The Desolate Era (Web Novel)

“Since I’ve chosen to fight, I’m going to use everything I have and give him no chance at all.” The short creature’s eyes were filled with madness. He knew just how terrifying someone who controlled an Eternal Omega Dao could be! Even his master, the original owner of this Daoguard Tower, was far from being a match for Ji Ning. In their own Chaosverse, this short creature would probably never even be given the chance to meet such an august personage.

And precisely because he knew just how fearsome Ning could be, he immediately attacked with all his power!

“In the end, he’s someone who has failed his Daomerge. Sands of Time, arise!” The short creature held nothing back at all, immediately using yet another one of the Daoguard Tower’s killer techniques.

Spots of sparkling, sand-like grains of light instantly flew out of the Daoguard Tower, falling under the spacetime dominion of the tower which synchronized it with and sent it into the sealed dimension which Ning and Azurefiend were trapped in.

“Now for the killing blow. Charge to the maximum power!” The short creature gritted his teeth, and the very tip of the Daoguard Tower suddenly began to light up as a large amount of energy began to gather together there.

……

By now, this entire planet had been separated into hundreds of sealed dimensional pockets, with Ning and Azurefiend being trapped in one of them. Azurefiend was starting to panic a bit, because he could sense an enormous amount of danger, as though he could die at any moment.

“Azurefiend, go into my estate-world for now.” Ning waved his hand, pulling Azurefiend into his estate. He then scanned his surroundings. “What a vicious technique… he’s actually willing to destroy his own territory for the sake of killing me! What the hell? Why does he hate me so much? This is the first time we’ve ever met.” Ning couldn’t help but feel puzzled at how viciously his opponent was behaving. His opponent’s very first act was to destroy the very world which the Daoguard Tower had been created to protect. The world itself had also served as an additional defensive layer for the Daoguard Tower. Now the world was gone; the only thing left was the tower itself.

This was clearly a technique which was dangerous to both the user and the target. Generally speaking, most people wouldn’t use such a powerful, double-edged technique until things truly grew desperate. Still, the technique was indeed powerful; not even Ning’s Sword Dao Domain was capable of breaking through a completely sealed dimension like this.

Clink. Ning drew a Northbow sword from the sheath on his back.

Whooooosh! Just as Ning was about to use his sword to chop apart this cage of sealed spacetime, the entire region suddenly rippled with rainbow light that twisted time wherever the light appeared. In some places, time sped up a million times over; in other places, it froze completely.

Ning’s face hardened. “The Sands of Time?” The Sands of Time was yet another type of treasure the Sithe had access to, and it was described in great detail in the records which the Autarchs had given Ning. This type of treasure was extremely dangerous when used against most cultivators, but against Ning it was absolutely lethal!

When activated, it was possible that time would be frozen for the upper half of your body, while time would be accelerated a trillionfold for the lower half of your body. This sort of temporal twisting would cause ordinary Emperors and Hegemons incredible discomfort during battle, lessening their combat prowess… but Ning wasn’t an Emperor, he was a Daolord whose truesoul was breaking apart. His truesoul could very well collapse and die from this!

“He first destroyed his own territory, then used the Sands of Time… just to kill me?” Ning had no time to think. He immediately sent a serious, horizontal chop towards the space in front of him.

This blow from his sword seemed to have enough power to completely sever apart everything in Heaven and Earth. The passage of the sword-light was followed by a tiny thread of water, but a heartbeat later the thread of water transformed into a raging river, and then into a titanic wave. Endless waves of sword-light crashed through the skies with absolutely terrifying power, completely overwhelming the onslaught of the Sands of Time and sweeping through all of the rainbow light!

The terrifying sword-intent had completely submerged and annihilated the Sands of Time. This was Ning’s Water Sword Dao!

After destroying the Sands of Time, the wave of sword-light was dramatically weakened as well, but it still continued to sweep forwards and crash against the dimensional membrane of this sealed space.

BOOM! The entire region shuddered violently, as a large amount of cracks began to appear at the margins of this space, both in the skies and deep underground. The cracks spread out like ripples, while Ning stood at the center of the region and watched carefully.

“I thought that strike would’ve been enough to annihilate both the Sands of Time and this pocket dimension I’m in. It seems I didn’t put enough power into that strike. This dimensional pocket is more stable than I thought,” Ning mused. He was extremely miserly with his energies right now, and would hold back power whenever necessary without overusing even the slightest amount.

“Go.” Ning stabbed out with his Northbow sword once more. This time, he himself transformed into a streak of sword-light that shot outwards. The tip of the sword-light was Ning’s Northbow sword, and it easily pierced through the crumbling dimensional seal and appeared outside.

