The Desolate Era

The youth stared at Ji Ning, his eyes filled with hope.

“It was destroyed,” Ning replied. Even if it wasn’t destroyed, the thirty-six stone steles had been split up. Given how long this one had been within the Three Realms, there was likely no way the Pangaea chaos-kingdom would ever find it again.

“Destroyed? Destroyed. But...how...? Princess...Master...n-no...” The youth finally broke down. He had resolutely stood firm for three full chaos cycles because of that unyielding desire in his heart. Three full chaos cycles! There had been many True Gods who had felt despair due to solitude and killed themselves, but he, a mere Celestial Immortal, had been able to persevere for so many years.

“It was your people. You wiped out our Pangaea chaos-kingdom...you destroyed everything...took everything from me...n-no...” The youth went crazy.

“Go DIEEEEEEE!” Hundreds of streaks of light suddenly exploded forth from the youth’s body. The streaks of light swirled around him, and then an enormous, jade-green sword-shadow suddenly appeared, chopping down towards Ning.

Ning had been fairly calm, because all of this was as he had expected, and the person before him was merely a Celestial Immortal. Upon seeing the attack, however, Ning was truly stunned. The enormous jade-green sword-shadow carried so much power that his heart clenched. This wasn’t an attack which Celestial Immortals were capable of. In fact, not even every Pure Yang True Immortal was as powerful as this!

“Impossible! [Starseizing Hand]!!!”

Ning didn’t dare to hesitate at all. He immediately executed the [Starseizing Hand] ability.

Whoosh!

An enormous palm, glowing with blurry light, smashed downwards towards the giant jade-green sword-shadow.

BOOM! The two collided. Shockwaves spread outwards from the collision, causing the earth to tremble and crack.

Ning couldn’t help but be knocked several steps backwards by the collision. As for the youth, he still stood there, eyes completely bloodshot as he stared crazily at Ning.

“How can this be? You are merely a Celestial Immortal. How can you be this powerful? This is impossible.” Ning was completely stunned. This outcome had completely turned his world upside-down. After using the [Starseizing Hand], he could be considered a supreme Empyrean God. Why, then, was he put at a disadvantage when colliding against that sword?

“Die, die, DIE! GO DIE!!!” The youth had gone completely mad.

“It seems I’ll have to suppress him in order to understand what is going on.” Ning unleashed his full power. “[Starseizing Hand]!”

The same technique, the [Starseizing Hand]...but this time, Ning’s powerful fourth-stage heartforce was completely activated at full power. The power of the [Starseizing Hand] instantly increased once more. Most likely, it was comparable to a full-strength arrow from the divine archers of the Three Realms.

Rumble...

The enormous palm smashed downwards with unearthly powerful. It was markedly and visibly far more powerful than before. When the Celestial Immortal’s enormous jade-green sword-shadow chopped against it, there was a sudden explosion, followed by the sword-shadow instantly breaking apart. The giant palm, however, continued to chop downwards. The y outh wanted to dodge, but the giant palm made a sudden grabbing motion.

Whoosh! It seized the youth, capturing the youth within itself.

“Fourth stage heartforce?” The youth stared at Ning, laughing like a madman, his laughter tinged with desolate grief. “So what if your heartforce is at the fourth stage? You are such a weak True Immortal.”

“Speak! How could a Celestial Immortal like you be so powerful?” Ning stared at him.

“Ahahaha...I’m not powerful, you are just puny!” The youth stared at Ning. “I would never have thought that the Pangaea chaos-world would be destroyed and that this prisonworld would end up in the hands of someone as weak as you.”

“Answer me!” Ning’s giant palm clenched around the youth as he said coldly, “How can a Celestial Immortal be as strong as you? Why did you say I am weak?”

“It’s too late...too late. Even if you found out, it’s still too late.” The youth truly seemed gripped by madness as he giggled, “But I still refuse to tell you. Not gonna tell you! Ahahaha...”

Ning frowned. He could sense that this youth truly seemed to have gone crazy.

“If you tell me, not only will I spare you, I can give you what you want,” Ning said.

“What I want? I want to go back to the Pangaea chaos-kingdom. I want to leave this place. I want to see the princess. I want to see Master. Can you do these things? Can you accomplish even one of them?” The youth stared at Ning, madness apparent in his eyes. “Someone as weak as you couldn’t possibly accomplish any of them. You can’t do it!”

Ning was stunned. He didn’t even know where the Pangaea chaos-kingdom was. As for letting the man leave? He didn’t have the ability to do so!

“It’s true that I can’t do it,” Ning said. “However, I can make it so that your life is a bit more comfortable. I can let things be more pleasant for you.”

“Ahahaha...comfortable...ahahahaha! It’s over...over...all over. Master...Princess...I’ve waited bitterly for three full chaos cycles...but this is the result? This is my destiny? Ahahaha...” The insane youth couldn’t stop laughing. “Master...Princess...Goodhill is on his way now...”

BOOM!

The youth in Ning’s giant palm suddenly blew apart, his soul completely shattering.

“Suicide?” Ning shook his head.

The man had stewed here for three full chaos cycles by himself. It would indeed be hard to persuade such a person with just a few simple words.

......

Ning stood there, staring at a large pile of items. These were the relics which the young prisoner had left behind.

“I hope I can find something that will tell me about the Pangaea chaos-kingdom, something that can explain why the youth was so powerful.” Ning carefully looked through the items. The first things he noticed were those jade-green flying swords. He saw a total of 360 of them, each of them emanating an invisible aura of sword-intent.

“B-but...” Ning was instantly stunned as he inspected them more carefully. “Top-grade Pure Yang flying swords? All of them are top-grade...and there are 360 of them.” Ning knew very well that the youth had controlled these 360 Pure Yang flying swords to form that jade-green sword-light to fight earlier. “How could he, a Celestial Immortal, possibly be able to simultaneously control so many top-grade Pure Yang swords?”

