Desolate Era

by RWX

  “The Youngflame clan? I know this clan,” the old black bull said hurriedly. “In the past, Immortal Juhua had a bit of a relationship with the clan. The Youngflame clan does indeed rank towards the front amongst the clans of the Grand Xia Dynasty. However, although the imperial clan of the Grand Xia did indeed need these clans when it was unifying the world, after doing so, these clans became a threat to them.”

  Ning was startled.

  “In truth, the imperial clan of the Grand Xia has been working all this time to try and weaken the power of the clans,” the old black bull said quickly. “They first built the commandery cities, spreading them throughout the world so as to increase their sphere of control, and then formed the Raindragon Guard and spread them throughout the world as well! In addition, they secretly forment internal struggles between these clans, tribes, and sects.”

  “Can it be that the other tribes are idiots? They’ll just stupidly fight amongst each other like that?” Ning was curious.

  “This is what you don’t understand. This isn’t a hidden scheme; it’s an open scheme. There is only so much land in this major world, and only so many treasures. And yet, there are so many tribes. What to do about it? The imperial clan of the Grand Xia will take their share, then leave the other major powers to fight over what’s left. If you aren’t willing to fight for your share, then your clan will end up with no treasures. Thus, they are forced to struggle against each other, and as they do, they naturally end up forming grudges.”

  Ning nodded.

  “However, the imperial clan of the Grand Xia wouldn’t dare to act directly against its marquises. That’s because if they were to act against one marquis, all of the other marquises would feel threatened; in fact, some actually might join forces to revolt!” The old black bull continued, “This is why the imperial clan of the Grand Xia has set down some laws, some public laws.”

  “So long as you do not disobey the laws, the imperial clan absolutely won’t touch you.”

  “But if you were to violate those laws? The imperial clan of the Grand Xia would be like sharks that smelled the scent of blood; they will eat you alive,” the old black bull laughed. “So long as you hide within a commandery city, the Celestial Immortals of the Youngflame clan definitely won’t dare to act against you, because once they do, then the imperial clan of the Grand Xia, which has always wanted to whittle away at the power of the marquises, will have an ironclad reason to act against them. They would quickly send out a squad to annihilate that Celestial Immortal!”

  “Now, do you understand some of the hidden undercurrents of this world of the Grand Xia Dynasty’s?” The old black bull looked at Ning.

  Ning nodded.

  The imperial clan of the Grand Xia, and the many marquises.

  Many of the marquises held grudges against each other; no wonder Yu Wei had advised him to join a different marquisdom.

  “That senior apprentice-sister Yu Wei of yours told you to go participate in the Conclave of Immortal Destiny. Her words are quite correct,” the giant yellow bear said. “You are going to become a Celestial Immortal, and in fact, an Empyrean God…”

  “Senior, what is an ‘Empyrean God’?” Ning immediately asked. Ning had never quite understood what Empyrean Gods were.

  “When Earth Immortals, who are at the ‘Void’ level, overcome the Celestial Tribulation, they will naturally become carefree Celstial Immortals.”

  “Void-level Fiendgods, however, when overcoming the Celestial Tribulation will become Empyrean Gods!” The giant yellow bear said, “To become an Empyrean God is tens of times, perhaps a hundred times, as difficult as becoming a Celestial Immortal.”

  Ning was speechless. “A hundred times harder?”

  It was rare for there to be even a single Celestial Immortal for every ten thousand Earth Immortals; to become an Empyrean God was even harder?!

  “That’s because they have completely different levels of power,” the giant yellow bear explained. “Earlier, you said you encountered a Fiendgod, a Hydraga. He was only at the Primal level, but already comparable to a peak Loose Immortal.”

  “Right.’ Ning nodded.

  “A Void-level Fiendgod is already comparable to a Celestial Immortal. And an Empyrean God… they are absolutely comparable to True Immortals!” The giant yellow bear looked at Ning. “Now do you understand? Once you become an Empyrean God… you would become a true major power of the Three Realms. In fact, even if you were to go to the Deva realm and express a desire to join the Celestial Court, the Celestial Emperor would warmly welcome you and even let you command hundreds of thousands of celestial soldiers or generals.”

