by RWX
These ten disciples were all overjoyed, but they also felt stunned. Daolord Darknorth had personally forged them? Forging Dao-seals was fairly easy, and many major powers were capable of it, but the cost was quite high as only valuable materials could be used to store such incredible levels of power. And… more importantly, the creator of the Dao-seal had to understand the Daos he was infusing into each seal.
In other words… if their senior apprentice-brother Darknorth created that many Dao-seals for them, he must have reached inconceivable heights in the Dao of the Sword, the Dao of Space, the Dao of Time, the Dao of Karma, and multiple other Daos!
“Here are a hundred million cubes of chaos nectar for each of you.” Ning waved his hand, causing a few more storage-type treasures to fly out.
“Here are some top-grade Eternal swords which have been made in accordance with your own specific insights into the Dao of the Sword. Each of you can have six.” Ning waved his hand again, causing a total of sixty swords to fly out towards the ten.
Top-grade Eternal treasures? Ning had a literal mountain of these things. In truth, every single Hegemon had piles and piles of top-grade Eternal treasures. Ning was far wealthier than most Hegemons. Not only had he blackmailed multiple Hegemons and killed Hegemon Winterflame, he had also accumulated a terrifying amount of treasure when he had swept through the Jadefire Realm. He had a total of six Universe treasures! Alas, none of them were swords.
“I’ve already given you everything I can and should. Sword-arts, divine abilities, secret arts… you’ll find them all within the Sword Shack,” Ning said. “If you want to earn them, go into the Sword Shack and fight for them. Go now. I’ve already set up estates for you within Vastheaven Palace. Calm your minds and train hard. You can come find me if you have any questions… but remember, each of you will only have ten opportunities!”
“Understood.” The ten fellow disciples all departed excitedly.
“What an absolute fortune.”
“Each of us was given a hundred million cubes!”
“Perhaps ordinary Daolords of the Fourth Step might feel pain at giving away a billion cubes of chaos nectar, but senior apprentice-brother treats Hegemons as equals. He’s able to toss out such sums without batting an eye.”
“Ah! The Sword Shack has a prayer mat inside. When my Primaltwin sat down upon it, its cultivation speed increased dramatically. This thing is far more valuable than the cubes of chaos nectar!” While journeying towards their estates, these ten ‘fellow disciples’ began to discover how marvelous the prayer mat was. All of them were stunned by it. There were many Eternal Emperors who would be envious of such a treasure!
……
Most of the treasures which Ning had prepared for his fifth disciple Boundless and his sixth disciple Muse were on par with what the other ten had been given. The only difference lay in the Sword Shack.
“Before you become Samsara Daolords, the two of you shall also have ten chances to come ask me for instruction,” Ning said. “Therefore, you should train hard within the Sword Shack. Do your best to resolve your questions on your own. If you find that you can make no progress at all, come find me.”
“Understood.” Boundless and Muse were incredibly respectful.
“You can go now,” Ning instructed, and the two immediately departed obediently.
Upon seeing everyone finally leave, the nearby Hegemon Azurefiend finally spoke up: “Darknorth, don’t you think you are just a bit too casual when it comes to teaching your students?”
“I can guide them, but providing them with overly detailed tutelage will actually constrain their growth,” Ning said. “It’ll be far more helpful for them if they can find answers to their questions on their own, rather than come to me for everything. Besides… the ‘Sword Shack’ I created for them can be viewed as half a teacher as well.”
“You might be overestimating your disciples a bit. Most of them have merely devised multiple Supreme Daos and have yet to even fuse them together. Not everyone is as freakishly talented as you, you know.” Azurefiend shook his head.
“Well… if they just can’t progress, then they can live in mediocrity.” Ning smiled. By its very nature, the Dao of the Sword required one to advance without looking back and to act in accordance with one’s own nature. How could one possibly become a major power if someone was always yammering at him about what he should do? Even though he was their teacher, he couldn’t interfere too much in their choices.
