《The Desolate Era》Book 8. Chapter 23 –Monsters Executed By The Sword
Advertisement
The azure-robed maiden stared, astonished, towards the nearby Ji Ning. This Ji Ning actually dared say something like this? These words were too…too dominating!
The distant Wanxiang monsters were startled as well. Instantly, a Wanxiang monster howled in rage, “Human punk, kill us all? Just you?”
“You are looking to die!”
“A little human punk like you dares to be so arrogant?”
“Kill him!”
The Wanxiang monsters were all enraged, but they didn’t dare to act rashly. The nearby Dragonwhale stretched his hand out, and instantly, the other monsters all fell silent.
The Dragonwhale looked weighingly at this human youth. Ning’s calm appearance caused him to be puzzled…what abilities did this human youth have, for him to dare to act so confidently? But just now, the Wanxiang Manifestation had indicated clearly…that this youth was indeed merely a Wanxiang Adept.
Many thoughts flashed through the Dragonwhale monster’s mind. In the end, he said in a growling voice, “I’ll give you a final chance to live. Leave, immediately!” Given his fame and prestige, how could he possibly be scared off by a few words from Ning?
“Haha…” Ning began to laugh. He looked at the nearby Mu Northson. “Junior apprentice-brother, tell me, are they or aren’t they seeking a path to death for themselves?”
“They are, indeed, seeking a path to death for themselves.” Northson laughed as well. He knew exactly what this senior apprentice-brother of his was capable of. His [Soulshaker Art] was comparable to a Primal Daoist’s, and even the majority of those six elite Wanxiang Adepts in Northriver Zhou’s group had died due to it, despite having protective treasures which their seniors had bestowed upon them. If it hadn’t been for those treasures, most likely all of them would have died.
These Wanxiang monsters? At most, Ning would spend a little extra time on them.
“Hurry up and depart. Don’t charge straight into the path of death.” Ning’s 729 flying swords hovered about him, forming that jade-white sword of light in front of him. Ning stretched out a finger, gently tapping the jade-white sword. It actually emitted a clear, ringing sound; this jade-white sword of light had actually condensed so much that it was like a real flying sword.
“If you don’t leave, I’m going to start a massacre,” Ning said calmly.
The pupils of the distant Dragonwhale monster shrank, but the light from his abyssal, green eyes brightened significantly. His savage aura began to fill the heavens, and he roared out an order: “Use all methods available to you at full strength and kill these two humans.”
“We were waiting for these words.”
“Big Brother, leave it to us.”
“Let’s go!”
“Slaughter him.”
One Wanxiang monster after another immediately transformed into their true forms. They were avians, they were hooved beasts, they were aquatic beasts…they had jade eyes, they had three eyes…in short, they were all sorts of strange creatures. After transforming into their true forms, all of them emanated a heaven-filling monstrous aura. And then, with savage howls, they charged towards Ning and Northson.
This sight caused tremendous shock to the azure-robed maiden by Ning’s side. She looked towards the nearby Ning, then sent hurriedly, “Are you just bluffing them, or are you really that capable? Nine years ago, you weren’t even at the Xiantian level. It’s only been nine years…these are all Wanxiang monsters. If you aren’t able to beat them, hurry up and run.”
Advertisement
“Little snakey-snake…” Ning pursed his lips into a grin. “You just watch and see.”
Ning gently flicked at the jade-white sword in front of him. Hearing the clear ringing sound, he beamed. “They are nothing more than birds made of mud and toy mutts made from bricks. Junior apprentice-brother, let’s do it!”
Swish!
The jade-white sword in front of him immediately transformed into a gleaming Waterflame Millstone. Moving as fast as the wind, it howled forth.
“Excellent.” Northson’s hands swept out with two rays of black light which transformed into two giant black snakes in the air, which flew over with a howl as well.
A fierce look flashed through Ning’s eyes. The Soulshaker Seal in front of his divine soul, seated within his sea of consciousness, suddenly brightened dramatically. A large amount of divine will surged forth from the Soulshaker Seal. Under Ning’s control, it crushed outwards towards every direction. Savage, turbid waves of divine will roared forth, and everything within its path was struck by the waves of divine will.
The divine will moved at an incredible speed, faster than even the flying swords and constructs. Even before the sword-light had arrived, Ning’s waves of divine will had collided with the souls of those fifteen Wanxiang monsters.
BANG!!! The fifteen Wanxiang monsters were all filled with boundless self-confidence and killing intent, but suddenly, the invisible, formless wave of divine will struck them, causing them to feel as though their souls had been viciously smashed down upon by an iron warhammer.
“How can this…”
“This…”
Even as terror appeared in their minds, they all became dazed.