  Ning blinked. The Celestial Emperor of the Celestial Court would personally welcome him? Let him command hundreds of thousands of celestial soldiers?

  “Master said that only after I become an Empyrean God would I truly be considered his apprentice.” Ning couldn’t help but say, “This requirement is a bit high for me.”

  “Think about what Master’s status was. He emerged from the world alongside Pangu and Nuwa… he was one of the most supreme powers of the entire Three Realms. Only after reaching the Empyrean God level could it be said that you are not an embarrassment to him,” the giant yellow bear said. “But don’t change the subject. As I was saying earlier, the advice from your senior apprentice-sister, Yu Wei, to go to the Conclave of Immortal Destiny was very good advice. This is because, as the saying goes, it is better to travel ten thousand kilometers than to read ten thousand books… and it is better to make a single journey on the border between life and death than to travel ten thousand kilometers.”

  “The Conclave of Immortal Destiny will have all the geniuses of this entire major world present; in fact, some of the geniuses of other major worlds might come in secret as well, so as to take part.”

  “This is just like the cultivation of Gu-bugs. Put ten thousand venomous bugs in one place and have them fight against each other and devour each other. In the end, the venomous bugs that you have left will be incomparably powerful. The principle is the same; the ones to survive the Conclave of Immortal Destiny shall be truly extraordinary. This is an excellent chance for you to temper yourself, a chance which is quite rare and hard to find.”

  The giant yellow bear continued, “Right, you said you killed Youngflame Nong; didn’t you acquire a great deal of treasure from him? Take it out, take it all out and let me take a look and see which would be of use to you.”

  Ning waved his hand. “He had many treasures. I just bound the storage-type magic treasure not long ago.” He had been hiding some of the treasures within his Zifu, while he had stored the others in his own storage-type magic treasure.

  Whoosh.

  Instantly, a small hill appeared on the ground, completely formed from precious items and magic treasures.

  “These are the treasures and precious items of Youngflame Nong.” Ning pointed at them.

  * * *

  Book 11, Chapter 4 - Primaltwin

  Ning waved his hand again, and another hill of items appeared as well, as well as some sacks. “These were left behind by that dead Fiendgod.” The Hydraga had once forced himself to train as a Ki Refiner as well. Unfortunately, natural Fiendgods were innately very weak as Ki Refiners. Only after many years of painstaking training had he reached the Zifu level; afterwards, Xiangliu Fang could no longer be bothered to train in this regard.

  After reaching the Zifu level, he was able to use storage-type magic treasures, at least. This was enough to make Xiangliu Fang quite happy! In the Fiendgod Era, before he had trained as a Ki Refiner, he always had to carry around his treasures with him.

  “There’s quite a bit.” The old black bull sighed in amazement.

  “Let me take a look.” The giant yellow bear swept his gaze across the magic treasures. Suddenly, the two treasure-hills all flew into the air, then stayed there.

  Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

  These treasures quickly began to sort themselves out by type. Bottles
and jars moved to one side, while Dao-seals and jade discs, as well as some other unique items were pulled to another. The many magic treasures were also placed on another side…

  Ning simply watched as the levitating treasures sorted themselves out by type. “I didn’t sense any ripples of power, but these treasures all levitated into the air; the powers of this spirit of the underwater estate truly are unfathomable.”

  “This is a spirit-pill; if you lose an arm or a leg, eat the pill, and it’ll be healed. You are a Fiendgod Refiner; this is useless to you. Go back and sell it off or give it to a friend.”

  “This is a poison powder… it’s hard to ascertain how powerful the poison is, but it should be decent.”

  “This bottle is marked with the words, ‘Drunken Immortal’s Pill’? Eh? Its intoxicating properties are quite strong; I imagine that even if Loose Immortals ate it, they would be intoxicated. Three pills in total.”

