Desolate Era

by RWX

  Subhuti now understood. When he had struck, his attack had naturally contained the countless mysteries of spacetime within it.

  Redsnow had been training for countless eras; he had been just a single step away from entering the realm of spacetime. After that life-and-death battle, and after seeing Subhuti attack…it wasn’t strange for him to have been inspired by it.

  “Do you know which person in the Three Realms has the highest level of insight into spacetime?” Subhuti beamed merrily as he looked at Redsnow.

  “I once heard my Manorlord say,” Redsnow said respectfully, “That you, Patriarch, have the greatest command over spacetime in the entire Three Realms. This is the reason why you can move about without a trace, and why you were able to establish your Crescent world on a completely different dimensional level.”

  Subhuti let out a sigh. “Threelives did indeed value you highly. He was willing to tell you anything. Yes…my Crescent world is on a completely different dimensional level than the rest of the Three Realms, which is why those other Daofathers are unable to find it.”

  “Master…what do you mean, ‘different dimensional level’?” Ning asked.

  Both Subhuti and Redsnow were cultivators in spacetime. As for Ji Ning? He hadn’t even gained insights into the Grand Dao of Space or the Grand Dao of Time, to say nothing of spacetime.

  “Have you ever seen a layer cake?” Subhuti smiled as he looked at Ning.

  “Yes.” Ning nodded.

  “The other worlds of the Three Realms all exist on the uppermost layer of a ‘layer cake’,” Subhuti said with a laugh. “My Crescent world, however, is in one of the other layers. Ordinary movement techniques and Greater Teleportation techniques only allow you to move across the uppermost surface of the layer cake…thus, no matter what you do, you are unable to enter my Crescent world.”

  Ning was speechless. “So space can actually be divided into a series of layers…”

  “Heaven and Earth are naturally filled with endless mysteries and marvels.” Subhuti nodded.

  “If that’s the case…doesn’t that mean the Crescent world is the safest place of all? Aside from you, Master, no other Daofathers can enter here. Doesn’t this mean that you can completely avoid this great storm?” Ning hurriedly asked.

  “No.” Subhuti shook his head. “I cannot avoid it. I suppose I can temporarily avoid it for now…but later on, I won’t be able to.”

  “Why is that? They clearly have no way of entering this place. Why can’t you avoid it?” Ning asked.

  Subhuti pondered for a moment, then shook his head and said, “I can’t answer your question for now. There are many things which even I do not understand. However, I can subconsciously sense fate working behind the scenes to guarantee that no living creature within the Three Realms will be able to avoid this tribulation. Ji Ning…since you have already become a Pure Yang True Immortal, I will naturally tell you many of the secrets of the Three Realms. But those that even I don’t know, I naturally cannot tell you. Remember this; this vast universe is far too mysterious. Even Mother Nuwa eventually made the decision to enter the infinite primordial chaos in search of answers.”

  Ning nodded.

  “Redsnow.” Subhuti looked towards Redsnow. “All of my other supreme techniques have successors…but I have yet to find any suitable successors to my most valuable skills, my supreme space-time arts. Are you willing to accept me as your master?”

  Redsnow was shocked…then overjoyed. He hurriedly fell to his knees. “Your disciple greets you, Master!”

  “Hahaha…” Subhuti laughed as well. “You may rise.”

  “Your junior apprentice-brother greets you, senior apprentice-brother.” After rising, Redsnow immediately bowed towards Ning.

  Ning was instantly rendered speechless. Redsnow had been born during the earliest days of the universe, and so Ning had always respectfully addressed him as ‘senior’.

  “For you to address me as senior apprentice-brother…sounds really awkward,” Ning said.

  “The two of you can address each other as you please.” Subhuti smiled as he looked at his two disciples. He was in an excellent mood today. Ji Ning’s rate of advancement was absolutelyastounding, and Redsnow was going to be the heir to Subhuti’s most powerful arts.

  Subhuti laughed, “Ji Ning has been my disciple for quite a few years, now…but I imagine that he doesn’t even know how powerful his other fellow disciples are.”

  “I truly do not know,” Ning admitted respectfully.

  He knew that his master had a total of nineteen disciples. If Redsnow was included, then the total was twenty.

