The Gate Of Good Fortune c1-905

by Demon Translations

  The rogue cultivator felt overjoyed when he heard Ning Cheng say that he would only charge half the price. He quickly took out his white card and transferred the points to Ning Cheng. Thanking Ning Cheng once again, he immediately left.

  After this rogue cultivator left, Ning Cheng also took down his artefact-crafting stall. After waiting for half a year, Yan Ji still hadn’t shown up. Although he didn’t mind continuing to wait for Yan Ji here, he also had a few other things that needed attention.

  Moreover, during this half a year, his proficiency with artefact-crafting had risen sharply. Plus, he had also collected a lot of high-grade artefact-crafting materials. With all that, Ning Cheng had even refined a few high-ranked spirit artefacts for himself. Therefore, when Ning Cheng heard about the Grand Essence Mystic Realm Run, he decided to participate. As long as he could reach the top hundred, he might get the chance to represent a sect to participate in the Grand Essence Great Meet.

  That way, he might get an actual shot at entering the Extraterritorial Spirit Spring for cultivation.

  ……

  Two days later, when Ning Cheng came out of his rest stop, the Grand Essence Public Square had even more stalls and various sized booths belonging to sects.

  But unlike what that rogue cultivator said, Ning Cheng not only saw stalls from many smaller sects, he even saw booths set up by nine of the ten major sects. Except for the Mysterious Ferry Ancient Clan, all nine of the top ten forces have arrived.

  Apart from those booths, Ning Cheng also saw a near-infinite crowd of rogue cultivators gathered in the public square. For them, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If selected to participate in the Grand Essence Mystic Realm Competition[1], they might even obtain the rare chance of advancing to the Dao Sculpting Realm. Everyone understood the risks and dangers within the Grand Essence Mystic Realm Competition, but if one wanted to climb higher, how could one shy away from such a situation?

  Ning Cheng turned half a circle and saw that most of the sects had an artefact to test spiritual consciousness and celestial essence. But for this kind of selection, they never asked for a cultivator’s spiritual root and aptitude. Rather, these sects cared more about the intensity of one’s celestial essence and the degree of penetration of the cultivator’s spiritual consciousness.

  He didn’t need to ask around to understand why. This selection wasn’t for ‘recruiting’ sect disciples per se but rather enlisting cannon fodder. After the Grand Essence Mystic Realm Competition, once they received their benefits, everyone would simply split up and go their separate ways.

  Ning Cheng stopped at the station of Seven Star Sacred Shrine. He unexpectedly saw an acquaintance, Yan Xishuang.

  He had saved Yan Xishuang once and then had even teamed up with Yan Xishuang to obtain the drop of 3000 Weak Water and the Good Fortune Azure Lotus fragment. As for the outcome, the drop of 3000 Weak Water went to him, and the Azure Lotus fragment went to Yan Xishuang.

  Ning Cheng still had quite a good impression of this woman. She paid particular attention to equal exchanges, did not take advantage of others, and didn’t speak with a disrespectful attitude. Besides, he had also obtained Nirvana’s Heart because of Yan Xishuang. If he talked about the facts, Yan Xishuang was the one who had discovered Nirvana’s Heart first. However, she encountered a problem when she tried to take the Nirvana Bluestone. She had fallen into a cultivation coma that could have claimed her life if not for Ning Cheng’s intervention.

  At this time, seeing Yan Xishuang standing in the Seven Star Sacred Shrine’s station, Ning Cheng quickly understood that she came from one of the three sacred sects. Moreover, Ying Yongxuan, who came with Shan Yaocen before, was also from the Seven Star Sacred Shrine. However, he didn’t see Ying Yongxuan anywhere today.

  At this time, Yan Xishuang’s aura felt much purer. Not only was it purer, but it was also twice as powerful as before.

  Ning Cheng understood that it most likely was the effect of the Azure Lotus fragment. When he first saw Yan Xishuang, even though Yan Xishuang was at the Eternal Realm peak, she wasn’t better than him. But now, Yan Xishuang seemed to have already surpassed the full-circle of the Eternal Realm. But Ning Cheng also felt that Yan Xishuang had not reached Dao Sculpting Realm yet. Considering Yan Xishuang’s current cultivation and that she hadn’t reached Dao Sculpting Realm, it most likely had just one reason. She wanted to enter the Extraterritorial Spirit Spring and then begin the spirit essence transformation process.

