Desolate Era

by RWX

  In terms of raw, overwhelming attack power, Prince Greatjoy was the strongest of the five.

  In terms of viciousness… Ning’s sword was the deadliest.

  “Attack!” Skyfire Brightshore and Firesurge simultaneously attacked, the former using fire and the latter using water. These two were diametrically different types of energy, and they were equal in power. As a result, when they joined forces they resulted in an absolutely explosive amount of energy being unleashed. Skyfire had truly grown much stronger in recent years, perhaps because the twelve scrolls of the [Sutra of Eternity] was indeed an incredible technique. By now, Skyfire was just as strong as Firesurge, who had been the weakest member of the four elites of the Twelve Palaces.

  “Break.” Prince Greatjoy sent his enormous golden palms crashing downwards towards the two sides of the closed stone door.

  Rumble…

  The sealing barrier twisted, no longer able to endure the surging power that had been brought to bear against it. With a rumbling sound, the closed stone door began to swing open as the barrier naturally broke apart.

  The two sides of the stone door were smashed open by the twin palms, revealing an empty pavilion behind them.

  “So we have reached the end of this passageway?” Ning and the others were all stunned. They had encountered multiple barriers on the way over and had felt certain that there would be another passageway beyond the stone doors. Who would’ve thought that it would instead be a pavilion?

  Ning and the other four advanced with caution, surrounded by the heartworld projection and the sword-intent domain. They walked through the stone door and into the pavilion.

  The empty pavilion was roughly thirty thousand meters in size. An extremely muscular form was seated within the pavilion. The creature was completely crimson in color, and even its eyes were blazing with fire. It didn’t look like an ordinary living creature at all.

  “A golem?” Greatjoy frowned.

  “What a powerful golem.” Solewind’s face tightened as well.

  “The Daolord we killed was merely at the first step. Why is there such a powerful golem here?” Ning’s heart sank. They could all tell that this was nothing more than a powerful golem, but it was different from those weaker golems that had existed in the Sacred Immortal Realm. Those golems were at the Elder God level of strength at most. This one… it was at the Daolord level.

  Its aura was so weighty and dense that there was no way an ordinary Daolord could match it in might.

  Whoooosh. There was another stone door on the other end of the palace. That tightly sealed stone door was covered with a layer of deep green energy that radiated hatred, with the hatred so dense that furiously roaring faces would constantly appear on its surface. Unfathomable amounts of dense elemental energy were being gathered from the surrounding areas, then channel into and through the stone door.

  “The hatred and malice is all gathering here? What on earth is behind that stone door?” Ning realized that they were getting very close to uncovering some of the secrets behind the Sacred Immortal Realm.

  The five of them exchanged a glance, their hearts sinking. They all knew that this would most likely be the most deadly battle yet in this alternate universe… and that it was possible they might die here.

  “We have entered the Archaeus region on the orders of our master. I’d like to ask for you to give way and release the five of us from this Sacred Immortal Realm,” Solewind said. “If there is anything you want from us, just tell us.”

  The massive golem, seated in the lotus position, slowly raised his head and stared at Ning’s group with his fiery eyes. His lips parted in a savage smile as he rose to his feet, then stretched out his left hand. Instantly, an enormous black shield appeared within it. He then stretched out his right hand, causing an enormous greataxe to appear.

  A shield in one hand, a greataxe in the other… and his aura completely exploded forth, sweeping through the entire palace and causing it to echo and thunder.

  “I want…” The massive golem’s voice boomed forth, “For you all to die!”

  BOOM!

  The golem transformed into a streak of light as it charged straight towards Ning’s group.

  * * *

  Book 28, Chapter 12 - In Danger of Dying

  The entire pavilion was merely thirty thousand meters in size, and thus it was completely filled by the Yin-Yang Sword Domain. Torrents of electric light and watery light transformed into enormous swords that furiously hacked at everything near them. The towering golem was assaulted by endless attacks, but it simply roared with fury as it charged towards Ning’s group. The Yin-Yang Sword Domain wasn’t able to do anything to it at all.

