Desolate Era

by RWX

  A look of unconcealable excitement appeared on Ning’s face.

  The panic and pain in his heart immediately became transformed into hope!

  He had to acquire a divine ability!

  And then, he would go save his father, Uncle White, the Patriarch, and the others!

  “I have reached the Blood Drop Rebirth level as a Fiendgod Body Refiner. I can acquire a Mortal-ranked magic treasure from the Treasure Hall.” Ning hurriedly said. “Senior, please let me choose. I will make a quick selection. I’ll choose a powerful magic treasure, so that I can go attempt the Divine Abilities Hall.”

  The more powerful he was, the greater his chances would be in challenging the Divine Abilities Hall.

  “No need.” The giant yellow bear shook its head. “The Divine Abilities Hall is a test for Fiendgods of later generations. It forbids one from using elemental ki and any magic treasures! You have to use your power as a Fiendgod…and even your weapons will be provided to you by the Divine Abilities Hall.”

  “I’m forbidden from using elemental ki and magic treasures?” Ning hesitated slightly, but then he understood.

  This was a test. A test of his abilities as a Fiendgod Body Refiner. It made sense that all Ki Refiner things were forbidden.

  “You are only five years old.” The giant yellow bear looked at Ning. “You can wait until you are ten. By then, your power will be far greater. I imagine that if you go to the Divine Abilities Hall at that point, you will acquire even more powerful divine abilities. This Divine Abilities Hall is a place you will only be able to enter once. Are you sure you are going to enter now?”

  “Yes.” Ning nodded. “I am going to enter the Divine Abilities Hall immediately.”

  Perhaps, in five years, he would receive an even more powerful divine ability when he challenged the Divine Abilities Hall.

  But his father, Uncle White, and the others wouldn’t be able to wait.

  His father, by now, had most likely begun to execute a forbidden technique to delay Snowdragon Mountain. This was very possibly his father’s final hour of life.

  “If I can return to Oxhorn Mountain within an hour, perhaps I will be able to save Father.” Ning was filled with hope.

  He was fighting for every moment right now.

  “Since you’ve decided, then come.” The giant yellow bear strode directly towards a nearby corridor, with Ning hurriedly following from behind. The nearby old black bull mumbled, “What a waste. If you waited five more years, you would definitely acquire an even more powerful divine ability from the Divine Abilities Hall.”

  ………

  The bronze door to the Divine Abilities Hall was shut. The surface of the door was covered with the carving of a single giant hand. The hand seemed to be omnipotent, as though it blocked out the skies and covered the earth, filled with boundless power.

  The giant yellow bear only needed to take three steps to travel from the gate of the main hall to the gate of the Divine Abilities Hall. Upon arriving, as though it knew that Ning was currently very nervous, it turned to look at Ning, who was hurrying over like a flash of light.

  “Follow me in.” The giant yellow bear said.

  Rumble…

  The bronze door opened. The insides of the hall were bathed with boundless amounts of gray light. When the gray light fell upon the giant yellow bear and Ning’s bodies, they disappeared without a trace.

  “Rumble.” The door to the hall once more swung shut.

  The old black bull remained outside the hall. The old black bull raised its head, staring at the gate, then sighed. “Given Ji Ning’s talents, he is even more of a monster than Immortal Juhua. In addition, he entered this aquatic estate at a very young age…his situation is much better than Immortal Juhua’s was. In the past, when Immortal Juhua entered the aquatic estate, he was far older than simply ten years. There was no way he could enter the Divine Abilities Hall at all.”

  “If Immortal Juhua had the chance to challenge the Divine Abilities Hall and acquire a powerful divine ability, he probably wouldn’t have ended up becoming a Loose Immortal.” The old black bull sighed. “I wonder what sort of divine ability this Ji Ning will acquire.”

  Not even the old black bull knew which divine abilities this Divine Abilities Hall contained.

  ……….

  The blurry, gray area seemed to be an empty void.

