Second Revenant Star’s Descendant City, it had been two months since Ning Cheng arrived here. However, Ning Cheng disguised himself as a wheatish-faced middle-aged man for now. During these two months, he waited to hear back from Qionghua and Luofei, apart from trying to gather any news about Ning Ruolan and Yan Ji. On top of that, he also posted a task at Descendant City’s Trade Union for information regarding that cultivator with the blurry image.
When Ning Cheng had obtained the Metal Origin Crystal at Border City, he had also questioned the cultivator who he exchanged it with and found that someone else had given him the Metal Origin Crystal. As for the fellow who gave it to him, he could only give Ning Cheng a vague image of that cultivator.
During the time Ning Cheng did not focus on cultivation, he concentrated on reading the book given to him by Zhongli Baichi. Currently, Ning Cheng’s strength had already improved by at least ten times since back then and had already managed to read through the book containing the fundamentals of artefact crafting five more times during these two months. According to Zhongli Baichi’s words, if he read through the entire book four more times, Ning Cheng would have learned everything recorded within it.
After reading the book six times, Ning Cheng found that the knowledge within had benefitted him greatly. Not to mention the fact that he now knew many of the artefact-crafting raw materials, he had also gotten himself familiar with various artefact-crafting techniques along with many ways to inscribe array formations within the artefacts. Although he might not necessarily use the methods recorded within the book, with this information, Ning Cheng could now forge his own path forward in just a short time.
As the two months passed by quickly, Ning Cheng still could not find any news regarding Ning Ruolan and Yan Ji. However, he finally received a message from Ji Luofei, reporting that both Ji Luofei and Shi Qionghua had safely settled in Everlasting Sacred Shrine, which eventually brought some slight peace to Ning Cheng’s already agitated mind.
Receiving that message, he decided to leave Descendant City and go to other places to look for that cultivator who had given away the Metal Origin Crystal. Although Ning Cheng owned the Mysterious Yellow Bead, because of the fear that someone would notice the Mysterious Yellow Aura, he decided to forgo entering the Mysterious Yellow Bead for cultivation. Moreover, he could not bring any living thing into the Mysterious Yellow Bead apart from himself right now, which made him feel very depressed. Therefore, Ning Cheng made it his utmost priority to search and complete all the five elemental origins required for the Mysterious Yellow Bead.
However, just before he got up to leave, he received a message from the Trade Union that someone knew the vague-looking cultivator. With this news, Ning Cheng immediately headed towards Descendant City’s Trade Union.
……
Within the Descendant City’s Trade Union, one could not only post a variety of tasks and missions, one could even pick up a variety of jobs. Moreover, picking up a job did not require one to pay any Celestial Coins, as depending on the situation, multiple people might end up choosing the same one. However, if one wanted to publish a mission, one would have to pay some Celestial Coins as fees.
Ning Cheng was the one who had initially posted the task, but since someone had not only picked up the job and even claimed to have completed it, he decided to come back to the Trade Union. In any case, the Trade Union would keep the fees of posting the job, and the one who posted the task would have to pay the compensation to the cultivator who picked up the task upon verification of the task completion.
However, Ning Cheng also did not want to appear too eager when it came to searching for this kind of information. But at the same time, if anyone really could recognise that cultivator, it would also prove that he had finally taken another step forward to search for the Metal Origin Bead.
It’s just that Ning Cheng did not know if the Metal Origin Bead was on that cultivator or, like the Earth Origin Bead, on some planet. Just when Ning Cheng thought of the Earth Origin Bead, he immediately slowed down and pondered over the situation deeply.
Although he had already obtained the Earth Origin Bead, it was used as bait by a couple of starry sky emperors. Moreover, Cang Wei’s warning also kept replaying within his head, to be alert at all times. Was the Metal Origin Bead’s situation also the same?
Whether same or not, he still had to remain careful and vigilant. Ning Cheng quickly changed directions to head to a rest stop and turned into an honest-looking youth with a Celestial Shatterer Cultivation before heading to the trade union.
