Desolate Era (Book 25 - Book 27)

It was a humanoid creature whose skin was completely pitch-black. His eyes were crimson red in color, and the way in which he stared at Ji Ning made Ning feel uncomfortable. This pitch-black humanoid’s skin suddenly began to crack and split apart, revealing a dim crimson substance beneath the skin.

Pop! Every so often, a piece of that crimson material would suddenly shoot out from beneath his skin, moving vastly beyond the speed of light and causing spacetime around it to twist and distort.

The creature simply stood there, allowing his ‘skin’ to crack and pop. Every so often, more of that crimson substance would shoot out. Whenever it touched the waters of the ocean, the water would begin to hiss and boil away. Whenever it touched the the remnants of the island, the island would shudder and break apart even further.

“You’ve forced me to reveal my true form, which means you have to die. You are indeed qualified to make it to the fifth stratum, but unfortunately for you… you ran into me.” The sable creature spoke in a hoarse voice, and a few flecks of that crimson material flew out from his mouth with each word.

“Aren’t you the ugly one,” Ning said softly.

“You-!”

The sable creature was both embarrassed and enraged. Cultivators were the true masters of the Endless Territories, after all. They were simply too numerous! Even though he was an incredibly powerful Aberrant, when he was born from the primordial chaos he found himself to be the only member of his race. Thus, he changed his appearance and always wore a black robe, spending his life within the world of cultivators.

As a result, even he himself felt that his true appearance was rather ugly. However, only by revealing his true form was he capable of unleashing his full power. There was nothing else he could do. When normal cultivators insulted him, he wouldn’t be that irritated, but the person who just spoke was a powerful cultivator who was on his general level of power.

“All you can do is flap your mouth. Remember this in your next life. The person who killed you is Sabafey.” The sable creature let out a low growl as he gripped the heavy warblade and the heavy greatsword with his hands.

“What an ugly name as well.” Ning was intentionally mocking him. He could tell that this Aberrant had a fairly weak Dao-heart.

“Die.” Two sonorous streaks of saber-light and sword-light struck out, carrying an aura of incredible majesty and power.

“Hmph.” Ning once more manifested three heads and six arms, using his six Eternal weapons fight back.

“Eh? What’s this?” When Ning transformed into a streak of lightning and charged forward, he immediately sensed spacetime twisting around him. This had an impact on even his own agility and movements. Clearly, this Sabafey was capable of causing spacetime to twist all around him in a domain-type maneuver.

“Hmph.” Ning let out an angry snort as that streak of crimson-gold lightning once more blasted out of his forehead. The lightning was shaped like a Flood Dragon as it struck out, but once it moved closer to that black humanoid, it was impacted by some of the crimson substance spurting out of its cracked skin. The crimson-gold lightning instantly began to tremble.

“We haven’t even clashed yet, but that crimson substance shooting out of his body and this domain around him is already having an impact on my abilities. So this is the power of his true form?” Ning was secretly nervous.

Boom!

Boom!

A streak of black light suddenly shot out. This was the sable freak, Sabafey!

A streak of lightning shot out as well. This was the three-headed, six-armed, white-robed Ji Ning. Crimson-gold lightning continuously shot out of Ning’s forehead.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The two instantly clashed multiple times in midair, causing the air around them to tremble, the fragments of the island beneath them to sink deeper into the sea, and tremendous tidal waves to arise.

The two of them battled in a wild orgy of destruction, and Ji Ning was clearly at a disadvantage in this fight.

“Damn.”

Ning was forced to repeatedly dodge backwards, then charge forward once more. As for the black freak Sabafey, he fought in an utterly dominating fashion. Although he only had a single warblade and a single greatsword, his strength and savagery was enough to allow his two weapons to completely overwhelm Ji Ning.

In fact, the unique spacetime domain surrounding this creature was enough to make him superior to Ning in speed as well.

“So his true form makes him this much stronger than before.” Ning could feel how difficult this battle was becoming. The power of every single blow from the enemy’s sword and saber was superior to Ning’s power. Even though Ning had six weapons to his foe’s two, he was still at a marked disadvantage in this fight.

In truth, this Aberrant was indeed as physically strong as a Daolord of the First Step. He was on par with Ji Ning, and his insights into the Dao were even more profound than Ning’s. This was the reason why the power of his every blow exceeded Ning’s power.

As for their earlier clash? Before revealing his true form and unleashing his full power, he looked just like an ordinary cultivator dressed in black robes. He had only been able to unleash roughly ten or twenty percent of his maximum power in that state, which was why his full-strength blow was merely on par with one of Ning’s sword-strikes. Things were completely different now.

“You are definitely going to die. You are gonna die!” Sabafey’s hoarse, maddened voice rang out. He held an advantage in both speed and power!

This was the first time since arriving at the Astral Islands that Ning had been in such a terrible situation. He was being completely dominated.

This was someone who was just as fast and as strong as him, but who also had an even higher level of insight into the Dao. Sabafey had been training here at the Astral Islands for an extremely long period of time, and he possessed that strange domain which was even stronger than Ning’s [Novessence Thunder].

Ning was being crushed.

As the saying goes, if you always stay on the defensive, sooner or later you will lose. Ning no longer dared to let things continue like this.

“Come out!” Ning was furious as well. This Sabafey really was trying to kill him and sever his path.

Whoosh!

A black-crimson gourd suddenly appeared out of nowhere next to Ning. This was the Elementum Waterflame Gourd! The gourd hovered behind Ning, then instantly spat out two streaks of dragon-shaped lightning. One streak of lightning was the Watersmoke Lightning, and it looked a flood of black water descending from an enormous stormcloud. The power of this lightning was so tremendous that it alone was superior to Ning’s [Novessence Thunder]. As for the second streak of lightning, it looked like a cloud of flame and was just as strong as the first streak of lightning.

Two streaks of lightning. The first was Watersmoke Lightning, the second was Firecloud lightning. Fire and water were incompatible by nature! They were opposing forces! But these two streaks of Dao lightning simultaneously coiled around each other as they thundered towards the sable freak, Sabafey.

“What is that?!” The sable creature was shocked.

BOOM! BOOM!

The two streaks of Dao lightning showed no mercy at all. They simultaneously hammered down upon the sable creature, then began smashing into each other as well. As the two streaks of fiery lightning and watery lightning collided, they unleashed an utterly ruinous level of explosive power that caused even Ning himself to be in awe.

Even most supreme World Gods would be instantly slain by such an attack. As for transcendent World Gods, they would be heavily injured at the very least. A few consecutive blows would ensure that they would perish.

Only Daolords of the First Step would be able to endure such a blow, but even they would be heavily restricted and bound.

Boom! Boom! The two streaks of Dao lightning furiously swirled around the sable creature’s body, and each time they collided they released tremendous amounts of power, causing Sabafey’s speed and strength to both fall dramatically.

“This is Dao lightning!” Sabafey called out in shock.