Desolate Era (Book 11 - Book 15)

Ning looked at his disciple, then turned to stare at the levitating Mount Innerheart. It had only been a month, but he had already accepted a disciple and killed ten great sinners. Bluecliff Xiaoyu’s golden glow of karmic virtue stretched to more than nine hundred meters…and now, Ning’s own clean aura of holiness had also transformed into the golden glow of karmic virtue!

However, his divine sense told him that his own golden light of karmic virtue merely stretched to be three feet long.

Actually, the process of accepting a disciple and killing the monster kings had already caused his clean aura of holiness to become quite dense; after he killed the wicked Patriarch, it suddenly transformed into the golden light of karmic virtue.

“Three feet of golden karmic light, compared to nine hundred meters for my disciple.” Ning laughed, then pulled Xiaoyu by the hand as he flew upwards.

“Xiaoyu, the mountain up ahead is Mount Innerheart. This is the place where Master’s school is located,” Ning said with a laugh.

Xiaoyu stared at the massive levitating mountain, then lowered her head to look at the endless world beneath them. “Master’s school?” She felt rather stunned.

They flew into Mount Innerheart, went up the mountain road, and soon arrived at the gates. Xiaoyu was only Ning’s disciple, and so Ning didn’t take her to see the eldest apprentice-brother.

At the gates were those two azure-robed Dao-novitiates. When they saw Ning, they immediately bowed and said with great respect, “Patriarch.”

“Mm.” Ning nodded.

Still stunned, Xiaoyu let Ning tug her forward by the arm. After passing through the gates, Xiaoyu came back to her senses. She whispered, “Master, it seems as though those two novitiates at the gates were very powerful?”

“Both were Void-level Earth Immortals,” Ning said casually.

Just as Ning’s words came out, two extremely ancient and powerful Void-level Fiendgods walked over. Both of them called out with tremendous courtesy, “Patriarch?”

The feeling these two ancient Fiendgods gave Xiaoyu…was that they were even more terrifying than the monster kings. They caused her to quiver and shake! And yet, they referred to her master as ‘Patriarch’?!

They continued walking up the mountain path of the Tristar Crescent Abode. As they did so, they encountered humans, monsters, and even Fiendgods, all of whom had powerful auras and many of whom were even more terrifying than the monster kings. And yet, upon seeing Ning, they all showed extreme respect, addressing him as either ‘Patriarch’ or ‘Uncle-Master’.

“It seems as though my master has a very high status in his school. On our way over…it seems everyone we ran into had a lower status than him. I haven’t even met a single person on his level,” Xiaoyu murmured to herself.

“The Divinities Palace is up ahead,” Ning said.

“Divinities Palace?” Xiaoyu looked curiously at the nine-storied Divinities Palace. Many disciples of Mount Innerheart were congregating outside of it, and they all respectfully bowed towards Ning and addressed him as uncle-master or as Patriarch. Little Qing and Uncle White ran straight towards him; they were spiritually connected to Ning and knew exactly where he was.

“Master.”

“Ning, child.”

Both Little Qing and Uncle White ran over.

Right at this moment, a handsome, white-robed man walked over from the entrance to the Divinities Palace. This was naturally the controller of the Divinities Palace, Silvermoon. Silvermoon smiled as he walked over. “I heard, junior apprentice-brother, that you accepted a disciple and subdued viledoers in the world below us. This would be the apprentice you took on, yes? What a pretty little lass.”

“I’ve finally met someone of the same generation as Master…and they seem quite friendly. He doesn’t have any frightening aura at all,” Xiaoyu mused silently to herself.

“Xiaoyu, hurry up and pay respects to your uncle-master,” Ning instructed.

“Greetings, uncle-master,” Xiaoyu said as she hurriedly bowed with respect.

“Since you’ve addressed me as uncle-master, I need to prepare a gift for you.” Silvermoon shook his head and laughed. “It’ll be hard for a little girl like you to make proper use of a good treasure. Mmm…keep this little toy with you. Even if a Celestial Immortal wants to kill you, it’ll be able to protect you for the time needed to boil a kettle of tea.”

As he spoke, he tossed a jade brooch towards Xiaoyu.

Xiaoyu was rather stunned. A Celestial Immortal’s attacks? Able to withstand them for a short period of time? This tiny little brooch? Not even the treasure which her master had given her was this incredible.

“But…but…” Xiaoyu couldn’t help but feel awkward at the ‘pricelessness’ of this treasure.

“Hurry up and take it,” Ning chortled. “This jade brooch is nothing to your uncle-master. He kills Celestial Immortals as easily as killing chickens.”

“Junior apprentice-brother, you…fine, I admit that I did indeed make this jade brooch in a rather casual manner. I’ll also give you another gift then, a Greater Teleportation Dao-seal. I’m not capable of forging them; I used treasures to trade for it.” Silvermoon handed over a Dao-seal to her.

Ning’s smile became incandescent. His senior apprentice-brother was an Empyrean God; although a Greater Teleportation Dao-seal was a treasure to Ning, it wasn’t much to Silvermoon. It was only fair for him to seize this opportunity to milk Silvermoon for a few things.

Xiaoyu blinked repeatedly.

Two treasures? Given away so casually? Kill Celestial Immortals as easily as chickens? This…what the hell type of school had she been recruited into?!

“Little Qing, show Xiaoyu around the Tristar Crescent Abode and help her familiarize herself with this place. Chat with her a bit as well; she still doesn’t know what sort of a school the Tristar Crescent Abode is,” Ning said with a laugh.

“Yes, Master.” Little Qing immediately responded with excitement.

Ning immediately said, “Senior apprentice-brother, I am going to go to the Three Realms Palace.”

“Go, go,” Silvermoon said, nodding his head and smiling. “It seems you are going to leave our master’s tutelage soon.”

……

The Three Realms Palace.

Second apprentice-brother Crazy Ji was beaming merrily here as he waited for Ning.

“Senior apprentice-brother.” Ning bowed.

“Master told me that you passed the trial. This is the full copy of the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art]. You can learn it now.” Crazy Ji held his fan in one hand and used the other to hand over a scrolled bamboo book.

Ning’s eyes instantly lit up. The [Eight-Nine Arcane Art]? After he gained a basic level of expertise in it, his body would be like an Immortal-ranked magic treasure. He would definitely be able to give the Riverfang Mountains another try by then.

“Thank you, senior apprentice-brother.” Ning immediately accepted the bamboo book. He sent his divine sense into it, and instantly an utterly prodigious amount of information began to flow into his soul.





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Book 13, Chapter 29 - Training in the Arcane Art


By the time Ji Ning came back to his senses, it was already dark.

He was still standing outside the small building. As for the nearby Crazy Ji, he had long since gone back to sleep and was snoring contentedly.

“Although my soul is unfathomably more powerful than it was back when I learned the [Starseizing Hand], it still took me many hours to process all that information.” A hint of a smile was on Ning’s face. This feeling of complete confidence was quite wonderful. He had fully memorized the method of training in the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art].

“It truly is the number one divine ability in the Three Realms for those below the True God level.”

Ning smiled as he walked into the Three Realms Palace.

“Junior apprentice-brother, you can just put the complete copy of the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] back in the Three Realms Palace. If you want to choose something else, you can do so.” Crazy Ji lay there, seemingly mumbling in his sleep. He then turned and started to snore again.

Ning smiled. He turned and bowed. “Yes, senior apprentice-brother.”