Chapter 9: Finally Meeting

Numerous insect beasts attacked from all directions. Some opened their mouths and spat out flowing light, others covered in green leaves suddenly shot out several branches, and some engaged in close combat... On the millstone of life and death, facing the frenzied siege of golden-armored warriors who barely reached the threshold of the World realm, one needed the strength of a World realm perfection to protect oneself.

These attacking insect beasts were overall much stronger than the golden-armored warriors, and there were even a few comparable to World realm perfection. If one failed to block a single move, was knocked to the ground, and entangled by branches, vines, tails, or the like, it would be a death sentence.

"Swish."

A blur flashed, and Ji Ning's finger had already pierced through the head of a centipede-like insect beast. Too fast, so fast that it seemed as if the moment Ji Ning moved his finger, it had already pierced the opponent.

"Bang!"

Ji Ning's palm suddenly enlarged, like a giant axe, and he struck down directly! The fierce force knocked an insect beast that was still fluttering its wings to the ground, its body already mostly shattered.

"Swish."

Ji Ning's palm was crystalline, like a flash of blade light, vanishing in an instant, directly severing the head of the most ferocious humanoid insect beast covered in spikes.

...

Slaughter.

Ji Ning first killed with two hands, then, as the killing fervor rose, he manifested three heads and six arms, frenziedly slaughtering any insect beast that dared approach.

"I've been sleeping for over a chaos cycle, sleeping quite comfortably. It's been so long, and they still haven't killed the intruder?" A tortoise-like insect beast flew through the air, slowly approaching, then suddenly stopped. Its small, rolling eyes widened as it stared at the scene in the distance. By now, over eighty insect beasts had gathered around.

The surroundings were littered with various mutilated corpses. Normally, insect beasts loved to eat the corpses of other insect beasts, but now none of them had that thought.

Because they were terrified by the killing.

Over fifty insect beasts had already died, yet the white-robed youth with a sword on his back continued to slaughter, completely dominating.

"Run!"

As one insect beast fled, the others, who had been mustering their courage to kill Ji Ning through numbers, lost their nerve and began to scatter in all directions.

"So terrifying, more than half are dead?" The tortoise-like insect beast, frightened, also turned and fled.

"Hahaha..." Ji Ning suddenly turned into a phantom, his speed becoming terrifyingly fast. His six arms attacked rapidly in all directions, and in an instant, over ten more insect beasts died. In the end, only eight of the insect beasts that had besieged Ji Ning managed to escape with their lives.

Ji Ning smiled.

Exhilarating.

This kind of overwhelming slaughter made Ji Ning understand his own strength even better. Back on the millstone of life and death, he could easily kill those golden-armored warriors. Now, he could just as easily slaughter these insect beasts, including those at World realm perfection. Before him, they were still very immature, easily killed with a casual move.

This strength far surpassed the so-called pinnacle of World Gods. Even if the Black Lotus God Emperor were resurrected, Ji Ning could easily kill him without using the divine sword Violetjade.

"They say insect beasts have great strength, but my strength is far greater than theirs. Even relying on brute force, my strength is at the threshold of a Daolord of Life and Death. My sword arts allow me to perfectly unleash my power." The reason Ji Ning could slaughter like this was due to the terrifying divine body empowered by the azure flower mist.

"A Luo Yi, on the millstone of life and death, made some breakthroughs, surpassing the pinnacle of World Gods, and should barely reach the threshold of a Daolord of Life and Death. But he can only achieve that with a full-powered strike, while with my three heads and six arms, any casual move of mine is probably stronger. If I use the Eternal divine sword Violetjade... even a single sword strike could threaten a Daolord of Life and Death," Ji Ning thought.

But only threaten a newly broken-through Daolord of Life and Death.

A true Daolord of Life and Death, if following the divine demon path, would have a divine body no worse than Ji Ning's, generally also possess an Eternal divine weapon, and have a higher realm than Ji Ning! Coupled with other secret arts and divine abilities... it would still be somewhat lacking to match a Daolord of Life and Death.

However, a single sword strike from Ji Ning would require a Daolord of Life and Death to take seriously.

...

"Flee."

"Flee."

The insect beasts of the Stone Forest scattered in all directions.

Ji Ning followed the resonance and quickly walked toward the direction of the crocodile-dragon beast. Along the way, he also saw some magical treasures and weapons, all spoils left by past cultivators killed by the beast. Ji Ning casually collected them.

