Ninth In the World

He Tai recounted everything that had happened. How he had been threatened by the Sea Union, thus causing Di Jiu to take action against the Sea Union Cultivator; how Di Jiu had given him a real Sky Screen card and taken his placing card to the Sky Screen Card Hall to exchange it for a Sky Screen card.

When she heard what He Tai said, Jing Moshuang nodded her head and shifted her gaze back to where the spatial blade flares were surging. She believed He Tai. She and Di Jiu had known each other for quite some time, so she knew what kind of person Di Jiu was.

Qin Yin was dumbfounded. She finally completely understood what she had not been able to understand in the past.

As it turned out, Di Jiu had gone to the Sky Screen Card Hall and gotten a Sky Screen card in order to help He Tai, as he had been aware that He Tai would not be able to reach the Sky Screen Card Hall. Meanwhile, Qin Yin understood why Di Jiu had made a pass at her. It was because people from the Sea Union had been blocking the exit. The moment Di Jiu started to fight with the Sea Union, he would definitely get noticed by the Qi Family and get used by them to come to the Sky Screen.

Di Jiu had made a pass at her so he could stay in the Sky Screen Card Hall. That explained why he had never looked at her secretly while they had been in the Sky Screen Card Hall. Things were completely different from what she had imagined after all.

If she had not opened her mouth to mock Di Jiu, Di Jiu would probably not even have taken any liberties with her. He would have just found another way to remain in the hall.

Later that day, Di Jiu had killed a Sea Union Ninth-Stage Foundation Establishment Realm Cultivator before the opening of the Sky Screen because he had been displeased about being stuck in the Sky Screen Hall for so long thanks to the members of the Sea Union. Considering his personality and avenging nature, he would definitely not swallow his anger and carry on. This was exactly what had happened when the Qi Family had incurred his wrath. Di Jiu had directly destroyed several of the Qi Family’s Commercial Buildings. Jing Moshuang did not even mention the situation with the Qi Family’s Commercial Buildings because she felt that there was no point in arguing over that.

She was wrong. Her reasoning had been wrong right from the start.

Her previous impression of Di Jiu had been extremely bad. Even though he had saved her several times, she had been compelled to think that he’d had an ulterior motive. Now that she understood the whole story, she had discovered that she had always been unfair to him, even though she owed him a lot. The root of the problem was the fact that she’d had preconceived notions about Di Jiu.

The only thing she had helped Di Jiu with was finding a cave abode. Unfortunately, she had only gotten the opportunity to do so after Di Jiu had risked his life to save her.

…

After an unknown period of time had passed, the tearing of the spatial blade flares stopped and Di Jiu no longer possessed the strength to move. His face was pale as a paper and his whole body was covered in blood and mud.

Di Jiu checked his body. Only a scrap of skin on his arms was hanging onto his shoulders, while his wrists were almost completely broken. The injuries on his legs were just as severe. His bones and intestines were exposed due to the slashes of the spatial blade flares across his torso.

A spatial blade flare had even slashed him across the neck. His head would have been separated from his body if he had not dodged quickly enough.

The injuries he had sustained were much more severe than the ones he had suffered while transcending the Essence Soul Realm and the Dao Fire Thunder Tribulation. However, Di Jiu was relieved. The support of his powerful Spiritual Force, in combination with his sensitivity to the spatial law vibrations, had saved his body parts after a desperate struggle.

No matter how severe his injuries were, they would eventually heal. Things would have been different if he had lost an arm or a limb. Even if he could heal his flesh in the future, given his current cultivation realm, it would be extremely difficult to recover his Dao force.

After checking that everything was quite alright, Di Jiu was so relieved that he almost fainted. He only remained conscious by using his willpower.

He had to be deep under the ground. Even though there were not many dangers around, he was still in the Sky Screen so anything could happen. Furthermore, it was uncertain when the spatial blade flares would appear once again. If they did, he would be doomed. He dared not enter the Small World without any protection, as the attack of just one spatial blade flare could rip open the Small World.

When he realized that he was safe, the first thing Di Jiu did was not heal his wounds. Instead, his Spiritual Force landed within the Heaven Saber Sect’s Sutra Depository in the Small World.

He had originally not intended to use the Sutra Depository. However, he felt a resonance with the Heaven Saber Sect. Even though he did not recognize a single disciple of the sect, he could still sense that the saber intent of the Heaven Saber Sect and his own overlapped in certain places, forming a mutual understanding between the two parties.

However, Di Jiu had no choice now. He desired a body-tempering cultivation technique. If he’d had a Tempered Body, he would have obtained the flame on the flaming mountain a long time ago, acquired the saber on the Heaven Saber Peak, and would not have almost been killed by the limitless spatial blade flares.

He really needed to attain a Tempered Body right now.

Di Jiu had already extracted the spirit meridian of the Sutra Depository, so the various restriction arrays within the depositary were useless. His Spiritual Force entered the Sutra Depository quickly.

When it did, he saw rows of cultivation technique jade slips, magic technique jade slips, alchemy jade slips, blacksmithing jade slips…

Di Jiu was extremely shocked. All the branches of the Qi Family’s Commercial Building combined were like a roadside store compared to the Heaven Saber Sect’s Sutra Depository.

There were various kinds of saber techniques and Saber Dao divine powers. Di Jiu was pleasantly surprised when he saw the recordings of the Heaven Saber Sect’s various weapon-refining techniques.

This was a real treasury. The Book of the World might be much more valuable than the Heaven Saber Sect’s Sutra Depository, but the depository was much more useful to Di Jiu.

Di Jiu restrained the impulse to take out this saber technique and read it, for this was not what he needed the most. His Spiritual Force moved up the Sutra Depository before finally landing on a body-tempering jade slip.

