Desolate Era

by RWX

  “He’s a bit too unwise, isn’t he?”

  The three generals all shook their heads slightly…but suddenly, their facial expressions stiffened.

  Within the images, Ji Ning’s sword-fingers suddenly expanded to become three thousand meters long. They lashed through the skies like an enormous divine sword, chopping down upon the Turtle-Snake Formation. The tough and incomparably tenacious Turtle-Snake Formation was actually completely shattered by this terrifying sword-finger attack. Caught completely off guard, six of the eighteen Celestial Immortals perished.

  “What?!” The Xia Emperor jumped to his feet, a look of amazement in his eyes.

  “Impossible.” The three generals had stood up as well. They all stared unblinkingly at the images.

  Within the images, Ji Ning had just used [Three Heads, Six Arms] and was chasing after and massacring the fleeing Celestial Immortals. The Xia Emperor, in front of these three generals, didn’t feel any need to maintain his normal aura of dignified majesty. He said incredulously, “What’s going on? I don’t know if Ji Ning’s Primaltwin has undergone the tribulation yet, but his true body definitely has not.”

  “If his true body had succeeded in overcoming the Empyrean Tribulation, he would be an Empyrean God by now. His divine abilities, spells, and other abilities would all be far stronger than they are now.”

  “He clearly has not yet overcome his tribulation to become an Empyrean God!”

  “But if he isn’t an Empyrean God…how could he be this powerful? Is it really possible for a Void-level Fiendgod to be this powerful?” Countless thoughts were rummaging through the Xia Emperor’s mind.

  As for the three generals, they were no less stunned than the Xia Emperor was. The most muscular general actually began to frown. “A Void-level Fiendgod…even if he learned some of the most supreme divine abilities of the Three Realms, allowing him to become close to a Pure Yang True Immortal in power…he should only be roughly equivalent to Celestial Immortal Unity. How could he be this much more powerful than Celestial Immortal Unity? The level of power he’s displayed has completely transcended the gap between the Void-level and Empyrean Gods.”

  “What a monster.” The Xia Emperor stared at Ning, stared at him as though he was looking at the most precious treasure that existed in the world. A look of actual greed was in his eyes.

  “Congratulations, young master Xiamang.”

  The three generals simultaneously spoke these words.

  The black-robed Xia Emperor chortled as well.

  Indeed, this was something worth celebrating!

  He was born a member of the Primordial Imperial Clan…and the greatest strength of the clan was that they were extremely unified. The reason why the Imperial Clan able to become the imperial clan of the Primordial Era was precisely because they had a large number of True Gods and Daofathers within their ranks….but clearly, these True Gods and Daofathers couldn’t have all been born into the Imperial Clan. Why, then, did all of them support the Primordial Imperial Clan?

  It was precisely because the Primordial Imperial Clan had provided them with nonstop support prior to them becoming truly powerful. Given that the Primordial Imperial Clan had been so benevolent towards them…how could the True Gods and Daofathers not wish to pay back their kindnesses?

  It must be understood that the more powerful one was, the more one cared about one’s Dao-heart, and the less willing one would become to feel indebted.

  If someone had treated you with great kindness, but you refused to repay it…you would feel discomfort. This would impact your Dao-heart; in fact, in extremely dire cases, it could even cause you to go down a path of madness! Naturally, there was a very small number of True Gods or Daofathers who walked an extremely vile path; no matter how well you treated them, they would still kill you without blinking, which wouldn’t impact their Dao-heart at all. However, these people were quite rare, after all.

  “Ji Ning?” The Xia Emperor’s eyes were shining. He now viewed Ning as a monster who would truly be of benefit to him…and one who hadn’t even undergone his tribulation!

  He had the feeling…

  That so long as Ji Ning didn’t die, it wouldn’t be hard for him to become an Empyrean God or True Immortal. In fact, he might even become one of the most supreme Empyrean Gods or True Immortals! To be able to make someone like this one of his closest allies…the Xia Emperor felt that this was utterly wonderful! And of course, if by some great stroke of luck Ji Ning became a True God or a Daofather, the Xia Emperor would bow down to thank Heaven and Earth.

