by RWX
“What if Flamewing fights the Lonely King?” Ning asked mentally.
“Flamewing won’t be able to kill the Lonely King, but there’s no way the Lonely King would be able to kill Flamewing. I’ve been alive for an extremely long period of time, but I’ve never heard of any major power who was capable of subduing a Chaos Primordial, save for the Autarchs themselves. Kill one? Impossible,” Azurefiend sent mentally. “Darknorth, as you know, the most powerful members of the Sithe race were their Exalts, and it took three of them in order to capture Flamewing… and it remained completely unharmed. Amongst cultivators, everyone knows that only Autarchs are capable of killing Chaos Primordials!”
“Good to know.” Ning came to a decision. Based on the information he had, he also felt confident that no one save for an Autarch would be able to kill Flamewing. Perhaps the Sithe during their glory days were capable of capturing Chaos Primordials when they sent out their most powerful members, and perhaps they might even be able to kill Chaos Primordials via their unique technology… but the Sithe were dust. Although the Lonely King was terrifyingly strong, he had merely gained access to a single war machine treasury the Sithe had left behind.
“What do you plan to do?” Azurefiend sent back.
“Azurefiend, will you be frightened if I refuse them?” Ning sent mentally.
Azurefiend glanced at Ning, rather surprised. “I’m a solitary Hegemon who wanders alone. What do I have to be afraid of? Have you really decided?”
“Yes. I’m confident in my chances.” Ning nodded.
……
The three onyx humanoids simply stood there and waited as Ning and Hegemon Azurefiend spoke mentally to each other. They were in no rush. They could tell that Darknorth and Azurefiend were discussing this matter. They felt that once this weak Daolord learned the truth of the Icepeak Army’s might, he would make the wise choice.
“So do you know a bit more about the Icepeak Army now?” the skinny onyx humanoid looked at Ning.
“I’m a Daolord who is unlearned compared to my Hegemonic peers. I’ve only heard of you for the first time today. Impressive, truly impressive,” Ning said.
“Cut the crap.” The cyclopean onyx humanoid was growing a bit impatient. Frowning, he barked out, “Hurry up and hand over the realmship. Otherwise, we’re going to attack. When that happens, both you and your sect shall both perish.” He had long ago grown accustomed to acting as he pleased. He had originally been a fairly powerful Eternal Emperor, and after he underwent the Ritual Sacrificium to become a member of the Icepeak Army he had received deference from even Hegemons and Otherverse Lords, all of whom feared the Icepeak Army’s reputation.
Originally, his greatest worry was that this Daolord would cause trouble due to the Daolord’s ignorance of the Icepeak Army’s might. That was why he had held back. But now? Now, he was naturally going to press hard.
Ning stood there, flanked by Azurefiend and Whitethaw. “I don’t wish to make an enemy out of the Icepeak Army, and I’m not qualified to do that either. However, realmships are incredibly precious. You wish for me to simply hand it over for nothing? I might be a mere Daolord, but I have my pride.” Ning smiled. “I have a simple, mutually beneficial solution which will result in me handing over the realmship willingly.”
“A mutually beneficial solution?”
“Speak.” The three onyx humanoids were rather irritated. The Icepeak Army was so incredibly famous that even Hegemons were terrified of them. Only a few solitary Hegemons who wandered alone would dare act so arrogantly before them.
“Simple. The Icepeak Army can buy the realmship from me,” Ning said.
“Buy?” The three onyx humanoids exchanged a glance. “Very well. This estate-world of mine has quite a few treasures inside. I’ll give it to you in exchange for the realmship.” The skinny onyx humanoid casually handed over a golden palm-sized disc which was actually an estate-treasure. The two onyx humanoids were quite calm as well; they felt certain that this Daolord simply wanted a way to save face. It didn’t really matter if they tossed out a few treasures.
Ning shook his head. “The value has to be on par with the realmship.”
“On par?” Finally, the looks on the faces of the three onyx humanoids changed. For the first time, they began to realize that this Daolord wasn’t looking for a way to save face; he was going to be a tough nut to crack! Realmships were incredibly valuable; not even treasures like Crimsonwave Temple were even close in value to a realmship. Even if the three onyx humanoids pooled all of their treasures together, they still wouldn’t be able to afford one. Most likely, their general Lord Wulf would have to trade all of his treasures to just barely afford a realmship.
