Desolate Era

by RWX

  “How could the monsters of a puny little Immortal estate possibly withstand the Youngflame clan?” Xiangliu Fang laughed as well, and Youngflame Nong nodded.

  Ning and the others were secretly surprised… why was it that Youngflame Nong didn’t seem to be the slightest bit worried?

  “So many monstrous Dao-soldiers…” Ning mused to himself, “The Seawave Dao-soldiers and the Yaksha Dao-soldiers are all far more powerful than ordinary Loose Immortals; even Xiangliu Fang was dominated. What sort of treasure does this Youngflame Nong have?”

  “Senior apprentice-brother, he seems quite confident,” Northson said with a smirk.

  “Let’s watch and see,” Ning sent back.

  As the flying shuttle continued to fly forward, constantly advancing towards that distant golden Skypillar of light and the Seawave Dao-soldiers and the Yaksha Dao-soldier formations surrounding it. They were now quite close.

  “Humans!” A deep voice shook the heavens.

  Youngflame Nong just laughed icily, while next to him, Xiangliu Fang spoke out on his behalf. “What is it?”

  “Actually, there is no need for you to fight with us, the monstrous races of the Immortal estate world. So long as you are willing to open up a corridor out with your key and let us leave to the world of the Grand Xia Empire, then we are willing to permit you to enter this final palace,” the deep voice said. Immortal Duohe and Immortal Witchsui both felt that, given these humans still dared to advance in the face of so many monstrous Dao-soldiers, that they probably felt confident in passing through them. Thus, Immortal Duohe and Imimortal Witchsui quickly came to the decision of negotiating with these humans.

  “Let you leave? That’s not impossible.” Youngflame Nong revealed a smile. “But I have a requirement.”

  “Oh? Speak. What requirement.” The deep voice echoed forth once more.

  “Simple. Hand over all of your Dao-armors, and I’ll let you leave.” Youngflame Nong’s voice also echoed out in the skies.

  “All of our Dao-armors?”

  “Impossible.”

  “Kill this human.”

  “In his dreams!”

  All sorts of ferocious howls rang out.

  These Dao-armors had been left behind by Immortal Witchriver, and were the reason why these monsters were so powerful.

  “Without the Dao-armors, we would be like a pile of loose sand; we wouldn’t even be able to defeat that Fiendgod by your side. In fact, we’d probably be beaten by him instead,” the deep voice thundered angrily.

  “I can swear an oath to the Dao of the Heavens that if you are willing to hand over all of your Dao-armors, that I will let you leave and will not pursue or kill you,” Youngflame Nong said.

  The Dao-armors interested Youngflame Nong the most; if he could obtain them easily, then he wouldn’t mind letting the wielders of them leave.

  “Impossible!” The deep voice bellowed angrily.

  “Then don’t blame me for this,” Youngflame Nong shook his head.

  “You are forcing us!” The deep voice snarled.

  “Right. So what if I am?” Youngflame Nong snickered.

  These powerful monsters were bloodthirsty to begin with. Given how excessive Youngflame Nong had behaved, they were now truly angered.

  “Kill.”

  “Kill.”

  “Kill.”

  An enormous, sky-filling wave arose, blotting out the heavens and smashing down towards the flying shuttle which Ning and Youngflame Nong were riding. The flying shuttle, however, went directly towards the giant wave with incredible agility.

  “This is the moment.” A long time ago, Youngflame Nong had produced a queer-looking disc in his hand, which was a mixture of black and white in color.

  “POLARIS STARSHIFTER!”

  Youngflame Nong let out an angry roar.

  Rumble…

  This black and white bi-colored disc floated into the air. A ray of black light enveloped the entire flying shuttle, while a ray of white light shot directly towards part of the distant Yaksha Dao-soldiers.

  Whoosh!

  Space instantly distorted.

  That portion of the distant Yaksha Dao-soldiers instantly disappeared, then appeared in the location where the shuttle had been. As for the flying shuttle, it appeared in the location where those Yaksha Dao-soldiers had been.

