The Desolate Era

Rumble...

The elemental energy contained with Pure Yang Immortal pills was of incredible purity. It instantly transformed into a tidalwave of elemental energy within Ji Ning’s Jindan region. The energy of each pill was completely released, and the entire Jindan drank it all up thirstily, as though it was starving for energy. It was like a riverbed that was so dry, the ground had cracked; even if a torrent of rain was to fall onto it, the riverbed would be able to easily absorb it all.

In fact, the rate at which the Immortal pills released energy couldn’t even catch up to the rate at which the Jindan was absorbing it.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Within Ning’s chest, five types of semi-transparent ki began to manifest and flow.

These five streams of ki came from the insights Ning had in the five Daos of the Five Elements. They now all gathered together, connecting Ning to the essence of Heaven and Earth itself.

Ning had trained for many years. Aside from the Dao of the Sword, his accomplishments in the Grand Dao of the Waterdrop were the most advanced. He had mastered more than half of it by now. As for ordinary water-related Daos, he had long since mastered sixteen different types. In truth, mastering ordinary Daos was now of very little help to Ning. While working on his Grand Dao, he would occasionally get a flash of insight that would allow him to master a particular ordinary Dao.

Ning was very skilled in fire-related Daos as well.

Metal...Ning was quite skilled in this as well, thanks to his expertise in the sword.

Earth...this was the slowest for Ning to train in, but Ning had still mastered a complete, ordinary earth-related Dao. Even back when Ning had first arrived at the Black-White College, he had begun to train in the Lesser Five Elements sword-art, after all.

“Wonderful.” The five types of ki within his chest were slowly beginning to link together and resonate with the essence of the Five Elements within Heaven and Earth, causing tiny streams of energy to be transmitted into his body.

These streams of energy consisted of the essence of the Five Elements. They were all transmitted straight into Ning’s Jindan.

Whoosh!

Like celestial snow meeting with infernal flame, an explosive transformation erupted. Ning’s Jindan began to completely transform, and its quality was increasing at an incredible rate. The Jindan region within Ning’s body grew even greater, and the energy that created and maintained the Jindan grew more and more pure as it began to rise towards the Pure Yang level. Although an enormous amount of elemental energy was being used up, Ning had plenty of Immortal pills prepared. Ning had acquired a large number of Immortal pills from the Xia Emperor, when he had traded away his Empyrean God golem. Even after mastering the Sixth Cycle of the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art], Ning had a large number of Immortal pills left over.

Although all of this took time to describe, in reality it happened tremendously fast.

After just two breaths worth of time, Ning’s Jindan had successfully completed its transformation into an even purer, deeper, and somewhat darker golden color! This was a darkness that came from density and depth, and the energy within this Jindan now vastly surpassed the energy contained within the Jindan of a Celestial Immortal. It caused Ning’s Celestial Immortal body to instantly be transformed.

The golden pellet Jindan within Ning’s body was now a Pure Yang Jindan.

It was second only to the Great Firmament Jindan possessed by Daofathers of the Great Firmament. The Pure Yang Jindan continued to absorb the remaining energy from the Immortal pills, causing the power of the Jindan to grow even heavier and denser.

“Eh?” Ning immediately used the spell which his master, Subhuti, had taught to him. He masked his Pure Yang aura, transforming into the aura of a Celestial Immortal.

This was a form of artifice.

In battle...Ning needed to disguise his power.

“What a wonderful feeling. The feeling of being a Pure Yang True Immortal...it truly is powerful! Pleasurable!” Ning could sense the might his body contained as the Pure Yang power flooded his body. “Is this the feeling which Patriarch Lu and the Xia Emperor have?”

Patriarch Lu and the Xia Emperor were both Pure Yang True Immortals.

Celestial Immortals had their energy, Pure Yang True Immortals had their own.

