Desolate Era

by RWX

  “Eastbreak.”

  “Eastbreak, the divine archer!”

  The forces of the Seamless Gate who saw the middle-aged beggar appear were all terrified.

  Eastbreak…

  Ever since the great divinity Houyi had vanished, the most powerful divine archers of the Three Realms had consisted of Eastbreak and his peers. Empyrean God Eastbreak possessed tremendous power, and his heartforce had reached the peak of the fourth level. His divine arrows…they had more than enough power to cause each and every Empyrean God and True Immortal to feel utter terror.

  “So what if Eastbreak has come? We have many allies on the battlefield; two or three Empyrean Gods and True Immortals can combine their power to block his arrows.”

  “How can a single Eastbreak possibly have an impact on our great army?”

  But just as they were consoling themselves…

  The divine archer Eastbreak produced a gray fruit in his hands. He swallowed it, then manifested a silvery-white greatbow as well as a black arrow. He nocked his bow, then drew it, the tip of the arrow covered with a blurry gray energy aura.

  “Chaos Daofruit?”

  “The power of primordial chaos?”

  “Not good.”

  The arrow flashed!

  It lanced through the skies!

  “Argh!!” “No!” Three White-Faced Flood Dragons were pierced by that black streak of light. The three White-Faced Flood Dragons immediately collapsed, revealing the Celestial Immortals and Loose Immortals inside.

  A single arrow had slain three of the White-Faced Flood Dragons.

  Eastbreak pulled back his bow yet again.

  “Madman. He’s using both the power of primordial chaos and filling his arrows with heartforce. Given his terrifying archery skills…his arrows are almost comparable to a Daofather’s strikes. They even cause spatial compression; we won’t even have a chance to hide into our Immortal estates. But he’s going after the White-Faced Flood Dragons and the Bifang Cranes instead of us?” The Empyrean Gods and True Immortals were both furious and frantic…because they knew that Empyrean God Eastbreak was making the right choice.

  He was extremely close to the Daofather level to begin with. By relying on the power of the Daofruit of primordial chaos, his full-strength arrow attacks had already reached the level of power a Daofather’s attacks would have. But of course, he paid a heavy price for this; a single chaos Daofruit would most likely only be enough to allow him to shoot two arrows, with each fruit representing a True God or Daofather sacrificing some of their insights into the Heavenly Dao of Primordial Chaos.

  It must be understood that the Empyrean Gods and True Immortals on both sides were moving in pairs or triplets; in fact, some of them were moving in groups of seven or eight. If he used his arrows to assault Empyrean Gods or True Immortals, they would be able to stay alive by joining forces to defend. Even if he did manage to kill an Empyrean God or a True Immortal, it wouldn’t have much of an impact on the overall course of the battle.

  But by killing White-Faced Flood Dragons, Bifang Cranes, Zhuyan Apes, and such creatures…he was able to slay two or three with each arrow.

  ……

  Daofather Ink Bamboo, atop the walls of the Seamless City, just coldly watched as this all happened. He smiled grimly. “The Nuwa Alliance really is willing to spend its resources. They are actually using Daofruit of primordial chaos to allow a single supreme archer to have an impact on the entire war. But despite that…he’s only on par with the combined power of the three Diremonster Gods of Mount Dragoneater. Perhaps the three combined are even slightly weaker than Empyrean God Eastbreak…but they can fight for a long period of time, whereas he is using up a Daofruit every two arrows. Let’s see how many arrows he can shoot!

  ……

  On the battlefield.

  Some of the White-Faced Flood Dragons, Bifang Cranes, and Zhuyan Apes had been voluntarily disbanded when the all-out attack was initiated, transforming into multiple Empyrean God golems. After all…a thousand Celestial Immortals could command ten of the Empyrean God golems, while three golems were comparable to each White-Faced Flood Dragon in power. Clearly, using the same number of Celestial Immortals to control the Empyrean God golems was more powerful and effective.

  However…manufacturing the golems was very difficult. Daofather Ink Bamboo was only able to have 20% of his Celestial Immortals control the golems…but despite that, the Seamless Gate’s forces had just been strengthened dramatically.

