by RWX
……
Ning flew out of Armaments Gorge, feeling slightly regretful. “Winesage is weaker than me, but he found a Universe treasure willing to follow him… but even now, I’m still unable to take the Halfsword away. Ah, forget it, forget it. Haha.” Ning was fairly relaxed about this. His Northbow swords were lifeblood weapons which also helped him out significantly, after all.
By now, his six Northbow swords and the sword quintessence within them had also evolved alongside Ning reaching the fourth stage with his Omega Sword Dao, giving them an even deeper foundation than before.
“My Northbow swords aren’t THAT much weaker than Universe treasures by now.” Ning transformed into a streak of light, quickly arriving at the peak of a mountain within the Sword Palace. Moments later, an Immortal estate descended upon it.
This was where Ning had resided in the past. Now that he was back, he was going to take up residence here for now. “Help me send word to Hegemon Brightshore. Inform him that Darknorth has a trade he wishes to make,” Ning instructed his servant.
“Yes, Master,” the servant replied.
Within the Immortal estate. Ning was within one of the towers, gazing down at the beautiful Palace of the Sword while leaning against the railings.
“Darknorth.” A figure suddenly materialized next to him. It was a snow-robed, white-bearded old man with six curved horns on his head.
Ning turned and immediately bowed: “Darknorth greets you, Hegemon.”
Hegemon Brightshore looked at Ning. “You are quite bold. You know that Archon Silksnow and the Aeonians are both searching for you, and yet you dare to show your face here publicly?” Ning didn’t wish for his enemies to know that he had made a breakthrough, and so he was using the [Vitalis] art to modify his aura and ensure that it was identical to before the breakthrough.
“Hegemon, do you know why the Aeonians have been searching for me?” Ning smiled.
“I asked you previously, but you weren’t willing to explain in detail.” Hegemon Brightshore looked at Ning. “Ready to tell me?”
Ning nodded, then waved his hand and produced a fiery fruit within it.
Boom. Boom. Boom. The rumbling aura of the fruit was capable of pervading the hearts and souls of cultivators. Even at his current level, Ning felt his heartrate speed up slightly.
“Is that…?” Hegemon Brightshore’s eyes lit up. “Is that an aeonfruit?”
“Aeonfruit?” Ning was startled. Wasn’t this the mutated omnigeddon bloodfruit which had some of the Autarch’s blood within it?
“It seems you don’t really understand… which makes sense. Aeonfruits are far too rare and far too valuable,” Hegemon Brightshore said. “Aeonfruits are only available to the Aeonian race! The Aeonians view them to be as important as their very lives, and do not trade them to outsiders unless they have an extremely pressing need. Based on what I know, the Aeonians in a few other realmverses also have access to aeonfruits.”
Ning nodded slightly. Prior to the great war starting, Autarch Bolin had set up estate-worlds in quite a few realmverses. Most likely, after the battle concluded he had left behind a drop of Autarch’s blood within most of those estates for his Aeonians to acquire.
“However… none of the Aeonians in any of those realmverses are willing to trade them,” Hegemon Brightshore said. “I’ve heard of only three instances in which they were willing to trade aeonfruits, and in each case it involved something which the Aeonians were desperate to acquire as soon as possible.”
“Is this fruit truly that special?” Ning asked.
“They are fairly similar to omnigeddon bloodfruits, but they are more effective when used to create spirit-pills and medicine. As you are probably aware, a 30% increase in medicinal strength translates into a tenfold increase in value,” Hegemon Brightshore said. “A single aeonfruit is generally worth more than twenty omnigeddon bloodfruits. Right… so this means that the Aeonians have been searching for you because of this aeonfruit?”
* * *
Book 36, Chapter 7 - Success
“You stole their aeonfruits?” Hegemon Brightshore asked.
Ji Ning silently mused to himself, “I didn’t just steal their fruit, I uprooted their tree.” Still, Ning didn’t feel much sympathy or guilt towards the Aeonians. This was a race that delighted in devouring cultivators! He really had no idea why Autarch Bolin had created such a race of progeny.
