Ning Cheng returned to Sacred Light City alone and found that it still looked magnificent. Standing outside the Sacred Light City, he couldn’t feel any restrictions or array formations. But after Ning Cheng entered the Sacred Light City, he immediately felt many layers of Entrapment Formations.
He secretly felt glad about not meeting Man Jiuren inside Sacred Light City. Otherwise, even if the Five-coloured Star Splitter Arrow injured the Ninth Prince, Shen Mengyan couldn’t have escaped from the Sacred Light City. Not to mention Shen Mengyan, the layers of restrictions had enough power to restrain Chuan Xinlou and the others. As for arranging a one-way teleportation array within Sacred Light City, it would be an impossible task.
Although magnificent, the Sacred Light City felt like a dead city in general. The only thing that made it different from the destroyed Moyi City were the intact buildings. Moreover, the layouts of the buildings within Sacred Light City didn’t have any streets at all. However, all of them had altars within them.
Ning Cheng understood that Man Jiuren had deliberately built them and placed them in such an arrangement to refine the Mysterious Yellow Starland. As for why Man Jiuren wanted to refine the Mysterious Yellow Starland or turn it into a dead place, Ning Cheng simply couldn’t figure it out.
Even after entering Sacred Light City, Ning Cheng didn’t see anyone living here. Presumably, those living here had already left or died.
After destroying all the Entrapment Formations along the way, Ning Cheng soon reached the heart of Sacred Light City, the Nine Emperor Peak. It should be the central point from where Man Jiuren wanted to refine the entire Mysterious Yellow Starland.
Ning Cheng understood that refining a starland would require massive effort not to mention the insane amount of resources, but he never touched this subject before. But regardless of if he could do it or not, Ning Cheng decided to explore this Nine Emperor Peak to understand it.
Seeing the restrictions around the Nine Emperor Peak growing denser the closer he moved towards it, Ning Cheng understood that no person was allowed to come here. Therefore, he kept dropping array flags on the way to the Nine Emperor Peak for stabilisation and also for a path of retreat in case something unexpected happened.
The Nine Emperor Peak was the highest point in Sacred Light City, so Ning Cheng remained careful all along the way. Therefore, while dropping array flags all along the path, he eventually made it to the top of Nine Emperor Peak in an incense stick worth of time.
But reaching the top of the Nine Emperor Peak, Ning Cheng saw a woman.
Everyone had either died or left, yet there was still a woman locked here. But what puzzled Ning Cheng, even more, was that he knew this woman. It was the silver-haired dignified-looking woman who had come to Moyi City at Man Jiuren’s side back then. However, at this moment, she was chained to the altar at the top of Nine Emperor Peak, which looked very strange.
The silver-haired woman saw Ning Cheng and felt puzzled but did not speak.
Ning Cheng recalled that this woman besieged Yi Jiufeng together with Yu Yuechen and that other seductive woman. It stood to reason that she was someone close to that Ninth Prince Man Jiuren. How did she end up locked here?
There was an empty area in the middle of the altar in front of the woman. From the looks of it, someone took something from here not too long ago.
Ning Cheng walked over and looked at the altar carefully, and felt increasingly sure that this empty spot contained something not too long ago.
“Who took the thing from here?” Ning Cheng asked, looking back at the silver-haired woman.
The silver-haired woman didn’t answer Ning Cheng’s words, but instead asked, “Have you finally taken refuge under Man Jiuren?”
“That Man Jiuren doesn’t have enough face to take me under him. But it’s not what I asked, did I?” Ning Cheng sneered.
The silver-haired woman turned her gaze on Ning Cheng and said, “Yes, there used to be a Life Force Plate here, but it was taken away by Ku Sheng.”
“Who’s Ku Sheng? What is this Life Force Plate?” Ning Cheng asked.
The silver-haired woman replied, “You’ve already seen that very thin almost-bones cultivator. He came here and took the Life Force Plate on the orders of that Ninth Prince. The Life Force Plate is a top-grade treasure that can absorb the life force of any living creature or even a star.”
Ning Cheng felt shocked when he heard this. He finally understood why the Mysterious Yellow Starland’s life force had diminished to the extent that it had almost disappeared. It was the work of this Life Force Plate. He never expected that there would exist such a heaven-defying thing that could absorb all types of life forces. Just how powerful was this item?
It looks like Man Jiuren was only putting on an act to refine the Mysterious Yellow Starland. But in fact, he wanted to extract every scrap of life force from this place. From this, he also understood another thing. That is, everyone native to Mysterious Yellow Starland should have already fallen by now if they hadn’t already escaped. With the life force almost completely absorbed, it would be a strange matter if there was anything left alive in this place.
This Man Jiuren truly was a cruel and vicious person to the end.
“Since Ku Sheng took the Life Force Plate, why didn’t he kill you?” Ning Cheng looked at the silver-haired woman with some suspicion.
After hearing Ning Cheng’s words, the silver-haired woman stayed silent for a while. Then, as if understanding something, she suddenly trembled and spoke up, “Are you implying that you killed Man Jiuren and that Ku Shen came here to steal the Life Force Plate?”
