Chapter 0799: Shocking News
Chapter 0799: Shocking News
Stately River Star’s Ancient Shadow Temple; Chuan Xinlou’s seclusion after reaching Dao Confirming Realm; the Mysterious Yellow Temple’s threatening voice; and the mysterious group of people who had suddenly appeared in the Mysterious Yellow Starland….
All of this heightened Ning Cheng’s sense of crisis; it even felt like the prelude to the starry skies undergoing some huge changes. This kind of tranquillity within the starry skies now felt like the calm before the storm.
But no matter what the future brought, he had to take advantage of this quietness and speed up increasing his strength.
Thinking of all this, Ning Cheng immediately took out the teleportation jade talisman and entered the Time Wilderness. He still had more than 30 Star Veins on him. However, he felt that going to the Temple of Time for cultivation still had the most cost-effective advantage, especially now that he had advanced to the Eternal Realm. The Starry Sky Spirit Qi within the Temple of Time not only had a much higher purity, but it also had much higher compatibility with his cultivation. Besides, he could use the cultivation resources on him whenever he wanted, so it didn’t make much sense to consume them right now.
It was Ning Cheng’s fourth time entering Time Wilderness, so he felt much more familiar with it this time around. In just a short time, Ning Cheng arrived in front of the triangular-shaped gate to the Temple of Time. In just a glance, Ning Cheng understood that Duan Gantai hadn’t come here at all. Presumably, just like him, Duan Gantai must have gone into seclusion to reach the Eternal Realm.
A Time Wheel popped out, and the triangular-shaped gate of the Temple of Time opened again. But before Ning Cheng went inside, he set up a few defensive array formations outside.
Ning Cheng felt sure that Duan Gantai couldn’t open the Temple of Time despite having the three Perpetual Moon Time Keys. But even then, Ning Cheng didn’t dare to take the risk. What if Duan Gantai had some other means to open the door? He had to prepare a defence beforehand.
But even after making all the preparations, Ning Cheng didn’t immediately start cultivating. Instead, he took out the stone stele obtained from the Formless Sect. Ning Cheng had many things to take care of before and didn’t have the time to refine this stone stele. But now he decided to take care of it first.
Ning Cheng’s spiritual consciousness seeped into the stone stele and started refining it. In just a few breaths, Ning Cheng understood that the stele was anything but ordinary. It’s just that this thing didn’t have a use in crafting artefacts. Rather, it only had one effect, creating an extremely powerful isolation boundary. So strong that even his spiritual consciousness couldn’t fully penetrate it.
Ning Cheng hit the stone tablet with a punch, which instantly shattered it. Picking up the fragments, Ning Cheng carefully looked over each piece and became even more convinced that this stele only served one purpose. That is, to isolate the inside from spiritual consciousness. Out of all the fragments, only the piece with the word ‘Formless’ remained intact. Even the characters looked very different from the other bits. They had a quaint aura of dao charm flowing around it.
After scrutinising it for a long time, Ning Cheng concluded that a person with extremely high cultivation had written those words and had nothing particularly special about it. Therefore, he put it away and flipped through the rest of the stone fragments and found an ordinary-looking book embedded inside one. This book should be the object sealed inside the stone stele, which emerged after he smashed the stele.
Ning Cheng didn’t expect that this stone stele would contain a book inside it. He picked up the book and separated it from the pieces of stone still attached to it before flipping its pages. The book only contained seven sheets of paper apart from its cover but had no words on it. Even Ning Cheng couldn’t figure out the material of these papers nor could his spiritual consciousness penetrate it. Not only could his spiritual consciousness not sweep through it, but Ning Cheng also couldn’t tear the pages apart with his strength.
This book gave Ning Cheng a very unusual feeling. So, Ning Cheng decided to refine this book the moment his spiritual consciousness finished its scrutiny. However, one day later, Ning Cheng withdrew his spiritual consciousness. He could refine this book, but it would take a long time, something he lacked at the moment. He can’t waste precious time in refining a book.
Ning Cheng felt convinced that the most valuable thing in Formless Sect’s stone stele was the wordless book hidden within the stele.
Putting away the seven-page book without words, Ning Cheng let go of all other thoughts. Entering the Mysterious Yellow Bead, he decided to concentrate on cultivation in seclusion.
Even Ning Cheng had to admit that the Temple of Time truly was an excellent place for cultivation. He kept the Mysterious Yellow Bead suspended over the jade platform in the middle of the Temple of Time. At the same time, the endless Starry Sky Spirit Qi within the jade platform formed into a vortex that continually flowed into the Mysterious Yellow Bead.
Time flew by silently as Ning Cheng kept absorbing the Starry Sky Spirit Qi like a bottomless pit within the Mysterious Yellow Bead. The influx of Spirit Qi steadily kept improving his cultivation……
One year, two years….
