Desolate Era

by RWX

  Once that opportunity came…they would reveal their venomous fangs and go for the kill! The Empyrean Gods and True Immortals that both sides were hiding would reveal themselves as well, seeking to annihilate part of the enemy forces at one blow.

  “A chance.”

  “I need a chance.”

  As Ning and Unity joined forces to battle against Venomsong’s White-Faced Flood Dragon, Ning’s mentally watched the entire battlefield with incomparable calmness.

  Over the past three years, he had grown much more powerful as well.

  He had been dancing for so long at the line separating life and death that it had been of tremendous benefit to him mastering the Dao of the Sword. His Dao of the Sword had already reached the bottleneck, and based on his new insights, Ning had come up with an eleventh stance to the [Three-Foot Sword].

  He had made some progress in researching heartforce as well. Although he hadn’t reached the ‘expertise’ level which Old Man Yuan had mentioned in his [Heart Sutra], if Ning was to utilize this technique, he would instantly be able to unleash three times as much power from his Heaven Punisher! Given his much greater power and his improved sword-arts, he was fully capable of reaching a higher level of power.

  However…

  Ning understood that even if he increased his power by a full level, he still wouldn’t be a match for Venomsong’s White-Faced Flood Dragon.

  “Even if I did unleash my full power, the Seamless Gate would immediately adjust and compensate for it. It wouldn’t affect the overall scheme of things at all,” Ning mused to himself. “I have to find a good opportunity, a perfect opportunity to suddenly unleash my full power and wipe out yet another White-Faced Flood Dragon.”

  The death of Thousand Needles had made Ning long for that day even more.

  When she had died, Ning had wanted save her…but alas, he had been too far away. Even the Xia Emperor and the others had appeared, but to no avail.

  On the field of battle, things happened far too quickly. Life and death could be determined in an instant!

  “I have to find a chance.”

  ……

  Within the underwater estate.

  The giant yellow bear and the seven Empyrean Gods were seated within the main hall, eating Immortal fruit and drinking Immortal wine.

  “Ji Ning is quite the madman. While his Primaltwin does battle outside, his true body trains nonstop within the Stellar Hall.” The kind-looking Empyrean God Dovesnake was holding a cup of wine, smiling merrily as he watched an image of the outside world. This image had been created by the giant yellow bear, who was capable of seeing the world outside. Since the underwater estate was being carried by Ning’s Primaltwin, it was naturally able to see the battle outside.

  “The storm has descended upon us. Ji Ning feels pressured, and his child is about to be born into the storm. Of course he wants to protect Yu Wei and his child. It makes sense that he is training so frantically,” Empyrean God Redsnow said with a calm laugh.

  The true body and the Primaltwin shared memories with each other, but didn’t disturb or interfere with each other.

  Even if the Primaltwin was to completely focus its mind on battle, the true body could still be completely immersed in training.

  “Right. Ji Ning’s strength is increasing stably. His Dao of the Sword has reached a bottleneck; once he masters it, the time for him to meet his Empyrean Tribulation will arrive shortly afterwards.” The child-like Empyrean God Primelight said eagerly, “After he becomes an Empyrean God, our Starseizing Manor shall once more appear in the world.”

  “It has been a long, long time since the name of the Starseizing Manor has been said in the Three Realms.”

  All of the Empyrean Gods were filled with eagerness.

  After the war in the Grand Xia had begun, all seven of them had decided to move out from their world into the underwater estate itself. After all, Ji Ning might encounter a dangerous situation during the war. If he did meet with danger and tried to summon them, and they had to first go from the Starseizer major world to the underwater estate, and then go to the outside world, valuable time would be wasted, possibly resulting in Ning’s death.

  They weren’t willing to take that risk, and so they permanently relocated to the underwater estate.

  “Look, True Immortals have appeared.”

  “The Empyrean Gods and True Immortals on both sides have appeared. It seems as though today’s battle will be interesting to watch.”

