Desolate Era

by RWX

“Snow, go. Little White, take her away!”

  In that battle, he and his accomplice, ‘Shui Yi’, were both just peak Zifu Disciples, while their opponents had both used forbidden arts. That woman’s older brother…he was enormously powerful! He had been able to lock down the two of them and let that woman, along with the other, heavily wounded youth, to escape.

  However, in the end, he and Shui Yi had naturally killed that woman’s older brother in their rage.

  “They…they…” Yu Dong’s entire body was beginning to char. He stared towards Ning with completely bloodshot eyes.

  “They were my father, mother, and uncle!” Tears began to appear in Ning’s eyes, and he growled out, “And I, I was the child that woman was pregnant with. I…have come for revenge!”

  * * *

  Book 9, Chapter 10 - A Disaster Caused

  “My uncle, Yuchi Mount. My mother, Yuchi Snow. My father, Ji Yichuan!” Ji Ning stared at him, his eyes filled with pain and madness. “At the time, you didn’t give a damn about them at all, did you? In fact, you’ve forgotten all about them. But now, I have come to take revenge for them!”

  Ning’s words came one at a time from the innermost depths of his heart. As for Yu Dong, he could feel the hatred oozing from the fur-clad youth. “This youth…he’s the child that woman was pregnant with?”

  “Twenty years…it’s only been twenty years. That child was born, and now is easily able to kill my master, Adept Mooncrescent. I…what the hell type of an enemy have I, Yu Dong, created for myself.” Yu Dong had always been extremely cautious and unwilling to offend important figures. Even when killing a few geniuses, he had been extremely cautious and made sure to leave behind no clues that it had been him.

  Unexpectedly, that pregnant woman he had simply wanted to catch in order to flatter and pander to young master Dong Seven had given birth to such a terrifying youth.

  “I…I actually fell due to this?”

  Yu Dong in absolute agony due to his torment, but in his mind, one scene after another flashed by. Scenes of how he had clawed his way up the ladder as a youth. In order to reach further heights, he had been willing to do anything! He had even been able to toy with and manipulate figures who were more powerful than him, and he had made them into his pawns. And now, he had become a Wanxiang Adept.

  “I’ve been calculating my entire life, but I failed due to this…” Yu Dong’s eyes were filled with torment. Suddenly, he let out a final, furious howl. “The heavens conspired against me! I don’t accept this, I can’t accept this!!!”

  As his howl rang out and echoed in the estate, Yu Dong’s charring body suddenly began to blaze with fire as his entire body started to roast. As for Ning, he just watched calmly. Suddenly, an incense burner appeared in his hands. “Collect it!” Ning willed this to be done.

  Ning’s divine sense could clearly see a soul be absorbed directly into the incense burner. There were many types of magic treasures that were meant to be used against the soul, such as the ‘Myriad Wraiths Banner’ and the like, that were capable of sucking souls into them. As for Ning’s incense burner, it was an item with a different purpose that had a similar effect. However, it was just meant to absorb in a soul and then destroy the soul’s power; it could be considered a sort of supportive treasure that couldn’t actually be used to attack.

  “This Yu Dong can be considered a formidable figure as well,” Northson sighed. “He was able to claw his way up from an ordinary commoner to the Wanxiang Adept level, and was even able to make Adept Mooncrescent’s daughter be willing to sacrifice her life for him! Formidable!”

  Halfway through his words, Northson suddenly stopped speaking. He couldn’t help but look at the nearby Ji Ning. This Yu Dong was Ning’s hated enemy, after all.

  Ning’s gaze was as deep and tranquil as the waters of a lake. He glanced calmly at the blazing corpse on the ground, then said calmly, “He was indeed a formidable figure. However, he was unscrupulous in his actions…for the sake of being able to reach a higher position, he was willing to do anything! For the sake of ingratiating himself to that young master Dong Seven, he was actually willing to act against my mother, even though she was pregnant! For the sake of protecting my mother, my uncle died on the spot, while my father’s future potential in his Immortal path was shattered.”

