The Desolate Era (Web Novel)

Although this was slow to describe, in reality it happened in an instant!

Faced with the lightning-fast Whitebone Immortal Slaying Needle, Ji Ning didn’t even have time to make his Primaltwin emerge to block. After all, although he could indeed make his Primaltwin emerge from the underwater estate extremely quickly, it would still need to unleash the hundreds of Heaven-ranked flying swords and execute the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation]. All these things took time! The Whitebone Immortal Slaying Needle, however, gave Ning no such time at all.

Ning only had enough time to immediately activate his divine abilities, then block!

BOOM!

Although the Waterflame Lotus surrounding Ning was incomparably resilient, it was still instantly penetrated through!

The three-headed, six-armed Ji Ning held his Immortal swords in his hands, unleashing his most powerful attacks to block the Whitebone Immortal Slaying Needle.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Six consecutive and incomparably ferocious collisions. Of the six swords, three were Darknorth swords and thus possessed tremendous power. As for the other three Heaven-ranked swords, although Ning’s true body couldn’t fill them with his elemental ki, as Heaven-ranked artifacts, they were still quite tough and strong.

If Ning had used Earth-ranked flying swords, the Whitebone Immortal Slaying Needles probably would’ve pierced straight through them. These three Heaven-ranked flying swords Immortal Juhua had left behind wouldn’t shatter, at least! They would at least allow Ning to unleash the full power of his [Starseizing Hand]!

Each collision was like an enormous mountain range smashing towards Ning. Six consecutive collisions! Fortunately, Ning’s palms had been strengthened by the [Six Cycles of the Starseizer] to be even more powerful than Heaven-ranked magic treasures. That’s the only reason why he was able to hold the hilts of the swords securely.

BOOM!

As the six sword-wielding ars all executed the [Starseizing Hand] and strove to block the Whitebone Immortal Slaying Needles, Ning himself was knocked flying back by the terrifying collisive force. He shot out backwards like a meteor.

“Block, block, BLOCK!” Ning strove his utmost to block for as long as he could.

Although Ning had already trained to the eleventh stage of the [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens] as a Fiendgod Body Refiner and was nominally only at the peak Wanxiang Adept level, because Ning had acquired the peacock plumes and trained to the second Cycle of the [Six Cycles of the Starseizer], his [Starseizing Hand] technique was now capable of exploding with incomparably terrifying force. This caused Ning’s power to instantly surpass the Primal stage and charge all the way into the Void-level Earth Immortal stage!

With the additional support of his current Grand Dao Domain, his nearly perfect Dao of Rainwater, and the fact that Sword Immortals were extremely skilled in attacks….

BANG!!!! Ning’s towering Fiendgod body struck heavily against a wooden pillar. This wooden pillar, however, was covered by the restrictive spells which stretched across the entire Cloudwater Manor. It was extremely stable, and it wasn’t damaged in the slightest.

“Ugh.” Ning spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. His physical body actually was already covered with all sorts of scars and wounds by now, and blood was oozing out from them. The collisive forces had been far, far too powerful. Although Ning had executed [Heavenly Transformations] and [Pentabolt Vajra] to stabilize and bolster his divine body, his body was still vastly inferior to his two hands. The force of the collisions caused his flesh to split open into countless wounds.

“I didn’t die.” Ning was startled.

He had gone all out to block the Whitebone Immortal Slaying Needle, and as he had continued to block, the power of the needle had continuously been whittled away. In the end, as it smashed down against the final sword, it had caused the sword to slash across Ning’s chest. The force of that final collision had nearly caused Ning’s body to implode…but in the end, although countless tears and rips appeared on his body, he didn’t truly perish.

“I blocked it.” Ning mentally began to celebrate wildly. “Fortunately, I trained in the second Cycle of the [Six Cycles of the Starseizer]. And fortunately, during this past year, I’ve begun to train in the [Three Heads, Six Arms] ability. This allowed all six of my arms to execute the [Starseizing Hand]!”

Crimsonbright divine energy began to flow over the countless wounds covering his body, and the divine energy quickly began to cause the wounds to heal and close. Ning’s six arms continued to each grasp an Immortal sword. The sword-light unique to Sword Immortals filled the skies. Sword-ki filled the entire area with their awe-inspiring might.

