The Desolate Era

The raindrops were sprinkling downwards. Ji Ning, amidst the rain, was completely absorbed in his swordplay. His sword-fingers alone were able to execute a sword technique that activated the ‘Dao’.

How comfortable.

Ning felt as though, in this moment, he himself had become a drop of rainwater! He was swirling about, playing and jesting with the other droplets of rain, and joining with them to form a single strand of it. That sort of interconnected-ness and mutual affection...caused the countless drops of rain to all join together.

“Rustle.....” The sprinkling rain surrounding Ning transformed into countless drops of rain which transformed into a drizzling rain. The countless crystalline strands of rain appeared all the more mesmerizing.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Every single strand of rain seemed to secretly be like a knife.

“Rumble...” The rain grew heavier and heavier, transforming into a tempest. The tempest seemed incomparably ferocious, and Ning’s swordplay carried a ferocious, unstoppable power as well.

...........

The old black bull stared, stupefied. Rain drops, rain drizzle, tempest...and in the end, the rainwater once more transformed into that sprinkling, drizzling rain.

One line of rain after another...they seemed like incomparably precious, crystalline jade sculptures that were carved into thin lines. They were also like the hands of a mother, gently stroking down.

Finally, Ning came to a halt.

“This...is Dao?” Ning murmured to himself.

“Congratulations, Ji Ning.” The old black bull’s mouth was hanging wide open, and he was incomparably excited. “You have already truly immersed yourself into the Dao, truly and complete. The feeling of becoming part of the Dao itself is very marvelous, isn’t it?”

Ning nodded gently.

Just now, that feeling had indeed been incredible. He was like a pearl of water, a droplet of rain! In that instant, he felt incomparably familiar to and close with the rainwater. Ning understood...that he had developed his own Dao. The Dao of Rainwater!

“Over the past five years, you have gained insights into many strands of the True Meaning of the Dao. Your accumulated insights have allowed you to break through to a new threshold, with the final result being that you have gained a ‘Dao Domain’.” The old black bull sighed in praise.

“Dao Domain?” Ning looked puzzled. “What is that?”

The old black bull said, astonished, “You don’t even know this?”

“No idea.” Ning said honestly.

The old black bull sighed, shaking his head. “Your clan really is an ordinary one. You don’t even have a basic understanding of the different levels of insight. I’ll tell you, then. In training, one aspect is improving on a technical level; be it sword, saber, spear, or even painting and music and other artistic endeavors, technique matters. The first level is the ‘foundation’! Which is to say, becoming familiar with the basic techniques of an art. The second level is the ‘advanced’ level; it represents that you have all but perfected your mastery of the techniques. The third level is ‘one with the world’; this represents that you are already getting close to the ‘Dao’, and have begun to attune to heaven’s will.”

Ning listened. Naturally, he knew about these first three levels.

“After ‘one with the world’, the next step is in attuning with the intricacies of the natural world, and slowly discovering one of the ‘Daos’. Once you discover it! You will have gained a hint of the ‘True Meaning of the Dao’. That is the fourth level; ‘True Meaning of the Dao’.” The old black bull shook his head. “It is very hard to gain insight into a ‘True Meaning of the Dao’. Even some Zifu Disciples aren’t capable of doing it.”

When Ning had been meditating on the Dao by the side of the pool that year, he gained his first insight into a ‘True Meaning of the Dao’.

“Afterwards, when you continue to gain insight and continuously accumulate many more hints of the ‘True Meaning of the Dao’, your insights into the Dao will grow greater and greater. There will then come a day when the many hints of the ‘True Meaning of the Dao’ will coalesce and then transform qualitatively. Only then will you truly be able to become one with the Dao itself, to the point where, with but a thought, you can summon the power of the Dao in your surroundings, to form it into your own Domain. This is the fifth level; ‘Dao Domain’. This is the level you are currently at. Formidable, formidable.” The old black bull sighed. “Only very few Wanxiang Adepts are capable of reaching this level; generally speaking, only people at the Primordial Daoist level are capable of reaching this level of insight into the Dao.”

“Oh? I’m that amazing?” Ning said with a laugh.

