Desolate Era

by RWX

  “Rumble.” After opening the gate between the cage and the beast tunnels, a faint, glimmering light could be seen from afar. The giant red snake instantly looked over and began to let out a growling sound.

  “Release the chains.” The one-armed elder ordered.

  “Clank.”

  “Clank.”

  One chain after another was released. Feeling the layers of chains on its body quickly loosen, the giant red snake couldn’t help but begin to wriggle, making the chains rattle against each other. After the last one was released…with a clanking sound, the entire chain apparatus fell to the floor with a loud sound.

  The giant red snake stared coldly at the one-armed elder, and then slithered its way at high speed out of the tunnel towards the place which had just been opened to it. It quickly arrived in the cage outside.

  Within the enormous cage…

  A red-lipped, white-toothed, fur-clad young man was staring at it from afar. The giant red snake’s saliva instantly began to drool out. Given the extensive man-eating experience it had, it had the sudden knowledge…that this sort of human youngster’s flesh was definitely the most tender and most delicious of them all.

  * * *

  Book 2, Chapter 2 - Mercy

  Ning stared at the distant giant red snake and he softly murmured, “The entire body is blood red, but the scales around the chest are bright silver, and a pair of red eyes…oh, and it has two claws as well?”

  “Slitherslitherslither…” The giant red snake slowly began to move. Its enormous serpentine head raised high as it stared at Ning. Its natural-born arrogance caused it to hold the human youth in front of it in no regard at all. According to its experience, those people in the tribes like this youth were all very weak. Even though this was the lair of the Ji clan, this sort of youth shouldn’t be that strong.

  Ning let out a light harrumph.

  The air in his chest came out as he breathed, shaping into two streams of energy that were visible to the naked eye. His entire body turned slightly red, and a powerful aura began to emanate from him. The distant giant red snake was startled. He could suddenly sense this young man in front of him had a terrifying aura that was no weaker than its own.

  “Recently, I haven’t had a lot of practice with the [Raindrop Sutra]. I’ll use you to train it.” Ning suddenly moved forward by several dozen meters, the sharp sword in his hand stabbing out at the giant scarlet snake at lightning speed.

  The giant scarlet snake sent its two massive sharp claws at its thorax directly towards Ning in an arcing slash.

  “Shua! Shua! Shua!” Sword flashing hundreds of times like a fog of light, one stab after another was delivered towards the giant red snake. The giant red snake only dodged three sword attacks aimed at its vitals, taking the rest of the attacks head on. Only a few white spots appeared on its scales. This caused the giant red snake to unconsciously underestimate the strength of this young human by a bit.

  “Wu…..”

  A strange rumble sound. It was the sound of Ning’s sharp sword slashing through the air, instantly slashing towards the giant red snake’s chest, suddenly creating a two meter long massive wound. The scales split open, and the muscles beneath were torn apart, and fresh red blood instantly spewed out.

  “Roaaar!” The giant red snake was instantly shocked. How was it that the youth in front of him had suddenly become so powerful?

  …..

  Ning was no longer the callow youth who had battled against the Howling Moonwolf. His constant battles against monstrous beasts had given him much experience. Right now, he was actually only using half of his strength, but because the [Shadewind Steps] and the [Raindrop Sutra] all were quite exquisite in the application of force, he still wasn’t at any disadvantage.

  First, Ning utilized a chain of attacks, ‘Drizzling Rain’, but against this giant red snake, it proved useless.

  Then, Ning used the vicious, powerful killing attack, ‘Rain Line’, which was the technique Ning used to leave that massive, large wound on the giant red snake.

  Next, Ning used the penetrating ‘Raindrop Pierces Rocks’ attack.

  Following that, Ning blocked the wild attacks of the giant red snake by using the technique, ‘Thin Streams Flow Forever’.

  The [Raindrop Sutra] had a total of nine stances.

  These stances were, ‘Drizzling Rain’, ‘Tempest Curtain’, ‘Thin Streams Flow Forever’, ‘Watertight’, ‘Rain Line’, ‘Eternally Fresh Waterflow’, ‘Merciless Waterflow’, and ‘Raindrop Pierces Rocks’!

