by RWX
Westbat hurriedly laughed ingratiatingly. “Right, right, right. You have an exalted status, milord; naturally, you won’t act rashly.”
“Eheh. Are there any other treasures here in Prisonworld 17?” Ning’s eyes seemed to be shining right now.
“Nothing.” The chubby Jailor Westbat shook his head repeatedly. He had served quite a few Overseers, and he knew that all of them had special statuses. All of them were core members of the Pangaea chaos-kingdom, which was why they were sent to such an important location as this. Although it was nominally a punishment, it was also a great boon. There were many of them who acquired chaos nectar, then greedily desired other things as well.
“There really is nothing else. This is just a Prisonworld with many prisoners,” the chubby jailor said. “If you are talented enough to get something out of the prisoners, that’s entirely your business. However, all of the prisoners are filled with hatred, and many of them are incredibly powerful; I imagine that not only will they not give you anything, they’ll try to kill you. If you really want to interact with the prisoners, milord, I urge you to hurry up and master the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods]. That way, with eighteen clones, you at least won’t be at any risk of death.”
“Right.” Ning nodded.
Prisoners?
“Continue telling me about Overseer duties, as well as the various events that have occurred during the past three chaos cycles. I’m actually quite bored right now. Ugh…a full chaos cycle! It’ll feel like forever,” Ning sighed.
“Please permit me to elaborate,” the chubby Jailor Westbat said excitedly. He loved to talk, but Eastcricket was a stuffy gourd who was always silent. This caused Westbat quite a bit of irritation, and he would often go chatting with some of the prisoners. Many of the prisoners wanted to kill him, but fortunately for him he always stayed outside of the protective formations, preventing them from injuring him.
More than half of the prisoners of Prisonworld 17 absolutely hated this chattering, prattering jailor.
“The last Lord Overseer had a rather foul attitude. In my opinion, he had indeed been spoiled rotten by an Elder God. As soon as he arrived…” The chubby Jailor Westbat began to narrate nonstop.
As for Ning, he just smiled and listened in a very ‘relaxed’ way.
Relaxed? He wasn’t relaxed at all! But he knew very well that his acquisition of the stone stele was a stroke of tremendous karmic fortune. The greater a stroke of karmic fortune, the more careful one had to be. Otherwise, one might end up with nothing, or worse!
As Ning continued to listen, he began to understand more and more. An entire world had indeed been placed within this stone stele, and from the sound of it the world was extremely vast! This was a place where many of the criminals of the Pangaea chaos-kingdom were located.
The Pangaea chaos-kingdom was an extremely powerful kingdom. The most powerful figure was the King of Pangaea, an exceptionally formidable and powerful figure. The stone stele which held this prisonworld had been created by the King of Pangaea, and there were a total of thirty-six of them. The thirty-six stone stele prisonworlds would naturally join together into the shockingly powerful ‘Nine-Layered Heaven Chaining Formation’, making it incredibly hard for enemies to enter. Only members of their own kingdom could enter.
Each of the thirty-six stone steles had seven mighty techniques engraved upon them, for a total of 252 techniques. These techniques had all been left behind by the King of Pangaea. Although these weren’t the supreme techniques which the King of Pangaea had used to dominate his opponents, they were still some of the best techniques he had to offer. Every single Overseer would have the opportunity to learn the seven techniques on their respective stone steles, but they wouldn’t be permitted to learn from any of the others.
“Hmm…hmm…Pangaea chaos-kingdom? From its name, it has to be a kingdom located within the primordial chaos,” Ning mused to himself. “The primordial chaos truly is an absolutely amazing place. In the past, there have been quite a few incursions by alien Outsiders into our Three Realms. The primordial chaos is vast and infinite, capable of giving birth to many True Gods, Elder Gods, and even figures like Pangu. It makes sense that a nation like the Pangaea chaos-kingdom would exist.”
“However…judging from what these jailors said, the ‘Nine-Layered Heaven Chaining Formation’ which these thirty-six stone steles are a part of is nothing more than a joke.”
