“We have already negotiated with Grand Essence Demon Vein to pass by this route, and we also pay a lot of spirit crystals and various artefacts every year. For your Grand Essence Demon Vein suddenly blocking our void ship now; what does that mean?” Standing at the tip of the void ship, a grey-haired man spoke in a deep voice. Deacon Xia, who had just rushed up, immediately landed a step behind this man.
Ning Cheng noticed that this grey-haired man’s cultivation was higher than Deacon Xia's, most likely at the late-stage Dao Essence Realm.
On the opposite side, commanding the demon beasts was a tiger-headed man, who smiled and spoke, “It’s pretty easy to explain the situation; I came here for a personal matter. I happened to learn that you have a lot of Five-Elements Primal Chaos Aura on your void ship, and I just so happen to be missing such an item. As long as you give me half of your Five-Elements Primal Chaos Aura, we will immediately withdraw…….”
“I don’t know anything about it.” The grey-robed Dao Essence Holy Emperor didn’t hesitate to refuse this tiger-headed demon’s request.
The tiger-headed demon snorted, “If you don’t agree, then don’t blame us for forcibly searching the ship.”
This time, Ning Cheng didn’t wait for the grey-robed Dao Essence Holy Emperor to answer; instead, he shouted at the tiger-headed demon, “Just relying on you; only a bread-like idiot and dare ask for the Five-Elements Primal Chaos Aura? Not to mention that Deacon Xia of our ship has a lot of Five-Elements Primal Chaos Aura; even this father has a lot of it. Are you even worthy of such a thing as a beast? Our Deacon Xia is a Dao Essence Holy Emperor who likes to eat tiger whips[1]. If you don’t roll away, don’t blame this father for cutting off your little whip and stewing it for our Deacon Xia to eat.”
Even if Ning Cheng had a Starry Sky Sea of Consciousness, and no matter how powerful his spiritual consciousness was, as soon as Ning Cheng finished those words, the two Dao Essence Holy Emperors on the Sea Sky Pavillion’s void ship immediately understood a few things. Ning Cheng also knew that he had to provoke the two sides into a fight as soon as possible. After all, even before this tiger-headed demon appeared, Deacon Xia’s spiritual consciousness had locked on to him.
He understood what Deacon Xia had planned for him. Once a battle started, Deacon Xia would immediately move to kill him amid the battle’s chaos, then collect the things on his body using some pretext. As such, Ning Cheng had to create some opportunities for himself to escape. In fact, he must not wait for the battle to begin before trying to escape. After all, Ning Cheng didn’t want to take such an enormous risk.
When Ning Cheng’s words ended, the two’s gazes immediately locked onto Ning Cheng. But before the two could even question Ning Cheng, the tiger-headed demon roared, and knife lights, containing the aura of laws, immediately rained down on the Sea Sky Pavillion’s void ship. With the tiger-headed demon taking charge, the rest of the demon beasts also swarmed forward with their attacks.
How could the void ship’s defensive restrictions block the simultaneous attacks from so many demon beasts? Without any suspense, the primary defensive restriction cracked open in a moment with a resounding ‘crack’.
Unfortunately, despite being packed with many cultivators, none of them panicked. Instead, they all looked for a way out and prepared to escape. Everyone knew that although many chambers of commerce negotiated for a safe passage with the major forces of the Grand Essence Demon Vein, it wouldn’t be the first time a void ship got attacked by demon beasts while passing through. Therefore, as long as one boarded a void ship passing through this area, one had to be prepared for such developments.
Moreover, this time it also involved the Five-Elements Primal Chaos Aura, which meant that a fight was inevitable. Naturally, if one can escape early, one should escape as soon as possible.
At this moment, the grey-haired Dao Essence Holy Emperor didn’t have the time to question Ning Cheng. He immediately summoned his artefact and rushed at the tiger-headed demon.
Deacon Xia also took action at the same time as the grey-haired Dao Essence Holy Emperor started. However, his target was not the demon beast horde raining down attacks on the restrictions to widen the crack, but Ning Cheng.
The void ship was surrounded by demon beasts, but with everyone determined to disperse and escape, these beasts could only stop a few.
Ning Cheng had provoked the tiger-headed demon, meaning he couldn’t use his initial plan to escape. Therefore, now that both sides began fighting, Ning Cheng immediately rushed in the opposite direction of Deacon Xia towards the middle of the demon beast horde.