  “In the end, Mother and Father still died. Just for the sake of ingratiating himself with Dong Seven, he was able to do such a thing…” Ning thought back to what he had seen with his divine sense, and how Yu Dong had treated Yue Wei as he might a sex slave. This person was completely unscrupulous. As the saying went, if one often walked by the river, eventually, one’s shoes would get wet. Even if Yu Dong didn’t fall in Ning’s hands today, eventually, a different expert would have come to kill him!

  The path of Immortal cultivation was one of self-reliance! Tricks, strategies, outside sources of help, waylaying others…they would only allow one to rise to prominence briefly. In the end, the grave would await.

  Self-reliance was the only true, eternal path!

  “Whoosh.” Ning waved his hand, collecting all of the magic treasures within the courtyard. “Let’s hurry up and leave.” Ning looked towards Northson and Uncle White. “Earlier, that Adept Mooncrescent gave me a very bad feeling. I imagine he must have a significant background; we cannot tarry here.”

  “Alright.” Uncle White nodded. “Right.” Northson agreed as well. “That blood medallion of the Northmont clan proves that he is dangerous.”

  Soon, Ning’s group quietly snuck away from Mount Mooncrescent. Nobody noticed their departure at all.

  In midair. The dragon-headed warship once more changed colors, to a pure, pitch-black color as it slowly flew forward. “Father. Mother. Uncle.” Ning quietly murmured to them, “I’ve already killed one of our three enemies. Don’t worry. Not a single one of them will survive! And uncle’s only child…one day, I’ll find a way to find her.”

  Based on what Ning’s father had said, his uncle had a single daughter. But where exactly was this cousin of his? What was her name? What did she look like? Unfortunately, Ning didn’t know the answer to any of these questions. It would be very hard to find her.

  However, Ning didn’t give up, because the more powerful an Immortal cultivator was, the more options they would have to them…he had heard that some legendarily powerful Immortals could, with the flick of a finger, even be able to calculate what events would unfold in the future. If, in the future, he was able to learn these techniques, searching for his cousin probably wouldn’t be too difficult.

  The nearby Whitewater Hound just watched quietly. He also felt incomparably excited at having been able to kill one of their hated foes, and also felt gratified in his heart. He murmured silently to himself, “Big Brother, our child Ning has grown more and more powerful. Even a peak Wanxiang Adept was slaughtered by him. Ning’s name will definitely be spread throughout the vast, endless world, and he will become a truly influential and famous figure in the world ruled over by the Grand Xia Dynasty.”

  “Senior apprentice-brother.” Northson spoke out. Ning looked over to him. “Shall we go to the Cloudfields?” The Snowcloud Fields was the place where the Dong clan had established their foundations. Shui Yi was a Zifu Disciple of the Dong clan. If they were to kill Shui Yi, they would naturally have to go to the Snowcloud Fields. “Yes. We’ll go right now,” Ning said.

  “But that’s an extremely large clan,” Northson said hurriedly. “They have more than ten Wanxiang Adepts, and it is also the tribe of a Primal Daoist. Although that Primal Daoist stands guard over Snowdragon Mountain, he certainly will have left some protective techniques for his clan. And, at a critical moment, the Primal Daoist himself might hurry back.”

  Ning nodded. “I know. Don’t worry, junior apprentice-brother. I’m not so arrogant as to go head-on against a Primal Daoist.”

  “It’s good that you are clear-minded.” Northson nodded. When he had watched Ning kill Yu Dong, Northson had begun to worry
. He had personally undergone a similar experience, and he knew that once one faced the killers of one’s parents, one might go berserk, at which point one really might be capable of anything. He didn’t wish for Ning to throw his life away.

  “Ning, my son,” the nearby Whitewater Hound urged, “As I see it, let’s first investigate the treasures left behind by Adept Mooncrescent. I, too, continue to feel as though that Adept Mooncrescent was a very dangerous person.”

  “Alright.” Ning and Northson both nodded. They immediately began to bind the magic treasures left behind by Adept Mooncrescent and began to search through his storage-type magic treasures.

  Mount Mooncrescent was as calm and peaceful as before. The servants and retainers didn’t even know that Adept Mooncrescent had died. However, roughly two hours after Ning’s group had left, the surrounding space began to buggle and twist.

