Chapter 288: A Dangerous Place

Di Jiu had been to the Desert River Forbidden Zone once. In the past, he had gone there with Zhuo Wenshu. He had even saved his life and reaped some benefits during that incident.

The blurry map that Cheng Ji had left behind portrayed the Desert River Forbidden Zone. He had repeatedly interrogated the Golden Core cultivator who had brought the jade slip. However, all the cultivator had known was that a jade slip had landed in his hands and that he would get the Spirit Elixir necessary to advance to the Essence Soul Realm after he delivered the jade slip to Di Jiu at the Galaxy Sect.

The Desert River Forbidden Zone was no place for a Golden Core cultivator. The Golden Core cultivator could have reached the end of his lifespan, so he had decided to risk everything. This meant that he had planned on dying in the Desert River Forbidden Zone. He hadn’t expected that a jade slip would appear in his hands, or that he would get a Condensed Soul Elixir if he delivered the jade slip to the Galaxy Sect. Even a fool would know what to choose.

Di Jiu was worried about whether Cheng Ji was still alive. It had been a few months ago that the Golden Core cultivator had gotten the jade slip from the Desert River Forbidden Zone.

The first time Di Jiu had been to the Desert River Forbidden Zone, he had only seen yellow sand lingering in the air, and his Spiritual Force had only been able to search a limited area. Now that he was in the Desert River Forbidden Zone again, his Spiritual Force could already scan a few thousand miles. On top of this, he could also hear a sobbing sound in the yellow, sand-filled sky.

Di Jiu wasn’t clear about how the Desert River Forbidden Zone had come about. However, he knew that it wasn’t simple, as it hid many ancient secrets. Di Jiu didn’t want to dwell on those secrets. He only wanted to find Cheng Ji as soon as possible.

The location that Cheng Ji had depicted in the jade slip was vague. If Di Jiu hadn’t attained the True Form Realm or his Spiritual Force had not exceeded level ten, he wouldn’t have been able to find the location that Cheng Ji had drawn.

Fortunately, Di Jiu’s current strength was the best in the Small Central World. When he used it in combination with his powerful Spiritual Force, it only took Di Jiu half a day to find the location Cheng Ji had drawn.

The location that Cheng Ji had drawn looked like a top-notch Invisibility Dharma Array to Di Jiu. Di Jiu didn’t know how Cheng Ji had managed to open the Invisibility Dharma Array, but he had a way of his own.

Once the Floating Flame Flag was taken out, a vague hint of the location of the array foundation appeared in the originally perfect natural restriction. Di Jiu once again grabbed a few array flags and threw them out, easily opening up an array door in the restriction hidden amidst the raging yellow sand.

In the center of the array door was a box tree root so thick that even if more than 10 people held their hands together in a chain, they wouldn’t be able to wrap themselves around it.

In the center of the tree root was a stairway that led underground. Di Jiu put away his Floating Flame Flag and took a step towards the stairway.

The stairway was winding down very deep into the ground. Di Jiu’s level-eleven Spiritual Force could only sweep across an area of 1,000 meters as he stood on the stairway.

There were at least 10 beams of killing intent hidden within this area. As Di Jiu kept going down, all kinds of traps and illusions affected him continuously. If he was careless, he would lose his life here. This helped Di Jiu understand why Cheng Ji had asked him to come here. Cheng Ji must have known that it was impossible to leave this place. Thus, he had tried to get him here so he could kill him.

Cheng Ji’s main aim had been to lead Di Jiu there so he would get killed. However, he hadn’t eliminated the slight possibility that Di Jiu could save him. Di Jiu suspected that Cheng Ji had delivered the jade slip only after he had come here. It was highly possible that Cheng Ji had devised a method to deliver the jade slip even before he had entered this place, making use of a wisp of Principal Spirit to hand the jade slip over to a Golden Core cultivator.

This was the only logical explanation.

Cheng Ji must have thought about this a lot. However, what he hadn’t expected was that Di Jiu would have a level-eleven Spiritual Force and such a plot wouldn’t work on him.

Di Jiu walked for four whole hours, avoiding countless traps and crises along the way before he reached a huge coffin.

This coffin was different from the rest. It was actually standing upright.

Although the door of the coffin had been opened and left unlatched, Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force couldn’t permeate it.

Di Jiu stood outside the door of the coffin for half an hour and tried to feel. He was sure that Cheng Ji’s aura was in it. He could also feel the aura of two other familiar cultivators. This meant that three people had entered it.

After he made sure that there weren’t any other dangers, Di Jiu entered the coffin.

A decaying smell of deadly aura was emitted. As Di Jiu felt his life-force quickly dissipating, he increased his speed. Meanwhile, he took out a Rainbow Immortal Peach and swallowed it.

The Rainbow Immortal Peach had ripened gradually in the Quintessential World. After Di Jiu swallowed it, his lost life-force was quickly restored.

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Di Jiu was elated. The Rainbow Immortal Peach was indeed a good quality item. Thanks to it, no matter how corrosive the coffin was, it wouldn’t affect him.