  Why was the Xia Emperor’s status so special? It was because, aside from the fact that his master was a Daofather, his lifelong friend, his brother…was Daofather Raindragon!

  In the end, a master was just a teacher; he might provide some guidance to the Xia Emperor and behave benevolently towards him, but if the Xia Emperor truly ran into trouble, Daofather Crimsonbright might or might not actually intervene to help him. In fact, even if Daofather Crimsonbright were to watch the Xia Emperor died, it wouldn’t impact his Dao-heart; after all, the Daofather had many disciples. In addition, it was his disciples who owed him, not the other way around.

  Daofather Raindragon, however, was another story. Daofather Raindragon was one of the Xia Emperor’s lifelong friends, his brother; this was a far closer relationship!

  Now, the Xia Emperor was going to do everything he could to help Ji Ning and ensure that Ji Ning would remember how kindly the Xia Emperor had treated him. In the future, if the Xia Emperor encountered a crisis and asked Ji Ning to help…how could Ji Ning possibly just sit back and watch with his hands clasped behind his back?

  “What a monster. From the Primordial Era to the present day, this is the greatest monster I’ve ever seen.” The black-robed Xia Emperor stared at the image of Ji Ning. Although the Primordial Era had given birth to some true monsters as well, the Xia Emperor hadn’t personally met them…but right here and now, a real, living, breathing monster was standing right in front of him.

  ……

  Outside Stillwater City.

  True Immortal Gaudy had a handsome face. He was famous for being a relaxed, graceful man…but his face was twisted right now. This was because he had just saw that little girl Violetgrass, who he had watched grow up, be killed before his very eyes! As soon as he had sensed Violetgrass shattering her talisman, he had immediately used Greater Teleportation to come to this place. He had mastered the Grand Dao of Qiankun long ago, and so he no longer needed to use Dao-talismans to perform Greater Teleportation.

  However, since he had come here from another major world, he wasn’t able to perfectly sense where Violetgrass was; he was only able to get a general idea of where she was located.

  His Greater Teleportation had taken him outside Stillwater City. By relying on his attunement to Qiankun and Space, he instantly found Violetgrass and understood that she was in danger. He immediately broke apart the grand sealing formation, but because he wasn’t able to make it right away, he hurriedly sent a mental message to call for a halt. Alas…the youth hadn’t hesitated at all. He had used all six arms of his [Three Heads, Six Arms] technique to launch sword-fingers attacks at Violetgrass and slay her.

  “Little sister Violetgrass…” True Immortal Gaudy’s control over Qiankun was so great that it was as though he personally watched it happen. It was as though he personally watched Violetgrass be transformed into dust.

  “No…”

  True Immortal Gaudy’s eyes instantly turned completely bloodshot, and his face began to twist.

  “All of you will DIE!” True Immortal Gaudy went completely berserk. An enormous grand seal that was black and white suddenly appeared. This grand seal was primarily black, while the sides of it were white. The grand black-white seal appeared out of nowhere, instantly transforming to be the size of a mountain as it smashed downwards. Although the local protective formations were strong, True Immortal Gaudy had mastered the Grand Dao of Qiankun and was skilled in formation
s. In addition, he was simply too strong, far more so than his foes.

  BOOM!

  The grand seal completely smashed through the protective formations.

  On the other side.

  “Ji Ning, be careful!”

  “An enemy has arrived!”

  “He’s broken the sealing formation; it should be an Empyrean God or a True Immortal.” Immortal Diancai, Yu Wei, and Unity all sent frantic mental messages.

  “Hurry up and leave!” Ning immediately understood; he had previously controlled the formation as well, after all. Right as he killed Violetgrass, Ning manifested a black greatbow in front of him. Stretching his hand out, Ning grabbed the black greatbow with one hand. Within his other hand, an arrow appeared, instantly blazing with flames as it did.

  In midair, Ning immediately nocked the arrow, drew the Rahu Bow, then filled it with his divine power. All of his power was cycled through it to converge onto the arrow, with Ning’s heartforce included into the mix. The method of applying heartforce through [Houyi’s Archery] was even superior to Ning’s own self-developed methods; with Ning’s current level heartforce, he could only sustain seven arrows at most.

