Chapter 0579: Embryonic Form of Ning Cheng’s Dao
When Xiao Yu rushed towards Culmination Public Square, Ning Cheng had also just stepped on to Celestial Scryer Tower’s 77th floor. Although Ning Cheng stayed on the 76th floor for a few days, apart from gaining a slightly more in-depth understanding of some simple lightning-arcs, he could not comprehend a thunder-related spirit technique. This caused Ning Cheng to decide against staying on the 76th floor. Although Mysterious Yellow Formless had powerful abilities, it similarly needed a sufficiently reliable source to stimulate it. Tangible yet formless; at this moment, Ning Cheng could not even connect with the form of the attacking thunder, how could how turn it into something without shape?
As Xiao Yu stared at ‘77th Floor’ behind this Jiangzhou’s Wanderer, he could not help but feel his heart burning like a fireball.
The 77th floor, he knew for sure that he could never reach this level. Yes, the 71st floor was not his actual limit. The reason why he had decided against entering the 72nd floor that time was to let others lose not too much face.
This time, Grand Culmination Starry Skies had gathered countless Celestial Scryer Geniuses, and most likely one of them could potentially climb up to the 72nd floor. If that were the case, he would not have hesitated to enter the Celestial Scryer Tower once again to step on that cultivator who had climbed up the 72nd floor. At that moment, he would have let everyone know that he definitely had more strength compared to everyone else. At the same time, he would have given others the impression that even if someone managed to climb to the 80th floor, he could still rise to the 81st floor.
However, despite being Xiao Yu, he could not guarantee that he could even climb to the 74th floor. At most, using everything, he could have barely entered the 74th floor, but would never have cleared it. However, today, someone had managed to climb to the 77th floor, showing that this Wanderer definitely had a strength that surpassed his own.
Xiao Yu clenched his fists; he was the Grand Culmination Starry Skies’ Premier Genius Xiao Yu. He, Xiao Yu, had even dared to erase his cultivation, returning from Celestial Bridge Realm to the Celestial Gatherer Realm. Who else would dare to do such a thing?
He was able to take the first rank within the Celestial Scryer Tower after erasing his own cultivation, which made him stand out as a unique one. Only he felt worthy for the title of the most unique genius, no one else would have dared to do so.
However, his position within the rankings of the Celestial Scryer Tower had fallen from the first rank to the second. Despite erasing his own cultivation, forcing his cultivation down to the Celestial Gatherer Realm, he no longer felt that kind of pride and supreme confidence. His performance no longer looked eye-catching. What truly was eye-catching in the eyes of others was always the first rank……
As soon as Ning Cheng entered the 77th floor of the Celestial Scryer Tower, he found himself surrounded by chaotic spacial blade shadows. These spacial blade shadows were different from the regular blade shadows. Not only were they invisible, but they also manifested out of thin air. Surrounded with spacial blade shadows, if one did not pay attention, these blade shadows could easily split a person in half. Even the slightest touch could produce severe injuries.
However, Ning Cheng had traversed through the void and even passed through positional planes at least twice. Although he passed through positional planes under the protection of the Heaven Opening Talisman, it did not affect his understandings relating to the void.
Moreover, under his powerful Spiritual Consciousness, Ning Cheng could easily make out these otherwise invisible spacial blade shadows. Even some of those spacial blade shadows that Ning Cheng’s Spiritual Consciousness could not detect, he could still sense their relative positions. Even if it felt impossible to avoid them entirely on the surface, he could principally evade them all.
After a relatively long time, Ning Cheng managed to pass through the 77th floor before pushing open the entrance to the tower’s 78th floor.
After the pushing open the entrance to the Tower’s 78th floor, Ning Cheng immediately faced a spacial collapse. Although this was the Celestial Scryer Tower, Ning Cheng still did not dare to step into this spacial collapse. Once inside, who knows where it would lead him?
Only at this time did Ning Cheng started to feel the profound power of his starry skies’ Sea of Consciousness. Without the starry skies’ Sea of Consciousness and the Celestial River Domain, Ning Cheng would not have lasted for too long within these dense spacial collapses in front of him, or the spacial blade shadows behind him.
His mighty Spiritual Consciousness also had a connection with the Celestial River Domain, which in turn clearly relayed information back to Ning Cheng regarding the various dangers and the location of the spacial collapses.
