Desolate Era (Book 11 - Book 15)

Soon, a carriage that was completely wreathed in golden flames and which was pulled by two enormous azure phoenixes flew out. In front and behind the carriage was a crowd of Golden Imperials, all of whom had heroic, vigorous auras and who seemed to move as one. Clouds naturally manifested in the area around them, and the Golden Imperials all flew forward, striding on the clouds.

“Azure phoenixes, to the Heavenly Treasures Mountain,” the green-robed woman said, seated within the carriage.

“Yes, Princess.” One of the azure phoenixes spoke out in the human tongue. Immediately afterwards, the two phoenixes began to pull the carriage forward. Escorted by the Golden Imperials, they immediately flew towards the main Heavenly Treasures Mountain.





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Book 11, Chapter 13 - Dharmic Decree


Escorted by a ring of Golden Imperials, the azure phoenixes pulled the Immortal carriage to the main Heavenly Treasures Mountain. As they arrived, the Heavenly Treasures Mountain proactively sent someone out to welcome them; after all, this was the exalted Princess Xiyue of King Yan’s estate.

“Little sister Xiyue.” A white-robed, fairy-like maiden with an extraordinary aura that stuck out from the crowd went to welcome her.

“Elder sister Azurewillow.” Princess Xiyue emerged from the Immortal carriage, revealing a smile.

“Little sister Xiyue, why have you come to the Heavenly Treasures Mountain? You come here quite rarely. I was planning to go visit you in a few days,” the white-robed maiden, Azurewillow, laughed. Fairy Azurewillow… she was a reincarnated female Immortal, and in the past, she had been a Loose Immortal of the Skyfarmer clan. After reincarnating, she had once more been reborn into the Skyfarmer clan!

Azurewillow, a Primal Daoist, was an extremely high ranking member of the main headquarters of the Heavenly Treasures Mountain, and a very close friend of Princess Xiyue’s.

“I wanted to come and take a look, so I did.” Princess Xiyue and Azurewillow linked arms together. Clouds emerged beneath their feet, leading them forward towards a particularly wide hallway. Most ordinary guests, such as Ning, entered through an ordinary hallway.

“You should’ve come a long time ago. You always stay cooped up within the king’s estate. Don’t you feel stifled there? I feel stifled for you!” Azurewillow felt that this good friend of hers, Princess Xiyue, was excellent in all areas save for one; she was a bit too solitary. When the younger generation members of the various major clans located in the imperial capital of the Grand Xia met together, they would often discuss Princess Xiyue.

There were simply too many imperial descendants, and so ‘princes’ and ‘princesses’ had varying levels of status. King Yan, however, only had a single family member, Princess Xiyue, and so he doted heavily on her. Thus, her own status naturally became extremely high as well.

Many people believed… that the reason why Princess Xiyue was so solitary was because of her childhood. This was because no one knew about what she had experienced as a child; all they knew was that when King Yan brought Princess Xiyue back, she was already a grown woman.

“Right. Help me look into something,” Princess Xiyue said. “Someone named Ji Ning should’ve come to your Heavenly Treasures Mountain. Help me investigate and see where this Ji Ning is currently located? He should still be within your Heavenly Treasures Mountain.”

“Fine.” Azurewillow smiled, then stretched her divine sense out a few hundred kilometers, giving the instructions to a subordinate.

“It seems, Xiyue, that you came because of this Ji Ning. Ji Ning… the only person of this name that I can think of is that disciple of the Black-White College of Stillwater Province, who killed Youngflame Nong,” Azurewillow said.

“That’s the one.” Princess Xiyue revealed a smile as well. “I’m quite curious about him. He actually dared to kill Youngflame Nong.”

“I’m quite intrigued by him as well,” Azurewillow said.

Moments later.

“Found him.” Azurewillow said, “Ji Ning is at Fortunes Peak.”

“Fortunes Peak? Then let’s go to Fortunes Peak,” Princess Xiyue said directly.

The main Heavenly Treasures Mountain took up an extremely large amount of space. There were many mountain peaks within it, and the top of the mountain peaks appeared like the scales of an enormous kirin. Amongst them, there were nine peaks that were jointly referred to as the Fortunes Peaks. Every single one of them had hundreds of estates floating around them, all of which were surrounded by clouds. The dense clouds were more than thirty meters thick, forming into streets and traversed by carriages and maidservants.

Ning was seated in the lotus position atop one particular cloudbank, eating delicacies with Uncle White and Little Qing by his side, along with a maidservant who was awaiting his instructions.

Whoosh.

A ripple in the air above the mountain peak. Azurewillow and Princess Xiyue flew out together, landing atop a cloud. Both sat down, and instantly, maidservants came to deliver delicacies to them.

“Look. That’s Ji Ning, right over there.” Azurewillow gave Ning a glance.

Princess Xiyue followed Azurewillow’s gaze, quickly discovering that in that direction, there were quite a few clouds at various different levels, upon which were seated various guests. In fact, some of them were extremely respected, high-status members of the Grand Xia Dynasty, and they voluntarily smiled towards Azurewillow and Princess Xiyue.

“Eh?” Princess Xiyue quickly discovered that amongst the guests, there was a very ordinary-looking fur-clad youth. This youth was almost completely absorbed in his eating, and by his side was a snowy white hound and an azure serpent, both of whom were eating as well while chatting about how ‘this one tastes great’ or ‘the imperial capital lives up to its reputation’ or ‘I never tasted this in Stillwater Commandery’ or ‘we certainly came to the right place, master!’

“Ji Ning.” Princess Xiyue looked towards the distant Ning, a warm feeling in her heart. “They look so similar. He looks just like father!” Princess Xiyue murmured quietly to herself.

Ning’s appearance was more like that of his mother, Yuchi Snow. Yuchi Snow and Yuchi Mount, in turn, were actual siblings… as the saying goes, a boy will look more like his maternal uncles. Ning did indeed have many facial similarities to his uncle, Yuchi Mount. However, because Ning broke through to the Xiantian level quite early on, he had always looked just as he had when he was a youth. If he had made his breakthrough a few years later… given how tall he already was at age eleven, by age sixteen, he would’ve been quite massive and muscular.

“Little brother.” Princess Xiyue felt warmth in her heart, and her eyes couldn’t help but begin to glisten.

It had been far too long.

She had always been by herself. Even after her grandfather had found her and brought her back to the imperial capital of the Grand Xia, she was still very lonely. She dearly missed her departed mother, and her father, who would never return… every night, in her dreams, she would return to the warm, happy days she had spent with her parents on that island.

She wanted to return to that island, to go back to the life of a fisherman’s daughter. Unfortunately… there was no way to ever go back.

Her father’s life-tablet had already shattered. She had thought that she would never have any other family members… but Youngflame Nong’s death was discovered to have involved a youth, a youth whose mother was named Yuchi Snow, a youth who was supposedly a ‘spawn of the Yuchi clan’. Yuchi Snow…although she had never met this woman, she had heard her father speak of her. That was the one and only surviving little sister of her father’s.

“Little brother.” Princess Xiyue had been quite frantic earlier, but upon seeing that youth, seated atop the clouds, be eating and chatting with his two spirit-beasts, the Whitewater Hound and the Azure Skysnake, she no longer felt frantic.

“Xiyue. Tonight is the night of the monthly Treasure Auction,” Fairy Azurewillow said with a laugh. “And I heard some news regarding this Ji Ning.”