Chapter 1001
Chapter 1001: Battling Ding Si
The explosion tore open a massive wound in the Burial Shadow Fiend’s body, and blue gore splashed out of it. The backlash in Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness instantly weakened, and he quickly took out the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort.
It was followed by a miserable scream from the Burial Shadow Fiend, no longer the ‘Ji Ang Mu Lu’ cry. At this moment, even if even more delicious human meat appeared in front of it, it was no longer in the mood to enjoy.
As the berserk aura within the Burial Shadow Fiend’s body grew even more intense, Ning Cheng and Liu Fanglin quickly retreated. Looks like that attack severely wounded it from the inside.
Blue gore continued spilling out from the Burial Shadow Fiend’s body and mixed in with blue sands raging around it while berserk power raged within its body. It no longer wanted to chase after Ning Cheng and Liu Fanglin. Then, suddenly, it transformed into a vortex of blue sand and rushed out of Ning Cheng’s Second Bridge of Looking Homewards.
As the Burial Shadow Fiend’s roar grew fainter and farther away, it became apparent that it had indeed decided to run away. The weaker Burial Shadow Fiends, following the fading roar, also disappeared without a trace.
Liu Fanglin, who now stood at the Bridge of Looking Homewards’ bridgehead, stared in shock at the distant blue vortex and muttered, “So strong.....”
Even the Dao Breaking Bead, which could kill ordinary Dao Essence cultivators, couldn’t destroy this Burial Shadow Fiend. One should know that the reason why she hadn’t used this bead till now was that this bead had a significant defect. That is, it took too long to activate. And more importantly, she hadn’t met any opponent till today that could force her to use this bead.
Ning Cheng took out a healing pill and swallowed it. He raised his hand and collected the Seven Bridges Spirit Technique but didn’t speak.
“Let’s go; although we wounded the Burial Shadow Fiend, it might come back again.” Seeing Ning Cheng not moving, Liu Fanglin spoke with some anxiety.
“It’s too late. Someone doesn’t want us to leave.” Ning Cheng said as he looked at the seemingly empty swath of blue sands in front of him.
Without waiting for Liu Fanglin to reply, a cold laugh came over, “I really didn’t misjudge you. You even knew that I would be trailing you. But more importantly, the Seven Bridge Spirit Technique truly lives up to its name. It even managed to push away the most powerful Burial Shadow Fiend.”
“Ding Si?” Liu Fanglin blurted the name in shock.
A moment later, the figure of a grey-robed man slowly materialised in front of them. None other than Ding Si, who previously chose to divide the dao fruits with Ning Cheng.
Ding Si only glanced at Liu Fanglin before setting his gaze on Ning Cheng. “I heard that to cultivate the Seven Bridges Spirit Technique to the first stage, one must use the Seven Bridges Realm Boom. It looks like the legend about it is true; you actually got the Seven Bridges Realm Book. No wonder you weren’t afraid of the Burial Shadow Fiends. It’s a pity that now your first and second bridges are cracked. You can’t bring it out again in your current state, right? At least not for a while.”
After speaking, he then looked at Liu Fanglin again. “As for that second-rate Dao Breaking Bead, I’m afraid you only had one, right?”
“What do you want?” Liu Fanglin turned even more anxious. She knew Ning Cheng had used up a lot of strength. Just as Ding Si mentioned, Ning Cheng’s ace card, the Seven Bridges Spirit Technique, couldn’t exert its power right now.
As for fighting against Ding Si with her strength, she understood that she couldn’t win even at her peak.
Ding Si waved his hand, and a snow-white mountain peak suddenly materialised above his head. “I don’t want to kill you two. Ning Cheng, I will let you two go as long as you take out the Seven Bridges Spirit Technique and the Seven Bridges Realm Book. Since you two like to roam as a couple, you can get back to whatever you were doing before, happy and free. What do you think?”
Hearing the last sentence, Liu Fanglin’s face heated up. She finally realised that she barely had any clothing covering her body. She quickly took out an outer robe and put it on.
“What if I disagree?” Ning Cheng gave a calm reply.
“It doesn’t matter if you agree or not. After all, we can at least have a discussion about.......” While speaking the word ‘discussion’, the snow-white mountain peak above Ding Si’s head suddenly cracked open with water flowing down the crack like a waterfall.
