Ninth In the World

Chapter 178: The Dusk Star Ruins

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Di Jiu obtained a huge amount of elixirs and materials from all the storage rings and bags of the Qi Family. There were several thousand types of spiritual herbs, all rare or high-level spiritual herbs, in the storage bags of the Qi Family Experts.

Di Jiu even found some level-nine blacksmithing materials. Unfortunately, he failed to recognize most of them. Thus, he decided to sit down and slowly research the Book of the World after he finished all his business.

In addition, there were also various types of jade slips, including cultivation techniques and magic techniques. The only technique that caught Di Jiu’s eye was a supernormal ability called Jumbo Footprint.

He had obtained this supernormal ability jade slip from Qi Qi’s ring. This was the first time Di Jiu had seen a cultivation technique for one’s legs, so he intended to learn it regardless of how it looked.

His biggest harvest were the Spirit Stones. After thorough calculation, he discovered that he had five million high-grade Spirit Stones, nearly 20 million middle-grade Spirit Stones, and around five million low-grade Spirit Stones. An unexpected reward was the spirit meridian in Qi Qi’s ring, which was several hundred feet long.

Although Di Jiu possessed more than 10 million high-grade Spirit Stones, they had all been obtained from the Small World. Five million high-grade Spirit Stones was considered an astronomical figure in the Polar Night Continent, where cultivation resources were scarce.

After organizing all his items, Di Jiu pushed them aside. He only held on to a map.

This jade slip was quite tattered. However, Di Jiu treated it like a treasure, as the words “Dusk Star Ruins” were written on it.

According to the Essence Soul Realm cultivator of the Qi Family, the Qi Family Experts had been heading to the Dusk Star Ruins. Besides, the secret that Qi Qi had mentioned about heading to the Small Central World was also related to the Dusk Star Ruins.

After organizing everything, Di Jiu left the Lasting Mountain Town. He did not choose to cultivate there, for his cultivation disturbance was quite big. He would prefer to find a remote place to cultivate peacefully rather than have to set up several Spirit-Binding Arrays.

Di Jiu naturally wanted to go to the Dusk Star Ruins.

The location was very clear on the map he had obtained from Qi Qi’s ring. The Dusk Star Ruins were located in the western province, where there were virtually no cultivation sects. The Spirit Qi there was very sparse, and there were also very limited spiritual herbs and diamonds. Meanwhile, strange dangers would occur in the area. One could even die by getting pricked by a thorn by the side of the road.

Therefore, even Itinerant Cultivators would rarely appear there.

Due to the lack of Teleportation Arrays, it took Di Jiu nearly three months to reach the location of the Dusk Star Ruins as indicated on the map, in spite of the fact that he used the Spiritual Force escape technique while traveling.

Although that place was supposed to be in ruins, it looked more like an extremely large swamp.

There were puddles of water everywhere, as well as scattered strange aquatic weeds. In the middle of some puddles of water were broken pieces of walls. These broken walls were the only indication that there had been a cultivation city there a long time ago.

Di Jiu scanned the area with his Spiritual Force. When he sensed no dangers, he stepped into the swamp.

He had only plunged one leg into the swamp, when an aquatic vine as gray as the mud in the swamp whipped over rapidly. The vine seemed intent on pulling Di Jiu into the swamp. There was no way of knowing where it had been hiding before it appeared.

Di Jiu lifted his hands and slashed out with a wind blade, breaking the aquatic vine into many pieces. A black juice with a rotten stench shot out. A sizzling sound was heard as the juice landed on the ground.

Di Jiu silently called Qi Qi a bastard. That bastard had been there before, yet he had not noted this important detail. This was evidently because he had not wanted anyone else to enter this place. It seemed like Qi Qi had been treating this place as the Qi Family’s private property.

....

Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force was extremely condensed, so despite the various strange plants attacking him from the huge swamp, he suffered no damage.

Di Jiu stopped a day later. In front of him was a big water puddle. When his Spiritual Force swept out, he only saw the gravel at the bottom of the puddle. This was an ordinary puddle.

Di Jiu, who was a Level-Seven Array King, instantly realized that this water puddle had been altered before. Outside of the puddle was a newly-built Invisibility Array.

When Di Jiu threw out a few array flags, the puddle was split into two and a path appeared in front of him. Di Jiu entered it immediately.

At the end of the path was an underground square. Di Jiu could still feel the past splendor of this place based on his surroundings.

The walls surrounding the square were also broken. When Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force swept out, he discovered that all the quality items there had been taken away by Qi Qi, and thus should be inside his Small World. The building in the center of the square was not completely collapsed, so one could still read some incomplete words outside it: Dusk Star Teleportation Hall.

The gate and Defense Array of the Teleportation Hall had both been destroyed, but Di Jiu instantly identified the newly-built Invisibility Array.

This Dharma Array was the same as the one outside, which had been set up by the Qi Family. The person who had set up this array had been at best a Level-Five Array Great-Master, so their array formation skills had been weaker than Di Jiu’s by two levels.

Di Jiu did not even bother taking out his array flags. With a few flashes, he was instantly inside the Teleportation Hall.

At the center of the Teleportation Hall was a hexagonal teleportation platform with a 30-feet circumference.

