Desolate Era

by RWX

  Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

  Six utterly enormous stone pillars suddenly appeared out of nowhere, descending from the heavens to cover an area of tens of thousands of kilometers. The stone pillars instantly began to radiate with blurry light, completely sealing off the outside world and causing space itself to turn blurry.

  “Darknorth!” Fuxi and the others were shocked as they saw this enormous blurry formation descend and trap Darknorth within it.

  “Fuxi, correct?” Godfiend Witherspike turned his head to smile coldly at Fuxi. “I heard that your skill in formations is the best amongst the locals. Go ahead and try to break this one if you can, ahaha…”

  Fuxi’s heart had turned cold as he soon as he saw those six stone pillars. The stone pillars were covered with extremely arcane runes. These runes contained incredibly profound mysteries of space within them, and Fuxi’s head turned dizzy as soon as he looked at them. He instantly understood that this was definitely a formation that vastly, vastly outstripped any formation he had ever made. There was no way he would ever be able to possibly break it.

  His guess was correct. This was a formation that had been created by a Chaos Immortal who was skilled in the art of formations. It was one of the trump cards which Godfiend Witherspike used when he adventured in the primordial chaos to trap tough foes.

  If you wanted to survive adventuring through the primordial chaos, you needed to have some trump cards up your sleeve.

  The Waterians under his command were another set of trump cards; when he encountered great danger, he would force those three servants of his to go block for him. However, they were only one of his ‘ordinary’ trump cards. This formation was one of his most important ones. Once unleashed, any foe trapped within would need to spend a long period of time before being able to overcome it. By then, he would’ve fled long ago.

  I might not be able to kill you, but I can trap you!

  Godfiend Witherspike had paid quite a heavy price to acquire this item. If it wasn’t for the fact that Ji Ning was incredibly powerful, he wouldn’t have been willing to use this treasure at all. If a foe spent enough time figuring out how the formation worked, he would be able to break through it and render it completely useless in the future. This sort of formation was generally a single-use item; Witherspike certainly didn’t have the ability to remake it or repair it!

  “First, I’ll kill Tathagata. Then, if I have enough time, I’ll kill Fuxi as well,” Godfiend Witherspike mused to himself.

  ……

  Ning had started to battle against Godfiend Witherspike again. Just as he had been knocked backwards a few steps, he saw six stone pillars descend out of nowhere. Immediately afterwards, the area around him turned blurry.

  Neither heartforce nor coresense could see past the haze, and he was only able to physically see to a distance of three hundred meters.

  “A formation?” Ning stared at the blurry area around him. “I’ve been trapped in a formation?”

  * * *

  Book 22, Chapter 27 - Fighting Back

  Ji Ning brandished Violetjewel, causing it to explosively increase in size to become many tens of thousands of meters long.

  “Break!” Faced with this blurry region, Ning let out a roar as he raised the enormous sword high into the air, then chopped downwards.

  Whoosh!

  He struck out with the ‘Heavenbreaker stance’. In terms of intent and will, it wasn’t too far from the will which Pangu had possessed when he had cleaved Heaven from Earth and established the world. Pangu had been born with mastery over the Heavenly Dao of Primordial Chaos, but his establishment of the world was part of his innate purpose for existing; he was the weakest type of World God possible. For those who had actually trained to become a World God, the establishment of a chaosworld would not result in their deaths.

  Rumble…

  The sword struck out, causing thunder to boom out around it.

  “Eh?” Ning frowned. “Although there were some vibrations, the formation is still quite stable. In fact, it is far more stable than the formation we dealt with earlier.”

  It would not be possible for him to break through this formation with raw force. What should he do?

  Whoosh. Ning began to move, quickly flying forward through the formation. The situation outside was most assuredly quite grim, and Lord Tathagata was in grave danger, but Ning put away all his other considerations as he completely focused on how to break through this formation as soon as he could.

  After flying for just a second, Ning came to a halt.

  “There is no danger here whatsoever…”

  “I flew a few hundred thousand kilometers in that second, but I encountered no danger whatsoever, nor where there any illusions. All I see is this perpetual blur and haze.” Ning was stunned. “Can it be…is this an ‘Endless Road’?”

