Chapter 1064: People Living in the Shallow Cloud Villa

Ning Cheng’s heart suddenly tightened. Not because of the words she spoke but because of this woman’s cultivation. This woman had dense dao rhythms filled with a powerful law aura circling in the space around her. Ning Cheng didn’t need to check the other party’s cultivation level to know that this woman was at least a Dao Fusion expert.

“That’s not true. This place isn’t mine. I just came here to see my sister.” Ning Cheng hurriedly said.

“When we came here, this place was already empty. Plus, it was because someone had brought me and allowed me to cultivate here that I stayed until today. As for your sister and Xi’er that you mentioned, I have truly never met them.” The blue-robed woman said in a conciliatory manner.

Ning Cheng hesitated but asked, “Would it be okay to look inside?”

He hesitated because this woman’s cultivation was just too high. High enough that there would be no way for him to resist if she decided to act. Fortunately, he didn’t notice any killing intent on this woman. He wouldn’t have asked if he felt even the slightest hint of killing intent; rather, he would have immediately turned around to leave. With so much experience dealing with others trying to take his life, if this woman had any killing intent towards him, even if hidden in the depths, he would still have sensed it.

The truth was that this woman held no killing intent towards him; even her eyes looked kind. She had a slightly broad forehead with a bright, almost mystifying pair of eyes that gave her a sense of calmness and closeness. This made her look very eye-catching even though she wasn’t particularly pretty.

“Of course.” The blue-robed woman finished with a smile and took the initiative to lead the way in front.

The feeling she gave Ning Cheng was that she was extremely soft in her speech and actions, giving people a sense of wandering around in a frothy spring breeze.

After Ning Cheng followed the blue-robed woman through the forbidden restriction, he saw a gatehouse engraved with four large, bold characters. Shallow Cloud Villa.

But what puzzled Ning Cheng was that there were three smaller but crisp characters underneath these four characters, Shallow Cloud Villa. Guang Yuan Palace.

Seeing Ning Cheng looking at the three words ‘Guang Yuan Palace’, the blue-robed woman smiled faintly, “The place I originally lived in was called the Guang Yuan Palace, and then after I left home, I felt a little homesick, so I wrote these words ‘Guang Yuan Palace’ here.”

Ning Cheng couldn’t help but improve his opinion of this blue-robed woman. If it were someone else, they would have thrown aside the Shallow Cloud Villa’s sign and put their respective names in its place. Yet, not only did this woman not throw away the four characters ‘Shallow Cloud Villa’, but she put three smaller characters: ‘Guang Yuan Palace’ below the ‘Shallow Cloud Villa’.

“Will Fellow Daoist Yin sit for a while, or will you go see your friend’s residence immediately?” The blue-robed woman asked in a soft voice.

Ning Cheng clasped his fists as a sign of thanks, “I’d be lying if I said that I’m not worried about my sister, so I’d better go and see her place first.”

The blue-robed woman turned to the yellow-bearded old man, “Liang Cai, take Dao Friend Yin to the backyard.”

“Yes, Little Miss.” The yellow-bearded old man hurriedly answered.

Ning Cheng had already understood that this yellow-bearded old man should be this blue-robed woman’s household servant.

Xi’er’s chamber wasn’t in the deepest part of the Villa. Therefore, Ning Cheng followed this yellow-bearded old man and soon arrived before a garden with untouched restrictions.

The yellow-bearded old man pointed at the garden in front and said, “This is where the original owner of this place should have lived. Not only did my little miss not disturb the restrictions here, but she also added a layer of restrictions on the outside.”

“Many thanks, fellow daoist.” After Ning Cheng thanked him, his body flashed a few times before he directly disappeared into the forbidden restriction.

The yellow-bearded old man looked at Ning Cheng’s disappearing back and hesitated momentarily before he turned around and left, quickly arriving at the blue-robed woman’s side.

“Did he go in?” The blue-robed woman asked casually.

