by RWX
In the primordial chaos, this was considered to be secret information. Only people with exalted statuses would be in possession of this knowledge. World God Northrest, for example, knew these things because Vastheaven Palace had an excellent repository of legacies. Ordinary cultivators weren’t in possession of this information. Ning wished to tell his master and the others, but when World God Northrest had transmitted these legacies to Ning, Ning had long ago been forced to swear a lifeblood oath that unless he became a World God, he was not permitted to teach anyone the things which World God Northrest had taught him.
Boom!
Ning activated the technique for making a breakthrough.
Instantly, his divine body gave birth to an incredibly powerful sucking effect that filled the prisonworld. The prisonworld had an enormous formation that was meant to distill the primordial chaos within it into chaos nectar, but as Ning made his breakthrough, his body began to ravenously draw energy from the primordial chaos. This caused the formerly calm primordial chaos within the prisonworld to suddenly become turbulent.
Rumble…
More and more chaos energy was drawn into Ning’s body and converted into divine power.
The Dao of the Sword served as his core, and it transformed the chaos energy into divine power that was far purer than the divine power he had as an Empyrean God. It was the divine power of a True God.
As more and more divine power built up inside Ning’s body, it slowly began to evolve and transform. Every single bit of divine power in his body was transforming.
……
“What’s going on?”
“Why can’t I draw any more divine power? The prisonworld’s formation is constantly leeching energy from the primordial chaos, taking away more than 90% of it, but we should still be able to draw power from the remaining amount. But now, I can’t draw any power from it at all.”
“What happened to the primordial chaos? Why did it become so frenzied and turbulent?”
The Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals imprisoned within the prisonworld, alongside exceptional True Gods and True Immortals who were able to tap the power of primordial chaos such as True God Shiyu, all became puzzled.
“A breakthrough?”
“A Fiendgod Body Refiner has made a breakthrough. By the looks of it, it is at least a breakthrough to the True God level. In fact, it could very well be a breakthrough to the Elder God level.” Upon sensing how frenzied the primordial chaos had become, the prisoners quickly understood what was happening. However, they were quite puzzled. Generally speaking, those with enough potential to make a breakthrough would’ve done so long ago in the outside world. There was no way to even sense the Daos in this world. In the past three chaos cycles, not a single prisoner had made a large breakthrough like this. Who had just broken through?!
Some prisoners quickly thought of the newly arrived Overseer.
“Could it be the Overseer?” True God Shiyu, who had replanted his flower garden within the gorge, couldn’t help but frown.
The Fiendgod Body Refining techniques of the Three Realms generally drew on the power of outside stars. The [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens], for example, drew from the energy of the Solar Star and the Lunar Star. The other techniques would draw from the Seven Big Dipper Stars or from other star systems and constellations.
Where did the energy of stars come from?
The primordial chaos gave birth to many stars. The energy given off by stars, ‘stellar energy’, was essentially the energy of primordial chaos that had already been converted. This sort of pre-converted energy was naturally easier to absorb. The [Solitary World God], however, was even more profound; when breaking through, one could draw energy straight from the primordial chaos itself.
However, only in the exact moment of the breakthrough would this be possible. It was much like how the [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens] allowed for the energy of Lunar Truewater and Solar Truefire to descend upon its practitioners in the moment of breakthrough. During normal cultivation, however, one needed to slowly, steadily draw upon stellar energy.
The [Solitary World God] was able to absorb all types of stellar energy. It could even absorb energy from the frozen star on which Ning was currently located.
If Ning had some insights into the Dao of Primordial Chaos, then even during normal cultivation he would be able to draw energy from the primordial chaos.
……
A grassy area.
Ning was seated in the lotus position, surrounded by an crater. It was as though he was an enormous meteor that had smashed on the ground and created a crater, but in reality it had been created by the enormous flow of chaos energy that had surged here earlier.
“Whew.”
Ning opened his eyes.
