Book 25, Chapter 7 - A Sudden Change

After searching through the items, Ji Ning felt both delighted and slightly disappointment.
The surprise and delight came from the fact that World God Cavecry truly was quite wealthy. As a personal disciple of Daolord Windsource, he had treasures that were worth over a thousand cubes of chaos nectar, not including the sword-ki painting! What caused Ning to feel slightly disappointed was the fact that aside from the Eversnow Banner, none of the treasures of World God Cavecry were of use to himself at all.
For example, World God Cavecry’s most valuable treasure-set was a set of six top-grade Dao scimitars. They were worth more than five hundred cubes…but alas, Ning used swords, not scimitars.
As for his armor, it was a set of high-grade Dao armor. This was the same type of armor that Immortal Bloodpool had used. Since Ning already had one, this second set was temporarily of no use to him.
“I suppose I’ll sell it all once I leave.”
Ning cast the treasures to the back of his mind, then waved his hand to summon the painting.
This was the most valuable treasure of the entire island. It was definitely worth as much as an Eternal weapon.
“What secrets are hidden within this painting?” Ning unfurled the painting and gave it a close look. He had already bound the painting and so the sword energy of the painting had been restrained. It now looked completely ordinary.
“It doesn’t have any divine runes on it.”
“There don’t appear to be any ways to activate it.”
“It...it is just a painting…” Ning stared at the sword-ki painting, puzzled.
The sword-ki painting looked like an ordinary painting of mountains and rivers. It held mountains, waterfalls, and creeks. In fact, from an artistic standpoint the painting actually looked rather mediocre. Ning himself could paint something like this. And yet, whenever Ning extended his senses into this seemingly ordinary painting, he could sense a sword-intent that struck fear into his heart. The exalted sword-intent which filled the painting was just as strong as Violetjewel’s quintessence core.
“The person who painted this painting had to be a terrifyingly powerful expert of the Dao of the Sword,” Ning mused. “But so what? At least I can link my consciousness up with my sword’s quintessence core and get a basic understanding of it. All I can do with this painting is look at it!”
What use was a painting that was merely filled with sword-intent that couldn’t be interacted with?
Violetjewel’s quintessence core had a similarly profound sword-intent, but Ning could actually make use of it to do battle!
“Wasn’t this supposed to be equal to an Eternal weapon in value?”
“Eh, it makes sense. Daolord Windsource told World God Cavecry to comprehend and master this painting, but he wasn’t able to succeed in doing so before he died. I’m probably at too low a level of insight into the Dao to understand the true secrets hidden within the painting.” Ning could do nothing save console himself with these words. Still, he couldn’t help but give the painting a few more glances. He had a strange feeling that this painting was hiding certain secrets within it…but alas, a gauze had been draped over these secrets, making it impossible for him to behold them.
“What the hell is it?”
Ning ended up spending six more hours on the painting before giving up and putting it away for now.
“Master.” The nearby stone titan said curiously, “Why have you come to this place? I heard that only Samsara Daolords are capable of passing through the Hundred Streams of the Windsource Formation.”
“I accompanied my big brother, of course.” Ning smiled.
“Your big brother, Master?” The stone titan was quite curious, and his dark yellow eyes suddenly lit up. “Master, your ‘big brother’ is a Daolord? Where is he?”
“He went to the central island.” Ning pointed to the central island. “We’ll just wait for him here. When he returns, he’ll take us out of the Windsource Ruins.”
If Daolord Solesky didn’t return, Ning himself certainly wouldn’t be strong enough to lead.
“But that’s where Daolord Windsource once lived. It is the most dangerous place in this world,” the stone titan said.
Suddenly, a golden ripple of power burst out from the central island. The terrifying ripple instantly swept out in every direction, terrifying Ning and causing his face to turn ashen. Upon seeing the golden omnidirectional wave blast out towards him, he knew that if it touched him he was dead. He wouldn’t even have a chance to dodge.
Fortunately, as the golden wave blasted out from the central island it parted past the various smaller islands.
“What the hell?” Ning was badly rattled.
“He must’ve activated some formation or trap,” the stone titan offered.
“I know that! But he didn’t activate anything earlier. What happened?” Ning was rather worried out. He had spent six hours meditating on the sword-ki painting and nothing had happened…but now, all of a sudden, a huge shockwave had just blasted out in every direction. This caused Ning to feel extremely uneasy.
Within the central island.
A barefoot, raggedy old man let out a long breath. The buildings around him had been completely reduced to rubble. Only a towering palace located at the very center of this island remained standing.
“Damn this Windsource. If he died, he died. Why the hell did he have to leave so many restrictive formations behind?” Daolord Solesky cursed softly. “What, did you want everyone to know how badass you once were?”
