Desolate Era

by RWX

  “The hell?” Ning cursed to himself. “Its carapace is actually this thick?” It must be understood that the body of the Dragonwhale was ten thousand meters long, and the draconic head was many hundreds of meters long as well. Stab in a mere thirty meters? This was nothing more than stabbing into its skin!

  “Puny human, even if I stood here and permitted you to strike at me, you still wouldn’t be able to harm me. That sword-light of yours…that’s just tickling me.” The Dragonwhale instantly began to laugh wildly, and its laughter echoed within a hundred kilometers.

  Ning was finally understanding exactly how difficult it was to deal against a peak Wanxiang Godbeast with a divine ability. Its body alone was so powerful…no wonder it was able to survive, even when facing a Primal Daoist.

  “Just tickling?” The nearby Northson’s face had changed as well. “Senior apprentice-brother’s [Soulshaker Art] was useless, and even his sword-formation was only able to tickle it. This Wanxiang monster really is terrifying.”

  “Kid of the Ji clan. If you aren’t able to beat him, we need to immediately flee. If too much time passes, we won’t be able to escape,” the azure-robed maiden sent frantically.

  “Senior apprentice-brother, should we flee?” Northson sent a mental message to Ning as well.

  Ning gave the two each a glance, confidence in his eyes. He said in a clear voice, “Dragonwhale, I was just playing around with you just now.”

  “Playing around?” The Dragonwhale’s massive, lake-sized eyes stared downwards. “If you have anything else, show me what you have. Otherwise, you’ll never have the chance to do so ever again.”

  “Such ignorance. You are a frog seated in a well, staring at the skies.” Two Darknorth swords appeared in Ning’s hands.

  “Oh?” The Dragonwhale stared downwards at the longsword-wielding human youth, as though seeing something that was completely inconceivable. “You…can it be that you are actually dreaming of fighting me in close combat? Hahaha, are you sure you haven’t made a mistake? Human kid, if you immediately flee, then due to your divine will technique, I’m not confident in being able to catch you. But if you move close to me and battle me, you really will be throwing your life away.”

  As a monster with a mighty Fiendgod-like body, the Dragonwhale was naturally the most skilled at close combat.

  “Kid of the Ji clan, this is a peak Wanxiang monster with a Fiendgod-like body, and with a divine ability. And it is a Dragonwhale!” The azure-robed maiden was shocked.

  At this moment, Ning leapt forward, soaring into the skies and transforming into a streak of light, instantly moving thousands of meters and charging towards the Dragonwhale above him. While charging towards the skies, Ning’s eyes were filled with coldness. He wielded two of the Darknorth swords, and while flying in midair, his body became covered with crimson light. His body was quickly increasing in size; he actually transformed into a ten meter tall giant. This was a ‘magnified’ Ji Ning!

  “A Fiendgod body! Heavenly Transformation?” The azure-robed maiden called out in shock, then hurriedly sent a mental message to Northson, whose face was similarly filled with concern. “This kid from the Ji clan is going to fight head on against the Dragonwhale…does he have a chance?”

  “I don’t know.” Northson stared fixedly towards the skies. He sent back, “However, I heard that in the past, before joining the Black-White College, my senior apprentice-brother was able to rely on his close combat skills to become famous. I hear that he is most skilled in close combat and is very formidable…but I’ve never seen him truly fight in close combat.”

  “He is most skilled in close combat?” The azure-robed maiden no longer asked any further questions, because the battle occurring in the skies was making her incomparably nervous.

  …….

  When Ning soared into the heavens, as he was executing the Heavenly Transformation technique, the two dragon-whiskers of the Dragonwhale in the sky once more swooped towards him, trying to entangle him. In addition, the Dragonwhale once more let out an angered snort. Rumble…two streaks of dire-ice belched forth from its nostrils, spreading out and freezing the air itself as it swept towards Ning.

  The sword-light was able to dodge, but although Ning had the Windwing Evasion technique, he couldn’t possibly compete with sword-light in terms of speed.

  He couldn’t dodge? Then…he would chop it apart!

