Desolate Era

by RWX

  “We can’t be over-confident,” Subhuti said. “When the Lord of All Fiends took the survivors of the Seamless Gate and fled with them into the endless primordial chaos, they journeyed through it for a considerable period of time. What happened during those years? What did the Lord of All Fiends experience? None of us knows the answer. In fact, not even Everwood knows the answer. Only the Lord of All Fiends himself knows the truth.”

  “In addition…the Seamless Gate flourished for many years in the Three Realms. On the surface though they still only have three overlord-class experts; the Lord of All Fiends, the Keeper of the Everwood, and Daomother Devilhand. I refuse to believe that they haven’t produced a single new overlord in all these years.” Subhuti shook his head. “Some of our major powers have been hiding their true might, but the same is true for the Seamless Gate.”

  “In the end…everything will only be made clear once the Endwar begins.”

  Ning nodded.

  “Before planning for victory, first plan for defeat,” Subhuti said. “As with before, I shall not take part in the Endwar. If our side sees no chance of victory, then I’ll lead our survivors in fleeing from the Three Realms.”

  “Fleeing?” Ning looked at Subhuti.

  “Yes. This was the arrangement which Mother Nuwa made all the way back during the Primordial Era,” Subhuti said. “This is why I’ve been focusing so much on my mastery of spacetime. I want to ensure that when I lead our survivors away, there will be no way anyone can follow us. Although the Lord of All Fiends is incredibly fast, his skill lies in the Dao of Space alone! He can’t match me in spacetime.”

  Subhuti held absolute confidence in his mastery of spacetime.

  As Ning, Subhuti, and Fuxi continued to chat inside the wooden cabin, footsteps suddenly rang out from outside.

  “Eh?” Ning turned his head to look, only to see an azure-robed middle-aged man walk in.

  “You…” Ning was shocked.

  “Ji Ning. Long time no see.” The azure-robed man smiled as he looked at Ning.

  “The Lord of Cui Palace.” Ning was filled with disbelief. “You live here? All these years…I’ve never been able to find you.”

  During the six hundred years his clones had been in Undermoon Lake, Ning had journeyed through the Three Realms but had been unable to find Lord Cui. It was as though the man had suddenly disappeared.

  “I’m the treasure-spirit of the Book of Life and Death. To tell the truth, Nuwa handed over the Nuwa Immortal Realm to me for managing. After the Netherworld Kingdom was destroyed, I naturally chose to come here,” Lord Cui said with a laugh.

  “Ji Ning.” Subhuti smiled as well. “The relationship between Lord Cui and Mother Nuwa is much like the relationship between your giant yellow bear Daoist Threelives. Understand?”

  Ning nodded.

  The Book of Life and Death…this was the most famous treasure which Mother Nuwa had ever created, and it contained inconceivable power over the workings of fate and destiny. Mother Nuwa must have poured all of her blood, sweat, and tears into the creation of this treasure, and she must have carried it by her side for a very long period of time as well. It was only natural for the treasure-spirit to become very close to Mother Nuwa. In truth, many major powers held more faith in their treasure-spirits than in any other beings.

  This was because there was no way a treasure-spirit would ever disobey his or her master. They were absolutely loyal and devoted servants.

  “Long ago, I managed to shed off the trappings of the Book of Life and Death and became an independent life form, capable of training on my own.” Lord Cui looked at Ning. “I ended up creating a clone and sent it into the path of reincarnation, and that clone ended up entering your own homeworld of ‘Earth’. That’s why I said that we came from the same hometown.”

  When Ning was weak, he had been quite puzzled by this; if Lord Cui had originally been a cultivator from the Tang Dynasty of Earth, then he should have only recently become the First Judge of the Dead. And yet, the records of the Three Realms indicated that Lord Cui’s great reputation had existed for countless years already.

  Only now did he realize that Lord Cui had long ago become the First Judge of the Dead, and that it was just one of his clones which he had sent to be reborn in Earth.

