Chapter 434: The Skeleton In the Array Core
Di Jiu completely disregarded that Immortal King after he threw him away and welcomed himself into the depths of the array. He wouldn’t have cared about a mere Immortal King even if his cultivation was at its peak. Moreover, he knew that this fellow couldn’t escape and go anywhere else even if he wanted to.
Di Jiu soon discovered that the corrosive toxins were still present in the array, but the concentration was much lower than it was outside.
“Eh, are you a newcomer?” an equally skinny man exclaimed when he saw Di Jiu. Then, he shouted, “Xu Gongli, did you take this guy’s ring?”
“There is another one?” another skinny man responded instead of Xu Gongli.
Di Jiu knew both of them. They were the ones who had charged out of the array to steal the corpses’ rings.
At the moment, Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force had already covered the entire array, except for an area at the center that his Spiritual Force couldn’t permeate. The three skinny men were the only ones alive in the array.
“There are only three of you alive?” Di Jiu asked in a surprised tone.
“Yes, Senior, we are the only ones left.” The skinny Immortal King that Di Jiu had cast aside caught up to him and answered in a bootlicking tone.
When Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force swept past the three of them, he could see clearly that their cultivations weren’t even at one percent of their capacity. Two of them were Immortal Supremacies, while the other was an Immortal King.
“Tell me, what’s going on in this place?” Di Jiu looked at the three skinny men.
“I will explain.” The man who had called Di Jiu a newcomer took the initiative and cupped his fists before Di Jiu.
However, Di Jiu felt the threat of looming death as soon as that man cupped his fists. He was plotting against Di Jiu. At the late-stage Immortal Supremacy Realm, he could have done that easily if his cultivation hadn’t deteriorated. However, Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force had already covered this entire place, so this man was courting death by plotting against him.
Di Jiu threw a punch without hesitation. He could kill this man with a single slap, as most of his cultivation had already deteriorated. However, Di Jiu was angered by his scheming nature, which was why he attacked him furiously. He would never give a piece of s.h.i.+t like him a chance to reincarnate.
Di Jiu had nothing against this man, or even any intention of killing him. However, since he had started plotting against him, he wouldn’t show him any mercy.
Boom! A mountainous fist swept through the air and the threat of looming death suddenly changed target. The skinny Immortal Supremacy was shocked as he yelled, “Impossible! How could you possibly sense…”
In his opinion, even though most of his cultivation had deteriorated, his chance of successfully killing a weakling like Di Jiu was almost 90%.
However, by the time he shot his Bee Stinger Needle, Di Jiu’s fist wind was already cras.h.i.+ng towards him.
Pfft! He was blown into a dark, b.l.o.o.d.y mist. His Princ.i.p.al Spirit was also reduced to nothing by a second fist wind as soon as it appeared. Even his soul wasn’t spared.
The other Immortal Supremacy s.h.i.+vered uncontrollably when he saw Di Jiu killing Yuan Bao, who had tried to plot against him, with a single fist move. He quickly bowed and said, “Senior, I never thought of plotting against you. I had nothing to do with Yuan Bao.”
He didn’t even think of protecting himself when he said that. Given Di Jiu’s strength, if he wanted to kill him, any resistance would be futile.
“Senior, I’m just a doorkeeper working for them. I had nothing to do with Yuan Bao either.” The Immortal King that Di Jiu had flung away, Xu Gongli, also bowed down and declared his innocence.
“So, what’s going on in this place?” Di Jiu said flatly.
The Immortal Supremacy quickly replied, “I’ll answer your question, Senior. I am Hu Hou. Many of my friends call me Hu Qidao because my Dharma treasure is a saber.” (‘Qidao’ literally means ‘seven sabers’)
“Stop wasting time and tell me the important parts,” said Di Jiu impatiently.
“Yes, yes…” Hu Hou immediately responded several times before continuing carefully. “I heard that the Pure Heaven Saber Gold had appeared in the Lunar Immortal Sea, so I quickly came here to look for it so that I could refine a saber…”
Di Jiu didn’t bother scolding this guy anymore after finding out that he was looking for Pure Heaven Saber Gold. Both Pure Heaven Saber Gold and Violet Aqua Sand were treated as level-nine blacksmithing materials in the Cultivation World. In fact, neither of them could be a.s.signed to a level, even in the Immortal World.
The reason they were so incredibly valuable and couldn’t be a.s.signed to a level was that a saber refined with both Pure Heaven Saber Gold and Violet Aqua Sand was capable of leveling up. His Heavenly Aqua Saber had initially been refined with these two materials and had now leveled up to a high-grade immortal weapon.
