Desolate Era

BOOM!!!

The heavens shook and the earth quaked as the chaos energy in the area began to oscillate wildly.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Two figures suddenly appeared in the plaza before the Castrum Divinitus. It was the bald three-eyed man and the formation-spirit maiden. Both raised their heads to stare deep into the castle.

“What a torrent of chaos energy.” The maiden let out a sigh. “This is causing a far greater disturbance than is usually seen when a cultivator breaks through to the World level.”

“You can’t compare Ji Ning to ordinary World-level cultivators,” the three-eyed man said.

It must be understood that they were located within the Allgod Estate, but they were still able to see the chaos energy surging violently. One could imagine how huge the disturbance outside was! When the Flamefairy had made her breakthrough, the disturbance had been much smaller.

……

“A breakthrough? It must be Ji Ning of Vastheaven Palace.” The formation-spirit of the Ten Thousand Mountains appeared at the top of a mountain peak in white robes. He raised his head to stare at the chaos energy pulsating through the skies.

……

“The chaos energy seems to be shaking quite violently.” Even though Su Youji was located within the Castrum Divinitus, she could still sense that something was happening. “Did someone make a breakthrough? Was it Master?”

……

Outside the Allgod Estate. The disturbance in the rest of the chaosworld was far greater than the disturbance within the estate itself. An utterly enormous chaos vortex had appeared high above the chaosworld, covering the entirety of the skies. Just looking at it would cause one’s heartrate to speed up.

“What a huge event.” The blood-robed Arroyo, the gold-robed Fukai, and World God Boneplate all raised their heads to stare coldly at the skies.

“That freak of an Elder God must have made his breakthrough,” Fukai growled.

“Most likely. Good. Now that he’s made his breakthrough, he’ll be coming out soon.” Cold light flashed through Arroyo’s eyes. “He lives up to being an Elder God who can battle master-class World Gods to a standstill. Look at the size of that thing! He has to be close to being on par with me by now.”

“Right.” Fukai nodded as well.

Both had extraordinary backgrounds and were extraordinarily talented. When they had made their breakthroughs, they had caused similarly shocking disturbances to the local flow of chaos energy.

……

The Castrum Divinitus. Within the Hall of Swords.

Ning was seated in the lotus position, an endless torrent of chaos energy swirling around him and into his body.

Rumble…

Within his Jindan region. This had previously been a beautiful, peaceful place, filled with islands that floated within a sea of elemental energy. However… everything was now being destroyed and returned to the primordial chaos from whence they came.

The entire Jindan region had been reduced to a region of utter chaos.

“Sword-seed!”

A seed had appeared out of nowhere. This seed was a sword-seed that would naturally form once one reached the fifth stage of swordforce, the ‘Sword God’ stage. Generally speaking, it would be extremely hard to see it with the naked eye. However, now that the entire region had been reduced to primordial chaos it was now much more noticeable.

The entire region of chaos energy swirled around the sword-seed. It was the center of the entire region.

“The sixth stage of swordforce – Sword World!” A voice echoed throughout this world of chaos.

Whoosh….

This seed surrounded by sword-ki began to expand and transform. It slowly began to split open, allowing a sapling to emerge from its shell. Soon, the sword-seed had completely transformed into a small tree that was growing at an incredible pace. Its many branches began to furiously extend outwards as Ning poured his insights regarding the Dao of the Sword into it, nourishing it and allowing this tree which represented his Dao of the Sword to grow nonstop.

Rumble…action

The tree continued to grow at an incredible pace, becoming thirty meters tall. Three hundred. Nine hundred. Eighteen hundred. Three thousand…

Ning’s insights into the Dao of the Sword were simply astonishing. As a result, his Dao-tree was growing to a similarly astonishing size.

Ordinary trees allowed the ground they were rooted in to be stable, while a Dao-tree would allow a Chaos Immortal’s Jindan chaos region to be stable. The presence of the Dao-tree would allow the Jindan chaos region to continuously grow and expand.

This Dao-tree represented a cultivator’s insights into the Dao!

Ning’s path was the Dao of the Sword, and so this tree was a tree which represented the Dao of the Sword! Of course, in the future Ning’s Jindan chaos region could give birth to other Dao-trees as well, ones which embodied the Daos of Water or Lightning. However, at present Ning clearly was not sufficiently enlightened with regards to these Daos. His other Daos were not at the World level yet. He might be able to form Dao-seeds, but there was no way for them to bloom and grow into trees.

The height of a Dao-tree represented a cultivator’s level of insights into a Dao.

Normal cultivators who had just broken through to become World-level cultivators would generally just have Dao-trees that were around a thousand meters tall! Only after stabilizing their foundation would their Dao-tree grow to become three thousand meters tall.

A Dao-tree of three thousand meters meant that one had become a ‘normal’ World-level cultivator.

A Dao-tree of thirty thousand meters meant that one was comparable to elite World-level cultivators.

A Dao-tree of 108,000 meters meant that one had reached the level of full mastery as a World-level cultivator.

