Desolate Era

At a single glance, Dong Ziqi saw clearly the Ji clan’s weakness. His thoughts were completely correct; Ji Ning was indeed the future pillar of the Ji clan! In this group of Ji clan experts…even if Ji Ninefire and Granny Shadow had to die, they wouldn’t let Ning die!

“Ninefire, I urge you to obediently hand over the official writ.” Ziqi frowned as he shouted.

“My Ji clan is indeed weak and small, which is why we are willing to offer this elemental ore mine to you without requesting any part of it. But for you to try and forcibly take over our official writ…you are perhaps going too far! The official writ is the foundation of the Ji clan. How can my Ji clan…” Ninefire’s face changed halfway through his words, and he couldn’t help but lower his head to look at the ground.

The ground was trembling slightly.

Dong Ziqi’s group of five stood in the distance, and in their midst, the gray-robed man’s eyes flashed. The ki in his body had long ago entered the ground. By the time the Ji clan’s Zifu Disciples sensed it, the technique had already been executed!

“BOOM!”

Strands of green, wooden vines emerged suddenly from the ground, all of them flailing about wildly, covered with a layer of deep green light. The thin, slender strands of vines twined about each other like a tough cord rope. They suddenly emerged from the ground beneath Ning’s feet, instantly wrapping themselves around Ning!

Fast!

Completely caught off-guard!

“What!” The faces of Ninefire, Granny Shadow, and the others changed. In the blink of an eye, Ji Ning, who had been standing next to them just moments ago, had been wildly entangled by those countless rattan vines.

“Quick, save Ji Ning!” Granny Shadow shouted.

“Too late!” Dong Ziqi, standing in the distance, just laughed loudly as he spoke.

Bang!

The countless vines wrapped around Ning whipped out violently, throwing him towards the ground. With a rumble, an enormous crevice appeared within the ground, with Ning and those vines already burrowed deep within the ground.

“Snowdragon Mountain, you actually…” Ninefire’s face was savage.

“Release my son.” Ji Yichuan was frantic as well.

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Every member of the Ji clan wanted to save Ning, but the sudden emergence of those vines, which had wrapped around Ning and then thrown him underground, caused them to not know what they should do to save him.

“Hahaha…” Dong Ziqi just laughed wildly as he turned to look at the gray-robed man. “Junior apprentice-brother Muse, bring Ji Ning over here…” Dong Ziqi’s face suddenly changed, because he saw that his fellow disciple’s forehead was matted with sweat. Clearly, he was already going all out in this struggle.

“That Ji Ning is currently breaking through my technique…” The gray-robed man’s eyes had turned red, and he was pouring all of his ki into the technique.

…….

Underground.

A seed had grown into thousands of wooden green tendrils, which were now heavily entangling themselves around Ning. Within the entangling clutches of the vines, a Waterflame Lotus was surrounding Ning, constantly swiveling around him and frantically resisting these tendrils, unceasingly killing them one by one while the dead vines were unceasingly being reborn.

“Immortal practitioners truly have many techniques at their disposal. This technique wasn’t included in our intelligence reports. I wonder which branch member of Snowdragon Mountain used it.” Ning had suddenly suffered an attack, and this attack was too fast, giving him no time to break through before he had been thrown underground.

Due to the constriction of the tendrils, the amount of space Ning had to move in was too limited, giving him no chance to use the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] at all.

Thus, the first thing Ning had done was to execute the Waterflame Lotus.

“Swivel, swivel…” The Waterflame Lotus slowly swiveled, grinding those thin vines that wanted to entangle Ning into dust. Nearly five years had passed since that battle with Bei Zishan, and during these five years, Ning’s improvements with regards to his understanding of the Dao had only grown greater and greater.

If early on, the insight he had gained with regards to the Dao was just a thread, over the course of time, he had gained more threads of the True Meaning of the Dao.

These many thin threads…had drawn close to each other, naturally resulting in a thicker thread.

Ning’s time spent at Serpentwing Lake in particular, where he was virtually always in tune with the world…had resulted in him reaching a very high level of understanding. Actually, this was something which could only be accomplished by an Immortal practitioner who had reached a very high level of understanding. When one could always be in tune with nature and always be able to go attune with the Dao, it was only natural that one would gain many insights into the True Meaning of the Dao.

His level of understanding had risen.

Thus, the power his Waterflame Lotus now had was naturally much greater than before. That murderous grinding power alone would most likely instantly grind even peak Xiantian experts into tiny pieces in but an instant.

“Darknorth sword.” Within the Waterflame Lotus, Ning drew forth a Darknorth sword.

“Longing! Rain Line!”

Ning murmured softly to himself.

Each time he used this technique, he couldn’t help but think of his mother. This technique was one which he had developed thanks to the boundless longing he felt for his mother! It was the longing each drop of rain held for each other drop which allowed them to form a line of rain…the insights Ning had gained over the past five years into the Dao had resulted in him developing many techniques, but this was the most powerful of them all.

