Desolate Era

by RWX

  “The soul-imprint…?” The woman looked at Ning. A soul imprint would have a slight impact on her ability to comprehend the Dao, making it even harder for her to progress on her Immortal path.

  “There’s no need for a soul-imprint.” Ning shook his head. “However…I am going to use a soulscour technique on you. You are not to resist.” Since there was nowhere for these people to go, there really was no need for him to soul-imprint them.

  “Soulscour?” The woman hesitated for a moment. This was equivalent to revealing everything about herself to this man.

  “If you are unwilling to comply, then you are of no use to me,” Ning said.

  The woman gritted her teeth. “Fine. Lilisoft will comply, True Immortal.”

  Although the True Immortal in front of her was of the weakest tier…if they ended up actually fighting, even if the True Immortal was unable to kill her, he would be able to force her to use up her Immortal energy. Once it was all used up, she’d be finished. By contrast, the True Immortal in front of her was the Overseer; his own energy would be constantly replenished from the side world.

  “Excellent.” Ning nodded.

  Ning felt no pity at all for these alien Outsiders from the primordial chaos. For the sake of his own race…for the sake of his wife and daughter…Ning would show them no mercy, no matter how many he had to kill.

  Ning walked into the ‘cell’.

  Lilisoft shut her eyes. She sighed to herself. “I used an innate beauty spell, but it had no effect on him at all. Alas…” Just now, she had used up her Immortal energy to restore her appearance, then cast an innate beauty spell that enhanced her natural charm. This sort of natural, innate charm and beauty was even more effective than ordinary, coarse ‘charm’ spells.

  But alas, Ning’s heartforce was shockingly powerful, having reached the fourth level. It wasn’t something which the beauty of a Celestial Immortal like her could possibly shake. In truth…Ning hadn’t even noticed that this woman had cast a spell; all he had felt was that this woman truly was surpassingly beautiful. However, ever since he had sent his wife, Yu Wei, into the Infinity Hells…to him, external beauty was nothing more than rouge applied to a skeleton.

  Ning reached out, placing his hand upon the top of Lilisoft’s head, immediately using a soulscouring technique.

  Within her body was a dazzling, enormous golden Jindan. Above the Jindan, there were images of heaven, earth, mountains, rivers, and other things. The aura of the Jindan was incredibly powerful.

  “First-tier Jindans truly are formidable. She clearly is just a Celestial Immortal, but her Jindan isn’t weaker than my True Immortal Jindan at all.” Ning felt absolutely stunned as he sent his coresense into the Jindan. However, he immediately cast that aside as he began his soulscouring.

  Her soul had merged into her Jindan, becoming one with it. However, invisible strands of soul energy began to infiltrate her Jindan like dots of starlight, teasing their way into her soul. Fairy Lilisoft would’ve been able to effortless fight back, as she was actually Ning’s equal in power; there was no way for Ning to forcibly soulscour her. However, Fairy Lilisoft had already given her. She suppressed her instinctive desire to fight back, not daring to resist at all, allowing Ning to investigate as he pleased.

  Instantly, Ning began to flip through a large amount of memories.

  The many things Fairy Lilisoft had experienced after being born…

  The vastness and the might of the Pangaea chaos-kingdom…

  Everything was laid bare before Ning.

  “Oh, these are the cultivation techniques.” Ning finally located information regarding Ki Refining techniques within Fairy Lilisoft’s memories.

  “Eh?”

  These memories were sealed like bubbles. Ning wanted to go inside them, but the surface of these ‘bubbles’ was covered with many mysterious runes. No matter what Ning tried, he was unable to look inside these memories. All he was able to do was see a few odds bits and pieces from the outside.

  “In our Three Realms, people usually swear oaths to the Dao of the Heavens or swear Demonheart Oaths that they will not divulge or reveal the secrets behind certain important techniques. Even if an enemy attempts to soulscour them, the Dao of the Heavens will intervene to prevent it. This technique the Pangaea chaos-kingdom uses, however, is even tighter than that.” There was nothing Ning could do.

