Friendship

Story context

Welcome to the Wujiang Immortal Estate, fellow Daoists! But don’t expect a cozy treasure trove. Ji Ning and company crash through the dimensional barrier only to land smack in the middle of a military drill for a thousand-strong fish-monster Dao-Soldier army. And guess who the commander is? A Primal-level, bare-chested mermaid. Yes, *that* kind of welcome. Before anyone can even breathe, the entire valley turns into a tsunami of angry scales and battle armor. The chapter ends on a delicious cliffhanger—but the real meat here isn’t the fight; it’s the philosophical battle between Ji Ning and Nine Lotos that happens right before the storm. Grab your popcorn (and your flying swords).

Why it matters

Don’t skim the dialogue in the first half—this conversation between Ji Ning and Nine Lotos is character development gold. It shows that their relationship isn’t all moonlight and swordplay; they have fundamentally different ideas about how to navigate power structures. Nine Lotos plays the long game of social calculus; Ji Ning plays the game of inner truth. Which approach is “right”? The novel doesn’t hand you an answer—it lets both sides argue convincingly, and that moral ambiguity is part of the fun. Meanwhile, the mermaid army’s formation attack—turning a thousand individual monsters into a single tidal wave—is a textbook example of **Dao-Soldier synchronization** (道兵合一), a staple of high-tier Xianxia warfare. Pay attention to how the group reacts to being outnumbered and outgunned from the very first second inside the estate. This is going to test everyone’s nerves, not just their treasures.

Quick facts

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Source novel

Desolate Era