Desolate Era

by RWX

  None of the other major powers had additional clones like he did, yet they had all decided to self-detonate in the hopes of exhausting more of Old Man Yuan’s divine power. Ning had clones. How could he flee?

  In this moment, he threw all other thoughts to the back of his mind. He focused on just one thing…to injure Old Man Yuan as best he could. Perhaps he might be the straw that broke the camel’s back, causing Old Man Yuan to die.

  Keeper Everwood had died.

  Daoist Three Purities and his 3600 True Immortals had died.

  The black-robed Primaltwin Ning had died.

  Lord Tathagata the Buddha and his 5800 Empyrean Gods had died.

  Buddha Jueming had died.

  Now, even Ning’s true body was going to die.

  “My fellow Daoists…I’m not afraid of death, but I have to ensure that the Seamless Gate will live on. If all of us were to die here, the Immortals and Fiendgods who died for our sake would have died for nothing.” The Lord of All Fiends finally decided to flee.

  “Let’s go.”

  “We’re leaving the Three Realms.”

  The Lord of All Fiends began to collect the major powers of the Seamless Gate mid-battle.

  Before this Endwar had begun, these major powers had all handed their closest friends and loved ones over to the Lord of All Fiends for safekeeping. They all had faith in the escaping abilities of the Lord of All Fiends. The reason why they were willing to risk or even to give up their lives was to ensure that the ones they cared about would be able to continue living.

  “Let’s go. All of you, let’s go.” Subhuti appeared next to the major powers of the Nuwa Alliance as well.

  “Let’s go.” Sun Wukong’s eyes turned red, as did the eyes of many others.

  “Let’s go.”

  They all understood that continuing to fight like this would be pointless. The whole point of them fighting was to keep the soulslaves occupied, preventing them from assisting Old Man Yuan! Now, however, there was no point. It was all up to Ji Ning.

  These other True Gods and Daofathers were too weak to make a difference; they simply couldn’t keep Old Man Yuan tied down. If Old Man Yuan wanted to flee, he could do so whenever he wished to. Only the likes of Ji Ning, the Lord of All Fiends, and the other overlords were capable of forcing Old Man Yuan to stay and fight.

  The Lord of All Fiends evacuated the Seamless Gate, while Subhuti evacuated the Nuwa Alliance. Both sides had already made their preparations.

  If Ji Ning’s self-detonation failed to slay Old Man Yuan, then they would leave the Three Realms and enter the endless primordial chaos.

  If Ji Ning’s self-detonation succeeded in exhausting Old Man Yuan’s store of divine power, rendering him helpless…then they would counter-attack and win!

  It was all up to Ji Ning!

  Those five massive palms reached out for Ning from five different directions, covering the Void like five massive stormclouds. All of them moved as fast as the speed of light, giving Ning’s true body no chance to run.

  “Is the Three Realms about to be destroyed?”

  “No…”

  “We still have a slight chance.”

  Ning was calmer than he ever had been before. The reason why all of those overlords had sacrificed themselves was because they saw that same slight chance as well.

  “Come, then.” Ning’s heart was as still as water.

  Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Old Man Yuan’s five palms slammed down with no mercy whatsoever towards Ning’s true body. With the Lord of All Fiends having fled, the Three Realms no longer posed any threat to him whatsoever. As for the likes of Buddha Maitreya or Sun Wukong, those major powers were too weak in comparison. If he wanted to fight them, he would; if he wanted to flee from them, he could.

  Ji Ning was the last one who could pose a threat to him.

  “Die, then.” Old Man Yuan’s eyes were filled with cold savagery as he mentally steeled himself for Ji Ning’s self-detonation. “I can take another blast. I can still hold.”

  The Lord of All Fiends had fled far off into the distance and was watching through his senses.

  Patriarch Subhuti was also far away by now, and by his side stood Buddha Maitreya, Buddha Amitabha, Sun Wukong, Jade Cauldron, and the others. They, too, were watching.

  Godfiend Witherspike’s incarnation was also watching from afar.

  The destiny of the Three Realms itself hung in the balance, and everyone was waiting to see how the scales would be tipped. Even the Heavenly Daos were shuddering. They understood that a critical moment had arrived…but there was nothing they could do.