For World-level cultivators, Dao-trees growing to 108,000 meters was the maximum possible limit. No World-level cultivator’s Dao-tree could ever grow any higher. Only if one found one’s own Dao and underwent a fundamental transformation would this limit be breached, allowing the Dao-tree to grow even taller and thicker. This was the level of the Samsara Daolord.

Rumble…

This Dao-tree became an increasingly towering presence within this region of primordial chaos, sprouting more and more leaves and branches. Every single branch represented a different sword-art which Ning had mastered. Because Ning had created many sword-arts of his own and had mastered thousands of sword-arts in the Hall of Swords, his Dao-tree was filled with leafy foliage.

15,000 meters… 24,000 meters… 30,000 meters…

The Dao-tree continued to grow.

It contained all of Ning’s insights into the Dao of the Sword, and it clearly had an incredible foundation. When it reached 63,000 meters, it finally came to a halt and stopped growing taller, but its leaves and branches continued to stretch out in every direction.

It had three branches that were particularly thick. These three boughs represented the [Nameless] sword-art, the [Quintessence Sword-Intent], and the [Brightmoon] sword-art.

The bough that represented the [Nameless] sword-art emanated a boundless yet calm sword-intent.

The bough that represented the [Quintessence Sword-Intent] radiated an aura of savagery and violence.

As for the bough which represented the [Brightmoon] sword-art, it seemed to represent the vastness of the void itself, making it impossible for others to fully comprehend it.

“63,000 meters? It seems my insights into the Dao of the Sword are superior to that of most elite World-level cultivators, but is still quite a distance away from the level of full mastery.” Ning understood that in cultivation, the latter stages were always the hardest ones. Still, he wasn’t too far away from the level of full mastery.

“My insights into the Dao are somewhat inferior to the insights of master-class World Gods… but no matter how profound your insights are, what really matters is your ability to apply them.”

It was common for two master-class World Gods to execute sword-arts that were world’s apart in power.

Ning had mastered the fourth stance of the [Nameless] sword-art, the ‘Horizon’s Edge’, as well as the second stance of the [Quintessence Sword-Intent], the ‘Allgod’ stance. On a technical level, he was on par with the Starlord of Fogstone or God Emperor Blacklotus. Those two had been roughly on par with each other in terms of technique; Blacklotus’ advantage primarily came from the fact that he had an Eternal weapon.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The entire chaos region began to furiously expand, devouring more and more chaos energy from the outside world.

At a time like this, having a first tier, second tier, or third tier Jindan no longer made any difference. Upon becoming a Chaos Immortal, everything would return to the primordial chaos from whence all things arose.

Generally speaking, most Chaos Immortals would have a chaos region of a certain predetermined size. As their insights expanded and their Dao-tree grew, the chaos region would naturally grow as well. Because Ning had fused seventeen clones together, his heartforce and his Jindan regions were qualitatively superior to that of most cultivators, resulting in a larger chaos region. The Chaos Immortal energy he could draw upon would also be purer than that of most cultivators.

Training in a technique that allowed one to have many different clones then merging them together would indeed result in one becoming a significantly more powerful cultivator.

Ning had ‘merely’ merged seventeen clones, and so he hadn’t become too ridiculously powerful.

Techniques like the [Thousand Bodies Sutra] allowed for the creation of a thousand clones. Once all those clones were merged together, one would be enhanced to a ridiculous level. Those who had successfully trained in the [Thousand Bodies Sutra] then broke through to become World Gods would have bodies that were comparable to the bodies of Samsara Daolords! This was proof of how truly incredible this technique was. Because Ning’s own body was merely formed from seventeen different clones, his body was merely strengthened by a single small level.

Whoosh.

Ning could sense that the entirety of his Jindan region had been converted into primordial chaos. His Dao-tree was more than sixty thousand meters tall, and it was able to stabilize the entire region. A large amount of Chaos Immortal energy had taken form as well.

“This feels wonderful.” Ning could sense his soul rapidly increasing in power thanks to it being nourished by his Chaos Immortal energy.

“Mmmm. I’ve already made my breakthrough as a Ki Refiner. Time to break through as a Fiendgod Body Refiner as well.”

Ning was now at such an incredibly high level of insight that he was able to easily sense that every single cell in his body was filled with an urgent desire to transform and become stronger.

Boom!

……

Things had just started to calm down in the outside world, and the flow of chaos energy had finally started to stabilize. All of a sudden, the chaos energy began to pulsate wildly once more as an enormous amount of it was drawn into the Allgod Estate.

“Eh?”

“Is that…”

The faces of Arroyo, Fukai, and Boneplate all tightened.

“It seems he simultaneously made his breakthrough as a Ki Refiner and as a Fiendgod Body Refiner,” Arroyo said coldly. Ki Refiners generally found it somewhat easier to make their breakthroughs, while Fiendgod Body Refiners found it a bit more difficult. Arroyo himself had first broken through to become a Chaos Immortal, then spent ten thousand more years in training before breaking through to become a World God as well. Ning simply had too high a level of insight into the Dao, which was why he was able to easily break through as both a Chaos Immortal and as a World God.

“So what if he did? He still has to die.” Fukai’s eyes were filled with a murderous look. Since Ji Ning had made his breakthrough, he was sure to come out soon.