The ‘water’ was actually an amalgamation of Ding Si’s killing intent and momentum, which swept away the surrounding raging sand around them. At this moment, it felt as if everything under the snow-white mountain peak would be torn apart by the killing intent.
“Sabre Mountain Spirit Technique?” Ning Cheng’s eyes contracted for a moment.
The Sabre Mountain Spirit Technique was a common hybrid technique found almost everywhere but was also one of the most difficult to cultivate. All because it required too many top-grade materials to be of any practical use. Moreover, just refining the sabre mountain didn’t mean one could use it as is. It also required a considerably powerful spiritual consciousness to control it.
The spirit technique was essentially a mountain peak composed of countless sabres. Once it attacked, it would immediately unleash hundreds of millions of sabres onto the target. In fact, just the sabre intent from the millions of sabres alone could lock the opponent tightly and tear them to pieces.
A Dao Confirming Holy Emperor could still block or avoid it if it was just one ordinary sabre attack. But if countless ordinary blades gathered and rained down, even if they were just standard kitchen knives, it would result in a qualitative change in power. Similarly, if one could gather a significantly large number, even ordinary sabre strikes could kill Dao Confirming Holy Emperors.
One could break apart all domains and even spatial law constraints under a qualitative change resulting from hundreds of millions of sabre shadows. In fact, taken to the extreme, the entire space would transform into a new type of law-infused spirit technique: the Sabre Dao Law Spirit Technique[1].
What’s more, Ding Si’s Sabre Mountain Artefact didn’t seem to be made up of ordinary sabres, but out of hundreds of millions of treasured sabres filled with sabre dao-focused killing intent.
The sabre shadows pouring down were so dense that they even looked like a violent river tumbling down a waterfall. Even their domains got shredded like thin paper as it swept towards. In fact, under the terrifying dao rhythm of this sabre mountain, they couldn’t put up any resistance. Or at least that’s what appeared in Ding Si’s eyes.
Moreover, the sabre dao within it even suppressed the surrounding spatial laws. Therefore, even if Ning Cheng and Liu Fanglin wanted to escape, they would find it impossible to break through the turbulent flow generated by the sabre mountain.
Feeling the growing sense of death, Liu Fanglin again brought out her defensive bead, manifesting a multi-coloured curtain of light to block the sabre waterfall.
Unfortunately, once the sabre waterfall clashed with her bead’s multi-coloured curtain, the curtain simply could even stop it for a moment before turning into rags.
“I didn’t expect to die here; not like this.” Liu Fanglin’s eyes showed a trace of despair. She knew that Ding Si was powerful, but she never expected him to be this powerful.
If Ning Cheng could bring out his First Bridge of Coping, they may be able to hold him back for a moment or two. But now, she and Ning Cheng were already at the end of the rope and could only wait for death. They were both Dao Transformation Holy Emperors, so why was there a vast difference between her and Ding Si?
“Since you could discover my existence, it means that you cultivated a powerful spiritual consciousness cultivation method. At least strong enough to discover me and even break through my concealment restrictions.” Ding Si looked at Ning Cheng, who was about to be torn apart by his sabre domain and spoke out flat.
But despite the blandness, he still couldn’t suppress the hint of excitement. How could he not feel excited about obtaining the Seven Bridges Spirit Technique and the Spiritual Consciousness Cultivation Method?
“It looks like I chose the right time; maybe meeting you is my greatest luck........” Speaking of the latter, Ding Si could no longer maintain that indifferent demeanour.
“Boom-Boom-Boom......” Bursts of lightning and thunder erupted; the sabre waterfall couldn’t tear Ning Cheng to pieces as Ding Si had thought. Instead, it crashed into a blue thunder fort with flickering lightning, causing splashes of lightning and thunder to erupt continuously.
At this moment, Liu Fanglin had already given up and accepted her fate of being crushed by the sabre lights. But she then suddenly found herself in the middle of exploding green and blue lightning bolts.
“Ah....” Liu Fanglin looked at Ning Cheng beside her in surprise.
She quickly realised that she currently stood within the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort with Ning Cheng. She had previously wondered why Ning Cheng hadn’t used the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort before; it turned out to be for this moment.
The sabre waterfall, which had already locked onto Ning Cheng and Liu Fanglin and should have already crushed them, got blocked by a thunder fort. Ding Si’s eyes widened, and he found that his spiritual consciousness couldn’t penetrate the thunder fort. He could only see the lightning arcs from the collision of his sabre mountain’s waterfall and the thunder fort.
