Although everyone worked together, the seven people in Ning Cheng’s group still couldn’t believe that they managed to defend against and even kill the Human-faced Poison Centipede. Except for Ning Cheng, who remained untouched, the seven people only suffered some minor injuries. But minor injuries and death were two completely different things. The seven worked together and killed a Human-faced Poison Centipede, yet they suffered only a few minor injuries. It truly was a great matter.
The group then glanced at quite a few celestial essence explosions and multi-coloured lights resulting from various spirit techniques in the distance. But regardless of everything, Ning Cheng’s group confirmed that they were the only ones to have completed their part of the task. All that remained was to collect the divine grasses.
“They are only seven people left in that group.” A female cultivator spoke up in surprise. Everyone looked over and saw that the other group now only contained seven people.
The group containing the two men from the Grand Essence’s 12 Sacred Children had already lost five people while fighting the Human-faced Poison Centipede. Apart from the three people who had decided to escape earlier, Ning Cheng’s group had only lost two people to the Human-faced Poison Centipede. Moreover, the two got swallowed before the group had the chance to come together.
The previous cultivator, who said that Ning Cheng’s spirit technique was nothing but a useless move, took the initiative to come to Ning Cheng before bowing and apologising. “I didn’t know that this dao friend was so strong. I was blind and uttered some useless and insulting words. I hope this dao friend can forgive me. Since we managed to kill this poison centipede because this dao friend, this dao friend should be the one to decide distribution.”
Although Ning Cheng’s performance wasn’t very outstanding, as long as they weren’t fools, they knew that the only reason they survived and won was because of Ning Cheng’s help. Methods that one couldn’t see were the most terrifying means of all. Offending Ning Cheng, an expert of such unknown techniques, meant offending a person who wasn’t any less dangerous than the Grand Essence’s 12 Sacred Children. Only an idiot would choose to do that.
Moreover, the remaining people also understood that their group lost two people to the Human-faced Poison Centipede due to Ning Cheng’s deliberate inaction. Besides, of the two who died to the Human-faced Poison Centipede, one already wanted to escape. While the other had openly wished to join the other group.
Ning Cheng only smiled, “This time, the only reason we were able to kill the Human-faced Poison Centipede was because of us giving it our all. Alone, none of us could have taken it. Besides, the seven of us are of the same team, with no one strong or weak. As for this Human-faced Poison Centipede, I’m not going to ask for it. You can just divide it among yourselves.”
With that, Ning Cheng casually glanced at the faces and expressions of the other six people. Ning Cheng’s current disguise was that of a fierce-looking fellow. Therefore, this time, when his gaze swept over them, it appeared cold and made the other six people feel chills running down their spines.
The six people ‘understood’ the implications of Ning Cheng’s gaze and words. That is, don’t reveal my methods outside; otherwise, I wouldn’t like it. When asked, we all worked together to defeat it. What’s more, Ning Cheng even mentioned that he didn’t want the Human-faced Poison Centipede, which made the other six quite ecstatic. A Human-faced Poison Centipede’s body had quite a high value already. Plus, with the few rings in its stomach already, its value had increased by several folds.
Although the six people didn’t understand why Ning Cheng didn’t want the poison centipede, no one would refuse such a generous offer. The six quickly distributed the things on the poison centipede’s body and then stood behind Ning Cheng while patiently watching Qu Baiyi’s group. However, no one wanted to go up and help the other group with it. Since their already obtained quite a few good things, only a fool would go out looking for trouble instead of staying idle.
Looking at the fight between the Human-faced Poison Centipede and Qu Baiyi and Huo Erqi’s group, Ning Cheng also gained a new understanding of spiritual consciousness. No wonder people had such an undue attraction to spiritual consciousness cultivation methods. His group could quickly kill the Human-faced Poison Centipede without significant losses. But Ning Cheng understood that it wasn’t the result of them having a high level of strength, but because of his Spiritual Consciousness Chops.
He also didn’t let the other six people talk about it, not because he was afraid that they would end up leaking information about his strength. But because he felt fearful that his spiritual consciousness spirit techniques would leak out.
Just when the Human-faced Poison Centipede swallowed another person, Huo Erqi’s hammer came smashing into its head. The Human-faced Poison Centipede finally gave out a miserable scream before crashing into the ground. A moment later, attacks giving off the aura of various dao laws smashed into the Human-faced Poison Centipede’s body, killing it almost in an instant.
