The Desolate Era

Ji Ning was all by himself within the deep crevice, but his heartforce had been spread out to cover the entire frozen star. It was like a star-sized lake, and layers of ripples emanated out from it, sweeping through every part of the star.

This was a little trick for using heartforce to scout, and it was one of the many techniques World God Northrest had left behind. Although it was just a little trick, this heartforce scouting technique ensured that none of the major powers of the Three Realms would be able to follow him without him sensing it.

When roaming the primordial chaos, it was important to know many auxiliary techniques, such as aura-suppressing techniques, heartforce scouting techniques, disguising techniques, heartforce soul-locking techniques...these minor auxiliary techniques wouldn’t allow him to grow more powerful, but they greatly increased his survivability. Without them, it would be easy to fall and perish when wandering the primordial chaos.

These auxiliary techniques seemed unremarkable, but in truth they were amongst the most important and most elite of techniques which World God Northrest had left behind. Not even the Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals of the chaos-kingdom of Pangaea would have the chance to learn these techniques.

“I had thought that after I revealed such incredible power, the Seamless Gate would be even more wary of me and perhaps even trail me. I actually took an incredibly roundabout way to get her...but now, it seems, they no longer view me as being a threat at all.” The black-robed Ning let out a mental sigh.

Prior to visiting this frozen star, he had paid a visit to the Crescent world, so as to impede the Seamless Gate from following him. But alas, it was pointless; the Seamless Gate hadn’t even been tracking him at all.

“It makes sense. Since I can no longer take part in the war for karmic luck, I am now much less of a threat to them than I was before. As far as the major powers are concerned, without the Envoy I am far too weak for them to be worried about!” The black-robed Ning shook his head, then disappeared into thin air.

Within the prisonworld.

A white-robed youth was seated in the lotus position, and in front of him was a great cauldron that glowed with faint light.

This was the Five Elements Cauldron. The Five Elements Cauldron no longer looked as dirty and ragged as it had before; clearly, it was now revealing its true luster.

“There he is.” The white-robed youth raised his head to look over as the black-robed Ning flew towards him from far away. When the black-robed Ning landed, a black lightning serpent instantly appeared out of nowhere, quickly scurrying into the white-robed youth’s body.

Ning’s true bodies were all lightning-attribute bodies, which was why they were all capable of controlling the Ninehorn Lightning Serpent with ease. The Primaltwin was very powerful but had no way of controlling the serpent.

“I used up a veritable sea of treasures, melting down almost all the items I acquired from this prisonworld for Five Elements essence. Who would’ve thought that I would be unable to repair even the surface appearance of Violetjewel?” The black-robed Ning looked at the ancient stone platform. Atop the stone platform was the completely blood-colored sword Violetjewel, the body of the sword still covered with countless cracks.

Once Violetjewel absorbed enough Five Elements essence for its surface layer to be repaired, it would be possible for Ning to carry it into battle, and it would be far more powerful than a Chaos weapon. If Ning was able to acquire enough essence to completely and truly repair it, it would possess enough power to intoxicate even Chaos Immortals and World Gods.

“I feel as though only a fifth of the surface layer has been repaired.” Ning secretly shook his head.

There had been more than a thousand Empyrean Gods and Celestial Immortals in the prisonworld, and Ning had already extorted all of them!

He had also acquired quite a few treasures from True Gods and True Immortals as well. Aside from a tiny number of treasures that he kept for himself, he had melted down all the rest.

“And this isn’t to forge or reforge Violetjewel, it’s just to repair the superficial, surface damage. For even the surface layer to require so much Five Elements essence...if I had instead used the essence to upgrade my Goldstar Beads of the Heavens, some of them probably would’ve been upgraded to Chaos treasures by now,” Ning mused to himself.

Five Elements essence was primarily used to repair treasures, but they would also be used to enhance and upgrade certain special treasures. Some treasures had excellent foundations and were thus able to absorb Five Elements essence and be upgraded by it.

The Goldstar Beads of the Heavens were no ordinary treasures.

They weren’t like the Protocosmic spirit-treasures which were naturally born from Heaven and Earth after Pangu established the world. Instead, they were formed in the primordial chaos from the leftover essence of enormous chaos stars that had reached the ends of their lives, with the essence having condensed into gems. They had just so happened to be floating the area when Pangu had established the world, and thus had accidentally been drawn into the world and become transformed into Protocosmic spirit-treasures.

Gems like them were actually icredibly valuable! When smaller chaos stars died they generally didn’t have enough leftover essence for gems to be crystallized. Only larger chaos stars were able to give birth to these gems. Every single gem could be used as a valuable ingredient and would generally be used to forge a Chaos treasure. Because they ended up floating into the newly-established Pangu Chaosworld, they ended up being titled the Goldstar Beads of the Heavens and used to smash people.

But this was truly a waste!