  “Open.” As soon as the shuttle appeared, a corridor into the palace appeared. Swoosh! The long shuttle flew directly into the tunnel, and then the gate shut behind it.

  “This…”

  Immortal Duohe and Immortal Witchsui were completely stunned. All of the Dao-soldiers were stunned. Then stared stupidly at the bi-colored black and white disc. As the energies of the disc were used up, it silently, soundlessly shattered.

  “They entered?”

  “They entered, just like that?” Immortal Duohe and Immortal Witchsui, as well as all the other monsters, had looks of disbelief, anger, and despair in their eyes.

  “It shouldn’t have been like this. It shouldn’t have…” Immortal Duohe’s eyes were filled with boundless rage. Raising his head, he let out an earth-rending, pained, agonized roar.

  They had lost. Utterly lost.

  If this had been an actual battle, teleporting away a small part of their Dao-soldiers would have only been a minor matter. But this wasn’t an actual battle; the enemy, upon teleporting those soldiers away, had immediately been able to enter the final palace.

  “After this, the Immortal estate will be bound. After this, all of us will be under his control.” Immortal Witchsui was mumbling to himself.

  In this moment, the countless monstrous Dao-soldiers were all howling in anger, grief, and despair…

  ……

  Swoosh.

  A long shuttle appeared within the hall, with Youngflame Nong, Xiangliu Fang, Ji Ning, and the others within it. They all emerged from within.

  “Hahaha.” Youngflame Nong, upon entering, began to laugh joyfully. “We’ve finally arrived at the final palace. Mmm, and it is quite beautiful as well, far more so than those other four palaces.”

  Ning and the others were still feeling shocked by what had happened with that bi-colored disc. It had actually caused them to completely swap positions with the distant enemy Dao-soldiers. What treasure was that? Ning, at least, had never even heard of such a treasure.

  “It really is much more beautiful. Every single pillar is exquisitely, intricately carved,” Xue Hongyi said quickly.

  “The final palace. After binding it, the entire Immortal estate will be under my control, and the trial the clan gave me will have been concluded. I’ll have earned an Immortal estate as well.” Youngflame Nong was quite delighted, but then he let out a sigh. “What a pity, though… after entering this Immortal estate, I lost two of my three most powerful treasures.”

  “Treasures are meant to be used. After you master the Immortal estate, you’ll acquire even better treasures, young master,” Xiangliu Fang said.

  “I hope so.” Youngflame Nong still felt a bit of pain in his heart. The ‘Lock’ scroll and the Polaris Starshifter disc were two of the most powerful magic treasures he had on him. These were treasures which even many Loose Immortals didn’t have access to; even if one had large amounts of liquefied elemental essence, it would be difficult to purchase them. After all, they were simply too rare. Youngflame Nong had only managed to acquire them after many years of collecting resources. Still, for the sake of solidifying his status as the next Godplume Duke, he had no other choices.

  “Acquiring the Immortal estate will mean that I’ll have recouped my costs, and earned a little on top of it. Those monsters… hmph. They should make their preparations for all of their descendants to forever be slaves.” A cold light flashed through Youngflame Nong’s eyes. “And that Xue Hongyi… I need to acquire his Immortal-ranked magic treasure as well.”

  * * *

  Book 10, Chapter 21 - Preparing a Celebratory Feast

  This impressive group of experts fil
ed in through a corridor, arriving at a massive, towering hall. The hall was lined with seats, and the walls were lined with musical instruments.

  “This must have been the place where, when Immortal Witchriver was alive, he would merrymake with his monstrous clansmen,” Youngflame Nong laughed loudly. “These tables, these pillars, and these sculptures… all of them are utterly exquisite and extraordinary.”

  Ning and the others all nodded. They could completely imagine how, countless years ago, the Diremonsters would all be seated next to those tables, eating and drinking and making merry.

  “And there. That’s the place where Immortal Witchriver must have sat.” Youngflame Nong pointed towards the front of the hall. The front of the hall had the most beautiful, lavish table of all, and the decorative screen behind it was also exquisite. To each side of the decorative screens, there were bronze lamps.

