Desolate Era

by RWX

  Although the relationship naturally wasn’t nearly as deep as the one he shared with Ninedust, who he had shared life-and-death experiences with, they were still good friends.

  “Afraid?” King Paleos smirked.

  “DIE!” Ning was boiling with murderous rage.

  BOOM! A terrifying wave of invisible force instantly lashed out towards them from Ning, striking against the souls and truesouls of the twelve supreme Daolords.

  “Ah!” “Ahhh!” Two of the supreme Daolords instantly turned pale, followed by their heads drooping downwards. The faces of many of the other Daolords also tightened slightly, but at least they were able to maintain their clarity of mind.

  “What a terrifying heartforce art.” King Paleos’ face tightened as well.

  “Kill!” Just now, Ning had used the [Heartforce Eradicator] art. It was linked to his Omega Sword Dao, and so now that Ning had reached the third stage of his Omega Sword Dao the power of his [Heartforce Eradicator] had also significantly improved. However, to directly slay a supreme Daolord was still no easy feat.

  And yet, Ning’s goal wasn’t to actually slay any of them outright. His goal was to crush their morale and douse their bravado.

  Boom! Next, his vast heartworld projection came crashing down. At the center of that massive, illusory world was that enormous sword-shaped mountain, and it came plunging straight down towards all of the supreme Daolords, causing their bodies to stiffen. As far as heartworld projections went, at present there was no Daolord who was a match for Ning!

  A heartbeat later, nine energy dragons came howling out of Ning’s body, forming the Yin-Yang Chaos Domain around him.

  “One person wants to suppress the twelve of us by himself? He’s too arrogant.”

  “He doesn’t know his own limits.”

  “Break!”

  King Paleos and the others used their own secret arts as well. Some were strong, some were weak, but when joined together they vastly outstripped Ning in power. The difference was, Ning’s heartworld projection and his secret arts were able to merge together seamlessly! These supreme Daolords weren’t able to merge their secret arts together; if they tried, they would begin to interfere with each other.

  However, they had gained some experience from their previous battle against Winesage. There were some secret arts that could work together, such as Five Elements arts or Yin and Yang arts. In this way, their secret arts could be improved in power as they worked together to suppress Ning.

  However, Ning’s heartworld projection was also capable of restricting and suppressing part of the secret arts. The two sides began a battle of secret arts and heartworld projections. Ning was forced to shrink the radius of his secret arts, but he was still able to hold.

  “Kill!” Six Northbow swords in hand, Ning charged straight towards the strongest foe, King Paleos. King Paleos might be strong, but Ning held him in no regard at all. Ning would dare to battle even Winesage in solo combat; why would he fear King Paleos?

  “He didn’t pick the weakest member but instead went after me?” King Paleos’ long black hair fluttered behind him as he sent his six serrated blades howling towards Ning. As he did, a thick black fog spread out from him.

  Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!

  Six streaks of mist-formed swords appeared before him with incredible speed, so fast that King Paleos’ face instantly turned pale. “How can he be this fast? He’s even faster than the Radiant King. In fact, perhaps only Daolord Dreamlore is a match for him in speed!” He had yet to truly battle against the Radiant King or Daolord Dreamlore, but during the previous fights over the Voidsea Jadeseals he had watched both of them strike with despair-inducing speed.

  Darknorth’s swords were just as fast… no, they was even faster than the Radiant King’s strikes! Perhaps only Daolord Dreamlore and his dazzling, blood-streaked bloodblade strikes were on par with Darknorth.

  Clang! Clang! Clang! King Paleos furiously defended himself against Ning’s onslaught. His six serrated blades were quite strange and unpredictable. When used for defense, they were quite formidable.

  “What?!” King Paleos could sense that every single one of his blades were enduring a terrifying amount of power with each strike. His fingers were turning numb and his body was trembling.

  Fast and furious!

