The Desolate Era

“I’ll meditate here. Ninefangs, you can either meditate as well, or go find some other things to do,” Ji Ning sent mentally.

“Understood,” Ninefangs said respectfully. He then flew to a distant winehouse. He was going to stand guard in the surrounding area, ready to carry Ning’s orders whenever necessary.

......

The skinny little Diremonster who had vomited blood stared around blankly. “What...why am I here.” The area around him was filled with the waters of a flowing river. This was not the meditation area.

“Wasn’t I on Mount Dashcloud? Right...I went too far just now. I almost went crazy. Some expert must’ve intervened and rescued me.” The little monster felt fear for what had almost happened. In Ning’s eyes, he was nothing more than a ‘little monster’, but in truth he was a Primal-level Diremonster. His heart had been filled with hatred, and he had deeply desired to gain insight into a profound sword-art to take revenge. However, he had been too forceful in his attempts to cultivate and so had fallen into madness.

In truth, it was very risky for anyone below the Celestial Immortal level to meditate on the sword-arts of a Daofather. The path of Immortal cultivation, however, was a path filled with many pitfalls. There were many, many stories of those who had developed powerful sword-arts after having gazed upon the sword-arts of a Daofather. It was very common for one to gain sudden insight on Mount Dashcloud, resulting in them establishing a school of their own.

Thus, there were often many weak cultivators who would come here to meditate.

......

Ning sat there in the lotus position, staring at the sword-arts that had been left behind upon the mountain walls. The mountain walls were protected by layers of formations, none of which were particularly special; they had most likely been left behind by Daofather Fuju’s Empyrean God and True Immortal disciples.

The sword-intent which radiated towards him, however, truly stunned him. He felt as though it was stabbing into his very heart.

“What powerful sword-intent. The scars on the mountain wall that were created by casual blows from his sword-arts...countless years have passed, but they are still this terrifying.” Ning stared at the scars carefully. These had been left behind by a supreme Sword Immortal that was on Subhuti’s level!

“Eh? That’s odd.” Ning immediately had a strange feeling as he stared at the scars. “There seems to be a fundamental difference between these sword-arts and the other Daofather-created sword-arts I studied at Mount Innerheart.”

“The style is completely different...as though they belong to two completely different schools of thought.” Ning frowned. “But what exactly is different...?”

He was searching for the answer. Ning was now an Empyrean God and a True Immortal. He was a master of the sword, and was extremely talented in this regard. He could immediately sense that something was different. It was a very indistinct, blurry feeling...and Ning wasn’t immediately able to pinpoint what exactly was causing it.

“I have it.” Ning had a sudden thought. He waved his hand, and a stargold bead appeared within it.

Ning had already bound all of the stargold beads. As a Protocosmic spirit-treasure, it could be controlled by Ning to reveal no presence or aura whatsoever. It was like a completely ordinary item right now.

Every single one of the 3600 stargold beads had been infused with the nine chaos seals.

“The chaos seals.” Ning stared at the constantly changing runes that flowed over the surface of the stargold bead. The runes were changing ceaselessly, never repeating in any discernable pattern.

“Right. The sword-arts of Daofather Fuju remind me of the nine chaos seals. They feel very similar.” Ning immediately realized what the difference was.

“The sword-arts created by Daofathers are generally bound by the mysteries of the Dao of the Heavens.”

“But Daofather Fuju’s sword-arts, as well as these nine chaos seals...they seem to have surpassed the Dao of the Heavens,” Ning mused to himself. “The nine chaos seals were discovered by Daoist Three Purities when he roamed the primordial chaos. It makes sense for them to have surpassed the Heavenly Daos, as they sprung forth from the primordial chaos. But Daofather Fuju’s sword-arts have surpassed the Heavenly Daos as well?”

The Dao of the Heavens was the Heavenly Daos of the Three Realms! They were the laws that governed the functioning of the Three Realms. Outside the Three Realms...the Heavenly Daos were without effect.

For example, in the primordial chaos, only the Heavenly Dao of Primordial Chaos would function. The other nine Heavenly Daos were useless!

“According to the stories, Daofather Fuju’s sword was shockingly fast, surpassing the limits of the Dao of the Heavens,” Ning mused. “Perhaps this is the reason why Daofather Fuju’s sword-arts were so terrifying.”

“I need to carefully meditate on this.”

Upon noting the similarities between the nine chaos seals and Daofather Fuju’s sword-arts, Ning immediately began to meditate.

Every so often, he would switch over to meditating on the nine chaos seals. Whenever he reached a roadblock, he would then switch to meditating on his sword-arts. He would compare and contrast the two.

Unexpectedly, Ning began to discover that the previous bottlenecks he had encountered when training in the Grand Dao of the Waterdrop and the Grand Dao of Qiankun were actually easy to break through. Clearly, the insights he had gained into the nine chaos seals and Daofather Fuju’s sword-arts were of tremendous benefit towards him in training in other Grand Daos.

Time slowly passed.

Ninefangs had once more come to the distant winehouse to drink wine. The winekeeper had long ago grown accustomed to this bald old man, because he had often come here to drink during the past month...and always chose to drink the extremely venomous ‘Five Immortals wine’. Another name for this wine was the ‘Five Venoms wine’, because it was created through matching and mixing nine different venoms together. It was truly toxic, but it was also incomparably delicious. A Zifu Disciple would die upon having a single sip; one had to at least be a Primal Daoist in order to be able to savor this wine without perishing.

