Ning Cheng quickly understood that would never be such a coincidence. In other words, someone wanted to lure him out.
He can refine the Renewing Heavens Ripple Bone Pill, which Gong Yangdi already knew. But at the same time, Gong Yangdi also had no reason to keep this fact hidden, which meant that every major force should already know it by now. Sheng Houtian was his ‘sworn’ brother, and it just so happens that Sheng Houtian got poisoned by the Ripple Bone Poison. A poison that only he could cure.
Moreover, even Eternal cultivators at the edge of the Grand Essence Sea also knew about Sheng Houtian’s poisoning. Therefore, as long as Ning Cheng remained in the Grand Essence Domain, this fellow knew that Ning Cheng would definitely come to learn about it.
Since Sheng Houtian was his sworn brother, what would he do when he found out about this? The first thing he naturally ‘would’ do was immediately head to the Pill Union to look for Sheng Houtian and then refine the Renewing Heavens Ripple Bone Pill. Ning Cheng estimated that by that time, the primary ingredients for the Renewing Heavens Ripple Bone Pills would miraculously ‘be found’, just waiting for him to refine them into pills.
But the question remained, who was looking for him?
No matter who wanted to look for him, there was one thing Ning Cheng felt sure of: the person looking for him didn’t have any good intentions.
“Two seniors, we juniors are indeed working for the Pill Union. Although we inadvertently offended this senior, we hope that this senior will forgive…….” The two Eternal cultivators tried to speak up while backing away.
However, Ning Cheng raised his hand and shot several more lightning bolts. Whether these two wanted to sabotage Yan Ji or if it was for his own safety, he had to eliminate them. As for this red-haired Dao Transformation cultivator, Ning Cheng felt a little conflicted, as he didn’t have enough confidence to finish off the other party.
Ba Meng wasn’t surprised when Ning Cheng decided to silence the two Eternal cultivators. After all, if someone tried to interfere with his dao companion’s tribulation, he wouldn’t hesitate to kill them either.
Only after Ning Cheng collected the rings of those Eternal cultivators did he look at Ning Cheng and speak with a smile. “Is your cultivation focussed on the thunder attribute?”
Ning Cheng slightly nodded, “I’m not a thunder-focussed cultivator, but I do have a thunder-attributed spirit root.”
“Good, let’s talk about cooperation. How about accompanying me to a place, and I will give you a Strange Crossing Dao Fruit?” Ba Meng continued with great anticipation.
Ning Cheng was a little speechless. Not to mention Strange Crossing Dao Fruits, he had several bottles of Strange Crossing Dao Pills in his rings. Strange Crossing Dao Fruit allowed Dao Sculpting Holy Emperors to perceive the Dao Raising Realm, increasing the chances for a Dao Sculpting Holy Emperor to advance to the Dao Raising Realm. It was a relatively precious dao fruit for other Dao Sculpting Holy Emperors, but for Ning Cheng, it wasn’t much different than garbage.
“Sorry, my strength is limited; I can’t accompany this dao friend.” Ning Cheng refused without hesitation with cupped fists.
Ba Meng never expected that Ning Cheng wouldn’t be interested in what he was talking about and would refuse immediately. Because of this, Ba Meng felt taken aback for a moment. He quickly collected himself and said, “Is it because one Strange Crossing Dao Fruit isn’t enough for you? How about this, you can state your conditions.”
Ning Cheng replied apologetically, “I’m limited in strength; besides that, I also need to look for a place to retreat and cultivate.”
Ba Meng’s gaze then swept over to Yan Ji, still in the middle of her tribulation, and spoke up after a moment of contemplation. “Sigh, you sure know how to drive a hard bargain. How about this? I have a way for you to advance to the late stage of Dao Sculpting Realm within a short time.”
Ning Cheng sneered in his heart. He was a pill sage, not a two-bit idiot. Not to mention advancing to the late-stage Dao Sculpting Realm in a short time, he even had methods to reach the Dao Raising Realm quickly. However, all methods involved ignoring the effects on one’s foundation. In fact, many such methods even destroyed the foundational laws of one’s grand dao. Plus, as the master of the Mysterious Yellow Bead, he naturally had a great future as long as he didn’t encounter any unexpected situations. So how could he be so short-sighted?
“Not interested.” Ning Cheng no longer had the patience to find a reason to refuse and immediately refused the offer. In fact, after refusing, Ning Cheng even readied himself for a fight against Ba Meng. Now that he had advanced to the middle-stage Dao Sculpting Realm, as long as he could dictate the flow of the battle, he might even be able to kill Ba Meng.
To Ning Cheng’s surprise, Ba Meng didn’t seem interested in making a move. Instead, he took a deep breath and said in a cautious tone, “Do you know about the Grand Essence Netherworld?”
