Desolate Era

by RWX

  The power of a Celestial Tribulation was determined by the cosmos themselves; naturally, there had to be a reason behind all of this!

  “In an hour, the thunder tribulation shall arrive.” Lu Dongbin no longer dwelled on the question, just watching quietly.

  ……

  The Nihilum Zone, beyond the Primordial Ruinworld. Ning was currently flying forward at high speed, continuing to pull away from that distant land. That earlier, sudden attack had caused him to feel that something was wrong…especially when those foes had claimed to be from the Snaphorn world and that this space region belonged to their Snaphorn world.

  Ning instantly understood that these creatures must have come from the Primordial Ruinworld…and that he had been discovered.

  Flee!

  Flee at top speed!

  The Primordial Ruinworld was a place which not even True Gods or Daofathers would dare trespass. Ning naturally wasn’t willing to interact with the Primordial Ruinworld in any way.

  Rumble…

  Suddenly, layers of light began to appear within the formerly dark emptiness of the Void. It was a golden light. The Third Void Sector of the Nihilum Zone had nearly ten thousand bases within it which were connected to each other like nodes! Every single node was a critical point within an utterly enormous formation…and in an instant, an enormous net that spanned tens of millions of kilometers was instantly formed.

  “But, but…” Ning was stunned by the sight before him.

  His eyes were already blazing with torch-light. He had immediately used the [Torch Dragon’s Eye] and hurriedly scanned his surroundings, but no matter where he looked, he saw the golden light seemingly stretch off to infinity. If he looked carefully enough, he could see countless patterns and ripples within the golden web, while the nodes were particularly eye-catching and brilliant.

  “A grand sealing formation that covers many tens of millions of kilometers?” Ning mumbled to himself, “This is crazy. The entire Stillwater Commandery is only a few million kilometers in size.”

  A region of many tens of millions of kilometers in size was comparable to a hundred ordinary commanderies of the Grand Xia world.

  An utterly enormous formation like this truly was astonishing.

  “It seems the power of this Snaphorn world is far beyond what the likes of myself can handle. What should I do? What should I do?” Ning instantly began to consider his next options. Although he was shocked by this enormous formation, Ning wasn’t an inexperienced bumpkin; for example, in the Crescent world, Patriarch Subhuti had secretly set up many enormous formations, some of which were able to cover an entire continent, which was equivalent to a third of the world of the Grand Xia. Those formations were far larger than the grand sealing formation before him.

  And the Celestial Court!

  The formations of the Celestial Court covered the entirety of the region they controlled.

  There were many formations within the Three Realms that were far, far larger than this grand sealing formation! However…generally speaking, only Daofathers were capable of setting up those titanic formations! Most likely, not even Pure Yang True Immortals would be able to set them up, unless they were Pure Yang True Immortals who were extremely skilled in the art of formations, or supreme True Immortals like Lu Dongbin.

  In addition, this enormous space formation was merely one of the defensive formations of this Snaphorn world; it probably didn’t represent the complete, full power of the Snaphorn world.

  Still…its appearance was enough to cause Ning unease.

  An individual capable of establishing this sort of enormous formation definitely wasn’t someone which the likes of Ning, who hadn’t even undergone the Celestial Tribulation yet, could overcome.

  “And…aren’t the Heavenly Daos gone from this place? How, then, can formations be used?” Ning guessed, puzzled, “It seems I truly do know far, far too little about the Primordial Ruinworld.”

  Indeed, Ning truly knew too little.

  Of the ten Heavenly Daos, Primordial Chaos was the most supreme. Life and Destruction were matched, while Yin and Yang were also matched; these four were preceded only by Primordial Chaos. As for the Five Elements of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth, they served as the foundation for the entirety of the Three Realms…but they were on the third tier. Ning had an extremely deep level of insight into the Grand Dao of the Waterdrop, which was why he could vaguely sense the existence of the Heavenly Dao of Water, but here within the Nihilum Zone, he was completely unable to sense it…and so he had believed that the Heavenly Daos did not exist here!

