Chapter 47: The Overlord of One Side

  After blocking the original rock cave entrance, Ning City was still not at ease and set up a simple shielding array before returning to the edge of the Spiritual Pulse Pool again.

  The materials of the unicorn were not moving in Ning City. He wouldn't refine them, especially that horn, which he planned to use to refine a fine needlework instrument for Yin people. At this time, Ning City took out a storage bag made of goat hair, and what he most wanted to know was whether there was a map of the Da'an Forest on the goat hair.

  The storage bag of the goat beard, according to An Yi's words, should be called a treasure bag, but the space is really small and pitiful. The things inside are also few and pitiful, except for a few low-grade spiritual grasses, there are several unknown dan pills and a jade slip that can't see its contents, apart from this, there is nothing else.

  If I had to say what's most precious about the mountain goat whiskers, it would be the Four-Edged Sword that has already been confiscated by Ning City.

  Ning Cheng casually tossed the goat beard's spatial pouch back into his own storage pouch, feeling a bit disappointed. Without finding the map, that meant he would still have to rely on his own abilities to get out of the Great Ancestor Forest in the future. The goat beard had previously said he could cross the Great Ancestor Forest, if it wasn't a lie, then he must have already memorized the safe route in his mind.

  ……

  Cultivation knows no age, and with the small Spirit Pool in hand, Ning City devoted almost all his time to cultivation. Unlike Du Jiao's method of cultivating with the Spirit Pool, Ning City directly drained the pool dry, fearing that he would absorb too little, without any consideration for conserving its use.

  One month later, Ning City advanced to the sixth layer of Qi gathering. Three months later, Ning City broke through the middle stage of Qi gathering and arrived at the seventh layer of Qi gathering. At this time, his whole body's true energy formed a stream, and with each beat, it was like the true yuan, extremely powerful. Five months later, Ning City advanced to the eighth layer of Qi gathering, and at the same time, he had to leave this small spiritual pool.

  The spiritual energy in the Lingmai Pool has been completely consumed by him. To gather such a pool of spiritual liquid again, it is estimated that it will take at least nearly three years.

  Ning Cheng believed that he wouldn't be staying here waiting for three years, as he had already gathered eight layers of aura and was about to advance to the ninth layer. Once he reached the ninth layer, he would face the problem of how to condense his aura into a real entity.

  In Pingzhou, the reason why true essence cultivators are rare is that apart from the scarcity of spiritual energy and spiritual root problems, there is also no True Essence Pill.

  Ning Cheng had also seen some people who could condense their True Essence without using the True Essence Pill, but he was certain that he wasn't one of them. He would probably need at least one True Essence Pill to advance to the True Essence stage.

  Refining the Cong Zhēn Dān requires over a dozen precious spiritual herbs, but the most crucial and hardest to obtain is the Golden Cicada Fruit. Ning Cheng had one Golden Cicada Fruit on him, he decided to leave this place and find someone to refine the Cong Zhēn Dān.

  ……

  Ning Cheng had obviously thought things were too simple, and the Great Ancestor Forest did not give him a way out just because he had advanced to the eighth layer of Qi Condensation. For an entire month, Ning Cheng was still trapped on the edge of Clear Water Lake.

  It's not that he didn't want to go out, but after a month of time, Ning City discovered that each area of the Da'an Forest had an extremely powerful demon beast guarding it. During this period of searching for a way out, he encountered more than ten second-level demon beasts and even met third-level demon beasts twice.

  If it weren't for his speed, the three-level demonic beast wouldn't have thought of killing him, and he would have had no way to stay at Qing Shui Lake.

  However, Ning City wasn't without gains either. Many demonic beasts had already taken the Clear Water Lake area as their territory by default, which was the result of Ning City killing several early-stage level 2 demonic beasts.

  Ning Cheng's current cultivation base had reached the 8th layer of Qi Gathering, and he could already cast 12 swords with his modified Mystic Ice Sword technique. However, this was not the greatest harvest for him; the greatest gain was that with his 8th layer Qi Gathering cultivation base, he could now tread on flying swords to fly a short distance.

  The flying sword technique that Ning Cheng obtained was modified from the jade slip given by Fang Yi, which made Ning Cheng feel very pleased. In Pingzhou, even some condensed true cultivators were unable to fly with their swords, but now he, an eighth-level Qi gathering cultivator, had already achieved it.

  Even if Ning City knew that his cultivation was high enough to fly with a sword, when he actually flew with a sword, he was still excited. When he first cast fireballs and wind blades, he had never felt this kind of excitement before. Fortunately, Ning City still had self-awareness, and he was very clear that if he wanted to fly out of the Great Ancestor Forest, his current cultivation was still far from enough.

  In a month's time, Ning Cheng killed hundreds of first-grade and lower demon beasts. He constantly sought to find a way out, constantly needing to pass through the territories of other demon beasts, which also led to constant conflicts with other demon beasts. Once, he even killed dozens of first-grade wolf demons in one breath. The Mystic Ice Thirty-six Swords slaughtered the wolf demons as easily as cutting wheat.

  During this time, Ning Cheng had summed up a rule: if he passed through the territory of a third-grade demon beast and was relatively far away from the third-grade demon beast, then the third-grade demon beast wouldn't bother with him. If he passed through the territory of a demon beast whose cultivation was similar to his own, it would instead lead to conflict.