“I’ve changed.” Ning could sense how powerful his body had become. Previously, he was a mere Empyrean God, but thanks to the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods] and the [One True Body] technique he was equivalent to a half-step True God! Now that he had broken through to become an actual True God, he could be considered half a step into the Elder God realm of power.
“In all the Three Realms…”
“The likes of Daoist Three Purities, Lord Tathagata the Buddha…the likes of Suiren, Shennong, and Fuxi…and even the likes of Daomother Devilhand and Keeper Everwood of the Seamless Gate…they are nothing more than True Gods,” Ning murmured to himself. “I am a True God as well, and I can be considered a half-step Elder God. Finally…I finally have the power I need to change the course of the entire war for the Three Realms.”
The major powers of the three Realms were primarily composed of Daofathers and True Gods.
Three Purities, Tathagata, Suiren, Shennong, Fuxi, Subhuti, Houyi, Daomother Devilhand, Keeper Everwood…all of them were True Gods! True Gods and Daofathers!
The reason why they were able to unleash the overlord level of power and be comparable to Elder Gods in might was primarily because their insights into the Dao were far, far too profound.
Tathagata, for example, had thoroughly mastered all five of the Heavenly Daos of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth. These five Heavenly Daos formed a complementary set known as the Five Elements, joining together to unleash a truly dominating level of force. His insights into the Dao of Primordial Chaos had also reached an inconceivable level! By relying on his insights into the Daos, he was able to unleash a level of power that was comparable to that of Elder Gods.
The same was true for the likes of Fuxi, Shennong, and Suiren; they all had exceedingly high levels of insights into the Daos!
Mastery of the Heavenly Daos of Yin and Yang, mastery of the Heavenly Daos of the Five Elements…all of them had extremely profound levels of insight into the Dao, which was why they were comparable to Elder Gods!
Daofathers could be divided into three levels of power.
Ordinary Daofathers were quite ordinary indeed; they would usually have mastery over one or two of the Heavenly Daos.
Top-tier Daofathers generally held mastery over fifth-stage taiji-force, infiniforce, swordforce, or other types of force.
Overlord-class Daofathers were equivalent to Elder Gods! Firegod Zhurong, Watergod Gonggong, the Ancestor Dragon, the Phoenix, and the other Elder Gods were born with mastery over one Heavenly Dao, and their insights into the Daos were significantly inferior to that of Tathagata and Three Purities. However, thanks to the great power of their divine bodies, they still were overlord-class powers. Alas, some died in the wars for supremacy during the Primordial Era, while others died in the war that ended the Primordial Era.
Nuwa had eventually left.
Fuxi had chosen to reincarnate. He had become a human, but to this very day he had yet to awaken his memories from his past life. He was just a True God and a Daofather, not an Elder God.
A number of the Elder Gods of the Seamless Gate had also died in battle, with the Lord of the Demonheart having fused himself into the Heavenly Daos.
In all the Three Realms�
�the only true Elder God was the Lord of All Fiends. Him and him alone! The second could be considered Ji Ning…a half-step Elder God!
“My insights into the Dao, compared to the other overlords, are rather lacking. However, my path is the path of swordforce. By relying on my fifth-stage swordforce and my sword-arts which surpass the limits of the Heavenly Daos, as well as my half-step Elder God divine body, I should have the power of an overlord Daofather.” Ning had battled against Daomother Devilhand, and so he knew exactly where he ranked in terms of power.
“Seamless Gate. Godking!” Ning’s eyes were filled with a strong, murderous intent. Now that he had become more powerful, his murderous intent had only strengthened even further.
“I’ve changed.”
“The world…shall change as well.”
Ning murmured these words softly to himself, his voice filled with a thick desire to kill.
In the past, he had to wait. Had to endure.
That was only because back then, he wasn’t strong enough yet. But now…he was!
“I won’t rush things. First, I’ll repair the surface layer of Violetjewel. By then, I’ll be even more powerful.” Ning waved his hand, putting away the stone sword-steles and the jade shrine. He then transformed into a black lightning serpent, disappearing into the horizons with a flash as he flew towards the location of the Five Elements Cauldron.