  Ning knew of the names of every single fellow disciple, starting from their eldest apprentice-brother, but he didn’t know exactly how strong each of them were.

  “Ji Ning, you have grown in power. As for Redsnow, he’s just a step away from becoming a Daofather. I continue to feel as though this great storm is hiding many mysteries within it; you fellow disciples will need to help each other and support each other,” Subhuti said. “Of my many disciples, a total of four have reached the True God or Daofather level.”

  “Four?” Ning and Redsnow were both shocked.

  “The first is my eldest disciple,” Subhuti said, “Which is to say, the wood-chopping ‘Woodcutter’ who lives in the mountains out back. If you ever have any questions regarding cultivation, you can go ask him about them. Without any question, he is the most powerful figure amongst my disciples.”

  “The second is my second disciple, the guardian of the Three Realms Palace, the one who is always napping; Crazy Ji.” Subhuti continued, “Crazy Ji can be considered the disciple who has truly inherited my many techniques and is most like myself. Buddhist techniques, Daoist techniques…he’s learned them all. If you have any questions, you can also ask him about them.”

  “The third is my sixth disciple, the one who created and is the master of the Flower-Fruit Mountain world, Sun Wukong,” Subhuti said. “He once was provided guidance by Mother Nuwa, and he is extremely skilled in combat.”

  “The final one is my twelfth disciple, Blacktiger. He loves to roam about the Three Realms. He has not established a major world of his own, has few subordinates, and is the weakest of the four…but he’s still at the True God/Daofather level. He has such a lazy, slothful disposition that I only accepted him as my disciple due to ties of karmic destiny that existed between us…but who would’ve thought that he’d reach the Daofather level as well?”

  Subhuti introduced all four Daofathers under his tutelage in one breath.

  Ning was shocked.

  Blacktiger?

  Twelfth apprentice-brother Blacktiger referred to himself as ‘Great King Blacktiger’. When Ning had been studying and training at Mount Innerheart, Blacktiger had actually come to visit him and had even sparred with him. Ning had never imagined or had any inkling at all as to how powerful this man really was! The feeling that Blacktiger had given him was that he wasn’t even as powerful as Silvermoon. Who would’ve thought that was all just a show…that he was at the True God/Daofather level!

  “The other disciples, including Ji Ning, are all at the Empyrean God/True Immortal level,” Subhuti said. “The two of you must not be lazy. The great storm has descended upon us; if you can train to the True God/Daofather level, you’ll have a greater chance of surviving it.”

  “Your disciple understands,” Ji Ning and Redsnow said respectfully.

  “Good.” Subhuti nodded, then smiled. “You now know how powerful your fellow disciples are. As for some of the secrets of the Three Realms…Redsnow may know a few, but because Ji Ning was previously weak, I hadn’t spoken to him about them. Let me narrate some of them in detail. I will tell you what happened during the destruction of the Primordial Era. I trust that after you listen to me, you’ll fully understand what the Seamless Gate truly is.”

  Ning and Redsnow both listened attentively. Not even Redsnow knew much about the war which destroyed the Primordial Era.
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  Book 19, Chapter 2 - The Secret History of the Three Realms (2)

  A reminiscent look was in Subhuti’s eyes. He said softly, “Let us start the tale from the dawn of the primordial chaos. Long ago, before the Primordial Era began, our ‘Three Realms’ was located in a region of complete primordial chaos. The primordial chaos, in and of itself, is an incomparably marvelous thing. It began to give birth to Elder Gods, True Gods, and Empyrean Gods. Due to them having been birthed within the primordial chaos, they styled themselves the same way, calling themselves the ‘Elder Gods of Primordial Chaos’ and so on.”

  “Elder Gods?” Ji Ning was instantly stunned by his master’s words.

  “The Daos contained within this region consisted of ten Heavenly Daos, eighty-one Grand Daos, and 108,000 lesser Daos.” Subhuti continued, “The ten great Elder Gods were born with control over a Heavenly Dao.”

  “Pangu, born with control over the Heavenly Dao of Primordial Chaos.”

  “Nuwa, born with control over the Heavenly Dao of Life.”