The yellow-bearded old man nodded but hesitated before saying, “He forcibly broke the restriction to go in, would it…….”

The blue-robed woman seemed to have realised the yellow-bearded old man’s hesitation and smiled, “He may not be called Yin Cheng, but he should know the people who lived here before. Plus, he’s likely coming to this place for the first time. When you reach a certain level of cultivation, you can also sense each other’s dao rhythm fluctuation from the worldly law aura. This fellow Daoist Yin’s dao rhythm fluctuations are not obvious, but he possesses extraordinary strength. I’m afraid an ordinary Dao Transformation Holy Emperor might not even be a match against him.”

The yellow-bearded old man didn’t feel anything strange about the blue-robed woman’s words and took it as a matter of course.

……

After Ning Cheng entered the forbidden restrictions, he discovered that the place where Xi’er lived was very simple. Apart from a garden, there was only a cultivation room that wasn’t that big. In fact, the garden had long since gone past the limit of being classified as overgrown as the weeds thrived, covering everything. It also showed that no one had come inside for a long time.

Ning Cheng didn’t clean up the garden and walked into Xi’er’s cultivation room. Just as he guessed, there was only a jade table and a futon, apart from a simple jade bed.

There was also no dust inside the room because of the restrictions’ protection. Ning Cheng grabbed the futon and looked at it for some time but couldn’t find anything wrong.

Even the jade bed was just that, without anything on it. As for the jade table, it had a small model of a mountain peak. Ning Cheng casually picked up this model and saw three words inscribed, ‘World Mountain’.

Ning Cheng put away the model of the World Mountain and found nothing else in the room, forcing him to turn around and leave with some disappointment. However, Ning Cheng pretty much expected such a result. Xi’er had wanted Xixi and Pan Qian not to return, so how could she have left something here?

After Ning Cheng walked out, he found that the blue-robed woman was still waiting for him outside, which embarrassed him. A Dao Fusion Holy Emperor stood outside waiting for him, a Dao Raising Holy Emperor. No one would believe it if someone said it aloud.

Even if they had a gentle personality, any cultivator Ning Cheng met wouldn’t wait for a Dao Raising Holy Emperor with a Dao Fusion cultivation.

“If Dao Friend Yin is not in a hurry, you can sit here with me briefly. But if Fellow Daoist is in a hurry, I will have Liang Cai escort you. As for the Shallow Cloud Villa, this Dao Friend can take it back anytime.” The blue-robed woman said with a smile on her face.

If it were any other Dao Fusion Holy Emperor, they would have never let Ning Cheng stay inside after looking around the Shallow Cloud Villa. Yet, this blue-robed woman asked him to stay. Therefore, he could only oblige and ask a few questions, “Then, I will bother this senior sister.”

“My name is Nian Yan. You can just call me by my name.” The woman’s tone turned even softer.

After speaking, she guided Ning Cheng to the guest hall, sat down and served Ning Cheng a cup of spiritual tea.

“Senior Sister Nian Yan, I saw some messages in my sister’s room. She told me this wasn’t a place to stay for long and asked me to leave……” Ning Cheng didn’t put it too bluntly but kept it vague.

Nian Yan nodded and said, “You are from the Grand Change Realm, so you should be aware of the Underground Abyss, right?”

Ning Cheng naturally wouldn’t say he wasn’t from the Grand Change Realm, so he only nodded. “Yes, the Underground Abyss is a good place to gain experience. It’s just that because of some problems a few years ago, it has become difficult to enter the Underground Abyss in search of demon crystals.”

“When I first came here, my cultivation level was only at the Dao Raising Realm. I met an expert who thought I had great potential and said that he and I had a destiny and let me settle in the Shallow Cloud Villa.”

When Nian Yan said this, Ning Cheng immediately felt something was wrong. He opened his mouth to say something but ultimately swallowed what he wanted to say.

