The Desolate Era

Book 24, Chapter 13 - Statues

The Starlord’s estate was tens of thousands of kilometers in size. It was filled with countless edifices and emanated an aura of supreme power.

“What are...?” Upon entering the estate, Ji Ning immediately stared off into the distance in amazement.

As soon as he had entered, the first things he saw were those grayish-white statues, all shaped like humanoids. There was a statue of a dominating man whose hair was flying about, a statue of an icy, beautiful woman, a statue of a crazy old man who was roaring with laughter, a statue of a youth who was filled with a murderous aura...

Every single statue seemed to be almost alive. However, they were clearly just lifeless stone sculptures.

“What are those?” Ning was puzzled.

“Those are all World-level experts.” Upon seeing those distant statues, a complicated look entered Fushe’s eyes. He said softly, “Deceased World-level experts.”

“Deceased?” Ning instantly understood. “So when World-level experts of Fogstone die, they are memorialized here in the form of stone sculptures?”

Island Master Fushe slowly shook his head. “These are their corpses!”

“Corpses?” Ning was stunned. He turned his head to stare at the statues once more. There were dozens of them, and all of them were completely lifeless. They had no aura of life, divine power, or Immortal energy. It must be understood that even the corpse of an ordinary Fiendgod would radiate an aura of divine power. If a Chaos Immortal was to die, his corpse would continue to emanate an aura of extraordinary power.

But these stone statues...Ning couldn’t see anything special about them at all.

“These are all the World Gods of Fogstone who have died since time immemorial,” Fushe said softly. “They all used the [Fogstone Apocalypse] divine ability to fight against their foes, then perished in battle.”

“[Fogstone Apocalypse]?” Ning was puzzled.

“Fogstone’s lineage is an ancient one, even more ancient than the lineage of the Badlands Court, the most powerful organization in the Badlands Territory. Although the Badlands Court is more powerful, Fogstone actually ranks as one of the three oldest lineages of the Badlands Territory and is far older than the Badlands Court. Actually, there are many organizations in the Badlands Territory which are older than the Badlands Court, but quite a few of them were wiped out. In the end, power is what matters. The Badlands Court was established by Daolord Badlands; it naturally is the ruler of the entire Badlands Territory.”

Island Master Fushe continued, “The most powerful divine ability the Fogstone lineage possesses is the [Fogstone Apocalypse] technique. Only Fiendgod Body Refiners can train in it, and only World Gods can fully master it. This divine ability is never taught to outsiders.”

Although Ning had purchased a star map and learned a bit of information about the region, the star map had included very little information about the truly peerless techniques which existed here.

“When you use this divine ability, your body will slowly transform into fogstone. If you completely master it and use it, your entire body will become transformed into fogstone.” Fushe shook his head. “During the petrification process, you will become terrifyingly powerful...but there’s always a catch. If you run out of divine power after you complete the transformation process, you will transform into a fogstone statue and perish.”

“What?” Ning was stunned.

“This will only happen to the World Gods of Fogstone in the most dire of situations. Generally speaking, if you halt the divine ability once your divine power begins to run low, you’ll be able to stay alive. These World Gods all died in battle,” Fushe said softly.

Ning stared at the stone statues.

These were all World Gods who had died countless years ago...

They had been forced into dire situations where they had no choice but to go all out. Some of the World Gods died laughing, some died while furious, and some died calmly. This truly stunned Ning. It reminded him that the path of cultivation was one which was filled with countless dangers which could fell even a World God. World God Northrest was another classic example.

“Let’s go,” Fushe said.

“Right.” Ning bowed respectfully towards the statues, then followed behind Fushe.

The first thing Ning acquired was a suit of armor. As the sixth general of the Fogstone Army, Ning was given a suit of top-grade Chaos armor.

“These are the abridged jade slips which hold information about the many techniques Fogstone has to offer.” A series of jade slips floated out from the deep recesses of a dark hall. There were thousands of them, and all of them glowed with light. “The dimmer ones are the more ordinary techniques, while the brighter ones hold the elite techniques. As for the brightest slips, they hold the consummate techniques that cannot be taught to outsiders.”

Ning stood there within the dark room, staring at the levitating jade slips. There were only twelve of the brightest jade slips.

“The consummate techniques that cannot be taught to outsiders can only be learned by the generals of the Fogstone Army, as well as the personal disciples of our World Gods,” Fushe said.

“Oh?”

Ning immediately sent his coresense forward, scanning those twelve jade slips with it.

Ning was immediately shocked by what he found.

Fogstone truly had a deep foundation! Of the twelve jade slips, three were sword-arts...and all three were extraordinary.

