Desolate Era

“Master.” Pillsaint and Su Youji both started to grow nervous. The area up ahead contained a region of pure space, with nothing within it whatsoever; not even the prime essences of the universe held sway there. And yet, when they stared at that region of pure space the two of them felt their very souls shiver in fear. They had the feeling that if they barged into that place, it was virtually guaranteed that they would die.

“Master, I can sense that this is no ordinary place. Don’t enter rashly,” Su Youji said immediately.

“Master, you should first come up with a method to test it out. Only then should you enter it,” Pillsaint agreed.

Ji Ning stared towards the front, a solemn look on his face. He was supremely confident in his abilities to handle even the likes of Patriarch Clearwind. Although the empty field of pure space in front of him seemed rather special, he was certain it posed neligible danger to him. But that region of golden mist… his subconscious was screaming of danger. Ning knew that the depths of the golden mist had to hold something that was terrifyingly dangerous.

“This region of space is quite extraordinary. All techniques and spells have been kept at bay by it! Even the prime essences of the universe avoid this place,” Ning said. “I can’t scan it with my godsense either, nor can I scan it with my Dao of the Sword at all. There are no other options.”

“Then don’t go in!” Su Youji argued.

“Right, Master! Forget it. Don’t go in.” Pillsaint said the same thing. The endless primordial chaos was filled with dangerous places. If you knew it was dangerous, why did you have to go inside? But Ning only shook his head.action

The Nine Chaos Seals remained the most inconceivably powerful technique he had ever encountered. Now that his azureflower seal was resonating so strongly with this location, it was obvious that there was something calling to him from the depths of the golden mist. Ning had already placed his Lifeblood Dao-seal by the side of his avatar in Vastheaven Palace. Even if he died, he would be able to use that Dao-seal to come back to life.

Taking on a bit of risk for the chance to learn some of the secrets of the azureflower seal was worth it. “Just wait for me here,” Ning barked.

“Acknowledged.” Pillsaint and Su Youji had no choice but to accept his order. “But be careful!” Su Youji added.

Ning nodded gently. Moments later, a vortex-world formed by dark-gold lightning and icy-white water appeared around in the area around him. Swoosh! Ning stepped into the region of pure space, and everything around him for ten thousand kilometers became drawn into that lightning-snow vortex.

Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoooosh. As soon as he entered that region, a stream of invisible energy instantly swept towards Ning. This surge of invisible energy was flowing through the empty region at all times. It seemed almost ephemeral as it passed straight through the lightning-water vortex-world, then brushed against Ning’s body. It was able to just barely make it through Ning’s Hegemon armor, but it was dramatically weakened in the process. It then brushed against Ning’s soul itself, but Ning’s soul remained very stable; it was as though a gentle breeze had blown across it.

“A direct soul attack?” Ning was quite wary of this. He immediately turned his head to look backwards, willing his lightning-water vortex-world to stretch out and encompass Su Youji and Pillsaint within it. “No matter what, do not enter this region of empty space. It contains a pervasive force that will directly assault your soul. Ordinary Daolords of the First Step would not be able to endure this type of assault.” Ning’s voice echoed in the area around Su Youji and Pillsaint.

After issuing the warning, Ning continued to fly through the region of empty space, moving at just two times the speed of light. For him, this was fairly slow. As for Pillsaint and Su Youji, they watched Ning leave with worried gazes as Ning moved towards that region of golden mist.

……

A short while later, Ning reached the region of golden mist. This mist completely covered this side of the empty region, and Ning could sense that the thing which was resonating with his azureflower seal was on the other side of the mist.

“What is this mist?” Ning reached out with his hand and formed a stream of sword-light. The stream of sword-light stretched out to become thirty thousand meters long. It delved straight into the golden mist in front of Ning, slicing through it without encountering any impediments at all.

“The mist doesn’t seem to be dangerous or offensive, in and of itself,” Ning mused. “The sense of danger should be emanating from deeper within the golden mist.” Ning then reached out with his right hand, making it expand to become more than thirty meters long before plunging it into the golden mist.

Ning was right to be so cautious. The strong sense of danger coming from his subconscious as well as the marvelous properties of the Nine Chaos Seals ensured that Ning would not dare to be negligent in dealing with this matter. As Ning saw it, anyone capable of creating the Nine Chaos Seals had to be at least as strong as the likes of the almighty Brightshore Hegemon or the Paragon of Pills.

“There really does seem to be no danger here. This is nothing more than a metallic form of energy.” Ning was unable to use his godsense to scan the place; his only option was to use these fairly crude ways to test everything out. Whoosh! Ning flew into the golden mist.

