Desolate Era (Book 19 - Book 21)

“Are you willing to submit?” Ning looked at the True God prisoner.

The True God prisoner returned to his emaciated, skinny form. Lowering his head, he gritted out the words, “I am willing.”





* * *





Book 21, Chapter 32 - An Unexpected Surprise


Ji Ning first soulscoured him, then took away his treasures. Of course…he gave the True God some spirit-pills as well. Due to their length battle, this True God had used up quite a bit of his divine power; if he wasn’t given enough spirit-pills, his life probably wouldn’t last for much longer. Although there was no way to replenish his divine power, replenishing his Immortal energy would also suffice for him to sustain his life.

There were relatively few Ki Refiners who also trained as Fiendgod Refiners, but almost every single Fiendgod Body Refiner was also a Ki Refiner; the only question was how talented they were in that respect. Subhuti, Daoist Three Purities, Tathagata, and many others were all born as True Gods, and they eventually trained to become Daofathers of the Great Firmament as Ki Refiners.

Through the use of spirit-pills, these prisoners would be able to live a very, very long time. Right now, they only used up energy to keep themselves alive, after all; their energy expenditures were quite low.

“It seems that it is unlikely that I’ll find what I need from the memories of these prisoners,” Ning mused to himself. “Still, it makes sense. I’ve already acquired many techniques from World God Northrest. Given what I already have, it is quite unlikely that a prisoner of Pangaea will be able to provide me with a nice surprise. Still, I won’t give up hope, no matter how faint it is.”

Different chaosworlds would give birth to different civilizations. Perhaps some of them would produce unique techniques of their own. With the Endwar nigh, Ning naturally wanted to seize every chance he could find to grow more powerful.

One had to remember that the prisonworld itself had been located in the hands of someone as weak as Youngflame Freak. The prisoners of Pangaea were far more powerful than Youngflame Freak; perhaps one of them might’ve had a great stroke of fortune in the past and acquired certain special treasures or unique abilities.

Whoosh. Ning landed atop an island within a placid lake. With a wave of his hand, he caused the jade shrine to descend upon the island as well as many stone steles. Finally, the enormous goldstar beads plummeted like meteors to land on the island as well.

Ning stepped into the jade shrine, then sat down in the lotus position atop the prayer mat. He stilled his mind, beginning to mentally go through his recent battles and experiences.

Every single battle had to be analyzed with great care. He had to pull the experience he needed out of them and use it to improve himself.

There were only so many True Gods and True Immortals in the prisonworld; after fighting all of them, Ning would no longer be able to find any new opponents. Thus, he had to value every battle and opponent.

Ning spent more than ten days meditating on his insights, supported by the goldstar beads and the stone sword-steles. After ten days, he had gained all that he could, and so Ning put away the treasures and once more transformed ino a streak of black lightning, flying towards the next True God.

Battle. Meditation. Battle. Meditation…

It became a regular pattern!

Ning gained experience from every single battle, allowing him to further perfect his sword-arts. However, upon encountering the fifth True God prisoner, Ning suffered a sudden, unexpected loss.

“Die.”

The tall, ugly, skinny old man’s six arms all rapidly expanded in length as he sent his six claws tearing towards Ning from multiple directions. His claw-arts were unfathomably strange, and Ning’s body was covered with blood. Just now, he had been able to withstand the first wave of attacks but his body had been ripped open. In the face of this terrifying opponent, it seemed that the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] wasn’t going to be very useful.

“Mirrors of the Heavens!” The battered Ning immediately willed it, and the skies above him became filled with ancient copper mirrors. The 3600 mirrors hung in the air, blocking the impending claw attacks and buying Ning just a tiny bit of time.

Swoosh!

Ning hurriedly used the [Ninehorn Lightning Serpent] technique to dodge more than a thousand kilometers away, leaving the jail ‘cell’ region.

“What a terrifying True God Ultrafish. It seems that the information I gained from soulscouring the other True Gods and True Immortals wasn’t completely correct.” Ning stood outside the restrictive formation, filled with terror at the close call. This foe’s claw-arts were absolutely terrifying; Ning had been badly injured in their very first clash, and the only reason he had been able to survive was because his own sword-arts were formidable as well. Otherwise, he would’ve instantly been ripped apart into tiny pieces.

Ning didn’t just pick foes randomly; there was a plan behind it. He had soulscoured many prisoners and thus he knew a fair amount of information regarding the many True Gods and True Immortals of Pangaea.

Ning had mentally divided these True Gods and True Immortals into three different types.

The first type was comparable to an ordinary Daofather of the Three Realms.

The second type was comparable to a elite Daofather of the Three Realms.

The most powerful type was close to overlord-class Daofathers in power.

Most of these True God and True Immortal prisoners were at a fairly low level of insight into the Dao, with very few having gained insight into the Heavenly Daos. This was why most of them were merely comparable to ordinary Daofathers! Some, by relying on powerful divine abilities that were as dominating as Ning’s own [Starseizing Hand], were able to unleash the power of a elite Daofather. And some were like True God Ultrafish.

“True God Ultrafish…in the memories of the other True Gods and True Immortals, he was supposedly quite an ordinary True God with very ordinary divine abilities.” Ning mused to himself, “I didn’t expect that he would’ve reached the fifth stage in abyssforce; in terms of power, he should be comparable to a elite Daofather now.”

Abyssforce wasn’t that powerful in attacking, relatively speaking. If Ultrafish had reached the fifth stage in an offensively oriented type of power like swordforce, Ning probably would’ve been completely destroyed in their first exchange.

It really was true that True God Ultrafish’s life experiences and luck had been average, resulting in him not being able to acquire any particularly powerful divine abilities. Otherwise, if he was able to use them in concert with his fifth-stage abyssforce, he would absolutely be close to an overlord-class Daofather in power.

“I need to be more careful,” Ning mused to himself. “Although I do have the intelligence I gained from soulscouring those prisoners, they’ve all been trapped here for a very long period of time; it isn’t strange that some of them may have made breakthroughs. Mm…in the future, each time I fight someone, I need to first use [Three Heads, Six Arms]; just now, if I had used that technique, I wouldn’t have suffered so badly.”

Ning had been so caught off-guard by the suddenly, unexpected danger that he didn’t even have the time to activate the [Ninehorn Lightning Serpent] technique, to say nothing of [Three Heads, Six Arms].