The Attrition Siege

Liangqiu remained silent beside him, watching the keeper lost in thought.

“Excellent.” Ji Ning finally looked toward the woman. “I know you have very few divine pills left. This bottle will keep you alive for some time.” A jade bottle appeared in his hand, filled with Pure Yang pills. Liangqiu’s eyes lit up.

“Thank you, True Immortal.” Liangqiu’s voice was filled with reverence. These were precisely what she needed most. A Celestial Immortal who neither fought nor battled consumed very little Immortal energy just to stay alive—but even that tiny drain became staggering when stretched across an entire Chaos Cycle of imprisonment.

“I have a question for you,” Ji Ning said.

“Please ask, True Immortal.” Liangqiu was puzzled. The keeper already had her memories—what more could he want?

“You must have noticed that my golden core is of the lowest grade,” Ji Ning said. “I’ve heard there are methods—using special chaos treasures and secret arts—to transform a golden core and elevate it to the second grade. This World Prison holds countless prisoners. How can I obtain what I need from them to upgrade my core?”

Having acquired her memories was one thing.

Thinking and acting differently was another.

“Does the True Immortal have any allies?” Liangqiu looked at him.

“Just me,” Ji Ning said.

“In that case…” Liangqiu pondered. “Within the World Prison, the weakest are Celestial Immortals and Empyrean Gods. Above them are True Immortals and True Gods. The highest are Ancestral Immortals and Elder Gods. The Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals can draw power directly from the chaos—they are formidable and likely beyond the True Immortal’s reach.”

“As for Celestial Immortals and Empyrean Gods… in the Nine Sacred Chaos Realm, they are of low status. Even if some hold special positions, any knowledge they possess about ‘elevating the golden core’ would have been bound by a life oath. They could never reveal it. And the precious chaos treasures needed are almost impossible for them to possess.”

“That leaves only True Immortals and True Gods.” Liangqiu gazed at Ji Ning. “Only from those prisoners might the Darknorth Sir obtain what he needs.”

“Most True Immortals and True Gods cannot yet draw power from the chaos. They rely on divine pills to survive—barely enough for living, but not for fighting.” Liangqiu smiled at Ji Ning. “If the Darknorth Sir attacks them relentlessly, forcing them to expend divine power and Immortal energy, no amount of pills can sustain a prolonged battle. Eventually, they will exhaust their power and perish.”

“You can force them to submit—or kill them outright and take their treasures.”

“True Immortals and True Gods carry far more treasures than Celestial Immortals and Empyrean Gods.” Liangqiu continued. “The World Prison is vast, and there are many such prisoners. Sweep through them all—by killing or forcing submission—and I believe the Darknorth Sir will find what he seeks.”

Ji Ning glanced at her.

A ruthless heart.

She was willing to be so merciless even to her own kind.

He had her memories, but this tactic hadn’t occurred to him.

“Sir only needs to stay outside the formation barriers. You can attack them, but they cannot attack you.” Liangqiu smiled. “Their only options are defeat or death. If they don’t submit, they die.”

“But my strength compared to True Immortals and True Gods is still far too lacking,” Ji Ning mused.

Kill True Gods?

Kill True Immortals who rivaled Daofathers?

Outside this prison, he wouldn’t dare dream of it. But inside the World Prison—it was possible.

“All the Darknorth Sir needs is patience. One by one, the True Immortals and True Gods will fall—unless someone can draw power from the chaos.” Liangqiu said. “Perhaps a few exist, but they are exceedingly rare. Not even one in a hundred.”

Ji Ning smiled. “Excellent.”

He turned and left.

Time passed.

Ji Ning swept through six more Celestial Immortals and Empyrean Gods. When they learned the Nine Sacred Chaos Realm had fallen, two of them went mad and tried to kill him—but with the Arcane Art protecting him, they couldn’t harm him, and they lost their lives instead. The other four were overjoyed and willingly submitted to a soul-search.

Including Liangqiu, Ji Ning had now searched the memories of five Celestial Immortals and Empyrean Gods. His understanding of the Nine Sacred Chaos Realm grew deeper.

“It seems my hope truly lies with the True Immortals and True Gods.” Ji Ning sat aboard the void boat. “The method Liangqiu described is the only way.”

True Immortals and True Gods occupied a status a thousand—ten thousand—times higher than Celestial Immortals and Empyrean Gods.

Like the difference between heaven and earth.

Their status, authority, and treasures were utterly incomparable. In the Nine Sacred Chaos Realm, some powerful True Immortals and True Gods even had the privilege of teaching—and they carried techniques with them.

“Whoosh.”

The void boat flew over a lake scattered with islands. A True Immortal prisoner sat on one of them.

…

On the island.

True Immortal Dongjun sat cross-legged, deep in his own mental world. A sudden fluctuation jolted him awake.

“A living being?” Dongjun opened his eyes.

He saw a white-robed youth standing in midair hundreds of li away. Startled, he thought, “A True Immortal? His aura is so weak—the lowest grade!”