  Whooosh. Heartlord Solewind rose high up into the air, his red robes fluttering. He actually seemed to transform into a divine bird that was bathed in flames. More and more of these flaming birds began to appear in the area around him, as well as enormous amounts of blazing lava.

  “Focus.” Solewind instantly manifested a total of eighteen arms, and each arm represented a beak of a firebird as they all flew towards that golem.

  “Kill!”

  “Attack!”

  Skyfire Brightshore and Waterlord Firesurge joined forces in a practiced manner. They had long ago grown accustomed to combination attacks, and thus they sent intertwined attacks of water and fire straight towards the golems.

  As for Ning, he first used [Three Heads, Six Arms], then drew out his six divine swords. Prince Greatjoy actually manifested six arms as well, a rare sight to behold. The two of them had the most powerful attacks… and were the final ones to attack.

  “GWAAAAR!” The massive golem roared furiously as it chopped horizontally with the massive black greataxe in its hand.

  This chop seemed to sever the heavens from the earth itself. Ning and the others all instantly felt their hearts turn cold!

  Heartlord Solewind had used his heartworld projection to manifest eighteen blazing firebirds, but they were all chopped into two pieces by this blow.

  “Careful.” Skyfire Brightshore was sent flying back by the chop as well, and he furiously cried out to warn the others.

  Whoooosh.

  Waterlord Firesurge’s body was cleaved apart at the waist. Blood flew everywhere, and a look of shock and rage was in his eyes. And then, his entire body transformed into a flow of water that tried to flee.

  Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

  Prince Greatjoy’s six enormous golden palms began to descend from the skies, striking against the edge of that greataxe and preventing it from continuing its attacks. Thanks to him, Skyfire and Firesurge were saved.

  “Brother Darknorth!” Prince Greatjoy vomited out a mouthful of blood as he flew backwards, but he still managed to send an urgent mental call to Ning.

  Six silent streaks of sword-light. As Prince Greatjoy tied down the greataxe, the six streaks of sword-light scraped past it and stabbed directly towards the fingers of the golem’s right hand. Ning knew very well that this was a golem which was as tough and resilient as a magical treasure! To actually destroy this golem? Not even a Daolord of the Fourth Step would be able to do this, to say nothing of Ning.

  Ning’s Blood Drop stance had penetrating power, true… but it wouldn’t be able to pierce through the golem’s body by even an inch!

  Thus, Ning had only one goal – to attack the finger-joints on the golem’s right hand, then seize its greataxe! Ning had been able to tell quite quickly that this golem was at an extremely high level of skill in wielding a greataxe. If Ning was able to disarm it and take the greataxe, the golem would instantly lose the majority of its power! This was similar to how if Ning himself lost his six Eternal swords he would only be able unleash 10-20% of his true power!

  Crunch. Clang!

  The six streaks of sword-light simultaneously stabbed into different finger-joints on the golem’s right hand. The terrifying penetrative power of the Blood Drop stance caused the fingers of the mighty golem’s right hand to invo
luntarily unclench just slightly, causing its grip over the greataxe to grow weak.

  Ning was delighted to see this. Just as he was about to move forwards and seize the greataxe…

  “Darknorth, careful!” Solewind’s voice rang out in Ning’s mind.

  “Eh?!” Ning’s face turned pale, because an enormous shield was crashing towards his head with an absolutely unstoppable amount of power!

  The golem smiled coldly as it sent its enormous shield spinning towards Ning. Its greatest proficiency lay in the art of using shields! It was created in order to serve as a guardian for its master in dangerous situations, so as to help buy its master some extra time. The only reason it was also quite skilled in wielding axes was because it had been assigned to work as a miner for countless years now. Still… comparatively speaking, its true expertise still lay in wielding shields.

  Rumble…

  When the shield came crashing down, it was as though the skies themselves were pressing down upon Ning. Even a chaos star would most likely be reduced to dust by a blow from this shield! As the shield moved closer and closer to Ning, layers of multicolored space generated by the terrifying pressure began to appear right in front of it.