After killing the other Human-faced Poison Centipede, Qu Baiyi’s group now only contained six people. Moreover, apart from Qu Baiyi and Huo Erqi suffering some minor injuries, the other four had quite severe wounds all over their bodies.
Only after the six people divided the Human-faced Poison Centipede’s corpse did Qu Baiyi glance at Ning Cheng and spoke up with a soft voice. “Looks like your group have the real powerhouses, with a strength much higher than ours.”
Although he said those words, his gaze quickly locked on to Ning Cheng. He suspected that Ning Cheng was the only truly powerful among that group. If it were an ordinary cultivator, who would dare to stand up against the Grand Essence’s 12 Sacred Children?
Ning Cheng gave a slow response, “Everyone in my group gave their best, unlike others, who only used half their strength..”
Qu Baiyi and Huo Erqi’s expressions immediately changed, making it difficult to look at them. Ning Cheng’s words were a mockery at their inability to do their best, which was also the truth. If they had truly given their best, at most, only two people would have died in their group of twelve. If Ning Cheng’s group hadn’t already dealt with their centipede, they would have probably let one or two more in their group die before ending the fight.
Ning Cheng’s words successfully instigated the other group. The surviving cultivators quickly took a few steps away from Qui Baiyi and Huo Erqi.
If Ning Cheng hadn’t said those words, none of them would have thought about this possibility. But as soon as Ning Cheng spoke up, these cultivators who had teamed up with Qu Baiyi and Huo Erqi immediately thought back to the few problems and issues that cropped up during the fight. Their group had two of the Grand Essence’s 12 Sacred Children, so how could they have suffered so much damage? How could they not start to doubt their intentions?
Huo Erqi suddenly gave a cold snort, “Who did you say did not contribute?”
Ning Cheng replied with an even calmer tone, “Are you insinuating that I didn’t contribute because I was the least injured in my group? If I were like that, wouldn’t I feel guilty about not making any effort?”
Even an idiot could understand that Ning Cheng spoke about Qu Baiyi and Huo Erqi. Ning Cheng didn’t suffer a single injury at all; at least, compared to Qu Baiyi and Huo Erqi’s injuries, Ning Cheng practically looked untouched.
Qu Baiyi didn’t wait for Huo Erqi to speak, and instead, quickly spoke up. “Both Human-faced Poison Centipedes are dead, so everyone can now grab the divine grasses here. Whoever gets it keeps it.”
After speaking, he rushed in first. He knew that at this time, almost no one was on their side. Therefore, he wanted to grab the divine grasses and leave quickly.
When Qu Baiyi moved, the rest also quickly forgot about the other things and rushed in behind him. Ning Cheng also activated the Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds and rushed in even before Qu Baiyi entered the concealed array formation.
Upon entering the concealed array formation, a more concentrated aura of divine grasses greeted them. He even saw numerous divine grass gardens neatly arranged side-by-side. However, each of the divine grass gardens had a crystal-like array formation. Except for a few gardens in the front that had already broken into, most of the gardens’ array formations were still intact and complete. If one wanted to get these divine grasses, one would have to break through these array formations one by one.
Every cultivator that came in understood the reason in just an instant. Almost at the same time, the cultivators quickly rushed over to the medicinal gardens with already broken defensive arrays. All the cultivators had the same thought. That is, to first empty the divine grass gardens with the already broken array formations. Only then would they think of other things.
Ning Cheng was the only one among the thirteen people who didn’t rush over. The divine grass gardens with the broken defensive arrays only contained low-level divine grasses. But what he wanted were high-grade divine grasses.
Since each divine grass garden here had the protection of a defensive array, Ning Cheng had the best outcome. Unlike other cultivators, Ning Cheng’s attainments in the Dao of Arrays had already far surpassed his cultivation. As such, the defensive arrays here didn’t pose much of a challenge to him. For him, he could enter any defensive array here in just a few moments. As for using brute force to open the arrays, even if a few people teamed up, it would still take more than an incense stick worth of time, maybe even longer.
After taking in the situation at hand, Ning Cheng also pounced towards a medicinal garden. However, he chose a high-grade divine grass garden. While the other cultivators robbed the gardens with the already-broken defensive arrays, Ning Cheng quickly broke through the defensive array of a high-grade divine grass garden and entered.
Hundreds of high-grade divine grasses appeared in front of Ning Cheng. Ning Cheng didn’t dig out the grasses one by one. Instead, he dropped several array flags and moved the entire garden into his True Spirit World.
