Desolate Era

by RWX

  The critical part of training in this technique lay in the word ‘solitary’. Once one actually began to cultivate in it, one would sit there without moving whatsoever, just like a solitary, withered tree. Only then would one be able to find that necessary spark of insight. This technique generally needed a great deal of time.

  “The second method is to use Violetjewel,” Ning mused to himself. “Violetjewel was the most important weapon owned by World God Northrest, and it is powerful enough that it would cause Chaos Immortals and World Gods to go crazy over it. According to what World God Northrest said, so long as I can repair even just the surface layer of the weapon, its power will vastly surpass that of any Chaos treasures. If I can use this weapon, my power will dramatically increase as well.”

  “By comparison…my chances of repairing Violetjewel in time are probably better.” Ning nodded to himself.

  He had already repaired the surface of Violetjewel by roughly 20%. Now, he had reached the fifth stage of swordforce. Although he was unable to defeat True God Shiyu, Shiyu was known to be one of the most powerful and most troublesome Gods of the entire prisonworld. The other True Gods should be much easier to deal with.

  He could sweep through all of them, acquire their treasures, and then use them to repair Violetjewel’s surface layer.

  “Then let’s begin.”

  After pondering for a moment, Ning flew out of the gorge in the form of a black lightning serpent, disappearing into the horizon.

  True God Shiyu watched as Ning left, a cold look in his eyes. “He wants to take my treasures? I have three Chaos treasures on me. If I didn’t have a few tricks up my sleeves, others would’ve taken those treasures from me long ago. Ugh…damn the fact that I’m imprisoned here and have nowhere to run.” Aside from being skilled in defense, he was also skilled in fleeing…but alas, he was now shackled and had nowhere to run.

  As for Ning, he began to act against the True Gods and True Immortals of the prisonworld on a large scale. There were far fewer True Gods and True Immortals here than there were Empyrean Gods and Celestial Immortals. Thus, Ning prized every one of them. After every battle, he would immediately meditate on any new insights he felt he had gained, so as to gain the most benefit possible from these battles.

  * * *

  Book 21, Chapter 37 - The Bloodlotus Blooms

  Some True Gods and True Immortals were much weaker than Ji Ning. They only had the power of an ordinary Daofather, and so Ji Ning was able to easily defeat them. He didn’t even gain many insights from battling them, only spending a few hours in meditation afterwards.

  After battling the more powerful ones or the ones who had some special abilities, Ning might spend seven or eight days carefully reflecting on their battle.

  Twelve months after Ning began his sweep through the prisonworld. He was within a region filled with dark fog where a True Immortal was kept prisoner. Boom! Boom! Boom! The sounds of a major battle could be heard booming out from within the fog, causing the fog itself to roil and roll about.

  Within the fog.

  “Go!” The seemingly berserk violet-eyed woman pointed towards Ning, causing a sky filled with black light to shoot towards Ning

  Ning held his twin swords in his hands, slowly stepping through the air and advancing.

  He was in no rush to attack his opponent. He just slowly advanced through the air, giving his opponent plenty of time to attack him.

  Although collecting enough treasures to repair Violetjewel was important, his own personal skill and power was his true foundation of strength. He had to treat every battle against these True Gods and True Immortals seriously.

  Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Ning’s sword-light fluctuated in an unpredictable manner. He even used his attacking stance, ‘Shadowless’, to defend against all the enemy’s attacks. From this, one could tell how transcendent his sword-arts had become and how vastly superior he was compared to his foe.

  “Is that your ultimate attack?” Ning continued to stroll forward as he spoke.

  The violet-eyed woman’s face was ashen. She growled out, “Come back.”

  Whoosh. Instantly, the countless streaks of black light flew back to her and entered her body. Only then did her face recover a bit of color.

  “You are far more powerful than me. If you want me to submit, I’ll submit.” The violet-eyed woman came to this decision in a straightforward manner.

