Desolate Era, page 794
So long as the barrier didn’t recover its energy, then he would eventually be able to break through the 9000 barriers given enough time.
“Break! Break! Break!” Ning quickly struck out with his six Northbow swords, applying the Blood Drop stance each time. The Omega Sword Dao – Blood Drop’s greatest strength lay in its penetrative power!
When dealing with barriers, this sort of penetrating attack was the best type of attack to use. In addition, the Omega Sword Dao – Blood Drop was Ning’s most powerful attack! This naturally made the breaching process quite fast.
Slash! Slash! Slash! The six Northbow swords continuously struck out as fast as illusions. One mist-formed sword after another struck out against the barriers, causing the barriers to quickly disperse under the weight of the barrage of attacks.
……
After roughly half a day, Ning broke through the 1000th barrier.
After roughly six days, Ning broke through the 2000th barrier.
After roughly half a month, Ning broke through the 3000th barrier.
After roughly nine months, Ning broke through the 4000th barrier.
After nearly half a year, Ning broke through the 5000th barrier.
“I underestimated these 9000 barriers.” Ning was furiously assaulting the 5001st barrier with his six Northbow swords. This barrier was extremely tough; when Ning first assaulted it, he felt as though he couldn’t breach it at all, that the barrier wasn’t even weakening in the slightest. Only after more than ten thousand strikes did the barrier slowly begin to weaken, and once it did it began to weaken at a very fast rate. In the end, it finally collapsed.
“These barriers… they are strong enough that not even a full-strength blow from the eight lords of the Sacred Cities would be able to breach them,” Ning mused.
The barriers were so much more powerful than his attacks that his strikes were like drops of water sprinkled across stones, having virtually no impact at all. However, given enough time the wind and the rain could wear down even the mightiest of mountains! When the barrier finally dropped down close to Ning’s level of power, Ning would naturally be able to sense it begin to weaken and break down.
“I still haven’t been able to master the eleventh stance of the [Heartsword].” In recent days, Ning had been working on the eleventh stance of the [Heartsword] technique, the ‘Teardrop’ strike.
The eighth to tenth stances of the [Heartsword] represented a tier, while the eleventh to twelfth stances represented a different tier. Each tier represented a qualitative transformation!
Ning was so incredibly talented that in just a few short decades he was able to go from the eighth stance to the tenth stance, but these three stances belonged to the same tier. The difficulty of the eleventh stance, however, was on a completely different level from the tenth.
“I was over-confident. No wonder the records regarding the [Heartsword] stated that the number of people in each generation who could master the eleventh or twelfth stances could be counted on one hand! Even the most talented of swordsmen who have been alive for 108,000 chaos cycles find it hard to reach this level, while I’ve spent just ten or so years on it.” Ning regained his normal calm, then smiled. “In recent years, I’ve been focusing on my Omega Sword Dao – Blood Drop. I feel as though I’ve gained quite a few insights into it. Perhaps I’ll break through with it.”
In the past five years, Ning had unleashed countless strikes with the Omega Sword Dao – Blood Drop. By now, he had more insights into the Blood Drop stance than any of the other four stances, and so it stood the best chance of reaching the fourth stage. If he could reach the fourth stage with his Blood Drop stance, then the power of his Omega Sword Dao – Blood Drop would increase yet again.
“Continue.” Ning continued to furiously strike out with his sword, even though he felt almost like an ant trying to move a mountain.
……
After nearly twenty years, Ning broke through the 6000th barrier.
After nearly a century, Ning broke through the 7000th barrier.
After nearly three centuries, Ning broke through the 8000th barrier.
……
Ning’s [Heartsword] and his Blood Drop stance had yet to make any breakthroughs. Although he had gained some insights, especially after having used the Blood Drop stance so many times and after having spent so much time working on upgrading it, he still hadn’t been able to reach the fourth stage. His improvements were rapid, but it still wasn’t enough. This was a sign as to how hard it would be to reach the fourth stage with all five stances. As for fusing them together into a fourth-stage Omega Sword Dao? How difficult would that be?”
