Book 23, Endwar, Chapter 7 – Sta.r.s.eizing Hand
Within a quiet little mountain village. This village was a peaceful, calm place. There was an ordinary bamboo house located in the middle of it, and there was a white-robed youth who lived within this house.
The other villagers were all actually quite curious about this youth.
Most of the people in this village were ordinary mortal refugees who had fled to the depths of this mountain and built homes here. Thus, very few people knew each other. The white-robed youth had travelled alongside them and established a residence here as well. They had thought that the white-robed youth was a refugee like them…but then the white-robed youth had lived with them for five full years. During these five years, they noticed that the white-robed youth spent almost every day fis.h.i.+ng.
He didn’t chase after pretty la.s.ses, nor did he worry about starting a family, nor did he tend to any fields.
All he did was fish. He relied on fis.h.i.+ng to make his living.
“This kid really doesn’t know what’s good for him. I tried to propose a wife for him, but he refused to hear of it. Old Li’s daughter is so pretty, and her family is a fine one! She’s one of the top two eligible maidens in our village. It’s rare for anyone to catch her fancy like he did, but all he did was smile and refuse…” The matchmaker granny grumbled as she walked out of the bamboo house. She even gave the bamboo door a hard kick as she left.
If this old granny knew that she had just kicked at the door of one of the most supreme FiendG.o.ds of the entire Three Realms…what would her reaction be?
As for Ning, he just chuckled as he stood there next to the bamboo door, then grabbed his fis.h.i.+ng pole and once more headed out to go fis.h.i.+ng.
In previous years, he had wandered the Three Realms. Recently, however, he had chosen to merge into the ranks of commoners and live life alongside them. This actually resulted in Ning slowly gaining insights into a different aspect of the nature of water. In the mortal world, there was a saying that ‘water was life’. Water could lift up a boat, but it could also capsize it. Ning could vaguely sense a profound truth pertaining to the vast Heavenly Dao of Water…
“Eh?” Just as Ning picked up the fis.h.i.+ng pole, he came to a halt.
“I’ve finally finished refitting my divine ability.” Ning revealed a hint of delight.
“Let’s take a look.”
Whoosh.
Ning soared into the skies, instantly disappearing into the horizons. However, none of the villagers were able to see this. They only saw the white-robed youth pick up his fis.h.i.+ng pole and head off to go fis.h.i.+ng. They had no idea that only an incarnation had been left behind.
Ning appeared out of nowhere atop a tattered, damaged star located deep in the Void of the Three Realms. As he descended upon the star, some dust was kicked up and sent flying into the endless Void.
“I’ll train in the [Sta.r.s.eizing Hand] here.”
Ning nodded, then waved his hand. The dust on the ground was all swept up together, then solidified into a stone boulder than landed next to Ning.
Ning sat down in the lotus position atop the stone boulder. Waving his hand, he produced a gourd. This gourd was filled with Five Elements essence, the essence that he had acquired from breaking down Pure Yang treasures and Protocosmic spirit-treasures in the Prisonworld through his Five Elements Cauldron. Ning needed to use the Five Elements essence to train the [Sta.r.s.eizing Hand] to the Sixth Cycle!
The Sixth Cycle of the [Sta.r.s.eizing Hand] was incredibly hard to train in.
Daoist Threelives had been lucky eough to acquire a piece of golden starstone which held certain divine runes within it. After spending a long period of time a.n.a.lyzing it, he had used the golden starstone as well as many other supplementary materials to master the Sixth Cycle of the [Sta.r.s.eizing Hand]. The only other person who had ever acquired golden starstone aside from Daoist Threelives was Daoist Three Purities!
However, Daoist Three Purities had used the piece he acquired as a component of his Immortal Slaying Swords!
The Immortal Slaying Swords were based off of his insights into the Nine Chaos Seals. Countless precious materials had been consumed in their creation, and the four Chaos-level swords were like a single weapon that could be joined together to unleash utterly terrifying devastation!
“Golden starstone…this should have been the ‘Starheart’ item which World G.o.d Northrest’s records mentioned. It’s quite impressive that the denizens of the Three Realms managed to find two such items.” Ning shook his head. Without golden starstone, there was no way he could master the Sixth Cycle of the [Sta.r.s.eizing Hand].
And so…
Ning had begun to focus on researching and a.n.a.lyzing this technique. To Ning, upgrading his hands to become Chaos-level treasures wasn’t that important, because he already had real Chaos-level treasures. In fact, Violetjewel was far more powerful than Chaos treasures! The real reason why Ning cared about the [Sta.r.s.eizing Hand] was because when it unleashed its full power, he would be able to deliver blows of utterly tremendous power that vastly surpa.s.sed his ordinary level of strength!
Daoist Threelives wasn’t that talented in comprehending the Dao; he hadn’t even mastered a single Heavenly Dao. However, thanks to the [Sta.r.s.eizing Hand], he had been able to valiantly slay multiple alien True G.o.ds and Daofathers in the war that had ended the Primordial Era!
