Desolate Era Book 11, Chapter 6 - Primal Breakthrough

The Sole-Ki Pearl of Primalwater was a naturally occurring spirit-treasure that was one of the most superb resources for nourishing the soul.
There were some Immortal cultivators who, believing their Zifu’s to be damaged, would steal the bodies of others. This sort of possession, however… had a major problem. It was that the affinity between the body and the soul would be very weak. Generally speaking, most bodies were not of very high quality. Some Immortal cultivators, upon finding a good body, would seize it. Once their affinity with it reached a certain level, they would be extremely satisfied.
However, the likes of the Darkvalley Pearl, the Sole-Ki Pearl of Primalwater, and other such naturally occurring spirit-treasures were truly perfect vessels. Because they had never been inhabited by a soul, once a soul did enter them, they would merge together perfectly. In terms of quality, as naturally occurring spirit-treasures, they were of course of superb quality.
“It was lucky for me that Youngflame Nong had procured this. If I were to search for it on my own, where the hell would I even start?” Ji Ning had begun his refining process, and as he did, he instantly realized how wonderful this pearl was. He couldn’t help but sigh to himself, “Youngflame Nong must have prepared this for himself. However, in the end, his efforts ended up being for my sake.”
Sole-Ki Pearls of Primalwater were filled with elemental essence to begin with; there was thus no need to absorb elemental ki from the surrounding world. One only needed to refine the ki within it. Ning was currently rising in power at a rapid rate.
BOOM!
A world suddenly came into being within the pearl. A Zifu region was born, and large amounts of elemental water essence began to transform, causing the Zifu region to expand in size.
Stars. The Moon. The Golden Crown. Three major Manifestations appeared… and the body immediately broke through to the Wanxiang level.
“This sort of ‘training’ truly is wonderful.” The old black bull, watching, couldn’t help but sigh in amazement, “What tremendous speed.”
“It’s just like when a reincarnated Immortal regains his memories. He already had the sufficient insights and a strong enough Dao-heart. Given that the Sole-Ki Pearl of Primalwater has condensed water elemental essence within it to begin with, it wouldn’t even surprise me if he trained all the way to the Primal stage,” the giant yellow bear said. These sorts of treasures, which contained elemental essence within them, would generally allow those who used them to reach the Primal stage. One couldn’t help but sigh at how marvelous the treasures of the natural world could be.
“He’s about to make a breakthrough,” the old black bull suddenly said.
After just an hour, the Sole-Ki Pearl of Primalwater had risen in power from the Xiantian level to the peak of the Wanxiang level. It was currently moving towards the Primal level.
Within the pearl. There was a vast, empty void here. The Zifu Lake was almost infinitely vast, and within the sky of this world, thousands of stars, a Jade Rabbit, and a Golden Crow hung in the sky. The aura of this place was even more powerful than the aura of Ning’s true body. This was because this body had truly reached the absolute peak of the peak Wanxiang stage!
“Arise!”
Ning’s soul was above the thousands of stars, at the very heart of the void in his Zifu region. He willed it… and instantly, the sea of elemental energy in his Zifu began to frantically condense into trillions of specks of purified light that wildly soared into the skies, towards those stars, the moon, and the sun, all of which were beginning to move in accordance with a secret rhythm. In the instant in which they all merged into the heavenly bodies, the stars, the Jade Rabbit, and the Golden Crow, all of which had already reached their limit long ago, suddenly transformed into pillars of light that shot downwards.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Tens of thousands of pillars of light, some thin, some thick. The pillars of light created from the countless stars appeared very thin, while the pillars of light from the Golden Crow and the Moon Rabbit were clearly far thicker.
The countless pillars of light all focused on the central part of the Zifu, beginning to slowly form into an enormous creature.
