The Desolate Era (Web Novel)

It was late at night. Ji Ning used a void blink to arrive within the centermost city of the entire world of the Grand Xia.

Within the Heavenly Treasures Mountain of the imperial capital of the Grand Xia. Within a residence. Ning was drinking wine by himself, facing the bright moon.

“Eh?” Ning’s ears twitched; he glanced sideways. A white-robed, silver-haired man had just come walking in through the door.

“Senior Skyfox,” Ning laughed, then rose to his feet.

“Since you’ve hurried here so late at night, I’m sure you must have an urgent matter to deal with.” The silver-haired man smiled as he spoke. “Ji Ning, if there’s anything you need, just tell me. His Imperial Majesty has ordered this long ago; I naturally won’t be the slightest bit negligent.”

Ning nodded. “I need to buy some precious items.”

“Precious? How precious?” The silver-haired man asked.

“I need fifteen thousand kilograms of gold-gems from the Heaven Realm, thirty thousand kilograms of azurespirit jade bamboo, forty-five thousand kilograms of arcane elemental Yin-water from the Milky Way, fifteen hundred kilograms of dragonfish spirit-lava, and six hundred kilograms of chaos spirit-earth,” Ning said.

Hearing this, the face of the silver-haired man changed. “That much?”

“At LEAST that much.” Ning nodded.

There were other alternatives, of course…but the items which Ning had reported were already the cheapest items with Five Elements essence that could be used to train in the Fourth Cycle of the [Six Cycles of the Starseizer]. If he had the chance, he would naturally be willing to choose the more expensive items; for example, Five Elements peacock plumes from a peacock Godbeast that was at the Empyrean God level would be more than enough; in fact, there would be a great deal left over!

However, the lineage of a Godbeast at the Empyrean God level would be incomparably pure. Such an item would be far too precious, more valuable than even an ordinary top-grade Pure Yang treasure! And, more importantly, such things were incredibly rare! Since the founding of the universe by Pangu, the total number of peacock Godbeast that had reached the Empyrean God level and which had access to all five of the Five Elements could be counted on one hand. Only two of them had perished, and the Five Elements peacock plumes they had left behind had long ago been acquired by various major powers in order to create even more valuable items. How could Ning possibly buy them somewhere? And even if he could find them, how could he afford it?!

“Your request is too great. These are all precious items of the Three Realms; they represent the essence of the Five Elements. There are many uses for such items, from forging artifacts to refining pills. I’ll help you ask his Imperial Majesty,” the silver-haired man said.

Ning laughed, then nodded.

The silver-haired man sat down, then poured himself some wine. He said with a laugh, “Let’s drink some wine first. His Imperial Majesty will give his answer shortly.”

“Alright.” Ning knew that this person was the Xia Emperor’s spirit-beast; they could communicate spiritually to each other.

“Ji Ning, what do you want these things for? Refining pills? Forging magic treasures? Creating golems?” The silver-haired man asked. “You’ve trained for less than a hundred years. Regardless of what you need it for…the art of refining pills and forging magic treasures is one that takes an enormous amount of time to study. The experts in these fields within the Three Realms are all at elast at the Celestial Immortal level. Because they have limitless lifespans, they can slowly spend their time in analyzing these fields.”

Ning laughed as well. Indeed; the spirit of the underwater estate, for example, had used an utterly terrifying amount of time to upgrade the Thousandbull Sword. From a certain perspective, it could be said that the spirit of the underwater estate was actually fairly weak in this field; otherwise, he wouldn’t have had to spend such an enormous amount of time.

“I have my uses for it,” Ning said.

The [Starseizing Hand] was simply too famous, but no one knew exactly how one trained in it! He didn’t have to worry at all about his [Starseizing Hand] being revealed thanks to him purchasing Five Elements items.

“Hahaha…” The silver-haired man laughed, not pursuing this line of questioning. A short while later, his eyes lit up. “Ji Ning, his Imperial Majesty has informed me that he can provide you with enough gold-gems from the Heaven Realm and arcane elemental Yin-water from the Milky Way, but he’s not able to come up with enough of the other three items.”

