Chapter 0337: Sifting Orchid Star
“Blood River? Heaven Opening Talisman?” After Shi Qionghua heard Ning Cheng’s words, Shi Qionghua could not help but ask in astonishment. There was still a faint flush clinging to her face, but Ning Cheng’s words had shocked her to the extreme.
“Yes, the skeleton at the bottom of the Blood River not only had an incomparably huge golden coloured Heaven Opening Talisman, but also stated that as long as I found the Heavenly Cusp Flower and the Geocentric 9 Yin Essence. He would be able to help me cross through planes, and return me back to my hometown. Originally, I wanted to take you back to the Le Continent, then look for Luofei, and finally go back together. However, I think that we should currently wait for some time.” Towards Shi Qionghua, Ning Cheng did not conceal anything.
Shi Qionghua hurriedly asked, “Did you take the Heavenly Cusp Flowers from the Severing Emotions Dao Sect? If so, then you should quickly bring it out for me to take a look.”
Ning Cheng did not have a good understanding about the Heavenly Cusp Flower, especially since this level of spiritual grass had already surpassed the knowledge that he is in possession. Hearing that Shi Qionghua wanted to look at the flower, he did not think anything, immediately taking out the jade box containing the Heavenly Cusp Flowers, and put it into Shi Qionghua’s hands.
Shi Qionghua opened Ning Cheng’s jade box loaded with Heavenly Cusp Flowers before she sighed and spoke, “So it really did turn out like that.”
“What’s wrong?” Ning Cheng asked in a nervous manner.
Shi Qionghua closed the jade box and spoke, “These strains of Heavenly Cusp Flowers have not fully matured, and they would have needed at least 5-6 months more to mature. It looks like the main reason why Xu Anzhen had still not made a move on me all that time was because these strains of Heavenly Cusp Flowers have still not fully matured. Her strains of Heavenly Cusp Flowers had already been transplanted once, but now that you have unearthed them in a random and hasty manner, there is simply no more possibility for them to continue to mature.”
“I think that the spiritual techniques that the skeleton cultivates in is certainly much stronger than Xu Anzhen’s, since Xu Anzhen cannot use these Heavenly Cusp Flowers currently, then even if you give them to that skeleton, it can easily be guessed that they would be unusable.”
Ning Cheng on hearing Shi Qionghua’s words about the flower froze for a good long while, before he rubbed his forehead and spoke, “Using a bamboo basket to fetch water aah. However, that skeleton is somewhat of a hypocrite, if not for you, Qionghua, coming to save me at that time, I would not even have my life. If we really cannot go back to Earth, then with you and Luofei as company, we can just all stay in this place together.”
Although he believed that the skeleton was not a crafty person, but not being able to crush the jade talisman had almost left him hanging in the Severing Emotions Dao Sect. He had always included it in his plans, that if he was not able to stay in the Tian Continent, then at least he would be able to preserve his life using it. Finally, if not for Shi Qionghua not being able to into the Heaven’s Way, he would have definitely lost his small life.
Thinking that he no longer would be able to go back, Ning Cheng sighed. Ruolan should have already graduated from college by now, and can presumably take care of herself.
Shi Qionghua gently grabbed Ning Cheng’s hand and spoke, “I’m not very clear about planes and plane boundaries. However, I can be sure that tearing through a plane would be very difficult. As such, it should have strict limitations required to one’s cultivation to be able to do such a thing. Even with the help of Heaven Opening Talisman, if one did not possess a certain cultivation, then perhaps they would not be able to go back. That skeleton might not have necessarily plotted against you; rather it might have actually considered this point.”
“That’s actually a possibility.” Ning Cheng spoke after pondering over it for a while. He could feel that the skeleton was not a sinister person. If it even did not covet his Mysterious Yellow Bead, so why would it screw up such a trivial matter? If only it wished for more. After experiencing many things, Ning Cheng began to think that matters like these would always have multiple hypotheses.
Hesitating for a moment, Ning Cheng finally asked, “Do you know from where Xu Anzhen obtained these Heavenly Cusp Flowers?”
“Even if you did not ask about it, I was about to tell you. Xu Anzhen obtained these Heavenly Cusp Flowers from the Sifting Orchid Star. It’s not the Heavenly Cusp Flowers of the Severing Emotions Dao Sect, even if it is the Floating Snow Palace’s Refining Snow and Ice Domain, Rainbow Fall Sword Sect’s Small Spiritual Domain, the Spiritual Veins under the Heavenly Dao Academy’s Heavenly Dao Public Square, the Burning Sun Weapon Sect’s Burning Sun Furnace and all the others defining things of other academies, all of them came from the Sifting Orchid Star….”
