Desolate Era (Book 25 - Book 27)

He strolled forward in a relaxed manner, and with each step he took a fiery divine crow would manifest beneath his feet. The line between reality and illusions was blurred around him. Clearly, he was training even when he was just walking. He was an incredibly famous figure in the Twelve Palaces, not because he had accomplished any special feats, simply because he was a member of the Palace of the Heart! Although the Heart Palace had pitifully few members, every single member was frighteningly strong.

Bertulu focused on the Dao of Light, using heartforce as a support skill. Heartlord Solewind, however, had truly focused all of his efforts on his skills as a Heartforce Cultivator. His accomplishments in this area vastly outstripped Bertulu’s, who had only reached the utter apex of power at the World level in the Dao of Light.

……

“The almighty Hegemon personally gave me pointers in the past. As for this opportunity he is offering… I, Greatjoy, shall definitely grasp it.” This was a youth who was dressed in strange black imperial robes and who wore a crown on his head. He was the most powerful World-level expert in the Palace of Spacetime, and he referred to himself as Prince Greatjoy. Although on the surface he was rather calm and stately when interacting with others, he was actually an extremely wild, berserk man.

“The Daolord Cloudworld, eh? Hmph.” Prince Greatjoy flew out of the Spacetime Palace and headed straight towards the Daolord Cloudworld.

……

More than half of the World-level experts immediately flew towards their Daolord Cloudworld as soon as they received the news. Every single one of the Twelve Palaces had their own Daolord Cloudworld, and the difficulty level in each was identical.

Swoosh!

Ning descended into the Armaments Gorge of the Sword Palace.

“Darknorth.” The two guardians of the gorge, Swordfive and Swordsix, both looked at Ning.

“Swordfive. Swordsix.” Ning said in a rather humble manner, “I’ve been acknowledged by the Sword Pagodas. I believe I now have the chance to choose a single treasure from the Armaments Gorge, so long as it doesn’t cost more than a million cubes of chaos nectar. Right?”

“Right.” Swordfive nodded. “The Sword Palace has always been very generous towards World-level cultivators who are acknowledged by the Sword Pagodas.”

“Swordfive, can you follow me inside?” Ning asked.

“I can.” Swordfive nodded. He surmised that Ning probably wanted to carry out a major business transaction. There was no other reason for Ning to ask him to go in.

The Armaments Gorge was filled with countless treasures, but Ning went straight towards one of the corners in the far back.

There was a seemingly ordinary black bottle placed atop one of the tables in the back. This black bottle, however, was priced at 1.5 million cubes of chaos nectar! This bottle was a magic treasure known as the ‘Godwater Flagon of the Seven Flags’, and it contained seven different types of Dao water. These seven types of Dao water could be used to form an enormous formation known as the Seven Flags Formation which could easily annihilate almost any opponent.

“Can I take this flagon?” Ning asked.

Swordfive slowly shook his head. “You aren’t permitted to choose anything worth more than a million cubes. If you insist on choosing this item, you have to pay an extra five hundred thousand cubes.”

“Done.” Ning nodded.

There were quite a few treasures in the Armaments Gorge which involved Dao water, and most of them were treasures which were forged out of Dao water. The Godwater Flagon of the Seven Flags was the most suitable choice for Ning.

“Need anything else?” Swordfive had heard that Ning had sold off a Bloodfire Cloudfruit for 1.8 million cubes.

“I need some Dao lightning as well.” Ning grinned.

……

Ning departed from the Armaments Gorge, then transformed into a streak of light that flew back towards his own Immortal estate.

“Master.” Su Youji and World God Pillsaint both came out to greet him.

“No one is allowed to disturb me. No matter who comes, they are not permitted to see me.” Ning gave them some instructions, then went into his private room.

Ning sat down in the lotus position within this private room, then placed a black bottle, an azure cauldron, and a grey gourd next to him.

This time, he had purchased seven types of Dao water and five types of Dao lightning. He had paid 2.1 million cubes of chaos nectar for them! Factoring in the million cubes of credit which the Sword Palace had bestowed upon him, he actually had used up more than three million cubes!

“With these items, I should now be able to make myself much more powerful.” Ning was quite calm as he summoned the technique for creating the [Novessence Thunder] and the [Novessence Water] into his mind.





* * *





Book 27, Chapter 18 - Training


Ji Ning willed the ethereal lightning to fly out of the gray gourd. It seemed unremarkable, but in reality it was terrifyingly powerful. Under Ning’s control, it swirled around Ning’s body and then seeped into it. For someone with a weaker divine body, such an act was akin to suicide. It must be understood that this was Dao lightning! Someone with a weak body would have it instantly reduced to ashes.

Long ago, when Ning was still an Empyrean God, his body was incapable of enduring the power of the Ninehorn Lightning Serpents. In order to tame and control one of them, Ning had to first use Elder-level lightning serpents to repeatedly enter his body and completely transform it into a lightning-attribute body. Ning died multiple times before being able to successfully complete the transformation process. Only then was he able to survive alongside the Ninehorn Lightning Serpent and draw it into his body, storing it in the divine rune of a lightning serpent egg.

And now?

Ning had completely mastered the [Golden Idol], making his divine body comparable to top-grade Dao treasures! This Dao lightning was completely incapable of harming Ning.

Whoosh.

After the ethereal lightning entered Ning’s body, it seemed to be affected by a powerful gravitational force. With a swoosh, it was drawn towards Ning’s Jindan chaosworld, towards the location where one of nine lightning essences was located. This lightning essence was similarly ethereal, and the two seemed to have come from the same source. The Dao lightning voluntarily merged into the lightning essence, rapidly surging into it and drawing upon the Chaos lightning energy which had previously been present.

“I’ve finished absorbing the first Dao lightning.” Ning nodded slowly.

The reason why Daolord Allgod had separated the [Novessence Thunder] into the upper part and the lower part, despite the fact that he created the technique as a Daolord who didn’t need Chaos lightning, was because he needed to establish the nine lightning essence foundations. The lightning foundations were similar to the ‘lightning serpent egg’ which Ning once used to store and transform the Ninehorn Lightning Serpent. The lightning foundations were the places where the lightning would stay and ‘live’. This was their home!

The lightning foundations which Daolord Allgod had created were countless times more profound than the ‘lightning serpent egg’. They were tremendously attractive towards Dao lightning, and Dao lightning naturally ‘liked’ to live within them.

“Next.” Ning willed the next one to enter.

Four streams of Dao lightning instantly began to surge out from the four handles on the azure cauldron in front of Ning. Under Ning’s control, the four streams of lightning surged into his body. These four streams of Dao lightning were similarly drawn into four different lightning essence foundations and were quickly swallowed up. They now had their own foundations where they belonged.