The enormous creature was beginning to take shape. The light from the Golden Crow was focusing on its head, forming a tortoise-like beast. The light from the Jade Rabbit was beginning to focus on the other side, forming a serpent’s head. The countless beams of light from the stars were beginning to form the body of the creature. The massive thing began to take clearer and clearer form; it was a mutant beast that looked like a turtle with a snake intertwined within it.
This was a legendary creature; the Turtle-Snake!
Any living creature, upon breaking through to the Primal level, would form a Primal Turtle-Snake.
Rumble…
In that instant, the enormous Turtle-Snake suddenly seemed to move. It actually began to crawl downwards, through the void, until it reached the elemental sea. Within that vast elemental sea of energy, the enormous, island-like Turtle-Snake began to slowly swim about.
“The Turtle-Snake has been formed. Let the Primal soul descend!”
Instantly, Ning’s soul, which had remained hovering in the sky this entire time, descended directly into the enormous Turtle-Snake. As it entered the creature’s body, it felt an incomparably comfortable sensation. It was as though the body of the Turtle-Snake was innately nurturing to souls; Ning could even feel his own soul begin to strengthen at an alarming speed.
“What a shocking speed of advancement. The rate at which my soul is strengthening is even faster than the rate at which it was healing when I visualized the image of Mother Nuwa.” Ning sighed in absolute amazement. He finally understood why it was that although many Immortal cultivators had fairly weak souls at the Wanxiang stage, upon reaching the Primal stage, they would all quickly come to possess divine sense.
It was precisely because, within the Primal Turtle-Snake, the soul would strengthen at an astonishing rate! It was like grass being sown into mud, then quickly growing out of it.
Rumble…
The Turtle-Snake swiveled there. Yin and Yang intersected on the back of the Turtle-Snake, which is to say, it’s shell. Suddenly, a golden flame emerged, blazing with incomparable heat and yet not harming the Primal Turtle-Snake in the slightest. This was the ‘Primal Fire’ which every single Primal Daoist was capable of using.
Whooooooosh. The enormous Turtle-Snake swam about happily in the vast sea of elemental ki. The eyes of both the turtle-head and the snake-head both seemed extremely lively and clever, as though they were true living creatures.
As for the thousands of stars, the Golden Crow, and the Jade Rabbit, they continued to send down their condensed elemental essence. Bathed by it, the Turtle-Snake was still continuing to slowly grow.
After another long period of time, the stars, the Golden Crow, and the Jade Rabbit finally stopped sending down essence.
“The early Primal stage!” The giant Primal Turtle-Snake spoke out in the human tongue. “The energy within the Sole-Ki Pearl of Primalwater truly is remarkable. It was only used up after I trained all the way to the early Primal stage, then solidified my base.”
……
In the instant he had become a Primal Daoist, there had actually also been a sudden change in the surrounding elemental ki aura of the underwater estate. In addition, the ancient, eternal aura of the Dao itself had also descended.
“He made the breakthrough.” The giant yellow bear and the old black bull both laughed. Very soon, mist suddenly began to emerge from the pearl, which had been hovering in midair… and then the mist solidified into a black-robed Ji Ning.
“Greetings, seniors,” the black-robed Ji Ning laughed.
“Take a look at your original body,” the giant yellow bear said with a smirk.
The black-robed Ning turned his head. The original Ning turned his head as well. Their gazes intersected.
“Hahaha…” The two both laughed.
Actually, their memories were linked; it was as though one was the left hand, while the other was the right hand. As they exchanged glances, their thoughts were identical; this was, indeed, an extremely marvelous feeling.
“Greetings, fellow Daoist,” the black-robed Ning said.
“Greetings, fellow Daoist,” the other Ning also said.
And then, both laughed. With identical memories and thoughts, saying ‘greetings, fellow Daoist’ to each other was like mumbling to himself. It was nothing more than a joke.
“How does it feel?” the giant yellow bear asked.
“Very good,” the black-robed Ning nodded. “Breaking through to the Primal level feels very different. The soul fused with the Primal Turtle-Dragon, which felt incomparably comfortable. It is also advancing very rapidly.”
