Desolate Era

“Our formation! Our formation!” Archon Silksnow and Emperor Bloodcloud were both flabbergasted. Right now, only five Emperors were still able to maintain their clarity of mind, the two of them included. There was no way they could continue to form the ‘Seven Killers of the Blood Disk’ formation.

“Attack!” After executing the [Heartforce Eradicator] and the [Dreamdust] illusions in succession, Ji Ning made his move.

Rumble… countless arcs of light appeared in the area around Ning. At the same time, a dazzlingly beautiful pair of golden wings appeared above Ning as well. Under the direction of the golden wings, the countless arcs of sword-light began to form into a chaosworld generated by the Dao of the Sword. The golden wings then howled through the air, instantly flying over towards the Emperors.

The golden wings simply flew far, far too fast. They had to be at least ten times faster than Ning’s flying speed!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Omega Sword Dao – Yin-Yang! This domain had been created via a pair of partially-mastered Hegemonic secret arts, and its power was so great as to be inconceivable.

The golden wings howled through the air as they sliced at the divine bodies of the Emperors who were present in person. The avatars all had bodies comparable to peak Eternal treasures, making them impossible to kill… but the ‘real’ Emperors had fairly frail bodies in comparison. Even though Ning had a precious Hegemonic legacy, he had to use up an absolutely enormous amount of treasures in order to train his body to the high-grade Eternal treasure level.

Most of these Emperors had bodies comparable to low-grade Eternal treasures. A few had reached the middle-grade Eternal treasure level, and extremely few had reached the high-grade Eternal treasure level. If they were able to focus their efforts on defending, they would be able to do so… but they were trapped in illusions and completely incapable of fighting back. Ning was able to attack them with impunity; how could they possibly endure in a situation like this?

It was much like what had happened when Ning was still very weak and paid a visit to the Azureflower Estate. Although his body had been comparable to a low-grade Eternal treasure at the time, he had nearly been beaten to death by one of the two overseers. Thankfully, he had a suit of Hegemon armor on him! These Emperors, however, certainly didn’t have Hegemonic armor on them.

Slash! Slash! Slash! In the blink of an eye, the sharp feathers of the golden wings sliced through six of the Eternal Emperors. They were chopped apart, then ground into dust by the countless arcs of light. They died on the spot. Two Eternal Emperors, had sufficiently strong protective divine abilities that they managed to survive.

“Six more down.” Ning showed no mercy at all; he felt nothing save the desire to kill the Emperors under the banner of Silksnow Fiend Palace. All of them had gone beyond the bounds of mere dispassionate selfishness and into the level of being true ‘demons’. That was why so many Emperors hated them and wished to kill them. However, these demons had joined forces to form a powerful organization, making it so that the other Emperors didn’t dare to offend them.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Sword-light continuously clashed against the avatars, creating clanking sounds. The avatars, however, managed to endure the strikes.

As for the three Emperors who were able to maintain their mental clarity, they were completely stunned by this. Six of them had died almost instantly? Only now did they understand that Daolord Darknorth had the power to kill them with ease.

“Archon, we can’t fight him head-on.”

“Archon, we’re going to leave now.”

“Ah?!” “B-b-but…” The two who had been trapped by the illusions but who had sufficiently strong protective divine abilities and thus survived Ning’s attacks now finally came back to their senses. They were terrified by what they saw, and they immediately began to flee. There was no time for them to show sympathy to others; they immediately used their best escape-type treasures to flee. The twin suppressive effects of the Sword Dao chaosworld and the heartworld projection caused their flying speed to be dramatically lowered, and they didn’t want to spend a minute longer than was necessary.

……

Just a few moments ago, Archon Silksnow and Emperor Bloodcloud had been leading the Emperors in surrounding and attacking Ning… but in the blink of an eye, six of the Emperors had perished, five of the avatars had been destroyed, and the remaining avatars had all been trapped by illusions.

The surviving Emperors all began to flee. Only Archon Silksnow and Emperor Bloodcloud remained safe and sound… for now.

“This secret art…?” Emperor Bloodcloud had an ugly look on his face as he stared at the countless arcs of sword-light and the golden pair of wings. “Silksnow, you actually tried to tell me that he’s slightly weaker than you? These secret arts alone are already vastly beyond our level of power.”

“How the hell could I have known that he’s this powerful?!” Archon Silksnow was feeling frustrated and frantic as well. “Eh?” Archon Silksnow’s face tightened. “Where’s Darknorth? He suddenly vanished.”

“An assassination art. I’ve heard of his assassination arts.” Emperor Bloodcloud’s face tightened as well. He also realized that Ning had vanished, and this was something which shocked both of them.

“Let an endless sea of blood come forth,” Emperor Bloodcloud growled, immediately unleashing his invulnerable form and transforming into a vast sea of blood that filled the surrounding area and protected Archon Silksnow.

Slash! A streak of sword-light tore through the bloody waves. “It’s Darknorth!” Emperor Bloodcloud and Archon Silksnow both turned pale as the three-headed, six-armed, white-robed Ning suddenly appeared.

