Desolate Era (Book 11 - Book 15)

“Flee?”


Celestial Immortal Infatuation snorted coldly, “Ji Ning is currently hiding within this great formation; if we want to deal with him, we’ll have to enter it. Since we’ve already entered it…why should we be in a rush to leave it? This time, Ji Ning has attacked the headquarters of our Youngflame clan…and so, the Youngflame clan absolutely must capture Ji Ning. This time, either our Youngflame clan lowers our heads to admit defeat, or Ji Ning admits defeat! From the moment that Ji Ning came to our headquarters, both our sides lost all other options; one side has to admit defeat!”

“We can’t admit defeat,” Celestial Immortal Sunfish said in a low voice. “There is no way our Youngflame clan can admit defeat to Ji Ning.”

“Thus…I am preparing to notify the Ancestor. I will let the Ancestor make the decision,” Celestial Immortal Infatuation sent mentally.

“You are notifying Master?” Celestial Immortal Flamefish was startled…but then he nodded lightly. “Given the current situation, the only option we have is to ask Master to decide.”

“Right.”

“Notify the Ancestor.”

“I concur.”

Celestial Immortals Goldclock, Sunfish, and Deadwood all nodded.

“I’ve already instructed my spirit-beast to go find Arcanum. Arcanum will immediately notify the Ancestor,” Celestial Immortal Infatuation said. Although they were very far away from each other, since he was a Celestial Immortal, he was similarly able to communicate spiritually with his spirit-beast at a tremendous distance.

Ning continued to attack wildly, but was unable to break through the defenses of the five Celestial Immortals. The Seven Ruinous Thunderwinds were wildly attacking as well, and Uncle White even summoned the power of the formation to generate rays of magnetic lances of light to attack…but they were still unable to break the defenses.

“It’s like a turtle-shell.” Ning was forced to temporarily give up, unwilling though he was.

Swoosh.

Ning returned to Uncle White, Little Qing, and Northson’s sides.

“Master, the defenses of these five Celestial Immortals are far too powerful. There’s no way to break through at all. What should we do next?” Little Qing asked with worry.

“What can we do? Wait.” Ning shook his head and sighed. “Celestial Immortals are Celestial Immortals, after all; last time, when they attacked me en masse, I was at a disadvantage. This time, I’ve grown stronger and have the upper hand…but when faced with all five of them, I still find it extremely hard to actually defeat them. To kill a Celestial Immortal is no easy task.”

Ning then laughed. “However, I never believed that I had the power to simply dominate Celestial Immortals.”

“Senior apprentice-brother, you…?” Northson was puzzled.

“Junior apprentice-brother.” Ning laughed. “The situation for us, compared to the situation for the Youngflame clan, is completely different. We’ve attacked their headquarters, and have even erected a massive, mighty formation within their headquarters. We’re resting and relaxing here, completely carefree! Given how widespread the intelligence networks of the world of the Grand Xia are, the various major powers will quickly learn of this matter.”

“Every day we spend here is a day where the Youngflame clan will be losing face.”

“If we can spend half a year or a year relaxing here, with the Youngflame clan completely unable to do anything to us, and being forced to just watch us leave at our leisure eventually…the Youngflame clan will turn into a huge joke for the rest of the world!” Ning said, “The Youngflame clan definitely won’t permit this to happen. They’ll definitely come up with a method to deal with me.”

“If they want to continue hiding like a turtle in its shell, there’s nothing I can do about that, of course.”

“But if they want to kill me…they’ll have to take some risks. They’ll have to enter the formation and actively attack me.”

“By attacking me, they’ll be taking risks…and if I can seize the right opportunity, I can kill one of their Celestial Immortals,” Ning said with a laugh. “Once I kill the first one, I’ll have an even better chance of killing the second one.”

“This time…I intend to drag this out with the Youngflame clan as long as I can.”

Battles at the Celestial Immortal level could drag on for many, many years.

Ning had that intention as well; to drag this out as long as possible. If he could drag this out for a year, he would cause the clansmen of the Youngflame clan to all feel nervous and restless. So long as the Youngflame clan made a single misstep, or so long as a single Celestial Immortal overextended himself…then Ning’s chance would come.

……

“Uncle White, every so often, use the formation to assault them. Keep them nervous and force them to keep their formations activated,” Ning suddenly said.

“Ji Ning, you are…?” Uncle White was startled. “Are you planning to take a rest?”

“No.” Ning shook his head and smiled. “I just thought of a big rod.”

“A rod?” They were all puzzled.

“I’m going to leave the formation to take a look. I’ll be back soon,” Ning said with a laugh. “Uncle White, you must be careful.”

“Don’t worry.” Uncle White nodded.

“Master, what sort of a rod are you going to go look at?” Little Qing asked.

“A copper one.” After speaking, Ning quickly departed. He stealthily slipped out of the grand formation, then used a void blink to go deep underground.

Ning knew very well that this battle with the Youngflame clan would most likely be an extremely long once. Since he wouldn’t be able to kill those five Celestial Immortals for now…he might as well make a trip to check out that mysterious underground copper ‘rod’! That enormous copper pillar…immediately after Ning had discovered it, the five mighty Celestial Immortals had arrived, preventing him from investigating it in detail.

Now that the five Celestial Immortals were trapped, there was no one else who could disturb him.

Crackle crackle crackle…

Ning’s divine power agitated the surrounding land, pushing aside the nearby mud and rocks. He stared at the enormous, fiery copper pillar before him. This copper pillar had been here for who-knows how long…but it hadn’t rusted in the slightest. It was covered with runes, and ripples of power were emanating from it.

“Doesn’t seem to be a magic treasure.” Ning came to this private conclusion after investigating it a bit. “Let me try divine sense.”

Ning immediately released his divine sense, attempting to carefully ascertain what the real face of this fiery copper pillar was.

Last time, his divine sense had been unleashed from midair, and so he had only been able to scan a small part of the copper pillar. This time, he was right next to it, deep underground.

“This is…” Ning took a deep breath.

Good heavens!

This fiery copper pillar was nearly three hundred meters wide, but it stretched extremely deep down underground…and at the very bottom of it was an unfathomably massive fire-red stone wall! This fiery stone wall stretched out over ten thousand kilometers in the deep subterranean. There was a limit to how far Ning’s divine sense could stretch. He was only able to scan a portion of this fiery stone wall. As to how large it was exactly…there was no way Ning could find out as well.

As for the giant copper pillar, it was planted firmly into the fiery stone wall!

More than three thousand kilometers of the giant copper pillar jutted out from above the stone wall! As for how deep it was beyond the wall…there was no way to know! This was because Ning’s divine sense was completely unable to penetrate through the fiery stone wall at all.