Ninth In the World

“I will continue to cultivate here for some time before I leave. I intent to head to the area outside the red line, so it would not be appropriate for you guys to follow me. Plus, you are halfway to the Earth Tier and you no longer make any progress by cultivating, so I believe you need to go out and challenge yourselves for a certain period of time. Otherwise, there would be no point in you going into seclusion again,” Di Jiu said seriously.

He knew how formidable the little blue flowers could be. If Pang Fan and He Tai were only halfway to the Earth Tier, then he was certain that the two of them had yet to fully consume the essence of the flowers.

Pang Fan and He Tai looked at each other and nodded their heads. Di Jiu was right. They would not be able to improve if they kept cultivating in this manner.

There were some differences between martial arts cultivation and Dao cultivation after all. Martial arts cultivation required one to continuously challenge oneself in order to improve, whereas Dao cultivation required one to spend large amounts of time in seclusion.

However, if a Dao cultivator only went into seclusion, they would just become an average hardworking cultivator with not much space for growth. Other than entering reclusive cultivation, a real Daoist had to travel everywhere and challenge themselves like their martial arts counterparts. This was how they would attain great strength and deepen their understanding of the Dao of Heaven and Earth.

Di Jiu had gained this knowledge from the cultivation jade slips. Although it had only been a short sentence, he believed that it made a lot of sense.

“Brother Jiu, we will be heading to the garrison. If you need my help in any fashion, you only need to say so,” said He Tai immediately.

“The same goes for me,” Pang Fan said loudly. “If you want me to head to the East, I will turn my back to the West.”

They both owed their great achievements in this short period of time to Di Jiu, so they were very grateful for his help.

According to the cultivation jade slips, the Foundation Establishment Elixir was extremely valuable. It was actually so valuable that even the inner disciples of large sects did not receive one. The reason for the elixir’s high value was the shortage of main spiritual plants. Di Jiu had ignorantly eaten that Blue Flower-Leaf Grass to cultivate. That was such a wasteful act!

In order to advance to the sixth-stage Qi Refinement realm from the fourth-stage Qi Refinement realm, one only needed to have Spirit Qi and a certain period of time. Without the Foundation Establishment Elixir, many cultivators would be stuck at the Qi Refinement realm.

Di Jiu decided to stop his reclusive cultivation. If he wanted to break through to the seventh-stage Qi Refinement realm, then he would need to put himself to the test just like Pang Fan and He Tai had.

The Blue Flower-Leaf Grass was far too valuable. Di Jiu took out the jade box where he stored his Spirit Stones, plucked the remaining three little blue flowers and placed them inside. Then, he dug out the entire Blue Flower-Leaf Grass and stuffed it into his backpack. Only then did he jump out of the pit and get ready to leave.

His only regret was that he was unable to take the stone ball with him. That ball was mostly likely a quality item, so when he acquired a decent storage space, he would definitely come back and take it.

Di Jiu wished he had the storage ring. If he had obtained it during the auction…

Di Jiu shook his head, giving up on this greedy impulse. Fortune and misfortune went hand in hand, so it was hard to determine whether this was fortune or misfortune. If he had obtained that ring, he would have faced attacks from many experts the moment he had stepped onto the Fairy Square after all.

Of course, his current strength did not make him feel afraid. However, he had just attained the fourth-stage Qi Refinement realm at the time, so if he had been attacked from all sides, he could have only surrendered the ring or paid with his life.

…

Ten minutes later, Di Jiu restored the cave’s entrance to its original state, chose a direction and left that place swiftly.

He encountered many demon beasts on his way, all much weaker than the alligator and the horned lion. Di Jiu was at the sixth-stage Qi Refinement realm, so he could kill them easily.

Unfortunately, he did not possess a storage ring, so even though he killed many demon beasts, he was unable to collect any materials from them. At the last part of his journey, he decided to stop killing demon beasts and just hurry on quietly.

When Di Jiu switched on the locator five days later, he discovered that he had left the area marked by the red line.

There was only a red dot on the locator. It seemed like the test trial had ended and the elite class students had left. That red dot was his current position.

Di Jiu was about to switch off the locator, when a red dot started to blink rapidly at a corner that had originally been dim. After blinking for a while, the dot disappeared once more.

Was there still a student of the elite class around? Di Jiu knew that a blinking red dot was an SOS signal. If they got into trouble, the students had been instructed to press a button and send out an SOS signal. This way, their location would appear on the other students’ locators.

Judging by the location of the blinking red dot, the person in question had also crossed over the red line and entered the recesses of the Fairy Planet.

Di Jiu hesitated. He was not sure whether he should head over and save the student, but he eventually decided to go take a look.

Other than saving this person, his only objective now was to search for opportunities on the Fairy Planet. There was nothing wrong with lending a helping hand, though.

Although he could fly, Di Jiu chose not to step on the kitchen knife for safety reasons. Instead, he sprinted urgently for two hours in the direction where the red dot had appeared. The red dot on the locator started to blink again.

The position of the dot was very close to where he was right now. It had to be off to the side. Di Jiu stopped and used his Spiritual Force to scan the area.

Soon, his Spiritual Force stopped at the tree stump of a gigantic withered tree. This was the first time Di Jiu had seen such a big tree stump in his life. Its roots notwithstanding, one could simply determine that the cross-section of this tree was the size of a big football field based on the outer ring marks left on the tree.

Di Jiu could vaguely distinguish some indistinct footsteps in the powder surrounding the tree stump.

He was certain that the blinking red dot was in the middle of this withered stump, which was where the heart of the tree used to be. However, both his eyesight and his Spiritual Force could see clearly the powdered bark in the middle of the tree stump. There was no person or locator inside.