The Desolate Era

Chapter 14 – Aquatic Manor

Ji Ning could sense spacetime changing. It was similar to the feeling he had when he had jumped into the Six Paths of Reincarnation.

A heartbeat later, everything calmed down again.

“This place…” Ning hurriedly inspected his surroundings. He himself was in a large, wide corridor that was three hundred meters tall and three hundred meters wide. When Ning turned to look behind him, he was greatly shocked. Behind him was the exit to this corridor, but the outside was covered with a vast, endless amount of water. The water, however, was completely unable to enter this corridor, as though some sort of invisible screen was blocking out the water.

“What is going on?” Ning carefully stepped over, an arrow appearing in his hand. He sent it piercing directly towards the water.

Chi!

The arrow collided with an invisible barrier. No matter how he tried, he couldn’t pierce through.

“I don’t believe it.” Ning hurriedly took ten steps back, then took out that ‘Jia Yong’ greatbow. Letting out a soft snort, his entire body began to be covered with a crimson red light. Clearly, the Fiendgod energy was being completely released. Pulling the bow into a near circle, he immediately shot out an arrow, which flew like a ray of light towards that invisible barrier.

The arrow was shattered to pieces, falling to the ground.

“This…” Ning frowned, carefully inspecting this corridor yet again.

“The corridor alone is three hundred meters tall.” Ning looked through the invisible barrier into the boundless water outside. “This building is definitely astonishingly large, at least multiple kilometers across. And it was built underwater…”

“Is it at the bottom of Serpentwing Lake?” Ning shook his head.

Serpentwing Lake was only a lake with an area of a hundred square kilometers. It would be quite hard for such an enormous structure to fit within it. Most likely, if it was in Serpentwing Lake, the Ji clan would have discovered it long ago.

“Just then, I had the sense of spacetime twisting, as though creating a tunnel in space.” Ning said to himself. “I’m afraid I’ve entered a separate dimension.”

After having read many books, he knew many things.

The books had recorded that in the countless years of time’s passage, some powerful Immortals or powerful Fiendgods were able to create their own little dimensions. A single grain of sand might store an entire world of its own! Some Immortal estate relic sites or Fiendgod relic sites were located in these small dimensions and small worlds. Normally, it was impossible to find them. Only by luck or misfortune would one accidentally enter.

However, these estates left behind by these great powers were all extremely dangerous. After all, how could the Immortals and Fiendgods not leave behind some defensive mechanisms? The vast majority of those who entered relic sites would die. If one was able to stay alive and flee, that would already be a stroke of luck. As for those legends of people who were able to actually obtain treasures from within, Ning didn’t even dare think of that?

“Can’t be greedy! I just need to work hard to stay alive and escape.” Ning carefully inspected his surroundings.

The unknown represented opportunity.

But it also represented enormous risks!

“This underwater estate…for now, I’ll call it the Serpentwing Aquatic Manor.” Ning casually picked a name for it. Since for now he wouldn’t be able to leave this corridor, he might as well head in.

———————–

The corridor was wide and tall, and the floor seemed to be made from a single massive slab. Ning tried everything he could think of, yet still was unable to leave a single mark on the walls.

After walking a short while.

The corridor turned, and Ning’s eyes narrowed. From afar, he saw one white skeleton after another, littering the floor. The flesh on these skeletons had rotted away long ago, but the strange thing was, there were very few magic treasures on the ground. Only some of the most distant, most complete skeletons on the far left still had some armor, weapons, and magic treasures near them.

“The other corpses don’t have magic treasures?” Ning was suspicious. “Even if they don’t have magic treasures, they should at least have some sharp weapons. How could they not have a single one?”

“Swoosh!”

With a thought, Ning sent his divine will outwards, picking up all of those skeletons with armors and weapons and depositing them in front of him.

Swish.

As soon as they landed on the ground, the skeletons instantly shattered.

“It seems they died long ago.” Ning glanced at the armor and weapons. He immediately picked them up and began to use his Xiantian ki to attempt to bind them, but as he did so, he discovered…because the previous owners had died too long ago, two of the magic treasures didn’t have any magic power within them. Thus, Ning was easily able to bind them.

“Even I can bind them. It seems these are only unranked magic treasures.” Ning said to himself. “It seems the dead only had Xiantian level power.”

And then, Ning began to inspect the various corpses. He quickly noticed a ring on one of the corpse’s fingers. He immediately picked up the ring and began to bind it. Indeed…this ring was the dead person’s storage-type magic treasure. Taking a casual glance inside this storage magic treasure, Ning was greatly shocked. The space inside it wasn’t that great, somewhat smaller than Ironwood Zhan’s.

But…

“So many magic treasures.” Ning was astonished. Within this storage magic treasure, one magic treasure was floating after another, all possessing extraordinary auras. There were weapons, formation treasures, armor, and even more storage treasures.

“Why would a single person need to carry this many magic treasures?” Ning glanced at the many corpses in the distance, none of which had magic treasures on them. “Most likely, this person had collected the magic treasures of all the others.”

Ning quickly began to bind them.

As he started binding them, he discovered…this storage ring had a total of 112 storage-type magic treasures, 136 weapon-type magic treasures, 31 armor-type magic treasures, and 16 bizarre magic treasures, including formation-types. There were quite a few Dao-seals as well, but unfortunately, too much time had passed, and the magic power within the Dao-seals had all leaked out. Only ten or so Dao-seals were still somewhat serviceably usable.

“If I’m able to bind them, then these are all unranked magic treasures.” Ning murmured. “The previous owners of these magic treasures were all Xiantian lifeforms. In other words, everyone who came to this tunnel in the past were all Xiantian lifeforms.”

