The Desolate Era

Book 25, Chapter 34 - The Silkmaid Race

“Not good.” The pink-robed Chaos Immortal Flygrace had an ugly look on his face. He immediately willed the area around him to become filled with silvery-white shuttles. After they appeared, he furiously poured all of his Immortal energy into them, unleashing the power of the seals hidden within this set of Dao weapons. Instantly, the nine silvery-white shuttles began to transform and blur, first dividing into a total of eighty-one shuttles, then dividing into 729 shuttles, then...

Soon, more than ten thousand flying shuttles had appeared in the area around Chaos Immortal Flygrace, and they clustered around him in a dense array.

“Kill!”

“Kill him!”

The golden warriors bellowed with rage. Some of them wielded warblades, some wielded spears, some wielded gourds, some wielded ropes, and some wielded whips. They all surged forward en masse as they wildly charged towards their foes.

Boom! Boom! Boom! These golden warriors quickly entered into combat against Chaos Immortal Flygrace. The thousands of flying shuttles around him all transformed into streaks of light as they furiously plunged down upon the gold-armored warriors. Due to the limitations of space, only a hundred golden warriors could attack him at the same time. Thus, there were over a hundred shuttles striking against every single golden warrior.

Massive explosions could be heard ringing out nonstop.

The golden warriors had no fear of death and continued to charge forwards fearlessly. Some died due to their injuries, but more of their fellows would charge forward to take their spots. The runes of the Samsara Grinders committed to emit that dazzling light, causing a steady stream of golden warriors to continue to be born. Slowly, the total number of golden warriors atop the Samsara Grinders began to increase.

“Not good. I’m already using my most powerful area attack technique, and I’m using up my Immortal energy at an incredible rate. Despite that, I’m just barely able to hold on.” Chaos Immortal Flygrace was quickly forced into shrinking his defensive perimeter.

“Kill!”

“Charge!”

The golden warriors charged forward in an endless flood, fearing neither injury nor death. Quite a few of the silvery-white shuttles actually vanished, as there were only nine real ones to begin with. The rest were all condensed out of Immortal energy.

“Not good. I can’t hang on for much longer.” Chaos Immortal Flygrace spared a moment to glance at his distant opponent, wanting to see how his opponent was fairing. The distant World God Boneplate was slaughtering all of the golden warriors around him with incomparable valor. More and more golden warriors had appeared around him as well, and they had started to use teamwork, with some using ropes to slow him down and others using spears to strike at him from afar. World God Boneplate was starting to look a bit haggard, and yet he was still able to hold his own.

“A master-class World God?” Chaos Immortal Flygrace’s face changed. When he saw World God Boneplate continue to dispatch the golden warriors with comparative ease, Chaos Immortal Flygrace immediately understood just how powerful his foe was. In addition, his foe had clearly slain more of the golden warriors than he had.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

More and more of the shuttles surrounding Chaos Immortal Flygrace began to disappear before reforming. His defensive perimeter was continuing to shrink as the golden warriors began to grow increasingly frenzied in their attacks. Many of them were starting to strike from afar by hurling their spears, putting even more pressure on Chaos Immortal Flygrace.

“N-no... am I going to just die here?”

“How can it end like this?”

“I have to make it back. I paid such an enormous price and abandoned all my pride. I slew my only friend in order to be able to acquire this Lesser Thousand Elder Gods Formation. I was going to go back once I reached the level of full mastery! How can I die here...”

“N-no...”

Boom! Boom!

The golden warriors were now able to move to within thirty meters of him, and more and more of them were surging in his direction. A short while later, Chaos Immortal Flygrace was completely smashed apart and slain by the golden warriors.

Ji Ning, World God Dragonbinder, and Su Youji watched all this happen from afar. Rather unpleasant looks could be seen on their faces.

“Chaos Immortal Flygrace had quite a good reputation, actually.” World God Dragonbinder sighed. “Him and Chaos Immortal Winterbowl were good friends and known as the ‘Two Immortals Who Fly in Winter’. Chaos Immortal Winterbowl died just a short while ago, and now Chaos Immortal Flygrace has died as well. Alas.”

“This Samsara Grinders truly is dangerous.” Su Youji was quite nervous. “Those golden warriors don’t look that tough, but there are simply far too many of them.”

“That World God covered in bony armor is able to slay a warrior with each strike of his palms. I can sense that these warriors have merely reached the threshold of the World level of power.” Ning nodded. “The problem is that there are too many of them, and they are completely fearless.”

Fighting enemies who had no fear of death at all was a completely different experience from fighting normal enemies.

“They have poor techniques. In fact, you can say that they have no techniques at all.” World God Dragonbinder nodded. “However, they are extremely strong. See that? When dozens of them toss their spears at the same time, even that bone-armored World God is suffering some injuries when he blocks them head on.”

