by RWX
Whoosh.
Ning could sense that the entirety of his Jindan region had been converted into primordial chaos. His Dao-tree was more than sixty thousand meters tall, and it was able to stabilize the entire region. A large amount of Chaos Immortal energy had taken form as well.
“This feels wonderful.” Ning could sense his soul rapidly increasing in power thanks to it being nourished by his Chaos Immortal energy.
“Mmmm. I’ve already made my breakthrough as a Ki Refiner. Time to break through as a Fiendgod Body Refiner as well.”
Ning was now at such an incredibly high level of insight that he was able to easily sense that every single cell in his body was filled with an urgent desire to transform and become stronger.
Boom!
……
Things had just started to calm down in the outside world, and the flow of chaos energy had finally started to stabilize. All of a sudden, the chaos energy began to pulsate wildly once more as an enormous amount of it was drawn into the Allgod Estate.
“Eh?”
“Is that…”
The faces of Arroyo, Fukai, and Boneplate all tightened.
“It seems he simultaneously made his breakthrough as a Ki Refiner and as a Fiendgod Body Refiner,” Arroyo said coldly. Ki Refiners generally found it somewhat easier to make their breakthroughs, while Fiendgod Body Refiners found it a bit more difficult. Arroyo himself had first broken through to become a Chaos Immortal, then spent ten thousand more years in training before breaking through to become a World God as well. Ning simply had too high a level of insight into the Dao, which was why he was able to easily break through as both a Chaos Immortal and as a World God.
“So what if he did? He still has to die.” Fukai’s eyes were filled with a murderous look. Since Ji Ning had made his breakthrough, he was sure to come out soon.
* * *
Book 26, Chapter 7 - Leaving the Castrum Divinitus
With the Sword World serving as his core, Ji Ning began to remold his divine power.
His divine power began to undergo a fundamental change, transforming him into a higher level of existence.
Boom!
Ning’s entire body suddenly burst apart, then instantly solidified into a total of a hundred jewels. These were jewels formed from divine power – godgems! A flood of chaos energy surrounded these jewels, causing more and more godgems to rapidly form.
The Dao-tree was the core of a Chaos Immortal.
The godgems formed the core of a World God.
But of course, if one was a dual refiner one would have both types of cores.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! One godgem after another continued to coalesce. Every single godgem had to be infused with sufficient insights regarding the Dao of the Sword, but the insights within each jewel had to be different. Thus, the more insights into the Dao of the Sword you had, the more godgems you would create.
Newly ascended cultivators who broke through would be able to generate a few hundred godgems.
Cultivators who had stabilized their foundations would generally have a thousand godgems and be ‘standard’ World Gods.
Upon gaining a total of ten thousand godgems, one would be at the level of an elite World God.
At thirty-six thousand gems, one would have reached full mastery as a World God.
In the end, Ning formed a total of exactly 21,192 godgems. This was quite comparable to the height of his Dao-tree, and was what Ning had expected. Thanks to the fact that he had fused seventeen clones together, the divine power contained within his godgems was slightly purer than the divine power ‘ordinary’ World Gods had.
“Condense!”
The twenty-one thousand godgems that were scattered throughout the area instantly began to surge to a central location, joining together into a human figure that had the form of a white-robed youth.
“While I’m making my breakthrough, I have an unlimited amount of chaos energy at my disposal. I need to hurry up and use it to fill up my azureflower region.” The azureflower seal appeared on Ning’s forehead as he sent his senses into the azureflower region within his sea of consciousness.
A single azure flower was fluttering within his sea of consciousness. It now looked even more dazzlingly beautiful than it had before.
Within this azure flower was the vast azureflower region. As Ning poured his divine power and his Immortal energy into it, both were absorbed and converted into that misty energy. The power of the mist took Ning’s breath away; it was now unfathomably more powerful than it had been when he had been an Elder God.
A short while later, the mist condensed to form a single liquid drop. Ning could now sense a slight pressure weighing down upon his azureflower region.
