Was it an illusion? Circulating the Mysterious Yellow Origin Aura within his Sea of Consciousness, Ning Cheng tried to sober up. However, Tian Muwan still remained in front of him, was this not an illusion?
“How come you are here?” Ning Cheng finally could not help but ask.
“I’ve been at Feral Brook Mountain…… Watch out….” Tian Muwan suddenly screamed.
Ning Cheng quickly swept out with the Treasured Thunder Spear in his hand, resulting in a loud slamming-like sound from a collision between the spear and a blade light filled with murderous intent that had suddenly shot towards him.
With Ning Cheng sweeping at it with his spear, it suddenly exploded with a ‘bang’ and the surroundings instantly cleared up; at the same time, everything in front of him disappeared without a trace. Even Tian Muwan’s figure disappeared, and the surroundings once again returned to their original appearance. It felt as if the scene had undergone several sudden transformations in the blink of an eye.
Ning Cheng clenched his Treasured Thunder Spear without showing any movement, he felt that what he saw a moment ago was most likely an illusion. However, he also had a feeling that it was not an illusion. The words that Tian Muwan spoke would not have come if it truly were an illusion born from his consciousness; instead, it was what Tian Muwan truly would have said. There was no logical reason for such a feeling, yet it was also evident.
He even saw the scene behind Tian Muwan, which seemed to coincide with the Feral Brook Mountain, where he had gone looking for the Wood-type Spiritual Source when he had returned to Earth. What exactly was going on? Ning Cheng did not continue to move forward.
……
“Was it really an illusion?” Tian Muwan slowly sat down. That Ning Cheng, who had suddenly appeared in front of her, looked so clear that she could even feel his aura. However, after she shouted the words ‘watch out’, Ning Cheng’s figure disappeared without a trace.
Apart from the verdant Feral Brook Mountains around her, there were now only the sounds of a few nightingales.
“I have already forgotten about you, so why did I have this illusion? Why?” Tian Muwan called out to herself. Previously, she had indeed come to the Feral Brook Mountain because of Ning Cheng, but as time pa.s.sed, she decided to stay here and got accustomed to the surroundings.
It was only when she obtained half of a strange bead and a cultivation method within the Feral Brook Mountain did she realise that this world had some connection to the True Cultivation World.
“Is Ning Xiaocheng the one you like?” A sudden voice interrupted Tian Muwan’s moment of sorrow.
Tian Muwan suddenly turned around and saw a young girl in a yellow skirt, who looked a lot younger than she was. To her shock, this young girl did not appear to be standing on the ground; rather, it looked like she stood suspended in the air in front of her.
“Who are you?” Tian Muwan panicked. Since she dared to live in the Feral Brook Mountains, it showed that she was not an ordinary woman. However, someone managed to sneak in behind her while she had no idea about it.
……
“That newcomer from Striking Order Starry Skies, Cen Fei, has taken the 97th place…..” In front of the ranking displays of Culmination Public Square’s Nine-by-Nine Celestial Scryer Tower, a large number of cultivators had already started to gather.
All the people present kept staring at the ranking of Striking Order Starry Skies’ Cen Fei. Three days ago, Cen Fei had just managed to rush up to the top hundred, and in only three days, he managed to reach the 97th rank.
One had to know that a change in even a single rank within the top hundred would prove very difficult. However, this Cen Fei managed to rush from the 100th rank to the 97th rank in just three days, which definitely indicated his exceptional prowess.
“I really did not expect that an unremarkable place like Striking Order Starry Skies would produce such an exceptional character.”
“Yeah, if it were not because of the Time Wilderness, I would not have known that Grand Culmination Starry Skies had a little place called Striking Order.”
……
On the Culmination Public Square, all kinds of discussions broke out, all due to the emergence of Cen Fei. At this moment, everyone kept speculating on how far could this Cen Fei climb, which also caused a small place like Striking Order Starry Skies to become the talk of the town within the area.
