Desolate Era

by RWX

  The eldest was the woodcutter, while the second was Crazy Ji. Both of them were Daofathers.

  The third disciple, Zen-Master Goldlight, had been a Golden Crow that was born from within the Solar Star. He had incredible talent and shocking levels of power, but he roamed the Three Realms and was difficult to locate.

  The fourth disciple was Lord Northriver. He had originally belonged to the primordial human clan, but he was now the hegemon of a celestial river located within the Celestial Realm, the ‘Northriver’. He had established the Northriver clan there, and had more than ten Empyrean Gods and True Immortals under his command.

  The fifth disciple was Silvermoon. Silvermoon had been born a Terrorbeast, and truly was a demonic figure. He had unleashed a storm of blood and murder during the Primordial Era, but then had calmed down. He had stayed in seclusion in Mount Innerheart ever since, willing to be the guardian of Mount Innerheart’s ‘Divinities Palace’.

  The sixth disciple was the leader of the Diremonsters of Flower-Fruit Mountain, Sun Wukong. Long ago, when Mother Nuwa had repaired the damage to the Heavens, she had used five-colored rainbow stones that were created through distilling the essence of the Five Elements. One of the leftover pieces, after having absorbed spiritual energy from Heaven and Earth over the course of countless years, had then given birth to Sun Wukong. Sun Wukong was truly a born genius who had trained even more quickly than Ji Ning himself, almost instantly becoming an Empyrean God! By now, he had even broken through to become a True God, and was an extremely famous figure amongst the Diremonsters.

  The first six disciples of Subhuti were all extraordinary, to say nothing of the fact that he had fourteen more!

  “Join your Starseizing Manor?” Silvermoon twirled his fan, a hint of indecision on his face. “Y’know, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea.”

  “Senior apprentice-brother Silvermoon, if you were to join us, then the two of us would each become the commander of a Three-Eyed God,” Redsnow said with a laugh.

  Although Redsnow was very confident in his power, he didn’t dare claim that he was necessarily more powerful than Silvermoon.

  “My two junior apprentice-brothers…” After pausing for a moment, Silvermoon smiled as he looked at Ning. “I wasn’t joking just now. The storm has arrived, and my peaceful days are about to come to an end. I’m in no rush right now, but once I decide to rejoin the rest of the world…then I shall do so as a member of your Starseizing Manor.”

  Ning and Redsnow were overjoyed! Both of them had just made casual invitations, but they hadn’t actually expected Silvermoon to accept.

  ……

  The space around Ji Ning and the seven Empyrean Gods turned blurry.

  “We’ve already entered the Starseizer world.” Redsnow pointed downwards, the eight of them standing in midair. “The vast world beneath is us the Starseizer world, the foundation of our Starseizing Manor.”

  “Right.” Ning willed it his coresense to spread out, and it rapidly expanded to cover the entire Starseizer world.

  “Our Manorlord has incredibly powerful coresense; he’s actually able to encompass the entire Starseizer world with it.” The beautiful Snow Scorpion gasped in astonishment.

  “Completely cover it?” Ninefangs was absolutely shocked as well. “The Manorlord has only trained for a century, but his coresense has actually reached a level like this?”

  Coresense’s power came from the soul!

  The more powerful one was, the more rapidly one’s soul would gain in power. For example, the Primal level was beneficial to the soul, but the Void level was even more beneficial. Upon becoming a Celestial Immortal, the Jindan would be formed and the soul would be completely merged into it, allowing it to improve at an even more shockingly fast pace. As for the Pure Yang Jindan of a Pure Yang True Immortal, its effects on the soul were even more astonishing.

  No matter what though, nurturing the soul was something that required time. Ning’s true body had just become a Pure Yang True Immortal moments ago, after all! If he had been given a thousand years, his soul would naturally be nourished by his Pure Yang Jindan to an extremely powerful level. In that situation, none of them would be shocked by the power of his coresense.

  But Ning had literally just overcome his tribulation, and he had trained for merely a century or so!

  “Don’t forget that Manorlord’s heartforce has reached the fourth stage,” Redsnow reminded.

