Chapter 0560: Drifting Starland

Ning Cheng finally opened his eyes and felt the surging Celestial Essence; it was the first time for him to feel incredibly tranquil while experiencing a crazy upgrade in his cultivation. However, he knew that despite his current cultivation, his strength did not mean much within the starry skies.

In two years, cultivating using a pile of Perpetual Moon Pills, he had progressed from early-stage Celestial Shatterer Realm and reached the full-circle of Celestial Shatterer Realm, just a step away from the Celestial Gatherer Realm.

Even if he had not advanced to the Celestial Gatherer Realm yet, Ning Cheng felt fully aware of the changes in his strength. At this moment, his strength was not much weaker compared to the temporary boost in power he gained on ingesting the Violent Celestial Pill. This showed that the Violent Celestial Pill indeed did not provide any significant advantage, even if it could forcibly raise his cultivation to the Celestial Bridge Realm, it was only temporary without any base.

Since the medicinal pill did not have much effect on him, it was no wonder that the aftereffects were also not too extreme.

During the two years in seclusion, Ning Cheng never came out, and even Steward Lu seemed to have forgotten him, never coming to open the door to the small wine cellar.

His starry skies’ Sea of Consciousness had also started to clear up while his Spiritual Consciousness began to transform into something more flexible. Despite his cultivation improving rapidly, Ning Cheng chose against stretching out his Spiritual Consciousness for the past two years. This was a relatively stable merchant ship, with the capability of crossing through starry skies; as such, it definitely would contain a few experts aboard. In case an expert took note of his Spiritual Consciousness, it would not be worth the trouble.

It was almost time to advance to the Celestial Gatherer Realm, Ning Cheng thought while giving out a slow sigh,

However, before proceeding to the Celestial Gatherer Realm, Ning Cheng took out a pile of storage rings. At the same time, he also erased all remaining Spiritual Consciousness Tags on the Five Elements Treasure Fall Copper Coin before stopping there and did not continue further refining the copper coin, and set it aside for Luofei. He absolutely would not believe that Luofei would leave; even on the off chance that Luofei decided to go out in search for him, regardless of where in the universe, he would still make every effort to find her.

From the pile of rings obtained from Yue Clan, apart from a variety of talismans, they only contained a collection of materials. Ning Cheng himself was a low-level Talisman Master; therefore, these materials could help him refine some talismans that he could actually use. As for Yue Huangfu’s True Celestial River-class Battleship, with Ning Cheng’s current ability, there was no way to make it his own.

The only thing that made Ning Cheng feel pleased was Yue Shang’s three-storey iron tower. This three-storey iron tower went by the name, Sealing Celestial Pagoda. The first layer of mist could seal the opponents. After sealing the opponent, the second storey’s blades could then quickly kill them. The third floor contained the Domain Breaking Array Tip. If the opponent’s domain turned out too powerful, then one could activate the Sealing Celestial Pagoda’s third floor, which could directly blow open the opponent’s domain, allowing you to kill your opponent with ease.

……

After taking care of everything else, Ning Cheng once again went into seclusion to reach the Celestial Gatherer Realm.

A few months later, which felt like a few seconds to Ning Cheng in seclusion, he immediately sobered up after sensing the tremors running through the airship. Moreover, almost at the same time that Ning Cheng felt those tremors, he also advanced to the early-stage of the Celestial Gatherer Realm.

Just like the waters that churned about in the Yangtze River, his Celestial Essence surged through his meridians while his starry skies’ Sea of Consciousness grew even more tenacious. At this moment, Ning Cheng felt that if he extended out his Spiritual Consciousness, he could quickly seal a Celestial Gatherer Cultivator, someone of his own cultivation level. Such a feeling stemmed from an innate self-confidence, entirely without reason.

So formidable, Ning Cheng finally felt a little more excited. In less than three years, he managed to advance from Celestial Shatterer Realm to Celestial Gathering Realm. Although he had the support of a large amount of Perpetual Moon Pills, Ning Cheng knew that it might still not be enough to transform a person like him.

If he wanted to grow stronger, he had to plunge himself into more danger. If he had not entered the Time Wilderness, had not entered the Perpetual Moon Lake, could he have advanced to the Celestial Shatterer Realm in less than a decade? Could he have comprehended the Sunset Twilight?

