The lower part of the statue was a bird in mid-flight with its wings spread out. Just this bird alone was several feet high and carved out of an unknown material. On the back of the bird stood a statue of a figure looking up into the void. But despite its size, Ning Cheng couldn’t tell if this figure was a man or a woman.
Ning Cheng owned Blue Resolve True Country’s jade seal, a bird in mid-flight with spread-out wings. It looked identical to the bird beneath the statue’s feet. The only difference, if any, was the size.
“I have a feeling that you have something I need on you.” The blue-clothed maiden suddenly said to Ning Cheng. Moreover, the moment she finished speaking, she waved her hand. A light suddenly flashed, and the rope tying Ning Cheng’s hand disintegrated inch by inch.
Again with the Power of Hope. Ning Cheng sighed. He never expected Power of Hope to have so much use in the Land of Broken Laws.
Ning Cheng instinctively felt that this blue-robed girl spoke about the jade seal. Because of that, he felt secretly shocked at this young girl’s keen intuition. But at the same time, he also felt glad that he had prepared well before entering this place.
To prevent Man Huishan from capturing him, he had placed everything, including the True Spirit World, into the Mysterious Yellow Bead. The ring on his hand only contained some ordinary weapons and the starry sky battleship, along with some healing pills, Permanent Essence Pills, and a bottle of Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pills.
Even if this young girl thoroughly checked him, she wouldn’t find anything of value. As for the jade seal, he had already transferred it to the Mysterious Yellow Bead. As such, Ning Cheng felt confident that the other party wouldn’t be able to find it.
In any case, the Mysterious Yellow Bead was currently deep within his Sea of Consciousness, and even someone like Man Huishan couldn’t sense. It meant that even if this young girl surpassed him in strength, she wouldn’t discover it.
As for asking him to voluntarily hand over the jade seal, that would be out of the question. His jade seal hadn’t fallen out of the sky. Now that he thought about it, this jade seal should still be handy to him in this place.
Back then, those barbaric-looking fellows had beaten Man Huishan to the point that he couldn’t even fight back, all because of their use of the Power of Hope. And now this young woman had waved her hand to break the ropes tying him, also using the Power of Hope,
Being chased around by Man Huishan, Ning Cheng had unexpectedly forgotten about the hope-powered jade seal. In fact, he had entirely forgotten about it till now and started to wonder if he could use it against Man Huishan.
In the Land of Broken Laws, he still could use a bit of his spiritual consciousness. Moreover, he had also refined a part of the hope powered jade seal a long time ago. It meant that he definitely could bring out and use it. In any case, the jade seal still had quite a lot of Power of Hope stored in it. According to what Ning Cheng observed, the Land of Broken Laws didn’t affect the Power of Hope. In other words, he might actually have an advantage against Mann Huishan in the Land of Broken Laws.
Seeing Ning Cheng’s bewildered face, seemingly having no idea what she was talking about, the blue-robed maiden turned to the few people carrying A’ye. “Take A’ye and pray for him so that A’ye’s soul can watch over our Hope Clan for all eternity.”
“Yes, your majesty.” The few men carrying A’ye promptly answered and moved A’ye’s body to a large platform in front of the statue.
Ning Cheng still looked bewildered, but he truly couldn’t understand what was going on this time. He also couldn’t understand the hidden implications of the words uttered by that blue-robed maiden. If he knew, it might have chilled him to the bone.
After the blue-robed woman gave the order, she turned to Ning Cheng and showed him a warm smile. “Honoured guest from the outside, please follow me in.”
Ning Cheng quickly nodded his head and busily followed the blue-robed maiden with an expression of relief on his face.
The blue-robed maiden waved her hand to indicate to the other men and women, who initially followed her, to not follow her over. She then led Ning Cheng through the platform and into an elegant-looking stone room.
This ‘king’ truly looked and lived differently from the people outside, who could only wear tree bark as clothing. Not only did the outside of this stone room look highly unusual, it even turned into something extremely luxurious upon entering.
The maiden in blue brought Ning Cheng to a chamber that had a faint fragrance wafting through it. As soon as Ning Cheng entered, he knew that this place should be this young girl’s bedroom. The pink mantle and curtains, however, made it look a bit awkward. But, more importantly, every single thing in the room gave off a different aura. Even without checking them out with his spiritual consciousness, he could tell that all these things weren’t any worse than at least ordinary dao artefacts[1]. It’s just that he couldn’t figure out why this blue-robed young girl brought him to what could only be described as her bedroom.
