Chapter 0285: Heavenly Dao Academy
That male cultivator was very decisive in his actions, after killing that female cultivator, not only did he take away all the things of that female cultivator, but also turned the corpse of that female cultivator to a bloody mush, before leaving the scene quickly.
This was one poisonous fellow, Ning Cheng thought darkly in his heart. This female cultivator with the name Tan Yushan was clearly this male cultivator’s Dao Companion, yet even then this male cultivator did not choose to show even half a bit of leniency in disposing her off. Unfortunately, his cultivation was truly not up for it, if he were currently at the Great Circle of the Profound Core Realm, he definitely would not have to bear with it, and would have come up and started fighting.
Even after the male cultivator left, Ning Cheng did not leave the place; he still continued to search underground. After another day passed by, Ning Cheng had almost lost his patience when a very small jade box appeared in the range of his spiritual consciousness.
Ning Cheng immediately made his way towards this jade box before he first swept it repeatedly with his spiritual consciousness. After making sure that this jade box did not have any kind of spiritual consciousness mark nor any kind of restriction, only then did he finally make a move to grab the jade box.
For this kind of jade box to appear suddenly in this location, it was definitely put here by that old fogey. Although this person seemed to fear him, but this old fogey should not be this stingy, right? How many things could such a tiny jade box contain?
Ning Cheng opened the small jade box in his hands by a small sliver, but before his spiritual consciousness could even enter the jade box, an extremely rich spiritual qi emerged which caused Ning Cheng’s cultivation to immediately loosen up. It seems that as long as he sat down to cultivate, he would soon be able to advance to the Profound Core 7th Level.
Even if he was dying to take a look at what was inside, Ning Cheng immediately closed the jade box. Just what in the hell was this stuff? Why did it had such a rich spiritual qi? Moreover, he could feel that this spiritual qi and the spiritual qi from the Small Spiritual Domain were extremely different; it was even a dozen grades higher in quality than what was available in there. Moreover, he could not feel any kind of side effects from absorbing it, rather there was actually a refreshing feeling that he was feeling, causing even his perception to grow deeper than what it already was.
This thing left behind by that old fogey was definitely a treasure, Ning Cheng thought as he began arranging a Concealment Array Formation around him. After completing the arrangement of the Concealment Array Formation, Ning Cheng entered his miniature world with his fastest speed.
Once he entered into his miniature world, Ning Cheng once again took out the jade box and opened it, causing an extremely rich amount of spiritual qi to dissipate from the inside, which caused the spiritual grasses growing inside the miniature world to turn even more verdant.
Even Grey Toottoot, who was lazily sleeping in the middle of a spiritual grass patch, immediately shot up, as he moved to Ning Cheng’s side while wagging his tale in an excited manner.
The jade box only contained a small piece of broken crystal like stone; however, this broken crystal like stone had a crystal-clear appearance. Even looking at it caused incomparable comfort.
“Just what is this crystal like stone? How can it possess such rich spiritual qi?” Ning Cheng couldn’t help but utter those words to himself in shock. He immediately recalled that time when he was cultivating outside the immortal mansion; the spiritual qi from that time also seemed to contain the same aura that he felt at present. However, the aura within this crystal like stone was actually several times richer than the aura that he felt from the spiritual qi that spilled outside of that immortal mansion.
A good thing aah, Ning Cheng could already feel his own cultivation loosening up, causing him to become even surer that this little thing was actually a supreme treasure.
Unfortunately, that old fogey was too stingy, couldn’t he simply give him hundreds of such things. If he did, then wouldn’t he not have to always be troubled about finding resources for his cultivation?
This thought had just emerged in Ning Cheng’s heart, when he immediately put it aside. The next moment, Ning Cheng sat down and began absorbing the spiritual qi emanating from this small broken piece of crystal like stone that he held in his hands for his cultivation.
This crystal like stone seemed to hold an endless amount of spiritual qi, which Ning Cheng was absorbing at an alarmingly fast pace, before he sent it towards his Golden Core, causing it to be repeatedly quenched. Just as the time it took for half an incense stick to burn passed, Ning Cheng’s Golden Core once again returned to the state just before it spontaneously burst into flames. It resemble a bright golden sun that seemed to be crazily rotating above his Core Lake. Ning Cheng simply did not even have to put in any efforts, as his cultivation, for the second time, quickly broke through to the Profound Core 7th Level.
After once again breaking through to the Profound Core 7th Level, Ning Cheng, in addition to feeling his strength rise by a huge margin, found that the phenomenon of Yang Qi burning one’s body did not manifest itself.
