Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

By the time Di Jiu had completely stabilized his cultivation level at the early-stage Dao Birth, a year had passed.

If he had not had a pile of Divine Essence Pills, it would probably have taken him nearly a decade to stabilize his cultivation level. Once his cultivation level was stabilized, Di Jiu stopped cultivating. At his current level, it would be hard to advance in a short time.

In that case, he would rather refine pills. He had a lot of divine spirit herbs on him. After refining pills for some time, he could leave the Dao Ridge.

In fact, ever since Di Jiu had realized that the Dao Validation in the Dao Ridge was validating someone else’s Dao, he had always wanted to search for the Dao meridian in the Dao Ridge. However, ever since he had entered the Dao Ridge, he had not found any cultivation grounds, let alone the Dao meridian.

It was clear that the Dao Ridge’s reputation was greater than its practical efficacy. Reality did not live up to its name. The reputation of the Dao Ridge was far stronger than the reputation of the Vast Ruins. However, the way Di Jiu saw it, putting oneself to the test in the Vast Ruins was far more effective in comparison.

When Di Jiu took out the Gigantic Cosmic Cauldron, he suddenly thought of something. Back when his soul had almost been swept away by the Reincarnation Dao Runes on the Reincarnation Bridge, a faint spirit wood aura had allowed him to come back to his senses all of a sudden. Without it, he might have perhaps perished in that surging reincarnation Yin Qi.

When Di Jiu had previously thought of the Rainbow-Winged Lightning Worms and been pleasantly surprised by his Dao Birth, he had not thought of this momentarily. Now, he came back to his senses all of a sudden.

What could have reminded him and let him come back to his senses from oblivion apart from the Creation Wood in his Spiritual Sea? When he had just obtained a Creation Wood Branch in the past, it had self-exploded and helped him break open the Five-Element Dao-Sealing Array. After the Creation Wood Branch had exploded, it had left behind a small chunk of Creation Wood Tree Core that had been integrated into the Creation Cauldron eventually.

Right now, he was sure that the Creation Wood Tree Core had reminded him.

Di Jiu was very ashamed. He had promised not to use the Creation Cauldron for alchemy. When he had the capabilities, he would definitely help restore the physical bodies of the Creation Cauldron and that small chunk of Creation Wood Tree Core.

Now that his Ninth World had been formed, he should be able to get this done.

When Di Jiu thought of this, he was no longer in the mood to refine pills. Instead, he hurriedly entered the Ninth World. Repaying kindness and restoring the Creation Wood in the Ninth World were more important matters.

Once he had entered the Ninth World, Di Jiu knew he had guessed correctly. That faint spirit wood aura in the Creation Cauldron was exactly the spirit wood aura that had reminded him.

“Thank you.” Di Jiu walked to the front of the Creation Cauldron and petted it, feeling grateful for it. Although his Ninth World had not reminded him, the Creation Wood Tree Core inside it had reminded him.

Once Di Jiu’s hands landed on the Creation Cauldron, he could sense some extremely mysterious, esoteric Heaven Earth Spirit Wood Laws. He hurriedly closed his eyes and very soon sank into it.

Di Jiu did not intend to enter seclusion after entering the Ninth World. However, he completely immersed himself into understanding the wood-element laws of the Creation Wood.

When Di Jiu woke up, he realized that he had been in the Ninth World for five months while trying to understand.

Di Jiu lifted his hands and constantly set up nomological restrictions. After two hours, a faint nomological whirlpool appeared before him.

The soil of the nomological whirlpool and the Ninth World were integrated, forming a huge pit. Di Jiu then once again opened his palm to grab the Creation Cauldron. Wood-element nomological auras were integrated with the restrictions and Creation Cauldron. The Creation Cauldron then gradually became indistinct, turning into laws that permeated the whirlpool pit.

Di Jiu placed all the divine crystals beside the pit of the planted Creation Wood Core. However, he could still sense that the spirit energy was far from enough.

If the Creation Wood wanted to germinate once again, it would need the Dao meridian.

He could not enter seclusion. Regardless of whether the Dao Ridge had the Dao meridian, he had to search for it.

…

Di Jiu exited the Ninth World and sensed the aura of the lightning bird.

The lightning bird had clearly come here and left the aura behind before flying in the distance.

Di Jiu followed the aura without hesitation. Now that he had understood the nomological escape technique, none of the first-step Dao Validation cultivators could be faster than him, even though he was not the fastest person in the Dao World.

More than two hours later, Di Jiu stopped. This sect had been abandoned long ago. Based on the sect’s ruins, he could vaguely sense that this sect used to be glorious.

