With Zhangkang Tianji taking the lead, the rest did not stay idle and brought out their weapons to attack.
All the Eternal-level experts attacked the gate of the Ancient Shadow Temple at the same time. Just as Qiao Jierui guessed, the entrance of the Ancient Shadow Temple started to tremble after a few rounds, as if it would blow open the next moment.
“Katcha…..” Another round of attacks struck the gate, and the Ancient Shadow Temple’s gate finally opened a crack. The moment this small crack opened, a wave of gloomy winds started spreading outwards.
The gate to the Ancient Shadow Temple was just a tightly shut small gate, but the dozen Eternal-level experts attacking it at once created a mighty force that managed to crack it open. Ning Cheng, however, didn’t even come forward at all, let alone attack.
But when the gate cracked open, spewing this barely discernible wave of gloomy winds, Ning Cheng suddenly felt something wrong and quickly retreated.
Cultivating to the Eternal Realm, all the cultivators here had a very highly polished sixth sense for danger. Therefore, not only Ning Cheng but the rest of the people here also sensed danger from this gloomy wind.
Just when everyone stopped attacking and were about to retreat, the Ancient Shadow Temple’s gate suddenly burst open.
A violent, almost berserk, wave of gloomy winds rushed out, which forced the four premier Heavenly Emperors to bring out weapons and defend against it. From this, Ning Cheng noticed that Chuan Xinlou’s defensive weapon was a pagoda, while Qiao Jierui’s defensive weapon was a devilish gong.
No one expected that after this wave of violent yet gloomy wind would suddenly change its flow after rushing out, instead of clashing directly with everyone’s weapons. After the initial explosion, the outward force had suddenly reversed into a powerful suction force.
Under such an unexpected and powerful reversal, ordinary cultivators would have turned into slag even before they could get the chance to react. However, among the dozen Eternal-level cultivators here, only Guo Jingtian, who Ning Cheng had severely injured previously, could not resist this suction force. The sudden reversal caught him off guard and sucked him through the Ancient Shadow Temple’s gate. He kept screaming before disappearing without a trace.
Fu Yingkui was at the middle level of the Eternal Realm, and could clearly see Guo Jingtian’s expressions as he disappeared. Seeing that, his courage and wits instantly shattered, and he immediately used every bit of ability to retreat.
Maybe because he put every bit of effort into retreating, he unknowingly ended up running towards Ning Cheng. Since Ning Cheng purposefully kept an eye out for opportunities to take care of this unpleasant fellow, he lifted his feet without hesitation and immediately kicked him away the moment he came near him.
Fu Yingkui clearly felt Ning Cheng’s foot aimed at him, but couldn’t avoid it at all. His domain had shattered instantly like a thin sheet of ice in front of Ning Cheng’s kick.
“Bang!” Ning Cheng kick connected with Fu Yingkui’s back. Combined with the powerful suction force, Fu Yingkui flew towards the Ancient Shadow Temple’s open gate like a kite with a broken string flying into a storm.
Fu Yingkui felt horrified. Only now did he seemed to have understood Ning Cheng’s sinister plan. In just a single moment, Ning Cheng shattered his domain, making it impossible to put up any sort of resistance against this gloomy wind.
Just as Fu Yingkui was about to enter the Ancient Shadow Temple’s door, Chuan Xinlou’s pagoda suddenly slammed down, acting as a wall to stop Fu Yingkui.
Cold sweat drenched Fu Yingkui’s back. But feeling the control over his celestial essence and spiritual consciousness returning, he sighed and bowed to Chuan Xinlou, “Many thanks for Heavenly Emperor’s help.”
Chuan Xinlou nodded to Fu Yingkui before turning his gaze towards Ning Cheng, “Sect Master Ning, what’s the meaning of this? Everyone here agreed to join forces to enter the Ancient Shadow temple. Or do you like to kick people in their backs?”
Most people here had already noticed Ning Cheng’s kick. Therefore, when Chuan Xinlou rescued Fu Yingkui and questioned Ning Cheng, everyone immediately shifted their focus to Ning Cheng and wondered how Ning Cheng would explain it.
Ning Cheng simply spoke up with a calm voice, “Levelled Heart Heavenly Emperor, you can eat whatever you want, but you can’t just say anything you like. What about kicking people in the back? At that time, who didn’t want to protect themselves? Was I supposed to remain unprotected? Moreover, Fu Yingkui ran straight into me, how could I know that he didn’t purposefully run towards me with nefarious intentions? Is it wrong for me to defend myself? If I wanted to deal with this Fu Yingkui, hehe, I would only need to use one move. Why would I need to kick him openly and in front of everyone?”
