Desolate Era

by RWX

  “Even Elder Gods are slain?” Ning frowned.

  “Anyone who dares to travel there will be slain. Not even animals or birds are permitted to enter that region.” The Chaos Immortal shook his head. “Be careful, fellow Daoist.” After speaking, he flew away.

  The fur-clad Ji Ning considered this matter, then immediately began to charge downwards. As soon as he touched the ground, he instantly disappeared into thin air.

  Using the Shadowless evasion skill, he began to move towards Vastheaven Palace at high speeds. For the sake of hiding his true abilities, Ning merely moved stealthily at just two times the normal speed of light.

  ……

  Within Vastheaven Palace.

  Ji Ning, Daolord Solesky, and Daolord Battlemaster were standing before their barrier formations, staring off into the distance.

  “Big brother, that clone of mine is about to arrive,” Ning said.

  “In order to break through to the Daolord level, you have to merge all of your clones together to form a complete body.” Daolord Solesky shook his head and sighed. “But that madman Patriarch Clearwind has surrounded our palace. It’ll be extremely difficult for your clone to make it inside. As I see it, you should just give up that body. You’ll still be able to become a Daolord, and your strength will only be minimally impacted.”

  Ning shook his head. That clone was one of the eighteen clones that had been created thanks to his [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods]. His ‘main body’ was actually created from the merging of seventeen of those clones! If it died, his spare clone would be able to recreate the main body by remaking the other seventeen clones.

  If the spare clone died, there was no way his main body would be able to rebuild it. Still… once the spare clone died, the main body would become independent and ‘complete’, but it would have an eighteenth less divine power than its maximum potential. It was true that this wouldn’t have a significant impact.

  “Just wait a bit, big brother,” Ning said.

  “Alright.” Daolord Solesky laughed. “I’ll eagerly await your display of power, Ji Ning.”

  ……

  Ning was flying low, very close to the ground. The sky-blotting tempest of gray wind blanketed all of Vastheaven Palace, with the shrine having descended upon the peak of a nearby mountain. Patriarch Clearwind’s Immortal energy filled the entire region, with the area around Vastheaven Palace under his complete control. Any cultivator who wished to enter or exit Vastheaven Palace would not be able to escape his detection.

  “Eh?” Patriarch Clearwind opened his eyes. His gaze pierced through the walls of the shrine as he stared towards a distant region. He let out a cold smile. “Ah, a young World-level cultivator. He thinks to evade my surveillance through using an evasion skill?”

  “You may perish.”

  Patriarch Clearwind coldly waved a single finger.

  BOOM!

  A terrifying amount of natural energy instantly began to manifest, transforming into a blurry gray hand that was three million kilometers in size and which clawed downwards towards the cultivator.

  Whooooosh. The swiping motion of that giant gray blurry hand caused the entire area beneath it to be reduced to dust as an enormous gouge was torn into the earth.

  Swish! Ning, however, continued to skirt across the surface of the ground. His speed had suddenly increased to four times the speed of light.

  “Eh?” Patriarch Clearwind’s face tightened. “How can a World-level cultivator have such a fast evasion skill? He’s comparable to a Daolord of the Third Step.” When he had swiped out at the ground, Ning had suddenly sped up from twice the speed of light to four times the speed of light, avoiding his blow.

  “Hmph.” Patriarch Clearwind had a dark look on his face as he once more launched an attack, a second claw.

  That giant blurry gray hand carried even more power than before, and it also moved even faster as it swept out towards the ground. The earth trembled as mud and dirt was reduced to dust as an even larger gouge appeared within the ground.

  And yet… Ning’s speed skyrocketed yet again. He now was able to move at six times the speed of light, and as a result he dodged even this second attack. By now, he was very close to Vastheaven Palace.

  Swish! Patriarch Clearwind didn’t even have a chance to unleash a third strike. Ning almost instantly charged within the protective perimeter of Vastheaven Palace.