  To put it another way…although Empyrean God Eastbreak was very valiant, slaying two or three thousand Celestial Immortals with each arrow, his impact merely neutralized the sudden appearance of so many Empyrean God golems.

  Right now, the flow of battle within the area where both sides had concentrated 30% of their forces was extremely detrimental to the forces of the Crimsonbright Realm.

  “Careful!”

  “Hold on!”

  “Damn that Evergreen!”

  The forces of the Crimsonbright Realm were livid.

  The three Diremonster Gods of Mount Dragoneater’s power was within their realm of expectations, and they had planned for it. Sword Immortal Evergreen’s betrayal, however, caused their situation to turn uglier than they had expected. It must be understood that in mortal wars, there had been cases where a flag-bearing soldier fell, bringing his flag down with him and resulting in the loss of both the battle and his country.

  Sword Immortal Evergreen’s slaying of Fairy Snowdance and the five Heaven Punishers, then continued attacks alongside the Seamless Gate against the forces of the Crimsonbright Realm…it had caught them completely offguard. Unable to reinforce each other in time, they lost another Raindragon, two Pangu War-Formations, and six more Heaven Punishers. Only after such heavy losses was Evergreen forced back by the utterly berserk forces of the Crimsonbright Realm, driving him into the protective embrace of the three Diremonster Gods.

  But alas, the state of the battle around Ji Ning had turned horribly grim for the Crimsonbright Realm.

  The disparity in power between two sides was now enormous.

  * * *

  Book 18, Chapter 37 - Seven Seniors, Please Assist

  The city walls of the Eight Dragons Cloudcity. Daofather Crimsonbright was watching over the entire battlefield, his heart scorching with worry. He immediately saw how ugly the situation had become in the area where Ji Ning and the Xia Emperor were battling. Sword Immortal Evergreen had launched his traitorous attack there, causing a minor collapse in the battle lines of the Crimsonbright Realm. Fortunately, the Xia Emperor and Ji Ning had gone all out to hold their positions, allowing things to settle down…but the situation was still extremely grim.

  “There’s nothing I can do. The many Empyrean God golems that just appeared on the Seamless Gate’s side are spread out throughout the battlefield. Multiple areas need reinforcements.” Daofather Crimsonbright stared at the battlefield. The distant divine archer, Eastbreak, was sending out arrows like needles from the God of Death. Every single arrow slew two or three White-Faced Flood Dragons, Zhuyan Apes, or other types of Terrorbeasts.

  “I can only choose to give up Xiamang’s region for now.”

  “Have Eastbreak keep his region suppressed.” Daofather Crimsonbright knew that he had to make his choice right away.

  If he had Eastbreak suppress the entire battlefield…because of how bad the situation was for Ji Ning and the Xia Emperor’s area, they would still probably be at a disadvantage. As for the other regions…if Eastbreak wasn’t able to help them out enough, they would probably only be able to reach a stalemate.

  Now, however…

  With Eastbreak going berserk on a few select regions…although Ji Ning’s region was in trouble, the other seven regions temporarily gained the upper hand!

  Eastbreak’s arrows were simply too terrifying. However, both Daofather Crimsonbright and Daofather Ink Bamboo knew very well that these terrifying arrows used up Daofruits of primordial chaos, with each Dao
fruit only sustaining two arrows. He wouldn’t be able to maintain this state for too long…and so he had to kill as many as he could, while he could!

  “Xiamang, your region will have to rely on yourselves.” Daofather Crimsonbright hardened his heart. He had experienced the destruction of the Primordial World; he knew that sometimes, sacrifices had to be made for the sake of the bigger picture.

  “EVERGREEN!!!”

  Daofather Crimsonbright stared at the distant Sword Immortal Evergreen, cold light flaring from his eyes, his face completely ashen!

  Humiliation!

  He had been catastrophically deceived.

  He had trusted Sword Immortal Evergreen too much; he hadn’t suspected him of being a spy at all. The main reason for this was because Evergreen normally didn’t have any friends; in fact, he was an extremely solitary person who focused completely on the Dao. Evergreen had lived in seclusion within that Daoist temple on his minor world for countless years, focusing on the Dao. It might be easy for a person to pretend for a period of time, but to pretend for their entire life…

  Evergreen, however, was terrifying in this regard. In the past, Daofather Crimsonbright had rather admired Evergreen for his temperament and his complete dedication to pursuing the Dao. He had believed that of his many disciples, Evergreen had the best chance of becoming a Daofather.

