The Desolate Era

Chapter 20 – The Slaughter on Viledragon River

Ji Ning stood there by himself on the prow of the ship, staring at the raging waves. He was in an excellent mood.

He had already found his disciple, and the Twelve Monster Kings of the Eastern Flows would probably fulfill his quota of ten great sinners to kill. The only problem was…these monster kings were quite hard to deal with.

“Eh?” Ning suddenly stared towards the distant horizon. Atop the distant shore, a vague group of figures could be seen drawing closer and closer to them. They were moving at an extremely fast speed, and Ning could visibly make out the emblem of a flamewing on their Dao-armors.

“Flamewing Guards?” Ning laughed in surprise. “There’s actually a few hundred of them.”

Crown Prince Qi Rufeng and the others with him within the cabin stared outwards through the window towards the Viledragon River. They were seeking for a place to hide.

“Is that…” The crown prince’s face changed dramatically.

“Hundreds of Flamewing Guards?!” The violet-robed Qi Ruhui’s face instantly turned ashen. Twelve Flamewing Guards had already terrified them, but now hundreds more had come…even Loose Immortals would perish in a situation like this!

“Disastrous!” The crown prince’s face was ashen. He frantically sent mentally, “It must be due to the fact that all twelve of those Flamewing Guards died, without a single one escaping. That’s why they sent so many over this time.”

In the past, during the flight of the imperial Qi clan, the Flamewing Guard had always held the upper hand. It was the imperial Qi clan which had continued to flee; the Flamewing Guard had never before had a situation where all their troops died in an encounter.

In addition, the crown prince, Qi Rufeng, was only recently the leader of their squad; in the past, they had Primal Daoists with them, and it was the clan elders who made the decisions. But now the Primal Daoists were all dead…and the decision-maker was Qi Rufeng!

Qi Rufeng was inexperienced. He had never before encountered a situation where all the chasing Flamewing Guard forces had been wiped out. He had no idea that the extermination of an entire squad would result in such a terrifying consequence.

“A total of three companies…each one led by a Loose Immortal or Earth Immortal, eleven Primal Diremonsters, and over a hundred Wanxiang Diremonsters.” The black-robed princess sent solemnly, “With so many Flamewing Guards in one place…even supreme Loose Immortals will most likely perish.”

“Why haven’t we fled?” The violet-robed princess sent frantically, “That Darknorth is merely a Primal Daoist. Even if he has a high level of comprehension of the Dao and can fight those at a higher level, he would at most be comparable to supreme Loose Immortals. In the face of this many Flamewing Guards, which number three Earth Immortal or Loose Immortal monsters amongst their ranks, there’s no way he can hold on.”

……

Just as Ning was smiling…and the imperial Qi clan was utterly terrified…

The hundreds of distant Flamewing guards joined together into a grand Dao-soldier formation. The three companies were all led by Loose Immortals, who led their Primal Diremonsters and Wanxiang Diremonsters on the distant shore to join form into a a trio of three thousand meter tall flamewing bugs.

Blazing wings, and the body of a centipede.

The enormous three-headed flamewing bugs were filled with unearthly, savage power. Their auras alone caused the surrounding waves to instantly be crushed downwards and flattened.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The three massive flamewing bugs all flew into the river, running across the waves as they threw themselves towards Ning’s ship.

Ning stood at the prow of the ship. He barked, “Hurry up and leave, and you can keep your lives.”

“So you are the one protecting the imperial Qi clan.” One of the three massive flamewing bugs spoke out in a growling voice. “Human, this is the territory of our Flamewing King. How dare you act so wildly here?”

“Don’t waste words with him. Kill him.”

“Kill the human.”

Monsters and humans were enemies in virtually every part of the Three Realms. After all, these two races were the two most powerful races in the current Three Realms.

Ning shook his head gently. Three Loose Immortal monsters? They were most likely only on par with that Loose Immortal, Floatcloud, who had tried to assassinate him. Even all those years ago, he had been able to deal with Immortal Floatcloud. Now that his Primaltwin was a full level of power greater than it had been in the past, and now that his insights into the Dao of the Sword were unfathomably greater than before…killing these Loose Immortals would indeed be as easy as killing a chicken.

Accompanied by three massive waves, the three enormous flamewing bugs charged forward, seeking to attack Ning en-masse and annihilate him at one go.

Ning remained very calm. To deal with hundreds of Flamewing Guards, just by relying on his Dao Domain wouldn’t be enough; he had to actually fight! But of course, it would still be very easy for him.

“Quick.”

“Let’s go.”

“If we dawdle, we won’t be able to escape.”

The imperial Qi clan didn’t dare to hesitate at all. If they did, they would probably die here. As they saw it, no matter how high a level of comprehension Ning had, he was still just a Primal Daoist. In the face of three Loose Immortal monsters and hundreds of Flamewing Guards…it would be incredible if he was even able to block them.

“Let’s go.”

The crown prince, Qi Rufeng, waved his hand and a long shuttle once more appeared by the side of the large ship. Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! The crown prince, the princesses, and the five servants all entered the shuttle.

“Go!” The violet-robed woman waved her hand, and instantly, a series of green bamboo strips flew out and descended from the skies, plunging into the roiling waves.

Swoosh!

The shuttle cruised through the waves, moving as fast as lightning. As for those green bamboo strips, there were hundreds of them, and they all stabbed downwards, completely surrounding the region where Ning and the three giant flamewing bugs were located. The bamboo strips even had bamboo leaves attached to them. The bamboo leaves floated about, causing the entire region to transform into nothingness. Even the surrounding waves had completely disappeared.

……

“Little sister, you, you…!” Crown Prince Qi Rufeng, within the fleeing shuttle, was completely shocked.

