t
Ning Cheng turned his head and said to Xian Chanxu next to him, “You’re the Sect Master of Rainbowfall Sword Sect, you can handle it.”
Xian Chanxu immediately stood up when he heard Ning Cheng’s words, “Because of Universal Development Sect’s oppression, Rainbowfall Sword Sect suffered a huge loss this time….”
Without waiting for Xian Chanxu to finish, Qu Xusheng quickly spoke up. “Yes, yes, this time, we ended up bewitched by one sect and should rightfully compensate Rainbowfall Sword Sect for the damage. I suggest that each sect here give up a star vein, 100 million Perpetual Moon Pills and one million Permanent Essence Pills. We should also give up ten spots for Sifting Forest Mystic Realm.”
Ning Cheng had no idea about this Sifting Forest Mystic Realm, but from the looks of it, it should be something similar to the Time Wilderness. However, the offer only garnered a secret sneer from Ning Cheng. Did this Qu Xusheng think that he could brush all of what happened today with such a paltry offer? If replaced by Ning Cheng, even if he decided not to kill these bastards, he would have at least forced these sects to give up on the Sifting Forest Star.
But to Ning Cheng’s surprise, Xian Chanxu only hesitated for a bit before nodding in agreement with Qu Xusheng’s proposal. “Sect Master Qu is correct. This time, Universal Development Sect bewitched everyone. Now that Universal Development Sect’s sect master has fallen, we should all consider ourselves in the same boat. As for compensation, just follow the words of Sect Master Qu.”
Ning Cheng frowned slightly, but he quickly understood Xian Chanxu’s reasoning. When he asked Xian Chanxu to take care of it as the sect master, Xian Chanxu must have realised that he wouldn’t stay in Rainbowfall Sword Sect for long.
Rainbowfall Sword Sect’s current momentum was all thanks to him. Once he left, and since Rainbowfall Sword Sect had already offended too many sects, it wouldn’t survive for long by itself in Sifting Forest Star. Therefore, Xian Chanxu’s decision as the sect master was the correct one.
Seeing Xian Chanxu look over at him, Ning Cheng waved his hand and said, “Just follow Sect Master Xian’s instructions, except for one slight exception.”
Ning Cheng casually walked over to the only remaining elder from Universal Development Sect before speaking up with a cold voice, “Rather it’s two things. First, Universal Development Sect will send the culprits responsible for Feng Kai’s death to Rainbowfall Sword Sect. Second, Universal Development Sect has to move out of the Sifting Forest Star.”
“Yes, senior. It was Bao Xuan and Liang Qiuqi who killed Feng Kai, and my Universal Development Sect will immediately leave Sifting Forest Star…..” This elder didn’t dare to speak even half a word against it. Therefore, after he finished speaking, he quickly retreated as far as physically possible from Ning Cheng.
The Universal Development Sect had come here to force the Rainbowfall Sword Sect out. But the result was the opposite. Not only did they not force away Rainbowfall Sword Sect, but the Rainbowfall Sword Sect had forced them away. As for the elders and sect master of the other sects, they immediately decided to make amends with Rainbowfall Sword Sect. With Universal Development Sect withdrawing from the Sifting Forest Star, the mineral veins and some of the spiritual lands left behind by Universal Development Sect would naturally end up under Rainbowfall Sword Sect.
“Sect Master Ning, many years ago, I met a Rainbowfall Sword Sect’s disciple from Graceful Star Mainland in Culmination Grand Starry Sky. His name was Rui Baishan….”
Before Xian Chanxu could finish speaking, Ning Cheng immediately interrupted him, “Did you say Sect Master Rui Baishan also came here?”
Xian Chanxu initially thought that Ning Cheng was Rui Baishan’s predecessor. But now that he heard Ning Cheng call Rui Baishan as ‘Sect Master’ he understood that Ning Cheng wasn’t Rui Baishan’s predecessor.
Because of this, he no longer was in a position to call out Rui Baishan’s name directly and spoke with a conservative tone. “Yes, Sect Master Rui followed me to the Rainbowfall Sword Sect and remained here for about half a year before venturing into the starry skies alone for gaining experience.”
Ning Cheng had a relatively good understanding of Rui Baishan. Ning Cheng understood that he was a very strong-willed person and would take up any opportunity that came his way. Rui Baishan wouldn’t stay in a sect for long and let his cultivation stagnate, which Ning Cheng found quite reasonable and consistent with what he knew about him.
