Desolate Era (Book 11 - Book 15)

“Eh?” The white-robed maiden was completely shocked. This enormous Waterflame Lotus was at least three thousand meters, completely surrounding her.

“A technique?” The white-robed maiden laughed coldly. Her body suddenly expanded dramatically in size as she transformed into a thirty-six meter tall giant. The giant white-robed maiden also activated the [Three Heads, Six Arms] divine ability. In her hands, she now wielded six of the short sticks, each of which flashed with electric light. The sticks in her hand howled through the air as she smashed downwards towards the layers of Waterflame Lotus petals binding her.

BANG!

BANG!

It was as though two mountains had collided. The six short sticks carried the majestic, divine power of lightning. Given the power of this woman, a Fiendgod Body Refiner, when she smashed down upon the flower, a layer of leaves cracked… but new leaves were then born from the Waterflame Lotus.

“What?!” The white-robed maiden was shocked. Per her predictions, she should’ve been able to smash through this technique like rotting wood, but in reality, the breaking process was very slow. The enemy’s technique could continue to be maintained indefinitely.

“What a fellow. This white-robed maiden is probably even a bit more powerful than Daoist Snowplume was.” Ning was shocked as well. “Fortunately, my earthfire and dire-ice have both reached the first grade, and I’ve further perfected this technique. If this was a year ago… she probably would’ve broken through it. However… since you can’t break through my Waterflame Lotus, then you have lost.”

Whoosh!

More than seven hundred flying swords immediately appeared in the air around Ning, with the Nethercold swords serving as the core. All of them were Earth-ranked flying swords.

“Go!” Ning pointed, and instantly, a golden flying sword that had formed in front of his chest howled forth as it flew out, striking towards the white-robed maiden. The golden flying sword carried a terrifying sword-intent that struck directly at the opponent’s soul. This was the terrifying sword-intent which only Sword Immortals possessed.

“You are Adept Darknorth… Ji Ning!” The white-robed maiden called out in shock. Lotus-type techniques were fairly common, but upon seeing those seven hundred-plus flying swords? If she wasn’t able to put two and two together and recognize Ning from this, it would have been bizarre.

Clang! In the face of the attack of the sword light from Ning’s [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation], the white-robed maiden hurriedly used all six short sticks to block.

BOOM!

The power of Ning’s [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] was far greater than the Waterflame Lotus; the Waterflame Lotus was primarily meant to bind and grind an opponent, whereas the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] was a purely offensive technique. Ning was using nearly ninety percent of his spiritual energy on maintaining the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation]. The white-robed maiden was knocked flying backwards, and two of the short sticks flew out of her hands. She was, however, blocked from behind by the Waterflame Lotus once more.

Whooosh.

The killing, grinding power of the Waterflame Lotus was constantly pressing down on the white-robed maiden’s body.

“Damn you.” The white-robed maiden gritted her teeth, staring viciously at Ning. “Ji Ning, you are a piece of work.”

She tossed out her talisman.

Rumble! An invisible power instantly covered her body, and then she was teleported away.

“How powerful.” Ning waved his hand, collecting the talisman. “A random person I encountered was already this powerful… fortunately, I was able to use the Waterflame Lotus to bind her. Otherwise, she would’ve fled upon realizing she couldn’t beat me.”

The intelligence reports of the Heavenly Treasures Mountain stated quite clearly that Ji Ning’s true body was skilled in close combat. Next was his flying swords formation, which was significantly weaker than Ji Ning’s close combat ability.

The white-robed woman had realized that Ning was capable of using just his sword formation to completely suppress her, and would most likely be able to kill her in just ten exchanges or so! If he closed in to engage in close quarters combat… he might be able to kill her in just one or two exchanges. With the Waterflame Lotus binding her and preventing her from fleeing, she had no choice but to admit defeat. That way, she would at least stay alive.

……

Ning carefully advanced, continuing to be very cautious for fear of suffering another group attack. There was a reason why his power was such that the Heavenly Treasures Mountain ranked him as being within the top hundred.

After all, Ning’s true body relied on his divine abilities to do battle, and had been able to stay alive against the assault of a Whitebone Immortal Slaying Needle! This was enough to ensure that the Heavenly Treasures Mountain viewed Ning’s true body as definitely being extremely formidable in close combat.

One against one…

It was true that within the Diagram, Ning was indeed one of the supreme fighters.

Against ordinary foes, the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] and the Waterflame Lotus was already enough to suppress them.

Against powerful foes, he would have to use both the Waterflame Lotus and close quarters combat.

But of course… that was in one-on-one fights.

“All of the fairly famous individuals are beginning to slowly display their might.” The Xia Emperor accompanied the eight Pure Yang True Immortals in drinking as he watched.

Previously, Xiamang Zishan, Cangwu Jiu, and the others had all suffered quite a bit. However, they quickly hid their tracks and began to act with great caution. Whether through killing their foes or forcing them to voluntarily give up, they began to slowly accumulate more and more talismans. Still… things were quite early. Thus, with each kill, they only acquired one or two talismans.

“That dirty-looking maiden, she’s quite formidable.” The Xia Emperor’s eyes lit up.

The Xia Emperor suddenly looked towards the nearby Lu Dongbin. Lu Dongbin had left behind many legacies throughout the Three Realms, and liked to take on new disciples. Amongst Pure Yang True Immortals, he was one of the most powerful; naturally, he had quite an astute gaze. The Xia Emperor couldn’t help but laugh and say, “Lu Dongbin, which of these youths do you view as having the most luck surrounding them?”

“The most luck?” Lu Dongbin half-lay there, sipping his wine. He glanced out of the corner of his eyes at the Diagram, then shook his head and said, “How can you tell just by looking? Luck is unfathomable and ever-changing to begin with… even someone with tremendous luck can still be killed.”

The Xia Emperor felt resigned. Of course he knew that lucky individuals could be killed as well. Those blessed by luck would just have more lucky encounters and have the assistance of the heavens. They could still, however, be killed! In fact, the person who killed them might even be able to steal their luck… but it was also possible that their own luck would lessen as a result.

For example, let’s say an individual was the only child of a major power. Killing this person would cause the major power to feel great hatred, and perhaps even personally intervene; in this case, one’s luck would naturally lessen.

For another example, if one person had a tremendous stroke of fortune and acquired a huge treasure repository, this person could be said to have had great luck. But if he were to be killed by another and his treasure repository stolen, then his luck would now be the killer’s.

Thus…

Luck was something which could neither be seen or felt; it could only be hypothesized based on numerous factors. This required astute judgement. Clearly, Lu Dongbin was a person with incredibly astute judgement.