Desolate Era (Book 31 - Book 35)

“Attack! Attack! Don’t let him get close to us!”


The supreme Daolords began to blindly launch attacks in every direction. Ning’s heartworld projection and nine novessence arts ensured that so long as he remained within their range, there would be no way for his enemies to find him once he used his assassination arts.

Whoosh. Ning appeared out of nowhere, then struck at the supreme Daolord closest to him.

“Block, quick!”

“Join forces!”

Some used magic treasures, others used secret arts. All of them threw attacks towards Ning as quickly as possible.

Boom! Slash! Ning’s six Northbow swords executed varying sword-arts as he blocked the attacks and continued his charge. His defensive abilities were far stronger than King Paleos’.

“Dodge, quick!”

“Dodge!”

The supreme Daolords were so terrified that they frantically retreated, moving closer to their peers. Only when five of them worked in unison would they be able to resist Ning.

“He’s utterly terrifying.”

“Darknorth’s sword-arts are completely flawless. He’s able to easily defend himself against our combined attacks while continuing to charge at us!” This was the first time these Daolords experienced the terror of Ning for themselves.

Ning was already incredibly strong to begin with. Now that he had the Northbow swords and the tenth stance of the [Heartsword], Ning’s advantage over the other supreme Daolords had only grown. Winesage was able to dominate the other supreme Daolords, and so too was Ji Ning. The difference was, Ning’s ‘Shadowless’ evasion art was so unpredictable and mysterious that the other supreme Daolords were terrified of it and him.





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Book 33, Chapter 18 - One Man Army


“What?” King Paleos, Fiendqueen Dustrain, and the others were all shocked. Things were turning out completely contrary to what they had expected. Not even Winesage had put them in such dire straits! Although Winesage was able to crush any supreme Daolord in a head-on fight, when the twelve of them worked together they were able to dominate him. Faced with their combined attacks, even Winesage was in rather bad shape.

But Daolord Darknorth was actually beating them silly? Was Darknorth even more powerful than Winesage?

What they didn’t realize was that Ji Ning was indeed better than Winesage in dealing with group attacks! Ning’s sword-arts were more perfect and flawless, allowing him a truly airtight defense against mass attacks! His Shadowless sword-arts allowed him to vanish without a trace, making it so that his enemies couldn’t focus their fire against him while he was able to launch counter-attacks as he pleased.

All of these factors combined to ensure that at any given moment, no more than five supreme Daolords were able to fight against Ning! This was why Ning had the advantage and held the initiative. These supreme Daolords were all so frightened that they began to cluster closer to each other, no longer daring to launch attacks.

“Darknorth, let’s call it off,” King Paleos roared mentally.

“Call it off?” Ning rebutted coldly, “Acceptable, but you need to get the fuck out of this passageway.” Ning knew that not even Winesage would be able to kill these twelve Daolords now that they were working together, much less himself.

“By what right are you denying us entry to this passageway? You can already harvest the fruit you need; this passageway is meaningless to you. If we want to force our way in, you won’t be able to stop us!” King Paleos said furiously.

“Hmph.” Ning came to a halt as well. He just stood there, the area around him covered by his heartworld projection as the nine energy dragons coiled around him in accordance with his Yin-Yang sword-intent. “I cannot enter this passageway, true, but if you wish to enter it you must first master the [Vitalis] art… and so long as I am here, you can forget about quietly meditating on it and mastering it.”

“King Paleos, Darknorth is telling the truth. The rhomboid stone pillar does indeed say that one has to master the [Vitalis] art and learn how to disguise one’s truesoul aura before one can safely pass through those seven-colored chains.”

“Darknorth isn’t going to let us train in peace.”

“Damn.” The twelve supreme Daolords all felt resigned. Ning wasn’t able to kill them, but he was entirely capable of disrupting them while they attempted to train, making it impossible for them to master this technique.

“Let’s go.” King Paleos gritted his teeth. He had no choice but to retreat.

“Go.” Although the other supreme Daolords felt insulted and humiliated, they all ended up retreating. In truth, these Daolords were all ranked towards the bottom of the first-tier, which was why they agreed to fight under King Paleos’ banner in a group of twelve. In the past, Fiendqueen Dustrain might’ve ranked in the top ten… but now? So many powerful, low-key supreme Daolords had emerged that she had long ago been shoved out of the top ten.

“Hmph.” Ning watched as the supreme Daolords flew away, then dispelled his heartworld projection and his secret arts. He continued to silently stand guard over this region.

He had to help Ninedust… or to be precise, he had to help himself. Ninedust had said early on that he would give Ning all of the command talismans he acquired! Thus, Ning naturally had to do his best to prevent any of the other Daolords from entering this passageway.

……

“Darknorth has reached an incredible level of power. He and Winesage have clearly surpassed the rest of us by a tremendous amount.” King Paleos’ group of supreme Daolords quickly arrived at a new passageway. This was the passageway which Ning had already traversed.

“Are we going to give up, just like that?” Fiendqueen Dustrain sent mentally. She was the second-in-command of this squad.

“Hmph…” King Paleos let out a cold snort. His eyes suddenly lit up when he stared at the rhomboid stone pillar. “The [Vitalis] art.”

Fiendqueen glanced at it as well, then shook her head. “The command talismans in this passageway have already been taken. It must have been Darknorth who did it.”

“Doesn’t matter. The [Vitalis] art can be learned here.” King Paleos pointed at the rhomboid pillar. “Let’s memorize the technique then begin to train! Once we master it, we’ll head to the passageway the Ninedust Sectlord took. So long as we can make it past the rainbow chains, Darknorth won’t be able to attack us.”

“Right.”

“King Paleos speaks the truth.”

All of them agreed with this plan. They could learn the technique but decline to actually enter the passageway. Later on, they could choose to challenge the Ninedust Sectlord’s passageway or perhaps a different one.

……

Three passageways. More than thirty supreme Daolords.

Because Ning’s original passageway had already been cleaned out, everyone’s attention turned towards the other two passageways.

Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. Four figures came flying over.

On the stone island, Ning raised his head to look at them. His eyes narrowed. The new arrivals were Daolord Dreamlore, Daolord Tigrone, Daolord Skyshatter, and Daolord Owlblack.

“The four of them?” Ning didn’t dare to feel the slightest bit of arrogance. All four of them were ranked in the top ten, and the current top ten was much stronger than the previous top ten. Many Daolords who had been previously low-key had emerged, and every single one was difficult to deal with.

Dreamlore was ranked number three and was second only to Ning himself. Both Dawnstar and the Radiant King had been defeated by him, a testament to his power.

“You wish to stop us and to assist your good friend Ninedust?” Daolord Dreamlore smirked as he glanced at Ning. “Darknorth, you’ve already helped him acquire a Voidsea Jadeseal; are you going to help him again? What a selfless man you are.”