The Desolate Era (Web Novel)

“Arise!” The tall, skinny Patriarch Arcanum let out a cold shout.

Instantly, clouds began to gather from thousands of kilometers around. The world turned dark, the Five Elements were thrown into a state of chaos, and space became locked. No matter how violent the battle in the area became, it would be difficult for any spatial ripples to leak out!

“Seven Ruinous Thunderwinds? A puny Void-level Earth Immortal actually has a precious golem like this? What a waste!” Patriarch Arcanum let out a cold laugh. Instantly, a series of starlight began to appear, along with multiple meteors that flew out. A total of 360 meteorites instantly flew high into the air.

These 360 meteorites made up Patriarch Arcanum’s true power. For the sake of killing Ji Ning, he had brought them out right away.

In midair, the illusion of 360 flowing stars could be seen. For countless ages now, the movement of stars in the night sky had been fixed and eternal. When this grand formation appeared…instantly, a layer of thick starlight appeared, completely blocking the wild electric wind.

“All of you, die, die, DIE!!!!” The Winged Immortal golem was in an absolutely berserk state as it released the Seven Ruinous Thunderwinds repeatedly…

The Seven Ruinous Thunderwinds were exceedingly powerful; even using all of his power, Patriarch Arcanum was only able to just barely block them. “Seven Ruinous Thunderwinds of such purity…this golem is allowing a mere Void-level Earth Immortal to block me. For such a precious golem to be in the hands of this Northson is truly a waste. If I had it, my power would increase dramatically.”

The power of a golem was directly related to the power of its user.

There naturally would be a difference in power in the Seven Ruinous Winds as activated by Void-level elemental ki or Celestial Immortal-level elemental ki! By relying on the Winged Immortal golem, Northson could reach a Celestial Immortal’s level of power…but in the hands of a true Celestial Immortal, the power would increase by at least two levels!

……

As Patriarch Arcanum struck out, one of the other Patriarchs struck out as well. It was the elderly, white-haired Patriarch Deadwood.

The elderly Patriarch’s hands formed together into a seal, and a series of powerful ripples seemed to merge with the earth itself, becoming one with the nearby grass and trees.

In truth, Patriarch Deadwood was an oddity even amongst Celestial Immortals, because the vast majority of them needed to use magic treasures. Patriarch Deadwood, in his youth, was looked down upon due to his lack of talent, and the clan gave him very few resources; in fact, he couldn’t even procure any decent magic treasures. He was the stubborn sort, and he decided to focus all of his attention on magic spells.

No one would have imagined that he would manage to complete a Dao that was different from all others, one which only grew stronger as he moved further along it. All of the various ‘geniuses’ of his era failed and perished, while he actually overcome his tribulation to become a Celestial Immortal, and an extraordinary one at that. In the Youngflame clan, even Patriarch Goldclock, who had acquired their most precious treasure, was merely on par with him.

“Attack!” A single word came forth from Patriarch Deadwood’s lips.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Instantly, the colors of the world seemed to change. The nearby lake shook, and the wild plains trembled. Enormous, thick, wood-green tendrils erupted forth from the surface of the lake and from the wild plains. A total of nine tendrils erupted forth, each of which was covered with flowing golden light and with ancient runes.

The nine tendrils soared into the heavens, each of them fathomless in length. They simultaneously struck towards the Winged Immortal golem and towards Ji Ning.

This took time to describe, but in reality, Northson’s unleashing of the Seven Ruinous Thunderwinds, Patiarch Arcanum’s usage of the Starlight Revolution formation to block, and Patriarch Deadwood’s unleashing of his nine tendrils happened almost simultaneously.

Whoosh. The Winged Immortal golem continued to release the Seven Ruinous Thunderwinds while it flew through the air at high speed, avoiding the striking tendrils.

Every single tendril was like one of the pillars of heaven; they were incomparably thick and massive, and they also moved at incomparable speed.

The Winged Immortal golem was dodging at high speed. Just as it had clearly dodged a blow…the incomparably massive tendril suddenly sprouted many branches that were much thinner but extremely numerous. The tight cluster of tendrils erupted forth from the main tendril like a series of serpents, instantly entangling and catching the Winged Immortal golem.

“F*ck off, f*ck off!” The Winged Immortal struggled to resist, continuously releasing the Seven Ruinous Thunderwinds, but starlight descended, blocking a good part of it.

Even though some of the smaller branches were destroyed by the Seven Ruinous Thunderwinds, new ones quickly sprouted out. The Winged Immortal golem sank into a prison of tendrils…and no matter how it struggled, it was unable to escape.

……

A total of nine tendrils were used to attack. Just a single one of them was used to trap the Winged Immortal golem; the rest were acting against Ning.

Ning was currently filled with both guilt and rage!

“Junior apprentice-brother.” Ning’s heart was filled with the utmost regret; as soon as he had seen the four mighty Celestial Immortals appear, he had understood everything. The four of them had been lying in wait here the entire time, but had only acted after Ning had appeared. Given that they were all of the Youngflame clan…without question, they were here for him. His junior apprentice-brother was simply caught in the crossfire.

His junior apprentice-brother had cared deeply about his Dao-companion’s soul; Ning knew this very well. Upon seeing tears of blood streak down his junior apprentice-brother’s face, Ning’s own heart clenched with pain.

Next came rage!

Incomparable rage!

“YOUNGFLAME CLAN!!!” When Ning saw Patriarch Arcanum and Patriarch Deadwood unleash their abilities, he similarly unleashed his own as well.

Whoosh!

