Desolate Era

by RWX

  Thearch Darkstill frowned. “The terrain is to our advantage, but we still aren’t able to lure him into the places we want him to go? Are his senses really that keen?”

  But of course, he had no idea that Ning was now a half-step Elder God. His soul was incredibly powerful and acute!

  “Have them stay away from Ji Ning for now,” Thearch Darkstill instructed. “Go.”

  “Yes.” The subordinate hurriedly departed.

  “Thearch.” The golden-robed elder looked towards Thearch Darkstill. “Ji Ning is not an easy person to deal with. Even our ‘Eight-Armed Warfiend Formation’ was effortlessly annihilated by him. He is at least as powerful as an elite Daofather. We can tell from this alone that he has reached the fifth stage of swordforce.”

  “No.” Sovereign Thearch shook his head. “There’s many possible reasons why he was able to destroy their formation. For example, it’s possible that he’s broken through to become a True God. It’s also possible that he’s travelling with allies, that he’s brought other major powers of the Nuwa Alliance with him; it could’ve been those allies that destroyed the formation. We can’t speculate wildly before even seeing the records of that battle.”

  “But not even the Eight-Armed Warfiend was able to send back any information…” The golden-robed elder felt sorrowful for their losses. “Godfiend Witherspike is commanding many different forces to deal with Tathagata, Fuxi, Kuafu, and Daoist Jade Cauldron, but we are forced to deal with Ji Ning by ourselves. Far too many members of our race have died.”

  “I will go test out Ji Ning’s skills in person.” An icy gray light flashed through the eyes of Thearch Darkstill.

  “Thearch, you must not!” The golden-robed elder cried out hurriedly.

  “I’ll personally test him out, but I’ll do it via sending my mind to directly descend upon one of my children,” Thearch Darkstill said calmly. “Don’t worry. I won’t risk myself without a good reason.”

  The golden-robed elder let out a sigh of relief.

  Thearch Darkstill waved his hand. Instantly, nine mountain-sized freaks suddenly appeared in the hall next to him. There was a stone giant, an eight-legged beetle, a two-headed serpent…all of them had powerful auras on the level of a Daofather.

  “I’ve spent countless years in order to rear these bugbeasts and make them become as powerful as a True God. I didn’t expect that a Sword Immortal who has trained for less than a thousand years would be capable of forcing me to use them.” Thearch Darkstill looked at the bugbeasts, and then let out friendly keening calls in response. It was as though they viewed Thearch Darkstill as their parent.

  There were actually quite a few techniques in the primordial chaos that were meant for rearing bugbeasts. Strictly speaking, the [Nine Bug Solutions] which Youngflame Freak had acquired and used was actually even more profound than the technique which Thearch Darkstill used. However, Youngflame Freak was just far too weak. He was only able to make use of a tiny part of the true technique.

  “When these nine children of mine fight against Ji Ning, I’ll send my mind and soul with them. Whatever they experience, I’ll experience as well. I’ll be able to get a clear sense of what Ji Ning’s skills are,” Thearch Darkstill said.

  “You are going to send out all nine bugbeasts?” The golden-robed elder felt a bit of heartache. “Three should be enough, right?”

  “Best to be cautious. We’ve already failed once. We cannot fail again.” Thearch Darkstill sent out his will, causing the nine bugbeasts to once more screech in response. They then soared into the air, quickly disappearing into the emptiness of space towards Ji Ning’s direction.

  ……

  The distorted, scrambled spacetime in this area was of no threat to injure Ning. His soul was so powerful that he could sense which places posed a threat to him and which places were safe.

  Swoosh. As he flew forward, his eyes suddenly lit up. A dazzling beautiful lake had just appeared before him, and there was a little island in the center of the lake which was filled with wild grass.

  “I didn’t expect such a beautiful place to exist within a region of such chaotic spacetime.” Ning’s heartforce had spread out to cover an area of tens of thousands of kilometers, and it was rippling out in waves to scan every single inch of the region. He verified that it wasn’t a trap, then flew straight down to the island and sat down. He pulled out a flagon of wine, then leaned back and took a sip for himself.