Trade for something of equivalent value? This would be a fairly good deal if it was between two figures who were on par with each other, such as the Lonely King and Realmslord Windgrace. This was because generally speaking people were completely unwilling to sell realmships; to merely ask for treasures of equivalent value was already a good bargain.
However… Realmslord Windgrace was in command of the Blacksun. He was on the same level as the Lonely King. How was it that a mere Daolord dared to demand treasures of equivalent value?
“Are you looking to die?” the skinny onyx humanoid’s eyes flashed with cold light.
“I’ve already taken a step back and given face. If you accept, we’ll carry out the trade. If you refuse? I can’t just hand over my realmship for nothing.” Ning’s own aura began to sharpen as well.
“You…!” The three onyx humanoids stared at the Daolord before them, stunned. He actually was going to face them head-on?
“He’s courting death.”
“Kill him.” The cyclopean onyx humanoid was the first to attack. He instantly transformed into a streak of light who shot towards Ning. He struck out with his right hand, sending it piercing towards Ning like a long spear, with his fingernails being the tip! Black Emperors all had incredibly powerful bodies; every single part of them was like a weapon.
The arm-spear pierced straight through the void, so powerful as to cause Ning’s eyebrows to rise slightly. “Hmph.” Whitethaw, by Ning’s side, let out an angry snort and immediately charged forwards. While charging, he transformed into an enormous white cloth that swept out towards his foe.
“A mere golem seeks to block me?” The cyclopean onyx humanoid felt some disdain. He was at the Hegemon level of power! Although his insights into the Dao were a bit inferior to true Hegemons, his Black Emperor body gave him tremendous power and allowed him to match Hegemons in battle. His body was so incredibly tough and resilient that in a real battle of life and death, he actually had an advantage.
Bang! This terrifying Hegemonic strike stabbed straight into the enormous white cloth, but the white cloth was incredibly resilient and dispersed all of the attacking energy.
“What?!” The cyclopean onyx humanoid was shocked. The golem had actually blocked his attack?
“Kill them all.”
“Kill them and take the realmship.” The two other onyx humanoids began to attack as well. Whoosh! Whoosh! Both moved with incredible speed. Although Whitethaw had blocked one of them, that was already his limit; there was no way he could block the other two.
“Hahaha…” Azurefiend laughed loudly as he transformed into his bestial form. His entire body became covered with azure scales, and his head became triangular in shape. His scale-covered tail waved menacingly like a whip, and his entire body glimmered with dark light. He let out a furious howl as he charged through the air, moving to engage.
“The Daolord actually isn’t hiding in Hegemon Azurefiend’s estate-world.” The skinny onyx humanoid was delighted by this and sent mentally, “I’ll tie down Azurefiend. You go kill the Daolord.”
“Alright.” The muscular onyx humanoid was delighted as well. Neither of them had imagined that the Daolord wouldn’t go into hiding.
* * *
Book 38, Chapter 9 - A Tough Nut
The skinny on
yx humanoid was skilled with the saber, but for the sake of tying down Azurefiend he didn’t use any weapons at all. He used his bare hands, and since every part of his body was akin to a weapon he was able to tie down Azurefiend as best he could.
Whoosh. He sent his right palm out, his arm stretching to become more than ten thousand kilometers long.
Whap! Azurefiend, in his true form, struck out with his tail against the incoming black palm.
Crack! The vast black arm suddenly changed directions, lashing out in a strange whip-like manner as the arm seemed to transform into an arc that built up power and then struck out once more. The skinny onyx humanoid’s entire body seemed to have transformed into a bow-like shape.
“This Black Emperor really is tough to deal with.” Hegemon Azurefiend had a complete advantage in power, and was significantly superior to his opponent in terms of insights into the Dao, but his attacks were doing absolutely nothing when being landed upon the Black Emperor’s body. This allowed the Black Emperor to continuously tie him down.