Ning Cheng shook his head. He truly had not heard of such a place.
Seeing that Ning Cheng didn’t know about it, Ba Meng decided to explain. “After a cultivator dies, as long as the spirit soul isn’t destroyed, they all would get a chance to enter the cycle of reincarnation. The Grand Essence Netherworld, well, it’s a channel that guides the cultivator’s spirit soul to enter the cycle of reincarnation. Unfortunately, the current Grand Essence Netherworld is broken…….”
“Wait, wait…..” Ning Cheng suddenly thought of Xun Hanrui, who had not yet woken up. Although Xun Hanrui’s spirit soul showed signs of regeneration, it was painfully slow. He also couldn’t return to put her body in the original tomb to speed up the process. Now that Ba Meng spoke about the Grand Essence Netherworld, he didn’t know if it had anything to do with Graceful Star Mainland’s netherworld.
“If I may, do only souls of cultivators who died in the Grand Essence Domain enter the Grand Essence Netherworld?” Ning Cheng saw Ba Meng looking at him and asked quickly.
Ba Meng shook his head and said, “No, it's for all the interfaces under the positional planes that come under the Grand Essence Realm. Regardless of the interface’s level, as long as they die within the bounds of the Grand Essence Realm, their spirit souls will enter reincarnation through the Grand Essence Netherworld.”
“Then, which are the low-level interfaces and the positional planes that come under the Grand Essence Realm?” Ning Cheng asked in a somewhat nervous tone.
Ba Meng looked at Ning Cheng in confusion, then finally explained. “There are as many interfaces as the hairs on an ox; who can even say how many there are? When the laws of the Grand Essence Realm were intact, those cultivators from the lower level interfaces who wanted to enter the Grand Essence Realm had to go through the ascension process. But now that the laws of the Grand Essence Realm are broken, the Grand Essence Realm is not much different from those low-level starry skies. So people can come and go through talismans and even teleportation arrays.”
Ning Cheng suddenly felt a slight excitement creeping up in his heart. He started to feel more and more that the four great starry skies might actually be low-level interfaces under the Grand Essence Realm. And that the Graceful Star Mainland was another lower-level interface that came under the four great starry skies. From this, he felt there was a good chance that Xun Hanrui’s spirit soul might have entered the Grand Essence Netherworld. Apart from Xun Hanruin, maybe……
Ning Cheng’s mind suddenly conjured the delicate face of Yu Qing. Maybe he could find Yu Qing’s spirit soul again.
“I have a friend who has been deceased for decades. If I teamed up with you, would I be able to find her soul?” Ning Cheng suppressed the excitement in his heart and spoke up with a slight tremble.
Ba Meng sighed and said, “Although I do need your lightning bolts to enter that place, I have to tell you that you most likely wouldn’t be able to find it.”
“Why?” Ning Cheng blurted.
Ba Meng continued, “Grand Essence Netherworld’s laws are shattered. It also has several experts guarding it. Even if we disregard those two things and enter, we can only remain in the outermost area. As for entering the inner areas, I’m sorry, it wouldn’t be possible. Since your friend has been dead for decades, I’m afraid this person would have already reincarnated. Or at the least, the soul wouldn’t be near the outermost area.”
Ning Cheng’s expression turned sullen, and after a moment of silence, he asked, “Then, if the corporeal body is still intact but the spirit soul is gone, can we try searching for the spirit soul?”
Ba Meng gave a solemn nod to Ning Cheng. “That’s why I asked for your help. I only had one son, but one of my enemies killed him a few years ago. Fortunately, I managed to preserve his physical body. I kept it preserved over the years. Now that I managed to get a Nine-Hells Boundary Breaking Talisman to enter the Grand Essence Netherworld, the only thing I lack now is your help.”
“Alright, but I’m only doing it to help a friend. After she died, she only left behind her corporeal body, and her spirit soul hasn’t recovered yet. So although I’m going with you, it’s primarily to find my friend’s spirit soul.”
Since Xun Hanrui took the Six Yin Soul Pill, even if only a trace of her spirit soul existed in the Grand Essence Netherworld, it would significantly improve the recovery process.
“Good. Let’s head to my place first, and we’ll then discuss how we do this.” When Ba Meng heard Ning Cheng’s words, he immediately felt overjoyed.
After saying that, he said to Ning Cheng, “Oh right, I forgot to ask your name.”
Ning Cheng didn’t hesitate and replied honestly, “My name is Ning Cheng. Once we take care of this matter, I’m afraid I might have to ask for Brother Ba Meng’s help again.”
