The Desolate Era (Web Novel)

“Crackle…”

The countless golden grains of the Stellar Sands were swirling around the giant Jadechild. When the six rays of sword light that had transformed into lines of rain wished to pass through them, the Stellar Sands would naturally be knocked flying away.

The giant Jadechild roared loudly, “Ambushing me?”

His fist suddenly unclenched and expanded into his giant, fan-shaped palm. Whooooosh. He swiped out towards the surrounding area, as fast as a blur. His two giant palms instantly formed a protective barrier around himself.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!” Consecutive explosive sounds.

The six rays of sword light had all been stopped!

“What a fast palm technique.” The distant Ning, seeing this, was astonished. “Although his body increased in size after using his divine ability, resulting in him becoming a bit less agile, his palms are still astonishing fast!”

“Ji Ning, accept death!” The giant Jadechild’s body transformed into a golden blur as he charged straight towards Ji Ning.

“Go.” The black wings behind Ning’s body trembled, and at the same time, a sword light formed in front of him.

Boom!

As soon as the sword light flew out, it was smashed apart by the giant Jadechild.

“Die.” The giant Jadechild was like a fiendish god, his face savage. His twin fists swung out towards Ning like a pair of meteors!

Back! Back! Back!

Ning used his Windwing Evasion at full strength. Because the giant Jadechild was much faster, Ning had to rely on his agility to dodge. He wasn’t able to pull away at all; it was like dancing atop a steel wire!

If one walked too long by the sides of a river, eventually, one’s shoes would grow wet!

“Whoosh!” The giant Jadechild was clearly to the right, but suddenly his fist suddenly appeared and smashed straight towards Ning.

Bang! The rainwater was knocked flying!

Whoosh! The blooming Waterflame Lotus was completely crushed!

Ning wielded two swords in his hands, and they transformed into two streaks of flowing water. The light of his swords was soft and gentle as they struck forward to welcome the oncoming, attacking golden fist. “Bang!” A giant collision. Jadechild felt as though his fists had smashed into something that was incomparably slick and soft, that couldn’t be affected by his power. He had the feeling that his punch had missed, or that it had been pulled astray.

“Bang.” Ning himself was knocked flying back tens of meters, and a wound had appeared at the joints of his palms, although it then quickly healed.

“What a fellow.” Ning was shocked by the power of that punch.

He had power that surpassed that of a peak Zifu Ki Refiner, and also the Rainwater Sword Domain. The Darknorth swords also surpassed ordinary Mortal-rank magic treasures. In terms of close combat, although he was a bit weaker than when using the sword light of the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation], he was probably still close to the Wanxiang Adept level. And yet, when they clashed head on, even when he focused on defense, he was knocked flying.

“He actually didn’t die!” The distant, giant Jadechild stared, astonished.

……

When the giant Jadechild had struck Ning, the nearby Zifu Disciples, including Nong Zidao, were all extremely excited. But upon seeing that Ning was simply knocked flying without being damaged at all, all of them were incomparably disappointed.

“How could it end up this way?”

“Senior apprentice-brother Jadechild used the Heavenly Transformation divine ability. How powerful much his punches be? How could this person not have been smashed to death?”

All of the Zifu Disciples felt a chill in their hearts.

“Senior apprentice-brother Jadechild, we will help you.”

“We will help.”

These frantic Zifu Disciples all unleashed their own techniques.

………

As Ning was sent flying dozens of meters back by Jadechild, a fierce look flashed through his eyes. All of the seven hundred-plus flying swords around him lit up. This was the first time during Ning’s battle with Jadechild that he had used the ninth level of the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation].

His head instantly felt a splitting, piercing pain!

“Go!” The sword light that had appeared in front of Ning, shaped like a true sword, transformed into a line of rain.

“Go!” “Go!” “Go!” “Go!”

Ning, relying on their earlier exchange of blows, pulled farther away, then launched five attacks of the ninth level of the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation]. And then, he immediately came to a halt. Just launching five attacks of the ninth level of the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] had made his soul almost unable to take it any longer. Naturally, he halted.

“Die!” Ning’s eyes were filled with eagerness.

This was his most powerful, supreme attack. It had to succeed.