However, even with countless demon beasts blocking the path, in the eyes of Deacon Xia, they were nothing but cannon fodder.
Seeing Deacon Xia rushing over unimpeded, Ning Cheng grunted. Sure enough, this bastard had eyes only on this father. Ning Cheng waved his hand, blasted dozens of time wheels, and activated the Twin Wings of Heavenly Clouds.
With a faint golden flash, and just when Deacon Xia’s palm was about to close in on Ning Cheng, Ning Cheng disappeared and reappeared outside the demon beast’s encirclement.
This time, Ning Cheng acted decisively. He summoned the Starry Sky Wheel and instantly disappeared into the depths of the Grand Essence Mountain Range with a loud ‘boom'.
However, Ning Cheng quickly discovered that Deacon Xia hadn’t given up on him. Instead, he brought out an artefact and immediately chased after him.
This made Ning Cheng realise that he had made a potentially huge mistake. He had forgotten to mention a few words when he provoked that tiger-headed demon. He should have made it clear that Deacon Xia, who wanted to eat his tiger ‘whip’, was the man in yellow robes.
But Ning Cheng was also not worried about Deacon Xia wanting to hunt him alone. After all, when he was still an Eternal Starry Sky Emperor, he had escaped the pursuit of Man Huishan, who was also a Dao Essence cultivator. Now that he was almost at the peak of the Dao Sculpting Realm, how could he still be afraid of an early-stage Dao Essence Holy Emperor chasing him?
As long as he couldn’t tear the void and appear in front of him, Deacon Xia wouldn’t be able to catch up to him just by relying on speed.
Sure enough, once Ning Cheng’s fully activated the Starry Sky Wheel, it quickly outpaced Deacon Xia.
On the other hand, Deacon Xia’s face had turned incomparably gloomy. He was convinced that Ning Cheng had some Five-Elements Primal Chaos Aura on him. Even if Ning Cheng didn’t have it, that flight-type artefact was also by no means simple. He began to drive his flight-type artefact frantically. Unfortunately, even if he tried his best, the distance between Ning Cheng and him grew wider with each passing moment until he eventually disappeared from view.
After confirming that he had thrown off Deacon Xia, Ning Cheng chose not to continue at full speed. Instead, he put away the Starry Sky Wheel.
After all, he didn’t know which direction to escape at all. Moreover, he could feel more powerful auras the further he went. If he ended up in the territory of a powerful beast, it would only result in death.
Ning Cheng carefully concealed his aura and traces and then took out the azimuth chart he had purchased in the Broken Spear Spirit City. Unfortunately, the azimuth chart was nothing more than a compass in this area, without any coordinates. It also meant that he was trapped in the depths of the Grand Essence Demon Vein without a way out.
Looks like I strayed too far inside; Ning Cheng sighed and quickly moved to find a secluded location to hide.
After spending a few days in that location, Ning Cheng carefully observed everything around him. Before determining a direction, he didn’t want to run around like a headless fly.
On the fourth day, Ning Cheng felt a terrifying spatial fluctuation from far away. A few breaths later, a similar spatial fluctuation erupted from a location not too far from him.
“Boom……” A rainbow light slashed past, splitting a gully thousands of feet long, just ten steps away from Ning Cheng.
By this time, Ning Cheng could clearly see what was happening; it was a fight between two beings. One side was Deacon Xia, while the other side was a giant lizard.
Looking at the situation, Deacon Xia still had the upper hand. But his robes had several large tears on them, and his aura also felt chaotic. Apparently, this upper hand hadn’t come without a cost.
Ning Cheng stayed still and tried not to make any movements. He even started to feel glad that he had made the right choice. If he had continued to rush forward in the same direction, his situation would have been much worse than Deacon Xia's.
Despite having the upper hand, Deacon Xia’s eyes were restless and anxious. He knew full well that the longer he fought, the more unfavourable it was for him.
“Poof…….” The weapon in Deacon Xia’s hand slammed down on the giant lizard’s head. This time, the lizard seemed to have received a serious injury and fell down from the air, crashing into a small mountain and destroying it.
Deacon Xia didn’t come down to collect the spoils; instead, he immediately picked a direction and fled.