Ning Cheng was truly shocked as he interrupted Shi Qionghua’s words, “Where is this Sifting Orchid Star located, how could it have these many good things? The Small Spiritual Domain is anyways something huge, so how could the Rainbow Fall Sword Sect bring it to the academy from the Sifting Orchid Star?”
Shi Qionghua explained, “If it was at present, then even if all the Crucible Transformation Cultivators in the Yi Xing Mainland gathered together, they still would not be able to take away something as large as the Small Spiritual Domain. The Rainbow Fall Sword Sect’s Small Spiritual Domain is said to have not been brought to the Yi Xing Mainland by a local cultivator, rather it was something that was conveniently drawn down to the Yi Xing Mainland by an expert spiritual technique cultivator for cultivating in the Yi Xing Mainland. After this cultivator left, this Small Spiritual Domain was used by the founding Headmaster of the Rainbow Fall Sword Sect, before this became a mystical place for the academy.”
Ning Cheng gave out a long sigh, “For Rainbow Fall Sword Sect to be able to preserve the Small Spiritual Domain to the present times, it can be considered that they do indeed possess a little skill.”
Shi Qionghua showed a faint smile, “You are a disciple of the Rainbow Fall Sword Sect, yet you simply do not know how terrifyingly powerful Rainbow Fall Sword Sect’s Rui Baishan is. I heard Xu Anzhen say this once, that if one talked about her personal list of the ten most terrifying people of the Yi Xing Mainland, then Rui Baishan would definitely be one of them. Even if those ten were cut down to half, Rui Baishan would still be within the remaining five.”
Ning Cheng immediately sucked in a breath of cold air, when he first met Rui Baishan, he felt as if there was no secret that could be hidden from Rui Baishan. Although he had already guessed that Rui Baishan was powerful, but he had never expected Rui Baishan to be powerful to such a level. He was also sure that Shi Qionghua was not deceiving him. If even someone like Xu Anzhen was afraid of such a person, then wasn’t he more than ‘just powerful’, right?
“Qionghua, tell me about the Sifting Orchid Star.” Ning Cheng, in his heart, was already starting to formulate a plan to go to the Sifting Orchid Star. With him and Shi Qionghua together, they should be powerful enough to travel to the Sifting Orchid Star.
Shi Qionghua nodded and spoke, “The Sifting Orchid Star is actually an alien mainland that one can arrive only through the Yi Xing Mainland. The area it occupies is also not smaller than the Yi Xing Mainland. Moreover, there are innumerable precious spiritual grasses, in there along with countless mystical places for cultivation. The reason why the Yi Xing Mainland have so many Crucible Transformation Cultivators is because of the inheritances obtained from the Sifting Orchid Star, causing them to spring up everywhere.”
“However, the Sifting Orchid Star is not suitable for cultivation, nor is it suitable for habitation. The space there is completely chaotic and turbulent, with countless erupting volcanoes, wild thunders and massive hurricanes raging and wreaking havoc all over it. Even if one does manage to find a suitable place for cultivation, perhaps in the next moment, it would be suddenly sucked into a spacial turbulence, taking you away with it. What is even more fearful is that among all these things are the various innumerable advanced level monstrous beasts indigenous to the Sifting Orchid Star.”
“How can one reach the Sifting Orchid Star? We definitely will have to take a trip there.” Ning Cheng spoke with conviction, if he went to the Sifting Orchid Star, then Shi Qionghua must certainly come with him.
Shi Qionghua sighed and spoke, “If I could have gone to the Sifting Orchid Star, then I would have already gone there. To reach the Sifting Orchid Star, we would have to use a Transmission Array; moreover, it is the Yi Xing Mainland’s farthest Transmission Array. However, this is protected by the Heaven Alliance. Several hundred years ago, nearly hundreds of Crucible Transformation Cultivators ended up disappearing in the Sifting Orchid Star. From then on, the Heaven Alliance did not allow Crucible Transformation Cultivators to enter the Sifting Orchid Star. Only Soul Essence Realm, Soul Sculpting Realm and cultivators of the Sea Opening Realm can enter the Sifting Orchid Star currently.”
“Moreover to go to the Sifting Orchid Star, the transmission cost is quite high. It would need you to fork out three best quality spirit stones and 10 million high grade spirit stones per person. Moreover, the Sifting Orchid Star does not have a returning transmission array, as such once you reach the Sifting Orchid Star, only after advancing to the Crucible Transformation Realm would you be able to return on your own. Unless one’s heart and mind is extremely tough and tenacious, would they be able to have the resolve to go there. Because of this there are extremely few cultivators wanting to go to the Sifting Orchid Star.”
Hearing that Shi Qionghua could not accompany him, Ning Cheng immediately put down the idea. After thinking for something, he took out the other eight crystal balls and spoke, “I also obtained eight other wisps of life essences belonging to eight people from Xu Anzhen. These things are simply useless for me, is it possible for returning it back to those people?”