  There was no way for Ning to seize the greataxe. All he could do was to use his sword-arts to defend as best as he could.

  BOOM!!!!

  The shield slammed directly onto Ning’s six swords. Although Ning was skilled in using his longswords to defend, that meant very little when there was such an enormous disparity in power. The shield crushed through Ning’s six arms and slammed into Ning’s body. Ning felt his head grow dim as he was sent flying backwards with a boom. He almost instantly slammed into the walls of the pavilion, and blood immediately spewed out of his mouth.

  The faces of Prince Greatjoy, Heartlord Solewind, Skyfire Brightshore, and Waterlord Firesurge all turned pale when they saw this. They were all completely stunned.

  The strike from that shield… it was far more powerful than the strikes from the greataxe had been!

  “You actually made me lose my grip over my greataxe. What a formidable sword-art! I’ll make your death a cleaner one.” The golem charged forwards, each step causing the pavilion to tremble. He continued to wield the shield in one hand and the greataxe in the other as he pounced towards Ning. Clearly, the fact that Ning had caused him to temporarily lose his grip over his greataxe had rather irritated him.

  Prince Greatjoy and the others felt their hearts turn cold when they saw this. Right now, they didn’t really care about the greataxe any longer. It was that shield which had them worried.

  “I, I…” Ning’s mind was still woozy, and he was only slowly regaining full consciousness.

  Just now, he had been knocked completely unconscious for a brief moment. Thankfully, he had a suit of Eternal armor protecting him, and had already completely mastered the [Golden Idol] technique. That was the only reason why he had been able to survive that terrifying strike! If he had a slightly inferior protective divine ability, such as one which only made his body comparable to the toughness of an ordinary Dao weapon, he probably would’ve died from that collision.

  Thankfully, Ning’s body was as tough as a top-grade Dao weapon. It wasn’t that easy to destroy.

  “Dodge, brother Darknorth!” Prince Greatjoy once more struck out with his six golden palms towards the golem, and the golem once more bashed out with his shield, causing that immense level of power to once more descend upon the cultivators.

  BOOOOM!

  The six golden palms collided head-on with the enormous shield!

  In truth, Prince Greatjoy’s palm-arts were actually quite similar in function and effect to the golem’s shield. In fact, Prince Greatjoy’s techniques actually evinced a much deeper understanding of the Dao! The problem was that the golem was simply too overwhelmingly powerful. Prince Greatjoy just barely qualified as having the physical power of a Daolord of the First Step, but this golem had the power of an apex Daolord of the Third Step! Even though its technique was rather weak, perhaps comparable to just that of a supreme World God, it would still be able to completely dominate Prince Greatjoy.

  For a golem to be able to reach a level of mastery in using a shield which was comparable to that of a supreme World God was actually quite incredible. After all, golems were by nature far inferior to true cultivators in terms of being able to understand the Dao.

  Bang!

  Golden light radiated from every part of Prince Greatjoy’s body, making him seem as though he was made out of gold. And yet, he couldn’t help but spit out a mouthful of golden liquid as he was sent flying backwards. Still, his interception gave Ning the time he needed to fully regain consciousness.

  “DIE!” The golem struck out with his greataxe once more, this time chopping towards Skyfire Brightshore and Waterlord Firesurge.

  “Kill him.” Ning had come back to his senses, and a cold look was in his eyes.

  Whoooosh.

  A slight ripple suddenly appeared with the pavilion. The ripple was very delicated, and even Ning’s Yin-Yang Sword Domain found it difficult to detect it. However, once the ripple moved next to the golem, the golem revealed a look of shock.

  Swish!

  A vicious, insidious streak of sword-light suddenly appeared, avoiding both the greataxe and shield as it slashed at the golem’s head.

  Rumble…

  The golem couldn’t help but be knocked backwards. As it was knocked backwards, that viper-like streak of sword-light appeared once more. This time, it actually began to twist as it quickly bound the golem up in rings of sword-light, completely trussling it up.

