Desolate Era

by RWX

  Ning slowly walked about.

  Each step, however, was like the wind, as graceful and as fast as gentle smoke. He wandered about the muddy beaches of the island. The island had an area of roughly twenty kilometers. It wasn’t a small one. There were some hills and creeks in the island.

  “Growl….” From afar, a millstone-sized crimson crab was currently waving its big metal pincers, staring at Ning.

  “Lesser water monsters.” Ning kicked a rock, which with a ‘Swoosh!’ shot out. Then, with a clang, it struck on the crab monster’s shell, causing it to flip around multiple times before it came to a halt and stopped moving. When Ning left, the giant crab flipped over yet again, hurriedly charging back down into the depths of the lake.

  This used to be Serpentwing’s lair was in the past, after all. Even though Serpentwing currently wasn’t here, there were still quite a few lesser aquatic monsters who lived on this island. When they saw Ning, these lesser monsters wanted to attack him. The weaker monsters were taught a lesson by Ning, while when dealing with the peak Houtian monsters, Ning showed no mercy at all.

  “Huh?” Ning suddenly turned and looked into the distance. From afar, there was a great cavern entrance, from which a large silver serpent suddenly emerged. By the side of this silver serpent were a number of lesser water monsters that were many meters wide.

  None of those lesser monsters were physically small.

  Most likely, all of them were peak Houtian.

  “Swoosh!” Ning moved, instantly charged forwards.

  “Hurry and leave.”

  “Leave.”

  “That human youth should be a Xiantian lifeform.” These peak Houtian lesser monsters all growled to each other. None of them attacked Ning. Rather, they all scattered in every direction, towards the distant waters of the lake.

  That greatbow and four arrows appeared in Ning’s hands, and he once more pulled his arrow.

  After firing those four arrows, he fired four more!

  Hua! Hua! Hua! One arrow after another shot out.

  Instantly, the ten physically largest Houtian lesser water monsters were all killed. Some of the smaller, weaker monsters were able to escape into the water.

  “Ji Ning, you killed yet another one of my sons. I will definitely kill you, definitely kill you!” An enraged growl echoed from the depths of the lake, causing Ning, who had been preparing to enter the lair entrance, to be astonished.

  “Killed another son? How many children does this old monster have?”

  Ning curiously swept the surrounding area with a glance. There were three Houtian-level snake-type aquatic monsters that he had killed with his arrows. Which one was Serpentwing’s child? Ning didn’t know that the old monster, Serpentwing, originally had 92 children, only many had been eaten by other monsters or killed by humans, with only sixteen surviving.

  Two more of those were then killed by Ning.

  However, to Serpentwing…the one he was the most devoted to was still Redtip, the one which had Fiendgod heritage.

  “Old monster Serpentwing, all you can do is shout out verbally. Does this lair of yours have any more children within it? I’m going to go in and kill them.” Ning called out as he entered the lair.

  ––––––-

  This lair was a place where Serpentwing had lived for a thousand years. It was dark inside, with twisting paths.

  Ning moved forward, his Darknorth swords at the ready.

  Within the lair, he repeatedly encountered some aquatic monsters who charged at him. Some were ferocious, others were bizarre. As soon as they saw this human youth, it was as though they had seen a delicacy which they all wanted to devour. For some of the extremely weak lesser monsters, Ning would just knock them flying…whether they died as a result or just fainted, he didn’t bother with them further.

  But Ning still exterminated all of the peak Houtian aquatic monsters.

  “This lair truly is infathomably deep.” Ning continued going deeper into the twisting tunnels of the lair. Suddenly, within the dark tunnels, a blurry, enormous beast shadow appeared in the shape of the head of a giant grizzly. This enormous shadow of a grizzly head seemed to open its mouth wide, trapping Ning within.

  Ning’s face changed dramatically.

  At the same time, he discovered that he was now completely incapable of movement. He could neither advance, nor retreat.

  “This, this…is a relic site!” Ning instantly thought of this term.

