Ning Cheng had just returned to the Jiangzhou Star when he met Yi Jiufeng who was waiting outside.
“Senior Sister Jiu Feng, why are you here?” Ning Cheng put away the Starry Sky Wheel and asked in confusion.
When Yi Jiufeng saw Ning Cheng a hint of relief immediately appeared on her face, “Senior Brother Ning, I knew that you would be fine. So after finishing some things, I have been waiting for you here.”
Ning Cheng hurriedly said, “Senior Sister Jiu Feng please go to my Xuanhuang Clan to speak, staying outside is not the way to treat guests.”
Yi Jiufeng shook her head, “Senior Brother Ning, I have come to bid you farewell. I will leave after I finish here, the Xuanhuang Sect will not go in. In fact, I’m going to wait for another month, and in a month’s time, if Senior Brother Ning hasn’t returned, I’m going to leave as well.”
“Saying goodbye?” Ning Cheng looked at Yi Jiufeng in confusion, he did not understand what Yi Jiufeng meant. There was absolutely no need for Yi Jiufeng to come and say goodbye to him specifically if he was going back to the Divine Heavens, although he and Yi Jiufeng had a good relationship, they hadn’t reached the point where they had to come and say hello for this little matter and wait for a few months.
Yi Jiufeng knew Ning Cheng’s doubts as she sighed, “I’m planning to leave this side of the starry sky, I’ve already handed over all of the Divine Sky Great Starry Sky to others. Not only me, but also the Heart Tower Grand Emperor and Qiao Kai Rui and Equuschick Tian Ji have all left this place. If I am correct, it should be difficult for them to come back. Including myself, once I leave, it will also be very difficult for me to return.”
“The Great Emperor of the Heart Tower is willing to leave the Great Central Heavenly Sky? I thought he wouldn’t give up until he finished me off.” Ning Cheng laughed heatedly.
Yi Jiufeng did not ridicule the Piercing Heart Tower this time, instead he said in a despondent tone, “Compared to the even more vast world of rules, even if one were to dominate countless eras here. What can we do? In the past, when we hid here and fought with each other, we were just sitting in the well and watching the sky. Now that we know about the higher rule realms, and that we don’t even need to prove our dao to go there, who would still be willing to stay here?”
“It’s the Five Tai Realms?” Ning Cheng understood, knowing about a world with great rules like the Five Great Realms. Who would want to stay here to retire? Which of those who could cultivate to the level of cultivation of Piercing Heart Tower and Yi Jiufeng were not amazingly talented and wise people with lofty hearts? Such people would definitely not stay here and wait for death after knowing that there were more powerful realms.
“The Five Tai Realms?” Yi Jiufeng repeated in confusion, and then said, “I don’t know. Take a look at this.”
After Yi Jiufeng finished speaking, she took out a crystal stone and placed it in Ning Cheng’s hand. Ning Cheng held the crystal stone and immediately felt a more advanced Yuan Spirit Qi, which was far inferior to even the pure Heng Yuan Dan, and he looked at Yi Jiufeng with shock. “What kind of crystal stone is this?”
Ning Cheng thought, if he used this kind of crystal stone to cultivate, then entering the late Eternal Realm should take a lot less time, instead of spending a lot of time slowly going into seclusion to toughen up.
“This is the crystal stone they use for cultivation in that place, this kind of thing is just as ordinary as the ordinary starry sky crystals we have here in their place. Even the various dao fruits are not a rare thing there.” Yi Jiufeng said with an exclamation.
She thought of the time when several people went to the Phantom Shadow Sanctuary together, the surprise of the Penetrating Heart Building getting a Dao fruit, and even succeeding in achieving Dao enlightenment with this Dao fruit. The achievement was far beyond the three of them.
“You mean that place where the Ninth Prince is?” Ning Cheng asked as he returned the crystal stone to Yi Jiufeng.
