The Desolate Era

Ji Ning felt a surge of joy in his heart.

World God Northrest had spent a tremendous amount of effort to train a proper successor. The things he had prepared for this successor would no doubt be much better than the items he had left behind on Moonfall Island.

“The most precious item within all of Undermoon Lake is the item which master was able to rely upon in order to escape, despite being surrounded, assaulted, and wounded so badly that only a shred of his soul remained. It is this sword.” The golden-armored warlady pointed at the slender, terribly damaged blood-colored sword. Ning was stunned; this was it? This broken-looking sword?

Even if it was powerful in the past, it was completely ruined now.

“Don’t underestimate it. Don’t be deceived by its bad condition.” The golden-armored warlady sneered, “Not all the treasures in your Three Realms combined would be as valuable as this ‘badly damaged sword’ in front of you.”

Ning was shocked. Not even all the treasures in the Three Realms combined?

“The most precious thing within your Three Realms is its ‘Worldcore’, which will only manifest after the Three Realms is destroyed. But even the Worldcore is vastly inferior in value to this sword.” The golden-armored warlady let out a sigh. “Even in as bad condition as it currently is, it’s far beyond the limits of your imagination.”

“It’s that powerful?” Ning was shocked.

“Powerful?” The warlady laughed coldly, “World Gods and Chaos Immortals are all extremely powerful. They rove throughout the primordial chaos, and to them, it’s not that hard to use a technique to hasten the destruction of a chaosworld and then extract the Worldcore from it.”

Ning nodded.

World Gods and Chaos Immortals did indeed have the power to destroy a chaosworld. For example, the great war of the Primordial Era had been instigated by the Lord of All Things, but if it had been instigated by a World God, Mother Nuwa probably wouldn’t have even had the chance to make a breakthrough. Everyone would’ve been effortlessly dominated.

“Although Worldcores are valuable treasures to Chaos Immortals and World Gods, they can acquire them with a bit of effort. But this sword...” The golden-armored warlady let out a sigh. “It’s enough to drive any World God mad with lust, to the point of risking their own lives for it. Master had to rely on the help of many friends from Vastheaven Palace, combined with his own personal power, in order to acquire it. For the sake of this sword, Master paid an indescribable price...but it was all worth it, because in the end he acquired this sword, Violetjewel.”

“It’s that precious?” Ning stared at the badly damaged sword, extremely puzzled. “What is the story behind it? You should know, right?”

“I do not.” The golden-armored warlady shook her head, a bit embarassed. “When Violetjewel carried Master’s soul-sliver with it as it fled, it was so badly damaged that even its original sword-spirit was destroyed. Master ended up placing Violetjewel within Undermoon Lake. Once the sword was given some time to settle down and stabilize, it was able to slowly give birth to a new spirit – me.”

Ning now understood. It made sense. For example, the master of a treasure could wipe out its treasure-spirit and then allow a new treasure-spirit to be born.

“However, before he died, Master told me everything that he could. All the necessary arrangements were made.” The golden-armored warlady looked at Ning.

“Judging from what you are saying...this sword should be even more powerful than a Chaos treasure?” Ning asked.

“Powerful?” The golden-armored warlady said, “The so-called ‘Chaos treasures’ of your Three Realms are generally meant for Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals. World Gods could fight barehanded and have power equivalent to that of a Chaos treasure! They use far more powerful weapons. As for this sword...even amongst the weapons used by World Gods and Chaos Immortals, it is one of the absolute best of weapons.”

Ning frowned. “If that’s the case, would I even be capable of binding it?”

After soulscouring the memories of the prisoners of Pangaea, Ning had learned a few things. In Pangaea, True Gods and True Immortals would generally use Protocosmic spirit-treasures, while Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals used Chaos treasures. As for the King of Pangaea, he supposedly used an even more terrifyingly powerful treasure which could only be bound by someone who was at least at the Elder God or Ancestral Immortal level of power.

As for this tattered-looking sword...if it was one of the absolute best weapons that could be used by World Gods and Chaos Immortals, how could a mere Empyrean God/True Immortal like Ning possibly bind it?

“Generally speaking, one has to have the power of a World God to bind this weapon.” The golden-armored woman warlady at Ning. “However, since Master left this sword for you, he must have done it for a reason. In Vastheaven Palace, there is a certain unique and secret binding technique that is recorded within the [Eight Directions Secret Scroll]. Although the records were casually written down, they described something that is extraordinarily marvelous. This technique is known as the ‘Heartseep’ technique. Through using the ‘Heartseep’ technique, you can bind this sword. Once you do, you’ll be able to retract its aura and change its appearance and coloration. Otherwise, everyone would be able to tell at a glance how extraordinary this weapon is.”

