Desolate Era

by RWX

  Given this sort of level of education, it was only natural for everyone here to find it incredibly hard to analyze formations.

  It can be said that although perhaps the skilled scientists of Earth wouldn’t necessarily all become formation experts, they would at least be very promising prospects in this regard.

  ––––––––—

  The education Ning had received in his past life was like ‘software’. In this life, Ning had an extremely powerful soul, which was like ‘hardware’!

  Naturally, he was very well suited for training in formations!

  “So that’s how it is.” Ning revealed a smile while reading. “That Yin Yang Twin Energy Formation and other formations like it truly are crude. They completely rely on activating the power of the world. There’s no skill at all in them.”

  The more he read, the more Ning appreciated it.

  But slowly, the smile on Ning’s face disappeared, and it was replaced by a frowning concentration, mixed with occasional stupefaction.

  “Formation techniques really can’t be underestimated.” Ning nodded. “The way of formations is as vast and boundless as the seas. I’m only able to understand the most basic principles, but as soon as I see some slightly more abstruse, complex parts, I am completely lost. It makes sense. Although in this boundless world, most people are a bit stupid, there are still many geniuses as well. Upon focusing on something for hundreds or thousands of years, they will of course vastly exceed those of us on Earth.”

  “Young master, the sun is up. We should head out.” Autumn Leaf suddenly called.

  “Ah?” Ning suddenly discovered that it was already day.

  ––––––––––

  Formation techniques were as boundless as the seas. Upon understanding the first scroll of the [Nine Scrolls on Formations], one could be considered a formations expert. Unfortunately, Ning wasn’t able to completely understand even that first scroll. This caused him to become more humble and not feel so self-delighted.

  “Through analyzing formations, I will have more options and more tactics available to me.”

  “Also, when I use the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation], I can make it more nimble and won’t have to use it in such a static manner.” Although Ning was just a basic student of this field, he now had a basic understanding of the way of formations, with the essence of it being ‘guidance’! For example, at first, when he stupidly just simultaneously controlled hundreds of flying swords, he had to spend effort controlling every one minutely, which was simply too mentally exhausting.

  Fortunately, his soul was very powerful, and so he was easily able to execute the fourth level of the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation].

  But if he were an expert on formations, he would be able to have some of the critical swords ‘guide’ the other swords, which would greatly reduce the amount of load on his soul, and allow him to easily execute more powerful levels of the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation].

  –––––––––

  “Young master, the Blacktooth Tribe is up ahead.” Autumn Leaf called out.

  Only now did Ning halt his pondering on formations. Raising his head, he saw that in the distance, the sentries of the Blacktooth Tribe had noticed them.

  “It is young master Ji.”

  “Quick, hurry and report this to the leader.”

  The tribesmen of the Blacktooth Tribe had seen Ji Ning last time. This time, the three of them were once again travelling together, mounted on the three black beasts. They were quickly recognized.

  As Ning and the other two arrived at the gates to the tribe, Blacktooth was there to personally welcome them.

  “My respects to you, young master.” Blacktooth had a large group of tribesmen behind him, all of them kneeling in unison.

  “Mm.” Ning nodded. “Take me to Spring Grass’ place.”

  “Alright.” Blacktooth said hurriedly. The only person in the Blacktooth Tribe who had any sort of a connection to Ji Ning was Spring Grass.

  Ning suddenly looked sideways, glancing a skinny toddler standing behind Blacktooth whose face was rather sickly, yet seemed similar to Spring Grass. Ning remembered seeing this toddler last time, and thus he spoke out. “What is your name?”

  The toddler was stunned.

  Blacktooth, following Ning’s gaze, turned to look at his son. He hurriedly said, “Quick, response to the young master’s words.”

  Only now did the toddler stutter out, “My name is Bluestone!”

  “Bluestone, Bluestone…” Ning gently murmured to himself.

  * * *

  Book 4, Chapter 11 - Ji Ning is Here!

