The Desolate Era

Book 24, Chapter 21 - Azureflower Space

The sea of consciousness was located very close to the forehead...and within Ji Ning’s sea of consciousness, there was an absolutely beautiful azure flower that was swaying in the wind.

“I never would’ve thought that after mastering the Nine Chaos Seals, an azure flower seal would appear, with an azure flower appearing in my consciousness as well.” Ning could sense himself transforming. In the past, after mastering each chaos seal he would be able to more closely attune with the essence of certain concepts such as destiny, slaughter, darkness, the sword, etc.

Now that the nine had come together, Ning felt an even greater attunement towards the essence of the sword. It made sense; he had the most insights in this regard, after all. He also felt much closer attunement towards rainwater, lightning, space, and other Daos...

“What is this azure flower meant for?”

“Is it meant to help me be more closely attuned to the various essences when I meditate?” Ning was puzzled. He carefully inspected that swaying azure flower.

Whoosh.

When Ning’s heartforce brushed against that azure flower...it suddenly began to transform.

Crackle...

Heartforce was supposed to be formless and untouchable, but as soon as it touched the azure flower it was immediately devoured by it.

Inside the azure flower was a region of its own. This space was a blurry, empty region. However, a mist was slowly beginning to materialize inside of it.

“My heartforce was transformed by the azureflower space into mist?” Ning was so surprised and shocked, he immediately came to a halt. Almost ten percent of his heartforce had been used up in an instant!

“Heartforce is ephemeral and formless. Only certain special techniques, such as Houyi’s archery techniques, are able to make use of heartforce. But this azureflower space was actually able to convert and transform heartforce...” Ning could sense that the mist within the azureflower space was filled with a strange, marvelous type of power.

“It can convert heartforce. Is it also capable of converting divine power and Immortal energy?” Ning wondered to himself.

Ning willed a tiny thread of divine power to seep into his sea of consciousness as well. As soon as it brushed against the azure flower, it was immediately devoured by the flower, resulting in a bit more mist to appear inside of it.

“B-b-but...” Ning was dazed.

“It’s actually...the same?”

“When heartforce is devoured, it transforms into mist. When divine power is devoured, it also transforms into mist. And...the mist is the same?!” Ning could hardly believe it. Heartforce and divine power were two completely different types of power; the differences between the two were enormous! And yet, both were somehow converted into a different type of energy, one which Ning was capable of controlling?

Ning could sense how terrifyingly powerful the energy contained within the mist was.

“Or perhaps...it isn’t a ‘conversion’. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the azure flower was able to ‘eat’ my divine power and heartforce, then give birth to this new type of energy?” Ning mused to himself.

“So it can eat both divine power and heartforce...what of Immortal energy?”

Ning willed it, and his Immortal energy flew into his sea of consciousness as well. As soon as it touched the azure flower, it was also devoured right away, resulting in even more mist appearing within the azureflower space.

Ning remained seated in the lotus position inside the cave, a very complicated series of looks flashing over his face. There was surprise on his face as well as puzzlement and excitement.

The azure flower that appeared after the Nine Chaos Seals merged together was simply too marvelous.

Divine power, Immortal energy, heartforce...these were three completely different types of energy, but the azure flower was capable of eating them all and then giving birth to more of the mist.

“How is this azure flower so powerful? It’s actually capable of eating and transforming three completely different types of energy.” Ning murmured silently to himself, “I wonder...was it true that the Nine Chaos Seals were formed naturally by the primordial chaos? Or were they created by some ancient power? They are simply too marvelous.”

“Doesn’t matter, I suppose.” Ning pushed that aside for now.

Many of the abilities these ancient powers were capable of were beyond Ning’s imagination. For example, the supreme figure of the Badlands Everworld was Daolord Badlands, someone who also stood on a level of power that surpassed that of the World-level.

“Let’s see just how powerful that mist is.” Ning willed a hint of the mist to emerge from the azureflower space. Instantly, his entire body began to be filled by the mist, absorbing it like a dry sponge absorbing water. As it did so, Ning began to transform.

“Eh?”

“There’s no way to make the power of the mist leave the body?” Ning was shocked.

Divine power, Immortal energy, and heartforce could all be made to leave the body. This mist energy, however, could not.

Ning spent some time testing it out. Indeed, the mysterious mist was only able reside within his body, unable to leave it!

“What on earth is this mist good for?” Ning knelt down on one knee, stretching out his right hand and suddenly slapping it against the stone ground. As he did so, a surge of power suddenly burst forth.

