The True God’s Burn

After the female true immortal known as ‘Jinhuang’ perished, Ji Ning carefully inspected the possessions she had left behind. Although the gains were considerable, he still did not find the most urgently needed techniques or chaos treasures—it seemed that before being imprisoned, anything she couldn’t use had long been traded away for vast quantities of immortal pills and elixirs. In the World Prison, immortal pills and elixirs were the most useful currency.

“Even though I’m using six treasures simultaneously to release water, fire, and wind, the power is still far inferior to the Eight Fires Qiankun World,” Ji Ning shook his head. “I have two avatars. One is specializing in dealing with True Gods and True Immortals; as for this avatar, I’ll focus on Empyrean Gods and Celestial Immortals. Although their treasures are far inferior and the likelihood of them possessing powerful techniques is extremely low, over a very short time I can either kill them or force them to submit. Besides, I can use these battles to temper my ‘Brightmoon Sword-Art.’”

He had already comprehended ninety percent of the Five Treasures Sword Art, third scroll, but the remaining part was proving increasingly difficult. He still relied on repeated real combat to gain a deeper understanding of the Five Treasures Sword Art.

Moreover, the Brightmoon Sword-Art he had created was originally forged through battles with weaker cultivators.

To truly perfect his sword-art, he needed to fight opponents of comparable strength—even life-or-death battles.

Clearly—

Nowhere else could he find a large number of opponents of similar strength to fight. The World Prison was overflowing with them.

“A warden?” A gaunt youth sat there, raising his head to look at the approaching Ji Ning. “A True Immortal? Yet his aura is so weak… strange. Logically, a position as important as warden should be held by a core member of my Ninefate Chaos Nation. How could a core Celestial Immortal or True God be the weakest rank of True Immortals? Could it be that the World Prison has fallen into enemy hands?”

“Die!”

Ji Ning let out a fierce roar, gripping his sword in both hands and charging straight ahead.

Seeing Ji Ning attack without any words, the gaunt youth was alarmed. Then a wild look appeared in his eyes: “Indeed, an enemy! You want me dead? Such a weak True Immortal—I’ll send you to death first!”

With a low growl, the emaciated youth’s muscles bulged, his wrinkled skin turned fair, and in an instant he transformed from a beggarlike wretch into a battle-god. At the same time, his body flickered, and he grew four faces and eight arms, each hand holding a black square staff. He, too, roared and charged at Ji Ning: “Alien, die!”

Ji Ning saw the other as a chaos alien.

The other saw Ji Ning the same way.

“Clang! Clang! Clang~~”

Sword-light flashed; staff-shadows whirled.

In one exchange, Ji Ning was sent flying backward, gouging a deep trench in the ground. He immediately shook his body, manifesting three heads and six arms, each hand wielding an immortal-ranked flying sword. “Master was right—to truly perfect the Five Treasures Sword Art, I must fight the strong.” Ji Ning’s eyes burned with passion as he charged again.

The two sides fought fiercely, splitting the earth around them with utter savagery.

The prisoner possessed the divine ability of four faces and eight arms, and his staff techniques were profound. In the long years of his imprisonment, he had spent his time in contemplation, making his staff arts far more advanced than Ji Ning’s Brightmoon Sword-Art. Ji Ning was completely on the defensive.

Fortunately, Ji Ning had the divine ability of the Arcane Art to protect his body; even if he was occasionally struck, he was unharmed.

He did not use the Starseizing Hand or Heartforce. The Starseizing Hand consumed too much divine power, and Heartforce would drain him too quickly. Ji Ning’s goal was to perfect his sword-art; relying on the Arcane Art, even though he was suppressed, he kept fighting.

“Damn it! What protective divine ability is this?! He’s clearly only at the Empyrean God level in the Fiendgod path, so how is his divine body so tough?” The youth grew frantic.

Even within the Ninefate Chaos Nation, powerful protective divine abilities were precious.

To train one’s divine body to the point of matching a Pure Yang supreme treasure at the Empyrean God stage was incredibly difficult. Even the True God Ji Ning’s other avatar was dealing with only had a divine body comparable to his own! In the Three Realms, Ji Ning had first obtained the Arcane Art, a supremely valuable technique; then, due to the Grand Xia War, Daofather Crimsonbright had gifted him a massive amount of Grand Unity Immortal Pills, allowing him to succeed.

“If this continues, my divine power will keep draining. Once it’s exhausted, I’m dead.” The youth was both anxious and furious. “Even if I die, I won’t let this alien feel good!”

“Alien, die!”

A faint red glow appeared around the youth’s body as he unleashed some kind of explosive divine ability, suddenly boosting his power.

But Ji Ning was adept at defense. The Arcane Art made him invulnerable to harm, so he could continue to endure.

……

After half an hour of relentless battle, Ji Ning had become completely familiar with the prisoner’s techniques. They were nothing but repeated attacks. They no longer helped him refine his sword-art.

“Starseizing Hand!”

“Heartforce!”

“Shadowless Stance!”

Ji Ning’s sword suddenly blurred.

Whoosh.

The youth’s head, with its four faces, was sent flying. In the moment it flew up, his eyes were filled with shock and disbelief. How could the opponent, who had been suppressed all this time, suddenly surpass him? He didn’t know that the Starseizing Hand divine ability, combined with the fourth level of Heartforce, allowed Ji Ning to instantly overwhelm him.

