Desolate Era

by RWX

  For now, even Saber was kept at a disadvantage.

  ……

  Daoist Three Purities commanded his Nuwa Heaven Repairing Formation to use his Immortal Slaying Swords to attack the Elder God ‘Keeper Everwood’, who found it difficult to endure his blows.

  Lord Tathagata commanded his Pangu Genesis Formation to fight against Daofather Bloodswan and Daomother Devilhand, who also were just barely able to hold on.

  Shennong was in command of another Pangu Genesis Formation, but Daofather Ink Bamboo had managed to tie him down.

  Suiren’s strikes with his wooden staff were filled with incredible, extraordinary power. Each time he struck out with his staff, an ferocious burst of flame would erupt with absolutely devastating might. Even the Lord of All Fiends was forced to dodge, rather than take those attacks head-on.

  “Allfiend, is dodging all you can do? Is that all you dare do?” Suiren roared angrily. He was quite fast, but the Lord of All Fiends was even faster.

  “If we were fighting one-on-one, of course I’d fight you head-on. Right now, I only have part of my full power; a head-on fight isn’t in my favor.” The Lord of All Fiends flew about unpredictably, continuously circling around Suiren and ensuring that Suiren wouldn’t dare to act rashly. Although he had divided his body in two, causing both bodies to be slightly weaker than his normal body, each body could still just barely be considered as having the power of an elite Elder God. If Suiren acted rashly, he would still be in danger of dying.

  But of course, only someone like the Lord of All Fiends, the physically fastest combatant in all the Three Realms, would dare to divide his body in half at a time like this.

  Ning was facing off against a Lord of All Fiends as well.

  “Lord of All Fiends, you split your body in two? I imagine that each body only has a portion of your true might.” Ning shook his head. “You underestimate me too much.”

  Whoosh.

  A black-robed Ning suddenly appeared next to the white-robed Ning.

  Swoosh! Swoosh!

  The white-robed Ning charged towards Daofather Ink Bamboo, while the black-robed Ning charged towards Daomother Devilhand.

  * * *

  Book 23, Chapter 19 - Executed

  “Damn.” The Lord of All Fiends’ face turned pale. His body surged forward like a gust of wind, quickly flying towards the black-robed Ji Ning. He knew exactly how formidable Ji Ning’s true body was; it was as tough as a top-grade Protocosmic spirit-treasure and was simply unbreakable. By comparison, the Primaltwin should be much easier to deal with, as it had a much more fragile body.

  “Go.” The black-robed Ning turned his head to stare icily at him.

  Swish! Swish! Swish!

  Three streaks of sword-light flew out from his forehead. Those three streaks of sword-light moved in a unpredictable, ghostly fashion, and all three of them surpassed the limits of the Heavenly Daos. They swirled around the region, completely halting the Lord of All Fiends in his tracks.

  “Eh?” After testing those swords out, the Lord of All Fiends immediately felt a headache impending. Ji Ning was a first-tier Ancestral Immortal who was controlling Chaos-level swords that moved faster than the limits of the Heavenly Daos. The swords flew around Ning like a circle, with Ning being the center of that circle. They only had to defend against any attacks that drew close to that center, and if the Lord of All Fiends wanted to breach their defenses he would have to attack much faster than they moved. But…there were three of those swords!

  And that wasn’t the worst part of it!

  The worst part of it was that thirty-six frozen lotuses had appeared around the area, spinning about and releasing streams of frozen energy, dramatically impacating the Lord of All Fiends. Even if he was at the peak of his power, he would still find it difficult to penetrate Ning’s defenses.

  In truth, Ning had yet to reveal his Blackcloud Chains. Once he did, his defenses would become absolutely and completely imperveious.

  “Where the hell did he acquire this set of swords? How can they be so powerful?” The Lord of All Fiends tried multiple times to break through Ning’s defenses, only to discover how formidably sharp and fierce the set of three swords was.

  Swoosh.

  He wasn’t able to stop the black-robed Ning, which meant the black-robed Ning was free to continue charging towards Daomother Devilhand.

  As for the white-robed Ning, he moved forward at high speed using his Ninehorn Lightning Serpent.

