Two days later, Ning Cheng went to find Carole.
Preparing to go into secluded cultivation, Carole didn’t expect Ning Cheng to visit her. Nonetheless, she joyfully welcomed Ning Cheng inside before asking, “Senior Apprentice Brother Ning Cheng, did Valley Master Sikou answer your questions?”
Ning Cheng said, “Valley Master Sikou is quite a broad-minded person. His guidance benefited me greatly. However, I came to tell you that I intend to leave the Valley of Peace and look for a way out…..”
“You shouldn’t do that!” Hearing Ning Cheng talking about going out, Carole hurriedly tried to dissuade him. “Many stronger experts entered the Valley of Peace, but nine out of ten fell in the Land of Broken Laws without finding a way out.”
She assumed that Ning Cheng wanted to invite her to be his companion. As such, she definitely couldn’t take up the offer.
Ning Cheng smiled, “Senior Apprentice Sister Carole, you don’t need to worry. I’m 60% sure that I can get out as I obtained a map. I just plan to be alone…..”
This time, Carole didn’t let Ning Cheng finish, “Senior Apprentice Brother Ning Cheng, such maps have appeared multiple times in the Valley of Peace. However, none are real. They were all created by tigers and snakes to cheat people out of spirit crystals. Besides, my dao companion still hasn’t come out of seclusion, so I can’t go out with you either. In fact, I sincerely advise you not to leave as the chances of getting out are just too slim, almost non-existent.”
Ning Cheng had not come here to ask Carole to leave with him. He had just come to inform her out of courtesy. He wanted to find a place in the Land of Broken Laws to retreat and comprehend the lawless spirit technique. As such, Ning Cheng naturally didn’t want to go out with Carole. Besides, he never thought that Carole had a dao companion. But thinking about it, in a place like the Valley of Peace, one’s life would indeed be dull if one didn’t have a partner.
Ning Cheng took out a jade strip and a plaque before handing them both to Carole. “Senior Apprentice Sister Carole, this map should be a reliable one. In the future, if you and your dao companion want to leave this place, you can use this map. I have to leave now. Take care.”
Seeing Ning Cheng determined to leave, Carole understood that she couldn’t persuade Ning Cheng. Ning Cheng had given her a map and also the unused Dao Listening Token. But those things only deepened the misunderstanding. She clearly couldn’t leave with Ning Cheng, but she at least could accompany him to the entrance of the Valley of Peace.
……
Nine days after Ning Cheng left the Valley of Peace, he again managed to find the markings on the map. It made him feel even more confident that as long as he followed this map, he would be able to walk out one day.
What reassured Ning Cheng even more was that Man Huishan hadn’t chased after him. It looked like Man Huishan also understood that he couldn’t do anything to him even if he chased after him. Therefore, instead of chasing after him, it would be better to try and comprehend the lawless spirit technique in the Valley of Peace like the others.
After finding the right direction, Ning Cheng didn’t continue on his way. Instead, he dug a cave within a barren valley and prepared to comprehend the lawless spirit technique.
Carole had mentioned that if one wasn’t careful in the Land of Broken Laws, one would be bound by the sudden appearance of a lawless region. However, Ning Cheng wasn’t very worried about this. He believed that with the current spiritual consciousness’s strength, he could escape when danger came. Even if he couldn’t get away, he still had the Mysterious Yellow Bead to retreat into.
After digging the cave, Ning Cheng didn’t set up a protective formation. Instead, he called Chasing Bull out and told him to guard the cave entrance before immediately secluding himself. Without access to laws in a land without laws, setting up formations wouldn’t be of any use.
……
Chasing Bull didn’t like to stay in the True Spirit World. It preferred to remain outside as it enjoyed lively surroundings. However, the Land of Broken Laws wasn’t even half as festive as the inside of the True Spirit World. Because of this, he didn’t want to stay outside for long.
However, after Ning Cheng went into seclusion, everything around him turned quiet without the slightest sign of movement. It meant that he could only stand guard outside. Perhaps when Ning Cheng woke up, he could give him a few flattering words that would send him back into the True Spirit World.
