Desolate Era (Book 41 - Book 45)

Book 45, Chapter 3 - Skycleaver Stance


A great star-like temple was silently floating within the Great Dark, surrounded by formations and flowing barriers that surrounded it and kept it completely sealed away.

Riiiip. A rift in the darkness appeared, followed by Ji Ning and the rest of the seven emerging from within it.

“Let’s begin.” Ning, Titanos, and the others exchanged smiling glances.

“This will be the first time we have the Sword Titan release its full power in battle,” Ning said with a laugh. All of them began to pour energy into the formation-bases they were holding. Boom! They quickly summoned the awesome power of the Chaosverse, which began to swiftly condense into the form of a nearly nude giant who was clad in just a fur loincloth. This titan stood there in the Great Darkness, his long dark hair spilling across his shoulders.

He had two arms and a face which looked similar to Ning’s but had more of the cold, pure remorselessness of the Dao of the Sword.

The Sword Titan had two different ‘modes’. The first mode was the seven-faced, fourteen-armed mode they had used previously. This mode used up more energy but it had so much power that the other six Autarchs could each be responsible for controlling two arms as well.

The second mode was this mode. It had just a single face and two arms.

Ning and the others had already concluded that they would have to fight together during the final battle. If they had enough time, they would of course set up formations to prepare the battlefield. Before the battle near the Nine Cicadas Temple, they had actually spent nearly a month setting up that grand formation (the ‘real’ time they spent was 100x as much). However, oftentimes battles would break out suddenly and without warning, giving you no chance to slowly establish the formations you needed.

During such times, they would need to make use of mobile formations they could carry with them. They would have to shrink the size of the formation while preserving as much of its power as possible… and so they developed the ‘second mode’ of the Sword Titan!

The second mode was activated by the various formation-bases which Ning and the others carried with them at all times. It allowed them to summon the power of the Chaosverse and then materialize this body. Given that it had access to less power, they had to be a bit more sparing with their energy usage and so they only kept the two strongest arms which Ning controlled.

The two arms which Ning was in control of was where most of the power of the entire Sword Titan was concentrated. More than 90% of the power was there!

“Gentlemen, let us use the Skycleaver stance in cracking this temple,” Ning said.

“Alright.” The other six understood and agreed.

Rumble… the loincloth-clad Sword Titan strode through the void, a longsword appearing within one of its hands. This was one of Ning’s Northbow swords.

Autarch Titanos, Autarch Skyfeeder, Autarch Mogg, Autarch Stonerule, Autarch Ekong, and Autarch Bolin were inside the Sword Titan. They immediately unleashed their various techniques, filling the Sword Titan’s body with their six roaring streams of energy. Under Ning’s guidance, all of the different energies merged perfectly into the Omega Sword Dao, allowing the Sword Titan to unleash the most powerful of its many fusion attacks – the Skycleaver stance!

Whoosh! The Sword Titan’s two hands came together to grasp the Northbow sword in a double grip, then lifted it high into the air. A heartbeat later, it brought the Northbow sword down in an utterly indomitable chop towards the trapped astral temple before them.

Boom! Crack! The entire astral temple began to shudder. This strike destroyed three of the six formations protecting it, and even the remaining three formations were shuddering as explosions rang out across the temple.

“What in the world is happening outside?”

“Didn’t almighty Iyerre say that he’s about to arrive and save us? Why are our formations collapsing?!” The seven Sithe Exalts inside all felt quite terrified, but the formations sealing them in here prevented them from seeing what was happening outside. All they could sense was that just now, an incomparably sharp power had come crashing down upon them and had nearly blasted the entire temple apart.

“Kill!” The Sword Titan delivered a second chop, then a third chop. Every single blow was filled with utterly terrifying power.

The reason why these two arms were the ‘strongest’ arms was precisely because these were the arms which Ning was in control of. The other six Autarchs worked together to unleash their Daos, while Ning guided the power of their Daos into ‘his’ two arms to unleash the most powerful of attacks. If they were in the ‘first mode’ with fourteen arms, the other Autarchs would individually control the other twelve arms. However, they were unable to make perfect use of their colleagues’ energies. They were only able to mobilize a fraction of it.

In other words, those twelve arms combined weren’t nearly as strong as the two arms which Ning controlled. Thus, even when the Sword Titan was at ‘peak’ power, more than 90% of its strength came from these two ‘primary’ arms!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

“Quick, go into lockdown mode!”

“Completely seal the temple off from outside attacks!” The Sithe Exalts within the temple were panicking like mad. The formations had already been disposed of. Now, their only choice was to try and use the natural sturdiness of the temple itself to defend against these attacks.

Ning’s Sword Titan did not elect to blink inside the temple. Instead, the sword Titan continued to launched frenzied blows from outside using the Skycleaver stance! Every single strike contained the full power from seven Autarch-class combatants which had been perfectly fused together via the Eternal Omega Sword Dao.

This was a level of power that far surpassed that of the ‘giant sword’ and the ‘black serpent’ which had fought in the Grassland World, and it was also mightier than the violet-gold chains.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The temple was even sturdier than Universe weapons, but after nearly a hundred blows it finally began to crumble. Moments later it completely blew apart, with the Sithe Exalts inside being reduced to dust by the leftover power from the final Skycleaver stance. This was as to be expected – even the Autarchs, the creators of the Skycleaver stance, would’ve been destroyed in one blow from this overwhelmingly powerful fusion attack.

“That felt incredible! Unleashing the full power of the Sword Titan was a wonderful feeling.” The Sword Titan broke apart, revealing the figures of the seven. Autarch Ekong was particularly excited by what they had just done.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve had that much fun. The Skycleaver stance truly is astonishingly powerful,” Autarch Titanos said with a smile.

“In my opinion, all the various techniques and trump cards we have accumulated over the aeons should make it so that we are entirely capable of fighting the Grassland World head-on,” Autarch Ekong said. “Last time, we retreated before we really had a chance to test ourselves. That was irritating! I think we were entirely capable of winning if we fought them head-on.”

Ning shook his head. “Don’t underestimate the Sithe.”