Purgatory. Many exiled major powers were here, many of whom were Hegemons or Emperors. Although there were many Daolords who would be exiled here, the vast majority of them would fail the Daomerge and die! They might be Sithe progeny, but they were born within this Chaosverse and thus incapable training in true Sithe techniques. The Sithe, in turn, were unable to create a set of perfect training techniques that was suited to this Chaosverse. They were diametrically incompatible with it, after all. They would constantly be suppressed and weakened by the local prime essences, making it hard for them to comprehend the Dao here.
All the Sithe could do was bestow some local cultivator techniques to their Sithe progeny while giving them some advice and guidance.
The skies were dark and gloomy, with some fiery red light off in the horizons. A total of three figures were standing within a wilderness area.
âHaha, our chance has come!â The leader of the three was a black-robed man who had a large amount of grass covering his head, and his âbeardâ was formed from grass as well. His eyes were dark, green, and grim. âThe Exalt has bestowed powerful treasures upon us. If we can kill that white-robed Doalord, weâll skyrocket in status and even be able to control one of the Elder Halls.â
âBig brother... it is clear from the many gifts the Exalt has offered that he truly wishes to kill that white-robed Daolord. But why, then, would he rather give us so many treasures and so many benefits rather than do it himself? None of those fools in the Sacred Realm wish to take part either! Thereâs only one possible answer to this â the white-robed Daolord is so terrifyingly strong that even Exalts fear him and are unable to beat him.â An ugly old lady said in a hoarse voice, âWe need to treat this white-robed Daolord as we would an Exalt, or perhaps someone even more terrifying than an Exalt.â
âSecond sister, you speak sense,â the chubby man by her side said immediately.
âOf course I know how terrifying he has to be... but in the end, heâs still failed the Daomerge. We have a chance! Come, let us first go find that white-robed Daolord,â the black-robed man said with a growl. âIâve had enough of life in Purgatory anyhow. Iâd rather die fighting for this opportunity.â
âAgreed.â Both his companions turned solemn as well. Life in Purgatory truly was a living hell. There was little life here, and it was a dry, desolate place. The environment was extremely inhospitable, forcing even Hegemons to tread carefully. Worse, even if you stayed in one place and didnât move, some danger would usually descend out of nowhere. Every day spent here was a day spent in fear. This was a miserable life indeed.
......
Ji Ning continued to fly through the realm-seam, inspecting everything in his path as he flew past the eight realms. Six mortal realms, the Sacred Realm, and Purgatory â by now, Ning had located all of them. However, all seven of the other realms were completely locked; only the gates to Purgatory remained open to him. There was no way to enter the others at all!
âSo they left just one door open to me?â Ning chuckled after a moment. âIt seems the controllers of this hidden dimension have set up a few traps for me. Fine, fine. Iâll go play with you.â
Swoosh. Ning flew over to the Purgatory Realmgate, then gave it a glance. Ning was rather surprised: âNo living beings are around it?â There was no way his senses could be off; clearly, there really were no living beings next to the Realmgate at all. What he didnât realize was that everyone who had been driven into Purgatory was an exile; they were all extremely crafty and selfish. No one wished to be the first to attack, and so they all hid far away, using various scrying methods to watch the action at the Realmgate.
Completely unmolested, Ning slipped through the Realmgate and arrived at the vast world of Purgatory behind it.
âWhat an impressive âPurgatoryâ this world truly is!â The white-robed Ning descended upon the dark, foul-looking earth. The world around him was covered in darkness, with some flames flickering far off in the distance that were blindingly bright. Around him were many howling tornados that quickly appeared and then dissipated, while space and time were rippling behind him.
âIt really is quite chaotic here. This âPurgatoryâ is filled with countless natural calamities. Even Hegemons would have to tread carefully here, while Daolords are constantly at risk of imminent death.â Ning chuckled. âBut itâs better than the realm-seam, at least.â The realm-seam was even more chaotic, to the point where there was nothing stable there at all. At least this place had an environment.
Flames illuminating the distant horizons... this did make for an eerily beautiful sight. The destructive tornados that constantly swept through this place did as well. As for the evil miasmatic aura of this place that give birth to vilefiends? It was nothing but a bit of amusement to Ning.
