Desolate Era (Book 19 - Book 21)

“Empress Jin? Skysplitter…” The formerly tranquil True Immortal Sevenwind’s face instantly changed. Everyone imprisoned here was an influential member of society in Pangaea. The True Immortals that Ning had encountered were all first-tier True Immortals; he hadn’t encountered a single one of the second-tier ones thus far. True Immortal Sevenwind naturally knew how formidable the four slain ones were.”


“Hah.” True Immortal Sevenwind laughed as he looked at Ning. “I’m nothing more than a prisoner now. What’s the point of resisting? In the future, would you be willing to release me?”

“If I have gain the power I need to release you, I will,” Ning said.

True Immortal Sevenwind nodded, then shut his eyes.

Ning was absolutely delighted. This was the fifth True God/True Immortal he had encountered. The previous four had required quite a bit of time and effort on his power to deal with, but this one had been willing to submit right away. Ning immediately stretched out with his hand. His arm stretched out hundreds of kilometers, landing atop True Immortal Sevenwind’s head as Ning began the soulscour.

Time continued to flow onwards, one minute after the next.

“Eh?” Ning suddenly halted.

“[Icefire Jindan Smelting]?”

In True Immortal Sevenwind’s memories, Ning discovered a particular thought-bubble that was unprotected by any life-oaths which contained something called the [Icefire Jindan Smelting] technique. Ning’s soul quickly began to memorize the contents of the thought-bubble.

Ning’s long arm rapidly began to shrink as he returned to normal. He just stood there, dazed.

“[Icefire Jindan Smelting]…”

“Ninefire Lava…Iceheart Pith…” Ning mumbled to himself.

“Is this…destiny?”

Earlier, when Exalted Celestial Thundergod had shown Ning disdain, Ning hadn’t grown angry. His heartforce had reached the fourth level; he knew very well that he was indeed just an Empyrean God and True Immortal. Although he had a formidable evasion technique, he was still far, far away from the power level of a elite Daofather like Thundergod. Thundergod would be able to kill him ease.

There was no one to blame for it from himself for being weak.

If Ning wanted to prove himself to the Daofathers, he had to train to a level where he was equal in power to them! However, he truly didn’t expect that in such a short period of time after the gathering of Daofathers, he would discover a Jindan upgrade method within his prisonworld.

“Upgrading the Jindan requires outside sources of energy and materials. Chaos ingredients are necessary.” Ning sighed softly to himself, “I had thought that even if I was to obtain such a technique, actually upgrading my Jindan would be incredibly difficult. I’d have to find many Chaos ingredients, and it’s quite possible that I would never find many of them.”

“But…”

“This [Icefire Jindan Smelting] technique requires just two types of Chaos ingredients; Ninefire Lava and Iceheart Pith. Although it’ll be hard, it’s still possible for me.”

Ninefire Lava…

Ning had heard of it long ago. It existed in the Three Realms! The Three Realms was born from the collision of two large chaosworlds, after all, and it had many major powers who often roamed the primordial chaos, collecting quite a few Chaos ingredients. Right at this very moment, the treasure vaults of the Sovereigns of Mankind held Ninefire Lava within it. He absolutely could trade for it using his own treasures!

Thus, the ‘Ninefire Lava’ would be easily acquired. It wasn’t viewed as particularly precious in the Three Realms, because to date the Three Realms had discovered no use for it, aside from using it to forge treasures! For now, the Three Realms had discovered no other uses.

As for Iceheart Pith, it didn’t exist in the Three Realms. But…

“Iceheart Pith can be found in Undermoon Lake!”

Undermoon Lake had Iceheart Leaves…and Iceheart Leaves grew out of Iceheart Pith.

“The Seamless Gate’s Godking is forcing me into Undermoon Lake. Now that I have this Jindan upgrade method, I’m in desperate need of Iceheart Pith. And I just so happen to be heading towards Undermoon Lake…” Ning suddenly felt that fate truly worked in mysterious ways.

“No matter what…I absolutely have to acquire Iceheart Pith! So long as I acquire those two Chaos ingredients, I’ll be able to use this [Icefire Jindan Smelting]] method. By then, I’ll be a second-tier True Immortal; I’ll have half-stepped into the Daofather level.” Ning finally began to have the feeling that he was beginning to gain the power he needed to fight back in this war.





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Book 20, Chapter 5 - The Treasury


Sword Immortal world. The towering Five Treasured Peaks.

Ji Ning stood atop a cloud in front of the stone cliffs of the fourth peak, staring intently at the fourth chapter of the [Five Treasures] sword-art. Ning hadn’t been in a hurry to immediately go to Undermoon Lake after the meeting with the Nuwa Alliance’s major powers. He first headed to the Five Treasured Peaks to carefully read through chapter four.

It had been years, but despite all his hard work Ning remained unable to master the third chapter! It was obvious that for him to read through the fourth chapter before mastering the third was a bit too impatient. The reason he was doing this was because he was about to enter Undermoon Lake.

Undermoon Lake was an incredibly mysterious place. Once he entered, he would be completely shut off from the outside world. Not even his Primaltwin or his other clones would be able to communicate with the clone that had entered Undermoon Lake! Ever since the Primordial Era, thousands of Empyrean Gods had entered Undermoon Lake, many of whom had Primlatwins or other clones living in the Three Realms. This was the reason why despite that, no one knew exactly what was inside Undermoon Lake.

To this very day, Buddha Jueming was the only person to leave the place after having entered it. He had come back with three treasures, but had only said that the place contained many treasures within it. He had carefully described these three treasures to others, but with regards to the dangers and events which occurred within Undermoon Lake, he was completely close-mouthed.

The only person who had ever left the place was unwilling to say anything about it at all. Undermoon Lake was a complete mystery!

Buddha Jueming had entered when he was merely an Empyrean God. After he became a Buddha, many Empyrean Gods in the Three Realms felt certain that Undermoon Lake must be a place of fortune and tempering. Thus, there were still many who were willing to enter the lake and risk their lives. Alas…no one else had ever left.

“My true body’s clones shall immediately lose contact with the outside world upon entering Undermoon Lake. I’m afraid I’ll spend quite a bit of time within it. If that’s the case, the clone that enters Undermoon Lake will work hard on the [Five Treasures] sword-art with the primary goal of perfecting the ‘Shadowless’ stance of my [Brightmoon] sword-art. As for my other clones and my Primaltwin clones in the Three Realms, they’ll meditate on the [Five Treasures] to improve the other four stances of [Brightmoon].”

There was no way to link the memories together when separated by Undermoon Lake. There was no point in duplicating his efforts in Undermoon Lake and the Three Realms; that would be a waste of time.

The Shadowless stance was the most mysterious stance, and an incredibly fast one. For a single clone to train in it was quite suitable.

After returning from Undermoon Lake, his memories would merge together again. Because they had been training in completely different things, once all those memories merged, his insights might very well increase dramatically.

“[Icefire Jindan Smelting]?” The Ning who was carefully reading the fourth chapter, attempting to get a clearer picture of it, was suddenly stunned.

This was the moment that his clone within the prisonworld had discovered the [Icefire Jindan Smelting] technique.

“I had been planning to closely read through the [Five Treasures], then head straight to Undermoon Lake. Now, it seems, I need to pay a visit to the Humanworld of Yu the Great first,” Ning mused to himself.