The Desolate Era

The bolts of lightning struck down at astonishing speed, instantly colliding with the gigantic Waterflame Lotus surrounding Ning and Northson. The petals of the Waterflame Lotus were blooming in layers, and after breaking through three layers of petals, the lightning dissipated, completely unable to harm Ning or Northson at all.

“It actually broke through three layers.” Ning was secretly shocked. In the past three years, Ning had made the most accomplishments in the Dao of Rainwater and the Dao of the Inferno. Every so often, he would go meditate before the Black-White Diagram...and he was now capable of instantly creating and maintaining six layers of petals. If the enemy’s attacks were twice as powerful, they would’ve broken through.

Although Ning was surprised, he saw that the first attacks arriving from far away were those nine tornado windmills.

“Manifold Thistlethorns!” The jade-white sword of light flew out at a seemingly slow speed, as though it was being bound by countless things, which it was just barely able to break through, one layer at a time.

Wherever the jade-white sword of light flew past...the aura it brought with it was enough to cause the faces of Northriver Zhou, Jihe, Dong One, and the other Wanxiang Adepts to change, once they sensed it.

“Who the hell was it that claimed Ji Ning is only skilled in close combat?!” Northriver Zhou and the others were all cursing in their hearts.

The impending sword-light immediately chopped apart the impending dire-ice. Next, it collided against the nine tornado windmills that were flying through the air. Rumble...the nine tornado windmills had aroused an endless tempest, and the nine had immediately formed into a formation which jointly resisted that single jade-white sword of light, but the sword was simply too fast. They could clearly sense it and see it, but it’s speed vastly surpassed that of any of the windmills.

A few seconds after a thunderous collision, the nine windmills were all knocked flying away, but the jade-white sword-light had also grown incomparably dim. “Crunch.” In front of the three thousand white strands of the horsetail whisk, the jade-white sword light completely vanished.

“Formidable. He was actually able to first break through Dong One’s ‘dire-ice’, then break the ‘Grand Windmill Formation’ of myself, Xu Manquan.”

“If he’s so powerful when controlling sword-light...we absolutely cannot let him get into close range!”

Northriver Zhou and the others were all shocked. What they didn’t realize was that Ning felt shocked as well. “My [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] is already essentially as powerful as an attack at the Zifu level can be, and it executed the second stance of the [Three-Foot Sword]. And yet, it was only just barely able to defeat two of their attacks? It appears that my power base is too weak; Xu Manquan and Dong One are both peak Wanxiang Adepts, after all.”

Of the two, one had used dire-ice, something comparable to a divine ability; the other had used a grand formation. And both were at the peak Wanxiang Adept level! Despite that, both of their attacks had been defeated by Ning, a single person. Actually, Ning’s performance was already quite monstrous.

“Serpents Swallow the Skies!”

“Anatta Sword!”

The two black serpents with linked heads and tails had formed into an enormous circle, and they swept towards those nine streaks of sword-light. As for the nine rivers of sword-light controlled by Northriver Zhou, they swept forward like nine mighty floods, wildly attacking that water-snake circle.

For the moment, the battle was actually at a stalemate.

“These two of the Black-White College truly are powerful. They are so much weaker than us in terms of their base of power, but they are able to resist our attacks nonetheless.” Dong One sent hurriedly with a shout, “Everyone, work together and annihilate them.”

“Kill.”

“Kill!”

Meng Liuqing, Nongsan, and the others used their full strength, not daring to be the slightest bit negligent.

“Eh?” Ning suddenly realized that the gray energy flooding towards him actually was capable of somewhat affecting the soul. Although he didn’t care about it, due to the power of his soul, his junior apprentice-brother would be affected by it. Indeed, the nearby Northson had a frown on his face, and the power of the black serpent constructs which he was controlling had begun to drop. Clearly, his mental equilibrium had been affected.

