Desolate Era

by RWX

  Whoooooosh. The edges of the tribulation cloud could now be seen. It continued to shrink and flow into the maelstrom, as did the endless streaks of violet light.

  Within the center of the maelstrom was a region of utter chaos.

  A short while later, the only thing left in the skies was this terrifying chaos maelstrom. The tribulation cloud had completely vanished. Not even any hint of its former aura of might had been left behind.

  “Why do I feel so nervous right now…” Mu Northson mumbled softly.

  “I’ve never seen any records regarding a thunder tribulation like this in any of the books of Mount Innerheart.” Little Qing was worried as well.

  Bolts of lightning began to materialize within the chaos maelstrom. These lightning bolts were almost completely violet, with a few streaks of white mixed into them.

  Whoosh!

  The violet-white thunderbolt came crashing down from the vortex in the skies. It didn’t possess a savage, dominating aura; instead, it possessed a terrifying aura of imperial majesty, making viewers feel as though it was an emperor that they had to bow their heads before.

  “Eh?” Ning frowned slightly. “When my Primaltwin underwent its tribulation, this sort of beautiful, violet-white thunderbolt only appeared starting from the seventy-third bolt. I didn’t expect that the very first bolt my true body would encounter would be on this level.”

  Ning had a feeling that this thunder tribulation of his wouldn’t be so easily overcome.

  BOOM!

  Ning just stood there in midair, allowing the thunderbolt to crash upon his body and allowing sparks of electricity to dance across him. A divine body on the level of a Pure Yang treasure wouldn’t be easily damaged.

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  One thunderbolt after another came crashing downwards!

  The power of the thunderbolts continued to rise. By the ninth bolt, the thunderbolts had turned completely white, a dazzling, pure, sacred white that contained an ineffable nobility and majesty to it. The white bolts crashed down upon Ning’s white-robed body, but Ning simply stood there, head raised as he watched them slam down towards him.

  “The thunder tribulation’s not that bad.” The distant Brightmoon watched as her white-clothed father was bathed in the radiance of the white thunderbolts. A look of veneration was in her eyes as she said excitedly, “Father hasn’t even done anything, but he’s still able to easily endure them.”

  “Little Brightmoon, the fact that your father is easily able to resist these thunderbolts doesn’t mean that his thunder tribulation isn’t a terrifying one. Before you were born, your father’s Primaltwin underwent the Celestial Tribulation. When that happened, only the very final thunderbolt of his nine nine-sets was this dazzling white color.” The nearby Uncle White explained, “Your father has trained in the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] and has a formidable divine body, which is why he can take it head-on.”

  “The [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] is that powerful?” Brightmoon’s eyes sparkled. “I want to learn it too!”

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  The bolts of lightning continued to crash downwards.

  The noble, dazzling white color began to be intermixed with streaks of gold, causing the thunderbolts to have an aura of supremacy and exaltedness. It was as though Ning was facing the Dao of the Heavens itself.

  As the thunderbolts crashed down upon him, bathing him in electricity, Ning felt as though he was being washed in water. His entire divine body felt quite comfortable, and it was slowly beginning to change in very minor ways.

  The thirty-sixth bolt…the forty-ninth bolt…the fifty-fourth bolt…

  The power of the thunderbolts continued to rise.

  “The Sixth Cycle of the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] truly is incredible.” Empyrean God Redsnow sighed softly. “All those years ago, when I faced the final thunderbolt of my Empyrean Tribulation, I had to go all-out in order to survive it…but it was only as powerful as this fifty-fourth thunderbolt of Ji Ning’s. But Ji Ning hasn’t even been forced to fight back; his divine body is completely capable of enduring this level of power.”

  “Junior apprentice-brother Redsnow, you were born when Heaven and Earth had first been established. Back then, the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] didn’t even exist,” Crazy Ji said with a laugh. “From the looks of junior apprentice-brother Ji Ning’s thunder tribulation…there is a high chance that the Pure Yang Goldlight Thunder will appear.”

  “Pure Yang Goldlight Thunder?” Empyrean God Redsnow grew slightly worried. “If that’s the case…I’m afraid that the Sixth Cycle of the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] won’t be able to withstand it.”

