Chapter 23: Myriad Treasures Golden Fiend

"Master." Danbao and Su Youji both felt their hearts tighten. Ahead lay pure void, so pure it had not a single impurity, and even the primal energy of the universe retreated. Yet gazing upon this pure void, they both felt a shudder and fear that came from the depths of their souls. They had a feeling that if they rashly entered, they would almost certainly die.

"Master, this place feels like no ordinary danger zone. We must not enter recklessly," Su Youji said quickly.

"Master, let's first find a way to investigate more, and then it won't be too late to enter," Danbao also urged.

Ji Ning looked ahead, his expression solemn. Before the Holy Lord of Pure Breeze, he had absolute power to protect himself. Although he too sensed something unusual about this pure void, he could completely ignore it. But that golden mist... the intense sense of threat from the unseen made Ji Ning understand that there was an extremely terrifying danger deep within the golden mist.

"This void is extraordinary. All laws retreat! Even the primal power of the universe avoids this place," Ji Ning said. "My divine sense cannot probe it, and my sword intent senses nothing. There's no other way."

"Then don't go in," Su Youji urged.

"Yes, master, forget it. Don't enter," Danbao also advised. In the endless chaos, dangerous places were plentiful. Knowing it was dangerous, why go in?

Ji Ning shook his head.

The Ninefold Chaos Seal was the most incredible technique he had ever encountered. His azure flower mark was resonating intensely at this moment, clearly indicating that something deep within the golden mist attracted it. Moreover, his 'life-bound talisman' was placed with his Dharma body in the Heavenly Cang Palace. Even if he died, he could be reborn through that talisman.

For the mystery of the azure flower mark, the risk was worth it.

"Wait for me here," Ji Ning commanded.

"Yes." Danbao and Su Youji could only obey.

"Be careful in everything," Su Youji added.

Ji Ning nodded slightly, and then around him naturally spread a vortex world formed by dark golden lightning and ice-white water currents.

Whoosh.

Ji Ning strolled through the pure void, enveloping a region ten thousand miles around within his lightning-water vortex world.

"Hoo, hoo, hoo..." As soon as he stepped into the pure void region, an invisible force swept over him. This force constantly scoured the void, seeming like nothingness. It easily passed through the lightning-water vortex world and swept across Ji Ning's body. With a harsh grating sound, it barely penetrated his Sovereign armor, greatly diminished in power, and then swept over his soul.

Ji Ning's soul was stable; it felt like wind blowing against his soul.

"Directly attacking the soul?" Ji Ning felt a secret dread. He immediately turned his head to look back. With a thought, the lightning-water vortex world rapidly expanded and also reached Su Youji and Danbao.

"Do not enter this void under any circumstances. This void contains an insidious force that directly targets the soul. An ordinary one-step Daolord cannot withstand it." Ji Ning's voice echoed around Su Youji and Danbao.

After giving his instructions, Ji Ning continued flying through the void, maintaining a speed of only twice the speed of light, not fast.

Danbao and Su Youji watched worriedly as Ji Ning flew away toward the golden mist.

...

After a moment, Ji Ning reached the golden mist.

The golden mist filled the entire boundary of the void. Ji Ning could sense the resonance of his azure flower mark; it was clearly straight ahead.

"This mist?" Ji Ning extended his hand and condensed a sword beam.

The sword beam, tens of thousands of feet long, directly cut through the golden mist before him, passing through it like air, completely unharmed.

"The mist seems to have no offensive or dangerous properties," Ji Ning mused. "The sense of threat it gives me seems to come from deep within the golden mist."

Ji Ning then extended his right hand, which swelled to tens of thousands of feet in size, and reached into the golden mist. He was not being overly cautious; both the intense sense of threat from the unseen and the wonder of the 'Ninefold Chaos Seal' made Ji Ning dare not be careless. In his view, the one who created the Ninefold Chaos Seal was likely no less than the Great Dominator or the Pill Sovereign.

"Indeed, no danger—it's merely a type of metal-attributed energy." Unable to probe with divine sense, Ji Ning could only analyze it through this crude method.

Whoosh.

Ji Ning flew into the golden mist.

