Desolate Era

“A wonderful affair?” The silver-robed man had a puzzled look on his face.

Dong Fanyu said, his face all smiles, “I’m not going to hide this from you, junior apprentice-brother Wu. This time, we’ve come to deliver you a chance to render some major merits. At my Swallow Mountain region, we’ve just discovered an enormous elemental ore mine. This elemental ore mine has a circumference of four thousand or so kilometers…” Dong Fanyu spent quite a period of time praising the elemental ore mine.

“Elemental ore mine?” A clear, cold voice rang out, and a young man dressed in a long, beautiful black robe emerged from a side door of the hall. This young man had long, narrow eyes and a tall nose. He looked like a viper, and his gaze alone made Dong Fanyu tremble.

Dong Fanyu hurriedly rose to his feet, then asked in a low voice, “Junior apprentice-brother Wu, this is…?”

The silver-haired man had already risen to his feet early on, bowing towards the young man with incomparable respect. “Master!”

“Master?” Dong Fanyu was very shocked.

“This is my master, Adept Xu.” The silver-robed man said.

Dong Fanyu, upon hearing his junior apprentice-brother Wu address this person as ‘master’, immediately knew who this young man was. Immortal practitioners…couldn’t be judged from their outward appearances. The more powerful a person was, the more often they tended to look young. If you were to run into a young Immortal practitioner who looked like a child, one would have to be very careful!

Dong Fanyu was a disciple of Snowdragon Mountain, after all; he knew that his junior apprentice-brother Wu was a student of a core disciple of the main sect, ‘Xu Li’.

They were both students of the main sect, but the difference in their status was very different.

Snowdragon Mountain would divide up students based on their innate talent and potential. Some people who had the potential to break through to become Wanxiang Adepts or even had the chance to become Primal Daoists. Naturally, they would be heavily investd in. Xu Li was a core disciple, and had in fact reached the Wanxiang level more than sixty years ago.

“Dong Fanyu pays his respects to Adept Xu.” Dong Fanyu immediately bowed and saluted.

“You were speaking of an elemental ore mine?” Adept Xu said calmly. “Your Swallow Mountain branch actually discovered an elemental ore mine…so why have you come to invite my disciple?”

Dong Fanyu said hurriedly, “I don’t dare to hide anything from you, Adept…” He described what had happened in detail.

Adept Xu nodded lightly, a hint of a smile at the corner of his lips. “So that’s how it is. I didn’t expect that on this leisure trip of mine, I would encounter this sort of wonderful affair. Wu Qi, accompany your master on a trip to Swallow Mountain and take over the elemental ore mine.”

Dong Fanyu said, delighted and surprised, “Adept, if you go, then this matter will be settled!”

But although he was delighted on the outside, he was cursing inwardly. Discovering the elemental ore mine was a great accomplishment, but if the Swallow Mountain branch was actually able to take it over, that would be an even greater one! But for a Wanxiang Adept to now intervene…Wanxiang Adepts were extremely important members of Snowdragon Mountain. After all, the highest ranking Primal Daoists rarely involved themselves in worldly matters.

Thus, for Adept Xu to intervene and take over the elemental ore mine meant that when the main Snowdragon Mountain sect divided up accomplishments, the percentage that Adept Xu would receive would be very high.

For a Wanxiang Adept to intervene…it meant that every single Zifu Disciple would lose a majority of their potential rewards!

“How could a puny Ji clan necessitate a Wanxiang Adept to intervene.” Dong Fanyu felt misery in his heart, but on the surface, he looked incomparably excited. He didn’t dare say a single word of complaint.

Adept Xu gave this old fellow surnamed Dong a sidelong glance. He couldn’t care less about him. “Come. Let’s go to Swallow Mountain.”

Whoooosh.

A sailboat suddenly appeared beneath his feet. Adept Xu, Wu Qi, and Dong Fanyu all boarded the ship. Wu Qi then sent a message to the Zifu Disciples of his own clan: “I’m making a trip to Swallow Mountain. I will return in a few days.”

