“Then how do you know?” Chen Ping asked, puzzled!
“Fellow Daoist Chen, that’s my little secret, forgive me for not sharing!” the man said with a smile!
“Even if the sixth tier is packed with resources and immortal mines, you and I don’t have the strength to reach it.”
Chen Ping shook his head!
Even that Yun Li could only linger briefly on the fourth tier, so getting to the sixth would hardly be a walk in the park!
Chen Ping had come to the Heaven-Climbing Ladder just to train a bit and maybe snag some resources along the way!
As for actually climbing it to reach the Heavenly Realm, that wasn’t even on his radar!
Sure, his current strength far exceeded his realm, but Chen Ping wasn’t arrogant enough to think he was invincible in the Celestial Realm, ready to ascend to the heavens!
“Together, you and I could actually…”
“No thanks, I’m not interested in the sixth tier, or in teaming up, excuse me!”
Before the man could finish, Chen Ping leapt from the building, rejoining Lin Keting and the others as he left!
Watching Chen Ping’s retreating figure, a flicker of disappointment crossed the man’s eyes!
“He didn’t agree?”
At that moment, a woman approached, also clad in a fiery red robe that seemed to blaze like flames!
She too wore a mask, her face hidden from view!
The man shook his head, then turned to the woman and said, “Senior Sister, don’t you recognise him?”
The woman shook her head, “No, this should be our first meeting, though he feels oddly familiar, just like how he seemed to find you familiar earlier!”
The man slowly removed his mask, revealing a weathered face!
Ning Zhi, beneath that mask was none other than Ning Zhi.
The person Chen Ping had been chatting with for so long was the very Ning Zhi who’d been hell-bent on killing him!
By now, Ning Zhi’s entire aura had transformed, as if he were a different person altogether!
“Friend?” Ning Zhi murmured, gazing out the window, “Friend or foe, I’ll kill you eventually, shame I’m no match for you right now.”
“Junior Brother, Master ordered us never to remove our masks outside, how dare you disobey?”
The woman’s voice was icy as she addressed Ning Zhi!
“Senior Sister, my mistake!” Ning Zhi quickly put the mask back on.
“Junior Brother, why are you so obsessed with killing him?” the woman asked!
“For my father’s murder, we’re sworn enemies…” Ning Zhi’s eyes blazed with fury, “Senior Sister, you’ll help me, right?”
“Of course…”
The woman exuded the aura of a second-grade Transcendent Immortal, flames dancing atop her fiery red cloak, “He can fight above his level, why can’t we?”
Ning Zhi grinned, a cruel glint in his eyes!
“Chen Ping, if you knew you’d be killed by the woman you love most, would it break your heart?”
Ning Zhi mused darkly to himself!
The woman before him was none other than Su Yuqi, the one Chen Ping had been searching for, ever since she’d been taken by the Flame Demon, her fire spirit body had propelled her cultivation at breakneck speed.
Now, Su Yuqi could also battle beyond her rank, when Ning Zhi had first been recruited by the Flame Demon and saw her, he’d been stunned, and upon learning she’d lost all her memories, a bold plan took root in his mind!
He’d have Su Yuqi help him kill Chen Ping, and make sure Chen Ping, in his dying moment, knew it was the woman he loved most who’d done it!
Only that kind of cruelty could soothe Ning Zhi’s years-long thirst for revenge!
He’d even toyed with the idea of taking Chen Ping’s woman for himself, as a twisted payback!
But alas, his strength fell short of Su Yuqi’s, he’d barely made a move before she nearly beat him half to death!
From then on, Ning Zhi never dared entertain that wild notion again!
“Let’s go, before the Heaven-Climbing Ladder descends, best not to provoke Chen Ping and stir up trouble.”
“Once we’re inside the ladder, there’ll be plenty of chances!”
Su Yuqi said, then led Ning Zhi out of the tavern!
