Desolate Era (Book 28 - Book 30)

BOOM! Ning struck out with a furious chop, his six arms clenched around that single sword as he once more delivered a hammering blow to the skull of the beast. An explosion rang out, and even the space around them began to splinter. The carapace beast was knocked backwards by the force of the stunning blow, but it then raised its head calmly to give Ning a murderous glare.

“What?!” Ning’s face tightened. For it to possess unearthly defenses was one thing, but how was it that even a head-on kinetic strike was unable to kill it?!

Whoosh. The carapace beast once more charged forwards, its tail sweeping straight towards Ning. As for Ning, he once more wielded all six Northbow swords as he moved at his absolute maximum speed while using his lightning-water vortex-world to constrain his foe.

Slash! Clang! Boom!

Ear-piercing screeches, low growls, light pants. All sorts of sounds erupted as the space around them was repeatedly torn apart and regenerated as Ning engaged the largest carapace beast in a furious battle.

Whoosh! Two streaks of sword-light shot out almost like a pair of flexible ropes, quickly wrapping themselves around that carapace beast with multiple layers of ‘shackles’.

“No! NO!” The carapace beast had been completely bound. It immediately struggled to break free, only to no avail.

“Even I would laugh at myself if you were able to break free from this.” Ning revealed a smile. “It seems using ‘softer’ methods is more appropriate for dealing with crazed beasts like this.” Ning had indeed used a pair of Northbow swords to tie up this beast.

The Northbow swords had been forged for Ning by Emperor Gonflame himself, and they were lifeblood weapons that were well-suited towards all aspects of the Dao of the Sword. They could be ferocious, could be insidious, could be unpredictable… and they could be both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ in their fighting styles. They could be ‘hard’ in striking like a heavy sword, or they could be ‘soft’ in striking like a whip. This was the nature of the Northbow swords.

“Get in here.” Ning produced a gourd, then unplugged the stopper. Whoosh! Instantly, the roaring and struggling carapace beast was drawn flying into the gourd. Moments later, two streaks of sword-light flew out from the gourd and into the scabbard on Ning’s back. Ning then waved his hand again as he collected the corpses of the other carapace beasts as well. Clearly, their shells could be used as manufacturing components.

“That’s finally done.” Ning let out asigh of relief. It might’ve looked like a quick victory, but Ning had already used all the tools he had available to win this fight. “The deluxe hellgold.” Ning turned his gaze towards that pearl of deluxe hellgold. This was what he really wanted.

Ning stepped forward, reaching out with his right hand and clasping that pearl, then gave it a tug.

Clack clack clack! Countless strands of golden energy in the area around it began to tremble. It was as though invisible ropes were connected to the deluxe hellgold, preventing its removal.

“What’s going on?” Ning stared, then gave it another tug. Once again, the deluxe hellgold seemed to be rooted down and immovable. The golden mist for ten million kilometers around him once more began to shudder. Only when Ning stopped tugging did the golden mist go back to normal.

“It seems the golden mist is connected to the deluxe hellgold.” Now that Ning understood the connection, he tugged at it one final time with all his force.

BOOM! A massive explosion could be heard as the pearl of deluxe hellgold was torn away and entered Ning’s grasp. Ning immediately stored it away into his estate-world.

Rumble…

The endless amounts of golden mist instantly began to roil about as they furiously flooded towards a certain direction, becoming sparser and sparser until it completely disappeared. Soon, the area around Ning became completely pristine, with not a hint of golden mist remaining.

Ning stared at his surroundings in amazement. The golden mist had vanished up to a distance of ten billion kilometers around him. Only outside the ten billion kilometer range could more of the golden mist be seen.

Ning immediately turned to look towards the direction of the resonance with the azureflower seal. Tens of billions of kilometers away, within that golden mist, Ning was able to vaguely make out an enormous silhouette of something that looked like an estate.

“An estate?” Ning’s eyes lit up.

The surrounding area for ten billion kilometers was now completely clear of golden mist. Quite a few carapaced creatures stared at their surroundings in astonishment. Just a few seconds ago, they had been surrounded by golden mist. Why had it all completely vanished? Soon, their gazes turned towards the distant white-robed youth.

“GRWAAAR!”

“An invader!”

“Kill!”

There were thousands of those carapace beasts within this region of ten billion kilometers, and they all glared at Ning as they let out furious roars and charged straight towards him.





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Book 29, Chapter 25 - Azureflower Estate


Ji Ning was badly shocked. There were actually thousands of carapace beasts within ten billion kilometers of him? And several dozen were comparable in size to the leader he had fought a short while ago.

“KILL!” One particular carapace beast whose entire body was enormous and pitch-black let out a furious roar, its head upraised and its glaring eyes filled with murder.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The roars generated shockwaves that were visible to the naked eye that smashed through everything before them, reducing everything a hundred million meters ahead of the creature to be reduced into dust.

When Ning looked at the pitch-black carapace beast, a sense of tremendous danger arose within his heart. The sense of danger was far stronger than the feeling Patriarch Clearwind had given him a short while ago. He realized that if he actually engaged this creature in combat, he would probably lose his life here.

“Time to leave right away.” Ning immediately used the Shadowless evasion skill and disappeared without a trace.

The thousands of carapace beasts were all stunned. Due to the strange force permeating this area, even the prime essences of the universe were held at bay here, and Ning was unable to use his godsense to scan the place at all. This meant that the carapace beasts were similarly unable to scan Ning. Even the beast closest to Ning’s location was tens of millions of kilometers away from him; there was simply no way to lock onto Ning’s precise location from such a great distance.

Swoosh! Ning continued to stealthily flee at ten times the speed of light using the Shadowless evasion skill. He secretly celebrated, “Thank goodness there’s no way to scan this empty area. Otherwise, there’s no way I would’ve been able to escape.”

“GWRAAAAR!” After being unable to locate Ning, the pitch-black carapace beast lifted its head and let out a furious howl that completely shattered space in the area around it. Even carapace beasts which were located close to it all retreated from it in fear.

……

Ning began to use his evasion skill to flee towards the direction where the azureflower resonance was emanating from. Whoosh! He once more flew into a region of golden mist. Through it, he could vaguely make out the silhouette of that towering estate up ahead.

“Is that an estate?” Ning continued to fly forwards.

Sometimes, things look deceptively close. He was clearly able to make out that estate from far away, but he spent ten hours flying towards it. During that period of time, he encountered two more pearls of deluxe hellgold. Alas, each of those two pearls had over ten thousand carapace beasts surrounding it, as well as a pitch-black carapace beast.