The Game of Attrition

The Eight Fires Universe was placed by Ji Ning within the aquatic manor.

He had arranged for one of his incarnations to leave through the ‘stone stele’ first, to retrieve the Eight Fires Universe, before sending it here. Because the distance was immense, it had taken over a day of flight to arrive.

“Mm?” The Dongjun True Immortal frowned as he saw another white-robed youth flying towards him from afar.

“The Eighteen Peaches of Immortality?” the Dongjun True Immortal immediately guessed.

“Do you think attacking you requires a great deal of mana?” The white-robed youth waved his hand, and a lotus of flame flew swiftly into the air, directly to a position just above the Dongjun True Immortal. The flaming lotus then flipped over, facing downward, and instantly expanded with a whoosh to become a massive lotus a thousand kilometers wide, its petals beginning to bloom.

The eight petals fully opened. A sea of heavenly flames poured down directly below.

“Damn it.” The Dongjun True Immortal’s expression changed upon seeing this. The bowl-shaped magic treasure immediately appeared once more, shielding him.

The boundless flames descended, burning all around the bowl-shaped treasure. The very earth was reduced to ash.

The Dongjun True Immortal hovered there, protected by the large upturned bowl.

The Eight Grand True Fires swirled around him on all sides, burning with maddened fury.

…

“Hmph. This is much easier.” Ji Ning stood in midair, watching. The Eight Fires Universe was its own separate world, burning the enemy within it. It was not invincible, of course; if an enemy could escape the boundaries of the Eight Fires Universe, they would naturally be outside the range of the Eight Grand True Fires. However, this prisoner could not leave that area at all.

He could only passively endure the assault of the Eight Grand True Fires.

This was a treasure personally forged by the Elder God ‘Zhurong’. The combined might of the Eight Grand True Fires was astonishingly powerful. However, because the treasure itself naturally contained the Eight Grand True Fires, its attacks relied primarily on them. Ji Ning only needed to maintain the treasure, occasionally infusing it with a bit of mana.

…

“Damn it, damn it all.” The Dongjun True Immortal was growing truly frantic. “This flame’s attack relies on the fire itself. It costs him very little mana. He can keep this up forever. But I have to constantly maintain my magic treasure to defend myself… at this rate…”

“Where did he get a magic treasure like this?”

The Dongjun True Immortal was both furious and anxious.

An ‘Eight Fires Universe’, containing the Eight Grand True Fires, was worth over a hundred top-grade Pure Yang magic treasures. Despite having killed three Celestial Immortals and True Gods within the World Prison, Ji Ning had not obtained a treasure of this caliber.

The aquatic manor. Within the great hall stood a stone stele.

Whoosh.

Ji Ning appeared out of nowhere. He glanced at the stone stele, and with a thought, the stele transformed into a streak of light that flew into his brow.

“Out.” Ji Ning looked to one side. Fifteen figures simultaneously appeared beside him, each radiating only the aura of a Celestial Immortal, their appearances varied. These fifteen were fifteen of the eighteen incarnations of Ji Ning transformed using the Arcane Art.

“Having transformed with the Arcane Art, even True Gods and Daofathers would need to see them with their own eyes and use some pupil-type divine ability to see through the illusion. Otherwise… even if some great power could probe the Three Realms, even if they could penetrate an Innate Spirit-treasure like this aquatic manor, they might not see through the fact that these fifteen are my incarnations.” Ji Ning was well aware.

Penetrating an Innate Spirit-treasure to probe its secrets was extremely difficult.

Fewer than twenty existences in the Three Realms could accomplish such a feat.

As for the ninth cycle of the Arcane Art… after transformation, it was impossible to see through the illusion via a distant probe through the aquatic manor.

“Only when no one knows how many incarnations I truly have can these incarnations better preserve my life and prove more effective in unexpected ways,” Ji Ning mused.

…

Ji Ning left the aquatic manor, arriving in the thatched hut. He dispelled the avatar beside him, walked out of the hut, and looked up at the Five Treasures Mountain ahead. He then transmitted, “Ninefang.”

Instantly, a streak of light flew over. The bald elder, the Ninefang True God, quickly said, “Master of the estate.”

“Return to the Starseizing Major World first. I have matters to attend to,” Ji Ning instructed.

“Understood.” The Ninefang True God acknowledged.

Immediately thereafter, Ji Ning boarded the Void Boat alone and departed directly from the Sword Immortal world.

…

The endless void was filled with enormous stars, the most dazzling among them being the Taiyin Star and the Sunstar. In terms of size alone, even the Nuwa Major World and the Xinhuo Major World were far smaller than the Sunstar or the Taiyin Star. The light and heat emitted by these two supreme stars nourished the entire Three Realms.

These stars were born from the primordial chaos.

