1024

Chapter 1024: The influx of cultivators

Was this the Five-elements Primal Chaos Aura? Ning Cheng felt even more excited. He didn’t expect to be able to detect the Five-elements Primal Chaos Aura right after entering the Five-elements Star. However, this aura felt different from the aura he felt outside the Five-elements Star as it seemed to produce a different effect than Mysterious Yellow Bead’s Origin Aura.

However, at this moment, Ning Cheng’s mind was completely filled with the idea of obtaining the Five-elements Primal Chaos Aura. Therefore, he quickly started to move in the direction from where the Five-elements Primal Chaos Aura seemingly originated.

Something’s not right. Ning Cheng only walked for a dozen breaths when he immediately stopped.

Since he could feel it, the others before him should have also sensed this anomaly. In other words, the holy emperors who came in before were like him, unconsciously moving towards this ‘source’. But the fact was that even after waiting for nine days outside, not a single cultivator had come out.

Ning Cheng had just stopped, and this thought had just formed when a terrifying aura blasted directly into his Sea of Consciousness. The attack was so sudden and powerful that he couldn’t even resist it, let alone react.

A raging torrent broke past the borders of his Sea of Consciousness and took root, causing terrifying roars to erupt from his now-uncontrollable Sea of Consciousness.

An attack on his Sea of Consciousness?

Ning Cheng understood this wasn’t a body-snatching attempt but a powerful technique to attack the Sea of Consciousness. Why would Ning Cheng still care about finding the Five-elements Primal Chaos Aura at this critical juncture? He hastily activated the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort. Ning Cheng understood that this attach would quickly fill his Sea of Consciousness if he couldn’t block it. And eventually, just like a balloon filled with too much gas, his Sea of Consciousness would sooner or later blow up.

At first, this attack, apart from the raging torrent, was like an invisible expanding gas. But once Ning Cheng activated the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort in his Sea of Consciousness to block it, this attack immediately became a powerful vortex of sharp knives. It reminded Ning Cheng of Ding Si’s sabre mountain, but this flood of attacks was much more terrifying than Ding Si’s endless sabre mountain.

A crack resounded in Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness, and his heart sank. His Sea of Consciousness had started to collapse, and his mind jolted with a strong backlash. He even spat out several mouthfuls of blood.

Despite the defensive capabilities, his Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort couldn’t fully block such an attack. It was a type of attack that was akin to a formless and invisible arrow that could ignore the existence of the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort.

A moment later, the attack started to move towards the core of Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness while also growing fiercer with each passing moment. What’s more, this initially-formless attack even split up into various attacks like blade shadows, sword shadows, icicle shadows, flaming tongues.....

They continued to spread wildly within Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness, while Ning Cheng couldn’t use any means to block them.

Escape. Ning Cheng immediately tried to activate the formation flag to teleport away. But he quickly discovered that he couldn’t stimulate anything apart from the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort that he had used previously. Not to mention stimulating the formation flag, Ning Cheng couldn’t even enter the Mysterious Yellow Bead. In other words, he had nearly lost complete control of his Sea of Consciousness. If this continues, he would no longer have any control over his Sea of Consciousness, and even if he could somehow regain control, his Sea of Consciousness might explode.

“Kakaka......” Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness continued to crack while Ning Cheng’s body turned ice-cold. He understood why the people who came in before him never came out. Even if they were strong, those people couldn’t block such a violent attack on their Sea of Consciousness.

How many people had a Starry Sky Sea of Consciousness like him? If even his Starry Sky Sea of Consciousness couldn’t last long, it would be strange if the others could hold out.

The Five-elements Star truly is a conspiracy. However, Ning Cheng still couldn’t understand the reason behind this conspiracy. Was it to just lure people in to kill them?

Ning Cheng felt his consciousness fading away as his Sea of Consciousness continued to crack apart. But at that moment, a strange intent emerged in his Sea of Consciousness, guiding him in a particular direction. It seemed that he only had to slowly move in that direction to survive.