The very first jade slip that captured Di Jiu’s attention was the Colossal Kun Art Schema.

It was not the words “Colossal Kun Art Schema” that attracted him, but the introduction inside.

After the first destruction of the primordial body, the powerful flesh body would produce a colossal kun [1. Kun represents earth in the eight trigrams.]. There was even a row of footnotes at the back, written by an unknown person. The Colossal Kun Art Schema was split into a few major branches. Among them were the Witch Deity Art of the Witch Sect, the Heaven Flood Manual of the Flood Sect and the Earth Paint Tempered Body Manual of the Paint Tin Sect that came from the Colossal Kun Art.

Di Jiu drew a cold gasp of air. This was incredible!

He had heard a little about the Flood Sect and the Paint Tin Sect. He had actually read about these two sects in the Forging Spiritual Art jade slip, but the Witch Sect was also very well-known.

It was said that the founding ancestor of the Witch Sect was related to Pan Gu [1. Pan Gu was the creator of the universe according to Chinese mythology. It was said that Heaven, Earth and all other creations had been transformed from his body parts.]. Even if this was just a myth, it still showed the formability of the Witch Sect.

The Witch Deity Art was derived from the Colossal Kun Art Schema, so what was there to question about this schema? Di Jiu decided to cultivate it.

It was truly unexpected that the Heaven Saber Sect would possess such a formidable body-tempering cultivation technique. He would have taken it out to cultivate it earlier if he had known about its existence.

Di Jiu’s perspective quickly changed. He immediately realized that the Colossal Kun Art Schema was related to the Heaven Saber Peak. One had to possess more than the ability to comprehend the saber intent to be able to reach the top of the Heaven Saber Peak successfully. One had to also cultivate a body-tempering cultivation technique. The Colossal Kun Art Schema had to be prepared for the disciples of the Heaven Saber Sect.

The Heaven Saber Sect was indeed very impressive if it had been able to obtain the body-tempering schema of several races who had not cultivated their Principal Spirit, but only their flesh body. The footnotes at the side of the Colossal Kun Art Schema had to be the body-tempering method that had undergone alterations by the Heaven Saber Sect. This modified body-tempering method was much easier for Di Jiu to cultivate.

Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force permeated the jade slip without hesitation. The body-tempering technique recorded inside the jade slip appeared inside Di Jiu’s mind without missing a single detail and quickly formed a complete body-tempering cultivation technique. This complete cultivation technique had been partially modified by the Heaven Saber Sect, while the rest of the content had always been there. However, Di Jiu only cared about whether the technique suited him.

The first step of the Colossal Kun body-tempering cultivation technique was residing within a storm of sabers. Every saber that pierced one’s flesh body would help temper it.

Di Jiu had previously been tortured by the boundless spatial blade flares, so his body was completely covered with horrifying wounds. He might not be in the best state to cultivate the Colossal Kun Art Schema, but it met the requirements of having a storm of sabers piercing one’s body.

Di Jiu was pleasantly surprised to discover that his recovery rate increased as he followed the Quintessential Essence circuit indicated by the Colossal Kun Art Schema to temper his flesh body. The body-tempering technique of the Colossal Kun Art Schema had no effect on the cultivation of the Galaxy Art.

As time passed, Di Jiu was completely submerged in a cultivating routine while also using the body-tempering Colossal Kun Art.

In just two weeks, his flesh body had reached the Bone Realm of the Three-Master Realm and was about to attain the Astral Realm.

The nine realms of body-tempering were categorized into the Three-Master Realm, the Three-Monarch Realm, and the Three-Deity Realm.

Cultivators who never underwent body-tempering remained at the Blood Flesh Realm. As one’s cultivation level increased, their flesh body would automatically upgrade to the Three-Master Realm or even the Three-Monarch Realm.

As far as certain cultivation techniques were concerned, even if they were cultivated to the max, the cultivator’s flesh body would remain at the Blood Flesh Realm.

The Three Master Realm was categorized into the Bone Realm, the Astral Realm, and the Master Realm. The Master Realm indicated that one had perfected both the Bone and Astral Realm.

Di Jiu attained the Astral Realm in two weeks, partly because of the formability of the Colossal Kun Art Schema, but mostly because the damage to his flesh body had been far too great during this period of time. He had suffered through the Essence Soul Thunder Tribulation, and the injuries he had sustained had healed thanks to his powerful self-healing capability.

Not too long ago, he had also been killed by the spatial blade flares. Using the Colossal Kun Art to temper his body when his injuries had yet to fully recover was too much of a coincidence.

Another two months passed before Di Jiu’s flesh body was completely healed and his Tempered Body attained the perfected Astral Realm. Now he was halfway to the Master Realm, while his cultivation had stabilized at the second-stage Essence Soul Realm.

This caused Di Jiu to miss the spatial blade flares, which did not appear when he wanted them the most.

Di Jiu stood up. Even though there were no more spatial blade flares, he could still sense that the surrounding space was unstable. If he left this underground area, he would most likely activate the spatial blade flares once again.

If he did not have the body-tempering Colossal Kun Art, he would have been worried. Now, he was just worried that there were no more spatial blade flares.

Regardless of whether he could use the spatial blade flares to temper his body, Di Jiu and the blue tree leaf were enemies. Thus, when he met the blue tree leaf again, he would definitely crush it to pieces if he could.

Di Jiu had attained the Book of the World, so he knew very well that a treasure like the blue tree leaf was an apex treasure. He refused to believe that the boundless spatial blade flares were not related to the leaf. They were definitely related, so their purpose was of course to take his life.