Desolate Era

by RWX

  Boom…

  The enormous mountain came crashing down. Both of the divine black dragons were actually blasted apart, causing Ning’s pupils to contract. He immediately executed his divine ability, transforming into a three-headed, six-armed giant that was three hundred meters tall. Ning simultaneously struck out with six mighty palms from his true body, slapping them against the descending mountain.

  Rumble…

  The world itself seemed to shake. Ning’s true body was actually pushed all the way into the ground, which completely caved in and shattered in every direction.

  Ning’s true body was pressed chest-deep into the ground, but with a flicker he once more re-emerged.

  “Hahaha, General, what a fine ability!” Ning laughed as he looked at the silver-armored youth.

  The silver-armored youth had a gloomy look on his face.

  “Damn. Damn!” The silver-armored youth’s heart was filled with resentment. He now knew exactly how strong Ning was. He had to admit, this foe’s sword-formation was incredibly powerful, but in terms of raw strength…Ji Ning was definitely far inferior to him. He was a supreme figure even amongst Celestial Immortals, after all!

  But this wasn’t a competition to see who was better; it was a fight where he had to capture his foe using his rope!

  If they were simply competing to see who was better, he could wantonly use his seven low-grade Pure Yang treasures, those seven mighty seals, to unleash his most powerful attacks. But what he was trying to do was to trap his foe; thus, he had to divert some of his attention to controlling his rope, and also use quite a great deal of his energy to strengthen the rope. It was no easy feat to capture or trap a Fiendgod who trained in the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art]!

  Since he had to split his attention up between his rope and the seals, he was naturally unable to use the seals to the full extent of their power.

  “You win!” The silver-armored youth gave Ning a dark look. “I can neither kill you nor capture you.”

  He was clearly significantly stronger than Ji Ning…but he was simply unable to capture him!

  This was what made the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] so formidable. There had to be an utterly enormous difference in power, allowing him to first break apart Ning’s defense before capturing him. Clearly, the difference in power between the general and Ning, while significant, wasn’t ridiculously huge.

  The entire gorge had been transformed into rubble. In the air above the rubble, the only figures that could be seen were the silver-armored general, a group of bronze-armored Fiendguards, as well as Ji Ning and Mu Northson.

  The silver-armored general had finally bowed his head. He was unable to kill Ji Ning, and would be unable to avoid punishment. All he could do now was try his best to lessen the amount of damage caused and lower the amount of punishment he would receive.

  “Good.” Ning smiled and nodded. “That’s wise.”

  The nearby Northson immediately had a look of relief appear within his eyes. Right then and there, Ji Ning, Mu Northson, and the silver-armored general all swore oaths to the Dao of the Heavens. Ning’s promise…was that if Mu Northson was given freedom, he absolutely would not reveal the secret of the castle to others. Northson swore the same, that he absolutely wouldn’t reveal this secret to anyone else.

  The silver-armored general naturally gave Northson his freedom back after this.

  “General, please open your formation and let us leave.” Ning stood there in midair, Northson by his side with a relieved look on his face. He seemed to have suddenly become filled with vitality, as well as hope for the future.

  “Not so fast.” The silver-armored general let out a sigh. “Before you leave, I will tell you a bit of bad news.”

  Ning and Northson’s faces instantly changed.

  Bad news?

  “This was a disastrous defeat for me.” The silver-armored general sighed. “The forbidden region was under very tight guard, and even the formations experts which I captured were all forced to swear oaths to the Dao of the Heavens not to flee. If they do…they die. Thus, I never thought that someone would be able to sneak in…I suppose I’m just damned unlucky to encounter someone who trains in the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art].”

  “Enough with the crap. What do you want to say?” Ning barked with a frown.

  After the silver-armored general let out another series of sighs, he looked towards Ning and Northson, then said with a cold laugh, “The person in charge of matters within the castle, Qu Huan, is already dead. If my guess is correct…this Mu Northson has already taken his loved one’s soul back.”