“He didn’t die?”

As Ning was knocked flying backwards, Immortal Floatcloud had charged forward as well. Although he was amazed by the fact that Ning had managed to block it, he didn’t pause or hesitate at all! This was because he had sworn an oath to the Dao of the Heavens for this assassination. If Ning didn’t die, then his soul would be shattered. Thus, his reaction came quite quickly.

Whoosh! As he charged straight towards Ning, Immortal Floatcloud waved his arm. Instantly, a golden heart appeared in midair. The golden heart immediately began to manifest thousands of veins and arteries, forming an enormous net that completely covered the empty central region they were in. This enormous net formed from countless blood vessels glowed with a bloody light, and an aura of power emanated from it.

For the sake of assassinating Ning, Immortal Floatcloud had prepared two magic items. The first was the Whitebone Immortal Slaying Needle. It possessed astonishing power, and Immortal Floatcloud believed that even he would be heavily injured upon being assaulted by it. Ji Ning? Ordinary protective items would be immediately shattered by it; Ji Ning would almost assuredly perish.

The other item was this, the ‘Bloodcoil Heavenlock Formation’. Once the formation was set down, it would take a good amount of time for either the Imperial Guard or the Loose Immortals on guard here to charge through it. As long as he had enough time, he would be able to kill Ji Ning in a one-on-one fight.

He was a supreme Loose Immortal! Ji Ning was merely a Wanxiang Adept! Even though the Whitebone Immortal Slaying Needle had been blocked by some strange magic treasures, in a true one-on-one fight, if he had enough time, he refused to believe Ji Ning could withstand him!

Both treasures were single-use items. Although he had paid a high price of many magic treasures, in truth, the Youngflame clan had essentially ‘gifted’ these two items to Immortal Floatcloud.

Cloudwater Manor was the largest, most important trading ground for the Kindwater clan in the imperial capital of the Grand Xia.

There were thirty-six Loose Immortals permanently stationed here.

The Kindwater clan had thousands of Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals. For only thirty-six to be stationed here…on the surface, the numbered seemed to be quite low. In truth, however, these thirty-six Loose Immortals…were all dressed in Immortal-ranked Dao-soldier armors. Once they all joined forces, they could even force a Celestial Immortal to retreat!

“Earth character, second number. There’s an assassination attempt there!”

Some of the thirty-six Loose Immortals were in private training, while others were drinking and carousing. However, upon the Primal Daoist overseeing Cloudwater Manor sending them mental messages, they all instantly arrived in the air above Cloudwater Manor.

Thirty six of them in total! They were all dressed in black Dao-armors, and they each emanated with terrifying auras that filled the heavens. They hung there in midair for a moment, then suddenly all thirty-six of them joined together to transform into an enormous black serpent. As soon as it appeared in the skies, a stream of water appeared. The surrounding space was completely frozen. The giant black serpent immediately charged towards the three-thousand meter tall building where Ning and the others were currently located.

Whoosh.

The enormous ceiling, under the control of the overseer of Cloudwater Manor, split open, allowing the giant black serpent to immediately charge in.

Although this took time to describe, in truth, the thirty-six Loose Immortals were incredibly fast. And yet, despite their speed, by the time they arrived, the Bloodcoil Heavenlock Formation had already completely covered Ning’s region.

“He’s dead for sure.” Xiao Lang stared at the area covered by the massive net of blood vessels. “This is the Bloodcoil Heavenlock Formation. It can only be acquired at a cost of half a million kilograms of liquefied elemental essence, and it can only be used once. Although it can only be used once…it has truly astonishing power. Even if the Imperial Guard of the Grand Xia were to arrive, it would take them some time to break through it. Although Cloudwater Manor is guarded by experts of the Kindwater clan, I imagine it will take them time to break through as well.

Skyfarmer Songspear, Kindwater Xiaolou, and Fairy Wavecolor were all in a stunned state as well as they all sighed.

The reason why they were stunned…was because they all saw how just now, Ning had instantly exploded with terrifying power. All of those divine abilities aside, Ning had demonstrated a Grand Dao Domain, and it had even had the resilience and elasticity of water. Ning’s sword-light had flowed in a steady, unbreakable stream as his six Immortal swords had blocked the Whitebone Immortal Slaying Needle! Clearly, Ning was incredibly powerful in terms of the Dao.

