Chapter 0565: The Familiar Young Girl
Ning Cheng mixed in with the many cultivators and looked out from the deck. Outside the void airship, a vast and seemingly boundless blue-coloured starland slowly started turning clearer by the moment.
This blue-coloured starland had a vague layer of fog encapsulating it, which prevented one’s Spiritual Consciousness from seeping inside.
This was a planet-protecting Planetary Grand Array. This Planetary Grand Array felt many times more powerful compared to the one protecting Striking Order Starland. Even Striking Order Starland could not compare to the size of this vast and seemingly boundless blue-coloured starland.
The eleven void airships from Striking Order Starland slowly made their approach towards this blue-coloured starland; at the same time, several cultivators also flew off the airships and cautiously stopped outside this Planetary Grand Array.
Ning Cheng saw these cultivators talk with the people in charge of this Planet Protecting Grand Array following which, an entrance slowly opened up within this Planet Protecting Grand Array. The void airships then entered through this Planet Protecting Grand Array.
Looking at such a scene, Ning Cheng decided to lay low within his heart. If he ended up offending some big shot within a place like this, the others could simply seal off the Planet Protecting Grand Array, sealing off any paths of escaping. Even the rules here felt stricter compared to Striking Order Starland.
After crossing the Planet Protecting Grand Array, the eleven airships from Striking Order Starry Skies slowly came to a stop at the edge of a huge starry skies’ public square, right after entering the planet. As Ning Cheng looked around, he felt as if this public square had no end to it; not to mention through eyes, even with the help of his Spiritual Consciousness, he could not sweep to the other edge of the public square. The fleet from Striking Order Starland was not a small one, each airship in itself was like a leviathan; however, against this large open square, these airships looked unremarkable.
While Ning Cheng continued observing the situation around him, a broadcast suddenly rang out on all the merchant airships, “Friends, we have arrived at Grand Culmination Starry Skies’ largest starland, the Culmination Starland. As of this moment, the partnership between the merchant airships and the friends here has ended. You can now proceed to complete the formalities to enter Culmination Starland. Our merchant airships will return to Striking Order Starland after ten years, and we welcome all friends to continue to ride our merchant airships once again if you wish to head back. We wish all our friends good luck in your endeavours.”
Numerous cultivators residing within the merchant airships started to swarm out, and in just a few moments, more than a million cultivators streamed out. However, even with all these cultivators standing on this seemingly vast starry skies’ public square, it still did not feel crowded at all. As people started to disperse, the public square began to feel even emptier.
Ning Cheng did not dare to use his Spiritual Consciousness to check out the surroundings. As his eyes took in everything, he did not find any trace of Shen Qinyu among the crowd. However, Ning Cheng already knew that Shen Qinyu was a person proficient in changing appearances, which meant that even if she stood in front of him, he might not even recognise her unless she voluntarily revealed herself.
Despite not seeing Shen Qinyu, Ning Cheng saw Ziche Jun. Ziche Jun also looked around, taking in the surroundings, and when he noticed Ning Cheng looking in his direction, he immediately gave a smile and started walking towards Ning Cheng.
Ning Cheng quickly lowered his head while feeling slightly depressed. Ziche Jun coming his way meant that he had recognised him. This point also made Ning Cheng ask a question, how did this fellow manage to track him?
“Brother Ning…..” Ziche Jun came straight towards Ning Cheng and whispered a few words from the side.
Ning Cheng gave out a sigh within his heart and cupped his fists before speaking, “Many thanks, Brother Ziche.”
After Ziche Jun arrived and addressed him as Brother Ning, it meant that he truly had recognised him. Although Ning Cheng did not know how Ziche Jun identified him, he at least could not continue pretending to be otherwise. Moreover, because Ziche Jun identified him, Ning Cheng also understood that Ziche Jun knew about him snatching a bunch of materials. However, since no one recognised him, it also indicated that Ziche Jun had not snitched on him, which made it appropriate to thank him.
