The Desolate Era

Book 24, Chapter 19 - A Gray Wind

“Not good.” Ji Ning’s face immediately changed as that gray wind appeared, bringing with it an aura of death and stillness.

Hellsword had been driven by Ning to the brink of madness, which was why he had started to fly around in a crazed manner.

The difference in power between the two wasn’t that great, which was why Ning needed time to subdue and capture him. Ning had thought that he wouldn’t be so unlucky as to run into a protective spell during such a short battle...but alas, he really was.

Boom!

The gray wind swept both Ning and Hellsword into its grasp, and its utterly indomitable power threw the two of them flying downwards.

“What incredible power.” Ning did his best to halt his fall, but his divine power and Immortal energy were far too weak to do so.

Whooooosh.

There was an utterly enormous black pit beneath them.

Ning and Hellsword were both spun around like tops by the tornado and sent flying straight into the pit.

“Stop. Stop!” Ning instantly activated his [Three Heads, Six Arms] ability. All six of his arms dramatically increased in size as he clawed towards the edges of the pit. In midair, Ning had nothing to hold onto. Now, however, he was able to see the stone cliffs lining the edges of the pit. Ning had the feeling that if he was drawn deep into this pit by the tornado, he would probably end up dead.

He had to come to a halt! But the wind was simply too powerful.

Ning’s six arms simultaneously activated the [Starseizing Hand]. In the end, one of his hands managed to just barely clench around a pillar of rock.

Bang! Ning had been dragged down at an incredible pace. When his hand clenched around the stone pillar, his entire body came to a sudden halt. A terrifying ripping power was applied throughout his entire body, causing it to twitch. As for his hands that were using the [Starseizing Hand], they instantly went numb and slack...resulting in Ning continuing to be dragged downwards by that furious gray tornado!

Crack! Crack! Crack! The gray stone pillar that Ning had managed to grab onto earlier began to crack apart as well. Moments later, it completely shattered and was also dragged downwards by the furious tornado.

“Gotta stop.”

“Stop.”

“Stop!” Ning’s six arms wildly clutched at the surrounding walls, seeking to grasp anything that jutted out.

Rumble...

Ning finally came to a halt when three of his hands managed to simultaneously snake their way into an enormous crevice in the pit walls. Thanks to these three hands holding onto that crevice desperately, he was finally able to resist the power of the tornado.

“Whew. I stopped.” Ning let out a sigh of relief. The enormous stone crevice was thousands of meters long, and as Ning latched onto the crevice he had changed his arms to make them hundreds of meters long as well. He had dug his hands deep into the crevice, ensuring that he would be able to hang off the walls.

“No!”

Hellsword had also been dragged into the pit, and he was also clawing at the walls in an attempt to find something to hold onto. However, he was far weaker than Ning in raw strength. He managed to grab onto a jutting piece of rock, but the tearing force instantly rendered his hands completely numb and slack. He wasn’t able to slow himself down! The power of the tornado was simply too great, giving him no chance to grab onto anything.

Ning’s hands were akin to Chaos treasures, after all. He also had the power of a half-step World God body, as well as the enhancement of the [Starseizing Hand]. That was the only reason why Ning was more successful than him in coming to a halt.

Bang! As Hellsword continued to be dragged downwards, his body would occasionally smash into some jutting pieces of rock, resulting in him bouncing around the walls.

Bang!

Hellsword vomited out a mouthful of blood. These collisions were even more deadly than Ning’s sword-strikes, and he continued to smash into one jutting rock after another. Given how keen Ning’s eyesight was, he was able to clearly see Hellsword continuing to fall several hundred kilometers, smashing into the walls at least a few dozen times. It seemed as though the deeper Hellsword fell, the more powerful the tornado became. Hellsword’s body was beginning to twist and contort from the collisions.

Boom!

After smashing into a particularly sharp spear-shaped rock, Hellsword’s body actually completely blasted apart. The powerful tornado quickly ground the pieces of his body apart, completely wiping him out in body and soul. The tornado was far stronger than Ning, after all!

“A pity.” Still hanging off the stone walls, Ning could do nothing but watch as Hellsword died.

“The Dao weapons were sucked down as well.”

“But...what should I do?”

All six of Ning’s arms were clinging onto the stone crevice. He was wearing a top-grade suit of Chaos armor, and he had a powerful divine body that had trained the [Golden Statue]. He was more than capable of withstanding the power of this tornado.

“Am I supposed to just keep hanging here?” Ning spread out his heartforce, but alas it was instantly destroyed by that gray wind of destruction.

