Desolate Era

by RWX

  “So fast!” Ning was somewhat caught off-guard. Those earlier red-eyed warriors had been far slower than him, but this black-caped warrior was so fast that he was only slightly slower than Ning when using the [Obscuring Wind of the Nine Heavens]. He could already be considered as being on Ning’s general level; he was slightly slower, but it wouldn’t make much of a difference.

  Four icy shortswords came plunging towards him.

  Ning’s Darknorth swords struck outwards as well.

  Clang clang clang!

  Consecutive collisions could be heard. Ning’s advantage lay in the profoundness of his sword-arts, while the enemy’s advantage was having four arms.

  However, from that clash…

  Ning was sent flying back!

  “What great power.” Ning’s face changed, then his body blurred, transforming into his three-headed, six-armed form.

  “Three heads and six arms? So is this your true form?” The black-caped warrior was quite surprised, but he then snickered, “Interesting.” He charged forth once more.

  Ning now had six divine swords in his six arms. His sword-arts were profound, but he remained unwilling to use the [Starseizing Hand]. The [Starseizing Hand] simply used up far too much divine power, and the strength of this Snaphorn world was immeasurable. It was better to make himself appear weak; if he immediately revealed his trump cards, they would probably prepare even more powerful trump cards to deal with him.

  Slash! Ning’s sword-light sliced through the black-caped warrior’s body. The black-caped warrior retreated at high speed, but a gaping wound was still cut through his chest. Green blood spewed outwards, but in the blink of an eye the wound was healed.

  “Healed?” Ning was surprised. “So they really are two separate races. Those cannon fodders were completely unable to heal, but the black-caped warriors are capable of self-regeneration.”

  Once someone became capable of self-regeneration, killing them would be much harder.

  “Eh?” The violet-caped warrior saw what had just happened. “Hellsong’s unit, engage.”

  Instantly, nine more black-caped warriors went flying forward.

  “Hellsong, can’t you get it done?”

  “You can’t even capture a single alien, and you even got injured.”

  The nine other black-caped warriors all spoke teasingly, but they showed no mercy in their movements at all. They soon formed a complete circle around Ning, attacking him en masse and giving him nowhere to flee at all.

  Boom…

  Ning’s body suddenly increased explosively in size, expanding to three thousand meters.

  Three thousand meters was Ning’s limit in using the Heavenly Transformation technique.

  “What?” Prior to this, those ten black-caped warriors were surrounding and assaulting a tiny little dot, but that tiny little dot had suddenly and explosively increased in size to become comparable to them; this caused them to feel completely flabbergasted.

  “So this is how tall you actually are…I imagine this is your true form, right?” Hellsong sighed in amazement, “Three heads, six arms, and as tall as us…this alien is quite strong.”

  Ning, however, just felt misery; the more divine abilities he used, the faster his divine power would be used up.

  However…while using Heavenly Transformation, his speed and strength would both increase tremendously!

  “Every single one of these black-caped warriors are comparable to Celestial Immortal Goldclock or Deadwood; if any more come, I’ll be forced to use the [Starseizing Hand]. Once I use it…my end will come shortly thereafter.” Ning was frantic now; every bit of divine power that he used up was irreplaceable, at least in the short term. However…he still had no idea as to how he was supposed to flee from this place.

  He could neither ascend to Heaven nor descend to Hell; there was nowhere to flee!

  * * *

  Book 16, Chapter 12 - No Way Out

  After using the Heavenly Transformations technique and [Three Heads, Six Arms], Ji Ning’s power had increased substantially. He was able to just barely fend off those ten black-caped warriors, but maintaining this state resulted in his divine power being continuously depleted.

  “He’s actually still able to hold on?” This caused the distant, violet-caped warrior to frown. He immediately ordered, “The entire squad, go and capture this alien!”

  “Yes!”