“Then let me change them to some different items.” Ning suggested three different alternatives.

……

“Don’t have it.”

“Not enough.”

“Ji Ning, these treasures that you are requesting are all Five Elements treasures that are on the same level.” The silver-haired man shook his head. “His Imperial Majesty says that he is not an expert in forging items or refining pills, and so he hasn’t kept a large amount of these items in his stockpile. If you wish, he can go and find some of his friends and trade treasures with them to come up with enough for you.”

Ning immediately said with gratitude, “I would be utterly grateful if he did.”

“Ji Ning, you should know by now that the more valuable a treasure is, the harder it is to purchase; generally, you have to trade using items of similar value.” The silver-haired man looked towards Ning. “If you want these items, you need to bring out enough treasures to trade for them. Do you have enough?”

“What sort of treasures do I need to bring out for them?” Ning asked.

“One normal high-grade Pure Yang Treasure is enough,” the silver-haired man said with a laugh. “Twenty of those arrows you brought last time is enough.”

Ning sighed in his heart.

Five Elements ingredients and treasures were actually this expensive? But there was nothing for it. The [Starseizing Hand] required increasingly extravagant amounts of ingredients for the later stages. Fortunately, all he had to train was his pair of hands. If he had to train his entire body, like with the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art], then the price would be even more ridiculous.

Right now, he had reached the sixteenth stage of the [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens]; he could train his [Starseizing Hand] to the Fourth Cycle now, and train all the way to the Sixth Cycle of the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art]. However, the resources needed for the Art was a thousand times greater than the previous price he had paid…most likely, he would need at least ten top-grade Pure Yang treasures. This caused Ning to feel truly resigned!

Top-grade Pure Yang treasures had power comparable to middle-grade Protocosmic spirit-treasures. Many Pure Yang True Immortals and Empyrean Gods used treasures on this level; for even one of them to produce ten such items would prove a serious burden. This was why even Ning’s senior apprentice-brother, Empyrean God Silvermoon, had only trained to the Sixth Cycle of the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art].

“For now, I can forget about training further in the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art]. That’s too distant a goal. First, the [Starseizing Hand].”

“Ji Ning, are you able to produce enough treasures?” The silver-haired man looked at Ning, a smile on his face.

“Please ask his Imperial Majesty to prepare enough of the Five Elements items,” Ning said. “Once his Imperial Majesty has prepared them, I’ll naturally bring out enough treasures to trade for them.”

“Alright.” The silver-haired man said, “His Imperial Majesty will personally act to gather these treasures for you. Once he has, I’ll immediately notify you.”

Ning waved his hand, producing a jade talisman. “This is my message talisman. Once you shatter it, I’ll sense it and will hurry back here to the imperial capital.” It was extremely easy to manufacture jade seals of this nature; Ning had actually prepared a large pile of them, handing them out to the Ji clan, Autumn Leaf, his master Immortal Diancai, and others.

“Alright.” The silver-haired man rose to his feet. “Then wait for my news.”

“Might I ask how long it will take?” Ning asked.

He could subconsciously sense danger coming, forcing him to train in the Fourth Cycle as quickly as he could. Upon succeeding, his hands would become comparable to supreme top-grade Pure Yang treasures, equivalent to middle-grade Protocosmic spirit-treasures. They would be even more powerful than ordinary top-grade Pure Yang treasures, allowing his own strength to once more rapidly skyrocket to a new level. In addition, by relying on his [Three Heads, Six Arms] divine ability, he would have six mighty palms, each of which was comparable to a supreme top-grade Pure Yang treasure.

“It won’t take too long; this is just a trade of treasures. A month should suffice.” The silver-haired man intentionally added a bit of extra padding; in truth, just two or three days could be enough, or perhaps ten days at the most.”

“Alright.” Ning immediately rose to his feet.

……

That very night, Ning went to King Yan’s Estate. He was going to live there temporarily, so that he could spend some time with his cousin.

Within an ancient tower.

Five figures were seated in the lotus position, each occupying a different part.

