The Desolate Era

“What a terrifying scimitar.” Ji Ning could sense that the flows of his nine novessence arts were being parted as though they had been split in half. “But my secret arts were formless to begin with!”

If you cut a stream of water with a knife, the water would continue to flow. Ning’s nine novessence arts of lightning, wind, fire, void, and everything else were all types of formless energy that could assume whatever shape he chose.

In the face of that terrifying scimitar, the rampaging flood of the novessence arts was instantly split in half. Despite that, the power of the secret arts didn’t lessen at all, and two dragon-like streams of sword-light continued onwards towards Daolord Kongsan.

“Not good.” Daolord Kongsan’s face paled, and the black mist around him instantly became far denser and thicker than before. Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! The sword-light formed by the novessence arts were able to transform into many forms. They instantly transformed into eighteen different streams of sword-light, each of which was violent beyond care. Filled with the sword-intent of the Omega Sword Dao’s Blood Drop stance, they forcibly pierced through the black mist!

In truth, Ning’s nine novessence arts were far stronger than Daolord Kongsan’s darkness-based secret arts, and so penetrating them was very simple.

“Heavenbreaker!” As soon as those eighteen streams of sword-light pierced through the black mist, they suddenly transformed. They became like eighteen whips of flowing water that furiously lashed out, striking Daolord Kongsan on his body.

Ever since Ning had come up with his Omega Sword Dao, he had been able to perfectly join together all different types of sword-arts and Sword Daos. This was why his attacks could seem incredibly soft and yet unleash a dominating display of sword-intent.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! These eighteen streaks of sword-light contained both the criss-crossing power of the Yin-Yang stance as well as the ferocity of the Heavenbreaker stance. Daolord Kongsan was forced to instantly transform his body into darkness itself. The sword-light roamed through the darkness unimpeded, causing his form to shudder a few times, but he was able to easily endure the strike.

“What formidable secret arts. Your sword-intent roams everywhere, letting no opening go untouched.” Daolord Kongsan’s face suddenly appeared from that pool of darkness, and he had a cold smile on his face as he spoke.

“It does indeed leave no opening untouched,” the distant Ning said. “My secret arts are formless like water; of course they flow over and into everything. But precisely because of that, they aren’t particularly powerful when I use them to display these sword-arts.”

You could use a stream of water to stab or to whip someone, but there was no way it would ever hit as hard as an actual weapon meant for those purposes. Weapons were both tougher and sharper.

“Omega Sword Dao, Yin-Yang.” Ning’s gaze turned cold. Rumble... instantly, the energy of the nine novessence arts began to crush and grind down upon everything within a hundred million kilometers. Yin and Yang criss-crossed with each other, grinding away at each other and everything between them. Even though Daolord Kongsan had transformed into darkness incarnate, he could still sense how terrifying this Yin-Yang Sword Domain was, and it was suppressing and restraining him from every possible angle.

“Damn.” Daolord Kongsan felt as though he had been trapped in quicksand. Ning’s secret arts were simply too strong, and they were omnipresent; there was no way Daolord Kongsan could completely block them. Or at least, there was no way he could use his secret arts or magic treasures to block them.

“I had thought that by using my nine novessence arts, I would be able to cause him serious injury even though I probably wouldn’t be able to kill him. Daolord Kongsan truly does have a virtually indestructible body. There’s no way to injure him at all.” Ning couldn’t help but sigh. He had already unleashed his most powerful attacks, but all he was able to do was to suppress this foe.

In the end, Ning simply was at too low a level. His Omega Sword Dao might be formidable, but he was still just a Daolord of the First Step.

Daolord Allgod was a grandmaster of formations and had reached a much higher level than Ning was currently at. When he used those nine same arts alongside his formations, his power was much greater than Ning’s was.

......

While Ning was sighing to himself, he had no idea just how stunned and furious Daolord Kongsan was. Daolord Kongsan was a venerable Verge-level Daolord who had roamed the Endless Territories for many years... but today, he was actually being beaten down by a Daolord of the Second Step?

“GRAAH!” The endless darkness suddenly released a low, furious growl. Instantly, the darkness quickly began to solidify into a black silhouette that had a noticeably more powerful aura than before, and which was wielding an enormous scimitar.

“Kid, you should feel proud that you’ve forced me to use my supreme attack. Now die!” The blurry black silhouette instantly charged towards Ning as he furiously chopped towards Ning with that enormous scimitar.

This chop caused spacetime to freeze. It was filled with a towering killing intent that struck out from incredibly far away, slamming directly through Ning’s body as it struck against his soul. Ning was still standing at the prow of his distant black vessel, but he could still clearly sense a soul attack of immense power striking at him.

