Chapter 0618: Illusory Nirvana
In just a few moments, Shi Qionghua’s Defensive Array Discs gave out a fine ‘katcha’ sound, making it clear that the array discs would collapse entirely in just a few breaths. Of the array discs that Ning Cheng handed over to Shi Qionghua, most of them were of Grade 3 Celestial Arrays, which would not last long in the face of continuous attacks from Celestial Gatherer Cultivators, let alone the Celestial Bridge Cultivator that attacked the entrance to Shi Qionghua’s cave.
“What do we do?” Chasing Bull had no idea and looked at Shi Qionghua with anxious eyes.
Shi Qionghua flew over to Chasing Bull’s back and said, “Don’t worry about the rest, just rush out as fast as you can and keep running without any hesitation or pause.”
“Katcha…..” Almost at the same time as the defences around Shi Qionghua’s cave created by the array discs crumbled, Chasing Bull instantly rushed out like a bolt of black-coloured light.
The cultivators attacking the entrance to Shi Qionghua’s cave seemed ready for this; therefore, the moment Chasing Bull rushed out of the array formations, the cultivators immediately gave chase, with a time gap of a fraction of a moment.
……
Ning Cheng saw all kinds of body forging materials in his trance. Just as each one of these items appeared in his mind, it felt as if these best-quality body-forging materials from his thoughts had materialised right in front of him before blending into his body and making it even more resilient.
Although it was a subconscious feeling, Ning Cheng knew that this most likely was an illusion because he was not sure whether these materials that appeared in his mind even existed. However, he couldn’t just wake up from this illusion. Ning Cheng knew that as soon as he forced his subconscious mind awake, he would be torn into nothingness by the endless sword lights in this place.
Although Ning Cheng knew that this situation might be an illusion, he still reluctantly grabbed at those body-forging materials. Fire-attributed items, metal-attributed things, wood-attributed materials…….objects with all five elemental attributes[1], even objects with other strange characteristics……
In the end, even other top-grade starry sky raw materials, including Primal Chaos-attributed body forging raw materials started appearing; Ning Cheng grabbed them all without any hesitation. His body felt as if it went through every suffering and affliction imaginable, went through various restructurings. This kind of feeling simply could not be grasped at all, it was a mystery within a mystery.
Not knowing how long it took for all of this, the illusions around him to finally disappeared and Ning Cheng suddenly opened his eyes.
This was the first time that he had examined his body after coming inside and felt shocked to find that besides not have even a thread of clothing on his body, his skin looked utterly smooth and healthy. It gave off a sense of streamlined aesthetic feeling.
Was the process of nirvana a success? Ning Cheng raised his arm in surprise and carefully looked at it. The thread-like muscles did not stand out, but definitely gave the feeling of carrying infinite strength. It gave him an impression that even if someone attacked him with a Dao Artefact, it would not necessarily draw blood from him. Despite knowing that this feeling had no basis, Ning Cheng still felt very excited. He felt sure that he had successfully passed through the body forging nirvana process.
With his current physical strength, if he went through the collapse of the Immortal Jade Star once again, he would not suffer such injuries to the point where he could not take care of himself.
It was also at that moment that several Sword Auras struck Ning Cheng; however, they only left a white trace, unable to cut Ning Cheng’s body.
I’m still in the Sword Valley, Ning Cheng immediately understood. He looked down and saw the object under his feet. It was the Mirage Tree, which he had taken out for the body forging process previously. He recalled that when he took out the Mirage Tree for initiating the body-forging process, it had pulled him into an illusion.
The Mirage Tree now looked slightly more withered and thinner compared to before.
Was it the Mirage Tree, which helped in inducing body-forging nirvana? Ning Cheng felt pleasantly surprised as he grabbed the Mirage Tree. He had truly not expected that the Mirage Tree could have a role in inducing body forging nirvana; moreover, would have such significant effects. Ning Cheng had initially thought that if the Mirage Tree could not help him achieve nirvana, he would then use the Essence of Wood to restore the corporeal body and give up on attaining nirvana temporarily. However, the fact was that when he used the Mirage Tree, he had already entered deep into the illusion. Not to mention using the Essence of Wood to heal himself, even bringing it out would have been impossible.
