The Desolate Era (Web Novel)

There were some Loose Immortals who were gathering within the protective formations far away.

“Windraiser, I’ve already moved all of the mortals and Immortal cultivators in the area under my control into this Qiankun pearl.” A green-haired Immortal lifted up a black pearl that glowed with soft light. He then waved his hand and put it away. Looking towards the outside, he said with a chortle, “But from the looks of it, I didn’t need to evacuate them at all; the Fiendgods have all left, leaving behind just Ji Ning.”

“Indeed.” Windraiser smiled and nodded as well.

They had been evacuating many of their clansmen because they had been afraid of those nine hundred-plus Fiendgods.

Now that the Fiendgods were being pursued by the Godslayer Guards of the Xia Emperor…the only enemy left was Ji Ning.

……

“Master, Master! Aren’t you going to flee?” Little Qing, within the ten thousand kilometer formation region, was absolutely frantic. “Not even nine hundred-plus Fiendgods were able to break through the defenses of those eight Celestial Immortals. What’s the point of staying there by yourself? Quick, flee!”

“Senior apprentice-brother!” Northson was very worried as well.

“Don’t panic. My boy Ning isn’t the rash sort.” Uncle White stared off into the distance. In the heart, he murmured, “Ning, son, be careful.”

……

The nine Celestial Immortals in the air now felt far more confidence than they had earlier. The Ancestor of the Youngflame clan said, “Earlier, you all suffered attacks from those Fiendgods; your wounds are all significant. It’s best if you join into a formation to provide assistance to me…and leave Ji Ning to me. Just assist me.”

“Alright.”

“Although we are injured, we’re still able to use thirty to forty percent of our power. The power of the eight of us, joined forces, is still significant. Against Ji Ning, there’s no need to use the ‘Eight Immortals Sea-Subduing Formation’. It’s better if we use the ‘Eight Trigrams Roving Dragon Formation’,” Celestial Immortal Goldclock said with great confidence.

“Mm.”

“Alright.”

“The Eight Trigrams Roving Dragon Formation is more than enough to block Ji Ning’s attacks.” Even the most careful of them all, Celestial Infatuation, nodded in agreement.

Different formations naturally had different levels of power.

The Eight Immortals Sea-Subduing Formation was completely focused on defense; it didn’t have any offensive techniques at all, naturally resulting in an extremely powerful defense.

The Eight Trigrams Roving Dragon Formation was fairly balanced; its attacks and defenses were even. After all, the Celestial Immortals now knew how strong Ning was; they didn’t need to waste too much of their energy on unnecessary defense.

Previously, they had faced nine hundred-plus Fiendgods, with roughly six hundred being Void-level Fiendgods. In truth, Void-level Fiendgods were generally on par with the likes of Immortal Northwalker in power; that Void-level Fiendgod which Ning had encountered in the wild marshes of the Gaol Mountains had once suffered Immortal Northwalker’s wrath. Although Void-level Fiendgods had divine abilities to add to their power, allowing them to become comparable to Celestial Immortals…their ability to comprehend of the Dao was simply too low. Once they reached a bottleneck, they might spend a trillion years at that bottleneck without advancing at all.

Even Mount Innerheart had quite a few Fiendgods who remained unable to beat the ninth golem.

Their inferiority in comprehending the Dao were their greatest weakness!

And so, while there were six hundred Void-level Fiendgods…even Patriarch Arcanum who was the weakest of the eight Celestial Immortals of the Youngflame clan was far more powerful than the likes of Immortal Northwalker, a Loose Immortal who lived for a million years! As for Celestial Immortals Goldclock, Deadwood, and Flamefish, they were even more powerful. Celestial Immortal Infatuation, in turn, belonged to the supreme tier.

Thus…it took roughly ten or so of the Void-level Fiendgods to match a single one of the Celestial Immortals of the Youngflame clan.

That great gathering of Fiendgods, in turn, was just comparable to thirty or fifty Celestial Immortals of the Youngflame clan.

When eight Celestial Immortals completely focused on defense, they would generally be able to hold off against a group of thirty to fifty Celestial Immortals for a short period of time. However, those Fiendgods had been too berserk; although the battle had been very brief, they had still managed to heavily injure all eight of the Celestial Immortals, causing even their golden pellet Jindans to be seriously damaged. They would all require many spirit-pills, medicines, and time to slowly repair the damage done. Now that they were going to deal with Ji Ning while heavily injured…the weakest of them, Celestial Immortal Arcanum, was only able to use perhaps ten to twenty percent of his full power, while the mighty Celestial Immortal Infatuation was still able to use fifty to sixty percent. As a whole, the eight Celestial Immortals were at roughly thirty to forty percent of their full power.

