Desolate Era

by RWX

  “You made a breakthrough?” Yu Wei said, surprised.

  “Right.” Ning nodded lightly, then said, “I’ve made a breakthrough in my soul heartforce technique.”

  His master, Subhuti, had instructed him long ago that he was not to casually inform others of his breakthrough to the Pure Yang True Immortal level. He was not to tell Yu Wei or Uncle White, who he held complete faith in, about it! If he told a single person, the Seamless Gate would have a chance to find out about it.

  “You’ve finally made a breakthrough in your soul heartforce technique?” Yu Wei said joyfully, “Wonderful. A breakthrough in soul heartforce will allow you to control even more power from your Heaven Punisher, making it even mightier. Right now, in the war for the Grand Xia, there’s not many on the side of the Seamless Gate who are a match for you.”

  “Haha. For now, at least, there’s no one who can deal with me. True Immortal Whitepole, Gatemaster Azurefox, and the White-Faced Flood Dragon which is under the command of an Empyrean God all had to join forces together against me, and they still weren’t a match.” In front of Yu Wei, Ning did something he rarely did; he bragged a bit.

  “I knew you’d be incredible.” Yu Wei was very happy.

  The more powerful Ji Ning was, the greater the chances of his survival would be.

  Yu Wei and Ji Ning enjoyed this meal very much. Shortly after they finished…

  “Eh?” Yu Wei suddenly felt a dizzy spell strike her.

  “The Godking?” Yu Wei’s heart clenched as she realized that it was the Godking forcibly summoning her.

  The Godking had left his imprint upon her soul. There was no way she could refuse his summons at all. When Azurefox wanted to reach Yu Wei, she had to wait for Yu Wei to fall asleep first…but the Godking could forcibly reach out to her, not needing to wait for her to go sleep.

  Yu Wei didn’t dare to hesitate at all. She immediately said, “Junior apprentice-brother, I’m full. I’m a bit tired; I’m going to take a nap.”

  “Go ahead and get some rest,” Ning immediately said. She was currently pregnant; he didn’t dare to negligent of her health.

  Yu Wei moved into a nearby room, lay down on the bed, then shut her eyes.

  ……

  Within a vast world of darkness.

  Yu Wei appeared out of nowhere, and as soon as she did she saw that massive royal throne hovering in the middle of the endless darkness, as well as the towering figure of the Godking seated upon the throne. She also saw Gatemaster Azurefox kneeling before the Godking. Yu Wei immediately knelt down as well. “I prostrate myself before you, Godking.”

  “Yu Wei,” the Godking said, “The great battle the Grand Xia Dynasty just fought against our Seamless Gate…are you aware of it?”

  Yu Wei was somewhat startled. She immediately nodded. “I do.”

  “The Seamless Gate suffered a major loss,” the Godking said. “The Grand Xia won a great victory. Do you know why the Grand Xia won?”

  Yu Wei hesitated a moment, then said, “Because of my junior apprentice-brother, Ji Ning.”

  She knew very well that the Godking had to be aware of all the details regarding the battle. There was no way any of it could be hidden from him.

  “Right. Because of Ji Ning.” The Godking slowly tapped his fingers against his armrest, a hint of doubt in his voice. “How could your Dao-companion, Ji Ning, have increased his power by that much? Did he become a Pure Yang True Immortal? Or is it because he’s mastered the heartforce techniques which Old Man Yuan transmitted to him?”

  “Your subordinate doesn’t know,” Yu Wei said respectfully.

  “You don’t know?” The Godking gazed downwards towards her.

  Yu Wei’s heart shook, but she forced herself to remain calm.

  “I believe he must have become a Pure Yang True Immortal,” the Godking said.

  Yu Wei was surprised. The Godking already knew the answer?

  “There is no way you can lie in my presence,” the Godking said calmly. “I’ve summoned you and asked you simply because I wanted to test you…but in the future, if I ask you for any information regarding the Grand Xia and you dare to hide anything…then I will exile you into the Infinity Hells. When that happens…there will never be a chance for the child of yourself and Ji Ning to enter this world!”