If Ku Sheng didn’t come to steal the Life Force Plate, and it truly was an order from Man Jiuren, why did he spare her? Only if Man Jiuren died, or if Ku Sheng betrayed the Ninth Prince, could Ku Sheng walk away after with the Life Force Plate without killing her.
It looks like this silver-haired woman still didn’t know that Pan Qian had slapped Man Jiuren into a meat paste.
The silver-haired woman didn’t wait for Ning Cheng to speak up. She understood the general situation and quickly said, “Please help me; I can also pay you for your services. Man Jiuren had captured me. He wanted my essence blood. After all, Man Jiuren is our common enemy.”
“It’s not difficult to save you, and I believe what you said. But you haven’t told me why Ku Sheng didn’t kill you? Why would he let other people know that he took the Life Force Plate?” Ning Cheng asked with a calm tone.
The silver-haired woman dragged the chains binding her and stood up looking at Ning Cheng. “That’s because he doesn’t dare to kill me. As long as he killed me, he would die. Not to mention him, even Man Jiuren wouldn’t dare to kill me. Besides, let’s talk about the Life Force Plate, even if he took it away, you could track it easily. He can’t hide it even if he wants to hide it.”
This silver-haired woman had Eternal cultivation, but she also had a few shackles on her cultivation. After seeing the situation clearly, Ning Cheng nodded, “I can let you go, but you will have to answer a few questions. First, who is Man Jiuren? Second, what’s his background?”
The silver-haired woman replied without hesitation, “His father is a pretty powerful expert, with more than a hundred sons. Man Jiuren ranks ninth among them. As for his origin, you wouldn’t know about it even if I told you. He comes from a place called Grand Essence Sea.”
Ning Cheng murmured, “Grand Essence Sea? Is it a fragment of Grand Essence Realm? Does a sea dragon king rule it?”
“Huh, you know about the Grand Essence Realm?” The silver-haired woman spoke up in surprise.
Ning Cheng didn’t answer the silver-haired woman’s question. Instead, he grabbed an array flag and threw it out. Then, he brought out the Celestial Rainbow Purgatory Spear and shot it at the chain binding the silver-haired woman.
It was an Entrapment Formation that initially locked the silver-haired woman. As for the chain, it wasn’t worth mentioning compared to the one that bound Pan Qian. With just one shot, Ning Cheng broke the chain.
With Ning Cheng nullifying the Entrapment Formations and breaking the chains, the silver-haired woman instantly regained her freedom. She raised her hand and patted her forehead, following which she spat out a mouthful of dirty blood.
After spitting out that dirty blood, the aura of this silver-haired woman grew stronger. Her body shook slightly, and the broken chains on her body turned into slag before falling to the ground.
“Thank you for saving me. I’m going back. You can keep this.” After restoring her cultivation, the silver-haired woman sighed. A talisman appeared out of thin air in her hand, and she took out a ring before handing it to Ning Cheng.
“So you’re also from the Grand Essence Realm, huh? But can that talisman break through the planar interface to take you back?” Ning Cheng didn’t accept the ring the silver-haired woman hand handed to him. Instead, he looked at the talisman in the silver-haired woman’s hand and asked a question.
The silver-haired woman said, “Yes, I’m from the Grand Essence Realm. However, this talisman can’t break open the planar interface and take me back, only to a place a bit closer to my home. The Grand Essence Realm and this place are two vastly different positional planes, something an ordinary talisman can’t break open.”
Ning Cheng took in a breath and said, “I don’t want your ring. But can you give me one of those talismans?”
After encountering Man Jiuren’s group and talking with Pan Qian, Ning Cheng understood a few things rather profoundly. He knew very well that it wouldn’t matter much even if his cultivation reached the peak of the Eternal Realm one day. Even if he entered the Dao Confirming Realm like Chuan Xinlou, within the vast universe, he would still remain an ant.
To grow truly strong, he must reach one of those five grand realms. He can’t go to the Grand Change Realm right now, but he now knew that the silver-haired woman had a talisman that would bring him close to the Grand Essence Realm. If she could give him one, he would still have some hope of reaching it in the future.
The silver-haired woman looked at Ning Cheng suspiciously. In truth, she had put many good things in the ring she gave to Ning Cheng. Those things would have been enormously beneficial for someone like him. Yet, she never expected that Ning Cheng wouldn’t accept the ring, and would instead ask for a talisman. Everything considered, this talisman truly had a much higher value compared to all the items in the ring combined. But it would be worthless for someone like Ning Cheng.
She thought about it for a while before taking out another talisman and handing it to Ning Cheng. “I only have three of these talismans. But since I promised to repay you for saving me, I will give you one. Take care.”
After speaking, the talisman in the hands of the silver-haired woman glowed with a bright light before a spacial tear emerged. The next moment, the light enveloped the silver-haired woman, and she disappeared into the spacial crack without a trace left behind.
Ning Cheng looked at the talisman in his hand that exuded a unique dao charm before taking out a jade box and carefully putting it away. He understood that this talisman was of a much higher grade compared to the Boundary Breaking Talisman he had exchanged from Duan Gantai.
After carefully checking the Sacred Light City, he felt convinced that it no longer had any living creatures. Ning Cheng then razed the Sacred Light City to the ground with a Time Wheel before leaving the Mysterious Yellow Starland.
