At present, World God Blackmist was every bit the Starlord’s equal in the Dao of the Sword. However, the Starlord focused on offensive attacks, whereas World God Blackmist specialized in defense.

His sword-light was like a web of black mist that filled the entire region. Although God Emperor Blacklotus held an absolute advantage, he was still unable to breach it!

“Damn.”

“Do you really think…that you can stop me?!”

“I, Blacklotus, spent countless years roaming across many territories. You think you can stop me with just a defensive technique like this? You underestimate me too much!” God Emperor Blacklotus turned his gaze towards the fleeing cultivators of the Fogstone Dominion, then let out a cold smile. “I trained as both a Fiendgod Body Refiner and a Ki Refiner!”

Rumble…

The entire imperial capital below them began to shudder, then slowly began to swivel. The city itself was in the shape of a nine-petal black lotus that covered an area of ten million kilometers. As the enormous black lotus swiveled, the entire Blacklotus Chaosworld began to shake. Countless black lotuses began to appear, and they covered the heavens and the earth as they furiously shot out towards the cultivators of the Fogstone Dominion.

“What’s going on?!”

“This is even more terrifying than the secret arts he used earlier.”

“Why are there so many black lotuses?”

Ning and the others were all dazed as they stared downwards.

As the gigantic nine-petal black lotus below them swiveled, it emanated an aura of terrifying power that quickly spread over the entire chaosworld.

“My Daoist name was Blacklotus. My true skills do not lie in close combat, nor was my reputation established because of this Eternal weapon. It was all because of my Dao, the Dao of the Black Lotus!” God Emperor Blacklotus smiled as every inch of the entire chaosworld began to shake. “The imperial capital of the Blacklotus Empire is actually a magic treasure which I used when I roamed through the Endless Territories. I poured all of my blood, sweat, and effort into it, and it contains my Dao.”

“What?”

“It’s a Dao weapon.”

“His Dao?”

The fleeing cultivators all started to panic.

Usually, only Samsara Daolords were capable of forging Dao weapons! It was incredibly difficult for a World-level expert to forge a Dao weapon, but if a World-level expert successfully in doing so and infusing his own Dao into his creation he would have a weapon that was perfectly suited to him, allowing him to unleash tremendous power from it.

The deceased Immortal Owlsoar, for example, had murdered countless living beings to create that ritual tower of great sin. He had personally forged that ritual tower, and the mysteries of the Dao within it belonged to him and him alone, which was why he was quite powerful when using it. His insights into the Dao were quite average, but with that ritual tower in hand, he was actually on par with someone like World God Blackmist.

Some World-level experts who found themselves unable to make any more breakthroughs would generally focus most of their time, energy, and effort on forging a Dao weapon for themselves.

The same was true for God Emperor Blacklotus!

He had personally refined and forged this gigantic black lotus, infusing it with all of his insights into the Dao of the Black Lotus. When he used this new Dao weapon to execute his Forbidden Black Lotus technique, the power of the technique would increase dramatically.

However, after he acquired an Eternal weapon, he rarely saw the need to use his original Dao weapon. In fact, after arriving at the Badlands Territory, he had actually transformed it to make it a hundred thousand kilometers in size and treated it as a city.

Although there were some cultivators who had a strange feeling about the city, as though the entire thing was just one giant treasure, none of them knew that this city actually contained all of the insights into the Dao of God Emperor Blacklotus.

“Now this…this is the true Blacklotus World.”

“Long ago, I set down restrictive spells on every part of this chaosworld. The chaosworld itself can become one with my magic treasure, creating a Blacklotus World of enormous proportions.” God Emperor Blacklotus smiled, but his eyes were filled with madness. “This…is a world of lotuses…”

The entire chaosworld was shaking. The earth had cracked apart in many places, revealing enormous formation leylines. The seas had parted, revealing divine runes that glowed with black light. The mountains had collapsed and the cities had crumbled. The entire chaosworld was like an enormous painting that had been filled with spells…and now, all of the formations that God Emperor Blacklotus had secretly set down long ago suddenly exploded in power.

Countless black lotuses began to take shape.

The activation of this formation alone resulted in trillions of living beings on this chaosworld dying. God Emperor Blacklotus didn’t kill them on purpose, but he also wasn’t willing to weaken the power of his mightiest attack, the ‘Blacklotus World’, just to keep them safe.

The black lotuses filled every inch of the entire chaosworld, and they furiously flew through the air towards the fleeing Elder Gods and other cultivators.

The planet of Fogstone had been rocketing downwards towards the cultivators, but it was now completely surrounded by the endless black lotuses and unable to move any further.

“Be careful.”

“Seven formations, join forces together and do your best to hold!” The Starlord sent frantically.