The most powerful was the [Illusory Starsword] technique. It had a total of nine stances, and by training to the fifth stance one would reach the Sword World stage.

“Although it is quite formidable, it’s still a bit lacking compared to my [Nameless] sword-art. The [Nameless] sword-art is even more profound and exquisite.” Ning was an expert of the Dao of the Sword; naturally, he was able to tell which was better and which was worse. The [Nameless] sword-art’s creator had to be at an incredibly, incredibly high level of mastery. This was why even his first stance, the ‘Heartsword stance’, was so profound as to allow cultivators to completely and fully control each stroke of the sword. The further one delved into the [Nameless] sword-art, the more profound it became.

As for other sword-arts, they might be quite powerful as well, but their visions and their intents were more limited in scope, making them inferior.

“I’ll continue to focus on the [Nameless] sword-art.” Ning actually ignored all three of these sword-arts.

[World of Dust], [Eternal Demonheart], [Violet Smoke Diagram], [Fogstone Apocalypse]...

These divine abilities and secret arts all made Ning sigh in amazement.

Incredible.

Simply incredible.

World God Northrest was a member of Vastheaven Palace, but he was unable to transfer its most consummate skills to Ji Ning. All the skills he had given Ning were the ones which he himself had acquired through his dangerous adventures. The [Nameless] sword-art and the [Golden Statue] divine ability were two extremely formidable techniques, but the rest of the techniques he had handed over were somewhat weaker. As for the consummate arts of Fogstone, they were superior to all but the [Nameless] sword-art.

The partial scroll of the [World of Dust] was a good example. This was a technique for devising seals and tags of tremendous power. Although the scroll was incomplete, Ning could sense from the abridged version of jade slip that this technique should be on the same level as the [Nameless] sword-art. Unfortunately, it was incomplete. According to the records, no one was even able to gain a basic level of expertise in it; it was nothing more than an incomplete, fragmentary record of a seal-devising technique.

Although Ning’s [Nameless] sword-art was also incomplete, at least the first stance through seventh stance were included in their entirety. Even World God Northrest had been able to train to the fifth stance, which proved that the [Nameless] sword-art was something which Ning could train in for a long, long period of time.

“The Fogstone Apocalypse...what a powerful divine ability.” Ning sighed in amazement.

The [Fogstone Apocalypse] technique was divided into three stages.

The first stage allowed minor parts of the body to transform into fogstone, such as the hair. The transformation was a fairly minute one, but it still allowed one’s divine power to increase dramatically in power.

The second stage allowed for large-scale transformation of the body, allowing even the bones to transform into fogstone.

As for the third stage, it completely transformed the entire body into fogstone, giving one a perfect fogstone body. When a World God’s body was completely transformed into fogstone, his body would become as tough and as resilient as a Dao weapon. A body like this was capable of withstanding tremendously powerful explosions of divine power. The [Starseizing Hand] only allowed the hands to withstand such tremendous power; the [Fogstone Apocalypse] allowed every single part of the body to burst with absolutely inconceivable might.

The first stage alone was already comparable to the Sixth Cycle of the [Starseizing Hand].

“Choose wisely,” Island Master Fushe said “You are a general. You may choose either ten of the more ordinary techniques, one of the elite techniques, or part of the consummate techniques.”

The consummate techniques would not be taught in their entirety at once.

Ning carefully went through the jade slips. A long while later, he made his decision.

“I choose this, the [Fogstone Apocalypse],” Ning said.

“Ah?” Fushe was rather surprised. He had actually told Ning about the fogstone statues earlier, after all. He couldn’t help but ask, “Are you sure?”

“Yes.” Ning nodded.

This divine ability was extremely powerful. The second stage of it was comparable to a theoretical Seventh Cycle of the [Starseizing Hand], which Ning hadn’t even been able to develop yet.

Ning had chosen this divine ability for two reasons. He wanted to train in it, but he also wanted to analyze it and use its mysteries to help him in his quest to develop the Seventh Cycle of the [Starseizing Hand]. After that, Ning would want to develop an Eighth Cycle and perhaps even a Ninth Cycle!

A short while later, Ning received the full jade slip. Within this jade slip was recorded the first part of the [Fogstone Apocalypse] technique. The first part included just the first stage and the second stage, which could both be used by Elder Gods. Only World Gods could train in the third stage.

......

“Brother Fushe, I’ve been given orders by the Starlord. I’ll head out towards the Windsource Chaosworld right away.” Outside the Starlord’s estate, Ning was bidding Fushe farewell.

“The Windsource Chaosworld is a place where we often clash with God Emperor Blacklotus’ troops. Be careful, brother Darknorth,” Fushe said.

Ning nodded, then soared into the skies and headed towards the direction of the Windsource Chaosworld.