Desolate Era

by RWX

  “Break the formation. I’m going to break the formation.” Ning’s closed eyes were trembling, and his soul, filled with this incomparably powerful emotion that was even greater than what was felt at the moment between life and death, reached a new limit as he frantically visualized methods for the breaking of this formation.

  Blood began to leak out from Ning’s nose, and blood was coming from his ears as well.

  Clearly, this surge of powerful emotion had injured his body.

  “That’s it!” Ning’s soul, which had been constantly testing out new formations, suddenly halted. An incomparably complicated formation model suddenly appeared in his mind, which contained every possible variable within it.

  Ning opened his eyes.

  “Mother!” Ning raised his head, letting out a frenzied howl. “I will go back to see you, I will definitely go back to see you! Wait for your child!”

  Immediately, he transformed into a blur, moving through the formation. Ning moved like a ghost, quickly reaching a place which was still covered with thick black mist, but which had a black formation flag inserted into the earth. The runes atop the formation flag were currently fashing. Ning reached out, directly grabbing the flag and giving it a powerful pull.

  Instantly, the black mist that had been covering the entire world vanished, revealing a clearly visible mountain scene. From afar, many servants were staring in astonishment towards him.

  “What.” The six men and women rushed out of the mountain, staring in his direction with astonishment. “The formation was destroyed!”

  Ning was holding the formation flag in his hand, the light of utter madness in his eyes.

  “Kill! Kill him! Kill him at all costs! He cannot be permitted to leave this place alive!” Suddenly, a shrill voice filled with incomparable rage emanated from underground.

  * * *

  Book 5, Chapter 1 - Kill! Kill! Kill!

  “He cannot be permitted to leave this place alive!” Those six lavishly dressed men and women began to shout as well. They knew very that with their formation broken and with the protective, hiding shroud which it had given them gone, they would quickly be discovered…and once Ji Ning escaped, the news would quickly spread and they would immediately be found.

  They had to capture back the formation flag to this bewildering formation! Ji Ning had to be executed as well!

  “Kill!”

  “Kill him!” A large number of servants charged wildly towards Ji Ning as well.

  Ning immediately stored the formation flag into his storage-type magic treasure, while at the same time, the wing-type magic treasures on his back immediately activated as he rushed outwards. At the same time, a boundless amount of scorching fire immediately descended, which surrounded those servants and began to burn them, causing the servants to all scream in agony.

  Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Three figures from within the group of servants came pouncing out towards Ning.

  “Xiantian lifeforms?” Ning immediately recognized that all three of them were Xiantian lifeforms. “It seems this despicable Immortal practitioner has quite a few Xiantian lifeforms under his control.”

  “Kill him.”

  “The Master has given the order to kill him.”

  These three Xiantian lifeforms were filled with murderous intent. They were all servants of Bei Zishan who were controlled through poisons. They didn’t dare to disobey the orders of Bei Zishan’s orders. Immediately, they transformed into rays of light, streaking from different directions to attack Ning, but Ning simply used his Windwing Evasion technique to move forward and directly clash with one of them, a fat-headed, big-eared, bearded man.

  “Raaaawr!” The big fellow was wielding a large hammer.

  Swish!

  A sword light flashed, and the big fellow rolled to the ground, falling down while clutching his chest, blood staining the ground. In but a single exchange, Ning’s sword had pierced through his heart!

  “Little baby.” A hawk-nosed man roared angrily as he charged forward, and as he did, a flash of sword light chopped half his head off, and he died on the spot. The third Xiantian lifeform, an older man, was so terrified, his face changed and he immediately retreated.

  ––––––––––-

  Boundless amounts of flame descended, and two Xiantian lifeforms had been killed in an instant as well. The third had been so terrified, he had immediately retreated. This caused those six men and women to stare at each other, the looks on their faces unpleasant.

  “What terrifying speed!”

  “His swordplay is far superior to any of us. No wonder he was able to kill our senior fellow apprentice.”