  Northson barked, “So what if I did?”

  “Have you heard of soultamer jade?” The silver-armored general chortled as he spoke. He felt delighted in being able to irritate these two figures.

  “Soultamer jade?” Northson and Ning’s faces instantly changed. Ning had learned about quite a few bits of common knowledge regarding the Three Realms while at Mount Innerheart; naturally, he knew of soultamer jade. As for Northson, given he had analyzed the Dao of Constructs quite extensively, he naturally had heard of soultamer jade, one of the legendary materials for the Dao of Constructs.

  Soultamer jade: Once a soul was placed into the soultamer jade, it would become one with the jade. There would be no chance of escape! However, the soul would be nourished by the soultamer jade; so long as it didn’t suffer any attacks and wasn’t destroyed, the soul inside could live forever. Generally speaking, golem experts would place soultamer jade into their golems, allowing the soul within the soultamer jade to control the golem, making it sentient.

  “Can it be that you can’t tell?” The silver-armored general smiled. “That crystalline globe used to store her soul is soultamer jade!”

  “What?!” Northson was shocked and angry.

  “It’s finished.” Ning looked towards his nearby junior apprentice-brother; now that Yu Xia’s soul had been placed within that soultamer jade globe, she would never be able to emerge from within it. She would forever have to live within that tiny little space. This was actually quite a painful thing…and she would have forever lost her chance to be reincarnated.

  “But perhaps this is a good thing,” Ning mused.

  There were two sides to every coin. Yu Xia’s soul had been merged into the soultamer jade, and she would never be able to leave or be reborn; this was indeed quite a painful thing.

  And yet…this meant that she would still be able to accompany Northson.

  “Mu Northson,” the distant silver-armored general said with a cold laugh, “Your loved one’s soul shall accompany you for eternity. You are quite blessed. But…don’t forget that she’ll be forever trapped within that tiny space. How agonizing must that be? This sort of agony will accompany her for countless ages, until the day comes that she is attacked and her ‘body’ is destroyed. In that moment…her soul shall shatter.”

  Northson gritted his teeth. “Little Xia…”

  He felt guilt.

  Seeing this, Ning couldn’t help but secretly sigh to himself. The distant silver-armored general, however, just laughed loudly. “See how nice I am? I even told you this bit of information. Alright…you can scram now.”

  “Let’s go.” Ning gave the distant silver-armored general a cold glare, then took Northson into his mobile Immortal estate. He then flew into the skies, the formations not blocking him at all. Ning quickly flew away, then once more used a spatial teleportation technique. He disappeared.

  * * *

  Book 15, Chapter 7 - The Cavemaster

  The silver-armored youth raised his head, staring at the sky. It was dusk. He let out a sigh. “My happy days are coming to an end.”

  “General.”

  The bronze-armored Fiendguards all nervously stared at the silver-armored youth.

  After sighing, the silver-armored youth turned and quickly moved through the many layers of restrictive formations around the forbidden region. Outside were gathered many of the black-robed figures, as well as the membe
rs of the Eastwoods Sect. The enormous disturbance and the spatial teleportations had attracted attention from many outsiders.

  “General.” The Eastwoods sect leader hurriedly went forward to greet him. “What has happened? Is there anything you need our Eastwoods Sect to do?”

  “What happened?” The silver-armored general murmured these words, then waved his hand. Instantly, the illusion of an enormous mountain appeared out of nowhere. It smashed straight down on the body of the Eastwoods sect leader. Boom! The Eastwoods sect leader was completely smashed into pulp, then the remnants were transformed into dust that flew away.

  The surrounding Loose Immortals, Earth Immortals, Primal Daoists, Wanxiang Adepts, and other disciples of the Eastwoods Sect were all in disbelief.

  Some of them, however, revealed looks of joy. “It’s good that he died.”

  The Eastwoods sect leader had been a classic case of a spineless figure who had quickly capitulated. This caused some of the disciples who had been unhappy with the current state of affairs to feel disdain for him.