  Some were attack stances, some were defensive stances.

  Even the attack stances, however, included defensive components. The profoundness of this technique constantly caused Ning to sigh in amazement and be mesmerized. After all, he hadn’t even reached the level of ‘expertise’ in this technique, and although his own father, Yichuan, had reached the level of ‘mastery’ long ago, his father was still studying the [Raindrop Sutra], because the more one reflected on the [Raindrop Sutra], the more one realized how boundless its scope was.

  “This technique, ‘Thin Unending Waterflow’, should be an unrestrained, free-willed attack.” Under the attacks of this monstrous beast with Fiendgod lineage, Ning occasionally had some insights with regards to his sword techniques.

  But the giant red snake, by contrast, was growing furious!

  It could tell that this human youth was using it to train in swordplay. Although there were many wounds on its body already, none of them were lethal. But the youth in front of him had only suffered a few light wounds…which instantly healed in the blink of an eye. The youth in front of it was so terrifying that its heart quailed, while at the same time, it felt fear that it was going to die at the hands of this human youth.

  But even if it was going to die, its inborn arrogance and pride wouldn’t allow it to be toyed with to death.

  “Roaaaaar.” The giant red snake suddenly let out a wild, earthshaking howl, filled with rage, unwillingness, and carried with it the knowledge of its death.

  …..

  The howl split the air.

  In the air above the inner reaches of the Ji clan, there were many clouds. Within one of the clouds was the black Winged Snake.

  “Roaaaar.”

  By the time this howl made it to the heavens, it was very weak, but Serpentwing was an extremely sensitive Diremonster. In addition, the roar was the familiar voice of its child.

  “It is Redtip! My son!” Serpentwing was instantly certain of this. It had been searching around the inner city the entire time, and from kilometers away, its gaze had clearly made out the building known as the Cage. But because of the fog and because of all the steel chains above the cage, it simply couldn’t tell what the Cage actually was.

  But just at that moment…

  Upon hearing the sound, it immediately knew that the sound was coming from that cage area!

  “There it is!” Serpentwing immediately charged down, its body still wrapped by clouds and fogs, shrouding it from view.

  ….

  Within the cage.

  Ning, hearing the grief-stricken, enraged howl of the giant red snake, knew how the giant red snake was feeling. Immediately, a sharp sword appeared in his left hand as well. “Since you beg for death, then die!”

  Shua!

  Ning suddenly transformed into a tempest and charged at the giant red snake.

  Sword light flashed!

  [Thunderflame Sword] – Thunderflash Flint! Blazing Thunderclap!

  [Raindrop Sutra] – Merciless Waterflow! Raindrop Pierces Rocks!

  Shua!

  The red eyes in the upraised head of the giant red snake slowly dimmed. There was a deep hole in its head now, which had pierced straight through its skull. And then, its massive body collapsed to the ground like a pile of mud, causing the earth to shake. Fresh blood flowed outwards, staining the ground in a river of red blood.

  “Mm.” Ning looked at the corpse of the massive red snake, then inspected its wound
.

  He was studying how effective his killing blow had been.

  “Blazing Thunderclap truly is a powerful attack. It actually drilled such a massive hole into the snake’s chest. It almost split the snake in half.” Ning nodded as he continued to inspect the damage. “Merciless Waterflow and Thunderflash Flint can both be described in one word; fast! Merciless Waterflow is both fast and agilely unpredictable, while Thunderflash Flint is fast and explosive.”

  “Raindrop Pierces Rocks has good penetrative ability. It was easily able to pierce through this snake’s skull.” Ning nodded.

  In the air above the cage, a massive creature was descending through the clouds. Compare to Serpentwing, his child, Redtrip, was nothing more than a tadpole! Serpentwing’s scarlet eyes could already see through the chains of the cage to the scene below. It saw the desolate, miserable sight of the blood-splattered serpent corpse lying on the soft earth, and as it saw this, it felt a terrible fire suddenly fill its consciousness.