When Pangu split heaven and earth long ago, the creation of the world consumed a massive amount of chaos. The chaos was depleted so greatly that a surrounding void appeared — this was the origin of the ‘endless void’. As the vast quantity of chaos was consumed, the stars originally within the chaos also emerged.

Whoosh.

A Void Boat flew through the void, constantly teleporting, even landing on certain stars. It soon reached the end of the void. Though called the ‘endless void’, it ultimately had a limit; at its edge lay the chaos. The Void Boat plunged directly into the chaos, continuing to fly and teleport within it.

…

“Mm?” Within the dark world, the Godking, seated upon a tens-of-thousands-meter-tall throne suspended in midair, fell into contemplation. “This Ji Ning… why has he entered the chaos?”

Ji Ning had suddenly left the Sword Immortal world and even entered the chaos. The Nuwa camp hadn’t noticed yet, but the Seamless Gate side had learned of it first. Because the Seamless Gate feared Ji Ning would launch another sneak attack… they had been continuously monitoring his movements.

“What is he doing in the chaos?” the Godking wondered.

“Unfortunately, there’s no way to investigate.”

Even with his extraordinary divine abilities, the Godking’s formless power could still probe the void, as the formless void offered no resistance. But the endless chaos was filled with immense obstruction; there was simply no way to probe it.

…

The chaos was boundless, filled with endless grey, misty vapors. These grey vapors contained a mysterious power; if one could comprehend the ‘Heavenly Dao of Chaos’, one could draw ‘chaos force’ from them. Ji Ning was far from achieving this, however; he could not replenish himself with external energy within the chaos. He could only expend his own mana or consume spirit-pills to recover.

A short excursion through the chaos was manageable.

A long voyage, however, would only deplete his mana, leaving him trapped in the chaos to die.

“So many stars.”

Within the chaos, one could often discover countless stars. The small ones were perhaps only a million kilometers in size, while the larger ones dwarfed entire major worlds.

Although these stars resided within the chaos, they were very close to the Three Realms. They had long since been thoroughly explored and charted by the great powers of the Three Realms during their travels. Ji Ning, following the map obtained from Mount Innerheart, teleported across short distances, arriving at one star after another.

“This star will do.”

Whoosh.

The Void Boat now arrived at a star that was completely composed of solid ice. In terms of size, it was comparable to the Grand Xia world. The entire star radiated boundless cold. On its surface, there were massive ravines, like canyons, and protruding peaks, like mountains. Gale-force winds raged across this star, but there was no life whatsoever.

Even Fiendgods and Immortals would be unwilling to live on such a bitterly cold star.

“Go.”

With a thought from Ji Ning, a stone stele flew out from between his brows. It shot directly towards a deep, secluded canyon ahead, soon tumbling into the canyon’s depths, carried by the wind. Under Ji Ning’s heartforce probe… after the stele landed deep within the canyon, it was quickly covered by a layer of ice, completely frozen into the depths of the star.

An ordinary person would naturally be unable to probe with heartforce, but Ji Ning had already mastered the stone stele and could naturally sense it.

“The stele is here. No one can detect it,” Ji Ning mused. “Within the chaos, even great powers cannot probe it through the void, I imagine. Even if some being possessed such overwhelming strength that their heartforce could cover this place… this stele itself is extraordinarily mysterious. An outsider must see it with their own eyes.”

Even if a great power knew Ji Ning possessed the stone stele and knew he had hidden it on this star, they would have to search the entire star inch by inch with their own eyes.

A star comparable to the Grand Xia world? Searching it inch by inch was nothing short of a fantasy.

Moreover, no one knew that Ji Ning had placed the stone stele here.

“Here…”

“Will be my final ground of counterattack.”

“If I suffer a catastrophic disaster… at the very least, the two incarnations hidden within the stone stele can continue to cultivate and recover all of my incarnations,” Ji Ning thought to himself.

Whoosh.

The Void Boat then continued to tour a few more stars within the chaos. After this, Ji Ning left the chaos and returned to the endless void. For now, he only dared to roam this thoroughly charted region of the chaos, very close to the Three Realms, and did not dare to venture deeper.

No one knew…

That during this trip into the chaos, Ji Ning had released the stone stele, within which were two of his incarnations. Those two incarnations were, at that very moment, relying on the ‘Eight Fires Universe’ and other Pure Yang magic treasures capable of releasing wind, fire, lightning, and thunder, to furiously assault the True Immortals and True Gods.

…

Returning to the endless void, he soon arrived at the Grand Xia world.

Ji Ning stood in midair, produced a token, and poured mana into it.

“Disciple.” Patriarch Subhuti’s voice echoed in Ji Ning’s ears.

“Disciple wishes to return to the Tristar Crescent Major World. I also have matters to report to you, Master,” Ji Ning said.

Whoosh.

A vortex immediately appeared in the midair beside him. Ji Ning stepped directly into it, heading for the Tristar Crescent Major World.