Must. Not. Lose. Consciousness. Ning Cheng’s heart suddenly jolted.

Dark Nether Spirit Devourer, devour everything.

The Dark Nether Spirit Devourer was the last resort Ning Cheng had been left with; he had no other option at this moment except to operate the Dark Nether Spirit Devourer to devour this attack in his Sea of Consciousness.

Then, amidst despair, excitement suddenly returned to Ning Cheng. He found that when the Dark Nether Spirit Devourer began to operate, the attacks in his Sea of Consciousness were immediately ground down by the Dark Nether Spirit Devourer and turned into a stream of pure spiritual consciousness power that got devoured by him.

The raging torrent in his Sea of Consciousness turned out to be a transformation of a spiritual consciousness attack. However, this spiritual consciousness transformation attack was several times more powerful than his spiritual consciousness attacks. So powerful that even his Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort couldn’t resist, fully showing the might of this spiritual consciousness attack.

In just a few moments after Ning Cheng began operating the Dark Nether Spirit Devourer to grind away the torrent of attacks in his Sea of Consciousness, his Sea of Consciousness finally stopped cracking apart. Even though the raging torrent filled his Sea of Consciousness, the Dark Nether Spirit Devourer created a delicate balance. At least his Sea of Consciousness no longer cracked, and he was no longer in immediate danger.

However, Ning Cheng understood that it was only a stop-gap measure. As the torrent of attacks on his Sea of Consciousness continued to increase in intensity, he once again found himself powerless. All he could do was keep using and pushing the Dark Nether Spirit Devourer to grind away the attacks in his Sea of Consciousness and preserve his Sea of Consciousness.

After understanding that this attack was most likely man-made, Ning Cheng also gave up the thought of entering the Mysterious Yellow Bead. He also didn’t dare to casually activate the formation flag to escape. After all, even if he wanted to escape, he must have enough strength. Otherwise, he would be pulled back in when his foot stepped outside the Five-elements Star.

Fortunately, although the intensity of attacks on his Sea of Consciousness kept increasing, it was still within the realm of tolerance. As long as he could use the Dark Nether Spirit Devourer to grind away at it for some more time, he would be able to regain enough control to save his little life. But once he escaped and got discovered by the fellow that set up this Five-elements Star, would he still have a life if this fellow specifically targeted him?

Ning Cheng wasn’t sure if someone was consciously controlling this attack, but he had to be careful.

Time slowly flowed, and Ning Cheng gradually disappeared into the white fog. There was no sound, just Ning Cheng constantly using the Dark Nether Spirit Devourer to grind away the attacks in his Sea of Consciousness.

Unfortunately, the attacks seemed endless. No matter how much Ning Cheng devoured, this flood of attacks would quickly fill up Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness again.

If this continued, sooner or later, my Sea of Consciousness would fully collapse. Ning Cheng took a deep breath, then carefully took out an Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pill and swallowed it. Immediately after that, he also took out several teleportation array flags.

If he was discovered or could no longer resist this attack on his Sea of Consciousness, he would immediately use the formation flags and escape.

Fortunately, with the help of the Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pill, Ning Cheng regained his balance and could keep devouring the spiritual consciousness attack, strengthening his Sea of Consciousness. It also caused the pressure in Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness to grow lighter and lighter, while the cracks in his Sea of Consciousness also started to heal.

Not knowing how long this went, Ning Cheng suddenly felt the raging torrent in his Sea of Consciousness strengthening by several folds. If the initial attack was like a small stream, the current one had turned into a large raging river, like the Yangtze River. Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness, which had just managed to recover, once again started to strain and crack under the sudden powerful bombardment.

Did it realise that he could refine the raging torrent in his Sea of Consciousness? This was Ning Cheng’s first thought. Since he could resist this attack for so long, the owner of this attack must have decided to go all out to take him down.

Time to go. Ning Cheng immediately held up the teleportation formation flags. But Ning Cheng had just thrown out the first flag when he once again felt a few daoist shadows passing by him. At that same moment, Ning Cheng also felt the intensity of the attack in his Sea of Consciousness weakening considerably.