“Your innate talents are extremely high, especially your talents as pertain to the sword. You are an absolute monster! With the assistance of the Stellar Hall, at the young age of 16, you’ve actually reached this level!” The old black bull said.

Ning understood as well.

He possessed the [Nuwa Painting] and was incomparably hard-working. He also had an innately high comprehension ability, and also the Aquatic Estate...there were many variables which contributed to him being able to achieve what he had.

“And above the Dao Domain?” Ning asked.

“Above it...” The old black bull looked at Ning. “Reaching the ‘Dao Domain’ level, after all, just means that you are able to completely immerse yourself into the Dao. What you need to do is to gain greater insights into this Dao of yours, with the end result being that one day, you will have completely understood and mastered this entire Dao Path! That is the sixth level; completely understanding an entire Dao Path!”

Ning now began to understand.

Indeed, just now, he had completely immersed himself with the rainwater, but that was nothing more than immersion; he was still far off from being able to completely control the ‘Dao of Rainwater’.

“The first level is the ‘basic’ level. The second is ‘advanced’. The third is ‘one with the world’. The fourth is ‘True Meaning of the Dao’. The fifth is ‘Dao Domain’. The sixth is a complete ‘Dao Path’!” The old black bull said solemnly. “The level of comprehension and enlightenment one possesses is very important. Only by having sufficient comprehension will one’s power increase. Otherwise, there is no way you’ll be able to withstand and control great power.”

“To become a Celestial Immortal, you have to completely control a Dao Path!” The old black bull looked at Ning. “For example, Immortal Juhua had been a Loose Immortal for millions of years, and had completely mastered nine full Dao Paths. But so what if he did? The increasingly powerful Three Calamities, Nine Tribulations still caused him to fall in the end. Anyone who becomes a Loose Immortal is guaranteed to fall.”

Ning sighed as well.

“You train in the sword, and have reached the level of ‘Dao Domain’. Generally speaking, your Domain will be referred to as a ‘Sword Domain.’” The old black bull reminded. “Just based on the fact that you have a Sword Domain, countless major sects will swing open their doors for you to join.”

“Sword Domain?” Ning said softly. “This Dao is the Dao of Rainwater. Let my Sword Domain therefore be known as the ‘Rainwater Sword Domain’, then.”

Ning looked at his surroundings.

Rustle...

Rainwater appeared out of nowhere, sprinkling downwards and swirling about him. Every single line of rain also seemed like an incomparably sharp arrow, enough to slice apart hard mountain stones or steel.

“Let me warn you. Just now, when you immersed yourself into the Sword Domain, eight hours went past in the outside world.” The old black bull said.

“Eight hours?” Ning was startled. “I really didn’t have any sense of time passing when I was immersed in the Dao. Right, Elder. Now that I have my Rainwater Sword Domain...if I were to challenge the first level of the Wargod Hall, do I have a chance?”

The old black bull was stunned. “The first level of the Wargod Hall? Right, you can give it a try!”

Ning laughed.

Even if the old black bull hadn’t said anything, Ning would have still gone and given it a try, because a Fiendgod practitioner only had two chances at each level of power to challenge the Wargod Hall. He had already reached the peak of power as a Xiantian Fiendgod, and would most likely soon break through to the Zifu level. If he didn’t use the two options he had at the Xiantian level, they would go to waste once he reached the Zifu level.

“Let’s go. I want to see how formidable this Wargod Hall is.” Ning was extremely eager and deeply desired to successfully make it through, so as to be able to go to the Treasure Hall to select a treasure!

The treasures of the Treasure Hall were all left behind by the first master.

Even the Mortal-ranked magic treasures were most likely extraordinary, and might be of great benefit for the Ji clan’s battle against Snowdragon Mountain.

“Snowdragon Mountain.” Ning murmured in his heart...

___________________________

It was already dark, and Zifu Disciple ‘Muse’ of the Swallow Mountain branch of Snowdragon Mountain had flown without stopping at all for tens of thousands of kilometers to arrive at this place. Like a ray of light, he charged downwards to an estate below.

Below was a large, towering mountain. The name of the mountain was Landwyrm Mountain.

“Human practitioner, immediately depart.”

