Ning Cheng initially thought that since Xin Xiu and Wu Qihong suffered through quite a few hardships, they would be living in the cheapest inn available. He never expected Xin Xiu to bring him to the largest inn in the Heaven Essence Sacred City, the Star Stepping Tower.
Xin Xiu and Wu Qihong not only took up residence in the Star Stepping Tower, but they also occupied the most luxurious suite in the Star Stepping Tower. The suite consisted of three individual cultivation chambers, an artefact-crafting chamber, a companion beast chamber and a luxuriously decorated reception hall.
As soon as he entered the room, the vibrant spirit qi in the suite enveloped his body, making him feel extremely comfortable.
Ning Cheng had a reasonably good idea about the prices within the Heaven Essence Sacred City by now. Just what would it cost him to live in such a place? Ning Cheng glanced at Xin Xiu and sighed. This person truly didn’t look rich enough to rent such a suite. Perhaps it was possible to become wealthy using alchemical talent. But in a place like Heaven Essence Sacred City, how could an Alchemy Master at Xin Xiu’s level earn so many spirit crystals?
Xin Xiu could see the doubt on Ning Cheng’s face and showed a self-deprecating laugh. “Junior Apprentice Brother Qihong and I had worked hard and saved everything we could for cultivation. Not to mention living in this luxurious inn. We wouldn’t even choose to stay in the most common and cheapest inn in this place and, even then, would think about it for a long time before leasing one. However, Junior Apprentice Brother Qihong has been severely injured for quite a long time now and is about to fall. Thinking back to how we’ve always been scared to live, I decided to take out all the spirit crystals we saved up to live in the Star Stepping Tower’s best suite….”
Ning Cheng could hear the bitterness from Xin Xiu’s words. As an early-stage Eternal cultivator, who primarily focused on Alchemy, she would not have enough strength to protect herself in this place. Let alone living while taking care of a wounded man in the Grand Essence Domain. It naturally wouldn’t have been an easy task for her.
“Take me to see your Junior Apprentice Brother Qihong.” Ning Cheng didn’t pry into this matter and asked Xin Xiu to lead the way.
Xin Xiu brought Ning Cheng to Wu Qihong’s chamber and finally saw Ji He’s Junior Apprentice Brother. At this moment, Wu Qihong was on the bed with his eyes tightly closed and covered in sheets. He didn’t even seem to be breathing. If it weren’t for Ning Cheng’s keen senses, which allowed him to feel a trace of life from him, even he would have thought that this person was nothing more than a corpse.
Wu Qihong’s face looked pitch black and devoid of any flesh. He looked even thinner than Qi Shisanxing when he had just finished recreating his body.
Ning Cheng was a Dao Sculpting Pill Deity and had a mighty spiritual consciousness. Moreover, he even cultivated a spiritual consciousness cultivation method. Therefore, when he saw Wu Qihong’s appearance, he understood that Wu Qihong’s Sea of Consciousness had shattered. At best, it was at the brink of collapse, which meant that his life force was about to dissipate. Not only that, even his essence spirit seemed to have started to weaken.
According to Ning Cheng’s estimation, if no one helped him, Wu Qihong would only last for a few days at most before truly turning into a corpse.
Xin Xiu kept a close watch at Ning Cheng’s expressions and sighed when she saw Ning Cheng frown. Even if she had a slight hope in her heart, she also understood what Ning Cheng’s frown represented.
“This Elder Brother, I know the extent of Qihong’s injury. If you don’t have…..”
Ning Cheng knew what Xin Xiu wanted to say and immediately interrupted her. “Although it might look impossible to save your Junior Apprentice Brother right now, it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have a chance…..”
Without waiting for Ning Cheng to finish, Xin Xiu showed a delighted expression and even spoke up with a trembling tone. “Elder Brother, you …. you…. you have a way to save my Junior Apprentice Brother?”
Ning Cheng replied with an apologetic tone, “I only said that he might have a chance. For now, I can only help him supplement his life force for a month. If I can’t figure out a way to save him within a month, you both need to prepare yourself for the worst. By the way, you should call me Senior Apprentice Brother Ji so that people won’t suspect me. I have offended a lot of people after all.”
