Chapter 0165: Ning Cheng’s Killing Intent
“Everyone please do not be nervous, some of our seniors have went into the sea to arrange an Array Formation, the ship will soon be brought under control……” The person who brought Ning Cheng on board before, Deacon Xing, quickly made his way to the bow and shouted.
Deacon Xing was known to all the crew members, and also held a bit of prestige among them, so when they heard him shout, the crew of the ship soon calmed down. And tightly held onto the ship’s rails, trying to stabilize their bodies.
Ning Cheng then saw that woman called Zhuang Ya along with another True Condensation Cultivator appear on the bow, as they then constantly threw out all kinds of Array Flags with both of their hands.
Sure enough, as the two of them continuously threw out Array Flags, the turmoil caused by the shaking of the ship gradually calmed down, before finally stopping. There were only a few extremely light tremors.
As Ning Cheng watched those Array Flags being thrown out, he remained silent, while inwardly shook his head, how was this in any way arranging an Array Formation, this was simply throwing things at random. Just after the two people threw out the Array Flags, the three True Condensation Cultivators under the sea who were continuously shaking the ship a moment before finally stopped, as they climbed out of the sea and onto the ship.
With regards to the still slightly rocking of the ship, it was because of an Array Disc placed by them under the bottom of the ship.
The ship was only filled with food and low levelled crafting materials, Ning Cheng simply could not figure out why these cultivators were going to such lengths and play such petty tricks? Not to mention that this ship was not even worth robbing, even if they wanted to rob this ship, they would not have to do such unnecessary things. The five of them were True Condensation Cultivators, any one of them could casually hijack this ship without any effort.
At this point the Deacon and the several other people responsible for the ship finally came to the fore, as they looked at the three True Condensation Cultivators who also had come up the fore from the sea, but at this moment there faces looked a little pale. The people on the ship thought that since they had arranged the Array Formation, it resulted in an excessive consumption of their energy, as such the Deacon and the other people responsible for the ship stepped forward to thank them.
One of the True Condensation 9th Level cultivator with long hair waved his hand. His facial expression was somewhat dignified, as he spoke, “This is what we were supposed to do anyway. But at the moment there is a huge tidal whirlpool below us, although we have arranged an Array Formation but it would only temporarily control the boat. It cannot persist for a long time. Once that large tidal whirlpool below us breaks through our Array Formation, then it would be too dangerous……”
“Then what do we do?” The Deacon Xing was somewhat panicky, although he had never encountered a tidal whirlpool before, but he had heard that once one met a tidal whirlpool, then capsizing of the ship was simply a regular thing.
After hearing this, that long haired man frowned and did not answer for a long time. The small fat man with the same cultivation level of True Condensation 9th Level spoke with some hesitation, “This Array Formation will only last for 24 hours at least. As long as we can get our hands on some crafting materials for Array Flags within these 24 hours, we can then reinforce the Array Formation, and can easily get through this tidal whirlpool.”
The woman called Zhuang Ya also added, while frowning “We are in the middle of an ocean, where can we even find materials for crafting Array Flags?”
“I know, there is a small island nearby to us, but I do not know if there are any crafting materials for Elder Brother Pang to use for crafting the Array Flags.” The speaker was one of the other True Condensation Cultivator that had come aboard with Zhuang Ya.
“Yes, Yes, come to think of it there is definitely an island nearby, but….” The Deacon also knew about the nearby island, but then seem to have remembered some frightening things, as such his face immediately changed.
Xing You then spoke with a face full of grief, “Several venerable elders. I also know of that island, before we also used to visit that island with our ship. But a year ago, the island was suddenly surrounded by a layer of fog. Any merchant caravans pa.s.sing through the island or even near to the island, had sent up their men to investigate……”
Speaking till here Xing Yu hesitated, but then once again continued, “Of all the people who went there, none of them ever came back again.”