……
After handing over some Celestial Coins to the Trade Union, Ning Cheng then met the cultivator who claimed to have completed his task. It was a female cultivator with a Celestial Gatherer Cultivation, with a thin figure and yellowish hair and slightly blueish face. However, Ning Cheng had a vague intuition that this woman’s cultivation definitely went beyond the Celestial Gatherer Realm, definitely much higher than the Celestial Gatherer Realm.
The female cultivator looked at Ning Cheng before showing a frown and speaking, “I asked around before, but you shouldn’t be the person who posted the task, are you?”
Ning Cheng quickly lowered his posture and spoke up with a meek attitude. “Senior, it was my master who posted that task. My master has already left to another Celestial River and asked me to stay here for two months. If there were no news during the two months, I was told to leave the Descendant City and go to other places to post the same task. I have already brought the promised one million purple coins, but does senior have any news about that person?”
“It’s not new per se, but I met this cultivator a few years ago at Lustre Reinforcement Star’s Sacred Earth City within Bright South Celestial River. But I have no idea about his name.” The female cultivator stared at Ning Cheng and spoke in a soft voice.
“Many thanks, senior, this junior must send this news to master now. This is the reward master promised, please check it senior.” Ning Cheng didn’t ask any questions at all. Instead, he simply took out a million Celestial Coins and handed it to the female cultivator.
By logic, the information given by this female cultivator did not indicate that this female cultivator had completed the task. However, Ning Cheng still did not ask a single question, and even directly handed the reward.
The female cultivator wanted to wait for Ning Cheng to say that she hadn’t completed the task, or try to reduce the Celestial Coin reward. That way, she could have learned more about Ning Cheng and take Ning Cheng away if needed. However, she did not think that this little Celestial Shatterer Cultivator had such an uncomplicated mind. Without even a question, he actually took out and gave her the reward. At this moment, she could only stare at Ning Cheng’s back as it disappeared from sight. Although this was the Descendant City, she had no scruples to do what she wanted in this place.
An hour later, the female cultivator left Descendant City and went straight out of the Second Revenant Star. Once the female cultivator left, Ning Cheng immediately changed into an old man and quickly left the Second Revenant City.
Sensing the direction of his Spiritual Consciousness Tags, Ning Cheng sneered. Even if you had a cunning mind, you would still have to drink this father’s foot wash. Ning Cheng had placed Spiritual Consciousness Tags on each of those purple coins. Therefore, even if that cultivator went further away, he could still vaguely track her whereabouts. Moreover, he now felt sure that this woman’s cultivation was far higher than just the Celestial Gatherer Realm; probably even higher compared to his own cultivation.
As a cultivator with higher cultivation compared to him, why would she choose to come to this place to take up this task, was it for the reward of a million purple coins? No, it was highly unlikely for such a cultivator to show up in this place even for ten million purple coins. The task that Ning Cheng released was only a low-levelled task, yet he never expected that it would lure in a powerhouse.
After days of tracking, Ning Cheng felt convinced about his thoughts. That female cultivator definitely had some significant relationship with that cultivator who had given out the Metal Origin Crystal. All because this female cultivator flew straight towards the Bright South Celestial River. Apparently, the reason why this female cultivator headed to the Bright South Celestial River was Ning Cheng himself.
Although Ning Cheng had never visited Bright South Celestial River before, he still had some familiarity with it. Initially, when the Bright South Celestial River King had given him an Image Card, he wanted to use it to track Ning Cheng. However, at that time, that fellow had never thought that the Image Card would end up used up quickly. Bright South Celestial River King had grown extremely angry about it; however, he also couldn’t do anything but curse at Ning Cheng. He could only tell Ning Cheng to visit the Bright South Celestial River sometime in the future.
Ning Cheng threw aside his caution. He actually didn’t want to go to the Bright South Celestial River before advancing to the Heaven Seated Realm. But on the off chance that the cultivator he was tracking knew about the location of the Metal Origin Bead, he had no choice but to head towards the Bright South Celestial River.
But what made Ning Cheng puzzled was that this female cultivator had suddenly changed directions on approaching Bright South Celestial River’s Lustre Reinforcement Star. Despite feeling doubtful, Ning Cheng did not hesitate and altered his course quickly.
