Desolate Era

by RWX

  Immortal Origination had quite a few treasures on him. What did Immortal Bloodpool have?

  “Let me take a look first, Master.” The stone giant stepped forwards. As a golem, his task was to charge forward and absorb the blows as the vanguard. His body was comparable to a Dao weapon in strength; he would be able to withstand even a blow from most Samsara Daolords! His ability to stay alive was far greater than that of almost any World-level expert.

  Only when the stone titan was unable to discover any danger around Immortal Bloodpool’s corpse did Ning step forward as well.

  Immortal Bloodpool was quite handsome, but his robes and his hair were all blood-colored, giving him a rather evil aura.

  Whoosh. Ning waved his hand, causing Immortal Bloodpool’s body to be drawn into his estate.

  After inspecting the man’s possessions, Ning found a few pleasant surprises. Although Immortal Bloodpool had slightly fewer treasures than Immortal Origination did, the difference wasn’t that great…and one treasure was particularly useful to Ning.

  “A suit of Dao armor.” Ning waved his hand, causing a glittery suit of silverscale armor to appear in his hands. This was most likely a high-grade Dao armor of tremendous worth. The Fogstone Dominion only gave the generals of the Fogstone Army suits of top-grade Chaos armor, while the Blacklotus Emperor didn’t even give the Mindlord or his other generals such precious equipment.

  Armor was incredibly rare and expensive! Even a ‘mere’ high-grade Dao armor was worth more than a hundred cubes of chaos nectar.

  “Bloodcloud Seat, Five Elements Bloodflame Needles.” Ning nodded.

  Immortal Bloodpool had a total of three sets of Dao treasures.

  The armor was worth over a hundred cubes of chaos nectar. However, there was no way Ning would be willing to sell it. He focused on close combat and was in dire need of such a strong suit of armor.

  The Bloodcloud Seat was an extremely bloodthirsty type of Dao weapon that was worth more than fifty cubes of chaos nectar.

  The Five Elements Bloodflame Needles were a set of five needles that were also worth more than fifty cubes of chaos nectar.

  Whoosh. Ning quickly bound the suit of armor to himself and put it on.

  He now had a suit of Dao armor protecting his body, and his body was itself comparable to a Chaos treasure. Ning could now withstand even a full-force blow from an elite World God. But of course, although Ning could ‘withstand’ such a blow, he would still be easily captured and then killed in other ways. Naturally, Ning wouldn’t be so foolish as to actually get into a real fight against an elite World God.

  “It seems as though after we leave this place, I’ll have to find an opportunity to sell off these treasures,” Ning mused to himself. Ning had no use to the treasures which Immortal Origination and Immortal Bloodpool had loved the most.

  “Keep going forwards, Rocky,” Ning instructed.

  “Yes, Master.” The stone titan advanced fearlessly. A short while later, he came to a halt. He then stretched out with his massive hands and pushed at a section of the wall. That section of the wall looked plain and ordinary, but when he pushed at the section it immediately swung open.

  “World God Cavecry is inside there,” the stone titan sent mentally.

  “Right.” Ning immediately walked to the entranceway and stared into the study.

  The private study was quite large. It was completely silent here.

  A black-robed figure was seated in the lotus position, an enormous banner placed behind him.

  The ripples of divine power emanating from the black-robed man’s corpse were indeed that of a deceased World God. He was facing a wall which was covered by a painting, and the painting was the most eye-catching thing in the entire study.

  The entire scroll emanated a towering aura of sword energy!

  The sword energy filled the entire study. In fact, it was so powerful that it went through the entire Immortal palace and soared high into the heavens. Ning and Daolord Solesky had both been immediately able to discover the sword energy soaring out of this particular island.

  “So the sword-ki came from this painting.” Ning stared at the painting. Because the banner behind World God Cavecry partially blocked his vision, he was only able to see that it appeared to be a painting of mountains and rivers.

  “Should I enter, Master?” The stone titan knew that he shouldn’t act rashly at a time like this.

