Desolate Era

by RWX

  After returning to Swallow Mountain, Uncle White continued to lay down new formations. He had previously only laid down a single one of the supreme killing formations; there were two more that had yet to be laid down. As for Ning, he focused on comprehending the Dao and training. He would alternate between working on his sword-arts and training archery, in accordance with [Houyi’s Archery].

  ……

  Ning was living a peaceful life, but the world of the Grand Xia as a whole wasn’t peaceful at all.

  In almost every commandery, and even in the four seas, the Seamless Gate continuously fanned the flames of chaos. Everyone, including the members of the imperial Xia clan as well as the various marquisates, began to grow cautious. This was because they couldn’t tell who their enemy was; in fact, they couldn’t even find out where their enemy was located.

  And during this period of time…the Youngflame clan was investigating Ji Ning.

  “Even Bloodcloud Hall demanded twenty top-grade Immortal-ranked magic treasures! Although they went too far in what they asked for, based on how Bloodcloud Hall usually prices their assassination missions, this high request suggests exactly how difficult the target is to deal with. Ji Ning’s power must be even greater than what we believed it to be; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to withstand Bloodcloud Hall’s first attempt.”

  “In thirty or so short years, he has increased his power immeasurably, compared to back during the Conclave of Immortal Destiny. If he is permitted to continue to develop like this…I’m afraid that in thirty more years, it will be extremely difficult for our Youngflame clan to kill him.”

  “He has to be eliminated as soon as possible. Otherwise…he will cause a disaster.”

  “Since Bloodcloud Hall has named such a high price…let’s do it ourselves. We have to succeed on our first try.”

  “Right. We have to plan this perfectly; we need to treat Ji Ning as we would a supreme Celestial Immortal.”

  Everyone within the Youngflame clan acknowledged the threat Ji Ning posed to them. In truth, ever since the Youngflame clan sent people to attempt to wipe out the Ji clan, the hatred between the two sides had increased to a very high level. The assassination attempt in the imperial capital of the Grand Xia caused this feud to become even more difficult to result.

  As for this assassination attempt by Bloodcloud Hall, since Ji Ning had no other major enemies in the Grand Xia Dynasty aside from the Youngflame clan, he would probably quickly arrive at the right conclusion…

  “Get rid of him.”

  “Get rid of him as soon as possible.”

  The Youngflame clan began their investigations, but Swallow Mountain was completely impregnable. The terrifying formations surrounding it were even more frightening than the ones surrounding the Youngflame clan’s headquarters.

  “There’s no way to assassinate him within Swallow Mountain.”

  “Ji Ning is in Swallow Mountain right now. We have to wait.”

  “Let’s wait.”

  ……

  Ning’s life in Swallow Mountain wa quite relaxed. No matter how much turmoil there was in the outside world, he just quietly trained at home.

  Winter passed. Spring came. Then summer. Then late autumn.

  Ning stayed at Serpentwing Lake of Swallow Mountain this entire time!

  Actually, this entire time, Ning had wanted to make a trip to the Eastwoods mountain range; after all, he had suffered an attack there, and that was the only base belonging to the mysterious power that he knew about. In addition, based on what he saw, he believed that his opponents shouldn’t be able to do anything to him. He naturally wanted to go back! And by relying on his Seventy-Two Transformations, there was no need for him to worry about his identity being exposed; he could effortlessly penetrate their defenses.

  But…

  Ning hadn’t gone. This was because he was waiting for something; for his breakthrough in the [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens]! He had reached the fifteenth level of the [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens] more than ten years ago; during recent years, aside from training in sword-arts and archery, he also trained in the [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens] every single day. Because of the power of his body, energy from the Solar Star and the Lunar Star was filling his body at a truly shocking rate…but at his current level, each new breakthrough required a similarly shocking amount of divine power. However, Ning could feel as though his breakthrough was coming soon.

  This was why he had refrained from going to the Eastwoods mountain range; after he made a new breakthrough and his power increased dramatically, he would have a better chance in his investigations!

  “Autumn Leaf, I’m going to rest a bit on the lake. I’ll come back at night. Prepare some good food,” Ning said with a grin.

