Desolate Era

Within the estate-world.

Ji Ning was seated in the lotus position atop the sandy beaches of an oceanic island. Next to him was a black gourd and four other gourds. The black gourd was the Pentabolt Gourd while the other four gourds were ordinary gourds that each held a different type of chaos lightning.

“The five types of chaos lightning within the Pentabolt Gourd are five types that I can use. I have all nine types of chaos lightning and am ready to start.” Ning began to mentally prepare the [Novessence Thunder] secret art.

Ning began to activate his Immortal energy, sending it into one of the gourds. This gourd was filled with a streak of black lightning that radiated an aura of both insidious coldness and extraordinary ruthlessness.

Ning’s Immortal energy was guided by the [Novessence Thunder] technique to form a very unique web of energy that began to envelop the chaos lightning. Chaos lightning generally wasn’t capable of defeating even weak World-level cultivators; they were only capable of dominating cultivators below that level! Given how pure Ning’s Immortal energy was thanks to his body being formed by the merging of seventeen clones, he was able to easily seize control over that streak of chaos lightning.

“Come here.” The web of Immortal energy completely surrounded that streak of insidious black lightning. No matter how much it struggled or how it flared its power, the web of Immortal energy merely expanded and contracted alongside it. The web was extremely tough and tenacious, giving the black lightning no place to run at all.

“Long ago, I risked my life and lost multiple clones in order to tame the Ninehorn Lightning Serpent… but now, compared to this technique of Daolord Allgod’s, that technique was unfathomably weak and meaningless.” Ning couldn’t help but sigh. Daolord Allgod’s technique was like an incredibly wise fisherman, with the lightning being his fish; no matter how the lightning struggled or writhed, it was completely unable to escape the control of the technique.

However, merely seizing control over the lightning was just the simplest starting point for this secret art.

Whoosh.

The web of Immortal energy squeezed around the streak of black lightning as it dragged it into Ning’s body. Soon, it was pulled into the realm of chaos which now existed inside of Ning.

The Jindan chaos region was a blurry, hazy region. At its very center stood a luxuriously flourishing Dao-tree which stood more than sixty thousand meters tall.

“Essence of lightning… take form!” Immortal energy began to ripple through the chaos ‘mud’ that existed in a corner of this chaos region, taking shape and transforming into an enormous formation. A streak of black lightning thundered down angrily upon the formation. Boom! The formation was instantly filled with Immortal energy that fed hungrily upon the power of the black lightning.

Rumble…

Countless streaks of black lightning began to flicker throughout the rune-patterns that covered the entire massive formation.

“One of the lightning essences has been contained, for now at least.” Ning nodded to himself. Establishing an essence of lightning was actually quite simple; the hardest part would be actually merging them to manifest the [Novessence Thunder] secret art. He would have to merge all nine types of chaos lightning in a manner similar to merging many ingredients into the production of a pill. Only then would the complicated secret art become usable. This would be thousands of times more difficult than simply forming the lightning essence was!

Ning himself was secretly nervous about this. Would he be able to succeed? Daolord Allgod was a master of alchemy and artificing, a truly peerless expert in these areas. Ning, however, wasn’t skilled in either regard.

“Next.” Ning once again reached out, seizing control over another one of the eight types of chaos lightning after another. His vast Jindan chaos region quickly became filled with eight more types of lightning essence.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The nine types of lightning essence crackled and clashed against each other, each holding different types of lightning.

“The easiest part is done. Next comes the hard part, where I actually forge the [Novessence Thunder] secret art. Let’s see if I can do this.” Ning felt a sense of pressure, even though this was a secret art ‘merely’ formed by chaos lightning; it would be much simpler than doing the same with Dao lightning.

Using nine types of Dao lightning to form the secret art would be much more complicated. Still, Ning understood that even ‘merely’ using nine types of chaos lightning would be incredibly hard for the vast majority of World-level cultivators.

“Begin.”

Ning’s pure Immortal energy poured into the nine types of lightning essence. The process of converting the chaos lightning into lightning essence had already caused the explosive, raging power of the lightning to be tamed by the formation. This method was far superior to the technique Ning had used to tame the Ninehorn Lightning Serpent long ago.

Crackle. Hiss. Pop. The nine streaks of lightning began to fly into the air under the control of Ning’s Immortal energy. They wrapped around each other, intertwining like the limbs of lovers and beginning to join together…

BOOM!

The nine types of lightning suddenly broke apart and dispersed.

“I failed.” Ning shook his head. “According to the instructions, I have to be able to merge all nine types of lightning into one in order to form the seed of this secret art. Afterwards, with the passage of time, I’ll be able to use the nine types of chaos lightning through this seed in unleashing this secret art.” Ning felt a headache coming. “Although I’ve tamed all nine streaks of lightning, I still need to perfectly match them together in a specific format that requires tens of thousands of steps. The lightning is simply too explosive and violent. The slightest mistake will result in failure.”

