Desolate Era

by RWX

  The Godking paused, then growled out, “Fifteen Empyrean Gods and True Immortals have died by your hand. If you let matters rest, I can let bygones be bygones.”

  The Godking, in the end, had chosen to swallow his rage. He had to take into consideration his disposition of forces across the entire Three Realms, and he couldn’t perpetually be on alert against Ji Ning’s ambushes. His only option would be to change his force disposition throughout the entire Three Realms, but that would come at a price. For example, if he withdrew all the Empyrean Gods and True Immortals from the bases and headquarters, there were a number of major worlds that would become impossible to penetrate and infiltrate.

  “Let bygones be bygones?” Ning looked at the Godking. “I can let matters rest…but I have a request.”

  The Godking was utterly enraged. This child actually dared to make a request? But the Godking still suppressed his anger and said, “Speak!”

  “Give senior apprentice-sister Yu Wei back to me,” Ning said.

  “Yu Wei?”

  The Godking was stunned…and then he began to roar with laughter. His laughter, tinged with fury, shook the entire world of darkness. “So the reason why you’ve gone so crazy is for Yu Wei. It seems that woman is quite important to you, for you to risk your life in such a way.”

  “Yes.” Ning nodded. “I can risk my life for her sake. If you hand her to me, I’ll immediately halt. If you don’t…I’ll keep killing!”

  “So you are doing this to extort us, to force our hand?” The Godking’s voice was like ice. “Ji Ning, you value yourself too highly. I’m just trying to avoid a bit of unnecessary trouble, which is why I gave you a chance to calm things down with us. But you actually dare to threaten us, the Seamless Gate? You truly are too arrogant. Do you think that just because you succeeded with your first ambush, you’ll succeed in a second or a third ambush? Do you really think that our Seamless Gate is unable to deal with a stripling like you?”

  Who was the Godking? He was, nominally speaking, the leader of the entire Seamless Gate. He could converse as equals with even the Three Sovereigns of Mankind or the leaders of Daoism and Buddhism.

  Just now, the Godking had been putting on a charitable, magnanimous air; if Ning halted, he would spare Ning. But now, Ning dared to make requests of him? Fine, then; if the request wasn’t excessive, the Godking would agree to it. But Ning had actually carried out these actions to threaten the Seamless Gate, to force them to do something they didn’t want to do? That was courting death!

  “I only hope for you to return her to me, Godking.” Ning looked at the Godking.

  “Impossible.” The Godking stared back at Ning. “You only have two options before you. To halt and be spared, or to continue and perish. As for Yu Wei…you can forget about her.”

  Ning stared at the Godking.

  The Godking stared back at Ning.

  Whoosh. Ning disappeared into thin air.

  “He really is courting death.” The Godking felt even angrier now. “An Empyrean God actually dares to try to threaten and extort the Seamless Gate? What a joke. A joke!”

  The Seamless Gate’s original incarnation was that of the Seamless Chaosworld, a world on par with the Pangu Chaosworld. How could a power like this allow itself to be extorted?

  ……

  Ning sat there by himself within the thatched cottage. He sat there for a long, long time.

  “Senior apprentice-sister.”

  “Although the chances are very slim…I will still go and kill them. Kill them until they can no longer bear it.” A breathtaking determination could be seen in Ning’s eyes. This was a dangerous path, a path which involved repeatedly risking his life…but that was the nature of his decision.

  Ning cast the matter to the back of his mind, sending his mind into the Starseizing Manor.

  Within the main palace of the manor was a large pile of treasures. These were the treasures he had acquired during his earlier ambushes. Ning quickly began to bind them to himself. These treasures might not be too useful to him, but they’d be plenty of help to other Empyrean Gods and True Immortals. If he could increase the power of his forces, their chances of success in the future would be slightly greater.

  “Pure Yang treasure.”

  “Pure Yang.”

