The Desolate Era

Blood splattered everywhere. Waterflame Lotuses continued to swivel in the area around Ji Ning, and Ning himself continued to stand firm and kill. “I have to acquire one of the top three divine abilities.” Ning remembered what the spirit of the estate had said; he would at most be able to acquire the third divine ability. No matter how powerful that giant yellow bear, the spirit of the manor, was, he would only be able to give a vague prediction. He didn’t dare say for certain if Ning would acquire the third divine ability.

What did this mean? Even if Ning went all out, it was hard to say if he would acquire it. If that was the case, then of course Ning would have to go all out!

“Kill.” Ning’s mind was filled with the clear images of the old, cunning Ji Ninefire; of Granny Shadow, who had threatened suicide to force him away; of Ah Xing, the devoted old servant of Granny Shadow; of the heroic, steadfast Truekeep; and of course, of his glacial-face, warm-hearted father, Ji Yichuan. And Uncle White, who had doted on him ever since he was young...

“I want you to all live! Father, Uncle White, Patriarch. You all must live.” Ning stared at the strongmen charging towards him, and in his mind, there was only a single word – kill! Kill! Kill all who barred his way!

He had those he wished to protect! Those he valued! Nobody could take them away!

.......

The nine swords controlled by divine will assisted Ning, helping him block nearby attacks. Those nine swords supported him, but the flood of strongmen continued to roar furiously as they threw themselves towards the encircled Ning. Ning’s struggling efforts grew weaker and weaker, but his gaze was filled with ever-greater berserk fury and steadfast resolve.

He knew what he needed to do. He knew his own heart.

“Bang!”

Within his soul, there was a colossal explosion, a sound akin to Pangu splitting open the heavens and establishing the universe. Ning’s divine will, which had originally been those nine flying swords...could now sense with incomparable clarity the location of every single strongman around him. He could even clearly sense every single bit of skin, flesh, and hair on their bodies. That distant, pitch-black tablet nearby. Those giant tables, filled with large amounts of weapons. It was all within his range of sense.

It was as though...Ning had gained an additional eye, an eye which could clearly see everything around him, letting nothing escape!

“Divine sense!” Ning instantly understood. His divine will had already evolved to a new, higher level. Zifu Disciples were generally all capable of dividing their minds, and Wanxiang Adepts were mostly capable of manifesting their divine will to control material items. Only Primal Daoists were capable of opening the Celestial Eye and manifest their divine sense. Everything within the range of one’s divine sense would be revealed, as though seen clearly with the naked eye.

It was extremely hard to progress in the soul, but in the path of Immortals, the soul was incomparably important. Only a sufficiently powerful soul would be able to command ever-greater amounts of elemental energy. If an ordinary mortal was in possession of the elemental energy of an Immortal, there was only one possible outcome; he wouldn’t be able to tame the elemental energy, which would wildly burst forth and shatter his bones and his flesh, slaying him.

Advancing in the soul was something which could be done through visualization techniques, through gaining comprehension into the Dao, through strengthening the body to support the soul, or through training one’s will.

Training the will...another phrase for it might be training one’s Dao-heart! Ning had already reached the ‘divine will’ level when he was eleven. In the past five years, Ning had made astonishing amounts of progress with regards to comprehending the Dao, eventually reaching the Dao Domain level. Clearly, this had all been very beneficial to his soul.

His body had just reached the Blood-Drop Rebirth level as a Fiendgod refiner, allowing him to once more strengthen the body to support the soul. And, in the past five years, he had visualized the [Nuwa Painting] every single day, allowing him to rise in power ceaselessly. And today...

Ning had first battled at Oxhorn Mountain, then witnessed his clansmen decide to fight to the death, and had even chosen to flee alone, then undergo the Divine Abilities Hall’s trial in the hopes of acquiring one of the top three divine abilities. Everything he had experienced today...it had all tested and forged his will. In utter despair, his will had grown only stronger. And his Dao-heart had become even more perfectly pure and durable.

The Dao-heart and the will...to the soul, they were like the commanders of an army! The same soldiers, if led by strict military discipline, would only rise in battle-strength considerably. But if the military leadership was poor, they would be much less effective.

The same was true for the Dao-heart and the will. A soul, when determined, would allow the Immortal practitioner to unleash great power. Even if one’s base of elemental ki energy was extremely deep, one would still need to use will in order to forcibly summon and activate that power. When one’s will was weak, however, the excessively formidable amount of elemental energy would be rendered unusable, and perhaps even some simple bewitching illusions would cause one to perish.

Thus, to Immortal practitioners, training one’s Dao-heart was extremely important. The more perfect and pure one’s Dao-heart was, the farther one would be able to travel on the Immortal path.

“Five years of comprehending the Dao. Five years of visualization. My increase in power as a Fiendgod refiner. All of these things established a firm, solid base for me. Today, my Dao-heart has been further tempered, allowing me to break through at one blow, to open my Celestial Eye and establish my divine sense.” A vertical-pupiled eye suddenly appeared in the middle of Ning’s forehead. This vertical-pupiled eye was the corridor to the ‘soul’ in Ning’s consciousness; it was as though Ning’s soul was staring towards the outside world through this eye.

Within the Celestial Eye’s range of vision, Ning could instantly tell how these strongmen had been condensed from the fog and energy. “Close.” The eye in the middle of Ning’s forehead closed.

Upon the Celestial Eye opening, even some of the high level transformations which various monsters and devils were capable of unleashing would be easily seen through. In addition, the divine sense covered an extremely wide region, and could see everything within it with perfect clarity. Even in the middle of a bewildering formation, the divine sense could sense everything clearly, preventing it from bewitching Ning.

Ordinary formations, especially bewildering formations, were generally of limited use against Immortal practitioners who were capable of using divine sense. But of course, there were some powerful formations capable of bewildering even the divine sense, but the vast majority of Wanxiang Adepts didn’t have access to those sorts of grand formations.

............

“Whoosh!” The nine swords, controlled by divine will, suddenly increased in power tremendously. Nine rays of sword light howled as they flashed through the air, chopping one row after another of strongmen into two pieces. All of their heads went flying, their bodies shattering and dissolving into the mist.

“Kill, kill kill.” A look of delight appeared on Ning’s face. “All of you, come over here.” Ning stared towards the table in front of him, which was covered with many weapons. One sword after another rose into the air, and a dense cluster of nearly a hundred flying swords flew towards him, all of them transforming into flowing, liquid streams of sword light. With each blow, they slaughtered a heap of strongmen, and many strongmen constantly collapsed, dispersing into mist.

Nearly a hundred swords, transformed into nearly a hundred rays of sword light, danced around Ning. As for Ning himself, he stood there, not needing to fight personally any longer.

“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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