“Oh, I got it. Now that I have two keys, are we going to re-discuss the assignment of things inside the Temple of Time?” Ning Cheng spoke up without hesitation and did not explain that someone else had taken away the Perpetual Moon Time Key in question.
Duan Gantai also spoke out without any hurry, “Although you have two keys, it’s only because of my efforts. First, if I didn’t send in so many things, Shui Clan wouldn’t have chosen me, while you didn’t pay for anything. Second, if I hadn’t inadvertently revealed that I had a Perpetual Moon Time Key, then those people would not have used the Bodhi Heart Poison, and you wouldn’t have had the opportunity to scheme against Shui Wuchang. Third, only I know the location of the Temple of Time, you don’t.”
Ning Cheng knew that Duan Gantai wouldn’t be so talkative without reason. If Duan Gantai really figured out that he had schemed against Shui Wuchang, then this person truly had a devilish mind.
“Let’s split things equally, but you will have to tell me the location of the Temple of Time right now. After all, cooperation is based on mutual trust. Didn’t Brother Duan say that you would give your full cooperation?” Ning Cheng did not expect Duan Gantai to compromise with him.
But to Ning Cheng’s surprise, Duan Gantai took out a jade strip with a straight face and handed it to Ning Cheng. “Brother Ning, fortunately, you reminded me; otherwise, it would have been truly careless of me to cause such a misunderstanding with my brother. To prove that I sincerely want to cooperate with you, this jade strip contains the location of the Temple of Time.”
Ning Cheng accepted the jade strip in doubt. He initially thought that Duan Gantai would spin things around in a circle for some time. Ning Cheng truly didn’t expect that Duan Gantai would give him the location of Temple of Time so easily. This person knows the right words, doesn’t he? Why didn’t he ask Duan Gantai this before?
Seeing Ning Cheng put away the jade strip, Duan Gantai laughed, “Brother Ning, with Shui Clan’s savviness, I’m afraid we would soon find ourselves in trouble. Now that things are already in place, I’ll take my leave first.”
After that, regardless of if Ning Cheng agreed or not, Duan Gantai flashed out of the room. When Ning Cheng’s Spiritual Consciousness swept out, he couldn’t even find the slightest trace, it was as if he never existed at all.
Ning Cheng’s Spiritual Consciousness then swept into the jade strip and found a restriction covering it. Ning Cheng did not take the time to it; instead, he also quickly rushed out of the room. He knew that Duan Gantai’s last words were on the mark. Shui Clan was bound to find the two fake Perpetual Moon Time Keys.
……
“Since we’ve left, why don’t you say what you have in mind?” The blue-robed woman looked at Tian Muwan standing next to her and asked.
Tian Muwan gave out a sigh, “He changed. Previously, he always held my hand, but today he….”
The Ning Xiaocheng from the past, the one in her mind, would never stand behind someone willingly as a servant, nor would he secretly dare do such things with other women.
Tian Muwan eventually stopped speaking but looked at the blue-robed woman with a trace of pleading in her eyes, “Big Sister, you said that the laws here were not complete. When we leave, can we take him with us?”
The blue-robed woman looked at Tian Muwan quietly and finally spoke up, “Muwan, when you saw his sister help him wipe the dust off his face, you misunderstood that he trod on two boats. Even when he sent something, you handed it over to another man who threw it into the sewers in front of his face for obtaining quick revenge against him. So why do you want to help him now when you saw him doing something many times worse than what you experienced with him in the past?”
Tian Muwan immediately felt her heart and mind wander after hearing those words. Only after a long time did she shake her head and say, “I don’t know. Maybe because I’m not his girlfriend anymore, so I don’t feel the right to be angry with him. Maybe…. I’ve changed too.”
Everyone will change; after going through the insect tide on Earth, after going through that life and death experience, experiencing heart-wrenching regret, going through positional planes…… who wouldn’t change?