“Could it be that Levelled Heart Heavenly Emperor thinks that I should have just stood still, even if someone wants to plot against me? Should I have just let him strike me? Chuan Xinlou, did you think that this emperor owes you something? Or did you forget that this emperor let you search for treasures in my Jiangzhou Star’s Ancient Shadow Temple? Or did you think that you could go around trying to embarrass this emperor everywhere just because you’re powerful? Despite having a Good Fortune Treasure, did I ask you for it? Or did you think you were channelling the energy of a pimp[1]? If you don’t want to stay here then just get the fuck out of this place for this emperor. This emperor doesn’t welcome such a shameless bastard.”
If one considered the first half of Ning Cheng’s words as ‘polite’, then the second half was simply a direct reprimand.
Chuan Xinlou’s face turned livid with rage, while murderous aura overflowed from his body. At the same time, his pagoda also started giving out hissing-like sounds.
Everyone could tell that Chuan Xinlou and Ning Cheng were about to duke it out; as such, no one wanted to come forward and stop them. Striking Order Heavenly Emperor wanted to help as he had allied himself with Ning Cheng, but he could not openly help Ning Cheng deal with his own boss. Qiao Jierui, however, looked forward to Chuan Xinlou and Ning Cheng exhausting each other to death in this fight. As for, Yi Jiufeng, she pretended not to know the reason for this fight and didn’t even speak about it.
“Looking for death, daring to be rude to this Heavenly Emperor.” The ordinary-looking middle-stage Eternal-level expert standing next to Chuan Xinlou took a step forward and snapped.
After Guo Jingtian’s ‘death’, Gua Sangan’s sullen expression never recovered. Now that he ‘saw’ Ning Cheng’s death, he actively took the initiative to fight alongside Chuan Xinlou. He also took a step forward and spoke with a sneer, “Ning, I’ve long been tired of seeing you, but you picked the wrong Heavenly Emperor…..”
In just a blink of an eye, it became three to one.
Zhangkang Tianji showed a smile and immediately interrupted, “Looks like you really don’t care about your face. Fighting one against three, Brother Levelled Heart, I have to admire you for it.”
Chuan Xinlou’s expressions turned ugly at this comment. Moreover, although he had saved Fu Yingkui’s life, Ning Cheng had already scared this bastard to the point that he couldn’t even stand up to defend himself despite the overwhelming advantage. He truly had turned into a coward.
It indeed was the truth; Ning Cheng’s way of dealing with things had truly frightened Fu Yingkui. Only he and Guo Jingtian had clashed openly with Ning Cheng. But Guo Jingtian died even before entering the Ancient Shadow Temple, while Ning Cheng almost successfully managed to kill him a moment ago. If not for Chuan Xinlou’s help, he would have definitely perished before stepping into the Ancient Shadow Temple.
Besides, it was not as if he was the one with the lowest cultivation in this place. Tang Yitang was only at the early stage of the Eternal Realm. Even Jinming Qianbo had lower cultivation compared to him. So why was he the one with a target on the back?
He had already started doubting his stance with Ning Cheng. Should he really go against Ning Cheng? As these thoughts went through his head, he didn’t even dare to look at Ning Cheng anymore, let alone find trouble with him.
Yi Jiufeng could tell that Chuan Xinlou didn’t want to kill Ning Cheng in this place and simply spoke up as if it was an everyday occurrence, “Everyone, let’s not quarrel with each other like kids. That gloomy wind from the inside of Ancient Shadow Temple has already disappeared. We can go in and have a look now.”
Sure enough, everyone found that the gloomy wind that had emerged from the Ancient Shadow Temple had already disappeared. Instead, a dark channel appeared in front of them. Moreover, no one could find any trace of Guo Jingtian in or around this dark channel.
Seeing that no one took the initiative to go in, Zhangkang Tianji gave a snort, “Since you all don’t have the balls to go in, I’ll be going in first.”
Saying that Zhangkang Tianji actually took the initiative to enter the Ancient Shadow Temple. But just as Zhangkang Tianji stepped onto the dark channel, it created an empty echo that made people feel like hairs were slowly pricking into their hearts.
With Zhangkang Tianji taking the lead, the rest of them naturally felt embarrassed to stay outside, and quickly stepped onto the dark channel. Zhangkang Tianji’s footsteps had only created an empty echo that seemed to infiltrate into one’s heart, but this feeling grew several-fold the moment others stepped onto the dark channel at the same time. It felt as if their hearts would collapse at any time.
