Chapter 0468: Achieving Crucible Transformation
Ji Luofei held onto Ning Cheng, who seemed almost on the verge of dying while looking around for a Void Island. Even with the help provided from the Thunder Tribulation, the price Ning Cheng had to pay for killing Xu Kai was just too huge. She had never seen Ning Cheng with such severe injuries.
Fortunately, there was still Ji Luofei by his side. Moreover, Ji Luofei was also a Crucible Transformation Cultivator. Although she couldn’t traverse the Void as quickly as Ning Cheng could; however, she did not face many problems while saving Ning Cheng.
It took the entirety of ten days for Ning Cheng to make a full recovery. Although he was not afraid of the Thunder Tribulation, that Thunder Tribulation was indeed quite frightening. Even after advancing to the 8th Level of the Sea Opening Realm, he still suffered substantial injuries.
“You were a bit reckless this time.” Ji Luofei chose not to focus on her cultivation during this time and decided to accompany by Ning Cheng’s side. However, she still felt scared when she thought back to Ning Cheng’s injuries.
Ning Cheng smiled, “Fortunately, I chose to attack at that moment. Otherwise, if we waited for Xu Kai to finish crossing his tribulation, perhaps it might have turned out more unfortunate for us than fortunate. This person indeed was quite powerful. Ordinary cultivators at the Plundering Life Realm definitely can’t match up to him. It was no wonder that he possessed the title of ‘Foremost Expert’ within the Rootless Black City.”
“What should we do now? Are we going back to the Rootless Black City? Although the Laws of the Void are formidable in this area, the area itself is quite unstable.” Ji Luofei had patrolled the surrounding Void for a good while, while Ning Cheng recovered. This allowed her to obtain a more thorough understanding of the dangers within the Void.
Ning Cheng nodded and spoke, “It is necessary to head back to the Rootless Black City. It’s just that my current cultivation is still too low. First, let’s see if there are any good things in the storage rings of that father and son pair.”
Ning Cheng then took out Xu Liangzhi’s ring and opened it. Seeing the tens of millions of Black Coins inside, Ning Cheng gave out a sigh filled with emotions. He counted them all and found that there was just a little more than 100 million Black Coins. While there were also vast and numerous piles of Spirit Stones, even heaps of Black Essence Ores along with stacks of different Refining Materials and Spirit Grasses for Alchemy inside this ring.
A True Artefact was something rare for an ordinary Crucible Transformation Cultivator. However, there were at least a dozen True Artefacts in Xu Liangzhi’s ring.
However, Ning Cheng’s sights were set very high. None among the artefacts caught Ning Cheng’s eyes. He put away some of the relatively useful alchemy materials and handed the rest to Ji Luofei. However, since Ji Luofei obtained her weapon from Meng Jingxiu, whose quality was a full grade higher than Ning Cheng’s Cosmic True Devil Axes, it was quite apparent that she also did not take a liking to any of the True Artefacts inside.
What Ning Cheng cared the most about was Xu Kai’s storage ring. Xu Kai was the foremost expert of the Rootless Black City; therefore, he should possess many good things.
Ning Cheng quickly ground out the restrictions over the storage ring; however, what made Ning Cheng a little doubtful was that he did not see even a single Black Coin within Xu Kai’s storage ring. It did not also have many weapons. However, Ning Cheng had an idea as to what might have happened to his weapons. He had seen Xu Kai wasting many of his weapons to resist his Thunder Tribulation.
In Xu Kai’s ring, in addition to a few bottles of pills and a sizable pile of Spirit Stones, the most eye-catching object was a pile of blue coloured ore.
Was this the Blue Essence Ore? Ning Cheng felt the waves of energy spilling out of these ores and immediately made a conclusion that these were indeed Blue Essence Ores.
How many Blue Coins could one exchange for this much of Blue Essence Ore? This Xu Kai really turned out to be quite wealthy. His wealth was something that others could not even imagine.
