Desolate Era (Book 6 - Book 10)

“Those people you acted against were my uncle, my father, and my mother!” Ning stared at him, the cold look in his eyes causing Shui Yi’s heart to tremble.

“You are that child the woman was pregnant with?” Shui Yi stared. Good heavens. It was only twenty or so years. The child that woman was pregnant with had become this powerful? Could it be that the woman was pregnant with a reincarnated Immortal?

“Hmph.” With but a thought, Ning sent the elemental ki surging from his body, forming into a glowing rune that appeared in front of him. It was the Heartburner Art. The shining runic seal instantly merged into Shui Yi’s body.

“Enjoy this,” Ning said with cold emotionlessness. Shui Yi instantly let out an agonized scream. His flesh and his bones began to twist and distort, and his skin turned completely red. The agony was causing him to scream in pain.

“Kill me, kill me!” Heartrending roars rang out from Shui Yi’s mouth, but Ning just watched him calmly. “KILL ME!” Shui Yi bellowed. “Make it clean and fast!”

“Clean and fast? If I granted you your wish, who would come and grant me mine? Can you let my parents come back to life? Let my uncle come back to life?” Ning stared at him coldly. Shui Yi’s flesh was beginning to char, and his eyes had turned completely red. This was hell itself.

“I curse you, I curse you. You’ll die a miserable death, a miserable death!” Utterly agonized, Shui Yi stared death at Ning, filled with a towering rage.

Crackle, crackle, crackle…his body began to actually flicker with flames as it began to burn…

Ning produced the incense burner magic treasure. “In you go!” A soul was directly absorbed into the incense burner, then was corroded and destroyed. Ning then waved his hand, collecting all of the magic treasures that remained in the surrounding area.

Ning, previously incomparably icy, suddenly turned calm. Only, a very complicated look remained in his eyes. “Two are dead,” Ning said softly.

“Ning, son, your father and your mother never would have imagined that two out of the three culprits would have died in your hands so quickly.” Uncle White stood there to one side, gently patting Ning on the shoulders. “If they knew, they would definitely feel very gratified.”

“The last one, Dong Seven, remains. However, he’s at Snowdragon Mountain. That’s the headquarters of a school; even Loose Immortals would be cautious about charging into it. I have no chance at all, right now,” Ning said softly. “I’ll wait. I’ll let Dong Seven live for a bit longer, but when the time comes, I’ll destroy his soul as well!”

Revenge. Naturally, he wouldn’t give them a chance at all. These enemies were all Immortal cultivators with extremely powerful souls. Generally speaking, after they died and went to the Netherworld Kingdom, they could cooperate and become ghost soldiers, and eventually train to become Ghost Immortals. Ning wouldn’t permit this to occur.

“Let’s go. The others have been waiting quite a while,” Uncle White said. Ning turned his head and saw the distant Mu Northson and Little Qing. They clearly didn’t want to disturb Ning as he was taking revenge, and so simply had watched from far away.

“Right. It’s time to go back.” Next, Ning released Shui Tianyi. They were no grudges between them; given Ning’s proud disposition, he wouldn’t stoop to massacring this man. However, with Shui Yi’s death, in the future, the entire Shui clan would definitely begin to decay.

At the Crimson Dragon Mountains, the headquarters of the Raindragon Guard, not too far away from Stillwater City.

Ning and Northson both handed in their missions. “With these ten karmic points, we’ll have a hundred years of leisure.” Northson looked towards Ning. “Senior apprentice-brother, where are you planning to go?”

“I plan to go home,” Ning said. “I will probably stay permanently at Serpentwing Lake in my homeland, Swallow Mountain. I’ll occasionally go out and do some adventuring, but most of the time, I’ll be staying at Swallow Mountain.”

That place was his home.

That place had the people he was most familiar with.

That place had the underwater estate which would be of great use to him.

And similarly…it had been a long, long time since he had drifted about on a small boat on Serpentwing Lake, and enjoyed that feeling, that truly warm sensation, of being in the embrace of his father and his mother. He missed that sort of feeling.

“Back to Serpentwing Lake?” Northson paused for a moment, then said, “Senior apprentice-brother, then I’ll part with you for a time. I want to focus on analyzing the Dao of Constructs…I am going to return to the school. My master has reached an extremely deep level of understanding regarding the Dao of Constructs, and being with her is of great help to me. In addition, Master is close to the end of her life; I want to spend some time with her.”

Ning could sense that this junior apprentice-brother of his truly viewed Daoist Jadefine with affection, almost like the affection a son felt for a mother. After all, his actual mother had long since passed away.

“Alright.” Ning nodded. “Let’s split up for now. If you are free in the future, you can come to Serpentwing Lake of Swallow Mountain.”

“Right. When the time comes, I’ll definitely go to visit you, senior apprentice-brother,” Northson said with a nod. And then, Northson rode his dragon-headed warship into the skies, flying straight towards Stillwater City.

As for Ning, he just watched as his junior apprentice-brother left. Then, he turned to Little Qing and Uncle White. “Let’s go.” They walked towards the Crimson Dragon Mountain’s teleportation array. This place was rather far away from Swallow Mountain, and going through the array would be somewhat faster.

Swallow Mountain. The mountains were the same mountains; the water was the same water. A ship was soaring through its skies, and aboard it was a fur-clad youth, a large, snowy white hound, and also a little azure snake, the latest addition to the party.

“We’re back.” As Ning stared at the sight of his homeland, he revealed a hint of a smile on his face. “When I left, it was winter, and white snow covered the entire place. Upon my return…it is still the cold winter.”

When he had left the Black-White College and joined the Raindragon Guard, it had been the middle of summer. However, after the trials at the wild marshes of the Gaol Mountains, the pursuit of criminal suspects, and the killing of Yu Dong and Shui Yi, it was already the middle of winter. The ground below was covered with silver-white decorations of snow. Swallow Mountain was a cold place to begin with, and in the winter, it was almost completely covered in snow. When Ning was born, the world was covered in snow as well.

“Serpentwing Lake.” The Whitewater Hound suddenly spoke in the human tongue. “We’re here.” Ning, too, stared at the vast Serpentwing Lake. Although snow had built up on the banks of the lake, the waters of the seemingly endless lake continued to flow forth in waves. A lake of this size…even in the coldest of temperatures, it would very rarely be completely frozen over.

“Serpentwing Lake.” Upon seeing the lake, Ning felt a surge of warmth. His mother’s ashes…his father’s ashes…they had all been sprinkled into the waters of this lake. The boat drifted downwards from the skies, landing in the middle of the lake.

“Father. Mother.” Ning looked towards the lake, then revealed a smile. “I’m back. Of our three enemies, your son was only strong enough to kill two of them for now. One of them is awaiting his turn. He, too, will die.”