Ninth In the World

Ren Hai opened the restrictions on Di Jiu’s ring. When he saw the scant high-grade Spirit Stones and middle-grade Spirit Stones, he almost threw the ring in his hand onto the floor in a fit of rage.

Fortunately, there was a Void Lattice Elixir in this ring, although it was useless to him. After all, it was a valuable elixir that could give a cultivator an opportunity to break through to the Void Spirit Realm.

Di Jiu possessed another ring that he failed to find. The real good stuff was in the other ring. He had to kill Di Jiu for daring to trick him into this bet.

Shu Haolan was feeling just as aggrieved. He had searched the entire Herald Night Lake, yet he had found nothing related to the Five Continent Dao Pagoda. It was unfortunate that he was unable to get close to the Herald Night Lake due to his cultivation level.

He had missed the news on the Book of the World a while ago and now he had missed the opportunity to obtain the Five Continent Dao Disc. The providence light was very important during cultivation. Shu Haolan believed that his luck had been very poor recently.

When he returned to the Five Continent City, he sensed immediately that his Void Lattice Elixir was no longer with Di Jiu. Instead, it was with Ren Hai.

He naturally knew Ren Hai, who ranked 106th on the Sea Roll. Ren Hai was a Pioneer Sea Realm cultivator. What use did a Pioneer Sea Realm cultivator have for this elixir?

Did Di Jiu suspect that there was something wrong with his Void Lattice Elixir? Was that why he had given it to Ren Hai?

Di Jiu had originally been removed from Shu Haolan’s list of suspects. He was only at the Essence Soul Realm after all and had indeed been to the Herald Night Lake before.

He had already investigated Di Jiu’s origins. Di Jiu had first appeared at the Teleportation Array outside the Sky Route City.

If he was willing to consume the elixir and give it to Ren Hai of his own accord, there was something wrong with Di Jiu.

There was no need to investigate. Shu Haolan only had to listen to the discussions of the numerous cultivators at the Five Continent Square to understand what had happened between Di Jiu and Ren Hai.

Di Jiu had killed Ren Hai’s blood-related brother Ren Bafei. Ren Hai had gone there to settle the score, and both of them had agreed to fight at the Five Continent Pavilion’s battle arena. If Di Jiu could survive or fend off one move by Ren Hai, Ren Hai would lose the bet.

The betting chips were their rings. This idea was not Di Jiu’s suggestion, but Ren Hai’s. The outcome was obvious. Di Jiu had failed to fend off Ren Hai’s move and left the Five Continent City immediately.

Shu Haolan sighed. He was not in the mood to chase after Di Jiu. The bet had been Ren Hai’s suggestion, which meant that there was really nothing wrong with Di Jiu.

Now that the Five Continent Dao Convention had ended, he needed to enter seclusion for a period of time. He had been stuck at the sixth-stage True Form Realm for several years. During his recent trip to the Herald Night Lake, he had failed to find anything related to the Five Continent Dao Pagoda. However, he had gained some insight due to the oppression and compression of the Herald Night Lake on one’s Spiritual Force. He might be able to break through to the late-stage True Form Realm after gaining this insight.

“Brother Haolan!” a deep voice called out.

Shu Haolan, who was in deep thought, did not notice that someone had approached him. When he saw who that someone was, he cupped his fists hurriedly and said, “It’s you, Brother Xueyi. Congratulations! This time, Mu Qisha from the Purple Thunder Sect ascended to the 96th level of the Five Continent Dao Pagoda and reached the first place. If Qisha wasn’t slightly old, he could have obtained a good ranking in the next True Dominion Genius Tournament.”

The newcomer was the Sect Master of the Purple Thunder Sect, Yan Xueyi. When the man heard what Shu Haolan said, he laughed. “Qisha is not considered bad in the Small Central World, but he is inferior to the geniuses of the True Dominion. Ji Hongchuan and Han Qingyi, who came here this time, were much stronger than Qisha. Ji Hongchuan is already at the third-stage Pioneer Sea Realm, although he is not even 100 years old yet. Han Qingyi’s potential is even more heaven-defying. If my theory is correct, she must not be even a day older than 108 years old. However, her cultivation is already at the Ekayāna Tripod Realm.”

Shu Haolan sighed. “The cultivating resources of the True Dominion are not something the Small Central World could match. Rumor has it that the top-notch families of the True Dominion possess immortal crystals. If they are combined with the aid of a heaven-defying treasure like the True Spirit Thread, they could change the potential of one’s Spirit Root. How could the Small Central World possibly compare to that? If the Dao Roll cultivators of my Small Central World entered the True Dominion, I believe that these cultivators would not be inferior compared to the True Dominion geniuses.”

Yan Xueyi shook his head. “That might not be true. One’s potential is innate. Although it could be changed with some external aid, the difference would not be so great. Let’s just talk about Di Jiu, whom we interrogated previously. His potential is definitely not ordinary. I suspect that Di Jiu’s true age is below 100 years old, yet his strength has already shockingly reached the Void Spirit Realm…”

“The Void Spirit Realm? Surely, you must be wrong. I thought that he was at the ninth-stage Essence Soul Realm!” said Shu Haolan immediately.

Yan Xueyi smiled. “I am a long distance away from the Domain Realm, and perhaps I will never attain that realm in this life. However, I can still detect the cultivation level of a Void Spirit Realm Cultivator.”

