The Desolate Era

Chapter 4 – Empyrean God Tribulation

“I heard that the Empyrean Tribulation is very dangerous.” Brightmoon was very worried. Her two hands were clenched tightly in front of her chest.

Ji Ning bent downwards, gently taking his daughter into his arms. He looked at her face, then smiled. “Brightmoon, don’t worry. The Empyrean Tribulation might be dangerous to others, but to me, your father…it’s really nothing.”

“Really?” Brightmoon hesitated.

“Really. You have to trust Father,” Ning said.

“Alright.” Brightmoon reached out with her little hands to hug Ning’s head. “Father, Mother’s gone. I don’t want you to leave me too.”

Ning felt his heart ache.

Brightmoon was still very young. Yu Wei’s death had an enormous impact on her.

“Father will never, ever leave you, Brightmoon.” Ning held his daughter in his arms, then whispered to her, “Father will always protect you.”

This was Ning’s promise to his daughter!

That night, Brightmoon slept by Ning’s side. She was afraid that Ning was leave her and go take on the Empyrean Tribulation by himself, and she insisted on personally watching him undergo it. Only then would she feel at ease.

“Time to get up.” Ning tweaked his slumbering daughter’s little nose.

“Ungh…” Brightmoon struggled to opeher eyes, then gazed blankly at her surroundings for a moment. Clearly, she hadn’t fully woken up yet, but upon seeing Ning she couldn’t help but reach out to hug him.

“Time to get up. It’s already bright outside.” Ning gave his daughter a little kiss on the face.

“Oh.” Brightmoon rubbed her eyes, then sat up and looked towards the outside. It was early dawn right now, and the skies were slowly brightening. “Ah?! Father, you are going to undergo your Empyrean Tribulation today.”

“Right…so hurry up and get up.”

Outside the room.

The Whitewater Hound and Little Qing had been waiting here for some time now. Upon hearing the playful voices coming from within the room, they couldn’t help but reveal smiles.

“These days, Master only ever laughs when he’s with little Brightmoon,” Little Qing said.

“He’s redirected all the love he felt towards Yu Wei and his parents to that little girl.” The Whitewater Hound let out a sigh. “Fortunately, Yu Wei gave birth before it all happened. Otherwise…I really can’t imagine what my son Ning would be like right now, after suffering such heavy blows.”

Creaaaak.

The door to the room swung open.

A handsome, slender white-robed youth walked out, leading an adorable little girl by the hand. The handsome youth looked young, but his calm, sea-deep eyes seemed to hold infinity within them. Everyone understood that he was no longer young. His heart, in particularly…would no longer be young again.

“Let’s go,” Ning said.

“Right.” Uncle White and Little Qing followed behind Ning. Right after they emerged from the courtyard, they saw Bluecliff Xiaoyu waiting outside.

“Master,” Xiaoyu called out respectfully.

Holding his daughter Brightmoon’s hand, Ning led Uncle White, Little Qing, and Xiaoyu out of Mount Innerheart. He then used a spatial teleportation to arrive at a vast, desolate area within the Crescent world.

A large group of people had already gathered in this location.

“Junior apprentice-brother.”

“Ji Ning.”

“Young master.”

Redsnow and the rest of the seven Empyrean Gods, Silvermoon, Lord Jiang, Crazy Ji, and the others had all arrived. They had even brought their disciples and grand-disciples with them.

After landing, Ning waved his hand. Autumn Leaf, Mu Northson, and several others suddenly appeared next to him.

“Junior apprentice-brother, you have to be careful. Although the Empyrean Tribulation won’t be too hard for you, it’s still good to be careful,” Crazy Ji instructed.

“Don’t worry at all, second apprentice-brother.” Ning nodded, then walked by himself to a nearby location. He only took three steps, but moved a total of three thousand meters away.

Then…he just silently stood there.

Boom!

His [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens] energy had been forcibly barred at the seventeenth stage for a long time now. It was ready to break through at any moment…and now, it broke through the final bottleneck to enter the eighteenth stage! At the same time, Ning’s true body also broke through to the peak of the Void level as a Ki Refiner!

As he simultaneously broke through in both aspects, the Heavenly Daos immediately began to activate and take effect.

A short while later…a wind began to arise around him.

“His tribulation has started.”

“Master really is quite straightforward. As soon as he arrived, he immediately initiated his tribulation.”

“Junior apprentice-brother is formidable and has experienced extraordinary things. His Empyrean Tribulation will most likely be similarly extraordinary.”

The crowd watched from far away with nervousness, especially Brightmoon. Her two little hands were so tightly clenched that her nails were white. She chewed on her lips as she stared at Ning. She was afraid…afraid that her father would disappear as well.

Far away, in the distant wilderness, stood an old man and a woodcutter.

Nobody was able to detect their presence. Not even Crazy Ji noticed them.

“Tell me…do you think your junior apprentice-brother will succeed?” Subhuti asked.

“The Empyrean Tribulation? No question about it. The only question in my mind is, during his nine nine-sets of thunder tribulation, will the ‘Pure Yang Goldlight Thunder’ appear?” The woodcutter chuckled.

