Bao Xi still felt some regret in his heart. If he were not in such a rush to kill Zhu Zhengfeng, and instead focussed on obtaining the storage ring, then that storage ring would have been in his hands right now. Zhu Zhengfeng’s ring definitely was not something simple. It truly was a pity.

While Bao Xi pitied his misfortune, Ning Cheng quickly opened Zhu Zhengfeng’s ring and took out two pots of None-to-depend-on Wine and passed them along to Bao Xi.

When Bao Xi saw Ning Cheng’s speed in opening Zhu Zhengfeng’s ring, taking out the two pots of wine and handing it to him, he suddenly felt fear creep up in his heart. Even if an Eternal-level expert died, people would still need a considerable amount of time to open the restrictions covering the storage ring. Yet Ning Cheng quickly opened Zhu Zhengfeng’s ring. From this, he understood that Ning Cheng was a top-grade Array Formation Master.

Seeing that, Bao Xi decided to play nice and if possible form a friendship with Ning Cheng. He put away the two pots of None-to-depend-on Wine and then spoke to Ning Cheng with a friendly tone, “I don’t know what help this friend needs from me?”

Ning Cheng couldn’t help but marvel Zhu Zhengfeng’s wealth. But after hearing Bao Xi’s words, he quickly put aside the storage ring and spoke with a smile, “Brother Bao, I have two friends who had entered the Thousand Mound Forest some time ago. Zhu Zhengfeng should have been chasing after my two friends. Since Brother Bao is the master of the land here, I wanted to inquire if Brother Bao could provide me with the positional diagram of this place.”

Bao Xi hesitated for s bit before taking out a jade strip and handing it to Ning Cheng, “You are a friend of mine from now, and I’m called Bao Xi. The Thousand Mound Forest covers an area of billions of square miles. I only control this part of the forest. But I got some information a day ago about a huge Essence Qi fluctuation from the southeast. Maybe you can head there to check it out. As for the specific location, I’ve already marked it on the positional diagram jade strip.”

Ning Cheng took the jade strip and cupped his fists before speaking, “Many thanks, Brother Bao. I’m called Ning Cheng and also consider Brother Bao as my friend. I will have to leave first to find my other friends, and if I find some time in the future, I will definitely come to visit Brother Bao.”

Talking to demonic cultivators felt quite refreshing as they didn’t beat around the bush. If it were Duan Gantai who declared his intentions to form a friendship with him, Ning Cheng would definitely have thought that Duan Gantai had some schemes planned for him. However, when it came to Bao Xi, Ning Cheng did not doubt his words. He and Bao Xi didn’t have any conflict of interest, yet Bao Xi said that he considered him as a friend; this meant that he approved of it from his heart.

Before Ning Cheng turned to leave, he suddenly seemed to have remembered something, “Brother Bai, I also wanted to inquire if you knew about the whereabouts of the Sifting Ferry Grass in the Thousand Mound Forest?”

“You want the Sifting Ferry Grass?” A flicker of surprise flashed through Bao Xi’s eyes.

Ning Cheng nodded, “One of my friends need it. I just recalled it in passing.”

Bao Xi remained silent for a moment before he spoke up, “You can indeed find Sifting Ferry Grass in the Thousand Mound Forest, but as far as I know, with Brother Ning’s current cultivation, there is no way for you to get near that place. That place is called the Altar of Forefather’s Library[1]. It is the most mysterious place in the Thousand Mound Forest. Even I don’t dare to approach the area around it. You can find its location in the positional diagram jade strip that I gave you. If not necessary, I would highly recommend that Brother Ning not try to go anywhere near that place, at least not with your present cultivation.”

Altar of Forefather’s Library? Ning Cheng had a few doubts in his heart. He had purchased several jade strips at the Thousand Mound Makeshift Market, but none of them mentioned any place named ‘Altar of Forefather’s Library’.

“In any case, many thanks, Brother Bao.” Ning Cheng once again thanked Bao Xi before turning around and leaving.

......

Compared to all the jade strips containing maps of the Thousand Mound Forest that Ning Cheng purchased before coming in, the jade strip provided by Bao Xi had a much higher level of detail. On the jade strip, apart from the place Bao Xi had marked, it indeed marked the location of the Altar of Forefather’s Library.