“Brother Ning sure has some good skills. I was worried about Brother Ning buying the Sky Treasure Silk. Looks like I might have worried too much about it.” Ziche Jun apparently realised why Ning Cheng had thanked him.
“Many thanks, Brother Ziche; I have too many enemies here, so I can’t talk much with Brother Ziche. My original name is Ning Cheng, not Ning Ruocheng.” Ning Cheng knew that this was not an appropriate place to talk.
“Ok, after we arrive at Culmination Starland, we can meet up again during our free time. This is my communication pearl.” Ziche Jun spoke while taking out a communication pearl and handing it to Ning Cheng.
After Ning Cheng put away Ziche Jun’s communications pearl, he asked with some doubt, “Brother Ziche, when I had my starry skies’ wanderer-like appearance, how were you able to recognise me?”
Ziche Jun showed a faint smile, “We can talk about this in the future. I will take my leave first.”
With that, Ziche Jun quickly entered the crowd and disappeared from Ning Cheng’s sight.
Ning Cheng silently looked at Ziche Jun’s disappearing back, although this Ziche Jun had appeared suddenly, Ning Cheng still could not gauge him even when standing next to him. This fellow’s concealment method really was too powerful. Moreover, it was not just the powerful concealment method; it was also the first time for him to encounter someone with such a powerful ability to track other people.
Tracking someone, as Ning Cheng thought of this, he immediately felt slightly surprised. He suddenly thought of Ziche Jun, if this fellow could follow him, could he actually make his escape? Moreover, the matter relating to the death of Lou Pingchuan, did he know about it?
After a long time, Ning Cheng shook his head, put these troublesome things aside for the time being, and followed the crowd into the hall that handled the Identity Jade Card related matters.
This place issued Identity Jade Card for entering the Culmination Starland; however, this Identity Jade Card was nothing more than just a ticket to enter the starland. Even if this place were the Culmination Starland, no one would actually take the time to investigate and record the three past generations of his family. Instead, they just gave a jade card that established one’s identity, without registering his or her aura or any other distinguishing things.
The hall contained a sufficient amount of cultivators to handle the Identity Jade Card related matters; moreover, because of the enormous size of the building, it did not feel crowded at all.
Ning Cheng quickly paid the 100 million green coins for an Identity Jade Card to enter Culmination Starland and did not stop to look around the starry skies’ public square. After putting away the Identity Jade Card, he immediately walked out of the hall.
On reaching Culmination Starland, the first thing that Ning Cheng wanted to do was to improve his cultivation and then earn enough celestial coins to purchase a top-ranked starry skies’ battleship that could cross the different starry sky boundaries within the void.
Two female cultivators walked in front of Ning Cheng, and Ning Cheng glanced at them out of instinct. However, when Ning Cheng’s gaze fell on one of the female cultivators, he almost screamed out in surprise.
This female cultivator had a slim back and gave out an extremely familiar aura, causing Ning Cheng almost to call out to her as Qionghua.
However, this female cultivator had a Celestial Novice Cultivation; moreover, Ning Cheng realised that this was just a teenage girl, based on what he saw.
“Wait-wait….” Ning Cheng had just called out when he remembered that he was still looking like a white-haired old man. Ning Cheng, however, did not care about anything else; he took out a drop of Glimmer of Dawn Ice Essence and swallowed it before rushing after them.
The moment the Glimmer of Dawn Ice Essence entered Ning Cheng’s mouth, it exploded out as the most abundant source of life before scattering throughout Ning Cheng’s body. Ning Cheng’s hair almost instantly reverted to its black colour, while his lost longevity also recovered quickly. In just a few breaths, Ning Cheng once again returned to his youthful appearance.
However, at this moment, Ning Cheng had no time to marvel over the heaven-defying aspects of Glimmer of Dawn Ice Essence as he rushed towards these two female cultivators and called out, “Two Senior Apprentice Sisters, please wait…..”