This technique contained within it a boundless, powerful longing. It was born from the [Raindrop Sutra], but it had left the Raindrop Sutra far behind.

“Swish….”

Ning simultaneously struck out with two Darknorth swords at the same time, piercing past the Waterflame Lotus, which seemed to be like a shadow, not obstructing Ning’s swords in the slightest. Ning’s swords seemed to be like the caress of a mother, carrying boundless longing within them…as they summoned a large amount of natural power which directly coalesced atop the two swords.

Anyone seeing this technique would unconsciously feel a sour feeling in their hearts, sense a powerful, endless yearning.

“Crackle…” Many vines were instantly shattered. Although they were very tough, they were still chopped apart. In the face of Ning’s most powerful close-combat sword technique, the technique of Zifu Disciple Muse was unable to contain Ning.

Actually, the first reason for this was that Ning’s swordplay had already far outstripped that of most Zifu Disciples. Most likely, even many Wanxiang Adepts wouldn’t be on par with him in this regard.

The second reason was that Ning’s Fiendgod body was simply too powerful, comparable to an early-stage Fiendgod Zifu Disciple. His strength was so mighty, and his swordplay was so formidable; how hard must it be for a technique to contain him!

Sword light flashed and danced, shattering a large number of frantically twisting vines. Ning followed his sword light and rose into the sky, breaking through the earth and arriving on the surface of the ground.

………

“Bang!”

Just as the Ji clansmen were worriedly looking at the ground, into the hole from whence the rattan vines had disappeared, suddenly, hundreds of meters away, the ground suddenly exploded as a ray of sword light soared into the sky. A fur-clad youth, wielding a pair of swords, his body surrounded by a Fire-water Lotus, suddenly drifted up, then landed on the ground.

“How is that possible!” Dong Ziqi’s face changed dramatically. Others might not understand this technique of his junior apprentice-brother’s, but he understood it very well. A sudden attack from this technique…it would be very difficult for someone to break through it. Even if one succeeded, it would only come at great effort.

“That Ji Ning broke through?” The muscular man behind Ziqi stared as he growled, “How is that possible. I’m a Fiendgod practitioner, but even I wouldn’t be able to break through if senior apprentice-brother Muse captured me.”

Junior apprentice Ju San was the newest Zifu Disciple of the five, who had only recently established his Violet Palace.

He was just an early Zifu Disciple, but he was a Fiendgod practitioner! As an early Fiendgod practitioner…his battle strength was also amazing. It didn’t matter if others injured him, but if he landed a hit on someone else, that person would die! This was the advantage which Fiendgod practitioners had; if he trained to become a late stage Fiendgod Zifu Disciple, even Dong Ziqi would address him as ‘senior apprentice-brother’.

“He broke through?”

“How old is he?”

“Senior apprentice-brother Muse’s ‘Myriad Ancient Green Vines’ technique…was broken, just like that?” That green-haired male-female pair stared as well, their faces filled with disbelief.

In their group, Muse’s status was second only to Ziqi, precisely because of how powerful he was! In particular, his ambushing abilities with the ‘Myriad Ancient Green Vines’ had caused the other fellow disciples to feel endless admiration for him. The restricting power of those green vines was indeed tremendous. How physically strong was a Fiendgod Zifu Disciple? And yet, even such a person was unable to break through.

But the person who had broken through it…was only sixteen years old! No matter how monstrous of a genius he was, it was too…

But how could they know that Ning’s physical strength was comparable to their junior apprentice-brother Ju San to begin with. In terms of his level of attainment in the sword, he vastly outstripped Ju San by many levels!

…….

“Ji Ning.”

“Ji Ning.” Ji Ninefire, Ji Truekeep, Granny Shadow, and the other members of the Ji clan all stared at Ning with surprise and delight. At the same time, they felt unbearably pleased at the looks of shock and amazement on the faces of the five Zifu Disciples of Snowdragon Mountain! Simultaneously, the Ji clansmen couldn’t help but feel stunned at Ning’s power. Ninefire’s eyes actually narrowed as he sighed in his heart that he felt he was growing more and more mystified by this kid.

The Waterflame Lotus surrounding Ning vanished, and he walked over.

“Ji Ning!” A hoarse voice rang out.

Ning turned to look.

From afar, there was a gray-robed man with an ashen, pallid face who stood by Dong Ziqi’s side. The man was staring fixedly at Ning. “You…what’s the name of that sword technique of yours?”

“Longing.” Ning said softly. “Rain Line!”

“Rain Line?” The gray-robed man stared wide-eyed in disbelief. “The power of the Rain Line technique of your Ji clan’s [Raindrop Sutra] is this great?” He was quite familiar with the nine sword stances of the [Raindrop Sutra].”

“There are quite a few things that you don’t know.” Ning snorted coldly, no longer explaining.

This sword technique was birthed from the Raindrop Sutra, but it was no longer the same as the Rain Line technique of the past.