When he had been an Elder God, he had only been able to manifest a maximum of thirty-six drops of this azureflower liquid.
“I wonder how many I’ll be able to manifest now.” Ning continued to condense more and more drops of azureflower liquid, pouring all of his divine power and Immortal energy into the azureflower region as he furiously drew upon the chaos energy of the outside world.
When one was making a breakthrough, one would have the ability to directly draw upon virtually limitless amounts of chaos energy! The cultivator making the breakthrough would be able to swallow as much of it as he could handle. When he could no longer absorb any more, everything would naturally come to an end.
“What is taking so long?”
“How can Ji Ning be absorbing so much chaos energy?”
Su Youji, Dragonbinder, the formation-spirits of the Allgod Estate, Arroyo, Fukai… all of them were uniformly stunned at the amount of time Ji Ning was spending in absorbing chaos energy.
However, what they didn’t realize was that the chaos energy was entering Ning’s body at an unprecedented rate. He had actually absorbed far more of it than they had imagined.
108 drops!
This was the new limit, the maximum number of azureflower drops which the azureflower region could hold. Every single drop of ‘water’ contained an utterly overwhelming amount of energy; Ning had to use up nearly his entire reserve of divine power and Immortal energy in order to create a single drop. In other words, the amount of energy the azureflower region had just absorbed was a hundred times as much energy Ning would’ve ‘normally’ absorbed after breaking through to become a World-level cultivator!
But of course, there were some cultivators who deliberately slowed down the energy absorption process when they made their breakthroughs, so as to get a better feeling for the overall process. Thus, while Ji Ning was furiously absorbing as much chaos energy as he could, Su Youji and the others all merely thought that he was just taking a long time. They didn’t truly understand how much chaos energy he had sucked in.
“This feeling…”
Ning stood there within the Hall of Swords, a stunned look on his face. He lightly balled his fist together. BOOM! He could sense that he had enough power in his fingers to effortlessly crush a chaos star to pieces.
“This is ridiculous. How can this azureflower mist energy be so powerful?”
Ning had merged seventeen of the clones created by the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods]. Now that he had broken through become a World God, he had the power of a half-step Daolord. And yet, when Ning activated the power of the azureflower mist energy his body underwent an utterly earthshaking transformation.
When the power of the azureflower mist energy filled his body, his body greedily drank it all in like a parched land drinking in the rain after a long drought. The azureflower mist energy filled him with vitality and life energy, giving his entire body such a terrifying amount of strength that Ning himself was frightened by it.
“With the azureflower mist energy reinforcing my body, I should be as fast as a Samsara Daolord,” Ning mused. “Where did these Nine Chaos Seals come from? They are ridiculously powerful!”
This technique was not only of great benefit to Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals, it was of just as much bene
fit to World-level cultivators. This technique was simply unearthly. Someone who had mastered the [Thousand Bodies Sutra] would have a body comparable to a newly ascended Samsara Daolord… and Ning’s azureflower seal was just as marvelously effective as that sutra!
“Daoist Three Purities said that he found it within the primordial chaos. It seems that I should send my Primaltwin to wander through the primordial chaos surrounding the Three Realms. I wonder if I can find the original Nine Chaos Seal.” Ning had a feeling that these nine ridiculously powerful chaos seals had to have extraordinary backgrounds. His Primaltwin was already located in the primordial chaos outside the Three Realms and had nothing to do. He might as well send it out exploring.
In the instant that he made his breakthrough, his Primaltwin had also made its breakthrough. It now was also supported and reinforced by azureflower mist energy, giving it a level of power that was extremely close to that of Ning’s true body. Its only weakness lay in the fact that it didn’t have an Eternal weapon.
“I can’t get too cocky though. The endless primordial chaos is filled with many mysteries. The [Thousand Bodies Sutra], the Nine Chaos Seals… although such incredibly powerful techniques are very rare, they still exist. I was lucky enough to acquire one but I can’t let myself become too arrogant. As the saying goes, there’s always a taller mountain somewhere. Daolord Allgod was someone who was capable of slaying Eternal Emperors!” Ning quickly calmed down and quelled his excited emotions.
