Desolate Era

by RWX

  Whoosh whoosh whoosh….

  A massive illusory wave that seemed to fill the heavens suddenly appeared. Ning’s sword-arts had reached a high enough level that it could call upon the aid of a large amount of natural energy, thus generating this sort of manifestation.

  The illusory wave swept forward, Ning’s sword-light within it.

  Clang! Clang! Clang!

  The ninth golem’s heavy sword carried incomparable savagery and dominance, and with each stroke the heavy sword smashed against the wave!

  Ning’s sword technique was more tenacious and powerful, and it came out in a steady, unbroken stream. By contrast, the ninth golem’s sword technique was more savage and ferocious. However, in the face of Ning’s unbroken, flowing string of attacks, the ninth golem was finding it increasingly hard to hang on.

  “So you have a bit of talent after all. If I don’t bring out some of my true power, I won’t be able to beat you.” The ninth golem produced a second heavy sword in his other hand as well.

  Boom. Boom. The two heavy swords began to whirl out, seeming to have transformed into an enormous windmill and creating the massive illusion of a whirlpool above it! The enormous whirlpool illusion clearly represented an enormous amount of natural power had been summoned…and the ninth golem’s sword technique clearly became even more savage and dominating! It carried a crushing, grinding power that was able to completely suppress Ning!

  “Sword Roaming the Three Realms!” Upon being suppressed, Ning instantly changed his sword technique. He immediately executed ‘Sword Roaming the Three Realms’, which he had perfected while in closed-door training. Two streaks of dazzling sword-light flew out like a pair of black dragons that were swimming through the air. These two roaming black dragons twined around each other as they pounced towards the enemy.

  Bang! Bang! Bang!

  Their respective sword-lights clashed out three times.

  Suddenly, everything came to a halt.

  The ninth golem and Ning had moved past each other while exchanging blows. Their backs were to each other, and the ninth golem was completely unmoving. As for Ning, he put away the Darknorth swords in his hands.

  On the golem’s chest, there was a wicked, savage-looking wound!

  During their three clashes, Ning’s sword had clearly been a slight bit faster. Although it was only faster by a small amount…it had been the deciding factor in this battle.

  The ninth golem lowered his head to look at the wound. The wound on his chest disappeared in the blink of an eye.

  “You win.” The ninth golem turned, giving Ning a glance. “You beat me in our very first fight; you can now enter the ninth floor of the Divinities Palace.”

  “Jadesuffer, this is my junior apprentice-brother; it is only natural that he beat you.” Silvermoon walked over.

  “Junior apprentice-brother? The Old Patriarch took on a new disciple?” The ninth golem looked towards Ning in surprise.

  “The more disciples who defeat you, the closer you are to freedom. You should be happy. Alright, time for you to go back to your place.” Silvermoon waved his hand, instantly collecting the ninth golem again.

  “Junior apprentice-brother, congratulations.” Silvermoon smiled towards Ning. “Come, let’s go into the Divinities Palace.”

  “Right.” Ning nodded. He immediately followed Silvermoon into the Divinities Palace.

  The disciples of Mount Innerheart watched this all happen in a daze. They stared as Ning and Silvermoon entered the Divinities Palace.

  “He won!”

  “He actually won!”

  “Patriarch Ji Ning defeated the ninth golem.”

  “What a dominating sword-art…what a terrifying sword-art!”

  “Uncle-master truly is a peerless Sword Immortal.”

  All of them sighed in endless amazement.

  “It has only been thirty years, right?”

  “It has only been about thirty years since the Patriarch became the Old Patriarch’s disciple, right? Thirty years ago, the Patriarch was just barely able to defeat the fourth golem, but after thirty short years, he has actually defeated the ninth golem. I’ve been here on this mountain for nearly a million years!” A six-armed Fiendgod whose body was wreathed in dim flames muttered to himself, then shook his head and sighed. “You humans truly do have a ridiculous level of comprehension.”

  “I’m a human and I’ve been on the mountain for a thousand years, but I haven’t beaten the ninth golem.”

