Ninth In the World

After entering the Sky Route City, Di Jiu could sense the city’s prosperity even more clearly. He had also been to other prosperous cultivation cities in the Polar Night Continent, including the North Ridge City, the Thorn Ocean City, and the Sky Market City. These cities, however, could not compare to the Sky Route City.

What made Di Jiu most envious were the Spirit Qi whirlpools everywhere. These Spirit Qi whirlpools had obviously been created by cultivating individuals. Di Jiu had made a Spirit Qi whirlpool while cultivating in the Marsh Ocean Town. However, he had almost been killed as a result. Despite the many Spirit Qi whirlpools in the area, no one took any action.

“You must be at the early-stage Essence Soul Realm, Brother Di Jiu. In any case, you won’t be able to head over to the Everlasting Domain Planet anytime soon. If you want to, you could join the Azure Sect.” After entering the Sky Route City with Di Jiu, Gai Shitian could also sense that Di Jiu had no place to go. He had to be an Itinerant Cultivator.

Di Jiu hesitated for a while before saying, “I plan on searching for a place to enter reclusive cultivation for a period of time. I will only consider any other options afterwards.”

“If you want to cultivate, then go to the Five Continent Pavilion’s cave abode. The price of the cave abodes there is slightly higher, but the Spirit Qi in that area is definitely the densest. I’m staying at the Forgetful River Inn. You can find me there whenever you need me.” Gai Shitian was not bothered by Di Jiu’s reply. Making friends was in his nature, so he would naturally attempt to become friends with any cultivator that was compatible with him. This was why he had so many different friends, even though his cultivation level was not high.

“Forgetful River Inn?” asked Di Jiu in surprise.

This name sounded very familiar. Back on Earth, there had been a Forgetful River Mountain Range [1. previously translated as Wang Chuan Mountain Range] and a Forgetful River Temple [2. previously translated as Wang Chuan Temple].

Gai Shitian smiled. “The Forgetful River Inn is just a small inn. I came here to wait for some members of my sect. In three months, the Five Continent Dao Pagoda will open.”

“What’s the Five Continent Dao Pagoda?” Di Jiu asked curiously.

“The Five Continent Dao Pagoda is very impressive,” Gai Shitian said proudly. “It opens once in every 10 years and has a total of 108 levels. You know all about the origins of the Dao Roll. The number of people on the Dao Roll is determined by the Five Continent Dao Pagoda. Every level of the Five Continent Dao Pagoda has its purpose. The Dao runes inside are very clear, so the cultivators cultivating there can easily break through any obstacle. Once, a Golden Core Realm Cultivator stayed in the Five Continent Dao Pagoda for five years and broke through to the seventh-stage Void Spirit Realm.”

“Based on what you said, can’t one just stay in the Five Continent Dao Pagoda and cultivate?” Di Jiu asked doubtfully.

Gai Shitian shook his head. “Not really. The longer one stays in the Five Continent Dao Pagoda, the stronger the pressure becomes. Under ordinary circumstances, very few people would even be able to stay at the first level for a year. As the level gets higher, the pressure becomes greater. In order to be able to stay for a full year inside the pagoda, one must be a true genius.”

“Didn’t you just say that a Golden Core Realm Cultivator stayed inside for five years?” asked Di Jiu.

“I knew that you would ask this. The reason that Golden Core Realm Cultivator was able to stay for five years was because he’d possessed a Connate treasure. Thanks to the aid of the Connate treasure and the clarity of the Dao runes, he actually lost track of time. He knew that he was in deep trouble when he left the pagoda…”

“Was he killed?”

“I don’t know. I heard that he escaped, but there have been no news of him ever since,” Gai Shitian, who seemed unwilling to talk about this matter, said briefly before changing the topic. “Other than cultivating inside the Five Continent Dao Pagoda, one could also temper their body and cultivate their mental strength.”

When he heard that one could temper their body, Di Jiu was moved. His physical body was currently at the Void Realm of the Three-Monarch Realm. He had originally intended to head to the flaming mountain in the Sky Screen and temper his body so he could take away the blue flame. He had not expected that he would be removed from the Sky Screen and be unable to proceed with his plans.

“The ranks of the sects in the Small Central World were also arranged according to the Five Continent Dao Pagoda. After the opening of the pagoda, the more disciples of the sect that enter a level above the 48th level, the more potential that particular sect will have. Consequently, the rank of that sect will increase and the mystic area slots it obtains within the Small Central World will increase as well.”

As soon as he said that, Gai Shitian suddenly remembered his motive for inviting Di Jiu to enter the Azure Sect. He immediately explained without any prompting, “Although I don’t know where you came from, Brother Di Jiu, I can guess that you didn’t understand the meaning of my previous words. There are a lot of big mystic areas within the Small Central World. The most well-known ones are the Small Central Planet, the Sky Screen, and the World Herb Garden…”

“The Small Central Planet?” Di Jiu could imagine what the Sky Screen and the World Herb Garden were based on their names. The only place he did not recognize was the Small Central Planet. Could this planet be the Fairy Planet? Was it a planet that was close to the Small Central World?

“It is normal not to know about the Small Central Planet. This is because the Small Central World has some special characteristics that other star continents don’t have — within this planet is another planet,” Gai Shitian explained. “The Small Central Planet floats above the continent we are in, locked by restrictions. Inside it are numerous quality items. This is also why the Small Central World has been able to survive so far.”

