Desolate Era

by RWX

  When used as a defensive structure, World-level experts had virtually no chance of breaking through into Fogstone.

  When used to trap foes, the astral light it radiated would make it so that even World-level experts would move much slower!

  Every single Starlord of Fogstone had the power to command and control the planet of Fogstone. This naturally made them some of the most troublesome opponents a World-level expert could face!

  “Starchild.” A cold voice rang out, echoing within the prow of the incoming warship. “I don’t believe my Blacklotus Empire has ever offended you…and yet, you’ve actually gone so far as to move your legacy treasure, the planet of Fogstone, to my territory.”

  “Blacklotus.” The Starlord stared downwards from his position at the prow, then said in a calm voice, “It is true that no grudges exist between the two of us, and I have no desire to engage in a war against you.”

  “No desire to engage in a war? Then why have you come in such force?” The voice of the God Emperor rang out once more, causing the very air above the imperial capital to tremble.

  “I’ve come here today solely for the sake of Immortal Owlsoar,” the Starlord said calmly. “After killing Owlsoar, I’ll immediately lead my forces away and also offer valuable treasures to make up for the offense.”

  Everyone fell silent.

  “I’ll give you as much time as is needed for a single stick of incense to be burned. Afterwards, if you choose to continue to protect Owlsoar, I’ll have no choice but to press the attack.” As the Starlord spoke, he waved his hand. A stick of gray incense instantly appeared in the air then self-ignited, emitting a calming and fragrant aroma. This was a precious treasure which cultivators used, known as the ‘Three Zens Incense’. Once it was lit, the cultivator would become extremely calm and be able to much more easily sense the Dao. This was of great benefit. When Ning trained in the [Solitary World God], what he needed to break through to the next level was to have his heart be completely calm.

  “What’s this all about?”

  “Owlsoar, the Starlord of Fogstone did all this just to kill you?”

  “What sort of grudge exists between the two of you?”

  The other five, including God Emperor Blacklotus, turned to stare at Chaos Immortal Owlsoar.

  Immortal Owlsoar was a jade-eyed elder who had a divine blood tattoo on his forehead. His oily jade eyes inspired terror in all who saw him. He frowned and said in a low voice, “I don’t think there is any enmity between the two of us. Don’t be impatient. Let me ask him about this.”

  “Starlord of Fogstone.” Immortal Owlsoar’s cold voice rang out towards the great warship in the skies. “I don’t know how I’ve offended you. Is it possible that there has been some sort of a misunderstanding?”

  “Haha…misunderstanding?” The cold voice that rang down from above was filled with endless hatred. “Were you the one behind the great massacre that occurred within the Blackcold Chaosworld?”

  Immortal Owlsoar’s face immediately changed upon hearing this.

  For the sake of forging a mighty sin-treasure, he had once butchered countless living creatures. However, although he had slain many individuals, he had been careful not to slay any creatures who were protected by other World-level experts. However, he knew that this sort of butchery would naturally stir revulsion amongst certain noble-minded figures and possibly result in them attacking him, which is why he had immediately joined God Emperor Blacklotus after finishing the refining process.

  “Was there a connection between the creatures of that chaosworld and you?” Immortal Owlsoar still couldn’t believe it. By his calculations, when he wiped out the Blackcold Chaosworld the Starlord of Fogstone, Starchild, had been nothing more than a young fellow. Back then, the Starlord had actually been Starchild’s father.

  “Haha…” A frenzied, frozen laughter was torn from the Starlord’s throat. “My Dao-companion was located on the Blackcold Chaosworld!”

  “What?!” Immortal Owlsoar’s face completely changed.

  Back then, Starchild truly had been nothing more than a young fellow, and his Dao-companion was nothing more than a weak female Immortal.

  All those years ago, in the face of the power of a Chaos Immortal like Owlsoar, they were nothing more than dust in the wind. But now…the weak little Starchild had come for revenge in his capacity as the Starlord of Fogstone.

