Night Essence Celestial River, Orchid Restraining Star, Thorn Tooth Lake.
With such a huge bounty appearing in Night Essence Celestial River, countless cultivators poured into Thorn Took Lake. In the previously sparse Thorn Tooth Lake, one could now find cultivators at every corner.
The hardest and most challenging thing about starry sky cultivation was the need for cultivation resources. But the bounty from this mission in Thorn Tooth Lake could easily suffocate an ordinary cultivator to death. Plus, even without this mission, one could still use this opportunity to search for some resources in Thorn Tooth Lake. As a result, countless rogue cultivators naturally gravitated towards it.
In a stone chamber deep inside the Thorn Tooth Lake, Yan Ji and Nalan Ruxue sat on the ground at opposite corners but facing each other. Yan Ji focussed on healing. Since Nalan Ruxue and Yan Ji didn’t share a common language, Nalan Ruxue also decided to close her eyes to cultivate.
“Do you use a talisman every time you go in and out of this place?” Yan Ji, who was in the middle of healing her wounds, suddenly opened her eyes and asked a question. By this time, her injuries had considerably recovered.
Nalan Ruxue opened her eyes and shook her head. “No, I usually go out using a concealed exit. The concealment array formation at the exit is of an extremely profound level. No matter how many times I go out, I can never find the entrance to get in. Therefore, I have no choice but to use a talisman to come inside while I take the exit to go outside.”
“I’m leaving.” Yan Ji said with a sigh.
Nalan Ruxue frowned, “Only death awaits you if you go out now. This place has many chambers, so if you don’t want to cultivate with me, just find a quiet chamber and cultivate by yourself.”
Yan Ji gave a calm reply, “It’s not that. If I stay here, we’ll both end up dead.”
Nalan Ruxue also gave a calm reply, “You can rest assured. I know the background of Shangguan Man’er. Her father, Shangguan Xiang, is Night Essence Celestial River’s Celestial River King. But even if he is a Celestial River King, I’m sure that he cannot find this place.”
Yan Ji stood up and shook her head. “You only know that Shangguan Xiang is the Celestial River King of Night Essence Celestial River. But do you know who is Shangguan Xiang’s elder brother?”
Seeing Nalan Ruxue look at her with a puzzled expression, Yan Ji explained. “Shangguan Xiang’s elder brother is Shangguan Fei. He’s Nine Jewel Starry Sky’s Heavenly Emperor. If I hadn’t killed Shangguan Man’er, I wouldn’t have known about it either.”
Yan Ji’s words immediately shocked Nalan Ruxue, and she didn’t speak for a long while. A Starry Sky Heavenly Emperor implied a powerhouse in the legendary Eternal Realm. Although this place had high-level concealment, it might not work against an Eternal powerhouse. Could they still stay hidden? Yan Ji had the right idea. If they continued to hide in this place, they most likely would meet a dead end.
“Just tell me where the exit’s location.” Yan Ji asked on seeing the shock on Nalan Ruxue’s face.
Nalan Ruxue didn’t immediately answer Yan Ji’s words. Instead, she also stood up and hurried out of the chamber.
Yan Ji quickly followed Nalan Ruxue. After Nalan Ruxue took about seven to eight turns, they once again entered a large chamber.
On the stone platform in the middle of the room, they immediately focussed their gazes on a huge array formation display. Nalan Ruxue looked at this array formation-like screen and murmured, “Even if we want to leave, we can’t walk away.”
Yan Ji also stared at the array formation display with a shocked look. The screen showed what was happening outside in the Thorn Tooth Lake. At this moment, the array formation in front of them displayed the movements of all people within the lake. Even without any Eternal-level experts coming here, just as Nalan Ruxue mentioned, they can’t escape.
“Do you still want to leave?” Nalan Ruxue looked at Yan Ji and asked again.
Yan Ji remained silent. She knew the same fate would befall her regardless of if she left or not. If Yan Ji went out, then at least Nalan Ruxue could escape. But once she went out, someone would immediately search her soul. At that moment, people would immediately know about Nalan Ruxue’s involvement.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get you into trouble.” Yan Ji spoke up with regret.
Nalan Ruxue shook her head, “There’s nothing wrong with what you did.”
After hesitating a bit, she added another sentence, “Yan Ji, have you seen him since you took to the starry skies.”
Yan Ji’s eyes immediately flashed with loneliness. After entering Tian Continent, she always wanted to find Ning Cheng, but she never succeeded. She did not have the same character as Nalan Ruxue. If she liked someone, then she loved them. But if she didn’t like someone, she would never pretend otherwise. She would never make any excuses about it.
“Boom….” An explosion erupted outside, followed by a violent shock, which even Yan Ji and Nalan Ruxue felt.
Yan Ji and Nalan Ruxue glanced at each other. When they reached this room, both of them had already understood that someone would find this place sooner or later. The only reason people had not discovered this place was because of the concealment formation. Just as Yan Ji mentioned, if an Eternal expert came, then even this concealment formation wouldn’t hide them for long.
As the sounds of explosion grew louder and denser, Nalan Ruxue gave out a sigh. “There is a teleportation array here, but I have no means to activate it at all.”
Yan Ji quickly asked, “Where’s this teleportation array?”
Nalan Ruxue walked to the huge array formation display and pressed down. The array formation screen immediately split from the middle, and a stone door that only one person could enter at a time appeared.
Yan Ji followed Nalan Ruxue, and the array formation screen closed again. The two then appeared inside another chamber ten feet away. Nalan Ruxue took out a seemingly simple array flag and raised it. The next moment, a teleportation array suddenly appeared in the middle of the empty room.