The sword-light of the ninth level of the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] was incomparably soft and slick. It howled drearily like the wind as it moved forward, first chopping directly through the body of the golden-furred ape. The golden-furred ape didn’t try to resist in the slightest, allowing the sword-light to easily chop through it from head to tail, slicing it in half. And then, still howling forward, it chopped towards the white-furred fox, which was similarly split in half in an instant…
“Kill.” On the other side, the two black water-snakes under Northson’s control also savagely attacked their targets. The tail of one serpent viciously lashed out, instantly disintegrating the body of one Wanxiang monster. The tail of the other serpent tightened around the bodies of another monster, crushing it to smithereens.
…..
Fast!
It was too fast!
How fast was the sword-light? How fast was the flight of the constructs? The Dragonwhale monster in the distance had been watching calmly as Ning and Northson had unleashed their sword-light and constructs, and he had paid them no heed. He believed that the fifteen Wanxiang monsters under his command would definitely be able to resist, and should even have the advantage. “I imagine, these two humans will be killed without needing me to intervene.”
Just as this thought flashed past his mind, he saw, to his astonishment, that in the face of Ning’s sword-light and Northson’s constructs, his fifteen Wanxiang monsters didn’t fight back at all, allowing the attacks to strike them.
Yes, these were monsters. However, it must be understood that if they weren’t using any defenses at all, even Primal Daoists wouldn’t dare to use their bodies to block the sword-light of a Sword Immortal, even if the Sword Immortal was only at the Wanxiang Adept stage.
Advertisement
“Swish!” The sword-light danced, and the constructs danced as well. In but the blink of an eye, the sword-light had consecutively executed nine monsters. The other monsters were all finished with a single chop; only the giant, black-shelled turtle had required two chops. The first chop hadn’t been able to crack its shell; the second time, Ning’s sword-light had shot forward like ‘Chef Ding carving the ox’ 1; he carved in through the seams and the slits, thus executing the black-shelled turtle.
As for the other six monsters, they were crushed into mincemeat by Northson’s constructs. In but the blink of an eye, the fifteen monsters had all been killed!
“No!” The white-furred fox, after being chopped into two pieces, actually reformed, then frantically retreated in terror.
“A Fiendgod Body Refiner?” Ning laughed softly. “You won’t be able to escape.” The rolling waves of divine will once more struck the white-furred fox, and the fleeing fox was once more stunned. The sword-light once more flashed towards it through the air in an incomparably graceful manner, easily chopping her apart. At the same time, a beautiful Waterflame Lotus bloomed next to her, completely surrounding her within. Soon, it ground the flesh and blood of the white-furred fox into dust. Soon, the divine power within the flesh and the blood was used up, and the fox became deader-than-dead.
The fifteen Wanxiang monsters were now all dead!
“Killing Wanxiang monsters really is much easier than killing Wanxiang Adepts,” Ning murmured to himself. “Not a single one of them had any protective treasures bestowed by seniors.”
Complete silence!
The entire wilderness had fallen silent. Ning and Northson smiled in a relaxed fashion, but the nearby azure-robed maiden was completely stupefied. “Fifteen Wanxiang monsters, all of them extremely powerful and at the middle, late, or even peak Wanxiang level. Why is it that when faced with this kid of the Ji clan, none of them resisted at all, resulting in them instantly being killed?”
Because Ning’s divine will had bypassed her, she didn’t realize that Ning had used it to attack at all.
“It’s only been nine years.” The azure-robed maiden looked towards Ning, somewhat dazed. “I’m an Azure Skysnake. I’ve gone to many places and have encountered repeated strokes of good fortune, and have even apprentice myself to a monster Immortal. Only thus did I reach the Wanxiang level. How is it that this kid of the Ji clan…was able to kill Wanxiang monsters as easily as killing a chicken? How could he have become even more powerful than me?”
When the two had battled at Eastmount Marsh countless times, their power had always been roughly equal. The Azure Skysnake had felt quite confident that her power had risen very quickly, but now, it seemed….
……
The distant Dragonwhale monster was both stunned and incomparably enraged. Immediately afterward, however, he calmed down. He stared at the distant Ning and Northson, then said in a low voice, “No wonder you are so confident. You actually have a divine will technique. And you have such a powerful divine soul; when using the divine will technique, you were actually able to affect fifteen Wanxiang monsters with it.”
Ning laughed. Even before joining the Black-White College, his soul had already reached the ‘divine sense’ level. Now that more than three years had passed, he had increased his comprehension of the Dao, his sword-heart had been honed, and he had spent every day of the past three years visualizing the [Nuwa Painting], and enjoying the soul-improving benefits it brought…by now, Ning’s soul would be considered powerful even amongst Primal Daoists. Affecting fifteen Wanxiang monsters at the same time was nothing.
