Desolate Era

Chapter Book 22, 27 - Fighting Back

Ji Ning brandished Violetjewel, causing it to explosively increase in size to become many tens of thousands of meters long.

“Break!” Faced with this blurry region, Ning let out a roar as he raised the enormous sword high into the air, then chopped downwards.

Whoosh!

He struck out with the ‘Heavenbreaker stance’. In terms of intent and will, it wasn’t too far from the will which Pangu had possessed when he had cleaved Heaven from Earth and established the world. Pangu had been born with mastery over the Heavenly Dao of Primordial Chaos, but his establishment of the world was part of his innate purpose for existing; he was the weakest type of World God possible. For those who had actually trained to become a World God, the establishment of a chaosworld would not result in their deaths.

Rumble…

The sword struck out, causing thunder to boom out around it.

“Eh?” Ning frowned. “Although there were some vibrations, the formation is still quite stable. In fact, it is far more stable than the formation we dealt with earlier.”

It would not be possible for him to break through this formation with raw force. What should he do?

Whoosh. Ning began to move, quickly flying forward through the formation. The situation outside was most assuredly quite grim, and Lord Tathagata was in grave danger, but Ning put away all his other considerations as he completely focused on how to break through this formation as soon as he could.

After flying for just a second, Ning came to a halt.

“There is no danger here whatsoever…”

“I flew a few hundred thousand kilometers in that second, but I encountered no danger whatsoever, nor where there any illusions. All I see is this perpetual blur and haze.” Ning was stunned. “Can it be…is this an ‘Endless Road’?”

“Those six stone pillars…right. Damn! This is an ‘Endless Road’ formation!” Ning’s face instantly turned unsightly to behold.

World God Northrest had transmitted much information to Ning, including a great deal of knowledge regarding common yet troublesome formations. One such formation was known as the ‘Endless Road’.”

In the endless primordial chaos, there were worlds that were far larger than the Three Realms which held many major powers. All of them needed to train, and so it was quite common for them to exchange techniques and items with each other! One particularly powerful type of formation which many Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals were quite willing to purchase was this, the ‘Endless Road’.

The principles behind the ‘Endless Road’ were quite simple. It made use of the principles of the Dao of Space to transform a region that was originally just ten thousand kilometers in size to become a hundred million kilometers in size! The target would be trapped at the very center of the formation. If you wanted to escape it, the only option you had would be to physically fly out of it.

There was no way to teleport from within the formation. Thus, you had to spend a considerable amount of time flying from the center of the formation to the outside. That period of time would be more than enough for the formation-user to either flee or do something else! This made this particular formation a very popular item in the endless primordial chaos, and each time someone offered one for sale it would be immediately snapped up.

Of course, it was also theoretically possible to break the formation through raw force! The problem was that although the formation was seemingly simple, the arcane mysteries of the Dao of Space inside it were unfathomably profound. Even World Gods or Chaos Immortals would need a bit of time to break the formation. As for Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals? There was no chance of it at all.

“All I can do is keep flying!” Although Ning felt incredibly frantic, there was nothing else he could do.

Swish! Ning transformed into a black lightning serpent, chose a direction, then immediately began to flee at high speed.

……

“Save Tathagata!”

Outside the formation, the battle had reached a crescendo.

Fuxi was leading Kuafu and Jade Cauldron’s squads in a furious assault against the one-armed man, ‘Saber’. Saber had transformed to become thirty thousand meters tall, and he sent his saber flashing out in streaks of cold, savage light, preventing Fuxi and the others from moving past him. Fuxi was still just a True God, after all; although he had extremely profound insights into the Dao, he had primarily focused on the art of formations. While using formations he was able to just barely be a match for Saber, but he was still at a significant disadvantage.

Only someone like Ji Ning, a half-step Elder God who had a powerful divine body and a sword like Violetjewel, could truly cause Saber trouble. Even Godfiend Witherspike had been unable to do anything to Ning and had been forced to use his precious Endless Roads formation to trap Ning.

“Damn.”

“Attack.”

“Attack!”

Kuafu, Jade Cauldron, and the others had all joined together into formations and were launching attacks from far away, but Saber was able to easily block the attacks.

As for the other golden-armored retainers of Godfiend Witherspike, they were in command of the True Gods and Daofathers of the Primordial Chaosworld, having organized them into formations to resist the Waterflame Apocalypse Formation. Every so often, they’d launch a few attacks as well.

For now, Fuxi’s entire squad had been completely blocked off by Saber and the enemy major powers.

“This one-armed Outsider is far too powerful.” Fuxi gritted his teeth. Per the plans of the Nuwa Alliance, Fuxi’s role was generally to focus on using formations to control and influence the overall battlefield, not fight against powerful ones in one-on-one combat!

“Tathagata, you have to hold.” Fuxi willed it, and instantly the Arcane Moonwater and Eternal Kindlefire close to Godfiend Witherspike transformed into a pair of enormous dragons, one of water and one of fire. The two dragons furiously coiled around the mighty Godfiend!