* * *
Book 22, Chapter 2 - Divine Sword, Violetjewel
Ji Ning descended from the skies, landing next to the Five Elements Cauldron. He turned to look at the ancient stone platform next to it, as well as the the blood-colored sword placed atop it. The sword’s body was still filled with cracks.
“Violetjewel…” Ning stared at the sword for a moment, then waved his hand. Whoosh! A large amount of treasures came flying out of nowhere, every single one emanating astonishingly powerful auras. The treasures almost instantly formed a small mountain in size. These were virtually all of the Protocosmic spirit-treasures Ning had acquired from the hundred-plus True Gods and True Immortals.
And after sweeping through so many True Gods and True Immortals, Ning had also acquired a Chaos treasure. The Chaos treasure was a great warhammer that sparked with countless flickers of lightning.
“So many Protocosmic spirit-treasures…well, no point to having too many of them.” Ning pointed to the distant Five Elements Cauldron. “Activate.”
Rumble…
The Five Elements Cauldron instantly began to emanate an aura of power and might as its handles radiated with five blinding colors of light.
“In you go.” Ning released a thin sliver of sword-attribute divine power that immediately swept all those Protocosmic spirit-treasures up. The sabers, swords, axes, beads…the various Protocosmic spirit-treasures continuously flew into the mouth of the Five Elements Cauldron, which furiously ground them apart and extracted the Five Elements essence from within them. In just ten seconds, Ning had thrown nearly thirty Protocosmic spirit-treasures into the cauldron, transforming them into tiny bits of debris. The amount of Five Elements essence inside the cauldron’s storage region had increased by quite a bit as a result.
The many Protocosmic spirit-treasures flew in, batch by batch.
Any major power of the Three Realms would’ve been terrified by this sight. Ning himself felt pain in his heart as well, but for the sake of repairing Violetjewel…it would all be worth it.
Crackle…hiss…pop…
Sounds of treasures being broken down rang out continuously from within the Five Elements Cauldron. The mountain-sized pile of treasures that had been next to it was shrinking rapidly, at a pace that could be detected with the naked eye. Soon, almost all of the treasures were completely used up.
“So much essence?” Ning looked at the Five Elements Cauldron. The storage region within it now contained an enormous amount of Five Elements essence.
A large amount of debris and rubble flew out from within the mouth of the cauldron. As it flew out, it was merely the size of a sphere that was roughly a few meters in radius, but once it completely exited the cauldron it quickly expanded to become a massive mountain of debris that was thirty thousand meters high. Ning ‘pincered’ the rubbish with his divine power, then gave them a casual toss. Swoosh! The massive pile of debris flew hundreds of kilometers away, and where it landed a giant mountain was born.
“Let’s see if it works, this time. Based on my previous experiences…this amount of essence should be enough.” Ning turned to look at the blood-colored sword atop the stone dais. Swoosh! The sword instantly flew into the air and came to hover in front of Ning.
“Emerge.” Ning pointed at the sword.
Five streams of colored energy surged out from the Five Elements Cauldron; the gold of Metal, the blue of Water, the green of Wood, the crimson of Fire, and the black of Earth. They swirled around the blood-colored sword in circles, and Violetjewel instantly began to shudder. It was like a starving beggar who had suddenly encountered a scrumptious feast. It instantly began to furiously devour the ‘food’ surrounding it. The five streams of energy completely surrounded it, but one could still vaguely see that the surface of the blood-colored sword was slowly beginning to heal. Some cracks were visibly growing smaller and smaller before disappearing entirely.
Time slowly passed.
More and more of the energy streams flowed out of the cauldron and into Violetjewel. The speed at which the sword was being repaired at was noticeably much faster now than when Ning had been using Pure Yang treasures.
It spend more than two hours swallowing the energy of the Five Elements essence before the cauldron finally ran empty.