  The Omega Sword Dao – Blood Drop was the fastest and most penetrating attack Ning had to muster. But of course, in raw power alone it wasn’t even close to the Heavenbreaker in might. Although the Northbow swords boosted the Blood Drop stance the most, this stance was still weaker than the Heavenbreaker stance. Despite that, it still contained quite a bit of power! This was especially true after Ning had mastered the tenth stance of the [Heartsword], as this allowed Ning to infuse every single strike with incredible weight.

  King Paleos felt as though every single strike brought him incredible pressure. If it was just a matter of speed, he would have a solution. If it was just a matter of power, he would also have a solution! The problem was, Ji Ning’s swords not only surpassed the Radiant King in speed, they actually surpassed King Paleos’ ultimate attacks in power as well!

  “How is this possible? How could he be this much stronger than me? I-impossible… I’ve reached a perfect level of power. I’m not a match for Winesage, but that’s because Winesage has a Universe treasure. None of the other supreme Daolords could dominate me like this!” King Paleos couldn’t believe it, nor did he want to believe it. He had always been very proud of himself and had been very dissatisfied with his ranking as the sixth Daolord. As he saw it, any Daolord who didn’t have a Universe treasure would only be on par with him at most.

  Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash! Ning’s swords were simply too fast! Mist-formed swords flew everywhere, creating an almost illusory dreamscape.

  For the sake of destroying the 9000 barriers as quickly as possible, Ning had grown accustomed to launching a furious barrage of attacks. Now that he was boiling with the desire to murder the man before him, he was able to strike 129 times with unmatchable speed. King Paleos’ defenses were quite impressive and he used all six serrated blades to defend at the same time… but perpetual defense would result in defeat. In the end, one strike from Ning slipped past his guard.

  Slash! A streak of sword-light stabbed straight into King Paleos’ body, but King Paleos transformed into a blood-tinged black fog.

  “An invulnerable form?” Ning frowned. Dealing with cultivators who had invulnerable forms was quite taxing. Ninedust was an example of someone who had an invulnerable aquaform.

  “Attack together and kill him!” With the billowing black fog, streams of bloody light reformed to manifest into King Paleos. He bellowed loudly, “Daolords, no one can beat him in a one-on-one fight. Join forces to kill him!”

  “Surround him and kill him!”

  “Don’t get greedy.”

  “Careful!”

  King Paleos had been defeated in a single exchange by that furious barrage of sword-mist and had only survived thanks to his invulnerable form. This instantly frightened all of the other supreme Daolords. This Darknorth was simply too terrifying! For him to be able to fight against four supreme Daolords and kill both Timedream and Kingfreak was one thing, but King Paleos was far stronger than the Kingfreak or Timedream in close combat. Despite that, he had also been defeated in a single exchange?!

  What they didn’t realize was that Ning had mastered the tenth stance of the [Heartsword] in Crimsonwave Temple. If it hadn’t been for this technique, he still would’ve been able to beat King Paleos but he wouldn’t have been able to do it just through a simple barrage of Blood Drop stance strikes.

  “Careful?” Ning swept them with his gaze. “It doesn’t matter how careful you are.”

  Whoosh. Ning vanished without a trace.

  “That’s his assassination arts! Careful, he can appear anywhere!”

  “Be careful, everyone.”

  “Attack! Attack! Don’t let him get close to us!”
r />   The supreme Daolords began to blindly launch attacks in every direction. Ning’s heartworld projection and nine novessence arts ensured that so long as he remained within their range, there would be no way for his enemies to find him once he used his assassination arts.

  Whoosh. Ning appeared out of nowhere, then struck at the supreme Daolord closest to him.

  “Block, quick!”

  “Join forces!”

  Some used magic treasures, others used secret arts. All of them threw attacks towards Ning as quickly as possible.

  Boom! Slash! Ning’s six Northbow swords executed varying sword-arts as he blocked the attacks and continued his charge. His defensive abilities were far stronger than King Paleos’.

  “Dodge, quick!”

  “Dodge!”

  The supreme Daolords were so terrified that they frantically retreated, moving closer to their peers. Only when five of them worked in unison would they be able to resist Ning.

  “He’s utterly terrifying.”

