The Desolate Era

As Ji Ning stared at the distant Riverfang Mountains, he couldn’t help but feel his heart skip a beat. He could vaguely sense an incomparably terrifying threat that lay coiled deep within the mountains.

“At my current level of power...there are very few people in the entire Crescent world who can pose a threat to me. The ones who are more powerful than me have almost all been recruited into Mount Innerheart; when they see me, they might even have to address me as ‘uncle-master’. Even the True Immortals and Empyrean Gods would be my fellow disciples,” Ning mused to himself.

Roaming within the Crescent world should be like roaming within his own family garden. This was the very first time he felt a thrill of fear!

“It seems there really is some danger here, enough danger to threaten me.” Ning nodded lightly. “Mm. If the situation looks bad, I’ll immediately hide in the underwater estate. Later, I’ll ask Master to help me escape back to Mount Innerheart.”

When trapped in dire circumstances, ask for Master’s aid. Although this was a bit shameless, Ning was within the Crescent world, after all; his master couldn’t be too strict with him. In addition, after he truly left the Crescent world, Ning wouldn’t even be able to mention his master’s name; he’d have to rely on himself for everything.

“Master?” The nearby Bluecliff Xiaoyu called out softly.

Ning glanced sideways at his disciple, then said with a laugh, “Xiaoyu, I am going into the mountains to take a look. These mountains are very dangerous; go into the Immortal estate first.”

“Yes, Master,” Xiaoyu said obediently.

Ning waved his arm, immediately drawing Xiaoyu into his Immortal estate. And then, by himself, Ning transformed into a streak of light that flew straight into the Riverfang Mountains.

......

Ning had acquired the detailed records produced by successive generations of Qi Empire experts. He soon reached the outer perimeter of the treasure trove.

“Eh?” As he strode through the mountains, Ning felt a strange sensation coming to him through the earth. action

“Kill...kill...kill...”

He could vaguely sense as though an invisible howl was being transmitted from far away through the dirt, as though an unfathomably long period of time ago, an enormous battle had occurred in this place. Even now, after so many years had passed, the murderous intent from that battle remained unabated.

“The earth here is different from the ordinary earth found elsewhere in the Crescent world. It’s clearly much heavier, and the earth’s aura in this region is significantly denser as well.” Ning nodded lightly. “This might truly be a tiny remnant of Pangu’s shattered Primordial World which was teleported here.”

With the aid of the tests the imperial Qi clan had carried out, Ning quickly found a mountain valley and began to walk through it. The clouds and the mists coiled about here, making it so that even Ning was only able to see to one or two kilometers. As for divine sense? What his divine sense found was completely different from what his physical eyes could see. This was because....

“My divine sense has been completely fooled. Everything my divine sense is showing me is false.” Ning even stretched his hand out to touch a place, ascertaining that his eyes weren’t being deceived as well!

He carefully advanced.

Far away, up ahead, he saw an enormous ravine. Ning could sense a terrifyingly sharp saber-intent radiating from that ravine.

“Apparently, although this ravine looks as though it was naturally formed, it was actually carved out through saber-ki.” Ning walked forward for the amount of time needed to boil a kettle of tea. Suddenly, he felt an invisible pressure envelop him.

“This is the same as what was recorded within the Qi Empire’s book. According to the book, the deeper one goes in, the greater the pressure shall become. The experts of the various generations of the Qi Empire were all ultimately forced to give up by this pressure and return. The pathway I’m walking through right now should be the pathway with the least amount of pressure.” Ning quickly advanced. As he did, the strength of the pressure rose dramatically.

When Ning had first entered this region, five thousand kilograms of pressure was evenly being applied to his body. But now, it had already reached five hundred thousand kilograms...fifty million kilograms...

Rumble...

A powerful repulsive force collided against Ning’s body, causing a series of rumbling sounds. The amount of pressure pushing down against Ning was now comparable to a series of massive mountains that were smashing down repeatedly towards him!

