The Desolate Era (Web Novel)

“Pay their blood debt to us?” Mu Northson was startled, but then he frantically rose to his feet. “Senior apprentice-brother, this is my personal feud; even if I die, it doesn’t matter. But you…”

“No need to say another word.”

Ning shook his head, his gaze distant. “I’ve been wanting to fight with the Youngflame clan for quite some time now, but I’ve been biding my time and just enduring it for many years…it’s time to resolve this matter.”

“Senior apprentice-brother…” Northson was both frantic and worried. Although his heart was now filled with boundless hatred, he knew exactly how powerful the Youngflame clan was; from their battle against those four Celestial Immortals, Northson learned that there was still a significant difference in power between his senior apprentice-brother and the Youngflame clan. Thus, he didn’t wish for Ning to put himself in mortal danger!

“Wait here for me.” Turning his head, Ning strode out from the room.

Ning’s figure quickly disappeared outside the formation. No matter how frantic Northson was, there was nothing he could do.

……

“Uncle White.” Ning walked to one of the beaches of Brightheart Island, where he saw a Whitewater Hound lying on the ground, staring at the lake.

“Ning, son.” The Whitewater Hound rose to its feet. “The treasures have arrived?”

“Yes,” Ning said softly. “It’s time to go to the imperial capital of the Grand Xia.”

A hint of a desire to kill appeared in the Whitewater Hound’s eyes as well, a killing intent aimed towards the Youngflame clan. In his heart, he viewed Ji Ning as his nephew. He knew that the Youngflame clan had tried repeatedly to kill Ning…how could he not be angered by this?

“Let’s go.”

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Ning and the Whitewater Hound soared into the heavens. Moments later, they used a void blink to quickly depart from Swallow Mountain.

The imperial capital of the Grand Xia. Heavenly Treasures Mountain.

Ning and the Whitewater Hound descended straight downwards from the skies.

“Ji Ning!” A voice echoed in their eyes. Ning turned to look towards a particular residence within the main Heavenly Treasures Mountain, where he saw a silver-haired man. Ning and Uncle White immediately flew towards that residence.

“Senior Skyfox.” Ning walked over.

“Sit,” Skyfox said with a laugh.

Ning immediately sat down, while the Whitewater Hound lay down next to a flower basin within the courtyard.

“Ji Ning, you came quite fast,” Skyfox said with a laugh.

“The treasures are important,” Ning said.

Skyfox said with a loud laugh, “Don’t worry, all of the Five Elements treasures that you wanted have been assembled. Might I ask if you have prepared a high-grade Pure Yang treasure or an equivalent amount of other treasures?” As he spoke, Skyfox waved his hand. Instantly, a large number of enormous golden rocks appeared out of thin air, each of which was incomparably slick and glistening and radiated powerful auras of water. They were also slips of bamboo that were completely formed from jade, fist-sized drops of water, fiery flows of lava, and giant black chunks of a mysterious earthen material.

“Mmm.” Ning was instantly overjoyed upon seeing these things.

“The Xia Emperor truly is a trustworthy man.” Ning waved his hand. Instantly, Immortal swords radiating freezing auras or scorching auras suddenly appeared; these were the Sole-Ki Frost Swords and the Qiangang Inferno Swords.

Skyfox’s eyes lit up when he saw them.

“There are a total of forty-nine Sole-Ki Frost Swords and forty-nine Qiangang Inferno Swords,” Ning said. “They should be comparable to one high-grade Pure Yang treasure, yes?”

“Yes.” Skyfox laughed, then let out a sigh of praise. “Ji Ning, you truly do engage in business with style. These ninety-eight Immortal swords are indeed sufficient.”

Based on how treasures were valued, a single top-grade Pure Yang treasure was comparable to a thousand top-grade Immortal-ranked treasures. This was a rough equivalency, not an absolute one! After all, there were differences amongst top-grade Pure Yang treasures as well.

As for high-grade Pure Yang treasures, they were generally comparable to one or two hundred top-grade Immortal-ranked treasures.

