Chapter 0403: The Misfortune of Lian’e

“Bang” As Gui Feng’s glabella burst open, Gui Feng’s body finally slumped down. As for the several tens of feet high Virgin Hope Pagoda, the Virgin Hope contained inside it started to suddenly overflow. This overflow turned into Yin Qi, which soon disappeared without a trace.

“Pata” a sound emerged, as a small wooden tower fell to the ground. Ning Cheng raised his hand and grabbed this wooden pagoda. However, he found that this wooden pagoda did not possess any Spiritual Nature or any kind of fluctuation. It was purely a pagoda carved out of wood, nothing more.

Ning Cheng guessed that the Power of Hope stored in this Virgin Hope Pagoda automatically would start to dissipate after Gui Feng died. After the Power of Hope flowed out, this wooden pagoda also returned to its original state. From this, it was visible that this wooden pagoda could store the Power of Hope; however, the prerequisite was that its owner did not die. In this effect, this wooden pagoda was undoubtedly not as good as the Imperial Jade Seal that he obtained from the Lan Yi True Country.

However, Ning Cheng did not care about it. Even if the Virgin Hope inside the wooden tower did not dissipate, he would still smash apart this wooden pagoda. This kind of inhumane approach towards the collection of Power of Hope was something that Ning Cheng reviled the most. In his opinion, the Power of Hope harvested through the first method using incense, as mentioned by Na Xinlan, was definitely a better approach.

However, even if it was that method of collecting the Power of Hope established by the rulers of the Lan Yi True Country, these means still made Ning Cheng a bit unhappy, but it was still insufficient for him to feel an outright disgust and loathing. However, Gui Feng ended up choosing such a method, even if it had nothing to do with Ning Cheng, as long as he had the ability, he would still kill the opposite party.

“Yan Yuankai greets Lord Ning.....” Seeing Ning Cheng kill Gui Feng and putting away Gui Feng’s ring, the Dean of the Cang Qin 2-Star Academy quickly came forward to salute Ning Cheng.

He had already recognised Ji Luofei, causing his heart to beat like a drum, so how could he not know about Ning Cheng’s relation to the Cang Qin Academy?

“You and the others......” Ning Cheng hinted towards Yan Yuankai and the others, the more than a hundred terrified looking female cultivators, before speaking out, “I will soon be leaving this place, but you still have the Spiritual Consciousness Tag on you for harvesting the Power of Hope. If you believe me, then you can come up, and I can help you remove the tag.”

Ning Cheng had just killed Gui Feng in a short period in front of all these people. Moreover, Ning Cheng had also mentioned it before that he was once from the Cang Qin Academy, as such there was nobody among them who did not believe his words.

As such, Ning Cheng spent a full two hours in completely removing the Spiritual Consciousness Tags placed on those more than a hundred female cultivators.

After completely eradicating these Spiritual Consciousness Tags, Ning Cheng then turned to Yan Yuankai and spoke, “Dean Yan....”

Hearing Ning Cheng addressing him as the Dean, Yan Yuankai felt terrified. However, he did not dare raise any objections.

“I was expelled from the Cang Le City in the past, and the Ning Family was also exterminated. As one of the most powerful people in the Cang Le City, I suppose you should have more clarity on this matter, shouldn’t you?” Ning Cheng had already come to know from Ji Luofei that the Jian Family and the Qui Family had collaborated to destroy the Ning Family; even the Yong Family of the Royalty was involved. However, as to who exactly were the people involved, he was actually not very clear about it. Especially since he did not understand the distribution of forces of the Cang Qin Province.

Yan Yuankai quickly spoke up, “Five years ago, all the important members of the royal family were killed by some unidentified people, even the Jian Family and the Qui Family ended up rivers of blood flowing out of their houses. Although the current royal family is still the Yong Family, they are actually only distant relatives to the previous Yong Family. Because the Jian Family and the Qui Family’s vigour ended up severely damaged, they chose to retreat to another remote region. Now, these two forces no longer exist in the Cang Le City......”

Yan Yuankai did not directly answer Ning Cheng’s words, but Ning Cheng had already understood his meaning. That is, in the past, it was these three family who had framed the Ning Family, but these three forces were now already on their death throws. Of course, there was also a hidden meaning in those words, that is, he was pleading Ning Cheng to spare and not punish them too severely. At least, let go of their current royal family, the new Yong Family.

Ji Luofei then arrived at Ning Cheng’s side and spoke in a low voice, “What Dean Yan spoke is the truth, I had already asked about it when I came back. It looks like someone came back to help get revenge for the Ning Family before they walked away.”

