“It’s you?” Ning Cheng immediately recognised the black-robed cultivator, who had descended in front of him. Ning Cheng really did not expect meeting Lou Pingchuan in this place. Presumably, this fellow represented Striking Order Starry Skies in the finals of Grand Culmination Starry Skies. However, since this fellow met Ning Cheng, then there now would be one less genius heading towards Grand Culmination Starry Skies.
Lou Pingchuan did not find it surprising that Ning Cheng knew him. He knew about his celebrity-like status due to Heavenly Emperor Striking Order personally rewarding him; moreover, he also managed to obtain the seventh rank among the geniuses who came out of the Time Wilderness. Therefore, why would he find it strange that the ant in front of him without a celestial wheel would know about him?
“You sure got guts, a cultivator without celestial wheels daring to come to this place. Give me the green bamboo in your hand, and I might give you something good.” Lou Pingchuan looked at the green bamboo in Ning Cheng’s hands and spoke in a bland tone.
Ning Cheng showed a faint smile, “Do you want this green bamboo, do you know what this bamboo is? What does it do? If you can answer it, I might just think about it. If you don’t even know what this bamboo is, what would you do with it?”
If it were not for Ning Cheng not knowing the value of this green bamboo, he would have already started or would have at least told this Lou Pingchuan to fuck off.
“Haha…..” Lou Pingchuan laughed, “Well then let me teach you today, this is the Rootless Green Bamboo…..”
As Lou Pingchuan spoke, he simultaneously brought out a pair of cymbals; just as these cymbals came out, a powerful murderous intent oozed out of them, which then shrouded Ning Cheng. Hearing the verbose of this Celestial Novice ant in front of him, he did not show his usual carefree mood. Instead, those words ignited Lou Pingchuan’s fury. He never thought that Ning Cheng, a fellow without a celestial wheel, would actually dare to act in such a manner in front of him.
However, Lou Pingchuan quickly felt that something had gone horribly wrong as a formidable Celestial River Domain instantly took control of the space around the two of them. It felt like billions of pounds of sand and sludge had suddenly manifested all around him, causing his movements to slow down; at the same time, the stagnation brought forth by the domain grew stronger by the moment. He saw the opponent bringing out the Treasured Thunder Spear, whose spear intent cut through the distance within the domain and arrived in front of him in almost a flash.
“It’s you!” As Ning Cheng’s domain expanded, almost entirely binding the opponent, it allowed Lou Pingchuan to recognise Ning Cheng immediately. A moment later, his body started to overflow with even denser murderous intent. Since the time he entered the Time Wilderness, he looked everywhere in search of Ning Cheng. Later, he learned that Ning Cheng had perished in the Time Wilderness. As such, Lou Pingchuan never expected Ning Cheng to appear in such a place.
Lou Pingchuan immediately stimulated the pair of cymbals in his hands to its maximum potential. In his view, although Ning Cheng had improved a bit, compared to his Celestial Gatherer Genius-level talent, Ning Cheng’s strength would always remain inferior.
“Crash… Bang…..” Two sounds of explosions rang out as Lou Pingchuan crazily stimulated the pair of cymbals in his hand. However, in the face of Ning Cheng’s Thunder Spear, it could not put up even a shred of resistance before cracking one after another and sent flying under the bombardment from Ning Cheng. Ning Cheng’s formidable Celestial River Domain had completely suppressed his own domain; and although he managed to avoid a fatal blow, the Treasured Thunder Spear still passed through his shoulder.
“Bastard, you concealed your cultivation the last time…..” Lou Pingchuan felt utterly shocked. He could not think that Ning Cheng, a cultivator without even a celestial wheel, would end up so incredibly mighty to the point that just a single shot almost ended up killing him.
Ning Cheng did not feel willing enough to waste even a shred of time. Deploying his Celestial River Domain to its maximum, the Treasured Thunder Spear once again shot out with a shadowless and traceless spear trace.
“Poof…..” Blood mist immediately erupted through a hole in Lou Pingchuan’s forehead, while Lou Pingchuan still kept staring at Ning Cheng in utter horror. Even at the moment of death, he still could not believe that Ning Cheng could kill him in just two shots. Even Striking Order Starland’s Celestial Scryer Premier Genius, Cen Fei, could not kill him in such a short time.
