The Desolate Era

Chapter 6 – Returning

Snowdragon Mountain? Bei Zishan? This Bei Zishan had been a Zifu Disciple of Snowdragon Mountain?

Ji Ning temporarily suppressed this line of thought, then immediately said with sincerity, “My mother is gravely ill. I expect that my Ji clan is unable to save her. I would like to ask you, Adept Mu, to go on a trip to visit my Ji clan of the West Prefecture and save my mother’s life.”

Adept Mu saw the look on Ning’s face, and he couldn’t help but sigh. “I’m not talented in medical treatments, but I can go take a look. If I can save her, naturally I will. But if I cannot…”

“Adept, if you are willing to go, Ji Ning will be forever grateful.” Ning said hurriedly.

“Scum, get over here!” Adept Mu suddenly turned and stared into the distance, barking loudly. From afar, that black-furred zombie whose entire body was swirling with that necromantic aura walked over obediently, staring at Adept Mu with a hint of dread in its oily green eyes.

Adept Mu waved his hand, and a violet coffin appeared in front of him.

“Get in.”

Adept Mu gave the order.

The black-furred zombie obediently opened the coffin, then leapt in and lay down, then closed the lid behind it.

“This is a corpse-preserving coffin.” Adept Mu, with a wave of his hand, took back the corpse-preserving coffin while explaining to Ning, “This black-furred zombie had just lost its master. If it were to be permitted to roam about, it would definitely harm many people. Thus, when I was speaking with you, I used a thread of my ki bind it to myself.”

Ning nodded.

“Don’t worry. You were the one to kill Bei Zishan, and so I won’t touch any of the things he left behind.” Adept Mu said. “Only, at your current level of power, you are not able to tame this black-furred zombie, and so I am taking it with me.”

As he spoke, Adept Mu looked at the distant corpse of Bei Zishan. Zishan’s corpse immediately flew over, along with his various magic treasures, including the flying boat, his horsetail whisk, the bloody banner, and the nest which held the hornets. Adept Mu reached out with his hand, and a ring which had been on Zishan’s fingers flew off, entering Adept Mu’s hand.

“This is a ranked storage-type magic treasure.” Adept Mu said. “You are unable to bind it, so I will help you in retrieving the items within.”

Whoosh….

Soon, Adept Mu completed his binding of the ring, and as he did, a large number of miscellaneous items appeared out of nowhere onto the ground, amongst which were Dao Battle-Armor suits, foodstuffs, some golden items, as well as some alchemical ingredients as well as various bottles.

“Judging from the look of your skin, you should have suffered a poisoning by the Hearteater Powder.” Adept Mu flipped his hand, and one of the little bottles on the ground flew up, with the words ‘Hearteater Antidote’ written atop it. Clearly, with so many bottles present, Zishan himself was worried that he would use a wrong bottle, and so had labeled all of them.

Adept Mu opened the bottle’s plug, glanced at it, then nodded. “This is the antitode. Eat a pill. You can collect these various items and ranked magic treasures as well…although you are currently unable to bind them, when you become a Zifu Disciple, you will be. Don’t have any worries; although these things are treasures to you; they aren’t worth anything to me at all.”

“Thank you, Adept.” Ning was very grateful.

Although he knew that these things weren’t worth much to the Adept, the actions of this Adept Mu were clean and decisive. How could Ning not feel grateful for how well the man was treating him, a mere Xiantian lifeform?

“One day, I absolutely must repay this kindness.” Ning said to himself.

Ning swallowed the pill, which gave off a clear, fragrant taste, almost like a pellet of sugar. As soon as the pellet entered his stomach, it immediately dissolved. Soon, he felt a warm sensation throughout his entire body, and every single bit of Hearteater poison that was spread throughout his body suddenly dissolved like the snow, quickly and completely disappearing. The pain which had been spreading throughout his body vanished as well, and those red spots on his face faded.

“This hornet’s nest…” Adept Mu pointed at the hornet’s nest, which had many venomous hornets within. “The hornet’s nest is an unranked magic treasure. You can bind it. However, as for the many hornets within the nest…to control them mentally, you’ll have to become a Zifu Disciple, and then slowly bind them with your Ki. Prior to becoming a Zifu Disciple, remember to often bring them food to eat. Don’t starve them to death. If they are starved, they will start to kill each other and devour each other.”

Ning nodded immediately. “Understood.”

“Hurry up and bind the hornet’s nest. Oh. Here’s a manual on binding hornets. This is a secret manual of Snowdragon Mountain. It isn’t that precious, but it does contain the basics for binding hornets and pests.” Adept Mu immediately saw a fur-clad book amongst Bei Zishan’s possessions. “Binding hornets is fairly simple. Only, finding them is very hard, and so too is raising them. There’s no need for you to be in a rush to learn. These things can wait for you to become a Zifu Disciple before learning.”

Ning accepted the manual, which had three characters atop it: [Insect Binding Manual].

“Because this hornet’s nest has venomous insects, there’s no way you can store it within a storage-type magic treasure.” Adept Mu handed the nest to Ning. “However, the hornet’s nest can change in size. You can shrink it, then carry it on you.”

“Yes.” Ning acknowledged. He immediately accepted the enormous black hornet’s nest. Prior to handing it over, Adept Mu had already erased the remaining magic power that the hornet’s nest had contained, and so Ning was able to easily bind it. Otherwise, Ning would have had to spend an enormous amount of time just wiping out the remnant magic power left behind by Bei Zishan.