It was extremely hard to control such powerful treasures. Even most True Immortals would be unable to control so many top-grade Pure Yang swords.

“And inside this...” Ning instantly began to bind some of the storage treasures and investigate their contents. He began to discover one item after another.

The deceased ‘Goodhill’ could be considered a core member of the Pangaea chaos-kingdom. Otherwise, as a Celestial Immortal, there was no way he would even be qualified to be imprisoned here; he would’ve simply been executed, rather than locked in here for countless years. Clearly, the King of Pangaea had certain concerns of his own; most likely, he didn’t want to so directly offend the school behind Goodhill.

And so, Goodhill naturally had quite a few treasures.

“He actually has a second set of 360...” Ning was shocked and delighted. Aside from the first set of 360 jade-green Immortal swords, there was also a second set of 360 fiery-red Immortal swords.

Both sets were of top-grade Pure Yang swords!

These two sets, combined, were better than any of the Pure Yang treasure sets which Daoist Threelives had left behind. But of course, they were still far from being a match for the 3600 goldstar beads, which were supreme Protocosmic spirit-treasures. Every single bead was more valuable than a top-grade Pure Yang sword, and there were 3600 of them. That set was something which Daoist Three Purities had acquired!

“For a Celestial Immortal to have so many treasures...his wealth is far more staggering than that of the vast majority of the True Immortals of our Three Realms. Most likely, only supreme Empyrean Gods and True Immortals like me or Patriarch Lu would be able to compare to him,” Ning mused to himself.

He continued to carefully inspect the other items.

Most of the treasures being carried by the youth were Pure Yang treasures. All the items were on the Pure Yang level. It was as though to this youth, Pure Yang treasures were just common items. However, the strange thing was, the youth didn’t have so much as a single Protocosmic spirit-treasure on him. It must be understood that even people like the Xia Emperor had multiple Protocosmic spirit-treasures.

“He destroyed all his spirit-pills and Immortal herbs?” Ning looked at some shattered bits and pieces of items, then shook his head. Before dying, the youth had destroyed everything he could. However, he had been unable to destroy the Pure Yang artifacts, and so Ning had acquired them.

“He really didn’t want to leave anything nice for me at all. Still, in the end these Immortal swords became mine. Two sets of flying swords, 360 in each set.” Ning sighed to himself.

What Ning didn’t know was that one of the two sets was the set which Goodhill normally used, while the other set was a backup set.

Aside from the weapons, the other treasures were quite ordinary. For example, the treasures meant for fleeing were all merely at the Pure Yang level; they were far from being a match for the likes of the Voidboat.

......

After going through Goodhill’s possessions, Ning was unable to find a single cultivation technique or any records of the Pangaea chaos-kingdom.

“It makes sense. Generally speaking, techniques are directly transmitted into the mind. Secret manuals are rarely carried around.” Ning nodded. After he had learned techniques from the Black-White College and the Tristar Crescent Abode of Mount Innerheart, he had either put the secret manuals back where they belonged or destroyed them. There was no way he would just carry them around with him.

This was why it was virtually impossible to acquire techniques like the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art], the full [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens], or [Houyi’s Archery] through killing enemies. Ning, for example, simply wouldn’t be carrying those techniques on him. He had memorized them all within his mind.

“Ah, right. All that aside, Celestial Immortals and even Empyrean Gods probably have low status within the Pangaea chaos-kingdom. There’s no way they would be allowed to carry complete techniques around. And generally, when a master teaches an art, various soul-oaths will be employed as well,” Ning mused to himself. The more important a technique was, the more a school would work to ensure it wouldn’t be leaked out. In fact, even soulscouring usually wouldn’t be effective in acquiring a complete technique.

“Still, things might be different for someone with high status.”

“High status individuals might have the ability to acquire some special techniques, including ones that can be taught to those who are of a different school,” Ning mused to himself.

In the Three Realms, True Gods and Daofathers could choose to teach some techniques to outsiders, if they so desired. In the Pangaea chaos-kingdom, the Elder Gods and Daofathers could probably do the same.

“Earlier, when I used my heartforce to scan the region, I found an Elder God and a Daofather.” Ning nodded slowly. “The Elder God should be more powerful, and he looks like a wild dog. Perhaps it’ll be easier to persuade him.”

Right now, Ning desperately wanted to know why a Celestial Immortal could be so powerful.

......

After Ning left Goodhill’s prison ‘cell’, he sat back into his Voidboat and fly towards the Elder God that looked like a wild dog.

In truth, Pure Yang treasures were now of limited benefit to Ning, and they were also useless to Daofathers and True Gods. Daofathers and True Gods generally used Protocosmic spirit-treasures or Chaos treasures! Ning’s most powerful treasure set right now was the Stargold Beads of the Heavens, but these two top-grade Pure Yang swords could be used in setting up the [Greater Thousand Swords Formation]. If he gave it to his Primaltwin, his Primaltwin would also have a powerful treasure to use.

The Voidboat carefully flew forward, avoiding the many ‘prison cells’ in the region.

Divine runes continued to flow densely through the dark skies of the world. Their power and aura made it so that Ning’s flying speed was much slower here than it was in the Three Realms.

After flying for more than three days, he finally arrived at the location where the wild dog Elder God was located.

“Senior.” Ning stood outside the formation, but sent a strand of his divine power inside of it in the form of a clone. The clone carried a wooden platter with it, covered with two flagons of wine and fine delicacies. A fragrance of saliva-inducing meat wafted out from the plate.

“Senior,” Ning’s clone called out, carrying the platter forward into the formation towards the direction of the wild dog Elder God.