Desolate Era (Book 1 - Book 5)

“You came out quite quickly. We just arrived on the surface not long ago.” Ninefire and the other four walked over, laughing. “Truekeep just emerged moments ago as well.”


Ning thought about it. He had been in training for as much time as it takes to brew a pot of tea; the amount of time he had spent boring through the ground had actually been greater than that. The Patriarch and the others had most likely had to spend more time boring through the ground than he did…and so, doing the math, it seemed as though they probably really did emerge at roughly the same time.

“Right, Ji Ning.” Ninefire asked. “Prior to this, when you killed Ju San. What magic treasures did you acquire?”

“Quite a few.” Ning said.

The nearby Grany Shadow explained in detail, “We need to do an accounting of these treasures, to see who they are most useful for. This is the easiest way to put them to good use.”

Ning nodded. “Jusan had one flying transportation magic treasure, one storage magic treasure, one protective magic treasure, one magic greataxe, and a pair of magic wings! The magic wings are useful to me, but the others are not.” Ning had already acquired a ranked storage magic treasure, a transportation magic treasure, and a protective magic treasure from Bei Zishan. Thus, only this pair of ranked wing-type magic treasures was useful for him.

“What do you need?” Ninefire looked at Ning.

“Swords!” Ning said. “I only need ranked flying swords. Other things are useless to me. The more ranked flying swords, the better.”

His two sources of combat power were close quarters combat and the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation].

In particular, now that he had established his Zifu, the power of his [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] had naturally grown only greater. However, if he continued to use unranked swords…his power would most likely only rise by one or two levels. If, however, he was able to completely exchange them for ranked swords, Ning felt that he would probably be able to give even a Wanxiang Adept a good fight.

“Ranked flying swords? The more the better?” Ninefire, Granny Shadow, the old servant Ah Xing, and Yichuan all repeated softly, then offered one or two flying swords each.

“All together, we have five flying swords that we don’t need for now.” Ninefire looked at Ning. “Is it enough?”

Ning was rather disappointed.

Five?

Useless.

His [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] required at least nine swords to be used together in order to work and creation a formation base! And nine formations bases were required for each [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] formation! In other words, the smallest unit, the ‘formation base’, required at least nine ranked swords. And, to make his [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] truly transform in power, he needed at least eighty one ranked flying swords. Only by using them as the foundation would the power of the other, unranked swords become truly explosive.

But of course, the ideal solution would be to only use ranked flying swords…

According to Ning’s calculations, if he only used ranked flying swords, he would only be able to use the third level of the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation]. But the power of it would be incomparably greater than before! Quality was even more important than quantity!

“How many do you need?” Ninefire asked.

“I need seven ranked flying swords. The more, the better. If I had several hundred, it would be even better.” Ning laughed. Sword-type magic treasures were very common; Ning had acquired a pair of ranked flying swords from Bei Zishan alone. If they could come up with another seven, then Ning would have nine in total, enough for a single, smallest unit ‘formation base’. With this formation base as the core, the power of the entire [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] would double or triple!

“Several hundred?” Ninefire, Granny Shadow, and the others were all shocked. However, when they thought back to the scene of Ning utilizing the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation], they realized that he did indeed have seven hundred plus flying swords swirling around him. It seemed as though Ning really did indeed need a large number of flying swords. But several hundred ranked magic treasures? Even if the entire Ji clan bankrupted itself, it wouldn’t be able to afford it.

“We’ll strive to help you come up with seven more swords.” Ninefire said, then changed the subject. “Snowdragon Mountain will publicize this to their comrades. Most likely, they will come for battle in a day or two. Before this, you can all go back and pick up any treasures that you need or take care of any matters that need addressing. Afterwards, we will regroup here.”

“Let’s go.”

Swoosh!

Ninefire, Granny Shadow, and Ah Xing mounted an enormous wine gourd, quickly disappearing into the horizon, leaving behind only Ning and his father.

Ning understood that this was rather like taking care of one’s post-mortem affairs.

“Father, will you return to West Prefecture City?” Ning looked at his father.

“No. To Serpentwing Lake.” Yichuan shook his head. “I want to visit Little White. The two of us are like brothers who have shared life and death together. No matter what, I have to see him again.” Yichuan had stayed for five years at Serpentwing Lake, and the Whitewater Hound had stayed with him this entire time.

“Uncle White?” Ning nodded gently.

The Godbeast ‘Whitewater Hound’ had an extremely close relationship Ning’s father. They had adventured together to as far as the Darknorth Sea. The time they had spent together was even longer than the time Ning’s father and mother had spent together. Indeed, they really were lifelong brothers.

“Let’s go.” A flying boat appeared beneath Ning’s feet, and Yichuan mounted it as well.

Whoosh!

The flying boat instantly rose into the air, quickly passing through the skies and into the clouds…

Swallow Mountain had a total of ten commandery cities. Snowdragon Mountain had three of them, which were similar to the commandery city the Ji clan controlled, the ‘City of Ten Thousand Swords’. As soon as Dong Ziqi had invaded Swallow Mountain, he had given the name of the city he had taken over the name of ‘Snowdragon City’, so as to let everyone know that this was a branch of Snowdragon Mountain!

Although afterwards, they had taken over two more commandery cities, the heart of this branch of Snowdragon Mountain remained in Snowdragon City.

“Where are they? Where are the others?

In the air above Snowdragon Mountain, three figures stood there atop a flying screen, staring into the distance as a greef leaf hurtled through the air, with Dong Ziqi and Muse standing atop it.

“Where are the other three? All dead?” These three figures asked frantically. The three of them were the three other Zifu Disciples of the Swallow Mountain branch of Snowdragon Mountain. They were of the ‘Ju’ clan and the ‘Dong’ clan. Earlier, the Zifu Disciple belonging to the Ju clan, Ju Nianxiong, had seen that his nephew’s life-talisman had shattered, and so he had hurried over to Snowdragon Mountain. The two elders of the Dong clan were terrified upon hearing this, knowing that something must have gone wrong.

But they didn’t expect that not only had Ju San died, even the He siblings had died.

“They died. My three fellow disciples all died.” Dong Ziqi gritted his teeth. “It was the Ji clan. They set up a formation early on, then suddenly attacked, causing us to be caught offguard. My three fellow disciples were ganged upon and killed one by one. With the He siblings dead, most likely that official writ was taken away as well.

Three commandery cities. They were split up between the Dong clan, the He clan, and the Ju clan. One of the official writs had been carried by the He siblings.