Chapter 44: The Celestial Immortals and Heavenly Gods

After the death of the female true immortal known as 'Jin Huang,' Ji Ning carefully examined the treasures she had left behind. Although the gains were considerable, he did not find the crucial techniques or chaotic treasures he most urgently needed. Clearly, before being imprisoned, she had long since traded away any unused treasures for large quantities of elixirs and immortal pills—within the World Prison, such pills were the most useful.

'Even though I use six treasures simultaneously to unleash water, fire, and wind, the power is still far inferior to the Eight Fire乾坤 Realm,' Ji Ning shook his head. 'I have two avatars; one is specifically dealing with true gods and true immortals. This avatar of mine should focus on heavenly gods and celestial immortals. Although their treasures are far inferior and the likelihood of them possessing powerful techniques is extremely low, I can still kill them or force them to submit in a very short time. Moreover, I can use this opportunity to hone my Brightmoon Sword Art.'

Ji Ning had already comprehended ninety percent of the third chapter of the Five Treasures Sword Art, but the remaining part was increasingly difficult. He still needed repeated actual combat to better understand the Five Treasures Sword Art.

Moreover, the Brightmoon Sword Art he had created was originally developed through sparring with weaker cultivators.

Only by fighting against opponents of comparable strength—even life-and-death battles—could he better perfect his sword art.

Clearly—

Elsewhere, it was hard to find a large number of opponents of comparable strength to fight. But in the World Prison, there were plenty.

'A warden?' A thin young man sat there, looking up at the approaching Ji Ning. 'A true immortal? But his aura is so weak... strange. Normally, a warden's position is so important that only core members of my Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom could hold it. How could a core immortal or god be the weakest rank of true immortal? Could the World Prison have fallen into enemy hands?'

'Die!'

Ji Ning let out a loud shout, gripped his swords, and charged forward with a whoosh.

Seeing Ji Ning attack without a word, the thin young man was startled, then a look of madness 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 roar, the thin young man's muscles bulged, his wrinkled skin turned fair, and he instantly transformed from a scrawny beggar into a warrior-like figure. At the same time, his body shook, and he grew four faces and eight arms, each hand holding a strange black square staff. He also roared and charged straight at Ji Ning: 'Alien, die!'

Ji Ning regarded him as a chaotic alien.

The other regarded Ji Ning the same way.

'Clang, clang, clang—'

Sword light flashed; staff shadows danced.

Ji Ning was sent flying backward at the first exchange, plowing a deep furrow into the ground. Then he shook his body, transforming into a three-headed, six-armed form, each hand holding an immortal sword: 'As my master said, to truly perfect the Five Treasures Sword Art, I must fight against the strong.' With burning eyes, Ji Ning charged forward again.

For a time, the battle raged, splitting the earth around them in a frenzy.

The prisoner possessed a divine ability of four faces and eight arms, and his staff technique was profound. After being imprisoned for so long, he had continued to meditate, making his staff art even more formidable—far superior to Ji Ning's Brightmoon Sword Art. He had Ji Ning completely on the defensive.

Fortunately, Ji Ning had the Eight Nine Mysteries divine ability to protect his body; even when hit occasionally, he remained unscathed.

Ji Ning did not use Star Picking Hand or heartforce. Star Picking Hand consumed too much divine power, and using heartforce in battle also drained him quickly... Ji Ning aimed to perfect his sword art. Relying on the Eight Nine Mysteries, although completely suppressed, he continued to fight.

'Damn it, what kind of protective divine ability is this? His divine body is clearly only at the heavenly god level, so why is it so tough?' The young man grew anxious.

Even in the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom, powerful protective divine abilities were rare.

To cultivate a divine body at the heavenly god level to rival the ultimate pure yang was extremely difficult. In fact, in the Three Realms, Ji Ning had first obtained the precious Eight Nine Mysteries technique, and then, thanks to the Great Xia war, Patriarch Redwood had given him many Grand Empyrean Pills out of gratitude, enabling Ji Ning to succeed in his cultivation.

'If this continues, my divine power will keep draining. Once it's exhausted, I'm dead,' the young man fumed. 'Even if I die, I won't let this alien have an easy time.'

'Alien, die!'

A faint red light appeared all over the young man's body, indicating he had activated some kind of explosive divine ability, greatly increasing his power.

But Ji Ning was clearly skilled in defense; the Eight Nine Mysteries made it impossible for the enemy to harm him, so he could keep enduring.

…

After half an hour of fierce combat, Ji Ning had fully familiarized himself with the prisoner's techniques. The prisoner merely repeated the same attacks, which no longer helped refine Ji Ning's sword art.

'Star Picking Hand!'

'Heartforce!'

'Shadowless!'

The sword in Ji Ning's hand instantly blurred.

Whoosh.

The young man's head, with its four faces, flew into the air, its eyes filled with shock and disbelief. He had been suppressing the opponent, so how could the opponent suddenly surpass him? He did not know that the Star Picking Hand divine ability and the fourth level of heartforce had instantly elevated Ji Ning's power to completely overwhelm him.