  Slash! A completely pitch-black sword-shaped warship appeared in the air above the mountain. Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh. One blood-robed figure after another immediately flew out from it, and in the blink of an eye, the skies became filled with thirteen of them. Their leader had a silvery flying sword embroidered on the sleeves of his robes. As for the other twelve, they had grayish flying swords embroidered on their sleeves.

  “Rumble…” A powerful divine sense instantly swept downwards, covering the area. The leader of the blood-robed men, a bald figure, had bizarre runes atop his skull. His gaze was icy cold as he stared downwards.

  “Captain? Second Brother, he…?” A blood-robed man next to the leader whispered. “He’s dead.” The bald, blood-robed man’s voice was gravelly; it sounded ear-piercing, like sabres clashing against each other. “Although his corpse has already been destroyed by the murderer, the aura of the battle is still present, and the scent of Second Bro’s blood remains in the air. Actually, back when Second Bro’s candle, which we had within our main hall alongside all the other candles, went out, he had already died! Only, none of you were willing to believe it…”

  “How could that be? Old Second Bro was close to the end of his life, and he had returned to Mount Mooncrescent to enjoy his retirement. He didn’t have any enemies, and even if he did, when he took out our blood medallion of the Northmont clan, shouldn’t he have been able to scare them off? Who would have dared to forcibly kill Old Second Bro?”

  “Ole Second Bro was extremely powerful as well. Old Second Bro acquired his Mooncrescent Saber Formation thanks to his many military accomplishments, and it was tremendously powerful. Perhaps a few geniuses at the Wanxiang level would be able to defeat him, but he should still be able to withstand them for a period of time. Giving his fleeing abilities, he shouldn’t have found it too difficult to escape.”

  “The only possibility is that someone knew all of Old Second Bro’s abilities, and so specially set things up so that they could kill him at one blow.”

  The group continued to chat amongst themsleves.

  “Old Second Bro fought in our squad for more than a century. Countless generations of brothers formed lifelong friendships with him! He had returned to his own Mount Mooncrescent, but was killed by someone here? The other old brothers won’t accept this lying down. Others should feel relieved if we don’t bully them; who dares to bully us?! We definitely must avenge him!”

  “We must take revenge!”

  “Whoever killed Old Second Bro, we must kill him. We’ll destroy his soul.”

  “The brothers of the Shadow Army cannot be killed without repercussion.”

  All of the blood-robed figures were filled with furious, baleful auras.

  As for the bald, blood-robed leader, he said in a cold voice, “Investigate! We must investigate this thoroughly! We need to find out who killed Old Second Bro. He had gone home to enjoy his retirement, but they still refused to spare him…we must find the killer.”

  “Right.”

  “Yes.”

  They all nodded.

  “Let’s go back. I’ll ask the Old Captain to help and also have the headquarters of the Shadow Army to initiate an investigation into who the murderer is.” The bald man said in a cold, grim voice, “Let’s go.”

  Whoosh. The group of blood-robed men all flew back into that pitch-black, sword-shaped warship. A spatial ripple once more appeared, and then the pitch-black warship disappeared into thin air once more.

  As for Ning, Northson, the Whitewater Hound, and Qingqing, they were going through the relics left behind by Adept Mooncrescent. Yu Dong’s items were mostly Mortal-ranked, and so they were the first to be bound. Ning’s group was surprised as the items contained within his storage treasures, because his wealth was actually comparable to Dong One and Northriver Zhou’s.

  However, Ning’s group was primarily interested in binding Adept Mooncrescent’s magic treasures. Finally, they were able to bind one of the storage-type magic treasures he had left behind, and they took out one item after another from within. Ning’s group began to closely investigate them. And as they did…all of their faces changed.

  “Oh, crap,” Qingqing muttered softly.

  * * *

  Book 9, Chapter 11 - The Culprit, Ji Ning

  After having bound Adept Mooncrescent’s storage-type magic treasure and taken the items out, Ji Ning and his companion’s faces changed.

  “This is…!”

