Chapter 32: The Origin of the Divine Sword

The Five Elements Divine Cauldron sat atop the mountain peak, with five beams of light shooting up from its ears, dazzling and brilliant.

Ji Ning in white robes sat cross-legged, the divine sword Violetjade placed before him.

“Appear!” Ji Ning waved his hand, and nearby a small mountain of treasure fragments over ten zhang high appeared. These fragments included swords, blades, pearls, ropes, cloth banners, long staffs, giant axes, cauldrons, flying boats, immortal palaces... the worst were fragments of innate spirit-treasures. As fragments, their value was naturally much lower, but for extracting the essence of the five elements, they were better than intact treasures, as they saved the step of crushing.

“Go.”

His divine power surged, wrapping around these treasure fragments.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh~~~

The treasure fragments, like a long dragon, began to pour into the Five Elements Divine Cauldron. This cauldron was at the level of a ‘Chaos Treasure’. As the fragments entered, they quickly turned into waste residue, while the essence of the five elements was fully extracted and transferred into the five-element space inside the cauldron. In just a dozen breaths, the small mountain of treasure fragments over ten zhang high was completely consumed.

“Boom.” The large amount of waste residue hidden inside the Five Elements Divine Cauldron flew out all at once.

“Again.” Ji Ning waved his hand, and another pile of treasure fragments over ten zhang high appeared nearby.

…

The treasure fragments had their five-element essence extracted, then became waste residue.

Ji Ning had purchased a full one hundred and eight square units of treasure fragments, wealth equivalent to the entire fortune of an ordinary World-level cultivator, all spent on treasure fragments—an astonishing amount.

A full three hours and more!

Finally, all extraction was complete.

“Come.” Ji Ning took out a jade-green gourd and aimed it at the Five Elements Divine Cauldron. From the cauldron, five-colored streams—golden yellow, water blue, wood green, fire red, and earth black—flowed toward the gourd’s small mouth, continuously being absorbed. It took a long time to empty the cauldron’s stored essence.

Ji Ning waved his hand and put away the Five Elements Divine Cauldron as well.

“This gourd of five-element essence, one hundred and eight square units.” Ji Ning looked at the jade-green gourd in his hand. He had obtained this wealth through desperate struggle in the ancient ruins, plus a bit of luck.

“Divine sword Violetjade... let me see your true edge.”

Ji Ning willed it.

The divine sword Violetjade floated directly before Ji Ning. The jade-green gourd at his side began to release five-element essence, the five-colored streams flowing toward the sword, surrounding it and seeping into the blade.

The divine sword Violetjade appeared intact on the surface.

But inside, it was damaged and broken, like a building that looks good on the outside but is shoddy within—such a building is actually very fragile.

The same principle.

A sword that is only intact on the surface is actually very fragile! Because the foundation of Violetjade was so extraordinarily good, even its surface integrity allowed it to exert the power of a Dao weapon.

“Sizzle sizzle sizzle~~~” The many damaged areas inside frantically absorbed the five-element essence. The internal repair was very, very slow; each bit of restoration was extremely difficult.

The sword body, from outside to inside.

At the core was the origin.

As the repair gradually approached the origin, it became increasingly difficult.

Because the surface was intact, the sword now absorbed five-element essence much faster than before. The better the repair, the faster the absorption. But because there was so much essence, six days and six nights passed in a flash. During these six days, Violetjade kept absorbing.

“Already consumed thirty square units... more than half repaired...” Ji Ning frowned. “But it seems the closer to the core, the harder the repair.”

Another day passed.

“Consumed fifty square units... still lacking.”

“Sixty square units... seventy square units...”

“Still a little short...”

The sword body was nearly fully repaired, but near the origin, the difficulty seemed to skyrocket.

“Eighty square units.”

“Ninety square units.”

“Ninety-five, ninety-six, ninety-seven, ninety-eight!” Ji Ning carefully sensed the sword he had long refined. Finally, the last tiny point inside the sword body near the origin was restored.

Having consumed the five-element essence extracted from treasure fragments worth ninety-eight square units, the sword body of Violetjade was completely restored.

