The Seven Techniques and the Silent Execution

Passing through the spatial vortex, a towering, suspended mountain appeared before him. It was Mount Innerheart.

“Uncle-Master.” “Grand-Uncle Master.”

As he walked on Mount Innerheart, Ji Ning occasionally exchanged a few words with some familiar faces before arriving at the Daoist temple of his master, Patriarch Subhuti. The two dao-attendants, Qingshui and Baihe, standing at the temple’s entrance, did not block him, clearly having received Subhuti’s orders.

Ji Ning entered the temple and saw his master seated in the lotus position in the distance.

“Master.” Ji Ning bowed with respect.

“What is it?” Subhuti looked at Ji Ning.

“I recently launched sneak attacks on several locations of the Seamless Gate, slaying over ten Empyrean Gods and True Immortals,” Ji Ning said. “I hoped to force the Seamless Gate to release my senior apprentice-sister, but they still haven’t agreed. Who would have thought… that while inspecting my spoils of war, I made an unexpected discovery.”

Subhuti smiled. “And you came all the way here just to tell your master about it?”

“Those Empyrean Gods and True Immortals aside, the true gain came from that Celestial Immortal, Shaoyan Chou.” Ji Ning continued. “Among the treasures he left behind, I found a peculiar object containing seven techniques. Each of these seven techniques was abstruse and unfathomable. I exhausted myself just to learn all seven, and the moment I succeeded, the object crumbled into nothingness.”

Ji Ning had pondered for a long time before deciding to speak in this manner.

He could have chosen not to tell his master about the seven techniques. But with the current war between the two major factions, keeping these techniques to himself would be useless. Reporting them to his own side brought far greater benefits. He was not afraid of the Seamless Gate making a move against him in the shadows; what he truly feared was someone within his own faction making a move! If some major power, on par with his master Patriarch Subhuti, suspected that Ji Ning had obtained a powerful treasure from the Chaos Outsiders, they might kill him. Even if Patriarch Subhuti flew into a rage afterwards, it would be too late.

“Oh?” Subhuti nodded with a smile. “It might be the legacy left behind by some great power.”

Once a legacy was learned, the relic itself would shatter into nothingness. This was a common method to prevent the teachings from being spread too widely.

“These are the seven techniques I memorized, Master.” Ji Ning produced a scroll of bamboo slips. “I have already inscribed them all within. Please take a look, Master.”

Subhuti took the scroll and immediately began to probe it with his divine sense.

He looked…

For a full half hour.

Subhuti was completely engrossed, and Ji Ning waited silently by his side.

“Ji Ning.” Subhuti looked up, his face beaming with pleasant surprise. “You have rendered a great service.”

Ji Ning felt a wave of relief.

It was good to be able to help his own faction. His own personal strength was limited. Among these many techniques, only the Tao Wu Eighteen Fiendgods and the Karmic Sin Weapon were useful to him. He had cultivated Tao Wu Eighteen Fiendgods to the second layer only by using the extraordinarily precious ‘Chaos Nectar’. As for the other techniques, even if he had them, he wouldn’t be able to comprehend them for the time being.

“These seven techniques are definitely from the Chaos Outsiders,” Subhuti exclaimed in amazement. “To think that such techniques would fall into the hands of a mere Celestial Immortal. It must be that he obtained a treasure left behind by a slain Chaos Outsider that had been hidden somewhere in the Three Realms.”

“I know of many Chaos Outsider techniques, but these seven are among the very best. This Lang Fu technique in particular… is the most useful!” Subhuti’s face was full of delight.

“There are many Chaos Outsider techniques?” Ji Ning looked at his master.

“Of course there are many.”

Subhuti laughed. “From the ancient times until now, we have slain a great number of Chaos Outsiders. Powerful ones like Luohou, and especially the Lord of All Demons. The Lord of All Demons commanded vast armies… After we slaughtered them all, we naturally obtained the treasures they left behind. The seven techniques you obtained were most likely left behind by some Chaos Outsider after its death, scattered somewhere in the Three Realms.”

