When Zhongli Baichi took out the materials, Ning Cheng immediately stopped talking. He knew that he only had one chance.
The next moment, a clump of faint golden flame suddenly erupted from Zhongli Baichi’s hand. It immediately caused the Celestial River Flame in Ning Cheng’s Zifu to tremble. Such a formidable fire; although he did not know anything about this flame, Ning Cheng could feel that this flame outstripped his Celestial River Flame by several grades.
The moment Ning Cheng’s Celestial River Flame trembled, Zhongli Baichi looked up at Ning Cheng; however, he quickly brought back his focus to the materials in his hands.
The several materials started to vibrate while suspended within the flame before slowly beginning to dissolve. At the same time, some of the impurities inside the materials also began to separate and turn into ash under the fire.
Zhongli Baichi’s hands began to move faster and faster, and despite having a strong vision, Ning Cheng still found it challenging to keep up with Zhongli Baichi’s movements. However, at this moment, Ning Cheng’s mind found itself swayed by the rhythm, and he subconsciously stretched out his Spiritual Consciousness and let it infiltrate into this horrifying flame.
When Ning Cheng’s Spiritual Consciousness penetrated into the flames, Zhongli Baichi felt slightly shocked and even looked up at Ning Cheng with a disbelieving look in his eyes. How could a Celestial Gatherer Cultivator without any celestial wheels manage to get their Spiritual Consciousness to penetrate into his flames?
At this moment, Ning Cheng completely forgot that he was just supposed to observe another person craft an artefact. Inside his mind, one scene after another started to appear, linking up with one hand gesture after another.
Although Zhongli Baichi’s hand speed grew faster and faster, the picture in Ning Cheng’s mind became more precise and more apparent. He saw the materials fusing with each other one layer after another before they were pulled apart and then forcibly merged together once again. The shape of the weapon started to emerge in his consciousness, and Ning Cheng captured every single change.
At this moment, something suddenly opened within his consciousness. It was a leather scroll giving off an ancient aura. When he had first seen this leather scroll, he had initially assumed it contained only foreign words. However, now the words in that leather scroll started to blend in with Zhongli Baichi’s artefact-crafting gestures, forming one picture after another.
A knife-type weapon’s image appeared within his mind, a knife whose knife shadow could cut through the sky, spilt a mountain peak directly into two halves. Then the image of this knife transformed into a huge square seal. As this huge square seal descended, it directly smashed the two halves of the mountain peak into powder……
Endless images kept flashing, almost as if it wanted to reach the end of a movie quickly.
The pictures were numerous and densely packed and kept shifting without a break; at this moment, Ning Cheng found himself completely immersed in them.
“Cang” A crisp sound immediately sobered up Ning Cheng. He felt shocked, not only by Zhongli Baichi’s artefact-crafting proficiency but also with the familiarity he felt from Zhongli Baichi’s artefact-crafting technique. Moreover, the leather scroll in his body had also forcibly induced it, the scripture that Ning Cheng had snatched from Kang Cheng’s hand[1]. Although he had viewed the scripture several times, each time he saw it, the scripture presented him with some random densely packed images, which he could not make any sense.
Although he had also studied a part of the cultivation method contained within it, Ning Cheng did not find anything formidable about it. However, today, when he saw Zhongli Baichi crafting an artefact, he suddenly gained a much clearer understanding. Had Ning Cheng not come to this place, he would have already taken out the leather scroll and examined it once again.
Seeing a long hook suspended in front of Zhongli Baichi, Ning Cheng gave out a deep sigh within his heart, it had finished quite quickly. He just realised that Zhongli Baichi had already finished refining the long hook; however, he could not see the final formation process of the long hook. Seeing Zhongli Baichi staring at him, Ning Cheng cupped his fists and spoke, “Many thanks to Senior Zhongli for allowing me to watch you craft an artefact. This junior will take his leave now.”
After saying those words, Ning Cheng immediately stood up, turned around, and started walking down the stairs. Junior Apprentice Sister Yan, on seeing Ning Cheng leave first, quickly rushed down to follow up.
This time, Ning Cheng obtained some decent harvest, which made him no longer feel like staying in this place. He immediately wanted to go back into seclusion and continue exploring the enlightenment he experienced.