  The silver-armored general instructed calmly, “All disciples of the Eastwoods Sect, hear me: If you are willing to be loyal to me and serve me, if you are willing to become slaves under my command…go down on your knees immediately.”

  His voice was actually quite soft…but it echoed within the minds of each member of the Eastwoods Sect. Everyone in the sect, whether roaming around, patrolling the mountain, training, or resting in seclusion…was completely stunned.

  “You have to a count of ten to decide,” the silver-armored general said calmly.

  “Willing! I’m willing!” Instantly, some disciples capitulated and knelt down.

  However, quite a few disciples revealed looks of disbelief.

  Loyalty? Submission?

  This was simple.

  But willingly become slaves? This was too ridiculous. They were Immortal cultivators, and many of them had felt unhappy for quite some time now. At first, the silver-armored general had been fairly amiable towards them, but now he actually spoke of them being his slaves? Slaves…that meant giving their lives to him and completely obeying his orders.

  “Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven…” The silver-armored general counted slowly. “Six. Five!”

  After counting to five, he suddenly stopped counting.

  The silver-armored general let out a laugh. With a single step, he moved to stand high up in the air. The world itself began to shudder, and one massive mountain after another began to lift up and hover in the air. This was the Divine Venomflame of the Nine Heavens Cauldron which he had previously used against Ji Ning.

  “The Eastwoods Sect has more than thirty-nine thousand disciples.” The silver-armored general’s voice reverberated in the air. “More than twenty thousand have knelt, including twenty-one Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals and three hundred and one Primal Daoists. These three hundred and twenty-two are permitted to remain alive…the rest shall all perish!”

  His voice reverberated throughout the entire Eastwoods mountain range.

  And then…flames began to erupt throughout the area, moving to fill every single part of the Eastwoods mountain range.

  “General, you haven’t finished counting to ten yet!”

  “General!”

  The hesitating Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals, upon seeing this, instantly began to call out frantically. Some of the Primal Daoists, Earth Immortals, and Loose Immortals actually fell to their knees right away.

  “Too late,” the silver-armored general laughed.

  Streaks of flame were filling the entire region. Those hidden away in secret rooms, those roving the mountains, those fleeing…all of them were turned to ash as soon as they were touched by the flames! The Divine Venomflame of the Nine Heavens was very dangerous for Celestial Immortals; how could these ordinary disciples of the Eastwoods Sect possibly withstand it?

  “No! I submitted! I SUBMITTED! General, I’m willing to be your slave!” A youth cried out miserably, right before he was burnt to ash by the flames.

  “A puny Zifu Disciple…just what am I supposed to do with you?” The silver-armored general sneered.

  Despair filled every part of the Eastwoods mountain range.

  The only ones to survive were the Primal Daoists and Void-level Immortals who had knelt by the count of five. The others disciples…perished to the man. Some of them chose to self-detonate, but their souls were still trapped by the grand formation protecting the Eastwoods Mountain range. Their souls were annihilated; none were spared at all.

  Moments later…things turned completely silent.

  “Come in.” The silver-armored general waved his hand, and an enormous sack suddenly appeared. The mouth of the sack opened, instantly drawing in the Primal Daoists, Loose Immortals, and Earth Immortals below him.

  He made one more trip to the forbidden region, collecting all of the grandmasters of the Dao of Constructs, the castle, and the other things within.

  “Time to go.” The silver-armored general led his bronze-armored Fiendguards to the entrance to that black, fog-shrouded cave…then stepped straight into it.

  Moments later…the cave entrance itself disappeared.

  The entire Eastwoods mountain range had become completely silent. All living creatures, including the animals that had lived here, had been completely wiped out. Even all the formations present, such as the Divine Venomflame of the Nine Heavens Cauldron, had been broken.

  The Eastwoods Sect…starting from today, it truly no longer existed!

  ……

  This was an extremely large world.

