Desolate Era (Book 36 - Book 40)

“What’s going on?” Archon Silksnow stared in shock from within the realmship. “Move! Move! Hurry up and move!” He tried to will the realmship into moving, but he felt as though the entire ship had been trapped by some sort of invisible force that prevented it from moving at all.

“Have I been trapped?” Archon Silksnow grew anxious. “Break through!” With but a thought, he summoned a saber to manifest outside the realmship. He didn’t dare to go outside the realmship himself, as the realmship had clearly been trapped; if he exited it, he might very well die. He used the saber to try and tear through the invisible force binding him from outside, but as soon as the saber appeared it also became bound by the invisible power, rendering it completely immobile.

“B-but…” Archon Silksnow was stupefied when he saw this. “The realmship isn’t moving, and my treasures won’t move either.” Archon Silksnow turned to look behind himself. He had previously pulled away slightly from Ning and Whitethaw, but both were drawing near yet again.

“If they catch up… given how terrifying Daolord Darknorth’s illusions are, I’ll probably die. If so… then it’s time to go all out.” Archon Silksnow narrowed his eyes, immediately manifesting six arms with six sabers in them. With but a thought, he appeared outside the realmship as he struck out with all six sabers.

The invisible power once more swept over him. “Break!” Archon Silksnow struck out with all six sabers, but they were only to strike out to a distance of thirty meters before they brought to a halt by that invisible power, which had continuously pulled at them.

That invisible power wrapped itself around Archon Silksnow as well. He tried to struggle, only to find that he couldn’t move at all.

“W-what the hell type of trap is this?!” Archon Silksnow was furious and frantic.

“Silksnow.” Ning’s voice was calm now. “This time, there’s no escaping.”

Ning and Whitethaw both walked over, raising their heads to stare at the airborn realmship and Archon Silksnow. Both of them had been ‘stuck’ in midair and were unable to move.

Ning wasn’t surprised. They had remained on the ground and so there was no way they would encounter any excessively powerful barriers, but Archon Silksnow had been flying through the air this entire time. Sooner or later, he would fall victim to a powerful trap! As soon as the two sides had begun this chase, the result had been foreordained.

“Come over, if you have the courage to do so.” Archon Silksnow was completely unable to move, but he was still able to circulate his Immortal energy and cause his voice to echo in the air.





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Book 37, Chapter 6 - Archons Fall


“I’ll wait for you right here. Come over and kill me,” Archon Silksnow said with a cold laugh.

“I wouldn’t dare follow you inside.” Ji Ning stood off in the distance, staring at him. “It’d be pretty miserable to be trapped there for all of time.”

“Hmph. If you don’t come in… I might be trapped here, but I’ll continue to live. I’ll be able to live a very, very long time. After 108,000 chaos cycles, you’ll probably have failed your Daomerge and perished. I, however, will still be alive! My friends will probably come here and figure out a way to rescue me. Sooner or later, I’ll break free!” Archon Silksnow stared downwards at Ning, his white brows fluttering and a look of madness flashing in his eyes. “So why don’t you come over. Come over and kill me!”

“I’m not going to… but you are still going to die today.” Ning shook his head.

“Eh?” Archon Silksnow’s face tightened, his gaze turning colder. “Oh? I’m quite curious as to just how you think you are going to kill me.”

Ning stood there within the flaming passageway, head raised. He waved his right hand, causing a Northbow sword to appear.

“Break!” Ning stabbed out with his sword, causing sword-light flow like a wave of water. The sword-light came together in overlapping layers which stabbed straight towards the distant midair Archon Silksnow. In the instant that the Northbow sword stabbed it, it transformed to become a million kilometers long! It seemed to pierce through the skies themselves as Ning struck out with his Omega Sword Dao – Blood Drop. This was his most penetrative attack, and the attack which Ning decided was best-suited for dealing with this sort of invisible binding power.

Slash! When the sword struck out, it pierced straight through the binding area and was immediately impeded by that invisible force. Ning’s sword began to move slower and slower; after stabbing in a mere hundred kilometers, it came to a complete halt and was unable to advance any further.

“Eh?” Ning frowned. What an odd trap that was. His sword was only able to stab partially into the field, with Archon Silksnow still tens of thousands of kilometers away from it. Although the trap had bound Archon Silksnow, it also made it very hard for Ning to kill him.

“Haha, you aren’t even close. You can’t even touch me!” Archon Silksnow laughed coldly.

“You’re trapped inside and wrapped up so tightly in the air that you can’t even move… but you can still laugh? I really do admire you,” Ning said as he began to consider his options.

“Hmph.” Archon Silksnow let out a cold snort. In truth, he did feel quite miserable. He was completely bound in midair and wasn’t even able to move a finger. It was as though he had been paralyzed into a statue. He couldn’t even move his mouth to speak aloud and was forced to rely on using Immortal energy. How miserable a life would this be?!

And so the skinny, white-haired, white-browed Archon Silksnow just stood there frozen in the air, that tattered and ancient realmship next to him while Ning considered how to defeat the formation.

“Come out!” Ning tried to physically push the Northbow sword deeper, but the sword didn’t budge at all. Raw force was of no use! Archon Silksnow wasn’t even able to move. If Ning used some of his sword-stances to unleash his most powerful attacks, he might be able to make a bit of progress, but with his sword stuck like that he wasn’t even able to use any stances.

“Get back here.” Ning willed for the Northbow sword to shrink, and it quickly began to grow smaller in size. “Grow!” Ning tested out expanding the Northbow sword in size, but within the trapped region the sword was constantly being impeded by that invisible force. He could shrink it, but he couldn’t expand it.

Ning shook his head. He had no choice but to shrink his sword and to put it away.

“Master, this trap is meant to bind foes. After the foes are trapped inside, the Sithe would come to either capture them or kill them with ease,” Whitethaw said. “However, we’re unable to assert control over the trap and so we have no choice but to burst through it forcefully.”

“Do you have a way to do that?” Ning said.

“Let me try brute force first,” Whitethaw said.

“Brute force?” Ning’s eyes lit up as he glanced at the golem with surprise. “Right. Give it a try.”

Whitethaw was a golem and had brute force in spades; in strength alone, he was at the Hegemon level. Neither Ning nor Archon Silksnow had a chance to break through with raw power. They were cultivators, after all; they primarily relied upon their insights into the Dao, not raw strength! Golems, however, generally had ridiculous amounts of power, as they primarily relied on the overwhelming physical might of their golem-bodies. To them, the Dao was secondary.

“Break!” Whitethaw reached out with his furry right hand. His hand expanded dramatically as he reached into the trapped region and began to be impeded by that invisible force.

Ning watched closely, as did the distant and immobilized Archon Silksnow.

Boom! The hairy white hand slowly forced its way in, tearing past the impeding power.

“What?!” Archon Silksnow was shocked.

“Good!” Ning was delighted.

A smile appeared on Whitethaw’s stolid face. He then reached out with his other hand as well, appearing quite confident. His two large furry hands travelled nearly a hundred kilometers in an instant.