  The mysterious runes covering these memories were incomparably marvelous and profound. No Celestial Immortal could’ve possibly devised these runes; it had to have been her seniors within her school who had created them.

  Ning’s only choice was to give up and to continue viewing her other memories.

  He spent a full twelve hours doing so before he finally moved his hand away from Fairy Lilisoft’s hair. She simply had far too many memories, and Ning had wanted to get a detailed understanding of the Pangaea chaos-kingdom, which was why he had spent such a long period of time.

  “So that’s how things are.” A smile appeared on Ning’s face. “What an unexpected surprise.” After fully reviewing Fairy Lilisoft’s memories, he understood quite a bit about the Pangaea chaos-kingdom.

  Fairy Lilisoft had a very special status. Her grandfather…was the King of Pangaea! The King of Pangaea had three sons, and Fairy Lilisoft’s father was the second. When wandering the world, the second prince had ravished a sacred maiden of a local school, then went on his merry way, completely forgetting about her. Generally speaking, the more powerful one was, the harder it would be for one to conceive. The King of Pangaea, for example, had all three of his children prior to reaching the World-level, and none after.

  The second prince had never imagined that this casual rape of his would result in the birth of a daughter. For a ‘sacred maiden’ to grow pregnant and give birth…instantly, countless people cursed her as shameless, and her life became very difficult. Fairy Lilisoft had grown up by her mother’s side. She had watched as her mother was tormented, beaten, and cursed at until her mother finally committed suicide.

  This caused Fairy Lilisoft to feel boundless hatred towards this father she had never met.

  Some time after this, the King of Pangaea had cast a spell that alerted him to the fact that there was actually a member of his bloodline outside the palace. He found this granddaughter of his, then brought her back.

  Fairy Lilisoft’s status had instantly skyrocketed, and she was able to effortlessly destroy the school that had become a nightmarish hell for her mother.

  However, she actually felt even more hatred towards her father, the second prince. She had lain in wait like a viper, waiting for her chance. Finally, her chance came, and she sent the completely unprepared prince into the ‘Sea of Infinite Suffering’. Although the King of Pangaea quickly arrived to rescue the second prince, he had still spent a full hour inside the Sea of Infinite Suffering…and as a result, he had gone insane.

  The King of Pangaea had been utterly enraged by this. There were very few members in the imperial clan, however…and so instead of killing her, he had imprisoned her within a prisonworld!

  “The King of Pangaea truly is incredible. He was actually able to conquer a total of twelve chaosworlds. In fact, he has actually killed at least three World-level experts!” Ning was secretly amazed.

  After a chaosworld was born, it would slowly grow old with the passage of time, then perish. After its destruction, however, a new Fiendgod would be born who would establish a new chaosworld. Thus, the Pangaea chaos-kingdom had actually been commanding a very large region for a very long period of time.

  “He was able to kill someone at the level of Pangu and Mother Nuwa. The King of Pangaea is both a Fiendgod and a Ki Refiner. He truly is incredible.” Ning sighed.

  In terms of power…the Pangaea chaos-kingdom was far more powerful than the Three Realms.

  “However, I didn’t expect that the [Five Treasures] sword-art is actually this incredible.” Ning’s eyes lit up. “There definitely was no way that Daofather Fuju came up
with this sword-art. He must’ve found it somewhere.”

  Only after searching Fairy Lilisoft’s memories did Ning realize that only those who had reached the World-level could create a technique that surpassed the limits of the Heavenly Daos, with emphasis on the word ‘could’! Not every Chaos Immortal or World God was capable of creating such a technique. Not even Mother Nuwa had been able to do so.

  Even the Pangaea chaos-kingdom only had three techniques that surpassed the Heavenly Daos in some way.

  The Pangaea chaos-kingdom had a total of three World-level experts, with the King of Pangaea being the most powerful of them. The other two World-level experts, however, hadn’t been able to create any techniques that surpassed the Heavenly Daos. Two of the three had been created by the King of Pangaea, with the third having come from a chaosworld which they had conquered in the past.

