Desolate Era

by RWX

  “Ji Ning was… was this powerful?” World God Dragonbinder was stunned by what he saw as well. When Ning dueled against the World-level experts of the Badlands Court, he had only competed in sword-arts. He had never gone all-out and so the disciples of the Badlands Court had no idea as to exactly how powerful Ning was.

  “How can an Elder God be this powerful?” The blood-robed Arroyo was absolutely stunned.

  “What a monster. I simply must enslave him and take him for my own.” The golden-robed youth, Fukai, stared at Ning with a gleaming look in his eyes. He didn’t give a damn about whether Darkfall would die or not, as Darkfall was his foe’s subordinate. He actually hoped Darkfall would die faster!

  “Not good.” Darkfall was completely stunned by this. Only now did he realize that there was no so-called ‘suicide attack’. This Elder God was just an absolute monster, a freak with incredible power who was capable of battling against him in close combat.

  “How could a monster like him have chosen to become Su Youji’s retainer…”

  “WAIT!”

  “I was wrong!” The three-eyed man himself had told them that Su Youji had made her breakthrough to become a Chaos Immortal just a few months ago. In other words, a year ago she was nothing more than an Ancestral Immortal. Given how ridiculously, monstrously powerful this Elder God was…

  “There was no way he had been Su Youji’s retainer. Su Youji had to be his retainer!”

  World God Darkfall was no fool. As soon as Ning revealed a hint of his true power, Darkfall immediately came to the correct conclusion.

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  Ning showed absolute valor and courage as he charged forward, sending golden warriors flying in every direction from his wake. Some were actually blasted into smithereens by his very charge itself. Ning’s sword-arts had become even more perfected than before. World God Darkfall was able to move past the golden warriors thanks to his tremendous speed and agility, but Ning was able to do the same by relying on his absolutely flawless sword-arts and the Soleheart stance.

  “No matter how much of a monster you are, you are still just an Elder God. Die for me!” Darkfall let out a cold snarl as he pounced towards Ning.

  To be beaten into a retreat by an Elder God would be a true humiliation!

  “You aren’t good enough.” Ning instantly met him mid-blow.

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  Sword-light and saber-light clashed numerous times in the air, generating powerful booms with each collision. The saber-light was rather fluid and unpredictable while the sword-light thrummed with awesome power.

  World God Darkfall’s agility and speed were both utterly astonishing, far superior to that of most master-class World Gods. However, his saber-arts were a bit lacking in comparison. In fact, they were considerably weaker than Ning’s sword-arts. Thankfully for Darkfall, his advantage in speed and agility allowed him to cover up his flaws and seek out Ning’s.

  Ning used just a single sword, but by relying on the [Heartsword Realm] he was able to deliver awe-inspiring attacks that gave World God Darkfall no chance to defeat him at all.

  “Impossible. How can he possibly withstand my attacks?” World God Darkfall began to panic.

  “The Dao of the Sword?”

  “He’s actually every bit the match of Darkfall in a head-on collision.” The watchers, Arroyo and Fukai included, felt their hearts quiver. These two in particular were the favored sons of heaven and were every bit as talented as the Starlord of Fogstone had been. In fact, they had greater strokes of karmic fortune and were more powerful than the Starlord was. This naturally meant that they had far broader visions than most people… and yet, even they felt utterly speechless when they saw this Elder God fight a master-class World God to a standstill.

  “He’s an utter monster.”

  “What a complete freak…”

  “Hurry over here! Assist me in surrounding and killing this World God Darkfall,” Ning roared loudly.

  “Yes, Master.”

  “Yes, Master.”

  “Yes, Master.”

  “Yes, Master.”

  The four golems all assented in unison. The three black golems began to advance while spinning together like a whirlpool, grinding apart and blasting away all the golden warriors who assailed them. As for the stone titan named Rocky, he helped deal with any of the stragglers who made it through the initial defensive perimeter.

  “He really is the true master.”

  “This Elder God is the real person in charge.”