  “How truly marvelous.” Lord Cui smiled as he looked at Ning. “I still remember what a weak, gentle youth you were. Back on Earth, you were just a bedridden patient…but now, you stand at the very peak of the Three Realms.”

  “I have to thank you, Lord Cui, for bestowing the ‘Nuwa Painting’ visualization technique upon me,” Ning said. “Without it, I would never have been able to accomplish what I did.”

  The ‘Nuwa Painting’ visualization technique no longer meant anything to him, but it was the reason why he had been able to survive and acquire the legacy of the ‘underwater estate’. Only then did he become able to join the Black-White College, become the champion of the Conclave of Immortal Destiny, and become the disciple of Subhuti. Without the benefit of starting off with the Nuwa Painting…he might’ve still been successful, but it was unlikely that he would become as successful as he was now.

  “I actually bestowed the Nuwa Painting upon quite a few people, but none of them were as impressive as you.” Lord Cui laughed. “When I first saw you, I had the feeling that there was a certain toughness and resilience about you, that you would never collapse no matter what setbacks or pressures you faced. Earth is a place where there is no such thing as cultivation, but even there you were able to change your own destiny, living for two years longer than you had originally been scheduled to live for. I had the feeling that, given a bit of help, you would be able to make a miracle happen. That is why I bestowed the Nuwa Painting upon you.”

  “Lord Cui, you…” Ning was shocked.

  “Precisely. I already had the sense that the Seamless Gate was up to no good, which was why I began bestowing the Nuwa Painting upon certain promising prospects which I encountered! This would make it easier for them to cultivate…but of course, this was just one of many small plans I put in place. It’s quite unlikely for something as minor as the Nuwa Painting to result in the birth of a Daofather or True God; in fact, less than ten people I helped out were even able to become Celestial Immortals!” Lord Cui shook his head, laughing as he looked at Ning. “Thank goodness for you.”

  “Lord Cui, you really accomplished a great deed for us,” Subhuti laughed.

  “Ahaha…” Lord Cui laughed as well.

  “Lord Cui, I tried to search for my old home of ‘Earth’, but I’ve never been able to find it,” Ning immediately said.

  The Lord of Cui Palace shook his head. “Of course not. It’s much like how the Crescent world is located in an entirely different space-time continuum. Some of the trillions of minor worlds of the Three Realms are also hidden in their own pocket space-time continuums. After Mother Nuwa became a World God, she worked hard to set up these many minor worlds in their own little pockets, and your home planet of Earth was one of them.”

  “No matter what troubles the Three Realms go through, these minor worlds will remain blessed places,” Lord Cui explained. “Only when the entire Three Realms is destroyed will these worlds be destroyed as well.”

  Ning asked in a soft voice, “I wonder how my parents of my past life are doing…” The relationship between himself and his parents in his past life wasn’t as unshakably close as his relationship to his parents in this life, but he had never forgotten about them. He had never forgotten about how his mother had taken care of him. Although his father had been more focused on his career, Ning’s feelings towards his father were quite complicated as well.”

  “They live in a blessed land. Naturally, they have nothing to worry about,” Lord Cui said.

  “Can you explain in detail?” Ning relaxed slightly as he asked this question.

  * * *

  Book 23, Chapter 3 - Stars

  Lord Cui said, “When you became apprenticed to
Subhuti, your previous parents were still alive. I helped them change their fate, allowing them to live to be a hundred years old before passing away peacefully. They then were reincarnated into another blessed world; naturally, their lives were calm and smooth.”

  Ji Ning nodded slowly.

  To be able to live a century in peace was a good thing.

  “Reincarnated into another blessed world?” Ning was puzzled about this.

  “Mother Nuwa set up many minor worlds in separate pockets of spacetime. All of them are blessed lands,” Lord Cui explained. “Even after the Six Paths of Reincarnation were destroyed, the process of reincarnation in those blessed lands was not disrupted in the slightest. Those who die in a blessed world shall be reborn into another blessed world. It might be Earth or it might be a different blessed world.”

  “But didn’t I end up being sent to the Netherworld Kingdom?” Ning asked.

