Desolate Era

Daoist Snowplume soared onto a cloud, then stood there in midair, staring towards the opposite Ji Ning.

“Little Qing, Uncle White, the two of you, stay farther away,” Ning instructed. This was a competition between himself and Daoist Snowplume; there was no need for Uncle White or Little Qing to interfere.

“Ning, son, be careful,” the Whitewater Hound instructed.

“Master, beat the crap out of that old Daoist!” Little Qing clenched her fists, full of anticipation. Although she didn’t know exactly how strong Ning was, she knew he was unfathomably stronger than he had been when they had met in the wild marshes of the Gaol Mountains.

……

Daoist Snowplume and Ji Ning both stood there in the air, staring at each other.

“They are actually going to fight?!”

Adept Xu Ke and the gray-robed man both watched with eyes filled with amazement.

“Senior apprentice-brother Lu, how can this Ji Ning be so bold as to dare to fight against Master?” Adept Xu Ke had never, even in his wildest dreams, imagined that Ji Ning would be this arrogant, not even giving Daoist Snowplume any face. “Master is a peak Primal Daoist, and has the full strength and support of our Snowdragon Mountain sect behind him; even amongst Primal Daoists, he would be considered formidable.”

“Madman. A true madman.” The gray-robed man shook his head, also in disbelief. “Can it be that this Ji Ning thinks that he can defeat Master? Master isn’t like some of those newly ascended Primal Daoists; he became a Primal Daoist centuries ago! His foundation is unfathomably deep and stable, and he has gained tremendous fame!”

The two of them, both Wanxiang Adepts, were stunned. And as for the Zifu Disciples on the ship? Their amazement went without saying!

The large group of Zifu Disciples of Snowdragon Mountain were completely shocked and dazed. Ji Ning actually dared to challenged their unfathomably exalted Patriarch, Daoist Snowplume? He was absolutely suicidal!

“I shall grant you your wish!”

“Come!”

Daoist Snowplume and Ji Ning’s words, one after the other, thundered in the skies, filling the air above the entire Brightheart Island. Quite a few denizens of the island had already stood up to stare.

“Ji Ning is going to fight a Primal Daoist?” Ji Ninefire’s face instantly changed.

“How can Ji Ning act so rashly? That’s a Primal Daoist! And a peak Primal Daoist, at that…even if he wanted to fight one, he should choose an early or mid-stage Primal Daoist to test himself against first. How can he immediately challenge a peak Primal Daoist like Daoist Snowplume?” Ji Truekeep was panicking as well.

In fact, he even began to feel regret. He began to regret asking for Ning’s advice as to how they should deal with the local branch of Snowdragon Mountain. He had no idea that Ning would be so ‘unyielding’, and be willing to go head on against the enemy, even when they sent a Primal Daoist!

“Daoist Snowplume…he’s a peak Primal Daoist!” Granny Shadow was beginning to worry as well.

The Ji clan had always been on poor terms with Snowdragon Mountain, which was why Ning had acquired a set of detailed intelligence reports on Snowdragon Mountain. After reading it, he had stored it within the Ji clan’s archives. Naturally, Truekeep, Granny Shadow, and the others had all read through it and had gained an extremely clear understanding of Snowdragon Mountain.

And this was exactly why they were so worried right now.

“Young master…” Autumn Leaf chewed on her lips, holding her breath as she stared at the two figures in midair.

………

Everyone on both sides felt that Ning was playing with fire…but Ning himself knew his own level of power clearly. The reason why he dared to write such a letter…was because he truly felt no fear towards Snowdragon Mountain’s Primal Daoists!

There were differences in power amongst Primal Daoists as well.

The Primal Daoists of the Black-White College, for example, were absolute elites amongst elites, who were even capable of giving Immortals a fight! Some of the weaker, early-stage Primal Daoists, in turn, were far, far weaker…even nine years ago, Ning was confident in being able to escape with his life from them. It was precisely figures like Daoist Snowplume who were the most suitable for Ning to test himself against.

“Even if you are a reincarnated Immortal, I imagine that at your current level of power, you haven’t completely awakened all of your former memories,” Daoist Snowplume said, shaking his head and laughing. “I’ll let you know…what the difference is between Primal Daoists and Wanxiang Adepts!”

