Chapter 1002
Chapter 1002: Ning Cheng’s Ace Card
“Boom……” The sabre mountain’s torrent blasted onto the bridge, forcing the bridge’s dao charm to dissipate before it could fully coalesce.
In any case, Ning Cheng didn’t expect this move to restrain Ding Si, whose power he understood after seeing the sabre mountain. But more importantly, his third bridge hadn’t fully solidified, which meant it couldn’t stop Ding Si, let alone restrain him.
Ning Cheng used the third bridge to provide cover for Liu Fanglin to complete her attack. Fortunately, Liu Fanglin grasped the timing perfectly. Her green sword dragon slashed towards the weakest section of the sabre mountain, which was its top, shaking the sabre mountain. The clash between the sabre mountain’s dao charm and sword aura even blasted the blue sands into oblivion, stalling Ding Si and his sabre mountain.
Ning Cheng was waiting for this precise moment. Once the mountain stalled, he raised his hand and brought out a long black arrow.
Once the long arrow appeared, suspended in the air, a five-coloured longbow also materialised with the arrow resting on it.
The arrow immediately began sucking in Ning Cheng’s spirit essence and spiritual consciousness. Even after taking the Burst Spirit Pill, Ning Cheng’s complexion turned pale under such an enormous suction force.
Raging killing intent immediately swept across the sky, and Ding Si could no longer move. He could only look at the arrow growing faint with each passing moment while more and more terrifying killing intent permeated the surroundings. His heart had already turned cold as if someone had plunged it into an icy cavern.
“5-Coloured Star Splitting Arrow…….” Locked on by the 5-Coloured Star Splitting Arrow, Ding Si didn’t dare move, even if he could. He started to regret taking action. He shouldn’t have started so early and should have continued to wait for a better opportunity. Even if he had to take action, he should have been more vigilant and not let Ning Cheng’s 5-Coloured Star Splitter Arrow lock onto him with its killing intent.
But at the same time, he never expected Ning Cheng to be so stoic. Why didn’t he use the 5-Coloured Star Splitter Arrow when he was about to die against the Burial Shadow Fiend? Of course, Ding Si also didn’t think about Ning Cheng using a Burst Spirit Pill. Did Ning Cheng already know that he was hiding in the shadows and deliberately stayed his hand to deal with him?
As the killing intent continued to surge wildly, it quietly transformed into a surging aura of death. Ding Si didn’t even dare to tremble and kept his eyes glued to the fading 5-Coloured Star Splitter Arrow. But even if he knew that he couldn’t avoid this arrow or even move, he wasn’t willing to die like this.
As the aura of death increased and grew thicker, the 5-coloured longbow gradually got pulled back into a half-moon shape in the void around it. Seeing this, Ding Si’s heart finally sank to the bottom. Facing this development, he clearly understood that he couldn’t avoid the 5-Coloured Star Splitter Arrow.
Even Liu Fanglin, who wasn’t the target, felt her body growing cold under this horrifying killing intent. For the first time since meeting Ning Cheng, she finally experienced Ning Cheng’s true strength.
Initially, she thought that Ning Cheng’s strength primarily came from his Seven Bridges Spirit Technique. Then, she saw Ning Cheng use that law-breaking spirit technique that weakened the worldly laws, laws of time, a top-level Heart Dao Spirit Technique ‘None-To-Depend-On’, and even the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort.
Yet, these powerful means weren’t even his ace card. His ace card was actually the terrifying 5-Coloured Star Splitting Arrow. Ning Cheng’s horrifying means and almost-sinister patience had thoroughly chilled her heart. She couldn’t help but wonder how Ning Cheng would deal with that Burial Shadow Fiend if she didn’t have the Dao Breaking Pearl?
“Stop, you can’t kill me. If you kill me, you will surely die without a burial place…….”
Just as the word ‘place’ left Ding Si’s mouth, the 5-Coloured Star Splitter Arrow shot out of the longbow and tore through the space with a dreadful tearing sound.
To what Ding Si said, Ning Cheng treated it as a fart. Ding Si had already set his mind to kill him, so why would he even care about Ding Si’s threat? Even if, after killing Ding Si, he immediately had to face several mature Burial Shadow Fiends besieging him, he wouldn’t hesitate to shoot that arrow.