He had just advanced to the Celestial Gatherer Realm; however, he could also feel that his Celestial Essence right now had become even more powerful than the time when he swallowed the Violent Celestial Pill. This showed that if one really wanted to achieve a breakthrough in their cultivation, they had to rely on their own understandings about cultivation. It was both the truth and the reality.

Just as Ning Cheng thought about continuing to consolidate his cultivation, he suddenly realised something. Just before he advanced to the Celestial Gatherer Realm, he seemed to have felt the hull of the airship vibrate slightly.

This was not Ning Cheng’s first time riding the void battleship or an airship in general. The last time he rode such a mode of transport was when he came out from Orchid Borough Celestial River; it was also during that ride that the airship ended up crossing paths with a seemingly endless horde of starry skies’ Spirit Devouring Rats. Did this airship also encounter something similar?

Ning Cheng had just thought about it when a resonant voice passed through the entire airship, “Our fleet is about to enter the void; however, our advance reckon fleets discovered a drifting starland. From preliminary investigation, this starland seem to have many rare artefact-crafting materials. It even has many starry skies’ spirit grasses for alchemy. At this moment, all the cultivators can enter this drifting starland to find artefact-crafting materials and starry skies’ spirit grasses. The cultivators who manage to obtain those artefact-crafting materials and starry skies’ spirit grasses can choose to sell them on the airship if they desire. However, to all the cultivators wishing to head to this drifting starland, they must keep in mind that this drifting starland also contains a large number of starry skies’ beast hordes……”

This time, Ning Cheng took the initiative to sweep out with his Spiritual Consciousness and sure enough, found many cultivators, who stayed in the lowest cabins, rushing towards the bottom deck.

These cultivators had painstakingly gone through numerous hardships to obtain a ride over the void airship that could take them to Grand Culmination Starry Skies, all for getting better cultivation resources. Now that a treasure trove of cultivation resources had appeared in front of them, how could they voluntarily miss such an opportunity?

If he had not advanced to the Celestial Gatherer Realm, Ning Cheng would have chosen to continue to stay in seclusion in the small wine cellar. However, now that he advanced to the Celestial Gatherer Realm, how could he miss such an opportunity? Despite achieving continuous improvements, if Ning Cheng continued to stay inside in seclusion, it would only restrict his achievements and might even digress his cultivation. If he were such a person who liked staying in isolation, Ning Cheng would have never left Rootless Black City or even Rainbow Fall Sword Sect.

Ning Cheng took out the mask-type dao artefact and once again transformed into the starry skies’ Wanderer before leaving the small wine cellar and mixing in with a large number of cultivators on the deck.

By the time Ning Cheng arrived at the deck, the merchant ship’s bottom deck already resembled a ‘sea’ of cultivators. Although this was the lowest deck, everyone could still see the starry skies outside.

Ten huge starry skies-class airships remained suspended in the void in front of them, and in front of these starry skies-class airships was a huge shadow of a starland. From this, everyone understood that the entire fleet wished to enter this drifting starland to find treasures.

“Hurry up and open the restrictions. Let us out.” Some of the more anxious cultivators, standing at the edge of the deck, yelled out about opening the restrictions.

A middle-aged cultivator with a powerful aura suddenly descended from somewhere above, then glancing at the cultivators standing on the deck, spoke up with a light voice, “Our fleet encountering a drifting starland is a matter of luck; however, I must warn you that it is also a risky endeavour. This drifting starland has dangers all around with a lot many starry skies beast hordes inside. I will not say anything more. I know that even if it turned out more dangerous, everyone here would choose to head out.”

“While I open the restriction, I must also tell everybody a piece of good news. That is, for any materials that fellow Dao Friends obtain from the drifting starland, you can bring them up to the top floors and trade them for what you want. Many of our Dao Friends still live on the lowest floor’s great hall. If you can obtain some good things in this drifting starland, maybe you might earn a chance to move up to a higher-level Essence Qi cabin. Opening the restriction now; hope that lady luck smiles on you……”

The moment the deck’s restriction opened, the already restless cultivators immediately rushed out. Not to mention about finding good-quality materials to take to the upper floors for sale, or even living on the upper floors, which cultivator among them did not want more resources that could help improve their strength?

At this time, the restrictions covering the lower levels of all the other ships also opened, and nearly countless cultivators flocked towards the drifting starland.