  “BREAK!” Ning violently swung the Darknorth swords in his hands, executing the second stance of the [Three-Foot Sword], the ‘Manifold Thistlethorns’. Where his swords flashed past, the layers of dire-ice were all chopped apart, and even the dragon-whiskers that sought to entangle him were split apart and sent flying. Ning’s speed dropped as a result, but he had already reached the head of the Dragonwhale.

  “Die.” The Dragonwhale’s massive body suddenly twisted, and its massive tail swept towards Ning in a whipping motion, covering the earth and blocking out the skies as it did so.

  But Ning leapt directly atop the Dragonwhale’s massive tail, utilizing his Windwing Evasion technique to charge directly towards the Dragonwhale’s head. The divine ability, ‘Heavenly Transformation’, was something which allowed Ning’s speed to increase dramatically to begin with. Now, with the Windwing Evasion supporting him as well, Ning was astonishingly agile and quick.

  Still…this Dragonwhale’s massive, monster body was still ten thousand meters long. It was quite accustomed to enemies climbing atop its body in a battle, and it actually didn’t care about it, because it had its methods for dealing with this. In addition, generally speaking, most of its enemies weren’t even able to break through its first carapace layer.

  In an instant, Ning had moved from the tail of the Dragonwhale to its draconic head. “Kill!” Ning’s eyes exploded with an incomparably savage intent for battle. After three years, he was finally going to once more unleash his most powerful divine technique, one of the top ten most terrifying divine techniques which had existed ever since Pangu had established the universe…the [Starseizing Hand]! In this instant, Ning felt his blood was boiling, was bellowing!

  It had been so long. Too long! He hadn’t met an opponent who could truly make him battle wildly in far too long. Even when he had been very weak, he had still been able to kill Adept Xu Li in a single exchange with the [Starseizing Hand]. He had never before used the [Starseizing Hand] to engage in a truly heart-pumping battle.

  “COME, THEN!” Ning’s aura was as magnificent as a dragon’s.

  “Not good.” The Dragonwhale suddenly felt as though the aura of this ‘ant-like’ human on its body had suddenly exploded and become incomparably terrifying. It even felt a sense of tremendous danger, the likes of which it usually only felt when facing Primal Daoists.

  “Go.” A thick dire-ice aura suddenly emanated from the body of the Dragonwhale, and the vast amounts of dire-ice frantically tried to freeze Ning.

  BANG!

  Ning’s twin swords instantly transformed into two sword-rivers. In an invincible, irresistible manner, it blasted past the blocking dire-ice as though the dire-ice was nothing more than rotting wood, and then, with a crackle, charged directly into the body of the Dragonwhale.

  In the face of Ji Ning’s sword light, that incomparably tough body of the Dragonwhale, comparable to a magic treasure…finally began to crack.

  * * *

  * * *

  Book 8, Chapter 25 - A Suggestion

  “How did he become this powerful? My Fiendgod body isn’t able stop his attack at all?!” The Dragonwhale could feel the ant-like man easily burrowing through his head. The Dragonwhale instantly panicked. “Force him out!”

  Ning had instantly burrowed more than three hundred meters deep into the draconic head of the Dragonwhale. Right at this moment, a flood of watery green light suddenly surged towards him from every direction.

  “Divine power!” Ning instantly understood; this was the divine power of the Dragonwhale. Divine power was stored in every single part of a Fiendgod�
��s body. At this moment, with but a thought, the Dragonwhale had sent the tremendous amount of divine power that resided in its head in a flood towards Ning. It was simply too ferocious! Endless amounts of divine power surged out, causing even Ning to shrink back.

  “It actually has this much divine power?!” Suddenly, Ning understood that his chances of actually killing this Dragonwhale probably weren’t very high. This was because the amount of divine power contained within this massive body was unfathomably greater than his own. To kill such an enormous creature…one had to have power that was far greater than it, as otherwise, one would only be able to harm it.

  “Break!” Ning, after executing the [Starseizing Hand], was incomparably valiant. He burst through the flood-like waters of divine power, charging straight towards the weak spots of the Dragonwhale’s head.

  Rumble…

  Wherever Ning moved, those two streaks of sword-light accompanied him, wildly hacking and chopping away throughout the insides of the Dragonwhale’s head.