Fortunately, this Mirage Tree had not disappointed him. He really succeeded in undergoing nirvana. Otherwise, he would have definitely fallen in this place.
Ning Cheng sucked in a breath of cold air out of fear as he thought of this incident. Next time, he cannot act with such recklessness, a single misstep could have resulted in death.
Carefully putting away the Mirage Tree, Ning Cheng looked around and found that this was not the place he initiated the process of forging his body. From the looks of it, it should be somewhere deep in the Sword Valley. During the process of nirvana, he had unconsciously wandered deep into the Sword Valley.
More than ten meters away from him was a greyish-silver skeleton. Ning Cheng walked over and found that this greyish-silver coloured skeleton was somewhat different from the other bones around it. The other bones would turn into bone ash the moment anyone touched them, but this greying-silver skeleton still looked very hard. Even the ring on the skeleton’s hand did not look damaged.
Ning Cheng took the ring off from this skeleton’s hand and swept inside with his Spiritual Consciousness after wiping away the restrictions. Seeing the things inside the storage ring, he shook his head involuntarily. He had never seen such a poor cultivator. This storage ring only contained a broken high-grade Dao Artefact and some seemingly useless materials. Apart from that, it only contained a few jade strips. As for medicinal pills and celestial coins, it did not include even a single piece.
Taking out one of the jade strips, Ning Cheng swept through it and found records of some cultivation related information and a few messages and notes from a cultivator by the name of Zhang Qiushui. He could tell from the jade strip that this cultivator called Zhang Qiushui was a very meticulous person and had used up all of his cultivation resources for forging his body.
The reason why Zhang Qiushui showed such commitment to forging his body was because of his unwavering belief that his body-forging cultivation method was the best one in the entire starry sky.
Ning Cheng once again went back to the ring and quickly found what Zhong Qiushui thought was the best body refining cultivation method.
Ning Cheng did not particularly care about the strength or the grade of the body refining cultivation method recorded within the jade strip. However, he still felt delighted that the jade strip’s body refining cultivation method contained the way to proceed forward after achieving nirvana.
After a cultivator cultivated their body all to the peak of Grade 9 God Body, they would then have to rely on external resources to achieve nirvana. The body one would obtain after undergoing nirvana was called the Celestial Body. The Celestial Body is also classified into four realms: early-stage, middle-stage, late-stage, and full circle. After reaching the peak of Celestial Body and surpassing it, the body then evolves into a Celestial River Body. The Celestial River Body is also similarly divided into four different levels. After the Celestial River Body comes the Starry Sky Body. In theory, once a body-forging cultivator reaches the level of a Starry Sky Body, it would indicate perfection. Meaning, there are no further realms for advancement after a cultivator achieves this level.
Ning Cheng felt delighted, he had used the Mirage Tree to achieve nirvana, so at least he was not wrong in his approach to forging his body further. The only doubt that Ning Cheng had currently was that even after undergoing nirvana, the Mirage Tree did not disappear. Moreover, he had indeed achieved nirvana, and it was not an ordinary kind of nirvana at that. After reading through the information, he could tell that his physical body strength had directly leapt to that of a middle-grade Celestial Body.
From this, it was visible that not only was his derived body forging cultivation method effective, but even his choice of using the Mirage Tree also provided exceptional results to achieve nirvana.
Armed with the cultivation method he derived and the cultivation method on the jade strip, Ning Cheng felt that he could now head deeper into the Sword Valley to have a look. Since he already reached this deep into the Sword Valley, maybe he could go further inside.
Ning Cheng immediately cleaned himself up and changed into a fresh set of robes. He decided that before heading deeper inside, he should first go out to check on Shi Qionghua.