  As for the countless living creatures of the Three Realms, they continued to peacefully live their ordinary lives. Some struggled for political power, some wooed their lovers, some chanted poems, some focused on their studies, and some were fighting in their own wars…

  They had no idea…that the fate of the entire Three Realms would be decided in this next instant.

  “…What’s going on?” The Lord of All Fiends, Patriarch Subhuti, Godfiend Witherspike, and the others all grew puzzled.

  This was because Old Man Yuan’s giant palms had descended upon Ji Ning, clutching him in their grasp.

  But…

  There was no detonation!

  “He didn’t self-detonate?!” The Lord of All Fiends boggled.

  Subhuti and the rest of the Nuwa Alliance were all stunned as well. Even Godfiend Witherspike’s incarnation was stunned.

  None of them believed that this was because Ji Ning was afraid to die. Ji Ning had to know that if Old Man Yuan captured him and sealed him away, the end result would still be death, and a pointless one at that. He wouldn’t even be able to injure Old Man Yuan.

  They were shocked. Old Man Yuan himself was shocked. He had already mentally prepared himself to deal with Ji Ning’s self-detonation, but even as he finally wrapped his fingers around Ji Ning, Ji Ning still did not self-detonate.

  “The destiny of the Three Realms shall be decided in this instant.”

  When Ning saw the palms draw near him, he had decided to self-detonate.

  In this moment, his heart was calmer than it ever had been before. He stood there all by himself, his friends and allies all far away, his spirit in a state of complete silence…and suddenly, he found that spark of insight within his divine body.

  “A spark of insight that can only be found in endless solitude…” As death descended, Ning suddenly gave up his plans of self-detonation. Instead, he immediately activated the [Solitary World God] technique.

  In order to advance through the [Solitary World God], one had to find a spark of insight hidden within one’s divine body.

  Last time, when he had broken through to become a True God, he had succeeded because of the effort he had spent on mastering the Goldstar Beads of the Heavens. This time, however, it was because in this moment where the entire destiny of the Three Realms hung in the balance, his soul had become so extraordinarily calm and silent that he was able to sense that tiny little spark inside himself.

  Whoosh. Old Man Yuan’s fingers clenched around Ji Ning.

  Ji Ning did not self-detonate.

  “It’s over.” The Lord of All Fiends shook his head.

  “It’s finished.” The major powers of the Nuwa Alliance all shook their heads, despair written plainly on their faces. They had tried so hard…but for some reason, Ji Ning had refused to self-detonate. The last hope of the Three Realms was gone.

  “No.” Patriarch Subhuti continued to watch. He wouldn’t believe it. He refused to believe that his disciple was a craven man who feared death.

  Rumble…

  Boundless amounts of chaos energy suddenly began to appear in a great flood, forming an enormous chaos vortex that was centered…directly above Ji Ning.

  “It’s not finished. The Three Realms isn’t finished.” When Subhuti saw the chaos vortex suddenly appear, he let out a hoarse cry. “The Three Realms is not finished!”

  * * *r />
  Book 23, Chapter 32 - Half-Step World God

  “Is that…!”

  The Lord of All Fiends, the major powers of the Nuwa Alliance, and Godfiend Witherspike’s incarnation all stared at the chaos vortex which had suddenly appeared. All of them tensed as they sensed that aura of tremendous power expand and wash over them. The source of that terrifying aura…lay in the center of Old Man Yuan’s giant palms.

  “Impossible. This is impossible.” Old Man Yuan was still seated on his lotus throne, but his face now completely changed. He could keenly sense the terrifying power emanating from Ji Ning, who he still held within his grasp. Clearly, Ji Ning was striving to push him back.

  “He made a breakthrough?!”

  Old Man Yuan had experienced the war that ended the Primordial Era. It was at the very end of that war when Mother Nuwa had broken through to become a World God, absorbing enormous amounts of chaos energy and then dominating all her foes. For a chaos vortex to appear at a moment like this…Old Man Yuan knew right away that Ji Ning had begun to make a breakthrough.

  But…Ji Ning had only trained for roughly a thousand years!

