Desolate Era

by RWX

  “Right!” The Flamewing God’s eyes turned round with surprise as it nodded seriously, then gave the black chains binding it a hateful glare. “Long, long ago, these chains would constantly drain large amounts of my flames. Each time, they would drain so much that I would feel extremely miserable. But ever since that last nap I took… it is true that they haven’t drained anything from me for quite some time. And now, two cultivators come to visit me… does this mean the Sithe truly have been wiped out?”

  “They really have been wiped out,” Ning and Azurefiend said simultaneously.

  “But the Sithe were really powerful. There’s no way they would’ve been wiped out that easily,” the Flamewing God mumbled to itself. Having suffered quite a bit at the hands of the Sithe, it continued to harbor a healthy dread of them.

  ……

  Ning and Azurefiend were both cultivators, and so the Flamewing God didn’t feel much enmity towards them. Although it had been quite some time since any Sithe had come to visit it, the creature still harbored doubts about whether or not the Sithe truly had been wiped out.

  “Let’s sit and chat, Azurefiend.” Ning suddenly waved his hand, causing two wine-laden tables to appear before them. Ning sat down before one of the tables.

  Azurefiend was rather puzzled. Why did Ning suddenly want to eat and drink? Still, Azurefiend was a bit of a glutton to begin with, and so he didn’t complain. He immediately sat down in front of his own table and picked up a large haunch of meat with one hand and a goblet of wine in the other.

  “Darknorth, why did you suddenly want to feast?” Azurefiend said while munching away.

  “I’ve spent chaos cycles meditating on formations. It’s been ages since I’ve had anything nice,” Ning said. He then smiled as he glanced off into the distance: “Flamewing, you need anything to eat or drink?”

  His real goal right now wasn’t to eat or drink… it was to tame this Flamewing God! He needed to come up with a way to convince the Flamewing God to eat the verdant azuresoul. He would never be able to forgive himself if he didn’t at least try to tame the Chaos Primordial trapped before him.

  “I already have food.” The Flamewing God sat back down, then waved a paw. This paw had a bracelet around it, and the bracelet suddenly lit up.

  Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. Basins of delicacies began to fly out, including both meats as well as spirit-fruits.

  The Flamewing God gave Ning and Azurefiend a smug glance, then began to chomp down on its own food.

  * * *

  Book 37, Chapter 29 - You Are The Best

  “Darknorth, the stories say that Chaos Primordials wander through the cosmos by themselves. They are fairly dumb and are easily angered… and the only thing they like to do is eat!” Azurefiend sipped his wine, glancing sideways at the distant Flamewing God as he spoke mentally to Ji Ning. “These things supposedly will eat almost anything. When they run into a realmverse, they’ll go so far as to slowly work its way through and devour the entire realmverse and everything within it. While they wander the Chaosverse by themselves, they’ll generally create their own estate-treasures and put living creatures inside, having those creatures provide food and wine for them to eat and drink whenever they so desire.”

  Ji Ning nodded. He knew all this, of course. Ever since he had acquired the verdant azuresoul, he had immediately searched for every scrap of information regarding Chaos Primordials that he could find. How could he possibly not know that Chaos Primordials loved to eat? This was the reason why Autarch Bolin had modified that verdant azuresoul with the goal of using it to control a Chaos Primordial.

  “Brother Azurefiend, I acquired many different types of spirit-fruit and rare delicacies from the Hegemons and Emperors who came to the Jadefire Realm last time. Want to try some?” Ning said.

  “You’d be willing to share?” Azurefiend’s eyes lit up. Rare spirit-fruits and delicacies were of tremendous interest to major powers, but many were so rare that major powers would only eat them sparingly. They would generally unwilling to eat them casually and in large amounts.

  “Of course! Come, sample some of this wine. This came from Hegemon Blackwood,” Ning said as he picked up a large gourd and unstoppered it.

  Whoosh. An aroma of fragrant wine immediately spread out to fill the entire hidden region. Hegemon Azurefiend’s eyes gleamed with a greedy light as he stared at the gourd. “Haha, it seems that looting from Hegemons and Emperors really is the fastest way to acquire treasures. I’ve only tasted this ‘Six Bandit Caves’ spirit-wine a single time in the past. Hegemon Blackwood truly is impressive in the Dao of Numerancy; someone must have asked him for help and used this wine in trade. Quick, let me taste some of it!”