……
Ning Cheng had no idea if he could reap the benefits of the Bestowing Lawless Fruit without refining it. However, he wanted to comprehend the lawless spirit technique, but only the fruit could give him that chance right now. Moreover, his comprehension ability had far surpassed the average person, even before he obtained the Mysterious Yellow Bead. But Ning Cheng also didn’t think it had reached the same level as an expert like Valley Master Sikou.
Placing the Bestowing Lawless Fruit on the Land of Broken Law’s ground, the two barely looked any different in colour. The Bestowing Lawless Fruit was of a grey colour, almost similar to the grey colour of the Land of Broken Laws, just imperceptibly deeper. However, the faint ripples on the fruit’s surface gave off bursts of mysterious dao rhythms that set it apart from the surroundings.
Ning Cheng couldn’t sense any law-related information within these dao rhythms. Yet, he could feel that after these dao rhythms spread out, something resembling a new law instantly formed around his body. This new ‘law’ felt similar to the ordinary laws of heaven and earth, yet it also seemed utterly different. The Bestowing Lawless Fruit itself didn’t contain any law aura, yet faint laws still formed around it because of its aura.
……
Even though it was the Land of Broken Laws and one couldn’t exercise Laws of Time-related spirit techniques, it still couldn’t stop the flow of time.
As time passed, the Bestowing Lawless Fruit in Ning Cheng’s hand gradually shrank. However, Ning Cheng remained immersed in trying to sense the changes around him. Unfortunately, he still couldn’t learn anything from it.
However, Chasing Bull, who sat outside the cave, started to sense faint fluctuations of laws coming from inside the cave as a month passed. But Ning Cheng still showed no signs of waking up.
Chasing Bull naturally felt overjoyed at the fact that there were law fluctuations in the surrounding space. He was just about to take out some Permanent Essence Pill to try and cultivate as well when a sudden explosion erupted from Ning Cheng’s cave.
Ning Cheng had abruptly opened his eyes and punched out. The weak laws that had formed around him dissipated without a trace.
“Boom……” Ning Cheng’s makeshift cave exploded to pieces under this punch.
“Master, you’ve learned the lawless[1] spirit technique?” Chasing bull hurried over to greet him.
Ning Cheng looked at the Bestowing Lawless Fruit in his hand, now only half its original size, and sighed. “I got it wrong and wasted half of the fruit. The Bestowing Lawless Fruit is not meant to be used in the Land of Broken Laws. Rather, it’s more useful in places where there are laws. I always thought that since I wanted to cultivate the lawless spirit technique, it must be in the Land of Broken Laws……. Huh, that’s not right…..”
Ning Cheng hadn’t finished speaking before realising something.
His cultivation level and strength were still too low. But what he wanted to comprehend was entirely different from Valley Master Sikou. Valley Master Sikou wanted to find a new law in the Land of Broken Laws and then coalesce this law into something he could use. For countless years, Valley Lord Sikou trudged forward with this thought and had achieved something.
However, Ning Cheng didn’t need to do something like this, nor was he qualified to do such a thing. All he had to do was to comprehend the lawless spirit technique. That way, he could use the lawless spirit technique to plunge his opponent into a space devoid of laws. It would essentially guarantee his victory.
But more importantly, doing so was countless times easier than what Valley Master Sikou wanted to do. In fact, after this month of seclusion, he had already achieved something. When he had punched out earlier, it had dispersed the law aura around him created by the Bestowing Lawless Fruit. With only his fist in existence, wasn’t it the same as touching the door to that spirit technique?
“Let’s go, Chasing Bull. It’s time to leave this place.” Ning Cheng laughed and put the remaining half of the Bestowing Lawless Fruit into a jade box before putting it away. He then took out the starship and left the area.
……
In an ordinary cave in the outer sect disciple’s residential area of 9-Revolutions Sacred Dao Pond, Yan Ji’s face turned pale as she crashed onto the mattress. Even her hand trembled uncontrollably.