“Human practitioner, you actually dare invade our Landwyrm Mountain? Are you looking to die?”

As Muse descended towards Landwyrm Mountain on his flying treasure, some of the Diremonsters of Landwyrm Mountain began to curse angrily. Landwyrm Mountain was a powerful force, and the top of the mountain was an ancient Zifu-level monster who had trained for a thousand years, ‘Landwyrm’. Landwyrm was a Godbeast, and as a Zifu-level Godbeast, one could imagine how powerful this old monster was.

Naturally, he commanded a large group of Diremonsters, and this was forbidden grounds for humans.

A Zifu-level ancient monster, and with the lineage of a Godbeast. These two things guaranteed that many Zifu Disciples would be frightened of him.

“Senior apprentice-brother Jadechild, your junior apprentice-brother Muse requests a meeting.” Muse didn’t pay any attention to those Diremonsters, flying straight to the top of Landwyrm Mountain before speaking.

“Grooooooowl.”

An enormous draconic head suddenly emerged from a cave at the top of the mountain. That azure draconic head had a single horn atop it, and its wheel-sized eyes stared towards Muse. The incomparable aura alone the draconic head emanated...caused Muse to feel nervous. He knew very well that he wasn’t a match at all for this Landwyrm in front of him.”

The Landwyrm before him was a peak Zifu monster, with the lineage of a Godbeast.

“My respects, Daoist friend Landwyrm.” Muse bowed.

“Master hates to be disturbed. Can it be that you do not know this?” The Landwyrm growled.

“There’s something major happening.” Muse said hurriedly. “I have major news to report to senior apprentice-brother Jadechild, news which will be of great benefit to him.”

Jadechild...

Out of the many people which the Swallow Mountain branch of Snowdragon Mountain were inviting over, he was the most important person. As Dong Ziqi and Muse saw it, as long as they were able to invite their fellow apprentice, Jadechild, that was enough; he alone could easily annihilate the Ji clan by himself. Actually, just by looking at this spirit-beast, the Landwyrm, which Jadechild controlled, one could imagine how powerful Jadechild was.

It must be understood that Zifu-level spirit-beasts were extremely rare.

Although many human experts had some Diremonsters as spirit-beasts, that was because there were a fairly high number of humans with the insights necessary to break through to the Zifu level. But for a spirit-beast to break through to the Zifu level was much rarer! Ancient Zifu-level monsters generally weren’t willing to serve, and if they were willing to serve, it was generally only experts. Even if they served a weakling, a powerful expert would soon seize them!

Dong Ziqi. Muse. Ji Ninefire. None of them had a Zifu-level spirit-beast.

“You wish to see me?” A deep, powerful voice rang out, and a muscular man with long, loose azure hair, a pair of tiger-like eyes, and black clothes moved out from one side.

“My respects, senior apprentice-brother.” Muse hurriedly bowed respectfully.

“I’ve seen you before. You are Muse.” Jadechild looked at him. “Can it be that you aren’t aware that I am in closed door training in an attempt to make a breakthrough?”

Muse felt his heart tremble.

He knew exactly how terrifying this senior apprentice-brother Jadechild of his was. Jadechild was a Fiendgod Body Refiner who had reached the peak of the Zifu level! In addition, Jadechild had also learned the divine ability, ‘Heavenly Transformation’. A peak Zifu-level Fiendgod practitioner was already very frightening; being in possession of a divine ability meant they could fight someone at a higher level than themselves.

Dong Ziqi himself was nervous in front of this fellow apprentice, Jadechild. He was the most important person they were inviting on this venture.

“Senior apprentice-brother Jadechild.” Muse said hurriedly. “I know that you are in closed door training and don’t like to be disturbed. However, not too far from here, at the nearby Swallow Mountain, we’ve discovered a large-scale elemental ore mine, with very many high quality elemental stones. The mine has a circumference of four thousand kilometers and a depth of three hundred kilometers.”

“What!” Jadechild, who had been very calm up to now, suddenly had his eyes explode with two rays of golden light. “Your words are true?”

“If I’ve deceived you, senior apprentice-brother Jadechild, you can go ahead and kill me with one palm blow.”