Desolate Era

by RWX

The Hundred Streams of the Windsource represented a hundred of these tunnels that coiled deep into the planet before joining together at a common location. Each tunnel had to be more than a million kilometers long. The Hundred Streams contained all of the Daos which had been mastered by the ancient power behind this estate!

  Waterwind had viewed several of the flows and gained many insights into them. Thus, he had left behind his diagram atop the walls of that cave.

  “The pit I just climbed out of and the pit on the other side should belong to the same flow.” Ning nodded slowly to himself. “It’s much like how the waters of a river will occasionally form small whirlpools when going past certain bends. So I’ve only been on a single stream this entire time. Still, it makes sense. Even someone as unfathomably powerful as Waterwind was only able to investigate a few of the streams.”

  “I’ll wager that quite a few of the treasures ended up being piled up here somewhere.”

  Now, Ning finally understood. After he had been drawn in here from the outside world, he had begun his journey through a single stream and had now encountered the first ‘bend’ in the stream. This meant that he was most likely in the outermost layer of the Hundred Streams!

  “The farther down I go, the more dangerous it will probably become!” Ning mused to himself. “Even Daolord Badlands and senior Waterwind were unable to fully conquer this ancient ruin. If I try to go much deeper, I’ll probably be throwing my life away.”

  Upon realizing that he was still at the outermost layer of the Hundred Streams of the Windsource, Ning immediately came to his senses.

  “I should take away these treasures, then get the hell out of here.” Ning immediately came to this decision, then once more began to carefully crawl forwards. Soon, he reached the bottom.

  The maelstrom itself didn’t have too much of a sucking power to it, just some tearing power. The margins of the maelstrom were actually quite peaceful, and many treasures had been swirled about and tossed to the edges of the maelstrom. Ning saw that there had to be hundreds, perhaps over a thousand treasures with tremendously powerful auras that were scattered around the edges of the maelstrom.

  “Seven Dao weapons?” Ning was delighted when he saw this. “And that’s just what I can see with the naked eye. There are probably several other Dao weapons that are hidden within storage treasures.”

  “Hmph.” Ning willed the azureflower mist energy to reinforce his legs, allowing him to easily walk across the bottom of this chamber. The sucking power wasn’t that strong here, allowing him walk about quite freely.

  Ning silently crept forward, soon arriving in a region that was roughly three hundred meters long. There was no wind here at all, and quite a few treasures had been piled up here.

  “This is great.” Ning waved his hand, collecting the treasures.

  Whoosh.

  That small corner contained dozens of Chaos treasures as well as a Dao weapon. The Dao weapon was an odd-looking fist-sized slab. Ning used his divine power to bind it, and upon doing so Ning realized that this ‘slab’ was actually a flexible sword of incredible sharpness that could also be used as a whip.

  “Eh? What are these fragments?” Ning glanced at the unremarkable fragments nearby.

  Ning waved his hand, picking up a fragment of a sword handle. “What’s this?” Ning frowned. He could clearly see deep indents on the surface of the handle.

  “Are those…fang marks?” This thought suddenly flashed through Ning’s mind.

  “Come here.” Ning waved his hand, causing the many shards and fragments to all fly into his estate-treasure. Within the estate-treasure, Ning’s coresense wouldn’t be disturbed by the gray wind, allowing him to more carefully inspect the fragments. What he found was a very strange object located within the large pile of ordinary fragments.

  Ning waved his hand, causing the strange object to fly out and come to a rest within Ning’s palm. It was a large, palm-sized bluish-white scale.

  The fragments he had picked up were of all different colors, and so Ning hadn’t noticed the scale earlier.

  “A scale?” Ning glanced at the patterns on the scale. It looked quite like a scale that would appear on some sort of a beast.

  “And those fang marks…fangs that were able grind apart a Chaos treasure…and a scale? I can’t stay here. I need to pick up these treasures, then get out of here.” Ning didn’t even dare to imagine what creature had caused this. He hurriedly flew towards a different corner of the chamber, but as he did so he saw a streak of light fly against the gray wind, emerging from the depths of the chamber and flying towards him with astonishing speed.

