Desolate Era (Book 6 - Book 10)

“After his departure, countless years passed. The War of the Primordial Fiendgods. The birth of the three thousand major worlds and the trillions of minor worlds…” The giant yellow bear looked towards Ning. “It was only due to luck and fate that this estate ended up in this world, one of the major worlds.”


The giant yellow bear said solemnly, “I can tell you this. Given your power, you would at most be able to acquire the third divine ability. As for Master’s divine ability, the chances of you acquiring it are less than one in ten thousand.”

Ning was stunned.

He had guessed long ago that the first owner of the aquatic estate had an extraordinary history to him; he even had left quite a few ‘Pure Yang’ magic treasures in the Treasure Hall, which were above Immortal-ranked magic treasures in power. From this alone, one could tell how powerful the first master had been…but now, it seemed, this person was most likely an incredibly powerful figure of the Three Realms. The giant yellow bear’s words were correct. There was only one chance to challenge the Divine Abilities Hall…and only a single chance to acquire such a powerful divine ability.

The giant yellow bear said, “If you miss this opportunity…you will most likely have to wait until you become a Celestial Immortal before you will have the chance to encounter such a powerful figure and gain another opportunity.”

Ning hesitated slightly, then asked, “Senior, dare I ask, what sort of divine ability do I need to acquire in order to kill a middle-stage Wanxiang Adept?”

“Any of the top three will suffice.”

The giant yellow bear said, “If you are able to acquire the most powerful divine ability which Master left behind, then given how you already have the power of an ordinary late-stage Zifu Disciple Fiendgod, you can use that powerful divine ability to annihilate a middle-stage Wanxiang Adept with a single technique. However, you don’t even have a one-in-ten-thousand chance to acquire that divine ability, at your current level of power. Are you still going to make the attempt? This is your one and only chance to challenge the hall.”

“I will.” Ning didn’t hesitate.

Perhaps, after five years, he would be able to acquire that powerful divine ability, resulting in his future accomplishments being so great that he would be able to dominate the Three Realms, and even find his reincarnated parents and restore their previous memories to them.

But…

Even after his reincarnated parents received their memories back, would ‘they’ still truly be ‘themselves’?

Once they were gone, they would be truly gone!

“Even if I’m not able to acquire that powerful divine ability, I, Ji Ning, can still dominate the Three Realms in the future. I am still planning on meeting with Judge Cui once more.” Ning’s eyes were filled with boundless determination. “What’s more…who says I won’t be able to acquire that powerful divine ability? The chance might be less than one in ten thousand, but that’s still better than zero!”

“Alas! Once you miss this chance, it will be forever gone!” The giant yellow bear shook its head, then disappeared into the void.

Ning was left there by himself, with the empty, gray void.





* * *





Book 6, Chapter 29 - Strongman


This gray, blurry space had nothing within it, but as Ji Ning stepped on and walked through the gray, misty space, it was as though he was stepping on solid ground.

“Where is the test of the Divine Abilities Hall?” Ning swept his gaze across the area. Suddenly, with a ‘whoosh’ sound, an enormous, pitch-black tablet landed on the ground before him, covered with a dense cluster of more than a hundred Fiendgod characters.

“Use your strength as a Fiendgod! Choose freely from the weapons next to you. Go forth and battle! Divine abilities are consummate skills meant for slaughter. The more strongmen you kill, the more powerful a divine ability you will require. If you kill too few, you might not even receive the seventh divine ability. The seven great divine abilities…they are right there. Kill as wildly as you can. In the instant when you collapse and your body is smashed, the test of the Divine Abilities Hall will conclude.”

He looked at the Fiendgod characters carved atop the giant tablet. Not too far away from the pitch-black tablet, an enormous table suddenly appeared, covered with a large number of weapons. There were hundreds of swords, hundreds of sabers, hundreds of spears, staffs…countless weapons lay densely clustered atop the table.

“So I really can choose as I please.” Ning was surprised by the number of weapons that had appeared. He didn’t dare hesitate at all.

Swish! Swish! He hurriedly picked up two longswords that were comparable to his Darknorth swords.

“Eh?” Ning hesitated slightly. “Just using swordplay and the Rainwater Sword Domain won’t use up too much of my concentration.” Instantly, a large number of small, thin longswords flew up from the table. In total, nine flying swords flew out. The giant yellow bear had only said that for this trial, the participant was not permitted to use any Ki Refiner techniques. As for his divine will…this was the divine will that he had gained through possessing an incredibly powerful soul. Naturally, it couldn’t be considered a Ki Refiner technique.

“If I use my divine will to control these nine swords, although the power will be a bit weak, it will still serve in supporting me.” Ning mused to himself.

This battle…he had to exert all of his strength within it, so as to acquire a more powerful divine ability. If he only received the sixth or seventh divine ability, even with it, he still probably would find it difficult to kill Adept Xu. The worst part of it was, neither the giant yellow bear nor the pitch-black tablet had informed him as to how many he had to kill to acquire the third divine ability or first divine ability.

……

Immediately after Ning selected his swords, the gray mist in the void around him rapidly began to condense, forming one human-shaped figure after another.

“This is!” Ning’s heart clenched. These human-shaped figures were all extremely muscular. They each had three savage eyes in their heads, and their entire bodies were virtually completely naked. The only thing they wore was something akin to a loincloth at their waists. All of their bodies bunched with muscles, and they held various weapons in their hands, such as axes, staffs, and warhammers.

Their breaths rang out like thunder, and their steps caused the earth to shake. Their bodies were filled with a sky-shaking, savage aura. And in an instant, the area around Ning became completely filled with hundreds of these human-shaped freaks.

“These are the ‘strongmen’ which the tablet spoke of?” Ning was startled. He had seen many books, and according to some of the legends recorded in the books, some of the great powers had ‘strongmen’ under their command. The so-called ‘strongmen’ were used to work as coolies to do physical labor. There were many different kinds of them, such as gateguard strongmen, cauldron-bearing strongmen, mountain-guarding strongmen, or even mountain-bearing strongmen and seastriding strongmen…

They had different missions, different names, and naturally different levels of power as well.

Strongmen, according to the legends, generally weren’t living creatures. They were servants with simple intelligences that were created by some of the great powers. But of course, there were some powerful experts who would serve some of the great powers, and willingly take on the title of ‘strongman’; this occurred as well. However, ordinary and extremely numerous strongmen such as these weren’t actual living creatures.

“Kill!” “Kill!” The hundreds of savage, weapon-bearing strongmen rushed forward like the wind, charging towards Ning while running across the foggy ‘ground’. They roared the Fiendgod word for ‘kill’, and their savage triple eyes were locked on Ning. They moved so quickly that in the blink of an eye, they arrived next to Ning, who was three hundred meters away.