  Crazy Ji lightly twirled his fan. Chuckling, he said, “Just watch.”

  Bathed in electricity, Ning could clearly sense the power of the thunder tribulation continuing to grow.

  The seventy-second bolt. The seventy-third bolt.

  The lightning bolts had turned almost completely golden, with just a little bit of white remaining within them. The power of the thunderbolts was so great that Ning’s body was beginning to shudder. Tiny wounds had begun to appear across his body, but his divine power automatically and instantly healed them.

  “They’re actually striking me so hard that my divine body is almost unable to endure it any longer.” Ning still just stared at the skies, allowing the thunderbolts to come crashing down as he watched them carefully.

  The seventy-eighth bolt. The seventh-ninth bolt. The eightieth bolt.

  The final bolt.

  “Come out.” The white-robed Ning’s body momentarily blurred as he assumed the [Three Heads, Six Arms] form. Six of the Ananda World-Swords appeared within his hands.

  “BREAK!” The six Ananda World-Swords in his hands, Ning charged upwards towards the skies, charging straight towards the chaos maelstrom within them. A streak of completely pure gold had appeared within the chaos maelstrom as well. This lightning bolt didn’t have any other colors within it whatsoever. The pure gold thunderbolt carried a supremely Yang, supremely aggressive aura, and supremely sharp aura. Just looking at it would make one’s heart shudder.

  “How terrifying.” Brightmoon’s heart trembled.

  “Pure Yang Goldlight Thunder!” Redsnow was shocked.

  “Pure Yang Goldlight Thunder.” Crazy Ji finally stopped fanning himself as well.

  Patriarch Subhuti and the woodcutter watched from afar as this happened. Pure Yang Goldlight Thunder…it would only appear during these tribulations. Normally, there was no way for Immortals or Fiendgods to train to a level where they could manifest this Pure Yang Goldlight Thunder. The power of this thunderbolt was too shockingly great, and it contained boundless mysteries within it.

  Ning, using [Three Heads, Six Arms] and his six Ananda World-Swords, charged straight against the heavens!

  The supremely Yang and supremely aggressive Pure Yang Goldlight Thunder came smashing down towards him!

  CRASH!!!!!

  Six dazzling streaks of sword-light lit up.

  Every single streak of sword-light was filled with Ning’s powerful heartforce. His fourth level heartforce had been completely poured into his swords.

  BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM! The six powerful streaks of sword-light smashed head-on against the thunderbolt. The bolt of Pure Yang Goldlight Thunder was completely blasted apart with a violet explosion, but shattered bits of golden electricity still came crashing down upon Ning’s body. However, they were only enough to cause Ning’s divine body to tremble slightly. They were unable to leave behind any actual wounds.

  Whoooosh. The chaos maelstrom in the skies rapidly began to shrink, condensing into a final streak of lightning.

  Swish!

  The streak of lightning landed upon Ning’s body, having moved so incredibly fast that there was no way to block it at all.

  Crackle…pop…rumble…

  Ning could sense all of his bones crackling and popping. Thanks to this profound, arcane streak of lightning, his body was quickly changi
ng and transforming, becoming even tougher and even more powerful. At the same time, his internal organs and his muscles were rumbling as they transformed as well.

  “According to the legends…if one endures the Pure Yang Goldlight Thunder, then after one becomes an Empyrean God, one will have a perfect divine body.” Ning understood what was happening.

  If an Empyrean God wished to break through to become a True God, a prerequisite was that the Empyrean God’s body had to first be perfected. A perfect divine body meant that in terms of speed, divine power, or physical strength, one had to reach the utter peak of power possible for Empyrean Gods. If there was no Pure Yang Goldlight Thunder, he would have to slowly train for an extremely, extremely long period of time.

  ……

  Ning sat down in the lotus position within the desolate wilderness.

  The demonheart tribulation had come.

  “The demonheart tribulation is of no threat to Ji Ning.” Patriarch Subhuti smiled merrily towards his distant disciple, then nodded and said, “We can consider his Empyrean Tribulation to have been a success.” Patriarch Subhuti then vanished into thin air.