  “Those six stone pillars…right. Damn! This is an ‘Endless Road’ formation!” Ning’s face instantly turned unsightly to behold.

  World God Northrest had transmitted much information to Ning, including a great deal of knowledge regarding common yet troublesome formations. One such formation was known as the ‘Endless Road’.”

  In the endless primordial chaos, there were worlds that were far larger than the Three Realms which held many major powers. All of them needed to train, and so it was quite common for them to exchange techniques and items with each other! One particularly powerful type of formation which many Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals were quite willing to purchase was this, the ‘Endless Road’.

  The principles behind the ‘Endless Road’ were quite simple. It made use of the principles of the Dao of Space to transform a region that was originally just ten thousand kilometers in size to become a hundred million kilometers in size! The target would be trapped at the very center of the formation. If you wanted to escape it, the only option you had would be to physically fly out of it.

  There was no way to teleport from within the formation. Thus, you had to spend a considerable amount of time flying from the center of the formation to the outside. That period of time would be more than enough for the formation-user to either flee or do something else! This made this particular formation a very popular item in the endless primordial chaos, and each time someone offered one for sale it would be immediately snapped up.

  Of course, it was also theoretically possible to break the formation through raw force! The problem was that although the formation was seemingly simple, the arcane mysteries of the Dao of Space inside it were unfathomably profound. Even World Gods or Chaos Immortals would need a bit of time to break the formation. As for Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals? There was no chance of it at all.

  “All I can do is keep flying!” Although Ning felt incredibly frantic, there was nothing else he could do.

  Swish! Ning transformed into a black lightning serpent, chose a direction, then immediately began to flee at high speed.

  ……

  “Save Tathagata!”

  Outside the formation, the battle had reached a crescendo.

  Fuxi was leading Kuafu and Jade Cauldron’s squads in a furious assault against the one-armed man, ‘Saber’. Saber had transformed to become thirty thousand meters tall, and he sent his saber flashing out in streaks of cold, savage light, preventing Fuxi and the others from moving past him. Fuxi was still just a True God, after all; although he had extremely profound insights into the Dao, he had primarily focused on the art of formations. While using formations he was able to just barely be a match for Saber, but he was still at a significant disadvantage.

  Only someone like Ji Ning, a half-step Elder God who had a powerful divine body and a sword like Violetjewel, could truly cause Saber trouble. Even Godfiend Witherspike had been unable to do anything to Ning and had been forced to use his precious Endless Roads formation to trap Ning.

  “Damn.”

  “Attack.”

  “Attack!”

  Kuafu, Jade Cauldron, and the others had al
l joined together into formations and were launching attacks from far away, but Saber was able to easily block the attacks.

  As for the other golden-armored retainers of Godfiend Witherspike, they were in command of the True Gods and Daofathers of the Primordial Chaosworld, having organized them into formations to resist the Waterflame Apocalypse Formation. Every so often, they’d launch a few attacks as well.

  For now, Fuxi’s entire squad had been completely blocked off by Saber and the enemy major powers.

  “This one-armed Outsider is far too powerful.” Fuxi gritted his teeth. Per the plans of the Nuwa Alliance, Fuxi’s role was generally to focus on using formations to control and influence the overall battlefield, not fight against powerful ones in one-on-one combat!

  “Tathagata, you have to hold.” Fuxi willed it, and instantly the Arcane Moonwater and Eternal Kindlefire close to Godfiend Witherspike transformed into a pair of enormous dragons, one of water and one of fire. The two dragons furiously coiled around the mighty Godfiend!

  This was the ‘true’ way to use the Waterflame Apocalypse Formation. Because Fuxi had to spend much of his attention on dealing with Saber, he was only able to activate the Waterflame Apocalypse Formation within that fairly small region. Clearly, he was planning to use it to tie down Godfiend Witherspike.

  Clang! Clang! The dragons of fire and water coiled around Godfiend Witherspike, but his body was so durable that he was able to completely ignore them.