  “My child!”

  Serpentwing had gone totally mad. “Human, pay for my child’s death!”

  Bang!

  The powerful energy vibrations coming from above the cage made Ning raise his head to take a look.

  “What?!” Ning immediately saw that hundreds of meters away, within the clouds, an enormous serpent with barely visible pair of giant wings was staring at him. The creature was currently charging downwards at him…its wingspan alone was larger than the entire cage.

  The red-eyed snake’s eyes were filled with boundless killing intent. Ning was shocked, and he understood…that the creature charging down from above was here to kill him!

  “Not good. Flee!”

  Ning turned his head and immediately wanted to flee!

  But just as he wanted to flee, he realized that the corridor he had come through had been shut. Generally speaking, during cage battles, they would always be shut, to prevent someone from fleeing before the battle was over! Only after obtaining victory would Ning order people to open the tunnel…but he just killed the giant red snake moments ago, and hadn’t had the chance to give the order yet.

  In addition, as he had started the cage battle, he had forbidden others from watching him. Generally speaking, only his father watched.

  After all, his true power was something that had remained a secret all along. For example, the fact that he used twin swords or that he could use ordinary swords to kill a peak Houtian level Godbeast…these were all secrets. The outside world still believed that Ning relied on sharp precious weapons to slay Godbeasts.

  “Shua!” “Shua!” Ning immediately threw away the two swords in his hands, and instantly, two more swords appeared; the Darknorth swords!

  “Break!”

  Ning exploded forth with all his power, hacking away at the thick chains above him, while also calling out frantically at the top of his lungs, “FATHER!”

  The sound rang out, but the speed of sound was actually slower than the downward charging speed of Serpentwing.

  “Dangdangdang!” Ning’s Darknorth swords wildly chopped against the steel chain net up above. In the past, his father, Yichuan had said this: “Given your strength…if you are to use the power within the [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens] and use your full strength, you should be able to break apart the chains. But a web like this formed from many chains…you will probably need the span of ten breaths before you are able to break enough chains to escape.”

  But now that Ning had the Darknorth swords. They were indeed sharp. Dangdangdang…one chain after another was shattered, but there were simply too many of them. To break enough to allow him to escape would probably require the span of one breath.

  One breath?

  The terrifying creature charging from above wouldn’t even need a second before arriving!

  “No time.” Even as Ning was chopping the steel chains, he immediately understood this.

  The massive scaled wings sliced through the air, striking against the chain of webs. These steel chains, which were incomparably tough for Ning, were extremely feeble in the face of this attack of a thousand year old monster. With a series of shattering sounds, countless chains broke apart and flew everywhere. And then, the scaled wings swept directly against Ning.

  “Pay with your own life for my son’s!” Serpentwing’s red eyes stared wildly at Ning.

  “Dodge.”

  Twin swords in his hands, Ning quickly dodged while at the same time, using the same technique with both swords; ‘Thin Unending Waterflow’. His sword flashed, receiving the scaled wing that came from above.

  One layer of sword flash after another intersected, and both swords combined, forming an endless web of sword light. It was as though multiple layers of silk were being wrapped around the opponent’s attack, restricting it.

  He launched ten of these attacks in a row!

  “Bang!” The massive scaled wing smashed down upon the twin Darknorth swords, and the power of this strike caused Ning to instantly feel the bones in his wrists splitting apart. And then, the blade-like edges of the wing cleaved down upon the dodging Ning, slashing straight through the Goldstar Shirt.

  Pu!

  Fresh blood sprayed out, and his left arm, still clutching a Darknorth sword, went flying. Ning’s entire body was sent smashing into the blackwater iron wall, creating a human-shaped impression into the wall. Ning vomited out a large mouthful of blood from his lips.

  “Hu!” Serpentwing raised its scaled wings again, preparing to deal yet another cleaving blow.

  “This is the moment!”

  The now one-armed Ning gritted his teeth, then suddenly scurried out like a massive grasshopper through the broken cage. [Shadewind Steps]. He used this footwork technique to its absolute limits, flashing out like a streak of azure light, fleeing outside.

