Ninth In the World

Bai Hong couldn’t shake off the thought of killing Di Jiu in the Evil Beast Valley once the thought arose.

His first thought was to set up an Instantaneous Death Large Array in order to kill Di Jiu. However, he quickly dispelled it, as he knew that it wouldn’t succeed.

He didn’t dare set up the Instantaneous Death Array beside the Life Transformation Array. Even if he dared and managed to set it up successfully, it couldn’t possibly escape Di Jiu’s eyes.

It was obvious that Di Jiu’s Array Dao was much more powerful than his. Therefore, regardless of how invisible his large array setups were, they couldn’t possibly escape Di Jiu’s eyes.

Then, Bai Hong had another idea. He could assassinate Di Jiu while he was busy attacking the expert in the Life Transformation Array. However, he quickly rejected this thought too. Although Di Jiu looked young, he was actually very cunning. This was evident by the fact that he had previously plotted to kill Mei Bashan by secretly making use of Jue Zhan.

He was sure that he wouldn’t get the chance to sneak attack Di Jiu. However, so what if he did? If he sneak-attacked Di Jiu while he was battling with the man in the Life Transformation Array, he would certainly get killed by the other Protectorate Lords.

After lengthy consideration, to his dismay, Bai Hong realized that even if he found the best place to kill Di Jiu, he would have no way of killing him.

Perhaps…

Bai Hong made a decision after pondering this for three days. He had to collaborate with the expert in the Life Transformation Array if he wanted to kill Di Jiu.

However, once he went ahead with this collaboration, he would have to deal with Di Jiu and all the True Dominion experts.

The road of cultivation had always been full of traps. One could get killed at any time. Thus, there was no need to be overly cautious. There was nothing wrong with killing all the True Dominion experts. The experts had always called the shots in the Cultivation World. Who would dare spout nonsense in front of him when Bai Hong became the only remaining True Dominion Expert?

…

Di Jiu was elated. He had just advanced from the early stages of the seventh-stage True Form Realm and reached the late stages. The main factor that had attributed to this advancement speed had not been the thick Spirit Qi in the Evil Beast Valley or the supreme-grade spirit meridians that he had, but the high-grade Herb King Spirit Meridian.

Di Jiu believed that, with such an advancement speed, he would definitely be able to reach the late-stage ninth-stage True Form Realm in eight months. There was even a small possibility that he might break through to the Domain Realm.

A few more days passed. Di Jiu’s cultivation level was just about to reach the peak of seventh-stage True Form Realm when his Spiritual Force detected vibrations coming from the Surveillance Array.

Di Jiu, who was shocked, stopped cultivating immediately. His Defense Array had been meant to prevent the demon beasts in the Evil Beast Valley from interrupting his cultivation. Meanwhile, his Surveillance Array had been supposed to keep an eye on the man in the Life Transformation Array.

The Surveillance Array would only vibrate if it picked up a cultivator’s Principal Spirit or aura. The Defense Array would block off any ordinary demon beasts, yet the Surveillance Array wouldn’t show any reaction.

His Surveillance Array had vibrated. This meant that a cultivator or his Principal Spirit had been detected in the vicinity.

This was the Evil Beast Valley. No cultivators should have been able to enter if they hadn’t attained the Domain Realm. Besides, no Domain Realm Cultivator would enter it casually either after he had announced the presence of a Life Transformation Array there.

However, his Surveillance Array had picked up a cultivator’s aura. It was highly possible that it belonged to the expert in the Life Transformation Array.

Di Jiu swept the area with his Spiritual Force. Very soon, he caught a glimpse of a figure in his Spiritual Force.

Was this Bai Hong? Di Jiu was dumbfounded when he saw that Bai Hong was the one who had entered the Evil Beast Valley. Bai Hong was a seventh-stage Domain Realm expert, so he must also have known that there was a Life Transformation Array in the Evil Beast Valley. What was he planning to do by entering the Evil Beast Valley now?

If it had been anyone else, Di Jiu would have stopped them to ask what was going on. However, he and Bai Hong held a grudge against each other. Bai Hong hadn’t attacked him yet because he was scared of him, not because he wanted to look at the big picture.

Di Jiu followed Bai Hong carefully after he left the Defense Array. His cultivation was much weaker compared to Bai Hong’s, but his Spiritual Force was twice as strong as Bai Hong’s. Due to this huge disparity in Spiritual Force, Bai Hong didn’t detect that Di Jiu was following him at all.

Bai Hong’s Spiritual Force was being constrained to a bare minimum area compared to Di Jiu’s, which spread over an area of more than 1,100 feet. He had to figure his way around cautiously. Every step forward had to be taken with extreme care.

Along the way, there were no Illusionary Beasts. This was perhaps because Di Jiu was behind him. Once in a while, a few demon beasts would appear, but none of them was a match for Bai Hong.