  “Darknorth’s sword-arts are completely flawless. He’s able to easily defend himself against our combined attacks while continuing to charge at us!” This was the first time these Daolords experienced the terror of Ning for themselves.

  Ning was already incredibly strong to begin with. Now that he had the Northbow swords and the tenth stance of the [Heartsword], Ning’s advantage over the other supreme Daolords had only grown. Winesage was able to dominate the other supreme Daolords, and so too was Ji Ning. The difference was, Ning’s ‘Shadowless’ evasion art was so unpredictable and mysterious that the other supreme Daolords were terrified of it and him.

  * * *

  Book 33, Chapter 18 - One Man Army

  “What?” King Paleos, Fiendqueen Dustrain, and the others were all shocked. Things were turning out completely contrary to what they had expected. Not even Winesage had put them in such dire straits! Although Winesage was able to crush any supreme Daolord in a head-on fight, when the twelve of them worked together they were able to dominate him. Faced with their combined attacks, even Winesage was in rather bad shape.

  But Daolord Darknorth was actually beating them silly? Was Darknorth even more powerful than Winesage?

  What they didn’t realize was that Ji Ning was indeed better than Winesage in dealing with group attacks! Ning’s sword-arts were more perfect and flawless, allowing him a truly airtight defense against mass attacks! His Shadowless sword-arts allowed him to vanish without a trace, making it so that his enemies couldn’t focus their fire against him while he was able to launch counter-attacks as he pleased.

  All of these factors combined to ensure that at any given moment, no more than five supreme Daolords were able to fight against Ning! This was why Ning had the advantage and held the initiative. These supreme Daolords were all so frightened that they began to cluster closer to each other, no longer daring to launch attacks.

  “Darknorth, let’s call it off,” King Paleos roared mentally.

  “Call it off?” Ning rebutted coldly, “Acceptable, but you need to get the fuck out of this passageway.” Ning knew that not even Winesage would be able to kill these twelve Daolords now that they were working together, much less himself.

  “By what right are you denying us entry to this passageway? You can already harvest the fruit you need; this passageway is meaningless to you. If we want to force our way in, you won’t be able to stop us!” King Paleos said furiously.

  “Hmph.” Ning came to a halt as well. He just stood there, the area around him covered by his heartworld projection as the nine energy dragons coiled around him in accordance with his Yin-Yang sword-intent. “I cannot enter this passageway, true, but if you wish to enter it you must first master the [Vitalis] art… and so long as I am here, you can forget about quietly meditating on it and mastering it.”

  “King Paleos, Darknorth is telling the truth. The rhomboid stone pillar does indeed say that one has to master the [Vitalis] art and learn how to disguise one’s truesoul aura before one can safely pass through those seven-colored chains.”

  “Darknorth isn’t going to let us train in peace.”

  “Damn.” The twelve supreme Daolords all felt resigned. Ning wasn’t able to kill them, but he was entirely capable of disrupting them while they attempted to train, making it impossible for them to master this technique.

  “Let’s go.” King Paleos gritted his teeth. He had no choice but to retreat.

  “Go.” Although the other supreme Daolords felt insulted and humiliated, they all ended up retreating. In truth, these Daolords were all ranked towards the bottom of the first-tier, which was why they agreed to fight under King Paleos’ banner in a group of twelve. In the past, Fiendqueen Dustrain might’ve ranked in the top ten… but now? So many powerful, low-key supreme Daolords had emerged that she had long ago been shoved out of the top ten.

  “Hmph.” Ning watched as the supreme Daolords flew away, then dispelled his heartworld projection and his secret arts. He continued to silently stand guard over this region.

  He had to help Ninedust… or to be precise, he had to help himself. Ninedust had said early on that he would give Ning all of the command talismans he acquired! Thus, Ning naturally had to do his best to prevent any of the other Daolords from entering this passageway.

  ……

  “Darknorth has reached an incredible level of power. He and Winesage have clearly surpassed the rest of us by a tremendous amount.” King Paleos’ group of supreme Daolords quickly arrived at a new passageway. This was the passageway which Ning had already traversed.