The youth had suppressed Ji Ning, hitting him dozens or even hundreds of times without harming him.

But Ji Ning, suppressing the youth, killed him with a single blow.

Thus one could see the importance of a protective divine ability. Unfortunately, among the seven techniques Ji Ning had obtained, the ‘Indestructible Body’ grew more costly at higher levels—even Fuxi and Bodhi had dismissed it after a glance, because some of the required chaos treasures they had never even heard of.

“Swoosh.” The flying head flew back and reattached to the body.

“Mm?” The youth frowned, looking at Ji Ning in confusion. “Alien, why didn’t you kill me?”

He had been decapitated and could have had his divine body completely destroyed right there; but the other party had let his head fly back.

“Ha ha ha… I have heard that the Celestial Immortals and True Gods of the Ninefate Chaos Nation are quite formidable. I was itching for a competition, so I came to spar with you,” Ji Ning laughed.

“Spar?” The youth was dumbfounded. “You, you… weren’t you afraid I would kill you?”

“Could you kill me?” Ji Ning countered.

The youth paused.

True.

With such a powerful protective divine ability, someone of the same level could not force a direct kill. The only way was to suppress and seal him.

“That’s right. Even if I suppressed you, over the long term, consuming too much divine power, I would still die.” The youth shook his head. He didn’t know that Ji Ning had another avatar. Even if a Celestial Immortal or Empyrean God of the Ninefate Chaos Nation could suppress one avatar, the other avatar using the Eight Fires Qiankun World could slowly burn to death any Empyrean God or Celestial Immortal.

Burning a True God or True Immortal would take decades.

Burning an Empyrean God or Celestial Immortal was much faster.

“What happened to my Ninefate Chaos Nation, and what exactly do you want?” The youth looked at Ji Ning.

……

A short while later.

Under Ji Ning’s ‘patient guidance,’ the youth chose to submit. After all, Ji Ning was stronger than him, so the psychological resistance was much weaker.

“If you really want to spar with me, first take me as a retainer. Then we can spar with suppressed strength. Wouldn’t that save divine power?” The youth was somewhat unwilling—the fierce battle had already consumed a lot of divine power.

“If I take you as a retainer, would you still fight me with your life on the line?” Ji Ning shook his head.

Without the will to fight to the death, the nature of combat was completely different.

……

After taking in the youth and searching his memories, Ji Ning first went to the chaos-space of the stele to recover his divine power. The chaos-space of the stele was only a few hundred meters in length and width, but it was completely isolated from the World Prison. This chaos-space was designed for the wardens to stay in, and because the Ninefate Monarch had refined it, it also converted chaos into natural elemental energy.

Just like the previous generations of wardens, who occasionally strolled through the World Prison but mostly cultivated quietly in the chaos-space.

After recovering his divine power and ki, Ji Ning first studied the Five Treasures Sword Art, then perfected the Brightmoon Sword-Art, then went to spar with the youth many times.

After spending a full month, he finally moved on to the next Celestial Immortal or Empyrean God.

……

Thus Ji Ning began to systematically deal with the Empyrean Gods and Celestial Immortals in the World Prison. Although the prison was enormous, the number of Empyrean Gods and Celestial Immortals was not high—after all, only those of special status were qualified to be imprisoned here. Ji Ning took every battle with an Empyrean God or Celestial Immortal very seriously, pondering and refining his sword-art after each clash.

The Brightmoon Sword-Art was constantly refined, its power growing stronger and stronger.

Another forty-plus years passed in the blink of an eye.

Ji Ning had swept through over four hundred Empyrean Gods and Celestial Immortals. In the entire seventeenth World Prison, there were barely over a thousand such prisoners. More than four hundred had contributed many treasures to Ji Ning. He had even obtained two Innate spirit-treasures! Pure Yang magic treasures were so numerous that Ji Ning couldn’t help marveling at the difference between the Ninefate Chaos Nation and the Three Realms.

In the Three Realms, Pure Yang treasures were considered quite valuable. Powerful Empyrean Gods and True Immortals generally carried Innate spirit-treasures.

But in the Ninefate Chaos Nation, Innate spirit-treasures were rare, while complete sets of powerful Pure Yang treasures were abundant. From the memories he had searched, it seemed that their refining techniques were superior to those of the Three Realms, enabling them to produce so many treasures.

……

“Boom boom boom~~~” Eight great true fires coiled like divine dragons around the green-haired man.

Eighty-two years!

Ji Ning had used the Eight Fires Qiankun World to burn this green-haired man for eighty-two years. For a True God, each year was more agonizing than billions of ordinary years. His divine power was constantly consumed with no way to replenish it.

“Stop.” The green-haired man finally spoke.

Ji Ning’s avatar had been contemplating his sword-art. For eighty-two years, he had been bored, only occasionally injecting a small amount of ki into the formation. His mind was mainly on the sword. Hearing the voice, he immediately snapped to attention.

Seeing the green-haired man look his way, Ji Ning smiled.

If the man wanted to seek death, he wouldn’t have spoken—he would rather let himself be burned to death.

But since he spoke…

He might be willing to submit.

Ji Ning had previously dealt with only two True Immortals; this was the first True God who might yield. Perhaps there would be unexpected gains.

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