Desolate Era

by RWX

After acquiring this divine ability, World God Northrest hadn’t hesitated at all; he had immediately given up his previous protective divine ability to completely focus on this one.

  The [Golden Statue] divine ability had an extraordinary history to it.

  In the endless primordial chaos there was an extremely large world, a world far vaster than the entire Three Realms. It was a world that could last forever, unlike the ephemeral chaosworlds. Ten, a hundred, a thousand chaos cycles could go past, but this world would continue to remain. At the center of this vast world there was an enormous levitating island, and hovering directly above the island was a towering golden statue.

  The golden statue was 54,000 meters tall, and it emanated an aura of boundless might and majesty. This aura made it so that not even World Gods would be able to step foot onto that levitating island.

  Then one day, an absolute genius who had viewed the golden statue for countless years finally managed to gain insight into it and devised the [Golden Statue] divine ability. This instantly became one of the most top-notch divine abilities in existence! It was divided into three sections; the upper section, the middle section, and the lower section.

  The upper section of the [Golden Statue] was the introductory section. When one mastered it, one’s body would become comparable to a top-grade Protocosmic treasure. True Gods could train in this section.

  The middle section of the [Golden Statue] could be used to train one’s body to become comparable to a top-grade Chaos treasure. Elder Gods could train in it.

  World God Northrest had only acquired the upper section and middle section to this divine ability, but it was so profound and high-class that he had still chosen to use it. It was also comparatively easy to train in and so he quickly mastered these two sections, upgrading his body to become comparable to a top-grade Chaos treasure.

  Although he wasn’t able to acquire the lower section, it didn’t make much of a difference; even if he did acquire it, actually mastering it would be incredibly difficult.

  “Fortunately, I had a foundation via the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art].” When Ning had begun to train in this divine ability, he couldn’t help but sigh.

  The [Golden Statue] divine ability didn’t require any special items; it only required energy.

  Divine power, Immortal energy, chaos energy, spirit-pills…all sorts of energy could be converted and absorbed! This was what made this such a formidable, high-class technique. Because Ning himself had already reached the Ninth Cycle of the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art], when he trained in the [Golden Statue] he was able to start by using up the pre-existing energy in his body. Thus, it only took him twelve years before his body became equivalent to a top-grade Protocosmic treasure.

  The [Golden Statue] was a divine ability that had to be slowly cultivated.

  The cycles of the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] could be mastered right away, but this came at the cost of enormous energy requirements as well as a heavy burden being placed on the body. This was why it was completely impossible to continue to devise a way to make the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] usable for True Gods. To upgrade the body of a True God in such a way would result in such tremendous stress being placed on the body that there was simply no way it could endure it. The only option was to slowly work on the body, and that was exactly what the [Golden Statue] did. Since Ning had a solid foundation thanks to the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art], he only needed roughly ten or so years to master the [Golden Statue], and it hadn’t even been necessary for him to use any Great Firmament pills.

  If he had, he probably would’ve been able to complete the process in three years. However, his Primaltwin was already using up an enormous amount of Great Firmament pills due to training in the Heavengazer Tower. Ten years wasn’t that long, and so Ning had been willing to take it slow.

  “I didn’t expect that this war against the Primordial Ruinworld would end up forcing me to reveal my [Golden Statue] ability.” Ning couldn’t help but sigh to himself.

  Cultivation techniques, protective divine abilities, heartforce scanning techniques…these were all techniques Ning possessed which didn’t exist in the Three Realms.

  “Sword Immortal Darknorth. It seems everyone in the Three realms completely underestimated you.” The one-armed man said coldly, “You actually managed to train a protective divine ability to such an incredibly high level without anyone being the wiser.” He had no idea that this particular divine ability was something which even World Gods would go wild over. World God Northrest himself had trained in this divine ability!

  As his voice echoed in Ning’s ears, he waved his hand and sent a rope flying towards Ning.

  “Damn.” Ning frowned. Those with powerful bodies would mainly be worried about being bound or being contained inside an item! The one-armed man could launch as many saber-blows as he liked without it affecting Ning, and indeed it would even hasten the formation-tearing process. This rope, however, was another issue.

