Chapter 0890: The Power of the first bridge
“The two of you stayed here for tens of thousands of years. You must have obtained a lot of good things. I just want to borrow some……” When the grey-robed cultivator saw that his domain could easily cover Ning Cheng and Qi Shisanxing, his tone became more relaxed. However, even when his domain covered Ning Cheng and Qi Shisanxing, and the big net also came descending, he still worried. A giant axe suddenly materialised along with thousands of strands of axe intent. It slashed down towards Ning Cheng and Qi Shisanxing within his domain.
The grey-robed cultivator didn’t feel too surprised that his domain could restrain Ning Cheng and Qi Shisanxing the moment he unleashed it. After all, in his eyes, Ning Cheng and Qi Shisanxing were only in the Eternal Realm. He never considered the possibility that two Eternal cultivators could escape from a half-step Dao Sculpting expert like him.
Qi Shisanxing felt slightly taken aback at such action. He immediately wanted to stretch out his domain and duke it out with this grey-robed cultivator when he suddenly thought about Ning Cheng.
Besides, he had only recovered half his peak strength. Therefore, although the grey-robed cultivator’s domain managed to restrain him, it was only due to the initial surprise.
However, he still felt a bit anxious for Ning Cheng. Qi Shisanxing wanted to shout at Ning Cheng to burn his essence blood and break free from the grey-robed cultivator’s domain. But at that very moment, he also noticed the red net and the grey-robed cultivator’s giant axe bearing down on them.
From these actions, it became apparent to him that the grey-robed cultivator had already made a quick decision. Qi Shisanxing sighed. Currently, the combined strength of him and Ning Cheng might not compare to that of the grey-robed cultivator.
However, just as Qi Shisanxing wanted to take action, he suddenly felt the restraints on him disappearing. Immediately, he felt Ning Cheng slowly unleashing his domain, easing out the pressure around both of them. Moreover, he even felt Ning Cheng’s domain suppressing the grey-robed cultivator’s domain.
Qi Shisanxing didn’t care about how Ning Cheng obtained such strength and quickly stretched out his domain to bolster Ning Cheng’s domain.
“Kaka….” Sounds of a domain shattering apart bit by bit emerged. The next moment, Ning Cheng brought out a long spear and shot out a spear trace. Ning Cheng had used axes at the beginning; meaning, he knew too well about axe intents.
Endless spear traces emerged like waves of water surging out from the centre of a lake and blocked the big red net bearing down from above. However, the moment the long spear and the grey-robed cultivator’s great axe slammed together, the majestic spear intent disappeared within the axe intent, creating a loud rumble.
While the horrifying explosion erupted, Ning Cheng used the opportunity to quickly pull back Qi Shisanxing and flew out from under the stalled red net. Simultaneously, the grey-robed cultivator also flew out, taking advantage of the force of the explosion.
A thousand-foot-long gully appeared at the point where the spear and the axe collided. Rather, the gorge formed only because of the explosion, but neither of the two used any spirit techniques.
The grey-robed half-step Dao Sculpting cultivator looked at Ning Cheng in disbelief. How could an Eternal cultivator display such strength? In his view, Ning Cheng hadn’t even reached the late-stage Eternal Realm. Moreover, he didn’t even use any spirit technique. How could two Eternal cultivators escape injuries in that situation without even using any spirit techniques?
Moreover, Ji He was an Alchemy Master. For an Alchemy Master to have such a powerful celestial essence, it felt pretty ridiculous.
The look in the grey-robed cultivator’s eyes changed a few times and quickly prepared for an escape. Ning Cheng’s strength had gone far beyond his expectations. In that short exchange, he understood that he wouldn’t be able to kill Qi Shisanxing and Ji He, at least, not without a long drawn out fight. Besides, there were a lot of cultivators going back and forth through this place. In case someone saw him fighting with Qi Shisanxing, even if he went all out, he wouldn’t be able to escape.
“Ning…… Brother Ji He…..” Even Qi Shisanxing felt shocked and almost called out Ning Cheng’s name. Since Ning Cheng could escape the pursuit of the Human-faced Poison Centipede, he understood that Ning Cheng wasn’t a pushover. However, he never expected that Ning Cheng could even block a half-step Dao Sculpting expert. How could such a person be simple?