  “I don’t have much of this wine. You have to drink it slowly! Once we finish this gourd, we won’t have any more left,” Ning said.

  “Heh heh, I’ll definitely savor it.” Hegemon Azurefiend was truly excited. He really was a glutton.

  The distant Flamewing God sniffed the air, then lifted its head and turned to stare in their direction. A chunk of meat fell out of its open mouth and onto the ground, but it didn’t even notice. It stared intently at the gourd of wine on Ning’s desk, the smell of the wine driving it crazy.

  Although its estate-treasure held many living creatures inside who were devoted to providing it food and drink, only ordinary types of sustenance could be provided. Truly rare spirit-fruits and delicacies could only be harvested from extremely unique environments, as they were formed based on drawing upon various unique types of energy from the Chaosverse. How could an estate-treasure possibly create good food?

  “We each drink one glass at a time. Take it slow and don’t even think about trying to hog it for yourself,” Ning said in a stingy manner.

  “Fine, fine!” Hegemon Azurefiend was feeling quite impatient. Ning nodded, pouring them each a glass. Whoosh. A deep red liquid that was almost ruby-colored came dribbling out of the gourd and into the two wine glasses. It looked absolutely mouth-watering.

  “Eh?” Ning suddenly seemed to sense something, and he turned to stare off in the distance. The Flamewing God’s mouth was open, and it was literally drooling onto the floor.

  “T-this wine…” The Flamewing God swallowed, then immediately said: “Can I have some of it?” It was born with a love of food and wine, but it had been ages since it had enjoyed such fine wine. It was completely unable to resist the urge.

  “No way! We only have just one gourd. There’s not even enough for the two of us,” Hegemon Azurefiend said hurriedly.

  “You aren’t going to share?” The Flamewing God was growing rather angry.

  “Stop trying to scare me. You are bound inside that cage, and your flames can’t harm us at all.” Hegemon Azurefiend was a glutton as well. There was no way he was going to share the little wine they had.

  “Y-you…!” The Flamewing God’s eyes turned round with indignation. It wasn’t very intelligent, and it usually just took whatever it wanted! Now that it was trapped, however, taking by force was no longer an option… but it really did want to drink some of that fine wine!!! When it smelled that wine, it no longer had any appetite for the basins of food that lay in front of it.”

  “Azurefiend, this is our first time seeing a Chaos Primordial. To be able to eat and drink with one of them is a lucky event. Let’s not be stingy,” Ning said with a laugh.

  “Right, right!” The Flamewing God instantly grew excited.

  “What’s the point of feeding it? It’s pointless! Better to feed me instead,” Azurefiend argued.

  “YOU…!” The Flamewing God glared furiously at Azurefiend, feeling an increasing level of distaste towards that skinny old man. It said furiously, “I’ll EAT you!”

  “Come and try,” Azurefiend snickered.

  “Enough, enough. Let’s not fight. Flamewing was captured by the Sithe, while we cultivators fought a bloody war against them. If you view it from that perspective, we’re actually all on the same side,” Ning said.
<
br />   “Right, right! Your name is Darknorth, right? I agree with what you say, one hundred percent. You are spot on! The two of us are on the same side,” the Flamewing God said.

  In his heart, Ning felt rather ashamed. He was swindling something with the intelligence of a child! Still, he would eventually be saving the creature by releasing it from its prison. It could be said that he was helping it out as well.

  “I’m very happy to be able to feast alongside a Chaos Primordial. Here, have another gourd.” Ning tossed out a gourd towards the Flamewing God’s direction, causing it to fly straight towards the creature. The Flamewing God was instantly excited upon seeing it, and it sent out an invisible hand of energy which caught the gourd, pulled out the stopper, and then poured out the wine.

  The Flamewing God opened its mouth wide and immediately began to guzzle the wine down.

  “You are seriously…” Hegemon Azurefiend felt rather speechless about all of this.