  Whoosh! Whoosh!

  Ning immediately released the rip with two of his hands. His other four hands continued to strive to widen the rip, but the two now-freed hands now gripped a pair of Darknorth swords.

  Sword-light flashed, spinning into black holes that drew the rope towards them.

  “Hmph.” The one-armed man charged forward, continuing to manipulate the rope while launching another blow with his saber.

  Ning completely focused on defense.

  The one-armed man actually had his own techniques that were similar to the [Three Heads, Six Arms] ability, but he chose to keep just one arm. His saber, however, truly was powerful! By comparison, even Ning’s swords were a level lower in raw power.

  Still, when Ning used two swords to defend at the same time, he was actually still able to defend against Saber’s rope and saber combination.

  “Darknorth, just hold on for a while longer. I’ve almost solved the formation,” Fuxi sent hurriedly towards Ning.

  “Right.” Ning’s titanic body continued to tear at the formation with four arms while defending himself with two.

  “Why is it that I feel like this Darknorth fellow is even tougher to deal with than Tathagata? He’s just a local bumpkin; he should at most be a True God.” After battling for a short period of time, Saber began to feel as though Ning was unreasonably tough. But of course, he had no idea that Ning was actually a half-step Elder God! Ning also had a sword-art that surpassed the heavenly Daos, and he had spent nearly two thousand years training within the Heavengazer Tower. This made it so that his sword-arts had become even more well-rounded than before.

  “Saber, why is the formation still breaking apart?” Godfiend Witherspike sent mentally.

  “Master, Darknorth has a formidable protective divine ability that is as good as Tathagata’s! His sword-arts are incredible as well. I can’t stop him!” Saber sent mentally.

  “Are you seeing things?!” Godfiend Witherspike grew frantic.

  “When I landed a saber-blow on him, I was only able to leave behind a white mark,” Saber replied.

  Godfiend Witherspike continued to launch a furious barrage of attacks against Tathagata, but he felt tremendous frustration in his heart.

  “What the hell is going on in the Three Realms? I, an exalted Elder God, had to work incredibly hard in order to toughen my body and make it equivalent to a top-grade Protocosmic spirit-treasure. But these natives…they clearly are mere True Gods. For Tathagata to be able to accomplish this is one thing, but Darknorth’s trained for less than a thousand years. How it is that his body is this powerful as well?!” Godfiend Witherspike felt incredibly unhappy right now.

  Protective divine abilities were extremely rare and difficult to train in. This was why World God Northrest had immediately discarded his previous technique and instead trained solely in the [Golden Statue] once he acquired it.

  “Those with protective divine abilities are always a pain to deal with. Bind him? Tathagata’s palm-arts are too powerful as well. There’s no way I’ll be able to succeed in d
oing so. My only option is to continue exhausting his store of divine power.” Godfiend Witherspike felt helpless.

  Only after exhausting Tathagata would he be able to capture him!

  * * *

  Book 22, Chapter 26 - Battling Godfiend Witherspike

  “Can this all be due to Nuwa? Are these techniques that she left behind?” Godfiend Witherspike muttered to himself, “This all came out of nowhere. Now that another troublesome individual like Darknorth has appeared…it seems that taking over the Three Realms and taking away its Worldheart will be even harder than I thought.”

  The thing which Godfiend Witherspike desired the most was the Worldheart.

  In fact, the Three Realms was formed from the collision of the Pangu Chaosworld and the Seamless Chaosworld. That meant that its Worldheart was most likely the combined Worldhearts of those two chaosworlds. If so, would be even more valuable!

  “Those who bar my path shall die.” A savage light flickered in Godfiend Witherspike’s eyes as he suppressed all extraneous thoughts.

  ……

  “Keep holding on for just a little while longer,” Fuxi sent hurriedly. “I’m about to break the formation apart!”

  “Alright.” The towering Ji Ning continued to tear at the formation with four arms while defending against Saber with his other two.