  “I have no choice but to go stop his true body instead.” The Lord of All Fiends moved at maximum speed towards the white-robed Ning. The two were originally quite far away from each other, but the distance between the two could be visibly seen shrinking! Before the white-robed Ning had reached Daofather Ink Bamboo, the Lord of All Fiends had once more appeared before him, stopping him in his tracks.

  “You can’t stop me.” Ning laughed coldly, “The Seamless Gate is doomed to lose for sure.”

  The Lord of All Fiends couldn’t help but sigh to himself as well. Indeed. Upon discovering how many terrifying overlords the Nuwa Alliance had, he had wracked his brains for solutions and had gone so far as to split his own body in half, so that he could stop the two fastest enemy overlords, Ji Ning and Suiren.

  And yet…in the end, it wasn’t enough. Ji Ning had a second body of his own, one which most likely also had the combat power of an elite Daofather!

  That second body was the final straw that broke the camel’s back!

  The Seamless Gate simply had no more extra power it could squeeze out.

  “Should we retreat right away?” This thought flashed past the Lord of All Fiend’s mind.

  If they were to retreat now…he was fast, but it would still take him time to rescue everyone one-by-one. If the Nuwa Alliance seized the opportunity to press the assault, the Seamless Gate would definitely lose a large number of Immortals and Fiendgods, but it would only make up a small fraction of their total forces. If things went on for too long, they would probably lose even more.

  “Not yet. The reasons behind this war have yet to be revealed,” the Lord of All Fiends mused to himself.

  To this very day, neither side truly understood what the cause of this war was. In addition, the alien Outsider known as Godfiend Witherspike still had yet to display his true power. Everything still seemed quite odd. The Lord of All Fiends wanted to watch and wait for a bit longer.

  Boom…

  The Daofathers, Empyrean Gods, and True Immortals continued to battle in the Void. One of the Infinity Fiendgod Formations of the Seamless Gate broke apart, and the three True Gods and 3900 Empyrean Gods inside of it were thrown into a state of chaos. The Nuwa Alliance naturally seized the opportunity to butcher them!

  Whenever a formation was broken apart, a large-scale massacre would immediately occur.

  The longer the Endwar continued, the more major powers, Empyrean Gods, and True Immortals would die.

  “Die.” The black-robed Ning stared off into the distance.

  Swish! Swish! Swish!

  Two crystalline swords and a golden sword came together, forming a triangle as they shot towards Daomother Devilhand and Daofather Bloodswan’s two clones. The three of them were currently battling Lord Tathagata, and as Ning’s three swords flew towards them, the divine runes atop the swords began to manifest and glow. The three swords quickly began to transform, melting together like mist to form a single semi-translucent golden sword.

  Once the semi-translucent golden sword appeared, a faint aura of sword-ki manifested around it for a million kilometers, causing everyone on the battlefield to feel astonished.

  That sharp aura of light was simply too ferocious. It was completely comparable to that of the Immortal Slaying Swords of Daoist Three Purities! Daoist Three Purities’ Immortal Slaying Swords were capable of causing tremendous difficulties for even a defensive specialist like Keeper Everwood.

  Ning’s ‘Triult Sword Formation’ flew straight towards Daomother Devilhand and Da
ofather Bloodswan.

  “Not good. Flee!” The faces of Daomother Devilhand and Daofather Bloodswan both changed. They could tell that Ning was specifically targeting the two of them.

  “Don’t even think about leaving.” Lord Tathagata’s palms came crashing down upon them, seeking to bar their path.

  However, Daomother Devilhand and Daofather Bloodswan were in no mood to fight him any longer. When they saw the power of the Triult Swords soaring towards them, they instantly knew that this wasn’t something they could fight back against. Right now on the field of battle, the most offensively powerful attack as the Immortal Slaying Swords of Daoist Three Purities’, who was in command of a Nuwa Heaven Repairing Formation. The second was the terrifying unknown sword-formation which the black-robed Ji Ning had just unleashed.

  “Flee in separate directions.” Daofather Bloodswan’s two bodies and Daomother Devilhand fled in three completely different directions.