  “What?!” Patriarch Clearwind shot to his feet, causing his seven World-level cultivators under his command to all be shocked. None of them even knew that a World-level cultivator was using an evasion skill; all they knew was that their Patriarch Clearwind had just clawed twice at the ground.

  “He actually escaped, and that final burst of speed brought him to move at six times the speed of light? That’s faster than many Verge-level Daolords!” Patriarch Clearwind had a look of disbelief on his face. “How could a World-level cultivator be that fast? What sort of special encounters has he had!?”

  If Ning was riding Chaos lightning , he would be able to move at ten times the speed of light. There were actually quite a few similar evasion skills, but they were all extremely difficult to train in. Many Verge-level Daolords didn’t have access to such evasion skills.

  “Given his speed… could that have been the Darknorth fellow which Blesswind spoke of?” Patriarch Clearwind mused to himself, “But logically speaking, that World God named Darknorth should’ve reached Vastheaven Palace long ago. Could it be that Vastheaven Palace has a second World-level cultivator who moves at those speeds?”

  Patriarch Clearwind was truly mystified.

  ……

  Vastheaven Palace, however, was a hubbub of celebration.

  Swoosh.

  The fur-clad Ning charged past the barriers of Vastheaven Palace; in doing so, he had reached a position of perfect safety. He flew straight towards the white-robed Ning, returning to his usual appearance while doing so.

  “Impressive, impressive.” Daolord Solesky let out an amazed sigh. “Patriarch Clearwind struck out twice but still wasn’t able to halt your clone. That evasion skill you used at the very end… it let you move at six times the limits of the Heavenly Daos, right?”

  “He was overconfident. He didn’t know about my true abilities.” Ning chuckled. He had actually been quite relaxed this entire time, and he had only been forced to move at six times the speed of light. His current limit was actually ten! However, he only needed to move as fast as was necessary to escape and safely enter Vastheaven Palace. There was no need for him to let the enemy know everything.

  “If you move that fast, it won’t be an easy thing for him to kill you,” Daolord Battlemaster said.

  Ning immediately said, “Big brother Solesky, big brother Battlemaster, now that my clone’s arrived I’m going to merge my clone with my main body and break through to become a Daolord.”

  “Right.” Solesky and Battlemaster both turned solemn.

  “You must be careful,” Solesky instructed. “Breaking through to become a Daolord of the First Step might be easy for you, but given how formidable your sword-intent is you’ll definitely become at least a Daolord of the Fourth Step. That makes it even more important for you to solidify your foundation. The Dao you develop must be sufficiently solid and stable.”

  Ning nodded.

  Daolords. With each step they took, they trod the line between life and death.

  It was like building a tall building. Becoming a Daolord of the First Step was establishing the foundation for that building! Daolords of the second, third, and fourth steps were like adding more and more floors to that building. If the foundation wasn’t stable, the entire building might collapse! The same was true for Samsara Daolords. Each step they took they risked their lives, and quite a few Daolords ended up dying upon taking their third step. Not every Daolord would be able to reach the fourth step.

  In order to build a tall tower, the most important thing of all was to have a sturdy base. As for gaining eternity? Not even the sligh
test error was permissible. Even the smallest of flaws would ensure that you would never be able to gain eternity!

  If your foundation was small, you’d only be able to build a small wooden cabin, which was to say you would become an ordinary Daolord. Each step they took would be easier, and it would be easier for them to become Eternal Emperors. However, they would be weak.

  If you had an incredibly deep foundation, you would be ready to build a massive palace atop it. Every floor would be quite difficult to construct, and to gain eternity would be even harder. However, if you succeeded you would be unfathomably stronger than your peers. This was true for Bertulu, Eastcult, Greatjoy, and the others. As for Ning, his foundation was the deepest of them all.

  “Don’t worry at all, big brother.” Ning smiled, then both he and his clone both transformed into streaks of light that flew towards his distant estate as Daolord Battlemaster and Daolord Solesky both watched from behind.