“This stone stele ended up in Youngflame Freak’s hands during the Primordial Era, and now it is in my hands. Its always been by itself for these countless years. I imagine that the formation was long ago destroyed, resulting in the stone steles being scattered apart. I wonder what this stone stele experienced, for it to have ended up here in the Three Realms.”
Although Ning was surprised and delighted, he was still cautious. The Three Realms had often battled against alien Outsiders such as Rahu or the even-more-powerful Lord of All Things, but had killed all of them. Most likely, many in the Three Realms hac acquired some of the treasures or supreme techniques of the alien Outsiders. Ning had merely acquired a single such treasure…albeit, his seemed to be quite impressive.
Ning continued to listen ‘relaxedly’ for some time, then said with a laugh, “Alright, you can stop for now.”
* * *
Book 19, Chapter 26 - Training in the Chaos Region
“The two of you can go patrol the prisonworld,” Ji Ning instructed.
“Understood.” The two jailors respectfully assented to the order, then began to fly back the way they came. Far away, there was a blurry spatial door. Upon entering it, the two disappeared from Ning’s senses.
The only person left in this region was Ning.
Ning sat down in the lotus position. Below him was the ‘edges’ of this chaos region. Although it was invisible, it was enough to support Ning.
“Chaos nectar? Distilled from primordial chaos? I’ve never even heard of such a thing in the Three Realms.” Ning waved his hand, producing a black bottle. “A single bottle of chaos nectar is enough to train the second stage of the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods]? But from the sound of it, this chaos nectar is incredibly valuable. Generally speaking, in the Pangaea chaos-kingdom, only Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals are allowed to enjoy this nectar. Aside from them, only some people with special statuses will be occasionally bestowed a bit of it.”
‘Ancestral Immortals’ was a term of power from the Pangaea chaos-kingdom. As far as Ning could tell, it referred to ‘Daofathers’.
The language of the Pangaea chaos-kingdom was incredibly similar to that of the human language of the Three Realms. The words were very similar to each other, and even the pronunciation was similar. Previously, when the torrent of information regarding the seven mighty techniques had entered Ning’s mind, he could hear echoes of a great Dao, allowing him to easily understand their language. In truth, it could even be treated as a mere human dialect of the Three Realms.
“A person assigned to be an Overseer would have to have a high level of status in the Pangaea chaos-kingdom. They would be ‘punished’ to stand guard for a chaos cycle, but would then acquire a bottle.”
Ning now knew exactly how long a chaos cycle was.
The chatty Westbat had spoken for three days and three nights. He had provided much information, allowing Ning to hypothesize even more.
Chaos cycles…
They referred to the natural cycles every chaosworld would go through. Its birth, the slow passage of time, its eventual aging, and then its final destruction. This extremely long period of time was known as a ‘chaos cycle’! But of course, there were some chaosworlds which were attacked and destroyed by outside forces during their prime.
For example, the primordial world of Pangu was a chaosworld that had collided with the Seamless Chaosworld, then experienced a battle that caused its destruction. Still, in the end, the destruction of the Pangu Chaosworld and the Seamless Chaosworld had resulted in the birth of the new world, the ‘Three Realms’
.
“Prisonworld 17?” Ning glanced at the distant spatial doorway.
He now knew that once he left this region, he would enter Prisonworld 17. This was one of the thirty-six great prisonworlds that were used to hold the prisoners of the ancient Pangaea chaos-kingdom.
“Chaos nectar is extremely valuable and rare; it’s hard to say if it even exists anywhere else in the Three Realms. I absolutely cannot waste such a precious treasure.” Ning pondered on what to do next. As for the jailor’s instructions for him to only use a single bottle, Ning didn’t give a damn. Who knew in what corner of the primordial chaos the Pangaea chaos-kingdom was even located? In fact, it might’ve been destroyed long ago! And of course, Ning himself was merely feigning allegiance to it.
All eighteen bottles would naturally belong to himself!
