Desolate Era Book 32, Chapter 21 - The Shadowless Evasion Art

“Die!” Ji Ning’s sword wrapped itself around Sectlord Timedream’s waist, binding him in a soft grasp as his other five swords simultaneously shot towards the Sectlord.
Whoosh. Sectlord Timedream’s entire body transformed to become almost translucent as he became a crystalline shadow, quickly escaping his bonds and fleeing far away.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Ning’s five swords carried all-encompassing destructive force. This was his Omega Sword Dao – Blood Drop, and it destroyed all in its path! The five streaks of light pursued after the humanoid streak of light and stabbed it head-on.
Swish! The humanoid streak of light reformed far off in the distance into Sectlord Timedream. His face was ashen, and he clutched at his chest, a few specks of blood appearing at his lips.
Although he had his dreamform technique, it clearly wasn’t as formidable as the likes of the abilities which the Ninedust Sectlord or Daolord Shaka possessed. The Ninedust Sectlord’s invulnerable aquaform was truly formidable, while Daolord Shaka’s was also superior, allowing the latter to transform into endless streams of light. The strength of a protective ability was in large part dependent on the cultivator’s specific Dao.
For example, Ning’s path was that of the Omega Sword Dao. Although it gave him incredible strength in battle, he didn’t have a special ability like aquaform, lightform, dreamform, the ability to transform into darkness incarnate, etc.
Sectlord Timedream’s dreamform was a bit weak, but it was still enough to allow him to escape from Ning’s hands.
“This evasion art…?” The distant Daolord Snowjoy and Daolord Shaka both turned pale.
“Run, immediately!” Daolord Shaka bellowed mentally, “Snowjoy, we need to flee right now.”
“Is this one of the legendary assassination arts?” Daolord Snowjoy was still gripped by shock and terror. He immediately followed Daolord Shaka in immediately fleeing off into the distance.
“Help me out, the two of you!” After having just barely escaped the last attack, Sectlord Timedream sent mentally to the two of them, “If you work with me, we might be able to withstand Darknorth. If you are willing to help me, I’m willing to split all of the treasures I own with you two!”
“Sectlord Timedream, please pardon us for being unable to assist you.”
“Brother Timedream, you need to come up with something on your own.”
Daolord Shaka and Daolord Snowjoy couldn’t even be bothered to pay any attention to Timedream. They moved in unison, Daolord Shaka ‘carrying’ Daolord Snowjoy in fleeing more than a hundred times the speed of light and quickly disappearing.
Ning glanced sideways at them, not bothering to chase after them. Of the three, Daolord Shaka was the toughest to kill as he was able to move more than a hundred times the speed of light and was also able to transform into light itself; to kill him was extremely troublesome. This was much like how Sectlord Timedream, Shaka, Kingfreak, and Snowjoy had worked together to kill Ninedust, but Ninedust had been able to rely on his invulnerable aquaform to render them helpless. In the end, they had to rely on the redscatter venom to deal with him.
Any and every supreme Daolord was extremely difficult to kill. Generally speaking, they all had extremely powerful life-preserving abilities! Fortunately, the Waveshift Realm served to suppress many spacetime effects, making it difficult for the supreme Daolords to flee. This was the only reason why there was a chance for some of them to perish.
……
As Daolord Shaka flew away, he continued to be surrounded by those six enormous golden plumes. Every single plume was extremely large, roughly thirty or so meters in size. When the six joined together, they curled together into a ball that completely protected him as he fled.
“With this magic treasure surrounding me, Daolord Darknorth won’t be able to breach my defenses and appear right next to me.” Daolord Shaka had an ugly look on his face as he continued to fly at high speed, Snowjoy in tow.
“He actually has an assassination art.” Daolord Snowjoy was still in a state of disbelief. “This type of terrifying evasion art has once more appeared in the Endless Territories.”
The term ‘assassination arts’ referred to arts akin to Ning’s Shadowless evasion art. Many generations ago, there was a supreme Daolord who had come up with this type of evasion art. His evasion arts allowed him to stealthily move close to his foes, and not even godsense was able to detect him. By the time his opponents did detect him, it was far too late! This was quite terrifying, and as a result quite a few supreme Daolords died by this assassin’s hands.
Each time he went out on an assassination mission, his target perished. As a result, the existence of his assassination art had remained a secret. Only much later on did he fail in an assassination attempt, resulting in the existence of his special evasion art being leaked out. As a result, all the other supreme Daolords began to maintain maximum vigilance at all times, making it much harder for him to assassinate any others.
“Starting today, when we’re roaming the outside world we should hide within a flying vessel,” Daolord Snowjoy said. “The flying vessel is protected by wards; even if he wishes to ambush us, he needs to first break the wards apart. There won’t be a way for him to silently sneak up on us.”
“Using secret arts to cover a wide area and assault everything within it is another way to prevent him from drawing too close to us. Unfortunately, Darknorth’s heartworld projection and secret arts are all quite formidable. Even Sectlord Timedream’s heartworld projection was crushed by them.” Daolord Shaka shook his head. “Ugh. This Darknorth fellow is far too terrifying. I’m using my magic treasures to protect us from all sides, but he can stealthily appear right outside them without me being the wiser.”