  The commandery city in the center of this world was an incomparably massive fortress. The fortress was so large that even Celestial Immortals would be unable to see it in its entirety.

  “We’re back. We’ve finally returned to the Fifth World.”

  A black foggy cave entrance appeared in the skies, and the silver-armored youth and his bronze-armored Fiendguards appeared from within it.

  Rumble…an invisible surge of power swept across this squad.

  “General.” The bronze-armored Fiendguards looked towards the silver-armored youth.

  “Go to the headquarters and await further orders,” the silver-armored general said with a sigh. “This time, I shall most probably be sent into exile…and you’ll probably have to suffer with me.”

  “It’s not your fault, General. If we have to blame someone, we have to blame that Ji Ning.”

  “Right. That Ji Ning actually knew the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art]. You can’t be blamed at all, General!” The crowd of bronze-armored Fiendguards hurriedly said.

  The silver-armored general chuckled. “Alright. I need to go see the Cavemaster. Go ahead and wait for me in the headquarters.”

  “Yes,” the bronze-armored Fiendguards said.

  The silver-armored youth transformed into a streak of light, soaring down from the skies and into that castle below. A corridor automatically opened, granting him entrance. As for the bronze-armored Fiendguards, they all had to land and walk in through the gates to the city. The general was a Celestial Immortal, after all; his status was much higher than theirs.

  ……

  Within a massive palace.

  A man dressed in fiery red robes was seated up high on a royal throne, staring downwards. His terrifying aura was absolutely no weaker than that of the Grand Xia Emperor’s.

  The silver-armored youth moved into the palace, then respectfully bowed from the waist. “Greetings, Cavemaster.”

  “Buchasi.” The fire-robed man glanced downwards, then frowned slightly. “Aren’t you supposed to be in Flamedoor Commandery of the world of the Grand Xia? Your assignment is to watch over the construction of the constructs there; you can’t let anything go wrong. Why have you left the world of the Grand Xia and returned here without being summoned?”

  “Your subordinate’s base in the Eastwoods mountain range of Flamedoor Commandery was infiltrated…” The silver-armored youth honestly t
old the complete story of what had happened, because he knew exactly how powerful this organization was. Even if he didn’t tell the truth, within a single day, the organization would learn of everything which had happened in the Eastwoods mountain range.”

  “The [Eight-Nine Arcane Art]? Ji Ning?” The fire-robed man frowned.

  The silver-armored youth was so nervous, sweat emerged from his forehead.

  “You truly have disappointed me.” The fire-robed man shook his head and sighed.

  “Cavemaster, I…I…” the silver-armored youth felt some unwillingness to accept this. He truly could not be held to blame for what had happened; any base would have found it difficult to deal with the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art].”

  “Successes are to be rewarded. Mistakes are to be punished,” the Cavemaster said coldly. “Buchasi, because of you, our invasion of the world of the Grand Xia will become even more difficult. I punish you thusly…take your subordinates and go to the Mount Stele major world. Establish a new base there and continue to manufacture constructs. In addition, within a hundred years, you must slay five Celestial Immortals.”

  The silver-armored youth’s heart shook.

  The Mount Stele major world?

  That world was completely different from the world of the Grand Xia. The Grand Xia world was a unified world, whereas the Mount Stele major world was in a state of tremendous chaos. Thus, battles had swept the world long ago. To go to the world of the Grand Xia was to enjoy life, but to go to the world of Mount Stele was to be forced to prepare for battles at all times…and he also had to kill five Celestial Immortals!

  No Celestial Immortal was easy to deal with. They had all lived for countless ages, and no one knew exactly what tricks each had up their sleeves. Perhaps one might have an advantage, but then the enemy’s friends or master would suddenly arrive. Thus…killing Celestial Immortals was an extremely dangerous task. Yes, he had killed more than ten Celestial Immortals, but this was a bodycount that had been accumulated over countless ages, and after experiencing countless dangers.