  “Agreed. It’s so boring. They just fight, fight, fight. Only when a large number of Celestial Immortals or Loose Immortals die do things grow a bit more interesting,” Empyrean God Sunblaze’s sonorous voice boomed out.

  ……

  The outside world.

  The battle had reached a fever pitch. On the Xia Emperor’s side, True Immortal Dongyan and Empyrean God Firecloud had both appeared. As for the Seamless Gate, True Immortal Crimsonjoy and Empyrean God Threesuns had mobilized.

  The True Immortals used their magic treasures and spells to control the field of battle, while the Empyrean Gods would alternate between using spells and engaging in close combat.

  Once they were added into the mix…the entire field of battle grew very chaotic. In chaos, opportunity could be found.

  “A chance. An opportunity…” As Ning battled carefully, he continued to search for a chance to kill an enemy with even greater vigilance.

  “Go.” The red-eyed elder, True Immortal Crimsonjoy, pointed a finger from afar. Instantly, countless black flowers and plants began to emerge from the earth. These flowers and plants quickly began to wrap themselves around the feet of the seven Heaven Punishers and the Empyrean God golems. However, both the Heaven Punishers and the Empyrean God golems possessed tremendous power, allowing them to break free from the grip of the plants. Still, their speed was negatively impacted.

  “Damnit.” Ning hated this type of restrictive spell the most. True Immortal Crimsonjoy would usually only appear once every ten days or so, and Ning had long since grown accustomed to this sort of plant-based restrictive spell. Despite that, he couldn’t help but be impacted by it.

  As for the distant True Immortal Crimsonjoy, he was silently murmuring the words to an incantation in his heart.

  A speck of golden light appeared with his palm.

  This was a tiny bit of the golden liquid from the golden pellet Jindan that was within his body. It was incredibly precious, and it contained an unbelievably dense amount of Pure Yang energy.

  “Birth.” True Immortal Crimsonjoy calmly said this word aloud.

  The vast array of black flowers and plants that covered the area suddenly began to wither…but the black flowers and plants that were directly below Ning’s feet began to suddenly grow at a frantic pace. They rose higher and higher into the air as well. Previously, they were only a few thousand meters tall and were only capable of covering the feet of the Heaven Punishers, but now they increased to more than six thousand meters as they climbed their way up Ning’s feet.

  In addition, black chains suddenly appeared within the black flowers and plants.

  These black chains were very similar to the black chains which anchored the Seamless City here. A total of nine of them were present, and they surged into the skies, many tens of thousand meters long. They wildly twisted out in circles, wrapping themselves around Ning, carrying a sort of power that was somehow related to space. Ning used his sword-arts, but was completely unable to break apart the black chains as they ravenously wrapped themselves around him.

  “Ji Ning.”

  “Darknorth.”

  “Darknorth!”

  The other six Heaven Punishers were shocked and frantic. They could sense the terrifying amount of power held within those black chains.

  “This spell which Blackheaven taught me really is formidable.” True Immortal Crimsonjoy didn’t hesitate at all, immediately producing a red jade bottle within his hands. He aimed it towards the distant Ji Ning, then roared loudly, “
Get in here, now!”

  A heaven-shaking attractive power was suddenly applied to the distant Heaven Punisher, currently entangled and bound by those nine black chains.

  * * *

  Book 18, Chapter 18 - The Final Battle Suddenly Arrives

  The nine black chains wrapped themselves around Ji Ning’s Heaven Punisher, which was hacking away with two divine swords against them to no avail, causing just a few spatial ripples.

  “Not good.” Ning saw True Immortal Crimsonjoy pull out that red jade bottle from afar. Ning didn’t hesitate at all.

  “Come out!” Ning had originally been planning to continue to hide his full power in the hopes of finding an opportunity to deliver the Seamless Gate a vicious less, but he could no longer afford to do that. Although he could call out senior Redsnow and the rest of the seven Empyrean Gods at any time, that was a waste of their tremendous power. Once they joined forces to form the Seven Planets God, only True Gods or Daofathers could suppress them. A force like theirs could completely change the entire course of the war for the Grand Xia. Until things were absolutely critical, Ning wasn’t willing to use them.

