Chapter 20: Ninefold Forbidden Restrictions

The cave showed clear signs of excavation, very regular, with rows of chisel marks like fish scales. On the rock walls were also some characters and patterns. A peculiar aura permeated the entire cave, as if water were flowing faintly. Ji Ning could not help but be affected, his heart becoming very calm.

Ji Ning did not rush to examine those patterns and characters. Instead, he first carefully observed the fish-scale-like marks on the rock walls.

"So orderly?"

"If it were slowly chiseled, it wouldn't be this orderly." Ji Ning looked at these marks. "It feels like some kind of divine ability or spell was used to instantly blast a hole in the rock wall."

Thinking of this, Ji Ning couldn't help but be astonished.

Because earlier, when he had grabbed the stone pillar, such a strong pull had only caused faint cracks in it. He had also deliberately tried to stab his hand into the rock wall, but couldn't penetrate it at all, so he had to search for cracks.

"The rock here, nurtured by the formation restrictions and scoured by the gray gale, is no longer ordinary. Even a World-level cultivator would find it no easy task to carve out such a cave hundreds of zhang in size." Ji Ning thought to himself. He reached out and gently stroked these fish-scale-like marks.

As he stroked slowly, he could feel a special aura conveyed by these marks.

"Tranquility... like water..."

Ji Ning carefully examined the cave's details for a long time before finally looking at the most conspicuous characters and patterns on the entire cave wall. After all, the characters and patterns were right there and wouldn't run away. If he didn't investigate thoroughly and accidentally missed something, some bad situation might arise.

"The 'Backwind Hundred Streams' of this cave dwelling is indeed a wonder. Unfortunately, I cannot sit and discuss the Dao with the Daoist who built this dwelling. That Daoist passed away long ago. When I reach my end, I will also leave my 'Dao' behind for later cultivators to see... I have observed here for over a hundred thousand years and have gained some insights. However, though I have only looked at a few tributaries of the Backwind Hundred Streams, I can see they differ greatly from my path... It's not worth looking at the other tributaries. These are the insights I have gained over a hundred thousand years, recorded here. If later cultivators can see them, it is fate. — Left by Waterwind"

Those characters exuded an air of ethereal grace.

Through these characters, Ji Ning seemed to see a great cultivator writing here.

"Waterwind?" Ji Ning murmured. "Who is he? From what he wrote, he should be an existence on par with the creator of the Backwind Ruins."

The Damo Territory...

There seemed to be no one called 'Waterwind'.

World-level cultivators were all recorded in intelligence files long ago. The most exalted figure in the Damo Territory was the 'Damo Dao Lord,' who created the Damo Academy and was still alive! The Damo Dao Lord's strength was truly unfathomable, at least beyond what Ji Ning could fathom at his current level.

The Damo Dao Lord was the founder of the Damo Academy. World-level cultivators were like children before him.

"The Damo Academy has several quite famous figures, but none called Waterwind." Ji Ning pondered. "No, I've never heard that name. Could it be... from another territory?"

Regardless.

If Waterwind wasn't lying with such bold words, he was likely an existence above the World level. Even if he were World-level, he would be among the very peak of World-level cultivators.

"Waterwind... Waterwind..." Ji Ning silently memorized the name, then stopped thinking about it and continued to examine the insights recorded by this 'Waterwind'.

On the rock wall were characters and patterns.

The characters were the passage just read.

The patterns were the insights left by Waterwind.

The patterns depicted fish swimming. At a glance, there were over a dozen fish in various postures, surrounded by very ordinary line-like marks resembling water ripples.

There were ninety-seven water ripples and sixteen fish.

"These patterns?" Ji Ning found the fish and water ripples somewhat strange, so he looked carefully, attentively experiencing every peculiarity of the ripples and fish.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~~~"

Gradually, an aura of the Dao began to emanate from the patterns, enveloping Ji Ning.

...

