The Desolate Era (Web Novel)

“He cannot be permitted to leave this place alive!” Those six lavishly dressed men and women began to shout as well. They knew very that with their formation broken and with the protective, hiding shroud which it had given them gone, they would quickly be discovered…and once Ji Ning escaped, the news would quickly spread and they would immediately be found.

They had to capture back the formation flag to this bewildering formation! Ji Ning had to be executed as well!

“Kill!”

“Kill him!” A large number of servants charged wildly towards Ji Ning as well.

Ning immediately stored the formation flag into his storage-type magic treasure, while at the same time, the wing-type magic treasures on his back immediately activated as he rushed outwards. At the same time, a boundless amount of scorching fire immediately descended, which surrounded those servants and began to burn them, causing the servants to all scream in agony.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Three figures from within the group of servants came pouncing out towards Ning.

“Xiantian lifeforms?” Ning immediately recognized that all three of them were Xiantian lifeforms. “It seems this despicable Immortal practitioner has quite a few Xiantian lifeforms under his control.”

“Kill him.”

“The Master has given the order to kill him.”

These three Xiantian lifeforms were filled with murderous intent. They were all servants of Bei Zishan who were controlled through poisons. They didn’t dare to disobey the orders of Bei Zishan’s orders. Immediately, they transformed into rays of light, streaking from different directions to attack Ning, but Ning simply used his Windwing Evasion technique to move forward and directly clash with one of them, a fat-headed, big-eared, bearded man.

“Raaaawr!” The big fellow was wielding a large hammer.

Swish!

A sword light flashed, and the big fellow rolled to the ground, falling down while clutching his chest, blood staining the ground. In but a single exchange, Ning’s sword had pierced through his heart!

“Little baby.” A hawk-nosed man roared angrily as he charged forward, and as he did, a flash of sword light chopped half his head off, and he died on the spot. The third Xiantian lifeform, an older man, was so terrified, his face changed and he immediately retreated.

——————————-

Boundless amounts of flame descended, and two Xiantian lifeforms had been killed in an instant as well. The third had been so terrified, he had immediately retreated. This caused those six men and women to stare at each other, the looks on their faces unpleasant.

“What terrifying speed!”

“His swordplay is far superior to any of us. No wonder he was able to kill our senior fellow apprentice.”

All of them understand that even if they all charged together, the result would most likely be that single same word; ‘death’.

Right now, Ning was like a life-taking god of death. On one side, boundless amounts of fire scorched those servants, while on his side, he had slaughtered those Xiantian lifeforms. All together, the servants, spirit-beasts, and disciples of Bei Zishan totaled more than ten Xiantian lifeforms.

“Flood Dragon Dao-Soldiers!” The youngest of the six, that handsome youth, suddenly let out a fierce howl.

“Flood Dragon Dao-Soldiers.”

The other five fellow apprentices immediately understood. All of them shouted furiously, while at the same time, their bodies quickly became covered with a layer of black armor. The six of them were now all garbed in the same black armor.

“Rumble…” For a moment, the entire mountain seemed to tremble. This great mountain had actually been hollowed out long ago. Aside from the primary place midway up the mountain, there had been a large number of smaller caverns dug out as well. After all, more than a million commoners were being tortured here. From this number, one could imagine how many caves had been created to hold them.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Like raindrops falling from the skies in a dense cluster, from each mountain cave flew out one deep green armored Dao-Soldier after another. Each Dao-Soldier was covered with complicated, ancient runes which drew upon the energy of the world.

“Dao-Soldiers!” Ning’s face changed. He watched as from afar, a large number of soldiers emerged from the hundreds of caves in the mountain. He immediately recognized them for Dao-Soldiers!

“In addition, these are even more powerful Dao-Soldiers than the ‘Crimson Guard’ of my Ji clan.” Given his experience, Ning naturally could sense the power of those runes on these Dao-Soldier’s armor, causing him to be all the more surprised.

More than ten thousand Dao-Soldiers descended from the skies.

And there were more than ten black armored Xiantian lifeform Dao-Soldiers as well, all charging forward.

“Kill. Kill as many as I can.” Ning understood that he definitely couldn’t let them join forces. He immediately swept out with his wings, moving like a giant Roc towards a location a kilometer away. These Dao-Soldiers were virtually all at the Houtian level, and thus were much faster.

“All of you, die!”

Ji Ning, his face spotted red thanks to the poison, had gone completely insane. In an instant, an enormous amount of celestial fire and boundless amounts of freezing frost descended from the skies, wildly sweeping out in each direction. Ning was currently exhausting all of his power to control water and fire.

“Careful.”

“Assemble the formation!”

Of the more than ten thousand Dao-Soldiers, every nine of them linked up, summoning forth the power of the natural world. Faintly, behind their bodies, the illusion of a dragon appeared. Faced with the attack of that scorching flame and freezing frost, most of those who had linked up just barely managed to withstand the attack, while those who had not instantly lost their lives, especially those who were at the center of the flames and of the frost. The surges of heat and cold intersected, causing even those who had linked up to lose their lives.

“Grand Flood Dragon Formation!”

The ten-plus black-armored Xiantian lifeforms wanted to charge together in formation as well.

“Not good.” In the Aquatic Manor, Ning had seen nine Xiantian lifeforms using Dao-Soldier armors. How could he just stand by idly and permit these ten or so people to do as they pleased?