Patriarch Arcanum opened his eyes, glancing at the area. The furrow in his brows grew deeper. Ever since his plan of asking Bloodcloud Hall to assassinate Ji Ning had failed, the Youngflame clan had grown ever-more convinced that Ji Ning was a true danger to them! However…no matter how hard they searched, they couldn’t find an opportunity to act against him.

“If this continues, Ji Ning will continue to grow in strength. Once he explodes forth against us…our Youngflame clan will be in a disastrous situation.” Patriarch Arcanum was beginning to worry. “And according to what our intelligence reports have discovered…Ji Ning is someone who cares deeply about filial piety. There’s no way he’ll forget about the grudge his mother bore for us.”

“In fact, he was even able to endure the fact that we attempted to kill him in the imperial capital of the Grand Xia.”

“This means he is very capable of suppressing himself and biding his time!”

“The reason he has done so is most likely because he feels he is not strong enough yet. Once he feels he is strong enough…our Youngflame clan will probably be in true danger.” Patriarch Arcanum’s heart was filled with worry.

Originally, all he wanted to do was give vent to his anger. But now…he was beginning to truly worry for his clan. It must be understood that supreme clans and major powers rarely got into true, life-and-death fights against each other! This was because supreme powers generally had Celestial Immortals protecting them. Celestial Immortals possessed truly infinite lifespans; even if one annihilated the enemy’s clan, if the enemy Celestial Immortal was to survive, then what in a million years or ten million years, the enemy Celestial Immortal was to launch a sudden sneak attack! After the sneak attack, the Celestial Immortal could vanish for a long time…then launch another one.

If a Celestial Immortal with an infinite lifespan was to devote that entire life to harm a clan…that would be a truly terrifying thing.

Thus…

The more powerful an organization, the more rare it was for them to fight head-on against another such organization! Each would generally prefer to find a path to compromise!

But once they truly were to fight head-on…then they would use their full power to annihilate the enemy completely, or at least wipe out all of the enemy’s top-tier fighters!

To the Youngflame clan, Ji Ning now posed a major threat. He was a monster who even Bloodcloud Hall had failed to assassinate successfully…

“Eh?” Suddenly, all five of the Celestial Immortals present opened their eyes.

They all pulled out a similar bronze talisman.

“It’s the Seamless Gate,” the white-haired, wizened elder said in a low voice.

“The Seamless Gate wishes to meet with our Youngflame clan?” The handsome youth frowned. “What are they going to do? When they previously tried to pull us into their orbit, we refused them. We aren’t willing to become enemies with the Seamless Gate, but even less are we willing to betray the Xia Emperor.”

“Everyone, I’ll make the trip.” Patriarch Arcanum rose to his feet. “I’m going to go see what this Seamless Gate wants, exactly.”

“Fine.”

“We’ll leave it in your hands, Arcanum.”

“Just delay for now. The Seamless Gate is very powerful; we aren’t capable of resisting them.”

“Right.”

Patriarch Arcanum exited from othat ancient tower, traveling alone.

……

Late night. A bright moon was hanging in the skies, bathing the world below with its glow.

A maiden was quietly waiting atop a solitary mountain peak, staring at the bright moon. Behind her were a total of nine golden-robed Celestial Immortals.

“Brother Arcanum, the Exalted Envoy is right there.” A cloud flew towards them, with two figures atop it. One of them was a tall, skinny, narrow-eyed elder; this was Patriarch Arcanum. The other was a golden-robed and seemingly quite amiable elder.

“Eh?”

Patriarch Arcanum stared into the distance, then his pupils contracted. That maiden actually had a total of nine Celestial Immortals with her?

“The Seamless Gate is unreasonably powerful. A single envoy is actually leading a squad of so many Celestial Immortals. I’m afraid that this squad alone is enough to annihilate most supreme clans.” Patriarch Arcanum couldn’t help but feel a surge of cold fear. Although he was quite arrogant and brash in front of others, in front of the Seamless Gate, he still felt nervous.

Patriarch Arcanum landed on the mountain peak, then immediately said, “Arcanum greets you, Envoy.”