Desolate Era

Chapter Book 24, 43 - Slaying the Mindlord

The black lotuses bloomed throughout the area, carrying a unique sort of charm.

However, Immortal Abyssus, Immortal Skyram, and World God Goldcloud weren’t in the mood for enjoying their beauty. Immortal Abyssus hurriedly sent a mental message to the hundred Elder Gods surrounding him. “Hurry up and retreat. Don’t get involved in this.”

“Yes.” The hundred Elder Gods could sense that things were turning dangerous. They didn’t dare to push it too far.

“Go.” Immortal Abyssus waved his hand, causing a semi-translucent cloth banner to fly out. The cloth banner flew through the air, instantly covering the skies as an enormous number of divine runes began to flow through it. The semi-translucent cloth banner began to emanate streams of gloomy white light that completely suppressed the countless black lotuses. The lotuses tried to push them back, but the light of the cloth banner was extraordinarily tough.

“I’ve always heard that Immortal Abyssus of the Fogstone Dominion is unfathomable in his power, but I didn’t think that you’d be able to withstand the first stance of my Forbidden Black Lotus.” God Emperor Blacklotus spoke out calmly, but the murderous aura which had once pervaded him when he had roamed through the various territories was beginning to slowly reveal itself.

“He managed to block it.” World God Goldcloud and Immortal Skyram were both overjoyed.

Both of them had started to panic just now. They could sense that if they were completely surrounded by those countless black lotuses, they would most likely die within them.

“Brother Skyram, Brother Goldcloud, this God Emperor Blacklotus is far too strong. He’s already forced me to take out my most powerful treasure,” Immortal Abyssus sent mentally. “I’m already at my limit. Listen to my instructions. As long as we can hang on for a bit longer, the Starlord will soon arrive. With him by our side, we will no longer need to fear God Emperor Blacklotus.”

“Right.” Immortal Skyram and World God Goldcloud both held great faith in Immortal Abyssus. In the past, they knew he was strong but were uncertain as to how strong he actually was. Now they realized that he was strong enough to block those countless black lotuses that had inspired such terror in them.

“Ahaha…” God Emperor Blacklotus let out a laugh. “Now, try out the second stance of my Forbidden Black Lotus. This stance is known as ‘Lotus Hell’.”

His voice echoed throughout the skies and by the ears of the three World-level experts.

Whoosh….

Suddenly, one black lotus after another began to descend from the skies. Countless black lotuses descended, and as they did so they were actually beginning to resonate with the countless black lotuses on the ground that had been suppressed by Immortal Abyssus.

“Starlord, hurry over here!” Immortal Abyssus blanched as he hurriedly commanded the cloth banner to send out light to both suppress the black lotuses on the ground as well as the black lotuses falling from the skies. For a moment, he was able to establish a defensive perimeter and block the lotuses from every direction.

The Starlord knew that time was of the essence, and so he struck out with two sword at maximum speed, slaying six of the weakest Elder Gods in the Elder God Formation.

“Second Uncle, Ji Ning, let’s go. We need to get over there right now.” After breaking through the formation, the Starlord immediately waved his hand, causing dozens of streaks of sword-light to chop out towards the Elder Gods closest to him.

“Alright,” World God Blackmist said.

“Starlord, I’ll go right away, but first I need to kill the Mindlord.” Ning didn’t immediately follow behind him, instead flying at maximum speed towards the terrified, fleeing Mindlord.

The Starlord glanced backwards at Ning. Ning had said long ago when he had first joined the Fogstone Army that his goal was to kill the Mindlord. “Fine. Hurry up and get rid of the Mindlord, then come join us right away.” Ji Ning was now an important member of their force. The other six formation commanders were merely comparable to ordinary World Gods, while Ji Ning was comparable to World God Blackmist, an expert of the Dao of the Sword. He could be considered an expert amongst World Gods.

“Alright,” Ning said.

Swoosh.

Ning moved faster than the limits of the Heavenly Daos, furiously chasing after the Mindlord.

“Why is this happening? Why?!” The Mindlord was frantically fleeing, but the Starlord’s astral light was slowing him down too much. Ning caught up to him almost instantly.

“Ji Ning, spare me! Ji Ning!”

The Mindlord began to beg for his life. Earlier, when the Starlord had broken apart the formation, he had slain quite a few Elder Gods before heading off towards the other World-level experts. The entire Minor Thousand Elder Gods Formation had collapsed, resulting the Mindlord becoming much weaker as well.

“I gifted you my [Heart Sutra] long ago!” The Mindlord sent frantically. When he was in the guise of Old Man Yuan in the Three Realms, he had put on a truly flawless act! He had helped train juniors, ‘risked his life’ for his friends, and acted exactly as the true Old Man Yuan had. This was why the Nuwa Alliance had never suspected a thing or seen any flaws in his masquerade.