  He looked rather relaxed, but in truth Ning was trying to decide what his next step should be.

  “Ever since I entered the Darkstill world, I’ve been attacked by alien Outsiders every so often. They keep on challenging me, and they are very familiar with the local environment. They seem to know exactly where I am as well.” Ning frowned. This was quite an uncomfortable feeling, to not know where the enemy was but have the enemy know exactly where he was.

  There was nothing for it. The reason why the Three Realms had never launched an actual assault against the Primordial Ruinworld was in large part due to how inhospitable the environment here was. This place was very hard to invade.

  “The Darkstill world isn’t even that big. So long as I visit enough places, sooner or later I’ll sense some energy ripples and be able to locate one of the other four squads.” Ning suddenly frowned and turned to look towards the distance.

  “Eh?”

  “Here as well?”

  “And there as well?”

  Ning looked towards all eight directions from his position on the island. He could sense multiple auras approaching at high speed from different directions. He hurriedly rose to his feet, producing a Darknorth sword in his hand.

  “Grwaaaar!” Accompanied by a growl, an azure beetle that had a pair of wings on its back suddenly appeared from a distorted region of spacetime that was more than ten thousand kilometers away. Its golden eyes stared fixedly towards Ning.

  “Hissssss.” A giant, two-headed black serpent emerged from another part of the skies.

  One bugbeast after another appeared, each of which had the aura of a True God.

  Ning murmured softly to himself, “Bugbeasts?” Ning had learned multiple bugbeast-rearing techniques, both from stone steles of the prisonworld as well as from the techniques passed down by World God Northrest. There were many major powers in the primordial chaos who trained in these types of techniques. This was because major powers tended to live for a very long period of time. When they reached a bottleneck and were unable to grow stronger, they would divert a bit of their attention towards rearing powerful bugbeasts. These bugbeasts would be absolutely loyal and devoted towards them, and there was no chance of betrayal at all. They could be used to scout dangerous areas, or even block a critical blow meant for their master. There were many, many uses for such creatures.

  * * *

  Book 22, Chapter 11 - Sword Peacock

  If you were lucky, you might end up rearing a bugbeast that was even more powerful than you!

  Bugbeasts possessed low levels of intelligence, and they were far inferior to cultivators in terms of their insights into the Dao. However, this was precisely why it was fairly easy to upgrade them. Their most powerful weapons were their massive, powerful bodies.

  “Grwaaaaar!” The nine bugbeasts were attacking from nine different directions. They were tens of thousands of kilometers away from Ji Ning, and they all shrieked, roared, and screeched as they stared at him.

  Ning stood atop the island. He swept them with his gaze, then chuckled loudly. “I wonder which ‘major power’ is so terrified that he doesn’t dare to come in person and instead sends a few bugs over.”

  Thearch Darkstill, whose mind and soul was riding with these nine bugbeasts, became rather angry upon hearing this.

  “My children are more than enough to kill you.” The bugbeast shaped like a stone giant roared angrily. Deep under the cracked parts of its stony exterior, flesh and blood could be seen.

  “Oh? Is that so?” Ning made his move.

  S
wish! A black lightning serpent flashed through the skies. A distance of just ten or twenty thousand kilometers was no distance at all to Ning; for him, travelling such a distance was as easy as taking a single step was for an ordinary mortal. He immediately appeared before the stone giant, and as he arrived an icy-cold streak of sword-light descended as well.

  “Damn you.” The stone giant brandished his enormous club-like hands, smashing at Ning with them and completely ignoring Ning’s attack.

  “Attack!” The other eight bugbeasts flew towards him as well. But suddenly…

  Snick. Snick. Snick.

  The sword-light flashed back to Ning’s side. Ning stood there calmly in front of the stone giant. The stone giant’s fists were just about to land upon Ning, but suddenly it froze. It stood there blankly for a moment, and then…its neck, chest, and flank all split apart. Its body was chopped apart into four evenly sized pieces, and the four pieces all began to fall downwards. Ning’s sword-light had completely snuffed out the stone giant’s life. In fact, Ning didn’t even use the rainbow-colored swordforce; against a foe of this level, there was no need to use it at all.

