Chapter 127: Moths to the Flame, Setting the World Ablaze

The instant Ning Xiu saw the young man before him, he sensed an extremely dangerous aura emanating from him.

Without the slightest hesitation, he stamped his foot and abruptly changed direction. Unleashing his Wind God Legs, he transformed into a violent gust of wind and attempted to charge into the desert from the opposite side.

But could it really be that easy?

The faint sound of something tearing through the air from behind forced Ning Xiu to turn around.

“You won’t be leaving tonight.” Shen Sanqian let out a cold laugh. His right hand swung forward, and a fierce, invisible force burst from his palm, shooting toward Ning Xiu’s back.

Feeling the force behind his opponent’s palm strike, Ning Xiu did not reply. He raised his hand, drew the Retaining Divine Sword from behind him, and slashed forward.

An invisible sword aura appeared from thin air, colliding head-on with Shen Sanqian’s unseen force.

Boom!

The two ferocious forces crashed together, sending the yellow sand on the ground whirling wildly and raising what seemed like a sandstorm.

“You really do have some skill. No wonder you managed to escape from Huang Qingcang time and again.” A trace of astonishment flashed through Shen Sanqian’s eyes as he looked at Ning Xiu.

“To be honest, I admire you. Not only are your methods ruthless, but your mind is meticulous as well.”

“More than a month ago, you had already planned your escape route for once your actions were exposed. You even prepared the food and fresh water you would need after entering the Death Desert. The reason you chose that mission to wipe out the bandits last time was to make preparations in advance, wasn’t it?”

Shen Sanqian looked at Ning Xiu with complete composure.

“I have already destroyed all the food and fresh water you hid at the bandits’ stronghold. So even if you plunge headfirst into the Death Desert now, the only thing waiting for you is death.”

“If only you had obediently accepted the Divine Revelation ceremony back then. What a pity. Now, everything is over.”

At that moment, the army trailing behind finally caught up. Shen Sanqian shook his head slightly and waved his hand. The soldiers immediately spread out, forming a semicircle that surrounded Ning Xiu and completely cut off his retreat.

The soldiers drew their weapons and fixed Ning Xiu with murderous gazes. Individually, none of them was particularly strong, but breaking through an army of several thousand would be no easy task for Ning Xiu.

And standing before him was Shen Sanqian, far more terrifying than the army itself.

What did it mean to be driven into a dead end?

This was what it meant.

……

Shen Sanqian simply watched Ning Xiu in silence. He was in no hurry to act, because in his eyes, Ning Xiu was already a dead man. There were still many things he wanted to ask Ning Xiu about, including his strange cultivation level. Ning Xiu had clearly not even reached the Transcendent Realm, yet his actual combat strength was utterly defiant of the heavens.

“Just surrender peacefully. Stop making pointless resistance. In your current situation, you couldn’t escape even if you had wings,” Shen Sanqian said.

To his surprise, Ning Xiu did not become pessimistic and give up like most people facing despair would. Nor did he lose control of his emotions or abandon himself to hopelessness.

He merely stood there in silence.

He remained silent the entire time.

Of course, that was only what Ning Xiu appeared to be doing in Shen Sanqian’s eyes. In reality, Ning Xiu was frantically communicating with the system.

After killing Leng Ying and the remnant thought of the Xiezhi in the divine temple, his nearly depleted ingots had skyrocketed to 3,500.

He was only one step away from the 4,000 ingots required to raise the Golden Bell Shield to the eleventh level. That was the true reason Ning Xiu had never spent those ingots. After all, the ten-draw function depended far too much on luck. Unfortunately, he had not found any opportunity to farm ingots along the way. The only exception had been when he faced Huang Qingcang.

At the same time, his VIP level had risen to VIP 3, and, as usual, the system had gifted him five fragment pages of the Seven Great Limits.

He now had exactly twenty fragment pages of the Seven Great Limits in his inventory.

Once he possessed twenty fragment pages, a green plus sign suddenly appeared beside the Seven Great Limits fragment pages on the cultivation-technique interface.

It signified that the technique could be synthesized. Yet he had only managed to gather twenty fragments. A five-star divine-level technique required as many as 180 fragment pages.

Ning Xiu had tried pressing confirm at the time, but the system indicated that synthesis required a fee of 500 ingots, so he had quickly given up.

Normally, the system did not charge any fee for synthesizing techniques from fragment pages. Moreover, no one knew what those twenty fragments would ultimately produce. If they ended up being wasted for nothing, Ning Xiu would not even have a place to cry.

Ten four-star fragment pages were needed to synthesize one five-star fragment page. In other words, twenty fragment pages of a five-star technique were far more valuable than a completed four-star technique.

With only a four-star Golden Bell Shield, Ning Xiu had already reached his current height. He did not want to gamble.

In his view, gambling was never a good thing. But when trapped in a desperate situation with no way out, he could only risk his life on one final gamble.

“Synthesize the Seven Great Limits technique.”

While staring fixedly at Shen Sanqian, Ning Xiu issued the command to the system in his mind.

“Synthesis will require 500 ingots. Does the host wish to proceed?”

“Yes.”

As soon as he answered, the images above the ancient fragment pages on the system’s technique interface began shifting continuously, displaying scenes of fire, ice, wind, mountains, and seas.

Ning Xiu keenly noticed that the concepts of heaven and earth did not appear among them.

The images on all twenty fragment pages ultimately settled on the scene of wind. They then began to merge continuously, finally transforming into an incomplete cultivation technique.

“Congratulations, host. You have obtained the incomplete form of the Seven Great Limits—Storm. Would you like to learn it?”

“Yes.”

“How many ingots are required to raise the Seven Great Limits—Storm to its highest level?” Ning Xiu asked again.

“A total of 3,000 ingots,” the system replied.

“Host’s ingot balance is sufficient. Would you like to upgrade the Seven Great Limits—Storm?”

“Confirm!”

Only after issuing his final command did Ning Xiu lift his head and look at Shen Sanqian.

“What did you say just now?”

Shen Sanqian narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at Ning Xiu.

“Are you still thinking of a way to escape this predicament? It’s meaningless. In the face of absolute power, everything is meaningless.”

“I thought you were a smart man. You should understand the principle of a moth throwing itself into a flame and courting destruction.”

“In this world, some people can only throw themselves into the flames when faced with despair. But others can set the entire world ablaze.” A faint smile suddenly blossomed across Ning Xiu’s face.

“What do you mean?” Shen Sanqian asked with a frown.

Ning Xiu shrugged slightly and sighed. Then he turned his palm over, and the Retaining Divine Sword appeared in his hand.

Seeing Ning Xiu suddenly grow calm, Shen Sanqian’s brows drew together even more tightly. An inexplicable sense of unease spread through his heart.

“It doesn’t mean anything. I’m just annoyed by the way you keep showing off.”

The instant his words fell, the entire world was filled with killing intent.