  The toddler nervously looked at the youth riding on the black beast. He only felt that this youth was a very powerful figure. The entire tribe seemed to be afraid of him.

  “Bluestone.” The youth dismounted from the black beast, then walked over and held his hand.

  “Come with me. Let’s go to your big sister’s tomb and kowtow to your sister.” Ji Ning took Bluestone’s tiny hand, and Bluestone, stupefied, just let himself be led away, not daring to resist. By his side, Blacktooth and the other tribesmen naturally didn’t dare to argue.

  And so, just like that, they made their way through the tribe before arriving at a large graveyard behind the tribe.

  Once again, they came before that tomb.

  “Spring Grass. I came.” Ji Ning had prepared some sacrificial items which he had prepared when passing through some of the nearby tribes along the way. He placed all of them in front of the tomb carefully, while at the same time saying gently, “That Riverside He of the Riverside tribe is dead now. Serpentwing of Serpentwing Lake is dead as well. Your enemies are all dead.”

  As soon as these words were uttered, Blacktooth and the others next to him were startled. What? The Diremonster, Serpentwing, was dead as well?

  “Bluestone should be your only remaining little brother.” Ning reached his hand out, pulling the dumbstruck Bluestone forward. “I swear before your tomb that I will definitely provide good tutelage to Bluestone”

  Bluestone was somewhat stunned, but his father, Blacktooth, was incomparably delighted. He hurriedly said, “Thank you, young master.” He himself was just the leader of a small tribe. What sort of a future would he be able to offer his son? But if someone as exalted as the young master of the Ji clan were to help out, then his son’s future would be very different.”

  “As long as you don’t oppose it.” Ning glanced at Blacktooth. “In the future, I will be spending quite a long period of time by Serpentwing Lake. If you want to see your son, come to Serpentwing Lake and find me there.”

  “Yes.” Blacktooth said respectfully.

  “Bluestone, kowtow to your big sister.” Ning looked towards Bluestone by his side.

  “Okay.” The toddler hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed three times.

  Ning waved towards the side. “All of you can leave now.”

  “Yes, young master.” Autumn Leaf included, everyone withdrew. Even Bluestone was led away by Blacktooth. In this wild, desolate graveyard, the only one remaining was Ji Ning.

  “Just the two of us now.” Ning withdrew a bamboo reed, beginning to drink wine. “Today, your young master will spend some time chatting with you. In the future, I’m afraid I won’t be able to come visit you too often.”

  ––––––––

  Ning drank fruit wine in front of the tomb while chatting with ‘Spring Grass’. In the blink of an eye, an hour passed.

  “Huh?” Ning suddenly frowned. As a Fiendgod-like entity, his senses were extremely acute. He easily detected minute trembles in the ground. “Thousands of warriors! And the distance should only be twenty kilometers. Thousands of warriors, gathering twenty kilometers away? Can it be that a tribe is about to attack the Blacktooth Tribe?”

  With regards to the struggles between the various tribes, the Ji clan usually pretended not to notice them.

  “Blacktooth was originally a travelling merch
ant, and thus should be smooth and slick in establishing relationships.” Ning was puzzled. “Ever since founding this Blacktooth Tribe, no other tribes have ever attacked. Why has a tribe come to attack this time? And with thousands of warriors at that?”

  “Let’s take a look.” Ning immediately rose.

  Regardless of whether it was for Spring Grass or for Bluestone, he couldn’t just stand and watch with arms folded.

  Although the Ji clan usually pretended to not notice these intertribal struggles, once they did interfere, the tribes they controlled naturally didn’t dare to disobey.

  –––––––-

  Ning walked within the tribe, heading straight for the gates.

  “Young master.” Mowu and Autumn Leaf hurriedly followed him.

  “Young master.” Blacktooth led his tribesmen to follow him as well. Ning just barked, “Twenty kilometers outside of here, thousands of warriors are gathering and advancing towards us. Right. There should be two to three thousand of them. Your Blacktooth Tribe needs to immediately prepare.”