  “Fuxi, born with control over the Heavenly Dao of Destruction.”

  “The Phoenix, born with control over the Heavenly Dao of Yin.” [1. Readers may be surprised that the phoenix has control over ‘Yin’, when it is normally considered a creature of fire. The answer is that in traditional Chinese culture, the phoenix is the ultimate symbol of feminity, with the dragon being the ultimate symbol of masculinity.]

  “The Ancestor Dragon, born with control over the Heavenly Dao of Yang.”

  “As for the Heavenly Daos of the Five Elements, they were controlled by Firegod Zhurong, Watergod Gonggong, Metalgod Rushou, Woodgod Jumang, and Earthgod Houtu.”

  “These ten were all born with innate control over the Heavenly Daos. Pangu was the greatest of them!” [2. Every single one of the deities listed here come from actual Chinese myths and legends.]

  Subhuti looked towards Ji Ning. “Disciple, you seem to have many questions for me.”

  “Yes. Elder Gods…your disciples has never heard of such a thing.” Ning was stunned. “Your disciple always believed that the True God level represented a limit.”

  “Very few in the Three Realms know of them, and I’ll explain the reason for that later. Pangu, Nuwa, and the others are not like us. They were born with control over the Heavenly Daos, and they are innately more powerful than us,” Subhuti said. “In addition to them, the primordial chaos also gave birth to powerful True Gods who were born with control over a Grand Dao! I was one of them, as were Threelives, Crimsonbright, Daoist Three Purities, Lord Tathagata the Buddha, and the Welcomer Buddha. All of them are True Gods.”

  “On a still lower level were the 108,000 Empyrean Gods who were born with control over an ordinary Dao.”

  Subhuti continued, “These are the Elder Gods, True Gods, and Empyrean Gods who were born from the primordial chaos.”

  “The most exalted and most powerful of the gods was Pangu, born with control over the Heavenly Dao of Primordial Chaos. Although Pangu was extremely powerful…the invisible hands and machinations of fate worked through him.” Subhuti let out a sigh. “He was born with the destiny of establishing our world. He was the last to be born, and when he emerged from the primordial chaos, he came out with his great Pangu Axe in hand. He cleaved apart the primordial chaos itself, separating Heaven from Earth, burning up his very lifeforce and dying in the process. As a result…the utterly enormous Primordial Pangu’s World was created.”

  “After being established…the Primordial Pangu’s World began to give birth to many different lifeforms, all of whom were born from Heaven and Earth. The strongest were born at the Empyrean God level, while the weakest were at least at the Xiantian level.”

  Ning listened carefully.

  “Heaven and Earth gave birth to so many incomparably exquisite things. Those of us who emerged from the primordial chaos were filled with curiosity towards this new world.” Subhuti sighed. “Some of us took over territories for our own use, while others went into seclusion. As Pangu’s World gave birth to more and more living creatures, the world itself became an increasingly exciting place to be in. People like Threelives began to create their own kingdoms, as did several of the Elder Gods…and thus war began to erupt, with many being slain.

  Ning nodded.

  It was very common for wars to erupt due to conflicting ambitions.

  “The various major powers even created Ki Refining techniques for the countless living creatures of Pangu’s World,” Subhuti said. “In fact, Tathagata even created a completely separate system called ‘Buddhism’, which in reality can be considered a variation on the Ki Refining system. The various True Gods such as myself and Tathagata then were able to train to become Daofathers, using the Ki Refining techniques we developed.”

  “Mother Nuwa was the first to break through,” Subhuti said. “Mother Nuwa possessed tremendous willpower and wisdom. After gaining insights into the Heavenly Daos of Yin and Yang, her power instantly increased explosively, and she then created the human race. Only then did all the major powers of the Primordial Era understand that one’s power could increase to a higher level once one comprehended a set of Heavenly Daos.”

  “And so, the major powers of Pangu’s World all began to focus on training…but they then discovered that once you mastered a particular Heavenly Dao, mastering the opposite Heavenly Dao would be incredibly difficult. For example, if someone who had already mastered the Heavenly Dao of Life wished to then meditate on its opposite, the Heavenly Dao of Destruction, the Heavenly Dao of Life itself would forcefully disturb him. There was simply no way to gain insights at all.”

