Desolate Era

Sword Immortal world. The towering Five Treasured Peaks.

Ji Ning stood atop a cloud in front of the stone cliffs of the fourth peak, staring intently at the fourth chapter of the [Five Treasures] sword-art. Ning hadn’t been in a hurry to immediately go to Undermoon Lake after the meeting with the Nuwa Alliance’s major powers. He first headed to the Five Treasured Peaks to carefully read through chapter four.

It had been years, but despite all his hard work Ning remained unable to master the third chapter! It was obvious that for him to read through the fourth chapter before mastering the third was a bit too impatient. The reason he was doing this was because he was about to enter Undermoon Lake.

Undermoon Lake was an incredibly mysterious place. Once he entered, he would be completely shut off from the outside world. Not even his Primaltwin or his other clones would be able to communicate with the clone that had entered Undermoon Lake! Ever since the Primordial Era, thousands of Empyrean Gods had entered Undermoon Lake, many of whom had Primlatwins or other clones living in the Three Realms. This was the reason why despite that, no one knew exactly what was inside Undermoon Lake.

To this very day, Buddha Jueming was the only person to leave the place after having entered it. He had come back with three treasures, but had only said that the place contained many treasures within it. He had carefully described these three treasures to others, but with regards to the dangers and events which occurred within Undermoon Lake, he was completely close-mouthed.

The only person who had ever left the place was unwilling to say anything about it at all. Undermoon Lake was a complete mystery!

Buddha Jueming had entered when he was merely an Empyrean God. After he became a Buddha, many Empyrean Gods in the Three Realms felt certain that Undermoon Lake must be a place of fortune and tempering. Thus, there were still many who were willing to enter the lake and risk their lives. Alas…no one else had ever left.

“My true body’s clones shall immediately lose contact with the outside world upon entering Undermoon Lake. I’m afraid I’ll spend quite a bit of time within it. If that’s the case, the clone that enters Undermoon Lake will work hard on the [Five Treasures] sword-art with the primary goal of perfecting the ‘Shadowless’ stance of my [Brightmoon] sword-art. As for my other clones and my Primaltwin clones in the Three Realms, they’ll meditate on the [Five Treasures] to improve the other four stances of [Brightmoon].”

There was no way to link the memories together when separated by Undermoon Lake. There was no point in duplicating his efforts in Undermoon Lake and the Three Realms; that would be a waste of time.

The Shadowless stance was the most mysterious stance, and an incredibly fast one. For a single clone to train in it was quite suitable.

After returning from Undermoon Lake, his memories would merge together again. Because they had been training in completely different things, once all those memories merged, his insights might very well increase dramatically.

“[Icefire Jindan Smelting]?” The Ning who was carefully reading the fourth chapter, attempting to get a clearer picture of it, was suddenly stunned.

This was the moment that his clone within the prisonworld had discovered the [Icefire Jindan Smelting] technique.

“I had been planning to closely read through the [Five Treasures], then head straight to Undermoon Lake. Now, it seems, I need to pay a visit to the Humanworld of Yu the Great first,” Ning mused to himself.

A day later.

After having memorized the [Five Treasures] multiple times, Ning boarded his Voidboat and flew towards the headquarters of the Primordial Imperial Clan, the Humanworld of Yu the Great.

“Fellow Daoist Ji Ning.” A voice rang out as a muscular, fur-clad man appeared out of nowhere.

“Empyrean God Fuqu.” Ning smiled. Last time, it had been Fuqu who had welcomed him as well. This was primarily because one of Fuqu’s primary responsibilities in the Primordial Imperial Clan was to welcome guests.

Fuqu looked at Ning with a gaze that was a bit different than before. This was because, just a day ago, Ning had shown off his [Ninehorn Lightning Serpent] technique and roamed through the Three Realms, slaughtering the Seamless Gate’s forces until the Seamless Gate had bowed their heads. News of this had quickly spread out, and even the major powers of the Nuwa Alliance were often discussing this matter. They all tsked and sighed appreciatively, “Ji Ning truly is talented in heartforce.”

All of the major powers of the Nuwa Alliance truly believed that Ning had relied on heartforce alone to tame a serpent.

In truth, after Suiren had carefully analyzed and researched the [Ninehorn Lightning Serpent] technique, he had the feeling that there was a tiny chance one could indeed use heartforce to tame a serpent, which was why he inserted the part about heartforce into the technique’s description. This also served the dual purpose of hiding the fact that they had the necessary chaos nectar. Only by deceiving their own would they also be able to deceive the Seamless Gate.

“Might I ask why you have come again, fellow Daoist Ji Ning?” Empyrean God Fuqu asked.

“I wish to pay a visit to the treasury and trade for some treasures,” Ning said.

“Oh. Quite a few fellow Daoists of the Three Realms have come to visit the treasury, but this is your first trip, fellow Daoist Ji Ning. I had thought that our treasures didn’t match up to your expectations.” Fuqu chortled. “Come, come. Follow me in.”

Moments later, two streaks of light shot past the winding clouds that were outside a grouping of ancient palaces. They flew straight into one of the palaces.

“The Primordial Imperial Clan truly is extraordinary.” As Ning flew forward, he paid close attention to his surroundings, and he couldn’t help but feel stunned.