The Treasured Thunder Spear in Ning Cheng’s hand shook a little, and Lou Pingchuan’s body finally hit the ground. Casting a fireball, Ning Cheng then put away all of Lou Pingchuan’s things before quickly leaving this place.
Ning Cheng had just left when another shadow appeared in the distance staring at Ning Cheng’s disappearing back, murmuring, “So powerful.”
……
Ning Cheng had no idea about the Rootless Green Bamboo or even about the role of this Rootless Green Bamboo. However, that did not mean that Ning Cheng did not know about the other materials that he came across.
Mystifying Sifting Wood, Cutting Moon Steel, Frigid Air Heavenly Silk, although these were not too precious artefact-crafting materials, Ning Cheng still knew about them.
In just a few days, Ning Cheng ended up collecting a bunch of these artefact-crafting materials. As for starry skies’ spirit grasses, he did not find even a single strain.
“Boom” A loud explosion erupted, and Ning Cheng immediately felt the ground under his feet tremble violently.
Not waiting for Ning Cheng to react to what had happened, an ice-cold chill passed through and almost penetrated into his bone marrow. The ice-cold chill that almost infiltrated into his bone marrow brought his mind to the brink of collapse; the horrifying killing intent almost caused him to kneel down on to the ground.
Ning Cheng slowly retreated to a detached wall, while feeling incomparably shocked in his heart. He knew that in the face of such horrifying killing intent, he could not resist at all.
“Swish….” Another shrill sound erupted and this time Ning Cheng clearly traced it back to a blade light. He had never seen such a terrifying blade light. He even felt sure that if this blade slammed on to the starland under his feet, it might end up splitting the starland in half.
As the blade light descended, it felt as if half the sky had started to pour down. Even if Ning Cheng remained far away from this blade, the formidable blade intent and the murderous aura caused his legs to tremble even when standing against the wall.
“Boom…” Another loud explosion erupted as the blade shadow exploded with a fishy scent. What surprised Ning Cheng was that someone had managed to block such a terrifying blade.
A moment later, a figured emerged from the void, that of a middle-aged cultivator wearing golden robes. At the same time, a gigantic starry skies’ Stone Stripped Spider appeared in front of this golden-robed cultivator.
“So powerful….” Ning Cheng muttered a sentence.
“That’s Senior Tang Jiu, a Heaven Seated Expert from Striking Order Starry Skies. That starry skies’ Stone Stripped Spider is also quite powerful, should be a Grade 7 starry skies beast.” Almost at the same instant when Ning Cheng realised that he was not alone, a voice passed through his ears.
Not far from him, in just a little more than three feet, was a Celestial Gatherer Cultivator, also leaning against the wall. With cultivation at the full-circle of the Celestial Gatherer Realm, yellowish hair that looked quite delicate, this fellow looked like a handsome but effeminate man.
This cultivator on seeing Ning Cheng looking over gave a smile, revealing a row of neat white teeth. “Hello, my name is Ziche Jun, from Kun Zhuo Celestial River.”
“I’m called Ning Ruocheng.” Ning Cheng casually came up with a name, while feeling amazed at this Ziche Jun’s concealment cultivation method, which could even hide from his starry skies’ Sea of Consciousness. Although Ning Cheng had not deliberately looked around for him, it definitely indicated that this Ziche Jun had some excellent abilities.
Such a formidable Celestial Gatherer Cultivator, why would he take the initiative to find him, an unremarkable starry skies’ wanderer without a celestial wheel? Moreover, this Ziche Jun came from Kun Zhuo Celestial River; could he use this opportunity to ask something?
“Bang-Bang-Bang….” During the time Ning Cheng exchanged words with Ziche Jun, Tang Jiu and the starry skies’ Stone Stripped Spider had already exchange quite a few blows, splitting the skies with their rampaging Celestial Essence. Some of the cultivators with lousy luck could only lay prone to the ground at this moment and could not move at all, even if they wished to escape.
The strength of this Grade 7 starry skies’ Stone Stripped Spiders had already reached a terrifying level, to the point that even Ning Cheng found fear rising inside of him when looking at this monstrosity. He suspected that a single strand of this spider’s silk could quickly seal him up.