“Just by virtue of the fact that he has comprehended a Grand Dao Domain, this Ji Ning has vastly surpassed all of those geniuses who have only mastered a single Dao-Path. Xiao Lang, Fairy Wavecolor…they are vastly inferior to Ji Ning.” Xiaolou secretly sighed to himself. “And he was actually able to survive under the assault of the Whitebone Immortal Slaying Needle. Clearly, in that instant when he unleashed his full power, he reached the level of a Loose Immortal.”

Those who dared to participate in the Conclave of Immortal Destiny were generally geniuses at the peak Wanxiang Adept level who were capable of exploding forth with the power of a peak Primal Daoist! Only a small number were able to reach the combat power of a Loose Immortal!

Only…

Immortals had tremendously varying levels of power as well. Void-level Earth Immortals, for example, were also divided into early, middle, late, and peak stages. Because of different levels of insight into the Dao, Immortals had tremendously different levels of power as well. Even those most supreme of Wanxiang Adept geniuses were only comparable to ordinary Loose Immortals or Earth Immortals.

But even amongst supreme geniuses, there were still differences; Ning, because of his [Starseizing Hand], could be considered an ordinary Void-level Earth Immortal, but with the powerful life-force of his Fiendgod body, and the added support of the [Three Heads, Six Arms] ability giving him six arms that could use the [Starseizing Hand], Ning was able to stay alive against the assault of even a Whitebone Immortal Slaying Needle.

“What a pity.” Songspear secretly sighed to himself.

“What a genius. And he’s only trained for thirty years?” Fairy Wavecolor secretly sighed as well.

“He’s already so strong at thirty years of age. He is indeed much stronger than me. Buuut, he’s gonna die soon.” Xiao Lang stared fixedly at the grand formation.

……

“Young master.”

The squad of Golden Imperials instantly transformed into a divine golden dragon, battering and smashing towards the Bloodcoil Heavenlock Formation.

Rumble…

The thousands of blood vessels covering the formation just bulged slightly, then easily deflected the force of the attack. The golden heart was pumping blood in an endless stream to them, causing the grand formation to remain standing. Only the blood was used up would the formation dissipate.

“Break!” The thirty-six Loose Immortals in the form of a giant black serpent flew in from above. With power that was tens of times more powerful than the divine golden dragon, they launched an awe-inspiring strike against the formation.

The formation trembled, and many of the blood vessels actually splintered and shattered. The golden heart, however, frantically sent out more blood, causing many new blood vessels to be grown out, allowing the formation to be sustained.

…..

“No one can save you now.” Immortal Floatcloud was within the formation. In front of him, three flying swords had appeared, forming into a formation-diagram.

As for Ning, who had been smashed against the wooden pillar…he laughed coldly. “Youngflame clan, right?” Next to him, a black-robed youth suddenly appeared. This black-robed youth looked identical to him, and as it appeared, more than two hundred flying swords appeared around him as well.

Ning’s true body suddenly vanished from sight. He had entered the underwater estate. After all, during the previous exchange, Ning’s true body had been heavily wounded and needed to recuperate. His divine power had been almost used up, with only 20% remaining; he didn’t have enough to continue fighting against this Immortal.

Rumble…

With the nine precious Waterbreaker Godshark Swords serving as the core, the other 200+ Heaven-ranked flying swords were all activated, causing the insides of the Bloodcoil Heavenlock Formation to be filled with an endless amount of sword-ki. This sword-ki…was tens of times more powerful than the sword-ki Ning’s true body had shown earlier.

“Primaltwin?” Immortal Floatcloud’s eyes instantly turned huge. He stared at the three Heaven-ranked flying swords in front of him, then at the 200+ Heaven-ranked flying swords hovering in front of the distant, black-robed Ji Ning.

“WHAT?!” Outside the formation. Songspear, Xiaolou, and Fairy Wavecolor, who had been feeling pity for Ji Ning, were all flabbergasted.

“But, but…IMPOSSIBLE!” Xiao Lang, who had been smirking coldly as he watched Ning ‘go to his death’, actually called out in shock.