The long haired True Condensation Cultivator waved his hand a bit and spoke, “You can rest a.s.sured that there would only be a few low levelled monstrous beasts there on that island, with us five together, even if there was a more powerful sea beast, it would not be anything unusual for us. To settle this affair, Deacon Xing, you just lend us fifty of your people who would accompany us to the island to look for materials to craft the Array Flags. At the moment our time is running out, if you do not try and help us, then the fate that awaits all of us is for the ship to capsize and be killed in the end.”
The other True Condensation Cultivators also nodded and echoed in, “Well, by the looks of it, it would still take us two hours to go and come, however it should not be too late.”
Since Xing You was the person in charge of the ship, the several of his other high ranking subordinates began to discuss this amongst themselves, and after a while later, they all reluctantly agreed, “Then as to the selection of the fifty crew members, we ask venerable elders ……”
The fat True Condensation Cultivator impatiently spoke up, “Do not worry, we five people would personally be going to the island with you all, how could we have any accidents?”
When Ning Cheng heard about the selection of candidates, he immediately drew back, he could guess that there was definitely something on the island which made these True Condensation Cultivators to think of this kind of approach. As for the selection people to go onto the island, maybe it was just for some hard labour or maybe something else. He had just come out of the Angry Axe Valley, so a few True Condensation Cultivators were not something for him to be too concerned about, although it was not because he really did not look down upon them, but it was because he himself did not want to go, even more so he did not want to do hard labour.
“You’ll be one of them……” But Ning Cheng did not expect that just as he took a few steps back, he would be immediately be seen by that fat True Condensation Cultivator, moreover he would even directly point out to Ning Cheng and speak such words.
Ning Cheng reluctantly had to come out and stand apart.
The fifty people were soon selected, adding the five True Condensation Cultivators, there were a total of 55 people riding atop a not so large boat, as they left the ship. A few of the True Condensation Cultivators put on a few airs as they threw out some more Array Flags once they came off the ship. Looking at this Ning Cheng became speechless, he simply did not bother with it and simply closed his eyes and sat in meditation.
……
The island was really not far away, and the boat just took less than 2 hours to reach there. Having already reached the edge of the island, Ning Cheng swept out with his Spiritual Consciousness. He actually felt a bit strange, as if his vitality was being absorbed, moreover the fog was emanating from the centre of the island, it was a place where his Spiritual Consciousness could not penetrate inside.
The boat stopped at the edge of the island, but the scene they saw at the edge of island, made all the crew members on the boat have a scalp tingling sensation. The edge of this island was filled with all kinds of bones, it was simply a dense cl.u.s.ter of white, many of these bones were washed up on the island, forming piles after piles of bones.
As Ning Cheng’s eyes swept past them, he could see that in addition to a few bones from lower levelled sea beasts and fishes, most of it was comprised of human bones.
The five True Condensation Cultivators had already stepped onto the island, but the seamen at this moment were cringing in fear and did not dare to come up. That fat and pudgy True Condensation Cultivator suddenly grinned and spoke out in a loud voice, “The materials we cultivators are looking for are obviously not here, so we will have to go in, those who want to follow us can do so, but after we leave here, there will be no one to protect you, as such you will then have to deal with any problems by yourself.”
On hearing this kind of threat from the pudgy cultivator the seafarers quickly rushed onto the island, and finally only Ning Cheng was the only one who still stayed on the boat.
“You don’t want to come up?” That pudgy cultivator stared at Ning Cheng and asked, he had already set his sights on Ning Cheng. Before when they were goofing around the ship, he had wanted to slip away, but he was able to force him to come here, but even then he still stayed on till the last.
Ning Cheng quickly stood up and spoke, “I’m afraid that the boat would be swept away, how would we be able to get back if there was no boat, so I plan to stay here to keep an eye on the boat.”
When that pudgy cultivator heard those words, he smiled and was about to speak up, when he heard that woman called Zhuang Ya speak up, “If he does not want to come up then so be it, there is also the need for a person to keep an eye on the boat. The number is still almost the same.”
“Good.” That pudgy cultivator gave another look to Ning Cheng before giving a short wave, as he disappeared with the rest of the people into the depths of the island.