  Ning blanched when he saw this.

  Good heavens.

  Even though he had become dramatically stronger, he still had to use his arms and hands to crawl around this place. However, that streak of light was not only moving against the wind, it was doing so at an utterly inconceivable speed.

  “Flee.” Ning no longer dared to tarry. His hands stretched out thousands of meters as he hurriedly began to crawl upwards and flee at high speed.

  “My…my treasures…”

  Just as Ning had picked up that scale, a creature had stirred from deep within this chamber. Its entire body was bluish-white, it had a crystalline mane, the head of a tiger, a body that was completely covered in scales, an extremely long tail, and four mighty limbs.

  After being born, it had lived its entire life here within this endless tunnel.

  It would occasionally discover some sabers, knives, staves, hammers, and other weapons that fell into its lair. These weapons were useless to it, but it liked to collect them and hoard them! It even placed a few of the scales it had shed in the corners of the chambers where there was no wind, so as to signify that those treasures belonged to it!

  “You actually dare to rob me of my treasures.”

  “Die.”

  “Die!”

  It was enraged. It immediately transformed into a streak of light, flying against the wind towards the invader.

  “What sort of a freak is this? How can it possibly fly directly against the wind of the Hundred Streams? Does this scale belong to it?” Although Ning had fled after taking just one glance at the creature, he was still able to tell that it was a strange beast that was completely bluish-white in color, while the scale he had acquired was also bluish-white. “And those shards of treasures that had been bitten apart…did those teeth marks come from it?”

  “The undamaged Chaos treasures were all high-grade or top-grade in quality, while the broken ones were all fairly low quality Chaos treasures.”

  “Still…for it to be able to chew Chaos treasures apart…”

  Ning immediately understood that this monster was most likely far too powerful for him to handle.

  Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!!!

  Ning’s six arms moved in a blur as he frantically clambered upwards. He had never crawled as fast as he was crawling right now. Before this, he had been moving very slowly, for fear of something dangerous happening. Now, he was climbing at his absolute maximum speed. In almost the blink of an eye, Ning propelled himself upwards ape-style by more than ten thousand kilometers.

  Whoosh!

  But despite how fast Ning was climbing, that bluish-white streak of light flew upwards even faster, even though it was going against the wind. In fact, it had caught up to him!

  “Damn. I found so many treasures. Am I going to die here now? This sucks!” Ning turned his head, staring at the ferocious, bluish-white monster that had drawn close to him.

  * * *

  Book 24, Chapter 24 - The Battle in the Abyss

  The crystalline mane of the bluish-white beast trembled as it glared at Ji Ning, its dark yellow eyes filled with hatred and murder.

  Ji Ning clung onto the walls of the pit with one hand, as he turned to stare at the bluish-white scaled monster.

  Their gazes met.

  “I don’t want to be enemies with you,” Ning said.

&nbs
p; “Die!!!” The bluish-white monster suddenly let out a furious roar as it struck out with its tail, striking so fast that Ning blanched.

  Ning hurriedly use his five free arms to strike out with his sword-arts. It was as though five black holes had suddenly appeared in the air and moved to deflect the oncoming attack.

  BOOM!!!

  The incredible power of the collision caused even Ning’s body to tremble, smashing him against the stone walls behind him. A large crack had appeared on the walls, but thankfully Ning had a tough divine body and a top-grade suit of Chaos armor, as well as the support of that azureflower mist energy. All these things ensured that he was able to withstand the blow…but from this very first clash, Ning instantly understood that his foe was even more stronger than he was!

  Ever since Ning had mastered the Nine Chaos Seals and acquired the azureflower energy, Ning had felt confident that he was very close to the World God level of power and perhaps had even reached it.

  But this monstrosity before him…a simple strike from its tail had complete overpowered Ning!

