Desolate Era

by RWX

  This caused Ninefire and the other two to sigh in amazement. This was what Ki Refiners like them envied the most with regards to Fiendgod Body Refiners.

  If it was them, they probably would have died long ago!

  “The power of a detonating Zifu ‘lake’ truly is terrifying.” Ning sighed in amazement.

  Establishing the ‘Violet Palace’ was part of the Immortal path. The Zifu was like a lake that contained liquefied ki energy. The Zifu lake was thus the foundation for an Immortal practitioner! A fruit tree that wished to bloom and birth fruits had to have a patch of land, while Immortal practitioners who wished to reach the Wanxiang level or become a Primal Immortal…had to have a Zifu lake! This was their foundation. Zifu Disciples would constantly accumulate their ki energy, expanding the size of that lake…

  But once the accumulated ki energy was detonated, the first to die from the explosion iwould be the practitioner! Only then would others be hit by the explosion.

  “This is why the three of us didn’t dare to attack in close combat. Only you, a Fiendgod Body Refiner, would dare draw near.” Ninefire said.

  “Formidable.” Ning said softly.

  “The lifeforce possessed by Fiendgods truly is astonishing.” Granny Shadow said hoarsely.

  ………..

  In a different area.

  The eight shadowy blood dragons of the Eight Trigrams Blood Dragon Formation roved about sinuously. In the center were Muse and Dong Ziqi. Ziqi had a gloomy look on his face, and his eyes were filled with a boundless killing intent. He truly wished to charge out and kill them. But that group of Ji clan cowards didn’t dare to come face him.

  “Little Sister! Senior apprentice-brother Ziqi, avenge us and annihilate the Ji clan!!!” A fierce voice suddenly rang out, and then…a deafening, massive explosion.

  Muse, seated in the lotus position, opened his eyes, which were filled with a look of sorrow. “The He siblings are dead.”

  “Not only dead; he even detonated his own Zifu lake. He was forced into dire straits.” Ziqi’s voice was hoarse, and his eyes were filled with rage. He, Dong Ziqi, had actually been forced into such a terrible situation, and by the puny little Ji clan. This caused the look on Ziqi’s face to become all the more terrible. He howled savagely, “I, Dong Ziqi, swear that I will definitely annihilate the Ji clan! Definitely!” His roar rang out.

  “I will definitely annihilate the Ji clan! Definitely!!!”

  As Ning heard this, his face changed slightly. He could sense the wild savagery and killing intent held within this shout. By his side, Ninefire just said coldly, “If we didn’t kill them, they would still annihilate our Ji clan for not handing over the official writ! If they want to kill us, then they need to be prepared for the possibility that we might kill them. Screaming loudly now is the act of a coward.”

  “Come. Let’s go deal with Dong Ziqi.” Granny Shadow ground her teeth, speaking in a hoarse voice.

  “Right.” The old servant, Ah Xing, acknowledged.

  Ning was filled with boundless killing intent as well…against these enemy forces who wanted to annihilate the Ji clan and give them no options, Ning wouldn’t feel a hint of pity!

  “Ji Ning.” Ninefire just frowned. “Immediately go to your father’s place. Assist them in killing Ju San.”

  “My father?” Ning was startled.

  Can it be that his father, Ji Yichuan, and Ji Truekeep had met with trouble in their combined effort to deal with that ‘Jusan’?

  “It’s Muse.” Ninefire said urgently. “Muse is currently using a magical technique, causing a large number of vines to rapidly grow out nonstop. They’ve already grown near the place where your father is. Once those vines encounter Ju San…! Dong Ziqi and Muse will quickly follow the vines and rejoin with Ju San! Once the three join forces, it will be even more difficult to kill them.”

  A path through the mist had already appeared in front of Ning.

  “I’ll go.” Ning transformed into a blurred shadow, quickly advancing forward.

  “We’ll go deal with Dong Ziqi and Muse.” Ninefire looked towards Granny Shadow and Ah Xing. “We don’t have to kill them, but we need to disturb that Muse…ideally, making it so that Muse won’t be able to continue to use that technique of his. Those vines have grown so large…Muse definitely had to use up quite a bit of mental energy and Ki.”