“Even most Loose Immortals wouldn’t be able to withstand this amount of pressure.” Ning waved his hand, and the Thousandbull Sword appeared within it. Brandishing the Thousandbull Sword, Ning caused a divine black dragon to suddenly howl forth, striking against the pressure that was crushing down against Ning and lessening it.

“Pretty easy.” Ning continued to advance forward while using the Thousandbull Sword to chop apart the invisible pressure.

Clearly, this sort of invisible pressure was born from some sort of ancient, powerful restrictive formation; it sent pulses of pressure out to attack. Loose Immortals were generally Ki Refiners with very weak bodies; thus, if they wanted to advance, they would have to rely on their magic treasures to break apart the pulses of pressure. Previously, Ning had been relying on his Fiendgod Body and so didn’t need to use any magic treasures to make it to this point.

Whoosh. Yet another divine black dragon howled forth, leaving behind a dazzling arc in the mist and blasting apart yet another pulse of pressure.

After walking for another period of time.

“Change!” Ning suddenly transformed into his three-headed, six-armed form. Five more Immortal swords appeared in his hands, all of them the illusory black Heavenraker swords. In such a dangerous region, Ning was unwilling to let his Primaltwin appear. Thus, his true body would temporarily use the Heavenraker swords; after all, the power of top-grade Immortal-ranked flying swords was very great.

With six top-grade Immortal-ranked swords in his hands, as well as the [Three Heads, Six Arms] divine ability, Ning once more found it easy to advance through the region.

The amount of divine power [Three Heads, Six Arms] used up was more than ten times less than the amount the [Starseizing Hand] used up.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh...

Six divine black dragons howled forth, blasting apart one pulse of pressure after another. However, some remnant pulses still made their way through and struck Ning, causing explosive sounds when they did! Ning, however, was a Fiendgod Body Refiner; so long as the remnant pressures didn’t contain too much power, he would be fine.

“This place is a place the imperial Qi clansmen have never reached.”

After walking for another period of time, Ning realized that even with six Immortal swords, he was beginning to feel a bit taxed. Right at this moment, Ning saw a figure off in the distance. The figure saw Ning as well.

“Immortal Darknorth.” A booming voice rang out.

“Goldfur Bearking.” Ning spoke out. The man before him was the tall, muscular Goldfur Bearking. Around him were those ninety-nine pearls that were circling and swirling as they broke apart the pulses of pressure.

“Immortal Darknorth, you acquired a treasure map and discovered this place?” The Goldfur Bearking said.

“Just so.” Ning didn’t deny it.

“Originally, the twelve of us were planning to enter these Riverfang Mountains. We were discussing this matter with our third brother, but when we received word that hundreds of his Flamewing Guards had been slain, all of us immediately followed him to your place to provide support...but who would’ve thought that most of the others would die, and that today I would be the only person to come to this treasure trove? Oh, and you, Immortal Darknorth, the slayer of so many monster kings...you came as well. Truly, anything can happen in this world!” The Goldfur Bearking sighed.

Ning laughed. “I do indeed need to thank the Flamewing King. Otherwise, how could I have learned about this treasure trove? Still...why have you come to a halt here? Are you unable to move any further?”

There was something quite strange about this region. If one advanced, no matter towards which direction, one would feel tremendous amounts of pressure crashing down upon one’s body. However, if one didn’t move at all, one wouldn’t suffer the pressure.

“Right, I can’t move any further! You have a Fiendgod body, and so you can endure the remnant repulsive force when it strikes you. Loose Immortals Ki Refiners like myself, however, don’t dare to fight head on in such a manner. We need to completely dissipate all of the terrifying pressure, which requires an enormous amount of elemental ki to be used up. I need to first restore more of my elemental ki before I go in any further,” the Goldfur Bearking said.

“Then I’ll take my leave for now,” Ning said with a chuckle. Six top-grade Immortal-ranked flying swords in his hands, Ning once more began to force his way forward, quickly disappearing from the Goldfur Bearking’s field of vision.

