The Desolate Era

Fuxi pondered for a moment, then said, “Ji Ning, how much of the perfect Heaven Punisher’s power can you control?”

“I can already control all of it,” Ji Ning said respectfully.

“Oh...”

Fuxi revealed a small smile. “This type of grand formation that involves commanding countless Celestial Immortals and Loose Immortals is extremely taxing on both heartforce and Immortal energy, and it also requires a powerful soul heartforce technique. Of all the Empyrean Gods and True Immortals of the Three Realms, you are the one who is best-suited to commanding these formations. Prior to this, there was no one as skilled as you in this regard, which is why the likes of the perfect Heaven Punisher Formation were viewed as the apex.”

Ning nodded. There were several formations comparable to the Heaven Punisher Formation, and his own master Subhuti had access to some of them. Since their power was on par with that of the Heaven Punisher Formation, Ning hadn’t asked for them.

“Fourth level heartforce, and a soul heartforce technique...yes, you really are a perfect fit for these formations.” Fuxi chuckled. “Give me a bit of time, I’ll gift you with a formation that will allow you to control even more Celestial Immortals and Loose Immortals. Naturally, the maximum power of the formation will greatly increase as well! However, controlling it will also be considerably more difficult.”

“Thank you, Human Sovereign.” Ning was overjoyed. In truth, he wasn’t interested in any treasures the Human Sovereign could give him, because Ning already had access to Protocosmic spirit-treasures. In addition, two of Ning’s clones were within the prisonworld and were assaulting the various True Gods and True Immortals; he would definitely have plenty of powerful treasures in the future! A Chaos treasure would be excellent, but what were the chances that Fuxi would give him one? Many major powers didn’t even have access to such treasures!

A formation that was more powerful than the Heaven Punisher Formation was something which Ning was in desperate need of. This was because Ning’s most powerful battle-mode was the Heaven Punisher mode. However, he had already completely utilized all the power available to the perfect Heaven Punisher; there was no way to increase his level of power at all. But alas, there were no superior formations of this type in all the Three Realms, and there were very few individuals who were capable of creating one.

Fuxi, however, was definitely the most powerful expert in the Three Realms in the Dao of Formations.

“This won’t be too difficult for me. All I have to do is spend a bit of effort on it when I’m not working on the Waterflame Apocalypse Formation. I imagine I should be able to complete it within ten years,” Fuxi said.

“Disciple.” The nearby Subhuti looked towards Ning. “You can count on one hand the number of times Fuxi has custom-designed a formation for someone. This is incredibly rare. Fuxi, Ning and I won’t disturb you any further.”

“Alright.” Fuxi smiled and nodded. “I’ll have to trouble you to leave my formation first.”

Whoosh.

A corridor appeared in the endless sea of flames in front of them.

Subhuti immediately led Ning out through the corridor. Within this Waterflame Apocalypse Formation, not even Subhuti was able to engage in teleportation. He had to first leave the formation area, then teleport. This was a formation that Fuxi had spent countless eons perfecting; its power was truly terrifying.

They returned to Mount Innerheart.

“Master,” Ning said respectfully, “I wonder if I can teach this [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods] technique to Uncle White and the others.”

Subhuti said, “This is a technique that you acquired; by all rights, I shouldn’t stop you from teaching it to others. However, it’s best if you do not. Your spirit-beasts are all too weak, after all. It’s impossible for the Seamless Gate to stealthily steal this technique from your mind, but your spirit-beasts haven’t even undergone the Celestial Tribulation. That ‘Godking’ would probably be able to steal away those techniques from them in their dreams.”

“How about this? If you want to teach them something, teach them the [Twelve Heavens Fiendgod] technique. There are others in the Three Realms who have mastered it and are able to transform into twelve bodies that each have the power of the original.”

“Understood,” Ning said. “I’ll go pay them a visit, then I’ll leave the Crescent world.”

“Go.” Subhuti nodded.

First, Ning carefully read through the entire [Twelve Heavens Fiendgod] technique. This technique was very similar to the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods]; both were divided into three levels.

The first level allowed the true body to divide into twelve clones, with each clone being much weaker in power than the original. This state was actually not a very good one; the only benefit was that it allowed the user to have a much better chance at staying alive.

The second level allowed for all twelve bodies to rise in power, returning to the level which the original body had been at.

The third level allowed for all twelve bodies to merge back together into a single true body once more, with the true body instantly and explosively increasing in power.

This was almost identical to the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods] formation. However, it was noticeably easier to train in, and it required less materials. In fact, all of the ingredients needed to train to the second level could be located within the Three Realms! But of course, all of those ingredients were still quite rare and expensive. In addition, the more powerful one was, the more of the ingredients would be needed, as the cost of training would increase.

After soulscouring the prisoners of the prisonworld, Ning had learned quite a bit. Fairy Lilisoft, for example, had been the King of Pangaea’s granddaughter. The other Empyrean God and Celestial Immortal prisoners were similarly extraordinary figures who also knew many things.

For example, Ning had learned from them that to train to the second level of the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods], a Celestial Immortal of the first tier would generally need a full bottle of chaos nectar!

Ning had roughly used up a full bottle as well, but a little was left over. This was because Ning was the lowest-tier True Immortal. In terms of the quality of his Immortal energy, he was merely on par with the highest-tier Celestial Immortals. But in terms of how much energy he had, he actually had much less. This was because first-tier Celestial Immortals formed their Jindans through absorbing the energy of an entire vast world. Their Jindan regions were quite shocking, and the amount of Immortal energy they contained was huge.

