The Desolate Era

“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 within 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.

“Success.” The eighteen white-robed youths simultaneously opened their eyes.

“From this day forth...I finally have the strength I need to truly battle against the Seamless Gate.” Ning could finally sense that the terrifying pressure the Seamless Gate had brought him had begun to lessen. Finally, he had a true chance to rescue his senior apprentice-sister.