“I wish to trade aeonfruits to you,” Ning said, “But I need certain materials.” As he spoke, he waved his hand. A vast list of characters appeared in the air next to him. These were the materials needed to master the first two stages of the [Lumisword Godwings]. Ning had viewed over three hundred Hegemonic legacies, and from them he had chosen this secret art as being the best match for his [Grand Diffraction Sword] art. He was planning to train in both secret arts at the same time. That way, when he used the Omega Sword Dao – Yin-Yang in the future, he would be able to use them together and further increase the power of this technique.
“The materials you need are all extremely valuable and rare.” Hegemon Brightshore frowned upon seeing them. These were materials for a Hegemonic secret art; of course they were rare!
Ning chortled: “That’s why I’m offering aeonfruits for them.”
“I’ll need half a year,” Hegemon Brightshore said. “I’ll also need fifteen aeonfruits.”
“Alright.” Ning accepted without haggling.
Hegemon Brightshore glanced at Ning, surprised, then laughed: “Darknorth, how many aeonfruits did you take from the Aeonians? They value every single of them highly, but it seems you were able to snatch away fifteen of them with ease. No wonder they are searching for you like crazy.”
“Not that many, actually,” Ning said.
“I have to remind you to be careful. Neither Archon Silksnow nor the Aeonians are easy enemies to face,” Hegemon Brightshore said. “I promised you to help you out once! If you are willing to trade me more aeonfruits, I’ll help you out a second time for ten more of them.”
Ning blinked. Ruthless. Absolutely ruthless. Ten?! The Aeonians were only able to harvest thirty-six aeonfruits every million chaos cycles. They were only created thanks to an Autarch’s blood!
“Very well.” Ning still smiled and nodded, but he murmured mentally to himself, “Oh, Hegemon… I’m afraid you won’t have that chance any longer. Neither Archon Silksnow nor the Aeonians are of any threat to me.”
……
The vast Sacred City of Silksnow was perpetually covered by drifting flakes of snow. At the very top of a towering palace within the city. A skinny, white-robed, white-haired man was standing in front of the railings, his long eyebrows fluttering in the wind. He stared off into the void of space, three Eternal Emperors behind him.
“Hmph.” Archon Silksnow was boiling with killing intent. “I’ve received word that Daolord Darknorth is currently hiding within the Brightshore Kingdom,” Archon Silksnow said coldly. “I don’t know if it is a Primaltwin or if he managed to revive himself somehow, but I’m absolutely not going to let him survive again.”
“He’s probably going to spend quite some time in the Brightshore Kingdom,” the red-haired, red-robed woman said hesitantly.
“There’s no way he’ll hide there forever. Sooner or later, he’ll come out. Daolords only live for 108,000 chaos cycles; he needs to go out adventuring, and he needs to attempt the Daomerge. There’s no way he’ll hide inside forever,” Archon Silksnow said.
“But where would he flee to?” The other Emperors were all hesitating. They felt that trapping Ning was going to be extremely difficult.
Archon Silksnow, however, felt quite confident: “Once he leaves the Brightshore Kingdom, there are two possibilities. The first is that he will go through one of the three spacetime tunnels as he leaves. The tunnels which Hegemon Brightshore personally established can send him a tremendous distance, and they lead to three different regions. The second possibility is that he’ll leave on his own power.”
“Very well.”
“Archon, it’ll be easy if you merely wish for us to watch the spacetime tunnel exits, but you’ll have to watch over the entire Brightshore Kingdom.” The three Emperors all felt rather worried.
“I have my own plans.” Archon Silksnow didn’t explain in detail. He had that damaged realmship, but it was in good enough shape that it even had a ship-spirit. The realmship was usable, it just wasn’t able to cover long distances; in fact, it couldn’t even match up to the distance Hegemon Brightshore could teleport through spacetime. Despite that, Archon Silksnow still didn’t dare to divulge the fact that he had it. He truly wanted to kill Ning and Ninedust so that he could repair it a bit further.
