Ning Cheng felt a little perplexed. Lie Junfeng and Bei Xialan should have already left to somewhere as far away from this place as possible. It was already a stroke of luck that they met him today. If it were Rui Baishan, he would have killed them on the spot.
Ning Cheng, however, ignored the two. He looked at the dark-faced young man with a smile and said, “Were you the one who said something about Purple Light Treasure Essence?”
He already knew that this dark-faced youth had mentioned Purple Light Treasure Essence, but he still asked out of courtesy.
The dark-faced youth was only at the late-stage Celestial Gathering Realm. Therefore, his face immediately turned a little red with excitement after noticing Ning Cheng talk to him. He quickly replied, “Yes, yes, senior. I have a jade strip here. There’s an area in the Devouring Bone Sea marked with the words ‘Purple Light Treasure Essence’ on it. However, I don’t know what it is…..”
While speaking, the dark-faced youth handed over a jade strip to Ning Cheng with a very respectful att.i.tude.
Ning Cheng’s spiritual consciousness casually swept over the jade strip and understood that this youth hadn’t lied. This jade strip had the marks of time over it; moreover, he could tell that the person who marked this jade strip had decent cultivation. Which meant that it definitely had some truth to it.
“Thank you.” Ning Cheng put away the jade strip, took out a jade bottle, and handed it to the dark-faced youth.
“Many thanks, senior.” The youth immediately bowed and put away the jade bottle. However, he felt slightly disappointed. As long as he acc.u.mulated resources for some time, he could have managed to afford the contents in the jade bottle. It only contained Grade 3 Celestial Pills, with the only one function of healing injuries. As such, it wasn’t too valuable.
The people nearby also felt a little disappointed. They all thought that a senior like Ning Cheng would come up with some good things. None of them expected him to take out only a few healing pills.
Despite the slight disappointment, the dark-faced youth still felt very grateful. After all, even a few healing pills were a small fortune around these parts. Just after bowing and stepping back, Ning Cheng’s voice rang in his ears, “Among those pills, there is also a Harmonising Celestial Pill. Whether you can advance to the Celestial Bridge Realm or not, it would depend on your own fortune.”
The dark-faced youth trembled slightly before returning to normal. Forcibly resisting the surprise and excitement creeping up, the dark-faced young man quickly walked out of the merchant house.
He never imagined that he would obtain a Harmonising Celestial Pill. This pill could help a Celestial Gatherer cultivator advance to the Celestial Bridge Realm. Moreover, such pills were not something one could buy with celestial coins around these parts. Besides, even if someone sold it, he couldn’t afford it. Devouring Bone Sea was a gathering place of many Celestial Gathering rogue cultivators. And which one of them hadn’t come here looking for opportunities to advance to the Celestial Bridge Realm?
At this moment, he felt truly grateful towards Ning Cheng. He understood that Ning Cheng had protected him. If Ning Cheng had spoken about the Harmonising Celestial Pill openly, he most likely would not have survived to see the light of next day.
After obtaining news of Purple Light Treasure Essence, Ning Cheng decided to walk out towards the sea. Although he did see Lie Junfeng and Bei Xialan standing at the door, he didn’t speak. Instead, he ignored them and stepped out.
“Sect Master…..” Just when Ning Cheng stepped out of the merchant house, Lie Junfeng hurriedly called out after him.
Ning Cheng, however, didn’t stop and kept walking. He did speak a few cold words, “What? You’re no longer a disciple of Rainbow Fall Sword Sect, so don’t call me Sect Master.”
Lie Junfeng quickly stepped forward, “Senior, the reason we came to Devouring Bone Sea was due to a Positional Diagram Ball we obtained. Xialan and I no longer have any chance to explore this place, so we wanted to give this Positional Diagram Ball to you.”
Lie Junfeng no longer dared to call Ning Cheng as ‘Sect Master’ anymore. Instead, he changed his form of address to ‘senior’.
