Chapter 4: The Twelve Disciples

Ji Ning's ancestral immortal energy flew out, enveloped that life core, and instantly refined it.

After refining it, Ji Ning felt an intimacy with the puppet treasure, and the puppet treasure was completely under his control.

"A World-level puppet—this is far rarer than a Dao weapon." Ji Ning was in a good mood.

"Master." The rock giant looked at Ji Ning with much more warmth; from today on, Ji Ning was his master.

"By the way, what's your name?" Ji Ning asked.

"My previous master called me Stone." The rock giant replied honestly.

Ji Ning blinked. A World-level puppet treasure with such astonishing power was actually called a name like that?

"Alright, I'll call you Stone too." Ji Ning smiled, then turned to look at the golden-robed man sitting cross-legged. Ji Ning waved his hand and put the golden-robed man away.

...

Inside Ji Ning's cave heaven treasure.

A range of连绵 mountains.

Ji Ning's divine power incarnation walked side by side with the rock giant.

"On my path of cultivation, whenever I encounter dead immortals or demons, I usually bury them here." Ji Ning pointed ahead at rows of graves. These immortals' and demons' graves were nestled among the mountains, each built quite large.

"Open."

Ji Ning pointed at a lush, verdant mountain ahead. Rumble... the mountain split open, and the golden-robed corpse flew over, into the crevice of the split mountain. Then the mountain closed, and a tombstone appeared on the mountain peak.

"What was your previous master's name?" Ji Ning asked.

"Immortal Huachu." The rock giant said in a low voice.

Ji Ning nodded. On the surface of that tombstone, eight large characters immediately appeared: 'Tomb of Immortal Huachu of Chaos.' The rock giant looked at the mountain, was silent for a moment, then said in a low voice, "Master, let's go out."

...

Inside the pavilion on the island.

"Immortal Huachu didn't even have a Dao-level armor." Ji Ning had also refined many of Immortal Huachu's treasures and was carefully examining them.

"Immortal Huachu's mind was entirely on formations and puppets; he never engaged in close combat with enemies." The rock giant said, "His most important treasures were a set of 'Nine Heart Sky Ring Formation' and a domain-type 'Colorful Cloud Realm,' both top-grade Dao weapons."

After reviewing his gains, Ji Ning was instead quite excited.

Because he had discovered a large number of 'chaos crystals.' This Immortal Huachu had stored a massive amount of energy crystals, worth a full fifty cubes.

"The Nine Heart Sky Ring Formation was his most powerful formation. Once he deployed it, enemies dared not approach. If they got caught in the formation, they could hardly break it. Whether to fight or flee was entirely under Immortal Huachu's control." The rock giant said, "But the Nine Heart Sky Ring Formation is extremely complex; one must have a very high level of attainment in formations to deploy it."

Ji Ning turned his hand over and looked at the nine rings before him. Each ring was covered with countless divine runes, even more complex than the core formation diagram of the rock puppet's life core.

The rock puppet was personally refined by Immortal Huachu.

But this 'Nine Heart Sky Ring Formation' was a Dao weapon, refined by a Daolord of Life and Death, and naturally far more profound.

"Too complex; I can't deploy it." Ji Ning shook his head, turned his hand over, and a pearl appeared in his hand. Within the pearl, faint clouds swirled. He smiled, "This one is better—a domain-type Dao weapon, quite rare."

Although Immortal Huachu had few treasures, each was a masterpiece.

The Nine Heart Sky Ring Formation, a set of Dao weapons, was worth over a hundred cubes of chaos nectar.

The rock giant was also worth over a hundred cubes.

The Colorful Cloud Realm, a domain-type, was extremely rare and worth over fifty cubes.

Plus the large number of chaos crystals.

"Immortal Huachu left behind quite a lot of chaos crystals." Ji Ning sighed.

"He studied formations and puppets, so of course he prepared a large number of chaos crystals." The rock giant said.

"Guard me while I cultivate for a while." Ji Ning said.

"Yes, Master." The rock giant said.

Whoosh.

A Kui Tower appeared, and Ji Ning entered the tower.

Inside the tower.

Ji Ning sat cross-legged, waved his hand, and before him appeared a pile of chaos crystals radiating powerful auras, several thousand in number.

