The Desolate Era

“The two of you are more powerful than I had expected. I’ve just developed an ultimate attack that I’ve yet to display in front of other Daolords. The two of you shall be the first one to see it.” the red-robed youth said in a cold voice. His body began to glow with rays of astral light that coalesced to his left and his right, forming two starlight bodies.

The red-robed youth and his two starlight bodies looked absolutely identical to each other.

“A Stargod clone?” Ji Ning and Ninedust both exclaimed in surprise.

“Yes, these are Stargod clones.” The red-robed youth smiled coldly. “This is the supreme technique of the Starking, the ‘Stargod clones’.”

The Starking was ranked ninth amongst the Daolords, and he was famous for his killer technique, the ‘Stargod clone’. Every single Stargod clone had 50% of the true body’s power! The Starking was able to create a total of seven such Stargod clones.

“The Starking’s ‘Astral Dao’ is an extreme one that has obvious flaws, rendering him weak in close combat. However, it allowed him to develop his Stargod clone technique, letting him be ranked amongst the top ten in the Endless Territories.” The red-robed youth smirked. “My own Astral Dao is more perfect than his. It has no flaws at all. Although I’m only able to create two Stargod clones, I’m vastly superior to the Starking.”

Ning and Ninedust traded a glance. This unknown Daolord Snowjoy was indeed quite formidable in close combat. Although he had been defending this entire time, he was still able to match Ninedust blow for blow. Now that he had two more Stargod clones with him, what were they to do?

“Kill!” The red-robed youth and his two Stargod clones simultaneously attacked the Ninedust Sectlord.

The furious Ninedust Sectlord charged forwards as well, his longstaff lashing directly outwards. His attack looked simple, but it possessed unstoppable power! The red-robed youth dodged slightly, using his palms to brush aside the attack, but the Ninedust Sectlord’s longstaff suddenly twisted and swept outwards to both sides of him, simultaneously striking at the red-robed youth and the two Stargod clones at the same time.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The two sides exchanged just a few dozen stances before one of the Stargod clones managed to land a palm-strike directly against the Ninedust Sectlord’s chest, knocking him flying backwards. The Ninedust Sectlord’s chest had partially dissolved into a stream of water before quickly reforming. Although he didn’t have a killer attack like the Stargod clone technique, his invulnerable aquaform was a far stronger supreme defensive technique than Snowjoy possessed.

“He can’t hurt me, but his true body combined with the two Stargod clones can tie me down.” The Ninedust Sectlord gritted his teeth, then struck out with his right hand and produced that strange formation-diagram within his palm.

Rumble! The formation-diagram in his palm immediately flew out and expanded in size to cover an area of ten million kilometers. The enormous formation-diagram was shaped like a square within a circle and filled with layers of flowing barriers. Thousands of layers of formations continuously overlapped with each other.

“A trap formation?” The red-robed youth, who had been extremely confident this entire time, suddenly turned tense. A look of stunned anger appeared on his face.

“Let’s go!” The Ninedust Sectlord immediately pulled Ning with him in a frantic retreat, the layers of formations parting in front of them. Swoosh! They entered the black vessel, then quickly fled at maximum speed.

“Stop running! Stop running!” Trapped within the enormous formation, the red-robed youth was able to do nothing besides roar angrily. He had been so close... so close! The Voidsea Jadeseal had been within reach, but this trap formation had cut off his chances.

“Break! BREAK!” The red-robed youth furiously assaulted the trap formation. He wasn’t that skilled in the art of formations, and when he saw that this one was composed of thousands of layers of barriers he knew that breaching it through raw force was the only chance he had! He had to continuously consume the power within the formation. Only when its power was depleted would he have a chance to escape.

However... he had no idea that this was something left behind by a Hegemon of the Ancient cultivators! This formation was an incredibly strong one. He was trapped in it for a full hour before managing to escape. By then, Ning and the Ninedust Sectlord had fled far, far away.

......

“The situation looks pretty bad.”

“The Ninedust Sectlord has a trap formation of incredible power.”

“Daolord Snowjoy’s stuck inside it.”

Word quickly spread, and the many Daolords converging on this area began to grow anxious. It took them time to slowly fly through the ninth layer, making it difficult for any group to intercept another group. They had been extremely lucky to have a supreme Daolord manage to intercept Ning’s squad, but who would’ve thought that the Ninedust Sectlord would be able to use a trap formation against him and escape with ease?

......

Flee, flee, flee! Ning’s group continued to frantically flee at maximum speed. Both Ning and Ninedust knew that using a trap formation against such an opponent was an excellent ploy, but Ninedust’s formation treasure could only be slowly recharged through the usage of ten million cubes of chaos jewels! They didn’t really care about money at a time like this, but it would take two or three days for the recharging process to be completed.

