Chapter 0214: The Limitless Array Formation
No wonder Ning Cheng who had changed his appearance to Cheng Xiaoning, had called out to Hang Jiaojiao to “Fuck Off”. Only now could she easily make the connection, that was because Ning Cheng had saved her from the hands of Sikong Kai and Hang Jiaojiao.
Moreover, in the cabin hall, not only did she not help her saviour Ning Cheng, but had instead helped that Hang Jiaojiao to speak out against him. Cultivating this kind of behaviour, she estimated that in Ning Cheng’s eyes she was a woman that was inferior to even trash.
She once again recalled Yue Ying’s words, as her words once again resounded inside her mind.
“Senior Apprentice Sister Ruxue, you definitely misunderstood Big Brother Ning. Big Brother Ning is not that kind of a person, I and Big Brother Ning have lived in the same room for almost a year, in a way you can say that he is someone who I know best. If he really was the kind of person that you make him out to be, then I would have long since become his……”
“Senior Apprentice Sister Ruxue, I have also heard other people saying that Big Brother Ning is not a good person, but they all misunderstood him. However, after living together with him, I realized that he really was not the kind of person that the others had made him out to be, please believe in Big Brother Ning. At that time, perhaps because of some other reasons, it had led to you misunderstanding Big Brother Ning’s intentions.”
“Big Brother Ning said that sometimes what one sees is not necessarily the truth, initially I could have never understood this fact, but after Big Brother Ning explained it me, I was able to realize it……”
It was true that she had not investigated what the truth was, as such when she saw Ning Cheng call out to Hang Jiaojiao to “Fuck Off”, and because she was already feeling irritated in her heart, she had come out on her own initiative to help Hang Jiaojiao. Maybe the fact was, that Ning Cheng had already known that Hang Jiaojiao was already the other nefarious cultivator, and was trying to do her a favour.
But even if Ning Cheng had explained it to her at that time, would she have believed it? In fact, after she had arrived at the Dragon and Phoenix Academy, Ning Cheng had explained it to her in clear resounding words, but she could never believe any of the words spoken by Ning Cheng at that time. If previously Ning Cheng had stood at the entrance to the valley, and spoke that he was going through the blue stone doors by himself, and even kill of all the Profound Core Cultivators blocking the path, would she have believed it?
She knew that she would have definitely not believed Ning Cheng’s words at that time. Then why did Yan Ji believe in him? Moreover, even take the initiative to stand up to help him, how could Yan Ji be so far removed from her?
“Senior Apprentice Sister Ruxue. Are you alright?” Cheng Yixiao saw that Nalan Ruxue’s eyes and expression were really peculiar, and hurriedly asked her a question.
Nalan Ruxue immediately jolted her mind awake, finally sobering up, just what kind of things was she thinking aah? How could she make a contrast against Yan Ji at this time?
“Senior Apprentice Brother Cheng, I want to ask you something.” Nalan Ruxue suddenly turned serious and asked Cheng Yixiao.
Cheng Yixiao did not seem to understand what Nalan Ruxue seemed to have meant, but his natural disposition was that of being straightforward. Not to say about a Junior Sister Apprentice from the same Academy, even if it were an ordinary person who asked him for his help, he would have still extended his hand, “Junior Apprentice Sister Ruxue, please speak your mind, we both are disciples from the Wu Nian Academy, if you have anything to ask then ask. If I am in a position to help you, then I will definitely help you out with the best of my abilities.”
“Before, I had ended up falling into the hands of Hang Jiaojiao and Sikong Kai, and was almost close to being sullied. That Hang Jiaojiao has also arrived at the Law’s Way with us, I want to ask Senior Apprentice Brother Cheng that if he meets Hang Jiaojiao, then can you help me get a hold of her, I have a few questions that I want to ask her.” Nalan Ruxue bowed as she pleaded.
Cheng Yixiao’s eyebrows immediately picked up, as he spoke out in an angry tone, “This person unexpectedly dares to lay a hand on the disciples of my Wu Nian Academy, even if Junior Apprentice Sister Ruxue had not spoken about it, once I came to know about it, then I will definitely not let her go.”
……
Ning Cheng had been walking in this vast and silent empty area filled with black sandy gravel for over two hours, the only thing under his foot beside it was bones and remains of magical weapons. Other than those there was nothing else here. The same scene was playing out within the scope of his Spiritual Consciousness. Ning Cheng simply took out a chair and sat down then and there.