  In the boundless world, from the Fiendgod era to the modern era, countless numbers of experts had existed throughout the countless years. There were thus an uncountable number of Fiendgod relic sites and Immortal mansion relic sites throughout the land. Since humankind was spread across the entire world, people would often accidentally enter some ancient Fiendgod relic sites, some of whom would be able to gain some benefits from these places.

  Most, however, died within these Immortal relic sites and Fiendgod relic sites. In just the books which Ning had read, there were many famous ancient relic sites that had devoured countless creatures.

  “I actually encountered a relic site. Live. I will definitely make it out alive. Definitely!” Ning’s eyes were filled with incomparable desire. He understood that in the face of these ancient relic sites of great powers and Fiendgods, he, a mere Xiantian, had no chance to fight back at all. His only choice was to submit to it, and then later try to come up with a way to escape.

  The enormous shadow of a grizzly bear head swallowed Ning with one gulp.

  The shadow vanished.

  Ning vanished as well.

  The tunnels within Serpentwing’s lair remained as calm and peaceful as ever, as though nothing had happened.

  * * *

  Book 3, Chapter 14 - Aquatic Manor

  Ji Ning could sense spacetime changing. It was similar to the feeling he had when he had jumped into the Six Paths of Reincarnation.

  A heartbeat later, everything calmed down again.

  “This place…” Ning hurriedly inspected his surroundings. He himself was in a large, wide corridor that was three hundred meters tall and three hundred meters wide. When Ning turned to look behind him, he was greatly shocked. Behind him was the exit to this corridor, but the outside was covered with a vast, endless amount of water. The water, however, was completely unable to enter this corridor, as though some sort of invisible screen was blocking out the water.

  “What is going on?” Ning carefully stepped over, an arrow appearing in his hand. He sent it piercing directly towards the water.

  Chi!

  The arrow collided with an invisible barrier. No matter how he tried, he couldn’t pierce through.

  “I don’t believe it.” Ning hurriedly took ten steps back, then took out that ‘Jia Yong’ greatbow. Letting out a soft snort, his entire body began to be covered with a crimson red light. Clearly, the Fiendgod energy was being completely released. Pulling the bow into a near circle, he immediately shot out an arrow, which flew like a ray of light towards that invisible barrier.

  The arrow was shattered to pieces, falling to the ground.

  “This…” Ning frowned, carefully inspecting this corridor yet again.

  “The corridor alone is three hundred meters tall.” Ning looked through the invisible barrier into the boundless water outside. “This building is definitely astonishingly large, at least multiple kilometers across. And it was built underwater…”

  “Is it at the bottom of Serpentwing Lake?” Ning shook his head.

  Serpentwing Lake was only a lake with an area of a hundred square kilometers. It would be quite hard for such an enormous structure to fit within it. Most likely, if it was in Serpentwing Lake, the Ji clan would have discovered it long ago.

  “Just then, I had the sense of spacetime twisting, as though creating a tunnel in space.” Ning said to himself. “I’m afraid I’ve entered a separate dimension.”

  After having read many books, he knew many things.

  The books had recorded t
hat in the countless years of time’s passage, some powerful Immortals or powerful Fiendgods were able to create their own little dimensions. A single grain of sand might store an entire world of its own! Some Immortal estate relic sites or Fiendgod relic sites were located in these small dimensions and small worlds. Normally, it was impossible to find them. Only by luck or misfortune would one accidentally enter.

  However, these estates left behind by these great powers were all extremely dangerous. After all, how could the Immortals and Fiendgods not leave behind some defensive mechanisms? The vast majority of those who entered relic sites would die. If one was able to stay alive and flee, that would already be a stroke of luck. As for those legends of people who were able to actually obtain treasures from within, Ning didn’t even dare think of that?

  “Can’t be greedy! I just need to work hard to stay alive and escape.” Ning carefully inspected his surroundings.

  The unknown represented opportunity.

  But it also represented enormous risks!