  “A hundred and ninety-two.” Ning nodded and murmured softly to himself.

  The violet-eyed woman was stunned. What did the Overseer mean by mumbling that number?

  “Alright.” Ning pondered for a moment. “I’ve swept through a hundred and ninety-two of the True Gods and True Immortals of the prisonworld. That’s more than half of them. That should be enough treasures to repair the surface layer of Violetjewel.”

  All the treasures he had acquired from the Celestial Immortals and Empyrean Gods here, combined with a few treasures from True Gods and True Immortals, had only been able to repair a fifth of the surface damage to Violetjewel.

  This time, he had collected far more treasures. It was most likely enough.

  “Time to give it a try.” Ning immediately made the decision to temporarily stop his campaign and instead go give repairing Violetjewel a try.

  But of course, before he went to repair Violetjewel, he still had to finish what he came here to do.

  Ning reached out with his hand, letting it rest upon the head of the violet-eyed woman. Ning was going to search through the memories of every single True God and True Immortal. Perhaps he might some information which might be of some help to him.

  ……

  Next to a beautiful lake.

  The white-robed youth, Ji Ning, landed on the ground next to it. With a wave of his hand, he caused the jade shrine to appear on the grassy banks of the lake. The enormous stone sword-steles landed next, followed by the 3600 enormous Goldstar Beads of the Heavens that surrounded everything.

  Ning then stepped into the jade shrine, seated himself on the prayer mat, then began his meditations.

  After each battle, he would carefully reflect on every single thing he had seen.

  Although he had decided to go repair Violetjewel after this battle, he still chose to first calmly meditate on the battle he had just experienced.

  Time slowly flowed on…

  Ning just sat there quietly in the lotus position. A full day later, he opened his eyes, rose to his feet, then walked outside the shrine.

  He was in quite a good mood right now. In the past year or so, his sword-arts had continued to slowly improve a bit, and he had now acquired enough treasures to be able to repair Violetjewel. With Violetjewel in hand, he would probably be at the overlord level of power. Even though he might a bit lacking compared to those elder figures who had long ago reached this level of power, the difference wouldn’t be as great as it had been in the past.

  “The Nine chaos Seals.” Ning’s gaze fell upon the nearby goldstar beads, each roughly ten meters tall right now. The goldstar beads were covered with the complicated flowing runes of the Nine Chaos Seals, which continued to change and transform with every moment in a pattern which was never repeated.

  Ning had a smile on his face, and he continued to look at the beads in quite a fine mood.

  “Eh?” Suddenly…

  Ning felt a tremor in his heart. He stared closely at the constantly changing runes.

  He stared unblinkingly at the runes for a full hour…and then he sat down on the grass and immediately shut his eyes.

  After sitting there meditating on the grass for nearly a day, Ning opened his eyes.

  “Arise.” Ning willed it.

  Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! The 3600 goldstar beads all rose into the air in a massive, dazzling, dense array. They hung high in the air like the stars in the sky. Ning’s powerful Immortal energy quickly filled every single goldstar bead. Then, he imposed his will upon them, causing them to rapidly transform. The aura of every single goldstar
bead began to grow in power. In fact, every single goldstar bead seemed to grow to become more powerful than top-grade Protocosmic spirit-treasures before the strengthening process ceased.

  “I’ve finally completely mastered the third chaos seal,” Ning murmured softly to himself.

  “Eh?”

  His subconscious had suddenly connected to a place that was infinitely distant from Ning. It was beyond space, beyond time, beyond distance itself. In the past, Ning had never sensed this place before. Now that he had mastered the third chaos seal, his powerful heartforce, assisted by the chaos seals, was allowing him to vaguely sense it.

  “Kill.”

  “Kill.”

  “Kill.”

  This was a place that was filled with an aura of boundless murder and death. It was infinitely far away from him, but just sensing the place caused Ning’s heart to shudder…and at the same time, the aura seemed to stir that killing intent that Ning had buried deep in his own heart, the killing aura that stemmed from his hatred of the Seamless Gate and his desire to kill the Godking.