Ning Cheng wondered why this Deacon Xia acted in such a high-handed manner? How could he not even collect the giant lizard he was about to kill? After all, this giant lizard could fight against a Dao Essence Holy Emperor, which meant it was of a very high level and would certainly fetch a good price.
However, a dragon-like howl suddenly erupted, making Ning Cheng understand that Deacon Xia knew that a dragon was coming or something similar to a dragon. Thus, he didn’t dare to stay here and collect the giant lizard.
A moment later, Ning Cheng saw a leviathan-sized black shadow of a flood dragon crossing the area, rushing towards Deacon Xia.
Ning Cheng carefully appeared and tried to follow that leviathan-sized flood dragon. He didn’t want to be a fisherman fishing in troubled waters. In any case, Ning Cheng knew that his strength wasn’t enough to take the role of the fisherman. Rather, Ning Cheng wanted to trail them to find a way out of this place. Deacon Xia should have a map of the Grand Essence Demon Vein or at least something that could lead him to an exit. If he could secretly follow them, there was a good chance that he could find the direction.
Half a day later, Ning Cheng felt the spatial fluctuations of another earth-shattering fight. The level was so intense that it constantly caused the surrounding space to tremble. Even the ground couldn’t withstand the shockwaves, and ravines started to appear because of the fight between the two.
Ning Cheng, who followed from a distance, understood a few things. Deacon Xia must have gone through many battles in the past few days. The fight with the lizard and the leviathan-sized flood dragon was just one of his several battles.
Ning Cheng’s heart started to fill up with joy. That’s what you get for chasing after this father. If feasible, Ning Cheng even wanted to help this flood dragon. Fortunately, Ning Cheng knew to not act on it. He couldn’t participate in this battle with his level of strength. Even if he took a step back and threw himself into the battle to help that flood dragon, his end wouldn’t be much better.
Looking at the fight, Deacon Xia seemed to have consumed too much of his reserves, while Ning Cheng’s spiritual consciousness was still quite strong and resilient. Both these factors helped him hide and watch the battle from a distance without anyone noticing. That flood dragon shouldn’t have reached the Dao Essence Realm, but the strength of its body as a demon beast made it almost impossible to distinguish the strength levels of it and the seriously injured Deacon Xia.
“Boom-Boom….. Bang……”
The flood dragon and Deacon Xia’s law-infused spirit techniques blasted together again. But Ning Cheng, hiding on the side, quickly understood that Deacon Xia had devolved into desperation.
A fountain of blood gushed out from Deacon Xia’s waist. Ning Cheng then noticed that Deacon Xia’s waist had been cut by the flood dragon’s knife-like tail, leaving just a tiny bit of flesh and blood connecting the two halves of his body. At the same time, Deacon Xia’s giant umbrella-like weapon erupted with a beam of rainbow-coloured light, which drilled through the flood dragon’s body, bringing up another fountain of blood.
The flood dragon hissed in pain and anger, turned around, and instantly disappeared, while Deacon Xia's face had turned pale as a bleached white sheet of paper. Although the wound on his waist was rapidly closing, he still couldn’t stop the overflow of dao rhythms.
Generally, a starry sky cultivator could regrow severed limbs as long as they reached the Undead Realm. Cultivating up to the Life and Death Realm, they could even resculpt their destroyed bodies.
But all Dao Confirming Holy Emperor knew how important a corporeal body was to a cultivator at that stage. Once the corporeal body received too much trauma, even if they could heal or re-sculpt it, it would strongly impact their dao rhythms. On the contrary, without reaching the Dao Confirming threshold, the impact wouldn’t be great even if one’s corporeal body was destroyed multiple times.
At this moment, Deacon Xia’s body had almost been severed in half by the flood dragon, and his dao rhythm was also overflowing and in disorder. Ning Cheng could observe it clearly from his hiding spot. He also understood that this might be his only chance if he wanted to kill Deacon Xi here and get that map.
It was now or never; Ning Cheng didn’t hesitate and rushed out. A black arrow suddenly appeared over his right hand, silently suspended in the air.
[1] The word ‘whip – 鞭’ here is a play of words and can mean different things, like a whip, a lash, or, more popularly, an animal penis served as food. I translated it as ‘whip’ to keep with the wordplay.
Comments