The Desolate Era (Web Novel)

“Who are you?” The three Queen Mother clones all called out in unison. Looks of vigilance were in their eyes. The way in which the old man dressed in Daoist robes had appeared was simply too frightening! It must be understood that most people would use special methods to tear through space to teleport, but this old man had formed a spatial vortex instead, creating a corridor for himself to easily pass through.

There had been nothing flashy at all about it…this was something which the three Queen Mothers wouldn’t be able to do, no matter how hard they tried.

The Empyrean God of the Seven Planets looked towards the old man, but in its eyes was a look of wild joy.

“Subhuti came.”

“I knew it. With a disciple as monstrously talented as this, Subhuti HAD to come rescue him.”

“Haha, we’re saved!”

Even the calmest of the seven Empyrean Gods, Empyrean God Redsnow, let out a sigh of relief. None of them felt any doubt whatsoever as to whether or not Subhuti was capable of rescuing them. After all…Subhuti stood at the very, very top of the Three Realms, and was the most mysterious of Daofathers. Even Daoist Threelives was quite lacking compared to him!

“This is the territory of our Snaphorn world. We three sisters don’t wish to become enemies with you.” The three Queen Mother clones stared fixedly at the old man in the Daoist robes, paying no attention to the Empyrean Gods next to them.

The old man gave them a glance, then said calmly, “Vile creatures!”

Rumble…

When the two words, ‘vile creatures’ came out, an invisible ripple instantly pierced through the surrounding space, almost instantly arriving at the three Queen Mother clones. In the area where the three Queen Mothers were present, space and time began to twist, curve, and break apart. The three Queen Mother clones let out enraged roars within that field of shattered spacetime, and all the green light from their bodies surged forth, attempting to break out. However…they were completely unable to resist the field of shattered spacetime. Their three mighty clones were completely shattered and destroyed along with the local spacetime itself.

Everything turned silent.

The only ones left in the Void were Patriarch Subhuti, Ji Ning, and the Empyrean God of the Seven Planets.

“But…” Ning couldn’t believe what he had just seen.

“So this is the power of Patriarch Subhuti?” The seven Empyrean Gods were terrified as well. It must be understood that Empyrean God Redsnow stood at the very pinnacle of power amongst Empyrean Gods; in fact, he was extremely close in power to an ordinary Daofather. When the seven of them joined together into their Seven Planets Empyrean God Formation, they could be considered to have just barely reached the Daofather level of power.

Those three Queen Mother clones had been comparable to them in strength…but all that Patriarch Subhuti had done was say the words ‘vile creatures’, and an invisible ripple of power had instantly slaughtered those three clones without damaging the seven Empyrean Gods in the slightest.

An ability like this, finesse like this…they felt utterly amazed.

“Subhuti truly is Subhuti, the most mysterious Daofather of the Three Realms.”

“He really is powerful.”

“Utterly terrifying.”

The seven mighty Empyrean Gods were completely stunned.

Patriarch Subhuti was too mysterious a figure; he rarely showed his power within the Three Realms, and these seven Empyrean Gods had never seen him strike! They had only heard from their former Godking, ‘Daoist Threelives’, that Patriarch Subhuti was very strong, even stronger than Daoist Threelives himself. As for how much stronger…very few in the Three Realms knew the answer to that question. The number one impression which the countless experts of the Three Realms had of Patriarch Subhuti could be summarized in one word; ‘mysterious’!

Just look at the Crescent major world he had created! Without Patriarch Subhuti’s permission, nobody could even find it! This ability alone was utterly inconceivable.

……

In truth, the person who had undergone the greatest emotional turmoil just now was actually Subhuti’s disciple, Ji Ning.

He had felt despair upon being trapped, had quietly waited and fought for eighteen years, felt utter despair again upon being captured alive, felt shocked and overjoyed at the appearance of the seven Empyrean Gods, once more felt despair upon seeing how powerful the three Queen Mother clones were…and now, his master had appeared, said the words ‘vile creatures’, and completely killed all three Queen Mother clones.