In the instant that he broke through the dimensional membrane, Ning was able to see the hundreds of dimensional shards that hung in the air like lonely little islands. At the very center, there was a clearly visible eight-story tower that was sitting on a foundation of earth that was millions of kilometers in size. The ground was covered with countless runes and ley-lines, allowing it to serve as the foundation of this tower.

It must be remembered that Daoguard Towers were immobile and had to be anchored somewhere. Through the foundation it was anchored to, it was able to maintain contact with and draw power from the energy generator fueling the entire Sithelands.

“Is that…” Ning instantly saw the dazzling light building at the very tip of the Daoguard Tower.

“Die! DIE!” Spittle was flying out of the mouth of the short creature within the Daoguard Tower, and his eyes were completely deranged. The Dimensional Separator and the Sands of Time were two of his killer weapons, capable of slaying even ordinary Otherverse Lords with ease. The Sands of Time in particular should’ve been a perfect counter for a Daolord whose truesoul was crumbling, but it had still ended up failing. He had never fought someone like this before, after all… but everything was as he had expected.

“DIIIIIIIE!” the short creature howled hoarsely.

BOOM! The light on the top of the Daoguard Tower suddenly shot out, moving an absolutely terrifying speed. Ning was roughly a billion kilometers away from the Daoguard Tower; given the short distance and the incredible speed of the attack, not even Otherverse Lords would be able to dodge in time.

Swish. Ning suddenly transformed into a streak of electric light that moved with equally terrifying speed. He was able to dodge the attack with ease and then charged straight towards the tower. As for the attack, it shot past the location Nng had been in and then continued on to pass through the distant black fog behind him.

“He dodged it?!” The short creature was both angry and anxious. “He’s too fast. He’s too strong and he’s too fast!” He wanted to kill Ning and then be rewarded for it; this was his only chance of salvation! Alas… the only tool he had available to him was the Daoguard Tower.

“He’s too fast and his sword-arts are too furious. There’s no way I can kill him at long range,” the short creature mused. “I’ll wait for him to come inside. Once he actually enters the Daoguard tower, I’ll unleash all of the Daoguard Tower’s powers at the same time. He’s a Daolord who has failed the Daomerge. He HAS to die from that!”

The farther away two fighters were, the more difficult it would be for one to kill the other. Daoguard Towers were built with layers of defenses. They had roving patrols to keep invaders at a distance, ranged attacks to deal with those who made it past the patrols, and also self-destruct options meant to take out invaders who made it into close range.

……

As for Ning, he couldn’t help but sigh to himself. “The records indicate that the closer you get to a Daoguard Tower, the more dangerous it is, with the insides of the tower being the most dangerous of all. I’ve been quite far away from it, but it was still able to force me to use power thrice.”

The first time was when he used his sword to break through the Sands of Time. The remaining power hadn’t been enough to break through the sealed dimension. He used a fair amount of power in this strike.

The second time had been when he pierced through the sealed dimension and fled, while the third time had been when he used an evasion-art to dodge that strike. He had used up very little power here, with the evasion-art using up the least.

“If I really wanted to break into the Daoguard Tower, I’d probably have to use several times as much energy. In fact, I could well die there,” Ning muttered to himself. He once more turned to follow his karmic senses, quickly using his karmic lines to locate the Paragon of Pills. He immediately turned towards one of the hundreds of sealed dimensions. Now that the entire world had been shattered, he was able to find her with ease.

“The Mistress is located in that region over there.” Ning was certain of it. As for Lord Annihilation, he was located in another dimensional pocket that was quite close to her’s.

Swish! Ning was able to move at incredible speeds when transformed into a streak of electric sword-light. In fact, he was a bit faster than when he had first mastered the Eternal Omega Sword Dao. He instantly appeared in front of the sealed dimensional continuum where the Paragon of Pills was located, then delivered a blow with his Northbow sword.

Whoosh! The sword-light carved a giant gaping hole within the sealed pocket that was thousands of meters long.

Ning had no choice but to do this. These sealed dimensions were so strong and stable that he wasn’t going to be able to breach them unless he used his sword.

Through the gaping hole, he was able to clearly see what was inside that dimension. He saw a cold, austere-looking woman dressed in black gauze who was seated in the lotus position. No matter how calm and collected the woman normally was, she was unable to prevent a look of shock from appearing on her face as she turned to stare at the white-robed youth standing behind the gaping hole in the dimensional wall.

“Darknorth?” She recognized this youth right away.