Desolate Era (Book 19 - Book 21)

A day later.

After having memorized the [Five Treasures] multiple times, Ning boarded his Voidboat and flew towards the headquarters of the Primordial Imperial Clan, the Humanworld of Yu the Great.

“Fellow Daoist Ji Ning.” A voice rang out as a muscular, fur-clad man appeared out of nowhere.

“Empyrean God Fuqu.” Ning smiled. Last time, it had been Fuqu who had welcomed him as well. This was primarily because one of Fuqu’s primary responsibilities in the Primordial Imperial Clan was to welcome guests.

Fuqu looked at Ning with a gaze that was a bit different than before. This was because, just a day ago, Ning had shown off his [Ninehorn Lightning Serpent] technique and roamed through the Three Realms, slaughtering the Seamless Gate’s forces until the Seamless Gate had bowed their heads. News of this had quickly spread out, and even the major powers of the Nuwa Alliance were often discussing this matter. They all tsked and sighed appreciatively, “Ji Ning truly is talented in heartforce.”

All of the major powers of the Nuwa Alliance truly believed that Ning had relied on heartforce alone to tame a serpent.

In truth, after Suiren had carefully analyzed and researched the [Ninehorn Lightning Serpent] technique, he had the feeling that there was a tiny chance one could indeed use heartforce to tame a serpent, which was why he inserted the part about heartforce into the technique’s description. This also served the dual purpose of hiding the fact that they had the necessary chaos nectar. Only by deceiving their own would they also be able to deceive the Seamless Gate.

“Might I ask why you have come again, fellow Daoist Ji Ning?” Empyrean God Fuqu asked.

“I wish to pay a visit to the treasury and trade for some treasures,” Ning said.

“Oh. Quite a few fellow Daoists of the Three Realms have come to visit the treasury, but this is your first trip, fellow Daoist Ji Ning. I had thought that our treasures didn’t match up to your expectations.” Fuqu chortled. “Come, come. Follow me in.”

Moments later, two streaks of light shot past the winding clouds that were outside a grouping of ancient palaces. They flew straight into one of the palaces.

“The Primordial Imperial Clan truly is extraordinary.” As Ning flew forward, he paid close attention to his surroundings, and he couldn’t help but feel stunned.

The nominal managing power of the Three Realms, the Celestial Court, was extremely beautiful and filled with lofty jade buildings.

The imperial palace of the Grand Xia had the Skylight Palace, an absolutely dominating fixture that was not one whit inferior to the Celestial Court.

But…

The Palaces of Mankind of the Primordial Imperial Clan was quite simple and plain. And yet, every single palace gave Ning a sensation of tremendous pressure.

“Our human race spent countless years during the Primordial Era to build them,” Fuqu said proudly. “We produced a total of thirty-six top-grade Pure Yang-level magic treasures which could be used as palaces. Over the course of time, they’ve grown more powerful and all of them have become Protocosmic spirit-treasures. These thirty-six supreme Protocosmic spirit-treasures match perfectly with a formation-diagram which Human Sovereign Fuxi has created, and their joint power is equal to that of a Chaos treasure.”

“All those years ago, during the war that destroyed the Primordial Era, the Palaces of Mankind played a major role and rendered many merits,” Fuqu said proudly.

Nind nodded, sighing in amazement. The Palaces of Mankind were indeed like an impregnable fort!

“This is the Palace of the Numerous Heavens.” Fuqu led Ning into a large gray palace. “The treasury is right inside. There are a few Immortals inside right now as well. Pick what you want. As long as you have enough treasure, you’ll be allowed to trade for it. I still have other tasks to attend to, so I won’t stay here with you any longer.”

“Thank you, Empyrean God Fuqu,” Ning said with a smile. Fuqu transformed into a streak of light and departed, leaving Ning here. Ning turned and stepped inside the treasury.

Many of the major powers and experts of the Nuwa Palace had placed the treasures they didn’t need into this place. It made for an utterly astonishing sight!

There were piles of powerful Protocosmic spirit-treasures, and the weakest treasures here were at least at the Pure Yang level. There were many Chaos ingredients and materials as well. Virtually everything could be found here!

During normal times, the various major powers would probably hide their treasures in other locations, making these items almost impossible to locate and trade for. Now that the storm had descended, everyone took out everything they didn’t need.

“What fine treasures.” Ning knew, however, that only treasures which were a good fit for him were truly ‘good’ treasures.

He first procured five kilograms of the two other types of materials the Seamless Gate had requested. In truth, the Seamless Gate had underestimated Ji Ning. As they saw it, he was still just an Empyrean God and True Immortal; if they demanded too many valuable treasures, there would be no way Ji Ning could produce them. Thus, two of the three treasures the Godking had requested were fairly common.

If they knew that Ning had acquired a prisonworld of the chaos-kingdom of Pangaea, giving him thousands of times as many treasures as they had expected, they would probably feel quite regretful.

“How much of this Ninefire Lava do you have?” Ning asked.

“Senior Darknorth.” Instantly, a Celestial Immortal walked over and said respectfully, “We have quite a bit of this Ninefire Lava, more than a million kilograms. All of it was discovered in the past by Human Sovereign Suiren in the primordial chaos. If you need more, senior Darknorth, the Human Sovereign should be able to provide you with it.”

Ning nodded. “Give me half a million kilograms of it.”

Chaos materials could differ greatly in value. Chaos goldstone, for example, was available in almost limitless supply. Some of the medicinal herbs that could be found in the primordial chaos were extremely rare and valuable, while others could be produced in enormous batches.

Ninefire Lava and Iceheart Pith were fairly average items as Chaos materials went. Whenever they appeared, they would appear in large quantities. The Iceheart Leaves of Undermoon Lake grew out of large quantities of Iceheart Pith; although the pith was valuable, it was naturally on a lower level of value compared to the leaves.

[Icefire Jindan Smelting]…

There were different levels to the technique. This was much like how the higher levels of Ning’s [Starseizing Hand] required increasingly large amounts and increasingly expensive types of Five Elements treasures!’

When smelting a treasure, the more valuable the ingredients you used, the more powerful the flames would have to be to smelt it! In turn, the higher-level the Jindan in the body was, the more materials the [Icefire Jindan Smelting] technique would require.

A Celestial Immortal’s Jindan needed one level of items, while a True Immortal’s Jindan would require a high level’s worth of items. As for an Ancestral Immortal/Daofather’s Jindan…those were simply far too powerful. To transform them would require even more treasures, none of which would be so easily acquired.