Deacon Huang felt quite desperate and wanted Ji Pingzhong to come forward and say that he could take care of the spirit crystals. However, Ji Pingzhong didn’t even bother to move. Rather, he pretended otherwise. Either that, or he didn’t put him, Deacon Huang, in his eyes at all.
“This dao friend, you’ve lived here for too long. I can only refund you ten days’ worth of rent. What do you think?” Deacon Huang wouldn’t agree to shell out five million spirit crystals to Ning Cheng even if Ning Cheng slapped him publicly.
Ning Cheng sneered, “It seems that Star Stepping Tower likes to act only as a bully. Not only do they bully their guests, they even make promises like clouds of farts. Stop with all this pretend acting; if you can’t back your words, then state it openly. Don’t make things on the spot only to disgust people.”
Although he technically didn’t suffer any loss right now, Ning Cheng had already decided to leave this place with Xin Xiu and Wu Qihong. One day, he will come back to get some old fashioned revenge.
Deacon Huang already felt disgruntled with Ning Cheng. Now that Ning Cheng retorted with such rude words, he immediately made up his mind to teach Ning Cheng a lesson.
But before he could even speak a word against Ning Cheng, a cold voice suddenly appeared in the hall. “My Star Stepping Tower has always put the customer first, aiming to make them feel at home. We never indulge in bullying customers or make random promises. Since the Star Stepping Tower has laid down its rules, it’s the same as a country’s laws. As long as the guests fulfil the rent obligations, any and every customer will enjoy the laid down rules.”
Ning Cheng felt distracted for a while.
Why did those words feel so familiar?
He even felt as if these words came from a person from Earth. Except for Earth, every place he had visited used the word ‘law[1]’ instead of ‘law[2]’. Not only that, but even the words ‘customers’, ‘obligations’, ‘rights’, and others also sounded familiar yet unfamiliar.
But these thoughts quickly disappeared from Ning Cheng’s mind. He saw a black-robed woman with a veil on her face suddenly appear in the hall. To Ning Cheng’s surprise, he couldn’t see this black-robed woman’s cultivation at all. However, this woman’s aura felt more powerful and terrifying than Man Jiuren. Only the words ‘vast as a sea of smoke’ could describe it.
An inn with such a terrifying master
, Ning Cheng felt sure that this woman could kill him with just a finger.
“Pardon me, but who is this senior?” Ning Cheng couldn’t afford to offend such an expert but also felt a bit curious and used Earth’s way of speaking with respect.
The black-robed woman replied with a quiet voice, “My surname is Nei. I opened this inn, and you’re going to explain to me about this conflict.”
Ning Cheng didn’t exaggerate or take back his words and said what had happened just now.
After listening to Ning Cheng’s words, the black-robed woman coldly glanced at Deacon Huang and the concierge. She said with an ice-cold tone, “Both of you, get out of my Star Stepping Tower. Don’t even dare to step into my Star Stepping Tower from now on or ever in the future.”
After speaking, she turned to another concierge and said, “Help these two customers with the lease renewal procedures. Make sure it’s per the rules.”
Ning Cheng never thought that things would be that simple. Deacon Huang and the injured concierge didn’t dare say a word and left the inn’s hall with their heads held down.
Sacred Child Ji frowned slightly. He cupped his fists and stepped forward, “Desolate Spirit Palace’s Ji Pingzhong greets Senior Nei.”
“What do you want?” The black-robed woman’s tone didn’t ease even a bit.
Ji Pingzhong felt a little unhappy. Facing one of the Grand Essence’s 12 Sacred Children, an inn master would never use such a tone. Let alone after hearing that he came from the Desolate Spirit Palace.
“I want to stay in the premier suite of Star Stepping Tower’s sixth floor….”
Without waiting for Ji Pingzhong to finish speaking, the black-robed woman spoke up with a cold voice, “If you want to check-in, then go to the counter and check-in like everybody else. You don’t need to tell me about this kind of thing.”
Ji Pingzhong took in a deep breath then looked at Ning Cheng before speaking up with a slightly stiff tone, “The premier suite is what they want to renew….”
