Translated By – DemonKiller
Checked and Edited By – Livewidsmile
Proofread By – DemonKiller
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Chapter 0463: Competing Against the Junior City Master
When Ning Cheng grabbed Shen Zimo's wrist, Shen Zimo did not try to resist it at all and continued as a puppet; Ning Cheng quickly understood that something was not right with Shen Zimo.
With Ning Cheng's cultivation of Spiritual Consciousness along with his understandings regarding Restrictions and Array Formations, just a cursory sweep of his Spiritual Consciousness past Shen Zimo's meridians allowed him to understand what was going on.
Shen Zimo's body unexpectedly contained a Spiritual Soul Restriction. Under this Spiritual Soul Restriction, Ning Cheng did not dare to dig deeper even if he wanted to. For people put under Spiritual Soul Restriction, their masters could easily learn all of Shen Zimo's thoughts and get to know about every word and deed done by Shen Zimo on the outside.
This Shen Zimo definitely was not a person loyal to Junior City Master Xu Liangzhi; otherwise, the other party would never let such a vicious restriction to take root inside their body.
Ning Cheng withdrew his hand and returned to his seat; however, he chose not to put up a shield around the opposite party's Spiritual Soul Restriction. This kind of thing, as long as he made the slightest move against it, the opposing party would immediately notice it. Unless Ning Cheng's own strength far surpassed the person who cast this restriction.
Shen Zimo behaved as if nothing happened at all. He just took out a jade strip indicating the directional instructions for a place within the Void and passed it on to Ning Cheng with the following words, "This is what Junior City Master asked me to give you. If Brother Ning is willing to cooperate, then we can meet at this place. Whoever comes first, will have to wait for the other."
After Shen Zimo finished his words, he stood up straight, cupped his fists for a brief moment towards Ning Cheng before turning around and walking away.
Ning Cheng frowned; since the moment his Spiritual Consciousness descended on Shen Zimo's body, he couldn’t help but find it very strange. This Shen Zimo contained a lifeless spirit aura that seems to have sprouted only recently, along with the Spiritual Soul Restriction. It remained expected that he wouldn't help this Junior City Master wholeheartedly. Why did he come just to leave, without mentioning even half a word against the Junior City Master? Did the Junior City Master not place the Spiritual Soul Restriction on his body? If not, then why did he let Ning Cheng probe him?
In fact, the moment since Shen Zimo realised that Xu Liangzhi had seen through him, he understood that there might be a Restriction of some kind placed on him, which he did not know about.
After he left the City Master's Mansion, and along the way to Ning Cheng's residence, he repeatedly checked himself thoroughly. However, he could not find even the slightest trace of a Restriction on him; however, the Restriction suddenly appeared when the will of death sprouted inside of him out of utter despair. It turned out to be a Spiritual Soul Restriction, which meant that all his thoughts, all his words and even all his actions, were in plain sight to the person who placed it on him.
Shen Zimo secretly let out a sigh in his heart. At the same, offered no resistance towards Ning Cheng's actions. He did not persuade Ning Cheng with any kind of words, nor did he even think of anything. Since Xu Liangzhi could learn all of his thoughts, then why should he still immerse himself in useless work? This Ning Cheng could exterminate the entire Silver Thunder Chamber of Commerce inside the Rootless Black City; it proved that he indeed was not someone simple. Even if that was the case, he did not think of anything; in any case, he knew that all of his thoughts were now in the open.
What he had never thought was that the faint aura of a lifeless spirit, which had suddenly sprouted inside of him because of the crushing despair, would end up noticed by Ning Cheng. Because Ning Cheng detected this faint lifeless spirit aura from his body, it resulted in him finding the Spiritual Soul Restriction.
After Shen Zimo left, Ning Cheng and Ji Luofei discussed for a bit, before Ji Luofei entered the Miniature World along with Yi Zhuzhu. Ning Cheng then sealed up his Array Formation, after hanging a 'Going into Cultivation Seclusion' board outside. He then activated his Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds in stealth before silently leaving his Immortal Cave's courtyard with an instantaneous shift.
No matter what Xu Liangzhi planned, Ning Cheng must meet him. Moreover, the thought of killing Xu Liangzhi was a lot more urgent for Ning Cheng compared to Xu Liangzhi's thoughts of killing Ning Cheng.
As for Xu Liangzhi's summation, he just did not care for it. He was sure that the opposite party had already expected his actions; moreover, he also knew that the opposing party would not expect Ning Cheng to believe their words. He kept thinking about the location marked in the jade strip; since Xu Liangzhi dared to share the location of this place with him, it meant that there definitely was a problem with that location.
After leaving the Rootless Black City, Ning Cheng chose not to visit the location in the jade strip given to him by Xu Liangzhi. No matter what the other party thought, no matter whether the jade strip contained the truth or not, he had no plans of going there.
From Ning Cheng's point of view, his current purpose was to kill Xu Liangzhi and obtain the Blue Essence Stones; since the place pointed by Xu Liangzhi did not serve any of his intentions, why would he chose to willingly go there? If he had to kill Xu Liangzhi, then he would have to set up an ambush along the way.
Therefore, the direction, which Ning Cheng chose, was the direction of the Blue Essence Stone Mine. Xu Liangzhi might be a schemer specialist, but Ning Cheng also had his own advantages that helped him in coping with shifting events.
