Hearing those words, Zhao Yanxiang immediately sped up and quickly disappeared from Ning Cheng and Ruan Mingshu’s vision.
Ruan Mingshu did not follow Zhao Yanxiang; instead, she turned to Ning Cheng and gave a bow before speaking, “Senior Apprentice Brother Ning, I’m sorry. I deceived you. My father had asked you to cooperate with me only because you do not have a Celestial Wheel while possessing a strong Spiritual Consciousness. This made you an ideal candidate for the blood sacrifice; something essential to open the Perpetual Moon Fort after entering the Perpetual Moon Lake.”
Ning Cheng spoke up with a pale complexion, “Why, why are you telling me all this? Doesn’t this mean that if I went along with you, you and your friend would offer me up for the blood sacrifice?”
Ruan Mingshu took in a deep breath and spoke up slowly, “I can’t do it. Whether I am suitable for living in the starry skies or not that does not matter; however, if I did this, I would never be able to forgive myself for the rest of my life. I told you to meet me at the Moon Creek, but I ended up cultivating in a place for two years while you waited for me there for those two years…”
Raising her hand to stop Ning Cheng from interjecting, Ruan Mingshu continued, “You don’t need to say that you just happened to arrive at Moon Creek after I arrived. There are no such things as coincidences in the world. I know that you have been waiting at Moon Creek for a long time. The Time Wilderness is full of opportunities, yet you hid in the barren Moon Creek for two years. I let you down, I’m sorry that I could not say these words to you before.”
Ning Cheng, who originally wanted to explain it, suddenly lost the desire to speak. After Ruan Mingshu spoke those words, it effectively marked the end of their ‘cooperation’. Since it all ended here, it meant they only had an ordinary relationship from now on, without any need for nonsensical talks. Besides, even before Ruan Mingshu mentioned about the blood sacrifice, Ning Cheng had already heard about it.
“Looks like my luck still holds, helping me avoid a disaster.” Ning Cheng showed a faint smile. He had initially intended to wait for Zhao Yanxiang and Ruan Mingshu to initiate the blood sacrifice with him before sneak attacking them and using the two of them as the blood sacrifice in return. However, he had not expected that the sudden changes at the Perpetual Moon Lake would cause Ruan Mingshu to confess everything.
Ruan Mingshu’s complexion blanched, “It is up to you whether you believe it or not. Whether you really waited at Moon Creek for two years or whether you heard Zhao Yanxiang and me conversing, I will not let you turn into a blood sacrifice. Whether you believe my words or not, it is all up to you. At the bottom of the Perpetual Moon Lake, there is an ancient desolate fort called the Perpetual Moon Fort, which I need to open. However, it requires sacrificing a cultivator without a Celestial Wheel. The more powerful the Spiritual Consciousness of the sacrificial cultivator, the better results would it provide.”
“After entering the Perpetual Moon Fort, one would find a Perpetual Moon Pill Pond filled to the brim with Perpetual Moon Pills; however, this Pill Pond also contains a King Pill. This medicinal pill is the Celestial River Essence Qi King Pill and is a medicinal pill that increases the chances for Heaven’s Mandate Cultivators to advance to the Heaven Seated Realm. The effect is even higher than ‘Filth Severing Heavenly Pill’; at the cost of zero impurities.”
“So that’s what your father wanted you to do, obtain the Celestial River Essence Qi King Pill, right?” Ning Cheng spoke up suddenly. Ruan Mingshu’s father, Ruan Cheng, wanted to advance to the Heaven Seated Realm. As such, he needed such medicinal pills.
Ruan Mingshu nodded, “Yes, I’m going there to get it. In addition to the Celestial River Essence Qi King Pill, there is also a key inside, called the Perpetual Moon Time Key. Perhaps within the Perpetual Moon Fort, this key is the real priceless treasure.”
“Why are you telling me all this?” Ning Cheng asked while staring at Ruan Mingshu.
Ruan Mingshu then looked in the direction of the Perpetual Moon Lake in the distance and mournfully spoke up, “My father thought that he was the only one who knew about the secret of the Perpetual Moon Lake; however, there are now too many people in this place who know about the Perpetual Moon Lake’s secret. Although I want to grab those things inside, with my cultivation, it would only be a dream. I’m leaving!”
Finished with her words, Ruan Mingshu sped up and rushed towards the Perpetual Moon Lake.