There were too many freakishly powerful figures in the endless primordial chaos. Hell, the entire race of Aeonians actually devoured Samsara Daolords for sustenance! As for Daolord Badlands, he was the number three Numerancy expert of the entire Endless Territories.
There were many might figures of simply incredible power. Ning might have a bit of power now, but compared to them he still wasn’t qualified to behave in a prideful, arrogant manner.
Hiss. Pop. A pool of lava bubbled and boiled, and next to it sat Su Youji. The Flamefairy was still waiting.
“That should’ve been Master making his breakthrough. He should be coming out soon, right?” Su Youji was waiting eagerly.
“Su Youji.” A figure suddenly appeared, materializing directly above the lava. It was the nearly-nude, barefoot maiden. “Come, it is time to leave.”
“Was it Master who made the breakthrough?” Su Youji asked.
“Yes.” The maiden nodded.
Space twisted and distorted around her as she was forcibly teleported away once more.
“Eh?” Everything around her became blurred and distorted. By the time it all came back into focus, Su Youji realized that she had returned to the great plaza in front of the Castrum Divinitus, the one which had held the trial of the Samsara Grinders.
“Master.” Su Youji immediately saw the white-robed youth who stood nearby.
Ning was just standing there, a sword on his back and an mighty aura of tremendous power radiating from his body. This was the aura of a World God.
“Congratulations, Master!” Su Youji said delightedly, “The Allgod Estate truly was a blessed place for the two of us. We both broke through to the World level here.”
“Yes, it truly was a blessed place.” Ning couldn’t help but think back to the Hall of Swords and its thousands of sword-arts. That place truly had been of tremendous assistance to him.
“Senior.” Ning looked at the nearby formation-spirit maiden. Although the formation-spirit didn’t have a cultivation base, it had lived for far longer than even many Samsara Daolords had. Here within the Allgod Estate, it could probably wipe out most Samsara Daolords with ease. For him to respectfully address the spirit as ‘senior’ was just proper.
“Please send me and Su Youji to the Grove of Monoliths within the Fog Sea,” Ning said.
“You are going to go to the Fog Sea first?” The maiden was puzzled.
“Yes.” Ning nodded.
“Mm. You might as well go solidify your foundation in the Fog Sea, I suppose.” The maiden nodded. “Go ahead.” After speaking, she waved a finger and caused space to twist and distort around Ji Ning and Su Youji. It was like a whirlpool had formed around them, swallowing them up and causing them to disappear.
……
Mist billowed everywhere. This was the Fog Sea region of the Allgod Estate.
A series of spatial waves suddenly rippled out from a desolate patch of land, followed by Ji Ning and Su Youji appearing out of nowhere.
“Mm.” Ning could clearly sense the ripples generated by the nearby Mirrorsnow Painting. He couldn’t help but laugh. “That bugbeast is still hiding within the Grove of Monoliths. It has been several thousand years, but he remains hidden there.”
The Grove of Monoliths was a dangerous place, but Ning no longer feared it. The main reason he had come to the Allgod Estate was to acquire the Mirrorsnow Painting, after all!
“You scared that bugbeast witless, Master. If it hadn’t been for World God Foxblaze and his friend accosting us, the bugbeast probably would’ve died long ago. It knows we have a method to track it, so of course it is unwilling to leave the Grove,” Su Youji said.
* * *
Book 26, Chapter 8 - The Battle in the Grove of Monoliths
“Come, let’s go to the Grove of Monoliths.” Ji Ning laughed as he began to walk towards the Grove.
“Are we really going there, Master?” Su Youji was rather worried. She had started to grow a bit nervous as soon as she had heard Ning ask the formation-spirit girl to teleport them straight to the Fog Sea. The Grove was one of the truly dangerous parts of the Fog Sea, and even supreme World Gods would only have a decent chance at best to escape from that place alive. It truly was a deadly place to venture into.
