The Desolate Era (Web Novel)

“Patriarch, how did you come up with the idea in advance of setting up a formation?” Ji Truekeep couldn’t help but ask.

This was the question which Ji Ning and the others had on their minds as well. None of them had seen the Patriarch set up the formation, and after the Zifu Disciples of Snowdragon Mountain had come over…there was no time to set up a formation either.

Ji Ninefire glanced at the people before him. “When considering matters, one needs to take a longer view of things. When I first had an inkling of how large this elemental ore mine was, I grew concerned that it would attract the greed of Snowdragon Mountain, and so I began to take precautions against them! What if Snowdragon Mountain came and tried to pressure us? Thus, early on, I set down the formation in the area around us. If we didn’t end up fighting, fine. If we did though, then we naturally have to seize the upper hand. As for why I didn’t tell the rest of you? If I told you and let you all be aware of the great formation around us, would you have all displayed such rage and grief? Snowdragon Mountain’s people probably would have realized, found the formation, and broken through it long ago.”

“Uh…” Ning and the others all nodded.

But Ning understood as well…

Although this wasn’t very strange or mysterious once explained, earlier, everyone had been stunned and astonished by the size and scale of this elemental ore mine. None of them, however, had thought to set down a formation first. This was a matter of experience and foresight!

“No matter what, my actions cause me to feel ashamed to meet the ancestors of the Ji clan. I’ve let the Ji clan fall into peril.” Ninefire said in a low voice. “I didn’t want to choose this path at all. Choosing this path means fighting Snowdragon Mountain head on. My Ji clan must sign an agreement as soon as possible with the Grand Xia Dynasty. Once we sign the agreement, we will at least be guaranteed of a thousand years of safety. A thousand years from now, I have faith that our Ji clan would have risen to prominence. Even if we are still weak though, a thousand years is enough time for our Ji clan to have made our arrangements.”

“Now…”

“Let’s go kill them, as many as we can. The more we kill, the less pressure our Ji clan will be under.” Ninefire swept his gaze across everyone. Granny Shadow. The old servant, Ah Xing. Truekeep. Yichuan. Ning. These were the top-tier fighters of the Ji clan. “I, Shadow, Ah Xing, and Ning will join forces to kill the He siblings! Truekeep, Yichuan, the two of you go deal with Ju San.”

“Yes.”

“Yes.” Everyone acknowledged the order.

Shadow hurriedly asked, “Then what about Dong Ziqi? He’s a calamity waiting to happen. We must eradicate him early on.”

“He and Muse have located each other and joined forces already.” Ninefire said. “We will deal with them in the end.”

“Let’s go. I’ll guide you through the fog.” Ninefire immediately advanced, and Granny Shadow, Ah Xing, and Ning all followed him. The four of them were the most powerful four members of the Ji clan. As for Truekeep and Yichuan, a corridor naturally formed for them through the mist, and they advanced at high speed as well.

……..

Within the formation.

Dong Ziqi’s face was icy and sinister. “I actually fell into the old crook’s scheme.” In the area around him, eight black crystal balls appeared out of nowhere, each of which was the size of a person’s skull. Within them, a faint image of a draconic shadow could be seen swimming about. The eight bloody trigrams on the black robe he was wearing immediately radiated a bloody light.

The bloody light encompassed those eight distant black crystal balls.

“Arise!”

One enormous, shadowy, blood-colored dragon after another appeared in front of Ziqi. There were eight shadowy blood-colored dragons. They swirled amongst each other, constantly roving about within the formation.

“Fellow disciples, stay where you are and do not move.” Ziqi shouted, while at the same time, he controlled his Eight Trigram Blood Dragons Formation, constantly expanding the scope of the formation.

As the scope of the formation increased, those eight shadowy blood dragons also swam about in a wider and wider area. Soon, the width of the formation reached a scope of three hundred meters, encompassing the nearby Muse within it as well. This sort of large formation, which spread out in every direction…made it so that even in a bewildering formation, there was no way one would be completely bewildered!

“Senior apprentice-brother Ziqi.” The gray-robed man, Muse, said in surprised delight. He was overjoyed at having been brought within the perimeters of the Eight Trigrams Blood Dragon Formation.

“Where are our other fellow disciples?” Ziqi looked around him.

“Not here.” Muse shook his head. “I’m the only one within your Eight Trigrams Blood Dragon Formation.”

Dong Ziqi ground his teeth, then immediately called out in a high voice, “I am together with fellow disciple Muse. He Fang, He Xing, the two of you need to be careful. And Ju San…take care of yourself.”

“Don’t worry.”

“We siblings aren’t afraid of them.”

“If they want to kill me, I’ll make sure one of them dies as well!”

Three voices rang out.

“Damnable.” Dong Ziqi said unhappily. “We fell into that old crook’s trap. Otherwise, if the five of us joined forces, how could we be put into such a situation by the likes of the Ji clan? I myself am able to kill more than half of them. Junior apprentice-brother Muse, your accomplishments in the Myriad Ancient Green Vines technique are quite profound. If you use the Myriad Ancient Green Vines technique, can you break this formation?”