“Die, then.” Ning’s eyes suddenly exploded with a terrifying killing intent. His divine soul was seated in the lotus position deep within his sea of consciousness. In front of his chest, an azure runic seal suddenly formed; the Soulshaker Seal! His powerful divine sense poured out through the Soulshaker Seal and spread out, thundering out like the waves of the sea in multiple layered waves, surging rapidly towards every direction.

It completely avoided the nearby Northson, crushing down towards everyone else. The rolling waves of powerful divine sense instantly crashed against the six Wanxiang Adepts surrounding them. It was as though mighty, savage waves which had been building up power for a long time had suddenly crashed against the shore.

BOOM!!!

The powerful divine sense instantly exploded with inconceivable concussive power.

“What is...” The Wanxiang Adept of Snowdragon Mountain, Dong One, only felt a terrifying collisive power smash towards him. He was instantly terrified, but then...his mind went blank.

“This...”

“I...”

These mighty Wanxiang Adepts, in the face of Ning’s [Soulshaker Art], were instantly stunned and dazed.

Actually, the [Soulshaker Art] was only a technique capable of shaking the opponent’s soul and affecting their power. Generally speaking, it wouldn’t cause others to fall into this dazed, stunned state. The chief reason it did right now was because Ning’s divine soul had already the ‘divine sense’ level. It was comparable to a Primal Daoist using the technique; naturally, it caused them all to enter a stupor. The six of them even began to slowly sink down from the skies.

“Kill!” Ning willed it, and instantly, the jade-white sword of light of the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] appeared once more, sweeping towards the enemies. “Junior apprentice-brother, hurry and attack,” Ning sent.

“Understood.” Northson realized that the six Wanxiang Adepts had entered a dazed, stunned state as well.

The first person to be struck by the jade-white sword light was the leader, Northriver Zhou. “BANG!” Northriver Zhou’s body suddenly unleashed a barrier of sword-ki. This sword-ki was incomparably resilient, and it was able to withstand Ning’s jade-white sword attack.

“Protective sword-ki?” Ning was startled. “It must be a protective item which the elders of his school provide him with.”

In the instant that he was struck, Northriver Zhou came to his senses, and a look of terror appeared on his face.

“Kill! Kill! Kill!” The jade-white sword-light of the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] chopped three times in a row against that protective sword-ki. Northriver Zhou, who had just come to his senses and didn’t have the chance to begin controlling his magic treasures, was thus bisected by Ning’s sword chop.

Crack, crack, crack...Northson’s black serpent-circle immediately crushed down around the one named ‘Jihe’. This Jihe actually didn’t have a protective item on him.

By now, the other four Wanxiang Adepts came to their senses. They were still late stage Wanxiang Adepts and peak Wanxiang nAdepts, after all; their souls were extremely strong, and their Dao-hearts resilient. Even for Primal Daoists who used the [Soulshaker Art], to be able to send them into a stupor for a moment was already impressive.

“Not good. Jihe and Northriver Zhou are already dead.”

“Quick, flee.”

“They know a powerful divine will technique.”

The four lucky survivors, being Dong One, Meng Liuqing, Nongsan, and Xu Manquan, were all terrified and immediately fled. Two of them had died in an instant; this extinguished any thoughts they had of fighting back. They now understand that one of these two disciples of the Black-White College was in possession of an extremely powerful divine will technique. Still, they were also incomparably puzzled; although divine will techniques were rare, they weren’t invincible. Only someone with an extremely strong divine soul would be powerful when using a divine will technique, and clearly, these two had only trained for a short period of time. How could they be so powerful?”

“Flee?” Ning let out a cold laugh. BANG! His mighty divine will once more spread out in every direction, like the crushing waves of the sea. Although all of the four fleeing individuals were prepared this time, they were still dazed by the powerful divine will, and their speed lessened.

“Junior apprentice-brother, kill them.” Ning, his Darknorth swords in his hands, charged straight towards Dong One of Snowdragon Mountain. At the same time, he controlled his sword-light of the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] to attack that Xu Manquan.

