Desolate Era

“Just tell me how much you need, Emperor,” Ji Ning said shamelessly. For a young World-level cultivator like himself to be shameless in front of an Eternal Emperor didn’t really matter that much. If it meant acquiring six lifeblood weapons, a bit of thick-skinned shamelessness was nothing.

Emperor Gonflame was speechless. “Six lifeblood weapons. Let’s put aside the amount of exhausting work that I’d have to put into it. Six lifeblood weapons… do you even know how much the materials alone would cost? Do you have any idea? You actually dare make the wild claim that you’d cover it?”

“How much would it cost, exactly?” Ning asked.

“To make customized swords for you? Your swords would be different from all other lifeblood weapons. Your Sword Dao encompasses all directions, which means that the lifeblood weapon also has to be truly perfect in every single aspect! The materials alone will probably cost at least three times as much as the materials needed for an ‘ordinary’ lifeblood weapon. It would take a total of thirty million cubes of chaos nectar. Six swords would cost a hundred and eighty million cubes!”

Emperor Gonflame suddenly started to laugh uncontrollably as he looked at Ning. “Fine, I promised to give you one for free, so you’ll only have to compensate me a hundred and fifty million cubes. As for all of my time, effort, and labor… we’ll just consider it as being on the house. Heh. Heh heh. You said you will make sure I’m not operating at a loss, right? Can you give me that much?”

Ning was speechless. He truly wasn’t able to say a single word.

A hundred and fifty million cubes?

This was way, way…

Daolord Solesky of Vastheaven Palace was an extremely powerful Verge-level Daolord. In order to procure the assistance of Daolord Badlands, he had put together a collection of nearly twenty million cubes worth of chaos nectar, which represented virtually his entire treasure hoard. But of course, the treasures and weapons which he used in battle and which was part of his own ‘true strength’, he naturally didn’t sell.

For most major powers, even if they sold off all of their most valuable treasures they still probably wouldn’t be able to come up with a hundred million cubes!

“Weeeell?” Emperor Gonflame looked at Ning, then said teasingly, “Weren’t you talking big, just now, about how you’d make it up to me?”

Ning was furiously racking his brain for ideas. What should he do? He had quite a few treasures, but he wasn’t even close to a hundred and fifty million cubes worth of treasure. Emperor Gonflame wished to give the Paragon of Pills face and so was willing to gift him thirty million cubes of ingredients; this was already beyond generous. It must be remembered that when Emperor Gonflame had made that offer, he had only been planning on making an ordinary lifeblood weapon that would cost him around ten million cubes. Who would’ve thought that Ning’s Sword Dao was this incredible? Emperor Gonflame couldn’t go back on his words, and so had been so generous as to promise Ning an appropriate and even more expensive weapon.

But six? Even Ning himself felt that such a request went too far, and the Emperor probably wouldn’t agree. Such a sum of wealth would cause even someone like Emperor Gonflame to feel heartache.

“Eh?!” A thought suddenly flashed through Ning’s mind. “Emperor,” Ning called out.

Emperor Gonflame had been enjoying the intensely awkward look on Ning’s face. He couldn’t help but feel curious upon hearing Ning call out to him. “What is it? Do you actually have enough treasure to make up for it?”

Ning did, of course, have enough treasure. The deceased Hegemon’s suit of ancient armor alone was worth vastly more than six lifeblood weapons. That suit of armor had been labored over by the Paragon of Pills herself, and it truly was of inestimable value. There was nowhere and no way to buy a treasure like that! As for the two Dao-seals which the deceased Hegemon had given him, the deceased Hegemon had poured all of his effort into the creation of each Dao-seal. They similarly could not be found anywhere on any market, and they would indeed more than make up for the lifeblood weapons as well.

But Ning would never sell them, not unless he truly lost his mind. Ultimate trump cards like this simply were not to be sold.

“This junior has a bit of information to trade,” Ning said. “I think… this bit of information should be worth a hundred and fifty million cubes of chaos nectar.”

“Information? What sort of information could possibly be worth that much?” Emperor Gonflame was intrigued.

“Emperor,” Ning said, “When this junior first entered the Archaeus region, I once accidentally encountered a place where I discovered an enormous, mountain-sized vein of darkspace flamestone. This mountain was more than a million kilometers in size.”

Emperor Gonflame had been quite calm, but upon hearing the words ‘million kilometers’ he was completely stunned. He shot to his feet, staring at Ning with round eyes. “What did you just say? A million kilometers in size? A mountain of darkspace flamestone?”

“Yes.” Ning nodded immediately.

“How rich is the vein?” Emperor Gonflame asked.

A ‘vein’ could mean many things. A ‘vein’ of ore in which ten thousand kilograms of rock held roughly one kilogram of pure ore would be considered a ‘vein’, but so too would a ‘vein’ in which a billion kilograms of rock held a kilogram of pure ore! The difference between the two, however, was enormous.

“Please take a look, Emperor.” Ning waved his hand, causing a piece of ore to appear. This was one of the pieces of ore which the golem Moksha had mined.

“This ore…” Emperor Gonflame was instantly excited when he saw that piece of ore. He was a true grandmaster of artificing, and he could immediately tell right away that it came from an incredibly rich vein. “A million kilometers of this… I… I… I’m not strong enough to own such a mountain.”

