Duan Gantai stared at Ning Cheng for a few moments before speaking in the same gentle tone as before, “Brother Ning. I came here looking to cooperate with you, not force you to cooperate with me. This cooperation definitely would benefit both of us. The only reason I took out something was to show you my sincerity. Even though I have only ten thousand Permanent Essence Pills, I still decided to give them to you. Compared to my life, cultivation resources are nothing. Moreover…..”
At this moment, Duan Gantai’s tone turned indifferent, “Moreover, I know that you might have a secret much bigger than mine. I only have some relatively precious cultivation resources, but who can say how many good things you have. Although you can count them yourself, the Su Clan also have their numbers tallied up. I can only take out these things. If you really do not want to cooperate with me, then I do not have any other choice but to take my leave. I don’t believe that I can’t find my way out by myself.”
Ning Cheng suddenly felt a little helpless. If Duan Gantai’s limit were just these things, he would also have no other choice. Seeing Duan Gantai stand up to leave, Ning Cheng immediately called out to stop him, “Brother Duan, all I have are some good weapons and few raw materials, but these things cannot turn into cultivation resources. It’s the main reason why decided to risk it by exchanging for Yang Jun’s jade strip. How about this, as long as you can take out the one million Perpetual Moon Pills and the ten thousand Permanent Essence Pills, we can come to an agreement. Otherwise, I would have to send Yang Jun’s jade strip to the Su Clan…..”
“Okay, it’s a deal then.” Duan Gantai did not wait for Ning Cheng to continue. He immediately took out a storage ring and passed it on to Ning Cheng. Even Ning Cheng could not believe that he would take such decisive actions.
Ning Cheng grabbed the storage ring and let his Spiritual Consciousness penetrate inside, and found that it truly contained a million Perpetual Moon Pills and ten thousand Permanent Essence Pills. Seeing this, Ning Cheng couldn’t help but feel a little bitter in his heart. It now truly felt like he had asked for too little. With Duan Gantai’s wealth, maybe he could have obtained more if he tried pushing this fellow.
Duan Gantai seemed to have understood Ning Cheng’s thoughts and calmly spoke out, “First, I can only take out these things after stretching myself to the limit. If you want more, then I would have no way to strike a deal with you. Second, Su Clan is not looking for your jade strip, but the rest of the treasures on you. Even if you give the jade strip to the Su Clan, you will not be able to escape their clutches. Third, whatever you traded with Yang Jun, it will soon appear in front of Su Youqinghong. You have no idea how the Su Clan works.”
“By the way, I’ll give you a piece of advice. After you escape the Eternal Night Domain, if you really go to the place marked on the jade strip, you will definitely die without even a burial. I’m sure that Su Clan would have people waiting for you there. I know this not because I know more than you think, but I know the Su Clan much better than you.”
“Thank you for the reminder.” Ning Cheng put away the storage ring. At the same time, he also completely calmed down, without giving off any fluctuation. Since this Duan Gantai was such a savvy fellow and had judgement abilities that far surpassed others, it was not surprising that a person like him would have many good things.
Duan Gantai showed a smile that did not look like a smile as he spoke, “No, you owe me a favour. Remember to pay it back to me in the future.”
Ning Cheng also showed a slight smile, “You’re wrong. This is still within the scope of cooperation. I don’t owe you any favours. You came to me because you feel optimistic about me. When dealing with the Su Clan in the future, you want to have some solid insurance in your favour. The Su Clan and I don’t have any hatred or even any relationship for that matter, which means I can still leave if I want. But you definitely don’t have a simple relationship with the Su Clan, right? If you want, I wouldn’t mind doing you a favour now for the future.”
Duan Gantai nodded, “Speaking with smart people truly saves a lot of energy. If you say you don’t owe anything, then you don’t owe anything.”
“Less nonsense now. Tell me the details of this ‘cooperation’.” Ning Cheng felt too lazy to exchange more words with Duan Gantai. This fellow’s mind was just as unique as his appearance.
Duan Gantai was also a smart and no-nonsense kind of a man. Therefore, after hearing Ning Cheng’s words, he directly spoke up, “Before the toast, my ‘wife’ grazed her fingers past your hand…..”