  Blacktooth was shocked. “Two or three thousand warriors? Impossible. Only an enormous tribe would be able to mobilize two to three thousand warriors. A tribe of that size wouldn’t bother with our Blacktooth Tribe. Our entire population, including women, children, and the elderly only number one thousand or so. We aren’t worth such a large military mobilization!”

  “If I say it is so, then it is so!” Ning glanced at him sideways, saying nothing more.

  “Right.” Blacktooth naturally didn’t dare to say anything else, and he hurriedly began to shout. “Quick quick quick, enemies are coming to attack! Quickly, gather around!”

  “Rumble…” A low beast horn sound quickly rang out, filling the entire tribe. The muscular warriors of the tribe, the elderly and the womenfolk, all grabbed their sabres, swords, spears, and bucklers, while all of the children hid themselves.

  –––––––—

  Ning was staring into the distance at the gates, while all of the tribesmen of the Blacktooth Tribe were holding their weapons with bated breath in preparation. All of them were staring towards the distant mountain forests.

  Slowly…

  They began to clearly sense footsteps coming. After all, how could two or three thousand warriors on the march make no sound at all? This caused Blacktooth and the others to be all the more amazed. It must be understood that Ning had already informed them long ago of the rough number of people coming.

  “So many.”

  “So many warriors.”

  The tribesmen of the Blacktooth tribe were all stunned. From afar, a densely packed swarm of human figures were emerging from the forests, with the ones in front armored. It was like a flood of metal coming their way at high speed, causing the Blacktooth Tribe’s members to feel their hearts turn cold.

  “Halt!” The order came, and the three thousand warriors immediately formed ranks roughly half a kilometer in front of the Blacktooth Tribe’s gates.

  “Blacktooth Tribe, listen up!” In front of the enemy troops, a powerfully built bald man was bellowing. “We are from the Firewing Tribe. Quickly open your gates and surrender to us, and you have a chance at life. If you resist, those who resist shall all be killed, while the rest of the tribesmen shall be sold as slaves.”

  The voice echoed in the air.

  The Blacktooth Tribe was in a state of panic.

  “What to do?”

  “So many warriors. There’s thousands of them.”

  “We’re finished.”

  “Isn’t young master Ji here?” The Blacktooth Tribe had no fighting spirit at all now. First of all, their tribe was newly founded to begin with, as many of the tribesmen were gathered from those who had fled from other tribes. They didn’t have too strong a sense of loyalty to the Blacktooth Tribe yet. And secondly, the Blacktooth Tribe had less than five hundred tribal warriors, but in front of them there were three thousand!

  Once battle began, they would quickly be defeated!

  “Everyone in the Firewing Tribe!” Blacktooth hurriedly went forward and said loudly, “I don’t know why you have come to my Blacktooth Tribe. If you have any demands, our Blacktooth Tribe will naturally work hard to meet them.”

  “Enough chitchat!” The bald man in front of the enemy lines bellowed back. “Surrender or battle!”

  Ning frowned, glancing at Mowu by his side. Mowu nodded, then immediately walked forward while shouting, “Our young master Ji Ning is here. Leaders of the Firewing Tribe, why haven’t you come to pay your respects yet!”

  –––––––––––

  “Why haven’t you come to pay your respects yet!” “Why haven’t you come to pay your respects yet!” “Why haven’t you come to pay your respects yet!” The voice echoed within the forests, causing a commotion amidst the Firewing Tribe as well.

  In the center of the enemy formation, there was a group of men who were riding mounts.

  “Young master Ji Ning?”

  “The Ji Ning who was at the Riverside Tribe?”

  “Aside from that Ji Ning, who would dare order the leaders to go pay their respects to him?” The high-level figures of the Firewing Tribe were all immediately stunned. The Firewing Tribe was also a large tribe with more than twenty thousand tribesmen, but because their tribe didn’t have any Xiantian lifeforms, thus they had already reached their limits and didn’t dare to expand any further. Compared to the Riverside Tribe, the Firewing Tribe was on a lower level.