The transformation in their energy alone represented an enormous increase in power. In fact, Ning even had the feeling that right now, if he were to attack by himself without a thousand Celestial Immortals or a hundred thousand Loose Immortals aiding him, he would still be able to give a White-Faced Flood Dragon a good fight. In the past? His Primaltwin, merely a Celestial Immortal, had to rely on the power of the entire army.

“The Darknorth army...” Ning immediately activated his Pure Yang energy, beginning to take control of even more power from the entire Heaven Punisher formation.

His power grew deeper and deeper. The power of the entire Heaven Punisher began to skyrocket. It doubled. Tripled. Quadrupled. Quintuipled.

The power continued to increase. Ten times. Twelve times. Eighteen times. Twenty-one times!

Finally, the power of the Heaven Punisher reached a limit, and the increase came to a halt.

“Eh? Why is it that I have the feeling that I’ve almost brought out all the power this Heaven Punisher has to offer?” Ning had a foundation of Pure Yang energy, and had a soul heartforce technique supporting him; as a result, he was in control of almost 80% of the total maximum theoretical power of a Heaven Punisher! Ning could vaguely sense that he was very close to a hard limit in power.

It must be understood that not even the other Empyrean Gods or True Immortals were able to unleash this much power from a single Heaven Punisher! Not Empyrean God Venomsong, for example, nor the other Empyrean Gods and True Immortals.

Although there were some Empyrean Gods and True Immortals in the Three Realms who had gained insight into heartforce, the overall ratio was low; it could be said that less than one in ten practiced heartforce! For example, in this current battle within the Grand Xia, aside from Ning, there were two others who had gained a basic level of expertise into heartforce.

One was the Xia Emperor, who had reached the second stage in heartforce.

The other was Gatemaster Azurefox, who had also reached the second stage in heartforce.

The most important thing was, even someone who had powerful heartforce had to come up with a way to apply it to the soul as well. Ning was incredibly talented in this regard; previously, all by himself, he had come up with a way to apply it to his sword-fingers, then had come up with a way to apply it to actual Immortal swords. After being transmitted the [Heart Sutra] by Old Man Yuan, he had slowly begun to reach towards a way to apply heartforce to the soul.

......

A Pure Yang True Immortal whose heartforce had reached the peak of the third stage, and who had a basic level of expertise in soul heartforce.

This was the reason why Ning was able to command eighty percent of the maximum power of the Heaven Punisher?

It could be said that Ning was now far, far superior to anyone else on either side in terms of controlling a Heaven Punisher. Even when he was a Celestial Immortal, Ning was capable of giving Venomsong’s White-Faced Flood Dragon a good fight; he was just slightly weaker than it, that was all.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Ning’s Heaven Punisher brandished the Ananda World-Swords, chopping down against the black chains.

He still used the same amount of power he had in the past, before making his breakthrough.

But Ning now had a feeling...that if he was to unleash his full power, the black chains would be completely unable to stop him.

“Eh?” Ning swept the field of battle with his gaze. “The current situation is extremely unfavorable towards the Grand Xia. From the looks of things, if no one else arrives to help out, the only result will be a defeated retreat.”

“Because my breakthrough was within the Heaven Punisher’s body, most likely no one knows of it.”

“Then...”

Ning stared at the distant True Immortal Crimsonjoy.

True Immortal Crimsonjoy had been maintaining this spell the entire time. This used up a shocking amount of energy, and so he had been constantly using Immortal pills to replenish it.

“Ideally, I should kill True Immortal Crimsonjoy in a single blow,” Ning secretly calculated to himself. “Even though I should currently be the most powerful figure on this battlefield, it’s still quite hard to actually kill a Pure Yang True Immortal.”

The supreme powers on this field of battle were the Fiendgod armies, Venomsong’s White-Faced Flood Dragon, and the Raindragon army. Of course, the Xia Emperor and True Immortal Whitepole were on this level of power as well.

Both the Xia Emperor and True Immortal Whitepole were very powerful in and of themselves. As for Empyrean God Coldsavage, Empyrean God Kindwater, Empyrean God Venomsong, and the others, they all had to rely on armies in order to release this level of power.

