The Dao-tree Ji Ning’s Jindan chaos region was now more than ninety thousand meters tall. His Sword World was incredibly powerful, and the six Violetjewels in his hands were Eternal weapons of ridiculous power. Ning also had the azureflower mist energy reinforcing him, making his body comparable to that of a Daolord of the First Step, and yet…

BOOM!

Ning was sent staggering backwards, but his swordplay remained orderly. He stared intently at the distant golden Oddbat.

“It is simply too physically strong.” Ning felt genuine amazement in his heart. “It clearly has terrible combat techniques, but it is still able to suppress me.”

The golden Oddbat’s wings were spread, but its gaze was turned towards the other cultivators in the distance as it watched those ninety-plus cultivators fight against its many children. The cultivators were slowly gaining the upper hand as the number of black Oddbats began to decline, causing the golden Oddbat to feel rather impatient.

“Hmph, I’ll let you stay alive for a bit longer.” The golden Oddbat let out an ear-piercing screech as it shot out in a solitary arc, seeking to move past Ning and assault the other cultivators.

“What?!”

“Not good!”

The ninety-plus cultivators had all been paying attention to the battle between the golden Oddbat and Ning. They were all shocked to see the golden Oddbat head their way.

They all knew how incredibly fast the golden Oddbat was. Previously, the golden Oddbat had simply been so proud and arrogant that it had stood there without moving, allowing those three World Gods to assault it. It had battled against Ning for quite some time before it began to grow impatient. It set aside its pride, intending to move around Ning and slay the other cultivators instead.

“No running!” Ning let out a loud roar as the Thunderlight Wings suddenly appeared on his back. The Thunderlight Wings fluttered slightly, causing his speed to dramatically increase.

“Halt!” A dazzling, eye-catching streak of crimson-gold lightning suddenly shot out of Ning’s forehead. This streak of crimson-gold lightning moved with incredible speed, far faster than the golden Oddbat itself. The lightning furiously smote the golden Oddbat with a direct blow! This was one of the streaks of [Novessence Thunder] which Ning had mastered.

Crackle! Hiss! The crimson-gold lightning completely surrounded the golden Oddbat’s body. The golden Oddbat was so powerful that it could completely ignore the damage caused by the crimson-gold lightning, but the lightning had a powerful restrictive effect on it. It was like a supreme World God was doing everything he could to keep his arms wrapped around it, causing the golden Oddbat’s movements to be encumbered.

Ning was incredibly fast to begin with, his speed being comparable to that of ordinary Daolords. Now that he was using his Thunderlight Wings, the two were fairly close in speed. Given that golden Oddbat was being slowed down by Ning’s [Novessence Thunder], Ning was immediately able to catch up.

“Damn.” The golden Oddbat was enraged.

“Good!”

“Well done, brother Darknorth!”

“Fellow Daoist Darknorth truly is an admirable figure.”

Shouts of delight rang out from afar, as well as some laughter.

As Ning caught up to the golden Oddbat, his six Eternal weapons struck out like six blood-colored wyrms as he furiously assaulted the creature, once more stopping it in its tracks.

“Everyone, help me out by getting rid of the other Oddbats as soon as possible,” Ning called out laughingly.

“Right on!”

“These Oddbats are easy to deal with.”

“Hurry up, fellow Daoists. It isn’t easy for brother Darknorth to fend off the golden Oddbat!” The cultivators could now see hope, and so they did their absolute best to wipe out the remaining Oddbats.

As for Ning, he continued to battle against the golden Oddbat in single combat while using the [Novessence Thunder] to bind it. The power of that crimson-gold lightning was completely applied to the golden Oddbat’s body, causing it to be slowed down slightly. Ning couldn’t help but sigh in amazement at how tough its body was.

“If I were to use the Elementum Waterflame Gourd and release the lightning it holds, it would definitely release more power than my [Novessence Thunder] possesses.” Ning couldn’t help but secretly sigh. “The problem is that it would just be one level of power stronger. I would at most have the upper hand but I still would find it difficult to actually kill this golden Oddbat.”

The Elementum Waterflame Gourd held two types of Dao lightning. Dao lightning was capable of sweeping aside almost anyone below the Daolord level of power! However, it was only capable of wiping out master-class World Gods in one strike; it was at most just slightly stronger than the [Novessence Thunder] which Ning had put such effort into creating.

When these two types of water-attribute and fire-attribute Dao lightning joined together, they would be significantly stronger, most likely capable of slaying supreme World Gods in one blow! They were capable of heavily injuring transcendent World Gods and have a major restrictive effect on Daolords of the First Step. Alas, the golden Oddbat was simply too physically tough, and its claws, fangs, and tail were comparable to Eternal weapons in might. Even its skin and its wings, some of its weaker body parts, were comparable to Dao weapons. It would be extremely difficult for Ning to injure it with his sword.