“Help the Ning Family get revenge? Who else was left besides him and Luofei?” Ning Cheng thought for a long time but was not able to figure out anything.

“Let’s go.” Ning Cheng then brought out a flight type Low-Grade True Artefact and immediately departed with the others.

......

With the help of the flight type Low-Grade True Artefact, they were quickly able to rush out of the Cang Le City. Ning Ruolan’s cultivation was the worst among them, so she utilised every scrap of the time she could get to cultivate on the airship. Nan Yuefang had also recently broken through to the Profound Core Realm, making her anxious to stabilise her cultivation. Although Yang Honghou was not as fast in his cultivation as Nan Yuefang, he was aware that if he wanted to go to the Tian Continent with them, then he couldn’t lag too far behind.

Fortunately, the interior of the airship was quite large, having eight separate cabins. As such, there was plenty of room for each of them.

However, Ji Luofei did not choose to continue with her cultivation. She accompanied Ning Cheng and sat down with him on the front deck of the airship. She wanted to ask Ning Cheng if he could help her find the whereabouts of the remains of her father in the Daan Forest.

“Luofei. Do you still remember that Fighting Pot Arena?” Not waiting for Ji Luofei to speak, Ning Cheng had already asked her a question first.

Ji Luofei gave an ‘En’ sound before replying, “I remember....”

In the beginning, to obtain a Qi Gathering Stone for Ning Cheng, she had gone to the Fighting Pot Arena and desperately fought to secure the Qi Gathering Stone reward. She even ended up almost killed in the Fighting Pot Arena.

“Luofei, initially you were almost killed there. I said it earlier that when my cultivation was high enough, I would destroy that Fighting Pot Arena. Unfortunately, this Fighting Pot Arena has already disappeared. I also don’t know who had destroyed it......” Ning Cheng spoke with a slight regret in his voice.

His Spiritual Consciousness not only failed to locate the Fighting Pot Arena, but he also could not even find Gu Yiming. Fortunately, he was able to kill that Gu Fei in the past.

historical

Ji Luofei softly spoke up from Ning Cheng’s side, “That Fighting Pot Arena was Qui Family’s property. After Qui Family escaped from the Cang Le City, the Fighting Pot Arena was also torn down by the enemies of Qui Family.”

The airship was in a slow yet leisure flight, allowing Ji Luofei to feel very much at ease. During her time in the Cang Le City, when still disfigured, she had never thought that she would someday enjoy such a happy day in her life.

“There’s something.....”

Ning Cheng and Ji Luofei almost simultaneously spoke out the words at the same time. Ji Luofei then gave a gentle look at Ning Cheng before speaking, “You can go first.”

He had initially summoned an enormous amount of courage to speak the words that he wanted, but after Ji Luofei’s words and gaze interrupted him, Ning Cheng instead hesitated for a long time.

Feeling Ning Cheng’s hesitation, Ji Luofei’s body went slightly stiff. She vaguely felt a bad feeling.

Ning Cheng knew that there was no choice but to say it, “Luofei, she is called Shi Qionghua.....”

He did not speak anything else. Ning Cheng had only spoken a name, but Ji Luofei fully understood what it entailed. She turned silent at those words, but her heart did not actually feel uncomfortable. At least Ning Cheng was willing to tell her. In the Cang Qin Province, for a man to have three wives and four concubines was pretty much standard. If one did not have at least three wives and four concubines, then that was not normal at all. Even her grandfather and Ning Cheng’s grandfather had many wives and concubines.

However, the reason she was silent was due to her not liking the idea of Ning Cheng having three wives and four concubines. This had nothing to do with jealousy, but everything to do with her being alone together with Ning Cheng.

Ning Cheng sighed, before spilling everything. From how he and Shi Qionghua came to meet each other; how Xu Yingdei inflicted upon him the Burning Fires of Lustful Desires, to how it stimulated the Yang Qi Poisons from cultivating in the Small Spiritual Domain. Until the time she tried to sacrifice herself to save him, even when her cultivation was far higher than his own was.

Hearing that Shi Qionghua had almost perished several times in trying to rescue Ning Cheng, Ji Luofei’s eyes turned reddish. She was a sentimental woman, listening that someone else had chosen to give up her life to save Ning Cheng; her heart was starting to approve of Shi Qionghua.

After Ji Luofei heard the narration, she couldn’t help but tense up and tightly embrace Ning Cheng, while feeling startled in her heart. That Xu Yingdei was indeed a shameless woman, was she not concerned about face? Not only Xu Yingdei, even the Severing Emotions Dao Sect, it was also the most brazen academy that she has heard about.

