Desolate Era (Book 1 - Book 5)

Snow said pensively, “There wasn’t any disturbance at all. It shouldn’t have been a battle. It’s very possible that it really was an ancient relic site! These relic sites might be in the middle of an empty area, only sealed off from us by a thin barrier, but we can’t see them or sense them at all.”


“Perhaps our son is within a world that is hidden within a single speck of sand at the bottom of Serpentwing Lake.”

“Or perhaps he is within an ancient, hidden formation.”

“Only, the two of us aren’t capable of dealing with any of these possibilities.” Snow shook her head. “All we can do is wait. Wait for our son to come back to us, alive.”

“Right. Wait.” Yichuan looked at the immeasurably vast lake as well. “I believe our son will come from afar, walking across the water back to us.”

Snow nodded gently, leaning against her man.

They were still waiting. Waiting for their son’s return.

––––––—

Within the corridor of the aquatic estate, it was very dark. It felt that even the passage of time was slow here.

Ning, his divine power fully recovered, finally stood up. Staring at the other corner of the corridor and its corpses, he understood that he had nowhere to retreat to. If he wanted to leave, he had to go forward!

“I have to live.” Ning stared at those distant corpses, then walked over.





* * *





Book 3, Chapter 17 - Dao Battle-Armor


Wielding a Darknorth sword in each hand, Ji Ning headed straight towards the center of this ancient corridor.

Suddenly, a thousand or so meters in front of him, several blackish-blue seeds appeared at the same time, four ahead of him, five behind him. These seeds appeared at the same time as nine sets of battle armor. The battle armors were all completely black, and the weapons were identical as well; long staffs that were seemingly made of stone.

Nine seeds. Nine sets of battle gear.

“Hua…” The blackish-blue seeds suddenly transformed into a liquid, flowing into the armors, then transforming into massive men with blackish-blue skin. These massive men were several meters tall and had two horns in their foreheads. Their faces were ugly, and they had sharp fangs in their mouths. They donned the armor, while simultaneously picking up those three-meter long stone staffs next to them.

The nine ugly giants all glanced at each other, their eyes filled with savagery and excitement.

“It’s been so long. We’re finally out again!”

“This time, the person we have to deal with is this human youth. Such a tender-fleshed human. I can squeeze him to death by myself. The nine of us combined, and with these godly weapons and armor, haha…this is going to be too easy.”

“Set up the formation first.”

The nine ugly giants all began to chant the words to some foreign tongue which Ning couldn’t understand, but his face quickly changed, because he understood that these ugly giants which had sprouted from those seeds were intelligent, and even capable of conversation!

The two ends of the halls once again became filled with dense fog.

“Human, prepare for death.” The nine ugly giants all released furious roars. The ancient armor on their bodies immediately began to emit dazzling black light. The black light, emitting the stench of blood, quickly connected with each other, forming an enormous spiderweb in mid-air.

Ning was shocked. “Dao Battle-Armor?”

Dao Soldiers were a type of seed-soldier often used by the Grand Xia Dynasty. The Ji clan’s most powerful seed-soldier, the ‘Scarlet Guardians’, were the lowest-level type of Dao Soldiers. Every single Dao Soldier’s armor contained a large number of rune inscriptions, and the Dao Soldiers were capable of combining their energy together to attack the opponent together. They were also capable of combining their defense.

Dao Battle-Armor like that of the Scarlet Guardians of the Ji clan were at most capable of allowing nine of the Scarlet Guardians to combine forces. Once they joined together, nine Scarlet Guardians were even capable of giving an early Xiantian expert a good fight.

What’s more, the Ji clan had five hundred thousand of these powerful seed-soldiers, the Scarlet Guards!

This was the true backbone of the Ji clan.

Normally, missions were carried out by black armored guards. Each time the Scarlet Guardians were sent out, it was only after the Ji clan’s Five Prefectures all agreed to send them out, and it would have to involve a major event of the Ji clan.

“Dao Battle-Armor. Aren’t they all used for Houtian experts? And they should be covered with a large number of runes that can be seen at a glance.” Ning stared at them. “But these nine strange giants have armor that don’t have any runes on top of them, and each of them have power that is not weaker than that of a Xiantian.”

“This is going to be trouble.” Ning held his breath.

Dao Battle-Armor which Xiantian experts could use was something which the six hegemons of Swallow Mountain simply did not have. Ning hadn’t even heard of such a thing. Most likely, only the armies of the Grand Xia Dynasty had them!

“Kill!” The nine ugly giants raised their large, thick staffs, charging towards Ning from both directions with angry roars, that enormous illusory spider web still connecting them from up above.

Ning immediately transformed into a ray of smoke, quickly pouncing towards the direction which only had four of those strange ugly giants, who were maintaining a distance of several meters from each other as they wielded their massive stone staffs and charged forward wildly with long steps.

“Kill!” One of the ugly giants raised his enormous stone staff up high, then smashed downwards.

“Come on.” Ning let his strength explode as well. His Fiendgod-like power completely filled his Darknorth swords, and he took this blow head on. He wanted to get a clear understanding of the strength of these ugly fellows.

Swish!

The stone staff was as thick as a man’s thigh and over three meters long. It slashed through the air, smashing down on Ning’s Darknorth swords. Immediately afterwards, with a ‘Swoosh!’ Ning’s entire body was sent flying backwards, while the strange giant only took a single step back, garbling in his racial tongue, “This human has great strength. However, he still cannot compare to me, much less the nine of us combined.”

Although Ning had only fought one of them head on, because of the Dao Battle-Armor…in reality, that staff blow had contained the combined strength of those nine strange giants.

Flying backwards through the air, Ning felt his entire body was numb. His hand was damaged, and even the Darknorth sword in that hand flew out.

“Can’t take it head on!” In mid-air, Ning flipped over, his Fiendgod body quickly healing. Still in mid-air, he stepped onto the sides of the corridor walls, then like a giant Roc, scurried out, quickly leaping past the oncoming charge of those nine strange ugly giants.

“Don’t run!”

“What sort of talent is fleeing?”

“Humans only know how to run.”

The nine strange giants opened their fanged mouths, howling angrily. They discovered that this human was even faster than them.

Ning pointed from a distance. “Waterflame Lotuses!”

Huahuahua…

Every single Waterflame Lotus was formed from a fire lotus petal and a water lotus petal. Six sets of Waterflame Lotuses appeared out of nowhere, completely surrounding those nine ugly giants within. Every single lotus petal was slowly swiveling in opposite directions, forming a terrifying grinding, killing force.

“What a powerful human.” The nine ugly giants came to a halt and looked at each other. “Without this godly armor, we probably would’ve been injured long ago.”

Ning saw that the nine giants had come to a halt, and were even conversing in their strange tongue.