The Desolate Era

Chapter 44 – Empyrean Gods and Celestial Immortals

After the female True Immortal known as ‘Empress Jin’ perished, Ji Ning carefully went through the relics that she had left behind. Although his gains were significant, he didn’t find any important techniques or chaos items which he was in desperate need of. Clearly, prior to coming to this prisonworld, she had exchanged items that she couldn’t use for large amounts of spirit pills and Immortal pills. Here in this prisonworld, those were what really mattered.

“Although I used six types of treasures at the same time to unleash fire, water, and wind against her…clearly, the power was vastly inferior to that of the Eight Fires Qiankun World.” Ning shook his head. “I’ll let my other clone deal with the True Gods and True Immortals. I should have this one deal with the Empyrean Gods and Celestial Immortals. Although their treasures are much less valuable, and although the chances that they are in possession of a powerful technique are very low, at least I can kill them or force them to submit in a much shorter period of time. I can also use them to train and temper my [Brightmoon] sword-art.”

Ning had already comprehended 90% of the third chapter of the [Five Treasures] sword-art. The remaining parts were becoming increasingly difficult to understand. He would need to rely on repeated, actual battles so as to gain the insights he needed to better understand the [Five Treasures].

In addition, he created the [Brightmoon] sword-art through dueling weak Immortal cultivators. Only by battling against experts on his level in actual, life-and-death duels would he be able to further perfect this sword-art!

Obviously, outside the prisonworld it would be hard for him to find so many experts on his level to spar against. The prisonworld, however, had many.

“Overseer?” A skinny, weak-looking youth sat there, head raised as he stared at the distant Ning. “A True Immortal…but with such a weak aura? Strange. Logically speaking, a position as important as ‘Overseer’ should be given to core members of Pangaea. How could a core member be a True Immortal of the weakest possible level? Can it be that the prisonworld has fallen into enemy hands?”

“DIE!” Ning let out a loud roar, and his twin swords howled through the skies towards the youth.

Upon seeing Ning attack him without even speaking to him, the skinny youth was shocked…and then a mad look appeared in his eyes. “So it really is an enemy. You want me to die? Puny True Immortal, you go die first!”

The skinny youth let out a low growl as the muscles on his tiny frame suddenly began to bulge out. His rune-covered skin became pure-white as he instantly transformed from a skinny, beggar-like youth to a figure that looked like a god of war. His body went blurry for a moment, then four different faces appeared on him, as well as a total of eight arms, each of which was wielding a strange, black, staff-like weapon. He growled, then pounced towards Ning. “Outsider, die!”

Ning viewed these people as alien Outsiders. They, too, viewed Ning as an alien Outsider!

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Sword-light flashed everywhere, as did dancing staff-shadows.

Ning was knocked flying backwards in their very first clash. He smashed hard against the ground, creating a deep ditch within it. Ning’s body then blurred momentarily before he, too, gained three heads and six arms, with a sword in each hand. “Master’s words were wise. If I wish to truly perfect [Brightmoon], I have to fight against more experts.” A blazing light was in Ning’s hands as he once more charged forward.

The two battled nonstop. It seemed as though the skies would collapse and the earth would shatter. The fight was absolutely frenetic.

This prisoner had four faces and eight arms, and his staff-techniques were extremely profound. Imprisoned here for countless eras, the only thing he had to do was to meditate and cultivate, resulting in his staff-techniques become even more formidable, far more so than Ning’s [Brightmoon] sword-art. Ning was at a complete disadvantage in their battle. Fortunately, however, Ning was protected by the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art], and so even when he was struck he wouldn’t be injured at all.

Ning didn’t use the [Starseizing Hand] or his heartforce; the [Starseizing Hand] used up too much divine power, while heartforce was quickly depleted in a battle. In addition, what Ning really cared about right now was to further perfect his sword-arts. By relying on the protection of the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art], Ning was able to continue the fight, even though he was being completely outclassed.

