Chapter 44: Ice System Magic

  The water pillar sprayed for at most ten breaths, and then fell back into the lake. The entire lake returned to its original state, if not for some ripples still rippling on the surface of the lake, Ning Cheng might have thought he had seen it wrong.

  At the same time, Ning Cheng clearly felt that the water pillar that spouted out carried a rich spiritual energy, much more abundant than the surrounding spiritual energy.

  Ning Cheng knew that this might be the Da'an Forest, so he didn't dare to act rashly. Whatever was at the bottom of the lake, it wasn't something his current cultivation could handle. If his cultivation were a bit higher, he might have gone to take a look at the situation at the bottom of the lake, but now he didn't want to make any moves here.

  Retreating from the lake, Ning City found a giant tree with a diameter of nearly 15 meters and planned to cultivate in its heart for the time being. Trees with diameters of over 10 meters are not common on Earth, but they are everywhere here. The one Ning City found was not even the thickest, just because hiding inside this tree to cultivate can directly see the movement in the lake.

  Ning Cheng thought he was going to make a nest for himself, but after climbing to the top of the tree, he found that there was already a huge cave in the heart of the tree. The cave had some fishy smell, and it was unknown which kind of monster left it behind. From the look of this tree hole, it seemed that no monsters had entered here for many years.

  Ning Cheng swept the tree hole clean and set up a stealth array and a defensive array above the treetop. He didn't dare to set up arrays by the lake, his array skills were really too poor, although he could barely understand second-level arrays, but with his standard of refining array flags, he could only set up some first-level arrays.

  Sitting in the tree hole, Ning Cheng set up a hidden breath first-class formation, and only then did he put his mind at ease. Some of the formation methods were arranged, which made Ning Cheng understand that no matter where he was, the more things he understood, the more beneficial it would be to himself. If he didn't know how to arrange formations, he could only passively pray that others wouldn't find this place like before.

  Now he has set up his formation, even if there are monsters attacking him, he will know before that.

  Although sitting in the tree hole, all changes in the lake are in Ning City's eyes, which allows him to cultivate with peace of mind and check the changes of the lake at any time.

  More than 200 spiritual stones were taken out by Ning City, and he planned to raise his cultivation to the later stage of Qi gathering.

  As Ning City cultivated, he once again forgot everything. One by one, the spiritual stones were turned into powder, and the spiritual energy within them combined with the Xuan Huang aura to constantly flush his body. Ning City could even faintly feel that as his cultivation was increasing, his spiritual root talent was also improving.

  Even with spiritual energy replenishment, Ning Cheng still needed to eat something from time to time. He had not yet reached the level of being able to go without food and survive solely on spiritual energy.

  Time passed day by day, and when the true energy in his body gathered to a certain extent again, a faint sound echoed in his body, and then the powerful true energy surged through all the meridians. Some impurities in his body were expelled from his skin, and the strong flow of true energy made Ning City know that he had advanced to the fifth layer of gathering energy.

  Ning Cheng let out a sigh of relief and opened his eyes only to find that all the spirit stones he had taken out had been used up.

  "Awesome." Ning Cheng muttered to himself, from the fourth layer of Qi gathering to the fifth layer of Qi gathering, he used more than 200 spirit stones, or maybe only someone with his poor innate talent would do so.

  Not only that, this time he spent a month advancing from the fourth layer of Qi gathering to the fifth layer. If he continues at this rate, the remaining spiritual stones will definitely not be enough for him to cultivate to the seventh layer of Qi gathering.

  Ning Cheng took out a sword and gave his two jade slips to his magic techniques. He advanced from the fourth layer of Qi gathering to the fifth layer, and his divine sense became stronger by more than double. He should be able to see the contents of the jade slips now. His spiritual stones were not many, so it's better to study the magic techniques specially.

  This time Ning Cheng's divine sense did not disappoint him, his divine sense swept onto the first magic jade slip and clearly saw the content of the jade slip, Xuan Bing Thirty-six Guns.

  After understanding the content of Yu Jian, Ning Cheng almost burst out in anger. Fang Yijian, this bastard, knew that he only had a flying sword, but gave him a gun manual instead. Although it was a Xuan-level skill, what use was it to him? He couldn't even think about getting a spear-type artifact, let alone the fact that this spear decision didn't suit his spiritual root.

  It's not easy to have advanced magic, but it can't be cultivated. Although Ning City was very depressed, he still took a look at the Xuanbing Thirty-six Guns.

  He's better off not looking, the more he looks, the more depressed he becomes. The thirty-six ice guns of Xuan Bing can form thirty-six ice gun tips after being cultivated to the end, these thirty-six gun tips can form an ice gun net or an ice gun array. Under the cover of these thirty-six guns, ordinary opponents will have no chance to escape? This is a big killer!

  Things are good, but they can't cultivate themselves. Ning City sighed and threw the jade slip to one side, taking out another spell jade slip. The few words on this spell jade slip made Ning City even more furious - Seven Orbs Ice Needle. This was also a Xuan-level spell, yet it was another ice-based spell.

  Ning Cheng knew his own spiritual roots, he had three types of spiritual roots: fire, wood and earth. Ning Cheng now also had a certain understanding of spiritual roots, ice-type spiritual roots belonged to heterodox spiritual roots, cultivators who possessed this type of spiritual root were all being specially cultivated.

