Desolate Era

by RWX

  Daolord Featherdress had created the [Featherdress Soulthrall Song] and become acknowledged as the most powerful of Daolords. The other supreme Daolords were unwilling to fight against her precisely because of her heartforce abilities.

  “Thank you, Ninedust,” Ning said gratefully.

  “Cut that out. We are brothers!” The Ninedust Sectlord shook his head and smiled. After having travelled with Ning for so long, he truly felt that Ning was a person worthy of being his lifelong friend. “Darknorth, you spoke of using the Brightshore Kingdom’s spacetime tunnels… given who I am, it probably wouldn’t be easy for me to enter them.”

  “When we get there, I’ll have to trouble you to hide within one of my estate-world’s for a time,” Ning said.

  “Alright.” The Ninedust Sectlord nodded. The two were very close to each other, and they both naturally swore lifeblood oaths after having decided to go to the Waveshift Realm together.

  Even the best of friends would generally rely on lifeblood oaths to bind each other, as it was possible for even lifelong brothers to turn on each other for the sake of treasures involving the Daomerge. To avoid such disastrous outcomes, most would rely upon lifeblood oaths to keep everyone honest.

  ……

  As Ning and Ninedust were hastening to the Waveshift Realm, yet another danger befell Vastheaven Palace.

  “Vastheaven Palace.” A white-robed elder had just arrived at the Vastheaven Everworld. He stood at the peak of a mountain, staring at the distant Vastheaven Palace.

  “I hear that Vastheaven Palace has gained a Heartforce Cultivator.” A look of absolute self-confidence was in the white-robed elder’s eyes. Due to certain choices he had made in his path of cultivation, he didn’t fear Heartforce Cultivators at all. “My home was too far away from the Waveshift Realm! I’m definitely going to arrive much later than the other Daolords. If I can procure the information regarding the Waveshift Realm which Daolord Solesky has, I might be able to acquire one of those jade seals even though I’ll arrive later than the others.”

  The white-robed elder strode forwards through the skies, each step causing ripples of light to spread out. Soon, he arrived in the skies above Vastheaven Palace.

  “Darknorth. Solesky. Are you present?” the white-robed elder asked calmly. Rumble… his voice echoed within the skies around the area. A short while later, four figures flew out of Vastheaven Palace. It was Ji Ning, Daolord Solesky, Daolord Battlemaster, and Daolord Brightfish.

  “All avatars.” The white-robed elder glanced at them, then shook his head and frowned. Avatars were disposable. Each one represented ten million cubes of chaos nectar and quite a bit of effort, but for the sake of the Daomerge… even fairly poor Daolords like Solesky and Battlemaster would just grit their teeth and bear it.

  “Him? The ‘Junior Radiant King’?” Daolord Solesky’s face turned white.

  “It’s actually him?” The faces of Ning and the others turned pale as well.

  Amongst the supreme Daolords of the Endless Territories, there was a particularly powerful Daolord who had been given the respectful title of the Radiant King. He was a terrifying Daolord who was ranked third in the Endless Territories. As for the ‘Junior Radiant King’, he belonged to the same race as the Radiant King but was slightly weaker, ranking amongst the second-tier Daolords. However, he stood at the very peak of power amongst the second-tier Daolords and was considerably stronger than Kongsan.

  The two of them belonged to the same race and used similar techniques. The Junior Radiant King’s true Daoist title was actually Yanmi. He could thus be addressed as Daolord Yanmi, but most simply referred to him as the Junior Radiant King.

  “I’m sure you know that my heart is like light itself. You will be unable to shake my heart unless your heartforce skills have reached a truly unfathomable peak,” the white-robed elder said calmly. “For me, wiping out Vastheaven Palace is a very easy task. Solesky, I imagine you know why I am here. Give me everything you know about the Waveshift Realm, or I will have no choice but to attack.”

  Daolord Solesky had an ugly look on his face. Battlemaster and Brightfish were both anxious as well. They had guessed long ago that the power Ning had displayed was enough to scare off the vast majority of Daolords, but… this concerned the Voidsea Jadeseals! Perhaps the supreme Daolords who were completely confident in their abilities would head straight to the Waveshift Realm, but the ones who were slightly less confident would all come here to try their luck.

