Ninth In the World

Panda Novel

The female cultivator quickly smashed the jade slip in her hand into scraps. After she scanned the outside with her Spiritual Force for a while, she withdrew it and heaved a sigh of relief.

She did not understand why that beautiful elder sister had given her a small jade slip. If the people from Heaven’s Beyond found out about that, she would probably be pulverized into ashes. Unless she was sick of living, she wouldn’t tell Di Jiu.

…

Di Jiu exited seclusion and walked out of the flying shuttle’s deck. After being in seclusion for decades, he had yet to sense any Primordial Chaos Dao runes, let alone reach Primordial Chaos.

Based on Di Jiu’s understanding of cultivation, he knew very well that even if he continued to stay in seclusion, he would not be able to break through to the Primordial Chaos. He needed a turning point, but this turning point was obviously not obtained during seclusion. Even if he did obtain it, he would need at least hundreds of thousands or even millions of years.

Di Jiu would not spend so much time in seclusion just to break through to Primordial Chaos.

“Any gains?” Upon seeing Di Jiu come out of seclusion, Ling Xiaoshuang stood up.

Di Jiu shook his head. “I don’t seem to have gained anything. I’ll control the flying boat and you’ll cultivate.”

Ling Xiaoshuang smiled. “The flying boat that you refined is not bad. I suppose in two or three more years, we will be close to the edge of Heaven’s Beyond. It doesn’t matter whether I enter seclusion in these two or three years.”

Ling Xiaoshuang’s cultivation had completely stabilized at the early-stage Dao Integration. Even though she had spent thousands of years in the Winter Valley, this was actually a kind of quiet advancement that was equally good for her cultivation.

However, she still handed the control of the flying shuttle to Di Jiu.

As soon as Di Ji’s Spiritual Force came into contact with the flying shuttle, the speed of the flying shuttle accelerated a lot. Frozen, Ling Xiaoshuang looked at Di Jiu and said after a while, “Big Brother Di, your Spiritual Force is much stronger than mine.”

Even Ling Xiaoshuang was a little baffled that the Spiritual Force of a Primordial Dao cultivator was stronger than that of a Dao Integration cultivator. At first, she had thought that although Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force was good, it was a little weaker than hers. Now, it seemed that her thought had been absurd.

Now that Di Jiu controlled the flying shuttle, its speed was much faster than when she had been controlling it.

Di Jiu smiled. “Xiaoshuang, I am not stronger than you in terms of Spiritual Force. However, there is one difference. My Spiritual Force is more condensed than yours. More importantly, I refined this flying shuttle, so it gets on with me almost perfectly. If you want to refine a flying Dharma treasure in the future, you can find me. When I am refining, use your blood to match it. A flying Dharma treasure refined that way will have the speed that you wish.”

“Alright.” Ling Xiaoshuang knew that she would very unlikely reach Di Jiu’s blacksmithing level. She considered herself lucky to be able to meet a talented cultivator like him.

She had met three of them. The first one had always put up a barrier so she had not even had the chance to be his friend. This was because she used to be too naive and had always looked on the surface and done a lot of stupid things.

Her master was right. Sometimes, what one saw with one’s eyes and what one heard with one’s ears might not be true. Something was true only if one felt it with one’s heart. She had not understood that well enough before. If she could see something clearly, why wouldn’t it be true? It wasn’t until later that her Dao technique progressed and encountered more things. As a result, she slowly understood. Even so, if Di Jiu hadn’t saved her, she would still have thought that Jiu You was her benefactor.

As for the second cultivator, she had not even had the chance to be friends with him. She had only been able to watch his Colossal Degeneration from afar. Even though he’d had an aura of the Colossal Degeneration, the other third-step almighty had not dared get close to him.

As far as the last cultivator was concerned, she had met him by chance because of his cultivation partner, Yan Ji, who had said a few words to him. He had also gifted her a spear talisman that had allowed her to kill a half-step, third-step almighty who’d wanted to kill her.

The third one was Di Jiu, who was before her. Not only had he saved her, but he had also become her friend.

…

When Di Jiu started controlling the flying shuttle, it became faster and faster. In just eight months, a fuzzy huge outline indistinctly appeared under his Spiritual Force.

Di Jiu slowed down the flying shuttle. “Xiaoshuang, it looks like we have arrived at the edge of Heaven’s Beyond.”

Ling Xiaoshuang also stood up, looking very excited. After so many years, she had finally come here. She had once again returned to Heaven’s Beyond.

After arriving at Heaven’s Beyond, she might be able to return to the Void City before she returned to the Sacred Dao World. She wondered whether her master and the senior sisters and junior sisters were doing well.