Nian Yan and Xi’er seemed to have somewhat similar personalities. Both were kind people with hearts free from any impurities. In short, such a person was probably the most suitable for suppressing the demons of the Underground Abyss. The person who brought Nian Yan here most likely did so to use her to suppress the Underground Abyss demons in the future.

But what made this puzzling for Ning Cheng was that, according to Yuan Ji’s words, the Underground Abyss had already undergone an outbreak once. So, it was reasonable to say that Nian Yan should have already been nailed to the Underground Abyss’ blood pillar to suppress the demons long ago, so why was she still here?

Wait, she is a Dao Fusion powerhouse. It would be difficult to use her to suppress the demons, right?

Thinking about Nian Yan being a Dao Fusion Holy Emperor, Ning Cheng grew increasingly puzzled. Nian Yan had been in this place for, at most, less than ten thousand years, and according to what Nian Yan had just said, she was a Dao Raising Holy Emperor when she arrived. Yet, in less than ten thousand years, Nian Yan had advanced to a Dao Fusion Holy Emperor? How terrifying of a talent and dao perception did such a feat require?

Ning Cheng knew he possessed the Mysterious Yellow Bead and cultivated the Mysterious Yellow Formless. Yet, even he felt sceptical if he could reach the Dao Fusion Realm in less than ten thousand years, even with the most ideal cultivation conditions. For Nian Yan to advance from a Dao Raising Holy Emperor to a Dao Fusion Holy Emperor in ten thousand years, this……

Seemingly sensing Ning Cheng’s puzzlement, Nian Yan softly said, “I was only a Dao Raising Holy Emperor when I first arrived, a cultivation level that wouldn’t be cared for by anyone in the Grand Change Realm. Even the person who brought me here wouldn’t care about me as long as I didn’t leave for a long time. Later, when the Underground Abyss’s outbreak happened, I was already a Dao Fusion Holy Emperor. He did come looking for me but only came to sit for a while, then drank a cup of spiritual team and left.”

What Nian Yan said was very euphemistic, but Ning Cheng immediately understood it. That is, the person who had come looking for her could only leave in disgrace when he saw how powerful she had become. Capturing a Dao Fusion Holy Emperor to suppress the Underground Abyss’s demons would be more than just ‘difficult’. From the looks of it, Nian Yan already understood why she was brought here, including all the causes and consequences. After all, she did advance from the Dao Raising Realm to the Dao Fusion Realm in less than ten thousand years. It meant that she not only had exceptional talent and a strong ability to perceive the Dao, but she also had demonic intelligence.

“Then, can I ask who brought you here to the Shallow Cloud Villa?” Ning Cheng hurriedly asked.

This person kept Nian Yan here, so it must have been to suppress those demonic creatures. Only someone who knew how to suppress those demonic creatures would do so. Even if he wasn’t the one to nail Xi’er to the Underground Abyss’s blood pillar, he must have something to do with it.

“I only know that his name is Liu Fangzhen. He seems to be the City Lord of Crow Pavilion Sacred Dao City, with a strength similar to mine. I’ve been to that Underground Abyss once before, so I know he doesn’t have the means to suppress it alone with his strength. So, I guess someone helped him.”

After hearing Nian Yan’s words, Ning Cheng understood that Nian Yan knew everything very well; otherwise, she wouldn’t have said so.

Ning Cheng stood up, cupped his fists towards Nian Yan, and said, “Many thanks, Senior Sister Nian Yan. Senior Sister Nian Yan has a heart free of dust and grime and is also in tune with worldly laws. I’m guessing you already knew that I came in disguise. Since my strength is too low, please forgive me for any offence I may have caused and let me leave.”

For someone like Nian Yan, one didn’t need to worry about her. Ning Cheng also understood why she could stay here safely and soundly. Someone like her, who had a clear dao heart and was also in tune with worldly laws, she could take the next step forward at any time. Those old fogies in the Grand Change Realm weren’t idiots; they wouldn’t willingly come forward to offend a talented powerhouse like Nian Yan.