The sands under his feet extended up till the eyes to could see. And all around his surroundings, it was completely empty, he was the only person sitting amongst the middle of the sands, if one drew a picture of him, then wouldn’t it end up as a work of art?
Ning Cheng was just casually thinking, that perhaps one day he would also become dried bones scattered all around this place, then someone would take out a chair and sit above his bleached bones.
Ning Cheng had no idea as to what he should do now, not to say that he was not in the mood to practice cultivation, even if he was in the mood to cultivate, he did not dare to cultivate. Although he was a cultivator, but there was not even a scrap of Spiritual Qi here, once he ran out of Spirit Stones, what would he do then?
“Or I can peacefully stay here for another 200-400 years.” Ning Cheng muttered to himself, for a Profound Core Cultivator the highest life span recorded was about 400 years.
Immediately Ning Cheng shook his head again, maybe before he even got to the end of his life, he might have already gone insane.
Or he could still continue with his Alchemy practice, but just Alchemy had no use in here, once he used up all the Spiritual Grasses, then what was he supposed to do then? Besides if he could not get out of this place, then what use would be of Alchemy? Go into seclusion? He only had 5,000,000 Spirit Stones, these Spirit Stones for him would soon run out,
Ning Cheng sat there alone for quite a long while, finally putting away the chair, he decided to first clear up the confusion of if this place was really as endless as it appeared to be.
Afraid that Grey Toottoot would be stifled, Ning Cheng took out Grey Toottoot from his Storage Bag, and put him on his shoulders. Then bringing out a flight type magic weapon, he prepared himself to go look for an exit.
Ning Cheng quickly discovered, that as long as he flew above a certain height, he would immediately be suppressed. But if he flew forward below a certain height, then no matter how long he flew, the environment was all the same along with the same deathly silence all around him. After continuously flying for ten days, Ning Cheng finally put away the flight type magical weapon, he felt that something was wrong, even if this place was extremely huge, he was still continuously flying forward for ten days, it was simply impossible for this kind of place to go on endlessly.
Just as Ning Cheng felt that something was strange, his Spiritual Consciousness unexpectedly found a cultivator in its sweep. Similar to him, this cultivator was walking on the black sand in a particular direction.
Ning Cheng immediately became wild with joy, and immediately stimulated his Twin Heavenly Cloud Wings as he rushed towards him.
“This fiend, were you also swept here by the whirlpools in the Blood River?” Ning Cheng had not yet arrived at the front of this cultivator, when he excitedly called out from behind.
However, Ning Cheng’s heart quickly turned cold, this person’s entire body was covered in rags and completely dirty, it was even sloppier than a beggar that lived on the streets. Not only that, he was so weak and emaciated that he almost looked like a bamboo pole. If Ning Cheng had not seen a Storage Ring on one of his hand, then he would have truly suspected if this person was really a cultivator.
He did not seem to have heard Ning Cheng’s questioning, and was walking barefoot while muttering what seemed to be a prayer.
Ning Cheng got a bit closer to him, and could finally hear what this cultivator was mumbling about, “Without even the wind around, forming a sharp contrast, for the benefit of the first visitor, having a dark red color, for the wood and wind…… Chains of cloud arrays, those clouds attached to the heavens, should bring down red thunder……”
Ning Cheng was already a Tier 3 Array Formation Master, as such as soon as he heard the words of this person he immediately understood that this person was studying an Array Formation.
Looking at this man gradually go far away while still mumbling, he did not continue to follow this man, he knew that this man was studying some sort of an Array Formation in this place for a long time, and had ended up succumbing to his inner devils finally going crazy.
In the meantime, he also realized his own position, it finally hit him that he definitely was in the middle of an Array Formation. Moreover, this Array Formation might actually turn out to be a Natural Array Formation. If he could one day figure out this Array Formation, then perhaps he would be able to exit this place. If he was unable to figure out this Array Formation, then he might as well become something similar to the person who just passed him by a moment ago.
Just looking at the behaviour of the cultivator that passed by him a moment ago, Ning Cheng affirmed that the attainments of that person in the field of Array Formations was definitely higher than his own. At least that cultivator knew that this place seemed to be an Array Formation, and if he wanted to exit from this place then he had to get a good grasp on this Array Formation.
Ning Cheng once again moved around nonstop in all directions for 7-8 days, and met 5-6 cultivators in the same state as that person, all of them were in an emaciated condition. But all of them were researching the Array Formation.
