t
Ning Cheng followed the rest of the people into the Crow Star and immediately realised that his Spiritual Consciousness was once again different compared to others. Warren had said that one’s Spiritual Consciousness could only extend to a range of approximately ten miles at most. However, he could quickly sweep to a hundred miles around him using his Spiritual Consciousness without putting any effort. Some of the broken restrictions couldn’t even stop him at all. If he were to extend his Spiritual Consciousness’s range forcibly, Ning Cheng would be able to reach even further.
Looks like his Sea of Consciousness was much superior to that of the others, Ning Cheng mused to himself.
Although Ning Cheng did not have any clarity about the exact scope of the Crow’s Nest in its prime, after coming inside, he only saw potholes, ravines mixed up with collapsed mountains and rivers everywhere his eyes could see. From this, he could speculate that a lot of cultivators used to live in this place. Not only that, when the Crow Star finally started to crumble, it definitely involved apocalyptic levels of destruction.
Yu Wanxue seemed to have a good familiarity with this place, although she did not use any flight-type weapons in this place, she swiftly moved through the area without any misstep. Not only did she not stop even for a moment, even her speed gradually increased.
Ning Cheng had initially thought that Warren was the one who initiated the search for Daoist Crow’s Dao Confirming Insights, but it now looked like Yu Wanxue was the one who started it.
After the five of them rushed through the area for two days, Yu Wanxue suddenly stopped, and her expression quickly turned ugly.
“What happened? Junior Apprentice Sister Wanxue.” Warren asked in a hurry.
Yu Wanxue turned to Ning Cheng and said, “I thought that I was the only one who knew about this gorge. But with so many people already here, it looks like I’m not the only one who obtained this information.”
Hearing Yu Wanxue’s words, Warren felt a little lost. With so many people already here, even if they found what they were looking for, their chances to obtain it looked very slim.
Ning Cheng smiled, “I don’t think there is anything to worry about. Although there are many cultivators gathered here, I haven’t seen anyone else coming to this place on our way here. In any case, we all still have the same chances. Moreover, fortuitous occurrences are only in the hands of fate. It would not necessarily fall into the hands of those who came here first. Since we already came here, it’s better to go in and take a look at the situation.”
“Brother Cheng is right. There are lots of forks within this gorge, and we anyway have to go into the gorge personally to search for what we want. In any case, one can only obtain this treasure if one is destined for it. If there is no destined connection, then even if that treasure appeared in front of you, you would not necessarily know about it.” Warren immediately echoed Ning Cheng’s sentiment.
“Well, that’s that then.” Yu Wanxue was the first to rush inside; apparently, Ning Cheng and Warren’s words spurred her into action. One needed to have a destined connection with treasures to obtain them, if there was no destined connection, then even if you stood in front of a heap of riches, so what?
Ning Cheng also followed the rest into the gorge.
This gorge seemed to have a distinctive characteristic to it, the deeper one ventured inside, the more s.p.a.cious it became. Moreover, the deeper one went inside, the higher number of forks would one find within the gorge.
Entering the depths of the canyon, Ou Hongxin was the first to choose a fork and enter. Warren decided on a different fork, and half an hour later, Yu Wanxue decided to enter a different fork to explore.
In the end, only Ning Cheng and Dou Di were left.
Dou Di had the lowest cultivation among the five, only at the early stages of the Undead Realm. Even Ning Cheng had higher cultivation compared to her.
After the two went deeper into the gorge, Ning Cheng felt a faint sensation of water coming from one of the forks in front of him. Since his Mysterious Yellow Bead had already integrated with the Water Origin Bead, he had become a little more sensitive towards Water Aura compared to the average cultivator.
Since the moment he stepped foot onto the Crow Star, Ning Cheng had not seen even a drop of water anywhere within the Crow Star. Nor did he feel any hints of water. Now that he sensed a trace of water aura, Ning Cheng immediately wanted to head inside and explore.
Just when Ning Cheng wanted to speak a few words before parting ways with Dou Di, Dou Di suddenly stopped and spoke, “Brother Cheng, please wait.”
