Chapter 14 Blood-Debt Deep as the Sea

Ripples of space stirred above the wasteland, and then two immortals appeared—the hunchbacked Tuoshan Celestial Immortal leaning on his wooden staff, and the black-robed, black-haired Diancai Celestial Immortal.

"It's just ahead."

"But there's a formation covering it."

As soon as Tuoshan Celestial Immortal and Diancai Celestial Immortal appeared, they released their mind-sense, enveloping the surrounding tens of thousands of li, and naturally discovered that great formation. The formation pre-arranged by the four celestial immortals of Shaoyan Clan was not meant to guard their lair, so naturally they would not pay a high price. These formations only served to trap enemies, confuse them, isolate fluctuations, and prevent enemies from tearing through the void to escape—they could not block the mind-sense probing of celestial immortals.

"Ji Ning!" As soon as their mind-sense checked, they were greatly alarmed.

Inside the formation, Ji Ning, with three heads and six arms, was being besieged by four celestial immortals attacking together.

Xuanji Ancestor cast the Zhou Tian Starlight, affecting Ji Ning again and again.

Jinzhong Ancestor wielded that pure yang top-grade divine bell, trying to draw Ji Ning inside and suppress him.

Chixin Ancestor, meanwhile, struck with the full force of a small frozen world, beating Ji Ning until he had no power to resist. This was the true level of a top-tier celestial immortal.

Kumu Ancestor controlled countless vines, trying to bind Ji Ning.

Even with the Eighty-Nine Arcane Art, Ji Ning was forced to rely on splitting his body and self-detonating his flesh to barely hold on.

"Break the formation quickly," Tuoshan Celestial Immortal urged. "Diancai, this formation isn't strong against external force. Let's join forces and break it by force."

"Alright." Diancai Celestial Immortal was also anxious.

"Go."

Diancai Celestial Immortal pointed from afar, and instantly five immortal swords appeared out of thin air, streaking across the sky, already flashing with five colors in midair. On each immortal sword appeared the shadow of a great mountain, and then the shadows of these five mountains merged completely into a five-finger mountain! The five-finger mountain had five peaks, colored in five hues, carrying an aura of annihilation.

The Five Elements Sword Art—Lesser Five Elements Annihilation!

"Move mountains!" Tuoshan Celestial Immortal also let out a low roar.

Nine great seals appeared out of thin air, and as they flew at high speed, they transformed directly into nine great mountains. Some of these nine mountains were steep, some low, some towering. Unlike Diancai Celestial Immortal's sword strike, these nine mountains were true manifestations of peaks.

Moreover, around the nine peaks appeared the shadows of mountains, a total of eighty-one mountain shadows.

As if a host of mountains pressed down.

Tuoshan Celestial Immortal was called 'Tuoshan' because his famous art was the 'Tuoshan' technique.

...

The five-finger mountain sword-light carried the intent of annihilation; the nine peaks, bearing the weight of eighty-one mountains, crushed down by force.

The two combined.

Where they passed, the formation laid by the four celestial immortals shattered layer by layer, and even the wasteland earth split open with countless cracks.

Neither of them was ordinary.

Diancai Celestial Immortal had become a celestial immortal after surviving the Six-Nine Tribulation; his sword art 'Lesser Five Elements Annihilation' was even a cut above Ji Ning's in swordsmanship! Moreover, he had five top-grade immortal flying swords. With the Fourfold Great Thousand Sword Formation, Ji Ning's swordsmanship was probably only on par with his master's, but Diancai Celestial Immortal had celestial immortal magic power—naturally far stronger.

Tuoshan Celestial Immortal was also on the same level as Kumu Ancestor and Jinzhong Ancestor, and also stronger than Ji Ning.

The two joined forces!

Naturally, they shattered the formation directly.

"Not good."

"The formation is broken."

"The ones coming are Tuoshan of Beishan Clan and Diancai Celestial Immortal of the Black-White College." Xuanji Ancestor sent a hurried telepathic message.