“Yes.” Ning glanced at Su Youji, then smiled. “But you won’t be needed for this battle. Just go into the estate-world when the battle begins. If you stay by my side, I’ll be distracted because I would need to protect you.”
Ning’s words were quite simply and ordinary, but Su Youji could sense the absolute self-confidence and the absolute dominance inherent in those words.
Her master had just broken through to become a World God, yet already possessed such incredible faith in himself?
Su Youji nodded slowly. “Alright. I’ll listen to you, Master. I still hope that you’ll be careful in your journey through the Grove.” She stared very carefully at Ning as she spoke, trying to find some clues from his aura regarding his current level of strength. Ning’s aura was that of a World God’s, but it didn’t seem as though there had been any other major changes.
Oh. One change was that Ning seemed calmer than before. Even though he was in a dangerous place, he seemed completely calm and unflappable.
“Master, why are you carrying that sword on your back?” Su Youji suddenly noticed the biggest difference. In the past, Ning would instantly materialize his sword when entering combat. He never kept it on his back before.
“I’m training,” Ning said.
“Training?” Su Youji was puzzled. How could carrying a sword on your back be considered training? Still, she didn’t ask any more questions.
Ning was carrying the Eternal weapon ‘Violetjewel’ on his back. By staying in contact with it at all times, he was able to better familiarize himself and attune himself to the quintessence sword-intent hidden within the sword’s core at all times. He was attuned to it every day and every night
It must be understood that if a mortal carried a blade with him at all times to the point of holding it when sleeping, that mortal would also be able to develop an extremely terrifying saber-art.
Habits such as this were quite important. Ning wanted to be attuned to the quintessence sword-intent at all times, as this would allow him to comprehend it more quickly.
Right now, Violetjewel was the strongest weapon which Ning had!
The fourth stance of the [Nameless] sword-art, ‘Horizon’s Edge’, was on the same level as the second stance of the [Quintessence Sword-Intent], the ‘Allgod�
�� stance. If Ning used a different sword to execute these two stances, they would be on par with each other in power. However, because the Allgod stance was developed based on the quintessence sword-intent within Violetjewel, it would be much stronger when Ning actually used Violetjewel and its quintessence core. When Ning used Violetjewel to execute the two stances the difference was actually quite great, with the Allgod stance capable of unleashing several times as much power.
“You have to be able to protect yourself on your path of cultivation. Otherwise, you’ll die an early death. I’ve now gained insight into both the [Nameless] sword-art and the [Quintessence Sword-Intent]. For now, I should favor the [Quintessence Sword-Intent]. It will let me unleash greater power in battle for now.” Although Ning was able to estimate how strong he had become, he didn’t know exactly how strong that was.
Only through battle would he be able to truly ascertain how strong he had grown.
“The Grove of Monoliths…” Ning stared towards a distant, fog-shrouded monolith that had been planted into the ground.
“Stay prepared. Have Blacksun and Wilddog do the same. All three of you should be ready to be summoned by me at a moment’s notice,” Ning said.
“Yes, Master. Be careful, Master.” Su Youji had a worried look on her face.
Ning chuckled, then waved his hand and collected her into his estate-world. He then turned and headed off by himself towards the Grove of Monoliths, a small smile playing on his lips.
Enormous monoliths were planted throughout the Grove of Monoliths, with tens thousand of them having been planted in total. Quite a few of them had powerful bugbeasts coiling atop them.
As for Ning, he strolled into the Grove as though he was entering his own private garden.
An avian beast with bright red claws was currently coiled around the top of a giant monolith that was a few hundred kilometers away from Ning. The creature’s eyes were shut in slumber, and every so often a few streams of fire would flick out from its nostrils as it exhaled, with the streams of fire swirling around an area of a hundred meters. As Ning moved towards the creature, he could sense it open its eyes. Its two eyes were filled with a cold, murderous look in them as it stared at the human cultivator who had trespassed on its territory.
