The Desolate Era

Chapter 52 – The Fiendish Ji Ning

A Voidboat suddenly departed from Sword Immortal world.

“Ji Ning has left Sword Immortal world.” The Seamless Gate’s watcher responsible for this world immediately made the report to his superiors. The exalted Godking naturally knew right away that Ji Ning had left, but he didn’t feel too concerned. During this recent period of time, Ji Ning had often left Sword Immortal world. Given that he had been quite low-key during the past century or so, without attempting a single attack, the Godking wasn’t too worried about this departure.

Soon…he would suffer for his negligence.

The Fuyi majorworld. Outside the world-membrane, a Voidboat suddenly appeared. The Rahu-Ning was located within the Voidboat, reaching out with his coresense to scan this major world with it. He quickly encompassed the entire world with his heartforce. He was much more careful this time, as it would be extremely easy for others to notice once he entered a major world.

“The Fuyi world really lives up to its reputation. The Seamless Gate has three headquarters here, one of which has five Empyrean Gods and True Immortals.” A dim red light flashed through the Rahu-Ning’s eyes. “Excellent.”

Swish.

The Voidboat passed straight through the Void, entering the Fuyi major world.

Fuyi world. Sacred Mountain Eastrise.

The peaks of Sacred Mountain Eastrise pierced high up into the clouds. Every day, Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals would come visit this place.

……

“I’ve finally managed to enter the Sacred Mountain. I’ll no longer have to feel worried about the Fuyi Dao-Palace continuing their pursuit of me. We monsters were born to eat people. After we became Void-level Diremonsters, all we did was eat a single city’s worth of people, but the Fuyi Dao-Palace became dead-set on hunting us down. Thank goodness Sacred Mountain Eastrise is here.”

“Elder brother, Sacred Mountain Eastrise rose to sudden prominence just a hundred years ago. Is it really capable of resisting the power of the Fuyi Dao-Palace?”

“Don’t worry. The Fuyi Dao-Palace once tried to assault it, but they weren’t able to succeed. Listen, behind Sacred Mountain Eastrise stands the legendary Seamless Gate. I’ve heard that the Seamless Gate is already strong enough to battle against the other major powers of the Three Realms and is currently struggling for supremacy over the Three Realms without showing any signs of weakness. How could they possibly fear the Fuyi Dao-Palace?”

“Right, right.”

Two Loose Immortal Diremonsters were chatting amongst themselves, feeling quite delighted.

The Fuyi Dao-Palace had unified and taken over the Fuyi world long ago. Naturally, it had lain down rules of its own! This caused many Diremonsters and Fiendgods to feel disgrungled. Although some Diremonster cultivators were able to calmly abstain from a diet of meat, many had delighted in eating human flesh since they were young. Normally, they had to be extremely careful due to the suppressive power of the Fuyi Dao-Palace, and they would only dare to furtively eat a few people here and there. Whenever they were caught, they would immediately be faced with the pursuit of the Dao-Palace.

……

“I heard that Sacred Mountain Eastrise has Empyrean Gods and True Immortals within it.”

“If we were to become apprenticed to one of them…that really would be a tremendous stroke of fortune.” The two loose-haired, savage-looking men walked forward, shoulder to shoulder. These two were humans, but given how humanity had flourished throughout the Three Realms, the race had naturally given birth to a number of viledoers and miscreants. Clearly, the Seamless Gate was quite an alluring option for these vile fiends.

……

Suddenly…

An enormous boat appeared outside of Sacred Mountain Eastrise. The boat was many tens of thousands of meters long, and atop the boat stood a peerless six-armed Fiendgod. The baleful aura emanating from him caused the entire world to seemingly turn gray. The natural world was itself affected, and countless gray stormclouds began to appear.

“What’s that?!”

“Th-that’s…”

“G-god…”

The many Fiendgods and Immortals atop Sacred Mountain Eastrise were all completely stupefied. Just staring at that peerless Fiendgod caused them to shiver and feel their hearts fill with fear. In fact, they felt as though they couldn’t even move their fingers. The invisible presence and pressure emanating from this titanic Fiendgod caused even their very thoughts to turn sluggish. They weren’t even able to think normally. This was terror that sprung from their very lifeforce itself!