The violet-robed princess turned her head to stare at the now-massive bamboo strips. She smirked disdainfully, “What is it? That Daoist Darknorth is merely a Primal Daoist; it’d be impressive if he even had the power of a supreme Loose Immortal. And even if he did, he still most likely isn’t a match for those Flamewing Guards. Since that was the case, we have to use him as best as we can and make him offer up his strength in service to our imperial clan. It can be said that this is the price he must pay for taking Xiaoyu away as his disciple.”

“You…are…AN IDIOT.” Qi Rufeng was speechless with rage. “Given how powerful this Daoist Darknorth is, if he has a school or a master behind him, how are we supposed to deal with them?!”

“So what if he does? Who will learn of this?” The violet-robed princess remained disdainful.

The black-robed princess disagreed frantically. “Little sister, given this Daoist Darknorth’s powerful, he probably has a Celestial Immortal Patriarch behind him. Celestial Immortals are able to investigate the past. When they find out…”

“Don’t worry. So what if they do find out? Even if this Daoist Darknorth has a Celestial Immortal Patriarch backing him, there’s no way that Celestial Immortal will find us. All that Celestial Immortal will know is that Daoist Darknorth was killed by the Flamewing Guard. Perhaps this might cause his school to go act against the Flamewing King!” A look of savagery was in the violet-robed princess’s eyes. “Hmph. Hmph. Perhaps the Flamewing King will be killed as a result. Everything would be worth it!”

……

Ning waved his hand, collecting his ship. Qi Xiaoyu, aboard the ship, was also collected into the Immortal estate he carried with him at all times.

“Hmph.” Ning glanced at the fleeing imperial Qi clan. He watched as the treasures the youngest princess threw out, those bamboo slips, sank into the sea and formed a formation. He naturally understood what the plot was; to trap him here along with the Flamewing Guard. Otherwise…if so much as a single one of the three massive flamewing bugs moved to attack them, they would be in big trouble!

Now that they were all trapped in the formation, all three would undoubtedly join forces to attack him, Ji Ning. Only afterwards would they move to break the formation. This was a scheme to force Ning to fight with full power. And if Ning’s level of power truly was what the imperial Qi clan believed it to be, then most likely the end result truly would be as the princess predicted; he would be able to buy them some time, then die.

Unfortunately…their guess was wrong!

Ning’s school was indeed powerful, far more so than they could imagine. Ning’s master was Patriarch Subhuti, the creator of this entire world! And Ning’s own level of power was far greater than they imagined as well!

“Kill him, then break the formation.”

“Kill him.”

The three massive flamewing bugs didn’t panic at all. They had complete confidence in their ability to first kill this human, then break the formation. It would at most take them a bit of extra time, which didn’t matter; those imperial Qi clansmen were all stained by flamewing venom, and they’d be able to find and catch them later.

“Die.” Ning had an ugly look on his face. He was protecting them, but they had put a knife in his back. How could he not be enraged?

The enraged Ning no longer wished to waste any time; he was going to make the imperial Qi clan pay for what they did.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Ning stood there atop the water, Darknorth swords in his hands. He chopped out three times in a row with his sword-light!

Three streaks of blindingly bright sword-light transformed into three enormous black dragons. The power of the black dragons was utterly unearthly, and they smashed towards the three massive flamewings with utterly catastrophic power.

“What?!”

“How can this be?!”

“NO!”

The Loose Immortal monsters, Primal Diremonsters, and Wanxiang Diremonsters within the three flamewing bugs were all stupefied. They were truly scared silly.

The three black dragons each flew to a different target. They had the shape of black dragons, but they were in reality streaks of incomparably terrifying sword-light. They chopped through the titanic flamewing bugs as easily as chopping through rotting wood. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The hundreds of monsters, including the Loose Immortal monsters, all perished!

Their souls were annihilated!

The enraged Ning’s sword-blows were so powerful that they destroyed flesh and soul alike. In fact, even the Dao-armors worn by the Wanxiang Diremonsters were ground into dust, and quite a few of their magic treasures were shattered as well.

“BREAK!” Ning launched yet another streak of sword-light.

The surrounding formation was a one-use formation. It contained elemental ki and was primarily meant to trap foes. However, Ning couldn’t be bothered to actually disrupt the formation; he just broke straight through it with a streak of howling sword-light, causing the bamboo talismans to instantly shatter.

Swoosh! Ning moved forward in pursuit.

……

Within the shuttle which was escaping at lightning speed, the violet-robed princess had a look of madness in her eyes. “Hmph. Hmph. Perhaps the Flamewing King will be killed as a result. Everything would be worth it! Hahaha, I’m too clever. Earlier, I just wanted to make this Darknorth’s death useful, to buy us some time. But now, it seems as though I, Qi Ruhui, just played a marvelous card.”

“Yes. Quite the marvelous card.” A cold voice rang out.

The crown prince and princesses suddenly shook. They turned their heads to look.

On the other end of the shuttle stood a fur-clad youth.

Ning looked at the three imperial Qi clansmen.

“How can this be…”

They were completely stupefied. They had escaped just moments ago and had said just a few words to each other. Almost no time had passed at all. They had no idea…that Ning would be able to kill hundreds of Flamewing Guards with a single exchange, then break through the formation and chase after them. Naturally, this had taken very little time.

“Senior Darknorth.” Qi Rufeng immediately rose to his feet.

Boom.

Ning’s gaze turned towards the violet-robed princess. Instantly, a streak of sword-light flew out…and the violet-robed princess was instantly ground into dust which flew everywhere. At Ning’s level…just the slightest bit of power was enough to shatter someone’s soul.