“That’s true. That woman might have fallen for me, and wanted to ask me out. This woman really does not follow the normal conventions of women folk, she still hasn’t seen the bridal chamber, yet already trying to rope in another man. We had a particular name for such women in my hometown, you know……” Ning Cheng seemed to speak from Duan Gantai’s perspective.
Duan Gantai’s face remained calm, without any fluctuation. Yet, he still interrupted Ning Cheng’s words, “She told you to meet in the Perpetual Sand Rest Stop tomorrow night and that she had something you need, right?”
Ning Cheng felt truly surprised that this Duan Gantai was so perverted that he could even read the information stored inside the Spiritual Consciousness Imprint. Could this fellow also use Spiritual Consciousness Thorns like him? However, Ning Cheng did not find any indication of another Spiritual Consciousness peering into the Spiritual Consciousness message, let alone Duan Gantai’s Spiritual Consciousness.
Ning Cheng continued acting as if nothing happened, “Yes, she did say that she had something I need.”
Duan Gantai smiled once again, “If I hadn’t guessed it wrong, then what you need should be the Purple Yin Spring Water, right?”
Ning Cheng felt a sense of helplessness well up inside of him. At this moment, he had no choice but to admit it, “Yes, I need the Purple Yin Spring Water.”
Duan Gantai’s expressions turned severe, “I don’t know why you want the Purple Yin Spring Water, but I can tell you that the Purple Yin Spirit Water is not worth much. Only the Purple Yin Spirit Spring Bead or the real Purple Yin Spirit Spring has worth. As for the Purple Yin Spring Water, which only had the Purple Yin Spring Bead in it for a moment, is not even worth the soup made out of chicken ribs.”
Although Ning Cheng did not speak, he wholeheartedly agreed with Duan Gantai’s judgement. He also thought the same way. Looks like this Duan Gantai also shared the same thoughts as him.
Seeing Ning Cheng remain silent, Duan Gantai continued, “Moreover, Su Baijiao doesn’t have a lot of Purple Yin Spring Water on her. She only said that to try to rope you in with the Purple Yin Spring Water. Although I gave you a million Perpetual Moon Pills and the Permanent Essence Pills, it’s up to you whether you want to take up or give up on this impractical and useless bait.”
“Tell me about your thoughts.” Ning Cheng spoke without revealing any intentions.
Duan Gantai’s voice turned solemn, “I know where the two great powers who fought over the Purple Yin Spirit Spring Bead went, and I can also provide you with the information about this place. It’s called the Temple of Falling Stars. Think of it as a gift from me. What I’m asking from you is to go to the appointment tomorrow evening as if nothing happened. I’ll then catch you and accuse you both of adultery. With my temper, I will immediately start a fight with you on the spot. You then say that you can’t fight in the Eternal Night Domain, but you will take up the fight in the Eternal Night Duelling Tower.”
“I know about the Eternal Night Duelling Tower.” Ning Cheng nodded. The jade strip from Su Baijiao also had information regarding the Eternal Night Duelling Tower. This place was on the public square outside the Eternal Night Domain. Once you enter the Eternal Night Duelling Tower, one of the parties involved has to die before anyone can come out of it. Arguably, this was the most brutal challenging platform that Ning Cheng had seen till now. Although many of the challenging arenas that he encountered in the past also had such a stateme
nt, it would rarely turn into reality. However, within the Eternal Night Duelling Tower, one side had to die for the other to live.
“That’s right, the Eternal Night Duelling Tower. The Eternal Night Duelling Tower is located on the Eternal Night Public Square outside the Eternal Night Domain. Of course, we won’t actually enter the Eternal Night Duelling Tower. But only by reaching the Eternal Night Public Square would we have any chance of escaping from this place. The Su Clan, even if it acted more blatantly, would not dare to stop us from fighting over my wife in the street. Therefore, we definitely would succeed.” Duan Gantai seemed to be afraid that Ning Cheng would not understand his plan and carefully tried to explain it to him.