When the opponent suppressed Ji Ning, striking him ten or a hundred times, Ji Ning's Eight Nine Mysteries remained unharmed.

When Ji Ning suppressed the opponent, one sword strike beheaded him!

This shows the importance of protective divine abilities. Unfortunately, among the seven techniques Ji Ning had obtained, the 'Indestructible Body' became increasingly costly at higher levels. Even Fuxi and Bodhi had dismissed it after a glance, as some of the required chaotic treasures were things they had never even heard of.

'Whoosh.' The flying head returned and reattached to the body.

'Hmm?' The young man frowned, looking at Ji Ning in confusion. 'Alien, why didn't you kill me?'

He could have severed his head, then immediately shattered his divine body, annihilating him completely. Yet the opponent had allowed his head to fly back.

'Haha... I've heard that the immortals and gods of the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom are quite formidable. I was itching for a fight, so I came to spar,' Ji Ning laughed.

'Spar?' The young man was dumbfounded. 'You, you, you weren't afraid I'd kill you?'

'Could you have killed me?' Ji Ning countered.

The young man was taken aback.

True.

With such a powerful protective divine ability, a cultivator of the same level could not directly kill him by force; they could only suppress him.

'Yes, even if I suppressed you, over the long term, consuming too much divine power, I would still die,' the young man shook his head. He did not know that Ji Ning had another avatar. Even if a heavenly god or celestial immortal of the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom managed to suppress one avatar, the other avatar could use the 'Eight Fire乾坤 Realm' to slowly burn them to death—enough to kill any heavenly god or celestial immortal.

Burning a true god or true immortal took decades.

Burning a heavenly god or celestial immortal was much faster.

'What happened to my Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom? And what do you want?' The young man looked at Ji Ning.

…

After a moment.

Under Ji Ning's 'patient guidance,' the young man chose to submit. After all, Ji Ning was stronger than him, so the psychological resistance was relatively weak.

'If you really wanted to spar with me, you could have subdued me first, then we could both suppress our power and spar. Wouldn't that save divine power?' The young man was somewhat unwilling; the fierce battle had consumed a lot of divine power.

'If I subdued you first, would you have fought me with all your might?' Ji Ning shook his head.

Without the killing intent born of desperation, the fight would be completely different.

…

After subduing the young man and searching his memories, Ji Ning first went to the chaotic space of the stone tablet to recover his divine power. The chaotic space of the stone tablet was only a few hundred zhang in length and width, but it was completely isolated from the World Prison. This chaotic space was meant for the wardens to stay in, and because it was refined by the 'Nine Directions Lord,' the chaos was transformed into natural energy.

The previous generations of wardens occasionally wandered the World Prison but mostly cultivated in the chaotic space.

After recovering his divine power and magic power, Ji Ning first pondered the Five Treasures Sword Art, then refined the Brightmoon Sword Art, and then went to spar with the young man many times.

After a month, Ji Ning went to deal with the next heavenly god or celestial immortal.

…

Thus, Ji Ning began a large-scale campaign against heavenly gods and celestial immortals in the World Prison. Although the World Prison was vast, there were not many heavenly gods and celestial immortals—after all, those imprisoned here were of high status. Ji Ning treated each battle with great seriousness and caution, constantly reflecting and perfecting his sword art after each fight.

The Brightmoon Sword Art was continuously refined, its power growing ever stronger.

In the blink of an eye, another forty years passed.

Ji Ning had swept through over four hundred heavenly gods and celestial immortals. In the entire seventeenth World Prison, there were barely over a thousand such prisoners. Over four hundred heavenly gods and celestial immortals contributed many treasures to Ji Ning, including two innate spirit treasures! Pure yang magic treasures were incredibly numerous, and Ji Ning couldn't help but marvel at the difference between the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom and the Three Realms.

In the Three Realms, pure yang magic treasures were considered quite valuable. Powerful heavenly gods and true immortals generally possessed innate spirit treasures.

But in the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom, innate spirit treasures were rare, while sets of powerful pure yang magic treasures were abundant. From the memories he searched, their refining techniques were superior to those of the Three Realms, allowing them to produce so many treasures.

…

'Boom, boom, boom—' Eight true fires coiled like divine dragons around the green-haired man.

Eighty-two years had passed!

Ji Ning had used the Eight Fire乾坤 Realm to burn the green-haired man for eighty-two years. For this true god, each year was more agonizing than eons. His divine power was constantly depleted with no way to replenish it.

'Stop.' The green-haired man finally spoke.

Ji Ning's avatar had been contemplating sword techniques. For eighty-two years, he had been bored, only occasionally inputting a little magic power. His mind was mainly on his sword art. Hearing the voice, Ji Ning immediately snapped to attention.

Seeing the green-haired man looking at him, Ji Ning smiled.

If the other had wanted to die, he would not have spoken; he would rather be burned alive.

But since he spoke...

He might be willing to submit.

Ji Ning had previously dealt with two true immortals; this was the first true god who might submit. Perhaps there would be unexpected gains.