Desolate Era (Book 31 - Book 35)

“Let’s.” Ning instantly transformed into a streak of light as he shot over towards the flaming equine.

The flaming equine moved as well, its four hooves galloping across the air itself as it suddenly sped up. It immediately moved more than a hundred times the speed of light… and in fact, it was even faster than the sea dragon. Its flying speed was absolutely ferocious! It lowered its head slightly, pointing its horns straight at its foe.

BOOM! Ning once more used his most savage strike, the Omega Sword Dao – Heavenbreaker. His sword shot out, smoting furiously upon the flaming equine’s skull! As for the equine, it didn’t dodge at all; it just continued its headlong charge.

An enormous explosion rang out! The flaming equine trembled slightly as it staggered more than three hundred meters backwards, while Ning was actually blasted more than a thousand kilometers away before Ning came to a halt. Ning was secretly shocked: “Just like the sea dragon said… this beast specializes in overwhelmingly ferocious attacks. It really is ferocious; it’s even stronger than my Omega Sword Dao – Heavenbreaker! Perfect! Only foes like this are strong enough for me to temper my sword-arts.”

What he needed to do was to take that one final step and become a Daolord of the Fourth Step. To do that, he needed sufficient challenges to face!





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Book 35, Chapter 8 - Daolord Coldsky


“Gwaaaaaar!” The flaming equine’s entire body was covered in flames as it galloped across the skies towards Ji Ning with frenetic momentum.

BOOM! Ning transformed into a streak of light, clashing against the flaming equine time and time again in midair. Sometimes he fought it head-on, sometimes he used unpredictable movements, and sometimes he completely disappeared into thin air… but once he moved closer to the creature, he was forced to show himself by its blazing flames!

……

This was an incredibly exciting battle. The shockwaves generated by the repeated collisions blasted out in every direction, causing Ninedust to repeatedly move backwards as he watched.

“Such power! Darknorth is growing stronger and stronger.” Ninedust was excited by what he saw.

“Interesting.”

“They’ve fought to a standstill?”

“The flame beast holds an advantage in power, while the kid holds an advantage in unpredictability. Still… based on what I can tell, this battle should be depleting quite a bit of the kid’s divine power and Immortal energy. Once a bit more time passes, it’ll be hard for the kid to stay in top fighting form, whereas his opponent can draw from the energy of the endless sea of flames. It’d be easy for him to stay in battle for ten years or even a hundred years without resting. If things proceed like this, the kid’s probably going to die.”

“Yes, if the young fellow wishes to win, he needs to win as soon as possible. The longer this drags out, the greater his chances of losing will be.” The two races of beasts watching from the sidelines all commented with interest.

One day… two days… three days… Ning continued to battle against the flaming equine in midair, the two landing on the ground every so often to continue the battle there.

“He’s definitely going to lose.”

“Look! His sword-arts aren’t able to maintain that mist-form from before.”

“He probably has depleted too much divine power and Immortal energy. He’s unable to maintain it.”

“It’s been too long. He’s lost.” The majority of the watching beasts all came to this conclusion.

……

The battle between Ning and the flaming equine lasted for an extremely long period of time. By the third day, Ning gave up on using the [Heartsword] art! This was because the [Heartsword] art allowed Ning to fight the flaming equine to a standstill… and Ning had quickly discovered the flaming equine’s flaws! Whenever Ning wished it, he would be able to quickly defeat the creature.

However… Ning’s greatest goal was to break through to become a Daolord of the Fourth Step. What he needed was a good opponent to temper himself against! This was why, after the third day, he pretended to be exhausted and stopped using the [Heartsword] art. Without it strengthening him, his power instantly dropped by half! This caused him to immediately be at a disadvantage and be suppressed by the flaming equine.

“This is perfect. Now, I can truly test out my sword-arts. Mm… yes, I see many more flaws in my sword-arts that I previously had not discovered. I need to perfectly master and merge the mysteries of these five stances into a whole. Only then will my sword-arts be truly flawless and complete.”

Ning was being dominated and beaten down, but this only showed him more clearly the weaknesses in his sword-arts. His mind was now filled with many new insights… but these insights weren’t enough! He would need far more if he wished to merge his five stances into the fourth stage of the Omega Sword Dao and then become a Daolord of the Fourth Step.

In the blink of an eye, nineteen days had passed with Ning and the flaming equine locked in combat. This caused the many watching beasts to feel puzzled: “The kid’s actually been able to hang on for nineteen days?”

“That couldn’t have been easy. He’s clearly much weaker now, but he’s still been able to hold on… not bad at all.”

“This will end in defeat, but an honorable one.”

……

Ning continued to dodge and stumble about while defending with his six swords. Suddenly, his movements changed as a sharp light flashed through his eyes. “Time to bring it to an end.”

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The sword-light once more formed into streams of mist as the power of his strikes increased twofold! With a boom, Ning’s strikes collided against the flaming equine, catching it off-guard and sending it stumbling.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Slash! Slash! Slash! Ning’s six swords suddenly disappeared without a trace, reappearing much closer to the equine when its flames forced them to manifest. The six swords were like a peacock unfurling its plumage. They were absolutely incandescent yet completely ghostly in their movements.

Although the flaming equine was quite valiant and doughty, Ning had used the Heavenbreaker stance and the Blood Drop stance to break through its guard, then used the Shadowless stance to quickly wrap his swords around its bodies. The divine swords transformed to become long and flexible, coiling around the flaming beast and quickly tying the entire thing up securely.

“Impossible.” The trussled flame beast had a look of disbelief on its face. “How could this have happened?”

It clearly recalled what had just happened. It had endured the Omega Sword Dao – Blood Drop, Heavenbreaker, and Shadowless multiple times by now; those techniques were of no threat to it. How was it that this time, it had been defeated?

In truth, if Ning had merely used those three stances by themselves, he wouldn’t have been able to pose a threat to the creature at all. However, when he used all three together in a manner where they reinforced each other, he was able to capitalize on a weakness in the flaming equine’s movements and thus capture and bind it.

An effective combination of attacks could cause one to become quite a bit more dangerous.

“Again! Let’s do it again! I can’t accept this outcome.” The flaming equine was furiously struggling against its bonds, twisting and turning while it roared angrily, “You got lucky just now! I was over-confident. Let’s fight again!”

“Hmph.” When Ning saw the uncowed look on the flaming equine’s face, Ning silently muttered to himself, “If I didn’t want to use you to temper my sword-arts, I would’ve captured you on the very first day.”

“A defeat is a defeat,” an ancient voice rang out. The stately clan leader flew out from within the ranks of the hundred or so flaming equines.