Ning Cheng received the Positional Diagram Ball from Lie Junfeng’s hands with a perplexed look. However, the moment his spiritual consciousness swept inside it, Ning Cheng’s expression changed slightly. It was actually a starry sky map.
This starry sky map looked similar to the Starry Sky Positional Diagram on his Starry Sky Wheel. In fact, it had much more detail. As Ning Cheng’s spiritual consciousness swept through it, it looked as if he was looking at a miniature version of the starry sky.
Ning Cheng quickly found the location of the Devouring Bone Sea on the miniature version of the planet. However, it did not have ‘Devouring Bone Star’ marked over it; instead, it merely indicated it as an uninhabited star. Inside this star, he saw a sea along with an area marked out inside the sea with two words, ‘One Piece[1]’.
According to this Starry Sky Positional Diagram, this unmanned star obviously was the Devouring Bone Star, and the sea was the Devouring Bone Sea. As long as one’s spiritual consciousness could communicate with this Starry Sky Positional Diagram Ball, they could easily find the location marked in the sea.
Lie Junfeng and Bei Xialan would have found it impossible to find this place through this star chart, especially with such low cultivations.
Ning Cheng’s spiritual consciousness finally left the Starry Sky Positional Diagram Ball in his hand and nodded, “This thing is useful to me. Besides, you wouldn’t be able to reach this place with your cultivations. I won’t take your things for nothing…”
While talking, Ning Cheng raised his hand and took out two medicinal pills.
As if possessing a will of their own, these two pills shot into Lie Junfeng and Bei Xialan’s mouths. A moment later, Lie Junfeng and Bei Xialan felt their shattered meridians starting to reconnect. Even their already dissipated celestial essence had started recovering.
The two instantly realised that this was the effect of a top-grade healing pill. If not for this medicinal pill, even reaching the peak of Heaven’s Mandate Realm, they would have never obtained such a miraculous medicinal pill.
In just a dozen breaths, the pill restored Lie Junfeng and Bei Xialan’s cultivation completely. At the same time, the meridians previously broken by Bright South Celestial River King finished reconnecting.
“Many thanks for the help.” Lie Junfeng fell to his knees and trembled with excitement. In all honesty, the moment Bright South Celestial River King walked in their lives, they both knew that the end was near for them. The two never expected to get a new lease at life.
Ning Cheng calmly spoke up, “Don’t thank me for this. I have nothing to do with you. It was merely an exchange of interests. With your temperament, if not for the exchange of interests, I wouldn’t have done anything to save you.”
Lie Junfeng pursed his lips and spoke up with a hoa.r.s.e tone, “I know that my ancestors already look down on me, and I indeed did some questionable things. But when Xialan and I fell in love in Rainbow Fall Sword Sect, Shen Wenyao had already forced Xialan into a marriage with him without her consent. Even Rui Baishan fully supported Shen Wenyao, so Xialan and I made plans to retaliate and then escape from the sect.”
Ning Cheng just waved his hand; the next moment, his body flickered and disappeared into the depths of the Devouring Bone Sea. He hated people like Lie Junfeng. To get revenge, Lie Junfeng used his woman to go undercover and then colluded with the enemy to attack his sect. For revenge, he put a green hat to cover up his oily black hair.
Seeing Ning Cheng just leave after restoring their cultivation, Lie Junfeng’s face looked a little gloomy. He only achieved half his purpose. He initially thought that Ning Cheng would protect them and even offer some benefits, but nothing of that sort happened.
“Junfeng, being able to recover our cultivation is already a blessing. Otherwise, we couldn’t leave Devouring Bone Star. We would have to stay here until our deaths.” After so many years of working with Lie Junfeng, Bei Xialan naturally understood Lie Junfeng’s thoughts.
Lie Junfeng’s expressions changed a few times before he finally gave a sigh and said, “Let’s leave, Xialan. One day, I will also stand at the top of the starry skies and let those who looked down on me and bullied me, to look at me Lie Junfeng as a powerhouse.”