Swoosh. A white sail fluttered atop the sailboat, and then it transformed into a streak of light, piercing through the skies at an astonishing speed.

“So fast.” Dong Fanyu was in a state of shock. This was the first time he had flown on a flying magic treasure controlled by a Wanxiang Adept.

“We’ll only need two hours to reach Swallow Mountain.” Adept Xu said calmly.

Swish!

The sailboat left behind just a speck of light in the horizon, then completely disappeared. As for Dong Fanyu…he didn’t go invite any other Zifu Disciples. After all, since a Wanxiang Adept was taking part, why bother go asking any Zifu Disciples to come?

……………….

Within an ancient city. Within a hall that was in a rather remote location. There were five jade strips glittering with azure light. The jade strips were all the size of a palm and very slender, seemingly quite exquisite.

There were two servants seated within the hall. They were chatting amongst each other, bored.

“Bang!” “Bang!” Two of the jade strips suddenly shattered, one after the other.

The two servants were both startled.

“What was that? Was that a mouse?”

“How odd.”

They looked around with mystified looks on their faces. And then, one of them saw that two of the jade strips in front of them had completely shattered. He was so terrified that his face changed. “Life…life…” The other servant, seeing the look on his face, couldn’t help but mumble, “Why are you so scared? This is the governor’s estate. How could there be any dange-…life…life…” He, too, stared in terror at the shattered jade strips.

“The life tablets!”

“The life tablets are shattered!” The two servants stared at each other, their eyes filled with shock and terror.

“Quick, quick, report this.”

The two of them charged out wildly.

This was a major event!

Just moments later!

“Whoosh!” A ray of light surged into the skies, and standing above the ray of light was an old man with triangular pupils. His eyes were filled with savagery as well. “Two Zifu Disciples died? What exactly is going on in Swallow Mountain?!”

…………

“The life tablets, the life tablets are shattered!”

…………

“Life tablets!”

…………

In the instant that Ji Ning killed those eight Zifu Disciples, in the commandery cities around the Swallow Mountain area, one clan after another discovered that life tablets of their Zifu Disciples had just shattered. If the life tablet was shattered, that meant the Zifu Disciple was definitely dead! Naturally, these clans were shocked and enraged.

Some of the other Zifu Disciples even began to fly at high speed towards Swallow Mountain.

…………..

Within Swallow Mountain. Oxhorn Mountain, located eight hundred kilometers outside of the City of Ten Thousand Swords. The entire area was covered with black fog.

Ji Ning stood there, and around him was a group of Zifu Disciple corpses, including Dong Ziqi’s.

“Hrm?” Ning frowned. He could sense a savage, fierce aura constantly pouring into the Darknorth swords in his hands. Earlier, he had relied on the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] to kill, but to be safe, Ning had also kept the Darknorth swords in his hands. However, that ferocious aura coming from the corpses actually was drawn into the Darknorth swords.

“The Darknorth swords are weapons that have undergone the Fiendgod Bloodforging rites! They are able to absorb baleful auras, murderous auras, necromantic auras…but you have to personally kill someone.” Ning understood this. The boundless earth was filled with baleful auras in many places; for example, when Bei Zishan had tortured countless people to death, that place became filled with a tremendous amount of baleful auras and murderous auras. But because those countless people hadn’t been killed by Ning, Ning hadn’t been able to absorb those baleful auras.

But Ning had personally killed all eight of these Zifu Disciples.

The Darknorth swords were able to actively draw from them.

“How strange. Why is it that they can only absorb the baleful auras created by those I personally killed, and not other baleful auras?” Ning shook his head inwardly. He thought back to the Fiendgod Rites of Bloodforging, and to that ancient, powerful aura which descended that was unfathomably more exalted than even the ‘Dao’. “It makes sense. If it can grow just by absorbing any type of baleful aura, then it would be far too easy for Bloodforged weapons to grow in power.”

“Eh? In my body…?” Ning lowered his head.

Surges of savage auras were constantly entering his body; or, to be more precise, Ning’s Zifu within his body was drawing it all in.