A powerful Dao Charm flowed out of the teleportation array. Yan Ji and Nalan Ruxue couldn’t understand anything about the power of this Dao Charm. However, they realised that this array was an extremely complicated ancient teleportation array.
At the four corners of the teleportation array were four huge grooves, and Yan Ji understood with a glance that these grooves were for a spiritual source.
“Does this teleportation array work? Or is it broken?” Yan Ji asked quickly.
Nalan Ruxue shook her head, “I don’t think this teleportation array has anything wrong with it. It’s just that it requires a high-grade spiritual source to initiate the teleportation. I tried using Perpetual Moon Pills and also used high-quality Starry Sky Crystals. But I still can’t get any reaction from this teleportation array. If I’m not wrong, this teleportation array requires either top-rank Starry Sky Crystals or Permanent Essence Pills.”
“Permanent Essence Pills?” Yan Ji felt her heart move and asked.
Feeling a slight excitement in Yan Ji’s tone, Nalan Ruxue quickly asked, “Do you have Permanent Essence Pills?”
Ordinary cultivators would find it challenging to obtain Permanent Essence Pills. In general, only Heaven Seated and above cultivators could seek out and use Permanent Essence Pills, and even use it as currency. Ordinary cultivators, even if they could get some, it wouldn’t exceed a handful.
“I have some Permanent Essence Pills.” Yan Ji nodded. She had Shangguan Man’er’s ring, which contained a large number of Permanent Essence Pills and Perpetual Moon Pills.
“But….” Nalan Ruxue looked at the four grooves with hesitation. Even if they had Permanent Essence Pills, they would require at least a few tens of thousands of Permanent Essence Pills to fill up those grooves. Would Yan Ji have these many Permanent Essence Pills?
“Boom-Boom” the explosion sounds grew louder as if someone wanted to turn over everything underground.
Yan Ji stepped onto the teleportation array and said to Nalan Ruxue, “You should also come.”
After Nalan Ruxue stepped onto the teleportation array, Yan Ji raised her hand and waved it, shooting out several shadows. In just a moment, Permanent Essence Pills filled the four grooves.
A ‘click’ sound emerged… Just when this sound emerged, the Permanent Essence Pills in the four grooves of the teleportation array started to tremble violently. They then transformed into four pure streams of starry sky spirit qi before drilling into the teleportation array.
Yan Ji and Nalan Ruxue, standing on the teleportation array, felt a much more violent force condensing and rushing up from the ground. The two looked at each other in horror and subconsciously clenched each other’s hands. Yan Ji knew that even a hundred thousand Permanent Essence Pills couldn’t produce such a horrifying force.
At this point, both of them understood that the Permanent Essence Pills in the four grooves served only one purpose. That is, to activate a starry sky spirit vein embedded in this teleportation array.
“Buzz….” A harsh sound emerged, following which a while light enveloped Yan Ji and Nalan Ruxue at the same time. A burst of dizziness erupted, and the two instantly fainted, without even the slightest hint of consciousness.
After the two teleported away, the teleportation array in the room calmed down. It soon vanished from sight as the concealment array formation automatically activated.
Not knowing how long they remained unconscious, Yan Ji and Nalan Ruxue woke up at the same time. Nalan Ruxue looked around and suddenly stood up while sweeping out with her spiritual consciousness. After just a few breaths, she said, “This is not the Thorn Tooth Lake. Although we successfully teleported away, I still can’t figure out where we arrived.”
Yan Ji also stood up and looked at the stone chamber where the two of them had appeared. After carefully listening for a while, she spoke, “If I didn’t hear wrong, this place should be somewhere underwater.”
“So, what should we do now?” Nalan Ruxue asked subconsciously. Surviving a certain death, she now felt much better than before.
Yan Ji looked at the teleportation array. “The first thing to do is to dismantle the main parts of this teleportation array.”
Nalan Ruxue quickly understood that Yan Ji had the right idea. Only after tearing down the teleportation array should they think of anything else.
……
Thousand Cry Star’s Tipping Rainbow City. The primer city of the Night Essence Celestial River.
At this time, a young cultivator with a short beard and wearing blue-robes walked into Tipping Rainbow City’s Trade Union. As soon as he entered the trade union, he saw the first eye-catching bounty on the huge mission screen. It also showed a clear picture of Yan Ji.
The blue-robed cultivator turned furious and punched out, blowing the trade union’s huge mission screen into pieces. If he hadn’t lost all rationality, he would have already destroyed the starry sky city. While all the people inside still reeled in shock, the blue-robed cultivator spoke up with an angry voice, “I will kill anyone who dares to touch even a strand of Yan Ji’s hair.”
After speaking, the blue-robed cultivator disappeared without a trace. Only at this time did the trade union’s staff sober up. Someone had dared to smash the trade union’s array formation display. This person had to die! But when the several deacons from the trade union rushed out, the cultivator who smashed the array formation screen had long since disappeared. Since they couldn’t even see that person’s shadow, how could they kill this person?
……
The blue-robed young cultivator naturally was Ning Cheng who had just arrived at Night Essence Celestial River. When he saw that the trade union truly had put a bounty on Yan Ji’s head, it immediately made him furious. Moreover, with that bounty, even if Yan Ji wanted to hide, she wouldn’t have any means. After smashing the trade union’s array formation screen, he immediately rushed to the Thorn Tooth Lake at full speed. He would never forgive himself if something happened to Yan Ji.