  “This underwater estate…for now, I’ll call it the Serpentwing Aquatic Manor.” Ning casually picked a name for it. Since for now he wouldn’t be able to leave this corridor, he might as well head in.

  –––––––—

  The corridor was wide and tall, and the floor seemed to be made from a single massive slab. Ning tried everything he could think of, yet still was unable to leave a single mark on the walls.

  After walking a short while.

  The corridor turned, and Ning’s eyes narrowed. From afar, he saw one white skeleton after another, littering the floor. The flesh on these skeletons had rotted away long ago, but the strange thing was, there were very few magic treasures on the ground. Only some of the most distant, most complete skeletons on the far left still had some armor, weapons, and magic treasures near them.

  “The other corpses don’t have magic treasures?” Ning was suspicious. “Even if they don’t have magic treasures, they should at least have some sharp weapons. How could they not have a single one?”

  “Swoosh!”

  With a thought, Ning sent his divine will outwards, picking up all of those skeletons with armors and weapons and depositing them in front of him.

  Swish.

  As soon as they landed on the ground, the skeletons instantly shattered.

  “It seems they died long ago.” Ning glanced at the armor and weapons. He immediately picked them up and began to use his Xiantian ki to attempt to bind them, but as he did so, he discovered…because the previous owners had died too long ago, two of the magic treasures didn’t have any magic power within them. Thus, Ning was easily able to bind them.

  “Even I can bind them. It seems these are only unranked magic treasures.” Ning said to himself. “It seems the dead only had Xiantian level power.”

  And then, Ning began to inspect the various corpses. He quickly noticed a ring on one of the corpse’s fingers. He immediately picked up the ring and began to bind it. Indeed…this ring was the dead person’s storage-type magic treasure. Taking a casual glance inside this storage magic treasure, Ning was greatly shocked. The space inside it wasn’t that great, somewhat smaller than Ironwood Zhan’s.

  But…

  “So many magic treasures.” Ning was astonished. Within this storage magic treasure, one magic treasure was floating after another, all possessing extraordinary auras. There were weapons, formation treasures, armor, and even more storage treasures.

  “Why would a single person need to carry this many magic treasures?” Ning glanced at the many corpses in the distance, none of which had magic treasures on them. “Most likely, this person had collected the magic treasures of all the others.”

  Ning quickly began to bind them.

  As he started binding them, he discovered…this storage ring had a total of 112 storage-type magic treasures, 136 weapon-type magic treasures, 31 armor-type magic treasures, and 16 bizarre magic treasures, including formation-types. There were quite a few Dao-seals as well, but unfortunately, too much time had passed, and the magic power within the Dao-seals had all leaked out. Only ten or so Dao-seals were still somewhat serviceably usable.

  “If I’m able to bind them, then these are all unranked magic treasures.” Ning murmured. “The previous owners of these magic treasures were all Xiantian lifeforms. In other words, everyone who came to this tunnel in the past were all Xiantian lifeforms.”

  Ning selected one of the storage-type magic treasures that had a storage space of nearly three hundred meters, a storage belt, and wrapped it around his waist. This storage belt, on the surface, looked like it was nothing more than a sturdy, plain belt. Ning then selected an excellent armor, binding it and then wearing it over his skin.

  This armor was far more powerful than the Goldstar Shirt. The Goldstar Shirt was thus decommissioned, and Ning stored it away.

  Actually, these magic treasures didn’t make Ning particularly overjoyed. After all, he was the next Prefecture Lord of the Ji clan of the West Prefecture. He would easily be able to obtain protective treasures.

  “However, the number is quite great. All together, the value is probably comparable to a low-ranked magic treasure.” Ning didn’t think about it any longer. The fellow in front of him had also acquired many magic treasures, but in the end, he had also died. What mattered was escaping with his life.

  Wielding his two Darknorth swords, Ning carefully made his way forward. After all, there was no other path he could take. His only choice was to advance!