She had once again failed to enter the middle-stage Life and Death Realm. Her meridians also gave bursts of pain as if on fire. It felt as if the slightest movement would shatter her body from the inside out.
Two lines of tears slid down her pale face. She had experienced too many hardships and dangers since the start of her cultivation. But she had never shed a tear. But at this moment, only tears streamed down her face.
She clearly understood her current condition. To put it short, her path of cultivation had come to an end. Even if she didn’t cultivate, her spiritual roots would gradually disintegrate. Her purple palace would gradually wither away, and her body would slowly grow old, eventually leading to a painful death in a few months. A few years, if lucky.
“No…..” Yan Ji shouted in a trembling voice. She was unwilling to accept this fate.
From the beginning to now, only she knew best what she had experienced.
Yan Ji even felt her Sea of Consciousness shaking violently right now. She looked at the humble cave’s ceiling helplessly; she really wasn’t willing to go like this.
She wasn’t willing to leave like this. It wasn’t that she regretted what she had done. Rather, it was because of her resignation after knowing where Ning Cheng had gone and that she couldn’t do anything about it.
Her face grew paler and paler, and cold sweat started to seep out of her forehead. A vision seemed to move in and out of focus in front of her eyes. She once again saw the rushing and raging Blood River Mountain and saw herself trapped in the Blood River as Ning Cheng came to her rescue. Looking at how he risked death to come to pick her up and rush out of the blood river made her face flush with an unhealthy red…..
But then she saw Ning Cheng being swept away by the tumbling river of blood. She didn’t hesitate to rush over to save him, only to be swept away by the river of blood as well.
She remembered how shocked her Senior Apprentice Sister Xiang Zhilan was after she said she wanted to look for Ning Cheng at the bottom of the blood river. A place devoid of spiritual qi or life and where one could easily get lost. At that point, even she thought that she had gone mad.
However, she hadn’t gone mad. She still left the area near the blood river where she could have survived and went to look for Ning Cheng alone. At that time, she didn’t even know Ning Cheng’s actual appearance.
An unconscious smile appeared at the corners of Yan Ji’s mouth. One had to do one or two crazy things in life, after all. To this day, she felt that it was the best choice she had ever made. Later, she realised that it was what people referred to as ‘liking someone’. Whether people called it ‘love’ or ‘like’, it didn’t matter to her as it made her happy from the bottom of her heart.
When she left the bottom of the blood river, only then did she learn that Ning Cheng had not come out with them. She didn’t hesitate and rushed back into the blood river once again, allowing the blood river to sweep her off her feet. Yan Ji wasn’t looking for death when she ran towards the Blood River Mountain. Rather, she only had one thought in her mind, and that was to find Ning Cheng. She didn’t want Ning Cheng to be left alone under the blood river after he saved her.
She could also never forget the heartache she felt when she saw the ragged and dirty man at the bottom of the blood river. Followed around by an equally dirty, dry-furred and pitiful-looking puppy.
At that time, she had thought that he was just a lost soul. However, this same person had later helped her and her Senior Apprentice Sister Zhilan to walk out of the blood river.
From that time till now, she didn’t regret this choice, nor would she regret it in the future. And indeed, Ning Cheng also didn’t make her regret it. After Ning Cheng saw her again at the bottom of the blood river, he carried her on his back. He even tried to find a way to heal her injuries.
He dressed and bathed her and had done far too much for her. Even when she had lost her mind, he had taken immense care of her. Looking back at all of this, she felt that she should do even more for him.
A smile slowly blossomed at the corners of Yan Ji’s mouth. Even when Ning Cheng had seen her naked body when she wasn’t sane, it was still a beautiful memory that she had enjoyed the most over the years.
She would have definitely said, ‘I want to marry you’ if she could rewind time. She didn’t say it back then, not because she was too shy to say it, but because she never had the chance to say it. Unfortunately, there was no way for her to rewind time or even experience that moment once again. Her life was about to wither away.
[1] At this point, I’m not sure if ‘lawless’ here is the name of the spirit technique or just a general term. Will rectify it once more context about it becomes available.
