Desolate Era Book 3, Chapter 13 - Serpentwings Lair

Ji Ning stood on the surface of the water, staring at his surroundings.
Everything was silent. The only sound that could be heard was that of the wind blowing atop the surface of the lake, and the waves it created.
“Serpentwing is even more careful and cautious than I had expected. Not only does he remain within the depths, even when I, his most hated foe, appeared, he still doesn’t dare come attack me.” Ning frowned.
To draw Serpentwing out would be very hard!
Otherwise, the Five Prefectures of the Ji clan wouldn’t have been unable to do anything about Serpentwing. Ji Ning’s breakthrough to the Xiantian lifeform level was still a secret, with very few people aware of it. Serpentwing naturally didn’t know either. In the eyes of Serpentwing, Ning was perhaps just an eleven year old youth who had very powerful footwork techniques. He wasn’t a threat, but despite that, Serpentwing still managed to curb his impulse to attack.
“Huh?” Ning suddenly frowned.
Some heads were jutting up secretly from far away in the pond.
“Lesser monsters.” Out of nowhere, that greatbow Ning had retrieved from Ironwood Zhan suddenly appeared, along with four arrows. He quickly nocked his bow and fired.
Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!
The four arrows instantly pierced outwards, terrifying those lesser water monsters to hurriedly dive down. But how fast were Ning’s arrows? Immediately, a series of agonized howls could be heard, and even a large fish tail flapped on the surface of the water. Leaving behind only a pool of blood, the lesser monsters all hid themselves away.
“Serpentwing.” Holding his greatbow, Ning shouted, “I didn’t expect that you, a mighty Diremonster, would be forced to the state of only daring to have those lesser monsters appear. You really make me look down upon you!”
“Ji Ning.”
A deep, growling voice suddenly emerged from the depths of the lake.
Ning instantly felt a surge of joy in his heart. Serpentwing finally had spoken.
“Don’t even think that you can succeed in using these despicable measures. Do you think I don’t know that your father and the others are hiding nearby?” The growling voice emanated from the depths. “How could you, a little child of the Houtian level, possibly have come to throw your life away?”
“Hahaha, Houtian?” Ning laughed loudly. His body immediately began to be covered by a layer of hazy light, while he pointed at the surface of the lake. A sword light shot out from his fingernail, piercing straight into the depths of the lake. “Open up your serpentine eyes and take a good look!”
Swish!
The sword light tunneled through the depths of the lake, creating tremors.
“Huala…” Several kilometers away, a black figure raised his head up, staring in his direction with eyes filled with shock. “Xiantian? You are already Xiantian?”
“Dare you battle me?!” Ning shouted. “If you are worried that I have arranged an ambush, then you can pick any location in the lake or any island within this hundred-kilometer wide Serpentwing Lake! You and me, one on one. Dare you battle me?”
Serpentwing stared at the distant youth atop the water. He hesitated.
Even if Ji Yichuan and his men were lying in ambush, how many places could they possibly have prepared an ambush?
“You humans are incomparably crafty. Even if you, a youth, have reached the Xiantian level, how could the Ji clan possibly let you just die? There must be some scheme I don’t know about.” Serpentwing immediately sunk deep into the water while roaring angrily, “If you have any courage, come to the depths of the lake. I will definitely have a battle with you here. Above the water? I definitely won’t fall for your tricks!”
Ning, atop the water, cursed angrily, “As cowardly as a mouse!”
Swoosh!
Ning was so furious that he immediately turned and left, walking atop the waves and quickly arriving on the island in the center of Serpentwing Lake. He leapt directly atop the island.
“How can he be so cowardly.” Ning didn’t have any ideas either. He wasn’t so arrogant as to head directly into the bottom of the lake to do battle with a peak Xiantian aquatic Diremonster.
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At the bottom of the lake.
“Mighty King, mighty King, that human youth is on the island.” Several lesser monsters reported.
“He went to the island?” The black clothed man sat there, suppressing the fury in his heart.
“Father, Silvertip and the others are on the island.” Suddenly, a serpent called out in worry.
“Silvertip?”
The black clothed man was instantly shocked.
He remembered now. Ever since Poisondove Ridge and the Five Prefectures of the Ji clan had engaged in their negotiations, he had carefully remained beneath the water, not even daring to go to his lair on the island! But those children of his and those lesser monsters weren’t as cautious. They would occasionally head to the island. After all, in the past, that island was their true home.
“How many? How many of my children are on the island?” The black clothed man shouted angrily.
“It should just be Silvertip. But there are hundreds of lesser monsters there.” The serpent immediately reported.
The black clothed man’s face changed greatly when he heard this. “Immediately send some lesser monsters to inform Silvertip and have him immediately come back.”
“Yes.”
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Ning was a human, after all. When walking atop the water, he had to maintain his mind at the ‘one with the world’ level at all times. Since for now he had no way of forcing Serpentwing out, Ning headed directly to the island to take a rest.