The reason Ning Cheng said this was because he could refine the Extreme Purging Wood Essence Pill. The Extreme Purging Wood Essence Pill wasn’t an extremely high-grade pill, only an ordinary Grade 9 Starry Sky Medicinal Pill. However, it can help increase the life force within a cultivator, which would truly help Wu Qihong.
More importantly, the main ingredient required for refining the Extreme Purging Wood Essence Pill was the Wood Origin Qi stored within the Wood Origin Crystal. An object that Ning Cheng didn’t lack right now.
The pill could help Wu Qihong sustain and supplement his life force for about a month before losing effect. Ning Cheng wanted to use this time to break open Pill Sage Min Kong’s bracelet. Since Pill Sage Min Kong was a top-grade Pill Sage, who can say if his bracelet contained a method to repair one’s Sea of Consciousness or not?
“Elder Brother Ji, whether Qihong can survive or not, I will always remember this Elder Brother’s kindness.” Xin Xiu bowed so low that her head almost touched the ground. However, she still addressed Ning Cheng as Elder Brother Ji and not Senior Apprentice Brother Ji.
“I’ll get on with refining the pill right away. After refining the Extreme Purging Wood Essence Pill, you should feed it to your Junior Apprentice Brother Qihong at regular intervals.” Ning Cheng motioned Xin Xiu to get up and said.
Xiu Xin stared at Ning Cheng with wide eyes and said in disbelief, “Elder Brother Ji, are you a Tier 9 Pill Emperor?”
Ning Cheng smiled but didn’t reply. The fact was he had become a Dao Sculpting Pill Deity while researching artefact-crafting during his retreat in the Grand Essence Ruins’ public square cave.
“Ah…. no.” Xin Xiu seemed to have remembered something and called out again, “The rent for this place is due in one day, but…..”
Ning Cheng looked at Xin Xiu’s expression and knew that Xin Xiu didn’t have any spirit stones on her. After finally finding a place to stay, Ning Cheng naturally wouldn’t let Xin Xiu move out. He quickly asked, “How many spirit crystals does this place charge per day?”
“Ten thousand high-rank spirit crystals….” Xin Xiu hesitated before replying. She initially went with the mindset that her Junior Apprentice Brother would have no chance to live. It was why she had chosen to live in such a luxurious place to make her Junior Apprentice Brother’s last moments somewhat comfortable. Moreover, deep down in her heart, Xin Xiu also wanted to live in such an opulent and luxurious place with vibrant spirit qi. But after living here for more than half a year, the spirit crystals she accumulated over the years had all vanished.
Ning Cheng knew that this place was expensive, and now he finally had a price, ten thousand high-rank spirit crystals a day. If he hadn’t robbed Ninth Prince’s helper, the spirit crystals on him would have only lasted him for a few days.
“Don’t worry about it.” Ning Cheng took out a storage bag, “You go down and renew the lease for two more months and tell them to keep the extra spirit crystals.”
Ning Cheng had slightly over 10 million high-rank spirit crystals. He put 1 million high-rank spirit crystals in the storage bag and gave it to Xin Xiu. It meant that apart from the two months of rent, the bag contained an extra 400,000 spirit crystals.
Xin Xiu didn’t remain polite about it. At this moment, politeness wouldn’t help her or her Junior Apprentice Brother. Besides, for her right now, the life of her Junior Apprentice Brother took utmost priority.
While Xin Xiu took care of renewing the lease, Ning Cheng immediately started refining pills in Wu Qihong’s room. Ning Cheng finished refining a batch of Extreme Purging Wood Essence Pills an incense stick worth of time later. Putting away the pill furnace, Ning Cheng took out an Extreme Purging Wood Essence Pill and put it into Wu Qihong’s mouth. A moment later, a rich life force erupted from Wu Qihong’s body, and his body started to glow faintly.
Although Wu Qihong hadn’t opened his eyes yet, his life force, which initially consisted of a heavy death aura, had lightened up considerably.
Ning Cheng felt delighted with the result. This one Extreme Purging Wood Essence Pill could easily sustain and nourish Wu Qihong’s life force for one to two months. But if he couldn’t find a way to save Wu Qihong during this time, Wu Qihong would have no choice but to accept his fate.
Walking out of Wu Qihong’s room, Ning Cheng felt something wrong. Xin Xiu had gone down to renew the lease; why was it taking so long to come up?