Ning nodded. The aura of this badly damaged sword was even more terrifying than Human Sovereign Fuxi’s aura. Its power would indeed be obvious to anyone.

Ordinary Pure Yang treasures and Protocosmic spirit-treasures had auras of their own, but after they were bound the auras could be suppressed, making them seem like normal weapons.

“This is the Heartseep technique.” The golden-armored warlady waved her hand, causing a bamboo scroll to appear in midair before her.

“That’s like how we do it in the Three Realms.” Ning chuckled. The Pangaea chaos-kingdom and the Three Realms recorded down techniques in differing manners. After World God Northrest had possessed Daofather Fuju, he had chosen to do as they did in the Three Realms and recorded techniques down within bamboo scrolls.

Ning accepted it in a very practiced manner, then sent his coresense into it.

A large amount of information began to flood into his mind, but after just two breaths worth of time, it came to an end. This was a fairly simple technique, but despite its simplicity, it would be hard for even World Gods or Chaos Immortals to intentionally devise an idea like it. This technique...the principles behind it were quite interesting.

When royal figures died on Earth during the early ages, they would have jade treasures buried with them. Because those treasures would be covered in dirt and mud for hundreds or thousands of years, once they were excavated they would still be imprinted with some dirt or mud which would have seeped into the jade itself.

It wouldn’t be very practical to come up with an idea to actively ‘seep’ dirt and mud into jade on Earth unless one used extremely high-tech methods, akin to how World Gods and Chaos Immortals would be able to use their tremendous power to forcibly bind this sword. However, given a long enough period of time, just keeping jade in constant contact with mud would eventually cause the mud to ‘seep’ into the jade. This was the essence of the ‘Heartseep’ technique.

“What?” Ning’s face changed. “It needs that long? A thousand years?”

“Is a thousand years really that long?” The golden-armored warlady looked towards Ning, puzzled. “For you, an Empyrean God and a True Immortal, to spend a mere thousand years binding a priceless treasure like this and complain about how long it takes...? This technique is already quite formidable, and the amount of time is already quite short.”

Ning grew frantic. He didn’t have the time needed to slowly bind the treasure. The outside world had already descended into a state of calamity, and he had already spent more than a century in Undermoon Lake. He naturally wanted to leave as soon as possible.

“Can I take this sword back with me? Can I slowly bind it in the outside world?” Ning asked.

The golden-armored warlady shook her head. “You can try. If you can move it, go ahead.”

“Oh?” Puzzled, Ning immediately walked forward and reached out to grab the terribly damaged sword. Since the warlady wasn’t going to stop him, this shouldn’t prove dangerous.

Boom! action

As soon as Ning’s palm descended upon the sword, an invisible burst of power blasted out, knocking Ning backwards and sending him flying away like a meteor.

A short while later, he flew back.

“B-but...” As Ning once more walked into the jade shrine, he stared in astonishment at the badly damaged sword. It clearly was in terrible shape, but it still possessed incredible power.

“If you take it out without binding it, once the Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals of the Three Realms notice it you’ll be doomed.” The golden-armored warlady shook her head. “I heard you say in Undermoon Lake that the Three Realms has entered a state of war between two main allied camps? If you go out and end up losing that treasure to the major powers of the Seamless Gate, you’ll become a sinner in the eyes of all your allies.”

Ning understood what she was saying...but was he really going to be trapped here for a thousand years?

“You only have two clones here.” The golden-armored warlady chuckled. “Two absolutely identical clones. Techniques like these always produce more than just two, right? I imagine you have other clones in the outside world at all. If that’s really the case, then they should be able to deal with any emergent situations in the outside world.”

Indeed. In the outside world, Ning had sixteen ‘true bodies’ and eighteen Primaltwin bodies.

“In addition...this sword has suffered tremendous damage. Just look at it; it’s almost fallen apart. Only its energy source remains undamaged. It shouldn’t be that hard to bind it; five hundred years if you are fast, a thousand years if you are slow.” The golden-armored warlady explained, “Oh, right; aside from this treasure, Master has left behind other techniques for you to receive. He spent tremendous effort recording them all down for you.”

As she spoke, the warlady waved her hand. Instantly, one bamboo scroll after another began to materialize in the air, coming together to form a small mountain of scrolls!

“Some of his techniques could not be transmitted, due to the rules of Vastheaven Palace. The others, the ones that he was permitted to teach, are all here.” The golden-armored warlady pointed towards the small mountain of bamboo scrolls.