“Honoured guest, our king has invited you.” The middle-aged woman said while giving Ning Cheng a respectful bow.
Since Ning Cheng’s spiritual consciousness could now extend beyond a hundred meters, he could now access a tiny portion of his original strength to protect himself.
The middle-aged woman brought Ning Cheng outside Lan Bing’s room but didn’t go inside. Instead, she bowed again to Ning Cheng and said, “Our king is waiting for you inside.”
Ning Cheng had already noticed Lan Bing, but this time she wore a veil. Therefore, Ning Cheng only nodded to the middle-aged woman before walking into the room.
“Ning Cheng greets Miss Lan Bing.” Ning Cheng offered her a polite greeting.
Lan Bing stared at Ning Cheng and suddenly said, “Are you wondering why I’m wearing a veil today?”
Ning Cheng showed a faint smile but didn’t reply. He didn’t feel anything strange about it. Besides, he already knew that she wanted to kill him and suppress his soul under that Hope Clan’s statue after obtaining the jade seal. All this act using a veil was nothing more than a means to look mysterious and keep him curious.
Rather, Ning Cheng felt that it was already too late to use such a psychological tactic. If she had used this veil when she first met him, perhaps it might have had some impact. Even Heaven Essence Sacred City’s Star Stepping Tower Master could do a much better job than you.
It didn’t seem that Lan Bing expected Ning Cheng to answer either and quietly spoke to herself, “My Blue True Hope Tribe is just a branch of the Hope Clan. It’s a clan with a female bloodline heritage. It’s just that the Hope Clan is withering now, and almost all the branches are nearing their end. Only we, the Blue True Hope Tribe, still survive and thrive, if you can even call it that. It’s also the reason why we address ourselves as the Hope Clan.”
When Ning Cheng heard those words, he knew that the meat of the drama was about to unfold. According to what he learned earlier, once Lan Bing finished saying this, she would immediately ask him to make love to her. Regardless, Ning Cheng also had some curiosity; more specifically, to what lengths would Lan Bing go to ask for sex. From what he saw and learned, this Blue True Hope Tribe’s inheritance method seemed similar to the Severing Emotions Dao Sect, passed down from woman to woman.
Lan Bing suddenly reached out, removed the veil from her face, and looked straight at Ning Cheng as she spoke until here.
A face so beautiful that it took one’s breath away appeared in front of Ning Cheng’s eyes. Perhaps only Yu Qing’s beauty could compare to Lan Bing’s face. However, Yu Qing’s beauty was utterly opposite from Lan Bing. Yu Qing’s beauty had a hint of gentleness, but Lan Bing’s beauty, on the other hand, only evoked a strange, even slightly bizarre, feeling in Ning Cheng’s heart.
One could say that she had the perfect face, with eyebrows like autumn water and a pretty face as beautiful as the moon; all in all, a city-toppling beauty. It felt just like a painting.
That’s right, Ning Cheng finally understood. It was like a painting, without even a trace of smoke and fire[1]. Usually, the absence of fire and smoke indicated a woman untouched by vulgarity. But Lan Bing’s lack of fire and smoke didn’t produce such an impact. At the very least, not in Ning Cheng. Rather, Ning Cheng only felt an icy coldness from it. What Ning Cheng saw wasn’t a beautiful woman but a painting. It was not an aesthetically pleasing painting but an image that had neither body nor life.
Although it sounded bizarre to put it in words, Lan Bing’s appearance did indeed give Ning Cheng such a feeling.
When Lan Bing saw Ning Cheng’s surprised expression, she frowned a little. She found that when Ning Cheng saw her actual appearance, it was slightly different from how others saw her actual appearance. She even felt as if Ning Cheng’s look contained a hint of wariness, which made her very confused.
When Ning Cheng saw Lan Bing frowning slightly, he finally sighed with relief. The painting in front of him suddenly dissipated and was replaced by a beautiful young girl. He had some suspicion that the icy chill he had felt when he first saw Lan Bing’s features was the true nature of Lan Bing.
