Ning Cheng looked at the morning sun in the distance and stood motionlessly for a long time. It seemed as if he had once again descended into an epiphany.
Shen Qinyu, however, started to feel colder with each passing moment, and the surrounding icy environment felt like steel needles biting into her body. Even if she could use her Spiritual Consciousness and put up some resistance with her remaining Celestial Essence, she still could not drive out the cold seeping into her.
Only a seemingly endless plain greeted her eyes as she finally took back her gaze from the morning sun in the distance. No, it should be more accurate to define it as an ice field. One could not even see a raised hill, not even a raised mound of grass or even dirt.
Then, noticing the torn robes barely covered her body, Shen Qinyu quickly moved away from Ning Cheng, took out and set up a screen before taking off and discarding the tattered bits and strips of clothes covering her.
Cleaning herself a bit, Shen Qinyu gave off a sigh of relief. Although her hair had turned silver, at least her skin did not experience too much change.
Just as Shen Qinyu took out a fresh set of robes to put on, a lightning-like shadow rushed through her screen and swept her away.
Shen Qinyu did not resist. The moment this lightning-like shadow took her away, she immediately recognised who the person was. She still had her robes in her hand as she looked at Ning Cheng and calmly asked, “Why?”
Despite rationalising it, the one who had taken her was a wanderer. Moreover, this fellow had grabbed her just the moment she was about to wear her robes, which made her feel a deep sense of anger within her heart, along with humiliation.
Ning Cheng replied with an equally calm tone, “You’ll know when you look back.”
When Shen Qinyu looked back, she immediately felt startled. What happened to the screen? In the location where she had laid out her screen had transformed into a plain-ice field.
“Ah…..” Shen Qinyu exclaimed in shock and even forgot about her robes.
“Put your robes on first, I will try to explain it to you.” Ning Cheng glanced at Shen Qinyu and spoke in a calm tone.
Only then did Shen Qinyu realise that she was still naked. Looked on by a single gaze or looked at by a hundred eyes, it did not matter much. However, what made her flustered even more was that she appeared completely naked in front of a stranger. Despite trying to rationalise this matter, she still could not overcome the shock and embarrassment.
No longer caring about her image in front of Wanderer, Shen Qinyu quickly donned her robes before giving out a sigh.
“Do you know about Time Wheels?” Ning Cheng asked, not waiting for Shen Qinyu to speak up.
Shen Qinyu first put on her mask; feeling a trace of cold emerge on her face, she took in a deep breath and nodded, “I know that in the Time Wilderness, Time Wheels are one of the most terrifying threats. Once a Time Wheel appears, if one cannot escape from the range of the Time Wheel immediately, then one would face death ten out of ten times without even a chance of life……”
Having said that, Shen Qinyu seemed to have thought of something before looking at Ning Cheng in shock, “Are you saying that it was …”
Ning Cheng nodded and spoke “Yes, it was a Time Wheel. However, Time Wheels here feel different from other places. They move in a certain direction and do not expand. It might also be a result of the Time Wheel remaining intact, which prevents it from expanding. Just now a Time Wheel had almost brushed past where you were changing clothes; however, I managed to pull you out in time.”
Ning Cheng was too familiar with Time Wheels; after all, he had almost died once beneath an expanding broken Time Wheel in the Perpetual Moon Lake. Fortunately, he had the Mysterious Yellow Bead.
“I see.” Shen Qinyu looked at the ice-crystal plain in front of her and instantly understood why this place did not contain even a single raised area. From the looks of it, Time Wheels continuously passed through this area, and any protrusion in their path would end up wiped flat.
“Thank you….” Shen Qinyu thanked Ning Cheng sincerely. Although she would not behave like other ordinary female cultivators, she still found it slightly tricky to remove the awkwardness from her tone, despite the feelings in her heart.
Seeing Shen Qinyu talk while shivering, Ning Cheng suddenly grabbed Shen Qinyu’s hand and spoke, “Although you keep yourself warm inside, you do not have sufficient Celestial Essence….”