“You….” A trace of ferocity mixed with resignation flashed in Ding Si’s eyes. Despite knowing that Ning Cheng would ignore his threat, he still felt furious in his heart.
“Boom……” Ding Si’s body turned into a cloud of blood mist as the 5-Coloured Star Splitter Arrow went through his body. It even extinguished Ding Si’s spirit soul that tried to escape from the blood mist.
Ning Cheng opened his mouth and spat out several mouthfuls of blood, and he almost went into a coma. With his Sea of Consciousness injured by that Burial Shadow Fiend’s spiritual consciousness, he couldn’t even gather enough strength to isolate Ding Si’s storage ring. Even if Ning Cheng understood that Ding Si’s ring wouldn’t be simple, he couldn’t do anything.
He gained the only thing that wasn’t the arrow’s target; Ding Si’s artefact, the sabre mountain.
“Are you okay?” Liu Fanglin quickly sobered up from the shock in her heart and hurriedly went forward to hold Ning Cheng. At this moment, Ning Cheng’s face was as pale as a white sheet of paper.
Ning Cheng took a few moments to get his bearings and finally put away his things. “I have a True Spirit World; I’m going to enter it to heal my injuries. You take my True Spirit World to that place. Just call me when you arrive.”
“Okay.” Liu Fanglin agreed to Ning Cheng’s request without hesitation.
Ning Cheng did not dare let Liu Fanglin carry him on her back. But it wasn’t because of Liu Fanglin’s seductive power. Rather, it was primarily because they were just casual acquaintances and only knew each other’s faces. It did not mean that they had a long and deep relationship. With so many good things on him, who knows if Liu Fanglin would suddenly turn on him? Moreover, the True Spirit World belonged to him. Even if Liu Fanglin had thoughts about his things, he could at least detonate the True Spirit World and escape.
……
Yan Ji currently was in Ning Cheng’s True Spirit World. With nothing else to do, she helped Ning Cheng take care of the spirit herbs in the True Spirit World that he hadn’t yet transplanted into the Mysterious Yellow Bead. Seeing Ning Cheng suddenly walk in with severe injuries immediately made her panic.
However, only Ning Cheng knew that even though the injuries looked heavy, they were much easier to recover than before. After all, he still had the Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pill along with several healing-type dao pills.
Therefore, with the help of the Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pill, Ning Cheng forcibly cut off the Burial Shadow Fiend’s spiritual consciousness. This immediately kick-started the repair process of his Sea of Consciousness.
As ten days passed by, Ning Cheng finally made a full recovery.
……
After repeatedly assuring Yan Ji not to worry, Ning Cheng’s spiritual consciousness swept out. However, he found Liu Fanglin’s aura somewhat chaotic. Looks like she had been in another fierce battle not long ago and received more injuries.
Because he wanted to recover his strength as soon as possible, and Liu Fanglin was still looking for the Valley of Life, Ning Cheng had purposefully ignored her. After all, he needed to focus his mind on healing himself during these past few days. Moreover, he never expected that Liu Fanglin would get into another fight.
“What happened?” Ning Cheng quickly left the True Spirit World and asked.
“Thank heavens, you’re finally out.” The first thing that Liu Fanglin did was hand the True Spirit World Ring back to Ning Cheng.
Only after Ning Cheng put away the True Spirit World did Liu Fanglin say, “Two days ago, I met Wei Jingbing. I managed to severely injure him but also ended up with more injuries. I didn’t know if he would ambush me again, so I left that area quickly and kept moving.”
Ning Cheng didn’t ask another question. Since Liu Fanglin met Wei Jingbing, it would be a strange matter if they didn’t end up in a fight. Fortunately, he killed Ding Si. If Wei Jingbing had been with Ding Si, Liu Fanglin would have died without a chance of survival.
“How far away are we from that place?” Ning Cheng felt more concerned about the Exquisite Star Golden Concealed Leaf. After all, he had vowed to not stop till he helped Yan Ji recover her foundation.
Liu Fanglin hesitated before speaking up in some confusion. “There are not many things that can be used as markers in this place. After entering Burial Shadow Blue Sands, I only know that you need to move in the opposite direction once you meet the stacked wave-shaped blue sand vortex. As long as you go in that direction, you will encounter a huge grey stone stele. Once I reach that stele, I know where to go from there. But the weird thing is that despite exploring for a month, I still haven’t found that grey stone stele.”
