Chapter 458: 457. Chapter 452: Participating in the Grand Competition

457. Chapter 452: Participating in the Grand Competition

"Did your father like Shi Li?"

"No. He repeatedly urged me not to be with Shi Li, saying Shi Li was a hypocritical, shameless, sanctimonious scoundrel. But I was out of my mind back then and simply couldn't hear it." Rong Xiyu's eyes were filled with regret.

"Take me to the Menial Peak." Ding Huan did not continue asking.

The Menial Peak was at the very corner of the Thirty-Three Paths, and the peak was still there.

Compared to the other immortal peaks of the Thirty-Three Paths, which had all been swept away, this Menial Peak was so low and squat that no one was willing to cart it off.

Ding Huan stood on the Menial Peak and felt nothing different. His divine sense seeped downward, and beneath it there was not the slightest abnormality.

Rong Xiyu, standing to one side, said, "After I recovered my physical body, I came here no less than a hundred times, and not once could I sense any so-called dao vein."

"I also don't know whether the dao vein my father spoke of is here. If it isn't, I reckon my father must have taken it with him."

Ding Huan waved his hand, sat down at the peak's summit, and began to circulate the Great Cosmos Art through his Zhou Tian.

This time, the Great Cosmos Art's Zhou Tian drew the peak beneath him into it as well. After just one cycle, Ding Huan sensed a great dao aura that was beyond words.

This truly was the Dao—no, it should still be a kind of rule, yet this rule was just like the great dao itself.

Ding Huan could not put the feeling into words. What he cultivated was the Great Cosmos Art, so perhaps his perception was not that deep.

If he cultivated some other art, when his grasp of the rules of heaven and earth was not so clear, the moment he sensed this rule, he might even suspect he could write a brand-new cultivation method.

It was entirely because this clear great dao rule stood utterly above the rules of this heaven and earth.

It gave the one who sensed it the illusion of looking down upon this heaven and earth.

Could there really be a dao vein here? And what exactly was that dao vein?

Ding Huan's Great Cosmos Art continued to circulate, and soon he understood what was going on.

It wasn't that he couldn't touch that dao vein, but because there was actually a natural shielding restriction here.

If one were not a ninth-grade Immortal Array Emperor, probably no one could easily discover the shielding restriction here.

Ding Huan cultivated the Great Cosmos Art, so his perception of the laws of all things in heaven and earth was the clearest.

If Rong Xiyu hadn't brought him here, even if he passed by ten thousand times, he still wouldn't have discovered this natural shielding restriction.

Could this be the self-concealment of a divine object?

Ding Huan pulled out array flags and tossed them out one by one.

One day later, he recalled all the array flags, then began to lay them out anew.

Clearly, opening this natural shielding restriction was no easy matter. Ding Huan made mistake after mistake, then started over again and again.

In this process of constant error and restart, Ding Huan was comprehending the changes in the dao rhythm of this natural restriction, and his array dao was climbing steadily.

By the third day, Ding Huan was already a sixth-grade Immortal Array Grandmaster, and he had finally opened this concealment restriction.

Dense heaven and earth essence spilled out, and the boundless great dao aura nearly seeped into one's very soul.

There was no need to cultivate; merely sensing this heaven and earth essence, one could feel one's dao rhythm rising and one's state of mind being perfected.

Ding Huan hurriedly pulled out a pile of array flags and locked the place down once more.

Once this aura leaked out, he wouldn't need to bother cultivating—he could just wait to die.

While Ding Huan was laying down the shielding immortal array, Rong Xiyu was already kneeling on the ground, her face streaked with tears: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"

After Ding Huan finished laying down the restriction array that blocked the dao rhythm aura from leaking out, he saw Rong Xiyu kneeling before a skeleton.

This skeleton had been dead for who knew how long, and through the skeleton's back was thrust a green longsword.

Ding Huan had long since made out the two characters on the sword's hilt: Shi Li.

Behind the skeleton lay an essence vein three zhang long.

The clarity of the heaven and earth rules, which defied all description, was spilling out from this essence vein.

Looking at this essence vein, every pore on one's entire body opened wide.

So this was the dao vein?

Ding Huan walked over, and his expression quickly changed. He hurriedly tossed out a pile of array flags and drew this dao vein into his iron pot.

"Senior Sister Rong, we need to leave now. The shielding array I've laid can't lock down the vast aura of this dao vein."

"I killed my father." Rong Xiyu's face was pale; she finally understood why her father had disappeared.

Her father had never left the immortal sect at all—it was Shi Li who had ambushed him.

"Cry later." Ding Huan felt a powerful sense of crisis.

Rong Xiyu dared not keep weeping. She quickly sent her father's remains into her ring, and before she could speak, she felt her body grow light.

When she realized she had appeared atop Ding Huan's iron pot, the iron pot had already shot out of the Thirty-Three Paths.

"Senior Sister Rong, if we had left even a moment later, it would have been dangerous."

Ding Huan finally understood why Rong Xiyu's father hadn't taken the dao vein with him—he simply couldn't take it.

At this moment, Ding Huan only hoped there were no powerful experts near the Thirty-Three Paths.

If there were, they would absolutely sense this vast great dao rhythm aura and then come to the Thirty-Three Paths.

Rong Xiyu gradually calmed down from the chaos of moments ago and bowed to Ding Huan:

"Junior Brother Ding, if it weren't for you, I still wouldn't know my father perished within his own immortal sect, and that I actually became a dao companion with the very one who killed him."

Rong Xiyu wished she could take her father's place and die right now.

