Desolate Era (Book 16 - Book 18)

“Impossible. There’s no way he can be an Empyrean God or True Immortal. If he had already overcome his tribulation…there’s no way he could’ve hidden it past us, the Seamless Gate!” Violetgrass and the rest of the twelve surviving Celestial Immortals began to flee in terror. Ji Ning’s tremendous power was great enough for them to feel that he was an Empyrean God or a True Immortal…but that didn’t make sense!

It wasn’t possible!

Ji Ning had the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] and was capable of masking an Immortal aura, but he still had to undergo the Celestial Tribulation; there was no way something like that could’ve escaped the eyes of the Seamless Gate! In fact…no tribulation of any living creature in the Three Realms could escape the eyes of the Seamless Gate!

“Ahhh!” A fleeing Celestial Immortal with a big bushy beard attempted to use a large gourd to block, but Ning’s sword-finger knocked it flying away, then executed him. He perished and his Dao came to an end.

“How could Ji Ning be this powerful?!” The various Celestial Immortals all let out agonized cries of grief and rage. Sword-fingers criss-crossed the skies with annihilating, slaying power.

“The intelligence reports were wrong. WRONG!”

“What the hell?!”

“I can’t believe this!”

These Celestial Immortals were all elites of the Seamless Gate. They normally only acted after they were given very accurate intelligence reports; as the saying went, only when one knew one’s self and one’s foes could one be the victor in every battle. A major error like this…it had truly never happened before! At their level, once one made a single error of this magnitude, the penalty would be one’s life!

Ning executed [Three Heads, Six Arms]. His six sword-fingers assaulted six different Celestial Immortals…but these six strikes only used the [Starseizing Hand] and swordforce. His seventeenth stage [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens] power, combined with the Fourth Cycle of the [Starseizing Hand], was already comparable to that of supreme Celestial Immortals. If he added swordforce to it as well…his power was definitely no longer than that of Celestial Immortal Unity’s.

In other words…Ning’s six sword-fingers were like six Celestial Immortal Unity’s.

Right now, the enemy formation had already been shattered. They were all fleeing; there was no need for him to add his heartforce into the mix. Heartforce was far too tiring, and each full-strength blow from his sword used up a fifteenth of it. He could only use it for fifteen strikes; naturally, Ning was going to save it for the most critical moments.

“Hmph.” A cold light flashed through through Ning’s eyes. He showed no mercy at all with his killing blows.

His six sword-fingers instantly slaughtered five of the Celestial Immortals. One of them had been aimed towards the woman…and this one failed.

“Eh?” Ning glanced towards the woman in surprise. A thick layer of azure light had appeared around her body. This azure light was protecting her, having blocked Ning’s earlier sword-finger.

……

“Too powerful. Our intelligence reports were completely wrong.” Violetgrass was still terrified. A pair of talismans appeared in her hands, as well as a Dao-seal. The Dao-seal was a Greater Teleportation Dao-seal…however, using it would require time. Given Ning’s attack speed, that period of time would be more than enough for him to launch more than ten attacks.

Crack! Crack!

Shattering the talismans could be done near-instantly. Violetgrass immediately shattered the two talismans belonging to the two powerful experts capable of saving her.

Her status in the Seamless Gate was extremely special, and she was protected by several major figures. Aside from the supreme Celestial Immortals such as Celestial Immortal Blackheaven, there were two True Immortals as well; the Gatemaster of the Seamless Gate and her brother-in-law, True Immortal Gaudy.

……

The distant Fifth World.

Within one of the towering edificies, the Gatemaster of the Seamless Gate, the Cavemaster of the Myriad Demons Cave, and the Hallmaster of Bloodcloud Hall were staring at many mirrors that were hanging in midair. The mirrors had many different images within them; these were their various gathering spots within the world of the Grand Xia. They were using Pure Yang treasures to keep watch over the battles in those areas and also transmit the images back.

Many of the images would often flicker through various locations. There were ten-plus water mirrors, however, which had stable images within them. This was because these ten-plus water mirrors were keeping watch over missions where the goal was to kill the foes.

“Not good.”

“Something unexpected has just happened at Stillwater city.”

“It’s Ji Ning!”

The faces of three leaders changed dramatically as they turned to focus on one of the water mirrors. The water mirror displayed the image of a youth soaring into the heavens. His sword-finger chopped through the heavens and broke apart the Turtle-Snake Formation. The cold look on the youth’s face, that heart-stoppingly sharp aura and pose, and the sharp silvery-white light at the tip of the sword-fingers all caused them to shudder in amazement.

“This Ji Ning’s aura is far more terrifying than it was eighteen years ago.”

“Is that…swordforce coming from his sword-fingers?”

“Can it be that he’s mastered the Dao of the Sword?”

The three leaders were truly rather stunned. They had guessed long ago that Ji Ning, having survived the descent of the karmic sinflames, would have grown somewhat more powerful but…in the Nihilum Zone, there was no way to sense any of the Grand Daos! Logically speaking, Ji Ning shouldn’t have improved much with regards to the Daos. Given that he had yet to overcome his tribulation…there should’ve been a limit to how much he could’ve grown stronger. However, Ji Ning had just slapped their expectations in the face!

They could never have guessed that Ji Ning would’ve been able to come up with a way to apply heartforce, all on his own!

“Azurefox, what should we do?” The Cavemaster of the Myriad Demon Caves and the Hallmaster of Bloodcloud Hall both looked towards the Gatemaster of the Seamless Gate.

The azure-robed woman said softly, “The results of that battle have already been determined. There’s no way to change things. Still…Violetgrass has True Immortal Gaudy standing behind her. If she’s in any life-threatening danger, she’ll definitely break the talisman which Gaudy gave her. I trust that Gaudy will definitely intervene to save her. If Gaudy goes, that’ll be enough. Right now, the question in my mind is…what are we supposed to do about this Ji Ning?”

“Ji Ning…” The fire-robed man and the skinny elder both began to frown.

“I guessed long ago that he would eventually become an impediment to our subjugation of the Grand Xia, but I didn’t expect that he would become so powerful even prior to overcoming his tribulation. If we wait and let him overcome his tribulation and become an Empyrean God…that’s not acceptable!” The azure-robed woman shook her head. “I really wonder who the hell his master is, for him to produce a monster like this…”