Desolate Era (Book 19 - Book 21)

[Three Heads, Six Arms] allowed him to manifest two more heads and four more arms with his divine power. This meant it needed time to activate, albeit just a tiny bit of time. By comparison, activating the [Starseizing Hand] was so fast as to be nearly instantaneous, requiring just a thought.

“Ahahaha…kid, is that all you have? And you want to make me submit?” The tall, skinny old man laughed in an ugly manner. “You ran pretty fast just now, and your mirrors are quite bizarre as well. Otherwise, you would’ve lost your little life. You should feel lucky that you managed to witness my claw-arts and survive to tell the tale.”

“True God Ultrafish.” Ning actually chuckled. “Very good. Yet another powerful opponent for me.”

“Opponent?” The skinny old man laughed coldly, “You want to use me as a way to train yourself? Hmph. Careful that you don’t die from it.”

“I’ll be back.” Ning turned, transforming into a black lightning streak that quickly flew away.

“Hmph.” The tall, skinny old man watched coldly as Ning left. After Ning departed, he finally frowned “This Overseer has a pretty Immortal energy aura, but his divine power’s aura is clearly weaker than mine. Just now, I actually wasn’t able to kill him in one blow, and his sword-arts really were quite fast, even faster than my claw-arts. Was that a sword-art that has surpassed the Heavenly Daos? Where did he learn such a thing?”

……

Ning felt happy whenever he encountered a powerful opponent. He could sense that he was continuously improving, and that he was gaining more and more insights into the sword-arts left behind by World God Northrest.

Ning continued his voyage through the prisonworld, battling True Gods all the way. Some True Gods, Ning could defeat. Some, Ning could just barely fight to a standstill. Whenever Ning encountered foes like these, he would immediately leave after a short battle. He would come back for them later.

There were also some who could completely suppress Ning in strength. In fact, there were some like True God Ultrafish who could very nearly kill Ning.

As for the most absolutely, monstrously talented True Gods who were comparable to Elders Gods or overlord-class Daofathers in strength…Ning didn’t even dare to touch them. He didn’t have an Envoy on him right now; fighting such an opponent would be like courting death.

Of course, if he chose to focus on long-range attacks using his Daofather-level energy with his [Brightmoon] sword-art, he would definitely be able to match a elite Daofather in power. But Ning’s goal here was to temper his sword-arts, which was why he focused on close combat, which his weakness right now.

Whoosh.

The True God’s body was split in half and knocked flying away. Far off in the distance, the two halves joined together into a new whole.

“I lost.” Yet another True God bent the knee to Ji Ning.

Ning reached out with his hand, placing it atop the True God’s head. The True God did not try to fight back.

Ning quickly flipped through this person’s memories, discarding all the useless ones in search of something that would benefit him. Although none of the previous soulscours had proved fruitful, Ning had never given up. So long as there was even a hint of a chance, he would continue in his current path.

“Eh?” Ning suddenly saw a seemingly ordinary memory, but was instantly stunned by it. Then…he revealed a look of joy.

“A Heavengazer Tower of Radiance?” Ning murmured to himself. “A treasure like this actually exists? How marvelous. The chaos-kingdom of Pangaea truly does have a much more powerful foundation than that of the Three Realms.” Ning’s pulserate began to quicken.

Heavengazer Towers were a type of Chaos treasure…and the type which Ning desperately needed right now. In truth, while soulscouring his defeated opponents, Ning had discovered quite a few treasures which he desired, but none of them existed within the prisonworld.

The Heavengazer Tower’s owner, however…was imprisoned right here inside the prisonworld!





* * *





Book 21, Chapter 33 - Five Years Later


What did Ji Ning need the most right now?

He was in desperate need of more time!

His talent was beyond dispute. Even as a youth, Patriarch Lu and Subhuti had favored him. After experiencing so many things, he had only become an even more outstanding figure. An Immortal cultivator’s talent wasn’t something that was set in stone; it could change and transform as he grew up and experienced all sorts of events. Some might regress, while others might soar to the heavens and become increasingly dazzling.

Clearly, Ning was the type to become more and more dazzling…but even the most monstrous of geniuses needed time to grow!

Treasures that could change the rate at which time flowed…yes, they existed in the Three Realms. The Grand Xia Emperor, for example, had been able to use the Brightmoon Diagram of the Mountains and Rivers to change the flow of time within it! But this sort of temporal change used up an enormous amount of energy, even though the magic treasure itself was helping to facilitate it. Although the Xia Emperor was a Pure Yang True Immortal, he was only able to allow some weak Wanxiang-level children to experience a different rate of time. He wasn’t capable of doing the same for Celestial Immortals.

Ning was an Empyrean God and True Immortal. To change the rate of time for him…even Subhuti and Daoist Three Purities would feel a headache if they had to come up with such an idea.

If Mother Nuwa was still around, she would be able to do it.

Mother Nuwa had created the Six Paths of Reincarnation. Time flowed at a much, much faster rate than normal in the region around the Bridge of Despair and the Six Paths of Reincarnation! Countless souls flowed into the place, but time continued to flow through the area at a terrifying pace without the need for any Immortals or Fiendgods to use up their energy to maintain it. This was because the Six Paths of Reincarnation were made perfectly; they used up very little energy, and the amount of energy they absorbed from the outside world was more than enough to sustain themselves.

But the Six Paths of Reincarnation were a formation!

The Heavengazer Tower of Radiance was a magic treasure!

Inside the Heavengazer Tower, time was stably maintained at a rate that was ten times faster than that of the outside world. Ten years would pass inside for every year that passed outside. This was an extremely stable mechanism, and there was no need for any outside sources of energy. The treasure itself was a stable spacetime dimension of its own. Even True Gods, Daofathers, and World Gods could go inside it, and time would still flow at ten times the normal right.

In addition…

This magic treasure could also be used to accelerate the speed of time even further! However, if one wanted to go beyond the ‘base’ of ten times normal speed, one would have to use up some Immortal energy. In addition, the more powerful the user, the more energy would be used up in speeding up time for cultivation.

“A stable spacetime treasure,” Ning marveled. “My master Subhuti was able to establish the Crescent world in a different fold of spacetime, but not even he would be able to forge such a stable spacetime treasure such as this.”

Stable spacetime treasures were far too difficult to make. This was the only one Ning had ever heard of, and it was a Chaos treasure.

More than anything else, Ning needed time. The Heavengazer Tower was able to speed up time by a factor of ten, and if Ning was willing to use up some of his energy, it would be able to speed up time even faster. Most importantly of all…this treasure existed within the prisonworld. A True God was carrying it!

“True God Shiyu?” Ning frowned.