Ning Cheng did not continue looking around, he even suspected that this Array Formation was somewhat strange. Once a person was caught inside, them they will not be able to extricate themselves.
But if one could not find the exit to the Array Formation, then they would also have to stay in here forever.
After a bit of hesitation, Ning Cheng finally decided to also start deducing this Array Formation. But he put a constraint on himself, once he was on the verge of sinking into it, he would quickly stop his deductions. Only when his mind was clear and sane, would he continue on with his deductions. Some of the cultivators here may even have higher understandings towards Array Formation than he himself, but Ning Cheng believed that with his computation ability, if he had enough time, then his understanding towards Array Formation would definitely soar up.
Computation and Memory Abilities were the two major elements for studying Array Formations, and by luck he happened to have both of them. What’s more, he even had the Mysterious Yellow Origin. Presumably with the help from the Mysterious Yellow Origin, he would not have to go insane like the others, right?
Ning Cheng’s idea was quite good, however he forgot that the others would have also had similar kinds of thought, thinking that they were more powerful than the others in this field, and would be able to extricate themselves from this place in a short moment, but in fact they were all overestimating themselves.
Ning Cheng’s situation was also in a way similar to them. As soon as he entered the state of trying to deduce the Array Formation, in his consciousness an auxiliary Confinement Array Formation immediately appeared. As this Array Formation appeared in Ning Cheng’s consciousness, it gave Ning Cheng a kind of feeling, that as long as he inferred this Array Formation, he could definitely get out of this place.
With the skills derived from his computation and memory abilities, one could even say that in the entire Yi Xing Mainland there was no one who was Ning Cheng’s equal. His brain was simply like a high end computer, this Confinement Array Formation’s entire layout, along with the location of each critical position was all quickly calculated, as he continued on with his deductions.
However, after he completely deduced the entire Confinement Array Formation, he actually discovered that if he wanted to open this Confinement Array Formation then he would have to unlock another Concealment Array Formation first.
In this way, as Ning Cheng started deducing Array Formations one after another, the number of Array Formations inside his mind were also growing more and more, while at the same time the original Array Formations were also getting bigger and bigger and even more complex. These Array Formations were as if his own consciousness had drawn out, one after the other they connected to each other, one after another they came closer to each other, extending far into the distance. Ning Cheng was continuously using his Spiritual Consciousness to continuously search around for information, while simultaneously simulating new projections of Array Formations one after another inside his mind.
At this moment, Ning Cheng was showing exactly the same traces as those cultivators from before, as he walked around, while simultaneously gesturing while sometimes mumbling something.
The only difference was, although Ning Cheng was really still deducing the Array Formation, but he had not lost his sanity. Compared to those cultivators from before, he was not doing it subconsciously, if he had done it like them he would have been unable to wake up in his entire lifetime, then even if he was able to find the exit in the end he would not be able to exit from the real Array Formation.
If there was no Mysterious Yellow Origin Aura supporting Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness, then even if Ning Cheng’s computation ability was several times more formidable than the others, he in the end would not be able to escape the fate of losing his sanity.
Fortunately, the Mysterious Yellow Bead was a thing that bestowed good fortune, coupled with the support from the Mysterious Yellow Origin’s Origin Aura, even if Ning Cheng feared descending into insanity, as long as the oil lamp had not completely dried out, the Mysterious Yellow Origin would be able to barely support him.
This Array Formation was linked to Ning Cheng’s mind, although this was a land that seemingly was boundless and filled with black sand, it had gradually formed into a miniature world inside Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness.
One month passed by……
Three months passed by……
One year, two years, three years passed by……
In these few years, only Grey Toottoot was continuously loyally following behind Ning Cheng. Even if the pills given to him by Ning Cheng were many, Grey Toottoot still saved them up to eat. In this place, if there were no pills, then it would have directly starved to death.
At this time Ning Cheng had also become dishevelled, and looked like a tattered cultivator, but he still was deducing the Array Formation. During this time, he had brushed passed a few other cultivators, but nobody cared about him, and he also did not care about the other people.
But unlike the deductions of Array Formations by the other cultivators, the eyes of the others deducing the Array Formations were turning increasingly bleak, so much so that they had even turned turbid. While his eyes were getting brighter and brighter, moreover starting from the first month that he came in here, he had continued to throw out some Array Flags. If he had no Array Flags, then he would readily refine one out of bits and pieces of things all around him.