“Smaller, smaller, smaller.” Ning looked at the black hornet’s nest rapidly shrink, until it was the size of a finger. With a flip of his hand, he picked up a cloth sack, then placed the hornet’s nest within it. He placed the sack within his clothes, and the armor-type magic treasure he was wearing shifted in configuration slightly, accommodating the sack within.

“Collect them all.”

Ning waved his hand, and collected the many miscellaneous items on the ground, as well as manuals and poisons which Bei Zishan had left behind.As for Bei Zishan’s ranked magic treasures, Ning didn’t touch them.

“These ranked magic treasures.” Adept Mu pointed at the bloody banner as he spoke. “I am going to take away this Myriad Wraiths Banner. This is a magic treasure which was birthed from sins. I need to take it back…and it is also proof that I’ve accomplished my mission. You can keep the rest.”

“Alright.” Only now did Ning collect the other ranked magic treasures.

He was unable to use any of them, and so all he could do was to collect them for now.

“The Myriad Wraiths Banner…” Adept Mu picked up the bloody banner, which glowed with a faintly visible black aura. “Who knows how many people were tortured to death to create it? What a terrible, weighty sin! This Bei Zishan really was fated to die; he actually used this Myriad Wraiths Banner against you, but your soul is already at the ‘divine will’ level. How could this incomplete Myriad Wraiths Banner possibly do anything to you?”

Adept Mu was under the impression that Ning had relied on his powerful so to destroy all of those dread wraiths. He didn’t know that Ning had, in reality, had relied upon a visualization of Maiden Nuwa in order to pacify all of those dread wraiths.

“Look. This is sin. Sin so heavy, one can see it with the naked eye. And yet, boundless karmic merits are very hard to see.” Adept Mu pointed at the black aura surrounding the bloody banner. “Sin which one can already see with the naked eye…you can imagine how grave and serious the sin is. We Raindragon Guards naturally must exterminate a person who has committed such grave sins.”

Ning looked and nodded.

——————–

Within the mountain cave, Blindfish and the others had their bodies and clothes covered with blood.

“Quick, lift them up.”

“Hurry.”

The black serpent and the Azure Firebird were shouting at those servants. How could the servants dare to resist? They obediently lifted, carried, and piggybacked those who were unable to walk on their own.

“The young master?”

“Where is young master Ji Ning?” Blindfish and Ji Jadewich asked, along with others.

The black serpent just said, “The young master is outside.”

Blindfish was still able to walk on his own, but Jadewich had to be lifted. All of them walked out of the cave, and as they did, they saw those thousands of terrified Dao-Soldiers, as well as the corpses which litered the ground, as well as Ji Ning, off in the distance, who was currently chatting with Adept Mu.

Ning turned to look. When he saw his master Blindfish, his entire body covered with blood, as well as Jadewich and the others be carried over, he couldn’t help but feel his heart ache. He couldn’t help but call out, “Master Blindfish.”

“Young master.” Blindfish spoke as well.

“You…you all…” Ning didn’t know what to say.

“Thank you, young master.”

“Thank you, young master Ji Ning.” Not just the people of the Ji clan; even those Xiantian lifeforms of the Riverbank clan, the Ironwood clan, the Kou clan, and the various other clans, all of whom had their dantians shattered, spoke out in gratitude. The destruction of their dantians made them cripples, but they already felt boundless gratitude for being able to see the sun again and for being able to return to live amongst their clans.

In his heart, Ning felt boundless sourness. These people included the enemies of the Ji clan, true, but in the past, they were glorious, respected Xiantian lifeforms. But now, all of their dantians had been destroyed.

The hint of excitement he had felt prior to this when he had acquired all of those treasures of Bei Zishan completely vanished. Ning turned to look towards those servants and barked, “How many more people are imprisoned within this mountain?”

“There’s most likely more than a million people imprisoned here, but it’s hard to say if even half remain alive.” Immediately, some servants spoke out nervously.

Ning, hearing this, was stunned.

A million?

“What a sin!” Adept Mu shook his head and sighed. “Ji Ning…these thousands of Dao-Soldiers as well as hundreds of thousands of surviving commoners…let those two spirit-beasts deal with them. The two of you, remember that those thousands of Dao-Soldiers were innocent. They were forced to do what they did by Bei Zishan. Do not further violate the proscriptions against murder.”

“Yes.” The black serpent and the Azure Firebird hurriedly nodded. They had previously seen the power of those Flood Dragon Dao-Soldiers. Although they could spare the lives of those Dao-Soldiers, they absolutely would take away those Dao Battle-Armors.

“I’ll handle everything here to you two.” Ning instructed.

“Don’t worry.” The black serpent and the Azure Firebird responded.

“Ji Ning, let’s go. Let’s go to your Ji clan’s West Prefecture City.” Adept Mu said. “I can bring these people along as well.”

As he spoke, he waved his hand, and a leaf appeared out of nowhere. The leaf rapidly expanded in size, and soon became an enormous leaf that was dozens of meters long. Ning, seeing this, immediately had Master Blindfish, Jadewich, and the other members of the Ji clan all stand atop the leaf. As for the Kou clan, the Riverbank clan, and the other clans, they temporarily rested here, awaiting their clan’s forces to come pick them up.

“Let’s go.”

Adept Mu, Ning, Blindfish, and the other Xiantian lifeforms of the Ji clan who had their dantians destroyed had all mounted the leaf. The enormous green leaf, dozens of meters long, flew rapidly into the air, quickly flying beyond the peaks of the mountains and disappearing into the skies.