  “Not even Celestial Immortals are necessarily capable of defeating the ninth golem. Thirty years…no wonder the Old Patriarch chose him as a disciple.”

  “The personal disciples of the Old Patriarch truly are all formidable.”

  “Little sister Qing, can you ask the Patriarch to lecture to us on the Dao sometime?”

  “Brother White, your master’s sword techniques are truly formidable. I have many questions with regards to the sword; can we have your master provide us with a few pointers sometime?”

  Everyone was discussing what had just happened. Little Qing and Uncle White both felt their hearts filled with delight.

  ……

  After just thirty years, Ning had defeated the ninth golem. This caused all the ordinary disciples of Mount Innerheart to sigh in amazement at how inconceivable this was. However, for the personal disciples such as the old demon Silvermoon, this was as expected.

  Ning and Silvermoon were walking up the stairs in the Divinities Palace, striding upon the wooden steps as they moved upwards.

  “Junior apprentice-brother, for you to be able to defeat the ninth golem after thirty years is quite impressive,” Silvermoon laughed. “All of those ordinary disciples below us are completely shocked right now.”

  “Eh.” Ning didn’t feel as though there was anything to be proud of. He had the guidance of his master, Patriarch Subhuti, as well help from the Stellar Hall of the underwater estate. He would often sit atop the bed of netherwater jade within the Still Room in the underwater estate, and constantly attune to the Dao within the Grand Bodhi Stillheart Formation. Thirty years? His original goal had always been to defeat the ninth golem within a few decades.

  “Might I ask, how did my senior fellow disciples do? How many years did they spend in order to defeat the ninth golem?” Ning asked curiously.

  “Amongst Master’s many personal disciples, your performance can be described as normal,” Silvermoon said with a laugh. “Ruling out the ones who were already extremely strong when they first followed Master…there have been a total of twelve who were very weak when they first followed Master. The fastest one took one year, while the slowest one took more than 13000 years.”

  Ning was amazed. “The fastest one took one year? The slowest one took more than ten thousand?” A personal disciple of the Old Patriarch who had taken more than ten thousand the years…this was too ridiculous. And just a single year for the other? This was also too crazy!

  “Master has a total of nineteen disciples. There were seven who were already extremely strong when they accepted him as their master, while there were twelve who accepted him as master when they were weak,” Silvermoon said. “Amongst them…ninth junior apprentice-brother had an exceedingly high level of comprehension. Back then, Master’s avatar was roaming the ancient Primordial World. He ran into ninth junior apprentice-brother, who at that time was nothing more than an ordinary child who loved to paint. Master just provided him with a single line of guidance…and ninth junior apprentice-brother transformed overnight from an ordinary child who had never before engaged in cultivation to the level of having completely mastered an entire Dao-Path, the Dao of Inkwater. He then followed Master to Mount Innerheart. After a year, he defeated the ninth golem.”

  Ning blinked. To transform overnight from an ordinary child who loved painting…to someone who had completely mastered a complete Dao-Path?

  To defeat the ninth golem after a single year?

  “Next are third senior apprentice-brother and sixth
junior apprentice-brother,” Silvermoon said. “Both of them only spent a few years to defeat the ninth golem, and when they first joined the school neither had engaged in any cultivation training. However…they have extraordinary heritages. Third senior apprentice-brother was blessed with tremendous luck when he was born, as he is a Golden Crow who was born on the Solar Star. As for sixth junior apprentice-brother, he is also incredible; he is a spirit-monkey who was born from one of the stones which Lady Nuwa used to repair the Heavens.” [1. The sixth person is obviously Sun Wukong/Monkey King, who was born from a holy rock and was also known as the ‘stone monkey’.]

  Ning was startled. A spirit-monkey born from a stone that was used to repair the Heavens? This caused Ning to think back to a story recorded in a novel back from his own lesser world of Earth. [2. This ‘story’ is obviously Journey to the West.] He wondered if this so-called spirit-monkey was similar to the one mentioned in the story he had read.