Sure enough, it was truly something good. However Ning Cheng did not stop, as he continued to absorb the spiritual qi from the crystal like stone for enhancing his own cultivation. Not knowing for how long it went Ning Cheng could once again feel his entire body tremble, as he broke through from the Profound Core 7th Level to the Profound Core 8th Level, piercing through the barrier between the levels in an unhindered manner. He could even feel the powerful true essence circulate back and forth through his meridians. Even his Sea of Consciousness expanded once again, allowing Ning Cheng to realize that his cultivation was enhanced qualitatively once again.
Just how could there be such a heavenly crystal like stone existing in this world? Ning Cheng couldn’t help but feel shocked as he looked at the small piece of broken crystal like stone in his hands. The reason why he felt such an intense shock in his heart was not because of his cultivation experiencing a crazy upgrade, but rather because this crystal like stone was something that seemed to go against the heaven’s will.
Ning Cheng himself was aware that his own practice of cultivation was something akin to a bottomless hole for resources, even if it were several millions of spirit stones, he would be able to absorb them clean in just a few months if not weeks, however even then his cultivation improvement would be extremely minuscule. But now, just this small piece of broken crystal like stone not only helped him advance from the Profound Core 6th Level to the Profound Core 8th Level, but even the color of this crystal only experienced a tiny bit of change. Just how much terrifying amount of spiritual qi does this small piece of crystal-like stone contain?
Even if he considered advancing from the Profound Core 6th Level to the Profound Core 7th Level as simple restoration of cultivation, then advancing from Profound Core 7th Level to Profound Core 8th Level, it truly can be considered as true advancement.
Even if he did not count this, he could feel that if he continued cultivating while absorbing from the piece of crystal like stone and attack the barrier between levels, he simply would not have to waste any effort. The barrier would simply breakdown in due course, and open up automatically. The spiritual qi that he absorbed from the crystal like stone, not only transformed quickly, it did not bring him even the slightest bit of discomfort.
Ning Cheng couldn’t help but marvel at it for a long time; however, he did not continue cultivating. It was not that he did not want to cultivate, but rather he could not bear to use up this small piece of broken crystal like stone.
He was different from others. The higher he advanced, the larger the cultivation resources that he would require and consume. In the future, if he was stuck at a bottleneck in his cultivation, he could then use this small crystal like stone to break through the barrier. In the event of him using it all up in the Profound Core Realm, what would do if such a situation occurred in the future?
If he could once again meet that old fogey, it would be good, as if he met that old fogey he just might be able to force that old fogey to fork out a few more pieces of that crystal like stone. However, Ning Cheng could also guess that the old fogey absolutely did not have many things like this, if he had many of such things, then he would not have given him just a small fragment.
Forgetting about time he spent here, he couldn’t help but curse at himself as to how he was now delayed by half a month. Ning Cheng carefully put the small piece of crystal like stone into the jade box before quickly stowing it away. Then coming out of his miniature world, he quickly rushed out of the ground.
With this crystal like stone on him, he now felt that he should really begin preparations to start condensing his own Soul Essence with even more urgency. If it was before, although he would still have to make a trip to the Heavenly Dao Public Square, but he was also clear that he would have to wade through the liveliest part of the area at this time with his head held low.
However, with his current cultivation at the Profound Core 8th Level, even if he ended up encountering a Soul Essence 9th Level Cultivator, even if he was not able to defeat them, he was confident enough to escape without any problems. The only thing he was worried about was meeting that sickly man in the Heavenly Dao Public Square. However, the Heavenly Dao Public Square was where the people from the major academies were gathered at, as such, there would definitely be many of the Crucible Transformation Elders from the Rainbow Fall Sword Sect present there, presumably even if he met that sickly looking man there, the others would definitely not let him dare to act.
……
The Heavenly Dao Academy has always been extremely famous in the Tian Continent, it had always been ranked as one of the first class academies of the Tian Continent since a very long time ago, and as such, its strength could also be considered as being at the apex of the entire Tian Continent.
However, a few thousand years ago, a triangular love affair emerged in the Heavenly Dao Academy, which led to its downfall. In the ages past, the most talented disciple of the Heavenly Dao Academy, Yan Fenghua, fell in love with two other female disciples of the same academy, Sang Yan and Xu Binglan. But because Yan Fenghua found it difficult to choose between Sang Yan and Xu Binglan, coupled with Sang Yan and Xu Binglan not willing to share a husband amongst themselves, it finally ended up in causing Sang Yan and Xu Binglan to end up in a fierce duel with each other.
This was actually the peak period for the Heavenly Dao Academy, as both Sang Yan and Xu Binglan were also exemplary genius disciples of the Heavenly Dao Academy. When the two disciples decided to fight it out, it cause the masters of those two to also feel dissatisfaction, which ultimately lead to another fierce fight between the two masters of the female disciples.
In any academy, there would always be different factions present, as such even Sang Yan’s and Xu Binglan’s masters each had their own set of elders to support them, which led to even more elders supporting them from the sides. This situation grew to such a point that simply all control was lost, and it ended up in a huge slugfest between the two factions.