Not waiting for Shen Qinyu to operate her cultivation method, a warm flow of Celestial Essence gently flowed into her body. After Ning Cheng put down her hand, Shen Qinyu’s Celestial Essence automatically flowed through the meridians indicated by Ning Cheng. It immediately allowed her to disperse the ice-cold sensation from her body. She no longer felt as terrible as before.
“Is this what you came up with?” Shen Qinyu felt shocked once again as she looked at Ning Cheng. She personally knew that Ning Cheng had no master to learn from, nor did he have any inheritance to rely on. However, the cultivation method he came up with was just too terrifying. It could quickly drive out the cold from this place. At this moment, she had already forgotten the irritation and awkwardness she felt previously.
Ning Cheng smiled, “Although I thought about it myself, I had some help from somewhere else. If you have some free time, we can talk about it, but there should be a few Time Stones around here.”
“Time Stones…..” Just when Ning Cheng spoke, Shen Qinyu saw a Time Stone and shouted. The words that she wanted to ask she immediately put them aside. In the excitement, she immediately rushed towards the place where the Time Wheel had just swept by, reaching for a dark grey stone the size of a dragon-eyed fruit.
A weak trace of flowing time emerged from the stone, filled with natural vicissitudes, a sense of time that words could not describe.
“It really is a Time Stone.” Shen Qinyu felt excited. She had remained inside the Time Wilderness for a few years already; however, it was the first time that she encountered a Time Stone.
“So it turned out like this.” Ning Cheng immediately understood that in the places that a Time Wheel passed through, one had a higher chance to encounter a Time Stone. From the looks of it, Time Stones had an inexplicable link with Time Wheels. When he was in the Perpetual Moon Lake, Ning Cheng had managed to pick up three Time Stones, which most likely had some relations to the broken Time Wheel.
If he had managed to break that Time Wheel, maybe they could have found more than one Time Stone.
Ning Cheng also speculated that perhaps no one would dare to think of breaking a Time Wheel, beside him.
Shen Qinyu finally sobered up from her excitement; she carefully put the Time Stone into a jade box and then tried to hand the jade box to Ning Cheng, “This is yours. Although it was you who brought me to this place, you have also repeatedly saved me.”
Ning Cheng gently pushed Shen Qinyu’s hand back and spoke, “Since we found a Time Stone here, then we can definitely find more. As long as we look for them in this place, we can definitely find more Time Stones. From now on, whoever finds it, keeps it.”
Shen Qinyu did not continue with forcing the Time Stone into Ning Cheng’s hand. Moreover, this was a one-of-a-kind priceless treasure, which was something that even she coveted. However, Ning Cheng, as the starry skies’ Wanderer, gave her a brand new impression. In the face of something like a Time Stone, a Celestial Scryer Cultivator could still refuse it with such conviction, she certainly could not think of any other person.
Not to mention Celestial Scryer Cultivators, when it came to Time Stones, even someone on the level of Heavenly Emperor Striking Order would not refuse it. Such objects were really too precious. Switched with any other cultivator, maybe they would immediately try to kill her to obtain the stone. Moreover, this starry skies’ Wanderer not only refused it, but his eyes also did not show any hint of greed within the refusal.
“Just remember, don’t stray more than 10 feet from me.” After Ning Cheng spoke a sentence to Shen Qinyu, he then took the initiative to step on to the endless ice plains.
Shen Qinyu gave a gentle nod before following. Although her Spiritual Consciousness had a minimal range, she could still see Ning Cheng in front of her with her eyes.
Ning Cheng turned out right once again; within this seemingly endless ice plain, there was not just one Time Stone. In just an hour, Shen Qinyu’s surprised voice once again resounded. Apparently, she had picked up another Time Stone.
