Ning Cheng naturally had no idea that Man Jiuren had escaped back to the Grand Essence Sea and restored his body. Instead, he changed his appearance to that of a brocade-robed man and rented a new cave. After rearranging and reinforcing the restrictions in and around the cave, he entered the True Spirit World.
Ning Cheng then quickly transplanted the almost-withered dao fruit tree into the True Spirit World and placed more than a hundred thousand spirit crystals right beneath it. At the same time, he also put several chunks of Law Soil in the soil right next to its roots.
He also entrusted Chasing Bull to look after the dao fruit tree. After finishing all that, Ning Cheng then came out of the True Spirit World and took out the incomplete spiritual consciousness cultivation method he purchased from the exchange meeting.
Carefully opening the restrictions on this incomplete cultivation method, Ning Cheng let his spiritual consciousness seep into it. After a while, lines started to appear in Ning Cheng’s mind.
“Dark Nether Devouring Spirit Scroll, the premier spirit sense cultivation method under primal chaos….”
Just the opening sentence had surprised Ning Cheng. Just what was this Dark Nether Devouring Spirit Scroll? It even claimed that it was the premier spirit sense cultivation method under primal chaos.
“The inspiration of this cultivation method came from the northern darkness, the same northern darkness where the K’un resides, a creature many thousands of miles long, a creature that can transform into a P’eng, with back many thousands of miles across. Everyone knows the size of the P’eng and knows that it can soar for hundreds of thousands of miles, but few people know that when a P’eng opens its mouth, it can swallow a world[1] more than a thousand miles wide…”
“Spirit sense is just an intangible thing, but since P’engs can swallow the world, wouldn’t it also include intangible things? How could it be any inferior to the northern darkness? Darkness can devour spirits, devours the heaven and earth’s spirit sense, devours all living beings’ Sea of Consciousness, devours everything incorporeal….”
“But even the sun can have a gloomy overcast, and even the clear moon has some dark spots. It’s regrettable that even though it’s a powerful cultivation method, if one’s Sea of Consciousness isn’t strong enough to sustain it, it would be useless to cultivate it. It eventually would explode. But even with a powerful Sea of Consciousness, you could only use it to cultivate the Sea of Consciousness. However, it wouldn’t be sustainable, which truly is a pity. Whether out of ignorance or foolishness, only someone with the most ruthless and vicious mind would create something like the Dark Nether Devouring Spirit Scroll. Pity that it can’t swallow those ignorant fools!”
……
After a while, Ning Cheng put down the incomplete cultivation method, feeling genuinely surprised. He had a feeling that the fellow who created this Dark Nether Devouring Spirit Scroll was a madman who treated other lives like ants.
This Dark Nether Devouring Spirit Scroll was the real deal. However, unlike typical cultivation methods that used or devoured other forms of internal forces, the Dark Nether Devouring Spirit Scroll required consuming a cultivator’s spiritual consciousness and Sea of Consciousnesses. People could accuse this cultivation method of having a malicious nature, and it wouldn’t be without reason either. This cultivation method was truly nasty.
Imagine how hard other people cultivated for over countless years. Yet, someone swooped in and devoured every scrap of your spiritual consciousness and even your Sea of Consciousness. It would be a strange matter if someone liked it.
Moreover, this Dark Nether Devouring Spirit Scroll also had an innate defect. That is, after devouring too much spirit sense or spiritual consciousness, it would cause the Sea of Consciousness to burst. If one couldn’t solve this problem, no matter how powerful the cultivation method, no one would dare to cultivate it. Anyone would decide to sell this cultivation method after they obtained it. Even powerful cultivators wouldn’t dare cultivate this method.
In all honesty, even Ning Cheng had no favourable impression of this flawed and incomplete cultivation method. Although the person who created this cultivation method gave it a domineering name of ‘Northern Darkness[2] Spirit Method’, it didn’t change the truth. It was nothing more than a parasitic way of absorbing the internal forces of others.
However, looking at the approach taken by the creator of this cultivation method, even Ning Cheng had to admit that this person was truly a genius among geniuses. But the claim of it as the best spirit sense cultivation method under primal chaos, Ning Cheng felt a little unimpressed about it. It felt nothing more than bragging in his mind. Perhaps the person who created this cultivation method had already died under its effect. Devouring too much spiritual consciousness and Sea of Consciousnesses, maybe this person might have even blown up his Sea of Consciousness.
Regardless, Ning Cheng greatly admired the theory behind this cultivation method.