In fact…in his heart, Ning felt as though the entire universe had suddenly changed.

The Void remained the Void…but Ning now felt that the Void was a beautiful, beautiful place.

“Respectful greetings to you, Old Patriarch.” The Empyrean God of the Seven Planets broke apart into seven Empyrean Gods, all of whom spoke out respectfully.

“Not bad.” Patriarch Subhuti lightly nodded.

The seven Empyrean Gods felt a joyful feeling in their hearts.

They understood the true meaning behind Patriarch Subhuti saying the words, ‘not bad’. Per Daoist Threelives’ orders, if his heir had not reached the Empyrean God level, the seven of them didn’t have to care about whether or not his heir lived or died. However, as Patriarch Subhuti saw it, Ji Ning was his own disciple as well as Threelives’; thus, Subhuti felt quite pleased that the seven of them had chosen to come out and protect Ning.

“Disciple.” Patriarch Subhuti looked towards Ning. He took a single step forward, displacing himself through space and appearing before Ning.

“Master.” Ning hurriedly called out to him with respect, tears having appeared in his eyes. “Thank you, Master…”

“Hahaha…” Subhuti laughed. “Come. It’s time to go back.”

“Right.” Ning nodded heavily.

“Why haven’t the seven of you returned yet?” Subhuti glanced backwards.

The seven Empyrean Gods hurriedly flew over. They first saluted towards Subhuti respectfully, and then they disappeared into nowhere. Clearly, they had returned to the Starseizing Manor…but the ‘master’ of the manor, Ji Ning, didn’t feel a thing. Clearly…he had yet to fully master this Starseizing Manor.

Ning raised his head, giving the infinite Void a final glance.

This Nihilum Zone…

It had proven to be a testing ground for him. In this place, he had first overcome the karmic sinflames, had reached the ‘ruler’ level in heartforce, had come up with a way to apply heartforce to his sword-fingers, and had mastered a tiny amount of swordforce…

Fortune and disaster often came hand-in-hand.

Whoosh. That spatial vortex once more appeared next to Patriarch Subhuti, looking just like an oceanic whirlpool. Patriarch Subhuti guided Ning into the spatial vortex…and then it all completely disappeared from the Nihilum Zone.

The Primordial Ruinworld. The Snaphorn world.

Within a field of endless darkness.

Three minds were conversing with each other…and their thoughts were full of terror.

“Who was that old man?”

“We’ve never seen him before. We didn’t even see him in that great war, all those years ago.”

“If we had encountered him in that war, we probably would’ve died long ago.”

“By the looks of him, he appears to be one of the humans of the Three Realms. From the fact that he attacked us, we can tell that he should belong to the side of the Three Realms.”

“Logically speaking, it should be impossible to teleport through the space of the Nihilum Zone…but he was able to do it! And in addition, he was able to annihilate our three clones simply through his mastery over spacetime. Abilities like these are utterly inconceivable.”

The three Queen Mothers were all restless and uneasy.

He had been too powerful.

His power had completely eclipsed theirs. In that great war, the three of them had been small-time players; they had only survived due to luck. Any one of the truly powerful figures of that great war could’ve crushed them to death with ease. Clearly, this old man was comparable to one of those truly powerful figures! A supreme power who was capable of impacting the entire course of that war!

“I wonder if that old man of the Three Realms has left or not.”

“I hope he leaves right away.”

“I hope he never comes to our Snaphorn world again.”

The three Queen Mothers conversed hopefully to each other, their courage having been completely shattered by the two words ‘vile creatures’. All they wanted right now was to never encounter that old man again.

“What the…”

“Oh no!”

“He’s here!”

The three Queen Mothers had covered the entire Snaphorn world with their minds long ago. They kept an extremely tight level of control over the world, and so if any powerful figure intruded within it, they would immediately notice.