This was a bottomless coffin. Although Di Jiu had gone in from the entrance, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t increase his speed inside the coffin. He had walked for a whole hour, yet he still hadn’t come out of the bottom of the coffin.

Di Jiu was secretly stunned. If he hadn’t had the Rainbow Immortal Peach, he would have lost his life after walking for an hour in this frightening coffin that corroded one’s life-force. He scanned the coffin with his Spiritual Force, but there was only darkness everywhere inside. Then, his Spiritual Force came into contact with an obscure, blurry restriction array. Di Jiu seemed to see a decaying corpse inside it.

This was not good. The coffin seemed to have detected Di Jiu’s spying attempt, so an even more frightening decaying aura seeped through its sides, shaking Di Jiu. Although the Rainbow Immortal Peach could make his life-force flourish, he could only eat one. One could only take one for it to have any effect.

Just as the decaying aura was about to reach him, Di Jiu leaped and walked out of the coffin.

When he turned back to look at the dark coffin entrance, his scalp was numb. He actually had no means of retaliating, even given his current strength.

Di Jiu only relaxed after he left the coffin and could no longer feel his life-force get corroded. However, before he could scrutinize his surroundings, a frightening killing intent locked in on him.

Two streaks of killing intent that ripped the air suddenly appeared before Di Jiu’s eyes. Di Jiu turned his body.

Boom! Boom! Two loud explosions followed. Di Jiu turned back and saw two long nails get planted into the hard green stone under his feet.

Were these coffin nails?

Di Jiu protected his entire body with the Quintessential Essence domain as his Spiritual Force spread out.

This seemed to be a coffin chamber. Di Jiu hadn’t had the time to size up the coffin chamber when he saw three people. To be precise, he saw three people nailed onto the ground by coffin nails.

He knew two out of these three people. He didn’t know the female cultivator amongst them, although he had seen her before. She had to be the sect master of either the Star Mesh Mountain or the Heaven Medicine Valley. One of the other two people, whom he knew, was Cheng Ji, the sect master of the Enduring Immortal Sect, who had lured him here. The other person was the sect master of the Purple Thunder Sect, one of the five large sects, Yan Xueyi.

Out of the sect masters of the five large sects, Di Jiu liked Yan Xueyi the best. He had a much better personality than Shu Haolan and he wasn’t pretentious. However, Di Jiu decided to kill him nonetheless. Despite Di Feixue’s character, she was a member of the Di Family. Yan Xueyi, who was a senior, had scanned Di Feixue’s entire body with his Spiritual Force, which was a beastly act.

All three individuals had been left with just their skin and bones by now. Their life-force was extremely weak. However, Di Jiu could sense that they hadn’t died completely. Thus, he began searching the coffin chamber with his Spiritual Force.

The coffin chamber was like a ball-shaped bedroom. Directly in the center of the bedroom was a bed. There were two jade boxes by the side of the bed with restrictions around them. Di Jiu’s Spiritual Force naturally could not permeate them.

At the sides of the coffin chamber were two rows of shelves refined from yellow jade. There were 11 items placed on the two rows of shelves, each item guarded by a restriction.

Di Jiu walked to the table and straightaway put the two jade boxes in his Quintessential World.

“Young Master Red Embellishment…” said Cheng Ji’s frail voice. Di Jiu turned around to look at Cheng Ji, who was nailed to the ground by the coffin nails, and said calmly, “Sect Master Cheng, you seem to have run into some bad luck and gotten nailed down here.”

“Young Master Red Embellishment, although I thought that you might get killed here, I also had a glimmer of hope that you would be able to break out of the Life-Extermination Coffin and save me…” Cheng Ji grew weak after speaking so much. He rested a little before adding, “My main aim for coming here… was actually to look for the Plane Split Talisman for you… The Plane Split Talisman is on the yellow-jade shelf on the left.”

Di Jiu pondered this for a while. Although Cheng Ji had wanted him to get killed here, he had helped him find the Plane Split Talisman. Upon thinking of this, Di Jiu opened his hand and whirled away the two nails keeping Cheng Ji on the ground. The two nails dropped onto the floor.

“Thank you very much, Young Master Red Embellishment.” The moment Cheng Ji was freed, he took out a few elixirs and swallowed them. Then, he sat down on the same spot to recuperate.

“Ha ha! We haven’t met in a long time, Young Master Red Embellishment! I didn’t expect that the Sect Master of the Moonlight Snow Mountain and I would meet you again here.” Yan Xueyi, who had a better state of mind, could still laugh.

“The Sect Master of the Moonlight Snow Mountain?” Di Jiu looked doubtfully at the lady. He had thought that the Sect Master of the Moonlight Snow Mountain was a man. How could it be a female cultivator?

“I am Shen Feng from the Moonlight Snow Mountain. I would like to pay my respects to you, Young Master Red Embellishment.” The lady was calm and unhurried.

Di Jiu vaguely felt that he had been tricked by Di Feixue and his daughter. Without hesitation, he whirled away the nails on Yan Xueyi and Shen Feng and saved the two of them.