Chapter 0431: The Strange Blue Hole
Huh, Crucible Transformation 9th Level, no, not a Crucible Transformation Cultivation, this grey robed man seemed to even higher than Crucible Transformation. When Ning Cheng was not able to accurately gauge the cultivation of the other party, his heart sunk slightly; he understood why the opposite party held no fear towards him. This kind of strength would be enough to utterly crush him.
“Although your temper is not so bad; however, it seems that you are quite the forgetful person. You don’t even remember that we met once before.” As Ning Cheng’s killing intent flared, this grey robed person could clearly feel it, causing him to speak out in a sarcastic voice.
Ning Cheng felt his heart skip a beat. He finally remembered who this person was, wasn’t he fighting Xu Anzhen over the Yi Xing Ocean? If that was the case, the two of them had indeed met each other.
The grey-robed man stared at Ning Cheng with a sneer, “No wonder Xu Anzhen remembered who you are, she even disregarded me, and has been looking everywhere for you.”
From the words of this grey robed man, Ning Cheng realised that although he managed to deceive Xu Anzhen at that moment, Xu Anzhen quickly was able to recall his identity, causing her to search for him high and low.
Thinking about Xu Anzhen looking for him, Ning Cheng felt his heart tremble. He felt sure that he was not a match against Xu Anzhen right now. However, what puzzled him was that since Xu Anzhen was looking for him all over the place, how was it that she had not found him, even until now? It was a reasonable assumption that Xu Anzhen could quickly catch him.
Ning Cheng then spoke to Tan Yun on one side, “Senior Apprentice Sister Tan, you should leave first. I have something to take care off.”
Tan Yun glanced at the grey-robed man and felt her heart skip a beat. She knew that she would not be able to provide any kind of help or support here. She quickly replied to Ning Cheng, “Then I will be the first to leave, I owe you a favour.”
After Tan Yun left, the grey-robed man spoke up softly, “Follow me. Do not let me start here. Even if this place is the Heavenly Dao Public Square, I would still be able to take care of someone like you in the shortest possible time.”
Ning Cheng completely calmed down. In the face of this kind of an expert, any sort of justification from his mouth would be the truth. There were only two ways to speak with this kind of a person. One was through trickery. The second was through strength.
“It doesn’t matter if you want me to follow you; however, I still would like to ask you something. Since Xu Anzhen was hell-bent on pursuing me, why couldn’t she catch up to me?” Ning Cheng spoke out in a dark voice. He was ready to sneak off at any time.
“There is no harm in telling you this. Rui Baishan had stopped her. I must thank you for your appearance though. If you hadn’t appeared suddenly, causing Xu Anzhen to turn hell-bent on pursuing you, it would not have been easy to force of Rui Baishan. You tell me, shouldn’t I be thanking you?” The grey-robed man walked to the table before taking a seat. Picking up the Spiritual Tea Pot on the table, he directly took a few gulps from the kettle.
“Bah, only polished garbage. I heard that you are wealthy, yet unexpectedly you still choose to drink this trashy Spiritual Tea.”
After hearing the words of this grey robed man, Ning Cheng instantly understood what was going on. While Xu Anzhen and the grey-robed man were fighting, Rui Baishan was also unexpectedly hiding in the side. Rui Baishan definitely wanted to wait for the two of them to mutually wound each other before getting rid of them. However, Rui Baishan did not expect Ning Cheng to suddenly appear, causing Rui Baishan’s planning to fall apart.
To not let Xu Anzhen kill him, Rui Baishan took the initiative to show himself to stop Xu Anzhen. Because Rui Baishan revealed himself, it caused his plan of acting as an angler to fall apart.
[TL Note: Here ‘acting as an angler’ is similar to the phrase ‘to fish in troubled waters.’]
“You and I have no enmity between us, so why do you want me to follow you out?” Ning Cheng calmed down even more. He ended up owing Rui Baishan favour once again. However, he was not too much worried about Rui Baishan. Although Xu Anzhen was sinister and deceitful, if she wants to kill Rui Baishan, it was all but impossible.
