Desolate Era (Book 19 - Book 21)

Crackle.

The lightning sea serpents were wild and unbridled. They were in the shape of serpents but possessed no sentience. In truth, they were nothing more than peculiarly-shaped bolts of lightning.

Finally, a lightning sea serpent at the border region brushed past Ning’s body. The black lightning was instantly attracted towards the golden barrier formed by the divine tattoos, resulting in a cocoon of black electric light surrounding Ning, who immediately retreated back into the region of gray lightning.

“Time to begin.” Black electricity crackled within the cocoon. Ning carefully guided a strand of black lightning from the cocoon into his own divine body, allowing it to invade.

Lightning sea serpents and Ninehorn Lightning Serpents were both types of lightning; the only difference was that Ninehorn Lightning Serpents were sentient. If he was able to succeed in transforming his body via lightning sea serpents, it would also become suitable for Ninehorn Lightning Serpents.

BOOM!

The nude Ning’s arm instantly blew apart…and then the cocoon of black lightning collapsed as well. When the vestiges of black lightning brushed past Ning’s body, it instantly collapsed and transformed into dust, leaving nothing else behind.

“Failure.” Outside the sea of lightning. Ning was still seated atop his Voidboat, and his face turned pale. The pain his clone had felt as it was destroyed filled Ning with utter agony. The lightning sea snakes were simply too terrifying; even the portion of truesoul within the clone had been reduced to nothing. “Damn. The lightning sea snakes are far too wild. I just guided a tiny part of their energy into my body, but wasn’t even able to succeed in transforming one of my arms.”

“Let’s do it again.” Ning once more sent a clone forth.

Although he had sent just a single clone into the lightning sea, all of his other clones had shared in the experience. They had all begun to ponder on how to increase his chances of succeeding in transforming his body. Although the [Ninehorn Lightning Serpent] evasion technique had very detailed notes, once the time came to actually apply the technique, experience made a tremendous difference.

This death had given Ning experience in using a lightning sea serpent to transform his body. Next time, he would avoid certain mistakes and do better.

After three months…the second clone died as well.

“Again.”

The other bodies were all pondering carefully on what to do. His true body’s clones continued to enter the lightning sea, testing and trying new techniques, but this was indeed the most dangerous part of training in this divine ability. The technique’s notes didn’t exaggerate at all; the stated 90% chance of death wasn’t just talk! This was even more true for Ning, who was using the extremely dangerous method of using lightning sea serpents to transform his body.

In the blink of an eye, more than four years had gone by. Ning remained within the Voidboat, staring at the distant, vast sea of lightning.

“It’s been more than four years.”

“My other fifteen clones have all died, but I still haven’t succeeded. I was just a tiny, tiny bit off.” Ning gritted his teeth.

His true body’s clones had all died. Only one of them remained alive, and that one would be able to slowly grow out new clones. This was a process that allowed for the rebirth of the truesoul, the soul, and the divine body. However, a fairly long period of time was required. To completely recover all fifteen bodies would take countless years. This was the reason why Youngflame Freak had felt such despair when he lost his sixteen clones.

There was one other method that could be used to quickly replenish the clones; to use the incomparably marvelous ‘chaos nectar’. Ning was able to use chaos nectar to break through from the first level of the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods] to the second level; to use it to merely rebuild his clones was a waste of precious resources.

But the great storm had already descended…Ning simply didn’t have the time he needed to allow his clones to recover.

“I’ll have to use chaos nectar.”

Swoosh.

Ning spent a full hour travelling towards an enormous star within the primordial chaos. He located a mountain estate, then temporarily secluded himself within it. He then entered the Starseizing Manor, beginning his training.

“Chaos nectar can be used to train in the second level of the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods]. I, however, am wasting it in replenishing my divine body…” Ning himself felt heartache at the waste. However, this was all for the sake of learning the [Ninehorn Lightning Serpent]. This was an evasion technique that would make even major powers grow red-eyed with envy, an absolutely first-class evasion technique that would allow him to always have the initiative.

When those ten Golden Crows had devastated the Primordial Era, not even Mother Nuwa had been able to do anything about them, precisely because the [Golden Sunstreak] was simply too powerful.

Ning pulled out the stopper to a black bottle. Pop! The stopper came out, and Ning stopped worrying about the cost. Closing his eyes, he began to employ the regenerative technique included in the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods]. Instantly, one drop of chaos nectar after another began to fly out of the black bottle. Every single drop contained countless bubble that were like worlds unto themselves. The bubbles would appear and disappear in a marvelous, unending cycle of creation and destruction.

Ning slowly absorbed the chaos nectar into his body.

Whoosh.

An illusory figure flew out from within Ning’s body, then solidified. Instantly, a second Ning appeared.

As more time passed on, additional bodies were restored and rebuilt. In the end, a total of sixteen Ji Nings appeared within the Starseizing Manor. This was the limit; there was no way he could regain any more.

“The amount of chaos nectar needed to replenish my clones is actually the same as needed to break through to the second stage of the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods].” Ning truly felt heartache at the cost.

“Again.”

“I refuse to believe that I’ll fail this time as well.”

Ning left the cave, then rode the Voidboat back into the primordial chaos, heading once more towards the sea of lightning.





* * *





Book 19, Chapter 49 - Success


The Voidboat once more came to a halt at the borders of the lightning sea. Yet another clone flew out into the countless streaks of lightning, beginning to slowly transform its divine body.

In truth, Ji Ning could’ve transformed one clone to the level of being able to withstand the gray lightning, then halted the transformation process and used it as the ‘base template’ for restoring his other clones. That way, all of the recreated clones would start with enough affinity for lightning to immediately go and try to be transformed by using the black lightning sea serpents. That would allow for more time to be saved. Ning, however, didn’t do this; he continued to have every single clone go through the slow transformation process.

That way, with each attempt Ning would continue to accumulate more experience.

At present, the reason why Ning was able to endure the gray lightning was thanks to his divine body having trained in the Ninth Cycle of the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art], rather than due to him being experienced in lightning. He only succeeded due to his incredibly tough body. By testing things out time and time again, he was accumulating experience. He would rather spend an extra three months gaining experience than potentially waste a tiny bit of chaos nectar.

“Mm.” Atop the Voidboat, Ning frowned. He once more sensed the agony of his soul being destroyed.

Yet another failure.

“Again.”

Swoosh.