Chapter 0483: Unable to go back in this life
Ning Cheng turned quite. Within the Rootless Black City, people associated him with the monogram ‘fiercest’; however, he now knew that he was nothing at all. Put in the perspective of the starry skies, his cultivation simply was not worth mentioning. Someone could kill him with just a casual flick of his or her hand. As for Celestial Lords or Celestial River Kings, those kinds of existences were just too far away from him.
“You don’t have to sport such expressions. You seem to possess some good qualifications; perhaps under my guidance, there might be a chance for you to surpass the Nirvana Tribulation. As long as you successfully surpass the Nirvana Tribulation, then you might have a slim chance of survival in the starry skies. Besides, the most important thing now is how to get out of this Bright Void Gorge.” Seeing Ning Cheng’s somewhat dejected look, Lan Ya tried to comfort him with good intentions.
“How do we leave this place? What did you do to end up trapped within Incinerating Void Flames a few moments ago?” Ning Cheng, unlike Lan Yan’s imagination, had not remained silent because of dejection but because of thoughts relating to improving his strength as soon as possible. Otherwise, how could he obtain a foothold within the starry skies to stand together with Luofei?
Lan Ya, on hearing Ning Cheng’s tone, immediately realised that she had misread him a moment ago and spoke up in a somewhat helpless manner, “The Bright Void Gorge is actually an abyss hidden between outer and inner planar boundaries and is formed over time due to the countless Void Collapses and Spacial Compressions piling up on each other. There are many such gorges; at the same time, even a lifetime might not be enough to escape from some of them.”
“I just wanted to find a weak spot within the gorge and then force my way out from that spot. I did not expect my luck to be so bad that I would end up encountering the Incinerating Void Flames just when I found that weak spot. It actually ended up profiting you a lot. Otherwise, trying to upgrade your Celestial River Flame would prove extremely difficult for someone like you. The Celestial River Flame is a top-notch flame, you know, and is especially difficult to upgrade.”
Seeing Ning Cheng not willing to speak about the matter relating to the Celestial River Flame, she did not continue with that line of thought; instead, she said, “The Bright Void Gorge is not extremely difficult to get out of, unlike what you think. The fact is that if you can tear through the walls of the gorge, you can then easily enter the Void outside. Of course, you cannot just tear through any random spot inside; at the same time, precisely locating this particular spot might lead to you remaining trapped in this place for hundreds of years. However, every Bright Void Gorge will have a weak spot from where one can tear out of it and get out.”
“How do we find it?” Ning Cheng simply had too little information about these types of gorges.
Lan Ya shot a look at Ning Cheng. “Already found it, we are right at the precise location. Now that your Celestial River Flame absorbed the Incinerating Void Flames, we can now pass through the bottom of this canyon with much more ease. Stop talking nonsense now. If you want to get out of this place then just follow me.”
As Lan Ya spoke, she immediately dove into the seemingly bottomless pit created by the explosion from the Incinerating Void Flames. Seeing this, Ning Cheng immediately followed her actions.
In front of Ning Cheng, Lan Ya was akin to a loach in mud; she not only moved quickly but also showed great manoeuvrability. Ning Cheng on seeing such manoeuvrability felt secretly speechless in his heart. He affirmed that he could not achieve such speed in escaping even on the ground, let alone underground. If he was not closely following Lan Ya, he could never reach such levels of speed in this place.
For a few consecutive days, Lan Ya kept ‘swimming’ around below the ground of the Bright Void Gorge, while Ning Cheng followed right behind her, not knowing where she wanted to end up.
On the tenth day, Lan Yan finally came to a stop before she raised her hand and pointed towards a greyish hole in the front, “We’ll rest here for some time. I do not know how long it will take to escape through that location. If we are lucky, then a few moments, if not then maybe several years. There is also a possibility that we might die in the depths of the canyon.”
The surroundings were pitch-black, without even a ray of light to illuminate it. If not for closely following Lan Yan, Ning Cheng knew that he would never find this place if he used his Earth Escape Technique to its maximum. Since Lan Ya wanted to rest, then he could only follow her actions and rest up for a while.