  “Evergreen is focused on pursuing the Dao, and his heart has no other desires; I definitely wasn’t wrong about this. When he killed Snowdance, he showed no mercy or hesitancy at all; he didn’t even show the slightest hint of doubt in his eyes. After killing her, he immediately destroyed her corpse. His heart is truly merciless. I wasn’t wrong…he is indeed incredibly dangerous.” Daofather Crimsonbright knew very well that such a decisive, merciless person would likely become an astonishing figure in the future.

  One’s level of accomplishments had nothing to do with whether one was virtuous or vile.

  The stronger one’s Dao-heart was, the easier it would be for one to travel a long distance on the Immortal path.

  For the most vile of individuals, even when they did vile things, they wouldn’t truly believe themselves to be vile. A completely pure Dao-heart could be a terrifyingly powerful thing, even if that pureness was evil; not even demonheart tribulations and other such tribulations would have an effect on it. However, there were very, very few such ‘natural-born devils’. Prior to this, Daofather Crimsonbright hadn’t been able to tell that Evergreen was such a person…

  ……

  The battlefield region where Ning and the Xia Emperor were located.

  “Evergreen.” Ning was utterly enraged by what he was seeing.

  “All-out attack!” The Daofather’s order came. The three Diremonster Gods of Mount Dragoneater temporarily paused their attacks, beginning to join together into a formation.

  Taking advantage of the lull offered by the three Diremonster Gods pausing, the enraged Ji Ning charged straight towards Sword Immortal Evergreen.

  “F*ck off!”

  Ning swept out with his two arms. Boom! Boom! Boom! The Empyrean God golems that had been bothering him were all knocked flying backwards. The difference in power was simply too great.

  “Quick, stop him!”

  “Stop him.”

  A Bifang Crane commanded by an Empyrean God golem flew forward towards him.. This particular Terrorbeast looked like an Immortal crane. Its body was completely azure, and it was bathed in fiery flames as its blazing wings flapped. It only had a single claw, but this claw was enormous and pitch-black. As the Bifang Crane flew forward, its claw ripped forward towards Ning.

  As for Ning, he reached out with both arms.

  Whoosh!

  He grabbed that giant claw with his hands. The Bifang Crane suddenly manifested a black wing in front of it, smashing it down towards Ning.

  “Die.”

  ‘Wielding’ the claw with both hands, Ning smashed the Bifang Crane towards a White-Faced Flood Dragon in front of him. As for the black wing…Ning just gritted his teeth and endured the blow. In this moment, he unleashed all of the power of his soul heartforce technique. By now, he had nearly reached the ‘expert’ level in the soul heartforce technique; the increase in power was quite noticeable.

  This made it so that he was able to take control over increasingly greater amounts of the flood of natural energy being generated by the Heaven Punisher. His body quickly began even stronger and even more resilient.

  Boom! Boom! Boom! The black wing slammed against Ning, but it only left behind a small wound.

  “How did his strength just…” The Bifang Crane was shocked.

  BOOM!

  The Bifang Crane was slammed straight down against a White-Faced Flood Dragon, knocking it flying away. Ning kept one hand around the claw of the Bifang Crane, manifesting an incredibly sharp sword within his other hand. Tightening his grip around the sword, he viciously stabbed it towards Bifang Crane’s body.

  Slash! Slash!

  Two lightning-fast sword-strikes passed straight through the Bifang Crane’s boddy, causing it to instantly begin to break apart. Many Celestial Immortals and Loose Immortals began to run, with the Pure Yang True Immortal commander the first to flee in terror.

  “Die.” Two massive shields appeared within Ning’s hands, and he smashed them towards each other, with the fleeing Pure Yang True Immortal caught between them!

  BOOM!

  When the two shields slammed together, countless Loose Immortals and Celestial Immortals perished. The True Immortal simultaneously used an evasive technique as well as magic treasures to resist, but Ning had already unleashed his true power. His soul heartforce had nearly reached the expert level, and the amount of power he now unleashed was simply astonishing.