“I know that you aren’t an ordinary person. There’s no need to act surprised like you did when you came here. Why don’t you sit down first, and then we’ll talk?” After sitting down on her bed, the young girl in blue spoke up with a calm tone.
Seeing that Ning Cheng still didn’t speak or even sit, the blue-robed maiden could only sigh. “You are capable enough to escape the pursuit of a Dao Confirming powerhouse and reach the vicinity of my Blue True Hope Tribe. It wouldn’t be possible if you were an ordinary person. Also, don’t tell me that the person chasing you wasn’t a Dao Confirming powerhouse. If he wasn’t, he couldn’t have killed A’ye. My Blue True Hope Tribe might have fled to the depths of the Land of Broken Laws, but what we hate the most are dharma cultivators. If I’m not wrong, you should also be a dharma cultivator, right?”
Ning Cheng finally had to speak up, “I don’t know what a dharma cultivator is. If your majesty considers people who absorb heaven and earth’s essence qi to cultivate as dharma cultivators. Then, I’m indeed a dharma cultivator. Regardless of your views and beliefs, I’m grateful to the Blue True Hope Tribe. If not for your people, I would have been dead already.”
The maiden in blue nodded, “Dharma cultivators do not have to address me as ‘your majesty’; only my clansmen do. Just call me by my name, Lan Bing[2]. Why not at least introduce yourself?”
Ning Cheng gave a direct response, “My name is Ning Cheng. I killed a young master of a sect earlier and then got chased around by the sect’s master. I had no way to escape, so I could only flee to the Land of Broken Laws.”
Lan Bing frowned, “My Blue True Hope Tribe originally lived a peaceful life in the Land of Broken Laws. But the constant flow of dharma cultivators fleeing to my Blue True Hope Tribe’s Land of Broken Laws broke our peaceful lives.”
Ning Cheng couldn’t help but speak up in his heart, “You’re shameless, aren’t you? When did the Land of Broken Laws become your Blue True Hope Tribe’s land? It’s nothing more than an ownerless piece of land in the void.”
“I know you have something on you that I need; if you take it out, I guarantee that you can leave this place unharmed.” Lan Bing didn’t continue with the topic and instead directly asked Ning Cheng to take out something.
Ning Cheng felt a pang of displeasure in his heart. How was this any different than threatening him?
Unhappy as he was, he could only sigh and said, “I truly have no idea about what you want. If I could open my ring, I would have already opened it right away and let you have a look.”
Lan Bing showed a faint smile and suddenly took out a disc. She casually tapped the disc a few times. She then muttered some strange undecipherable words before placing the disc on the table in front of her bed. “You can open your ring now.”
Ning Cheng truly felt shocked at this development. Activation of that disc had created a law-related forcefield vaguely similar to that produced by the Laws of Space. By the time she put down that disc, Ning Cheng could now truly stretch out his spiritual consciousness. Looks like the Blue True Hope Tribe had the means to control a cultivator’s spiritual consciousness range. Just the thought alone was terrifying enough. Would it be possible for them to sweep through the entire Grand Essence Realm with such strength if they went outside?
Ning Cheng removed the ring’s restrictions and placed it on the table, saying, “Lady Lan Bing, take a look for yourself.”
He believed that Lan Bing could also see the inside of his ring without his intervention. He also didn’t think of making a sneak attack. Ning Cheng currently stood in someone else’s territory and at a complete disadvantage. Plus, he had no idea of the capabilities of these people.
While Lan Bing checked the ring, Ning Cheng used the opportunity to carve formations under the room’s floor with his spiritual consciousness. Even before he came into contact with the Dark Nether Devouring Spirit Scroll, Ning Cheng could use his spiritual consciousness to attack his opponent. Now, after coming into contact with Dark Nether Devouring Spirit Scroll, he could easily use his spiritual consciousness to carve a basic surveillance formation right under this maiden’s gaze.
In just a few moments, Ning Cheng managed to finish carving the monitoring formation. At that exact moment, Lan Bing also put down Ning Cheng’s ring. Looking at the disappointment on her face, Ning Cheng understood that she hadn’t gained anything.
