The Desolate Era

Chapter 23 – The Underground Copper Pillar

The western sea. The Seamless Gate’s gathering spot.

Within the grand palace.

The barefoot, loose-haired Celestial Immortal Blackheaven and Celestial Immortal Violetgrass were seated shoulder-to-shoulder at the front of the palace. Many other Celestial Immortals were also seated before them. They were all staring at an enormous mirror within the palace; this mirror was currently reflecting the scenes from the Oldjade mountain range of Easthill Commandery.

“We’ve been searching for a chance to capture this Ji Ning, but who would’ve imagined that he’d go gallivanting off into the Youngflame clan’s base?” Celestial Immortal Blackheaven sat there, scratching his foot as he chortled, “It seems as though I won’t be forced to personally handle this puny little Ji Ning after all; the Youngflame clan will be more than enough to deal with him.”

“Will the Youngflame clan be able to get it done? Last time, they were intent on handling him but ended up failing,” the nearby Violetgrass said with a frown.

“The top ten clans of the Grand Xia Dynasty are all extremely powerful.” Blackheaven nodded. “If the Youngflame clan truly was willing to use their full power, going so far as to spare no expenses and even take out their trump card that is meant to only be used when the entire clan is at a critical juncture between life and death…they would definitely be able to suppress a young fellow like him, who isn’t even a Celestial Immortal, despite the fact that he has trained in the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art].”

“Oh?” Violetgrass was surprised.

“Just watch and see.” Blackheaven was extremely confident.

……

Within an ancient tower.

Celestial Immortals Arcanum, Goldclock, Deadwood, Sunfish, and Infatuation were all gathered here.

“There’s something happening at the Easthill Commandery. They’ve asked us for help.” The five Celestial Immortals all sensed it right away.

“At a time like this, the Kindwater clan and the other clans wouldn’t be so foolish as to start a war against us. In addition, the foundation of any clan is their force of Celestial Immortals; killing Immortal cultivators and mortals of our clan makes no difference at all in that regard. Only Ji Ning, who has suffered our assaults and pursuit, would explode forth to take vengeance in this manner.”

“It must be Ji Ning.”

“There’s no question about it.”

Patriarch Arcanum and the others guessed it right away.

Because they had gone to act against Ji Ning, with the intention of not letting him continue to live…Ji Ning himself would definitely reveal his own fangs and launch his own counter-attack.

“We’ve been waiting for him to make his move. For him to attack our territory is equivalent to throwing himself into our hands.”

“Brother Flamefish.”

“Brother Flamefish.”

Celestial Immortal Goldclock and Celestial Immortal Infatuation both called out.

Their voices transmitted to a completely different space. Moments later, a black foggy door appeared next to them, from which flew out a man. It was a man with unkempt red hair and who had some fish scales on his face.

“Brother Flamefish,” Celestial Immortal Infatuation said with a smile, “This time, we’ll have to ask you to maintain control over the grand formation to take care of Ji Ning. The rest of us will coordinate with you.”

“The Three Realms are currently in a state of turmoil, and so Master is busy with important matters,” Celestial Immortal Flamefish said in a low voice. “A puny little Ji Ning has already set back our Youngflame clan multiple times; this is an insult to our Youngflame clan! This time, we must succeed.”

“Right.”

“Of course.”

“We are all aware.”

Each of the others hastened to assent.

Celestial Immortal Flamefish nodded. “Fine. Per our previous discussions…myself, Infatuation, Deadwood, Goldclock, and Sunfish shall join forces. We shall activate and execute the ‘Lesser-Yin Fiendtamer Formation’ to trap Ji Ning. Then, we shall capture him into the divine greatclock and keep him suppressed within it.” 1

“With you taking charge, Brother Flamefish, we shall naturally succeed.”

“Let’s go.”

“Arcanum, you stand guard here.”

Soon, Celestial Immortals Flamefish, Infatuation, Deadwood, Goldclock, and Sunfish all departed via a void blink as they headed towards Easthill Commandery’s Oldjade mountain range.

……

“I’m back.”

In the air above the eastern seas, a spatial rift appeared, followed by the emergence of a white-haired, white-bearded elder.

“I didn’t expect that my true body would be destroyed in a single exchange.” The white-haired, white-bearded elder thought back to what he had seen, to that terrifying palm that had slammed him to death with one blow. “It seems he transformed into Daoist Voidgrace’s appearance to deceive me…it must be that Ji Ning which the Celestial Immortal Patriarchs spoke of.”