“You can take this crystal stone, I still have a few more.” Yi Jiufeng said after pushing the crystal stone back to Ning Cheng, “Yes. The person who gave us the crystal stones and traded with us is called Kusheng. Kusheng was seriously injured by the Heart Piercing Tower, so in order to save his life, he traded away a large amount of Starry Sky Spirit Grasses with a few of us. At the same time, it also showed a few of us that we are sitting on the fence and are shallow in our insight.”
Ning Cheng was even more perplexed, “Wasn’t the Heart Piercing Tower fighting with Enming Yuan?”
Yi Jiufeng replied. “I’m not as good as the Heart Piercing Tower Emperor, who was in the middle of a battle with Yi Ming Yuan. Pretending to be seriously injured and disappearing. In fact, he didn’t leave at all. Instead, he hid outside the Xuanhuang Star Continent. When Equuschus Tianji and Qiao Kairui saw the Heart Tower Emperor disappear, they rushed out of the Xuanhuang Star Continent as well. With the three of them gone, I naturally did not stay behind.
I did not expect to be seriously injured by the Heart Tower Emperor, who was hiding outside the Xuanhuang Star Continent. After being seriously injured, Deadwood tried to escape and was trapped by the four of us in the starry sky. He wanted to trade with us with the Transporting Talisman in hand, saying that if he didn’t trade he would immediately break the boundary and vanish.”
“Did he guide you guys on how to get to the high-level interface, and even gave you the top-level boundary-breaking talisman?” Ning Cheng asked.
Yi Jiufeng nodded, “Yes, he took out a top-grade boundary-breaking talisman and said that with this talisman, he could approach the realm where they were. In fact, even now I don’t understand why he didn’t use this talisman to escape himself, instead he chose to trade with us, was it because he was afraid of that Ninth Prince?”
Ning Cheng did not explain, he knew why Kusheng wanted to trade with Yi Jiufeng and the others. I was afraid that Kusheng’s purpose for staying by the Ninth Prince’s side was the same as Yu Yuechen’s, which was for that Vitality Disc. Kusheng had a purpose to stay here, so naturally he would not disappear. It was funny that the ninth prince thought that all these people were taken in by him, but he didn’t expect that each and every one of them was interested in what he had.
“So with the Piercing Heart Tower and the others gone, wouldn’t you have no way to get away alone?” Ning Cheng thought to himself that there was only one talisman and Yi Jiufeng had not gone with the Heart Piercing Tower and the others, so when the time came, even if she wanted to go to the Tai Su Realm, there would be no way to get there.
Yi Jiufeng smiled, “I obtained a Heaven Opening Talisman sub talisman at the Phantom Shadow Sanctuary, at first I didn’t know what it was, but now I already know it. This talisman of mine is much better than the one from Kusheng, I am confident that I can find my way there as well.”
“Then, I wish Senior Sister Jiu Feng a smooth arrival.” Ning Cheng understood that Yi Jiufeng was determined to go.
However, Yi Jiufeng said, “Senior Brother Ning, apart from coming here to say this to you, there is another thing that you can come with me if you want to go together. That Ninth Prince is from a very unusual background, even if we escape, he will not rest in the future.”
Ning Cheng smiled, “I won’t be leaving just yet, but Senior Sister Jiu Feng doesn’t need to worry, the Ninth Prince’s physical body has collapsed, so if he wants to recover, he won’t be able to do so without many years. I suspect that that Ninth Prince would have left this side of the interface by now, not knowing which nook he is hiding in to heal his wounds.”
“What?” Yi Jiufeng was truly shocked this time, while she was leaving to pursue great strength, she was likewise a little worried about the Ninth Prince finding his way over. Now Ning Cheng said that the Ninth Prince had been so badly injured by him that he had even lost his flesh, this was simply a little too outrageous.
Yi Jiufeng had a preconceived notion and naturally thought that the Ninth Prince had been seriously injured by Ning Cheng, she simply did not know that there was another Pan Qian.
