The Desolate Era

Chapter 18, Ji Ning and Mu Northson

Ten thousand thunderbolts shot down simultaneously, crashing down towards the figures below. Those Immortal cultivators, in turn, all flew for the skies, each displaying their own abilities. Layers of golden light appeared around some of their bodies, while others had illusory divine dragons appear about them. In this situation, the Waterflame Lotuses swirling around Ning’s body truly wasn’t that special.

“Go.”

“Go.”

A white-clothed youth was currently standing atop an Azure Dragon construct. The Azure Dragon coiled about, its body occasionally lashing out while its sharp claws swept out in each direction. Even its draconic tail whipped about. For now, not a single bolt of lightning was capable of drawing close to him.

“Azure Dragon Swings Its Tail.”

“Azure Dragon Flies Skyward.”

The white-clothed youth was gently mumbling a few words every so often, his eyes blazing with heat. Clearly, he was completely lost in controlling his Azure Dragon construct, and he appeared to be incomparably excited.

“Half the construct formation, focus.” The black-haired, middle-aged man hovering high in the air gave the order. Instantly, more than four hundred of the dragon head constructs began to focus their lightning bolts down towards Ning and the others who were charging skywards.

“Awesome, wonderful, incredible!” The white-clothed youth grew increasingly excited. The Azure Dragon construct he controlled was displaying all of its unique points and releasing tremendous amounts of combat power. It was able to effortless block all of the oncoming bolts of lightning.

“Bang!” With but a twist of its tail, multiple lightning bolts were knocked aside by the dragon, but Ning was right by its side. The Waterflame Lotuses swirled around Ning, who had the Darknorth swords in his two hands. Those lightning bolts, despite being able to pass through the protective Waterflame Lotuses, were easily blocked by Ning’s two swords.

Ning’s sword light flashed forward like water, moving with ease and grace as he blocked all of the bolts of lightning. “Eh?” Ning’s face changed. Three bolts of lightning had suddenly attacked him, and they were too close. They instantly arrived, catching Ning, who had been unprepared, completely off-guard.

“Watertight.” Ning’s swords instantly changed directions, hurriedly moving to block those lightning bolts. At the same time, Ning couldn’t help but give that white-clothed youth close to him a glance. Just now, he had been affected by the actions of that youth.

The white-clothed youth was currently looking towards Ning as well, and a look of embarrassment was on his face. He hurriedly sent, “I’m ashamed, I’m ashamed. It was accidental.”

Seeing how the white-clothed youth was sending a mental message, even at a critical time like this, Ning actually felt kindly disposed to him. He sent back, “No worries.”

“I’ll be more careful in the future,” the white-robed youth sent back. “Just be careful. We’re about to face the combined attacks of all those constructs,” Ning said with a laugh.

The two were both able to converse mentally at a time like this; clearly, they still had energy to spare. They continued to fly higher!

The outlines of the dragon heads up above them grew increasingly clear. The 810 dragon heads were clustered together quite tightly, and of the group that had charged up alongside them, two had already been struck down. Only eight figures were able to continue to fly upwards.

“The entire construct formation, focus!” The black-haired, middle-aged man gave the order once again.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Instantly, it was as though the skies had shattered and the earth had collapsed. All of the dragon heads focused their attacks on a single area, and for a moment, it seemed as though the entire world was filled with lightning bolts. Every inch of the surrounding area seemed to be filled with azure bolts of lightning; clearly, they had completely satured the area.

“Waterflame Lotuses!” Ning’s eyes flashed with a fierce look, and one layer after another of Waterflame Lotuses began to manifest around him. Whenever one layer was damaged, a new one would be born. As for the two swords in Ning’s hands, they flashed about, filling the area around Ning with sword light. Not a single bolt of lightning was capable of penetrating Ning’s swordplay defense.

“Charge!”

In an instant, Ning managed to pass through this saturated field of attacks.

Swish! As he charged through the heavens and past the formation of dragon heads, Ning was now able to clearly see, with a single glance, the six Primal Daoists who were watching this event.

