The Desolate Era

“My path is set?” Ji Ning refused to accept this. He immediately asked, “I’m a True Immortal right now! My Jindan is still fairly weak. Is there really no way to upgrade it by even a single tier?”

According to the cultivation techniques of the Pangaea chaos-kingdom, True Immortals and True Gods should be on the same level of power! That meant he would be equivalent to a Daofather in the Three Realms!

“It’s useless. Your Jindan is already formed. No matter how much you struggle, your path is already set.” The wild dog’s dark-yellow eyes stared at Ning. “You have the weakest type of Jindan possible. Even though you are a True Immortal, some of the most powerful Celestial Immortals will be stronger than you. Even if you become an Ancestral Immortal, top-tier True Immortals will be comparable to you in strength. You will always be a step behind them.”

Ning gritted his teeth. In the Three Realms, things were different. True Immortals were comparable to Empyrean Gods, while Daofathers were comparable to True Gods.

“But the heavens always leave behind at least a sliver of a chance. There has to be some way!” Ning said.

“Oh, technically there is,” the wild dog said. “However, the Jindan is formed after the tribulation. To upgrade it later...this will be far, far more difficult than even the Celestial Tribulation itself.”

“What method?” Ning immediately asked.

“Special treasures from the primordial chaos,” the wild dog said. “The primordial chaos has given birth to many marvelous things. Certain treasures, when mixed together, can allow the Jindan to be upgraded in quality. However, very few know this method for upgrading the Jindan, and even fewer are able to locate these incredibly rare chaos ingredients. It’ll be almost impossible for you to upgrade your Jindan.”

“And...even if you do manage to scrounge up the necessary chaos ingredients as well as the upgrade method, you’ll at most be able to upgrade your Jindan to the second tier. That’s the absolute limit,” the wild dog said.

“The second tier?” Ning’s eyes lit up.

“The first tier is the tier where True Immortals become equal to True Gods. The second tier will only allow for True Immortals to be comparable to the weakest of True Gods. As for the third tier, your tier...any True God would completely massacre you,” the wild dog said.

Ning said delightedly, “The second tier is perfectly fine.” To have a foundation comparable to that of a weak True God was enough.

“Perfectly fine? First of all, very few know the Jindan upgrade method. To acquire the necessary chaos ingredients is even more difficult.” The wild dog looked at Ning.

“Senior, I wonder if...?” Ning eagerly awaited the response.

“I do indeed know a method for upgrading the Jindan.” The wild dog shook his head. “However...I couldn’t possibly teach it to you for no reason at all. But of course, if you were able to bring that World-level expert here, I would immediately teach you the Jindan upgrade method.”

Ning hurriedly said, “Senior, the stronger I am, the higher my status will be. Only then will I have a chance of meeting that individual.”

“I’ve said everything I need to say. Bring the World-level expert here. If that person doesn’t come, then you can forget about bringing anyone else, such as your Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals. There’s no point in them coming.” The wild dog closed his eyes.

“Senior. Senior..!” Ning repeatedly called out to the wild dog for a long period of time, but the wild dog completely ignored him, acting as though he was asleep.

Ning understood. The wild dog wasn’t going to act without an incentive; as the saying went, ‘you don’t release the hunting hawk until you’ve seen the hare’.

The only reason this ancient Elder God was even willing to tell Ning so much was because of Mother Nuwa’s existence. The Elder God, however, wasn’t willing to actually help out Ning at all, unless he was given an incentive to do so.

Half a day later.

“Senior.” Ning’s clone once more was carrying a wooden platter of food and wine, but this time he was walking towards the filthy-looking old man.

Only now did Ning understand that in the Pangaea chaos-kingdom, Daofathers and Elder Gods were considered to be on the same level. This filthy-looking elder was equal to the wild dog in power...and most importantly of all, he walked the Ki Refiner path! Ning naturally felt tremendous hope.

Thanks to his experiences in conversing with the Elder God, Ning was very careful in his actions. The filthy-looking old man also wanted to leave this place, and he was also capable of telling that Ning was not lying to him. Thus, he told Ning many things. This old man also knew a method for upgrading the Jindan, and he even had two of the chaos ingredients needed to carry it out, although he didn’t have all of them.

However...he wasn’t willing to give Ning anything at all.

“Senior, would you like for some fine wine or delicacies?”

“Senior, do you need any slaves or servants? Some people to accompany you, serve you, and amuse you?”

Ning knew that there was no way to force it out of him, and so he tried a softer tactic.