“That’s the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort......” Ding Si’s tone wasn’t just trembling anymore. The Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort was a treasure of incalculable value; it was something that surpassed spirit artefacts. No wonder it could block his sabre mountain. Just how many treasures did this Ning Cheng have on him?
Right, he must have found a place of inheritance. That’s how he must have obtained the Seven Bridges Realm Book and the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort.
These things, I’ll take them. Ding Si’s heart grew fiercer and fiercer, and a golden glow appeared in his eyes. Choosing to kill Ning Cheng alone was the correct thing he had done.
The sabre waterfall bearing down on Ning Cheng suddenly retreated and rolled up like an unfolding dragon. It suddenly condensed into a thin stream and then blasted down.
Although the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort was famous for its defensive capabilities, its offensive capabilities were actually even more powerful. But Ning Cheng could only use it to defend and didn’t even attack him. This made Ding Si clear that Ning Cheng couldn’t use the thunder fort for attacking. In other words, Ning Cheng couldn’t fully control the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort.
Even if you have the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort, so what? You can’t even use the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort to counterattack me. I’ll blast you to death even if it means pushing the sabre mountain beyond its limits. Knowing this, Ding Si became more and more grateful for his chosen timing. If he recklessly decided to kill Ning Cheng when he faced the Burial Shadow Fiend, he would have found it challenging to kill Ning Cheng. Even if he could mortally injure Ning Cheng, there was a chance that Ning Cheng would have escaped.
“Dao Friend Liu, you attack Ding Si with everything you got.” As Ning Cheng felt the increasing pressure bearing down on him, he took out a pill and swallowed it. He also urged Liu Fanglin to attack with all her strength at the same time.
The pill he took wasn’t a healing pill but an Exploding Spirit Pill. Ding Si’s strength had gone far above his prediction. Although he had seen and faced quite a few Dao Transformation Holy emperors, none of them came close to being as powerful as Ding Si.
But despite the situation, Ning Cheng actually felt thankful. Thankful that he hadn’t used everything he had when dealing with the Burial Shadow Fiend. Otherwise, he would have died today without a grave.
After hearing Ning Cheng’s words and tone, Liu Fanglin didn’t hesitate for even half a moment. The Indestructible Green Sword brought forth seemingly infinite sword curtains that quickly rushed towards the sabre mountain.
Each sword curtain containing her killing intent coalesced from her sword dao and blasted into Ding Si’s sabre mountain. Unfortunately, even though Liu Fanglin focussed everything on offence, her sword curtains felt like mantises striking Ding Si’s sabre mountain. The sword curtains simply disintegrated into countless sword lights and scattered.
However, at the same instant, Liu Fanglin and Ding Si felt Ning Cheng’s aura growing exponentially stronger. Ning Cheng’s aura quickly broke through the limit of Dao Sculpting and reached that of the early-stage Dao Raising Realm.
“Law Break.......” Ning Cheng rushed out of the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort, ignoring the endless sabres raining down from the sabre mountain.
The laws around the area instantly weakened when Ning Cheng used the Law Break Spirit Technique. Even the majestic and overwhelming sabre mountain stalled for a moment. Liu Fanglin had no time to worry about Ning Cheng. Feeling the pressure drop, her Indestructible Green Sword transformed into a sword dragon and rushed towards the middle of the sabre mountain.
If she didn’t fight for her life at this moment, then she would have no life later.
“Third Bridge of the Forgetfulness River......” A long grey bridge, seemingly made out of hazy mist, appeared in front of Ding Si. The mist from the bridge quickly spread out and surrounded everyone with a timeworn and endless dao charm.
“The road on the Bridge of the Forgetfulness River is far and long. When you enter, you forget the river; but when you leave, only ashes remain....”
The Bridge of the Forgetfulness River’s dao charm quickly gathered and blasted over. Ding Si, slightly stunned by the development, quickly collected himself and furiously started to form various hand seals. “Sabre mountain breaking the river.......”
The stalled sabre mountain surged once again. Whether this attack could break the Bridge of the Forgetfulness River, Ding Si didn’t worry about it.
[1] I’m not sure if this is the name of the spirit technique or the classification. I will clarify it once I gain more context.