Chapter 44: Ji Ning Battles BetaLeo

The Great Dominator, the supreme existence of the Mangya Kingdom.

Because of him, there was the Mangya Kingdom, the imperial clan and the Twelve Palaces, and this top-tier force rivaling the Dao Alliance and the Eternal Kingdom. Even the most unruly mighty figures would bow their heads before the Dominator.

“How are these new little fellows?” An old man with a white beard and six curved horns strolled over. Around him, time and space began to gradually freeze. Though not deliberately released, the natural trace of pressure was enough to suffocate the mighty figures of the imperial clan and the Twelve Palaces present.

“The new little ones—that one called ‘Waterwalker’ has decent talent; the others are somewhat inferior.” A towering man in golden armor spoke. He was excessively burly; even after shrinking his form, his arms were thicker than his own head, the proportions clearly off. “BetaLeo also said that this Waterwalker’s talent is no less than that of our Mangya Kingdom’s imperial clan or the ancient cultivators.”

“Talent is decent, but he doesn’t understand much.” The white-bearded old man nodded lightly.

“As for those prodigies who fought BetaLeo, they were all easily defeated; none could compare to BetaLeo.” The golden-armored towering man chuckled. “Dominator, BetaLeo is truly skilled in the Dao of Light. Let him enter our Light Palace. I can say here that I will take him as a personal disciple and guide him myself.”

This golden-armored towering man was the renowned Thousand Waves Daolord of the boundless territories, one of the two palace lords of the Twelve Palaces’ ‘Light Palace’, a mighty figure capable of stirring up monstrous waves across the boundless territories.

“Heartforce cultivators are few to begin with. Thousand Waves Daolord, why contend with me?” A figure shrouded in a black robe spoke in an aged voice.

“How many Daolords does your Heartforce Palace have in total?” Thousand Waves Daolord was domineering.

“Though few, each can match ten or a hundred.” The shadowy figure under the black robe spoke.

“Oh? Match ten or a hundred? Let someone from your Heartforce Palace come and compare with me.” A faint light gathered in Thousand Waves Daolord’s eyes.

The black-robed figure was somewhat helpless.

Thousand Waves Daolord ranked among the top ten of all the mighty figures in the Twelve Palaces. If their Heartforce Palace’s ‘Palace Lord’ were here, they could compete. But their Palace Lord had been wandering outside and hadn’t returned for over ten chaos cycles. Now, there was truly no one in the Heartforce Palace who could match Thousand Waves Daolord.

“You will each use your own methods, and in the end, BetaLeo will choose for himself.” The white-bearded old man smiled. “I won’t interfere. Alright, the battle between those two little fellows has begun.”

Hummm~~~

An image condensed in the void beside them, showing the scene on the island in the battle grotto, where Ji Ning and BetaLeo had already met.

“This Northmont is not bad, but unfortunately he met BetaLeo.”

“I wonder how long he can hold out.”

“It depends on how long BetaLeo wants to play.”

The mighty figures all spoke.

They truly valued BetaLeo greatly. Know that over endless ages, Star Island had trained batch after batch of prodigies, but it had been a very long time since such a stir had been caused. This was because BetaLeo’s current level of insight was already extremely high—it could be said that once he broke through to become a one-step Daolord, his strength would immediately match that of a three-step Daolord.

With a little more cultivation to become a two-step Daolord, he would then be able to match a mighty figure at the verge of the Daomerge!

As for others like ‘Gehuo’ and so on, though they could become Daolords at any time, and even though they knew Gehuo was of the Eternal clan, the mighty figures of the Twelve Palaces did not take them seriously. What of the Eternal clan? Even the Eternal Emperor Melobo of the Eternal clan was being hunted down by Vastvoid Daolord.

The insights of Gehuo and the others were far inferior to BetaLeo’s.

“BetaLeo, at this level of insight, it’s time for you to break through and become a Daolord.” The white-bearded old man’s eyes held anticipation.

All the mighty figures watched the void image, watching the battle about to begin.

…

On the island.

A white-robed youth carrying a sword on his back gazed into the distance. In the distance was the broad white-robed, white-haired youth. The white-haired youth’s eyes seemed to contain endless stars, and a single glance made Ji Ning involuntarily affected.

“Formidable.” Ji Ning was secretly startled.

“Northmont, I am BetaLeo.” The white-robed, white-haired youth spoke.

“BetaLeo, I’ve heard of you and have long awaited this battle.” Ji Ning said. Somehow, though they had not yet fought, Ji Ning already felt an invisible pressure. “The stronger, the better. Let me see just what level a World-level cultivator can reach.”

“You should be the strongest among the new batch.” BetaLeo smiled. “I hope you won’t disappoint me.”

“Take out your weapon.” Ji Ning said.

“Take out my weapon?” BetaLeo laughed. “That depends on whether you’re strong enough.”

Though this was Ji Ning’s first time meeting BetaLeo, he had long heard of him. He knew that BetaLeo usually fought bare-handed in close combat; he had only used a weapon when fighting Thousandstar. Thousandstar’s evaluation was: “His strength—only by truly fighting him can you feel it. It will make you despair. I could only rely on a thousand clones forming a formation to make him unable to do anything to me.”

“Whoosh.”

Standing on a rock, Ji Ning shook and manifested three heads and six arms, each holding a divine sword.

“Hahaha…” BetaLeo laughed as he walked through the void, and from afar he threw a punch.

