Chapter 0101 -The Door At The Bottom Of The River
This old woman was definitely in disguise, Ning Cheng immediately came to the conclusion. An old lady with a face full of wrinkles, with even her hands looking very old, would definitely not have a smooth and jade white wrist.
However, Ning Cheng soon calmed down, this might just turn out to be a blessing than a curse, if it was a curse then he would definitely not be able to avoid disaster. Whether the other side was an old woman or a young woman, he was the weaker party.
Putting aside his fears, Ning Cheng’s thoughts finally opened up. He immediately discovered that other than the freezing cold getting even more and more intense, the speed of the water boat was also getting slower and slower.
“Senior, is this what you said when you mentioned that the boat was fast?” Ning Cheng asked, while thinking how could this speed even be called as fast?
“That’s right, this is very fast.” The old woman gave a simple answer, and did not even bother to explain.
Ning Cheng felt really helpless, the only thing that he could do now was to circulate the True Essence in his body to resist the freezing cold. His Spiritual Sense could only sweep up to the boundary of the Array Formation around the water boat, as such could only examine the area only 35 meters around the water boat, beyond this range, if he tried to send out his Spiritual Sense, it would disappear without a trace.
Ning Cheng was secretly startled, once the water boat broke, then in this freezing cold water, how could he even survive for even a short moment?
After an hour passed by, other that the freezing cold becoming more and more intense, Ning Cheng could feel that the water boat was finally reaching the bottom of the river.
After another hour passed by, Ning Cheng suddenly heard a crisp crackling sound, Ning Cheng became scared, and immediately turned towards the old woman to ask just what the hell was going on. He did not even speak the words that he wanted to ask when the old woman took the initiative to say, “I really did not think that with your cultivation of a mere True Condensation 1st Level, your True Essence would be so rich, and could even withstand the cold in this place.”
“Senior, you do not need to divert my attention, didn’t you also hear the loud sound from the water boat?” Ning Cheng at this time did not care if the woman was old or young, and immediately asked.
This old woman said that her water boat would be able to bring him back safely ashore, but just as they were reaching the bottom, the water boat was already cracked. So just how would it be able to take them back?
“That’s right, the water boat truly has cracked a moment ago. I did not expect that this Class 4 One Horned Flood Dragon would be so bad, we have not even reached that place, when it has already started to crack up.” The white haired old woman said with a calm tone, with not a shred of surprise on her face.
“But… But….”
Ning Cheng only spoke two words, before this white haired old woman continued, “You do not have to worry about it, we can definitely get away with our water boat, and you also will not die.”
Ning Cheng could only shut up, even if the white haired old woman let him go, he knew that he could not leave this place by himself.
“Senior, can you tell me just what is at the bottom of this Cold River? So that I could at least think of something to help. Otherwise, even if we arrive at the bottom of the river, I would end up wasting time.” Ning Cheng thought that in any case he would come to know about this secret, and it was quite possible for the old woman to kill him to silence him up, so he might as well get to know about it.
The white haired woman also did not hide anything, and spoke with a soft tone, “Many years ago, when this Forbidden Cold River was actually called the Thunder Fall Scorching River. One day, in this Yi Xing Mainland appeared an extremely fearful and terrifying Great Axe Shadow from a void, this Great Axe Shadow actually divided the Yi Xing Mainland into two with its edge. Forming a valley tens of thousands of miles long, because this Great Axe’s origin was not simple, in this several thousand-mile-long valley, all kinds of rare and precious Spiritual Grasses grew crazily, as well as all kinds of worldly treasures.”
“Could it be that Senior is talking about the Angry Axe Valley?” Ning Cheng had heard about the legends of the Angry Axe Valley back in the airship, so when the old woman spoke about it, he immediately asked. But what he did not understand was, just what was the connection between the Angry Axe Valley and this Forbidden Cold River?
The old woman nodded, “Yes, that indeed is the Angry Axe Valley, moreover many people also know about this legend of the Angry Axe Valley, but what no one knows is that when the Great Axe Shadow came down, there was actually another thing that separated from it. But his thing did not land in the Angry Axe Valley, but rather it fell into the Thunder Fall Scorching River.”
“So then what Senior is looking for is the other thing that fell down from the void?” Ning Cheng immediately came to understand.
“That’s right, I came here to find that thing. In fact, when this river was initially still known as the Thunder Fall Scorching River, there were many people who knew about it, but they were unable to find anything, and began to think that it was just false information. Because of the thing that had fallen from the void, the temperature of the Thunder Fall Scorching River started to get lower and lower, before it finally looks like today where the people now call it the Forbidden Cold River. I only came across this information by chance, and thus learned about the matter regarding the Thunder Fall Scorching River.” As the white haired old woman spoke till here, her tone was somewhat filled with confidence, apparently she was confident that this piece of information was not known to others, and only known to her.
Seeing Ning Cheng silent, the old woman once again volunteered to speak, “That Angry Axe Valley is a fact, there are definitely many good things in there, in the future if you are able to enter the Angry Axe Valley, the profits you would obtain from there, you would not be able to spend it even in your entire lifetime. Of course, the prerequisite for that is that you have to come out from there alive.”
“Isn’t the Angry Axe Valley a mystical place? I’ve heard that it only opens for a limited time.” Ning Cheng quickly asked.
The white haired old woman just gave a snort and said, “Innumerable years ago, the Yi Xing Mainland was very rich in resources, and such resources were as abundant as clouds in the sky. Even the cultivators in the Crucible Transformation Realm could be seen everywhere, at that time the Angry Axe Valley was basically not a mystical place. Many strong cultivators had already entered the Angry Axe Valley looking for a chance to become rich, because there were just too many good things in the Angry Axe Valley, it resulted in a vast slaughtering between the many powerhouses.”
