Desolate Era (Book 19 - Book 21)

Ning could sense that Human Sovereign Suiren was looking towards him with a very gentle, loving look in his eyes. Suiren’s repeated praises to all these other major powers made Ning feel quite embarrassed, as in reality Ning had relied on chaos nectar to succeed.

What he didn’t understand was that Suiren, being the oldest human major power, viewed all the talented humans who came after him as he would his own grandchildren. He was extremely protective of humanity. Nuwa had initially only created a few humans, after all; the race had only proliferated after countless generations of procreation. It was actually entirely possible that Ning held the blood of Suiren’s lineage within his veins.

In addition, it was Suiren who ended up being the overlord who trained in the [Ninehorn Lightning Serpent] technique. Thus, Suiren felt as though he owed Ning.

“Training in this technique involves multiple difficulties. I’ve merely described one of them to you.” Suiren stared at Thundergod. “Thundergod, do you still believe that you can master it? As I recall…you’ve only reached the second stage of heartforce.”

Thundergod was silent, not saying a thing.

He was unwilling to accept this! But he also knew full well that if not even Daoist Three Purities was able to use heartforce to tame the serpents, the chances of him succeeding would be even more remote.

“Thus, Thundergod…” Subhuti said calmly, “Don’t think that just because Ji Ning was able to learn this technique, that you would be able to learn it as well. To learn this sort of supreme evasion technique…you need strength, skill, and luck. You can’t be lacking in any of the criteria!”

“Why would you even compare me to a puny little Empyrean God?” Thundergod snapped, somewhat embarrassed and irritated.

“Houyi was once a ‘mere’ Empyrean God as well,” Subhuti said calmly.

“You…!” Thundergod was infuriated.

“If you continue to have such a poor temper, you’ll probably never be able to break through in heartforce.” After saying this, Subhuti couldn’t be bothered to say anything else.

Exalted Celestial Thundergod and the rest of his fellows were all born at the True God level of power from the primordial chaos! However, there’s a flip side to all things. They didn’t have the experience of starting weak and slowly growing powerful. They didn’t undergo enough mental toughtening, and so almost all of these True Gods and Elder Gods of Primordial Chaos had poor talent for heartforce. Even the likes of Daoist Three Purities and Lord Tathagata, who had been iron-willed enough to repeatedly commit suicide and throw themselves into the cycle of reincarnation, had only been able to reach the fourth level of heartforce. As for those who merely had their clones go reincarnate, their heartforce was even weaker.

Thundergod was clearly a classic example. He was born with incredible power and arrogance. Because of his great power, he was naturally able to hold great sway over the lives and deaths of others, resulting in his terrible temper growing even worse.

Deep in his heart, he viewed those weaker than him with disdain.

Those creatures were nothing more than crawling worms! He was a True God of Primordial Chaos. Those weak little fellows were nothing compared to him.

“You can all leave. The six of us will discuss the matter of how to transmit this technique to others without giving the Seamless Gate any chance to steal it,” Daoist Three Purities said.

“Let’s go.”

“Let’s go.”

Instantly, the various incarnations all began to vanish. Daoist Yu Qiu tore a hole through the Void and left as well. As for Thundergod, he gave Ning a hard look, then turned and left. Clearly, in his heart Thundergod had already transferred to Ning all the resentment he felt for having lost so much face in front of so many major powers today. All of this was because of Ji Ning…a puny Empyrean God and True Immortal!

“Disciple, no need to quibble with Thundergod.” Subhuti looked at Ning, then chuckled. “He was born a True God, but that was just a matter of luck. That Dao-heart of his…he’s essentially reached his limit. He can forget about improving even one whit.”

“I wouldn’t dare be angry with him,” Ning said hurriedly.

“Mm.” Subhuti nodded. “You can leave now.”

……

The vast prisonworld. The endless ‘skies’ of this world were covered with countless divine runes. They were part of the large, marvelous formation that extracted the essence the primordial chaos, refining it into chaos nectar.

Even as Ning had been negotiating with the Godking and meeting with the True Gods and Daofathers, his two clones within this world continued to sweep through it.

Where did the [Ninehorn Lightning Serpent] evasion technique come from? The prisonworld!

Ning knew very well that this prisonworld was a tremendous source of karmic luck for him.

He had to make good use of it!

“I, True God Skysplitter, dominated the land for multiple chaos cycles. I’ve killed more than a hundred puny True Immortals like you…who would’ve thought that I’d end up dying in the hands of an ant? What a joke. A joke!” A shackled True God dressed in tattered clothes raised his head, roaring with fury.

BOOM!!!!!

His entire body blasted apart, causing the entire area inside the formation to shudder.

As for the white-robed Ji Ning who was outside the formation, keeping the ‘Eight Fires Qiankun World’ active, he could sense the three divine swords within his body absorb an enormous amount of baleful energy, causing them to rapidly grow. There was no way he was going to let all of this baleful energy go to waste. With the Darknorth swords gone, he had procured three other exquisite swords to use. He had also named them ‘Darknorth swords’, and so he now had a total of six ‘Darknorth swords’. “This time, my luck wasn’t bad. I met a True God who only had a little bit of divine power left. I managed to finish him off after just a few years. Alas, everyone imprisoned here had extraordinarily high status back in their world. All of them are simply too proud.”

Whoosh.

After briefly inspecting and collecting the relics left behind by True God Skysplitter, Ning flew away.

Just one hour later, he arrived at a vast prairie. A True Immortal dressed in beautiful golden robes was imprisoned here, his shackles stretching off into an empty Void.

“Odd. Most people imprisoned here are conserving their energy, but this True Immortal has kept his clothes in perfect shape.” The white-robed Ning flew towards him through the skies.

“He is…True Immortal Sevenwind?” Ning immediately recognized the person upon seeing his face. Ning had engaged in multiple soulscours, and thus now knew quite a bit regarding the chaos-kingdom of Pangaea. The True Immortal in front of him had maintained his original appearance instead of allowing himself to turn skeletally thin like the others, making him easy to recognize.

Ning quickly flew forward, then descended outside the formation.

“Overseer?” The beautifully dressed True Immortal looked at Ning, then suddenly frowned. “You…”

“The chaos-kingdom of Pangaea has already been destroyed.” Ning chuckled. “This prisonworld has fallen into my hands. I can’t just sit outside such a treasure vault without entering and making use of it, right? Thus, you have two choices right now. One, let me soulscour you and take away your treasures. Two…die. Prior to this, I’ve already encountered and dealt with four True Gods and True Immortals. Here are their treasures.”

Whoosh. One Protocosmic spirit-treasure after another began to appear in front of Ning, hovering in the air and emanating auras of shocking power.