Chapter 26: The Storm Approaches

Ji Ning, sitting cross-legged by the pool, breathed like surging waves. He opened his mouth wide, absorbing the primal liquid in the pool. The pool, which had only a layer of primal liquid left at the bottom, naturally decreased rapidly.

Suddenly, Ji Ning closed his mouth.

"Whoosh."

With a smile, Ji Ning opened his eyes and glanced at the green liquid in the pool. "It allowed me to break through directly from the perfect先天 stage of Qi Refining, first opening the Zifu and then consolidating the early Zifu stage. It saved me one or two years of effort and consumed about one-third of the primal liquid!"

In less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, he had opened the Zifu and consolidated the early Zifu stage. Even with Ji Ning's astonishing cultivation speed, it would have taken one or two years.

"With the remaining two-thirds of the primal liquid, if I use it for cultivation, I might reach the middle Zifu stage." Ji Ning understood that his early Zifu stage was already consolidated, and with the remaining primal liquid, it was entirely possible to break through again. But if he truly relied on the "Water Element Art" to cultivate to the middle Zifu stage, his future path in Qi Refining would become difficult.

After all, the "Water Element Art" was a very inferior technique. It was fine for opening the Zifu, because everyone's Zifu was the same. But if used to break through to the middle Zifu stage? The refinement and purification of the primal force itself would be much inferior. Once that step was taken, there would be no turning back. The difficulty of becoming a Wanxiang Adept in the future would increase tenfold or a hundredfold.

"I have already crossed a major realm and become a Zifu Disciple! Even if I break through to the middle Zifu stage, it will only improve my strength to a limited extent." Ji Ning pondered. Crossing a major realm was a fundamental leap! But improving a minor realm had little effect on strength.

A Xiantian lifeform sweeps away Houtian.

A Zifu Disciple sweeps away Xiantian lifeforms!

Even an early Zifu stage can sweep away a perfect Xiantian stage. This is a qualitative difference. To cross levels? Difficult!

But when an early Zifu stage fights a middle Zifu stage... it's hard to say who lives and who dies. Such minor realm improvements bring limited strength increases.

"Using the remaining primal liquid would improve my strength only slightly and ruin my future path. Not worth it." Ji Ning flipped out a talisman from his hand. The talisman bore the demonic character 'Right'. It was the talisman of the Water Mansion. Ji Ning's eyes shone with anticipation. "Although I have opened the Zifu, if I were to face Dong Ziqi again, I am confident I could suppress him and even kill him. But this time, I am not dealing with just one Dong Ziqi, but a large group of Snowdragon Mountain experts."

"I hope this Water Mansion... can increase my strength by another level."

"The Water Mansion that nurtured Ju Hua the Immortal should be extraordinary, right?" Ji Ning looked forward to it. A trace of water-green primal force seeped into the talisman, and it was quickly refined.

A vast, ancient aura emanated, making Ji Ning feel a desire to worship.

"What a thing," Ji Ning said, looking at the talisman. "I wonder who the first master of the Water Mansion really was."

"Time to go."

Ji Ning stood up directly. At the same time, he flipped his hand and produced a palm-sized jade bottle. It was a magic treasure not even of the lowest grade. Though palm-sized, it could store thousands of catties of wine. Ji Ning had quite a few such storage items. Earlier, when he made the demonic blood oath in the Water Mansion, he used a gourd to store a thousand catties of blood.

"Collect." Ji Ning looked at the primal liquid in the pool. His divine will immediately stirred it. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~~~ A stream of primal liquid arced through the air, entered the mouth of the jade bottle, and went in completely, not a drop left.

"I wonder which Immortal left behind this stone chamber," Ji Ning said, looking back at the chamber before leaving. "It brought disaster to my Ji clan, but it also allowed me to open the Zifu ahead of time."

Ji Ning understood in his heart that he could not blame that Immortal. He could only blame the Ji clan for being weak.

"Whoosh!"

After leaving the stone chamber, Ji Ning, surrounded by water-fire lotuses, tore a passage through the primal stone mine and rapidly rushed upward. Ji Ning knew it would take a while to rush from over a hundred miles deep underground to the surface. He also produced two magic treasures in his hand: one was a palm-sized boat treasure, and the other was a black feathered wing treasure.

The boat was Bo Zishan's treasure, and the black feathered wings were Ju San's treasure. Both were graded magic treasures.

"Once you enter the Zifu stage, you can use all these graded magic treasures!" Ji Ning understood that a major realm improvement brought two aspects: one was the qualitative improvement of power, and the other was the improvement of magic treasures. The combination of these two aspects allowed a Zifu Disciple to absolutely sweep away Xiantian lifeforms.

...

Boom!

A water-fire lotus rushed directly out of the surface. Inside the water-fire lotus was Ji Ning.

"Ji Ning." In the distance were Ji Jiuhuo, Granny Ying, and others. The surrounding illusion array had long been completely withdrawn, revealing the wilderness and forest scenery. Only in some places could one see the mess left by the previous battle.

"Clan leader, Father." Ji Ning quickly walked over.