Zhongli Baichi also did not speak at all and just kept looking at Ning Cheng’s disappearing back, with a frown and a pondering look over his face.
“Junior Apprentice Sister Yan, many thanks and goodbye.” After Ning Cheng walked to the entrance of the artefact-crafting store and spoke a few kind words.
Junior Apprentice Sister Yan just was about to speak up when she suddenly felt a little shaken before replying immediately, “Senior Apprentice Brother Wanderer, please wait for a moment.”
With that, Junior Apprentice Sister Yan returned to the store and came out a moment later with a thick book in her hand and handed it to Ning Cheng, “Senior Apprentice Brother, this book contains the foundational basics for crafting artefacts. Master asked me to bring this to you.”
Did people still use books in this part of the world? Why not jade strops? Ning Cheng received the book and thanked her before asking a question, “Junior Apprentice Sister Yan, does each apprenticed disciple get such a book?”
Junior Apprentice Sister Yan only showed a slight smile but did not answer Ning Cheng’s question. With a parting goodbye, she then activated the restrictions on the entrance.
Ning Cheng’s Spiritual Consciousness swept towards the book in his hand but felt surprised to find that his Spiritual Consciousness could not penetrate into this book. Since the street contained too many cultivators, Ning Cheng did not continue observing it and put it into his storage ring before quickly leaving the Artefact-crafting Store.
……
Celestial Rainbow Rest Stop, it was just an unremarkable small rest stop within Eternal Heaven Starry Skies City. There were thousands of such rest stops within Eternal Heaven Starry Skies City, and simply could not be counted.
Ning Cheng decided to stay at this rest stop for its relatively remote location and low price. Since Ning Cheng chose to learn the art of crafting artefacts, he also understood that he could not accomplish it in just a day or two. Moreover, in a place like Eternal Heaven Starry Skies, celestial coins had only a few general uses.
After rearranging his room with layers upon layers of array formations, Ning Cheng finally took out Zhongli Baichi’s book.
Turning the first page, Ning Cheng found it filled with an introduction to a variety of materials, in an extremely detailed manner. Not only did the text describe their shapes, their aura, their defining characteristics, and other descriptive features, it also described in detail about its uses and various functions.
This book was a treasure, Ning Cheng thought while feeling pleasantly surprised. Even if this book only contained text about the variety of materials, he would have gladly used a piece of starry sky artefact-crafting material in exchange.
However, Ning Cheng soon felt something wrong. He could not turn the second page, nor could his Spiritual Consciousness penetrate the second page. Not to mention anything about his Spiritual Consciousness seeping inside the pages, he could only look at the words with his eyes and could not use his Spiritual Consciousness to sweep across the words.
Was this book only observable through the eyes and not with Spiritual Consciousness? Ning Cheng though; however, his eidetic memory started to show its superiority at this time and quickly took in and memorised all the text on the first page. Sure enough, only after learning all the contents on the first page was he able to turn to the second page.
One day quickly passed by, and Ning Cheng kept turning a page every few seconds. At this moment, he had no idea of how many pages had he already turned and how many starry sky materials had he memorised. However, from an outsiders perspective, he only seemed to have flipped through a few pages of the thick book.
One month, two months passed by, but Ning Cheng still kept reading the book. At this moment, his obstinate temperament started to kick in, and he decided to not rest until he finished reading the book.
As the third month almost ended, Ning Cheng finally turned over the last page. At this moment, he finally realised that even a starry skies’ grade nine material would not be enough in exchange for this book, perhaps even a hundred of such materials might also not be enough. Why was Zhongli Baichi so good? Moreover, why did he give such a treasure to him?
Ning Cheng thought about those questions for a long time but could not come up with an answer. He then decided to put away those questions for now and took out the leather scroll.
He had just opened the leather scroll when a variety of images once again filled Ning Cheng’s mind while also simultaneously emerging in front of Ning Cheng’s eyes. Previously, he had only watched Zhongli Baichi’s artefact-crafting technique; however, at this moment, the images in front of him unexpectedly broke down Zhongli Baichi’s artefact-crafting technique to its fundamental levels, making things incredibly clear to him.
