The Desolate Era

“Alright.”

Ji Ning instantly willed the pile of beads to fly into the air. They spread out like a dazzling river of stars, filling the entire room.

“3600 beads,” Ning mused softly to himself, then chuckled. “Bind.”

His Pure Yang energy spread out in 3600 streaks, covering each and one of the beads with his power. He bound them in but an instant, leaving behind his soul imprint upon them. Protocosmic spirit-treasures were the easiest of all treasures to bind; as long as the spirit of the treasure didn’t resist, then even mortals would be able to bind them by dripping a drop of blood onto them, which would create the necessary soul imprint within the spirit-treasure.

Upon binding the beads, Ning instantly could sense everything that was held within the 3600 beads. He instantly sucked in a cold breath. “This restrictive spell…”

It was so profound as to be illegible and incomprehensible. It was vast, profound, arcane, and utterly unfathomable.

“Hmph. I imagine you’ve just discovered the seals?” The handsome child said with cold arrogance, “The primordial chaos is filled with countless stars. Once a star dies, its essence will be crystallized into a crystal core. When Pangu established Heaven and Earth, some of these crystal cores entered Pangu’s World by happenstance. These 3600 crystal cores were nourished by the energy of Pangu’s newly formed world, resulting in them transforming into the stargold beads. Every single stargold bead is a Protocosmic spirit-treasure, and is capable of transforming into almost anything, including swords and sabers. These 3600 beads resonate with each other, forming a perfect whole. They definitely are the most supreme of Protocosmic spirit-treasures.”

“Eventually, Daoist Three Purities acquired me. Daoist Three Purities, after mastering Yin and Yang, began to rove the primordial chaos. Thanks to a stroke of great karmic luck, he ended up discovering a set of nine chaos seals. He could sense that these nine chaos seals were unspeakably profound, and so he decided to erase the many previous seals that he had placed within me, replacing them with the nine chaos seals.”

“As a result, the power of these beads increased dramatically.”

“However, these chaos seals were simply too unfathomable and mysterious.” The handsome child looked towards Ning, then said proudly, “Even in the Primordial Era, there was not a single person who was capable of fully binding and controlling the nine chaos seals.”

“No one at all?” Ning was shocked.

“These are chaos seals! They appeared within the primordial chaos and contain utterly unfathomable mysteries,” the handsome child said confidently. “Back then, Daoist Three Purities had invited Mother Nuwa herself to try to bind them, but even she had been only capable of binding the eighth chaos seal. But of course, Mother Nuwa only spent three years trying; if she spent a few trillion more years, she probably would’ve been able to completely master bind them all.”

Ning was truly stunned now.

Mother Nuwa had been incredibly powerful, but it had taken even her a full three years to master the eighth chaos seal.

It made sense.

Daoist Threelives had placed the treasures in this place prior to the war that destroyed the Primordial Era. Thus, back then Mother Nuwa hadn’t mastered the Heavenly Dao of Primordial Chaos and hadn’t reached Pangu’s level.

“Daoist Three Purities kept me by his side for countless years, but was only able to bind the seventh chaos seal.” The handsome child said confidently, “The chaos seals were immaculately born by the primordial chaos itself. How could mere human power compare to it?”

“The Nine Chaos Seals might be formidable, but during that great war, Mother Nuwa ended up breaking through to reach Pangu’s level.” Ning chuckled, “If Mother Nuwa was to try again, I’d imagine she’d be able to succeed this time.”

“Pangu’s level?” The handsome child was surprised.

“What? Mother Nuwa reached Pangu’s level?” The old man above the wooden ship was shocked as well.

“Simply incredible.” The small bald monk’s face was filled with veneration.

“It’d be wonderful if I ended up in Mother Nuwa’s hands! Only then could I be used to my full potential.” A look of desire was in the handsome child’s eyes.

Ning laughed and ‘berated’ him, “You brat, not even Daoist Three Purities used you, to say nothing of Mother Nuwa.”

“Daoist Three Purities has Chaos treasures.” The handsome child’s voice was filled with some degree of resentment. “Every single Chaos treasure was born from the primordial chaos. They are born with chaos seals within them that are perfectly joined together, and thus they possess tremendous power. Although I have chaos seals within me as well, they were added in later. Naturally, that makes them a bit inferior.”

