The Three Names Resurface

Ji Ning had no idea that Senior Apprentice-Sister Nine Lotos had come looking for him shortly after his departure. At this moment, he and his junior apprentice-brother, Uncle White, and Qingqing had already embarked on their journey to hunt down wanted criminals.

Armed with intelligence provided by the Yinglong Guard, they spent over a month traveling to three different locations before finally tracking down the fugitive evil cultivator known as ‘Blackhorn Daoist.’ This Blackhorn Daoist, relying on his fearsome ‘Ghost Infant King,’ had never met his match.

Unfortunately, he ran into Ji Ning.

First, Uncle White quietly laid down a grand formation, sealing off all escape. Then Ji Ning and the others revealed themselves… Ji Ning didn’t even need to make a move. His junior apprentice-brother, Mu Northson, merely unleashed his ‘Swallowing Heaven Serpent’ golem, which slaughtered the Ghost Infant King in an instant. Without his ace, Blackhorn Daoist panicked and was easily slain.

“You’ve clearly improved a great deal, junior apprentice-brother,” Ji Ning praised. “Killing the infamous Blackhorn Daoist was effortless for you.”

“Heh heh.” Mu Northson rubbed his head. “I’ve reached the Wanxiang stage’s perfection, but more importantly, I spent quite a few resources at the Heavenly Treasures Mountain to upgrade my Swallowing Heaven Serpent golem. Naturally, its power increased dramatically.”

Ji Ning understood. The path of golems… demanded vast quantities of rare materials.

“Alright, let’s go hunt down the next target,” Ji Ning said.

“With the four of us Wanxiang Adepts working together, this kind of mission is a total breeze,” Qingqing said smugly from the side. The Whitewater Hound stood silently beside them, watching and smiling.

Whoosh!

The dragon-headed warship once again tore through the air as Ji Ning and his companions set off on their next mission: hunting down ‘Qianxiao Daoist.’

No matter how well a criminal hid, they couldn’t escape the reach of the Yinglong Guard’s intelligence.

Unless they had a way to hide inside a grotto like Ji Ning’s aquatic palace, they simply couldn’t evade the Guard’s pursuit within any major world under the Grand Xia Dynasty.

“That Qianxiao Daoist fled really far. We’re already over three million li from Anchan City. This is about as remote and desolate as the Anchan Commandery gets,” Ji Ning mused. “If he fled out of the commandery’s borders, he wouldn’t be our Anchan branch’s problem anymore.”

The two of them chatted as they passed through the teleportation array at the Crimson Dragon Mountains.

Whoosh!

Three million li away, within Eastriver City, a hundred-zhang-tall teleportation array blazed with light as Ji Ning, Mu Northson, and the others materialized.

“Greetings, Lord Yinglong Guard.” An old man at the scene bowed respectfully, flanked by six Zifu Disciples and a crowd of Xiantian cultivators, all of whom kowtowed in reverence.

Ji Ning swept his gaze across them.

Eastriver City was a garrison city of the Grand Xia Dynasty, similar to Yan Mountain City. The only difference was that it housed a small teleportation array belonging to the Yinglong Guard. Places as dangerous as the Mount Yujue Wasteland would have Primal Daoists or even Loose Immortals stationed, but Eastriver City was too ordinary, with only a few Zifu Disciples on duty.

“Mm.” Ji Ning nodded slightly.

“Let’s go, junior apprentice-brother.” Without wasting words, Ji Ning launched the dragon-headed warship and sped away, following the latest intelligence from the Yinglong Guard branch. The Qianxiao Daoist was hiding deep within an ancient mountain range tens of thousands of li from Eastriver City.

Ji Ning and his companions searched cautiously.

Soon, night fell.

“Found him.” Standing by the ship’s railing under the starlit sky, Ji Ning released his divine sense, enveloping a three-hundred-li radius below. He immediately detected a genuine ‘city of evil’ hidden within the mountain. This city was concealed by an illusion formation, invisible to the naked eye. Without his divine sense, it would have taken months to locate.