Ning Cheng didn’t drag Ji Pingzhong into the issue when he explained things. He knew that the smaller the forces involved in such a situation, the more beneficial it would be. Now that Ji Pingzhong spoke those words, the black-robed woman instantly understood why Deacon Huang wanted Ning Cheng to check out.
She looked at Ji Pingzhong, and the chillness in her eyes intensified even more. Her tone turned even colder, and she said, “Get lost. No one can drive the guests of my Star Stepping Tower away.”
Ji Pingzhong’s face changed. No one had ever dared to tell him to get lost. His face turned pale, but he still managed to pass on some words to the black-robed woman, “I will bring the senior’s words back to my Desolate Spirit Palace without any changes.”
The black-robed woman stared at Ji Pingzhong and spoke with the same ice-cold tone, “If you don’t get the hell out right now, I will make sure that you no longer have any legs to return to your Desolate Spirit Palace.”
Ji Pingzhong didn’t dare to continue spouting nonsense and ran out of the Star Stepping Tower with a cold face.
Ning Cheng was just about to thank the black-robed woman but found that she had already disappeared without a trace. It was in the same manner as when she had first appeared. Ning Cheng couldn’t figure out how this veiled black-robed woman appeared and disappeared from the start to the end. Moreover, he could even sense the slightest disturbance in the surrounding space, as if she melted away into the air.
At this point, Ning Cheng no longer wanted to live here anymore. The black-robed woman was just too terrifying. If he did something in the room, could he even hide from this woman? But by the time he looked back, he saw that Xin Xiu had already renewed the lease for two more months. It meant that he had no choice but to stay. “Let’s go back up. Unless something happens, try not to come out.”
……
After returning to the room, Ning Cheng sat quietly for a long time. He started to wonder if this woman surnamed Nei had come from Earth just like him. However, the terrifying power of that female cultivator forcibly erased such thoughts.
But just in case, Ning Cheng cast dozens of restrictions all around the suite and even arranged a dozen array formations. Only after doing all this did he feel a bit calmer.
Nevertheless, he didn’t intend to expose any information about the Mysterious Yellow Bead in the room. With the great meet only a month away from now, he still had many things to do. In addition to cracking Pill Sage Min Kong’s bracelet, there was that strand of foreign spiritual consciousness in his Sea of Consciousness. He wanted to eliminate that strand of spiritual consciousness as quickly as possible to avoid any further complications.
[1]
Law –
[2]
Law –
Chapter 0898 – Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pill
Translated By – DemonKiller
Checked and Edited By – Livewidsmile
Proofread By – DemonKiller
Please do not host our works anywhere else without our permission.
“Clink-clang.” A slight but crisp sound rang out, which made Ning Cheng happy. He had finally opened Pill Sage Min Kong’s bracelet.
Ning Cheng’s spiritual consciousness immediately swept in, but he felt dumbfounded when he saw the contents inside. He had initially thought that as Min Kong was a top-grade Dao Essence Pill Deity, he would have spirit crystals piled up inside as high as a mountain. It might even contain several patches of divine grass gardens, perhaps even rows of dao fruit trees filled with dao fruits.
However, Pill Sage Min Kong
’s bracelet contained no dao fruits at all. Let alone a dao fruit tree, it didn’t have even a single strand of the lowest-grade divine grasses. Even the number of spirit crystals inside felt pitiful, not even comparable to him. Ning Cheng estimated that the total wouldn’t even exceed 10 million at best. He did, however, find many medicinal pills inside. But all of them were waste or unfinished pills. As for weapons or any other material, Ning Cheng didn’t see even a single one.
Apart from the spirit crystals and piles of waste pills, Ning Cheng only found a pile of jade strips scattered to one side.
No
, Ning Cheng grasped the bracelet in his hand and understood what might have happened. No matter how poor Pill Sage Min Kong was, it would never be to such an extent. The only conclusion he could come up with was that this bracelet wasn’t where Pill Sage Min Kong stored his treasures. Pill Sage Min Kong most likely had another storage-type artefact, like a True Spirit World. Or something similar to the Mysterious Yellow Bead, which one can keep in their Sea of Consciousness.
