The Desolate Era

With the deepfire blackstone carved away, a strange silvery-white material of unknown origins was revealed beneath it. The silvery-white material was completely sealed and seamless, and the countless runes covering it caused Ji Ning and Ninedust to feel a sense of alarm.

“No openings at all.” Ning frowned, sending out his will. Swish! A fog-formed sword sliced out using the Omega Sword Dao – Blood Drop and struck against the silvery-white material. Clank! The power of this strike caused the entire vast Stone Hellephant Wall to tremble, but it wasn’t able to leave the slightest mark behind on the silvery-white material. The Northbow sword launched consecutive attacks against other parts of the silvery-white material, only to fail each time.

“There’s no way to break it at all, and there’s no way for the Northbow sword to absorb it.” Ning shook his head.

“The Stone Hellephant Wall has an outer layer of deepfire blackstone and an inner core of silvery-white material... can it be that the core is completely solid? What in the world was this thing meant for?” Ninedust was puzzled.

“Let’s keep digging!” Ning grinned. “I want to see if the silvery-white object inside the Stone Hellephant Wall really has no openings whatsoever. Even if we end up being unable to discover its secrets, the deepfire blackstone ore alone is still worth quite a sum.”

Ning was quite calm, mentally. He embraced good fortune and misfortune alike! When encountering strange, unknown secrets while adventuring, one could easily fall into danger if one lost mental balance. Death would soon follow.

......

Ning and Ninedust continued to watch from within the endless darkness as the six Northbow swords continuously devoured more and more of the outer layer of deepfire blackstone, chopping the Stone Hellephant Wall up into multiple cubes and spheres that were roughly a thousand kilometers in length. Each time, they only ‘ate’ a thin superficial layer of the ore. Only by doing so would they be able to completely ‘eat’ their way through the entire wall and carve it up.

Time passed, one day after the other. Ning collected every single chunk of deepfire blackstone his swords harvested, causing the outer layer of the Stone Hellephant Wall to continuously shrink in size and reveal more and more of the silvery-white core within. As time passed, the Northbow swords only began to increase the speed at which they ‘ate’.

Two months passed in the blink of an eye. By now, half of the Stone Hellephant Wall had been carved up.

Clank! Yet another giant chunk of deepfire blackstone was revealed.

“Quick, look over there! There’s an entranceway!” Ninedust pointed while exclaiming in surprise.

“An entrance?” Ning’s gaze instantly fell upon the silvery-white core as well. Previously, the giant silvery-white object had been completely seamless. Now, however, they saw a wide passageway that was nearly thirty meters long and sixty meters high! It was completely dark and rather windy, preventing Ning and Ninedust from seeing what lay within.

“There’s actually an entrance?” Ning immediately looked at the opposite end of the chunk of deepfire blackstone that he had just carved out. The ore actually had a passageway within it as well, ending in a door. From the outside, however, there would’ve been no way to see anything at all.

“It seems this is the way inside,” Ning said.

“What should we do, Darknorth? Should we enter?” Ninedust asked. Even a fool could tell that the Stone Hellephant Wall had been artificially created; otherwise, how could it have such a neat and symmetrical entrance?

However, not even Hegemons could produce the vast quantity of deepfire blackstone which made up the outermost layer of the Stone Hellephant Wall. Both of them could sense that the mysteries hidden within had to be absolutely terrifying.

“This was a massive feat in engineering. No ordinary Hegemon could’ve created this wall.” Ning frowned. “Let’s not rush into things. It’s not going anywhere, and it seems unlikely that anyone else in the Great Dark will just so happen to stumble upon this place. Let me finish fully harvesting the deepfire blackstone, then we’ll decide.”

“Alright.” Ninedust nodded as well.

......

The Northbow swords were devouring the ore faster and faster. After merely another month, the entire outer layer of deepfire blackstone ore covering the Stone Hellephant Wall had been completely chopped up into thousand-kilometer pieces and put away.

“Mining complete.” Ning revealed a smile. “Children, have you absorbed enough?”

The six Northbow swords flew towards Ning, with six children seated upon them. “Almost full.” “Master, I need just a bit more.” “A little more and I’ll be full.” By now, the Northbow swords had changed yet again in appearance. They now looked almost black in color, with just a faint sheen of golden light and blue light covering them.

“Alright. Eat your fill first. After eating, accompany me inside to take a look.” Ning looked curiously at the completely harvested Stone Hellephant Wall. It was now completely silvery-white and covered with countless runes which formed a single character. Although he had never seen this character before, he understood that it represented the term ‘Tigerhill’.

The Stone Hellephant Wall only had a single entrance, and it had been so well-hidden that not even Hegemon Welkin had been able to discover it. Ning had only been able to find it thanks to his swords being able to carve the deepfire blackstone apart.