“Little Miss, this Cen Fei appeared out of nowhere and managed to climb to the 52nd floor of the Celestial Scryer Tower. This fellow looks like a show-off, I fear that no one will be as showy as this fellow……” The one talking was a young girl in a green robe. She also kept staring at the Nine-by-Nine Celestial Scryer Tower’s ranking display, just like the rest of the cultivators.
Standing beside her was a female cultivator wearing a light-blue robe. This female cultivator, on hearing the words of this green robed woman, spoke dismissively, “Although this Cen Fei looks promising, I think there is another fellow here who is more formidable than him. It’s just that you haven’t noticed it yet.”
“Who is it?” the green-robed girl quickly asked.
“It’s the fellow at 437th rank, that fellow is on the 49th floor already.” The female cultivator wearing the light-blue robes replied.
“Wanderer from Jiangzhou? Where is Jiangzhou, why have I not heard of it?” The green-robed girl spoke in surprise.
The blue-robed female cultivator replied, “I’m afraid that it might be a planet. This fellow did not put down the celestial river. However, it definitely should be within the borders of Grand Culmination Starry Skies. I came here a few days ago, and I remember the previous list very well. Of the tens of thousands of people who walked in before, they did not have any person by the name of Wanderer. Unexpectedly, in just a few days, this fellow had suddenly appeared on the 49th floor.”
“Little Miss, it seems like you are quite fond of this Wanderer.” The green-robed girl spoke; looking at the surrounding cultivators, she then spoke with some disdain, “These people are just trash; none of them even recognised an expert like Wanderer. In a few days, when this Wanderer rushes to the top 50 floors, let’s see how surprised it would make these people.”
The blue-robed female cultivator shook her head and spoke, “No, I already know that more than a few cultivators have noticed this Wanderer climbing to the 49th floor. It is just that not a lot of people are willing to discuss it just yet. These people want to play the waiting game, waiting for Wanderer to come out so that they could draw that fellow in.”
“Little Miss, do you think the master would like to know more about this Wanderer? Would you call him to our chamber of commerce? Oh right, and that Cen Fei…..”
The green-robed girl had not yet finished her words when the blue-robe female cultivator gave a snort and spoke, “Call him to our chamber of commerce, and then look if this genius is worthy of becoming my dao companion, that’s what you wanted to say, right? No matter what level of a genius he is, I will find my dao companion by myself. Even my father can’t take that away from me.”
“But Little Miss, you’ve been looking for so long, and you haven’t found anyone. Master is also starting to get anxious about it, in case…..” The green-robed female cultivator spoke with a worried tone.
The blue-robed girl spoke with a hate-filled voice, “I can only say that this time too many ‘geniuses’ have shown up, yet I have not seen anyone with some spine. All of them are just spineless cowards who just like to show-off. Last time, when I met that fellow who dared to strike my starry skies’ battleship, I thought that he might have some courage. Unfortunately, I didn’t expect that fellow to actually cough up 100 million green coins without even daring to say a word of nonsense.”
“Little Miss, I’m afraid it would turn out a little difficult for you to find a dao companion like this.”
“So how do you propose we look then? Your master said that a cultivator without a spine would only experience limited achievements. Moreover, I do not feel comfortable looking at spineless cultivators.”
……
Ning Cheng really had reached the 49th floor; however, he decided to stay on the 49th floor for three days as he could not head up immediately.
If it were just an endless barrage of visible blade lights attacking him along with the sudden increase in pressure, Ning Cheng would have already entered the 50th floor.
However, Ning Cheng decided against it. The only reason why he chose to stay on this floor was that he felt an indistinct Spiritual Consciousness attack on this level. This was his first time experiencing a Spiritual Consciousness attack. Moreover, these attacks did not have any form and sometimes managed to slam onto his body, making him clear that this was not a blade light or other types of attacks but a genuine Spiritual Consciousness attack.
Even if it were a vague Spiritual Consciousness attack, his domain could not put up half a point of resistance against Spiritual Consciousness attacks. In the face of such intangible and invisible Spiritual Consciousness attacks, Ning Cheng had no other choice but to congregate his own Spiritual Consciousness to block.