“Useless.” The giant Jadechild was surrounded by those countless flying specks of Stellar Sand. Ordinary raindrops were completely unable to break through them. When the first sword light under Ning’s control pierced through the Stellar Sands, the giant Jadechild glanced at the line of rain, then smashed over with a giant palm atop that rain line.

BANG!!!

The giant Jadechild shook violently. Boomboomboom…he took three hurried steps back, causing the surrounding ground to tremble violently.

The other four rays of sword light attacked from up ahead and from behind.

“How can he be so strong?” The giant Jadechild felt as though his arm was turning numb from pain. However, given the astonishing regenerative speed of his Fiendgod body, he wasn’t afraid. He hurriedly exerted his strength to block the other sword light rays.

Bang! Bang!

Each time he blocked them, he took several steps back. This impacted his agility. He wasn’t careful, and so two lines of ray still chopped past his fists, slicing directly towards his chest. Crackle…the rain line chopped down against the giant Jadechild’s body like a knife. However, his body, covered with that hazy golden light, was incomparably tough. By the time the sword light chopped through his protective armor and began to chop against his body, it found it quite difficult to advance.

Crackle…it just barely managed to leave a large wound on Jadechild’s body, then vanished.

The other flash of sword light also simply left a wound before disappearing.

“What!” Ning stared, wide-eyed.

He understood now.

While activating the ‘Heavenly Transformation’ divine ability, Jadechild’s body had increased tremendously in size. And thus, the level of difficulty for chopping Jadechild’s body in half had risen as well. This was because Jadechild’s body was simply too thick, and every single strand of flesh and muscle had also risen in strength and endurance. The ninth level of his [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] had only been able to leave a wound on Jadechild’s body.

“You injured me?” Jadechild bellowed as he charged over.

“Senior apprentice-brother Jadechild, we’ll help you.”

“Ji Ning, prepare for death.”

The other distant, spectating Zifu Disciples all unleashed their various magic treasures and techniques as they flew towards Ning.

“Retreat.” Ji Ning hurriedly activated his wings and retreated at high speed.

The surrounding rainwater began to swivel, spinning into layers of protective curtains that blocked these magic treasures. The magic treasures of these Zifu Disciples…weren’t able to penetrate these layers of protection at all. From this, one could see how terrifying Ning’s ‘Rainwater Sword Domain’ was.

As for Jadechild, he smashed straight through the protective curtains of rain.

“Retreat.” Ning had completely changed his strategy.

While controlling the rainwater to form one layer after another of resilient water to block and slow down his opponent, Ning also generated Waterflame Lotuses around Jadechild! The Waterflame Lotuses around Ning…served as a form of protection. But once the Waterflame Lotuses appeared around Jadechild, they served as a form of binding.

“Break.” Jadechild forcibly smashed apart the Waterflame Lotus, then through one watery curtain after another, seeking to chase after Ning.

Ning used almost all of his concentration on controlling the rainwater and the Waterflame Lotuses. Once he focused his energy on controlling them, it was only natural that the Waterflame Lotuses could constantly bloom and spread out, blocking his foe. Those watery curtains continuously formed as well, one lafter another…faced with so many layers of bindings, the giant Jadechild’s speed naturally dropped dramatically. He wasn’t able to catch Ning at all.

“Dao Domain.” The distant Nong Zidao, secreted within the black tower of light, narrowed his eyes. “It really is a Dao Domain. That rainwater forming into one protective wall after another is actually this powerful…Dao Domain. Only sixteen years ago, and yet he has gained insight into a Dao Domain. What a monster!”

Prior to this, he wasn’t yet certain.

But once Ning focused all his power on unleashing the might of his Dao Domain, using countless amounts of rainwater to block, Nong Zidao and Jadechild, these two experts with tremendous amounts of experience, knew for certain that this was a Dao Domain. If this wasn’t a Dao Domain, how could it be so powerful?

The Waterflame Lotuses just bloomed, one after the other.

But the Rainwater Sword Domain was everywhere. Every single curtain of rainwater was somewhat weaker than a Waterflame Lotus, but there was too much rain. This was quality born from quantity; Jadechild’s speed naturally dropped.

“If you have any ability, fight me head on.” Jadechild roared savagely. “What sort of ability is this, to rely on this sort of technique?”