Were people still coming in? Quickly enough, Ning Cheng’s guess turned into fact. This time, it wasn’t just one or two groups. Rather, he could sense several groups rushing towards the depths of the Five-elements Star, all coming in from different places. Although they all noticed Ning Cheng, it didn’t feel strange.

By this time, the raging torrent in Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness had grown significantly weaker. Ning Cheng immediately understood that it must have been related to the sudden influx of cultivators.

The only explanation for so many people coming in at once was that the auction was over, and cultivators who received the information had come to the Five-elements Star.

Feeling that the attack in his Sea of Consciousness had been completely ground down by the Dark Nether Spirit Devourer, Ning Cheng no longer felt the urgency to leave. He didn’t want to know the purpose of attracting so many people to the Five-elements Star, but he could feel the Five-elements Primal Chaos Aura here, and he wanted it.

This time, Ning Cheng wasn’t in a hurry to follow the crowd. Instead, as his spiritual consciousness had grown even more powerful, he immediately stretched it out to observe the surrounding area.

The cultivators who came in were the same as him. As soon as they came in, they desperately ran in one direction. Some people, like him, managed to wake up on the way, but unfortunately, they didn’t have the Dark Nether Spirit Devourer’s cultivation method. It ultimately caused them to follow the voice in their consciousness.

Ning Cheng didn’t dare to follow these people. He was afraid that he would eventually get restrained by the torrent of attacks in his Sea of Consciousness once again. However, he also didn’t want to leave either; therefore, he deliberately decided to move in a particular direction. All because he could sense one of his spiritual consciousness imprints from that particular direction.

Ning Cheng had only put spiritual consciousness imprints on Su Gui, Yan Jinqing and Pengjin. But in the end, he could only feel one of those spiritual consciousness imprints. Ning Cheng clearly recalled that this remaining spiritual consciousness imprint was the same one he had put on Yan Jinqing.

Ning Cheng walked very slowly, yet it still took half an hour before he found Yan Jinqing.

To be exact, he had found Yan Jinqing’s corpse. Yan Jinqing had long since fallen, but she had a strange smile. Moreover, her corpse was also intact, sans a patch of robes missing from her waist, revealing her white skin with a cyan handprint on the lower abdomen.

Ning Cheng took a deep breath feeling shocked. He wasn’t shocked by Yan Jinqing’s death but rather by the circumstances of Yan Jinqing’s death.

Yan Jinqing, regardless of her attitude and personality, was still a Dao Sculpting Holy Emperor. Generally, once a holy emperor falls, the corpse would still contain some of the holy emperor’s dao rhythm residue as long as the corpse is relatively intact. This dao rhythm residue would continue circulating around the corpse for several decades, even after the death of the holy emperor.

Yet, Yan Jinqing’s corpse now felt like that of an ordinary person who had never cultivated. It had no trace of any dao rhythm, as if someone or something had fully stripped Yan Jinqing of her dao rhythm before her death.

Stripped away? Ning Cheng shivered at that thought.

Just then, he heard a faint yet frantic scream from a distance, “Someone is devouring cultivators’ foundation and dao rhythm and seizing spiritual roots........”

The voice only managed to scream half a sentence before abruptly stopping.

Ning Cheng’s scalp tingled, and he understood what had happened. But before he could even think of leaving, he heard several shrill screams and even some cries for help.

But amidst these screams and cries, Ning Cheng also felt an aura similar to the Mysterious Yellow Origins.

Yes, that’s the aura. Ning Cheng felt ecstatic. He was sure that this aura was the unique aura he had felt after entering the Five-elements Star. It was the same aura that had attracted him and made him unconsciously rush in; this aura was the real Five-elements Primal Chaos Aura.

This time, Ning Cheng didn’t hesitate and immediately moved toward the source of this aura. Since entering the Five-elements Star, he acted mostly passively. But now that he sensed the real Five-elements Primal Chaos Aura, he didn’t want to give up on it. Otherwise, he would definitely feel sorry for himself.