Di Jiu decided to stop shadowing him after a few days. He was sure that Bai Hong was heading to the Life Transformation Array based on the direction he was advancing in.

If Bai Hong was heading to the Life Transformation Array, it was certainly not because he wanted to nobly kill the expert in the array by himself. He must have wanted to surrender himself and pledge his loyalty to the expert with the aim of killing Di Jiu.

Bai Hong must have known that he didn’t have the ability to kill Di Jiu. Thus, he wanted to get help from the expert in the Life Transformation Array.

Now that Di Jiu had managed to guess Bai Hong’s purpose, he naturally didn’t bother following him anymore.

Di Jiu knew that he could easily confront and kill Bai Hong given his current strength. However, he didn’t plan to do so. Experts like Bai Hong always had their own techniques. If the news that Bai Hong had been killed by Di Jiu got out, it wouldn’t do him any good.

Nobody would believe him, regardless of his explanation. Therefore, he planned on killing Bai Hong in secret.

Bai Hong had a high cultivation level. However, his Spiritual Force was merely lingering between the peak of level nine and level ten. Such a Spiritual Force was limited only to an area of 10 feet around him. Thus, he had to rely on his good strength and caution and tread carefully in the Evil Beast Valley.

Suddenly, another level-nine demon beast sneaked an attack on Bai Hong from the side. He wasn’t overly concerned, as this was the 30th demon beast he had met after entering the Evil Beast Valley. His halberd transformed into a half-arc as its killing aura loomed over the demon beast. The halberd then pierced the beast’s skull when it paused in mid-air.

Bai Hong was about to extract the Demon Core from the demon beast, when suddenly a terrifying feeling gushed up, making his hair stand on end.

This was bad! As he wanted to escape badly, a blue beam appeared in the void and shot into his head.

“You are despicable, Di Jiu…” Bai Hong, who was really familiar with Di Jiu’s Heavenly Aqua Saber and the blue beam, had only one thought in mind. He wanted to kill Di Jiu. He must have forgotten why he had come here if he was calling Di Jiu despicable.

A bloody mist exploded before he could finish speaking. Meanwhile, his Principal Spirit flowed out.

Bai Hong felt extremely oppressed. He would not have felt this way if he’d had a confrontational battle with Di Jiu and lost. Even if he had not been able to beat Di Jiu, his body would have been directly destroyed by him.

There had been a hint of irony in this whole process. It felt as if he had come to the Evil Beast Valley just to be attacked by Di Jiu. However, he didn’t have time to wonder why Di Jiu was in the Evil Beast Valley now.

“Di Jiu…”

Di Jiu didn’t give any chance to Bai Hong. He immediately blasted out the Primeval Thunder Pattern. Bai Hong’s Principal Spirit didn’t hold up even for a while against the Primeval Thunder Pattern. It dissipated immediately.

Di Jiu could finally have peace of mind. He didn’t want Bai Hong to sneak up on him while he was dealing with the expert in the Life Transformation Array. He also didn’t want Bai Hong to forewarn his opponent that he would be coming.

Killing Bai Hong was not a big deal for Di Jiu. Therefore, he returned once again to his cultivation ground and continued cultivating.

Di Jiu attained the eighth-stage True Form Realm after a little more than 10 days. Five months later, he attained the ninth stage.

Di Jiu had already attained the late stage of the ninth-stage True Form Realm by the time the agreed timeframe of eight months was up. He let out a sigh as he stopped cultivating.

He had used up half of the Herb King Spirit Meridian, yet he was still a little short of attaining the Domain Realm. If he’d had one year, he would probably have been able to break through to the Domain Realm.

Di Jiu stopped cultivating, as it was almost time for everybody to gather again. He only put away two spirit meridians, but not the few arrays he had previously set up.

He saw An Lingzhou walking over hurriedly shortly after he exited the Evil Beast Valley.

“Sect Master Di, I didn’t expect that you would be here ahead of me,” said An Lingzhou. He was overjoyed when he saw that Di Jiu was already there. He had witnessed Di Jiu’s strength before and knew that their group’s standards would have been way lower if it had not been for Di Jiu.

“Ha ha! Looks like I’m too late.” Skygold Protectorate Lord Huan Changzhu’s voice came from afar. Soon, a gold-colored figure descended.

“You are not late! We just arrived as well.” Bai Cangxing’s voice was heard as well.

A couple of figures then descended in succession after Bai Cangxing. In no time, more than 10 people had gathered outside the Evil Beast Valley.

Every single one of them was a top expert in the True Dominion. All of them were gathered in the Evil Beast Valley now.

“Where is Protectorate Lord Bai?” asked An Lingzhou with a frown when he saw that the whole group had more or less gathered. Bai Hong’s strength was just second to Bai Cangxing’s. Their group’s overall strength would suffer a blow if Bai Hong was not there.