  “That’s because I chose you,” Lord Cui said. “All those blessed worlds are linked together, but I selected you as a person who was suitable for Immortal cultivation. However, those worlds are all too small; they aren’t really suitable for an Immortal to grow in. That was why I teleported your soul directly to the Netherworld Kingdom.”

  Now, Ning finally understood.

  No wonder!

  No wonder he had never met a single person who had been reincarnated from Earth. So it was because Earth was a ‘blessed world’; unless something special happened, no one from Earth would ever be reincarnated into the various major worlds.

  “I wonder if the blessed worlds will be able to survive after this tribulation.” Lord Cui slowly shook his head. “Oh, right. I heard that you slew the Four Thearchs of the Primordial Ruinworld?”

  “Yes.” Ning nodded.

  “You should have acquired their treasures, yes? Take a look and see if they had any star maps,” Lord Cui said. “Star maps are maps that record the various paths that exist through the primordial chaos. We’ve killed quite a few alien Outsiders since the Primordial Era. The more powerful ones such as Rahu or the Lord of All Things, as well as their True God and Daofather subordinates. We’ve acquired quite a few star maps from them, but the more star maps the better.”

  Ning was startled for a moment, then chuckled. “I haven’t sorted through them yet. Please wait a moment, Lord Cui.”

  Star maps…

  The primordial chaos was vast and endless, filled with opportunity and danger. Even a small place like the Three Realms had dangerous places such as Earthmoan Mountain or the Endless Sea. The primordial chaos naturally held far more terrifying dangers within it.

  Even a World God could get lost if he or she just flew around blindly, and it was even possible for them to die in a particularly dangerous area. That was why one had to have star maps to journey by. Mortals needed sea charts when navigating the seas, and Fiendgods needed star maps to navigate the primordial chaos. The reason why they were called ‘star maps’ was because the primary method for long-distance transportation in the primordial chaos was through spacetime transfer arrays!

  The primordial chaos was simply too vast; to slowly fly or teleport through it would take far too much time. Spacetime transfer arrays, however, were ancient constructs that had existed in the primordial chaos since time antiquity. They used stars and planets as their foundation, with the stellar bodies being forged together to form spacetime transfer arrays! One could instantly travel from one spacetime transfer array to a different, distant array.

  Through repeated array transfers, one would be able to quickly reach the desired location!

  However, since the spacetime transfer arrays used giant stars and planets as parts of the array, the maps that showed the various paths and connections between them were known as ‘star maps’.

  “Some Immortals or Fiendgods memorize then destroy every star map they see,” Subhuti said. “Others keep them intact and trade them to others. This is why we managed to acquire a few star maps from the alien Outsiders we have slain. However, we’ve generally found that the more powerful an Outsider is, the better the star maps in their possession are.”

  “Found one.” Ning suddenly revealed a look of delight. He waved his hand, producing a metallic scroll. He unfurled the metallic scroll, allowing it to sparkle with spots of light.

  “Every single spot of light represents a spacetime transfer array.” Subhuti pointed at the star map, clearly quite familiar with these things. “These unremarkable little dots here represent chaosworlds.”

  “Three spacetime transfer arrays, seven hundred and twenty-one chaosworlds,” Ning said softly.

  “How crude.” Fuxi shook his head.

  “It is pretty crude. It seems the person who owned this star map was fairly low in rank.” Lord Cui shook his head as well. This was the star map which had been in the possession of Thearch Darkstill. When he had first joined the Lord of All Things, he had been quite weak; at the time, it was quite impressive for him to be able to acquire even a crude star map.

  “Follow me, Ji Ning.” Lord Cui looked at him. “I’ve acquired quite a few star maps since the Primordial Era. I’ve put them all together into a single large star map. Let me take you to it.”

  “Oh?” Intrigued, Ning hurriedly followed behind him.

