Desolate Era

by RWX

Ning’s face changed. It really was a case of a certain type of master producing a certain type of disciple! In the past, Ning had calculated that this Zifu Disciple must be an expert poison user, and this black-clothed fellow in front of him was also skilled in poisons.

  The white corrosive fog…Ning felt numbness begin to spread and erode his entire body.

  “Gotta hold!” Ning circulated the Shining Scarlet divine power in his body, and the powerful Fiendgod life energy also began to wipe away the poison.

  “Die!” While forcibly suppressing this corpse essence in his body, the wing-type magic treasure on his back suddenly howled as Ning pounced towards the black-clothed man on the floor. Regardless of whether or not he was able to disperse this corpse essence in his body, he had to first kill the man in front of him. Otherwise, if he were to be dead from poison while the other was still alive, how hateful a thought would that be!

  “Hahaha, the more you move, the faster you die.” The black-clothed man wielded the six shuttle longstaff, his footsteps thundering on the ground and causing the earth to shake. Clearly, he was using all of his strength! “Go die!” He raised the six shuttle longstaff high, smashing it down towards Ning like a giant mountain.

  Shua! Shua! Relying on the Windwing Evasion, Ning moved like a ghost, moving in an arc to attack the black-clothed man from the side.

  “Kill! Kill! Kill!” Ning wildly pounced forward, while the longstaff in the black-clothed man changed directly slightly to welcome Ning. The two had already exchanged blows multiple times and knew very well how powerful the enemy was. The black-clothed man was physically strong, while Ning’s swordplay was marvelous, and he was an expert in twin swords.

  Dong!

  A nearby piece of head-sized rock suddenly flew up, moving at supersonic speed as it smashed towards the black-clothed man’s head. The distance was too close, and the stone came flying from behind…the black-clothed man didn’t have eyes in his back. By the time he vaguely sensed the ripples in the air caused by the stone, it was too late!

  “Bang!” The stone, wrapped up by Ning’s divine will, was moving at an incredible speed. It was as though a late-stage Xiantian Fiendgod Body Refiner expert had viciously thrown it at full force against his head.

  The stone shattered into tiny pieces.

  Blood flowed from the black-clothed man’s head, while at the same time, he stumbled.

  “Clang!” “Chi!”

  Two rays of sword light, one which blocked the six-shuttle longstaff, while the other sword light slashed straight through the black-clothed man’s face, stabbing out from the back of his skull, carrying some brain matter and blood!

  Bang!

  The power of the six-shuttle longstaff stick forced Ning to retreat backwards by multiple steps, and naturally the sword was drawn out as well. There was a hole directly in the forehead of the black-clothed man, but there was no way it could possibly be healed. Forget about him; if Ning’s skull had been pierced through, even he would have died without question.

  “You…you….” Fiendgod Body Refiners possessed astonishing life force, allowing the black-clothed man to have a final few moments of life. He stared at Ning, struggling to open his mouth. “You…”

  And then he fell down, causing the ground to tremble.

  “Huff…huff…huff…” Ning stood there, his breathing rather ragged. He stared at the corpse in front of him, knowing how unwilling this person had been to accept death like this, how mystified this person had been in death. Most likely, this black-clothed ‘senior apprentice’, in the moment of his death, was still trying to puzzle out why his head had suddenly suffered an attack. Who had attacked him from behind?

  Divine will. This was Ning’s killing technique.

  Once it was used, if he was unable to kill his enemies with it, his enemies would immediately use Escape Seals and instantly run away. Most likely, by then, even the Zifu Disciple would know that Ning possessed a ‘divine will’ ability. Thus, it was not to be used lightly, and when used, it had to kill the enemy.

  Previously, Ning had been fighting with him head on, but because of the poison, Ning could no longer afford to waste time. Thus, he used his divine will to control the stone.

