Ninth In the World

The jade slip was locked by a restriction, so one could only see its contents after breaking that restriction.

Di Jiu was a level-five array great-master, so the level-five restrictions on the jade slip did not stop him for long.

Di Jiu broke the restrictions within half a day and read the contents. He was pleasantly surprised that this supernormal ability jade slip was considerably complete. If he followed the instructions on the jade slip, he could learn this supernormal ability.

An hour later, Di Jiu placed the jade slip down helplessly.

He would not learn this supernormal ability, because he believed that it was useless. It was no wonder that this jade slip would be up for sale in the Qi Family’s Commercial Building.

If one could nullify one’s own life-force, then this jade slip could have been of value. However, this jade slip only taught one how to nullify the life-force of one’s pets. Di Jiu only had one pet: Little Tree. If he met his doom, what use would helping Little Tree nullify its life-force and protecting it be?

Little Tree would still die.

Di Jiu was about to put away this jade slip, when he suddenly remembered something. He had attained a dharma treasure fragment back on the Fairy Planet.

Although he could sense a weak life-force coming from this dharma treasure fragment, he was unable to determine the source of this life-force. When he had successfully attained the Foundation Establishment Realm and his array formation skills had improved, he had also tried using his Spiritual Force to permeate the fragment. However, he had still been unable to discover the source. He had only sensed that this life-force had grown weaker.

Could the weak life-force of the dharma treasure fragment have been obscured by a Void Life-Force? Too much time had passed, so this supernormal ability was not working as well. Di Jiu was only able to sense the life-force leaking out.

When he thought of that, despite the fact that he had not been interested in this supernormal ability earlier, Di Jiu started to analyze the dharma treasure fragment.

If his theory was correct, how formidable could an item made invisible by a supernormal ability be?

Di Jiu’s learning capability surpassed most people’s, so he gained a rudimentary mastery of the Void Life-Force in a few days. Half a month later, he was able to use this supernormal ability. His technique was still rough around the edges, so he needed some time to perfect it.

Just like with his Gathering Peaks and Furious Waves, improving his cultivation would also change the effects of this technique accordingly.

His motive for studying the Void Life-Force was to analyze the life-force of the dharma treasure fragment. After learning the basics, he stopped studying this supernormal ability. Instead, he took out the dharma treasure fragment as fast as he could.

Sometimes, when one could understand, it felt like it was within one’s grasp. In any other case, it felt impossible to overcome. This was exactly how Di Jiu felt. When he had taken out this dharma treasure fragment in the past, he had been unable to see anything other than his ability to permeate the fragment with his Spiritual Force.

This time, when he held onto the fragment, he instantly sensed the traces of the Void Life-Force technique. It was exactly as he had imagined. Someone had used the Void Life-Force technique to hide something in this fragment. Due to the passing of time, as well as other reasons, the traces of this supernormal ability had been revealed. Hence, Di Jiu discovered the leaking life-force.

Di Jiu started to remove the incomplete traces of the supernormal ability. His cultivation was only at the Foundation Establishment Realm and he had only recently learned the Void Life-Force supernormal ability, so he managed to completely remove the Void Life-Force technique three days later.

Then, an incomplete restriction appeared in front of him. If it had not been incomplete, Di Jiu would most likely not have been able to open it, even if he could set up a level-nine restriction.

This restriction was extremely fragmentary, so it took Di Jiu only half a day to break it. When he did, he saw a black armored beetle the size of a pea.

Di Jiu was extremely disappointed.

He had thought that some really impressive item would be hidden in this fragment, yet it was only a dung beetle.

Di Jiu was certain that his eyes were not fooling him. It was indeed a dung beetle with six legs, a head pointed like a spike and a horn. A black armor covered the beetle’s entire body.

What else could this be but a dung beetle?

The breathing of the dung beetle seemed extremely weak. It actually looked like it was going to die at any moment. As he held the dharma treasure fragment, Di Jiu hesitated for a while. He was not sure if he should throw away the dung beetle or not.

If someone had hidden this beetle so cautiously, then it had to be more than an ordinary dung beetle.

However, Di Jiu knew that there were many senseless people who would hide away an ordinary dung beetle, so it was not impossible.

“Little Tree, what kind of insect is this?” Di Jiu asked Little Tree.