The blue-robed female cultivator sighed in her heart and spoke up with a soft tone, “Muwan, although I have not experienced being in love, I have definitely seen a lot. I don’t think that you and he are suitable for each other.”
Seeing Tian Muwan’s doubtful eyes, the blue-robed female cultivator directly spoke up, “That Ning Xiaocheng is not a simple person. I have a vague feeling that he is by no means what you made him out to be. He has a strong self-confidence, something that I have only seen in my father.[1]”
“Big Sister….” Tian Muwan looked at the blue-robed female cultivator in shock.
“He is not simple, and his master, that man surnamed Duan, is also not simple at all. Moreover, it is also not clear to me why he would want to be a servant to someone else when you say that he a proud man. But I can tell you one thing with full confidence. That is, there is nothing between him and that Shui Wuchang.” The blue-robed female cultivator aired out her speculations.
Tian Muwan looked puzzled, “But Big Sister, he obviously was hugging that female cultivator, and….”
The female cultivator smiled and spoke, “Muwan, sometimes what you see is not necessarily true. One misunderstanding might be a mistake, but two misunderstandings can only mean that you and he are not suitable for each other. Moreover, you are more concerned about his ‘mentality’ right now, maybe you even feel some pity for him, but it’s definitely not ‘love’.”
Tian Muwan suddenly froze. She immediately recalled the scene of Ning Cheng and her meeting in the coffee shop after Ning Cheng returned to Earth. From beginning to end, she only thought of Ning Cheng as someone who went down in the society. She even felt some pity towards Ning Cheng. Sympathy and compassion never equated to love.
If she really loved Ning Cheng, then even if she became a True Cultivator, even if her family had a great background, even if Ning Cheng had gone down in the world, she would never have felt that the two of them belonged to two different worlds. She would have never thought that the two of them did not belong to each other.
When she thought about Ning Cheng in that coffee shop, Tian Muwan suddenly let out a heart-wrenching smile. Maybe at that time, Ning Cheng also had looked at her the same way. Although her family had a much stronger and more influential background compared to the Ning Cheng of the past, could it ever compare to a powerful True Cultivator like Ning Cheng? Her cultivation at Qi Gathering 3rd Level at that time couldn’t compare to Ning Cheng at that time. Yet, at that time, she thought she stood at the highest peak and took out a diamond card to look down on Ning Cheng.
Even if she didn’t mean it when she took out that diamond card, it showed that she had always put Ning Cheng beneath her in mentality. Otherwise, how could she have done such a thing with her previous understanding of Ning Cheng? In the past, even when she accompanied Ning Cheng to a restaurant infested with flies to eat, it was only to take Ning Cheng’s self-esteem into account out of pity.
Today, when she saw Ning Cheng again, she still felt the same kind of pity and sympathy. Seeing Ning Cheng hugging Shui Wuchang forcibly, she only sighed in her heart, and even tried to say a few words to Ning Cheng, without any thought.
Did Ning Cheng need her pity and sympathy? If it wasn’t for Big Sister, could she have left Earth and embarked on the path of True Cultivation? Yet Ning Cheng had always relied on himself since the beginning. She then recalled Big Sister’s words that in the world of True Cultivation, strong devoured the weak; in other words, the True Cultivation World always followed the laws of the jungle. For Ning Cheng to stand behind that person surnamed Duan as a servant, was it because of this?
After Tian Muwan cleared her thoughts, her emotions finally started to calm down, “Big Sister, you are so beautiful, do you really don’t like anyone?”
The blue-robed female cultivator shook her head and spoke, “Since your cultivation is still quite low, let me explain a few things to you. When it comes to people I like, I really haven’t met anyone who could make my heart move. However, I won’t go out of my way to find a Dao Companion for myself. You don’t have to worry about whether I like someone or not. Wait for that person surnamed Ning to come over, you can then clear things with him by yourself.”
“He, will he come?” Tian Muwan looked at the blue-robed female cultivator in confusion.
