Desolate Era (Book 22 - Book 24)

“What was that?!” As Ning climbed upwards while blocking the attacks from the first monster, Ning suddenly saw a second streak of light fly towards him from down below.

“Another one?!” Ning was horrified. “Move! Move! Move!” Ning was truly panicking now. He used four of his arms to furiously climb upwards while his other two arms used the warblade to furiously strike down upon the chasing windbeast. Each blow consumed quite a bit of his azureflower energy, but each time the windbeast suffered just slight injuries. It refused to give up the chase.

Whoooosh!

Ning continued to climb upwards at high speed. “I should be just a few thousand kilometers away from the exit. Once I escape the pit, the gray wind won’t be able to cause me any trouble. I’ll easily be able to fly faster than the limits of the Heavenly Daos and it’ll be much easier for me to deal with that monster.”

“You can’t even deal with a single invader?” The second streak of light had arrived as well.

“Help me kill him,” the first windbeast growled.

“Shit.” Ning gritted his teeth as he saw yet another streak of light appear in the depths of the pit.

“How many of the damned things are there?” As Ning continued to climb upwards, he defended himself with two hands. He now wielded the warblade with one hand, using it to launch incredibly powerful attacks. With the other hand, he activated the slab that he had picked up, causing a flexible sword to immediately fly out from within it. This was the second Dao weapon which Ning had acquired.

The warblade was used to launch ferocious, savage attacks. The flexible sword was used to execute the ‘Shadowless stance’ and other unpredictable sword stances.

As for Ning’s other four hands, he continued to use them to frantically climb upwards.

Boom! Boom!

“Kill!”

Two of the windbeasts furiously assaulted Ning, and he defended against them while continuing to climb upwards. Right at this moment…the third windbeast arrived as well.

“B-b-but…” Not only was Ning facing the attacks of three windbeasts, he could see two more streaks of light soaring upwards from the dark depths of the pit. One of those streaks of light moved with incredible speed; clearly, it was the fastest of the five.

“If I let them surround me, I’m dead.”

Ning furiously defended against their attacks, using his Dao weapons to block. He also redirected some of their attacks, making it so that the three windbeasts interfered with each other’s attacks.

“There it is!” Ning could see the bright opening above him.

“Gotta charge out!” Ning could already see the fourth windbeast, the incredibly quick one, drawing very close to him.

BOOM! Ning intentionally let himself be hit by a claw strike.

Swoosh! He borrowed the power of the blow, letting it sweep him upwards and shoot him outside of the pit entrance.

“GRWAAAAR!”

“Fuu, not only were you unable to kill him, you actually hindered me.”

“You idiot! He was barely able to handle me. You were useless!”

“Both of you, shut up.”

“All three of you idiots, shut up!” The fourth windbeast let out a roar, causing the other three to fall silent.

The four windbeasts all looked upwards, a look of rage and dread in their dark yellow eyes. They didn’t dare fly out of their pit, as the Ruins were far too incredibly dangerous. Even they were only able to live peacefully in their local part of the Hundred Streams. There were many places which were death traps even for them.

“Eh?” After flying out of the pit and away from the gray wind, Ning landed on the ground. He glanced towards the deep, enormous pit in surprise. “They didn’t come out?”

“Whew. I finally escaped!”





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Book 24, Chapter 25 - The House By the Lake


Ji Ning kept a firm hold on the ground. Only when he saw that no windbeasts were emerging did he relax and glance at his surroundings.

“Eh?” Ning slowly rose to his feet, looking around himself with surprise.

The vast skies were filled with streams of gray energy that criss-crossed in the air. A stream of gray energy was flowing through the endless pit he had just crawled out of as well. Ning immediately understood that the gray energy was actually the gray ‘wind’ which had enveloped him and Hellsword earlier.

“When Hellsword and I were fighting, we must’ve activated some restrictive spell by accident, resulting in us being swept into that tornado.” Ning carefully inspected the area. “If those windbeasts were too afraid to come out here, it has to mean that this place is dangerous.”

He was in a vast new realm. Aside from some enormous pits, Ning could also see some enormous continents, mountains, valleys, and lakes.

Everything looked so peaceful!

However, Ning’s heartrate began to speed up. Ever since he had manifested the azureflower seal after merging the Nine Chaos Seals, Ning had become even more keenly attuned to the essence of destiny. He was able to easily see the future destinies of mortals at one glance, and he could now sense that destiny was warning him that this place was incredibly dangerous. It was as though those peaceful-looking continents, mountains, and lakes were all filled with danger.

“What should I do?” Ning raised his head to stare towards the skies, then towards the area around him. “I can sense that every single direction is filled with grave danger.”

“If every direction is filled with danger…and if the pits are filled with all those windbeasts…”

“Forget it. I’ll just randomly choose a direction. It’ll be up to luck.”

After pondering for a moment, Ning had no choice but to harden his heart. Warblade and flexible sword in hands, he began to carefully move forward. If every direction was filled with danger, then picking a particular direction didn’t matter.

Ning walked out of the barren wastelands and into a grasslands. Although he sensed tremendous danger the entire time, he made his way forward safely.

“Maybe I’ll be able to walk out of this place,” Ning consoled himself.

“The lake is quite pretty.”

He saw a lake within the grasslands, so beautiful that it looked like the tears of a lovely maiden.

“I hope nothing dangerous suddenly pops out of the lake.” Ning continued to remain vigilant, and he even kept the Goldstar Beads of the Heavens around him, so as to help forewarn him of any incoming danger. Of course, if he wasn’t strong enough no amount of vigilance would matter.

Whoosh!

A ripple suddenly spread out and encompassed Ning, causing his surroundings to change and transform.

“This is…?” Ning stared at his surroundings. He could still see the beautiful lake, but a quiet little residence had appeared by the side of the lake. The house was emanating ripples that were so powerful, they caused Ning to shiver.

“What’s going on?”

Ning could sense how terrifying and deadly that house was. He wanted to move away from it, but no matter how he walked he was unable to move farther than three kilometers away from the house. It was as though space itself was twisted here.

“If I can’t leave, I suppose I’ll have to go over and take a look,” Ning mused to himself. “The person who built this house has to be far more powerful than me. If he wants me dead, I won’t be able to escape.”

He had no other options. His only choice was to go forward, and he did so, gently pushing open the gates to the courtyard of the house.

Inside the courtyard was a garden and a grassy lawn, as well as several seats that were scattered across it. In the center was a graceful, elegant house that emanated ripples of tremendous power. Ning walked over towards the house.

Three of the four sides of the house had windows, while one side had a door. The windows were made from wood and could be easily seen through.