Book 37, Flamewing God, Chapter 5 – Foreordained Results
“Chase him down!” Ji Ning and his Whitethaw both transformed into streaks of light, chasing at high speed while staying on the ground-level of the flaming tunnels. However, the escaping realmship was moving farther and farther away from them.
“It’s too fast. The realmship is able to fly much faster than we can.” Ning stared off into the distance, his face tense as he continued the pursuit.
“Don’t worry, Master. The passageways are filled with traps and mechanisms. If he moves slowly and carefully he can avoid some of them, but he’s flying like a madman! He covers a hundred million kilometers in an instant without even looking at what’s up ahead. He’ll definitely run into some of them. Once they activate, they’ll slow him down if not kill him outright,” Whitethaw said.
Ning nodded. They were supposed to travel through a dangerous place like this with caution. The only reason why Ning dared to run forward at full speed was because Whitethaw was blocking for him up ahead.
“Archon Silksnow is protected by the realmship. That’s why he dares to fly about like a madman,” Ning mused.
Boom! Suddenly, a blast of power burst out from up ahead. Ning saw that a region of ten thousand kilometers up ahead had been trapped within a spatial vortex. The rippling spatial vortex manifested circles of light that howled through the area and chopped through everything within it. Each circle of light was like an incredibly sharp buzzsaw.
The howling buzzsaws of light turned that entire region of ten thousand kilometers into a deathtrap.
“Good.” The distant Archon Silksnow noticed what had happened behind him. He instantly felt a great sense of delight: “Die! Die! The only reason why I dare to move so fast is because I’m in a realmship. How dare the two of them chase that quickly? They tripped a trap, eh? A pity that only the golem fell into that trap. It’d be perfect if Daolord Darknorth fell in as well.”
“GWAAAAR!” Faced with all those buzzsaws of light, Whitethaw raised his head and let out a furious bellow. He then lifted his fists up high, them brought them smashing down towards the ground with his full power.
BOOM! The rippling region of space began to shudder after receiving this titanic strike. As the space began to crumble, even the buzzsaws of light began to vanish.
“What?!” The fleeing Archon Silksnow was unable to accept this. “Even his golem is that powerful?!”
……
Whitethaw led the way and Ning followed from behind. Whitethaw was able to attack with both dominating power as well as supreme flexibility. Even Hegemons would envy his physical gifts! He was simply incredibly good at staying alive. This was why he had survived even though his original Sithe master had perished. Although he was perhaps inferior in terms of power and attacking techniques when compared to Black Emperors, he was even tougher and more resilient than them. This was why the Sithe named these types of golems ‘Protector’ golems.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Whitethaw barreled through one barrier after another, and none of the eight he rammed through were able to do anything to him.
BANG! Suddenly, a loud explosion rang out from afar as a jade-green burst of light erupted. It was like dazzling jade moonlight, filled with satin-like gentleness. When the fleeing realmship rammed into into the jade-green light, the power of the jade moonlight was fully released. The jadeship was instantly smashed backwards and sent tumbling through the air.
“That’s more like it. We already ran into eight of those things. How could you run into none while flying through the air?” Ning was delighted upon seeing this. “The most dangerous traps the Sithe created were all placed in the skies.”
The realmship continued to careen backwards through the air. The traps in the air truly were incredibly powerful. “W-what the hell was…” As the realmship was smashed backwards, Archon Silksnow was briefly dizzied by the force of the collision as well. After recovering, he hurriedly took control of the realmship once more to continue his flight.
“He’s catching up.” Archon Silksnow couldn’t help but frown when he saw the two figures chasing after him from behind. “I was able to pull away from them, but they just closed the distance in an instant. Ugh… Daolord Darknorth’s golem is incredibly strong. Its able to rip through all of those formations with raw force, while my realmship has no offensive capabilities and can only endure those attacks passively.”
Whitethaw actively attacked and destroyed the traps and barriers he encountered while continuing his advance. The realmship, however, could do nothing but passively endure the attacks it encountered. Each time, it would be sent flying backwards. This had a dramatic affect on its speed. Was Archon Silksnow supposed to charge out and attack the traps like how the golem had? He didn’t have that level of courage.
