The Desolate Era - Book 8, Chapter 25 - A Suggestion

“How did he become this powerful? My Fiendgod body isn’t able stop his attack at all?!” The Dragonwhale could feel the ant-like man easily burrowing through his head. The Dragonwhale instantly panicked. “Force him out!”

Ning had instantly burrowed more than three hundred meters deep into the draconic head of the Dragonwhale. Right at this moment, a flood of watery green light suddenly surged towards him from every direction.

“Divine power!” Ning instantly understood; this was the divine power of the Dragonwhale. Divine power was stored in every single part of a Fiendgod’s body. At this moment, with but a thought, the Dragonwhale had sent the tremendous amount of divine power that resided in its head in a flood towards Ning. It was simply too ferocious! Endless amounts of divine power surged out, causing even Ning to shrink back.

“It actually has this much divine power?!” Suddenly, Ning understood that his chances of actually killing this Dragonwhale probably weren’t very high. This was because the amount of divine power contained within this massive body was unfathomably greater than his own. To kill such an enormous creature…one had to have power that was far greater than it, as otherwise, one would only be able to harm it.

“Break!” Ning, after executing the [Starseizing Hand], was incomparably valiant. He burst through the flood-like waters of divine power, charging straight towards the weak spots of the Dragonwhale’s head.

Rumble…

Wherever Ning moved, those two streaks of sword-light accompanied him, wildly hacking and chopping away throughout the insides of the Dragonwhale’s head.

The head was the most central, core part of the body. If an ordinary Xiantian Fiendgod’s head was severely damaged, it would immediately perish. Upon reaching the Blood-Drop Rebirth level (the Zifu level), although they wouldn’t die…they would lose control over their bodies, and would only feel an innate instinct to reform and repair their bodies. After reaching the Wanxiang level, Fiendgods could rely on their control over their bodies to easily change their appearances and shape, but upon the head being damaged, they would still find their control over their bodies being dramatically weakened, albeit they wouldn’t lose complete control. They would only be barely capable of a few simple techniques. After reaching the Primal level, however…they could even separate off a part of their flesh to create a clone!

Fiendgods at the Zifu level were capable of Blood-Drop Rebirth. At the Wanxiang level, they were capable of changing their appearances and form. At the Primal level, they were capable of creating clones.

……

For powerful Fiendgods, pulling out a hair and forming a clone with it was simplicity itself. [1. This is a shout-out to the Monkey King, Sun Wukong/Sun Goku, who in Journey to the West was capable of transforming his hairs into countless clones which would attack his foes.]

To Primal-level Fiendgods, the head was no longer important or special at all. At the Wanxiang level, however…the head was still important. At this level, the divine soul primarily resided within the sea of consciousness; once the head was damaged, the divine soul’s control over the body would naturally be greatly lowered.

“Rumble…” As Ning’s sword-light pierced through the vital points of the head, the entire Dragonwhale’s body began to tremble in mid-air, and then it began to fall towards the ground. While falling, the entire, massive body of the Dragonhead was twisting and twitching.

Northson and the azure-robed maiden watched this below, incomparably nervous. The azure-robed maiden, seeing this, sent mentally to Northson in disbelieving joy, “Can it be that he’s won? Your senior apprentice-brother really is so formidable that he can even defeat the Dragonwhale?”

“Seems so.” Northson was watching as well.

“However, this Dragonwhale is a Fiendgod. He won’t be destroyed so easily.” The azure-robed woman continued to watch, nervous.

……

Within the Dragonwhale’s head. Ning had slashed through multiple vital points; instantly, the resistance ability of the entire Dragonwhale began to drop dramatically. Ning understood that his opponent’s control over it’s body had already become extremely weak.

“Excellent.” Ning’s eyes flashed. “Waterflame Lotus.” Instantly, one enormous Waterflame Lotus after another began to bloom in the surrounding area, beginning to grind and strike at the Dragonwhale’s body. These Waterflame Lotuses were all many tens of meters long, and appeared at the chest of the Dragonwhale, beginning to grind away wildly at parts of its body.