……

The Snaphorn world was located at the margins of the infinitely vast Primordial Ruinworld. It was a world in its own right and was extremely vast. There were countless horned warriors who lived in this place….but at this moment, all of them could sense their entire world shaking. The ground itself was trembling, and the mountains were beginning to collapse.

“What is going on?”

“What is this?”

The countless horned warriors raised their heads to stare towards the skies. Some of these Snaphorn citizens were merely youths, not yet qualified to join the army; they had to reach at least the most basic level, the Earth-level, before they could become warriors. At this moment, every single person in the entire world, including the Elders of the Palace of Elders as well as every single army squad were staring at the skies with raised heads.

Rumble…

From beyond the Snaphorn world…a single, utterly gigantic palm had appeared.

This palm was nearly half as large as the entire Snaphorn world itself. When it slapped downwards through the Void of space towards the Snaphorn world…

Crackle, crackle, crackle…

The protective formations covering the Snaphorn world began to crack apart, and even spacetime itself was compressed so tightly that it began to shatter. And the strangest thing was…spacetime within the Snaphorn world began to compress into multiple layers of density, and the layers of spacetime came crashing downwards.

As the palm came slamming down, the layers of spacetime began to split apart.

“No!”

“Flee!”

“FLEE!”

Three utterly enormous creatures had suddenly charged out from deep within the Snaphorn world.

They, too, had incomparably massive bodies with pitch-black scales, but compared to the ordinary horned warriors, they were were much, much fatter. At first glance…one would see that their bellies took up nearly half the size of their entire bodies. Their ugly little eyes emitted rays of dark light that attempted to tear a hole through space.

Whoooooosh…

That enormous palm continued to descend, causing spacetime to continue to compress and shatter apart, layer by layer. The spacetime at the very bottom had become incredibly dense, making it so that the three mighty Queen Mothers were completely unable to tear a rift through space and flee, no matter how they tried.

“Spare us.”

“Spare us.”

“Spare us!”

All three Queen Mothers called out loudly, their voices reverberating through the entire Snaphorn world.

But that massive palm continued to coldly, emotionlessly continue its downward smash.

“No…” The countless horned warriors were all completely stunned. They felt terror, a terror that came from their very souls. This was all completely beyond their expectations. That giant palm which they could see with the naked eye…it was a palm of infinite size, a palm that was more than half as large as their entire world itself. Even if Ning were to use his [Torch-Dragon’s Eye], he still would find it hard to see the complete palm.

They could see the massive, canyon-like fingerprints and palm-print of that mighty palm.

BANG! BANG! BANG! An incredible amount of pressure had already been brought down to bear. The countless horned warriors of the Snaphorn world began to explode into green-colored bits of blood and gore. Only a very small number of violet-caped warriors and golden-caped warriors were able to just barely stay alive…but their bodies were also slowly beginning to crack.

“Old bastard…are you trying to start another war?!”

“Damn you, you old bastard!”

“Damn you!”

Asking for mercy was useless. The three Queen Mothers went mad, beginning to curse in utter despair, using every imprecation in the book. They weren’t even able to flee…all they could do was face this terrifying palm as it came down.

BANG! BANG! BANG! The palm had yet to make contact, but the pressured, fractured spacetime that came before it had caused the bodies of even the golden-caped warriors to completely blow apart. The only ones left within the Snaphorn world were those three mighty Queen Mothers. Their hideous bodies began to crack as well. Slowly, the cracks grew larger and larger, and the three Queen Mothers began to curse and scream in an even louder manner.

Finally…it all came to an end.

The three Queen Mothers had been completely blown apart, having transformed into dust.

BOOM!

The giant palm finally came to a halt.

An ancient voice rang out. “Start another war? Nothing more than three little worms!” And then…the enormous palm completely vanished.

Everything turned silent.

The entire Snaphorn world…had become transformed into a massive planetary basin with a giant, palm-shaped impression caved into it.1

1. To get a sense of what this looks like…take a look at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99yqtxKhOCc. Start at the 2 minute mark.