Desolate Era

by RWX

  It must be understood that World Gods all completely surpassed the limitations of the Heavenly Daos in every way, be it speed or power or other areas. But Nuwa had still been unable to catch up to the Lord of All Fiends! Most likely, the experts of the Three Realms didn’t truly understand what a terrifying accomplishment this was. Mighty Godfiend Witherspike, however, had wandered the endless primordial chaos for many years. He understood quite well.

  Advancing to become a World God represented a fundamental change in every single aspect. The difference between an Elder God and a World God was simply unfathomably vast. To make it so that even a World God couldn’t catch up…it meant that the Lord of All Fiend’s insights into the Dao must have reached an even more unfathomable level.

  The Three Realms was now divided up into two major alliances.

  The Nuwa Alliance…when Mother Nuwa left, she must have left some treasures and techniques behind for them. These things made this alien Outsider quite nervous.

  The Seamless Gate…the person who worried him the most was the Lord of All Fiends.

  He was wary of both sides, which was why he had never tried to attack the Three Realms. In fact, he had chosen to ally with the Seamless Gate instead.

  “Well, enough of that.” The alien Outsider pointed towards the constantly looping images in midair. “See for yourself.”

  Only now did Blackheaven turn his head to take a look, and when he did his face completely changed. That flashing black serpent of lightning, that white-robed youth who attempted to perform a soulscour…wasn’t that Ji Ning?

  “Ji Ning.” Blackheaven no longer had any trace of a smile on his face. Instead, it was ashen. “The [Ninehorn Lightning Serpent]? His true body isn’t dead?”

  “Oh, you noticed?” The alien Outsider chuckled. “Didn’t the Seamless Gate claim that Ji Ning’s true body was destroyed? And if I recall correctly, I think the Lord of All Fiends, Daomother Devilhand, and quite a few others joined forces to ensure it…but now, he’s reappeared in the Darkstill world, seemingly with his true body.”

  Celestial Immortal Blackheaven stared at the continuously looping images in the air. He forced down the rage and hatred he felt, then growled out, “Great Godfiend Witherspike, this was indeed our Seamless Gate’s mistake. I’ve already reported this to my superiors…and I trust that Master will soon deliver an order to me.”

  * * *

  Book 22, Chapter 9 - All Slain in Battle

  Celestial Blackheaven had many golem bodies that he could use. He was able to immediately send a message to the Lord of All Fiends, and the news was then quickly spread to Daomother Devilhand, the Godking, and the other high-level members of the Seamless Gate.

  “What? He’s not dead?” The black-robed Godking was the most stunned of them all. He simply couldn’t accept this.

  “Some sort of clone technique?” Keeper Everwood had been using a knife to whittle away at a piece of wood. When he heard the news, he frowned and began to mumble to himself.

  ……

  Deep within the Primordial Ruinworld, inside that vast castle.

  Celestial Immortal Blackheaven said respectfully, “My Master said that this Ji Ning is a scourge. He hopes that when you deal with Tathagata and Fuxi, great Godfiend Witherspike, you will also deal with this Ji Ning as well.

  “Oh?” The alien Outsider chuckled. “But now, it seems, this Ji Ning has a special cloning technique.”

  Blackheaven said hurriedly, “Even if he does, each time he restores his body he most assuredly has to pay an enormous price. Last time, when we destroyed his true body, Houyi ended up taking away his black lightning serpent as well as his other treasures. This time, if you can kill him, he’ll lose all of those things. Without them, he will be dramatically weakened even if he does manage to rebuild his body once more.”

  “Why is it that I have the feeling that you particularly want Ji Ning to be killed?” The alien Outsider looked at Blackheaven, then let out a merry chuckle. “Blackheaven, how about this? If I kill him for you, why don’t you teach me the technique for creating Envoys?”

  “My old master made me swear a lifeblood oath long ago to teach it to no others,” Blackheaven said.