But…

Grind, grind, grind. It wasn’t able to grind through! “Eh?!” Ning stared. They weren’t able to grind through? “Smaller, smaller, smaller.” Ning willed the Waterflame Lotuses to instantly shrink in size, and their power continuously increased as they did so. Six Waterflame Lotuses, each of them thirty meters in diameter, once more began to grind against the Dragonwhale’s body.

“What a freak.” Ning was truly stunned. “The power of my Waterflame Lotuses is now incomparably greater than in the past, but when their power is dispersed too widely, they aren’t able to grind down its body at all. Its flesh and its muscles are simply too tough!”

At a diameter of thirty meters, Ning was able to keep the Waterflame Lotuses at the peak of their power. Clearly, only when the Waterflame Lotuses were at maximum power would they be able to grind and damage this creature.

However…they were only able to grind a little bit of flesh away. How long would it take to grind away a ten thousand meter body? Most likely, the speed of the grinding wouldn’t even be able to match up to the rate at which the divine power of the Dragonwhale would naturally regenerate.

“BOOM!” The head of the Dragonwhale suddenly exploded, and Ning was thrown aside as well.

“What a fellow. He actually discarded his head.” As Ning was sent flying back by the explosion, he felt stunned by the Dragonwhale’s decisiveness. Although the Dragonwhale’s control over its body was very weak, it was still capable of a few simple techniques. A self-detonation of its head was simplicity itself.

The head had completely detonated, and the massive body of the Dragonwhale was sent flying as well. In the process, the head of the Dragonwhale once more grew out.

The Dragonwhale released a furious howl. “RAAAAAAWR!” Accompanying this heaven-shaking roar was its massive, sky-covering tail, which swung directly towards Ning. It was too fast! In addition, this massive, fan-shaped tail, in terms of width, was nearly three thousand meters. Ning was in midair, unable to borrow strength from anything else and not as nimble as he was on the ground. For a moment, he was completely unable to dodge.

If he couldn’t dodge…then he wouldn’t!

“You shall…BREAK!” Ning’s twin Darknorth swords transformed into two rivers of sword-energy. He let out an explosive roar, chopping directly towards the massive tail sweeping towards him.

The massive tail was like a giant fan, blocking out the entire sky. The two streaks of sword-light, however, were like arrows that were going to pierce through the firmament. The two collided!

BANG!!!

It was as though the heavens had shattered and the earth had collapsed. The air itself seemed to blow apart. Fresh, scarlet blood instantly spewed out, seeming to dye the skies themselves red. Ning was knocked downwards like a meteor, smashing into the wilderness below. The desolate land, with a massive thudding sound, instantly shattered apart, with massive, deep crevices appearing in a turtle-shell pattern. As for Ning himself, he was knocked deep underground.

“Human.” The massive tail of the midair Dragonwhale now had an astonishing wound in it. The massive wound, many hundreds of meters deep, had nearly split the tail in half. This wound was currently healing at high speed.

It stared downwards, clearly sensing that the aura of this human, deep underground, was still as powerful and as wild as ever. It didn’t seem to have weakened at all. The Dragonwhale now understood…the enemy was also a Fiendgod Body Refiner. A single blow would at most be able to wound the foe, but the foe could also heal perfectly at high speed.

“I didn’t expect that you are even more powerful as a Fiendgod Body Refiner than as a Ki Refiner. You truly hide your power well.” The Dragonwhale’s voice rumbled forth, and then it transformed into a streak of light, flying far away at high speed. As it left, its formation flags also flew into the air, soaring towards it.

Swoosh! Ning leapt out from the underground crevice, landing on the surface of the ground once more. “He’s gone?” Ning continued to hold the Darknorth swords in his hands, staring towards the distant, departing Dragonwhale.