The small bald monk teased, “The main issue is that you are too hard to bind and control. In the end, not a single one of the major disciples of Daoist Three Purities was willing to use you.”

“That’s because they have no vision.” The handsome child shook his head disdainfully.

Daoist Three Purities was the leader of the Daoist Path. He had many treasures, and was a master at refining pills and forging artifacts. He was thus able to infuse the nine chaos seals he found into the stargold beads, but it had still been extremely hard to do! He had many treasures but only a few disciples. He had given each of his most favored disciples, including Lu Dongbin a chance to acquire the stargold beads, but in the end they had each decided to forgo the beads and had chosen other treasures.

Ning laughed, “Perhaps after one masters all nine of the chaos seals, your power will be simply extraordinary…but even Daoist Three Purities was only able to master seven of the seals. His disciples naturally understood that treasures that suited them would be better choices.”

“But I’m the supreme killing treasure!” The handsome child stared at Ning in an extremely prideful manner. “Do you know? Daoist Three Purities used me as the master blueprint for his creation of the sword-diagram for his Immortal Slaying Swords.”

“Oh?” Ning was surprised.

“The Immortal Slaying Swords’ sword-diagrams were modeled after my nine chaos seals. Daoist Three Purities joined four mighty Chaos swords together, then infused them with seven layers of seals of his own devising. That’s the reason why it has such extraordinary power, and why the Immortal Slaying Swords were reputed to be the number one killing treasure of the Primordial Era. But in terms of the profoundness of the seals? The seven seals which Daoist Three Purities devised simply cannot compare to the nine chaos seals inside me.” The handsome child looked at Ning. “Daoist Three Purities said himself that even though I am ‘only’ a supreme Protocosmic spirit-treasure, anyone capable of mastering and controlling all nine chaos seals would be able to unleash a level of power that was no lower than that of his Immortal Slaying Sword Formation. That’s why I’m the supreme killing treasure!”

“Honestly, he’s the only one who calls himself that.” The old man on the boat snickered.

“More like the meanest killing treasure,” the small bald monk agreed.

“Anyone capable of binding all nine seals would probably be on Pangu’s level. By then, every single casual punch or kick would be comparable to the power of the Immortal Slaying Sword Formation,” Ning laughed.

“You guys…!” The handsome child was frantic with rage.

“Enough, enough. You are pretty formidable.” Ning laughed. “Let me give those nine chaos seals a test first.”

“You have to be able to bind at least one of the chaos seals if you want to be able to control me at all. Otherwise…the only way you’ll be able to use me is as little balls to throw at people. It’d be a complete waste of my status as the supreme killing treasure.” The handsome child said arrogantly, “Very, very few Empyrean Gods or True Immortals can master even the first chaos seal. Generally speaking, it’s impressive for even Daofathers to be able to master three of the chaos seals. Daoist Three Purities had to spend countless years in order to master seven of them.”

Ning just sat down in the lotus position, completely focusing his heart and mind on binding the chaos seals.

Rumble…

The 3600 stargold beads levitated in the air above Ning, glowing with light as dark golden runes flowed over them, transforming as they did so. No matter how long one stared at them, the divine runes would constantly change and appear different from the ones that came before.

These were the chaos seals!

They would constantly change, never remaining constant and forever transforming. It was like the circular ratio, ‘pi’, of the human world, a number that stretched off into infinity with no pattern. The chaos seals were similarly without any pattern or end. The only way to master them was to master the fundamental essence that lay beneath them. When Daoist Three Purities had found the nine chaos seals, he had been stunned and shocked by them. He had spent a total of 120,000 years in the primordial chaos meditating on them. After sensing that he had gained a basic understanding of them, he had chosen to infuse the nine chaos seals into the 3600 stargold beads.

But alas…he had only been able to completely copy and infuse the nine chaos seals into the beads! As to comprehending and mastering them? He was far from it!