“You can take back the ring. What I want isn’t inside your ring. Perhaps I was mistaken.” Lan Bing’s tone turned polite.
Ning Cheng just wanted to say it was alright, but a thought suddenly emerged in his heart when he was about to retrieve the ring. He had carved a monitoring formation beneath his feet. But it was premeditated on the fact that he could use his spiritual consciousness here. Once Lan Bing deactivated the disc, his monitoring formation would become nothing more than useless squiggly lines in the Land of Broken Laws.
Thinking of this, he quickly took out a relatively good looking bracelet from the ring and handed it to the young girl in blue. “Lady Lan Bing, many thanks for your Blue True Hope Tribe for saving my life. Please accept this bracelet as a small token of my appreciation.”
Ning Cheng had refined several of these trinkets while on the run from Man Huishan. They were essentially a combination of cultivation and technology. He initially intended to use them to listen to traces of Man Huishan’s movements. But he found that these trinkets were useless during that continuous chase, so Ning Cheng gave up creating more. The bracelet looked like an ordinary defensive treasure on the surface, but it had concealed a listening device. It was the perfect opportunity to use it on this ‘king’, Lan Bing.
“Then, many thanks, Senior Apprentice Brother Ning. Since you’ve worked so hard till now, you should go and get some proper rest. I will come to you later to discuss a few things.” Lan Bing’s tone grew softer and softer with each word she spoke.
Just as she finished speaking, a middle-aged woman arrived outside the door. This woman escorted Ning Cheng out of the stone room to a wooden house roughly ten meters from the room.
……
After the middle-aged woman left, Ning Cheng quickly took out the jade bottle hidden in his sleeves.
After entering the Land of Broken Laws, he could still use a part of his spiritual consciousness. But after coming to this place, he couldn’t bring out a single strand of his spiritual consciousness, except for when in Lan Bing’s room. Therefore, before Lan Bing examined his ring, he snuck out the bottle of Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pills.
After swallowing one pill, Ning Cheng immediately operated the Dark Nether Devouring Spirit Scroll’s cultivation method to refine the pill. The Dark Nether Devouring Spirit Scroll could help enhance one’s spiritual consciousness during cultivation, even if you didn’t devour others’ spiritual consciousness. However, Ning Cheng felt apprehensive about using it in the past, mainly because it still produced the same side-effects as ingesting other people’s spiritual consciousness.
Now he had no choice but to cultivate it. Not having access to one’s spiritual consciousness and spirit essence made cultivators no different from cripples. Besides, Ning Cheng had two other reasons to dare cultivate this method. First, he had already modified this method to almost eliminate that side effect. The other was the Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pill.
The Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pill’s effects went beyond Ning Cheng’s expectations. This pill could separate and sever any foreign and impure strands of spiritual consciousness in one’s Sea of Consciousness. Thus, Ning Cheng could cultivate the modified Dark Nether Devouring Spirit Scroll without the previous side effects using the Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pill.
A few moments later, Ning Cheng felt pleasantly surprised that his spiritual consciousness could now extend out. Initially, it was only about one to two metres, but it gradually extended out to five, then six meters. The combination of the two had enhanced his spiritual consciousness enough that it could now stretch out in this part of the Land of Broken Laws.
Overjoyed, Ning Cheng once again threw another Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pill in his mouth and continued to refine the pill while cultivating the spiritual consciousness cultivation method.
His spiritual consciousness kept growing stronger and stronger as he cultivated using the Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pill. An unknown amount of time later, Ning Cheng could finally ‘see’ several people keeping a close eye on his wooden house about ten meters away.
Ning Cheng ignored them for now and picked up the ring once again. Carefully scanning the ring again with his spiritual consciousness, he sighed with relief after not finding any sign of tampering.
But just when he wanted to continue refining another Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pill, the monitoring formation he had set up in Lan Bing’s room suddenly activated. Did Lan Bing not deactivate the disc? Ning Cheng quickly took out a crystal ball to check the situation in Lan Bing’s room.
[1] Artefact Grading – Ordinary Weapons, Spiritual Artefacts, True Artefacts, Dao Artefacts, Spirit Artefacts, Primal Chaos Artefacts, Good Fortune Artefacts
[2] Lan Bing – Blue Ice