Just as they disappeared, Ning Cheng stashed the boat onto the side of the island, and also stepped onto this island alone. He slowly stretched out his Spiritual Consciousness, he was able to find the source location which was sucking out all the surrounding vitality, which made him feel that the island was not as simple as it looked. But the Spiritual Qi on this island was extremely scarce, he simply could not think how anything good could even exist here.
Calling back his Spiritual Consciousness, he wanted to find the path through which the fifty plus people left, but instead he found that those fifty plus people had just disappeared from the place, moreover they completely disappeared without a trace.
Ning Cheng felt something wrong, as he immediately disappeared from that spot and quickly appeared at the spot where he had seen those people before they disappeared, just as the time it took for half an incense stick to burn finished, Ning Cheng stopped in front of the disorderly placed stones on the sandy beach. There was an entrance in the middle of this rocky beach, and outside the entrance were some Array Flags.
Even if one did not understand Array Formation, they could still tell that the level of this Array Formation was not low. When Ning Cheng took a look at these Array Flags, he could immediately tell from the placement of these Array Flags that it was definitely set up by a person well versed in arranging Array Formations.
As he walked into the entrance, he was immediately hit with a dense smell of blood, immediately Ning Cheng spread out his Spiritual Consciousness and saw a corpse. This corpse was of a person he knew; it was one of the crew who had come here with him.
Ning Cheng immediately withdrew from the rocky beach entrance, and he once again swept out with his Spiritual Consciousness, but what he saw through it made his face immediately freeze up.
This place here turned out to be a naturally forming Killing Array, moreover the level of this Array was also not low. When he had come here, he could not even see it. Of the five True Condensation Cultivators that came here, there was someone among them who could recognize this Natural Killing Array, moreover he even placed an Array Flag at the entrance, moreover the rank of this Array Flag was definitely higher than his own, it seemed that one of them was definitely an Array Formation Master.
No wonder this island had so many corpses, it turned out that they were all killed by this Natural Killing Array.
If one wanted to find a Natural Killing Array then it was very simple, but if one wanted to break a Natural Killing Array, it was actually very difficult. However, if one walked the path of evil, then there was a straightforward method to bypa.s.s it, and that was the method of blood sacrifice.
Using the method of blood sacrifice to break the Natural Killing Array was a very cruel way, it involved sacrificing a human life at every Array Flag in the Natural Killing Array to create another flag. The crew man’s corpse that he had seen just now, was apparently the first person to be sacrificed to the flag.
The Killing Intent in Ning Cheng’s heart immediately surged, he was someone who could totally not stand this kind of thing. Before he had thought that those people had brought those seafarers here to do some hard labour like digging up materials, but it now appeared that it was not at all like that. If he had known that these people would be used as sacrifices for the flags, Ning Cheng would have already secretly killed the five True Condensation Cultivators.
These sailors were all ordinary people, similar to his current ident.i.ty, and were working on the ship with their blood and sweat just to earn some gold. But unexpectedly their small lives, in front of these cultivators, did not mean anything at all.
Ning Cheng immediately increased his pace as he rushed inside, but he soon stopped, as he saw 48 more corpses, which meant that the blood sacrifice was complete.
Ning Cheng forcibly calmed himself down, as he once again sent out his Spiritual Consciousness which was once again blocked by something. Looking at his current position, this reef pa.s.sage was dark and damp, there were about 7 or 8 turns in this pa.s.sage, but it was completely dead silent. There wasn’t even a shadow of those 5 True Condensation Cultivators to be seen. But Ning Cheng was able to feel it, for this pa.s.sage to open, it was because of the 49 seamen that were used as blood sacrifices.
“Boom” A loud explosion sound came from the end of the pa.s.sage. The next moment, a huge natural rock temple without any particular shape appeared in Ning Cheng’s Spiritual Consciousness. Ning Cheng did not hesitate even for a single bit, before with a flash he immediately swerved and entered the natural rock temple.