Ning Cheng nodded, “I’ll be taking my leave now. If you have any problems, you can come to my Mysterious Yellow Celestial River in Culmination Grand Starry Sky to find me. Mysterious Yellow Celestial River belongs to me, and I also established my Mysterious Yellow Sect there. If you find your future development restricted here, you can also choose to shift your Rainbowfall Sword Sect to Mysterious Yellow Celestial River.”
When Xian Chanxu heard that Ning Cheng had established a sect, his expressions turned even more respectful. He also vaguely guessed that Ning Cheng wasn’t a true disciple cultivated by Graceful Star Mainland’s Rainbowfall Sword Sect. Otherwise, Ning Cheng wouldn’t have established a separate sect.
Seeing Ning Cheng about to leave, Yu Yayun quickly stepped forward to thank him. She had already discovered that the vine tattoo on her wrist had disappeared after she stepped down from the duelling platform. From this, she presumed that Ning Cheng had already taken it away.
Ning Cheng looked at Xian Chanxu and said, “Yu Yayun is a good disciple. Give her a safe cave and concentrate on cultivating her.”
Yu Yayun had received Ning Cheng’s help; Xian Chanxu had already understood it by now. And now, Ning Cheng had explicitly asked him to take care of Yu Yayun before leaving. From this, Xian Chanxu presumed that Ning Cheng should have taken a liking to Yu Yayun. Besides, Yu Yayun’s appearance would arouse any man, so it wasn’t surprising to him that Ning Cheng would fancy her.
Thinking of this, Xian Chanxu quickly spoke, “Sect Master Ning can rest assured, I will take care of Yu Yayun to the best of my abilities.”
If Ning Cheng knew about Xian Chanxu’s thoughts, he would have kicked him away immediately. The reason why he had said that sentence just now had nothing to do with Yu Yayun. It’s because Ning Cheng had given Yu Yayun a Life and Death cultivator’s ring. If he didn’t explicitly state to Xian Chanxu about taking care of Yu Yayun, the ring he gave her wouldn’t help her at all. Rather, it would only bring her more harm than do any good.
Yu Yayun’s face blushed slightly. But even if Ning Cheng liked her, she wouldn’t change her mind. She would only have Liang Yi in her heart. Even if Liang Yi perished, it would never change her thoughts about him.
Just as she thought about how she should let her aunt air out her thoughts to sect master, Ning Cheng cupped his fists towards her sect master, Elder Yu Bo and the others. “I’ll be taking my leave now. If you need anything, you can come to my Stately River Star to find me.”
After saying this, Ning Cheng stepped into the air and disappeared without leaving a trace. Yu Yayun gave out a sigh. She understood that she and her sect master overthought a few things. If Ning Cheng truly had any interest in her, he would have said something to her before leaving.
……
Chasing Bull controlled the Starry Sky Wheel as it shuttled through the starry sky. During this time, Ning Cheng took out the Celestial River Flame and the Void Shimmering Light Crystal. He had to raise the Celestial River Flame’s grade first before doing anything else.
The surface of the Void Shimmering Light Crystal looked like a Space Crystal. It seemed hollow on the inside too. However, once one’s spiritual consciousness penetrated it, one could then feel the heat coming from a thousand strands of shimmering lights inside of it. Even Ning Cheng’s spiritual consciousness couldn’t stay inside it for long and could only touch the lights before it melted away.
But as soon as the Celestial River Flame touched the Void Shimmering Light Crystal, the Celestial River Flame immediately formed a bright dao flame flower. As the Celestial River Flame swept through the Void Shimmering Light Crystal, the dazzling lights within it instantly lit up the entire starry sky wheel like a rising sun.
Chasing Bull, who put its full concentration into controlling the Starry Sky Wheel, immediately felt startled by the dazzling lights that suddenly breached through the restrictions. However, it quickly understood that Ning Cheng was upgrading his flame and promptly shifted his concentration back to controlling the Starry Sky Wheel.
In just an incense stick-worth of time, the dazzling lights over the surface of Celestial River Flame dissipated and the Celestial River Flame started to hover in front of Ning Cheng. At this moment, it began to look more like the vast and boundless starry sky than a flame. Even the six almost-invisible golden flame halos around the surface of the Celestial River Flame looked like six rivers flowing through the Milky Way’s heavens. It gave the flame an exquisite appearance.
Ning Cheng could also feel the Celestial River’s joy, as well as the high temperatures contained within the Celestial River Flame.
Ning Cheng didn’t hesitate and took out the Nirvana’s Heart. Celestial River Flame had just advanced to a Grade 6 Starry Sky Flame, and he also had a Nirvana’s Heart at hand. Therefore, Ning Cheng would naturally let the Celestial River Flame evolve once again and become a spirit grade flame as mentioned by old man Kong He.
