Desolate Era (Book 11 - Book 15)

……

Many of the disciples of Mount Innerheart were gathered in the empty area. Even Little Qing and Uncle White had hurried over here. Because Ning had sent his two spirit-beasts a mental message earlier, telling them that he was going to challenge the ninth golem, Little Qing and Uncle White had paused their training and hurriedly ran over to watch the fight.

“Can it be that Patriarch Ji Ning is going to challenge the ninth golem? He’s already defeated the eighth golem nine times by now, right?”

“He might really be challenging the ninth golem!”

“There are so many of us here, including some monsters that have lived here for tens of thousands of years, but none of us have ever defeated the ninth golem.”

The other disciples were all stealthily chatting amongst themselves. In fact, some of them even spoke out towards Little Qing or Uncle White.

“Azure Skysnake, Whitewater Hound, which golem is Patriarch Ji Ning challenging?”

“Little sister Qing, don’t tell them, just tell me alone.”

Over the course of the past thirty years, Little Qing and Uncle White had become quite familiar with these disciples.

Uncle White smiled. Little Qing just raised her head proudly. “Just keep watching and you will find out.”

The distant Ning and Silvermoon were currently chatting with each other. These two both had very high statuses, and generally speaking the normal disciples of Mount Innerheart wouldn’t dare to speak to them too often.

Whoosh. Silvermoon waved his hand, and a golem appeared out of nowhere.

This golem’s entire body was a white jade color. Around his right arm were nine circular loops, and the invisible aura of power emanating from him was quite strong.

“The ninth golem!”

“The ninth!”

“Uncle-master Ji Ning is actually challenging the ninth golem!”

Instantly, a series of startled cries rang out as everyone felt excited.

Life here at Mount Innerheart was too relaxed and peaceful. Normally, everyone just focused on quietly training in the Dao. Thus, when someone went to challenge the ninth golem, many of the other disciples would cluster around to watch. And this particular challenge…was issued by Ji Ning, who had just become a member of Patriarch Subhuti’s school around thirty years ago, and who had been selected as the Old Patriarch’s future personal disciple. This naturally caused great excitement.

……

Within the testing grounds. Ning and the ninth golem stared at each other from afar.

“This is your first time challenging me, but your Fiendgod body is only at the peak Primal level,” the ninth golem said, his eyes flashing with hidden sharpness as he carefully inspected Ning.

Ning knew that this ninth golem had been personally forged by his master, Patriarch Subhuti, and that it was comparable to a Pure Yang treasure in power. It had its own soul and possessed intelligence.

A pair of Darknorth swords appeared in Ning’s two hands. “Enough chit-chat. Show me your most powerful sword attacks.”

“Hmph.” The ninth golem let out a cold snort as a wide, heavy sword appeared in his hands. “Then I’ll play with you for a bit.” As soon as his words came out, the ninth golem took a single step forward, causing the ground to tremble as he suddenly appeared in front of Ning. He had moved so fast that Ning couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows. Ning’s feet moved just slightly as he simultaneously sent the twin swords in his hands blocking upwards.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh….

A massive illusory wave that seemed to fill the heavens suddenly appeared. Ning’s sword-arts had reached a high enough level that it could call upon the aid of a large amount of natural energy, thus generating this sort of manifestation.

The illusory wave swept forward, Ning’s sword-light within it.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The ninth golem’s heavy sword carried incomparable savagery and dominance, and with each stroke the heavy sword smashed against the wave!

Ning’s sword technique was more tenacious and powerful, and it came out in a steady, unbroken stream. By contrast, the ninth golem’s sword technique was more savage and ferocious. However, in the face of Ning’s unbroken, flowing string of attacks, the ninth golem was finding it increasingly hard to hang on.

“So you have a bit of talent after all. If I don’t bring out some of my true power, I won’t be able to beat you.” The ninth golem produced a second heavy sword in his other hand as well.

Boom. Boom. The two heavy swords began to whirl out, seeming to have transformed into an enormous windmill and creating the massive illusion of a whirlpool above it! The enormous whirlpool illusion clearly represented an enormous amount of natural power had been summoned…and the ninth golem’s sword technique clearly became even more savage and dominating! It carried a crushing, grinding power that was able to completely suppress Ning!

“Sword Roaming the Three Realms!” Upon being suppressed, Ning instantly changed his sword technique. He immediately executed ‘Sword Roaming the Three Realms’, which he had perfected while in closed-door training. Two streaks of dazzling sword-light flew out like a pair of black dragons that were swimming through the air. These two roaming black dragons twined around each other as they pounced towards the enemy.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Their respective sword-lights clashed out three times.

Suddenly, everything came to a halt.

The ninth golem and Ning had moved past each other while exchanging blows. Their backs were to each other, and the ninth golem was completely unmoving. As for Ning, he put away the Darknorth swords in his hands.

On the golem’s chest, there was a wicked, savage-looking wound!

During their three clashes, Ning’s sword had clearly been a slight bit faster. Although it was only faster by a small amount…it had been the deciding factor in this battle.

The ninth golem lowered his head to look at the wound. The wound on his chest disappeared in the blink of an eye.

“You win.” The ninth golem turned, giving Ning a glance. “You beat me in our very first fight; you can now enter the ninth floor of the Divinities Palace.”

“Jadesuffer, this is my junior apprentice-brother; it is only natural that he beat you.” Silvermoon walked over.

“Junior apprentice-brother? The Old Patriarch took on a new disciple?” The ninth golem looked towards Ning in surprise.

“The more disciples who defeat you, the closer you are to freedom. You should be happy. Alright, time for you to go back to your place.” Silvermoon waved his hand, instantly collecting the ninth golem again.

“Junior apprentice-brother, congratulations.” Silvermoon smiled towards Ning. “Come, let’s go into the Divinities Palace.”

“Right.” Ning nodded. He immediately followed Silvermoon into the Divinities Palace.

The disciples of Mount Innerheart watched this all happen in a daze. They stared as Ning and Silvermoon entered the Divinities Palace.

“He won!”

“He actually won!”

“Patriarch Ji Ning defeated the ninth golem.”

“What a dominating sword-art…what a terrifying sword-art!”

“Uncle-master truly is a peerless Sword Immortal.”

All of them sighed in endless amazement.

“It has only been thirty years, right?”

“It has only been about thirty years since the Patriarch became the Old Patriarch’s disciple, right? Thirty years ago, the Patriarch was just barely able to defeat the fourth golem, but after thirty short years, he has actually defeated the ninth golem. I’ve been here on this mountain for nearly a million years!” A six-armed Fiendgod whose body was wreathed in dim flames muttered to himself, then shook his head and sighed. “You humans truly do have a ridiculous level of comprehension.”