Both those female cultivators stopped and looked at Ning Cheng with doubt. Seeing the two veiled female cultivators stop in front of him, Ning Cheng’s heart sank to the bottom.
He felt sure that the female cultivator on the right was Qionghua, the same temperament, the same eyes, the same figure and everything else. However, as Ning Cheng saw, this female cultivator did not look too old; rather, she looked no older than an ordinary high-school girl did.
However, Ning Cheng felt even more heart-wrenching pain when this girl looked at him; her eyes remained without any sign of recognition. If she really were his Qionghua, would she not have already rushed over to him or at least recognise him?
“This Senior Apprentice Brother, who are you looking for?” The older-looking female cultivator spoke up.
“I…..” Ning Cheng did not even know what he was supposed to say. However, on seeing the female cultivators frowning, he quickly spoke up, “I just wanted to ask the names of you two Senior Apprentice Sisters.”
The female cultivator gave out a cold humph and simply ignored Ning Cheng. She then quickly brought out a Celestial River-class Battleships, and then spoke to Shi Qionghua’s look alike maiden and spoke, “Let’s go.”
Ning Cheng watched the Celestial River Battleship rush out of the public square and enter Culmination Starland. Only at that moment did he remember that he should catch up to them.
However, what caused Ning Cheng to feel even more disappointed was that although he rushed out of the public square on his knockoff battleship, he could no longer see the two female cultivator’s battleship.
Why was this happening? Ning Cheng felt dazed as his battleship rushed towards Culmination Starland, even forgetting to take control of it.
He had snatched back the Five Elements Treasure Fall Copper Coin from Yue Clan, the same Five Elements Treasure Fall Copper Coin that he had given to Shi Qionghua. With how Shi Qionghua felt about him, as long as she still had a breath in her, she would never discard something he gifted her. Since the Five Elements Treasure Fall Copper Coin ended up in Yue Clan’s hands, it also indicated that Qionghua had most likely perished.
Ning Cheng had prepared for such an outcome, even if it meant ascending to the heavens, he would do everything to find Qionghua’s life essence. However, what should he do now, especially when he saw Qionghua today? Moreover, how did she turn into a teenage girl?
“I’m a reincarnation, so I’m born with a powerful life essence…..”
Shi Qionghua’s words once again lingered in Ning Cheng’s ears, reincarnation!
Ning Cheng almost instantly understood what was going on; most likely, Shi Qionghua had reincarnated once again. Only this time she reincarnated within the starry skies. From the looks of it, Shi Qionghua most likely was a remarkable existence in her first life; otherwise, she would not have reincarnated these many times.
“Heavens, thank you…..” Ning Cheng knelt on his battleship for the first time and thanked the heavens on letting him see Qionghua once again. With Qionghua heading to Culmination Starland, Ning Cheng believed that he could find her once again.
“Bang……” The airship gave out a muffled explosion, which caused Ning Cheng to sober up immediately. Although he stood on the battleship, he knew that something had hit his knockoff battleship. Moreover, even the back of his battleship had erupted in flames.
Ning Cheng did not even think about it before rushing out of the battleship. Although he had purchased this battleship, it was, however, a knockoff; as such, he did not feel very distressed about losing it. The only battleship that he cared about was his Sifting Orchid; however, its level was too low and remained unfixable for now.
“Boom….” Ning Cheng had just come off the battleship when his knockoff battleship exploded and turned into a blazing fireball.
“Hey!” A cold shout immediately drew Ning Cheng’s attention, coming from a beautiful silver-coloured battleship parked not far from him. Ning Cheng was not a rookie anymore, and he quickly realised this battleship was a real starry skies-level battleship.
Most likely, this battleship had intentionally struck his warship; however, Ning Cheng did not even care about the explosion. Rather, he had no time to care about it; he did not even care about bringing out a flying sword and directly flew towards Culmination Starland.
“You stop.” A crisp voice stopped Ning Cheng. At this moment, a deck stretched out from the starry skies’ battleship suspended in space with a few people over it.