The cultivator’s expressions changed dramatically, even his pupils enlarged from shock. This was the Law of Time, it definitely was the Law of Time.
At this moment, he could no longer care about anything else. Madly burning his longevity, he wanted to expand his Sea of Consciousness forcibly to gain more power during this life and death crisis. Even if his Sea of Consciousness shattered and he ran out of longevity, he had to break out from the constraints imposed by the instantaneous pause in time. He also understood that this attack was not precisely formed by the Laws of Time; if it truly were something created by the Laws of Time, then even his thoughts would have come to a standstill, and he couldn’t have done anything.
However, even if it was just formed from the superficial knowledge about the Laws of Time, he still couldn’t resist it.
“Katcha…..” He finally broke free from Sunset’s Twilight cast by Ning Cheng, his Celestial Essence also started to circulate, and the world around him once again came alive. More importantly, he was no longer stationary.
However, a spear suddenly materialised and pierced through his glabella. Time around him once again came to a standstill.
Ning Cheng held on to the spear weakly, which barely allowed him to stand. He had truly won through luck this time. If this fellow had decided to attack him despite the explosions of array formations around him, Ning Cheng would have never obtained this opportunity. Moreover, if the array formations arranged were not Grade-5 Celestial River Array Formations, but instead Grade-4 Celestial Array Formations, such an opportunity would have never arisen.
Even if he used Sunset’s Twilight in that situation, it would only allow him to escape at most, and he absolutely would not be able to kill such a stalwart fellow.
The heavens did not have any ‘ifs’.
“Laws of Time, you are that Jiangzhou’s Wanderer from the Nine-by-nine Celestial Scryer Tower…..” The cultivator hoa.r.s.ely spoke up while pointing at him; however, his voice grew weaker with each pa.s.sing moment.
Although Ning Cheng had changed his appearance into that of an old man, after the two of them clashed with their Celestial Essence and Spiritual Consciousness, he had already realised that Ning Cheng was not very old. A supposedly young cultivator touching the surface of the Laws of Time; if it was not Jiangzhou’s Wanderer who took the top spot at the Nine-by-nine Celestial Scryer Tower and became famous throughout the entire Grand Culmination Starry Skies, who else could achieve such a feat?
“I won’t spare you…..” The cultivator spoke those last words with a hoa.r.s.e roar, intending to separate his already injured Life Essence.
Ning Cheng knew what the other party wanted to do and sneered, “So what if you stepped into the Heaven Seated Realm? Did you think that the Life Essence of someone in the Heaven Seated Realm would actually have any effect on me?”
During conversations, several Spiritual Consciousness attacks immediately locked in on the already injured Life Essence.
“You…..” When this cultivator’s Life Essence found itself targeted by Ning Cheng’s Spiritual Consciousness attacks, it suddenly descended into despair. He knew that he was finished.
“Let me go. I am Celestial River King Shang Mouliang of the Shang Mou Celestial River. If you kill me, Heavenly Emperor Levelled Heart would not let you go…..” The Life Essence desperately made an effort.
Ning Cheng paused in surprise, causing his Spiritual Consciousness attacks to stop. He immediately asked, “Are you really Shang Mouliang?”
Seeing that Ning Cheng seemed to know him, Shang Mouliang felt a glimmer of hope and spoke up eagerly, “Yes, yes, I am indeed Shang Mouliang, the Celestial River King of Shang Mou Celestial River.,,,,”
Ning Cheng really didn’t think that he would accidentally avenge Shi Yulan. However, he immediately became excited the next moment, as he recalled that Shang Mouliang had a True Spirit World. The True Spirit World that Shang Mouliang had grabbed from Shi Yulan. If he killed Shang Mouliang, wouldn’t the True Spirit World belong to him now? Regardless of whether he would return the True Spirit World to Shi Yulan in the future, he really lacked such a thing currently.
The Exploding Golden Wasps and Chasing Bull could only remain in the Miniature World that he had placed in the Minor Five-element Array Formation within the Mysterious Yellow Bead under extremely high-risk conditions, which was not a permanent solution.
“Were you the one who deliberately sent out the Metal Origin Crystal? What did you want to do using such actions?” Ning Cheng gave a snort and took out a crystal wrapped in a layer of Exotic Desolate Extreme Essence.
Shang Mouliang’s heart sank once again. It initially looked like Ning Cheng had not killed him because of him being Shang Mouliang. But now, he realised that he had ended up smashing his own foot with his own rock.