  “Right.” Granny Shadow and Ah Xing both nodded.

  Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

  The three quickly hurried towards Ziqi…and as for Ning, as he flew forward, he saw the vines rapidly growing, but by relying on the Windwing Evasion, he was able to dodge past them and not touch them.

  Soon.

  From far away, the sound of explosions could be heard, and the fog grew thin as well. Ning saw two figures standing in the distance; it was his own father, Yichuan, and his clansman, Truekeep.

  “Oh? Father isn’t using any magic treasures. Can it be that Father hasn’t established his Zifu yet?” As Ning hurried over, he discovered that Truekeep was currently controlling magic treasures to battle against that muscular man named Ju San, while Ning’s father, Yichuan, was brandishing his sword, releasing one last after another of sword light, each of which flowed out like a stream of water, constantly racing towards that muscular Ju San. Those blasts of sword light seemed like entangling threads, constantly restricting and binding Ju San.

  Truekeep was the main force, while Yichuan was support!

  “Damnable.” Ju San bellowed.

  “From what the Patriarch previously said, it seems as though my father is a Zifu Disciple. But why is it that I’ve never seen Father ride on a magic treasure?” Ning was puzzled. “In fact, that year, when I suffered the attack from Serpentwing, when Father pursued Serpentwing, he didn’t ride on a magic treasure back then either. What’s the reason for this?”

  Ning had asked his father before, but his father had refused to answer.

  “After this battle, I’ll ask the Patriarch.” Ning buried these doubts in his heart, while at the same time, a pair of Darknorth swords appeared in his hands, while the wings on his back fluttered, sending him piercing through the air.

  Prior to this, when He Fang had detonated his own Zifu Lake, the previous pair of wing-type magic treasures had been destroyed, but fortunately, Ning had quite a few sets of these unranked treasures.

  “Father, Uncle Truekeep! Leave this Ju San to me!” Ning shouted loudly, then transformed into a ray of light, charging towards Ju San.

  Yichuan and Truekeep both turned to look. “Ji Ning!”

  “Hahaha, perfect!” From afar, mighty Ju San, who had power but no place to expend it, watched as Ning charged towards him. He was overjoyed! He was a Zifu Fiendgod Body Refiner! Fiendgod Body Refiners loved to engage in close quarters combat. Prior to this, Truekeep and Yichuan had continuously kept far away from him, and he, Ju San, was not proficient in movement techniques, and thus was completely unable to catch up.

  To be constantly beaten down on, but be unable to catch up.

  What sort of torment was this!

  Although he had opened up his Zifu as a Ki Refiner as well, he hadn’t spent too much time and effort on learning how to ride magic treasures. His primary efforts had been expended on close quarters combat.

  “Come, come, come. Let me take a look at this genius of the Ji clan and see how powerful you are.” Behind Ju San, a pair of black wings had appeared. As he went forward to engage Ning, he clearly was quite agile.

  “Wing-type magic treasure?” Ning looked at the pair of wings on Ju San’s back, and his eyes couldn’t help but light up. The vast majority of Fiendgod Body Refiners would use wings, so as to make them more agile. “It should be a ranked magic treasure. I was worrying about how, after breaking through to the Zifu level, I wouldn’t have any ranked wing-type magic treasures.”

  Boom!

  Boom!

  Two people. One came from the main sect of Snowdragon Mountain, and although he trained in a fairly ordinary Fien
dgod Body Refining technique, known as the [Mighty Demon - Introductory], he was an early Zifu Disciple. Although the name of this technique seemed quite ordinary, it was quite a bit superior to the techniques the Ji clan possessed, such as the [Sutra of the Future Buddha] or [Indestructible Blood Fiend], even though those techniques had more impressive-sounding names. Generally speaking, the more powerful a sect was, the more modest the names their techniques would be.

  As for the other person, this person trained in the technique that even in the Fiendgod Era was the indisputable number one Fiendgod Body Refining technique, the [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens]. But this person was only a peak Xiantian.

  “BANG!” “BANG!”

  Ju San was wielding a greataxe, while Ning was wielding a pair of swords.