“The preparations we made all ended up benefiting this Immortal Darknorth.” [1. In the original Chinese, the saying was ‘made wedding clothes for him’; this is a classic saying about how you put in a tremendous amount of work, only for someone else to reap the benefits.] The Goldfur Bearking gritted his teeth, but he felt quite helpless. He knew that Ning was more powerful than he was, and as a Fiendgod Body Refiner, Ning had a better chance of survival in a place like this.

......

“[Starseizing Hand]!”

Ning was finally forced by the pressure to use his [Starseizing Hand].

Instantly, the power of the divine black dragons of sword-light increased dramatically. In fact, Ning even temporarily cancelled his [Three Heads, Six Arms] technique. Just by relying on the Thousandbull Sword and the [Starseizing Hand], he carved a path forward!

Charge! Charge! Charge!

But gradually, Ning was once again pressured to the point of being forced to use [Three Heads, Six Arms]. All six arms were now using the [Starseizing Hand]. After a long period of time, Ning was even forced to take a break, so as to recover his largely depleted divine power.

......

Occasional breaks, followed by occasional advances. Towards the end, Ning would have to use six strikes of the [Starseizing Hand] for every thirty meters he travelled. One could imagine how quickly his divine power was being used up!

Rumble...

As Ning took one more step forward...he actually broke through and out of the pressure region.

“Hahahaha.”

“I finally escaped that damn place.”

Ning laughed loudly. There were no more ripples of pressure in this location. For the first time in his life...Ning felt as though walking forward normally was actually quite an enjoyable thing.

“I spent nearly a full day walking a mere several thousand kilometers, and I used up all of my divine power several times.” Ning shook his head and sighed. Still, he continued to advance with all six Immortal swords at the ready. He tried to use his divine sense to scout ahead, but unfortunately, his divine sense remained deceived, as everything it was telling him was clearly false.

Ning walked forward, following a winding creek. Fog and mist continued to swirl around the region, causing him to only be able to see to a distance of one or two kilometers, where he could vaguely make out a gorge.

CRA-KOW! Just as Ning took a step forward, a bolt of lightning suddenly descended out of nowhere.

“Beat it!” Ning didn’t hesitate at all as he immediately swung out all six swords with full force. Six divine black dragons of sword-light hwoled forward, shattering that bolt of lightning.

Crackle crackle crackle...a large amount of lightning and thunder began to swell forward towards him.

“Previously it was invisible pressure...but at least that wasn’t lethal. But this lightning is.” Ning hurriedly used his swordplay to defend. He noticed that so long as he retreated, the number of attacking thunderbolts would lessen. When he advanced, however, the attacking thunderbolts would increase at an astonishing rate, growing increasingly savage and increasingly powerful.

Ning was only able to advance three hundred meters before being forced to come to a halt, unable to advance any further.

Rumble....

The bolts of lightning were now as thick as a water barrel. They wildly flooded towards and hammered down upon Ning, who struggled to block them. He tried to take a single step forward, but the increasingly frenetic thunderbolts instantly pushed him backwards.

“What should I do? I can’t advance at all.” Ning was worried now. The attacks were simply too powerful.

Ning had tested letting a small amount of the lightning strike him, and his divine body had easily deflected it. However, as he continued to test it, he realized that there was a limit to how many thunderbolts his divine body could endure. He had to use his sword-light to break apart the rest!

The only reason he had made it as far as he did was because of his Fiendgod-like body.

“Am I going to have to go back? Going back is easy, as the number of lightning bolts will lessen as I retreat. As for the pressure zone, I’ll only need around half a day or so to move through it and slowly escape.” Ning didn’t have any problems with leaving, unlike some; according to the imperial Qi records, there had been Loose Immortals who had used special methods to force a path forward, but after making it too far in, they were unable to escape. This was because when leaving, they still had to go through the pressure zone once more. They eventually had to spend countless years retreating, one step at a time.

What Ning didn’t realize was that the Flamewing King had been trapped within the pressure zone for tens of years!

Rumble...

Countless bolts of lightning continued to slam down frantically.

Ning truly didn’t want to give up.

“Kiddo, you came in at such a low level of power? I urge you to hurry up and leave. Don’t lose your life here!” A shrill voice suddenly rang out within Ning’s ears.