  “Die!” Die!” Die!” The bluish-white monster charged forward furiously, raking out with its claws.

  “I gotta get out of here.” Ning quickly clambered up the walls like a spider, sometimes using his left hand to climb, sometimes using his right. He’d occasionally block an attack while occasionally borrow from the force of the collisions to propel himself further upwards.

  Riiiiip! The sharp claws tore a gash through the stone walls.

  Whap! The powerful tail-strikes caused the stone to shudder.

  Ning was at a complete disadvantage.

  “Eh?”

  “This beastie…doesn’t seem to be that tough.” After exchanging a few dozen blows with the creature, Ning was slowly beginning to come to this conclusion. “It is strong and fast, and its claws are quite sharp, but…it doesn’t seem to have many insights into the Dao at all. It has an incredibly powerful body, but in battle it is clumsy beyond belief.”

  The azureflower mist energy had strengthened Ning’s body, making it so that the difference in power between him and the beast wasn’t that great. If Ning hadn’t mastered the Nine Chaos Seals and was only as strong as he was when he had first been drawn into the pit, he would’ve been flattened by that first swipe of the tail. It wouldn’t have mattered how profound his insights into the Dao were!

  “I can’t keep wasting time with it. If too much time passes, my azureflower mist energy will be used up and I’ll be finished.” After battling for just a short period of time, one of the drops of liquid azureflower energy had already been used up. This shocked Ning and brought him back to his senses.

  “You can’t kill me!” Ning barked.

  “You. Die!” The bluish-white scaled creature continued to fight in a berserk manner.

  Ning took out the warblade. This was the Dao weapon which he had picked up a short while ago, and Ning had already bound it to himself quite some time ago. In terms of raw power, it was even stronger than the still-damaged Violetjewel!

  “F*ck off!” Ning exploded with power.

  Swords are double-edged weapons. Sabers have just a single blade. However, the tip of this warblade was incredibly sharp, and thus it could also be used to stab, split, and scrape, just as a sword would. Still, it was still better suited for more explosive and forceful attacks.

  “Heavenbreaker stance!”

  Ning held the warblade in a two-handed grip. He allowed his divine power and the azureflower mist energy to both blast forth at full power as he raised the warblade up high, then furiously chopped down towards the bluish-white scaled monster before him.

  The ‘Heavenbreaker stance’ was Ning’s most forceful attack. Of Ning’s many sword-arts, it was the sword-art which was best suited for use with a weapon such as this warblade. In fact, after getting some insights into the second stance of the [Nameless] sword-art, Ning’s ‘Heavenbreaker stance’ now contained even more of a killing intent than it did before. When Ning unleashed this attack he was striking downwards, resulting in the attack being sped up by the howling wind. His saber-light flashed out far faster than the speed of light, giving the bluish-white scaled monster no time to dodge at all.

  “GWRAAAR!” The monster confidently blocked with its claws.

  The enormous crescent saber-light actually blasted the sharp claws aside, landing against the creature’s scaly body.

  BOOM!

  The bluish-white scaled creature was actually knocked backwards, scales shattering at the point of impact and flying out of its body. It slammed into the stone walls of the pit with a bang, causing the stone to tremble and multiple cracks to appear.

  In raw power alone…with the aid of the warblade, Ning was actually able to overpower even the bluish-white beast. It was the beast’s own fault for being too stupid; it had a mighty body that was stronger than even the body of a World God, but the way in which it was able to use that power was quite crude. It simply had far too low a level of insight into the Dao.

  Or perhaps it might have no insights at all. Perhaps all it knew was just the most basic of attacks.

  “AWOOOO!” After smashing into the stone walls, the bluish-white creature suddenly raised its head and let out a furious howl.

  Its howling voice contained a strange, rippling wind to it.

  Whoosh.

  The sound of its voice was carried away by the Windsource and instantly transmitted to a different region.

  Deep within a distant pit, a windbeast that had been slumbering suddenly raised its head. It murmured softly to himself, “An invader?”