  “Die!” A violent wind attacked.

  Looking behind him, Ning saw an enormous black blur sweep towards him. That was the massive serpent tail of Serpentwing. This whipping attack by Serpentwing’s tail was even faster and even fiercer than the attack of his scaled wings! The air it passed through exploded with terrifying sonic booms, and the tough marble stones of Dragon Castle began to split apart…

  The enormous black tail was everywhere, surrounding Ning. Given Ning’s speed, there was simply no way he would be able to dodge this attack at all.

  “I’m finished!”

  * * *

  Book 2, Chapter 3 - Life and Death

  Within his courtyard, Yichuan was currently wielding a blue longsword, chopping and piercing against a tree trunk. Chop, pierce, scrape, slice…he only used these most basic of movements and didn’t even use much force, and so the tree trunk only had some scratches appear on its surface.

  His wife, Snow, held a bottle of water nearby, watching her man train with a smile on her face, occasionally sprinkling some water on the nearby flowers and grass.

  “Hrm?” Yichuan and Snow simultaneously turned to look in the same direction. Both of them sensed a vibration of energy.

  “Dragon Castle.”

  Yichuan and Snow simultaneously leaped onto the rooftop of the building, staring at the distant Dragon Castle.

  Dragon Castle was built in a fairly out-of-the-way location in the inner city, at least two kilometers or so away from where Yichuan and his wife lived.

  They saw…

  In the air above Dragon Castle was the enormous Serpentwing. Serpentwing’s scaled wings were currently covering the entirety of Dragon Castle, and a bloodstained youth with only one arm was scurrying out of Dragon Castle at high speed, while an enormous draconic tail flashed towards him like lightning.

  Snow’s eyes instantly turned red. She let out an agonized howl. “Ning!”

  But the distance was too far.

  There was no time at all!

  “Vermin!” Yichuan exploded with anger, letting out a sudden, ferocious chop with the blue sword in his hands. Hua! A brilliant wave of blue light flew out from his sword. The
three hundred meter long wave of blue light was even slightly larger than Serpentwing itself! It slashed through the air, chopping directly towards Serpentwing.

  Pengpengpeng!

  The distant tail of Serpentwing, in the blink of an eye, was struck dozens of times. The entire Dragon Castle exploded and collapsed, sending large amounts of rocks flying everywhere. Many of the servants, guards, and members of the Ji clan who lived around Dragon Castle were injured or wounded, and their blood splashed everywhere. Even some of the monstrous beasts inside the beast tunnels were killed by the impact.

  …..

  Just as Ning scurried out of the cage, he was attacked by the massive tail of the serpent.

  Ning knew that in front of this Winged Snake monstrosity, the Goldstar Shirt of his might as well have been paper. All he had was a peak Houtian level Fiendgod body….he probably would be smashed into a pile of pulverized flesh in an instant.

  “No.”

  Ning simply couldn’t accept this. In this life, he had such a healthy, strong body, had a pair of doting parents, and had the chance to train to become an Immortal, to control his own destiny. He had trained for so long…and everything was just starting. He truly couldn’t accept this!

  “Dodge!” Ning used the [Shadewind Steps] with all his might.

  Quick, quicker, quicker!

  “Hu!”

  “Hu!”

  The wind was howling!

  Hu! Ning’s body was howling as well!

  “Bang!” The serpent’s tail came smashing down. It scraped past Ning, then smashed against the thick marble rocks of Dragon Castle. Instantly, the entire Dragon Castle had shuddered and large amounts of marble rock had shattered and been sent flying everywhere.

  “You managed to dodge?” The red-eyed Serpentwing howled, “You were lucky enough to dodge once, but do you think you’ll dodge twice?”

  Bang!

  The serpent tail swung down at him again!

  But Ning was like a piece of paper, fluttering about in the breeze, as agile as the wind, as unpredictable as a shadow. The serpent tail once again missed Ning, smashing against Dragon Castle once more.