“It would be very difficult.” Muse shook his head. “Even if I could break it, I would need a very long time, and I probably wouldn’t have enough ki energy.”

“Use it as much as you can.” Ziqi said. “I have a bottle of ki recovery pills. Take it.”

“Fine.” Muse gritted his teeth. “Then I’ll hand over the defense to you, senior apprentice-brother.”

Ziqi said confidently, “You are within my Eight Trigrams Blood Dragon Formation. Even if several of them attack together…I have no fear of them. The only thing I’m afraid of is that they won’t come for me! How detestable…if I had known earlier, I would’ve started to kill them from the start. Now, I can’t even find them, even though I want to kill them.” He, by himself, was equal to his other four fellow disciples if they joined forces. But unfortunately, although he had power, he had no place to exert it.

“Arise.”

Muse stood there, and a single seed fell into the ground.

Whoosh!

Many tendrils suddenly grew out from that seed, wildly spreading out in every direction.

“Bewildering formations will bewilder the senses.” Muse said in a low voice. “My vines will be affected by the bewildering formation as well. It will be hard for them to move in the correct direction. Still, these vines can constantly grow and expand towards empty areas…as long as they continuously fill up the area, if they continuously grow, then naturally they’ll be able to cover the entire formation, and perhaps even go beyond it. My mind is one with these vines. So long as the vines are able to leave the formation, I will know it.”

“But what I don’t know is how large this formation is. After all, when the diameter expands tenfold, the number of tendrils I need to grow is increased a hundredfold. The larger the formation is, the more exhausting it will be for my Ki.” Muse didn’t feel much confidence.

“Let’s go all out.” Ziqi gritted his teeth. “Trapped here, the only thing that will happen is that we will be butchered as they please.”

“Right.” Muse didn’t say anything further, striving to expand and empower his technique.

Rustle, rustle…

Countless vines frantically grew out and elongated, but in the bewildering formation, where they had no sense of direction, these vines grew out in a wild, unorderly manner as well. Still, one thing was certain…they were to grow in the direction of areas where there were no vines! To cover as much new space as they could!

…………

In another area.

Ning, Ninefire, and the others were present.

“The He siblings are up front.” Ninefire said. “I’ll launch the first attack, and then part open the mist. You will see the two of them. All of you, immediately use killing attacks.”

“Right.” Ning nodded.

Whoosh!

More than seven hundred sword-type magic treasures suddenly appeared in the area around Ning, each of which glowed with a hazy white light. The swords gently ebbed and flowed, unceasingly summoning and coalescing the power of the world. Ning’s ki was constantly being transformed through these magic swords as well, and in front of him, a dazzling, eye-catching white sword light had taken form.

[Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] – Level Nine!

“What a sharp sword light.” Ninefire, Granny Shadow, and the old servant, Ah Xing, were shocked. Although they hadn’t interacted with it, they could sense how sharp this sword light was.

Granny Shadow pointed with her finger, and in front of her, three flying swords appeared as well, each of which glowed with a faint, fiery light.

Next to her, the old servant Ah Xing lifted his hand, and a warhammer appeared within it.

“Let’s do it.” Ninefire waved his hand, and a mottled, five-colored flying sword suddenly pierced through the air. Ninefire was famous for using poisons and formations…although this flying sword was a ranked magic treasure, to be more precise, it was a poison sword.

……

A hundred meters in front of Ning, He Fang and He Xing, brother and sister, were present. The two had used a number of Dao-seals, and their bodies were covered by golden light. At the same time, two magic treasures were constantly flying around them, one which looked like an iron pestle, while the other was a strange-looking tiled jar magic treasure.

“We can’t see our surroundings. They will definitely ambush us. Be careful.” The green-haired man, He Fang, said softly.

“Right.” His younger sister, He Xing, was incomparably cautious as well.

Suddenly…

A five-colored flying sword suddenly descended at an astonishing speed. However, as the He siblings were constantly on-guarded, they immediately used their techniques to defend.

“Whoosh…”

The floating tiled jar suddenly emitted a large amount of green liquid into a watery curtain, which was incomparably tough and unyielding. Once the five-colored flying sword pierced into the curtain of green liquid, the speed of it immediately slowed greatly.

“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”

Three flying swords glowing with fiery light slashed through the skies as well. It was the three flying swords of Granny Shadow.

This instantly caused the faces of He Fang and He Xing, brother and sister, to change greatly. They hurriedly worked to block it as well, but the water curtain was beginning to be unable to withstand it.

“Bang!” An enormous black warhammer, carrying even more incomparably ferocious power, smashed straight through the quivering water curtain, and then smashed onto the golden light covering the body of He Xing, the younger sister. The golden light instantly trembled violently, as though it was about to shatter.

“Not good.”

“Quick, let’s run. If we stay here, we’re just going to serve as punching bags.” He Fang and He Xing, after having suffered successive strikes, had begun to panic. Clearly, there were quite a few enemies.

Swish!

A dazzling sword light suddenly slashed out in a lonely arc, leaving behind a beautiful, dreary afterimage as it instantly pierced through the quivering barrier of golden light covering He Xing’s body…