Currently, there were only four people qualified to stop Chuan Xinlou, Zhangkang Tianji, Qiao Jierui, Yi Jiufeng and Ning Cheng. The first three had already laid claim to their golden chests, and neither one had torn away enough face with Chuan Xinlou to publicly offend him. Therefore, they most likely would not come forward to stop Chuan Xinlou.
Ning Cheng had also obtained a golden chest, but he was the only cultivator here who had torn away every shred of decorum with Chuan Xinlou. Therefore, if someone had to step up to stop Chuan Xinlou, then the only option was Ning Cheng. But since Ning Cheng did not come forward, Chuan Xinlou obtained the Dao Fruit without any accident.
Chuan Xinlou felt immensely relieved as he put away the Dao Fruit. Worry about Ning Cheng stepping up to stop him had consumed almost his entire mind. Just like how Ning Cheng might have felt jealous of him, he also felt jealous of Ning Cheng. Therefore, when Ning Cheng didn’t stand up to stop him, he naturally felt relief.
With four out of the five golden chests now open, everyone immediately shifted their focus to Ning Cheng’s golden chest.
Ning Cheng understood that he would never get the chance to open this golden chest alone and that he had no choice but to open it in this place. Besides, since the first four boxes contained top-ranked treasures, it also made Ning Cheng look forward to seeing the contents of his chest.
Opening the chest, he found only a three-inch-tall black gourd inside. The gourd looked ordinary, so ordinary that one’s spiritual consciousness could quickly scan through it in just a passing sweep. It did not contain any Dao Charm, did not provide even the remotest hint of an aura, and looked like a regular everyday gourd.
“What is it?” This time, even Yi Jiufeng couldn’t recognise the gourd in Ning Cheng’s chest.
Ning Cheng reached out and picked up the gourd. It felt quite cold to the touch, but even after his spiritual consciousness scanned the gourd repeatedly, he couldn’t find anything unique about it. Turning the gourd upside down, he saw two words etched into the bottom ‘Gourd, Measureless’.
“I think I can make use of this gourd. If Sect Master Ning doesn’t want it, why not give it to me,” Yi Jiufeng could clearly see Ning Cheng’s disappointment and spoke with a wide smile.
Ning Cheng put away the gourd and gave a quick reply, “Since Senior Apprentice Sister Nine Phoenix shows such interest in this gourd, I might consider exchanging it for that talisman along with a branch from the Wind Thunder Apricot Tree.”
Yi Jiufeng smiled, but before she could reply, the crowd immediately heard a creaking sound coming from the middle of the great hall.
The ground beneath the people standing in their respective corners immediately started rising up. At the same time, the original pentagonal-shaped hall also started to spread outwards, and a dark public square appeared at the centre, deep below everyone’s feet. Standing at the hall’s five corners and looking down, everyone felt as if they were looking at the ground while standing at the top of a high-rise building.
The public square looked dark under the dim lighting conditions, but the cold aura that rushed up gave people a very uncomfortable feeling. Moreover, from the pentagon-shaped hall to the public square below, they could not see any stairs or ladders. They also could not make out any place or protrusion along the smooth walls to take advantage of; except for directly jumping in, there seemed to be no other way.
Ning Cheng’s spiritual consciousness scanned this dark public square repeatedly and found it akin to a deep well. Moreover, it severely restricted one’s spiritual consciousness. Even with his Starry Sky Sea of Consciousness, Ning Cheng felt powerful shackles limiting the range of his spiritual consciousness. However, it wasn’t much of a problem for him. Whether he used the Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds or jumped straight down, it wouldn’t injure him.
“I’m going down to check it out.” After Zhangkang Tianji finished, he jumped down without hesitation.
Zhangkang Tianji landed closer to the centre of the public square under the great hall and made quite the loud noise. Although he did not use any flying techniques, it looked as if Zhangkang Tianji had only jumped from the height of several dozen floors, and didn’t suffer any visible injuries.
Therefore, after Zhangkang Tianji jumped in, the others followed suit. In fact, for such presumed height, even if they couldn’t use celestial essence or spiritual consciousness, it wouldn’t cause any damage to these Eternal experts.