Ning Cheng didn’t know too much about the Su Clan. Therefore, when he heard those words, he frowned slightly, “You mean that if we don’t leave the Eternal Night Domain, we can’t escape even if we tried to escape right now?”
“We absolutely cannot escape. You will know about it in the future. I don’t have the time to explain it to you. In any case, with your attainments in array formation, you should have at least some understanding about how an Aura Locking Grand Array works.” Duan Gantai spoke with conviction.
Ning Cheng now felt truly shocked. Duan Gantai did not know his current attainments in array formations; therefore, when Duan Gantai spoke about this, he started to understand why Duan Gantai held so much fear in his heart.
Ning Cheng was an Imperial Array Master, someone who could arrange Grade 6 Celestial River Array Formations. As such, he invariably had some understanding of the Aura Locking Grand Array. This grand array, as long as one collected the aura of a cultivator and integrated it into the grand array, it would then lock the cultivator inside the grand array on activation. Once the cultivator in question tried to escape from inside the grand array, the grand array would automatically start and lock in the cultivator whose aura it contained.
Fortunately, he had not decided to leave the Eternal Night Domain immediately; otherwise, he most likely would have ended up the prisons of the Su Clan.
Ignorance gives birth to fearlessness. Ning Cheng realised this and felt a cold tremor passing through his heart. If he had known that he was locked in by an Aura Locking Grand Array, he probably would have done the same thing, i.e. seek out cooperating with others like Duan Gantai. Fortunately, Duan Gantai thought that his attainments in array formations were not too high and that he had little knowledge about it, which made it slightly favourable for him.
Looks like it was the right thing to keep a low profile.
Without waiting for Ning Cheng to ask, Duan Gantai took the initiative to continue with the explanation. “The Su Clan, on seeing us on fighting, and on the verge of such a scandal, would have no choice but to take the initiative to release the Eternal Night Domain’s Aura Lock and let us go to the Duelling Tower over the Eternal Night Public Square. That will be our only chance to make our escape.”
“What if the Su Clan doesn’t agree to it?” Ning Cheng knew that Duan Gantai must have taken great pains to come up with the best possible plan, but after knowing the danger, he still had to make sure of it.
Chapter 0660 – Catching Someone Red-handed
Translated By – DemonKiller
Checked and Edited By – Livewidsmile
Proofread By – DemonKiller
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Duan Gantai took a deep breath before speaking, “With my understanding of the Su Clan, they would definitely let us go to the Eternal Night Public Square. As one of the largest family clans in the Eternal Night Domain, the Su Clan would not shamelessly lock up the two us in public as long as we show no intentions of escaping.”
“If the Su Clan did this, then it would be akin to trying to find lice on a bald head. It would immediately make it clear to the public that they definitely locked us up, especially me, because they coveted our stuff. Of course, if the Su Clan really acted this shamelessly and without any regards to the consequences, then we would have no choice but to accept our fate.”
Ning Cheng clenched his fists, he could feel that Duan Gantai’s analysis was not made out of despair. In other words, if the Su Clan refused to play by the rules, then Duan Gantai did have a way to circumvent it. However, this method most likely would cause severe harm to Duan Gantai and might even injure his foundation. Most likely, it would be Ning Cheng, who would have to resign to his fate if he could not escape.
Although this situation was not a disaster outright but would turn into a life and death situation if he could not escape from it. As Ning Cheng thought of it till here, he might as well go with the flow for now. Since he can’t walk away immediately, then it’s better to stay and talk. Moreover, he had an inkling that Duan Gantai’s plan had a success rate of at least 90%. Only when putting one’s life on the line, would one find success within a plan. In any case, 90% confidence was still a large chunk.
“Brother Duan, I understand. Don’t worry, I will follow your plan tomorrow. However, I would have to ask Brother Duan to give me the Directional Jade Strip for the Temple of Falling Stars. Maybe I’ll decide to visit it in the future.” Ning Cheng put the current matter to rest and immediately started planning.
Duan Gantai showed a faint smile before putting down a jade strip, which he seemed to have prepared beforehand. Then, with a flash, he disappeared from Ning Cheng’s room. Ning Cheng’s defensive array formations only rippled like a thin curtain over a door, this fellow didn’t even have to touch it to push it aside.
