Desolate Era (Book 28 - Book 30)

“So what if he has five Supreme Daos? So what if he’s perfectly joined them together? In the end, he’s still nothing more than a World-level cultivator.” The muscular man continued coldly, “The more difficult a Dao one choses, the more difficult the path a Samsara Daolord shall have. With each step, a Samsara Daolord must straddle the line between life and death. This is especially true with regards to the Daomerge. Every era has given birth to monstrously powerful Daolords, but how many of them have been able to gain eternity and become Hegemons? Don’t be fooled by how talented this Darknorth kid seems to be; I’m afraid that he has almost no chance of succeeding in his Daomerge in the future.”


There were many monstrously powerful Daolords; every single generation would give birth to a few. But…

Even the Endless Territories had only given birth to three Hegemons over the course of its entire history. The muscular man’s words were spot-on; to succeed in the Daomerge and gain true eternity was simply far too difficult for these monstrously talented geniuses.

“So… don’t be overly infatuated with him,” the muscular man said coldly.

“In other words, big brother, you aren’t interested in him, right?” The azure-armored man said.

“If that’s the case, then he’ll definitely become my master’s personal disciple,” the white-robed man said hurriedly.





* * *





Book 28, Chapter 35 - A Clash


“I’m not finished talking!” The muscular man was rather irritated.

The azure-armored man and the white-robed man exchanged a glance, then the azure-armored man said, “Big brother, what are you saying? I thought you didn’t care about this Darknorth kid. Are you seriously going to fight with us over him?”

“Big brother, I’ve memorized every single word you said just now,” the white-robed man said.

It had been far too long. They had been waiting here per the orders of their respective masters for far, far too long. Ji Ning was the first one to truly drive them wild with excitement. Although there had been one person who had perfectly joined an offensive Supreme Dao with a defensive one, that was just two Daos. Moreover, that man’s path wasn’t really a good fit for the path their masters had chosen.

Ji Ning’s Dao of the Sword, however, was a path which literally included everything. It included techniques meant for slaughter, such as the techniques of the azure-armored man’s master. It included ephemeral and inscrutable techniques, such as those of the white-robed man’s master. And it even included straightforward attacks of overwhelming power, such as the ones used by the muscular man’s master, the greatsword-wielding Hegemon. Ning’s Dao included everything and joined it all together perfectly! He was able to study any of their Daos!

“All I said was, don’t be overly infatuated with him.” The muscular man said coldly, “In addition, I’m not the one who will decide whether or not he’ll be allowed to become my master’s personal disciple. In the end, it will be up to the greatsword as to whether or not it accepts him as its master.”

The azure-armored man and the white-robed man were both stunned. The greatsword… it held truly incalculable amounts of might within it. It was a Universe treasure! Even Eternal Emperors dreamed of acquiring such treasures, but alas, Universe treasures chose their wielders, not the other way around. If the treasure refused to acknowledge you, there was no way for you to bind it by force whatsoever.

“The only decision I can make is whether or not he qualifies to become my master’s honorary disciple,” the muscular man said. “The decision of who qualifies to become a personal disciple is up to the greatsword.”

“What? You are planning to let him become an honorary disciple?” The azure-armored man and the white-robed man both ground their teeth in frustration.

“Big brother, weren’t you saying how unworthy he…” The azure-armored man couldn’t help but start muttering under his breath.

“Whether or not he can become an honorary disciple will depend on if he can survive my sword or not.” As soon as the muscular man spoke these words… BOOM! He manifested a total of six arms, all six of which assumed a tightened grip over that single deep blue greatsword! But of course, this greatsword wasn’t actually a Universe treasure, just a Dao weapon facsimile.

Swish!

The muscular man transformed into a streak of sword-light that tore through the skies, moving at an incredible pace of nearly five times the speed of light. It must be understood that normally speaking, only Daolords of the Fourth Step were able to attain such incredible speeds. But of course, different people with different Daos would have different areas of specialty. Ning’s Blood Drop sword-art also allowed him to move at incredible speeds by using himself as a sword while using the Blood Drop sword-intent. This was the so-called Blood Drop evasion skill.

The Blood Drop evasion skill was Ning’s fastest evasion skill. The Shadowless evasion skill was more unpredictable, but it was slightly slower. Ever since Ning had perfectly joined together his five Supreme Daos, his Blood Drop evasion skill had undergone a fundamental transformation, making it even faster and more explosive. In the past, he was roughly able to move at three times the speed of light. Now, he would be able to force his speed to a new limit of four times the speed of light.

“The five sword-intents of my Dao of the Sword have been joined together in a perfect manner, but my evasion skill is still inferior to his?” Ning had been utterly dominating those three volcano titans, but when he saw the muscular man fly towards him from afar he no longer dared to act complacently. He immediately used rope-type magic treasures to separately tie up all three volcano titans, ensuring that they wouldn’t be able to disturb him.

“Receive a blow from my sword!” The muscular man’s voice thundered through the skies, as did his distant sword-light. It transformed into a straight line that chopped downwards towards Ning with furious power. The entire world seemed to turn dark, leaving behind only that single terrifying sword-strike as it chopped downwards. Ning was actually completely unable to dodge this attack. His only choice was to defend against it.

Whoosh.

A black hole of sword-light spun out like a lotus flower in the darkness. It swiveled outwards and unleashed layers of power. For an instant, its swiveling movements became as explosively powerful as the Heavenbreaker stance; in the next instant, it would become as soft and ephemeral as the Shadowless stance.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! The deep blue greatsword chopped straight down upon the black hole of sword-light, and the layers of swiveling ‘petals’ sought to transform into other sword-arts while furiously ablating the power of the oncoming attack.

“What a formidable defensive technique.” The muscular man could sense that the offensive power of his deep blue greatsword was being slowly ablated, ground away, and deflected. It was as though it had been trapped within the cycle of Samsara, never to escape again.

“Break! Break! Break!” The muscular man remained quite calm. He held absolute faith in his master’s Dao of the Sword.

No matter how tough you are, I’ll break through with overwhelming power!

This was a Dao of overwhelming force!

BOOM!

Ning was knocked flying backwards. Even when he landed, he had to stumble five steps back before recovering his footing. He stared rather cautiously at the distant, muscular man.

……

“He blocked it! Ahaha! Just like that, he blocked our big brother’s attack in a head-on collision. Absolutely incredible! That other poor bastard… he might’ve had a perfect fusion of his two Supreme Daos, but our big brother’s sword smashed him straight into the ground.” The distant azure-armored man couldn’t help but sigh in amazement when he saw this.