Ninth In the World

As Di Jiu picked up the Divine Fire Mirror from the ground, his gaze swept across the crowd.

Anyone who had wanted to lay their hands on Di Jiu’s supreme-grade spirit meridian before Ran Bushang had hurriedly lowered their heads. There was only one thought in their mind—Young Master Red Embellishment was too scary.

He had advanced from someone who couldn’t handle a single move from Ren Hai to someone who had defeated Jin Xun easily and entered the Sea Roll. Then, he had killed Yue Henghe, who had been second on the Tripod Roll, and had just recently defeated Ran Bushang, who had ranked 37th on the Life Roll.

How much time had all this taken him?

It was certain that after Young Master Red Embellishment left the Small World Planet, he would not even fear a True Form cultivator. Fighting over a spirit meridian with a person like Young Master Red Embellishment was suicide. One would only do so if one was tired of living.

No cultivators tried to fight for the spirit meridian. They all stood far away, cupping their fists in respect in Di Jiu’s direction. This battle had established Di Jiu’s peak status in the Small Central World.

Di Jiu cupped his fists and said, “Daoists, I have a few friends who are also on the Small Central Planet. If you ever come across them, please let me know. If they are in any trouble, I beg you to help them. I promise to give an elixir to anyone who helps after you leave the Small World.”

Only an elixir? Just as everybody thought that Di Jiu was being stingy, Di Jiu added, “I can give Genesis Ekayāna Elixir to the Pioneer Sea Realm Daoists, Tribulation Convergence Elixir to the Ekayāna Tripod Realm Daoists, and True Spirit Elixir to the Life Tribulation Realm Daoists. All the elixirs that I will be giving away are special-class Spirit Elixirs.”

Di Jiu had offended too many people. Thus, he was trying to prevent these people from targeting his friends because they couldn’t do anything to him.

Everybody gasped. Elixirs were classified into different types. The elixirs that Di Jiu had mentioned only appeared in large auction houses. Even the large sects couldn’t get them whenever they liked. Besides, special-class elixirs were extremely rare.

“Don’t worry, Young Master Red Embellishment. We’ll definitely tell you if we see your friends,” replied many cultivators from afar as they cupped their fists.

Di Jiu had risen too fast. Although advancing had only taken him a short time, he could now hold his own against Life Roll Experts. Regardless of whether these people met Di Jiu’s friends, they would naturally try to befriend Di Jiu to the best of their abilities.

After Di Jiu thanked them, he began breaking the restrictions again. The restriction of the second supreme-grade spirit meridian was too easy for him. After the 109th saber, Di Jiu tore apart the restriction and took the second supreme-grade spirit meridian.

Then, he took a third one, a fourth one…

Everyone watched as Di Jiu managed to take a few dozens of supreme-grade spirit meridians in less than half an hour. Their jaws naturally dropped. Some of them didn’t believe what they saw.

What kind of ability was this? Everybody then realized how much wealth so many supreme-grade spirit meridians would bring.

Even though they knew that Di Jiu had struck it rich, nobody dared do anything to him. Even Ran Bushang, who was a Life Roll Expert, had ended up fleeing with serious injuries. Wouldn’t they be committing suicide if they tried to snatch something from Young Master Red Embellishment?

In less than an hour, all 153 supreme-grade spirit meridians had ended up in Di Jiu’s hands. On top of that, Di Jiu had also taken another 47 high-grade spirit meridians—resulting in a total of 200.

The others were red with envy. If Di Jiu went on like this, there would be no scraps left for them.

Luckily, after Di Jiu took the 200 spirit meridians, he left alone the rest of the nearly 300 spirit meridians and departed.

“He’s so formidable…” somebody said after Di Jiu left.

“He’s formidable indeed. It is estimated that in another 100 years, Young Master Red Embellishment will be the best martialist in the Small Central World.”

A cold snort was suddenly heard. “You call that formidable? I think that he was being greedy. He took 200 spirit meridians all by himself. They were all supreme-grade and high-grade spirit meridians. He’s such a selfish person! It would be awful if he became the number one person in the Small Central World,” said someone in a red shirt whose cultivation level was at the fourth-stage Pioneer Sea Realm.

Another cultivator who was at the Pioneer Sea Realm said coldly, “I think that Young Master Red Embellishment was actually magnanimous. Although he probably took 200 spirit meridians, he basically took none. I believe that nobody here would have been able to open the restriction of a supreme-grade spirit meridian. As far as the high-grade spirit meridians are concerned, tell me who had ever gotten one except for the Life Roll Number 37—Ran Bushang?”

“Young Master Red Embellishment could have taken all the spirit meridians here, but he took only one-third of the high-grade spirit meridians. If taking something that none of us could have acquired was greedy of him, then can you tell me who isn’t greedy?”

