The Desolate Era - Chapter 56

The Desolate Era Volume 26 Chapter 56-57

Book 26, World Level, Chapter 56 – Ji Ning’s Slaves

The area around the main palace was surrounded by rings of light. When the six colossal heaven-covering hands came crashing down, only the outermost layer of light was shattered, and they regenerated almost instantly.

“Ahahaha! There’s no way you’ll be able to break through.” The Eastsmoke leader was overjoyed upon seeing this. He stood there in the main palace, a cold smile on his lips. “This is the main palace. This is the most important part of the Eastsmoke branch, and it possesses the strongest defenses. It is guarded by eight layers of defenses, and you were only able to breach one of them. You aren’t even close! Since you can’t kill me, you’ll be the one to die. I refuse to believe you’ll be able to keep this divine ability of yours active indefinitely.”

Ji Ning stared down towards him from his position in the skies. Ning nodded slowly as he mused to himself, “The main palace lives up to its reputation. This is the source of power for the entire restrictive formation”

The grand restrictive formation protecting this place required a formation-core, and the formation-core was under the control of the Eastsmoke branch leader and located in the tightly guarded main palace.

“It seems I’ll have to use my full power.” A hint of a smile played at the corner of Ning’s lips. He then reached out with one hand towards his back, taking a firm hold over the sword which he had been carrying on his back this entire time.

“He’s about to draw his sword.”

“He’s been carrying that sword along this entire time. It seems that sword should be pretty powerful.”

“I wonder what will happen?”

The World-level cultivators of the Eastsmoke branch all watched intently, including both Fairy Qingfan and the Eastsmoke leader.

Clink.

The sword left its scabbard!

In the instant that Ning drew his sword, five other swords appeared in his other five hands.

Six hands, six Eternal swords.

“Astral stance!” As soon as Ning drew his swords, his six Eternal blades began to gleam with blinding light. They transformed into six streaks of bloody sword-light that descended towards the main palace like a tempest of blood.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

One layer of light after another was shattered. The main palace was guarded by eight formations, and six of them were broken through.

The shockwaves generated by the powerful collisions spread out in every direction, so strong as to cause even the surrounding mountains to crumble and topple. Countless trees were reduced to dust.

“What…” The Eastsmoke leader was so frightened that his face turned bone-white. He then swallowed, hard. “Thankfully, he didn’t break through. He won’t be able to break through.”

“Is this his true power?” Fairy Qingfan, still standing at the entrance to her estate, stared at the distant Ji Ning and the six mighty swords he was wielding. “No wonder little sister Youji was willing to follow and serve him. How can a World-level cultivator be this powerful.”

“Oh? It actually didn’t break?” Ning frowned, then raised his head to glance at the restrictive formations above him.

Swoosh!

Ning charged high into the skies.

“I knew he wouldn’t be able to hold on forever. He had to be using up an enormous amount of divine power to unleash those attacks.” A hint of delight appeared on the Eastsmoke leader’s face. Through the formation, he sent a mental message to the other sixteen cultivators. “Keep using your formations to attack him. Don’t be fooled by how powerful he looks. Soon, he won’t be able to fight back at all.”

“Right. He’s relying on his own power whereas we are relying on our formation.”

“He won’t be able to overpower us.”

The World-level cultivators continued to use their formations to attack.

“Impudent!” Ning frowned as he saw the greataxe, the sword, and the blazing Fiendgod charged towards him once more.

Whoosh.

Three streaks of bloody sword-light shot out into the skies, completely shattering the three oncoming attacks. Now that Ning was using his Eternal swords, these formations were nothing to him at all.

“Since I cannot break through the main palace with a full-force strike, I should give this grand restrictive formation a try.” Ning flew high into the air, head raised as he stared at the barrier in front of him. Although he knew that this barrier had to be extremely tough, he still wanted to give it a try.

“Go.” Six streaks of sword-light shot out like six meteors, simultaneously raining down together upon a thirty-meter region of the grand restrictive formation. Although the formation covered a region of ten million kilometers, Ning focused all of his attacks on one point. This would make piercing through it easier.

Rumble… the entire grand restrictive formation trembled slightly, then dispersed the power of Ning’s attack.

