Ninth In the World

“I will not be going to the Granular Sand City. Let’s board the flying boat first.” Di Jiu had no interest in going for a walk in the Granular Sand City, as he did not need to buy anything. His loot from the Qi Family’s Commercial Building was sufficient. He already had everything, so there was no need for him to go to the city.

When he said that, Di Jiu saw Jing Mobing and Wang Zheng scowl. Di Jiu was confused. What had his reluctance to take a walk in the city got to do with them?

Zheng Feisheng, who was stunned for a moment, said, “In that case, we will head back to our rooms and take a break before we go out individually.”

Di Jiu suddenly understood. Jing Mobing and Wang Zheng were very petty. They both thought that he wanted to head to the cabin first to choose a good room for himself.

Di Jiu did not care enough to confront them about this. He had originally intended to head over to the common room to check it out. If the common room was good enough, he’d be satisfied staying there.

After their tickets were checked, the five of them entered the massive flying flying boat. Once he was on board, Di Jiu used his Spiritual Force to scan the large common area on the first floor.

When he assessed his surroundings, Di Jiu finally understood why Zheng Feisheng had wanted to spend such a huge amount of money on a large room.

The common area on the first floor was extremely noisy, even though the flying boat would only be setting off a few days later. He could also clearly see fresh bloodstains at the entrance of the common area, so there mostly likely had been a fight there.

It was indeed quite unsafe to pay 100,000 middle-grade Spirit Stones to sleep in this common room.

From what he understood, it would take them six months to travel from the Granular Sand City to the Sky Screen, so he wanted to use that time to attain the seventh-stage Foundation Establishment Realm.

Di Jiu took out several piles of Spirit Stones and started to frantically cultivate. Given his current array formation skills, no matter how big the cultivating disturbance was, thanks to the presence of the level-five Spirit-Hiding Array, he did not have to worry about anyone sensing anything.

Several days passed in the blink of an eye. Although Di Jiu did not go out, he could sense that the flying boat had started to move.

No one disturbed him during his reclusive cultivation, as Di Jiu had said that he was going into seclusion before he had entered the cultivation room.

The piles of Spirit Stones were transformed into pure Spirit Qi by his starry sky meridian when Di Jiu completed a Qi Circulation. This Spirit Qi kept replenishing Di Jiu’s Quintessential Essence. With each passing day, the galaxy within Di Jiu became increasingly clearer. His cultivation also increased substantially.

In just two months, a dense Quintessential Essence Aura broke through the shackles of the sixth-stage Foundation Establishment Realm and Di Jiu attained the seventh-stage Foundation Establishment Realm.

The power of the starry sky meridian allowed Di Jiu to spend some time stabilizing his cultivation after attaining the seventh-stage Foundation Establishment Realm.

Di Jiu took out a pile of Spirit Stones once again. He possessed only a Foundation Establishment Quintessential Flame, so compared to blacksmithing, he would rather continue cultivating.

Just as Di Jiu was done preparing the Spirit Stones and was about to start cultivating, the restriction at the entrance was triggered.

Di Jiu frowned. Before he had entered this reclusive cultivation, he had said that he was not to be interrupted. Who would trigger his restriction? His Spiritual Force scanned the area outside. Qi Qian, Jing Mobing and Wang Zheng were standing there. The one who had triggered the restriction was Qi Qian.

If Wang Zheng or Jing Mobing had dared trigger his restriction, he would have used his title as a young cultivation master and flown off the handle. However, he was not as angry with Qi Qian for triggering the restriction.

Di Jiu put away the Spirit Stones and used a dusting spell on himself. Then, he opened the restrictions and walked out of the cultivation room.

“I’m in the middle of my seclusion, Junior Sister Qi Qian. What’s the matter?” Although Di Jiu was not angry with her, he still needed to clarify why she had called him out without a reason.

“I’m really sorry, Senior Brother Zimo,” Qi Qian said fearfully. “I disrupted your reclusive cultivation because I had no other choice…”

When he saw Qi Qian’s panic-stricken state, Di Jiu waved his hand and said, “We are all in the same team heading towards the Sky Screen. You can tell me anything. I will help in any way I can. By the way, where did Daoist Zheng go?”

Qi Qian rubbed her eyes and said, “Something happened to Senior Brother Zheng. I could not find anyone else that could help…”

“What happened exactly?” inquired Di Jiu. When they had boarded, Zheng Feisheng had warned everyone not to go out without a valid reason, as fights were allowed on the flying boat.

How could something happen to Zheng Feisheng, when he had been the one to warn them? Di Jiu refused to believe that something could have happened to Zheng Feisheng while Zheng Feisheng had been in reclusive cultivation.

“In the morning, Senior Brother Zheng told me that he heard that a Foundation Quintessential Elixir had appeared on the flying boat. He is about to reach the third-stage Foundation Establishment Realm, so he needed a Foundation Quintessential Elixir in order to succeed. Hence, he went over to seek and purchase a Foundation Quintessential Elixir. I sent him a message in the afternoon, but he did not reply. When I went to the flying boat market to look for him, I discovered that something had happened to him…” said Qi Qian, frightened.

“What had happened?” Di Jiu finally understood.

Zheng Feisheng had indeed desperately needed a Foundation Quintessential Elixir, so it was not surprising that he had gone to seek and purchase one. Whoever had delivered this message to Zheng Feisheng must have known that he needed that elixir. Who could that person be?

“After asking around, I found out that Senior Brother Zheng did not purchase the Foundation Quintessential Elixir. Instead, he sought and purchased a Blood Quintessential Herb. Soon afterwards, he was injured and abducted by some people for unknown reasons. The ransom is 100,000 high-grade Spirit Stones…” When she reached this point, Qi Qian could not continue anymore.

They might be staying in a room worth 40,000 high-grade Spirit Stones, but they had accumulated these Spirit Stones after a long time. They would never be able to get so many Spirit Stones. Plus, even if they could, they would not want to spend them on this.

She had already asked Senior Sister Jing Mobing and Senior Brother Wang Zheng, but both of them had made excuses and implied that they were unable to spend so many Spirit Stones in one go.

She had been extremely helpless, which was why she had asked Di Jiu, who had joined the team last minute, for help. If even acquaintances were unwilling to spend that amount of Spirit Stones though, why would a stranger like Di Jiu do it?

Di Jiu’s eyes landed on Jing Mobing and Wang Zheng, who were both top-notch disciples of the True Li Sword Sect. Judging by the Dharma treasures they occasionally used, Di Jiu believed that they were able to contribute some Spirit Stones to this cause.

“If we need 100,000 high-grade Spirit Stones, then we should pool together any Spirit Stones we have. I intend to pool together the right amount of Spirit Stones before I ask his captors why they are doing this. Perhaps the Spirit Stones will not be needed in the end.” Di Jiu thought that Zheng Feisheng was not bad. The man liked to wear a white robe and show off. He also liked to stand out whenever he did something. In addition, he was willing to make sacrifices to make sure that every member of the team was happy.

In other words, Zheng Feisheng liked being a leader.