This allowed Ning Cheng to feel somewhat satisfied with the harvest this time. His Spiritual Consciousness then grabbed several jade boxes and brought them out. Raising his hand to open one of the jade boxes, he found a glittering crystal overflowing with mighty Spiritual Qi.
Ning Cheng almost called out in surprise. This crystal stone was exactly what he wanted. Meng Jingxiu had given him three of such stones that helped him in advancing in the shortest possible time. Initially, he felt that these crystal stones were difficult to obtain; he never expected that he would actually end up with these many of them once again.
As Ning Cheng counted, he found that there were 12 intact crystal stones inside.
No wonder Xu Kai possessed such dominant cultivation; moreover, could break through from the Plundering Life Realm this early. That was because this fellow actually owned this kind of Crystal Stones; however, he just did not know from where this fellow obtained these Crystal Stones.
In addition to this, there were also several jade strips containing different Cultivation Methods and Magical Skills. There were even a dozen Transmission Array Talismans, this allowed Ning Cheng to understand how Xu Kai had arrived near to him this quickly. This fellow had actually laid out a few concealed Transmission Arrays within the Void. Once he encountered something urgent, he could use them to reach an approximate position near to his destination in the shortest possible time.
Teleportation within the Void was extremely dangerous; however, for an expert on the level of Xu Kai, he could still block the dangers from a distance.
However, in Ning Cheng’s eyes, these Crystal Stone were the most precious objects.
“Luofei, prepare to go into seclusion. After I advance to the Crucible Transformation Realm, we will then return to the Rootless Black City.” Ning Cheng made a decision instantly.
If he returned to the Rootless Black City now, no one would dare to speak half a word against him. However, his strength was still a limitation. Once there was a conflict of interest, people would always come to find trouble with him. As such, he might as well wait until his cultivation advanced once again before heading back to the Rootless Black City.
Besides, Ning Cheng also had some other plans that he wanted to accomplish. However, without possessing the necessary strength, he would not be able to achieve it.
Ji Luofei could still use Spirit Stones for her cultivation, while Ning Cheng chose to use the Crystal Stones for his cultivation during the seclusion. Spirit Stones to him had a minimal effect anyway and took a long time.
After cultivation with the help of Spirit Stones for a brief period, Ning Cheng switched to the Crystal Stones to aid in his cultivation once again. The process of rapidly absorbing and transmuting the Spirit Qi caused Ning Cheng to feel extreme comfort. This level of cultivation speed was what he was looking for.
In just a month’s time, Ning Cheng advanced from the 8th Level of the Sea Opening Realm to the 9th Level of Sea Opening Realm. Three months later, Ning Cheng’s cultivation had finally reached the Great Circle of the 9th Level of Sea Opening Realm.
……
The Rootless Black City, by now, had sunk into a strange atmosphere. Four months ago, the Junior City Master teamed up with more than a hundred people along with a cultivator in the Plundering Life Realm to go out and look for the Black Essence Mine. However, there was no news from them since then.
Three months ago, the Rootless Black City’s City Master Xu Kai suddenly turned furious and rushed out of the Rootless Black City. From the words left behind by him, many people judged that Junior City Master Xu Liangzhi had perished. They even speculated that it was the arrogant newcomer, Ning Cheng, who killed Xu Liangzhi. The very same person who demolished the Silver Thunder Chamber of Commerce.
Now four months have passed by, while there was not a single new movement from the City Master’s Mansion. Not to mention about Ning Cheng or the Junior City Master returning, there was also no news about the City Master Xu Kai after he went out.
The places Ning Cheng secured were still there, while Ning Cheng’s Immortal Cave also remained untouched. Nobody dared to go there anyway. Even if there were all kinds of speculations running rampant all around, no one would speak them out in the open.
……
“Boom-Boom….” The thunderbolts roared, while Ning Cheng stood unarmed within the Void, allowing the innumerable Lightning Arcs and the Thunder Waterfall to descend onto him.