  “Hmph.” Saber frowned. Seeing that he couldn’t stop Ning, Saber suddenly turned and walked away, disappearing from Ning’s field of vision.

  “He actually retreated?” Ning couldn’t be bothered to over-analyze the matter. He immediately used all six of his hands to tear at the great formation.

  Rumble…

  Ji Ning suddenly sensed the strength of the formation begin to dramatically weaken, then vanish entirely. He had been pulling at the rip with all his power; now, all of a sudden, he ripped it completely apart by accident. BOOM! The surrounding area completely exploded, causing many spatial cracks and tears that quickly healed.

  “The formation has been breached!” Fuxi said hurriedly.

  “Quick, go save Lord Buddha,” Ning barked back. As the formation broke apart, the surrounding area returned to its normal appearance. Ning could now actually see the golden figure of Lord Buddha seated in the lotus position off in the distance. A Fiendgod with a long tail, loose hair, and an aura of incomparable savagery was furiously assaulting the seated figure, with many of the alien Outsiders of the Primordial Chaosworld helping him out.

  “Hurry.” Instantly, Fuxi, Kuafu, Daoist Jade Cauldron, and the others all transformed into streaks of light and flew forward.

  “So that’s the other Outsider overlord?” Ning immediately noticed the jade-tailed alien Outsider. The man was completely bald and looked rather handsome. He had completely suppressed Lord Buddha in power. In the face of his assaults, Lord Buddha was only able to completely focus on defense.

  “Outsiders!” Upon seeing his old friend in such dire straits, Fuxi immediately let out an angry roar. “Die!”

  BOOM!

  Instantly, the Waterflame Apocalypse Formation descended. The surrounding area for a million kilometers became filled with Arcane Moonwater and Eternal Kindlefire.

  There were dozens of major powers from the Primordial Ruinworld. For a situation like this, a large formation that could launch area attacks was the ideal tool.

  “Careful.” None of the alien True Gods or Daofathers dared to continue with their attacks against Tathagata. Instead, they focused completely on protecting themselves.

  “This elderfire…” The three Waterians frowned as well as they hid themselves within the formation.

  Once this formation appeared, the power of the Primordial Ruinworld arrayed against Lord Buddha instantly lessened.

  Swoosh!

  A black lightning serpent flashed through the skies, launching an initial strike against the alien Outsiders.

  Ning gripped a sword in each of his six arms. Five were Darknorth swords while the sixth was Violetjewel. Things were quite critical and Ning could tell that Lord Buddha wouldn’t be able to hold on for much longer; he could very well perish any moment now. At a time like this, he had to fight with full power.

  “Master, I’ll stop him.” The red-bearded elder let out a low growl, his red beard instantly expanding dramatically in size as it struck out towards Ning.

  Of the six retainers who followed Godfiend Witherspike, Saber was the most powerful. Next in power was the red-bearded elder! As for the three Waterians, they could just barely reach the Elder God level of power after joining together in a formation, but they were only really skilled in defense.

  “Hmph.” Ning struck out with his six swords.

  Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

  Six dazzling streaks of sword-light instantly sliced across the skies. The skies had been completely covered by the endless strands of red beard, but all the strands were instantly shattered apart. The red-bearded elder’s face turned paled with shock, and he hurriedly retereated to hide behind the formation that had been set up by those dozens of alien True Gods. He sent mentally in panic, “Master, Sword Immortal Darknorth is shockingly strong. I’m unable to stop him.”

  After shattering the old man’s red beard, Ning charged straight towards Lord Tathagata in an attempt to rescue him.

  “Saber, you go deal with Fuxi. Leave Ji Ning to me.” Godfiend Witherspike knew that, given how Saber and Ji Ning specialized in attacks and how tough Ji Ning’s body was, it was unlikely that Saber would be able to succeed in doing anything to Ji Ning. Fuxi wasn’t that offensively powerful; it would actually be a bit tougher for him to face Saber.”

  “Alright.” Saber nodded.

  Swoosh! Godfiend Witherspike flew towards Ji Ning.

