Chapter 0640: Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land
With the speed of the Starry Sky Wheel, Ning Cheng could only split a portion of his Spiritual Consciousness to search for a safe route through the starry skies. Even so, meteorites still crashed into the Starry Sky Wheel from time to time. Fortunately, the Starry Sky Wheel had a tough exterior. Because of which, all the meteorites that collided with it burst into fragments upon impact.
As for those starry sky demonic beasts, Ning Cheng did not feel worried about them. The starry sky demonic beasts no longer could catch up to the speed of the Starry Sky Wheel
Because the Starry Sky Wheel encountered a few meteorites from time to time, although it had no effect on the Starry Sky Wheel, it still affected its speed. However, that powerhouse chasing after him also needed to avoid these meteorites and other fragments. In this way, Ning Cheng barely maintained a narrow lead.
Even if only a little, the distance between them kept gradually widening. As the feeling of being caught started to fade, Ning Cheng finally relaxed slightly. It had already been six months since he continually flew at his fastest pace.
At the same time, he had even used slightly over a million Perpetual Moon Pills, not for cultivation but as fuel push the speed of the Starry Sky Wheel to its limits.
Even so, Ning Cheng did not dare to stop. Although the feeling of pursuit had weakened, it had not wholly disappeared. Once he paused to take a breath, maybe in just a few breaths, that fellow would appear in front of him.
Ning Cheng’s starry sky Sea of Consciousness displayed its shocking power again, allowing him to control the Starry Sky Wheel for over half a year without any pause. Although he did not provide any leeway during the time, it had definitely exhausted him greatly. Moreover, he couldn’t even figure out the distance covered.
While Ning Cheng tried to determine for how long he could continue flying, the Starry Sky Wheel’s 50th restriction broke open with a katcha sound. This layer of restriction had automatically come undone while Ning Cheng took control and flew the Starry Sky Wheel for over half a year.
The moment the 50th restriction broke open, the speed of the Starry Sky Wheel instantly increased by a huge margin. Feeling the increase in speed, Ning Cheng felt ecstatic. He had already started to worry about that fellow catching up to him once he consumed all the Perpetual Moon Pills and exhausted his Sea of Consciousness. While thinking about alternative actions, he had forgotten entirely that his cultivation had made significant progress during the past year. Even his Spiritual Consciousness and Celestial Essence had improved in both quality and quantity. At this moment, even if he did not deliberately refine the Starry Sky Wheel, he had managed to refine the 50th restriction while controlling the Starry Sky Wheel for over half a year.
With the speed of the Starry Sky Wheel improving, Ning Cheng finally felt the tight strings in his mind loosen. It was not just a matter of an increase in the Starry Sky Wheel’s speed, it was about the fact that while escaping all the way to this present moment, he had utterly forgotten about refining the Starry Sky Wheel. Although Ning Cheng controlled the Starry Sky Wheel, it did not affect Ning Cheng’s refining.
Another month later, Ning Cheng finally finished refining the Starry Sky Wheel’s 54th restriction. However, by this time, Ning Cheng had completely relaxed. The speed of the Starry Sky Wheel had grown by more than twice compared to before. If that fellow could actually catch up to him in this situation, then that fellow was just too abnormal.
Within the starry skies, utterly forgotten miles behind Ning Cheng, a pale-faced cultivator finally stopped and silently watched Ning Cheng disappear with eyes full of reluctance. If his speed could match his cultivation, he would have already caught up with that ant in front of him,
“The odds are still a little worse, it’s truly a pity.” The pale-faced man mumbled to himself. He already understood why the speed of that flying chariot had suddenly increased.
That flying chariot definitely was the Starry Sky Wheel. If it were any other starry sky weapon, even a top-grade starry sky-class battleship, he would have already caught up to it. The Starry Sky Wheel had only recently emerged from the Immortal Jade Star, but he never expected to encounter it this quickly. Controlling the Starry Sky Wheel for more than half a year, that fellow must have refined more of the restrictions covering it. With more and more restrictions refined, the speed of the Starry Sky Wheel was bound to increase.