Slash! Slash! Slash! A furious barrage of mist-formed sword energy lashed out in an illusory fashion, stabbing against the final barrier. Finally, an explosion boomed out!
After more than 900 years here at the altar, Ning had finally managed to defeat the final barrier.
“I finally breached it.” Ning revealed a delighted look. He had spent over 900 years furiously assaulting the barrier nonstop. Ning had never done something like this before!
“The ninth command talisman.” Ning walked to the ninth command talisman, then reached out and grabbed it.
“Hahaha…” Realmsoul Polo began laughing from up high, his voice echoing throughout every inch of Crimsonwave Temple. “Daolords, the ninth command talisman for harvesting fruit has already been acquired by Daolord Darknorth! The rest of you need to hurry up!”
“You actually…” Ning raised his head to stare at Realmsoul Polo, shocked.
“The command talismans won’t be won that easily.” Realmsoul Polo looked down at Ning, a smile playing on his lips. “You can rob others of them, but others can rob you of them as well.”
* * *
Book 33, Chapter 16 - Consecutive Deaths
“They can try.” Ji Ning really wasn’t afraid at all. He then raised his head to look at the realmsoul and asked, “Senior, how am I to return to the second world?”
“Simple. Every single world has a map diagram covering the ground.” Realmsoul Polo pointed towards the great floating island Ning had started off on. It was true that the floating island did indeed have a inky circular diagram that was roughly nine meters in diameter, and the diagram was covered with black runes that seemed quite mysterious.
“Just step into that diagram. In ten breaths worth of time, you’ll be transported straight to the throne of the second world. The second world and the first world both have similar diagrams in them,” Realmsoul Polo said.
“Oh?” Ning thought back to what he had seen. Indeed, it was true. However, since Crimsonwave Temple was covered with so many sculptures, paintings, and diagrams, at the time Ning hadn’t realized the inky circle had meant anything.
“To the second world, then.” Ning put away the ninth command talisman, then immediately transformed into a streak of light as he flew down the dais. He first walked past the tri-colored chains, enduring the pain they brought him, then continuously shifted his truesoul aura as he walked past the seven-colored chains.
“The last Voidsea Jadeseal has been seized by Daolord Feich!” Realmsoul Polo’s voice reverberated throughout every inch of Crimsonwave Temple. “All three of the remaining Voidsea Jadeseals have been collected. Daolords, hurry up and do your best to acquire the command talismans. They are far more valuable than the Voidsea Jadeseals, and every single talisman is more than valuable enough to drive Eternal Emperors mad with desire. They represent enormous amounts of valuable fruits… and right now, only five of them remain!”
Ning was still walking on the seven-colored chains. When he heard Realmsoul Polo said this, he couldn’t help but feel so angry that he ground his teeth until they nearly broke. The realmsoul really wanted to just see the world thrown into chaos!
However, the realmsoul had merely spoken the truth. The fruits truly were more valuable than the Voidsea Jadeseals! Even Hegemons grew excited over these fruits, while the Dao Alliance was dazzled by the prospect of acquiring them. In terms of price and value, they were indeed far more valuable than Voidsea Jadeseals! To Daolords, however, supreme Daomerge treasures were naturally more important than anything else, no matter how valuable.
“Only five of the command talismans remain? It seems Ninedust has acquired one as well.” Ning had been planning to head to the second world, but after exiting the seven-colored chains he immediately flew like a streak of light towards the Ninedust Sectlord’s location.
……
Whoosh. “Ah, good. They haven’t arrived yet,” Ning mused to himself as he reached Ninedust’s passageway.
At present, the only person within the passageway was Ninedust and Ninedust alone! What Ning didn’t realize was that when Realmsoul Polo had publicly announced that he had acquired the ninth command talisman, all of the supreme Daolords who had been fighting over the Voidsea Jadeseal in the second world began to grow anxious. “That means Darknorth is probably going to come here and fight with us over the Voidsea Jadeseal as well. His assassination arts are extremely terrifying to deal with. We need to end this faster!”