Besides… the more famous a teacher was, the greater his influence would be on his students. He had to be careful, and he couldn’t provide them with excessive guidance. If he did, he might end up causing his students to depart from the path which actually suited them the most. The path which was best for Ning wasn’t necessarily the path which was best for his students.
However… just letting them roam freely wasn’t an option either. This was why Ning had chosen to create the Sword Shack, which he had infused with the foundations of virtually all paths one could take in the Dao of the Sword. He would let his disciples choose the path which suited them the most.
Although it looked as though Ning was acting in a casual fashion, in reality he had put a lot of effort and consideration into how he was going to teach the disciples he had chosen. This was true for both his personal disciples and the disciples he had chosen on behalf of Emperor Mirrorsnow. Yes, he was technically just their ‘senior apprentice-brother’, but in reality he was like their master. This was why Ning had worked so hard to create all those different types of Dao-seals for them, which would be enough to allow them to deal with all sorts of strange predicaments. They were more than enough for the types of adventures which World-level cultivators would get into.
……
After having accepted all these disciples, Ning led Flamewing, Azurefiend, and Whitethaw in departing from the Flamedragon Realmverse once more. This time, they were going to go on a very distant journey to a place outside the demesnes of the Sixteen Realmverses Alliance.
As for his disciples? Ning’s avatar would be permanently stationed at Vastheaven Palace and would keep an eye on everything which happened in Flamedragon Realmverse. Thus, it could also teach and guide the disciples.
Whoosh. The realmship continued its advance through the endless Great Dark. Inside the realmship, Azurefiend and Flamewing were gorging on a veritable sea of food, while Whitethaw quietly stood guard over Ning. Ning, in turn, was pondering while holding onto a jade slip.
Realmslord Windgrace had given him this slip, and it included all the information he had acquired regarding the dangerous place he was about to visit.
“The Icewind Sea?” Ning mused silently. The Icewind Sea was a place which Realmslord Windgrace and his peers had scouted out in the past, and they were the ones who had chosen this name.
The Icewind Sea could be described in one word – cold! However, it was a place which gave birth to quite a few fire-aligned treasures, with the Daomerge Firecloud Flower being one of them. This was also the treasure which Ning valued the most highly.
* * *
Book 38, Chapter 32 - Icewind Sea
“Realmslord Windgrace and his peers have ventured inside the Icewind Sea in the past, and they encountered a Sourcewalker who was at the Otherverse Lord level of power when they were there.” Ji Ning nodded. “Within the realms of what we can handle. Although he’s beyond myself and Azurefiend, so long as we have Flamewing with us we can deal with him with ease. However, this Sourcewalker has lived within the Icewind Sea and is able to make use of its local environs. It’ll be quite difficult to deal with.”
“We have to be careful. If we let it catch us offguard and ambush us, both I and Azurefiend will both be at risk of dying,” Ning mused.
……
The realmship warped through spacetime for over half a million years before finally reaching the distant ‘Icewind Sea’.
“How beautiful.” Ning, Azurefiend, Whitethaw, and Flamewing stood within the realmship, s
taring in amazement at the beautiful scenes outside.
The endless Great Dark should be filled with nothing but darkness. It was an empty, lonely place without even a hint of light… but now, an enormous silvery-white vortex-world had appeared before them. A fierce, icy gale was howling throughout the region, forming an icy maelstrom of absolutely inconceivable size around it. Although Ning’s group was able to see it with the naked eye, they were actually still extremely far away from it. This vortex had to be comparable in size to an entire territory!
“The Icewind Sea,” Ning murmured softly.
“What an enormous sea of cold energy. I feel as though endless amounts of freezing energy have gathered around this area,”Azurefiend said with an amazed sigh. “Although I’ve visited many realmverses and seen quite a few dangerous places, this truly is my first time seeing such an enormous conglomeration of cold energy.”
