Desolate Era (Book 6 - Book 10)

“My divine will is now too powerful.” Ning was completely stunned and overjoyed. His divine will had undergone a qualitative change, and its range had been expanded to as far as he could see with the naked eye. As for the power of his divine will to control material objects, it had risen by a terrifying amount! Previously, when his divine will had controlled those swords, it had done so with the power of an early-stage Zifu-level Fiendgod. But now, the evolved divine will contained the power of a peak-stage Zifu-level Fiendgod!

The power of his divine will was now even greater than Ning’s own physical power as a Fiendgod! Such a terrifying strength…when amplified by the Rainwater Sword Domain, even when just using some simple sword techniques rather than the ‘Rain Line’ technique, each blow swept through a crowd of enemies. In addition, the controlled swords didn’t need to worry about defense, and thus were able to display sword techniques in an even fiercer, more vicious manner. Their power would naturally be tremendous.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Groups after groups of strongmen collapsed. Under the dominating, sweeping prowess of those hundred swords, the strongmen died at an astonishing rate. “My divine will is now even more powerful than I am in close-quarters combat.” Ning murmured to himself. His soul had advanced far, far more than he had as a Fiendgod Body Refiner or as a Ki Refiner. His soul was already at the level of ‘Opening the Celestial Eye, Manifesting the Divine Sense’, a level which only Primal Daoists should be able to reach.

Every sweeping blow of the controlled swords contained greater power than Ning’s earlier, personal blows. These hundred swords were like a hundred amplified Ning’s, dominating the region. Groups of strongmen continuously collapsed, and as the rate at which they died quickened, the rate at which they were reformed quickened slightly as well.

New strongmen continuously were condensed from the mist. Kill, kill, kill! The hundred flashing sword lights struck out like roaring dragons, bellowing through the air. However, the strongmen were growing increasingly powerful as well. The killing rate dropped from a group per blow, to five or six per blow, to two or three per blow, all the way down to one per blow. However, because the hundred swords were fighting in unision, they were still extremely efficient.

“Whew!”

Ning looked around himself. It was completely silent. There was no motion or sound, only those hundred flying swords that were hovering in the air. “No more?” Ning was stunned. “It’s empty?” Ning stared at his surroundings. The only thing present was that pitch-black tablet. The many weapons lay soundlessly on their table. It was as though this world was telling Ning…that he had killed all of the strongmen!

Whoosh. A figure appeared by his side. It was the giant yellow bear, who stared at Ning, surprise in his eyes. “Are you the reincarnation of a Celestial Immortal?” The giant yellow bear murmured. “Or the reincarnation of a Primordial Fiendgod?”

Giving how astonishingly keen Ning’s hearing was, he naturally heard the murmured words of the giant yellow bear. Reincarnation of a Celestial Immortal? Reincarnation of a Primordial Fiendgod? Others might not know about their past lives, but Ning knew it with perfect clarity.

“Simply by relying on comprehending the Dao, tempering your Dao-heart, and training your Fiendgod body…it is virtually impossible for you to raise your soul to the level of gaining ‘divine sense’.” The giant yellow bear looked at Ning. “Immortal practitioners generally need to first reach the Primal Daoist level. With the soul being nurtured within primal energy, it will grow and develop, eventually opening the Celestial Eye and establishing the divine sense.”

“First, become a Primal Daoist; then, acquire divine sense. This is the case for virtually everyone! Less than one in ten thousand Wanxiang Adepts would be able to acquire divine sense.” The giant yellow bear shook his head. “Generally speaking, those who are capable of acquiring divine sense prior to the Primal Daoist level are in actuality Immortals and other great powers who reincarnated. Or, of course, those who encountered a tremendously good twist of fate. Can it be that you are a reincarnated Immortal? But if you truly were a reincarnated Immortal, there should have been elders of your school who came to welcome you long ago. Or…can it be that you encountered another fortunate twist of fate, even before you entered the underwater estate?”

Ning just blinked, not saying anything. Twist of fate? Would encountering the Lord of Cui Palace of the Netherworld Kingdom, and being bestowed with the visualization technique, [Nuwa Painting] count? Would the fact that, by luck, he managed to avoid drinking Grandma Meng’s soup before being reincarnated and thus was able to train in the [Nuwa Painting] visualization technique as an infant count?

“Elder, which divine ability can I acquire?” Ning hurriedly asked. “You killed all of the strongmen. Naturally, you can acquire the first.” The giant yellow bear blinked. “Follow me.”

He grabbed Ning with his paw. Whoosh! The surrounding region of gray mist began to tremble and distort. Ning even had the strange feeling that time was passing extremely slowly, then extremely quickly.

“How much time passed?” Ning was rather nervous. He was afraid that if too much time passed, unforeseen variables would occur at Oxhorn Mountain. “Don’t worry. No need to be concerned over how long this process of receiving the divine ability will take.” The giant yellow bear said. “In the past, the manifestation and the divine ability which Master left behind was placed in an area completely sealed off from space and time. Thus, by comparison to the outside world, time here was virtually frozen. You could spend a century here, but only a single breath’s worth of time would occur in the outside world.”

Ning was secretly shocked, but he quickly calmed himself. When he had been in the Netherworld Kingdom, the regions near the Bridge of Despair moved at extremely different rates of time. Clearly, some of the great powers in the Three Realms were capable of changing the flow of time.

“I wonder what sort of divine ability the first master of the estate left behind.” Ning secretly mused to himself.





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Book 6, Chapter 32 - Receiving the Divine Ability


They were surrounded by fog. Ji Ning and the giant yellow bear stood above the fog, and the previously contorting space and time had calmed down. “That is…!” Ning stared towards the front. Far away, in the distant corners of that boundless gray fog, there was a towering building that flashed with eye-catching golden light. It was like an altar. From the distance, one could see that it had layers of stairs, which led towards the very top of this building.

“Why are you standing here like an idiot?” The giant yellow bear grabbed Ning by the elbow, then walked forward, traveling multiple kilometers with every single step. The distant, towering edifice became clearer and clearer, and its golden light became more and more dazzling. At the same time, the boundless majesty it emanated caused Ning’s heart to tremble.

Moments later, Ning arrived at the very lowest step of this towering edifice. Raising his head, he stared upwards at the various steps. He could immediately tell that there were most likely thousands of steps, from the ground to the peak.

“Go.” The giant yellow bear raised his head, looking towards the peak of the altar as well. “Follow the steps to the very top, and accept the divine ability which Master left behind.”

“Yes.” Ning nodded. This was his stroke of good fortune! An incomparably precious stroke of good fortune! This divine ability had been left behind by one of the great powers of the Three Realms which had been created after Pangu established the universe! After learning it, he would be able to kill Adept Xu Li and save his father and family members.

“Father. Wait for your child a few moments longer.” Ning immediately began to run up the steps. But as soon as he stepped atop the first one….