Chapter 0716: Compensation

Looking behind, he saw a path paved by bluestone, the same one that led him in here.

Ning Cheng felt relieved and confirmed that it was just a transfer channel. If someone wanted to head back, he or she could just walk down this bluestone path to initiate the transfer.

Only after confirming this did Ning Cheng start to observe the surroundings. It looked empty, like an abandoned public square, instead of a hall.

However, Ning Cheng quickly determined that this place really was a hall but lacked any starry sky aura. This hall did not seem to have any boundaries; he couldn’t even see the ceiling of the temple to gauge the size.

At this time, cultivators continuously poured in from the outside and landed not far from Ning Cheng. The cultivators, after coming in, quickly dispersed and rushed deep into the hall.

Ning Cheng avoided the incoming cultivators and arranged a transfer array in a concealed spot not far away from the exit before entering the deeper parts of the hall.

After walking for a dozen or so miles, Ning Cheng found traces of restrictions and array formations. It’s just that someone had already smashed them apart, allowing Ning Cheng to see the scenes behind the broken restriction through his spiritual consciousness.

He saw many bluestone passages branching out in different directions leading to different areas. He saw a cylinder with no visible top at the end of one path, a dried-up starry sky Spiritual Spring Pool at the end of another one…

Everything he saw, further cemented the idea that this area was indeed was a gigantic palatial hall, and he had appeared near the outer periphery of it, or rather the public square at the entrance of the main hall.

Ning Cheng didn’t need to break the restrictions by himself; he chose an already broken layer of restriction and entered.

Although many cultivators poured in from the outside, they seemed to disappear after coming inside and scattering.

After entering this place, Ning Cheng’s spiritual consciousness forced its way out. This time he saw things even more clearly. He saw many forks along the different paths with several small halls between each bend. These halls came in all shapes and each had layers of restrictions on the outside. It’s just that most of the defensive restrictions were already broken and nothing remained on the inside.

Pushing further, Ning Cheng’s spiritual consciousness no longer could force its way forward.

However, instead of exploring every path, Ning Cheng chose a fork and soon met up with some other cultivators who took this fork before him. But because Ning Cheng moved quickly, he left these cultivators behind in just a short while.

Along the way, Ning Cheng saw more and more cultivators joining hands to break restrictions. Once they broke open the restrictions, they would immediately scramble inside and would regularly find many items, including various weapons, cultivation methods, and even starry sky spiritual grass gardens. But there were also some areas with restrictions that when broken open had nothing in it, equivalent to wasted efforts.

Ning Cheng’s spiritual consciousness swept through these areas behind both the broken and intact restrictions, and a few things that even caught his eye.

But if the Ancient Shadow Temple only contained such things, then Ning Cheng found it a bit of a misnomer.

However, he didn’t come here for exploring the Ancient Shadow Temple. He came here to find Ruolan. He didn’t particularly care about the treasures he saw. Rather, his only worry was that he didn’t know which path she had come in or if she had come in.

……

Deep in another passage of the Ancient Shadow Temple, a large group of people surrounded a swamp. To be precise, this large group of people was somewhere around in the middle, attacking something.

Even Ning Cheng wouldn’t have expected to find a swamp inside the Ancient Shadow Temple.

But despite the expectations, there truly was a vast swamp here, but it was different from other regular marshes one would find anywhere else. It was as if someone had explicitly created it for some specific purpose. One could also see a few paths leading to the middle as they crisscrossed each other, dividing it into smaller sections.

This large group of people surrounded one of these smaller sections, which seemed sealed under a layer of restriction, with a shining white sheet of light underneath it. However, despite the restrictions covering it, it could not stop the starry sky Essence Qi escaping from the inside.

That’s right; this small section actually contained a Perpetual Moon Pill Pond, a small one. Although the Perpetual Moon Pills at the edge of the pill pond looked black due to the sludge, the Perpetual Moon Pills in the middle still had a crystal sheen to it. Everyone could tell that those Perpetual Moon Pills were of superior quality at first glance. Moreover, this patch of Perpetual Moon Pill Pond seemed to contain at least tens of thousands of Perpetual Moon Pills.

Since this small section contained a Perpetual Moon Pill Pond locked behind a layer of restrictions, cultivators immediately surrounded it and started attacking. As one could imagine, the moment the layer protecting this Perpetual Moon Pill Pond burst, the surrounding cultivators would quickly swarm towards it.

“Little Dai, you will attack a spot together with me later. This way, we would have a better chance.” A yellow-robed female cultivator spoke to a green-robed female cultivator next to her.

“Ok, I know Sister Ruolan.”

The green-robed female cultivator had just answered when she received another transmission, “Little Dai, don’t attack with all your strength, this layer of restriction will crumble soon. As everyone rushes forward, use your strengths wisely and only snatch the Perpetual Moon Pills nearest to us. Remember, do not get too greedy, just grab some and leave. And don’t try to grab the crystal-clear Perpetual Moon Pills in the middle; just snatch some from the edges.”

The green-robed female cultivator did not speak this time. She understood what Ruolan meant.

These two female cultivators were Ning Ruolan and Helian Dai who entered the Ancient Shadow Temple. Helian Mingzhe had severe injuries and could only hide in a concealed location and recuperate for now. Helian Dai and Ning Ruolan had decided to venture into the Ancient Shadow Temple to find some cultivation resources. It’s just that the cultivation of these two could not match up to the others in here, and no one wanted to team up with them. The two could only follow others and pick up things that others didn’t want.