  “A Protocosmic spirit-treasure…but it’s just a low-grade one of ordinary power. Still, quite interesting.”

  “Quite a few Pure Yang Immortal pills. Great Firmanent Immortal pills. Poison?” Ning quickly finished sorting through all of the treasures of the Empyrean Gods and True Immortals.

  And then, Ning began to bind all of the various treasures left behind by the many slain Celestial Immortals and Loose Immortals. This happened quite quickly, as these were the treasures dropped by the low-level figures he had casually mopped up after killing the Empyrean Gods and True Immortals. Their items weren’t particularly valuable, with most being at the Immortal-rank at best. Every so often, he would be lucky and encounter a Pure Yang treasure.

  “These are the treasures left behind by Youngflame Freak. Hrm…where’s the Worldhold Pagoda?”

  “Pity. The Worldhold Pagoda isn’t with these sixteen clones.” Ning still remembered how the Worldhold Pagoda had sent him to the Nihilum Zone. Still, after searching through all the items, he still hadn’t been able to find it. Instead, he encountered some bugs and aberrations.

  Ning paid no notice to most of Youngflame Freak’s treasures, but one treasure did attract his attention.

  “What’s this?” Ning was startled.

  An enormous, pitch-black stone stele was hanging there in midair. The stone stele was emanating a faint aura of might. Although the aura was very weak, it had an exalted quality about it, far more exalted than even the aura which Patriarch Subhuti had.

  Whoosh.

  Although Ning’s true body remained within the thatched cottage, he quickly sent out a strand of divine power to form a body which manifested within the Starseizing Manor. He took a personal, close look at the levitating black stone stele.

  * * *

  Book 19, Chapter 23 - Stone Stele

  The enormous black stone stele was 299 meters tall, and it emanated an aura of majesty that was so faint, it could only be sensed from less than 300 meters away. The aura, however, had an exalted quality about it. Ji Ning only saw two enormous, strange characters carved into the face of the stone stele facing him, while the other side was filled with countless strange characters that were clustered as densely as ants.

  “These characters…?” Ning examined them carefully. “I’ve never seen these characters before. It seems as though the Three Realms doesn’t have a language like this.”

  Ning had never seen them before, but was certain that these were characters from a language, because they were actually quite similar to the characters of the human race. The two enormous characters on the front, in particular…Ning could almost sense what they meant.

  “Let me try with coresense first.” Ning willed his coresense to surge forward.

  “This…?” Ning stared at the stone stele in surprise. “How can this be? Impossible. Why is it that my coresense sees nothing at all? It’s as though nothing is there.”

  “Can it be that this stone stele is covered with a restrictive spell that blocks out coresense?” Ning pondered for a moment. “Let me try with heartforce.”

  Heartforce was invisible, undetectable, and extremely formidable.

  Instantly, his true body in the outside world sent its powerful heartforce into the underwater estate to cover the stone stele. This caused Ning’s face to truly change, because he discovered…that all his heartforce found nothing whatsoever. It was as though the stone stele didn’t even exist.

  “But, but…” Ning stretched his hand out to touch the stone stele. The stone was icy cold, and its surface was very rough. “This stone stele is clearly right in front of me. How can it be that not even heartforce can detect it?”

  “This is an extraordinary item
. In fact…it isn’t even of the Three Realms.”

  This thought instantly flashed past Ning’s mind.

  The two enormous characters engraved on the stone stele…the countless tiny characters on the back of the stele…the unique runes engraved on other parts of it…clearly, someone had created this item! The stone stele’s aura was so powerful that the creator had to at least be on the level of the Buddhist and Daoist leaders. In fact, he might be even more powerful.

  For heartforce to be unable to discover the stone stele when one could see it with the naked eye and touch it with the hand…Ning had never, ever heard of such a strange item. Such an item shouldn’t be able to exist within the Three Realms.

  Then…

  It had to have come from the primordial chaos outside the Three Realms! Ever since the most ancient of days, the unique items found within the primordial chaos were generally referred to as Chaos treasures. They were either used as ingredients for forging treasures, or used as treasures themselves. When used as treasures, they would become far more powerful than Protocosmic spirit-treasures, and so they would be titled ‘Chaos treasures’.

  Where and how were Chaos treasures born? Hard to say. The primordial chaos did indeed give birth to Chaos treasures, but the terrifying golems that the ‘Lord of All Things’ had created were definitely no weaker than any Chaos treasure. Thus, the Three Realms had suspected for some time now that some of the more powerful Outsiders were perhaps capable of creating artifacts that rivaled Chaos treasures in might.

  “Can this be a Chaos treasure?” A thought flashed through Ning’s mind.

  Whoosh!

  Instantly, a figure appeared. Ning’s true body descended upon the clone, merging into it. As for the outside world…Ning left a small amount of his divine power there, in the form of yet another clone.

  “Neither coresense not heartforce can detect it. That leaves just divine power and Immortal energy” Ning picked up the stone stele, then gently placed it down within the very center of the hall. Previously, he had thought this to simply be a treasure which Youngflame Freak had acquired by luck; he didn’t think it could possibly be particularly powerful. But now, it seemed, this stone stele had a weighty background to it.

  Not even coresense or heartforce could detect it. Most likely, the other major powers of the Three Realms didn’t even know that it existed.

  “Youngflame Freak. Oh, Youngflame Freak. For a Celestial Immortal like you to have been in possession of a treasure like this…if it wasn’t for the fact that I wanted to gain revenge for my mother and for junior apprentice-brother Northson, I probably wouldn’t have been able to acquire something like this. This should be an item from the primordial chaos…I wonder if it is a Chaos treasure?” Ning felt a certain itchiness in his heart. If this really was a Chaos treasure, this would be a tremendous stroke of luck for him.

  But of course, not all items from the primordial chaos were particularly valuable. For example, when first testing out the Heaven Punisher, Ning had been able to shatter apart ‘chaos goldstone’. Shennong located many different medicinal herbs within the primordial chaos, but their value was far, far lower than that of a Chaos treasure.

  “Let me try to bind it first.” Ning sat down in the lotus position, placing his hand atop the giant stone stele. The stone stele was nearly 300 meters tall and nearly 30 meters thick. The divine power within Ning’s body instantly flooded into the stone stele.

  “Eh? Not a Chaos treasure?” As soon as Ning sent his divine power into it, he realized something was wrong. There was no way to bind this treasure. Ning knew exactly how it felt to bind a treasure, even a Protocosmic one, but when his divine power flooded into this treasure, he found the insides to be empty. There was nothing at all for him to bind.

  However, when his divine power flooded into the two massive characters at the front of the stone stele, a ripple of information was transmitted straight into Ning’s mind.

  “Seventeen.” Ning instantly understood what the enormous characters meant.

  “Those two words mean ‘seventeen’. What does that mean? Can it mean that there are many of these stone steles, and that this is the seventeenth?” Ning guessed. “Right; there are many other characters at the back.”

  Swoosh!

  Ning’s body blurred, then he appeared in the lotus position to one side of the stone stele. He began to pour a large amount of divine power into the stele. As his divine power flooded into it, it quickly began to interact with the countless characters on the other side of the stone stele. As it did, Ning could sense a tremendous, invisible force resisting his own power; clearly, to forcibly scan and understand the information contained within those countless characters was beyond what his capabilities.

  “Wait.” Ning came to a halt. “The front side only has two characters, whereas the back side has at least a million. Two characters didn’t give me much pressure, and I was able to understand them right away, but a million is far more than what I can handle.”

  The stone stele was nearly three hundred meters tall, and its rear was filled with those tiny, worm-like scribbles. As best as Ning could tell, there was roughly 1.2 million of them.

  “Let’s start from the top and proceed slowly.”