“Wait, d.a.m.n it, I still owe you a Grade 4 Celestial River Array Disc.” Ning Cheng called out. Although everything else turned irrelevant, he still owed a Grade 4 Array Disc to her. Giving her the appropriate compensation in Green Coins would also help him in resolving the unresolved matters.
However, Ruan Mingshu did not answer, as her figure disappeared into the Perpetual Moon Lake in the distance.
Ning Cheng knew that Ruan Mingshu and his cooperation had already disintegrated; however, no matter what Ruan Mingshu thought, the Perpetual Moon Lake contained the Perpetual Moon Pills, and Ning Cheng did not want to miss it.
……
The Perpetual Moon Lake indeed was a considerably sized lake; however, it had completely dried up without even the slightest hint of water. One could only see dried cracks crisscrossing at the bottom of the lake.
However, this dried-up lake contained a vast dark pit in the centre with a sloping ladder that stretched out from the depths. With his Spiritual Consciousness, Ning Cheng could clearly make out many cultivators inside this black pit. Most likely, the previous explosion came from this place. Moreover, since Zhao Yanxiang and Ruan Mingshu were no longer anywhere outside, it meant that they had already entered the pit in the centre of the lake.
Ning Cheng also decided to enter the pit using the sloping ladder, which led all the way to a small public square paved with turquoise coloured stones. At this moment, a couple of hundred people stood on the public square. As such, Ning Cheng’s arrival did not attract the attention of others, as everyone had their attention focussed at the front.
Ruan Mingshu and Zhao Yanxiang were also in the crowd. At the end of this turquoise coloured public square, one could see a quaint fort gate with ripples rapidly emerging from its centre. A faint smell of blood seeped through the emerging ripples, allowing Ning Cheng to realise that someone had already turned into a blood sacrifice for opening this door.
“There is another cultivator without a Celestial Wheel. We can push one more in to open it faster….” Finally, a cultivator found Ning Cheng and immediately called out.
Without waiting for everyone to train their gazes on to Ning Cheng, Ruan Mingshu’s sneering voice spread out, “Only one person is required for the blood sacrifice. If you send in more, not only would the blood sacrifice fail, this area would also collapse.”
Ruan Mingshu’s words had just ended when the fort gate suddenly burst open, causing rich starry skies’ Essence Qi to ooze out from inside.
Similar to the contrast set off by the emergence of the gentle moonlight, the main hall gently materialised with a considerably sized pool right in front of the crowd, just behind the fort’s open door. This pool was in the centre of the main hall and filled with dragon eyed fruit-sized medicinal pills, stacked on top of one another giving a very soft and mellow feeling.
“Perpetual Moon Pills…..” Someone screamed, and almost everyone rushed in at the same time.
Are they Perpetual Moon Pills? Ning Cheng felt shocked. He could feel that these medicinal pills could bring significant benefits through his Spiritual Consciousness. If he could cultivate using it, it would definitely produce much better results compared to the starry skies’ Essence Qi or the starry skies’ crystals.
“Poof…..” Splatters of blood erupted and several cultivators, who had just tried to rush towards the Perpetual Moon Pill Pond, fell from the sky.
“There is a killing formation here, to get to the Perpetual Moon Pills we need to break this killing formation.” A cultivator leading the charge immediately called out, at the same time, he also brought out his weapon and attacked.
Many cultivators also followed suit and brought out their weapons. At this moment, none of them wanted to wait until this killing formation blew open to grab the Perpetual Moon Pills.
Ning Cheng had already squeezed out to the end; however, he did not rush in like the others. Although there were over a hundred people in this place, no matter how much these people wanted to grab those pills, they all had to wait until the moment the defences around the Perpetual Moon Pill Pond crumbled. At that point, Ning Cheng could then rush in a grab some of the Perpetual Moon Pills.
“Boom, Boom, Boom…..” Countless weapon-lights collided with the array formation outside the Perpetual Moon Pill Pond, causing erratic Essence Qi fluctuations to erupt.
The killing formation outside the Perpetual Moon Pill Pond looked like it had transformed naturally because of the dense quant.i.ty of the Perpetual Moon Pills; however, this pseudo-natural killing formation still needed a long time to change into a real natural killing formation. As such, under the simultaneous attack from so many cultivators, this killing formation quickly crumbled.