“Rumble…” An incomparably dominating Azure Dragon charged into the heavens, also moving past the dragon head formation. The white-clothed youth atop the Azure Dragon, seeing that Ning had charged out as well, revealed a hint of a friendly smile towards Ning.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Ning immediately flew towards the cave, and the white-clothed youth also flew over, then stored away his construct.

“Bang!” “Clash!” “Boom!” Continuous sounds of explosions could be heard, with furious roars mixed in. Three more figures charged past the saturated field of lightning and into the cave.

The cave was many tens of meters wide. The white-robed youth walked forward alongside Ning. “My name is Mu Northson. I truly am embarrassed for what happened earlier. My mastery over my craft was insufficient, and I ended up harming you, fellow Daoist.”

“My name is Ji Ning.” Ning smiled towards him as well. “You can’t be blamed. You were trying to enter the school, just like me. How could you be careless?” The white-clothed youth hurriedly nodded.

Ning could clearly sense that this white-clothed youth seemed slightly immature. By the looks of him, he was even younger than Ning himself. Most likely, he had reached the Xiantian level even before Ning had. He immediately asked, “Brother Mu, I’m sixteen years of age this year. How old are you?”

“Fourteen.” The white-clothed youth, Mu Northson, gave an honest response. Instantly, the other three youths who had charged into the cave had changed looks on their faces. The three of them looked towards Ning and Northson with incomparably complicated looks on their faces. Monster…monsters! One was sixteen, while the other was fourteen! How young were they? And yet, these two had actually broken through the lightning construct formation before everyone else.

The black-clothed man even had some injuries on his body. He gave Ning a hard look. “This person named Ji Ning is only sixteen, but he’s already at the Zifu level in terms of the [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens]. In addition, he was actually able to charge in with ease. I had to make two attempts before succeeding.”

Earlier, he had been the first to try to charge in, but had ended up failing on his first attempt. It was only after seeing him fail did Ji Ning and the others make their charge.

He had immediately charged in behind Ning, and then followed the Azure Dragon construct of the white-robed youth, Northson, in charging past. With the Azure Dragon construct blocking some of the lightning, things had been slightly easier for him. Still, it had only been slightly easier; he still suffered an injury in order to enter.

“It truly was hard.” The white-clothed youth, Northson, glanced downwards, then sighed, “This grand lightning construct formation truly was hard to pass through. The Black-White College really lives up to its reputation.”

Ning looked downwards as well. Below them, the other Immortal cultivators were still continuing to charge upwards, time and time again. “It is hard,” Ning agreed softly. “However, the vast region controlled by the Stillwater Commandery holds many geniuses.”

Swoosh!

Yet another figure passed through the blocking field of lightning. Slashing forward in a lonely arc, it landed at the entrance to the cave. This was a violet-robed maiden whose face was like the frost and the snow. Judging from the look in her eyes…clearly, she had been arrogant since she was a child. Still, every single person who was able to enter the cave was a true talent.

A few moments later. “The time has come to an end.” The black-haired, middle-aged man spoke out in a high voice, and instantly, the 810 dragon heads came to a halt. Those Immortal cultivators who were in midair still wanted to fly upwards, but…

“All of you, go down!” The black-haired man gave a sudden roar, and his eyes instantly became terrifying to behold. A terrifyingly powerful divine sense swept downwards, and instantly, all of the Immortal cultivators who had wanted to fly upwards came to a halt. And then, all of them began to drop downwards.

“Divine sense?” Ning’s eyes lit up as he saw this. “A divine sense attack!” When those Immortal cultivators had been hit by the attack, their gazes had turned dim, and then they had fallen out from the skies. Clearly, their souls had been impacted by the attack.