Ji Ning nodded.

“But some Chaos Outsider techniques are incredibly useful. Others…” Subhuti shook his head. “Require exotic substances from the worlds where those Outsiders lived. We cannot find these things anywhere in the Three Realms, so they are useless. Take your Tao Wu Eighteen Fiendgods, for example. To cultivate it to the second layer, it requires so many exotic substances. I have never even heard of some of them.”

“We already had two such techniques for creating avatars from the Outsiders: the Twelve Capital Heavens Fiendgod and the Thousand Bodies Sacred Scripture. The Twelve Capital Heavens Fiendgod is very similar to yours, except it splits you into twelve avatars. The difficulty of cultivation is also somewhat lower. Some major powers are even training in it. But the Thousand Bodies Sacred Scripture is truly formidable. Once mastered, it allows one to split into a thousand avatars, each one reaching the Autarch level. When they merge, the Autarch’s power increases explosively. Unfortunately, even the first step of mastering the Thousand Bodies Sacred Scripture requires a treasure called the ‘Worldheart’. We don’t have such a treasure.”

“Thousand Bodies Sacred Scripture?” Ji Ning was shocked.

Splitting into a thousand avatars?

That was terrifying.

“The Worldheart is a tiny crystalline stone formed when a Chaosworld ages over countless epochs and then perishes and collapses,” Subhuti explained with a smile. “This stone is also the source from which countless Fiendgods are born to open up a new Chaosworld in the next cycle. To even begin cultivating the Thousand Bodies Sacred Scripture, you need a Worldheart. So tell me, since we only have a single Chaosworld, the Three Realms, where would we get a Worldheart?”

Ji Ning, who had searched the memories of Celestial Immortals and Empyrean Gods from the Nine Chaos Seals, also knew about the ‘Worldheart’.

A Worldheart was a treasure far more precious than Chaos Nectar.

The Nine Chaos Seals might have obtained one, but without a doubt, it would have been taken by the Nine Chaos Lord and the other two World-level existences. Ancestral Immortals and Elder Gods wouldn’t even have a chance to dream of it.

“Among your seven techniques, the Lang Fu is the most useful,” Subhuti said. “The Karmic Sin Weapon also has some use in the current great calamity, and could probably be used to nurture a few Protocosmic spirit-treasures. But using slaughter to nurture a Chaos treasure would be far too difficult. Who knows how many you would have to kill to nurture a single Chaos treasure?”

The leaders of the Buddhist and Daoist sects, the Three Sovereigns, as well as Patriarch Subhuti, the Five Emperors, and many other great powers, all possessed Chaos treasures. They did not place much value on the Karmic Sin Weapon technique.

“Of course, the Karmic Sin Weapon technique is still useful for you and your generation,” Subhuti said with a laugh. “But this Lang Fu technique is a method for creating Dao talismans. Every method for creating a Dao talisman is an extremely closely guarded secret. Talismans can be forged in advance, and in the midst of battle, you can simply use a flood of them to crush your opponent to death.”

“Of course, the prerequisite is that the talisman forger must be able to fully comprehend the profundities of Lang Fu. In our Three Realms, the undisputed master of formations and talismans is the Human Sovereign, Fuxi.” Subhuti laughed. “Even I felt great joy while reading the Lang Fu, and I can forge a few talismans from it. But if Fuxi were to see it, he might be able to learn it completely.”

Ji Ning was speechless.

The Lang Fu was far too profound. Reading it felt like reading a celestial book.

For the Human Sovereign Fuxi, its use could be astonishingly great.

“By the way, you said Shaoyan Chou obtained it. Does that mean he also knows these seven techniques?” Subhuti’s expression changed.

“Master,” Ji Ning quickly said. “I exhausted myself just to learn these seven techniques. Given Shaoyan Chou’s strength as a Celestial Immortal, he could probably barely manage to learn the Tao Wu Eighteen Fiendgods and parts of the Nine Solutions of Insect Beasts. He wouldn’t have the ability to learn the rest.”

