Ninth In the World

Time flew past.

100 years had passed since the last time the Void City’s Dao Fruit Pagoda had opened.

For the cultivators in this universe, a century passed in the blink of an eye. The Void City had long since regained its tranquility. Every once in a while, some cultivators who frequented the Void City would mention the Human Clan expert who had appeared the last time the Dao Fruit Pagoda had opened.

At one of the tables on the first story of the Divine Phoenix Inn, three cultivators were discussing among themselves what had happened that year.

The speaker was a petite Dao Birth cultivator. As he spoke, he gestured wildly with an excited look.

“You’re surely exaggerating, Fan Xin. He couldn’t have helped more than 100 people refine pills in two hours. I admit that Di Jiu is a Primordial Dao Sacred Emperor, but please calculate based on what you just said. Making one cauldron of Dao Transformation Dao pills would take at least two hours. No matter how fast Alchemy Emperor Di is, he could at most refine four cauldrons of Dao pills in two hours. It would be absolutely impossible for him to refine more than 100 cauldrons of elixir pills in merely two hours. How did you come up with that figure? Besides, some Primordial Dao pills were refined as well.”

A cultivator seated beside the speaker could not help retorting. Fan Xin’s claim was really farfetched. He had accepted it when he had said that Di Jiu had killed a Primordial Chaos expert of the Demon Clan, seized the Demon Clan’s territory on the Dao Fruit Pagoda Square, and chased the Demon Clan’s Void Booth Elixir Dispensary away. However, this new claim was a bit too exaggerated.

Fan Xin’s face turned red as he replied unhappily, “I might be wrong about the timing. It must have been more than four hours, but he did help more than 70 people refine pills.”

“This makes what you said even more unbelievable. The duration should be doubled, but the number of people Alchemy Saint Di helped refine pills should be reduced by a few dozens.” The same cultivator, who had previously rebutted, chuckled now, confident that his words were right.

“It doesn’t matter that you guys don’t believe what I said. You will doubt me even more when I say that Di Jiu can also refine Heaven Essence Dao Pills. Plus, he is the one who killed Primordial Chaos Sacred Emperor Xiang Mu of the Heavenly Purification Clan. Do you believe this?” Fan Xin knew that he could not prove what he’d said, so he gave up trying to make the others believe his words.

A lady in a black scarf sat in one of the corners of the hall, eavesdropping on their discussion. She remained silent, although she believed Fan Xin’s words. Di Jiu could effortlessly kill a late-stage Primordial Chaos cultivator at the Primordial Dao Realm. It was laughable that she had previously advised Di Jiu not to erect a “Primordial Dao Alchemy Saint” sign to avoid luring any misfortune.

Di Jiu only gave four Dao pills for each cauldron he refined. According to her understanding, a true top-notch alchemist could refine 12 Dao pills in one cauldron. This meant that Di Jiu could use one cauldron of Dao pills to trade with three cultivators.

Since the closure of the Dao Fruit Pagoda 100 years ago, she had been loitering in the Void City, hoping to meet Di Jiu again. Unfortunately, she’d waited for a century and she had neither seen nor heard of him again.

The black-scarfed lady sighed and stood up. She had decided to leave the Void City, for it seemed that it would be meaningless to continue waiting there. Perhaps she should find Jiao Da first, as he had once been with Di Jiu. She might discover Di Jiu’s whereabouts if she found Jiao Da.

She definitely did not expect Di Jiu to return to the Void City once again when she had just left the city.

…

Di Jiu opened his eyes. He was currently on a deserted planet 100 million miles away from the Void City.

During his 100 years of seclusion, he had used up two supreme-grade divine spirit meridians, a pile of high-grade divine crystals, and various Dao pills and Dao fruits. However, his strength had only increased from the late stage and reached the peak Primordial Dao Realm. He was still some distance away from attaining the perfected realm.

Di Jiu could not bear to use the several dozen drops of 100-million-year-old Divine Quintessence, which he was keeping to aid him in breaking through to the Primordial Chaos Realm. He could attain the perfected Primordial Chaos Realm if he chose to use them now, but there would actually be no difference when he was at the peak Primordial Chaos Realm.

Unfortunately, he had not obtained any Primordial Chaos Rainbow Glow Fruits inside the Dao Fruit Pagoda. Otherwise, he would have extended his seclusion for a couple more centuries to break through to the Primordial Chaos Realm.

In these 100 years, Lightning had not advanced much and still remained a level-four divine beast.