  Ning’s eyes turned completely red upon being struck by this surge of killing intent. His veins began to protrude out from his body, which was trembling. Even with Ning’s skill in heartforce, it took a long time for him to calm down.

  What he didn’t know was that different people would experience different things upon mastering the third chaos seal. For example, when Ning had been roaming the mortal world, he had mastered the second chaos seal and gained insight into the workings of fate, causing him to become much more attumed to it. Now, his heart had become filled with a desire to kill, and his heartforce was also extremely strong, which was why he became attuned to the essence of slaughter.

  “Huff. Huff.” Ning panted as he slowly calmed down…but as he did, he became even calmer than before.

  He stared at the 3600 goldstar beads hovering in the air. At present, the goldstar beads…had already transformed into many closed blood-colored lotus buds.

  The thirty-six hundred blood-colored lotus buds hung there in the air, so beautiful as to inspire terror.

  “Condense.” Ning willed it. Instantly, the 3600 lotuses began to merge together, soon transforming into a total of thirty-six enormous blood-colored lotus buds.

  “Bloom,” Ning ordered.

  The thirty-six beautiful blood-colored lotus buds slowly began to bloom. Previously, they were absolutely beautiful, but once they bloomed…a boundless aura of murder and slaughter instantly spread out ine very direction.

  “The bloodlotus blooms only for the sake of slaughter.” Ning could sense how tremendously powerful the goldstar beads would be in the form of these bloodlotus flowers. The Goldstar Beads of the Heavens now had three ideal forms they could assume. The first was the ‘bead’ form which was the most ordinary and well-rounded. The second was the ‘mirror’ form which was well-suited for defense. The third was this ‘bloodlotus’ form which was perfectly suited for slaughter.

  The way in which the bloodlotus slaughtered was different from that of ordinary weapons.

  “These goldstar beads…although they were formed from valuable materials, the crystals that form from the energy left over after stars perish, it is the Nine Chaos Seals which gives them their true power and makes them truly valuable.” Ning understood this. The reason why he became more attuned to fate and could even sense that distant place of endless slaughter was because of these Nine Chaos Seals.

  “Daoist Three Purities’ ‘Immortal Slaying Sword Formation’ was derived from the seventh chaos seal. No wonder it is known as the number one killing formation of the Three Realms.”

  Ning stared at the bloodlotus flowers. His heart was filled with bellowing rage and murder, but he also felt strange, unnatural calm that he had never felt before.

  “Hm?” As he was absorbed in the special mental state that came with controlling the bloodlotus flowers, Ning could suddenly sense something special happening within his divine body. His divine body was absolutely perfect and flawless, with every single cell in his body being completely without blemishes. However…right now, Ning could vaguely sense that every single part of his body was filled with desire. An extremely powerful desire.

  It was…as though his body was starving.

  This sensation was very vague, and Ning could just barely feel it. But suddenly, a thought entered Ning’s mind. He murmured softly, “It is said in the [Solitary World God] that one needs to find a spark of inspiration from your own body in the midst of solitude. If you find it, you’ll be able to step into the True God level.”

  “It seems that my body was ready long ago. It has been starving…but in the past, I simply couldn’t sense it. I had no idea as to what I should do.”

  “But now…I’ve found it.”

  “I’ve found that spark.”

  Ning revealed a smile as he softly said these words to himself.

  * * *

  Book 22, Chapter 1 - Becoming a True God

  Ji Ning opened his eyes and looked at the beautiful bloodlotus flowers hovering in the air around him. Although their baleful aura filled the entire region, the aura was unable to disguise their beauty. Ning almost felt as though he could see a dazzlingly beautiful woman surrounded by that sea of blood. The woman’s face was the face of the woman he wished to see the most. She silently stood there, amidst the bloodlotus flowers, smiling at him.