  Ning and the giant yellow bear appeared out of nowhere within this location. Ning looked around himself, but could see nothing at all.

  “This can be said to be the most important part of the entire estate.” The giant yellow bear looked at Niing, then sighed. “I know that your family members are currently in mortal danger, but you only have a single chance to challenge this Divine Abilities Hall. I advise you, wait five more years. Five more years later, when you are more powerful, come and challenge this hall.”

  “I’ve made my decision!” Ning said.

  “Even the deaths of your family members aren’t as important as this opportunity.” The giant yellow bear said. “You still don’t understand what the divine abilities within this Divine Abilities Hall represent! This Divine Abilities Hall has seven mighty divine abilities; if you are able to acquire the most powerful of them, then in the future, you will even have the potential to dominate the Three Realms. By then, you can even locate your reincarnated family members. Even granting them their memories of their former lives won’t be too hard.”

  The giant yellow bear looked at Ning, then said frantically, “Your talent is the best I have seen out of the successors to this estate, ever since Master created it. Don’t squander your talent. I can tell you this…the number one divine ability within the seven divine abilities of the Divine Abilities Hall was personally left here by Master.”

  “The other six divine abilities were left behind by Master’s six mighty disciples.”

  “If you were to acquire Master’s divine ability…”

  “In the future, you have a chance of escaping the Three Realms and becoming a Celestial Immortal, and perhaps even of dominating the Three Realms.” The giant yellow bear said frantically. “In the future, it wouldn’t even be difficult for you to erect an enormous dynasty like the Grand Xia Dynasty, which would exist for untold years.”

  Ning, hearing this, was stunned.

  At first, the giant yellow bear hadn’t paid him much attention, but ever since he had gained insight into the Rainwater Sword Domain, the giant yellow bear’s attitude towards him had markedly changed.

  And now, the giant yellow bear clearly didn’t even want to let him waste this chance to challenge the Divine Abilities Hall.

  “I wonder what the first master’s background was?” Ning asked.

  “Countless years ago, after Pangu established the universe, but before the Three Realms of the Heaven, Netherworld, and the Mortal Realms were established, and before the three thousand great worlds, and countless minor worlds were created…” The giant yellow bear looked at Ning. “…as far back as then, the first master had already left behind this estate, for the sake of ensuring that his divine abilities would be passed down. Although Master had six mighty disciples, none of them lived up to Master’s requirements, and thus they did not acquire that mighty divine ability.”

  “After leaving down this estate, Master departed. To whence, I know not.”

  “After his departure, countless years passed. The War of the Primordial Fiendgods. The birth of the three thousand major worlds and the trillions of minor worlds…” The giant yellow bear looked towards Ning. “It was only due to luck and fate that this estate ended up in this world, one of the major worlds.”

  The giant yellow bear said solemnly, “I can tell you this. Given your power, you would at most be able to acquire the third divine ability. As for Master’s divine ability, the chances of you acquiring it are less than one in ten thousand.”

  Ning was stunned.

  He had guessed long ago that the first owner of the aquatic estate had an extraor
dinary history to him; he even had left quite a few ‘Pure Yang’ magic treasures in the Treasure Hall, which were above Immortal-ranked magic treasures in power. From this alone, one could tell how powerful the first master had been…but now, it seemed, this person was most likely an incredibly powerful figure of the Three Realms. The giant yellow bear’s words were correct. There was only one chance to challenge the Divine Abilities Hall…and only a single chance to acquire such a powerful divine ability.

  The giant yellow bear said, “If you miss this opportunity…you will most likely have to wait until you become a Celestial Immortal before you will have the chance to encounter such a powerful figure and gain another opportunity.”

  Ning hesitated slightly, then asked, “Senior, dare I ask, what sort of divine ability do I need to acquire in order to kill a middle-stage Wanxiang Adept?”

  “Any of the top three will suffice.”

