Desolate Era

by RWX

  “The secrets of the Nuwa Alliance?” Ning felt his heartrate quicken.

  “Let us return to the Allclans Palace first. Just follow me later,” Fuxi said.

  Fuxi had originally been an Elder God. He was extremely close to Nuwa, and he naturally knew all of the secrets of the Nuwa Alliance.

  “Alright,” Ning replied.

  Fuxi smiled. “Everyone. Our campaign against the Primordial Ruinworld has lasted for thirty-nine years, but we have finally finished destroying the enemy’s lair! Now, we can set our minds at ease as we turn towards our true foes. We’ve never feared fighting any in a straight-up battle! Come. Let us return to the Allclans Palace!”

  “Return to the Allclans Palace.”

  The major powers immediately tore a hole through the Void and traversed it back to the Allclans Palace of the Three Realms.

  * * *

  Book 23, Chapter 1 - Nuwa Immortal Realm

  Ji Ning, Houyi, Fuxi, and their squad of major powers appeared in the air above the Humanworld of Yu the Great. They immediately saw the many figures awaiting them before the Allclans Palace, including Daoist Three Purities, Shennong, Suiren, and the others.

  “Come, let’s go over to them,” Fuxi said.

  “Alright.” Ning and the others all quickly flew over towards the Allclans Palace, then landed in front of it.

  “My fellow Daoists, please accept our thanks.” Daoist Three Purities was the first to bow.

  Shennong, Suiren, Patriarch Subhuti, and the other major powers all bowed together.

  They were all bowing in order to express their thanks towards Ji Ning, Fuxi, Houyi, Kuafu, Jade Cauldron, and the others for risking their lives for many years in this campaign against the Primordial Ruinworld. Although they had suffered several setbacks, with Lord Tathagata the Buddha losing two of his dharma-bodies, overall their losses hadn’t been too heavy. In the end, they had accomplished the goals they had set out.

  Within the palace. Everyone returned to their seats. Ning sat down as well, but he chose to sit next to Subhuti and Houyi.

  “My fellow Daoists,” Daoist Three Purities said, “Our warriors went out on campaign against the Primordial Ruinworld. The Primordial Ruinworld was more powerful than we expected, and they encountered some dangers on the way. Two extremely formidable alien Outsider overlords ended up appearing out of nowhere. Fortunately for us, Darknorth has become dramatically more powerful. He was able to hold down our losses and keep them manageable. In the end, Tathagata lost the most.”

  The nearby Lord Buddha smiled as he looked towards Ning. “There were losses, but there were also gains.”

  “Haha…” Daoist Three Purities laughed. “The Primordial Ruinworld has been destroyed. The Seamless Gate can forget about allying with those alien Outsiders and hiding in the Primordial Ruinworld in the future. If we can win the Endwar, we will have nothing else to worry about.”

  “Darknorth has become an overlord.” Suiren spoke out. “We haven’t held a celebratory banquet for him yet.”

  “No need to go to all that trouble,” Ning said hurriedly.

  Generally speaking, when a new True God or Daofather was born a celebratory banquet would be held. However, since Ning had made his breakthrough while he was in the primordial chaos, no one had known about it. Since he had been warring for years, there hadn’t been a chance to hold a banquet for him yet.

  “The Endwar is coming soon. I agree that it isn’t appropriate for us to hold a celebratory banquet at a time like this.” Subhuti nodded. “So many of us are gathered here in the Allclans Palace. Let us simply offer him our well-wishes.”

  “Junior apprentice-brother Darknorth, congratulations.” Houyi was the first to offer a toast.

  “Fellow Daoist Darknorth, congratulations.” Lu Dongbin, seated below the overlords, also raised a toast as he smiled at Ning.

  “Sword Immortal Darknorth, congratulations.”

  “True God Darknorth, congratulations…”

  Various forms of address could be heard as the major powers laughed and cheered. They all behaved fairly casually. Normally, there were so few major powers in the Three Realms that the ascension of every single one of them was a major event. Generally speaking, large-scale celebrations would be held for the new major power. However, times were different now, which was why Ning’s ‘banquet’ became a much simpler affair. Still, although the major powers behaved fairly casually, they still had to maintain at least a bit of decorum; Ji Ning was now an overlord-class figure, after all!