“According to what the jailor said, all of the Overseers would choose to use their bottle of chaos nectar to train in the second stage of the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods].” Ning nodded. “The Overseers were all core members of the Pangaea chaos-kingdom. They should have known exactly how valuable chaos nectar was. If they chose to use it for this technique, then it should be worth it.”
“That’ll be my choice as well. First, I’ll train in [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods].”
Ning’s primary issue was that he knew far too little about chaos nectar. Chaos nectar was gathered by the vast prisonworlds, which had created incomparably complicated formations to harvest it from the primordial chaos. Every single chaos cycle, only a total of six bottles would be harvested! In addition, there wasn’t necessarily anyone in the entire Three Realms who was capable of setting up such a complicated formation. Most likely, only Mother Nuwa, who had established her own Nuwa world, would be able to do so. No matter how Ning looked at it, it seemed as though acquiring more chaos nectar would be extremely difficult.
The chaos nectar of the Pangaea chaos-kingdom would generally go to the King of Pangaea, who would occasionally bestow a bit to his subordinates.
Every single bottle used would represent an irrecovable expenditure. He had to be judicious and sparing in its use. Perhaps in the future, he might discover an important effect or use for it! But of course, the second stage of [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods] was absolutely shocking in power. Ning deeply desired to train in it, and so he started to do so immediately.
The blurry chaos region was only a few hundred meters wide.
“Although this region of primordial chaos is very small, it’s extraordinary marvelous.” Ning stared at his surroundings. “Earlier, when I was outside, I couldn’t find anything when I sent my divine power into the stone stele. The stone stele holds this chaos region within it, as well as the prisonworld. I had to activate the divine runes before I was drawn inside.”
“The strangest thing is…”
“It seems as though this place is not under the jurisdiction of the Heavenly Daos.”
By now, Ning was at a formidable level of power. He could vaguely sense how the Heavenly Daos of the Three Realms functioned.
To surpass the jurisdiction of the Heavenly Daos was possible if one went into the vast Void. Although a Heavenly Dao of Primordial Chaos was present there, the Heavenly Dao of Primordial Chaos of the Void was different from that of the Three Realms, even though the ‘rules’ were the same, as they belonged to different regions. Similarly, the primordial chaos itself held a Heavenly Dao of Primordial Chaos, as did this stone stele, but the Heavenly Daos of the Three Realms did not have any sway outside the Three Realms or inside the stone stele.
“The stone stele is clearly inside my Starseizing Manor, but it isn’t subject to the dicates of the Three Realms. It seems that the major power who created this stone stele is also a figure who has surpassed the Heavenly Daos.”
After coming to this conclusion, Ning no longer thought any further on the matter. Whoosh! A green jade bottle appeared within his hands, with some Pure Yang Immortal pills located inside of it.
“The first stage of [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods] is very easy. All I need to do is use up some Pure Yang Immortal pills.” Ning opened the stopper to the green jade bottle, then placed it to one side as he began to train.
Criss-crossing lines of gold began to appear all over Ning’s body. Slowly, golden runes began to take form. As more time passed, the golden runes became more and more numerous. In the blink of an eye, a golden rune-covered kasaya seemed to have appeared over Ning’s body! A certain aura began to emanate from it.
Rumble…
The many golden runes began to connect to each other in an organized way, linking together into lines that began to ripple and flow. The lines of golden runes thus began to merge into each other in an extremely marvelous way.
A strange, nameless aura began to drift out.
Boom! As time flowed out, the lines of golden runes finally completed their fusion, having transformed into a single, enormous divine rune. This enormous divine rune had completely covered Ning’s body…and then, with a swoosh, it went straight inside Ning.
Slowly, a miracle began to happen…
“My truesoul…”
Ning felt a sensation akin to intoxication. Everything felt blurry, but he could still sense that his truesoul was slowly being divided into halves…thirds…quarters…
His soul was beginning to split apart as well. As he felt his body grow low on energy, Ning immediately began to consume some Pure Yang Immortal pills.