  “Right.” Autumn Leaf nodded repeatedly.

  Ning was standing by the beach. As he waved his hand, a little boat appeared on the surface of the lake. Ning took a single step forward, stepping into the boat. The little boat then floated away towards the depths of Serpentwing Lake.

  Autumn Leaf watched from afar. After watching for quite some time, she saw that Ning had completely disappeared within the distant mist. Only then did she turn and go back home.

  ……

  The boat floated on the lake. Ning lay down within the boat, almost subconsciously beginning to absorb energy from the Solar Star and the Lunar Star.

  Suddenly…as if sensing something, Ning opened his eyes. He could sense that the divine power in his body had reached a limit. He was about to make his breakthrough! He immediately rose to his feet, then took a single step forward, leaving the little boat and coming to stand on the waters of the lake.

  Rumble…

  Rumble…

  From infinitely far away, the two Supreme Stars in the void, the Solar Star and the Lunar Star, instantly began to transmit their power through the void, all the way down until it reached Ji Ning’s body…

  * * *

  Book 14, Chapter 28 - Just a Tenth

  The Divine Solar Tattoo and Divine Lunar Tattoo on Ji Ning’s back began to become even more profound and complicated. They were shining brightly, and in the area around Ning, a golden crow that was surrounded by flames began to fly about in a circling manner. At the same time, a jade rabbit appeared as well, filled with an icy aura as it stared upwards into the void, as though seeing the Lunar Star deep within the depths of infinity.

  The distant Solar Star and Lunar Star continued to transmit a large amount of Lunar Truewater and Solar Truefire.

  Whoooooosh.

  Water and fire meshed together like threads being woven into a fabric. Soon, Ning became completely surrounded by them, as though he was within a giant egg. Within the egg, through a mysterious method that Ning couldn’t understand, energy was being transmitted straight into his body, rapidly and frantically changing it. His body once more began a fundamental transformation, a transformation brought on by advancing to a separate level in power. Even his Divine Solar Tattoo and Divine Lunar Tattoo were beginning to transform.

  ……

  Above the calm surface of Serpentwing Lake, a three meter high ‘egg’ was hovering in the air. One could vaguely make out that the egg was bi-colored. Although it emanated an invisible field of terrifying power, it didn’t disturb the surface of the water in the slightest.

  Slowly…

  The eggshell grew increasingly thin and translucent. In fact, one could even vaguely make out a human figure within it. Finally, the eggshell completely vanished, and a completely naked youth appeared, standing on the surface of the lake. Moments later, his body became covered with an exquisitely sewn set of fur clothes.

  “Whew. I’ve finally reached the sixteenth stage of the [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens].” Ning let out a sigh of relief. “I should now be comparable to an ordinary late Void-level Fiendgod Body Refiner; before my Fiendgod tribulation comes, I can at most train to the seventeenth stage. I’m very close to
my maximum level of power possible, prior to my tribulation.”

  Once one reached the eighteenth stage of the [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens], the Empyrean Tribulation would quickly descend. Thus, prior to attempting the tribulation, one could at most train to the seventeenth stage.

  Today’s breakthrough represented an advance to a major new level. It had thus involved a fundamental transformation.

  Previously, Ning could at most train to the Third Cycle of the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art], because his divine body had reached a limit in power; there was no way it could withstand any further strengthening. But now that Ning’s divine body had fundamentally been transformed, he could train all the way up to the Sixth Cycle of the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art]! Alas…the price one would need to pay to reach the Sixth Cycle was more than a thousandfold the price one needed for the Third Cycle!

  The Ninth Cycle, in turn, needed roughly a thousand times as many materials as the Sixth Cycle! The price was heart-clenchingly high. Even Ning’s senior apprentice-brother, Empyrean God Silvermoon, had merely trained to the Sixth Cycle. The number of people in the Three Realms who had reached the Ninth Cycle of the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] could be counted on one hand; they were even rarer than Daofathers or True Gods!

