The Desolate Era

Chapter 1 – Heart Filled With Murderous Intent

“Don’t think of escaping!” The Bi’An Tiger roared furiously, while at the same time chasing after Ji Ning on water at high speed. But with each step, waves exploded beneath his feet. After all, it had yet to reach the ‘one with the world’ level. It had to rely on its released monstrous energy to forcibly walk atop the water. In addition, it was only a land-based beast to begin with. Naturally, its running speed was even slower!

Actually, even in the mountains, the forests, or the plains, its speed would probably still be slightly lower than Ning’s, much less now, on water! It could only watch as Ning quickly escaped.

“Grrrr.” The Bi’An Tiger could only return. Staring at that ferocious battle going on within that massive formation, the Azure Skysnake King, occasionally expanding while occasionally contracting, the tiger mused, “How can this Azure Skysnake possibly resist the magical formation? No matter how long it struggles, in the end, it will have to submit!”

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The formation called upon the natural power of the world and had unimaginable strength!

This Yin Yang Twin Energy Formation’s power was far beyond the ability of the Azure Skysnake to resist.

“Hahaha….” Ironwood Zhan stood atop the water, pointing at the distant enormous emerald snake, which was currently entangled by those countless streams of black and white energy. “Azure Skysnake, now that you have fallen into my formation, no matter how much you struggle, it is useless. Best obediently surrender and acknowledge me as master. That way, you’ll suffer a bit less!”

“Groooowl.” The Azure Skysnake raised its head, roaring with fury.

“You don’t submit?” Although Zhan didn’t understand, he could sense the Azure Skysnake’s fury and enmity. He immediately laughed coldly, “Azure Skysnake, in this boundless world, it is the human race which is truly in charge! It is the Grand Xia Dynasty who has unified this land! No matter how powerful you are, Godbeast, what can you really do? Even if I release you, others will come to capture you. I think you had best obediently submit to me!”

Ironwood Zhan was speaking nonstop.

But no matter what he said, the Azure Skysnake didn’t pay attention to him, causing Zhan to truly grow angry. “Fine, then. I want to watch and see…if your bones are tougher, or if my Yin Yang Twin Energy Formation is tougher!”

“Crackle…” Black and white energy streams were wildly wrapping about it like a millstone, grinding the Azure Skysnake’s scales to the point of shattering, with its jade blood staining the water below. But this scale-ripping, flesh-tearing pain couldn’t make the Azure Skysnake lower its proud head in the slightest.

Shua!

The Azure Skysnake suddenly shrank to the thickness of a finger, temporarily escaping the entanglement of the black and white energy streams, but immediately afterwards, the energy streams once more wildly wrapped around it.

The energy continued to dissipate and reform without end! How arduous would it be to avoid these energy streams?

“Aaaaargh!” The finger-thick, miniature Azure Skysnake let out a fierce cry, suddenly transforming to an enormous size once again, even larger than Serpentwing! Sometimes large, sometimes small, it continuously struggled. Only in this way would it be able to reduce the amount of time the Yin Yang energy streams ground down upon it. After all, that grinding sensation truly, truly was painful.

At the same time the little Azure Skysnake was struggling, it was repeatedly trying to pounce towards Zhan as well. But the power of the Yin Yang Twin Energy Formation was simply too great, not giving it the slightest chance to draw near Zhan.

Struggling repeatedly, the wounds on its body grew greater and greater. Its scales were shattered, and its jade blood leaked out.

“Yaaaaaaa!”

“Yaaaaaaa!”

One fierce cry after another.

The Azure Skysnake King was still struggling. As a monstrous beast, it was incomparably arrogant. How could it submit to this human in front of it? If it was a human Zifu Disciple, perhaps the Azure Skysnake would have been willing to lower its head, but this Ironwood Zhan wasn’t qualified.

“Huh?” After a long time, Zhan began to frown.

“How is it still struggling?” Zhan stared at the Azure Skysnake, still incomparably wild despite being badly injured and being covered in wounds. “Although only part of the Yin Yang Twin Energy Formation’s power has been released, if it keeps on acting like this, it will be ground to death by the Yin Yang Twin Energy Formation! Can it be that it would rather die than submit to me?”