“To be able to lock you down is a form of ability as well.” Ning laughed coldly. “And in addition, by locking you down, I’ve ensured your death.”

Jadechild’s face changed.

“Indeed…” Ning saw the look on Jadechild’s face. A thought came to his mind; he had guessed correctly.

Previously, when they had fought head on, Jadechild’s strength had been simply too overbearing. Even by going all out and using the ninth level of the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation], Ning had only been able to make him take three steps back. Even when he had landed a blow on Jadechild’s body, the sword light had only been able to leave behind an injury on that two-story-tall figure, then vanished. But the heavens were always fair.

The Heavenly Transformation divine ability allowed one to gain in strength and speed. Even one’s endurance would rise dramatically, and one’s size would increase as well…

With so many advantages, could it be that it had no disadvantages?

The disadvantage was…it used up an enormous amount of divine power! To maintain the Heavenly Transformation state used up an astonishing amount of divine power.

Ning had trained in the divine ability, ‘Windwing Evasion’. Windwing Evasion was different from the Heavenly Transformation technique. The Windwing Evasion…focused on technique! But the Heavenly Transformation divine ability…was a sort of divine ability that relied on one’s ability to control one’s body.

The Windwing Evasion was a divine ability technique meant for flying about and evading. Those paintings of the giant Roc contained an incomparably deep and exquisite profoundness to them, while also a technique for using divine power! When Ning had been battling Bei Zishan, he had used up his divine power to activate the Windwing Evasion.

When one used divine power to activate a divine ability, the divine power could increase tenfold or a hundredfold in power, naturally making the divine ability powerful as well.

But Ning’s ‘divine power’ in his Fiendgod body was only at the peak Xiantian level, while his elemental energy surpassed that of a peak Zifu-level Ki Refiner. By using his elemental energy to control the wing-type magic treasures in accordance to the intricacies of the Windwing Evasion, naturally he was still quite fast.

“Maintaining the Heavenly Transformation will use up astonishing amounts of divine power. I want to see how much you have.” Ning mused to himself. “As for myself, the amount of energy I’m using up is negligible. Both the Rainwater Sword Domain and the Waterflame Lotus relies on activating the power of the heavens in order to take form.

“Ji Ning!”

The giant Jadechild bellowed. “All you are capable of is using these despicable methods.”

Ning just focused whole-heartedly on controlling the Rainwater Sword Domain and the Waterflame Lotuses, frantically trying to entangle his foe. The giant Jadechild, as Ning had predicted, was using up an extremely astonishing amount of divine power while using his divine ability. The giant Jadechild didn’t dare to return to his normal state either, as if he did, Ning’s sword light would probably instantly chop apart and slaughter him.

…..

Roughly an hour later.

This was the last hour of Jadechild’s life. During this hour, he came to a halt, no longer going to smash against the Waterflame Lotus or the curtains of rain. By not attacking, he was able to lower his expenditure of divine power. However…when he stopped moving, Ning would begin to control his sword light to attack. After Ning’s sword light left a wound on his body, he would have to use a large amount of divine power to heal.

Not battling wasn’t an option. Battling also wasn’t an option.

Jadechild’s divine power was finally used up, and reluctantly, his body returned to the size of a normal person’s.

Crackle…

A line of rain slashed past, and Jadechild’s head went flying, then landed on the ground. Given how his divine power had been completely used up, there was no way he could heal his wounds any longer. Naturally, he lost his life.

“Senior apprentice-brother Jadechild died.”

“Senior apprentice-brother Jadechild!”

The other Zifu Disciples were all incomparably terrified, but within the Netherwyrm Heavenlock Formation, they were completely unable to flee.

“It’s all over.” Within the black tower of light, Nong Zido stretched his hand out to stroke the Fairy Crane by his side. A hint of pain and pity was in his eyes. “Crane, I’m sorry. This trip to Swallow Mountain was in error. I’m unable to save you. Let us end our master-servant relationship now. I hope that the Ji clan will spare your life!” Within his other hand, a Dao-seal suddenly appeared.

Whoosh.

Suddenly, a spatial vibration appeared, then Nong Zidao’s body disappeared from within the tower of black light, leaving behind only the other five Zifu Disciples, the Landwyrm, and the Fairy Crane.

The Fairy Crane let out a griefstricken bird call as tears began to flow from its eyes.