However, Ning Cheng knew it very well that it definitely was not a problem of just a few dozen floors. In fact, he found this place similar to the dry well he encountered in Time Wilderness, but only realised it after jumping down the pit. He found that the hole didn’t actually have a depth of around a dozen floors as it looked from above; moreover, it also contained a strong suction force.
“Kacha, katcha…..” With everyone jumping down at the same time, the legs of five or six people immediately broke one after another the moment they landed.
Tang Yitang, Yang Yu and Shi Jinyu’s cultivation did not match up to a majority of the people here, so the fall broke almost all their leg bones. But for cultivators in the Eternal Realm, leg fractures practically had no effect at all. They could make a full recovery in less than a breath.
As for Ning Cheng, he was a body-refining expert with a Starry Sky Body; therefore, even if he didn’t use his Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds, he could land on the public square without any injuries.
Qiao Jierui looked over at Ning Cheng and smiled, “No wonder Sect Master Ning can stop Brother Levelled Heart. Looks like your forged body’s strength exceeds that of Brother Levelled Heart.”
Chuan Xinlou remained expressionless and acted as if he didn’t hear anything at all. However, Ning Cheng gave a calm reply, “I don’t know if it exceeds that of Levelled Heart Heavenly Emperor, but it’s definitely stronger compared to yours.”
Qiao Jierui gave a cold snort but did not continue with the provocations.
The others also did not pay any attention to Qiao Jierui’s provocation, and instead focused their attention at something in the centre of the public square. A paper door had materialised out of nowhere in the centre of the public square. One could even hear the nether winds blowing behind this paper door, giving out rattling-like noises.
However, this paper door showed no signs of breaking apart despite the crackling noises from the nether winds. Moreover, everyone could see four characters etched onto the frame, Hell’s Gate, just above the paper door.
But before the crowd could make sense of those words, a violent gale of nether winds suddenly swept in from the outside of the dark public square. At this moment, even the small trace of spiritual consciousness that Ning Cheng had access to could not stretch out under the effects of these violent nether winds.
The raging nether winds then quickly made its way to the place where everyone stood before sweeping past them. The crowd had no way to escape or dodge and had to bring out weapons to protect themselves.
With just a thought, Ning Cheng immediately materialised his Everlasting Blue Thunder City, Chuan Xinlou and others quickly followed and brought out their own respective weapons. At this moment, no one had the same cultivation he or she had come in with, all because this place suppressed everyone’s spiritual consciousness too much. This caused a delay in bringing out weapons for many in the crowd.
Several screams erupted, and Ning Cheng saw the winds carrying away four or five people from amongst the crowd. Even if in the Eternal Realm, these people couldn’t defend against these terrifying nether winds. As to the ultimate destination of those four or five people carried away, no one could guess it at all.
The violent nether winds drowning the public square suddenly converged towards a spot and instantly shredded apart the two Eternal experts who couldn’t move away in time, turning into a pile of bones.
These nether winds had appeared suddenly and swept past them a bit too quickly. In just a few dozen breaths, the winds covering the dark public square disappeared without a trace. However, the number of people standing on the public square had also decreased to less than half.
Tang Yitang who followed Striking Order, Yang Yu who followed Chuan Xinlou and that handsome-looking man named Shi Jinyu who followed Yi Jiufeng along with Jinming Qianbo, Fu Yingkui, Shi Haiyan, Heavenly Emperor Wu Hong and a few more had also gone missing.
Over the dark public square, apart from the four starry sky emperors of four grand starry skies, only Ning Cheng, Striking Order, Shen Mao, Mu Hai, Xin Zhihe, and Gua Sangan remained. One could also see a heap of white bones in the middle of the public square, but no one knew the owners of those bones.
Apart from Ning Cheng, who was the only cultivator in the Life and Death Realm here, Striking Order and Gua Sangan had the lowest cultivations, only at the middle-level of the Eternal Realm. Although they managed to escape disaster, they both looked pale and in tatters.
Even Starry Sky Emperor Xin Zhihe from Water Immortal Starry Sky had a haggard look over her face despite having late-stage Eternal cultivation.
