The Fifth Master

The sword-light, saber-light, and spear-light from those thousands of magic treasures were like the combined strike of thousands of Ki Refining Xiantian experts! Yet Ji Ning had accomplished this feat all by himself. If his soul had not reached the level of ‘Divine Sense,’ he would not have been able to split his focus to control so many treasures and aim them so precisely at a single point.

If he were not a Fiendgod Body Refining Xiantian with terrifying recuperative abilities, this mad, instantaneous expenditure of all his true energy would have only resulted in his meridians being completely torn apart, leaving him a cripple.

“BOOM~~~”

The black-furred monster offered no resistance, nor did it attempt to dodge. It simply spread its arms and closed its eyes. It was hoping, longing...

The corridor erupted with a thunderous boom.

The black-furred monster collapsed with a heavy crash, as if a great mountain had toppled.

“Did I wound it?” Ji Ning stared at the distant monster with desperate hope.

His body was currently broken, his meridians torn, and not a single drop of Xiantian true energy remained.

“It must... it must...” Ji Ning hoped and prayed, staring fixedly ahead. He saw the black-furred monster, which had fallen to the ground, suddenly sit up. It lowered its head to look at its chest. In that spot, the black fur had been torn open, revealing faintly reddened muscle and dark green blood. Threads of blood flowed along the wound, but then the injury rapidly began to heal, leaving only the dark green bloodstains on the surface of its fur.

Ji Ning’s eyes went wide as he stared fixedly at the dark green bloodstains remaining on the black-furred monster’s chest.

He’d done it!

He had succeeded!

He was going to live!

“Father, Mother, I’m going to live.” Ji Ning’s Fiendgod-like body was rapidly recovering. Though he could not yet move, he had forgotten the pain. All that remained was the wild joy of surviving a near-death ordeal.

“You hurt me. You actually managed to wound me.” The black-furred monster, still sitting in the distance, stared blankly for a moment. Then it threw back its head and let out a mad howl. “Oooooow——”

The howl contained endless madness, heartbreak, and relief.

Ji Ning struggled to sit up as well, watching the black-furred monster in the distance as it howled... This was the howl of a being who had suppressed endless aeons of loneliness and pain. Even Ji Ning felt a hint of bitterness in his heart.

After a long time, the sound faded.

The black-furred monster stood up and looked at Ji Ning. Its voice was low and hoarse. “Thank you, my new master. Refine this Immortal estate as soon as possible. We will meet again.”

Whoosh!

With that, the black-furred monster vanished into thin air.

...

Ji Ning soon stood up as well. The injuries to his meridians had all healed. He gathered up the thousands of treasures that had fallen to the ground and put them into his storage treasure.

“I never thought I would end up relying on these ungraded magic treasures to pass the third trial.” Ji Ning sighed emotionally. A Xiantian Fiendgod Body Refiner using thousands of magic treasures for a combined strike... he’d never even heard of such a thing, which was why he hadn’t thought of it before.

This was because such a feat could only be accomplished by a monstrous talent like Ji Ning, whose soul had already reached the ‘Divine Sense’ level despite being only at the Xiantian stage.

Ji Ning had been visualizing the Nuwa Diagram since he was a baby. The Nuwa Diagram was considered a top-tier visualization technique even in the Heaven Realm and the Netherworld Kingdom, let alone in the Mortal Realm... Tribes like the Ji Clan didn’t even have any visualization techniques at all. Ji Ning even suspected that the best visualization techniques in the lands ruled by the Grand Xia Dynasty might not be a match for the Nuwa Diagram.

“I did it.”

“I successfully passed this trial.” Ji Ning looked around at the skeletal remains on the ground and sighed again. “The dead become bones. The living, according to what that black-furred monster said, become the new master.”

Ji Ning didn’t press forward immediately. He sat down cross-legged to rest.

He spent nearly an entire day allowing the Xiantian true energy within his body to fully recover before he got up and continued onward. Walking along the winding corridor, he moved slowly, carefully observing this ancient Immortal estate.

After a long time...

“Hm?” Ji Ning saw an exit not far ahead. Beyond it, he could vaguely make out pillars.

“I’ve arrived?” Ji Ning quickly walked out from the exit and couldn’t help but draw in a cold breath. He found himself in an incomparably vast main hall, thousands of zhang in height. Compared to such a grand hall, the hundred-zhang-high corridor he had just left seemed utterly tiny.

In the center of the main hall was an enormous prayer mat, roughly a hundred zhang in diameter.

Scattered around the hall were also several hundred massive prayer mats.

“Such huge prayer mats?” Ji Ning was filled with doubt. “Prayer mats are for people to sit on. A hundred-zhang-diameter mat... what kind of giant would sit on that? And from the looks of it, a giant sat in the center seat, with a group of giants seated below.”

“Celestial Immortal Juhua’s Immortal estate?” Ji Ning shook his head.

If an Immortal were human, his height would be about the same as an ordinary person.

“Something’s not right.” Ji Ning began to walk through the main hall, inspecting it carefully. The entire hall was very ancient and unadorned, save for the several hundred prayer mats. Ancient stone pillars supported the hall. On both sides of the hall, there were more corridors. Some were a hundred zhang high, while others were a thousand zhang high.