This dream-like state persisted for a period of time. Then…whoosh. Seventeen rays of light suddenly shot out from Ning, each of which then transformed into a white-robed youth.
The eighteen white-robed youths all sat there in the lotus position within the chaos region. Their auras were absolutely identical, and their power was the same as well.
“They actually became independent, self-sustaining bodies. Every single one of them has a perfect truesoul and soul. They even have Pure Yang Jindan’s within their body.” Ning was absolutely delighted and shocked. The eighteen clones shared memories together, as they were fundamentally the same person. However, the death of one wouldn’t have any impact on the other seventeen at all.
In addition, thanks to the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods], a slain clone could be remade. However, the cost to remake another soul and another Pure Yang Jindan would be quite large.
This time, Ning hadn’t paid much of a price to train to the first stage. This was because Ning’s true body had essentially had its power divided by eighteen to create those seventeen additional bodies.
“Absolutely identical. Even the divine tattoos are identical.”
The eighteen Ji Ning’s simultaneously stared at their respective palms; each of them had Starseizing Tattoos on their hands.
When Empyrean Gods created clones, their power would only be slightly affected, and they would still have their divine abilities. The fatal flaw of those clones, however, was that their souls weren’t stand-alone. If too many clones died, the soul would be tattered and break apart. Ning, however, didn’t have to face this danger…but his power did decrease.
“Time to train the second stage.” Ning didn’t hesitate at all, immediately pulling out a bottle of chaos nectar.
The eighteen white-robed youths all sat down in the lotus position, forming into an enormous circle with the chaos nectar at the center of the circle.
Drip. Drip. Drip. Droplets of chaos nectar flew out from the black bottle. Although each dropped looked translucent, it was as though they held entire worlds within them. Tiny little bubbles occasionally appeared within each drop, occasionally breaking apart and popping. The little ‘worlds’ within those bubbles were similarly being born and destroyed.
An inconceivably powerful aura of life emanated from those chaos droplets.
In raw power alone, each drop was perhaps only comparable to a Great Firmament Immortal pill, but the chaos nectar seemed to hold everything within them. Truesoul, soul, heartforce, Immortal energy, divine power…all types of energy seemed to be hidden w
ithin them.
The primordial chaos could give birth to worlds. It could create countless living creatures.
Chaos nectar was distilled and extracted from the primordial chaos. It was incomparably marvelous and incomparably valuable.
One drop of chaos nectar after another flew out, moving towards the eighteen white-robed youths. When the chaos nectar entered Ning’s body, Ning felt an unprecedented cold sensation fill it. Even his soul itself felt chilled. However, this icy feeling was quite comfortable, and he felt more refreshed and awake than he ever had before. Every part of his body, from his muscles and his flesh to his soul, felt alive and refreshed, as though he had just been bathed.
Ning immediately began to apply the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods] technique in guiding the chaos nectar to take affect in the necessary manner.
First the soul, then the Pure Yang Jindan…
They immediately began to grow at high speed, like a sapling growing into a tree. Even Ning’s divine power was rapidly increasing…
The auras of all eighteen white-robed youths were strengthening at a shockingly fast pace.
In truth, the first stage of this powerful technique was easy to learn precisely because it involved dividing the power of the true body into eighteen different bodies. The reason why the second stage was thousands of times harder was precisely because it involved using different types of extremely rare items to rebuild the lost power…but finding items that could replenish the soul and heartforce was incredibly difficult.
The third stage not only had high material requirements, it also required a certain level of insight, making it even harder to train. But once one succeeded, the eighteen clones would be able to once more merge together, resulting in a simply shocking increase in power. In truth, there had been many in the Pangaea chaos-kingdom who had acquired this technique, but aside from the King of Pangaea himself, no one had ever been able to train to the third stage.
……
The chaos region was completely silent.
The bottle of chaos nectar had long ago been used up. At the very bottom of the black bottle, a little bit of remaning chaos nectar could be seen.