  “After those two are the ones who trained for dozens of years,” Silvermoon said. “In short…humans have extremely high levels of comprehension, while third senior apprentice-brother and sixth junior apprentice-brother were born as extraordinary living creatures who also had extremely high levels of comprehension.”

  “All of the disciples under Master’s tutelage who defeated the ninth golem in under a century were humans and those with extraordinary lineages.”

  “There are several who are monsters like me who are under Master’s tutelage. For example, I had to train for more than three thousand years before I defeated the ninth golem. There are some who were even slower than me. On the whole, monsters have a much lower level of comprehension than humans do.”

  Ning nodded.

  Monsters had poor levels of comprehension, and Fiendgods had it even worse! However, the heavens had made it up to them in other ways. Humans at the Zifu level had a lifespan of five centuries, while those at the Wanxiang levels had a lifespan of eight centuries. Monsters, however, were different. Xiantian-level Diremonsters were capable of living up to a thousand years, and Wanxiang-level Diremonsters were able to live more than ten thousand years. As for Fiendgods, their lifespans were even more ridiculous. Fiendgods were innately ageless, and they didn’t even have to worry about the Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations. However, their levels of comprehension were pitifully low; it was possible for them to spend a trillion years without improving even a tiny bit.

  “Truly, all of the senior fellow disciples under Master’s tutelage are extraordinary. Some were born incredible, while others met with incredible luck and destiny. I myself was only able to enter his tutelage due to having acquired the legacy of Daoist Threelives.” Ning understood that amongst his fellow disciples, he was quite ordinary.

  Still, there was a difference between him and the others. He was the disciple of both Patriarch Subhuti and Daoist Threelives…and his divine ability, the [Starseizing Hand], was the ability which Daoist Threelives had relied on to dominate and roam the Primal World. Not even Patriarch Subhuti had ever created a divine ability on this level.

  “The ninth floor.” Silvermoon reached the ninth floor, then said with a laugh, “After you choose a technique from this ninth floor, you can go to the Three Realms Palace! After you learn a single technique from the Three Realms Palace, if you can train in that technique to its limit, you’ll absolutely be able to roam the Three Realms fearlessly and become an awe-inspiringly famous figure.”

  * * *

  Book 13, Chapter 11 - Houyis Archery

  Ji Ning walked to the bookcase that only held sword-arts manuals, carefully flipping through the others. After confirming his decision, he then picked up the abridged version of the [Heavenraker].

  “Senior apprentice-brother, I choose this one, [Heavenraker],” Ning said.

  With the Heavenraker Swords in his hands, he would of course choose [Heavenraker].

  “Fine.” Silvermoon nodded, then waved his hand. A series of thick tomes appeared within his hands; this was the full version of the [Heavenraker] technique which Daofather Heavenrake had created. Ning’s eyes immediately lit up as he accepted the tomes. As he opened them up, he couldn’t help but lose himself within their contents. Ning couldn’t be bothered to move around, and so he just sat down right there on the ninth floor of the Divinities Palace and began to analyze this sword-art.

  ……

  Summer left, winter came. A full year had passed.

  During this past year, Ning didn’t immediately go to the Three Realms Palace. After all, it wasn’t as though the palace would run away. During this year, Ning defeated the ninth golem three more times, acquiring two more sword-arts manuals alongside the [Heavenraker]. These were all created by Daofathers, and were all some of the most supreme sword-arts of the Three Realms!

  Ning carefully analyzed the techniques, gaining quite a bit from them. He mastered thirteen sword-stances in a row of the [Heavenraker]!

  “It is time to go to the Three Realms Palace.”

  It was already night, but Ning set out from his Immortal estate. Over the course of this past year, he had further perfected his [Three-Foot Sword], and his level of insight into the [Heavenraker] had already reached a very high point. It would be hard for him to improve significantly within a short period of time, and so he decided to go to the Three Realms Palace.

  ……

  The Three Realms Palace was an ordinary building that was just ten meters high…but it was the one of the most mysterious places in Mount Innerheart!

