The Desolate Era (Web Novel)
Book 4: Underwater Estate Chapter 1: His Waiting

Ji Ning slammed onto the ground, but he felt the area around him was so quiet. So terrifyingly quiet.

He couldn’t hear anything at all.

At the same time, his entire body had lost all feeling. The powerful life force within his Fiendgod-like body immediately got to work, and his divine power quickly began to heal everything. The torn muscles and skin on his body, and even his torn intestines and organs began to rapidly heal. Ning’s ears could now hear again, and he gained feeling in his body again.

“Pain. Such pain.” Ning hurriedly looked into the distance. In that moment when he had completely lost all feeling and lost all hearing, he had been terrified.

“Truly too…too terrifying.’ Ning stared at that distant, stooped, black-furred monster which emanated that thick, deathly aura. “That slap’s speed was so fast I couldn’t dodge at all. His strength in turn is far greater than the combined strength of those nine strange giants!”

The black-furred monster stood there quietly, his oily green eyes staring at Ning. He let out a hoarse sigh, which carried an endless resignation and disappointment. “I’ve waited for far too long, so long that I’ve forgotten time. All you need to do is pass the three trials without dying. You don’t need to kill me. You just need to knock me down, to injure me. That’s all.”

With difficulty, Ning climbed to his feet, the ground stained with blood.

“Knock you down?” Ning stared at the stooped, black-furred creature.

“No. More precisely speaking, as long as you can injure me, can break my skin, can make me bleed.” The black-furred creature said slowly, “I will immediately fall down. I’ve already calculated…the last time, when Immortal Juhua was recruiting a disciple, there were ten people who had completed the trials and appeared before me. It was so rowdy. There was one of them, a youth, who relied on an extremely powerful Dao-seal to injure me. But I just took a step back instead of falling down…if I had fallen down, there would have been no need for me to endure these countless, lonely years. Loneliness truly is terrifying, very terrifying…”

Listening to this, Ning held his breath.

The black-furred creature in front of him had actually existed in the era of Immortal Juhua. He definitely wasn’t training the Immortal ways, because there was no way for an ordinary Immortal to live this long. Only by becoming a Celestial Immortal would one truly have an unlimited lifespan, but there was no way a Celestial Immortal would be like the person in front of him. Most likely, a single breath from a Celestial Immortal would disintegrate Ning.

“Master only said that anyone able to injure and knock me down would be considered to have passed this trial.” The black furred creature said slowly in that hoarse voice. “Come. Injure me. As long as you can injure me, I will immediately fall down.”

“Injure you?” Ning’s divine will once more picked up those two Darknorth swords. His severed fingers were reattached. This black-furred monster only watched silently, not interfering.

The black-furred monster looked at Ning, then said slowly, “Come at me full force. Everyone in the countless years who has come before me, I have given them this same chance. As long as a person can injure me, I will immediately fall down. Only…none of them were able to injure me. Not one!”

Ning’s heart shook.

“Only that one time, when Immortal Juhua was recruiting a disciple, did that Dao-seal injure me. Why didn’t I fall down? Just that one time. I missed that opportunity and never had another one.” The black-furred creature spoke very slowly. Tormented by countless years of loneliness, he no longer wished to live.

“Injure him?” Ning was frightened and shocked.

Based on what this creature which had most likely lived since the Fiendgod era was saying, only a single person had ever been able to injure him, and that was through using a Dao-seal!

“These people who made it here over the years most likely also included geniuses who had reached the level of comprehending the True Meaning of the Dao.” Ning felt an unbearable pressure. “What should I do?”

“Come.” The black-furred creature began to walk forward, his body hunchbacked. “Come. Wound me.”

Ning clenched his Darknorth swords.

Swoosh!

Ning suddenly charge into the air, two Dao-seals appearing in his hands. They were a Light Body Seal and a Divine Movement Seal…although he had found many Dao-seals in the storage magic treasures on the corpses, virtually all of them had lost their magic power over the passage of countless years and become useless. Only a hundred or so seals were left, amongst which the Divine Movement Seal and the Light Body Seal were the most common. The two Dao-seals immediately entered his body upon activation.

“Die.” Ning charged upwards, reaching the ceiling of the corridor, then kicked off with his two legs, utilizing the Windwing Evasion as he charged down from the top of the prefecture.

At this moment, Ning had reached the limits of his speed.

“Die!”

Ning’s entire strength was focused on the Darknorth sword in his right hand, stabbing directly downwards.

The stooped frame of the black-furred creature came to a halt, raising its head and staring upwards with its oily green eyes at the downwards charging Ning. He just watched, watched quietly…his eyes didn’t have a hint of life, seeming very slow and numb.

“Raindrop!”

“Pierces Rocks!”

Ning charged downward, the tip of his sword transforming into a drop of water. ‘Drip’. It dripped onto the fur-covered face of that black-furred creature. At this moment, both his divine power as well as his Xiantian ki were being released at full power, and penetrative force from his high speed combined with the ‘True Meaning of the Raindrop’ had formed an extremely terrifying sword…

“Chi!”

The tip of the sword pierced onto the black-furred creature’s face, who simply continued to look at Ning with an upraised face.

“You are still very far off.” The black-furred creature sighed, his oily green eyes filled with boundless disappointment. “I need to keep waiting, keep waiting…as for you, I have no choice but to kill you.”