“Although this Samsara Grinders supposedly is meant for the two combatants to duel each other, there’s actually no point to it. The gold-armored warriors alone are enough of a challenge!” Ning slowly shook his head.

“Right. Most likely, only someone with the power of a supreme World God would be capable of bursting past the encirclement of the golden warriors,” World God Dragonbinder agreed.

Although there were many golden warriors on the battlefield, only so many could attack you at any given moment in time. Thankfully, they didn’t have any combination formations to use either. Thus, if you were strong enough you might stand a chance of bursting past their many attacks.

“Unfortunately, none of us have that level of power.” World God Dragonbinder shook his head as he looked at Ning and Su Youji. “Youji, you just made your breakthrough a short while ago. You are too weak. It will be very dangerous for you once it is your turn to enter the Grinder.”

As he saw it, Ji Ning was merely an Elder God while Su Youji was just a newly ascended Chaos Immortal. The two of them were far too weak. Even an elite World-level expert like Chaos Immortal Flygrace had been overwhelmed and mobbed by those many golden warriors. How could Ji Ning and Su Youji possibly survive? World God Dragonbinder was very worried about them.

Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.

After Chaos Immortal Flygrace let out a final despairing cry, all of the golden warriors atop the enormous Samsara Grinders came to a halt. Moments later, their bodies began to break apart and dissipate into light.

Soon, the only one remaining was World God Boneplate.

“The first of the five matches has ended.” The three-eyed man waved his hand spoke out in a frosty voice. His fiery hand dramatically increased in size, seized World God Boneplate by the shoulder, then roughly tossed him towards the direction of the blood-robed youth. “Since it’s over, why the hell are you still taking up space on the Grinder?”

A hint of rage was in World God Boneplate’s eyes, but he quickly suppressed it and instead returned obediently to the blood-robed youth’s side.

“Not bad.” The blood-robed youth glanced sideways at his slave.

“Thank you, Master.” World God Boneplate revealed a look of joy.

“The second match...”

The three-eyed man swept the remaining combatants with his gaze, then pointed towards a World God standing behind the gold-robed youth. This was a hideously ugly old hag who had sharp, claw-like fingers. A dull red light could be seen flickering deep within her eyes, and she emanated an aura of extreme weirdness.

“You.” The bald three-eyed man pointed towards the ugly old hag as he spoke.

“And... you!” The three-eyed man pointed towards World God Dragonbinder.

“You already know the rules. Up you go!” The three-eyed man ordered.

The ugly old hag gave World God Dragonbinder a rather serious look. The gold-robed youth by her side instructed, “Be careful. This is World God Dragonbinder, a disciple of the Badlands Court. He definitely is far more powerful than that Chaos Immortal Flygrace was. Don’t embarrass me!”

“Don’t worry, master.” The ugly old hag nodded then immediately flew towards the enormous Samsara Grinders.

“Be careful, senior apprentice-brother Dragonbinder,” Ning said.

“Big brother Dragonbinder, I don’t recognize any of these cultivators. They must be from other territories, and I can sense that they came with ill intentions. That master-class World God who fought just now was merely a servant; this one is probably a master-class World-level expert as well,” Su Youji said with worry.

“Mm...” World God Dragonbinder nodded slowly.

He knew that a critical moment had arrived.

Swoosh!

World God Dragonbinder flew towards the Samsara Grinders.

World God Dragonbinder and the hideous old hag stared at each other from afar from their positions at the opposite ends of the Samsara Grinders. The runes covering the enormous Grinder began to radiate light that quickly coalesced into those golden warriors.

“World God Dragonbinder. I’ve heard of your prowess and your might... but today, you shall die by my hands. Listen up! You can call me ‘Silkwater’. Don’t die without even knowing who you died to!” The ugly old hag began to grow in size as she spoke, her lower body transforming into the body of a giant scorpion. As for her upper body, it transformed into the form of a nude woman of surpassing charm whose face was every bit as beautiful as Su Youji’s.

Upon seeing this, World God Dragonbinder’s face tightened. “A Silkmaid?”

“A Silkmaid?” Ning’s face tightened as well. Before leaving, Daolord Solesky had given him information regarding many of the mysteries and secrets of the various territories around them. One bit of information pertained to a race known as ‘Silkmaids’.

“Who the hell are these people? How is it that they have master-class World Gods and Silkmaid experts serving as their slaves?” Ning turned to stare at the distant gold-robed youth and blood-robed youth.

“Don’t die, senior apprentice-brother Dragonbinder. You have to stay alive.” Ning wasn’t even thinking about his own safety right now. All of his attention was focused on World God Dragonbinder.