Desolate Era (Book 25 - Book 27)

“But…I…” Su Youji hesitated. In the end, this fiery idol was simply too alluring to her. She said in a low voice, “Master, just let me view it for an hour. I’ll memorize the technique within it then give it back to you.”


Ning shook his head. “What’s the point of just memorizing the technique? This fiery idol has eight different types of conceptual intents radiating from it. It’ll be of tremendous benefit to you in your cultivation. And I’m not giving it to you, I’m just letting you use it. When I want it back, you’ll have to return it to me. So take it.” Ning pressed the fiery idol into Su Youji’s hands.

Su Youji’s heart quivered as Ning took her hand into his own.

Although she had served him for quite some time, this was actually the first time they had touched.

“Alright.” Su Youji nodded obediently.

“Right. I’m planning to go into the Fog Sea as well,” Ning said. “Go ahead and enter the estate-world and focus on solidifying your current foundation. You’ve just broken through, after all.”

“No need, Master.” Su Youji waved her hand, causing the fiery idol to be drawn into her Jindan chaos region. “I only need to spend part of my time working on this idol. With it, I should be able to solidify my foundation in less than a century. Your golem is by my side as well; once I enter it and command it, I’ll be able to unleash tremendous power from within. I won’t be in any danger.”

With such a detailed technique and helpful idol, her path to becoming a master-class Chaos Immortal was clear. It naturally wouldn’t take her much time to solidify her foundation. If she didn’t have the idol and instead had to work on her own, she probably would’ve needed a thousand years in order to succeed.

“Might as well.” Ning nodded. Although Su Youji didn’t have a Dao weapon, she did have that golem. If danger arose, she could instantly hide herself within that golem. She really wouldn’t be in much danger.

“Come. Let us enter the Fog Sea.”

Ning turned his head to stare off into the distance, where the vast, billowing Fog Sea could be seen. He could sense the ripples emanating from the Mirrorsnow Painting he had bound and its desire to enter the Fog Sea and reunite with the other painting there.

The Fog Sea was part of the ‘inner region’ of the Allgod Estate. It was far more dangerous than the Ten Thousand Mountains.

……

Whoosh. Fog billowed everywhere.

Ning stood atop an earthen hill, staring off into the distance. Even at his level of visual acuity, the fog ensured that he could only see to a distance of a few hundred kilometers.

“It’s up ahead.” Ning pointed straight ahead. Thanks to his Mirrorsnow Painting, Ning could easily determine the location of his target. The toughest part of being in the Fog Sea was that one would be unable to find one’s bearings. Anyone who spent a bit of time within it would quickly discover that they could no longer tell the directions apart. This was true even for World-level experts. But of course, if you walked in one direction for a long enough period of time, sooner or later you’d make it out of the Fog Sea.

“A lake?”

After walking forward for tens of thousands of kilometers, Ning saw a placid, almost mirror-like lake up ahead. The lake was quite wide, so vast that Ning couldn’t see the other side of it. It was so still here that not even any ripples could be seen on the lake’s surface. Ning did, however, get a vague sense of danger emanating from the area.

Su Youji looked towards Ning. “I sense as though this lake…”

“I sensed it as well.” Ning nodded.

“Should we walk on the surface of the lake? Fly over it? Or go around it?” Su Youji waited for Ning to decide.

Ning frowned as he glanced at the great lake before them. Finally, he said, “Let’s go around it.”

“Right.” This was Su Youji’s preference as well.

The two began to circle around the lake. However, the lake truly was quite enormous. Based on how much time they spent walking around it, Ning judged that it had to be more than a hundred thousand kilometers long.

……

Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.

Ripples suddenly appeared on the surface of the formerly-still lake. Then, a golden head began to silently emerge from the waters beneath. This golden head had a pair of golden wings where a human would have ears. It stared off into the distance towards a place which Ji Ning and Su Youji had walked past just a short while ago. Some time later, the strange creature slowly sank beneath the waves once more.

……

Ning and Su Youji continued their journey after going past the lake, moving with slow caution. Whenever they encountered a place they felt was dangerous, they would avoid it. This was the Fog Sea, after all. This was a terrifying place which spelled death for nearly half the World-level experts who entered it! Even though Ning had the power of a master-class World God, he still didn’t dare to act rashly. In addition, his true goal was merely to find the Mirrorsnow Painting.

“We are almost there. We should be less than fifty thousand kilometers away,” Ning said. He had spent more than a month in here with Su Youji and had walked more than ten million kilometers. The reason why it had taken them this long was because they had to avoid quite a few dangerous areas.

The past month had been fairly safe. They had only engaged in battle a single time when they had encountered a scorpion-shaped bugbeast that had just barely reached the World level of power. Ning had simply taken out his Pentabolt Gourd and effortless killed the bugbeast with a thunderblast.

“It’s up ahead.”

“There it is.”

Ning and Su Youji had just reached a mountain. Halfway up the mountain, there was an elegant-looking palace which had three characters carved onto it: Yi River Palace.

“Yi River Palace?” Ning frowned.

“What’s wrong?” Su Youji glanced at Ning, puzzled.

“This doesn’t make sense.” Ning frowned. The Fog Sea had quite a few dangerous locations within it. Many generations of cultivators had ventured within the Fog Sea, resulting in many of its dangerous locations being marked down. The Yi River Palace was one such location! It held valuable treasures but was also filled with tremendous danger.

According to the intelligence report which Ning had acquired from Daolord Solesky, although the Mirrorsnow Painting was in the Fog Sea it wasn’t located within the Yi River Palace.

“For some reason, the Mirrorsnow Painting must’ve been moved from its original location into the Yi River Palace,” Ning mused to himself.

Boom! Ning gave the gates to the Yi River Palace a hard shove.

Rumble…the gates slowly swung open.

“Let’s go in,” Ning said. “Youji, the deeper parts of the Yi River Palace are filled with tremendous danger. We can’t get in too deep. Let me scout out the outer perimeter of the palace first.”

“Alright.” Youji nodded.

The two carefully stepped into the estate. The Yi River Palace was extremely large and it had a front hall, a main hall, an inner hall, and many side halls. According to the information Ning had, the other halls of the Yi River Palace were fairly safe, but the main hall was filled with tremendous danger. However, the main hall also had the most treasures.

“The Mirrorsnow Painting. It doesn’t seem to be in the main palace…” Ning could sense from his attunement to his own painting that this second one was actually located in a side hall.





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Book 25, Chapter 28 - Be Our Slaves


Ji Ning led Su Youji towards the direction of the side hall.

Whoosh.

A streak of gray fog quickly surged out from that distant side hall, moving far faster than the limits of the Heavenly Daos as it poured out of the Yi River Palace.

“That thing is carrying the Mirrorsnow Painting!” Ning’s face changed. “Chase it down!”

He could sense that the Mirrorsnow Painting had originally been within the side hall, but it was now receding from him at high speed. Clearly, it was being taken away by that gray streak of mist.