Desolate Era (Book 22 - Book 24)

The Sakyamuni body was Lord Buddha’s true body, and he had four mighty dharma-bodies as well. This time, Lord Buddha had brought his Sakyamuni body along with two of his dharma-bodies, but over the course of this battle they had exhausted all of their energy. Lord Buddha’s only choice was to try and preserve his Sakyamuni body while sending out his dharma-bodies to die in the hopes of buying some more time.

These dharma-bodies had all been painstakingly cultivated…and today, in a single day, they would be destroyed.

Still, the true body was what mattered the most. So long as the true body remained alive, the dharma-bodies could slowly be remade once more.

“Go.” Lord Buddha continued to flee as he sent yet another dharma-body flying out from inside of him. This dharma-body blazed with blinding fire, as though it was the sun itself. This was the Great Sun Buddha body, and its attacks were even more powerful than the attacks of the Medicine Buddha body.

But…

In terms of technique and power, it was still a bit weaker than the true body. If even the true body was unable to withstand Witherspike’s attacks, how could the Great Sun Buddha possibly do so?

“Still struggling?” Godfiend Witherspike felt quite irritated. He continued his furious assaults, and a few short clashes later the Great Sun Buddha body also dissipated into specks of light.

Swoosh! Godfiend Witherspike continued to chase after Lord Buddha.

“You want to join together with Fuxi?” Godfiend Witherspike’s tail suddenly lashed out. Whoosh! It struck out faster than the speed of light towards Lord Buddha. Lord Buddha immediately moved to block. Boom! Lord Buddha was sent staggering backwards.

Lord Buddha’s eyes were dim but peaceful. He folded his hands together in prayer, looking calmly at the approaching Godfiend Witherspike.

“TATHAGATA!” Fuxi cried out in agony.

“Killing you really wasn’t easy.” Godfiend Witherspike finally relaxed slightly. ‘Lord Buddha’ apparently no longer had any divine power left. He had long ago converted all of flesh and blood inside of him into divine power, leaving behind only the outside layer of his golden body. His golden body technique was quite special; he became incredibly powerful after mastering it, but there was no way to reconvert his golden body into divine power. After he died, he would only leave his golden body behind.

There were many Bodhisattvas and Buddhas who would leave behind golden bodies after dying. But of course, Tathagata had trained his golden body technique to the highest possible level.

“So I have become the first to fall before the great tribulation.” Lord Buddha looked at Godfiend Witherspike calmly.

“It seems he’s preparing to give me one final blow before he dies?” Godfiend Witherspike didn’t dare to be over-confident. Killing Tathagata was no easy feat, and he had paid quite a heavy price to accomplish it. He had lost all four of his Thearchs, and he had even been forced to take out his ‘Endless Roads’ formation to trap Sword Immortal Darknorth. He certainly didn’t want to mess up at the very end!

BOOM!!!

An sudden explosion could be heard. Off in the distance, the six stone pillars surrounding the blurry formation were suddenly revealed, along with another figure…that of the sword-wielding Ji Ning.

“Sword Immortal Darknorth?” Godfiend Witherspike’s face immediately changed, but his expressions then turned savage as he charged unhesitatingly towards Tathagata. “DIE!” His sharp claws struck directly towards Tathagata, giving the distant Ji Ning no time to intervene at all.

When Lord Buddha saw Ji Ning emerge, a smile appeared on his formerly calm face. He let out a low growl, then struck out with both his palms. Boom! His giant hands struck out towards Godfiend Witherspike like a pair of massive worlds.





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Book 22, Chapter 28 - Elite Elder God


These two palms were like worlds unto themselves, and they angered Godfiend Witherfiend so much that he ground his teeth. “So he really was preparing to deliver one final blow to me before dying.”

Lord Tathagata the Buddha was a True God. Although he was able to unleash the power of an Elder God, in terms of raw power he was indeed a bit inferior to Godfiend Witherspike. However, the intricacies of his palm-arts far surpassed Witherspike’s techniques. There was no way Godfiend Witherspike could avoid this final desperation attack; his only choice was to face it head-on.

BOOM!!!

The two attacks collided.

Lord Tathagata borrowed from the force of the collision to fly backwards.

“Outsider!” Ji Ning let out a loud roar, transforming into a black lightning serpent as he charged towards Godfiend Witherspike.

“Damn.” After exchanging blows with Tathagata, Godfiend Witherspike was sent staggering backwards as well. By the time he recovered, Ji Ning was already attacking. Godfiend Witherspike could only cast a hateful, resentful glance towards Lord Tathagata as the latter flew far away. “I spent all that effort and paid such a heavy price, but I actually wasn’t able to kill even one of these ‘overlord’ level bumpkins. I really don’t want to accept this.”

Ning’s sword-light descended!

It was dazzling to behold, and it seemed to contain enough power to split the skies apart.

Whap! Godfiend Witherspike’s tail lashed out, transforming into a similarly dazzling streak of light that collided against the sword-light.

Godfiend Witherspike was knocked flying backwards. He gave Ning a cold look, watching as Ning transformed into a black streak of lightning that flew next to Lord Tathagata. With a wave of his hand, he pulled Lord Tathagata into his own estate-treasure.

“Master!” The distant one-armed man sent a mental message to him.

“Let’s leave!” Godfiend Witherspike said angrily.

This word, ‘leave’, came from his lips with the utmost of reluctance. Godfiend Witherspike waved his hand, causing those six stone pillars to disappear. Although the ‘Endless Road’ had been somewhat damaged by Ning’s escape, a skilled formations expert would still be able to repair it. The price of repairing it would be much lower than the price of buying a new one.

“Leave.” The one-armed man waved his hand, collecting the alien True Gods as well as the three Waterians, the red-bearded elder, and the skinny elder. He then immediately flew over to Godfiend Witherspike’s side.

“Count yourself lucky.” Godfiend Witherspike smiled coldly towards Ning and the others. “The Primordial Ruinworld is a large place. We’ll take things slowly.”

Swoosh!

Godfiend Witherspike and the one-armed man disappeared, a dark-golden castle appearing where they were. The dark-golden castle immediately flew away and departed.

Within the castle.

Godfiend Witherspike was once more seated on his throne. Below him were his six retainers.

“Master, Sword Immortal Darknorth was trapped inside the the Endless Road formation. How did he end up emerging from it so quickly?” The red-bearded elder couldn’t help but ask this question. “It was too fast. He was only trapped inside for a brief period of time.”

“It was quite brief.” The one-armed man frowned as well. “These locals…they are fairly ignorant and ill-informed. They shouldn’t have been able to recognize the formation as an Endless Road formation. Someone who has never seen this formation…upon being trapped inside it, he should’ve spent a long period of time trying to figure out what to do. The formation is so vast that flying out would take a good long while.”

“Agreed.” Godfiend Witherspike’s eyes flashed with cold light as he nodded slowly.

They were right. Someone trapped in a formation he had never seen before would generally spend some time carefully testing it out. It would usually take them quite some time before emerging from the Endless Road formation. Ji Ning, however, had come out a short period of time after being trapped inside.

“There’s only one explanation. As soon as he was trapped inside the formation, he immediately knew what it was and how to escape.” Godfiend Witherspike said coldly, “He immediately used his [Ninehorn Lightning Serpent] technique to fly out of it at top speed. That sounds about right.”