Thanks to his knowledge, Di Jiu immediately realized that the Spirit Origin of this Teleportation Array was from a spirit meridian. However, this spirit meridian must have been taken away not too long ago.

Di Jiu, who understood what had happened, shook his head speechlessly. Evidently, the spirit meridian he had just obtained from Qi Qi’s ring had come from this place. The spirit meridian there had been taken away by Qi Qi.

Fortunately, other than being the Spirit Origin of the Teleportation Array, this spirit meridian also acted as the Spirit Origin of the Teleportation Hall. If the spirit meridian had solely been used by the Teleportation Array, it would have been difficult for Di Jiu to put the spirit meridian back.

Di Jiu had no intention of staying there any longer. A several-hundred-feet long spirit meridian was valuable, but Di Jiu would still rather be able to leave this place.

After confirming that this was the Teleportation Array, he went back to set up the Invisibility Array outside once again. He also set up a Defense Array outside the Invisibility Array.

After he put back the spirit meridian, he would be teleported. Di Jiu was worried that someone would come back in the future and take away the spirit meridian, which was a rare resource. Once the spirit meridian was removed, this Teleportation Array would be rendered useless.

After setting up Defense Arrays both outside and inside the Dusk Star Teleportation Hall, Di Jiu started to put back the spirit meridian.

It was easy to take a spirit meridian. However, putting it back in was difficult. It took him several days to put it back under the Teleportation Array, even though his Spiritual Force and Quintessential Essence were powerful.

When everything was ready, Di Jiu landed on the hexagonal teleportation platform and placed piles of high-grade Spirit Stones into the six grooves of the platform. Then, he threw out the activation array flags.

Di Jiu was disappointed that the Teleportation Array did not budge even after he put in the Spirit Stones and threw out the activation array flags.

It seemed that there were other problems with this Teleportation Array. Di Jiu ruffled his hair, feeling vexed. He should have asked Master to guide him on the Array Dao while he had been at the Night Star Sky Market.

Back then, he had thought that the skills of a Level-Seven Array King would be sufficient. Therefore, he had not taken Qian Fenghua’s insights on array formation seriously. He had not expected that he would need to repair the Teleportation Array.

This Teleportation Array would most likely be able to teleport him to the Small Central World, so it was not something a Level-Seven Array King could set up.

Fortunately, he did not need to set it up. He only had to repair it.

Di Jiu took out all the array formation jade slips of the Qi Family’s Commercial Building, as well as those he had found inside the Heaven Saber Sect’s Sutra Depository. However, his most important possession was the Array Dao insight Master Qian Fenghua had left him.

Di Jiu sat in the hexagonal Teleportation Array and started to research, oblivious of the passing time.

.....

Boom! As the last thunder streaks landed, Geng Ji roared.

He had finally attained the Essence Soul Realm after nearly three years. Now, he could at last head out and search for Brother Jiu.

A few years ago, Brother Jiu had caused some trouble for the Qi Family’s Commercial Building in the North Ridge City. Although he had promised that they would head to the Sky Screen together, Geng Ji had never expected that he would accidentally fall into this mountain valley while chasing a Scout Spirit Fox.

It was easy to go in, but very hard to get out. He had felt nothing before falling into this mountain valley, yet he had sensed extremely dense Spirit Qi afterwards.

Geng Ji did not care about this Spirit Qi. He was just worried that Brother Jiu would not be able to find him after he left the Sky Screen.

The reality stunned Geng Ji. The gravity there was so frightening that he could not climb up given his current strength. None of the messages he sent out were answered.

Geng Ji was unwilling to admit defeat. After searching the place, he found a Spirit Quintessence Lake.

If this lake had appeared outside, many people would have fought to death to obtain it. However, Geng Ji did not care about things like this. He only wanted to leave this place, so he couldn’t care less about this Spirit Quintessence Lake. He wanted to cultivate there, so he had to bring Brother Jiu along.

Now that he was trapped at the bottom of this valley, he could not leave. Thus, there was nothing he could do but cultivate. Geng Ji was fortunately a simple-minded person. He knew that he would be able to leave this valley when his strength increased, so he cultivated frantically in the Spirit Quintessence Lake.

The Spirit Qi absorption of the Galaxy meridian was very powerful, and so was the essence Spirit Qi of the Spirit Quintessence Lake. In just a few months, he broke through to the Golden Core Realm.

After attaining the Golden Core Realm, Geng Ji attempted to climb out of this valley but eventually failed.

He was left with no other options, so he continued to cultivate. After frantically cultivating for more than two years, he broke through to the Essence Soul Realm and transcended the Essence Soul Thunder Tribulation.

The Spirit Quintessence of the Spirit Quintessence Lake was still present, yet Geng Ji had lost all desire to continue cultivating. His only thought was to leave and search for Di Jiu and Little Tree.

Geng Ji was not disappointed this time. He finally rushed out of the mountain valley and reached the outside world.

By the time he arrived at the Sky Screen Square, the crowd there had already dispersed. He actually heard that the Sky Screen Square had closed for some time now. Fortunately, he heard another piece of news that made him extremely excited. Brother Jiu had exterminated all the Qi Family’s Commercial Buildings.