“This gray wind is capable of destroying even heartforce! How terrifying was this ancient power that erected the Windsource Ruins!?” Ning muttered softly to himself.

Ning had no idea. The strongest figure of the Badlands Territory, Daoking Badlands, had once paid a visit to the former master of this estate...and he had been thoroughly convinced of his inferiority. In fact, the reason why this place was named ‘Windsource’ was because that ancient power had reached an utterly unfathomable level of mastery over the wind.

Neither heartforce nor coresense could penetrate the gray wind. All Ning could do was use his own eyes.

“I have to get out of here.” Ning raised his head to look upwards. The gray wind howled furiously above him, blocking his vision. Ning used his top-grade Chaos armor to form a semi-translucent barrier over his head; only then was he able to see just a little bit of the area above him.

“I have to get out of this pit. The wind is too powerful; I won’t be able to maintain a grip on any jutting pieces of rock. My only choice is to drive my entire arm deep into some of those crevices and cracks.” Ning scanned the area above him for more crevices. The gray wind had caused quite a bit of erosion to this pit, resulting in quite a few crevices appearing.

“There’s one.” Three hundreds above Ning was a slightly smaller crevice.

“Let’s go.” Ning immediately stretched one of his hands upwards.

Whoooooosh.

The furious power of the wind blasted down against Ning’s hand with the weight of a thousand stars, completely preventing him from reaching upwards. Ning did his best to fight back against it, and he found that he was able to stretch his arms out in various other directions...but to go completely against the win and reach upwards? Completely impossible.

“Won’t work. Wind’s too strong.” Ning quickly gave up the attempt.

“If I can’t go up...”

Ning lowered his head to stare at the seemingly bottomless black pit beneath him. “Then my only choice is to go down!”

Ning looked downwards carefully. Roughly six hundred meters below him, he saw another large crevice. He immediately stretched out with a hand to grab a hold of it.

Going up meant going against the wind.

Going down meant going with the wind.

When he increased his arm to make it many hundreds of meters long, it was easy for him to snake his hand deep into the crevice. Ning sent one hand after another into the second crevice before finally letting go of the first one.

Whoosh!

Ning quickly fell downwards, then came to a halt.

“Let’s continue.” Ning glanced at his surroundings, then began to climb downwards again.

And so, Ning began to slowly make his way down through this bottomless pit of darkness.

A while later, Ning saw a sword that was jutting out from a stone pillar.

“This sword wasn’t one of Hellsword’s. Some other poor bastard must’ve been dragged in here and lost control of his weapon, resulting in it being stuck here.” Ning immediately, laboriously reached out to grab that sword, then took it into his estate.

Ning then continued his slow downwards climb.

Three hundred meters. Three thousand meters. Thirty kilometers...

By now, Ning had picked up a total of three weapons. Alas, all three were ‘merely’ Chaos treasures; none of them were Dao weapons. Still, it made sense. If a World-level expert was grabbed by the gray wind, he wouldn’t have been manhandled as badly as Ning and Hellsword had been. There were very few Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals who held Dao weapons; the chances of one of them just happening to fall down into this pit were even lower.

Ning slowly clambered down over another hundred kilometers, then took a rest and glanced at his surroundings in the hopes of finding a way out of here.

“What’s that?” Ning look downwards, surprised.

A cave had actually appeared on the walls of the pit. This was clearly a cave that had been artificially dug out, and it was many hundreds of meters wide. Although the gray wind howled past it, it didn’t go into the cave itself, making the cave a rare and welcome oasis of peace.

Because it sloped downwards and inwards, Ning wasn’t able to see it earlier. Only now, when he drew closer, did it appear before him.

“Who dug out this cave? Doesn’t matter, I suppose. I’ve used up quite a bit of my divine power after climbing so long and keeping [Three Heads, Six Arms] active for so long. I need to get in there right away.”

Ning hurriedly began to climb in its direction, then sent his arms deep into the cave entrance. There were a few jutting pieces of rock inside the cave, allowing Ning to easily gain a handhold.

Ning quickly ‘shrank’ his arms, resulting in the rest of his body being pulled into the cave like a rubber band.

“I’m in.”

It was strange. There was no wind in this cave at all. Ning had gotten so used to the raging gray winds that he felt rather unaccustomed to the calm.

“Whew. I can finally take a break.” Ning deactivated [Three Heads, Six Arms], then glanced at the gray wind which continued to rage outside of the cave. He then turned his head to carefully inspect the cave itself.