  The head was the most central, core part of the body. If an ordinary Xiantian Fiendgod’s head was severely damaged, it would immediately perish. Upon reaching the Blood-Drop Rebirth level (the Zifu level), although they wouldn’t die…they would lose control over their bodies, and would only feel an innate instinct to reform and repair their bodies. After reaching the Wanxiang level, Fiendgods could rely on their control over their bodies to easily change their appearances and shape, but upon the head being damaged, they would still find their control over their bodies being dramatically weakened, albeit they wouldn’t lose complete control. They would only be barely capable of a few simple techniques. After reaching the Primal level, however…they could even separate off a part of their flesh to create a clone!

  Fiendgods at the Zifu level were capable of Blood-Drop Rebirth. At the Wanxiang level, they were capable of changing their appearances and form. At the Primal level, they were capable of creating clones.

  ……

  For powerful Fiendgods, pulling out a hair and forming a clone with it was simplicity itself. [1. This is a shout-out to the Monkey King, Sun Wukong/Sun Goku, who in Journey to the West was capable of transforming his hairs into countless clones which would attack his foes.]

  To Primal-level Fiendgods, the head was no longer important or special at all. At the Wanxiang level, however…the head was still important. At this level, the divine soul primarily resided within the sea of consciousness; once the head was damaged, the divine soul’s control over the body would naturally be greatly lowered.

  “Rumble…” As Ning’s sword-light pierced through the vital points of the head, the entire Dragonwhale’s body began to tremble in mid-air, and then it began to fall towards the ground. While falling, the entire, massive body of the Dragonhead was twisting and twitching.

  Northson and the azure-robed maiden watched this below, incomparably nervous. The azure-robed maiden, seeing this, sent mentally to Northson in disbelieving joy, “Can it be that he’s won? Your senior apprentice-brother really is so formidable that he can even defeat the Dragonwhale?”

  “Seems so.” Northson was watching as well.

  “However, this Dragonwhale is a Fiendgod. He won’t be destroyed so easily.” The azure-robed woman continued to watch, nervous.

  ……

  Within the Dragonwhale’s head. Ning had slashed through multiple vital points; instantly, the resistance ability of the entire Dragonwhale began to drop dramatically. Ning understood that his opponent’s control over it’s body had already become extremely weak.

  “Excellent.” Ning’s eyes flashed. “Waterflame Lotus.” Instantly, one enormous Waterflame Lotus after another began to bloom in the surrounding area, beginning to grind and strike at the Dragonwhale’s body. These Waterflame Lotuses were all many tens of meters long, and appeared at the chest of the Dragonwhale, beginning to grind away wildly at parts of its body.

  But…

  Grind, grind, grind. It wasn’t able to grind through! “Eh?!” Ning stared. They weren’t able to grind through? “Smaller, smaller, smaller.” Ning willed the Waterflame Lotuses to instantly shrink in size, and their power continuously increased as they did so. Six Waterflame Lotuses, each of them thirty meters in diameter, once more began to grind against the Dragonwhale’s body.

  “What a freak.” Ning was truly stunned. “The power of my Waterflame Lotuses is now incomparably greater than in the past, but when their power is dispersed too widely, they aren’t able to grind down its body at all. Its flesh and its muscles are simply too tough!”

  At a diameter of thirty meters, Ning was able to keep the Waterflame Lotuses at the peak of their power. Clearly, only when the Waterflame Lotuses were at maximum power would they be able to grind and damage this creature.

  However…they were only able to grind a little bit of flesh away. How long would it take to grind away a ten thousand meter body? Most likely, the speed of the grinding wouldn’t even be able to match up to the rate at which the divine power of the Dragonwhale would naturally regenerate.

  “BOOM!” The head of the Dragonwhale suddenly exploded, and Ning was thrown aside as well.

  “What a fellow. He actually discarded his head.” As Ning was sent flying back by the explosion, he felt stunned by the Dragonwhale’s decisiveness. Although the Dragonwhale’s control over its body was very weak, it was still capable of a few simple techniques. A self-detonation of its head was simplicity itself.