Yan Xueyi did not know that when Di Jiu had first entered the Five Continent City, he had yet to fully realize how dangerous Shu Haolan was. Therefore, his cultivation fluctuations had shown that he was at the early-stage Void Spirit Realm. If Di Jiu had shown that his cultivation level was at the Essence Soul Realm, even if Yan Xueyi had attained the Domain Realm, he might not have been able to see through Di Jiu’s real cultivation level. This would only have been possible if he had possessed a more powerful meridian than Di Jiu’s galaxy meridian. His Spiritual Force would also have to be much stronger than Di Jiu’s.

“Di Jiu is really at the Void Spirit Realm?” Shu Haolan’s heart skipped a beat. He vaguely sensed that he seemed to have missed an opportunity.

“That’s right. Di Jiu is definitely at the Void Spirit Realm. Besides, I even saw him fend off a move by Han Qingyi. Di Jiu’s potential is not bad. Unfortunately, he has missed the most ideal Foundation Establishment Realm. His future success will be inferior to the success of the cultivators on the Sea Roll.” Yan Xueyi sighed when he finished his speech. He felt really bad for Di Jiu.

The Foundation Establishment Realm was very important for cultivators. Cultivators in large sects possessed top-notch Foundation Establishment cultivation techniques and spirit items to help along their progress. Thus, the foundation created would be much stronger and the Dao would become clearer.

Di Jiu was an Itinerant Cultivator, so he would naturally not be able to obtain a better Foundation Establishment cultivation technique or any top-notch spirit items or treasures that would help him establish his cultivation foundation. Itinerant Cultivators might not even know that top-notch treasures were required when establishing a foundation. Not using these aiding treasures would only result in harming one’s foundation. This was also why very few Itinerant Cultivators were able to leave their name on the Dao Roll or have a brighter future.

“Brother Xueyi, I suddenly remembered something. I need to head over there urgently!” Shu Haolan had suddenly lost all desire to stay in the Five Continent City and keep chit-chatting with Yan Xueyi. He desperately wanted to capture Di Jiu.

He had to interrogate Di Jiu and find out why he had not used the Void Lattice Elixir he had given him to break through to the Void Spirit Realm. He also needed to search Di Jiu’s soul to confirm the origins of the Five Continent Dao Disc. Shu Haolan did not care whether he had wronged Di Jiu and harmed his life.

In Shu Haolan’s eyes, Di Jiu was an ant.

As he left the Five Continent City, Shu Haolan sent out some news. He refused to believe that he could not catch up to a mere Void Spirit Realm weakling. Given his status as a Genesis Sect Master, once this news was sent out, he would immediately be able to find any traces of Di Jiu the moment that Di Jiu used any Teleportation Array. He was certain that Di Jiu would use a Teleportation Array. Di Jiu had purposely given the ring to Ren Hai. It would be strange if he did not use a Teleportation Array to escape.

“Hold up, Brother Haolan. There’s an urgent matter to discuss. This time, the few of us have agreed to go to the…”

Shu Haolan had disappeared before Yan Xueyi could complete his sentence. Before he left, Shu Haolan said, “I will be back soon!”

As he watched Shu Haolan leave so resolutely, Yan Xueyi could only sigh. He was also stuck at the sixth-stage True Form Realm, halfway to attaining the seventh-stage True Form Realm.

At first, as soon as the Five Continent Dao Convention had ended, everyone had agreed to head to the Desert River Forbidden Zone in search of opportunities to attain the late-stage True Form Realm. However, Shu Haolan seemed to have injured his head, as he had rushed off instead.

…

Before Di Jiu left the Five Continent City, he had already made a detailed plan. However, he was still worried that Shu Haolan. That old fox would chase after him. Old people like him would rather kill an innocent than miss out on the opportunity to kill.

Di Jiu did not know that Shu Haolan had started to suspect him. After achieving large success with his Spiritual Force escape technique, he had never once thought of using the Teleportation Arrays. He was currently fleeing, not sightseeing. Besides, as he used the Spiritual Force escape technique repeatedly to flee, every time his Spiritual Force diminished, the newly-produced Spiritual Force would be slightly more condensed.

Di Jiu traveled urgently by using the Spiritual Force escape technique. Meanwhile, his Spiritual Force attained Level Eight and his cultivation level reached the second-stage Void Spirit Realm. After using the Spiritual Force escape technique for a little over 10 days, Di Jiu did not even know where he was himself.

The reason he stopped was because his Dao fire had started to pulsate again.

During the auction, he had seen the Shallow Fiend Flame when his Dao fire had pulsated. Thus, there could be a heaven earth flame pulsation this time.

Di Jiu was extremely excited. He had not been able to afford the Shallow Fiend Flame sold at the auction. If he encountered a Shallow Fiend Flame in the wild, he would be really lucky.

The Spirit Qi there was extremely thin. When his Spiritual Force scanned the area, no human traces were found. Di Jiu held the Dao fire in his hand. He could distinctively sense the pulsation of the Dao fire.

Five minutes later, he pinpointed a direction and swiftly headed over.

Di Jiu hypothesized that if this was really a Heaven-Earth Unique Flame, the surroundings would become hotter the further one walked. This theory was based on his experience back when he had been in the Sky Screen, where he had encountered that flaming mountain.

However, this time, the surroundings became colder. He had entered a snowy mountain ridge. After traveling through the three deep recesses of this snowy mountain for half a day, Di Jiu arrived at the foot of a snowy mountain so tall that one could not see its top with the naked eye.

This snowy mountain, which was located within the connected snowy mountain ridge, looked like a king among this stretch of short snowy mountains.

As Di Jiu stood at the foot of this unbelievably tall mountain, the Dao fire in his hand pulsated even more. Di Jiu was certain that residing in the deep recesses of this mountain was something the Dao fire needed.