Two days later, Ning Cheng felt the other party stop. Ning Cheng quickly put away the Starry Sky Wheel and carefully made his approach using the Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds while concealing all his tracks. This way, he could easily track the Spiritual Consciousness Tags without the need to sweep out with his Spiritual Consciousness, mainly to avoid detection from the other party. Now that this cultivator stopped, he naturally would not dare to continue using the Starry Sky Wheel.
An hour later, Ning Cheng also stopped, feeling something wrong. He held high confidence when it came to his Spiritual Consciousness. Even if he had only reached the Undead Realm, combined with the support from his starry sky Sea of Consciousness, once his Spiritual Consciousness stretched out, it would still have a range comparable to cultivators in the Heaven Seated Realm, if not larger.
But now, he only saw the starry sky in front of him and nothing else. He couldn’t even feel his Spiritual Consciousness Tags on the Celestial Coins. Although he could not sense the Spiritual Consciousness Tags, Ning Cheng still felt that the other party had not gone far and should have disappeared somewhere near this place. There was no explanation to it but rather something born from his intuition.
Thinking of this, Ning Cheng converged his aura and concealed his body before slowly blending into the surrounding starry sky.
One day, two days…… As time passed, Ning Cheng still waited patiently, believing in his judgement.
On the third day, Ning Cheng once again felt the Spiritual Consciousness Tags that he had created. A moment later, a figure appeared within the range of his concealed Spiritual Consciousness. Ning Cheng instantly converged every bit of Spiritual Consciousness. He was just too familiar with this figure, it was the person in the vague image that he wanted to find.
The female cultivator that he chased after had disappeared; instead, the one who appeared was the cultivator he wanted to find. Ning Cheng felt sure that this cultivator was the same female cultivator.
This cultivator took out a battleship, and as soon as he stepped into the battleship, it quickly took him away without any trace left behind.
As the battleship disappeared, Ning Cheng sensed his Spiritual Consciousness Tags going farther and farther away from him.
Ning Cheng gave out a sigh, looks like that cultivator who just left truly was the female cultivator from before. If that was the case, then this fellow’s purpose here was to change his or her appearance to that person he was looking for, and then wait for him to appear at Lustre Reinforcement Star’s Sacred Earth City.
Ning Cheng did not continue following that person to the Sacred Earth City. Instead, he rushed straight to the location where the female cultivator had suddenly reappeared.
If he hadn’t personally witnessed the female cultivator coming here and suddenly disappearing for two days before reappearing, then even if Ning Cheng came here, he would have found no abnormalities. That is because his Spiritual Consciousness simply could not detect anything in this area during its sweep, nor could he feel anything unusual here. If he had come here after she left, he would have most likely passed this location without even thinking.
However, Ning Cheng now understood that there must be something hidden here. Therefore, whether he could sense it or not, it did not matter. He anyways was also an Imperial Array Master who could arrange Grade 4 Celestial River Array Formations.
Throwing out one array flag after another, Ning Cheng started to set up one Interference Array Formation after another around the area. Half a day later, a blurry array entrance appeared in front of Ning Cheng.
Ning Cheng felt pleasantly surprised by seeing this. There truly was something concealed in this place. Even he could not notice this hidden array entrance, which showed that it definitely was not of a low level.
Ning Cheng had initially thought that it would be a concealed meteorite or a hidden planet at best and had never expected it to be an array entrance. In addition to his cultivation, Ning Cheng spent the highest amount of time on studying array formations. Therefore, with just a glance at this array formation, he could make out that it was actually a Void Array Entrance.
A Void Array Entrance was equivalent to a Transfer Array. Once you entered through the array entrance, you would immediately be transferred to another place. Ning Cheng continued throwing out array flags to find a way to open this array entrance.
Even if the master of Void Array Entrance had not deliberately locked it down, other Array Formation Masters would still need a lot of time to obtain even the slightest chance to open the entrance; moreover, it would also need a lot of calculations and experimentations.
However, Ning Cheng had luck on his side this time. After only two days of continually experimenting in trying to open the array entrance, he finally managed to open up a gap within the Void Array Entrance.
With the array entrance opened, Ning Cheng did not hesitate even for a moment before putting away all the array flags on the outside while diving headfirst into the gap opened up in the Void Array Entrance in front of him.