“Damn. What the hell type of protective ability is this? As a Fiendgod Body Refiner, he’s clearly just an Empyrean God. How the hell is his divine body this tough?!” The youth was beginning to panic.

Even in the Pangaea chaos-kingdom, protective divine abilities were extremely precious. It was incredibly difficult for someone at the Empyrean God level to be able to train his body to become comparable to a top-grade Pure Yang treasure. For example, the True God which Ning’s other clone was dealing with only had a body that was on Ning’s level as well! In truth, the only reason why Ning himself was able to completely master the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] was because of his accomplishments in the Realmwar in the Grand Xia. Daofather Crimsonbright wished to express his thanks, which was why he had gifted Ning with the many Great Firmament pills Ning needed.

“If this continues…my divine power continue to be depleted. Once it is all used up, I’ll die.” The youth was both furious and frantic. “But even if I die, I’m not going to let this alien Outsider off.”

“Outsider…DIE!” The youth’s entire body suddenly began to glow with red light. Clearly, he had used some sort of divine ability that allowed his power to increase by an explosive amount.

However, Ning was extremely skilled in defensive techniques, and his [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] continued to render his opponent’s attacks ineffective. He was still able to endure the blows and continue fighting.

After battling for another hour, Ning had become completely familiar with this foe’s techniques. The youth had begun to repeat them over and over, and they were of no further use to Ning in terms of perfecting his sword-arts.

“[Starseizing Hand]!”

“Heartforce!”

“Shadowless!”

Ning’s swords suddenly became blurry. Whoosh! The youth’s four-faced head was instantly severed and sent flying into the air. The severed head’s eyes were filled with a look of shock. He had clearly been dominating his foe…how was it that his foe had suddenly exploded with power that far surpassed his own? He had no idea that when Ning used both the [Starseizing Hand] and his fourth-stage heartforce, Ning’s power was vastly superior to his own.

When he had overpowered Ning, he had struck Ning more than a hundred times without being able to breach Ning’s [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] in the slightest.

When Ning had overpowered him…a single sword had lopped his head off!

This made it obvious how important a protective divine ability was. Alas, the [Indestructible Body] technique which Ning had learned from the stone stele required an incredible price to be paid for mastery. Even the likes of Fuxi and Subhuti, upon seeing the price, had instantly discarded the notion of training in it. This was because they hadn’t even heard of some of the chaos materials necessary to master it.

Swoosh. The severed head came flying back, reattaching itself to the body.

“Eh?” The youth frowned in puzzlement as he stared at Ning. “Outsider, why didn’t you kill me?” Given that Ning was able to sever his head with a blow, Ning clearly was capable of completely crushing and destroying his body…and yet, Ning had not, allowing his head to fly back and reattach to it.

“Ahahaha…I’ve long heard that the Immortals and Gods of Pangaea are incredibly formidable. My hands were a bit itchy, so I wanted to see it for myself,” Ning said with a laugh.

“See it for yourself?” The youth was speechless. “Y-y-you…aren’t you afraid of me killing you?”

“Are you able to?” Ning rebutted.

The youth was stunned. Yes…given how formidable the man’s protective divine ability was, it would be impossible for anyone on his same level to overpower and kill him. The only solution would be to keep him suppressed!

“Right. Even if I suppressed you with my power…eventually, my divine power would be used up and I would still die.” The youth shook his head. What he didn’t know was that Ning actually had another body here. Even if the Empyrean Gods and Celestial Immortals of Pangaea were powerful enough to suppress him, the other clone could come and, by relying on the Eight Fires Qiankun World, slowly roast to death any and every Empyrean God or Celestial Immortal.

To roast the energy out of a True God or True Immortal might take dozens of years, but to do the same to an Empyrean God or Celestial Immortal would be far quicker.

“What exactly has happened to Pangaea? And…what exactly do you want?” The youth looked at Ning.

