The Desolate Era (Web Novel)

Within the starbase.

Seventeen horned, scaled warriors stared at the mirror and the images within it. They watched as Ji Ning slaughtered his ten opponents.

“Lord Protector.”

Balo suddenly appeared within the midair mirror. He looked through it, then said, “Lord Protector, I’ve finished my tests. This alien’s speed and sword-arts are all Heaven-level, while his power is Earth-level. In addition, he has yet to display any particularly astonishing abilities to increase his power.”

“Good.” The horned, black-caped warrior within the starbase said, “Balo, your mission is over.”

“Everyone.” The horned, black-caped warrior swept the room with his gaze. “I plan to send a report regarding this alien to the Palace of Elders. Any objections?”

“No objections.”

“None.”

They all spoke out.

“Good.” The horned, black-caped warrior nodded lightly.

……

On a continent of the Primordial Ruinworld. Within the world known as the Snaphorn world.

Within an enormous structure that was more than thirty thousand meters high. A series of thrones hovered in the air within it in the shape of an arc. A total of nine thrones were present here.

One after another, horned, gold-caped, gold-eyed warriors with scales began to appear. Their auras were incomparably powerful. After all nine appeared, an enormous mirror appeared in the air above them, and images began to display within the mirror.

“Venerable Elders, I am Protector Qiwa of Area 1292 of the Third Void Sector.” The horned, black-caped warrior spoke with great respect through the mirror. “We have discovered an alien who has entered the Third Void Sector of our Snaphorn world. Just now, we’ve made first contact with him.”

Whoosh.

Instantly, the images of Balo sending his ten subordinates to fight against Ji Ning appeared within the mirror as well. In fact, even the conversation between Ning and the blood-eyed warriors was replayed in its entirety.

“We judge him to have power close to the Heaven-level. He may also have some other hidden abilities,” the horned, black-caped warrior said with great respect.

“Oh, an alien?”

“It’s been quite some time since we’ve seen an alien from beyond the Quchang world or the Heptagod world.”

“Interesting. He actually has two arms and two legs? And his body is so tiny…”

“Tan skin…black eyes…”

The nine Elders watched with amusement.

They had incomparably exalted statuses; most matters wouldn’t be considered important enough to be directly reported to them. However…an alien invader was one of the most important matters possible. The appearance of even a single invader required a report to be made to the Palace of Elders. After all, once a single alien appeared…it meant that a planetary war might soon erupt.

“An alien which we have never seen before. He flies at a fairly ordinary speed…but he’s still able to advance against the voidwaves. This means his body must be quite powerful, at least. Or perhaps he might have a special method to block the voidstorms?” An Elder smiled. “I recommend that we sent out a commando squad from the Third Void Sector to capture the alien. After that, we will dissect and analyze him. An alien that we’ve never met before, and which is able to block the voidwaves despite being so small…he’s worthy of analysis.”

“I recommend…that we completely mobilize the Third Void Sector. We absolutely must ensure that he cannot escape.”

“Complete mobilization? That will use up too much of our strength. This alien isn’t able to fly that fast; the warriors that we send out can easily catch up to him. There’s no need whatsoever for us to completely mobilize the Third Void Sector.”

“But this is a completely unknown alien; we can’t let him escape.”

“Can it be that you think the commando squads of the Third Void Sector are unable to deal with him?”

The Elders debated back and forth.

But right at this moment…

Rumble…

A terrifying presence descended.

The nine mighty Elders all raised their heads to look, only to see an enormous figure appear in the skies. This figure consisted of an enormous golden eye…and this illusory golden eye alone was already more than thirty thousand meters wide.

“Queen Mother.” The nine Elders all rose to their feet, saluting respectfully.

The enormous golden eye stared intently at the image of Ning, a look of excitement and anger appearing within it. A rumbling voice boomed forth…

“Right…there’s no mistaking it! That’s a human! A HUMAN!!!”

“Human?” The nine Elders were completely puzzled.

