Translator: Sparrow Translations  Editor: Sparrow Translations

Of course, Fang Zhengzhi didn't actually find the Heaven Dao Sage Tablet because he was lucky. After all, he was at the Ninth Heaven in the Divine Rain Pond.

Since the establishment of Heaven Dao Pavilion till now, only one person had made it into the Ninth Heaven.

It was extremely difficult to get into the Ninth Heaven!

Even Fang Zhengzhi and Chi Guyan didn't make it here alone, they had to ‘work together'.

Without Fang Zhengzhi's reminder, Chi Guyan couldn't have solved the Seventh Heaven's secret so quickly. Similarly, without Chi Guyan's example, Fang Zhengzhi couldn't have made it through the Seventh and Eighth Heaven so quickly as well.

This seemed to be fate.

However, Fang Zhengzhi subconsciously felt that this was too coincidental, especially the fact that he had the black metal box.

Somehow, he happened to make it into the Ninth Heaven, and the Ninth Heaven happened to contain Heaven Dao Sage Tablet, then he happened to have the black metal box.

Was this really a coincidence?

Could this be a conspiracy?

Fang Zhengzhi had yet to figure out why Yun Qingwu purposely came to Northern Mountain Village and set a trap to lock him up, and even gifted him the 13 Heaven Dao Sage Tablets and the black metal box that she spent so much effort to obtain.

It felt unbelievable.

Could the friendly-rivalry between them turned hate to love, and caused her to empathize with him?

This might actually happen in real life.

However, Fang Zhengzhi knew that Yun Qingwu wasn't such a person. After all, she's the young master of the Demon Race, and she shouldered its fate.

Even if she really did empathize with him a little, that wouldn't have been the reason for giving him the black metal box and 13 Heaven Dao Sage Tablets.

Was it possible that Yun Qingwu had already predicted that he could get into the Ninth Heaven, so she purposely gave him the black metal box and the Tablets?

If it were someone else…Fang Zhengzhi wouldn't have thought about this, after all, a normal person couldn't possibly be so ridiculously calculative and foresighted.

However, if that person was Yun Qingwu, Fang Zhengzhi had no doubt that she could do this.

Although it might seem to be a coincidence that he had entered the Ninth Heaven, but by connecting his personality, the current situation, and the current state of Heaven Dao Pavilion, it wasn't difficult to deduce that he would get into the Ninth Heaven.

However, if this was Yun Qingwu's ‘conspiracy', what was her purpose for doing this? Was she getting him to collect more Heaven Dao Sage Tablets for her?

That shouldn't be possible.

After all, Yun Qingwu wasn't so naïve that she would trust Fang Zhengzhi to return the Heaven Dao Sage Tablets.

At this thought, Fang Zhengzhi subconsciously looked toward Chi Guyan, who was obviously surprised.

However, for some reason…she kept quiet, even after the sandy world was completely swallowed by the black metal box.

“I thought you'd have questions for me.”

“There's nothing to ask.” Chi Guyan shook her head and stared at the black metal box again, before retracting her gaze.

“Nothing?” Fang Zhengzhi was curious, because he could tell from her eyes that she recognized the box in his hands.

However, what puzzled him was that Chi Guyan didn't ask a single question, even after he offered her the chance.

What the h.e.l.l?

Did she not realize that the sandy world was a Heaven Dao Sage Tablet? That was impossible, since he could guess it, how couldn't she?

While Fang Zhengzhi was engrossed in his thoughts, the sandy world finally disappeared completely.

What appeared before him was…A giant swamp.

Thick and weird vegetations, and an endless amount of jade puddles, extended all the way from Fang Zhengzhi's feet to the edge of the sky.

“…” Fang Zhengzhi blinked his eyes at the weird phenomenon, before looking toward the rainless sky, asking, “Is this real? Is there another Tablet?”

“If I'm not wrong, we're facing the ‘Great Formation of Nine Cataclysms'.” Chi Guyan looked at the swamp and murmured to herself.

“Great Formation of Nine Cataclysms?” Fang Zhengzhi looked at her and asked.

“The so-called Nine Cataclysms refer to the nine harshest environments or conditions to survive in, such as the desert, swamp, extreme cold, extreme heat, poison mist…And so on and so forth. Hence, it's incredibly difficult to break the formation under normal circ.u.mstances!” Chi Guyan explained.

“I see.” Fang Zhengzhi nodded, but he still felt weird about this.

Of course, it wasn't the formation that gave him this feeling. He was puzzled that Chi Guyan had obviously realized that the worlds that appeared before them were Heaven Dao Sage Tablets, but she was explaining the ‘Great Formation of Nine Cataclysms' to him instead of talking about the Tablets.

However, since she wasn't going to bring it up…Fang Zhengzhi would not mention it either. After all, he didn't know how to explain how he obtained the black metal box.

Wait a minute!

The Great Formation of Nine Cataclysms…

Nine?!

Was she actually hinting to him that there were nine worlds, which meant that there were nine Tablets?

Fang Zhengzhi vaguely recalled that there was a total of 36 Heaven Dao Sage Tablets, which all belonged to the ancient Great Xia Dynasty.

After that, the Great Xia Dynasty went into hibernation after it was destroyed, and it was rebuilt many years later.

Back then, the Lins, the royal family of Great Xia Dynasty, exchanged the 36 Heaven Dao Sage Tablets for military power and established the new Great Xia Dynasty.

However, because of that, the Tablets had been split up among the various countries and forces.

Heaven Dao Pavilion was the owner to nine of the Tablets.

