Ninth In the World

Di Jiu would not join the Genesis Sect, no matter what happened. The righteous Sect Master of the Genesis Sect, Shu Haolan, was speaking in a gentle tone, giving off the vibe of a gentle spring breeze. He even actively told Ao Huang not to use his aura to scare people off a nobody like Di Jiu. He seemed like a complete gentleman.

However, Di Jiu did not like him. He preferred the straightforward Palatial Lord of the Ocean Monarch Palace, Ao Huang.

“I will be leaving first then. If you need any help, remember to tell them my name.” Xuanyuan Kong slapped Di Jiu on the shoulder, turned around and left swiftly.

Di Jiu also hastened his pace. He could break through to the Void Spirit Realm anytime now. Logically speaking, he could immediately leave the city and find a place to undergo the tribulation transcendence. However, Di Jiu did not leave the city. Instead, he headed to the Five Continent Pavilion.

Gai Shitian had said that the cave abodes of the Five Continent Pavilion were the best.

The Five Continent Pavilion was not far away from the Five Continent Square. The stores on the streets and the cave abodes inside the Five Continent Pavilion formed a straight line. They were all protected by a humongous Dharma Array, creating a miniature Five Continent City.

The Five Continent Dao Convention was currently ongoing. Many cultivators had entered the Five Continent Dao Pagoda to cultivate. Hence, it did not take much effort on Di Jiu’s part to rent a cave abode.

He possessed 10 million high-grade Spirit Stones, so he was able to rent a cave abode with a small yard. The annual fee was three million middle-grade Spirit Stones, a price high enough to deter most Itinerant Cultivators. However, three million middle-grade Spirit Stones were nothing for Di Jiu.

When he entered the cave abode, Di Jiu was very satisfied. The Spirit Qi there was not as dense as within the Five Continent Dao Pagoda, but it was sufficient for him to cultivate. Besides, his cultivation did not solely rely upon the Spirit Qi in the cave abode.

After setting up a simple Defense Array within the cave abode, Di Jiu removed the ring from his hand immediately.

There were two rings on his fingers. One of them was the Small World able to hide itself and appear invisible to the naked eye. The other ring was an ordinary ring that carried some simple cultivating resources.

Despite the fact that the few large Sect Masters had not used their Spiritual Force to scan him, Di Jiu still felt completely exposed. This made him feel uneasy. If one lacked a long-term plan, imminent trouble would always come their way. Di Jiu wanted to make some preparations first before leaving the city.

After taking out the Small World, he engraved an invisibility restriction on it and put the ring on his toe.

Di Jiu was a Level-Nine Array King. Thus, he believed that the invisibility restrictions he created would not even be detected by True Form Realm Cultivators. Plus, his Small World could hide itself. Once one put it on a finger or toe, it would disappear from sight immediately, transforming into one’s skin color.

After changing the restriction on his ring to a Level-Three restriction, Di Jiu placed one million middle-grade Spirit Stones, 20 million high-grade Spirit Stones, a low-grade saber Spirit Weapon and some blue Roast Divine Herbs into the ring. Then, he stood up and left the cave abode.

He had to leave the city for the tribulation transcendence. Otherwise, there was no point in entering seclusion.

…

“Xuanyuan Kong greets the Sect Master!” Shortly after parting ways with Di Jiu, Xuanyuan Kong met Sect Master Shu Haolan once again and bowed hurriedly.

Shu Haolan smiled, nodded his head at Xuanyuan Kong and said, “Not bad. You have made the Genesis Sect proud by ascending to the 90th level. The sect will reward you when we head back.”

“I was just lucky,” said Xuanyuan Kong anxiously, although he was secretly excited about the reward he would receive.

Shu Haolan’s expression became stern. “Cultivators need to rely on their luck sometimes. You used this opportunity to rely on Di Jiu’s Five Continent Dao Disc and ascend to the 90th level. The Genesis Sect is a nine-star sect. Since we used their Dao disc, we must also thank them.”

When the Sect Master mentioned this, Xuanyuan Kong dared not conceal the truth anymore. “We all paid 100 million high-grade Spirit Stones so that Di Jiu would bring us along,” he said hurriedly.

“100 million Spirit Stones each?” Shu Haolan took a deep breath. Even he did not carry so many Spirit Stones.

Xuanyuan Kong rubbed his head in embarrassment. “Actually, we only gave him about 19 million Spirit Stones in total. We still owe him the rest.”

Shu Haolan nodded his head. This was normal. He also knew that Xuanyuan Kong and the others did not intend to pay back the rest of the Spirit Stones, but he was not bothered by this. For a mere Itinerant Cultivator, earning a few million by lending the Five Continent Dao Disc was not a bad transaction.

“Oh, don’t go find Ji Hongchuan. He’s in trouble,” said Shu Haolan before he turned around and left.

Ji Hongchuan was in trouble? Xuanyuan Kong was about to seek Ji Hongchuan out, yet after the Sect Master’s warning, he could only swallow down his gloomy feelings.

…

After leaving the Five Continent Pavilion’s cave abode and setting out to leave the city, Di Jiu also coincidentally encountered Shu Haolan.

“Junior Di Jiu greets Senior Shu.” Di Jiu hurriedly stopped walking and bowed.

Shu Haolan nodded at Di Jiu and said gently, “Not bad, not bad. You have attained the peak Essence Soul Realm. Looks like you are about to leave the city for the tribulation transcendence and break through to the Void Spirit Realm.”

Although Di Jiu did not know why Shu Haolan was there, he was certain that this encounter was no coincidence. This man seemed like a hypocrite, so he had to be careful around him.

“I was indeed thinking of leaving the city to break through to the Void Spirit Realm. As far as the Thunder Tribulation is concerned, I have no Void Lattice Elixir, so I can only try my luck,” said Di Jiu respectfully.

