When Ning Cheng came out, Shi Yulan’s song suddenly came to a stop, and she spoke out with a face full of surprise, “Senior Apprentice Brother Ning, have you recovered?”
Ning Cheng smiled, “Yeah, it’s just that my Spiritual Consciousness still feels slightly exhausted. Let me take control of the battleship. We shouldn’t be too far from the Man Lun Star Land.”
“Yes, with our current speed, we should reach the Man Lun Star Land in a maximum of two months.” Lan Ya stood up and answered with a smile.
After that, she thought of supplementing it with another sentence and spoke up, “But we’re also very close to the Bell Edge Star. We can reach it in a few days.”
“We don’t have to go to the Bell Edge Star, so you don’t have to worry about it.” Ning Cheng replied with a smile.
Lan Ya did not smile. She looked at Ning Cheng and spoke with full seriousness, “Ning Cheng, Junior Apprentice Sister Yulan, and I have decided to leave and go to the Bell Edge Star. From now on, we want to continue on as starry skies’ wanderers.”
Ning Cheng’s smile faltered before he spoke up after a short pause, “Are you serious about it? Do you not want to head to the Time Wilderness?”
“Senior Apprentice Brother Ning, the fact is that we have been thinking about it for a long while. We just wanted to wait for you to come out before breaching it.” Shi Yulan spoke up without showing any change in her expression.
Lan Ya gave out a sigh and spoke, “Ning Cheng, what do you think would happen to us in the Time Wilderness with our cultivation? Even if I can walk with you, it would only bring you more harm. As starry skies’ cultivators, we cannot always rely on you. Originally, Yulan and I intended to come out of Time Wilderness first before taking our leave. However, facing that rat tide, we decided to leave now. After we go, please take care of yourself.”
Ning Cheng could see that Lan Ya and Shi Yulan had already made up their minds and gave out a sigh. Although he wanted Lan Ya and Shi Yulan to follow him into the Time Wilderness, Lan Ya also hit a point with her words. After entering the Time Wilderness, they might not even appear at the same location. With the cultivation of Lan Ya and Shi Yulan, entering the Time Wilderness would only be inviting death for the two of them.
Lan Ya and Shi Yulan were not Ji Luofei or Shi Qionghua and had nothing to do with him. He also had no right to ask them to do anything for him. A starry skies’ cultivator had their own decisions to make and had to walk their own path.
Thinking of this, Ning Cheng took out a ring and handed it to Lan Ya. “Senior Apprentice Sister Lan, there are 2 billion Green Coins in this along with a good battleship. Just take it.”
Lan Ya put on the ring and smiled, “I know that you are rich. I won’t be polite then.”
Ning Cheng took out a jade box and handed it to Shi Yulan, “Junior Apprentice Sister Yulan. The past has already pa.s.sed. I hope that we can still meet in the future one day. This is for you; maybe it might help you a little.”
Shi Yulan received the jade box. Looking at Ning Cheng for a long while, she then took out and put on veil before speaking, “Senior Apprentice Brother Ning, take care of yourself.”
As for Ning Cheng, speaking about hopes of meeting in the future someday, Shi Yulan did not say anything. She knew that they most likely would never end up meeting in the future. The starry skies were both vast and boundless. Not to mention being just Celestial Scryer Cultivators, even if they managed to become Starry Skies’ Emperors, the chance of them meeting would be extremely remote.
Not to mention that they were entering the starry skies as wanderers. As such, one could even argue if they could live to see tomorrow.
……
Watching Lan Ya and Shi Yulan take control of the battleship and leave, Ning Cheng felt a deep melancholy in his heart. After entering the starry skies, although he did not have many friends, all of them ended up leaving for various reasons.
Without the rat tide, the four of them could have entered the Time Wilderness together. However, out of the four people, he was the only person left.
As Lan Yan and Shi Yulan sat in the battleship, Ning Cheng’s farewell words resounded within their ears, “Just as the heavens have their cliffs, the earth has its corners, good friends also scatter, the life seldom gives such joyful opportunities, only to separate them once again……”
[TL Note – I know I might have butchered the verse, but I tried to keep it as close to the original as possible.]
As Lan Ya and Shi Yulan kept repeating Ning Cheng’s words, their hearts also filled with melancholy. In just a short time, Ning Cheng’s voice disappeared; even Ning Cheng’s battleship vanished from the range of their Spiritual Consciousness.