“I didn’t expect this friend also to be Spirit-tier Array Master. Hehe….” Huo Erqi saw Ning Cheng put away an entire high-grade divine grass garden and spoke with jealousy flashing through his eyes.
By this time, the few medicinal gardens with already-broken array formations had already been robbed clean by everyone. With everything available cleaned up, the other people could only look at Ning Cheng in shock, just like Huo Erqi.
A cultivator qualified to enter the Grand Essence Mystic Realm naturally was not a weak one. However, this ‘strength’ mostly referenced the power of one’s cultivation. As for the Dao of Arrays, people didn’t usually consider it a measurable ‘power’. Besides, there were only a few people as powerful as Ning Cheng when it came to the Dao of Arrays.
Seeing that Qu Baiyi and Huo Erqi didn’t continue to attack the rest of the medicinal gardens, the other people also stopped their thoughts about it. No one would stupidly go up and attack the medicinal gardens. Once they ended up breaking down the formations, everyone would immediately swarm towards it. In Other words, breaking open medicinal gardens would be akin to doing thankless labour for everyone else.
Qu Baiyi finally walked up and cupped his fists towards Ning Cheng and said, “This dao friend truly is someone with many means. The medicinal garden here not only has guards but also sealed under array formations. An ancient peerless expert must have arranged it….”
Ning Cheng interrupted Qu Baiyi, “What do you want? If it’s nothing, then step aside, don’t waste my time and hold me back from digging out the divine grasses.”
Qu Baiyi chuckled, “What I mean is, the two Human-faced Poison Centipedes are dead. We also have only thirteen people left. So, let’s talk about how to break the rest of the array formations here.”
Ning Cheng sneered. Break the array formations here? Put it bluntly, Qu Baiyi wanted to use him to break open the array formations here. Then, they could assign divine grasses.
“Very good…..”
Qu Baiyi felt overjoyed when he heard Ning Cheng’s words. He thought that this fellow might truly be afraid of him and Huo Erqi.
Ning Cheng continued, “Then, I won’t bother you with your work. You can assign things according to what you want. You can go ahead and ignore this little old me.”
After Ning Cheng finished, Ning Cheng’s figure flashed and appeared beside another high-grade divine grass garden with a still-intact defensive array.
Qu Baiyi’s face paled with anger, and his tone no longer had the same gentleness from before, “This friend, do you want to swallow everything by yourself?”
Ning Cheng raised his hand, and a long spear fell into his palm. The aura of his powerful domain stretched out, and he stared at Qu Baiyi with a cold gaze, “Are you deaf, or do you have dementia? We had already decided before entering that we can keep whatever we can grab. Or is it that your face is just like an ass? That what comes out of your mouth is nothing more than fart? Did you truly think that you could take back what you already said?”
“You’re looking for death…..” Among the Grand Essence’s 12 Sacred Children, Qu Baiyi was the weakest. However, because of this, he also was the one who paid the most attention to face. It was why he wore a scholarly white robe and had an outwardly amicable personality. With Ning Cheng openly ridiculing him to this degree, how could he bear it? A white streak suddenly appeared in the sky as soon as he raised his hand. Qu Baiyi’s weapon of choice was a strip of white silk. Under this weapon, even a late-stage Eternal cultivator would find it hard to escape.
Ning Cheng didn’t care about Qu Baiyi’s attack at all but said to the rest of the people, “There are ten or twenty medicinal gardens here. I suggest that everyone should make temporary teams to attack the garden’s defensive array. Don’t be like this idiot…..”
While talking, Ning Cheng’s long spear suddenly erupted with numerous spear patterns, looking almost similar to the white shadow cast by Qu Baiyi. In just an instant, they crossed through the space between the two.
Ning Cheng deliberately didn’t ask for a part in the Human-faced Poison Centipede’s corpse before, precisely for this moment. He exerted the most significant strength when fighting outside, but he purposefully chose not to divide the spoils. As such, if anyone joined Qi Baiyi and Huo Erqi at this moment to deal with him, it would be a shameless act.
By the time Ning Cheng’s words ended, the spear patterns had already clashed with the white shadow of Qu Baiyi’s white silk.
Qu Baiyi could acutely feel that Ning Cheng’s domain had entirely suppressed his domain. Moreover, the spear patterns had easily pierced through the white shadows created by his white silk. Those spear patterns felt as if each of them carried a force enough to blow a planet into smithereens and crushed every scrap of momentum he had gathered.