  And indeed, it was a matter of trying their luck. Everyone knew that the chances of Solesky handing the information over was quite low… but for the sake of the Daomerge, they would still give it a try, no matter how low their chances were.

  “Hmph.” Seeing the looks on the faces of the four, the white-robed elder let out a cold snort. Whoosh! He suddenly seemed transformed into a dazzling sun that radiated eye-piercing radiance. His light stretched out into infinity as multiple clones of him seemed to appear. Countless clones of him quickly filled the skies, resulting in what seemed like trillions of white-robed elders appearing above and surrounding the four Vastheaven Daolords.

  “If you don’t hand the information over, I’ll have no choice but to wipe you out and destroy Vastheaven Palace!” The trillions of white-robed old men all spoke out at the same time, their voices booming in the skies.

  “Daolord Yanmi, if you wish to wipe out Vastheaven Palace, you need to ask me for permission first!” Ji Ning’s cold voice rang out in response.

  * * *

  Book 31, Chapter 22 - A Clash

  The countless white-robed elders standing in midair all turned to stare directly at Ji Ning.

  “Daolord Darknorth?” The countless white-robed elders smirked. “I’ve heard long ago that the newest Daolord of Vastheaven Palace, Daolord Darknorth, is an incredible figure who is also a Heartforce Cultivator! Then… let me see just how much ability you have, Daolord Darknorth. I have countless clones right now. Are you able to find the real me?”

  “Hmph.” Ning let out a cold snort. BOOM! The surrounding area of countless kilometers around him began to tremble and rumble as an enormous illusion of a world manifested above. This vast world had valleys, rivers, seas, mountains, and an extremely prominent and utterly enormous sword-shaped mountain at the very center of it. The enormous heartworld projection came crashing straight down!

  The countless mountains in the surrounding area were instantly crushed into dust, almost as though an enormous hand had just slapped down upon them. The heartworld projection had descended!

  The countless white-robed elders who had been glowing with light were also put under incredible pressure. Ning’s heartworld projection was on par with his nine novessence arts and possessed incredible power. One white-robed elder after another disappeared like popping bubbles, and soon a mere 529 white-robed elders remained in the skies.

  “What?!” Looks of astonishment appeared simultaneously upon the faces of the remaining 529 elders. “What a powerful heartworld projection!”

  The power of a heartworld projection was a testament to the power of a cultivator’s heartworld. The greater the heartworld, the stronger the projection. Ning’s powerful heartworld projection was incredible even amongst Heartforce Cultivators; he could be considered as having reached the second-tier!

  “He’s actually managed to keep a few clones alive.” Ning swept the 529 white-robed elders with his gaze. “The Junior Radiant King lives up to his reputation.”

  “If the Radiant King himself was present, you wouldn’t be able to wipe out a single one of his clones,” the many white-robed elders smirked.

  “Perhaps.” As Ning’s words came out, his heartforce swept out yet again. It lashed out like a wave towards the hundreds of white-robed elders, only to discover that every single one of them stood in the path of this wave. Clearly, every single white-robed elder contained part of the old man’s soul and truesoul. Boom! Boom! Boom! Heartforce Eradicator! Ning’s heartforce crashed directly against
the soul and truesoul of the white-robed elder.

  “Impressive. However, you won’t be able to do anything to me. Prepare to receive my blow!” The many white-robed elders all waved their hands, causing a total of nine black swords to appear in the skies.

  “Big brothers, stay far away from me,” Ning warned mentally.

  “Understood. Be careful and don’t be reckless!” Daolords Solesky, Brightfish, and Battlemaster all quickly retreated.

  All of them felt nervous. This was going to be a dangerous battle. If Ning’s true body was here, he would probably be able to win with ease, but he only had an avatar which had 70% of his true power… and most importantly of all, he didn’t have the Northbow swords! Ever since those swords had drained so much golden sand from the shattered core of that planet, they had evolved to reach a terrifying level of power.

