Although the name Tang Yitang sounded a bit mouthful, in the Man Lun Starry Skies, Tang Yitang had a resounding reputation. Even Heavenly Emperor Man Lun had to give him adequate respect. Not to mention Lou Pingchuan, who was just a genius from the Shang Mou Celestial River, even if he transformed into the king of the Shang Mou Celestial River, he would not dare to contradict Tang Yu’s words. What’s more, Tang Yu’s words even resonated with the thoughts of the people present in this place.
Lou Pingchuan felt extremely depressed in his heart. Others had no idea that Ning Cheng had used him to refine his corporeal body. They only saw him torturing a helpless Celestial Novice Cultivator. He was a Celestial Gatherer Expert, yet he indulged in humiliating a Celestial Novice Cultivator in such a manner, it indeed was something shameful. However, could he actually reveal such a thing? If he said it aloud, it would be akin to slapping his own face.
If others knew that in a fight between a Celestial Gatherer Expert and a Celestial Novice Cultivator, the Celestial Novice Cultivator used the incoming attacks to refine his body, would people still consider Lou Pingchuan a genius?
Ning Cheng took out a robe and put it over his body. Then, he calmly walked down the Seeking Dao Platform, one-step at a time. Ruan Mingshu quickly came up and tried to support Ning Cheng. In her opinion, Ning Cheng’s injuries were not light. Moreover, she vaguely felt that this matter had something to do with her.
Although Ning Cheng knew that he was in a lot better situation compared to the past, when he just stepped up on the Seeking Dao Platform, he still did not choose to reject Ruan Mingshu’s kindness. This battle also showed that he indeed could not match up against Lou Pingchuan; moreover, it was not just a simple difference in strength. As for the rest of the people, they only saw Ning Cheng’s bloody figure descending the Seeking Dao Platform, apparently without the strength to fight back.
Lou Pingchuan’s expression returned to its previous calm after staring at Ning Cheng’s back. From this moment on, he could no longer regard Ning Cheng as just a Celestial Novice Cultivator. This Celestial Novice Cultivator was not only far stronger than other Celestial Novice Cultivators; this fellow even possessed an extremely terrifying mentality. He could never let this person grow; otherwise, this fellow might end up becoming an eternal nightmare for him.
However, since Tang Yu had told him to stop, he could only make a temporary ceasefire. If he really killed Ning Cheng over the Seeking Dao Platform, although it might have brought him some relief, it would have also completely ruined his reputation. This temporary stop definitely was a good thing. Otherwise, his biography might have looked like ‘a Celestial Gatherer Cultivator, challenged a Celestial Novice Cultivator. As a result, the Celestial Novice Cultivator suffered a humiliating beat down before the Celestial Novice Cultivator finally succumbed to death.’ Such a biography would not bring any glory.
However, others had no idea about Ning Cheng’s insidiousness. As such, he could only swallow such kind of a matter.
In any case, there would be many chances to kill Ning Cheng in the future, as this fellow definitely would enter the Time Wilderness. Once inside the Time Wilderness, he did not believe that he could not take down a Celestial Novice Cultivator.
Ning Cheng deliberately walked to the female cultivator who stopped the fight before speaking up with cupped fists, “Many thanks to this Senior Apprentice Sister for your words; otherwise, this Ning Cheng definitely would have died.”
This female cultivator had just spoken a few words, yet it caused Lou Pingchuan to stop immediately. It allowed Ning Cheng to realise that this woman’s background must definitely be extraordinary.
“So you’re called Ning Cheng, huh? Sorry, my name is Tang Yu, and I’m one of the candidates heading into the Time Wilderness.” Tang Yu showed a slight smile and did not speak anything about the battle.
Ning Cheng calmly replied, “Yes, I am called Ning Cheng.”
Tang Yu had a very ordinary-looking appearance; however, she had two small dimples at the corner of her mouth, making her look quite sweet and amiable. At the same time, Ning Cheng could clearly feel that Tang Yu’s strength was quite similar compared to Lou Pingchuan; in fact, she might even turn out stronger. Lou Pingchuan himself was a handful for Ning Cheng, yet this person felt even more powerful compared to the latter, and it was only within the Man Lun Starry Skies. From this, Ning Cheng understood that the starry skies contained a lot many geniuses compared to what he had initially imagined.
“You really are quite something; by the way, I have a fire attributed main Spirit Root. If you want to sell your Fire Origin Crystal, I can purchase it from you.” When Tang Yu spoke, the smile remained over her face.