  With Yan Xishuang’s clean and pure aura, if she could begin the spirit essence transformation process in the Extraterritorial Spirit Spring, she would have a promising future.

  Others might not know about it, but Ning Cheng did. He owned the Mysterious Yellow Bead, which meant that he also understood that only a Good Fortune treasure could cause such a huge change in Yan Xishuang.

  By the time Ning Cheng walked to the station, Yan Xishuang had already seated herself on one side with a calm expression. But despite trying to hide from view, her unparalleled beauty attracted many people to the Seven Star Sacred Shrine’s station. In terms of appearance, Yan Xishuang far exceeded Kong Ning and Shan Yaocen. But what Ning Cheng appreciated more was her attitude in dealing with things. She didn’t appear or act indifferent to others and also dealt with everything with a rational mind.

  Since he had to join a sect anyway, Ning Cheng decided to join the Seven Star Sacred Shrine. In any case, the Seven Star Sacred Shrine was one of the top ten forces. Even if he didn’t do anything in the mystic realm competition, it wouldn’t affect the sect. It was one of Ning Cheng’s top considerations. But the second consideration was that a force like the Seven Star Sacred Shrine would have more places to enter the mystic realm. But the most important thing was that Ning Cheng knew Yan Xishuang.

  “This Senior Apprentice Sister, I want to participate in the Seven Star Sacred Shrine’s disciple selection.” Ning Cheng walked up to Yan Xishuang and spoke with cupped fists.

  Yan Xishuang couldn’t recognise Ning Cheng. But she nodded, then pointed to the testing artefact not too far away from her and spoke with a gentle voice. “Just activate all of your celestial essence and spiritual consciousness and strike that testing artefact.”

  “Okay.” Ning Cheng walked to the testing artefact and started to get ready.

  He obviously wouldn’t use all his celestial essence and spiritual consciousness to strike. Plus, the celestial essence scale and spiritual consciousness scale on this testing artefact only went up to ten. Ning Cheng had also observed some of the other cultivators using the artefact. Most cultivators reached anywhere between one to five on the celestial essence scale. In contrast, a few got six, and only one or two got seven. As for the spiritual consciousness scale, it usually remained slightly lower than the celestial essence scale.

  Observing everything, Ning Cheng decided to use 40% of his strength at most. This level of power should guarantee him admission to the Seven Star Sacred Sect.

  [1]

  The author changed the wording for ‘Grand Essence Mystic Realm Run’ to ‘Grand Essence Mystic Realm Competition’ from this here.

  Chapter 0876 – Being Recognised

  Translated By – DemonKiller

  Checked and Edited By – Livewidsmile

  Proofread By – DemonKiller

  Please do not host our works anywhere else without our permission.

  Ning Cheng punched, and the surrounding space made small bursts of noises.

  “Boom….” As the punch connected with the testing artefact, rays of light immediately erupted from the testing artefact. A moment later, the crystals of the two scales started to light up one after another. The celestial essence scale exceeded the sixth marking quickly and didn’t stop until it was close to seven. Even the spiritual consciousness scale climbed up to the sixth position.

  A flurry of exasperations erupted. Although Ning Cheng’s celestial essence ratings didn’t exceed seven, they came infinitesimally close to seven. But more importan
tly, Ning Cheng’s spiritual consciousness rating had also exceeded six. It would be no problem for Ning Cheng to enter the Seven Star Sacred Shrine with such kind of strength.

  Some cultivators who ‘knew’ Ning Cheng even came forward to express their congratulations. They had only come into contact with Ning Cheng for crafting artefacts. However, none of them expected that this Artefact-crafting Master would turn out to be so powerful.

  Yan Xishuang looked at Ning Cheng with a bit of surprise. Ning Cheng didn’t seem to have high cultivation. Yet, he displayed such powerful strength. She knew very well that using a testing artefact to test a person’s cultivation wouldn’t give a very accurate result. But she knew a fact about it that hardly anyone here knew. That is, once the scale marking reaches five, it would become exponentially challenging for it to rise. Since Ning Cheng’s punch could nearly reach the seventh marking on the celestial essence scale, it proved that Ning Cheng did indeed have a solid foundation.

  She quickly nodded at Ning Cheng, “What’s your name? You passed the test. Once these disciple enrolments conclude, you can come to the Seven Star Sacred Shrine with us.”

