Desolate Era (Book 19 - Book 21)

“Eh?” Within a world of darkness. The Godking, seated upon his massive, levitating throne, mused pensively to himself, “Why has Ji Ning entered the primordial chaos?”


The Nuwa Alliance had yet to notice Ning’s abrupt departure from Sword Immortal world and entry into the primordial chaos, but the Seamless Gate had. This was because the Seamless Gate was worried that Ning was preparing to ambush them once more, and so they had people watching him at all times.

“What’s he doing in the primordial chaos?” The Godking was puzzled. “Unfortunately, there’s no way for us to investigate.”

The Godking possessed formidable divine abilities, and his invisible power could infiltrate and investigate even the Void itself; there was nothing in the Void that could block it, after all. But there was far too much energy and matter in the primordial chaos; there was no way for him to scan it at all.

……

The primordial chaos was vast and truly endless, filled with limitless amounts of gray fog that contained marvelous types of energy and power. If one was able to comprehend the Heavenly Dao of Primordial Chaos, one would be able to extract chaos energy from these chaos clouds. Ning, however, clearly was not capable of this. He was unable to replenish his energy from the primordial chaos, and so his only choice was to use up his spirit-pills to do so.

But of course, this was fine for a short journey into the primordial chaos. If he spent too much time within it, the end result would be that his energy would be depleted and he would die trapped.

“So many stars.”

He often encountered stars within the primordial chaos. The smallest were perhaps just a million kilometers in size, while the largest were far larger than even a major world.

Although these stars were located within the primordial chaos, they were so close to the Three Realms that the major powers of the Three Realms had already thoroughly searched and investigated them, marking them out in maps. Ning had acquired these maps from Mount Innerheart, and so he travelled the quickest route possible past the various stars.

“I’ll choose this star.”

The star which the Voidboat had reached was a star that was completely formed from unyielding ice. In terms of size, it was probably comparable to the Grand Xia. The entire star emanated an aura of absolute ice, and the surface of the star was dotted with enormous crevices that looked like gorges, as well as bulges that looked like mountain peaks. A wild wind blew through this star, but there were no living creatures on it at all.

Not even Fiendgods or Immortals would be willing to live within such an icy, harsh environment.

“Go.” Ning willed it, and the stone stele instantly flew out from his forehead. As it flew out, it flew straight towards the deep abyss located in front of Ning. Soon, the gusts of wind blew it deep into the bottom of the abyss. Ning used his coresense to watch as the stone stele landed at the bottom. Very soon, a layer of icy frost appeared atop it, causing it to completely freeze within the abyss.

Ordinary people wouldn’t be able to use coresense to locate it. Ning, however, was the master of the stone stele; he was naturally able to sense it, wherever it was.

“There is no way for anyone to locate the stone stele here,” Ning mused to himself. “Not even major powers should be able to scan and locate it from far away within the Void. Even if some of them are so incredibly powerful that they can reach this place with coresense…the stone stele is an incredibly mysterious object. Others have to see it with their actual eyes.”

Even if a major power knew that Ning had the stone stele and had hidden it within this star, the major power would have to visually and physically search through every single inch of the star.

To search through every inch of a star that was the size of the Grand Xia? Hah!

And of course, no one even knew that Ning had placed the stone stele here.

“This place shall be my base for a last stand. If I end up being destroyed, at least the two clones that I will keep within the stone stele will be able to continue to cultivate, eventually restoring all the other clones as well,” Ning mused to himself.

Swoosh.

The Voidboat then continued its journey forward, going past several of the other stars in the primordial chaos before Ning departed from it, returning to the great Void. At his current level of power, he only dared to voyage through the portions of primordial chaos that were very close to the Three Realms and had already been fully investigated by others. He didn’t dare to delve any deeper into the chaos.

No one knew that on this voyage into the primordial chaos, Ning had hidden a stone stele with two clones inside of a star. Those two clones would use the Eight Fires Qiankun World and other Pure Yang treasures that could unleash elemental attacks to assault the True Immortal and True God prisoners inside the prisonworld.

Ning returned to the Void, then passed through it to enter the Grand Xia.

Standing in midair, Ning produced a talisman in his hand, filling it with his energy.

“Disciple.” Subhuti’s voice rang out in Ning’s ears.

Ning said, “Your disciple wishes to return to the Crescent world. In addition…there’s something I need to speak to you regarding, Master.”

Whoosh.

Instantly, a whirlpool appeared in the air next to Ning. Ning stepped into it, then began to head towards the Crescent world.





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Book 19, Chapter 34 - A Surprise for Subhuti


Ji Ning passed through the spatial vortex. A massive, levitating mountain suddenly appeared before his eyes – Mount Innerheart.

“Uncle-master.”

“Uncle-master.”

“Grand uncle-master.”

Ning occasionally exchanged a few words with familiar faces as he walked up Mount Innerheart. Eventually, he reached Subhuti’s Daoist temple. The two novices at the entrance, Clearwater and Whiteriver, didn’t move to stop him. Clearly, they had already received instructions from the Old Patriarch.

Ning entered the Daoist monastery, then saw his master Subhuti seated in the lotus position in the distance.

“Master.” Ning bowed respectfully.

“What is it?” Subhuti looked towards Ning.

“I ambushed the Seamless Gate’s forces multiple times and killed more than ten Empyrean Gods and True Immortals,” Ning said. “I wanted to force the Seamless Gate to release my senior apprentice-sister, but they still refuse to agree. What I didn’t expect…was that I gained a surprising spoil of war.”

Subhuti chuckled. “And why have you come in person to tell me, your master?”

“The treasures of the Empyrean Gods and True Immortals weren’t that special. My greatest spoils came from the death of a Celestial Immortal, ‘Youngflame Freak’,” Ning said. “Amongst Youngflame Freak’s relics, I found a unique item that contained seven great techniques. These seven techniques are all unfathomably profound, and I had to struggle quite hard in order to learn them. After I learned them, the unique item actually shattered apart and dissolved into nothingness.”

Ning had pondered for a long time before deciding on explaining things thusly.

He could choose to keep these seven techniques a secret from his master, but given that both alliances were at war with each other, and that most of these techniques were useless to him, it was better for him to report it to his superiors.

He wasn’t afraid of the Seamless Gate acting against him; rather, he was more afraid of someone from his own alliance acting against him! For example, if a major power who was on par with Subhuti suspected that Ning had acquired formidable treasures from alien Outsiders, then killed Ning, Subhuti might be enraged…but it would be too late for Ning.

“Oh?” Subhuti smiled and nodded. “It may have been a legacy left behind by a major power.”