Not only did he not bring out his Everlasting Blue Thunder City’s shadow, he even chose not to bring out his Nirvana Spear or his 36 Cosmic True Devil Axes.
Almost 60% of the descending violent Lightning Arcs ended up absorbed by him, while the rest of the Lightning Arcs, besides being used for quenching his corporeal body, could not bring about even half a bit of injury to him.
Ning Cheng knew why such a thing was happening. When he and Xu Kai were fighting under the Thunder Tribulation, the descending Thunder Tribulation was a lot stronger compared to the one he was facing right now. If he could pass through that kind of a mighty Thunder Tribulation, then he could definitely overcome this tribulation. Moreover, at this time, his cultivation had also improved; therefore, this level of Thunder Tribulation felt somewhat insignificant to him.
“Ka-Ka…” Intermittent crackling and popping sounds emerged as if his skeleton had reached a critical point before an advancement.
Ning Cheng felt pleasantly surprised. Currently submerged within the Thunder Tribulation to advance to the Crucible Transformation Realm; never had he imagined that before he advanced to the Crucible Transformation Realm, it would be his Body Forging that would experience a breakthrough. As long as the descending Thunder Tribulation remained strong, he would directly advance to having a Rank 6 Imperial Body.
After feeling that his Thunder Tribulation’s intensity might not be strong enough, Ning Cheng brought out his Nirvana Spear without any hesitation before shooting towards the descending Thunder Tribulation. At the same time, his powerful Spear Intent shot towards a Thunder Tribulation Arc aimed at him.
“Boom… Ka…..” The Thunder Tribulation was once again enraged. Violent Thunder Waterfalls, mixed with some Thunder Spheres started to descend, causing Ning Cheng to instantly find himself submerged within a bluish flash. Ji Luofei, who was watching the descending Thunder Tribulation from a distance, felt even more frightened as she unconsciously took a step back. She knew that nothing she did would help Ning Cheng. Despite anxiety filling her heart, it was useless at this moment.
“Poof-Poof….” Ning Cheng’s armour finally shattered under the Thunder Tribulation. Dense Lightning Arcs then descended onto Ning Cheng’s body, causing Ning Cheng’s flesh and blood to splash out in all directions. Even his skeleton was breaking apart inch by inch.
However, the next moment, his cracking skeleton quickly reorganised itself, allowing them to sublimate and condense at a much faster rate.
A powerful feeling welled up in his heart, causing Ning Cheng to feel ecstatic. He knew that at this moment, he finally achieved a Rank 6 Imperial Body. The Thunder Tribulation might be a deadly thing for others, but it was entirely different for someone like him.
I hope the Thunder Tribulation could turn even more violent, Ning Cheng prayed within his heart while shooting out with his Nirvana Spear. At the exact same moment, the True Essence surging within his meridians immediately imploded before exploding out. It seemed as if he had broken through some sort of a cultivation barrier.
“Bang…” It felt as if something covering his mouth and nose, preventing him from breathing, suddenly tore open, caused a unique and matchless aura to emerge. The Nirvana Spear in Ning Cheng’s hands suddenly transformed into a Spear Trace, which directly split apart the descending Thunder Tribulation into two halves.
Only after his Spear Trace shot off into the Void did this Thunder Tribulation Arc finally close up. However, that mighty Thunder Tribulation Arc also turned incomparably weak. With this wave of Thunder Tribulation ending, the following streams of Thunder Tribulation could not cause even half an injury to Ning Cheng.
Ning Cheng stood in the Void, letting the Lightning Arcs to descend onto his body, without showing even the slightest of movement. After many years of hard struggle, he finally reached the Crucible Transformation Realm and became a genuine Crucible Transformation Cultivator. After settling his matters in the Rootless Black City and the Receiving Heaven’s Stone, he could then head into the starry sky of the universe to find his own way.