  Ning didn’t say anything to them. In truth, he was capable of encompassing the entire world with his heartforce alone. If he was to use his coresense through his heartforce, he would be able to encompass a much, much greater area. However, that wasn’t particularly impressive; it must be understood that the maximum coresense of a Daofather was capable of encompassing the entire Three Realms. But of course, that would only be possible for a short period of time, as it was incredibly taxing to the soul.

  “Eh?” Ning nodded slightly. “The Starseizer world has a total of roughly 16,000 Celestial Immortals, 1,500,000 Loose Immortals, and more than 100,000 Void-level Fiendgods…it really is comparable to the Grand Xia.”

  “Those Void-level Fiendgods have all existed since the Primordial Era.” Redsnow shook his head. “In the countless years which have passed since then, the only one who managed to break through was Ninefangs. None of the others have made any breakthroughs. As for the sixteen thousand Celestial Immortals…not a single Pure Yang True Immortal has appeared amongst their ranks.”

  Ning said in surprise, “Why is that?”

  “Because the world was severed from the rest of the Three Realms,” Primelight said solemnly. “There’s no way for them to undergo any true tempering and testing. Without enough pressure, without enough experience…it is incredibly difficult for any of them to make any breakthroughs. The Celestial Immortals of the Grand Xia are able to roam the entire Three Realms and fight against some of the experts of the three thousand major worlds and the Celestial Realm; naturally, a few will make breakthroughs every so often.”

  “The Starseizer world, however, has always remained completely sealed off.” Primelight shook his head.

  “We’ve been waiting this entire time for our new Manorlord to be born. If no Manorlord arises, then our Starseizer world would never reappear,” Redsnow agreed.

  Ning felt tremendous admiration for Redsnow and the rest of the seven.

  Back then, nobody had known if Daoist Threelives was still alive or not, and Threelives hadn’t forced them or required them to remain loyal to him. Many of his subordinates had left, but the seven of them had resolutely clung to their duty to stand guard here.

  “Although our Starseizer world doesn’t have that many Celestial Immortals or Loose Immortals, we have more than enough to form a perfect Heaven Punisher Formation.” Redsnow suddenly glanced sideways towards the empty space next to him. The giant yellow bear suddenly appeared, who stared in a pitiable manner towards Ning.

  “Big bear.” Ning was stunned.

  A look of expectation could be seen in the giant yellow bear’s eyes. “The treasures which Master stored within the Treasure Hall were meant for his various successors to use. Master didn’t know how many successors there would be before an Empyrean God would emerge amongst them and become the new Manorlord of the Starseizing Manor. Ji Ning…now that you have become the Manorlord, you can go collect the three items which Master left behind for you. There is a space which only the new Manorlord can enter; not even I can enter it. For countless eons, I’ve been wondering what the three treasures which Master left behind are. I’ve been absolutely itching to find out! Hurry up and go collect them and let me take a look at them. I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

  The giant yellow bear looked eagerly towards Ning.

  “Three treasures?” Ning said in surprise, “Didn’t my master, Daoist Threelives, simply leave behind a few Pure Yang treasures for me?”

  “Those were all for the various successors, not the new Manorlord. Now that you have become the Ma
norlord, all the treasures of the manor are yours, along with the most important treasures; those three,” the giant yellow bear hurriedly explained.

  “I’ve heard of this. The Godking once spoke to me about this as well.” Redsnow looked towards Ning. “The Godking had already reached the Sixth Cycle of his [Starseizing Hand]; his hand was far more powerful than any Protocosmic spirit-treasures. They had already reached the legendary Chaos treasure level! Thus, the Godking traded away the most precious treasures he had to the other True Gods and Daofathers in order to prepare these three treasures for you. You can say that he did this to help our Starseizing Manor prepare to once more rise to prominence…”

  “Manorlord, hurry up and go collect them. My foster father didn’t tell us what the treasures were either. All of us are also quite curious,” Primelight said hurriedly.

  “Alright.”

