Chapter 0146: Presently at the Axe Valley
“Senior Apprentice Brother Ning, why are you not even sparing the Rank 1 and Rank 2 Spiritual Grasses?” As Meng Jing Xiu saw Ning Cheng, who as long as he saw a Spiritual Grass, would collect it no matter what, without even giving a thought to its rank, finally spoke up.
Although, the hill had too many good things, it had Spiritual Grasses from Rank 1 to all the way to Rank 4, there were even some Rank 5 Spiritual Grasses growing here.
Ning Cheng just simply gave a chuckle and spoke, “I am preparing to learn Alchemy, therefore these Spiritual Grasses are really useful to me.”
“You want to learn Alchemy?” Meng Jing Xiu stared at Ning Cheng, and only reacted after a long while. It was because she was conscious of the fact that Alchemy was very difficult, as a result she was really astonished when she heard those words.
Regardless of the fact that Alchemy needed innumerable Spiritual Grasses as resources, it was not something an ordinary person could afford to learn even if they wanted to, that was because Alchemy was something inborn in a person, it simply cannot be casually learned even by a competent person.
Moreover, the best Spiritual Root needed to try to learn Alchemy was the Fire Spiritual Root, with the Wood Spiritual Root as an Auxiliary Support Spiritual Root, moreover the Spiritual Roots absolutely cannot be a hybrid one. In addition to this, one must also have a strong talent and affinity towards Alchemy. Because of this, even in the entire Yi Xing Mainland, the number of Alchemists were extremely pitiful in number, even in the Advanced Class Continents, Alchemy Masters were still very uncommon.
Ning Cheng seemed to have known what Meng Jing Xiu was thinking about, so after thinking about it himself, he once again casually replied, “If you don’t want them, then you can give me your Lower Ranked Spiritual Grasses, so that I can use them in my Alchemy and give the finished Pills to you.”
Meng Jing Xiu eased up, as she smiled and said, “I do not need Spiritual Grasses, I did not come here for the sake of gathering Spiritual Grasses, if you want these Spiritual Grasses, I can give all of them to you.”
As Meng Jing Xiu said this, she looked at Ning Cheng in a somewhat sheepish manner. Although she wanted to explain a bit more, but thinking about it she simply chose to not mention it. For Meng Jing Xiu the Spiritual Grasses here truly had not much use for her.
“I have always been this kind of a person, so my personality is somewhat eccentric. As such, I don’t know how to say things in the correct way. Before in the Mo Ze Grand Plaza I had offended you openly. I hope and also request Senior Apprentice Brother Ning to not mind it.” Meng Jing Xiu had always wanted to sincerely apologise to Ning Cheng after that incident. So now that she heard Ning Cheng say that he wanted to learn Alchemy, her mood immediately relaxed, and on the contrary, finally came out and said the things that she wanted to say.
Ning Cheng simply gave a smile, “Although when I met you before, I admit that I had a bit of a poor impression of you, but after seeing that your magic weapon is a long halberd, I knew that you were a frank person, therefore I did not mind it all. In fact, you know, you should smile a lot more. The smile that was on your face a moment ago on your serious face really made you much more beautiful.”
[TL Note: In ancient times, the people who preferred and wielded the Halberd as their weapon for battles, were all generally viewed as straightforward and having a frank personality. They were the people who would generally speak their mind.]
Ning Cheng was from Earth, so for him to praise a woman to be beautiful, was a very normal matter for him, and was not necessarily like the others. Although Meng Jing Xiu had a slightly dark skin, but none the less she was truly beautiful. Before she had always put on a serious face, but now that there were more smiles on her face, her womanly charm was completely revealed, it was only normal for him to complement her.
Meng Jing Xiu’s face turned slightly red, as she lowered her head and did not speak. Although she was confident that she was not ugly, but she knew that when Ning Cheng said that she was beautiful, it was not because he felt attracted to her. This was a woman’s intuition. Something that she was completely unable to express in words. What’s more, for her, there were simply too many things that she must handle, so the matter of finding a companion, was something that was absolutely impossible for her at this moment.
“Yi! I found four mature Essence Raising Fruits.” The thing Ning Cheng just casually said, he had already put it aside. At present, the thing that he was most attracted at the moment was the stub containing four Essence Raising Fruits in a row. Generally, there would only be a single Essence Raising Fruit on one stub, moreover the branches of the Essence Raising Fruit were also very small, just like a piece of an ordinary thin grass.
The Essence Raising Fruit was one of the main Spiritual Fruits required to refine the Essence Building Pill, moreover previously because Ruimu Danqin had obtained an Essence Raising Fruit, it had almost provoked a fatal disaster for them.