“Pure Yang Goldlight Thunder? Hrm…it has indeed been a long, long time since it last appeared. From the Primordial Era to the modern day, the number of times it has appeared has been pitifully low. If it does appear…although it will pose a major threat, it’ll also allow your junior apprentice-brother to possess an even more perfect Empyrean God body,” Subhuti said.

Wind. Fire. Thunder. These three tribulations served to temper the body!

Ki Refiners generally would gain a Celestial Immortal body when they succeeded.

As for Fiendgod Body Refiners, their Empyrean Tribulations would generally be much more powerful than the ones the Ki Refiners faced. When they succeeded, however, they would gain the body of an Empyrean God!

The more powerful the Empyrean Tribulation, the more perfect an Empyrean God body one would possess.

There were differences in power amongst Empyrean Gods as well, after all. For some weak Empyrean Gods, countless eons would needed for their bodies to train to the peak of power. The quality of an Empyrean God body was one of the factors that determined if one would be able to become a True God or not.

Rumble…

A wild wind began to howl as countless wind-blades swirled together into an enormous vortex, with Ji Ning standing at the very heart of it.

“Terrifying.”

“The wind tribulation alone is even more terrifying than the nine nine-sets of thunder tribulation which his Primaltwin endured.” The distant viewers had strange looks on their faces. The power of this wind was simply too terrifying.

Even for Ning, his Ki Refiner techniques were useless right now. He was completely relying on the Sixth Cycle of his [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] to defend.

He stood there in the the center of the wind vortex, staring at the skies in a very calm manner.

Whoosh…

The final burst of invisible Empyrean God Wind arrived, entering through his head and spreading out throughout his body, causing every single part of it to shudder. His heart, however, was as calm as water. He wasn’t moved even slightly. While shuddering and trembling, Ning’s divine body began to soundlessly evolve. This evolution wasn’t particularly noteworthy, however; only when the thunder tribulation ended would his body truly undergo a qualitative change.

“The wind tribulation is over.” Ning raised his head to look at the sky as he murmured softly to himself.

An enormous, scorchingly hot cloud had appeared in the air above him. This spinning cloud was covered with a layer of golden flame that was visible to the naked eye. As the cloud descended, the temperature in the surrounding area began to drastically rise.

“Activate.” The distant Crazy Ji immediately waved the ragged fan he was holding, and a blurry azure light arose to surround the spectators, protecting all of them.

Everything in the wilderness around Ning, however, was instantly charred. In fact, everything began to transform into dust as the cloud of fire continued to descend. The ground itself began to disappear beneath Ning, who simply stood there in the air, staring at the cloud.

Whoosh…the flames descended upon Ning, who still didn’t do anything to fight back.

All tribulations started weak and grew progressively more powerful; the same was true for the fire tribulation. If the Sixth Cycle of the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] was unable to endure the tribulation, Ning would then move to fight back. The fire tribulation, however…Ning felt confident that it wasn’t capable of forcing him to defend himself.

The flames blazed about him, quickly reaching to the truefire level. One type of truefire after another appeared, including even Solar Truefire. But Ning simply continued to stand there, not caring at all.

Finally, the cloud of fire dispersed.

BOOM!

Ning suddenly seemed to transform into a burning man as a fiery light suddenly engulfed his entire body.

“Ah!” Brightmoon, watching from far away, was so terrified that her face turned ashen.

“It’s fine. This is Empyrean God Fire. There’s no way to block it; all you can do is endure it. Although it’s far, far more powerful than Celestial Immortal Fire,” the nearby Little Qing explained, “Your father’s Dao-heart is formidable. He isn’t afraid of this fire.”

Indeed, Ning quickly returned to normal.

Time flowed on. Soon, the skies themselves began to gather power within them.

Empyrean God Redsnow, Silvermoon, and the other distant spectators all turned solemn. The wind tribulation and fire tribulation had been extremely easy for Ning. Given that his heartforce had reached the fourth stage, even the demonheart tribulation would most likely be quite easy. Fourth stage heartforce made him an incredible figure of the Three Realms; there was no way he would succumb to the demonheart tribulation.

The only potential threat to him was actually the thunder tribulation…which would also serve as the most important part of the tempering of his Empyrean God body!

“I wonder how powerful the first bolt of junior apprentice-brother Ji Ning’s nine nine-sets will be.”

They all watched nervously. It was absolutely guaranteed that Ji Ning would undergo the full nine nine-sets. The more powerful the first thunderbolt was, the more terrifying the final, eighty-first thunderbolt would be.

“The sky went dark!” Brightmoon suddenly called out nervously.

Everyone, Ji Ning included, raised their heads to stare at the sky.

Right.

The entire sky had turned pitch-black, as far as the naked eye could see. The seemingly infinitely large stormclouds had covered this entire region, and their overwhelming power was simply shocking to behold. As for Ning…he still just stared calmly towards the skies. Now, however, a pair of divine swords had appeared within his hands.