Desolate Era (Book 19 - Book 21)

“Eh?” True Immortal Winterpeak, hiding under the bowl-shaped treasure, discovered to his astonishment that Ji Ning had halted his attacks.

“He stopped?” With but a thought, Winterpeak dismissed his bowl-shaped treasure. The mere act of keeping a treasure active required him to use up Immortal energy. There were many prisoners here who wouldn’t even use their energy on maintaining their clothes, causing them to corrode and decay over the course of time. Although it was very hard for magic treasures to be damaged, if enough chaos cycles passed, they would still end up destroyed.

Winterpeak raised his head, staring at the white-robed youth in the skies. He smirked. “I urge you to give up. A puny True Immortal like you must be forced to consume an enormous amount of energy to release sword-light of such power. Soon, your energy will be used up, and you’ll have to leave the prisonworld to replenish it, which will take time. It will take a very, very long amount of time for you to wipe out my energy using such a method.”

“Are you afraid?” Ning suddenly asked.

Winterpeak twitched. “Hmph.” After a cold snort, he fell silent.

It was true. He had no way to replenish his Immortal energy, while the Overseer was able to constantly regain it. With enough time, his Immortal energy would be used up in the end.

“Let’s see just how patient you are,” Winterpeak mused to himself.

……

Ning had placed the Eight Fires Qiankun World within the Starseizing Manor. He had just sent one of his clones to leave the stone stele and bring it back. Because there was a bit of distance to travel, it took him a full day of flying before he returned.

“Eh?” Winterpeak frowned. He could see yet another white-robed figure flying towards him from afar. “[Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods]?” He instantly was able to guess at the technique.

“Do you really think it’ll take me a lot of energy to attack you?” The white-robed youth waved his hand, and a lotus of fire quickly soared into the skies, moving to a location that was directly above Winterpeak. The flaming lotus faced the ground and began to swivel. At the same time, it quickly expanded to become a thousand kilometers in size as all the petals of the lotus flower began to open.

A total of eight lotus petals completely unfurled, and streams of truefire began to surge towards the ground.

“SHIT!” Winterpeak’s face instantly changed, and the bowl-shaped magic treasure once more appeared around him.

As the sea of flames surged towards him, every single inch of the bowl-shaped treasure was bathed in fire. The ground around him was charred into ash. Winterpeak just stood there in midair, protected by that giant bowl as eight different types of truefire frantically assaulted him from every direction.

“Hmph. This is much easier.” Ning just stood there in midair, watching. The Eight Fires Qiankun World created an independent world of its own, filling it with flame to assault its foes. However, it wasn’t invincible; once the enemy fled outside the world created by the treasure, the enemy would no longer have to fear the assaults of those eight streams of truefire. But alas, these prisoners were completely unable to leave the region they were in.

All they could do was endure the eight punishing streams of truefire.

This was a treasure that had been personally forged by Zhurong, Elder God of Fire. The combined power of these eight types of truefire was truly astonishing. However…since the treasure itself contained and nourished these eight types of truefire, the only attack it really had was truefire. All Ning had to do was to keep the treasure active, then occasionally replenish a little bit of energy.

“Shit, shit, SHIT!” Winterpeak was truly beginning to panic. “This blazing treasure relies on internal flames to attack. It won’t use up much of his energy; he can keep it active indefinitely. I, however, have to continuously use my treasure to defend against it. If this continues…”

“…Where the hell did he find a treasure like this?!”

Winterpeak was both furious and frantic.

The Eight Fires Qiankun World held eight types of truefire in it. This treasure, by itself, was worth more than a hundred top-grade Pure Yang treasures. Although Ning had killed three Celestial Immortals and Empyrean Gods within the prisonworld, he hadn’t acquired a treasure like this from them.

……

Within the Starseizing Manor.

A stone stele was placed within a hall.

Swoosh.

Ning appeared out of nowhere. He glanced at the stone stele, then willed it to transform into a streak of light that flew into Ning’s forehead.

“Come out.” Ning glanced sideways, then fifteen more figures appeared out of nowhere. All of them had the auras of Celestial Immortals, and they all had different appearances. These fifteen were fifteen of the eighteen bodies Ning now had, transformed using the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art].

“When they are using the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] to disguise themselves, not even True Gods or Daofathers will be able to see through them, unless those Daofathers see them in person and use special ocular techniques to test them. Not even the major powers who have the ability to view the entire Three Realms and see into Protocosmic spirit-treasures like the Starseizing Manor should be able to tell from far away that these fifteen are all my clones,” Ning mused to himself.

It was very difficult to infiltrate Protocosmic spirit-treasures and see inside of them. The number of people in the Three Realms who could do such a thing could be counted on two hands. After activating the Ninth Cycle of the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] and transforming…there was definitely no way someone would be able to see through the technique when it was used within the Starseizing Manor.

“Only when no one knows how many clones I have will the clones be safe and effective,” Ning mused to himself.

Ning emerged from the Starseizing Manor, going back to his little thatched cottage. He dispersed the minor clone he had left there, then raised his head and looked towards the Five Treasured Peaks. “Ninefangs,” Ning sent mentally.

Instantly, a streak of light shot towards him. The bald old man, Empyrean God Ninefangs, immediately said respectfully, “Manorlord.”

“Return to the Starseizer world for now. There’s something I need to do,” Ning said.

“Acknowledged,” Ninefangs said.

And then, Ning left by himself aboard the Voidboat, departing from Sword Immortal world.

……

The infinite, vast Void held many enormous stars within it. The most dazzling of all stars were the Solar Star and the Lunar Star. In terms of size, even Nuwa’s world or Suiren’s Kindlefire world were much smaller than the Solar Star and the Lunar Star. The light that emanated from these two supreme celestial bodies shone down upon the entire Three Realms.

These were stars that were formed from the primordial chaos as well.

When Pangu had established Heaven and Earth, he had used up an enormous amount of primordial chaos, so much so that a massive area around him became empty and devoid of all matter. This was where the seemingly-infinite Void came from. With all the primordial chaos sucked away, the stars that had been hidden within them now emerged.

Swoosh. A Voidboat was travelling at high speed through the Void, passing through one star after another. Soon, it reached the end of the Void. Although the Void was often described as ‘infinite’, there was an end to it…and at the end of the Void was the primordial chaos itself! The Voidboat plunged into the primordial chaos, continuing to fly forward.