  “Blacklotus.” Immortal Owlsoar hurriedly turned his head to look at the frowning God Emperor Blacklotus. He said frantically, “Blacklotus, we aren’t that much weaker than them. There’s no need for us to be afraid of Starchild.”

  “Hmph.” God Emperor Blacklotus glanced sideways at him and let out a cold snort. Clearly, he was quite unhappy at the trouble which Immortal Owlsoar had brought to his doorstep.

  God Emperor Blacklotus had quite an unpleasant look on his face, and he felt quite unhappy that the Starlord of Fogstone had come to his very doorsteps.

  ……

  At this very moment. The spacetime transfer array of Sevenwater Star.

  A barefoot old man dressed in ragged clothes suddenly appeared within the array.

  The Immortals and Fiendgods responsible for protecting the array stared at the old man in astonishment. “H-he…actually paid the fee to have the array be activated for him ahead of schedule?”

  This would cost a hundred bottles of chaos nectar for short distances and even more for longer distances. Thus, not even World Gods or Chaos Immortals would do so lightly. Generally speaking, only the most top-tier of World-level experts would ever choose to have the spacetime transfer arrays activated for them on an individual basis. They often travelled throughout the outside world, after all, and constantly went from one array to another. If they had to pay for a personal activation each time, the costs would be quite staggering. Thus, it was quite rare for even the caretakers of the spacetime transfer arrays to see a cultivator have the array activated on an individual basis. This was especially true for a lesser-travelled location such as Sevenwater Star.

  As for this old man’s strange appearance, that didn’t really matter. Cultivators dressed and acted as they pleased. They could all tell that this barefoot old man had an extraordinary demeanor. None of the caretakers even dared to breathe loudly in front of him.

  “Ugh. Finally made it to the Sevenwater Star of the Badlands Territory.” The raggedy old man stepped out of the formation and into the skies. He muttered to himself, “If Daolord Windsource was going to die, he could’ve just died somewhere convenient. Why the hell did he have to run all the way over here, to the Badlands Territory? This old man is dog-tired from the journey.”

  * * *

  Book 24, Chapter 39 - The Battle Begins

  “The Windsource Ruins. Mm. Thank goodness Daolord Windsource set up an estate just before he died. All of his treasures should probably be inside that place. I hope my information is correct and the talisman is truly inside there as well!”

  The raggedy old man took another step through the void of space, then completely disappeared.

  ……

  The Blacklotus Chaosworld.

  Above the city shaped like a black lotus with nine petals was an enormous planet that glimmered with boundless amounts of astral light.

  The two forces faced each other watchfully.

  Within the God Emperor’s estate.

  “What do you think we should do, everyone?” God Emperor Blacklotus glanced at the other four World-level experts.

  “Help me out, everyone.” Chaos Immortal Owlsoar looked at the other four as well, a hint of ill-disguised entreaty on his face. At a time like this, face no longer mattered. If God Emperor Blacklotus and the other five weren’t willing to stand up for him and he was forced to face the might of the entire Fogstone Army by himself, he would most assuredly perish.

  “Owlsoar, you…ugh. Forget it. It is far too late now.” A man dressed in a white robe embroidered with flowers shook his head.

  “What, are all
of you shrinking back already? The Fogstone Dominion isn’t that much more powerful than us. If they force us to bow our heads this time, how will we ever be able to raise our heads again when meeting the other World-level powers of the Badlands Territory?” An alien covered in oily black armor spoke out, his golden eyes filled with anger.

  “The entire reason we all joined together in an alliance was so that we could jointly deal with any threats, right? It’s also been a long time since I’ve had a good fight. My hands itch.” The chubby cyclopean alien spoke out in concurrence.

  A look of delight and gratitude appeared on Immortal Owlsoar’s face.

  “I’ll listen to what Blacklotus says,” the bald, gray-robed elder said calmly.

  “Blacklotus…” All of them turned to look at God Emperor Blacklotus. Immortal Owlsoar had a hopeful look on his face.

