The Desolate Era

Book 3, Chapter 5 - Plum Blossom Fragrance, Assailing the Nose

Ironwood Zhan moved as quickly as a ray of blue smoke, fleeing at high speed. Right at that moment, the many large, tall trees in front of him suddenly began to crash down in front of him, completely blocking the road ahead of Zhan. Some of those trees even flew through the air towards him at high speed.

“What is going on?” Ironwood Zhan’s face lost all color.

With a mighty wave of his black vine whip, he transformed it into a series of rays of light, slicing towards several trees that were flying towards him. As though they had been chopped apart, the large tree trunks were split in half, but Zhan’s speed had been lessened as well.

“Huahua...”

From every direction, many branches, tree trunks, and even boulders and chunks of earth all began to fly over, wildly throwing themselves at Ironwood Zhan.

“What, what is going on?” Zhan was completely stunned.

“These boulders, branches, trees, why are they all flying towards me?” Zhan had never heard of something like this. Even a Zifu Disciple would only be able to fly on his own magic treasures by standing on them, then ordering the magic treasures to fly! Not even Zifu Disciples were capable of making ordinary items fly like this.

Countless boulders and tree trunks filled the sky, smashing towards Zhan and forcing his speed to lessen.

“Ironwood Zhan, you won’t be able to flee!” From behind, another ray of light shot towards him. It was Ji Ning, and Ji Ning was shouting at him.

“How did you accomplish this?” Zhan shouted while slicing through the trees, hoping to continue to be able to flee, but under the attack of the surrounding earth, boulders, and tree trunks, he wasn’t able to run at high speed at all.

Ji Ning only smirked.

Right.

He had accomplished this. Just then, after Zhan had used the ‘Divine Movement Seal’ and the ‘Light Body Seal’, he had nearly fled. Naturally, Ji Ning had grown desperate! In that frantic moment, Ning had discovered that his powerful thought waves were causing even the water of the pool and the earth to shake.

He could clearly sense how his consciousness seemed to have become an invisible hand, capable of grasping the nearby trees and mud, as well as all other things.

“Divine will!” Ning instantly was filled with a surge of wild joy.

When a soul grew excessively powerful, some strange things would occur.

Generally speaking, Zifu Disciples were capable of splitting their minds!

Generally speaking, Wanxiang Adepts were capable of ‘divine will’!

Primal Daoists were capable of opening the ‘eye of heaven’ and utilize their ‘divine sense’!

visualization techniques were extremely rare and mysterious. In the Ji clan, nobody had even heard of such a thing as a visualization technique! If one wanted to strengthen one’s soul? Generally, the only method was to train their will, meditate on the Dao, and strengthen first the body, then the soul. Ji Ning’s training in accordance with the [Nuwa Painting] had already nearly reached a limit. That night of enlightenment towards the Dao had been extremely beneficial to his soul.

After gaining a greater understanding of the Dao, fire and water had then descended from the heavens, giving him a Fiendgod’s body. As the body grew stronger, the soul would strengthen once again.

Unconsciously, Ning’s soul had already reached the level of being capable of ‘divine will’! Only, he didn’t know that until when Ironwood Zhan had fled. Desperate, Ning unconsciously had caused his willpower to affect the water and the earth, which made him realize what he had achieved.

“You won’t be able to flee.” Ning used his divine will to control the nearby things, causing the nearby trees, mud, and stones to all surround Zhan.

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“Can it be that this wasn’t done by this child of the Ji clan? Is there a terrifyingly powerful practitioner of the way of Immortal who, seeing the talent of this child, has decided to help him?” Ironwood Zhan was unable to flee, try as he might. He felt both frantic and terrified

“Waterflame Lotus!” Ning’s gaze focused on him.

The enormous fire lotus petal appeared above Ironwood Zhan, while an enormous water lotus petal appeared beneath Ironwood Zhan. At the same time, the two slowly began to swivel.

“I don’t know which elder is present?” Ironwood Zhan called out loudly, while revealing a Dao-seal in his hand. This Dao-seal transformed into an illusory diamond, then disappeared into his body, and his body began to glow with a faint golden light. “I am a disciple of the Ironwood clan, and I am on very good terms with Snowdragon Mountain as well.”

“Stop struggling.” The formerly distant Ning had already arrived.

“Child of the Ji clan.” The golden light on Ironwood Zhan’s body was trembling and swaying. He repeatedly, viciously twirled out the Blackwood Vinewhip in his hand, which quickly elongated as it flew towards Ning.

Ning wielded a sword in each hand. He was as fast as lightning.

“Chi!” The Darknorth sword in his left hand utilized the ‘Watertight’ technique. As soon as the Blackwood Vinewhip touched the Darknorth sword, it naturally wrapped around it, but Ning voluntarily began spinning his left sword...the Blackwood Vinewhip wrapped around it many times, and in the end, Ning’s left hand actually was able to snatch the Ironwood Vinewhip.

Swish!

Ning’s right hand reached an even faster level.

“Break!” Zhan roared fiercely while pulling at the Blackwood Vinewhip, but he wasn’t able to budget it at all. “No, I can’t die here. I can’t die to this little child of the Ji clan!” Sensing death draw nearer, Ironwood Zhan became even crazier. He even released the Ironwood Vinewhip in his hand.

Turning his head, he continued to flee!

“Bang!” Slowly being ground down by the Waterflame Lotus, the golden light on his body finally cracked and dispersed.

“Aaaah.” Ironwood Zhan’s clothes were instantly ground into dust by the Waterflame Lotus, revealing his body, which was beginning to turn black. He emitted an agonized scream.

“Swish!”

A raindrop pierced straight through Zhan’s forehead.