After undergoing nirvana, the Sword Aura within the valley, which could have easily torn him to shreds previously, could not bypass his Body Forging Celestial Essence protecting him and only scratch through the outer robes, without causing him the slightest harm.
Ning Cheng quickly rushed out of the Sword Valley and tried to figure out the time he spent inside using a makeshift clock. Only then did he realise that he had immersed himself in the process of nirvana for just over six months.
Initially, Ning Cheng thought that the process would take a month or two at most, but he never expected it to be this long. Realising this, Ning Cheng felt anxious. When he entered, Shi Qionghua only had a Celestial Novice Cultivation. Even if Shi Qionghua cultivated with the Perpetual Moon Pills that he left for her, she would at most reach the Celestial Shatterer Realm.
Ning Cheng felt worried about whether the You Clan’s people managed to find her after such a long time. Sweeping out with his Spiritual Consciousness, Ning Cheng immediately found the cave that Shi Qionghua had made in just a few seconds. However, the cave’s entrance only contained a few broken Defensive Array Discs, the array discs that he had given to Shi Qionghua. But at this point, all those array discs looked broken beyond repair, and arbitrarily discarded near to the cave’s entrance.
Ning Cheng’s heart immediately sank. Did someone discover Shi Qionghua’s cave? Now that Shi Qionghua is not here, where did she go?
As he thought about it in anxiety, Ning Cheng immediately took out a communications pearl. As soon as he took out the communication pearl from inside the Minor Five-element Formation within Mysterious Yellow Bead’s inner world, he immediately received a broken message, “I…… Erosion…….. Cliff…….”
This message must have come from Shi Qionghua. However, it looks like she had sent this message too long ago, which caused some of the information within the transmission to collapse before reaching its destination, the communication pearl within the array formation.
Ning Cheng knew that the communication pearl he left behind in Shi Qionghua’s storage ring was a middle-grade Dao Artefact, and was something that he had personally crafted. Therefore, he felt confident that this communication pearl was definitely of good quality. Yet, the message sent from this grade of a communication pearl could not find its corresponding receiving communication pearl. Moreover, it would take at least two to three months for the message to start collapsing.
Seeing that Shi Qionghua’s message to him only contained a few scattered words, he could deduce that Shi Qionghua sent this message at least two months ago.
Ning Cheng felt so anxious within his heart that he had no idea where to find this ‘eroding cliff’.
Even if he wanted to ask around, where else could he go besides the Sword Mountain Path? Thinking of all this, Ning Cheng immediately rushed back to the Sword Mountain Path.
……
The shop assistant at South Sword Rest Stop greeted every guest with a smile. When he saw a blue-robed cultivator coming in, he raised his hand and spoke with a smile, “Friend from afar, our South Sword Rest Stop will be the best place for you to stay…..”
However, the shop assistant’s words immediately halted as he recognised Ning Cheng.
“Is it really you?” The shop assistant looked at Ning Cheng standing in front of him in astonishment. Six months ago, a female cultivator with a veil covering her face came in with a male cultivator over her back. At that time, he only knew that the male cultivator had severe injuries and could not even walk on his own.
Later, the South Sword Rest Stop had to force the two guests away because of the pressure from the You Clan. The South Sword Rest Stop’s deacon even refused to return the deposit of the two cultivators. The reason was simple, the You Clan wanted the two cultivators. Even if they could survive, they would have led a miserable life. Therefore, how could those fellows return to the South Sword Rest Stop to ask for the deposit in such a situation?
Ning Cheng showed a smile, “Yes, it’s me. Last time I asked you to give my message to your Steward. Did you do it?”
“This, this…..” The shop assistant blabbed in anxiety for a long time but could not say a word.
Ning Cheng patted the shop assistant’s shoulder and spoke, “It doesn’t matter if you did not pass the message along. When the deacon comes, just tell him the same thing again. Just tell him what I said the last time. Anyway, I’ here to ask you two things. First, the female cultivator who left the rest stop with me on her back; do you have any news about her? Second, where is this place called Eroding Cliff? It might not be called as Eroding Cliff but something else with the same words.”