Chapter 0851: The Origin of Grand Essence Ruins

“How do I address you Junior Apprentice Sister?” After purchasing a jade card, Chi Zimin sat next to Ning Cheng and took the initiative to speak to Nalan Ruxue.

Nalan Ruxue stood up, gave a slight bow and said, “Nalan Ruxue, also a rogue cultivator.”

“This Junior Apprentice Sister Nalan and Brother Ning, you both reached such a point in cultivation as rogue cultivators. It shows that you both have peerless talents. As long as you reach the Grand Essence Domain, most sects and other forces will receive you with open arms.”

Chi Zimin had a very talkative personality. Even if Ning Cheng and Nalan Ruxue didn’t talk much, he could still pick a topic and all kinds of allusions would come out of his mouth. Moreover, they were all exciting bits too. In the end, many cultivators leaned in to listen to him talk about various things.

Ning Cheng also learned many new things from Chi Zimin’s mouth. For example, Boundary Essence Spirit Sea City was the worst place within the Grand Essence Realm. The real law-cultivation sacred grounds of the Grand Essence Realm were in the Grand Essence Domain. Because of this reason, the Grand Essence Domain had numerous top-grade sects. However, ordinary cultivators didn’t have the chance to enter the Grand Essence Domain. Even cultivators with poor cultivations weren’t qualified to enter despite having the right qualifications.

However, experts from Grand Essence Domain frequently came out looking for qualified disciples. Once selected by a sect within the Grand Essence Domain, one could then obtain a chance to enter the Grand Essence Domain.

Although the Grand Essence Ruins lay outside of the Grand Essence Domain, it was a peculiar existence. Even the various powerhouses in the Grand Essence Domain didn’t know about its exact size. Moreover, many sects in the Grand Essence Domain would go looking for potential disciples there. They would also use that place as a staging ground for brokering various deals between other sects and forces.

One could say that in addition to the Grand Essence Domain, the most prosperous place within the Grand Essence Realm was the edge of the Grand Essence Ruins.

“Senior Chi, would I have to join an alliance or a union to enter the Grand Essence Ruins?” Someone next to him asked with a careful voice.

Chi Zimin chuckled, “Of course, joining an alliance is a must. The Grand Essence Ruins has many alliances; you can take your pick. But the strongest ones out there are the Dao Confirming Alliance, Rogue Cultivator Alliance, Sword Ruins, Spirit Thunder and a few others. Of course, it would be impossible for most cultivators to join these alliances. But you also need to keep in mind that if you didn’t have some ability that the alliances find useful, then even the weakest alliance wouldn’t want you.”

“What if you don’t join any of them?” Someone asked again.

“Many cultivators initially make the mistake of not joining an alliance right away. But after these rogue cultivators enter the Grand Essence Ruins, very few of them can manage to come out alive. If they do come out, they would immediately choose to form or join an alliance. It’s because it’s almost impossible to rake in points within the Grand Essence Ruins by yourself. Plus, there’s always the risk of losing your life.”

“Moreover, without points, you can’t buy treasures and other essential stuff from the Grand Essence Quest Hall either.” Chi Zimin wasn’t just a talkative person, but he also seemed to have a kind heart. He answered every question in as much detail as possible, regardless of who asked it.

“There’s even a Quest Hall in the Grand Essence Ruins?” A shocked voice asked from within the crowd.

This time, without waiting for Chi Zimin to answer, someone else took the initiative to help, “Of course, even I have heard about this Quest Hall. Rumour has it that some big sects from Grand Essence Domain established it with the help of many chambers of commerce. Thus, anyone can post tasks or accept tasks from there. Completing those tasks would give you a certain number of points, which you can then exchange for various treasures from the Quest Hall. As long as you have enough points, you can get anything you want.”

“So good? Then, if I want a Dao Fruit, can I exchange for it there?”

This time, Chi Zimin spoke up, “That’s natural, but points required for a Dao Fruit aren’t easy to accumulate. Some people have completed many tasks for thousands of years, yet I’m afraid that they still haven’t collected enough points to exchange for a Dao Fruit. However, the points for the Quest Hall’s tasks aren’t just for exchanging for treasures, but also serve a more important purpose….”