“This island used to be Serpentwing’s lair in the past.” Ning glanced at the surroundings. “In the past thousand years, this place has always been the territory of monsters. Since I’m unable to have Serpentwing come out, then I might have a good look at this island!”
Ning slowly walked about.
Each step, however, was like the wind, as graceful and as fast as gentle smoke. He wandered about the muddy beaches of the island. The island had an area of roughly twenty kilometers. It wasn’t a small one. There were some hills and creeks in the island.
“Growl….” From afar, a millstone-sized crimson crab was currently waving its big metal pincers, staring at Ning.
“Lesser water monsters.” Ning kicked a rock, which with a ‘Swoosh!’ shot out. Then, with a clang, it struck on the crab monster’s shell, causing it to flip around multiple times before it came to a halt and stopped moving. When Ning left, the giant crab flipped over yet again, hurriedly charging back down into the depths of the lake.
This used to be Serpentwing’s lair was in the past, after all. Even though Serpentwing currently wasn’t here, there were still quite a few lesser aquatic monsters who lived on this island. When they saw Ning, these lesser monsters wanted to attack him. The weaker monsters were taught a lesson by Ning, while when dealing with the peak Houtian monsters, Ning showed no mercy at all.
“Huh?” Ning suddenly turned and looked into the distance. From afar, there was a great cavern entrance, from which a large silver serpent suddenly emerged. By the side of this silver serpent were a number of lesser water monsters that were many meters wide.
None of those lesser monsters were physically small.
Most likely, all of them were peak Houtian.
“Swoosh!” Ning moved, instantly charged forwards.
“Hurry and leave.”
“Leave.”
“That human youth should be a Xiantian lifeform.” These peak Houtian lesser monsters all growled to each other. None of them attacked Ning. Rather, they all scattered in every direction, towards the distant waters of the lake.
That greatbow and four arrows appeared in Ning’s hands, and he once more pulled his arrow.
After firing those four arrows, he fired four more!
Hua! Hua! Hua! One arrow after another shot out.
Instantly, the ten physically largest Houtian lesser water monsters were all killed. Some of the smaller, weaker monsters were able to escape into the water.
“Ji Ning, you killed yet another one of my sons. I will definitely kill you, definitely kill you!” An enraged growl echoed from the depths of the lake, causing Ning, who had been preparing to enter the lair entrance, to be astonished.
“Killed another son? How many children does this old monster have?”
Ning curiously swept the surrounding area with a glance. There were three Houtian-level snake-type aquatic monsters that he had killed with his arrows. Which one was Serpentwing’s child? Ning didn’t know that the old monster, Serpentwing, originally had 92 children, only many had been eaten by other monsters or killed by humans, with only sixteen surviving.
Two more of those were then killed by Ning.
However, to Serpentwing…the one he was the most devoted to was still Redtip, the one which had Fiendgod heritage.
“Old monster Serpentwing, all you can do is shout out verbally. Does this lair of yours have any more children within it? I’m going to go in and kill them.” Ning called out as he entered the lair.
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This lair was a place where Serpentwing had lived for a thousand years. It was dark inside, with twisting paths.
Ning moved forward, his Darknorth swords at the ready.
Within the lair, he repeatedly encountered some aquatic monsters who charged at him. Some were ferocious, others were bizarre. As soon as they saw this human youth, it was as though they had seen a delicacy which they all wanted to devour. For some of the extremely weak lesser monsters, Ning would just knock them flying…whether they died as a result or just fainted, he didn’t bother with them further.
But Ning still exterminated all of the peak Houtian aquatic monsters.
“This lair truly is infathomably deep.” Ning continued going deeper into the twisting tunnels of the lair. Suddenly, within the dark tunnels, a blurry, enormous beast shadow appeared in the shape of the head of a giant grizzly. This enormous shadow of a grizzly head seemed to open its mouth wide, trapping Ning within.
Ning’s face changed dramatically.
At the same time, he discovered that he was now completely incapable of movement. He could neither advance, nor retreat.
“This, this…is a relic site!” Ning instantly thought of this term.
In the boundless world, from the Fiendgod era to the modern era, countless numbers of experts had existed throughout the countless years. There were thus an uncountable number of Fiendgod relic sites and Immortal mansion relic sites throughout the land. Since humankind was spread across the entire world, people would often accidentally enter some ancient Fiendgod relic sites, some of whom would be able to gain some benefits from these places.
Most, however, died within these Immortal relic sites and Fiendgod relic sites. In just the books which Ning had read, there were many famous ancient relic sites that had devoured countless creatures.
“I actually encountered a relic site. Live. I will definitely make it out alive. Definitely!” Ning’s eyes were filled with incomparable desire. He understood that in the face of these ancient relic sites of great powers and Fiendgods, he, a mere Xiantian, had no chance to fight back at all. His only choice was to submit to it, and then later try to come up with a way to escape.
The enormous shadow of a grizzly bear head swallowed Ning with one gulp.
The shadow vanished.
Ning vanished as well.
The tunnels within Serpentwing’s lair remained as calm and peaceful as ever, as though nothing had happened.