“Boom~~~”

The blood-colored divine sword floating before Ji Ning radiated joy, and Ji Ning smiled. He did not suppress it but let the sword erupt.

A sword light like a blood-colored water surface spread into the void ahead.

Whoosh~~~~

The sword light roared, fan-shaped, spreading into the void before Ji Ning. Where it passed, the world prison trembled.

“What?” Ji Ning was shocked.

“This is a world prison, specially used to hold prisoners. My true body clone, with the Azureflower mark, can barely shake the world prison with full force. But now this divine sword... I haven’t even driven it; just its own eruption makes the world prison tremble?” Ji Ning was astonished.

“This power is far beyond a Dao weapon—a hundred times, a thousand times?”

“If I wield it, what then?”

Ji Ning looked at the fan-shaped blood-colored lake in the void, sensing the contained power, and dared not think further.

“Come.”

Ji Ning reached out.

The spreading blood-colored sword-light lake dissipated, and Violetjade obediently flew into Ji Ning’s hand.

Holding the divine sword, Ji Ning poured his divine power into it, adding the power of his Azureflower mist, ready to strike with full force.

But at that moment—

“Blood and water.”

“Sword like water, sword like blood...”

A faint, almost inaudible murmur came from within the sword’s origin. Ji Ning, with his divine power infused, could clearly sense it.

He sensed the aloofness contained in the sword’s origin...

He even vaguely saw a solitary figure, who was like a divine sword that filled Ji Ning with reverence. Under this soaring sword intent, stars shattered, worlds annihilated, all living things perished... nothing could stop this sword intent, as if the endless chaos itself would be torn apart.

“Huh.”

Ji Ning regained clarity, realizing that over half a month had passed.

“This sword origin?” Ji Ning had possessed Violetjade for a very long time, but had never found anything special about its origin. Now that the sword body was intact, the origin seemed to ‘come alive’, allowing Ji Ning to glimpse a supreme sword intent, far beyond that of the Hundred Streams Dao Diagram.

The only thing Ji Ning had seen that could compare was the artistic conception of the characters ‘Yi Bo’ on the gate of Yibo City in the Da Mo Eternal Realm.

Equally supreme!

Even carrying a sense of perfection and eternity.

“Eternity?” Ji Ning murmured. “No wonder such a divine weapon is called an Eternal weapon.”

Chaos treasures.

Dao weapons.

Eternal weapons! Eternal weapons are treasures containing their own origin. Each, having its own origin, is incredibly miraculous; no two Eternal weapons are alike.

Such weapons are generally used by beings at the level of Da Mo Dao Lord or Su Feng Dao Lord. Of course, some lucky ones with fortuitous encounters... like Northrest World God, also obtained an Eternal weapon!

“I feel that only by fully guiding and unleashing the sword origin within can I bring out Violetjade’s greatest power.” Ji Ning had this realization, but then smiled bitterly. Fully guide and unleash? No way. To do so required too high a level of insight; the gap between him and this sword origin was far too vast.

Fortunately, he too walked the path of the sword and had some understanding.

“Let me test its power.” Ji Ning, holding Violetjade, whooshed into the air and flew off.

…

In a wilderness of the world prison, a black-haired old man sat cross-legged.

Swoosh.

A white-robed youth landed from afar.

“Sanjue.” Ji Ning spoke.

“Master.” The black-haired old man quickly stood up. He was now completely convinced by Ji Ning. By now, all the ancestral gods and immortals in the world prison had been subdued by Ji Ning, and Sanjue Swordmaster was the first he had taken in.

“Don’t move.” Ji Ning instructed.

The black-haired old man looked puzzled as Ji Ning walked to his side.

Ji Ning suddenly swung the divine sword. The strike carried the artistic conception of his ‘Killing Sword Style’, though he had not yet fully comprehended it. But this trace of conception could draw out a sliver of power from the ‘sword origin’, which was unleashed through Violetjade.

Ji Ning felt that this sliver of power from the sword origin made him feel as if he possessed an indestructible force.

“Pfft.” A flash of blood-colored sword light.

The black chain behind the black-haired old man, which was embedded in the void, snapped with a clang, breaking in two.

The black-haired old man’s eyes went wide: “This, this...”