A fan suddenly appeared within Daoist Snowplume’s hand. He gave it a casual wave.

Whoosh!

This fanning motion instantly caused flames to appear out of nowhere. A brilliant golden flame wildly rippled forth, exploding into a sea of flames that swirled towards Ning.

“Primal Fire?” Ning instantly recognized it for what it was. Primal Fire was something which every Primal Daoist possessed. During his adventure in the wild marshes of the Gaol Mountains, the Dragonwhale, upon becoming a Primal Daoist, had relied on this technique to burn Adept Redbud to death. However, at that time, the Dragonwhale had only been an early-stage Primal, and so the power of his Primal Fire wasn’t strong enough. It was far weaker than Daoist Snowplume’s Primal Fire.

“Condense.” Ning let out a soft chant. Instantly, a lotus flower colored red and green suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The green came from the leaves of the lotus flower, while the red came from the petals. The enormous green leaves swirled around the red petals in the center, which were clustered much more tightly together. They swiveled together naturally, with Ning at the very center, completely protected by this lotus flower.

This was his protective technique, the Waterflame Lotus.

Rumble…

The flames formed from Primal Fire seemed to cover the heavens. They surged towards Ning, but the lotus simply continued to swivel in the middle of that sea of flame. Clearly, the flames were completely unable to penetrate past them.

“What?!” Daoist Snowplume, fan in hand, revealed a look of shock on his face. “This Ji Ning is able to easily deflect my Primal Fire, and without using a sword technique, but some sort of protective technique?”

Previously, upon learning that Ji Ning’s calligraphy had terrified the Zifu Disciples so badly that their hearts had trembled and their legs had gone soft, he had guessed that Ji Ning must be at an extremely high level of expertise with the sword. He had thought that Ji Ning would execute his swordplay, using it to strike against all techniques and shatter the sea of Primal Fire. Daoist Snowplume was only intending to use this ‘sea of Primal Fire’ to test Ning’s capabilities, but he hadn’t expected that Ning would be able to block it with just a single lotus.

“A lotus flower? This Ji Ning has an exceedingly deep level of comprehension of both fire and water,” Daoist Snowplume mused secretly to himself.

Indeed, his words were correct.

Ning had indeed reached an extremely high level of mastery in both the Dao of Rainwater and the Dao of the Inferno. During the past nine years, he had been supported by the underwater estate! His rate of improvement was incomparably astonishing; his past nine years was comparable to ninety years for an ordinary genius! In these two Daos, Ning already felt in a vague way that he had reached a bottleneck. With but a single further step, he would be able to completely comprehend the Daos of Rainwater and the Inferno!

With the added help he had from Ninelotus in discussing the Dao and the secrets of the lotus, Ning had further perfected this Waterflame technique. During the past nine years, Ning’s dire-ice and earthfire had both reached the fourth grade as well.

With dire-ice and earth-fire assisting the Divine Solar Tattoo and Divine Lunar Tattoo on his body in activating the natural fire and water of the world, and with his comprehension of the Dao of Rainwater and the Dao of the Inferno, and with his additional prowess in the mysteries of the lotus…the current Waterflame Lotus had been formed, which was now a supremely skillful protective technique.

The petals and the leaves swiveled about each other in layers, possessing incomparable defensive power.

…..

The two had exchanged their first blows. One had unleashed a sea of Primal Fire, while the other had created a lotus within the sea.

This caused the spectators on both sides to feel incomparably nervous.

“He’s fine. Ji Ning is fine.”

“Ji Ning is within the lotus.” The Ji clan’s side let out sighs of relief.

“What technique did this Ji Ning use? The Primal Fire which Master has been cultivating for centuries isn’t able to do anything to him?” Snowdragon Mountain began to grow nervous.

……

In midair.

“It seems you truly do have a bit of talent,” Daoist Snowplume barked coldly. As his words came out, the sea of fire that had filled the skies vanished. “But I want to see how long you can hold on for.”

One drop of water after another began to appear in the skies. These ‘raindrops’, however, were the size of a fist, and there were 108 of them which hovered around Daoist Snowplume’s body.

“Skywater?” Ning revealed a look of curiosity and excitement on his face. Earthfire, upon improving to the next level, would transform into skyfire; dire-ice upon improving to the next level, would become skywater. Even amongst Primal Daoists, only a few would have access to skyfire and skywater.