Ning Cheng felt his heart suddenly jolt. Looks like he ended up earning a few ‘well-wishers’ today, even this Tang Yu ended up taking a fancy to his Fire Origin Crystal. Moreover, since Tang Yu spoke about the Fire Origin Crystal in front of so many people, it might not necessarily be a bad thing for him.
Ning Cheng had many Fire Origin Crystals on him. Even if he used one to purchase the mask, and gave one to Shi Yulan, he still had more than ten pieces. However, Ning Cheng had no intention to sell those Fire Origin Crystals. After all, he also had a fire attributed Spirit Root; as such, he might use it in the future.
However, now that Tang Yu asked him to buy the Fire Origin Crystal, Ning Cheng took it out without hesitation and put it in Tang Yu’s hands, “Many thanks, Senior Apprentice Sister Tang. I anyway was looking for a place to sell this Fire Origin Crystal. Now that Senior Apprentice Sister Tang wants to help out, it would be for the best, but…..”
Tang Yu felt delighted to take over the Fire Origin Crystal that Ning Cheng had handed her and spoke up, “I don’t know what Junior Apprentice Brother Ning wants? Is it Celestial Coins or weapons or something else?”
Ning Cheng spoke up with slight hesitation, “I still have some Celestial Coins on me, so I don’t need them. However, I do use an axe and am currently looking for a better axe. Also, if there are any jade strips about the Dao of Arrays, Dao of Pills, or the Dao of Talismans, it would help me a lot.”
Tang Yu received and put away the Fire Origin Crystal before smiling and speaking up, “I didn’t know that you had quite the wide variety of hobbies. So be it, three days later, I will send these things to your residence.”
“Many thanks, Senior Apprentice Sister Tang.” Ning Cheng once again cupped his fists towards Tang Yu and immediately left the area with Ruan Mingshu. Although Tang Yu had not asked about the location of his residence, with Tang Yu’s influence, Ning Cheng felt sure that she could easily find out where he lived. As such, revealing where he resided had no meaning.
Moreover, Tang Yu taking away the Fire Origin Crystal might also turn out as a good move, helping in reducing the attention the others paid him.
“Senior Apprentice Brother Ning, are you going to be okay?” Only after walking away from this place with Ning Cheng did Ruan Mingshu find the opportunity to ask Ning Cheng a question.
Ning Cheng smiled before speaking to Ruan Mingshu, “Many thanks for the care Junior Apprentice Sister Mingshu. Do not worry; I am fine. The Dao Discussion has only just started, and Junior Apprentice Sister should head back. You don’t need to care about me.”
“What about you?” Ruan Mingshu looked at Ning Cheng with concern.
“I’ll be heading to the resting pen to heal. Once the Time Wilderness opens, I hope that Junior Apprentice Sister will remember to call me.” With that, Ning Cheng quickened his pace and soon left the Dao Discussion Hall.
Ruan Mingshu watched Ning Cheng as his back disappeared into the crowd while feeling confused within her heart. Initially, she had thought that Ning Cheng had suffered severe injuries; however, the moment she held Ning Cheng, she could feel that Ning Cheng had no severe injuries at all. Moreover, she had not expected that Ning Cheng even had a Fire Origin Crystal in his possession. From the looks of it, it felt like Ruan Mingshu had no understanding about Ning Cheng. Even when it came to how Ning Cheng made his way to this place, she had no idea about it.
As for Shen Qinyu, from the beginning of the ordeal to Ning Cheng’s departure, she did not come out nor did she speak even a word.
……
Back in his residence, Ning Cheng cleaned himself and continued to sort out his gains.
After advancing to Tier 8 God Body, that previous injury that would have been almost fatal below the Tier 8 God Body had no effect at all.
During the battle with Lou Pingchuan, Ning Cheng had little to do but to put up a strong defence. Yet, he still benefitted a lot; moreover, Lou Pingchuan’s powerful Domain gave Ning Cheng a new understanding about Domains. Ning Cheng believed that as long as he went into seclusion for a while, he could further improve and perfect his own Domain.
This allowed Ning Cheng to cement the notion that fighting against more powerful opponents would enable him to grow faster.
However, because of the strain on time, Ning Cheng had no way to head deep into seclusion. He also had no idea when Tang Yu would come to hand over the things he requested nor did he know when the Time Wilderness would open.
Whatever be the case, Tang Yu did not let Ning Cheng wait for too long; the next day, she personally arrived at the resting pen where Ning Cheng resided.
