Desolate Era (Book 19 - Book 21)

According to what World God Northrest had said, if one wished to reach the fifth stage of swordforce, one would ideally come up with ways of infusing other types of force into one’s sword-arts, producing sword-arts of greater power. The more powerful one’s sword-arts were, the closer one would be to the fifth stage of swordforce. To reach the sixth stage of swordforce would be to reach the stage known as the true ‘World of the Sword’. This was the stage of World Gods, a stage that completely eclipsed the Heavenly Daos. The best way to reach this level was to train in sword-arts that surpassed the Heavenly Daos!

This was because the World God level, in and of itself, surpassed the Heavenly Daos. Thus, training in sword-arts that surpassed the Heavenly Daos, even in just one aspect such as the [Five Treasures] and speed, would still help tear a small ‘crack’ in the barrier the Heavenly Daos presented. This would allow Ning to move closer to that level.

“Following the guidance of my predecessors is akin to standing on their shoulders.” Ning wouldn’t be so arrogant as to disregard their guidance.

What he needed to do was constantly improve himself until he reached a point where he surpassed even his predecessors.

When he had been forced to personally consign Yu Wei into the Infinity Hells, Ning had suddenly comprehended many things. He had murmured to himself: ‘Though I come from the mortal dust, my heart still soars towards the heavens.’

“Eh? I just mastered the Dao of Rainwater.”

The white-robed youth stood there on the surface of the blazing star, stunned.

Because of his mastery over the [Five Treasures], he was finally able to comprehend other Daos again. Within just a few breaths of time, he completely mastered the Dao of Rainwater!

This was primarily because Ning was at simply far too high a level of understanding right now. When his ninth apprentice-brother, Junwu, was still just a mortal child, a single word of guidance from Subhuti had caused him to suddenly master an entire Dao overnight. What level of enlightenment had Ning reached? His sword-arts had surpassed the Heavenly Daos, and his swordforce and infiniforce had joined together perfectly. He had also absorbed the essence of the elite sword-arts left behind by World God Northrest, and his self-created [Brightmoon] sword-art was already definitely the number one sword-art of the Three Realms.

He possessed a incredibly high level of insight, and also possessed an incredibly high level of heartforce.

Comprehending the various Daos he already had an affinity towards? It was just a matter of time.

“Time to pay the prisonworld a visit.” The white-robed youth entered a boat-type treasure, shuttling through the Void.

Upon reaching the icy star and entering the prisonworld…

“Eh? I just mastered the Dao of the Thunderclap?” As soon as Ning entered the prisonworld, he was shocked by this revelation. He was surprised because prior to training in the [Five Treasures], he had no talent for lightning-affinity Daos at all. But now, he had suddenly mastered it with tremendous speed. It was second only to the Dao of Rainwater; he hadn’t even regained his other previous Daos, such as the Dao of the Inferno. Instead, it was the Dao of the Thunderclap which had come first.

Still, it made sense.

His divine body had long ago become baptized by lightning, becoming a lightning-attribute divine body. In terms of his body’s affinity for lightning, he was actually on an even higher level than Exalted Celestial Thundergod, who had been born out of the primordial chaos itself. His body was able to completely become one with the Ninehorn Lightning Serpent, just as perfectly as a Golden Crow would be able to become one with the flames of the sun.

In truth, at this point in time, Ning’s affinity for and talent in lightning actually surpassed even his talent for water! However, he had focused on the Grand Dao of the Waterdrop in the past. Even though his memories of it were lost, he would instinctively gain insights into it much faster than in other Daos, allowing him to quickly master the Dao of Rainwater.

And then…

The Dao of the Inferno and the Dao of the Gale all revealed themselves as well. He even began to gain insights into the Dao of Space once more.

“The more solid a foundation, the more one shall comprehend.” Ning was quite calm.

According to what World God Northrest had said, different chaosworlds all had different Heavenly Daos! For example, the Pangu Chaosworld and the Seamless Chaosworld both had Heavenly Daos of Earth, but although they were extremely similar, there were still a number of differences. [1. In the original Chinese, the character for ‘Earth’ used in Pangu and Seamless were different.]

For true experts, however, what really mattered was a solid foundation of fundamental forces such as swordforce, infiniforce, taiji-force, or chaosforce. Once one reached a sufficiently high level of insight into these fundamental forces, then no matter what chaosworld one entered, one would be able to rapidly gain insights into the many local Daos. By now…Ning had gained a very stable foundation.

“The prisonworld.”

“In the past, my vision was far too limited. Or perhaps it would be more fair to say that the True Gods and True Immortals of Pangaea had limited vision.” Ning was quite moved.

……

A series of white-robed youths stood there atop a grassy area within the prisonworld. There were a total of eighteen of them, and they were scattered throughout the region. In front of them was placed a large amount of Protocosmic spirit-treasures and unique treasures. The most powerful aura came from a sword…a Darknorth sword.

After six centuries of sweeping through the prisonworld, more than twenty True Gods and True Immortals had died by his hands! All the baleful aura released by those deaths had allowed one of Ning’s six Darknorth swords to finally break through and evolve to become a Chaos treasure, thanks to the ‘Armaments of Sin’ technique.

“Thankfully, World God Northrest left behind certain techniques to me, allowing me to recognize how these treasures are meant to be used.”





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Book 21, Chapter 11 - Meeting the Godking


While roaming the vast primordial chaos, one had to be able to recognize treasures for what they were. If you saw one without recognizing one and passed it by, how laughable would that be? World God Northrest had naturally left behind many records, allowing Ji Ning to identify the treasures he was currently in most desperate need of.

“Come.” Ning willed it, and a dirty-looking cauldron flew towards him.

Ning had acquired this cauldron from an imprisoned Empyrean God. That Empyrean God had spent quite some time analyzing the cauldron after acquiring it, but wasn’t sure exactly how it was to be used. In fact, not even the seniors of his sect that he asked knew the answer.

“A Five Elements Cauldron.” Ning nodded slowly. “I had thought that after leaving Undermoon Lake, I would need to spend time and effort scrounging up the materials I would need to forge one of these things. Now, I realize that I actually already have one…and this one is at the level of a Protocosmic spirit-treasure. Although it’s nothing in the eyes of someone like World God Northrest, I probably wouldn’t be able to make one as good.”

Five Elements Cauldrons were used to destroy magic treasures.

Right. Destroy them!

Precious items and minerals, along with magic items, damaged or undamaged, could be thrown into these cauldrons. They would be completely destroyed, and then reformed into five types of Five Elements essences; Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth. Virtually every single treasure born from the primordial chaos could be melted down into essences of the Five Elements.

Even the primordial chaos itself could be converted into the Five Elements!

The extracted essences could be used to forge new magic treasures, as treasures that were infused with them would undergo certain transformations.

The reason why Ning was in desperate need of such a cauldron was for the sake of that damaged sword, the most important treasure World God Northrest had left him.