“That’s good.” Subhuti smiled. “The Tao Wu Eighteen Fiendgods and the Nine Solutions of Insect Beasts pose no threat. Back in the days when we coexisted peacefully with the Seamless Gate, we often befriended each other, and some even became close comrades unto death. We exchanged many techniques. They have some of ours, and we have some of theirs. They also have the Twelve Capital Heavens Fiendgod and the Thousand Bodies Sacred Scripture. As for the Nine Solutions of Insect Beasts, it requires a long time to cultivate and the cost is also significant. Neither of our sides has that kind of time anymore.”

Ji Ning nodded.

“But to be safe, this Shaoyan Chou must be eliminated,” Subhuti said.

“Yes,” Ji Ning agreed.

Because he had first refined the treasures left by the Empyrean Gods and True Immortals, then refined many other magic treasures, and only afterwards discovered the stone stele among the miscellaneous items. The process of refining all those treasures had taken over a day. If Shaoyan Chou had wanted to report him, he would have done so long ago. So Ji Ning had never been in a hurry to find a way to eliminate him to cover his tracks.

…

Indeed.

Shaoyan Chou was indeed clinging to wishful thinking.

“Of those seven techniques, I only managed to learn the first and parts of the second,” Shaoyan Chou mused while drinking wine in a hall. “But I can already tell they are utterly incredible techniques. And the pressure from that stone stele was even more terrifying than the Heavenly Dao! If I report this to the Seamless Gate, they would probably kill me to silence me to prevent these techniques from leaking, even before they manage to take them away from Ji Ning.”

“Now that Ji Ning has obtained the seven techniques, he will probably keep them hidden and not tell anyone else.”

“Yes, that must be it.”

Shaoyan Chou himself had kept them hidden all along, never telling a single other person.

He believed Ji Ning would do the same!

And he dared not report it. If he reported such formidable techniques to the Seamless Gate, he probably wouldn’t get any reward, and would instead be killed to silence him. Shaoyan Chou was very well aware of the Seamless Gate’s methods… they were extremely brutal.

“Hmm…” Shaoyan Chou suddenly felt a wave of dizziness.

“This… how…”

“Die.”

“Fine, just die then.”

Shaoyan Chou’s gaze grew hazy, and then his soul dissolved, and he perished, his soul scattered. One of his other avatars also perished.

…

At Mount Innerheart.

Patriarch Subhuti closed his eyes, then opened them, looking at Ji Ning. “The other two avatars of Shaoyan Chou are already dead. All eighteen of his avatars are gone.”

Ji Ning breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, Shaoyan Chou did not possess a treasure like the ‘Void Boat’ and dared not travel through the Chaos. Since all his avatars were within the Three Realms, Patriarch Subhuti’s intervention was naturally effortless… Just as Ji Ning could easily make a weak foe commit suicide, Patriarch Subhuti could just as easily make a Celestial Immortal kill himself.

Of course, the Seamless Gate would also very much like to make Ji Ning kill himself silently, but Ji Ning’s heartforce had already reached the fourth level, on par with many Daofathers. The Seamless Gate could not accomplish this either.

“Come, let us go see the Human Sovereign, Fuxi.” Subhuti laughed heartily. “When he sees this Lang Fu, he will surely be thrilled and excited. A peerless talisman technique like this is something one encounters only by chance.”

Whoosh.

A spatial vortex appeared before them.

Patriarch Subhuti took Ji Ning’s hand and stepped into the spatial vortex.

…

Two things to mention.

First, today is Friday, so there will only be this one chapter. Don’t hit me, everyone. I also need to catch my breath.

Second, the most, most, most important original illustration of ‘Ji Ning’ is finally complete! Tomato has posted the original illustration of Ji Ning on his WeChat. Add Tomato’s WeChat, and you can see it! The original illustration of Ji Ning was the hardest to draw. I discussed it with the artist for a long time and revised it several times. At long last, the final image is complete.

Tomato’s WeChat ID: fanqie34, or ‘我吃西红柿’.