The Desolate Era (Web Novel)

Ji Ning had never before used the sixth level of the Lesser Thousand Swords Formation before. Originally, back at the Aquatic Manor, using the fifth level alone had taken him to his limit. However, after he had spent time training in accordance with the [Nine Scrolls on Formations], Ning had learned how to better guide the swords in the Lesser Thousand Sword Formation through certain patterns. When he had used the fifth level, it had been fairly effortless for him, and so he now felt that although it might be difficult for him to use the sixth level, he should still be able to succeed.

“I have to succeed. If I fail, I die!” Ning put his full power on display, and 486 sword-type magic treasures hovered around him. Ning used his divine will to carefully control the critical ‘juncture’ swords of the Lesser Thousand Sword Formation, then slowly allowed the other swords to follow those junctures, causing those 486 swords to constantly fluctuate, like the waves in a sea.

Although it was difficult for Ning to control them, the 486 swords still began to glow with that blurry white light.

“Success!” Although Ning still had to defend against those wasps and even be bit by them, while at the same time dodge against the attacking black-furred zombie, Ning was incomparably excited! By relying on his successes in developing formations, he had been able to manifest this sixth level of the Lesser Thousand Sword Formation.

“Kill!” Ning stared savagely at the distant Bei Zishan, standing on his flying boat.

In front of his body, that incomparably sharp sword light coalesced, compressing to the utmost limit possible, and then, following Ning’s will, shot out like a meteor, slicing through the air and attacking towards Bei Zishan with an utterly indomitable, unstoppable aura.

“Die!” Standing atop the boat, Zishan also brandished the bloody banner in his hand.

The banner stirred.

The world around them turned dark, and one dread wraith after another, all visible to the naked eye, moaned as they flew out from the banner. These dread wraiths were the most powerful survivors of the battles between the dread wraiths. Nourished by the banner, they had become even more powerful! And this was with the treasure only being half completed; if it had been completely forged, it would be truly formidable.

Despite that, however, this half-finished magic treasure was enough to allow Bei Zishan to stare down arrogantly at the vast majority of Zifu Disciples.

“Roaaaaar!”

“Kill!”

“Devour you!”

The countless wraiths were incomparably savage, emitting ear-piercing shrieks. After having been nourished by the banner, these dread wraiths were capable of making sounds now! They all charged forward in a flood towards Ning at an impossibly fast speed. But of course, compared to Ning’s Lesser Thousand Sword Formation’s sword light, the Lesser Thousand Sword Formation’s sword light was still a bit faster.

“Hiss…” Zishan brandished the horsetail whisk in his hand, and it transformed into three thousand white strands, frantically attempting to block. However, this sword light was far more powerful than the previous one, and it chopped straight through the multiple layers. Bei Zishan frantically lifted up the handle of the bloody banner which he was holding, using it to block that sword light.

But the sword light was just too fast. Zishan just barely managed to touch it in time.

“Crackle…” The sword light struck the handle of the banner, and the entire bloody banner trembled slightly. The sword light instantly grew even weaker, and then it finally slammed into the armor-type magic treasure which Bei Zishan was wearing, that black robe. It just barely managed to leave behind a black smudge on the black robe, and then it disappeared.

“Fortunately, I blocked it. It nearly broke through my body and claimed my life.” Zishan was shocked as well. A battle against a Zifu Disciple was a battle where death was always just a breath away. If one wasn’t careful and was hit by an enemy’s attack, one would lose one’s life. “Hmph. With those dread wraiths gnawing at him, he won’t be able to concentrate enough to launch another one of these sword lights. Those dread wraiths will gnaw him to death, no question about it.”

Zishan was extremely confident. Even if he himself was bitten by those dread wraiths, he would die.

————————

Ning watched as those countless, tightly clustered dread wraiths howl as they flew towards him. His face couldn’t help but change. These howling dread wraiths easily bypassed his six layers of Waterflame Lotuses. Dread wraiths were ghosts, and so weapons and Waterflame Lotuses were completely unable to block them.

“Devour you!”

“Devour.”

Countless dread wraiths surged forward, instantly completely engulfing Ning within them, wildly rushing into Ning’s body.

“He’s dead for sure.” Watching from afar, Zishan was confidently awaiting the moment when Ning would invariably collapse. However, immediately afterwards, Zishan’s face began to change, because the bloody banner within his hand was beginning to tremble, and its aura was beginning to weaken as well as its power decreased. “What’s going on? What…what is this?”

Zishan was shocked and angered.

This banner was his trump card, his killing technique! But now, the aura of the banner was weakening nonstop, which meant that the power of the banner was dropping. The foundation of this magic treasure was those dread wraiths…which meant there was only one possibility. Many dread wraiths were dying!

“How is this possible? Those dread wraiths are ghosts which are filled with hatred and murder. There’s no weapon at all capable of blocking them, and they are ripping and biting at the enemy’s soul. These countless dread wraiths aren’t able to devour his soul?” Zishan didn’t dare believe it. Even a Zifu Disciple’s soul probably wouldn’t be able to withstand these ghosts for long before being utterly devoured.

————————-

Within Ning’s consciousness.

Ning’s soul was there, and countless dread wraiths were flooding it, letting out howls as they attempted to devour it.

“What to do?” In his consciousness, Ning could sense those countless dread wraiths flooding in. He was shocked. The soul was a person’s foundation; if the soul was gone, then one wouldn’t even be able to reincarnate. At the same time, Ning had never had the experience of battling against ghosts.

“The [Nuwa Painting].” This was the first thing which Ning thought of.