Di Jiu decided that he would one day head to the Small Central Planet to check it out if he had the opportunity. However, he was currently more interested in the Five Continent Dao Pagoda. “Brother Shitian, you just mentioned that the ranks of the various sects are determined by the number of cultivators who reach the 49th level of the Five Continent Dao Pagoda. Doesn’t the Five Continent Dao Pagoda have 108 levels? The 49th level is not even in the middle of the total number of levels. In that case, why are True Form Realm Cultivators not allowed to enter the Dao Pagoda?”

Gai Shitian chuckled. “Did you think that it’s easy to climb the Five Continent Dao Pagoda, Brother Di Jiu? The higher one’s cultivation level is, the harder it is to climb up. However, one’s cultivation level should not be too low either. The lower one’s cultivation level is, the harder it would be to climb up. The Golden Core Realm and the Pioneer Sea Realm are the best cultivation levels if one wants to climb the Five Continent Dao Pagoda. Senior Brother Xiu Yu from the Azure Sect might not have entered the Dao Roll, but he possesses the ability to reach the 60th level of the pagoda. The Sky Screen has just closed, so I won’t elaborate on this any further. If you enter the Azure Sect, you might get the opportunity to head to the Small Central Planet in the future.”

Di Jiu slapped Gai Shitian’s shoulder as he said with gratitude, “Let’s exchange communication pearls, Brother Shitian. I will head to the Five Continent Pavilion to rent a cave abode and cultivate for several months. When the people from your sect arrive, I will follow you to the Five Continent City to look at the Five Continent Dao Pagoda. What do you think?”

“Of course, no problem.” Gai Shitian took out his communication pearl and exchanged it with Di Jiu’s without hesitation.

Before Di Jiu could bid Gai Shitian farewell, he heard an extremely loud voice say, “Hong Kui! Come out and die!”

As this voice was heard, a young man with an angular face landed in the middle of the white-jade road. There was a red sword on his back. Unlike the red embellishments engraved by Di Jiu on his saber, this sword was completely red in color. There was no need to scan it with one’s Spiritual Force to be able to sense its terrifying blood aura.

The surrounding people made way when they saw this man land on the ground. The broad white-jade road quickly became even more spacious.

“Ha ha… If you have a death wish, Dong Youjian, I shall make it come true!” said an even hoarser voice. The red-haired man Di Jiu had seen earlier flew out of an inn and landed in front of Dong Youjian.

“Shitian, isn’t that Hong Kui, who ranks 93rd on the Sea Roll?” Di Jiu asked in surprise. “Why would anyone dare challenge him? If the cultivators on the Sea Roll could be challenged at any time, wouldn’t there be chaos? Plus, the Sky Route City seems very strict. How could street battles even be allowed here?”

Gai Shitian clenched his fists excitedly. When he heard what Di Jiu said, he forcefully suppressed his excitement and said, “We’ve struck gold today. We could actually see Dong Youjian challenge Hong Kui. The people on the Dao Roll cannot be challenged at will. You could only challenge one if you entered the top 10 of the Potential Roll, or if you were also on the Dao Roll. Any battles between other people are naturally not allowed in the Sky Route City. However, the experts on the Dao Roll are the exceptions to this rule.”

“Dong Youjian is also on the Sea Roll?”

Gai Shitian nodded his head. “That’s right. He ranks 104th on the Sea Roll, which is considered pretty low.”

“Would Dong Youjian rank 93rd if he defeated Hong Kui?” Di Jiu asked.

“Yes, so long as Dong Youjian defeated Hong Kui, he would rank 93rd,” said Gai Shitian with certainty.

Di Jiu laughed mockingly. “Dong Youjian challenged Hong Kui on this street in order to rise by 10 ranks. Looks like he couldn’t stand being lonely.”

“You’re wrong this time, Brother Di Jiu. Dong Youjian actually likes keeping a low profile. The reason he challenged Hong Kui is because Hong Kui raped and killed his fiancee, Xue Zhu’er,” said Gai Shitian in a low voice.

“So Hong Kui is in fact a beast!” Di Jiu was outraged. He hated worthless people like Hong Kui with a passion.

“Lower your voice!” said Gai Shitian hurriedly.

Hong Kui, who had already noticed Di Jiu, looked over coldly and punched out.

A violent aura of death suddenly swamped over. Even though Di Jiu knew a little about space laws, he still had some difficulty breathing against this absolute oppression.

This was not good. Just as Di Jiu was about to frantically burn his Blood Essence, a red sword flare slashed below Hong Kui’s fist. The oppressive space instantly disappeared and Di Jiu’s breathing returned to normal as he retreated anxiously.

He suddenly realized that he could not escape when an extremely powerful opponent used their cultivation aura to lock the space, no matter how powerful his Spiritual Force escape technique was. Hong Kui was only a ninth-stage Pioneer Sea Realm cultivator. What would he do if he encountered a Life Tribulation Realm cultivator or a True Form Realm expert?

“I’m your enemy, Hong Kui. This man is right, you are a beast!” Dong Youjian laughed coldly. He was the one who had helped Di Jiu block Hong Kui’s punch.

“If you wish to die first, I shall grant your wish.” When Hong Kui spread his palm, a gigantic metal hammer slammed towards Dong Youjian.

Before Dong Youjian could slash out with his sword, Hong Kui’s other metal hammer smashed his way.

A terrifying aura suddenly collided in space. In an instant, every cultivator, including Di Jiu, retreated frantically. The power of the two hammers was astonishing. If one was accidentally engulfed by this hammer aura, they would definitely die.