Nobody objected to the Pioneer Sea Realm cultivator’s words. Even though most of them were jealous of Di Jiu, it was true that he could have taken all the spirit meridians there, but had only taken a portion of what they couldn’t acquire. Not only was this not greed, but it could actually be considered magnanimity. After all, even if Di Jiu had taken all the spirit meridians, nobody could have done anything to him.

…

Di Jiu felt quite good. He had gotten 200 spirit meridians in one shot. Now, he had enough spirit meridians to set up the Defense Array of the Galaxy Sect and enough resources to cultivate until he reached the Domain Realm.

After leaving the spirit meridian canyon, Di Jiu found a place to tidy up Yue Henghe’s ring. Yue Henghe’s ring contained heaps of high-level spirit herbs—all of them ranging from level-seven to level-nine. These spirit herbs were more than enough for him to become a grade-eight or even grade-nine Elixir King.

Unfortunately, he didn’t find a Suo Fruit for refining the Tribulation Convergence Elixir, a True Spirit Herb for refining the True Spirit Elixir, or an Ice Vine for refining the True Vine Elixir. This made his plan to refine the Tribulation Convergence Elixir to advance to the Life Tribulation Realm fall through.

Thus, Di Jiu had no choice but to return to the Planted Cultivators’ Mountain.

There were still many cultivators there. A month had passed, so there were many new faces.

Not many people cared about Di Jiu’s sudden arrival. The possibility of death upon coming to the Planted Cultivators’ Mountain was higher than 90%. Most of the time, the cultivators who went there were, if not among the most top-notch geniuses, ill-fated ones who couldn’t advance to the next realm upon reaching a certain age.

“Everyone, may I ask where a Suo Fruit has ever appeared on the Small Central Planet?” Di Jiu asked as he entered the crowd and cupped his fists.

Asking where the Suo Fruit could be was definitely impractical. However, asking where it had ever appeared shouldn’t be a problem.

“I think you will be disappointed. If there was still any Suo Fruit on the Small Central Planet, it would be on the Planted Cultivators’ Mountain.”

“Why?” asked Di Jiu with a puzzled expression.

The elderly man who had spoken sighed. “The Small Central Planet opens up too frequently, so any valuable spirit herbs have already been picked. A treasure that could be used to refine the Tribulation Convergence Elixir like the Suo Fruit would definitely be uprooted as soon as it was discovered. How could there be any left for the people who came later? Unless, of course, you found a natural restriction that had yet to be discovered and coincidentally contained a Suo Fruit. Otherwise, all you can do is scour the Planted Cultivators’ Mountain—some of the cultivators there have been dead for countless years, so there might just be a Suo Fruit in their rings.”

“Thanks a lot.” Di Jiu thanked the man and walked towards the Planted Cultivators’ Mountain.

All the cultivators there were naturally headed to the Planted Cultivators’ Mountain. Most of them had stopped at the foot of the mountain to reflect for a period of time before moving up the mountain. Very few went up directly without reflecting, like Di Jiu did. Few of them would care about Di Jiu, as everybody who went there basically risked their lives.

The moment Di Jiu stepped onto the Planted Cultivators’ Mountain, he felt a wisp of life aura seeping quickly away. He immediately felt a grayness that could not be seen with one’s eyes or sensed by Spiritual Force. It was a grayness that one’s body sensed.

Di Jiu closed his eyes and took a second step. The seeping life aura had already disappeared, so this area felt no different from the outside of the Planted Cultivators’ Mountain. This non-existent difference made Di Jiu feel like he could walk to the summit and come down without any consequences.

However, deep in his heart, he knew that his life was definitely seeping away, even though he couldn’t feel it. In other words, if he had been able to feel life seeping away, maybe so many cultivators wouldn’t have lost their lives on the Planted Cultivators’ Mountain.

Di Jiu took a third step, a fourth step…

He tried hard to gain insight into the time law aura on the Planted Cultivators’ Mountain. Unfortunately, he couldn’t feel an aura at all, let alone any time law aura, after 100 steps. He was obviously climbing up the mountain, but he didn’t feel that way.

Di Jiu looked up at the summit, which he was still unable to see clearly, and thought to himself that maybe he could actually reach it.

From now on, his lifespan would increase by 100 years with every step he took. Just as Di Jiu was about to take his 101st step, he suddenly couldn’t move his legs. His senses were still intact, but his Spiritual Force had no way of seeping out anymore. He could also no longer change his posture, so he had to keep looking up at the summit.

A sense of loneliness filled his heart. Life seeped away once more, for only a flash of a moment. Time cut like a knife as Di Jiu stood silently on the same spot, motionlessly looking at the blurry summit.