The flying shuttle stopped. Ling Xiaoshuang said with a sigh on the seemingly depressing Heaven’s Beyond Square, “When I came here before, this was a boiling cauldron of voices of cultivators from all over the vast universe. However, there are only five people here today. Those people should be the guards. They’re approaching us,” said Di Jiu as he put away the flying shuttle.

“That should be a supreme-grade flying divine weapon. I’m sure I’m right,” a man of medium stature said in a low voice. He was sure that Di Jiu had put away a supreme-grade flying divine weapon.

“Yes, I saw it clearly too,” said another cultivator by his side.

As cultivators guarding Heaven’s Beyond, they knew very well who could control a supreme-grade flying divine weapon to get to this place. Even if such a person abandoned their supreme-grade flying divine weapon at the square, they probably would not dare steal it.

Di Jiu and Ling Xiaoshuang stood still while these few people walked in their direction and could only hear a few of them talking clearly.

They were Five Dao Transformation cultivators, so he did not take them seriously.

“Daoists, we’ve never met before. Is this your first time at Heaven’s Beyond?” A thin and tall male cultivator whose strength was at the peak Dao Transformation led them.

“That’s right. It’s our first time here,” said Di Jiu.

The thin and tall male cultivator could not sense the cultivation level of Di Jiu or Ling Xiaoshuang. After recognizing that Di Jiu had controlled a supreme-grade flying divine weapon, he could only say respectfully, “Daoists, if it’s your first time here, you have to take out and show the identification jade cards of the realm you are from.”

“Identification jade cards?” Di Jiu immediately frowned a little and looked at Ling Xiaoshuang. He had never been to Heaven’s Beyond, but she had. She should be familiar with the rules there.

Ling Xiaoshuang shook her head. “I didn’t know about this kind of rule. There wasn’t such a rule here in the past.”

Upon seeing Di Jiu frown, the thin and tall man hurriedly explained, “Many experts used to seize territories in the past so Heaven’s Beyond was in turmoil. Later on, Patriarch Xun and a few seniors came here and reorganized the place. Therefore, Heaven’s Beyond is very safe now. In order to take precautions against unsafe factors, cultivators who come here from major realms need to be recommended by sects or pay a certain amount of divine crystals to make up for the lack of a jade card.”

Di Jiu said with a sneer, “Are people from major realms recommended here by just those few sects?”

“I’m not sure about this,” the thin and tall male cultivator said after hesitating. He was sure that he could not afford to offend Di Jiu and Ling Xiaoshuang.

“Forget it. I won’t make things difficult for you. Tell me, how many divine crystals do the two of us need to pay to enter Heaven’s Beyond?” Di Jiu did not bother talking with those guards any further.

The thin and tall man answered, “A million high-grade divine crystals each. After you go in, you can go to the God Hall of Heaven’s Beyond for evaluation.”

“What does that mean?” Di Jiu asked.

The thin and tall man explained, “The one million divine crystals is the fee to enter Heaven’s Beyond. If you wish to stay here for a long time, you’ll have to be evaluated and pay a number of divine crystals per year. If you can’t pay with divine crystals, you can only leave this place.”

“He he… Does this mean that Patriarch Xun has the final say? Is this his backyard garden?” Di Jiu no longer planned to pay the divine crystals.

He wouldn’t mind paying tens of thousands of divine crystals. However, he had to pay a million of them at once and then he would still have to go in for an evaluation. This made him feel very displeased.

Based on what he had heard, Heaven’s Beyond was a junction of major realms. Anyone could come here as long as they did not cause trouble.

Upon noticing that Di Jiu sounded displeased, the thin and tall male cultivator said respectfully, “We’re only guarding this place. We don’t know anything else.”

He had been there for many years as a guard. All these years, what kind of cultivators had he not seen? At the moment, it would be best if he remained calm and tried his hardest to avoid any conflicts with the other party. No matter how powerful the cultivators who went there were, they could only be arrogant on Heaven’s Beyond Square for a while. After they entered Heaven’s Beyond, they would normally vanish.

“I’m very sorry. I don’t have any divine crystals or anything else. I couldn’t care less about a guard like you either. You have two choices. You will either get killed by me and I’ll enter Heaven’s Beyond, or you will pretend that you know nothing and I’ll still enter the place.” Upon saying that, Di Jiu did not hesitate to walk toward the array door of Heaven’s Beyond.

Upon seeing Di Jiu walk over, Ling Xiaoshuang naturally did not hesitate either.