“Queen Mother, what’s a human?”

“He’s a human?”

They were all completely baffled.

“The powerful humans…the terrifying humans…” The golden eye stared intently at Ning as the voice continued to echo forth within the entire Palace of Elders. “They are the masters of the Three Realms. They are the culprits who pursued us and killed us…the common enemy of our Snaphorn world, the Heptagod world, the Quchang world, and countless other worlds.”

“The masters of the ‘Three Realms’?”

“Where are these ‘Three Realms’?”

“The common enemy of countless worlds?”

The Elders grew more and more confused.

The golden eye stared carefully at Ning, continuing to speak. “Long, long, long ago, there was a great war…a war which truly tore apart even chaos itself, a war which shattered the Void. The final end to that great war resulted in the formation of this shattered, chaotic land. As for the beautiful, stable, all-encompassing Three Realms…they were taken over by another force, a powerful force! As for us, the defeated…our only choice was to come here and live with this unstable, shattered, Infinite Land.”

“What?”

“Our Infinite Land…is a land of the defeated?”

“How, how can this be?”

“Our Snaphorn world is already incomparably powerful, but the Infinite Land has even more powerful presences within it. It even has many ‘Sacred Ancients’ within it; how could it be a land of the defeated?”

The nine Elders couldn’t believe it. They didn’t want to believe it. They had always felt themselves to be extremely powerful, while the combined powers of the Infinite Land were even more powerful…but they were actually still inferior to this so-called ‘Three Realms’?

“Sacred Ancients are known as ‘Daofathers’ or ‘True Gods’ in the Three Realms!” The golden eye continued to speak. “The Three Realms have many True Gods and Daofathers…in fact, they even have powers that are above True Gods and Daofathers…especially that legendary figure known as Nuwa. She was truly too terrifying…even Sacred Ancients were instantly slain before her.”

“What?!” The nine Elders were completely stunned.

Sacred Ancients? Instantly slain?

Nuwa?

Who was this Nuwa?

The nine Elders firmly engraved the name ‘Nuwa’ into their memories.

“There are some extremely powerful Daofathers in the Three Realms who are capable of annihilating our Snaphorn world with but the wave of a hand. When they part their lips, flames will emerge that can engulf the space of the void, causing even space itself to be set alight. When they brandish their swords….they can cause multiple Sacred Ancients to flee without recourse.” A faraway look was in pupil of the golden eye as it continued to speak slowly.

The nine Elders all knew very well that their Queen Mother was the founder and builder of their world, a figure who had existed ever since the days of the most ancient of wars.

What the Queen Mother spoke of, she most likely had personally witnessed.

Too terrifying…

This ‘Three Realms’ was far too terrifying!

“In addition, the Three Realms have many other races within them. The most powerful of those races, however, are the humans. The humans are the masters of the Three Realms,” the golden eye said. “Supposedly, it was Nuwa who created humans, and she doted dearly upon them. In addition…humans have a terrifying rate of growth as well as procreation. They gave birth to many powerful individuals, including many of their ‘Daofathers’. Humans are the most powerful, have the most potential, and are publicly acknowledged as the masters of the Three Realms.”

“And this little invader…he is human!”

The golden eye stared death towards Ning.

“Human?”

The nine Elders stared at Ning as well. Previously, they had looked down upon him as they might look down upon a bug. They felt themselves to be wise and powerful; they hadn’t held this puny little figure in any regard. But now, from what they had just learned…they realized that this puny little fellow, less than a tenth of a percent of their size…was actually one of terrifying masters of the Three Realms, a common enemy to the entire Infinite Land…a human!

“So this is a ‘human’?”

The nine Elders couldn’t help but feel a sense of both dread and respect, because the race behind this alien invader was simply too terrifying.

“However…there is no need to worry about a little fellow like him,” the Queen Mother’s voice rang out. “This is the Infinite Land, not the Three Realms. Those so-called Heavenly Daos of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, and the others…they are useless here. