by RWX
To rely on slowly exhausting his foes required him to spend decades for each True God and True Immortal.
But now, he could fight them head-on! Things would be much faster than before.
“Are you willing to submit?” Ning looked at the True God prisoner.
The True God prisoner returned to his emaciated, skinny form. Lowering his head, he gritted out the words, “I am willing.”
* * *
Book 21, Chapter 32 - An Unexpected Surprise
Ji Ning first soulscoured him, then took away his treasures. Of course…he gave the True God some spirit-pills as well. Due to their length battle, this True God had used up quite a bit of his divine power; if he wasn’t given enough spirit-pills, his life probably wouldn’t last for much longer. Although there was no way to replenish his divine power, replenishing his Immortal energy would also suffice for him to sustain his life.
There were relatively few Ki Refiners who also trained as Fiendgod Refiners, but almost every single Fiendgod Body Refiner was also a Ki Refiner; the only question was how talented they were in that respect. Subhuti, Daoist Three Purities, Tathagata, and many others were all born as True Gods, and they eventually trained to become Daofathers of the Great Firmament as Ki Refiners.
Through the use of spirit-pills, these prisoners would be able to live a very, very long time. Right now, they only used up energy to keep themselves alive, after all; their energy expenditures were quite low.
“It seems that it is unlikely that I’ll find what I need from the memories of these prisoners,” Ning mused to himself. “Still, it makes sense. I’ve already acquired many techniques from World God Northrest. Given what I already have, it is quite unlikely that a prisoner of Pangaea will be able to provide me with a nice surprise. Still, I won’t give up hope, no matter how faint it is.”
Different chaosworlds would give birth to different civilizations. Perhaps some of them would produce unique techniques of their own. With the Endwar nigh, Ning naturally wanted to seize every chance he could find to grow more powerful.
One had to remember that the prisonworld itself had been located in the hands of someone as weak as Youngflame Freak. The prisoners of Pangaea were far more powerful than Youngflame Freak; perhaps one of them might’ve had a great stroke of fortune in the past and acquired certain special treasures or unique abilities.
Whoosh. Ning landed atop an island within a placid lake. With a wave of his hand, he caused the jade shrine to descend upon the island as well as many stone steles. Finally, the enormous goldstar beads plummeted like meteors to land on the island as well.
Ning stepped into the jade shrine, then sat down in the lotus position atop the prayer mat. He stilled his mind, beginning to mentally go through his recent battles and experiences.
Every single battle had to be analyzed with great care. He had to pull the experience he needed out of them and use it to improve himself.
There were only so many True Gods and True Immortals in the prisonworld; after fighting all of them, Ning would no longer be able to find any new opponents. Thus, he had to value every battle and opponent.
Ning spent more than ten days meditating on his insights, supported by the goldstar beads and the stone sword-steles. After ten days, he had gained all that he could, and so Ning put away the treasures and once more transformed ino a streak of black lightning, flying towards the next True God.
Battle. Meditation. Battle. Meditation…
It became a regular pattern!
Ning gained experience from every single battle, allowing him to further perfect his sword-arts. However, upon encountering the fifth True God prisoner, Ning suffered a sudden, unexpected loss.
“Die.”
The tall, ugly, skinny old man’s six arms all rapidly expanded in length as he sent his six claws tearing towards Ning from multiple directions. His claw-arts were unfathomably strange, and Ning’s body was covered with blood. Just now, he had been able to withstand the first wave of attacks but his body had been ripped open. In the face of this terrifying opponent, it seemed that the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] wasn’t going to be very useful.
“Mirrors of the Heavens!” The battered Ning immediately willed it, and the skies above him became filled with ancient copper mirrors. The 3600 mirrors hung in the air, blocking the impending claw attacks and buying Ning just a tiny bit of time.
Swoosh!
Ning hurriedly used the [Ninehorn Lightning Serpent] technique to dodge more than a thousand kilometers away, leaving the jail ‘cell’ region.