But even if he admired it, Ning Cheng disdained the very idea of devouring other cultivators’ spiritual consciousness and Sea of Consciousnesses. Cultivating this method would mean violating his moral bottom line.
But at the same time, Ning Cheng also saw many combat methods from this cultivation method. Some of which could even compare to grand spirit techniques. Moreover, Ning Cheng felt quite interested in studying the theory behind this cultivation method. The Dark Nether Devouring Spirit Scroll mainly talked about devouring cultivators’ spiritual consciousness and Sea of Consciousness. But it also proposed using one’s spirit sense to devour heaven and earth and even consuming everything intangible. These two things could also improve one’s spiritual consciousness, which aroused Ning Cheng’s interest.
This cultivation method could also improve one’s spiritual consciousness by devouring some spiritual fruits and spiritual grasses that had some effect on spiritual consciousness. It could even theoretically swallow all invisible and intangible thoughts in the universe to enhance one’s spiritual consciousness.
These invisible and incorporeal thoughts included the intents of various treasures, including even the intents formed naturally within the starry skies. It was similar to absorbing Spiritual Qi for cultivation, which opened up another way to cultivate spiritual consciousness. It no longer meant absorbing the starry sky Spiritual Qi for cultivation advancement and then let it involuntarily improve the spiritual consciousness and Sea of Consciousness. Instead, it was purely cultivating spiritual consciousness, improving it step-by-step, without any contact with conventional cultivation.
Ning Cheng decided to use his deductions and combine them with the theories from this Dark Nether Devouring Spirit Scroll, to create spiritual consciousness techniques. Maybe he could even take it a step further and create a cultivation method to cultivate his spiritual consciousness.
Since the Dark Nether Devouring Spirit Scroll was an incomplete one, it only contained descriptions for the first four stages. The first stage was Spiritual Consciousness Changing Form, the second stage was Sea of Consciousness Mutation, the third stage was the Starry Sky Sea of Consciousness, and the fourth stage was the Formless Sea of Consciousness…..
Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness had already become a Starry Sky Sea of Consciousness. However, Ning Cheng didn’t know if his Sea of Consciousness had undergone a mutation or not. He did, however, understand that a Sea of Consciousness had to go through a Nirvana Thunder Tribulation before it evolved into the Starry Sky Sea of Consciousness.
As for the Formless Sea of Consciousness, it was the next step of evolution after the Starry Sky Sea of Consciousness. Once the Sea of Consciousness turned formless, then even if you didn’t use a spiritual consciousness cultivation method, you could transform it into a world against your opponent. Letting the opponent walk into your Sea of Consciousness world, you could kill them without any effort.
Ning Cheng didn’t care much about the role of a Formless Sea of Consciousness, as a real powerhouse wouldn’t choose to enter their opponent’s Sea of Consciousness willingly. Facing ordinary opponents, he wouldn’t need to let his opponents walk into his Sea of Consciousness. Ning Cheng cared more because once his Sea of Consciousness turned formless, his Sea of Consciousness would experience a massive increase in range. Even if it formed an indistinct link to the surrounding starry sky, it would still connotate formlessness.
Ning Cheng also felt quite interested in several of the spiritual consciousness spirit techniques mentioned in the Dark Nether Devouring Spirit Scroll. Like the Spiritual Consciousness Chop, this technique struck the opponent’s Sea of Consciousness during a fight. It was utterly different from how he used the Sea of Consciousness to attack the opponent with Spiritual Consciousness Thorns and Spiritual Consciousness Blades as they slammed into the opponent openly. If one wanted to resist, one could find some ways to fight back.
On the other hand, the Spiritual Consciousness Chop formed a continuous jagged but solid blade wave that could split and form into several or even a dozen different slashes. It prevented the opponent from putting up any defences. But the specific number of Spiritual Consciousness slashes depended on the opponent’s strength and your degree of control over the Spiritual Consciousness Chops.
Dark Consciousness Storm was a spiritual consciousness spirit technique that worked in tandem with one’s understanding of the Laws of Space. To use this spirit technique, one must control the Laws of Space, then connect the Laws of Space with one’s spiritual consciousness to attack the opponent. Trapped within this Dark Consciousness Storm, the opponent would find their spiritual consciousness suppressed. With their spiritual consciousness stifled and trapped within the spacial storm, they would end up at the mercy of others.