Chapter 1024: The influx of cultivators

Was this the Five-elements Primal Chaos Aura? Ning Cheng felt even more excited. He didn’t expect to be able to detect the Five-elements Primal Chaos Aura right after entering the Five-elements Star. However, this aura felt different from the aura he felt outside the Five-elements Star as it seemed to produce a different effect than Mysterious Yellow Bead’s Origin Aura.

However, at this moment, Ning Cheng’s mind was completely filled with the idea of obtaining the Five-elements Primal Chaos Aura. Therefore, he quickly started to move in the direction from where the Five-elements Primal Chaos Aura seemingly originated.

Something’s not right. Ning Cheng only walked for a dozen breaths when he immediately stopped.

Since he could feel it, the others before him should have also sensed this anomaly. In other words, the holy emperors who came in before were like him, unconsciously moving towards this ‘source’. But the fact was that even after waiting for nine days outside, not a single cultivator had come out.

Ning Cheng had just stopped, and this thought had just formed when a terrifying aura blasted directly into his Sea of Consciousness. The attack was so sudden and powerful that he couldn’t even resist it, let alone react.

A raging torrent broke past the borders of his Sea of Consciousness and took root, causing terrifying roars to erupt from his now-uncontrollable Sea of Consciousness.

An attack on his Sea of Consciousness?

Ning Cheng understood this wasn’t a body-snatching attempt but a powerful technique to attack the Sea of Consciousness. Why would Ning Cheng still care about finding the Five-elements Primal Chaos Aura at this critical juncture? He hastily activated the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort. Ning Cheng understood that this attach would quickly fill his Sea of Consciousness if he couldn’t block it. And eventually, just like a balloon filled with too much gas, his Sea of Consciousness would sooner or later blow up.

At first, this attack, apart from the raging torrent, was like an invisible expanding gas. But once Ning Cheng activated the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort in his Sea of Consciousness to block it, this attack immediately became a powerful vortex of sharp knives. It reminded Ning Cheng of Ding Si’s sabre mountain, but this flood of attacks was much more terrifying than Ding Si’s endless sabre mountain.

A crack resounded in Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness, and his heart sank. His Sea of Consciousness had started to collapse, and his mind jolted with a strong backlash. He even spat out several mouthfuls of blood.

Despite the defensive capabilities, his Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort couldn’t fully block such an attack. It was a type of attack that was akin to a formless and invisible arrow that could ignore the existence of the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort.

A moment later, the attack started to move towards the core of Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness while also growing fiercer with each passing moment. What’s more, this initially-formless attack even split up into various attacks like blade shadows, sword shadows, icicle shadows, flaming tongues.....

They continued to spread wildly within Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness, while Ning Cheng couldn’t use any means to block them.

Escape. Ning Cheng immediately tried to activate the formation flag to teleport away. But he quickly discovered that he couldn’t stimulate anything apart from the Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort that he had used previously. Not to mention stimulating the formation flag, Ning Cheng couldn’t even enter the Mysterious Yellow Bead. In other words, he had nearly lost complete control of his Sea of Consciousness. If this continues, he would no longer have any control over his Sea of Consciousness, and even if he could somehow regain control, his Sea of Consciousness might explode.

“Kakaka......” Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness continued to crack while Ning Cheng’s body turned ice-cold. He understood why the people who came in before him never came out. Even if they were strong, those people couldn’t block such a violent attack on their Sea of Consciousness.

How many people had a Starry Sky Sea of Consciousness like him? If even his Starry Sky Sea of Consciousness couldn’t last long, it would be strange if the others could hold out.

The Five-elements Star truly is a conspiracy. However, Ning Cheng still couldn’t understand the reason behind this conspiracy. Was it to just lure people in to kill them?

Ning Cheng felt his consciousness fading away as his Sea of Consciousness continued to crack apart. But at that moment, a strange intent emerged in his Sea of Consciousness, guiding him in a particular direction. It seemed that he only had to slowly move in that direction to survive.

Must. Not. Lose. Consciousness. Ning Cheng’s heart suddenly jolted.