  In terms of power, the Darknorth swords weren’t inferior to these unranked magic treasures. In addition, he didn’t have to use any Xiantian ki in order to use them. Naturally, Ning would prefer to keep using his Darknorth swords.

  ––––––––

  Ning stepped forward carefully.

  As he walked past those skeletons, he became even more cautious. Suddenly…

  PA! PA! PA! PA! PA! PA! PA!

  One golden pea after another suddenly appeared out of thin air. Many golden peas appeared in the surrounding area, all of which let out a clear ringing sound as they hit the floor. And then, these golden peas quickly began to melt, transforming into a golden liquid, each drop of which then quickly transformed into weapon-wielding, golden-armored celestial warriors.

  Flashing with golden light, the incomparably dazzling, powerful celestial warriors and celestial generals stood around him.

  “Growing soldiers from peas?” Ning was stunned. At the same time, he could sense that these golden-armored celestial warriors all had powerful auras. He could sense they were all at the Xiantian level of power. “And there’s eighty one of them?”

  “You who dare trespass in the manor, prepare to die!” The eighty one golden-armored celestial warriors shouted in unison, and then they charged over and attacked.

  The two Darknorth swords in his hands, Ning instantly understood everything. Those skeletons had most likely been killed by those eighty one golden armored soldiers. Not hesitating at all, Ning instantly began to utilize the Windwing Evasion technique. With a ‘Swoosh’ sound, he ran across the side of the walls of the corridor like a giant Roc in flight, instantly passing through those eighty one golden armored soldiers and wanting to continue forward.

  “Formation, activate!” The eighty one golden armored warriors shouted in unison.

  Instantly, at two sides of the corridor, a hazy mist arose. As Ning charged into the mist, he shot out with his sword, but was unable to pierce into it even slightly.

  “Don’t even think of escaping.” The eighty one golden armored warriors charged over once again.

  “A Trap Formation?”

  Ning looked at the two hazy mists. “It seems if I don’t kill these eighty one golden armored soldiers, I won’t be able to continue. Those fellows all died, but I’m not as weak as them.”

  Swoosh!

  Ning utilized the Windwing Evasion technique, once again running across the surface of the corridor at high speed until he arriv
ed behind the golden armored soldiers, and then he stabbed directly at one of those soldiers.

  “Dang, dang, dang!” Three sword blows at once.

  Bang!

  Ning pierced through the head of that golden armored soldier, but the soldier still stabbed backwards with his spear.

  “What.” Ning was so frightened, he hurriedly jumped back in retreat.

  “Even a Xiantian level Fiendgod Body Refiner stabbed through the head would definitely die. How could this golden armored soldier not die?” Ning instantly grew frantic. Just then, in that short exchange, he had discovered that the spearcraft of that golden armored soldier could only be considered at the ‘advanced’ level, but in terms of strength, it was no lower than Ning’s.

  The worst part of it was…not even stabbing through the soldier’s head had done anything.

  “Kill!” Ning’s stabbing blow through that soldier’s head seemed to have truly infuriated these golden armored soldiers, who all began to bellow angrily and wildly attack him en masse.

  Ning utilized his footwork, moving through the attacking golden armored soldiers. At every moment, he was dealing with three separate opponents. By relying on his twin Darknorth swords, he stabbed through the throat, skull, and various other fatal points of the golden armored guards, but the golden armored guards remained undamaged.

  “Waterflame Lotus!” Ning was frantic.

  Huahuahua….

  In the area around Ning, three enormous lotus petals of fire and three enormous lotus petals of water appeared, surrounding him in every direction. The two layers of lotus petals were slowly swiveling in opposite directions. Instantly, six of the golden armored soldiers who were within the range of the Waterflame Lotus became crushed by the pressure of the Waterflame Lotus back into liquid form.

  But the golden liquid quickly flowed outside the range of the Waterflame Lotus, then once more reformed into six Golden Armored Soldiers.

  “How is that possible?” Ning, seeing the situation, couldn’t believe it. They had already been dissolved; how could they reform?