The news about the Mysterious Yellow Bead getting exposed was not something trivial. Since he saw the face of the pale-faced cultivator, then why couldn’t that pale-faced cultivator see his face and the bead? Since that pale-faced cultivator saw his face, then Chuan Xinlou would also grow suspicious of him sooner or later. Moreover, since Zhongli Baichi had returned, then he would also be looking for him. At the same time, there was also Everlasting Holy Shrine’s Sacred Master. She had initially thought that he had perished in the Changing Earth Mountains. Now that he unexpectedly showed up again, whether due to an escape talisman or something else, that Sacred Master would also keep an eye out for him.
With so many powerhouses looking for him, even a hundred Ning Chengs might not be enough to escape death. For now, nobody knew about his relationship with Ruolan, so she should be safe. As for Qionghua and Luofei staying in the Everlasting Sacred Shrine, although it looked dangerous, it was actually much safer for them compared to following him.
Most likely, he might end up dead at first sight. The Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land had a place where interfaces intersected. Therefore, if he wanted to grow strong enough to protect him and the ones he loved, then the only choice left was to leave this place. Although Cang Wei had already left this positional plane, Ning Cheng knew that he had done so using the Heaven Opening Talisman.
Moreover, although he could use the Starry Sky Wheel to fly around the different grand starry skies, it was still not possible to break through the interfaces with his current strength. Even if he wanted to return to the Graceful Star Mainland, he can’t do it now.
Ning Cheng made up his mind at this moment, just like the time when he decided to return to the Rootless Black City. Even if he wanted to take Qionghua away from the Everlasting Sacred Shrine, he had to push his strength forward.
The shop assistant on hearing that Ning Cheng wanted both jade strips, turned happy and hurried to bring out the jade strips. During the wait, two cultivators passed by Ning Cheng, and Ning Cheng overheard one of them speaking, “Brother Wei, someone found a half-Spirit Artefact in the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land the other day, along with a broken cave relic. Wasn’t it on the edge of the Reverse Mud Maelstrom? I remember that you were also there at that time.”
“Yes, I was there, but still quite far from that place. When that broken cave relic appeared, more than a dozen people went for it, only to be swept away by the Reverse Mud Maelstrom. My strength couldn’t compare to those that went in, so I chose not to go up…..” The other cultivator answered.
During the conversation, they unknowingly walked past Ning Cheng.
The shop assistant finally brought the two jade strips. Ning Cheng paid the expected purple coins and left the Ancient Desolace Merchant House immediately. Although he did not know the specific location of the Reverse Mud Maelstrom, he felt sure that, it was one of the corners of the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land.
Since someone could obtain a half-Spirit Artefact in this place, Ning Cheng finally understood why so many cultivators came to the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land. There must be a lot of ancient caves and weapons here, and these cultivators definitely came here to find some opportunities.
……
Half an hour later, Ning Cheng finally arrived at the edge of the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land. He had already gone through the detailed introduction about the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land and obtained a general understanding of this place.
This place was not only suitable for Body Refining Cultivators but was also a place for other cultivators to find treasures and other opportunities. Someone had even found a top-notch Beyond Heaven Spiritual Treasure[1] within the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land, along with numerous Spirit Artefacts, ancient caves, ancient cultivation methods, apart from other heavenly materials and earthy treasures from different areas of the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land.
Over countless years, many powerhouses managed to obtain quite a few fortuitous opportunities from this place.
Similarly, over countless years, innumerable cultivators had also died in this place. Staying at the periphery of the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land provided some safety, and despite the Void Collapses, Spacial Blade Lights and Void Cracks, one could still escape the dangers with their lives intact, as long as one remained careful.
However, once one entered deep into the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land, then even one’s life would not be in one’s control. Within the depths of the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land, Spacial Distortions were a commonplace occurrence, something that one would see everywhere.
As for the Spacial Collapses and Spacial Counter-currents along with Spacial Blizzards, they were simply some of the most common dangers within the depths. However, the most terrifying threat of all was that one simply couldn’t predict when a shattered star, one that you were on, would suddenly explode.