Dark Nether Spirit Devourer, devour everything.

The Dark Nether Spirit Devourer was the last resort Ning Cheng had been left with; he had no other option at this moment except to operate the Dark Nether Spirit Devourer to devour this attack in his Sea of Consciousness.

Then, amidst despair, excitement suddenly returned to Ning Cheng. He found that when the Dark Nether Spirit Devourer began to operate, the attacks in his Sea of Consciousness were immediately ground down by the Dark Nether Spirit Devourer and turned into a stream of pure spiritual consciousness power that got devoured by him.

The raging torrent in his Sea of Consciousness turned out to be a transformation of a spiritual consciousness attack. However, this spiritual consciousness transformation attack was several times more powerful than his spiritual consciousness attacks. So powerful that even his Everlasting Blue Thunder Fort couldn’t resist, fully showing the might of this spiritual consciousness attack.

In just a few moments after Ning Cheng began operating the Dark Nether Spirit Devourer to grind away the torrent of attacks in his Sea of Consciousness, his Sea of Consciousness finally stopped cracking apart. Even though the raging torrent filled his Sea of Consciousness, the Dark Nether Spirit Devourer created a delicate balance. At least his Sea of Consciousness no longer cracked, and he was no longer in immediate danger.

However, Ning Cheng understood that it was only a stop-gap measure. As the torrent of attacks on his Sea of Consciousness continued to increase in intensity, he once again found himself powerless. All he could do was keep using and pushing the Dark Nether Spirit Devourer to grind away the attacks in his Sea of Consciousness and preserve his Sea of Consciousness.

After understanding that this attack was most likely man-made, Ning Cheng also gave up the thought of entering the Mysterious Yellow Bead. He also didn’t dare to casually activate the formation flag to escape. After all, even if he wanted to escape, he must have enough strength. Otherwise, he would be pulled back in when his foot stepped outside the Five-elements Star.

Fortunately, although the intensity of attacks on his Sea of Consciousness kept increasing, it was still within the realm of tolerance. As long as he could use the Dark Nether Spirit Devourer to grind away at it for some more time, he would be able to regain enough control to save his little life. But once he escaped and got discovered by the fellow that set up this Five-elements Star, would he still have a life if this fellow specifically targeted him?

Ning Cheng wasn’t sure if someone was consciously controlling this attack, but he had to be careful.

Time slowly flowed, and Ning Cheng gradually disappeared into the white fog. There was no sound, just Ning Cheng constantly using the Dark Nether Spirit Devourer to grind away the attacks in his Sea of Consciousness.

Unfortunately, the attacks seemed endless. No matter how much Ning Cheng devoured, this flood of attacks would quickly fill up Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness again.

If this continued, sooner or later, my Sea of Consciousness would fully collapse. Ning Cheng took a deep breath, then carefully took out an Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pill and swallowed it. Immediately after that, he also took out several teleportation array flags.

If he was discovered or could no longer resist this attack on his Sea of Consciousness, he would immediately use the formation flags and escape.

Fortunately, with the help of the Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pill, Ning Cheng regained his balance and could keep devouring the spiritual consciousness attack, strengthening his Sea of Consciousness. It also caused the pressure in Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness to grow lighter and lighter, while the cracks in his Sea of Consciousness also started to heal.

Not knowing how long this went, Ning Cheng suddenly felt the raging torrent in his Sea of Consciousness strengthening by several folds. If the initial attack was like a small stream, the current one had turned into a large raging river, like the Yangtze River. Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness, which had just managed to recover, once again started to strain and crack under the sudden powerful bombardment.

Did it realise that he could refine the raging torrent in his Sea of Consciousness? This was Ning Cheng’s first thought. Since he could resist this attack for so long, the owner of this attack must have decided to go all out to take him down.

Time to go. Ning Cheng immediately held up the teleportation formation flags. But Ning Cheng had just thrown out the first flag when he once again felt a few daoist shadows passing by him. At that same moment, Ning Cheng also felt the intensity of the attack in his Sea of Consciousness weakening considerably.

