The Desolate Era

Chapter 31 – Soulscour

The seated woman didn’t panic at all. Instead, she began to laugh loudly as she rose to her feet. As she did, her formerly-emaciated figure began to transform. She became full-figured, and her skin became soft and tender. In the time it took for her to rise to her feet, she transformed from a starving beggar to a truly peerless beauty.

“Lilisoft greets you, True Immortal.” The woman smiled merrily. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen an outsider, and three chaos cycles since I’ve seen an Overseer. I truly feel delighted by your appearance. Most delightful of all is the news that Pangaea has actually been wiped out. Wonderful…ahaha…wonderful!”

Ji Ning stared at the woman. She wasn’t going to panic at all?

“Might Lilisoft learn your name or sobriquet, True Immortal?” The woman asked.

“Darknorth.” Ning looked at her.

“Darknorth?” The woman nodded slowly. “If you are able to release me, True Immortal, I will submit to you. I’d even be willing to become your servant.”

“I’m unable to release you,” Ning said.

The woman was slightly startled, but she then nodded. “Right. It is too difficult to open these shackles. Only a Chaos Immortal or a World God can open these shackles without a talisman of command from the King of Pangaea. However…True Immortal, I don’t wish to die. Thus, I’m willing to submit to you. I would like to ask, however, that you not place a soul-imprint upon my soul.”

Ning actually chuckled. “You agreed quite quickly.”

“When the chaos-kingdom of Pangaea existed, the King of Pangaea wouldn’t kill me, as he had to worry about other factions and factors. Now that it is destroyed, however…in your eyes, True Immortal, all of us are nothing more than alien prisoners. In a case like this, the only outcomes are either death or servitude. I don’t want to die, so I have to serve,” the woman said with a smile.

Ning nodded.

This was much like how things were in the mortal world. Humans and monsters were born enemies. Humans would kill wild beasts and cook them, while wild beasts would attempt to eat humans when possible. Of course, powerful Immortal cultivators and Diremonsters wouldn’t fight that much against each other.

In the eyes of those of the Three Realms, no mercy at all could be shown to any alien Outsiders. If they released one, that person might return with other alien Outsiders and wipe out the entire Three Realms! Thus, all of them had to die…unless they could be forced to pledge fealty!

“The soul-imprint…?” The woman looked at Ning. A soul imprint would have a slight impact on her ability to comprehend the Dao, making it even harder for her to progress on her Immortal path.

“There’s no need for a soul-imprint.” Ning shook his head. “However…I am going to use a soulscour technique on you. You are not to resist.” Since there was nowhere for these people to go, there really was no need for him to soul-imprint them.

“Soulscour?” The woman hesitated for a moment. This was equivalent to revealing everything about herself to this man.

“If you are unwilling to comply, then you are of no use to me,” Ning said.

The woman gritted her teeth. “Fine. Lilisoft will comply, True Immortal.”

Although the True Immortal in front of her was of the weakest tier…if they ended up actually fighting, even if the True Immortal was unable to kill her, he would be able to force her to use up her Immortal energy. Once it was all used up, she’d be finished. By contrast, the True Immortal in front of her was the Overseer; his own energy would be constantly replenished from the side world.

“Excellent.” Ning nodded.

Ning felt no pity at all for these alien Outsiders from the primordial chaos. For the sake of his own race…for the sake of his wife and daughter…Ning would show them no mercy, no matter how many he had to kill.

Ning walked into the ‘cell’.

Lilisoft shut her eyes. She sighed to herself. “I used an innate beauty spell, but it had no effect on him at all. Alas…” Just now, she had used up her Immortal energy to restore her appearance, then cast an innate beauty spell that enhanced her natural charm. This sort of natural, innate charm and beauty was even more effective than ordinary, coarse ‘charm’ spells.

But alas, Ning’s heartforce was shockingly powerful, having reached the fourth level. It wasn’t something which the beauty of a Celestial Immortal like her could possibly shake. In truth…Ning hadn’t even noticed that this woman had cast a spell; all he had felt was that this woman truly was surpassingly beautiful. However, ever since he had sent his wife, Yu Wei, into the Infinity Hells…to him, external beauty was nothing more than rouge applied to a skeleton.

Ning reached out, placing his hand upon the top of Lilisoft’s head, immediately using a soulscouring technique.

Within her body was a dazzling, enormous golden Jindan. Above the Jindan, there were images of heaven, earth, mountains, rivers, and other things. The aura of the Jindan was incredibly powerful.

“First-tier Jindans truly are formidable. She clearly is just a Celestial Immortal, but her Jindan isn’t weaker than my True Immortal Jindan at all.” Ning felt absolutely stunned as he sent his coresense into the Jindan. However, he immediately cast that aside as he began his soulscouring.

Her soul had merged into her Jindan, becoming one with it. However, invisible strands of soul energy began to infiltrate her Jindan like dots of starlight, teasing their way into her soul. Fairy Lilisoft would’ve been able to effortless fight back, as she was actually Ning’s equal in power; there was no way for Ning to forcibly soulscour her. However, Fairy Lilisoft had already given her. She suppressed her instinctive desire to fight back, not daring to resist at all, allowing Ning to investigate as he pleased.

Instantly, Ning began to flip through a large amount of memories.

The many things Fairy Lilisoft had experienced after being born…

The vastness and the might of the Pangaea chaos-kingdom…

Everything was laid bare before Ning.

“Oh, these are the cultivation techniques.” Ning finally located information regarding Ki Refining techniques within Fairy Lilisoft’s memories.

“Eh?”

These memories were sealed like bubbles. Ning wanted to go inside them, but the surface of these ‘bubbles’ was covered with many mysterious runes. No matter what Ning tried, he was unable to look inside these memories. All he was able to do was see a few odds bits and pieces from the outside.