A black-robed Ning appeared by his side. His true body and his Primaltwin now stood shoulder-to-shoulder in midair. Simultaneously, they manifested more than three hundred top-grade Immortal-ranked flying swords to appear around them. The guilt-wracked and infuriated Ning instantly unleashed his most powerful killing attack.

[Greater Thousand Swords Formation] – Stage Four!

A large amount of sword-ki coalesced in front of Ning’s chest, transforming into a golden flying sword.

“KILL!!!” His true body and his Primaltwin let out simultaneous, enraged roars.

ROAAAAR!

A divine black dragon appeared, raising its head out and unleashing an angry roar. It was the golden flying sword in draconic form. The divine black dragon, carrying a terrifyingly sharp aura, swept forward…and meeting it was an incomparably thick tendril, which slapped down with power that seemed great enough to shake the heavens and the earth. Even though the divine black dragon was incomparably agile as it moved to try and dodge past so as to help Northson…the tendril was also extremely agile, and it gave birth to many smaller branches that moved to impede the divine black dragon.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh…

A large amount of smaller branches were chopped apart, and a scar appeared on the body of the thick main tendril as well. And then…crack! It completely snapped apart.

Ning and his Primaltwin manifested a second streak of sword-light. A second divine black dragon flew out! Simultaneously controlling two streaks of sword-light generated from the fourth stage of the [Greater Thousand Swords Formation]; this was Ning’s current maximum.

ROAAAAR!

The two divine black dragons moved as fast as lightning, slamming against the many tendrils. Thanks to the resistance from the tendrils, one of the divine black dragons was consumed and shattered, but the other one managed to slaughter a path to the Winged Immortal golem, tearing the tendrils apart and saving the golem.

“What?!” The four Celestial Immortals of the Youngflame clan, upon seeing this, narrowed their eyes. “This Ji Ning is actually as powerful as this? He would be considered an excellent fighter amongst Celestial Immortals.”

“Fortunately, thanks to Bloodcloud Hall’s failed assassination attempt, we’ve known this entire time that he is extremely powerful, and so we came prepared.”

Still, the four Celestial Immortals didn’t panic in the slightest.

“Forest!” Patriarch Deadwood’s eyelids twitched slightly, and a golden light began to flow within his eyes as he once more called out a word.

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

From the lake and from the wild plains, a large number of tendrils began to appear. These tendrils were far thinner than the nine great tendrils that had appeared earlier; they were roughly just one percent of the originals in size. However, they were extremely numerous, and each was still at least a hundred kilometers long. The world had suddenly been transformed into a forest of tendrils.

The countless tendrils began to frantically wrap themselves around the nine main tendrils.

Ning’s two divine black dragons, formed through using the fourth stage of the [Greater Thousand Swords Formation], were only able to strike around the margins. They were blocked repeatedly, and they only had enough strength to fight back, not to advance any further.

Whooooosh. By Ning’s side, Northson repeatedly unleashed the Seven Ruinous Thunderwinds, but Patriarch Arcanum’s grand formation of starlight suppressed the wind time and time again.

……

A single person, Patriarch Deadwood, was able to suppress both Ning and Northson; this was the power of a truly formidable Celestial Immortal! The general who had commanded the Eastwoods mountain range was even more formidable than Patriarch Deadwood; he was capable of completely suppressing and even defeating Ning. However, because he was unable to bind Ning, he was forced to negotiate with him.

Although Patriarch Deadwood was comparatively weaker, he was still able to suppress the two of them. With Patriarch Arcanum supporting him, the two made it impossible for Ning to even have a chance to use a Greater Teleportation Dao-seal.

Bang! A talisman suddenly appeared before Ning. A divine black dragon howled past it, and a thick streak of sword-light instantly shattered it.

Stillwater City.

It was in the afternoon, but the skies were rather dark and dreary.

“Not good!”

“It’s Ji Ning.”

Two figures simultaneously appeared in the skies above Stillwater City. The first was a hunchbacked, staff-wielding elder, Celestial Immortal Hunchmont. The other was the black-haired, black-robed Immortal Diancai. Both had shocked looks on their faces. It must be understood that when Immortal Diancai and Ji Ning agreed to ally with the Northmont clan of Stillwater, they had naturally prepared methods of helping each other out as needed. Everyone had a talisman for everyone else; upon shattering it, the others would be able to sense it right away.

“Ji Ning’s power is formidable; what sort of situation could force him to request help??” Immortal Diancai was greatly shocked.

“It’s within Stillwater Commandery, roughly a few hundred thousand kilometers away,” Celestial Immortal Hunchmont sent mentally.

“Let’s hurry over there.” Immortal Diancai had a solemn look on his face.

“Right.” The two didn’t hesitate at all; they immediately used void blink techniques to hurry over.

Although the most powerful member of the Northmont clan of Stillwater was actually that ancient elder, his existence was a tightly-kept secret. Unless something truly critical happened, he wouldn’t reveal himself. Only if even Immortal Hunchmont and Immortal Diancai were unable to rescue Ning would he intervene.

……

The world of the Grand Xia. Upon an island in the western seas.

This was a seemingly barren, unpopulated island. In truth…it was surrounded by layers of formations, causing outsiders to be unable to see the truth of what was within.

Within a mountain on the island. Inside a palace.

A maiden was seated on a royal throne here. In the center of the palace was an enormous mirror, a Pure Yang treasure known as the Divine Earthpiercer Mirror. This enormous mirror was currently displaying the battle that was happening far away, next to the lake.

“The Youngflame clan has made their move.” The maiden revealed a smile. “And even Celestial Immortal Infatuation has gone…and they brought a top-grade Pure Yang divine greatclock…”

There were more than ten gold-robed Celestial Immortals within the palace who were also staring at that giant mirror as they watched the battle within it.