Desolate Era

by RWX

  However, Daolord Graceful and Daolord Bruteflame continued to launch attacks from the sidelines, causing Ning to be distracted and making it so that he seemed to be consistently at a disadvantage.

  “This white-robed Daolord really is powerful. He’s actually able to fight the three vice sectlords of the Ninedust Sect to a standstill!”

  “Impressive. For a Daolord of the Second Step to possess such power means that he is definitely one of the most freakishly powerful of Daolords around. I’ve heard of such monsters in the past, but I’ve never seen any of them. I’ve really seen something special today.”

  “Hm. It seems it won’t be that easy for the Ninedust Sect to take over the Eastroad Sect.”

  The distant spectator cultivators, especially the spies from other organizations, all murmured silently to each other. With this white-robed Daolord present, conquering the Eastroad Sect would be no easy feat.

  ……

  “This will be trouble.” The Ninedust Sectlord frowned as he watched from afar. Taking over the Eastroad Sect really wouldn’t be that easy. This kid was clearly just a Daolord of the Second Step, but he was already on par with Daolord Clevermind in power. In the outside world, the Ninedust Sectlord wouldn’t care about him at all, but there was no way this white-robed Daolord would be so foolish as to engage the Ninedust Sectlord in close combat. No Daolord of such power could possibly be as foolish as that! Once the Ninedust Sectlord got involved, the white-robed Daolord would probably retreat into the protective embrace of the Eastroad Sect’s formations.

  Once he was being reinforced by the formations personally left behind by Patriarch Eastroad, things would be completely different. The Ninedust Sectlord wasn’t confident in being able to slay that white-robed Daolord inside the Eastroad Sect.

  Generally speaking, only when the difference in power between two sects was absolutely enormous would one be able to take over the other. Usually, the protective formations covering each set would be enough to offset any difference in power.

  ……

  “Daolord Darknorth truly is powerful.”

  “He’s actually able to fight three at once and stop all three of their vice sectlords! With power like this… if he’s reinforced by our formations, he’ll probably be able to stop the Ninedust Sectlord.” The disciples within the Ninedust Sect were all rather excited. Although it looked as though Daolord Darknorth was at a disadvantage in this fight, for him to be able to resist all three at once was a testament to his strength.

  Daolord Thunderheat had a look of joy on his face, but he then suddenly frowned. “Wait. I remember Daolord Darknorth saying that he was able to defeat Daolord Naia in a single blow, thanks to his secret arts. Why haven’t I seen him use any secret arts yet?” Ning had mentioned previously that his greatest power lay in his secret arts.

  “If he’s already this powerful in close combat, how much stronger will he be once he uses those secret arts?” Daolord Thunderheat didn’t even dare imagine it.

  “Wonderful. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! Again!” Ning was battling to his heart’s content. He could’ve used the nine novessence arts to end this long ago, but that would be boring. If all he wanted to do was to turtle up, he could’ve stayed inside the sect. The reason he came out was because he wanted to fight, to temper himself, to sharpen his skills and enhance his Omega Sword Dao! This battle against the three vice sectlords was doing just that, and Daolord Clevermind in particular was giving him a great deal of pressure. He naturally was gaining a few insights into sword-arts as the battle continued.

  “Hahaha! Wonderful. Just wonderful!” Daolord Clevermind was enjoying the fight as well, battling with incomparable valor. He was a practitioner of the Dao of Lightning, and was skilled in high-speed explosive attacks. “Kid, you might be able to maintain your current level of power thanks to whatever divine ability you are using, but I want to see how long you’ll be able to hold it!”

  “Once more time passes, he won’t be able to hold on.” Daolord Bruteflame and Daolord Graceful were filled with confidence as well. They all felt certain that this white-roed Daolord had to be relying on some sort of divine ability which allowed him to release an explosive amount of power… but the more monstrously powerful a divine ability was, the faster it depleted one’s divine power. Generally speaking, this sort of battle strategy could not be used for a long period of time. They had no idea that in a contest of endurance, Ning was superior to all three of them combined because his azureflower mist energy was only used up at an extremely slow rate… and he had an enormous amount of it.