Once a broken star exploded, then even if one were a Heaven Seated Powerhouses, it would prove difficult to escape from it unscathed. After all, this was not a peaceful place and had dangers everywhere. Perhaps one would end up in a Spacial Dislocation, after just escaping from that explosion.
As for the Reverse Mud Maelstrom, according to the jade strip, it was only marked as an ordinary danger zone within the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land.
The dangers of the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land looked terrifying even to read but thinking about the people trying to locate him, Ning Cheng did not hesitate to step into the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land.
As soon as he stepped into the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land, the sense of bleakness emanating from the vicissitudes of life became even more evident. It even birthed a strange fear within the depths of one’s heart and mind. It felt like ancients ghosts, from the depths of the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land, were calling out to every cultivator around the area. However, if one stopped and carefully observed, these ghostly calls seemed to disappear completely.
Ning Cheng felt sure that this was not an illusion. Because of the Mysterious Yellow Bead, his instincts had grown much stronger compared to the past. Maybe the other cultivators thought that these ‘illusions’ were the result of the ancient history of the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land. However, Ning Cheng did not know of it in that perspective and walked forward with much more care.
He wouldn’t stop because of this fear, even if he had to face some terrifying Soul Essence, Ning Cheng still would not show any concern. Even before his Sea of Consciousness had achieved nirvana, he did not feel much fear towards someone trying to take possession of his body. Now that his Sea of Consciousness had already undergone nirvana and metamorphosed into the starry sky Sea of Consciousness, even if some ancient spirit wanted to take possession of his body, what was there to fear?
Ning Cheng decided to head to a place called Moon Spirit Marsh for two reasons. The first was that the Moon Spirit Marsh was said to contain an interface rift, and the second reason was that the jade strip map of the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Swamp had only a vague directional marker for the Moon Spirit Swamp, without any exact coordinates.
Since Ning Cheng could buy this jade strip, then obviously others could also buy it. If someone really did come after him, it would not be possible to guess where he would go. In any case, no sane person would willingly think about choosing to go to a place with vague directional markers on the jade strip chart. After experiencing many things, Ning Cheng did not feel much fear even if he had to face tens of thousands of people who came looking for him. Although he did not feel much trepidation, he still had to remain careful to avoid any major mistakes.
Ning Cheng didn’t go far; at most, he had only walked a few dozen steps inside after entering the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land when he was stopped by a few people.
More specifically, he was stopped by four people: two men, and two women. The one with the highest cultivation among them was a tall male cultivator, with a bronze face and bright eyes. However, his eyes had two pupils each. In Ning Cheng’s view, this cultivator had already reached the full circle of Heaven’s Mandate Realm and was half-a-step into the Heaven Seated Realm.
Next to him was a female cultivator with a medium-sized built, with large eyes and fair skin, which made her a relatively good-looking woman. Although she wore slightly loose robes, it could not hide her inner beauty. This female cultivator also had a Heaven’s Mandate Cultivation; however, judging by the fluctuations, she should have only recently entered the late-stage Heaven’s Mandate Realm.
The other male cultivator was a head shorter compared to Ning Cheng but had quite the good looks with his hair bunched into a starry sky cultivator-styled bun on top of his head. He had middle-stage Undead Realm cultivation, similar to that of Ning Cheng.
As for the last of the four, and the other female cultivator, she had a relatively petite figure with average looks and thin yellow hair. She was also with the lowest cultivation among the four, only at the early-stage Undead Realm.
“This friend, I’m called Warren. These are my companions, Yu Wanxue, Ou Hongxin, and Dou Di….” The one who spoke was the tallest cultivator with the highest cultivation. Ning Cheng also noticed that when he introduced his companions, he introduced them in the descending order of their cultivation.
“Rogue cultivator, Cheng Nianqiong.” Ning Cheng did not feel any malicious intent from these people but still gave a fake name with cupped fists.
Warren spoke up with a warm smile, “Friend, here’s the thing, we’re heading to the Crow’s Nest. We originally were a team of five; however, one of our companions decided to leave because of a temporary affair. I see that you’re alone right now. So if you don’t mind, the five of us can form a team together.”
