Desolate Era (Book 11 - Book 15)

Immortal Fivecraze nodded. “Right. Your master, Immortal Diancai, has gone out adventuring. Before doing so, he asked us to all give you a hand. Our Black-White College is unable to help you directly fight against the Youngflame clan. The only thing we can do… is give some of the secret arts and manuals of the school to you. We wanted to do so, but we weren’t able to find you. Just now, we received word that you had appeared in the Heavenly Treasures Mountain of the imperial capital. Only after I arrived at and searched everywhere in the Heavenly Treasures Mountain did I learn that you had entered King Yan’s Estate.”


“I’ve brought scrolls for your Ki Refining Technique and your Fiendgod Body Refining Techniques over,” Immortal Fivecraze said. “Also the divine abilities and secret arts of our College; I’ve brought all of them as well. Look at and memorize all of them; after memorizing each one, destroy it.”

As he spoke, thirty-six formation flags suddenly appeared in midair around them. As they hovered there, they emanated a series of pulses of light which covered the region.

“Not even Celestial Immortals can think about spying on you.” Immortal Fivecraze looked at Ji Ning. “Hurry up and view them.” As he spoke, he offered them to Ning.

Ning was speechless. So Immortal Fivecraze had hurried all the way from Stillwater Commandery to deliver him divine abilities and secret arts?

“Don’t stand there like a fool. You are a student of the Black-White College; you are supposed to be able to train in these anyhow. The point of those so-called black-white pellets is just to ensure that you will work hard and test yourself. We can’t just give everything to you without making you work for it, right?” Immortal Fivecraze sighed. “This is all the Black-White College can do for you now…”





* * *





Book 11, Chapter 24 - Invitation


Ji Ning’s eyes stung.

After killing Youngflame Nong, Ning had never hoped for the Black-White College to help him, their disciple. In truth, he felt guilt towards the Black-White College. Because of him… the relationship between the Black-White College and the Youngflame clan had almost assuredly turned quite stiff. Thus, Ning had only planned to rely on his own power to fight against the Youngflame clan.

“Master… Master went out adventuring?” Ning asked, worried.

“Right. Your matter… your master is unable to assist you in resolving it. This had a tremendous impact on your master. In addition, he isn’t certain of his ability to overcome the Celestial Tribulation. Thus, he is going to go out and adventure and temper himself.” Immortal Fivecraze said with a sigh, “However… how can the matters of the world always go as you desire them to go? Your master is too stubborn and fixated.”

Ning didn’t say a word.

“Hurry up and read.” Immortal Fivecraze handed the [Flowing Watersource] to Ning.

“Right.” Ning nodded. No matter how many thoughts he had in his mind, given his power was insufficient, those thoughts were useless.

“In the past life, or in this life… my goal is to have my destiny in my own hands.” That powerful desire filling Ning’s heart continued to cause his Dao-heart to grow firmer. He flipped through the second half of the [Flowing Watersource], memorizing it carefully. After doing so, a flame emerged from Ning’s hand which completely burned the book into ash. Next, Immortal Fivecraze gave him the third scroll for the [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens].

The full copy of the [Flowing Watersource]. The third scroll of the [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens]. The full copy of [Heavenly Transformation]. The full copy of the [Divine Thunderbolt Eye]. The full copy of the [Myriad Hibernating Venoms]. The full copy of [Three Heads, Six Arms]. The full copy of the [Eye of the Luminous Heart]. The full copy of the [Soulshaker Art]. The full copy of the [Soulcharmer Art]. The full copy of the [Soulslayer Art].

This was what Immortal Fivecraze had brought him. Almost all of the most important divine abilities and secret arts of the Black-White College; he had brought them all for Ning.

After each read, Ning would burn the book.

Some of the divine abilities took up ten full books. Immortal cultivators had utterly astonishing memories, but Ning still needed to read all the way to the dawn of the next day before completely memorizing all of the techniques. But of course, halfway through the process, Ning had taken a break and taken the Patriarch to participate in the dinner banquet which Princess Xiyue had prepared for him.

“No need to see me off.”

Ning was at the gates to the royal estate, sending off Immortal Fivecraze.

“Ji Ning…” Immortal Fivecraze looked towards Ning, then said with a laugh, “Last night, I could tell from the banquet that King Yan treats you with great importance. He is a Celestial Immortal Patriarch, and yet he views you so highly; you need to work hard! Every bit of help the Black-White College can possibly give you, we have already! As for myself, I’m just trying to overcome as many tribulations as I can before succumbing. I don’t have much time left to me. I truly hope to be able to see one of the disciples of the Black-White College become a Celestial Immortal. Your master is striving to do this; you need to as well.”

“Right.” Ning nodded.

“In the imperial capital, when you are alone, you need to be careful.” Immortal Fivecraze cracked a smile. “Since you are going to the Conclave of Immortal Destiny, you need to go all out. If you can apprentice yourself to a major power of the Three Realms… by then, the Youngflame clan will be completely stupefied.”

“Right. I’m going to go all out.” Ning nodded.

“Alright. I’m leaving now.” Immortal Fivecraze turned and left. He was holding up his calabash of wine, appearing to be quite relaxed and at ease. Moments later, he disappeared from Ning’s field of vision.

Ning took a deep breath. In this moment… Ning felt an incomparably powerful sense of belonging for the Black-White College.

“No matter how much time passes… I, Ji Ning, shall forever be a disciple of the Black-White College.” These were the words Ning said silently to himself.

And then, Ning turned and returned to the estate.

……

“Senior, Ji Ning came to the entrance of the royal estate.”

“He’s coming out?” Immortal Floatcloud asked frantically.

“He just went back inside again.”

Immortal Floatcloud’s face was filled with undisguisable franticness. He barked, “Keep watching!”

Although he was a Loose Immortal, and although he was extremely patient… he had already sworn an oath to the Dao of the Heavens before Patriarch Arcanum. He had to kill Ji Ning within three days.

“It’s already been a day and a half!” Immortal Floatcloud said frantically to himself, “Ji Ning, oh, Ji Ning… are you going to stay inside the entire time? Then my death will really have been for nothing.”

……

Within King Yan’s Estate. The underwater estate.

“Ji Ning, that fellow named Fivecraze brought over quite a few divine abilities and secret arts. The secret arts are one thing; you can do as you please. But of the divine abilities, you absolutely cannot train in the [Myriad Hibernating Venoms]. Absolutely not,” the giant yellow bear said.

“Eh?” Ji Ning said, surprised, “This [Myriad Hibernating Venoms] is said to be one of the most powerful divine abilities the Black-White College possesses; the cost in black-white pellets is as high as the [Eye of the Luminous Heart]. They are the most expensive of all. And isn’t it better to have as many divine abilities as possible? There shouldn’t be any issues.”

The giant yellow bear shook his head. “Yes, the more divine abilities the better, but… training in divine abilities will distract you and take up your time, won’t it? As for the [Myriad Hibernating Venoms], you will need to use more than ten thousand types of strange venoms in order to train in it. Searching for and acquiring so many venoms will cost you a great deal, and merging those venoms into your body is extremely troublesome. It will cost you a lot of effort, for little gain! In addition, the more pure a divine body is, the better; fusing so many venoms into your body isn’t worth shit. In the future, after you become an Empyrean God, you’d probably have to actually purify your body of those venoms and actively wipe out the traces of this divine ability from it.”

Ning was speechless.