Desolate Era

by RWX

  “It has begun.” From the below the altar, the giant yellow bear lifted his head, watching as Ning took one step after another atop the altar. His eyes held a very complicated look within them; excitement, anticipation, and wistfulness. “The divine ability which Master left behind has finally found an heir.”

  “Master…are you still alive?” A hint of tears appeared within the giant yellow bear’s eyes. In his heart, he only had a single, true master. That was the first master of the estate. The four masters who had come afterwards, including Ji Ning, were in reality the heirs to the first master, but unfortunately, the second, third, and fourth masters hadn’t been able to acquire so much as a single one of the divine abilities. Naturally, they couldn’t be considered true successors. But now, Ji Ning was finally beginning to receive this divine ability.

  “Master’s successor.” The giant yellow bear’s had a lost look in his eyes, and his thoughts were whirling about. When the first master had left behind this estate then left, the giant yellow bear had known…that the first master had gone to deal with a tremendous tribulation. Precisely because even the first master wasn’t absolutely confident in his ability to survive the tribulation, he had created this estate, as he was unwilling to permit the divine ability he was proudest of to simply disappear with him.

  Countless years had passed…the Three Realms had become fixed and orderly. The three thousand major worlds and the trillions of minor worlds had been born. But his master had never returned to this estate. This filled the giant yellow bear’s heart with unease. Was his master still alive? Although he worried about his master in his heart, he continued to obey his master’s order, and treated finding a successor as the most important matter of all.

  ……….

  One step. Then another step. Atop the towering, lofty edifice, Ning continued to slowly advance upwards. He didn’t know how much time had passed, but finally, he had reached the top.

  Only now did Ning awaken from his trance. The primordial, ancient divine ability’s information as well as tricks and knacks had all been infused into his soul. They were like words that had been printed atop his soul itself; even if Ning wanted to forget them, he wouldn’t be able to. And even if someone used a technique to search his soul, they wouldn’t be able to find anything.

  “The divine ability…[Starseizer Hand].” Ning murmured gently to himself. He could clearly see one image after another in his mind. There was a vast, boundless void, and within it, there was a giant hand that seemed to be countless kilometers in length. The giant hand passed through the endless void, actually snatching at one of the stars within the void and easily crushing it into dust.

  Under the strikes of that infinitely large hand, the vast, towering bodies of a countless sea of Fiendgods who were shouting boastfully were all smashed into nothingness.

  That giant hand cupped a world within it, and trapped within the world was a fiery Fiendgod who radiated flames. With a gentle pinch of the giant hand, the world was shattered and the Fiendgod perished.

  ……

  “Beyond the Three Realms, there is the infinite void. The void contains the Solar Star and the Lunar Star, the two most exalted of celestial bodies, as well as numerous other powerful stars. These stars are infinitely majestic and powerful, and even Celestial Immortals would find it difficult to do anything to them. Some of the bits and pieces of rubble which fall down from these stars, after passing through the endless, infinite void, might land on various worlds, where they will be treated as precious materials for forging magic treasures. And yet, my master’s divine ability is named the ‘Starseizer’; from this, one can imagine how infinitely powerful it is.” The giant yellow bear appeared by Ning’s side.

  Ning nodded lightly. After having received this divine ability, he could clearly sense how terrifyingly powerful it was. It’s power completely surpassed his imagination. Ning understood, now, why the giant yellow bear had wanted for him to wait five years…why he had felt that it would be better to let Ning’s father and family die, rather than lose the chance to acquire this divine ability.

  However, what was meant to be would be. Although Ning had stubbornly insisted on immediately challenging the Divine Abilities Hall, in the end, he had still acquired this divine ability.

  “In the end, you still learned this divine ability.” The giant yellow bear looked at Ning. “If it weren’t for the fact that your soul had reached the ‘divine will’ level, even five years later, you would only have had a good chance at acquiring the first divine ability…even I didn’t imagine that your soul would be able to make a breakthrough.”

