Book 34, The Stone Hellephant Wall, Chapter 14 – Surrounded And Attacked

“Move a bit farther away,” Ji Ning suddenly said, his voice ringing out by the ears of Tinello, Maji, and the other cultivators.

“Huh?” The cultivators were all stunned.

“He’s telling you to run the hell away.” Ninedust turned to stare at them. “Once the battle starts, even the smallest of shockwaves will be enough to claim your lives. We certainly won’t be able to pay attention to you and keep you safe.”

“Let’s go.”

“Quickly.” Tianello, Maji, and the others immediately reacted, transforming into streaks of light that flew far away.

Ning raised his head, watching as the six figures flew towards them at high speeds. He manifested three heads and six arms, then drew all six Northbow swords. “Here they come. Good.”

“I’m also curious as to just how tough Emperor-class golems are.” Ninedust had his longstaff at the ready and was also watching.

The six golems in midair all came to a halt. They hung in the air, staring downwards as if they were looking at ants. As Emperor-class golems who had been working for the three great clans since the clans had been established, they had killed many supreme Daolords over the course of countless years. Thus, they were completely confident in their chances.

“Which one of you is Daolord Darknorth?” The swordsman golem stared downwards. Of the six golems, this one was the only one wielding a sword.

“Me,” Ning said.

“You actually dared to challenge the three great clans. Poor kid… do you have any clue as to how powerful they truly are? You really didn’t know your own limits.” The swordsman golem stared at Ning in a rather sympathetic way, then glanced at Ninedust. “And this Daolord next to you. Is he with you? If he leaves immediately, we can spare him. Otherwise, we’ll have to wipe him out as well.”

Back on the ground, Ninedust and Ning exchanged a glance, then smiled. Ninedust said with a cold laugh, “You want to kill me? Give me your best shot and show me what you have.”

“I wanted to give you a way out of this. Oh well. If this is what you choose…” The swordsman golem sighed and shook his head, then said in a cold voice, “Let’s kill them, brothers!”

“Attack!”

“Let me go first!” The six golems moved in unison.

Ning, however, let out a cold snort. Boom! The heartworld projection that had been covering this entire planet instantly shrank down to merely cover an area of a million kilometers, causing its power to skyrocket! It pressed down upon the six golems, causing all of them to feel their bodies stiffen. At the same time, Ning allowed nine energy dragons to fly out of his body, forming into the Yin-Yang Sword Domain and sending the pressure of the domain out towards the golems as well.

“What a powerful binding spell.”

“Why do I feel this heavy?” Upon being suppressed by the heartworld projection and the Yin-Yang Sword Domain at the same time, the six golems were just barely able to stay afloat. They felt as though trillions of mountains had just come crashing down upon them, weighing them down immensely.

These Emperor-class golems had been around for an extremely long period of time and had encountered both supreme Daolords and Heartforce Cultivators. However, the local ‘supreme Daolords’ had always been limited to this fairly small region; there was simply no way for them to find the materials necessary to create truly powerful secret arts! Thus, Ning’s combination of his nine novessence arts and his heartworld projection constituted the most powerful bindings which the Emperor-class golems had ever encountered.

“Heavy.” The six golems exchanged glances.

“Kill him!” one of the golems bellowed, leading the way with a charge.

Crack! A streak of golden lightning lashed out through the skies, instantly appearing before Ning. Ning was quite surprised as well; this attack was incredibly fast! The speed of this golden lightning had completely surpassed the ‘normal’ limit of a hundred times the speed of light, almost instantly appearing right in front of Ning. Within the streak of golden lightning, a sharp saber could be seen chopping straight towards Ning with incomparable speed and savagery.

“Beat it.” Ning didn’t back off in the slightest. A streak of mist-formed sword energy clashed against the saber. Boom! The golden lightning was knocked flying backwards, reforming into a humanoid shape off in the distance. The creature was dressed in golden armor and had jade green eyes; it was the ‘lightning golem’ of the six golems.

Ning glanced sideways at the lightning golden. Judging from the clash, the lightning golem was roughly on par with ordinary supreme Daolords; its main strength came from its speed. Ning’s own sword-arts were also incredibly fast, allowing him to crush this golem.

“Move!”

“Attack!”

“Join forces to kill him!” The other golems began to strike as well.

Boom! An awesome flood of flames manifested, then condensed into a flaming serpent that slithered towards Ning. It suddenly opened its mouth as if about to hiss, sending a black whip coiling straight towards Ning.

