Ninth In the World

Di Jiu’s Spiritual Sea had originally been filled with the Spiritual Force Spirit Qi of the 90th level. With the addition of the Roast Divine Herb, it felt like an active volcano had suddenly exploded in his Spiritual Sea.

This terrifying, violent aura seemed about to rip Di Jiu’s Spiritual Sea into pieces. Bam! Bloody mists exploded from Di Jiu’s temple.

Oh no! Di Jiu knew that he had been too impatient. At this rate, his Spiritual Sea would explode. The only thing he could do was circulate the Forging Spiritual Art to the maximum while frantically circulating his Galaxy Art and Tempered Body Art.

His Spiritual Sea let out some cracking sounds. Di Jiu suspected that if he did not quickly disperse this terrifying aura, his head would explode like a watermelon from all this pressure.

Di Jiu forced himself to calm down. With every crack that formed in his Spiritual Sea, the circulation of the Forging Spiritual Art weakened the violent aura in his Spiritual Sea.

Thanks to the help of the Tempered Body Art and the Galaxy Art, a portion of this violent aura was guided into his body. Due to the urgent nature of this process, a little blood started to seep out of his body. However, this was nothing compared to the bloody mists that exploded from the spot between his eyebrows.

Everyone was focused on condensing their Spiritual Force, so no one noticed Di Jiu’s sorry state.

Di Jiu was certain that his Spiritual Sea was about to shatter into several pieces. Even the slightest pressure from the outside could completely disintegrate his Spiritual Sea.

The Forging Spiritual Art saved his life. As it used up the Spiritual Force Spirit Qi and the Roast Divine Herb Aura within his Spiritual Sea, the lacerating violence gradually calmed down. Di Jiu started to slowly expand and his Spiritual Force became increasingly condensed.

When he was completely out of danger, he got immersed in tempering his Spiritual Force.

Two weeks later, Di Jiu heard his Spiritual Sea let out another rumbling sound. Then, he sensed the cultivation shackles of the Void Spirit Realm clearly. Di Jiu would definitely succeed immediately if he broke through to the Void Spirit Realm.

However, he was not in the mood to do so. What excited him was his Spiritual Sea. This time, his Spiritual Sea did not explode. Instead, it suddenly expanded significantly, while his Spiritual Force increased exponentially.

Di Jiu opened his eyes. For a moment, his eyes shone like stars in the dark night sky.

Everything became clear. He could now sense clearly the state of his Spiritual Sea and Spiritual Force, as well as his mastery of this strength.

There were seven circle-like engravings in his Spiritual Sea that looked like seven defensive fortresses completely protecting it. His Spiritual Sea was at least 10 times sturdier now. The gray stone and the Book of the World were lying quietly in the innermost engraving.

Di Jiu stopped circulating the Forging Spiritual Art.

His Spiritual Force had reached Level Seven, and his Spiritual Sea was a Level-Seven Spiritual Sea.

Ever since he had entered the Five Continent Dao Pagoda, Di Jiu’s strength had increased by a few cultivation levels and he had broken through to the perfected Essence Soul Realm. However, Di Jiu’s biggest achievement was tempering his Spiritual Force to Level Seven and expanding his Spiritual Sea to Level Seven. This was an unexpected benefit, for he could actually sense the cultivation shackles of the Void Spirit Realm now.

Xuanyuan Kong said that some True Form Realm Cultivators, who were weaker, might not even have a Level-Seven Spiritual Force. Thus, his Level-Seven Spiritual Force would be considered very powerful.

Di Jiu was itching to see what it would be like if he cast the Spiritual Force escape technique with his current Spiritual Force level.

He did not continue to temper his Spiritual Force. After gaining insight into the Foundation Order of the 90th level, he did not put this Foundation Order into the array disc. Instead, he expanded his Spiritual Force to its maximum capability.

Di Jiu had originally wanted to check on the cultivating situation of his teammates. However, just as his Spiritual Force was about to expand to its maximum, a faint flare appeared in it.

Ji Hongchuan was coming up. Di Jiu placed several more restrictions on the array disc by using his Spiritual Force without hesitation.

In the past, he had needed to use certain techniques to permeate the array disc with his Spiritual Force. However, given his current Level-Seven Spiritual Force, he could easily engrave several self-exploding restrictions on the array disc.

Almost as soon as he did this, Ji Hongchuan appeared on the 90th level.

Just as Di Jiu had predicted, no futon appeared when he arrived.

Ji Hongchuan’s gaze landed on the array disc surrounded by the six of them before scanning the place with his eyes and focusing on Di Jiu.

Suddenly, everyone stopped tempering their Spiritual Force and stared at Ji Hongchuan warily.

Ji Hongchuan, who was too lazy to even unsheathe his saber, pointed at Di Jiu. “You scum.”

This fella was indeed at the third-stage Pioneer Sea Realm, so he was really formidable. “You are indeed aware of your illness. You started acting pretentious as soon as you got here,” Di Jiu said with a sigh. “Is this your way of ensuring that you will not die?”

“Brother Di, didn’t you say that this fella had a supernormal ability?” Xuanyuan Kong looked at Di Jiu in confusion. He could not sense any supernormal ability or Quintessential Essence fluctuation coming from Ji Hongchuan.

Although Ji Hongchuan did not understand what Di Jiu meant, he knew that it could be nothing good. When he saw that Di Jiu refused to move, his saber appeared in his hand with a wave of his palm and he immediately slashed at Di Jiu.