Ning Cheng already had intentions to stop and split ways, and now that Dou Di called out to him, he immediately stopped and asked a question in doubt, “Junior Apprentice Sister Dou, what’s the matter?”
Dou Di hesitated for a little while before speaking up, “Brother Cheng, even though you recently joined our team, I feel that you’re a little more reliable compared to Ou Hongxin. I initially wanted to ask Ou Hongxin to cooperate, but if Brother Cheng feels willing, I would like to work with you.”
“What’s this about working together? Besides, aren’t we already working together?” Ning Cheng asked with a bewildered look over his face.
Dou Di spoke up directly, “Brother Cheng, I know some secrets about Daoist Crow. I had intended to return sometime later, but the news about this place has already leaked outside, which brought in a lot of cultivators to this place. Because of this, I have to push my plans forward. If Brother Cheng swears to not harbour any disloyalty, I would willingly share those secrets with you and give it my all to work with Brother Cheng.”
Dou Di had a relatively pet.i.te figure, with average looks and thin yellowish hair. It gave her a very humble appearance. However, Ning Cheng didn’t pay much attention to it. It wasn’t until now that Ning Cheng actually observed Dou Di and even used his Spiritual Consciousness to probe her.
To Ning Cheng’s surprise, Dou Di exuded a faint demonic essence aura, unlike other average cultivators. However, this aura was very weak, if Ning Cheng had not taken the initiative to probe her with his Spiritual Consciousness, he would have never perceived it.
Ning Cheng gave a calm reply, “I can cooperate with anyone. As long as they do not have a bad heart and don’t scheme against me, I will also not do anything to them. However, I will never swear on such a thing. It’s not a matter of courage, it’s just that I don’t want to swear on this kind of thing. If you believe me, then we can cooperate; if you don’t believe me, then it would be better to go our separate ways. I don’t mind finding my own way within this gorge by myself.”
Hearing Ning Cheng speak about finding his way within the gorge, Dou Di’s eyes flashed with a slight surprise; however, this flash of surprise quickly disappeared. She then took the initiative to speak with Ning Cheng, “Brother Cheng, if I didn’t believe in you, I wouldn’t have said what I just said. I wonder, does Brother Cheng know about Daoist Crow’s most terrifying spirit technique? ”
“It should be something related to fire, I guess.” Ning Cheng spoke with no certainty. As he pondered over it, Daoist Crow was a fire-attributed demonic cultivator, who most likely also possessed a top-grade flame. Therefore, it would be quite reasonable for this fellow’s most powerful spirit technique to be a flame-related spirit technique.
Dou Di nodded, “That’s right, Daoist Crow’s most powerful technique is a flame-related Spirit Technique; however, no one knows what flame Daoist Crow used.”
“Isn’t it the Scarlet Crow Flame?” Ning Cheng asked with incredulity.
Dou Di spoke with a calm voice, “Although Daoist Crow had access countless tongues of Scarlet Crow Flame, the flame that he used was not the Scarlet Crow Flame but the Heaven Seizing Ancient Clouds[1].”
“Heaven Seizing Ancient Clouds?” Ning Cheng repeated the words in surprise. He now no longer was a person without any knowledge after reading through the book that Zhongli Baichi had given him.
Heaven Seizing Ancient Clouds was a top-grade flame spark, second only to his Celestial River Flame. His Celestial River Flame’s actual name was Celestial River Scarlet Flame and was ranked second within the entire vast expanse. Except for the non-existent first, one could actually consider his flame as the first listed flame within the whole vast expanse.
Moreover, the Heaven Seizing Ancient Clouds occupied the fifth position among all the flames within the vast universe. This kind of fire definitely was an existence that could not be ignored.
“Yes, it’s the Heaven Seizing Ancient Clouds. When Daoist Crow obtained the Heaven Seizing Ancient Clouds, he did everything possible to let his Heaven Seizing Ancient Clouds undergo nirvana. Moreover, the Fire Origin Bead undoubtedly is the best material for letting a flame experience nirvana; however, no one would think of using the Fire Origin Bead for such a purpose. But Daoist Crow was not like other people; other people might not think of using this object in such a way, but he actually had thoughts of using it. He even found the Fire Origin Bead, and……”
Ning Cheng immediately interrupted Dou Di’s words, “Are you saying that Daoist Crow actually used the Fire Origin Bead to let the Heaven Seizing Ancient Clouds achieve nirvana?”