Ning’s sword had stabbed onto the black-furred creature’s face, but hadn’t left behind any injury. Unwilling to accept this, the Darknorth sword in his twin hands executed the ‘Rain Line’ and ‘Moth Flies Into the Flame’, two great killing strokes, stabbing at the creature’s chest and face, but once again, he was unable to harm the creature at all.

“Retreat.” Ning hurriedly retreated dozens of meters.

The black-furred creature’s stooped form continued to make its way forward, slowly shuffling, but moving dozens of meters with each step. In terms of speed, he was actually even faster than Ning! Whether it was walking speed or attack speed, he was faster than Ning. This was the first time Ning encountered someone faster than him in this corridor of trials.

Previously, he was able to rely on his Windwing Evasion to flee and buy time for himself, but this time, he was not able to do so.

“How can his skin be as tough as this?” Ning was incomparably frantic. Although the other Fiendgod Body Refiners of the Xiantian level who had previously fallen here served as proof that harming this black-furred creature was an incomparably difficult task, Ning still felt a sense of hopelessness after he himself truly used a full force attack and yet was unable to scratch the other’s face.

“Die. Stop struggling.” The hoarse voice rang out, and the stooped black-furred figure appeared out of nowhere by Ning’s side.

Ning’s body immediately became surrounded by three fire lotus petals and three water lotus petals, swiveling slowly in opposite directions and generating a stirring force. But to this black-furred creature, the force generated by the Waterflame Lotus was like nothing more than walking within small rippling waves, unable to budge his body at all.

Ning’s two hands once more executed the ‘Raindrop Pierces Rocks’ attack, stabbing at the black-furred creatures legs and genitalia.

“I’m unable to flee, and defense is useless. I have to find a chance of survival. Killkillkill! Perhaps the other parts of his body have a weak point that I can stab.” Ning definitely wouldn’t just give up.

“Stop struggling.”

The black-furred creature sighed, and his fan-shaped giant palm once more slapped down towards Ning. He couldn’t be bothered to take about Ning’s swords, allowing them to stab on his body as he still slammed his palm down on Ning’s body.

“Bang!!!”

The armor-type magic treasure Ning was wearing instantly split apart, and the giant palm, filled with that dense deathly aura, went straight through Ning’s chest, and then Ning himself was sent flying far, far away.

Bang.

Ning lay there on the floor, a huge hole in his chest. His body had nearly been torn in half. Ning lay there, completely unable to move. Such a huge hole suddenly appearing in his chest had caused his entire body to be paralyzed. He had to wait for the life force in his body to begin to regenerate it, but that needed time. He would most likely need half a minute before he would be able to recover his ability to move again.

But that distant, black-furred creature was already walking over again. Most likely, in just another second, he would be in front of Ning.

“Die.” The stooped figure of that black-furred creature ambled forward.

“No!” Ning’s heart was filled with incomparable ardor, ardor for life. He had died before, and had even gone to the Netherworld Kingdom and had seen Grandma Meng’s Elixir. So he all the more desired life…he didn’t want to go drink Grandma Meng’s Elixir. “What should I do? How can I survive? I can’t even move…right now, all I have left is my divine will. Can it be that I can rely on my divine will to wrap up the Darknorth swords to pierce into the black-furred creature.”

Ning felt hopeless.

Ning knew very well the level of strength the divine will was capable of. When he had killed Ironwood Zhan, he had investigated. Divine will was capable of wrapping up trees, boulders, with a force that was roughly equivalent to a late-stage Xiantian Fiendgod Body Refiner! The power of will made physical was very powerful and very strong. But what good would it be right now?

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“I also have them.” Ning, seeing the black-furred creature draw closer, suddenly thought of something, letting out a heroic cry. “All out, now!”

Huahuahua….

In the area around Ning, one magic treasure after another appeared out of nowhere in a dense cluster. Sabers, swords, spears…thousands of magic treasures hovered there. These magic treasures were all controlled by his divine will, and the blade tips, sword tips, and spear tips were all pointed towards that black-furred creature.

“All of my Xiantian Ki! Let’s go!” Ning had gone completely mad. The Xiantian ki in his dantian fully entered every single magic treasure.

These were all unranked magic treasures that had been left behind by deceased Xiantian lifeforms over the course of countless years. Ning had been able to easily bind them. All of these were usable by Xiantian experts, but generally speaking, Xiantian experts would wield them with their hands. Ning, because he had divine will, was able to use his divine will to wield the magic treasures.

It was as though thousands of hands had suddenly snatched up every single magic treasure, aiming them at the black-furred creature.

All of his Xiantian ki had entered every single magic treasure, causing Ning’s meridians to be torn. Generally speaking, a Xiantian lifeform could battle for a very long time, but Ning had used all of his Xiantian ki to be dispersed amongst thousands of magic treasures, causing the amount to drop.

“Kill!”

Ning’s badly damaged, completely immobile body lay there as he howled heroically with a savage look on his face.

His heroic howl was filled with incomparable ardor for life!

Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Countless sword flashes, saber flashes, spear flashes, and more all shot out, instantly turning the entire corridor into a wall of dazzling white color. All of them were aimed with incomparable accuracy, stabbing out at the same time at the body of the black-furred creature, who had already closed his eyes and spread his arms out.

“Bang….”