The six Northbow swords plunged deep into the final chunk of deepfire blackstone ore, furiously eating away at it. Just half a day later, they had reached their utmost limit.

“Master, I’m completely full. I can’t eat another bite.”

“I’m not able to eat any more of the deepfire blackstone.” The six Northbow swords were happily satiated and flew straight towards Ning.

Ning grabbed one of the Northbow swords to inspect it. They were now noticeably heavier than they had been in the past, and even the pommel was a bit thicker. The blade, however, was as sharp as ever.

“Let me give them a try.” Ning immediately began to execute the five stances of his Omega Sword Dao while Ninedust watched enviously off to one side. He had a lifeblood weapon as well, but it clearly wasn’t developing as nicely as Ning’s was.

BOOM! Ning delivered a chop with a double-handed grip, causing the dark space around him to completely shatter apart. Even time itself broke apart, rendering spacetime a completely meaningless concept in the region around him! This terrifying strike carried a dense mist with it as it struck, crushing through all things that opposed it. It almost instantly vaporized everything within ten billion kilometers, including spacetime itself. This strike was so terrifying that even ten thousand Daolords facing Ning would perish to it.

“How terrifying!” The Ninedust Sectlord was shocked upon seeing this. “T-t-this strike... even Winesage and his Universe treasure are merely on par.”

“Good!” Ning revealed a look of delight as he clenched his sword. This strike was the most powerful attack Ning currently had... the Heavenbreaker stance!

It must be remembered that previously, the Northbow swords had only enhanced the Blood Drop stance to a significant degree, but even then the raw power of the Blood Drop stance was inferior to that of the Heavenbreaker stance! The Blood Drop stance specialized in speed and penetrative power, while the Heavenbreaker stance truly relied on overwhelming might. Ning had relied on successive strikes from the Heavenbreaker stance to overwhelm and completely destroy the Kingfreak, literally beating him to death.

Now that he had infused his Heavenbreaker stance with the power of the [Heartsword] art and absorbed a prodigious amount of deepfire blackstone with his Northbow swords, his Heavenbreaker stance was comparable to his Blood Drop stance. In raw power, this strike was on the same level as the strikes of the eight lords of the Sacred Cities. This was Ning’s most dominating, devastating strike to date!

“This feeling of overwhelming, crushing power is absolutely wonderful.” Ning felt quite delighted. It wouldn’t matter if his foes used intricate techniques; he would be able to smash through them with dominating force! This was what Winesage had done and how he had been able to force all the other Daolords to bow their heads before him. Even Ning had been beaten to the point where he didn’t dare fight the man head-on.

“Darknorth, your lifeblood swords have improved quite a bit after devouring all that deepfire blackstone,” Ninedust said enviously.

“Yes.” Ning gently stroked the flat of the sword. “This was of great help to my Northbow swords... but the [Heartsword] art helped quite a bit as well.”

“The [Heartsword] art? The sword-art which Emperor Heartsword created?” Ninedust was shocked.

“Yes.” Ning nodded.

“You actually succeeded in training in the [Heartsword] art? I had no idea. Is that why your strikes seem to be filled with sword-shaped mist now? I’ve heard of it long ago, but I’ve never seen it in action myself.” The Ninedust Sectlord was instantly intrigued by this, as the [Heartsword] art was incredibly famous. Unfortunately there were very, very few were able to gain any level of skill in it; thus far, Ning hadn’t encountered a single Daolord capable of using the [Heartsword] art.

“No wonder you are so strong, Darknorth! Ugh, I need to work harder. I can’t let you get too far ahead of me.” Ninedust was filled with a strong competitive desire.

Ning walked over, reaching out to grab what remained of the final piece of deepfire blackstone and putting it into his estate-world. “Let’s go. Time to go inside the Stone Hellephant Wall and see what lies within it.”

“Yes, let’s go inside.” Ninedust looked at the distant passageway as well, his eyes blazing with eagerness. “It definitely holds some incredible secrets within it. Maybe I’ll find a Universe treasure that will acknowledge me as its master! Haha... I would have my invulnerable aquaform for defense and a Universe treasure for offense. I’d probably be even more powerful than you, Darknorth!”

“If there really are Universe treasures, make sure I get one as well,” Ning said as he flew forwards alongside Ninedust. Laughing and smiling, the two moved closer and closer to the entranceway.

After going inside, their faces slowly turned solemn. Ning manifested three heads and six arms and held all six Northbow swords at the ready, while the Ninedust Sectlord advanced carefully with his longstaff in hand.

“I’ll scout the path ahead,” Ninedust said.

“Alright.” Ning nodded. Ninedust’s invulnerable aquaform was indeed far better at keeping him alive than what Ning had at present.

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