“It didn’t break?” Ning’s face changed slightly. “Again.”

Rumble… the six streaks of bloody sword-light sliced out once more as Ning furiously attacked the grand restrictive formation.

The entire Eastsmoke branch turned silent. All the World-level cultivators watched as the white-robed youth used his power to furiously assault the grand restrictive formation. It would be countless years before they would ever be able to forget this sight. A World-level cultivator was so audacious as to challenge the full power of their barrier… and was able to cause the entire barrier to tremble.

Ning sent ten consecutive attacks out against the formation!

“I really can’t break through.” Ning slowly shook his head. “It seems as though forcing my way out of this formation is impractical.”

If he wasn’t able to break out of this place, his only option was to carry out his original plan.

Ning lowered his head, staring downwards with a cold light flashing in his eyes.

Swoosh. Ning immediately charged downwards. In just two seconds, he arrived before a black palace.

“Break.” Six dazzling streaks of sword-light descended upon the the black palace. Although the black palace was protected by three layers of barriers, it still exploded into pieces.

“Spare me!”

“Spare us!”

The three World-level cultivators hiding within the black palace immediately ran out, staring at Ning in terror.

Every single formation-core was protected by barrier spells, but those barriers couldn’t possibly compare to the barriers protecting the main palace! Transcendent World Gods might not be able to breach them, but Daolords of the First Step would be able to breach them through raw power.

“Hmph.” Ning waved his giant hand. Whoosh! The heavens seemed to turn dark as he captured all three of them.

“Next.” Ning began to fly towards another formation-core.

“What?!”

“We can’t stop him.”

“Mystdragon, this is all your fault. You ruined us, you idiot! Qingfan was absolutely right when she said you were an imbecile and buffoon.”

“We are finished.”

“We are all doomed.”

“He said earlier that anyone who stands in his way will be killed.”

Ning blew through the various formation-cores with ease, capturing all sixteen World-level cultivators.

“All of them are doomed.” The Eastsmoke leader’s face was turning pale from his position inside the main palace as he watched this happen. “I’m the only one left. He won’t be able to enter. He can’t break the main palace’s barrier spells.”

Although he consoled himself by saying this, he was still filled with terror. Although the barrier was able to trap Ning, it wasn’t able to kill. If too much time passed, who knew what additional variables might enter the picture?

“Big brother.” The Eastsmoke leader waved his hand, causing a black message-talisman to appear. He gritted his teeth, then crushed it into tiny pieces.

“Big brother. You have to come save me.” The Eastsmoke leader could now sense how dangerous this foe was. At a time like this, his only option was to ask his big brother to come protect him. His big brother had always doted on him.

……

The main headquarters of the Bluegrace Sect.

The main headquarters was a vast place, stretching out to cover more than a hundred million kilometers. There were countless cultivators here, with more than three thousand World-level cultivators and innumerable Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals. There were also four Daolords! The most powerful was of course Daolord Bluegrace himself, and he was an extremely famous and reputable figure within the Brightshore Kingdom.

Bang!

A figure suddenly soared into the skies, leaving a deep gorge that was completely shrouded in black mist. This figure was dressed in black robes, had a cold and grim face, and looked quite similar to World God Mystdragon, the branch leader of the Eastsmoke branch. Only, his aura was colder and darker.

“Mystdragon actually shattered the message-talisman I gave him? What sort of danger has he encountered?” Daolord Batdragon’s face was grim, but his eyes were filled with worry.

Him and Mystdragon were actual brothers.

It was extremely rare for a pair of fraternal brothers to be able to train together and reach such heights in cultivation. Batdragon had long ago lost all his other kinsmen, and his little brother was the only one left. In truth, Mystdragon wasn’t really strong enough to qualify for his current position, but since Daolord Batdragon gave him his full support he was able to become a branch leader.

Mystdragon. His one and only little brother.

“I’ll go right now.” Daolord Batdragon didn’t hesitate at all. He immediately transformed into a streak of light as he flew out of the main headquarters and towards the Eastsmoke branch.

……

At the top of a mountain of the Eastsmoke branch.

Ning stood there, a group of thirty-four terrified World-level cultivators before him.

