The Desolate Era

The swords were filled with Ji Ning’s Daofather-level energy, causing each of them to emanate auras of blinding might. This caused True God Shiyu’s face to change as he became even more solemn. “It seems this Overseer’s abilities as a Ki Refiner are even better than his abilities in close combat.”

“Go.”

The distant midair Ji Ning waved his finger.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! The Swords of the Heavens instantly soared out like streaks of light, striking towards True God Shiyu from every direction. They didn’t move that fast, not even surpassing the limits of the Heavenly Daos; their speed was something which True God Shiyu could handle. However, as soon as the thirty six Swords of the Heavens closed in on True God Shiyu, they suddenly sped up dramatically, accelerating past the limits of the Heavenly Daos. Each of them moved in bewildering, mysterious ways as well, as all of them were using the Shadowless stance of the [Brightmoon] sword-art. action

The [Brightmoon] sword-art which Ning created had a total of five stances, each of which had its own will and intent. Ning designed them to have unlimited potential; so long as Ning himself could grow stronger, they could continue to be perfected.

Swish swish swish! True God Shiyu was in a three-headed, six-armed form, and the six cudgels in his hands swept out in streaks of light. True God Shiyu seemed to have become an enormous Taiji diagram, capable of blocking all assaults.

“Eh?” Ning frowned. His long-range attacks were somewhat more powerful than his close-range attacks, yet he still remained unable to injure his foe.

“I refuse to believe you can keep blocking my attacks.” Controlled by Ning’s soul heartforce technique, the thirty-six Swords of the Heavens attacked even more frenetically as he put all sorts of dazzling, arcane sword-arts on display. When they struck in unison, they seemed to encompass all types of sword-arts...but True God Shiyu just focused completely on defense, his six cudgels forming a simply flawless, impregnable defense.

“Hahaha...”

True God Shiyu continued to block while roaring with laughter. “Overseer, have you heard? In the past, I battled multiple times against Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals, but they were unable to do anything to me. Compared to them, you are even weaker.”

“When we first started to fight, your sword-arts really did give me a bad scare! Hah! But although your sword is rather fast, it’s still within the realm of what I can handle. Even if I just used two arms, I’d be able to defend against you, to say nothing of using six.” As True God Shiyu spoke, he actually dispelled four of his arms, returning to his normal appearance and wielding just two cudgels.

The two cudgels worked together in a truly flawless manner, like Yin and Yang coming together. His defense was completely airtight, and the faint image of an enormous Taiji diagram completely covered him.

Ning had an ugly look on his face. “How come...”

“I was quite cautious when we first started to fight. But now, it seems, you haven’t reached a level of power comparable to Elder Gods or Ancestral Immortals yet. If I simply focus on defense, I don’t even need to use my full power.” True God Shiyu said calmly, “I don’t need to use any divine abilities at all. We can just keep fighting like this, and I’ll keep absorbing energy from the primordial chaos here. I can fight like this very a long, long time.”

Ning knew this as well. If he could force the man to use divine abilities, the man wouldn’t be able to keep it up for too long. Ning would be able to use his long-range attacks and spirit-pills to slowly exhaust the man...but now, it seemed, True God Shiyu’s defense was utterly unshakable. If he didn’t attack and instead focused solely on defense, he would be able to defend against Ning’s attacks without using any divine abilities at all.

“Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals have better abilities than you and greater power as well.” True God Shiyu said calmly, “But my taiji-force and infiniforce have both reached the fifth stage, and I’ve merged them together into a perfect whole. I can survive attacks from Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals and escape to tell the tale. You? You aren’t even close.”

Elder Gods had divine bodies that were far more powerful than the bodies of True Gods. Their bodies alone ensured that they would have close to the power of an overlord-class expert.

Ancestral Immortals with first-tier Jindans were far more powerful than the Daofathers of the Three Realms. They were equivalent to Elder Gods, and the weakest of them would be close to the overlord level as well.

The overlord level...

This was a clear, dividing line within the Three Realms.

To be at the overlord level meant that one had to have reached the Elder God level of power. Elder Gods were generally born at this level of power, with Mother Nuwa being an example. She had also been born with mastery over the Heavenly Dao of Life. She had then mastered the Heavenly Daos of Yin and Yang, then the Heavenly Daos of the Five Elements of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. This ensured that even amongst Elder Gods, she was at the absolute peak of power.

This was why Mother Nuwa had been the number one figure of the Primordial Era, superior to the other Elder Gods and the leaders of Daoism and Buddhism!