The [Sta.r.s.eizing Hand] was ranked by Three Purities as one of the top ten divine abilities of the Three Realms, on par with [Houyi’s Archery]. This was precisely because it could unleash utterly shocking levels of power! Unfortunately, Daoist Threelives himself wasn’t that innately powerful; if he was a half-step Elder G.o.d like Ji Ning, he definitely would’ve been able to reach the overlord level of power with just the [Sta.r.s.eizing Hand]! Ning was in bad need of a technique which would allow him to explosively increase his level of power. Although he had the [Nine Elements Annihilation], he would need a long period of time before being able to develop a powerful divine ability of his own from it.
World G.o.d Northrest naturally possessed formidable techniques that allowed for an explosive increase in power, but all of them had come from Vastheaven Palace and could not be taught to outsiders! Over the course of his many years of adventure, he had acquired a few similar techniques, but alas all of them were fairly mediocre. Although he had pa.s.sed them on to Ning, none of them could match the Sixth Cycle of the [Sta.r.s.eizing Hand].
“The Sixth Cycle of the [Sta.r.s.eizing Hand] was developed by Daoist Threelives after he meditated on a piece of golden starstone.”
“However…the way in which he caused his divine power to explode out was excessively violent! My palms would first have to first be refined to become Chaos treasures; otherwise, there’s no way they would be able to withstand such tremendous power,” Ning mused to himself.
The [Sta.r.s.eizing Hand] allowed for an incredibly forceful increase in power. This meant that the palms had to be made incredibly st.u.r.dy; only then would they be able to endure this level of power!
“It has been a hundred and seventy-two years since I became a True G.o.d. My Primaltwin has spent a total of more than seventeen thousand years in the Heavengazer Tower of Radiance,” Ning mused to himself. “Although I’ve mainly focused on comprehending the Dao and only occasionally spent time on my sword-arts and divine abilities, I was still able to finish retrofitting the [Sta.r.s.eizing Hand].”
Using the [Nine Elements Annihilation] as his foundation, he had carefully restructure and remade the [Sta.r.s.eizing Hand].
The mysteries of the [Sta.r.s.eizing Hand] actually came from some of the profound secrets contained within that piece of golden starstone. The construction of the [Sta.r.s.eizing Hand] technique itself wasn’t that complicated. With the [Nine Elements Annihilation] serving as a reference guide, Ning was able to completely deconstruct it, then slowly rebuild and postulate a new Sixth Cycle.
This process took more than seventeen thousand years…but now, the Primaltwin had finally mastered it!
This new technique allowed for the use of Five Elements essence to replace golden starstone and the other precious materials needed to refine the hands and make them into Chaos treasures. The fundamental underpinnings of the [Sta.r.s.eizing Hand] was to use Five Elements treasures to refine the hands, after all.
Ning sat there in the lotus together, a gourd placed next to him which was filled with Five Elements essence.
Whoooosh…
Under Ning’s guidance, the Five Elements essence soared towards his twin palms. The divine Sta.r.s.eizing Tattoos appeared on his hands, and they quickly began to grow more and more complicated. Finally, the tattoos reached a new peak of power, causing Ning to feel as though they were bursting with power. His hands began to emanate an aura of limitless might. However, Ning had long ago set up a barrier of heartforce around the area, preventing anyone from investigating it.
The Seamless Gate knew that Ji Ning was on this star, but they had no way of looking into what Ji Ning was doing here.
“Success.” Ning willed the absolutely dominating aura of power radiating from his hands to be suppressed.
“My hands are now comparable to Chaos treasures. They are now strong enough to withstand an explosion of divine power.” Ning willed the divine ability active as he struck out towards the Void with his palm.
Boom!
An enormous, semi-translucent palm smashed through the Void, causing s.p.a.ce itself to shudder and ripple. An enormous Voidwave that was a hundred million kilometers in size blasted forward, heading off to who-knows where.
“What tremendous power.” Ning nodded, revealing a look of delight. This sort of explosive power, when combined with Violetjewel, would become even more formidable.
“My divine ability has been completed!”
“Now, the only thing I am lacking…is in my insights into the Dao! I hope that before the Endwar begins, I’ll be able to master a Heavenly Dao.” Ning felt a hint of worry. He had left one of his incarnations in Allclans Palace, which was why he knew exactly what the situation was like in the Three Realms. Things were truly at the tipping point now; the Endwar could start at a moment’s notice.
Even the Endwar occurred only after the war for karmic luck ended, that meant it was only a few decades away.
Sometimes, the more you try to force something to happen, the harder it will be for you to succeed.
Ning understood this principle very well. He deeply desired to master a Heavenly Dao, and he had made tremendous progress during the past seventeen thousand years in understanding the Heavenly Dao of Water, but he knew that the more impatient he felt the more it would hinder him in actually mastering the Dao. Thus, Ning remained very calm. He acted the same as he always had, and he would also take rests to go meditate on his sword-arts and other techniques.
Although he hadn’t mastered a Heavenly Dao during the past period of time, he had upgraded the [Sta.r.s.eizing Hand] and had improved tremendously in sword-arts as well.
“I’ve already mastered ninety-six of the ninety-eight techniques on those stone sword-steles. Only two more techniques remain. I need just a little more time. Once I master them, I can begin to meditate on the [Nameless] sword-art.” Within the Heavengazer Tower, the black-robed Ning was staring at the two final stone steles in front of him.