  He was a treasure-spirit, much like the giant yellow bear of the Starseizing Manor. He had long ago trained to the level of being able to live independently from the treasure which had housed him, and could be considered a true living creature now. Strictly speaking, he had actually learned the art of golems before the Lord of All Things did. The Lord of All Things had been lucky enough to acquire the Blackheaven Cauldron, which was why he also gained access to the ancient golem crafting arts contained within it. This caused his power to instantly skyrocket, resulting in him being an extremely famous figure even amongst Elder Gods. But alas, he had fallen during his campaign against the Pangu Chaosworld and the Seamless Chaosworld.

  “Damn that man.” The alien Outsider said coldly, “Tell your current master that Ji Ning has quite possibly reached the fifth stage of swordforce.”

  “The fifth stage of swordforce? How is that even possible? He’s only trained for a few centuries!” Blackheaven was visibly shocked.

  Ning’s mastery of the [Five Treasures] could be ascribed to his peerless talent, but to reach the fifth stage of swordforce one had to have significant insights into the essence of the sword itself. This was something that required time, as well as many life-and-death battles against powerful experts. Only after seeing enough sword-arts and gaining enough experience would one even have a chance of reaching the fifth stage of swordforce.

  “He’s attacked my Primordial Ruinworld, so I really should kill him. However, I’m also doing the Seamless Gate’s dirty work for them. We have borne all the casualties in the battles to date. We agreed on a price for me to deal with Tathagata and Fuxi, but if you want me to deal with Ji Ning…I’ll need twelve chaos jewels.”

  “Twelve?” Celestial Immortal Blackheaven hesitated momentarily. The energy source for each Envoy consisted of five chaos jewels, which allowed them to be able to fight for a very long period of time. The other nine Envoys probably would consume less than a hundred chaos jewels during the entire Endwar.

  “Master has responded. If Ji Ning truly has reached the fifth stage of swordforce, he will deliver twelve chaos jewels after you slay his true body,” Blackheaven said.

  “Good. It’s always a pleasure doing business with Allfiend.”

  The alien Outisder looked downwards at Thearch Darkstill. “Darkstill, send your surbordinates to try and kill Ji Ning. If they cannot, make sure they at least verify whether or not he has reached the fifth stage of swordforce. Then move to guide him into a danger zone.”

  “Yes, almighty Master,” Thearch Darkstill said respectfully, then departed.

  “Damn.” In private, Thearch Darkstill now had an ugly look on his face. He had once been an important general of the Lord of All Things. Later, he had become one of the four mighty Thearchs that dominated the Primordial Ruinworld. He had the power of an elite Daofather! He wasn’t one whit weaker than those six retainers of Godfiend Witherspike. The only one he felt respect and admiration for was the one-armed man. As for the other five? Thearch Darkstill didn’t fear them in the slightest.

  But…

  Those retainers had followed Godfiend Witherspike for a very long period of time, and he held more faith in them. He was much more ruthless and brutal in the way he treated the four Thearchs, who had only submitted to him relatively recently.

  “Sword Immortal Darknorth. Ji Ning. He clearly has the power of a True God and Daofather, but I’m still supposed to go ‘verify’ if he has reached the fifth stage of swordforce or not.” Thearch Darkstill frowned. “If I want to force Ji Ning to reveal his swordforce, I’ll need to send some of my more powerful subordinates. Ugh. Whenever there is a dangerous mission, he always has the four of us send our subordinates.”

  Still, Thearch Darkstill understood the reason why. When mighty Godfiend Witherspike had
fled to this place, he had only arrived with those six retainers in tow. He had no other subordinates at all, and so whenever there was a need for cannon fodder to be sent out he would naturally choose to send out the original inhabitants of the Primordial Ruinworld.

  ……

  The Darkstill world.

  A large force of alien experts were flying through the air, each of whom had the power of an Empyrean God. There had to be nearly three hundred of the creatures flying forward.

  “Elder brother, when your group goes to fight against Sword Immortal Darknorth, you have to be careful. The Thearch said that Ji Ning may very well have reached the fifth stage of swordforce.” The two leaders of this force looked fairly similar. Both were dressed in silver robes, and they were mentally chatting to each other.

  “Although my team has been assigned to kill Ji Ning, if he really has reached the fifth stage of swordforce all we have to do is flee. We don’t have to force a fight against him. If he really has reached that stage of power…it’ll be up to your team to guide him into the Forest of Dreams,” the taller silver-robed man sent back.