Pill Sage Min Kong must have hidden his treasury in the deepest part of his Sea of Consciousness. However, Ning Cheng genuinely respected Pill Sage Min Kong and decided not to desecrate Pill Sage Min Kong’s remains back then.
Ning Cheng sighed; it seemed that fate didn’t want him to have this opportunity. Perhaps Pill Sage Min Kong used the bracelet as a disguise; after all, carrying a ring would have been a much more convenient option than the bracelet. Apart from some female cultivators who liked to wear decorative bracelets, very few people would willingly use a bracelet-type storage artefact.
These old demons who lived for countless years truly had a more competent head compared to the others. They all made sure that other people wouldn’t get their stuff so easily if one of them died. Perhaps Pill Sage Min Kong hadn’t truly died yet; maybe his essence spirit had already escaped with his actual storage artefact.
Throwing all the spirit crystals in the storage bracelet into his ring, Ning Cheng took out all the jade strips.
Picking up the first jade strip, Ning Cheng found that it recorded the steps of a pill recipe and the pill refining experience. Although Ning Cheng admired Pill Sage Min Kong’s thorough approach towards learning, Ning Cheng wasn’t even half-interested in these kinds of things. After scanning it once, he put the jade strip aside and picked up the second one. The second jade strip wasn’t any different from the first jade strip, containing step-by-step instructions and a detailed description of a pill refining experience.
The third, the fourth….
Initially, Ning Cheng would simply put aside the jade strips after confirming the same thing over and over again. But when he got to the 60th jade strip, he started to feel something was wrong. Pill Sage Min Kong’s pill refining experience and understanding pointed towards refining and honing a particular pill recipe. A pill recipe for improving one’s Sea of Consciousness and even strengthening it.
Although these jade strips did not mention Divine Chalcedony, Ning Cheng had a vague feeling that these pill recipes were all connected to Divine Chalcedony. But suppose these pill recipes were truly related to Divine Chalcedony. In that case, it should be for a pill similar to the Spirit Essence Pill. Ning Cheng had heard Qi Shisanxing say that the pill recipe for the Spirit Essence Pill had long since disappeared in the annals of times. Therefore, after Ning Cheng obtained some Divine Chalcedony, he planned to deduce the Spirit Essence Pill’s pill recipe in the future. He had never expected that Pill Sage Min Kong would have already started the process of figuring the pill recipe.
Facing such a pill that he urgently needed, Ning Cheng immediately immersed himself in the knowledge. He even lowered his guard against the black-robed woman. But in truth, he didn’t need to be so careful as the black-haired woman didn’t put Ning Cheng in her eyes at all, let alone spy on him in secret.
Time quickly passed by, and Ning Cheng’s closed room remained in dead silence and without any moment.
……
It had already been 21 days since Ning Cheng went into retreat, but Xin Xiu had started to grow more and more anxious. Ning Cheng had given Wu Qihong an Extreme Purging Wood Essence Pill before, which improved Wu Qihong’s life force a lot. But after 21 days, Wu Qihong’s life force started to decline once again.
Xin Xiu understood the consequences if Ning Cheng couldn’t help gather and condense Wu Qihong’s dissipating Essence Spirit and repair his Sea of Consciousness. If it went on for too long, her Junior Apprentice Brother would eventually die even if she kept feeding him many more pills. It’s just that after Ning Cheng moved in, he didn’t come out at all, nor could Xin Xiu hear a single sound from his room. But no matter how anxious she felt, she did not dare to touch the restrictions outside Ning Cheng’s door to alarm Ning Cheng.
On the other side of the door, Ning Cheng grew more and more surprised with each passing moment. The Divine Chalcedony recipe that Pill Sage Min Kong came up with wasn’t perfect. He found several key points within the formula that had no ideal solution. However, Ning Cheng finally started to hone in on a solution in Pill Sage Min Kong’s conclusion.
Divine Chalcedony was naturally the principal ingredient. But it also required additional primary divine grasses like the Cloud Vine, Meteor Phantasm Fruit, Devil Cloth Grass and Ten Thousand Flame Petals. Apart from these main ingredients, it also required 163 other auxiliary divine grasses. Although each divine grass’s quantity can vary, refining this medicinal pill had strict requirements on the pill flame used and spiritual consciousness.
