Ninth In the World

Di Jiu put the flame into a jade box and placed restrictions on the box. This Dao fire did not belong to him, and he could not be bothered to look at it. He put away the two jade slips and used his Spiritual Force to scan them. One of them indeed contained insights into the Blacksmith Dao, while the other was a location map.

The location map was very easy to read. Located right in the middle of the Starry Flame Market was the basement of a store called the Starry Flame Commercial Building.

Di Jiu did not care about the increasingly loud explosions. He might have chosen to leave if there had been no Sacred Yin Pearl. However, since there was one, he would have to face off with these people sooner or later.

As he walked out of this blacksmithing store, Di Jiu conjured some flames and burned the entire store into ashes.

…

Since Di Jiu could hear the racket, so could Ren Zhiren and Lou Jia, who were searching for treasures. The two of them simultaneously stopped searching the store when they heard the first loud explosion.

“We need to go now, Big Brother Ren,” Lou Jia urged him anxiously.

Ren Zhiren nodded. “Brother Qu was right. We will not be able to leave if we don’t depart this instant. Brother Qu must have already left, and the items we have obtained are sufficient to allow us to break through to the Immortal King Realm or the Immortal Supremacy Realm.”

The two of them activated the two array flags. A moment later, two light flares engulfed them and brought them out of the Starry Flame Market.

The moment the two of them landed outside the Yin Flame Island, they rushed towards the Lunar Immortal Sea without communicating. They had already planned earlier to leave the Yin Flame Island and the Lunar Forsaken Tomb immediately and search for other places to cultivate.

Meanwhile, Xue Jingkong heard the explosions outside. Lost in his greed of seizing various treasures and cultivating resources, he suddenly came to the realization that the people outside had discovered this place and were now attacking the array door.

Suddenly, he remembered that Qu Xiaoshu had brought him to this place. Now, in order to escape from this place stealthily, he had to find Qu Xiaoshu.

However, after that realization, he remembered that he had already separated from the rest of his team. The promise of unlimited treasures had caused him to forget.

“Senior Hao, they have already come here before us.” Someone discovered Xue Jingkong when the entrance to the Starry Flame Market was broken open.

Alarmed, Xue Jingkong turned around with the intention of fleeing. However, he had only taken one step forward when he was slapped away by an Essence Energy hand seal. He slammed against a stone wall outside a store and dropped onto the ground.

“So they used a shortcut. No wonder they refused to team up with us. Where are the other three?” Hao Ran used his Immortal Essence to bring the fallen Xue Jingkong before him.

“Behind me…” Xue Jingkong had only managed to utter these two words when a huge hand seal smashed down on his head and pulverized him.

The gap between a mid-stage Zenith Heaven Immortal and a mid-stage Immortal King was too great. After all, not everyone was as heaven-defying as Di Jiu.

After putting away Xue Jingkong’s possessions, Hao Ran hollered, “Everyone should split up to search for their own fortune!”

Then, he sprinted in the direction Xue Jingkong had mentioned. The words he had shouted had been just for show. Even if he had not said that, the crowd of more than 100 people would not have listened to him or given everything they found to him.

Hao Ran’s main objective was to find Di Jiu and the other two people, as they had evidently found another entrance and entered the market much earlier than him. Therefore, he intended to kill them all to obtain the most loot.

…

Di Jiu took all the rings and valuable items he found inside the various stores he passed by on his way.

He knew very well that many of these items were no longer usable, but blacksmithing materials did not go bad. Some of the rings would not be spoiled either.

However, the main store he was searching for was the Starry Flame Commercial Building.

Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force was truly powerful, so he discovered the Starry Flame Commercial Building in less than one hour.

The sign of the Starry Flame Commercial Building and the restriction at the building’s entrance remained intact. This commercial building was located in the very center of the intersection of four main streets. Geographically, this location should be the most ideal in the entire Starry Flame Market.

Di Jiu immediately threw out several hundreds of array flags the moment he landed in front of the commercial building to conceal it. He was a level-eight Immortal Array Supremacy, so he could easily set up a level-six Concealment Immortal Defense Array.

The commercial building was still intact, which meant that no one had discovered this place yet. Di Jiu did not wish for anyone to disrupt him while he was searching for the Sacred Yin Pearl.

If there was a level-six Concealment Immortal Defense Array around, he would take the Sacred Yin Pearl and leave the market by the time the other people discovered this place.