The body of this Fiendgod was formed by Ji Ning commanding 90,000 Celestial Immortals and 8 million Loose Immortals, after all. Its presence alone was far more terrifying than that of even many True Gods and Daofathers. But of course, Ning was only able to actually make use of a very small amount of this Fiendgod’s body.

“BREAK!”

One of the Rahu-Ning’s Darknorth swords flashed outwards, leaving behind a terrifying scar in the skies as it stabbed towards a barrier of golden light covering Sacred Mountain Eastrise. The enormous golden barrier covered the entire mountain and was a protective formation. When the Fuyi Dao-Palace had attacked, they had been unable to break through this protective formation.

Brightmoon sword-art, Blood Drop stance!

A sword shot out, seeming to bore a hole through reality itself. The enormous barrier of golden light trembled for a moment, and then it quickly began to collapse as the enormous sword bored a hole through it as well.

“Run!”

“Oh my…”

“He shattered the formation protecting Sacred Mountain Eastrise with one stance.” Many Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals were barely able think properly right now, thanks to the sluggishness of their mind. The Celestial Immortals and higher-ranking cultivators, however, were still able to maintain their calm. The five Empyrean Gods and True Immortals in particular, although absolutely terrified out of their mind, weren’t particularly affected by the awesome presence of the Fiendgod.

“Flee!”

“Flee right away!”

“We’re doomed.”

The five of them were both frantic and furious as they tried to come up with ways to escape.

Whoosh!

The Rahu-Ning took just a single step forward, trampling down upon the mountains and causing the entire mountain range to tremble. Six streaks of sword-light shot downwards, seeming to cover the entire sky with their might. The five Empyrean Gods and True Immortals did their best to flee, but they were all reduced to dust by the sword-light.

“Five!” The Rahu-Ning took a single step backwards and re-entered the Voidboat. Swoosh! The Voidboat immediately tore through space and departed.

……

“What?!” Within the vast world of darkness. The Godking was stunned and enraged. “Ji Ning is attacking again? He actually dares to attack yet again?”

The Godking was absolutely beside himself with rage. He had felt that he had given Ji Ning quite a bit of face by not attacking Sword Immortal world or sending anyone to assassinate Ji Ning during the past century. He had thought that Ji Ning had learned his proper place, as Ji Ning had been quite peaceful and calm during this past period of time. By now, the Godking had almost completely forgotten about Ji Ning!

Who would’ve thought…

Who would’ve thought that Ji Ning would attack yet again! “You are courting death.” This time, the Godking was truly furious. He was an exalted, revered figure; for Ji Ning to challenge him once was one thing, but a second time?!

“Do you really think that there is nothing our Seamless Gate can do to you?” The true body of the Godking immediately departed towards one of the main headquarters of the Seamless Gate, the First World.

……

The Rahu-Ning moved with incredible speed, and his power was far greater than it had been when he was in control of the perfect Heaven Punisher. This was due to multiple reasons.

First of all, more than a century had passed since he had become an Empyrean God and True Immortal. His soul had been nourished by both his Pure Yang Jindan as well as his Empyrean God body, resulting in it growing until it had reached the limit of power possible. The increased strength of his soul resulted in him being able to control an increased amount of the power of the Rahu God.

Secondly, over the course of the past century, Ning’s soul heartforce technique had also improved significantly.

Third, the Rahu Formation contained a total of 90,000 Celestial Immortals and 8 million Loose Immortals, and it was a more powerful formation to begin with.

Thus, in short, Rahu-Ning’s power was two levels higher than the perfect Heaven Punisher’s power. Even if he encountered an actual True God or Daofather, he’d be able to withstand at least a few blows. Of course, due to the huge difference in their respective mastery of the Dao, in the end he would still be defeated. The Rahu-Ning’s raw power, however, was unquestionable.

Within the Fuyi major world, Ning destroyed two of the headquarters in succession, killing a total of nine Empyrean Gods and True Immortals. The enemies in the third headquarters all escaped, as Ning was just a bit too slow.