The grey-robed man stood up, “I thought about it afterwards. For someone like Xu Anzhen to chase you, a puny Sea Opening Cultivator, presumably it must because of some interesting secrets on you. Therefore, I purposefully came back and asked around about you. Turns out you were actually that Ning Cheng. You possess the 9-Colored Mirage Tree as well as the Mirage Stones, plus a pile of Spiritual Enhancement True Nectar, maybe even some Geocentric 9 Yin Essence.”
“Originally, I could have let you go once you gave me something. Unfortunately, I need something from that Xu Anzhen, so I must take you to her.”
“Where is Sect Master Rui?” Ning Cheng knew that since the matter has come to this point, then turning anxious would not have any usefulness to his situation.
“I’m sorry; I do not know where Rui Baishan is. If you do make any unnecessary movements, then please do not blame me for being impolite.” The grey-robed man spoke while lifting his hand to grab Ning Cheng.
Ning Cheng did not move, just spoke, “Answer one last question, only then will I leave with you.”
“Go ahead.” The grey-robed man on hearing Ning Cheng’s words took his hand back.
“Is my Rainbow Fall Sword Sect’s Yonder Immortal Rainbow Fall Sword on you? Who else was with you when you attacked my Rainbow Fall Sword Sect?” Ning Cheng stared into the grey-robed man’s eyes and asked one word at a time. The Yonder Immortal Rainbow Fall Sword was the totem symbol of the Rainbow Fall Sword Sect, the importance of this sword to the Rainbow Fall Sword Sect was something that remained unmatched.
Without this sword, even if the Rainbow Fall Sword Sect’s strength were to end up restored to its original, it still would not be able to recover its reputation to what it was initially.
Ning Cheng had already thought it through, if the opposite party did not have the Yonder Immortal Rainbow Fall Sword, he would immediately try to make it out of this place. Once he escaped this building, he was sure that the Heavenly Dao Public Square’s Dao Masters would definitely show up to help. If the opposite party indeed possessed the Yonder Immortal Rainbow Fall Sword, only then would Ning Cheng be willing to go out with this grey robed man.
If they did not go out together, and ended up in a fight, even if he received help from the Heavenly Dao Public Square’s Dao Masters, and ended up killing this grey robed man, the Yonder Immortal Rainbow Fall Sword would still not be returning to the Rainbow Fall Sword Sect.
“Yes, the Yonder Immortal Rainbow Fall Sword is indeed on me. As for who else attacked the Rainbow Fall Sword Sect, I do not know.” While the grey-robed man spoke, he was already starting to lose his patience.
Ning Cheng calmly spoke up, “Then lead the way, the two of us will walk together.”
“Good, no wonder that Rui Baishan settled on you as his successor. You actually possess a backbone.” The grey-robed man shot an oblique glance at Ning Cheng, as he spoke out with genuine admiration.
Ning Cheng felt extreme discomfort in his heart on hearing those words, it felt as if he was talking to a poisonous viper.
……
“That man’s cultivation is not below your or me, even I cannot see through his strength.” A black-robed old man spoke up with a gloomy voice as he stared at Ning Cheng and the grey-robed man as they disappeared from the Heavenly Dao Public Square.
The blue-robed man by his side spoke up with an affirmative expression, “Ning Cheng seems to have been forced to follow him. Although Ning Cheng might be good, he still misses the mark when compared to this person. Ning Cheng is also a School Master at least, should we interfere? Moreover, I feel that this person is somewhat familiar.”
“That’s what I was also thinking.” As the black-robed old man spoke, he had already shot into the air.
The blue-robed man also did not delay for more than half a moment, before following the black-robed old man as they left the Heavenly Dao Public Square.
……
When the blue-robed man and the black-robed old man followed them out, Ning Cheng could also sense it. Moreover, he knew both of them. The blue-robed man was Dao Master Xiao Bisheng of the Heavenly Dao Academy. As for the black-robed old man, the one he was most familiar with was none other than Dao Master Mu Ziming from the Heaven Alliance who had bestowed a bottle of Essence Birthing Bamboo Pith upon him.
The grey-robed man did not seem to be aware of them in the slightest and was still travelling at a brisk pace. However, Ning Cheng suspected that once this grey robed man pushed forward at full speed, his flight type Low-Grade True Artefact might not even be able to catch up to him.