Ning concurred, “Normal realmverses are filled with lightning, wind, light, darkness, and all types of other energy. That’s why life is able to flourish and take root! In addition, the various streams of energy will be fairly docile and not too agitated… but the cold energy here has spread out to cover an entire territory in size! We could take all of the cold energy out of the Flamedragon Realmverse and put it here, and it still wouldn’t be as dense as this.”
“Weaker Eternal Emperors would probably be frozen to death,” Azurefiend said with a laugh. “That’s why this place, filled with such freezing might, is capable of giving birth to so many inconceivable treasures. Realmverses are quite plain and ordinary by comparison, which means they are unable to give birth to truly remarkable treasures.”
“I don’t like this place,” the nearby Flamewing muttered.
“We’ll leave right after I harvest the Daomerge Firecloud Flower,” Ning consoled.
Whoosh. The realmship began to engage in short-distance warps. It soon arrived at the borders to the Icewind Sea.
Slash. Slash. Slash. The furious wind howled against the realmship, striking against it as though it was formed from icy knives. The realmship was in peak condition and thus was able to endure the attacks with ease, but its flight path became slightly twisted.
“This wind is far too powerful,” Azurefiend muttered.
“We learned long ago from this jade slip that we must pass through this tempest layer if we wish to reach the continent inside the Icewind Sea,” Ning said.
The Icewind Sea was called a ‘sea’ but it wasn’t an actual sea. It was actually an absolutely enormous iceberg which naturally attracted all of the surrounding cold energy of the Chaosverse in an extremely large area. This was why such a terrifying vortex had appeared around it. This terrifying vortex was capable of killing even weaker Eternal Emperors. This sort of extreme environment was highly inhospitable for ordinary lifeforms to enter or live in.
Only Hegemons and Otherverse Lords and other major powers on or above their level would dare to enter a place like this.
……
There was no way to teleport through spacetime within the tempest layer. The only option was to slowly fly through it.
Under Ning’s control, the realmship slowly stabilized as it followed the wind inwards. Given Ning’s mastery over the Dao of Wind and the Dao of Lightning, the realmship was able to maintain its incredible speeds as it pressed onwards. Alas, the tempest layer was simply so vast that flying through it would take time.
They flew at top speed for over ninety thousand years.
“Look! There’s a planet up ahead,” Azurefiend called out.
“A planet?” Flamewing turned to look, then smirked. “That’s not a planet, that’s just a hunk of ice.” Indeed, it was a piece of ice that was billions of kilometers in diameter which was flying through the tempest layer at high speeds.
“Let’s move over and take a look. According to Realmslord Windgrace’s records, these planet-sized hunks of ice all broke free from the main Windsea ‘continent’ and often have marvelous treasures hidden within them.” Ning smiled. “If we’re lucky, we might even find a Daomerge Firecloud Fruit.” Ning and the others were quite patient; even if they spent a few dozen chaos cycles hunting for the Daomerge Firecloud Fruit, it would be fine.
Rumble… as the realmship drew closer, a wave of chaotic force suddenly swept across the realmship, causing it to tremble. It took Ning nearly an hour before they were finally able to successfully land on the ice ‘planet’.
This ice planet had its own gravitational field which repelled the tempest outside of it. As a result, things were quite calm on the surface of the planet.
“Whew. We finally made it out.” Azurefiend flew out, rather excited. Ning put away the realmship and then descended as well. This was a world of nothing but ice; even the ‘ground’ was solid ice!
“The ice…?” Ning made a casual grabbing motion towards the ground, causing a claw-shadow to sweep out against the icy ground. He wanted to forcibly tear out a chunk of it, but the only result was a clacking sound as a few scratches appeared on the ice.
“It’s that tough?” Ning was rather amazed. It looked as though he would have to put some real effort into it. He waved a finger, causing a streak of sword-light to fly out and carve a large hole in the ground, digging out a large chunk of ice. The ice then flew straight towards Ning, who reached out to touch it. He could sense the terrifying cold within the ice.