  The practice of the ice system's spiritual root is most effective when cultivated by practitioners with an ice spiritual root or a water spiritual root. Practitioners with other types of spiritual roots will have greatly reduced effects.

  These seven-day ice needles are even more sinister, but they require an ice needle artifact that is finer than cow hair. When cultivated to the extreme, this ice needle artifact can evade divine consciousness. This thing ambushes others, making it impossible for people to defend against.

  "It's a pretty toxic spell, but I like it." Ning Cheng muttered to himself, feeling even more depressed afterwards. What's the point of liking it? Not to mention that he wasn't an Ice Spirit Root, even if he was, and could cultivate the Seven Day Ice Needle, he didn't have an ice needle artifact either.

  Ning Cheng rubbed his temples in distress, he knew that his cultivation of divine sense was already remarkable, but without his own magic, he was still far behind others.

  He currently masters wind blade and fireball, which are basic spells unrelated to spiritual roots that anyone can cultivate. Apart from this is his derived fire blade technique, as for his slightly more powerful sword aura, it's completely due to the flying sword that he can slash out. If he encounters an opponent with a similar magical tool, his sword aura isn't worth mentioning.

  Ning Cheng felt a bit disappointed as he put away the jade slip, and came out of the tree hole. He had been cultivating in the tree hole for a month, and was getting anxious.

  Standing by the lake again, Ning Cheng prepared to cast a few Clear Water Decree spells to clean himself up. Suddenly, he saw another water pillar bursting out of the center of the lake, several meters high, just like the one he had seen a month ago, still carrying a rich spiritual energy. The only difference was that this time, the water pillar seemed to have shot up even higher.

  After ten breaths, the water pillar fell again, and the lake center restored its calm once more.

  Ning Cheng calculated it and soon discovered that the time between the last appearance of the water pillar and today's was exactly one month.

  With such a regular water pillar, and with a strong spiritual energy, Ning City really wanted to enter the lake to take a look, but thinking that he didn't have a decent magic trick, he suddenly felt a bit discouraged.

  Xuan Bing's Thirty-Six Guns and Seven Ice Needles sounded quite impressive, but how did he learn them?

  Can't use a sword without a gun? The Jade Simplified has the Xuanbing Thirty-six Guns, and he himself cultivated the Xuanbing Thirty-six Swords. Although his spiritual root is not an ice spirit root, he has the Xuanhuang Pearl, who says it must be impossible to cultivate? Ning Cheng thought of this, got excited again, and directly took out the flying sword. Without a gun, he practiced swords. Maybe after he finishes practicing the Xuanbing Thirty-six Guns, this spell will have to change its name to Xuanbing Thirty-six Swords.

  Ning Cheng's wit and memory were unmatched, but he was worried that his spiritual roots might not be able to cultivate the Xuanbing Thirty-six Guns.

  When he drew out his flying sword and began to cultivate the Xuanbing Thirty-six Spears technique, he immediately realized that he had been overthinking things. The true energy circulating throughout his body transformed into Xuanbing True Energy under the incantation of the Xuanbing Thirty-six Spears technique without any hesitation, and this Xuanbing True Energy combined with his external divine sense without any delay, transforming his flying sword into a strange and mysterious sword aura.

  His only concern wasn't that his spiritual root wasn't an ice spiritual root, but how long his divine sense could support him in controlling the Mystic Ice Sword.

  With a "clang", Ning City's flying sword fell to the ground due to insufficient divine intent. Ning City was not surprised, but instead burst out laughing and said, "I'm indeed exceptionally talented, I can even master ice-based magic so easily..."

  Although excited, he was praising himself, but Ning City knew that his ability to cultivate the 36 guns of Xuan Bing had nothing to do with his qualifications, and must be related to the Xuan Huang Pearl. He even suspected that with the help of the Xuan Huang Ben Yuan, he had gained an extra ice spirit root, but hadn't tested it yet because he wasn't sure. Only when he had the chance in the future would he test it on a magic weapon to see if he really had gained an extra ice-based spiritual root.

  Having the opportunity to practice magic, Ning Cheng tirelessly controlled the flying sword, repeatedly casting his modified Xuan Ice Thirty-six Guns. At first, he could only cast one sword light, but under the continuous correction of Xuan Ice Thirty-six Guns in his mind, three days later, he was able to cast three Xuan Ice sword lights.

  Five days later, Ning Cheng was able to wield the Five Directions of the Mystic Ice Sword Tip. However, Ning Cheng also knew that with his current cultivation level, the Five Directions of the Mystic Ice Sword Tip was his limit. If he didn't shoot out his flying sword, he could still wield two more sword tips. But without shooting out his flying sword, the power of the sword tips he wielded was limited. From this, it can be seen that divine intent is a good thing indeed.

  He could cultivate the Xuanbing Thirty-six Guns, and Ning Cheng would not let go of the Qiyao Ice Needle. He didn't have a fine needle artifact, so he could only use a flying sword as a substitute. Even using a flying sword to replace the flying needle, Ning Cheng was constantly correcting the Qiyao Ice Needle technique. On the tenth day, Ning Cheng had already mastered the control of the flying sword's sneak attack. However, the volume of the flying sword was too large, and it completely failed to achieve the effect of a sneak attack.