“What is it?” Before Chi Zimin could say it, someone asked eagerly.

Chi Zimin spoke with a calm tone, “That is, it serves as a measurement of qualifications to enter the Grand Essence Domain. Many sects within the Grand Essence Domain use the Grand Essence Ruins’ rankings to select their disciples.”

“You can’t get a Dao Fruit in even a thousand years, alas. But I should be able to accumulate enough points to go to the Grand Essence Domain, right?”

“That’s both true and untrue. If you have luck on your side and find the Grand Essence Realm’s lost Spirit Thunder Spirit Technique in the Grand Essence Ruins, you can easily exchange it for a basket full of dao fruits. You can even hand it over to the sects for a high position. But if you have bad luck, then even after venturing for countless years, you might not find anything.”

“Stop dreaming. Grand Essence Spirit Thunder, hehe….”

……

While everyone eagerly involved themselves in the discussion, a huge airship landed not far away. Then, the cultivator who issued the jade cards spoke up with a loud voice, “The airship for the teleportation point has arrived. Everyone, please get on board and then go to your cabins based on the number on your jade cards.”

Ning Cheng’s cabin number was 121, and Nalan Ruxue got 122.

Not long after Ning Cheng entered his cabin, Chi Zimin came knocking.

“Brother Ning, I took the liberty to find you. I hope you can forgive me for this.” Chi Zimin entered Ning Cheng’s room and spoke with cupped fists and a smile over his face.

Ning Cheng let out a dark sigh. Chi Zimin truly knew how to approach people. His purpose of all that talk before most likely was for this moment. Even Ning Cheng had to admit that this sort of approach truly worked. If it hadn’t been for him talking about those relatively critical bits of information before and answering everyone’s questions, Ning Cheng wouldn’t have thought much about it. Moreover, Ning Cheng wouldn’t have bothered to let him inside his cabin.

“Brother Ning should already know why I came here. I know that Brother Ning wouldn’t lie to me and that you truly had only one pot of None-to-depend-on Wine. But I still want to know from where Brother Ning obtained that pot?” Although Chi Zimin’s cultivation exceeded Ning Cheng, he still spoke with a low posture and a very polite tone.

Ning Cheng pondered over it for a moment before speaking, “I obtained that pot from someone named Mo Wang. But I have no idea about his whereabouts.”

Ning Cheng didn’t need to hide this information in this place. Moreover, he truly did obtain the None-to-depend-on Wine because of Mo Wang. Mo Wang was a descendant of the Mo Clan and had guided Ning Cheng to find the None-to-depend-on.

“It’s truly the Mo Clan.” Chi Ziming’s eyes flashed with excitement and then asked eagerly, “Brother Ning, I have two more things to ask you. When you obtained the None-to-depend-on Wine, did you also obtain None-to-depend-on Wine’s brewing method? Have you heard about a spirit technique called None-to-depend-on?”

Ning Cheng frowned slightly, “I’m afraid it’s not much use in asking me about these matters. You should ask people from the Mo Clan about it.”

Ning Cheng had not only heard of it, but he also possessed the None-to-depend-on wine’s brewing method and the spirit technique. The only reason he said those words was because he didn’t want to expose those two things.

Chi Zimin, however, felt even more excited. “Brother Ning, can you find Dao Friend Mo Wang?”

“This….” Ning Cheng hesitated, “I can’t guarantee if I can find him. I can only try my luck at it.”

The reason why Ning Cheng didn’t reject it outright was that he wanted to know to what extent did Chi Zimin want the None-to-depend-on Wine’s brewing method. The brewing method for the None-to-depend-on Wine went hand in hand with the None-to-depend-on Spirit Technique. If one didn’t know the None-to-depend-on Spirit Technique, even having the complete brewing method would be of no use.

Chi Zimin took out a jade card and cautiously spoke to Ning Cheng. “Brother Ning, if you can find these two things in the future, even if you only find some clues about it, just bring this jade card to my Chi Clan in Grand Essence Domain. I give you my word that my Chi Clan can meet any of your requirements.”