  Ning immediately began to attempt to fill up a few characters with his divine power.

  “This is so slow.” Ning immediately found the process to be quite taxing. Despite that, a good amount of information began to fill Ning’s mind.

  “[Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods]…” An extremely ancient technique immediately began to be transmitted into Ning’s mind. As Ning’s divine power filled each character, more and more information regarding this technique entered his mind. Soon, he completely memorized this entire technique.

  “It…it’s actually a cultivation technique.” Ning stared at the stone stele in astonishment. “And this is just a small part of the top.”

  The characters on the stone stele were divided into seven major regions. The first region had this technique, the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods].

  “What a powerful technique. It actually allows you to divide into eighteen different bodies.” Ning let out a sigh. “Although Fiendgods can divide into many different clones, once the clone dies, the part of the soul within it will die as well. This will result in the soul fragmenting, and when too much of the soul is destroyed, you will die.”

  “But this technique…upon mastering the first level, you’ll be able to perfectly divide the soul into eighteen different spawns. Although each spawn will have less than a tenth of the power of the original body, they are all capable of surviving on their own. In addition, if the other seventeen are destroyed, the final spawn will slowly be able to recreate the other spawns.”

  “Once you reach the second level of this technique, the eighteen spawns will all have the same level of power as the original body.”

  “If you master the third level…the eighteen spawns can merge back into the original body at any point in time, and the original body can also divide into those eighteen spawns. When they merge into the original body, the power of the original body will explosively increase.” Ning sighed in amazement.

  If he mastered this technique, it would be as though there were eighteen Ji Ning’s. Even if he chose to use his original body to fight by itself, his power would still exponentially increase.

  How monstrous a technique was this?!

  “It seems that this is the technique which Youngflame Freak used, and that he was only able to train to the first level of this technique.” Ning immediately understood. “I had thought that he trained in a secret art like the Bloodshadow Incarnation…but it seems he’s actually training in this unfathomably profound technique.”

  The Three Realms had powerful techniques of its own. The Bloodshadow Incarnation, for example, guaranteed that so long a single incarnation remained alive, the others would come back to life as well. However, true experts would rarely use this technique, because the power of each incarnatio
n would drop dramatically; it was better to keep the true body at maximum power instead! Everyone believed that Youngflame Freak had trained in this technique because he was a coward who feared death, but who would’ve thought that he actually was in possession of a technique like this [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods]? The relative weakness of his bodies was only due to the fact that he had merely trained to the first level.

  “Where did this technique come from?” Ning let out a sigh of amazement. “Still…it will be very hard to truly master this technique.”

  There were detailed notes regarding this technique. It was easy to gain a basic level of skill in the technique and master the first stage, but the second stage was thousands of times more difficult. As for the third stage? It would be easier to ascend to the heavens than to master it. It required both talent and luck.

  It must be understood that even Daoist Three Purities was only capable of dividing himself into the Three Pure Ones. As for the Lord Buddha, he only had his five major clones! The second level of this technique immediately allowed for the creation of eighteen clones that were as strong as the original. This…this was absolutely unearthly.

  “Let’s see what the second technique holds.”

  Ning once more filled the stele with his divine power. Instantly, the information pertaining to the second technique began to leak into his mind.

  The second technique was named the [Nine Bug Solutions].

  This was an extremely mysterious and marvelous method for cultivating bug-type beasts. Ning now understood why Youngflame Freak had been able to cultivate and rear such powerful bugs. Everyone in the Three Realms thought that Youngflame Freak had received a particular expert’s legacy, as there were quite a number of experts who specialized in rearing powerful bug-type beasts. Since Youngflame Freak’s skills in raising bugs wasn’t excessively amazing, no one paid much attention to him.

  But what the outside world didn’t know was that the issue was that Youngflame Freak was too weak and didn’t have access to enough treasures and materials, which was why he didn’t have the chance to rear any powerful bugs at all.