Desolate Era

A full day passed in the blink of an eye.

For now, Ji Ning resided within a side pavilion within the estate. He just sat there, staring past the railing towards the beautiful scene of the Trileaf Realm outside.

Whoosh. Ning stretched out a finger, causing a strand of deep yellow lightning to jump out from his fingertip. It looked absolutely beautiful, but it contained terrifying amounts of power.

Ning then stretched out a second finger. From this finger, a thin stream of water came pouring out, swirling around his fingertip. The water emanated a beautiful, gemlike aura of green light, but its power was on a slightly lower level than that of the lightning. And yet, a powerful Daolord of the First Step who was touched by this stream of water would be instantly frozen into an ice statue. Even his truesoul would be frozen solid, then crumble into tiny bits.

This was the quadressence Dao water Ning had been able to create.

“Lightning is brutal and wild. To tame and control lightning is more difficult than taming and controlling water.” Ning nodded slowly. “For now, creating tri-essence thunder is my limit. To master quadressence thunder is far too difficult.”

Both the lightning and the water could go up to the ‘novessence’ level. However, the difficulty level would skyrocket with each additional essence. According to what Daolord Allgod had said, a Daolord of the First Step would be able to just barely master the tri-essence thunder. A Daolord of the Second Step had a chance to master the pentessence thunder, a Daolord of the Third Step might be able to master the heptessence thunder, while a Daolord of the Fourth Step would be able to master the complete Novessence Thunder! Ning was still merely at the World level. It was all thanks to the azureflower mist energy and the [Seven Leafpill Chapters] that he was able to master the tri-essence thunder.

“For now, my most powerful killing attack is once more the ‘Yin-Yang Sword Domain’.” Ning couldn’t help but let out a laugh. This was clearly a defensive technique, but because of his upgrade powerful multi-essence Dao water and Dao lightning it was now his most powerful killing technique as well!

“Oh, right.” Ning waved his hand, causing a figure to appear out of nowhere. It was World God Pillsaint, and he had a rather blank look on his face. He was dressed in loose red robes. A smear of grease could be seen on his red lips and his white teeth.

“Oh, Master.” World God Pillsaint started to laugh when he saw Ning. “I was wondering what was going on. I was in the middle of a meal when the world around me suddenly changed.”

“You might’ve been having fun stuffing your face with food, but I’ve been freaking out for quite some time now.” Ning laughed. When he had been abducted by the Paragon of Pills, he truly had felt quite nervous. Thankfully, it had been a good thing in the end.

“What happened?” World God Pillsaint was rather puzzled as he scanned his surroundings. “And where are we? And right, where is Youji? Didn’t you have a number of comrades travelling with you, Master? Why are you sitting here by yourself? Heeeey… and it seems as though you have some servants here as well.”

Ning shook his head. “Good lord, you talk a lot. Just shut your mouth for a moment.”

World God Pillsaint immediately fell silent.

“I asked you to come out because I wanted to bestow some good fortune upon you,” Ning said.

“Good fortune?” World God Pillsaint was puzzled.

“Right. Don’t fight back.” As Ning spoke, he reached out with a finger and tapped Pillsaint on his forehead.

Ning directly transmitted the first chapter of the [Seven Leafpill Chapters] directly into Pillsaint’s mind. According to what the Paragon of Pills had said, Ning was at most permitted to transmit the first three chapters to certain people of his choosing! If Pillsaint was able to learn the first three chapters in a fairly short period of time, Ning would be permitted to bring Pillsaint before the Paragon, at which point he might earn a truly great opportunity for himself.

Ning had to do this right away. Once they went back to their own universe, it would most likely be close to impossible for them to return to this universe again.

A long while later…

“Wow. T-t-this is… this is absolutely inconceivable. Inconceivable! This is TRUE alchemy! Absolutely incredible! Compared to this, the crap I learned in the past can’t even be called alchemy!” World God Pillsaint began to scream with excitement.

Ning couldn’t help but start to laugh upon seeing this.

“This is simply marvelous! You can actually use alchemy like this?! A completely new world, a completely new Dao of Alchemy, has opened up before my eyes!” Pillsaint only grew increasingly excited as he spoke. He stared at Ning, his eyes blazing with excitement. “But Master… it seems as though you only transmitted part of a complete technique to me?”

“Yes, this is just the first chapter,” Ning said.

“And the rest?” Pillsaint was extremely excited. Alchemy and pill-making was his area of specialty. He was already delirious with joy upon having received the first chapter of the [Seven Leafpill Chapters], a supreme, sacred manual for the Dao of Alchemy.

“After you fully master the first chapter, I’ll naturally transmit the second chapter to you,” Ning said.

“Second chapter? Does that mean there’s also a third chapter? And a fourth chapter?” Pillsaint was so excited that his face had turned beet-red. “Who created this alchemy technique? My master was a Daolord who was extremely skilled in alchemy and quite famous, but compared to what you just transmitted to me… he is way, way, waaaay inferior! I insist on becoming apprenticed to the person who created this technique!”

Ning shook his head. “You might want to become that person’s apprentice, but that person might not want to accept you. Calm down and focus on learning the technique I just transmitted to you, and you might have a chance in the future.”

“Right, right!” Pillsaint nodded repeatedly.