  “Go!”

  TWANG!

  Instantly, the world itself seemed to shake. A dazzling red light instantly tore through the skies, and as it did so it continuously drew in the surrounding natural energy of the world. This was the power of [Houyi’s Archery]; it was a terrifying archery skill that could ravenously draw in the might of Heaven and Earth.

  Although both [Houyi’s Archery] and the [Starseizing Hand] were ranked as the top ten divine abilities to be created after Pangu established the universe…in raw power, [Houyi’s Archery] surpassed the [Starseizing Hand]!

  Rumble…

  The giant black-white seal came crashing down, smashing through everything.

  The fiery arrow shot through the skies like a blazing meteor.

  BOOM!!!

  The two collided. The area around them completely blew apart! The earth below was suddenly caved in; clearly, this was caused by the shockwave of the collision!

  “Eh?” Immortal Gaudy’s face changed slightly. Very, very few people in the Three Realms used [Houyi’s Archery]. For example, although there were a number of people under Patriarch Subhuti who did train in it, their primary skills lay in other areas; they normally wouldn’t use [Houyi’s Archery]. Thus, there were very, very few people who were able to truly able to get a taste for how formidable [Houyi’s Archery] was. Even Ji Ning had to first reach the third stage of heartforce and perfect his control over it before he was able to unleash [Houyi’s Archery] to this level of power.

  The collision with the arrow caused the giant black-white seal to instantly grow slower.

  Twang! Ning once more nocked his arrow, drew his bow, and sent off a shot that blazed through the skies. Once more, this was a full-strength attack. Ning’s heartforce was depleting at a terrifying pace, but he didn’t dare allow the enemy’s attack to draw near him. After all, this was an actual True Immortal. There were very few True Immortals who were merely at the ‘base’ level of power for a True Immortal; most were far more powerful.

  Yet another blazing comet shot through the skies.

  True Immortal Gaudy once more sent his giant black-white seal to crash downwards onto that arrow.

  Twang! Twang! Twang! Twang! Twang!

  Five more consecutive bowshots rang out, the power of the arrows preventing even the utterly enraged True Immortal Gaudy from immediately catching and slaughtering Ji Ning and his friends.

  “Let’s see how many more arrows you have!” True Immortal Gaudy had a terrifying look in his eyes. He knew that divine archers were generally only able to launch a very low number of full-power shots. And indeed, after the seventh arrow shot out, there was a pause. Now…there was nothing to block the infuriated True Immortal Gaudy.

  The giant black-white seal once more began to crush through the opposing formations, smashing towards Ning and the others.

  “Go!”

  The whole reason why Ning had unleashed those seven shots was to buy time to allow Immortal Diancai, Yu Wei, and Celestial Immortal Unity to escape. However…when they attempted to use a Greater Teleportation, they realized that this region had been completely dimensionally severed from the surrounding world. There was no way to use any sort of teleportation here at all.

  “None of you will be able to escape. All of you will die.” True Immortal Gaudy was filled with a towering killing intent. His giant black-white seal once more came smashing downwards through the skies.

  * * *

  Book 17, Chapter 12 - The Xia Emperors Attitude

  “Senior Redsnow, this Pure Yang True Immortal is a master of the Grand Dao of Qiankun; I’d like to ask the seven of you to help out!” Ji Ning’s Primaltwin was frantically asking for succor. After learning that Ning was in danger, Redsnow and the rest of the seven had already left their world and come to the underwater estate. In truth, they hadn’t expected that Ning would need to use up their promise so soon.

  In truth, when Ning had shot out seven arrows earlier, he had also used his Void-level energy to activate a Greater Teleportation Dao-seal; the amount of time he had bought himself was more than enough to activate it, but alas the teleport had failed.

  There were many Grand Daos in the world…but who would’ve thought that he would just so happen to encounter a foe who had mastered the Grand Dao of Qiankun? In the face of someone like this, not even Greater Teleportation would be possible.

  “Junior apprentice-brother.” Yu Wei looked towards Ning, worry on her face. Immortal Diancai and Celestial Immortal Unity were panicking as well, but there was nothing they could do.

