Desolate Era

by RWX

  Ning nodded. This was what he had planned to begin with. He had originally wanted to seek out various powers, so as to use their strength against the Youngflame clan. He hadn’t expected he would run into his cousin!

  “There’s no harm getting to know more of the clans and tribes which are feuding against the Youngflame clan,” Ning said. “Uncle White, Little Qing, let me go train in my private room for a time. If there’s nothing important, don’t call for me.”

  And then, Ning returned to his own private room. As for the underwater estate… it was secreted within that very room.

  Whoosh!

  Ning entered the private room. Within it, there was actually a secondary door. Upon opening it, he immediately arrived at the enormous main hall of the underwater estate, filled with those giant prayer mats.

  The giant yellow bear was within the main hall, smiling as he looked at Ning. “King Yan truly is a fine fellow; earlier, when he swept his entire royal estate with his coresense, he scanned our Immortal estate as well. When he realized that there were layers of restrictive spells on it, he didn’t try to send his coresense to penetrate through them.”

  Coresense… this was something a level higher than even ‘divine sense’.

  Immortal cultivators were primarily divided into two categories; the one before and the one after the Celestial Tribulation. The category before the tribulation was a category filled with misery and painstaking work, faced with the Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations and countless dangers. The ‘divine soul’ of this level was independent; even after becoming a Primal Daoist, although the divine soul would enter the body of the Primal, it would just be nurtured there within it. The soul itself was still stand-alone and independent. Independent souls could divide into two, and the split half could be trained into a ‘Primaltwin’.”

  The second category of Immortal cultivators was those who had overcome the Celestial Tribulation. After it, the divine soul and the Primal would truly fuse together. There would be no distinction between the two; each would be part of the other. This was a true transformative change, and over the process of it, the ‘coresense’ would emerge as well.

  This was a form of power that was even more formidable than ‘divine sense’. A form of power that was able to touch on the hidden, underworld currents of fate and destiny.

  “This royal estate is his territory, after all; some Celestial Immortals will carefully investigate everything which is brought onto their estate, or even force their way in to take a look. King Yan, however, went out of his way to avoid scanning this estate again.” The giant yellow bear nodded in approval; clearly, he was quite approving of the way this King Yan acted.

  “If he insisted on using his coresense to investigate?” Ning asked.

  “I could forcibly deny him,” the giant yellow bear said. “Or, I could allow his coresense in and let him believe that he had already found everything, when in reality, he would be ridiculously wrong.”

  Ning nodded. He then sat down in the lotus position, and with a wave of his hand, produced the five peacock plumes. The peacock plumes emanated powerful ripples of might that were not one whit weaker than that of an ordinary Immortal-ranked magic treasure. The space and world around them even seemed to begin to congeal. Still, compared to the Thousandbull Sword, it was still rather weaker.

  “What a pity. A peacock with plumes that manifested from the Five Elements actually died at the Void-level. If he had overcome the Celestial Tribulation, the various major powers of the Three Realms would probably fight over him as a mount,” the giant yellow bear sighed. “The more monstrously powerful a Godbeast is, the harder it is for them to overcome the Celestial Tribulation.”

  “…a mount?” Ning was speechless. Poor Godbeast; his destiny was just to become a mount at best?

  Ning then stretched out both of his arms, beginning to absorb the extracted essence of the Five Elements contained within the five peacock plumes.

  Ning executed a special technique, and his palms began to be covered with the Divine Starseizer Runes. The divine runes glowed with light, and the round runes began to spin, vaguely generating a devouring power that seemed to fill the region. The Five Elements peacock plumes began to try and resist, not willing to allow the essence of the Five Elements within theselves be lost.

  However, these were nonliving items; how could they overcome the technique? Slowly, one strand after another of essence was extracted from and flew out of the five peacock plumes. The strands were golden, azure, watery-blue, fire-red, and dark yellow. The five types of essence continuously flew out and into Ning’s twin hands.

  Slowly, Ning’s entire body began to send out one ripple of power after another as well.