He knew that it wouldn’t be easy, but upon actually entering the island he immediately found himself beset with countless dangers, even though there weren’t any treasures nearby! This caused Daolord Solesky to feel quite irritated.
“Nobody can stop my dao!”
“Not only are you dead, even when you were alive you wouldn’t have been able to stop me!”
Daolord Solesky no longer looked as relaxed as he normally did. A terrifying light was now shining in his eyes.
Whoosh!
Daolord Solesky actually split into two…then into four…then into eight…
In the blink of an eye, he split into more than ten thousand figures. Every single Daolord Solesky peered towards the undamaged main palace, then began to walk towards it from different parts of the island. The countless divine runes surrounding and protecting the main palace all began to flicker and flow.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. As the thousands of Daolords advanced, some attacks began to erupt forth and cause his bodies to burst open like bubbles. However, those bodies would then quickly reform. A disturbance was caused within the formation, and quite a few of the bodies seized this opportunity to march inside the formation.
And so, in a seemingly simple fashion, the thousands of Daolords managed to completely bypass the protective barrier of countless divine runes.
“If the actual Hundred Streams of the Windsource formation was activated, I might be in for a bit of trouble. These lesser formations, however, are no match for me at all.”
“Like an illusion.”
“Like a shadow.”
“Space and time.”
“Only I remain.”
The thousands of bodies all vanished, leaving behind just one figure standing before the main palace.
Daolord Solesky stood there, staring at the silver-haired figure seated in the lotus position within the main palace. The silver-haired man had a handsome face, was dressed in white robes, had a smile on his face, and emanated an aura of light. He said with a smile, “I don’t know which fellow Daoist has arrived. Given how hard you worked to defeat the thirteen formations surrounding my island, I imagine you must’ve come for my Talisman of Eternity. The Talisman of Eternity is right here. Before my Daomerge, I nearly perished in order to acquire this Talisman of Eternity. So long as you are willing to kowtow to me three times, fellow Daoist, you may take this talisman with you. But if you wish to take it by force…hmph.”
“You want me to kowtow?” Daolord Solesky’s eyes bulged out.
“You are already dead, and yet you still wish to toy with me? I’ll never kowtow to you, even if it means that I’ll fail my Daomerge as well!” Daolord Solesky was truly enraged now.
He could tell that this was an illusory image when Daolord Windsource had left behind prior to dying.
“The Hundred Streams of the Windsource Formation is an enormous formation. There’s no way its full power can be instantly unleashed. Let’s see what other tricks you have up your sleeve besides this formation!” Daolord Solesky smiled coldly. “I wasn’t afraid of you when you were alive. Now that you are dead, I’m even less afraid of you!”
As he spoke, Daolord Solesky reached out with his hand.
Whoosh.
An enormous illusion of a giant palm suddenly appeared, and it made a snatching motion towards the clothes and treasures located at the very center of the palace. Daolord Windsource had failed his Daomerge, eventually perishing as a result. Since he had died due to failing his Daomerge, at the moment of his death his entire body crumbled apart. Even his truesoul vanished, leaving nothing behind aside from his clothes and his treasures.
Whoosh. The giant palm grabbed the clothes and magic treasures. Although there were Eternal items in the pile, Daolord Solesky didn’t care about them. The only thing that mattered was the Talisman of Eternity.
“I nearly died to acquire this Talisman of Eternity. Fellow Daoist, you want to simply seize it from me? Hahaha…”
Suddenly, a cold laugh began to ring out throughout the main palace.
Countless divine runes suddenly began to manifest from every inch of the palace, causing it to radiate with dazzling light. The entire main palace almost instantly blew apart, the terrifying shockwave sweeping through the entire area. Daolord Solesky’s face immediately changed. He didn’t even have a chance to curse; all he could do was immediately flee for his life.
Rumble…
The entire central island began to crumble as the savage wave of might spread out in every direction.
Ning and the stone titan were waiting patiently on their island for Daolord Solesky to return. They suddenly saw the entire central island begin to break apart as an incomprehensibly powerful shockwave suddenly lashed out in every direction.
“Careful, Master!” The stone titan’s body instantly expanded dramatically as he transformed into a giant globe that completely surrounded Ning.
BOOM!!!!!!
The island which Ning was on began to violently tremble…and then, with a boom, it completely broke apart as well. The shattered bits of the island began to sink into the surrounding waters of the lake, and the palace itself was knocked thousands of kilometers away in the blink of an eye and sent into the distant, howling gray wind.
The stone titan was protecting Ning in the form of a giant boulder that had surrounded him. It was also sent flying and was swept into the howling gray wind, quickly disappearing within it.