Book 33, Crimsonwave Temple, Chapter 19 – Triage

King Paleos, Fiendqueen Dustrain, Daolord Owlblack, and Daolord Dreamlore led the group of nine supreme Daolords in charging straight towards Ji Ning.

One against nine? Not even Winesage would be able to pull that off, to say nothing of Ji Ning. Not only that, even the other supreme Daolords hanging back such as Daolord Tigrone and Daolord Skyshatter were charging towards Ning, seeking to tie him down.

“He won’t be able to stop us.”

“Nobody can stop this many Daolords.”

“Haha, we’re going to make it through.” The supreme Daolords were filled with confidence.

The three-headed, six-armed Ning stood there by himself at the beginning of the seven-colored chains. His six Northbow swords were at the ready, while the nine novessence arts and the heartworld projection covered the surrounding area. He just watched calmly as the host of supreme Daolords charged towards him.

Whoosh! Ning suddenly vanished without a trace.

“Careful, don’t let him ambush you. His assassination art is extremely unpredictable.”

“Be careful.”

They all began to wildly blast the entire area while sending their own secret arts and heartworld projections to contend with Ning’s head-on. As they did so, they continued their charge.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

“We made it!”

“I made it as well.” One supreme Daolord after another landed on the seven-colored chains. As soon as they did so, they were able to sense an invisible force wrap around them that protected them from the battle raging just outside. No combat was possible on the chains.

“Let’s go!” King Paleos charged forwards as well. Clang! Suddenly, a black hole appeared directly in front of him. A moment later, he was blasted backwards with a huge booming sound.

Clang! Daolord Owlblack fought in a barehanded style and was extremely strong in close combat, but just like Paleos he was blasted backwards with an explosion.

“Careful! That’s Darknorth!” King Paleos and Daolord Owlback were both furious.

Ning had to briefly reveal himself while attacking, and he swept the group with a cold gaze. A heartbeat later, he vanished once more. It was very difficult for Ning to kill them, but his defensive sword-arts were so superlative and the Heartsword technique so formidable that it was very easy for him to stop them in their tracks and knock them flying, one after the other.

“I refuse to believe it.” Daolord Dreamlore’s youthful face had a look of cold malice on it as he struck out with his massive two-handed bloodblade.

“Fuck off.” Whoosh! An incomparably dazzling streak of bloody light suddenly appeared. It was like a scene of peerless beauty that would cause those who saw it to be intoxicated by it. Even Daolord Dreamlore himself was completely absorbed and entranced when he executed this attack. This ‘bloodblade’ was a very mysterious and unique weapon. He had been entranced by it, and his Dao was able to truly and fully merge with it.

“Fast! Even faster than me!” Ning was shocked. His swords were incredibly fast, but when he saw that dazzlingly beautiful streak of bloody light he knew that his attacks were still significantly slower in comparison.

Ning’s six Northbow swords struck out in unison. Ning had been able to use merely a single sword to knock Daolord Paleos, Daolord Owlblack, and Fiendqueen Dustrain back, but he didn’t dare to be the slightest bit overconfident against Daolord Dreamlore’s dazzling strike.

Six streams of mist-formed swords struck out, each of them moving faster than a hundred time’s the speed of light.

Clang! Clang! Clang! In the end, he had an advantage in that he only needed to focus on defense. Although the Radiant King and Palace Lord Dawnstar had been defeated by Daolord Dreamlore, they were still able to preserve their lives. In comparison, Ning’s close combat abilities could be described as truly perfect and flawless!

Although he was using the Omega Sword Dao – Blood Drop, in the instant that his sword-light collided it transformed into the Omega Sword Dao – Soleheart. After truly developing the Omega Sword Dao, Ning’s offensive techniques could transform into defensive techniques, and vice versa. All techniques could be instantly converted into different techniques without even the slightest trace or opening.

Boom! Daolord Dreamlore only felt an enormous shockwave sweep past his body, sending him stumbling backwards. A look of shock appeared on his face. This was the first time that his attack had been crushed head-on!

Although Dawnstar and the Radiant King had been able to survive his assault, they had been left in very bad shape. Even if Winesage was to face off against this attack of his, Winesage would be forced to simply defend, given that Winesage was just too slow. Darknorth, however, was able to crush him!

“Impossible. Impossible!” A berserk look appeared within Daolord Dreamlore’s eyes. “Again!” He was filled with the utmost devotion and sincerity towards his bloodblade.

Swoosh! Yet another dazzling streak of bloody light filled the skies.

“Hmph.” Ning’s six streaks of mist-formed sword energy once more appeared as well. They were like the spokes to a giant wheel, and when they stabbed out the quickly began to swivel together to form a massive black hole that smashed directly against bloody streak of light, destroying it and knocking Daolord Dreamlore flying backwards.

