Desolate Era (Book 22 - Book 24)

Rumble…


A streak of violet-golden thunderfire struck directly towards Ning.

Ning struck out with his sword, immediately breaking apart the streak of thunderfire. 99% of the power of the attack was absorbed by the invisible dimension protecting them, while the remaining 1% was jointly handled by the thousand Elder Gods.

Whoosh. Ning charged straight forwards. As the center of the entire formation, he had to stay within the city. So long as he did so, the formation would be fine. The other Elder Gods were assigned to various regions, but he, as the core, wasn’t given a specific assignment.

“The Starlord really is impressive.”

As Ning moved from place to place, suppressing the power of the defensive spells and formations, he also kept an eye on the various World-level experts. After watching two of them, he turned to watch the battle going on with the Starlord.

The Starlord was an extremely dazzling figure. Countless streams of astral light spread out from around him as though he was their sovereign and emperor. All by himself, he was able to tie down both Immortal Owlsoar and the formation of a thousand Elder Gods. World God Blackmist was helping out as well, but the tower-wielding Immortal Owlsoar and his formation of Elder Gods was still able resist their attacks. These formations were meant for defense, after all.

“Eh?” Ning was suddenly stunned.

He had just seen a gray-robed, black-haired old man amongst those thousand Elder Gods…and the man had seen Ning as well.

Sparks began to fly as their gazes met in midair.

“Old Man Yuan?” Ning had received a detailed intelligence report regarding the Mindlord long ago which included information about his appearance. He was able to recognize the man at a single glance…and the way in which that man looked at Ning made Ning feel completely certain that it was definitely Old Man Yuan!

“Ji Ning?” When the Mindlord saw that distant, blurry figure amongst the ranks of the Elder Gods of Fogstone, he was frightened quite badly.





* * *





Book 24, Chapter 41 - The Death of Chaos Immortal Owlsoar


“H-he actually did leave the Three Realms.” The Mindlord’s heart was shaking, but he quickly came back to his senses. “Why should I fear him? I’m a member of a Minor Thousand Elder Gods Formation. Not even World-level experts can do anything to me right now. Me, fear him, an Elder God? It’s actually good that he’s here. I’ll find a chance to kill him.”

“Him! It’s him!” Ji Ning had been quite calm, but upon seeing the Mindlord Ning’s eyes instantly turned bloodshot.

Those memories began to play through his mind…

The death of Human Sovereign Suiren, whose body had transformed into those petals of kindlefire…

The self-detonations of Daoist Three Purities, Lord Tathagata the Buddha, Keeper Everwood, and Buddha Jueming…

Senior apprentice-brother Houyi, who had died right in front of Chang’e…

And those countless other Immortals and Fiendgods of the Three Realms who had sacrificed their lives in self-detonation…

Ning could hear the sounds of those detonations ringing within his memories. He could hear those furious roars, those frenzied screams.

Murderous rage began to swell in his heart, rage which he was unable to suppress. It quickly filled his entire being.

Countless comrades had died in the Endwar…all because of this man!

“Old Man Yuan! DIE!” Ning immediately charged straight towards the Mindlord.

“Eh?” When the Mindlord saw Ning transform into a streak of light and fly towards him, he let out a cold smirk. “He’s just an Elder God. How can he possibly shake our formation of a thousand Elder Gods?”

……

“He’s too powerful.” Chaos Immortal Owlsoar had an ugly look on his face. He gritted his teeth, summoning the ritual tower closer towards himself. He was just barely able to set up a defensive perimeter of roughly thirty meters around himself. “How is the Starlord this powerful? Aren’t they only powerful because they can rely on the power of Fogstone itself? But the planet of Fogstone is outside the city! The Starlord is relying on just his sword-arts yet is still incredibly powerful!”

Thanks to this mighty sin-weapon, Chaos Immortal Owlsoar was a very formidable figure even amongst World-level experts, and the ritual tower was actually meant for defense.

And yet…even though he had a thousand Elder Gods helping him to divert his enemy’s attacks, he had still been beaten back to the point of only being able to keep a defensive perimeter of just thirty meters. If he didn’t have the thousand Elder Gods, he probably would’ve been slain in just one or two strokes.

“Second Uncle, this formation is a pain in the ass,” the Starlord sent frantically. He was using his seven formations to suppress the protective formations and defensive spells of the imperial capital, but now two such enemy formations were causing him problems as well.

“Yes, they are quite troublesome. I’m not able to breach their defenses either.” World God Blackmist had gone all out as well.

However, World God Blackmist was a bit weaker than the Starlord to begin with. He was roughly on par with Chaos Immortal Owlsoar.

“With this formation present, it’ll be very hard for us to kill Immortal Owlsoar.” The Starlord was growing frantic.

“This formation…” World God Blackmist was frantic as well. He had transformed to become a titanic figure who was thirty thousand kilometers tall, and he furiously launched attacks in every direction, but the thousand Elder Gods just absorbed his strikes as if they were made of soft taffy.

“Eh? Ji Ning?” The Starlord noticed Ji Ning suddenly charging towards them from afar.

Sword Immortal Darknorth, Ji Ning. The leaders of the Fogstone Dominion all knew who he truly was.

“Ji Ning, hurry up and go help World God Blackmist tie down the Minor Thousand Elder Gods Formation!” The Starlord ordered.

“Yes, Starlord.” Ning immediately flew towards World God Blackmist.

“Ugh, what’s the point of him coming here?” The Starlord couldn’t help but secretly sigh to himself. “Even though he has the formation strengthening him, and even though he is the core of the formation, he will still be at most comparable to an ordinary World God. He’s probably a bit weaker than even my second uncle! Even if he does help out, it’ll be hard for them to completely tie down that enemy formation.”

Ning was wielding Violetjewel in his hands. His gaze was ice cold, and the azuremist energy had quickly begun to flow out from the azureflower seal on his forehead, permeating his entire body.

The reason why Ning had come to the Badlands Territory…was to kill the Mindlord!

And now, the Mindlord stood right before him!

Kill!

The power of the azureflower mist energy was strengthening him!

The World energy generated by the formation of Elder Gods was strengthening him!

He had an Eternal weapon…Violetjewel!

“KILLSWORD STANCE!”

Ning raised Violetjewel up high, assuming a stance reminiscent of Pangu cleaving Heaven from Earth. In this instant, Ning was using the ‘Heavenbreaker stance’ of the [Brightmoon] sword-art to unleash the essence ‘Killsword stance’.

All the stances of the [Nameless] sword-art, be it the Heartsword stance or the Killsword stance, represented a certain realm of enlightenment regarding the Dao of the Sword. Ning’s own [Brightmoon] sword-art was completely capable of unleashing the full extent of his insights into these realms.

Whenever the Minor Thousand Elder Gods Formation suffered an attack, it would first divert 99% of the energy of the attack into the World energy surrounding it, with the remaining 1% being spread across all thousand World Gods. This was why Ning had immediately used his most overpowering and dominating strike, the Heavenbreaker stance!

Rumble…