  “Oh?” Ning was shocked. “Is it truly so difficult to acquire the first divine ability? I felt as though, after my soul made a breakthrough, I completely dominated the enemies to the point of annihilating all of the strongmen.”

  The giant yellow bear glanced sideways at Ning. “If you didn’t have your divine will, even after five years, would your divine power have lasted long enough for you to annihilate that many strongmen?”

  Ning came to his senses. Right. He had relied on his divine will to control nearly a hundred swords to dominate and slaughter those strongmen. This didn’t use up any of his divine power. But if he didn’t have divine will, and had relied on close-quarters combat…he would have used up an astonishing amount of divine power! For example, when he had reached the later stages of the test of the Divine Abilities Hall, he had less than 20% of his divine power remaining, while the strongmen had only grown more and more powerful.

  “No matter what, in the end, you succeeded and acquired this. This divine ability.” The giant yellow bear pointed at a giant, distant prayer mat. “Go to that prayer mat. To kneel and pay your respects to Master.”

  “Right.” Ning nodded The benevolence a master showed in teaching his art was as weighty as the heavens themselves. Ning walked forward, then immediately fell to his knees before the prayer mat.

  As soon as he knelt down, instantly, at the top of the altar, directly in front of Ning, a towering figure suddenly appeared, at least three thousand meters in height. He had ancient, bronze skin, a glowing face, and wore roughly sown beastial furs as clothes. His appearance was similar to humans, with the only difference being that he had only a single arm! He had only a single right arm, and did not have a left arm.

  This majestic figure stared at Ning, a faint look of pleasure on his face. He said softly, “You have already received the divine ability. Once you overcome your Celestial Tribulation and become a Celestial Immortal, you can be considered the disciple of myself, Daoist Threelives. Do not be negligent and lazy, and thus lower my prestige.” And then, the massive, single-armed figure gently pointed with his right hand towards Ji Ning.

  Whoooosh. Five rays of light instantly shot towards Ning…and then, the towering figure suddenly disappeared. A look of surprised joy on Ning’s face, Ning instantly sat down in the lotus position. The five rays of light quickly flooded into Ning’s body, and slowly, ripples began to appear on Ning’s form as well.

  “Master.” The giant yellow bear saw the towering, one-armed figure appear, then vanish. He couldn’t help but mumble to himself. He knew…that the illusion was nothing more than something his master had left behind. Anyone who received his master’s divine ability and who came to the top of this altar and knelt down before this prayer mat would cause illusion to appear.

  Ning was seated in the lotus position, and his two hands were currently emanating five-colored lights. Ning’s hands seemed to have transformed into some sort of precious treasures. The five-colored lights swirled about them, then slowly began to fuse together into a chaotic color.

  “Whew.” Everything fell silent, and Ning’s hands returned to normal as well. Ning opened his eyes, then lowered his head to look at the palms of his hands. With but a thought, the palms of his hands manifested a complicated, circular divine tattoo. “Divine Starseizing Tattoo! The Starseizer has six cycles, and I’ve already successfully completed the firs
t one.” And then, the divine tattoos faded away, no longer visible to the naked eye.

  Every single divine ability required tremendous amounts of time to train in. They wouldn’t be mastered in one go. Even techniques like the [Heavenly Transformation] or the [Windwing Evasion] had to be trained in multiple stages.

  As for this divine ability, [Starseizing Hand], the way in which it was trained in was known as the [Six Cycles of the Starseizer]. Only upon reaching the Zifu level as a Fiendgod could one train in the first cycle! At the Wanxiang Adept level, one could train in the second. As a Primal Daoist, one could train in the third.

  With each breakthrough into a completely new level as a Fiendgod, one could train in the next cycle. This divine ability placed tremendous pressure on the divine body, and if it wasn’t strong enough, there was no way it could be trained.

  “The teachings you received of the divine ability [Starseizing Hand] are the original teachings.” The giant yellow bear said. “Even if you train all the way to the first master’s level, this divine ability will still be enough for you to use. As for the [Windwing Evasion] you trained in, that was only the simplified version.”

