The Desolate Era

While roaming the vast primordial chaos, one had to be able to recognize treasures for what they were. If you saw one without recognizing one and passed it by, how laughable would that be? World God Northrest had naturally left behind many records, allowing Ji Ning to identify the treasures he was currently in most desperate need of.

“Come.” Ning willed it, and a dirty-looking cauldron flew towards him.

Ning had acquired this cauldron from an imprisoned Empyrean God. That Empyrean God had spent quite some time analyzing the cauldron after acquiring it, but wasn’t sure exactly how it was to be used. In fact, not even the seniors of his sect that he asked knew the answer.

“A Five Elements Cauldron.” Ning nodded slowly. “I had thought that after leaving Undermoon Lake, I would need to spend time and effort scrounging up the materials I would need to forge one of these things. Now, I realize that I actually already have one...and this one is at the level of a Protocosmic spirit-treasure. Although it’s nothing in the eyes of someone like World God Northrest, I probably wouldn’t be able to make one as good.”

Five Elements Cauldrons were used to destroy magic treasures.

Right. Destroy them!

Precious items and minerals, along with magic items, damaged or undamaged, could be thrown into these cauldrons. They would be completely destroyed, and then reformed into five types of Five Elements essences; Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth. Virtually every single treasure born from the primordial chaos could be melted down into essences of the Five Elements.

Even the primordial chaos itself could be converted into the Five Elements!

The extracted essences could be used to forge new magic treasures, as treasures that were infused with them would undergo certain transformations.

The reason why Ning was in desperate need of such a cauldron was for the sake of that damaged sword, the most important treasure World God Northrest had left him.

“Violetjewel...although its core essence is intact, the sword itself is so heavily damaged that it is close to the brink of breaking apart. The sword is damaged so heavily that there is no way it can be used in battle at all. I have to use Five Elements essence in order to repair it!”

If given sufficient Five Elements essence, Violetjewel’s physical structure could be repaired enough to allow it to be once more used in battle. By then, it would definitely be far more powerful than a mere Chaos weapon.

Given even more Five Elements essence, Violetjewel could be completely repaired, allowing it to regain all of its former power.

To spend some Five Elements essence in exchange for acquiring a weapon that surpassed Chaos treasures? Of course Ning was willing!

All those years ago, World God Northrest’s efforts were completely focused on finding a way to halt the decay of his truesoul. He was focused on trying to stay alive, and so had no desire to waste time on creating a Five Elements Cauldron, much less collecting the many treasures that would be needed to refine a sufficient amount of Five Elements essences. As far as World God Northrest was concerned, repairing the treasure would be of no use to him. Staying alive was what really matter.

“Arise.”

Ning naturally possessed the techniques needed to use a Five Elements Cauldron. He was even capable of creating one anew, much less merely using one.

However, the Empyrean God of Pangaea who had formerly owned the cauldron did not know these techniques. In fact, his clan had never even heard of it. Generally speaking, only the major powers of the primordial chaos would have access to Five Elements Cauldrons, as only truly powerful figures would be willing to throw so many precious treasures into a cauldron and destroy them. The only reason why Ning himself had so many treasures was because he had the prisonworld.

Rumble...

The dirty-looking Five Elements Cauldron had been silent for countless years. And now, it finally had a chance to reveal its brilliance. Five streaks of light shot out from its five handles, shooting towards the skies.

“Go.” Ning pointed towards the cauldron, and ten top-grade Pure Yang treasures were instantly flung into it. Ning had already completely swept through all the Empyrean Gods and Celestial Immortals of the prisonworld, and he had a simply enormous amount of top-grade Pure Yang treasures. Every single Empyrean God and Celestial Immortal had quite a few; Celestial Immortal Liangqiu, for example, had possessed more than seven hundred flying swords. One of the prisoners had more than ten thousand top-grade Pure Yang treasures!

Ning just threw in ten to test it out.

Hissssssss.

Like snow being thrown into a furnace, a series of hissing, crackling sounds could be heard as all ten Pure Yang treasures were completely annihilated, leaving behind just a few tiny bits of debris. The essence of the Five Elements flowed into the holding region for the Five Elements located within the cauldron.

“How savage.” Ning pointed, and with a series of whooshes, a dense cluster of at least ten thousand flying shuttles all flew into the Five Elements Cauldron.

Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! All the Pure Yang treasures started to splinter.

“Uh oh.” Ning could sense that his energy was depleting at a rapid pace. He hurriedly pulled out a Pure Yang Immortal pill and tossed it into his mouth. “World God Northrest actually neglected to notify me that using the Five Elements Cauldron to destroy treasures and refine them into essence is a process that uses up an enormous amount of energy.” But what he had forgotten was that the clone he was using to control the cauldron merely had a third-tier Pure Yang Jindan, after all.

World God Northrest was a World God. The amount of energy used up by the cauldron was utterly negligible for him.

“Time to go.”