  The Riverside Tribe wasn’t too far away from them. With over a month having passed, these higher level members of the Firewing Tribe naturally all knew of what had happened, and had learned of Ji Ning’s name.

  “Chief.”

  “Chief.” All of them looked at black-bearded man whom was escorted in front of them.

  By the side of the black-bearded man, a youth whose hair fell down his shoulders said in a low voice, “Nothing more than a descendant of the Ji clan. There’s no need to pay any attention to a descendant of the Ji clan in this sort of tribal war. Let’s do it.”

  “Attack!” The black-bearded man immediately shouted loudly.

  “What?”

  “What? Attack?”

  “Chief!”

  The high level figures of the tribe who were around the black-bearded man were all stupefied. They didn’t expect that their chief, who was both valorous and wise, would act so stupidly. Given the chief’s status, he should clearly be aware of what the name ‘Ji Ning’ represented. If it was an ordinary member of the Ji clan, that was one thing, but this was Ji Ning, who had forced even the Riverside Tribe to lower their heads before him!

  “Kill!” Those three thousand warriors were all ordinary tribesmen. How could they know what this name ‘Ji Ning’ represented? Hearing their chief’s orders, they immediately bellowed and charged forward.

  “Kill!”

  “Charge!”

  Like an steel flood, the armored warriors in front charged forward, while the beast-fur clad men were behind them. The earth shook, and it seemed as though even the skies grew dark. The tribesmen of the Blacktooth Tribe were all stupefied, and some even began to cry out, “Surrender, we surrender!” “We’re finished.” “Quick, run.”

  ––––––––––—

  Ji Ning, standing at the gates, watched as the dark, dense mass of people charged forward. Immediately, he was suspicious. “My name should be known to all of the slightly larger tribes, especially after I acted against the Riverside Tribe. It should have spread throughout the area under the control of the Ji clan. Why is the black-bearded leader still ordering an attack?”

  Ning was puzzled.

  The Blacktooth Tribe was a small tribe. It didn’t have much wealth. Mobilizing three thousand warriors to attack it was quite bizarre, in and of itself. After hearing his, the enemy still decided to attack? That was all the odder.

  However, just based on the fact that this Firewing Tribe dared to ignore his name, and just for t
he sake of the prestige of the Ji clan alone, he naturally had to act now.

  “Hmph.”

  In front of the gates of the Blacktooth Tribe, Ning suddenly leapt forward like a giant Roc in flight, instantly flashing through the air. At the same time he leapt up, enormous waves suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the area around him, and the incomparably turgid waves instantly formed like the waters of a flood. Huahuahua…the boundless waves rolled forth, smashing directly towards those three thousand tribal warriors.

  “Waves.”

  “Where did all this water suddenly come from?”

  “Xiantian lifeform, a Xiantian lifeform.” The three thousand warriors were instantly terrified. They previously had high morale, but upon those rolling waves crashing upon them, all of them began to collapse and everything fell to chaos. These warriors all understood that only Xiantian lifeforms and Diremonsters were able to accomplish the ability to control fire, water, poisonous gases, and the like. If a Xiantian lifeform wished to do so, slaughtering three thousand men was simplicity itself.

  Indeed, Ning didn’t actually wanted to slaughter them. He only controlled the waves to smash down upon them. If he used fire or ice to freeze or burn them to death, the scene would have been completely different.

  “Hua!” With a single bound, Ning travelled over a kilometer, landing directly in front of that black-bearded figure, grabbing him by the neck.

  * * *

  Book 4, Chapter 12 - Pursuit

  Ji Ning instantly landed a kilometer away and grabbed the black-bearded leader, instantly terrifying the high level members of the Firewing Tribe. All of them hurriedly knelt down on wobbling knees and called out repeatedly, “Young master Ji Ning, spare us!” “Young master Ji Ning, don’t be angry!” “Young master Ji Ning, don’t be angry!”