  “Die.” True Immortal Gaudy had a savage look on his face, and his eyes were filled with murder.

  But right at this moment…

  “Ji Ning, your savior just arrived.” The giant yellow bear’s voice suddenly echoed within Ning’s mind.

  Rumble…

  In the air between Ji Ning and True Immortal Gaudy, a black tunnel suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The black tunnel tore straight through space, allowing a man in black imperial robes to step out of it.

  “The Xia Emperor?”

  “His Imperial Majesty?”

  Immortal Diancai, Yu Wei, and Celestial Immortal Unity all revealed looks of excitement and delight.

  The man who had stepped out of the black tunnel was indeed the black-robed Xia Emperor. As the Xia Emperor walked out, he pointed with a single finger. A golden streak of light flew out, transforming into a golden dragon that knocked the giant black-white seal flying. He then gave the demonically enraged True Immortal Gaudy a cold glance. “Gaudy, you actually dare to come to my Grand Xia to cause trouble?”

  Ning let out a sigh of relief.

  “Sorry for bothering the seven of you just now.” Within the underwater estate, the black-robed Ning was saluting respectfully.

  The nearby giant yellow bear chortled. “Since the Xia Emperor has come out, there’s no need to trouble the seven of you to intervene.”

  “…Does this count as us fulfilling our promise?” The beautiful Empyrean God Snow Scorpion asked teasingly.

  “No, of course not!” Ning said frantically.

  Seeing the look on Ning’s face, the seven Empyrean Gods roared with laughter.

  “Ahaha…”

  “Relax, we’re not going to quibble with you!”

  Still…Empyrean God Redsnow quickly turned solemn. “However, Ji Ning, I have to warn you; previously, while you were in the Primordial Ruinworld region, your master, Patriarch Subhuti, didn’t have to worry too much about personally intervening on your behalf. But now that we are back in the Three Realms…in the face of such a powerful foe, even Patriarch Subhuti might have misgivings. In fact, even if he does intervene, he might not be able to rescue you.”

  “I understand.” Ning nodded. He naturally understood that in the face of this storm, even his master w
as treading on thin ice.

  “In addition…your master can’t have the [Dream of the Three Realms] active at all times. Even if you are in danger, he might not know about it,” Redsnow added.

  Ning nodded.

  It was true.

  His master hadn’t given Ning a talisman; even if Ning was in a dangerous situation, there was no way for him to notify his master.

  “We promised to help you once…but it really will be only once,” Empyrean God Redsnow said. “Your master, in turn…well, distant waters cannot be used to put out a nearby fire. Just look; you’ve only been back for a short while, but you’ve already encountered such a dangerous situation. You should understand, now…how careful you truly must be in the face of this storm.”

  Ning nodded. “Since I was able to survive and return even after being covered by karmic sinflames…the Seamless Gate is undoubtedly paying very close attention to me. They have long ago decided that I am a major foe for them. In the face of this storm…to tell the truth, I came to understand something. Since there’s no longer any way for me to hide my sharpness, then I might as well reveal myself. I’ll make it so that more experts notice me and feel that I am worthy of their help!”

  “Although the Seamless Gate is brash, they remain hidden in the darkness; this means that they still have worries of their own. There are many experts on the side of my master as well.” Ning laughed, “As long as enough of us work together, there’s nothing for us to worry about.”

  “You’re finally using your head.” Redsnow said with a laugh, “If you have enough helpers, then you won’t even need the seven of us to assist you; you’ll still be able to survive this storm.”

  ……

  Outside the underwater estate.

  Once the black-robed Xia Emperor appeared, True Immortal Gaudy grew even angrier. “Xiamang, are you going to stop me? Are you going to become my enemy?”

  “By the looks of it, you joined the Seamless Gate long ago. Since we are in different camps…we already are enemies.” The black-robed Xia Emperor said calmly, “As I see it…you need to f*ck off right now. Get the f*ck out of my Grand Xia.” Although he held an absolute advantage in terms of power, the Xia Emperor knew that this foe was a master of the Grand Dao of Qiankun who possessed many powerful escaping techniques.