Desolate Era (Book 6 - Book 10)

Qingqing stared back at him. “So what if I call you Woody? Ji Ning is my master, but you aren’t…you’ve gotten such a great benefit from me in the form of dire-ice, and you are going to get upset at me just because I call you ‘Woody’?”


Northson said, resigned, “Fine, call away.”

Ning had to laugh. This junior apprentice-brother of his really was easy to pick on; even Qingqing was able to effortless pick on him.

“Uh, we’re there.” Qingqing pointed downwards. “It’s that giant lake, down there.”

……

The dragon-headed warship quickly shrank in size, and as it did so, the surface of the warship quickly changed to become one with the color of the sky as well, so as to avoid attracting attention. Soon, the warship arrived in the air above this vast lake. And then, after storing the warship away, Ning, Northson, and Qingqing moved to stand atop the lake’s surface.

“Where is it?” Northson looked around. “This lake is thousands of kilometers wide.” “At the bottom,” Qingqing quietly sent mentally to them. “I have an innate affinity for water, and I entered this lake and accidentally discovered that a secret, hidden area at the bottom. Don’t worry…there are quite a few dangerous zones in the bottom of this lake, so there are few monsters present, and no Wanxiang monsters. Follow me and don’t worry.”

“Let’s go, into the water.” Qingqing led the way, immediately entering the water. The elemental ki surrounding their body kept the water away, allowing them to effortlessly dive deeper.

“It really is deep,” Northson sent mentally. Ning nodded as well. “It’s many kilometers deep.” They were now able to see the bottom of the lake. At this depth, despite their visual acuity, even they could just barely make out the sights around here. Although they occasionally encountered some lesser monsters, the powerful aura which Qingqing intentionally spread out instantly terrified them into staying far away.

Qingqing pointed towards a dark abyss below. “Follow that underwater gorge and keep going down!”

…….

After entering the underwater gorge, the temperature of the water began to fall more and more, and pieces of ice began to appear around them. And then, at the very bottom of this lake gorge, an extremely thick layer of sturdy ice appeared. Ning, Northson, and Qingqing came to a halt, standing atop this layer of sturdy ice.

“Previously, I relied on the ‘Void Blink’ technique to pass through this wall of ice to go play around,” Qingqing sent mentally. “Roughly three thousand meters beneath this layer of ice, there’s a hidden dire-ice vein. Without me guiding you, you wouldn’t have been able to find this place at all, just barging around randomly.”

“Three thousand meters?” With but a thought, Ning sent his divine sense sweeping downwards. Deep within this incomparably enormous piece of ice, there was indeed a vein of dire-ice; just a single one.

“Let’s move.”

To be cautious, Ning and Northson both used agility techniques to charge forward by three hundred meters each time. As they charged forcefully in, they effortlessly smashed a tunnel through the ice. Although this ice was as tough as a rock, to a Wanxiang Adept…it was naturally easily parted. The coldness of the ice, in turn, was nothing to them at all.

Moments later…Ning’s group arrived at the location of the dire-ice vein. “This is…?” Ning and Northson both stared at the vein of dire-ice. This vein of dire-ice was completely formed from various pieces of dire-ice. It was tens of meters long, and the pieces of dire-ice even had human-shaped elemental spirits playing around in them, causing the dire-ice to be filled with something akin to sentience.

“Snowspirit dire-ice?” Ning revealed a look of delight. “It really is snowspirit dire-ice!” Northson was overjoyed as well. As for the nearby Qingqing, she immediately asked, “Well, how is this dire-ice? I swallowed a piece of it as well and am cultivating it inside my body.”

“This is known as snowspirit dire-ice,” Ning said. After having spent three years at the Black-White College, he naturally knew far more now than he had in the past. “Even amongst dire-ice, this is a top-grade type; it is innately filled with sentience. You should know that dire-ice can be divided into nine grades, right?”

“Yes, I know, I know.” Qingqing nodded. “I know this much. I hear that if one absorbs in a first grade piece of dire-ice, one will possess incomparably astonishing power.”

“Right. But some types of dire-ice are almost impossible to nourish to the first grade,” Ning said. “Dire-ice is divided into nine grades; the ninth, eight, and seventh are the ‘low-grades’, the sixth, fifth, and fourth are the ‘middle-grades’, while the third, second, and first are the ‘high-grades’. Generally speaking, it’s quite impressive for dire-ice to be nurtured to the third grade; dire-ice of the second grade is extremely rare, and the first grade is even less common.”

“Snowspirit dire-ice is extremely fine dire-ice, with tremendous potential. It can be nourished to the first grade,” Ning said.

“Looks like my luck isn’t bad,” Qingqing called out in delight. The nearby Northson said, “And it looks as though quite a few people can use this vein of dire-ice. Let’s immediately begin the harvesting.”

“Qingqing, I’ll leave the protecting to you.” Ning waved his hand, producing six formation flags. “This is a bewildering formation that is extremely strong. Unless one is skilled in formations, there is no chance of being able to break through. While my junior apprentice-brother and I are implanting the dire-ice into our bodies, help us stand watch. This process is extremely dangerous, and we cannot stop it midway. You must be very vigilant..”

“Alright,” Qingqing nodded. “Don’t worry, Master.” Of course she understood. Dire-ice was, intrinsically, an extremely damaging, harmful thing; otherwise, Immortal cultivators wouldn’t value it so much. This sort of natural dire-ice was even more savage. During the implanting process, one had to absorb the dire-ice into the Zifu of one’s own body; if one was interrupted midway, the dire-ice might rupture within the Zifu, and could even damage it. It was even possible that this might result in death.

Ning possessed the body of a Fiendgod, so he wouldn’t actually die, but he still was worried about his Zifu being damaged.

……

Deep within the freezing gorge at the bottom of the lake. Ning’s group had quickly dug out a room of freezing ice, which became merged with this vein of dire-ice. Outside, the bewildering formation had been set, with Qingqing managing it!

As for Ning and Northson, they sat down in the lotus position atop the ice, facing the vein of dire-ice. “Junior apprentice-brother, you must be careful,” Ning warned solemnly. Harvesting dire-ice…at most, Ning might damage his Zifu and would need to spend several years healing. His junior apprentice-brother, however…if things went badly, he might die.

Ning had already come to a decision that if something truly amiss happened during this process…even if he had to injure himself and halt his implanting process to protect his junior apprentice-brother, he would do so.

“Don’t worry,” Northson laughed. “The Dao of Constructs is a Dao of using countless strange materials to begin with. Harvesting dire-ice…as long as I’m careful about it, it’ll be simplicity itself.”

Ning laughed. Then, he turned his head to look towards his piece of dire-ice, filled with sentience. He immediately opened his mouth lightly, and began to absorb! A pincer of elemental ki surged out, and a wisp of the dire-ice in front of him began to be absorbed into Ning’s body.

“So cold.” As soon as the dire-ice entered his body, he instantly felt his entire body grow cold. As a Fiendgod Body Refiner, Ning naturally didn’t mind. However, the nearby Northson was suffering quite a bit.

Within Ning’s mind began to float the memories of how to use the [Flowing Watersource] technique to harvest dire-ice, earthfire, direwind, direlight, and other materials.