Because when her father disappeared, she and Shi Li had not yet become dao companions.

Ding Huan could vaguely guess the cause of Rong Xiyu father's death.

Either Shi Li had discovered Rong Xiyu father's secret and tried to force him to hand over the dao vein, or Rong Xiyu's father had refused to let his daughter marry Shi Li.

No wonder Rong Xiyu's father, a menial disciple of garbage aptitude, had become the sect master of the Thirty-Three Paths.

This dao vein was simply too heaven-defying.

Let alone a menial disciple—even a mortal, it could probably elevate to the level of an Immortal King.

The Dao vein was only three zhang, so it was definitely a very broken Dao vein, and it was very likely that this Dao vein came from an even higher plane.

When Ding Huan thought of a higher plane, his heart trembled.

He knew that above the Immortal Emperor there was Quasi-Saint, but no matter how powerful, at most it was just a Saint.

In the ancient legends of Huaxia, there were indeed Saints.

Saints were merely of the Immortal World plane—where would a higher-level plane come from?

"Junior Brother Ding, I just suddenly remembered—you cannot keep that Dao vein on you." After Rong Rong Xiyu calmed down, she finally recalled the matter of the Dao vein.

The reason her father did not dare to take the Dao vein away was that even if the Dao vein was placed in a ring, the aura of the Heaven and Earth Great Dao could not be isolated.

Ding Huan smiled: "It's fine, I already sealed it up long ago. This Dao vein can't be taken out either, so I won't give it to you."

The Dao vein absolutely could not be given to Rong Rong Xiyu—not even a tiny bit.

This kind of Dao rule vein that transcended planes, as soon as it left the Iron Pot space, would be discovered by others.

His Iron Pot space had no problem—at least in Ding Huan's view, it was still relatively safe.

Hearing Ding Huan say this, Rong Rong Xiyu also set her mind at ease.

"I need to disguise myself. Has anyone recognized your current appearance?" Ding Huan worried that after Rong Rong Xiyu reshaped her physical body, her looks had not changed, so he quickly asked.

Rong Rong Xiyu shook her head: "I utterly loathed my former self. After reshaping my physical body, I changed my appearance.

But after cultivating over these years, I feel my appearance is slowly drifting back toward how it used to look. Right now it's still not obvious."

She was helpless too—cultivating the Great Dao, the countenance follows the heart; this was not something she herself could change.

If appearance could also be changed, then in the vast Dao Realm there would be no ugly people.

"Then there's no problem."

With so many people sharing a slight resemblance, who would think of the former Rong Rong Xiyu?

According to Rong Rong Xiyu's account, for her to recover her original appearance, it would take at least reaching Immortal Emperor.

Ding Huan returned to the inner cabin, and in a short time had disguised himself into the appearance of a loose cultivator with a pale face and an air of excess indulgence.

When Rong Rong Xiyu saw Ding Huan walk out, a flash of shock passed through her eyes. If Ding Huan hadn't said earlier that he was going to disguise himself, she would have absolutely thought the person before her was a complete stranger.

After Ding Huan's disguise, not only had his appearance completely changed, even the Dao rhyme aura around him had completely changed.

With this kind of Dao rhyme aura of Ding Huan, combined with his appearance, no one could possibly think he was in disguise.

"Junior Brother Ding?" Rong Rong Xiyu confirmed once more, somewhat unable to believe it.

"It's me. From now on just call me Sixth Junior Brother. I've changed my name to Old Six, and you also pick a new name. Rong Rong Xiyu cannot be used."

"Mm, I'll just call myself Yi Jinxi." Rong Rong Xiyu said. Her father's master's surname was Yi; the old Sect Master was equivalent to her grandfather, so now she took her grandfather's surname.

The Iron Pot was extremely fast. The two had not chatted much longer before they arrived at White Bamboo Xiancheng.

Ding Huan also breathed a sigh of relief—no one had pursued them during this period.

He knew he had delayed quite a bit of time, so he quickly took Rong Rong Xiyu through the teleportation formation to Banting Immortal City.

As soon as they arrived at Banting Xiancheng, Ding Huan could tell—this was indeed the location of the market town he and Wen Zhixi had seen when they came ashore at the Banting Sea back then.

Now the market town was long gone, replaced by a massive Xiancheng.

Because the Xiancheng had only been established not long ago, the facilities outside the Xiancheng were very complete.

The Immortal City teleportation formation group was established on the plaza outside the Immortal City.

Around this enormous Xiancheng plaza were entirely rentable stalls or merchant towers. Standing on the plaza, one's divine sense could clearly see the Banting Sea.

A colossal wharf plaza had been built by the Banting Sea.

The purpose of this wharf plaza was for cultivators entering and leaving the Banting Sea; from this one could see how popular Grey Sea Crystals truly were.

Whether it was the seaside wharf of the Banting Sea or the plaza outside Banting Xiancheng, both were packed with people.

This also highlighted how important this Immortal Sect Ranking Grand Competition was—almost all the Immortal Sects had come.

When Ding Huan and Rong Rong Xiyu walked into Banting Xiancheng, they realized there were even more people inside the Xiancheng than outside.

Ding Huan didn't need to ask—he could see from afar rows of tall Rest Towers and Rest Inn-style buildings.

Outside these buildings, four enormous Dao rhyme characters floated in the void: "Immortal Sect Station."

Outside the Immortal Sect Station there was also a formation gate, with guards stationed at the gate.

As soon as Ding Huan arrived here, he was stopped by two guards.

"I am a disciple of the Dafanxian Sect." Ding Huan took out his Outer Gate disciple identity plate.