  “That bronze lamp was the core of this Witchriver Palace,” Youngflame Nong said, pointing towards a Zifu Disciple. “Go next to that bronze lamp.”

  “Yes.”

  These Zifu Disciples were all Deathsworn. They knew very well that they had been trained, solely for the purpose of obeying their master. If their master was to order them to their deaths, they wouldn’t hesitate at all.

  As soon as the Zifu Disciple moved to walk towards the front of the hall…

  BOOM!

  The entire hall instantly began to change in appearance. Ning and the others watched as the scenery around them transformed into a beautiful peach tree garden. They were surrounded by peach trees, and the floor was covered with petals.

  “Careful. It is an illusory formation,” Xiangliu Fang shouted.

  “I knew it. This place, the main palace, the Witchriver Palace… there’s no way we’d be able to acquire it so easily.” Youngflame Nong laughed coldly. With Uncle Fang present, he wasn’t nervous at all. This was a formation that had been in storage for countless years, and it didn’t have anyone truly controlling it; at most, this formation would be able to unleash a tenth of its power.

  “Assemble into formation.” Ji Ning, Mu Northson, Yu Wei, Adept Vastriver, and Ninelotus all immediately assembled into that five-elements, pentagonal formation. All of them were on their guard.

  “This illusory formation is very formidable; even divine sense is unable to see through it,” Adept Vastriver said. “And I have a vague feeling… that this formation is even stronger than the one which had been located in the Vault of Treasures.”

  “This formation seems to be gathering Azurewood Godbolts,” Ning said with a frown.

  “It seems you understand a bit about formations as well.” Xiangliu Fang, standing next to Youngflame Nong, gave Ning a glance, then said calmly, “This formation activates the power of the Solar Star. Using wood to guide the power, it generates Azurewood Godbolts. Although no one is controlling it, you still can’t underestimate the power of the Azurewood Godbolts. I need some time to break this formation; I wish all of you the best during this time.”

  Ning and the rest of the five moved closer to each other, prepared to deal with the Azurewood Godbolts at any moment. They didn’t dare to run about wildly; to do so in this illusory world was to seek death.

  “I, I, what should I do?” Xue Hongyi was panicking internally, but on the surface, he continued to grit his teeth and wait.

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  Suddenly, three bolts of azure lightning thundered down from up above, smashing directly towards Youngflame Nong.

  “Someone is commanding the formation?” Xiangliu Fang was shocked.

  “How could someone be commanding it?” The nearby Youngflame Nong was panicked as well.

  Whoosh! Xiangliu Fang stretched his large hands out. His hands were like dark clouds capable of covering the skies and smothering the sun; they stretched out to those three bolts of lightning. Boom, boom, boom… the lightning struck against the giant hands, and although the giant hands sank down momentarily, and the skin on the hands split apart as lightning writhed and spat against them, the hands endured.

  “Hahaha, young master, don’t worry.” While receiving the lightning bolts, Xiangliu Fang actually began to laugh loudly. “Immortal Witchriver died countless hundreds of millions of years ago; the Witchriver Palace definitely has no living creatures within it. Anything still surviving should be a golem. Generally speaking, golems only possess a simple level of intelligence; at most, they can activate formations. They aren’t able to control them. After all, this sort of large formation is quite complicated. Without Immortal Witchriver passing down the special technique to control it, there is no way they will be able to do so.

  “If my guess is correct, the Witchriver Palace should have a powerful golem within it, and this golem should have a sentient spirit animating it. Thus, this golem is extremely intelligent, and is thus also skilled in controlling formations. Immortal Witchriver must have trusted him so much that he transmitted the formation control method to him,” Xiangliu Fang laughed. “But unfortunately, he is still merely a golem, with no elemental ki within his body; at most, he is capable of unleashing twenty to thirty percent of the power of the formation.”

  As Xiangliu Fang was speaking loudly, one bolt of thunder after another continued to come crashing down from the skies. Xiangliu Fang, by himself, received all of these blows.

  Ning and the others let out sighs of relief. Xiangliu Fang’s guess was most likely accurate; to truly control a formation required the usage of elemental ki. If the ki was that of an Immortal, then the power of the formation would naturally increase greatly. But golems didn’t have any ki at all; even if they were able to control the formation, they would only be able to, at most, increase its power by a small amount.