Ning Cheng suddenly thought of the map he had taken from Daoist Gutless. One of the places marked on the map was exactly a grey stone stele. He quickly took out the map and said, “Is that the place?”
“Huh, how come you have this map?” Liu Fanglin spoke up in surprise. She then took out another map, exactly like Ning Cheng’s, down to the smallest detail.
“I took it from a Daoist.” Ning Cheng said, “It’s just that I don’t know how to find this stele. Since you have a method, let’s go ahead and follow your method.”
Liu Fanglin didn’t know who this ‘Daoist’ was that Ning Cheng spoke about, so she could only nod, “Okay.”
The blue sand vortexes in the Burial Shadow Blue Sands came in various shapes, and the stacked wave-shaped vortexes weren’t many, nor were they few.
Ning Cheng and Liu Fanglin walked for more than ten days without a break, following the prescribed direction, yet they never saw that grey stone stele.
Moreover, even after walking for over ten days, Ning Cheng and Liu Fanglin didn’t encounter any Burial Shadow Fiends. It was another thing that they couldn’t figure out. Maybe they now feared the power of Ning Cheng’s Seven Bridges.
“Wait…..” Ning Cheng finally called out to Liu Fanglin. “If we continue like this, I’m afraid we might not find what we’re looking for in our lifetime. I think I should take the lead from this point on.”
Liu Fanglin’s face turned slightly red from embarrassment. She obviously understood Ning Cheng’s meaning. Ning Cheng suspected that the method recorded on the map wasn’t entirely correct, which was why they couldn’t find the place.
Now that Ning Cheng knew they were looking for an actual grey stone stele, he finally had a target. Previously, he didn’t want to exert his spiritual consciousness fully because he didn’t want to overexert himself. But with a clearly defined target at hand, he naturally couldn’t go on with such a method.
Ning Cheng no longer restrained his spiritual consciousness and let it burst out. In just an instant, the area of approximately 10,000 metres around him clearly appeared in his spiritual consciousness’s sweep.
Feeling that his spiritual consciousness had improved significantly, Ning Cheng couldn’t help but feel overjoyed. After repairing his Sea of Consciousness with the Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pill, Ning Cheng felt that his spiritual consciousness improved. And now, he finally had confirmation.
Unfortunately, the Burial Shadow Blue Sands covered a vast area. As such, despite the range of his spiritual consciousness, he wouldn’t be able to find that grey-coloured stone stele in a short time. In other words, Ning Cheng’s way of searching for it was nothing more than a game of chance. Even if he divided the area into different sections, finding it would depend on luck. He might not find it even after a month or two if he had terrible luck.
Fortunately, Ning Cheng had luck on his side this time. On the third day, he finally found the grey stone stele.
This grey stone stele resembled a small mountain rather than a stone stele with no inscribed characters. However, there was no trace of that blue sand on it at all, as if the blue sands here didn’t even dare to blow towards it.
Liu Fanglin walked up to the stele and made a small cut on her wrist to let out some blood. She then placed her bloody wrist on the stele, which instantly sucked away the blood on her hand. Just like the time when the 5-Coloured Star Splitting Arrow sucked away Ning Cheng’s spiritual consciousness, in just three breaths, Liu Fanglin’s face turned pale like a white sheet of paper.
“Wait……” Ning Cheng, by now, understood that something was wrong. Although he couldn’t tell what, he could tell that there was something wrong with that stele.
Ning Cheng had just called out when Liu Fanglin took her hand from the stele. She then turned to Ning Cheng and spoke up with a weak voice, “You have to do the same; otherwise, only I can enter the place.”
Just as Liu Fanglin finished her words, a concealed door abruptly opened up behind the stone stele.
Ning Cheng took a deep breath. He could vaguely feel something wrong with this blood-sucking stone stele. But as to what was wrong, Ning Cheng simply couldn’t put a finger on it. Liu Fanglin letting it suck her blood was one thing, but he wouldn’t let it suck his blood.
“Fellow Daoist Liu, I think there’s something wrong with this whole thing. How about this, I’ll enter the True Spirit World, and you can take my True Spirit World inside.” Ning Cheng said after some thought.
Liu Fanglin shook her head. “I’m afraid it won’t work. It’s impossible to use a miniature world to bring people inside; the same thing holds for your True Spirit World.”