“A flame golem?” Ning used his Omega Sword Dao – Blood Drop yet again. His sword was fast enough that defeating enemy techniques was fairly easy, unless the attacks contained a ridiculous amount of power. It was clear that the whip-strike from the flame golem was merely on par with that of a supreme Daolord, and so Ning’s mist-formed sword energy was able to easily disperse it.

……

Aside from the lightning golem and the flame golem, there was also a strange mist golem that was able to block detection via heartforce or godsense. Fortunately, Ning’s heartworld projection and nine novessence arts were not affected. The supreme Daolords of this world rarely had powerful secret arts or heartworld projections, and so once the mist surrounded them they wouldn’t be able to see what was happening around them. As a result, they would be easily defeated and slain.

There was also an extremely deadly eight-armed knife golem. The knife golem had eight arms, and each of its arms was like a deadly knife. It was fast and furious in battle, and each knife-arm struck in an extremely unpredictable manner. When all eight knives struck together, even Ninedust wasn’t able to overcome the attacks in a head-on fight. However, Ning was a sword cultivator who was incredibly skilled in close combat, allowing him to easily defeat the eight-armed knife golem.

There was also a barbarous and dominating golem whose skin was like stone. This stone golem was massive in size and had six arms, with each arm sculpted like a statue. It possessed incredible strength and powerful defenses and was able to take on Ning’s Omega Sword Dao – Blood Drop without being forced back. Its six arms smashed out like giant maces, and it was the physically strongest golem.

Still, Ning was able to use the Omega Sword Dao – Heavenbreaker. Now that his Northbow swords had absorbed so much of that deepfire blackstone, the power of this stance had skyrocketed to a shocking new level, allowing him to defeat the stone golem head-on as well.

The final golem was the leader of the group, the swordsman golem. The swordsman golem transformed into part of an enormous sword when using its sword-arts. The sword pierced through the skies with absolutely terrifying power, and it was the most dangerous attack Ning had to face. Despite all that, it was still staved off by Ning’s Omega Sword Dao – Blood Drop.

The difference in power between the two sides was quite apparent. The six golems each had their own special abilities and were all comparable to supreme Daolords; if they were to work together against the likes of the Radiant King or Daolord Dreamlore, they would’ve won with ease. But against Ning? Clearly, they weren’t enough.

……

Although the above battle took time to describe, the attacks from the six golems and Ning’s counters all happened almost instantaneously. Ning matched each of them blow for blow and defeated them all.

“Daolord Darknorth is much stronger than any other supreme Daolord we have ever encountered. Brothers, attack simultaneously to defeat him!” the swordsman golem shouted mentally to the others.

“Join forces.”

“Same as always.” These Emperor-class golems were quite familiar with each other, and they had a joint attack they used. They almost instantly began to move in unison.

Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. A dazzling streak of golden light, a flaming serpent, and a ribbon of mist coiled around each other, forming a tri-colored rope that then swirled towards Ning. As for Ninedust, he transformed into a vast sea of water which the golems were completely unable to do anything to.

The three great clans did have some techniques they were able to use against supreme Daolords who had invulnerable forms, but these six Emperor-class golems didn’t view Ninedust as being that much of a threat. The real threat was Darknorth, and he was their principal opponent in this fight.

“Damn.” Ning immediately could sense how troublesome this tri-colored rope was. He used his sword-arts to cut through the rope, but the flames, lightning, and mist joined together once more to reform the rope. Ning’s strikes didn’t have any effect on the terrifying binding power of the tri-colored ropes at all. Ning had no choice but to amplify the effects of his novessence arts and his heartworld projection upon the tri-colored ropes, but he was still only able to partially weaken their power.

“This thing really is quite difficult to deal with.” Ning had been completely surrounded by the lightning, mist, and flame-forged rope. Because these things were noncorporeal, Ning was still able to move about and fight, but his combat power had clearly been affected.

If the ropes had been corporeal, this would’ve been much easier. Ning’s sword-arts would’ve sent the ropes flying long ago.

“Catch him, Stone!”

“Give’m a big hug.”

“Make it so that he can’t fight back!” the other golems called out as the six-armed stone golem came bounding straight towards Ning. Its six arms grew incredibly thick and long as it reached out, seeking to grab Ning! Ning knew just how strong this stone golem was; it had been able to endure Ning’s Omega Sword Dao – Blood Drop without even having to stagger backwards at all. If it really did manage to grapple Ning, Ning wouldn’t be able to break free at all.