  Swish! Swish!

  Two Immortal swords suddenly appeared out of nowhere, manifesting within Ning’s Heaven Punisher’s hands. These were two of the top-grade Pure Yang ‘Ananda World-Swords’. These were true Immortal swords, unlike the ‘Splitter’ artifacts that merely transformed into that shape. As a result, they were somewhat more powerful when one used sword-arts. At the same time, and for the first time, Ning applied his heartforce to his soul.

  Rumble…

  His heartforce served as the commander, with the power of his soul as its soldiers. In a very harmonious manner, all of the potential power of the soul was summoned and applied, and his control over the Heaven Punisher and the amount of power it could unleash was instantly increased.

  Ning’s Heaven Punisher instantly more than tripled in strength…and this was with Ning having yet to even reach the ‘expert’ level in soul heartforce.

  “Break! BREAK!” Ning’s Heaven Punisher wielded the two Ananda World-Swords with full power as he chopped downwards with them, transforming them into dazzling streaks of bloody light that transformed into a divine blood dragon. The two Immortal swords, now appearing to be two enormous bloody dragons, wildly assaulted the assaulting black chains.

  The eleventh stance of the [Three-Foot Sword] – Dragons Warring in the Wild!

  This stance encompassed the profound insights Ning had gained into the Dao of the Sword.

  This stance encompassed the eighteen years of wild battles he had experienced in the Nihilum Zone.

  This stance also encompassed all of the determination and decisiveness Ning had gained over the course of three years of war on the behalf of the Grand Xia.

  All these things came together in the eleventh stance of the [Three-Foot Sword]…Ning’s most powerful sword-art to date! Self-created skills were the best skills for one’s self, because one would fully understand all the intricacies and secrets of those skills, as well as be able to unleash them to an absolutely perfect level. As for sword-arts of others? Even if you mastered them, you wouldn’t be able to reach a truly, absolutely perfect level in them.

  True perfection was only possible for the creator!

  Boom! Boom! Boom! The two Immortal swords chopped down in the form of divine blood dragons, assaulting the attacking chains.

  If one watched this scene with the naked eye, it looked as though more than ten blood dragons were fighting against the countless black chains. Prior to this, the black chains had carried an aura of unstoppable power. In the face of that power, Ning had exploded forth with his own full power. Although the chains remained intact and continued to circle around Ning, they were now no longer capable of completely binding him and causing him to be unable to fight back.

  “Get in here, now!” The distant True Immortal Crimsonjoy lifted up his red jade bottle, pointing its opening towards Ning.

  Rumble…

  A powerful sucking force was instantly applied to Ning’s Heaven Punisher.

  “Hmph.” Ning just flexed his knees slightly, putting himself into a stabler stance. The total amount of power he controlled had just tripled; how could the jade bottle possibly be able to absorb him away? It couldn’t shake him at all! If he had been completely bound by and rendered helpless by those black chains, then the end result would have been him being sucked away, but this was no longer the case; although the chains remained powerful, he was able to fight back against them.

  “What?!” True Immortal Crimsonjoy stared at Ning from afar, his face a mask of shock. “He actually…actually was hiding his own power as well? What a Ji Ning!”

  In a life-and-death battle, one of the things to be feared the most was when an enemy was hiding his true power.

  Only when you fully knew all of your foe’s secrets could you lay down a good plan for dealing with him! If the foe was much more powerful than anticipated, the plan would be destroyed.

  “Whitepole, Azurefox, hurry up and join in,” True Immortal Crimsonjoy sent mentally. “This Ji Ning was hiding his full power. Even after I consumed some of my own Jindan essence, I’m only able to temporarily keep him locked down. I’m unable to suck him away into the bottle. Now, the rest is up to you.”

  The Seamless Gate had made a very meticulous plan this time.

  If True Immortal Crimsonjoy had succeeded, that would be well.