  “Many thanks, Senior Apprentice Sister. My name is Nian Qiong. I’m just a wandering artefact-crafting master.” Ning Cheng quickly thanked her with cupped fists and then made his way to stand behind the other two selected candidates in the Seven Star Sacred Shrine’s station. Considering that the Barbarian Dragon Clan’s Dragon Emperor was looking for him, he decided to drop the characters ‘Ning’ and ‘Cheng’ entirely from his name.

  “Junior Apprentice Sister Xishuang. It’s been a long time.” A man’s thick voice suddenly sounded out, and a purple-faced man suddenly appeared in front of Yan Xishuang with a big smile over his face.

  Ning Cheng immediately felt a strong aura of water and water-attributed fluctuations from this man, which he had also felt from Man Jiuren. But unlike Man Jiuren, this person had a purple face without any wrinkles.

  Yan Xishuang calmly returned a curtesy greeting and said, “It turned out to the Second Prince. It looks like the Barbarian Dragon Clan is taking this time’s disciple selection quite seriously.”

  When he heard the words ‘Second Prince’ and ‘Barbarian Dragon Clan’, Ning Cheng immediately connected the dots. This person was Man Jiuren’s second brother and the son of Dragon Emperor Man Huishan. He had heard from that silver-haired woman that Man Huishan had more than a hundred children, which seemed entirely accurate.

  The purple-faced man heard Yan Xishuang’s reply, but his face still showed a soft expression, “That’s right. I had a feeling that Junior Apprentice Sister Xishuang might come here, so I also came to ask you out.”

  Ning Cheng glanced at the look on this purple-faced man’s face and understood that this guy wanted to pursue Yan Xishuang. He couldn’t help but smile in secret because of it. If Yan Xishuang agreed, it truly would be akin to a flower over a cow dung pile.

  Yan Xishuang spoke up in a flat tone, “If there is nothing else, then Second Prince, please give me a little space. I still have other people to test.”

  “It’s okay; it’s okay…..” The purple-faced man quickly stepped aside. He hesitated for a bit and spoke up once again. “I don’t know if Junior Apprentice Sister Xishuang can find the time to go to a rest stop with me for a cup of spiritual tea?”

  “I’m sorry, but I’m not free.” Yan Xishuang didn’t even bother to find an excuse.

  “Second Brother, we’re all swamped with work, but you seemed to be quite free, hehe…..” A slightly mocking voice came from afar.

  Ning Cheng immediately retracted his spiritual consciousness and gaze. He was too familiar with this voice and also the owner of this voice. He had even killed this person once, and Pan Qian had also smashed apart this person’s body. It was none other than Man Jiuren.

  The purple-faced man smiled and spoke with a soft voice with Yan Xishuang, but he wasn’t so polite to the Ninth Prince. He gave a cold snort, “Old Nine, don’t you feel embarrassed in speaking those words? If you weren’t so useless, our Imperial Father wouldn’t need to come to this broken…..”

  The purple-faced man stopped his words in time. But because Man Jiuren openly ridiculed him in front of his sweetheart, it made him quite upset.

  Man Jiuren wanted to keep mocking his second brother, but then his gaze suddenly focussed on Ning Cheng standing behind Yan Xishuang. Once his eyes focussed on Ning Cheng, he carefully scrutinised Ning Cheng from top to bottom before he frowned and asked, “What’s your name?”

  Yan Xishuang’s tone turned cold at this point, “This is my Seven Star Sacred Shrine’s newly recruited disciple, Nian Qiong. If the two princes have nothing else, then please stop interfering with my sect’s recruitment.”

  The Barbarian Dragon Clan indeed had a Dao Perfection powerhouse, but the Seven Star Sacred Shrine wasn’t afraid of it. Although her Seven Star Sacred Shrine had no Dao Perfection powerhouses, it still had two mighty Dao Fusion experts. Moreover, apart from Man Suotian, the Barbarian Dragon Clan had no other experts. Even Dragon Emperor Man Huishan was just at the full-circle of Dao Essence Realm. One could even say that without Man Suotian, the Barbarian Dragon Clan wasn’t even worthy of entering the top ten sects. Let alone become the head of the four deep-sea forces.

  The second prince, the one with a purple face, seemed to have turned even more unhappy when he heard Yan Xishuang’s tone and words. He quickly pulled Man Jiuren aside and said, “Old Nine, stop looking and follow me.”

  This time, Man Jiuren didn’t speak any nonsense and silently followed the Second Prince out of the area. He still kept thinking about Ning Cheng in his heart, but he hadn’t seen or met this person before coming here. So why did he feel an unstoppable killing intent after looking at that Nian Qiong?