“Okay, I will keep that in mind.” Ning Cheng took the jade card and secretly wondered if Chi Zimin could truly meet any of his demands despite making a vow. I want the Breath Soil; would this Chi Clan provide it?

Chi Zimin stood up and said, “I won’t bother Brother Ning much. But if Brother Ning needs any help in the future, you can always come to find this Chi Zimin.”

This sentence was just a polite gesture. Chi Zimin had given him a jade card for the None-to-depend-on, not for Ning Cheng to ask for help.

“Brother Chi, do you have any jade strips with information about the Grand Essence Ruins?”

Chi Zimin had already taken out a jade strip and handed it to Ning Cheng before Ning Cheng finished his words. He even spoke with a smile, “I anyway intended to give this jade strip to Brother Ning. Brother Ning can take a look at it. In any case, it would still take a few days for us to reach the teleportation point.”

After speaking, Chi Zimin quickly walked out of Ning Cheng’s cabin.

Ning Cheng waited for Chi Zimin to leave before raising his hand and activating the restrictions while his spiritual consciousness swept into the jade strip.

Half an hour later, Ning Cheng put away the jade strip.

The Grand Essence Ruins covered a vast area and was countless times larger than the Grand Essence Domain. A long time ago, a shocking war had erupted between the five grand realms, but no one could figure out the reason. As one of the five grand realms, the Grand Essence Realm couldn’t avoid the war.

During that war, laws themselves began to collapse. Only when the top powerhouses’ Good Fortune Treasures began to break apart, only then did these powerhouses realise the terrible consequences of the war. If the battle continued, it might even cause the full collapse of the five highest positional planes of the five grand realms. Once a positional plane’s laws collapsed, it would immediately cause widespread destabilisation. At that point, it would be no different from the collapse of the five grand realms. Therefore, even if they won, they would have lost their roots.

But even if those powerhouses realised it, it was already too late. In the end, the Grand Change Realm was the only one among the five grand realms that remained intact. However, it only survived because it had the protection of heaven and earth’s first treasure[1].

The other four realms didn’t enjoy such luck. The Grand Beginning Realm suffered the most damage, turning into countless minor law interfaces that flowed into the various positional planes in the void. These minor law interfaces weren’t uniform in size either. But irrespective of which positional planes they ended up in, they became the highest-level interface within that positional plane.

In retrospect, the Grand Essence Realm remained relatively complete. However, most of the places inside of it had already turned into ruins. Fortunately, these ruins didn’t drift away from the Grand Essence Realm and into the void.

In any case, even before the collapse, the Grand Essence Realm was known as a treasure trove of spiritual objects. It resulted in the realm having many powerhouses, just like the clouds in the sky. Therefore, once these powerhouses fell in the war, their powers turned into various guardian laws. Most of these guardian laws took root within the ruins of the Grand Essence Realm, and after a long time, they evolved and formed the Grand Essence Ruins.

It was the reason why the Grand Essence Ruins had countless mysterious locations within it. Moreover, also a reason why some Second-step Dao Confirming experts have fallen inside the Grand Essence Ruins. However, the Grand Essence Ruins also created many new powerhouses every generation. As some cultivators gained great opportunities in this place, it allowed many to become overlords.

Over time, three top powerhouses emerged in the Grand Essence Realm and the unaffected parts of the Grand Essence Realm got divided among these three great powers. These powers then formed the Grand Essence Domain, which kept itself isolated from everything else. This isolation was not isolation in the strictest sense as it only allowed the strong to enter the Grand Essence Domain for cultivation. Cultivators with insufficient or low qualifications simply couldn’t enter.

After a long time, three areas formed in the Grand Essence Realm, with the largest being the Grand Essence Ruins, and the second-largest was the Spirit Qi-enriched land of the Grand Essence Domain. Apart from these two, the other place was the Grand Essence Sea containing some rogue cultivator factions and small sects. However, these sites remained outside the Grand Essence Ruins and the Grand Essence Domain.

Regardless, if rogue cultivators wanted to achieve higher success, but couldn’t enter the big sects, they would all choose to establish themselves in the Grand Essence Ruins.

[1] The characters for ‘first treasure’ can also mean ‘number one or primary’, but it needs more context.

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