Chapter 2 The Fifth Master

The sword light, blade light, and spear light shot out by thousands of magic treasures were like the combined strike of thousands of Qi Refining Xiantian cultivators! Yet Ji Ning had done it alone. If his soul had not reached the 'divine thought' level, he could not have divided his mind to control so many treasures and aimed them so precisely at one spot.

If Ji Ning had not been a Divine Demon Body Refiner with astonishing regenerative power, such a frenzied instant expulsion of all his true yuan would have torn his meridians apart completely, leaving him a cripple.

"Boom~~~"

The black-furred monster did not block or dodge at all. Instead, he opened his arms and closed his eyes. He was waiting, yearning...

A roar echoed through the corridor.

The black-furred monster collapsed like a toppling mountain, crashing down with a thunderous sound!

"Is he hurt?" Ji Ning gazed at the distance with intense hope.

At this moment, his body was broken, his meridians torn, and his Xiantian true yuan was completely exhausted.

"It must, it must..." Ji Ning hoped and yearned. Suddenly, the black-furred monster lying in the distance sat up, lowered his head, and looked at his chest. At that spot, the black fur had been torn open, revealing faintly red-tinged muscles and dark green blood. Threads of blood oozed from the wound, then quickly healed, leaving only dark green stains on the surface of the black fur.

Ji Ning's eyes bulged as he stared fixedly at the dark green bloodstains on the black-furred monster's chest.

Success!

Done!

He had survived!

"Father, Mother, I survived." Ji Ning's demonic divine body was rapidly recovering. Though he could not move, he forgot the pain, filled only with the wild joy of having escaped death.

"You hurt me, you wounded me." The black-furred monster sitting in the distance was stunned at first, then threw back his head and let out a frenzied howl, "Ao——"

The howl contained endless madness, sorrow, and release.

Ji Ning also managed to sit up, watching the black-furred monster howling from afar... This was a howl after eons of suppressed, endless loneliness and pain. It even stirred a trace of bitterness in Ji Ning's heart.

After a long time, the sound ceased.

The black-furred monster stood up, looked at Ji Ning, and said in a low, hoarse voice, "Thank you, my new master! Refine this immortal mansion as soon as possible, and we will meet again."

Whoosh!

Then the black-furred monster vanished into thin air.

...

Ji Ning soon stood up. The injuries to his meridians had healed. He also collected the thousands of magic treasures scattered on the ground into his storage treasure.

"I never thought I would pass the third trial by relying on these ungraded treasures," Ji Ning sighed with emotion. A Divine Demon Body Refiner at the Xiantian stage using thousands of treasures for a combined strike... he had never heard of such a thing, so he hadn't thought of it before.

Because such a feat could only be accomplished by a freak like Ji Ning, who was only at Xiantian but whose soul had already reached the 'divine thought' level.

Ji Ning had been visualizing the "Nuwa Diagram" since infancy. The "Nuwa Diagram" was among the top-tier visualization methods in the Heavenly Realm and the Underworld, let alone in the mortal world... Tribes like the Ji clan had no visualization methods at all. Ji Ning even believed that the best visualization methods in the land ruled by the Grand Xia Dynasty might not match the "Nuwa Diagram."

"Done."

"I have successfully passed this ordeal." Ji Ning looked around, glancing at the skeletal remains on the ground in the distance, and sighed, "Death leaves bones here; survival, according to the black-furred monster, makes me the new master."

Ji Ning did not rush forward. Instead, he sat down cross-legged to rest.

After nearly a full day, when his Xiantian true yuan had fully recovered, Ji Ning stood up and continued forward. He walked slowly along the winding corridor, carefully observing this ancient immortal mansion.

After a long time...

"Hmm?" Ji Ning saw an exit not far ahead, with faint pillars visible beyond.

"Arrived?" Ji Ning soon stepped out of the exit and gasped. This was an immensely vast hall, perhaps thousands of zhang high. Compared to such a hall, the hundred-zhang-high corridor beside it seemed tiny.

In the hall was a huge cushion, about a hundred zhang in diameter.

Below the hall...

Scattered about were hundreds of huge cushions.

"Such large cushions?" Many doubts arose in Ji Ning's mind. "Cushions are for sitting. A hundred-zhang-diameter cushion—what kind of giant would sit on it? And it seems a giant sat on the hall, with a group of giants below."

"The immortal mansion of Ju Hua the Immortal?" Ji Ning shook his head.

If an immortal were human, his height would be similar to an ordinary person's.

"Something's off." Ji Ning walked through the hall, examining it carefully. The hall was very plain, with no decorations besides the hundreds of cushions. Ancient stone pillars supported the hall, and on both sides were corridors, some a hundred zhang high, others a thousand zhang high.

