Ninth In the World

Atop an uninhabited meteorite, Di Jiu felt the barrier stopping him from advancing to the Immortal King Realm without even taking the Glazed Heaven Immortal Pills.

After merely three Nomological Qi Circulations, his Immortal Essence blasted the barrier and nine massive bolts of lightning descended as that happened.

Zhong Ao was stumped as he watched Di Jiu undergo his Tribulation Thunder. According to his blurred memories, he seemed to have met all sorts of geniuses before, but he had never met anyone like Di Jiu. He knew very well that Di Jiu attracted the Tribulation Thunder of the Immortal King Realm without taking any elixir pills.

What made him speechless was the fact that Di Jiu had only consumed a few elixir pills after he had attracted the Tribulation Thunder. His Immortal Force identified the pills as the Glazed Heaven King Elixir.

Other people consumed elixir pills before attracting the Tribulation Thunder when they were breaking through to the Immortal King Realm. Di Jiu, on the other hand, reversed the order.

Anyone would be able to figure out that Di Jiu had taken the Glazed Heaven King Elixir just to increase the amount of Essence Energy instead of breaking through this bottleneck.

That wasn’t all there was to it. A mere Thunder Tribulation for the Immortal King Realm only contained nine waves of seven Thunder Tribulation streaks. However, Di Jiu was hit by nine Thunder Tribulation streaks right on the first wave. Furthermore, the second wave descended right afterward.

Most importantly, these two waves of Tribulation Thunder only managed to cause superficial injuries on Di Jiu’s body.

Since Di Jiu could attract and undergo the Thunder Tribulation so easily, Zhong Ao was sure that he was a top-notch Tempered Body cultivator.

‘His potential is even higher than Monarch Li Tu’s…’

‘Eh? Who’s Monarch Li Tu? Why did I suddenly remember his name?’ Zhong Ao rubbed his hair as he wondered. He had completely forgotten about Di Jiu’s Thunder Tribulation.

Di Jiu had already entered the Immortal King Realm by the fifth wave of Thunder Tribulation. He felt that his Thunder Tribulation was too weak, or rather, his Tempered Body was too powerful.

He was only at the Immortal King Realm, but his Tempered Body was actually at the late-stage Immortal Divine Body. Most Immortal Emperors’ physical bodies weren’t as tough as his.

Boom! When the ninth wave of Tribulation Thunder descended, a loud resonance emanated from Di Jiu’s Spiritual Sea once again. His Spiritual Sea was now more than twice as big as before, and his Spiritual Force also became several times more powerful.

Di Jiu was overjoyed. Entering the Immortal King Realm was a piece of cake for him. However, he was pleasantly surprised that his Spiritual Force had reached level nine at the same time.

His Spiritual Force was much more condensed than the average cultivator’s, so it was incredibly difficult for it to reach a higher level. How could he not be surprised when its level increased while he was progressing into the Immortal King Realm?

Di Jiu stabilized his cultivation quickly before he packed up. He was in a hurry to get back to Dai He Hall for cultivation. Here in the void, laws were blurry and the concentration of Immortal Spirit Qi was incredibly low. It’d be a waste of time to cultivate in this environment.

“What are you doing?” Di Jiu saw Zhong Ao rubbing his head in the distance.

Zhong Ao was brought to his senses when Di Jiu yelled at him. He stared at Di Jiu with a dumbfounded expression for a moment before he replied, “I just remembered the name ‘Monarch Li Tu’. It seems to be related to my memories.”

Di Jiu walked towards Zhong Ao, tapped his shoulder, and said, “Old Zhong, it’s pointless to think about these things. I’ll help you in the future. I have to tell you that I will not be able to save you if you fry your brain thinking about it. You will end up in a miserable state.”

“Okay, got it.” Zhong Ao let it go easily and stopped thinking about it.

Di Jiu took out the Ultimate Cloud Auger again and said, “Let’s go. I will take you to a place full of immortal spirit meridians. You can cultivate there. You’re in luck.”

“Immortal spirit meridians are useless,” Zhong Ao replied nonchalantly. Then, as if he had recalled something, he stared at Di Jiu and asked, “Di Jiu, did you call me Old Zhong just now? Why am I getting the feeling that ‘Zhong’ is very related to me?”

Di Jiu face-palmed when he realized his tongue had just slipped.

“Well, when you were trapped in the corner back then, I thought I saw you scribbling something on the wall, and ‘Zhong Ao’ was one of the names that you’d written. I thought that it was your name, so that’s why I used it. If you like that name, I’ll call you ‘Old Zhong’ instead of ‘Xiao Da’ from now on.” After Di Jiu called him ‘Old Zhong’ a few times, he suddenly felt that it was a distasteful name.

Zhong Ao was definitely a tough fellow, yet his name rhymed with the word ‘good-for-nothing’. (TL’s Note: ‘Old Zhong’ in Mandarin rhymes with the Mandarin term for ‘good-for-nothing’)

“I think that Zhong Ao is my name, thanks.” Zhong Ao looked at Di Jiu excitedly and said, “I think you have already fulfilled part of your promise. You’ve helped me find my name at the very least.”

“Alright, Old Zhong. Let’s head to the place where I cultivate in seclusion.” Di Jiu started the Ultimate Cloud Auger hurriedly.

Zhong Ao had engraved the Ultimate Cloud Auger with top-notch arrays, so it took them less than two days before arriving at the array door in the void.

Di Jiu opened the array door as fast as he could and went right through it. He had been gone for many years, so he wanted to know how Xie Huang and the rest were doing.