  Time passed on. The five-colored essences continuously flew into Ning’s hands. After a long period of time, Ning finally put his hands down, halting the absorption process.

  “That’s enough.” After having absorbed enough of the Five Elements essence, Ning began to activate another technique. Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! His twin hands began to emanate a blinding, pentacolor aura of light. The strength of the light was incomparably strong! His hands were no longer ordinary items; they were more like magic treasures, and the powerful ripples emanating from them vastly surpassed those given off by Heaven-ranked magic items in power.

  Slowly, the pentacolored aura of light swiveled and spun into Ning’s palms, transforming into a chaotic mash of colors. Immediately afterwards, the round divine tattoos on Ning’s palms once more began to expand and become even more profound, with some additional, complicated diagrams appearing. As they did so, the ripples emanating from them began to grow even more terrifiyingly strong.

  “The [Six Cycles of the Starseizer]… the second Cycle is completed!” Ning revealed a look of delight.

  “Whew.” Ning clenched his fists. BOOM! BOOM! Both fists exploded with power, causing sonic booms. Even the surrounding space, which had been congealed and frozen by the Five Elements peacock plumes, trembled and shook, with the energy within beginning to fluctuate.

  “My pair of hands… they are far more powerful than even Heaven-ranked magic items. They are comparable to Immortal-ranked magic items now.” Ning sighed in amazement. “From the first Cycle to the second Cycle… it truly is a major rise in power. Only after training to the second Cycle can my Fiendgod body truly explode with the power it should have.”

  Actually, the true [Starseizing Hand] technique was to transform one’s hands into weapons. When receiving the legacy, Ning had seen one image after another of Daoist Threelives using his own hands to launch attacks! The hands of Daoist Threelives were more terrifying than any magic treasure. He had no need of any magic treasures. His hands were the most powerful of magic treasures.

  Ning, however, used his hands to control his swords!

  “Ji Ning, after having mastered the second Cycle, your [Starseizing Hand] has already reached the highest level of power which your current Fiendgod body can withstand.” The giant yellow bear nodded and said praisingly, “Train harder. You are only at the eleventh stage of the [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens]; if you were to train to the tweltfth stage, then you would have an even better chance at the Conclave of Immortal Destiny.”

  “Senior, if I use the [Starseizing Hand] at the Conclave… wouldn’t I be revealing myself? Supposedly, the Conclave will attract attention from some of the most formidable figures of the Three Realms,” Ning said.

  “Don’t worry. As long as you don’t reveal the Divine Starseizer Tattoos, they won’t be able to realize what you are doing, no matter how many times you use the technique,” the giant yellow bear said with a laugh. “At most, they’ll believe that you have access to some sort of powerful divine ability or secret art… or perhaps they’ll believe that your weapons, the Darknorth swords, are incredibly powerful. There’s no way they’ll be able to guess at the true might of your divine ability.”

  Ning nodded.

  “There’s no major power who
, just by glancing at your physical body, can recognize the divine ability you are using,” the giant yellow bear said. “Unless it’s one of those special attack divine abilities, or those divine abilities that allow the body to instanteously increase in size. Those are all immediately recognizable. Aside from that, it’s incredibly hard to recognize the vast majority of divine abilities.”

  “Eh?” The giant yellow bear frowned. “Someone is coming.”

  Ning could sense it as well. A servant had arrived outside the gates to his Immortal estate. “I’ll take a look,” Ning said.

  Swoosh.

  Ning quickly arrived at the gates to his Immortal estate. The servant outside it said respectfully, “Outside our royal estate, a short old man who styles himself ‘Immortal Fivecraze’ wishes to see you, milord.”

  “Immortal Fivecraze?” Ning was startled, but he immediately said, “Understood.”

  Outside the gates to King Yan’s Estate. There was a rather sloppily dressed short elder who was waiting here. As Ning appeared at the gates, Ning immediately cried out in delight, “Patriarch.”

  “Ji Ning.” Immortal Fivecraze beamed as well.

  “Please, come in, Patriarch.” Ning hurriedly led the way. “Come to my place.”