  Half a day later.

  Ning, Subhuti, and Fuxi were seated shoulder-to-shoulder within a wooden boat which was flying through the endless Void. They had left their incarnations within the Allclans Palace. In fact, most of the major powers ‘present’ within the Allclans Palace had actually only sent their incarnations as well, with their true bodies standing guard over various locations. By keeping their incarnations there, they would be able to maintain constant contact and mobilize together at a moment’s notice.

  “Nuwa Immortal Realm?” Ning was surprised.

  “Right. The Nuwa Immortal Realm.” Subhuti let out a laugh. “Before Mother Nuwa left the Three Realms, she created a special estate-world of absolute beauty. However, the number of people in the Three Realms aware of its existence can be counted on two hands. Most of the other major powers don’t know about it, but it is one of the most important realms belonging to the Nuwa Alliance.”

  “Oh?” Ning was quite curious.

  When Fuxi and Subhuti had led him out of the Allclans Palace, they had told him that they were going to tell him all their secrets. They had also told him that they would first have to go to the ‘Nuwa Immortal Realm’.

  “Let’s go.” Subhuti waved his finger, causing a spatial whirlpool to appear in the air in front of them.

  Swoosh.

  The wooden boat flew into the spatial whirlpool, then quickly disappeared.

  ……

  Rumble…

  A moment later, a ripple of power swept past the place they had just left.

  “Damn. What were Subhuti and Fuxi saying to Ji Ning? Where have they gone? Subhuti’s control over spacetime is simply too formidable. No one in the Three Realms surpasses him in this regard. There’s simply no way to follow him.” The ripple of power quickly dissipated.

  ……

  After passing through the spatial whirlpool, the three saw an absolutely beautiful world appear before them. Flowers and trees covered the entire world, and it was filled with all sorts of fragrant scents. Wild animals were running around happily, and lovely creeks, roaring rivers, and massive thundering waterfalls could all be seen in the world below them. The rivers could be seen winding through the mountains before flowing into the sea.

  The only creatures which existed in this world were ordinary birds and beasts which possessed low levels of intelligence. There were no other intelligent beings here.

  Subhuti waved his hand, putting away the wooden boat.

  “You have to use this treasure if you wish to enter the Nuwa Immortal Realm,” Subhuti said with a smile. “Mother Nuwa once created a total of three of these boats. If you don’t have one of them, there’s no way to enter this place at all. I have tremendous control over spacetime and can locate this mysterious, hidden world on my own, but not even I am capable of entering it without this boat.”

  “At least you can find it. The rest of us can’t even find the Nuwa Immortal Realm!” Fuxi laughed. “Nuwa truly was amazing. She was skilled in so many Daos, including even the Dao of Spacetime.”

  Ning couldn’t help but silently sigh to himself.

  The Nuwa Immortal Realm truly was a mysterious place. One could only enter it when making use of the flying boats which Nuwa had left behind? It seemed that this really was one of the secret mysteries of the Three Realms.

  “Come.” Subhuti and Fuxi flew in front with Ji Ning following from behind.

  Soon, they arrived within a beautiful peach garden. The area ar
ound them was surrounded by beautiful peach trees, and inside the peach garden was an ordinary-looking wooden cabin.

  “Come in.” Subhuti was the first to enter the wooden cabin.

  Ning followed behind and entered as well. Upon doing so, he found that the insides of the cabin were quite plain and unadorned as well. The only thing it held was bookshelves, and the bookshelves were filled with jade scrolls and slips. Subhuti pointed at some of the jade slips. “These wooden cabins are all filled with many jade slips, as well as some storage-type treasures. These jade slips over here contain all of the powerful techniques, spells, and divine abilities which the Nuwa Alliance has acquired! These aren’t just our own original techniques; the techniques of the alien Outsiders are included here as well.”