  In the blink of an eye, nearly an hour had gone by without the battle slowing down in the slightest. An hour was a very short period of time for cultivators, and the watching spectators were all quite excited by the spectacle. However, the three vice sectlords and the Ninedust Sectlor knew the truth of the matter, and they all felt something was off.

  “How could he last for this long?”

  “Why has his divine power been able to last this long?”

  The Ninedust Sectlord and the three vice sectlords all had a bad feeling. But right at this moment…

  “I’m still not quite there.” Ning secretly shook his head. “Although I’ve gained many new ideas regarding my sword-arts, to merge my five Supreme Daos of the ‘second step’ level into a new Omega Sword Dao is still not possible. It seems these three vice sectlords simply aren’t giving me enough pressure.”

  Ning didn’t want to continue the fight against the three of them any longer, because they had already put all of their techniques on full display. It was no longer of any use to Ning.

  “Let it end!” Ning willed it, and nine absolutely terrifying ‘dragons’ of destructive energy began to fly out from his body…

  * * *

  Book 30, Chapter 9 - The Sectlord Attacks

  The nine dragons coiled around each other, manifesting into a series of awesome waves through the mysteries of Ji Ning’s Omega Sword Dao that came crashing outwards…

  “Oh no.” Daolord Clevermind had been in close combat with Ning, and his face instantly turned pale. He could sense the terrifying power contained within those nine mighty secret arts. “This white-robed Daolord was actually hiding terrifying secret arts up his sleeve.”

  BOOM! Daolord Clevermind’s six great warhammers suddenly shone with complex runes that flowed across its surface, forming shields across the surfaces of each warhammer. Soon, six bizarre shields of lightning had been formed that then joined together, resulting into a complete and seamless shield-barrier of light.

  Boom! Boom! Boom! The nine novessence arts came crashing down upon the shield-barrier of light, but the lightning shield was able to hold.

  “Thank goodness I had this treasure. Otherwise, I would’ve ended up losing my life! I need to flee right away.” Daolord Clevermind’s face was still pale. He immediate commanded his shields to surround him and quickly soared into the skies, retreating at more than fifty times the speed of light.

  These six warhammers were no ordinary treasures. It must be understood that outside the Endless Territories lay the Great Dark. Daolord Clevermind had often enjoyed standing at the borders of the Endless Territories and staring into the Great Dark, because it made him feel calm and at peace, which helped him better understand his own Dao of the Saber. One day, while cultivating at the borders of the Great Dark, he had discovered those six great warhammers just floating there. They had been floating through the Great Dark for countless years, but they remained in perfect condition.

  After he had acquired these six warhammers, Daolord Clevermind quickly discovered how incredible and special they were. They were innately heavy beyond compare, and their attacks were utterly ruinous to their foes. It must be understood that if Patriarch Clearwind once more fought Ning in a head-on clash, he would now be forced to flee within a short period of time. Daolord Clevermind was merely on par with Patriarch Clearwind, but he was able to fight Ning to a standstill primarily because of how e
xtraordinary these six warhammers were.

  When defending, he could use them to form an absolute defense of lightning. When fleeing, they would envelop him him and allow him to move at a hundred times the speed of light. The only reason why he was moving slower than that was because of the nine novessence arts attacking him.

  As soon as he had acquired the six warhammers, Daolord Clevermind understood that they had to have been items of great might left behind by an ancient power, perhaps even a top-tier Eternal Emperor. After acquiring them, his status within the sect became even firmer than it was before.

  ……

  “Not good.” Daolord Graceful was a Ki Refiner and as such battled from afar. When he saw those nine dragon-like streams of novessence energy appear, he instantly understood that he was in mortal danger. Even his magic treasures were blasted away by those nine streams of energy, causing him to lose control over them. “If those things so much as touch me, I’m finished. I need to get the hell out of here.”

  Daolord Graceful gritted his teeth, then produced a black disc-shaped Dao-seal which was covered with layers of strange rippling runes, then crushed it. Swoosh. Instantly several streaks of black light circled around him… and just like that, he was teleported away and disappeared.