  “Alright.” Immortal Fivecraze nodded.

  ……

  Immortal Floatcloud had been waiting outside this entire time, waiting for a good opportunity to assassinate Ji Ning.

  “Senior, Ji Ning has arrived at the gates to the royal estate.”

  “Is he coming out?” Immortal Floatcloud grew eager and excited.

  “No. He went back inside. It seems he was welcoming a short, sloppy-looking old man.”

  “Keep watching for me.” Immortal Floatcloud was beginning to grow a bit frantic. When he had sworn the oath to the Dao of the Heavens, he had said that he would kill Ji Ning within three days; else, his soul would be shattered. If Ji Ning continued to hide within King Yan’s estate for three days and refused to come out, then Immortal Floatcloud would have no choice but to allow his soul to be destroyed.

  ……

  Ji Ning led Immortal Fivecraze back to his own Immortal estate, preparing Immortal wine and fruit for him.

  “Patriarch, how did you know I was here at King Yan’s Estate?” Ning said with a laugh.

  “I came here for the express purpose of seeking you out,” Immortal Fivecraze said.

  “Seeking me out?” Ning was surprised.

  Immortal Fivecraze nodded. “Right. Your master, Immortal Diancai, has gone out adventuring. Before doing so, he asked us to all give you a hand. Our Black-White College is unable to help you directly fight against the Youngflame clan. The only thing we can do… is give some of the secret arts and manuals of the school to you. We wanted to do so, but we weren’t able to find you. Just now, we received word that you had appeared in the Heavenly Treasures Mountain of the imperial capital. Only after I arrived at and searched everywhere in the Heavenly Treasures Mountain did I learn that you had entered King Yan’s Estate.”

  “I’ve brought scrolls for your Ki Refining Technique and your Fiendgod Body Refining Techniques over,” Immortal Fivecraze said. “Also the divine abilities and secret arts of our College; I’ve brought all of them as well. Look at and memorize all of them; after memorizing each one, destroy it.”

  As he spoke, thirty-six formation flags suddenly appeared in midair around them. As they hovered there, they emanated a series of pulses of light which covered the region.

  “Not even Celestial Immortals can think about spying on you.” Immortal Fivecraze looked at Ji Ning. “Hurry up and view them.” As he spoke, he offered them to Ning.

  Ning was speechless. So Immortal Fivecraze had hurried all the way from Stillwater Commandery to deliver him divine abilities and secret arts?

  “Don’t stand there like a fool. You are a student of the Black-White College; you are supposed to be able to train in these anyhow. The point of those so-called black-white pellets is just to ensure that you will work hard and test yourself. We can’t just give everything to you without making you work for it, right?” Immortal Fivecraze sighed. “This is all the Black-White College can do for you now…”

  * * *

  Book 11, Chapter 24 - Invitation

  Ji Ning’s eyes stung.

  After killing Youngflame Nong, Ning had never hoped for the Black-White College to help him, their disciple. In truth, he felt guilt towards the Black-White College. Because of him… the relationship between the Black-White College and the Youngflame clan had almost assuredly turned quite stiff. Thus, Ning had only planned to rely on his own power to fight against the Youngflame clan.

  “Master… Master went out adventuring?” Ning asked, worried.

  “Right. Your matter… your master is unable to assist you in resolving it. This had a tremendous impact on your master. In addition, he isn’t certain of his ability to overcome the Celestial Tribulation. Thus, he is going to go out and adventure and temper himself.” Immortal Fivecraze said with a sigh, “However… how can the matters of the world always go as you desire them to go? Your master is too stubborn and fixated.”

  Ning didn’t say a word.

  “Hurry up and read.” Immortal Fivecraze handed the [Flowing Watersource] to Ning.

  “Right.” Ning nodded. No matter how many thoughts he had in his mind, given his power was insufficient, those thoughts were useless.