The battle had already been ferocious to begin with. Once word that Ning might be arriving spread, the battle reached a fever pitch before finally Daolord Feich ended up seizing the Voidsea Jadeseal.
Although he had managed to acquire it, he was a low-key supreme Daolord who was only on par with Fiendqueen Dustrain and the others. The other Daolords weren’t willing to accept this result and so the battle continued.
“Eh?” Ning arrived at Ninedust’s passageway. He immediately saw the rhomboid stone pillar and the words atop of it introducing the [Vitalis] art. When he then looked at the seven-colored chains and the tri-colored chains, he immediately understood that all of the passageways contained the same techniques with them.
Ning had been hoping that perhaps the three passageways would all contain different techniques!
“Ninedust is still inside.” Ning stared at the temporal acceleration cottage in front of the tri-colored chains. Ninedust was inside that cottage. “It seems he has yet to master the [Daoheart] technique.”
In terms of Dao-heart strength, Ning was indeed significantly superior to Ninedust; Ning was a Heartforce Cultivator, after all!
……
The third world, Ninedust’s passageway. Ning sat there on the rocky ground in the lotus position by himself. Due to the barrier in front of him, there was no way for him to step onto the rainbow chains. Each supreme Daolords was only permitted to choose one passageway; there was no way to enter the other ones.
After waiting for four full hours, Ning suddenly opened his eyes.
Whoosh! A streak of light flew towards him, resolving into the form of a black-robed figure who looked at the seated Ning. The black-robed figure said, “Brother Darknorth, I must congratulate you. If I had known things would end up like this, I would’ve joined you in fighting over the command talismans.”
“Brother Winesage, my guess is that most of the other supreme Daolords have joined forces.” Ning rose to his feet. “It looks as though you are still on your own. Why don’t you join forces with me and Ninedust?”
“Haha, why should I join forces with anyone?” Winesage scanned the area. “Darknorth, can you tell me which passageway still has all of its command talismans?”
“That one.” Ning pointed towards the third passageway.
“Thank you.” Winesage immediately flew in that direction.
Just a short while later, Ning saw a large group of individuals be teleported into the third world atop the stone island before him. There were a total of twelve supreme Daolords, with the leader being a devilish violet-robed figure whose eyes gleamed with violet light and who had long, unbound black hair. The other eleven supreme Daolords were clearly following him.
“Darknorth?” When the violet-robed devil saw Ning, he smiled a cold smile. “What a coincidence. We actually ran into Daolord Darknorth.”
“King Paleos?” Ning was surprised. After entering the Waveshift Realm, he had never heard anything that indicated King Paleos was a particularly powerful Daolord. King Paleos was a member of the Aeonian race! He was very low-key, and everyone in the outside world believed him to merely be a second-tier Daolord. The most famous Daolord of the Aeonian race had been King Gorsch… but now, it seemed, King Paleos was also quite powerful.
Boom! Rainbow light swirled around the air above them, forming into the towering figure of a white-robed man.
“All surviving Daolords have reached the third world. Let me explain… the third world has a total of three passageways! Every single Daolord is only permitted to challenge a single passageway. Originally, each passageway held three command talismans within them, with the total value in each being roughly the same! But of course, only five command talismans remain.” Realmsoul Polo’s voice echoed throughout the world.
As the realmsoul was speaking, Ning received certain news from the Brightshore Kingdom. “What?!” Ning was shocked. The Dao Alliance had issued a new Daolord ranking!
In recent years, the Daolord rankings had changed to a shocking degree.
“Daolord Dreamlore ranks number three?”
“King Paleos ranks number six?”
“Daolord Skyaxe died?”
“King Cliffbank died?”
