Chapter Thirty-Five: Lanzhou Island

  An Yi was completely unaware that she had walked into the light, and instead hugged Ning Cheng tightly, even trembling slightly.

  "An Yi..." Ning Cheng was about to call out to An Yi, but he also felt that something was off. He and An Yi were surrounded by fog everywhere, even An Yi's snow-white chest was obscured by the mist, making it seem vague and indistinct.

  "...Soul Soldiers..." An Yi's voice trembled slightly, she seemed extremely afraid of those Soul Soldiers.

  Ning Cheng had already thrown An Yi's problem to one side and sat up instantly, not caring about his fatigue at all. He quickly pulled An Yi behind a boulder.

  A headless man held a human head in his hand, hunching over and slowly moving forward in the faint mist. After walking a few steps, he suddenly took out a bloody palm from the package on his back and stuffed it into the mouth of the head in his hand. The head he was holding began to chew slowly.

  Ning Cheng felt a tingling sensation on his scalp, even though he was on Fang Yi Jian's ship, he had never had such an ominous and terrifying feeling.

  That man chewed on a palm of his hand, and suddenly automatically turned his head in one direction. His two dull eyes stared directly at the position where Ning City and An Yi were hiding, and there was even some bloodstain at the corner of his mouth.

  Ning Cheng felt a chill in his heart, and a wisp of aura from the Xuanhuang Pearl dispersed once again, driving away that icy coldness.

  Fortunately, the headless man seemed to be unaware that the head in his hand was looking towards Ning City, and he continued to walk slowly into the fog, disappearing gradually.

  "Ning brother, that soul soldier doesn't have a head..." An Yi's voice was trembling slightly, apparently she had never seen such a bizarre thing.

  Ning Cheng said in a low voice, "An Yi, I suspect that's not a soul soldier. When we just arrived, this was just an island. Now suddenly there's a lot of fog, and you can't see anything around. It's very likely to be an array, maybe it's an illusion array. The person without a head may not exist at all, or we ourselves have produced hallucinations."

  Although comforting Anyi, Ning Cheng himself had no bottom line in his heart. He also didn't dare to confirm whether it was an illusion or not, because the scene just now was too real.

  After a stick of incense, the fog gradually dispersed, and Ning City and An Yi's eyes once again restored the original scene.

  "I see, this is Lanship Island." Ning Cheng suddenly came to his senses, feeling that the surroundings were somewhat familiar, and the environment around him was exactly the same as the map given by Ye Zong.

  Ning City's glance was unforgettable, and although he had thrown away those two pictures, he still remembered the things depicted in the formation diagram clearly. The outer surroundings of Lanzhou Island painted on the formation diagram were exactly like the scene before his eyes now.

  "What are we going to do? I heard that the Golden Cicada Fruit has appeared here, and many people will be coming over." An Yi asked with some concern after hearing that it was Lansa Island.

  Ning Cheng immediately said, "That Yidao person wants us to join their team, absolutely not with good intentions. Whether that Yidao person came on the fifteenth of last month or this month's fifteenth, our strength is not enough to intervene. This month's fifteenth should still have a few days, let's first find a safe place to hide and then talk."

  If there were a boat, Ning Cheng would have left now. Unfortunately, he had no boat and couldn't leave at all. He didn't believe that there was a Golden Cicada Fruit here. If there really was one, could it be taken away by someone like him who only had three layers of Qi condensation?

  Ning Cheng and An Yi did not dare to enter the heart of the island, so they walked along the edge of the island for more than two hours, and finally found a huge reef again on the edge of the island.

  Ning Cheng took out the inferior magic tool long knife he had obtained from Pi San, and in the rocky area, he found a hidden place to start digging. Ning Cheng's cultivation was at the fourth level of Qi gathering, plus he had an inferior magic tool, and he didn't cherish this magic tool at all. In just half a day, Ning Cheng dug out a huge rocky cave.

  At this time, An Yi had already changed into a new set of clothes and followed Ning Cheng into the newly excavated reef cave. The two had just entered when the outside was once again shrouded in fog.

  "This place is indeed eerie, I need to find a way to refine some array flags and set up an array to seal this cave. An Yi, you have spirit stones, cultivate them first." Ning City saw the increasingly dense fog outside and secretly rejoiced at his correct decision. If he was still in the fog, he might lose his direction and enter the island's core directly.

  An Yi had no objections to Ning Cheng's opinion, she knew that Ning Cheng needed a lot of spiritual stones for his cultivation, and these spiritual stones were of no use to him at all, it was better for her to cultivate herself. When her cultivation level was higher, she would go help Ning Cheng find the spiritual stones he needed for his cultivation.

  Jian An began to cultivate, and Ning Cheng took out some materials to start refining the array flags. He had never learned how to refine equipment before, but the basic principles of array cultivation did have some simple introductions on refining array flags. After two days of exploration and countless experiments, Ning Cheng surprisingly refined a few first-grade array flags. Although they were still somewhat rough, these array flags could already be used to set up a first-grade array formation.

  Ning Cheng was very dissatisfied, he had some regrets, previously not asking Fang Yi Jian how many jade slips of equipment refining he wanted. At this time, he already understood that equipment refining and array techniques were indeed closely linked. If he didn't learn equipment refining well, he absolutely couldn't become a good array master.