  Ning’s gaze fell upon a blood-red robe. This blood-red robe emanated a sanguine aura, and it had a grayish flying sword sown onto the sleeve.

  “A battle-uniform,” Mu Northson said softly. “This blood robe is covered with many runes and can also serve as a construct-type magic treasure…if my guess is correct, this should be meant to be used in unison with a group of people who all wear this same robe. They’ll be able to join into one entity and unleash an extremely powerful joint attack.”

  Northson was a genius of the Dao of constructs; he instantly discovered this. As for Ning, although he wasn’t able to understand this as clearly as his junior apprentice-brother did, he was skilled in formations and so was able to discover that this war-robe was similar to a Dao-soldier’s armor.

  “Judging from the complexity of the runes on this blood-red robe…it’s definitely not something which an ordinary organization can produce,” Northson said with a frown. “Sects like Snowdragon Mountain are completely unable to produce this sort of uniform war-robe…and in fact, most likely even my master wouldn’t be able to produce it.”

  “He had the blood medallion of the Northmont clan,” Ning said in a low voice. “It’s very possible that he has some sort of a connection with the Northmont clan of Stillwater.”

  “Look at this.” Qingqing pointed at a leather parchment. They had removed several leather parchments from the storage treasure. “Don’t touch them with your hands,” Ning barked. And then, he carefully inspected the contents on the leather scrolls.

  “Old Second Brother, I, your brother, am going to retire as well. However, I will stay here at the Skylands world. I don’t want to go back…there’s nothing for me there. I’ve fought to subjugate the enemies for so many years here in the Skylands world, that I have grown accustomed to it. I have so many old brothers here, and I truly don’t wish to leave. In the past, you invited me to go with you to Mount Mooncrescent, but…forget it. If, in the future, you are free, please come to the Skylands world…”

  The contents of the leather scroll instantly made Ning’s scalp turn numb. Retired? Old Second Brother? Skylands world?

  “Retired?” Northson called out in shock, “Adept Mooncrescent must’ve been a member of an army, and judging from the blood-red robe…the robe should be the uniform which Adept Mooncrescent wore in that army! Because he was too old and was close to the end of his life, he came back to retire here.”

  “Old Second Brother?” The Whitewater Hound spoke out as well. “Given how long this Adept Mooncrescent had lived for, I imagine that all of his surviving brothers must be extremely old as well, which is why they addressed him as ‘Old Second Brother’. But this Sk
ylands world…”

  “Skylands world…?” Ning frowned as well.

  “Can it be one of the trillions of lesser worlds?” Northson whispered.

  The Three Realms were incomparably vast, and the ordinary, common worlds were exceedingly numerous. The worlds were divided into the three thousand major worlds and the trillion lesser worlds. Some of the trillion lesser worlds were naturally created by the universe, while some had been established by major powers!

  “Battling in the Skylands world?” Ning mused to himself, “The blood medallion of the Northmont clan?” Ning continued to ponder, while at the same time, he began to carefully read the other leather scrolls. Some had strange maps on them, while others were letters. Ning then looked at the other items. Slowly…a hypothesis began to form in Ning’s mind.

  The Northmont clan of Stillwater must have had a secret, hidden army, with Adept Mooncrescent having been one of the members of this army! Ning didn’t feel surprised at the fact that the Northmont clan had a secret army of its own, because the history of the Grand Xia Dynasty included quite a few rebellions by Marquisates. The mere fact that Marquisates would attempt to rebel was a testament to how powerful and how deep their roots were. They had existed from the Fiendgod Era until the present era; this was simply too long a stretch of time.

  Nobody knew exactly how deep the roots of the Marquisates were; it was quite normal for them to have secret armies of their own. As for the Skylands world, it must be one of the trillion lesser worlds, or a dimension which a major power had carved out for himself. In short, there should be living creatures within this world, which is why it needed to be subjugated.

  “Senior apprentice-brother, what should we do?” Northson said softly. “It seems as though Adept Mooncrescent was most likely a member of a secret army under the control of the Northmont clan of Stillwater. And, by the looks of it, he had battled for many years for them…he definitely must have an extremely good relationship with those lifelong, battle-tested friends.”