BOOM!

The entire cave trembled and a few cracks actually appeared.

“This...” A shocked look was on Ning’s face. He hurriedly waved his hand, causing an estate-world to appear within the cave. Ning quickly entered the estate-world.

This was a Chaos-level estate-treasure which Ning had acquired after entering the Ruins. Ning had quite a few estate-worlds now; the reason he had chosen this one was because it was extremely large.

The insides of the estate-world was nearly ten million meters in size. It contained a vast mountain range, a wide sea, a series of giant continents, and many alien Outsiders that lived here.

Whoosh.

Ning suddenly appeared within the skies of this world.

“Let’s give it a try.” Ning’s eyes lit up and he began to fly through the air.

Boom!

He didn’t use the Ninehorn Lightning Serpent; instead, he just relied on the power of his divine body as he flew. He instantly transformed into a streak of rainbow light...and as he flew, he actually broke past the speed of light. If in the past he was able to travel three hundred thousand kilometers in an instant, now he was able to travel nearly four hundred thousand kilometers in an instant!

It looked like a simple increase of just a third, but in reality breaking past the speed limits of the Heavenly Daos was incredibly difficult. And more importantly, in the past Ning had to rely on the Ninehorn Lightning Serpent in order to reach the speed of light. Now, he wasn’t using the lightning serpent at all, merely relying on the power of his divine body...and yet, he was able to breach the speed of light! Ning hadn’t gained any new insights with regards to space or speed, but his flying speed had just dramatically increased!

It was almost like becoming a World God.

World Gods were dramatically strengthened in every single way, resulting in them completely eclipsing the various limits of the Heavenly Daos. The limits of the Heavenly Daos were now completely unable to restrict them any further, allowing them to ‘brute-force’ past the speed of light.

“I was actually able to brute-force past the limits?” Ning came to a halt. He stood there in the air, completely astonished.

“I originally just had the body of a half-step World God....but with the mist supporting me, I’m actually able to effortless brute-force the limits of the Heavenly Daos?” Ning truly couldn’t believe it.

In truth, when he had struck the ground of the cave with a palm just now, he had already begun to sense it. The power of his palms definitely equaled the power of a Dao weapon. It was absolutely at the level of a World-level expert!

Now, he had apparently also reached the World-level in terms of speed as well.

And the reason for these miraculous results...was the power of the mist that formed within the azureflower region.

Although the energy was unable to leave his body, it supported and reinforced it, upgrading Ning in every single area to an entirely different level. He was now stronger and faster...and Ning had the feeling that he was now as fast as a World God. Even if he wasn’t, he had to be extremely close to that level.

He was able to fly faster than the limits of the Heavenly Daos while relying solely on his body.

He was able to strike as hard as a World God while solely striking out with his palms. This, too, represented a breaching of the limits of the Heavenly Daos.

The limits of the Heavenly Daos...they were like paper, easily pierced through by Ning.

There was no need for him to rely on his insights from the [Five Treasures]

There was need for any other forms of support.

Just by allowing the mist to reinforce his body, he was able to completely breach the limits of the Heavenly Daos in every single way. Even if he wasn’t a World God, he wasn’t far off from that level.

“How could it be this powerful?” Only now did Ning truly understand how marvelous the azureflower space was.

“Who on earth came up with this technique?”

The primordial chaos did have quite a few monstrously powerful techniques. For example, Ning’s combined usage of the second stage of the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods] and the [One True Body] technique to give himself the power of a half-step World God. The primordial chaos also contained stories of some even more powerful techniques that had been devised by truly ancient powers, and in some of those stories these techniques allowed extremely powerful Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals to slay World-level experts.

What did one need in order to kill someone on a higher level?

Ridiculously powerful techniques, terrifying treasures, shockingly high levels of insight into the Dao, and more. Only when one had reached the utmost peak of power in every single aspect could one produce such extraordinary results.

Ning had the feeling that the technique which produced his azureflower space was one such technique.

The stronger one became, the harder it would be to grow even more powerful. There were actually quite a few strength-enhancing techniques akin to the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods] or the [One True Body], such as the [Thousand Bodies Sutra], a technique which was even more monstrous. However, after all those clones were joined together into one, it would become thousands of times more difficult to improve the body any further.

Or, to put it another way...the azureflower space technique was a technique that was thousands of times more valuable than the combination of the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods] and the [One True Body] techniques.