Desolate Era

“Go.” Ji Ning once more struck out with his palms. If a supreme Elder God wanted to avoid competing on raw strength, he would have to use some of his true abilities if he still wished to win. As far as raw strength went, even Old Man Yuan’s ‘Blacklotus Guard’ had been beaten by Ning to the point of collapse. This was a testament to Ning’s raw strength. As for technique? Ning hadn’t even used any of his sword-arts yet!

Ning’s palms once more transformed into a pair of giant black stormclouds that covered the skies, but this time the stormclouds moved even faster than before. They moved faster than the limits of the Heavenly Daos, and they carried a strange aura of destruction about them.

[Brightmoon] sword-art, Heavenbreaker stance!

Ning had reached such a high level in sword-arts that his Heavenbreaker stance possessed truly shocking amounts of power. It had become even faster than before, and it also carried a terrifying aura of utterly crushing annihilation that made it difficult for an enemy to dodge.

“How can he be this fast?!” Elder God Blackpeak couldn’t even dodge in time. All he could do was stare wide-eyed as the giant black stormclouds came smashing down towards him once more.

“Damn.” He hurriedly used the four slender swords in his hands to block.

Boom!

Blackpeak staggered backwards but was still able to block the attack in a stable manner. He was skilled in every aspect; furious attacks, strange sword-arts, and defense. The reason why he had been knocked down the first time was because he had overestimated himself and competed against Ning in raw strength. Despite that, he had been able to endure the full brunt of Ning’s attack. Now that he was using four swords to ablate the force of Ning’s strikes, he was able to hold his own.

“This Blackpeak’s defensive powers are actually a bit inferior to Old Man Yuan’s.” After this second clash, Ning became certain of his victory.

Old Man Yuan was able to use palm-strikes to set up a completely airtight defense. Ning had to use the ‘Heartsword stance’ in order to achieve victory.

Blackpeak was more skilled in offensive attacks. Although he did understand certain defensive arts and mysteries, he was still a bit inferior compared to Old Man Yuan.

“Blackpeak is actually losing?”

“Blackpeak is completely focusing on defense. He isn’t able to launch any attacks at all. The difference in power between the two is quite obvious.”

“This silverscale soldier’s palms are able to strike faster than the limits of the Heavenly Daos. How impressive! He’s also incredibly powerful as well. Blackpeak focuses on physical strength, but even he isn’t able to withstand the silverscale’s blows.”

All the watching Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals sighed in amazement. This was too incredible.

“Fall down!” Ning suddenly let out a roar as he manifested three heads and six arms. All six of his arms suddenly stretched out, transforming into six enormous black stormclouds that all moved faster than the limits of the Heavenly Daos. He once more used the Heavenbreaker stance of the [Brightmoon] sword-art, striking out with incomparable ferocity as his palms smashed down towards Blackpeak.

The six massive palms struck out in a furious, consecutive series of blows that seemed to have no end.

“He’s terrifying.”

“Who could possibly withstand such a furious barrage of palms?”

“Fast and furious.”

All of the Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals, including the ones under Captain Skyleave who had chatted and feasted with Ning, felt a cold chill. They could tell that almost no supreme Elder God could compete against Ning’s palms in raw power. For it to also surpass the limits of the Heavenly Daos in speed…

The six palms continued to furiously rain down upon Blackpeak with tremendous power and great speed. Ning’s techniques seemed simple, but all of the Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals present felt as though they couldn’t even breathe. There was no way to defeat this at all.

Sometimes, the simpler something was, the more it could drive someone to despair.

“No.”

“Impossible!”

Blackpeak was drowning in palm-shadows. He was only able to withstand the attack for a brief moment before finally falling down. In the end, his defenses simply weren’t good enough.

Whoosh.

As soon as he fell down, Ji Ning struck him with a giant palm. His body went completely limp, then Ning seized him and lifted him up.

Ning dispelled the [Three Heads, Six Arms] divine ability, hoisting Blackpeak up with one hand. Blackpeak struggled forcefully with his four arms, but Ji Ning was simply too strong. He was completely unable to break free.

“Give up?” Ning looked at the captured Blackpeak.

“You…” Blackpeak gritted his teeth. Three hundred bottles of chaos nectar!

Ning shook his head. “It seems as though you are going to force me to seal you away and then slowly refine you…” Blackpeak’s body was comparable to a top-grade Protocosmic treasure. If Ning wanted to actually break his body apart, he would either have to use Violetjewel or seal the man away and slowly refine him to death.

“I admit defeat.” Blackpeak lowered his head and spoke these words with extreme reluctance.

……

“What do you think?” Two figures were standing at the very edges of the area. One was the gray-robed elder Fushe, the master of the mustering grounds. The other was a handsome, white-haired, white-robed man. The handsome man was carrying a box on his back as he quietly watched the battle proceed between Ji Ning and Blackpeak.

“He’s quite ferocious.” The white-robed, white-haired man sighed softly. “He must have trained in an extremely formidable divine ability. How else could he be this dominating in raw strength?”

“His palm-arts are quite formidable as well. Every palm-strike surpasses the limits of the Heavenly Daos,” Fushe said.

“Mm.” The white-robed man nodded slowly. “Still, if this is all he has, there’s no need for us to have my master get involved.”

“This might be just part of his true power,” Fushe said. “I have the feeling that he wasn’t lying to me.”

The white-robed man nodded as he continued to watch.

……

Ning withdrew his palms, allowing Blackpeak to fall to the ground. Blackpeak rubbed his throat, then gave Ning a hard look. “I’ll remember you.”

“The stakes?” Ning said calmly.

“The stakes!”