“What a terrifying True God Ultrafish. It seems that the information I gained from soulscouring the other True Gods and True Immortals wasn’t completely correct.” Ning stood outside the restrictive formation, filled with terror at the close call. This foe’s claw-arts were absolutely terrifying; Ning had been badly injured in their very first clash, and the only reason he had been able to survive was because his own sword-arts were formidable as well. Otherwise, he would’ve instantly been ripped apart into tiny pieces.
Ning didn’t just pick foes randomly; there was a plan behind it. He had soulscoured many prisoners and thus he knew a fair amount of information regarding the many True Gods and True Immortals of Pangaea.
Ning had mentally divided these True Gods and True Immortals into three different types.
The first type was comparable to an ordinary Daofather of the Three Realms.
The second type was comparable to a elite Daofather of the Three Realms.
The most powerful type was close to overlord-class Daofathers in power.
Most of these True God and True Immortal prisoners were at a fairly low level of insight into the Dao, with very few having gained insight into the Heavenly Daos. This was why most of them were merely comparable to ordinary Daofathers! Some, by relying on powerful divine abilities that were as dominating as Ning’s own [Starseizing Hand], were able to unleash the power of a elite Daofather. And some were like True God Ultrafish.
“True God Ultrafish…in the memories of the other True Gods and True Immortals, he was supposedly quite an ordinary True God with very ordinary divine abilities.” Ning mused to himself, “I didn’t expect that he would’ve reached the fifth stage in abyssforce; in terms of power, he should be comparable to a elite Daofather now.”
Abyssforce wasn’t that powerful in attacking, relatively speaking. If Ultrafish had reached the fifth stage in an offensively oriented type of power like swordforce, Ning probably would’ve been completely destroyed in their first exchange.
It really was true that True God Ultrafish’s life experiences and luck had been average, resulting in him not being able to acquire any particularly powerful divine abilities. Otherwise, if he was able to use them in concert with his fifth-stage abyssforce, he would absolutely be close to an overlord-class Daofather in power.
“I need to be more careful,” Ning mused to himself. “Although I do have the intelligence I gained from soulscouring those prisoners, they’ve all been trapped here for a very long period of time; it isn’t strange that some of them may have made breakthroughs. Mm…in the future, each time I fight someone, I need to first use [Three Heads, Six Arms]; just now, if I had used that technique, I wouldn’t have suffered so badly.”
Ning had been so caught off-guard by the suddenly, unexpected danger that he didn’t even have the time to activate the [Ninehorn Lightning Serpent] technique, to say nothing of [Three Heads, Six Arms].
[Three Heads, Six Arms] allowed him to manifest two more heads and four more arms with his divine power. This meant it needed time to activate, albeit just a tiny bit of time. By comparison, activating the [Starseizing Hand] was so fast as to be nearly instantaneous, requiring just a thought.
“Ahahaha…kid, is that all you have? And you want to make me submit?” The tall, skinny old man laughed in an ugly manner. “You ran pretty fast just now, and your mirrors are quite bizarre as well. Otherwise, you would’ve lost your little life. You should feel lucky that you ma
naged to witness my claw-arts and survive to tell the tale.”
“True God Ultrafish.” Ning actually chuckled. “Very good. Yet another powerful opponent for me.”
“Opponent?” The skinny old man laughed coldly, “You want to use me as a way to train yourself? Hmph. Careful that you don’t die from it.”
“I’ll be back.” Ning turned, transforming into a black lightning streak that quickly flew away.
“Hmph.” The tall, skinny old man watched coldly as Ning left. After Ning departed, he finally frowned “This Overseer has a pretty Immortal energy aura, but his divine power’s aura is clearly weaker than mine. Just now, I actually wasn’t able to kill him in one blow, and his sword-arts really were quite fast, even faster than my claw-arts. Was that a sword-art that has surpassed the Heavenly Daos? Where did he learn such a thing?”