  “What? He’s this powerful, even without using any swordforce at all? This sword-art definitely is something that only an expert who has mastered fifth-stage swordforce can come up with. There’s no mistaking it.” Thearch Darkstill instantly became certain of this. Ji Ning hadn’t used rainbow-colored swordforce, but this was precisely why he was terrifying.

  “Flee.” The eight bugbeasts that had been charging towards Ning hurriedly began to scatter every which way.

  “You want to run?” Ning’s gaze turned cold. Although he possessed the [Ninehorn Lightning Serpent] technique, these eight bugbeasts were all fleeing in a different direction, and they would soon disappear into a field of chaotic spacetime.

  “Arise.” Ning pointed a finger up towards the skies.

  Rumble….

  The skies suddenly turned dark. Streaks of of rainbow-colored sword-light began to manifest in the area, and in just an instant the entire region seemed to have transformed into a world of rainbow-colored swordlight. This was a world of the sword.

  The eight bugbeasts stared as the heavens and the earth around them suddenly transformed into a world of rainbow-colored sword-light. All of them were terrified. Thearch Darkstill, whose spirit was riding with them, immediately urged them to flee! Thearch Darkstill had already guessed that Ji Ning had reached the fifth stage of swordforce, which was why he wasn’t surprised at all. “Hmph. So what if he can manifest a world of the sword? This is a large-scale technique, yes, but that means that the technique will be fairly weak. Every single streak of sword-light is quite feeble; there’s no way it will be able to harm my children.”

  “Sword Peacock!” Ning murmured these words softly, but his voice was like the voice of Heaven and Earth. When he spoke, his words resonated throughout this region as though an edict had just been proclaimed.

  The brilliant rainbow-colored swordlight filling the area instantly began to merge together, forming a sight that looked like flower buds blooming or like a peacock displaying its feathers.

  Whooooooosh.

  The sword-light radiated an arcane intent as it swept forward, and the countless streaks of rainbow sword-light solidified into a total of 1001 peacock feathers, so dazzling and beautiful that one couldn’t help but feel intoxicated by them.

  The eight fleeing bugbeasts didn’t have any chance to escape at all. The terrifying sword-light passed right through them…and then their bodies completely crumbled apart, all life extinguished.

  All nine of the bugbeasts had been slain!

  “The seven sword-stances of [Sword-Heaven-Earth] truly are extraordinarily powerful.” Ning nodded slightly.

  This technique was not a technique he had created himself.

  His own original creation was the [Brightmoon] sword-art, a sword-art which was meant for battling against foes in close combat. All of its techniques, including ‘Heavenbreaker’, ‘Blood Drop’, and ‘Shadowless’ were meant for dueling.

  The seven sword-stances of [Sword-Heaven-Earth], however, were techniques that were meant for massacring weaker foes on a vast scale. They involved using a large amount of swordforce in order to massacre the enemies! This sort of technique was extremely effective against numerous weaker foes, but it was much less effective against someone who was comparable in strength to you. For that situation, the [Brightmoon] sword-art was still better.

  Sometimes, sufficiently large quantities of cannon fodder could have an impact on the overall flow of a battle. Using a sword-art like [Sword-Heaven-Earth] against them could be quite effective. Ning had no desire to come up with such a butcher’s technique on his own, but he had discovered [Sword-Heaven-Earth] amongst the ninety-eight sword techniques inscribed on those stone steles left behind by World God Northrest.

  Just now, Ning used the second stance of [Sword-Heaven-Earth], ‘Sword Peacock’.

  “Daofather-level bugbeasts like them…” Ning shook his head, then took a single step forward and flew into the skies. He once more disappeared into space, advancing forward in the hopes of joining together with the other squads.

  ……

  The ancestral grounds of the Darkstill world.