  Accompanied by a series of roars, a total of ninety massive black-caped warriors flew towards Ji Ning’s direction. This caused Ning’s face to instantly change. “They really are giving me no chance at all. A hundred Celestial Immortals…how am I supposed to withstand them?” Although all of these foes focused on close combat, meaning that only a number of them were able to engage with him at any given moment, they clearly had some sort of mysterious combination formation technique; the more warriors that joined, the more powerful each black-caped warrior grew.

  “Senior bear, what should I do?” Ning asked frantically, “Are there any options? If I hide in the underwater estate, can I survive this tribulation?”

  “It’s useless.” The giant yellow bear was both frantic and helpless. “If you hide inside the underwater estate, it will end up being exposed as well…although Loose Immortals and Celestial Immortals are unable to forcibly bind me, some truly powerful figures are still capable of it. I’m only a Protocosmic spirit-treasure, after all; the master of this so-called Snaphorn world has to be at least at the level of a Pure Yang True Immortal.”

  Ning felt misery in his heart.

  Indeed.

  Given that they were able to send out a squad of soldiers like this, as well as set up an enormous space formation that spanned tens of millions of kilometers…it would be bizarre if the Snaphorn world’s strongest experts were not at the Pure Yang True Immortal level! Anyone who reached that level could forcibly bind the Starseizing Manor.

  “If I hide, I die…but if I don’t hide, I still die!” Ning had no idea as to what he should do.

  “All you can do is hope and pray that your master, Patriarch Subhuti, can find you,” the giant yellow bear said. “Your master possesses the [Dream of the Three Realms]…but this place is outside the Three Realms. In fact, many of the Heavenly Daos don’t exist here; only the Heavenly Dao of Primordial Chaos holds sway here. Your master might not be able to sense things here.”

  Ning was stunned.

  His only hope was his master, Patriarch Subhuti! The Patriarch’s power was utterly unearthly; at a time like this, only he might be capable of rescuing Ning. But…the giant yellow bear was right. This was the Nihilum Zone of the Primordial Ruinworld; even though Patriarch Subhuti was extremely powerful, if he was unable to find Ning, what could he do?

  “Can it be that I, Ji Ning, am going to die here?” Ning felt an unwillingness to accept this within his heart. “Senior apprentice-sister took on Patriarch Lu as her master…and we agreed that we would meet again! Father, mother…I haven’t even had a chance to see if their reincarnations are living happily or not. And Earth…I haven’t gone back to Earth to take a look…”

  He didn’t want to accept this.

  He truly didn’t!

  “If I had known this would happen, I would’ve left my Primaltwin at Swallow Mountain.” Ning was filled with unbearable regret for having brought his Primaltwin with him as he fought the Youngflame clan. He had felt that as long as he had the underwater estate and Greater Teleportation Dao-seals, he would be able to escape without issues. Who would’ve imagined that the descent of karmic sinflames rendered him incapable of escaping, resulting in him being sent into this danger zone?

  “Can it be that my life truly is going to end here?”

  The ninety black-caped warriors joined the ten earlier black-caped warriors into a formation. Instantly, their auras grew even more powerful as they continued to assault Ning.

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  After just a few exchanges, the previously indestructible Ning suddenly blew apart! In fact, s
ome of his flesh and blood transformed into dust from the blows of the enemy swords and sabers.

  “What just happened?” The hundred attacking black-caped warriors were all amazed.

  The distant commander shouted, “The Queen Mother commands you! Even if the alien is transformed into bits of mushmeat, you need to collect every single piece of flesh and blood; you can’t spare even a single bit of dust. He won’t die easily!”

  “Yes.”

  Instantly, the group of black-caped warriors became filled with eagerness. The Queen Mother had personally given them an order! They felt incomparably honored. They sent their minds sweeping forth through space. They wouldn’t let even a hint of dust escape their senses.

  “Damn.”

  Whoosh.

