Desolate Era (Book 19 - Book 21)

Suddenly, an enormous serpentine tail brushed past Ning. It touched the divine tattoo of a snake egg within Ning’s body…and then, the entire enormous Ninehorn Lightning Serpent was completely drawn towards it. Its sentience caused it to choose to burrow straight inside Ning’s body. The titanic, massive serpent had actually completely burrowed itself within the divine body of the human-sized Ji Ning, entering the divine tattoo of a lightning serpent egg.

It was as though that divine tattoo had become its home.

Ning used his coresense to investigate the tattoo, only to see that the Ninehorn Lightning Serpent had lazily coiled around itself within the tattoo, seemingly asleep.

“I really wonder how the person who devised this technique was able to come up with this lightning serpent egg tattoo. Its capable of making Ninehorn Lightning Serpents behave like ordinary little serpents that are still asleep within the egg in such a docile manner.” Ning felt a surge of joy in his heart. He had accomplished his task; he had finally managed to capture a Ninehorn Lightning Serpent. However…Ning knew very well that it was the tattoo that kept the serpent docile and slumbering. He himself was completely unable to control it as of now.

If he wanted to control it, he’d have to tame it and transform it on a fundamental level. Only then would it truly become part of his evasion technique.

“Time to go.” Ning slowly began to fly towards the outside.

After spending three full months in flight, he finally flew out of the depths of the lightning sea, past the borders, and onto the Voidboat.

Within the Starseizing Manor.

Ning was seated in the lotus position within the main hall. Before him were seven black bottles. According to the records, taming a Ninehorn Lightning Serpent should only require six bottles, but Ning was worried about running out mid-way. Thus, he added an extra bottle.

“Ouch. Still…this divine ability will be worth it. Even the most supreme of existences in the Three Realms would want to acquire it. To trade six bottles of chaos nectar for it…worth it!” Ning closed his eyes, beginning to tame the serpent in accordance with the notes recorded regarding the technique.

Whoosh.

Drops of chaos nectar began to fly out, each filled with extraordinary power. The drops burrowed their way into Ning’s body. Under Ning’s guidance, they flew straight towards the divine tattoo of a lightning serpent egg, then penetrated into the body of the Ninehorn Lightning Serpent. Once the chaos nectar entered its body, the serpent felt an incredibly comfortable sensation.

As this happened, a golden tattoo suddenly appeared as well. Ning had manifested it, and he sent the tattoo flying forward, imprinting it onto the serpent’s body.

One golden tattoo after another began to appear, landing on the serpent’s body nonstop. At the same time, drops of chaos nectar continued to flow into the serpent’s body. Because of the chaos nectar, the serpent felt incredibly relaxed and comfortable. Thus, it didn’t fight back at all. Otherwise…it would’ve been shocked and immediately fled the lightning serpent egg, at which point Ning would only be able to stare blankly.

Time flowed on.

Ning’s chaos nectar continued to be used up, and more and more divine golden tattoos appeared on the Ninehorn Lightning Serpent’s body. It slowly began to transform, becoming friendly towards Ning. In fact, Ning’s soul could vaguely sense its presence. It was a sensation akin to sensing his own spirit-beast. However, the sensation was still very weak as of now.

One bottle of chaos nectar after another continued to be used up…

The serpent grew increasingly gentle, and its violent, offensive power began to disappear.

……

“Whew.” Ning opened his eyes, revealing a smile.

He could sense the spiritual conection between himself and the Ninehorn Lightning Serpent that lay coiled within the lightning serpent egg inside his body. However, although the little serpent was sentient, its intelligence level was too low; all it had was a vague sense that Ning was the most important thing in the world to it.

“I really did use up six bottles of chaos nectar.” Ning took a look and did a tally. “In fact, a little bit of the sixth bottle is still left.”

Ning stood up within the empty region outside the lightning sea. With but a thought, he instantly caused the black lightning serpent to appear and swirl around his body. In fact, the little serpent even used its head to brush against Ning’s face in a very friendly manner.

“Let’s move.”

Ning willed it, and swish! A streak of black light flashed, and Ning suddenly appeared far away. Then, with another flash of black light, Ning reappeared at his original position.

“With this divine ability…” Ning had a look of anticipation in his eyes. “Senior apprentice-sister, I’ll definitely force the Seamless Gate to let you come back.” Prior to this, his chances of successfully forcing the Seamless Gate to lower its head were quite low; all he could do was try his best for her sake. Now, however…Ning truly felt confident.





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Book 19, Chapter 50 - Stunned


Seated aboard the Voidboat, Ji Ning shuttled through the primordial chaos, quickly arriving at the icy star which contained the stone stele for the prisonworld.

Swoosh.

A black lightning serpent suddenly appeared, covering the Voidboat around it. In a flash, it moved millions of kilometers to reach a desolate plain which was covered with pristine, untouched ice. Ning put away his Voidboat, landed atop the plain, then laughed as he looked at the ground. “Come out.”

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Three streaks of light shot out from the icy ground, then flew towards Ning. It was a trio of divine swords.

“Master.”

“Greetings, Master.”

“Master, are you going to take us into battle now?”

Three black-robed children appeared atop the three swords. They looked to be four or five years of age. Each of them was very handsome, with adorable faces that were just asking to be pinched. However, the black robes they wore gave them a cold, severe aura…and yet, their words were filled with excitement and liveliness.

Ning grinned.

These three swords were the Darknorth swords! Ning had kept the Darknorth swords within the prisonworld this entire time. Quite a few alien Outsiders had died by Ning’s hand within the prisonworld, and even a first-tier True Immortal who was equivalent to a Daofather of the Three Realms had been slain. The amount of baleful energy generated by their deaths was enormous. The [Armaments of Sin] technique had been applied to the Darknorth swords, and all three of them had broken through the apex of the Pure Yang level to become Protocosmic spirit-treasures.

Once top-grade Pure Yang treasures advanced to become Protocosmic spirit-treasures, they would immediately become high-grade Protocosmic treasures.

The three Darknorth swords were now all high-grade Protocosmic spirit-treasures. However, Ning could sense that they were very close to becoming supreme Protocosmic spirit-treasures. The amount of baleful energy generated by the death of that female True Immortal within the prisonworld had been truly enormous. Ning was going to deal with the Seamless Gate again, but he didn’t have any particularly powerful swords with him, which was why he had sent one of his incarnations to go and bring out his three Darknorth swords.

Ning had to be very careful during this extremely dangerous period of time. There was no way that he would go to the stone stele’s location without a very good reason. It was entirely possible that one of these days, a major power might be following him or spying on him. If he was followed when pulling out treasures from the stone stele, resulting in the stone stele being discovered, he would be in serious trouble! Thus, he had already secreted his treasures in the surrounding area. That way, even if someone followed him to this star, they wouldn’t know about the stone stele.