……
The sadness and melancholy of parting gradually subsided as Ning Cheng felt his mind wander sitting on the deck of the Celestial River Battleship. A while ago, Ning Cheng’s gloomy mood finally showed improvements as the just-hatched Void Exploding Golden Wasp King stood on the palm of his hand.
His Void Exploding Golden Wasp had finally hatched. Although it was still an infant, its body was almost half a foot long. This Exploding Golden Wasp’s Wasp King had a pale yellow body along with a pair of thin almost invisible wings. The Exploding Golden Wasp King kept jumping from Ning Cheng’s hand to Ning Cheng’s shoulder and then from Ning Cheng’s shoulder to the deck, revealing its joyous mood along with a reliance on Ning Cheng.
“Haha….” Ning Cheng finally laughed. He obtained his own starry skies’ beast at last.
He could not help but fantasise a little in his head. If he encountered a vast starry skies’ beast horde while travelling through the starry skies wielding his Twin Wings of the Heavenly Cloud, he could just wave a hand, and countless even more horrifying Explosive Golden Wasps could suddenly appear around him. Ning Cheng would not have to do anything and just stand on the side as he watched the Explosive Golden Wasp Colony made short work of those beast tides.
The Explosive Golden Wasps could also absorb the starry skies’ Essence Qi like the other demonic beasts from the void. As such, it was not that difficult to raise a swarm of Explosive Golden Wasps. However, to evolve the swarm of Exploding Golden Wasps into a high-level wasp colony would be much more difficult.
As Ning Cheng thought of the endless cultivation resources that would disappear as food for the Explosive Golden Wasps, his happy mood started to fall once again. Poverty, would he ever break out of his monetary woes?
……
Jing Wuming had already left; Lan Ya and Shi Yulan had also decided to move on. Now Ning Cheng only had the Explosive Golden Wasp’s Wasp King as his company, which also meant that the wasp was the only living creature with which Ning Cheng could communicate.
Ning Cheng talked with the Explosive Golden Wasp King all the time, allowing the time to pa.s.s by quickly. He even gave the Void Exploding Golden Wasp King a name, Graceful Star. This name was also to treasure the few fond memories he had from the Graceful Star Mainland.
In less than two months, a vast planet appeared within the range of Ning Cheng’s Spiritual Consciousness. This planet did not even look like a regular sphere and looked like a colossal mainland suspended in s.p.a.ce from afar.
The starry skies of the universe really was a strange place, to have such kind of a suspended Star Land.
Ning Cheng put away the Exploding Golden Wasp King and controlled the Celestial River Battleship to arrive just outside of this colossal star land. Once reaching, Ning Cheng could not help but marvel at the size of this star land. Was this star land not dozens of times larger than the entirety of the Orchid Borough Star?
Moreover, to enter the planet, one had to obtain an Ident.i.ty Jade Card. Outside the Ident.i.ty Card Processing Office in the star land, Ning Cheng saw several large words floating in the sky, spelling out ‘Man Lun Star Land’.
Although Ning Cheng had parked his knockoff Celestial River Battleship next to many real Celestial River-cla.s.s Battleships, it at least did not look too shabby.
In this place, Ning Cheng finally experienced the saying, ‘experts like floating clouds’. If one could choose to single out any arbitrary cultivator in this place, one will find that they at least had a few Celestial Wheels suspended behind them. Cultivators like Ning Cheng, who had no Celestial Wheel, were just too rare.
“What can I help you with?” Ning Cheng had just walked up to a window when a crisp and pleasant sounding voice rang out in Ning Cheng’s ear.
A very pretty looking female cultivator kept her eyes trained on Ning Cheng while wearing a smile over her face, displaying a friendly att.i.tude.
“h.e.l.lo, I am from Orchid Borough Celestial River’s Revolving Jade City…..”
Hearing Ning Cheng’s words, the pretty-looking female cultivator asked out in surprise, “I heard that the Orchid Borough Celestial River’s battleship encountered a starry skies’ Spirit Devouring Rat Tide midway and ended up with a lot of casualties, you….”
She honestly felt surprised that Ning Cheng had managed to escape from the Spirit Devouring Rat Tide with such low cultivation. However, the pretty-looking female cultivator realised that her words were somewhat impolite and quickly spoke up, “I really meant to congratulate you for escaping from the Spirit Devouring Rat Horde and reaching the Man Lun Star Land. Man Lun Star Land definitely welcomes you! If you are one of the cultivators qualified to enter the Time Wilderness, you can directly enter the Man Lun Star Land with your partic.i.p.ation jade card. No need to apply for another Ident.i.ty Jade Card.”