Ning selected one of the storage-type magic treasures that had a storage space of nearly three hundred meters, a storage belt, and wrapped it around his waist. This storage belt, on the surface, looked like it was nothing more than a sturdy, plain belt. Ning then selected an excellent armor, binding it and then wearing it over his skin.

This armor was far more powerful than the Goldstar Shirt. The Goldstar Shirt was thus decommissioned, and Ning stored it away.

Actually, these magic treasures didn’t make Ning particularly overjoyed. After all, he was the next Prefecture Lord of the Ji clan of the West Prefecture. He would easily be able to obtain protective treasures.

“However, the number is quite great. All together, the value is probably comparable to a low-ranked magic treasure.” Ning didn’t think about it any longer. The fellow in front of him had also acquired many magic treasures, but in the end, he had also died. What mattered was escaping with his life.

Wielding his two Darknorth swords, Ning carefully made his way forward. After all, there was no other path he could take. His only choice was to advance!

In terms of power, the Darknorth swords weren’t inferior to these unranked magic treasures. In addition, he didn’t have to use any Xiantian ki in order to use them. Naturally, Ning would prefer to keep using his Darknorth swords.

————————

Ning stepped forward carefully.

As he walked past those skeletons, he became even more cautious. Suddenly…

PA! PA! PA! PA! PA! PA! PA!

One golden pea after another suddenly appeared out of thin air. Many golden peas appeared in the surrounding area, all of which let out a clear ringing sound as they hit the floor. And then, these golden peas quickly began to melt, transforming into a golden liquid, each drop of which then quickly transformed into weapon-wielding, golden-armored celestial warriors.

Flashing with golden light, the incomparably dazzling, powerful celestial warriors and celestial generals stood around him.

“Growing soldiers from peas?” Ning was stunned. At the same time, he could sense that these golden-armored celestial warriors all had powerful auras. He could sense they were all at the Xiantian level of power. “And there’s eighty one of them?”

“You who dare trespass in the manor, prepare to die!” The eighty one golden-armored celestial warriors shouted in unison, and then they charged over and attacked.

The two Darknorth swords in his hands, Ning instantly understood everything. Those skeletons had most likely been killed by those eighty one golden armored soldiers. Not hesitating at all, Ning instantly began to utilize the Windwing Evasion technique. With a ‘Swoosh’ sound, he ran across the side of the walls of the corridor like a giant Roc in flight, instantly passing through those eighty one golden armored soldiers and wanting to continue forward.

“Formation, activate!” The eighty one golden armored warriors shouted in unison.

Instantly, at two sides of the corridor, a hazy mist arose. As Ning charged into the mist, he shot out with his sword, but was unable to pierce into it even slightly.

“Don’t even think of escaping.” The eighty one golden armored warriors charged over once again.

“A Trap Formation?”

Ning looked at the two hazy mists. “It seems if I don’t kill these eighty one golden armored soldiers, I won’t be able to continue. Those fellows all died, but I’m not as weak as them.”

Swoosh!

Ning utilized the Windwing Evasion technique, once again running across the surface of the corridor at high speed until he arrived behind the golden armored soldiers, and then he stabbed directly at one of those soldiers.

“Dang, dang, dang!” Three sword blows at once.

Bang!

Ning pierced through the head of that golden armored soldier, but the soldier still stabbed backwards with his spear.

“What.” Ning was so frightened, he hurriedly jumped back in retreat.

“Even a Xiantian level Fiendgod Body Refiner stabbed through the head would definitely die. How could this golden armored soldier not die?” Ning instantly grew frantic. Just then, in that short exchange, he had discovered that the spearcraft of that golden armored soldier could only be considered at the ‘advanced’ level, but in terms of strength, it was no lower than Ning’s.

The worst part of it was…not even stabbing through the soldier’s head had done anything.

“Kill!” Ning’s stabbing blow through that soldier’s head seemed to have truly infuriated these golden armored soldiers, who all began to bellow angrily and wildly attack him en masse.

Ning utilized his footwork, moving through the attacking golden armored soldiers. At every moment, he was dealing with three separate opponents. By relying on his twin Darknorth swords, he stabbed through the throat, skull, and various other fatal points of the golden armored guards, but the golden armored guards remained undamaged.

“Waterflame Lotus!” Ning was frantic.

Huahuahua….

In the area around Ning, three enormous lotus petals of fire and three enormous lotus petals of water appeared, surrounding him in every direction. The two layers of lotus petals were slowly swiveling in opposite directions. Instantly, six of the golden armored soldiers who were within the range of the Waterflame Lotus became crushed by the pressure of the Waterflame Lotus back into liquid form.

But the golden liquid quickly flowed outside the range of the Waterflame Lotus, then once more reformed into six Golden Armored Soldiers.

“How is that possible?” Ning, seeing the situation, couldn’t believe it. They had already been dissolved; how could they reform?

“It wasn’t that the previous Xiantian lifeforms were too weak; it was that these eighty one golden armored soldiers are completely unkillable.” Ning clearly found himself at a loss for how he should deal with these eighty one golden armored soldiers. After all, even after they were crushed, they simply liquefied then returned into human form.

“Kill!”

“Kill!”

“Kill!”

The six golden armored guards which had been crushed seemed to have caused these golden armored guards to be even angrier.

“Prepare the formation!” The eighty one golden armored soldiers shouted angrily in unison. All of these golden armored guards flew out at high speed, quickly completely surrounding Ji Ning.

These golden armored guards formed into two circles, an inner circle and an outer one. The inner circle had twenty seven golden armored guards, while the other one had fifty four, all of them pointing their spears at Ning and staring at him angrily.