"Is that crocodile-dragon beast fleeing?" Ji Ning's speed suddenly surged.

Boom—

His speed instantly reached a terrifying extreme. Flying high above the stone forest, in the blink of an eye, he caught up with the blindly fleeing crocodile-dragon beast. The beast was scurrying rapidly, thinking, "I don't know what those outsiders are, but they're so strong. Everyone's running, so I'll run too. Mm-hmm." The crocodile-dragon beast hadn't even joined the fight; when the other beasts fled, it naturally fled as well.

"Swoosh." Ji Ning directly appeared in front of the crocodile-dragon beast.

The crocodile-dragon beast was so frightened it stopped abruptly, staring in terror at the white-robed youth before it. It recognized this youth—it was the same one who had chased it to the ends of the earth back then. Only, back then, the youth's aura was still relatively weak, at the Ancestral God or Ancestral Immortal level, but now it was much stronger.

"He came chasing from the stone forest. Could it be that he breached it?" The crocodile-dragon beast was terrified. Having gained intelligence, the beasts also knew fear. It was only average among the beasts in the stone forest, so how could it dare to fight Ji Ning?

"Spare me! Spare me!" The crocodile-dragon beast cried out the moment Ji Ning blocked it.

Ji Ning was startled and didn't act hastily. "It knows to beg for mercy. Interesting."

This was the first time Ji Ning had encountered a beast begging for mercy.

"Hand over your treasures," Ji Ning commanded. "If even one is missing, don't blame me for not giving you a chance."

"Yes, yes, yes." The crocodile-dragon beast first turned its entire body into gray mist, from which flew out various treasures: Dao weapons, some strange claws, scales, a scroll, chaos treasures... piling up into a small heap.

"That's all of them, not a single one left," the crocodile-dragon beast solidified and pleaded.

Ji Ning's eyes lit up. The claws and scales of other beasts were trophies the crocodile-dragon beast had won in battles, which he naturally didn't care about. But that scroll, with its conspicuous sword aura, and the resonance from his own Snow Scroll told him the answer—it was another volume of the Snow Scroll.

"Collect." Ji Ning waved his hand to put them away, holding the scroll in his hand. He unrolled it and saw a painting of a palace.

"The painting is quite mediocre," Ji Ning muttered to himself, but a smile appeared on his face. He put it away for now.

"A set of four paintings. I've got the first and the third now." Ji Ning turned and flew back toward the stone forest. The crocodile-dragon beast watched him leave cautiously, then its four short legs ran wildly, quickly turning into mist and slipping away.

……

Most of the insect beasts in the Giant Stone Forest had been killed by Ji Ning. Among the 'spoils of war' they left behind, many were valuable, and Ji Ning naturally swept them all up.

Six days later, Ji Ning walked out of the Mist Sea and arrived at the Ten Thousand Mountains region.

"It's time to leave." Ji Ning glanced back, feeling a trace of emotion.

He still clearly remembered the scene when he first entered the Moon Under the Pool. Back then, how powerful Northrest World God had seemed in Ji Ning's eyes; at that time, Ji Ning was merely a True God. Now, he stood at a level higher than Northrest World God. At the World-level, there were very few who could surpass Ji Ning.

"I'm still far, far away from reversing time and space to resurrect Senior Apprentice Sister." Ji Ning walked out.

……

Outside.

Clouds drifted high in the sky. The blood-robed youth Aluoyi, the gold-robed youth Fu Kai, and the Bone Armor World God silently sat on clouds in the sky, their divine senses covering the entire chaos world. Each of them restrained their aura, like three wolves preparing to hunt. They had sheathed their claws and fangs, waiting silently.

They were waiting for Ji Ning to appear!

"Hum~~~"

The space suddenly stirred.

Aluoyi, Fu Kai, and the Bone Armor World God almost simultaneously looked into the distance in one direction. Even from millions of li away, with their eyesight they could clearly see a white-robed youth with a sword on his back appearing out of thin air above the Ten Thousand Gods Mansion. It was the monstrous Ancestral God they had been waiting for so long.

"Hm?" Ji Ning also sensed their divine senses. He released his own divine sense and turned his head, immediately seeing three figures sitting cross-legged on clouds in the distance.

At this moment.

Their gazes clashed in the void!

……