Ning Cheng knew a bit about the Crow’s Nest. According to the introduction on the jade strip, one could find top-grade raw materials for crafting flight-type weapons in this area. The jade strip mentioned that in ancient times, there used to be a Daoist Crow who had used this place to confirm his Dao. Sometime later, he then renamed the area where he proved his Dao to Crow’s Nest.
When Daoist Crow broke out of the positional plane, he left behind his Dao Confirming Insights. As for what Dao Confirming was, Ning Cheng simply didn’t overthink about it. In his opinion, Dao Confirming was something that only people at Cang Wei’s level would have to consider. In any case, only those who had gone beyond the Eternal Realm could break out of a positional plane.
Moreover, because this Daoist Crow was a demon, he had raised countless top-grade Flame Wind Crow Demons as his companion beasts. Most of these demonic beasts had already left the Crow’s Nest, except for a very few who left with Daoist Crow.
How could the demonic beasts left behind by a powerhouse who had confirmed his Dao be simple? Even the tail feathers left behind by the dead Flame Wind Crows, each one of those feathers was an almost priceless treasure. However, what was even more precious than those, was the fact that those Flame Wind Crows were flame-wind dual attributed demonic beasts. A small part of these Flame Wind Crows, over countless years of accumulation, and cultivating to a certain extent, would leave behind the flame of their life upon death. This flame was called as the Scarlet Crow Flame. Most of the cultivators went to this place in the hopes of obtaining this Scarlet Crow Flame.
Scarlet Crow Flame, whether one used it for Alchemy or Artefact-crafting, it was an exceptional flame in both fields.
However, Ning Cheng did not want to go to this place. He had the Starry Sky Wheel and the Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds. As for a flame, Ning Cheng had the Celestial River Flame. The only thing missing was not a flame or raw materials for refining flight-type weapons, but the method to evolve his Celestial River Flame.
Ning Cheng hesitated for a bit before speaking up with an apologetic voice, “I’m sorry, I don’t want to go to the Crow’s Nest. My cultivation is still too low to venture into such a place.”
In fact, it was not that Ning Cheng didn’t want to head to such a place; rather, he wanted to go to an area much deeper compared to this one.
Seeing Ning Cheng refuse, Yu Wanxue, the one with a pair of big eyes, suddenly spoke up, “Brother Cheng, if alone even we would not dare to go to that place. However, if the five of us team up, even if there were some danger, we would be able to help each other. Moreover, I’ve been to the Crow’s Nest once before and obtained information about a few things that no one can refuse. Those are things besides the Scarlet Crow Flame and the raw materials for flight-type weapons.”
Ning Cheng only showed a faint smile and did not ask any questions. He truly was not interested in this place.
Yu Wanxue also never thought that even after speaking to this point, this cultivator in front of her would not even show any intentions of asking any questions. From Ning Cheng’s Celestial Wheels, she judged that Ning Cheng should be someone in the Undead Realm; therefore, according to logic, such a person would refuse her right away, at least not without asking a few questions.
Since Ning Cheng didn’t ask, she had to continue, “According to the legend, after Daoist Crow confirmed his Dao at the Crow’s Nest, he had left behind his Dao Confirming Insights. We want to head there to find Daoist Crow’s Dao Confirming Insights because of a few clues I found during my previous trip. If found, we could then divide it among us.”
“Friend, a lot of starry sky cultivators think that the Eternal Realm is the pinnacle. But the fact is that there are powerhouses beyond the Eternal Realm. However, a lot of people don’t know about it. If we could obtain Daoist Crow’s Dao Confirming Insights, it would be a great treasure for each of us.” Warren explained from the side.
Ning Cheng cupped his fists and replied, “We don’t even know each other, and there are also many other people here. Why did you specifically look for me to work together? How would this benefit me?”
[1] Not sure what grade of a treasure it is but the term contains the same characters as what I use for Spiritual Treasure, which is a grade below the True grade. Could be a typo from the author’s part but I decided to leave it as it is.