In any case, Xu Liangzhi did not know that he possessed the jade strip containing the location of the Blue Essence Stone Mine. That is unless Yan Fu and Xu Liangzhi cooperated with each other to deal with him; however, Ning Cheng believed that he did not wrongly read the person from before. Yan Fu coming to him had no relations with Xu Liangzhi, just something that had stemmed from Yan Fu's cautious personality.
The jade strip, given to him by Yan Fu, which contained the navigational directions within the Void, definitely was very explicit; moreover, it was even the safest route. Although Ning Cheng did not possess a Void Ship, he still owned the exquisite Twin Wings of the Heavenly Cloud. These nimble Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds, paired with his powerful Spiritual Consciousness, it allowed him to avoid the various dangers within the Void.
In the beginning, his Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds suffered accidental scratches from a few Void Blade-Light. However, it allowed him to grow more flexible and nimble with the experience. Apart from the Void Blade Lights, there were even meteorites that drifted around from one place to another, travelling back and forth with incomparably fast speeds.
Therefore, after travelling for a few days within the Void, even if he occasionally deviated from the safest route, he would not end up trapped within the murderous zones of the Void.
On the 11th day, Ning Cheng finally came to a stop. There was a large meteorite fixed in the Void, just like a small island within a sea. This island had a radius of about 100 miles; however, because of the peculiar Void Turbulences within this particular location, it ended up fettered in this specific spot in space.
Because of this place remaining fettered to a specific location in the Void, it earned the classification of 'Void Island'. There were many Void Islands within the endless Void; some of them would end up drifting away after a long period of time, while some would end up smashed apart by the meteorites; however, only a remarkably few of them will remain fixed in one place permanently.
The Receiving Heaven's Stone is a Void Island, as it typically remains fixed to its location due to a Natural Array Formation.
The reason why Ning Cheng stopped at this location was due to the precise directional instructions within Yan Fu's jade strip. The Void Ship had to stop seven times in total during its journey to the Blue Essence Stone Mine. This island was the second stop.
As long as Xu Liangzhi still wanted to go to the location of the Blue Essence Stone Mine, he must undoubtedly stop here. Because of this, Ning Cheng chose this location to arrange a few Array Formations.
This location is where Xu Liangzhi would end up buried.
Xu Liangzhi might have many cultivators at his side; however, Ning Cheng also felt that he would not face many difficulties in killing Xu Liangzhi. The group from Silver Thunder Chamber of Commerce that attacked his Immortal Cave contained only 11 cultivators; however, the reason he found it difficult was that he had decided to completely exterminate them all. This time, Ning Cheng just wanted to kill Xu Liangzhi. As for the rest of the people, whether they lived or they died, he did not care at all. What's more, Xu Liangzhi's cultivation was also a lot more powerful compared to other Crucible Transformation Cultivators.
Rootless Black City's City Master Mansion, Junior City Master Xu Liangzhi sat inside quietly with a frown on his face. Whether or not Shen Zimo realised that there was a Restriction placed on his Spiritual Soul, he did not care, what he felt bothered was about the fact that Shen Zimo had truthfully passed on all of his words to Ning Cheng as it is, without even missing a character. However, why couldn’t he spy on Shen Zimo's true motives this time? From what he knew and learned about Shen Zimo, he definitely was not a total idiot.
Seeing Shen Zimo coming in, Xu Liangzhi unexpectedly felt a cold shiver run down his spine. He immediately realised that Shen Zimo had learned about the Restriction placed on him before arriving at Ning Cheng's Immortal Cave, as a result, did not put up any resistance at all. This only showed that he achieved only half of what he planned.
"Junior City Master, Shen Zimo actually passed on the message in full honesty. Should we unite the rest of the people together and march to his residence, or do we still wait?" A man at Crucible Transformation 9th Level, sitting beside Xu Liangzhi, discretely asked after Shen Zimo took his exit.
"You don’t have to attack his residence for the moment; you just keep an eye on Shen Zimo. Out team already consists of a hundred Crucible Transformation Cultivators. Immediately head into the Void and take them to the Essence Stone Mine……"
Having spoken until this point, Xu Liangzhi seemed to have thought of something important, before he urgently added onto it, "Chao Han, the only people who know about the Essence Mine are the group from the Silver Thunder Chamber of Commerce and the City Master's Mansion. There's one from that Silver Thunder Chamber of Commerce's group who managed to escape, immediately find that person's whereabouts; we absolutely cannot let him divulge the whereabouts of the Blue Essence Stone Mine to Ning Cheng."
The Crucible Transformation 9th Level male quickly stood up and spoke, "Junior City Master, the Silver Thunder Chamber of Commerce shares a bitter enmity with Ning Cheng. Whoever managed to escape at that time would never even think of going back to inform Ning Cheng about it. He might not even dare to stay back in the Rootless Black City….."
Xu Liangzhi gave a grunt before speaking, "Do you know the safest place to hide at any moment? I'll tell you, it’s the location deemed the most dangerous by others, which will always remain the safest place. If I were that cultivator who managed to escape at that moment, I would definitely find a way to meet Ning Cheng once again. To at least openly exchange a few words; after all, the Rootless Black City is still a huge place….."
As Xu Liangzhi spoke, he couldn’t help but feel something going wrong more and more. He suddenly stood up, "Increase the surveillance around Ning Cheng's Immortal Cave in the North City District. Immediately blockade the entire Rootless Black City. From now on, every cultivator going out of the city has to present their original identities….."