The Gate Of Good Fortune

As Ning Cheng sat quietly wondering what to do, a shadow appeared below Ning Cheng. Ning Cheng sensed danger, but the space around him immediately solidified under a powerful force. He could break through these shackles, but it would take him some time.

Without even thinking, Ning Cheng activated the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort.

“Boom…..” A powerful force came crashing down and slammed onto the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort.

Bombarded with such a force, the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort erupted with bursts of clicking-like noises. A moment later, thunder rays splashed over the sea. But the powerful force formed a huge depression in the seawater around Ning Cheng. The explosive power also swept away Ning Cheng, forcing him to spit out another mouthful of blood.

Fortunately, he had managed to bring out the Everlasting Blue Thunder City in time. Otherwise, even with a Starry Sky Body, he couldn’t have survived it.

As soon as the restraints around him eased a little, Ning Cheng saw a bloody mouth opening up right underneath him. Ning Cheng didn’t even see what kind of demonic beast it was before pushing the Twin Wings of Heavenly Clouds to its limits.

Ning Cheng understood that he couldn’t fight against this demonic beast. Facing such a powerful demonic beast, he had no other option but to escape with all his might.

The Twin Wings of the Heaven Clouds brought up a weak shimmering light before instantly moving Ning Cheng away from that spot. The moment Ning Cheng seemingly teleported away; the huge mouth closed on his afterimage.

Ning Cheng, who still was in the air, saw this scene and hurriedly brought out the Starry Sky Wheel and left.

The sea demon that attacked Ning Cheng didn’t seem to possess any flight abilities. Therefore, after seeing Ning Cheng escape, it didn’t try to pursue him.

However, Ning Cheng broke out into cold sweats out of fear. He had initially thought that this area was a safe zone with only a few powerhouses. He never expected that a demonic beast would almost end his life.

Thinking back to how he had remained unconscious in the seawater for an unknown amount of time, he felt even more afraid. If he hadn’t regained consciousness and got attacked by that demonic beast, he couldn’t have escaped death. From the looks of it, he couldn’t stay in this place and heal. Even if he wanted to heal, he first needed to find a safer place.

At this point, Ning Cheng had no sense of direction at all and randomly picked one for the Starry Sky Wheel. Fortunately, the Starry Sky Wheel still possessed domineering speed. Therefore, even though this sea contained some powerful sea demons, these sea demons couldn’t keep up with Starry Sky Wheel’s pace.

Controlling the Starry Sky Wheel for a few days, Ning Cheng’s spiritual consciousness finally picked up a few flight-type weapons in the distance. Ning Cheng immediately stopped and replaced the Starry Sky Wheel with an ordinary high-rank flight-type dao artefact.

Amongst the four grand starry skies, Ning Cheng didn’t have any fear of other people knowing about the Starry Sky Wheel. But in this place, once someone recognised a treasure like the Starry Sky Wheel, it would no longer belong to him.

Ning Cheng motioned a flight-type weapon to stop. But what made him puzzled was that the cultivator controlling the flight-type weapon only had a Life and Death cultivation.

The Life and Death cultivator couldn’t see Ning Cheng’s cultivation. But because he still wanted to live here, he tried not to offend people as much as possible. Moreover, Ning Cheng, standing on his flight-type weapon, didn’t show any malice towards him. Therefore, seeing Ning Cheng making a gesture to stop, he decided to comply instead of being chased and then forced to stop by Ning Cheng.

“What troubles this dao friend?” The Life and Death cultivator asked with cupped fists and a relatively respectful and polite tone before Ning Cheng could speak.

Ning Cheng also returned the gesture, “I encountered a beast tide sometime back and ended up losing my map of this sea area. I wonder if this friend could carve a jade strip for me?”

Even if he wanted to ask a few questions, Ning Cheng knew that he had to remain careful with his words. He could see that this cultivator also seemed to use celestial essence, and it hadn’t transformed into a more potent force. But even so, he still didn’t want anyone to know that he was not from this place.

“Naturally.” The Life and Death cultivator didn’t hesitate to take out a jade strip before throwing it to Ning Cheng. Then, controlling his flight-type weapon, he left immediately. He didn’t ask any payment from Ning Cheng, which made Ning Cheng breathe a sigh of relief. If the other party wanted some compensation for it, Ning Cheng only had Permanent Essence Pills, which he didn’t know would work here or not.