  “Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!” The towering Aberrant stone giant, ‘Daolord Bruteflame’, let out agonized screams as his stony body was rent asunder by those nine novessence arts. He was completely incapable of withstanding the assault, and his towering, ten million kilometer long body quickly crumbled to become nothing more than a boulder-sized head. A look of despair was in his eyes.

  ……

  Ning had almost instantly activated his nine novessence arts. Everything had happened far too quickly, giving the distant Ninedust Sectlord no time to intervene as well.

  “Eh?” Ning frowned. “Two actually managed to escape? The battle we were just in caused distortions in spacetime, making it impossible to teleport out through normal means. Daolord Graceful, however, seemed to flee using some sort of Dao-seal. I didn’t expect that someone as unremarkable and low-key as him would actually be hiding such marvelous treasures as well.”

  Ning had predicted that Daolord Clevermind might be able to escape from his killing blow; given how strong the man was, he most assuredly had some life-saving trump cards up his sleeves. But who would’ve thought that Daolord Graceful would also be able to produce such a rare item?

  “Daolord Clevermind’s six great warhammers are unquestionably weapons of extraordinary power. They were actually able to block my nine novessence arts head-on! For Kongsan or the Ninedust Sectlord to do that would be one thing, but who would’ve thought Clevermind would also be capable of it? Those six warhammers truly are marvelous; they even allow him to flee at incredible speeds!” Ning couldn’t help but sigh at how extraordinary those things were.

  Although many thoughts flickered through Ning’s mind, his hands moved at lightning speed as he hurled out a black gourd that flew straight towards the stony form of Daolord Bruteflame.

  “Daolord Bruteflame, either submit to me or die to me.” Ning stared at Daolord Bruteflame’s stony head, the only part of him which was left undamaged. “Choose immediately.

  “S-submit!” Daolord Bruteflame was utterly terrified, and he made his choice without hesitate. Swoosh! The head flew straight towards the black gourd and the field of novessence energy around it, shrinking as it quickly disappeared into the gourd.

  ……

  “Damn.” The Ninedust Sectlord’s face had tightened as soon as he saw Ning use those nine novessence arts. Battles between Daolords happened at incredible speeds, making it impossible for him to save Daolord Bruteflame.

  Boom!

  The Ninedust Sectlord almost instantly charge out of his shrine, a dark-red longstaff appearing in his hands and almost immediately expanding over a hundred million kilometers. He swung out with the longstaff, sending it smashing towards the incredibly distant Ning as though it was one of the pillars of the heavens.

  BOOM! When the staff swept out, the world itself seemed to turn dark. When it clashed against the nine novessence arts, the energy flows of the novessence arts were thrown into a state of chaos. However, the nine novessence arts were formless to begin with, and so they quickly returned back to normal as the staff continued to smash towards Ning at high speeds.

  “What a pity.” Faced with a terrifying staff-strike, Ning merely glanced sideways at the fleeing Daolord Clevermind, who was escaping thanks to his protective cage of lightning. Daolord Clevermind was fleeing at more than fifty times the speed of light right now, but if Ning used his own flying vessel he’d be able to catch the man.

  The problem was, given how the thunderhammer cage was able to defend against even the nine novessence arts, it would undoubtedly be hard for Ning to breach it with any of his other attacks. His only choice was to rely on his superior azureflower mist energy to slowly fight a war of attrition which he might win, with time… but there was no time for that. The Ninedust Sectlord had come.

  “Come, then. I want to see just how strong figures like the Ninedust Sectlord or Daolord Kongsan are in close combat.” Ning could sense that he had improved somewhat since the battle at Skywood City, while his strengthened nine novessence arts would be able to hamper and weaken his foe’s staff-arts. It seemed likely that Ning would be able to at least give the man a good fight.

  “Break for me!” Ning gripped a single sword with all six arms, then unleashed the Heavenbreaker stance of his Omega Sword Dao.

  BOOM! The obliterating staff collided head-on with the heaven-breaking sword.