This person was Old Demon Windraiser’s Primaltwin!

Old Demon Windraiser was extremely powerful; his true body stood guard over his part of the Oldjade mountain range, enjoying luxury, while his Primaltwin roamed the Three Realms, causing his power to grow even greater.

He had lived for over a million years, yet was still alive. In fact, the Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations which he had faced didn’t pose too much of a threat to him.

“Ji Ning, eh?” A fierce light flashed through Old Demon Windraiser’s eyes. “You destroyed my true body…do you think I’ll just let you off?”

Swoosh. Old Demon Windraiser immediately used a void teleport to once more go to the Oldjade mountain range. He was naturally very familiar with the area, and he quickly passed through the layers of formations, arriving at a place where the other Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals were congregating.

“Brother Windraiser.”

“Brother Windraiser.”

The other Immortals all addressed him with great courtesy.

Old Demon Windraiser said hurriedly, “I’m ashamed. Ashamed! Ji Ning suddenly attacked, causing my true body to be destroyed in a single clash.”

“It isn’t your fault, brother Windraiser. Ji Ning is extremely powerful; even the Celestial Immortal Patriarchs gave us strict orders against engaging him. For him to be able to kill even someone as strong as you in a single clash…most likely, even if all of us joined forces against him, we would still end up dying. I really wonder what the hell this Ji Ning’s training method is,” a green-haired Immortal said.

“Let him be smug for now. When the Patriarchs arrive…that will be the moment of his demise.”

“The Patriarchs just appeared!”

The Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals could all sense the spatial ripples. Raising their heads to look, they saw five figures appear in the distance.

“Five Celestial Immortal Patriarchs?”

“Our Youngflame clan actually has five Celestial Immortal Patriarchs?” These Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals were incomparably excited. The exact number of Celestial Immortals a clan had was a tightly guarded secret! Prior to this, even the current Godplume Duke, the leader of their clan, only knew of three of them…

“A full five Celestial Immortal Patriarchs are making their move. This Ji Ning is dead for sure.”

All of them waited eagerly.

……

The Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals only dared to remain in hiding behind the formations. As far as Ning was concerned, they were nothing more than dancing, prancing clowns; he wasn’t worried about them at all. Controlling his massive Nightriver, he continued to cause destruction everywhere. If he was using a magic treasure, he would most likely only be able to destroy around a hundred kilometers or so of land at once, but with the ten thousand kilometer Nightriver at his disposal, he was able to cause devastation on a much wider scale.

“Thankfully, I have the Thousandbull Sword…otherwise, this plan wouldn’t be feasible.” Ning was causing havoc at an extremely fast speed.

Rumble…

Mountains continued to shatter, and the earth continued to break apart.

In addition, some lesser mountain peaks that had been fashioned into formation-bases were pushed away by the Nightriver but did not break apart. The Nightriver was able to discover many formation-bases, all of which Ning retrieved and collected. A grand formation could be destroyed for the lack of a single formation-base. Ning didn’t even know how many formation-bases he collected; most likely, it would be extremely hard for the grand formations to be set up within this hundred thousand kilometer region.

“BOOM!” After a stone disc that was more than three hundred meters long was pulled up…

“Eh? This is…” Ning’s face changed.

Previously, his divine sense had only been able to discover some ordinary rocks and dirt underground. Everything seemed normal. But after that stone disc was pulled away…the scene below the ground completely changed! Clearly, there was a permanent formation stationed underground that could deceive both divine sense and coresense.

Ning’s divine sense could clearly see…

That there was an enormous, fiery red copper pillar buried deep within the earth, nearly three hundred meters thick and much more than a thousand kilometers in length. Because this fiery copper pillar was buried far too deep, Ning’s divine sense was only able to discover a portion of this pillar. The portion that he was able to discover, however, was already more than a thousand kilometers in length!

The fiery copper pillar was covered with an enormous number of runes.

“Now…what’s this?” Ning could sense that this was definitely an extraordinary object. When his divine sense touched it, he couldn’t help but feel his heart clench.

“Eh?” Ning suddenly raised his head.

Five figures suddenly appeared in the air far away.

Ning could no longer spare any time on analyzing the fiery copper pillar. “This fiery copper pillar has been buried underground this entire time, without being taken away. There’s most likely no way to actually take it away! It’s been buried here for who knows how long. There’s no rush for me to investigate it…after I kill these bastards of the Youngflame clan, I’ll come back and secretly investigate the secrets of this fiery copper pillar.”