“If you’re willing to let go of my Life Essence, I will definitely tell you everything,” Shang Mouliang still kept hoping that Ning Cheng would spare his life.
Ning Cheng spoke up with disdain, “If you don’t want to say, then you can go die…..”
While talking, Ning Cheng’s Spiritual Consciousness Blades drew closer, lessening the s.p.a.ce between it and the target.
Shang Mouliang’s Life Essence felt a cold chill run down its back, and no longer dared to ask for mercy before quickly speaking up, “I’ll speak. I have a True Spirit World……”
“Less nonsense, I asked why you deliberately took out this crystal.” Although Ning Cheng cast the Sunset’s Twilight, his exhausted Celestial Essence had gradually recovered; moreover, he was not in a hurry to destroy Shang Mouliang’s Life Essence.
“Yes, yes.” Shang Mouliang replied, “I originally found some Metal Origin Crystals, I wanted to use them to see if anyone else was also looking for Origins. I already had obtained a Metal Origin Bead, if I could obtain the rest of the five elemental origins, I could use them to upgrade the True Spirit World into a quasi-Primal Chaos World. Something far more powerful compared to the True Spirit World……”
Shang Mouliang had actually obtained the Metal Origin Bead and was even eagerly searching for the rest of the Origin beads. From the looks of it, he planned to get the search for the Origin Beads by tracking down the cultivators looking for them. In any case, it was also how he got the Metal Origin Bead. One had to say, Shang Mouliang did not have the wrong idea. The cultivators wanting to get their hands on the Origin Beads or had obtained them, almost all of them would keep their existence a secret but would keep track of everything related to it.
He believed that if there was a cultivator who coveted the Metal Origin Bead, he could take the initiative to lure them out, in the hopes of obtaining information. Moreover, because he also had got too many Metal Origin Crystals, he wanted to use them to test out this method. As for whether this method worked or not in his favour, he did not pay much attention to it.
Over the years, several cultivators came looking for his whereabouts while tracking the movement of the Metal Origin Crystals. However, these cultivators only came for either the Metal Origin Bead or more Origin Crystal. None of them had any information about the other Origin Beads. But since these cultivators came to look for his whereabouts, he naturally erased them all.
“What! You said you have the Metal Origin Bead?!” Ning Cheng interrupted Shang Mouliang’s words in shock. Originally, Ning Cheng only wanted to ask Shang Mouliang about the location from where he obtained his Metal Origin Crystals. He never expected that Shang Mouliang would actually have the Metal Origin Bead.
Shang Mouliang’s Life Essence felt like it had suddenly fallen in the depths of an icy cavern. This cultivator in front of him truly came for the Metal Origin Bead. I also proved that there were also other people actively looking for his Metal Origin Bead, just as he thought of looking for the other Origin Beads.
“I have the Metal Origin Bead; as long as you let me go, my True Spirit World and the Metal Origin Bead, both would be yours. Moreover, my Shang Mou Celestial River also has a lot of treasures, you can take them all……” Shang Mouliang, at this moment, only had a single wish. To somehow force Ning Cheng to leave his Life Essence alone and not killing him.
Ning Cheng showed a sneer, “Your True Spirit World? Do you still have any shame? You robbed that True Spirit World from my friend Shi Yulan. Today, I’m going to avenge my friend.”
“You’re Shi Yulan’s friend?” Celestial River King Shang Mou’s Life Essence completely lost all hope. Since this person was that Shi Yulan’s friend, then this fellow most likely came here looking for revenge.
“Yes, now die for me.” Ning Cheng finally extracted everything from this fellow. Trapped by the Spiritual Consciousness Blades, the Celestial River Flame directly annihilated Shang Mouliang’s Life Essence into nothingness. As for the Celestial River King Shang Mou’s claim that his Shang Mou Celestial River had a lot of good things, Ning Cheng did not believe it at all. Since this Celestial River King Shang Mou had a True Spirit World, then he definitely would carry all his valuable treasures with him.
After destroying Celestial River King Shang Mou, Ning Cheng raised his hand and grabbed his storage ring, and let his Spiritual Consciousness seep inside it.
Sure enough, his Spiritual Consciousness couldn’t seep into it. Most likely, this storage ring was the True Spirit World. With Celestial River King Shang Mou’s cultivation, plus with him refining this True Spirit World for so many years, if Ning Cheng wanted to make this True Spirit World his own, then it would not be possible in just a short time.
