Desolate Era (Book 6 - Book 10)

Whoosh.

With a single step, Ning moved to Youngflame Nong and the Fiendgod Xiangliu Fang’s corpses. A streak of earthfire burned Youngflame Nong’s corpses to gray ash, but the earthfire was completely unable to damage Xiangliu Fang’s Fiendgod body at all. This caused Ning to frown.

“Come in here.” He simply stored the entire Fiendgod body into his storage-type magic treasure. Then, with a wave of his hand, Ning collected the key to the Immortal estate.

Ning quickly began to bind it. The key to the Immortal estate was merely a talisman; binding it was quite simple.

The nearby Northson, Yu Wei, Ninelotus, and Adept Vastriver just watched as Ning burned the corpses of Xue Hongyi and Youngflame Nong, then took away all their magic treasures. All of them were still in a state of shock.

“Senior apprentice-brother, you, you… you killed Youngflame Nong?” Northson’s mouth flapped open a few times. He was still speechless.

More than ten or so Zifu Disciples were still alive. They all watched Ning intently, especially those two female Zifu-level maidservants who served Youngflame Nong.

Swish!

Ning’s gaze flickered past them. Suddenly, the air was filled with sword-ki, which howled downwards, instantly killing all of the Deathsworn.

“If the Deathsworn remain alive, they would only reveal everything which happened here.” Ning knew very well that these Deathsworn were completely loyal to Youngflame Nong. They had watched everything happen; once the Youngflame clan found these Deathsworn, everything would have been exposed.

“Ji Ning.” Ninelotus had a look of panic on her face. Tears actually began to appear. “How could you have killed Youngflame Nong. This… next… this… the Youngflame clan is definitely going to pursue and kill you. There’s no way… no way to stop the Youngflame clan. He was one of the Four Dukelings of the imperial capital of the Grand Xia Dynasty. He was extremely famous… for the sake of their reputation alone, the Youngflame clan would spare no expense in pursuing and killing you.”

Ning looked towards Ninelotus. “I had no choice. I only had two options; to let him kill me, or to kill him! Either he died or I died. What should I have done?”

Ninelotus was so frantic, she began to cry. Previously, she had been trying her best to prevent hatred from developing between Ning and Youngflame Nong, but in the end… the result was even worse than what she had feared. Youngflame Nong, the exalted heir-presumptive to the position of Godplume Duke of the Youngflame clan… had died.

“No need to panic,” Ning said with cold calmness. “I killed Youngflame Nong, but I trust that none of you will voluntarily report me. There’s no way the Youngflame clan would be able to ascertain, within such a short period of time, who the killer was. They will need to spend time to investigate. I’ll immediately send you all out of this Immortal estate. By then, you can return to your own homes, to the Dongyan clan and to the Black-White College of Stillwater City. Nothing which happened here had anything to do with you. I was the killer; the Youngflame clan won’t act against the rest of you. But by the time they’ve fully investigated this matter, I’ll have already arranged an escape plan and executed it.”

“Junior apprentice-brother Ji Ning, you are wrong.” Yu Wei was frantic and restless as well, and she said hurriedly, “According to legends, some extremely powerful figures, such as Celestial Immortals, are completely capable of causing a temporal inversion, resulting in scenes from the past being replayed in the present. From this, they can discover right away that you were the culprit.”

Ning instantly felt his heart clench.





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Book 10, Chapter 27 - Traveling Alone


“Temporal inversion?” Ning instantly realized that the situation was far more dire than he had thought! He had previously believed that after having killed Youngflame Nong, he would have some time before the Youngflame clan discovered him, which would allow him to arrange for his clan, the Ji clan, to escape. But now, it seemed, time was far too tight.

“Everyone, we have no time. I’ll send you all out now. Go to a safe location. Because of me, all of you have been implicated.” In order to save time, Ning began to converse mentally with them.

“Junior apprentice-brother Ji Ning,” Yu Wei sent hurriedly, “You don’t need to worry about our safety; the Grand Xia Dynasty has its rules, and the Youngflame clan cannot simply do what it wishes. As long as we return to the Black-White College, we will be fine; the Grand Xia Dynasty’s laws state that violence is forbidden within its commandery cities. In addition, we weren’t the ones to kill Youngflame Nong, and so the Youngflame clan would have no excuse to act against us. Right now, you need to worry about yourself.”

“You have two main options right now.”

“The first is to flee. Flee to a place where the Youngflame clan cannot reach you and take revenge, such as other lesser or major worlds. Another option would to be to flee straight to the main headquarters of the Raindragon Guard. The Raindragon Guard remains the most powerful military force within the Grand Xia Dynasty; no matter how daring the Youngflame clan is, they wouldn’t dare to act against you while you are with the Raindragon Guard.”

“The second option is to go up against them head-on. Go straight to the imperial capital of the Grand Xia Dynasty; that’s the capital city for the entirety of the Grand Xia Empire, and the most supreme clans and schools of the entire Grand Xia Empire reside there. You can first go to the local Raindragon Guard branch; that place will be absolutely safe. Afterwards, you can participate in the Conclave of Immortal Destiny. Now that you have mastered a Grand Dao Domain, you will definitely be able to perform with brilliant splendor at the Conclave. Given your talent, there will be quite a few powers which will want to draw you into their fold. By then, you can join a power that is opposed to the Youngflame clan.”

“The Youngflame clan is powerful, but if you look at the Grand Xia Dynasty as a whole, you’ll still find a few organizations which are more powerful than them and which hold vast grudges against them. Some of the grudges can be described as ‘mortal enmity’, and there are more than a few; after all, in this vast world which the imperial clan of the Grand Xia Dynasty has unified, it is normal for the largest, most powerful clans, sects, and churches to have their disputes and grudges against each other. For example, the ‘Kindwater’ [1. The character for ‘Kind’, Zhuan, is a reference to mythological Emperor Zhuanxu, one of the legendary Five Emperors of prehistoric China] clan is even more powerful than the Youngflame clan [2. The character for ‘Flame’, Yan, is a reference to mythological Yan Emperor, the Flame Emperor], and these two clans have felt mortal enmity towards each other ever since the Fiendgod Era. After countless generations of struggle, both sides have even lost Celestial Immortals. One leader after another has been assassinated by the other side as well. Given that you’ve killed Youngflame Nong, powers like the Kindwater clan would definitely be willing to pull you into their fold. By relying on powerful clans such as them, you can continue to fight against the Youngflame clan.”

“Two options; one to flee, the other to resist. These are the only two ideas I’m able to come up with in such a short period of time,” Yu Wei sent.

Ning had previously been planning on fleeing. He hadn’t expected that Yu Wei would be able to provide yet another clear path for him.

Right!