Desolate Era

“Let me finish,” the giant yellow bear continued. “Did you think that I just absconded with those two Immortal-ranked magic treasures? When I followed Master, I saw more treasures than you’ve even heard of.”

Ning blinked.

“After Immortal Juhua died, he left behind these three Immortal-ranked magic treasures. He died just as the Fiendgod Era had come to an end. Over the countless years that passed since then, I was completely bored out of my mind. It wasn’t convenient for me to mess around with the magic treasures which Master left behind, and so I took some of the treasures which Immortal Juhua left behind and began to retrofit them.”

“Retrofit them?!” Ning was speechless.

“The Thousandbull Sword, the Nightriver Painting, the Nine Realms Seal; all of them were pretty good, but they couldn’t be considered top-grade; they weren’t truly mighty,” the giant yellow bear said “That Nine Realms Seal in particular; it was forged in a slipshod way, completely wasting the massive amount of precious materials which were piled together to create that seal. So… I completely destroyed it, pulled out the extracted essence of it, then slowly spend the next 360 million years to completely fuse the essence into the Thousandbull Sword. This slow fusing process caused the Thousandbull to slowly evlolve to a new level of power, but it didn’t disrupt any of its inherent might.”

Ning blinked again.

360 million years? Not even a Celestial Immortal would dare to waste time like this.

“But, you know, I realized the Nightriver Painting was also pretty terrible as well.” The giant yellow bear shook his large head. “A perfectly fine primordial Nightriver was being wasted, having merely been forged into a separate world. To pull the enemy into the world and fight inside it? What sort of a terrible idea is that? So… I just completely destroyed it as well.”

“I pulled out the flows of the Nightriver from within the painting, then reforged it into a sword-diagram which I also fused into the Thousandbull Sword.”

The giant yellow bear seemed extremely smug. “Now, this is what you call a real treasure! The Thousandbull Sword, in short, is unblockably sharp; with the extracted essence of the Nine Realms Seal, the Thousandbull Sword’s power rose dramatically. It absolutely became a top-grade Immortal-ranked magic treasure.”

“But after mixing in the Nightriver Painting as well… whenever the Thousandbull Sword is used, the ancient, primordial Nightriver will suddenly appear within a region of ten thousand kilometers. With the assistance of the Nightriver, one’s power will explode dramatically! The stand-alone Nightriver Painting required one to pull the enemy into it, but the upgraded Thousandbull Sword has no need to do so at all. As long as the sword is drawn, the ten-thousand kilometer Nightriver will immediately appear.” The giant yellow bear was absolutely delighted with himself. “Heh heh heh. The Pure Yang swords used by the major powers of the Three Realms… which one of them doesn’t have a sword-diagram within? How can a Sword Immortal without a sword-diagram even be considered a Sword Immortal?”

Ning was completely stunned.

“Three mighty Immortal-ranked magic treasures were combined into one. When the upgraded Thousandbull Sword leaves the sheath, the Nightriver Sword-Diagram shall appear… sword-ki shall emerge and roam about for ten thousand kilometers, completely unstoppable.” The giant yellow bear was extremely smug. “This truly is a top-grade amongst top-grade Immortal-ranked treasures. Those three original magic treasures combined aren’t even half as good as it is. As for the hundreds of millions of years I spent in total on this project, I’m not going to go into detail.”

“Thousandbull Sword!” The giant yellow bear called out.

“Coming!” The old black bull called out. Instantly, from within the mountain of treasures that was many hundreds of meters high, a black sword flew out. When this flying sword emerged, a whooshing sound of flowing water could be heard as well, as though an ancient, primordial river had begun to flow. And then… the hazy outlines of a river appeared.

When the illusion of the river appeared, space itself seemed to freeze. Ning could feel a sudden pressure envelope him as well.

The ordinary looking black flying sword had caused the entire mountain of treasures next to it to fade by comparison.

Swoosh. The old black bull immediately transformed into a streak of light, burrowing into the black flying sword.