“What a vile city.” Ji Ning’s eyes flickered with killing intent.

“Where?” Mu Northson asked urgently.

“Right below us.” Ji Ning’s voice was low. “Come, follow me down.”

Ji Ning leaped directly off the ship, a streak of sword-light appearing beneath his feet, tearing through the air as he plunged downward. The Whitewater Hound and Mu Northson followed, descending from the sky.

As they dove toward the mountains…

“Break.” Ji Ning pointed from afar. Water materialized out of thin air, twisting around a formation flag and wrenching it free with ease.

Immediately, the surrounding ten-plus li began to twist and distort. The seemingly ordinary barren mountain vanished, replaced by a massive city. Within the city, countless slaves were performing grueling labor—hauling stones, carving walls, even felling timber from the surrounding forests to construct this edifice.

“This is…” Mu Northson stared, wide-eyed and speechless.

“Pure extravagance and depravity,” Ji Ning said coldly.

“He’s an evil cultivator. Fine, he slaughters mortals for his wicked techniques. But why force these mortals to build a city for him? Why squeeze them so brutally?” Mu Northson could see at a glance that the mortal slaves were being worked to death.

Ji Ning remained silent.

His divine sense had already enveloped the entire city of evil, allowing him to feel the despair, pain, grief, and numbness of the countless mortals within. It was a numbness born of absolute hopelessness. Some of the mortals harbored an endless, bottomless resentment—a hatred so intense that Ji Ning could clearly sense it through his divine sense.

“Hell,” Ji Ning murmured. Then he shot upward like a streak of light, hovering directly above the entire city of evil.

A massive Water-Fire Lotus materialized around Ji Ning, swirling.

The light of the Water-Fire Lotus was blindingly brilliant in the darkness of night. In that moment, the mortal slaves, still being forced to work even at this hour, lifted their heads. They gazed up at the colossal lotus above, and at the seemingly tiny figure at its center.

“Qianxiao Old Fiend! Come out and die!” Ji Ning’s roar was like thunder, echoing across the entire city.

“Ahhh!”

“Bam!”

“Bam!”

One by one, the savage Xiantian overseers who had been tyrannizing the city screamed in agony, blood streaming from their seven orifices as they dropped dead on the spot.

These were the disciples and followers of the Qianxiao Daoist, all of whom had committed countless atrocities.

With his divine sense sweeping over them, Ji Ning could detect the ‘karmic sin taint’ clinging to their bodies. Ordinary mortals had neither ‘karmic merit aura’ nor ‘karmic sin taint.’ For these cultivators to have visible sin taint meant their sins were already immense. Ji Ning unleashed the Soul-Shattering Art against these sin-tainted cultivators. The gap in power was too vast; they died on the spot, blood gushing from their seven orifices.

“What?”

“How… how could this demon suddenly…?” The mortal slaves stared in disbelief at their previously ferocious Xiantian overseers, now all dead.

Just then…

“May I ask which Daoist brother has arrived?” A man in a white Daoist robe with a long beard appeared abruptly in midair, hovering at a distance opposite Ji Ning.

Ji Ning looked at him, unconcerned about the possibility of escape.

Because while Ji Ning had charged out, Uncle White had already quietly set up a Space-Locking Formation around the perimeter.

“Qianxiao Old Fiend, and quite a few lesser fiends as well.” Ji Ning’s gaze swept toward the distant palace, where several Zifu Disciples were standing at the entrance. Clearly, they were disciples of the old fiend.

“May I dare ask my Daoist brother’s name?” The Qianxiao Daoist maintained a calm smile.

Ji Ning stood on his Water-Fire Lotus, looking down at the hellish scene below. Softly, he said, “After you die, you’ll go to the Netherworld Kingdom. You’ll suffer every torment in the eighteen levels of hell. The suffering you’ve inflicted on these countless mortals will be repaid to you a thousandfold, ten-thousandfold.”

