Desolate Era (Book 6 - Book 10)

“Tomorrow. Tomorrow, we shall leave.” Kou Huai stroked the walls again. “Remember, child. If you are weak, you will have to lower your head. There’s no one else to blame but ourselves, for not being strong enough.”


The maiden nodded. “Tomorrow, I will go to the Thousand Rivers Sect. Father, I will definitely work hard to bring our Kou clan to prominence once more.”

“Alright.” Kou Huai looked at his daughter, his eyes filled with expectations. His daughter, his pride and joy.

However, compared to a monster like Ji Ning, she was far inferior. If his daughter was capable of becoming a Wanxiang Adept, most likely the entire Kou clan would celebrate.

……

The eve of the new year. The City of Ten Thousand Swords.

Ji Ninefire had already retired; the current Patriarch of the Ji clan was the younger Ji Truekeep!

“The Kou clan and the Blackfire Cult, in the next three days, will depart from their commandery cities,” Truekeep said with a loud laugh. “Once they leave, our Ji clan’s power will have expanded even more.”

“They were quite obedient. They didn’t try to resist.” Ninefire smiled as he spoke.

“The difference in power was too great. They had no desire to fight back at all.” Granny Shadow was very satisfied as well. “Truekeep, once the Kou clan and the Blackfire Cult have left their commandery cities and our Ji clan moves in, then in the Swallow Mountain region…the only remaining powers will be the garrison of the Grand Xia Dynasty and Snowdragon Mountain’s branch, right?

Truekeep nodded. The Grand Xia Dynasty’s garrison would definitely remain. As for the Snowdragon Mountain branch? Although Dong Ziqi and the others had died, Snowdragon Mountain had quickly sent more Zifu Disciples to enter Swallow Mountain, causing the local branch to once more flourish!

“The Swallow Mountain branch of Snowdragon Mountain has the main Snowdragon Mountain sect behind them. Although they aren’t willing to offend our Ji clan, they aren’t so afraid of us as to hand over their territory,” Truekeep said with a sigh. “This will be troublesome. If we were to truly act against the local branch of Snowdragon Mountain, I’m worried that they will send some Wanxiang Adepts over from the main sect.”

Snowdragon Mountain didn’t wish to offend Ji Ning, whose potential was unlimited. But they weren’t actually afraid of him! They didn’t expand their territory in Swallow Mountain, but continued to stubbornly remain within their previous territory. They wouldn’t launch any attacks, but if the Ji clan were to dare to invade, they would show no mercy.

“As soon as we invade, the Swallow Mountain branch will immediately retaliate. The leader of the Swallow Mountain branch of Snowdragon Mountain, Daoist Xu Ke, has said long ago that if our Ji clan were to dare to attack, then they would dare to kill us.” Truekeep continued, “Although during the past nine years, our Ji clan’s power in terms of our Xiantian experts has swelled, it truly wouldn’t be worth it for us to truly fight head on against Snowdragon Mountain. Their foundation is much deeper than ours, and in terms of supreme experts, behind them are Primal Daoists.”

“Let’s not rush to fight them.” Ninefire shook his head. “I’ll go ask Ji Ning about this.”

The local branch of Snowdragon Mountain was a tough bone to chew on. They were the final obstacle preventing the Ji clan from completely dominating Swallow Mountain.





* * *





Book 9, Chapter 31 - Ji Nings Letter


However, this was the new year celebration; Ninefire and the others didn’t immediately go disturb Ning. They waited until the sixteenth day of the month before heading towards Serpentwing Lake.

Serpentwing Lake. Brightheart Island. Within a study.

Ning was standing in front of a desk, holding a writing brush and writing some characters. Autumn Leaf, by his side, was helping him grind the ink. Brush-calligraphy was something Ning had taken a liking to in recent years, and it was also one of the ways in which Ning trained his heart and also trained his sword.

With every single stroke of the brush, sword-light seemed to flash out in a dominating manner. Ji Ning’s signature…it verily emanated an almighty sword-intent.

“The sword-intent in young master’s signature has become increasingly powerful.” Autumn Leaf secretly sighed in amazement, “The young master personally instructed me in all of my sword training, and I am at the peak of the Xiantian level…but when I look at these words, I feel my heart tremble, as though I’m completely powerless. In recent years, his sword-intent has grown increasingly astonishing.”

Nobody knew exactly how powerful Ning had grown during these past nine years, but when Ning had occasionally taken on missions for the Raindragon Guard and revealed his power a few times, he had completely stunned all onlookers. His most successful battle was definitely his execution of Adept Poisondove.

It must be understood that evil cultivators whose bodies were surrounded by sin were usually far stronger in battle than similarly ranked cultivators. In turn, Daoist Poisondove was one of the most superb cultivators amongst the ranks of evil cultivators. He was capable of successfully escaping from the attacks of Primal Daoists…but he wasn’t able to escape from Ji Ning! From this, the outside world was able to guess…that Ning’s power must have truly reached a formidable level.

However, only Autumn Leaf, who had the most direct access to Ning, was able to gain a fairly accurate level of insight.

“The sword-intent in the young master’s calligraphy has only grown stronger and stronger, at an astonishing rate. Compared to three years ago…it seems to have changed in a qualitative way. There’s no point to even comparing him to where he was nine years ago.” Autumn Leaf secretly shook her head.

“I’m done.” Ning put down his brush, then said with a laugh, “Autumn Leaf, go ahead and incinerate this.”

“Yes, young master,” Autumn Leaf replied obediently. From the very beginning, Ning had always instructed her to burn his writings. At first, Autumn Leaf had been rather reluctant, and she had even said, “Young master, this is such fine calligraphy…I can even feel the sword-intent surging within the characters. If you were to leave this set of calligraphy within the clan to allow the juniors to view it, it would be wonderful.”

But Ning had explained, “I’ll be writing every day. After a few years, how many scrolls will I have written on? In addition, these examples of calligraphy are just casual writing samples; they have no keepsake value. Every year, I’ll leave behind one special set of calligraphy, to be stored within the clan. As for the others, burn them all.”

After Ning gave these instructions, Autumn Leaf no longer argued with him.

“Young master, young master.” A voice suddenly rang out from outside. Ning raised his head to look.

Autumn Leaf also walked out, then asked, “What is it?” The messenger maidservant called out hurriedly, “The Patriarch and the others came. They are waiting in the guest hall.”

“Uncle Truekeep?” Laughing, Ning instructed, “Then I’ll come right now.”

“Help me tidy these things.” Ning glanced at Autumn Leaf, who nodded. Autumn Leaf would generally be the one to personally take care of and store Ning’s personal belongings; other maids and servants were forbidden from touching them. In particular, Ning’s calligraphy with sword-intent…mere Houtian warriors might literally be frightened to death by the sword-intent emanating from them!

Even normal Xiantian lifeforms would be terrified to the point of paralysis. Autumn Leaf trained under Ning and had an exceedingly high level of expertise in swordplay, and yet…usually, even she felt her heart quiver.

……

In the guest hall.