Desolate Era (Book 25 - Book 27)

This was different.


This was completely different from last time!

Last time, Ji Ning’s sword had ‘merely’ been able to consume more than 20% of the energy of Fukai’s Dao-seal. The stance looked the same, but the aura was far more powerful this time! Fukai’s very truesoul was shuddering in horror.

BOOM! The aura of golden light surrounding him trembled, then broke apart.

When the sword-light slammed against Fukai’s body, Fukai couldn’t help but vomit out a mouthful of blood. He stared ashen-faced at Ning, a look of despair in his eyes. “How is this possible? How could this have happened? My Dao-seal still had 80% of its power remaining. How could it have been shattered by one strike, with that strike still carrying enough excess power to wound me!? I have a Dao armor and a protective divine ability. Can it be that his sword is as powerful as the sword of a Samsara Daolord?”

A mocking look suddenly appeared in Fukai’s eyes. “Kill! Kill! All bugbeasts, begin killing your peers. Wipe out all the other bugbeasts. Kill them!” Upon seeing that terrifying strike of Ning’s, Fukai finally realized what was going on.

If even his Dao-seal had been incapable of resisting a full-force attack from this monster, this monster clearly wasn’t someone he could possibly contend with. Most likely, Ji Ning would be able to dispatch the bugbeasts with a single blow each. Neither Fukai nor Arroyo were a match for him.

“Kill each other! Wipe each other out! You monster, the reason you didn’t even kill a single bugbeast was because you wanted to take control over them, right? Haha, in your dreams!” Fukai had gone completely insane.

Arroyo was unable to destroy the golems under his control, and Fukai was similarly unable to cause his bugbeasts to commit suicide. Bugbeasts were living creatures, after all. One of the most overriding and basic of instincts for any living creature was to stay alive! However, what Fukai could do was to order them to fight amongst themselves. In fact, one of the most common ways of rearing bugbeasts was to have weak bugbeasts fight amongst themselves and devour each other, allowing the final survivors to be incredibly strong.

Boom! Boom! Bang!

The fifty-eight bugbeasts gave up chasing after Ji Ning and began to fight amongst each other. Blood, limbs, scales, and fur flew everywhere as the bugbeasts began a wild civil war amongst themselves.

“Aww, shit.” Ning had originally been planning on drawing Fukai into his gourd and slowly ‘digesting’ him with it, but his face now sank as he changed his mind.

“Die, then.” Ning exploded forth with full power.

Violetjewel once more stabbed through the air, causing a terrifying streak of bloody light to descend. Every single blow which Ning now delivered was filled with his maximum power and was capable of destroying a fully-charged version of the Dao-seal which Fukai had just used up. There was no way Fukai could possibly withstand such a strike! Although he had Dao armor and a protective divine ability, his divine power would be quickly wrung dry by the power of these consecutive attacks.

A mere twelve blows later, Fukai was all out of divine power.

Bang! Upon the thirteenth sword-blow, Fukai’s body trembled a final time, then began to split apart and crumble as though he was made out of clay. His eyes, however, were fixed towards the skies. He could still faintly see the blood-colored streak of sword-light that had been left behind by the final blow.

“Such beautiful sword-light.” Fukai closed his eyes.

Fukai’s body completely crumbled apart and his truesoul dissipated along with it.

Arroyo and Fukai had sought to slay Ning in order to seize the divine blood of the Eternal. Alas, in the end Arroyo had been sucked into the gourd while Fukai had been slain on the spot.





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Book 26, Chapter 13 - The Three Realms


“Seven died.” Although Ji Ning had seized control over the jade green globe as fast as he could, more than seven of the bugbeasts had died during those brief moments of fratricide. Now, only fifty-one remained.

“Stop!” After binding the globe, Ning immediately exerted his control over the bugbeasts and ordered, “Surround those golems!”

“Yes.” “Yes.” …

The bugbeasts immediately acknowledged the order obediently and began to swarm around the Hellwind Golems, giving them no place to run.

……

Within the golden gourd.

Arroyo’s divine power was being depleted at an incredibly fast rate as the power of those two streams of energy continued to grind down at his body. His soul was linked to the Hellwind Golems outside and so he ‘saw’ everything that had happened.

“Those who kill others and take their treasures are destined to be killed in turn, one day.”

Arroyo emanated a bloody aura because his Dao was a Dao of slaughter. He had always been the winner in his battles, and so he had advanced step by step and left a trail of corpses behind his wake. However, this battle for the Eternal blood was the most important battle in his life. If he won, he would’ve become a true member of the Aeonians and skyrocketed in status in power. However… he had failed.

“Ahahaha… today, Fukai and I have fallen to your hands. However, how many cultivators shall truly gain eternity? One day, you will fall as well. You will die as well! Ahahaha…” Arroyo laughed wildly, and as he did so the last drops of his divine power were used up. His body was shattered apart, then ground into dust.

……

Ning could sense the crazed death throes of Arroyo within the gourd, but he remained quite calm.

It was true. The path of cultivation was a very difficult one to tread, and only a few Samsara Daolords existed in the Endless Territories to begin with. Samsara Daolords treaded the line between life and death with each step they took. How few of them would be able to take the final step, achieving the Daomerge and gaining true eternity for themselves?

However, Ning was determined to continue moving forward on his path, motivated by a faint, dim hope that he would never release. He hoped that one day, he would gain the power to reverse the flows of spacetime and bring his wife back to his side. This was the only way he would ever be able to see her again.

“One thing at a time.”

The eighteen Hellwind Golems had lost their master. Ning had overwhelmingly superior power and thus was quickly able to forcibly bind them.

“Time to leave.” Ning’s own godsense was spread out to cover this entire chaosworld. The disturbance caused by his battle against Fukai and Arroyo was quite enormous. Although both sides had kept control over themselves and their power, the Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals stationed in this chaosworld were still so terrified that all of them had gone into hiding and were unwilling to come out.

Ning stepped forward and through the world-membrane, returning to the primordial chaos outside the world.

……

Outside the Three Realms. Within the primordial chaos.

A black-robed Ji Ning was standing here within the primordial chaos, staring towards the Three Realms. Although his Primaltwin had stood guard over the Three Realms this entire time, his lifeblood oath made it so that he was completely unable to actually re-join the Three Realms. Only upon reaching Vastheaven Palace and completing the lifeblood oath would Ning be able to return to the Three Realms.

Rumble…

After mastering the ‘Sword World’, Ning was now capable of seeing through the primordial chaos and into the Three Realms.