  “Brother Ji Ning truly has improved by an astonishing amount.” Daolord Solesky sighed. “When I first met him… I thought he was quite talented, but I never would’ve imagined that he would become as powerful as he is today. The evasion skill he used just now was very fast, but it didn’t seem to include any of his lightning or water. I have no idea what evasion skill he used, but just by relying on his sword-intent he was able to capture five World-level cultivators.”

  Daolord Battlemaster nodded as well. “I tried to use Numerancy to divine his future, but I wasn’t able to divine anything at all. He’s too monstrously talented, even more talented than Brightfish. Calculating his future is far too difficult.”

  Forget about him; even the Paragon of Pills was only able to use Numerancy to get the vaguest of ideas as to how long it would be before they met again.

  * * *

  Book 29, Chapter 16 - Becoming a Daolord

  Vastheaven Palace. The Darknorth Estate.

  The white-robed Ji Ning and the fur-clad Ning were travelling side-by-side.

  “Master.” Su Youji and Pillsaint stared in astonishment.

  “My clone has already returned from the Badlands Territory. It is now time for me to break through to become a Daolord as well,” Ning said. “Starting right now, do not disturb me unless something very important happens.”

  “Understood.”

  Both Su Youji and Pillsaint immediately acknowledged the order. They were unable to prevent looks of excitement from appearing on their faces. As they saw it, Ji Ning truly was an incredible figure; once he broke through to become a Daolord, his status would truly skyrocket even more.

  Whoosh. Whoosh. The white-robed Ning and the fur-clad Ning both moved into a private room deep within the estate.

  ……

  Within the secluded room.

  Rumble…

  Formations began to actiate, causing barriers of light to begin to appear around the entire Darknorth estate, preventing any outsiders from looking into it.

  The white-robed Ning and the fur-clad Ning both sat in the lotus position. Both shut their eyes, then began to use the [One True Body] technique.

  Whoosh. Both bodies began to emanate an aura of blurry light from their bodies, their Jindans, and their souls. They began to draw closer and closer to each other, before finally the fur-clad Ning flew straight into the white-robed Ning’s body, causing the light to expand dramatically.

  The two came from the same source. They were identical in soul, truesoul, and body. This was why they were able to rejoin each other and merge into one.

  “Now, all eighteen of my clones have been brought together into one.” The white-robed Ning opened his eyes, revealing a smile. He still remembered how he had first acquired the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods] and used it to create eighteen separate clones. Now, he had managed to once more merge all eighteen clones into one! A sense of perfection and contentment came from his very truesoul, causing him to feel a bit intoxicated.

  Immortal energy and divine power flooded into the azureflower mist region within his body, and it actually began to transform into more of that mist energy. For eighteen of those bodies to come together meant that his divine body had only become more powerful than it had been in the past! His divine power was also slightly purer than before as well, allowing him to endure and hold a bit more of that mist energy.

  “A hundred and twenty drops.” He had accumulated a total of 120 drops of ‘water’ within the azureflower mist region. This was quite a bit more than the 108 drops he had accumulated previously.

  ……

  Within an estate located in the primordial chaos directly outside the distant Three Realms.

  The black-robed Ning was seated there, next to another black-robed Ning. They simultaneously used the [One True Body] technique as well and merged to become one.

  A short while later, there was only one seated black-robed Ning. His aura, however, was a bit stronger than before.

  From this day forth, he would only have one true body and one Primaltwin, with no clones of either.

  ……

  “Let it begin.” Both the white-robed Ning in Vastheaven Palace and the black-robed Ning in his chaos estate nodded, their eyes filled with resolve.

  Boom!

  The true body and the Primaltwin, though located extremely far away from each other, made their breakthroughs simultaneously. They could even sense a strange resonance between them, and in this moment they both established a Dao that belonged to them and them alone.

