Desolate Era (Book 41 - Book 45)

BOOM! The light on the top of the Daoguard Tower suddenly shot out, moving at an absolutely terrifying speed. Ning was roughly a billion kilometers away from the Daoguard Tower; given the short distance and the incredible speed of the attack, not even Otherverse Lords would be able to dodge in time.

Swish. Ning suddenly transformed into a streak of electric light that moved with equally terrifying speed. He was able to dodge the attack with ease and then charged straight towards the tower. As for the attack, it shot past the location Nng had been in and then continued on to pass through the distant black fog behind him.

“He dodged it?!” The short creature was both angry and anxious. “He’s too fast. He’s too strong and he’s too fast!” He wanted to kill Ning and then be rewarded for it; this was his only chance of salvation! Alas… the only tool he had available to him was the Daoguard Tower.

“He’s too fast and his sword-arts are too furious. There’s no way I can kill him at long range,” the short creature mused. “I’ll wait for him to come inside. Once he actually enters the Daoguard tower, I’ll unleash all of the Daoguard Tower’s powers at the same time. He’s a Daolord who has failed the Daomerge. He HAS to die from that!”

The farther away two fighters were, the more difficult it would be for one to kill the other. Daoguard Towers were built with layers of defenses. They had roving patrols to keep invaders at a distance, ranged attacks to deal with those who made it past the patrols, and also self-destruct options meant to take out invaders who made it into close range.

……

As for Ning, he couldn’t help but sigh to himself. “The records indicate that the closer you get to a Daoguard Tower, the more dangerous it is, with the insides of the tower being the most dangerous of all. I’ve been quite far away from it, but it was still able to force me to use power thrice.”

The first time was when he used his sword to break through the Sands of Time. The remaining power hadn’t been enough to break through the sealed dimension. He used a fair amount of power in this strike.

The second time had been when he pierced through the sealed dimension and fled, while the third time had been when he used an evasion-art to dodge that strike. He had used up very little power here, with the evasion-art using up the least.

“If I really wanted to break into the Daoguard Tower, I’d probably have to use several times as much energy. In fact, I could well die there,” Ning muttered to himself. He once more turned to follow his karmic senses, quickly using his karmic lines to locate the Paragon of Pills. He immediately turned towards one of the hundreds of sealed dimensions. Now that the entire world had been shattered, he was able to find her with ease.

“The Mistress is located in that region over there.” Ning was certain of it. As for Lord Annihilation, he was located in another dimensional pocket that was quite close to her’s.

Swish! Ning was able to move at incredible speeds when transformed into a streak of electric sword-light. In fact, he was a bit faster than when he had first mastered the Eternal Omega Sword Dao. He instantly appeared in front of the sealed dimensional continuum where the Paragon of Pills was located, then delivered a blow with his Northbow sword.

Whoosh! The sword-light carved a giant gaping hole within the sealed pocket that was thousands of meters long.

Ning had no choice but to do this. These sealed dimensions were so strong and stable that he wasn’t going to be able to breach them unless he used his sword.

Through the gaping hole, he was able to clearly see what was inside that dimension. He saw a cold, austere-looking woman dressed in black gauze who was seated in the lotus position. No matter how calm and collected the woman normally was, she was unable to prevent a look of shock from appearing on her face as she turned to stare at the white-robed youth standing behind the gaping hole in the dimensional wall.

“Darknorth?” She recognized this youth right away.





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Book 41, Chapter 7 - Playtime is Over


This was the only disciple her big brother had ever taken. In her heart, Ji Ning was arguably more important than even her own disciples. She had always felt that Darknorth was someone she had to protect… but somehow, without her even realizing it, the kid had grown up. She had received word that the kid had grown to become an absolutely incredible figure, slaying the Lonely King with just a blow of his sword. How unbelievable was this?! She was absolutely delighted to know that her big brother had taken in a truly remarkable disciple.

And today… the young fellow had appeared before her once more, rescuing her from her plight.

“Mistress, let’s hurry up and get out of here!” Ning sent mentally. At the same time, he sent out his Sword Dao Domain to ‘plug’ the gap, preventing it from healing. The Sword Dao Domain was unable to tear through the dimensional seal, but it was able to dramatically slow down the healing process.

“Alright.” The Paragon of Pills rose to her feet, a smile on her face as she transformed into a streak of light and flew out of the dimensional tear. As she did so, she cast a radiant and joyful smile towards Ning. For some reason, she felt even happier than she would’ve if it was her own disciple who had reached such a level of power.

“I was vaguely able to sense that we would meet again, but I never would’ve imagined that the circumstances would be you rescuing me.” The Paragon laughed. “I rather thought that it would be the other way around.”

Ning could sense how happy the Paragon of Pills was. He was quite happy as well. There weren’t that many people who truly treated him as family, but the Paragon of Pills was definitely one of them. In fact, Ning could sense from the Paragon of Pills a sort of motherly love that reminded him of the love which his true mother Yuchi Snow bore him.

“Mistress, you seem quite calm and relaxed. I’ve been worried sick over you! Thankfully, you are alright.” Ning let out a sigh of relief.

“There’s always danger when adventuring through Sithe ruins. I’ve been in situations like this on multiple occasions,” the Paragon said.

“But this place is different. There is a Daoguard Tower here!” Ning couldn’t help but feel a sense of fear. There was no way the Paragon of Pills or any of the others would’ve been able to flee on their own. A double-edged technique like the Dimensional Separator, which had completely shattered the planet apart and divided it up into many different pocket dimensions, were powerful enough to slay even Otherverse Lords… and that was just one of many techniques the Daoguard Tower had access to!

“Daoguard Tower? What’s a Daoguard Tower?” The Paragon of Pills was rather puzzled, but she hurriedly said, “Let’s not waste any time, Darknorth. This place is extremely dangerous. Let’s leave right away. If you can save my two companions, you should do so; if you cannot, don’t try to force it.”

“I’ll rescue them, but they need to wait a bit.” Ning smiled mysteriously.

…….

Within the Daoguard Tower.

The short creature stared at the images of the outside world, puzzled. The white-robed Daolord had easily dodged his attack, then immediately moved to another sealed dimension and used his sword to slice through the dimensional membrane. He had rescued the woman who had been trapped inside that dimensional pocket, and the two clearly seemed quite happy to meet each other.

“He came here to save his friends?” The short creature was puzzled.

“Let’s go.” Ning let out a happy laugh, then led the Paragon of Pills in transforming into streaks of light that flew off towards the horizon.