âNow this place is rather intriguing. Iâm almost finished merging the Dao of Wind into my Eternal Omega Sword Dao. I might as well train here for a time.â Although Ning was surrounded by danger, he remained completely relaxed. He immediately sat down in the lotus position.
The white-robed Ning sat down there on the foul ground, his Sword Dao Domain covering the entire area around him, preventing the various types of natural dangers from moving close to him. The place where Ning sat had become sacred grounds, untouched by the filth of Purgatory.
Whoosh. The wind blew past Ning jubilantly, occasionally revealing a few sparks of sword-light which gathered together, eventually transforming back into wind once more.
Ning had reached the Hegemonic level in the Dao of Wind long ago. Now, what he needed to do was to infuse it into his Sword Dao and create his Wind Sword Dao!
Time passed, one day after another.
âWhatâs going on?â
âWhy has that Daolord sat down without even moving an inch?â The exiles who were scrying this place from afar were all puzzled.
âI have to say, that Daolord is pretty powerful. He didnât have to do anything; his domain alone was able to block out all the local dangers. The chaotic environment of Purgatory is absolutely nothing to him.â
âHeâs probably trying to buy time.â
âIf he wants to drag this out, Iâm more than happy to oblige. Iâve already been trapped here for over eight million chaos cycles. Letâs see who can last longer! I have plenty of patience.â
âYes, letâs wait.â The exiled powers were all waiting for the right moment to attack.
The years continued to flow on. In the blink of an eye, over half a million years had gone by. All of the exiled powers continued to wait patiently for a good opportunity. Although they all had powerful Sithe weapons and were confident in their abilities, life in Purgatory had long ago ensured that they had become slippery and crafty.
The local environment here was bizarre but beautiful in a twisted way, and the flames flickering off in the distance caused Ningâs face to flicker with reflected light. Suddenly, Ningâs lips curved upwards slightly, and he slowly opened his eyes. A smiling look was in his gaze.
Ning took a sudden, deep breath, causing the wind streams around him to begin to howl.
âGRAAAAAH!â Suddenly, Ning seemed to let out an enormous roar.
In truth, this was nothing more than a single deep breath, but the breath was so ferocious that it generated a terrifying howling sound which shook the earth. It sounded like the bellowing of a thousand terrifying beasts, and it unleashed countless twisting tornados that were formed from countless streaks of sword-light. The howling wind was like the waves of the ocean, crashing out every which way.
The howling wind shattered everything in its path like a giant shockwave, crushing mountains to dust and shattering even the distant flames. The wind wave spread out with terrifying speed, moving so fast that even Sith Exalts would be caught offguard by it.
This was Ningâs Wind Sword Dao! The terrifying gust of wind caused even spacetime to shudder.
âFlee!â
âRun away!â
Ningâs breath was actually aimed at the five Emperors who were located closest to him. They were hundreds of billions of kilometers away from him, but it wasnât enough. The Dao of Wind was a fast Dao to begin with, and the Wind Sword Dao in the form of a howling tempest moved with indescribable speed. Hundreds of billions of kilometers was nothing to it! Although those five Emperors frantically sought to flee, spacetime was suppressed here. There was no way to warp through spacetime, and so they could do nothing save just watch as the terrifying wind howled through the heavens and moved towards them with incomprehensible speed. There was nowhere for them to hide at all.
âAhhhh!â
âAttack!ân/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
âImpossible.â
âGo all-out against him!â The five Emperors felt a sense of despair. Some attempted to use Sithe weapons to fight back, but wind by its very nature is a formless thing. The attacks of the Sithe weapons flew straight through the wind, completely incapable of affecting the wind at all.
The wind swept through the lands like a giant broom, wiping out everything in its path. Those five Emperors were instantly ground to dust, with just a few of their top treasures and Sithe weapons managing to survive.
An area of over three trillion kilometers to Ningâs left had been completely swept clean in a fan-shaped manner. The entire world seemed to have become incredibly, perfectly flat.
The other exiles who were watching this from afar were all scared out of their minds. âHe did that with just a shout? H-how powerful is he?!â The exiles were starting to tremble with fear.