  Yu Wei’s heart shook yet again. This was what she feared the most. The thing she wanted above all else was to survive until her child was born.

  “Forgive me, Godking,” Yu Wei said hurriedly.

  The Godking just gave her a glance.

  Whoosh. Yu Wei disappeared into thin air.

  “Godking?” Azurefox raised her head to look at the Godking with a belly filled with questions.

  “It seems that Ji Ning did not lie to Yu Wei,” the Godking said slowly. “Ji Ning has indeed come up with a soul heartforce technique. If he is allowed to grow unimpeded…I’m afraid that the Nuwa Alliance of the Three Realms shall soon gain yet another hard-to-deal-with Empyrean God or True Immortal.”

  Azurefox was even more puzzled.

  “Ji Ning told Yu Wei that he made a breakthrough.” The Godking gave his most devoted of servants an explanation. “A breakthrough in a soul heartforce technique! However, before this I was concerned that Ji Ning might have been lying. The best judge of whether or not he was lying would be Yu Wei, his Dao-companion; she knows him better than any others. If he lied, Yu Wei should be able to detect it. I could sense, however, that Yu Wei also believes that Ji Ning has indeed made a breakthrough in his soul heartforce technique.”

  Although Yu Wei hadn’t said it, the Godking could completely see through all of Yu Wei’s thoughts.

  However…

  What the Godking didn’t realize was that Ning hadn’t told anyone at all that he had broken through to become a Pure Yang True Immortal. Ning had indeed lied to Yu Wei. His heartforce was incredibly strong, and so he was able to reveal no flaws at all when lying. In addition, although Yu Wei had some vague guesses in her heart, she still had complete faith in Ning. Ning was the most important person in her life, and so harbored no doubts about his words at all.

  After speaking with and querying Yu Wei, in the end the Godking decided that Ji Ning had to have truly made a breakthrough in heartforce.

  Azurefox hurriedly said, “That’s good. At least he hasn’t become a Pure Yang True Immortal yet.”

  “Good?” The Godking gave Azurefox a sideways glance. “You still don’t understand what it means for him to have made a soul heartforce breakthrough. In the Three Realms, there are many who have become Empyrean Gods or True Immortals, but the number of individuals who have developed soul heartforce techniques can be counted on two hands.”

  Azurefox was shocked.

  “Old Man Yuan transmitted his teachings to Ji Ning, but I didn’t expect him to have mastered them in just three years.” The fog around the Godking’s black robes seemed to crackle with light. “Ji Ning has long ago mastered a thread of swordforce, and he has a deep level of insight into the Dao of the Sword. There is nothing impeding him from mastering it and becoming a Pure Yang True Immortal; this is just a matter of time.”

  “Mastering a soul heartforce technique, however, is extremely difficult.”

  “He’s already accomplished the most difficult task before him,” the Godking said. “He’s completely mastered a soul heartforce technique, which means his control over his Heaven Punisher and the amount of power he can command has instantly increased tenfold or twentyfold. Once he also becomes a Pure Yang True Immortal…the power of his Immortal army will explosively increase yet again.”

  “When that happens…he will have become incredibly hard to deal with. The Nuwa Alliance will have gained yet another lethal weapon.”

  The Godking was hesitant, not sure what to do next.

  The battle between the two alliances was a slow, drawn-out battle where each side was fighting for every bit of land!

  Each time, they would whittle away a little bit of their e
nemy’s strength, but over the course of many battles, the accumulated amount of damage they had done would allow them to gain a great advantage! At present, the True Gods and Daofathers on each side were all unwilling to intervene, because they knew that once one side intervened, the casualties would instantly skyrocket. This storm, however, was unavoidable; they had to fight at some point. At the start, however, they were going to conserve their strength as much as they could.

  The Empyrean Gods and True Immortals struggled for karmic luck.

  But towards the end…when one side realized that they no longer had any chances at all to improve their karmic luck…they would most likely launch their most frenzied, berserk of assaults!

  That would be when the final battle would occur.

  Right now, however, both sides felt that they had opportunities to improve their karmic standings, to improve their karmic luck. If they were able to do so, then Heaven and Earth would be on their side.