Ning, by himself, was naturally no match for the Xia Emperor or True Immortal Whitepole.

However, he had the Darknorth army, heartforce, and a soul heartforce technique. This made his Heaven Punisher the most powerful force present, vastly stronger than Venomsong’s White-Faced Flood Dragon.

“Right now, not a single Empyrean God or True Immortal has perished. Not even the Xia Emperor’s usage of the Grand Xia’s Worldguard Formation was enough to kill one of them.” Ning knew very well that killing one would be very hard, but he had to give it a try.

......

On this battlefield, the Xia Emperor and True Immortal Whitepole were the field marshals for their respective armies.

“Is it all over?”

The Xia Emperor stared at the field of battle. Daofather Raindragon, Daofather Crimsonbright, and the Primordial Imperial Clan...none of them had sent reinforcements. The Xia Emperor felt powerless.

He now understood...

That his master and the others probably had other concerns, precluding them from reinforcing him. The Xia Emperor, however, still found it hard to accept this.

“Retreat,” the Xia Emperor ordered in a hoarse, unwilling shout, one which rang out by the ears of everyone on his side.

Rumble...

The enormous Eight Dragons Cloudcity began to appear as well, pressing downwards.

“Hurry and retreat into the Eight Dragons Cloudcity,” the Xia Emperor ordered.

“Imperial Majesty.’

“Imperial Majesty?”

They all looked towards the Xia Emperor.

The Xia Emperor, however, just shook his head. He didn’t want to admit it, but he could tell that their defeat was guaranteed! There was no way for them to change the situation! If this continued, the Grand Xia’s forces would probably be completely destroyed.

“Forget it...forget it. If I lose, I lose. There’s never been such a thing as an eternal empire within this universe. Even my Primordial Imperial Clan...its current status cannot compare to its status during the Primordial Era.” The Xia Emperor sighed mentally, completely giving up. He would no longer fight. It was time to prepare to flee. If they fled, they would at least stay alive. If they continued to fight head-on, death would be the result.

I, Xiamang, have done all I can...

But alas, I have nothing more to give, now!

He couldn’t forget he had arrived within this world with high spirits, roaming across it and nurturing it, defeating all challengers until he finally unified the entire Grand Xia. He felt deep attachments towards this world of his, but alas...it was now time to leave. This world would now belong to the Seamless Gate.

“Hahaha...don’t let them just escape like that. Kill them all!” True Immortal Whitepole roared with laughter. He felt utter excitement, right now, because he could sense that the Xia Emperor no longer had any plans to fight back and was most likely going to escape.

This world’s name was going to be changed to the Whitepole major world.

He...would be its master!

If Xiamang wishes to flee, he needs to first consider whether or not I, Whitepole, shall permit it!

“Kill! Kill! Kill!” True Immortal Whitepole’s eyes were filled with a shocking desire to kill, and the morale of the Seamless Gate’s forces swelled up to a crescendo.

But suddenly...

BOOM!!!!

A strange explosion.

This explosion came from a part of the battlefield which had been fairly calm and silent this entire time. It was the place where Ning’s Heaven Punisher had been trapped. Although the Xia Emperor wanted to rescue him, it was currently hard for them to even save themselves; how were they supposed to send out even more forces to rescue Ji Ning?

“Eh?” The Xia Emperor, True Immortal Whitepole, and the others all turned their heads to look.

The black-robed, black-haired, red-eyed elder just stood there in a daze. Around him, snow-colored lotus flowers were flying about.

The elder touched his chest.

The Pure Yang Jindan within his body...had been shattered in an instant, under a sudden, sinister assassination strike by Ji Ning.

The red-eyed elder opened his mouth, wanting to say something...but before he could make a single sound, he transformed into flying dust. He had died!

After so many years of battling to claim the Grand Xia...

A True Immortal had finally died! True Immortal Crimsonjoy had perished! The killer was a Heaven Punisher...Ji Ning’s!

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