  Swish.

  The semi-translucent golden sword continued to fly after Daomother Devilhand! It was best to pull up grass by the roots. Daomother Devilhand didn’t have any clones; if she could be killed, she would be permanently slain.

  “Come, then!” The fleeing Daomother Devilhand understood what was happening. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to outrun that terrifying sword, and so she turned, a calm look on her face, to watch as the sword-light descended upon her.

  She was dressed in violet robes, and she was as beautiful as any fairy maiden.

  However, she was the most terrifyingly devil of the entire Seamless Chaosworld. She calmly struck out with her jade-white arms, using them to block the incoming streak of sword-light.

  “No…” Daofather Bloodswan had fled far off into the distance. When he saw this happen, his face changed.

  “Devilhand!” Keeper Everwood grew frantic as well.

  When the Lord of All Fiends saw this, all he could do was sigh softly.

  BOOM!

  She managed to block the blow. Her twin palms, covered by a pair of Chaos gloves, had actually managed to block the semi-translucent golden sword. However, the sword-strike had carried far too much power within it. The force of the collision instantly caused Daomother Devilhand’s body to quiver, and she couldn’t help but vomit out a mouthful of blood. In the next instant…the semi-translucent golden sword hacked down again in an unpredictable, ghostly manner.

  Before she died, Daomother Devilhand was able to strike out a total of eight times, blocking eight of those sword-attacks. On the ninth sword attack, the sword-light swiped past her neck…and as it did so it completely annihilated the rest of her body. Her body evaporated like a snowflake in the sun, completely disintegrating into dust.

  The difference in power was simply too obvious.

  This scene caused terror to fill the hearts of all the major powers of the Seamless Gate.

  Did she just die?

  That was Daomother Devilhand! A legendary woman who was known as a devil amongst devils in the Seamless Chaosworld. This legendary figure who had once exchanged blows against Mother Nuwa herself…had died, just like that?

  But when they thought of the sword-formation Ji Ning had just displayed, every member of the Seamless Gate shook in fear.

  Too powerful.

  In raw power alone, perhaps only the Immortal Slaying Swords could match it. Technically, the Immortal Slaying Swords might be a bit more powerful, but the important thing was that Ji Ning’s ‘Triult Swords’ were much faster than the Immortal Slaying Swords! The Triult Swords were being used to display Ji Ning’s sword-arts, the most supreme sword-arts of the Three Realms. After twenty thousand years of polishing, Ning’s sword-arts had reached a truly inconceivable level.

  “Fiendlord, we can’t hold on any longer.”

  “We can’t hold.”

  The Seamless Gate had less karmic luck to begin with, making it so that their formations were able to summon significantly less natural energy from Heaven and Earth. Daomother Devilhand’s death, combined with the fact that no one was able to bar the path of the black-robed Ning, caused the morale of the Seamless Gate to dramatically plummet. Two more of their formations were broken in quick succession, resulting in the deaths of the nine True Gods/Daofathers and ten thousand Empyrean Gods and True Immortals in them. It was an absolute massacre…and now, Ji Ning was chasing after Daofather Bloodswan. The situation was growing grimmer and grimmer.

  “Have we lost, just like that?” The Lord of All Fiends truly didn’t wish to accept this.

  He had known right away that Devilhand was going to die.

  From the moment that he had been unable to stop the black-robed Ji Ning from advancing, he had known that Daomother Devilhand was definitely going to perish. However, the degree to which things were worsening was causing the Lord of All Fiends to grow frantic.

  “What exactly is the cause of all this mayhem?” The Lord of All Fiends suddenly detected a subtle ripple of power. His face instantly changed. “This is…”

  ……

  The Nuwa Alliance’s morale was skyrocketing even further!

  They had five new overlords, the three guardian formations, and superior karmic luck. Although the Seamless Gate had gone all out to recruit new allies, bringing Old Man Yuan and the two Elder Gods of the Primordial Ruinworld into their fold, in the end…this short initial clash had already brought the Seamless Gate to the breaking point.