"Rumble~~~" A wide river about a thousand zhang across surged forward. In this river was a huge fish. Though the river was only a thousand zhang wide, the fish was a hundred zhang long. This large fish broke through the wind and waves, swimming swiftly, advancing rapidly. Its momentum was fierce and unstoppable.

"What's happening?" Ji Ning stared blankly at his surroundings.

Directly below was a river a thousand zhang wide. In other areas below were more rivers, each a thousand zhang wide, each containing a large fish swimming rapidly. Ji Ning could see several rivers, and in the distance, he could vaguely make out other rivers, though they were blurry.

Though he couldn't see clearly, he could dimly discern that there were a hundred rivers in total.

A hundred rivers, a hundred fish.

The waters flow in one direction.

The fish swim in one direction.

That is an end, an end where all converge, the mighty and unstoppable momentum of a hundred streams merging.

Each river felt different to Ji Ning, and each fish within it was also different.

Some rivers were like a beautiful girl next door.

Some rivers were like a scorching, peerless enchantress.

Some rivers were like an icy fairy of a snow lotus.

…

Different meanings, yet they perfectly began a great convergence in the distance.

“A hundred streams merging into the Dao… pity, if the Dao does not merge, it is the time of death. Pity, pity…” A sigh echoed through this world.

Then everything dissipated.

Ji Ning stood again in the previous cave, before him still the seemingly ordinary fish and water patterns.

“What’s going on?” Ji Ning wondered, “Was that an illusion? No, if it were an illusion I should have sensed it. That was not an illusion, but some other thing…”

“This Waterwind Pearl contains the insight pattern left from viewing the ‘Wind-Chasing Hundred Streams’.” Ji Ning looked up, then suddenly froze.

Because the scene he had just experienced naturally emerged in his mind.

The scene of a hundred rivers surging and a hundred fish swimming all appeared in his memory, and even that final sigh echoed in his mind.

“I always feel there’s an indescribable flavor to it.”

"Yet there is a sense of sorrow."

Ji Ning thought to himself.

The reason Ji Ning felt sorrow was because of that final sigh.

"But this Hundred Streams Conjoining the Dao..." Ji Ning always felt it was so profound; the more he pondered, the more he felt like he was looking at flowers through a mist. Ji Ning was not anxious; he simply sat cross-legged and began to quietly contemplate. He even forgot to enter the Kui Tian Tai Hao Tower, his mind completely absorbed in the scene of the Hundred Streams Conjoining the Dao.

...

Days passed one after another.

Ji Ning sat there like a statue. Some dust in the hundreds-of-zhang cavern gradually accumulated on Ji Ning's body, and soon he looked even more like a statue.

Six years later.

Ji Ning, completely covered in dust, opened his eyes, revealing bright, sparkling eyes filled with surprise and delight.

"Hundred Streams Conjoining the Dao, Ninefold Unity... So this is the ninth layer of the Chaos Seal." Ji Ning murmured to himself. The Hundred Streams Conjoining the Dao was too profound; he had only grasped a little, but while contemplating it, his insights into swordsmanship and the Ninefold Chaos Seal also cross-referenced each other, and now he suddenly had a clear understanding of the Ninefold Chaos Seal.

When he left the Three Realms, Ji Ning had already fully comprehended the eighth layer, with only the last one remaining.

"Hum~~~"

Complex divine runes faintly appeared in Ji Ning's eyes—the complete manifestation of the Ninefold Chaos Seal's runes. The runes continuously evolved. Originally, these Ninefold Chaos Runes had no end, but after Ji Ning fully comprehended them, their evolution came to a halt. After evolving for a long time, they finally formed a pattern resembling a flower.

This pattern also appeared on Ji Ning's soul and on his truesoul.

A cyan flower.

Sacred, natural.

This cyan flower imprint naturally emerged on Ji Ning's forehead, then vanished.

"The Ninefold Chaos Seal united—so profound! So Nuwa must have reached this level as well." Ji Ning sensed the cyan flower imprint at his forehead, a swaying cyan flower.