  The two exchanged blows…

  It was like a pair of juvenile Fiendgods from back in the Primordial Era who were fighting against each other. Instantly, the earth began to quake, then split apart, sending rocks flying everywhere! The two both had wing-type magic treasures behind them, and they they wildly battled each other in close quarters combat, completely unafraid of the occasional wounds they suffered. As for Ju San’s body, one wound after another appeared atop it.

  “This Ju San’s axecraft is quite impressive. The greataxe is very large, making it so that when it defends, it is almost like a buckler.” Ning said to himself.

  “Ji Ning has actually reached the Zifu level as a Fiendgod practitioner as well.” Ju San was even more shocked. “And his usage of dual swords is all the more marvelous and skilled. I’ve focused on my axecraft for nearly a century, but I actually can’t compare to his swordcraft! I’m at a disadvantage with every exchange…” Right now, he had only left two wounds on Ning’s body, and that was only because Ning had willingly accepted the blow in order to deliver one to him as well. But as for Ju San, his body had suffered over a hundred wounds on it by now. But of course, all of them had healed automatically.

  Ning’s swordplay became even more ferocious and wild.

  “Faster, faster, faster!”

  Ning understood that as the opponent used a heavy weapon, the greataxe, he himself had to fight based on his speed. The faster Ning was, the more flaws the enemy would reveal.

  “Like the wind!”

  “Like the flame!”

  Ning’s left and right hands each held a sword, but they used completely different swordplay techniques. One sword was as illusory as the wind, while the other sword was as aggressively scorching as a flame. Both of them were shockingly fast, and the two worked in unison, creating a explosive combination. The power of the two techniques multiplied, feeding off each other!

  “Faster! Even faster!” Ning battled wildly against Ju San, raining down blows upon him.

  Ju San’s movements became disordered, unable to keep up.

  “SLASH!”

  A sword blow that was as strangely agile and graceful as the wind slashed past the greataxe, and also slashed through Jusan’s waist. Crunch. Blood flew everywhere, and Ju San was bisected.

  “Here’s my chance.” Ning instantly entered a berserk mode.

  Thunderflash Flint!

  Thunderflash Flint!

  Thunderflash Flint!

  Ning’s two swords simultaneously executed this technique. There was nothing weird about this technique, nothing savage about it; all it had was speed! One ray after another of sword light wildly chopped down on the bisected halves of Ju San’s body, causing Ju San’s body to constantly shatter, but Ju San’s head continued to roar, “It won’t be so easy to kill a Fiendgod Body Refiner!”

  “Waterflame Lotus.” Ning executed his final, killing stroke.

  Those countless pieces of Ju San’s body became enveloped within a Waterflame Lotus. The petals of the fire and water slowly swiveled against each other. After five years of training, the murderous grinding power of Ning’s Waterflame Lotus had reached a terrifyingly strong level. These completely defenseless chunks of bloody flesh were completely ground into dust.

  Grind! Grind! Grind!

  The pieces of bloody flesh tried frantically to reconnect to each other, reforming into a person. But they were constantly being ground down by the Waterflame Lotus!

  Rumble…

  The chunks of bloody flesh were completely ground to dust, completely unable to reform once more.

  Ju San! Dead!

  “Looks like I acquired a set of ranked wing-type magic treasures in advance.” Ning stretched his hand out, collecting the nearby spoils, including the wing-type magic treasures, the greataxe, the protective magic-terasures, and the various other magic treasures.

  Ning turned to look.

  Truekeep and Yichuan stood there watching from afar, looks of disbelief and shock on their faces. They had watched as two Fiendgod experts battled wildly and viciously against each other…it was power against power, and as soon as one fell, the other wildly charged forward to dismember him, giving him no chance at all to recover. Fortunately, Ning had his Waterflame Lotus, as otherwise it would have been hard for him to so quickly dispose of this Ju San.

  “Let’s go.” Ning said hurriedly. “Father, Uncle Truekeep, we need to hurry up and rejoin the Patriarch. There are only two more remaining!”

  “Ther are only two more remaining?” Truekeep and Yichuan were excited as well. They hadn’t imagined that in this battle, the Ji clan would actually have achieved such a glorious success, with only two Zifu Disciples remaining now.

  However, it was the most powerful two!