“Ning, take a look at me; what do you think? Aren’t I awesome?” The black flying sword hovered there in midair as the old bull’s voice echoed in the halls.

Ning suddenly called out in surprise, “You, how can you move around? How can magic treasures move around on their own?!”

Magic treasures were lifeless things; without a master controlling them, how could they move around? Even if an Immortal-ranked magic treasure had given birth to a treasure-spirit, logically speaking, they shouldn’t be able to move around. For example, the Azuresilk Godfire Lamp was completely incapable of movement; it could only summon flames to block Xue Hongyi, but in the end, it was still forcibly taken away by him.

“Who told you that magic treasures can’t move around?” The giant yellow bear said. “Pure Yang treasures, for example, can soar into the heavens or delve deep into the earth.”

Pure Yang magic treasures? Those were on a higher level than even Immortal-ranked magic treasures. They were simply on a realm too far from Ning.

“Based on what I know, Immortal-ranked magic treasures aren’t capable of movement,” Ning said. “I read it in the books, and earlier, I also talked about how I acquired an Immortal-ranked magic treasure after killing Xue Hongyi in the Witchriver Immortal Estate.”

“Are you talking about that Azuresilk Godfire Lamp?” The giant yellow bear shook his head disdainfully. “That’s just a low-grade Immortal-ranked item! It’s true that the vast majority of Immortal-ranked magic treasures are incapable of movement, and in fact, there’s extremely few top-grade Immortal-ranked magic treasures capable of movement as well. The Thousandbull Sword, however, is a top-grade amongst top-grades; his sentience and his power is comparable to some weak Pure Yang magic treasures. Given how sentient he is and how pure and valuable his components are, he’s naturally able to move about on his own. Still, without a master controlling him, he’s only able to release a tiny amount of his power. If your Primaltwin was to unleash its full power, you’d be able to suppress him.”

Ning was secretly speechless. His Primaltwin was at the late Primal level; when using the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] with the Grand Dao Domain and the Dao-Path of Water, he was absolutely comparable to a Loose Immortal! Only a Loose Immortal’s full power could suppress this ownerless Immortal-ranked magic treasure? The Azuresilk Godfire Lamp had been suppressed by someone like Xue Hongyi!

“Ji Ning, train hard. After you become an Earth Immortal, I can come out and fight again, hahaha… I, Thousandbull, will once again be able to roam and dominate the world!” The black flying sword landed. The old black bull walked out of the blade, speaking with incomparable excitement. But then, he grew forlorn once more. “Unfortunately, Juhua has already passed away.”

Magic treasures all felt a very unique attachment to their first master; their first master was like their parents or elders.

“Perhaps he might have reincarnated.” Ning could sense the old black bull’s sadness.

“Stop trying to console me. Juhua died countless years ago. Even if he reincarnated… I can’t even imagine how many times he would’ve reincarnated by now,” the old black bull sighed.

……

Ning wasn’t in a hurry to depart from Stillwater Commandery. After all, there were three years left before the Conclave of Immortal Destiny. Instead, he began to calmly train in seclusion within the underwater estate.

After all, he had reached the Grand Dao Domain level, then mastered the complete Dao of Rainwater. Ning needed to quickly and completely master a way of using them to increase his power.

Time flowed on. In the blink of an eye, more than a year had passed.

Winter.

Within the Stellar Hall of the underwater estate. The space within this separate world, the Stellar Hall, was quite vast.

Ning was walking through the skies. Suddenly, he disappeared before reappearing more than ten kilometers away, where a spatial ripple had just appeared.

Swish, swish, swish. Ning blinked forward repeatedly, disappearing and reappearing as he teleported again and again.

“Success, success.” The old black bull, lying on the grassy ground next to the thatched hut, stood up and called out in delight, “Ji Ning, you’ve finally mastered the technique of teleportation.”

“It took me over a year.” The distant Ning, with a blink, reappeared in front of the thatched hut, then said, “I feel so ashamed.”