  “For a very long period of time, no one aside from Mother Nuwa was capable of gaining insights into a matching set of Heavenly Daos.”

  “But then…Daoist Three Purities appeared.”

  “Daoist Three Purities was born a True God of Primordial Chaos; his original name was Yuanshi! He was extremely talented, managing to first master the Heavenly Dao of Yang, then the Heavenly Dao of Destruction. However, he was never able to succeed in mastering the Heavenly Dao of Yin or the Heavenly Dao of Life, the complimentary Daos to what he already had. And so…he steeled his mind and made a major decision.”

  “He killed himself.”

  “Killed himself?!” Ning was stunned.

  The nearby Redsnow, however, simply smiled. Although this was a secret, Redsnow had been born when Pangu’s World had been created, and had followed Daoist Threelives for many years. He knew many things, including this story.

  “Daoist Three Purities set down a seal upon his own truesoul, a seal that would lock away his former memories unless he mastered either the Heavenly Dao of Yin or the Heavenly Dao of Life,” Subhuti said. “And then, Daoist Three Purities entered the paths of reincarnation, then killed himself. Because he died within the paths of reincarnation, his truesoul was naturally sent straight into the cycle of reincarnation.”

  “This was a huge gamble.”

  “If Daoist Three Purities’ soul was shattered in his next life, then his truesoul would be sent to the River of Destiny. He would be finished,” Subhuti said.

  Ning nodded.

  To seal away one’s memories unless one mastered either the Heavenly Dao of Yin or the Heavenly Dao of Life. In other words…unless he became a Daofather once more, there would be no way for him to reawaken his memories from the past. But how incredibly difficult would it have to be for one to become a Daofather once more, without any past memories at all? Even though one might be incredibly talented due to the quality of one’s truesoul, the path of cultivation was an incredibly dangerous one.

  Once one was killed and one’s soul was shattered, everything would be oever.

  “He failed numerous times. He was reincarnated a total of nine times,” Subhuti said. “Of his nine reincarnations, six of them were as ordinary mortals who didn’t even embark on the patho f cultivation. Thus, upon dying he was naturally sent to be reincarnated once m
ore. In two other lives, he died at the Zifu level and was once more sent to be reincarnated. Finally, during his ninth life, he was reborn as a member of the primordial human clan…Laozi!”

  In this life, he was an absolutely dazzling figure. He advanced at an absolutely breakneck pace, and because his memories of his past life were unable to disturb him, he was able to train all the way to become a Daofather through mastering the Heavenly Dao of Yin. Only then did were his former memories awakened…and both the Heavenly Daos of Yin and Yang were now under his control. His power instantly exploded!”

  “He then devised the Three Pure Ones technique, becoming so powerful that even Mother Nuwa might not have been a match for him at that point in time. He essentially became the number one leader of the entire Primordial Era. Because Yuanshi had devised the Three Pure Ones technique, he gave himself the title ‘Daoist Three Purities’. He then established the Daoist Path, passing down many Daoist techniques and becoming the leader of the Daoist Path.”

  Ning was stunned by what he heard.

  “Because his memories were masked during the reincarnation process, he was able to gain insights into a complimentary Heavenly Dao without being impacted by his original Heavenly Dao. But this was a gamble. If his soul was shattered, he would have truly perished.” Subhuti sighed. “Because of Daoist Three Purities, there were a total of six Daofathers who also committed suicide after setting down seals upon their truesouls.”

  “But…there has never been any word of them since. From the Primordial Era to the modern day, there has never been any traces of them,” Subhuti said. “Perhaps they have died…or perhaps they are continuing to pass through the endless cycle of reincarnation.”

  Ning sighed to himself.

  Nonstop reincarnation?

  Those Daofathers who committed suicide all had extraordinary truesouls; their talent had to be extraordinary as well. As long as they had a chance to embark on the Immortal path, they undoubtedly would…but the Immortal path was an extremely deadly one. One might be slain by an enemy, resulting in one’s soul being shattered and dispersed! An extremely long period of time had passed since the Primordial Era. Those six Daofathers were most likely long deceased, their souls having entered the endless River of Destiny.