  God Emperor Blacklotus gave Immortal Owlsoar a glance, secretly shaking his head. He had always felt rather contemptuous towards Immortal Owlsoar. Immortal Owlsoar had only been able to break into the World-level due to a stroke of tremendous luck, not talent. After breaking through to this level, it had become extremely difficult for him to improve any further at all. Thus, Immortal Owlsoar had chosen to embark upon an evil path…and yet, despite having chosen this path, Immortal Owlsoar was always worried about the consequences of his actions. As a result couldn’t be considered a truly demonic figure.

  Based on what God Emperor Blacklotus knew…

  The truly demonic figures of the legends were able to throw an entire territory into utter turmoil despite merely being World-level figures! They would cause all the living creatures of tens of thousands of chaosworlds to perish for the sake of refining a single terrifying sin-treasure. Compared to those figures, Immortal Owlsoar was quite lacking.

  “Everyone, I agree with what you said.” God Emperor Blacklotus nodded. “Since we’ve chosen to stand together, we need to remain unified.”

  Immortal Owlsoar was delighted upon hearing this.

  “In addition…although Starchild claims that he holds a huge grudge against Immortal Owlsoar, who knows if he’s even telling the truth?” God Emperor Blacklotus laughed coldly. “He might have simply come up with a random excuse to force us to give up Owlsoar. After he kills Owlsoar, what’s to stop him from coming up with another random excuse to kill another one of us? Are we supposed to give up our fellows one after the other? By then, we’ll be even weaker before. They’d probably be able to wipe us out at one blow.”

  “Right, right! This is probably a plot!” Immortal Owlsoar said hurriedly.

  “Enough! Shut your damn mouth. I only said he ‘might have’.” God Emperor Blacklotus cast him a cold glance. “The more likely answer is that he really does hold a grudge against Owlsoar. To engage in such a large battle for just a bit of territory wouldn’t really be worth it. It is very possible that his Dao-companion truly was killed by Owlsoar.”

  Immortal Owlsoar nervously bit his lips.

  “Still…for him to force his way to our doorstep is a sign of completely disrespect towards me and towards all of you.” God Emperor Blacklotus said calmly, “They have nine World-level experts while we only have six, but we also have the protective formations surrounding our imperial capital. How dare they act so brashly?”

  “Agreed.”

  “They really are holding us in no regard whatsoever.”

  “They’re actually kicking in our doors. Let’s have a fight with them and see who is really stronger.”

  ……

  Atop the warship in the air.

  The Starlord of Fogstone and the rest of the nine World-level experts were waiting quietly. The stick of incense hovering in midair continued to slowly burn, with less than half of it remaining.

  “Starchild.” A voice rang out from below.

  “Have you made your decision?” The Starlord of Fogstone replied coldly.

  “You say you wish to kill Immortal Owlsoar, and so I must let you kill him? What if you then demand to kill my other World-level experts? Am I supposed to offer them up as well?” God Emperor Blacklotus’ voice was icy cold as well. “In the end, I’ll be all by myself…and then you’ll just gang up on me and kill me, right?”

  The Starlord frowned then sent back, “Blacklotus, if you don’t believe me, I’m willing to swear a lifeblood oath.”

  “No need for a lifeblood oath. Even if Owlsoar truly did kill your Dao-companion, he is still a Chaos Immortal of my Blacklotus Empire! All of us have joined together in an alliance, precisely because we saw the value of joining together against powerful enemies.” God Emperor Blacklotus’ voice grew even colder. “If you leave right away, I’ll forget about your affront and your invasion of my territory. If you do not…then I have no choice but to let this be settled through combat.”

  “A true pity.” The Starlord waved his hand, causing the half-burnt stick of incense to disappear.

  “It seems we will still have to face them in combat.”

  “We expected that.”

  The others, including Immortal Skyram and Immortal Abyssus, all glanced at each other. All of them had suspected that Fogstone wasn’t powerful enough to force the Blacklotus Empire to surrender without firing a single shot. Thus, they were already prepared to storm this city by force. The reason why they had acted in such secrecy was to ensure that the Blacklotus Empire wouldn’t have the chance to purchase any Elder God Formations of their own.

