The Desolate Era

Chapter 6 – Soultamer Jade

Many combination-formations, such as the Ba-Serpent Formation or the Bi’an Formation, relied on different people occupying different parts of the formation. Upon coming together, their strength would increase explosively! What Ji Ning was currently using with his Primaltwin was something similar, something which mimicked a combination-formation. Although this wasn’t intentional, it was even more meticulate and intricate than many true combination-formations.

“ROAAAAR!”

The golden Immortal sword before them transformed into an incomparably massive divine black dragon that was coiled. The divine black dragon let out a draconic roar, and the sound of this roar completely shook the world around them.

This was a majesty that came from more than three hundred top-grade Immortal-ranked flying swords, after their power had been merged together through the [Greater Thousand Swords Formation]!

This power was so great, it eclipsed that of most divine abilities that Fiendgod Body Refiners trained in!

“What?!” The silver-armored youth’s face changed slightly as he stared down from midair. “Block!”

“Hissssss…”

The azure serpent-formed rope in midair let out a hissing sound. The enormous azure serpent slithered forth, moving to collide head on against the divine black dragon.

The divine dragon soared into the skies!

The azure serpent came slithering forth!

BOOM!

The world itself shook tremendously…and then a blast of wild power exploded out in an omnidirectional ripple. When it struck the bodies of those four Bi’an Godbeasts, a series of crackling sounds could be heard…but of course, they were able to withstand this level of energy. As for those weaker black-robed Loose Immortals, they had fled far away long ago.

The gorge around them, however, was in for some pain. It rumbled as the ground began to crack apart, and many nearby boulders were transformed into dust. The cliffs on each side of the gorge began to break apart on a large scale.

Faced with that blast of wild power, the surface of the castle began to flicker with a dark light. It managed to withstand the collisive force.

“Not good.” The silver-armored man’s face changed dramatically; the azure serpent in the air had been completely destroyed, transforming back into its original form of a rope. The divine black dragon, however, was still filled with enormous power. It continued to roar with abandon, wanting to continue to strike against the azure serpent. “This Ji Ning is actually so powerful! He’s not even a Celestial Immortal yet, but the power of his Immortal swords is already so great.”

“You want to capture me? General, you aren’t strong enough yet!” The fur-clad Ning and the black-robed Ning both let out furious roars.

ROAAAAR!

The divine black dragon in the skies let out a draconic roar as well, then continued its upwards charge.

“I don’t believe it. Don’t believe it! I have to capture him.” The silver-armored youth gritted his teeth. He didn’t want to fail; he wasn’t willing to accept the repercussions of failure. His hands joined together to form a seal as he shouted loudly, “ASURA!”

A powerful Immortal power rapidly began to summon the majestic power of the Heavens and the Earth, forming a tall, skinny, hideous, and completely black warrior. This hideous warrior hefted a double-edged blade with three tips and pointed it straight towards Ning, letting out a bellow: “Little thief, die!” And then, the hideous warrior charged straight forward.

“CELESTIAL GUARDIAN DRAGON!” The silver-armored youth’s hand-seals changed once again.

Yet another creature appeared in midair, a coiling divine dragon which was golden in color. The divine golden dragon let out a draconic roar of its own, then charged downwards as well.

“BIND!”

The enormous rope in midair once more transformed into that queer azure serpent. This time, the azure serpent’s tail had a snakehead at the end; it now had a head on each end, and it howled through the air as it charged towards Ning.

Controlling two secret arts and this magic treasure was actually extremely tiring for this silver-armored general as well.

……

“Break. Break. Break!” The fur-clad Ning and the black-robed Ning simultaneously controlled the [Greater Thousand Swords Formation], using the more than three hundred top-grade Immortal-ranked magic swords to once more generate that incomparably sharp golden flying sword. The golden flying sword howled through the air, transforming into that divine black dragon. Now, there were two of the divine black dragons in the air.

Simultaneously maintaining two of the fourth-stage [Greater Thousand Swords Formation] sword-lights was a tremendous burden on Ning as well.