  “Yes, but be careful,” Ning instructed.

  The stone titan carefully crept into the study, walking towards the seated black-robed corpse. When he was roughly thirty meters away from the black-robed corpse, circles of divine runes suddenly began to manifest around corpse. The divine runes glowed with dazzling, beautiful light, forming an enormous hemisphere of light that surrounded and protected the corpse. Even the faintly glowing runes located on the walls of the corridor began to grow dramatically brighter!

  BOOM!

  A terrifying power suddenly burst forth. Ning was only able to use his sword to block from one direction, while the omnidirectional burst of power struck at his body from every other direction…

  * * *

  Book 25, Chapter 6 - A Clean Sweep

  A terrifying shockwave blasted out towards Ji Ning from every direction. Although the brunt of it was blocked by his armor, some of the power still made it through to assault Ning’s body.

  “Whoah.”

  Ning’s legs were slightly flexed as he stood there in a stable position. He took a deep breath, then glanced at his surroundings. The divine runes that had been flickering on the walls had turned dim. A few aftershocks of power continued to swirl through the corridor, but they were incapable of posing any danger to Ning.

  “So World God Cavecry actually prepared a nasty trick like this. What a nasty fellow. If a Chaos Immortal encountered this trap, he probably would’ve died,” Ning murmured softly. The power of that formation was as strong as a frontal blow from a World God. Still, given Ning’s power, even if he was still just wearing his previous set of top-grade Chaos armor he still wouldn’t have been in any trouble.

  Anyone with a strong divine body would’ve been able to withstand this blow. Only physically weak Ki Refiners would’ve been slain by it, most likely.

  “Rocky.” Ning stepped into the room.

  The stone titan had been blasted into the room and against one of the walls. He had now regained his footing as well and he said in a rumbling voice, “I’m fine, Master. World God Cavecry really was a nasty piece of work. He probably set this formation up in secret. Even I didn’t know about it.”

  “Right.” Ning turned to glance at the private study. The private study was roughly three hundred meters in size, and the black-robed figure remained seated in the lotus position in the center of it. That enormous banner remained placed directly behind him.

  Flutter. Flutter. Streams of black energy swirled around the enormous banner as Fiendgod-like figures began to fly out from it. The creatures that flew out of the banner had human-shaped upper bodies but lower bodies of mist and smoke. They wore suits of black scale armor, had blood-red eyes, and sharp claws. All of them stared intently at Ning and the stone titan.

  “Sinfiends.” The stone titan hurriedly sent mentally to Ning, “Master, this is a powerful sin treasure which World God Cavecry personally forged. It is known as the Eversnow Banner and it holds a total of nine sinfiends, each of which is slightly weaker than me.”

  Ning’s face changed upon hearing this. A powerful sin treasure?

  He could instantly tell that these three ‘sinfiends’ were creatures akin to the ‘ghost generals’ that existed within the Three Realms. The difference was that these sinfiends could grow powerful by devouring sin. When given certain valuable treasures that existed in the primordial chaos, they could undergo a fundamental transformation and become living creatures. These nine sinfiends were all World-level creatures.

  “World God Cavecry died long ago,” the stone titan growled. “The nine of you sti
ll intend to bar me and my master?”

  “Your master? You acknowledged a puny Elder God as your master?”

  “Master created us. He shall always be our master.”

  “Any who barge into Master’s cultivation grounds shall die.”

  “Die!”

  The nine sinfiends bellowed and transformed into blurs that charged towards Ning from every direction.

  They were intelligent creatures. They knew that Ning was the master of the stone titan. So long as they could kill Ning, everything would come to an end.

  “Foolish sinfiends.” The stone titan let out a roar, charging forward to meet them. He transformed into a streak of light, moving far faster than the sinfiends. His hands became enormous in size as he smashed down towards the sinfiends with them.

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  His enormous palm smashed down upon them again and again.