For ordinary cultivators, in the face of such Spiritual Consciousness attacks, the first thought they would have at all times would be to rush out of the 49th floor as quickly as possible and enter the 50th floor. After all, the longer one stayed on the 49th floor, the higher the pressure and the attack’s power would one have to face.
Ning Cheng did not choose to enter the 50th floor immediately. First, because of his already strong resistance, he could stay on the 49th floor for an extended period. Second, Ning Cheng wanted to find some clues from these Spiritual Consciousness attacks. Because of his mighty Sea of Consciousness, Ning Cheng had always wondered if he could use his Spiritual Consciousness to attack opponents.
Unfortunately, even until now, his Spiritual Consciousness could only play a supporting role in tandem with his domain. Although he could integrate his killing intent and killing power into it, Ning Cheng still could not truly use them to transform them into the essence of an attack. Now that he experienced real Spiritual Consciousness attacks, how could he willing let the opportunity go? Moreover, this was still inside the Celestial Scryer Tower; as such, these Spiritual Consciousness attacks would not endanger his life. At best, they would only manage to throw him out of the Celestial Scryer Tower. In the future, if he encountered a real Spiritual Consciousness attack without any defensive ability, it would only result in terrible consequences.
During the first two days, the 49th layer only had some sporadic Spiritual Consciousness attacks. However, as time progressed, Spiritual Consciousness attacks started to increase in frequency and in strength.
Moreover, these Spiritual Consciousness attacks had no shape or form; as such, even if Ning Cheng fully stretched out his Celestial River Domain, he still could not block these invisible and intangible Spiritual Consciousness attacks. In the beginning, because of the sporadic frequency of these Spiritual Consciousness attacks, Ning Cheng could barely manage to take one or two of them. But as he spent more and more time on this floor, the strength and frequency of Spiritual Consciousness attacks started to increase gradually while also beginning to take shape.
An invisible Spiritual Consciousness thorn and a hidden Spiritual Consciousness blade slammed on to Ning Cheng’s body, immediately causing Ning Cheng’s robes to tear apart, as sounds of flesh and blood ripping along with bones breaking sounded out. Ning Cheng quickly started to operate his Mysterious Yellow Body Refining Cultivation Method while continuing to coalesce some form of a Spiritual Consciousness attack.
“Ka-Ka-Ka……” As even more of Ning Cheng’s bones started giving out cracking sounds, he found it hard even to stand straight at this time.
Ning Cheng, however, did not think of continuing to stand and immediately sat down. At the same time, he finally started to feel the benefits of Spiritual Consciousness attacks quenching his physical body. Although his body suffered some severe injuries due to the seemingly endless Spiritual Consciousness attacks, his powerful Body Refining Cultivation Method would immediately start to heal his body while continually strengthening it.
Not knowing for how long this continued, Ning Cheng suddenly stood up. He had no idea when the injuries covering his body had disappeared entirely; moreover, his corporeal body had also unwittingly reached the peak of Grade 9 G.o.d Body.
Although the surroundings still rampaged with blade lights and Spiritual Consciousness attacks, these Spiritual Consciousness attacks could no longer cause any harm to Ning Cheng.
Ning Cheng, on witnessing this, felt delighted. This Nine-by-Nine Celestial Scryer Tower really benefited one’s cultivation. Not to mention the growth in his Spiritual Consciousness, even his corporeal body had now reached the peak of Grade 9 G.o.d Body. Unfortunately, he did not have a higher-grade body-forging cultivation method; as such, his attainments in body forging could only stop here for now.
Although Ning Cheng still could not grasp how to coalesce his Spiritual Consciousness to attack, he knew that this Nine-by-Nine Celestial Scryer Tower contained many more floors. He did not believe that only the 49th floor would include Spiritual Consciousness attacks.
After the 49th floor, the path in front of him no longer was a flat cyan-coloured stone path, but a cyan-coloured stone ladder that went from one level to another. Ning Cheng’s Celestial River Domain stretched out and immediately neutralised the pressure around him. He then took a few steps up and reached the top of the 49th floor before pushing open the entrance to the 50th floor of the Celestial Scryer Tower.