The Desolate Era

The twenty seven golden armored soldiers simultaneously stabbed out with their glittering golden spears, carrying boundless force as they attacked Ji Ning! The fifty four golden armored soldiers behind also simultaneously aimed their spears, preparing to swap in at any moment.

“There’s definitely a flaw. There definitely is a chance for success. If they truly are immortal, then they would exhaust me to death through by using up my energy.” Wielding the Darknorth swords in his hands, Ning charged forward, as fast as the wind. Dangdangdang! The Darknorth sword and the spears clashed. Ning blocked the spears while at the same time, charging into the midst of those golden armored soldiers.

“Retreat!”

“Attack!”

The twenty seven golden armored soldiers in the center retreated in unison at high speed, while the fifty four golden armored soldiers then formed an even wider encirclement, allowing Ning to be the ‘turtle in their jar’.

“Can it be?” Ning suddenly frowned.

“Waterflame Lotus!” Ning made his decision.

Huahuahua....

Around him eight pairs of Waterflame Lotuses suddenly appeared, each one created from a single water lotus petal and a single fire lotus petal. Because this attack contained a hint of the true meaning of the Dao, even Ning had to use his full force when utilizing this attack, and dividing his mind to the point of creating these eight Waterflame Lotuses was extremely arduous for him.

“Kakaka...” The eight Waterflame Lotuses swiveled, grinding like millstones while surrounding sixteen golden armored soldiers. These golden armored soldiers all frantically dodged, but all of their bodies began to crack from the tremendous pressure.

“Kill!”

“Kill!”

The golden armored warriors howled angrily, bellowing as they dodged past the Waterflame Lotuses and attacked Ning.

Ning, wielding his Darknorth swords, was like a vicious tiger. His sword shadow danced like fire, instantly chopping one of the golden armored warriors into three pieces. But the body of the warrior who was chopped into three pieces quickly then reconnected and reformed, then once more bellowed and attacked Ning.

“So this really is the case. This really is the case.” Ning was jubilant, and he laughed loudly. “What nonsense about these golden armored warriors having ‘immortal bodies’. That’s just for frightening people. Every time I injure you, your power goes down. Haha. I want to see how long you can hold on for.”

Previously, when the eighty one golden armored guards had set up their formation attacks, Ning, when blocking, had discovered that the power of these golden armored guards had dropped slightly. Although it wasn’t by much, Ning’s senses were extremely sensitive, so he was still able to discover it.

Thus, Ning simultaneously created eight Waterflame Lotuses, badly injuring those sixteen golden armored warriors.

After exchanging blows with them again, Ning discovered...that the power of these golden armored warriors had weakened considerably.

“The eighty one golden armored warriors are like a single unit. If one is badly wounded, the others will be affected as well.” Ning said to himself. “In addition, these golden armored warriors are made from golden liquid. They don’t have any ‘vital points’ to speak of. As long as I constantly injure them, their magical power will constantly deplete...and in the end, they will definitely collapse.”

“Kill!”

The golden armored warriors were utterly fearless.

Ning continued to control the eight Waterflame Lotuses, causing them to surround and grind down against the golden armored warriors repeatedly, while at the same time he himself constantly dodged with his Darknorth swords...Ning discovered that each time, when he stabbed the golden armored warriors with his swords, their power dropped very slowly. However, when the Waterflame Lotuses ground them to pieces, the power would drop somewhat faster.

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This was a war of attrition.

“Swish!” One golden armor warrior shattered and fell apart, transforming into nothingness. Then all eighty one golden armored warriors completely disappeared.

Ning let out a long breath, releasing his nearby Waterflame Lotuses.

“Too...too troublesome.”

“If I didn’t have the Waterflame Lotus technique, I probably would’ve been exhausted to death.” Sensing the remaining ‘Crimsonbright’ divine power in his body, Ning couldn’t help but sigh. The Crimsonbright divine power in his body only had roughly half left. And this was only because the [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens] technique he trained in resulted in an extraordinarily dense base of power.

This battle had primarily relied upon Ning using the Waterflame Lotus to grind them into small pieces repeatedly, while he had only utilized the Crimsonbright divine power in his Darknorth swords to defend! Despite that, half of his divine power had been used up.

Ning glanced behind him, seeing those corpses lying on the ground. Some of them had been transformed into dust from the battle, but a few still remained.

“Those that died here were most likely exhausted to death.” Ning said to himself. “Fiendgod Body Refiners are proficient at long-lasting, endurance battles, but I still found it so hard. How could those who relied solely upon Ki Refining to reach the Xiantian level possibly survive?”

Hua...

The two walls of mist at each side of the tunnel slowly dissipated.

Ning carefully made his way towards the corner of the corridor, not going forward yet. He instead took a glance towards the other side, and saw that far away, on the other side of the corridor, there were corpses present as well.

“There’s even more corpses. It seems the next corridor is just as dangerous. I really wonder how many dangers this ancient relic site contains within it.” Ning’s heart shivered. “And most likely, those who died there had successfully passed through those eighty one golden armored soldiers.”

“Come.”

Ning stared at those corpses on the other side of the hall. He realized that here as well, only a few of the corpses had armor and weapons on them. He used his divine will to pull one of the corpses and its magic treasures over to himself.

“Those who were able to break through the previous corridor most likely had quite some magic treasures.” Ning carefully inspected the skeleton. The large skeleton was more than three meters tall. The most likely location of its storage treasure was on the armguard covering its skeletal arm. Ning quickly removed the armguard and bound it. “It really is a storage-type magic treasure.”