“Greeting Senior Apprentice Sister Tang.” Seeing Tang Yu, Ning Cheng politely greeted her. No matter what the situation, Tang Yu had still helped him once.
Tang Yu walked into Ning Cheng’s living room and looked around for a bit before speaking up with a smile, “No wonder Junior Apprentice Brother Ning wanted jade strips about the Dao of Arrays. Looks like Junior Apprentice Brother Ning is a Grade 1 Celestial Array Master himself.”
She had already seen all that she could and could easily tell from the traces of the array formations in Ning Cheng’s room that all of them were Grade 1 Celestial Arrays.
Ning Cheng felt slightly startled, as she had guessed things correctly with just a glimpse. She truly deserved the title of ‘genius’. From Tang Yu’s sentence, Ning Cheng understood that Tang Yu not only had superior skills, she also excelled in the Dao of Arrays. Moreover, Ning Cheng knew that he had to rely on the Mysterious Yellow Formless to reach this level by himself, something that Tang Yu had no access to, further attesting her skills
“Before reaching the Celestial Scryer Realm, I followed a master for a brief period to study array formations, which allowed me to gain some superficial knowledge of array formations.” Ning Cheng replied modestly.
Tang Yu giggled, “Junior Apprentice Brother Ning that is not a small statement at all. Although you are a Grade 1 Celestial Array Master, it is still not enough to say that it is just the result of some superficial knowledge you gained about array formations. In general, only the grandmasters who can arrange Grade 4 Celestial River-class Array Formations and above are qualified to say that they have some superficial knowledge of array formations. From this, I can also make out that Junior Apprentice Brother Ning doesn’t know much about the starry skies.”
Ning Cheng felt his face turning red. He had initially thought that he was modest; however, Ning Cheng had not expected that in the ears of others, his words were not modest but quite boastful.
“You don’t have to feel embarrassed about it. It is just that you have not studied systematically and thus know too little. That said; it is also quite amazing that you could reach this level with such a foundation. I also study Celestial Arrays and currently am a Grade 3 Master, so I hope that we can learn from each other in the future.”
Seeing Ning Cheng feeling embarrassed, Tang Yu did not continue to joke with Ning Cheng. She then took out two jade strips and handed it to Ning Cheng, “One of them contains the basics of the starry skies’ Dao of Pills, and the other contains the foundations about the Dao of Arrays. The basics of the Dao of Pills are the true foundation; however, the Dao of Arrays might not necessarily be the foundation you are looking for. It’s just that my father is a Grade 7 Grandmaster, so I know a little more about the Dao of Arrays.”
Tang Yu then took out a palm-sized axe before placing it in Ning Cheng’s hand and speaking, “This axe is called the Wishful Demon Axe and is a middle-grade Dao Artefact. My father left it to me, but you can have it.”
As the axe fell into Ning Cheng’s hand, he immediately felt a heavy feeling coming from it. Coupled with Tang Yu’s words describing it as a middle-grade Dao Artefact, Ning Cheng realised that his Fire Origin Crystal definitely could not bring in such things. As such, he immediately spoke, “Senior Apprentice Sister Tang, this is too precious. My Fire Origin Crystal cannot possibly be worth this much.”
Tang Yu laughed and spoke, “Ning Cheng, for you, a middle-grade Dao Artefact might be a very precious object; however, such an object means nothing to me. Moreover, the most precious thing that I gave you is not this middle-grade Dao Artefact, but the jade strip containing the fundamentals of the Dao of Arrays, which you will come to know in the future.”
“Moreover, I also had my own reasons to ask for your Fire Origin Crystal at that moment. One was that I really had an urgent need of that object, and second, was to help you actually. Moreover, although you might have low cultivation, I still appreciate your character. So if you don’t mind it, we can become friends from now on.”
Tang Yu spoke openly and honestly, something in line with Ning Cheng’s own character. As such, he did not hesitate nor did he use a polite tone before speaking up, “Tang Yu, guess we are friends from now.”
Tang Yu, on not hearing Ning Cheng address her as Senior Apprentice Sister, giggled and spoke up, “Okay, we’ll meet up at a later date then.”
Saying that she turned around and quickly disappeared from the resting pen. The exchange and the conversation both happened in a thoroughly straightforward manner.
After a while, Ning Cheng activated the restrictions once again. He felt that Tang Yu had a straightforward personality. She did not ask Ning Cheng to team up with her for the Time Wilderness nor did she leave behind any communication pearls. Ning Cheng, based on his intuition, felt that Tang Yu might just be much more reliable compared to Ruan Mingshu.