  “Seven formations, attack!” The Starlord commanded.

  “Acknowledged!” Ning and the rest of the six called out in unison.

  “Let’s go,” Ning ordered. He led his 999 Elder Gods to fly out of the great warship, and the other six armies flew out alongside them.

  “Spread out,” Ning sent mentally.

  Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.

  Everyone, Ning included, began to spread out to cover an area of ten million kilometers. Their bodies then blurred as they each transformed to become massive titans who were ten thousand kilometers tall. These titans each held weapons in their hands and were surrounded by veils of flowing light. Clearly, they were reinforced by the world-energy of the ‘Minor Thousand Elder Gods Formation’.

  A thousand titanic Elder Gods had appeared, staying within roughly ten thousand kilometers of each other.

  Aside from Ning’s army, the other six armies of Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals had also scattered within an area of ten million kilometers. The Elder Gods all transformed to become ten thousand kilometers tall, and the weapons in their hands grew alongside them. As for the Ancestral Immortals, they retreated slightly but began to take control over their magic treasures.

  “ATTACK!” The Starlord of Fogstone pointed downwards towards the lotus-shaped city and gave the order.

  “Attack!”

  “Attack!”

  The seven thousand Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals howled furiously as they charged downwards. It was as though a giant hemisphere of light formed by thousands of towering Fiendgods had come smashing downwards towards the city…and right behind them were the nine World-level powers!

  The World-level powers were worried about the formations guarding the imperial capital of Blacklotus. The formations protecting any organization’s headquarters were bound to be extraordinarily powerful, and ordinary Chaos Immortals and World Gods might not be able to handle them.

  However, the ‘Minor Thousand Elder Gods formation’ was expressly meant to block attacks and entangle foes. Thus, part of their plan was to have those seven formations join together and reinforce each other. This was the most dangerous part of the plan, and the nine World-level experts weren’t willing to take the brunt of the danger.

  A black cloud suddenly appeared around the black lotus city below them. The black cloud drifted outwards, covering the air above the city and serving as a protective layer.

  “Kill!”

  “Kill!”

  “Kill!”

  The seven thousand Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals
simultaneously launched attacks downwards, with the Elder Gods lashing out with their enormous weapons. Ning, for example, was using the flexible Dao sword with his right hand and Violetjewel with his left. Both swords had been transformed to become many tens of thousands of kilometers long, and he hacked down furiously with both of them at the same time! But of course, Ning kept part of Violetjewel’s true power in abeyance, not letting it truly erupt.

  Right now, all of their forces were attacking simultaneously. Even if Ning held nothing back at all, it wouldn’t make much of a difference. It was better to keep his true power hidden and unleash it later in a sudden, critical attack against the forces of the Blacklotus Empire.

  Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! The seven thousand Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals launched frenzied attacks at the black cloud, smashing down with their gigantic weapons or striking from afar with magic treasures.

  Every single Elder God and Ancestral Immortal was supported by the power of the world which had been created by their formation!

  Even the attacks of ordinary Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals had reached the World God threshold of power! The nine captains of each formation were even more powerful, and as for the generals at the center? They were now comparable to true World-level experts. Although the ordinary Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals had merely reached the World God ‘threshhold’ of power, they had the advantage of overwhelming numbers.

  None of the World-level experts of the Blacklotus Empire would dare to withstand the combined assault of seven thousand Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals in formations.

  Whoosh.

  The black cloud didn’t seem to resist at all, allowing the enormous weapons and magic treasures to pass straight through it.

  “It isn’t blocking?” The nine World-level powers behind the seven thousand Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals all frowned.

  If the Blacklotus Empire focused completely on defense and forcefully fought back against every attack, it would actually be fairly easy for them to take it down. In a head-on clash, the Blacklotus Empire’s formation would have to withstand the full brunt of their blows, after all. But now that the Blacklotus Empire wasn’t blocking and was instead enduring and ablating their attacks, things would become a bit more difficult.