  And in this battle for karmic luck…some extremely special Empyrean Gods or True Immortals could be tremendously effective in this regard, such as Lu Dongbin and his Eight Immortals of the High Caves, or the terrifying divine archers. If Ji Ning was to master a soul heartforce technique and become a Pure Yang True Immortal, the army he commanded would be able to become an important variable that had a major influence on the entire war.

  ……

  Time flowed on.

  The Godking’s left hand slowly but continuously tapped against the armrest of his throne. Tap. Tap. Tap. Azurefox felt as though each tap was a tap striking upon her very heart.

  Suddenly, the Godking’s left arm came to a halt.

  Azurefox lifted up her head. She could feel as though the entire world of darkness had just solidified.

  A flash of lightning seemed to have appeared within the Godking’s eyes. He said coldly, “Sooner or later, we will need to fight a decisive final battle against Crimsonbright. Then…let this final battle’s location be the world of the Grand Xia. Make your preparations. I will summon the power of the Fifth World and send them to descend upon the Grand Xia. We’ll prepare for a Realmwar and get rid of Ji Ning at the same time.”

  “Realmwar?” Azurefox was shocked.

  Sometimes, the war against a major world would explode beyond one’s expectations. The major powers on both sides would constantly reinforce their subordinates, resulting in a massive war which the majority of Empyrean Gods and True Immortals within that realm would participate in, along with a truly countless number of the realm’s Celestial Immortals and True Immortals. This sort of war…was known as a Realmwar.

  “Hurry up and prepare,” the Godking ordered.

  “Yes,” Azurefox said respectfully. She immediately departed from the world of darkness.

  * * *

  Book 18, Chapter 27 - Ambush

  The Heaven Realm.

  Ever since that ancient, primordial war had resulted in the shattering of the world and the creation of the Three Realms, the Heaven Realm had been the largest remnant-world that had been left behind. The aura of the Heaven Realm was very similar to that of the aura of the ancient world. In this vast realm, the Celestial Court merely held partial sway, commanding the eastern reaches. Mount Ling of the Buddhists was located in the west, and the many Buddhas were all located there, resulting in it having a much higher status than the Court.

  When the Celestial Emperor saw the Buddhas, he would have to behave with the utmost of respect.

  The Buddhas were all figures comparable to True Gods and Daofathers, after all; at most, they would be superficially courteous to the Celestial Emperor, the nominal leader of the Three Realms.

  The Heaven Realm was also filled with sacred grounds of the Daoist Path.

  The Daoist Path, the Buddhist Sangha…they were the true powers of the Heaven Realm. Second only to them were the various major powers. Of course, there were many other Empyrean Gods and True Immortals with their own turfs and territories in this realm as well, where their rule held sway. They paid no attention to the Celestial Emperor at all.

  ……

  The Heaven Realm. Mount Tonglian.

  “Great King! Great King!” A Void-level mouse-type Diremonster flew forward, calling out loudly. He soon reached a great palace, inside of which were six Diremonsters Gods with difference appearances. These six Diremonster Gods were drinking from cauldrons of wine and eating large chunks of meat with utter relish.

  “What is it?” A massively, burly, golden-eyed Diremonster God with long whiskers barked out.

  The Void-level Diremonster hurriedly knelt down with a thud. “Great King, True Immortal Songcloud has sent an emissary inviting the six of you go gather at his Cloudsong Mountain half a year from now.”

  “True Immortal Songcloud?”

  The six Diremonster Gods immediately shook off the effects of the wine, becoming completely sober. They each exchanged a glance.

  “Understood. True Immortal Songcloud always wastes time dithering about. Us six brothers, our time is incredibly precious, and we’re not in a mood to go out wandering. Tell the emissary to f*ck off.” A tall, skinny Diremonster God whose face was covered with azure scales barked out at the mouse Diremonster.

  “Yes, yes, yes!” The Void-level Diremonster immediately retreated.

  “Ugh. I’m feeling a bit woozy from all the wine. I’m going to take a nap.” The golden-eyed Diremonster immediately lay down and began to snore.

