The Desolate Era

Book 24, The Starlord of Fogstone, Chapter 1 – Leaving the Three Realms

An Immortal estate located within the primordial chaos. This estate was a few kilometers in size, and it was filled with creeks, small streams, flowers, and grass.

“Father, will you live here permanently in the future? Won’t you return to the Three Realms?” Brightmoon held onto Ji Ning’s arm as she looked curiously at the area.

“Yes. I plan to enter secluded meditation.” Ning nodded and smiled. “It will be a long time before I return to the Three Realms.”

The lifeblood oath he had sworn was that he would leave the Three Realms within a thousand years of becoming an Elder God. Once this part of the oath became active, his soul would instantly become bound by its power. Even his Primaltwin would be affected. This was why, even though Ning intended to have his Primaltwin stand guard over the Three Realms, it couldn’t actually live within it. It had to reside in a part of the primordial chaos that was right next to the Three Realms.

Only when he finished his lifeblood oath and actually carried Northrest’s final message to Vastheaven Palace would he be released from it.

“Oh. That works as well, I guess. I’ll just spend a lot of time here in the future. This is actually my first time journeying into the primordial chaos.” Brightmoon was rather excited. “Father, I’m going to go take a look at some other places.

“Go ahead.” Ning nodded.

“Young master.” Autumn Leaf and Uncle White had accompanied Brightmoon here. They knew Ning very well…and they knew it made no sense that he had to remain within the primordial chaos while engaging in secluded meditation.

“Ning, son, are you keeping things from us?” Uncle White asked, and Autumn Leaf looked towards Ning as well.

“A few things.” Ning nodded. “There are some things I have to do. During the past period of time, I’ve been slowly working on rebuilding my Primaltwin. Now that its been restored and now that everything has been settled, I have to go take care of things. Don’t worry. My Primaltwin will remain here.”

His true body would keep a spare clone behind as well, safely ensconced within the prisonworld.

As for his Primaltwin’s spare clone, it would be kept safe within the Crescent major world.

During the Endwar, his Primaltwin had self-detonated. It was at the Ancestral Immortal level, and thus an absolutely inconceivable amount of chaos nectar would be needed if he wanted to immediately revive it. His only choice was to slowly rebuild it naturally. Ning had already mastered the Heavenly Dao of Water and had thus gained a certain degree of insight into the Heavenly Dao of Primordial Chaos. He was now capable of absorbing chaos energy and was thus able to constantly absorb a large amount of it, making the rebuilding process fairly quick.

His true body was a dual refiner and would need ten thousand years to rebuild. His Primaltwin was merely a Ki Refiner; only three thousand years was necessary. Thanks to the Heavengazer Tower, Ning was able to easily maintain a rate of time that was twenty times faster than normal. Thus, his Primaltwin had been rebuilt long ago. The only reason he had taken so long was because he had needed to spend a bit more time settling his affairs in the Three Realms.

“Young master…” Autumn Leaf said worriedly, “Let me go with you.”

“No need.” Ning shook his head.

This was no joking matter. Even the mere process of leaving the Three Realms via that spatial vortex would be incredibly dangerous. No one could say what would happen on such a journey. To have Autumn Leaf accompany him into such great danger would be completely pointless.

His Immortal estate in the primordial chaos had already been set up. Ning had invited some friends and family over to tour through it, with the guest list including the likes of his junior apprentice-brother Mu Northson, his own apprentice Bluecliff Xiaoyu, his senior apprentice-brothers Sun Wukong and Crazi Ji, as well as many other figures. He even invited Lu Dongbin, Kuafu, and other major powers to visit this new home of his as well. Everyone knew that if they wished to meet with Ning in the future, they would have to enter the primordial chaos and visit this Immortal estate.

“Disciple, the primordial chaos is a place where experts are as common as the clouds. Our Three Realms is just a tiny little corner of it. You have to be careful.” Subhuti looked at Ning.

“Don’t worry, master.” Ning nodded.

Today was the day for Ning to set off on his journey. He hadn’t informed anyone of his departure save his master Subhuti.

“When Mother Nuwa left, she never returned. We haven’t heard any word of her at all.” Subhuti said softly, “You have to be careful, careful, careful. If you ever encounter Mother Nuwa, notify me right away.”

“I will.” Ning nodded. His Primaltwin would remain close to the Three Realms within the Immortal estate, and it shared memories with his true body. Whatever his true body experienced, his Primaltwin would also share in.

“Go then.” Subhuti nodded.

Whoosh.

A deep azure flying boat suddenly appeared in midair. Ning boarded the flying boat. A series of spatial ripples spread out around it, and a few moments later the flying boat teleported away through the Void.

“Be careful.” Subhuti watched silently and hopefully as Ning left.

Long, long ago, Mother Nuwa had left the Three Realms. Now, Ji Ning had left the Three Realms as well.

