Desolate Era (Book 41 - Book 45)

The skies were dark and gloomy, with some fiery red light off in the horizons. A total of three figures were standing within a wilderness area.

“Haha, our chance has come!” The leader of the three was a black-robed man who had a large amount of grass covering his head, and his ‘beard’ was formed from grass as well. His eyes were dark, green, and grim. “The Exalt has bestowed powerful treasures upon us. If we can kill that white-robed Doalord, we’ll skyrocket in status and even be able to control one of the Elder Halls.”

“Big brother… it is clear from the many gifts the Exalt has offered that he truly wishes to kill that white-robed Daolord. But why, then, would he rather give us so many treasures and so many benefits rather than do it himself? None of those fools in the Sacred Realm wish to take part either! There’s only one possible answer to this – the white-robed Daolord is so terrifyingly strong that even Exalts fear him and are unable to beat him.” An ugly old lady said in a hoarse voice, “We need to treat this white-robed Daolord as we would an Exalt, or perhaps someone even more terrifying than an Exalt.”

“Second sister, you speak sense,” the chubby man by her side said immediately.

“Of course I know how terrifying he has to be… but in the end, he’s still failed the Daomerge. We have a chance! Come, let us first go find that white-robed Daolord,” the black-robed man said with a growl. “I’ve had enough of life in Purgatory anyhow. I’d rather die fighting for this opportunity.”

“Agreed.” Both his companions turned solemn as well. Life in Purgatory truly was a living hell. There was little life here, and it was a dry, desolate place. The environment was extremely inhospitable, forcing even Hegemons to tread carefully. Worse, even if you stayed in one place and didn’t move, some danger would usually descend out of nowhere. Every day spent here was a day spent in fear. This was a miserable life indeed.

……

Ji Ning continued to fly through the realm-seam, inspecting everything in his path as he flew past the eight realms. Six mortal realms, the Sacred Realm, and Purgatory – by now, Ning had located all of them. However, all seven of the other realms were completely locked; only the gates to Purgatory remained open to him. There was no way to enter the others at all!

“So they left just one door open to me?” Ning chuckled after a moment. “It seems the controllers of this hidden dimension have set up a few traps for me. Fine, fine. I’ll go play with you.”

Swoosh. Ning flew over to the Purgatory Realmgate, then gave it a glance. Ning was rather surprised: “No living beings are around it?” There was no way his senses could be off; clearly, there really were no living beings next to the Realmgate at all. What he didn’t realize was that everyone who had been driven into Purgatory was an exile; they were all extremely crafty and selfish. No one wished to be the first to attack, and so they all hid far away, using various scrying methods to watch the action at the Realmgate.

Completely unmolested, Ning slipped through the Realmgate and arrived at the vast world of Purgatory behind it.

“What an impressive ‘Purgatory’ this world truly is!” The white-robed Ning descended upon the dark, foul-looking earth. The world around him was covered in darkness, with some flames flickering far off in the distance that were blindingly bright. Around him were many howling tornados that quickly appeared and then dissipated, while space and time were rippling behind him.

“It really is quite chaotic here. This ‘Purgatory’ is filled with countless natural calamities. Even Hegemons would have to tread carefully here, while Daolords are constantly at risk of imminent death.” Ning chuckled. “But it’s better than the realm-seam, at least.” The realm-seam was even more chaotic, to the point where there was nothing stable there at all. At least this place had an environment.

Flames illuminating the distant horizons… this did make for an eerily beautiful sight. The destructive tornados that constantly swept through this place did as well. As for the evil miasmatic aura of this place that give birth to vilefiends? It was nothing but a bit of amusement to Ning.

“Now this place is rather intriguing. I’m almost finished merging the Dao of Wind into my Eternal Omega Sword Dao. I might as well train here for a time.” Although Ning was surrounded by danger, he remained completely relaxed. He immediately sat down in the lotus position.

The white-robed Ning sat down there on the foul ground, his Sword Dao Domain covering the entire area around him, preventing the various types of natural dangers from moving close to him. The place where Ning sat had become sacred grounds, untouched by the filth of Purgatory.

Whoosh. The wind blew past Ning jubilantly, occasionally revealing a few sparks of sword-light which gathered together, eventually transforming back into wind once more.

Ning had reached the Hegemonic level in the Dao of Wind long ago. Now, what he needed to do was to infuse it into his Sword Dao and create his Wind Sword Dao!

Time passed, one day after another.

“What’s going on?”

“Why has that Daolord sat down without even moving an inch?” The exiles who were scrying this place from afar were all puzzled.

“I have to say, that Daolord is pretty powerful. He didn’t have to do anything; his domain alone was able to block out all the local dangers. The chaotic environment of Purgatory is absolutely nothing to him.”

“He’s probably trying to buy time.”

“If he wants to drag this out, I’m more than happy to oblige. I’ve already been trapped here for over eight million chaos cycles. Let’s see who can last longer! I have plenty of patience.”

“Yes, let’s wait.” The exiled powers were all waiting for the right moment to attack.

The years continued to flow on. In the blink of an eye, over half a million years had gone by. All of the exiled powers continued to wait patiently for a good opportunity. Although they all had powerful Sithe weapons and were confident in their abilities, life in Purgatory had long ago ensured that they had become slippery and crafty.

The local environment here was bizarre but beautiful in a twisted way, and the flames flickering off in the distance caused Ning’s face to flicker with reflected light. Suddenly, Ning’s lips curved upwards slightly, and he slowly opened his eyes. A smiling look was in his gaze.

Ning took a sudden, deep breath, causing the wind streams around him to begin to howl.

“GRAAAAAH!” Suddenly, Ning seemed to let out an enormous roar.

In truth, this was nothing more than a single deep breath, but the breath was so ferocious that it generated a terrifying howling sound which shook the earth. It sounded like the bellowing of a thousand terrifying beasts, and it unleashed countless twisting tornados that were formed from countless streaks of sword-light. The howling wind was like the waves of the ocean, crashing out every which way.

The howling wind shattered everything in its path like a giant shockwave, crushing mountains to dust and shattering even the distant flames. The wind wave spread out with terrifying speed, moving so fast that even Sith Exalts would be caught offguard by it.

This was Ning’s Wind Sword Dao! The terrifying gust of wind caused even spacetime to shudder.

“Flee!”

“Run away!”

Ning’s breath was actually aimed at the five Emperors who were located closest to him. They were hundreds of billions of kilometers away from him, but it wasn’t enough. The Dao of Wind was a fast Dao to begin with, and the Wind Sword Dao in the form of a howling tempest moved with indescribable speed. Hundreds of billions of kilometers was nothing to it! Although those five Emperors frantically sought to flee, spacetime was suppressed here. There was no way to warp through spacetime, and so they could do nothing save just watch as the terrifying wind howled through the heavens and moved towards them with incomprehensible speed. There was nowhere for them to hide at all.

“Ahhhh!”

“Attack!”