With the golden mist completely surrounding him, even Ning was only able to see out to a distance of roughly ten million kilometers. He carefully advanced at the speed of light; ten million kilometers might seem like a long distance, but if Ning moved at his full speed of ten times the speed of light, he’d pass that distance in the blink of an eye. It’d be too risky.

“Eh?” Ning swept the region before him with his gaze. Within this region of ten million kilometers, he saw a strange beast that looked like a giant golden pangolin. Its entire body was covered in armor plates, and it was gracefully flying through the air. Each time it glided through the air, it moved at three times the speed of light.

Ning couldn’t sense this creature posing much of a threat to him. “Still, best to avoid it. No reason to cause any unnecessary trouble at a time like this.” With but a thought, Ning suddenly vanished entirely.

Ning had just used the Shadowless evasion skill, becoming one with the golden mist and completely invisible to the naked eye. Given how distant that carapaced creature was, it naturally wouldn’t be able to discover Ning.

Ning spent sixteen full hours flying through the golden mist, and the resonance with his azureflower seal only grew stronger. However, he remained within the golden mist region.

“Eh? What’s with all the beasts?” Ning swept the area before him with his gaze, only to discover twenty-three golden beasts congregating together roughly ten million kilometers away from him. Some were large, some were small, but all of them caused Ning to feel a hint of danger. “The sense of danger isn’t that strong. I should probably be able to deal with them, but… the ones I encountered earlier were all by themselves. Why are twenty-three of them here?”

The strangest environments always gave birth to the strangest and most unique lifeforms or animals. Waterwalker, Bertulu, and others like them who were born with sufficient amounts of intelligence could train in the Dao like any cultivator. These beasts before Ning, however, were fairly dumb and more like bugbeasts; there was no way for them to cultivate at all. Still, the universe had given them their own path to growth and evolution. Although it was guaranteed that there was no way this path could let them gain eternity, it still provided them with tremendous combat power.

“Why are they all gathered here? Is this their home?” Ning felt quite curious, and so he used his Shadowless evasion skill to move closer to them. When he reached a distance of two million kilometers, he was able to see them quite clearly.

The beasts were all scattered in a circular fashion around a golden pearl that was slowly spinning in place. The twenty-three carapace beasts were all swallowing in the energy being emanated by that golden pearl. The beasts were dumb, but they knew that absorbing the energy being given off by this pearl would help them grow stronger.

“Is that…” Ning frowned, then stared in astonishment. “Deluxe hellgold? That’s deluxe hellgold! Supposedly, it can be used to serve as the energy core for a golem of the fourth step. D-Damn my luck is good. I actually ran into a pearl of deluxe hellgold!”

Golems with the power of Daolords of the Fourth step were incredibly few in number, primarily because the materials needed to build cores for them were difficult to forge, with all the materials being incredibly rare. Deluxe hellgold was one of the things that could be used to forge such a core. In other words… if you had a pearl of deluxe hellgold, you would have the majority of the ingredients needed to construct a golem-Daolord of the Fourth Step!

There were also a number of other materials that could be used to build an energy core, but all of them were just as incredibly rare.

When deluxe hellgold was used to forge magic treasures, the magic treasure in question could change freely. It could even switch from being a suit of armor to a sharp sword, and it would have the power of a top-grade Eternal treasure in any form. But of course, using such a precious material to forge a magic treasure was a very wasteful act. Generally speaking, people would save it for creating golems! The golem itself would be as tough as a top-grade Eternal treasure, one which could change and transform at will. It would be the perfect meat shield, and Eternal Emperors would use them to keep themselves alive.

“Once I get enough materials, I’ll invite a true grandmaster artificer to work on one for me,” Ning mused. “Many organizations have permanent ‘buy orders’ for deluxe hellgold, with the price set at thirty to forty million cubes of chaos nectar.” There were many major powers who would go out of their way to buy this material, but…

Well. The sellers weren’t fools either. Everyone knew how rare this material was. Generally speaking, sellers would only be willing to trade it for similarly rare treasures. Everyone had chaos nectar; who cared about that? Not everyone, however, would necessarily have high-quality treasures. Some unique ones simply couldn’t be found anywhere else.

If Ning was to acquire this deluxe hellgold, he’d be able to trade it for some treasures which were truly useful towards him. These were treasures that people generally wouldn’t be willing to exchange for chaos nectar, not unless Ning was willing to pay two or three times more than the market price.

“I still haven’t discovered the source of the resonance with my azureflower seal, but I found a pearl of deluxe hellgold.” Ning was rather excited. “The only problem is that it is surrounded by those twenty-three beasts.”