In his consciousness, a Ji Ning dressed in white clothes appeared, sitting in the lotus position. At the same time, behind his body, hovering in mid-air, there appeared the form of Nuwa. Maiden Nuwa seemed to have become truly timeless, with the passage of time not diminishing her in the slightest. Her eyes were filled with grief and sympathy, like the eyes of a mother. She also emanated boundless amounts of light, covering the surrounding area.

When the many dread wraiths came charging over and touched the boundless light emanating from Maiden Nuwa, the evil aura emanating from their forms truly vanished. On their faces appeared smiles of peace and bliss.

All of them looked towards Ji Ning with grateful gazes. Some bowed in thanks, while others knelt in thanks.

And then, one after another vanished, returning to the Netherworld Kingdom to be reborn.

The many dread wraiths continued to charge forwards, but the image of Maiden Nuwa dissolved their evil auras, and once they were no longer possessed by that evil, there was no way those ghosts could continue to remain here in the mortal world. All of them thus went to the Netherworld Kingdom.

Actually, Ning’s own soul was comparable to that of a Wanxiang Adept to begin with. Even if he didn’t manifest a visualization of Maiden Nuwa, given the power of his soul, there was no way these dread wraiths would have been able to kill him…after all, the magic treasure was only half complete. It was only useful against Zifu Disciples, and it wasn’t strong enough to deal with Wanxiang Adepts.

However, if he had done that, Ning would have been relying on the power of his soul to forcibly kill each of those dread wraiths.

As Ning instead visualized Maiden Nuwa, those dread wraiths were instead all purified and sent to be reincarnated, which was a great karmic merit.

———————–

Although this took a long time to discuss, in truth, it happened in an instant.

Ning had no fear at all of those countless dread wraiths charging into his body, attempting to devour his soul. Instead, he just stared at the distant Bei Zishan, and let out a bellow. “KILL!”

Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!

A ray of sword light flashed out, followed immediately by another one…four bursts of sword light shot out towards the distant Zishan. These four bursts of sword light virtually exhausted all of the Xiantian ki in Ning’s body, as the amount remaining was not enough to permit him to unleash a fifth. This was Ning’s full strength attack!

“How is that possible? How could a youth not be afraid of his soul being devoured by dread wraiths?!” Zishan, still gripping that bloody banner, was in disbelief. When he saw those rays of sword light shoot out, he was so terrified that he immediately controlled his flying boat to flee.

But how could the speed of the boat match the speed of the sword light flashes?

Zishan, terrified, brandished his horsetail whisk to defend while also thrusting out with his banner, but although he was just barely able to block the first attack, the second attack slashed outwards in an arc, directly piercing through the black robes that served as an armor-type magic treasure, stabbing into his body.

Swish! Swish!

The two other rays of sword light also instantly pierced through his head and his neck. In the corner of his forehead, a hole appeared. His neck, meanwhile, was completely cut through, and his head went flying.

“Impossible…” A look of disbelief remained on Zishan’s face.

The distant black-furred zombie came to a halt as well, confusion appearing in its eyes. As for those venomous wasps, many of whom had died as they had thrown themselves in their attack on Ning, they quickly retreated as well. Those three Waterflame Lotuses had crushed to death countless wasps, and without an order from their master, they naturally would prefer to flee.

Only now did Ning retrieve his sword-type magic treasures, a look of disbelief appearing in his eyes. “I…I killed a Zifu Disciple? I succeeded?”

But right at this moment…

From Bei Zishan’s corpse, just as it was falling down from the flying boat, a golden light suddenly appeared. Given Ning’s visual prowess, he could instantly tell…that it was a golden bug!

“What’s that?” A golden bug actually flew out from the body? Ning felt puzzled, while at the same time, he felt that something was off. He had the sense that he couldn’t allow that golden bug to fly away…but his Xiantian ki had been almost completely exhausted, while the Waterflame Lotus wasn’t capable of being manifested at such a great distance.

“Rumble…”

Suddenly, the entire world seemed to transform from day into night. In the night sky, many stars twinkled and flashed, and as they did, the countless stars seemed to have transformed into a stellar sea. Within that stellar sea, there was an enormous full moon, and as the light of the moon shone down, the soft moonlight landed upon the body of that frantically fleeing golden bug.

The golden bug seemed to be utterly terrified, flying at high speed and trying to flee.

But suddenly, that soft moonlight solidified into a giant hand, with gently grasped that golden bug, which in its incomparable terror, let out a terrified cry. “Spare me, spare me!”

“Crunch!” With a light squeeze of the giant moonlight hand, the golden bug was crushed into dust.

And then, that night sky, those millions of stars, and that moon all disappeared, with the skies once more returning to daylight.

“This…this is…” Ning stood there, his face filled with shock. “A Manifestation of stars…a Wanxiang Adept! A Wanxiang Adept!”

“You were too careless.” From high up in the air, a man flew over on the wind, dressed in a blue robe and with long, unbound hair. He had a smile on his face. “You worked so hard to kill the body of that Bei Zishan, but you almost let him borrow the body of the Life Gu-Bug to flee. Bei Zishan was an expert in using bugs, so naturally he raised a Life Gu-Bug. In killing him, you should’ve killed his Life Gu-Bug as well. By not doing so, you almost wasted all of your previous effort. That wouldn’t have been good.”

Ning understood that he had met a major figure today. Swallow Mountain didn’t have any Wanxiang Adepts. Ning immediately bowed respectfully. “Ji Ning greets you, senior.”