“So there are attacking techniques for the divine sense as well?” Ning instantly felt an itchiness in his heart. His greatest strength was his divine soul, which was already comparable to a Primal Daoist’s. In addition, by relying on the [Nuwa Painting] visualization technique, his divine soul was continuing to grow stronger by the day. At this point, however, he had only been able to use his divine will to control items to assist himself. He had never heard that there were techniques which could allow one to use one’s divine sense to directly attack someone’s soul!

“A divine sense attack? How would that even work? I’ve never heard of it…it must be an extremely high-level technique. Since that black-haired man is able to use it, then I imagine the Black-White College must have this divine sense technique amongst this records.” Ning instantly made up his mind that no matter what, he had to acquire and learn this technique.

…….

The black-haired man and the rest of the six figures flew into the cave. They all appeared different; one looked graceful, another was short and chubby, a third was cold-faced…but they all possessed shockingly powerful auras.

Ning and the rest of the nine called out respectfully, “Respectful greetings, seniors.” The six Primal Daoists swept Ning and the rest of the nine with their gazes. “Mm.” Quite a few gazes paused for a period of time after landing on Ning.

“You.” The black-haired, middle-aged man pointed to a blue-clothed youth who wore a crown and whose gaze was flashing. The blue-clothed youth’s face changed, and he hurriedly said, “Senior, this junior is Eastriver Lush.”

Ning and the others gave him a glance. Eastriver clan? That was one of the eight major powers.

“Eastriver clan?” The black-haired, middle-aged man laughed coldly. “I don’t care where you came from. Everyone, even a member of the Northmont clan of Stillwater or the imperial clan of the Grand Xia Dynasty, must obey the rules of the Black-White College if they wish to join our Black-White College. You used a Dao-seal. You violated the rules. Hurry up and begone.”

The crowned youth gritted his teeth, then immediately transformed into a ray of light as he flew towards the cave entrance.

“He used a Dao-seal?” Ning stared in astonishment at this disciple of the Eastriver clan. When testing new disciples, there had been, at the gate, a list of the various necessary requirements. Dao-seals and other external sources of support were forbidden. One had to rely on one’s own power to pass the trials. All who used external sources of power would be expelled.

“You are Mu Northson?” The black-haired man turned to look towards the white-robed youth, a smile on his face. “Greetings, senior,” Northson said respectfully. The black-haired, middle-aged man nodded. “Fourteen years. Not bad. Let me take a look at your construct.”

“Alright.” Northson knew the rules; there were restrictions on utilizing constructs. If one was an Immortal practitioner who walked on the Dao of Constructs and golems…if they wished to bring a construct into a trial, it was forbidden for the construct to possess sentience! Nor could there be an elemental energy core within the construct. It had to be completely controlled by their own elemental ki.

Actually, during the earlier trial, the six Primal Daoists could already tell the truth of the matter. This ‘examination’ was just for the sake of following the rules to the letter.

The inspection concluded. “Mm.” The black-haired, middle-aged man nodded. “Acceptable.” Northson immediately accepted the Azure Dragon construct back.

“The eight of you.” The black-haired, middle-aged man swept Ning and the other seven with his gaze. “You’ve passed through the first test. Next is the second and final test. As long as you can pass it, you will become a disciple of our Black-White College. If, however, you are unable to pass, I’ll have to ask you to all leave.”

“The second and final test?” Ning was surprised. Even that black-haired youth who had reached the seventh stage of the [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens] had just barely passed the first test. And yet, there was a second, follow-up test?

“Chong, child.” One of the six Primal Daoists, that white-robed woman, spoke out. The black-clothed youth said respectfully, “Aunt.”

“Once you reach the ninth stage of the [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens], you will definitely be able to enter our Black-White College. But you are only at the seventh…” The white-robed woman shook her head.

“I can’t wait any longer. I’ll need at least ten to twenty years to reach the ninth stage,” the black-clothed youth replied impatiently. The white-robed woman shook her head. “You won’t be able to pass the final test.”

“Aunt. I wish to try.” The black-clothed youth gritted his teeth. How could he casually give up at a time like this?

His response caused the white-robed woman to shake her head.