“As more and more of those powerhouses got killed in there, the last of the Crucible Transformation Realm cultivators finally sat down to discuss. They then mutually agreed that from then on no one above the Essence Building Realm could enter the Angry Axe Valley, and as such all of them worked together to turn it into a mystical place, moreover only if one had a specific Jade Card, would they be able to enter the Angry Axe Valley.”
While Ning Cheng was still listening to her speak, he once again heard the ‘cracking’ sound. Ning Cheng’s complexion immediately became ugly, the quality of this water boat was definitely not good. He had already been thinking about it, so the moment the water boat finally burst open, he would immediately try to enter the Mysterious Yellow Bead.
Since the time he had involuntarily entered the Mysterious Yellow Bead, he had never again tried to enter the Mysterious Yellow Bead. As such Ning Cheng did not know if he would be able to go in.
“We have arrived.” The white haired old woman’s voice immediately interrupted Ning Cheng’s thoughts.
Not even waiting for Ning Cheng to speak, as the white haired old woman opened the water boat’s hatch, she simultaneously pulled out the Array Flags. The next moment, the old woman grabbed Ning Cheng, and immediately exited the boat along with him.
Just as Ning Cheng’s top half came out of the Water Boat Type Artefact, he immediately felt a wave of ice cold feeling invading him, he could not even circulate his True Essence at all, and not only that, he couldn’t even use his Spiritual Sense.
Finished, Ning Cheng had just thought of this idea, when the white haired old woman immediately covered him and her with a fiery Shield Type Artefact. This fiery shield completely covered Ning Cheng and herself, after the fiery shield covered Ning Cheng, the icy cold feeling that he was just feeling completely disappeared.
As the chilly feeling disappeared, Ning Cheng immediately saw a huge door appear in front of him. This huge door had the same colour as the water of the Cold River surrounding it, if it was not for the old woman who had taken him out and pointed to it, he would have really not seen it.
An ancient aura that made one feel the vicissitudes of life could immediately be felt by Ning Cheng, Ning Cheng immediately knew that whatever was behind that door would certainly not be ordinary. The old woman had definitely spoken the truth to him, there definitely was a treasure here, but unfortunately it was not his treasure. Even if he did obtain it, it would easily be taken away by the old woman.
Ning Cheng subconsciously used his Spiritual Sense to investigate, but immediately felt a stabbing pain in his Zifu, he basically could not sweep out with his Spiritual Sense. He looked at the white haired old woman next to him, and was immediately startled to see that the white haired old woman was shivering, even her face was growing increasingly pale. It was evident that it was very difficult to maintain this fiery shield for the old woman.
“You see the thing on the front of the door, right?” The old woman asked Ning Cheng in a very excited tone as if she was completely unaware that trying to sustain that shield was very exhausting to her.
Ning Cheng could clearly hear her voice, and could tell that it was a bit different from the voice that she used to speak with her, he understood that it must be her real voice.
But he put that aside for the time being, and saw that there were six different Array Formation Flags on the door, and did not have anything else on it.
Ning Cheng looked a bit puzzled when he once again heard the old woman’s eager voice, “I cannot last long, look at the bottom of the Array Flags of the Array Formation, and quickly calculate how many Array Formations can be arranged with it.”
Ning Cheng then discovered that there was actually a row of characters inscribed below the six Array Flags that said, “This Array Formation base changes every time, there are 6 different Explosion Array Flags here, and are to be fitted into two rows of three, how many times can this Array Formation change.”
The was a blank space in front of the row of characters, it turned that they had to fill their answer in that blank space. This topic was extremely simple to Ning Cheng, what the words meant was there were 6 different Array Flags, and they had to be arranged into two rows, and each row can have only 3 Array Flags, and it asked for how many ways can the Array Flags be placed.
“Senior, this question is too simple, and could even be done without using your Spiritual Sense, so how could you not be able to do it even after so many years?” Ning Cheng looked at the white haired old woman in a puzzling way, he did not believe that such a topic could not be solved by the white haired old woman.
“Idiot, the question is different each time, now hurry up and calculate it.” The white haired old woman cried out with an unhappy tone.
Ning Cheng was speechless for a while before he replied, “I don’t even need to calculate such a question, there are 720 different arranging methods.”
“So simple?” The old woman looked at Ning Cheng in disbelief, Ning Cheng had not even calculated before he answered, which made her feel some doubts.
Ning Cheng just went and ignored the old woman, whether she believed it or not it’s her problem.
The old woman looked at Ning Cheng’s expression, and knew that Ning Cheng would not reply to her even if she asked again. She suddenly moved the fiery shield sideways, and made an effort to write the digits 720 in the blank space that was provided.
“Creak Creak Creak” A light sound could be heard, as the huge door having the same colour as the surrounding water slowly opened.
“It really was right?” The old woman was pleasantly surprised as she looked at Ning Cheng and said, “Without my control, the shield will only work for a limited time, you go find your way back to the inside of the water boat and wait for me to return, I am going in….”
She did not even finish her words, when the old woman rushed through the front of the water like door. Immediately the water like door began to close once more slowly.
Ning Cheng was dumbfounded as he stared at this water like door in front of him, and for a moment completely forgot what that the old woman had told him to find his way back to the water boat. At the moment when the door had opened, he had felt an unprecedentedly rich Spiritual Qi.
No, that was definitely not a Spiritual Qi, it was something much more powerful than Spiritual Qi, he could feel that his own cultivation level had risen up significantly.
Just what in the world was this place?