Shi Qionghua also very much approved Ning Cheng’s thoughts about giving back the remaining life essences. She had personally experienced the supressing of her life essence; as such, she was very clear about the hardships associated with it.
She took out a jade strip and handed it to Ning Cheng before speaking, “This contains the blueprint of a Soul Nourishing Array, and you just have to arrange the Soul Nourishing Array and place these life essences inside it. After the owners of the individual life essences reach a certain level in cultivation, they would automatically be drawn towards this place, and would then be able to take away their wisps of life essences by themselves.”
Ning Cheng also thought that this method was quite good. However, he was worried that once the first person came here to take away their own wisp of life essence, they would sabotage or even take the other wisps of life essences for their own uses. So he specifically separated the eight wisps of life essences. Even if it was Yin Kongchan’s wisp of life essence, Ning Cheng simply had no interest in keeping it with him. However, he also did not want to deliberately bring harm to Yin Kongchan, whether for good or for evil, Yin Kongchan had also tried to warn him several times.
……
North Light Town, a small sea town close to the Yi Xing Ocean. There were many adventurers and low levelled cultivators here, Ning Cheng Shi Qionghua easily disguised themselves a pair of rogue cultivator couple, before arriving here.
At this time, Ning Cheng and Shi Qionghua already knew what had transpired. They had just returned to the outside world from their seclusion, and immediately heard about the major event that happened in the Grand Peace City’s auction.
Eighteen Crucible Transformation Cultivators had fallen; eight of the major academies were dragged into a war, while the Severing Emotions Dao Sect had sealed off their mountains. This kind of matter, they simply did not have to inquire about, as it was being discussed everywhere.
Moreover, it was not just the many major academies, but even the Heaven Alliance was looking for the cultivator surnamed Keng. This cultivator had supposedly provoked the several major academies into waging a war against each other, while he himself disappeared.
“Qionghua, it looks like we would not be able to stay in the Tian Continent currently. If we go down on this path, then we would be discovered eventually. Why don’t you come into my miniature world and I’ll take you to the Sifting Orchid Star?” Ning Cheng was now aware that people were searching for his whereabouts everywhere. As such, he was very clear in his heart that he would have to leave the Tian Continent. He cannot stay here until he at least cultivated to the Crucible Transformation Realm.
Shi Qionghua felt quite moved in her heart, she had always wanted to go to the Sifting Orchid Star, especially since the Sifting Orchid Star hid the secret of her birth. However, she had never been able to find a way to get there, now that Ning Cheng said that he might be able to use his miniature world to take her to the Sifting Orchid Star, she immediately felt excited.
But at the same time, she was also somewhat worried. In the event that Ning Cheng was recognized by the Heaven Alliance, then it would not be a good thing.
At this moment, a stream of light descended at a distant place. It was silver coloured airship type magical weapon, from which two people walked out. It was a man and a woman, the man was quite handsome, and seemed to be the perfect embodiment of Jing Qi Shen. It can be instantly made out that he was someone who came from a major academy. Moreover, his cultivation was also not low, at the Soul Sculpting 2nd Level.
[TL Note: ‘Jing Qi Shen 精气神’ are the three energies of the Chinese medicine.]
The woman had the cultivation of Soul Essence 2nd Level, with perfect curves, enough to let any female cultivator to burn with jealousy. Not only that, even her appearance was not inferior to that of Yin Kongchan. This female cultivator held her hair in a bun, with a hair pin inserted into it at an oblique angle, which casted out a weak glow.
However, Ning Cheng actually knew both of them. For Li Lingfan to come here would not be strange, but what made Ning Cheng astonished was about how Chai Chudie could appear in the Tian Continent? He had made acquaintances with Chai Chudie in the Thunder Domain Marsh. This woman was extremely vicious; initially she had wanted to use him to deal with Lu Fei. However, in the end it resulted in Lu Fei perishing within the thunder city, while she fled from that place devoid of cloths.
Ning Cheng still remembered it clearly that this woman had a three inch long cyan coloured crescent moon tattoo on her belly. This crescent moon tattoo was faintly flashing with lights, which he found really strange at that time. Moreover, this woman also did not care about being stark naked in front of others, but one also has to remember that she had tried to use him to kill her companion Lu Fei, as such she was definitely a ruthless person.
Ning Cheng suddenly sent out a sound transmission to Shi Qionghua, “I just saw an acquaintance of mine, Li Lingfan of the Heavenly Dao Academy. I’m going to talk to him.”
Shi Qionghua hurriedly held onto Ning Cheng and spoke, “Ning Cheng, the Heavenly Dao Academy and the Heaven Alliance have a great relationship while we do not. So don’t exchange too many words with the disciples of the Heavenly Dao Academy.”