  “Simplified?” Ning was startled. “How could the divine abilities that the primordial Fiendgods used to dominate the Three Realms be so casually taught to others?” The giant yellow bear shook his head. “Shortly after Pangu established the heavens, one of the primordial Fiendgods, a giant Roc, developed a type of flying evasion technique. With a single sweep of his wings, he could traverse a hundred thousand kilometers. This flying technique is the divine ability…[Garuda’s Wings]! I imagine some great power must have watched the Roc fly. After meditating on it for a long period of time, he wrote down this book known as the [Windwing Evasion].”

  Ning nodded slightly. So this divine ability, [Windwing Evasion], was just actually the simplified version of the [Garuda’s Wings].

  “If you had the original teachings of this technique in book form, you could spend thousands of years reading it.” The giant yellow bear said. “You spent many months memorizing Master’s [Starseizing Hand], even though it was directly sent into your soul. How could the original copy of a true divine ability be so easily memorized?”

  “I spent months traversing those steps?” Ning was shocked. “Only an instant passed in the outside world. No need to worry about your father.” The giant yellow bear said.

  Ning nodded, then said solemnly, “Senior, dare I ask, who exactly is this master of mine, ‘Daoist Threelives’?” Just now, that giant, towering illusion had only referred to himself as ‘Daoist Threelives’. Ning knew nothing else of him.

  * * *

  Book 6, Chapter 33 - Evanescent Demonslayer Sword

  The giant yellow bear, upon hearing Ning speak of his master, ‘Daoist Threelives’, couldn’t help but feel very happy. He immediately said, “Ji Ning, do you know that when Fiendgods are born, there are differences in their levels as well?”

  “Differences in Fiendgods at birth? Aren’t they all born from the universe itself?” Ning asked. “No.” The giant yellow bear said. “Before the Three Realms were born, and even before Pangu established the universe, there was nothing aside from primordial chaos. In that era, the primordial chaos gave birth to some ancient and powerful Fiendgods, such as Pangu or Nuwa. They were Fiendgods who were born from the primordial chaos. Some of these Primordial Fiendgods were strong, while others were weak. The most powerful of them was naturally Pangu!”

  “After Pangu established the universe, the universe itself gave birth to some new living creatures. These creatures, being born from the universe itself, were also referred to as innate, Heavenborn Fiendgods. Afterwards, after many transformations, the three thousand major worlds were created, and in the process of the creation of each major world, some Fiendgods would be created. These are the most ordinary of Fiendgods.”

  “In short, Fiendgods can be classified according to when they were born; there are Primordial Fiengods, Heavenborn Fiendgods, and ordinary Fiendgods.” The giant yellow bear looked at Ning. “As for Master, he is one of the Primordial Fiendgods.”

  Ning held his breath. What a tremendous history! But when he thought about it carefully, it made sense for Fiendgods to be divided into three different tiers, based on their birth. After all, Pangu was capable of establishing the universe itself; from this, one could imagine how powerful he was. As for many of the other Fiendgods which Ning had heard of, some of them were only at the Xiantian level when born. Compared to Pangu…they were countless times weaker.

  As for this Daoist Threelives, since he was so powerful, it made sense that he was born as a Primordial Fiendgod. “One’s tier of birth determines both one’s potential as well as one’s power at birth.” The giant yellow bear said. “But no matter how lowly one’s class is at birth, one still has the chance to become an awe-inspiring, major figure of the Three Realms. For example, there are some individuals who were born as members of extremely ordinary races, but after undergoing countless tribulations, also became powerful figures who could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Master.”

  “Ji Ning, although you are merely a human, you too have this chance.” The giant yellow bear said. Ning nodded gently. He understood. For example, the Lord of Cui Palace was another person from his homeland of Earth. And yet, he rose to become one of the most exalted figures of the Netherworld Kingdom, the First Judge of the Dead.”