“Master.” Pillsaint suddenly fell to his knees, intending to kowtow.

Ning was stunned. He hurriedly lifted Pillsaint back up to his feet. “Pillsaint, what are you doing?!”

“Master, you might not understand what this alchemy technique represents. To me… this is a new path, a new Dao that leads to the greatest heights of my profession. This… this is the true Dao of Alchemy. I’ll be able use it to become a Daolord… and perhaps rise to even greater heights.” Pillsaint said gratefully, “I, Pillsaint, have no way of repaying you for your gift of the Dao…”

Ning nodded. “All you have to do is study hard.”

This Dao of Alchemy led all the way to the Eternal Emperor level! By using this Dao, Pillsaint might very well become an Eternal Emperor himself.

……

Now that he saw a chance to become a Daolord, Pillsaint began to spend all of his time in frenzied study and training. Ning had merely memorized some of the pill-making techniques, but Pillsaint was thoroughly analyzing and studying every aspect of the technique. He even went as far as to try them out in actual pill-making. Pillsaint truly was quite talented in alchemy, but he never had a teacher as good as this. Although his previous master was quite talented, he was still significantly inferior to even the likes of Daolord Allgod, to say nothing of the Paragon of Pills.

Now that this opportunity had come before him, Pillsaint truly had a chance to soar into the heavens.

Ning knew very well that his foundation was still the Dao of the Sword! He was mainly going to make use of the [Seven Leafpill Chapters] to learn more about alchemy. Pillsaint was his retainer; it would be of tremendous help to Ning if Pillsaint was to become an incredible grandmaster alchemist.

The day after transmitting the first chapter to Pillsaint, Ning departed from his estate and transformed into a streak of light which flew off into the distance.

“My name is Darknorth. Greetings, fellow Daoist.”

“Greetings, fellow Daoist Darknorth.”

Ning encountered quite a few World-level cultivators on his journey. On occasion, he even met a few Daolords.

The Trileaf Realm was an incredibly vast world, much like how the Brightshore Kingdom itself also contained countless living beings and cultivators.

“Emperor Gonflame?” Ning spent more than six hours flying and teleporting at top speed before finally reaching Emperor Gonflame’s residence.

“This is the Emperor’s residence. Outsiders are not permitted to enter.” Two novices were guarding the gates to the estate. They immediately barked at Ning upon seeing him fly over.

“This junior has heard of the Emperor’s skill in artificing and thus has come to greet him. I wonder if I might be fortunate enough as to have an audience with him?” Ning asked.

“So you’ve come to purchase treasures?” One of the novices pointed off into the distance. “Enter from the side entrance. Someone will help take care of you. Don’t you even know which door you are supposed to enter through? This here is the main entrance. Generally speaking, major powers who have come to meet with our Emperor will wait here as we send the message to him.”

“Pardon me for my rudeness.” Ning didn’t really mind. He immediately flew towards the side entrance.

As for the two novices, they continued to stand there in front of the estate in a smug manner. Their master was the number one artificer in their entire universe. Quite a few people came to ask to meet him. Even Eternal Emperors came to request a meeting, to say nothing of Daolords. All of them had to first go through the novices. This naturally made them arrogant and dismissive towards a mere World-level cultivator.

“Gah? Are there so many treasures here that they stack them up in front of the entrance?” As Ning flew towards the side entrance, he couldn’t help but feel shocked upon moving closer.

Although it was just the side entrance, it was still dozens of meters wide. There were quite a few servants there, as well as three treasures which hovered above the entrance. One was a pearl that glimmered with fiery light and which emanated faint ripples of might. The second was a white flower that emanated waves of white light, bringing a sense of peace and harmony to those who were bathed in it. The final treasure was a painting depicted a world of mountains and rivers.

“Fellow Daoist, have you come to purchase treasures?” In front of the door stood a female servant with unbound hair who emanated the aura of a Daolord. Most likely, she was a Daolord of the First Step, and she smiled at Ning as she spoke.

“I am.” Ning nodded.

“Please enter, fellow Daoist. Any of the treasures you see inside are for sale.” Although Ning was at the World level, the female servant didn’t show discourtesy as a result of it. The treasures they had here were all for sale, and they were all items which Emperor Gonflame made in a casual manner when testing out certain ideas. Despite that, they were still items which would drive Daolords in the outside world utterly mad with desire.

Ning stepped into the residence, and things immediately changed. As soon as he passed through the doorway, it was as though he entered a vast expanse in outer space, filled with countless twinkling stars.

There were cultivators walking through this region of void-like space, as well as servants and attendants who were waiting on them. They strolled through the void, gesturing at the various stars. Every single ‘star’ was actually a treasure.

“This treasure costs three million? That’s a bit too expensive, right? Can you lower the price a bit?”

“I’ll buy this one!”

The Daolords here all acted in a very humble manner. Emperor Gonflame’s store didn’t hold any treasures which were less than a million cubes of chaos nectar, but what it did have drove countless cultivators mad with desire. As for the World-level cultivators… almost all of them only came for window shopping. They’d browse through the items but not buy them. They were really here just to expand their horizons.

When Ning entered this region of void-like space, the attendants all glanced at him. Although they all had courteous looks on their faces, in their hearts they muttered to themselves, “Ugh, another World-level cultivator, here to look but not to buy.”

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