Ning Cheng’s spiritual consciousness swept into the jade strip and after a few breaths, Ning Cheng then put it away.

He now understood that this place was somewhere at the extreme edge of the Grand Essence Sea. From this, Ning Cheng also understood that people considered this place as the least valuable corner of the Grand Essence Sea. Moreover, not too far from his current location, Ning Cheng also came to know about a sea city, called the Boundary Essence Spirit Sea City.

The jade strip only contained some simple instructions without any introductions or anything. It just pointed out the critical directional pointers to the Boundary Essence Spirit Sea City.

But with this jade strip, Ning Cheng also confirmed that this place was within the Grand Essence Realm. That silver-haired lady had mentioned that the Grand Essence Sea was within the Grand Essence Realm.

Moreover, the father of that Ninth Prince, whose corporeal body Ning Cheng had destroyed previously, seemed to be a powerhouse of this Grand Essence Sea.

Ning Cheng thought back to the terrifying sea demon he had encountered a few days ago in the Grand Essence Sea and started to feel a strong sense of crisis in his heart. Those sea demons, most likely, were the lowest-level existences in this place, yet just one of them had almost wiped the floor with him. Since that Ninth Prince’s old man could dominate the entire Grand Essence Sea, just what level of strength had he reached?

But Ning Cheng quickly put these thoughts aside. Let alone whether that Ninth Prince Man Jiuren could return to the Grand Essence Realm or not. Even if he could return, he had to first recreate his body before even thinking of taking revenge. The only thing that Ning Cheng felt slightly worried about was if Man Jiuren’s old man would help him get revenge. If Man Jiuren’s father went to Culmination Grand Starry Sky, it wouldn’t be a good thing.

He also understood that if Man Jiuren’s father did go to Culmination Grand Starry Sky, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.

With too many threats looming over him, Ning Cheng quickly put all his thoughts aside and controlled the flight-type weapon towards the Boundary Essence Spirit Sea City.

Understanding that this place was just the edge of the Grand Essence Realm, Ning Cheng felt even more shocked at the teleportation array under the Thorn Tooth Lake. Reaching this place, he finally understood that it was a teleportation array capable of breaking through positional planes. Therefore, Ning Cheng no longer felt upset that he couldn’t fully complete it with his strength. That teleportation array was almost equivalent to an Opening Heaven Talisman’s child talisman.

However, Ning Cheng also felt a little regret at this time. He hadn’t even thought of investigating where Liang Yi had obtained that array pattern. That single array pattern had allowed him to activate the teleportation array. It meant that the array pattern wasn’t any lower in value than the Opening Heaven Talisman’s child talisman.

……

A few days later, Ning Cheng stood outside a mottled but sprawling city. He also saw several mottled characters floating above the entrance, Boundary Essence Spirit Sea City.

But beyond that, this city looked too ordinary. Not to mention that it couldn’t compare to a city like Eternal Heaven Starry Sky City. It couldn’t even compare to Ocean Gambling City Ning Cheng had entered after stepping into the starry skies.

But as soon as Ning Cheng walked to the gate of the city, he felt an aura more intense than the one he felt at sea. From this, he also understood that the Boundary Essence Spirit Sea City had richer cultivation source.

As cultivators continuously streamed in and out of the city gates, Ning Cheng carefully looked at everyone’s cultivation in secret. After observing for a while, he noticed no one below the Celestial Scryer Realm. But at the same time, Ning Cheng also saw many cultivators in the Eternal Realm in this place.

Fortunately, he only saw a few cultivators on the same level as Hong Lun and Ninth Prince, which made Ning Cheng a little relieved. At least in this place, he was still near the top when it came to strength. As for that red-haired expert he saw in the Grand Essence Sea a few days ago, it must have been an accidental encounter.

Looking at these cultivators entering and leaving through the city gate, Ning Cheng also observed that they would usually take out a jade card. However, a few cultivators also took out high-grade starry sky crystals to enter through the city gate. As for Permanent Essence Pills, Ning Cheng didn’t see anyone taking them out.