At the moment, Di Jiu no longer needed to sense the lightning bird’s aura. His Spiritual Force scanned an invisible array door that had been blasted apart.

Di Jiu immediately stepped through the array door and a nine-turn stairway wriggling downward appeared under his feet. He quickly glanced at it and landed on a black jade door. A few words were written above it: Colossal Kun Sacred Dao Sect Body-Tempering Lake.

Upon seeing the words, Di Jiu immediately sensed that his Colossal Kun Body-Tempering Art was connected to this sect in some way.

Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force permeated the black jade door, wondering what it was made of to no avail. There were traces of an attack on the door that were very fresh.

He lifted his legs to kick it and the black jade door opened wide.

Di Jiu was shocked to see that there were actually over 20 people inside. In the middle was a 100-feet lake. The cultivators inside sat in the lake cross-legged to cultivate. However, most of the cultivators were at the edge, while very few cultivators were far from the edge and did not dare to enter any deeper.

When Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force permeated the lake, he felt pain. It was obvious that this lake was not simple.

Then, Di Jiu saw the lightning bird, which was being nailed by a long nail on a stone pillar at the edge of the lake with its head dangling. He did not know whether it was dead or alive.

Di Jiu was furious. He stepped over there without hesitation and opened his palm to pull out this long nail before he put an elixir pill into the bird’s mouth.

A bald man stared at Di Jiu and said, “You must have guts to come and snatch our competition award.”

Over 20 cultivators in the lake looked at Di Jiu sarcastically. Di Jiu cultivated the Nomological Dao. As long as he wanted to, nobody could see his cultivation level. However, he looked as if he did not have a very high cultivation level since he did not have any aura whatsoever. He looked like an ordinary cultivator on the roadside, so he was not outstanding.

“Di Jiu, let go quickly. You can’t touch that bid.” A sharp, clear voice was heard. Di Jiu saw the cultivator who had told him to let go. She was considered an acquaintance. It was Yu Qianxi, the woman with the scarf.

Di Jiu had no reason to listen to Yu Qianxi. Thus, he drew his Heavenly Aqua Saber and immediately struck that bald man.

The bald man was at the late-stage Dao Modeling. An aura surged all over him, making him look extremely valiant. When Di Jiu drew his Heavenly Aqua Saber and struck this bald man, the other cultivators in the lake were stunned.

Who was this fellow? How dare he attack Eternal Court Sacred Dao City’s Ji Feng? Did he have a death wish?

The bald man could not believe this either. He had not expected that Di Jiu would dare make a move on him. If they had not been competing over who would get out of the lake last, when Di Jiu had pulled out the long nail on the lightning bird, he would have made a move on him. He had not expected that before he could make a move on Di Jiu, he would make one first.

“You must have a death wish…” Ji Feng bellowed before he took out a silver-white wolf fang halberd and struck at Di Jiu.

Crack! A saber flare swept past and the shattering sound of a Dharma treasure domain was heard. The divine power of Ji Feng’s wolf fang halberd had not formed yet, but his divine power law shattered.

“He’s shattering the divine power law…” When Ji Feng cried out in shock, Di Jiu’s Heavenly Aqua Saber turned into a white flare of light midway.

Pfft! The white flare saber screen hacked Ji Feng into two. Before the lake water was contaminated and it turned red, Di Jiu had sent a fireball toward Ji Feng’s corpse and burned him completely.

Di Jiu turned his body and once again stood at the edge of the lake.

All the cultivators in the lake were stunned as they looked at Di Jiu in shock. How come he was so powerful? How could he settle a battle with just one saber move and kill Ji Feng, who was at the late-stage Dao Modeling, like a chicken?

Ji Feng was not an ordinary late-stage Dao Modeling cultivator. He had come from the Eternal Court Sacred Dao City and was their core disciple. However, despite being a core disciple of the Eternal Court Sacred Dao City, he had been killed really easily.

“I know! It’s you!” Yu Qianxi suddenly pointed at Di Jiu and called out in pleasant surprise. She had finally recognized the cultivator with the strongest survival capability in the Vast Ruins, whom Mo Yejiu had mentioned. It was definitely Di Jiu.

Di Jiu glanced at Yu Qianxi, looking baffled. He did not know what she knew. However, he stared coldly at the cultivators in the lake and said with killing intent, “Who dared nail my lightning bird? Step forward now.”

“Ha ha…” Loud laughter was heard. “Do you think you’re amazing after killing a late-stage Dao Modeling cultivator?”

Then, a much stronger domain aura than Ji Feng’s aura swept toward Di Jiu.

Even the cultivators in the lake hurriedly avoided this terrifying domain aura in shock.