With the current speed of the Starry Sky Wheel, he simply wouldn’t be able to catch up to it even if he wanted.
……
Despite feeling that the fellow had stopped chasing him, Ning Cheng still drove the Starry Sky Wheel at full speed for another month before stopping. At this moment, he had already refined the 57th restriction covering the Starry Sky Wheel.
The Starry Sky Wheel’s Starry Sky Chart didn’t display any named place. Instead, it only had a small bright spot in a corner.
Ning Cheng stood on the deck of the Starry Sky Wheel and swept out with his Spiritual Consciousness. There was nothing in the void in front of him apart from raging meteor streams. Nor could one look for any directions or even find a hint of a living being.
Ning Cheng realised that he was lost. The only place that he could go right now was the only bright spot on the chart. Maybe after reaching that small bright spot, he could then find his bearings once again.
However, Ning Cheng also understood that the bright spot on the chart was actually pretty far from his current location according to the starry sky coordinates. He would not reach it in just a short while. He simply called out Chasing Bull to help control the Starry Sky Wheel and continued with his cultivation.
He still had more than a hundred thousand Perpetual Moon Pills; therefore, it should not be much of a problem to advance to the middle-level of the Undead Realm.
……
Two months later, Ning Cheng successfully pushed himself to the middle-level of the Undead Realm. Although the bright spot had grown slightly more prominent, he had still not arrived near it.
Ning Cheng continued to let Chasing Bull control the Starry Sky Wheel, while he began researching artefact crafting and alchemy. Moreover, since he obtained a large amount of starry sky raw materials and starry sky Spiritual Grasses, he could now use them for experimenting.
Another half a year passed by, Ning Cheng gave out a sigh and stopped with researching artefact crafting and alchemy. For the past half a year, he barely managed to refine Grade 6 Celestial River Medicinal Pills and high-grade Dao Artefacts.
For Ning Cheng, this was not very fast speed, but also not something slow. Although he barely managed to craft a high-grade Dao Artefact, he had already grown familiar with the process.
Ning Cheng also knew why his speed of refining pills and crafting artefacts had significantly slowed down. It was because his flame’s rating was still quite low. Although the Celestial River Flame was a good one, his fire had yet not undergone nirvana. As such, it could not compare to even the most ordinary one, which went through nirvana. Since he could use this flame, which hadn’t experienced nirvana, to refine a high-grade Dao Artefact and Grade 6 Celestial River Medicinal Pills, that itself was quite the heaven-defying accomplishment.
Without intending to take back the control from Chasing Bull, Ning Cheng started getting ready to continue researching array formations, which had very little to almost no requirement of his flame. In the beginning, the only reason he could kill Shang Mouliang was that he had managed to advance his understanding of array formations by another level. Otherwise, he definitely was not an opponent against Shang Mouliang.
Just then, Chasing Bull’s voice arrived, “Master, we have almost arrived.”
Hearing Chasing Bull say that they had almost reached, Ning Cheng immediately rushed to the deck and found a huge yet vague shadow appear within the range of his Spiritual Consciousness. Not only that, but he also saw a few sporadic flight-type weapons within his Spiritual Consciousness’s range.
“Chasing Bull, enter the True Spirit World. I’ll go and investigate it.” After meeting Chasing Bull and sending Chasing Bull into the True Spirit World, Ning Cheng also put away the Starry Sky Wheel and took out a middle-grade flight-type Dao Artefact.
Flying forward with the flight-type weapon for almost an hour, Ning Cheng finally could see a few more things.
In front of him appeared a seemingly endless fragmented star cluster, formed from several hundred broken planets that formed a vague starland with incomplete laws. The fragmented star cluster in front of him did not seem to have an end, even Ning Cheng’s Spiritual Consciousness could not reach into the depths.