“Elder God Blackpeak, hand over the stakes!” Captain Skyleave and the other Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals all grew excited and ran over to stand next to Ning. Elder God Baiwu excitedly slapped Ning on the shoulders and sighed in amazement, “Impressive. Given how strong you are, why the hell are you wearing silverscale? You should at least have a set of goldscale armor. Blackpeak, don’t just stand there like an idiot. Hurry up and hand over the stakes.”

Blackpeak let out a snort, then waved his hand, causing the 240 bottles of chaos nectar and the Ninestar Skyhooks flew over to Ning. He then turned his head and left, his body blurring as he disappeared into the army camp.

Ning waved his hand, collecting the items.

“Brother Baiwu, here’s your treasure.” Ning handed the Ninestar Skyhooks over to Elder God Baiwu.

“I c-can’t…” Baiwu hurriedly waved in refusal. “I lost it to Blackpeak, while you won it from him.”

“This is something you actually use in battle. You’ve used it for many years; I imagine you must be quite used to it by now,” Ning said.

Baiwu hesitated a moment. This set of treasures had indeed accompanied him for a long period of time, and he was emotionally attached to them. He gritted his teeth, then nodded. “Alright, I’ll accept them back. Brother Darknorth, I owe you one. If there’s anything you need me to do in the future, just let me know.” Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals generally weren’t willing to be in the debt of another; the only reason why Baiwu had accepted the treasures was because he truly had used them for a very long period of time.

“Captain Skyleave.” Ning waved his hand, causing a hundred bottles of chaos nectar to float over towards him.

“No need.” Skyleave laughed and shook his head. “If I lost some chaos nectar, so be it. I won’t go so far as to take it back. No need to even discuss this.”

Accepting the chaos nectar meant accepting a favor from Ning. Baiwu might’ve accepted his treasures back, but he was planning to repay Ning as well.

“Come, come! Darknorth won so much that we really need to feast in celebration. We stopped halfway through the last one. We didn’t even get to finish!”

“Right, right! Let’s go!”

The Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals were all quite happy. To make Blackpeak suffer a loss like this was a happy thing.

“Don’t be in such a rush, everyone.” Two figures walked towards them from afar.

“It is Imperius.”

“Imperius.”

The white-robed, white-haired man and Fushe walked over towards the group.

“Brother Fushe.” Ning smiled.

“This is Imperius.” Fushe made the introductions. “He is the senior disciple of Immortal Abyssus.”

The handsome man known as Imperius was dressed in long robes and carried a box on his back. He smiled and said, “On my master’s orders, I’ve come to invite you to the Abyssus Palace.”

The Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals nearby were all shocked.

“Hurry up and go!”

“Darknorth, hurry up and go. A Chaos Immortal has summoned you!” They all secretly sent mental messages over to Ning.

Ning felt his heart clench in nervousness as well. One of the nine World-level experts resident on Fogstone was known as Immortal Abyssus. He was a Chaos Immortal who had joined from outside the region. He had been a wanderer of the primordial chaos, but he had decided to take up residence on Fogstone, possibly because he was tired of wandering or for some other reason.

Almost all of Immortal Abyssus’ disciples had originally been his followers who had decided to join him on Fogstone. All of them were outsiders. After taking up residence on Fogstone, he had only accepted a grand total of two disciples over the course of countless years.

“It seems as though Immortal Abyssus will be the one responsible for verifying my strength,” Ning mused. “I’ve heard about the power of World-level cultivators for so long, but I’ve never actually met one.”

Immortal Abyssus would be the first World God or Chaos Immortal Ning would meet.

“Everyone, I’ll head to the Abyssus Palace first.” Ning turned to nod towards Skyleave and the others.

“Let’s go,” Ning said.

Escorted by Island Master Fushe and Ancestral Immortal Imperius, Ning departed from the army camp. The citadel was quite large, and the nine World-level cultivators all resided in their own palaces.

“That’s Abyssus Palace over there.” Imperius pointed towards a distant, towering palace that was almost completely black in color. The palace emanated golden ripples of power in every direction, with the ripples being so strong as to cause even Ning to feel secretly shocked.

“Abyssus Palace is a Dao treasure.” Imperius laughed. “When we followed Master in adventuring through the primordial chaos, we went to countless dangerous areas. In many cases, we had to rely on the Abyssus Palace to survive.”

Ning nodded.

There was a guard at the entrance of Abyssus Palace. Upon seeing Imperius, Fushe, and Ning fly towards him, he stepped aside and didn’t try to stop them.

The insides of the palace were quite spacious. Beautiful women belonging to many different races could be seen everywhere, as well as valuable beasts and birds. There were also springs of water that emanated auras of intoxicating spirituality; clearly, these were extraordinary holy springs.

“Master is in the main hall.” Imperius pointed towards the front, then smiled. “After he learned of your presence, he was quite curious about you.”

“Eldest apprentice-brother, eldest apprentice-brother!” A lively young maiden dressed in gauze came running out. When Ning saw her, he was secretly puzzled. She was merely a True Immortal! For a True Immortal to become apprenticed to Immortal Abyssus was no easy feat.

“What is it, junior apprentice-sister?” Imperius asked.

“World God Blackmist has arrived.” The maiden hurriedly lowered her voice and whispered, “He’s right there inside the hall. Master is accompanying him.”action

Ning’s heart thumped.

World God Blackmist?

Of the nine World-level experts on Fogstone, three were World Gods. World God Blackmist was one of them.

“Oh?” A thoughtful look seemed to flash past Imperius’ eyes as he grinned at Ning. “It seems you’ve attracted quite a bit of attention, brother Darknorth. Come, let us have you pay your respects to Master and World God Blackmist.”

“Right.”

Ji Ning, Elder God Imperius, and Island Master Fushe walked towards the gates of the hall together.