Whoosh!

As the five Celestial Immortals appeared, Ning immediately ceased causing havoc. He immediately used a void blink to instantly teleport to the location where Old Demon Windraiser’s Palace of the Spring Sun was.

Northson returned to that location as well. The Immortal cultivators were all dead by now. As for the mortals? With Ning blocking him, he finally relented. Next to him was Uncle White and Little Qing.

“Uncle White, how is it?” Ning lowered his head, looking at Uncle White, who was in the shape of a large, snowy-white dog.

“I’ve already finished setting up seventy-one formations,” Uncle White sent spiritually. “Although I haven’t managed to finish setting up all the formations, these seventy-one…should be more than enough.”

“Good.” Ning sent mentally, “Wait for the five Celestial Immortals to enter the formation, then activate it.”

Ning had already transformed into his usual appearance.

The appearance of the Winged Immortal golem guaranteed that there would be no way for him to hide himself this time. In addition, he had already accomplished his goal; he had completely wiped out the entire ‘safe region’ within a hundred thousand kilometers. There was no need at all for him to hide himself anymore.

……

Within the shattered rubble, Ning stood alone. Behind him was the Winged Immortal golem, a large snowy-white hound, and an Azure Skysnake.

“Dogshit Celestial Immortals of the Youngflame clan!” Ning raised his head, laughing loudly. “Don’t you want to kill me? First you invited Bloodcloud Hall to assassinate me, and then you had four of your Celestial Immortals ambush me. Alas…you are completely useless!”

“What?”

“Four mighty Celestial Immortals ambushed Ji Ning?”

The Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals who were hidden within the distant formations were all extremely shocked. In their hearts, they viewed their Celestial Immortal Patriarchs as lofty, exalted figures; four of them had ambushed Ji Ning, but had been unable to kill him?

Standing amidst the other Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals, Old Demon Windraiser just narrowed his eyes, watching silently.

“Since you desire to kill me so badly…I thought I’d satisfy your desire. I’ve come here, to the territory of your Youngflame clan.” Ning’s voice boomed out, filled with elemental ki as it spread in every direction. Even the countless mortals in the area could hear his voice. “I, Ji Ning, am right now. Dogshit Celestial Immortals of the Youngflame clan, come and kill me if you can! Ahaha, but you’d best be careful. You want to kill me, but I want to kill you too. Be wary, lest I end up slaughtering all five of you. Ahaha…”

Ning’s laughter rang out, booming in every direction.

“Did he just say, ‘dogshit Celestial Immortals of the Youngflame clan’?” Countless mortals were completely stunned by what they had just heard.

“Who would dare speak of Celestial Immortals in such a way?”

To mortals, Celestial Immortals were truly unfathomably exalted figures.

It was rare for the entire Grand Xia Dynasty to see the birth of even just a single new Celestial Immortals over the course of a million years. How exalted they were! But this person actually held Celestial Immortals in complete disregard…and even dared to challenge five Celestial Immortals by himself?

‘Be wary, lest I end up slaughtering all five of you!’ These words were far too dominating!

Countless ordinary mortals who heard this felt stunned…and they also felt awe and admiration.

“Will there ever be the day when I, too, would dare speak to Celestial Immortals in such a manner?” The many young men and women of the Youngflame clan knew that this ‘Ji Ning’ was their enemy, their foe…but they still couldn’t help but feel envy.

……

Ning stood there atop the rubble, calling out and cursing with abandon. He was waiting. Waiting for his foes to attack! Ordinary attacks using magic treasures couldn’t possibly be launched from so many thousands of kilometers away. If they wanted to kill him, they’d have to move closer to him! And once they moved into attack range…they would definitely be within the formation region which Uncle White had set up.

The formation region spanned ten thousand kilometers; once it was activated, the entire area within ten thousand kilometers would fall under his control!

Although this was the Youngflame clan’s headquarters…it would also be as if this was Ning’s own fiefdom!

“Come! Come! Attack, you dogshit Celestial Immortals! What, are you afraid of death?” Ning laughed wildly with abandon. And indeed…Fiendgods had extremely loud voices.

1. Shao-Yin here refers to the Lesser Yin of the Four Phases, which are Tai-Yin (Greater Yin, aka the moon), Tai-Yang (Greater Yang, aka the sun), Shao-Yin (lesser Yin), and Shao-Yang (lesser Yang).