Shen Qinyu looked at Ning Cheng’s back while thinking about the number of Time Stones this starry skies’ wanderer might have already picked up. Since she followed behind him, it stood for the reason that he must have picked up many more stones compared to her.
Ning Cheng had indeed found and picked up more Time Stones compared to Shen Qinyu; however, because these Time Stones were the size of rice grains or pea-sized, he felt lazy even to think of picking them up. As a result, Ning Cheng only picked up stones the size of beans or at least having an average size of Dragon-eyed Fruit, and even a few more the size of a baby’s fist.
Shen Qinyu picking another Time Stone was because Ning Cheng had deliberately let her pick it up. Otherwise, in such a place, where his Spiritual Consciousness could sweep out for over a dozen miles, there absolutely would not be any omissions.
One month later, Ning Cheng and Shen Qinyu encountered fewer Time Stones along the way. However, whether it was Shen Qinyu or Ning Cheng, both felt very satisfied with their harvest. Shen Qinyu had obtained more than 20 Time Stones and even suspected that if one added up all the Time Stones collected by the rest of the cultivators who entered the Time Wilderness, the number still would not exceed her collection.
Of course, this Wanderer in front of her was the only exception. She had picked up so many while following behind this fellow; logically speaking, this Wanderer would have definitely picked up a lot more stones than she had.
Shen Qinyu looked up at the front of Ning Cheng and immediately froze.
Previously, she was still looking for Time Stones around her feet, and only occasionally looked at Ning Cheng to keep him in sight without observing anything else going around them. However, at this time, she felt shocked to discover that the world in front of her was no longer the icy plains, but a forest that looked like a world made out of snow and ice.
Shen Qinyu quickly took a few steps and arrived at Ning Cheng’s side. However, before she could even speak, she felt a warm feeling around her waist. One of Ning Cheng’s hand had already grabbed on to her, and the next moment, the two of them immediately shot up from the ground.
Shen Qinyu instantly understood that Wanderer had a Spiritual Consciousness far stronger compared to her. The two people had picked up so many Time Stones and yet had not encountered another Time Wheel. It most likely had some relationship to Wanderer’s Spiritual Consciousness.
A Celestial Shatterer Cultivator, unexpectedly could use their Spiritual Consciousness to avoid Time Wheels, just how horrifying of a concept was this? From this, she also understood that this fellow’s comprehension of the Laws of Time has reached a completely different level compared to her own understandings.
“What a beautiful world!” Shen Qinyu, held by Ning Cheng, could not help but marvel as she looked at the world of ice and snow below them.
This world contained undulating hills made out of clear ice, and even trees in a variety of shapes and sizes made from ice.
“What is this place? I have read a lot of information about the Sea of Twilight; however, I have never read or even heard about such a place.” Shen Qinyu muttered to herself.
Ning Cheng and Shen Qinyu were different. He could use his Spiritual Consciousness to peer into this icy forest world. As such, Ning Cheng could clearly sense that this forest world gave off bad vibes, despite its beautiful and mesmeric appearance.
“Since we are already inside the deepest part of the Sea of Twilight, I think that this place might be near or is the seabed of the Sea of Twilight. Maybe we should go in and have a look. Maybe, we might find a way out of this place from in there.” Ning Cheng quietly spoke while descending.
Even if Ning Cheng had not spoken about it, Shen Qinyu herself wanted to go inside and explore.
Ning Cheng took the first step into this ice-cold world and immediately experienced a bitter cold wave hitting his face. Despite all his tricks, Ning Cheng still had to circulate his Celestial Essence at full force to block this biting cold from permeating into his body.
After a few years of tempering and understanding a few things within the Sea of Twilight, Ning Cheng’s Spiritual Consciousness could now extend to a range of a hundred miles, yet he still had to struggle to resist this cold wave. However, Shen Qinyu’s Spiritual Consciousness, which could only extend to a range of a few feet, felt her entire body trembling. She had only taken a step inside and already found it extremely difficult just to stand on her own.