  All of them understand that even if they all charged together, the result would most likely be that single same word; ‘death’.

  Right now, Ning was like a life-taking god of death. On one side, boundless amounts of fire scorched those servants, while on his side, he had slaughtered those Xiantian lifeforms. All together, the servants, spirit-beasts, and disciples of Bei Zishan totaled more than ten Xiantian lifeforms.

  “Flood Dragon Dao-Soldiers!” The youngest of the six, that handsome youth, suddenly let out a fierce howl.

  “Flood Dragon Dao-Soldiers.”

  The other five fellow apprentices immediately understood. All of them shouted furiously, while at the same time, their bodies quickly became covered with a layer of black armor. The six of them were now all garbed in the same black armor.

  “Rumble…” For a moment, the entire mountain seemed to tremble. This great mountain had actually been hollowed out long ago. Aside from the primary place midway up the mountain, there had been a large number of smaller caverns dug out as well. After all, more than a million commoners were being tortured here. From this number, one could imagine how many caves had been created to hold them.

  Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Like raindrops falling from the skies in a dense cluster, from each mountain cave flew out one deep green armored Dao-Soldier after another. Each Dao-Soldier was covered with complicated, ancient runes which drew upon the energy of the world.

  “Dao-Soldiers!” Ning’s face changed. He watched as from afar, a large number of soldiers emerged from the hundreds of caves in the mountain. He immediately recognized them for Dao-Soldiers!

  “In addition, these are even more powerful Dao-Soldiers than the ‘Crimson Guard’ of my Ji clan.” Given his experience, Ning naturally could sense the power of those runes on these Dao-Soldier’s armor, causing him to be all the more surprised.

  More than ten thousand Dao-Soldiers descended from the skies.

  And there were more than ten black armored Xiantian lifeform Dao-Soldiers as well, all charging forward.

  “Kill. Kill as many as I can.” Ning understood that he definitely couldn’t let them join forces. He immediately swept out with his wings, moving like a giant Roc towards a location a kilometer away. These Dao-Soldiers were virtually all at the Houtian level, and thus were much faster.

  “All of you, die!”

  Ji Ning, his face spotted red thanks to the poison, had gone completely insane. In an instant, an enormous amount of celestial fire and boundless amounts of freezing frost descended from the skies, wildly sweeping out in each direction. Ning was currently exhausting all of his power to control water and fire.

  “Careful.”

  “Assemble the formation!”

  Of the more than ten thousand Dao-Soldiers, every nine of them linked up, summoning forth the power of the natural world. Faintly, behind their bodies, the illusion of a dragon appeared. Faced with the attack of that scorching flame and freezing frost, most of those who had linked up just barely managed to withstand the attack, while those who had not instantly lost their lives, especially those who were at the center of the flames and of the frost. The surges of heat and cold intersected, causing even those who had linked up to lose their lives.

  “Grand Flood Dragon Formation!”

  The ten-plus black-armored Xian
tian lifeforms wanted to charge together in formation as well.

  “Not good.” In the Aquatic Manor, Ning had seen nine Xiantian lifeforms using Dao-Soldier armors. How could he just stand by idly and permit these ten or so people to do as they pleased?

  “Waterflame Lotus, grind them all to death!” In an instant, Ning formed nine Waterflame Lotuses, surrounding nine of those people.

  The nine Waterflame Lotuses appeared out of nowhere, each with one petal of fire and one petal of water, one above and one below, and they ground down at their targets.

  “Aaaah!” The woman with the viper on her shoulder let out a shrill scry, and was killed, ground into fine pieces.

  “Quick.”

  “Assemble the formation.”

  Although all of them wanted to assemble the formation, of the nine people covered by Waterflame Lotuses, six of them had already died while three were heavily injured. This caused the remaining Xiantian lifeforms to all be shocked…this sort of ability was simply too terrifying. At such a great distance, this man was capable of simultaneously killing six Xiantian lifeforms? Generally speaking, Xiantian lifeforms weren’t capable of long-distance attacks, because they were unable to ride on magic treasures to engage in distant attacks.