  The Grand Essence Barbarian Dragon Clan had highly keen senses. It was one of the main reason for its fame and notoriety throughout the Grand Essence Realm. It was especially true when it came to killing intent perceptions. Ning Cheng had changed his appearance and even concealed his aura but still couldn’t entirely hide his instinctive killing intent from Man Jiuren.

  Man Jiuren stopped suddenly.

  Who was the person who wanted to kill him the most?

  It had to be that cultivator named Ning Cheng. By this point, Man Jiuren felt 90% sure that Nian Qiong was Ning Cheng.

  After guessing that Nian Qiong was Ning Cheng, Man Jiuren’s first thought was to inform his father, Man Huishan, about it immediately. However, the moment he got that idea, he put it down.

  If he told this to his father, Ning Cheng would undoubtedly die, and he would also exact his revenge. However, the Five-coloured Star Splitter Arrow would no longer belong to him. His old man hadn’t come to the Grand Essence Ruins to avenge him but came explicitly for the Five-coloured Star Splitter Arrow. Man Jiuren knew about this point better than anyone else.

  If he had no chance of obtaining that Five-coloured Star Splitter Arrow, he wouldn’t have hesitated for even a bit. But now that he had a chance, he wouldn’t let it go. He wanted that arrow at any cost. Since Ning Cheng joined the Seven Star Sacred Shrine, Ning Cheng wanted to enter the Grand Essence Mystic Realm Competition. When the time came, he could just find a few people to kill Ning Cheng secretly in the Grand Essence Mystic Realm Competition. Who would know that the Five-coloured Star Splitter Arrow had made its way to him?

  Ning Cheng’s Five-coloured Star Splitter Arrow contained immense power. But no matter how powerful the arrow, Ning Cheng could only shoot it once. As long as he grasped the timing, he wouldn’t have to worry about not being able to kill Ning Cheng.

  The more Man Jiuren thought about this, the more feasible it felt.

  ……

  The moment Man Jiuren looked at him and spoke those words, Ning Cheng realised that Man Jiuren most likely had started to suspect his identity. At that moment, Ning Cheng wished to leave immediately. But Man Jiuren didn’t make any moves and didn’t even put a Spiritual Cons
ciousness Imprint on him. Seeing such actions, Ning Cheng started to doubt his previous thoughts.

  But this doubt didn’t last long. Ning Cheng quickly felt sure that Man Jiuren had recognised him and that it wasn’t any fluke that he walked away. The reason Man Jiuren didn’t do anything was not that he didn’t recognise him, but because he didn’t want to tell his father about him. Most likely, Man Jiuren wanted to swallow his stuff and didn’t want others to know about it.

  Thinking back to how Man Jiuren went to the Mysterious Yellow Starland alone, Ning Cheng understood that this person had quite lofty ambitions.

  After understanding that Man Jiuren, most likely, was after his Five-coloured Star Splitter Arrow, Ning Cheng no longer worried about it. If he didn’t know about Man Jiuren recognising him, he would have suffered much-unwanted trouble. But since he now knew that Man Jiuren had recognised him, he didn’t believe that he couldn’t get rid of this guy.

  Even after three days, no one came to inquire about him. From this, Ning Cheng confirmed that Man Jiuren truly wanted to swallow his stuff alone.

  Simultaneously, the rogue cultivator recruitment for all the major sects on the Grand Essence Public Square also came to an end after three days. Seven Star Sacred Shrine recruited twenty people, and Ning Cheng was just one of them. Moreover, Ning Cheng’s score ranked somewhere near the middle among these twenty people, which didn’t spotlight him.

  The group from the Seven Star Sacred Shrine only had a single sect elder guiding it. Ning Cheng couldn’t see this elder’s strength, but he felt pretty sure that the power of this elder couldn’t match up to the patriarch of the Barbarian Dragon Clan, Man Huishan. As for Yan Xishuang, she probably came here just to help.

  ……

  The Grand Essence Ruins was quite far away from the entrance of the Grand Essence Domain. But no matter how far away it was, it wouldn’t take long when using a teleportation portal.

  In just a short while, Ning Cheng entered the Grand Essence Domain for the first time. After entering the Grand Essence Domain, he finally understood why Grand Essence Realm’s sects had decided to concentrate here. Just the density of spiritual qi in this place was ten times more than outside. Plus, this was only near the entrance. Most of the sect grounds here would have more concentrated Spiritual Qi.