Another two Taoist shadows rushed over. The Grade 7 starry skies’ Stone Stripped Spider seemed to have understood that the situation had turned against it; therefore, with a push from its long-legs, it immediately brought up a spacial fluctuation before it disappeared without even a trace left behind.
Seeing the Grade 7 starry skies’ Stone Stripped Spider disappear, Ziche Jun continued, “You might not be familiar with Senior Tang Jiu; however, you must have heard of his elder brother, Senior Tang Yitang.”
Ning Cheng immediately replied, “Yeah, I heard that Senior Tang Yitang is an Eternal-level expert; moreover, his daughter Tang Yu is also participating in this time’s Celestial Scryer Genius Try-outs…”
Ziche Jun showed a smile and spoke, “Tang Yu came in third this time; however, her cultivation is far beyond mine.”
“Brother Ziche is too modest; with Brother Ziche’s ability; I think you might not turn out much worse than Tang Yu.” Ning Cheng did not give out a casual statement; just based on Ziche Jun’s concealment ability, he could deduce that this fellow was not weak at all.
Ziche Jun looked on with some confusion. By all accounts, this cultivator should have known about him as he took up the tenth place in the Time Wilderness Tryouts of Striking Order Starry Skies. Moreover, he was also heading to Grand Culmination Starry Skies’ Finals as a representative of Striking Order Starry Skies. Therefore, why did this Ning Ruocheng not know him? Since this fellow did not recognise him, how did he recognise Lou Pingchuan?
Ning Cheng also had his own thoughts about whether to ask Ziche Jun about a few things related to Kun Zhuo Celestial River, when he saw dozens of figured flying past him, seemingly in the same direction.
Ziche Jun took out a communications pearl and immediately spoke out in amazement, “Looks like people found some Essence Harmonising Celestial Fruit in this place; Brother Ning, if you don’t mind, we can go there together.”
“Essence Harmonising Celestial Fruit? Is it not the main starry skies’ spirit fruit required to refine the Harmonising Celestial Pill?” Ning Cheng spoke out in surprise. In the vast starry skies, there were not many high-grade spirit grasses; as such, things like the Essence Harmonising Celestial Fruit were quite scarce.
Generally, for a starry skies cultivator, as long as they possess sufficient talent and powerful comprehension ability, then even without the help from starry skies’ spirit pills, he or she could still advance from the Celestial Novice Realm to Celestial Shatterer Realm then to the Celestial Gatherer Realm. Ning Cheng himself was a prime example; he had advanced to the Celestial Shatterer Realm using the praying mat and then proceeded to the Celestial Gatherer Realm with the help from Perpetual Moon Pills[1].
However, advancing from the Celestial Gatherer Realm to the Celestial Bridge Realm was not a simple matter, even for a top-ranked genius. Unless they had heaven-defying talents, he or she would still have to rely on starry skies’ medicinal pills. Moreover, the best medicinal pill for such an occasion was the Harmonising Celestial Pill. Furthermore, the most essential spirit fruit required to refine the Harmonising Celestial Pill was the Essence Harmonising Celestial Fruit, not something easy to find. Now that Essence Harmonising Celestial Fruits had appeared in this place, it was no wonder that so many cultivators had crazily passed through this area.
“That’s right; it is the main starry skies’ spirit fruit required to refine the Harmonising Celestial Pill.” Ziche Jun spoke with affirmation.
“Well then, many thanks to Brother Ziche for sharing this opportunity with me.” Ning Cheng did not hesitate to agree to Ziche Jun’s proposal. The two of them stepped onto a flight-type weapon and quickly rushed out.
In just half an hour, Ning Cheng and Ziche Jun arrived at the place with Essence Harmonising Celestial Fruits.
Looking at the densely packed cultivators bombarding the natural array formation, Ning Cheng sucked in a breath of cold air. With so many cultivators, would he have the chance to snatch Essence Harmonising Celestial Fruits? What’s more, among the cultivators attacking the array formation, the crowd not only consisted of Celestial Scryer Cultivators, it even contained many Celestial River Cultivators.
Standing near the periphery, he could see that there were at least a dozen Essence Harmonising Celestial Fruit Trees within this natural array formation; moreover, each fruit tree was laden with many mature Essence Harmonising Celestial Fruits.
[1] Perpetual Moon Pills are naturally occurring pills condensed from the Essence Qi of the surroundings; they are not ‘pills’ refined by alchemists.