With Ning Cheng finding himself immersed within these images, the artefact-crafting technique revealed by the leather scroll gradually turned blurry, replaced by the emergence of a new path that suddenly appeared within Ning Cheng’s mind. The images from the leather scroll then overlapped and combined with these new artefact-crafting ideas, causing Ning Cheng to unconsciously bring out materials and begin the artefact-crafting process.
The Celestial River Flame also came out automatically, and the pile of materials within the flame started to transform before quickly forming into a low-grade True Artefact.
It then started to evolve naturally, transforming from a low-grade True Artefact to a best quality True Artefact. When the True Artefact in Ning Cheng’s hand finally reached the level of a best quality True Artefact, he then threw it aside and then took out higher quality materials. Melting these materials, he then started to transform them and even started to inscribe array formations.
The materials in Ning Cheng’s storage ring started to deplete at a relatively steady rate, while more and more finished dao artefacts began to pile up in front of him. Although they were all low-grade dao artefacts, the quality kept increasing with each new one.
“Ding-Tink….” Ning Cheng threw another low-grade spear type artefact to the ground before he pulled at his hair and muttered, “Why can’t I craft a middle-grade dao artefact?”
“Because you still do not have a clear path for yourself. If not for Returning to One, you would have never reached the level where you could refine low-grade dao artefacts.” An abrupt voice entered Ning Cheng’s ears.
“Who?” Ning Cheng suddenly looked up and saw Zhongli Baichi sitting right in front of him. He immediately stood up in shock, “Senior Zhongli, how did you get in?”
Zhongli Baichi showed a smile, his pair of one big and one small eye flashed with a twinkle, “Little fellow if I wanted to make a move against you, even a hundred of you would not be enough for me to warm up.”
Ning Cheng sat down in decadence, although he did not like what Zhongli Baichi spoke, it was, however, a fact that the other party could quickly kill him.
“Since Senior came to visit this junior, can I ask about what senior want from me?” Ning Cheng asked with some helplessness.
“You have a good flame, showing you had some fortunate encounters. However, I have not seen anyone with qualifications as good as you have. Unfortunately, you did not meet any good teachers to guide you. Waste, a total waste. You see, you just worshipped me as a teacher, and now you can already refine low-grade dao artefacts.” Zhongli Baichi spoke while shaking his head at every word.
Ning Cheng felt speechless in his heart. What did crafting low-grade artefacts had any relationship with this Zhongli Baichi? Only because he saw Zhongli Baichi crafting an artefact that he understood a few things about his leather scroll, which allowed him to quickly progress after returning. Well, he could not ultimately say that the two had no relationship. In any case, only after watching Zhongli Baichi craft an artefact did he come to understand a few things about the leather scroll; therefore, there was at least a small relationship.
“Where did you obtain that Returning to One?” Zhongli Baichi pointed to the leather scroll next to Ning Cheng and asked.
Ning Cheng picked up the leather scroll and looked at Zhongli Baichi in confusion, “Is this leather scroll called ‘Returning to One’?”
Zhongli Baichi raised his hand, and the leather scroll in Ning Cheng’s hand flew into his hands, “Yes, this is called ‘Returning to One’; more specifically, Myriad Things Returning to One.”
“Does this leather scroll contain artefact-crafting secrets?” Ning Cheng quickly asked.
Zhongli Baichi shook his head and said, “No, this is just ‘Returning to One’, regardless of the Dao or Artefacts, Dao of Arrays, etc. one can comprehend anything with its help. Moreover, this is a top-notch learning-type spirit technique, and this learning-type spirit technique goes by the name, ‘Returning to one’.”
“Senior, please teach me.” Ning Cheng spoke with respect.
Zhongli Baichi shook his head once again, “If I could teach it, then it would not have been called Returning to One. Everyone would have a different comprehension of Returning to One, and so would you.”
[1] The leather scroll Ning Cheng had first seen during the Tournament of the five 5-star Academies held in the Falling Star 5-star Academy back in the Hua Continent of Graceful Star Mainland. He then obtained it from killing Kang Cheng after he emerged from the Blue Hole after destroying the Underworld Crow Ghost Rattan King, which had trapped him and 2 others inside.
