“Yes.” Ning nodded. “I can risk my life for her sake. If you hand her to me, I’ll immediately halt. If you don’t…I’ll keep killing!”
“So you are doing this to extort us, to force our hand?” The Godking’s voice was like ice. “Ji Ning, you value yourself too highly. I’m just trying to avoid a bit of unnecessary trouble, which is why I gave you a chance to calm things down with us. But you actually dare to threaten us, the Seamless Gate? You truly are too arrogant. Do you think that just because you succeeded with your first ambush, you’ll succeed in a second or a third ambush? Do you really think that our Seamless Gate is unable to deal with a stripling like you?”
Who was the Godking? He was, nominally speaking, the leader of the entire Seamless Gate. He could converse as equals with even the Three Sovereigns of Mankind or the leaders of Daoism and Buddhism.
Just now, the Godking had been putting on a charitable, magnanimous air; if Ning halted, he would spare Ning. But now, Ning dared to make requests of him? Fine, then; if the request wasn’t excessive, the Godking would agree to it. But Ning had actually carried out these actions to threaten the Seamless Gate, to force them to do something they didn’t want to do? That was courting death!
“I only hope for you to return her to me, Godking.” Ning looked at the Godking.
“Impossible.” The Godking stared back at Ning. “You only have two options before you. To halt and be spared, or to continue and perish. As for Yu Wei…you can forget about her.”
Ning stared at the Godking.
The Godking stared back at Ning.
Whoosh. Ning disappeared into thin air.
“He really is courting death.” The Godking felt even angrier now. “An Empyrean God actually dares to try to threaten and extort the Seamless Gate? What a joke. A joke!”
The Seamless Gate’s original incarnation was that of the Seamless Chaosworld, a world on par with the Pangu Chaosworld. How could a power like this allow itself to be extorted?
……
Ning sat there by himself within the thatched cottage. He sat there for a long, long time.
“Senior apprentice-sister.”
“Although the chances are very slim…I will still go and kill them. Kill them until they can no longer bear it.” A breathtaking determination could be seen in Ning’s eyes. This was a dangerous path, a path which involved repeatedly risking his life…but that was the nature of his decision.
Ning cast the matter to the back of his mind, sending his mind into the Starseizing Manor.
Within the main palace of the manor was a large pile of treasures. These were the treasures he had acquired during his earlier ambushes. Ning quickly began to bind them to himself. These treasures might not be too useful to him, but they’d be plenty of help to other Empyrean Gods and True Immortals. If he could increase the power of his forces, their chances of success in the future would be slightly greater.
“Pure Yang treasure.”
“Pure Yang.”
“A Protocosmic spirit-treasure…but it’s just a low-grade one of ordinary power. Still, quite interesting.”
“Quite a few Pure Yang Immortal pills. Great Firmanent Immortal pills. Poison?” Ning quickly finished sorting through all of the treasures of the Empyrean Gods and True Immortals.
And then, Ning began to bind all of the various treasures left behind by the many slain Celestial Immortals and Loose Immortals. This happened quite quickly, as these were the treasures dropped by the low-level figures he had casually mopped up after killing the Empyrean Gods and True Immortals. Their items weren’t particularly valuable, with most being at the Immortal-rank at best. Every so often, he would be lucky and encounter a Pure Yang treasure.
“These are the treasures left behind by Youngflame Freak. Hrm…where’s the Worldhold Pagoda?”
“Pity. The Worldhold Pagoda isn’t with these sixteen clones.” Ning still remembered how the Worldhold Pagoda had sent him to the Nihilum Zone. Still, after searching through all the items, he still hadn’t been able to find it. Instead, he encountered some bugs and aberrations.
Ning paid no notice to most of Youngflame Freak’s treasures, but one treasure did attract his attention.
“What’s this?” Ning was startled.
An enormous, pitch-black stone stele was hanging there in midair. The stone stele was emanating a faint aura of might. Although the aura was very weak, it had an exalted quality about it, far more exalted than even the aura which Patriarch Subhuti had.
Whoosh.
Although Ning’s true body remained within the thatched cottage, he quickly sent out a strand of divine power to form a body which manifested within the Starseizing Manor. He took a personal, close look at the levitating black stone stele.
* * *
Book 19, Chapter 23 - Stone Stele
The enormous black stone stele was 299 meters tall, and it emanated an aura of majesty that was so faint, it could only be sensed from less than 300 meters away. The aura, however, had an exalted quality about it. Ji Ning only saw two enormous, strange characters carved into the face of the stone stele facing him, while the other side was filled with countless strange characters that were clustered as densely as ants.
“These characters…?” Ning examined them carefully. “I’ve never seen these characters before. It seems as though the Three Realms doesn’t have a language like this.”
Ning had never seen them before, but was certain that these were characters from a language, because they were actually quite similar to the characters of the human race. The two enormous characters on the front, in particular…Ning could almost sense what they meant.
“Let me try with coresense first.” Ning willed his coresense to surge forward.
“This…?” Ning stared at the stone stele in surprise. “How can this be? Impossible. Why is it that my coresense sees nothing at all? It’s as though nothing is there.”
“Can it be that this stone stele is covered with a restrictive spell that blocks out coresense?” Ning pondered for a moment. “Let me try with heartforce.”
Heartforce was invisible, undetectable, and extremely formidable.
Instantly, his true body in the outside world sent its powerful heartforce into the underwater estate to cover the stone stele. This caused Ning’s face to truly change, because he discovered…that all his heartforce found nothing whatsoever. It was as though the stone stele didn’t even exist.
“But, but…” Ning stretched his hand out to touch the stone stele. The stone was icy cold, and its surface was very rough. “This stone stele is clearly right in front of me. How can it be that not even heartforce can detect it?”
“This is an extraordinary item. In fact…it isn’t even of the Three Realms.”
This thought instantly flashed past Ning’s mind.
The two enormous characters engraved on the stone stele…the countless tiny characters on the back of the stele…the unique runes engraved on other parts of it…clearly, someone had created this item! The stone stele’s aura was so powerful that the creator had to at least be on the level of the Buddhist and Daoist leaders. In fact, he might be even more powerful.
For heartforce to be unable to discover the stone stele when one could see it with the naked eye and touch it with the hand…Ning had never, ever heard of such a strange item. Such an item shouldn’t be able to exist within the Three Realms.
Then…
Desolate Era (Book 19 - Book 21)
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