  “Humans, you are not the Immortal’s heirs. To barge into the Witchriver Palace is a capital offense.” A furious shout rang out from within the illusion of a peach garden.

  “A capital offense? Who is going to carry out the penalty, you? If my guess is correct, you are at most comparable to an ordinary Loose Immortal in strength,” Xiangliu Fang laughed coldly. “Your power is far from being a match for mine.”

  As soon as his words came out, Xiangliu Fang suddenly let out a savage howl. “BREAK!” Instantly, Xiangliu Fang’s hands swung outward, howling out as the fingers on his large hands all transformed into giant serpents. The ten giant serpents instantly latched onto something in the void and gave it a hard pull. The entire formation immediately seemed to have been ‘stuck’, and the peach blossom formation trembled, grew blurry, and completely vanished.

  “How can this be?!” An astonished cry.

  With the disappearance of the peach blossom, Ning’s group once more was able to see the giant hall, and the tables within it.

  “Not bad, not bad. I managed to survive. Fortunately, that golem was extremely intelligent and knew that it had to kill Youngflame Nong, and so it focused all of its efforts on him. If those lightning bolts had struck amongst the rest of us, although those five of the Black-White College would probably be able to endure it, I would have been in danger.” Xue Hongyi felt as though he had been blessed with tremendous luck.

  Last time, when he and Adept Bu You had faced those attacks from the golems, Adept Bu You had died, while he had been lucky and survived. He had then acquired an Immortal-ranked magic treasure, and just now avoided yet another tribulation. He had survived multiple dangerous encounters, and had even acquired an Immortal-ranked treasure. Wasn’t this a tremendous blessing of luck?

  “The formation is already broken.” Xiangliu Fang swept the hall with his gaze, then said calmly, “Everyone, no need to be afraid. Immortal Witchriver was only a Celestial Immortal, and his roots were not very deep; it is already quite impressive for him to have produced a golem that is fairly close to a Loose Immortal in power. If that golem doesn’t appear, then fine; if he does, however, I’ll capture him.”

  Youngflame Nong laughed and nodded, then instructed, “There are golems lying in wait within the Wit
chriver Palace. Everyone, don’t run around rashly; if you run into those golems, Uncle Fang won’t be able to save you in time.”

  “How could we dare to run about rashly? Are we suicidal?” Xue Hongyi hurriedly responded.

  Ning and the others shared a glance. Clearly, an extremely powerful golem was lying in wait within the Witchriver Palace. They were no fools; naturally, they wouldn’t run about wildly within.

  Xiangliu Fang and Youngflame Nong moved to the front of the main hall, beginning to bind a bronze lamp.

  “Haha, this is the core of the final palace.” Youngflame Nong was utterly delighted. “After binding it, the entire Immortal estate will be under my complete control. The Witchriver Palace definitely has other dangers lurking within; however, there’s no need at all for us to go and take any risks. Once I bind the Immortal estate, the golems will naturally have lost.”

  Ning and the others nodded.

  “The rest of you, be careful; those golems won’t just watch and wait for me to successfully bind this palace. I imagine they will try to ambush us,” Youngflame Nong said.

  ……

  Eighteen savage, fearsome looking Qiongqi Manticore golems were looking at their leader, a black-armored, muscular man. The black-armored man growled, “That person who broke the formation just now, he is most likely a Fiendgod. He was able to make his hands so large, and his fingers transform into giant serpents; only true Fiendgods are capable of such a thing. From the techniques he displayed, I can tell that he is more powerful than me.”

  “Commander, what should we do?”

  “They are starting to bind the Witchriver Palace.”

  The Qiongqi golems were all panicking.

  “I estimate he will need two hours to completely bind the Witchriver Palace,” the black-armored man said in a low voice. “We need to come up with a method…and we need to succeed in one try. We need to kill the human that Fiendgod is protecting. From the conversation between those humans when they first arrived, that human should have already bound the other four palaces. This is the last one.”