  Everyone present felt stunned at the thought that they actually had the chance to witness such a peerless monster in action. Individuals like Ji Ning only existed in legends, and it was almost impossible to actually encounter one of them in the flesh. Encountering someone like Ji Ning was far more difficult than encountering a Samsara Daolord!

  When the spirit of the Ten Thousand Mountains Formation saw Ning break through all nine barriers through raw force, it came to understand how much of a monster Ning was and thus it gifted him with a powerful legacy. The technique he had given was one of the nine mighty secret arts possessed by Daolord Allgod, the Novessence Thunder technique. This was a secret art which even Samsara Daolords would go mad over. The reason the spirit had given Ning the technique was because he had seen a faint sliver of a chance that Ning would one day reach the same level as Daolord Allgod. Although the chance was quite small, at least there was a chance.

  Daolord Allgod was a Samsara Daolord but was able to hunt down Eternal Emperors.

  When he was an Elder God, he was naturally just as much of a monster, if not more so! If you started far behind everyone else, you’d have even less of a chance of surpassing them in the future. Still, as far as the spirit of the Ten Thousand Mountains Formation was concerned, Ji Ning had just a tiny chance of actually reaching Daolord Allgod’s level. Over the course of these countless years, he had seen more then ten such peerless geniuses and had handed them quite a few legacies, but the most dazzling performer to date was just Daolord Badlands.

  Yes, Ji Ning might appear to have a strong start, but who knew how outstanding a figure he would be upon becoming a World God or becoming a Samsara Daolord? Each step taken by a Samsara Daolord involved treading on the boundary between life and death. To even reach the Verge of the Daomerge was extremely difficult. Not even Daolord Badlands had reached the Verge yet.

  “Not good!” World God Darkfall was shocked.

  “If those four golems join forces with this monster in front of me, I’m going to be in big trouble.” Darkfall began to panic.

  * * *

  Book 25, Chapter 38 - A Trap

  Rumble…

  The three black golems and the stone titan worked together flawless, the three black golems circling around Rocky as the four slowly advanced through the golden warriors towards Ji Ning and Darkfall.

  “I have to kill this monster of an Elder God before those four golems arrive.” World God Darkfall could sense that this was an incredibly dangerous situation. His eyes flashed red and his attack patterns suddenly changed. Previously, he was trying to use his speed, agility, and unpredictable saber stances to find a flaw in Ning’s attacks. Now, he entered a berserk state and began to unleash saber-arts that focused on overwhelming, dominating power!

  Each of the six dazzling sabers carried enough power to hack apart a chaosworld. Limitless amounts of power permeated every single saber as they burst forth with explosive might.

  Boom! Boom! Boom! One explosion after another rang out. Ning used the Eternal weapon in his hand to block each time, but he clearly seemed to be somewhat struggling.

  “Right! What a fool I am! This monster of an Elder God has only been using a single sword this entire time. Clearly, his other weapons are significantly weaker. This sword is most likely an Eternal weapon.” When World God Darkfall saw Ning begin to stagger, he couldn’t help but feel overjoyed. “I have six blades but he only has one sword. He was able to easily defend against me when I fo
cused on trying to find flaws in his swordplay, but when I go all-out and attack him with full force he won’t be able to withstand my blows.

  “It doesn’t matter how tight your defensive swordplay is. As long as I keep I hacking down upon you with my sabers, a flaw will be revealed.”

  Boom!

  The two mighty Fiendgod Refiners exchanged hundreds of blows in an instant. World God Darkfall could sense the specter of death looming over him and so began to furiously attack with all his might, making it very difficult for Ning to defend against him.

  “An opening!” World God Darkfall’s eyes lit up. He finally saw a flaw in Ning’s defenses.

  Whoosh.

  World God Darkfall didn’t hesitate at all. As soon as he saw the opening, he delivered a strike with an icy-cold streak of saber-light. This streak of saber-light went straight through Ning’s defensive perimeter! As the saying goes, ‘when he is ill, go for the kill’! A single critical strike could completely change the entire nature of a duel, and so Darkfall quickly struck out with all five of his other swords at the same time.

