Desolate Era (Book 11 - Book 15)

“Senior apprentice-brother.” Northson came walking over.

“Junior apprentice-brother.” Ning looked at Northson. He could sense that although his junior apprentice-brother felt some regret and pain in his heart, he was clearly once more filled with vigor and energy. He didn’t look as tired and dispirited as he had in the past.

“If it wasn’t for you, I probably would’ve died in that place,” Northson said. “Senior apprentice-brother, no need to worry about me; you can go back now. In the future, if there’s anything you need, you can find me here.”

“The current world of the Grand Xia is filled with dangerous undercurrents, while you are a grandmaster of the Dao of Constructs. How am I suppose to rest my mind, knowing you are here?” Ning said hurriedly.

“There really is no need for you to stay. I’m a Void-level Earth Immortal now, after all; if I’m careful, I’ll be fine,” Northson said.

Ning frowned. Then, with a wave of his hand, he produced a storage magic treasure. One enormous construct after another instantly appeared next to them, such as a Turtle-Snake, a winged bird-man, or an eight-clawed serpent. In total, there were six golems.

“These are the golems I acquired after I killed the bronze-armored Fiendguard called Qu Huan. They feel fairly powerful to me,” Ning said. “Find one that is suited to you and which will allow you to increase your power the most.”

Northson glanced at them, his gaze settling down upon that of the winged golem. He called out in surprise, “A Winged Immortal golem? How can you have one of them? Generally speaking, bronze-armored Fiendguards aren’t qualified to possess golems of the Winged Immortal class.”

“Winged Immortal class?” Ning was curious as well.

“This is the second-ranked golem within the forbidden region,” Northson said. “Look at its wings; its wings can unleash the ‘Seven Ruinous Thunderwinds’, and its speed is extremely fast as well! Even a mere Loose Immortal or Earth Immortal who is in control of a Winged Immortal golem will instantly have the combat power of a Celestial Immortal. However, its main purpose is to unleash the ‘Seven Ruinous Thunderwinds’, then immediately flee. In battle, it should be extremely, extremely valuable.

Northson knew how to make these things, but he didn’t know exactly how much they were worth.

Ning, however, did. Upon hearing his junior apprentice-brother say these things, he could guess that this golem was probably comparable in value to a middle-grade Pure Yang treasure.

“The others are a bit weaker; perhaps all five them added together would be comparable to a single Winged Immortal class,” Northson said.

Ning thus immediately came to the conclusion that the other four were probably comparable to a low-grade Pure Yang treasure.”

“They really do spare no expense, thanks to their wealth. Every single bronze-armored Fiendguard had at least one such golem…this is probably the same amount of wealth as most Celestial Immortals possess,” Ning mused to himself.

But here, Ning was wrong. He valued them as a low-grade Pure Yang treasure, but that was the ‘list price’ here in the Three Realms for someone seeking to purchase them; in truth, to the mysterious power, these items were nothing more than a collection of precious ingredients, and the value of those ingredients was perhaps a tenth of the value of the complete item. For a truly supreme golem…the formation-diagram within it was actually of the greatest value. Without a detailed formation-diagram, no matter how good your ingredients were, you wouldn’t be able to complete the forging.

“Junior apprentice-brother, take this Winged Immortal class,” Ning said.

Northson was greatly shocked. He hurriedly said, ,”Senior apprentice-brother, this Winged Immortal class will be of great use to you. Ji Ning, you saved my life; I, Mu Northson, already feel tremendous gratitude to you fort his. How can I accept this?”

“Haha, junior apprentice-brother, I was able to enter and leave that forbidden region as I pleased; not even that ‘general’ was able to do anything to me. This Winged Immortal golem might be important to others, but it really isn’t that useful for me. All I would do would be to sell it off.” Ning shook his head and laughed; this was nothing more than the truth, after all. The [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] was much better at protecting him than the golem would be.

“But…”

“If you don’t accept it, how could I rest my mind? Enough, stop wasting words; I’m going to leave now.” Ning waved his arm and collected the other golems, then disappeared without another world.

Northson held the soultamer jade in his arms. He murmured softly, “Senior apprentice-brother…”

“Northson, your senior apprentice-brother has helped us so much. Never forget it,” the woman within the jade globe said.

“Right.” Northson nodded.

……

Ning secretly watched as Northson bound the Winged Immortal golem, then took the jade globe to go and sit down at the entrance to the wooden house, where he simply stared at the lake. Every so often, he would say a few things to the jade globe. This sight caused Ning to feel quite heartsick. After watching a time, he finally, truly left.

“It is time to go to the imperial capital of the Grand Xia.”

“This time, I rescued my junior apprentice-brother, but I offended that mysterious power. I need to acquire Five Elements essence as soon as possible to train my [Starseizing Hand] to the Fourth Cycle.” Ning had a premonition of incoming danger. This sense of danger was compelling him to increase his own power as soon as he could!





* * *





Book 15, Chapter 9 - A Talk at Night


It was late at night. Ji Ning used a void blink to arrive within the centermost city of the entire world of the Grand Xia.

Within the Heavenly Treasures Mountain of the imperial capital of the Grand Xia. Within a residence. Ning was drinking wine by himself, facing the bright moon.

“Eh?” Ning’s ears twitched; he glanced sideways. A white-robed, silver-haired man had just come walking in through the door.

“Senior Skyfox,” Ning laughed, then rose to his feet.

“Since you’ve hurried here so late at night, I’m sure you must have an urgent matter to deal with.” The silver-haired man smiled as he spoke. “Ji Ning, if there’s anything you need, just tell me. His Imperial Majesty has ordered this long ago; I naturally won’t be the slightest bit negligent.”

Ning nodded. “I need to buy some precious items.”

“Precious? How precious?” The silver-haired man asked.

“I need fifteen thousand kilograms of gold-gems from the Heaven Realm, thirty thousand kilograms of azurespirit jade bamboo, forty-five thousand kilograms of arcane elemental Yin-water from the Milky Way, fifteen hundred kilograms of dragonfish spirit-lava, and six hundred kilograms of chaos spirit-earth,” Ning said.

Hearing this, the face of the silver-haired man changed. “That much?”

“At LEAST that much.” Ning nodded.