  The two had been on par in terms of general power. In a life and death battle, one couldn’t be the slightest bit careless. When that stone had carried boundless force in smashing down on the black-clothed man’s head, his staff techniques had become completely chaotic. Naturally, he was even less able to fend off Ning’s divine, ghost-like swordplay, with the result being a sword stabbing straight through his fatal point between his forehead.

  “Hahaha…” Ning began to laugh, raising his head and shouting heroically, “Come! Each one of you who comes shall die! However many comes, however many I shall kill! Hahaha…”

  At this moment, Ning was incomparably crazed.

  He was in utterly dire straits, and his clansmen had been trapped here. His chance of survival was very slim. Ning naturally became all the more frenzied. Killing an expert of the enemy naturally made him feel incomparably satisfied.

  There were deep gouges everywhere on the ground, with shattered rocks littering everywhere. After all, prior to this, Ning’s swordplay had activated the power of the world itself, while the enemy was also incomparably strong. Naturally, the area around them had been reduced to rubble.

  “Poison?” Ning could already sense that the corpse essence in his body was being slowly ground away by the natural life force in his body that was being created by the Crimsonbright divine power. “It seems it still can’t do anything against my Fiendgod body.”

  Ning was different from that black-clothed ‘senior apprentice’.

  The black-clothed man couldn’t withstand the poison…but Ning trained in the number one Fiendgod Body Refining technique, while the Crimsonbright divine power was born from a fusion of the power of the sun and the power of the moon, while his divine body had been formed and birthed by Solar Truefire and Lunar Truewater. In terms of quality, his body was untold times more powerful than other Fiendgod Body Refiner bodies.

  “That black-clothed man’s power was clearly much greater than the previous man’s. Most likely, he has a fairly high status in this place. Perhaps he has some secrets on this formation on him.” Ning hurriedly began to search the black-clothed man’s corpse, but unfortunately…

  The Zifu Disciple himself actually wasn’t an expert in formations. All he had done was set up formation flags in a very formulaic way. Ning thus naturally wasn’t able to find any information regarding this formation on the corpse.

  “However, he has quite a few Dao-seals and bottles and elixirs on him.” Ning collected them all, but didn’t have any time to investigate these battles. First of all, he didn’t dare to pull out the stoppers for fear of them being poisoned, and second of all, he himself didn’t know anything about poisons. It was best for him to spend his time focusing on the formation and increasing his abilities in formations. Breaking this formation as soon as possible was what mattered.

  ––––––––––

  Within the mountain.

  The six beautifully dressed men and women were currently, as per the senior apprentice’s orders, torturing these Xiantian lifeforms.

  “Haha, with our senior apprentice personally handling this, your young master Ji Ning’s death is assured.”

  “In the formation, I heard senior apprentice say that young master Ji Ning is still a youth? Little Seven, you are nearly thirty years old this year. Can it be that this young master Ji Ning is even younger than you?” The six men and women chatted amongst themselves.

  One of the nearby men bound to the pillar, a bald man whose body was covered with scars, howled at them, “Young master Ji Ning of the Ji clan is perhaps just eleven or twelve years old this year. Compared to him, you are like worms on the ground while he is like a divine dragon in the skies!”

  “Shut your mouth.” The nearby servants immediately used heated irons to to
rture and burn him.

  “Six fools! You want to compare yourselves to young master Ji Ning!”

  “I can’t even begin to express how inferior you are.”

  “Hahaha, almost thirty years old, but he wants to compare himself to young master Ji Ning? I’m laughing so hard my stomach hurts!”

  Those nearly hundred Xiantian lifeforms of the Swallow Mountain area all began to shout out and mock them.

  “Beat them, beat them!” The six men and women shouted angrily.

  Suddenly…

  “Come! Each one of you who comes shall die! However many comes, however many I shall kill! Hahaha…” That wild, frenzied voice was filled with both hysteria and utter, incomparable madness.

  “What?!” The faces of those six changed.

  They were certain that this wasn’t the voice of the senior apprentice. Then…it could be only the voice of that trapped young master Ji Ning.