“Simply inconceivable. So the chaos seals are actually this arcane and profound.” Ning’s mind was completely focused on the seals. He felt like an ordinary mortal on Earth who was staring at the vast, seemingly infinite stars of the Milky Way. He wasn’t capable of knowing what was on a single one of those stars…and yet, before him lay the entire Milky Way…

This caused Ning to feel a sense of despair that halted him in his very tracks.

Beautiful. Simply beautiful. Simply stunning.

This was definitely the most profound, the most stunning seal which Ning had ever seen! Not even the mysteries of the Heavenly Daos could even come close to comparing to these nine chaos seals.

“Let me focus on the first chaos seal for now.”

Ning focused all of his efforts into understanding the most basic, the most simple, and most rudimentary chaos seal; the first seal. By now, Ning was applying the full force of his powerful heartforce in analyzing the chaos seals. This was extremely taxing on his heartforce and extremely exhausting. However, thanks to the fact that his heartforce had reached the fourth stage, Ning was able to force his way into completely binding and mastering the first chaos seal in one try.

The first of the nine chaos seals began to wriggle about like a tiny tadpole…then completely disappeared, having fallen under Ning’s control.

Ning opened his eyes. His eyes were filled with strange divine runes which flowed through them.

“No wonder my master, Daoist Threelives, procured this treasure for me.” After mastering the first chaos seal, Ning instantly understood. “The disciples of Daoist Three Purities are most likely all extremely close to the Daofather level. I, however…I’ve only mastered the Grand Dao of the Sword. I haven’t even mastered the Grand Dao of the Waterdrop, to say nothing of the Heavenly Dao of Water.”

Although he was extremely powerful, his power came from his heartforce and his divine abilities. As for the Dao? Ning was very, very far away from being able to comprehend the Heavenly Dao of Water. The likes of Patriarch Lu, Silvermoon, and Redsnow had long ago mastered multiple Grand Daos. They were extremely close to mastering a Heavenly Dao; in fact, some of them had reached the final bottlenecks. Upon breaking through the final bottlenecks, they would become Daofathers! Ning, however, hadn’t even mastered the Grand Dao of the Waterdrop. He was very, very far from their level.

“So the Grand Dao of the Waterdrop was this simple.” Ning could clearly sense that his insights into the Grand Dao of the Waterdrop was rising at a simply monstrous rate.

After having encountered the incomparably profound and exalted chaos seals, he could sense that mastering the Grand Dao of the Waterdrop would become far simpler.

“This treasure is tremendously beneficial to me in comprehending the Dao and in improving my sword-arts. Compared to those seals…my sword-arts are simply too crude.” Ning had already found the right direction for himself.

“Condense.” Ning willed it, and whoosh! The 3600 stargold beads actually began to merge together. Every ten beads joined into one, resulting in a total of 360 larger goldstar beads. Ning, however, felt great pressure when he did this.

“Condense!” Light flashed in Ning’s eyes. He was forced to employ his heartforce. With heartforce guiding his Immortal energy, he was able to cause the 360 goldstar beads to once more merge together to form a total of 36 goldstar beads. Every single goldstar bead emanated an utterly shocking amount of power. By now, controlling them was just as hard as controlling a perfect Heaven Punisher; he had to employ his heartforce in order to succeed.

“What?! You are able to condense me into the Thirty-Six Heavens?” The handsome child levitating next to Ning cried out in shock.

“How can that be?!”

“Just controlling those 3600 beads is incredibly difficult. Only a fraction of the Empyrean Gods and True Immortals of the universe are even able to bind and control them. As for controlling the supreme Thirty-Six Heavens, there are no Empyrean Gods or True Immortals who can do such a thing. This is something which only Daofathers can do!” The small bald monk was shocked as well. He turned to look towards the handsome child. “Were you just bragging in the past and spouting hot air in front of us?”

“It is true that only Daofathers can perfectly bind the beads into forming the Thirty-Six Heavens.” The handsome child repeatedly shook his head. “Daoist Three Purities had his most formidable disciples all give it a try, but none of them were able to succeed. If they were, there’s no way they would’ve been willing to give me up.”

He stared towards Ning in disbelief.

Ning, however, was completely occupied by the sensation of unearthly might that came from the Thirty-Six Heavens.