  “Kill them.”

  Ning, Yichuan, and Truekeep transferred into rays of light, hurrying back to regroup with Ninefire and the others…

  * * *

  Book 5, Chapter 23 - Life And Death Two Choices

  Moments later.

  A faint fog surrounded the Eight Trigrams Blood Dragon Formation, and one shadowy blood dragon after another swam about, look towards Ji Ning, Ji Ninefire, and the rest of the six.

  “Ji Ning, don’t charge in.”

  “I want to give him a try.” With a thought, Ning summoned more than seven hundred weapon-type magic treasures, which undulated up and down in the air around him, all of them radiating a dim glow. In front of Ning formed an irresistible, unblockable sword light. With a thought, the sword light formed from the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] shot through the air.

  [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] – Level Nine!

  “Swish!”

  The dazzling sword light charged straight into the Eight Trigrams Blood Dragon Formation, and in the instant that it did so, the shadowy blood dragons immediately bellowed and charged forth. Cracklecracklecrackle…the sword light just managed to eradicate a single shadowy blood dragon before the power of the sword light was used up, but soon, the shadowy blood dragon once more reformed.

  “What.” Ning was amazed. “I was only able to destroy a single dragon? And it almost immediately reformed?”

  Dong Ziqi, within the formation, gave the distant Ning a cold, insidious look. In a hoarse voice, he said, “You live up to your reputation as being the genius of the Ji clan. Only sixteen years old…and yet you are able to destroy one of the dragons of my Eight Trigrams Blood Dragon Formation. However, the little bit of power you have is far from being sufficient.”

  “Ning, don’t charge in.” Ninefire sent mentally in a frantic voice. “This sort of formation is perfectly suited to countering Fiendgod Body Refiners. As soon as you charge within, you’ll be attacked by all eight of those blood dragons, and they will rip you to pieces.”

  “I know.” Ning nodded.

  Although Fiendgod Body Refiners were superior to Ki Refiners…there was no such thing as an absolute truth!

  Ki Refiners had their powerful experts as well, who were able to fight against those at a higher level as them. The [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] was one such example! Or, for example, those Ki Refiners who bred countless venomous pests, which would be released out in a flood, devouring
everything in their path. Fiengod Body Refiners were more powerful, yes…but that was as a whole. On an individual level, there were incomparably glorious and talented Ki Refiners as well.

  “The six of us should join forces to attack and see if we have any chance of winning.” A killing intent flashed through the eyes of Ninefire.

  A flying sword flew through the air!

  Venomous bugs danced out!

  A sword light pierced forward!

  In an instant, the entire world seemed to be filled with various techniques and attacks, which flew towards the Eight Trigrams Blood Dragon Formation. Within the formation, Ziqi laughed wildly. “Excellent!” Those eight shadowy blood dragons, which had been peacefully swimming about, suddenly turned savage as they charged forward to welcome those attacks. They blocked one magic treasure after another, and as some of the dragons dispersed, they quickly reformed.

  The eight shadowy blood dragons coiled about in a circular rhythm, forcibly taking on the attacks of Ning and the rest of the six.

  “Cowards of the Ji clan, if you have any ability, come into my Eight Trigrams Blood Dragon Formation.” Seeing that the attacks had been completely blocked, Dong Ziqi, standing within the formation, became even more arrogant. “You killed three of my fellow disciples because you had the advantage of numbers. In terms of actual ability, how could your Ji clan be a match for us? If we were to really fight, I, Dong Ziqi, would be able to annihilate you all!”

  Outside the Eight Trigrams Blood Dragon Formation, Ninefire, Granny Shadow, Ah Xing, Yichuan, Truekeep, and Ning were astonished at the power of this formation.

  “Formidable.” Ninefire sent mentally. “Although I have long heard of the power of Dong Ziqi’s Eight Trigrams Blood Dragon Formation, I’ve never fought against it. It seems that the eight dragons within the formation are all comparable to a peak Zifu Disciple. With the eight joining forces…the power is truly astonishing. Even if the six of us truly want to go all out and kill him, most likely three of us would die.”

  “There’s nothing in life that has no risk.” Granny Shadow sent. “Let’s kill this Dong Ziqi!”