  The giant yellow bear said, “If you are able to acquire the most powerful divine ability which Master left behind, then given how you already have the power of an ordinary late-stage Zifu Disciple Fiendgod, you can use that powerful divine ability to annihilate a middle-stage Wanxiang Adept with a single technique. However, you don’t even have a one-in-ten-thousand chance to acquire that divine ability, at your current level of power. Are you still going to make the attempt? This is your one and only chance to challenge the hall.”

  “I will.” Ning didn’t hesitate.

  Perhaps, after five years, he would be able to acquire that powerful divine ability, resulting in his future accomplishments being so great that he would be able to dominate the Three Realms, and even find his reincarnated parents and restore their previous memories to them.

  But…

  Even after his reincarnated parents received their memories back, would ‘they’ still truly be ‘themselves’?

  Once they were gone, they would be truly gone!

  “Even if I’m not able to acquire that powerful divine ability, I, Ji Ning, can still dominate the Three Realms in the future. I am still planning on meeting with Judge Cui once more.” Ning’s eyes were filled with boundless determination. “What’s more…who says I won’t be able to acquire that powerful divine ability? The chance might be less than one in ten thousand, but that’s still better than zero!”

  “Alas! Once you miss this chance, it will be forever gone!” The giant yellow bear shook its head, then disappeared into the void.

  Ning was left there by himself, with the empty, gray void.

  * * *

  Book 6, Chapter 29 - Strongman

  This gray, blurry space had nothing within it, but as Ji Ning stepped on and walked through the gray, misty space, it was as though he was stepping on solid ground.

  “Where is the test of the Divine Abilities Hall?” Ning swept his gaze across the area. Suddenly, with a ‘whoosh’ sound, an enormous, pitch-black tablet landed on the ground before him, covered with a dense cluster of more than a hundred Fiendgod characters.

  “Use your strength as a Fiendgod! Choose freely from the weapons next to you. Go forth and battle! Divine abilities are consummate skills meant for slaughter. The more strongmen you kill, the more powerful a divine ability you will require. If you kill too few, you might not even receive the seventh divine ability. The seven great divine abilities…they are right there. Kill as wildly as you can. In the instant when you collapse and your body is smashed, the test of the Divine Abilities Hall will conclude.”

  He looked at the Fiendgod characters carved atop the giant tablet. Not too far away from the pitch-black tablet, an enormous table suddenly appeared, covered with a large number of weapons. There were hundreds of swords, hundreds of sabers, hundreds of spears, staffs…countless weapons lay densely clustered atop the table.

  “So I really can choose as I please.” Ning was surprised by the number of weapons that had appeared. He didn’t dare hesitate at all.

  Swish! Swish! He hurriedly picked up two longswords that were comparable to his Darknorth swords.

  “Eh?” Ning hesitated slightly. “Just using swordplay and the Rainwater Sword Domain won’t use up too much of my concentration.” Instantly, a large number of small, thin longswords flew up from the table. In total, nine flying swords flew out. The giant yellow bear had only said that for this trial, the participant was not permitted to use any Ki Refiner techniques. As for his divine will…this was the divine will that he had gained through possessing an incredibly powerful soul. Naturally, it couldn’t be considered a Ki Refiner technique.

  “If I use my divine will to control these nine swords, although the power will be a bit weak, it will still serve in supporting me.” Ning mused to himself.

  This battle…he had to exert all of his strength within it, so as to acquire a more powerful divine ability. If he only received the sixth or seventh divine ability, even with it, he still probably would find it difficult to kill Adept Xu. The worst part of it was, neither the giant yellow bear nor the pitch-black tablet had informed him as to how many he had to kill to acquire the third divine ability or first divine ability.

  ……

  Immediately after Ning selected his swords, the gray mist in the void around him rapidly began to condense, forming one human-shaped figure after another.

  “This is!” Ning’s heart clenched. These human-shaped figures were all extremely muscular. They each had three savage eyes in their heads, and their entire bodies were virtually completely naked. The only thing they wore was something akin to a loincloth at their waists. All of their bodies bunched with muscles, and they held various weapons in their hands, such as axes, staffs, and warhammers.

