Desolate Era

by RWX

  Ning had spared no expense on this trip. He had bought quite a few unique treasures from the Heavenly Treasures Mountain, and the expense was no less than the amount he had spent to set up formations for Swallow Mountain.

  However, because Uncle White wouldn’t have enough time to set up the formation…Uncle White had chosen formations that could be established in a very short period of time.

  Although these formations were inferior to those three supremely savage formations of Swallow Mountain, Uncle White’s scheme still involved setting up ninety-two mighty formations, all of which were within the ten thousand kilometer area. If one didn’t include the three supremely savage formations, not even the formations layout of Swallow Mountain was this insane!

  “Quick, flee.”

  “Quick!”

  Ning didn’t kill the mortals.

  However…Ning showed no mercy to the Immortal cultivators. After destroying many of the formation-bases, their side was now able to use void blinks to engage in spatial teleportations! Some Immortal cultivators were fleeing in panic, but most were swept up by the Nightriver. Ning certainly didn’t have the inclination to go and protect those Immortal cultivators.

  “Kill, kill, KILL!” Mu Northson was the most savage of all. He was actually the first to charge out of Uncle White’s formations. Commanding the Winged Immortal golem, he unleashed the Seven Ruinous Thunderwinds to wildly kill all before him.

  Primal Daoists? Wanxiang Adepts? Zifu Disciples?

  All members of the Youngflame clan were to die!

  Seeing this, Ning couldn’t help but secretly sigh to himself…but he didn’t move to stop him. “If Cousin was here, she would also probably act in such a crazed manner. Still…I can’t let junior apprentice-brother kill too many. Sin is already beginning to accumulate around him.” Ning’s divine sense had previously seen that the amount of karmic sin and karmic virtue around Northson was ordinary, but now…a corrosive aura of sin was slowly beginning to manifest.

  It must be understood that very, very little sin would accrue from the killing of Immortal cultivators.

  However, Northson was simply far too powerful. What he was engaging in was sheer butchery, and so there would still be the accrual of some sin. In addition, given that he was killing so many…the amount of sin surrounding him had increased by quite a bit.

  “Junior apprentice-brother is weak. If he accrues too much sin…” Ning willed it, and the waters of the Nightriver became even more ferocious. In fact, they began to intentionally sweep towards the groups of fleeing Immortal cultivators, causing many of them to perish. Ning had always been surrounded by the golden light of karmic virtue, albeit just a little bit. Still, he clearly had reached that level.

  Now that Ning was controlling the Nightriver to attack, however…the aura of golden karmic virtue around Ning began to slowly weaken…before eventually transforming into a mere fresh aura of virtue!

  The density and range of that fresh aura of virtue was beginning to drop as well.

  “Kill, kill, kill…”

  Hatred.

  Death.

  The baleful auras of the slain Immortal cultivators began to swirl around Ning, causing the three Darknorth swords in Ning’s body to absorb them and transform them. When Ning had slaughtered many Earth Immortals and Loose Immortals during his battle at the Eastwoods mountain range, the Darknorth swords had reached a level of power that was comparable to that of top-grade Immortal-ranked flying swords. This time, he killed even more Immortal cultivators! However, they were all very weak, and so the amount of baleful aura Ning absorbed from them was even less than the amount he had absorbed from the bronze-armored Fiendguards.

  Still…there was a significant drop in Ning’s karmic virtue as he continued to butcher so many Immortal cultivators.

  “Where are they? Where’d they go?!” Northson suddenly discovered that there were no more targets near him. Suddenly…he saw a commandery city in the distance, a city which Ning had protected and spared with the Nightriver. A city with many ordinary mortals.

  Northson’s eyes were completely bloodshot. He was in a completely berserk mode; he couldn’t even differentiate between mortals and Immortal cultivators right now.

  He immediately flew out, planning to continue the slaughter.

  “Junior apprentice-brother, those are mortals! Mortals!”

  “So what if they are?! Every member of the Youngflame clan deserves to die!” Northson was utterly berserk.