  The head had completely detonated, and the massive body of the Dragonwhale was sent flying as well. In the process, the head of the Dragonwhale once more grew out.

  The Dragonwhale released a furious howl. “RAAAAAAWR!” Accompanying this heaven-shaking roar was its massive, sky-covering tail, which swung directly towards Ning. It was too fast! In addition, this massive, fan-shaped tail, in terms of width, was nearly three thousand meters. Ning was in midair, unable to borrow strength from anything else and not as nimble as he was on the ground. For a moment, he was completely unable to dodge.

  If he couldn’t dodge…then he wouldn’t!

  “You shall…BREAK!” Ning’s twin Darknorth swords transformed into two rivers of sword-energy. He let out an explosive roar, chopping directly towards the massive tail sweeping towards him.

  The massive tail was like a giant fan, blocking out the entire sky. The two streaks of sword-light, however, were like arrows that were going to pierce through the firmament. The two collided!

  BANG!!!

  It was as though the heavens had shattered and the earth had collapsed. The air itself seemed to blow apart. Fresh, scarlet blood instantly spewed out, seeming to dye the skies themselves red. Ning was knocked downwards like a meteor, smashing into the wilderness below. The desolate land, with a massive thudding sound, instantly shattered apart, with massive, deep crevices appearing in a turtle-shell pattern. As for Ning himself, he was knocked deep underground.

  “Human.” The massive tail of the midair Dragonwhale now had an astonishing wound in it. The massive wound, many hundreds of meters deep, had nearly split the tail in half. This wound was currently healing at high speed.

  It stared downwards, clearly sensing that the aura of this human, deep underground, was still as powerful and as wild as ever. It didn’t seem to have weakened at all. The Dragonwhale now understood…the enemy was also a Fiendgod Body Refiner. A single blow would at most be able to wound the foe, but the foe could also heal perfectly at high speed.

  “I didn’t expect that you are even more powerful as a Fiendgod Body Refiner than as a Ki Refiner. You truly hide your power well.” The Dragonwhale’s voice rumbled forth, and then it transformed into a streak of light, flying far away at high speed. As it left, its formation flags also flew into the air, soaring towards it.

  Swoosh! Ning leapt out from the underground crevice, landing on the surface of the ground once more. “He’s gone?” Ning continued to hold the Darknorth swords in his hands, staring towards the distant, departing Dragonwhal
e.

  “Senior apprentice-brother, you actually beat the Dragonwhale monster into a retreat?” Northson was quite excited. The nearby azure-robed maiden, in turn, was completely stupefied. She stared at the Dragonwhale, which disappeared into the distance, then towards that young, seemingly fragile youth, who looked just like he had in the past.

  “You…you beat the Dragonwhale into retreating? Is it possible that you actually have a younger twin brother?”

  Ning laughed, then replied back, “What’s going on in that mind of yours?”

  “How can you be so powerful? I had countless lucky encounters, you know.” The azure-robed maiden stared at Ning blankly. “That was the Dragonwhale…I heard that it was even able to stay alive when facing Primal Daoists. It was extremely powerful.”

  “It is indeed strong,” Ning said. “In particular, its body is so massive that the amount of divine power within it has reached an inconceivable level. To kill it? I don’t have that ability at all. Even Primal Daoists…I imagine that only Primal Daoists that were capable of completely dominating it would be able to kill it. Otherwise…ordinary Primal Daoists wouldn’t be able to do anything to it.”

  Much like how Wanxiang Adepts could have differing levels of power, the same was true for Primal Daoists. Primal Daoists of the Black-White College, for example, had all comprehended a complete Dao Path before entering the Primal level! Or, for example, Northmont Blacktiger; who was a candidate to be the next Marquis of Stillwater; he gave Ning a sense of incomparably great danger. These could all be considered exceptional figures amongst Primal Daoists.

  “If you aren’t able to do anything to it, why did it flee?” The azure-robed maiden asked. “Because he’s not able to do anything to me either,” Ning laughed. “In addition, after I slashed through the vital points in his head, his control over his body weakened dramatically…any Fiendgod who tasted that once would never want to taste it a second time.”