  “For a Fiendgod Body Refiner to advance from the early Void level to the late Void level represents advancing across two small stages.” Ning mused to himself, “I imagine that by now, my close combat power is probably superior to my power as a Ki Refiner.”

  Previously, as a Ki Refiner, he could rely on his [Heavenraker] sword formation, which was somewhat more powerful than his close combat abilities. But Ning’s divine body was now far too powerful! It must be understood that Fiendgod Body Refiners were powerful to begin with, and Ning was now comparable to late Void-level Fiendgods…and he also had the [Starseizing Hand]! In terms of raw strength alone, when he went all out, he was even stronger than Celestial Immortals. With the Thousandbull Sword and his various sword-arts…he would now be considered a formidable figure, even amongst Celestial Immortals. He was definitely better now than he was in the past, where he would be considered a fairly low-class Celestial Immortal.

  After making his breakthrough, Ning continued to lie there within his little boat, floating across the surface of Serpentwing Lake.

  It was like he was ‘showing off’ to his parents after having accomplished something significant, in the hopes of earning a word of praise from them. After increasing his level of power, Ning simply floated there in the waters of Serpentwing Lake. He felt like he was by the side of his parents; he wanted to let them see how strong he had become. The gentle sounds of the waves were like the voices of his mother and father.

  “My power has increased greatly after having gone to Mount Innerheart. It is time to take a look into what happened with my parents after they reincarnated,” Ning mused to himself.

  After death, reincarnation.

  Ning naturally had been thinking about this for quite some time now. He wanted to look into this matter. As for his parents from his previous life? Ning wanted to look into what happened to them as well. However, in the past, Ning was simply too weak; there was no way he could investigate them at all. Now, Ning could be somewhat considered a ‘powerful’ figure. Still…this was not an era of peace. In a peaceful era, everything was under the control of the Netherworld Kingdom, making investigations fairly simple. The Six Cycles of Reincarnation, however, had been destroyed; it would now be far more difficult to investigate anything.

  Late night.

  Ning returned to Brightmoon Island. After joining Uncle White, Little Qing, and Autumn Leaf in eating some delicacies which Autumn Leaf had personally prepared, Ning once more quietly slipped into his underwater estate.

  ……

  The underwater estate.

  The giant yellow bear looked at Ning, then laughed. “Congratulations. You’ve broken through to the sixteenth stage as a Fiendgod Body Refiner; this is a major leap for you. You now have two more chances to attempt the Wargod Hall, and can also choose yet another item from the Treasures Hall. And…I have to say, you’ve grown remarkably patient. You were actually able to wait until nightfall before coming here, after you made a break through.”

  Ning just chuckled. He then asked, “Last time, I overcame the eighth floor of the Wargod Hall; the ninth and tenth floor now await me. Senior, how good are my chances for attempting the ninth floor?”

  “Ninth floor? Mm…if your true body and your Primaltwin join forces, you’d just barely have a tenth of a chance, I suppose,” the giant yellow bear said.

  “Just a tenth?” Ning was surprised.

  He felt that he would be considered formidable even amongst Celestial Immortals by now…and he also had the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] protecting him.

  “How good of a chance did you think you’d have? When you overcome the ninth and tenth floors, you’ll receive a Pure Yang treasure,” the giant yellow bear said. “The seventh and eighth floor have Immortal-ranked treasures as their rewards, but these two have Pure Yang treasures; naturally, the difficulty level will have risen exponentially. Based on my estimations…one needs to have the power of a supreme Celestial Immortal to be absolutely sure of overcoming the ninth floor. As for the tenth floor…you’ll need to have close to the level of a Pure Yang True Immortal to overcome it.”

  Ning blinked.

  The ninth floor…a supreme Celestial Immortal?

  The tenth floor…close to a Pure Yang True Immortal?

  Ning knew his own limits. It must be understood that there was a huge gap between mastering the [Three-Foot Sword] and mastering the Grand Dao of the Sword. Thus, although in sword-arts Ning would be considered formidable amongst Celestial Immortals and would not be considered weak, he was still quite a ways off from the true peak of power. Most likely, Patriarch Unity had the strength of a supreme Celestial Immortal.

