The Desolate Era

Book 33, Chapter 17 - Furious Battle

“Quite bold. Daolord Skyaxe was similarly bold when facing me... but in the end, I killed him. A pity. I haven’t had the chance to battle against the Radiant King or Dawnstar yet. If I had, I wouldn’t be ranked merely number six. Come and show me how strong you are, oh mighty second-ranked Darknorth.” King Paleos manifested six arms as well, each arm wielding a strange sawtoothed weapon.

“Surround him and kill him,” Fiendqueen Dustrain barked coldly.

“Darknorth doesn’t have an invulnerable form; it’ll be much easier to kill him.”

“Since he’s courting death, let us give it to him. Once we kill him, we’ll be able to take all of his command talismans.” The supreme Daolords were all boiling with the desire to kill.

Ning’s face tightened as a fierce light shone from his eyes. He glared at King Paleos and said coldly, “So you were the one to kill Daolord Skyaxe?”

“Yes. Otherwise, how would I be ranked at number six?” King Paleos asked.

“Damn you.” Ning was infuriated. There were very few supreme Daolords he was friends with, but Daolord Skyaxe was one of them. When he had been weak and besieged by Daolord Shaka outside Skywood City, one of the eight Sacred Cities of the Dao Alliance, he had begged the Brightshore Kingdom for aid. Palace Lord Soleman and Daolord Skyaxe had immediately come to his aid, and as a result Ning had become friends with both of them.

Although the relationship naturally wasn’t nearly as deep as the one he shared with Ninedust, who he had shared life-and-death experiences with, they were still good friends.

“Afraid?” King Paleos smirked.

“DIE!” Ning was boiling with murderous rage.

BOOM! A terrifying wave of invisible force instantly lashed out towards them from Ning, striking against the souls and truesouls of the twelve supreme Daolords.

“Ah!” “Ahhh!” Two of the supreme Daolords instantly turned pale, followed by their heads drooping downwards. The faces of many of the other Daolords also tightened slightly, but at least they were able to maintain their clarity of mind.

“What a terrifying heartforce art.” King Paleos’ face tightened as well.

“Kill!” Just now, Ning had used the [Heartforce Eradicator] art. It was linked to his Omega Sword Dao, and so now that Ning had reached the third stage of his Omega Sword Dao the power of his [Heartforce Eradicator] had also significantly improved. However, to directly slay a supreme Daolord was still no easy feat.

And yet, Ning’s goal wasn’t to actually slay any of them outright. His goal was to crush their morale and douse their bravado.

Boom! Next, his vast heartworld projection came crashing down. At the center of that massive, illusory world was that enormous sword-shaped mountain, and it came plunging straight down towards all of the supreme Daolords, causing their bodies to stiffen. As far as heartworld projections went, at present there was no Daolord who was a match for Ning!

A heartbeat later, nine energy dragons came howling out of Ning’s body, forming the Yin-Yang Chaos Domain around him.

“One person wants to suppress the twelve of us by himself? He’s too arrogant.”

“He doesn’t know his own limits.”

“Break!”

King Paleos and the others used their own secret arts as well. Some were strong, some were weak, but when joined together they vastly outstripped Ning in power. The difference was, Ning’s heartworld projection and his secret arts were able to merge together seamlessly! These supreme Daolords weren’t able to merge their secret arts together; if they tried, they would begin to interfere with each other.

However, they had gained some experience from their previous battle against Winesage. There were some secret arts that could work together, such as Five Elements arts or Yin and Yang arts. In this way, their secret arts could be improved in power as they worked together to suppress Ning.

However, Ning’s heartworld projection was also capable of restricting and suppressing part of the secret arts. The two sides began a battle of secret arts and heartworld projections. Ning was forced to shrink the radius of his secret arts, but he was still able to hold.

“Kill!” Six Northbow swords in hand, Ning charged straight towards the strongest foe, King Paleos. King Paleos might be strong, but Ning held him in no regard at all. Ning would dare to battle even Winesage in solo combat; why would he fear King Paleos?

“He didn’t pick the weakest member but instead went after me?” King Paleos’ long black hair fluttered behind him as he sent his six serrated blades howling towards Ning. As he did, a thick black fog spread out from him.

Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!

Six streaks of mist-formed swords appeared before him with incredible speed, so fast that King Paleos’ face instantly turned pale. “How can he be this fast? He’s even faster than the Radiant King. In fact, perhaps only Daolord Dreamlore is a match for him in speed!” He had yet to truly battle against the Radiant King or Daolord Dreamlore, but during the previous fights over the Voidsea Jadeseals he had watched both of them strike with despair-inducing speed.

Darknorth’s swords were just as fast... no, they was even faster than the Radiant King’s strikes! Perhaps only Daolord Dreamlore and his dazzling, blood-streaked bloodblade strikes were on par with Darknorth.

Clang! Clang! Clang! King Paleos furiously defended himself against Ning’s onslaught. His six serrated blades were quite strange and unpredictable. When used for defense, they were quite formidable.