  Ning roared back angrily, “If you kill them, karmic sinflames will descend and you will die as well!”

  ……

  When Ning killed Old Demon Windraiser and destroyed the local formation-bases, the many Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals in the surrounding areas of the Oldjade mountains had noticed it. They had all activated their own formations, at least ensuring that they could protect their parts of the Oldjade mountain range. The hundred thousand kilometer region that had been controlled by Old Demon Windraiser, however, was completely unprotected. They didn’t have a chance to do anything; the formation-bases had all been destroyed, after all.

  The Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals were all hovering in midair within the range of their formations, staring at the distant short, pudgy man who was controlling the Nightriver to destroy the world.

  “To act with such madness…it must be Ji Ning. As for that person who is releasing the Seven Ruinous Thunderwinds, it must be that ‘Mu Northson’.”

  “Attack. Let’s attack!”

  “Are we just going to sit here and wait?”

  Some of the Loose Immortals were enraged.

  “The Patriarchs have already instructed that if Ji Ning comes, we are forbidden from engaging him. We need to protect the clan as best as we can, while everything else will be left to them. I’ve already shattered the talisman; I trust that the Celestial Immortal Patriarchs will soon arrive,” a green-haired Immortal said in a low voice.

  * * *

  Book 15, Chapter 23 - The Underground Copper Pillar

  The western sea. The Seamless Gate’s gathering spot.

  Within the grand palace.

  The barefoot, loose-haired Celestial Immortal Blackheaven and Celestial Immortal Violetgrass were seated shoulder-to-shoulder at the front of the palace. Many other Celestial Immortals were also seated before them. They were all staring at an enormous mirror within the palace; this mirror was currently reflecting the scenes from the Oldjade mountain range of Easthill Commandery.

  “We’ve been searching for a chance to capture this Ji Ning, but who would’ve imagined that he’d go gallivanting off into the Youngflame clan’s base?” Celestial Immortal Blackheaven sat there, scratching his foot as he chortled, “It seems as though I won’t be forced to personally handle this puny little Ji Ning after all; the Youngflame clan will be more than enough to deal with him.”

  “Will the Youngflame clan be able to get it done? Last time, they were intent on handling him but ended up failing,” the nearby Violetgrass said with a frown.

  “The top ten clans of the Grand Xia Dynasty are all extremely powerful.” Blackheaven nodded. “If the Youngflame clan truly was willing to use their full power, going so far as to spare no expenses and even take out their trump card that is meant to only be used when the entire clan is at a critical juncture between life and death…they would definitely be able to suppress a young fellow like him, who isn’t even a Celestial Immortal, despite the fact that he has trained in the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art].”

  “Oh?” Violetgrass was surprised.

  “Just watch and see.” Blackheaven was extremely confident.

  ……

  Within an ancient tower.

  Celestial Immortals Arcanum, Goldclock, Deadwood, Sunfish, and Infatuation were all gathered here.

  “There’s something happening at the Easthill Commandery. They’ve asked us for help.” The five Celestial Immortals all sensed it right away.

  “At a time like this, the Kindwater clan
and the other clans wouldn’t be so foolish as to start a war against us. In addition, the foundation of any clan is their force of Celestial Immortals; killing Immortal cultivators and mortals of our clan makes no difference at all in that regard. Only Ji Ning, who has suffered our assaults and pursuit, would explode forth to take vengeance in this manner.”

  “It must be Ji Ning.”

  “There’s no question about it.”

  Patriarch Arcanum and the others guessed it right away.

  Because they had gone to act against Ji Ning, with the intention of not letting him continue to live…Ji Ning himself would definitely reveal his own fangs and launch his own counter-attack.

  “We’ve been waiting for him to make his move. For him to attack our territory is equivalent to throwing himself into our hands.”

  “Brother Flamefish.”

  “Brother Flamefish.”

  Celestial Immortal Goldclock and Celestial Immortal Infatuation both called out.