  “I’m going to nap as well.” Yet another lay down.

  “If you won’t drink, I will.”

  Some of the six Diremonster Gods went to sleep, while others continued to drink.

  But even though they continued to drink…as Empyrean Gods, they were naturally able to easily create lesser clones of themselves. Their clones were all hiding within their respective Immortal estates, and they immediately went to sleep.

  ……

  The Heaven Realm. Cloudmist Creek.

  Deep within the flows of Cloudmist Creek, there was an underwater palace. There were all sorts of monsters serving within this underwater palace, including shrimp soldiers and crab commanders. The masters of this underwater estate were the famous Nine Cloudmist Fairies. The Nine Cloudmist Fairies…although they were described as ‘Fairies’, in reality they were Diremonsters who had trained to reach the Empyrean God or True Immortal level. Because they shared deep affection for each other, advancing and retreating in lockstep, they became famously tough to deal with in the Three Realms.

  When all nine of them joined forces…unless a True God or a Daofather intervened, there were very few in the Three Realms who could do anything to them.

  “Sisters, enough play. It’s time to train. The storm has come, and we can’t waste any time or relax.” The eldest sister of the nine, Fairy Skycloud, spoke out.

  “Our eldest sister speaks the truth.” The other beautiful Diremonsters all assented to her words.

  They all returned to their still rooms, ostensibly to train…but in reality, they entered the realm of dreams.

  ……

  Within the vast world of darkness.

  The massive Godking sat upon his towering, thirty thousand meter throne, his black robes cast around him like a dark mist. He sat there, quietly.

  One group of Immortals and Fiendgods after another began to appear before him.

  “Why has the Godking summoned us?”

  “Eh? This many people?”

  “The six Diremonster Gods of Mount Tonglian have arrived. The Nine Cloudmist Fairies have arrived as well? Hey, aren’t those the three Diremonster Gods of Mount Dragoneater? So they are on our side as well? Last time, the three Diremonster Gods of Mount Dragoneater killed two Bodhisattva’s of the Buddhist Sangha.”

  Many Immortals and Fiendgods began to congregate, all at the Empyrean God or True Immortal level.

  There were some weaker ones who were ‘ordinary’ Empyrean Gods and True Immortals, but the likes of the six Diremonster Gods of Mount Tonglian, the Ni
ne Cloudmist Fairies, and the three Diremonster Gods of Mount Dragoneater stood at the very top. Although the Godking had a hundred Seamless Gates, supreme powers like those three reported directly to the Godking himself! The other Seamless Gates were unable to give orders to them.

  “We prostrate ourselves before you, Godking.”

  “We prostrate ourselves before you, Godking.”

  Although they all felt shock in their hearts upon arriving, they all knelt down respectfully.

  As time passed, more and more Immortals and Fiendgods arrived, with True Immortal Whitepole and Gatemaster Azurefox included amongst them. When the sixty-eighth member arrived, the Godking, seated upon his high throne, finally spoke out.

  “The Crimsonbright Realm is under the control of Daofather Crimsonbright.” The Godking’s voice rang out, filling every inch of this vast, dark world as well as the hearts of his subordinates. “If the Seamless Gate is to gain in karmic luck, then we have to take control of many major worlds. Our previous battles against the Crimsonbright Realm were merely small skirmishes, and Daofather Crimsonbright has been holding his own power in reserve as well. Both of our sides have been preparing for a true Realmwar to begin.”

  All of the Empyrean Gods and True Immortals seated below were startled. They were immediately able to guess at what the Godking had summoned them for.

  “If we do not completely destroy them, we won’t be able to stabilize our control over their major worlds. We must gain victory in the Realmwar; we must defeat them completely.” The Godking’s voice turned icy. “If we can defeat them in the Realmwar, then the worlds of the Crimsonbright Realm will become powerless to resist us, allowing us to win them over with ease.”

  “If we do not defeat them…then they will be able to push us out from even the major worlds we’ve taken over for now.”

  “The Realmwar against the Crimsonbright Realm…shall be located on the world of the Grand Xia!”

  The Godking made his announcement.