“Big Brother, you’re finally back!” Little Tree jumped at Di Jiu excitedly as soon as he entered Dai He Hall.

Mo Yuxuan, who had been cultivating, also stood up in excitement. Her cultivation level was already at the level-four Great Unity Immortal Realm. Even though this was because the cultivating resources there were superb, one could also tell how powerful her Nirmala Spirit Root was. On the contrary, Little Tree hadn’t improved significantly. He was still a level-three immortal demon.

“Senior Brother…” Mo Yuxuan looked at Di Jiu excitedly. She had been really worried about Di Jiu after he had left, but now she finally felt at ease knowing that Di Jiu was safe and sound.

If she hadn’t been worried about Di Jiu, she would probably have perfected the Great Unity Immortal Realm given her Nirmala Spirit Root and the fact that she was cultivating beneath 18 unimpaired middle-grade immortal spirit meridians.

“Big Brother, who is this?” Little Tree spotted Zhong Ao.

“This is Big Brother Zhong Ao. Why don’t I see Black Fire and Xie Huang around?” Di Jiu asked in a puzzled tone.

Little Tree scoffed and replied, “Little Huang couldn’t bear the desolation, so he went out. Black Fire has also thought highly of himself after becoming a level-six immortal demon. He didn’t want to stay here and take care of Sister Mo anymore, so he went out with Little Huang to have fun. I am the only one who stayed here and waited for Big Brother to come back.”

Di Jiu frowned when he heard that. Xie Huang wasn’t a concern. After all, his father was the Palatial Lord of Starry Demon Palace, so his safety was definitely guaranteed.

However, Black Fire was an extraordinary being. After all, he could tear space apart. If Black Fire followed Xie Huang somewhere where there were a lot of people, Di Jiu was sure that Black Fire would get into trouble.

However, Di Jiu suspected that something was wrong. He believed that no matter how immature Xie Huang was, he wouldn’t leave this place easily. He had already instructed Xie Huang long ago that he could only leave after he came back and reached the Immortal King Realm. Furthermore, this place was full of cultivating resources, so why would he leave?

There was definitely something that Little Tree and Mo Yuxuan didn’t know about Xie Huang’s premature departure.

“Big Brother, do we still have to stay here and cultivate?” Little Tree asked Di Jiu with a worried expression. It was feeling extremely restless, as it had been cultivating nonstop in this place.

Its restless nature was probably the reason it had managed to stand out from countless ordinary ancient trees and become a demon tree that could move around.

“No, we’ll head to the Gigantic Tripod Liberal Immortal City and continue running our shop after I unlock the third hall of Dai He Hall.” Di Jiu put away the 18 middle-grade immortal spirit meridians in the second hall as he said that.

“That’s pretty creative. You have to break the formation with elixirs.” Zhong Ao saw the stone door with the six slots on top of it after Di Jiu put away the immortal spirit meridians.

Di Jiu took out a cauldron and refined a batch of Glazed Heaven King Elixir as fast as he could. He then put six nine-patterned Glazed Heaven King Elixir pills into the six slots.

No one would use an elixir as valuable as the Glazed Heaven King Elixir even if they wanted to open the door. However, since Di Jiu had a lot of Glazed Heaven Immortal Fruit with him, he was too lazy to care.

“You are an Immortal Alchemy Emperor too?” Zhong Ao asked in an astonished tone when he saw Di Jiu refining a batch of nine-patterned Glazed Heaven King Elixir pills so easily.

Di Jiu definitely had the highest potential out of all the cultivators that he had ever met. Apart from his cultivation, he could still spend time on the Alchemy Dao. Moreover, his proficiency in the Alchemy Dao was higher than his cultivation. He was even a body-tempering expert. Zhong Ao couldn’t help but be amazed.

“No, I’m a level-seven Alchemy King…” Di Jiu suddenly stopped mid-sentence, feeling overwhelmed by amazement.

He was hit in the face by an extremely rich concentration of Immortal Spirit Qi. There were 36 high-grade immortal spirit meridians in front of him and an antique simple box at the center of the meridians.

He didn’t find anything on the second level of Dai He Hall apart from the middle-grade immortal spirit meridians. However, there was something else apart from the high-grade immortal spirit meridians when he unlocked the third level. This might be because he had used six Glazed Heaven King Elixir pills.

“Good stuff,” Zhong Ao couldn’t help saying.

Di Jiu chuckled and asked, “Old Zhong, didn’t you say that these immortal spirit meridians meant nothing to you?”

Zhong Ao replied flatly, “I’m talking about the box at the center, not the immortal spirit meridians.”

Di Jiu immediately moved to the center of the immortal spirit meridians and opened the box. Then, he saw a few words — “Five-Element escape technique”.

To be honest, Di Jiu didn’t think that the Five-Element escape technique was valuable. Thanks to the Spiritual Force escape technique, he could move faster if his Spiritual Force got stronger. Therefore, the Five-Element escape technique was unnecessary.

“This thing isn’t worse than your Spiritual Force escape technique. In fact, it could be better. There are places where you can’t use your Spiritual Force, but there aren’t many places where the five elements don’t exist.” Zhong Ao, who could sense Di Jiu’s attitude towards the Five-Element escape technique, chuckled as he explained.

“No matter how powerful the Five-Element escape technique is, don’t I still need my Spiritual Force to activate it?” Di Jiu asked in a puzzled tone.

Zhong Ao scoffed and answered, “That’s either because the user hasn’t mastered it or the Five-Element escape technique is a counterfeit.”