“Is this true?” Yi Jiufeng asked again in disbelief and repeated the question.
Ning Cheng said with certainty, “It’s true, if you don’t believe me you can go to Holy Light City and take a look, the entire Holy Light City has been turned into flat land by me.”
“Thank you, Senior Brother Ning, this time I am finally completely at ease when I leave the Divine Heavens.” Yi Jiufeng’s face showed delight as she spoke about still leaving this side of the universe.
Ning Cheng watched Yi Jiufeng leave and returned somewhat despondently to Jiangzhou Star’s Over Snow City. The familiar people, whether they were enemies or friends, had all left far away one by one.
Although Ning Cheng also knew that if he stayed here, his cultivation would only be able to attain the Dao at the highest. However, he could not leave yet, and even if he had to leave, he would have to take Luo Fei and Ruo Lan with him. Moreover, he still had a few things left to do. One was to make a trip to the Hall of Phantom Shadows, and another was to close down and refine his research on formations.
He must become an array dao master, and then visit the place where Yan Ji had teleported away.
……
Time passed easily, and in the blink of an eye, three years had passed since Ning Cheng returned to the Jiangzhou Star.
In the past three years, Ning Cheng had not only cultivated, but also studied formations and discussed the Dao of Dan with Cang Caihe. His cultivation level had also stabilised at the peak of the early Eternal Realm, and was only one step away from the middle Eternal Realm.
Because of the lack of top grade Star Spirit Herbs, his Dan Dao level had been languishing and a bunch of theories could not be verified. As for the Dao of Formation master, Ning Cheng knew that he was going to need to accumulate.
Ji Luofei occasionally came out to meet with Ning Cheng for a few days, and spent most of her time in seclusion and cultivation. Ning Ruo Lan’s cultivation level was too low, and she even spent all her time on cultivation, but Ning Ruo Qing was still in seclusion. Ning Ruoqing needed too much Starry Sky Yuan Spirit Qi for her retreat, so Ning Cheng simply placed ten Star Veins under her retreat cave.
What puzzled Ning Cheng was that Duan Gantai had not come looking for him. It was only logical that Duan Gantai should have gone mad and come to settle accounts with him after he had suffered such a huge stifling loss. He had been in the Jiangzhou Star for several years and had not seen a single shadow of Duan Gantai, it was as if this fellow had disappeared.
After three years of settling down, Ning Cheng knew that when his cultivation level reached this point, it would be really hard to go further. He was different from others, perhaps other cultivators, as long as they piled up time for closed-door cultivation, would eventually have a breakthrough one day. For Ning Cheng, he couldn’t wait that long, he didn’t have that much time to pile up his cultivation.
The fact that the Ninth Prince had not been killed was always a hidden problem in his heart, if this fellow came back to the Central Heaven that day, there would be no one here to stop him.
Seeing that there was no sign of Ning Ruocheng waking up from her seclusion, Ning Cheng simply greeted Cang Caihe once again and prepared to enter the Phantom Shadow Sacred Hall alone.
The Hall of Ghostly Shadows had Grey Dudu in it, and it was on the Jiangzhou Star, so without figuring out this place, Ning Cheng would not be able to leave here in peace no matter what.
……
The Phantom Shadow Holy Temple had long been completely concealed and confined by Ning Cheng’s formation prohibitions, even if it was not far from Over Snow City, no one here had been able to enter except for Ning Cheng.
Ning Cheng entered the Hall of Shadows once again, and the place was still as cold and gloomy as before. Layer after layer of black poisonous fog was stacked up, and the killing aura was instead much weaker than last time. When Ning Cheng first came here, these poisonous fogs had no effect on him, and now that his cultivation and body refinement were a few notches higher, these poisonous fogs could not affect him even more.
Ning Cheng soon arrived outside the Five Cornered Hall, which had been sealed to death after he had escaped from here at the beginning. Now that he was here again, he found that the seal he had made back then was still there, and it seemed that it hadn’t been touched.