Zhan gritted his teeth. With a thought, he caused the black and white energy streams binding the Azure Skysnake to begin to dissipate.

“Azure Skysnake!” Zhan pointed at the wounded, exhausted Diremonster. “I relied on the formation to suppress you, so most likely, you aren’t convinced! Then you and I shall do battle. I won’t rely on the assistance of the formation…as long as you can defeat me, I will release you. But if you lose, then you’ll submit to me. Agreed?”

“Yaaaaaa!”

The Azure Skysnake let out a few vicious sounds, then transformed to a length of ten or so meters. This was the most powerful form it could transform into. And then, it pounced towards Zhan!

“Hmph.” A long black whip appeared out of nowhere in Ironwood Zhan’s right hand. The whip had multiple natural-growing sharp nails embedded into it. This long black whip was the magic treasure, “Blackwood Vinewhip”. It was one of the famous magic treasures of the Ironwood clan. With a powerful whipping motion, he sent the whip towards the Azure Skysnake, and it transformed into an enormous black blur.

Shua! Shua!

The Azure Skysnake rapidly dodged, managing to move past this whip.

“Huahuahua…” Ironwood Zhan continued to brandish the long whip in his hand. The whip spun in circle upon circle, covering the skies in countless enveloping circles towards the Azure Skysnake. And then, with a ripping sound, the Azure Skysnake lost yet another piece of scale and flesh from its body.

“Sssssssssssss.” The Azure Skysnake let out a furious hiss. Despite being wounded, it still pounced forward.

Zhan only smiled coldly, continuing to brandish his Blackwood Vinewhip. This wasn’t the first time for him to fight against the Azure Skysnake. He was an expert at using the whip, and was completely able to counter the Azure Skysnake’s agility! However, the Azure Skysnake was capable of fleeing very quickly. In the past, Zhan wasn’t able to do anything about it, but now that the Azure Skysnake was trapped within the formation, there was nowhere for it to run.

“What do you think?” Zhan stood there, long whip dancing, with each whipping blow containing a power capable of cracking a small mountain, causing the Azure Skysnake’s body to crack open on multiple locations. “My strength is greater than yours. You had best obediently submit.”

“Pa!”

The magic treasure’s slammed against its body. Given that Zhan himself was a late-stage Xiantian expert, he was completely capable of suppressing it.

“Swoosh!”

This time, as it dodged past through dancing long whip, the Azure Skysnake suddenly disappeared, and then reappeared a few dozen meters away.

Ironwood Zhan was astonished, but immediately afterwards, his face changed greatly.

“Sssssss…” The Azure Skysnake called out in excitement, while at the same time, with every single slithering motion of its body, it seemed to teleport dozens of meters, if not even farther.

“Die!” Ironwood Zhan’s face was ferocious, and he seemed to have gone insane.

Rumble….

The formation shuddered, and large amounts of black and white energy vicious slammed down towards the Azure Skysnake, but the Azure Skysnake only glanced icily at Ironwood Zhan, then disappeared with another slither.

“Bang!” The black and white energy collided, transforming into large amounts of chaotic energy.

“Damnable!” Ironwood Zhan howled madly, fists waving furiously. “Damnable!!!”

“Void Blink! Void Blink!” Ironwood Zhan’s face was ferocious, and his eyes were red and insane. “This Azure Skysnake is actually capable of using Void Blink. Right. It is due to that child of the Ji clan. That child of the Ji clan has battled against the Azure Skysnake repeatedly…it must be that this has caused the Azure Skysnake to improve, allowing it to reach the ‘one with the world’ level and be able to utilize the Void Blink!”

Ironwood Zhan was utterly enraged.

Although there was only a single Azure Skysnake in the Swallow Mountain area, there were quite a few in the boundless territory ruled over by the Grand Xia Dynasty. Thus, Ironwood Zhan knew very well how powerful Azure Skysnakes were, which was why he so desperately wanted to tame this one.

Generally speaking, Diremonsters were capable of controlling water, or poison, or fire, or son on and so forth.

Even the likes of the Aquatic Rhino King and Serpentwing, non-Godbeast creatures, had this ability. But as a Godbeast, the Azure Skysnake King didn’t have a special ability…

But actually, it still had something!