“Why did you want to kill that scarlet-robed young noble?” Ning Cheng took out some Spirit Stones to recover his True Essence, while also asking her a question.
“This man slaughtered my best friend’s family, and is utterly ruthless, even more so than his father. I only managed to sneak up on him after entering the Void. Even so, I ended up hunting him for over several years, before a Spacial Storm sucked us up out of nowhere.”
“This person sure had luck on his side and found an Explosive Golden Wasp King Egg right after exiting. If not for the sudden attacks from them, I not only would have killed him off, I could have even obtained the Wasp King Egg. Alas.” Lan Ya talked about it in a calm tone.
Ning Cheng had an ingrained sense of danger, which he had cultivated unconsciously over time. If that scarlet-robed young noble had not suffered severe injuries, it would have merely been a dream for him to kill that scarlet-robed young noble. But then again, if not for the scarlet-robed young noble suffering severe injuries, he would not have used the Explosive Golden Wasps to massacre people. As for Lan Ya, he owed her a lot. He just had not realised it before. If not for encountering Lan Ya surrounded by the Incinerating Void Flames, where would he have found the opportunity to follow Lan Ya out of this place?
“Can you talk more about the Celestial Wheel?” Ning Cheng on sensing Lan Ya’s mood took the initiative to change the subject. In any case, he really wanted to know if a Celestial Wheel also had differences in strength when it came to cultivation.
Lan Ya did not seem to care about it and explained, “To a Starry Sky Cultivator, the strength of the Celestial Wheel represent the strength of their cultivation. For a formidable cultivator, once they gather enough Celestial Essence, the Celestial Wheel can even transform into a form of a scorching sun above their heads. I only have a Celestial Shatterer Cultivation, which is why my Celestial Wheel is still faint.”
It turned out that the Celestial Wheel represented the strength of a person’s cultivation, and not the Wisdom Light or Glow as he thought it out as.
“Is ‘Celestial Lord’ another realm?”
“No, ‘Celestial Lord’ is just a title. Only when you cross over to the Celestial Gatherer Realm, which involves harmonizing completely with the Celestial Wheel over time, will you then earn the qualification to take up the title of a ‘Celestial Lord’, meaning one could then theoretically take control over a star.”
……
As he continued conversing with Lan Ya, Ning Cheng’s knowledge also grew significantly. At the same time, he also gradually started to understand how insignificant he was in the grand scheme of things. Before, when he killed the scarlet-robed young noble, he did not take the last words of the scarlet-robed young noble to heart; however, he now understood what it meant to feel fearless due to ignorance.
As the conversation went forward, Ning Cheng turned silent. Lan Ya also did not continue talking on seeing this. Ning Cheng was just a Crucible Transformation Cultivator. It would indeed have been a weird thing if he showed a pleasant mood after realising how difficult would it be for someone at his cultivation to survive in the starry skies.
However, the silence between them did not last for long. Just two days later, Lan Ya felt Ning Cheng had turned significantly more relaxed.
“We came out, we should be somewhere within the range of the Starry Skies’ Void.” Lan Ya spoke up.
Ning Cheng had also felt that there was no trace of even a single Spacial Wind Edge anywhere around them, only some mildly powerful Spacial Turbulences. These Spacial Turbulences could not affect him, let alone someone like Lan Ya.
“Senior Apprentice Sister Lan, I want to go back to the area from where we entered the Void Collapse. How can I get there?” Ning Cheng quickly asked.
What he wanted to do immediately was to rush back to the Rootless Black City as fast as possible. No matter what, he must see Luofei again.
Lan Ya shook her head and spoke, “Ning Cheng, if you truly want to go to the initial location from where we entered, then it is almost impossible. Even an ordinary Void Collapse covers a huge area within the Void; even I do not know how many Void Spaces we ended up passing through. If I did not have a good battleship with me, I definitely could not have survived passing through that Void Collapse.”
“If you want to reach the initial location, you must know which Celestial System is your location in, and what Celestial River does it belong to. My ring does not exist anymore, which means I now have no coordinates to refer. Therefore, I will not be able to answer your question. One thing that I can tell is that we are not far from a Starry Sky. The place from which we entered was completely within the Void, without even the slightest shadow of a Starry Sky, so it is definitely far away from this place, so…..”