  “No…!” Ning blanched as he hurriedly tried to deflect, but alas, this single mistake resulted in a cascade of mistakes.

  Boom! Boom!

  Two streaks of saber-light slammed down upon Ning at virtually the same moment.

  “Haha…” A look of delight flashed through Darkfall’s eyes… but it was then quickly replaced by a look of shock and rage.

  When his sabers had landed against Ning and struck his arm, it was as though some sort of spring mechanism had been activated. When the armor absorbed the force of his blows, it seemed to briefly store it, then sent it right back at Darkfall at the exact same level of power.

  It must be understood that World God Darkfall had poured every last scrap of his power into those two saber-blows, making them incredibly strong!

  And yet, he was now caught completely off-guard by this damage reflection. Two surges of utterly terrifying power had just been sent towards him from his two sabers!

  BOOM!!!! The twin surges of obliterating power instantly blasted World God Darkfall backwards.

  Being prepared for an attack and being unprepared for an attack… the results would be completely different!

  This was true even for mortals. If he saw that someone was about to push him and prepared himself, he would at most stumble a few steps backwards. But if he was caught completely offguard and was ‘ambushed’ by the push, he might be instantly pushed down onto the ground! Even powerful experts could be slain by weaker opponents who managed to catch them offguard through a sneak attack!

  This was the difference between being prepared and being unprepared.

  “Die!”

  Ning had clearly been struck twice, but he was only knocked a few steps backwards. Every step he took caused the entire Samsara Grinders to shudder, and as he did so he suddenly struck out with his Eternal weapon. Violetjewel instantly increased to become three hundred meters long, and as soon as World God Darkfall was knocked flying backwards Ning chopped at him with Violetjewel!

  World God Darkfall had no choice but to frantically position his warblades in front of him to block.

  BOOM!!!

  He had already been knocked into the air; now, he was sent smashing into the ground by the force of Ning’s sword-blow.

  This strike of Ning’s had made his situation go from bad to worse!

  “It was a trap.” Darkfall instantly realized this.

  Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! This entire time, the golden warriors had been assaulting both sides with no luck. However, almost all of them began throwing out ropes towards World God Darkfall. In the moment that Darkfall had been sent tumbling to the ground, two ropes had already tightened around his legs. He roared as he furiously struggled to break free, trying to use his warblades to hack the ropes apart and regain his freedom.

  He knew very well that if he couldn’t break free, he would die.

  “Useless.” Ning watched from afar, occasionally flicking out Violetjewel to attack the nearby golden warriors.

  “He lost?” The blood-robed Arroyo could hardly believe this was happening. Alas, when he saw Darkfall be smashed to the ground and a rope snake around his legs, Arroyo knew that his retainer had lost.

  The golden warriors were an extremely dangerous part of the Samsara Grinders matches.

  Master-class World Gods could withstand them, but once any additional variables were introduced (such as being knocked to the ground) even they would be thrown into grave peril. In a situation like this, their chances of surviving would rapidly slip away and death would be nigh! The countless golden warriors, all of whom had reached the World threshold of power, wouldn’t give you any chance to recover at all.

  “He was actually defeated by an Elder God.” The golden-robed Fukai also stared at Ji Ning, located atop that distant Samsara Grinders. Although he was very proud, he sensed that Ji Ning could potentially pose a huge threat to him in the future. He knew that if this Elder God continued to grow, he would definitely surpass both Arroyo and Fukai himself.

  “Screw off! Break!”

  World God Darkfall fought hard to break free, but it was useless. When a second rope coiled around his body, it became even harder for him to try and fight back. More and more ropes coiled around him, causing a look of despair to appear in his eyes. He turned his gaze towards the distant Elder God Ji Ning, then let out a low growl. “A trap. It was a trap. Just one mistake…”

  Ning stood there, the four golems circling around him and protecting him, stopping the golden warriors from getting close to him.

  It had indeed been a trap. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t even that clever of a trap. Then again, when experts fought in a duel to the death there was no time to set up particularly intricate schemes. They would at most be able to set up a few small tricks to entrap their foes.