The nominal managing power of the Three Realms, the Celestial Court, was extremely beautiful and filled with lofty jade buildings.

The imperial palace of the Grand Xia had the Skylight Palace, an absolutely dominating fixture that was not one whit inferior to the Celestial Court.

But…

The Palaces of Mankind of the Primordial Imperial Clan was quite simple and plain. And yet, every single palace gave Ning a sensation of tremendous pressure.

“Our human race spent countless years during the Primordial Era to build them,” Fuqu said proudly. “We produced a total of thirty-six top-grade Pure Yang-level magic treasures which could be used as palaces. Over the course of time, they’ve grown more powerful and all of them have become Protocosmic spirit-treasures. These thirty-six supreme Protocosmic spirit-treasures match perfectly with a formation-diagram which Human Sovereign Fuxi has created, and their joint power is equal to that of a Chaos treasure.”

“All those years ago, during the war that destroyed the Primordial Era, the Palaces of Mankind played a major role and rendered many merits,” Fuqu said proudly.

Nind nodded, sighing in amazement. The Palaces of Mankind were indeed like an impregnable fort!

“This is the Palace of the Numerous Heavens.” Fuqu led Ning into a large gray palace. “The treasury is right inside. There are a few Immortals inside right now as well. Pick what you want. As long as you have enough treasure, you’ll be allowed to trade for it. I still have other tasks to attend to, so I won’t stay here with you any longer.”

“Thank you, Empyrean God Fuqu,” Ning said with a smile. Fuqu transformed into a streak of light and departed, leaving Ning here. Ning turned and stepped inside the treasury.

Many of the major powers and experts of the Nuwa Palace had placed the treasures they didn’t need into this place. It made for an utterly astonishing sight!

There were piles of powerful Protocosmic spirit-treasures, and the weakest treasures here were at least at the Pure Yang level. There were many Chaos ingredients and materials as well. Virtually everything could be found here!

During normal times, the various major powers would probably hide their treasures in other locations, making these items almost impossible to locate and trade for. Now that the storm had descended, everyone took out everything they didn’t need.

“What fine treasures.” Ning knew, however, that only treasures which were a good fit for him were truly ‘good’ treasures.

He first procured five kilograms of the two other types of materials the Seamless Gate had requested. In truth, the Seamless Gate had underestimated Ji Ning. As they saw it, he was still just an Empyrean God and True Immortal; if they demanded too many valuable treasures, there would be no way Ji Ning could produce them. Thus, two of the three treasures the Godking had requested were fairly common.

If they knew that Ning had acquired a prisonworld of the chaos-kingdom of Pangaea, giving him thousands of times as many treasures as they had expected, they would probably feel quite regretful.

“How much of this Ninefire Lava do you have?” Ning asked.

“Senior Darknorth.” Instantly, a Celestial Immortal walked over and said respectfully, “We have quite a bit of this Ninefire Lava, more than a million kilograms. All of it was discovered in the past by Human Sovereign Suiren in the primordial chaos. If you need more, senior Darknorth, the Human Sovereign should be able to provide you with it.”

Ning nodded. “Give me half a million kilograms of it.”

Chaos materials could differ greatly in value. Chaos goldstone, for example, was available in almost limitless supply. Some of the medicinal herbs that could be found in the primordial chaos were extremely rare and valuable, while others could be produced in enormous batches.

Ninefire Lava and Iceheart Pith were fairly average items as Chaos materials went. Whenever they appeared, they would appear in large quantities. The Iceheart Leaves of Undermoon Lake grew out of large quantities of Iceheart Pith; although the pith was valuable, it was naturally on a lower level of value compared to the leaves.

[Icefire Jindan Smelting]…

There were different levels to the technique. This was much like how the higher levels of Ning’s [Starseizing Hand] required increasingly large amounts and increasingly expensive types of Five Elements treasures!’

When smelting a treasure, the more valuable the ingredients you used, the more powerful the flames would have to be to smelt it! In turn, the higher-level the Jindan in the body was, the more materials the [Icefire Jindan Smelting] technique would require.

A Celestial Immortal’s Jindan needed one level of items, while a True Immortal’s Jindan would require a high level’s worth of items. As for an Ancestral Immortal/Daofather’s Jindan…those were simply far too powerful. To transform them would require even more treasures, none of which would be so easily acquired.

“According to my records, to advance a True Immortal’s Jindan from the third-tier to the second-tier will require 5000 kilograms of Ninefire Lava and 5000 kilograms of Iceheart Pith. I have more than thirty clones; I’ll need more than 150,000 kilograms of each. Alright…the Ninefire Lava was the easy part. Iceheart Pith…I wonder how much of it exists in Undermoon Lake.” Ning boarded the Voidboat, then left the Palaces of Mankind.

Ning only had to hand over six Protocosmic spirit-treasures and three sets of top-grade Pure Yang treasures. The Empyrean Gods and True Immortals of the Seamless Gate which Ning had slain had provided Ning with dozens of Protocosmic spirit-treasures. It was normal for ordinary Empyrean Gods and True Immortals to have several Protocosmic spirit-treasures with them, after all.

“Time to go to Undermoon Lake.”

The Voidboat quickly traversed through the great Void, speeding towards and entering the infinite primordial chaos.

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