Both of them were the most supreme figures of their times in the Three Realms.

……

The azure boat continued to blink through the Void, advancing continuously.

The insides of the flying boat weren’t that large. Ning sat in the lotus position, his gaze passing through the walls of the boat and focusing on the primordial chaos outside.

“I’m going to leave the Three Realms and wander through the primordial chaos, all by myself…” Ning shook his head. “A pity that to this very day, I still don’t have the power I need to break the chains of the prisonworld.”

The prisonworld contained a large number of prisoners within it, including even Elder God and Ancestral Immortal prisoners.

The manacles that held them could only be broken by those who were at the World God or Chaos Immortal level of power. In fact, someone at that level of power could shatter the prisonworld itself. Ji Ning was now extremely powerful, but even when he struck at the manacles with full force using Violetjewel, he was still only able to leave behind a few scratches behind, with the scratches quickly being automatically repaired. Clearly, he was still quite a ways off from being able to sever the manacles.

In truth, if one thought about it in detail, it made sense.

Why did the King of Pangaea arrange for Overseers to watch over the prisonworlds? It was precisely to oversee them and ensure that they would be able to make a report if any World Gods appeared. This meant that even prisoners who ascended to become World Gods would need a fairly long period of time in order to break apart those manacles and the prisonworld. The King of Pangaea would have more than enough time to hasten to the prisonworld! This was the entire point of having an Overseer.

Ning had just barely reached the World God threshold of power. He was able to just barely cause a bit of damage to those manacles now.

“Still…those Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals were quite wealthy.” Ning nodded secretly to himself. This flying boat he was on, for example, was a top-grade Chaos treasure that was knowing as the Godwood Moatship.

The prisoners of the prisonworld, including the wild dog Elder God, had all been beaten and plundered by Ning. Even the incredibly savage wild dog Elder God could just barely be considered a supreme Elder God. Ning didn’t even need to use Violetjewel; the ‘Heartsword stance’ alone was enough to easily defeat all of them.

“If I was able to break apart those manacles, I would gain quite a few retainers.” Ning shook his head, casting those thoughts aside. With another thought, he caused the 3600 Goldstar Beads of the Heavens to appear around him, swirling around him like countless glittering stars.

Ever since he had mastered the Heartsword stance three hundred years ago during the Endwar, he had spent a good deal of his time quietly training and meditating upon it. As a result, Ning had made continuous improvements into his insights regarding the Dao.

He had insights into primordial chaos…

He had insights into space…

He had insights into water and lightning…

He had insights into the sword…

In fact, Ning had even mastered eight of the Nine Chaos Seals. He was at the same level of mastery as Mother Nuwa had been, prior to her becoming a World God.

“The Ninth Chaos Seal…I have the feeling that if I am able to master it, something special will happen.” Ning could sense that the various insights he had gained were building atop each other in a cumulative fashion. Once he fully mastered the ninth chaos seal, all nine of the chaos seals would merge together into a whole, then completely transform. Ning was quite eager to see this happen.

He spent more than half a month flying through the primordial chaos aboard the Godwood Moatship. Finally, he reached the area which the star map marked as containing the spatial vortex.

“So this is the spatial tunnel?” Ning sat aboard his Moatship, staring in front of him.

An utterly enormous spatial wormhole lay in front of him.

The gigantic vortex tore at the surrounding primordial chaos, causing it to swirl around it in multiple rings. Even Ning felt a sense of pressure and dread.

“The most dangerous vortex of them all.” The alien Outsiders who had been lucky enough to survive passage to the Three Realms had written down extremely detailed records regarding this dangerous vortex.

“It doesn’t matter. I have nowhere else I can go.”

“In we go.”

Ning’s divine power completely filled the Godwood Moatship. In this moment, the Moatship seemed to have transformed into a sword, and Ning commanded it fly in as though he was flying atop a giant sword. Swoosh! After having hesitated briefly before the spatial vortex, the Moatship finally plunged deep inside of it.

Whooooosh.

The vortex was filled with an incomparably powerful tearing force that was instantly applied towards the Moatship, dragging it deeper inside. Ning commanded the Moatship to follow that dragging power inside while doing his best to keep stable and ablate its power.

As a truly supreme Sword Immortal, Ning had reached a truly inconceivable level of finesse when it came to controlling and ablating power.

Whoosh.

Although the ripping power of the spatial vortex was quite terrifying, the Moatship was able to quite easily and safely make its way deeper inside of it. No problems were caused for Ning at all.

“I hope I can safely pass through this spatial vortex and reach the Badlands Territory,” Ning murmured to himself softly. “Given my abilities with the sword, I should be able to stay alive. But if I get lost…all bets are off.”

In front of Ning was an absolutely enormous spatial tunnel that was filled with countless spatial tears, some pitch-black and some ashen-white.

Whoosh!

The Moatship flew forward, making its way through that enormous spatial wormhole.

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