  The Forest of Dreams was an extremely bizarre part of the Darkstill world.

  Once you entered it, you would be trapped in multiple layers of illusions. You would feel as though you were dreaming! The illusions would come endlessly, and even True Gods or Daofathers would find it hard to extricate themselves. They would often be eternally trapped within the Forest of Dreams until finally the illusions killed them.

  The most terrifying thing was…not even the denizens of the Darkstill world could be certain as to exactly where the Forest of Dreams was located. This was because the Forest’s location was constantly changing. It was entirely possible that the seemingly ordinary-looking forest in front of you was actually the terrifying Forest of Dreams. However, since Thearch Darkstill was in command of this entire terrifying world, he naturally had his own ways of determining the exact location of the Forest.

  ……

  “Fuxi. Tathagata. Where are they?”

  Ning stood there in midair. Spacetime was so chaotic that even his sense of directions had become scrambled.

  He could no longer find any traces of Tathagata’s passing, and in a place of such chaotic spacetime there was no way he could even use a temporal inversion spell.

  “Master is telling me that Lord Buddha and the others should still be in the region of the Darkstill world. Screw it. I’ll just choose a random direction and just keep flying forward.” Ning immediately began to fly forwards, although he didn’t dare fly too fast for fear of running into an enemy trap.

  Shortly after he had entered the Primordial Ruinworld, Ning came to understand that the hardest part of conquering this region wasn’t defeating the alien Outsiders here; rather, it lay in dealing with the terribly environment! No wonder all the aliens who lived here desired to invade the Three Realms. None of the aliens wanted to live in such terrifying, inhospitable environments.

  “Eh?” Ning’s pulse picked up slightly. He could sense an aura approaching.

  After becoming a half-step Elder God, his soul had become far more powerful! His soul heartforce technique had only made his senses even more acute. Even when Daofathers moved towards Ning he would be able to sense their approach, much less the approach of Empyrean Gods and True Immortals.

  ……

  “Sword Immortal Darknorth should be somewhere in that region up ahead.” A towering, eight-armed Fiendgod was carefully flying forwards. This eight-armed Fiendgod was the culmination of 199 alien Empyrean Gods joining together in the ‘Eight-Armed Warfiend Formation’. It was one of the formations that had been left behind by the Lord of All Fiends. Truth be told, when Thearch Darkstill was forced to send out this many Empyrean God subordinates, he felt quite distressed.

  This sort of formation was quite similar in nature to the Seven Planets God. However, the Seven Planets God only needed seven Empyrean Gods to execute, while this one was used by a total of 199 Empyrean Gods. It could unleash a degree of power close to that of an elite True God’s. This could be considered a ‘secret technique’, and the wielders who learned the core parts of the formation were all forced to swear lifeblood oaths not to teach it to any others. The person who was currently the ‘core’ of this particular formation was one of the warriors who had followed the Lord of All Things.

  “I see him.” The eight-armed Fiendgod had been searching for Ning. Suddenly, he saw in the distance a white-robed youth who was calmly standing in the air.

  “You’ve arrived.” The white-robed youth produced a sword in his hand. “Since you’ve come, there’s no need for you to leave.”

  “Attack!” The eight-armed Fiendgod’s aura surged explosively.

  Ning, however, just sauntered forward lazily as though he was taking a stroll through a courtyard.

  ……

  “Thearch, all 199 of our warriors have died in battle.” A look of grief was on the face of a golden-robed elder.

  “None of them escaped?” Thearch Darkstill was incredulous. He barked out, “Show me the scenes of the battle!”

  “They weren’t able to send back any scenes in time,” the golden-robed elder said.

  “What?!” The Thearch was truly stunned now. How fast had Ji Ning killed them all, for not a single one of them to be able to send back a scene of their death?

  “However, one of them trained in a special clone technique. His other clone is currently on assignment in a different region. I suggest ordering him to return immediately so that he can tell us what happened when they fought against Ji Ning,” the yellow-robed elder said hurriedly. “We have to move quickly. If he somehow loses his clone as well, then we’ll have no way of finding any information about that battle.”