  “Senior apprentice-sister…”

  Ning gently murmured these words to himself. He was silent for a moment, then waved his hand and took back the bloodlotus flowers.

  Then, Ning sat down in the lotus position and began to train in the [Solitary World God].

  Stillness.

  His heartrate began to slow down; in fact, it very nearly stopped. His blood flow began to stop as well. Ning just sat there, seeming to have become a solitary, withered tree. However, his senses were more acute than ever before.

  “My divine body…” Ning traced the sensations of starvation back to its source, finding the sense of hunger that permeated his entire body.

  “There we go.”

  “Time to begin.”

  Ning immediately initiated the technique for making the breakthrough.

  “Let the Dao of the Sword serve as the core.” Instantly, the divine power that permeated every single cell in Ning’s body began to change, transforming into countless tiny swords. Every single drip of divine power was in the shape of a sword, making it as though Ning’s entire body was composed of countless tiny swords. Every single tiny sword embodied the essence of a Grand Dao, the Dao of the Sword.

  When breaking through to become a True God, an Elder God, or a World God, there was one thing in common that was needed: A specific Dao had to be used as the core.

  Two identical sets of rocks. If one’s construction techniques were poor, they would result in a flimsy, easily destroyed building. But if one’s construction techniques were good, they would result in a building that would last for thousands of year.

  The principle was the same. If one wished to build a powerful divine body, one needed to use absolutely brilliant techniques. The trick here lay in the Dao that was used for the core.

  Take Ning, for example; as an Empyrean God, his divine body had reached the level of perfection long ago. He wasn’t able to make any further improvements whatsoever. However, to step into the higher realm of True Gods, he first had to have sufficiently pure divine power. His divine power had to more than a hundred times more pure than that of an ordinary Empyrean God, which meant that he would have to change even the core Dao which was the source of his divine power. When Ning had become an Empyrean God, his core Dao had been the Dao of Rainwater. Now, for the sake of breaking through to become a True God, Ning chose to use the Dao of the Sword as his core.

  In in the Three Realms, it was believed that there actually weren’t any ‘taboo’ Daos that could not be used as the core. Upon mastering a specific Heavenly Dao, one would generally use that Heavenly Dao as th
e core for becoming a Daofather.

  However…

  The techniques passed down by World God Northrest included many details notes within them.

  With each breakthrough to a new realm, the divine body would be remade anew and perfected. The core Daos used each time should not be contradictory ones! For example, if he had become an Empyrean God through using the Dao of the Inferno as his core, then when he became a True God he shouldn’t use the Grand Dao of the Waterdrop. If he did, the two Daos would interfere with each other. He would still be able to become a True God, but he would never have any chance of becoming an Elder God again.

  In the Three Realms, becoming a True God through cultivation was considered the apex of power; they naturally wouldn’t care about such a thing.

  However, some of the high-level cultivators within the endless primordial chaos had set their sights on greater heights. They learned from the wisdom of their elders, and so also set down rules of their own to ensure their successors would know which choices were taboo. For example, the Daos that you chose for making your breakthrough absolutely could not be Daos that repelled each other! Once that happened, the divine body would have an unstable foundation and it wouldn’t be able to advance much further.

  The element of water and the Dao of the Sword, however…one was an elemental Dao, while the other was an attacking Dao; there were no contradictions at all. Thus, there wouldn’t be any issues caused by choosing the two.

  If both Daos were elemental Daos, such as the Daos of Fire, Water, Metal, Earth, and Wood, there would be contradictions. The only question would be how serious the contradictions were.

  If both Daos were attacking Daos, such as the Daos of the Sword, the Saber, etc., there would also be contradictions.

  If the contradictions were minor, one would still eventually be able to become an Elder God, but becoming a World God would be much more difficult.

  If the contradictions were major, with the Daos being opposite-aligned, then even becoming an Elder God would be extremely difficult. As for becoming a World God, there would be no hope of that at all.