  Their breaths rang out like thunder, and their steps caused the earth to shake. Their bodies were filled with a sky-shaking, savage aura. And in an instant, the area around Ning became completely filled with hundreds of these human-shaped freaks.

  “These are the ‘strongmen’ which the tablet spoke of?” Ning was startled. He had seen many books, and according to some of the legends recorded in the books, some of the great powers had ‘strongmen’ under their command. The so-called ‘strongmen’ were used to work as coolies to do physical labor. There were many different kinds of them, such as gateguard strongmen, cauldron-bearing strongmen, mountain-guarding strongmen, or even mountain-bearing strongmen and seastriding strongmen…

  They had different missions, different names, and naturally different levels of power as well.

  Strongmen, according to the legends, generally weren’t living creatures. They were servants with simple intelligences that were created by some of the great powers. But of course, there were some powerful experts who would serve some of the great powers, and willingly take on the title of ‘strongman’; this occurred as well. However, ordinary and extremely numerous strongmen such as these weren’t actual living creatures.

  “Kill!” “Kill!” The hundreds of savage, weapon-bearing strongmen rushed forward like the wind, charging towards Ning while running across the foggy ‘ground’. They roared the Fiendgod word for ‘kill’, and their savage triple eyes were locked on Ning. They moved so quickly that in the blink of an eye, they arrived next to Ning, who was three hundred meters away.

  “Die!” Rainwater slowly began to fall, encompassing an area of hundreds of square meters.

  The rainwater instantly became as sharp as knives. Instantly, it was as though thousands of knives fell down and chopped towards those strongmen. The rainwater, carrying the profoundness of the Dao within them, contained astonishing power. The strongmen all let out savage howls, but were chopped into pieces, and then transformed into fog which once more dissipated into the heavens.

  From far away, many strongmen continued to materialize, in even greater numbers than before.

  “Kill!” Ning didn’t hesitate at all. Controlling his rainwater, he began to attack those strongmen. The Rainwater Sword Domain was a Dao Domain, and was based off the insights he had gained into the Dao. As for the rainwater, it was forme
d from the energy of the world itself. These, too, could not be considered Ki Refiner techniques.

  “Eh?” Ning’s face changed slightly. “The strongmen are growing more powerful and becoming faster. Their bodies are growing sturdy as well. Even their axe and hammer techniques are increasing in power.” It was clearly becoming a bit harder for him to kill them through his Rainwater Sword Domain.

  …….

  This region of dreary gray space was producing strongmen nonstop. Ning, by relying on his Rainwater Sword Domain, was able to massacre them on a large scale, and so he was able to kill them quite quickly. In just the amount of time needed for five breaths, Ning was able to execute more than ten rounds of thousands of strongmen.

  “Slashslashslash…”

  The rainwater continued to chop down, leaving scars on the muscular bodies of the strongmen, but were unable to kill them now. “It’s no longer enough to rely on the Rainwater Sword Domain.” A fierce light flashed through Ning’s eyes. First, he condensed the nearby rainwater into swiveling petals of Waterflame Lotuses, and using this enormous petals of fire and water, he began to wildly crush and grind down the strongmen. The strongmen relied on their weapons to block and to dodge, but in the end, some still perished.

  Swish! Swish! Swish! Nine sword flashed pierced through the skies. These were the nine swords which Ning controlled through his divine will. Under Ning’s control, they all unleashed Ning’s most powerful sword attack…Rain Line! The reason why Ning had previously selected just nine swords was because he wanted to unleash his most powerful sword attacks. Ning’s divine will wasn’t able to control too many of them in doing so.

  “Cutcutcut…” It was like chopping vegetables. The divine will controlled the swords at merely the early Zifu Adept stage of power, but under the power of the Rainwater Sword Domain…the strength of the blows was absolutely astonishing. Sword light flew everywhere, and many warriors were chopped into two halves and dissipated into mist.