  The giant yellow bear quickly went through the various jars and bottles. Soon, he pulled out two of the jade bottles from the masses. “These two bottles both contain liquefied elemental essence, roughly twenty five thousand kilograms each, for a total of fifty thousand kilograms. Youngflame Nong actually carried fifty thousand kilograms on him… that’s quite a bit.” Unless they were in desperate need, most Immortal cultivators wouldn’t carry that much with them. They would use them to buy magic treasures or just use them up. However, to Youngflame Nong, fifty thousand kilograms wasn’t that much.

  “He must’ve been worried that he might gain a sudden insight while wandering the world, and so prepared them for a possible breakthrough to the Primal Daoist level,” Ning laughed. Fifty thousand kilograms; this was absolutely enough to break through to the Primal Daoist level.

  “You cannot use it.” The giant yellow bear shook his head. “You are going to the Conclave of Immortal Destiny; you cannot breakthrough to become a Primal Daoist.”

  Ning nodded. He understood this principle. This Conclave came only once every three centuries; there was no way he could wait another three hundred years. Thus, this was the only chance he would have to attend the Conclave. Sparring against so many other geniuses on the same level was an opportunity that would have long, far-ranging impacts on him. If one didn’t have a long-term plan and only focused on short-term gains, in the end, one would suffer for it.

  “These curios aren’t bad either.”

  “Oh? A Greater Teleportation Dao-seal? Youngflame Nong had a Greater Teleportation Dao-seal?” The giant yellow bear called out in surprise as he pointed with a finger. Instantly, a rune-covered leaf flew over.

  Ning’s eyes lit up. “Greater Teleportation Dao-seal?”

  He had previously acquired two protective items from the underwater estate; one was that black loop, while the other was, in fact, a Greater Teleportation Dao-seal.

  One was meant for attack; the other was meant for defense and escaping.

  Upon using a Greater Teleportation Dao-seal, the might within it would instantly activate and surround him in a barrier which even Loose Immortals wouldn’t be able to break. And then, he would vanish and disappear. Even if the region was spacelocked, even if he was trapped in a place of no escape, he could still use a Greater Teleport to leave! He could even teleport from a different world directly to the world of the Grand Xia Dynasty!

  “You now have two Greater Teleportation Dao-seals.” The giant yellow bear flicked his finger, sending the leaf flying towards Ning. Laughing, Ning waved his hand and accepted it.

  “Youngflame Nong truly was unfortunate to run into you. His soul was immediately ripped out, giving him no chance to even use the Greater Teleportation Dao-seal.” The giant yellow bear continued to investigate. “There’s quite a few protective treasures as well. There’s a Vajra-Guard Skypearl, a Golden Skyfire seal, a Skyflee shuttle… still, these are quite inferior compared to a Greater Teleportation Dao-seal.”

  Youngflame Nong actually had three major treasures; the ‘Lock’ scroll, the black and white disc, and the Greater Teleportation Dao-seal. He had used up two of them. The plan had been to bind the Immortal estate, sell the monstrous Dao-soldiers of the estate to his clan, then use those resources to purchase some truly top-tier treasures. Unfortunately, he would never have the chance to do so.

  “Big bro, take a look; isn’t that the Sole-Ki Pearl of Primalwater?” The old black bull suddenly pointed to a watery pearl which hovered in the mass of precious items.

  “A Sole-Ki Pearl of Elemental Water?” The giant yellow bear hurriedly looked over. His eyes lit up, and he began to laugh loudly. “Ning, you little tyke, it seems it is indeed time for you to reach the Primal level. With this Sole-Ki Pearl of Primalwater, you can now cultivate a Primaltwin.”

  Ning called out in surprise, “A Primaltwin?!”

  Naturally, Ning knew what a Primaltwin was; virtually all cultivators knew what it was! In the Black-White College, the technique for forming a Primaltwin was something which every single disciple could learn. There was no need for using black-white pellets at all. It was something for everyone to know, but unfortunately, less than one in a thousand Primal Daoists would actually be able to refine a Primaltwin!

  This was because… it was too hard to find the right vessel!