To the immortals and gods of the Nine Sacred Chaos Realm, Empyrean Gods and Celestial Immortals shared one tier, while True Immortals and True Gods stood far above. Ji Ning cultivated both body and Ki, so Dongjun could sense his Fiendgod aura as well, but he focused on Ji Ning’s Pure Yang True Immortal aura—and it was absurdly faint.

“You—are you the new warden?” Dongjun’s face darkened. “What happened to the Nine Sacred Chaos Realm? Why would they send you?”

“You’ve probably guessed. The Nine Sacred Chaos Realm has fallen.” Ji Ning stood in midair. “Now, this World Prison is under my control. Previous wardens may have feared to harm prisoners, but… I do not.”

Dongjun sneered. “You?”

Pride came naturally to him.

This kind of lowest-grade True Immortal was pathetically weak. He could slaughter one easily.

“I will give you two choices.” Ji Ning could feel the threat radiating from this True Immortal—it was terrifying. The Seamless Gate had once sent nearly three hundred Empyrean Gods and True Immortals to hunt him, and they were likely weaker than this one man. By the standards of the Three Realms, this was a True God—a Daofather.

“First: submit to me.” Ji Ning said.

“Second: resist. I stand outside the formation barriers. I can attack you, but you cannot reach me. Your strength far surpasses mine, true. But every exchange will drain your power. Once it runs out—death.”

“Choose.”

Ji Ning’s voice was cold.

Dongjun’s eyes flickered with murderous intent. In the era of the Nine Sacred Chaos Realm, a True Immortal this weak would have trembled before him.

“You overestimate yourself, you insignificant worm.” Dongjun sneered. “The dignity of this True Immortal Dongjun—across billions of miles of territory beneath my command, no one dared defy me. Someone of your lowly, lowest-grade birth… even if I sit here and let you attack, you cannot wound me.”

His pride, his status earned over endless millennia—he would not bow to a weakling.

He had committed a great crime, and the Nine Sacred Chaoslord himself, despite his authority, had only imprisoned him.

“Is that so? Then let this ‘insignificant worm’ see your power.” Ji Ning waved his hand.

Whoosh.

Seven hundred and twenty-nine Pure Yang flying swords materialized around him. Seven hundred and twenty had come from Liangqiu, all inscribed with the Grand Qian rune. As his Pure Yang energy surged, his fourth-stage Heartforce and soul-manipulation techniques drove all seven hundred and twenty-nine swords together.

Ji Ning’s soul control was now strong enough to command even the most powerful Karmic Punishment Deities. These flying swords were nothing.

A jade sword coalesced before him.

The Grand Qian Sword Formation—ninth level!

“Some minor tricks.” Dongjun sat cross-legged, sneering. If not for the formation barrier trapping him, he could annihilate this insect in one blow.

“Swoosh.”

A rainbow arc streaked through the air as the jade sword struck.

“Hmph.” Dongjun snorted. A beam of golden light shot from his eyes. Boom! The jade sword—the condensed ninth-level Grand Qian Sword Formation—shattered completely. Ji Ning’s sword-light was an egg; Dongjun’s golden light was a stone. Egg against stone—inevitable destruction.

The gap was immense.

Heaven and earth apart.

“This is truly the power of a Daofather-level True God from the Three Realms.” Ji Ning’s desire to upgrade his golden core burned even hotter. Even rising to the second grade would still leave a gap, but it wouldn’t be this absurd.

“Again—again—again!”

Ji Ning struck again and again.

Sword-light from the Grand Qian Formation carved through the air toward Dongjun.

Dongjun blocked three strikes before frowning.

“My power is draining too fast… at this rate…” He realized, with bitter frustration, that while blocking was effortless, controlling his treasures consumed massive amounts of energy.

“Deploy!” Dongjun’s face burned with shame and anger.

A bowl-shaped treasure, ten zhang tall, appeared and inverted itself over him, shielding his seated form.

Playing turtle was a humiliation for a True Immortal of his status.

But hiding inside a treasure consumed far less power.

“Boom! Boom! Boom!” Sword-light after sword-light slammed into the bowl, unable to breach it.

“Hmm?” Ji Ning frowned. “The Grand Qian Sword Formation drains power too quickly. If I rely on absorbing ambient energy to recover, killing him would take forever. Using Immortal pills to restore power would deplete my reserves too fast. I need a method that consumes less energy.” An idea struck him.

He remembered a treasure—the Eight-Fires Cosmos!

The Eight-Fires Cosmos contained eight types of true fire. Their burning power was terrifying, and Ji Ning only needed a trickle of energy to sustain the treasure. Since the enemy was trapped within a thousand-li radius, he couldn’t touch the Eight-Fires Cosmos at all. He could only let the flames consume him.

This was the perfect method. The true fires would burn no less fiercely than his Grand Qian Sword Formation strikes, yet the energy cost was minimal.

…

Second chapter today. Tomato didn’t update the day before yesterday, so yesterday I made up one chapter, and today I’ll make up another. I’m going to keep writing the third chapter now.