“Many thanks, Senior Apprentice Sister.” Ning Cheng on hearing this felt slightly happy.
Seeing Ning Cheng turn around to leave, the pretty-looking female cultivator quickly called out to Ning Cheng, “Please wait; I will still have to verify your partic.i.p.ation jade card….”
Ning Cheng took out his partic.i.p.ation jade card and handed it over. The pretty-looking female cultivator’s Spiritual Consciousness swept over the jade card before she looked at Ning Cheng and spoke with a smile, “Oh, you are Ning Cheng?”
“Yes, what the matter?” Ning Cheng looked at this female cultivator while feeling puzzled. He had just arrived at the Man Lun Star Land. Logically speaking, there should be no one here who would recognise him.
The pretty-looking female cultivator quickly replied, “Nothing serious. A fairy by the name of Ruan Mingshu had left a message here for you. She said that if you manage to reach this place, please head over to the Man Lun Star Land’s Perpetual Calm Resting Pen in Lucky Heaven City and meet with her.”
After that, she handed the partic.i.p.ation jade card back to Ning Cheng.
Ning Cheng thanked her and left while giving out a deep sigh in his heart. Sure enough, this woman had already made her way to the Man Lun Star Land. Her message most likely was just an off-handed move. She must have not expected that not only had he survived, he even would manage to reach Man Lun Star Land. Although Ruan Mingshu had escaped alone, without even any warning, it was not something that Ning Cheng felt out of the ordinary. As such, he felt no anger over such actions.
If it were Jing Wuming or Lan Ya who had escaped without even saying a word, Ning Cheng would have felt slightly sad in his heart. However, since it was Ruan Mingshu, he did not feel anything. The Ruan Clan and Ning Cheng only had a cooperation agreement between them, without any friendship involved.
Ning Cheng did not plan on living in the Perpetual Calm Resting Pen. However, he still would go meet Ruan Mingshu on account of her ‘invitation’. After all, Ning Cheng still owed someone a Grade 4 Celestial River Array Disc. Moreover, Ning Cheng also had a few questions that he needed to ask Ruan Mingshu about the Time Wilderness.
……
The Lucky Heaven City was Man Lun Star Land’s main city, primarily because the Man Lun Starry Skies’ Emperor had chosen to reside in this city. After Ning Cheng entered the Lucky Heaven City, he immediately felt the difference from the Revolving Jade City, the centre of Orchid Borough Celestial River.
As the central city of the Man Lun Starry Skies, the Lucky Heaven City had a very open construction. Even though the ‘city’ housed a lot more cultivators than the usual, Lucky Heaven City did not appear crowded.
What Ning Cheng worried about the most before entering the central city of the Man Lun Starry Skies was about not finding a place to stay due to the upcoming Man Lun Starry Skies’ Celestial Scryer Genius Tryouts.
However, after entering the open and starry skies’ Essence Qi-rich city, Ning Cheng realised his fears had no basis. Although this city contained many cultivators, there were equally many places to live. In just a short time, he found a place called Celestial Rainbow Resting Pen to stay.
Ning Cheng did not decide to live in the resting pen immediately. He first bought a jade strip containing the map of the Lucky Heaven City. Following that, Ning Cheng located the Perpetual Calm Resting Pen from the map, before immediately headed to the Perpetual Calm Resting Pen.
At the Perpetual Calm Resting Pen, Ning Cheng had not even asked the resting pen’s attendant about Ruan Mingshu’s room when he saw Ruan Mingshu walk out with a smile and accompanied by a handsome-looking male cultivator.
“Junior Apprentice Sister Mingshu, what a coincidence.” Ning Cheng called out with a smile.
Ruan Mingshu, on seeing Ning Cheng standing at the resting pen’s door, suddenly had a change in expression. Quickly switching to a pleasantly surprised expression, she spoke up, “Senior Apprentice Brother Ning, you…..”
Ning Cheng acted as if he had not seen the person standing next to Ruan Mingshu and spoke up, rather loudly, with the same smile over his face, “Right, Junior Apprentice Sister Mingshu, are we still staying together in a room?”