  The stone titan possessed an overwhelming advantage in strength. As a stone titan golem, his speed and strength was far superior to the vast majority of World Gods! However, those World Gods all had high levels of insight into the Dao and were very skilled, which was why it would be very hard for the stone titan to slay them.

  These sinfiends, however, also didn’t have any insights into the Dao. They solely relied on their innate gifts and brute strength.

  Bang! A sinfiend let out an ear-piercing screech as it was smashed aside.

  The private room wasn’t that large. The stone titan was able to stop six of the sinfiends all by himself. However, the other three managed to move past the stone titan and charge straight towards Ning.

  “There’s no way we can kill the stone golem. Kill the Elder God instead.”

  “Eat him.”

  “Eat him alive.”

  As the three sinfiends flew towards Ning, they emitted strange, ear-piercing cries that caused inaudible ripples of sound that struck out towards Ning’s soul.

  “Eh?” Ning’s soul was protected by the heartforce soul-lock technique and reinforced by the azureflower mist energy. It was able to completely negate this soul attack.

  “CHOP!”

  Ning struck out with the sword in his hand.

  Sword-light flashed in a dazzling manner.

  Slash!

  The Killsword stance, an attack that held nothing back. Ning had just unleashed a tiny amount of the power of Violetjewel’s quintessence core. Given that Ning himself had the strength of a World God, how could these puny sinfiends possibly withstand Ning’s Eternal weapon?

  Violetjewel managed to chop through a sinfiend’s body with some difficulty, splitting it in two. Alas, the sinfiend completely transformed into mist before once more reforming in front of Ning. And yet, a look of terror and disbelief was now in its eyes.

  “How can this be?”

  “How could an Elder God have injured me?”

  “How could a mere Elder God be this strong?” All the sinfiends were stunned.

  “Surround him and attack him.”

  “He’s just one person. Surround him, attack him, and kill him!” One sinfiend let out a sharp cry, followed by shrill screeches from the rest of the nine. The stone titan bellowed, “Foolish sinfiends! Shatter!” The stone titan smashed out with its giant palms with abandon. He rarely had the chance to unleash its full strength in such a manner because when fighting against World-level experts, they would make it extremely difficult for him to strike with full force.

  The stone titan struck out with wild abandon. The sinfiends all tried to avoid him, instead focusing on attacking Ning.

  “Chop!”

  “Chop!”

  Ning sent out nine sword-chops in succession, each chop splitting a sinfiend apart. Alas, Ning was still kept outside the room by their assaults, unable to enter it. These sinfiends were completely undamaged by his attacks, and they charged forward in an unceasing stream that prevented Ning from advancing.

  “They are formless creatures. Chopping them apart is useless.” Ning’s gaze turned towards the banner that was placed behind the black-robed figure. “If I can bind that banner, the nine sinfiends will no longer pose any danger.”

  “Rocky,” Ning sent mentally.

  “Master.” The stone titan looked at him.

  “Bring that banner to me,” Ning instructed. Every single sinfiend was roughly as strong as he was, and they came in an unending stream; it would be extremely difficult for Ning to move past them and reach the banner.

  “Alright.” The stone titan immediately marched towards the banner.

  “Stop it!”

  “Stop it!” The nine sinfiends began to panic. They had all been working on avoiding the stone titan, but now they no longer were able to continue to do so. The sinfiends all turned to charge towards the stone titans, resulting in a series of head-on clashes between a pair of giant stone palms and many sharp claws. Each time, the sinfiends were blasted apart…and yet, they would almost instantly recover and continue their attacks.

  Every single sinfiend was roughly as strong as Ning himself. Eight of them had to work together in order to stop the stone titan in its tracks.

  “Hmph.” Ning suddenly charged towards the banner. Although the lone remaining sinfiend sought to block him, he was completely dominated by Ning and his sword-arts. There was no way it could stop Ning at all.

  “No…”

  There was nothing the nine sinfiends could do. If they tied down the stone golem, they would be unable to tie down Ning. If they tied down Ning, they wouldn’t be able to tie down the stone golem.