  Ordinary disciples of Mount Innerheart could occasionally enter Patriarch Subhuti’s Daoist monastery and listen to him expound on the Dao, but they would never, ever have the chance to enter the Three Realms Palace. Almost every single person allowed into the Three Realms Palace was an extremely famous figure of the Three Realms.

  Snooooore.

  A ringing, snoring sound rang out, occasionally high, occasionally low. Outside this palace was a skinny old man who was lying on the ground, his fan across his chest as he slept. When Ning had first arrived at Mount Innerheart, he had seen this old man sleeping. It had been thirty years, but Ning had never seen him wake up.

  It was as though this old man would slumber for ten thousand years at a time!

  “Second senior apprentice-brother,” Ning walked over, then called out respectfully.

  After having lived here for a period of time, Ning now knew about this second senior apprentice-brother.

  As Lord Jiang had said, “Of the many disciples which Master has accepted, his true heir is our second senior apprentice-brother! Second senior apprentice-brother trains in both the Dao and in Buddhism, and is a master of all techniques. He’s even the only one who has ever learned Master’s greatest divine ability, [Dream of the Three Realms]. I once asked Master to teach me this divine ability, but Master said that I cannot learn it. Of his students, only second senior apprentice-brother was able to learn it!”

  Silvermoon had said something similar. “Don’t be fooled by the fact that second senior apprentice-brother is always there sleeping. In reality, his avatars are roaming throughout the Three Realms, leaving behind countless legacies. There are very few mysteries in the Three Realms which can deceive second senior apprentice-brother. As I see it, under Master’s tutelage, eldest senior apprentice-brother might be the most powerful, but the second most powerful is definitely second senior apprentice-brother!”

  Patriarch Subhuti had also praised him. “Your second senior apprentice-brother has done countless good deeds and accumulated nigh-infinite amounts of karmic merit. He truly wishes to do good, and has been like this since the era of the Primordial World. His karmic luck has already reached an utterly inconceivable level. Both the Buddhists and the Daoists have invited him on multiple occasions to join them.” Even Patriarch Subhuti felt proud when mentioning his second disciple. Clearly, he was very satisfied with him!

  After learning more about his second senior apprentice-brother, Ning also felt extreme admiration
.

  Because of the [Dream of the Three Realms], Ning’s second senior apprentice-brother’s avatar had visited almost all of the lesser worlds, and had left behind legacies in countless places. Thus, his name was extremely famous! Even in Ning’s own world of Earth, his second senior apprentice-brother’s reputation was as resounding as the thunder.

  “Second senior apprentice-brother? Senior apprentice-brother Crazy Ji?” Ning called out. [1. This person is Ji Gong, aka Daoji, aka Li Xiuyuan. He was an eccentric monk that lived 800+ years ago that was famous for being extremely kind, seeming to have magic powers, but lived a life in violation of Buddhist rules due to eating meat and drinking wine. He is an incredibly famous semi-mythological figure in China that everyone has heard of. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ji_Gong]

  “Who is calling my name?”

  The skinny, napping old man rubbed his name, then opened his eyes languidly, seemingly to still be half-asleep. Beaming merrily, he said, “Oh, you are the disciple which Master just took in, that Ji Ning of the Grand Xia world?”

  “Just so,” Ning immediately said.

  Of the figures the Old Patriarch’s command, eldest senior apprentice-brother was unfathomably profound in power and without question the number one figure.

  Second senior apprentice-brother’s reputation was known throughout the Three Realms, and he had accumulated tremendous karmic merits and had tremendous karmic luck. Both the Buddhists and the Daoists desired to take them into their leagues…but he continued to wander the Three Realms by himself, doing countless good deeds but belonging to neither the control of the Daofathers or of Lord Buddha.

  “Master told me long ago that you would come, but I didn’t expect you to come so soon. Just thirty years after joining, you have already come to my Three Realms Palace.” Crazy Ji held that ragged fan in his hands as he nodded slightly. “Go in, then. You can choose from the divine abilities and secret arts inside as you please…but the Dao cannot be casually taught. You will have to pass some simple tests in order to learn them.”