As soon as he moved close to the Brightshore Kingdom, he would be able to sense Ning’s location based on the resonance between the parts. If Ning wanted to slowly fly away… impossible!
“We’ll keep watch over the three spacetime tunnels and the area outside the Brightshore Kingdom. Daolord Darknorth… you have nowhere to run.” Archon Silksnow narrowed his oily green eyes, cold light flashing from them.
……
Ning, however, didn’t care at all. Nearly five months went by. Hegemon Brightshore visited quite a few places, finally acquiring all the materials which Ning needed.
Thankfully, Ning had only requested the materials needed for the first two stages of the [Lumisword Godwings]. If he wanted to fully master it, the materials needed would cost tens of time as much. The entire Flamedragon Realmverse probably didn’t have enough; he’d have to go elsewhere to slowly search for it.
“Lumisword Godwings.” Ning sat in the lotus position within a flat plains within his estate-world. Above his head hovered an absolutely dazzling pair of golden wings which radiated an aura of incomparable sword-ki.
The wings were spread out revealing countless feathers. Each feather radiated an absolutely staggering amount of power. The wings and the feathers were all formed by sword-light which had taken material form. Within Ning’s Jindan chaos region lay the actual golden wings, which were akin to a type of magic treasure. All the precious materials that had been consumed were used to forge this set of wings.
This pair of wings hung there within the Jindan chaos region. As Ning carefully molded and remolded it over and over again, a large number of materials were continuously consumed and transformed into feathers which flew into the wings.
As more time flowed on, the wings began to grow more and more complicated as well as larger in size. Clearly, its power was increasing as well. The Godwings above Ning’s head began to glow with absolutely dazzling light. Most likely, ordinary supreme Daolords who saw it would be so terrified their legs would turn to jelly.
The [Grand Diffraction Sword] and the [Lumisword Godwings] were somewhat different in nature. The [Grand Diffraction Sword] was rather unpredictable and ephemeral, almost like the waves of the sea in that it came crashing down upon foes in an endless cycle. Its power was spread out across countless streams of sword-ki. The [Lumisword Godwings], however, focused all of its power into that pair of wings.
The first scattered its power, the second condensed it. This was why Ning had determined that these were the two secret arts which would be most appropriate for him to use in forming his Yin-Yang Chaosworld.
“It truly is complicated. It really does require an extremely high level of insight into the Dao of the Sword.” This was an extremely complicated secret art. Ning had spent over thirty thousand years training in it… and if one factored in his usage of a temporal acceleration treasure, he had actually spent over three million years before succeeding! The complexity of this secret art was self-evident.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Up above the sea of diffracted light within Ning’s Jindan chaos region, a simple yet beautiful golden pair of golden wings could be seen flying about. Its power was now completely restrained and reserved, unlike before when it was plainly visible.
“I’ve finally mastered it. I’ve now mastered both of my secret arts; the [Grand Diffraction Sword] and the [Lumisword Godwings].” Ning revealed a look of delight.
“Time to test out their power.” Ning stood there on the plains, staring into the empty skies. With but a thought from him, a large amount of power began to flood out of his body and form a pair of golden wings in the air. The wings were absolutely dazzling, a veritable work of art, but they didn’t emanate any sword-ki at all.
A moment later, yet another flood of power surged out of his body. This time, a large amount of arcing sword-light appeared. Soon, the countless arcs of sword-light completely filled an area of tens of thousands of kilometers around Ning. They swept through each other, sometimes merging together and sometimes bouncing off each other as they flew about. As for the golden wings, they flew within this storm of sword-light with incredible speed. The golden wings flew more than ten times faster than Ning himself could fly. This was a level of speed which one could not achieve through ordinary movement alone.
Swish. Swish. Swish. The golden wings seemed to be present everywhere within the region. They were absolutely beautiful, yet also simple and plain without emanating the slightest hint of sword-ki at all. As they flew, however, they cut through everything in their path. It was so powerful that even Ning himself was a bit shocked by them.
“Yin-Yang Chaosworld.” Ning immediately controlled the two secret arts together, mixing Yin and Yang to manifest a world of his Sword Dao!