"You came out quickly. We also just reached the surface not long ago." Ji Jiuhuo and the other three walked over and said with a smile, "Liu Zhen just left to go back."

Ji Ning thought about it. His cultivation took about the time to drink a cup of tea, but drilling out of the ground took the majority of the time. The clan leader and the others probably took a bit longer to drill out... Thinking about it, they probably came out one after another.

"By the way, Ji Ning." Ji Jiuhuo asked, "You killed Ju San earlier. What magic treasures did you get?"

"Several pieces," Ji Ning said.

Granny Ying, who was meticulous, explained, "We need to take stock of these treasures and see who can use them. That way, we can make the simplest use of the treasures."

Ji Ning nodded. "Ju San had a flying treasure, a storage treasure, a protective dharma armor, a giant axe, and a feathered wing treasure! The feathered wing treasure is useful to me; the rest are useless." From Bo Zishan, Ji Ning had already obtained graded magic treasures like storage, flying, and protective dharma armor. Only the graded feathered wing treasure was useful.

"What do you need?" Ji Jiuhuo looked at Ji Ning.

"Swords!" Ji Ning said. "I only need graded flying swords. The rest are useless. The more graded flying swords, the better."

His combat methods were twofold: close combat and the Small Thousand Sword Formation.

Especially after opening the Zifu, using the Small Thousand Sword Formation would naturally be more powerful. But if he still used ungraded sword weapons... his strength would probably only increase by one or two levels. However, if he replaced them all with graded flying swords, Ji Ning felt he might even be able to fight a Wanxiang Adept.

"Graded flying swords? The more, the better?" Ji Jiuhuo, Granny Ying, Old Servant A Xing, and Ji Yichuan all spoke in low voices, one saying he had a flying sword, another saying he had two flying swords.

"We have a total of five flying swords that are not in use for now." Ji Jiuhuo looked at Ji Ning. "Is that enough?"

Ji Ning was slightly disappointed.

Five?

Useless.

Each formation base of his Small Thousand Sword Formation was composed of nine sword weapons! Nine formation bases formed a small sword formation! That is to say, the smallest unit, the 'formation base', required nine graded flying swords... To completely transform his Small Thousand Sword Formation, he would need 81 graded flying swords as the foundation, carrying other ungraded sword weapons, and the power would naturally skyrocket.

Of course, it would be best to use all graded flying swords...

According to Ji Ning's estimation, if he used all graded flying swords, he would probably only be able to execute two or three layers of the Small Thousand Sword Formation. But the power would be immeasurably greater than now! Quality over quantity is more important!

"How many do you need?" Ji Jiuhuo asked.

"I need seven graded flying swords. The more, the better. Several hundred would be great," Ji Ning said with a smile. Sword weapons were common magic treasures. From Bo Zishan, he had already obtained two graded flying swords. Adding seven more would make up the smallest unit, a 'formation base'. With this formation base as the center, the power of the entire Small Thousand Sword Formation would probably increase by one or two times!

"Several hundred?" Ji Jiuhuo and Granny Ying were both stunned. But they also recalled the scene of Ji Ning using the Small Thousand Sword Formation earlier, with over seven hundred sword weapons surrounding him. It seemed Ji Ning indeed needed many flying swords. But several hundred graded magic treasures? Even if the entire Ji clan went bankrupt, they couldn't afford it.

"We'll try to gather for you, try to gather seven flying swords." Ji Jiuhuo quickly changed the subject after saying that. "The Snowdragon Mountain will widely invite fellow disciples. We'll probably have to fight in a day or two. Before that, if you need to go back and get any treasures or arrange some matters, do it quickly. Afterward, we'll gather here again."

"Let's go."

Swoosh!

Ji Jiuhuo, Granny Ying, and Old Servant A Xing rode a huge wine gourd and quickly flew away into the sky, leaving only Ji Ning and his father.

Ji Ning understood that this also felt like making arrangements for the aftermath.

"Father, are you going back to West Prefecture City?" Ji Ning looked at his father.

"No, I'll go to Serpentwing Lake," Ji Yichuan nodded. "I want to see Xiaobai now. He is like a brother to me, I must see him no matter what." He had lived at Serpentwing Lake for nearly five years, and the Whitewater Hound was there too.

"Uncle Bai?" Ji Ning nodded gently.

The divine beast Whitewater Hound had a very close relationship with his father. They had traveled together and even gone to the Northern Great Sea. The time they spent together was probably longer than the time his father and mother spent together. They could indeed be called brothers in life and death.

"Let's go." A small boat appeared under Ji Ning's feet, and Ji Yichuan also stepped onto the boat.

Whoosh.

The boat immediately rose into the air, quickly streaking across the sky and flying among the clouds.

...

The Yan Mountains had ten cities in total. Snowdragon Mountain occupied three of them. Just as the Ji clan occupied a Great Xia city and renamed it 'Ten Thousand Swords City', when Dong Ziqi first invaded the Yan Mountains, he renamed the city he occupied 'Snowdragon City' to announce to all sides that this was a branch of Snowdragon Mountain!

