Desolate Era (Book 22 - Book 24)

“Impossible!”


Blackpeak was drowning in palm-shadows. He was only able to withstand the attack for a brief moment before finally falling down. In the end, his defenses simply weren’t good enough.

Whoosh.

As soon as he fell down, Ji Ning struck him with a giant palm. His body went completely limp, then Ning seized him and lifted him up.

Ning dispelled the [Three Heads, Six Arms] divine ability, hoisting Blackpeak up with one hand. Blackpeak struggled forcefully with his four arms, but Ji Ning was simply too strong. He was completely unable to break free.

“Give up?” Ning looked at the captured Blackpeak.

“You…” Blackpeak gritted his teeth. Three hundred bottles of chaos nectar!

Ning shook his head. “It seems as though you are going to force me to seal you away and then slowly refine you…” Blackpeak’s body was comparable to a top-grade Protocosmic treasure. If Ning wanted to actually break his body apart, he would either have to use Violetjewel or seal the man away and slowly refine him to death.

“I admit defeat.” Blackpeak lowered his head and spoke these words with extreme reluctance.

……

“What do you think?” Two figures were standing at the very edges of the area. One was the gray-robed elder Fushe, the master of the mustering grounds. The other was a handsome, white-haired, white-robed man. The handsome man was carrying a box on his back as he quietly watched the battle proceed between Ji Ning and Blackpeak.

“He’s quite ferocious.” The white-robed, white-haired man sighed softly. “He must have trained in an extremely formidable divine ability. How else could he be this dominating in raw strength?”

“His palm-arts are quite formidable as well. Every palm-strike surpasses the limits of the Heavenly Daos,” Fushe said.

“Mm.” The white-robed man nodded slowly. “Still, if this is all he has, there’s no need for us to have my master get involved.”

“This might be just part of his true power,” Fushe said. “I have the feeling that he wasn’t lying to me.”

The white-robed man nodded as he continued to watch.

……

Ning withdrew his palms, allowing Blackpeak to fall to the ground. Blackpeak rubbed his throat, then gave Ning a hard look. “I’ll remember you.”

“The stakes?” Ning said calmly.

“The stakes!”

“Elder God Blackpeak, hand over the stakes!” Captain Skyleave and the other Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals all grew excited and ran over to stand next to Ning. Elder God Baiwu excitedly slapped Ning on the shoulders and sighed in amazement, “Impressive. Given how strong you are, why the hell are you wearing silverscale? You should at least have a set of goldscale armor. Blackpeak, don’t just stand there like an idiot. Hurry up and hand over the stakes.”

Blackpeak let out a snort, then waved his hand, causing the 240 bottles of chaos nectar and the Ninestar Skyhooks flew over to Ning. He then turned his head and left, his body blurring as he disappeared into the army camp.

Ning waved his hand, collecting the items.

“Brother Baiwu, here’s your treasure.” Ning handed the Ninestar Skyhooks over to Elder God Baiwu.

“I c-can’t…” Baiwu hurriedly waved in refusal. “I lost it to Blackpeak, while you won it from him.”

“This is something you actually use in battle. You’ve used it for many years; I imagine you must be quite used to it by now,” Ning said.

Baiwu hesitated a moment. This set of treasures had indeed accompanied him for a long period of time, and he was emotionally attached to them. He gritted his teeth, then nodded. “Alright, I’ll accept them back. Brother Darknorth, I owe you one. If there’s anything you need me to do in the future, just let me know.” Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals generally weren’t willing to be in the debt of another; the only reason why Baiwu had accepted the treasures was because he truly had used them for a very long period of time.

“Captain Skyleave.” Ning waved his hand, causing a hundred bottles of chaos nectar to float over towards him.

“No need.” Skyleave laughed and shook his head. “If I lost some chaos nectar, so be it. I won’t go so far as to take it back. No need to even discuss this.”

Accepting the chaos nectar meant accepting a favor from Ning. Baiwu might’ve accepted his treasures back, but he was planning to repay Ning as well.

“Come, come! Darknorth won so much that we really need to feast in celebration. We stopped halfway through the last one. We didn’t even get to finish!”

“Right, right! Let’s go!”

The Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals were all quite happy. To make Blackpeak suffer a loss like this was a happy thing.

“Don’t be in such a rush, everyone.” Two figures walked towards them from afar.

“It is Imperius.”

“Imperius.”

The white-robed, white-haired man and Fushe walked over towards the group.

“Brother Fushe.” Ning smiled.

“This is Imperius.” Fushe made the introductions. “He is the senior disciple of Immortal Abyssus.”

The handsome man known as Imperius was dressed in long robes and carried a box on his back. He smiled and said, “On my master’s orders, I’ve come to invite you to the Abyssus Palace.”

The Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals nearby were all shocked.

“Hurry up and go!”

“Darknorth, hurry up and go. A Chaos Immortal has summoned you!” They all secretly sent mental messages over to Ning.

Ning felt his heart clench in nervousness as well. One of the nine World-level experts resident on Fogstone was known as Immortal Abyssus. He was a Chaos Immortal who had joined from outside the region. He had been a wanderer of the primordial chaos, but he had decided to take up residence on Fogstone, possibly because he was tired of wandering or for some other reason.

Almost all of Immortal Abyssus’ disciples had originally been his followers who had decided to join him on Fogstone. All of them were outsiders. After taking up residence on Fogstone, he had only accepted a grand total of two disciples over the course of countless years.

“It seems as though Immortal Abyssus will be the one responsible for verifying my strength,” Ning mused. “I’ve heard about the power of World-level cultivators for so long, but I’ve never actually met one.”

Immortal Abyssus would be the first World God or Chaos Immortal Ning would meet.

“Everyone, I’ll head to the Abyssus Palace first.” Ning turned to nod towards Skyleave and the others.

“Let’s go,” Ning said.

Escorted by Island Master Fushe and Ancestral Immortal Imperius, Ning departed from the army camp. The citadel was quite large, and the nine World-level cultivators all resided in their own palaces.

“That’s Abyssus Palace over there.” Imperius pointed towards a distant, towering palace that was almost completely black in color. The palace emanated golden ripples of power in every direction, with the ripples being so strong as to cause even Ning to feel secretly shocked.

“Abyssus Palace is a Dao treasure.” Imperius laughed. “When we followed Master in adventuring through the primordial chaos, we went to countless dangerous areas. In many cases, we had to rely on the Abyssus Palace to survive.”

Ning nodded.

There was a guard at the entrance of Abyssus Palace. Upon seeing Imperius, Fushe, and Ning fly towards him, he stepped aside and didn’t try to stop them.

The insides of the palace were quite spacious. Beautiful women belonging to many different races could be seen everywhere, as well as valuable beasts and birds. There were also springs of water that emanated auras of intoxicating spirituality; clearly, these were extraordinary holy springs.