In fact, Patriarch Subhuti’s friendship with Old Man Yuan had only deepened!

He had casually bestowed the [Heart Sutra] to Ji Ning, but that was merely a manual with some extremely crude bits of information pertaining to heartforce. This was part of his usual act of pretending to be a kind old man!

“Die.”

Ning had already arrived, and his eyes flashed with murderous malice.

The Mindlord grew frantic.

“I’ve already informed one of my slaves about the Three Realms. Once I die, my slave’s lifeblood oath will compel him to immediately spread this information regarding the Three Realms. By then, quite a few adventurers of the Badlands Territory will probably set off towards it.” The Mindlord sent threateningly, “Eventually, an endless stream of adventurers will go from the Badlands to the Three Realms. It’ll be finished!”

Boom!

Sword-light flashed. Although the Mindlord was wearing armor, it was a very weak set of Chaos armor. There was no way it could withstand Ning’s full-force strike! Ning’s sword-light struck the Mindlord at the waist, chopping straight through the Chaos armor. The terrifying power of Violetjewel swept through the Mindlord’s entire body, wiping out all of his divine power as well as his truesoul.

Even when Ning was back in the Three Realms, his full-force blows were capable of piercing through top-grade Protocosmic treasures.

He now was strengthened by the azureflower mist energy, the World energy of his formation, and was wielding a fully repaired Eternal weapon. Even his sword-arts had improved! His full-force strikes were now completely capable of shattering ordinary Chaos treasures. If the Mindlord was wearing a suit of top-grade Chaos armor, Ning wouldn’t be able to chop through it, but the kinetic force of Ning’s blows would still be enough to reduce the Mindlord’s body to dust.

“I…” A look of true despair appeared in the Mindlord’s eyes.

Whoosh.

The two severed halves of his body suddenly broke apart and crumbled. Violetjewel’s power was more than enough to cause his entire body to break apart.

“The Mindlord…is finally dead.”

After slaying the Mindlord, Ning was momentarily dazed.

He could almost see his senior apprentice-brother Houyi in the moment of his truesoul’s dissipation. He could almost see the other major powers of the Three Realms who had all transformed themselves into enormous suns.

“This troublemaker has finally been dealt with. My fellow Daoists…seniors…rest in peace.”

Ning’s heart was filled with many complicated feelings.

Was he happy?

Ning didn’t feel even the slightest bit of happiness right now.

He felt disappointment and frustration.

He also felt a sense of release.

The Mindlord’s death represented the true, final end to the great Endwar.

“He even dared to threaten me as he died.” Ning glanced at the Mindlord’s completely shattered corpse. The truesoul within the corpse had been wiped out, and there wasn’t any hint of life in his body. “Even if you really did tell your servant about the Three Realms, so what? How many adventurers would dare to brave the spatial vortex tunnel between it and the Badlands Territory?”

“And even if they do brave it…so what?”

“My Primaltwin has also mastered and unified the Nine Chaos Seals. It is capable of using the azureflower mist energy and has the power of a World-level expert as well. It doesn’t matter how many adventurers make it there; I’ll kill them all,” Ning murmured to himself. He didn’t believe that any World-level experts would go adventuring in the Three Realms.

In addition…

Ning himself would eventually become a World-level expert as well, and the azureflower mist energy would guarantee that he was far stronger than most World-level experts.

“I really wonder how Daoist Three Purities managed to acquire those Nine Chaos Seals.” This thought briefly flitted through Ning’s mind.

Rumble…

Ripples of incredible power spread out from off in the distance.

Ning turned his head to look. The black fog had long ago dissipated, and so he was now able to see everything quite clearly. The astral light from the planet of Fogstone continued to shine down upon the city, revealing the scene of Immortal Abyssus, Immortal Skyram, World God Goldcloud, the Starlord of Fogstone, and World God Blackmist all fighting against God Emperor Blacklotus.

The most dazzling figures were the Starlord and the God Emperor.

“Attack!” Each blow of his sword struck out like a stream of stars, leaving a trail of shattered black lotuses behind them. The Starlord was able to destroy more than half of the black lotuses by himself. He was so powerful that he was roughly comparable to the other four allied World-level experts combined.

As for God Emperor Blacklotus, he stood in the center, the enormous nine-petal black lotus below his feet still slowly swiveling. Even now, it was the God Emperor who was attacking while the other five were defending.

“Ji Ning, hurry over here and help protect Abyssus.” As soon as Ning slew the Mindlord, the Starlord of Fogstone immediately urged him to come.

“Acknowledged.” Ning transformed into a streak of light, moving faster than the limits of the Heavenly Daos as he charged straight towards the most terrifying place on the battlefield.