Although Ning Cheng’s Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds had not yet evolved to its full potential, but in a place like the Thousand Mound Forest, as long as he had a specific positional diagram, the speed of the Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds simply outpaced all other demonic beasts that tried to intercept him. In just one hour, Ning Cheng found the place Bao Xi had marked on the map.

The area was in a complete mess. Ning Cheng, however, did not see Tian Muwan or the blue-robed female cultivator anywhere near the place. However, he understood that there was a fight here, and this fight involved the most horrifying form of attacks involving fire attributes. This place had already been burned into nothingness by the fire, and even the ground had burned away to form a huge crater.

Ning Cheng slowly walked to the centre of the burned area and immediately noticed the difference. There was a trail that extended away from this scorched crater, which was slightly lighter in colour compared to the rest. This kind of scorch marks only appeared if someone escaped just before the fire took hold of them.

Following this trail, Ning Cheng quickly felt traces of Essence Qi fluctuations and confirmed that someone had indeed escaped from this place.

Just an hour later, Ning Cheng stopped again as he sensed a more significant celestial fluctuation pass through the area. Ning Cheng quickened his pace, and after half an incense stick worth of time, something appeared in the range of his spiritual consciousness.

A skeleton and another male cultivator were besieging a pale-faced demonic youth. Ning Cheng did not know who the skeleton belonged to, but he was just too familiar with the male cultivator. With a height about two feet and with horse-shaped face with blonde hair, this person was none other than Shui Guangxi, the patriarch of Shui Clan who had just advanced to the Eternal Realm.

Not far from the three, there was a sphere of flickering lights. Inside the field of flickering lights lay two female cultivators, who Ning Cheng recognised at a glance. They were Tian Muwan and the blue-robed female cultivator. The two of them must have changed appearances before, but their appearance changing masks had already come off, and both of them lay unconscious.

The celestial essence fluctuations from the three cultivators fighting continually slammed into the flickering light sphere, but the shield seemed quite tough, showing no signs of breaking.

Ning Cheng understood in an instant that it must have been the blue-robed female cultivator who put up that shimmering light sphere. As for the three people fighting here, most likely it was for the things on the body of the blue-robed female cultivator. Although the blue-robed female cultivator might have deployed the defensive sphere, it could only last for some time. Once the three people clearly delineated the winners and losers, they could then just take away the defensive sphere to deal with it later.

The fight among the three people looked unusually intense to the point that it had even driven the demonic beasts away in fear. As for the trees within this area of the forest, none remained whole. A huge gully stretched out between the three and overbearing Celestial Essence fluctuations continually erupted from it.

One could easily imagine that without the protection offered by the flickering light sphere, Tian Muwan and the blue-robed female cultivator would have already turned to slag under such intense power-filled fluctuations.

Ning Cheng kept himself hidden and tried to converge his aura as tight as possible. Since he can’t beat all three of them, he had no other choice but to use such a method. If the blue-robed female cultivator and Tian Muwan were not within the flickering light sphere, Ning Cheng could have secretly taken away those two. But now, if he did anything to the sphere, those three would immediately notice.

When half an incense stick worth of time passed by, and while Ning Cheng kept pondering over different methods to open the sphere and save Tian Muwan and the blue-robed female cultivator, a few rays of light, filled with celestial essence brushed past the sphere, and the sphere cracked without warning.

Ning Cheng felt happy at this sight. Those light rays filled with celestial energy came from the pale-faced demonic youth. Looking at the light rays only brushing past it, it most likely happened due to a mistake.

Despite the sphere cracking open, those three people still showed no signs of stopping their fight. From this, he could make out that none of these three people cared about whether the blue-robed female cultivator and Tian Muwan lived or not. All they wanted was her storage ring.

However, Ning Cheng quickly found something wrong. He could see that the pale-faced cultivator was gradually but slowly moving towards Tian Muwan and the blue-robed female cultivator.

Ning Cheng had used such a trick many times in the past; therefore, he immediately understood that this pale-faced demonic youth had intentionally planned things out in such a manner. That demonic youth had not mistakenly shot those light rays filled with celestial essence at the sphere, causing it to crack open; rather, he had done so intentionally. Now he wanted to move in to grab the things he wanted without anyone noticing, somewhat similar to the situation between him and Bao Xi.