Instantly, the entire Perpetual Moon Pill Pond appeared in front of everyone’s eyes. Regardless of everyone else’s thoughts of s.n.a.t.c.hing, how could Ning Cheng choose to remain hidden at this time? Waving his Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds, Ning Cheng was the first one to rush into the Perpetual Moon Pill Pond. Stretching out his Spiritual Consciousness through the Pill Pond, Ning Cheng took away almost one-tenth of the pills within the Pill Pond in just an instant.
The Pill Pond really was too vast, while these medicinal pills were only tiny objects compared to it. As such, even if Ning Cheng had an extremely powerful Spiritual Consciousness, he could take away only one-tenth of it in one sweep.
Ning Cheng finally enjoyed the benefit of being a cultivator without a Celestial Wheel, which allowed him to be the first to rush into the Perpetual Moon Pill Pond and grab these many Perpetual Moon Pills. At the same time, it also aroused the anger of others. However, no one could spare any thoughts towards taking care of Ning Cheng as everyone frantically grabbed at the Perpetual Moon Pills around them.
Ning Cheng deployed his formidable Spiritual Consciousness to the extreme. The more his Spiritual Consciousness crazily spread out, the more Perpetual Moon Pills did Ning Cheng manage to grab from the Perpetual Moon Pill Pond. In just a short time, Ning Cheng had seized about 40% of the total Perpetual Moon Pills within the pond.
“Kill him…..” Seeing the Perpetual Moon Pills vanishing rapidly, all the cultivators immediately rushed towards Ning Cheng. This was also the reason why they choose to allow Ning Cheng grab so many Perpetual Moon Pills before because all the cultivators knew that even if Ning Cheng managed to seize more, he still could not escape this place by himself.
Dozens of weapon shadows bolted towards Ning Cheng, causing the area where Ning Cheng was at to transform into a chaotic Celestial Essence vortex. Because of so many weapon-lights hurtling towards him, everyone had invisibly locked in on him with his or her Celestial Essence.
When Ning Cheng s.n.a.t.c.hed 40% of the Perpetual Moon Pills, he knew that he would turn into a public target. As such, almost the moment before the weapons slammed into him, he stimulated the Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds to the maximum and rushed to the entrance leading to the outside.
“Bang….” However, a formidable resistance suddenly manifested that blocked Ning Cheng from moving forward.
Ning Cheng’s heart sank. He did not think that someone would pre-arrange an Entrapment Formation at the entrance. From this, he realised that a few people definitely planned to play catch-up. Moreover, because he was the first one to try to escape, the array formation had immediately stopped him.
“Boom…” Because Ning Cheng had used the Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds to escape almost instantaneously, those attacking Ning Cheng with their weapons ended up hitting the edge of the Perpetual Moon Pill Pool. At this time, the Perpetual Moon Pill started trembling violently, as if the next moment, the Perpetual Moon Pill Pond would collapse.
However, no one noticed the Perpetual Moon Pill Pond’s shaking as everyone surrounded Ning Cheng once again.
Ning Cheng quickly shouted, “Someone used an array formation to seal the path that leads out and trap us inside. If you still want to continue to attack me, you all will eventually end up dead by the hands of others.”
“Boom-Boom-Boom….” Several weapon shadows rushed towards Ning Cheng; someone even screamed about Ning Cheng possessing the Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds.
Ning Cheng once again wielded the Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds and flashed away to a distance. With s.p.a.ce inside already constrained, even if Ning Cheng possessed the Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds, he could not actually hide.
However, Ning Cheng’s words had obviously taken effect. A part of the cultivators, who manage to grab a few Perpetual Moon Pills before, gave up on attacking Ning Cheng and headed towards the exit. However, just as Ning Cheng had pointed out before, they found the entrance sealed.
“The exit is really sealed.” A cultivator shouted out, his voice immediately attracting the attention of the rest of the cultivators still chasing Ning Cheng.
Another fierce roar sounded out, and the shaking Perpetual Moon Pill Pool finally collapsed. Unexpectedly, a pale gold medicinal pill, the size of a chicken egg, suddenly emerged from this collapse and rushed towards the top of the hall.
“It’s the Celestial River Essence Qi King Pill……” With the appearance of the Celestial River King Pill, almost all the people forgot about the sealed exit and even forgot about chasing down Ning Cheng.
At this point, the cultivators only had a single purpose, and that was to grab the Celestial River Essence Qi King Pill.