  “What a terrifying sword-art.” Thearch Darkstill was still engrossed in pondering the dazzling sword-art he had just seen, the one which had looked like a peacock spreading its feathers. He was an elite Daofather, after all, and so he was able to see exactly how terrifying that beautiful sword-art was.

  It must be understood that even when Daofathers used magic treasures, they had to send those magic treasures flying off into the distance to assault their foes. This sword-art, however, used rainbow-colored swordforce as its underlying power source. With a thought, the wielder was able to fill an extremely wide swathe of land with the swordforce while maintaining a terrifying level of power.

  “Dazzling.”

  “Arcane.

  “Shockingly sharp.”

  Thearch Darkstill was completely stunned. “When I followed the Lord of All Things, I went to quite a few places within the primordial chaos…but this is the first time I’ve ever seen such a dazzling, beautiful sword-art. This sword-art alone is profound enough to be proclaimed the number one sword-art of the Three Realms. Terrifying. This sword-art is utterly terrifying.”

  Of course, he had no idea that this was something which World God Northrest, someone who stood at the very peak of power amongst World Gods, had come up with after meditating on the nameless sword-art he had acquired. Even other World Gods would be amazed by this technique, to say nothing of a mere True God such as Thearch Darkstill.

  “It won’t be easy to deceive an expert like this. To lure him into the Forest of Dreams will be far too difficult. In addition…the Forest might not be able to hold him.” Thearch Darkstill had personally witnessed that last sword-art, after all. He now had a much higher opinion of Ji Ning than before. In his heart, Ji Ning was now considered an even more terrifying figure than Daoist Jade Cauldron.

  “How could he have come up with a sword-art like this?” Thearch Darkstill couldn’t help but ask himself this question. “Well…I need to go see Godfiend Witherspike right away.”

  ……

  Deep within the Primordial Ruinworld. Within the dark golden castle.

  Witherspike remained seated atop his throne, relaxing as he stared at four different scenes that were playing out in the air before him. These scenes were of Kuafu, Daoist Jade Cauldron, Tathagata, and Fuxi as they fought in combat.

  “The Nuwa Alliance really is powerful…and this should just be part of their total strength.” He couldn’t help but let out a sigh.

  “The bulk of their forces remain in the Three Realm, unwilling to leave their headquarters. If they did, our Seamless Gate would absolutely wreck their worlds and their headquarters.” Celestial Immortal Blackheaven let out a chuckle.

  “Anyone who is skilled in for
mations is a monster as far as I am concerned. This Fuxi fellow, and that Keeper Everwood of your Seamless Gate…ugh. I really don’t understand. How did they end up developing such troublesome and complicated formations?” The alien Outsider couldn’t help but let out another sigh. “I don’t have any interest in developing formations myself. Personal power is what matters the most, as far as I am concerned.”

  “Almighty Master.” A voice rang out from outside.

  The alien Outsider was startled, but Celestial Immortal Blackheaven let out a laugh. “Thearch Darkstill has arrived. It seems we are going to hear some good news.”

  “Darkstill is quite reliable when taking on missions.” The alien Outsider glanced calmly towards the outside. Soon, Thearch Darkstill arrived before him, hurriedly falling to his knees with respect. “Master, as you ordered I did my best to either slay Ji Ning or lure him into the Forest of Dreams. However…Ji Ning is simply far too powerful. Your subordinate is truly incapable of this.”

  “Too powerful?” The nearby Celestial Immortal Blackheaven frowned. “He’s a young fellow who has trained for less than a thousand years. How powerful could he possibly be?”

  “Your subordinate sent the ‘Eight-Armed Warfiend Formation’ to deal with Ji Ning, but all 199 Empyrean Gods of the formation perished in battle without even being able to send any information back,” Thearch Darkstill said. “Ji Ning is extremely cautious. There’s no way for any of my minions to get close to him or to lure him anywhere.”

  The seated alien Outsider frowned. “Has he reached the fifth stage of swordforce?”

  “Master, your subordinate sent nine bugbeasts to deal with Ji Ning. Would you like to see the results of that battle?” Thearch Darkstill asked.