The forty-nine Sole-Ki Frost Swords and forty-nine Qiangang Inferno Swords which Ning had brought out were a set that came from the same source! They were thus more valuable than a miscellaneous collection of top-grade Immortal-ranked flying swords, and so a total of ninety-eight of them was indeed enough.

As far as Ning was concerned, he had a thousand of these Immortal swords, while he could only use 729 of them at most. The other two hundred-plus were extras.

“Go ahead and inspect them.” Ning waved his hand, and the flying swords all moved towards Skyfox.

Skyfox immediately used his Celestial Immortal power to investigate them. “Yes, they are all excellent top-grade Immortal-ranked flying swords. Ji Ning, these Five Elements treasures are yours.” The many Five Elements treasures in midair all flew towards Ning, and Ning accepted with a wave of his hand.

Their trade had been completed!

“Ji Ning, if there is anything else you need, feel free to come find me.” Skyfox was in an extremely good mood. It must be understood that the Grand Xia’s control over this world wasn’t very stable right now, while those Five Elements treasures would need time to be refined into magic treasures; it was a fine trade for him to immediately acquire such excellent magic treasures for them.

“In the next two days, I think I will make some more requests of you, senior Skyfox,” Ning said. “However…this isn’t the time just yet.”

Skyfox was intrigued. He nodded lightly.

He then departed from the residence, but also instructed his attendant to wait here and obey Ning’s orders.

……

The black-robed Ning and a white-robed, white-haired man were seated facing each other.

“Let’s drink some wine,” the black-robed Ning said with a smile.

“Alright.” Uncle White was puzzled. Why had Ning suddenly released his Primaltwin? What was his true body doing?

……

The distant western seas, atop the secret island where the Seamless Gate’s forces had been stationed.

“How useless.” Violetgrass was seated atop her royal throne, a hint of anger gathering in her brows. “The exalted Youngflame clan was unable to kill a puny Ji Ning, even when he was completely unprepared. They truly have disappointed me. It seems our Seamless Gate will have to handle this ourselves.”

“Milord, let us attack Ji Ning; he’ll definitely perish.”

“At most, we’ll have to spend a bit of effort on it.”

“Milord, no need to be angry.”

The golden-robed Celestial Immortals before the throne were all eating, drinking, and laughing.

The maiden frowned. “It will indeed require a bit of effort. We’ll have to ask that old geezer to help out.”

Ji Ning had the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] protecting his body; her subordinates alone might be able to kill him, but it would still involve an element of risk! For example, the four mighty Celestial Immortals of the Youngflame clan hadn’t been able to kill him within an extremely short amount of time, resulting in his helpers arriving to rescue him! By this same principle…although her subordinate Celestial Immortals were definitely strong enough to completely dominate Ji Ning, they wouldn’t be able to break through the protection of the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art].”

“Exalted Immortal Blackheaven is arriving.” Suddenly, a figure appeared within the palace; it was a black-robed servant, who hurriedly said with respect, “Exalted Immortal Blackheaven has already left the Mount Stele major world and has gone to the Fifth World. He’ll arrive shortly.”

“That old geezer is arriving?” The maiden frowned.

All of the ten-plus golden-robed Celestial Immortals below her, however, all hurriedly rose to their feet. Celestial Immortal Blackheaven’s fame was widespread; although they were all Celestial Immortals, in the face of Celestial Immortal Blackheaven, they still felt a hint of nervousness.

This was because…

Celestial Immortal Blackheaven was an old freak that had power that was almost comparable to that of a Pure Yang True Immortal! He was one of the absolute most supreme of Celestial Immortals.

“Ahahaha, little baby girl Violetgrass.” After a spatial ripple, a loud laugh could be heard that echoed throughout the palace.

“Old bastard.” The maiden pursed her lips.

A figure walked into the palace. He looked like a middle-aged man with long, unbound hair. He walked in barefoot, looking rather unkept and dissolute.

“Exalted Immortal Blackheaven.”