Ning Cheng rented a cave in the Grand Essence Ruins’ public square for a year. However, he didn’t go into secluded cultivation, nor was he in a hurry to start the spirit essence transformation process. After learning about and gaining some elementary control over Spiritual Consciousness Chop and Dark Consciousness Storm, Ning Cheng began studying artefact-crafting. He already had a large pile of materials on him, plus the materials he purchased with points. Therefore, even if he wanted to continue crafting artefacts for a year or two, he had enough materials.
He also refined a few medicinal pills for alchemy, but only when crafting artefacts became a monotonous and tedious chore.
……
In the Grand Essence Quest Hall, a white-robed woman stared at one of the quest screens with red eyes. She stood in the same spot staring at the screen for nearly an hour; moreover, without even moving a muscle.
It was a Wanted Quest Screen with a very conspicuous task on it. Capture Lifeless Poisonhand Ou Yandi for a reward of two million points. Capture Heartless Monk Ju Mei for two million points. The prerequisite, they have to be alive. Moreover, those who provide information that leads to a successful capture would earn 500,000 points.
Arguably, such a generous reward could almost compare to the Grand Essence Spirit Thunder Quest. However, many people understood that one could only look at this task and not complete it. Only those people who have given up on living would want to try capturing those two murderous people. Fortunately, it also involved an independent sub-task of providing information in exchange for 500,000 points, which was still a huge amount.
Almost everyone thought that this mission must have come from the forces managing the caves of Grand Essence Ruins’ public square. That’s because the same two people had attacked one of the higher-grade caves of the Grand Essence Ruins’ public square. Therefore, it offset the dwindling reputation of Grand Essence Ruins’ public square and improved it beyond its peak. Many cultivators saw this task and felt their confidence in Grand Essence Ruins’ public square increasing again. For a time, one couldn’t even rent a cave in Grand Essence Ruins’ public square, even with a silver card.
“Ruxue, why are you here? I was just about to go back to bring you here…..” A crisp and pleasant voice sounded beside the white-robed woman.
The white-robed woman turned her head and saw an equally pretty female cultivator in Tsing Yi and spoke up with surprise in her eyes, “Yan Ji….”
The next moment, her eyes dimmed, and she even lowered her head.
Yan Ji had just returned from a task in the Grand Essence Ruins. Initially, she planned to go to the Boundary Essence Spirit Sea City to bring Nalan Ruxue. Now that Yan Ji saw Nalan Ruxue here, Yan Ji naturally felt happy. However, as soon as she saw the change in Nalan Ruxue’s expression, she understood that something must have happened. She immediately asked, “What happened?”
“Let’s talk about it in another place.” After Nalan Ruxue finished speaking, she walked out of the Quest Hall first.
……
In one of the smaller rest stops near the Grand Essence Ruins, Yan Ji paled after hearing Nalan Ruxue’s words. Even her body trembled a bit.
Yan Ji had excellent qualifications and was also an extremely hard-working woman. Coupled with the opportunity gained in the Grand Essence Ruins, she managed to advance to the Life and Death Realm from her initial Heaven Seated cultivation. According to her previous thoughts, she wanted to head back to the Boundary Essence Spirit Sea City and bring Nalan Ruxue here. Then, the two could work together on tasks while cultivating.
Once they reached the Eternal Realm, she would have enough time to improve her proficiency in the Dao of Arrays. That way, she could perfect the teleportation array under the Grand Essence Sea and teleport back to find Ning Cheng.
However, she never expected to hear the news about Ning Cheng’s fall from Nalan Ruxue. Ning Cheng had come to the Boundary Essence Spirit Sea City to find her. In the Boundary Essence Spirit Sea City, Ning Cheng found Nalan Ruxue and brought her to the Grand Essence Ruins. However, during a cultivation session within a cave of Grand Essence Ruins’ public square, Lifeless Poisonhand and Heartless Monk jointly attacked and killed him.
The forces managing the Grand Essence Ruins’ public square to capture those two people had even issued a task with extremely generous rewards. However, no one could even catch the shadow of those two people.
Seeing Yan Ji’s pale face and trembling body, Nalan Ruxue suddenly felt a little lost. Compared to Yan Ji’s feelings for Ning Cheng, her feelings for Ning Cheng seemed to be nothing more than pure emotion.
[1] The ‘world’ here is not an actual world, but more like an ‘area’. It’s just like the saying that a whale can swallow an ocean full of water, but it’s not an ‘ocean’.
[2] The author most likely mixed up the words for ‘Dark Nether’ and ‘Northern Darkness’ here, but I will keep it as it is in the raws.