This mountain of ore was so large and valuable that someone like him truly wasn’t qualified to claim ownership over it. In fact, Emperor Gonflame didn’t even consider trying. He was a retainer of the Paragon of Pills, after all. There was no way he could hide something like this from her. And a mine of this size… if the Paragon of Pills claimed it, there would be no one who would dare to do anything to it.

“But there is something I must tell you. This mine already has an owner,” Ning said.

“An owner?” Emperor Gonflame was stunned.

“Emperor Trisilk,” Ning said.

Emperor Gonflame started to roar with laughter. “Ahahaha! Him? That poor, stupid bastard?” Right now, Emperor Trisilk truly was the most unfortunate Eternal Emperor in this entire universe. Emperor Maniseal was hunting him so relentlessly that he didn’t dare to show his face anywhere.”

“Come, follow me. Let us go meet with my master.” Emperor Gonflame grabbed Ning, then stepped through the void and teleported out of his estate.

……

This truly was a piece of earth-shaking information. Even the Paragon of Pills was shocked upon hearing it, and she immediately led Ning and Emperor Gonflame away from the Trileaf Realm and towards the Archaeus region.

Whooosh.

The five-colored space bridge continuously soared into the distance. The Paragon, Ning, and Emperor Gonflame all stood there atop the bridge. Since Ning had fled from the Sacred Immortal Realm after they had destroyed the formation protecting it, he knew exactly where it was located. This made finding it much easier.

Rumble…

“Here we are.”

The black-garbed Paragon put away her bridge, then stood there in the emptiness of space with Emperor Gonflame and Ji Ning by her side.

The blazing flames in this region weren’t able to even move close to them. The Paragon, Emperor Gonflame, and Ning all stared through the void towards the towering mountain formed from fiery red rock.

“What an enormous vein of ore.” Emperor Gonflame was truly stunned. “Although Darknorth told me about how large it is, actually seeing it is… wow. How could there be a mountain of darkspace flamestone as large as this?”

“It’s too large. There’s no way to teleport it away. Our only choice is to slowly mine it for its ore,” the Paragon said softly. A mountain of ore like this… in this entire universe, the number of people who would dare claim it for their own could be counted on one hand. The Paragon was one of them! But of course, if someone else had been the first to discover it, she wouldn’t have been in a good position to intervene either.

Whoever was the first to discover such a fortune would be the one to own it. This was a shared rule which the supreme powers all abided by.

But of course, if a puny Emperor like Emperor Trisilk was the first to find it, the supreme powers would’ve been in a position to take it away by force! This was much like how Hydragon Mountain of the Endless Territories had been forcibly occupied by the almighty Brightshore Hegemon.

“Trisilk, that idiot… he probably wanted to keep this mountain for himself.” Emperor Gonflame snickered. “He never would’ve expected that Emperor Maniseal would chase after him like this. Poor bastard.”

“Trisilk is a selfish, vicious person by nature. Of course he would want to keep this mountain for himself.” The Paragon of Pills slowly shook her head. “However… right now, there’s no one who can protect him. Maniseal has gone completely berserk. Even if the lord of the Church of Annihilation placed Trisilk under his personal protection, Trisilk would still have to perpetually stay within the lord’s headquarters. He would never be able to leave it ever again. If Trisilk was to ever come out… given how furious Maniseal is, he’ll definitely kill Trisilk.

Trisilk had been able to sense his disciple being killed and knew that the secret of his darkspace flamestone mine had been exposed. He was so terrified by this that he hid himself even more deeply! Right now, his nerves were completely frayed.

A berserk Maniseal truly was a terrifying person to behold. He had reached the true apex in the Dao of Seals. Although he was a bit weaker than the Paragon of Pills or the lord of the Church of Annihilation, neither of them would wish to make an enemy out of him! This was because neither of them felt confident that they would definitely be able to kill him.

“What an enormous mountain of ore. The Trileaf Realm will need to make good use of it and work hard to mine it.” The Paragon nodded. “The value of this ore is truly incalculable. Gonflame, go ahead and help Darknorth forge those six lifeblood weapons. I’ll provide all the materials you need! For us to gain such a mountain of ore at a cost of less than two hundred million cubes of chaos nectar… the more often something like this happens, the better.”

“Alright.” Emperor Gonflame laughed and nodded.

As for Ning, he couldn’t help but secretly sigh to himself. In truth, neither he nor any of his fellows such as Solewind or Greatjoy had any designs on this mountain! This was because not even most Eternal Emperors would dare to lay claim over it! In addition, Emperor Trisilk already knew about this place, which meant others would definitely find out as well.

Thus, the number of people in this universe who could fearlessly and openly lay claim to it truly could be counted on just one hand. Ning, Greatjoy, and the others were all from another universe, and were mere World-level cultivators; there was no way they would ever have a chance to meet such supremely powerful figures! Even if they had such a chance, they wouldn’t dare to act on it for fear of their true identities being exposed! What’s more… for a weak figure like them to try and bargain with such supremely powerful figures might simply result in them being forcibly soulscoured.

Due to their many concerns, none of them had ever dared to reveal this secret to anyone else upon leaving the Sacred Immortal Realm.

Ning, however, had a very special relationship with the Paragon of Pills. She had treated him very well, and had even transmitted her [Seven Leafpill Chapters] to him. It could be said that they were family, which was why Ning dared to tell her about this mountain. If it wasn’t for their special relationship, Ning would’ve forever kept this information hidden deep within his memories!

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