Ning used his six Northbow swords to tear through the waves of blood as he shot straight towards Archon Silksnow. He snapped coldly, “Silksnow, prepare to die.”

Ning’s Godwings were truly ridiculously fast. Ning himself was a bit slower, but he was still faster than Archon Silksnow, especially now that the Archon was being suppressed by the heartworld projection. However, Archon Silksnow refused to admit defeat. He also manifested six arms, holding a warblade in each as he charged towards Ning.

Whoosh. Ning’s swords flowed like water, bringing a tsunami of sword-light with them. They possessed the explosive power of tidal waves but were also incredibly gentle, almost like the caress of a lover.

“Eh?” Archon Silksnow’s face changed. He strove to use his six warblades to block the soft and nearly invisible sword-arts Ning was using, but Ning’s upgraded [Heartsword] made his sword-arts even more ghostly than before. His attacks were also noticeably faster, giving Archon Silksnow no chance to block them at all.

Two of the streaks of sword-light coiled around his body like fingers, beginning to tie him up in knots. Whoosh! Archon Silksnow immediately transformed into countless snowflakes that fled and then reformed off in the distance.

“Running?” Ning felt a bit unsettled as well. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to kill Archon Silksnow, as his opponent had an invulnerable form. Good invulnerable forms were just too hard to deal with.

“How can he be this strong? His sword-arts are simply too fast. He beat me in just one exchange!” Archon Silksnow was running around while panicking. It must be remembered that he previously had been able to dominate Ning with ease; if it hadn’t been for the Hegemon armor, he probably would’ve killed Ning already. Now, however, the difference in power between him and the current Ning was just as great as the difference between him and the past Ning… except reversed.

In fact… Ning’s advantage was actually a bit greater.

“Be destroyed!!!” Ning put away five of his Northbow swords, then gripped the sixth with all six of his hands. He unleashed his most powerful attack with all the power he had available to him… the Omega Sword Dao – Heavenbreaker.

BOOM!! The entire region of empty space above the Sacred City seemed to have completely shattered apart. A savage tidal wave seemed to have appeared in the pitch-black space, a tidal wave which had the power to destroy all in its path. This was a tsunami of sword-light, and it caused those who viewed it to feel a sense of powerlessness. Even Hegemon Brightshore, who was watching from afar, was stunned: “What powerful sword-arts.”

In this instant, even karma was suppress. Spacetime froze, with all dimensional and temporal bubbles freezing in place. Even Emperor Bloodcloud, still in the form of a sea of blood, felt a sense of terror. This was absolute power, and it inspired more terror than anything else.

“Impossible.” Archon Silksnow could hardly believe it. He strove to use his six warblades to defend.

BOOM! He was like a praying mantis trying to use its arms to block a chariot. Archon Silksnow was instantly dominated and crushed by the terrifying tidal wave of sword-light, and his divine power was instantly crushed apart into countless snowflakes. The snow fluttered away, reforming far away into an ashen-faced Archon Silksnow. He wasn’t injured, but the psychological blow he had just suffered had an enormous impact on him.

“Silksnow, Darknorth is far too powerful. There’s no way for us to fight him. Let’s leave!” Emperor Bloodcloud began to move to flee.

“Leave? And go where? His strike just now was so powerful that it compressed even spacetime. There’s no way for us to even tear through spacetime to flee.” Archon Silksnow seemed to have gone mad. He roared mentally, “We have to use our most important treasures if we want to escape. Since we are already going to use at least one of them… let’s use them up and try to kill him! Each of us will use one of them. We might be able to kill him.”

Emperor Bloodcloud was stunned.

“If we can’t kill him, we’ll have to hide for as long as he is alive,” Archon Silksnow said. “Let’s give it a shot! He doesn’t have an invulnerable form; we might be able to kill him.”

“Fine.” Emperor Bloodcloud also felt that this type of life would be far too craven. If the two were so frightened as to immediately flee… then so long as Ning was alive, they would have to remain hidden.

Better to go all-out and give it a shot. Perhaps they’d actually succeed in killing this terrifying Daolord.

“Go.” Archon Silksnow produced a broken gray longspear, sending it flying through the air. It looked quite ordinary and didn’t have any special aura to it, but the countless cultivators within the Sacred City who saw it felt a sense of absolute horror when they saw it. They all knew that just the tiniest portion of the power hidden within the spear would probably be enough to kill them all.

“Kill!” Emperor Bloodcloud produced a curved, glowing object. It was hard to see the object’s true appearance. Emperor Bloodcloud gritted his teeth, then sent it flying outwards.

Whoosh! A dazzling crescent moon immediately appeared in the skies, its light blurry and gentle. This absolutely beautiful crescent moon flew towards Ning in a seemingly slow manner, but it actually moved a bit faster than even the gray longspear.

“He has to die.” Archon Silksnow and Emperor Bloodcloud both watched eagerly. This was their last hope.