……
Ning felt happy whenever he encountered a powerful opponent. He could sense that he was continuously improving, and that he was gaining more and more insights into the sword-arts left behind by World God Northrest.
Ning continued his voyage through the prisonworld, battling True Gods all the way. Some True Gods, Ning could defeat. Some, Ning could just barely fight to a standstill. Whenever Ning encountered foes like these, he would immediately leave after a short battle. He would come back for them later.
There were also some who could completely suppress Ning in strength. In fact, there were some like True God Ultrafish who could very nearly kill Ning.
As for the most absolutely, monstrously talented True Gods who were comparable to Elders Gods or overlord-class Daofathers in strength…Ning didn’t even dare to touch them. He didn’t have an Envoy on him right now; fighting such an opponent would be like courting death.
Of course, if he chose to focus on long-range attacks using his Daofather-level energy with his [Brightmoon] sword-art, he would definitely be able to match a elite Daofather in power. But Ning’s goal here was to temper his sword-arts, which was why he focused on close combat, which his weakness right now.
Whoosh.
The True God’s body was split in half and knocked flying away. Far off in the distance, the two halves joined together into a new whole.
“I lost.” Yet another True God bent the knee to Ji Ning.
Ning reached out with his hand, placing it atop the True God’s head. The True God did not try to fight back.
Ning quickly flipped through this person’s memories, discarding all the useless ones in search of something that would benefit him. Although none of the previous soulscours had proved fruitful, Ning had never given up. So long as there was even a hint of a chance, he would continue in his current path.
“Eh?” Ning suddenly saw a seemingly ordinary memory, but was instantly stunned by it. Then…he revealed a look of joy.
“A Heavengazer Tower of Radiance?” Ning murmured to himself. “A treasure like this actually exists? How marvelous. The chaos-kingdom of Pangaea truly does have a much more powerful foundation than that of the Three Realms.” Ning’s pulserate began to quicken.
Heavengazer Towers were a type of Chaos treasure…and the type which Ning desperately needed right now. In truth, while soulscouring his defeated opponents, Ning had discovered quite a few treasures which he desired, but none of them existed within the prisonworld.
The Heavengazer Tower’s owner, however…was imprisoned right here inside the prisonworld!
* * *
Book 21, Chapter 33 - Five Years Later
What did Ji Ning need the most right now?
He was in desperate need of more time!
His talent was beyond dispute. Even as a youth, Patriarch Lu and Subhuti had favored him. After experiencing so many things, he had only become an even more outstanding figure. An Immortal cultivator’s talent wasn’t something that was set in stone; it could change and transform as he grew up and experienced all sorts of events. Some might regress, while others might soar to the heavens and become increasingly dazzling.
Clearly, Ning was the type to become more and more dazzling…but even the most monstrous of geniuses needed time to grow!
Treasures that could change the rate at which time flowed…yes, they existed in the Three Realms. The Grand Xia Emperor, for example, had been able to use the Brightmoon Diagram of the Mountains and Rivers to change the flow of time within it! But this sort of temporal change used up an enormous amount of energy, even though the magic treasure itself was helping to facilitate it. Although the Xia Emperor was a Pure Yang True Immortal, he was only able to allow some weak Wanxiang-level children to experience a different rate of time. He wasn’t capable of doing the same for Celestial Immortals.
Ning was an Empyrean God and True Immortal. To change the rate of time for him…even Subhuti and Daoist Three Purities would feel a headache if they had to come up with such an idea.
If Mother Nuwa was still around, she would be able to do it.
Mother Nuwa had created the Six Paths of Reincarnation. Time flowed at a much, much faster rate than normal in the region around the Bridge of Despair and the Six Paths of Reincarnation! Countless souls flowed into the place, but time continued to flow through the area at a terrifying pace without the need for any Immortals or Fiendgods to use up their energy to maintain it. This was because the Six Paths of Reincarnation were made perfectly; they used up very little energy, and the amount of energy they absorbed from the outside world was more than enough to sustain themselves.