  “Ah, it’s fine. I have plenty of things to eat and drink. Those Hegemons brought me quite a bit of spirit-fruit and other treasures.” Ning waved his hand, causing a large amount of spirit-fruit and other special foodstuffs to appear on the tables. Spirit-fruits were unique fruits which by some mechanism were able to take in some of the essences of the Chaosverse. Some were even used in alchemy to refine pills. Others were used to make wine, while still others could be eaten raw!

  The ones Ning had just brought out were all delicious when eaten. They were unfathomably more delicious than the legendary ‘Peaches of Immortality’ of the Three Realms had been.

  “Haha…” Azurefiend began to laugh loudly when he saw this. He immediately reached out with his large but scrawny hand to grab some fruit, then began to munch down on it. Juice from the fruit splattered across his mouth, and a look of contentment was in his eyes.

  “Can I have some of the fruit as well?” The distant Flamewing God looked at Ning in a pitiable manner. It had already finished the wine; Ning had only given it a single gourd, after all. Azurefiend had only taken tiny sips of the wine, while the Flamewing God had guzzled it down like water. Yes, the feeling had been great, but it was over in the blink of an eye.

  The Flamewing God felt as though every single one of the fruits on the table was absolutely eniticing to it, and the fragrance was driving it mad. Normally, it would’ve seized all the fruit for itself, but it currently was only able to beg for alms.

  “Haha, I have plenty of fruit as well.” Ning waved his hand, causing a large basin of fruits to fly over. This basin had a hundred different types of fruit within it, and they all emanated different yet charming auras. One of them was a large egg-shaped item… the ‘verdant azuresoul’ which Ning had acquired.

  The large basin of fruit flew over towards the Flamewing God. Ning laughed: “You have to eat a bit more slowly this time. If you swallow it all in one gulp, I’m not going to be able to afford giving you much more.”

  The Flamewing God drooled as it stared at the basin of fruit in front of it. It wanted to eat all of it, with the verdant azuresoul being of especial interest. Its eyes reddened with excitement and gratitude as it turned to look at Ning. It felt as though this cultivator was the best person in the entire Chaosverse, and it immediately said: “You are absolutely the best! If I can escape this place, I’ll definitely help you out.” After speaking, it lowered its head and began to eat the fruit.

  Ning seemed quite relaxed, but in truth he was watching intently. It has to eat it. It has to eat the verdant azuresoul!

  “Wow, this is delicious! Its been a long, long time since I’ve had so much good food.” The Flamewing God was incomparably excited. Even before the Sithe had captured it, it would only very rarely have a chance to encounter such delicious food. After being captured, its life became even duller; the Sithe hadn’t given it anything to eat at all. It could only rely on its own food and drink the ordinary wine which the living beings in its estate-world created for it.

  “I’m going to eat this one first. It smells so good!” The Flamewing God opened its mouth and chomped down at the verdant azuresoul, which was the most alluring.

  Crunch! Crunch! The Flamewing God devoured the verdant soul at one go, its mouth filled with absolute bliss as it slowly chewed away at the fruit before finally swallowing it down.

  Ning, seated off in the distance, quickly sensed a ripple emanate from the beast. The invisible ripple had completely merged into the Flamewing God’s body and permeated through its soul and truesoul.

  “Success.” Ning let out a sigh of relief. It had all seemed so very simple, but he had been more nervous than during any battle in recent memory.

  The Flamewing God lowered its head to eat some more fruit, but it couldn’t help but look up towards Ning every so often. It felt increasingly well-disposed towards Ning; the man was simply too good to it. It suddenly felt a strong sense of attachment towards Ning, as though Ning was the person it trusted and liked the most in all the Chaosverse. It didn’t even realize that its truesoul had been dominated; all it knew was that it felt a sense of bone-deep love and veneration towards Ning.

  As for Ning, he picked up a glass of wine and began to walk straight towards the Flamewing God.

  “Master!” Whitethaw was shocked.

  “Don’t move too close to it.” Azurefiend was shocked as well.

  “Don’t worry. It’ll be fine,” Ning said. He moved towards the six chains and began to inspect them. He had to come up with a way to break the formations securing these chains. Only then would he be able to rescue the Flamewing God. If he wasn’t able to do that, then taming it would’ve been a pointless act.