“It looks like we need to get out of this place first and discuss things in detail. Things are too bad here.” Zhangkang Tianji spoke with a sigh.
“Want to get out? There is no way out of this place at all.” Yi Jiufeng spoke with an ugly expression. She now regretted jumping into this place.
Standing on this public square, with limited access to one’s spiritual consciousness, one would find it impossible to fly out of this place.
But after obtaining those treasures in that pentagonal hall, and then seeing the public square open up right in front of everyone, would anyone of them choose to stay behind? Moreover, with the caution instilled into everyone here, how could they all choose to jump down together?
Yi Jiufeng’s voice had just ended when everyone heard another whimpering sound emerging at the edges of the public square. Everyone knew that another wave of nether winds was about to sweep over again.
Striking Order Heavenly Emperor hurriedly came over to Ning Cheng and spoke with some fear, “Brother Ning, I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to block the second wave ….”
Ning Cheng understood Striking Order’s intention and gave a simple nod before speaking, “Brother Striking Order does not have to worry; my thunder fort still can provide us some protection, just stay behind me.”
Gua Sangan immediately rushed to Chuan Xinlou’s side on seeing this development. This was not the time to care about one’s face. In case those winds swept through them once again, it would either blow him to god-knows-where or shred him to bare bones.
Xun Zhihe shot an envious look at Ning Cheng. In this place, the best weapon to block the nether winds without much effort seemed to be Ning Cheng’s Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort. With Chuan Xinlou’s Burning Sky Eroding Sun Pagoda coming a close second. However, she had no friendship with Ning Cheng and thus could only resist by her own strength.
The whimpering yet violent nether winds struck once again, and this time, it even had substance to it. This was the first time Ning Cheng had seen wind having a form to it; moreover, it was still as fluid as the wind.
“Whoosh-whoosh” sounds rolled up. Even though Ning Cheng managed to materialise the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort in time, and even if the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort was the most effective weapon against these nether winds, he still felt uncomfortable. It felt like his soul wanted to get out of the body; moreover, this feeling kept growing stronger with each passing moment.
Ning Cheng secretly felt frightened. No wonder the previous wave of nether winds swept away those Eternal experts. It’s not because they couldn’t block the winds, but once caught up in it, it would immediately destabilise one’s essence spirit[1]. With one’s essence spirit destabilised, coupled with the suppression of one’s spiritual consciousness and cultivation, it would be strange if one could actually react in time.
Fortunately, the moment those nether winds came close to the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort, the lightning arcs immediately bombarded it, forcing the nether winds to move past Ning Cheng.
Ning Cheng had just breathed in a sigh of relief when he heard Gua Sangan’s scream, “Chuan Xin……”
Gua Sangan could only call out two characters when his voice abruptly cut off, apparently swept away by the nether winds. However, Ning Cheng had the most powerful spiritual consciousness here, combined with the relative closeness to each other, he could clearly see Chuan Xinlou pushing out Gua Sangan. After a little more than a dozen breaths, the winds finally calmed down and disappeared along with one more person.
Gua Sangan had disappeared, and Ning Cheng saw him taken away by the nether winds. However, Ning Cheng stayed calm. He knew the reason why that wave of nether winds had managed to take away Gua Sangan. Not only did Chuan Xinlou not save his follower from death, but Ning Cheng also realised the sinister nature hiding underneath Chuan Xinlou’s face.
To the rest of the world, Gua Sangan was like a little brother to Chuan Xinlou. Even the Dao Fruit that Chuan Xinlou obtained came to him due to Gua Sangan’s proposal. It made sense that Chuan Xinlou would have done something to save Gua Sangan. But the fact was that Chuan Xinlou not only failed to save Gua Sangan, he actually pushed him away at the most opportunistic moment.
[1] Decided to change ‘Life Essence’ to ‘Essence Spirit’, as one of our readers pointed out that are some terms in the future chapters that could also be translated as ‘Life Essence’ in a more literal sense. Therefore, I wanted to keep the terms separate and unique to avoid confusion.