Ning left behind one clone to refine the treasures into essence for repairing Violetjewel. As for the other seventeen clones, he had all of them leave the prisonworld. The ninety-eight stone steles and jade shrine which World God Northrest had left behind had all been placed into the prisonworld as well. Ning had brought them back, as the pocket dimension Ning had been in collapsed as soon as he left it.

The core of that pocket dimension was the sword Violetjewel. Once Ning took it away, the pocket dimension would naturally crumble, leaving behind no traces of its passing.

A white-robed youth appeared once more on the surface of that frozen star. His other sixteen bodies were located within the estate-treasure he carried alongside him, with fifteen of them focusing on training in the [Icefire Jindan Smelting] technique.

As Ning saw it, of his eighteen clones of his main body, he would have seventeen upgrade their Jindans. The reason he was going to leave one behind was because he was going to leave it in the prisonworld and let it focus on operating the cauldron. That one would remain un-upgraded, in case that Ning’s other bodies were all destroyed in the war in the Three Realms.

Once they were destroyed, the remaining body could use chaos nectar to quickly rebuild the other seventeen! Ning would then be able to simply use more Ninefire Lava and Iceheart Pith to re-upgrade their Jindans.

But if he was to upgrade his Jindan to the second-tier, allowing him to become a half-step Daofather, then the cost of remaking seventeen clones would become considerably higher, perhaps requiring ten times the amount of chaos nectar. Ning had very little chaos nectar left; there was simply no way he could afford that.

“160,000 kilograms of Ninefire Lava, 160,000 kilograms of Iceheart Pith. That’ll be enough for fifteen clones of my true body and seventeen clones of my Primaltwin.” Ning nodded. As for the remaining amount, he left it all behind within the prisonworld.

Ning was going to leave behind a ‘seed’ of both his true body and his Primaltwin, just to be safe. No one could predict what was going to happen within this tribulation. Even though he was now much more powerful, Ning was still going to be cautious. action

“Time to meet the Godking.”

Whoosh.

Ning flew out from the frozen star.

Right now, the war for the Deerchaser world was a pivotal moment in the war for karmic luck!

Many of his friends and brothers had died in battle, causing Ning to wish to participate as well. And indeed, he now had the power to make a difference. The so-called ‘Envoy of All Things’? Ning was confident in being able to deal with it! But before doing so, he had to first rescue Yu Wei. Otherwise, once he revealed his full power on the Deerchaser world, the Godking would most likely have second thoughts and once more use Yu Wei to blackmail him.

Thus...

He had to first rescue his wife.

Only then could he return to the Deerchaser world!

......

Whoosh.

A white-robed youth appeared out of nowhere within the northern seas of the Grand Xia.

Although the Seamless Gate had been defeated in the war for the Grand Xia, they had still launched repeated, minor incursions against the world. True Immortal Dongyan had died in one such clash.

“Eh?” Ning spread out his heartforce, quickly discovering one of the Seamless Gate’s bases in the northern seas.

“I am Darknorth. I wish to speak to the Godking of your Seamless Gate. Make the report right away,” Ning sent mentally.

The base was only staffed by a Celestial Immortal. Upon hearing Ning’s mental message, he was badly frightened. He was of the Grand Xia; naturally, he knew of the legendary power of Ji Ning, Empyrean God Darknorth. Darknorth was someone who had roamed the Three Realms and slaughtered many members of the Seamless Gate.

The Celestial Immortal put everything else aside and immediately made a report to his master.

......

The Deerchaser major world.

The black-robed Godking and Daomother Devilhand were both standing atop the castle walls, staring at the vast wilderness in front of them. The great army of the Seamless Gate filled the wilderness, and they were calling for the enemies to come engage them in battle.

“They remain behind their fortifications, not daring to come out and fight.” The black-robed Godking laughed.

“Yesterday, quite a few True Gods and Daofathers of the Nuwa Alliance descended upon the castle. It seems they are discussing what to do about this war.” Daomother Devilhand laughed coldly, “Hmph. What sort of ideas can these major powers possibly come up with? The Envoys of All Things were devised by the Lord of All Things. What, does the Nuwa Alliance think that they can also create a golem of this level?”

“How could they? The Lord of All Things was someone capable of bringing disaster to two chaosworlds and nearly destroying them both.” The black-robed Godking laughed. “Not even the protective formations which Mother Nuwa left behind are able to withstand the Envoys. They are definitely going to lose-...eh?”

Daomother Devilhand looked towards the Godking, puzzled.

The black-robed Godking laughed. “It’s fine. A young fellow wishes to meet with me.”

“A young fellow?” Daomother Devilhand was puzzled. “Who?”

“That Ji Ning kid, who once forced me to bow my head before him...” The black-robed Godking laughed softly.

“Ji Ning?” Daomother Devilhand nodded. “A mere Empyrean God/True Immortal. Hurry up and deal with this minor matter. This war before us is the critical pivot on which our chances of winning the war for karmic luck shall turn. This is what truly matters.”

“Yes, aunt-master,” the black-robed Godking assented.