In the Seamless Gate, the only one who was a match for her had been the Lord of the Demonheart. Although Daomother Devilhand had been able to fight Mother Nuwa one-on-one, that was just in a short clash. She was still considerably weaker than Mother Nuwa.

The Lord of All Fiends was also born an Elder God, but his fleeing skills were superior to that of a World God’s! From this, one could see how formidable he was.

True God Shiyu, in turn, was able to escape the clutches of a number of Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals. From this, one could see how terrifyingly perfect his fusion of taiji-force infiniforce was. And of course, True God Shiyu had other divine abilities which could allow him to unleash incredibly mighty amounts of power. When matched with his taiji-force and infiniforce, it allowed him to withstand even Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals for a brief period of time.

“Hmph.” Ning assaulted him furiously for a short while longer, then unwillingly came to a halt.

“It seems that although I can suppress him in power and force him to focus on defense, I’m still just ‘close’ to the overlord level of power. True God Shiyu specializes in defense. Beating him will be very difficult.” Ning pondered to himself. “But I still have to acquire the Heavengazer Tower of Radiance as quickly as possible. If too much time passes, the Endwar might begin. By then, acquiring the Heavengazer Tower will be pointless.”

The whole reason why he desperately needed the tower was because the Endwar was coming soon.

“To grow much more powerful in a short period of time...” Ning pondered to himself. “There are two methods.”

“The first method is to become a True God. Once I become a True God...given the power of the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods] and the [One True Body] techniques, I’ll essentially be half a step into the Elder God realm of power. Although I’ll still be physically weaker than actual Elder Gods, my sword-arts should ensure that I’m no weaker than an ordinary Elder God. By then, I should be at the overlord level of power. Although True God Shiyu was able to defend against Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals, that was just for a short period of time before he fled. He’s trapped here in the prisonworld with nowhere to run. If we really were to get into a fight...once I am at the overlord level of power, he would definitely lose.”

“But...”

“To actually become a True God...” Ning frowned.

Technically speaking, he should’ve already fulfilled all the necessary requirements for breaking through to become a True God long ago.

The first requirement was to have a perfect divine body, and his body had reached that level long ago. The second was to have mastered a Grand Dao, and Ning had mastered three of them already; the Grand Dao of Lightning, the Grand Dao of the Waterdrop, and the Grand Dao of the Sword.

“According to the [Solitary World God], I’ll need to find a spark of inspiration from within the midst of endless solitude. Once I find it, I’ll be able to make my breakthrough.”

“That...sounds incredibly opaque and mysterious. Ugh...the most important thing needed for the [Solitary World God] is time. The thing I lack the most is also time.” Ning shook his head.

The critical part of training in this technique lay in the word ‘solitary’. Once one actually began to cultivate in it, one would sit there without moving whatsoever, just like a solitary, withered tree. Only then would one be able to find that necessary spark of insight. This technique generally needed a great deal of time.

“The second method is to use Violetjewel,” Ning mused to himself. “Violetjewel was the most important weapon owned by World God Northrest, and it is powerful enough that it would cause Chaos Immortals and World Gods to go crazy over it. According to what World God Northrest said, so long as I can repair even just the surface layer of the weapon, its power will vastly surpass that of any Chaos treasures. If I can use this weapon, my power will dramatically increase as well.”

“By comparison...my chances of repairing Violetjewel in time are probably better.” Ning nodded to himself.

He had already repaired the surface of Violetjewel by roughly 20%. Now, he had reached the fifth stage of swordforce. Although he was unable to defeat True God Shiyu, Shiyu was known to be one of the most powerful and most troublesome Gods of the entire prisonworld. The other True Gods should be much easier to deal with.

He could sweep through all of them, acquire their treasures, and then use them to repair Violetjewel’s surface layer.

“Then let’s begin.”

After pondering for a moment, Ning flew out of the gorge in the form of a black lightning serpent, disappearing into the horizon.

True God Shiyu watched as Ning left, a cold look in his eyes. “He wants to take my treasures? I have three Chaos treasures on me. If I didn’t have a few tricks up my sleeves, others would’ve taken those treasures from me long ago. Ugh...damn the fact that I’m imprisoned here and have nowhere to run.” Aside from being skilled in defense, he was also skilled in fleeing...but alas, he was now shackled and had nowhere to run.

As for Ning, he began to act against the True Gods and True Immortals of the prisonworld on a large scale. There were far fewer True Gods and True Immortals here than there were Empyrean Gods and Celestial Immortals. Thus, Ning prized every one of them. After every battle, he would immediately meditate on any new insights he felt he had gained, so as to gain the most benefit possible from these battles.