Another month went by in the blink of an eye. Daolord Snowjoy was once more in hot pursuit of them, but wouldn’t be able to catch up. For now, the group didn’t encounter a second supreme Daolord.

“It’s only been a month. Based on the path in front of us, we’ll still need another two years before we can escape the ninth layer. I hope things will progress smoothly.” Ning, Ninedust, and Badlands were all standing aboard the deck of the black vessel.

Daolord Badlands suddenly frowned. He repeatedly engaged in his Numerancy calculations, only to shake his head again and again.

“What’s wrong?” Ning and Ninedust asked.

“Things are becoming increasingly dangerous!” Badlands explained, “My calculations are telling me that the situation is going to worsen no matter which way we go!”

Ninedust snickered, “They know where we are and are surrounding us from all sides. Of course things are only going to become increasingly dangerous! Our only chance is for us to escape the ninth layer. But... if they are going to try and stop us, they need to prepare to die!”

“Someone’s coming.” Ning stared towards the front.

“Eh?” Ninedust turned to stare forwards as well. A golden streak of light suddenly appeared off in the distance... and the faces of both Ning and Ninedust instantly changed.

“Fellow Daoist Darknorth. Long time no see.” A golden-armored, golden-haired man stood off in the distance, a brilliant smile on his face and violet light shimmering in his eyes. “You’ve improved quite quickly!”

“Daolord Shaka.” Ning had an ugly look on his face. When Kongsan had failed in his attempt to kill Ning, Kongsan had asked Daolord Shaka to help out. Ning had been forced to use his Hegemon Dao-seal to survive!

The Sword Hegemon’s Dao-seal was incredibly powerful. It had slaughtered Kongsan outright! Daolord Shaka, however, had managed to survive and escape thanks to using a valuable life-preserving treasure.

“You actually dare to bar my path? Aren’t you worried that I might hit you with a second seal?” Ning said coldly.

“Ahaha!” Daolord Shaka laughed loudly. He naturally had never forgotten the terrifying scene from a few years back. “Are you really trying to tell me you had TWO such treasures? And even if you do have a second one, so what? I knew just how dangerous this trip to the Waveshift Realm would be and so I paid an incredibly heavy price to procure a protective treasure. Even if you use a second Dao-seal, I’ll still be able to escape.”

“Forget him.” The Ninedust Sectlord frowned, then sent mentally, “Let’s leave. Don’t waste any time with him.”

“Let’s go.” Ning agreed with this idea. Swoosh! The black vessel instantly sped up to a hundred times the speed of light as the two completely ignored Daolord Shaka.

“Fleeing?” Daolord Shaka instantly sped up to over a hundred times the speed of light, waving his hand and sending a streak of golden light straight towards the black vessel.

“Fuck off!” The Ninedust Sectlord brandished his longstaff, smashing the streak of golden light aside.

“Hahaha...” Daolord Shaka smiled coldly as he flew closer and closer towards the black vessel. “You won’t be able to escape.” One golden feather after another flew out from him, numbering six in total. They all transformed into streaks of golden light that furiously assaulted the black vessel.

“Damn that Daolord Shaka.” The Ninedust Sectlord charged out of the black vessel, but Daolord Shaka was able to easily evade him thanks to his great speed. Shaka moved faster than a hundred times the speed of light; there was no way for Ninedust to catch up to him at all.

“Go!” The Ninedust Sectlord waved his right hand, causing that formation-diagram to fly out once more.

......

Time continued to slowly flow on.

In terms of raw power, Daolord Shaka actually wasn’t a match for Ninedust! However, he was simply too fast. Although he was trapped within the formation for a full hour, he managed to once more catch up to them in under a day! He refused to engage Ning and the others in close combat, simply launching repeated long-distance attacks from afar. This ensured that they would move very slowly, at less than half of their maximum speed.

Running and fighting at the same time... of course they would be much closer! Finally, they managed to recharge the formation treasure with chaos jewels and once more trapped Daolord Shaka, but a day later he once more caught up to them!

“They won’t be able to escape.”

“They aren’t going anywhere.”

All of the Heartforce Cultivators watching knew exactly what the situation was. Ever since Daolord Shaka had managed to catch up to Ning’s squad, they had been dramatically slowed down.

Another five days went by.

“Damn.” Just as Ning and Ninedust were once more dealing with Daolord Shaka, another figure suddenly appeared off in the distance and began to fly towards them. It was the red-robed youth, Daolord Snowjoy.

“You are finished!” Daolord Shaka roared with laughter.

“You won’t be able to escape.” Daolord Snowjoy walked towards them, a cold smile on his face.

Ning and Ninedust exchanged a glance. They didn’t fear Shaka or Snowjoy despite the two both being supreme Daolords, but when these two joined forces they would be able to completely tie down Ning and Ninedust, making their escape even slower. Most likely, even more Daolords would begin to arrive! It must be remembered that thus far, not a single one of the top-ranked Daolords had arrived yet.

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