Although the golden mist pervaded everywhere, Ji Ning's vision could still see millions of miles. He flew cautiously at one times the speed of light. After all, millions of miles seemed a large range, but if he flew at his maximum speed—ten times the speed of light—he would cross that distance in the blink of an eye, which was too dangerous.

"Hm?" Ji Ning swept his gaze around.

Within his line of sight, millions of miles away, appeared a golden beast resembling a pangolin, covered in armor, drifting and flying. Each flight was like gliding, tracing an arc, at three times the speed of light.

Ji Ning sensed little threat from it.

"Better to avoid it. Now is not the time for complications." With a thought, whoosh, he vanished.

He activated the Shadowless Escape Art.

Ji Ning completely merged with the golden mist, invisible to the naked eye. The armored beast, far away, naturally could not detect him.

Ji Ning had been flying within the golden mist for a full eight hours. The resonance of the azure flower mark grew stronger, but it still remained within the golden mist's range.

"Hm? So many beasts?" Ji Ning's gaze swept over and saw, millions of miles away, a dense gathering of twenty-three golden beasts, varying in size. They gave him a slight sense of threat. "The threat isn't strong; dealing with them shouldn't be hard. But earlier, I only saw solitary ones. Why are twenty-three gathered here?"

The more peculiar the environment, the more likely it is to give birth to special lifeforms or strange beasts.

Special lifeforms like Waterwalker and BetaLeo, possessing high intelligence, cultivate and comprehend the Dao like anyone else.

These beasts before him were of lower intelligence, similar to insect beasts, incapable of cultivation. Though they evolved through the reproduction of cosmic life, they followed a path of strengthening. It was a doomed path, impossible to achieve eternity. Still, they could possess considerable combat power.

"Why are they gathered? Is this their lair?" Curious, Ji Ning approached using the Shadowless Escape Art.

When he closed to within two million miles, Ji Ning saw clearly.

The beasts were scattered in a circle around the center, where a golden orb with a slowly flowing surface lay. The twenty-odd armored beasts were prostrate, inhaling, absorbing the power emitted by the golden orb. Their intelligence was low, but they understood that absorbing the orb's power made them stronger.

"This is..." Ji Ning frowned, then was shocked. "Myriad Treasures Golden Fiend? The legendary core of a fourth-step puppet, the 'Myriad Treasures Golden Fiend'? I'm really lucky to run into one here!"

Puppets with fourth-step Daolord strength were extremely rare.

This was because the materials required for their cores were too苛刻 and extremely difficult to refine. All were incredibly rare materials. 'Myriad Treasures Golden Fiend' could serve as the core of such a puppet.

In other words, with one Myriad Treasures Golden Fiend, most of the materials for a fourth-step Daolord puppet were gathered!

Besides the Myriad Treasures Golden Fiend, there were other rare treasures that could serve as cores, all of them extremely rare.

If used to refine a treasure, it could allow the treasure to change form at will, even into armor or a divine sword, with power definitely at the Eternal Supreme grade. Of course, refining a treasure would be wasteful; it was usually used to refine a fourth-step Daolord puppet. Such a puppet, with a body comparable to Eternal Supreme and the ability to change in countless ways, was the best meat shield, sometimes used by Eternal Emperors to protect their lives.

"Gather the materials and ask a true master refiner to painstakingly craft it," Ji Ning thought. "The Myriad Treasures Golden Fiend is often bought long-term by many factions, at a price of thirty to forty million cubes."

Many mighty figures actively purchased it.

But—

No one was foolish. Truly rare treasures were usually exchanged for other treasures. Everyone had chaos nectar? But not everyone had rare treasures. Some extraordinary treasures were simply impossible to find.

With the Myriad Treasures Golden Fiend, Ji Ning could 'exchange treasure for treasure' to obtain some of the truly rare treasures he would need in the future. For those treasures, others would not sell for chaos nectar unless Ji Ning offered two or three times the price.

"I haven't found the source of the azure flower mark's resonance, but I've discovered a Myriad Treasures Golden Fiend first." Ji Ning was somewhat excited. "The only trouble is those twenty-three beasts."

...