And then, the Waterflame Lotus dissipated. Ning withdrew his sword, looking quietly at the charred Ironwood Zhan.

Ironwood Zhan’s eyes were bulging. Even his eyebrows were gone, while in his forehead, there was a bloody hole. His eyes were filled with disbelief and rage. He hadn’t imagined that he would die at the hands of this youth. In his heart, he even more hated that ‘elder’ who had blocked his flight. If it hadn’t been for that elder practitioner, he would have been able to flee.

“Immortal practitioner?” Ning said to himself softly, his heart filled with a silent excitement.

Finally!

He had finally become a Xiantian lifeform!

Even the world-famous, powerful expert, Ironwood Zhan, had died in the face of his might.

“Even though I was reincarnated into the mortal world!” Ning growled in his heart. “Relying on my own efforts, I was still able to become a Xiantian lifeform! And that was just the beginning! The beginning of myself, Ji Ning!”

The experiences of his past life. Everything he had seen in this one.

They had all allowed Ning to have a heart that was filled with an incomparable urge to grow stronger. An urge to control his own destiny. To not be controlled by others, to not be controlled by fate!

“This is just the start!” Ning took a few steps forward, walking to Zhan’s corpse. With but a thought, a gust of flame instantly turned Zhan’s corpse into nothing but ash, leaving behind only an armguard and that Blackwood Vinewhip.

“Oh?” The armguard and the whip both flew into Ning’s hands. Ning inspected them carefully. “So this armguard is actually a storage-type magic treasure! The Blackwood Vinewhip is also a magic treasure.”

“Hm.” Ning returned.

He returned to the pool, collecting those eight Yin Yang Twin Energy Formation flags. The flags were all very dark and grey, and yet they emitted pulses.

“Magic treasures, Dao-seals. All of them are only usable when one is at least at the Xiantian level as a Ki Refiner.” Ning collected all these things into his kalestone. “I first have to reach the Xiantian level as a Ki Refiner as well.”

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Ning cleaned up the surrounding area. As for the corpses of the Bi’an Tiger and Ironwood Zhan, he transformed them all into ash. Ning then once again continued his meditations by the pool side, because he had the sense...that training his ki to the Xiantian level would be very easy!

The night after that battle!

Ning still sat in the lotus position by the side of the pool, and for the moment, the dantian in his body began to change and rumble! The original powerful threads of ki began to rotate and then condense into liquid drops. One drop of ki began to solidify, and Ning’s body also began to attract some mist which wrapped around him.

“So I’m about to break through.” Ning smiled.

When he had been in the womb, his meridians had been damaged. If he had been relying on Ki Refining to reach the Xiantian level, it would have been very hard. But upon reaching the Xiantian level through the [Scarlet Diagram of the Ning Shining Heavens], Ning’s entire body had been transformed into a true Fiendgod’s body by the Lunar Truewater and Solar Truefire of the Solar Star [Sun] and the Lunar Star [Moon]. Because his entire body had been transformed, his mortal body had been transformed into a Fiendgod’s body, and his meridians had been remade anew as well!

Currently, Ning’s meridian network had become perfected and unblemished. The meridian channels were far wider than that of most Xiantian Ki Refiners! In addition, Ning had a very high level of enlightenment, so naturally, he was now about to break through.

“The storage-type magic treasure.” Ning held the armguard while activating the ki in his body. He quickly managed to bind it to him.

“Storage-type magic treasures and natural kalestones really are different.” Ning instantly felt overjoyed. This armguard held an enormous storage space. Within an area of chaos, there was a storage area of tens of meters across. There were many items inside as well, such as clothes, food, gold, and other things.

The most valuable items were those eight Dao-seals! They had been slowly accumulated by Ironwood Zhan over many years. Today, he had used three of them in one breath, but he had still died in the end.

“A pity there are no other magic treasures.” Ning shook his head. Still, this was as he had expected. A Xiantian lifeform was already quite lucky to have just two or three magic treasures.

“This bow is pretty good.”

With a flip of his hand, Ning retrieved a simple, unadorned greatbow from within the storage-type magic treasure. “This should be the bow which Ironwood Zhan normally uses. After reaching the Xiantian level, I am in need of a good bow.”

Hua!

As he applied force to it, the monstrous, Fiendgod-like power he possessed easily drew the bow.

“Good boy.” Ning praised, then he took a good look at it. The bow had two things drawn on it that looked like characters; ‘Jia Yong’. This name made Ning puzzled. “It should be the name of the bowyer who made this bow, I suppose.”

“When I return to the West Prefecture City, I’ll exchange this Blackwood Vinewhip for another magic treasure.” Ji Ning collected everything, extremely happy. “Without experiencing the bone-freezing cold, how could one experience the fragrant scent of the flowers assailing the nose? Four years of training the sword. After training to now, I’ve broken through and am about to enter a brand new world. I suppose this counts as finally smelling the fragrant scent of the plum blossoms assailing the nose.”

This breakthrough resulted in him reaching the Xiantian level in both ki and as a Fiendgod.

Even his soul had reached the ‘divine will’ level.

And the hint of understanding regarding the true Dao which he had gained by the side of the pool had allowed him to develop an ultimate attack, the ‘Waterflame Lotus’.

“Oh, right, and there’s that!” Ning took a breath, letting himself calm down. As he did, with great solemnity, he took out the book his mother had given him, the most precious secret manual his mother possessed, which she had forbidden him to teach to any other members of the Ji clan. She had told him that he was only to use it upon reaching the Xiantian level.

Ning carefully looked at the golden cover of the book, and those four characters on the cover: [Wind Wing Evasion Technique]!

And then, Ning opened the book and began to read.