Ning Cheng’s Spiritual Consciousness had already noticed the changes that happened with this fellow’s body and his array formation. When he saw Duan Gantai preparing to leave, he had seen a flash of light coming from his body. This flash of light made it easy for him to pass through his array formation.
Ning Cheng remained silent. He had never seen or even heard of such means of breaking through an array. That flash of light from Duan Gantai’s body, most likely, came from a heaven-defying weapon, which allowed the wielder to bypass ordinary array formations. If this person became his enemy in the future, he definitely would be a difficult opponent to counter.
In any case, Ning Cheng felt that Duan Gantai should have no reason to lie to him. He picked up the jade strip that Duan Gantai had put down and casually scanned it with his Spiritual Consciousness and found that it contained a positional chart with directional indicators of a seemingly boundless starry sky. As for the Temple of Falling Stars, it was located in a relatively remote location within this starry sky positional diagram.
Putting the jade strip away, Ning Cheng didn’t have any plans of going to the Temple of Falling Stars, at least not sometime soon. With his current cultivation, going there to talk to that powerhouse about the Purple Yin Spirit Spring Bead would be nothing more than courting death. However, he had to admit that this Duan Gantai definitely had many secrets. He even knew about this matter in such detail.
……
Ning Cheng left the rest stop early and went to the Perpetual Sand Rest Stop. He didn’t even use his Spiritual Consciousness to search for cultivators trying to track him.
Perpetual Sand Rest Stop was not only a small place, but there were also not many people frequenting it. The hall on the ground floor was not very spacious and had even fewer people. Including Ning Cheng, it only had three guests.
Ning Cheng didn’t look for a booth, he asked for a pot of Spiritual Wine and picked a table on the ground floor before sitting down. He didn’t think about Su Baijiao’s words, but more about Duan Gantai’s words and actions.
Strictly speaking, he and Duan Gantai’s cooperation was something mutually beneficial, at least on the surface. But in this ‘cooperation’, made it look like he was the one in an advantageous situation. In this cooperation, one could say that Duan Gantai not only had a good heart but also was quite generous.
Ning Cheng picked up the jug on the table and put it to his mouth. It was purely a subconscious
movement, but when the pitcher neared his mouth, he suddenly felt something wrong. Even if he didn’t understand the Aura Locking Grand Array, as long as that fellow explained things in some detail, even if it wasted some time, Duan Gantai could have explained it to him.
As long as he explained the working, or at least the strength, of the Aura Locking Grand Array, Duan Gantai wouldn’t have any need to come up with any Perpetual Moon Pills and Permanent Essence Pills at all to get him to cooperate. Maybe, he had overlooked something.
How could someone like Duan Gantai, especially one with a shrewd mind, not have the patience required to explain such a crucial detail? Moreover, it wouldn’t take an extremely long time to explain the essential workings, would it? The two of them didn’t even know each other before today. So why did he willingly expose himself from his advantageous position, just to cooperate with him, when he could just sit back and enjoy the show?
That’s not right,
Ning Cheng thought to himself as he subconsciously stood up. There definitely were a few problems. Duan Gantai definitely was not the kind of person who gave away benefits to others without any reason. Even if he knew that the Su Clan wanted to use him when he and Su Baijiao exchanged ‘flirtatious’ glances, he would still have felt somewhat upset about it, it was a subconscious thing which people wouldn’t be able to control. Because of this, it was even less likely that he would actually help him. Although extending this kind of help to him also helped Duan Gantai, but Ning Cheng still felt that there was a critical flaw in here somewhere.
However, no matter how hard Ning Cheng pondered over it, he still couldn’t figure out what Duan Gantai had hidden from him. In any case, as long as he and Duan Gantai created enough ruckus, he could then head to the Eternal Night Grand Public Square. Once they reached the Eternal Night Grand Public Square, both of them can each go their own separate ways and would share no relationship with each other. Even if Duan Gantai had some means to his name, he would still find it impossible to suppress him. As for the Temple of Falling Stars, he currently did not intend to go there in the short term.
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