The pressure these fifteen Wanxiang monsters had given him was even less than the pressure those six Wanxiang Adepts of Northriver Zhou’s group had brought! However, this Dragonwhale monster…
Ning felt confident in his ability to handle it, and also completely confident in his ability to flee. However, Ning didn’t feel completely confident in being able to actually defeat or kill it. After all, the opponent was extraordinarily talented, and a Fiendgod Body Refiner with a divine ability. To kill it would definitely be incomparably difficult.
“Hurry up and depart. I’ll spare your life.” Ning stared towards the Dragonwhale monster and spoke in a cold voice.
A cold light flashed through the eyes of the Dragonwhale. After having consecutively killed fifteen monsters in such an awe-inspiring manner, Ning’s words did indeed have a rather frightening effect.
“Do you think you can scare me off by killing those monsters?” The Dragonwhale said hoarsely, “I was born in the Darknorth Sea and have wandered many places. I then entered this region, then arrived in the wild marshes of the Gaol Mountains…I’ve already dominated this region for ten thousand years, and I’ve even battled Primal Daoists on several occasions. You, a puny Wanxiang Adept, want to scare me away? You are dreaming!”
Ning stared into the distance. “Then let’s stop wasting words. Accept your death.”
“Accept death?” The Dragonwhale monster began to roar with wild laughter. His laughter was like the thunder, echoing out to a distance of a hundred kilometers.
BOOM! Suddenly, he disappeared, his body dissolving into mist, then reforming in midair to become an incomparably massive, bizarre beast. This bizarre beast had the head of a dragon, but the body of a whale. The dragon’s whiskers were more than three hundred meters long, and the length of the body of the entire Dragonwhale was more than three thousand meters. And then, the green light emanating from its body suddenly increased dramatically in brightness, and its body actually began to slowly increase to a size of ten thousand meters.
This massive, ten thousand meter long Dragonwhale hovered there in the air, completely covering the skies and casting the land below it into darkness. The vast, endless savage aura from it filled every part of the area, causing one’s heart to shudder.
Ning, Northson, and the azure-robed woman all raised their heads, staring towards it.
“Wow, that’s big.” Northson stared.
“Kid of the Ji clan, are you really…able to handle it?” The azure-robed woman’s face turned even whiter than before.
Ning stared into the distance. “Little snakey-snake…”
“You just watch and see!”
1. This is a Chinese idiom about a chef named Ding who was able to carve up an ox effortlessly.
Advertisement
- In Serial301 Chapters
Tales From the Terran Republic
We tried, you know… We really did. We tried so hard to be… better… We actually were better once. No, seriously. We were enlightened, generous, peaceful… Stop laughing! We were! We were peaceful, dammit! No, I’m not “tugging your winglets.” It’s true! Look, if you’re going to be like that, I’ll just push the launch button right now. See ya, don’t wanna be… Oh, you ARE interested after all? Ok. Hey, I just got word that your captain will be ok. We were able to get him into a med pod quick enough… Of course, we tried to save him. Just what sort of people do you think we are?... Now that was harsh… completely accurate, mind you… but harsh. Anyway, like I was saying, we were a prosperous, peaceful people, and war had been nothing but a distant memory for over five hundred years before it happened... Before Yellowstone happened! You don’t mean to tell me that you didn’t know about that… massive supervolcano? Blew the Hell out of our planet? Two years where nothing grew?… Anyway, that’s what started it, the Sol Wars… Oh, you have heard about those, huh? Well, needless to say, all that enlightened, generous, and peaceful didn’t exactly make it through the two years of complete famine and the wars that followed… Maybe it’s more accurate to say the enlightened, generous, and peaceful among us didn’t survive… (laughs)… You’re right. It does explain a lot, doesn’t it? Probably for the best, though. “Enlightened” and “peaceful” aren’t really all that useful out here in the galaxy at large, are they? That reminds me; thanks for the ship. You guys did a great job with this one. Oh, don’t be like that. At least it was us what got you and not one of the really messed groups like the Harlequin or the Black Angels. We’re just going to take your shit. It could be worse… trust me... Well, anyway, we loaded the life pods down with some good food, and you guys can drink alcohol, right? We put in a couple of fifths in there, too. It’s about forty percent ethanol, so be warned. Most species will want to dilute that. We’ll drop your wounded off somewhere safe once they are stable. Your fleet patrols this area fairly regularly, and we’ll drop the distress beacon right before we jump… Well, It’s been fun and no hard feelings, right?