  Techniques that surpassed the Heavenly Daos…even Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals of the Pangaea chaos-kingdom had to render major merits to the kingdom before they would be bestowed and taught one of the techniques. Celestial Immortals and Empyrean Gods weren’t even qualified to learn them at all. As for True Gods and True Immortals? They had to have astonishing talent, have extremely high statuses, and have rendered many contributions to the kingdom before they would be taught one.

  Those who were taught one of the three techniques would have to swear ‘life-oaths’ that they would not teach it to any others.

  In the Pangaea chaos-kingdom, the only one with the power to transmit these three major techniques to others was the King of Pangaea himself. All the Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals had sworn life-oaths upon acquiring them.

  “In other words…there’s no way I could possibly acquire any techniques that surpass the Heavenly Daos in this prisonworld.” Ning felt truly stunned. “Daofather Fuju of our Three Realms, however, actually possessed such a technique…something which only a tremendously wise person who was on Mother Nuwa’s level of power could devise.”

  Ning suddenly thought of the fact that before Daofather Fuju had died in the primordial chaos, he had actually arranged for this legacy to be taught to others. It was as though he had known that he would be in great danger.

  “Daofather Fuju must’ve acquired the [Five Treasures] sword-art from somewhere else. However, he didn’t want to divulge the location, which is why he claimed he created it,” Ning mused to himself.

  * * *

  Book 19, Chapter 32 - Dominating True Gods and True Immortals

  Lilisoft stood there, not daring to say a word. She knew that the ‘Overseer’ before her was thinking.

  Finally, Ji Ning looked towards her. “Excellent. I know that you are running out of spirit-pills. This bottle of spirit-pills should be enough for you to stay alive for a period of time.” As he spoke, he produce a jade bottle in his hand, filled with Pure Yang spirit-pills. These pills instantly caused Lilisoft’s eyes to light up.

  “Thank you, True Immortal.” Lilisoft was extremely respectful. This was exactly what she needed right now. In truth, Celestial Immortals used up very, very little energy if they focused on staying alive and didn’t fight against others. However…they simply couldn’t deal with the obscene amount of time they had been imprisoned here. A chaos cycle was an incredibly long period of time, and the total amount of Immortal energy they used up each chaos cycle was quite shocking.

  “There’s something I would ask you,” Ning said.

  “Pray tell, True Immortal.” Lilisoft was puzzled. The man knew all of her memories; why did he need to ‘ask’ her anything?

  “I trust you can tell that my Jindan is the weakest type of Jindan,” Ning said. “I’ve heard that there are ways to use chaos ingredients and special techniques to transform and upgrade the Jindan to the second tier. This prisonworld currently holds many prisoners. What should I do in order to acquire what I need from them and upgrade my Jindan?”

  Although he had seen her memories, her thoughts and her ideas remained her own.

  “Do you have any assistants, True Immortal?” Lilisoft looked at Ning.

  “I’m by myself,” Ning said.

  “If that’s the case…” Lilisoft pondered for a moment. “The weakest prisoners here are Empyrean Gods and Celestial Immortals. The higher level figures are True Gods and True Immortals, while the highest are Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals. The last two are able to draw upon the energy of primordial chaos and are very powerful; I imagine, True Immortal, that you won’t be a match for them.”

  “As for the Empyrean Gods and Celestial Immortals…they were fairly weak members of the Pangaea chaos-kingdom. No matter how ‘special’ they were, and even if they do know of methods to upgrade the Jindan, they would’ve been forced to swear life-oaths to never teach these methods to others. In addition, it’s virtually impossible that they might have valuable chaos ingredients on them.”

  “Thus, only the True Gods and True Immortals are left.” Lilisoft looked at Ning. “Only from them might you find the materials that you need, Lord Darknorth.”

  “Those True Gods and True Immortals generally haven’t reached the level of being able to draw upon the energy of primordial chaos, and so they are also forced to rely on using spirit-pills to survive. It’s one thing to use spirit-pills to preserve their lifeforce, but quite another to fight in battle.” Lilisoft smiled merrily at Ning. “If you continuously attack the True Gods and True Immortals, forcing them to use up their divine power or Immortal energy…no matter how many spirit-pills they have, they won’t be able to keep fighting for too long. In the end, they’ll end up running out of energy and dying.”