The Tiny Tree Root stared at the beetle for a long time. Based on its expression, Di Jiu could tell that the Tiny Tree Root did not recognize this insect either. He was about to ask it to move out of the way, when it said in an attempt to please Di Jiu, “You only need to give it a drop of blood, Big Brother. This insect is currently in an extremely weak state. Give it a drop of blood. If it’s useful, keep it; if it’s useless, discard it.”

In Little Tree’s opinion, this was no big deal. While its boss had been fighting, he had lost a lot of blood from his injuries, so there was no need to hesitate about one drop of blood.

Di Jiu was moved. This really was not a big deal if he could resolve the dilemma with one drop of blood. However, an ordinary dung beetle would not be able to absorb his blood. Even if it could absorb it, it would be unable to provide him with any useful information...

Something was not right. This was definitely not a dung beetle. What was the lifespan of an ordinary dung beetle? This insect had been leaking out life-force for an unknown period of time. The fact that it was still alive meant that its life-force was way tougher than a dung beetle’s.

Di Jiu dripped a drop of blood essence on the beetle. The drop was completely absorbed by the beetle in an instant.

As the breathing of the beetle grew slightly stronger, Di Jiu felt a thirsty aura. It seemed like the beetle wanted more blood.

Di Jiu sneered silently. Even if this was not a mere dung beetle, it would be wistful thinking for it to be able to drink a second drop of his blood.

Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force, which was unable to attain what it wanted after waiting a while, suddenly sensed a familiar aura.

Did the beetle want to recognize him as its owner? The reason Di Jiu was familiar with this ownership recognition aura was because he had sensed it from Little Tree in the past.

However, Di Jiu was kind of unwilling to keep a beetle as a pet, especially since it looked so much like a dung beetle. Regardless of how much it would help him, his reputation would be marred by the fact that he kept a dung beetle as a pet.

When it sensed that Di Jiu did not want to keep it, the beetle gave out a disappointed, sorrowful vibe.

Di Jiu immediately captured this disappointment. This was the same disappointment he had felt when he had failed the martial roots test several times and had been rejected by Zhen Man.

Di Jiu placed a Spiritual Force Imprint on the beetle with a sigh. He would just treat it as if they were on the same boat.

As expected, when it sensed Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force Imprint, the beetle instantly became happy. Di Jiu dug out a bit of the cyan life-force and threw it to Little Tree. “Take this beetle to the spirit herb garden. I’m going to leave this place soon. Remember to rear this beetle properly. If it dies, you will pay.”

“Don’t worry, Big Brother. I will do this job well.” Little Tree might be able to survive in loneliness because of the fact that it used to be a tree. However, now that it had transformed into a Tree Spirit and seen the material world by following Di Jiu around, it found it boring to stay in the spirit herb garden every day.

With the addition of the beetle, it now had a conversation partner.

Di Jiu was not always lucky. This time around, other than acquiring a useless supernormal ability called Void Life-Force, he had gained nothing else.

It was time he headed to the Sky Screen. Di Jiu put away all the jade slips he had read once and changed his appearance so he looked like a cultivation family’s disciple.

He actually did not know where the Sky Screen was or how to head there.

He was not worried, though. This topic was being discussed everywhere, so he could easily find a place that sold a Sky Screen introductory jade slip.

The Brook Border City might be small, but this kind of jade slip was still on sale. As soon as he bought some jade slips on the Sky Screen, Di Jiu left the city.

He suddenly discovered a message on team formation when he was outside the Brook Border City.

Before Di Jiu could take a closer look at this message, a young man in white cultivation attire walked up to him and cupped his fist. “Are you planning on heading to the Sky Screen?’

“That’s right. I do want to head to the Sky Screen.” Di Jiu nodded his head. He could see that this young man was a cultivator at the second-stage Foundation Establishment Realm.

“Then you must know that the boat ticket to the Sky Screen is very expensive,” the young man said. “The rent of a big room is not something an average cultivator can afford either. Sleeping on the floor is unsafe and does not offer any privacy. Why don’t you team up with us and head over together? We will rent a big room together. We could also take care of one another.”

“Team up with whom?” asked Di Jiu.

The white-robed young man pointed to a man and two women standing a short distance away and said, “That’s Junior Sister Bing, Junior Sister Qi Qian and Junior Brother Wang. I am Zheng Feisheng.”

Di Jiu thought that Junior Sister Bing looked a little familiar. He felt as if he had seen her somewhere before.