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

"Can't enter?" Ji Ning found that he could not enter any corridor, including the one he had come from, as if an invisible barrier blocked him.

"The hall gate!" Ji Ning looked at the most majestic gate. Beyond it... was a vast expanse shrouded in mist, completely invisible.

Standing in this immensely towering hall, Ji Ning felt as small as an ant. He then walked to a cushion and sat down. At just over one meter seventy, sitting on a hundred-zhang-diameter cushion amused him.

"So comfortable."

On this cushion, Ji Ning felt his mind become clear and empty, his thinking quicker and sharper.

"Strange. I've passed all three trials and come to this hall. Now I can't leave through any of the corridors or the gate. I'm trapped here," Ji Ning thought. "Since the original master of this water mansion left the three trials, he should have made some preparations for future successors."

The black-furred monster had been teleported in and then teleported away instantly.

He himself had been teleported in... Clearly, someone or something was still controlling this water mansion.

...

Just as Ji Ning was pondering on the huge cushion, a black ox walked out of a thousand-zhang-high corridor on one side of the hall.

Ji Ning sensed something and turned his head. He saw the black ox, about several zhang long, walking slowly toward him. The ox's eyes were lively and curious, carefully observing Ji Ning.

"May I ask, senior, who you are?" Ji Ning spoke.

Any creature appearing in this ancient water mansion was likely extraordinary.

"Me?" The black ox shook its head. "Don't call me senior. I am merely the spirit of a magic treasure."

"Spirit of a magic treasure?" Ji Ning was stunned. "Can a magic treasure have a spirit?"

He had never heard of such a thing.

"I am the personal treasure of Ju Hua the Immortal," the black ox sighed. "Little child, don't overthink it. Even if my true form were before you, with your strength, you couldn't refine me."

Ji Ning nodded. He understood that a Qi Refining Xiantian could only refine ungraded treasures. Graded treasures varied in rank; the more powerful the treasure, the harder it was to refine.

"May I ask about the previous masters of this immortal mansion?" Ji Ning pressed.

"Dead, all dead," the black ox shook its head. "Dead for who knows how long."

Ji Ning nodded inwardly. So it was as he had thought.

"For so very long, over and over, many Divine Demon Body Refining Xiantian beings and Zifu cultivators were teleported in," the black ox sighed. "But none could pass. At most, they reached the third trial and died. I never expected that you, a little child with not particularly abundant divine power, would manage to pass. It's a miracle."

"Especially the third trial."

"Your soul is astonishingly strong, but that trick of yours isn't practical," the black ox said dismissively. "Thousands of treasures aimed at one direction—if the enemy dodges, you'd have to instantly control all of them to change aim again. It's very hard to actually hit the enemy."

Ji Ning nodded: "Yes."

"But that puppet was driven mad by endless loneliness and actively welcomed the attack," the black ox said. "So you passed."

"Puppet?" Ji Ning was surprised. "It was a puppet?"

He had seen puppets before. When he practiced swordsmanship, his father had even gotten a puppet as a sparring partner. But the black-furred monster had muscles, blood, and could talk—nothing like a puppet.

"Little child, your experience is too limited. There are many kinds of puppets. That one was just a soul implanted into a puppet," the black ox said. "With a soul implanted, it gains intelligence and can even achieve unity of heaven and man, and perform more exquisite sword techniques, blade techniques, fist techniques, etc. Its strength naturally multiplies."

Ji Ning nodded thoughtfully.

"Of course, the soul trapped inside the puppet can never enter reincarnation and suffers endless loneliness," the black ox said. "But your realm is not low. The lotus leaf you used earlier relied on your Taiyin divine pattern and Sun divine pattern. With those two patterns, the divine demon body refining technique you cultivate should be the strongest from the Divine Demon Era, the 'Red Bright Nine Heavens Diagram.' Given the thickness of your divine power, I estimate you've only reached the fourth level."

Ji Ning quickly said, "Senior has keen eyes."

"The 'Red Bright Nine Heavens Diagram' is a formidable technique," the black ox sighed. "To reach Xiantian, and only at the fourth level, you must have just broken through recently. You should be only about ten years old."

"Eleven," Ji Ning did not hide it.

"An eleven-year-old Xiantian being, cultivating the 'Red Bright Nine Heavens Diagram,' and at such a young age having grasped the true meaning of the Dao in swordsmanship," the black ox shook its head. "A genius like this would be carefully nurtured by the Grand Xia Dynasty. They wouldn't let you become a disciple of Ju Hua the Immortal."

Ji Ning's brow twitched.

"Actually, if you reached the sixth level, with the purity and abundance of your divine power and your grasp of the true meaning of the Dao, you could have passed the third trial. But this way is fine too—strong soul, high realm, limitless future," the black ox sighed. "But congratulations, you have become the fifth master of this place."