  Their voices transmitted to a completely different space. Moments later, a black foggy door appeared next to them, from which flew out a man. It was a man with unkempt red hair and who had some fish scales on his face.

  “Brother Flamefish,” Celestial Immortal Infatuation said with a smile, “This time, we’ll have to ask you to maintain control over the grand formation to take care of Ji Ning. The rest of us will coordinate with you.”

  “The Three Realms are currently in a state of turmoil, and so Master is busy with important matters,” Celestial Immortal Flamefish said in a low voice. “A puny little Ji Ning has already set back our Youngflame clan multiple times; this is an insult to our Youngflame clan! This time, we must succeed.”

  “Right.”

  “Of course.”

  “We are all aware.”

  Each of the others hastened to assent.

  Celestial Immortal Flamefish nodded. “Fine. Per our previous discussions…myself, Infatuation, Deadwood, Goldclock, and Sunfish shall join forces. We shall activate and execute the ‘Lesser-Yin Fiendtamer Formation’ to trap Ji Ning. Then, we shall capture him into the divine greatclock and keep him suppressed within it.” [1. Shao-Yin here refers to the Lesser Yin of the Four Phases, which are Tai-Yin (Greater Yin, aka the moon), Tai-Yang (Greater Yang, aka the sun), Shao-Yin (lesser Yin), and Shao-Yang (lesser Yang).]

  “With you taking charge, Brother Flamefish, we shall naturally succeed.”

  “Let’s go.”

  “Arcanum, you stand guard here.”

  Soon, Celestial Immortals Flamefish, Infatuation, Deadwood, Goldclock, and Sunfish all departed via a void blink as they headed towards Easthill Commandery’s Oldjade mountain range.

  ……

  “I’m back.”

  In the air above the eastern seas, a spatial rift appeared, followed by the emergence of a white-haired, white-bearded elder.

  “I didn’t expect that my true body would be destroyed in a single exchange.” The white-haired, white-bearded elder thought back to what he had seen, to that terrifying palm that had slammed him to death with one blow. “It seems he transformed into Daoist Voidgrace’s appearance to deceive me…it must be that Ji Ning which the Celestial Immortal Patriarchs spoke of.”

  This person was Old Demon Windraiser’s Primaltwin!

  Old Demon Windraiser was extremely powerful; his true body stood guard over his part of the Oldjade mountain range, enjoying luxury, while his Primaltwin roamed the Three Realms, causing his power to grow even greater.

  He had lived for over a million years, yet was still alive. In fact, the Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations which he had faced didn’t pose too much of a threat to him.

  “Ji Ning, eh?” A fierce light flashed through Old Demon Windraiser’s eyes. “You destroyed my true body…do you think I’ll just let you off?”

  Swoosh. Old Demon Windraiser immediately used a void teleport to once more go to the Oldjade mountain range. He was naturally very familiar with the area, and he quickly passed through the layers of formations, arriving at a place where the other Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals were congregating.

  “Brother Windraiser.”

  “Brother Windraiser.”

  The other Immortals all addressed him with great courtesy.

  Old Demon Windraiser said hurriedly, “I’m ashamed. Ashamed! Ji Ning suddenly attacked, causing my true body to be destroyed in a single clash.”

  “It isn’t your fault, brother Windraiser. Ji Ning is extremely powerful; even the Celestial Immortal Patriarchs gave us strict orders against engaging him. For him to be able to kill even someone as strong as you in a single clash…most likely, even if all of us joined forces against him, we would still end up dying. I really wonder what the hell this Ji Ning’s training method is,” a green-haired Immortal said.

  “Let him be smug for now. When the Patriarchs arrive…that will be the moment of his demise.”

  “The Patriarchs just appeared!”

  The Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals could all sense the spatial ripples. Raising their heads to look, they saw five figures appear in the distance.

  “Five Celestial Immortal Patriarchs?”