  “A technique that joins elderfire and elderwater together? This technique is so profound that it can actually slow down my movements.” Godfiend Witherspike quickly realized how tough this formation was to deal with, but he still let out a sneer. “A pity for them that Tathagata is almost done for.”

  Although he was being constricted by the dragons of water and fire, he continued to furiously rain down attacks against Lord Buddha.

  After the formation had been broken apart, Lord Buddha had risen to his feet, intending to flee. But…

  Godfiend Witherspike moved even more quickly than he did. No matter how he tried, Tathagata was unable to escape.

  “My divine power is almost exhausted.” Lord Buddha let out a soft sigh.

  Whoosh.

  A kind-looking Buddha dressed in a kasaya frock suddenly emerged from Lord Tathagata’s body. Light blazed around his body as he struck out with full power, assaulting Godfiend Witherspike.

  “Ahaha, is this your final attempt to fight back? You are going to sacrifice your dharma-bodies now?” Godfiend Witherspike laughed wildly. Boom! Boom! Boom! After three brief clashes, the blazing figure completely broke apart and vanished.

  “That was his Medicine Buddha body.” The distant Fuxi felt pain in his heart upon seeing this.

  The Sakyamuni body was Lord Buddha’s true body, and he had four mighty dharma-bodies as well. This time, Lord Buddha had brought his Sakyamuni body along with two of his dharma-bodies, but over the course of this battle they had exhausted all of their energy. Lord Buddha’s only choice was to try and preserve his Sakyamuni body while sending out his dharma-bodies to die in the hopes of buying some more time.

  These dharma-bodies had all been painstakingly cultivated…and today, in a single day, they would be destroyed.

  Still, the true body was what mattered the most. So long as the true body remained alive, the dharma-bodies could slowly be remade once more.

  “Go.” Lord Buddha continued to flee as he sent yet another dharma-body flying out from inside of him. This dharma-body blazed with blinding fire, as though it was the sun itself. This was the Great Sun Buddha body, and its attacks were even more powerful than the attacks of the Medicine Buddha body.

  But…

  In terms of technique and power, it was still a bit weaker than the true body. If even the true body was unable to withstand Witherspike’s attacks, how could the Great Sun Buddha possibly do so?

  “Still struggling?” Godfiend Witherspike felt quite irritated. He continued his furious assaults, and a few short clashes later the Great Sun Buddha body also dissipated into specks of light.

  Swoosh! Godfiend Witherspike continued to chase after Lord Buddha.

  “You want to join together with Fuxi?” Godfiend Witherspike’s tail suddenly lashed out. Whoosh! It struck out faster than the speed of light towards Lord Buddha. Lord Buddha immediately moved to block. Boom! Lord Buddha was sent staggering backwards.

  Lord Buddha’s eyes were dim but peaceful. He folded his hands together in prayer, looking calmly at the approaching Godfiend Witherspike.

  “TATHAGATA!” Fuxi cried out in agony.

  “Killing you really wasn’t easy.” Godfiend Witherspike finally relaxed slightly. ‘Lord Buddha’ apparently no longer had any divine power left. He had long ago converted all of flesh and blood inside of him into divine power, leaving behind only the outside layer of his golden body. His golden body technique was quite special; he became incredibly powerful after mastering it, but there was no way to reconvert his golden body into divine power. After he died, he would only leave his golden body behind.

  There were many Bodhisattvas and Buddhas who would leave behind golden bodies after dying. But of course, Tathagata had trained his golden body technique to the highest possible level.

  “So I have become the first to fall before the great tribulation.” Lord Buddha looked at Godfiend Witherspike calmly.

  “It seems he’s preparing to give me one final blow before he dies?” Godfiend Witherspike didn’t dare to be over-confident. Killing Tathagata was no easy feat, and he had paid quite a heavy price to accomplish it. He had lost all four of his Thearchs, and he had even been forced to take out his ‘Endless Roads’ formation to trap Sword Immortal Darknorth. He certainly didn’t want to mess up at the very end!

  BOOM!!!