In a flash, five years passed by and Ning Cheng, immersed in cultivation, suddenly opened his eyes. He realised that he could no longer absorb the abundant Starry Sky Essence Spirit Qi.
Did he absorb all the Starry Sky Spirit Qi? Ning Cheng felt a bit confused and swept out with his spiritual consciousness before coming out of the Mysterious Yellow Bead.
Ning Cheng guessed it correctly. He had truly absorbed all the Starry Sky Spirit Qi in this place. Not only did he absorb everything, but even the jade platform beneath his feet had turned bleak. Moreover, the jade platform started to crack apart the moment Ning Cheng’s feet touched it.
Ning Cheng felt secretly upset about it. If he could cultivate for a little more time, he could have advanced to middle-stage Eternal Realm. Unfortunately, at such a critical time, he had already consumed all the Starry Sky Spirit Qi in it.
During these five years, Ning Cheng had not only stabilised his cultivation, but he had also improved his cultivation significantly. Therefore, although Ning Cheng felt a bit upset, the progress still pleased him.
It’s just that he didn’t know what happened to Duan Gantai. This fellow still hadn’t shown up at the Temple of Time. However, Ning Cheng naturally didn’t care about Duan Gantai right now and eagerly left the Time Wilderness.
……
Despite coming to Stately River Star nearly two months ago, Ning Cheng didn’t go to Covered Snow City. Instead, he used this time to reinforce the Star Protecting Grand Array outside the Stately River Star. The array he had arranged previously was a peak-level Starry Sky Rank 8 Array, just a little short of a Starry Sky Rank 9 Array.
Now that his accomplishments in the Dao of Arrays had risen parallelly with his cultivation, Ning Cheng naturally decided to rearrange the Star Protecting Grand Array. Even if he had to refine a pseudo-top ranked Dao Artefact to implant into the Star Protecting Grand Array, it wouldn’t hurt Ning Cheng. Ning Cheng also implanted more than ten Star Veins into the Star Protecting Grand Array to bolster its power to a new height.
Moreover, with Cang Caihe’s help, Ning Cheng finished the rearrangement at a much faster pace. If not for the decision to add a top-ranked Spirit Gathering Array within this Star Protecting Grand Array at the last moment, this Star Protecting Grand Array would have finished a long time ago. Even so, the two managed to complete the array in a record-breaking time of two months.
“Sect Master, I truly admire you. Not only is your progress in cultivation and alchemy incredible, but even your proficiency with Array Formations has reached such incredible heights. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I couldn’t have believed that this Star Protecting Grand Array was set up by a single person.” After finishing the rearrangement of the Star Protecting Grand Array, Cang Caihe spoke up from his heart.
Ning Cheng smiled. But just when he was about to speak, he sensed the destruction of one of his Spirit Sense Jade Cards. He had only given Spirit Sense Jade Cards to Cang Caihe, Ning Ruolan, Ji Luofei and Shui Wuchang.
From the looks of it, Shui Wuchang was the one who crushed her Spirit Sense Jade Card. Ning Cheng had left the Spirit Sense Jade Card with Shui Wuchang with express instructions to only use it for information relating to the Wood Origin Bead. Since Shui Wuchang crushed her Spirit Sense Jade Card, was it because she gained some information about the Wood Origin Bead?
Initially, Ning Cheng wanted to invite Ning Ruoqing to visit the Ancient Shadow Temple after arranging the Star Protecting Grand Array. But since Shui Wuchang crushed the Spirit Sense Jade Card, he naturally decided to head to the Devil Domain. For him, any information relating to Wood Origin Bead took utmost precedence.
“Brother Cang, I need to leave Stately River Star again. Sorry for creating more trouble for Brother Cang.” Ning Cheng truly felt embarrassed. He founded the Mysterious Yellow Sect, but he rarely stayed in Stately River Star. Thus, most of the Stately River Star’s affairs ended up in the hands of Gongxiu Zhu and others. At the same time, Cang Caihe looked over and took charge of the safety of the star.
Cang Caihe laughed, “Sect Master, to tell the truth, I feel quite happy staying in Stately River Star. Staying here is much more comfortable than wandering around in the starry skies. Moreover, after so many years of wandering around, I’m already tired of it.”
Ning Cheng knew that Cang Caihe had only spoken those words out of politeness. Even if Cang Caihe didn’t stay here, he would never have to roam the starry sky as a wanderer. As a Starry Sky Grade 9 Pill Emperor, wherever he went, people would respect and even willingly throw all their resources at him. Even Chuan Xinlou had to speak to Cang Caihe with politeness. How could he wander around in the starry skies?
But now that they were people from the same sect, Ning Cheng no longer had to remain polite about it. He took out three jade bottles and handed them to Cang Caihe. “Brother Cang, the bottles contain three medicinal pills. If you see a suitable successor, you can give him or her one of the pills.”