  * * *

  Book 22, Chapter 10 - Bugbeasts

  Thearch Darkstill immediately gave the order for that soldier’s clone to return.

  A short while later.

  “Thearch, Fuyou was stomped to death by Kuafu as he was trying to lure Kuafu away.” A report quickly came from his subordinates.

  “What?” Thearch Darkstill’s face turned ugly.

  For a number of Empyrean Gods to die during a time of war was nothing, but this particularly one was the only one who knew what had happened during the fight against Ji Ning. And now…he was dead. This meant that the 199 Empyrean Gods who had died in the battle against Ji Ning had died for nothing at all. No intelligence had been gained whatsoever.

  “Kuafu!” Thearch Darkstill’s face was black with rage.

  “Where are those four squads currently located?” Thearch Darkstill asked.

  The nearby golden-robed elder immediately waved his hand, causing an image to appear in midair. This was an enormous map of the Darkstill world. There were four specks of light on the map, and the golden-robed elder pointed towards one of the specks of light that was close to the edge. “This is the squad which Kuafu is leading. Kuafu, an ancient divinity of the Three Realms, possesses truly enormous power. I heard that when those ten Golden Crows wreaked havoc upon the ancient Pangu Chaosworld, Kuafu chased after them so furiously that all ten of them were terrified by him. None of them dared to turn back and fight against him. From our fights against Kuafu’s squad, I can say for certain that Kuafu is indeed astonishingly powerful and is quite close to an Elder God in strength.” [1. Kuafu was mentioned long ago in the story via the mention of the divine ability, ‘Kuafu Sunchaser’.]

  “Agreed.” Thearch Darkstill nodded.

  Houyi and Kuafu were once equally famous during the Primordial Era. By now, Houyi was publicly acknowledged to be unfathomably strong and being at least at the overlord level of power. As for Kuafu, he was a bit weaker but was still quite close to the overlord level of power as well, and he was an extremely valiant warrior who was extremely skilled in combat.

  “This squad here is the squad led by Human Sovereign Fuxi. This is the toughest squad to deal with. Fuxi has been able to easily see through our
traps and formations, and even when he enters them he can easily break them apart from within.” The golden-robed elder continued, “That’s why we are temporarily focusing on the other three squads right now.”

  “Here.” The golden-robed elder pointed at yet another speck of light. “This is the squad led by the leader of the Buddhist Sangha, Tathagata. It is just as dangerous as Fuxi’s squad is.”

  “And here. This final squad is led by Daoist Jade Cauldron of the Daoist Path. Daoist Jade Cauldron possessed formidable divine abilities and has reached the fifth stage of swordforce. He definitely isn’t an easy person to deal with either.” The golden-robed figure pointed at the final speck of light as he spoke.

  Thearch Darkstill frowned as he heard this. Two of the squads sent out by the Three Realms were led by overlords Tathagata and Fuxi. The other two were led by Kuafu and Daoist Jade Cauldron, who were close to the overlord level of power as well. There were multiple elite Daofathers in their teams, as well as a few ordinary Daofathers who knew certain special techniques.

  Daoist Jade Cauldron was a fairly low-key figure, but he was still viewed as one of the top two figures under the command of Daoist Three Purities. He also had an extremely famous disciple of his own, the number one general of the Celestial Court during the Primordial Era…Erlang Shen, also known as Yang Jian. [2. As mentioned before, this is a famous figure from Journey to the West, someone who fought Sun Wukong to a standstill when he assaulted the Celestial Court.]

  “And where is Ji Ning?” Thearch Darkstill asked.

  “Sword Immortal Darknorth is here.” The golden-robed elder pointed to a corner of the map where another speck of light had appeared. “He is closest to Kuafu’s squad.”

  “Oh?” Thearch Darkstill nodded.

  “Thearch!” A gray-robed subordinate charged into the room, then said frantically, “Our clansman Floatstone’s squad attempted to lure Ji Ning into the Forest of Dreams, but his senses were simply too keen. As soon as the squad drew close to him, he immediately discovered them and then killed them. There’s no way to lure him away from far away, but whenever our people get close he kills them!”