  Samsara Daolords walked a path of their own devising, and with each step on their Dao they trod the line between life and death.

  Each time he made a breakthrough, both his true body and his Primaltwin would have to make the breakthrough at the same time! Trying to break through with just one would result in being stifled by the other; there was no way for it to succeed. Consider the ‘Daomerge’; even a Daolord of the Fourth Step who had a Primaltwin would only have one shot at the Daomerge. There was no way to simply allow the true body to fail the Daomerge, then allow the Primaltwin to use that experience to succeed.

  The true body and the Primaltwin would have to face it all together, and with each step they would risk death together. This was how things worked. If you weren’t extremely determined, you would never be able to succeed.

  Rumble…

  The primordial chaos outside the Three Realms began to rumble and churn with unearthly power, forming a chaos whirlpool of terrifying power and inconceivable size. The ripples caused by it actually affected even the insides of the Three Realms!

  “W-what…”

  “What in the world?”

  “What are these terrifying ripples?”

  Patriarch Subhuti, Windfiend, and the other elites of the Three Realms all flew to the void above the Three Realms. They stared towards the distant place where the ripples were coming from. They could sense that the normally calm and tranquil primordial chaos was now rumbling and roaring like a dragon in flight, churning with such power that they were all utterly amazed.

  ……

  Vastheaven Palace. The Darknorth Estate was completely calm.

  Although a Daolord’s aura was bursting forth from this place, the barriers which Ning had activated earlier made it so that the aura was completely blocked from escaping. As for the energy which he needed to break through from the World level to the Daolord level, Ning was able to simply generate it from the chaos jewels which he carried with him. This was a decision he had made ever since he comprehended his Omega Sword Dao.

  Whoooosh.

  The Jindan chaos region within his body. The Dao-tree which had been 108,000 meters tall began to draw nourishment from Ning’s insights into his Sword Dao. It quickly began to grow, and with a rumbling sound it started to expand. Although it was very slow in growing ‘taller’, it was beginning to thicken at an absolutely incredible speed.

  The Dao-tree was growing thicker and thicker, but it was growing taller quite slowly.

  “The deeper a Samsara Daolord’s foundation
is, the thicker his Dao-tree will be. Thanks to my Omega Sword Dao, there should be very few Daolords of the First Step who are a match for me,” Ning mused. There was a fixed limit to how tall a Dao-tree could be. For example, if a Daolord of the Fourth Step trained for many years and reached the Verge, his Dao-tree would grow to become 540,000 meters tall. This was true for all Verge-level Daolords. The thickness, however, was different for each person.

  As the Dao-tree grew thicker and taller, the roots would also extend deeper and deeper into the Jindan chaos region, allowing it to become more and more stable and expand even further in size.

  The Dao-tree continued to grow until it reached a height of 156,000 meters tall, then finally came to a halt.

  The Jindan chaos region, however, was still furiously expanding. Its aura was expanding as well, and the Jindan core at the very heart of the region was becoming increasingly mysterious and profound.

  “Time to rebuild the divine body.”

  The white-robed Ning sat there in the lotus position. His bones, his flesh, his sinews… they all began to be fundamentally remade and rebuilt, using the Omega Sword Dao as their core. They drew in the chaos energy, using it to remake his divine power itself. His awesome Daolord aura burst forth from his room, and the many chaos jewels in Ning’s possession were being continuously used up and replenished. In truth, not even a Daolord of the Fourth Step would really use up that many chaos jewel in replenishing his divine power. To Ning, such a small amount of chaos jewels was negligible.

  ……

  “A Daolord’s aura. Master is making his breakthrough.” Pillsaint was nervous.

  “Right, but the aura is so powerful… it is far greater than the aura we had when we made our breakthroughs.” Su Youji was quite moved, but a puzzled look appeared in her eyes as she raised her head skywards. “Odd. Why isn’t there any disturbance in the local primordial chaos?”