  “There’s an invader?”

  “That kid Fuu hasn’t been alive long enough. He’s too weak, which is why we had him stand watch over one of the least dangerous regions. And yet he’s asking for reinforcements?”

  The windbeasts all heard this sound.

  Some of them had powerful auras, some of them had weak auras. Some of them actually shook their heads and sighed.

  Whoooooooosh.

  Nine of the closest windbeasts transformed into streaks of light, flying through the wind like fish swimming through water. When Ning had seen the bluish-white creature fly at high speed against the wind, he had been so terrified that he immediately fled. Only after actually fighting it did he realize that he was actually able to beat it. These windbeasts were born in the Windsource, after all; this was why they were able to fly within the wind with such ease.

  “His body is too tough. Even my warblade is only able to chip off a few of its scales.” Upon seeing this, Ning instantly lost all desire to fight against the creature any longer. In a place as dangerous as this, he couldn’t just waste his azureflower energy willy-nilly; if he ran out, he’d die!

  “Time to leave.”

  Ning quickly clambered upwards, moving more than a thousand kilometers.

  “Running?” The bluish-white scaled monster continued its pursuit.

  “What was that?!” As Ning climbed upwards while blocking the attacks from the first monster, Ning suddenly saw a second streak of light fly towards him from down below.

  “Another one?!” Ning was horrified. “Move! Move! Move!” Ning was truly panicking now. He used four of his arms to furiously climb upwards while his other two arms used the warblade to furiously strike down upon the chasing windbeast. Each blow consumed quite a bit of his azureflower energy, but each time the windbeast suffered just slight injuries. It refused to give up the chase.

  Whoooosh!

  Ning continued to climb upwards at high speed. “I should be just a few thousand kilometers away from the exit. Once I escape the pit, the gray wind won’t be able to cause me any trouble. I’ll easily be able to fly faster than the limits of the Heavenly Daos and it’ll be much easier for me to deal with that monster.”

  “You can’t even deal with a single invader?” The second streak of light had arrived as well.

  “Help me kill him,” the first windbeast growled.

  “
Shit.” Ning gritted his teeth as he saw yet another streak of light appear in the depths of the pit.

  “How many of the damned things are there?” As Ning continued to climb upwards, he defended himself with two hands. He now wielded the warblade with one hand, using it to launch incredibly powerful attacks. With the other hand, he activated the slab that he had picked up, causing a flexible sword to immediately fly out from within it. This was the second Dao weapon which Ning had acquired.

  The warblade was used to launch ferocious, savage attacks. The flexible sword was used to execute the ‘Shadowless stance’ and other unpredictable sword stances.

  As for Ning’s other four hands, he continued to use them to frantically climb upwards.

  Boom! Boom!

  “Kill!”

  Two of the windbeasts furiously assaulted Ning, and he defended against them while continuing to climb upwards. Right at this moment…the third windbeast arrived as well.

  “B-b-but…” Not only was Ning facing the attacks of three windbeasts, he could see two more streaks of light soaring upwards from the dark depths of the pit. One of those streaks of light moved with incredible speed; clearly, it was the fastest of the five.

  “If I let them surround me, I’m dead.”

  Ning furiously defended against their attacks, using his Dao weapons to block. He also redirected some of their attacks, making it so that the three windbeasts interfered with each other’s attacks.

  “There it is!” Ning could see the bright opening above him.

  “Gotta charge out!” Ning could already see the fourth windbeast, the incredibly quick one, drawing very close to him.

  BOOM! Ning intentionally let himself be hit by a claw strike.

  Swoosh! He borrowed the power of the blow, letting it sweep him upwards and shoot him outside of the pit entrance.

  “GRWAAAAR!”

  “Fuu, not only were you unable to kill him, you actually hindered me.”

  “You idiot! He was barely able to handle me. You were useless!”

  “Both of you, shut up.”

  “All three of you idiots, shut up!” The fourth windbeast let out a roar, causing the other three to fall silent.