“Daolord Dreamlore, you might be faster than me… but you only have a single bloodblade. If you had six, I’d probably find it much tougher to deal with you.” Ning’s voice rang out.

His sword wasn’t as fast as Daolord Dreamlore’s, but at least he was closer to Dreamlore’s speed than any other Daolord. The difference wasn’t as great as it was for the likes of Winesage and Dawnstar! Given that he was able to defend with all six Northbow swords at the same time while using incredibly tough defensive sword-arts, he was naturally able to endure the blow and knock his opponent backwards.

“Damn that Darknorth.” The nearby King Paleos, Daolord Owlblack, and Fiendqueen Dustrain all began to grow anxious. Dreamlore was knocked flying back, an ugly look on his face. After he had defeated the Radiant King and Dawnstar, he had felt extremely confident in being able to challenge the second-ranked Daolord Darknorth… but reality had just slapped him in the face! He could sense the enormous disparity in power between the two of them.

What he didn’t know was that ever since Ning had mastered the tenth stance of the Heartsword art, Ning had already closed the gap between himself and Winesage! This meant there was now a huge gap in power between Ning and all other supreme Daolords which was only worsened by how balanced and flawless Ning’s sword-arts were!

“What should I do?”

“The other Daolords have already made it across. The only ones left here are us.”

“Damn that Darknorth. He’s quite crafty.”

Dreamlore, King Paleos, Owlblack, and Fiendqueen Dustrain were all frantic with impatience. Nine of them had started this charge, and Ning truly wasn’t able to stop all of them at once… but he was more than capable of tying down four of them.

Whoosh. Ning once more reappeared in front of the seven-colored chains. “You shall not pass.” Ning looked at the four of them.

“What should we do? When we attack, Darknorth just hides and ignores us.” Tigrone, Skyshatter, and the others who were holding back and not planning to cross the chains began to grow anxious as well.

Ning completely ignored them. His attention was focused on the four.

Ning knew that it was fairly hard to master the Daoheart technique. As for defeating the 9000 barriers? Those weaker first-tier Daolords wouldn’t pose Ninedust any risk at all.

……

At this very moment, Ninedust was within the floating stone island in front of the second abyss. He was training in the Daoheart technique with his temporal acceleration cottage. He had failed time and time again, and thus he knew exactly what was going on outside thanks to those moments of clarity. “I n eed to speed up. Darknorth is buying me as much time as he can. I need to speed it up!”

Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. Five supreme Daolords appeared before him.

“Ninedust, hand over the Voidsea Jadeseal!”

“Hand it over, Ninedust!”

The five supreme Daolords immediately surrounded and attacked Ninedust. To them, the Voidsea Jadeseal was what truly mattered. The command talismans might technically be more valuable, but they were only of use to Eternal Emperors. No amount of treasures the Eternal Emperors might give them would make any difference if they weren’t able to complete the Daomerge! To them, all nine command talismans weren’t as valuable as a single one of those Voidsea Jadeseals.

Whoosh. The temporal acceleration cottage vanished, while Ninedust transformed into an endless sea of water that filled the surrounding area. Part of the sea coalesced into a humanoid figure that spoke out: “I, Ninedust, swear on my very life itself that I have already used up the Voidsea Jadeseal I acquired. If I violate or betray this oath, may my soul and truesoul be shattered and dispersed.”

His booming voice filled the entire world around them.

“Uh?”

“But…”

The five supreme Daolords who had been permitted by Ning to enter this island were all stunned. Even Daolord Dreamlore and the others on the first island were all stunned.

He already used it up? One of the main reasons why they had so frantically attempted to make it onto the second island was because they wanted to take Ninedust’s Voidsea Jadeseal from him! This was what truly drew their attention.

None of them wanted to believe it, but Ninedust had already sworn a lifeblood oath. That meant this was definitely true.

“Damnit.”

“He actually used it.”

“Just what I was afraid of…”

“He must’ve used it up when we were busy fighting over the final Voidsea Jadseal in the second world…”

“Sly bastard.” All of them felt resentment and regret. Still, all that resentment was of no use. Since Ninedust had already used it up, they didn’t want to waste any more time on him. He had an invulnerable aquaform, after all; he wouldn’t be easily defeated.

“This Daoheart technique… it’s absolutely marvelous. Absolutely inconceivable!”

“The Daoheart technique?” After a brief moment of disappointment, the five supreme Daolords turned their attention to the Daoheart technique. All of them were stunned and wildly delighted, and they quickly began to memorize and train in the technique. Techniques which could be used to strengthen the Dao-heart were truly priceless. This technique alone made their visit to Crimsonwave Temple worth it.