  “He’s barely a thousand years old. There’s no way he could possibly become a World God so quickly.”

  “And judging from the size of this chaos vortex, it doesn’t appear as though he has become a World God.”

  “So long as he isn’t a World God, he still won’t be a match for me.” Old Man Yuan had been heavily wounded. He knew that this was a critical moment, and he truly did not wish to lose. To lose meant dying in the hands of these local yokels, and so he repeatedly consoled himself by telling himself he would win.

  “Get over here!” Old Man Yuan sought to tighten his grip around Ning and pull him over.

  BOOM!

  Ning suddenly manifested three heads and six arms. His six arms trembled violently, but he was still able to push Old Man Yuan’s palms aside.

  A vast flood of chaos energy continued to pour into Ji Ning’s body. Ji Ning’s divine body was continuously improving and transforming as his True God power was rapidly converted into Elder God power. This caused his aura to continue to grow in power, allowing him to fight back with greater and greater efficacy.

  “Damn.” This time, Old Man Yuan struck out with all six of his massive palms.

  BANG! BOOM! BANG!

  Ning continued to block and occasionally counter-attack. Only part of his mind was on the fight; most of his efforts were directed towards converting his divine power.

  His body continued to grow more and more powerful…

  “How can this be? How can he be this strong? Even if he has become an Elder God, it doesn’t make sense for him to become this strong.” Old Man Yuan grew frantic. The amount of power which Ji Ning had revealed already surpassed that which an Elder God should be capable of. Old Man Yuan’s six arms were now completely incapable of suppressing Ji Ning.

  Of course, Old Man Yuan had no idea that Ji Ning had trained in both the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods] and the [One True Body] divine abilities. Upon becoming an Elder God, Ning would be as strong as seventeen Elder Gods added together. This was even more effective than seventeen Elder Gods joining together into a formation; he could be considered a half-step World God!

  Old Man Yuan couldn’t be blamed for his miscalculation.

  This combination of techniques was extremely rare, even amongst Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals. Less than one in ten thousand would be at such a level of power. The King of Pangaea himself had only risen to prominence amongst Elder Gods after he had mastered the third level of the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods], which allowed him to fuse all eighteen of his bodies together. When he later became a World God, he became an incredibly powerful one thanks to his enormously strong and stable foundation.

  “Old Man Yuan can no longer hold him down.” The Lord of All Fiends revealed a look of joy.

  “He can’t hold Darknorth down any longer.” Buddha Maitreya and the others began to grow excited as well. Why had so many major powers, Immortals, and Fiendgods sacrificed their lives earlier? It was all for the sake of defeating this alien Outsider and defending their Three Realms. Now…they could see hope!

  “You have to win. You HAVE to win!” Patriarch Subhuti grew excited as well, his body beginning to visibly tremble.

  “Die! Die! DIE!” Old Man Yuan’s six arms struck out at Ji Ning with wild, berserk abandon.

  Rumble…

  The flood of chaos energy continued to pour into Ning’s body, causing even more of his True God power to be converted into Elder God power. By now, more than seventy percent of the divine power in his body was Elder God power, and the rest was still being converted. He was now so strong that his punches and kicks were enough to completely block Old Man Yuan’s attacks. In terms of raw power alone, he had definitely surpassed Old Man Yuan already.

  A half-step World God…unless a true World God made an appearance, a half-step World God could be described as capable of utterly dominating all opponents.

  “How could this happen? How could he be this strong? What the hell type of divine abilities and secret arts has he trained in?” Old Man Yuan was beginning to panic. “I need to leave, now!”

  There was no time for slow pondering. Old Man Yuan immediately chose to flee!

  As one of the Nine Divine Generals, he was an extremely crafty figure. He knew very well that given how Ji Ning had learned the [Ninehorn Lightning Serpent], it would be extremely difficult for him to flee. This was one of the reasons why he hadn’t tried to leave earlier and had instead focused on attempting to wipe out the experts of the Three Realms. Now, his plan was to take advantage of the fact that Ji Ning was making a breakthrough and use the remaining time to flee.

  Swoosh! Old Man Yuan immediately began to flee at high speed atop his black lotus, and as he did so he gave orders to his many soulslaves. “Stop Ji Ning!”