“Die?” The Qianxiao Daoist shook his head. “Once I become an Earth Immortal, a sliver of my truesoul will enter the Netherworld. With my Immortal fruit, I can willingly become a Ghost Immortal—why would I need to endure that kind of suffering?”

“Earth Immortal?” Ji Ning stared at him coldly. “Get ready to taste the bitterness of the eighteen levels of hell. With sins as heavy as yours, I doubt you’ll last many years before the torment grinds your soul to nothing.”

This man’s sins were far beyond those of Beizi Shan.

The Qianxiao Daoist no longer had mere ‘taint’ on him. He had a crimson light—a blood light so piercing and chilling that it made one’s heart tremble. Such sin… was truly horrifying.

The moment Ji Ning finished speaking, the Qianxiao Daoist across from him bellowed in fury: “I think you’re the one who’ll die!”

Whoosh!

Above his head, a massive blood-red vertical pupil appeared, staring at Ji Ning with boundless evil and killing intent. The moment it locked onto him… a torrent of bloody baleful energy crashed directly into Ji Ning’s soul.

“A mayfly trying to shake a tree?” In Ji Ning’s sea of consciousness, the statue of Goddess Nuwa appeared, suspended in an endless void, radiating boundless light. As the baleful energy flooded in, it melted like snow beneath the sun, dissolving into nothingness.

“Not good.” The Qianxiao Daoist’s expression changed, and he immediately tried to flee.

“Die!” Ji Ning roared coldly.

A tidal wave of divine sense crashed down, crushing against the Qianxiao Daoist’s soul. The man instantly felt a dizzying vertigo. Ji Ning then pointed from afar, and a Water-Fire Lotus materialized around the Qianxiao Daoist. Completely dazed and defenseless, the Qianxiao Daoist was caught in the lotus’s spinning grind… and in an instant, he was crushed into meat paste!

“What?!”

“Run!”

The five Zifu Disciples in the palace were stunned into panic. These five had followed the Qianxiao Daoist in his evil deeds, their bodies long stained with sin. Ji Ning pointed again, and lotuses bloomed one after another around them. Holy and pure, the lotuses twisted and ground them into meat paste.

All settled.

Mu Northson and the Whitewater Hound flew over from afar. None of them felt joy. Looking down at the countless oppressed mortals below, they simply couldn’t find any happiness.

“How could anyone do this?” Mu Northson sighed.

Because the target possessed the ‘Blood Hell Demon Eye,’ a very troublesome ability, Ji Ning—with his exceptionally powerful soul and secret arts—was the perfect counter. The plan had always been for Ji Ning to handle this battle.

“In this world, there is good, and naturally, there is evil,” Ji Ning said calmly.

“Senior apprentice-brother, we’ve completed both missions. So, what’s next?” Mu Northson looked at Ji Ning.

Ji Ning was momentarily stunned.

Next?

Immediately, the three bloody names he had buried deep in the bottom of his heart surged to the surface: Dong Qi! Yu Tong! Shui Yi! Ji Ning had never forgotten these three. Their names were like brands seared into his very soul. The most important people in his life—his mother, his father—had died because of these three!

A flood of emotion filled Ji Ning’s chest.

Kill!

When Ji Ning dragged these deeply buried matters back into the light, all that remained was hatred and a thirst for vengeance. These three were the people he hated most in this entire world.

“Next…” Ji Ning said softly, “revenge.”

“Revenge?” Mu Northson was confused. “For what?”

“The deaths of my parents.” Ji Ning spoke slowly. Hearing this, Mu Northson’s face changed. Qingqing lowered her serpentine head, nuzzling against Ji Ning’s arm as if to comfort him. Beside them, the Whitewater Hound silently watched Ji Ning, his eyes filled with the same burning desire. After all, he had lived through that nightmare firsthand.

“This blood debt… can never be forgiven,” Ji Ning declared.