This was the ‘true’ way to use the Waterflame Apocalypse Formation. Because Fuxi had to spend much of his attention on dealing with Saber, he was only able to activate the Waterflame Apocalypse Formation within that fairly small region. Clearly, he was planning to use it to tie down Godfiend Witherspike.

Clang! Clang! The dragons of fire and water coiled around Godfiend Witherspike, but his body was so durable that he was able to completely ignore them.

“A technique that joins elderfire and elderwater together? This technique is so profound that it can actually slow down my movements.” Godfiend Witherspike quickly realized how tough this formation was to deal with, but he still let out a sneer. “A pity for them that Tathagata is almost done for.”

Although he was being constricted by the dragons of water and fire, he continued to furiously rain down attacks against Lord Buddha.

After the formation had been broken apart, Lord Buddha had risen to his feet, intending to flee. But…

Godfiend Witherspike moved even more quickly than he did. No matter how he tried, Tathagata was unable to escape.

“My divine power is almost exhausted.” Lord Buddha let out a soft sigh.

Whoosh.

A kind-looking Buddha dressed in a kasaya frock suddenly emerged from Lord Tathagata’s body. Light blazed around his body as he struck out with full power, assaulting Godfiend Witherspike.

“Ahaha, is this your final attempt to fight back? You are going to sacrifice your dharma-bodies now?” Godfiend Witherspike laughed wildly. Boom! Boom! Boom! After three brief clashes, the blazing figure completely broke apart and vanished.

“That was his Medicine Buddha body.” The distant Fuxi felt pain in his heart upon seeing this.

The Sakyamuni body was Lord Buddha’s true body, and he had four mighty dharma-bodies as well. This time, Lord Buddha had brought his Sakyamuni body along with two of his dharma-bodies, but over the course of this battle they had exhausted all of their energy. Lord Buddha’s only choice was to try and preserve his Sakyamuni body while sending out his dharma-bodies to die in the hopes of buying some more time.

These dharma-bodies had all been painstakingly cultivated…and today, in a single day, they would be destroyed.

Still, the true body was what mattered the most. So long as the true body remained alive, the dharma-bodies could slowly be remade once more.

“Go.” Lord Buddha continued to flee as he sent yet another dharma-body flying out from inside of him. This dharma-body blazed with blinding fire, as though it was the sun itself. This was the Great Sun Buddha body, and its attacks were even more powerful than the attacks of the Medicine Buddha body.

But…

In terms of technique and power, it was still a bit weaker than the true body. If even the true body was unable to withstand Witherspike’s attacks, how could the Great Sun Buddha possibly do so?

“Still struggling?” Godfiend Witherspike felt quite irritated. He continued his furious assaults, and a few short clashes later the Great Sun Buddha body also dissipated into specks of light.

Swoosh! Godfiend Witherspike continued to chase after Lord Buddha.

“You want to join together with Fuxi?” Godfiend Witherspike’s tail suddenly lashed out. Whoosh! It struck out faster than the speed of light towards Lord Buddha. Lord Buddha immediately moved to block. Boom! Lord Buddha was sent staggering backwards.

Lord Buddha’s eyes were dim but peaceful. He folded his hands together in prayer, looking calmly at the approaching Godfiend Witherspike.

“TATHAGATA!” Fuxi cried out in agony.

“Killing you really wasn’t easy.” Godfiend Witherspike finally relaxed slightly. ‘Lord Buddha’ apparently no longer had any divine power left. He had long ago converted all of flesh and blood inside of him into divine power, leaving behind only the outside layer of his golden body. His golden body technique was quite special; he became incredibly powerful after mastering it, but there was no way to reconvert his golden body into divine power. After he died, he would only leave his golden body behind.

There were many Bodhisattvas and Buddhas who would leave behind golden bodies after dying. But of course, Tathagata had trained his golden body technique to the highest possible level.

“So I have become the first to fall before the great tribulation.” Lord Buddha looked at Godfiend Witherspike calmly.

“It seems he’s preparing to give me one final blow before he dies?” Godfiend Witherspike didn’t dare to be over-confident. Killing Tathagata was no easy feat, and he had paid quite a heavy price to accomplish it. He had lost all four of his Thearchs, and he had even been forced to take out his ‘Endless Roads’ formation to trap Sword Immortal Darknorth. He certainly didn’t want to mess up at the very end!

BOOM!!!

An sudden explosion could be heard. Off in the distance, the six stone pillars surrounding the blurry formation were suddenly revealed, along with another figure…that of the sword-wielding Ji Ning.

“Sword Immortal Darknorth?” Godfiend Witherspike’s face immediately changed, but his expressions then turned savage as he charged unhesitatingly towards Tathagata. “DIE!” His sharp claws struck directly towards Tathagata, giving the distant Ji Ning no time to intervene at all.

When Lord Buddha saw Ji Ning emerge, a smile appeared on his formerly calm face. He let out a low growl, then struck out with both his palms. Boom! His giant hands struck out towards Godfiend Witherspike like a pair of massive worlds.