BOOM! The golden wings were like an exalted emperor, flying through every part of the region with abandon. Wherever they appeared, countless streams of arced sword-light surrounded them, and the two seemed to form a natural, perfect whole.
“If I then combine my Yin-Yang Chaosworld with my heartworld projection… any foes would probably be scared senseless even before I personally attacked! With this technique at my disposal, I’m no longer vulnerable to group attacks, no matter how many come at me!” Ning was quite delighted. His nine novessence arts actually hadn’t been a very good fit for his Omega Sword Dao – Yin-Yang, as they had been primarily elemental in nature. Using secret arts based on the Dao of the Sword was the most appropriate choice! As for the two secret arts Ning chose, one just so happened to be Yin-attribute while the other was Yang-attribute.
“Now that I’ve mastered my secret arts… it is time to attack.” That very day, Ning put away his Immortal estate. Then, under the watchful gazes of all the cultivators of the Sword Palace, he left by himself.
* * *
Book 36, Chapter 8 - Emperor Nightwell
“Palace Lord Darknorth.”
“Palace Lord.”
The various cultivators of the Twelve Kingdoms who Ji Ning passed by all called out to him with great respect. Soon, Ning reached the spacetime tunnels. Ning chose one of the three tunnels, then entered it and disappeared without a trace.
“Daolord Darknorth has already headed out. He’s heading towards the Flydust Star.” Some of the black-armored Daolords as well as the other cultivators began to spread the word. They didn’t know who was actually seeking this information, but given that Archon Silksnow and the Aeonians were both searching for Ning, they were naturally able to use the many channels available for them to accurately and quickly track Ning’s whereabouts.
……
In the void outside the Brightshore Kingdom. Archon Silksnow was standing guard, his white eyebrows fluttering. Suddenly, a hint of surprise appeared on his cold face. “The spacetime tunnel which Daolord Darknorth chose is actually the one which exits the closest to Silksnow City? Hmph… how clever. He intentionally chose the one which no one else would’ve suspected. Unfortunately for him, I’ve arranged for an Emperor to watch over all three of the exits!”
“Brother Nightwell, Daolor
d Darknorth is about to appear at the Flydust Star. All you need to do is to tie him down for a period of time. I’m heading out immediately.” Archon Silksnow immediately began to issue orders.
“Don’t worry, Archon!” Emperor Nightwell was filled with confidence in himself. All of them belonged to the Sacred City of Silksnow, and they all had avatars back home within the city. As a result, the avatars were able to instantly communicate with each other.
……
Flydust Star had once been an ordinary, desolate star. Ever since Hegemon Brightshore had set up his stable spacetime tunnels, it had become one of the three tunnel exits. As a result, it naturally became quite a special place. This area was now protected by ancient and powerful barriers, and there were black-armored Daolords as well as more powerful Daolords protecting it.
“Daolord Darknorth?” A pudgy old man was in the chaotic void outside Flydust Star. He had strange white skin and was extremely fat, and he was dressed in loose robes. He had a pair of soft horns growing out of his forehead, and a pair of corrosive-looking eyes that gleamed almost like the cold eyes of a viper. This pudgy, snowy-skinned old man was Emperor Nightwell, famous for his savagery.
Archon Silksnow could be described as ‘evil and brutal’ in an open and visible manner. Emperor Nightwell, by contrast, was ‘insidious and cruel’ in a shadowy manner. His reputation was absolutely terrible, and everyone knew him to be a truly maleficent man. Even other Emperors had once pursued him and attempted to kill him. Once Archon Silksnow had risen to power, he immediately had Emperor Nightwell join him as a subordinate. Many savage and cruel Emperors had done the same, and they had joined together and then taken over one of the Sacred Cities. They were so strong that their organization was quite difficult to dislodge.
Although evil and brutal cultivators were often hated, there was no way to truly wipe them all out. Now that they had Archon Silksnow as their leader and other ancient monsters supporting them in secret, they became an extremely formidable force.