Although this place might be a death trap to others, Ning Cheng could pass through this floor like a breeze……
“He entered the 79th floor. Heavens, this fellow’s not planning to rush to the 81st floor, is he?”
When Ning Cheng rushed into the 79th floor, the cultivators standing on the public square immediately burst into speculations of if this cultivator could manage to climb up to the 81st floor or not and did not pay much attention to which level he entered recently.
“This fellow is too powerful. Even managing to climb to the 79th floor, would he…… Hey Little Miss, why are you so listless? This fellow is about to climb to the 81st floor.” The green-robed woman standing near to the end of the Celestial Scryer Tower felt happy; however, she found that her Little Miss did not look happy.
The female cultivator next to her, who wore a light blue robe, lowered her head, and whispered, “If he had just rushed into the top hundred, I would have had sufficient hopes. If he rushed into the top ten, I still would have some hope, albeit much smaller. However, I now have no hope at all. Therefore, why would it make me happy?”
The green-robed girl quickly spoke up, “Little Miss, even if he entered the 81st floor, as long as we find him first, there would still be some hope. Look at this fellow’s name and that ‘Jiangzhou’ star, you know that this fellow most likely is an unknown rogue cultivator. This kind of performance also means that this rogue cultivator knows nothing about how the world works, as long as we sincerely show our good intentions……”
“Just look around……” The female cultivator, addressed as Little Miss, spoke without any annoyance.
The green-robed woman then looked back and at her surroundings causing her to speak up in surprise, “When did so many powerhouses arrive here?”
……
After opening the entrance of the tower’s 79th floor, Ning Cheng felt surprised to find it similar to a primal chaos world. This floor did not contain any walls, any sense of directions, and no attacks whatsoever. Ning Cheng turned around and found that the tower’s floor entrance, the one he had just stepped through, had also disappeared.
What kind of ‘floor’ was this? Ning Cheng took a few steps inside and felt as if soft cotton had layered his feet. However, when he reached out and tried to touch this cotton-like substance, he found that he could not touch anything. Even when he stretched out his Spiritual Consciousness, he could not see this cotton-like material clearly.
What is going on? Ning Cheng found it inexplicable. Was climbing the Celestial Scryer Tower not to understand one’s own Dao Laws and Spirit Techniques, and at the same time, gaining valuable experience while passing through the Celestial Scryer Tower? Why was there nothing here?
Wait-wait, Ning Cheng’s mind suddenly flashed with a few words relating to the Celestial Scryer Tower. No matter what floor, no matter what the floor contained, did one not just have to go through the level?
Ning Cheng had just thought of this when his consciousness trembled, and few Spiritual Consciousness Blade Shadows rushed out. Since his Spiritual Consciousness could not discover anything here, Ning Cheng immediately decided to switch to Spiritual Consciousness attacks. If Spiritual Consciousness attacks also did not show any response, he will then try Spirit Techniques.
The moment those Spiritual Consciousness Blade-shadows rushed out, Ning Cheng’s Spiritual Consciousness immediately sense a faint void interface.
Did this floor contain a simulation of the Void Interface? After understanding this, Ning Cheng felt even more surprised. As Brother Cang Wei had mentioned, an interface was a type of a wall. As long as one could rip open or break down the barrier, one could then reach the opposite side of the wall in the shortest time. In other words, going through the interface to reach the other side of the wall. If one could not tear the wall apart, then he or she can only take a longer detour to reach the opposite side.
Tearing the interface was a huge matter; at the same time, it also required massive amounts of energy. This interface, however, simulated a very low-level void interface. Nevertheless, in the future, if one day he could tear through the real Void Interface, Ning Cheng could then reach the Graceful Star Mainland in just a few breaths.
Ning Cheng no longer delayed things, circulating his Celestial Essence, he raised his hands and ripped down, as if he wanted to tear open the interface barrier in front of him. A new space appeared in front of Ning Cheng, and he immediately stepped inside. At the same time, his Spiritual Consciousness once again sensed another interface barrier in front of him. Ning Cheng knew very well that he had only ripped a simulation of the interface barrier and not the actual interface; regardless, he still felt excited about it in his heart.
As Ning Cheng tore through another interface boundary blocking his path, he stepped through another space and another and another until Ning Cheng finally stood outside the door that looked like the entrance to the 80th floor of the Celestial Scryer Tower.
