Desolate Era (Book 16 - Book 18)

The wind tribulation ended. The fire tribulation came.

The weather changed dramatically as an utterly enormous cloud of fire appeared in the skies, causing the temperature to skyrocket. However, Ning continued to simply sit there above the Nineleaf Snowlotus. Just by using a little bit of his elemental energy, he was able to activate a large amount of energy of the natural world to cause the temperature to cool once more. For a time, the world was divided between a blazing sky high above and a world of snow down below. Truly, this was a case where fire and snow could not coexist.

“The fire tribulation has come. However…since that protective treasure Ning has was able to easily defend against the wind tribulation, I trust it won’t be too hard for it to resist the fire tribulation.” Immortal Diancai smiled.

“The power of the wind tribulation is comparable to the power of the fire tribulation. Given how formidable junior apprentice-brother’s protective treasure is, he should be able to easily overcome it without using up too much energy.” Yu Wei said with concern, “What I’m worried about is the thunder tribulation.”

Indeed.

The power of the Protocosmic spirit-treasure, the Nineleaf Snowlotus, was truly astonishing. It didn’t require too much energy to be used up, but alas, Ning didn’t have a way to apply his heartforce through the Nineleaf Snowlotus. If he did, not even his swords might be as powerful as the Nineleaf Snowlotus. This was a Protocosmic spirit-treasure, after all; although Ning had many hundreds of Immortal swords, and although the [Greater Thousand Swords Formation] was incredibly powerful, they were still ‘merely’ top-grade Immortal swords. But of course…Ning had come up with a way to apply heartforce through his swords of the [Greater Thousand Swords Formation], and so at present the [Greater Thousand Swords Formation] far surpassed the Nineleaf Snowlotus in power.

He had passed the wind tribulation!

He now passed the fire tribulation as well! The Celestial Immortal Fire that came in the end resulted in the Sole-Ki Pearl of Primalwater evolving yet again.

Finally…the time came for the thunder tribulation.

……

There was a fairly long period of time that would pass between the end of the fire tribulation and the start of the thunder tribulation. The Celestial Tribulation gave the tribulant some time to restore their energy…but in truth, in this case Ning had primarily relied on the Nineleaf Snowlotus to defend against the elemental attacks, and had used his Dao-heart to endure the Celestial Immortal Wind and Celestial Immortal Fire. Thus, he had used up very little of his energy.

“I wonder how many sets of thunder tribulation Master will face,” Little Qing said worriedly.

“I underwent six nine-sets,” Immortal Diancai said with concern. “This disciple of mine had far more karmic luck than I did, and he also has karmic sinflames around him; his thunder tribulation shall undoubtedly be astonishing.”

All of them were worried. What none of them realized…

Was that in truth, Ji Ning had received supreme transmissions of the Dao from three Daofather-level figures; Patriarch Subhuti, Daoist Threelives, and Old Man Yuan. Of the three, Old Man Yuan and Patriarch Subhuti both stood at the very pinnacle of power amongst the Daofathers of the Three Realms. While Daoist Threelives had never been able to actually become a Daofather, remaining a True God of Primordial Chaos, the [Starseizing Hand] divine ability was awe-inspiringly powerful and one of the top ten divine abilities of the Three Realms.

Ning had acquired so many legacies that even his Ki Refiner tribulation wouldn’t be weak…and he also had mastered heartforce and was covered in karmic sinflames.

An hour passed.

Rumble…

The calm skies suddenly manifested a pair of enormous black clouds. These enormous black clouds covered nearly the entire sky, causing the world to turn pitch-black as they blocked out almost all light.

“What just happened?”

“The sky turned dark?”

The Ji clansmen within Swallow Mountain, as well as the other clansmen and monsters present, all stared towards the sky in confusion.

The entire sky had turned pitch-black. As for the dark clouds…they had now completely covered the entire Swallow Mountain area of nearly a hundred thousand kilometers!

“How could this…” Yu Wei, Immortal Diancai, Mu Northson, Uncle White, Little Qing, and Autumn Leaf all raised their heads. They had changed looks on their faces, while Yu Wei’s face was completely bloodless.

The two enormous dark clouds that had blotted out the skies above all of Swallow Mountain slowly began to move towards each other. Because of how enormous they were, these two massive clouds semed to fly at a very slow pace. But as they flew…crack! Crack! A series of cracking sounds could be heard from the skies as one enormous bolt of lightning after another began to snake out from within the two massive dark clouds.

Ning, however, just watched calmly.

He wasn’t surprised at all.

Soon, an enormous vortex of lightning and clouds had formed within the skies. The size of this vortex still covered the entire Swallow Mountain region; from its size alone, one could tell how utterly astonishing its power was.

BOOM!

A streak of lightning lashed out from the lightning-cloud vortex, striking directly down like the sword of the heavens.

Clang!

Ning had already risen to his feet. Hundreds of Immortal swords hovered around him, while the Nineleaf Snowlotus was underneath him. Many hundreds of meters above Ning, an utterly enormous lotus had formed, generated from countless tiny snowlotus petals. The enormous lotus was a barrier to defend against the thunder tribulation. Ning still wanted to use this Protocosmic spirit-treasure; it consumed very little of his elemental ki, after all.

BOOM! The first bolt of lightning wasn’t even able to cause the Protocosmic spirit-treasure to shake in the slightest.

Bolts of lightning continued to crash down.

Soon, they were at the fourth nine-set of thunderbolts.

Thunderbolts continued to crash down.

Five nine-sets. Six nine-sets…

“This is the seventh nine-set.” Autumn Leaf couldn’t help but whisper these words. Brightheart Island now had quite an extensive library of books, many of which Ning had acquired after killing other Immortals. Autumn Leaf had naturally perused them.

“Master is almost at his limit.” Little Qing was worried as well.

This was the sixty-first bolt of thunder.

The enormous lotus flower formed from the Nineleaf Snowlotus was already beginning to collapse.

“[Greater Thousand Swords Formation], go forth!” The black-robed Ning, standing atop the Nineleaf Snowlotus, pointed towards the skies. Instantly, a golden sword that had manifested in front of his chest streaked out into the heavens.

BOOM!

The enormous lotus above him had already vanished into thin air. However, a series of layers of lotus flowers appeared around the black-robed Ning.

This strike of the [Greater Thousand Swords Formation] contained a hint of his heartforce, allowing him to effortlessly block the celestial thunder.

“The eighth nine-set has arrived.”

Soon, it was time for the eighth nine-set. Immortal Diancai and the other spectators all felt nervous; how was it that a Ki Refiner actually caused an eighth nine-set to appear? Even though Ning had taken on a Daofather as his master, his tribulation shouldn’t be this terrifying, right?





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Book 17, Chapter 25 - A New Life


The seventieth bolt of thunder.

A violet streak of lightning crashed down with ice-cold callousness. The black-robed Ji Ning beneath it pointed with his finger, causing the golden sword of the [Greater Thousand Swords Formation] to once more soar into the skies.

Rumble…