  “Can it be that our senior apprentice-brother died?” They were all in a state of panic. Without question, the senior apprentice was by far the most powerful of their group. Even if he didn’t use the many insidious options available to him, he was still incomparably strong.

  “Senior apprentice-brother!”

  “Senior apprentice-brother!”

  The six men and women shouted outwards, but their senior apprentice-brother didn’t respond.

  “If you want to find your senior apprentice-brother, then go to the Netherworld Kingdom!” That wild, impudent voice rang out from afar.

  “Senior apprentice-brother died.” The six men and women looked at each other, their eyes filled with awe.

  “Killed by a youth of just eleven or twelve years of age.”

  “Only eleven or twelve, yet he was able to kill our senior apprentice-brother? Is…is there such a monstrous talent in the world? Even in our school, there has never been such a monster. Most likely, only those legendary top-tier tribes under the protection of Immortals will there be monsters like this.” The six were completely overawed. After all, they quite broad experience.

  Their own school was a major school.

  But they had never seen anyone eleven or twelve years old who was so possible.

  “Kakaka…” The iron board in the center of the mountain began to slowly swing open, revealing that dark, gloomy tunnel. The tunnel had a hint of green light emanating from within it, and its cold, sinister aura caused the six men and women to shiver.

  “My boy Gan!” That shrill voice was quavering. “That ‘Ji Ning’ killed my boy Gan. He will die, definitely die!!!”

  The six men and women felt their hearts shake. As for those servants, all of them were shuddering. None of them could predict what this person would do when enraged.

  “That ‘Ji Ning’ is only eleven or twelve years old? What a monster. If it weren’t for the fact that he is an enemy, I would recommend him for entry into our school. But he killed my boy Gan! He must die!” The shrill voice was filled with hate. “Little Seven, come in.”

  “Come in?” The handsome youth was startled.

  He had never before entered the cavern in the mountain. That was a forbidden area.

  “Quick, enter.” The shrill voice carried anger within it.

  “Yes.” The handsome youth didn’t dare to hesitate any longer. Clearing his throat, he hurriedly walked towards the black tunnel, then leapt into the cavern.

  * * *

  Book 4, Chapter 19 - Hearteater

  The dark tunnel was deep and also almost as straight as a pen. It was nearly three hundred meters deep, and the handsome youth, when jumping down, released his Xiantian Ki, allowing himself to descend as lightly as a goose feather, while at the same time, every so often, he would grab onto the sides of the dark tunnel to slow his descent. After a while, he finally stepped on the ground.

  “This is so deep. Uh, where is Master’s secret room?” The handsome youth hurriedly looked everywhere while carefully advancing through the winding tunnels. Up ahead, there was a dazzling green light. Soon, he reached an open stone door, behind which was an area filled with green life, as well as ripples which made the heart tremble.

  “Master.” The handsome youth called out from outside the stone door.

  “Enter.” The shrill voice screeched.

  “Yes.” The handsome youth suppressed his terror and walked in. This was a sealed stone room that was ten meters in diameter. In the center of the stone room, there was an enormous boulder, upon which was a man who wore loose black robes, had a skinny, pale face, and long, flowing black hair. The man’s eyes emitted an otherworldly green light, and his entire body seemed to be made out of solidified evil.

  In front of this person was an enormous cauldron, and above the cauldron, there was a burning green flame that emitted a freezing aura. Beneath the green flame, there lay hovering an unadorned, blood-red cloth banner, which had a number of either hidden or visible ferocious faces on it. The faces were either screaming soundlessly or bellowing as they tried to swallow each other and battled each other.

  The entire cloth banner was surrounded by a layer of black light that was visible to the naked eye.

  “Sin!” The handsome youth’s heart was trembling. “A grave sin.”

  Those who did good accumulated karmic merit. Those who did evil accumulated sins.

  Those who had committed grave sins would naturally emanate a heart-shaking evil aura. But the aura of sin around the cloth banner was actually so strong, it was visible to the naked eye. This was simply astonishing.

