Desolate Era (Book 16 - Book 18)

“He should have finished with the karmic sinflames tribulations roughly three or four hours ago.” Uncle White continued in a low voice, “He naturally has a Greater Teleportation Dao-seal with him…he would’ve teleported back long ago, unless he was trapped within some sort of unescapable danger zone. Since he hasn’t come back…he’s clearly trapped in a place where even a Greater Teleportation Dao-seal does not work.”


Immortal Diancai’s face turned ugly again.

Skyfox nodded gently. “That makes sense. The Youngflame clan has an extremely terrifying clan-protecting treasure, a Protocosmic spirit-treasure that is known as the Worldhold Pagoda. The Worldhold Pagoda has the power to tear open space and teleport people through it. Given how much they hate Ji Ning, they definitely must have sent him into the infinite Void that lies beyond the Three Realms. They absolutely wouldn’t have sent him somewhere where he could simply use a Greater Teleportation Dao-seal to escape and return.”

“Then what should we do?” Immortal Diancai immediately asked.

“There’s nothing we can do. Some of the danger zones within the Void are so deadly that not even True Immortals or Empyrean Gods can escape from them.” Skyfox shook his head. “Diancai, although you’ve become a Celestial Immortal…you are unable to help Ji Ning in this matter. In addition, no one knows where he is right now.”

“The Youngflame clan…” A look of boundless rage was within Immortal Diancai’s eyes.

Immortal Diancai knew very well about the feud between Ji Ning and the Youngflame clan.

After all…in the past, Patriarch Arcanum of the Youngflame clan had actually gone to the Black-White College to try and force them to hand him over.

“Also…the Youngflame clan is extremely wary of Ji Ning,” Skyfox said. “Two of the Celestial Immortals of the Youngflame clan died by his hand this time. Most likely, they are going to do everything they can to investigate as to whether or not he was able to survive the karmic sinflames. Thus…they will definitely come to the Black-White College to investigate.”

“He killed two Celestial Immortals?” Immortal Diancai was surprised.

“Yes, that is why the Youngflame clan is wary of him,” Skyfox said. “This disciple of yours truly is formidable.”

Immortal Diancai quickly calmed down. Nodding, he said, “Understood. Don’t worry…the Youngflame clan can forget about learning any information regarding Ji Ning’s status from our Black-White College. Also…fellow Daoist Skyfox, I hope that your side will not leak out any information regarding his status either.”

“Don’t worry. When I return, I will make my report to the Xia Emperor, and him alone. The Xia Emperor wouldn’t act to leak this news to the Youngflame clan,” Skyfox said.

……

That very day, Immortal Diancai issued an order: The Starfire Palace, where all the life-tablets of the disciples of the Black-White College were located, was to be completely sealed and locked down! Nobody was permitted to go anywhere near it! Not even the Loose Immortals of the Black-White College dared to go there now. Immortal Diancai was now a Celestial Immortal; naturally, that meant he had the highest rank and authority within the Black-White College.

In addition, the sealing of a palace that contained life-tablets was a minor matter. No one opposed it.

“Sealed?”

“Completely sealed? Why has the Black-White College suddenly and completely sealed away the Starfire Palace? Can it be that Ji Ning truly has perished?” Celestial Immortals Arcanum, Deadwood, and the others were all puzzled upon hearing this news.

……

Time flowed onwards.

Immortal Diancai personally stood guard over the Starfire Palace.

“Disciple, it has been more than three months…” Immortal Diancai stared at the table in front of him, covered with life-tablets. One of the life-tablets represented Ji Ning. This life-tablet remained unbroken; clearly, Ji Ning remained alive despite being trapped in a distant danger zone.

At first, Immortal Diancai, Uncle White, Mu Northson, and the others all waited hopefully for his return. However, as more and more time passed, they gradually understood that it truly was hard to say when he would return, or if he would return at all. All they could do…was quietly hope.

Within the Nihilum Zone.

Ning was continuing to drift about within the infinite, dark Void. He didn’t dare to allow himself to be swept towards the Primordial Ruinworld by the currents of voidwaves.

His wandering days were filled with boredom.

This was because he could not sense the Grand Dao of the Sword, the Grand Dao of the Waterdrop, or any other Daos. There was no way for him to cultivate in the Dao at all; all he could do was occasionally train in the [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens]. However, there was a limit to how much divine power he could absorb each day and a limit to how much time he could spend in training in it. He couldn’t perpetually train…and so for more than 90% of the time each day, Ning did just one thing:

Train in archery!

Swoosh!

The Rahu Bow was pulled tight. Nint stared at the distant, impending voidwave, his heartforce completely merged into the bow and the arrow. Twang! The arrow shot out through the void.

Whoosh!

The arrow moved with lightning speed as it traversed more than a million kilometers, striking hard against the distant voidwave. In the face of the power of the voidwave, however, the arrow was sent flying straight backwards towards Ning’s direction. When shooting an arrow against the flow of the voidwaves, the arrows would return. But if he shot towards any other direction…

Although these arrows were Immortal-ranked magic treasures which could be controlled through elemental ki, they flew too fast and too far; there was no way Ning would be able to recover them. And so, the only option for him was to shoot straight towards an impending voidwave.

Day after day. Every single day, he trained in archery.

Slowly, Ning began to get a better handle on the intricacies behind how [Houyi’s Archery] utilized divine power, especially now that he had all but reached the peak of the ‘iceheart’ level. With such powerful heartforce filling each arrow, the power of each arrow was now greater than his close combat abilities!

Heartforce…

It was indeed a type of extremely powerful force. It was the reason why the divine archers of the Three Realms were so terrifying.

……

Ning had spent roughly half a year drifting about within the Nirvana Zone. He had no idea exactly how far he had flown.

“Eh? What’s that?” Ning could vaguely make out something in the distance. Because the Nirvana Zone was filled with voidwaves and voidstorms, he normally couldn’t see anything else at all.

“[Torch Dragon’s Eye].”

Ning’s two eyes instantly began to blaze with torch-fire. He stared far into the distance. Instantly, his sight range began to increase rapidly, allowing him to see a few dim strands of light that had appeared far away within the darkness. Before using this divine ability, Ning was only able to see to a few thousand kilometers, but after using it…all the light of the surrounding area began to gather within his corneas.

“That is…a continent!!!!” Ning’s face changed slightly.

That continent was actually tens of millions of kilometers away from Ning. However, because of how utterly vast it was, Ning was still able to just barely make it out with eyes. For example, although the Moon was located very far away from Earth, ordinary mortals on Earth could still see it from afar. Similarly, due to how enormous that continent was, Ning was still able to make it out within the darkness of the void.





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Book 16, Chapter 8 - First Contact


“Can that be part of the Primordial Ruinworld?” Ji Ning instantly thought of this possibility. After all, the Primordial Ruinworld wasn’t a perfect sphere or cube; it had peaks and valleys. It would make sense if he was able to see part of it bulging out.

“No matter what, I shouldn’t go near it.”

“The Primordial Ruinworld is incomparably dangerous. Not even True Gods or Daofathers dare to rashly charge into it. It’s best if I stay far away.” Ning knew his own limits; although he had the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] protecting him, he still didn’t dare to act rashly.