  “Our Youngflame clan actually has five Celestial Immortal Patriarchs?” These Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals were incomparably excited. The exact number of Celestial Immortals a clan had was a tightly guarded secret! Prior to this, even the current Godplume Duke, the leader of their clan, only knew of three of them…

  “A full five Celestial Immortal Patriarchs are making their move. This Ji Ning is dead for sure.”

  All of them waited eagerly.

  ……

  The Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals only dared to remain in hiding behind the formations. As far as Ning was concerned, they were nothing more than dancing, prancing clowns; he wasn’t worried about them at all. Controlling his massive Nightriver, he continued to cause destruction everywhere. If he was using a magic treasure, he would most likely only be able to destroy around a hundred kilometers or so of land at once, but with the ten thousand kilometer Nightriver at his disposal, he was able to cause devastation on a much wider scale.

  “Thankfully, I have the Thousandbull Sword…otherwise, this plan wouldn’t be feasible.” Ning was causing havoc at an extremely fast speed.

  Rumble…

  Mountains continued to shatter, and the earth continued to break apart.

  In addition, some lesser mountain peaks that had been fashioned into formation-bases were pushed away by the Nightriver but did not break apart. The Nightriver was able to discover many formation-bases, all of which Ning retrieved and collected. A grand formation could be destroyed for the lack of a single formation-base. Ning didn’t even know how many formation-bases he collected; most likely, it would be extremely hard for the grand formations to be set up within this hundred thousand kilometer region.

  “BOOM!” After a stone disc that was more than three hundred meters long was pulled up…

  “Eh? This is…” Ning’s face changed.

  Previously, his divine sense had only been able to discover some ordinary rocks and dirt underground. Everything seemed normal. But after that stone disc was pulled away…the scene below the ground completely changed! Clearly, there was a permanent formation stationed underground that could deceive both divine sense and coresense.

  Ning’s divine sense could clearly see…

  That there was an enormous, fiery red copper pillar buried deep within the earth, nearly three hundred meters thick and much more than a thousand kilometers in length. Because this fiery copper pillar was buried far too deep, Ning’s divine sense was only able to discover a portion of this pillar. The portion that he was able to discover, however, was already more than a thousand kilometers in length!

  The fiery copper pillar was covered with an enormous number of runes.

  “Now…what’s this?” Ning could sense that this was definitely an extraordinary object. When his divine sense touched it, he couldn’t
help but feel his heart clench.

  “Eh?” Ning suddenly raised his head.

  Five figures suddenly appeared in the air far away.

  Ning could no longer spare any time on analyzing the fiery copper pillar. “This fiery copper pillar has been buried underground this entire time, without being taken away. There’s most likely no way to actually take it away! It’s been buried here for who knows how long. There’s no rush for me to investigate it…after I kill these bastards of the Youngflame clan, I’ll come back and secretly investigate the secrets of this fiery copper pillar.”

  Whoosh!

  As the five Celestial Immortals appeared, Ning immediately ceased causing havoc. He immediately used a void blink to instantly teleport to the location where Old Demon Windraiser’s Palace of the Spring Sun was.

  Northson returned to that location as well. The Immortal cultivators were all dead by now. As for the mortals? With Ning blocking him, he finally relented. Next to him was Uncle White and Little Qing.

  “Uncle White, how is it?” Ning lowered his head, looking at Uncle White, who was in the shape of a large, snowy-white dog.

  “I’ve already finished setting up seventy-one formations,” Uncle White sent spiritually. “Although I haven’t managed to finish setting up all the formations, these seventy-one…should be more than enough.”

  “Good.” Ning sent mentally, “Wait for the five Celestial Immortals to enter the formation, then activate it.”

  Ning had already transformed into his usual appearance.

  The appearance of the Winged Immortal golem guaranteed that there would be no way for him to hide himself this time. In addition, he had already accomplished his goal; he had completely wiped out the entire ‘safe region’ within a hundred thousand kilometers. There was no need at all for him to hide himself anymore.

  ……

  Within the shattered rubble, Ning stood alone. Behind him was the Winged Immortal golem, a large snowy-white hound, and an Azure Skysnake.