  As soon as Ning had started to fight against World God Darkfall, he had immediately realized that actually killing his foe would be quite difficult. Both of them were roughly on par with each other in power. Even if the four golems came to assist, given how fast and agile Darkfall was he would’ve been able to easily bypass the golden warriors and flee from them.

  Thus, Ning had deliberately said aloud, “Hurry over here! Assist me in surrounding and killing this World God Darkfall.”

  This order was meant to be heard by Darkfall. Darkfall had naturally started to panic upon hearing it. He could flee, but what good would that do? He had to win this match and so he had naturally launched increasingly furious attacks to try and speed this up.

  At that moment, Ning had deliberately revealed a tiny opening. Darkfall hadn’t suspected a thing.

  He had fallen hook, line, and sinker!

  Ning had spent 690 cubes of chaos nectar to purchase this Primalwater Armor during the treasure auction. When its damage reflection property was activated it had sent two incredibly powerful surges of power back towards World God Darkfall, catching him completely off his guard. He had suffered greatly from this attack! In truth, Primalwater Armor normally wasn’t as effective as this, and people who were prepared for it wouldn’t suffer quite this match. Ning, for example, had known exactly what was going to happen!

  Although he had been struck twice, he had merely stumbled back by two steps. Knowing this was going to happen, he immediately struck out with a critical strike from his sword, slamming it against the already airborne World God Darkfall and sending him crashing to the ground.

  His final strike was the straw that broke the camel’s back!

  When Darkfall was knocked down to the ground and the countless golden warriors began to swarm him, his fate was virtually sealed. Only a stroke of absolutely incredible luck would’ve allowed him to escape this dire predicament. Alas, his luck wasn’t good enough.

  Whoosh. A golden warrior who held a gourd in his hands sucked Darkfall inside the gourd, then ground him to dust.

  Even as Darkfall was being drawn into the gourd, he
continued to stare unblinkingly at Ji Ning.

  Ji Ning just calmly looked back at him.

  In the end, one of them had to die. There were no other options.

  “The third match has concluded.” The bald three-eyed man’s voice rang out, causing all of the golden warriors to halt and then disappear.

  Ning waved his hand as well, putting away the three golems. Su Youji appeared in her true form as well.

  “Let’s go.” Ning and Su Youji transformed into streaks of light, flying off of the Samsara Grinders.

  All of the cultivators atop the great plaza had fallen silent. Even Arroyo and Fukai, two incredibly experienced figures who had previously held Ning in no regard, were silent. They stared at Ji Ning and Su Youji as the two flew off of the Samsara Grinders… or to be precise, they stared at Ji Ning.

  “I am Arroyo!” The blood-robed youth, Arroyo, stared at Ning as he spoke. “Tell me your name.”

  Ning smiled. “Arroyo, you should spend your time worrying about your next match on the Samsara Grinders. You will probably be next.”

  * * *

  Book 25, Chapter 39 - Arroyo

  The faces of Arroyo and Fukai both tightened as they turned to glance at each other.

  True enough.

  Three of the five matches had concluded, with just two more to go. Although this freakishly strong Elder God was worthy of their attention, what really mattered was still the divine blood of the Eternal. In the end, the two figures who had the greatest chances of acquiring the Eternal blood were Arroyo and Fukai. They no longer paid any attention to Ji Ning, who simply chuckled as he and Su Youji walked back to World God Dragonbinder’s side.

  “Brother Ji Ning, you hid your true power quite deeply,” World God Dragonbinder sent mentally to Ning.

  “Please pardon me, brother Dragonbinder,” Ning said.

  “Haha, I understand.” Dragonbinder chuckled. His comment was just a casual throwaway comment with no real blame attached. He understand Ning’s predicament. As the saying went, a large tree attracted the most wind! It was even more important for freakishly powerful Elder Gods like Ning to keep a low profile. Unless absolutely necessary, they wouldn’t let others know of their true strength! The only reason why Ning had revealed it today was because he had no choice.