  * * *

  Book 37, Chapter 30 - Friends For Life

  “Darknorth.” Azurefiend had been seated in the lotus position, but he hurriedly jumped to his feet to pull Ji Ning back. The Flamewing God was capable of killing even Hegemons with ease; a puny Daolord would be nothing to it. How could Azurefiend not be worried?

  Unfortunately, Ning moved far too fast. With a single step, he appeared right next to the Flamewing God, who turned to look at the tiny little speck that had just appeared next to it.

  “Be careful!” Azurefiend and Whitethaw both held their breaths. Ning was now so close that they wouldn’t be able to intervene in time!

  “You want some too?” The Flamewing God looked at the tiny human before it, a happy look in its eyes.

  “From this day forth, why don’t you stick by my side?” Ning raised his head to stare at the titanic beast before him.

  “Hm. Alright. But you have to give me food,” the Flamewing God said.

  “No one would be able to give you this much spirit-fruit every day. However, I promise that you’ll have much more and much better food than you have in your estate-treasure,” Ning said.

  The Flamewing God felt delighted for a moment, but it then turned to look helplessly at the black chains behind it. “But I’m trapped here. I want to leave with you, but I’m unable to.”

  “Let me take a close look.” Ning flew over as he spoke, landing on the Flamewing God’s giant body and moving towards one of the black chains attached to its wings.

  Azurefiend and Whitethaw both stared blankly at this sight. “B-but…” Azurefiend was dazed. “Flamewing is a Chaos Primordial. Why is it being so obedient? Aren’t Chaos Primordials supposed to be easily angered and moved to eat anything that approaches them?”

  Taming a Chaos Primordial was an incredibly difficult task. It had a child’s intelligence and a child’s temper. It was entirely possible that it would be happily jesting with a cultivator one moment, then devour that cultivator in the next. Not even the Sithe were able to tame it; the only thing they could do was send three Exalts to capture it with overwhelming power.

  “I don’t know. All I know is that it seems to be very obedient towards my master.” Whitethaw felt puzzled as well. He transformed into a streak of light, wishing to move closer to Ning and protect him.

  “Eh?” Flamewing
had been squatting there while eating fruit, but now he raised his head to glare at the approaching Whitethaw in a baleful manner.

  “Be good, Flamewing. He’s my Protector while the other guy is my retainer. Don’t hurt them,” Ning said from his position atop Flamewing’s back.

  “Eh, alright.” Flamewing immediately calmed down and ignored Whitethaw. The terrified Whitethaw finally landed on Flamewing’s back as well.

  “Master, you have to be careful. This Flamewing God might be playing nice now, but it might very well turn on you in the next moment,” Whitethaw said hurriedly.

  “That won’t happen.” Ning was very calm, and his gaze continued to be focused on the black chains.

  “But this is a Chaos Primordial!” Whitethaw still didn’t feel safe.

  Ning shook his head. He turned to sweep Whitethaw and the distant Azurefiend with his gaze, then said: “Starting today, Flamewing shall be one of my followers as well.”

  “Master, you…?” Whitethaw instantly understood.

  “Darknorth, are you saying that the Flamewing God has already submitted…” the distant Azurefiend sent a stunned mental message to Ning.

  Ning nodded. No longer paying any further attention to their astonishment, he focused completely on analyzing the black chains.

  ……

  Protector Whitethaw and Hegemon Azurefiend truly were stunned by this. Ning had tamed a Chaos Primordial? This was absolutely inconceivable. Chaos Primordials were incredibly rare, and not even Hegemons knew how to tame them. The Sithe weren’t capable of it either. Most likely, only the supremely exalted Autarchs were capable of such a thing!

  To tame a Chaos Primordial, one had to both be lucky enough to encounter one while also having a method of taming it. Clearly, their master ‘Ji Ning’ had one such method which had allowed him to tame it without anyone being the wiser.

  “He’s tamed the Flamewing God… absolutely incredible. Simply incredible! A pity that the Flamewing God is trapped here. If he could come up with a way to release it… haha, the Flamewing God would ensure that Darknorth’s reputation would skyrocket to incredible heights. Who would dare cause trouble for him? He could simply order Flamewing to attack and wipe that person out.” Hegemon Azurefiend sighed in awe.