Were people still coming in? Quickly enough, Ning Cheng’s guess turned into fact. This time, it wasn’t just one or two groups. Rather, he could sense several groups rushing towards the depths of the Five-elements Star, all coming in from different places. Although they all noticed Ning Cheng, it didn’t feel strange.

By this time, the raging torrent in Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness had grown significantly weaker. Ning Cheng immediately understood that it must have been related to the sudden influx of cultivators.

The only explanation for so many people coming in at once was that the auction was over, and cultivators who received the information had come to the Five-elements Star.

Feeling that the attack in his Sea of Consciousness had been completely ground down by the Dark Nether Spirit Devourer, Ning Cheng no longer felt the urgency to leave. He didn’t want to know the purpose of attracting so many people to the Five-elements Star, but he could feel the Five-elements Primal Chaos Aura here, and he wanted it.

This time, Ning Cheng wasn’t in a hurry to follow the crowd. Instead, as his spiritual consciousness had grown even more powerful, he immediately stretched it out to observe the surrounding area.

The cultivators who came in were the same as him. As soon as they came in, they desperately ran in one direction. Some people, like him, managed to wake up on the way, but unfortunately, they didn’t have the Dark Nether Spirit Devourer’s cultivation method. It ultimately caused them to follow the voice in their consciousness.

Ning Cheng didn’t dare to follow these people. He was afraid that he would eventually get restrained by the torrent of attacks in his Sea of Consciousness once again. However, he also didn’t want to leave either; therefore, he deliberately decided to move in a particular direction. All because he could sense one of his spiritual consciousness imprints from that particular direction.

Ning Cheng had only put spiritual consciousness imprints on Su Gui, Yan Jinqing and Pengjin. But in the end, he could only feel one of those spiritual consciousness imprints. Ning Cheng clearly recalled that this remaining spiritual consciousness imprint was the same one he had put on Yan Jinqing.

Ning Cheng walked very slowly, yet it still took half an hour before he found Yan Jinqing.

To be exact, he had found Yan Jinqing’s corpse. Yan Jinqing had long since fallen, but she had a strange smile. Moreover, her corpse was also intact, sans a patch of robes missing from her waist, revealing her white skin with a cyan handprint on the lower abdomen.

Ning Cheng took a deep breath feeling shocked. He wasn’t shocked by Yan Jinqing’s death but rather by the circumstances of Yan Jinqing’s death.

Yan Jinqing, regardless of her attitude and personality, was still a Dao Sculpting Holy Emperor. Generally, once a holy emperor falls, the corpse would still contain some of the holy emperor’s dao rhythm residue as long as the corpse is relatively intact. This dao rhythm residue would continue circulating around the corpse for several decades, even after the death of the holy emperor.

Yet, Yan Jinqing’s corpse now felt like that of an ordinary person who had never cultivated. It had no trace of any dao rhythm, as if someone or something had fully stripped Yan Jinqing of her dao rhythm before her death.

Stripped away? Ning Cheng shivered at that thought.

Just then, he heard a faint yet frantic scream from a distance, “Someone is devouring cultivators’ foundation and dao rhythm and seizing spiritual roots........”

The voice only managed to scream half a sentence before abruptly stopping.

Ning Cheng’s scalp tingled, and he understood what had happened. But before he could even think of leaving, he heard several shrill screams and even some cries for help.

But amidst these screams and cries, Ning Cheng also felt an aura similar to the Mysterious Yellow Origins.

Yes, that’s the aura. Ning Cheng felt ecstatic. He was sure that this aura was the unique aura he had felt after entering the Five-elements Star. It was the same aura that had attracted him and made him unconsciously rush in; this aura was the real Five-elements Primal Chaos Aura.

This time, Ning Cheng didn’t hesitate and immediately moved toward the source of this aura. Since entering the Five-elements Star, he acted mostly passively. But now that he sensed the real Five-elements Primal Chaos Aura, he didn’t want to give up on it. Otherwise, he would definitely feel sorry for himself.