Ning Cheng was still the last to enter, but he did so only after arranging several Sealing Arrays at the entrance of the Ancient Shadow Temple. Although everyone knew about Ning Cheng’s action, no one felt willing enough to stand up to stop him.
Since Ning Cheng didn’t even bother giving some face to Chuan Xinlou, everyone could imagine that whoever stood in the way, would receive the same treatment. Moreover, instead of stopping Ning Cheng, they would only be offending Ning Cheng.
The dark passageway was not a long one, and in just a few moments, everyone reached a pentagonal-shaped hall.
This pentagonal-shaped hall also had a restriction covering it. However, by the time that Ning Cheng arranged the sealing array formations and reached this place, the rest had already finished breaking open the restriction and were just about to enter. Five golden chests appeared in the five corners of the hall. Even though more restrictions covered each chest, one still couldn’t look straight at them without squinting because of the almost-blinding golden light.
Ning Cheng had always tuned his senses to a very high level when it came to seeking out treasures. Therefore, he quickly rushed to the box in the middle and right in front of him the moment he got there and threw out several array flags to protect his position. Out of the five chests, no matter what the others contained, choosing the middle one was always the best move, as it was the closest. Moreover, the chest in the middle would not be the worst no matter if the previous owner arranged the items from left to right or right to left. If the treasures in it turned out to be the best, he would have definitely picked up a bargain.
Ning Cheng responded quickly, but the others could not react in time. But despite that, Zhangkang Tianji, Yi Jiufeng and her follower Shi Jinyu, Qiao Jierui and Devil Domain’s Shi Haoyan each occupied a corner. While Striking Order, Tang Yitang, and Shen Mao, Wu Hong, Xun Zhihe, Mu Hao and Gua Sangan lay siege to the only remaining corner.
The only ones who couldn’t pick a chest were Chuan Xinlou and Jinming Qianbo, Fu Yingkui and Chuan Xinlou’s follower Yang Yu.
Jinming Qianbo didn’t have the strength to compete with anyone here and had decided to forgo the opportunity, while Fu Yingkui felt so scared of Ning Cheng that he didn’t dare to snatch anything from him. As for Chuan Xinlou and Yang Yu, they couldn’t grab a corner because Ning Cheng had already occupied the position they wanted.
In fact, when the five chests appeared, Chuan Xinlou had the same thought process as Ning Cheng and wanted to snatch the one in the middle. It’s just that Ning Cheng came at the most opportune moment and had rushed in at full speed, grabbing that location before Chuan Xinlou.
By the time Chuan Xinlou arrived in front of Ning Cheng, Ning Cheng had already deployed several defensive array formations around that particular corner. Ning Cheng had already realised that he wouldn’t be able to break the restriction and take away the box in a short time. Therefore, he simply decided to set up defensive array formations around the area to protect the chest.
“Get out of the way.” At this moment, Chuan Xinlou no longer cared about losing face. After finally reaching this place and not obtaining anything, why would he care about his face anymore?
Ning Cheng looked at Chuan Xinlou and spoke with a sarcastic voice, “What? Ready to rob from others already?”
Chuan Xinlou gave a cold reply, “You didn’t even do anything to the defensive array around this hall; so, what right do you have to snatch a chest?”
Ning Cheng laughed, “I’ve seen shameless people before, but it’s the first time I’ve seen someone as shameless as you. Didn’t do anything? Did you go blind? When you came in, who arranged the array formation outside? Did I ask your help to set up those sealing arrays? Yet, here you are talking about shamelessness in front of me.”
Chuan Xinlou looked at Ning Cheng as if he was looking at a dead person, before slightly turning his head and speaking to Yang Yu behind him, “I’m going to take a look at Sect Master Ning’s abilities and see if it’s as good as his mouth. You don’t need to step in.”
Yang Yu immediately retreated; however, everyone here understood that Chuan Xinlou’s words were not just for Yang Yu but for the other Heavenly Emperors present here. He didn’t want people to talk nonsense on the sidelines when he and Ning Cheng started fighting.
[1] Energy of a pimp – I could be translating it wrong though so do take this with a grain of salt, but this seems to be a slang term used for ridiculing people of low societal status who act high and mighty. It doesn’t particularly have an equivalent English translation (or at least none of us can think of one) but it has two literal translations: ‘an older male owner of a brothel’ or ‘pimp’s vital energy’, both don’t seem to fit the context, so I had to do my best to modify it a bit.