  “In the past life, or in this life… my goal is to have my destiny in my own hands.” That powerful desire filling Ning’s heart continued to cause his Dao-heart to grow firmer. He flipped through the second half of the [Flowing Watersource], memorizing it carefully. After doing so, a flame emerged from Ning’s hand which completely burned the book into ash. Next, Immortal Fivecraze gave him the third scroll for the [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens].

  The full copy of the [Flowing Watersource]. The third scroll of the [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens]. The full copy of [Heavenly Transformation]. The full copy of the [Divine Thunderbolt Eye]. The full copy of the [Myriad Hibernating Venoms]. The full copy of [Three Heads, Six Arms]. The full copy of the [Eye of the Luminous Heart]. The full copy of the [Soulshaker Art]. The full copy of the [Soulcharmer Art]. The full copy of the [Soulslayer Art].

  This was what Immortal Fivecraze had brought him. Almost all of the most important divine abilities and secret arts of the Black-White College; he had brought them all for Ning.

  After each read, Ning would burn the book.

  Some of the divine abilities took up ten full books. Immortal cultivators had utterly astonishing memories, but Ning still needed to read all the way to the dawn of the next day before completely memorizing all of the techniques. But of course, halfway through the process, Ning had taken a break and taken the Patriarch to participate in the dinner banquet which Princess Xiyue had prepared for him.

  “No need to see me off.”

  Ning was at the gates to the royal estate, sending off Immortal Fivecraze.

  “Ji Ning…” Immortal Fivecraze looked towards Ning, then said with a laugh, “Last night, I could tell from the banquet that King Yan treats you with great importance. He is a Celestial Immortal Patriarch, and yet he views you so highly; you need to work hard! Every bit of help the Black-White College can possibly give you, we have already! As for myself, I’m just trying to overcome as many tribulations as I can before succumbing. I don’t have much time left to me. I truly hope to be able to see one of the disciples of the Black-White College become a Celestial Immortal. Your master is striving to do this; you need to as well.”

  “Right.” Ning nodded.

  “In the imperial capital, when you are alone, you need to be careful.” Immortal Fivecraze cracked a smile. “Since you are going to the Conclave of Immortal Destiny, you need to go all out. If you can apprentice yourself to a major power of the Three Realms… by then, the Youngflame clan will be completely stupefied.”

  “Right. I’m going t
o go all out.” Ning nodded.

  “Alright. I’m leaving now.” Immortal Fivecraze turned and left. He was holding up his calabash of wine, appearing to be quite relaxed and at ease. Moments later, he disappeared from Ning’s field of vision.

  Ning took a deep breath. In this moment… Ning felt an incomparably powerful sense of belonging for the Black-White College.

  “No matter how much time passes… I, Ji Ning, shall forever be a disciple of the Black-White College.” These were the words Ning said silently to himself.

  And then, Ning turned and returned to the estate.

  ……

  “Senior, Ji Ning came to the entrance of the royal estate.”

  “He’s coming out?” Immortal Floatcloud asked frantically.

  “He just went back inside again.”

  Immortal Floatcloud’s face was filled with undisguisable franticness. He barked, “Keep watching!”

  Although he was a Loose Immortal, and although he was extremely patient… he had already sworn an oath to the Dao of the Heavens before Patriarch Arcanum. He had to kill Ji Ning within three days.

  “It’s already been a day and a half!” Immortal Floatcloud said frantically to himself, “Ji Ning, oh, Ji Ning… are you going to stay inside the entire time? Then my death will really have been for nothing.”

  ……

  Within King Yan’s Estate. The underwater estate.

  “Ji Ning, that fellow named Fivecraze brought over quite a few divine abilities and secret arts. The secret arts are one thing; you can do as you please. But of the divine abilities, you absolutely cannot train in the [Myriad Hibernating Venoms]. Absolutely not,” the giant yellow bear said.

  “Eh?” Ji Ning said, surprised, “This [Myriad Hibernating Venoms] is said to be one of the most powerful divine abilities the Black-White College possesses; the cost in black-white pellets is as high as the [Eye of the Luminous Heart]. They are the most expensive of all. And isn’t it better to have as many divine abilities as possible? There shouldn’t be any issues.”