But the Six Paths of Reincarnation were a formation!
The Heavengazer Tower of Radiance was a magic treasure!
Inside the Heavengazer Tower, time was stably maintained at a rate that was ten times faster than that of the outside world. Ten years would pass inside for every year that passed outside. This was an extremely stable mechanism, and there was no need for any outside sources of energy. The treasure itself was a stable spacetime dimension of its own. Even True Gods, Daofathers, and World Gods could go inside it, and time would still flow at ten times the normal right.
In addition…
This magic treasure could also be used to accelerate the speed of time even further! However, if one wanted to go beyond the ‘base’ of ten times normal speed, one would have to use up some Immortal energy. In addition, the more powerful the user, the more energy would be used up in speeding up time for cultivation.
“A stable spacetime treasure,” Ning marveled. “My master Subhuti was able to establish the Crescent world in a different fold of spacetime, but not even he would be able to forge such a stable spacetime treasure such as this.”
Stable spacetime treasures were far too difficult to make. This was the only one Ning had ever heard of, and it was a Chaos treasure.
More than anything else, Ning needed time. The Heavengazer Tower was able to speed up time by a factor of ten, and if Ning was willing to use up some of his energy, it would be able to speed up time even faster. Most importantly of all…this treasure existed within the prisonworld. A True God was carrying it!
“True God Shiyu?” Ning frowned.
The possessor of the Heavengazer Tower was True God Shiyu.
This True God, however, could be said to be the most terrifyingly powerful True God in the entire prisonworld. Almost all of the True Gods and True Immortals imprisoned here knew of him, but very few knew that he was in possession of the Heavengazer Tower. Ning had soulscoured many True Gods and True Immortals, but he had only learned this bit of information now because the True God which Ning had just soulscoured had been one of True God Shiyu’s subordinates.
“He’s very hard to deal with. He’s clearly just a True God, but he once battled against Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals. If you factor in the Heavengazer Tower, he has a total of three Chaos treasures,” Ning mused to himself. “Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals…in the Three Realms, they would be considered overlords. In other words, he’s at a level of power which is close to that of an overlord-class expert.”
“
Exhausting his energy reserves? That won’t work either. He’s at a very high level of enlightenment; he’s one of the tiny handful of True Gods and True Immortals in the prisonworld who is able to draw energy from the primordial chaos,” Ning mused to himself.
One had to have a certain degree of insights into the Heavenly Dao of Primordial Chaos in order to be able to extract energy from it, but once this became possible, one would no longer have to worry about one’s energy being used up.
All Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals were capable of this, but only a tiny number of True Gods and True Immortals were. True God Shiyu, however, was obviously one of them.
“What should I do? How should I deal with him?” Ning pondered to himself. “I put the Starseizing Manor in the Crescent world…but even if I went back there to gather the people I need for the Rahu Formation, I’ll still be significantly weaker than someone of the overlord level of power.”
Ning had fought against an overlord-class expert before. Daomother Devilhand, using just one hand, had been able to defeat Ning while he was in command of an Envoy. But of course, her attacks were considered extremely formidable even amongst other overlord-class Daofathers.
As for True God Shiyu, he was only able to stay alive in the face of attacks from Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals; in terms of raw power, he probably wasn’t much stronger than Ning had been when controlling the Envoy.
“Perhaps, when my swordforce reaches the fifth stage, I’ll have a chance of beating him,” Ning mused to himself.
……
Ning continued to battle his way through the prisonworld. He no longer solely fought against True Gods; he even began to act against the True Immortals as well.
He was constantly gaining insights into the mysteries behind the sword-arts left behind by World God Northrest in the hopes of reaching the fifth stage of heartforce as soon as possible.
However…