  ……

  The white-robed elders all separated as the nine black swords appeared in the skies.

  “Which one is the real one?” Ning was quite puzzled. Without question, the true body was amongst the 529 and was controlling those nine divine black swords.

  “Unable to find my true body? Feeling a bit anxious? Haha, I’m able to maintain more than 500 clones, and you won’t know which one to attack. That’s why it is guaranteed that you will lose this fight.” The hundreds of white-robed elders all laughed and then roared, “Kill!”

  Instantly, the nine divine black swords in the skies transformed into nine dark streaks of light… or to be precise, they transformed into nine black strands of silk! They moved at incredible speeds, at least fifty-nine times the speed of light. And this was with them being pressured by the heartworld projection! Otherwise, they would strike even faster. According to the stories, the true Radiant King’s flying speed alone had already surpassed the limit of a hundred times the speed of light. The Junior Radiant King was naturally somewhat inferior in comparison.

  “I’m able to attack you, but you aren’t able to attack me. You lost this battle before it ever began, haha…” The many white-robed elders all laughed loudly.

  “Go.” Ning stood there calmly despite facing the nine attacking black threads. Whoosh! Whoosh! Streams of sword-intent began to manifest in the area around him. All of them began to tangle together like a group of fish, instantly forming an enormous vortex-world of Yin and Yang. This enormous Yin-Yang world was centered around Ning, forcing any and all attacks to go through it first.

  This was Ning’s Yin-Yang Sword Domain! However, it was formed purely out of sword-intent and not his nine novessence arts, and so it only had 20% of the power of the original.

  Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! The nine black threads plunged directly into the Yin-Yang vortex-world. Although they once more slowed down, they still quickly reached Ning.

  “Fuck off!” Ning let out a loud shout as he slapped out with both hands at once. KABOOM! His twin palms were like two enormous mountains slamming outwards as he manifested the Heavenbreaker sword-intent of his Omega Sword Dao. His two palms were indescribably large and filled with overbearing brute force, but also moved in a unpredictable and marvelous way. The Omega Sword Dao was a perfect whole, after all; none of its stances, not even a brute-force one like this, contained any ‘stupid’ or ‘clumsy’ weaknesses. Not only was this attack ferocious, it was also unpredictable and marvelous. The nine black threads were unable to avoid it and so were forced to strike those two enormous palms head on.

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! A series of explosions rang out as the nine black swords were all knocked flying backwards.

  “What?!” The many clones of the Junior Radiant King all had looks of shock on their faces. “My nine swords are centered around the Dao of Light. They are incredibly fast and attacked from different directions… but none of them were able to avoid that attack?”

  He could scarcely believe it. But of course, he had no idea that Ning’s true skill lay in close combat, thanks to his Dao of the Sword! The Dao of the Sword was meant for combat, and Ning was the master of the Omega Sword Dao; he had no flaws at all in close combat. Forget about nine swords, even ninety-nine or more swords would be unable to penetrate his airtight defenses. Ning hadn’t even had to use his defensive Soleheart stance in order to deal with those nine swords; he had fought them head-on! Clearly, they had posed no threat to him at all.

  “Lightshadow!” A baleful look was in the Junior Radiant King’s eyes. Instantly, the nine black swords in the skies transformed into a total of 320 black swords, every single one of which was able to endure the pressure of the heartworld projection and survive.

  “His heartworld projection is incredibly strong. I’m normally able to manifest countless sword-shadows, making my enemies unable to tell which are real and which are fake, but his heartworld projection is making it so that I’m only able to manifest a bit over three hundred.” The white-robed elders all stared intently at Ning. “Try this a second time!”

  Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! The 320 black swords transformed into black threads that once more shot towards Ning. This time, the old man spread them out even farther, making them attack Ning from every single direction, filling the area around Ning from head to toe with attacks.

  Ning stood there in the air. Faced with this omnipresent attack, he simply waved his palms again. Those two enormous palms struck out like two enormous wheels that merged together into a whole, defeating all of the attacking black swords and actually destroying a few of them.

  This was his Omega Sword Dao – Yin-Yang! Although it was primarily a defensive stance, it did have some offensive power built into it.