Cang Caihe himself was a premier Pill Emperor, so he naturally didn’t think much about the medicinal pills in his hand. However, since Ning Cheng was his Sect Master now and because Ning Cheng personally handed him the medicinal pills, he accepted them as a polite gesture. But when his spiritual consciousness swept into the jade bottles, he almost screamed in surprise.
“Sect Master, this……” Chang Caihe spoke up in disbelief while holding the jade bottles as if his very life depended on it.
He truly couldn’t believe what he saw. The bottles contained three Eternal Emperor Continuance Pills. Moreover, of the three, two were high-quality Eternal Emperor Continuance Pills, and one was a top-quality Eternal Emperor Continuance Pill.
It’s not like Cang Caihe had never seen an Eternal Emperor Continuance Pills before. He had refined a few batches of this type of medicinal pill in the past. But the reason he felt so shocked and surprised was that he had never once refined a high-quality Eternal Emperor Continuance Pill. Yet, Ning Cheng had given him two such medicinal pills. Not only two high-quality Eternal Emperor Continuance Pills but also a top-quality one.
These three medicinal pills simply didn’t have a measurable value.
A starry sky contained more than a dozen celestial rivers; a celestial river had millions and millions of stars. Moreover, each habitable star would have countless cultivators. From this, one could easily imagine the number of cultivators within a starry sky, which would easily number in numerous billions, if not trillions. Yet, even among so many cultivators, how many would ever manage to reach the Eternal Realm?
Take Striking Order Starry Sky as an example. It only had two Eternal-level experts, Striking Order Heavenly Emperor and Tang Yitang. From this, one could see how difficult it was to reach the Eternal Realm and how valuable were medicinal pills that could help one in advancing to the Eternal Realm. Therefore, even as a Starry Sky Grade 9 Pill Emperor, Cang Caihe couldn’t help but feel shocked, holding three pills of such high quality. Each bottle effectively represented an Eternal expert.
“Brother Cang, I refined these. Unfortunately, I only obtained one Starry Sky Radish Grass. Otherwise, I would have made a few more furnaces. I’ll be entrusting these three pills to you, Brother Cang. You can distribute it as you like, but they have to show dedication towards the Mysterious Yellow Sect and should have a good character.” Ning Cheng spoke with a smile.
“Sect Master can rest assured. I will keep an eye out for such individuals.” Cang Caihe carefully put away the jade bottles and replied to Ning Cheng’s words. What he truly wanted to inquire about was Ning Cheng’s level of Alchemy. How could it be easy to refine high-quality Eternal Emperor Continuance Pills? But he also knew that now was not the time to talk about the Dao of Pills with Ning Cheng. When Ning Cheng returned, he would then have the chance to talk about the Dao of Pills with Ning Cheng.
……
When Ning Cheng was just about to arrive at Silent Bubble Starland, he realised that the place where Shui Wuchang waited for him was not in Silent Bubble Starland. Instead, it was just outside the Silent Bubble Starland.
Ning Cheng had already fully refined the Starry Sky Wheel by this point, so Ning Cheng quickly found Shui Wuchang hiding outside in the starry sky for quite a few days.
Shui Wuchang also felt relieved to see Ning Cheng standing on the Starry Sky Wheel’s deck.
“Fairy Wuchang, since you crushed my jade card, did you find information about Wood Origin Bead?” Ning Cheng put away the Starry Sky Wheel and immediately asked.
His Mysterious Yellow Bead currently lacked only the Wood Origin Bead. As his cultivation grew higher, he started to sense a higher level of danger around him. As such, he wanted to find the Wood Origin Bead as soon as possible.
Shui Wuchang nodded, “Yes, but there’s another thing besides information about Wood Origin Bead.”
Ning Cheng felt ecstatic to hear that it truly was about the Wood Origin Bead. As for the other thing Shui Wuchang said, he didn’t even notice. He spoke with eagerness, “Fairy Wuchang, will the Wood Origin Bead also appear in Ash Pagoda’s auction?”
Shui Wuchang gave out a sigh before speaking, “This was originally the case, but someone suddenly snatched away the Wood Origin Bead before the auction. Moreover, both President Yi Cang and Vice-President Zeng Tajiang of the Ash Pagoda Chamber of Commerce died in the scuffle. I had low cultivation and wasn’t in the Ash Pagoda Chamber of Commerce’s building. Plus, with a few Heavenly Emperors coming to the Returning Capital Starry Sky City, I barely managed to escape disaster.”
“What?” Even Ning Cheng felt shocked by Shui Wuchang’s words. How could someone dare to snatch items meant for auction? Even Chuan Xinlou wouldn’t dare do such a thing even after reaching Dao Confirming Realm, right?