“Understood.” Northson’s black serpent circle instantly broke apart, transforming back into two giant water-snakes which attacked Nongsan and Meng Liuqing.

“[Soulshaker Art]!”

Ning used the [Soulshaker Art] yet again, and ripples of endless, ceaseless waves of energy swept towards those four Wanxiang Adepts.

“Snowdragon Mountain, eh? Die!” The Darknorth swords in Ning’s hands sliced out as two streaks of light, bisecting Dong One. “BANG!” Dong One’s body emanated a black energy which formed in protective layers, protecting him like a cocoon.

“Bang!” Ning launched yet another attack, but still wasn’t able to break through. Dong One gritted his teeth, still under assault by the clashing waves of Ning’s divine will. He gritted his teeth so hard that blood came out from them, and his eyes were bloodshot and crazed. He felt like a person who was drowning in a lake of waves of divine will. However, his powerful Dao-heart caused him to want to remain alive.

“Ignite!” Dong One, just barely managing to remain conscious, executed the Blood Evasion technique. Whoosh! A dazzling, bloody scarlet light suddenly appeared in the skies, and then he disappeared into the distance.

“Swish.” Xu Manquan, pursued by the sword-light of Ning’s [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation], had barely managed to remain conscious as well, but he hadn’t been able to flee. He was killed by the sword-light.

“One escaped.” Ning shook his head, collecting the corpses that were falling down from the skies. Ning turned to look. Northson was flying towards him. Northson said resignedly, “Senior apprentice-brother, I let that Meng Liuqing get away. However, I did kill that Nongsan.”

“Out of six, we killed four.” Ning laughed. “Not bad.”

“What do you mean, ‘not bad’? We did extremely well!” Northson stared at Ning in astonishment. “Senior apprentice-brother, what technique did you use just now? I saw them enter a dazed state. It should’ve been a divine will technique, right? Our Black-White College only has three divine will techniques; the [Soulshaker Art], the [Soulcharmer Art], and the [Soulslayer Art]. Which one did you use?”

“The [Soulshaker Art], of course.” Ning didn’t try to hide it. “Formidable,” Northson said, “Formidable. Senior apprentice-brother, your soul is at the divine sense level! The power of your [Soulshaker Art] is astonishing; you were able to make them completely unable to fight back. Actually, they were quite powerful; they were all roughly on par with me.” Northson sighed in amazement. “I really haven’t trained long enough.”

“Let’s see what they left behind,” Ning said. “Alright.” Northson was filled with eagerness as well.

The two first flew back to the dragon-headed warship. The slaves aboard the dragon-headed warship were all quite terrified; they had no idea what had just happened outside.

Ning and Northson paid them no heed. Instead, they began to hurriedly bind the storage-type magic treasures. Although the four they had killed were Wanxiang Adepts, their storage-type magic treasures weren’t all Earth-ranked. Three were Mortal-ranked, while only one was Earth-ranked. It actually didn’t make a huge difference if the storage-type treasures were Earth-ranked or not; thus, not many Immortal cultivators would actively go about upgrading them.

A few moments later...

“Senior apprentice-brother, whose magic treasure was this? It has so much liquefied elemental essence; this bottle has to have at least 250 kilograms!” Northson was instantly overjoyed upon discovering this.

Ning, upon hearing this, was delighted as well. 250 kilograms? So much! Ning quickly understood. “Most likely, after training to the peak of the Wanxiang Adept level, he was preparing to use it to break through to become a Primal Daoist. To break through to the Primal Daoist level would require tremendous amounts of liquefied elemental essence. 250 kilograms is just a rounding error.”

“Makes sense.” Northson nodded.

But Ning was quite eager; they had discovered 250 kilograms of liquefied elemental essence in the storage-type magic treasure of just a single Wanxiang Adept. Perhaps, as a result of othis encounter, Ning would be able to breakthrough to become a Wanxiang Adept himself!