“Waterflame Lotus, grind them all to death!” In an instant, Ning formed nine Waterflame Lotuses, surrounding nine of those people.

The nine Waterflame Lotuses appeared out of nowhere, each with one petal of fire and one petal of water, one above and one below, and they ground down at their targets.

“Aaaah!” The woman with the viper on her shoulder let out a shrill scry, and was killed, ground into fine pieces.

“Quick.”

“Assemble the formation.”

Although all of them wanted to assemble the formation, of the nine people covered by Waterflame Lotuses, six of them had already died while three were heavily injured. This caused the remaining Xiantian lifeforms to all be shocked…this sort of ability was simply too terrifying. At such a great distance, this man was capable of simultaneously killing six Xiantian lifeforms? Generally speaking, Xiantian lifeforms weren’t capable of long-distance attacks, because they were unable to ride on magic treasures to engage in distant attacks.

The six dead people were quite unfortunate; they weren’t afraid of the fire and water which Ning was capable of controlling, but they hadn’t expected that Ning would execute this ‘Waterflame Lotus’, which contained a hint of the True Meaning of the Dao. If they had known in advance, they would have all immediately prepared protective Dao-seals, and thus wouldn’t have instantly lost their lives.

“Assemble the formation!” The handsome youth’s black armor immediately began to glow with runes, while at the same time those runes which appeared connected with the illusory dragons behind the many ordinary Dao-Soldiers, connecting together into a large whole.

In the blink of an eye, the handsome youth connected with a thousand of the ordinary Dao-Soldiers, and behind him appeared the illusion of a Flood Dragon.

“Assemble the formation.”

“Assemble the formation.”

One Xiantian lifeform after another immediately began to link together with the Dao-soldiers. Some activated a thousand, while others activated five hundred. Although the maximum was a thousand Dao-Soldiers, Ning had killed simply too many of them.

“Unfortunately, too many Dao-Soldiers have died, and we don’t even have nine thousand. Otherwise, once we combined to form the entire Flood Dragon, we could effortlessly kill him.” One illusory Flood Dragon after another appeared in mid-air, resulting in a total of eight illusory Flood Dragons, which were controlled and formed by those eight Xiantian lifeforms and thousands of Dao-Soldiers joining formings.

“But even though we aren’t able to transform into a greater Flood Dragon, he will still die.”

——————————

Deep within the mountain, in that private room.

The green flame continued to flicker in the middle of that ancient, unadorned cauldron. The blood red banner was currently hovering there, as a large number of dread wraiths were howling silently, wildly attacking.

Bei Zishan was seated in the lotus position, his face incomparably sinister.

“This person named Ji Ning was actually able to break my grand formation.” Zishan was both frantic and angry. He himself had been, this entire time, hiding, fleeing, and trying to refine this powerful magic treasure and thus suddenly rise in power. But without this great formation hiding him, there was no way for him to hide at all. In addition, there were still many dread wraiths that had yet to be absorbed. Right now, what he was trying to do was forcibly bring the process to a halt, as he would rather give up the many dread wraiths.

However, this sort of incomparably sinful magic treasure was also incomparably dangerous to make. If he wasn’t careful, he would be devoured by it instead. He had to be extremely careful and cautious, even in an attempt to stop…he still had to kill each and every single one of those dread wraiths who had yet to be refined before he could be killed. If he tried to do it forcibly, he himself would be devoured.

To come to a halt needed time.

“Master, there are less than nine thousand Dao-Soldiers.” From within the mountain, a spirit-beast who had transformed into a human male’s form called out frantically.

“What!” Bei Zishan, currently forcibly repressing his agitation, upon hearing the words from his spirit-beast, immediately grew frantic. “Less than nine thousand Dao-Soldiers? With less than nine thousand, there’s no way to transform into a giant Flood Dragon. Given the power of this Ning, he can absolutely flee.”

Right at this moment, the blood-red banner suddenly began to shake, as countless dread wraiths wildly attempted to break free.

“Not good.”

Bei Zishan forced himself to calm down. He knew that as soon as he lost his grip, those dread wraiths would throw themselves upon him, and he would probably die here today. Bei Zishan immediately made a small bag appear in his hand, which appeared similar to a brocade purse. From within the little purse, a black coffin appeared out of nowhere, which with a thud landed against the ground.

The coffin immediately opened, and a heart-trembling aura emanated forth. A large paw, covered with black fur, grabbed the sides of the coffin, and then sat up. This was a black-furred zombie which had glowing green eyes.

Whoosh.

The black-furred zombie landed on the ground, its body surrounded by a black energy that was visible to the naked eye. The black energy was a necromantic aura, and if a Xiantian lifeform were to absorb it, that person would definitely be poisoned to death. This zombie…was one of the final trump cards which Bei Zishan had. He had worked hard to create it from the corpse of a Zifu Disciple.

“Go. Kill him.” Zishan gave the order. Zombies were neither living nor dead. The black-furred zombie was at the level where it had a certain degree of intelligence. It could recognize the disciples of Zishan, and it could also quickly recognize situations as well as whom its enemies were. This black-furred zombie was already comparable to a Zifu Disciple, and it was extremely dangerous.

“Umm.” The black-furred zombie let out a low grunt, then walked out, then with a single leap, jumped out from the nearly 150 meter deep tunnel.”