Desolate Era (Book 19 - Book 21)

Ning looked at him. This was common knowledge.

After searching through many memories of the prisoners of Pangaea, he had learned many things. Ning had also learned many bits of common knowledge from the information imparted to him by World God Northrest. If a person wasn’t able to reach the World-level within a single chaos cycle, it was virtually impossible for him to succeed for the rest of his life.

“But there are no absolutes in life. There’s always a chance.” True God Shiyu gritted his teeth as he stared at Ning.

Ning nodded. It was true. There really were no absolutes!

For example, perhaps someone only didn’t make that breakthrough because his cultivation techniques were too poor, or because he didn’t have a good teacher. He might spend multiple chaos cycles of painstaking work to become a ‘mere’ Elder God. However, once he gained detailed information regarding a top-tier cultivation technique or guidance from a World-class expert, he might quickly break through to the next stage and become a World God himself.

Or perhaps an Elder God or Ancestral Immortal might experience an unexpected event that would allow a breakthrough to be made.

In short…there was always a chance of a lucky stroke of fate!

None of the major powers of the Three Realms had access to truly top-notch cultivation techniques, and none of them had been guided by particularly powerful figures. Houyi was a good example. Although he had been alive for more than a chaos cycle, he had trained painstakingly on his own and developed his heartforce technique all by himself, as well as his archery techniques. If he was given truly top-tier techniques or had the guidance of Vastheaven Palace, however, it was entirely possible that he would’ve broken through to become a World God by now.

“Here in the prisonworld, True God Shiyu has no one to provide him with tutelage, and he won’t have any lucky encounters either. It has been nearly five chaos cycles, but he still wishes to reach the World-level? It really is almost impossible.” Ning couldn’t help but secretly sigh to himself.

“I’ve come here for just one reason.” Ning looked at him.

“Speak.” True God Shiyu looked at Ning calmly. He didn’t hold this Overseer in any regard at all.

“Your Heavengazer Tower of Radiance,” Ning said.

True God Shiyu’s face changed. He stared at Ning, then let out a cold laugh. “You actually know about the Heavengazer Tower, eh? What, you want me to give you a Chaos treasure? You? A trifling Overseer? Your only job is to watch over this prisonworld. You should just f*ck off and stop bothering me.” He couldn’t even be bothered to waste words with Ning. How could he hand over such a precious treasure to someone else?

“If that’s the case, I’ll have no choice but to fight you.” A pair of swords appeared in Ning’s hands.

“You’d actually dare to assault me?” True God Shiyu was shocked. “Y-you…you aren’t a member of Pangaea?”

The chaos-kingdom of Pangaea would generally send Celestial Immortals with first-tier Jindans to be Overseers. How would a Celestial Immortal possibly dare to attack him?

“Pangaea has been destroyed.” Ning held his swords in his hands. “This prisonworld is now under my control, and you are my prisoner. I don’t wish to kill you, but you WILL hand over the Heavengazer Tower to me.”

“In your dreams.” True God Shiyu snapped back in a frozen voice.

“Then we’ll simply have to fight it out.”

Swoosh.

Ning’s words still echoed in the gorge, but his lightning-fast streak of sword-light had already reached True God Shiyu. It was the fastest stance of Ning’s [Brightmoon] sword-art: Blood Drop stance!

“What a fast sword!” True God Shiyu was shocked. He no longer dared to be brash, and he produced a pair of short cudgels in his hands as well. The cudgel glowed with golden light, and the head of the cudgel had a triangular shape to it that seemed incredibly sharp.

Clang!

True God Shiyu’s twin cudgels had manifested the faint outline of an enormous Taiji diagram before him, blocking Ning’s sword-attack. After doing so, he suddenly spun his twin cudgels, transforming the Taiji diagram into an orb of black light and sending it smashing towards Ning with frenzied might.

Boom! Ning’s own sword-light transformed into a pair of black holes as he used the Soleheart stance to block. He could sense an incomparably savage and bizarre surge of energy smash against him, and he couldn’t help but be knocked flying backwards.

“What tremendous power.” Ning landed on the ground, stunned. He immediately understood that True God Shiyu had to have trained in some sort of special divine ability that was akin to Ning’s own [Starseizing Hand], an ability that allowed him to explosively increase his power. In fact, it was possible that his divine ability was even more powerful than the [Starseizing Hand]; otherwise, there was no way the twin cudgels could have produced such enormous power.

The distant True God Shiyu had a solemn look on his face as well. He stared at Ning, not daring to be overconfident. He said softly, “What a fast sword. It has surpassed the limits of the Heavenly Daos? A pity that it won’t be of use.”

“Is that so?” Ning’s body blurred momentarily, then two more heads and four more arms grew out of him, allowing him to wield a total of six swords.

“Hmph.” In response, True God Shiyu manifested a total of six arms as well. He now wielded six cudgels, but four of them had noticeably weaker auras than the original two.

The two once more began to clash against each other at full power. As they did so, True God Shiyu felt even more shocked, because this time Ning used the Blood Drop stance, Shadowless stance, and Heavenbreaker stance in succession. The most dangerous attack for True God Shiyu was the Shadowless stance, as it was both fast and incredibly unpredictable, making it extremely difficult for him to block.

Those six swords worked together in harmony, unleashing those three mighty sword stances in a series of berserk attacks. Although True God Shiyu’s divine ability was formidable, he still had to fight in an extremely cautious manner.

The two continued to fight for quite a long period of time.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The flowers and the grass in the area around the gorge had long ago been reduced to dust, but True God Shiyu couldn’t spare the attention to worry about them. Although he had spent considerable time on these flowers, they were nothing more than a way for him to relieve the loneliness in his heart. He wasn’t willing to waste the energy needed to maintain an entire world, and so he used a comparatively much lower amount of energy to maintain a garden.

“It’s useless. Your sword-arts are indeed powerful; in fact, I admit that they are extremely powerful. I roamed the chaos-kingdom of Pangaea for countless years, and I’ve met more True Gods and True Immortals than I can count. However, I’ve see no one with sword-arts which can compare to yours. Sword God stage sword-arts which are faster than the limits of the Heavenly Daos…and yet, your divine body is far too weak, and your divine abilities are too ordinary.” True God Shiyu’s voice echoed within the gorge.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

The two collided once more, with both being knocked flying backwards.

Ning came to a halt. Staring at True God Shiyu, he said in a low voice, “It seems I’ll still have to rely on long-range attacks.”

“Long-range attacks?” True God Shiyu was stunned.

Thirty-six Swords of the Heavens suddenly appeared around Ning, and an enormous torrent of Daofather-level energy began to flow through them.





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Book 21, Chapter 36 - Two Methods


The swords were filled with Ji Ning’s Daofather-level energy, causing each of them to emanate auras of blinding might. This caused True God Shiyu’s face to change as he became even more solemn. “It seems this Overseer’s abilities as a Ki Refiner are even better than his abilities in close combat.”