  Far away, a human rematerialized; it was Ning, his eyes bloodshot. His [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] wasn’t something these Celestial Immortals could breach; just now, he had voluntarily caused his divine body to detonate while focusing all of his divine power within a single piece of flesh. Through the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art], he had then transformed that piece of flesh into a speck of dust.

  Alas…it seemed as though the enemy knew what abilities he had available. They didn’t want to give him any chance at all.

  “He really didn’t die.”

  “He was blown up into tiny bits but didn’t die?”

  “When our cores are broken, we’ll die…but he was blown into tiny bits and remained alive? This is too terrifying.” The black-caped warriors quietly sent messages to each other; clearly, they were all quite stunned. Whether it was Ning’s unbreakable body or the fact that he stayed alive even after being blown apart…they were truly stunned and uneasy.

  What a terrifying race this was!

  ……

  “Senior apprentice-sister, your junior apprentice-brother was unable to live up to his promise!”

  “Father, mother…”

  “Master…”

  One image after another flashed through Ning’s mind.

  That senior apprentice-sister of his, who had kept everything hidden with her heart for so long, but who had eventually become his Dao-companion within the Conclave of Immortal Destiny, under the watchful gazes of countless people.

  That seemingly cold but actually warm-hearted master of his, Immortal Diancai.

  His teacher, Subhuti, who gazed down upon the Three Realms from his lofty, exalted position.

  And his ordinary parents…they had done everything for him, and had chosen to forget about revenge, so that their son might have a better chance of living a good life…

  His junior apprentice-brother…his sister, Autumn Leaf…Uncle White…Little Qing…

  “Farewell!”

  In dying here, not even reincarnation would be possible.

  “Farewell, my loved ones.” Ning stared at the hundred black-caped warriors charging towards him, as well as the even more numerous foes in the distance. His eyes actually turned calm, a calmness that transcended both blazing rage and freezing coldness. It was a sort of absolute calmness…a perfect mastery of the self.

  In this instant…Ning’s heartforce was actually able to leap from the peak of the ‘iceheart’ level all the way to the third level, the ‘ruler’ level. Even amongst the divine archers of the Three Realms, he would now be considered an absolute top-tier expert.

  But alas, heartforce was invisible and formless; it wasn’t able to help out Ning at this moment.

  “You want me to die?” Ning said softly, “Then I’ll make you all die!” These were words from his homeland; the foes before him were completely unable to understand it.

  The six divine swords suddenly vanished.

  “His swords vanished?”

  “What’s going on?”

  The hundred black-caped warriors charging towards Ning all halted. They could tell that Ning was skilled in using the sword, but despite being such a powerful swordsman, he had…actually put away his swords?

  Was he giving himself up for capture?

  BOOM!

  Ning’s fingers formed sword-fingers. They suddenly expanded to be more than nine hundred meters long as the full power of the Fourth Cycle of the [Starseizing Hand] exploded forth. Ning’s power instantly rose to an utterly terrifying level; he was actually able to knock an enemy shuttle aside, then with a slashing sound, pierce straight into the chest of a black-caped warrior. With a simple flick of his sword-fingers, the warrior was cut in half.

  “What?” The distant violet-caped warrior’s face completely changed. “How did his power increase this much?!”

  Whoosh!

  Crunch!

  Slash!

  Ning ignored all enemy assaults; his body, protected by the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art], was completely capable of withstanding any assaults. The only attacks he needed to defend against were the ones that were meant to bind him! In the Three Realms, there were some powerful magic treasures that had powerful binding forces that were hard to defend against, but these warriors of the Snaphorn world were only skilled in close combat; thus, the only tools they had for binding an opponent were simple ones like chains or whips. Ning was less than two meters tall; he was able to dodge with incomparable nimbleness through the many massive black-caped warriors, making it hard for them capture him.

  The black-caped warriors seemed strong, but their bodies were still unable to withstand Ning’s sword! Thus, they were easily chopped apart in close combat.