Ning Cheng had great faith in his vision and intuition. Moreover, as he continued cultivating using the Mysterious Yellow Formless, his vision and intuition had started to grow much closer to reality than the average person.
“Your expression makes me not very confident in my appearance.” Lan Bing took the initiative to break the suffocating silence and spoke up.
After Lan Bing said those words, the hint of weirdness that Ning Cheng felt earlier disappeared entirely, replaced by a truly stunning beauty standing in front of him.
Ning Cheng put on an embarrassed look and smiled, “I didn’t expect that you would put up a disguise. If you didn’t have confidence in your looks right now, then I don’t think there would be any woman confident in their looks.”
Lan Bing smiled faintly and spoke to Ning Cheng with a soft, almost seductive, demeanour. “As I said before, the fact that you were being chased by a Dao Confirmation powerhouse and still managed to escape here shows that you are also an expert. I can’t wish you to stay in my Hope Clan, but I desire you to leave a trace of your bloodline for my Hope Clan. If you think that this Lan Bing can meet your expectations, then I’m even willing to become the wife of my Hope Clan’s king.”
“You know that I want to leave the Land of Broken Laws, so why do you want to do that?” Ning Cheng calmly asked.
Lan Bing couldn’t help but feel puzzled why Ning Cheng still looked so calm in her heart. Even after using such words and techniques, why didn’t he look even the slightest bit pleased or otherwise?
Still feeling puzzled, Lan Bing couldn’t help but speak up, “I have already told you the reason. It’s because the Blue True Hope Tribe needs to pass on our bloodline, and our enmity with those dharma cultivators runs deep. Although you are also a dharma cultivator, you are completely different from others. You don’t have any hatred for my Hope Clan that I can feel and say with confidence.”
“Plus, as I said before, I felt the aura of my Hope Clan’s sacred relic on you. I know that only if we become husband and wife would you believe me and tell me about it. Although I’m a woman, I’m also the king of the Blue True Hope Tribe. If you can understand my feelings, I’ll willingly serve you as a good wife should for the rest of my life.”
Ning Cheng sighed internally. If he hadn’t heard Lan Bing’s words earlier, perhaps he would have already taken out the jade seal. Especially after hearing Lan Bing’s dedication and ‘sincere’ words. Moreover, he wouldn’t have asked for anything in return, except for a way out of this place.
But now, Ning Cheng would never take out the jade seal. If he took out the jade seal right now, he might end up in a permanent sleep, with his soul praying in front of the Hope Clan’s statue for all eternity.
“I’ve heard that in the Land of Broken Laws, there is still a group of dharma cultivators living here?” Ning Cheng changed the topic. As beautiful as Lan Bing was, he truly couldn’t raise any interest in such a woman who wanted to backstab him.
Lan Bing didn’t expect that Ning Cheng still wouldn’t directly indulge himself even after saying all that. But instead, change the topic altogether. Despite this, she could only reply, “Yes, they’re separated from our Blue True Hope Tribe by a quagmire. I heard that they were all made up of dharma cultivators who had escaped into the Land of Broken Law. That place is the only place where they can supposedly cultivate.”
“Miss Lan Bing, I’m grateful and impressed by your beauty and your offer. But I still need to think about it for a while. At the very least, I want to learn more about your Hope Clan before making the decision.” Ning Cheng didn’t dare to say that he already had a wife. He was afraid that Lan Bing wouldn’t show the same patience and make a sudden move on him if he said that. He had to delay things as long as possible.
Lan Bing’s expressions turned calm once again as she slowly picked up her veil and put it over her face again. Her tone also turned flat as she said, “Only by becoming a member of my Hope Clan can you get to know more about my Hope Clan. Even though I’m the king here, I cannot break the rules for you.”
Just after she finished saying this, the middle-aged woman who had brought him here entered the room and bowed. Although Ning Cheng didn’t see Lan Bing make any movements, he understood the intent. That is, get out of the room.
