Ninth In the World

When Di Jiu walked out, Ding Chi followed along. In fact, when Di Jiu had stopped cultivating a month ago, Ding Chi had stopped as well. Ding Chi could immediately sense his cultivation speed become very slow.

He was very satisfied that he had advanced from the early-stage Dao Birth to the late-stage Dao Birth in just several years. If he had not cultivated alongside Di Jiu, he’d still have needed hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of years before he could have reached the late-stage Dao Birth.

“Brother Di…” Ding Chi called out excitedly. He had decided to follow Di Jiu from now on.

“Not bad. You can reach the Dao Transformation after some time.” Di Jiu had discovered that Ding Chi was at the late-stage Dao Transformation.

Ding Chi did not have as many cultivating resources as he did. Besides the supreme-grade Dao meridian, he still had a pile of Divine Essence Pills. However, Ding Chi made use of the surrounding clear Heaven Earth Law during his cultivation process. It was indeed not bad to achieve such an improvement.

“Lightning, let’s go. We’re going to leave the Dark Red Sacred Dao City.” Di Jiu called Lightning.

Lightning rushed out. In several years, it had absorbed the Divine Spirit Qi of the supreme-grade Dao meridian and could now understand Di Jiu’s Dao force. Lightning had also become a level-two divine beast.

“Ah, we’re leaving?” Ding Chi thought that Di Jiu would stroll around and continue entering seclusion after coming out. Then, he would reach the perfected Dao Birth.

When Di Jiu suddenly said they were going to leave, he felt very disappointed.

“That’s right. Someone has come to find us. I reckon this isn’t anything good.” Di Jiu knew very well that although he and Xu Baishang were not friends, Xu Baishang had come to find him only for one thing: the Void Mountain.

Di Jiu put away the supreme-grade Dao meridian that he had yet to finish and walked out of the Alchemy and Weapon Pavilion with Ding Chi and Lightning. Xu Baishang then came over, as he had been watching Di Jiu’s seclusion all along.

“Ha ha… Brother Di, I’ve waited for you for several years.” Xu Baishang came up to him enthusiastically, sounding pleasantly surprised.

Di Jiu also replied in pleasant surprise, “Brother Xu, I’m currently short of some Dao meridians and you came to settle your debt. Thank you.”

Xu Baishang still owed him nine Dao meridians. Even though he had not paid attention at the time, Xu Baishang had taken advantage of this chance and not told him the grade of the Dao meridian. However, nine low-grade Dao meridians were still considered seizable wealth.

Xu Baishang smiled awkwardly and said, “Brother Di, I really didn’t expect you to come to the Dao World so quickly. After all these years, I managed to obtain a middle-grade Dao meridian.”

Then, Xu Baishang gave Di Jiu a ring.

Di Jiu took the ring and scanned it with his Spiritual Force. It was indeed a middle-grade Dao meridian. He had a few supreme-grade Dao meridians on him, so he did not find encountering a middle-grade Dao meridian strange. However, the fact that Xu Baishang had returned the Dao meridian showed that Xu Baishang had something to ask.

“You’re the Void Mountain Master, the Ten Major…” Ding Chi finally recognized the thin, weak man before him and exclaimed in amazement.

Xu Baishang was a genius of the same generation as Jiang Dai. Among the Ten Major Geniuses, he ranked above Jiang Dai. If Xu Baishang had not disappeared afterward, his reputation might not have been poorer than Jiang Dai’s.

Xu Baishang focused his attention on Ding Chi and said with a nod of his head, “Not bad, not bad. You should be the Great Buddha Mountain’s Ding Chi, right? You have a bright future.”

Ding Chi did not dare treat Xu Baishang like Di Jiu, so he hurriedly bowed. “Ding Chi greets Senior Xu.”

Xu Baishang nodded his head before telling Di Jiu, “Brother Di, I have some things to discuss with you. Can we talk somewhere in private?”

Di Jiu, who was naturally unbothered, pointed at his cave abode. “Brother Xu, if you don’t mind, you can have a seat in my cave abode.”

Xu Baishang hesitated for a while before agreeing. “Alright, let’s sit in Brother Di’s cave abode.”

He hesitated, as Di Jiu’s cave abode was filled with Confinement Killing Arrays. If Di Jiu harbored errant thoughts, he would have to use some trump cards to escape.

He then recalled what he had come here for and clenched his teeth before agreeing with Di Jiu’s suggestion.

When Di Jiu saw Xu Baishang follow him in, he respected his guts. He supposed that Xu Baishang had a top-notch escape technique or a forbidden escape technique. Otherwise, he would not have dared to come in.

Di Jiu knew very well that if he truly wanted to make Xu Baishang stay, Xu Baishang would be akin to his prey after coming in. This Defense Array of his might not be able to stop Xu Baishang. Once he took out the Five-Element Flags, Xu Baishang could only dream of leaving, unless he had a divine escape talisman that was above level seven.

Di Jiu supposed Xu Baishang did not have a divine escape talisman above level seven.

“Brother Di, we have cooperated without any gaps.” After Xu Baishang sat down, he made his relationship with Di Jiu clear.

