Desolate Era (Book 1 - Book 5)

Everything which had happened to him since he was young, as well as his appearance and his habits…they had all been collected and compiled.

Dong Ziqi didn’t care about anyone else in the entire Ji clan; the only one he cared about was this Ji Ning! He didn’t fear the current Ji Ning; what he feared was the future Ji Ning! Given Ji Ning’s talent…in the future, it probably wouldn’t be too hard for him to become a Wanxiang Adept.

“Junior apprentice-brother Muse, the member of the Ji clan with the most potential and who poses the greatest threat is this Ji Ning. The entire Ji clan treats him as their treasure.” Ziqi sent mentally. “He is still fairly young, however, and at present, he shouldn’t be too powerful. Zishan, that fool…aside from being able to forge that Myriad Wraiths Banner, which was fairly powerful, his own level of ability wasn’t that great. In addition, the results of that battle probably had something to do with that Wanxiang Adept. Ji Ning’s own level of power is most likely not that great.”

“Junior apprentice-brother, make a sudden attack and capture Ji Ning! By then, with Ji Ning in our hands, do you think the Ji clan will dare to disobey the orders of our Snowdragon Mountain?” Ziqi sent mentally. “Even in the extremely unlikely circumstance that they don’t care about Ji Ning’s life, we will then simply kill Ji Ning. Without him, the Ji clan won’t pose a threat to us at all in the future.”

“Right.” The gray-robed man nodded.

Ning was indeed a threat to them. Nobody feared Ning right now, but they feared the future Ning.

“Junior apprentice-brother, if you suddenly use your magic technique to attack, even I will have some trouble fending it off. You shouldn’t have any problems in subduing Ji Ning.” Ziqi sent mentally. Although his power was greater than that of Muse’s, he had to first activate his Eight Trigrams Blood Dragon Formation. By the time he did so, the Ji clan would probably be at maximum vigilance.

Thus, they had to make a sudden attack, and succeed in an instant! For this, Muse was the best choice.

“Leave it to me. I made a breakthrough in this technique of mine not long ago.” Muse sent back mentally with great confidence.

“Then we’ll just wait for you. Once you take down Ji Ning…we will have the upper hand.” Ziqi said.





* * *





Book 5, Chapter 17 - Longing! Rain Line!


At a single glance, Dong Ziqi saw clearly the Ji clan’s weakness. His thoughts were completely correct; Ji Ning was indeed the future pillar of the Ji clan! In this group of Ji clan experts…even if Ji Ninefire and Granny Shadow had to die, they wouldn’t let Ning die!

“Ninefire, I urge you to obediently hand over the official writ.” Ziqi frowned as he shouted.

“My Ji clan is indeed weak and small, which is why we are willing to offer this elemental ore mine to you without requesting any part of it. But for you to try and forcibly take over our official writ…you are perhaps going too far! The official writ is the foundation of the Ji clan. How can my Ji clan…” Ninefire’s face changed halfway through his words, and he couldn’t help but lower his head to look at the ground.

The ground was trembling slightly.

Dong Ziqi’s group of five stood in the distance, and in their midst, the gray-robed man’s eyes flashed. The ki in his body had long ago entered the ground. By the time the Ji clan’s Zifu Disciples sensed it, the technique had already been executed!

“BOOM!”

Strands of green, wooden vines emerged suddenly from the ground, all of them flailing about wildly, covered with a layer of deep green light. The thin, slender strands of vines twined about each other like a tough cord rope. They suddenly emerged from the ground beneath Ning’s feet, instantly wrapping themselves around Ning!

Fast!

Completely caught off-guard!

“What!” The faces of Ninefire, Granny Shadow, and the others changed. In the blink of an eye, Ji Ning, who had been standing next to them just moments ago, had been wildly entangled by those countless rattan vines.

“Quick, save Ji Ning!” Granny Shadow shouted.

“Too late!” Dong Ziqi, standing in the distance, just laughed loudly as he spoke.

Bang!

The countless vines wrapped around Ning whipped out violently, throwing him towards the ground. With a rumble, an enormous crevice appeared within the ground, with Ning and those vines already burrowed deep within the ground.

“Snowdragon Mountain, you actually…” Ninefire’s face was savage.

“Release my son.” Ji Yichuan was frantic as well.

Every member of the Ji clan wanted to save Ning, but the sudden emergence of those vines, which had wrapped around Ning and then thrown him underground, caused them to not know what they should do to save him.

“Hahaha…” Dong Ziqi just laughed wildly as he turned to look at the gray-robed man. “Junior apprentice-brother Muse, bring Ji Ning over here…” Dong Ziqi’s face suddenly changed, because he saw that his fellow disciple’s forehead was matted with sweat. Clearly, he was already going all out in this struggle.

“That Ji Ning is currently breaking through my technique…” The gray-robed man’s eyes had turned red, and he was pouring all of his ki into the technique.

…….

Underground.

A seed had grown into thousands of wooden green tendrils, which were now heavily entangling themselves around Ning. Within the entangling clutches of the vines, a Waterflame Lotus was surrounding Ning, constantly swiveling around him and frantically resisting these tendrils, unceasingly killing them one by one while the dead vines were unceasingly being reborn.

“Immortal practitioners truly have many techniques at their disposal. This technique wasn’t included in our intelligence reports. I wonder which branch member of Snowdragon Mountain used it.” Ning had suddenly suffered an attack, and this attack was too fast, giving him no time to break through before he had been thrown underground.

Due to the constriction of the tendrils, the amount of space Ning had to move in was too limited, giving him no chance to use the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] at all.

Thus, the first thing Ning had done was to execute the Waterflame Lotus.

“Swivel, swivel…” The Waterflame Lotus slowly swiveled, grinding those thin vines that wanted to entangle Ning into dust. Nearly five years had passed since that battle with Bei Zishan, and during these five years, Ning’s improvements with regards to his understanding of the Dao had only grown greater and greater.

If early on, the insight he had gained with regards to the Dao was just a thread, over the course of time, he had gained more threads of the True Meaning of the Dao.

These many thin threads…had drawn close to each other, naturally resulting in a thicker thread.

Ning’s time spent at Serpentwing Lake in particular, where he was virtually always in tune with the world…had resulted in him reaching a very high level of understanding. Actually, this was something which could only be accomplished by an Immortal practitioner who had reached a very high level of understanding. When one could always be in tune with nature and always be able to go attune with the Dao, it was only natural that one would gain many insights into the True Meaning of the Dao.

His level of understanding had risen.

Thus, the power his Waterflame Lotus now had was naturally much greater than before. That murderous grinding power alone would most likely instantly grind even peak Xiantian experts into tiny pieces in but an instant.

“Darknorth sword.” Within the Waterflame Lotus, Ning drew forth a Darknorth sword.

“Longing! Rain Line!”