Desolate Era (Book 22 - Book 24)

“Anyone who is skilled in formations is a monster as far as I am concerned. This Fuxi fellow, and that Keeper Everwood of your Seamless Gate…ugh. I really don’t understand. How did they end up developing such troublesome and complicated formations?” The alien Outsider couldn’t help but let out another sigh. “I don’t have any interest in developing formations myself. Personal power is what matters the most, as far as I am concerned.”


“Almighty Master.” A voice rang out from outside.

The alien Outsider was startled, but Celestial Immortal Blackheaven let out a laugh. “Thearch Darkstill has arrived. It seems we are going to hear some good news.”

“Darkstill is quite reliable when taking on missions.” The alien Outsider glanced calmly towards the outside. Soon, Thearch Darkstill arrived before him, hurriedly falling to his knees with respect. “Master, as you ordered I did my best to either slay Ji Ning or lure him into the Forest of Dreams. However…Ji Ning is simply far too powerful. Your subordinate is truly incapable of this.”

“Too powerful?” The nearby Celestial Immortal Blackheaven frowned. “He’s a young fellow who has trained for less than a thousand years. How powerful could he possibly be?”

“Your subordinate sent the ‘Eight-Armed Warfiend Formation’ to deal with Ji Ning, but all 199 Empyrean Gods of the formation perished in battle without even being able to send any information back,” Thearch Darkstill said. “Ji Ning is extremely cautious. There’s no way for any of my minions to get close to him or to lure him anywhere.”

The seated alien Outsider frowned. “Has he reached the fifth stage of swordforce?”

“Master, your subordinate sent nine bugbeasts to deal with Ji Ning. Would you like to see the results of that battle?” Thearch Darkstill asked.

“Yes.” The alien Outsider nodded.

Thearch Darkstill immediately pointed towards the empty air next to him. Scenes of the battle instantly appeared and began to play in empty air. This was what Thearch Darkstill had personally witnessed just now.

The entire hall was completely silent. Everyone was focused on the battle.

The nine bugbeasts appeared. Ji Ning rose to his feet and drew his sword.

His sword struck out, and a bugbeast was split apart into four pieces. The alien Outsider nodded and pronounced his judgement. “This sword-art is indeed proof that he has reached the fifth stage of swordforce.”

The eight bugbeasts began to flee in different directions. Ji Ning pointed towards the heavens, causing a boundless amount of swordforce to descend and forming an entire world of swordforce. Then, he used a horrifying sword-art to massacre the bugbeasts…‘Sword Peacock’!

It was like a peacock spreading its feathers. It was a dazzlingly beautiful scene, and one which caused all the powerful figures in the hall to turn completely silent.

Only a long moment later did the seated alien Outsider let out a soft sigh. “How beautiful. What a beautiful sword. It has been a long time since I’ve seen such a beautiful sword-art. The last time I did see such a sword-art was when I was at the city of Hillfall, where I saw distant Chaos Immortals battling in the sky. That was the only time I’ve ever seen such beautiful sword-arts. He truly is the number one Sword Immortal of your Three Realms. This reputation…it is completely deserved!”

All the figures present nodded. This sword-art was a technique for committing butchery, but it was also an intoxicatingly beautiful technique.

“How could it be this powerful? How did he become even more powerful than he was back when he was in the Deerchaser world?” Celestial Immortal Blackheaven found this all quite hard to accept. “Back then, he still had to rely on the Envoy. Now, all by himself and when using just a single sword, he is able to unleash such tremendous power.”

“Master, I have something to report.” Thearch Darkstill’s face suddenly changed.

“What is it?” The alien Outsider frowned. He had been entranced by the beauty of that sword-art; naturally, he was quite unhappy to be roused from his reverie.

Thearch Darkstill said hurriedly, “After Ji Ning slew my nine bugbeasts, he continued to advance. He’s now sensed ripples emanating from a battle which Kuafu’s squad is engaged in. He’s moving towards Kuafu’s squad at high speed and is going to join with them soon.”





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Book 22, Chapter 12 - Joining Together


“He’s about to join together with Kuafu’s squad?” The alien Outsider drummed on the throne’s armrest with his fingers, then smiled as he looked at Celestial Immortal Blackheaven. “Blackheaven, Ji Ning truly is the undisputed number one Sword Immortal of the Three Realms. This sword-art alone ensures that there’s no way those useless minions of mine can deal with him. Even by himself, he’s very hard to deal with. Once he joins together with Kuafu, it’ll be even harder to deal with him. There’s nothing I can do. If the Seamless Gate wishes to stop him, I suggest you hurry.”

Blackheaven said hurriedly, “The strategy we agreed upon with you, Godfiend, was that we would make use of the inhospital environment of the Primordial Ruinworld to kill as many of the True Gods and Daofathers of the Three Realms as possible. It isn’t time for the Seamless Gate to attack yet. Once we do, the Endwar shall immediately begin.”

“Hmph. Then we are out of options,” the alien Outsider said calmly.

……

The Three Realms. Within a palace in the Allfiend world.

Sixteen True Gods and Daofathers were here, including the Lord of All Fiends, Keeper Everwood, Daomother Devilhand, the black-robed Godking, Daofather Netherjade, and others. Some had sent their true bodies, with others manifesting incarnations. The weakest figure present was still an elite Daofather.

“Master.” A voice rang out from outside.

“Blackheaven. Come in,” the Lord of All Fiends said.

Celestial Immortal Blackheaven entered, then said respectfully, “We just received a new intelligence report from the Primordial Ruinworlds.”

The seated True Gods and Daofathers all looked towards Blackheaven. The Lord of All Fiends said, “Speak.”

“Master, please take a look.” Celestial Immortal Blackheaven pointed towards an empty space nearby. Instantly, scenes of a battle began to be displayed. It was the battle between Ji Ning and those nine bugbeasts. After watching the scene, Blackheaven was naturally able to reproduce it for the benefit of others.

“Ji Ning?”

“Ji Ning’s fighting against nine bugbeasts. From the looks of them, those bugbeasts should be quite powerful, at the level of True Gods.”

The major powers were paying close to attention to this fight. When they saw Ning easily slay a bugbeast with just a single sword-strike, they simply frowned. But when ‘Sword Peacock’ was displayed, all the major powers in the hall were stunned. In fact, looks of absolute rapture could be seen in the eyes of Daomother Devilhand and a few other Daofathers as she saw the beautiful technique.

“What a beautiful sword-art.” Daomother Devilhand let out a soft sigh. “It really is beautiful.”

“What a terrifying sword-art.” Keeper Everwood nodded as well.

“This is just a area-of-effect sword-art Ji Ning uses to attack a host of weaker foes. His close-combat skills are undoubtedly even more terrifying. He was able to easily kill that bugbeast without even using his rainbow swordforce; this means that strike just revealed a tiny portion of his true power.” The Lord of All Fiend became even more solemn. “Sword Immortal Darknorth of the Nuwa Alliance has now become one of our major foes. He’s no weaker than Daofather Fuju was!”

“He’s trained for a shorter period of time than Daofather Fuju had,” Keeper Everwood said. “He’s trained for less than a thousand years, but has reached such a level of power.”

“The efforts of our ‘Godking’ really were quite indispensable in helping Ji Ning to train so quickly,” Daomother Devilhand said mockingly as she glanced sideways at the ashen-faced Godking.