  “Are we going to give up, just like that?” Fiendqueen Dustrain sent mentally. She was the second-in-command of this squad.

  “Hmph…” King Paleos let out a cold snort. His eyes suddenly lit up when he stared at the rhomboid stone pillar. “The [Vitalis] art.”

  Fiendqueen glanced at it as well, then shook her head. “The command talismans in this passageway have already been taken. It must have been Darknorth who did it.”

  “Doesn’t matter. The [Vitalis] art can be learned here.” King Paleos pointed at the rhomboid pillar. “Let’s memorize the technique then begin to train! Once we master it, we’ll head to the passageway the Ninedust Sectlord took. So long as we can make it past the rainbow chains, Darknorth won’t be able to attack us.”

  “Right.”

  “King Paleos speaks the truth.”

  All of them agreed with this plan. They could learn the technique but decline to actually enter the passageway. Later on, they could choose to challenge the Ninedust Sectlord’s passageway or perhaps a different one.

  ……

  Three passageways. More than thirty supreme Daolords.

  Because Ning’s original passageway had already been cleaned out, everyone’s attention turned towards the other two passageways.

  Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. Four figures came flying over.

  On the stone island, Ning raised his head to look at them. His eyes narrowed. The new arrivals were Daolord Dreamlore, Daolord Tigrone, Daolord Skyshatter, and Daolord Owlblack.

  “The four of them?” Ning didn’t dare to feel the slightest bit of arrogance. All four of them were ranked in the top ten, and the current top ten was much stronger than the previous top ten. Many Daolords who had been previously low-key had emerged, and every single one was difficult to deal with.

  Dreamlore was ranked number three and was second only to Ning himself. Both Dawnstar and the Radiant King had been defeated by him, a testament to his power.

  “You wish to stop us and to assist your good friend Ninedust?” Daolord Dreamlore smirked as he glanced at Ning. “Darknorth, you’ve already helped him acquire a Voidsea Jadeseal; are you going to help him again? What a selfless man you are.”

  “I’m actually helping myself,” Ning said calmly.

  “What, you actually plan on stopping the four of us?” the heavily-armored and muscular Daolord Tigrone spoke in a deep, rumbling voice.

  “Heh heh
heh…” Daolord Owlblack laughed, his voice grating and piercing to the ear. “He really doesn’t know his own limits.”

  “There’s one of me and four of you… but you still won’t be able to do anything to me,” Ning said icily.

  Dreamlore and the others frowned. The four of them could suppress even Winesage in a frontal attack, but they had to admit that if Ning wished to hide they wouldn’t even be able to track him down. He had a heartworld projection, his nine novessence arts, and even that assassination art.

  “So long as I am here, there’s no way you’ll be able to train in the [Vitalis] art in peace,” Ning said. “Leave. Go somewhere else.”

  “Nice one,” Daolord Owlblack smiled coldly.

  “That’s a nasty move.” Daolord Skyshatter ground his teeth.

  There really was nothing the four of them could do. Cultivation required silence and focus; if Ning was causing trouble for them, how could they possibly train?

  “Darknorth, there are only three passageways in total. You’ve already cleaned out one of them, so there really are only two left. The other is current being challenged by Winesage, Dawnstar, Ninestone, and Cloudwalker, and the others. The other Daolords probably won’t be able to catch up to them and so many of them will come here instead. They’ll master the [Vitalis] art and then charge through in mass. I want to see how many of them you can stop!” Daolord Dreamlore said coldly, “We’re leaving now.”

  The four of them smiled coldly as they flew away.

  ……

  Ning knew that a ‘one man army’ like himself wouldn’t be able to hold everyone off forever. However, every moment he held them off for was an extra moment for Ninedust. Ninedust was helping him out, after all; the more command talismans he acquired, the more fruit he would be able to harvest and the better his chances of reviving his wife were.

  “Hmph.” Ning radiated an eager desire to do battle.

  Time continued to flow on, with Ning standing a silent guard. As for the Ninedust Sectlord, he was still stuck on the [Daoheart] technique. More than a month went by.