Desolate Era (Book 11 - Book 15)

“Greetings, fellow Daoist,” the other Ning also said.

And then, both laughed. With identical memories and thoughts, saying ‘greetings, fellow Daoist’ to each other was like mumbling to himself. It was nothing more than a joke.

“How does it feel?” the giant yellow bear asked.

“Very good,” the black-robed Ning nodded. “Breaking through to the Primal level feels very different. The soul fused with the Primal Turtle-Dragon, which felt incomparably comfortable. It is also advancing very rapidly.”

“Right. Generally speaking, upon breaking through to the Primal level, the rate of advancement for the soul will be very fast for a period of time. Afterwards, it will slow down, and in fact the soul might advance very little even after a century passes,” the giant yellow bear said.

The black-robed Ning nodded. “Although the Primal Turtle-Snake is of tremendous help to the soul, everything has a limit. If the soul were to continue to rise at this rate perpetually, that would be ridiculous!”

“Let me first try the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] with this Primaltwin and see how it is.” The black-robed Ning willed it, and suddenly, a dense cluster of more than seven hundred flying swords appeared. Nine were the Nethercold swords, while 360 were high-grade fire-attribute Earth-ranked flying swords, and another 360 were high-grade water-attribute Earth-ranked flying swords.

He had picked these flying swords out from the vast ocean of magic treasures left behind by Immortal Witchriver in the estate. Ning had procured more than sixteen thousand magic treasures. With flying swords being one of the most common types of magic treasures, it hadn’t been too hard for him to find some that were suited to him.

“[Lesser Thousand Swords Formation]!”

The black-robed Ning willed the formation to immediately activated. Previously, when activing the formation, Ning had always used the Nethercold swords first, then led the other 720 Mortal-ranked flying swords with them! Now, however, with all 720 Mortal-ranked flying swords having been changed into Earth-ranked flying swords, the difficulty of controlling the swords instantly increased more than a hundredfold. After all, he had upgraded far too many swords.

“Eh?!” The black-robed Ning frowned.

“How is it?” The old black bull laughed.

“I wanted to activate the ninth level of the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation], but I’m unable to.” The black-robed Ning shook his head, then began to lower the level. The eighth level? The seventh level?

Whoosh!

Finally, he successfully activated the technique. More than five hundred flying swords swiveled about Ning, beginning to levitate up and down. Ning’s Primal-level elemental ki filled them, and his soul commanded them. Before his chest solidified an incomparably brilliant flying sword, which was even covered with a layer of prismatic white light.

“The seventh level [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation].” The black-robed Ning shook his head. “I broke through to the Primal level, and my elemental ki has increased in power dramatically. However, my soul is still somewhat weaker than it was, before it split in two. Even though I’ve gained much enlightenment regarding the Dao… I’m still unable to go past the seventh level.”

“These are, after all, all Earth-ranked magic treasures, and most are high-grade. Even the seventh level of the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] is still more powerful than the ninth level of the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] with those Mortal-ranked flying swords,” the giant yellow bear said.

The black-robed Ning nodded in agreement.

“Right. Just now, I took a look at your other treasures,” the giant yellow bear said, pointing towards the other magic treasures, all separated by type. “Some of the sacks have quite a few golems in them.”

The black-robed Ning nodded. “These are the golems that we discovered in the Witchriver Immortal Estate. That Fiendgod collected them.”

“Let me help you retrofit these golems. Otherwise, they won’t listen to your commands,” the giant yellow bear said. “Right; don’t you have fifty thousand kilograms of liquefied elemental essence? Hurry up and refine it all. You are only at the early Primal level, right? Raise your power a bit more. That way, your elemental ki will grow more pure, and it will be easier for you to control your magic treasures. By then, I imagine you’ll be able to control the eighth, or even the ninth, level of the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation].”

The black-robed Ning nodded. “Right.” There was no reason not to use them up; it was best to use the liquid to improve his own power. Fifty thousand kilograms? This was more than enough to allow his Primaltwin to once more improve its power dramatically.

“In the future, I need to focus on the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation],” the black-robed Ning mused to himself. Although he had read many secret manuals, amongst those that were meant for Ki Refiners, the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] remained the best suited for him, and the most powerful one as well. His Primaltwin was a Ki Refiner; there was no way it could train in divine abilities, and so it naturally would have to focus on the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation].

It was destined that his Primaltwin would become an extremely powerful ki-refining Sword Immortal!





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Book 11, Chapter 7 - Binding the Underwater Estate


Within the quiet hall. The black-robed Ning sat in the lotus position, a jade bottle in front of him. The liquefied elemental essence within it was continuously flowing into Ning’s mouth.

“Heh heh heh.” The old black bull watched, quite excited. He had been alone for far, far too long.

As for the giant yellow bear, he waved a paw and two giant sacks opened up. The golems within all flew out, howling through the air. A total of thirty-six Qiongqi Manticore Golems, along with a black-armored male golem, emerged. As they flew out, they began to frantically struggle, trying to fight back.

“Be good and be obedient,” the giant yellow bear chuckled merrily. The thirty-six Qiongqi golems and the black-armored man all hung there in midair. Although they were struggling, they were unable to move at all, causing them to all reveal looks of amazement.

“Who are you?” The black-armored man stared at the giant yellow bear, then shouted, “Why are you confining us?”

“Oh, you actually have a soul planted inside you?” The giant yellow bear then shook his head. “Who made these golems? He was so rough and clumsy.”

Clatter clatter clatter…

The thirty-six Qiongqi golems and the black-armored man all suddenly separated into tens of thousands of component parts.

“Let me first collect the parts. I’ll slowly reconfigure them.” The giant yellow bear had a look of anticipation in his eyes. He waved a paw, and whoosh, all of the tens of thousands of parts disappeared, having been teleported away.

“Ji Ning, kid,” the giant yellow bear said. “I’m going to go analyze these golems and wipe out some of the seals the former controller placed on them. After fixing them up, I’ll return them to you.”

“No rush,” Ning laughed. Ning himself wasn’t training; it was currently the Primaltwin, the ‘black-robed Ji Ning’, who was training.

……

Time slowly passed on. Finally, all of the fifty thousand kilograms of liquefied elemental essence in the jade bottle had been used up. The black-robed Ning opened his eyes, revealing a look of joy in them.

“Ji Ning, how is it?” The old black bull asked eagerly.