  “You want to run?”

  Ji Ning was continuing to convert his divine power, but he immediately transformed into a streak of black lightning and chased after Old Man Yuan. Although his divine power was not yet fully converted, and although combat would slow down the breakthrough process, that wouldn’t make much of a difference. When Mother Nuwa had made her breakthrough to become a World God, she had caused an even greater disturbance and needed to convert even more divine power, but she was still able to dominate all her foes during the process.

  Swish! The black lightning serpent flashed forward through the Void, easily dodging past the other major powers and chasing after Old Man Yuan.

  “Damn.” Old Man Yuan felt hatred and regret. He had made so many preparations and backup plans, and he had even managed to avoid exposing himself during the war that had ended the Primordial Era after seeing Mother Nuwa make her breakthrough. This time, he had only chosen to reveal his true self after Lord Demonheart had died and the two alliances had come to a ceasefire…but then he ended up running into this monster, Ji Ning!

  Houyi was a monster.

  Ji Ning was a monster as well.

  Houyi had slain Lord Demonheart and breached the first black lotus formation.

  Shennong’s Lifeseizer Flower had heavily injured him.

  The self-detonations of the various major powers had depleted the majority of Old Man Yuan’s divine power.

  “Given all of my abilities, if I was at peak power I wouldn’t be afraid to battle this Ji Ning head-on. But…this body is a body that I took over through possession. It is too slow!” Old Man Yuan shook his head. He wasn’t even able to fly as fast as the speed of light; there was no way he would be able to escape. And, unlike Subhuti, he didn’t have any techniques that allowed him to flee to a different spacetime continuum. His only choice was to face Ji Ning head-on.

  “Blacklotus Guard.” Old Man Yuan sat down in the lotus position once more, the black lotus flowers once more circling around him and covering an area of ten thousand kilometers. The lotus petals began to swivel in place as he stared icily
at the white-robed youth.

  Ning just stood there in the Void, his aura continuing to grow more and more powerful.

  Ninety percent. A hundred percent!

  The chaos vortex above him finally began to vanish. Ji Ning looked at Old Man Yuan, his eyes filled with a terrible, terrifying light.

  “Outsider…today is the day you die.” Ning’s body blurred briefly as he manifested his three heads and six arms.

  “A yokel like you dares to put on airs in front of me?” Old Man Yuan sat there atop his black lotus throne as he replied in a cold voice. “I might be heavily wounded, but if I have to fight to the death I can still kill a bumpkin like you.”

  “Hmph.”

  Ji Ning let out an angry snort. His six arms instantly stretched out through the Void, expanding many tens of thousands of kilometers as they simultaneously struck out towards Old Man Yuan’s black lotus flowers. Ning’s six mighty arms were like six enormous axes, and he furiously chopped down upon the black lotus flowers with power comparable to Pangu’s when Pangu cleaved apart Heaven from Earth.

  Divine ability…[Starseizing Hand]!

  [Brightmoon] sword-art, Heavenbreaker stance!

  “Keep dreaming.” Old Man Yuan felt complete confidence in himself. The Blacklotus Guard was a secret art of God Emperor Blacklotus. It possessed incredible defensive strength and was so durable that the simultaneous attacks of Ji Ning, Daoist Three Purities, the Lord of All Fiends, and Keeper Everwood had been able to do nothing to it.

  Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

  Six massive explosions rang out.

  The black lotus flowers surrounding him shuddered violently. Even his lotus throne shuddered, and quite a few of the lotus petals began to crack apart.

  “What?!” Old Man Yuan was shocked. How was this possible? He had been personally taught this technique by the God Emperor. Even supreme Elder Gods should find it difficult to breach this technique!

  “Eh?” Ning actually frowned as well.

  He knew better than anyone else how shockingly powerful he had become. He was now a half-step World God, and his six palms were all comparable to Chaos weapons. His skills in sword-arts were incredibly high, and when he used the ‘Heavenbreaker stance’ to strike his blows definitely possessed the power of a supreme Elder god. He had also used the [Starseizing Hand], making his blows more powerful than even Lord Demonheart’s had been.