Ning was completely stunned when he saw the new rankings. A total of six supreme Daolords had died in the fight over the final Voidsea Jadeseal, and the Daolord rankings had completely changed. The first was Winesage, the second was Darknorth, the third was Dreamlore, the fourth was Palace Lord Dawnstar, the fifth was the Radiant King, the sixth was King Paleos, the seventh was Daolord Owlblack, the eighth was Ninestone, the ninth was Daolord Skyshatter, and the tenth was Daolord Tigrone…
A brand new group of supreme Daolords had arisen! Many had been very low-key in the past and not very well known, but in the fight over the Voidsea Jadeseal they had revealed their fierceness.
……
King Paleos’ violet eyes were focused on Ning. He said coldly, “Only five of the nine command talismans remain. You, Darknorth, should’ve acquired three of them. Your ally, the Ninedust Sectlord, seems to have acquired one as well… but the twelve of us haven’t acquired so much as a single one, nor have we acquired any Voidsea Jadeseals. Daolord Darknorth, don’t you think this is a bit unfair?”
“Daolord Darknorth.” Fiendqueen Dustrain was behind King Paleos, and she spoke out in a similarly cold voice, “We don’t ask for much. We can forget about the other two talismans, nor will we force the Ninedust Sectlord to hand over his. The ninth command talisman, however… you must hand it to us! Hand us the ninth command talisman and we won’t cause you any trouble.”
“Hand over the ninth command talisman.”
“Hand it over, Daolord Darknorth.”
“Not even Winesage is a match for us. Darknorth, you should go ahead and hand it over.”
King Paleos and the other supreme Daolords all stared at Ning. They were all supreme Daolords. If they were in a smaller group of just four or five, they might be very nervous when facing Ning, but there were twelve of them right now; they wouldn’t be afraid of even Winesage! In fact, they had already battled against Winesage earlier. Why would they fear Daolord Darknorth?
Thus far, the twelve of them had acquired nothing at all. If they were able to harvest the fruits of the ninth command talisman, they would be able to split the harvest and trade for some rare materials from the various Hegemons or the Dao Alliance. In that way, at least, their visit to the Waveshift Realm wouldn’t have been in vain.
Ning frowned. The command talismans represented the fruits of the Crimsonwave Temple, so valuable that the Dao Alliance and the Hegemons were going crazy over them. The ninth command talisman was the most valuable and an absolutely priceless item. Ning was planning on using them to rescue Yu Wei!
Clang! Clang! Clang! Ning’s body blurred as he manifested three heads and six arms. Six streaks of golden light immediately shot out from his back and landed in his hands.
The three-headed, six-armed, white-robed youth stared coldly at the supreme Daolords, six Northbow swords at the ready. “Cut the crap, you pack of fools. Come and die!”
* * *
Book 33, Chapter 17 - Furious Battle
“Quite bold. Daolord Skyaxe was similarly bold when facing me… but in the end, I killed him. A pity. I haven’t had the chance to battle against the Radiant King or Dawnstar yet. If I had, I wouldn’t be ranked merely number six. Come and show me how strong you are, oh mighty second-ranked Darknorth.” King Paleos manifested six arms as well, each arm wielding a strange sawtoothed weapon.
“Surround him and kill him,” Fiendqueen Dustrain barked coldly.
“Darknorth doesn’t have an invulnerable form; it’ll be much easier to kill him.”
“Since he’s courting death, let us give it to him. Once we kill him, we’ll be able to take all of his command talismans.” The supreme Daolords were all boiling with the desire to kill.
Ning’s face tightened as a fierce light shone from his eyes. He glared at King Paleos and said coldly, “So you were the one to kill Daolord Skyaxe?”
“Yes. Otherwise, how would I be ranked at number six?” King Paleos asked.
“Damn you.” Ning was infuriated. There were very few supreme Daolords he was friends with, but Daolord Skyaxe was one of them. When he had been weak and besieged by Daolord Shaka outside Skywood City, one of the eight Sacred Cities of the Dao Alliance, he had begged the Brightshore Kingdom for aid. Palace Lord Soleman and Daolord Skyaxe had immediately come to his aid, and as a result Ning had become friends with both of them.