Ning couldn’t help but feel speechless. This was far colder than some of the famous types of mystic ice which existed in the Flamedragon Realmverse, and it was far tougher as well. His claw-strike had failed to pull anything out of it. In the end, he had been forced to exert 50% of his full power to carve this piece out.
Azurefiend’s voice suddenly rang out from off in the distance: “What the hell type of ice is this? It’s incredibly tough! I’m a freaking Hegemon, but I wasn’t able to break it apart by stomping on it!”
“This ice is everywhere. Don’t worry about it for now. Hurry up and search this place. Let’s see if we can find any treasures,” Ning said.
“Yes, Master,” Whitethaw said.
“I’ll go search as well.” Flamewing returned to his usual form, excitedly spreading his wings and then flying into the air. It had been quite some time since he had flown about in such a manner.
As for Ning, he began to search this place using his powers over spacetime. Godsense was of no use; every part of the Icewind Sea was filled with such an overwhelming aura of limitless cold that even godsense was suppressed, making it impossible for him to search too far with it.
“Eh?” Ning scanned the area, his gaze seeing past space and time as he scoured the place. “That’s a lot of treasure.” Ning quickly found certain treasures which lay within some fairly well-hidden places.
He saw a completely crystalline-looking tree of ice, a warm jewel, a fiery-red clump of grass, and more. Ning was able to name some of them, but most were completely foreign to him. All of them were clearly quite valuable. However, Ning was so incredibly wealthy by now that he didn’t really care about these treasures. Most likely, all of the treasures he had discovered would be at most compared to the networth of an ordinary Eternal Emperor. Still… this was a testament to what an incredible place the Icewind Sea was and how many treasures it held!
However, this was a place so dangerous that even someone like Realmslord Windgrace would only enter after calling a few friends to help out.
“Master! Master!” Flamewing let out an excited cry, his voice forcibly tearing through the suppressive effect of the terrifying aura of cold. Ning was able to hear him clearly from afar.
“Flamewing, what happened?!” Ning immediately moved, transforming into a streak of light as he flew straight towards Flamewing. Flamewing was standing within an icy gorge.
“Master, take a look! Do you see that?” Flamewing was rather excited, and he flapped his wing a few times as he pointed towards the front.
Ning hurriedly looked, only to see a series of long slender green leaves
that were each three meters long. They were all growing slanted alongside the distant, icy-jade walls of the gorge. There had to be hundreds of those leaves, and there was a fruit at the very center of them. This fruit was completely azure in color, and it emanated a particularly pungent smell.
“Incense Spirit-Fruit?” Ning was rather amazed. This fruit was the second-ranked Daomerge treasure, but it clearly wasn’t ripe yet. Fully ripened Incense Spirit-Fruit was flecked with red and would emanate an absolutely alluring aroma which would cause even Hegemons to drool. For many major powers, Incense Spirit-Fruit was primarily considered a delicacy to be eaten. How many Daolords could possibly procure such a treasure, after all?
“So the Icewind Sea has Incense Spirit-Fruit within it?” Ning was very surprised. When Realmslord Windgrace had come here, he hadn’t found any Incense Spirit-Fruit. However, the Icewind Sea was a very large place; there had to be many places here which the Realmslord had yet to visit.
“Haha.” Hegemon Azurefiend flew over as well. He stared at the Incense Spirit-Fruit, then laughed, “Darknorth, your luck isn’t bad. We’ve just entered the Icewind Sea and haven’t even landed on the main continent, and you’ve already discovered some Incense Spirit-Fruit on an iceberg planet floating at the very outskirts. Given your crazy luck, you will probably be able to find the Daomerge Cloudfire Flower after all.”
“Right.” Ning nodded. Judging from the information Realmslord Windgrace had provided, Incense Spirit-Fruit would probably be of very limited use to him. However, it was still far more valuable than a Voidsea Jadeseal and still could be considered a valuable treasure.