The thought had just popped in his mind when Xin Xiu came up. However, there was a red mark on her face, indicating that someone had slapped her.
“What’s the matter?” Ning Cheng asked.
Xin Xiu shook her head and handed the storage bag back to Ning Cheng. “They’re not willing to renew the lease, saying that someone has already rented it out. We will have to move out in a day.”
Ning Cheng sneered and didn’t take the storage bag Xin Xiu tried to hand him back, and instead, said to Xin Xiu, “You should come down with me.”
Ning Cheng wasn’t a newbie when it came to staying in inns, which meant that he also had a good idea about the rules. As long as the guests haven’t moved out or taken the initiative to leave early and did not cause any loss to the rest, the inn would have no right to drive away guests. It was something that everyone in the business of running inns knew.
Besides, it was one thing if someone wanted to drive away Xin Xiu, but someone also wanted to bully Xin Xiu from its looks. When the inns were in the highest demand, the purpose of throwing Xin Xiu out was quite evident.
……
There were plenty of people in the inn’s lobby. But two particularly striking cultivators kept laughing at each other in front of the leasing counter.
“What, checking out so early?” The concierge behind the counter saw Xin Xiu coming and spoke up with a disdainful voice.
Xin Xiu didn’t speak, but Ning Cheng walked over and asked with a kind voice, “Excuse me, are there any rules regarding the lease of the inn’s rooms?”
“Are you blind? Isn’t that it?” The concierge saw Ning Cheng and Xin Xiu coming together and thought Ning Cheng wanted to fight for Xin Xiu’s injustice. But since Ning Cheng spoke with such a polite tone, why would he care to show politeness in return. He had quite a rich experience dealing with these kinds of rogue cultivators who had no confidence in themselves. One had to project strength and confidence in this city. Not only one must project strength and confidence; one must also let the other party know that they couldn’t offend them in this part of the world.
Ning Cheng’s gaze fell on the rules hanging on the wall behind the concierge. After a few breaths, he put the hundreds of words aside and then smiled again while looking at the concierge. “Was it you who slapped my Junior Apprentice Sister?”
“Yes, it was this Grandpa who slapped…..”
Before the concierge could finish speaking, he felt a wave of cold wash over him. It felt as if everything around him had become stagnant; even his body had become stiff. Only after a moment did he realise that Ning Cheng’s domain had already wrapped around him. But by that time, Ning Cheng had already grabbed his neck and lifted him like a chicken up for slaughter.
But before the concierge could even beg for mercy, Ning Cheng’s illusory celestial essence palm print fell on the concierge’s face.
“PaPaPaPa….” After a dozen slaps, the concierge’s face had deformed to such an extent that it no longer resembled his original face. The blows did not tear skin or even loosen any teeth, yet blood kept dripping down the concierge’s chin like a leaky faucet.
“Stop….” An angry voice emerged, and then a more powerful domain suppressed Ning Cheng.
Ning Cheng flicked his hand and threw the concierge directly to the corner of the counter before calmly turning his back to him.
The one who came over was a middle-aged male cultivator with tall stature and long slender eyes. He hadn’t reached Ning Cheng yet, but his domain’s powerful aura had already started to pressure Ning Cheng.
However, he didn’t take any action. Instead, he stared at Ning Cheng and said, “Who is this dao friend? Why did you beat my Star Stepping Tower’s concierge?”
Don’t look at how this middle-aged male cultivator hadn’t taken any action. His murderous aura had already spread out, forcing the surrounding cultivators to back away. Everyone understood what this middle-aged male cultivator meant. That is, once Ning Cheng answers, he would immediately take action. But this middle-aged male cultivator first wanted to know about Ning Cheng’s background before taking action. After all, only those with significant background would dare to slap people in this place.
Heaven Essence Sacred City didn’t allow killing people unless under certain conditions. Only if Ning Cheng attacked the concierge of Heaven Essence City’s premier inn without reason could he kill Ning Cheng on the spot without any problems. Or, at the very least, he had to make up a convincing reason.
Ning Cheng cupped his fists towards the middle-aged male cultivator and said, “That concierge let me hit him, so I did.”
“Bullshit, so many people saw what happened. When did I let you hit me?” The concierge’s face at this point looked like a heavily used rag. However, he wasn’t injured too much. Therefore, he immediately stood up and shouted at Ning Cheng.