As Lan Ya spoke, she saw a Void Battleship flying by at a distance. Not waiting for the Void Battleship to drift further away, Lan Ya raised her hand to shoot out a signal flare.
Ning Cheng guessed that Lan Ya had made this signal flare out of the materials that he had provided. It turned out that she wanted to use the materials to refine this thing. He had no idea of the uses of this type of signal flares; however, he deduced that it had something to do with signalling others for help.
Seeing Ning Cheng looking at her doubtfully, Lan Ya explained, “This is a Void Distress Signal. If others saw this signal, and if they are in the vicinity to help, then they might come and have a look. Of course, not everyone will pay attention to such signals.”
“Are people really that kind-hearted?” Ning Cheng could not help but feel even stranger. He had experienced too many ignominious practices and just could not believe that the people of the starry skies were this helpful.
Lan Ya showed a sneer, before replying, “Kind-hearted? Those who chose to heed the signal will only come to help you if there is any compensation to earn; if you can’t pay up, then it’s better to not ask for help at all.”
“But isn’t your ring destroyed, what can you bring out then?” Ning Cheng asked as he looked at Lan Ya.
Not knowing the thoughts in Lan Ya’s head, Ning Cheng only saw her face turning red, before he heard her speak out in anger, “I don’t have anything, that doesn’t mean that you don’t have anything either? You obtain a few cards right? Take them all out.”
“What cards are these?” Ning Cheng guessed that these cards did have some purpose to them, but was unsure the use of these cards.
“Don’t ask, just take them out.” Lan Ya spoke while beckoning with her hand.
Ning Cheng did not pay attention to Lan Ya’s action. Although Lan Ya had helped him in coming out, he had also helped Lan Ya. Therefore, it was difficult to guess who owed whom. Even if he wanted to take out the cards, Lan Ya at least needed to help him understand the role of those cards.
At this moment, a brown coloured battleship quickly flew over and stopped in front of Ning Cheng and Lan Ya.
The door of the battleship opened, and a fat man with a brutal gleam in his eyes spoke up, “Do the two of you need any help?”
“I want to buy a battleship equipped with a set of Void Coordinates, do you have it? Preferably a battleship with the most detailed Void Coordinates.” Lan Ya had no time to talk nonsense with Ning Cheng, as she replied to the fat man.
“Of course, I have it. I have an Advanced-level Domain Battleship, but the price is one billion Blue Coins…..” The fat man’s tone grew softer.
“Why don’t you just rob us outright then? One billion Blue Coins is more than enough to purchase a Best Quality Domain Battleship; in fact, you could buy a few of them with that money.” Lan Ya retorted without missing a beat.
The fat man shook his head, “That might be the case from where you come from, but the business price in this place is definitely higher. You also can name a price if you want to, but if I’m not satisfied with it, everyone can then just go about their merry way without having to do anything with each other.”
“50 million Blue Coins….” Lan Ya immediately countered by drastically reducing the opposite party’s price by a dozen times.
The fat man did not turn angry, and leisurely spoke up, “200 million Blue Coins; if you want it then agree to it, if you don’t want to, then I’m leaving.”
Lan Ya on hearing those words knew that she had hit the bottom line; she quickly turned towards Ning Cheng and spoke, “Take out 200 million from your Blue Card.”
Ning Cheng immediately realised that the Blue Card actually contained Blue Coins inside. Something equivalent to a bank card. He took out three Blue Cards and let his Spiritual Consciousness to sweep inside, only to find it inscribed with the words ‘100 Million’ inside.
Since he had the necessary Blue Coins, they quickly completed the trade. After the fat man received the Blue Coins, he threw out a black coloured battleship and promptly took control of his own battleship and disappeared into the void.
“This place is within the Orchid Borough Celestial River, countless miles from where we came from. The place we came from belongs to the Kun Zhuo Celestial River. Separated by a full Celestial River, I guess you might never make it back in your lifetime.” After entering the battleship, Lan Ya immediately opened the Void Coordinates and spoke out a sentence that cased Ning Cheng to feel extremely frustrated.