  Ning was also quite curious about what Daoist Threelives had left behind. He immediately looked towards the giant yellow bear. “Big bear, lead the way.”

  * * *

  Book 19, Chapter 7 - Please Help Me, Master

  “Right on!” The giant yellow bear excitedly spun around, instantly causing them to teleport elsewhere in the estate.

  Within the Starseizing Manor.

  Ji Ning, the giant yellow bear, Redsnow, Primelight, Snow Scorpion, and the others all appeared within the main hall.

  “The rest of you can wait here.” The giant yellow bear turned to look towards Redsnow and the others. “The secret treasure vault is only accessible to the new Manorlord.”

  “Alright.” Redsnow nodded.

  “Unlike you, you big bear, the rest of us are quite patient. Look at how eager you are!” Primelight shook his head and snickered.

  The giant bear stared at him. “Are things the same for you and me? I’ve been guarding this place for countless eons now. It wasn’t so bad before, but now that I know that Ji Ning has made his breakthrough and become the new Manorlord, of course I’m going to be unable to control my curiosity. I’m not to blame.”

  “Enough, big bear. Lead the way,” Ning said.

  “Come with me.” The giant yellow bear led the way, and Ning followed him.

  The bear and the man walked through the hallways of the underwater estate. In truth, the estate was quite vast; this was the place where Daoist Threelives and his countless Fiendgod minions had lived, after all.

  “Ji Ning, you have now become an Empyrean God and a True Immortal, you can completely bind the Starseizing Manor,” the giant bear said.

  “Right. Later, I’ll bind it completely.” Ning nodded. He was in no rush. The Starseizing Manor was an estate-type treasure which held the Starseizer world within it. Now that he had become an Empyrean God, all he had to do was wait for Daofather Crimsonbright to send the necessary Immortal pills to him. He would soon be able to reach the Ninth Cycle of the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art], at which point in time his body would be comparable to a top-grade Pure Yang treasure. Even if he encountered any danger, there would be no need for him to hide within the estate.

  Even if he did need to hide…Ning had collected Protocosmic spirit-treasures during the Realmwar. The underwater estate was now much less important to him than it had been in the past. However, it still held unique importance for him; when he had been very young, it had been extremely helpful to him in his growth.

  Whooosh.

  They flew past a curtain of water and arrived at a blurry spatial corridor. Ning and the giant bear walked through the corridor, moving towards a place which Ning had never been before.

  “Eh?” Ning saw that at the end of this spatial corridor, there was a blurry barrier of flowing light.

  “This is the protective formation which Master left behind,” the giant yellow bear said, pointing at the barrier. “Long ago, Master said that only the new Manorlord would be able to open it.”

  “Oh?” As Ning walked forward, he sent his coresense forward to investigate it. Although he wasn’t exactly an elite formations expert, he still knew a good amount regarding the art of formations.

  “Open up.” After analyzing it for a moment, Ning suddenly reached out with his palm. The divine Starseizing Tattoo appeared within it, and he slapped his palm down against the barrier. Light flowed atop the barrier as a rune that was extremely similar to the Starseizing Tattoo appeared atop it.

  Ning’s palm transformed to become three hundred meters in size as he slammed it down upon the barrier…but the only result was that the shockwave forced him back three steps.

  “It didn’t open?” The giant yellow bear was puzzled.

  “Not right now.” Ning stared at the light barrier, then shook his head. “Let’s go back for now.”

  “Why can’t you open it? Master said that the new Manorlord would be able to open it,” the giant yellow bear said frantically.

  Ning laughed. “I discovered just now that this barrier comes from the exact type of energy as the Starseizing Tattoo. The only thing that can open it is the Starseizing Tattoo, but when I tried just now, I discovered that because my own tattoo isn’t complete enough or strong enough. I imagine that only after reaching the Fifth Cycle can one open this barrier. But of course, there’s another method; to rely on overwhelming power to force it open! Although my master Daoist Threelives was quite formidable, countless eons have passed since he set up the formation. If I rammed against the formation he left behind ten or so times, I’d probably be able to break through it, but if I did that…the treasures which Master left behind might be teleported away through some other mechanism.”