……
After entering the Devouring Bone Sea, Ning Cheng encountered some whirlpools from time to time. These whirlpools had a strong rotational pull, and if one wasn’t careful, it could quickly suck someone into the sea.
No wonder people rarely came to the depths of the Devouring Bone Sea. If one did not have sufficient cultivation and tried to explore this area with just ordinary cultivation, one would find it almost impossible to survive. Especially if one encountered one of these whirlpools.
Even with Ning Cheng’s speed, it took him nearly two days to reach the location marked in the jade strip given to him by that dark-faced youth.
Only after reaching this place, did Ning Cheng finally understand why Purple Light Treasure Essence would form in this place? This was actually a volcanic island in the middle of the sea. Moreover, before Ning Cheng could even approach the edge of the island, he could clearly feel the waves of terrifying heat emanating from it.
The water at the edge of the island kept raging as the horrifying temperature of the island kept it in a superheated state. It also formed a vague layer of steam that covered the entire volcanic island. If it weren’t for the vast size of the Devouring Bone Sea, the heat from the edge of this volcanic island would have evaporated everything around it. Maybe even dry out the Devouring Bone Sea.
Ning Cheng finally stepped foot on this volcanic island and blocked out the horrifying temperature with his domain. But even then, Ning Cheng felt slightly uncomfortable. Facing such horrifying temperatures, even Eternal-level experts would find it impossible to step onto the island. Not unless they had some reliable heat-resistant defensive weapons or a powerful physique.
Ning Cheng didn’t dare to bring out his Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds. Amidst this horrifying heat, his Twin Wings of Heavenly Clouds wouldn’t last for long unless it had already undergone nirvana.
Ning Cheng carefully moved step-by-step towards the heart of the volcanic island and could feel the temperature rising gradually. The rising temperature even affected Ning Cheng’s domain, and it felt as if it would crack apart at any time.
Even so, Ning Cheng had no plans to take out the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort. Instead, he decided to operate his body-forging cultivation method. He found that the horrifying temperatures of this place had an incredible effect in forging his body.
“Bang…..” A light explosion rang out, and just when Ning Cheng had almost reached the centre of this volcanic island, his robes suddenly disintegrated into nothingness.
Dazzling purple light containing terrifying heat shined down and slammed into Ning Cheng’s body. The tearing heat, however, accelerated Ning Cheng’s body-forging cultivation method, which continuously refined and transformed the energy within it to improve his corporeal body’s strength.
Ning Cheng started ambling, and sometime later, his bones began to crack apart and come together, forcing him to stop immediately. He had initially come here looking for Purple Light Treasure Essence. Instead, his forged body advanced to the middle-stage of Starry Sky Body before reaching the depths of the volcanic island.
Feeling the power coursing through his corporeal body, Ning Cheng’s eyes flashed with joy and felt delighted in his heart. This was definitely not an ordinary flame. No matter how powerful his body-forging cultivation method, ordinary flames would not have helped him in advancing so fast. But getting the chance to ponder the reason, a purple crystal in front of him attracted Ning Cheng’s gaze. It was a piece of Purple Light Treasure Essence.
Seeing that piece, Ning Cheng understood that Wu Hong had not obtained that Purple Light Treasure Essence from this place. If Wu Hong could come here, he wouldn’t have found just a piece of Purple Light Treasure Essence. Ning Cheng hadn’t even started searching for it actively, yet he already obtained a Purple Light Treasure Essence. This showed how much Purple Light Treasure Essence was in this place.
Ning Cheng raised his hand, grabbed that piece of Purple Light Treasure Essence, and put it into a jade box. Just as he was about to start moving around, an inexplicable feeling of vigilance appeared in his heart. Was there someone around?
Ning Cheng quickly took out a robe and put it over his body. At the same time, he used his domain and forged body to block out the horrifying heat around him.
[1] The actual word used here is ‘Baoyi’, which translates to ‘Treasure One’. But it felt odd given the style and the context later, so I decided to translate this word as ‘One Piece’.