Of the thirty-four, sixteen had been using formations to attack Ning while eighteen were the Eastsmoke leader’s devoted followers. The eighteen were the ones who had been keeping tabs on the Flamefairy. Ning had captured them all.

“The eighteen of you obeyed the Eastsmoke branch leader’s orders and wished to slay my retainer and steal her treasures.

“The sixteen of you wished to slay me!”

Ning swept the thirty-four with his gaze. “Quite frankly, I should kill you all.”

The thirty-four were utterly terrified. When cultivators made the wrong enemy or chose the wrong master, they would often find themselves in mortal danger.

“However, I will give you two options. The first option is death! The second option is to immediately swear a lifeblood oath to be my slave.” Ning tossed out an oathstone. “The oath is right here. If you are willing to swear the oath, you’ll be able to stay alive.”

“Slave?”

The World-level cultivators had ugly looks on their faces. World Gods and Chaos Immortals had exalted statuses; how many of them would willingly become the slave of another?

The problem was, if they refused they would die! Ji Ning was simply too powerful, far more powerful than any World God had a right to be. To submit to him… it wasn’t completely unacceptable.

“This oath…”

“This is way too stringent…”

“B-but…”

When the thirty-four of them saw the oath, they were stunned.

Once they swore this oath, they would become absolute slaves who would have to serve Ning with utter devotion. In fact, they weren’t even permitted to lie to him! This was one of the most stringent oaths possible. The only thing that gave them hope was the clause that said they would regain their freedom after a thousand chaos cycles.

A thousand chaos cycles? This was an incredibly long period of time. How many cultivators would even be able to stay alive for that long?

Ning swept them with a glance. He had actually been planning on killing them all, but he had reconsidered as there was always a need for servants or slaves to take care of some minor matters that he simply didn’t have time for. In addition, when he was out adventuring there were some dangerous places he could use them to scout for him. If some of them were so lucky as to stay alive for a thousand chaos cycles, for him to release them then would be fine as well.

A thousand chaos cycles? Ning couldn’t even imagine what level of power he would have reached by then.

“Impossible.”

“One wrong step, and it all comes to nothing.” Several World-level cultivators raised their heads and sighed. Their truesouls immediately dissipated as they perished on the spot.

“I chose the wrong path. I’ll have to bear the consequences.”

“Forget it, forget it.”

In the end, a total of five of them chose suicide. Ning didn’t move to stop them.

The other twenty-nine chose to bow their heads and become Ning’s slaves. As they saw it, this incomparably terrifying World God would most likely become a Daolord in the future. They were willing to accept becoming the servants and slaves of a Daolord.

Whoosh. Ning waved his hand, accepting these twenty-nine World-level slaves.

Book 26, World Level, Chapter 57 – Daolord Batdragon

Book 26, World Level, Chapter 57 – Daolord Batdragon

World God Mystdragon, the branch leader of the Eastsmoke branch, continued to hide in the main palace of the Eastsmoke branch. He watched as all of this happened, and he felt no sympathy for them at all. Instead, he was celebrating. “Thank goodness the barriers protecting my main palace are much stronger. Although this white-robed kid is strong, he still can’t do a damn thing to me. Hmph! Soon, my big brother will arrive. By then… hpmh!”

World God Mystdragon felt tremendous confidence in his big brother.

Whoosh. Ning suddenly transformed into a streak of light, flying away from the mountain and once more charging towards the main palace.

“He’s coming back?” The Eastsmoke leader was badly frightened. “Why is he coming back? Does he have some even more powerful tricks up his sleeve?”

The Eastsmoke leader’s heart was filled with alarm. He knew that if he didn’t have these barriers and had to face Ning by himself, he probably wouldn’t be able to withstand even a single blow!

The Bluegrace Sect’s area of influence was quite large, as was its territory. Its nine branches were all located in nine different corners of its territory, and even someone like Daolord Batdragon who flew roughly twice as fast as the speed of light would need to fly for roughly an entire day before arriving.

World God Mystdragon had to hold on for at least a day. By when, his big brother the Daolord would arrive and he would be safe.

“Come out.”