After Ning Cheng finished, he closely watched Ba Meng’s expression. Finding Ba Meng not showing the slightest hint of surprise, he understood that Ba Meng hadn't come out of the Grand Essence Sea. In other words, he should still be unaware of the big events in the Grand Essence Domain.
As for why he knew about Sheng Houtian’s poisoning, it most likely was because of the many people coming to the Grand Essence Sea to search for ingredients.
Ba Meng smiled wide, “As long as our cooperation is successful and I can save my son, I’ll help you with whatever you want, no matter what it is.”
Ning Cheng purposefully didn’t reveal that he was a pill sage, nor did he tell Ba Meng what he wanted from him. After all, even though Ba Meng’s response showed his straightforwardness, they simply didn’t know each other. Therefore, Ning Cheng decided to wait until they took care of this matter before drawing further conclusions about Ba Meng.
By this time, Yan Ji had managed to surpass her tribulation. She quickly put away the rest of the spirit crystals and landed directly beside Ning Cheng, staring at Ba Meng somewhat cautiously.
“Junior Apprentice Sister Ji, this is Dao Friend Ba Meng. I will be working with him for the time being, so you should head back into the True Spirit World first to stabilise your cultivation.” Ning Cheng didn’t explain the matter of the netherworld.
“Okay.” Yan Ji didn’t ask questions and entered Ning Cheng’s True Spirit World directly. She had just advanced to the Eternal Realm and needed to stabilise her cultivation.
……
If Ba Meng had not brought Ning Cheng over, Ning Cheng would have never found this place, even if he had searched the Grand Essence Sea for tens of thousands of years.
Ba Meng lived in the depths of the Grand Essence Sea, where there was hardly any spirit qi. Apart from some sea demons, Ning Cheng estimated that no one would even bother to come here, let alone live there. In fact, cultivators with low cultivation wouldn’t even dare to come this deep into the Grand Essence. Even holy emperors with high cultivations wouldn’t care about a place that lacked spirit qi.
Ning Cheng internally sighed as he followed Ba Meng through a natural concealment formation, two natural shielding formations, and a man-made defensive formation. Even formation experts beyond a high-grade Spirit Array Master couldn’t set up such intricate and interconnected natural array formations. They probably wouldn’t notice these formations even if they walked past them a hundred times.
He thought about the hidden teleportation formation where he had secluded himself previously. Didn’t it also have a natural concealment formation? Ning Cheng sighed. There were too many mysterious things in the Grand Essence Sea.
“Fellow Daoist Ba Meng, although this seems to be a good place, the spirit qi here is a little too……..”
Before Ning Cheng could finish his words, his mouth opened wide in disbelief as he looked around.
That’s because he crossed through another defensive formation when he was about to finish his words and suddenly felt an incredibly dense spirit qi permeating the air.
If it was ‘just’ dense, Ning Cheng wouldn’t really care. After all, he was also considered someone who had seen the world. What shocked him were the intact worldly laws in the dense spirit qi around him. It meant that even without actively cultivating in this place, one’s cultivation would continue to rise just by sitting down.
“Good place.” Ning Cheng couldn’t help but marvel. He somewhat understood why Ba Meng had dared to say before that he had a way to let him advance to the late-stage Dao Sculpting Realm in a short time.
Ba Meng smiled warmly, “I accidentally stumbled upon this place a long time ago. But I didn’t bring you here to just show you this.”
The deeper Ning Cheng followed Ba Meng, the more intense feeling he got from the surrounding spirit qi. Even the laws grew denser the deeper they walked. Ning Cheng secretly murmured, ‘looks like luck isn’t just unique to me.’
Half-an-incense stick later, Ba Meng stopped, made several hand seals, revealing an entrance, and brought Ning Cheng to a huge pool surrounded by white mist.
As soon as Ning Cheng saw this pool, he understood that all the spirit qi outside overflowed from this place. In fact, the spirit qi here could no longer be called spirit qi anymore but a dense law-infused spirit mist, which contained a powerful aura of laws.
Ba Meng pointed to the misty pool and said, “That’s the Grand Essence Dragon Washing Pool, one of the five spirit pools of the Grand Essence Sea. Even the Profound Aquatic Ice Pool of Profound Aquatic Palace can’t compare to this Dragon Washing Pool.”
“When the Grand Essence Sea’s laws were intact, this pool used to be guarded by a clan of five-clawed dragons. I heard that once a five-clawed dragon was born, the clan would place the newborn in the Dragon Washing Pool and let it live there for a hundred years. In fact, any five-clawed dragon that came out of the Dragon Washing Pool was much more powerful than those who haven’t been to the pool. Because of this the five-clawed Spirit Dragon Clan ruled the Grand Essence Sea for a long time. Unfortunately, even if one was more powerful, no one can stop the erosion of time.”
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