  Lord Tathagata, Ji Ning, and the others sought to widen the scope of the massacre and slay even more of them. But right at this moment…

  Rumble…an extremely minute ripple of power spread out.

  Every single major power, Empyrean God, and True Immortal on the battlefield could sense it, because the source of this ripple came from the Heavenly Daos. The ripple quickly began to grow more powerful, causing all of the Heavenly Daos of the Three Realms to begin to shudder.

  “You wish to stop me? Three Realms, you aren’t able to do so!” A furious roar rang out in every single part of the Three Realms, causing all of the Heavenly Daos to shake.

  * * *

  Book 23, Chapter 20 - Escaping the Three Realms

  “That voice…it sounded like the voice of the heavens themselves.” The countless denizens of the Three Realms, human and monster alike, stared questioningly at the skies. The weaker ones were confused, while the powerful cultivators and Diremonsters were stunned.

  As for the two battling armies in the Void, their experts and major powers were similarly shocked.

  “Is that…” Ji Ning and the others all felt fear in their hearts.

  Rumble…

  The entirety of the Three Realms was trembling. Heaven and Earth were thundering and shaking. Even the Void itself was booming! It was as though some invisible creature was attempting to tear the Three Realms asunder. This surge of power caused the major powers of the Nuwa Alliance, who had held the upper hand in the Endwar thus far, to have a bad feeling.

  “Ignore him. Wipe out the Seamless Gate first,” Daoist Three Purities barked.

  “Wipe them out first.”

  The black-robed Ning pointed, causing the semi-translucent golden sword to rapidly swing towards the distant army of the Seamless Gate. The sword energy stretched out a million kilometers, aimed at a Ragnarok Formation that was formed by six Daofathers and 5100 True Immortals. Rings of black light swirled around the Ragnarok Formation as it did its best to defend.

  Slash! The first strike of the semi-translucent golden sword nearly destabilized the Ragnarok Formation.

  Stab! The Triult Sword Formation launched yet another attack, this one using the ‘Blood Drop Stance’ of the [Brightmoon] sword-art and striking with extraordinary speed.

  Boom!

  The entire Ragnarok Formation completely blew apart. Sword-ki sliced everywhere, causing the majority of the True Immortals in the formation to be reduced to dust. The six Daofathers and the remainder of the True Immortals sought to flee, but the semi-translucent golden sword then spun about, tr
ansforming into an enormous black hole that drew in and ground to death all of the Immortals and Fiendgods in the area. Some attempted to hide in their Immortal estates, but even those estates were ground to tiny pieces. Of the thousands of Immortals, only eight were able to survive, all of which were only able to do so because they had extraordinarily powerful estate-worlds or Immortal estates on them.

  Three of the eight were Daofathers while five were True Immortals.

  “Come here.” The black-robed Ning flew over towards them, waving his hand and collecting all eight of those treasures.

  “Ashes to ashes…dust to dust.”

  Lord Tathagata the Buddha, in command of a Pangu Genesis Formation, also advanced through the Void as he charged towards the Seamless Gate’s army. The mighty formations of the Seamless Gate quickly began to flee. Although these formations had many Immortals and Fiendgods inside of them, how could they possibly fight Lord Buddha head-on? A Ragnarok Formation had been destroyed by Ji Ning with just two blows!

  “You shall BREAK!!!!” A furious roared echoed throughout the entire Three Realms, causing the infinite Void to shudder and shake.

  RIIIIIIIIIP!!!!!!!!!!!

  A blinding golden light suddenly appeared at the end of the distant Void. It was like a giant golden tear in the emptiness of space. Although the Nuwa Alliance and the Seamless Gate were in the middle of a giant battle, they couldn’t help but pay attention to what had just happened. The rift of golden light was at least a hundred million kilometers long, and it seemed to very nearly tear apart the entire Three Realms.

  Deep inside the rift of golden light, something which looked like a massive, turbid flood could be seen.

  BOOOM!!!!

  The torrential flood of water gushed out from the golden rift, quickly passing through into the Void and flowing towards the battlefield where the Nuwa Alliance and the Seamless Gate were located.

  As the waters finished flowing out the distant golden rift quickly healed and closed, completely disappearing from sight.