“In our Three Realms, people usually swear oaths to the Dao of the Heavens or swear Demonheart Oaths that they will not divulge or reveal the secrets behind certain important techniques. Even if an enemy attempts to soulscour them, the Dao of the Heavens will intervene to prevent it. This technique the Pangaea chaos-kingdom uses, however, is even tighter than that.” There was nothing Ning could do.

The mysterious runes covering these memories were incomparably marvelous and profound. No Celestial Immortal could’ve possibly devised these runes; it had to have been her seniors within her school who had created them.

Ning’s only choice was to give up and to continue viewing her other memories.

He spent a full twelve hours doing so before he finally moved his hand away from Fairy Lilisoft’s hair. She simply had far too many memories, and Ning had wanted to get a detailed understanding of the Pangaea chaos-kingdom, which was why he had spent such a long period of time.

“So that’s how things are.” A smile appeared on Ning’s face. “What an unexpected surprise.” After fully reviewing Fairy Lilisoft’s memories, he understood quite a bit about the Pangaea chaos-kingdom.

Fairy Lilisoft had a very special status. Her grandfather…was the King of Pangaea! The King of Pangaea had three sons, and Fairy Lilisoft’s father was the second. When wandering the world, the second prince had ravished a sacred maiden of a local school, then went on his merry way, completely forgetting about her. Generally speaking, the more powerful one was, the harder it would be for one to conceive. The King of Pangaea, for example, had all three of his children prior to reaching the World-level, and none after.

The second prince had never imagined that this casual rape of his would result in the birth of a daughter. For a ‘sacred maiden’ to grow pregnant and give birth…instantly, countless people cursed her as shameless, and her life became very difficult. Fairy Lilisoft had grown up by her mother’s side. She had watched as her mother was tormented, beaten, and cursed at until her mother finally committed suicide.

This caused Fairy Lilisoft to feel boundless hatred towards this father she had never met.

Some time after this, the King of Pangaea had cast a spell that alerted him to the fact that there was actually a member of his bloodline outside the palace. He found this granddaughter of his, then brought her back.

Fairy Lilisoft’s status had instantly skyrocketed, and she was able to effortlessly destroy the school that had become a nightmarish hell for her mother.

However, she actually felt even more hatred towards her father, the second prince. She had lain in wait like a viper, waiting for her chance. Finally, her chance came, and she sent the completely unprepared prince into the ‘Sea of Infinite Suffering’. Although the King of Pangaea quickly arrived to rescue the second prince, he had still spent a full hour inside the Sea of Infinite Suffering…and as a result, he had gone insane.

The King of Pangaea had been utterly enraged by this. There were very few members in the imperial clan, however…and so instead of killing her, he had imprisoned her within a prisonworld!

“The King of Pangaea truly is incredible. He was actually able to conquer a total of twelve chaosworlds. In fact, he has actually killed at least three World-level experts!” Ning was secretly amazed.

After a chaosworld was born, it would slowly grow old with the passage of time, then perish. After its destruction, however, a new Fiendgod would be born who would establish a new chaosworld. Thus, the Pangaea chaos-kingdom had actually been commanding a very large region for a very long period of time.

“He was able to kill someone at the level of Pangu and Mother Nuwa. The King of Pangaea is both a Fiendgod and a Ki Refiner. He truly is incredible.” Ning sighed.

In terms of power…the Pangaea chaos-kingdom was far more powerful than the Three Realms.

“However, I didn’t expect that the [Five Treasures] sword-art is actually this incredible.” Ning’s eyes lit up. “There definitely was no way that Daofather Fuju came up with this sword-art. He must’ve found it somewhere.”

Only after searching Fairy Lilisoft’s memories did Ning realize that only those who had reached the World-level could create a technique that surpassed the limits of the Heavenly Daos, with emphasis on the word ‘could’! Not every Chaos Immortal or World God was capable of creating such a technique. Not even Mother Nuwa had been able to do so.

Even the Pangaea chaos-kingdom only had three techniques that surpassed the Heavenly Daos in some way.

The Pangaea chaos-kingdom had a total of three World-level experts, with the King of Pangaea being the most powerful of them. The other two World-level experts, however, hadn’t been able to create any techniques that surpassed the Heavenly Daos. Two of the three had been created by the King of Pangaea, with the third having come from a chaosworld which they had conquered in the past.

Techniques that surpassed the Heavenly Daos…even Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals of the Pangaea chaos-kingdom had to render major merits to the kingdom before they would be bestowed and taught one of the techniques. Celestial Immortals and Empyrean Gods weren’t even qualified to learn them at all. As for True Gods and True Immortals? They had to have astonishing talent, have extremely high statuses, and have rendered many contributions to the kingdom before they would be taught one.

Those who were taught one of the three techniques would have to swear ‘life-oaths’ that they would not teach it to any others.

In the Pangaea chaos-kingdom, the only one with the power to transmit these three major techniques to others was the King of Pangaea himself. All the Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals had sworn life-oaths upon acquiring them.

“In other words…there’s no way I could possibly acquire any techniques that surpass the Heavenly Daos in this prisonworld.” Ning felt truly stunned. “Daofather Fuju of our Three Realms, however, actually possessed such a technique…something which only a tremendously wise person who was on Mother Nuwa’s level of power could devise.”

Ning suddenly thought of the fact that before Daofather Fuju had died in the primordial chaos, he had actually arranged for this legacy to be taught to others. It was as though he had known that he would be in great danger.

“Daofather Fuju must’ve acquired the [Five Treasures] sword-art from somewhere else. However, he didn’t want to divulge the location, which is why he claimed he created it,” Ning mused to himself.