Rumble…

The Eight Trigrams Roving Dragon Formation took form.

Instantly, an enormous golden set of eight trigram symbols appeared. The eight mighty Celestial Immortals were the ‘points’ at which the eight trigrams were located. Around them coiled a golden, roving dragon that hovered in midair.

The eight Celestial Immortals all stared downwards.

“Goldclock, once we trap Ji Ning, you’ll absorb him into your golden greatclock,” the horned, golden-robed man sent through his divine power. A smile was on his face, and he was extraordinarily confident right now.

“Yes, Ancestor!” Celestial Immortal Goldclock was extremely excited; they had been under tremendous pressure when facing so many Fiendgods, but against this single person, Ji Ning…in addition, given that they had already battled against Ning within the trapping formation earlier, they knew how strong he was. This just made them even more confident of their chances.

On the ground below.

The sword-intent surging forth from Ning’s heart was continuously growing in strength. Ning raised his head to look towards the sky. There were nine mighty Celestial Immortals in the sky. The ugly, horned, golden-robed figure produced a horsetail whisk, and before him stood three enormous insect aberrations. As for the other eight Celestial Immortals, they were in some sort of Eight Trigrams formation next to him.

“The eight Celestial Immortals came under a wild assault from those nine hundred-plus Fiendgods just now…clearly, they were only just barely able to hold on. They are probably all heavily injured, but they actually aren’t retreating and are facing me. They probably don’t hold my strength in any regard.” After pondering for a moment, Ning immediately knew what his foes were thinking.

However…Ning wasn’t like those Void-level Fiendgods!

His special divine ability was something more powerful than the likes of the other divine abilities which most Empyrean Gods or True Gods of Primal Chaos could come up with. It was the [Starseizing Hand], the supreme divine ability which Daoist Threelives had once used to roam and dominate the Primordial Era. The escaped Void-level Fiendgods had all been born during the creation of this major world of the Grand Xia; by comparison, their divine abilities were much weaker.

Ning’s palms, in turn were akin to supreme Pure Yang treasures.

As for his insights into the Dao…he used to be on par with Patriarch Goldclock, but he had now completely surpassed him, reaching a new, higher level.

……

“Everyone, be careful. This Ji Ning is no ordinary Fiendgod; he is a supremely talented monster with a very high level of sword-arts. He was previously able to crush the five of us, and now, although we eight have joined forces, we are only able to use a portion of our strength. We must be careful. Let the Ancestor serve as our main attacker, while we shall serve merely as support,” Celestial Immortal Infatuation warned.

“Don’t worry, Infatuation. When the five of us previously used the Five Elements Mountainhold Formation, we were able to easily block his attacks. Now that the eight of us have joined into the Eight Trigrams Roving Dragon Formation…even though we are only at thirty or forty percent power, our strength is quite close to the level of power which a full strength Five Elements Mountainhold Formation has. We’ll absolutely be able to block him,” Celestial Immortal Goldclock said confidently.

“Kill!” The horned, golden-robed man immediately gave the order.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Instantly, the three enormous aberrations all charged downwards.

BOOM! Ning, who had originally been standing on the ground, suddenly charged into the skies, moving like a streak of light.

By comparison, Ning was like a tiny little dot that was rising, while the three enormous insectoid aberrations came charging down from above.

“[Obscuring Wind of the Nine Heavens]!”

Whoosh! A gust of wind blew past. Ning, moving at a speed that rendered the Youngflame clan completely speechless, was actually able to move past all three of the aberrations. This was an evasive divine ability which Patriarch Subhuti had specially designed for Ji Ning. Although it could only be considered a top-class divine ability of the Three Realms, and couldn’t compare to supreme evasive techniques like the [Wings of the Garuda], Ning actually wouldn’t have been as fast when using the [Wings of Garurda]. After all…Ning himself wasn’t a golden-winged Roc; he was a human. It would be impressive for humans to be able to use even thirty to fifty percent of a divine ability designed for birds.

“Too fast.” The horned, golden-robed man was surprised by this.

“Stop him.”