“Eh?!” Ning stared at the beautiful blood-colored sword hovering in the air, a slight frown on his face. The sword was breathtakingly, terrifyingly beautiful, but two tiny cracks could still be seen on the body of this beautiful sword. These two were the two final cracks that remained.
“It actually isn’t repaired yet.” Ning frowned. “What should I do? I’ve used up almost all the Pure Yang treasures and Protocosmic spirit-treasures. I only have a single Chaos treasure that I don’t need, but there’s a limit to how strong this cauldron is. It wouldn’t necessarily be able to destroy a Chaos treasure,” Ning mused to himself.
The Five Elements Cauldron was just a Protocosmic spirit-treasure. It would be extremely difficult for the cauldron to destroy a Chaos treasure and extract essence from it.
“Oh, right.” Ning suddenly thought of another treasure. With but a thought, he instantly caused an ape-shaped golem to appear in the air. It was the Envoy of All Things.
“The critical components to this Envoy are all destroyed. There’s no point keeping it around. The Seamless Gate paid an enormous price to create each of these Envoys; when a Daofather is in command of them, they are all capable of unleashing power close to that of an overlord-class figure. This treasure is far more useful than a Chaos treasure, and it is made from more valuable materials as well.” Ning secretly nodded to himself. “It has to have a great deal of Five Elements essence within it.”
Although the Envoy was powerful, the physical makeup of the Envoy itself was merely comparable to top-grade Protocosmic spirit-treasures. For such an enormous, powerful golem to reach the Chaos treasure level in its entirety was far too difficult.
“Go.” Not hesitating at all, Ning threw the Envoy into the Five Elements Cauldron as well.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The Envoy instantly began to be ground apart. It was extremely hard to forcibly break apart a top-grade Protocosmic spirit-treasure, but the Five Elements Cauldron was able to accomplish it easily. It operated on the basis of principles that were completely antithetical to the existence of treasures such as the Envoy! After a long while, the entire Envoy had been completely harvested. Nothing was left but some debris, with a large amount of Five Elements essence having been extracted.
“A single Envoy contains far more essence than a hundred Protocosmic spirit-treasures. No
wonder the Seamless Gate, despite all of its vast resources, was only able to produce a few of them.” Ning’s eyes lit up. He immediately guided the extracted Five Elements essence outwards, sending those five streaks of energy to once more swirl around Violetjewel.
Rumble!
Violetjewel began to emit a ringing soon as it quickly absorbed the Five Elements essence. Ning carefully stared at those two small cracks, watching as they quickly shrank in size and depth, then completely disappeared. Next, some of the shattered rune-lines on the inside of Violetjewel began to be repaired as well. However, repairing the internal structure of Violetjewel was far more difficult.
A short while later, all of the Five Elements essence was used up. The amount of internal damage that had been repaired, however, was almost negligible.
“World God Northrest’s words were correct.” Ning sighed softly. “Repairing the surface layer is easy, but repairing the internal damage…it’ll be thousands of times more difficult.”
“Fortunately, the most critical and precious part of the sword, its core, remains perfectly intact. Even though my sacrifice of the Envoy and all those treasures only allowed me to repair the surface layer, the sword can still once more unleash some of its true power.” Ning stretched his hand out and the blood-colored sword fell into his hands.
As soon as the blood-colored sword entered Ning’s hands, he could sense the inconceivable power held within it.
However, because the internal structure of the sword was badly damaged, only a portion of its full power could be unleashed at present.
“What a terrifying sword.”
Ning gently swung the sword.
Whoosh.
The space in front of him split apart, creating a tear in space that stretched out to ten thousand kilometers.
“Although only part of its power is usable, it’s still terrifyingly strong. Thanks to this sword, in all the Three Realms my offensive attack power is most likely number one. Only Keeper Everwood, Lord Tathagata the Buddha, and a few others who are extremely skilled in defense would be able to withstand a head-on blow from me,” Ning murmured softly to himself. The existence of this sword made a huge difference to him in terms of power.