Did Heaven Dao Pavilion hide the nine Tablets in the Ninth Heaven all these while, and used the Tablets to create the Great Formation of Nine Cataclysms?

This was likely the case! In fact, this was highly possible!

The question was, why were the nine Tablets used to create the Great Formation of Nine Cataclysms? What was the reason for deploying the formation in the Ninth Heaven?

It was obvious that the Ninth Heaven that Fang Zhengzhi was looking at wasn't the real Ninth Heaven. In other words, the real Ninth Heaven was hidden in the Great Formation of Nine Cataclysms all along.

However, according to the legends, only a single person had entered the Ninth Heaven after the establishment of Heaven Dao Pavilion.

Did the first person who entered the Ninth Heaven, ‘Dugu Jian', create the formation, or was it deployed by the first master of Heaven Dao Pavilion, when it was established over thousands of years ago?

Fang Zhengzhi was getting a strong feeling that this was a huge conspiracy.

Nangong Hao suddenly attacked Nine Pinnacles Mountain Leader Tian Xing…Then the Blood Offer Ill.u.s.tration appeared.

Although the Blood Offer Ill.u.s.tration had already disappeared, and the Heaven-Receiving Door was closed, Fang Zhengzhi still couldn't figure out the reason behind these incidents.

Did Nangong Hao really die?

What was the starry sky that was connected to the Heaven-Receiving Door?

There were too many mysteries.

Now, he brought the black metal box into the Ninth Heaven, and the Great Formation of Nine Cataclysms that appeared before him happened to be countered by the box.

A series of events took place one after another…On the surface, these incidents didn't seem to be connected, but there seemed to be a missing piece of puzzle that connected everything together.

Was this a coincidence?

Or was everything part of a meticulous plan?

Fang Zhengzhi was keen to believe the latter, but since he had no concrete evidence, this was nothing but his speculation.

He couldn't figure it out, so he decided to stop thinking about it!

This was Fang Zhengzhi's way of doing things. If these incidents were part of a plan, then the plan would continue to unveil itself.

The only thing that he needed to do was to create his own path amidst this unfathomable and cunning plan.

His path was…Treasures before anything else!

He didn't have to care about anything except treasures. If he found a treasure that could keep him alive, he would keep it, if he couldn't find one, he would go looking for it.

This was very simple!

If he couldn't even live for much longer, why did he have to care?

He couldn't leave these Heaven Dao Sage Tablets alone just because he was worried about nothing.

That was what a fool would do.

To put it bluntly, even if he pretended to be righteous and left the Tablets untouched, someday, someone would come to get them.

If that was the case, he'd rather keep the Tablets than let someone else get them.

Fang Zhengzhi stopped thinking.

“Keep!” Fang Zhengzhi shouted and held the black metal box up, toward the giant swamp.

Then…Just as he had expected, the giant swamp started trembling like the sandy world just now.

After that, countless plants flew toward the black metal box as if they were attracted to it.

Meanwhile, Chi Guyan, who was standing beside Fang Zhengzhi, chose to remain silent again, as if she didn't know what was going on.

Heaven Dao Pavilion, in the forest below the Sword Peak.

The lake water was calm as ever, just like Yan Xiu who was sitting beside the lake. He was reading while the cool breeze stroked his body.

At this moment…The person who was hiding in the shades strode toward Yan Xiu. He wasn't walking too quickly, and each step was firm and silent.

However, after five steps, a bird suddenly descended from the sky. It was extremely fast, brus.h.i.+ng past the man's head in an instant.

The man raised his head at this moment, revealing a pair of broody eyes that lit up with a hint of surprise.

However, he eventually leaped up, at the exact moment that the bird flew past him, before landing on the tree again. After which, a piece of yellowed paper appeared in his hands.

“Fang ZhengZhi and Chi Guyan have entered the Ninth Heaven!”

“…” The man was clearly startled by the message. His hand trembled and made a faint noise with the paper.

The noise was insignificant as compared to the surroundings. The noise coming from the gra.s.ses and leaves were much louder, but the man's expression still changed.

He turned toward Yan Xiu, only to be relieved when he saw that Yan Xiu was still sitting beside the lake and reading his book like before.

In the next instance, the piece of paper in his hand disappeared, as if it had never existed.

However, the man stopped moving toward Yan Xiu and hid into the shades again.

If there was something in this world that made people happy, it would undoubtedly have something to do with treasures.

If there had to be a ranking, ‘finding' something would directly bring people the most joy and surprise.

For example, if you were walking on the street and found a box of gold bars that were inscribed with your name, and everyone was sure that the gold bars belonged to you, how would you feel? You would feel helpless too!

Let's imagine that you entered a room to find a peerless beauty who was gentle, virtuous, pretty, s.e.xy, selfless…

Most importantly, she would only marry you. If you weren't going to marry her, she would commit suicide. Everyone else also felt that you guys were a pair made in heaven.

How would you feel? You would despair too!

This was what Fang Zhengzhi was feeling right now, despair and helplessness. There was a constant voice in his mind reminding him that he must be diligent, and he shouldn't accept such a windfall so easily.

Of course, he felt that even if the treasures were meant for him, there should have been a tougher challenge. He'd feel more accomplished that way.

However, the treasure was forcing itself onto him, giving him no chance to resist.

What else could he have done?

Although Fang Zhengzhi was in a dilemma, he couldn't possibly leave the nine Heaven Dao Sage Tablets laying around.

Hence, the only thing he could do was to keep the Tablets in his black metal box first, and show them off when he had the chance, “Look, I accidentally found a Heaven Dao Sage Tablet, oh…That's wrong, I found nine Heaven Dao Sage Tablets!”