Desolate Era (Book 22 - Book 24)

“Here we are.” Su Youji pointed towards their front.

The mountain peak itself was just a few hundred kilometers around, but it held up an enormous city that spanned hundreds of thousands of kilometers. The city almost looked as though it was hanging precariously in the air, ready to tip at a moment’s notice. Ning and Youji followed the mountain path forward, walking towards the gates.

The walls of the city were engraved with two words ‘Wave’ ‘Shift’.

“Waveshift…” Ning raised his head to look at those two words, sensing the incredibly arcane ripples emanating from within them.

Those ripples were simply too hard to lock down. Just trying made Ning feel tired and extremely uncomfortable. The difference in power was simply too great. Ning quickly tried to give up attuning to those ripples, but was unable to break free from the endless might that radiated out from those two words.

“Urgh.” Ning vomited out a mouthful of blood before finally coming back to his senses.

“Master, don’t you know that you must not stare at those two words?” The Flamefairy asked.

“I know, but I still wanted to take a look. I won’t die just because I looked at them, right?” Ning laughed. “They truly are incredible. Those two words made me vomit up blood just because I looked at them. I wasn’t able to glean any insight into them at all, just a feeling that they are unfathomably profound.” According to the legends, even World Gods who stared at those two words would vomit up blood, to say nothing of someone like Ji Ning.

Generally speaking, if you took over an everworld you would change its name.

The Badlands Court had taken over this everworld and had thus renamed it to be the ‘Badlands Everworld’. However, they hadn’t changed the name of the most prosperous city of this everworld, precisely because those two words ‘Wave’ ‘Shift’ were completely inviolable. Those two words served as the core of the entire city and possessed utterly supreme power. So long as those two words remained on the walls, all other cultivators would continue to call this place ‘Waveshift City’, no matter who tried to change its name.

Thus, there were many cultivators who suspected that when the Badlands Everworld was first established a long, long time ago, its original name might’ve been the Waveshift Everworld.

“No one knows who wrote those two words.” The Flamefairy let out a sigh. “That person might well be more powerful than even Daolord Badlands.”

“Mm.” Ning nodded.

It made sense.

There were differences in power even amongst Daolords. Didn’t Daolord Windsource have a Daolord amongst his retainers?

Ning’s heart began to beat slightly faster as he thought about that ancient, powerful figure. A few moments later, he turned and entered Waveshift City alongside Su Youji. Waveshift City was an incredibly prosperous city, and it had one simple rule: All combat within city limits was forbidden! Anyone who violated this rule would instantly suffer automatic attacks from the formations protecting Waveshift City.

“What a bustling place.” As Ning walked through the wide streets, he could see Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals everywhere. As for True Gods and True Immortals, there was a ridiculous number of them located here.

“I would imagine that almost half of the cultivators of the entire Badlands Territory are gathered here,” Su Youji said. “Waveshift City even holds more than a thousand World-level experts!”

Ning nodded. This was a place of power and safety. No one would dare to attack you here.

However, once you left the city, no one would care if you lived or you died.

“Is that the Palace of Ten Thousand Treasures?” Ning stared off into the distance. Far away, at the ends of the street, there lay an utterly enormous palace that glowed with absolutely breathtaking light. The entire palace emanated many ripples of power, each of which represented the presence of a Dao weapon. The ripples which the palace were intentionally radiating out numbered over a hundred.

“Yes, that’s the Palace of Ten Thousand Treasures. It holds more treasures within it than any other place within Waveshift City. Here, you can buy whatever treasures you desire! You can have Dao weapons custom made for you, or even be able to purchase one of those legendary treasures with a quintessence core inside of it. So long as you are willing to pay the price, you can buy anything…but of course, the price of such a weapon would be truly terrifying.” Su Youji let out a sigh.

Nind nodded. He knew that the master of this Palace was actually Daolord Badlands himself!

Daolord Badlands could capture a few dozen World Gods, then enslave them and sell them off, but they still wouldn’t be as valuable as a single treasure with a quintessence core. The price of such a treasure was unimaginable, enough to drive even a World God completely mad.

“What do you plan to buy or sell, Master? You can do it all here. This place is extremely safe, and the Palace will never reveal your secrets,” the Flamefairy sent mentally.

“I know.” But in his heart, Ning silently muttered to himself – Bullshit.

Yes, the Palace was an extremely safe place where he could sell off his Dao weapons to acquire a hundred cubes of chaos nectar; the Palace wouldn’t really care much about it. But if he was to directly purchase ‘treasure fragments’ from them in large quantity, everyone would be able to guess that Ning had a treasure which required significant amounts of Five Elements essence to repair!

Daolord Badlands had an exalted status here; there was naturally no way he could possibly switch positions and decide to come here to run the shop. The ones in charge of this place were most likely World Gods or Chaos Immortals…and Violetjewel was a treasure that would attract attention from any World-level expert, some of whom would actually stare at Ning from afar.

There was no such thing as the old nonsense saying about ‘one’s word is priceless’. Everything had a price to it; the only question was how high. A magic treasure that had a quintessence core was valuable enough that many Elder Gods and Chaos Immortals would be willing to sacrifice anything, face included, to acquire it.

“I have to spend a little bit of thought on this,” Ning mused to himself.





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Book 24, Chapter 31 - Magic Treasure Fragments


A short while later, Ji Ning walked into the Palace of Ten Thousand Treasures by himself, having had Flamefairy Su Youji enter his estate-world.

“What do you wish to purchase, fellow Daoist?” As soon as Ning walked in, a violet-robed female cultivator with the aura of an Ancestral Immortal greeted him with a smile.

Ning swept the palace with his gaze. It was filled with violet-robed male and female Immortals, all of whom were at the Elder God or Ancestral Immortal level. This was a testament to how wealthy the Badlands Court was! The treasures here ranged from Protocosmic spirit-treasures to Dao treasures, and there were more than a thousand display tables filled with those treasures.

This particular violet-robed Ancestral Immortal fell into place behind Ning, following him.

“I’m here to sell treasures,” Ning sent mentally. “I’m selling a Dao weapon.”

“A Dao weapon?” The violet-robed woman gave Ning a surprised glance, then also switched to speaking mentally. “It seems you’ve made some great gains while adventuring, fellow Daoist. Please follow me.”

Soon, Ning was led towards a side hall.