Teleporting through the void was one of the most basic, most fundamental underpinnings to the Grand Dao of the Qiankun [1. Remember my previous post about Daoism?].

Another name for the Grand Dao of the Qiankun was the Grand Dao of Space.

The Azure Skysnake, because of her innate abilities, was able to utilize the ‘Void Blink’ technique while she was a Xiantian lifeform. In truth, the Void Blink was a form of teleportation through the void! However, for an ordinary Immortal cultivator to try and develop a void teleport technique was extremely difficult; after all, this was akin to gaining a basic understanding of a Grand Dao. The vast majority of Wanxiang Adepts would therefore purchase and keep a Lesser Teleportation Dao-seal with them at all times.

Still, virtually all Earth Immortals or Loose Immortals were capable of void teleportation. This was because, generally speaking, Earth Immmortals and Loose Immortals were in control of at least one complete Dao-Path. If one mastered a complete Dao-Path, one would be able to take control of the world around them.

With but a thought, they could cause the power of the Dao to descend, placing the world around them under their control. When controlling the world around them, they would be able to clearly sense the Grand Dao of Qiankun around them. As time passed and as they did this often, they would naturally be able to comprehend the principles of teleportation.

This was why Earth Immortals and Loose Immortals, regardless of which Dao-Path they had mastered, were almost all capable of void teleportation; the only difference was in how much time they spent before achieving it.

Whoosh. The giant yellow bear suddenly appeared. “Ji Ning,” the giant yellow bear called out.

“Senior,” Ning responded.

The giant yellow bear nodded in satisfaction. This year of pain-staking, solitary training, combined with the invisible pressure from the Youngflame clan, had indeed caused Ning to improve rapidly.

“You have already completely fused your Dao of Rainwater into your Grand Dao of the Sword; your sword arts can be considered nearly perfect for your current level,” the giant yellow bear said. “However, Immortal cultivators who spend all their time in private training will never be able to become Celestial Immortals. You remain unable to break through in the Dao of the Inferno and the Dao of the Gale, unable to completely master them. This is because you’ve spent all your time here in study, instead of going out and tempering yourself. It is now time for you to leave.”

Ning nodded gently. He, too, recently felt a desire in his heart to see the outside world; a desire to fight, to test himself.

……

It was a cold winter. It was noon, but the skies were dark. Giant plumes of snow were drifting about in the air.

Whoosh.

A fur-clad youth suddenly appeared on Brightheart Island. Turning his head, he glanced at his surroundings. The area around him had been reduced to rubble. This was, after all, a place under the surveillance of the minions of the Youngflame clan, and in fact, Youngflame Nong’s biological father had come here as well. Because he was unable to attack the City of Ten Thousand Swords, in his rage, he had destroyed all of the buildings on Brightheart Island here in Serpentwing Lake.

“In the future, I will definitely rebuild Brightheart Island,” Ning said softly.

“Ji Ning, it is time to go. Soon, the patrols from the Youngflame clan’s Immortal cultivators will arrive.” A voice rang out within Ning’s mind; it was the voice of the spirit of the estate. Ning was now able to carry the underwater estate with him at all times.

“Right.” Ning nodded.

He lifted his head, staring at the skies.

Snow continued to drift in the skies above him.

“I remember the last time I left Swallow Mountain and went to Stillwater City… it was winter then as well. Now, it’s winter again.” Ning shook his head with a smile, then took a single step and disappeared from Brightheart Island.

Just a few moments later…

Whoooosh.

A warship came howling through the air, leaving ‘waves’ of air in its wake. Aboard the warship stood many armored Immortal cultivators. The watchers the Youngflame clan had sent to Serpentwing Lake included Primal Daoists and other soldiers as well. The Primal Daoists would be constantly using their divine sense to scan the region every day. However, to ensure that they wouldn’t simply be fooled by bewildering formations that could affect their divine sense, they would also send ordinary soldiers over to do visual inspections, to make sure that their oversight was completely perfect.

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