Desolate Era (Book 19 - Book 21)

Subhuti instantly understood.

He couldn’t help but look carefully at this disciple of his. He could completely imagine how agonizing this choice had to be for him. And yet…despite feeling such despair, his disciple had actually been able to break through in power and reverse the course of an entire Realmwar.

“I am going to rescue her, and this is the only method available to me,” Ning said. “I’m going to kill them. Kill, kill, kill them! Kill them until they are enraged. If they send one person to deal with me, I’ll kill one; if they send ten, I’ll kill the entire group. I’ll kill them until they rage turns to fear, until their fear turns to regret, until they finally come to make peace with me! But I’ll only stop my slaughter once they release her.”

“I have to slaughter them until they truly regret it. Only then would they be willing to release her.” Ning looked at Subhuti. “This is the only way I can rescue her. Please help me, Master.”





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Book 19, Chapter 8 - The Relics of Threelives


Subhuti looked at Ji Ning. He was silent for a few moments, then said slowly, “You are taking a tremendous risk. You are trying to force the Seamless Gate’s hand…but to force them to make peace with you…to make the proud, exalted Seamless Gate sue for peace…that is going to be incredibly hard. You should understand what sort of a path you have decided on.”

“Your disciple understands.” Ning didn’t hesitate at all.

This was a path filled with danger and death!

Even though Daofathers wouldn’t personally intervene, the Seamless Gate still had other methods at their disposal for dealing with Ning. For example, using human wave tactics! They could hide a Realmwar’s worth of Immortals and Fiendgods into an estate-type magic treasure an attack Ning, or produce multiple Empyrean Gods and True Immortals on Lu Dongbin’s level and have them surround Ning! Sufficiently high numbers of Immortals and Fiendgods could threaten even Daofathers, to say nothing of Ning.

Ning would be walking on a tightrope! The path forward led to success…but falling off on either side would lead to death!

“Alright,” Subhuti said softly. “If you push yourself far enough, sometimes a miracle will happen. The only thing I can do is help you locate appropriate targets amongst the headquarters of the Seamless Gate. Everything else will be up to you.”

“Thank you, Master.” Ning was overjoyed.

“You have to be as careful as possible,” Subhuti instructed. He himself had only learned just now that this disciple of his had made the choice to thrust Yu Wei into the Infinity Hells. Subhuti couldn’t help but sigh, yet remained powerless to change things.

“Go.” Subhuti nodded, then closed his eyes.

Ning bowed respectfully, then turned and left the Daoist monastery.

After leaving, Ning returned back to his own residence, then entered the Still Room of the Starseizing Manor.

He seated himself atop the netherwater jade bed, then took out the brocade sack and the gourd.

“First, the [Starseizing Hand].”

Instantly, five streaks of light flew out from the brocade sack and swirled around him in the air in a pentagon. They shone brilliantly with dazzling golden light, warm blue light, vigorous azure light, fierce red light, and ponderous yellow light. They contained such deep concentrations of Five Elements essence that one could sense them clearly, even without engaging in training.

Those crystals that were glowing with a watery blue light, for example…the tiny pile of crystals gave off a sensation akin to a vast, endless sea.

Whooooosh.

Ning shut his eyes as the surrounding Five Elements essences began to surge towards him.

Training in the [Starseizing Hand] and the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] was quite fast; both techniques were techniques that involved training the physical body to become as powerful as magic treasures. Thus, the only requirements were fully understanding how the techniques worked and having enough materials. It was the same as actually forging a treasure.

A day later.

Ning walked out from the Still Room and arrived in the main hall. He immediately saw the giant yellow bear, Redsnow, and the rest of the seven.

“Congratulations.” The giant yellow bear clasped his furry paws together and bowed. “You’ve mastered the Ninth Cycle of the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art], and your starseizing hands are now comparable to Protocosmic spirit-treasures. Ji Ning, these two mighty divine abilities alone are enough to allow you to roam the Three Realms without fear.”

“With your arcane art having reached the Ninth Cycle, you are now almost invulnerable. Congratulations,” Redsnow said as well.

“It would be wonderful if I could also become apprenticed to Patriarch Subhuti and learn the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art],” the child-sized Primelight said, shaking his head and sighing. “The Manorlord and elder brother Redsnow have both become apprenticed to Subhuti. Redsnow in particular…he’s absolutely ancient, but he’s shameless enough to force his way into becoming our Manorlord’s ‘junior apprentice-brother’. And he chose to start learning the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] shortly after he joined their school!”

“I want to learn it as well.” The alluring Snow Scorpion looked towards Ning.

“Which Empyrean God wouldn’t?” Ninefangs mumbled to himself, “Back when I was just a minor soldier under the command of the Godking, all I was qualified to do was to listen to him lecture. Even now, I can’t actually learn his techniques.”

Everyone else began to grumble and grouse. As for Ning and Redsnow, they just listened, not daring to say a thing.

In truth, this was something which virtually every single Empyrean God of the Three Realms felt jealous over. The [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] had long been revered as the number one divine ability in the Three Realms for those below the True Immortal level! However, training in this divine ability was simply too insanely expensive, especially for the Ninth Cycle; the price for that was far greater than the price for reaching the Fifth Cycle of the [Starseizing Hand].

Even Daofathers would feel heartache upon paying such a price.

Ning and the seven Empyrean Gods had rendered major merits during the Realmwar without taking any share of the spoils, which was why Daofather Crimsonbright, a True God and Daofather who had been born from the primordial chaos, had been able to swallow the painful price necessary to provide Ning with that gourd of Immortal pills.

“Look at the sour looks on each of your faces. Enough, enough!” The giant yellow bear hurriedly urged, “Hurry up and have Ji Ning go and break apart the seals which Master left behind. Let’s go see those three treasures.”

“Right! Those three treasures.”

“I wonder what those three treasures are?”

“Manorlord, hurry up and go take a look.”

“Come straight back and tell us right away.”

The eyes of Primelight, Snow Scorpion, and the others all lit up. They no longer grumbled or spoke words of jealousy, and instead urged Ning to go take a look right away.

“I’m quite curious as well. Wait for me here. I’ll come back shortly and inform you all.” Ning immediately left behind the main hall.

Soon, the giant yellow bear and Ji Ning arrived at that spatial corridor, as well as the glowing formation that lay at the end of the corridor.

“Break.” Ning slapped out with a palm, transforming it and making it three hundred meters in size. His palm carried a terrifying aura of power with it; it was like the heavens themselves were smashing downwards. The power of his palms was noticeably greater than it had been before. When Ning’s palm slapped down against the protective formation, a layer of light flowed across its surface as a rune that looked similar to the Starseizing Tattoo appeared on it.