First-tier True Immortals would generally need a hundred bottles of chaos nectar to succeed! In every aspect, be it the Jindan or the soul, first-tier True Immortals were far more powerful than first-tier Celestial Immortals.

First-tier True Immortals...their coresense was enough to cover an entire chaosworld! In the Three Realms, only True Gods and Daofathers had this sort of power. One could judge the power of one’s soul from the strength of one’s coresense. To split such a powerful soul into eighteen parts, then have all of them return to the power level of the original soul...the amount of chaos nectar that would be consumed was enormous.

If a first-tier Ancestral Immortal was to train in the technique, the price would increase a hundredfold!

The more powerful one was, the greater the price one would have to pay to acquire eighteen clones of tremendous power. Thus, even the King of Pangaea had only been able to train to the second stage as a True Immortal. After becoming an Ancestral Immortal, he had wandered through the primordial chaos and experienced many hardships before being lucky enough to acquire the resources to master the third stage of the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods]. His power level had instantly exploded, making him an absolute hegemon amongst Ancestral Immortals. After he broke through to the World-level, he was thus able to build up an extremely powerful nation and slay other World-level experts, with two such experts electing to follow him.

In the entire Pangaea chaos-kingdom, only the King of Pangaea had fully mastered this technique.

......

Within a quiet little city.

A black-robed Ning was seated within a winehouse, staring far away while holding a winecup in his hands. He watched as a woman was leading a girl forward through the distant streets.

The woman was Autumn Leaf.

The girl was Brightmoon.

“Junior apprentice-brother. Uncle White.” Ning looked towards Mu Northson and Uncle White. “Wait here for now. I’m going to make a short trip, but I’ll be back soon.”

“Alright, senior apprentice-brother. Go ahead. We’ll keep an eye on things here,” Northson said with a laugh.

“Don’t worry, son,” Uncle White said.

They had spent the past period of time wandering the Crescent world alongside the childlike Brightmoon. Everyone had been quite relaxed, and this caused both Northson and Uncle White to both become more amiable and gentler.

The black-robed Ning nodded, then disappeared without a trace. Although some people in the winehouse were watching, none of them thought that anything was amiss.

Outside the little city, there was a seemingly ordinary-looking Immortal estate. This was a Pure Yang treasure which Ning’s Primaltwin was controlling, their temporary home. Because he wanted to give his daughter Brightmoon a good upbringing, he naturally couldn’t just let her wander about the Crescent world willy-nilly. She had to have a permanent place to call home.

The black-robed Ning flew into the Immortal estate. A white-robed Ning was already inside, having come here to deliver a bottle of chaos nectar.

Just half a day later, within a private room inside the Immortal estate. Eighteen black-robed Ji Nings were seated in the lotus position. All of their auras were completely suppressed, and they seemed to be ordinary mortals. All of them opened their eyes, smiling at each other.

“The second level is complete.”

After handing them the copy of the [Twelve Heavens Fiendgod] technique, Ning’s true body had immediately left. The Primaltwin had used up a bottle of chaos nectar to master the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods] technique. However, all eighteen clones had completely suppressed their auras. When Ning had broken through to become a Pure Yang True Immortal, none of the other major powers of the Three Realms had been able to find out, because of this aura-suppressing technique which Patriarch Subhuti had taught him.

Ning continued to keep his aura suppressed. So long as Ning didn’t voluntarily activate these eighteen clones, no one would be able to find out how powerful Ning’s eighteen Primaltwin clones were.

......

Sword Immortal world. The Five Treasured Peaks.

Ning had returned.

“All the arrangements have been made.” Ning stood there in front of his thatched cottage, staring at the distant, towering Five Treasured Peaks. The five peaks continuated to emanate that shocking, breathtaking aura of majesty. “The stone stele has already been hidden away. I now have a better chance of surviving this great storm. My Primaltwin has now successfully manifested eighteen clones as well. Only...I only have slightly more than sixteen bottles of chaos nectar left.”

Swoosh. Ning flew towards the second mountain of the Five Treasured Peaks, beginning to read the second chapter of the [Five Treasures] sword-art and meditate on it.

......

Within the Starseizing Manor. Those fifteen clones of his true body were all seated in the lotus position, completely focused on meditating on the [Five Treasures] sword-art.

......

Within the stone stele. The two clones of his true body were using some of their energy to maintain the Eight Fires Qiankun World, but they didn’t have to spend much attention on it, and so they were also meditating on the [Five Treasures] sword-art.

......

Within the Crescent world. Seventeen clones of his Primaltwin were all meditating on the [Five Treasures] sword-art, with the final clone spending all of its time and energy on taking care of Brightmoon.

......

It could be said that right now, thirty-five Ji Nings spread across his ‘true bodies’ and ‘Primaltwins’ were simultaneously meditating on the [Five Treasures] sword-art. Or, to put it another way...compared to before Ning had started to train in the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods], Ning’s training speed was now thirty-five times faster.

“This sword-art is incomparably arcane and unfathomable...”

The thirty-five clones all shared the same mind and memories. When one gained an insight, all of them gained the insight, and so a nonstop flow of insights was entering his mind.