Although Bao Xi had higher cultivation after he obtained the ring, Bao Xi had to come to a compromise with him; otherwise, Bao Xi couldn’t have received anything.

Ning Cheng originally intended to take advantage of their fight to grab those two and leave. But after observing the movements of this pale-faced youth, he couldn’t wait any longer. He rushed out in a flash, grabbed Tian Muwan and the blue-robed female cultivator, and then stimulated the Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds to almost its breaking point before disappearing from the place in a flash with its teleport-like speed.

Ning Cheng had just grabbed Tian Muwan and the blue-robed female cultivator when the pale-faced cultivator arrived. Although he was only two breaths slower than Ning Cheng, he could only grab onto empty space.

Seeing the pale-faced demonic youth’s movements, the skeleton and Shui Guangxi immediately understood his intentions. They quickly brought out their most powerful weapons and slammed them down on to the pale-faced cultivator.

During the moment the pale-faced demonic youth tried to resist the attacks from both the skeleton and Shui Guangxi, Ning Cheng had already disappeared without a trace.

Although Shui Guangxi and the skeleton struck at full force, they knew that someone else had taken advantage of the situation to grab their prey. Without waiting for an explanation from the pale-faced demonic youth, the skeleton and Shui Guangxi quickly recalled their attacks at the last minute and chased after Ning Cheng.

At this time, the pale-faced demonic youth also did not feel like exchanging words with Shui Guangxi and the skeleton and started chasing after Ning Cheng.

Ning Cheng held on to Tian Muwan and the blue-robed female cultivator in each arm as he flew in a particular direction. It’s not that he did not want to take out the Starry Sky Wheel, but because he had already noticed a few signs of a natural Forbidden Space Array Formation out in front. Once he entered the Forbidden Space Array Formation, it would mean that he had entered the deepest part of the Thousand Mound Forest.

Besides, even without the Forbidden Space Array Formation, he couldn’t bring out the Starry Sky Wheel. Those three experts behind him were like tarsal maggots who never let off even for the slightest moment. Most likely, he wouldn’t be able to take out and escape with the Starry Sky Wheel before those three caught up with him.

Fortunately, Ning Cheng could make use of that Forbidden Space Array Formation. Although Ning Cheng wouldn’t be able to use the Starry Sky Wheel in there, the three people behind him also wouldn’t be able to use any sort of flying weapon. Although his Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds would also face some suppression in there, the Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds were inherently different from conventional flight-type weapons. Therefore, even though Ning Cheng wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds’ flight capabilities, he could definitely use the Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds to boost his running speed.

Although the three still kept chasing, Ning Cheng pushed forward with a considerable lead. Comparing cultivations, those three definitely surpassed Ning Cheng, but Ning Cheng still had full control over the direction of escape. Moreover, with the speed boost provided by the Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds, the distance between Ning Cheng and the trio began to slowly widen.

Although the distance between them kept widening, Ning Cheng didn’t dare to relax at all. Once any of these three fellows caught up to him, he would have no chance to leave the depths of the Thousand Mound Forest, especially under the suppression of the Forbidden Space Array Formation.

The three pursuing him seemed to have eaten scales or something and seemed to have hardened their heart to catch up with Ning Cheng. Ning Cheng kept charging into the depths of the Thousand Mound Forest for around five or six days, yet those three had still not shown any signs of giving up.

Afterwards, Ning Cheng simply didn’t bother to pay much attention to the three people behind him. Instead, he lowered his head down and kept running forward wildly. He didn’t believe that he couldn’t get rid of those three pieces of dog skin plasters.

historical

Ning Cheng didn’t know for how long he kept running, but he didn’t stop until he felt his spiritual consciousness showing signs of suppression, which immediately alerted him.

As soon as he stopped, Ning Cheng realised that the trio chasing them seemed to have disappeared. He breathed a sigh of relief and started looking around.

In this area, the range of his spiritual consciousness had shrunk down to less than ten miles under suppression; however, Ning Cheng did not feel too worried about it. He had already experienced many places that suppressed one’s spiritual consciousness, but he still looked around carefully out of caution.

[1] I’m still contemplating about using the name ‘Altar of Forefather’s Library’ or ‘Xuku (pinyin form) Altar’ but the context still eludes me. Therefore, I will keep using it as is until the future chapters give me some better context about the name.