Desolate Era (Book 36 - Book 40)

Although Flamewing had the initiative thanks to its speed, the black-robed Sourcewalker had reached such a high level of insight that he was still capable of protecting himself.

Ning instantly began to frown. What were they to do? Flamewing was extremely strong, having completely suppressed the first armored Sourcewalker and injuring him, causing his energy to deplete rapidly. As a result, the first Sourcewalker chose to flee after a brief bout! But this black-robed Sourcewalker… its only weakness lay in its speed. In all other aspects, it was Flamewing’s equal; in fact, it actually had an advantage in close combat.

“You are pretty strong after all, Chaos Primordial. You’ll make a good mount for me!” The black-robed Sourcewalker suddenly let out a laugh. “Arise!”

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Light began to shine all around them as power began to circulate through the area. Countless runic lines appeared in the icy earth around them as an enormous formation began to reveal itself. The entire area became blanketed in blurry light; clearly, this was a trapping formation.

“If I had to deal with you anywhere else, it’d probably be quite hard… but this is my turf. Admit defeat, Chaos Primordial.” The black-robed Sourcewalker was extremely self-confident.

“Retreat, Flamewing,” Ning sent mentally. Flamewing immediately flapped its wings and charged back towards Ning.

“Store the realmship into your estate-world, then obey my orders with regards to breaking this formation apart,” Ning sent.

“Alright, Master.” Flamewing was quite unhappy after having been trapped within the opponent’s formation. It didn’t really understand formations, given how low its level of insight was. All it could do was try to overwhelm the formation with raw power! Given that it was strong enough to dominate even Otherverse Lords, ordinary formations were no match for it. However, this was a formation that was controlled by a Sourcewalker that was every bit as strong as Flamewing; overpowering it probably wasn’t an option.

Whoosh. Flamewing put away the realmship. Even though Ning was now within Flamewing’s estate-treasure, his gaze was still able to see past the dimensional barriers and into the world outside. This was primarily because Flamewing was in control of the estate-treasure. It didn’t move to oppose Ning, and so Ning was able to see what was happening outside.

“This trap formation is a bit interesting, but defeating it won’t be hard. Flamewing, given how strong you are, this is actually going to be easy.” Ning felt quite confident. “Obey my commands.”

The Dao of Formations was an incredibly difficult one, but Ning had reached terrifying heights in it. In all the Sixteen Realmverses Alliance, there was probably no one superior to him in this regard! When he had first unlocked the secrets behind the Jadefire Realm’s formation-diagram, he had already reached the Archon level in the Dao of Formations. He had then spent another long period of time studying formations in order to unleash Flamewing, and as a result his insight into the Dao of Formations had deepened even further.

Swish! Flamewing transformed into an arced streak of light, flying through the blurry formation at high speed. It repeatedly changed directions, sometimes choosing to ram through certain points with raw force.

To break the entire formation through raw power was impossible for Flamewing, but Ning’s level of mastery over the Dao of Formations was so high that he was able to find its weak spots with ease. To locate and then break through those weak spots was naturally quite simple.

Boom! Boom! Boom! A number of explosions could be heard in succession. The formation which the black-robed Sourcewalker had spent quite a bit of time setting up was instantly disrupted, and the surrounding area returned to its usual appearance. It was once again possible for everyone to clearly see the vast, icy world around them.

“Why did it break?! Big brother, your formation was so powerful that when I was trapped inside it, I had no idea how I was supposed to escape. How was it breached like that?!” The armored Sourcewalker was rather dazed.

“You idiot. All you know how to do is fight. You know nothing of formations.” The black-robed Sourcewalker stared towards the fleeing Flamewing, his eyes shining. “It was actually able to disrupt my formation in the blink of an eye. There’s no way that Chaos Primordial could’ve accomplished it on its own; those things are legendary for their stupidity. That means that it had to have been one of the two cultivators in that realmship. So one of them is actually a grandmaster in the art of formations!”

……

After breaking through the formation, Flamewing instantly grew excited. It let out an earth-shattering roar, then said: “Hey, Sourcewalker! Wasn’t your formation supposed to be really awesome? Why don’t you activate a few more and let’s see how they do?!”

Formations had to be set up in advance. The black-robed Sourcewalker had detected Ning’s group early on and thus had set up this formation before revealing himself. How could he suddenly manifest another powerful formation out of thin air?

“Gentlemen.” The black-robed Sourcewalker had an excited look in his eyes, and he said with a smile: “Do you think you can escape simply because you breached my formation?”

“Without your formations, do you think you can stop me?” Flamewing howled back, “Be good and hand over the Daomerge Firecloud Flower. Otherwise, I’m going to loot the entire Icewind Sea completely clean.”

“This place is my territory. You should play nice and listen to what I have to say.” A strange, rhomboid-covered globe suddenly flew out from the black-robed Sourcewalker’s forehead and into the air. Boom! A strange power which belonged to the Dao of Space suddenly swept out and covered the entire area, moving at such incredible speeds that it completely covered a trillion kilometers in the blink of an eye.

The entire region covered by this power completely changed. It had transformed into a world of the starry skies, with Flamewing and the two Sourcewalkers both located within it.

“This is a weapon which I acquired from a Sithe who once attacked this place.” The black-robed Sourcewalker’s voice echoed throughout every part of the starry skies.

“Flamewing.” Ning immediately issued an order from within the estate-wrold: “War machines might be powerful, but activating them uses up an enormous amount of energy. Don’t worry about him. You have a virtually indestructible body and limitless energy; focus all of your efforts on tearing through this astral world. Rip it to pieces with your power!”





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Book 38, Chapter 36 - Easily Accomplished


“Yes, Master.” Ji Ning’s command was perfectly suited to the Flamewing God’s temperament. It immediately unleashed an earth-shaking howl as it flapped its wings, leaving behind a jagged scar in the air as it soared towards the limits of this astral world.

The black-robed Sourcewalker simply watched calmly: “The forceful response, eh?”

BOOM! The ‘membranes’ of this astral world rumbled as the charging Flamewing’s giant fleshy claws slammed into them, with the explosion filling the entire starry realm. However, this astral world remained quite stable; it didn’t even budge in the slightest. Instead, it was Flamewing who was knocked flying backwards by tens of thousands of kilometers.

“Sithe war machines truly are impressive,” Ning sent mentally. “This black-robed Sourcewalker may be far more powerful than most Hegemons, but there’s no way it can possess limitless power like you, Flamewing. Ignore all else and just launch repeated attacks. A hundred attacks, a thousand attacks, ten thousand attacks… I want to see how long the Sourcewalker can resist you!”

“Fine.” Flamewing’s confidence was soaring thanks to its master’s words, and it once more sent itself slamming into the edges of the realm.