“I really should thank Sister Qionghua, if not for her, I might not have been able to see you again.” Ji Luofei spoke out with lingering fear. At this moment, she had fully approved of Shi Qionghua in her heart.

Ning Cheng gratefully kissed Ji Luofei in his bosom. In his mind, he really wanted to speak out something, but he just was not able to say anything.

“Sister Qionghua should not have blamed anyone on account of being aware of one’s own impending death; maybe it was only for you... Maybe, the main reason that she gave herself up to you was that she knew that she would be dying soon......” Ji Luofei suddenly thought of something and whispered in a low voice.

“At that time, the state of my mind was muddled, thinking that since she was Xu Yingdei’s master, then both of them had similar thoughts, so I......” Ning Cheng spoke out with a guilt-ridden voice. If Shi Qionghua had finally not become his partner, then Ning Cheng would have felt even more guilt in his heart.

Ji Luofei shook her head, “No, there must be some other reason. At that time, you only had a Profound Core Cultivation, while Sister Qionghua already possessed the cultivation of Crucible Transformation Realm. Are you certain that your technique could seal her, even for a short period of time?”

Ning Cheng was startled; he had affirmed to himself that he must have sealed Shi Qionghua at that time. However, when he had ripped open Shi Qionghua’s clothes, in addition to some shock, Shi Qionghua actually showed a hint of hesitation. That moment of hesitation was what allowed him to succeed.

“Let’s not think about it for the time being. When we meet Sister Qionghua, we can then ask her again.” While Ji Luofei spoke those words, he could hear the trembling in her voice, while her body softened. She was Ning Cheng’s fiancée. This sort of thing, she felt that she should have been the one in place of Shi Qionghua.

Ning Cheng then suddenly remembered something; he quickly took out a white jade bracelet before carefully placing it on Ji Luofei’s hands, before speaking, “Luofei, this is something Qionghua had given to me for you. It was something that her mother had left for her.....”

Ji Luofei immediately came to understand something. Although Shi Qionghua and Ning Cheng had sealed the deal as a husband and wife, by giving her most precious bracelet to Ning Cheng for her, it already indicated her thoughts. Shi Qionghua knew that Ning Cheng also loved her, so she chose to part with her most precious bracelet in the hope that Luofei would also approve of her and Ning Cheng.

“Sister Qionghua is definitely one of the most kind-hearted people.” Ji Luofei lightly touched the bright white jade bracelet. In her heart, there was no longer even a shred of barrier against Shi Qionghua.

Ning Cheng could feel the stirring feelings of Luofei, causing his embrace to slightly tighten. Ji Luofei also sobered up before she quickly spoke out, “Ning Cheng, I want to see if my father is still in the Daan Forest. If he is not, then I want to go to the Yuan Continent.”

“I also want to go to the Yuan Continent to have a look. I will take a few laps around the Daan Forest. As long as I find something, I will immediately let the airship descend.” Ning Cheng comforted her. At this time, his Spiritual Consciousness was much stronger than before. Thus, even by just circumnavigating the airship around the Daan Forest, he would be able to scan the entire Daan Forest without spending much effort.

A few days later, the airship finally left the Daan Forest. Ji Luofei turned silent. She knew that after so many years, even if her father died in the Daan Forest, there would not be any trace of him left behind.

Crossing the Daan Forest, they then arrived at the Yuan Continent. After arriving at the Yuan Continent, Ning Cheng then thought of Taishu Shi. Taishu Shi was the first genuine friend that he had made after coming to this world. However, the two of them ended up separating in the West Jia City in the Yuan Continent because of Xun Shun. Therefore, after Ning Cheng arrived at the Yuan Continent, he deliberately slowed down his airship, while deploying his Spiritual Consciousness at full force. He wanted to confirm if Taishu Shi had gone to the Hua Continent or if he was still in the Yuan Continent.

Lian’e? Ning Cheng had not thought that instead of finding Taishu Shi, he unexpectedly would end up finding Lian’e. Lian’e was the woman that Taishu Shi fiercely admired. In the beginning, he had helped Taishu Shi to get Lian’e back from the West Jia City’s Pleasure Courtyard.

However, at this time, Lian’e’s condition was unexpectedly even worse than when she was in the Pleasure Courtyard. If not for Ning Cheng’s Spiritual Consciousness being a lot stronger than before, he might have not even recognised Lian’e.