“In addition, the Elementum Waterflame Gourd is an important treasure. I spent five hundred and fifty thousand cubes of chaos nectar for it! If I was to use it, everyone would be able to recognize it right away. Elementum Waterflame Gourds are incredibly famous Eternal weapons. If they recognize it… once these cultivators reach the other end of the Sea of Darkness, word of it being in my possession will spread and I’ll probably be in a lot of trouble.”

Although they were currently on the same vessel, a treasure worth over half a million cubes of chaos nectar was alluring for even many Samsara Daolords, to say nothing of World-level cultivators. The reason why Ning had purchased this treasure was to use it as a killer trump card! He would only use it in dire situations, when his very life was at stake. But of course, he also had it since he would need those two types of Dao lightning when training in the second part of the [Novessence Thunder].

“Kill! Kill! Kill!”

“Ahaha, this is fun.”

“Kill them all.”

Thanks to Ning tying down the golden Oddbat, the other cultivators slowly began to gain the upper hand as more and more Oddbats perished.

“Fellow Daoist Darknorth, just hold it off for a while longer. We’ll be ready to reinforce you soon.”

“We’ll be there shortly!”

The cultivators began to pick up the pace in killing the Oddbats.

As for the golden Oddbat, it let out a furious, ear-piercing screech. After having been tied down for so long, it finally couldn’t take it any longer. It roared furiously, “Let’s go, children! Let’s go! Go!”

Boom! The golden Oddbat flapped its massive wings, creating a terrifying spatial tempest as it began to flee off into the distance.

The nine silver Oddbats and the few surviving black Oddbats all hastily fled as well, moving at incredibly fast speeds.

Ning stared as the golden Oddbat disappeared into the distance. He didn’t try to chase it. If he did, he would probably be surrounded and attacked by all of the Oddbats! In addition, these Oddbats were born and bred here in the Sea of Darkness. They knew it better than any cultivator. If Ning really did give chase, he might well be led into and trapped within a dangerous part of the Sea.

“It is over.” Ning let out a sigh of relief. Being able to force these Oddbats into retreating was already an excellent outcome. Ning’s goal was to reach Vastheaven Palace, after all. It wasn’t to kill a golden Oddbat.

Atop the flying vessel.

The cultivators had all returned to the flying vessel, which once more began to accelerate.

“Brother Darknorth, it was all thanks to you that we made it. If it wasn’t for you, we would probably all be dead.”

“Haha, I’m embarrassed to say this, but all this time I felt certain that I was one of the strongest cultivators on this vessel. Now, it seems, brother Darknorth is capable of defeating me in a single blow.”

“We actually encountered a transcendent World God on this trip, eh? This truly is a rare occasion. Come, fellow Daoist Darknorth. Let me offer you a toast!”

The vessel was filled with the sound of laughter.

Transcendent World Gods, when supported by the power of their formation, would be comparable to Daolords of the First Step. Thus, most of them felt certain that Ning was a transcendent World God. What they didn’t realize was that Ning’s own azureflower mist energy was actually far stronger than their formation, which had provided him with just a negligible amount of assistance.

Ning, of course, wouldn’t tell them the truth. This was his secret.

“Without everyone else helping out, I probably would’ve ended up dying after being encircled by the golden Oddbat and thousands of other Oddbats.” Ning also laughed as he chatted and drank with the other cultivators.

The spatial waves within the Sea of Darkness remained as savage as ever. The ninety-eight cultivators continued to fly through the Sea within their vessel, chatting, drinking, and celebrating their victory. But just at this moment…

Whoooooosh.

An enormous, pitch-black opening suddenly appeared within the spatial waves around them. The opening was over a million kilometers in size… and a head slowly began to emerge from within it.

This head was utterly enormous, at least a million kilometers in size as well. Its two eyes were like two enormous blazing suns, and it was staring right at the flying vessel.

“What?!”

“Good heavens…”

“What is…”

The carousing cultivators aboard the flying vessel all stared wide-eyed in horror, as didi Ning. They could feel their truesouls quivering in terror as an incredible, indescribable sense of danger crashed down upon them. This was a warning that the Destiny Sea was sending to them…

Whoosh. The enormous head opened its mouth, causing a pitch-black corridor of spacetime to appear. All of the cultivators were instantly drawn inwards towards its mouth. Ning was the strongest cultivator present, and he tried to activate his Thunderlight Wings to escape, but even he found it impossible to shake off that sucking effect.

The entire flying vessel was swallowed into the spacetime corridor of darkness located within the creature’s mouth, as were all ninety-eight cultivators.

Spacetime was in a state of absolute flux within this dark corridor. Soon, the vessel and all ninety-eight cultivators completely vanished.

The blazing, sun-sized eyes of the titanic head swept the surrounding area with a glance, then slowly shrank back into the enormous dark cavity from whence it came. That enormous dark hole then vanished as well and the Sea of Darkness once more returning to its regular appearance.

However, the ninety-eight cultivators and the flying vessel they had been in had completely vanished from the Sea of Darkness.