“You have done well this time. You let everyone borrow the Five Continent Dao Disc and ascend to the 90th level.” Shu Haolan smiled at Di Jiu as he took out a jade bottle and gave it to him. “This is for you. It will provide you with some assistance,” he said.

“What is it?” Di Jiu hastily grabbed it with both hands.

“It’s a Void Lattice Elixir. Consider it payment for taking Xuanyuan Kong to the 90th level,” said Shu Haolan as he laughed.

“I would not dare accept such a valuable elixir,” said Di Jiu hurriedly. “Actually, actually… Senior Brother Xuanyuan Kong and the others have already paid me in Spirit Stones, which was why I agreed to bring them along.”

“It doesn’t matter. It is only natural to give you a Void Lattice Elixir if you are able to ascend to the 90th level. Put it away.” Shu Haolan nodded his head at Di Jiu.

Di Jiu thanked him excitedly before putting the jade bottle into his ring.

The moment he put it away, an extremely obscure Spiritual Force bypassed the ring restrictions. Di Jiu possessed a Level-Seven Spiritual Force that was incomparable to Shu Haolan’s, so it was wishful thinking on Shu Haolan’s part to think that Di Jiu would not be able to feel him checking his ring. Besides, Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force was not a mere Level-Seven Spiritual Force. The condensation of his Spiritual Force surpassed the average cultivator’s by far.

Shu Haolan’s Spiritual Force was able to see the items in Di Jiu’s ring easily. There were indeed nearly 20 million high-grade Spirit Stones and some random cultivation resources, including daily necessities like clothes.

After checking that there was nothing else in the ring, Shu Haolan told Di Jiu, “Have a good cultivation.”

Then, Shu Haolan vanished with a stretch of his body.

Di Jiu, who still had an excited expression on his face, rubbed his ring gently and increased his speed as he left the city.

Shu Haolan’s Spiritual Force stayed with him. It only disappeared when he left the Five Continent City.

Di Jiu let out a breath. He had indeed not suspected Shu Haolan without a reason. He was truly a hypocrite. Back when the rest of the Sect Masters had been present, Shu Haolan had not dared check Di Jiu’s ring. This time, he had checked it in broad daylight.

If Di Jiu had been just an average Essence Soul Realm cultivator, he would most likely not have known what Shu Haolan had done. Unfortunately, his Spiritual Force was at Level Seven, so it was similar to that of an ordinary Essence Soul Realm cultivator. It was also extremely condensed, so it most likely surpassed Shu Haolan’s. Shu Haolan was just a True Form Realm Cultivator. Therefore, using his Spiritual Force to scan Di Jiu’s ring had been a presumptuous act.

…

Di Jiu took out a flying Dharma treasure as soon as he left the Five Continent City. Based on his previous tribulation transcendence experience, he believed that the disturbance created by this tribulation transcendence would be quite big. The Five Continent City was currently filled with powerful warriors, so he would definitely not go through the tribulation transcendence near the city’s surroundings.

Three days later, Di Jiu stopped.

He was now at a wasteland with ordinary Spirit Qi density. He immediately took one million high-grade Spirit Stones out of his storage ring and set up a Spirit-Gathering Array in the area. He also set up a Defense Array outside the Spirit-Gathering Array. Then, he started to circulate the Galaxy Art so he could break through to the Void Spirit Realm.

Back when Di Jiu had been on the 90th level of the Five Continent Dao Pagoda and his Spiritual Force had attained Level Seven, he had sensed the cultivation barrier of the Void Spirit Realm. He was certain that, even without the help of the Void Lattice Elixir, he’d be able to break through to the Void Spirit Realm. Di Jiu had no intention of using the Void Lattice Elixir Shu Haolan had given him.

Just as he had expected, after one breakthrough attempt at the Void Spirit Realm acupoint meridian, the roar of the Thunder Tribulation was heard. Before the completion of the second Qi Circulation, nine coarse thunder streaks landed in sequence.

Di Jiu had experienced the Thunder Tribulation before. The Thunder Tribulation he had experienced in the Sky Screen had actually almost cost him his life. As he faced this violent Thunder Tribulation, Di Jiu dared not act carelessly. He frantically circulated the Colossal Kun Body-Tempering Art and lashed out with the Heavenly Aqua Saber.

Crack! Crack! Crack! The Heavenly Aqua Saber blocked at least five thunder streaks, yet four thunder streaks landed on Di Jiu.

Di Jiu was astonished when his skin and flesh unexpectedly did not split open. He was not pushed into the earth below either. When the thunder streak landed, the Thunder Origin exploded and even more Thunder Origins followed the path of his body-tempering art, transforming into the purest spirit energy that could temper his physical body.

Did he not possess any thunder Spirit Roots? Di Jiu knew very well that a Tempered Body could aid a cultivator in resisting the Thunder Tribulation. However, only cultivators who possessed thunder Spirit Roots were able to absorb a Spirit Origin. Anyone else would suffer injuries of varying severity.

What was going on? Something was not right. Actually, Di Jiu did not even know what kind of Spirit Root he possessed. The only thing he knew was that his Spirit Root was heaven-defying. When he had tested his Spirit Root in the past, the light beam had been black. What kind of Spirit Root did a black light beam represent?

As Di Jiu was pondering this, a frightening saber intent shot towards the sky. When he lifted his head, he saw the Heavenly Aqua Saber emit rays of blue saber flares. These saber flares contained an aura that could rip through space, as if it was about to split the entire sky in two.

When he sensed the rapidly-rising saber intent aura of the Heavenly Aqua Saber, Di Jiu was so shocked that he forgot about the Spirit Root he possessed. Did this mean that the Heavenly Aqua Saber was about to be upgraded?