  The woodcutter nodded slightly as well. In a soft voice, he said, “I wonder if this junior apprentice-brother Ji Ning of mine will be able to break through to become a True God or Daofather before the final Endwar.” And then, the woodcutter vanished as well.

  As the two vanished, the only one of the spectators who seemed to vaguely sense something was Crazy Ji. Crazy Ji turned his head, scanning behind him with a frown on his face. “What did I just sense? Was that Master and eldest apprentice-brother?” In all of Mount Innerheart, the only ones who were capable of acting in such mysterious, inscrutable ways were his master and the eldest apprentice-brother, the most formidable figure amongst all of the disciples.

  ……

  Ning’s heartforce was far too powerful. Although the demonheart tribulation that descended upon him was extremely terrifying, Ning’s heartforce was able to easily resist it. Ning only had to spend roughly a month within the demonheart world before he completely awakened from it.

  “I’ve always known that she would be the shadow cast over my heart.”

  “I even tried to force myself to believe that she really was my senior apprentice-sister.”

  “Alas…I could still sense, no matter how hard I tried, that it was nothing more than a lie. An illusion.”

  Ning sat there in the lotus position. He slowly opened his eyes, filled with unshed tears. However, his tears quickly dissipated and vanished.

  His heartforce had reached the fourth stage. It was far, far too powerful.

  He had wanted to spend some extra time with ‘Yu Wei’ in the world of the demonheart tribulation, but alas…he found out, to his agony, that his heartforce was so powerful that he couldn’t help but see through all of the lies. The Yu Wei of the demonheart world was fake. An illusion.

  At the same time, Ning understood that if his heartforce had only been at the third level, he might been completely unable to tell that the Yu Wei of the demonheart world was an illusion…and that he might’ve truly, forever become trapped within that world, never to escape again.

  “Nothing more than foolish hopes and dreams…” Ning shut his eyes.

  BOOM!

  Heaven and Earth seemed to change in color as beautiful, auspicious clouds of light filled the skies and golden lotuses filled the ground.

  Rumble…

  Enormous copies of the Solar Star and Lunar Star appeared in the air above Ning. An utterly torrid flow of power from the Solar Star and Lunar Star was transmitted directly into Ning’s body, as did an enormous amount of natural energy from Heaven and Earth.

  Ning, seated atop a field of golden lotuses, had become the heart of this seemingly-infinite storm of energy.

  Light swirled across his entire body…and within it, a golden pellet Jindan took form.

  At the same time, his divine body began to ravenously devour the power of the Solar Star and the Lunar star. By the time everything came to an end and the world turned normal again, Ning’s divine body was already beginning to emanate a natural aura of majesty and power, an aura that belonged exclusively to the most supreme of Empyrean Gods…because Ning’s divine body had already reached the perfect level.

  “Father.” Brightmoon ran straight towards him.

  Ning, still seated in the lotus position, laughed as he hugged his daughter.

  “Father, you are too incredible!” In her father’s arms, Brightmoon raised her head to look at him. Light was shining from her eyes. She would never, ever forget the sight of her father being bathed in lightning, nor would she ever forget the sight of the enormous Solar Star and Lunar Star appearing above her father’s head as he sat there atop a bed of golden lotuses.

  A heartbeat later, Empyrean Gods Redsnow, Primelight, Snow Scorpion, Dovesnake, Ninefangs, Sunblaze, and Darkmoon all moved in unison towards Ji Ning. Looks of utter excitement were in their eyes, and the giant yellow bear appeared as well. The eight of them looked towards Ning, faces full of joy and anticipation.

  And then…they all knelt down respectfully on one knee. “Respectful greetings to you, Manorlord!”

  The Starseizing Manor…was finally going to once more appear within the Three Realms!

  * * *

  Book 19, Chapter 6 - The Starseizer World

  His daughter still in his arms, Ji Ning hurriedly rose to his feet. “Everyone, please rise!”

  Only then did the seven Empyrean Gods and the giant yellow bear rise to their feet, their eyes still filled with excitement.