There should be no point in continuing to be in reclusive cultivation. Di Jiu decided to make a trip to the Void City, not to invite Tang Beiwei to head to the Outer Heaven, but to search for Dao Chuanxun, who came from the Void Ocean.

Dao Chuanxun and company had gone there for the Dao Fruit Pagoda. Di Jiu had not seen him on the Dao Fruit Pagoda Square, but he believed that he would definitely be able to obtain news on Dao Chuanxun in the Void City.

…

The Void Booth Elixir Dispensary was quite well-known in the Void City, but the number one Elixir Dispensary in the city was the Void City’s Commercial Building. The Void City’s Commercial Building engaged in numerous fields, including alchemy and blacksmithing.

The owner of this commercial building was very mysterious and had never been seen before. However, the landlord of the commercial building was Xing Hong, a character extremely well-known by the entire Void City.

No one dared to do anything to the Void City’s Commercial Building because of how mysterious the owner was and, more importantly, because of the presence of Landlord Xing Hong.

Xing Hong was clever at handling public relations. He was on good terms with the experts from various clans and he was a mid-stage Primordial Chaos Sacred Emperor. More importantly, Xing Hong was close to Dao Monarch Ye.

All these factors together gave the Void City’s Commercial Building an unprecedented status in the city.

Recently, Xing Hong had not been in a good mood. He had just returned from outside and heard that a powerful human cultivator called Di Jiu had appeared in the city. Di Jiu was an Alchemy Dao expert in terms of cultivation.

The fact that Xing Hong had not been present in the city and had not managed to befriend such an expert made him feel immense regret.

That day, Xing Hong was in his cave abode, which was located in the Void City’s Commercial Building, steeping tea. A deacon suddenly hurried to the entrance and reported urgently, “Landlord, Di Jiu is here. He’s asking to meet you.”

Di Jiu? Xing Hong was momentarily stunned. Who was Di Jiu? Why would this person dare to request a meeting? After all, even the Void City Lord might not hold a higher position than Xing Hong. This lowly Di Jiu wanted to meet him…

Wait…

Xing Hong suddenly stood up when he recalled something. He did not even notice that the tea cup in front of him had toppled over as he asked agitatedly, “Do you think that Di Jiu is Alchemy Saint Di, who was at the Dao Fruit Pagoda Square that year?”

The deacon hastily replied, “Yes, it is Alchemy Saint Di.” He silently added, “Would I dare report this to you if it was not Di Jiu? Why would I report to you about a nobody?” This was something he dared not say out loud, however.

“Invite him in quickly!” Xing Hong anxiously called out. Then, he added, “Hold on. I will head over myself.”

Di Jiu was indeed the person standing outside the Void City’s Commercial Building. He had come to meet Xing Hong, mainly to investigate Dao Chuanxun’s whereabouts. The Void City’s Commercial Building was considered the largest commercial building in the entire city. Therefore, he felt certain that the Void City’s Commercial Building would know if Dao Chuanxun had been in the Void City before.

“Ha ha… Brother Di, I missed the opportunity to meet you that year because I was not in the Void City. I was just regretting that when you decided to honor me with your presence. I’m truly fortunate,” said a very enthusiastic voice. Then, Di Jiu saw Xing Hong, who was wearing a gray robe.

This might be due to the cultivation technique he was cultivating, but besides the fact that his robe was gray, the skin of Xing Hong’s face was light gray as well.

Di Jiu did not need to use his Spiritual Force to determine that Xing Hong was at the mid-stage Primordial Chaos Realm.

“You’re being too courteous, Landlord Xing. I dare not accept this high praise. Actually, I came by because I have something I need your help with…” Di Jiu felt some discomfort being on the receiving end of such enthusiasm.

Xing Hong patted his chest. “I will definitely do my best to do whatever you need.”

Xing Hong knew very well that his aptitude was only average, yet he had been able to attain the Primordial Chaos Realm. On the other hand, many people with better aptitude and higher positions were still stuck at the Primordial Dao Realm. This was mainly because he had befriended an impressive expert like Dao Monarch Ye.

When he’d first gotten to know Dao Monarch Ye, the latter had still been a mere Dao Transformation cultivator. However, he’d recognized Dao Monarch Ye’s extraordinary nature, so he had intentionally approached him. As a result, he had obtained the opportunity to break through to the Primordial Chaos Realm.

Now that he had encountered Di Jiu, who was not inferior to Dao Monarch Ye, he knew exactly what to do.