Although he had obtained the Fire Origin Bead and even incorporated it into the Mysterious Yellow Bead, Ning Cheng felt a little sceptical about Dou Di’s words. Didn’t it mean that there was more than one Fire Origin Bead? That shouldn’t be the case though; from what he learned, every Origin Bead was a unique existence.
“Just keep listening.” Dou Di continued, “After Daoist Crow obtained the Fire Origin Bead, he wanted to use the Fire Origin to let his flame experience the most powerful form of nirvana. For that, he opened up a magma pool at the core of one of a planet with the highest density of fire, and then let the Fire Origin Bead into it to let it absorb all the Fire Origin Essence from the magma pool. Daoist Crow wanted to let his Heaven Seizing Ancient Clouds go through the process of nirvana within this fire pool. However, before he could do it, enemies swarmed the area. During the time when Daoist Crow battled against one of those enemies, the planet with the Fire Origin Bead ended up pushed into a Void Collapse due to the battle between the two of them. Since then, that planet could no longer be found.”
At this point, Dou Di gave out a sigh, “Later, Daoist Crow could only use the Golden Foetal Flame Bead to let his Heaven Seizing Ancient Clouds experience nirvana. The place I’m heading is one of the caves of Daoist Crow, it’s where he let his flame undergo nirvana. Although Daoist Crow used a lot of Golden Foetal Flame Beads, he should have stored the rest of them there. As long as you are willing to cooperate with me, we can split them in half. If we find anything else, we’ll still split the loot in half.”
Ning Cheng did not immediately reply to Dou Di’s request. Moreover, he also knew that the Golden Foetal Flame Bead was another top-grade treasure for letting a flame experience nirvana.
However, he was not thinking about the Golden Foetal Flame Bead right now, but about the Origin Fire Pool that Daoist Crow had opened up to let the Fire Origin Bead absorb the Origin Fire within it. In addition to feeling regretful, he felt more regret about his ignorance at that time. Ignorance could truly kill people.
When he obtained the Fire Origin Bead, why didn’t he think about that magma pool? Moreover, he had also seen that once he took away the Fire Origin Bead, the temperature of the magma pool had immediately dropped. Sensing that change, he had thought it to be worthless. He never expected that the magma pool would turn out even more precious compared to the Fire Origin Crystals. In fact, when it came to preciousness, it was second only to the Fire Origin Bead. However, now the magma pool was already hundreds of millions of miles away, should he go back for it?
At this moment, he even recalled a line: ‘there was once a supreme treasure that had appeared in front of someone, which that fellow had actually ignored it. If only he could get the change to redo that moment……
Would such an opportunity appear again?
“Brother Cheng…” Seeing Ning Cheng stand there with his fists clenched, eyebrows locked, seemingly lost in regret, Dou Di called out in doubt.
“I agree to work with you, and if we manage to obtain the Golden Foetal Flame Beads, each of us will keep half of the loot.” Ning Cheng returned to senses and spoke with some helplessness in his voice. Since Daoist Crow could make do with the Golden Foetal Flame Beads instead of the Origin Fire Pool’s nirvana-inducing flames, then he could also use it.
Dou Di immediately spoke up, “Ok, that place is through here. Once we reach that place, breaking in would require the two of us to join forces. One cannot break into that place alone.”
Saying that she stepped into the fork next to her within the gorge. Ning Cheng also followed her inside; in any case, it was also the same direction as felt the trace of water aura.
It didn’t take long for the two of them to reach a few more forks within the valley. Dou Di quickly selected one of the forks and stepped inside, while Ning Cheng also kept close behind her.
Moreover, Ning Cheng also felt that the forks that Dou Di selected were the forks that contained the most intense water aura. If it wasn’t for Dou Di working with him, Ning Cheng reckoned that he would have most likely taken the same route.
[1] The actual term is Heaven Seizing Senior Red Clouds but modified it to Heaven Seizing Ancient Clouds.