  “Fine, I won’t try it for now. After all…I only have two chances before becoming an Empyrean God,” Ning said. “Senior, let’s go. Let’s go to the Treasures Hall; I want to choose my treasure.”

  “You should be careful in making this choice. You wouldn’t be able to use a Pure Yang treasure right now, even if I gave one to you…so the most important thing for you right now is a good Immortal-ranked magic treasure. This is your third time choosing one, and so I’ll bring out all the Immortal-ranked magic treasures which Master left behind and let you choose from them.” As the giant yellow bear spoke, he led Ning to the Treasures Hall.

  The many magic treasures within the hall were still levitating high up in the air, emanating powerful ripples of majesty.

  However…to the current Ning, the ripples of power were virtually negligible. He was now able to forcibly seize even Pure Yang treasures.

  “Mm, here is the list for all the Immortal-ranked treasures.” The giant yellow bear gave Ning a thick tome listing many treasures.

  Ning immediately lowered his head, beginning to flip through it.

  He had already chosen two Immortal-ranked magic treasures; the first time, he had chosen the Tripartite Immortal-Locking Circlet, which was a high-grade Immortal-ranked magic treasure which he had chosen for the express purpose of giving it to Uncle White, which he had done so long ago. The second time, he had chosen those nine top-grade Immortal-ranked swords that could join together into the [Heavenraker] sword-formation; clearly, this was a much finer treasure. As for this third time…all of the Immortal-ranked magic treasures were now available for his perusing.

  “Wow.”

  “These things are way better than the Heavenraker swords.” Ning was speechless at what he saw.

  Although the Heavenraker swords were excellent…compared to the truly top-notch Immortal-ranked items which Daoist Threelives had collected, they were far inferior. After all, those nine swords were template-produced items.

  “These are all the very best available; most likely, in the current Three Realms, they would be considered amongst the m
ost exquisite of Immortal-ranked treasures. When leaving them behind, Master elected not to break up any of the sets,” the nearby giant yellow bear said.

  Ning’s eyes were shining with glee as he read through the book.

  For example, this one!

  A Pentabolt Ship of Cosmic Light: A top-grade Immortal-ranked magic treasure that could move extremely fast, as fast as an Empyrean God or True Immortal! And once one filled it with elemental ki, Pentabolts of Cosmic Light could be used to attack the enemy.

  Pentabolts of Cosmic Light were comparable to the Divine Venomflame of the Nine Heavens in power. If one hid within the ship, the enemies would be unable to do anything to you, while you could release Pentabolts of Cosmic Light to strike your opponent at your leisure! Even the vast majority of Celestial Immortals would perish under such a wild assault; after all, there were very few who were like Ning, who had trained in something that was as protective as the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art]. This item alone was definitely no less valuable than a Pure Yang treasure! This was because there were very few Pure Yang treasures that were capable of unleashing Pentabolts of Cosmic Light.

  ……

  “This one. This is absolutely…” Ning’s eyes were absolutely huge right now.

  Tiangang Disha net formation [1. Tiangang Disha is a very hard term to translate that comes from the legendary Chinese novel, the ‘Water Margin’. There are 36 ‘Tiangang’, which literally translates into ‘celestial stars (of the Big Dipper)’, and 72 ‘Disha’, which literally translates into ‘terrestrial fiends’. In the Water Margin, they were a group of 108 demons that were banished but managed to escape, and were reborn into outlaw heroes that fought for justice. Suikoden’s ‘108 Stars of Destiny’ and Saint Seiya’s ‘108 Specters’ all fundamentally derive from this tale.] : This was a terrifying, large formation that was formed by 3600 top-grade Immortal-ranked flying knives! Once the enemy was trapped within the formation, the 3600 flying knives would wildly attack from every direction, in such a flurry that they would be almost impossible to block. The flying knives themselves would also be supported by the mysteries of the formation. This set was so powerful that if a Celestial Immortal were to possess it, it would be enough for him to arrogantly roam the realms as he pleased. A grand formation composed of so many top-grade Immortal-ranked flying knives…no one would be so foolish as to accept even a standard Pure Yang treasure in exchange for it!