"Chixin, what do we do now?" Jinzhong Ancestor also sent an anxious telepathic message.

"Damn it." Chixin Ancestor's face was ugly. He looked at Ji Ning, who was repeatedly fleeing among the countless vines, struggling to buy time, and grew even more unwilling. Although Ji Ning cultivated the Eighty-Nine Arcane Art, his foundation was too weak; he had already determined that with the four celestial immortals joining forces, given a little more time, they could suppress Ji Ning into the divine bell!

Once suppressed inside the pure yang top-grade magic treasure divine bell, not to mention Ji Ning, even a true immortal or heavenly god could not escape.

Of course, true immortals and heavenly gods would not be foolish enough to be suppressed inside.

"Rumble~~~"

The sword-light of the five-finger mountain swept all before it.

The nine great mountains, carrying layers of mountain shadows, crushed forward.

Nothing could stop them.

"Damn, damn, damn!" Chixin Ancestor was both anxious and furious. How close they had been to success! But he understood that once Tuoshan Celestial Immortal and Diancai Celestial Immortal appeared, they no longer had the certainty to suppress Ji Ning. After all, Ji Ning had the Eighty-Nine Arcane Art; they could not kill him, only suppress him.

But now there was no time for suppression.

"Let's go!" Chixin Ancestor sent a telepathic message. "We're leaving."

"Really..."

Jinzhong Ancestor and Kumu Ancestor were also unwilling.

"If we had waited a little longer, Ji Ning would have been finished." Xuanji Ancestor was also extremely regretful.

"Chixin Celestial Immortal, this is the territory of Anchan Commandery. Your Shaoyan Clan has too little regard for my Beishan Clan." The rumbling voice, amplified by celestial immortal magic power, instantly resounded everywhere. The hunchbacked old man leaning on his staff and the black-robed, black-haired man had already come side by side.

"Hmph."

The four celestial immortals of Shaoyan Clan did not bother to say more; they immediately turned into streaks of light and departed swiftly, then vanished in the distance in midair.

They left with extreme decisiveness.

"Ji Ning." Tuoshan Celestial Immortal and Diancai Celestial Immortal flew over.

"Senior Tuoshan, Master." Ji Ning went to meet them.

"What happened? Four celestial immortals of Shaoyan Clan besieging you?" Diancai Celestial Immortal was extremely worried. Tuoshan Celestial Immortal, meanwhile, was secretly shocked—the strength of four celestial immortals was formidable; in theory, a weaker celestial immortal would have been killed instantly, yet Ji Ning had managed to hold on until now.

"They've long seen me as a thorn in their side. This time they lay in ambush here waiting for my junior apprentice-brother Mu Zishuo, waiting for me." Ji Ning's heart was full of guilt.

Junior apprentice-brother...

The soul of his junior apprentice-brother's most important Dao-companion had been shattered. Ji Ning didn't even know what his junior apprentice-brother was thinking at this moment. His junior apprentice-brother was purely caught up in this because of him.

"If I had known, back then when my junior apprentice-brother was unwilling, I would have forcibly taken him to Yanshan." Ji Ning regretted deeply. Earlier, because his junior apprentice-brother was attached to this place, he had refused to listen to Ji Ning. And at that time, Ji Ning thought no one knew Mu Zishuo had returned here, and he had left the Yixian puppet, so he hadn't forced his junior apprentice-brother.

"My junior apprentice-brother just came back—how did Shaoyan Clan find out?" Ji Ning thought secretly.

"Ji Ning, you said your junior apprentice-brother?" Diancai Celestial Immortal asked quickly.

"Yes, Mu Zishuo." Ji Ning nodded.

"You found him?" Diancai Celestial Immortal was surprised.

"Found him. Let's go back first, not stay here." Ji Ning looked around; even the wooden house his junior apprentice-brother had built was shattered in the battle. The great battle earlier had been too frenzied.

...