“Bind him. I have to bind him.” A look of savagery was on the face of the silver-armored youth. “I was only able to escape after enduring for countless years. I don’t want to be punished again. Absolutely not!”

From high up in the skies, the hideous Asura warrior, the Celestial Guardian Dragon, and the two-headed azure serpent launched simultaneous attacks downwards.

Two divine black dragons flew upwards, greeting the attacks.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!

A series of explosions could be heard from within the skies, and the surrounding area was filled with clashing blasts and ripples of power.

“Hahaha…General, this bit of ability isn’t enough,” Ning laughed loudly. The fourth-stage [Greater Thousand Swords Formation] sword-light, in the shape of the two divine dragons, was actually able to blast apart the Asura warrior and the Celestial Guardian Dragon before vanishing.

“Suppression!” The silver-armored youth suddenly waved his hand, and one giant seal after another began to appear in the skies. A total of seven grand seals appeared, each glowing with blurry light. The grand seals were covered with some characters, and they hovered there in the skies like giant mountains. Light flowed from one seal to another, merging them into a single whole.

“Crush him!” The silver-armored youth pointed furiously towards Ning.

The seven grand seals descended in awe-inspiring fashion en masse, rapidly joining together as they descended. They actually transformed into a true, enormous mountain as they smashed towards Ning.

“Break!”

Ning pointed upwards as well. The sword-light of the [Greater Thousand Swords Formation], in the form of two divine black dragons, soared straight into the heavens like fish that were swimming against the flow.

Boom…

The enormous mountain came crashing down. Both of the divine black dragons were actually blasted apart, causing Ning’s pupils to contract. He immediately executed his divine ability, transforming into a three-headed, six-armed giant that was three hundred meters tall. Ning simultaneously struck out with six mighty palms from his true body, slapping them against the descending mountain.

Rumble…

The world itself seemed to shake. Ning’s true body was actually pushed all the way into the ground, which completely caved in and shattered in every direction.

Ning’s true body was pressed chest-deep into the ground, but with a flicker he once more re-emerged.

“Hahaha, General, what a fine ability!” Ning laughed as he looked at the silver-armored youth.

The silver-armored youth had a gloomy look on his face.

“Damn. Damn!” The silver-armored youth’s heart was filled with resentment. He now knew exactly how strong Ning was. He had to admit, this foe’s sword-formation was incredibly powerful, but in terms of raw strength…Ji Ning was definitely far inferior to him. He was a supreme figure even amongst Celestial Immortals, after all!

But this wasn’t a competition to see who was better; it was a fight where he had to capture his foe using his rope!

If they were simply competing to see who was better, he could wantonly use his seven low-grade Pure Yang treasures, those seven mighty seals, to unleash his most powerful attacks. But what he was trying to do was to trap his foe; thus, he had to divert some of his attention to controlling his rope, and also use quite a great deal of his energy to strengthen the rope. It was no easy feat to capture or trap a Fiendgod who trained in the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art]!

Since he had to split his attention up between his rope and the seals, he was naturally unable to use the seals to the full extent of their power.

“You win!” The silver-armored youth gave Ning a dark look. “I can neither kill you nor capture you.”

He was clearly significantly stronger than Ji Ning…but he was simply unable to capture him!

This was what made the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] so formidable. There had to be an utterly enormous difference in power, allowing him to first break apart Ning’s defense before capturing him. Clearly, the difference in power between the general and Ning, while significant, wasn’t ridiculously huge.

The entire gorge had been transformed into rubble. In the air above the rubble, the only figures that could be seen were the silver-armored general, a group of bronze-armored Fiendguards, as well as Ji Ning and Mu Northson.

The silver-armored general had finally bowed his head. He was unable to kill Ji Ning, and would be unable to avoid punishment. All he could do now was try his best to lessen the amount of damage caused and lower the amount of punishment he would receive.

“Good.” Ning smiled and nodded. “That’s wise.”