“Senior apprentice-brother, you actually beat the Dragonwhale monster into a retreat?” Northson was quite excited. The nearby azure-robed maiden, in turn, was completely stupefied. She stared at the Dragonwhale, which disappeared into the distance, then towards that young, seemingly fragile youth, who looked just like he had in the past.

“You…you beat the Dragonwhale into retreating? Is it possible that you actually have a younger twin brother?”

Ning laughed, then replied back, “What’s going on in that mind of yours?”

“How can you be so powerful? I had countless lucky encounters, you know.” The azure-robed maiden stared at Ning blankly. “That was the Dragonwhale…I heard that it was even able to stay alive when facing Primal Daoists. It was extremely powerful.”

“It is indeed strong,” Ning said. “In particular, its body is so massive that the amount of divine power within it has reached an inconceivable level. To kill it? I don’t have that ability at all. Even Primal Daoists…I imagine that only Primal Daoists that were capable of completely dominating it would be able to kill it. Otherwise…ordinary Primal Daoists wouldn’t be able to do anything to it.”

Much like how Wanxiang Adepts could have differing levels of power, the same was true for Primal Daoists. Primal Daoists of the Black-White College, for example, had all comprehended a complete Dao Path before entering the Primal level! Or, for example, Northmont Blacktiger; who was a candidate to be the next Marquis of Stillwater; he gave Ning a sense of incomparably great danger. These could all be considered exceptional figures amongst Primal Daoists.

“If you aren’t able to do anything to it, why did it flee?” The azure-robed maiden asked. “Because he’s not able to do anything to me either,” Ning laughed. “In addition, after I slashed through the vital points in his head, his control over his body weakened dramatically…any Fiendgod who tasted that once would never want to taste it a second time.”

The divine soul could clearly sense the body, but because of the damage to the head, its control over the body was incomparably weak. This sort of feeling was an absolute nightmare.

“In addition, each time we exchanged blows, it came out the worse. Most likely, it felt nervousness in its heart and was afraid that I had something else up my sleeve,” Ning said. “And so…it naturally decided to hurry up and flee.”

“Oh.” The azure-robed maiden nodded. At the same time, she couldn’t help but feel admiration for Ning. Her eyes flashed as she stared towards Ning; he was too powerful. When he had fough against her, he had merely been at the Houtian level. But now, he was actually as powerful as this; even the Dragonwhale who she thought was invincible had been beaten off by him. The other ten-plus Wanxiang monsters had been killed as easily as chickens.

“Actually, if we kept on fighting, I would’ve left if he didn’t,” Ning said with a sigh. Although by relying on the [Starseizing Hand], he could unleash shockingly great power, this divine ability…it used up far too much divine power. Its power vastly surpassed divine abilities like ‘Heavenly Transformation’, and by multiple levels, at that! This was why Ning could explode with such strength, but the amount of divine power it consumed was also incomparably astonishing. Ning was unable to fight for long periods of time with it.

“Senior apprentice-brother, enough of that,” Northson smirked. “I can’t stand to hear you keep talking with such modesty. Just now, it was a peak Wanxiang-level Fiendgod cultivator, and a Dragonwhale Godbeast with a divine ability at that.”

Ning blinked.

“Hey, kid of the Ji clan!” The azure-robed maiden suddenly called out to him. “Eh?” Ning turned to look. “Little snakey-snake, what is it?”

“Do you have any spirit-beasts by your side? How about I join you?” The azure-robed maiden came up with this suggestion. “I’m an Azure Skysnake; we grow extremely quickly, and I’m skilled in discovering precious treasure troves…when you want to teleport, you have to use Lesser Teleportation Dao-seals, but for me, it is as simple as breathing. In addition, when I’m at a higher level of comprehension in the future, those large, spacelock formations will be unable to affect me.”

Ning blinked.

“Uh, actually, I already have a spirit-beast.”