Ning Cheng suddenly bent down and spouted a mouthful of blood. Immediately, it felt as if his entire body had started to wilt. Even his aura began to grow unstable while his face drained of all blood.
“Ji He….” Qi Shisanxing saw Ning Cheng’s appearance and thought that Ning Cheng took a huge hit to his vitality. It looks like the clash with the grey-robed half-step Dao Sculpting cultivator injured him at the fundamental level. It wasn’t surprising either. It would have been a strange event if the former didn’t suffer any injuries in a face-off between an Eternal cultivator and a half-step Dao Sculpting expert.
The grey-robed cultivator, who originally wanted to escape immediately, also noticed Ning Cheng’s condition. He immediately dispelled the idea of fleeing and rushed out again without even thinking about it. This time, his red net shattered and turned into an endless rain of red light that covered an area of about a hundred miles.
It was his ultimate spirit technique, Heaven-seizing Net. With Ning Cheng and Qi Shisanxing’s current condition, they would never be able to escape from his Heaven-seizing Net.
He had already offended Qi Shisanxing. Therefore, if he could use this opportunity to kill Qi Shisanxing, he naturally wouldn’t give up on it.
When Ning Cheng saw the grey-robed cultivator rushing towards them, his bent body suddenly straightened, and his eyes started to shine brightly. The aura around his body also stabilised suddenly, and he no longer looked even the slightest bit injured.
Not good. I got fooled. Seeing that the Heaven-seizing Net did not affect Ning Cheng, he understood that Ning Cheng had tricked him.
Ning Cheng had indeed tricked him. His strength certainly couldn’t match up to a half-step Dao Sculpting cultivator in a head-on fight. However, such cultivators still would find it impossible to hurt him severely. Ning Cheng pretended to be severely injured because he didn’t want the grey-robed cultivator to escape. Once that person ran away, he would have to give up on catching him.
If not for the slip-up from Qi Shisanxing, he would have let the grey-robed cultivator escape. But because Qi Shisanxing accidentally called out the word ‘Ning’, it wouldn’t matter if this person didn’t recall it right away. But once this person calmed down, he would immediately suspect a problem with the set-up.
The endless red lights turned into an invisible web, completely enclosing the s.p.a.ce around them. Qi Shisanxing still hadn’t recovered to his peak and was too weak for any a.s.sistance. Therefore, facing such a technique that almost sealed the s.p.a.ce around him, he felt utterly helpless.
Ning Cheng took a step forward and took out the Seven Bridges Realm Book before pointing his hand forward, “First Bridge of Coping…..”
With a bright flash of light, yin qi suddenly appeared out of nowhere and covered everything. Even though the grey-robed cultivator’s Heaven-seizing Net was a top-cla.s.s combination skill, it couldn’t lock the yin qi within its area of effect. In an instant, the big red net that had sealed the s.p.a.ce around them slowly shrank and solidified, turning into a red net-like weapon and falling onto the Bridge of Coping.
At this moment, the five characters ‘The First Bridge of Coping’ appeared, and a pale stone arch bridge slowly rose from the river. Although the blood river tumbling under the bridge still looked blurry, it still startled the grey-robed cultivator. Wasn’t this the rumoured first bridge of the Seven Bridges Spirit Technique?
The grey-robed cultivator quickly reacted and forgot about the red net he used in tandem with the Heaven-seizing Net Spirit Technique. He didn’t even bother to recall them before turning around to flee without hesitation.
In the face of the fiercely famous First Bridge of Coping, even if the First Bridge of Coping hadn’t fully materialised, he had no courage to push his luck.
However, just when he turned around, a faint voice emerged from somewhere behind the bridge, a place where he could pinpoint at all.
Then, he saw himself taking a step onto the First Bridge of Coping for some unknown reason. The Bridge of Coping hadn’t appeared in front of him, nor had he turned around to face it. Yet, he still found himself taking a step onto it. As long as one saw the bridge, no matter how many times you turned around, no matter how many steps you retreated, one would still have to step on the Bridge of Coping.