A bright flare slashed across the space as Di Jiu was restrained by this frosty saber intent.

When Di Jiu spread his arms, the restraining saber intent shattered like ice. The Heaven Aqua Saber landed in Di Jiu’s hand with a clear cry and a blue flare. Di Jiu slashed at Ji Hongchuan without hesitation while shouting, “Everyone attack him!”

Boom!

Ji Hongchuan’s icy saber flare and Di Jiu’s blue saber flare clashed with an explosion. The entire space was suddenly filled with violent saber intent aura.

Several saber flares tore apart Di Jiu’s defense, extracting several bloody flares from his body.

Di Jiu’s heart sank. He had not used his full strength in that saber move, but he had used at least 70 percent of it. Even so, his saber flare had dispersed completely during the collision with Ji Hongchuan’s saber flare.

After one saber move, he was already at a disadvantage.

Thanks to his Level-Seven Spiritual Force, Di Jiu was very aware of his own strength. This one saber move had made him realize that he was no match for Ji Hongchuan yet. Even if he attained the Void Spirit Realm, he would still be no match for him. He was certain that Ji Hongchuan’s saber move had contained less than one-third of his full strength.

Ji Hongchuan’s eyes focused. He had not expected that Di Jiu would block his casual saber move. He had thought that, after this saber move, Di Jiu would either be dead or severely injured and thus would get pushed out of the 90th level by the pagoda.

However, Di Jiu had only suffered some wounds. Was Di Jiu really an Essence Soul Realm cultivator?

Xuanyuan Kong attacked Ji Hongchuan before he could think this through. Xuanyuan Kong leaped and slashed at Ji Hongchuan with his surging Aerial Star Axe. He had wanted to teach Ji Hongchuan a lesson for a long time. If he had not been worried that he would be pushed out by the Five Continent Dao Pagoda, he would have swung his ax using his full strength instead of a mere 30 percent of it.

Ling Yixiao, Yue Qiongyu, Xu Bai and Xin Qilun took out their Dharma treasures and attacked Ji Hongchuan together. This was what they had discussed and agreed to do. The moment Ji Hongchuan attacked, everyone else would join forces and chase Ji Hongchuan out. No matter how formidable he seemed, he was a mere third-stage Pioneer Sea Realm cultivator.

Xuanyuan Kong could have dealt with a third-stage Pioneer Sea Realm cultivator by himself, yet they attacked him together simply to show that they were a team that stood together.

Ji Hongchuan snorted. The saber in his hand vibrated and transformed into six vicious saber flares that engulfed the six of them.

When the six saber flares lashed out, they transformed into 12 saber flares, and then 24 saber flares. By the time these flares collided with the Dharma treasures, they had already become 96 in number.

“How could he possibly use his full strength?” exclaimed Xu Bai as he was engulfed by the saber flares. Each of them only used a maximum of 30 percent of their strength, so it was unfathomable how Ji Hongchuan could use his full strength.

Di Jiu’s heart sank. He had originally thought that, even if he did not attack, Xuanyuan Kong and company would help him force Ji Hongchuan out of the 90th level, no matter how powerful he was. It seemed like he had underestimated Ji Hongchuan and overestimated his team.

No one other than him could block this saber move. Although he could use his full strength, once Xuanyuan Kong and the others used their full strength, they would be teleported out.

If that happened, his plan would fail. He had to be teleported out before everyone else, and he wanted to bring Ji Hongchuan down with him.

Di Jiu, who no longer cared about hiding his strength, relied on his Soul Realm physical body to rush into Ji Hongchuan’s saber flares and take a step forward. The space around him shook minutely. His footprint seemed to disappear as soon as it formed.

This was Di Jiu’s ultimate technique that would protect his life. It was the Jumbo Footprint.

Seven saber flares pierced Di Jiu as bloody mists exploded. Taking no heed of his injuries, Di Jiu continued to step towards Ji Hongchuan.

Ji Hongchuan sneered. This was truly wishful thinking on Di Jiu’s part. A step of his could not tear apart his defense. If that happened…

Before he could mock Di Jiu silently, a giant footprint suddenly appeared in front of him and landed on his face.

Ji Hongchuan felt a Violent Quintessential Essence before he heard Di Jiu say, “I will trample your pretentious, offending ego to death.”

Blood spewed out when Ji Hongchuan opened his mouth. This could either have been caused by his anger or the injuries inflicted by the footprint.

No matter how powerful he was, Ji Hongchuan was still swept away by the Five Continent Dao Pagoda’s Dao Law.

In an instant, Di Jiu pulled back all the Foundation Orders into the array disc and activated the restrictions. He was the second person to be teleported out.

Although Ji Hongchuan had left the pagoda, his saber flare had not. Xuanyuan Kong and the rest of the team had to face a few dozens of saber flares. They did not possess the power of Di Jiu’s physical body, so in order to avoid getting injured, they all used their full strength to block the attacks.

They could not possibly stay on this level without Di Jiu’s Foundation Orders. After using their full strength to block Ji Hongchuan’s saber flares, none of them could continue to stay on the 90th level of the Five Continent Dao Pagoda. They were all teleported out of the pagoda right after Di Jiu and Ji Hongchuan.

Almost as soon as everyone was teleported out, the array engravings on the array disc left on the pagoda’s 90th level exploded. The array disc was split into pieces in an instant.

The six white-jade futons on the 90th level also disappeared amid the fading sound of the explosion.