The Desolate Era

World God Foxblaze was astonished by the speed of this white-robed youth, and he was able to tell right away that the Thunderlight Wings on Ning’s back were quite extraordinary. However, he wasn’t afraid; rather, he was delighted. If he killed this Elder God, then this extraordinary treasure would become his, right? He didn’t even consider the possibility that he might not be able to defeat this Elder God. Even the most monstrously talented Elder Gods would at most be comparable to ordinary World Gods...and he was an elite one!

“Puny Elder God, you overestimate your abilities. Die!” World God Foxblaze drew out a curved scimitar, then used it to chop towards Ning. It was like a streak of crescent moonlight had suddenly struck out.

Ning showed no mercy at all, immediately using his most powerful attack with his most powerful weapon, the Eternal weapon Violetjewel. He delivered a powerful, furious overhead chop with Violetjewel, his weapon moving far faster than the speed of light. As Violetjewel struck out in a cruel blur, Ning also activated as much of its quintessence core as he could, giving his weapon an utterly terrifying amount of power.

At this moment in time, Violetjewel was so incredibly sharp and powerful that even an ordinary mortal who casually brandished it would unleash a blast of sword-ki that could easily chop a mountain apart. But of course, there was no way that a mortal would ever come into possession of a weapon such as this.

BOOM!

Violetjewel’s sword-light clashed head-on against the crescent moon of saber-light.

The crescent moon of saber-light was blasted apart, while World God Foxblaze was knocked flying backwards. He stared at the midair figure of Ning, his eyes absolutely huge and filled with disbelief. How was this possible? How? He was an exalted World God who had been alive and training for countless years and had reached the ‘elite’ level. How could he possibly be at a completely disadvantage in this fight?

There was least a full level’s worth of difference between him and his foe!

This Elder God actually had the power of a master-class World God? How was this possible? How could anyone be this much of a freak? Even if this Elder God was wielding an Eternal weapon, it should’ve been impossible for him to be this powerful.

BOOM! The terrifying force of Ning’s blow had knocked World God Foxblaze flying backwards, and the five types of lightning in the area continued to furiously hammer down against his body. Foxblaze’s situation was growing more dire by the moment.

“Kill.”

“Kill.”

The three black golems and the stone titan quickly charged towards World God Foxblaze. Su Youji’s black golem was already quite close to Ning, and so it was the first to arrive and strike at him.

Whoosh! The black golem’s fierce claws lashed out with dominating power, leaving a cruel fiery blur behind in the air as the golem struck at Foxblaze.

Bang! Although Foxblaze frantically lifted up his scimitar to block, he was knocked backwards yet again. Although he was actually roughly on par with the black golems, he had been completely knocked off his game by Ning’s attack. That first failure was causing a cascade of problems for him, and the entire situation was extremely grim.

“Die!” Elder God Wilddog and Elder God Blacksun’s golems arrived and began to attack, as did the stone titan Rocky. action

“Hmph.” Ning charged towards Foxblaze as well, leaving a trail of dazzling electric light in the air behind him.

Foxblaze was completely trapped!

Although the four golems were somewhat inferior to him in technique and skill, they were superior to him in power and speed. He was able to to deal with one of them but four was simply too much. The worst thing was, the white-robed Elder God he had thought to be the weakest cultivator present was actually the most terrifying figure of them all!

He was a terrifying Elder God who had the power of a master-class World God! These types of Elder Gods only existed in legends!

“Four golems, five types of divine lightning, those electric wings...I was wrong. I was completely wrong from the start! How could Su Youji possibly afford treasures such as these? They most likely all belong to that white-robed Elder God! Su Youji is merely his servant as well!”

“N-n-no...I can’t just die here...”

“I can’t!”

Although World God Foxblaze felt regret and self-pity for being driven to such dires straits, he also felt a powerful urge to stay alive.

“Transform!” World God Foxblaze instantly transformed to gain a total of six arms, each of which was now wielding a scimitar. His aura grew slightly more powerful as well, and even his eyes began to turn red. Clearly, he was now in an utterly berserk state.

The only way for him to survive was for him to go all out!

“KILL!” He immediately charged towards the stone titan, because he could tell right away that all three black golems were identical and belonged to a single set. He could sense that they were arrayed together into a formation and so he naturally chose to go against the stone titan instead.

“Stop him, rocky.” Ning immediately sent a mental message over.

“Don’t worry, Master. My talents lie in tying down foes.” Rocky’s palms suddenly expanded dramatically in size as his stony body suddenly began to flow like a liquid.

BOOM! World God Foxblaze exchanged blows with Rocky, the force of the collision causing a few ripples to appear on the liquid-like surface of Rocky’s body. However, Rocky himself didn’t take so much as a single step back.

“What?!” World God Foxblaze was shocked.

As for the three black golems, they once more charged towards him and attacked him.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The four mighty golems surrounded and assaulted this solitary World God.

World God Foxblaze still refused to give up. Although blows were raining down upon him, he had a set of Dao armor and a tough divine body. World Gods weren’t easily killed, and he continued to do his best to find a way to survive this assault. Alas, the three black golems moved together in perfect unison, giving him no chance to flee whatsoever.

“N-no...”

“Give up!” Right at this moment, Ning arrived. He struck out with Violetjewel, sending that terrifying streak of bloody sword-light towards Foxblaze once more.

“NO!” World God Foxblaze truly felt despair now.