The blue-robed female cultivator nodded in affirmation, “Yes, he will definitely come.”
She had taken the key that Ning Cheng had obtained from Shui Wuchang, only to let Ning Cheng come to them.
“No….” The blue-robed female cultivator suddenly spoke a word and immediately grabbed Tian Muwan before flying into the sky. Even so, a violent force still slammed into her feet.
The blue-robed female cultivator had just rushed out when the room she was in exploded with a muffled explosion. The sound of the blast was not too big, but after the explosion, the room collapsed into nothingness. A crack appeared out of thin air that then spread out like a spider web
The violent aftershock slammed into Ning Cheng’s chest. Even if Ning Cheng’s Domain blocked most of it in time, the remaining power still slammed into his chest, almost forcing him to spill out a mouthful of blood.
Ning Cheng felt secretly frightened. He had a good understanding of his own cultivation. Yet, even with his cultivation, just the aftershock had almost severely injured him. If the blue-robed female cultivator had not rushed out of the room, it would have turned into a disaster for her.
Ning Cheng immediately hid in a corner. He had come here to get the key back from the blue-robed female cultivator. However, he did not expect that before he reached the blue-robed female cultivator’s room, her room would suddenly explode. Looking at the void crack in the distance, Ning Cheng screamed bitterly in his heart. He didn’t know what caused this, but it contained a terrifying power. The effect might not have looked dominant, but it created a horrifying crack in the void along with such violent aftermath.
After the explosion, the void crack had not yet fully closed when several Dao Law treasures shot towards the blue-robed female cultivator.
Ning Cheng, who had hidden on the side, could clearly see that all the attacks directed at the blue-robed female cultivator came from cultivators in the Eternal Realm. All of them were the cultivators who participated in Shui Guanxi’s ceremony. Ning Cheng had already guessed that Shui Clan would ambush the blue-robed female cultivator, but he didn’t expect it to happen so soon.
“Boom-Boom-Boom……” Burst after burst of violent explosions roared over the sky above Shui Clan, mixed with countless flashes of lightning, which highlighted the intensity of battle.
Explosions and mists of blood continued to pour down from the sky above, “Boom-Boom….” A few figures fell to the ground then a sharp piercing sound erupted followed by a blue streak of light shooting towards the horizon.
Ning Cheng could clearly make out that the blue-robed female cultivator possessed extraordinary strength. But because of the severe injuries from before, she could not entirely avoid further wounds from that explosion from a moment ago. Even in that case, of the six cultivators in the Eternal Realm besieging her, she managed to kill two and seriously injure one.
“She’s badly injured, quickly chase her down.” The cultivator, who fell to the ground, screamed. In fact, not waiting for his fellow’s reminder, several others quickly caught up and rushed out. Perhaps, they already knew that the blue-robed female cultivator had severe injuries; therefore, apart from a few more cultivators in the Eternal Realm, a dozen more cultivators decided to join in on the hunt.
The cultivator, who the blue-robed female cultivator had forced to the ground, took in a deep breath before taking out a medicinal pill. However, before he could swallow the medicinal pill, a sharp murderous intent locked in on him.
Although he realised in an instant that someone wanted to take advantage of the momentary weakness, his present situation did not allow him to escape the sneak attack.
“Poof….” A spear tip pierced the back of his and came out from between his eyebrows. Powerful celestial essence then surged into his body and destroyed his meridians.
“Who are you?” The cultivator asked, feeling unreconciled.
“Just passing by to buy some soy sauce.” Ning Cheng said as he twisted the long spear in his hand. A flaming fireball then erupted which quickly engulfed the cultivator in the Eternal Realm. A moment later, a storage ring flew out of the flame and into Ning Cheng’s hand.
[1] It might be considered a spoiler, but I decided to put it out there for better context. This blue-robed female cultivator’s father is the protagonist from Goose Five’s previous book ‘Strongest Abandoned Son’. You might have also guessed it from her surname Ye.