With the discovery of the Essence Raising Fruit, more and more High Ranking Spiritual Grasses began to appear in front of them, Heaven Scented Precious Zoysia, Returning Boat Flower, Declivity Gathering Root, Mist Orchids and other precious Spiritual Grasses were found in abundance by Ning Cheng.
Seeing the Heaven Scented Precious Zoysia, Ning Cheng immediately was reminded of An Yi, who was currently in the Falling Star Academy. Initially she wanted to find the Heaven Scented Precious Zoysia, and even though she worked very hard to try and find it but she was not able to find a single one, but now unexpectedly he was able to obtain more than one here. As for the Returning Boat Flower, after being refined into a pill, it can then easily be used by an Essence Building Cultivator to cultivate. However, the Declivity Gathering Root and the Mist Orchids were something really precious.
Especially the Declivity Gathering Root, although its rank was not as high as the Mist Orchids, but it is one of the Best Quality Spiritual Grasses among the Rank 4 Spiritual Grasses, moreover this Spiritual Grass can be refined into a Declivity Spiritual Pill.
The Declivity Spiritual Pill was a Level 4 True Pill, once a lower level cultivator was possessed by the devil when he cultivates, then using the Declivity Spiritual Pill was the best medicinal pill that could help him/her.
[TL Note – Here the ‘devil’ refers to mental demons that a cultivator has to face.]
On the Spiritual Grass Hill, Ning Cheng had already filled two Storage Bags, of course, it also included the one that Meng Jing Xiu gave to him. Meng Jing Xiu only kept a very small part of the Spiritual Grasses that were possibly of some use to her, while she handed over the rest to Ning Cheng.
“This really is very good, Junior Apprentice Sister Jing Xiu, let us change hills and continue.” Ning Cheng rubbed his hands in glee, he was looking more and more forward to explore the rest of the Angry Axe Valley.
Meng Jing Xiu gave an ‘en’ sound, but then spoke after a bit of hesitation, “Senior Apprentice Brother Ning, do we go to that place first. Here there are innumerable Spiritual Grasses, but there are only Lower Ranked Spiritual Grasses. Because of the accident that happened in the Angry Axe Valley, I am afraid that we would not be able to go to that place before we end up being transferred out.”
Ning Cheng immediately recovered from the delusion of collecting innumerable Spiritual Grasses, as he thought about what Meng Jing Xiu said, it really was not without reason. Who knew when the Angry Axe Valley would revert to its previous state and transfer them out?
Having some thought till here, he once more cautiously asked, “Junior Apprentice Sister Jing Xiu, what is this place in the Angry Axe Valley that you keep speaking about? Moreover, how do you know about this place?”
Meng Jing Xiu did not have the time to answer, when Ning Cheng immediately sensed a berserk ripple coming from the periphery, this feeling made Ning Cheng feel extreme danger. Without any time to reflect on it, he immediately grabbed Meng Jing Xiu, and explosively increased his speed to the point that he only appeared as a vague blur, as he immediately flew out and escaped from the hill.
Meng Jing Xiu who was immediately grabbed by Ning Cheng, seeing him fleeing with full force, immediately knew that something terrible might have happened, as such she did not dare move about. Sure enough, the next moment a terrible deafening explosion rumbled through at the place the two of them were just standing about.
“Hong….” A terrible explosion resounded behind Ning Cheng’s back, causing the strong impact to directly explode on Ning Cheng’s back, the clothes on Ning Cheng’s back immediately shred to pieces because of the explosion.
It was followed by a “Peng” sound, as Ning Cheng was immediately thrown forcefully because of the strength of the explosion, falling to the ground at a distance, forming a huge pit beneath him, while he still kept Meng Jing Xiu pressed to him to protect her. Meng Jing Xiu’s original injuries were still not fully healed, so because she was still with Ning Cheng, she immediately spouted a mouthful of blood.
Ning Cheng was already at Essence Building 1st Level, so his True Essence was extremely vigorous, so when his clothes were shredded away by the explosion, other than a minute amount of blood that trickled out, there was no other injuries on his body. He immediately held up Meng Jing Xiu and spoke in an apologetical manner, “I don’t know how, but the hill we were at exploded suddenly. I did not pay more attention to it, and ended up hurting you again.”
Meng Jing Xiu finally stood up on her feet, as she wiped off the bloodstains on her mouth and said, “I am fine, if not for you grabbing me and leaving a moment ago, then perhaps I would not have been able to come out.”
