Desolate Era (Book 6 - Book 10)

Ning, dressed in furs, smiled as he walked in. Upon seeing Truekeep, Ninefire, Granny Shadow, and Ah Xing in the living room, he couldn’t help but say with an astonished laugh, “I thought it was just Uncle Truekeep. I didn’t imagine that the Elder Patriarch and the rest of you came as well. For all four of you to come…this must be about something major.”


“Is it indeed,” Truekeep nodded.

“Speak, what is it?” Ning sat down.

Ninefire and Truekeep exchanged a glance, then nodded slightly. Truekeep said, “Ji Ning, you know that with your help, our Ji clan’s power has grown explosively. Naturally, we’ve begun to expand.”

Ning nodded. Any clan, upon growing powerful, would expand! He had gone to the local branch of the Raindragon Guard and traded for some techniques, which he was permitted to transfer to his clan. It must be understood that some Ki Refining techniques were possessed by virtually all large clans, and thus the Raindragon Guard would permit these techniques to be passed down to a Guard’s clan. However, the price in karmic merit points would be much higher. The reason Ning had repeatedly gone to take missions was precisely due to this.

Aside from techniques, Ning had also acquired liquefied elemental essences, spirit-pills, and various other things. With those things and his tutelage, the Ji clan’s ranks of Zifu Disciples had swollen to more than ten. Three of them had left Swallow Mountain, and had joined various sects.

“The Kou clan, the Riverbank clan, and the other clans have been friends with our Ji clan for many years,” Truekeep said with a sigh. “However, this matter involves the strength and success of our clan; our Ji clan doesn’t need to be too merciful. That’s why we asked them to voluntarily migrate out of Swallow Mountain.”

Ning nodded. He knew about these matters and wasn’t surprised by them. The Dongyan clan, for example, took up a mountain range of hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, comparable to more than a hundred Swallow Mountains! Snowdragon Mountain, in turn, had also taken up an extremely large territory as their headquarters! But of course, the Black-White College focused on a small group of elites, and so didn’t need a large territory.

However, the Black-White College was a school; it could recruit elites from the outside world. Major tribes and clans, however, felt more trust towards their own descendants. In order for the tribe to flourish, there was naturally a need for increasingly large amounts of space.

“Currently, in the Swallow Mountain region, only that branch of Snowdragon Mountain has refused to leave,” Truekeep said. “The other powers have all left. As for Snowdragon Mountain, they have the main sect behind him; clearly, they are prepared to do battle at a moment’s notice. If our Ji clan dares to invade, then they will dare to attack. Our Ji clan has accumulated quite a bit of power in recent years, but reinforcements arrive from the main Snowdragon Mountain sect in an unending stream. If we truly were to fight them…the Ji clan would find it quite difficult.”

Ning understood. Frowning, he said, “This local branch…are they truly so impertinent as to not know when their time is up?”

“They’ve correctly calculated that our Ji clan doesn’t dare fight with them head on, I imagine. They event sent me an envoy, saying that they won’t expand their territory, but that they also wouldn’t leave. Their attitude was quite resolute.” Truekeep gritted his teeth. “Hmph. Come to think of it, when our Ji clan was weak, Dong Ziqi led the Swallow Mountain branch of Snowdragon Mountain to try and force our Ji clan to leave, threatening us with annihilation. Now, however, they see that you, Ji Ning, are not an easy person to deal with…and so they say they won’t expand? It isn’t that they won’t expand, it is that they don’t have the strength to!”

For someone who was weak to say they wouldn’t expand their territory was nothing more than empty self-praise. When the Swallow Mountain branch of Snowdragon Mountain had been powerful, hadn’t they been constantly, slowly expanding their territory? They had been an outside force that had shoved their way into Swallow Mountain, becoming the most powerful local organization.

“Ji Ning, what do you think our Ji clan should do in response?” Truekeep looked towards Ning. “Our decision today will impact the entire clan. We can’t be the slightest bit negligent.”

“The Swallow Mountain branch of Snowdragon Mountain truly doesn’t know its limits. A puny little branch…dares to act like this?” Ji Ning frowned, then said, “I’ll send a letter. Uncle Truekeep, send someone to deliver it to the Snowdragon Mountain branch. However, after the letter is rolled up, it absolutely must not be opened. I’ll set a restrictive spell over it.”

“Alright.” Truekeep nodded. Ning immediately took out leather parchment and began to write a letter.

Ninefire, Granny Shadow, Truekeep, and the old servant Ah Xing watched from the side. When they saw what Ning wrote, their faces couldn’t help but change.

“Is…is this perhaps, going a bit far?” Ninefire said, worried.

“Don’t worry,” Ning said calmly. “Snowdragon Mountain does not concern me.”

Nine years. Ning knew exactly how powerful he had grown in these nine years. In just three years after joining the Black-White College, he had mastered the first two stances of the [Three-Foot Sword]. Nine more years had passed, and in the underwater estate…Ning had successfully challenged and overcome the fourth level of the Wargod Hall, acquiring yet another magic treasure. Ning’s power, compared to nine years ago, was unfathomably greater.

“Charge into Snowdragon Mountain? That’s their headquarters; I can’t imagine how many secrets and spells they have hidden in that place. Even Immortals would be wary of charging in; my power isn’t enough for now. But outside Snowdragon Mountain…without the support of the spells and formations located in the mountain, those Primal Daoists of Snowdragon Mountain are not enough to cause me concern,” Ning mused to himself.

Snowdragon Mountain had powerful backers, yes; its backer was the Northmont clan of Stillwater Commandery! Generally speaking, all of the major powers within Stillwater Commandery would ally themselves with the Northmont clan of Stillwater, or with the Raindragon Guard!

But Ning, in turn, had backers of his own! In fact, his relationship with the Northmont clan of Stillwater Commandery was even closer than Snowdragon Mountain’s…and he also had his master, Immortal Diancai!

……

That very night. Snowdragon City of Swallow Mountain. This was the only commandery city which the local branch now controlled. As for the other two…the Ji clan had acquired both official writs when Dong Ziqi and the others had died. Now that the Ji clan was so strong, they were easily able to take over those two cities.

Snowdragon City, however, was like a nail, sticking up in the wilderness, firmly fixed into the Swallow Mountain region.

“A messenger from the Ji clan?”

“Hmph, this puny Ji clan…they only relied on that Ji Ning in order to grow strong. How old is Ji Ning? Although his potential is astonishing, it’s quite possible that he might die on his Immortal path one day. I don’t even know how many so-called ‘geniuses’ died in such a manner,” a silver-haired elder said, an ugly look on his face.

His name was ‘Xu Fang’; he was the custodian of Snowdragon City. The Swallow Mountain branch of Snowdragon Mountain, in turn, was under the control of Xu Ke. The ‘Xu’ clan was a fairly powerful clan which belonged to Snowdragon Mountain; it had quite a few Wanxiang Adepts. However, Adept Xu Li had died in that battle. This had enraged the Xu clan, and when Snowdragon Mountain’s main sect had begun to make preparations for sending reinforcements to Snowdragon Mountain, the Xu clan had volunteered its services bravely.