There were three thousand-zhang-high corridors and only two hundred-zhang-high ones.

“I can’t get in?” Ji Ning discovered that he couldn’t enter any of the corridors, including the one he had come from. It was as if an invisible barrier blocked his way.

“The main gate.” Ji Ning looked toward the most imposing gate. Beyond the gate... lay a vast blur, completely shrouded in mist. He couldn’t see anything.

Standing in this incomparably majestic hall, Ji Ning felt as small as an ant. He walked over to a prayer mat and sat down. He was only a meter seven tall, yet he was sitting on a hundred-zhang-diameter mat. He found it rather amusing.

“How comfortable.”

Sitting on this mat, Ji Ning felt his mind become refreshed and clear. Even his thoughts were much quicker.

“How strange. I’ve already passed all three trials and arrived at this main hall. But now I can’t leave through any of the corridors or the main gate. I’m trapped here.” Ji Ning thought to himself. “Since the original owner of this estate left behind those three trials, he should have made some preparations for his future successor.”

The fact that the black-furred monster could be teleported in and out at will...

He himself had been teleported here... Clearly, there was still something controlling this estate.

...

Just as Ji Ning was pondering while sitting on the giant prayer mat, a black ox suddenly walked out from one of the thousand-zhang-high corridors on the side of the hall.

Ji Ning, sensing something, turned his head to look. He saw the black ox, roughly several zhang long, slowly approaching. Its eyes were filled with intelligence and curiosity as it carefully observed Ji Ning.

“May I ask who you are, senior?” Ji Ning immediately spoke.

For any living creature to appear in this ancient estate, it was sure to be extraordinary.

“Me?” The black ox shook its head. “Don’t call me ‘senior.’ I’m just an artifact spirit.”

“An artifact spirit?” Ji Ning was stunned. “Can magic treasures have spirits?”

He had never heard of such a thing.

“I am Celestial Immortal Juhua’s personal magic treasure.” The black ox sighed. “Little child, don’t overthink it. Even if my true body were in front of you, with your current strength, you wouldn’t be able to refine me.”

Ji Ning nodded. He understood that. A Xiantian Ki Refiner could only refine some ungraded treasures. Graded treasures had their own ranks, and the more powerful the treasure, the harder it was to refine.

“May I ask about the previous master of this estate?” Ji Ning pressed.

“Dead. They’re all dead.” The black ox shook its head. “Dead for who knows how long.”

Ji Ning nodded to himself. So it was as he had suspected.

“It’s been so, so long. Over this endless period of time, quite a few Xiantian and Zifu Fiendgod Body Refiners were teleported in.” The black ox sighed. “But none of them could make it through. At most, they’d reach the third trial and die. I never thought a little child like you, with divine power that’s not even that profound, would manage to pass. It’s practically a miracle.”

“Especially the third trial.”

“Your soul is actually this powerful. But your method isn’t very practical.” The black ox said dismissively. “Aiming thousands of treasures at a single point is fine, but if the enemy dodges, you’d have to instantly re-aim all of them. It would be very hard to actually hit a moving target.”

Ji Ning nodded. “True.”

“But that puppet was driven mad by endless solitude and chose to meet your attack head-on.” The black ox said. “So you passed.”

“Puppet?” Ji Ning was stunned. “That thing was a puppet?”

He had seen puppets before. When he trained with his sword, his father had even gotten him a puppet to spar with. But that black-furred monster had muscles, blood, and could talk. How was that like a puppet?

“You little child, how much can you have seen? There are many types of puppets. That one was just a soul implanted into a puppet body.” The black ox said. “With a soul implanted, it gains intelligence. It can even execute Unity of Man and Heaven, or even more subtle sword arts, saber arts, and fist techniques. Its combat power is naturally doubled.”

Ji Ning was thoughtful.

“Of course, a soul trapped inside a puppet can never enter the cycle of reincarnation. It suffers endless loneliness.” The black ox said. “But your insight is not low either. That lotus leaf you used earlier was activated by the Taiyin and Sunstar divine patterns on your body. With these two divine patterns, the Fiendgod Body Refining technique you cultivate should be the strongest one from the Fiendgod Era, the Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens. Judging from the density of your divine power, you’ve probably only reached the fourth level!”

Ji Ning quickly said, “You have a keen eye, senior.”

“The Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens is quite a formidable technique.” The black ox sighed. “To have reached Xiantian with only the fourth level, you must have just broken through recently. You should be just over ten years old, right?”

“Eleven years old.” Ji Ning did not hide it.

“An eleven-year-old Xiantian expert, cultivating the Crimsonbright Diagram, and having already grasped the True Meaning of the Dao in swordsmanship at such a young age.” The black ox shook its head. “A genius like this would be nurtured carefully by the Grand Xia Dynasty. They wouldn’t be willing to let you go and become Celestial Immortal Juhua’s disciple.”

Ji Ning’s eyebrows rose.

“If you had just reached the sixth level, with the purity and density of your divine power and your True Meaning of the Dao, you would have been able to pass the third trial. But you managed it this way, which is not bad either. A powerful soul, high insight... your future potential is limitless.” The black ox sighed. “But congratulations are in order. You are now the fifth master of this place.”