“Go.” Daoist Snowplume waved his fan yet again. Instantly, the 108 fist-sized raindrops shot out like meteors, slashing through the skies and smashing towards Ji Ning.

BOOM!

When the first raindrop smashed directly against Ning’s protective lotus, it broke straight through the outermost layer of leaves, but was blocked by the red petals within.

“What tremendous power.” Ning could feel the terrifying collisive force of those raindrops. His current Waterflame Lotus was capable of completely dominating the vast majority of Wanxiang Adepts, and had even been capable of blocking Primal Fire, but it had been badly damaged by a single drop of skywater…most likely, that drop of skywater would have been enough to smash an ordinary peak Wanxiang Adept to death.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh…many raindrops of skywater came smashing downward. Ning no longer dared to allow his Waterflame Lotus to take it all head on.

“Spin.” Ning held a Darknorth sword in each hand. Sword-light flashed, and those oncoming drops of skywater, carrying a savage aura that filled the heavens…instantly began to swirl around the sword-light Ning had generated. They had actually been captured and taken control of by Ning’s sword-light.

The sword-light was like water, guiding the drops of skywater in their movements…

“Eh?” The distant Daoist Snowplume was startled. “A seemingly simple sword attack, and yet, it contained so many mysteries…Ji Ning’s sword techniques has already surpassed those of any members of Snowdragon Mountain.”

“It seems I’ll be forced to rely on raw power to crush him.”

Daoist Snowplume didn’t dare to hesitate. With but a thought, he instantly caused the drops of skywater that were wildly spinning around the Darknorth swords to instantly detonate. Boom, boom, boom. The temperature instantly began to fall, and even the air itself began to freeze. Frost appeared on Ning’s face, covering it with a layer of white.

“Very cold.” Even Ning’s Fiendgod-like body felt the cold. “It really is on a higher level than dire-ice; the cold of this skywater…once it is unleashed, it quite astonishing!”

A large amount of frost had condensed in the surrounding area, and a faint mist was beginning to arise. Suddenly, from within the midst, two snowy Flood Dragons appeared.

“Kill!”

The distant Daoist Snowplume had finally unleashed a killing blow, the powerful magic treasure which he used to shock the world…the Binary Diffraction Swords!

The Binary Diffraction Swords were actually two swords; one yin, and one yang. The swords would transform into a pair of Flood Dragons with astonishing power. These were rare magic items, even amongst Heaven-ranked magic items. When used separately, each would be considered high-grade Heaven-ranked magic treasures. When used together…their power would merge, reaching even more shocking levels.

“Master has executed his Binary Diffraction Swords.”

“That’s the Binary Diffraction Swords. This Ji Ning is so incredibly powerful…he’s actually forced Master to use his Binary Diffraction Swords. Even if he loses, he has much to feel proud about.” The two distant spectators, Adept Xu Ke and his senior apprentice-brother, both felt stunned. For their master to have been forced to use the Binary Diffraction Swords…it meant that the other options which their master had would not be enough against Ji Ning.

Suddenly, a loud laugh.

“So these are the Binary Diffraction Swords?” With the loud laughter, Ji Ning, who had been standing in midair unmoving the entire time, suddenly manifested a pair of black wings behind his back. At the same time, his body suddenly grew in size as he transformed into a thirty-meter tall giant. A heroic, terrifying Fiendgod’s aura instantly spread out, causing all of the spectators to feel their hearts freeze.

“A divine ability!”

“The ‘Heavenly Transformation’ divine ability!” Adept Xu Ke and the others, including the Whitewater Hound, Little Qing, and Ninefire, were all speechless.

They all knew of the ‘Heavenly Transformation’ divine ability, but generally speaking, one would only transform to ten meters or so in height, while powerful users might increase to fifteen meters in height. Ning, however, had actually transformed to thirty meters. His Heavenly Transformation…had made him an enormous giant with astonishing power.

BOOM!

The thirty-meter tall Ning had wings on his back, and the Waterflame Lotus around him. With a single ‘step’, he transformed into a gust of wind as the swords in his hands slashed out through the air, leaving behind an eye-catching, dazzling sword-light. With an explosive sound, the Binary Diffraction Swords attack, which had sought to defeat Ning, were knocked flying back.

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