All he could see was the endless cluster of fragmented celestial bodies, along with meteorites flashing around, mixing within the void of the starry skies. Within the limited distance that he could see, Ning Cheng found many Void Collapses along with innumerable Void Blade Lights crisscrossing through the area. These shattered stars and the broken sky domain made up the massive shattered star cluster; although some of them were connected to each other, some remained suspended independently within the void.
Coming closer, Ning Cheng found that this place not only contained many Void Blade Lights, Void Collapses and even maelstroms that crisscrossed with each other, it also included broken stars that had flames covering them, while the areas just adjacent to it had snowy oceans filled with icebergs.
The entire broken star cluster exudes a dilapidated, vicissitudes-filled, and bleak picture. This gloomy and sad picture seemed to tell every cultivator that came here that this shattered star cluster once had a glorious past. However, the past glory remained no more, replaced with only a bleak and lonely landscape.
Reaching just outside of this broken star cluster, Ning Cheng saw a few starry sky-grade battleships along with some airships. Some of these airships carried the insignia of some merchant houses, while the others had signboards pointing towards other shattered planets in the vicinity. Many starry sky cultivators came and went through here, so when Ning Cheng merged with the rest with his flight-type weapon, nobody cared about it.
Ning Cheng put away the flight-type weapon and stopped a male cultivator with a Celestial Bridge Cultivation. He cupped his fists and asked, “Friend, it’s my first time here. I don’t know much about this place, and I would like to ask you about it.”
The male cultivator on seeing that Ning Cheng did not have a cultivation lower compared to him, quickly spoke up, “There is an Ancient Desolace Chamber of Commerce’s ship up ahead. You can go there and buy some jade strips that introduce the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land.”
Ning Cheng had already noticed a starry sky-class battleship with a relatively large insignia and the words ‘Ancient Desolace Chamber of Commerce’ written just below it. At this point, he knew that this Chamber of Commerce had fashioned its name out of this place. Looks like this place was called the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land.
Thanking that cultivator, Ning Cheng soon arrived at the Ancient Desolace Chamber of Commerce. This battleship was actually a large starry sky-class merchant vessel. Not only was it the headquarters of the Ancient Desolace Merchant House, but it also contained many rest stops, lounging areas, weapon pavilions and even pill halls.
As Ning Cheng walked into the Ancient Desolace Merchant House, he saw quite a few people sifting through and selecting all kinds of things.
“Do you have any detailed introductions about the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land?” Ning Cheng walked up to a shop assistant and asked.
The shop assistant immediately replied, “Of course, our Ancient Desolace Merchant House’s Introduction to the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land Jade Strip is the most detailed introduction you will find in this place. Far better than anything else from the other merchant houses. Besides, we also sell jade strip maps of the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land.”
“What’s the price for the most detailed Introduction to the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land along with that jade strip map?” Ning Cheng nodded and asked.
The shop assistant apparently had heard a lot of questions similar to what Ning Cheng had asked, causing him to give an almost automatic reply, “The most detailed introductory jade strip will cost you a million purple coins, and the jade strip map is priced at three million purple coins.”
Ning Cheng did not immediately respond. Although four million purple coins were not a high price for him, these two things should be something ubiquitous in this place. He didn’t expect to hear such a quote.
Seeing Ning Cheng hesitate, the shop assistant immediately explained, “Friend, our Introduction to Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land jade strip, and the jade strip map, are definitely worth the money. Only our merchant house’s jade strip maps have information about the vague and often obscure interface exits……”
Ning Cheng felt shocked and couldn’t help but directly interrupt the shop assistant, “Did you say that there is an interface exit within the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land?”
“That’s right.” The shop assistant looked at Ning Cheng with some confusion, “Most of the cultivators who come here already know that the Ancient Desolace Abandoned Land has an interface crossover point. As long as you can find the exact location, you could travel from this place through the interface to another world. Not only that, I heard that there are also some locations inside where many positional planes intersect. However, those areas are just too far inside and in hazardous locations. Even with that information, no one has yet to find the place where those positional planes intersect.”
Ning Cheng took a deep breath and immediately took out four million purple coins before speaking, “I’d like to buy those jade strips.”