  An sudden explosion could be heard. Off in the distance, the six stone pillars surrounding the blurry formation were suddenly revealed, along with another figure…that of the sword-wielding Ji Ning.

  “Sword Immortal Darknorth?” Godfiend Witherspike’s face immediately changed, but his expressions then turned savage as he charged unhesitatingly towards Tathagata. “DIE!” His sharp claws struck directly towards Tathagata, giving the distant Ji Ning no time to intervene at all.

  When Lord Buddha saw Ji Ning emerge, a smile appeared on his formerly calm face. He let out a low growl, then struck out with both his palms. Boom! His giant hands struck out towards Godfiend Witherspike like a pair of massive worlds.

  * * *

  Book 22, Chapter 28 - Elite Elder God

  These two palms were like worlds unto themselves, and they angered Godfiend Witherfiend so much that he ground his teeth. “So he really was preparing to deliver one final blow to me before dying.”

  Lord Tathagata the Buddha was a True God. Although he was able to unleash the power of an Elder God, in terms of raw power he was indeed a bit inferior to Godfiend Witherspike. However, the intricacies of his palm-arts far surpassed Witherspike’s techniques. There was no way Godfiend Witherspike could avoid this final desperation attack; his only choice was to face it head-on.

  BOOM!!!

  The two attacks collided.

  Lord Tathagata borrowed from the force of the collision to fly backwards.

  “Outsider!” Ji Ning let out a loud roar, transforming into a black lightning serpent as he charged towards Godfiend Witherspike.

  “Damn.” After exchanging blows with Tathagata, Godfiend Witherspike was sent staggering backwards as well. By the time he recovered, Ji Ning was already attacking. Godfiend Witherspike could only cast a hateful, resentful glance towards Lord Tathagata as the latter flew far away. “I spent all that effort and paid such a heavy price, but I actually wasn’t able to kill even one of these ‘overlord’ level bumpkins. I really don’t want to accept this.”

  Ning’s sword-light descended!

  It was dazzling to behold, and it seemed to contain enough power to split the skies apart.

  Whap! Godfi
end Witherspike’s tail lashed out, transforming into a similarly dazzling streak of light that collided against the sword-light.

  Godfiend Witherspike was knocked flying backwards. He gave Ning a cold look, watching as Ning transformed into a black streak of lightning that flew next to Lord Tathagata. With a wave of his hand, he pulled Lord Tathagata into his own estate-treasure.

  “Master!” The distant one-armed man sent a mental message to him.

  “Let’s leave!” Godfiend Witherspike said angrily.

  This word, ‘leave’, came from his lips with the utmost of reluctance. Godfiend Witherspike waved his hand, causing those six stone pillars to disappear. Although the ‘Endless Road’ had been somewhat damaged by Ning’s escape, a skilled formations expert would still be able to repair it. The price of repairing it would be much lower than the price of buying a new one.

  “Leave.” The one-armed man waved his hand, collecting the alien True Gods as well as the three Waterians, the red-bearded elder, and the skinny elder. He then immediately flew over to Godfiend Witherspike’s side.

  “Count yourself lucky.” Godfiend Witherspike smiled coldly towards Ning and the others. “The Primordial Ruinworld is a large place. We’ll take things slowly.”

  Swoosh!

  Godfiend Witherspike and the one-armed man disappeared, a dark-golden castle appearing where they were. The dark-golden castle immediately flew away and departed.

  Within the castle.

  Godfiend Witherspike was once more seated on his throne. Below him were his six retainers.

  “Master, Sword Immortal Darknorth was trapped inside the the Endless Road formation. How did he end up emerging from it so quickly?” The red-bearded elder couldn’t help but ask this question. “It was too fast. He was only trapped inside for a brief period of time.”

  “It was quite brief.” The one-armed man frowned as well. “These locals…they are fairly ignorant and ill-informed. They shouldn’t have been able to recognize the formation as an Endless Road formation. Someone who has never seen this formation…upon being trapped inside it, he should’ve spent a long period of time trying to figure out what to do. The formation is so vast that flying out would take a good long while.”