Boom~~~

Heaven and earth collapsed. The fist was like a meteor from beyond the heavens, crushing heaven and earth, falling from the sky and striking at Ji Ning.

Ji Ning’s expression changed slightly, but his battle intent burned even hotter. The other was bare-handed, while he himself held six Eternal divine swords, already at an advantage: “I must force him to take out his weapon.”

“Whoosh.” Ji Ning’s sword moved, transforming into a domineering blood-colored sword rainbow that grazed past the fist.

This seemingly slight graze affected BetaLeo’s fist technique.

“Oh? Interesting.” BetaLeo smiled as he continued striding forward, also manifesting six arms. For a time, fists like meteors, palms like a vast canopy covering the sky, fingers tearing heaven and earth—bare-handed, his six arms completely overwhelmed Ji Ning. Ji Ning’s pride also prevented him from using the Primordial Water-Fire Gourd.

You, BetaLeo, are strong. You’re bare-handed, and I’ve already taken out six Eternal divine swords. How could I still use the Primordial Water-Fire Gourd? If I lose even like this, I’ll be convinced.

“Rumble~~~”

BetaLeo circled Ji Ning, attacking with overwhelming momentum.

…

“Every time I watch BetaLeo fight, it’s a pleasure.”

“Yes, it’s truly unimaginable that a World-level cultivator could have such high insight.”

At the bottom of the Dark Abyss, these mighty figures sighed as they watched.

The white-bearded old man nodded lightly: “Back then, ‘Lixstar’ at the World level had saber arts on par with BetaLeo’s fist arts. But Lixstar only cultivated both divine power and qi.”

“Palace Lord Lixstar?”

“Palace Lord Lixstar was like that back then?”

“It’s not strange that Palace Lord Lixstar had such strength.”

The mighty figures nodded.

The undisputed strongest Daolord of the Twelve Palaces—Palace Lord Lixstar—was the palace lord of the Saber Palace. Though he was a Daolord at the verge of the Daomerge, once in anger, with just three slashes, he killed an ancient Eternal Emperor, instantly shaking the boundless territories. His domineering strength was even greater than that of ‘Vastvoid Daolord’ back then.

The Dominator compared ‘Palace Lord Lixstar’ with BetaLeo, showing his expectations for BetaLeo.

…

“Boom boom boom~~~” Though BetaLeo surrounded Ji Ning with a fierce assault, he could not harm Ji Ning in the slightest.

“With just these tricks, you can’t even wound me.” Ji Ning said coldly.

“You are indeed worthy of my using a weapon.” Six swords appeared in BetaLeo’s six hands, all Eternal divine swords. Instantly, endless light began to manifest around him. BetaLeo, like a deity in the light, wielded six divine swords and attacked Ji Ning again.

His swords were domineering and sharp.

Ji Ning was also forced to go all out.

“Sssss.”

“Such strong sword arts, but the stronger, the better.” Ji Ning grew even more excited. Behind him appeared lightning wings, and he also executed footwork. Each flap of his lightning wings was like a sword technique, and each step was also like a sword technique. His form shifted, forming a system of its own.

At the same time, Ji Ning’s six divine swords, Violetjade, transformed into six blood-colored sword rainbows, each time streaking across the sky, each flash blocking one of BetaLeo’s sword strikes.

“You blocked them all?” BetaLeo was somewhat surprised. Then he spoke, “What do you call this sword art?”

“Over a thousand years on Star Island, I merged ‘Heartlink Thread’ and ‘Starstyle’ to comprehend a defensive technique.” Ji Ning said. “I call it ‘Heartlink Domain’!”

“Heartlink Domain?” BetaLeo was momentarily stunned.

Heartlink Domain was Ji Ning’s highest achievement in sword arts so far.

Heartlink Thread actually represented a certain artistic conception, the artistic conception of defensive sword arts. Just as ‘Heartsword Style’ represented Heartsword Heaven and Earth, and ‘Netheaven Style’ represented a Netheaven world, they all represented a kind of domain. The artistic conception of ‘Heartlink Thread’ was even higher… Ji Ning took this artistic conception and executed the more powerful ‘Starstyle’, also comprehending a kind of domain—Heartlink Domain!

Within the domain, all attacks were blocked, and each defense also carried a twist and an attack. Starstyle was merely a tool, because using the divine sword Violetjade to execute ‘Starstyle’ was more powerful, making it better for blocking enemies, affecting them, twisting them… naturally, the power was stronger, and the effect was better.

This was the truly perfected Heartlink artistic conception…

With this technique, Ji Ning had also defeated the fisherman in the third painting of the Snowscryer Scroll. However, Ji Ning’s sword arts had also reached a bottleneck, so he planned to leave Star Island.

“This is my current strongest sword art.” Ji Ning said. “BetaLeo, I have already deployed my Heartlink Domain. If you have the skill to break my domain, I will naturally admit defeat.”

“Haha, good. You are the first World-level cultivator on Star Island since Thousandstar to make me use a real weapon.” BetaLeo’s six divine swords suddenly disappeared, replaced by two heavy hammers—one black, one white—also Eternal divine weapons.

“When I saw your fist technique earlier, so profound, I guessed that your specialty should not be sword arts. My guess was right; your specialty is hammer techniques, turning fists into hammers? Come on, let’s see if you can break my Heartlink Domain.” Ji Ning was also absolutely confident in his Heartlink Domain. This Heartlink Domain was a defensive sword art designed to overcome the strong with the weak, not to clash head-on with the enemy.

…