“Lord Blackheaven.”

“Milord.”

The other golden-robed Celestial Immortals all hurriedly called out to him.

Exalted Immortal Blackheaven was someone which even the Gatemaster of the Seamless Gate had to give some face to. He was quite famous within the Three Realms. In terms of raw power in a frontal assault, he wasn’t that formidable; at most, he was on the level of Celestial Immortal Infatuation. But he simply was a master of far too many strange, unorthodox techniques.

Fleeing techniques? Trapping techniques? Poison techniques? He had far too many techniques at his disposal; even True Immortals or Empyrean Gods would be miserable facing him! He was considered something of a legend in the Three Realms.

“Little baby girl Violetgrass, I didn’t expect that you would end up begging for my help.” Exalted Immortal Blackheaven said smugly, “Ahaha, when I first saw you, you were a little baby girl…and now, you have made something of yourself.”

“You owe me, you old bastard.” The maiden frowned.

“Haha, yes…in the past, I did indeed promise to fulfill three requests of yours. You’ve used up one of them; this will be the second one.” Celestial Immortal Blackheaven laughed. “Speak! What do you want me to do?”

The maiden waved her hand, and a book appeared within it. She tossed it straight to the distant Celestial Immortal Blackheaven, who accepted it, read it, then frowned. “Ji Ning?”

“Within this book are all the intelligence reports we have gathered regarding this Ji Ning. Without question, he is not on our side; if he’s given time to grow and develop, he’ll probably end up being trouble for us. Thus, it’s best to get rid of him early on. The Gatemaster has instructed me to handle it, but I want to ensure that things will go exactly as planned, which is why I’ve asked you to help,” the maiden said.

“The [Eight-Nine Arcane Art]?” After reading through the intelligence reports, Celestial Immortal Blackheaven’s eyes bulged out a bit. He then raised his head head and said unhappily, “Little baby girl Violetgrass, this is a practitioner of the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art]; the only powers in the Three Realms who can teach and transmit the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] are those Daofathers. Those who have this art can be counted on two hands, and each of them are utterly terrifying. This Ji Ning’s master is most likely one of them, and could crush me with a single finger.”

“What are you afraid of? You think his master would dare intervene?” Violetgrass was disdainful.

“Maybe…” Celestial Immortal Blackheaven shook his head. “Too dangerous. This is too dangerous.”

“You old bastard!” The maiden said angrily. She knew this Celestial Immortal Blackheaven quite well; after all, she had followed the Gatemaster and Celestial Immortal Blackheaven when she was very young. Celestial Immortal Blackheaven was legendary for his cowardice and caution, as well as being skilled in unorthodox abilities.

“Fine.” Celestial Immortal Blackheaven said resignedly, “Perhaps the chances of his master intervening are indeed remote…since it is for you, I’ll let one of my clones go deal with Ji Ning.”

“A clone?” The maiden stared.

“Don’t worry. I’ll let my clone carry my ‘Polaris Godlocking Circlet’; once it emerges, he will definitely be locked in place by it, without any chance to resist.” Celestial Immortal Blackheaven chortled, “In the blink of an eye, I’ll have captured him. I’ll take him away and let you decide how to handle him.”

The maiden said, puzzled, “Polaris Godlocking Circlet’? What type of a treasure is that? Why haven’t I heard of it?”

“I have rarely fought others, from the Primordial Era to the present era. How much do you think you know? If it wasn’t for the fact that the Three Realms are about to be swept into a storm, I wouldn’t be willing to use any of these treasures of mine.” Celestial Immortal Blackheavens said loudly, “Alright, tell me…where is this Ji Ning? Tell me, and I’ll go collect him.”

The maiden, upon hearing this, laughed. “Our most recent intelligence places him at the imperial capital of the Grand Xia.”

“The imperial capital of the Grand Xia?” Celestial Immortal Blackheaven frowned. “That’s not a place I can go to. The Xia Emperor isn’t easy to deal with. After he leaves the imperial capital, I’ll make my move.”