  “Get in here.” A figure wreathed in black mist suddenly appeared, causing the golem to disappear with a wave of the hand. The figure glanced at Ning. “Per Master’s orders, you are permitted to have me help you one time. Now that I have dealt with this golem, I have completed my promise.”

  “Mm.” Ning was still slumped on the ground of the pavilion. He nodded.

  This figure wreathed in black mist was one of the four golems which Emperor Mirrorsnow had prepared for his personal disciples… the golem known as ‘the assassin’!

  Whoosh.

  The assassin instantly disappeared, returning to the world of the Mirrorsnow Painting.

  Within that world.

  The assassin, the golden-robed emperor, the fisherman, and the swordsman were all together, staring at the shield-bearing and axe-wielding golem.

  “You really moved quite quickly,” the golden-robed emperor laughed.

  “This guy isn’t too bad. He can be considered to be as physically strong as an apex Daolord of the Third Step,” the assassin said coldly. “His shield-wielding techniques are weak, though, and his greataxe-wielding abilities are even weaker. Overall, he can just barely be considered as strong as a weak Daolord of the Third Step. I was the perfect counter for him in every respect. This was an easy win.”

  The four of them were all comparable to apex Daolords of the Third Step. In terms of speed and power, they had actually reached the threshold of Daolords of the Fourth Step, and they all had exceedingly profound sword-arts. Although Ning had ‘defeated’ them, that was because Emperor Mirrorsnow had ordered them to only use a certain level of sword-arts! But of course, their skills were slightly inferior to that of the sword-arts of a true Daolord of the Third Step. Thus, they averaged out to be as strong as an apex Daolord of the Third Step!

  Strength? Speed? Comprehension? They surpassed this new golem in every way.

  ……

  Within the pavilion.

  Ning continued to sit there on the ground. Waterlord Firesurge slowly reformed his true body out of the currents of water, while Skyfire Brightshore turned to look towards Ning. Solewind let out a long, relaxed sigh. As for Prince Greatjoy? He began to roar with laughter.

  “That was close,” Solewind laughed.

  “Brother Darknorth, I owe you my life.” Prince Greatjoy looked towards Ning.

  Ning le
t out a sigh of relief as well.

  That golem had brought them far, far too much pressure! In the end, they were still just a five-man group of World-level cultivators. When faced with a golem that was comparable to a Daolord of the Third Step, they were completely flattened with each class. If too much time passed, they probably would’ve lost their lives.

  * * *

  Book 28, Chapter 13 - The Black-Robed Daolord

  “Thanks, Darknorth.” Skyfire Brightshore and Waterlord Firesurge both looked towards Ji Ning gratefully. Just now, had Ning been just one moment too slow, the two of them would’ve perished. Of the five, the two of them were undoubtedly the weakest.

  “Brother Darknorth, just now I saw a dark figure appear, capture the golem, then say something about only helping you once?” Prince Greatjoy frantically asked, “We’ve disposed of the golem, but it was probably just equivalent to a Daolord of the Third Step. There’s no way its master was the Daolord we slew earlier… which means that it is highly likely that a second Daolord resides within the estate. If we can’t even deal with his golem… we’re probably going to be in grave danger once that Daolord attacks.”

  The others all understood this point as well. They had disposed of the golem and managed to stay alive, buying themselves some extra breathing time, but the danger was still there! Still… there was nothing that could be done! If there truly was an even more powerful Daolord here, there was nothing they could do except face him. This was the Daolord’s estate, after all. They were on enemy grounds.

  “Yes, he can only help me once.” Ning nodded. “My master once said I can’t rely on him to deal with every danger I encounter, which is why I’ll only be assisted a single time.”

  Greatjoy, Solewind, and the others all nodded. They understood this principle.

  Ning didn’t reveal the fact that he had three more golems. It was best for him to be able to leave a few more trump cards up his sleeve.