  As for the banner…the nine of them weren’t able to touch it. If they did, they would immediately be sucked into it.

  Whoosh. Smiling, Ning stretched his hand out and grabbed the banner, immediately pouring his Immortal energy into it.

  “Graaaaah!” The nine mighty sinfiends didn’t wish to give up, but they all dispersed into mist and were drawn back into the banner.

  “It isn’t that hard or that expensive to create sin treasures, but they are quite powerful. No wonder so many cultivators end up deciding to walk the path of evil.” Ning sighed to himself. If one wished to create a golem, one had to have incredibly profound insights into the art of formations and large amounts of precious resources. Only then could a powerful golem to be created. By comparison, golems were far more costly and difficult to make.

  Sinfiends? Sinfiends were easy, and the treasures meant to house them were cheap to make. After absorbing enough sin, they would naturally become very powerful, much like how sin-weapons could grow in strength as well.

  As for the Sinfiends themselves? If they were fed enough sin, they would grow more powerful as well. The only thing you needed to do was slaughter many people and collect enough sin.

  Whoosh.

  After putting away the banner, Ning turned his gaze to the black-robed corpse and the distant painting of sword-ki that was hanging on the walls.

  “Come here.” Ning waved his hand, collecting both the corpse and the painting.

  “Rocky, let’s look around and see if we can find any other treasures,” Ning instructed.

  “Yes, Master.”

  These two began to search every nook and cranny of the entire estate for treasures. They even dug three feet deep into the floor of every room. Only after completely sweeping through it did they leave.

  Atop a mountain on the island.

  Ning sat down in a relaxed manner, then laughed softly. “I’ve swept this island clean of all treasures. I really made a killing this time. If it hadn’t been for big brother Solesky, I don’t know how long it would’ve taken for me to acquire such a hoard of treasures.” Ning then turned his attention to the treasures which World God Cavecry had left behind.

  * * *

  Book 25, Chapter 7 - A Sudden Change

  After searching through the items, Ji Ning felt both delighted and slightly disappointment.

  The surprise and delight came from the fact that World God Cavecry truly was quite wealthy. As a persona
l disciple of Daolord Windsource, he had treasures that were worth over a thousand cubes of chaos nectar, not including the sword-ki painting! What caused Ning to feel slightly disappointed was the fact that aside from the Eversnow Banner, none of the treasures of World God Cavecry were of use to himself at all.

  For example, World God Cavecry’s most valuable treasure-set was a set of six top-grade Dao scimitars. They were worth more than five hundred cubes…but alas, Ning used swords, not scimitars.

  As for his armor, it was a set of high-grade Dao armor. This was the same type of armor that Immortal Bloodpool had used. Since Ning already had one, this second set was temporarily of no use to him.

  “I suppose I’ll sell it all once I leave.”

  Ning cast the treasures to the back of his mind, then waved his hand to summon the painting.

  This was the most valuable treasure of the entire island. It was definitely worth as much as an Eternal weapon.

  “What secrets are hidden within this painting?” Ning unfurled the painting and gave it a close look. He had already bound the painting and so the sword energy of the painting had been restrained. It now looked completely ordinary.

  “It doesn’t have any divine runes on it.”

  “There don’t appear to be any ways to activate it.”

  “It…it is just a painting…” Ning stared at the sword-ki painting, puzzled.

  The sword-ki painting looked like an ordinary painting of mountains and rivers. It held mountains, waterfalls, and creeks. In fact, from an artistic standpoint the painting actually looked rather mediocre. Ning himself could paint something like this. And yet, whenever Ning extended his senses into this seemingly ordinary painting, he could sense a sword-intent that struck fear into his heart. The exalted sword-intent which filled the painting was just as strong as Violetjewel’s quintessence core.

  “The person who painted this painting had to be a terrifyingly powerful expert of the Dao of the Sword,” Ning mused. “But so what? At least I can link my consciousness up with my sword’s quintessence core and get a basic understanding of it. All I can do with this painting is look at it!”