Except for the more precious Divine Chalcedony, only the high-grade divine grass, Ten-thousand Flame Petal, could pose some problems. The rest were just ordinary divine grasses, which one could purchase from any merchant houses.
Ning Cheng had a lot of Divine Chalcedony and obtained more than 200 stalks of Ten Thousand Flame Petals from Pill Sage Min Kong’s divine grass garden.
However, the Ten Thousand Flame Petal was the most crucial part of the pill recipe’s deduction. The Ten Thousand Flame Petal was a divine grass with a flame and light attribute. Spiritual consciousness, on the other hand, generally had an invisible and formless quality. Rather, it shared a close resemblance with intent and thought. But the most crucial point was that Ten Thousand Flame Petal had no effect on the Sea of Consciousness and spiritual consciousness.
Divine Chalcedony, on the other hand, contained a powerful yin attribute within it. At the same time, it was the primary ingredient in the pill that affected spiritual consciousness. Suppose one didn’t use the Ten Thousand Flame Petal to balance it. At that point, not only would it not have any effect, it might even burn or freeze one’s Sea of Consciousness, depending on which side the balance tilted.
But there was still a slight difference between the recorded deductions and the actual conclusions. Even if Ning Cheng had the Mysterious Yellow Bead and cultivated using the Mysterious Yellow Formless Cultivation Method, he couldn’t use the deductions directly.
As Ning Cheng continued to take out furnace-full of waste pills, he didn’t feel distressed at all. Rather, after every failed batch of pills, the subsequent batches came closer and closer to perfection. In any case, Ning Cheng had a lot of divine grasses on him, apart from more than a hundred pieces of Divine Chalcedony. If he could fix this spiritual consciousness pill recipe that could increase one’s spiritual consciousness and Sea of Consciousness, its value would reach incalculable heights.
After wasting the eleventh batch of medicinal pills, Ning Cheng finally succeeded. The twelfth batch of pills hadn’t yet formed, but the faint fragrance coming from the furnace had already given his Sea of Consciousness a massive jolt. Even the trace of foreign spiritual consciousness integrated into Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness had started to show signs of separation.
Ning Cheng felt overjoyed. He didn’t expect that this medicinal pill, which he wasn’t even fully confident in, would produce such an effect. The surprise and shock were so intense that Ning Cheng almos
t lost control of the still-forming twelfth batch of pills. Fortunately, his powerful spiritual consciousness helped him persevere and finally finished refining eight pills out of the batch.
Ning Cheng formed twelve non-usable pills in each batch, but the twelfth batch produced only eight pills. Although none of them were top-quality pills, Ning Cheng still felt quite satisfied. Once he got rid of the foreign spiritual consciousness in his Sea of Consciousness, his Sea of Consciousness would once again turn pure. At that time, the effect it would have on refining this pill would also improve several-fold.
Eight white, almost transparent pills lay on Ning Cheng’s palm. As a hint of fragrance emerged from it, Ning Cheng involuntarily took in a deep breath.
He carefully put away the pills except for one and threw it into his mouth. The pill didn’t turn into a liquid like other pills on entering his mouth. Instead, it turned into a formless gas that penetrated his Sea of Consciousness.
Ning Cheng wasn’t actively cultivating at this moment. However, he could feel that his spiritual consciousness kept improving while his Sea of Consciousness also showed signs of expansion.
Ning Cheng had still hadn’t recovered from the initial surprise due to the power of the medicinal pill when the foreign strand of spiritual consciousness in his Sea of Consciousness trembled. Suddenly, it separated from his original spiritual consciousness.
Ning Cheng couldn’t help but feel overjoyed that his initial speculation had indeed been correct. The next moment, he grabbed the foreign spiritual consciousness and threw it towards the Celestial River Flame. The foreign strand of spiritual consciousness made a slight ‘click’ before it disappeared without a trace.
After finally getting rid of the foreign strand of spiritual consciousness in his Sea of Consciousness, Ning Cheng took in a deep breath. When he cast the Dark Nether Scripture’s Spirit Devourer, Ning Cheng had devoured a trace of the opponent’s spiritual consciousness. Because of it, Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness never calmed down; it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that it now felt even calmer than before.
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