Desolate Era (Book 19 - Book 21)

All the Empyrean Gods waited eagerly.

Empyrean God Sin and Empyrean God Sealthroat’s chances of succeeding were too low. Right now, their only hope was Ji Ning. All of them chatted amongst themselves about how formidable Ji Ning was and how certain he was to succeed. Right now, their greatest fear was that Ji Ning would only be able to defeat five or six guardians. If that happened, it would be a long, long time before he would be able to successfully challenge the Path of Blades.

“Look!” Suddenly, Empyrean God Roughpeak pointed towards the distance. He had been seated by himself the entire time, quietly staring off into the distance. He had been alone on the snowy island for so long that he had gotten used to being by himself. He still, however, deeply desired to leave this place and so he had been staring unblinkingly towards the bridge. As soon as Ning’s figure had appeared off in the distance, he had been the first to notice.

“He’s coming.”

“It’s Ji Ning.”

“Ji Ning’s coming back.”

All of them grew excited.

As the distant white-robed youth flew across the wooden bridge, all of the Empyrean Gods rose to their feet to welcome him.

Ning landed. Upon seeing the eager looks on the faces of the many Empyrean Gods, he felt an enormous, invisible pressure.

“How did it go?” Empyrean God Sin asked.

“I beat eight of the guardians. For now, I’m not a match for the ninth guardian,” Ning said. He knew very well that every single guardian was capable of perfectly executing their respective sword-arts. Since the ninth guardian was able to perfectly control [Mourning], at present Ning truly wasn’t a match for him.

“You beat eight of them?”

“Two more remain?”

All of the Empyrean Gods present were dazed.

To tell the truth, deep in their hearts, the Empyrean Gods all felt at least slightly disappointed. Beating eight meant that there were still two more to go! Those final two guardians were like a pair of tigers that blocked the road; Ji Ning would probably need quite a bit of time in order to overcome them.

Although they were slightly disappointed, they were still fairly calm. In fact, they all secretly let out sighs of relief. Thank goodness that Ning was more powerful than Greatdream and Ninedawn, at least. Ning’s utter domination of the twenty-plus Empyrean Gods of the Sealmess Gate had stirred all of their imaginations, causing them to fantasize a bit too much about his strength.

“You beat eight of them? Not bad, not bad. Greatdream and Ninedawn only defeated seven of them.”

“Only two left. Soon, you’ll be able to make it out.”

All of the Empyrean Gods said words of encouragement.

Ning naturally knew what all of the Empyrean Gods were hoping for. He immediately explained, “I need some time to meditate and train for a period of time. I’m going to head off now.” After speaking, he immediately transformed into a streak of light and flew away at high speed. He returned to his living region, set down his Immortal estate, then entered it and began to meditate.

He needed time. Time to meditate and go over his insights.

A large number of ideas began to swell like a mental tidalwave. The insights he had gained on the Path had truly excited him. He didn’t have any time at all to waste on chatting with those other Empyrean Gods; what he needed was to meditate and absorb all of these new ideas, nonstop!





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Book 20,Chapter 29 - Understanding the Sword


Empyrean God Sin and Empyrean God Sealthroat walked forward shoulder-to-shoulder, staring at the beautiful Immortal estate located on the distant mountain peak.

“Darknorth was only able to defeat eight guardians this time, and the last two are even more powerful…I’m afraid that it will be many, many years before we’ll be able to leave.” Sealthroat let out a sigh. He had challenged the Path of Blades many times, and so he knew very well that although it seemed as though ‘only’ two were left, a person could easily end up spending a million or ten million years on each of the final two.

For example, Greatdream had defeated five guardians upon reaching Kilostar Island. Countless years had passed, but he was only able to defeat two more during that period of time! As for the final two guardians Ji Ning would be facing…they would be the most powerful guardians of all.

As for Sealthroat and Sin, they had been here for even longer periods of time, but the amount of improvement they were able to make was miniscule. They were only able to defeat one more guardian now compared to when they had first reached Kilostar Island.

“That’s not necessarily so.” Sin shook his head. “We’ve been on Kilostar Island for a long period of time and we’ve only improved a bit, but that’s because spent far too much time on the previous islands. Almost all of our potential was already squeezed out of us, and we’ve pretty much increased as much as we can in power. Of course we would find it very hard to improve any further! Darknorth, however, made it all the way here in one try after entering Undermoon Lake. He still has much potential left, and his potential was always much greater than ours to begin with. Don’t forget, Reverend Jueming managed to suddenly defeat the last three guardians all at once, thanks to a sudden insight.”

Sealthroat was briefly startled. He nodded. “Your words make sense. Our potential has been squeezed dry and we are almost at our limit, but Darknorth is different.”

“Honestly, I’ve been puzzled this entire time,” Sin said with a sigh. “He was able to fight his way to Kilostar Island in one try. This sort of talent and ability…in the Three Realms, he definitely would have been one of the most supreme of Empyrean Gods. In fact, the True Gods and Daofathers should view him as being very important, as he stands a very good chance of joining their ranks. Why is it that he was willing to risk Undermoon Lake?”

“Right.” Sealthroat sighed as well. “I was also puzzled.”

Ning’s talent had been acknowledged even as far back as the Conclave of Immortal Destiny by the likes of Lu Dongbin and Subhuti.

They were both able to tell that Ning was born with tremendous talent for the Dao of the Sword! And indeed, Ning didn’t disappoint Subhuti with his rapid rise in power. He had improved at a tremendously fast rate, and the fact that he had reached the fourth stage of heartforce was an unexpected surprise to Subhuti. By now, the elite major powers of the Nuwa Alliance viewed Ning in the exact same way as they had viewed Lu Dongbin during the Primordial Era.

However…the difference was that Lu Dongbin had the luxury of time to slowly build up a powerful foundation, then make his breakthrough to instantly become a elite Daofather.

Ji Ning?

In his case, the storm had already descended, and the Empyrean Gods and True Immortals of both sides had already begun battling each other. The battles were becoming larger and larger, and once the final battles for karmic luck were concluded, the Endwar that would determine the destiny of the entire Three Realms would commence. The amount of time Ji Ning had was simply too little. This was one of the greatest regrets which Subhuti and the others had.

Despite their regrets, however, they also felt that there was a chance that Ji Ning would gain a sudden flash of insight during one of the many conflicts in this storm and perhaps break through to become a True God or Daofather! Thus, if Ning hadn’t trained in the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods], Subhuti would not have permitted Ji Ning to enter Undermoon Lake.

However, thanks to the dangers of Undermoon Lake, Ning had gained more and more experience, growing and improving so rapidly that he was now just a step away from complete mastery of the [Five Treasures].