  “What!? He withstood it all?!” The many white-robed elders were all shocked and enraged. “Then I’ll have no choice but to use my forbidden arts to kill him.”

  BOOM! The white-robed elder’s many clones all shone brightly. Countless streams of light mixed together, causing the entire Vastheaven Everworld to be illuminated by them! This light was so dazzling to behold that it truly did light up every single corner of this entire everworld! The weaker cultivators of the Vastheaven Everworld all raised their heads to stare at the light in the skies, puzzled.

  “He’s going all-out.” Seeing this, Ning realized that the white-robed elder’s repeated failures had caused him to feel so anxious as to go all-out.

  “Is he going to use the legendary [Lumislayer]?” This was Ning’s first guess. The legendary Radiant King was ranked third amongst the Daolords of the Endless Territories, while Palace Lord Dawnstar was ranked second. Both, however, were actually on par with each other in power. The Radiant King’s fame in the Endless Territories came from his three supreme killing techniques, and not even ordinary Eternal Emperors would dare receive these three blows head-on.

  According to the information on the star map which the Brightshore Kingdom had given Ning, the Junior Radiant King, Daolord Yanmi, was able to use two of those killer attacks.

  “My Omega Sword Dao is the perfect Dao for combat. I want to see just how powerful these so-called ‘killer attacks’ are!” Ning felt complete confidence in himself and his chances, but the distant Daolords Solesky, Battlemaster, and Brightfish were all filled with worry as they watched from afar.

  * * *

  * * *

  Book 31, Chapter 23 - The Radiant Kings Three Killer Attacks

  The many clones of the Junior Radiant King, Daolord Yanmi, all glowed with dazzling light that illuminated the entire Vastheaven Everworld. All of them shouted out in unison: “DESTROY!”

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! All of the light that had been illuminating the Vastheaven Everworld gathered together to form nine pillars of radiance! The nine pillars of light each contained a sword in the center, and they shot towards Ji Ning with terrifying and destructive power. These nine light pillars didn’t really have anything mysterious or profound to them; what they had was frontal, overwhelming, crushing power! They were so powerful that the three Vastheaven Daolords watching in the distance all turned pale.

  “Just what I want
ed.” Ning laughed loudly as he once more struck out with his palms. Whoosh! This time, an enormous black hole appeared in the area around Ning that swallowed up everything in its path.

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! A series of muffled, heavy collisions could be heard, but the black hole around Ning didn’t dissipate in the slightest. “Hah! Is that all you have?” Ning’s loud laughter rang out throughout the world around them.

  “What?!” Daolord Yanmi was shocked. “Impossible. How could he have endured my attack that easily? Even if his avatar is comparable to top-grade Eternal treasures, he should’ve been blown backwards and been completely unable to resist the power of my attack!” His plan had been to knock Ning off his feet, then use his light to bind and tie down Ning during Ning’s moment of helplessness.

  But… Ning had actually taken his blow head-on?!

  “How can his avatar be as powerful as this? If his true body was here, would he be crushing me instead of vice-versa?” Daolord Yanmi could hardly believe it. “This was one of the three killer attacks created by the Radiant King, the [Lumislayer]. Although this is the weakest of the three attacks, this result is still…”

  All of the light vanished, and Ning’s true body appeared once more. He stared at Daolord Yanmi, then shook his head. “Daolord Yanmi, you truly have disappointed me. So this is the first of the three legendary killer attacks of the Radiant King? If the Radiant King himself used this [Lumislayer], not even Eternal Emperors would dare to receive it head-on. But you… you are lacking by far.” Ning’s Omega Sword Dao had reached the ultimate apex in both offense and defense. The only way to breach his defense would be through an overwhelming disparity in power. Clearly, although his avatar only had 70% of his true body’s power, it was still roughly on par with Daolord Yanmi.

  ……

  “He blocked it.” Daolord Solesky let out a sigh of relief.

  “Darknorth’s Sword Dao truly is on par with his heartforce. He was actually able to endure the [Lumislayer] with ease.” Daolord Brightfish sighed in amazement. “He truly is incredible.”