Even after occupying the other two cities, the core of the Yan Mountain branch remained in this Snowdragon City.

"Where are the others? Where are the others?"

High in the sky over Snowdragon City, three figures stood on a cloth curtain, looking into the distance at Dong Ziqi and Mu Si, who were riding a green leaf and flying over.

"What about the other three? Are they all dead?" The three figures asked anxiously. They were the other three Zifu Disciples of the Snowdragon Mountain Yan Mountain branch, from the Ju and Dong clans. Earlier, the Ju clan Zifu Disciple 'Ju Nianxiong' discovered that his nephew's life tablet had shattered, so he rushed to Snowdragon City. The two elders of the Dong clan were also shocked, knowing something must have gone wrong.

Unexpectedly, not only Ju San had died, but the He siblings had also died.

"Dead, all three junior fellow disciples are dead." Dong Ziqi gnashed his teeth. "It was all because the Ji clan set up a large array in advance and launched a surprise attack, catching us off guard. The three junior fellow disciples were surrounded and killed one by one. The He siblings were killed, and I'm afraid that piece of Subject Token was also taken."

The three cities were under the control of the Dong, He, and Ju clans respectively. One of the Subject Tokens was on the He siblings.

"The Ji clan is asking for death!" Ju Nianxiong's eyes were bloodshot.

Mu Si said coldly, "This time, when the world's vital energy fluctuated, we went to investigate and discovered a giant primal stone mine within the Ji clan's territory. Moreover, it was a mine with a large amount of high-grade primal stones. The entire mine was over four thousand miles in circumference and over three hundred miles deep."

"What!"

Ju Nianxiong and the two Dong elders were greatly startled.

"The Ji clan refused to hand it over, so there was a slaughter," Dong Ziqi said in a low voice.

The stooped elder among the two Dong elders shouted urgently, "Such a giant primal stone mine is urgently needed by the sect! Handing it over to the sect... is a great merit. The Ji clan dares to oppose our Snowdragon Mountain? Then destroy the Ji clan, exterminate the clan!!!"

"Of course we must exterminate the clan!" Dong Ziqi's eyes flashed coldly. "But now the biggest worry is that the Ji clan might sign a transfer contract with the Great Xia Dynasty."

"The Great Xia Dynasty?"

The two Dong elders and Ju Nianxiong were startled. If a contract was indeed signed, then Snowdragon Mountain would not dare to interfere. Provoke the Great Xia Dynasty? Seeking death?

"But the Ji clan must first report to the authorities and then wait for the Great Xia Dynasty's envoy to arrive. That will take at least three days. If we delay as much as possible, we can drag it out even longer." Dong Ziqi quickly said, "So we are pressed for time. We must invite other fellow disciples and have them come to the Yan Mountains as quickly as possible to destroy the Ji clan together."

"Mm." Everyone nodded.

The Ji clan had already killed three Zifu Disciples. They only had five left. If they fought, even if they won, most of them would probably die. No matter how great the merit, they needed to be alive to enjoy it.

"The four of you will go separately to invite fellow disciples from various branches of our Snowdragon Mountain." Dong Ziqi said, "I myself will go to Yan Mountain City to see the stationed general and try to delay as much as possible."

"Good." The four nodded.

"Invite several dozen fellow disciples. When several dozen fellow disciples join forces... it will be a crushing force. We can easily destroy the Ji clan." Dong Ziqi said, "With everyone working together, there is almost no danger, and we can share the merit. Those fellow disciples will definitely come."

"Good."

"Let's go now."

Soon, they planned the routes. The other four Zifu Disciples flew off in four directions to invite fellow disciples. Dong Ziqi headed to Yan Mountain City.

...

Serpentwing Lake was vast and boundless.

A boat descended rapidly from high altitude, landing directly at the other end of Brightheart Island, where his father lived. It was a very secluded residence with no servants, only a large snow-white dog lying there.

The Whitewater Hound suddenly looked up as the boat in the high sky descended rapidly.

"Uncle Bai." Ji Ning looked at the Whitewater Hound with considerable affection. First, he knew that Uncle Bai and his father had gone through life and death together, and he had saved his mother and himself. Second, when he practiced archery every day outside West Prefecture City, Uncle Bai had been there to protect him.

Watching his father and Uncle Bai reunite, although Uncle Bai could not speak yet, the master and servant could communicate telepathically, provided they were very close.

Ji Ning quietly left.

Soon.

Ji Ning returned to his residence and went to the meditation room used for cultivation. He directly closed the door tightly. Earlier, when flying over the Serpentwing Lake area, Ji Ning had already sensed the Water Mansion! As the black ox had said, once the talisman was refined, he could sense it in this area and could enter the Water Mansion at any time.

"In this battle, although my strength has greatly increased, it is still far from enough. I hope there is something in this ancient Water Mansion that can greatly increase my strength." Ji Ning looked forward to it eagerly.

"Enter." Ji Ning willed it, and immediately a phantom of a bear's head appeared in the meditation room. The huge phantom of the bear's head opened its mouth and directly swallowed Ji Ning.

Ji Ning disappeared from the meditation room.