“Kid, stop wasting your energy. I have an estate-treasure with me, and inside the estate are a large number of servants and slaves. All sorts of wonderful wine and food are inside the estate, just waiting for when I feel hungry.” The filthy-looking old man gave Ning a glance. “I’m an Ancestral Immortal. I’m capable of drawing on the power of primordial chaos to replenish the energy of my treasures. Although this prisonworld has set up a grand formation to harvest chaos nectar, I’m still able to pull in enough energy to keep myself and my estate-treasure in perfect shape!”

Ning was speechless. The man was carrying servants and slaves with him?

“Don’t bother with any other tricks. None of them are able to beguile an Elder God or an Ancestral Immortal. I’ll only be willing to help you once you bring that World-level expert over and release me from my captivity,” the filthy-looking old man said. And then, he shut his eyes as well, paying no more attention to Ning.

“They really respond to nothing whatsoever. He’s just like the wild dog. He won’t act without an incentive.” Ning sat there on his Voidboat, grinding his teeth in a very discontented fashion. “If I was able to meet with Mother Nuwa, why would I be here? If Mother Nuwa was around, the Seamless Gate wouldn’t dare to cause trouble. In fact, the Lord of All Fiends and his Seamless Gate army wouldn’t even have dared to return from the primordial chaos.”

“Ugh.”

This prisonworld had imprisoned quite a few Daofathers and Elder Gods. All of them were shockingly powerful, but none of them were able to do anything to their shackles. Only if their power increased to Pangu’s level, the World-level, would they be able to forcibly shatter them.

“What should I do? These experts at the Daofather or Elder God level all have some degree of insight into the Heavenly Dao of Primordial Chaos. All of them are able to withdraw energy from the primordial chaos.” Ning pondered on what to do. The Celestial Immortals present here all had to rely on consuming spirit-pills to stay alive, but the Daofathers did not; the filthy-looking old man, for example, was able to sustain even his estate-treasure!

Most likely, every single Elder God and Ancestral Immortal was still at peak combat power.

“The reason the King of Pangaea keeps Overseers in his prisonworlds is to keep a watch on them. Once an Overseer sees that an Elder God or Ancestral Immortal is breaking through to the World-level and shattering the manacles, the Overseer is to immediately notify the King.” Ning understood this. Not even the King of Pangaea was able to prevent these Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals from meditating on the Heavenly Dao of Primordial Chaos.

The Heavenly Dao of Primordial Chaos was everywhere, after all. But of course, becoming a World-level expert was far too difficult.

Generally speaking, those capable of succeeding would do so within a single chaos cycle. Mother Nuwa, for example, had done so long ago. In truth, these Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals who had already been alive for multiple chaos cycles had almost no chance of succeeding. However, they were very long-lived and very powerful. Even if Ning asked his master Subhuti to come here to help out, Subhuti would have no chance of breaking the manacles...and if Subhuti attempted to kill these people to steal their treasures, he might end up suffering a backlash from it.

“I should take things slow. If things look grim for us when the Endwar begins to approach, I’ll tell Master and the others about this prisonworld.” Ning wasn’t a completely selfless person; this prisonworld was equivalent to an enormous treasury. It was up to him to figure out a method to unlock it and access the treasures within.

The treasures and techniques these Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals possessed were all definitely extraordinary.

However, for now Ning had no ways to access any of them. Even if he summoned Subhuti, Daoist Three Purities, Tathagata, Suiren, and the others to join forces, they would still be taking on an enormous risk. Once these ancient prisoners began to go berserk...

There was no way for Ning to assess exactly how powerful these prisoners. He was, however, certain of one thing; the Pangaea chaos-kingdom was far more powerful than the Three Realms.

......

Ning rode the Voidboat at high speed for more than four hours before lowering it to the ground.

He slowly walked forward across the desolate landscape. More than a thousand kilometers from him was a woman, seated in the lotus position.

“Hrm?” The woman’s eyelids twitched, then slowly opened.

“Finally...finally...a living being approaches.” The woman’s eyes lit up. She was far too lonely. It was hard for her to even stay alive here, much less sustain an estate-treasure. Generally speaking, only the Daofather and Elder God prisoners within this prisonworld were able to waste energy on such a thing.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen an Overseer.” The woman looked at the distant Ning...but upon seeing him, her face instantly changed.

“A True Immortal?”

“He’s clearly a True Immortal, but...such a weak True Immortal...? The Overseers of Pangaea are all core members of the kingdom. Any True Immortal Overseer should be a supreme, top-tier True Immortal.” Suddenly, a thought entered the woman’s mind. She instantly felt completely stunned.

The white-robed youth walked over, then said in a calm voice, “As you suspected, the chaos-kingdom of Pangaea has been wiped out. You only have two paths before you...to serve me, or to die.”