“Darknorth has chosen to fight the other Black Emperor by himself. He should be able to keep himself safe, right?” Azurefiend cast a sideways glance at the distant Ning as he battled. A look of shock suddenly appeared on his face.
……
“Puny Daolord, you truly are arrogant. However, your arrogance has given us a chance to deal with you. Otherwise, we’d probably have to massacre everyone here to coerce you into complying, starting with all the disciples of Vastheaven Palace. And yet, that might not be enough.” The muscular Black Emperor was clearly in a good mood. “Now, we simply have to kill you and we’ll have won the realmship.”
“You might be celebrating just a bit too early.” Ning stood there in the air, staring calmly at the onyx humanoid before him.
“If you are in such a hurry to die, then die you shall.” The muscular onyx humanoid suddenly struck out with a giant black palm that blotted out the skies as it swept out towards Ning. Whoosh! Ning suddenly moved, disappearing from the onyx humanoid’s field of vision.
“He disappeared?” The muscular onyx humanoid’s palm-strike missed. He immediately struck out in every direction with his palms. As he saw it, even if Ning did vanish he would only be able to hide with his evasion-arts. There was no way he would’ve been able to escape too far.
“I’m over here.” A voice rang out from behind him. The muscular onyx humanoid stared backwards in astonishment, only to see the white-robed youth with the black sheath on his back standing far behind him.
“He’s fast.” A feeling of trepidation appeared within the onyx humanoid’s heart.
“The Black Emperor’s body is a waste on you. Your insights into the Dao are too low. You have some innate advantages in a life-or-death battle, but if I wanted to leave you wouldn’t be able to stop me at all.” Ning slowly shook his head. He suddenly couldn’t help but sigh a bit in his heart. When he had first seen that onyx humanoid’s corpse, he had felt absolutely stunned. He never would’ve imagined that he would have reached that same level of power as well.
In terms of the Dao of the Sword, Ning was on a full level higher than Emperor Heartsword had been. Now that Ning had mastered the fourteenth stance of the [Heartsword] art, he was just a single stance behind Emperor Heartsword, who had created just fifteen stances in total. On the whole, Ning was now far more powerful than Emperor Heartsword. He truly had reached the Hegemon level of combat power.
“Puny Daolord, you are far too arrogant. Die for me!” The muscular onyx humanoid was rather embarrassed and angered as he charged through the air at Ning. Each step he took caused the void around him to shudder as he once more struck out furiously with his giant palms.
Swoosh. Ning moved again. This time, he transformed into a streak of sword-light that dodged hundreds of thousands of kilometers to one side. “You can’t even touch me.” Ning shook his head slowly. This was far too easy.
When he had first relied on his Omega Sword Dao to become a Daolord of the Fourth Step, he hadn’t been this fast. However, it had been more than ten chaos cycles since then. He had reached the Archon level in the Dao of Lightning, giving him an even more terrifying level of speed. He had also reached the Archon level in the Dao of Space, giving him a tremendous amount of skill in manipulating space.
Thus, Ning had now reached a brand new level of speed. Only a Hegemon who was completely focused on speed would be able to catch up to Ning.
“You can’t even capture a Daolord?!” the distant skinny onyx humanoid sent a frantic mental message.
“Puny Daolord!” This time, the muscular onyx humanoid truly was angry and embarrassed. He raised his head, letting out a furious roar. Boom! A thick black fog spread out from him to cover an area of nearly ten million kilometers around him. Everything in this area was mired as if in quicksand, causing Ning’s speed to dramatically lessen.
“Ah, I knew Black Emperors of the Sithe couldn’t possibly be THIS week.” Ning’s body flickered as he transformed into his three-headed, six-armed mode. All six of the Northbow swords flew out from the sheath on his back and into his hands. “Come on.” Ning cracked a smile.
Slash! Slash! Slash! The onyx humanoid struck out with extraordinary strength, delivering one furious palm after another in an effort to slay Ning as quickly as possible. Alas, he had merely reached the Archon level in terms of insights into the Dao. His weaknesses were quite apparent.
Ning was still able to easily maneuver around the onyx humanoid despite the black fog. Ning didn’t even use his own secret arts! Although his speed was lessened, his sword remained incredibly fast.
