The Desolate Era

Ji Ning had already flown out of the long crevice and landed next to it. Naturally, he was completely unharmed; after spending hundreds of millions of years within the Sithe ruine inside the Stone Hellephant Wall, he had long ago trained his body to make it comparable to high-grade Eternal weapons. On top of that, he also had his Hegemon armor! Even if he didn’t use sword-arts to block, he’d still be able to take this hit. When you factored in how powerful his defensive sword-arts were... the only reason he had even been sent flying was because the sea dragon had snapped its body like a whip, generating such enormous momentum that he couldn’t help but fly backwards.

“Such power.” Ning raised his head to stare seriously at the deep blue sea dragon in the skies.

“Haha, I’m glad you didn’t die. I was afraid I would’ve beaten you to death with a single whap. That would’ve been boring.” The sea dragon coiling in the air peered downwards at Ning, its voice booming.

“Darknorth, can you beat it?” Ninedust asked mentally.

Ning had a solemn look on his face. “It’ll be a bit difficult. It’s not so bad when it stays still, but when it starts to move its entire body strikes like a supple, long whip. Its movements are extremely unpredictable, and I wasn’t able to dodge in time. That’s why I was knocked flying.” He had reached the fourth stage of his Shadowless stance long ago, and his movements were extremely unpredictable... but he had still been knocked flying by the sea dragon. Ning understood that this meant the sea dragon’s movements were every bit as ghostly and unpredictable as his own!

“Grow!” Ning roared loudly. Whoosh! Ning’s divine body began to dramatically grow in size, towering to become a titanic mountain-sized giant with three heads and six arms. Each of the six Northbow swords in his hands transformed to become utterly massive as well.

“Oh, he grew bigger?” The sea dragon watched curiously.

“We’re too close to each other at my normal size; I don’t have enough time to dodge.” Ning’s voice boomed out, “My only choice is to grow bigger and stay a good distance away from you; that way, I might be able to avoid some attacks.”

The farther away they were from each other, the more space Ning would have to maneuver in. action

“You know, young fellow, I’m most confident in my agility and in my unpredictability. Come, let’s dance again.” The sea dragon suddenly charged downwards. Whoosh! Its sinuous body lashed out like a whip, leaving behind an arc in the skies as it charged straight towards Ning.

Ning hurriedly moved backwards while using one of his mist-formed swords in a ghostly block. Clank! The sword-light clashed against the sea dragon’s claws.

Whoosh! The sea dragon’s tail came lashing towards Ning with shadowy speed! Space itself seemed to be torn apart by this strike, which was so fast as to render Ning speechless.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Ning hurriedly retreated while executing his Omega Sword Dao – Soleheart. Fortunately, he himself was also quite unpredictably agile and he also moved more than a hundred times faster than the speed of light.

The sea dragon let out a mighty roar as it coiled around itself. Is tail swept outwards as its upper body dove downwards, sending its fierce draconic claws straight towards Ning.

Boom! Boom! Fortunately, Ning had three heads and six arms, allowing him to just barely block this draconic strike. However, the sea dragon suddenly opened its massive draconic maws and then bit down towards Ning! Ning hurriedly retreated backwards to avoid this terrifying bite. Boom! The sea dragon charged headfirst-towards Ning, delivering a headbutt against the fleeing Ning and sending him flying even further backwards. He only came to a halt after flying a great distance, at which point Ning flew back to the field of battle.

“Too fast and too slippery.” Ning’s head was starting to hurt. The sea dragon’s entire body was covered with extremely thick layers of frozen ice, which meant that there were no weaknesses to exploit at all. Every single part of its body could be used as a weapon! It was also incredibly fast and slippery, capable of unleashing consecutive combination attacks without pause.

“I’ve always relied on my speed and unpredictable attacks to achieve victory, but this sea dragon just so happens to be superior to me in these areas...” Ning frowned. “It seems my only choice is to break through using raw power. I suppose I’ll give it a try.”

Break through with overwhelming, raw power in a frontal strike! It didn’t matter how unpredictable the enemy’s attacks were if you could just barrel straight forwards with an unstoppable strike; so long as the attack landed, the enemy would be defeated!

The reason why Ning had yet to use his Omega Sword Dao – Heavenbreaker was because of what had happened during his first clash against the deep blue sea dragon. His Omega Sword Dao – Blood Drop had only been able to drill a tiny wound into the thick layers of ice covering the sea dragon’s body. Ning had gotten a vague sense of how terrifyingly tough that armor of ice was, and thus he didn’t feel confident in his Omega Sword Dao – Heavenbreaker and its chances.

However, he was out of options. He had to give it a try.

......

“This kid is pretty fast, and his sword-arts are also quite ghostly. Although he’s at a disadvantage, at least he’s able to put up a good fight.”

“It’s quite rare for us to encounter such a formidable Daolord.”

“Interesting, interesting.”

“It seems as though his protective divine ability is also quite formidable. He has yet to take any injuries at all.”