“I refuse to believe it. The Jadefire Realm is filled with many dangers. The Sithe filled this place with mechanisms and traps! There’s no way that a single golem will be able to burst through all of them. Once his golem is destroyed, he’ll have to rely on himself to take on those dangers.” Archon Silksnow still felt that success was within his grasp. In truth, this was part of his plan as well.
He had prepared multiple plans to deal with Ning. The first was for him to wait for Ning to launch the attack! Alas, Ning’s sudden usage of the illusory [Unfettered Dreamlands] had completely ruined that play, forcing him to actively set off the trap in advance. Unfortunately, he still hadn’t been able to kill Ning.
His second plan was to rely on the realmship to flee. The realmship was incredibly sturdy and good at keeping its occupants alive. If Ning dared to chase, if he wasn’t careful he would hit one of the traps and would end up dying. Archon Silksnow’s realmship, however, would be able to endure the hits.
And of course, he had a third ‘desperation’ plan…
“I hope I never have to use the third plan.” Archon Silksnow looked at the two streaks of light chasing after him, a mixed look in his oily green eyes. “Daolord Darknorth has always outperformed my expectations. I made so many preparations to set up the stage for his death, but he actually reached an incredibly terrifying level in illusions! He’s also gained an insanely strong golem. Judging from how it has burst through those traps with such ease, this golem is definitely far more powerful than me. Where in the world did Daolord Darknorth find such a golem?”
……
The realmship continued to flee. Ning and Whitethaw continued to chase.
Given how both sides were moving at maximum speed without carefully examining the dangers up ahead, they naturally ran into one trap after another. Ning and Whitethaw ran into more of them, and the realmship ran into fewer. Ning, however, wasn’t slowed down by the traps he found. The realmship, in contrast, was. As a result, the realmship hadn’t been able to shake Ning off, and the two remained fairly close to each other.
This pursuit lasted for two full days.
Whoosh. As the speeding realmship passed through the flaming passageways, it suddenly encountered some sort of invisible power that was extremely sticky in nature. It instantly wrapped itself around the realmship, causing it to dramatically slow in speed before finally coming to a complete halt… and then be pulled backwards and then forwards as if it was oscillating.
After just two oscillations, it came to a complete halt and was stuck there in midair.
“What’s going on?” Archon Silksnow stared in shock from within the realmship. “Move! Move! Hurry up and move!” He tried to will the realmship into moving, but he felt as though the entire ship had been trapped by some sort of invisible force that prevented it from moving at all.
“Have I been trapped?” Archon Silksnow grew anxious. “Break through!” With but a thought, he summoned a saber to manifest outside the realmship. He didn’t dare to go outside the realmship himself, as the realmship had clearly been trapped; if he exited it, he might very well die. He used the saber to try and tear through the invisible force binding him from outside, but as soon as the saber appeared it also became bound by the invisible power, rendering it completely immobile.
“B-but…” Archon Silksnow was stupefied when he saw this. “The realmship isn’t moving, and my treasures won’t move either.” Archon Silksnow turned to look behind himself. He had previously pulled away slightly from Ning and Whitethaw, but both were drawing near yet again.
“If they catch up… given how terrifying Daolord Darknorth’s illusions are, I’ll probably die. If so… then it’s time to go all out.” Archon Silksnow narrowed his eyes, immediately manifesting six arms with six sabers in them. With but a thought, he appeared outside the realmship as he struck out with all six sabers.
The invisible power once more swept over him. “Break!” Archon Silksnow struck out with all six sabers, but they were only to strike out to a distance of thirty meters before they brought to a halt by that invisible power, which had continuously pulled at them.
That invisible power wrapped itself around Archon Silksnow as well. He tried to struggle, only to find that he couldn’t move at all.
“W-what the hell type of trap is this?!” Archon Silksnow was furious and frantic.
“Silksnow.” Ning’s voice was calm now. “This time, there’s no escaping.”
Ning and Whitethaw both walked over, raising their heads to stare at the airborn realmship and Archon Silksnow. Both of them had been ‘stuck’ in midair and were unable to move.
Ning wasn’t surprised. They had remained on the ground and so there was no way they would encounter any excessively powerful barriers, but Archon Silksnow had been flying through the air this entire time. Sooner or later, he would fall victim to a powerful trap! As soon as the two sides had begun this chase, the result had been foreordained.
“Come over, if you have the courage to do so.” Archon Silksnow was completely unable to move, but he was still able to circulate his Immortal energy and cause his voice to echo in the air.