The four people remained silent as they travelled for about half a day. Just as Ning Cheng guessed that they were already out of the Tian Continent’s range, the grey robe man’s flight type magical weapon suddenly started plunging downwards at full speed. Ning Cheng then discovered that the surrounding area had suddenly turned icy-cold. This place had turned into something akin to a deep and dark abyss on earth; he just could not fathom its depth, as the surroundings were utterly empty to make out any references.
Ning Cheng’s Spiritual Consciousness swept out and could only feel nothingness all around him. Ning Cheng gave out a deep sigh in his heart, at the same time felt a bit bewildered as to why this fellow had brought him to this place. Ning Cheng immediately wanted to make a move to defend his Airship-type True Artefact; however, to his disappointment, his Airship-type True Artefact was not under his control at all. It was as if a mighty suction force was acting on it forcing it to dive down.
Ning Cheng, through his Spiritual Consciousness, found that Xiao Bisheng and Mu Ziming were also just like him and were not able to control their flight-type Magical Weapons. However, the grey-robed man was able to slow down his descent, which meant that the other party had the capability to at least control the speed.
“Haha… Xiao Bisheng, Mu Ziming, you two ignorant fools, wanting to follow me in.……” The grey-robed man suddenly came to a stop and stood on a block of stone that Ning Cheng was not able to distinguish its colour before he laughed aloud.
Ning Cheng threw out one after another Array Flags before finally managing to slow down his Airship-type Magical Weapon just above him. His speed had only started to slow down when Mu Ziming and Xiao Bisheng rushed past Ning Cheng and entered the Blue Hole that even he could not sweep with his Spiritual Consciousness.
The grey-robed man stood near to the entrance of this Blue Hole. He waved his hands towards Ning Cheng who was still continuously shooting out Array Flags. Then with a calm voice, he spoke up once again, “The reason why you weren’t sucked in yet is not that of your Array Formations are formidable, but because you haven’t advanced to the Crucible Transformation Realm yet, causing the strengths of the Law’s here to not be able to bind you. Don’t do anything worthless. Just go in.”
Even if the grey-robed man had not said it, Ning Cheng did not plan to continue doing this kind of work. That was because; he found that his True Essence and Spiritual Consciousness were gradually going out of his control. If it continued like this, he would soon turn into a fish over a chopping block.
Ning Cheng calmed down and quickly forced himself to come up with some ideas. The grey-robed man was still standing at the entrance to the Blue Hole and remained motionless. It was possible that he also dreaded this Blue Hole very much. If he ended up sucked into the Blue Hole, while the grey-robed person did not go in, then it would definitely not be a good thing for him.
Even if he must go inside, he must forcibly drag this person inside with him.
Ning Cheng suddenly puts away his flight-type Magical Weapon, while simultaneously went all out wielding the Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds.
Sure enough, wielding the Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds, the descending speed of Ning Cheng abruptly came to a stop. Ning Cheng did not hesitate; bringing out his Nirvana Spear, he immediately stuck out with the full force that he could muster.
An incomparably mysterious Spear Intent shot out, cutting through this incomparably ice-cold space. Suddenly, there was only a single Black Spear Shadow in the surrounding hole, at the same time, this Spear Shadow directly shot towards the glabella of the grey-robed man. The grey-robed man’s countenance immediately changed as he quickly shot back in retreat.
The grey-robed man’s body had just instinctively retreated when his body ended up immediately sucked in by the Blue Hole’s powerful suction.
“Bastard….” Ning Cheng could hear the angry roar of the grey-robed man. At that same moment, Ning Cheng also ended up caught by formidable suction force, causing him to end up sucked through the blue hole.
The blue hole was full of a green expanse, while Ning Cheng’s Spiritual Consciousness was not able to make out any of it openly. However, just as he arrived, many wind-breaking sounds emerged. Ning Cheng did not dare to neglect anything, immediately shooting out with his Nirvana Spear.
“Bang-Bang-Bang….” Intermittent dreary impacts sounded out, while Ning Cheng discovered that the things that sneak attacked him were long and slender rattan vines. However, each of these rattan vines was quite sturdy; it was as if they were Magical Weapons forged with the most durable materials available. Although Ning Cheng used his Nirvana Spear to defend against them, he, however, was not able to damage them at all.