The nearly two hundred beasts who were watching in the two vast seas were all quite interested in this battle, and they chatted while watching.

“Darknorth’s been shut down.” Ninedust was starting to grow anxious. “We actually ran into something that has even weirder attacks than him and which is just as fast as him.”

......

“Again!” Ning bellowed. This time, his demeanor was completely different. He put away his other five Northbow swords, leaving just one sword behind. All six of his arms tightly clenched the sole remaining sword.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Ning began to run across the ground. His speed wans’t that fast, less than a hundred times the speed of light, but as he ran his aura seemed to grow increasingly powerful. The most important aspect to the Omega Sword Dao – Heavenbreaker lay in the accumulation of power! Only after accumulating enough power could you then unleash it in a terrifying blow; only then could Ning unleash his true, most powerful strike.

“Eh?” The airborne sea dragon was slightly startled upon seeing this, then grew excited: “His aura seems to have become quite savage! But I’ll have to test it out myself to see just how strong he is. I hope he doesn’t disappoint.” The sea dragon let out an excited roar, then swooped downwards and charged straight towards Ning. It didn’t move to dodge, nor did it feel the need to.

Ning continued to bound forwards, his momentum and aura having reached an apex. Riiiiiip! The sea dragon struck out with a pair of draconic claws, tearing downwards through the sky at Ning.

“Now... BREAK for me!” Ning roared loudly. All six of his hands were clenched tightly around his sword as he raised it up high, pouring more and more energy into it. It had already transformed into a thick, blurry pillar of mist-formed sword energy of incredible weight and density. Ning then delivered a furious downwards chop, causing the thick pillar of mist to suddenly explode! It was like the bursting of a volcano, with all of his power and might exploding forth from the strike.

The stately thick pillar of mist-formed sword energy seemed to have suddenly exploded and transformed into a dazzling star that had gone supernova. All of its power was unleashed in an instant as it smashed directly against the draconic claws.

BOOOOM! A terrifying shockwave of force blasted out, causing Ning to be knocked backwards. This time, he was sent flying even faster than before!

The sea dragon had previously been quite excited, but the terrifying collision caused even its body to tremble. The mighty shockwave swept across its entire body, flipping it upside down and sending it flying backwards as well. Moments later, a series of cracking sounds could be heard as the ice over its body began to splinter and crack, making it look almost like a turtle shell. Some of the shattered pieces of ice actually began to fall off of it!

Alas, the creature quickly righted itself and brought itself to a halt in the skies. Its body had previously glistened beautifully, but it was now covered with countless ugly cracks and scars that spanned its entire body. However, a dense aura of cold energy quickly spread out to cover its body, causing the cracks and tears to quickly heal. In less time than was needed to take a single breath, the many ugly wounds had been completely healed.

“It healed that fast?” The spectating Ninedust was speechless. “This is going to be trouble.”

“Haha, again!” Ning had been blown backwards, but he charged straight forwards with an indomitable aura, roaring with high-spirited laughter.

He still held just a single sword in his six arms, and like Pangu cleaving apart Heaven from Earth he once more delivered a furious frontal chop with endless might!

“Excellent, excellent! It’s been so long since I’ve had this much fun.” The deep blue sea dragon charged forwards as well. This time, it lashed out with its massive tail in a swatting blow at Ning, smashing it straight against Ning’s sword. BOOM! The two were once more sent flying backwards. This time, the sea dragon was prepared and thus it suffered slightly fewer wounds and cracks to its body. The ones that did appear once more healed quite quickly.

“Again.”

“Yes, again!”

Ning was filled with the desire to do battle. He charged forwards repeatedly, using raw, overwhelming force to clash straight against the deep blue sea dragon. The sea dragon started off quite excited by this fight, but it quickly grew resigned and bored... it didn’t want to fight head-on against Ning, but it simply had no way to avoid Ning’s straightforward and dominating Omega Sword Dao – Heavenbreaker. Ning was far less agile than it was, after all.

“I want to see just how long your divine power and Immortal energy will be able to hold on for!” The deep blue sea dragon started to grow angry, and it rammed straight against Ning time and time again.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The two clashed repeatedly, causing the two groups of beasts watching from the two seas to become rather puzzled.

“What’s going on with that Daolord? He knows there’s no way to win like this, so why is he doing this?”

“It does seem rather odd.”

“He won’t be able to win like this. He won’t be able to win unless he can smash open the frozen ice with a single blow.”

......

Ning was no fool, of course. However, when he had first used his Omega Sword Dao – Heavenbreaker to clash head-on against the deep blue sea dragon, the furious yet exhilarating feelings had caused him to gain a spark of insight! He began to gain more and more insights, which was why he continued to furiously unleash his Omega Sword Dao – Heavenbreaker against the sea dragon, hoping to be able to finally catapult his Heavenbreaker stance to the fourth stage.

BOOM! With the ninety-eighth collision, Ning’s face lit up with excitement as he flew backwards. “I understand now! I finally understand!”