  In reality, however, only nine of the Heavenly Daos were missing from the Nihilum Zone of the Primordial Ruinworld. The Heavenly Dao of Primordial Chaos continued to exist; any place which was born from the primordial chaos was a place where the Heavenly Dao of Primordial Chaos would exist.

  “No matter what…I need to give it a try.”

  Swoosh!

  Although Ning knew that it was unlikely that he would be able to break through this terrifying formation, he couldn’t just give up and wait for death. He didn’t want to be captured by the Snaphorn world.

  The part of the net of light closest to Ning was merely a few million kilometers away. After using the [Obscuring Wind of the Nine Heavens], Ning’s movement speed was extremely fast; it was a flying technique, after all, and once one used it to fly, one could rely on momentum and thusly limit the amount of divine power that was consumed. It wasn’t like the [Starseizing Hand] or other divine abilities which consumed an enormous amount of divine power.

  “Here I am.” Ning stared at the distant net of light, now only a few tens of thousands of kilometers away. The Rahu Bow appeared within his hands. He immediately nocked it, pulled it to a nearly full circle, circulated his divine power, then utilized [Houyi’s Archery].

  “Go!”

  Light flashed around him, quickly passing through him to the bow, then condensing within the arrow.

  At the same time…Ning filled all of his heartforce, now nearly at the peak of the ‘iceheart’ level, into the arrow.

  Twang!

  A brilliant, fiery red streak of light pierced through the heavens.

  As the arrow flew forward, the light around it grew more and more dazzling, and its power grew greater and greater. In the end, it seemed to have transformed into an enormous, fiery red comet. Generally speaking, thanks to [Houyi’s Archery], the farther the arrow flew, the more powerful it would become, until it reached peak power. Within the Three Realms, the usage of this technique would be even more incredible, because as the arrow flew it would constantly draw in the power of the natural world! Right now, since it was unable to do so, its power wasn’t increasing at too ridiculous a rate.

  Still…the power of this arrow had still surpassed that of Ning’s close combat ability.

  BOOM!

  The fiery red comet struck against the net of light…and the net of light just rippled slightly, then turned calm once more. As for Ning’s arrow, it had been knocked flying away.

  “As I thought, I failed.” Ning wasn’t surprised at all. If he truly was able to pierce this terrifying sealing formation that was tens of millions of kilometers in size through using just a single arrow…only then would he be surprised! However…he truly didn’t wish to accept this!

  “What should I do?”

  “All space within this region has been completely locked. There’s no way for me to flee.” Ning felt frantic inside. “The Youngflame clan really was quite vicious in sending me here.”

  The Primordial Ruinworld’s Nihilum Zone was indeed an awe-inspiringly famous danger zone. Not even many Empyrean Gods or True Immortals would be able to escape from it, much less the likes of Ji Ning.

  As for the even more deadly Primordial Ruinworld…naturally, the Youngflame clan would’ve liked to send him to that place, but alas, even the Protocosmic spirit-treasure, the Worldhold Pagoda, was only able to tear open the fabric of space to send Ning into the Ni
hilum Zone. It was unable to send him to the Primordial Ruinworld.

  “Eh?” Ning suddenly turned his head to look.

  From far away, within the distant void of space, an enormous ship had suddenly appeared. This titanic ship was ten thousand kilometers long; it was like one of the continents of Earth! Earlier, it had been completely invisible, but now it had materialized out of nowhere. The entrance to the ship opened, and a series of massive, towering, blood-red horned, golden-eyed, black-caped warriors came flying out. The many warriors all radiated utterly astonishing auras.

  “So the army of the Snaphorn world of the Primordial Ruinworld have arrived.” Ning’s pupils contracted.

  * * *

  Book 16, Chapter 11 - A Crisis of Divine Power

  “Wait.” When Ji Ning saw the steady stream of black-caped warriors pour out from the distant ship, he couldn’t help but feel surprised. “The warriors I fought previously had scales, wings, and blood-red eyes. But now, we have some black-caped warriors in front of me…all of which have four arms, golden eyes, and blood-red horns. They look completely different from the earlier enemies; even their auras are far more powerful.”

