Desolate Era (Book 19 - Book 21)

Time slowly passed.

Ninefangs had once more come to the distant winehouse to drink wine. The winekeeper had long ago grown accustomed to this bald old man, because he had often come here to drink during the past month…and always chose to drink the extremely venomous ‘Five Immortals wine’. Another name for this wine was the ‘Five Venoms wine’, because it was created through matching and mixing nine different venoms together. It was truly toxic, but it was also incomparably delicious. A Zifu Disciple would die upon having a single sip; one had to at least be a Primal Daoist in order to be able to savor this wine without perishing.

“Here is some of our finest Five Immortals wine. Please enjoy, honored guest.” The winekeeper personally delivered the wine and two appetizers to Ninefangs, who leisurely poured himself a cup.

Gurgle. He raised his head and drank the wine. A twin sensation of fire and ice simultaneously flooded his entire body, causing him to feel extremely comfortable. Ninefangs laughed and nodded.

“Eh?” Ninefangs suddenly had a strange feeling. He immediately turned his head to look towards the distant Mount Dashcloud. He gazed towards the white-robed youth that was seated amongst many other figures at the base of Mount Dashcloud.

“Grand Dao?” Ninefangs was surprised. He then hurriedly sent mentally, “Congratulations, Manorlord, for having mastered the Grand Dao of the Waterdrop.”

“Aren’t you the sensitive one? I was just testing things out, and you immediately sensed it,” Ning sent back.

Ning was in an excellent mood. He had always had a high degree of affinity towards the Grand Dao of the Waterdrop. This past month of analyzing the nine chaos seals and the Daofather’s sword-arts had been extremely taxing, and his progress had been rather limited…but he actually ended up breaking through all bottlenecks and completely comprehending the Grand Dao of the Waterdrop.

Now, he had mastered two complete Grand Daos. The Grand Dao of the Sword and the Grand Dao of the Waterdrop.

“The sword-arts here on Mount Dashcloud were left behind by casual strikes from Daofather Fuju; they aren’t that profound. The next month or two here won’t be of much help to me.” Ning didn’t hold too many hopes towards the rest of the twenty-six worlds either; the most important world was the final one, Sword Immortal world. Still, Ning was going to be very cautious and deliberate in his cultivation. He would first take a look at all of the twenty-six worlds; perhaps they might be of help to him in meditating on the complete [Five Treasures] sword-art.

The second month after Ning’s arrival at East Phoenix world.

The Golden Crow hung high in the sky.

A large ship came sailing in through the heavens. There were many soldiers atop the desk of the ship, as well as many beautiful women who were surrounding a youth that was drinking wine merrily. He’d give a pinch here and a caress there, filling the ship with shrieks and giggles.

“Your Highness, Mount Dashcloud is right up ahead,” a pale-faced, beardless man said respectfully in a low voice.

“We arrived?” The beautifully dressed youth rose to his feet. The beautiful woman in his arms followed his gaze as he stared at the distant Mount Dashcloud.

“My beauties, be good and have a nice rest. I’m going to go meditate on sword-arts for a while,” the youth chortled. The beautiful women all said a few flattering words, causing the youth to feel absolutely tickled. Still…this youth was qualified to act this arrogantly. He was the third prince of the East Phoenix Dynasty of this planet, and the most talented of all the princes. His status was quite special.

“Let’s go.”

Soon, the prince led his pale-faced attendant and a host of guards to the base of Mount Dashcloud. The weakest of his guards were at the Wanxiang Adept level, with the two commanders being Primal Daoists. As for the prince, he himself was a Primal Daoist as well.

“So many people? So many monsters as well.” The prince frowned. “According to what Master told me, the Three Realms is in the midst of a storm…which has resulted in our minor world becoming more peaceful than ever before. Still, there are now almost no Celestial Immortals who come to our world. The most powerful cultivators here are merely on the Loose Immortal or Earth Immortal level. Longxiu, hurry up and shoo away one of the people at the front.”

“Your Highness, you must not be rash. Although the strongest figures at Mount Dashcloud are merely Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals, some might have powerful backgrounds,” the pale-faced attendant hurriedly cautioned. “In addition, you yourself are merely a Primal Daoist, your Highness, and your two guards are merely Primal Daoists as well. Don’t anger those Loose Immortals or Earth Immortals. You might end up suffering because of it.”

The prince nodded slowly. “Fair enough.” Although he didn’t really actually care about those Loose Immortals or Earth Immortals…right now, at least, he wouldn’t be able to beat them in a fight.

“Then pick one of the weak ones.” The prince swept the people present with his gaze. “There should be some weaklings amongst the twenty-seven prayer mats in front, right?”

“Nobody who can sit in the front would be truly weak. Let me take a look.” The attendant hurriedly took a good look. “Twenty-one of the prayer mats in the front are occupied by Loose Immortals or Earth Immortals; they give me a sense of tremendous pressure. The other six give me much less pressure; they should merely be at the Primal Daoist level. Your Highness, which of the six do you think I should pick?”

“Six?”

The prince took a careful look. “Four are monsters. Monsters who have reached the Primal level are generally much more powerful than humans of the same level. That leaves two…that white-robed youth, and that grim-looking man. The grim-looking man has a terrifying, baleful look in his eyes; I imagine his sword-arts must be quite formidable. That white-robed youth looks fairly unremarkable, though. I imagine he’s just an ordinary Primal Daoist.”

There were differences in power amongst Primal Daoists. Some were monsters who could challenge Void-level experts. The baleful aura around the grim-looking man was definitely proof that he was no ordinary Primal Daoist.

“Let’s go with that white-robed kid,” the prince said. “Hurry up and shoo him away.”





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Book 19, Chapter 13 - Sword School


“Your humble servant will go right now.” The attendant chortled, then walked forward.

Mount Dashcloud was extremely large, and there were many regions from which one could view all of the remnant sword-scars left behind. The first row only had twenty-seven seats, but there was a distance of more than thirty meters between each seat. This way, everyone could train calmly.

The attendant walked straight towards Ning. “Fellow Dao-” the attendant began to say in a shrill voice, reaching out to pat Ning on the shoulders.

When training, Ning had his heartforce spread out to cover this entire minor world. He was completely focused on his meditations and on the sword-scars left behind by Daofather Fuju. He was mentally deducing and inferring one type of sword-art after another! He had already visualized thousands of different types, more than ten of which were more powerful than the [Three-Foot Sword].

Every so often, he would gain an insight from the visualized sword-arts. This would allow Ning to walk farther and farther along the path of swordforce.

At this moment, Ning was completely focusing on deducing yet another powerful sword-art.

Pat!

Someone patted him on the shoulder.