  The six dead people were quite unfortunate; they weren’t afraid of the fire and water which Ning was capable of controlling, but they hadn’t expected that Ning would execute this ‘Waterflame Lotus’, which contained a hint of the True Meaning of the Dao. If they had known in advance, they would have all immediately prepared protective Dao-seals, and thus wouldn’t have instantly lost their lives.

  “Assemble the formation!” The handsome youth’s black armor immediately began to glow with runes, while at the same time those runes which appeared connected with the illusory dragons behind the many ordinary Dao-Soldiers, connecting together into a large whole.

  In the blink of an eye, the handsome youth connected with a thousand of the ordinary Dao-Soldiers, and behind him appeared the illusion of a Flood Dragon.

  “Assemble the formation.”

  “Assemble the formation.”

  One Xiantian lifeform after another immediately began to link together with the Dao-soldiers. Some activated a thousand, while others activated five hundred. Although the maximum was a thousand Dao-Soldiers, Ning had killed simply too many of them.

  “Unfortunately, too many Dao-Soldiers have died, and we don’t even have nine thousand. Otherwise, once we combined to form the entire Flood Dragon, we could effortlessly kill him.” One illusory Flood Dragon after another appeared in mid-air, resulting in a total of eight illusory Flood Dragons, which were controlled and formed by those eight Xiantian lifeforms and thousands of Dao-Soldiers joining formings.

  “But even though we aren’t able to transform into a greater Flood Dragon, he will still die.”

  ––––––––––

  Deep within the mountain, in that private room.

  The green flame continued to flicker in the middle of that ancient, unadorned cauldron. The blood red banner was currently hovering there, as a large number of dread wraiths were howling silently, wildly attacking.

  Bei Zishan was seated in the lotus position, his face incomparably sinister.

  “This person named Ji Ning was actually able to break my grand formation.” Zishan was both frantic and angry. He himself had been, this entire time, hiding, fleeing, and trying to refine this powerful magic treasure and thus suddenly rise in power. But without this great formation hiding him, there was no way for him to hide at all. In addition, there were still many dread wraiths that had yet to be absorbed. Right now, what he was trying to do was forcibly bring the process to a halt, as he would rather give up the many dread wraiths.

  However, this sort of incomparably sinful magic treasure was also incomparably dangerous to make. If he wasn’t careful, he would be devoured by it instead. He had to be extremely careful and cautious, even in an attempt to stop…he still had to kill each and every single one of those dread wraiths who had yet to be refined before he could be killed. If he tried to do it forcibly, he himself would be devoured.

  To come to a halt needed time.

  “Master, there are less than nine thousand Dao-Soldiers.” From within the mountain, a spirit-beast who had transformed into a human male’s form called out frantically.

  “What!” Bei Zishan, currently forcibly repressing his agitation, upon hearing the words from his spirit-beast, immediately grew frantic. “Less than nine thousand Dao-Soldiers? With less than nine thousand, there’s no way to transform into a giant Flood Dragon. Given the power of this Ning, he can absolutely flee.”

  Right at this moment, the blood-red banner suddenly began to shake, as countless dread wraiths wildly attempted to break free.

  “Not good.”

  Bei Zishan forced himself to calm down. He knew that as soon as he lost his grip, those dread wraiths would throw themselves upon him, and he would probably die here today. Bei Zishan immediately made a small bag appear in his hand, which appeared similar to a brocade purse. From within the little purse, a black coffin appeared out of nowhere, which with a thud landed against the ground.

  The coffin immediately opened, and a heart-trembling aura emanated forth. A large paw, covered with black fur, grabbed the sides of the coffin, and then sat up. This was a black-furred zombie which had glowing green eyes.

  Whoosh.