“So many things.”

This storage-type magic treasure had more than a thousand magic treasures within it. Ning easily bound all of them, but he discovered to his resignation...that all of them were unranked magic treasures.

“All of them are unranked.” Ning shook his head. “Although there’s more than a thousand, all of them combined are worth perhaps less than 1% of the Traceless Talisman.”

The Traceless Talisman was a guardian treasure of the Prefecture!

Even ranked magic treasures would find it difficult to compare to it.

“Take a rest first.” Ning sat in the lotus position. Taking out a bamboo tube, he opened the cork, raised his head, and drank it. Then he took out some roast meat and began to eat. “Although these old fellows who died left behind their storage treasures, they didn’t leave behind any food at all. It has been too long. Their food became dust long ago.”

“These unranked magic treasures aren’t very useful to me either.”

“After all, I only need a few magic treasures.” Ning shook his head. For example, storage-type magic treasures; what was the point of having several hundred? Would he gain any extra power at all? If he wasn’t able to survive, most likely the thousand-plus unranked magic treasures he had found would in turn be discovered in the future by someone else.

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Ning sat there, eating and drinking, not in a rush to go forward.

At the same time, the Crimsonbright divine power slowly began to recover.

After eating and drinking, Ning then flipped through each storage-type magic treasure to see what was inside. Occasionally, he saw some training manuals or sword technique manuals. However, the most important ultimate technique books were generally destroyed after being learned, to prevent them from being leaked to others! Thus, these books which had been brought were all quite ordinary, not very valuable.

Only a single copy was comparable to the [Raindrop Sutra].

“I suppose this is an unexpected benefit.” Ning laughed. And then he once more began to flip through the large number of storage-type magic treasures, searching through them.

Clothes!

Utensils!

Toys!

All sorts of curiosities were removed. During the treasure searching process, Ning’s mood improved greatly as well.

“Huh?” Ning suddenly picked up a strange piece of bark. He was about to toss it, but then he saw the words atop it. His face immediately changed.”

“Wudan, our clan just received word that Immortal Juhua, someone who has lived for millions of years, ever since the Fiendgod era, has publicly announced that he is accepting disciples. Although Immortal Juhua is a Loose Immortal, for him to be able to survive millions of years and undergo countless tribulations without dying means, according to our clan leader, his power is not inferior to that of a Celestial Immortal.

Immortal Juhua has never before accepted a disciple. Not even the Second Prince of our Grand Xia Dynasty was able to successfully become his disciple.

The news that Immortal Juhua is accepting a disciple has been spread long ago.

In addition, Immortal Juhua has also said publicly that the student he is accepting must be a Fiendgod Body Refiner, who at least must be at the Xiantian level, and at most can be of the Zifu level! He would set down two paths...one for Xiantian lifeforms to traverse, while the other is for Zifu Disciples to traverse.

There are three trials in each path!

After breaking through the three trials without dying, one would become the heir to Immortal Juhua!

Immortal Juhua will only accept a single disciple!

As for the place he is accepting a disciple, Immortal Juhua has set his immortal estate down in the Thousand Autumns Island of the Darknorth Sea. Most likely, he will only leave after recruiting his disciple. Traveling from our place to the distant Darknorth Ocean’s Thousand Autumns Island will take at least half a year. Make haste. If you are late, someone else will seize the opportunity. Wudan, I’ve given you the news. Whether you go or not is your decision.

Signed, Godbanian Water!”

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Looking at this incomparably ancient tree bark in his hands, Ning couldn’t breath. “Godbanian clan? This tree bark should be the bark of a Godbanian tree. No wonder this ancient letter was able to persist for so long.”

The Godbanian tree was immortal and would never decay.

Some precious items would generally be put in wooden cases made out of Godbanian wood. Godbanian trees were the unique products of the ‘Godbanian clan’, and it was their proof of identity. That was a truly incomparably powerful clan, unspeakably more powerful than the Ji clan. That was a clan that could be described as supreme, even thoughout the entirety of the vast domain of the Grand Xia Dynasty!

“Immortal Juhua?” Ning frowned, pondering. “Immortal Juhua was accepting a disciple. He existed in the Fiendgod Era, and had been alive for millions of years when he started looking for a disciple. But from the Fiendgod Era until now, it has probably been billions or trillions of years.”

“Far too much time has passed since this ‘seeking a disciple’ affair. That Immortal Juhua most likely died long ago.” Ning understood.

Loose Immortals would constantly undergo the Three Calamities and the Nine Tribulations. It was a miracle for a person to survive millions of years without dying. How could one possibly have survived to this era?

“Then this underground estate...”

“It should be the underground estate where Immortal Juhua tested potential disciples. This corridor that I am currently in should be one of the two corridors for his potential disciples.” Ning said to himself.

Ning looked at the distant corpses.

Although those corpses were clearly of Fiendgod Body Refiners, the fact that they still remained meant that they didn’t die too long ago.

Clearly, Xiantian-level or Zifu Disciples who were Fiendgod Body Refiners often were transported into this Immortal estate. He himself was one of those unlucky souls.

“Since Immortal Juhua decided to take an apprentice, the requirements for his apprentice must have been extremely strict. Otherwise, he would have easily accepted a disciple long ago.” Ning said to himself. “There are three trials on each path. It seems that was the first trial just now, which forced me to rely on the Waterflame Lotuses in order to pass through it. The next two trials will most likely be even more terrifying and dangerous...how will I past them?”

“Can it be that I will be like them? That I will die and rot here?” Ning looked at the distant corpses, not breathing as he pondered.