  “This is a magic treasure which was born from endless amounts of sin.” The handsome youth was both terrified as well as desirous. He knew very well that when one created this sort of magic treasure that was refined from sins, when one underwent the Three Calamities or Nine Tribulations, the power of the trials would be incomparably powerful. But this sort of magic treasure itself was incomparably, astonishingly powerful as well. This was why some evil schools were clearly committing countless grave sins, and yet were still able to continue forward in training to become an Immortal.

  It was because these evil paths allowed one to advance more quickly, and to even battle against foes of higher levels.

  “No wonder Master said that once his magic treasure is completed, he wouldn’t even fear a Wanxiang Adept.” The handsome youth couldn’t breathe.

  “Little Seven.” The long-haired man, seated in the lotus position, spoke in a shrill voice. “My boy Gan was my first disciple. He was like a son to me! This Ji Ning killed my son. How could I, Bei Goodson, possibly forgive him?”

  The handsome youth lowered his head.

  “I need to refine this magic treasure. I can’t spare any attention.” Bei Goodson’s green eyes stared at the handsome youth. Creating this sort of deeply sinful magic treasure was incomparably dangerous to begin with, and there were constant repercussions from the creation process. There were some people who were themselves bitten to death and had their souls dispersed by the dread wraiths they had created. Of course, if one truly wanted to force a pause, one could, but the price would also be great.

  “Little Seven, I bequeath unto you one Hearteater Powder.” A bottle appeared out of nowhere in the palm of Goodson’s right hand, and he casually tossed it towards the handsome youth.

  The handsome youth accepted it, then stared at the bottle in terror. “Hearteater Powder?”

  He had heard of the famous Hearteater Powder before.

  The price of this one bottle of Hearteater Powder was more valuable than even a ranked magic treasure. Countless Zifu Disciples had died to Hearteater Powder, and it was incredibly hard to procure. Even his own master had only been able to acquire this terrifying poison because he had been born into their school and had connections.

  “If it wasn’t for the fact that I can’t be distracted, how would I possibly be willing to waste this Hearteater Powder?” Goodson said shrilly. “Remember. Smash the bottle within thirty meters of that Ji Ning, and he will definitely be poisoned
. Once the Hearteater Powder enters his body, although it takes effect slowly and will need three days, it is virtually impossible to get rid of it once one has been poisoned. He, a mere Xiantian Fiendgod Body Refiner, will die without question, even if what he is training in is the legendary number one Fiendgod Body Refining, the [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens]!”

  The handsome youth nodded

  “Remember. You yourself need to be careful. Stay far away. If you are poisoned, come to me. I will give you the antidote.” Goodson said.

  “Your disciple is still competent to perform a minor task like releasing poison.” The handsome youth said.

  “Go.” Goodson’s gaze fell upon that blood-red cloth banner beneath the swirling green flames. The countless dread wraiths within the cloth banner occasionally appeared, extending their necks out towards Goodson and wildly trying to bite at him, but Goodson’s oily green eyes remained cold and deadly.

  The handsome youth bowed respectfully, then left. When leaving this deep, dark tunnel, he jumped at high speed, occasionally clamping onto protruding pieces of rock on the stone walls. Soon afterwards, he left the tunnel.

  Kakaka…

  The iron boards turned, and the tunnel was shut once more.

  –––––––––—

  Within the black mist.

  The Waterflame Lotus surrounded him, and Ning’s soul was currently pondering at high speed, with one hypothetical formation after another appearing within his mind, and the construction of the formation changing nonstop. As Ning frantically analyzed these formations, his level of understanding with regards to formations continued to rise.

  “Huh?” Ning suddenly felt a spike of fear.

  When a person’s soul was as powerful as his, one would be able to unconsciously sense terrifying dangers approaching. The last time his soul had this feeling was when he was attempting the third trial in the ancient Aquatic Manor. This time, however, the feeling was even stronger than last time, as though no matter how he struggled, he still wouldn’t be able to escape this danger.