“Everyone, be careful.” The eight Celestial Immortals saw that as Ning used his evasive divine ability, he was making his way towards them.

“Tie him down while I use my insectoid aberrations to attack him,” the horned, golden-robed man said hurriedly. He had to tie down Ning. Otherwise, given Ning’s speed…there was no way those insects could catch up to him at all. Once they actually got into battle, his insectoid aberrations were more than powerful enough to keep Ning completely occupied, making it impossible for him to dodge. They would they draw him into the divine greatclock!

It must be understood that of the three insectoid aberrations, the winged rhinoceros creature alone was, in terms of strength, comparable to Ning at full power. It was precisely due to creatures like this that Immortal Venomfreak was able to become so famous within the Three Realms; these aberrations definitely couldn’t be underestimated.

Whoosh.

The [Obscuring Wind of the Nine Heavens] blew forth, and Ning arrived in front of the eight Celestial Immortals.

“Kill!” The eight Celestial Immortals stared towards Ning from afar. The giant golden dragon that had been coiled around them let out an earth-shattering draconic roar and charged straight towards Ning.

Ning’s gaze was as deep and fathomless as the depths of the sea. His six arms instantly appeared, and the fingers of those six enormous hands, glowing with golden light, simultaneously formed into a set of sword-fingers, unleashing techniques that represented the most powerful sword-arts which Ning had created thus far. Although in terms of profoundness, some of the other sword-arts Ning had learned in the past were comparable to this stance he had created…his own stance was the stance that was most appropriate for him. Only the creator of a technique would be able to truly unleash its full, maximum power.

Ning’s sword-fingers all became three hundred meters long!

Enormous sword-fingers…like the fingers of a divinity.

At the same time, in front of the sword-fingers appeared divine black swords that was fully three thousand meters in length!

As far as the eye could see…

There were six entire divine black swords that were over three thousand meters long, gathering the power of heaven and earth within them. One of the divine black swords chopped directly against the body of the golden dragon, causing it to shudder and turn dim. The golden dragon roared as well, furiously striving to resist the sword…but the five of the other enormous swords stabbed straight towards the Eight Trigrams Roving Dragon Formation.

BOOM! The golden Eight Trigrams symbols trembled, and then with a booming sound completely blew apart.

“No!”

“What?!”

The eight Celestial Immortals were all stunned.

“Not good.” The horned, golden-robed man wasn’t too far from them. Shocked, he hurriedly stretched out the horsetail whisk in his hand…but alas, distant water is unable to quench thirst.

Ji Ning’s attack speed was extremely fast!

As Ning’s five sword-fingers, in the form of five divine black swords, stabbed through the Eight Trigrams Roving Dragon Formation, two of the swords turned to pierce towards the closest Celestial Immortal, Goldclock. Goldclock was utterly terrified; he wasn’t able to flee at all, and so all he could do was immediately unleash his most powerful treasure, the top-grade Pure Yang divine greatclock. Ignoring the wounds which his golden pellet Jindan had suffered, he immediately and frantically began to squeeze every last drop out of it, struggling to increase his power as much as he could.

BOOM! The divine greatclock was sent flying from the strike of the first divine black sword. As for the second divine black sword, it slashed across Celestial Immortal Goldclock’s body…which was promptly reduced to ash by what seemed like an endless torrent of sword-ki.

The golden palm that had launched the divine black sword that had sent the golden greatclock flying away swung out, grabbing the now-ownerless greatclock.

BOOM! Two other streaks of black sword-light were flying towards the other nearby Celestial Immortal, Flamefish. Although Celestial Immortal Flamefish also frantically sought to squeeze as much power from his Jindan as he could…Ning, even back when he had first trained in the [Starseizing Hand], was already comparable to Celestial Immortal Infatuation. Now that he had developed an even more powerful sword technique, he was clearly much more powerful than before. In addition, his sword-fingers were akin to a supreme Pure Yang treasure; how could the likes of Celestial Immortal Flamefish possibly withstand him?

The two streaks of sword-light flashed past, and Celestial Immortal Flamefish was reduced to dust as well.

Clang!

Clang!

The other six Celestial Immortals went absolutely all out, finally managing to block the last streak of sword-light Ning had sent out.

This initial strike by Ning had claimed the lives of two out of eight Celestial immortals!

“DAMN HIM!” The distant Ancestor of the Youngflame clan’s eyes turned so wide, his eyelids threatened to split apart. His eyes were now completely bloodshot.