Sure enough, Ning Ruolan didn’t speak incorrectly. The layer of restrictions covering this segment of swamp quickly shattered with a ‘katcha’ sound. With that, dense Starry Sky Essence Qi rushed out, and the nearby cultivators swarmed in immediately.

Ning Ruolan and Helian Dai also rushed in. They had already conditioned themselves and did not target the pure white Perpetual Moon Pills that were rich in Starry Sky Essence Qi and without any impurities. The two only snatched the ones on the edges and rushed out in an instant.

In fact, compared to their speed, others were even faster. Fortunately, Ning Ruolan had the right idea. If they wanted to snatch the pure and superior quality Perpetual Moon Pills in the middle, they might not even manage to reach it.

Even if the two of them wanted to grab some of the dark-coloured Perpetual Moon Pills at the edge, polluted by the marsh, they would only have one chance. By the time the two made the decision to retreat, the crowd had already wiped the pill pond clean.

Ning Ruolan and Helian Dai had positioned themselves accurately, which was the only reason they managed to grab some pills. Some of the cultivators with higher cultivations than Ning Ruolan and Helian Dai wanted to snatch the higher-quality Perpetual Moon Pills, the whiter ones in the middle with stronger Starry Sky Essence Qi. As a result, they got nothing.

More than a dozen experts in Heaven’s Mandate Realm quickly divided the high-quality Perpetual Moon Pills in the middle.

“Little Dai, let’s go.” Ning Ruolan knew that even if she and Helian Dai had snatched some dark-coloured Perpetual Moon Pills, someone would definitely take notice of them; therefore, it was better to leave quickly.

“Ok, Big Sister Ruolan, I grabbed sixty Perpetual Moon Pills.” Helian Dai felt pleased and sent a message to Ning Ruolan. She couldn’t help feeling excited.

Ning Ruolan also felt very excited in the same manner and sent a message, “I also grabbed 83, let’s go…..”

“Wait…..” Two cultivators with Celestial Shatterer cultivations stopped Ning Ruolan and Helian Dai. One of them was a male cultivator at the late-stage Celestial Shatterer Realm, and the other was a female cultivator at the middle-level of Celestial Shatterer Realm. The two of them previously wanted to snatch the pure white Perpetual Moon Pill in the middle, but unfortunately, they did not have the required strength. As such, they got nothing.

Ning Ruolan watched the two warily, “What do you two want?”

“Why did you push me when snatching the Perpetual Moon Pills?” The dark-faced male cultivator asked in a very disgruntled tone.

Ning Ruolan knew that the other party wanted to look for faults and could only say, “We never met you. My companion and I entered the pill pond in a completely different direction from you. It would be impossible for us to have encountered each other.”

The people around them understood that this pair with higher cultivation could not obtain any Perpetual Moon Pills; so, they wanted to blackmail it out of others. To say that two Celestial Novice cultivators dared to push Celestial Shatterer cultivators to snatch Perpetual Moon Pills, no one would believe it unless one was insane. Because this pair’s cultivation was not particularly outstanding, they would never dare to make a move on others and could only find someone with worse cultivation, the two Celestial Novice cultivators.

But despite understanding this, no one showed any interest to come forward to help. In this place, getting involved might not be the best thing for them. Besides, such kind-hearted cultivators practically didn’t exist.

“What do you want?” Helian Dai naturally understood what was going on.

The female cultivator frowned, glanced at Helian Dai and Ning Ruolan and said, “Us two could have grabbed at least two or three hundred Perpetual Moon Pills if you hadn’t pushed us. But we didn’t even get a single Perpetual Moon Pill. I don’t care about the quality of your Perpetual Moon Pills, as long as they are Perpetual Moon Pills.”

Helian Dai’s expression suddenly turned ugly, “Me and Big Sister Ruolan, all added up, only obtained a few dozen Perpetual Moon Pills, You want us to compensate you with two hundred of them, why don’t you just flat out rob us?”

At this moment, four more cultivators came over. Apparently, they saw many people here and wanted to know if something good had appeared.

“Really? So you want to push us around. Brother Shao Kui, I don’t know, can you help make the decision here?” The male cultivator with Celestial Shatterer cultivation knew that he could not continue persecuting Ning Ruolan openly, so he cupped his fists and asked a cultivator standing near to them, a cultivator with a late-stage Heaven’s Mandate cultivation.

The Heaven’s Mandate cultivator called Shao Kui spoke up with a smile, “What else can I say? Naturally, it means compensation. If they blocked my path to resources, hehe, it wouldn’t be as simple as compensating with some pills.”

Having said that, the murderous aura from the cultivator in Heaven’s Mandate Realm spread out, and Ning Ruolan and Helian Dai subconsciously stepped back.

The cultivators nearby quickly understood that the reason why that Celestial Shatterer male cultivator looked for someone else was to tell others that he had connections to a cultivator in the Heaven’s Mandate Realm. As such, people from the crowd should not even trouble themselves with this matter. It especially was a warning to the cultivators who had just come in, a warning not to get involved.

“I’ll pay, but we only have a total of thirty Perpetual Moon Pills.” Helian Dai held back the pain in her heart, stretched out her hand, and took out thirty Perpetual Moon Pills. All of the pills looked dark and caked with dirt. After looking at the situation, she already knew what to choose. But even so, she hid the 30 other Perpetual Moon Pills.