  If the ten foes Ning had previously slaughtered were adorable little kittens, then these black-caped warriors standing before him were like truly savage tigers!

  “A total of over a thousand black-caped warriors.” After counting more than a thousand warriors flying out from the distant ship, Ning saw how, after a long moment passed, yet another warrior emerged from the ship. This one was dressed in a violet cape, but in all other respects, he looked identical to the black-caped warriors, save for the fact that there was an enormous difference in their auras of power.

  “What a terrifying force.” Ning suddenly felt as though it was hard to breathe.

  The violet-caped warrior took just a single step forward. His body blurred, then suddenly appeared before the thousand-plus black-caped warriors. This speed caused Ning’s eyes to twitch; even when he used his [Obscuring Wind of the Nine Heavens] divine ability, he still wasn’t as fast as this person.

  The invisible aura the person emanated caused Ning to feel even more pressure. “He’s definitely more powerful than any Celestial Immortal I’ve faced to date.”

  “Commander.”

  The thousand-plus black-caped warriors all looked towards their leader with eagerness.

  The violet-caped warrior, however, gave Ning a curious glance. “An alien who looks like this and who is so small…I’ve never seen or even heard of someone like him.”

  “What should I do? What should I do? What’s my next course of action?” Ning was feeling extraordinarily nervous right now. The entire region of many tens of kilometers was encompassed by this grand formation; there was nowhere for him to flee, and the army squad which the Snaphorn world had just sent out was terrifyingly strong.

  “The voidwaves are being completely blocked out by the Third Void Sector’s defenses; no need to worry, everyone.” The violet-caped warrior smiled. “Release your children and capture this alien.”

  “Yes!”

  “Yes!”

  “Yes!”

  Instantly, a series of deafening roars rang out, shaking the region of space. At the same time, the thousand-plus black-caped warriors simultaneously opened their mouths. Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

  Ten small spheres flew out from each of their mouths, producing a total of more than ten thousand small spheres. These small spheres instantly expanded in size when they entered the space of the Void, and they quickly transformed into a series of scaled, winged, blood-eyed warriors of enormous size.

  “They vomited them out?” Ning was completely flabbergasted.

  “Children, capture this alien,” the violet-caped warrior ordered.

  “Yes!”

  The ten thousand-plus blood-eyed warriors all assented in unison…and then half of them, the shorter and smaller ones, all opened their own mouths and emitted soundless roars, causing an invisible ripple of power to instantly sweep towards Ning. Ning knew what was coming this time; he knew that these smaller blood-eyed warriors were skilled in hypnotism. Last time, he had only faced five of them, but this time more than five thousand of them were simultaneously using the technique.

  The formless ripples couldn’t be avoided; all he could do was take them head-on!

  Clang! Clang! Clang!

  Ning could feel booms ring out from within his soul!

  However…with his heartforce at nearly the peak of the iceheart stage, Ning was still able to survive.

  “What a powerful soul.” The violet-caped warrior nodded lightly.

  “This alien really does have a bit of talent.”

  “Yes. Although our children are merely fairly weak cannon fodder meant to be used up during a battle…in large numbers, they are still quite dangerous. I wonder where this alien came from? He’s quite strong.”

  The black-caped warriors were stealthily chatting amongst themselves.

  ……

  Since hypnotism had failed…the ten thousand-plus blood-eyed warriors pulled out their weapons, then all charged forward, filling the Void with their massive bodies.

  These could be considered as having power that was just barely comparable to Void-level Fiendgods, but they didn’t have Fiendgod-like indestructible bodies. If he used all his abilities, such as the [Starseizing Hand] or [Three Heads, Six Arms], Ning could wipe them all out in a very short period of time! After all, they didn’t have regenerating bodies; killing them would be very easy, very simple. However…Ning didn’t dare to recklessly waste his divine power.

