Desolate Era (Book 25 - Book 27)

“Graaaaah!” The nine mighty sinfiends didn’t wish to give up, but they all dispersed into mist and were drawn back into the banner.

“It isn’t that hard or that expensive to create sin treasures, but they are quite powerful. No wonder so many cultivators end up deciding to walk the path of evil.” Ning sighed to himself. If one wished to create a golem, one had to have incredibly profound insights into the art of formations and large amounts of precious resources. Only then could a powerful golem to be created. By comparison, golems were far more costly and difficult to make.

Sinfiends? Sinfiends were easy, and the treasures meant to house them were cheap to make. After absorbing enough sin, they would naturally become very powerful, much like how sin-weapons could grow in strength as well.

As for the Sinfiends themselves? If they were fed enough sin, they would grow more powerful as well. The only thing you needed to do was slaughter many people and collect enough sin.

Whoosh.

After putting away the banner, Ning turned his gaze to the black-robed corpse and the distant painting of sword-ki that was hanging on the walls.

“Come here.” Ning waved his hand, collecting both the corpse and the painting.

“Rocky, let’s look around and see if we can find any other treasures,” Ning instructed.

“Yes, Master.”

These two began to search every nook and cranny of the entire estate for treasures. They even dug three feet deep into the floor of every room. Only after completely sweeping through it did they leave.

Atop a mountain on the island.

Ning sat down in a relaxed manner, then laughed softly. “I’ve swept this island clean of all treasures. I really made a killing this time. If it hadn’t been for big brother Solesky, I don’t know how long it would’ve taken for me to acquire such a hoard of treasures.” Ning then turned his attention to the treasures which World God Cavecry had left behind.





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Book 25, Chapter 7 - A Sudden Change


After searching through the items, Ji Ning felt both delighted and slightly disappointment.

The surprise and delight came from the fact that World God Cavecry truly was quite wealthy. As a personal disciple of Daolord Windsource, he had treasures that were worth over a thousand cubes of chaos nectar, not including the sword-ki painting! What caused Ning to feel slightly disappointed was the fact that aside from the Eversnow Banner, none of the treasures of World God Cavecry were of use to himself at all.

For example, World God Cavecry’s most valuable treasure-set was a set of six top-grade Dao scimitars. They were worth more than five hundred cubes…but alas, Ning used swords, not scimitars.

As for his armor, it was a set of high-grade Dao armor. This was the same type of armor that Immortal Bloodpool had used. Since Ning already had one, this second set was temporarily of no use to him.

“I suppose I’ll sell it all once I leave.”

Ning cast the treasures to the back of his mind, then waved his hand to summon the painting.

This was the most valuable treasure of the entire island. It was definitely worth as much as an Eternal weapon.

“What secrets are hidden within this painting?” Ning unfurled the painting and gave it a close look. He had already bound the painting and so the sword energy of the painting had been restrained. It now looked completely ordinary.

“It doesn’t have any divine runes on it.”

“There don’t appear to be any ways to activate it.”

“It…it is just a painting…” Ning stared at the sword-ki painting, puzzled.

The sword-ki painting looked like an ordinary painting of mountains and rivers. It held mountains, waterfalls, and creeks. In fact, from an artistic standpoint the painting actually looked rather mediocre. Ning himself could paint something like this. And yet, whenever Ning extended his senses into this seemingly ordinary painting, he could sense a sword-intent that struck fear into his heart. The exalted sword-intent which filled the painting was just as strong as Violetjewel’s quintessence core.

“The person who painted this painting had to be a terrifyingly powerful expert of the Dao of the Sword,” Ning mused. “But so what? At least I can link my consciousness up with my sword’s quintessence core and get a basic understanding of it. All I can do with this painting is look at it!”

What use was a painting that was merely filled with sword-intent that couldn’t be interacted with?

Violetjewel’s quintessence core had a similarly profound sword-intent, but Ning could actually make use of it to do battle!

“Wasn’t this supposed to be equal to an Eternal weapon in value?”

“Eh, it makes sense. Daolord Windsource told World God Cavecry to comprehend and master this painting, but he wasn’t able to succeed in doing so before he died. I’m probably at too low a level of insight into the Dao to understand the true secrets hidden within the painting.” Ning could do nothing save console himself with these words. Still, he couldn’t help but give the painting a few more glances. He had a strange feeling that this painting was hiding certain secrets within it…but alas, a gauze had been draped over these secrets, making it impossible for him to behold them.

“What the hell is it?”

Ning ended up spending six more hours on the painting before giving up and putting it away for now.

“Master.” The nearby stone titan said curiously, “Why have you come to this place? I heard that only Samsara Daolords are capable of passing through the Hundred Streams of the Windsource Formation.”

“I accompanied my big brother, of course.” Ning smiled.

“Your big brother, Master?” The stone titan was quite curious, and his dark yellow eyes suddenly lit up. “Master, your ‘big brother’ is a Daolord? Where is he?”

“He went to the central island.” Ning pointed to the central island. “We’ll just wait for him here. When he returns, he’ll take us out of the Windsource Ruins.”

If Daolord Solesky didn’t return, Ning himself certainly wouldn’t be strong enough to lead.

“But that’s where Daolord Windsource once lived. It is the most dangerous place in this world,” the stone titan said.

Suddenly, a golden ripple of power burst out from the central island. The terrifying ripple instantly swept out in every direction, terrifying Ning and causing his face to turn ashen. Upon seeing the golden omnidirectional wave blast out towards him, he knew that if it touched him he was dead. He wouldn’t even have a chance to dodge.

Fortunately, as the golden wave blasted out from the central island it parted past the various smaller islands.

“What the hell?” Ning was badly rattled.

“He must’ve activated some formation or trap,” the stone titan offered.

“I know that! But he didn’t activate anything earlier. What happened?” Ning was rather worried out. He had spent six hours meditating on the sword-ki painting and nothing had happened…but now, all of a sudden, a huge shockwave had just blasted out in every direction. This caused Ning to feel extremely uneasy.

Within the central island.

A barefoot, raggedy old man let out a long breath. The buildings around him had been completely reduced to rubble. Only a towering palace located at the very center of this island remained standing.

“Damn this Windsource. If he died, he died. Why the hell did he have to leave so many restrictive formations behind?” Daolord Solesky cursed softly. “What, did you want everyone to know how badass you once were?”

He knew that it wouldn’t be easy, but upon actually entering the island he immediately found himself beset with countless dangers, even though there weren’t any treasures nearby! This caused Daolord Solesky to feel quite irritated.

“Nobody can stop my dao!”

“Not only are you dead, even when you were alive you wouldn’t have been able to stop me!”

Daolord Solesky no longer looked as relaxed as he normally did. A terrifying light was now shining in his eyes.

Whoosh!