  The black-furred zombie landed on the ground, its body surrounded by a black energy that was visible to the naked eye. The black energy was a necromantic aura, and if a Xiantian lifeform were to absorb it, that person would definitely be poisoned to death. This zombie…was one of the final trump cards which Bei Zishan had. He had worked hard to create it from the corpse of a Zifu Disciple.

  “Go. Kill him.” Zishan gave the order. Zombies were neither living nor dead. The black-furred zombie was at the level where it had a certain degree of intelligence. It could recognize the disciples of Zishan, and it could also quickly recognize situations as well as whom its enemies were. This black-furred zombie was already comparable to a Zifu Disciple, and it was extremely dangerous.

  “Umm.” The black-furred zombie let out a low grunt, then walked out, then with a single leap, jumped out from the nearly 150 meter deep tunnel.”

  * * *

  Book 5, Chapter 2 - Lesser Thousand Sword Formation, Kill!

  The Azure Firebird and the black serpent were currently high in the air, waiting impatiently. They were under orders to locate Ji Ning, but previously, the black serpent had already shouted three times, without any response at all.

  “Can it be that the young master isn’t here?” The black serpent said frantically.

  “Brother Black, look below.” The Azure Firebird spoke in the human tongue.

  The black serpent looked downwards, only to see that on the formerly calm mountain, a large number of armored Dao-Soldiers had appeared, surrounded by frost and with fires blazing…those Dao-Soldiers and Xiantian lifeforms had forcibly formed into eight illusory Flood Dragons, and the power emanating from those illusory Flood Dragons caused even the Azure Firebird and the black serpent in the air to feel shock.

  “Dao-Soldiers…thousands of them that can join together?” The Azure Firebird and the black serpent were shocked. The various local hegemons of Swallow Mountain weren’t capable of such things. Only the Grand Xia Dynasty’s soldiers that were stationed at Southmont City were capable of this. “Such power…even if the two of us were to go attack, we’d probably be easily annihilated.”

  “Look, young master Ji Ning.”

  In front of these thousands of Dao-Soldiers, appeared a beast-clad youth who was emanating an aura of incomparable wildness and savagery. It was Ning!

  “Young master Ji Ning! How can he possibly oppose thousands of joined Dao-Soldiers?!”

  “Ji Ning, quick, flee!” The black serpent shouted frantically in the air.

  –––––––-

  Those
Xiantian lifeforms bound against the pillars within the mountain stared towards the outside nervously as well. Outside, the boundless amounts of flame and frost that had appeared caused them to be shocked as well.

  “Young master Ji Ning, that Zifu Disciple is currently refining that evil magic treasure. For now, he can’t be distracted. Quick, flee!” Blindfish howled frantically.

  “Ji Ning, quick, leave! If you dawdle, it’ll be too late!” Ji Jadewich roared as well, his throat going hoarse.

  “Quick, leave!”

  All of the Xiantian lifeforms of the Ji clan were shouting frantically. They had been bound here for so long, and often heard the conversation of those people, and saw some dread wraiths enter the depths of the mountain…they knew that there was a Zifu Disciple here refining an incomparably vile magic treasure. Once this person completed it and personally attacked, what would the repercussions be?

  “What? Thousands of linked Dao-Soldiers?” The group of bound Xiantian lifeforms suddenly saw that those many Dao-Soldiers who were being burnt by fire or frozen by frost suddenly formed into multiple illusory Flood Dragons. They were only able to see a small portion, but this was already enough to shock them.

  “Quick, flee”

  “Ji Ning, leave now!” All of them were incomparably frantic.

  ––––––––-

  Hearing the frantic shouts from his Uncle Black from the skies, as well as the voices of his Master Blindfish, Ji Jadewich, Poortile, Ji Shan, and the others who were bound deeper in the mountain, how could Ji Ning, already poisoned, not go even wilder? Flee? Why would he flee? Even if he fled, he would unquestionably die. If he could risk his life to kill that Zifu Disciple, he might instead have a chance at life.

  “Kill!” Ning saw the thousands of Dao-Soldiers in front of him. Not hesitating at all, he released his most powerful killing blow.