Yan Fenghua had the support of the Academy Head, but he knew that no matter which side he decided to help, it would only end up in a situation with crooked asses. With the result of the Academy Head’s hesitation, the damage suffered by the Academy was immeasurable. Sang Yan’s and Xu Binglan’s masters ended up perishing in the scuffle, and the final battle finally subsided. But because Sang Yan and Xu Binglan suffered both physical and mental trauma because of the internal strife, both of them chose to leave the Heavenly Dao Academy, causing the once powerful academy to fall apart.
After leaving the Heavenly Dao Academy, San Yan created the Floating Snow Palace. While at the same time after Xu Binglan left the Heavenly Dao Academy, she created the Severing Emotions Dao Sect, and also set down the ironclad will and law of the academy, that all the men of this world were heartless and ungrateful, and if one wanted to enter the Severing Emotions Dao Sect, then they would have to completely sever their emotions, otherwise they would not even be allowed to cross the threshold.
Today, the Severing Emotions Dao Sect and the Floating Snow Palace are ranked in the top ten academies, while at the same time the reputation of these two academies was not at all weaker than the current Heavenly Dao Academy.
Even if the Heavenly Dao Academy of today was not comparable to the past, but the style of the entire academy still was not something that the other academies could be compared with.
Ning Cheng who had just arrived at the Heavenly Dao Public Square couldn’t help but be secretly surprised in his heart, as this single public square was itself comparable to an entire city. The Heavenly Dao Public Square, when compared to all the other public squares that he had seen, seem to contain everything that could be perceived. As long as you are able to think of a particular store, you would be able to find it here.
Having just entered the Heavenly Dao Public Square, he did not know where the Great Meet of the Academies was taking place. Although this place here was a public square, it might be more accurate to label it as a combination of innumerable makeshift markets. Ning Cheng even saw a huge field with the words ‘Underground Fighting Pot’ written on top. Seeing the words ‘Fighting Pot’, Ning Cheng once again recalled the time when he had just arrived in the Cang Qin Province. At that time, in order to give him a Qi Gathering Stone, Ji Luofei had ended up risking her life by continuously taking up challenges in the Fighting Pot back there.
He couldn’t help but remember the promise that he made to Ji Luofei back then, that he would destroy the Fighting Pot in the future. What he would not have expected back then was that in just a few years, he would appear in the Tian Continent that was countless miles away from the Ping Continent. At this moment, he did not even know when he could go back.
Collecting his thoughts, Ning Cheng finally stepped onto the lively Heavenly Dao Streets. He was not particularly interested in the Great Meet of the Academies, but what he was truly interested was in the place from where he could purchase the ‘Soul Condensing Pills’, even if it was something that would only appear in an auction.
Ning Cheng walked into a small pill house, although this pill house looked bigger from the inside than the outside, it was still overcrowded. From this, it could be seen that the Great Meet of the Tian Continent attracted a huge number of cultivators to the Heavenly Dao Public Square.
“Are there any ‘Clean Lotus Pills’ for sale?” A slightly husky voice sounded out near to Ning Cheng.
Hearing this question, Ning Cheng immediately thought of the Blood River Red Lotus. The ‘Clean Lotus Pill’ was refined from the Blood River Red Lotus, this pill not only can help in purifying the impurities from the body of the cultivators, but it can also help in the removing the effect of pill poisoning. In addition to that, it also had another effect of helping a Profound Core Cultivator to break through a bottleneck; moreover, it would even have a slight effect on early stage Soul Essence Cultivators.
However very few people used the ‘Clean Lotus Pill’ to attack the bottleneck, that was because the Blood River Red Lotus was something too precious. Ning Cheng could also see that the cultivator who asked the question about the ‘Clean Lotus Pill’ already had the cultivation of early stage Soul Essence Realm, as such, it was apparent that the reason he asked for a ‘Clean Lotus Pill’ was not to breakthrough a bottleneck, but rather it was definitely for purifying his body of pill poisoning.
The sales representative replied in a very enthusiastic manner, “The ‘Clean Lotus Pill’ is quite a rare pill, senior you can only go to the Heavenly Dao’s Cultivator Exchange Hall to procure it, as this type of pill is rarely sold by the ordinary pill houses. The Heavenly Dao’s Cultivator Exchange Hall has cultivators from all over the place entering it. Moreover, they would bring their own precious treasures, in order to conduct an exchange with each other. However, you should be able to produce one or two precious treasures yourself in order to take a shot at the treasures inside, either that or you have to take out and show at least 50 million spirit stones before you are allowed in.”
“I understand, thank you.” The Soul Essence Cultivator, the one with the husky voice, thanked the man in one sentence before he immediately turned and walked away.
Ning Cheng on seeing this Soul Essence Cultivator leave quickly followed him. This kind of Cultivator Exchange Hall was exactly where he wanted to go.