Previously, when Ning Cheng took out the Void Shimmering Light Crystal, the Celestial River Flame had only formed a dao flame flower before engulfing the crystal. But, at this time, when Ning Cheng took out the Nirvana’s Heart, the Celestial River Flame, which had already reached Starry Sky Grade 6, immediately issued a joyous scream. An instant later, it immediately rushed over.
At this time, Ning Cheng could only see it with his eyes as the Celestial River Flame rolled out like a flaming tornado. The terrifying temperatures of Nirvana’s Heart and the Celestial River Flame then quickly intertwined and started to fuse.
Ning Cheng tried to extend his spiritual consciousness to watch the process more closely. But the moment his spiritual consciousness touched the Nirvana’s Heart, it immediately turned into nothingness under the terrifying heat. Ning Cheng quickly took back his spiritual consciousness. The Celestial River Flame was still in mid-ascension, and he couldn’t suppress the Nirvana’s Heart anymore with his current strength. Moreover, he couldn’t even observe the process with his spiritual consciousness.
But even though his spiritual consciousness couldn’t sweep in, Ning Cheng could still see and feel that the Celestial River Flame was starting to converge on itself. The seemingly vast Celestial River Flame seemed to want to hide, and the brilliant flaming surface from before begun to turn ordinary. If it weren’t for the continually rising temperature, Ning Cheng would have never thought that the Celestial River Flame was evolving, but regressing on itself.
With the Nirvana’s Heart still glowing at the centre, the Celestial River Flame seemed to be growing weaker. It felt as if the Celestial River Flame wanted to turn itself into something completely ordinary. After an unknown amount of time, the Nirvana’s Heart at the centre of the Celestial River Flame disappeared, and the Celestial River Flame suddenly dimmed, almost vanishing into the darkness.
Was this weak flame still his Celestial River Flame? But Ning Cheng quickly discovered a difference. If the previous Celestial River Flame felt vast and boundless like a celestial river, the Celestial River Flame now felt like the endless starry sky. The brilliance on the surface had disappeared, but it now seemed to contain infinite celestial rivers inside of it.
If one hadn’t roamed the starry skies, one wouldn’t have known what the starry skies looked like from the outside.
While Ning Cheng observed this new Celestial River Flame, the dim flame quietly landed on Ning Cheng’s outstretched palm and gave off a kind of intimate aura.
Ning Cheng’s mind once again fully connected with the Celestial River Flame and he once again felt a horrifying temperature from it. Sensing such terrifying temperature, Ning Cheng couldn’t help but mutter to himself in shock, “Is this the spirit-grade Celestial River Flame?”
He hadn’t used this kind of flame till now, but Ning Cheng had a hunch that it could burn everything within the starry skies, it could even burn the void. Compared to starry sky flames, sprit-grade flames were just too abnormal.
After Ning Cheng murmured to himself, the Celestial River Flame sent out a thought, “Yes, master. I just evolved into a spirit flame….”
Ning Cheng patted his head in speechlessness. Because of that idiot Chasing Bull, all his companion beasts ended up calling him as ‘Master’[1]. Even a flame called him master, meaning Chasing Bull must have influenced it.
Chasing Bull, who controlled the Starry Sky Wheel, sneezed a few times. It seemed to have realised that its master had scolded it behind its back. It quickly shrank its head and increased Starry Sky Wheel’s speed, as if to compensate for whatever it had done wrong.
Ning Cheng raised his hand and took out the Nirvana Spear before speaking, “See if you melt it.”
Ning Cheng had searched everywhere for materials that could help in upgrading his flame. Apart from improving his strength after his flame evolved, he felt much more concerned if it could melt the Nirvana Spear. Only when he could melt this Nirvana Spear could he begin thinking about refining the Good Fortune Spirit Spear.
Ning Cheng truly felt excited when he took out Nirvana Spear to test out his flame. He felt confident that the newly-evolved Celestial River Flame could melt the Nirvana Spear. Especially since it had already evolved to become the highest grade of flame in this part of the starry sky. It would truly be a strange matter if it couldn’t melt the Nirvana Spear.
But even after a few days later, the disappointment in Ning Cheng’s eyes kept growing. Not to mention about melting the Nirvana Spear, the Celestial River Flame couldn’t even leave a small mark on it.
At this moment, the Celestial River Flame also sent out a message feeling ashamed of itself, “Master, my strength is still too low to melt the Nirvana Spear.”
[1] The characters here are ‘Lao Ye – 老爷’, which means ‘Master/Lord/Bureaucrat’. But it can also mean ‘maternal grandfather’ in certain modern sayings.