All the people looked at Ning Cheng’s hill in astonishment, at this time, that hill had already vanished and could not be seen at all, rather that hill had turned into a huge pit. Moreover, that terrible power of the explosion, even if it was a cultivator in the Essence Building Realm, it was not something that they could withstand. In other words, if they had been collecting Spiritual Grasses in there, then, at this time they would have already died.
Several of the Essence Building Cultivators were just on their way to Ning Cheng to inquire what had happened, when several fierce explosions started to resound all around them.
Two hills that were not far from them suddenly exploded with a tremendous explosive force, as a result the cultivators still inside the hill were not as lucky as Ning Cheng and Meng Jing Xiu. Other than a few cultivators that rushed away while still being on the outside, the rest of the cultivators inside and near the periphery of the hills were not able to escape, and immediately turned into ash because of the intense explosive force that exploded out from the hills.
As a result, the cultivators still seeking Spiritual Grasses, or the cultivators still collaborating to break into the hills, immediately withdrew in bulk. Sure enough, these cultivators had only walked not far away, when more hills began to explode. Finally, because of the continuous explosions, it formed into a towering Imposing Manner, as the huge explosion sounds began to rise up unceasingly.
Some of the cultivators were simply too late in escaping, and were hit by those explosions in droves, as they all finally fell from the sky dead.
“Sure enough, we really were able to escape early….” Ning Cheng spoke with a lingering fear in his voice, if he was even a little bit slow, then maybe he would have been one of the people who fell from the sky dead because of the explosion.
Although he had still not finished speaking, he knew that these explosions were not without a reason, as it was simply impossible for all the hills to continuously explode without any reason while frying those who were still collecting on those Spiritual Grass Hills before they exploded.
Smoke and rubble produced from the explosion had already completely covered this place. Ning Cheng at once swept out with his Spiritual Consciousness in the direction of Situ Yu and the others, but found nothing, and instead actually felt a bit relieved.
“The Angry Axe Valley, it’s the Angry Axe Valley……the real Angry Axe Valley emerged……” An incoherent voice sounded out, this voice immediately drew the attention of everyone to the sight in front of them.
And immediately even more people started calling out incoherently, as they thought that what they saw in front of them was the real Angry Axe Valley.
Ning Cheng and Meng Jing Xiu also clearly saw a huge ravine appear in front of them, moreover this huge ravine seemed to have been cleaved by an Axe and as such it’s walls were extremely neat and smooth. Moreover, the faint trace of Killing Intent that was leaking out from there, immediately made the bodies of all the people there turn cold.
But at this moment Ning Cheng could indistinctly feel that this Angry Axe Valley and the Angry Axe Valley that he had went and seen before were somewhat different, but as to what was different, he could not put his finger on.
Because the Spiritual Grass Hill had now turned into flat ground because of the explosions, the cultivators who were depressed, once more became excited. Even if those hills turned flat, there was still the real Angry Axe Valley in front of them, this was simply a true great opportunity. As long as they could comprehend even a tiny bit of the Axe Intent in the true Angry Axe Valley, their future would really end up great.
Didn’t that Early Stage Essence Building Cultivator from beforehand comprehend the Axe Intent, and easily and continuously killed the two Essence Building Masters from the Red Heaven Academy? Moreover, one of them was even at Essence Building 7th Level. What did that person rely on? It was the Axe Intent.
“Senior Apprentice Brother Ning, I seem to feel a kind of Killing Intent, my…” Meng Jing Xiu spoke while being pleasantly surprised, the Imposing Manner of her halberd technique “Raging Tides of the River” was already amazing, but she actually felt that she lacked a certain charm to it, this charm was precisely the true Killing Intent. This was the Halberd Intent, if she could comprehend the Halberd Intent here, then her battle proficiency would have more than doubled.
Ning Cheng saw that countless people were swarming towards the Angry Axe Valley, and nodded, “You’d better go in, after a while I will come look for you.”
“Senior Apprentice Brother Ning, don’t you want to go in?” Meng Jing Xiu asked as she looked at Ning Cheng in a puzzled manner.
“I can already feel the Axe Intent from here, moreover I can already feel that I can obtain it.” Ning Cheng quickly replied, before he had felt that this Axe Valley and the Axe Valley that he saw before were somewhat different, but now he could tell that they both were absolutely different. This entire Axe Valley, looking from an overall perspective looked incomparably smooth, but when he observed the surroundings with his Spiritual Consciousness this time, he found that the Axe Traces here had innumerable tiny cracks.
But Ning Cheng could actually feel something from these cracks, he could feel that this vague feeling was a third kind of Axe Intent.
……
Author Note: The previous two kinds of Axe Intent Ning Cheng comprehended are:
[Angry Axe, the 1st Trace]
[Angry Axe, Tornado]