“Here is some of our finest Five Immortals wine. Please enjoy, honored guest.” The winekeeper personally delivered the wine and two appetizers to Ninefangs, who leisurely poured himself a cup.

Gurgle. He raised his head and drank the wine. A twin sensation of fire and ice simultaneously flooded his entire body, causing him to feel extremely comfortable. Ninefangs laughed and nodded.

“Eh?” Ninefangs suddenly had a strange feeling. He immediately turned his head to look towards the distant Mount Dashcloud. He gazed towards the white-robed youth that was seated amongst many other figures at the base of Mount Dashcloud.

“Grand Dao?” Ninefangs was surprised. He then hurriedly sent mentally, “Congratulations, Manorlord, for having mastered the Grand Dao of the Waterdrop.”

“Aren’t you the sensitive one? I was just testing things out, and you immediately sensed it,” Ning sent back.

Ning was in an excellent mood. He had always had a high degree of affinity towards the Grand Dao of the Waterdrop. This past month of analyzing the nine chaos seals and the Daofather’s sword-arts had been extremely taxing, and his progress had been rather limited...but he actually ended up breaking through all bottlenecks and completely comprehending the Grand Dao of the Waterdrop.

Now, he had mastered two complete Grand Daos. The Grand Dao of the Sword and the Grand Dao of the Waterdrop.

“The sword-arts here on Mount Dashcloud were left behind by casual strikes from Daofather Fuju; they aren’t that profound. The next month or two here won’t be of much help to me.” Ning didn’t hold too many hopes towards the rest of the twenty-six worlds either; the most important world was the final one, Sword Immortal world. Still, Ning was going to be very cautious and deliberate in his cultivation. He would first take a look at all of the twenty-six worlds; perhaps they might be of help to him in meditating on the complete [Five Treasures] sword-art.

The second month after Ning’s arrival at East Phoenix world.

The Golden Crow hung high in the sky.

A large ship came sailing in through the heavens. There were many soldiers atop the desk of the ship, as well as many beautiful women who were surrounding a youth that was drinking wine merrily. He’d give a pinch here and a caress there, filling the ship with shrieks and giggles.

“Your Highness, Mount Dashcloud is right up ahead,” a pale-faced, beardless man said respectfully in a low voice.

“We arrived?” The beautifully dressed youth rose to his feet. The beautiful woman in his arms followed his gaze as he stared at the distant Mount Dashcloud.

“My beauties, be good and have a nice rest. I’m going to go meditate on sword-arts for a while,” the youth chortled. The beautiful women all said a few flattering words, causing the youth to feel absolutely tickled. Still...this youth was qualified to act this arrogantly. He was the third prince of the East Phoenix Dynasty of this planet, and the most talented of all the princes. His status was quite special.

“Let’s go.”

Soon, the prince led his pale-faced attendant and a host of guards to the base of Mount Dashcloud. The weakest of his guards were at the Wanxiang Adept level, with the two commanders being Primal Daoists. As for the prince, he himself was a Primal Daoist as well.

“So many people? So many monsters as well.” The prince frowned. “According to what Master told me, the Three Realms is in the midst of a storm...which has resulted in our minor world becoming more peaceful than ever before. Still, there are now almost no Celestial Immortals who come to our world. The most powerful cultivators here are merely on the Loose Immortal or Earth Immortal level. Longxiu, hurry up and shoo away one of the people at the front.”

“Your Highness, you must not be rash. Although the strongest figures at Mount Dashcloud are merely Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals, some might have powerful backgrounds,” the pale-faced attendant hurriedly cautioned. “In addition, you yourself are merely a Primal Daoist, your Highness, and your two guards are merely Primal Daoists as well. Don’t anger those Loose Immortals or Earth Immortals. You might end up suffering because of it.”

The prince nodded slowly. “Fair enough.” Although he didn’t really actually care about those Loose Immortals or Earth Immortals...right now, at least, he wouldn’t be able to beat them in a fight.

“Then pick one of the weak ones.” The prince swept the people present with his gaze. “There should be some weaklings amongst the twenty-seven prayer mats in front, right?”

“Nobody who can sit in the front would be truly weak. Let me take a look.” The attendant hurriedly took a good look. “Twenty-one of the prayer mats in the front are occupied by Loose Immortals or Earth Immortals; they give me a sense of tremendous pressure. The other six give me much less pressure; they should merely be at the Primal Daoist level. Your Highness, which of the six do you think I should pick?”

“Six?”

The prince took a careful look. “Four are monsters. Monsters who have reached the Primal level are generally much more powerful than humans of the same level. That leaves two...that white-robed youth, and that grim-looking man. The grim-looking man has a terrifying, baleful look in his eyes; I imagine his sword-arts must be quite formidable. That white-robed youth looks fairly unremarkable, though. I imagine he’s just an ordinary Primal Daoist.”

There were differences in power amongst Primal Daoists. Some were monsters who could challenge Void-level experts. The baleful aura around the grim-looking man was definitely proof that he was no ordinary Primal Daoist.

“Let’s go with that white-robed kid,” the prince said. “Hurry up and shoo him away.”