… Oh, you want to know some more? Sure. I got time to kill… Let me tell you about this one pirate and her crew. They’re Terran scum, but they are still… Why do we hate the Terrans? Hoo Boy… How much time you got? *** It’s the thirty-second century, and humanity is now part of a galactic civilization comprised of hundreds of worlds. Humanity has been savaged by natural disaster and war and has been fractured into several separate populations, all of which loathe each other (some things never change). This is a gritty drama-driven rambling tale that swings between action, drama, horror, and plenty of very, very dark comedy. Warning: contains adult situations, absolutely horrible language, bathroom humor, implied ultra-violence, actual ultra-violence, drugs, alcohol, pirates, mercs, xeno prostitutes, moral ambiguity, deranged AI's with identity issues, giant commie space slugs, and a poor little frog girl who just wants to sell coffee. Updates twice weekly on Tuesday and Friday. *** Note: This story can get rough. Those warning tags? They aren't for show. I recently received a review and as a result I want to make one thing clear. Portraying something is NOT endorsing it! Many "heavy" topics are touched upon and just because a character says or does something does not imply that the author feels the same way. I selected the "Anti-Hero Lead" and "Villainous Lead" tags for a reason. Rule number one of this story is "no good guys". A good description of the story is, "bad people doing bad things to worse people". There are a few good characters, here and there, but they are the exception to the rule. If you want a hard-hitting, exciting, gritty sci-fi story that doesn't pull any punches, or shies away from "difficult" concepts, welcome! If you are set on a pure and noble knight that runs around and slays conveniently evil monsters and rescues totally innocent princesses... or your sensibilities are easily offended... You're not going to be happy with this one.
8 694 - In Serial10 Chapters
Returning to a New Era
“You first caught my attention when you stole the Giant’s Sovereignty. “I took note of your ability when you slew the King of Monsters. “And I found myself in awe after seeing you—” “Can you spare me the monologue? Just get me home, you tentacle porn bastard.” “…Okay.” When one leaves, one must also return; but what if the world you left was different from when you left? This is the story of a Returner’s Return to a New Era. It was Earth, but it seemed more foreign than the otherworld he returned from. I do not own the art on the cover. Schedule for upload: Wednesday and Sunday [Days still not specified]
8 194 - In Serial15 Chapters
The Adventures of Tommy Johnny: Stuck In the Void
Tommy Johnny is stuck is the Void. That is it. He just twiddles his thumbs as he floats in the void. (something to do while COVID is going around) (Something everybody is experiencing maybe idk) This story is VERY reader interactive the comments make the story interesting like provide basic essentials
8 160 - In Serial7 Chapters
Silver Imperium
The boundaries of one man's mind are tested when he finds himself falling through the immaterium. Join Silver on his crusade across Warhammer 40,000. See him fight a variety of Xeno foes while shoulder to shoulder with the forces of the Imperium.
8 185 - In Serial169 Chapters
Overlord in Cultivation
The doomsday fell upon the earth when a dragon coffin sealed under a snow mountain for ages shifted, and the civilization of gods and devils began. The whole universe turned into a fantastic new world where everyone could rise to the top through cultivation. A lucky young boy seized the opportunity, and started his journey to be an overlord in cultivation. It is a heart-thrilling and good-writhing fantasy novel full of twists and turns!
8 346 - In Serial51 Chapters
The Errant Otherworlder Watanabe
“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death, taxes and trucks whom transport men to other worlds.” Meet our titular protagonist Haruto Watanabe, a man who has all the markings of a good protagonist for a generic portal fantasy story. As an overworked office worker, to escape from the grips of crippling capitalist alienation, he had taken up to reading many stories where young men like him were transported to other worlds and enjoyed their lives at a most leisurely pace. Armed with genre-awareness and (what he believes to be) a marketable personality which would make him an easy audience self-insert, he longed for the day the isekai express would take him to his long-awaited adventure to another world. When the fateful day came, where the fair yet harsh mistress that is the fabled truck took Watanabe on one last date to the other side, he was most ready to escape his previous life, ready to embark on an errant so great he’d be most overpowered, his heroics so exceptional and his harem so vast that they would barely fit ten or twenty volumes of an overly long novel made by a desperate author looking for quick cash. Lo and behold however, Watanabe instead found himself in a low fantasy world which lacked severely in the department of any game-like systems, cheat skills or easily charmed damsels in distress. In a setting so antithetical to his established genre savviness or any attempts at power fantasy, how will a man like Watanabe, lacking in strength, wits and courage, manage to survive in a land most foreign to him? This is my first time trying to share to the wider world what I’ve written, and I hope you’ll enjoy reading the errantry of Watanabe as much as I enjoy writing about them. I'll be posting one chapter per week on Sundays, along with extra chapters whenever I get the chance to write more than usual.
8 166