  “Milord, you can force them to submit to you! Alternately, you can kill them and take their treasures for yourself.”

  “The treasures which True Gods and True Immortals have are all far superior to the treasures which Empyrean Gods and Celestial Immortals have.” Lilisoft looked at Ning. “The prisonworld is a vast place, and there are many True God and True Immortal prisoners here. Kill them or force them into servitude. If you completely sweep through all of them…I trust, Lord Darknorth, that you’ll be able to find what you need.”

  Ning gave Lilisoft a glance.

  What a vicious mind she had. She was merciless, even to members of her fellow race. Although Ning had access to her memories, he truly hadn’t come up with an idea like this before.

  “Milord, all you need to do is stay outside the formation. You can attack them, but they won’t be able to attack you.” Lilisoft smiled at Ning. “The only outcome will be their defeat. Either they submit…or they perish.”

  “I’m far from being a match for True Immortals and True Gods.” Ning let out a sigh.

  To kill a True God? Or a True Immortal who was equivalent to a Three Realms Daofather?

  In the outside world…Ning wouldn’t even dare imagine such a thing, given his current level of power. But it would indeed be possible, here within the prisonworld.

  “Milord, all you need is patience. Each of the True Gods and True Immortals will be defeated by you, one by one. You’ll dominate them and sweep through them, aside from any who might be able to draw upon the energy of primordial chaos,” Lilisoft said. “Perhaps there are some with that power in this prisonworld, but they are definitely in the tiniest of minorities, less than one in a hundred.”

  Ning chuckled. “Very good.” He then turned and left.

  Time flowed on.

  Ning continued to sweep through the Empyrean Gods and Celestial Immortals, going through six more of them. Two of them, upon learning that the Pangaea chaos-kingdom had fallen, went berserk and tried to kill Ning. However, Ning was protected by the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art]; he wasn’t someone they could kill. Those two naturally ended up dying. As for the other four, they were actually delighted by this news, and they willingly allowed Ning to soulscour them.

  Their choice, after all, was to serve or to die. They knew what to choose.

  Ning had scoured the memories of a total of five Emp
yrean Gods and Celestial Immortals, Lilisoft included. He instantly knew far more regarding the Pangaea chaos-kingdom.

  “It seems I really do have to turn towards those True Gods and True Immortals.” Ning sat there within the Voidboat. “The idea which Celestial Immortal Lilisoft came up with is the only possible solution.”

  True Gods and True Immortals were far more exalted figures than Empyrean Gods and Celestial Immortals. Just like in the Three Realms, the difference in status was like the difference between Heaven and Earth.

  Status…power…treasures…they were on a completely different level. In fact, in the Pangaea chaos-kingdom, some powerful True Gods and True Immortals of certain schools were permitted to transmit the Dao on their own accord, and so they actually carried certain techniques with them.

  Whoosh. The Voidboat flew into the air above a lake. The lake was dotted with tiny little islands, one of which had a True Immortal prisoner on it.

  Atop the island.

  True Immortal Winterpeak was seated in the lotus position, completely absorbed in his own thoughts. Suddenly, he sensed ripples from the outside world and was startled into wakefulness.

  “Someone’s coming?” True Immortal Winterpeak opened his eyes. He instantly saw the white-robed figure who was a few hundred kilometers away. He was quite surprised. “A…True Immortal? With such a puny aura? This is a True Immortal of the weakest variety possible.”

  For the denizens of the Pangaea chaos-kingdom, True Immortals had a much higher status than Empyrean Gods and Celestial Immortals, who were considered equal to each other. Ning’s true body was both a Fiendgod and a Ki Refiner, and Winterpeak could sense the Fiendgod aura emanating from Ning’s body, but he paid much more attention to Ning’s Pure Yang aura. Except…the Pure Yang aura around Ning was ridiculously weak.

  “You are the new Overseer?” The look on True Immortal Winterpeak’s face suddenly changed. “What happened to Pangaea? How could it have sent you here?”