  When a cultivator broke through from the Wanxiang stage to the Primal stage, the essence of the myriad manifestations of stars and the elemental sea within the Zifu region would crystallize and give birth to a Turtle-Snake [1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Tortoise#/media/File:Wudanghshan-Xuanwu-in-Beijing-Capital-Museum-3796.jpg]. At the same time, the soul would descend from the sea of consciousness and sink deep into the Turtle-Snake.

  When they fused into one… the Primal Turtle-Snake would be formed! With the Primal Turtle-Snake serving as a physical vessel, and the soul serving as the self, a Primal Daoist would arise from the fusion!

  In order to refine a Primaltwin, one would need to find a physical vessel; once one found it, one would use a secret art to split one’s soul in two, keeping half the soul in the original body and placing the other half within the vessel and forming a Primaltwin.

  “Right. This Sole-Ki Pearl of Primalwater is like a natural Zifu region,” the giant yellow bear laughed. “All you need to do is split out part of your soul and place it within the pearl, and you’ll be able to slowly refine it into a Primaltwin! In fact, in the future your Primaltwin would even be able to become an Earth Immortal and perhaps surpass the tribulation and become a Celestial Immortal.”

  Ning had never even heard of a ‘Sole-Ki Pearl of Primalwater’; in the annals of the Black-White College regarding Primaltwins, the most famous vessel was the ‘Darkvalley Pearl’.

  “How is it compared to the Darkvalley Pearl?” Ning asked.

  “The Darkvalley Pearl is too mediocre,” the giant yellow bear said. “A Sole-Ki Pearl of Primalwater contains the essence of primal, elemental water. After you fuse your soul into it and form your Primaltwin, your body will be formed from the essence of primal water as well. By then, when you use it to train in water-type Daos, you will find it much simpler. It seems as though you are destined to travel very far in the element of water.”

  The Dao of Rainwater was nothing more than an extremely unremarkable type of Dao that belonged to the element of water, one of the Five Elements.

  “How is your soul? Is it capable of withstanding a Primaltwin secret art?” The giant yellow bear asked.

  To divide a soul in half was extremely dangerous. The soul had to be sufficiently strong; if it wasn’t, then dividing it in half was akin to suicide! Thus, generally speaking, only Primal Daoists who had been at that stage for a very long time or experts who had already reached the Void level and become Earth Immortals would be able to produce a Primaltwin!

  “My divine sense stretches to a thousand kilometers,” Ning said.

  “Mm. There are very few Primal Daoists who have souls comparable to yours; you can compare to a weak Loose Immortal.” The giant yellow bear no
dded. “You can split your soul in half.”

  Ning felt a fire begin to blaze in his heart. To produce a Primaltwin at the Wanxiang level; this was far too rare. First of all, the soul had to be strong enough; then, one had to have a vessel, such as the ‘Darkvalley Pearl’ or the ‘Sole-Ki Pearl of Primalwater’. Thus, for every thousand recinarnated Immortals, perhaps only one would be able to produce a Primaltwin at the Wanxiang stage.

  The reason why only those below the Primal stage were allowed to participate in the contests of the Conclave of Immortal Destiny was to ensure fairness!

  Although Ning might have refined a Primaltwin, his true body remained at the Wanxiang level. So long as it was only his true body which went to compete, and his Primaltwin stayed out of it… there would be no problems! Ning had already chatted previously with Yu Wei regarding the Conclave, and so he naturally knew about some of the rules of it.

  Only geniuses amongst geniuses would be capable of producing Primaltwins at the Wanxiang level; naturally, they wouldn’t be barred from participating in the Conclave of Immortal Destiny. However, they would only be allowed to use their true bodies to compete; in fact, their Primaltwins wouldn’t even be permitted to enter the competition grounds!

  “Eh?” The giant yellow bear frowned.

  “What is it?” Ning asked.

  “A Celestial Immortal has come to Serpentwing Lake,” the giant yellow bear said.

  “Celestial Immortal?” Ning was shocked. “It must be the Youngflame clan!”

  “Don’t worry. I can discover him, but he can’t discover me.” The giant yellow bear said calmly, “Master spent unfathomable amounts of blood, sweat, and effort in order to forge me. There is no one in the entire Grand Xia Dynasty capable of discovering me.”