When Shi Yulan’s ancestors obtained this True Spirit World, most likely, even if they refined it for many generations, it could only be used as an ordinary Miniature World at best. Unless the True Spirit World itself took the initiative to acknowledge a master, no one would be able to refine this True Spirit World without at least a Celestial Scryer Cultivation.
Ning Cheng did not immediately start refining the True Spirit World. Moreover, since he killed Celestial River King Shang Mou here, then this place should be the safest place for now. Before heading out to search for the Purple Yin Spirit Spring, Ning Cheng decided to stay here for some time. At the very least, he should consume all the resources around him.
Although Ning Cheng had given a significant portion of the Perpetual Moon Pills to Qionghua and Luofei, he still had a million or two left. With so many Perpetual Moon Pills, plus the vibrant starry sky Essence Qi in this place, he definitely could further advance his cultivation. Moreover, Ning Cheng confirmed that not a single trace of the aura from the inside could leak outside. Maybe he could use this opportunity to enter the Mysterious Yellow Bead for cultivation.
……
Two months later, Ning Cheng finally finished reading the foundations of artefact crafting that Zhongli Baichi had given to him. At this time, he finally understood the preciousness of this book.
To be exact, this book’s name, the Foundations of Artefact-crafting, simply didn’t fit it at all. Rather, only the first time that one looked at this book could it be referred to as the Foundations of Artefact-crafting. Every time after that, the contents inside the book would deepen by another level, and would involve a much broader spectrum of information.
After reading this book, Ning Cheng finally understood what Shang Mouliang meant when he mentioned the quasi-Primal Chaos World. Once one collected and integrated five Origins within the True Spirit World, or gathered and combined the elemental essences of the five elements, both could help evolve it into a quasi-Primal Chaos World. However, it was just too difficult to gather the five types of Origins or the elemental essences.
Despite the level of difficulty, Ning Cheng understood Shang Mouliang’s approach. He, just like Shang Mouliang, wanted to gather the five Origins. Although the True Spirit World indeed was infinitely more sophisticated compared to a Miniature World, even the True Spirit World might not be able to prevent the Spiritual Consciousness of real powerhouses from seeping inside of it.
The True Spirit World, in fact, was equivalent to a planet with a higher-level of governing laws. However, a Primal Chaos World was something entirely different from it, its mere existence went beyond that of any world within this plane. Once the Primal Chaos World took form, even if it were a quasi-Primal Chaos World, most likely even those powerhouses beyond the Eternal Realm would not be able to pry into it with their Spiritual Consciousness.
Yet his Mysterious Yellow Bead itself was a Good Fortune Treasure, once he managed to gather all the five types of Origins, it would form its own Good Fortune World inside of it. This existence went beyond that of the Primal Chaos World. Therefore, once he obtained the Metal Origin Bead, it would mean that he had gathered four types of Origin Beads. Looks like he was only a step away from collecting all five types of Origins.
Although this knowledge greatly benefitted Ning Cheng, the thing that made him much more excited was that he also learned about the method of upgrading the Twin Wings of the Heavenly Cloud to the next level. Moreover, by the time he reached the end of the book, he also saw the detailed and intricate descriptions about various crafting methods along with the raw materials needed for crafting several top-grade weapons.
Among all that information, it even contained the method to refine[1] the Good Fortune Spirit Spear[2], which required Twilight Sand, Opening Heaven Metal Source, and the Five Elements Spirit Water.
Ning Cheng felt ecstatic on learning this; moreover, he already had the Twilight Sand with him. However, after reading about the Opening Heaven Metal Source, his excitement substantially declined.
According to the description in the book, Opening Heaven Metal Source was something that formed during the birth of heaven and earth. It was the first piece of Essence Metal formed by the condensation and contraction of the Primal Chaos Aura during the creation of the universe. It sounded like a treasure that was no worse than the five elemental Origins. Where would he even obtain such a thing?
If the Opening Heaven Metal Source caused Ning Cheng to feel somewhat hopeless, then reading the description of the Five Elements Spirit Water caused Ning Cheng to dispel the idea of refining this spear completely.
[1] I’m not sure if the author means those materials are required to ‘craft’ the spear or ‘refine’ the spear. Therefore, I just left it as refine for the time being.
[2] Once again the different item grades till now are: Normal/Ordinary, Spiritual, True, Dao, Spirit/Divine.