  “All?” Ning was shocked. The various major powers would generally keep their own secret killing techniques hidden from others.

  “All the major powers were willing to hand over their supreme techniques?” Ning was quite curious. “If they wanted to keep them hidden, I imagine that Mother Nuwa wouldn’t have been able to discover them.”

  “After Mother Nuwa became a Pangu-level God, she was at an incredibly high level of insight and power. In front of Mother Nuwa…there was no way for any of the major powers to keep anything hidden whatsoever.” Subhuti shook his head. “You’ve never met Mother Nuwa. If you did, you would understand. There’s no way you can even lie in front of her. It was Mother Nuwa herself who created the number one fate-type treasure of the Three Realms, the Book of Life and Death.”

  Ning nodded.

  The Book of Life and Death truly was an unearthly item. It recorded the lives of all of the countless living beings of the Three Realms, and it was capable of changing their fates, their very destinies.

  “In addition, Mother Nuwa would often provide guidance to the other major powers,” Subhuti said. “These techniques actually won’t be of much use to you. What really will be of use are the techniques which Mother Nuwa herself left behind.”

  “Oh?” Ning was startled.

  Subhuti pointed towards a wall of the wooden house. Whoosh.

  A technique suddenly appeared as countless characters manifested on the wooden walls.

  “This is the [Unbound Elder God Visualization] scroll,” Subhuti said as he pointed towards the walls. “When Mother Nuwa became a Pangu-level God, she became what is known as a ‘World God’ in the primordial chaos. After becoming a World God, she spent time meditating on the mysteries of her divine body, spending an enormous amount of effort in developing this [Unbound Elder God Visualization] scroll. If you use this technique, you will have a chance of becoming an Elder God.”

  “Although we’ve killed a number of alien Outsiders, techniques that allow one to become an Elder God are all secret techniques; they were all forced to swear lifeblood oaths, making it so that we were not able to acquire any of them.”

  “Ji Ning, you have become a True God; this technique should be of use to you,” Subhuti said.

  Ning gave it a careful read. He never would’ve thought that the Nuwa Alliance actually had a technique that could allow one to become an Elder God! This was a very, very rare thing.

  “This technique is exceedingly important to us, as the birth of any new Elder God is a momentous affair for the entire Three Realms,” Subhuti said. “This is why, even in the Nuwa Alliance, only True Gods of incredible talent and absolutely unswerving loyalty would be given a chance to acquire this technique. If we aren’t absolutely convinced of their loyalty, we absolutely won’t divulge this technique.”

  Ning was quite surprised by what he saw.

  The [Solitary World God] was an extremely formidable technique that could allow one to train all the way to the World God level. It was an extremely high-class technique, and the underlying principles of the technique lay in spending tremendous time in solitude in order to find a spark of insight within one’s own divine body.

  This [Unbound Elder God Visualization] scroll, however, was more like a visualization technique; it was about taking something illusory and making it real, then refining and mastering it. Its principles were completely different from that of the [Solitary World God].

  * * *

  Book 23, Chapter 2 - The Lord of Cui Palace

  Theoretically speaking, the principles of the [Unbound Elder God Visualization] technique seemed to be on a higher level. However, the [Solitary World God] was more detailed and more highly refined; it was, after all, a technique which countless experts had trained in and improved, giving it a higher success rate for mastery. Although the underlying principles of the [Unbound Elder God Visualization] technique were incredibly profound, Mother Nuwa had created it as a new and inexperienced World God. In addition, since the [Solitary World God] allowed one to train all the way up to the World God level, its creator was clearly far more powerful than Mother Nuwa had been.

  Still, from the creation of this technique alone Ji Ning could sense how incredibly talented Mother Nuwa had been. Even in a fairly ‘backwards’ chaosworld like the Three Realms, she had been able to train to such incredible heights. What level of power must she have reached once she entered the far vaster world of the endless primordial chaos? This truly was a difficult question to answer.

  “Master,” Ning suddenly said, “Since we have this technique…do we have any Elder Gods on our side?”

  Previously, Ning had always believed that the Three Realms only had a single Elder God; the Lord of All Fiends. This was what even Fuxi and Tathagata had told him.