  Thinking of the close connection between equipment refinement and array methods, Ning City sighed. Equipment refinement would absolutely not be easier than refining elixirs. The Xuan Huang Pearl could only help him correct his cultivation method, but it couldn't let him quickly grasp the skills of refining elixirs and equipment. It seemed that even if he grasped a lot more array method theories, becoming a formidable array master was still unlikely.

  After simply setting up a first-class hidden array in the cave, Ning Cheng took out several jade slips given by Fang Yi. Two of the jade slips were spell jade slips, and Ning Cheng couldn't see a single word on them. He didn't know if his cultivation was too low or if the jade slips given by Fang Yi were fake.

  Ning City took out those four jade slips of merit again. The first one was invisible, the second one was invisible, the third one...

  Ning Cheng's mind had already made up that Fang Yi Jian was deceiving him. Even if he couldn't see everything on the jade slip clearly, his cultivation method had been corrected by the Xuan Huang Pearl, and his divine sense was definitely much stronger than an ordinary Qi gathering cultivator. Now, he couldn't even see a single word on the jade slip, so wasn't Fang Yi Jian deceiving him?

  This idea changed when Ning Cheng picked up the fourth jade slip, and to his surprise, he was actually able to sense something inside with his divine intent.

  "Ru Yi Xuan Mu Jue..."

  The first few words were still okay for Ning City, but as he went further back, they became increasingly blurred. When Ning City saw the words "gather energy to form yuan, achieve condensation of truth", his head hurt and he couldn't read on. However, with Ning City's abnormal memory, once he had seen it, he wouldn't be able to forget it no matter what.

  This was a wooden-style technique, Ning Cheng closed his eyes and carefully thought about the technique again. He found that this technique was not much better than the Ning family's technique he had corrected.

  Ning Cheng didn't want to cultivate this technique himself, he thought of An Yi. At this time, An Yi was cultivating, Ning Cheng had already felt that An Yi's cultivation technique was also ordinary after hearing Fang Yi Jian's words. He interrupted An Yi who was in the middle of cultivating and asked, "An Yi, what is your spiritual root? What technique are you cultivating?"

  After An Yi finished her practice, she opened her eyes and said, "My main spiritual root is wood-based, and I cultivate the Ordinary Wood Technique. My master said that after I condense my true self, I need to find a new technique."

  "Ordinary Wooden Manual, it should be the lowest grade of ordinary skill. In Fang Yijian's skills that he gave me, there is a 'Wishful Mystic Wooden Manual', I won't use it, leave it for you to cultivate." Ning Cheng said, and threw the jade slip in his hand to An Yi.

  "Mysterious Wood Formula? This should be a Mysterious-level skill, something even my master has never seen before. Fang Yijian just casually gave it to you, he's really wealthy."

  An Yi took the jade scroll, and exclaimed in surprise. Even if she wasn't Zhang Yang's type, getting a Xuan-level technique was still somewhat exciting. She naturally knew how precious Xuan-level techniques were; her master had said that even Three Star Academy might not have many Xuan-level techniques.

  The lowest level of cultivation techniques is the mortal level, followed by the true level. Only those above the true level are considered to be at the mysterious level. After the mysterious level, there are also earth and heaven levels, which are legendary.

  Even with An Yi's personality, having obtained a Xuan-level cultivation method, she was eager to read it out through her divine sense. Unfortunately, her divine sense intensity was far inferior to Ning Cheng, and she couldn't see even a single character.

  Ning Cheng looked at An Yi's expression and knew that An Yi couldn't read the jade slip, so he said straightforwardly, "I'll tell you, just remember it."

  An Yi didn't find it strange that she could see the contents of Ning Cheng's jade slip, and during this time spent with Ning Cheng, she had grown more accustomed to some of the things happening around him.

  An Yi's memory was good, but it was far from Ning Cheng's abnormal level. After Ning Cheng repeated it several times, An Yi finally memorized the entire Qigong method of the Like-minded Mystic Wood Decision.

  "Ning brother, or I'll change to practice 'Ru Yi Xuan Mu Jue' instead." An Yi finished reciting the gathering qi method of "Ru Yi Xuan Mu Jue" and immediately realized that this technique was many times stronger than her original "Fan Mu Jue".

  Ning Cheng and An Yi were the same, they didn't know the danger of changing their cultivation method at all. Since it was a good cultivation method, of course, it should be improved, there's nothing strange about that.

  Ning Cheng was just about to agree with An Yi's words when a refreshing and fragrant scent suddenly wafted into the cave. Ning Cheng sniffed it a few times, and instantly felt refreshed and invigorated. He stood up unconsciously, "What is this smell? It seems like a familiar Ling fruit fragrance... wait, I remember..."

  "It's the Golden Cicada Fruit." An Yi also stood up, and that beginner spiritual grass book in Ning City was still given to Ning City by her. Ning City could find out what the scent of the Golden Cicada Fruit was like from that book, and she apparently knew too.

  "Really, there is a Golden Cicada Fruit?" Ning Cheng's tone became somewhat excited.

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