Ning’s Immortal energy was sufficiently pure, and his control over his energy was sufficiently strong. Given that his soul was being reinforced by the azureflower mist energy, it was similarly strong enough for him to maintain incredible control over the lightning. And yet, he still failed in the end. This was precisely because Daolord Allgod’s secret art was simply too detailed and complicated.

“I’ll try it again.”

Ning tried again and again to form the seed to this secret art. If he could succeed just once, the seed would be permanently formed and he wouldn’t need to spend all this energy and effort in the future. He’d be able to simply use this seed to activate the secret art!

Alas… it truly was difficult! Ning tried more than a hundred times, failing each time. Even his powerful soul was beginning to feel exhausted by the process. There was one time where he very nearly succeeded, but he ended up failing at one of the final steps.

“I’m going to rest for a while,” Ning mumbled to himself. “Simply merging nine types of chaos lightning is already incredibly difficult. How hard will it be for me to merge Dao lightning?”

“Hey…” Just as Ning was about to take a break, he suddenly noticed something within his body. “The azureflower mist energy can convert Immortal energy, divine power, and heartforce.” Ning mused to himself, “Although there’s no way for it to leave my body, it can easily enter the Jindan chaos region inside of me. If Immortal energy can be used to control the lightning, can the azureflower mist energy be used to do the same?”

The azureflower mist energy was far stronger than the Immortal energy!

“I’ll give it a try.” Ning immediately felt a hint of eagerness. Previously, he had dispersed his azureflower mist energy and sent it throughout his body, with a little residing within the Jindan chaos region as well. Now, Ning sent more and more of the azureflower mist energy into the Jindan chaos region, where it began to fly straight towards the nine types of lightning essence that crackled at the margins of the region.

Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!

The nine streams of azureflower mist energy were like nine roving dragons that burrowed straight into the nine types of lightning essence. Upon the energy entering the lightning essence, Ning was ready to give controlling them a shot.

Instantly, the nine types of chaos lightning began to fly upwards. It was extremely easy, and the chaos lightning flew about in an extremely obedient manner.

“Haha, it actually works. Using the azureflower mist energy to control the lightning is a hundred times easier than using my Immortal energy.” Ning was delighted. If previously it had been as difficult as an ordinary man wielding a gigantic greataxe, Ning now felt like he was an ordinary man who was wielding a pair of chopsticks. It was so easy!

The nine streaks of lightning coiled around in the air, mixing together in a perfect manner and transforming to become something else.

Slowly…

The nine streaks of lightning merged into eight streaks, then seven…

In the end, only one streak of lightning was left. It was a streak of crimson-gold lightning that radiated an aura of power that was so great that Ning trembled in fear. It vastly surpassed any other type of chaos lightning in power, and Ning felt certain that most likely even Dao lightning wouldn’t be much stronger than it.

Boom!

The crimson-gold lightning suddenly slammed downwards, smashing against the ‘mud’ of the formation. Instantly, the formation drew in the power of the crimson-gold lightning. It seemed to come to life as an enormous seal took form atop it.

“The seed of the secret art has taken shape.” Ning let out a sigh of relief.

In the future, the nine types of lightning essence would simply release their power and allow it to be converted by the seed, giving birth to that terrifying crimson-gold lightning.

“The [Novessence Thunder] formed by chaos lightning should be able to kill any master-class World God with a single blast.” After getting a good sense for how powerful the crimson-gold lightning was, he felt even more convinced of Daolord Allgod’s might.

However, given how strong Ning currently was, the [Novessence Thunder] would primarily be used as a ‘domain’ type effect, causing a large amount of lightning to surround and trap his foes. It must be understood that a domain that was capable of easily slaying master-class World Gods would serve as a terrifyingly strong constraint upon others!

When two individuals were on the same general level of power, for one side to be constrained in some manner would have a huge impact on a battle between them.

Daolord Allgod himself had used his nine secret arts at the same time to trap and constrain his foes. As a result, even someone like Emperor Melobo had been forced to flee. Emperor Melobo had damn near died, and in the end he had lost an enormous amount of flesh and blood which Dalord Allgod had refined into that drop of Eternal blood.

Ning was now in a superb mood after having successfully forged the [Novessence Thunder].

Two short months later, Daolord Badlands returned with a million cubes of chaos nectar. Although Ning had mentally prepared himself to receive such a vast fortune, his heart still shook when it actually entered his hands. For such a sum of chaos nectar to actually before him was still quite a stunning sight.

For most Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals, a mere hundred bottles was already an incredible fortune.

For World-level cultivators, a hundred cubes was a shocking sum.

A million cubes was enough to cause even Samsara Daolords turn green-eyed with envy.

“I really have never seen so much of it before.” Ning was located within a miniature estate-world which held a small pond within it. Ning stared at this elegant-looking small pond, which was merely thirty meters in size. It really was quite small… but Ning’s eyes couldn’t help but shine as he stared at it. This entire pool was formed from chaos nectar!

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