Only, the Azure Skysnake King’s natural ability was simply too powerful. While it was at a low level of power, it wasn’t capable of utilizing it. Much like how a normal monstrous beast wasn’t capable of controlling water at the Houtian stage but was able to at the Xiantian stage, this Azure Skysnake King’s natural ability had to do with the ‘Void’. Even after it reached the Xiantian lifeform level, it still had to reach the ‘one with the world’ level before it was capable of instantly becoming one with the void, allowing it to utilize the Void Blink technique!

“Void Blink!” Ironwood Zhan ground his teeth. “A Azure Skysnake King capable of developing the Void Blink technique will quickly become incomparably powerful!”

The Void Blink…

This allowed the Azure Skysnake to be capable of going to some very secretive places, and even go steal some of the world’s spirit fruits. This represented that its growing speed was about to enter a phase of explosive growth! Without question, this Azure Skysnake King was about to leave Eastmount Marsh and begin an adventuring journey. After all, only by going to other places would it be capable of acquiring more natural treasures and grow more rapidly in power. If it always stayed here comfortably, it would be a waste of its talent!

“Given the amount of hatred it bears me, in the future, when it returns to Swallow Mountain, it might come looking for me seeking revenge.” Zhan was both furious and frightened.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!”

Ironwood Zhan bellowed in fury, the sound of his roars causing even the water to explode!

He was furious.

“All because of that Ji clan child!” Ironwood Zhan ground his teeth, filled with utter hatred.

If Ji Ning hadn’t caused the Azure Skysnake King to advance so rapidly, how could it have suddenly made a breakthrough during this battle? Most likely, Zhan would have already tamed the Azure Skysnake. Now, he not only had been unable to tame it, he had also offended a powerful future enemy. The Azure Skysnake would definitely remember this grudge!

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The massive formation vanished. Ironwood Zhan collected all eight of the formation flags, then walked out atop the water, a sinister, shadowy look on his face.

“Master.” The Bi’An Tiger transformed into a black-clothed man, flying over. Seeing the look on his master’s face, he knew that the taming attempt had failed. He hurriedly said, “Master, don’t be angry. This Azure Skysnake was simply too foolish. It was its own fault that Master killed it!”

“It didn’t die!” Ironwood Zhan said coldly.

“It didn’t die?!” The black-clothed was astonished. “Then it?”

Ironwood Zhan shook his head. “It actually managed to comprehend the Void Blink technique. It fled.”

“Butbutbut…” The black-clothed man found it hard to believe as well. The Azure Skysnake had actually managed to comprehend the Void Blink technique at the critical juncture.

“All of it is the fault of that Ji clan child.” Zhan said coldly. “His power was on par with the Azure Skysnake. After repeated battles, the Azure Skysnake has improved greatly. Thus, during this battle, it suddenly sensed the world, allowing it to become ‘one with the void’ and use the Void Blink technique! This Ji clan’s child ruined everything. I will definitely strip his skin and rip his tendons. Otherwise, I won’t be able to get rid of this fury in my heart!”

The black-clothed man nodded repeatedly. “Master, don’t worry. Before this, I shot several of my back-spikes at him, which are stained with the ‘Iceflower Liquid’. Some of the Iceflower Liquid has already gotten onto his body. As long as we release the Ice Wasp, we’ll definitely be able to find him.

“Fine.” Zhan withdrew a gray sack from his waist. Loosening the sack, a semi-translucent, gem-like wasp flew out at high speed.

“Pursue.”

Zhan and the Bi’an Tiger followed behind the Ice Wasp at high speed.

After they left, a green snake suddenly emerged atop the peaceful water. The green snake stared from afar, a look of hope in its eyes. After it had battled against Ji Ning so many times, the two of them were evenly matched for so long. In addition, Ning had helped contribute to it being able to break through to the ‘one with the world’ level of movement technique and comprehend the Void Blink technique. It felt some gratitude towards Ning.

“Ssssss….” The Azure Skysnake let out a soft sound. It hoped Ning would be able to escape. It had already done what it was capable of. After all, although right now, he had very formidable fleeing abilities, in terms of actual power, he was far from being Ironwood Zhan’s match.