  “In the future, don’t kneel before me.” Ning shook his head, his daughter still in his arms. “I am nothing more than the heir to my master, Daoist Threelives, which is why I was fortunate enough to become the Manorlord of the Starseizing Manor. In terms of cultivation, all of you have been training for far, far longer than I have. In terms of power, I am just like the rest of you, a mere Empyrean God.”

  “The Manorlord is the Manorlord.” The dazzlingly beautiful white-browed woman, Snow Scorpion, revealed a smile. “The Manorlord commands the Starseizing Manor. We are your subordinates. We have to follow the rules.”

  “That’s right, Manorlord.” The bald old man, Ninefangs, let out a laugh. “Long ago, countless Fiendgods would prostrate when our Godking gave an order. Ahaha…just thinking about those days makes my blood boil. Back then, I hadn’t even become an Empyrean God.”

  “Manorlord, don’t…” Dovesnake was about to say something as well, but Ning swept them all with his gaze. “My rule is…you are not to kneel before me.”

  Redsnow and the rest of the seven exchanged glances. They could sense Ning’s resolve, and so they no longer argued against him. They respectfully assented, “Yes.”

  At his current level, Ning’s Dao-heart was incomparably pure. He liked what he liked, and he disliked what he disliked! There was no way Ning would allow the old rules of the Starseizing Manor to bind himself. Ji Ning was different from the former Godking, Daoist Threelives; Daoist Threelives liked to dominate and liked to fight for supremacy in the world, but Ning did not. He preferred to focused on increasing his personal power.

  If one was powerful enough, one would naturally be able to dominate all those in one’s path.

  Mother Nuwa was a good example. She had been the paragon of the Three Realms.

  Ning’s goal was to reach Pangu and Nuwa’s level…and then to surpass them! But of course, that was assuming Pangu’s level wasn’t the final stage possible in cultivation.

  “Junior apprentice-brother…”

  “Senior apprentice-brother Ji Ning…”

  The many distant spectators were all completely stunned. Amongst the many disciples of Mount Innerheart, the vast majority of them, aside from the likes of Patriarch Subhuti and Crazy Ji, did not know of the connection between Ji Ning and Daoist Threelives!

  Not even Mu Northson or Autumn Leaf knew about it!

  “Daoist Thre
elives? He was a True God who was born from the vast, infinite primordial chaos. According to the legends, the divine ability he created, the [Starseizing Hand], is no less terrifying than [Houyi’s Archery].”

  “So senior apprentice-brother is actually the successor to Daoist Threelives?”

  All of them were completely stunned.

  After Empyrean God Redsnow and the rest of the seven had intervened during the Realmwar, word had long since spread that these were the former followers of Daoist Threelives. This resulted in his name once more being discussed by the many Immortals and Fiendgods of the Three Realms. The likes of Mu Northson and Uncle White had naturally heard of the story of Daoist Threelives as well.

  “Right.”

  Ning swept the familiar faces of his kinsmen and his fellow disciples with his gaze, then nodded. “Daoist Threelives is my master as well. When I was young, I was fortuitous enough to receive his legacy. From today forward…I shall also be considered a member of the Starseizing Manor. Redsnow and the rest of the seven are also Empyrean Gods of the Starseizing Manor.”

  Mount Innerheart was composed of members of many different organizations. For example, it included the Flower-Fruit Mountain lineage, one of the most powerful of Diremonster lineages. Ning had now become the commander of the Starseizing Manor lineage.

  “Then does that mean I’m also considered as belonging to the Starseizing Manor lineage?” Northson laughed.

  “I guess you could just barely qualify as a member,” Little Qing chortled. “I’m Master’s spirit-beast; I definitely qualify as a member.”

  “Junior apprentice-brother Ji Ning, you have suddenly risen to the exalted rank of Manorlord of the Starseizing Manor. In the future, I imagine that there will be many favors I will need to ask of you,” Silvermoon said with a laugh.

  “Right now, my Starseizing Manor is still a bit weak. Senior apprentice-brother, why don’t you join our lineage?” Ning said with a laugh.

  Subhuti had a total of twenty personal disciples.