“Right.” Daolord Snowjoy felt nervous as well. Now that the two of them knew that Ning had an assassination art, both of them felt quite vexed. Anyone who Ning targeted would live in a perpetual nightmare, because by the time they saw Ning, Ning would already be right next to them.
“Timedream is so screwed,” Shaka said.
“Thankfully, his focus is on Timedream and not us,” Snowjoy said.
“If he was to come after us… although we’d stand a good chance of surviving, we’d definitely suffer some serious injuries,” Shaka said.
……
Sectlord Timedream continued to furiously flee as countless strands of silk seemed to swirl around him. Clearly, he wanted to ensure that Ning wouldn’t be able to ambush him again. As he fled, he sent frantic mental please to Ning: “Brother Darknorth, I beg that you spare me. I’m willing to give you all of my treasures.”
“Timedream.” Ning wielded all six Northbow swords in his three-headed, six-armed form as he continued the pursuit. “I was willing to reveal my Shadowless evasion art in front of Daolord Shaka and Daolord Snowjoy, precisely because I wish to kill you! There’s no one who can rescue you!”
Keeping the Shadowless evasion art secret was incredibly important to him, as only when it was a secret would it be fully effective. Once word of it spread, all the Daolords would be on their guard. Although it would still be dangerous, it would no longer be lethally effective.
However, Ning felt confident in his chances nonetheless. He not only had heartforce techniques, he also had tremendously strong close combat abilities! The Shadowless evasion art was a killer move of his, but if it had to be revealed it had to be revealed. If he was strong enough, he didn’t have to worry about his techniques being revealed to all. Even if they knew about his techniques, he’d still be able to crush them in a frontal battle.
“Darknorth, I have many life-preserving abilities. It won’t be easy for you to kill me either.” When Timedream saw Ning draw closer and closer to him, he barked mentally, “Don’t push me too far.”
“I’ll be pushing you to your wit’s end!” Ning actually sped up the pursuit.
“Then go die!” Timedream’s face turned savage as he produced a black stone which was covered with countless golden spots that came together to form a strage diagram. Sectlord Timedream crushed the black stone, causing an overwhelming torrent of power to instantly flood out and form a dazzling halo of golden light around him.
“Eh?” Ning frowned. Swish! He disappeared without a trace.
“Where is he? Where is he?!” Sectlord Timedream was anxious and angry. His heartworld projection was weaker than Ning’s, and Ning was using his own heartworld projection and nine novessence arts to prevent the Sectlord from scanning the area. As a result, he naturally wasn’t able to find Ning’s true location.
“Die!” Sectlord Timedream let out an enraged roar as he caused the dazzling halo of golden light around him to explode outwards in every direction, striking all within their path.
BOOM! Roughly a hundred thousand kilometers away, some of the energy struck an obstacle. Moments later Ning appeared, Northbow swords at the ready. Sword-light gleamed in front of him, transforming into a black hole that allowed him to easily defend against the attack.
“Sectlord Timedream, even if the full power of that strike was concentrated on me, it would only be able to cause me a few injuries at most,” Ning smirked. “As for when its spread out like this? It poses no threat at all!”
The power contained within that treasure was roughly on par with 60% - 70% of a full-power strike from one of the eight lords of the Sacred Cities. Ning was now a supreme Daolord and just one stage away from their level. Even if one of the eight lords personally intervened, they wouldn’t be able to kill Ning with one blow, given the fact that he was protected by the Hegemon armor! An area attack? Completely out of the question.
“Damn.” Sectlord Timedream gritted his teeth, then turned and continued to flee at high speed.
“His evasion art is impossible to deal with. Whenever I take out a treasure, he’ll use this ‘Shadowless’ evasion art and I won’t even be able to hit him!” Sectlord Timelord was turning frantic. “Even if I had a Hegemon-level treasure, I still probably wouldn’t be able to kill him.”
Even the most powerful of treasures needed a target. When Ning used his Shadowless evasion art, he was able to completely and totally vanish. Given that he was able to move at a hundred times the speed of light, he would be able to easily move a million kilometers away in the blink of an eye. There was simply no way for him to aim at or hit Ning. When he unleashed the power in a dispersed area attack, it would quickly become a hundred times weaker than normal.
Whoosh. Ning once more flew straight towards him.
“He’s faster than me, and his heartworld projection is stronger than mine. How am I supposed to escape?” Sectlord Timedream was about to go crazy. He was both slower and weaker than his opponent. His strength lay in heartforce, but Ning was also a powerful Heartforce Cultivator.
“Emperor Waveshift. Damn you, Emperor Waveshift!” Sectlord Timedream felt hatred in his heart. “If we were in the outside world, I would’ve torn a hole through spacetime and fled long ago.” He had plenty of treasures that would allow him to flee through spacetime, and more than one at that!