A short while later, the youth succumbed to Ning’s combination of threats and blandishments, electing to serve Ning. Ning was more powerful than him, which naturally made it so that he didn’t feel as opposed to serving Ning as more powerful figures might.

“If you really just wanted to spar against me…you could’ve first recruited me, then fought me. Both of us could’ve simply lowered the amount of energy we used to keep things safe. Wouldn’t that be easier?” The youth still felt a bit of resentment; that battle just now had used up an enormous amount of his divine power.

“If I had first recruited you, would you have been willing to go all-out against me?” Ning shook his head. If the youth hadn’t had the desire to go all-out and try to kill Ning, the battle would’ve been completely different.

After recruiting the youth, Ning searched his memories, then went to the field of primordial chaos to replenish his divine power. The chaos region inside the stone stele was just a few hundred meters in size, but it was completely split apart from the prisonworld itself. This was because this chaos region was meant for Overseers to use. Because the chaos region had been created by the King of Pangaea, it naturally converted the primordial chaos within it into elemental energy.

The previous Overseers would occasionally wander the prisonworld, but they generally spent most of their time in the chaos region.

After replenishing his divine power, Ning spent a bit of time pondering the [Five Treasures], then improved his [Brightmoon] sword-art before once more seeking out that youth for more sparring.

Only after a full month did Ning leave to go deal with the next Empyrean God or Celestial Immortal.

And so, just like that, Ning began a voyage through the prisonworld in which he would sweep through all the Empyrean Gods and Celestial Immortals. Although the prisonworld was vast, it actually didn’t have that many Empyrean Gods or Celestial Immortals. There weren’t many, after all, at that level of power who would be qualified to be locked up in a place like this. Ning took every single battle very seriously, and after each battle he would gain many new ideas for further perfecting his sword-arts.

The [Brightmoon] sword-art continued to improve, and its power grew greater and greater.

In the blink of an eye, another forty-plus years had passed.

Ning had swept his way through more than four hundred Empyrean Gods and Celestial Immortals. It must be understood that the entire Prisonworld 17 only held a bit more than a thousand individuals at that level of power. These four hundred-plus Empyrean Gods and Celestial Immortals ‘offered’ Ning many treasures, and he even acquired a pair of Protocosmic spirit-treasures! As for the number of Pure Yang treasures he acquired, the number was ridiculously high. Ning couldn’t help but sigh at how different the Pangaea chaos-kingdom was from the Three Realms.

In the Three Realms, these Pure Yang treasures would be considered quite rare and valuable. Powerful Empyrean Gods and True Immortals would generally all have Protocosmic spirit-treasures on them.

In the Pangaea chaos-kingdom, however, Protocosmic spirit-treasures were very rare…but extremely powerful Pure Yang treasures were very common. Judging from the memories Ning had sifted through, Pangaea had far superior methods for manufacturing and producing magic treasures, which was why there were so many top-class Pure Yang treasures.

……

Boom! Boom! Boom! Eight streaks of truefire dragons continued to blaze away at the green-haired man.

It had been eighty-two years!

Ning had used the Eight Fires Qiankun World to burn away at the green-haired man for eighty-two years. As far as this True God was concerned, every one of these years had been more difficult to endure than a trillion ‘ordinary’ years. His divine power continued to deplete without any replenishment at all.

“Stop it.” Finally, the green-haired man called out.

Ning’s clone had been analyzing some sword-arts. The past eighty-two years had been quite boring; all he did was occasionally add a bit of ki into the treasure while spending most of his energy on his sword-arts. Upon hearing the green-haired man’s call, Ning immediately woke from his meditative trance.

Upon seeing the green-haired man looking towards him, Ning smiled.

If the man intended to commit suicide, he probably wouldn’t have called out to Ning. He would’ve rather been burnt to death than speak.

Since had had spoken out…he was most likely about to submit.

Prior to him, Ning had dealed with two True Immortals. This would be the first True God who would submit to him. Perhaps there might be an unexpected surprise.