Slash! Slash! Slash! Ning’s sword-light pierced through the skies, each streak of sword-light being ephemeral and nigh-invisible. The hints of sword-light were hard to detect, but they carried a terrifying amount of power and seemed capable of chopping through anything which stood in their path. This was a terrifying level of power that came from the combination of the fourteenth stance of the [Heartsword] art and a fourth-stage Daolord’s Omega Sword Dao. Each strike was ghostly and unpredictable. The onyx humanoid felt as though the blows were drilling straight through its body.
Slash! Slash! Slash! In the blink of an eye, the two exchanged more than a hundred blows against each other. The onyx humanoid wasn’t able to land a single attack against Ning; in short, he was being utterly dominated! However, Ning couldn’t help but frown as well: “His body really is incredibly tough. Even when I use my full power, I remain unable to injure him.”
“What the hell? He’s no Daolord, he’s clearly a Hegemon!” The muscular onyx humanoid suddenly pulled away as he shouted furiously, “I can’t do anything to him!”
“Go all out and burn your essence. End it quickly!” the skinny onyx humanoid, pressured by Hegemon Azurefiend, sent a frantic mental message.
“You try! I haven’t been able to even touch him a single time. His sword-arts are completely flawless. Even if I really did go all out, he could just flee over to Azurefiend.” The Black Emperor wasn’t willing to go all-out. Unlike normal cultivators, they healed and recovered quite slowly. Once they went all-out, they would be at risk of energy exhaustion. Once they exhausted their energy reserves, their bodies would grow weak and they could even be defeated and then destroyed.
“Withdraw!” The muscular onyx humanoid issued an order to withdraw, and the three quickly rejoined each other.
Azurefiend and Whitethaw moved to stand by Ning’s side. The two sides stared at each other from afar.
The three onyx humanoids were all rather angry, but they also felt stunned. How was it that a Daolord had actually reached such a level of power? He definitely had the power of a Hegemon! Thankfully, the three onyx humanoids all had extremely tough bodies; ordinary Emperors would’ve been slain with ease by Ning’s current level of sword-arts.
“Formidable. I truly do admire you, for a Daolord like yourself to have reached such a level of power.” The skinny onyx humanoid stared at Ning. “However… are you
absolutely sure that you wish to become an enemy of the Icepeak Army?”
“I do not wish to become an enemy of the Icepeak Army. However, there is no way I’ll hand over a realmship for nothing.” Ning shook his head.
“Bold. These actions, however, are tantamount to declaring us your enemy!” The skinny onyx humanoid laughed coldly, “I’ll give you one more chance! Hand over the realmship. Otherwise, we’ll have no choice but to go ahead to report to our superiors that you are being defiant. In the end, the result shall be your death.”
Ning just smiled.
“Very well then.” They saw the look on Ning’s face. The skinny onyx humanoid barked, “Let’s go! Next time we come, we’ll kill them all.”
“Let’s go.” The three onyx humanoids immediately entered the spatial rift, vanishing without a trace and leaving just Ning, Azurefiend, and Whitethaw behind.
Azurefiend glanced at the white-robed youth by his side. He could sense that Ning had grown tremendously more powerful since their battle in the Jadefire Realm. By now, Ning truly had reached the Hegemon level of power.
“Darknorth, you have now become an enemy of the Icepeak Army,” Azurefiend said softly. “The Icepeak Army is not an easy foe to deal with. Given their disposition, they will definitely launch a war against you.”
“They aren’t easy to deal with, but neither am I.” A flicker of killing intent appeared in Ning’s eyes.
“You?” Azurefiend was stunned.
“Soon, I’ll have solved the formations and freed Flamewing,” Ning said.
“You are confident in being able to resolve the formations soon?” Azurefiend was overjoyed.
“More or less. Even if I end up taking longer than I expected, I should be able to buy myself the time needed via the Jadefire Realm. If necessary, I can also run around in the realmship and buy myself some more time,” Ning said. “However… I don’t think we’ll need to go to all that trouble. By the time they come back, the Flamewing God will be waiting for them.”