Those Protocosmic spirit-treasures that were born from the Pangu Chaosworld itself didn’t have much potential, but the Goldstar Beads of the Heavens had tremendous potential. They were capable of withstanding reinforcement from Five Treasures essence and being upgraded to become Chaos treasures. Alas, the amount of essence needed to upgrade all of those 3600 beads to become Chaos treasures...Ning knew it to be nothing more than a pipe dream.

“A set of 3600 Chaos treasures?” Ning secretly shook his head. Not all the treasures of the entire prisonworld combined might be enough.

The Five Elements Cauldron was placed right next to the white-robed Ning, who remained seated in the lotus position, a bottle of chaos nectar before him.

Whoosh.

One drop of precious Chaos nectar after another was absorbed into the white-robed youth’s body, and then a series of phantom, ghostly figures flew out of him. When each phantom landed on the ground, it solidified into yet another white-robed youth.

Time slowly flowed on, and one white-robed youth after another was materialized. Ning’s bodies were still at merely the second stage of the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods]; he had relied on the [One True Body] technique to merge seventeen of those bodies together. Now, he once more replicated his seventeen destroyed bodies by using the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods] to absorb chaos nectar.

“Now, [Icefire Jindan Smelting].”

Each of the seventeen white-robed youths had a globe of Ninefire Lava and Iceheart Pith floating before them.

The black-robed Ning stood off to one side, staring at the Ninefire Lava and the Iceheart Pith. He secretly sighed to himself, “I still have quite a bit of Ninefire Lava, but there’s not much Iceheart Pith left. After this, I’ll only have around fifty thousand kilograms of Iceheart Pith left.”

His main body had been destroyed. Thanks to chaos nectar, Iceheart Pith, and Ninefire Lava, he was able to completely heal himself in a single short month! However, if the main body was destroyed yet again...he didn’t have enough Iceheart Pith, nor did he have much chaos nectar left. If he wanted to recover from it a second time, he would probably need an extremely long period of time to do so. The same had been true of Youngflame Freak in the past; if too many of his bodies died, he would need an extremely long period of time to recover.

A month later. The seventeen white-robed youths had all seen their golden pellet Jindans upgraded, and they now once more used the [One True Body] technique to merge together.

“I’m back to full power.”

A hint of a murderous look flashed through the white-robed Ning’s eyes.

He would never forget the sight of the Godking annihilating Yu Wei’s soul. That sight would probably haunt him for the rest of his life.

“Godking. I’m not strong enough yet, so just keep waiting for now. I’ll be back.” Ning’s heart was filled with the utmost resolve.

“Let’s go.” Swoosh. The white-robed youth collected the black-robed Ning, then flew outwards, leaving behind just a single clone to continue using the Five Elements Cauldron. Ning would use this clone to as he had in the past, to serve as a base template for slowly rebuilding his other bodies if his main body was destroyed. Thus, Ning absolutely would not permit this body to be merged with the others through the [One True Body] technique. If he did that and then died, his death would be a true death. action

After flying for a while, the white-robed Ning’s speed began to lessen. A series of stone steles lay in the grasslands before him, like monoliths that jutted out from the plains. These stone steles surrounded an unspeakably beautiful jade palace.

“I was gravely wounded, which was a disaster, but the chance to fight against Swordfather Darklight, Daofather Shadowless, and Daomother Devilhand was a blessing,” Ning mused to himself. Although he was able to battle against True Gods and True Immortals in the prisonworld, the ones that were imprisoned here generally had yet to master any of the Heavenly Daos.

If they did, they would become Ancestral Immortals!

It was precisely because they hadn’t been able to master a Heavenly Dao that these True Gods and True Immortals, in terms of raw power, were generally just comparable to ordinary Daofathers. Occcasionally, a few possessed divine abilities that allowed them to release the power of a elite Daofather, but the likes of Swordfather Darklight and Daofather Shadowless were experts even amongst their elite Daofather peers. As for Daomother Devilhand, she was an overlord-class figure!

Although the Daofathers of the Three Realms had relatively weaker foundations than the denizens of Pangaea, in terms of insights into the Dao, they were far superior. In terms of insights into the Dao, only a minority of the Ancestral Immortals and Elder Gods who were imprisoned in Prisonworld 17 were a match for the likes of Daomother Devilhand.

Daomother Devilhand’s palm-arts were reputed to be number one in all the Three Realms, superior to even that of Lord Tathagata the Buddha.

When Ning fought against her, he had naturally been considerably enlightened and stimulated.

“I need to carefully think over what I saw and quietly ponder it all. Perhaps I’ll be able to make use of this setback to reach the fifth stage of swordforce.” After Ning entered the jade shrine, he sat down on a prayer mat woven from a type of Chaos treasure known as Winterheart Grass. His heart and soul quickly grew calm, and he began to engage in silent meditation and reflection. He thought back through all the things he had seen when battling against Swordfather Darklight, Daofather Shadowless, and Daomother Devilhand.