  “Right. You can’t brute force it.” The giant yellow bar nodded hurriedly.

  This was no joke. It was entirely possible that there was a secondary mechanism within that would teleport the treasures away into the Void of space or into some extremely dangerous regions once the formation was broken through by brute force. How hard would it be to locate the treasures once they were lost?

  In fact, counter-attack formations might appear as well.

  “Let’s go.” Ning turned and left. “I need to first train my [Starseizing Hand] to the Fifth Cycle.”

  Ning first went to the main hall of the Starseizing Manor to meet with Redsnow, Primelight, and the rest. They were all eager to find out what relics Daoist Threelives had left behind…but alas, Ning had been unable to actually break through the formation for now. The seven of them had no choice but to return to the Starseizer world for now.

  Within the Treasures Hall.

  “All of the treasures of the Treasures Hall are here.” The giant yellow bear pointed towards the ceiling as he handed Ning a book. “This book has a record of all the Immortal-ranked and Pure Yang treasures.”

  Ning nodded and accepted the book.

  “There’s actually a total of twenty-eight Pure Yang treasures.” Ning couldn’t help but sigh in amazement. “And that’s in addition to the Sole-Ki Nine Elements Pearls and the Ananda World-Swords. All of the Pure Yang treasures that Master left behind are fine specimens.”

  Amongst the best Pure Yang treasures, there were a few that were especially powerful. All of them were set treasures, and the very best ones had their own specialties; it was hard to say which was the definitive best.

  The ‘Eight Fires Qiankun World’, for example, had been forged by Elder God Zhurong, who had already fallen during the war that ended the Primordial Era. It had been forged with incomparably precious treasures into the form of eight lotus petals. When the eight lotus petals completely bloomed, they could unleash eight powerful streaks of truefire! It must be understood that the entire Three Realms only contained nine types of truefire, but this Eight Fires Qiankun World included eight of them!

  In addition, Elder God Zhurong had fused some marvelous formations into this treasure of his. Once all eight types of truefire were merged together into one, they would possess utterly earth-shattering destructive power.

  Pure Yang True Immortals would most likely only be able to flee in the face
of this power. Only Empyrean Gods with powerful divine bodies would dare to fight it head-on. Most importantly of all…this was an large-scale area attack that was the size of a world. It could absolutely destroy everything within its range! Thus, the Eight Fires Qiankun World, despite ‘merely’ being a single top-grade Pure Yang treasure, was worth more than a hundred ‘ordinary’ top-grade Pure Yang treasures!

  There was also the ‘Grand Bloodshadow Formation of the Heavens’. It was composed of a total of ninety-nine top-grade Pure Yang treasures, and once they joined together to form ninety-nine bloodshadow clones, they would have similarly astonishingly might.

  “Alas, there are no sword-formations, which is what I need.” Ning shook his head. Although there were flying swords amongst the treasures, Ning need a total of more than seven hundred Pure Yang flying swords. The vault which Daoist Threelives had left behind simply didn’t include that many items.

  The finest sets of top-grade Pure Yang treasures which Daoist Threelives had stored in his vault were some of the finest treasures of the Three Realms, capable of allowing any Empyrean God or True Immortal to instantly become far more powerful. Unfortunately…Ji Ning was no ordinary Empyrean God or True Immortal. He had reached the fourth stage of heartforce already. Once he mastered the Fifth Cycle of the [Starseizing Hand] and the Ninth Cycle of the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art], he was already a supreme figure amongst his peers. The amount of benefit these treasures would bring him was very limited.

  He was simply too powerful already. He didn’t need too much outside support.

  Or, to put it a different way…

  The outside support he needed had to be of a tremendously powerful level.

  Ning would naturally be willing to risk his very life to acquire a Chaos treasure, but those were far too precious and rare. Not even most Daofathers or True Gods were in possession of one! One of the reasons why Daoist Threelives had been so powerful was precisely because once his [Starseizing Hand] reached the Sixth Cycle, his hands had become as powerful as Chaos treasures!