Ning Cheng, however, couldn’t figure out Lan Bing’s motive and could only bid farewell to her. Lan Bing gave him the feeling that he couldn’t predict her changes, at least for now.
Walking out of Lan Bing’s stone cabin, Ning Cheng saw a figure flash at the corner and disappear in an instant. Ning Cheng knew that figure; it was the man who had rescued him from inside the swamp.
After returning to his wooden cabin, Ning Cheng didn’t monitor the situation in Lan Bing’s room. Without the disc’s activation, the monitoring formation he had set up in Lan Bing’s room wouldn’t work anyway.
……
Not long after Ning Cheng left, a beautiful woman walked into Lan Bing’s room. She looked at the veiled Lan Bing and asked with a sigh, “He refused?”
Lan Bing nodded, “Yes. But I got the feeling that he’s stalling for time. As for me, he’s not even a bit interested, that I can tell with confidence.”
As she spoke till here, Lan Bing also felt a little bewildered. She had complete confidence in her looks, but Ning Cheng had turned a blind eye to her. When had she ever faced such a situation? If all these dharma cultivators were so self-disciplined, there wouldn’t have been a battle between the cultivators’ side and her Hope Clan back then to snatch her.
The beautiful woman looked at Lan Bing for a while before giving out another sigh and said, “Looks don’t mean everything. Some things are countless times more important than one’s appearance. If you end up meeting someone you like, maybe you’ll understand it then.”
“Aunt Li, are you recalling the past again?” Although Lan Bing asked the question, her tone didn’t have even a shred of comfort in it.
The beautiful woman didn’t answer this time. After a while, she stood up and slowly walked out of Lan Bing’s room, leaving only a somewhat bewildered Lan Bing behind.
……
Not long after Ning Cheng returned to his wooden cabin, his spiritual consciousness detected that the man who had saved him appeared outside. Although it was the giant A’ye who had truly saved him, it would have been difficult for him to climb out of the swamp if this man had not pulled him out.
But what puzzled him was that this man seemed to want to come inside and talk to him. However, after pacing outside the wooden cabin for some time, he inexplicably turned around and walked away.
Ning Cheng didn’t bother going out and looking for him and instead continued to refine the Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pill to quench his spiritual consciousness.
Time passed by quickly. As several more days passed, Ning Cheng’s spiritual consciousness could now reach the thousand-meter mark. After reaching this point, no matter how much Ning Cheng quenched it, improving his spiritual consciousness became extremely slow.
Although Lan Bing hadn’t called on him during these past several days, Ning Cheng still felt a growing sense of urgency in his heart. He had no idea when Lan Bing would turn on him and bare her fangs; as such, he wanted to leave this place as quickly as possible.
As for the Bestowing Lawless Fruit that Ning Cheng felt eager to see, he also put that idea aside. He knew that, given his current strength, it would almost be an impossible matter to locate Hope Clan’s fiercely guarded treasure.
A few days later, Ning Cheng completed all his preparations for escape. During this period, he had observed the situation within this settlement. He had charted out a relatively safe route.
But just when everything was ready, and he was just about to leave, Ning Cheng suddenly heard a burst of violent scuffles. Did Man Huishan had come looking for him again?
Ning Cheng’s spiritual consciousness instantly stretched out. What he saw wasn’t Man Huishan but about ten men dressed in cultivator robes rushing into the area. Not only were these men dressed as cultivators, but they were also using various spirit techniques. People from the Hope Tribe continually fell left and right before fully forming an encirclement to activate and channel the Power of Hope.
Ning Cheng suddenly stood up. How could there be so many people who could control their spiritual consciousness and even use spells? Wasn’t this the Land of Broken Laws?
[1] Yes, the raws do mention it as ‘smoke and fire’. I’m guessing it is some sort of ‘oomph’ factor. I will leave it as it is till I find out more about it. But if I had to put it into a more readable passage, I would rather replace ‘smoke and fire’ with ‘life’, as in artists giving ’life’ to their artworks. But it wouldn’t flow with the rest of the paragraph.