  “…He died?” Ning was suddenly startled.

  Through cutting, chopping, decapitating, or other strikes, he was able to neutralize twenty-five of the black-caped warriors within a short period of time. However, they all healed quite quickly…but the twenty-sixth actually lost its entire aura. It had completely, truly died.

  Ning instantly thought back to what had just happened. “Right. That green sphere.”

  All of the black-caped warriors had a green sphere within their bodies. Ning had originally thought that the green spheres were nothing more than organs. They were very small; the warriors were three thousand meters tall, while the green sphere was merely three meters long. He hadn’t damaged the green sphere in killing the first twenty-five warriors, but he had in the last one.

  Boom!

  Slash!

  The black-caped warriors watched as the tiny little Ji Ning’s sword-fingers suddenly expanded to become a thousand meters long. The sword-fingers tore through their bodies, plunging through their chest to snatch at and claw apart their cores. One black-caped warrior after another began to fall, and a large amount of baleful auras began to flood towards Ning, swirling into him.

  “Careful, he’s discovered our cores!”

  “He knows about the cores!”

  “His fingers are extremely terrifying, far more so than his swords.”

  “Our weapons are completely unable to block him.”

  “His body is completely unbreakable.”

  “He’s too tiny; there’s no way we can use our chains to capture him.” The black-caped warriors were actually on the losing side now.

  The Celestial Immortals of the Three Realms could’ve joined forces and used various binding techniques to capture Ning from far away…but these aliens were only skilled in close combat! Although they had battle formations that could be used to kill him, the Queen Mother had commanded that they capture this person alive. Thus, they didn’t dare unleash their most powerful killing techniques for fear of killing him.

  “Hmph.” The distant violet-caped warrior’s face sank when he saw this. He could tell that there were only two methods for dealing with this tiny little alien.

  The first method was to use formation-based killing techniques, like the ones they used in their planetary wars, to forcibly crush the foe. However, if they did that, they might accidentally kill this alien, which would be a violation of the Queen Mother’s command. The Queen Mother’s decree was very important; in comparison, even the destruction of their entire army meant nothing.

  The se
cond method was to fight him personally, or perhaps with several supporters! To overcome him with absolute strength, then capture him.

  “Out of the way.” The violet-caped warrior transformed into a violet streak of light.

  “He’s coming.” This entire time, Ning had kept part of his attention on the violet-caped warrior, who was the person who truly caused Ning to feel threatened. Now that the violet-caped warrior was charging forward at full speed, Ning’s heart instantly clenched. This speed was even faster than the speed which he had displayed earlier; it was absolutely superior to Ning when using the [Obscuring Wind of the Nine Heavens].

  “Is this my final battle before I die?” Ning didn’t feel any fear; his gaze was incomparably calm as he stared at the violet-caped warrior. “If I die…I’ll drag you down into death with me!”

  * * *

  Book 16, Chapter 13 - Our World

  As the violet-caped warrior attacked, the many black-caped warriors that had been assaulting Ji Ning all retreated. They were all filled with utter confidence in their commander.

  Whoosh!

  A silvery-white whip lashed out, more than thirty thousand meters long. It was like a giant, silvery-white serpent that was coiling with elegance and poise as it swept towards Ning. Ning’s sword-fingers struck out like swords, blocking the whip head-on. WHAP! A clear ringing sound rang out. Ning could sense a strange energy be transmitted into his body, including into his organs. Fortunately, the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] refined the entire body, resulting in no weaknesses at all. However, Ning was still knocked flying backwards by several kilometers.

  “His speed vastly outstrips mine, and the power of his whip is on a level higher than even me using the [Starseizing Hand] at full power. His whip is used in a way that gives me no way to dodge; it seems he is at an even higher level with his whip than I am with sword-arts. His power, without any question, is at the utmost peak of power possible for a Celestial Immortal,” Ning mused to himself.

  Hard to deal with!