It wasn’t a simulated projection of the Bridge of Coping, but the actual Bridge of Coping Spirit Technique that Ning Cheng had cast. It contained the spirit technique’s dao charm that Ning Cheng had collected using the Seven Bridges Realm Book. Unless the target was far stronger than the cultivator who cast the Bridge of Coping, only then would they have any chance of escaping from its effect.
“The First Bridge of Coping, no gazing towards home, no reincarnation…..[1]” Standing on the Bridge of Coping, the grey-robed cultivator’s voice trembled as he mumbled to himself. At this moment, he had thoroughly lost the will to fight.
Ning Cheng’s face had also gone pale. He had used the Bridge of Coping to tie up a half-step Dao Sculpting cultivator, but he couldn’t support it fully. More importantly, he still couldn’t fully control the First Bridge of Coping.
The grey-robed cultivator standing on the Bridge of Coping started to sober up slowly and realised that he couldn’t lose his will to fight if he wanted to escape from this predicament.
He took out a giant axe and materialised an axe shadow before blasting it outwards. The axe shadow landed on the pale bridge, and the bridge’s body blurred for a moment. Ning Cheng opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of essence blood. This time, he wasn’t pretending and had truly suffered from the backlash of the grey-robed cultivator’s attack on the Bridge of Coping.
Seeing the grey-robed cultivator about to launch a second attack, Ning Cheng felt anxious. He couldn’t fully control the First Bridge of Coping. The only reason he used the spirit technique was that this bridge was the only skill in his a.r.s.enal that could prevent this fellow from escaping.
But just when Ning Cheng wanted to burn his essence blood and continue to suppress the grey-robed cultivator on the bridge, his understanding of the technique suddenly changed in his mind. He seemed to have gained a more in-depth experience of the First Bridge of Coping. He started to feel like he now had a kind of life-or-death control over those who stepped onto the Bridge of Coping.
“Lock him for me.” Ning Cheng moved his hand a bit, and an invisible aura of dao charm spread out like ripples. The next moment, the grey-robed cultivator got locked in place on the First Bridge of Coping. Even the great axe stopped in mid-swing as if frozen in time.
Ning Cheng had a mysterious feeling that he could now control the grey-robed cultivator’s life and death with just a thought. He could easily lift the tied-up grey-robed cultivator and dangle him from his feet. Or he could even slam the grey-robed cultivator into the Bridge of Coping face-first.
Looking at the fuzzy blood river flowing under the bridge, Ning Cheng suddenly gave a cold snort, “Get down for me.”
A trace of struggle flashed in the grey-robed cultivator’s eyes. But the flash died out in just a moment, and he rushed off the Bridge of Coping and jumped into the blood river.
The fuzzy tumbling blood river seemed to have turned a bit clearer after the grey-robed cultivator jumped down. Ning Cheng also vaguely felt that the First Bridge of Coping had grown a little bit stronger and felt secretly surprised. At the same time, he also gained a new understanding of using other sources to strengthen the first bridge.
Ning Cheng reached out his hand, took a deep breath, and a ring flew out of the blood river and into his outstretched palm. The ring belonged to the grey-robed cultivator.
Putting away the ring, he raised his hand again and put away the First Bridge of Coping. After that, Ning Cheng quickly took out several medicinal pills and swallowed them. Using the First Bridge of Coping to kill a half-step Dao Sculpting cultivator looked relatively easy. However, he had to pay a very high cost for it.
Qi Shisanxing then reacted, grabbing Ning Cheng’s arm and exclaimed in surprise. “Ning Cheng, what you brought out just now was the first bridge of the Seven Bridges Spirit Technique, wasn’t it?”
Ning Cheng nodded, “It’s indeed the first bridge. But it takes a lot out of me to use this spirit technique. I wouldn’t have used it if I didn’t have the confidence to prevent this fellow from escaping. You must also not let it out casually; after all, it is related to my life. Also, don’t go calling me Ning Cheng casually. My name is Ji He. If you hadn’t revealed a word of my name just now, I wouldn’t have had to go to such lengths to stop that fellow.”
However, without the Seven Bridges Realm Book, Ning Cheng couldn’t have cast the first bridge even if he went all out. After all, it’s one thing to understand a spirit technique and another thing to use the spirit technique fully.
[1] I’m trying out variations of the phrase to see what sounds the best, so please do bear with it.