Ninth In the World

Regardless of whether Ni Luan was hiding somewhere, this was not something Mu Jie could control. With the Worm Tide coming wave after wave, she could only continue leading everyone to deal with the worms.

Di Jiu felt that he had been too ostentatious previously. He had shown such a strong combat strength that it was hard to guarantee that nobody would doubt him. He did not use the nomological arrays again. Instead, he used his Heavenly Aqua Saber to deal with the worms.

Even so, Di Jiu collected a pile of worms after 11 days.

After guarding the Wormhole for 11 days, Di Jiu had a rough understanding of the Wormhole. Not every worm equaled a point, and some worms were not even worth a point. For example, he had earned three points for killing the Jagged Tooth Worm, and the rarely-seen Double-Horned Dragon Beast Worm was worth at least 100 points.

A small minority of the worms carried worm eggs. He would make it big if he could cut open a worm’s abdomen and obtain a worm egg.

In just 11 days, all the surviving cultivators were exhausted. Some of them even looked faint green in the face, so it did not look like they had been slightly poisoned.

According to Kan Yiwei, they had an even higher death rate this time. Over 100 people had died.

The Defense Array was once again opened, just like when Di Jiu and the others had come previously. The 1,000 people who stood outside the Defense Array were there to take over guarding the Wormhole.

Mu Jie simply handed everything over to those cultivators and rushed out from the front line of the Wormhole with a group of cultivators who wanted to leave.

After they rushed out of the Defense Array, it once again closed behind them. Everyone then took a long breath. Their 11 days of suffering had passed.

Many cultivators headed toward the contribution point exchange area and took out the corpses of the worms to prepare to exchange them for contribution points. Di Jiu planned to do the same.

“Brother Zimo, don’t exchange all the worms. It is useful to keep some.” When Kan Yiwei saw Di Jiu exchange the worms for materials, he immediately walked over and spoke to him.

Di Jiu nodded his head. “Thank you, I got it.”

Mu Jie, who was in no mood to exchange anything for contribution points, immediately told Shen Changshui about Ni Luan.

When Shen Changshui heard that Ni Luan had been engulfed by the Wormhole while guarding the Wormhole in the North District, he was immediately stunned. He then rushed over to the Wormhole in a hurry.

When Shen Changshui arrived, Di Jiu had already exchanged all his worm materials despite Kan Yiwei telling him to keep some of them. These worm materials were not worth much money to Di Jiu. He had blacksmithing materials, so he was not short on worm materials.

“Mu Jie, Zimo, both of you come with me.” When Shen Changshui was certain about Ni Luan’s fate, he looked bad. However, Di Jiu had braved death and entered the Wormhole to save someone and even saved over dozens of cultivators who had fallen into the Wormhole previously. This was considered something good.

“Brother Zimo, I will pay you a visit after you return.” Kan Yiwei had also exchanged all of his materials but he did not know how many worm corpses Di Jiu had exchanged in one go. He had a feeling that Di Jiu had exchanged many of them this time.

Zhuo Wujia, who already knew that Di Jiu had probably gotten rid of Ni Luan, only nodded at Di Jiu and left with Kan Yiwei.

Di Jiu was really strong and did things perfectly, so there should not be any problems.

…

Shen Changshui resided in the center of the North District, and there was a big courtyard outside his cave abode where he had planted some immortal spirit herbs. Even though these plants were low-level, they filled this place with rich Immortal Spirit Qi so he felt comfortable after walking in.

“Mu Jie, you have caused great trouble,” Shen Changshui immediately told Mu Jie after he sat down.

Mu Jie sighed without replying, as she was also aware of this. Who had cursed her to be so unlucky? Ni Luan had to put himself to the test just as she was guarding the Wormhole. He was simply such a burden.

Di Jiu said with a frown, “Leader Shen, Union Master Mu has always been protecting Ni Luan. This time, the worms were simply too many. When Ni Luan was engulfed by the Wormhole, Union Master Mu tried to save him with all her strength. It is also because Union Master Mu had told us that we had to protect Ni Luan well that I braved death and entered the Wormhole to save him. It’s a pity that I did not succeed.”

Upon hearing that, Mu Jie looked at Di Jiu gratefully. She was now sure that Di Jiu had been trying to help her by entering the Wormhole to save Ni Luan.