Ning Cheng took out a hundred high-rank starry sky crystals and handed them to the guard before following the crowd into the city.

The Boundary Essence Spirit Sea City truly had a more decadent aura. But it still wasn’t nearly enough to sustain cultivation.

But Ning Cheng also noticed a few differences from other cities. After entering the city gate, he didn’t see the main street, but a huge public square.

As Ning Cheng’s spiritual consciousness casually swept out, he noticed a lot more people on the public square. At the same time, apart from a huge makeshift market on the public square, he also saw many displays with information about teams and other random stuff.

On the edge of this public square, he saw two arc-shaped wide roads, which surrounded the public square and extended into the city behind it.

Ning Cheng walked into a shop within the makeshift market on the public square and squeezed through the various restrictions and array formation to reach the counter. He then said to the store assistant, “Bring me a jade strip with a proper introduction to the Grand Essence Sea and the nearby areas. By the way, do you also have any good cultivation method jade strips?”

The store assistant quickly put aside the cultivator he was attending and came to Ning Cheng with a smile. “What grade of cultivation method does this friend want? Are there any spiritual root attribute requirements? My cultivation method jade strips are much better than other places. If you want to purchase cultivation method jade strips, then coming to me is the right thing to do.”

Ning Cheng naturally didn’t want to buy cultivation method jade strips to change cultivation methods. He, however, wanted to understand the depths of cultivation in this place. It was just like the time Ning Cheng first stepped into the starry skies and had no understanding about the level of cultivation in the starry skies. It wasn’t until he asked Lan Ya did he get a general sense of it.

“I don’t care about spiritual root attributes, but to what extent can your highest-level cultivation method take one’s cultivation?” Ning Cheng hesitated a bit before asking.

Hearing that Ning Cheng wanted the highest-grade cultivation method, but didn’t care about attribute, the store assistant’s eyes shone before he switched to a more polite tone. “I have a Dao Sculpting Cultivation Method called Broken Jade Record. This cultivation method can increase the probability of successfully reaching Dao Sculpting Realm…..”

While speaking, the store assistant took out a jade box and two jade strips, “These two jade strips come with it.”

“Stop blowing steam, who would dare cultivate the Broken Jade Record? Cultivating it would mean setting yourself on the path of death…..” Someone in the crowd whispered with disdain, but Ning Cheng heard it.

Ning Cheng had heard the words ‘Dao Sculpting’ in the past. When Chuan Xinlou had said that he successfully reached Dao Confirming Realm, Ning Ruoqing had ridiculed him as just reaching Dao Sculpting Realm. No, not even a person who reached Dao Sculpting Realm.

From this, Ning Cheng understood that this Dao Sculpting cultivation method most likely wasn’t the highest-grade of cultivation method in this place. However, he still asked, “What’s the price of this Broken Jade Record?”

“110,000 Spirit Crystals.” the store assistant gave an immediate reply.

Spirit Crystals? Ning Cheng suddenly thought how his Celestial River Flame had now become a Spirit Flame, and immediately thought of the word ‘spirit’[1]. Maybe it had something to do with this place.

“I don’t have spirit crystals; can I use this instead?” Ning Cheng said and took out a starry sky crystal. He had more than tens of millions of these things but had no particular use of them. However, he truly wanted to buy the two jade strips that came with it.

When the store assistant saw the crystal that Ning Cheng took out, his expressions immediately turned ugly and spoke with a cold voice. “Do you really want this buy a cultivation method with this?”

“Yes.” Ning Cheng hesitated but eventually nodded. He originally wanted to take out Permanent Essence Pills. But after mulling over it for some time, Ning Cheng decided against it. At the very least, he wouldn’t take out Permanent Essence Pills before seeing others using it.

The store assistant put away the jade box with the cultivation method as quickly as possible and coldly said to Ning Cheng. “Sorry, we don’t accept such low-level items.”

“Hahaha…..” Bursts of laughter broke out in the store as everyone realised that someone wanted to use low-level crystals to buy the highest-grade cultivation method in this place.

[1] The character for ‘spirit – 神’ can also be interpreted as ‘spirit/ god/ deity/ soul/ unusual/ mysterious/ lively/ expressive’ depending on the context. So for now, I decided to keep it as ‘spirit’, its literal translation.