“Hmph!” Within Ning’s sea of consciousness, his soul let out a furious snort. The murderous intent slammed towards Ning’s soul like a wave, but Ning’s soul was completely unmoved. It was comparable to the soul of a Daolord of the Fourth Step, after all, and his heartforce was at the point where he could break through to the sixth stage of heartforce at any moment. Once he did, he would be a true Heartforce Cultivator! Less than 1% of Daolords were Heartforce Cultivators, and so this enormous advantage in terms of heartforce made Ning’s mental and soul defenses incredibly strong.

In addition, Ning had already read an intelligence report stating that Daolord Kongsan had a soul attack, but the attack was only able to confuse and disrupt; it wasn’t all that powerful. In the end, Daolord Kongsan was most skilled in close combat!

“Eh?!” The distant Daolord Kongsan looked at Ning both angrily and expectantly.

“Daolord Kongsan, did you really think you would be able to shake my soul with an attack on this level?” Ning laughed coldly.

Daolord Kongsan was shocked. It was true that soul attacks weren’t his forte, but the soul attack wasn’t a weak one either. Daolord Kongsan felt certain that this mere Daolord of the Second Step had to have a fairly weak soul, even if he did have a fairly high level of insight into the Dao. Logically speaking, the soul should’ve been an enormous weak point. Even Daolords of the Fourth Step would’ve been confused and impacted by his soul attack.

“You aren’t bad at all, kid. But if you are really so tough, stop running and fight me in close combat!” Daolord Kongsan bellowed angrily as he flew towards Ning.

“Haha, I’m just a Daolord of the Second Step! You want me to fight in you in close combat? Do you have any sense of shame? If I broke through to become a Daolord of the Third Step, I’d be more than happy to fight you in close combat.” Riding his black vessel, Ning was able to easily pull away from Daolord Kongsan once more. He also continued to use his nine novessence arts to either slow down or attack Daolord Kongsan repeatedly.

Daolord Kongsan was getting angrier and angrier as this ‘fight’ continued. Ning continued to flee, and he continued to chase. Ning had it quite easy in this battle, as he continued to attack while fleeing thanks to his overwhelming advantage in speed.

......

“If this continues... I really won’t be able to do anything to this kid at all.” Daolord Kongsan shook his head. “If memory serves, the secret arts this kids is using should be the nine novessence arts of the legendary Daolord Allgod.” The reason why hadn’t recognized the technique earlier was because he had never personally battled it before, but he had read the description of the techniques within the Spellworld. After having battled against Ning for so long, he had some insights into what it was that he was up against.

“I really wonder how a Daolord of the Second Step like him was able to master such terrifying secret arts,” Daolord Kongsan mused. “I heard that in order to master those nine novessence arts, you not only need to have certain insights into the likes of lightning, wind, and fire, you also have to be a grandmaster alchemist; if your alchemy skills are even the slightest bit deficient, you will never be able to master the nine novessence arts. Is this Daolord of the Second Step a grandmaster alchemist?!” Even Kongsan was secretly speechless.

“If he is... there’s no way he could’ve learned alchemy by himself. He either won an incredibly powerful legacy or has an incredibly powerful teacher behind him.” After having battled for so long, Daolord Kongsan was starting to grow wary of Ning. This person definitely wouldn’t be as easy to deal with as the other Daolords of the Fourth Step he had slain.

“Screw it. I’ll capture him alive first! If he really does have a powerful figure behind him... hmph. I’m a core member of the Dao Alliance. Very few people are qualified to threaten me. When the time comes, I’ll chat with him a bit. I can force the kid to swear a few lifeblood oaths, then let him go.” Daolord Kongsan mused to himself, “But if he doesn’t have any powerful figures behind him, I can do whatever I want to him.”

Whoosh. Daolord Kongsan sent his will outside the grand sealing formation and towards one of the hundred thousand estates located at the margins of Skywood City. Aside from Kongsan, there were a few other incredibly powerful and ancient Daolords who lived in seclusion in those estates.

“Big brother Shaka.” Daolord Kongsan instantly sent mentally, “I’m embarrassed to say this, but it seems I’ll need to ask you to help me out and capture the kid.”

Within the estate. A handsome man with long golden hair and a golden suit of armor was seated in the lotus position inside a courtyard, staring at the heavens. He looked like an ordinary cultivator, but in truth he was a terrifyingly strong Aberrant. Amongst the ancient figures who lived in seclusion in Skywood City, he was reputedly the fastest of them all. The Dao Alliance was an extremely welcoming and open organization, allowing members of the Brightshore Kingdom, the Aberrants, and even the Ancient cultivators to live within their cities. Only their mortal enemies, the Aeonians, were refused entry by the Dao Alliance. And of course, the Dark Kingdom.

“Kongsan, he seems to just be a Daolord of the Second Step. You really can’t catch him yourself?” A gleam of purple light flashed through Daolord Shaka’s eyes.

“I really cannot. This kid has way too many tricks up his sleeve, which is why I’ve come to ask you for help, big brother Shaka.”

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