Shen Changshui sighed. “I can’t decide about this matter anymore. I supposed the Moving Essence Chamber of Commerce must already know that I’m speaking to the person in charge of guarding the Wormhole. If my guess is correct, they must be about to arrive here. This time… the Moving Essence Chamber of Commerce’s Guild Master will most likely come over personally.”

…

Meanwhile, a big group of cultivators was discussing in shock under the Array Formation Display Screen of the Wormhole contribution points. Two newcomers had managed to climb up to the top 1,000.

One of them was the fellow called Zimo, who had earned 3,621 contribution points and climbed up to the 530th place. On the other hand, a fellow called Zhuo Wujia had earned 1,140 contribution points and climbed up to the 936th place.

This was an extraordinary incident, as ordinary cultivators needed to spend many years if they wanted to make the top 1,000. At the end of each year, their points would be reduced by half and transferred forward to the next year.

Wang Xie’s face sank when he saw the list. He had arranged for seven people to attack Di Jiu and Zhuo Wujia, but they had said that these two were too formidable so they had not had a chance to strike. Previously, he had doubted what they had said. However, now that he had seen the contribution point roll, he knew that this Zimo fellow was really formidable. Zhuo Wujia was not simple either. Otherwise, those two would not have made it to the top 1,000. Also, they had only gone to the Wormhole once.

However, he also heard a piece of good news. Ni Luan had gone missing while guarding the Wormhole this time, and he was sure that Ni Xiren would not let this matter go easily.

…

Wang Xie had guessed correctly, as Ni Xiren would not let this matter go indeed. He had already arrived at Shen Changshui’s cave abode under the lead of the Wormhole deacon, Chang Xin.

Shen Changshui led Mu Jie and Di Jiu out and welcomed them outside his cave abode. He bowed down straight from afar. “Leader Shen Changshui of the Wormhole’s North District pays his respects to Deacon Chang and Guild Master Ni.”

Mu Jie bowed down straight too, while Di Jiu pretended he knew none of them and greeted them blankly.

He had recognized Ni Xiren but could not make out his definite strength. However, it seemed like a vast, boundless world when he stood here. Di Jiu was certain that regardless of how many techniques he had, Ni Xiren only needed to extend his hand if he wanted to kill him.

Ni Xiren actually looked handsome. His eyes were somewhat slender and seemed harmless on the surface, but Di Jiu could sense a kind of terrifying bloodlust that indicated that one would die if they moved against him.

Unlike Ni Xiren, even though the cultivation level of Wormhole deacon Chang Xin was far higher, Di Jiu could perceive it.

Ni Xiren’s gaze landed on Mu Jie as he said calmly, “Tell me about this situation.”

“Yes.” Mu Jie’s face turned pale as she told him about the situation without adding anything.

Upon hearing that Di Jiu had braved death and entered the Wormhole to save Ni Luan, Ni Xiren turned his attention to Di Jiu. Di Jiu was already aware that his ring had been broken open by Ni Xiren’s Spiritual Force, but even though he was extremely furious, he did not dare act rashly. Fortunately, he cultivated the Nomological Dao and could allow himself to fuse with space. Thus, he did not reveal his fury.

“Take out the array disc for me to see,” Ni Xiren said calmly.

Di Jiu took out the piece of the array disc without hesitation.

Ni Xiren took Di Jiu’s array disc and looked at it for a while but did not return it. He put away the array disc and took out an elixir pill for Di Jiu as he said, “You’re not bad if you were able to brave death to save someone. I will reward you with an Ascension Dao Pill. You may consume it now.”

A milky-white elixir pill floated in front of Di Jiu.

When Mu Jie saw this elixir pill, her face instantly turned pale. She had never seen this kind of Ascension Dao Pill before but had heard of it. Once he swallowed this elixir pill, his entire Dao would gradually be stripped off and then get integrated into this elixir pill. Her premonition was right. If Ni Xiren would not let Di Jiu off, would he let her off? The reason he had not killed Di Jiu straightaway yet was probably because of Di Jiu’s array disc.

“Thank you, Guild Master, for your generosity.” Di Jiu took the elixir pill excitedly and swallowed it without any hesitation.

Ni Xiren nodded his head in satisfaction while Chang Xin looked a bit sarcastic.

Ni Xiren’s gaze once again landed on Mu Jie as he faintly said, “You’re still alive even though my son was engulfed by the Wormhole…”