Ning landed in front of the main palace as a crimson-black gourd appeared behind him. This was the Elementum Waterflame Gourd. The gourd immediately belched out the Watersmoke Lightning and the Firecloud Lightning, and the two mighty streaks of Dao lightning immediately began to hammer down upon the barrier spells, shattering through the two outermost layers.

“I hope this breaks it.” Ning manifested three heads and six arms, once more wielding six Violetjewels as he began to furiously assault the main palace.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The main palace echoed with the sound of explosions.

Even though Ning now had the Dao lightning helping him, he was still only able to breach seven of the barriers. The eighth and final barrier remained unbroken, and it was the strongest barrier of all.

“You can’t break it.” The Eastsmoke leader laughed coldly as he saw this. “And you can forget about escaping.”

Ning, however, continued to rain down furious blows with his Eternal weapons. As for his Dao lightning, it was constantly replenished by the natural energy of Heaven and Earth and thus was also able to attack unabated.

“Let’s see how long he can keep attacking for. He has to be using up an enormous amount of divine power, but I’m using up very little Immortal energy in maintaining these protective barriers.” The Eastsmoke leader smiled coldly.

Two hours later. Ning was still furiously attacking, not having taken any break at all.

“What the hell is going on.” The Eastsmoke leader had an ugly look on his face. “He has to be using an insanely powerful divine ability to launch such powerful attacks. It has to be consuming a thousand times as much divine power as a normal strike would. How can he keep going for so long?”

It must be understood that the barriers themselves used up an incredible amount of energy after having been breached and repaired so many times. Although most of this energy came from chaos jewels and the extracted natural energy of the world, a small part of it did have to come from the controller of the formation. His Immortal energy was instrumental in keeping the barriers and the formations active.

After two hours, more than half of his Immortal energy had been used up!

“Let’s keep fighting then. I’ll be able to hold.” The Eastsmoke leader gritted his teeth. “I have plenty of chaos jewels. I’ll be able to fight for a long period of time if I use my chaos jewels to replenish my energy.”

He was the fraternal brother of a Daolord and a branch leader. He naturally had quite a few chaos jewels, and the main palace itself also had an emergency cache of chaos jewels to ensure that the formations would remain active.

In truth, Ning really was using up quite a bit of energy. Although the azureflower mist energy was being consumed fairly slowly, it was still being used up far faster than he could replenish it. If he continued launching maximum-power attacks like this, he would probably run dry on energy after six hours. However… the one thing which Ning absolutely did not lack for was treasures and chaos jewels. For the sake of being able to end this sooner, using up a few chaos jewels was more than worth it.

Four hours.

Six hours.

Eight hours.

Ning continued his furious attacks. Every so often, Ning would draw some of the chaos jewels into his Jindan chaos region and absorb the pure, distilled chaos energy from the chaos jewels. As for the Eastsmoke leader, he had naturally started to use chaos jewels well before Ning had.

“Mystdragon, I urge you to just withdraw the formation and let him leave.” Fairy Qingfan had already flown over to the main palace. In truth, she was feeling quite stunned at the fact that Ji Ning was able to maintain such a high intensity over such a long period of time. It must be understood that World Gods used up divine power at an alarming rate when they launched full-power attacks. Even if they tried to use chaos jewels to replenish their energy, it wouldn’t be enough.

There was a limit to how fast chaos jewels could be used to replenish energy. Ning used up energy at a very slow rate, which was why he was able to easily use chaos jewels to keep himself topped off.

For those who truly did rely on powerful divine abilities to fight, they’d usually run out of energy after a short battle. There was simply no way for chaos jewels to keep up with their energy expenditures.

“You traitor.” The Eastsmoke leader laughed coldly.

“This was all caused by your attempts at robbery. If you let him go, then this matter will be at an end,” Fairy Qingfan urged.

“At an end? Ahaha, he’s completely unable to breach the main palace. I’m using up almost no Immortal energy in keeping the barrier spells active. I’ll be able to keep going for an extremely long period of time thanks to my chaos jewels. Soon, my big brother will arrive and he’ll be in for a world of trouble.” How could the Eastsmoke leader be willing to give up at a time like this?