  “Master had countless experiences.” The giant yellow bear’s gaze grew dreamy as he thought back to the past. “He personally knew figures like Pangu and Nuwa, and even provided some guidance to the giant Roc and some other juniors. He then established his own school, and many Fiendgods flocked to his banner to listen to him expound on the Dao…and thus, Master ended up having many titles. Daoist Threelives, Daoist Starseizer, One-Armed Divine Master, True God of the Right Arm…”

  Ning had a thought, and he hurriedly asked, “Could it be that Master, Daoist Threelives, was born with just one arm?”

  “No.” The giant yellow bear shook his head. “Although I don’t know the details, I know that when Master was born from the primordial chaos, he had two arms. Afterwards, because of a major battle, he lost an arm. Master felt deep shame due to this, and thus from that day onwards, only permitted himself to have a single arm. But precisely because he only had a single arm, Master made a further breakthrough in the divine ability, ‘Starseizing Hand’, which he had developed while meditating within the primordial chaos. He reached an even more divine, miraculous level! This breakthrough made it so that the Starseizing Hand could be ranked as one of the ten strongest divine abilities out of the countless divine abilities that had been devised after Pangu established the universe!”

  A look of surprised shock appeared on Ning’s face. What an incredible fellow! This Master of Ning’s, whom he had only seen as an illusion, was actually this powerful? How many Fiendgods had there been since Pangu had established the universe? How many divine abilities had been divised? For the Starseizing Hand to be ranked amongst the top ten…it was far more astonishing than he had been able to imagine, previously.

  “You have no need to ask about anything else for now.” The giant yellow bear looked at Ning. “After countless years have passed and countless eras, the universe is now in the era of the three thousand major worlds and the trillion minor worlds. This is the era of the Celestial Court administering the Three Realms harmoniously. To you, these ancient secrets of the primordial eras are far too distant and irrelevant. There is no point in you learning these things; they will only vex you unnecessarily. Master once said that only after you become a Celestial Immortal, will you truly be considered Master’s disciple.”

  Ning nodded.

  “It is time for you to leave now.” The giant yellow bear said. “No rush.” Ning said hurriedly. “My Fiendgod body has just reached the Zifu level. According to the rules of the Treasure Hall, I should be able to select another Mortal-ranked magic treasure, right?”

&nb
sp; The giant yellow bear nodded. To acquire a magic treasure from the Treasure Hall, there were only two possibilities; one was to rise to a new level as a Fiendgod, while the other was to challenge the Wargod Hall.

  “Senior, please provide me with a list of the Mortal-ranked magic treasures of the Treasure Hall.” Ning said. “I’ll read it here, and decide on which treasure I want. After I leave, I’ll be able to choose it immediately.”

  “You certainly know how to save time.” The giant yellow bear laughed. The list of treasures was extremely complicated. It required quite a bit of time to review. In this place of transmission of knowledge, separated from time and space from the outside world, time moved at a much slower rate. It naturally would be best for him to do the reading here.

  “Right.” The giant yellow bear said. “Your soul has now reached the level of having ‘divine sense’, and you have learned the divine ability, [Starseizing Hand]. It would be simplicity itself for you to challenge the second level of the Wargod Hall, and you even have a chance to challenge the third level. Would you be willing to do so?”

  “I only have a ‘chance’ at challenging the third level?” Ning asked. His power had already risen by an astonishing amount. He had made a spiritual breakthrough! He had also now acquired an incredibly powerful divine ability, the [Starseizing Hand]. He was completely confident in being able to slay Adept Xu with a single blow.

  “If your divine power was strong enough to allow you to use the [Starseizing Hand] with abandon, then of course you would have a high chance of success.” The giant yellow bear smirked. “But how many times will your current level of Crimsonbright divine power permit you to use the [Starseizing Hand]?”

  Ning hesitated slightly, then stretched out his hands. The Divine Starseizing Tattoos appeared, and the Crimsonbright divine power in his body filled his two palms. A surge of incomparably powerful might filled Ning’s mind, and he even felt as though he could shatter a mountain with a single slap from his hands.