Ning Cheng controlled his own knock-off battleship while blending in with a large number of cultivators rushing forward. Stretching out his Spiritual Consciousness, he estimated that there were at least a few hundred thousand cultivators rushing towards this drifting starland.

Reached near the periphery of this drifting starland, Ning Cheng finally understood what that middle-aged cultivator meant by his words ‘many beast hordes’. Just beyond the boundary of this drifting starland was an almost endless expanse of starry skies’ Stone Stripped Spiders. The cultivators had not yet reached the drifting starland, yet they could clearly smell the nauseating smell coming from these starry skies’ Stone Striped Spiders.

As Ning Cheng’s Spiritual Consciousness swept around, he gave out a sigh in his heart. He understood that these fleets truly had no good intentions. Most of the cultivators here were cultivators who came from the bottom floors. He didn’t need to guess, Ning Cheng knew that these cultivators would end up almost completely wiped out and would only be serving as cannon fodder for these starry skies’ Stone Striped Spiders. Only after the first wave would the cultivators from the higher floors descend.

These denizens of the third-class cabins not only brought in many celestial coins for these starry skies-class merchant ships, but they also ended up as cannon fodders for these merchant ships.

The horde of starry skies’ Stone Stripped Spiders on seeing the various battleships, immediately rushed out. At the same time, those starry skies’ Stone Stripped Spiders also shot out multi-coloured spider silks and different kinds of blade lights, just like a dense fog of colourful mists, without leaving the slightest gap.

A part of the cultivators who had rushed to the front and could not activate their battleship’s combat capabilities in time found themselves tied down by these spider’s silk. A moment later, their warships immediately gave out intermittent creaking sounds before their hulls quickly disintegrated under the corrosive properties of those multi-coloured spider silk. The cultivators that managed to escape from those disintegrating battleships could only send out one or two attacks before every single one of them ended up swallowed by either the starry skies’ Stone Stripped Spiders’ multi-coloured spider silk or their blade lights.

Some of the battleships in the back, on seeing such a scene, immediately shot out rays of lights, blowing apart some of the approaching starry skies’ Stone Stripped Spiders. Ning Cheng immediately knew that these rays of lights were Radium Light Arrows of different grades, mixed in with a few Radium Light Artilleries.

Although they managed to kill large swaths of starry skies’ Stone Stripped Spiders, the starry skies’ Stone Stripped Spiders also managed to disintegrate and eliminate a large number of cultivators and their battleships. Ning Cheng’s knockoff battleship also occasionally shot out a few rounds of Radium Light Arrows, showing that he was also attacking.

Although these starry skies’ Stone Striped Spiders were much more capable compared to the starry skies’ Spirit Devouring Rats that Ning Cheng had encountered previously, after a relatively short while, the numbers of these starry skies’ Stone Stripped Spiders had also grown sparse.

Seeing that the quantity of those starry skies’ Stone Stripped Spiders had gone down significantly, innumerable more battleships shot out from the original dozens of ships suspended in the void.

The starry skies’ Stone Stripped Spiders, who could already not handle the pressure, quickly collapsed and fled. Ning Cheng realised at this point that these newly arrived cultivators did not fear death as he initially suspected; instead, they did not want to waste resources on continuously firing Radium Light Arrows.

Once those starry skies’ Stone Stripped Spiders scattered, the millions of cultivators immediately rushed into the drifting starland. Ning Cheng naturally did not remain polite at this time; this floating starland had no master; as such, whoever advanced the farthest could obtain the best things.

Despite the millions of cultivators rushing into the drifting starland, the crowd disappeared in almost an instant. In just a few moments, there remained no one around Ning Cheng.

In such a place, Ning Cheng no longer chose to hold back his Spiritual Consciousness; a moment later, a bamboo exuding a robust vitality appeared in the range of his Spiritual Consciousness. Although Ning Cheng did not have any idea about what this bamboo was, he knew that it definitely was a good thing.

A few breaths later, Ning Cheng arrived in front of this bamboo. This was a green bamboo shoot only three feet tall, whose leaves looked similar to the bamboo leaves of an ordinary bamboo. If anything, the leaves turned out slightly larger compared to the regular kind.

Ning Cheng was just about to dig out this bamboo when a Daoist shadow appeared in the range of his Spiritual Consciousness. Ning Cheng immediately sped up his movements, but by the time he managed to dig out this bamboo, this Daoist shadow had already descended in front of him.