“I actually found the Pure Heaven Saber Gold after coming to the Lunar Immortal Sea. However, I encountered the Lunar Immortal Mist before I could obtain it. I was swept here and I only managed to enter this Immortal Array because I had some antidotes with me. When I came here, there were still seven people in this array. However, the poison mist had permeated the array and the entrance of the array couldn’t be closed. That’s how my body ended up like this. All the other people had already died, and both Yuan Bao and Xu Gongli only came here after me…”
Hu Hou was still looking at Di Jiu with fear when he was done explaining. He was sure that Di Jiu was not an Immortal King yet. It was insane that Di Jiu was so powerful, despite the fact that he hadn’t even attained the Immortal King Realm.
Di Jiu frowned and asked, “Then why did you guys have to steal the rings?”
He could cultivate in this place, but he didn’t believe that Hu Hou could do the same.
Xu Gongli was worried that he would be considered worthless if he didn’t say anything. Thus, he quickly answered before Hu Hou could speak, “They were looking for antidotes in the newcomers’ rings. Actually, we wouldn’t live much longer, even if you didn’t come here, Senior.”
Xu Gongli was trying to tell Di Jiu that it wouldn’t make a difference if he killed them or not.
Di Jiu nodded and asked, “What’s in the center of this array?”
Hu Hou quickly answered the question before Xu Gongli could say anything, “Senior, the center of this array is an impenetrable zone with a radius of several dozen feet. I have been here the longest, yet I haven’t been able to get inside it either.”
Di Jiu spent a long time questioning them. However, even though he found out that this array had existed for a long time, there wasn’t any other valuable information. He kept the ring he found on the ground and waved his hand while saying, “You can go now. Don’t disturb me.”
“Yes, yes…” Hu Hou and Xu Gongli didn’t dare to waste Di Jiu’s time. Thus, they quickly went away. They would rather be as far away from him as possible.
Di Jiu walked towards the array core. Even his Spiritual Force couldn’t permeate the core, so he kept wondering what it was.
When Di Jiu was several dozen feet away from the array core, he suddenly sensed a familiar aura. ‘Is this the remnant aura of the Sacred Yin Pearl?’
Di Jiu found out soon enough that there was indeed a trace of the Sacred Yin Pearl’s remnant aura in the core. The Sacred Yin Pearl was currently in his Spiritual Sea. If its remnant aura was here, it meant that the pearl had once been in the core.
Other people’s Spiritual Force couldn’t enter the core, and no one could enter the core physically either. However, that didn’t mean that Di Jiu couldn’t do it.
Di Jiu sat at the array core and began circulating his Nomological Qi to capture the nomological aura in the surroundings.
He captured numerous mysterious and esoteric Dao forces. In just a few days, his Spiritual Force could already permeate the core of the array. There was another restriction in the core, and its level was extremely high.
If Di Jiu hadn’t possessed the Ninth Dao Law, he would never have wasted any effort on this unrewarding task. This restriction had definitely surpa.s.sed a level-nine Immortal Array. Moreover, Di Jiu would feel extremely dizzy every time his Spiritual Force came in contact with a new Foundation Order.
Di Jiu knew very well why this was happening. It was because the level of the Array Dao laws in this place was too high. Even though he possessed the Ninth Dao Law, his proficiency in the Array Dao and his cultivation level were too low.
While Di Jiu was comprehending the esoteric, complicated array engravings, his proficiency in the Array Dao was progressing rapidly, even though he couldn’t capture a single Foundation Order.
After just half a year, Di Jiu’s proficiency in the Array Dao transcended a level-eight Immortal Array Supremacy and he became a level-nine Immortal Array Emperor. He also captured the first Foundation Order at the same time.
The first step was always the hardest. However, now that Di Jiu had made some progress, he quickly captured the second Foundation Order. Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force permeated the esoteric restriction and found the array foundation just three days after he captured the first Foundation Order.
This restriction was so powerful that, even though Di Jiu had captured the Foundation Order of the array, he wasn’t capable of breaking it open in a short time because he was restricted by his cultivation level.
He could break open the restriction if he spent a lot of time on the task, but he didn’t have the luxury of time.
As long as he knew where the array foundation was, he could break open the restriction by force. No matter how strong the restriction was, it wouldn’t last very long due to the low concentration of Immortal Spirit Qi in the air. Furthermore, Di Jiu had a feeling that this restriction was partially broken, as if someone had torn it open before.
Di Jiu was right. After he started breaking open the restriction by force, it took just a day before it cracked open. Then, Di Jiu was astonished by what he saw.
There was only a dried-up pool of blood and a locked-up skeleton in front of him.
Di Jiu could tell who this fellow was just by taking a quick glance at the skeleton. The person this skeleton belonged to was the weak Princ.i.p.al Spirit that he had run into when he had obtained the Sacred Yin Pearl.