  The [Starseizing Hand] used up a vicious amount of divine power; once his divine power was exhausted, he would no longer be able to even fight back.

  “I’ll have to rely on swordplay.”

  Ning’s two hands each held a Darknorth sword. He made the swords expand to nine hundred meters.

  Swoosh!

  He used the [Obscuring Wind of the Nine Heavens], instantly charging into the very center of that mass of blood-eyed warriors. Ning didn’t use any additional divine abilities after that, relying solely on his sword-arts. Slash, slash, slash! Sword-light flashed everywhere.

  Ning’s sword-arts were unfathomably profound, far beyond what these blood-eyed warriors were capable of. The pair of nine hundred meter long Darknorth swords slashed through the air, chopping past the heads of the blood-eyed warriors, sometimes completely bisecting them in half!

  All of the blood-eyed warriors died, unable to heal from their wounds, regardless of where the injuries were, head or waist.

  “Eh? His sword-arts truly are profound.” The violet-caped warrior was surprised by what he saw.

  Ning was born to be a Sword Immortal. Even though he could no longer sense the Dao of the Sword or summon the natural energy of the world…his sword-arts remained unfathomable.

  “Blaze, my children,” the violet-caped warrior called out.

  “Roaaaaaar!”

  “Die!”

  “Alien!”

  The horde of blood-eyed warriors bellowed as their bodies began to glow with a blurry green light. Instantly, their speed and their strength rose dramatically. They began to assault Ning en masse.

  Ning remained very calm. He didn’t use any divine abilities; instead, he relied on his sword-arts to continue to slaughter these blood-eyed warriors. In fact, he even used his own body as a weapon, using it to block the enemy axes and whips head-on. Due to having trained in the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art], Ning was able to actually conserve power by using his own body to take on blows as he fought within the mass of blood-eyed warriors!

  Ning wasn’t worried about them being able to injure him in the slightest.

  Boom! Boom! Boom! Ning was occasionally sent flying here by an axe or flying there by a whip…

  But each time he was sent ‘flying’, his sword-light would flash past in a graceful manner…and many enemy heads would go flying as well.

  ……

  Withi
n the infinite darkness of the Void, three powerful minds were communicating with each other.

  “This human’s body is rather strong.”

  “Right. It’s like one of those ‘magic treasures’ those humans use.”

  “This human is probably at the Celestial Immortal level of power at most…but his body is this powerful…he most likely must have trained in an earth-shatteringly powerful protective divine ability those humans have.”

  “Ideally, we shall capture him alive, so that we can analyze his body. If we can gain some insights into some of the profound mysteries behind his divine ability, then use them to make us sisters grow more physically powerful, that would be wonderful.”

  ……

  By relying on the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] and his sword-arts, Ning was able to wipe out all of the blood-eyed warriors in the time needed to boil a kettle of tea. However, Ning didn’t feel excited at all…because he saw the amusement on the faces of the distant black-caped warriors, and the calmness of the violet-caped warrior. He understood from this that to the Snaphorn world, the forces he had just killed most likely represented very little.

  In truth…

  They really did represent almost nothing. They were cannon fodder; in fact, they weren’t even viewed as true members of the same race to which the horned warriors belonged! To produce a true member of the race required an extremely high price to be paid! Producing this sort of cannon fodder, however, was much easier and much cheaper. However, there was a limit to how many of them each horned warrior could control; some would have to perish before they could give birth to more.

  “He was able to kill more than ten thousand of our children; he does have a bit of talent.” The violet-caped warrior said, “Hellsong, go and test his abilities.”

  “Yes.”

  A black-caped warrior nodded, then manifested four shortswords in his four hands.

  Ning’s heart clenched.

  They had just seen him kill more than ten thousand of those blood-eyed warriors…but still chose to send a single black-caped warrior to fight?

  “Hmph.” The black-caped warrior suddenly moved, transforming into a blur as he pounced towards Ning.