Aboard the Voidboat, the Rahu-Ning travelled to another major world. Ning’s heartforce spread out to encompass this world, discovering just two Seamless Gate headquarters here. However, one of the headquarters was empty, with the other holding a total of fifteen Empyrean Gods and True Immortals.

“They all gathered together. Are they planning to rely on their formation to stop me?” The Rahu-Ning smirked coldly.

Swoosh.

The Voidboat quickly arrived at the Seamless Gate headquarters. This was a citadel built atop a desert, surrounded by layers of protective formations of tremendous power. A total of fifteen Empyrean Gods and True Immortals had joined forces within it, maintaining the formation and ensuring that it was kept at maximum power.

“Fifteen Empyrean Gods and True Immortals joining forces to maintain a formation. Last time, Redsnow and I would’ve immediately left upon seeing this. But this time…things will be different.” The Rahu-Ning felt quite confident. Previously, when he commanded the perfect Heaven Punisher, a formation being supported by three or four Empyrean Gods and True Immortals couldn’t stand against him. Not even fifteen of them, however, would necessarily be able to withstand the current Rahu-Ning.

As for whether or not he would actually be able to breach their defenses…the only way to find out was to give it a try!

“Careful.”

“He’s coming.”

The fifteen Empyrean Gods and True Immortals defended with all their power, filling the formation with their energy. To build up a headquarters was no small task; they weren’t willing to give it up so easily. If every headquarters had to be abandoned as soon as Ji Ning appeared, their disposition of forces throughout the entire Three Realms would be thrown into disarray. The Seamless Gate had paid a significant price in order to infiltrate all of the worlds of the Three Realms; they couldn’t just change their entire strategy because of Ji Ning. If they did, the sacrifice would be enormous.

“BREAK!” The towering, peerless Rahu-Ning struck out with his six divine swords. One streak of sword-light after another descended from the heavens.

Brightmoon sword-art, Blood Drop stance!

The six streaks of sword-light pierced down towards the layers of protective formations. With shattering sounds, they pierced through three of the layers, but this citadel was protected by a total of five layers.

“Again!” But by the time Ning was about to strike a second time, the three shattered layers had already been repaired by an influx of energy.

“Eh?” Ning frowned.

“Samsara…Heavenbreaker!”

The Rahu-Ning let out a fierce howl as he brandished his six divine swords. Each sword seemed to have transformed into a giant warhammer as all six smashed downwards towards the barrier formations. Under Ning’s control, each sword suddenly seemed to increase dramatically in weight, becoming even heavier than a titanic mountain range of ten thousand kilometers. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Dull, deep thudding sounds could be heard as the six swords consecutively slammed down upon the protective barrier as the Rahu-Ning’s six arms swung around him like the spokes of an enormous windmill.

The six divine swords chopped down in an unbroken, never-ending cycle.

This was a variation of the ‘Heavenbreaker stance’ of the Brightmoon sword-art that was used in combination with the [Three Heads, Six Arms] divine ability.

Samsara Heavenbreaker!

In the blink of an eye, the Rahu-Ning launched a total of thirty-six chops against the protective barriers.

BOOM! All five barriers were completely destroyed…and the Rahu-Ning charged inside.

However…the fifteen Empyrean Gods and True Immortals simply laughed, laughed in a very odd manner. At the same time, their bodies began to change. Prior to this, their auras had been completely different, but now their auras became completely identical, as did their appearances. All of them were dressed in bloody robes, and their skin became ashen pale.

The fifteen blood-robed figures smiled oddly as they looked at Ning. “I’ll give you these fifteen clones of mine for the killing…but you are going to die as well.”

BOOM!!!

The Rahu-Ning’s sword light flashed out with apocalyptic power, sweeping forth and destroying all fifteen clones.

“A trap?” The Rahu-Ning had kept his coresense active, and he had noticed that two ripples of power had begun to tear through the fabric of space and descend upon this major world. “So their plan was to use fifteen of the bodies of Empyrean God Bloodriver to buy time and keep me here as their armies assembled to trap me. A pity for them that those fifteen all died for nothing.”