Ninth In the World

Bai Hong couldn’t shake off the thought of killing Di Jiu in the Evil Beast Valley once the thought arose.

His first thought was to set up an Instantaneous Death Large Array in order to kill Di Jiu. However, he quickly dispelled it, as he knew that it wouldn’t succeed.

He didn’t dare set up the Instantaneous Death Array beside the Life Transformation Array. Even if he dared and managed to set it up successfully, it couldn’t possibly escape Di Jiu’s eyes.

It was obvious that Di Jiu’s Array Dao was much more powerful than his. Therefore, regardless of how invisible his large array setups were, they couldn’t possibly escape Di Jiu’s eyes.

Then, Bai Hong had another idea. He could assassinate Di Jiu while he was busy attacking the expert in the Life Transformation Array. However, he quickly rejected this thought too. Although Di Jiu looked young, he was actually very cunning. This was evident by the fact that he had previously plotted to kill Mei Bashan by secretly making use of Jue Zhan.

He was sure that he wouldn’t get the chance to sneak attack Di Jiu. However, so what if he did? If he sneak-attacked Di Jiu while he was battling with the man in the Life Transformation Array, he would certainly get killed by the other Protectorate Lords.

After lengthy consideration, to his dismay, Bai Hong realized that even if he found the best place to kill Di Jiu, he would have no way of killing him.

Perhaps…

Bai Hong made a decision after pondering this for three days. He had to collaborate with the expert in the Life Transformation Array if he wanted to kill Di Jiu.

Now that Di Jiu had managed to guess Bai Hong’s purpose, he naturally didn’t bother following him anymore.

Di Jiu knew that he could easily confront and kill Bai Hong given his current strength. However, he didn’t plan to do so. Experts like Bai Hong always had their own techniques. If the news that Bai Hong had been killed by Di Jiu got out, it wouldn’t do him any good.

Nobody would believe him, regardless of his explanation. Therefore, he planned on killing Bai Hong in secret.

Bai Hong had a high cultivation level. However, his Spiritual Force was merely lingering between the peak of level nine and level ten. Such a Spiritual Force was limited only to an area of 10 feet around him. Thus, he had to rely on his good strength and caution and tread carefully in the Evil Beast Valley.

Suddenly, another level-nine demon beast sneaked an attack on Bai Hong from the side. He wasn’t overly concerned, as this was the 30th demon beast he had met after entering the Evil Beast Valley. His halberd transformed into a half-arc as its killing aura loomed over the demon beast. The halberd then pierced the beast’s skull when it paused in mid-air.

Bai Hong was about to extract the Demon Core from the demon beast, when suddenly a terrifying feeling gushed up, making his hair stand on end.

This was bad! As he wanted to escape badly, a blue beam appeared in the void and shot into his head.

“You are despicable, Di Jiu…” Bai Hong, who was really familiar with Di Jiu’s Heavenly Aqua Saber and the blue beam, had only one thought in mind. He wanted to kill Di Jiu. He must have forgotten why he had come here if he was calling Di Jiu despicable.

A bloody mist exploded before he could finish speaking. Meanwhile, his Principal Spirit flowed out.

Bai Hong felt extremely oppressed. He would not have felt this way if he’d had a confrontational battle with Di Jiu and lost. Even if he had not been able to beat Di Jiu, his body would have been directly destroyed by him.

There had been a hint of irony in this whole process. It felt as if he had come to the Evil Beast Valley just to be attacked by Di Jiu. However, he didn’t have time to wonder why Di Jiu was in the Evil Beast Valley now.

“Di Jiu…”

Di Jiu didn’t give any chance to Bai Hong. He immediately blasted out the Primeval Thunder Pattern. Bai Hong’s Principal Spirit didn’t hold up even for a while against the Primeval Thunder Pattern. It dissipated immediately.

Di Jiu could finally have peace of mind. He didn’t want Bai Hong to sneak up on him while he was dealing with the expert in the Life Transformation Array. He also didn’t want Bai Hong to forewarn his opponent that he would be coming.

Killing Bai Hong was not a big deal for Di Jiu. Therefore, he returned once again to his cultivation ground and continued cultivating.

Di Jiu attained the eighth-stage True Form Realm after a little more than 10 days. Five months later, he attained the ninth stage.

Di Jiu had already attained the late stage of the ninth-stage True Form Realm by the time the agreed timeframe of eight months was up. He let out a sigh as he stopped cultivating.

He had used up half of the Herb King Spirit Meridian, yet he was still a little short of attaining the Domain Realm. If he’d had one year, he would probably have been able to break through to the Domain Realm.

Di Jiu stopped cultivating, as it was almost time for everybody to gather again. He only put away two spirit meridians, but not the few arrays he had previously set up.

He saw An Lingzhou walking over hurriedly shortly after he exited the Evil Beast Valley.

“Sect Master Di, I didn’t expect that you would be here ahead of me,” said An Lingzhou. He was overjoyed when he saw that Di Jiu was already there. He had witnessed Di Jiu’s strength before and knew that their group’s standards would have been way lower if it had not been for Di Jiu.

“Ha ha! Looks like I’m too late.” Skygold Protectorate Lord Huan Changzhu’s voice came from afar. Soon, a gold-colored figure descended.

“You are not late! We just arrived as well.” Bai Cangxing’s voice was heard as well.

A couple of figures then descended in succession after Bai Cangxing. In no time, more than 10 people had gathered outside the Evil Beast Valley.

Every single one of them was a top expert in the True Dominion. All of them were gathered in the Evil Beast Valley now.

“Where is Protectorate Lord Bai?” asked An Lingzhou with a frown when he saw that the whole group had more or less gathered. Bai Hong’s strength was just second to Bai Cangxing’s. Their group’s overall strength would suffer a blow if Bai Hong was not there.