  Fuxi and Subhuti exchanged a glance, then laughed.

  “We do,” Fuxi said. “The reason why we previously didn’t tell you was because we needed to keep it secret.”

  “We do?” Ning was surprised and delighted. “Who?”

  Three Purities, Tathagata, and the others were all quite formidable, but they were still ‘just’ True Gods and third-tier Ancestral Immortals. They had to work hard on their insights into the Dao to become comparable to ordinary Elder Gods. True Elder Gods, however, all had that level of power, even if their techniques were comparatively low-class. If they had superior techniques and insights into the Dao, they would be elite Elder Gods.

  “One of our Elder Gods of Primordial Chaos is actually still alive,” Subhuti said with a sigh.

  “Who?” Ning was quite curious.

  The Ancestral Dragon and the Phoenix had both died. Nuwa had left, Fuxi had been reincarnated, while Zhurong and Rushou had all perished. Who was still alive?

  “The Elder God of Water, Gonggong!” Subhuti said.

  “Gonggong? The one who broke Mount Buzhou?” Ning immediately knew who Subhuti was speaking of.

  “Right.” Subhuti let out a sigh. “That’s the one.”

  “Then why has he never shown himself?” Ning was puzzled.

  “During the war that ended the Primordial Era, Zhurong ended up dying to save Gonggong,” Subhuti said. “Zhurong died, while Gonggong lived…all these years, Gonggong has felt survivor’s guilt over this matter. He’s always felt ashamed, that he owed Zhurong. He’s never been able to get over it. Still, no need to worry about him. He will definitely appear during the Endwar.”

  “Alright.” Ning felt a surge of delight. Gonggong was born an Elder God; after having lived for a full chaos cycle, he must’ve improved in power at least a little. He was undoubtedly very strong.

  “Anyone else? Has anyone successfully mastered the [Unbound Elder God Visualization] scroll?” Ning asked.

  “Yes.” Subhuti laughed.

  “Suiren.” Fuxi nodded.

  Ning was surprised. “Suiren? H-he…he’s an Elder God? But…but why he wasn’t able to suppress Keeper Everwood when I was assassinated by the Seamless Gate?”

  “Even though you lost one of your bodies, we had to keep the fact that Suiren is an Elder God a secret.” Subhuti looked at Ning. “We were in the midst of the war for karmic luck, and all of our efforts were directed towards winning it. No matter how much we
wished to save you, we couldn’t reveal Suiren’s true power. Even if you only had a single body and were at risk of true death, we still would’ve made the same decision.”

  Ning nodded. He understood this principle.

  “This is the reason why we took the chaos nectar you gave us and gave it all to Suiren,” Subhuti said with a smile. “Suiren was always a tremendously talented figure; even as a True God, he was comparable to Elder Gods in power. But now that he is a true Elder God…he definitely is an elite Elder God in power! Now that he also has the [Ninehorn Lightning Serpent] technique? When the Endwar comes, he’ll give the Seamless Gate a nice little surprise.”

  “Right.” Ning felt excited upon hearing this. “Any other Elder Gods?”

  “Uncertain.” Subhuti shook his head. “As far as we know, the only one who successfully became an Elder God thanks to the [Unbound Elder God Visualization] technique was Suiren! It’s possible that no one else has mastered it, but it’s also possible that some of the True Gods are hiding their true power.”

  “Understood.” Ning nodded. In the end, most major powers only truly trusted themselves. Only a secret that was shared with none was guaranteed ot be a true secret!

  For example, given that Buddha Jueming had acquired techniques from Undermoon Lake, he certainly had to be an extraordinarily powerful figure. Most people in the Three Realms, however, viewed him as just being an ordinary Daofather. Ning felt certain that other True Gods and Daofathers on his side were hiding their power as well. It had been more than half a chaos cycle since the end of the Primordial Era, after all.

  Half a chaos cycle…such a long period of time was enough for virtually anything to happen.

  But by the same principle, it was also hard for them to ascertain the true power of the Seamless Gate!