The nearby Northson immediately had a look of relief appear within his eyes. Right then and there, Ji Ning, Mu Northson, and the silver-armored general all swore oaths to the Dao of the Heavens. Ning’s promise…was that if Mu Northson was given freedom, he absolutely would not reveal the secret of the castle to others. Northson swore the same, that he absolutely wouldn’t reveal this secret to anyone else.

The silver-armored general naturally gave Northson his freedom back after this.

“General, please open your formation and let us leave.” Ning stood there in midair, Northson by his side with a relieved look on his face. He seemed to have suddenly become filled with vitality, as well as hope for the future.

“Not so fast.” The silver-armored general let out a sigh. “Before you leave, I will tell you a bit of bad news.”

Ning and Northson’s faces instantly changed.

Bad news?

“This was a disastrous defeat for me.” The silver-armored general sighed. “The forbidden region was under very tight guard, and even the formations experts which I captured were all forced to swear oaths to the Dao of the Heavens not to flee. If they do…they die. Thus, I never thought that someone would be able to sneak in…I suppose I’m just damned unlucky to encounter someone who trains in the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art].”

“Enough with the crap. What do you want to say?” Ning barked with a frown.

After the silver-armored general let out another series of sighs, he looked towards Ning and Northson, then said with a cold laugh, “The person in charge of matters within the castle, Qu Huan, is already dead. If my guess is correct…this Mu Northson has already taken his loved one’s soul back.”

Northson barked, “So what if I did?”

“Have you heard of soultamer jade?” The silver-armored general chortled as he spoke. He felt delighted in being able to irritate these two figures.

“Soultamer jade?” Northson and Ning’s faces instantly changed. Ning had learned about quite a few bits of common knowledge regarding the Three Realms while at Mount Innerheart; naturally, he knew of soultamer jade. As for Northson, given he had analyzed the Dao of Constructs quite extensively, he naturally had heard of soultamer jade, one of the legendary materials for the Dao of Constructs.

Soultamer jade: Once a soul was placed into the soultamer jade, it would become one with the jade. There would be no chance of escape! However, the soul would be nourished by the soultamer jade; so long as it didn’t suffer any attacks and wasn’t destroyed, the soul inside could live forever. Generally speaking, golem experts would place soultamer jade into their golems, allowing the soul within the soultamer jade to control the golem, making it sentient.

“Can it be that you can’t tell?” The silver-armored general smiled. “That crystalline globe used to store her soul is soultamer jade!”

“What?!” Northson was shocked and angry.

“It’s finished.” Ning looked towards his nearby junior apprentice-brother; now that Yu Xia’s soul had been placed within that soultamer jade globe, she would never be able to emerge from within it. She would forever have to live within that tiny little space. This was actually quite a painful thing…and she would have forever lost her chance to be reincarnated.

“But perhaps this is a good thing,” Ning mused.

There were two sides to every coin. Yu Xia’s soul had been merged into the soultamer jade, and she would never be able to leave or be reborn; this was indeed quite a painful thing.

And yet…this meant that she would still be able to accompany Northson.

“Mu Northson,” the distant silver-armored general said with a cold laugh, “Your loved one’s soul shall accompany you for eternity. You are quite blessed. But…don’t forget that she’ll be forever trapped within that tiny space. How agonizing must that be? This sort of agony will accompany her for countless ages, until the day comes that she is attacked and her ‘body’ is destroyed. In that moment…her soul shall shatter.”

Northson gritted his teeth. “Little Xia…”

He felt guilt.

Seeing this, Ning couldn’t help but secretly sigh to himself. The distant silver-armored general, however, just laughed loudly. “See how nice I am? I even told you this bit of information. Alright…you can scram now.”

“Let’s go.” Ning gave the distant silver-armored general a cold glare, then took Northson into his mobile Immortal estate. He then flew into the skies, the formations not blocking him at all. Ning quickly flew away, then once more used a spatial teleportation technique. He disappeared.