Desolate Era (Book 25 - Book 27)

……

“A challenge?” The rosy-lipped, white-teethed, chubby-faced youth, World God Pillsaint, looked at his book. His eyes lit up. “It is Darknorth.”

Ning and Pillsaint were on very good terms with each other.

For example, when Ning didn’t wish to battle against a particular foe, but that person insisted on challenging him, Ning would often send World God Pillsaint a challenge and use that duel to avoid the first one.

“Is Darknorth trying to avoid another challenge?” Pillsaint was puzzled. Still, he entered the room filled with divine runes and allowed himself to be teleported directly to the battlegrounds.

This was an icy cold oceanic island that was completely locked in by icebergs. A cold wind howled through this world.

As soon as Pillsaint appeared, he immediately saw the white-robed youth who was carrying that sword on his back.

“Darknorth,” Pillsaint immediately called out to him.

“Pillsaint.” Ning looked at him. “I’m going to be leaving.”

“Leaving?” Pillsaint was stunned. “So soon?”

“Yes.” Ning nodded.

“That’s crazy fast. We cultivators live extremely long lives. Why rush things like this? Generally speaking, most of those other freakishly talented geniuses will spend ten million years or a hundred million years here before leaving,” Pillsaint said.

Ning laughed. If he stayed here for ten million years, he probably would indeed be able to master the seventh stance of the [Nameless] sword-art. Ten million years out of an entire chaos cycle? That really was nothing. Still, Ning wanted to save as much time as he could, for fear of something else from happening.

“Time for me to leave. This time, I admit defeat.” Ning spoke out in a high-pitched voice.

“Admit… defeat?” Pillsaint was stunned. Ning had never admitted defeat in any of his battles before. He knew that that Ning had a footwork legacy in his hands. Was Ning planning to transfer this legacy to him?

“I won’t be able to take this footwork legacy away with me. Take it.” Ning tossed the jade tome over to him.

Pillsaint couldn’t control himself. He immediately extended his arms to accept the jade tome, gripping it with his fingers. His eyes couldn’t help but turn red. He had been trapped here in the Astral Islands for an extremely long period of time. He desperately wanted to find a way to leave, but acquiring a full legacy truly was not easy. Whenever he had enough parts of a legacy, he would suffer countless challenges from cultivators on the third and fourth strata. Each time he got close, he would lose it all!

“Darknorth.” Pillsaint’s eyes turned red.

“I’m embarrassed to say this, but I was actually planning to give you a sword-art legacy I acquired quite some time ago. Unfortunately, Waterwalker managed to force it out of me.” Ning shook his head.

“Darknorth, I’m endlessly grateful that you are willing to help me out. You’ve been here for less than a thousand years, right? It hasn’t been a long time at all.” Pillsaint was quite moved. With this legacy, he would regain his freedom.

“Alright. Once I leave, I’ll be joining the Palace of the Sword of the Twelve Palaces,” Ning said. “If you wish to meet me, go to the Sword Palace and seek me out.”

“I will.” World God Pillsaint nodded vigorously.

“And now… the only thing that remains is my battle against Bertulu.” Ning had a distant look in his eyes. The last thing he wanted to do before leaving this place was to have a battle against Bertulu.

Bertulu, the undisputed number one expert of the hundreds of thousands of astral islands. Ever since he had made it to the sixth stratum, he had never fallen down from it.

Ning had battled against all the other talented geniuses. He had never, however, battled Bertulu.

“I really look forward to it.” Ning could feel his blood boiling with eagerness just thinking about this battle.





* * *





Book 26, Chapter 43 - The Hegemon


Ji Ning was looking forward to battling Bertulu. After fighting with him, he could leave the Astral Islands with no regrets. However, he had to wait for Bertulu to finish challenging the old timers first.

The number of astral islands in the fifth stratum continued to decreased. Eight. Seven. Six. Five.

Only five were left! These were the five newcomers.

……

“I lost.” The handsome, devilish-looking silver-haired youth stared at the white-robed, white-haired youth in the distance. Both had extraordinary auras. The former had a more devilish aura while the latter had an aura of warmth and calm.

“Gorho, it seems as though you have already found your own path to becoming a Samsara Daolord.” Bertulu smiled as he spoke.

“Yes.” It was very rare for Gorho to feel admiration towards someone else. Although Darknorth and Kilostar had defeated him, he didn’t really care too much. This was because he could tell that Kilostar had mainly succeeded due to having a thousand clones, while Darknorth had a body just as tough as Kilostar’s and most likely had a similar technique he relied on. In terms of actual insights into the Dao, neither Darknorth nor Kilostar were up to his level.

However, Bertulu gave Gorho a sense of tremendous pressure! This was the first time he had encountered someone who completely outclassed him in terms of enlightenment and insights.

“What path do you plan to walk?” Bertulu asked with curiosity.

“If I have the chance, I will walk the path of spacetime,” Gorho said.

“Spacetime? Isn’t your strongest Dao the Dao of Fire?” Bertulu was puzzled. From the battle they had just engaged in, he was able to tell that Gorho had reached incredible heights in the Dao of Fire. In fact, he had reached the level of being able to use it to become a Samsara Daolord whenever he wished.

“I like it, I guess.” This was Gorho’s response, but in his heart he mused to himself…

My true talent actually lies in spacetime. My strongest Dao isn’t necessarily my best Dao.

He was the most powerful descendant of an almighty Aeonian, King Gorsch. He naturally was extremely skilled in the Dao of Fire… but he was even more skilled in spacetime! However, he was personally trained in the mysteries of fire by King Gorsch, whereas he had to study the art of spacetime by himself. This was why his Dao of Fire was slightly superior to his Dao of Spacetime.

However, by comparison he had to put twice as much effort into his Dao of Fire, only to get half the results. Prior to him being abducted, his father King Gorsch had told Gorho that he was planning to help Gorho find a master who was skilled in the Dao of Spacetime to teach him.

“But how could any major power possibly be a match for the almighty Hegemon of the Brightshore Kingdom?” After years of painstaking work, Gorho had finally managed to acquire a complete spacetime legacy roughly two years ago. “According to the notes on that legacy, if I reach a high enough level of skill I will be able to receive personal guidance from the Hegemon himself.”

“Once I become a Daolord and Awaken my bloodline, I’ll become even more powerful. By then, not even Bertulu would necessarily be a match for me.” Gorho’s heart was filled with tremendous pride and self-confidence.

Prior to their Awakening, Aeonians were quite similar to cultivators. After being Awakened, however, they would explode with power and would view other Samsara Daolords as prey for them to feed out. They truly were terrifyingly powerful.

Yet another astral island descended from the fifth stratum. Now, only four remained.

…….

“My techniques were completely ineffective against you.” The Aberrant known as Daoist Fish let out a sigh. His face was covered with fish scales and his eyes gleamed with golden light.