  Ning could sense a surge of incomparably vast and powerful energy smash into him from the collision. Even after the Hegemon armor ablated most of the power of the blow, he was still sent flying backwards.

  “He actually didn’t die?” The silver-faced, silver-robed Ninedust Sectlord was rather surprised. “Hmph. Then take another hit from me.” He charged straight into the awesome field of novessence energy, and the power of this field caused him to feel even more surprised. He could sense his own speed dropping rapidly, but he was still able to endure the attacks. He couldn’t help but narrow his eyes. “This is a tough foe. His secret arts are even stronger than mine.”

  The battle was simply happening too fast. Daolord Bruteflame was captured alive, Daolord Graceful disappeared without a trace, while Daolord Clevermind had fled in terror. A heartbeat later, the Ninedust Sectlord had attacked.

  “What technique was that?!”

  “The three vice sectlords were defeated in one strike. Even the Ninedust Sectlord has entered the fray.”

  “It has to be some sort of secret art.”

  “Or perhaps the unleashed of some ancient power’s Dao-seal.”

  The distant spectators as well as the Ninedust cultivators all watched both nervously and intently. This was all happening too fast, and it might end if they so much as blinked.

  ……

  Ning was not surprised by how fearlessly the Ninedust Sectlord charged into the flood of novessence energies. Daolord Kongsan had been able to withstand his nine novessence arts as well, after all. For the Ninedust Sectlord to be able to resist it made sense, as he was on par with ordinary Eternal Emperors in power. “Hmph. Once my Omega Sword Dao reaches a higher level, my nine novessence arts will be dramatically strengthened as well. By then it won’t be this easy for you!”

  “However… I’m still much weaker than figures like Kongsan and Ninedust in a head-on fight. His staff had lost 30-40% of its power when it went through my novessence arts, I think.” Ning had been smashed so far back that he had been sent flying to the very edge’s of the Eastroad Sect’s formations. Even his body felt slightly numb… and this was after the Hegemon armor had absorbed most of the impact! If he dind’t have the Hegemon armor, he probably would’ve died or suffered heavy wounds.

  “Die.” The Ninedust Sectlord charged straight towards Ning, his eyes burning with rage.

/>   “Haha. Let’s continue this fight inside the Eastroad Sect.” Ning let out a grinning chuckle, then retreated backwards and entered the protective embrace of the Eastroad Sect’s formations. In the outside world, he had been blown backwards even with the support of his nine novessence arts. There was simply no way for him to fight a battle there.

  “Hmph. How impressive can the formations which Eastroad set up be?” The Ninedust Sectlord didn’t hesitate at all. Longstaff in his hands, he smashed a hole through the protective barriers and charged straight inside the Eastroad Sect.

  * * *

  Book 30, Chapter 10 - Breakthrough Daolord of the Second Step

  “I’m inside.” A hint of excitement flickered through the Ninedust Sectlord’s eyes after he charged into the Eastroad Sect. He could sense fate calling straight to him. “I can sense it with increasing clarity now. Hmph. I might’ve been afraid to come here when Patriarch Eastroad was alive, but does this puny Daolord of the Second Step really think he can stop me, even if he is freakishly talented? What a joke.”

  “The Emperor’s Numerancy divinations were spot on. My destiny does indeed reside within this territory. All the effort I put into seizing the position of sectlord in the Ninedust Sect was worth it.” The Ninedust Sectlord’s mind was filled with many thoughts, but he showed no mercy at all when he attacked.

  “Break for me!” The longstaff in his hands swept out. Boom! Boom! Boom! It was like an endless sea of water was bellowing towards the skies, with his longstaff containing multiple waves of destructive energy which wantonly struck out against everything within the Eastroad Sect. His longstaff caused palaces to crumble, walls to collapse, and courtyards to shatter. His entrance and his attack was so sudden that some of the spectating disciples of the Eastroad Sect weren’t able to flee in time. Eleven of them were killed instantly.

  “Hide immediately!” Daolord Thunderheat was shocked; the Ninedust Sectlord’s attack had simply been too fast! “Hide behind me!” As he spoke, he hurriedly took control over the formations of the Eastroad Sect.