers.
[1] Can also be interpreted as ‘Five-coloured Star Splitter Arrow, bowless, arrowless, starless, split less!!’ but unless the text gives us more context, I decided to keep it as the raws.