BOOM! The sword-blow knocked him flying once more... and then, with a series of booms, two of the black golems smashed him into the ground.

If he was a World God who specialized in defense, he wouldn’t have been taken down so quickly. He would’ve been able to keep fighting for a somewhat longer period of time. Ji Ning, for example, had the Heartsword stance that gave him perfect control over his defensive sword-arts.

But of course, the Dao of the Sword was an offensive Dao that had tremendous advantages in close combat! Although World God Foxblaze used the scimitar, his specialty lay in a Dao of the Wind. This gave him certain advantages in speed and power in close combat, but once he lost the upper hand he would quickly be defeated.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Once Foxblaze was knocked down to the ground, the four golems began to rain a wild storm of blows upon his body.

As for Ning, he stood there to one side, not taking part in this. The blow he had just delivered was the final straw that had broken the camel’s back. World God Foxblaze would no longer have any chance of turning the tables on his attackers.

“Go.” Ning willed a long rope to suddenly appear next to him. The rope agilely slithered through the air like a serpent, quickly tying up the completely beaten World God Foxblaze and rendering him securely and completely incapacitated.

A look of utter despair was in Foxblaze’s eyes.

“Come.” Ning turned his head to glance backwards. The black gourd that had been spewing endless streams of lightning quickly flew towards Ning, coming to a halt within his hands.

Ning held the black gourd with one hand as he stared downwards at the tied and bound Foxblaze.

“It really...really...” When Foxblaze saw the black gourd fly to Ning, he couldn’t help but mumble to himself, “The gourd really does belong to him.”

“Master, this Foxblaze fellow was much harder to deal with than Foxbold,” Su Youji said with a laugh.

“He insisted on setting off on a path of no return. He has no one to blame for his death but himself,” Elder God Wilddog growled.

“Spare me. Spare me!”

World God Foxblaze was completely trussed up. He stared at Ning. “Spare me and I’ll give you all my treasures.”

“You idiot. Do you really take us for a fool? After we kill you, all of your treasures will be ours regardless.” Su Youji let out a cold laugh. Towards outsiders, she remained as ill-tempered and explosive as ever before.

“I-I...” World God Foxblaze stared wildly at Ning, then gritted his teeth. “I’m willing to be your retainer.”

“No need.” Ning shook his head.

“No. No!” World God Foxblaze took a deep breath. “I’m willing to be your slave! Your slave! I, World God Foxblaze, am willing to be your slave!”

“Master?” Su Youji, Elder God Wilddog, and Elder God Blacksun all turned to look at Ning.

“My slave? You honor me too much. I’m not interested, and so... it’s best you simply die.” Ning lifted up his black gourd, then activated it with a thought. A powerful sucking power suddenly emerged from it and was applied to World God Foxblaze.

Foxblaze was instantly sucked towards the gourd, shrinking as he flew towards the gourd’s opening.

“No... you... can’t possibly...”

He was in a state of utter disbelief. Someone actually refused to accept him, an exalted World God, as a slave? A moment later, he was drawn into the Pentabolt Gourd. A few moments after that a rope flew out from the gourd, then Ning resealed it.

Trapped within the Pentabolt Gourd, Foxblaze would suffer perpetual attacks from those five types of lightning. Sooner or later, his divine power would run out and he would be ground into dust.

“Why, Master? He was a World God, after all.” Su Youji and the others looked curiously at Ning.

“I wanted to kill him, so I did.” Ning’s response was quite calm.

A World God? What of it?

He didn’t like people with Foxblaze’s character. He’d feel uncomfortable having the man around, and a mere elite World God wouldn’t be of much use to him anyhow. Any of his four golems was comparable to Foxblaze in power, after all.

As for selling him off into slavery? He wouldn’t be worth nearly as much as a golem. Golems were absolutely loyal to their masters, after all. Foxblaze would most likely go for just a hundred cubes of chaos nectar at most, but the problem was that he knew how strong Ji Ning actually was. For now, Ning wished to keep his true power a secret.

He wouldn’t worry about the information leaking after he became a World God, and wouldn’t have minded selling Foxblaze off at that time... but who knew how long that would take? And by then, would he care about a petty hundred cubes of chaos nectar.

“Might as well kill him. I feel more comfortable doing that.” High-level cultivators had to follow their own hearts and their own paths to begin with.

“At my current level of power, killing elite World Gods still requires a bit of effort.” Ning reflected on this recent fight. “Without the four golems helping out, things probably wouldn’t be so easy.”

Thanks to the four golems, he had been able to kill an elite World God in a fairly short period of time.

“Wild Dog, Blacksun, go back and get some rest. Await my orders,” Ning instructed.

“Yes,” both Elder Gods said respectfully, their eyes filled with blazing eagerness.

What a show of utter dominance.

They had almost instantly slain a Chaos Immortal and a World God. The World God had begged to be enslaved, but their master didn’t even want to bother with enslaving him. This was true dominance! Their master truly was far too powerful. How mighty would he become when he actually reached the World level?

Whoosh. After Rocky, Elder God Wilddog, and Elder God Blacksun were all transported back into the estate-world, Ning turned to look towards Su Youji. “Youji, let’s get back to our hunt for that bugbeast.”

“Right.” Su Youji nodded as well.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Relying on his attunement to the Mirrorsnow Painting, Ning quickly led Su Youji towards the location of the second painting.