“Hold!”

The seven thousand Elder Gods had transformed into an enormous protective circle, with Immortal Abyssus and Immortal Skyram having hidden themselves inside the circle. However, the valiant Starlord of Fogstone remained outside the circle, lashing out with his sword repeatedly as he attempted to chop apart as many black lotuses as he could.

However, there were simply too many lotuses.

“We won’t be able to escape. Once God Emperor Blacklotus returns, we’ll be doomed.”

“What should we do next?”

“How could the God Emperor be this powerful?”

All of them were frantic, Ning included. They weren’t capable of breaching past those black lotuses; there was no way they could make it back inside the planet of Fogstone.

“Second Uncle.” The Starlord was still wracked by grief and agony.

“If this continues, all of us are definitely going to die.” Ning was pondering his next steps. “Right now, we’re able to block the black lotuses because all seven formations are sharing the load together, but once God Emperor Blacklotus arrives and strikes out with his Eternal weapon, we won’t even be able to dodge. If his attack lands on me, my Minor Thousand Elder Gods Formation will collapse.”

The seven formations weren’t truly as one. Given how strong the God Emperor was, it would be easy for him to break through the defenses of the formations one by one.

“I have no other options.” Ning frowned. Violetjewel was his most important possession, and treasures were incredibly important for any cultivator. Ning truly didn’t wish to loan Violetjewel out to someone else! It was entirely possible that the Starlord would become greedy and not return it. As the leader of the entire Fogstone lineage, the lifeblood oath he had sworn was a very lax one.

As the leader of their organization, he had tremendous authority. He could find excuses to issue punishments to his subordinates, and so it was entirely possible for the Starlord to find a way to put Ning to death without running afoul of his lifeblood oath!

“I’ll have him swear another lifeblood oath of my choosing, then I’ll secretly lend him Violetjewel,” Ning mused. “That’s the only way to survive this.”

“But…there’s just one problem.”

“Spirit of the sword.” Ning immediately reached out to commune with the sword-spirit residing within Violetjewel.

“Master,” the sword-spirit said.

“If I was to allow the Starlord to bind Violetjewel for his own use, how long would it take?” Ning asked. Ning didn’t know much about Eternal weapons, but he had heard that binding them was actually quite difficult.

“According to what the old master told me all those years ago, Eternal weapons are quite hard to bind,” the sword-spirit said. “Normally speaking, anyone below the World level of power will not be able to bind Eternal weapons at all. The only reason why you were able to do so after a few centuries was because of the secret ‘Heartseep technique’ which Vastheaven Palace had access to.

“The Starlord is a World God. He can bind it. But…the quintessence core of an Eternal weapon contains some of the insights into the quintessence of a Dao from the original creator of that weapon. Thus, if you wish to fully master an Eternal weapon, you have to be approved of by the sword’s quintessence core itself,” the sword-spirit said.

Ning nodded.

Creating Chaos weapons and Dao weapons, by contrast, was much simpler. They didn’t have quintessence cores, just a few divine runes and tattoos.

“For a World-level…it’ll take anywhere from four or five days to forever,” the sword-spirit said.

“Forever? You mean, he might never be able to bind it?” Ning was stunned.

“Right. The quintessence cores have their own personalities and will try to seek out masters that suit them. If a core is completely opposed to the person trying to bind it, there’ll be no way to succeed in binding it. However, both you and the Starlord are quite talented in the Dao of the Sword. He should be able to bind it,” the sword-spirit said. “And it should be fairly fast for the Starlord. He should be able to succeed in just a few days.”

Ning began to panic.

A few days?

That was far too much time. Given how furiously World God Blackmist was fighting, he would probably run out of energy in the time needed to boil a kettle of tea. A few days?

……

“Let’s see how much longer you can hang on for.” God Emperor Blacklotus was quite relaxed as he used the giant crystal scimitar in his hands to chop towards World God Blackmist again and again.

World God Blackmist’s entire body had turned a stony gray color and emanated a dazzling white light. Clearly, he had gone all out.

“What should I do? What should I do?!” World God Blackmist was beginning to panic.

He had managed to stop God Emperor Blacklotus, yes. But God Emperor Blacklotus was also an incredibly talented Ki Refiner. This entire chaosworld had become completely filled with black lotuses, all of which were surrounding and suppressing the cultivators of the Fogstone Dominion, making it so that there was no way they could escape.

……

“Eh?”

A crack suddenly appeared in the membrane protecting the chaosworld, and a barefoot, sloppy-looking old man dressed in tattered robes walked out from the crack, staring downwards with curiosity.

“What’s with all these black lotuses? Oho! An Eternal weapon? Isn’t that interesting.” The raggedy old man’s forehead creased as he smiled.