  “How could this…” The True Immortal felt a great power sweep through his magic treasures like a sword sweeping through rotted wood. And then…boom! He was completely disintegrated by the collision of the two massive, mountain-like shields.

  “Kill him.”

  “Kill this Ji Ning!”

  Off in the distance, the three Diremonster Gods of Mount Dragoneater had already transformed into the Three-Eyed Demon.

  They were stunned and furious. They hadn’t expected that during the short period of time when they had paused their attacks, Ji Ning would have wiped out one of their Immortal armies. And even more importantly…he had even killed the True Immortal commander! They thought that the deceased True Immortal was to blame for his carelessness; they had no idea that Ji Ning, upon seeing Evergreen turn traitor, had known that the situation was grim and so had finally unleashed his full power.

  The power of Ning’s Heaven Punisher had instantly increased several times over.

  If the nine-headed lion, the ‘Great Sage Who Devours the Skies’, was to once more fight head-on against Ning…he would lose even more disastrously than last time.

  “Kill!” The Three-Eyed Demon charged towards Ning.

  “Block it.”

  “Tie it down.”

  The True Immortals and Raindragons were all going all-out.

  Ning knew that he had no time to continue his slaughter of the fleeing Immortals. He immediately turned and charged straight towards the Three-Eyed Demon. While charging forward, Ning launched a kick towards a nearby Zhuyan Ape. BOOM! The Zhuyan Ape was not only knocked flying, it also blew apart in midair.

  “Die.”

  Chains…black dragons…golden light…snow flowers…vines…tendrils…strange runes…all sorts of spells and magic treasures landed on the body of the Three-Eyed Demon.

  However, Three-Eyed Demon’s aura wasn’t diminished in the slightest. It completely ignored the spells and magic treasures, focusing only on Ji Ning.

  “Kill Evergreen.”

  “Kill this traitor.”

  “Kill him!”

  The other Raindragons and Heaven Punishers had gone berserk as well. In fact, they ignored their own safety as they launched all-out assaults of their own.


  Sword Immortal Evergreen had taken advantage of the earlier opening to lead the Seamless Gate army in wiping out a Raindragon, two Pangu War-Formations, and six Heaven Punishers. After the situation turned dangerous, he had immediately begun to flee towards the Three-Eyed Demon.

  ……

  Although Ning and the others were going all-out in their efforts…the Three-Eyed Demon simply held too enormous of an advantage. The Seamless Gate had also sent out other Empyrean Gods, True Immortals, and armies as well. After Sword Immortal Evergreen had caused heavy casualties, more forces of the Seamless Gate had been freed up to assist the Three-Eyed Demon..

  “The Seamless Gate is definitely going to win this battle.”

  As Sword Immortal Evergreen flew towards the Three-Eyed Demon, he actually said aloud, “You should all join our Seamless Gate. You’ll be able to survive if you do.”

  “Vile traitor, I swear I’ll kill you!” The Xia Emperor’s eyes were completely bloodshot.

  “Despicable creature.”

  “Foul thing!”

  The Empyrean Gods and True Immortals of the Crimsonbright Realm were all enraged. They had been stabbed in the back at a critical moment by one of their ‘allies’; how could they not be angry? And their dearly beloved junior apprentice-sister Snowdance had also been killed as well!

  BOOM!

  Ning’s Heaven Punisher, the mightiest one of them all, finally clashed with the Three-Eyed Demon for the first time.

  BANG!

  Ning had been very cautious, choosing to use shields…but he was still knocked flying backwards.

  “The difference in strength is too great.” Ning instantly realized this as he flew backwards. “The stories were true; the Three-Eyed Demon’s power has already reached the Daofather level.”

  The three Diremonster Gods already possessed tremendous, overwhelming power. The Three-Eyed Demon they joined together to form had a qualitatively superior level of strength; it had reached the Daofather threshold. Perhaps Eastbreak, by relying on Daofruit of primordial chaos, was able to unleash arrows that were comparable or even slightly superior in strength…but the Three-Eyed Demon still definitely had a Daofather’s power. Ning was far from being a match for it.