Within the Zifu, that region which was filled with violet energy in the shape of a lake. That lake was formed from elemental energy, and above that lake of elemental energy there were various magical treasures, such as a flying boat, flying swords, and other items that temporarily didn’t need to be used. Amongst them was one of the Darknorth swords, which hovered there…

Given that he was holding two of the Darknorth swords in his hands, there was one of them that was still stored within his body.

Before establishing the Zifu, there was no way for a person to store magic treasures within the body! But upon doing so, ranked magic treasures and the Bloodforged weapons could be stored into his body. As for those unranked magic treasures, there was no way they could be drawn in.

“Crackle...”

The three Darknorth swords. Two were outside, one was within his Zifu.

They shared the baleful auras, wildly devouring them. As they did so, on the surface of the Darknorth swords there appeared a common character, from the Fiendgod language…‘Kill’. The Darknorth swords themselves were evolving; after they had undergone the Rites of Bloodforging, this was the densest collection of baleful auras which the Darknorth swords had ever devoured.

After all, the baleful aura generated from killing a Zifu Disciple was far denser than the aura generated from killing ten thousand ordinary mortals.

“All done.” Moments later, the three Darknorth swords all emerged to hover in front of Ning.

The glow of the Darknorth swords seemed to be even deeper.

He used his divine will to control those three Darknorth swords to slice through the air. Swishswishswish…

Ning even stretched out his palm to allow the Darknorth swords to slice against it. Three wounds appeared, then rapidly closed.

“They did indeed grow much sharper.” Ning revealed a look of surprise and delight. “It seems that to nurture these powerful Bloodforged weapons, there really is a need for much slaughter.” Ning, by nature, disliked wanton killing, but if someone was to violate and offend him and give his Ji clan no chance for survival, Ning wouldn’t show a hint of pity.

“Patriarch.” Ning said. “How should I attack the other group of Zifu Disciples?”

“Ji Ning.” Patriarch Ninefire sent back. “The other group has a total of seven Zifu Disciples and two Zifu spirit-beasts. The most powerful of them are Nong Zidao and Jadechild. Nong Zidao is a formations expert; he isn’t frightening in open battle. The other Zifu Disciples, even combined, are unable to do anything to you. The biggest problem for you will be that Jadechild.”

“Jadechild?” Ning nodded lightly.

“Jadechild should be an Fiendgod Body Refiner. I am always watching him. From their conversations, I can tell…that they are very confident in Jadechild. They know that twelve Zifu Disciples have died, yet still have full trust in Jadechild! I also heard those Zifu Disciples mention the phrase ‘divine ability’. If my guess is correct, Jadechild should be a peak Zifu Disciple who has learned a divine ability.” Ninefire sent. “A peak Zifu Ki Refiner who has a divine ability…his power will absolutely be at the Wanxiang Adept level. You must be careful.”

Ning nodded.

Wanxiang Adept level?

By relying on an elemental energy that was more powerful than the peak Zifu level, the Rainwater Sword Domain, and the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation]…Ning, too, could be said to have the combat ability of a Wanxiang Adept!

The enemy was a Fiendgod Body Refiner and had a divine ability?

“If you can’t kill Jadechild, do your best to kill Nong Zidao.” Ninefire sent. “Nong Zidao is their one and only formations expert. As long as Nong Zidao dies, there is no way they will be able to defeat our Netherwyrm Heavenlock Formation. We will still be able to hold on until the Grand Xia Dynasty's Celestial Envoy arrives.”

“Fine.” Ning nodded. “I understand.”

Whoosh!

Ning waved his hand, and a large number of storage-type magic treasures, flying swords, wings, banners, and other magic treasures appeared. These were all magic treasures that had been left behind by these eight Zifu Disciples.

“I’ll first retrieve all the ranked flying swords these people carry. After I bind all of them, perhaps my [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] will gain further in power. And then, at full strength, I will go battle that Jadechild.” Ning’s eyes were filled with a killing intent.