  He had once sworn a lifeblood oath to seek out and locate Vastheaven Palace. Although World God Northrest had left behind a very large and detailed star map for him, it was of no use! World God Northrest had been fleeing for his life, and so he ran about randomly, jumping through every array he found. He fled so quickly that even he himself wouldn’t be able to find his way back. Thus, the large and detailed star map he left behind represented a place that was extremely far away, very deep within the primordial chaos. For now, it would be of no help to Ning.

  “So they compiled all the maps into a single giant star map? I hope there are a few places which connect to the places marked down in World God Northrest’s star map. That will make traveling to Vastheaven Palace much easier,” Ning mused to himself. Still, he knew this was unlikely. World God Northrest had arrived in the Primordial Era and had stayed in the Three Realms for a long period of time, yet had been unable to find his way back home. It was likely that there were no known intersections after all.

  A short while later, Ji Ning, Fuxi, Subhuti, and Lord Cui arrived in front of a different graceful wooden house.

  Lord Cui waved his hand, causing a metallic scroll to immediately fly out from inside the wooden house. The metallic scroll unfurled on its own while rapidly expanding in size. It hung in the air like an enormous painting, more than three hundred meters long. It was filled with countless tiny specks of light, and in the very center of those countless specks of light there was an enormous, blindingly brilliant sun-like dot.

  “This is the star map we compiled.” Lord Cui pointed towards the giant star map and smiled. “It holds all the information from the star maps we acquired from generations of Outsider invaders. During the Primordial Era, when Mother Nuwa adventured through the primordial chaos, she encountered an alien Outsider who called himself Chissa. She slew him and acquired his extremely detailed star map. Most of the information in the star map we compiled came from this ‘Chissa’.”

  Ning was surprised by what he saw. This was an extremely detailed star map!

  “This star map records a total of twenty-one spacetime transfer arrays, as well as 86,112 chaosworlds.” Lord Cui sighed in amazement. “When I first found out how many chaosworlds the endless primordial chaos contained, I was shocked as well.”

  “More than eighty thousand chaosworlds…and our Three Realms is merely one of the more remote ones.” Subhuti sighed as well.

  Ning, however, was just surprised at how detailed the star map was. He wasn’t surprised at the number of chaosworlds, because he had received a similarly detailed star map from World God Northrest long ago.

  “This star map has a total of twenty-one spacetime arrays and more than eighty thousand star maps. It covers
a very large amount of space…but the star map which World God Northrest gave me doesn’t have any overlapping stars at all.” Ning mused to himself, “It seems that finding Vastheaven Palace really will be difficult. Fortunately, I have an entire chaos cycle to make the attempt.”

  “Look.” Lord Cui pointed at an unremarkable speck of gray light located at the very northernmost part of the map. “That little speck right there represents our Three Realms.”

  “That’s where the Three Realms are?” Ning was surprised. “Then it should be easy for us to travel to the other chaosworlds.”

  “No.” Subhuti shook his head.

  “It won’t be that easy.” Fuxi shook his head as well, pointing towards that section of the star map. “Magnify.”

  Lord Cui nodded, causing the star map to be magnified a hundredfold. It became thirty thousand meters long, and the area including the Three Realms was now much more easily visible.

  “This place holds the Three Realms.” Fuxi pointed at that gray speck of light. “Ever since the Primordial Era, the alien Outsiders have only invade from one direction. All of them came through this ‘spatial vortex’ located right here in order to come to our Three Realms.”

  “The Three Realms is actually located in an extremely dangerous and inhospitable region. The only way one can reach it is by going through this spatial vortex here.” Fuxi pointed at another location.

  Ning took a carefully look while memorizing everything.

  When journeying through the primordial chaos, finding a safe route by which one could travel was extremely important.

  “Still, the fact that we are surrounded by danger has helped to protect us. It has made it difficult for alien Outsiders to reach us; they have to risk their very lives just going through the spatial vortex before they can reach the Three Realms,” Fuxi said. “This is why we’ve encountered so very few alien Outsiders since the Primordial Era.”

  “Spatial vortex?” Ning was puzzled. “Did Mother Nuwa leave via this spatial vortex?”