  But if he failed…his abilities would most likely still have caused the Grand Xia’s side to be put at a great disadvantage. This allowed the other members of the Seamless Gate to launch a truly ferocious strike against them! They would seize the opportunity to deal the Grand Xia a heavy blow; in fact, if the blow was heavy enough, the Grand Xia might no longer be able to fight back at all.

  “Attack.”

  True Immortal Whitepole had been quietly preparing amidst an army of Seamless Gate soldiers within a minor world treasure. He immediately roared out the command.

  Boom!

  Instantly, the mighty army of the Seamless Gate appeared in the air.

  Everyone appeared. The Empyrean Gods, the True Immortals, the likes of Gatemaster Azurefox…even True Immortal Whitepole himself appeared for the first time! At the same time, two types of towering, thirty thousand meter Empyrean God golems appeared as well. The first was the ordinary, often-used Empyrean God golem that was completely black and horned, the one which Ning’s side had as well. As for the second, it was semi-translucent, glowed with a dull bloody light, and was slightly thinner.

  Six of the old black Empyrean God golems emerged.

  Sixteen of the new blood-colored Empyrean God golems emerged.

  “Kill!”

  “Wipe them out!”

  True Immortal Whitepole’s white eyebrows were fluttering about. His grim face looked even colder than usual, but his eyes were filled with madness. He gave the order coldly, and his voice echoed within the heavens.

  “What?!”

  “How can this be?!”

  “So many Empyrean God golems?!”

  The Grand Xia’s side was completely stunned.

  Although they had guessed that the Seamless Gate was holding back, they hadn’t expected for the Seamless Gate to be holding back such a terrifying force for so long! Six black Empyrean God golems and sixteen blood-red Empyrean God golems…how terrifying a force was this?

  It must be understood that the Xia Emperor himself had just barely been able to procure three such golems, and only of the black variant at that. He hadn’t acquired a single one of the blood-colored golems, which were on a higher level.

  Clang! Clang! Clang! Ning wielded his Ananda World-Swords, still struggling against the black chains.

  The most powerful of the seven Heaven Punishers, the Darknorth Heaven Punisher, had been completely locked down!

  ……

  It wasn’t just Ji Ning who was stunned. Celestial Immortal Unity and the other Heaven Punishers�
�even the Xia Emperor was stunned.

  Upon seeing that Ning was in danger, the Xia Emperor had been extremely worried, and so he had immediately sent out his forces to assist. Although all seven Heaven Punishers were important, the one they could least afford to lose was Ji Ning’s. Ji Ning’s sole Heaven Punisher was worth two or three other Heaven Punishers! In addition, once Ning overcame the Empyrean Tribulation, he would possess tremendous influence. A peerless genius who was capable of reaching the Empyrean God level of power as a Void-level Fiendgod…once he made his breakthrough, how powerful would he be?

  Thus, the Xia Emperor absolutely would not permit him to be lost. He personally entered the field of battle!

  But…

  As soon as he appeared, before he even had a chance to help Ji Ning, he saw that Ji Ning had managed to stave off defeat by himself. “So Ji Ning was hiding his power? Excellent.” The Xia Emperor was delighted and surprised.

  But right at that moment…

  The main army of the Seamless Gate emerged.

  “What?!” When the Xia Emperor looked at the awe-inspiring horde of Seamless Gate soldiers, his face couldn’t help but change.

  He had guessed all along that the Seamless Gate had to have been hiding many Celestial Immortals, because three of the four White-Faced Flood Dragons had been formed from Celestial Immortals and Loose Immortals that had betrayed the Grand Xia! Most likely, only the one which Empyrean God Venomsong commanded consisted of the Seamless Gate’s own forces. Was that all the Seamless Gate had? Impossible!

  But not even the Xia Emperor had expected so many Empyrean God golems to emerge.

  “It seems they really do view my Grand Xia with great importance. They actually sent out so many of their precious Empyrean God golems. There’s even sixteen of those incredibly difficult-to-deal-with Bloodcloud golems.” The Xia Emperor’s gaze turned cold. “If that’s the case…then let’s fight.”