Desolate Era (Book 22 - Book 24)

Ning continued to fly forwards at high speed.

Given how strong Ning was, the swamp region of the Ruins didn’t pose much of a threat. So long as he was careful and stayed far away from any powerful auras he sensed, he would be fairly safe.

“Ah, there it is.” Ning saw a chain of mountains appear off in the distance. “I’ve reached another part of the Ruins.”

“The intelligence report I received regarding the Windsource Ruins is now essentially useless.”

Ning was slightly worried. The swamp was the outermost layer and also the ‘safest’region.

The other regions were controlled by the restrictive formation spells of the Ruins and would often change and transform. A place might be perfectly safe one day but transform into a death trap the next day. That was why his intelligence report was now of no use.

Whoosh.

Ning landed atop a mountain peak. Even he no longer dared to rashly fly about any longer, for fear of accidentally flying into a death trap.

“Eh?” As Ning jogged forward, he suddenly turned his head to look off into the distance.

A red-robed woman was seated in the lotus position at the top of a mountain peak. The woman’s face was delicate and beautiful, with eyes as gentle as the waters of autumn. She was surrounded by hundreds of crescent blades that were wreathed by fire, causing flames to billow out all around her.

“What a beautiful woman.” Ning had very high standards, but even he couldn’t help but let out a sigh of praise. “Beauty like this could cause the collapse of an empire.”

After glancing at her, Ning continued to jog forwards, instantly traversing ten thousand kilometers with each movement.

The red-robed woman had noticed Ning as well. She couldn’t help but murmur softly to herself, “How odd. The [Libertine Dream] technique I devised carries an aura of natural charm which is far superior to those more blatant, forceful charm spells. And yet, he didn’t even pause to say a word to me? Hasn’t he heard of me, the Flamefairy?” [1. Su Youji is an interesting name. All three characters, Su, You, and Ji are actually surnames in Chinese as well.]

Su Youji, the Flamefairy, was quite a famous figure amongst the Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals of the Badlands Territory.

“And why is he running so quickly in a place as dangerous as this?” The fiery-robed woman mumbled to herself, “I’ve always felt that I’m pretty crazy, but he’s even crazier than me. If he keeps running around that fast, he’ll probably explore more of this place in one year than I would in ten thousand. Still, he’ll die faster than me as well. I hope you are lucky enough to survive…it’s rare for me to take a liking to someone.”

The swamp was the outermost region. After exiting the swamps, one would enter the truly dangerous regions. Generally speaking, most people would advance very carefully through these regions and move at a glacially slow pace.

However, given that the Windsource Ruins took up fully half of the Windsource Chaosworld, it truly was incredibly vast. If you moved through it slowly, you could spend a million years and still just explore a tiny part of it. Still, since Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals generally had very long lifespans, they wouldn’t be in a rush. Safety first!

Ning, however, was different.

Not only did he have a clone in the outside world, he also had mastered the ‘Heartsword Realm’ technique and had tremendous control over his surroundings. His skill empowered his boldness. In addition, he only trained for a relatively brief period of time; how could he possibly be willing to spend a few hundred thousand years here? He was planning to adventure through this place for a few years at most, then leave. Of course he had to move quickly!

“Eh?” Ning’s eyes lit up as he saw a corpse off in the distance.

“Get in here.” He flung out a Protocosmic spirit-rope, looping it over that corpse and pulling it into his estate-treasure.

The corpse would have to be destroyed, but the treasures Ning would keep.

“Keep going.” Ning was in an excellent mood. One would often encounter the corpses and skeletons of fallen cultivators in this place…but of course, if one wasn’t careful, one might easily end up joining.

The place was simply too large.

Ning spent more than a year traveling through the Ruins. Thanks to the keen senses provided by the ‘Heartsword Realm’, the protection provided by the Goldstar Beads of the Heavens, and the investigative power of his heartforce, he was able to avoid all of the most dangerous areas. Aside from Elder God Skysouth and the Flamefairy, he encountered six more cultivators. However, only one of the six tried to assault Ning; the rest steered clear of him.

As for the one who tried to attack Ning? Ning killed him, of course!

Whoosh.

Ning was jogging through a mountain forest, sometimes moving fast and sometimes moving slow. He moved at quite a unique rhythm; clearly, Ning had gotten used to this place.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Waves of power were rippling out from afar.

“Eh?” Ning’s eyes lit up. “Those waves are pretty powerful, and it seems there are quite a few of them. Let’s go take a look.” Generally speaking, when multiple people fought aginst each other in a dangerous region like the one he was located in right now, it was over an extremely important treasure.

Swoosh.

Ning quickly and silently moved closer to the source of the ripples, soom arriving at a mountain peak. Ning hid within the grass, peering off into the distance. Within the distant mountain gorge, he saw five Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals engaged in a battle. The five were divided into two sides, with four cultivators on one side and one cultivator on the other.

“Hellsword, there are two of these Dao weapons. Why can’t we split them? One for you, one for us. Isn’t that ideal?”

“A Dao weapon for you four fools? Die, die, die!” The lone cultivator was dressed in black robes, and his six arms were striking with six blurry streaks of sword-light. As for the other four cultivators, they were able to just barely hold him off as they supported each other.

Upon hearing these words, Ning’s eyes lit up. “Dao weapons? Two of them? Elder God Hellsword….mm, so that’s the legendary Hellsword. He truly is an expert of the Dao of the Sword. He should be on the same level of power as me.”





* * *





Book 24, Chapter 18 - Battling Within the Ruins


“All of you, die!” Hellsword exploded with power as he wildly assaulted the other four. He knew that if this battle went on for too long other, Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals in the Windsource Ruins might be drawn to this place.

“I can’t hold any longer.”

A muscular Elder God who wielded six black staffs let out a low growl. Hellsword’s sword-light landed against his body, but only created a few sparks.

“Be careful.”

“Retreat.”

A blood-robed Elder God who had been fighting Hellsword in close combat suddenly blanched, then hurriedly split his body into two and sent his two clones fleeing in two separate directions.

Slash!

A streak of sword-light fell down upon one of the clones, slaying it.

“My divine body’s been weakened. I won’t be able to hold on for any longer.” The blood-robed Elder God continued to flee at high speed. The other three Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals cursed, but had no choice but to begin fleeing in other directions as well. They weren’t actually members of a team; they had simply joined together on an ad-hoc basis simply because Hellsword was far too powerful.

“Hmph. Those fools.” Hellsword came to a halt, grinning as he looked at the four fleeing figures.

“Eh?” Hellsword’s face suddenly changed dramatically as he immediately turned his head.