  Rumble…

  A streak of light suddenly curved towards Ning without any warning at all. Ning was badly startled, but fortunately he had been using his heartforce to constantly scan the area.

  “Fast! So this Outsider overlord’s tail has actually surpassed the limits of the Heavenly Daos!” Ning was truly surprised.

  Godfiend Witherspike was able to attack with his tail at incredible speed. Ning immediately chopped out with his sword.

  Clang! Sparks appeared as the sword clashed with the tail. Godfiend Witherspike’s body was tremendously durable as well.

  “He actually managed to block with ease?” Godfiend Witherspike frowned as he manifested a total of six arms, continuing his attacks against Ning.

  The two instantly began to battle against each other in midair, six arms against six arms.

  As the battle began, Ning realized that although Godfiend Witherspike was very strong, only his tail had surpassed the limits of the Heavenly Daos; his arms had not!

  “Go!”

  Suddenly, Ning unleashed Violetjewel. Prior to this, he had been hiding Violetjewel’s full power, keeping it weak and in line with the other five Darknorth swords. Now, however, Ning suddenly slammed Violetjewel down as he used the ‘Heavenbreaker stance’ of th [Brightmoon] sword-art.

  BOOOM!

  Violetjewel crashed down like the thunder, slamming down against Godfiend Witherspike’s pale white arm. Godfiend Witherspike’s face instantly changed dramatically as he was knocked backwards.

  “What?!” All the major powers of the Primordial Ruinworld were shocked. It had seemed as though the Godfiend had held the upper hand in his fight against Sword Immortal Darknorth. How was it that he was suddenly sent flying backwards?

  “You were actually hiding your true power?” Godfiend Witherspike let out a bellow, then charged forward once more.

  “Even when I use Violetjewel, I don’t have much of an advantage over him.” Ning also frowned as he charged forward as well.

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  The two exchanged lightning-fast attacks as they battled furiously.

  Ning had the advantage of Violetjewel.

  Witherspike had the advantage of being a true Elder God.

  The two actually battled to a c
omplete standstill! This sight caused both the powers of the Nuwa Alliance and the powers of the Primordial Ruinworld to feel shocked.

  “The alien Outsider is actually this powerful?”

  “Sword Immortal Darknorth is actually this powerful?”

  Both sides were stunned.

  The Nuwa Alliance was stunned at Witherspike’s power. The Primordial Ruinworld was stunned at Ji Ning’s power! Even though Ji Ning was an overlord-class figure, they had thought that since Ji Ning had trained for less than a thousand years, he was still inexperienced. Moments ago, Ji Ning had revealed a truly shockingly powerful protective divine ability…and now, he had revealed that his attacks were every bit as powerful as those of this Outsider overlord!

  More than half a chaos cycle had gone past since the war that ended the Primordial Era. There were some major powers who were hiding their improvements; it was entirely possible, for example, that Daoist Three Purities’ ‘Immortal Slaying Formation’ was even more powerful than Ji Ning’s attacks.

  But…

  In terms of speed, Ji Ning had the [Ninehorn Lightning Serpent] technique.

  In terms of defense, he had the [Golden Statue] technique.

  In terms of attack, he stood at the very peak of the Three Realms.

  Ji Ning had no apparent weaknesses at all. This made him even more dangerous, as he could deal with all types of situations. Any major power, Godfiend Witherspike included, would feel a headache coming when they had to fight against Ji Ning.

  “Inexperienced? Inexperience my ass! Those Seamless Gate idiots! They kept on toying and toying and toying with him…and now, those imbeciles have ended up creating a freak of an enemy.” Godfiend Witherspike ground his teeth. “There’s no point to fighting against him like this. He’s too powerful; there’s no way I can kill him. I should focus on killing Tathagata instead.”

  “Hmph. Sword Immortal Darknorth…I paid quite the price to acquire this formation. I wouldn’t be willing to use it against just anybody,” Godfiend Witherspike mused to himself.

  Boom!

  In the same instant that the two exchanged blows yet again, Godfiend Witherspike suddenly waved his hand.