Di Jiu laughed. “Of course. I don’t mind you coming here since you have waited two years without knocking on my door.”

Di Jiu knew better than anyone else that Xu Baishang had certainly come to snatch something from him. However, after hearing that he should not be provoked in the Dark Red Sacred Dao City, he had cooperated instead. What he wanted was probably nothing simple if Xu Baishang could wait for two years.

Xu Baishang laughed awkwardly. “Brother Di, you must know that Jiang Dai went to the Void City, right?”

“I’ve heard about that.” Di Jiu nodded. He had initially thought that Jiang Dai had gone to the Void City. However, after refining the Void Mountain, he’d suddenly felt that Jiang Dai might not necessarily have gone to the Void City. He had most likely gone back to the Search Lake to find him.

This was not because he had destroyed Jiang Dai’s territory but because he had taken away his Five-Element Flags and Yin-Yang Taijitu.

The Yin-Yang Taijitu was certainly not inferior to the Five-Element Flags. With these two treasures in his possession, how could Jiang Dai go to the Void City?

“Brother Di, this is what I wanted to tell you. Based on what I know, Jiang Dai should now be at the mid-stage Primordial Chaos. If he went to the Void City, he might obtain the opportunity to really reach the Dao Integration Realm.”

Xu Baishang sighed deeply and said more sternly, “Brother Di, you might think that Dao Integration is the second step and is more powerful than the Primordial Dao by a bit. However, there is still a limit. If you think this way, you are really wrong. Compared to the Primordial Dao and Primordial Chaos, Dao Integration is not just a bit stronger but much stronger. Once Jiang Dai reaches the Dao Integration, I will be fine. However, you…”

Xu Baishang did not carry on. He believed that Di Jiu would understand what he meant.

Di Jiu asked Xu Baishang as he looked at him, “Brother Xu, what do you mean?”

“Brother Di, I’ll speak honestly. I hope I can join forces with you to enter the Void City. If we join forces and meet Jiang Dai, we won’t need to be scared of him.” Xu Baishang explained his goal.

In Xu Baishang’s opinion, Di Jiu was also a Primordial Dao expert. Since he could instantly kill someone who was at the mid-stage Primordial Dao, he naturally was not an ordinary Primordial Dao Sacred Emperor. On the other hand, he was not an ordinary late-stage Primordial Dao martialist either. If the two of them joined forces, even if they were not Jiang Dai’s match, they would still have a chance to escape.

Di Jiu did not know why Xu Baishang wanted to join forces with him but he was sure that there were some problems between Xu Baishang and Jiang Dai, even though their grudge could not be as huge as the grudge between him and Jiang Dai.

He would not have an advantage by joining forces. As he thought about all this, Di Jiu said, “Brother Xu, I heard that we need a top-notch Plane Rift Talisman to go to the Void City. We don’t have one.”

Xu Baishang chuckled and replied, “Brother Di, even though I don’t have a Plane Rift Talisman to break all the planes of the Void City, I have one of a slightly lower level. As long as I take out the Plane Rift Talisman and you use the Void Mountain to strike it, we can definitely tear it apart, which will allow us to go to the Void City.”

As he said that, Xu Baishang stared at Di Jiu.

Di Jiu laughed coldly. Xu Baishang wanted to find out whether he had refined the Void Mountain.

In fact, Xu Baishang had this exact thought. He was sure that Di Jiu could not have refined the Void Mountain in such a short time. However, he was conflicted. If Di Jiu had not refined the Void Mountain, how could he have left the space between the two realms?

When it came to a treasure like the Void Mountain, he would rather be trapped for hundreds of thousands of years than leave. How could Di Jiu have given up so easily?

Just as Di Jiu was about to speak, he suddenly frowned. He stood up and said, “Brother Xu, we can go to the Void City. Since we are joining forces, we should teach Jiang Dai a lesson first.”

“Didn’t Jiang Dai go to the Void City?” Xu Baishang looked at Di Jiu in confusion.

Di Jiu’s gaze wandered in the distance. “Go to the Void City? He might not necessarily have gone there. Jiang Dai will very likely return soon.”

He could sense that the Dao World’s Defense Array, which he had restored, had been touched. Who else besides Jiang Dai could have found such a desolate place?

Why had Jiang Dai gone there? It was evident that he wanted to enter the Search Lake again based on the broken Dao World’s Defense Array. That was because Jiang Dai was unwilling to give up after Di Jiu had obtained his things.

However, Jiang Dai had not expected the Dao World’s Defense Array to be restored by Di Jiu. Now that Jiang Dai had seen that, he would definitely think of him.

After Jiang Dai thought of Di Jiu, he would immediately come to the Void Ocean’s Dark Red Sacred Dao City.

“Jiang Dai didn’t go to the Void City?” Xu Baishang looked at Di Jiu in amazement and forgot about the Void Mountain for a moment.

Di Jiu said, “I’m sure Jiang Dai did not go to the Void City. If you really want to join forces with me, let’s set up a confinement array here. Otherwise, I’ll leave first.”