Ninth In the World

As soon as he returned to the cave abode, Di Jiu started to set up various Defense Arrays.

The outermost array was the Five Continent Pavilion cave abode’s Defense Array. Behind this Defense Array was a Trigger Array. Even if someone approached and used their Spiritual Force to scan the area, Di Jiu would sense it.

Behind the Trigger Array was a Level-Four Defense Array. Di Jiu set up two arrays in the seclusion room. One of them was a Lifeforce Concealment Array, and the other was a Defense Array. These two arrays were the most useful Dharma Arrays, as they were both Level-Nine arrays.

Di Jiu believed that one could never be too careful. If he had not been cautious a few days earlier, he could have lost everything to Shu Haolan from the Genesis Sect.

There were probably five or six months left to go before the Five Continent Dao Pagoda closed. Di Jiu had very limited time. He needed to conduct research on the Book of the World and learn the Vast Sword Array Art, preferably by changing this sword array to a Vast Saber Array Art. Meanwhile, he also had to start practising alchemy.

At first, Di Jiu had thought that alchemy was not worth learning. Hence, he’d let Little Tree learn it instead. Now that Little Tree was still in the Sky Screen, it was too difficult for him to obtain elixirs. This showed Di Jiu that only the skills one mastered belonged to them. Little Tree might be his pet, but its mastery of the art did not equal his mastery of the art.

Fortunately, the alchemy knowledge and insight of Little Tree were all stored in the Small World. Di Jiu possessed large amounts of spiritual herbs. If he combined them with the alchemy knowledge accessible, it should be relatively easy for him to do this.

After checking that everything in his cave abode was in place, Di Jiu immediately fixed all his attention on the Book of the World.

The book automatically entered his Spiritual Sea because of the gray stone. Although he had not refined it, now that Di Jiu finally had some time to spare, he intended to keep attempting to refine the Book of the World.

He knew that refining it would be different from refining restrictions, as the former granted him insight into the boundless Laws within them.

When Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force landed on the Book of the World once again, he sensed the same boundless universe aura. There were no Laws whatsoever.

Di Jiu sighed silently. His theory was correct. It was the gray stone, and not his capability, that had allowed him to sense the Book of the World’s Law and let the book enter his Spiritual Sea. Perhaps the Book of the World had entered his Spiritual Sea on its own.

The only thing he could do now was not use any shortcuts and learn everything within this book. It would not be possible for him to refine the Book of the World.

The Book of the World encompassed everything in the universe, including the unlimited species within it. At first, Di Jiu simply looked through every piece of knowledge in the book, checking them out one at a time. Several days later, he discovered that something was different. Although he was unable to gain insight into the Laws inside the book, he could look at the contents of the Book of the World based on his understanding of the Laws.

The Foundation Orders he’d gained insight into within the Five Continent Dao Pagoda were extremely useful to him as he was reading the Book of the World.

Di Jiu greedily absorbed a torrent of immeasurable knowledge on materials, phenomenons and beings in the universe. Thanks to the increasing knowledge he acquired, rings of Dao engravings were radiated by the golden ripple on the gray stone in Di Jiu’s Spiritual Sea. These Dao engravings increased the speed at which Di Jiu absorbed the knowledge within the Book of the World and gained insight into all the beings in the universe.

Two months passed in the blink of an eye. Di Jiu had gained too much knowledge. His Spiritual Force only left the book when his head was in so much pain that it was about to burst.

During these two months, Di Jiu had only read a very small portion of the Book of the World. He had yet to even gain one percent of its foundation knowledge. At this rate, one could not possibly read the contents of the Book of the World in a short period of time.

Di Jiu had not just gained understanding of every being in the universe. Due to the help of the Dao engravings on the gray stone, he had gained an even deeper understanding of the materials and spiritual herbs he had seen before.

Di Jiu was now confident that he could easily reach the ranks of a Grade-Five Blacksmith Great-Master if he had sufficient materials.

It was alright if he did not have materials at or above Level Five, for he still possessed large amounts of spiritual herbs. He could practise alchemy until the Five Continent Dao Convention ended.

Di Jiu had practiced alchemy before, but he had only been able to refine Grade-One Spirit Elixirs.

After reading the Book of the World for a few months, he once again took out the spiritual herb required to refine the Qi-Gathering Elixir. He had a completely different feeling now. As he held onto this spiritual herb, he could clearly sense where the most valuable part of this herb was and how to fully utilize the herbal medicinal properties.

This feeling was inexplicable, yet Di Jiu was able to sense it. He believed that this had to be the spiritual herb Law of this spiritual herb.

The Book of the World mentioned that everything in the universe had its own Laws, and spiritual herbs were a different species. They would thus naturally possess their own Laws.

Di Jiu’s cultivation realm was too low, so he was able to vaguely sense this Law but unable to completely capture it. This sense still impressed him a lot. It would allow him to easily increase his probability of succeeding through alchemy and refining a better grade of elixir.

When he was able to refine high-grade elixirs, he would no longer be lacking Spirit Stones. According to the Cultivation World, in order to get wealthy, one could practise either blacksmithing or alchemy.