Ji Ning, Diancai Celestial Immortal, and Tuoshan Celestial Immortal first returned to Anchan City and discussed the details of the matter. Diancai Celestial Immortal said, "According to what you said, the assassination by Bloodcloud Hall last time was likely instigated by Shaoyan Clan, and now Shaoyan Clan has acted personally. I'm afraid they won't let it go."

"Right, Ji Ning. With your current strength, you can't withstand Shaoyan Clan. You have to endure a little longer. Once you become a celestial immortal, you'll have a much better chance." Tuoshan Celestial Immortal also advised.

Ji Ning was filled with hatred.

Endure?

How much longer must he endure?

Back then, his mother bore a blood-debt deep as the sea but never told him that the enemy was 'Shaoyan Clan,' because in his mother's eyes, her son was more important than revenge. And his mother was also afraid—Shaoyan Clan was too powerful; she dared not imagine her son could defeat this ancient clan that ranked among the top ten in the entire Grand Xia world.

Back then, when Shaoyan Clan frantically pursued and even besieged the Ji clan at Yanshan, Ji Ning endured!

Back then, when he was assassinated in the Grand Xia imperial capital, Ji Ning still endured!

He had never retaliated.

Even this time, returning from Mount Fangcun, Ji Ning still endured, because facing Shaoyan Clan, he had no certainty. The strength of Anchan Beishan Clan alone was so great—what about Shaoyan Clan? The four celestial immortal ancestors who appeared today were already terrifying enough; this probably wasn't all of Shaoyan Clan's power.

...

Yanshan.

Ji Ning returned to Yanshan and only then released his junior apprentice-brother.

"Shaoyan Clan, Shaoyan Clan, Shaoyan Clan." From inside a house came bursts of frantic, anguished shouts, making the maids and servants who heard from afar tremble in fear. A great formation had been set up around this house, making it impossible for Mu Zishuo to escape.

Ji Ning stood on the veranda, listening to the anguished shouts from inside the house.

Ji Ning passed through the formation, walked to the door, and pushed it open.

Inside.

With disheveled hair, even more white hairs among them, Mu Zishuo knelt like a madman, looking up at Ji Ning.

"Senior apprentice-brother." Mu Zishuo's face twisted in pain, his eyes bloodshot, and he rasped, "I want revenge, I want revenge! I want to kill Shaoyan Clan, kill them all, wipe them out. They destroyed everything I had; I want to destroy them. Destroy them! Senior apprentice-brother, let me go."

"It's senior apprentice-brother who wronged you." Ji Ning walked to his junior apprentice-brother's side and also knelt, taking his hand.

His junior apprentice-brother's hand was trembling constantly.

Ji Ning was full of guilt.

Purely because of his own enmity with Shaoyan Clan, he had dragged his junior apprentice-brother into it.

"It's not senior apprentice-brother's fault; it's Shaoyan Clan." Mu Zishuo said hoarsely. "I want to go take revenge, kill them, kill as many as I can. Senior apprentice-brother, why won't you let me go? Why?"

"Wait, wait a few more days." Ji Ning said in a low voice.

"Still wait?" Mu Zishuo's eyes were full of madness.

"Junior apprentice-brother, do you think I don't want to destroy Shaoyan Clan?" Ji Ning's whole body trembled slightly. "I've endured for so many years. How I want to take revenge... Not only me, but also my mother, my uncle, my cousin... they are all great enemies. I said, wait a few more days, prepare thoroughly, and I will definitely attack Shaoyan Clan's lair."

"How long?" Mu Zishuo stared at Ji Ning.

"Soon, soon." Ji Ning comforted him.

Suddenly Ji Ning stood up, turned his head and looked into the distance to the south, as if his gaze could pierce the distance and see the Grand Xia imperial capital. At this moment, in the imperial palace of the Grand Xia imperial capital, the silver-haired man 'Tianhu' had crushed the letter talisman Ji Ning had given him.

Mu Zishuo saw Ji Ning suddenly stand up and couldn't help looking up at him.

"The opportunity has come." Ji Ning said softly. "I'll go to the Grand Xia imperial capital first. After that... it will be time for Shaoyan Clan to repay their blood debt."