"It's rare to get so many chaos crystals. My protective divine ability is now too weak. If I rely on slow cultivation, even with the Kui Tower, it would take tens of thousands of years to master it." Ji Ning thought to himself, "With such a big gain this time, I'll be a bit extravagant. Let me first break through the bottleneck."

Ji Ning had mastered the first part of the 'Golden Statue Divine Ability' back in the Three Realms, making his divine body comparable to a top-grade innate treasure.

After reaching the Ancestral God level, Ji Ning had been cultivating the middle part of the 'Golden Statue Divine Ability.'

Cultivating this divine ability was actually very simple—it required energy. Divine power, immortal power, chaos power, elixirs—anything with energy would do. With his foundation from the perfected Seventy-Two Transformations, Ji Ning had easily mastered the first part. But the middle part was more complex; it required training the body to be comparable to a top-grade chaos treasure!

The amount of divine power and immortal power needed was far greater!

If Ji Ning cultivated slowly and steadily, it would take about a million years to master it. With the Kui Tower, it would still take tens of thousands of years. Previously, Ji Ning had indeed planned to cultivate slowly like that, because using 'chaos crystals' extravagantly would require several tens of cubes—too high a cost. For an ordinary World-level cultivator, it was better to spend tens of thousands of years cultivating than to waste several tens of cubes of chaos crystals.

Chaos crystals and chaos nectar were hard currency in the endless territories.

Chaos nectar excelled in quality. It was miraculous and had countless uses—many divine abilities, secret arts, alchemy, and life-saving measures required it.

Chaos crystals excelled in quantity. They were crystals naturally formed from the convergence of chaos power, each containing a vast amount of chaos power. Some very large formations and powerful puppets needed chaos crystals as an energy source. They also had many other uses.

"Break through the bottleneck as soon as possible, and my chances of survival will greatly increase. Although Big Brother said the danger isn't too great, nothing is absolute. Better to be careful."

Ji Ning beckoned, and a crystal radiating chaos aura fell into his palm.

Then Ji Ning sat cross-legged, vigorously drawing a large amount of chaos power from the crystal into his divine body. His divine body began to transform... a faint golden light appeared on the skin all over his body...

Two days later.

Ji Ning, having consumed nineteen chaos crystals, opened his eyes.

"Hmm, now my divine body has broken through the bottleneck and reached the chaos level. I'll stop here for now and finish it in one go when I'm outside and have leisure time." Ji Ning's slow cultivation over the past few centuries had been close to a breakthrough anyway, so he entered the Kui Tower, maintaining a fifty-fold time acceleration, to push his divine body to a new level. Although the fifty-fold time acceleration consumed a lot of immortal power, with chaos crystals, Ji Ning didn't care.

...

Whoosh.

Ji Ning appeared again in the pavilion.

"Master." The rock giant looked at Ji Ning.

"Stone, there should be two more World-level cultivators on this island, right?" Ji Ning asked.

"Yes." The rock giant pointed at the distant islands, "Around Lord Subcurrent's main island, there are twelve islands. On these twelve islands live the Daolord's twelve disciples and some servants."

"Twelve disciples?" Ji Ning was startled and quickly asked, "Our island?"

"Our island has three World-level cultivators: World God Dongming, Immortal Xueze, and Immortal Huachu. Among them, World God Dongming is the Daolord's disciple, while Immortal Huachu and Immortal Xueze were responsible for serving World God Dongming." The rock giant said, "World God Dongming's strength far surpassed that of Immortal Huachu and Immortal Xueze."

Ji Ning asked curiously, "World God Dongming, a disciple of Subcurrent Daolord, was also buried with him?"

"They were all disciples the Daolord disliked. The Daolord had a strange temper; if he didn't acknowledge them, death was the only outcome." The rock giant said, "But Subcurrent Daolord still gave World God Dongming a scroll, saying, 'If you comprehend this scroll, you may leave freely.' Unfortunately, World God Dongming never comprehended it until his death."

"Oh." Ji Ning understood.

"Actually, Subcurrent Daolord gave all twelve of his disciples a chance to leave alive. Perhaps the Daolord's requirements were too harsh, too difficult—it seems none of the twelve disciples managed to leave alive." The rock giant said.