Pushing open the entrance to the 80th floor, Ning Cheng saw that this floor did not contain anything at all.
It looked similar to the 79th floor when he had initially stepped inside; however, the previous floor contained a few void interfaces as obstacles blocking his path. But on this floor, his Spiritual Consciousness felt unimpeded, nor did it detect any void interfaces. In fact, it could not detect anything, no kind of obstacles, and no attacks. In the same way, it also did not have any steps that led to the 81st floor.
Ning Cheng felt like he could freely walk on the 80th floor. This floor only contained the praying man in what seemed like the centre of the room and the entrance through which had had just stepped inside.
Ning Cheng realised that if he wanted to come out, all he had to do was to touch the tower’s entrance behind him, which would imply that he failed to break through this floor.
In any case, Ning Cheng did not want to come out of this place willingly; although he did not know the exact situation on Culmination Public Square, he knew that his performance within the tower would have attracted a lot of people to the Culmination Public Square. After all, someone had managed to break into the 80th floor of the Celestial Scryer Tower.
Ning Cheng sat down on the praying man placed in the middle of the 80th floor. In any case, he did not believe that this ‘floor’ was only for decoration. The Celestial Scryer Tower had a role for each level; as such, the 80th floor containing nothing did not make any sense.
The moment Ning Cheng sat down on the praying mat, a series of images suddenly came together within his mind. These images showed everything that happened with him from the moment he stepped on to the first floor of the Celestial Scryer Tower. It even displayed the various attribute related attacks. At the same time, those series of images also showed how he used the Underworld Ghost Rattan against the wooden-attributed attacks. It also contained his slight understandings of Thunder-attributed lighting arcs, and even the pictures of him touching upon the means of tearing through the interfaces……
The various images slowly condensed into a variety of Dao Laws, which Ning Cheng repeated re-understood and re-condensed. Although the attacks he faced on the lower floors had almost infinite variances, Ning Cheng also understood that those were all just a type of change. Whether it was a combination of metal, wood, water, and fire, or wind, thunder, earth, and ice, these were all individual types of methods. And these methods were all condensed by the Celestial Scryer Tower. For him, these methods would take form by utilising his Celestial Essence, Spiritual Consciousness, and Dao Laws.
One day in the future, he could arrive at a realm where with just a raise of his hand, the wind and snow around him would turn into a wild thunder. He could convert a mound of earth into a sea of flames. This was the true essence of Returning to One. By transforming all Spirit Techniques incorporeal and formless, it would be akin to the Myriad Things Returning to One.
Just as everything in the world flourished, and it might seem like a lot on the surface, but the world was still a single entity. The starry skies’ universe might seem vast and spread out, but in the end, it is still one entity, albeit a slightly larger body. Taking control of everything, lifting the hand to create winds and clouds and rain, this was what Returning to One signified.
Something that felt shrouded with fog within Ning Cheng’s mind suddenly started to unravel, causing Ning Cheng to open his eyes. Was this the origin of his Dao Laws? He cultivated using the Mysterious Yellow Formless; however, what he understood were the Dao Laws about Returning to One.
That cheap Master Baichi had referred to it as ‘Myriad Things Returning to one’; at the same time, he also mentioned that no two people would have the same understanding of Returning to One. Today, on the 80th floor of the Celestial Scryer Tower, Ning Cheng finally managed to touch the edge of his own Dao Laws, which was the Returning to One.
If a different person had sat down on this prayer mater, the Dao Laws that they would have understood would have been entirely different from the ‘Returning to one’ that he understood.
At this moment, Ning Cheng’s mood grew even more joyous. Instead of standing up, he raised his hand and took out a few pieces of raw materials. Bringing out the Celestial River Flame, he then quickly melted these materials while removing the impurities. After this, Ning Cheng then immediately condensed one array formation after another, which then layered on to the raw materials that he just melted. After two full hours, a spear then appeared in Ning Cheng’s hand.
Middle-grade Dao Artefact; Ning Cheng finally refined his first middle-grade dao artefact after touching the edge of his very own Dao Laws.
Ning Cheng laughed out loud and held the spear in his hands while standing up. However, Ning Cheng immediately converged his smile. When he had looked up, an exit had suddenly appeared in front of him without any indication. Moreover, he only saw a void on the other side of this exit.
Did people not say that the Celestial Scryer Tower had 81 floors? How did he get to the top while still on the 80th floor?