  After figuring out this rule, Ning Cheng finally understood why the solitary horned crocodile had ignored him by the clear water lake earlier. It turned out that it had regarded him as a dispensable little ant. In Ning Cheng's summary of experience, all low-level demon beasts living within the range of high-level demon beasts were nothing but lunchboxes for the high-level demon beasts.

  This boxed meal is something that the high-ranking demon beast wants to eat whenever he wants, and it must be delivered immediately. In other words, his survival by the lake for two months was actually just a boxed meal for the unicorn. Once the unicorn has some free time, he can get rid of him at any moment.

  On the other hand, if it's a demon beast with roughly the same cultivation as his own territory, these demon beasts will think he's coming to snatch their territory and immediately get up to protect their territory from being invaded.

  It was precisely because he knew this that Ning Cheng showed no hesitation in ruthlessly killing the demonic beasts that came to Qing Shui Lake. According to the law of the jungle, he absolutely could not give the other demonic beasts a misconception, making them think that he was easy to bully.

  Ning Cheng's combat experience and mastery of the two magical techniques have improved dramatically in this month of slaughter. With his current level of experience, if he were to fight against Jie Yu again with only three layers of gathered aura, he would absolutely not be injured.

  After Ning City's time of crazy killing, many monsters around Qing Shui Lake knew that Ning City was good at fighting and would not show mercy. Later on, as long as Ning City did not stay within their range for too long, those monsters generally did not want to come out and fight with Ning City, directly pretending to be ostriches to let Ning City pass by.

  For Ning Cheng, if he leaves Qing Shui Lake and doesn't find a way out, it's not a good thing. At least in Qing Shui Lake, he is also considered a tyrant.

  ……

  "Hoo...hooo..." A brown, spiky-haired bear was now facing Ning City, letting out a low, mournful howl. However, it didn't dare to pounce on Ning City. It was growling at Ning City because Ning City had once again entered its territory and stayed for a long time without leaving.

  This spiky-haired bear was also a second-level primary demon beast. It had previously suffered at Ning City's hands twice, but fortunately for it, Ning City had only passed by those two times. However, this somewhat troublesome guy in its eyes had actually come again, and this time he didn't leave, even digging around in its territory.

  "Scram, I'm just looking for a piece of magnet and then I'll leave. If you keep nagging, don't blame me for taking action." Ning Cheng waved the flying sword in his hand and also shouted at the Stabbing Hair Bear.

  He came here to find a piece of magnetite, and he still had over three hundred low-grade spirit stones on him. Ning City thought that these three hundred low-grade spirit stones would definitely not be enough for him to cultivate to the ninth layer of Qi gathering. Moreover, he also wanted to go out and search for the Condensed True Dan.

  For more than a month, he had not found a way out. He decided to find a piece of iron and make a compass. Ning Cheng speculated that the place where he was should also be a planet, similar to a large magnet. He wanted to make something that could point to a fixed position, and then he would walk in one direction, and one day he would be able to get out. As for whether the compass he made pointed south or not, it didn't affect him at all.

  This second-level Stabhair Bear didn't know that Ning Cheng was looking for magnets, and it let out a loud roar, wanting Ning Cheng to quickly leave its territory.

  Ning Cheng saw this porcupine bear and couldn't understand his idea at all, so he simply took out the flying sword and prepared to take action.

  Just then, a flurry of light and rapid footsteps came over, as if someone had rushed over at an angle. Ning Cheng immediately gave up the idea of making a move on the porcupine, staring intently at the person rushing over.

  This was a young man covered in scars, his true energy scattered and no longer visible as a cultivator. When he saw Ning City, a hint of joy flashed across his eyes, but he immediately collapsed to the ground due to exhaustion.

  "Senior......" Although he fell to the ground, this young man did not faint and still called out to Ning Cheng with a hopeful tone, obviously hoping that Ning Cheng would lend a hand.

  The young man had just fallen to the ground when a gray-black wolf demon chased after him. This wolf demon was already a top-notch demon beast, and as soon as it arrived, its first glance fell on Ning Cheng, who was holding the flying sword in his hand. Almost at the same time it saw Ning Cheng, the gray-black wolf demon quickly turned around and escaped into the depths of the forest, disappearing from view within two breaths.

  Ning City didn't mind the gray-black demon that escaped, he just subconsciously touched his face and thought to himself, "Am I really old?" Being called "senior" by someone older than him? To think that his actual age was not even eighteen years old yet. The whiskers on his hand made Ning City guess that he probably looked like a weathered uncle now.

  Ning Cheng took out a jade bottle and handed it to the young man who was lying on the ground, saying, "I don't have any life-saving medicine, only a little clear water, drink some."

  Although Ning Cheng said that it was only a little clear water, this little clear water was really not ordinary, and it was taken from the Lingmai Spring Pool, at least it still carried a strong spiritual energy.

  The young man looked at the distant Ning City's Stabbing Bear with some trepidation, and his eyes showed even more hope. He didn't take the water that Ning City handed him, but instead took out a package and handed it to Ning City, saying, "I won't make it, please help me deliver this package to Meng Yu Jing of Huazhou Xingxing Academy's Five-Star Department, and have her pass it on to my younger brother Kou Xiuyuan. Just say it's from Kou Hong..."