“What?!” King Paleos could sense that every single one of his blades were enduring a terrifying amount of power with each strike. His fingers were turning numb and his body was trembling.

Fast and furious!

The Omega Sword Dao – Blood Drop was the fastest and most penetrating attack Ning had to muster. But of course, in raw power alone it wasn’t even close to the Heavenbreaker in might. Although the Northbow swords boosted the Blood Drop stance the most, this stance was still weaker than the Heavenbreaker stance. Despite that, it still contained quite a bit of power! This was especially true after Ning had mastered the tenth stance of the [Heartsword], as this allowed Ning to infuse every single strike with incredible weight.

King Paleos felt as though every single strike brought him incredible pressure. If it was just a matter of speed, he would have a solution. If it was just a matter of power, he would also have a solution! The problem was, Ji Ning’s swords not only surpassed the Radiant King in speed, they actually surpassed King Paleos’ ultimate attacks in power as well!

“How is this possible? How could he be this much stronger than me? I-impossible... I’ve reached a perfect level of power. I’m not a match for Winesage, but that’s because Winesage has a Universe treasure. None of the other supreme Daolords could dominate me like this!” King Paleos couldn’t believe it, nor did he want to believe it. He had always been very proud of himself and had been very dissatisfied with his ranking as the sixth Daolord. As he saw it, any Daolord who didn’t have a Universe treasure would only be on par with him at most.

Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash! Ning’s swords were simply too fast! Mist-formed swords flew everywhere, creating an almost illusory dreamscape.

For the sake of destroying the 9000 barriers as quickly as possible, Ning had grown accustomed to launching a furious barrage of attacks. Now that he was boiling with the desire to murder the man before him, he was able to strike 129 times with unmatchable speed. King Paleos’ defenses were quite impressive and he used all six serrated blades to defend at the same time... but perpetual defense would result in defeat. In the end, one strike from Ning slipped past his guard.

Slash! A streak of sword-light stabbed straight into King Paleos’ body, but King Paleos transformed into a blood-tinged black fog.

“An invulnerable form?” Ning frowned. Dealing with cultivators who had invulnerable forms was quite taxing. Ninedust was an example of someone who had an invulnerable aquaform.

“Attack together and kill him!” With the billowing black fog, streams of bloody light reformed to manifest into King Paleos. He bellowed loudly, “Daolords, no one can beat him in a one-on-one fight. Join forces to kill him!”

“Surround him and kill him!”

“Don’t get greedy.”

“Careful!”

King Paleos had been defeated in a single exchange by that furious barrage of sword-mist and had only survived thanks to his invulnerable form. This instantly frightened all of the other supreme Daolords. This Darknorth was simply too terrifying! For him to be able to fight against four supreme Daolords and kill both Timedream and Kingfreak was one thing, but King Paleos was far stronger than the Kingfreak or Timedream in close combat. Despite that, he had also been defeated in a single exchange?!

What they didn’t realize was that Ning had mastered the tenth stance of the [Heartsword] in Crimsonwave Temple. If it hadn’t been for this technique, he still would’ve been able to beat King Paleos but he wouldn’t have been able to do it just through a simple barrage of Blood Drop stance strikes.

“Careful?” Ning swept them with his gaze. “It doesn’t matter how careful you are.”

Whoosh. Ning vanished without a trace.

“That’s his assassination arts! Careful, he can appear anywhere!”

“Be careful, everyone.”

“Attack! Attack! Don’t let him get close to us!”

The supreme Daolords began to blindly launch attacks in every direction. Ning’s heartworld projection and nine novessence arts ensured that so long as he remained within their range, there would be no way for his enemies to find him once he used his assassination arts.

Whoosh. Ning appeared out of nowhere, then struck at the supreme Daolord closest to him.

“Block, quick!”

“Join forces!”

Some used magic treasures, others used secret arts. All of them threw attacks towards Ning as quickly as possible.

Boom! Slash! Ning’s six Northbow swords executed varying sword-arts as he blocked the attacks and continued his charge. His defensive abilities were far stronger than King Paleos’.

“Dodge, quick!”

“Dodge!”

The supreme Daolords were so terrified that they frantically retreated, moving closer to their peers. Only when five of them worked in unison would they be able to resist Ning.

“He’s utterly terrifying.”

“Darknorth’s sword-arts are completely flawless. He’s able to easily defend himself against our combined attacks while continuing to charge at us!” This was the first time these Daolords experienced the terror of Ning for themselves.

Ning was already incredibly strong to begin with. Now that he had the Northbow swords and the tenth stance of the [Heartsword], Ning’s advantage over the other supreme Daolords had only grown. Winesage was able to dominate the other supreme Daolords, and so too was Ji Ning. The difference was, Ning’s ‘Shadowless’ evasion art was so unpredictable and mysterious that the other supreme Daolords were terrified of it and him.