“Right. Generally speaking, upon breaking through to the Primal level, the rate of advancement for the soul will be very fast for a period of time. Afterwards, it will slow down, and in fact the soul might advance very little even after a century passes,” the giant yellow bear said.
The black-robed Ning nodded. “Although the Primal Turtle-Snake is of tremendous help to the soul, everything has a limit. If the soul were to continue to rise at this rate perpetually, that would be ridiculous!”
“Let me first try the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] with this Primaltwin and see how it is.” The black-robed Ning willed it, and suddenly, a dense cluster of more than seven hundred flying swords appeared. Nine were the Nethercold swords, while 360 were high-grade fire-attribute Earth-ranked flying swords, and another 360 were high-grade water-attribute Earth-ranked flying swords.
He had picked these flying swords out from the vast ocean of magic treasures left behind by Immortal Witchriver in the estate. Ning had procured more than sixteen thousand magic treasures. With flying swords being one of the most common types of magic treasures, it hadn’t been too hard for him to find some that were suited to him.
“[Lesser Thousand Swords Formation]!”
The black-robed Ning willed the formation to immediately activated. Previously, when activing the formation, Ning had always used the Nethercold swords first, then led the other 720 Mortal-ranked flying swords with them! Now, however, with all 720 Mortal-ranked flying swords having been changed into Earth-ranked flying swords, the difficulty of controlling the swords instantly increased more than a hundredfold. After all, he had upgraded far too many swords.
“Eh?!” The black-robed Ning frowned.
“How is it?” The old black bull laughed.
“I wanted to activate the ninth level of the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation], but I’m unable to.” The black-robed Ning shook his head, then began to lower the level. The eighth level? The seventh level?
Whoosh!
Finally, he successfully activated the technique. More than five hundred flying swords swiveled about Ning, beginning to levitate up and down. Ning’s Primal-level elemental ki filled them, and his soul commanded them. Before his chest solidified an incomparably brilliant flying sword, which was even covered with a layer of prismatic white light.
“The seventh level [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation].” The black-robed Ning shook his head. “I broke through to the Primal level, and my elemental ki has increased in power dramatically. However, my soul is still somewhat weaker than it was, before it split in two. Even though I’ve gained much enlightenment regarding the Dao… I’m still unable to go past the seventh level.”
“These are, after all, all Earth-ranked magic treasures, and most are high-grade. Even the seventh level of the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] is still more powerful than the ninth level of the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] with those Mortal-ranked flying swords,” the giant yellow bear said.
The black-robed Ning nodded in agreement.
“Right. Just now, I took a look at your other treasures,” the giant yellow bear said, pointing towards the other magic treasures, all separated by type. “Some of the sacks have quite a few golems in them.”
The black-robed Ning nodded. “These are the golems that we discovered in the Witchriver Immortal Estate. That Fiendgod collected them.”
“Let me help you retrofit these golems. Otherwise, they won’t listen to your commands,” the giant yellow bear said. “Right; don’t you have fifty thousand kilograms of liquefied elemental essence? Hurry up and refine it all. You are only at the early Primal level, right? Raise your power a bit more. That way, your elemental ki will grow more pure, and it will be easier for you to control your magic treasures. By then, I imagine you’ll be able to control the eighth, or even the ninth, level of the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation].”
The black-robed Ning nodded. “Right.” There was no reason not to use them up; it was best to use the liquid to improve his own power. Fifty thousand kilograms? This was more than enough to allow his Primaltwin to once more improve its power dramatically.
“In the future, I need to focus on the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation],” the black-robed Ning mused to himself. Although he had read many secret manuals, amongst those that were meant for Ki Refiners, the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] remained the best suited for him, and the most powerful one as well. His Primaltwin was a Ki Refiner; there was no way it could train in divine abilities, and so it naturally would have to focus on the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation].
It was destined that his Primaltwin would become an extremely powerful ki-refining Sword Immortal!