So what if the white-robed kid belonged to the Twelve Palaces? His big brother was a member of the Twelve Palaces as well, and a retainer to Daolord Bluegrace. The Eastsmoke leader didn’t feel any fear at all.

And if this kid wasn’t a member of the Twelve Palaces, his big brother could simply kill him!

“Big brother?” The furiously attacking Ning cast him a glance. By now, Ning had a belly full of fire. Anyone who had been forced to continuously launch full-force attacks for so long would have a belly full of fire.

“It wouldn’t mater even if his big brother is Daolord Bluegrace himself.” Ning was truly furious now.

……

“Mystdragon.” The black-robed Daolord Batdragon was flying through the clouds at high speed. His nervousness had caused a layer of bloody light to appear within his eyes. “You have to hang on, Mystdragon. Hang on until I arrive.” He couldn’t even imagine what sort of threat had caused his little brother to shatter the message-talisman and beg for rescue.

He needed a full day to fly from the main headquarters to the Eastsmoke branch. All sorts of things could happen within a day.

“I don’t care who it is, if someone kills my little brother… I, Batdragon, swear that I will pay any price, up to and including my very life itself, to take revenge.” The bloody light in Daolord Batdragon’s eyes grew even more ominous. The two of them had grown up together as children, then had together embarked upon the path of cultivation. They had even braved many life-and-death dangers together. The relationship between the two simply couldn’t be describe by the word ‘deep’ alone. Mystdragon had been the most important person in his life for countless eons. For the sake of his little brother, he truly was prepared and willing to give up life itself.

“Hold on. Wait for me.” Daolord Batdragon continued to fly forwards at high speed.

A full day and a full night later, Daolord Batdragon finally reached the Eastsmoke branch. Thus far the life-tablet of his little brother, which he carried with him at all times, was still intact. That meant that his little brother was still alive.

Whoosh. When Daolord Batdragon arrived at the grand restrictive formation, he immediately charged in while shouting loudly, “Let me in!”

“Big brother?” The Eastsmoke leader was instantly overjoyed. As controller of the formation, he was able to immediately create a small opening for the black-robed Daolord Batdragon to enter through.

The atmosphere in the branch instantly turned quite odd and eery.

Ning, Fairy Qingfan, and many other World Gods could all sense that something had just happened to the formation. They saw that black-robed figure fly in, and they could sense from the overwhelming aura radiating from him. This was indeed the aura of a Daolord.

“A Daolord arrived.”

“That’s Daolord Batdragon.”

“Our branch leader’s big brother has arrived. That invader will be in trouble now.”

The various World-level cultivators were all secretly chatting amongst themselves. As for Ning, he halted his wild attacks and turned to stare at the black-robed figuring making a beeline in his direction. This black-robed figure had quite a cold and sinister face which was very similar to the Eastsmoke leader’s appearance.

“Eh?” When the black-robed World God Batdragon saw Ning, he could immediately sense the ripples from a identity medallion of the Twelve Palaces.”

Daolord Batdragon flew into the main palace, and the barriers surrounding the palace all vanished. Clearly, the Eastsmoke leader held complete faith in his big brother.

“Hm.” When Daolord Batdragon saw his little brother, a quck and careful scan showed that he wasn’t injured at all.

“Big brother, this World-level cultivator barged into my Eastsmoke branch.” The Eastsmoke branch leader, World God Mystdragon, pointed at Ning as he howled furiously, “Not only did he kill a group of dozens of my World-level cultivators, he forcibly abducted and enslaved a second group. He wanted to kill me, big brother!”

All of the resentment he had felt was bubbling out now. With his big brother by his side, who did he have to fear?

WHAP!!!!

Daolord Batdragon suddenly struck out with his palm, delivering a vicious blow to the face of the Eastsmoke leader. The Eastsmoke leader’s face immediately twisted and distorted as he was sent flying into the walls of the main palace. BOOM! He collided so hard that the entire palace shook. The palace walls were now covered with blood as the Eastsmoke leader lay on the blood-soaked ground, his body twisted brutally.

The Eastsmoke leader raised his head to stare at his elder brother in disbelief.

“Why haven’t you apologized to this fellow Daoist yet!” Daolord Batdragon stared at him as he furiously roared out these words.