The Starry Flame Commercial Building had been built in a good location, and the space it occupied was quite big as well.

The commercial building was five-stories high. Strangely, there was not a single corpse in sight, even though the inside of the commercial buildings was littered with corpses. Even the shelves inside the building of every store were empty.

Di Jiu did not take heed of these matters. He was a grade-seven Alchemy King, so it did not matter to him whether there were any elixir pills on these shelves. Even if there were, they would be useless after being left outside for so long.

Di Jiu was more concerned about the basement. According to the jade slip map Yu Qi had provided him with, the Sacred Yin Pearl was located in the basement of the Starry Flame Commercial Building.

There was no stairway leading down to the basement. However, he found the restriction of the basement without any difficulty thanks to his capabilities in the Array Dao.

Di Jiu had yet to open the restriction when he was engulfed by an extremely chilling aura.

The Sacred Yin Pearl was certainly inside. Otherwise, there would have been no chilling aura that could be sensed through the restriction. Di Jiu cautiously used his Dao fire to envelop his body before unsheathing the Heavenly Aqua Saber and slashing down with it.

Boom! He heard the sound of the restriction cracking.

Di Jiu immediately sensed that something was amiss. This restriction seemed to be natural instead of man-made.

It sounded really unbelievable that there was a natural restriction at the basement of a commercial building, and that a Sacred Yin Pearl was behind this restriction. Di Jiu was certain, however, that this was a natural restriction. As a level-eight Immortal Array Supremacy who possessed the Ninth Dao Law, his understanding of the Array Dao far surpassed that of an average Immortal Array Supremacy.

Crack! The restriction suddenly cracked just as Di Jiu was pondering why there would be a natural restriction here. Di Jiu very clearly saw a few dozen completely intact corpses behind the restriction. These corpses all had very similar expressions.

A gray pearl was floating in the basement several hundred feet away from Di Jiu, spinning continuously. Di Jiu was engulfed by an extremely dense aura before he could extend his Spiritual Force.

He immediately sensed that he was being enveloped by an epoch-making aura. His cultivation experience was now soaring rapidly, and every single one of his pores was about to explode.

This was definitely Chaos Qi. Di Jiu was about to circulate his cultivation technique to absorb this Chaos aura when he sensed a chilling current spreading throughout his body in an instant. His body started to freeze as it was completely engulfed by the chilling aura.

Oh no! Di Jiu was alarmed. He finally understood how the people lying on the ground had died – they had been killed by the Yin Qi emanated from the Sacred Yin Pearl.

If he could not think of a solution in time, he would suffer the same fate as the corpses lying on the ground soon: He would lie there forever.

However, his meridians were currently frozen and he could feel nothing, even though his Dao fire had formed a protective layer over his body. If it had not been for this layer, he would most likely have lost consciousness by now.

The only thing Di Jiu could do was use his intent to frantically communicate with his Dao fire. His Dao fire had already been upgraded to level nine, yet he was unable to completely free himself from the assault of this frightening chilling aura.

The Dao fire compressed repeatedly. Although it was unable to perfectly allow Di Jiu to free himself from the chilling aura, it did barely protect his Principal Spirit and body.

Boom! Di Jiu was rudely awakened from his stupor once again when he heard the sound of explosions. He realized that someone had discovered the Concealment Immortal Defense Array he had created and was currently attacking it.

“Senior Hao, this Defense Array was created less than a day ago, so I assume that it was made by the group of people who came here before us. It appears that there are definitely treasures inside the Starry Flame Commercial Building.” The Concealment Immortal Defense Array Di Jiu had set up had already been exposed. More than 100 people were gathered, and the person who spoke was a Zenith Heaven Immortal who was skilled in the Array Dao.

More than a day had passed, so they had already searched the entire Starry Flame Market.

There was a cunning secret smile on Hao Ran’s face. “All the good items here have been taken by these weaklings. Don’t worry, everyone. You will all have a share of the spoils. Now, let us attack again and destroy the Concealment Immortal Defense Array first.”

Boom! Boom! Nearly 100 attacks landed on the Concealment Immortal Defense Array. This time, the array let out cracking sounds before it split open.

Hao Ran was the first person to rush inside, the others following immediately.

“This is the Chaos aura…” A Zenith Heaven Immortal was so excited that his hands were shaking. Everyone present sensed that their Dao had become much more distinct.