This meant that alchemists and blacksmiths were very affluent existences. Unfortunately, although he had practised blacksmithing for many years, he was still a Grade-Four Blacksmith Great-Master. Thus, he still had a long way to go before he became wealthy.

On the other hand, his array Dao had attained Level Nine. If his blacksmithing skills could match his array formation skills, he would be able to refine some top-notch array discs and auction them. It was a pity that his blacksmithing abilities were inferior. He could currently only refine Level-Four array discs.

Di Jiu was completely disinterested in putting a Level-Four array disc up for auction.

…

Four months passed quickly as more and more people gathered at the Five Continent Dao Pagoda Square. The crowd was massive, as this was finally the day when the Five Continent Dao Pagoda would close.

All cultivators who had entered the Five Continent Dao Pagoda would be teleported out that day. Although there were a lot of people at the Five Continent Square, the circumference of a mile around the Five Continent Dao Pillar was empty.

All the cultivators that teleported out of the Five Continent Dao Pagoda would appear beside the Five Continent Dao Pillar.

When the sun shifted to the right above the Five Continent Dao Pillar, rays of flares appeared at the various levels of the Five Continent Dao Pagoda. The cultivators that were teleported out landed within the Five Continent Square.

The ranking on the Five Continent Dao Pillar was confirmed. At first place was a genius disciple from the Purple Thunder Sect, Mu Qisha, who had ascended to the 96th level of the Five Continent Dao Pagoda. At second place was a genius disciple from the Mirage Sword Sect, Yan Tashan, who had ascended to the 95th level. At third place was the genius from the Ocean Monarch Palace, Gun Yantao, who had ascended to the 93rd level. At fourth place was Di Feixue from the Di Clan, who had ascended to the 91st level.

Di Jiu had ascended to the 90th level, so he had placed 10th.

“The Five Continent Dao Convention has ended. The Young Master Red Embellishment is still in the top 10!” shouted out a few cultivators who had recognized Di Jiu excitedly when they saw the ranking list on the Dao pillar.

“Look at the Potential Roll! On the Potential Roll created by the Prophecy Pavilion, the Young Master Red Embellishment is also among the top 10. He ranks ninth!”

When the surrounding crowd heard this, they looked at the Potential Roll erected not far away. Indeed, Di Jiu ranked ninth on the Potential Roll.

His name was among the top 10 of both the Five Continent Dao Roll and the Potential Roll. He had only stayed within the Five Continent Dao Pagoda for a few months, yet his name was already well-known.

Han Qingyi, who was carrying a blue sword, looked at the rankings and said lightly, “You’re not even in the top 10.”

Standing beside her was Ji Hongchuan, who had been kicked out by Di Jiu. The man frowned and stared at the name on the Five Continent Dao Pillar before saying slowly, “Senior Sister, I suspect that his kick touches upon spatial orders.”

“Do you even know what spatial orders are?” Han Qingyi sneered. “Even in the True Dominion, where geniuses used to gather, it was unheard of for anyone to gain insight into spatial orders. You are saying that a mere early-stage Void Spirit Realm Cultivator has gained insight into spatial orders and merged them into a supernormal ability? Don’t look for excuses when you fail. Instead, try to think of ways to perfect your Saber Dao.”

Han Qingyi did not know how Di Jiu had managed to climb to the 90th level of the Five Continent Dao Pagoda. However, she was certain that he had not come into contact with spatial orders. Only in ancient, timeless legends were cultivators able to come into contact with spatial orders before one entered the Immortal World.

…

As soon as Di Feixue landed beside the Five Continent Dao Pillar, the Five Continent City Lord Pang Bufan appeared unexpectedly in front of her. “Congratulations for ranking fourth, Feixue!” he said with a smile.

“What is this, City Lord Pang?” Di Feixue looked at Pang Bufan in confusion.

She had indeed ascended to the 91st level of the Five Continent Dao Pagoda. However, she had previously climbed to the 90th level and ranked third. Although she had climbed one level higher this time, she had still placed fourth. What was there to congratulate her about?

“Feixue, Sect Master Xiao, Palatial Lord Ao, Sect Master Yan and Sect Master Shu are all waiting for you,” said Pang Bufan with a smile.

Di Feixue was extremely shocked. “The Sect Masters of the four large sects are waiting for me? Why?”

The Small Central World had a total of five nine-star large sects. What did it mean if the Sect Masters of four large sects were waiting for a mere Pioneer Sea Realm cultivator like her?

“What is the meaning of this, City Lord Pang?” asked a middle-aged man with a frown as he walked over.

Pang Bufan recognized this man. He was Di Xiaoying, the Di Family’s number one expert with a cultivation at the perfected Life Tribulation Realm. This man would have attained the True Form Realm a long time ago if it had not been so difficult to break through to the True Form Realm right now.

“It’s nothing,” Pang Bufan said hurriedly. “We simply needed Feixue to answer some questions.”

Pang Bufan actually knew the reason behind this. After Di Jiu and the others had been teleported out of the 90th level, the first person to reach the 90th level had not been the top three, but Di Feixue, who ranked fourth.

According to Di Jiu and company, there was a Five Continent Dao Disc on the 90th level. They wanted to bring Di Feixue over to check whether the Five Continent Dao Disc was in her possession.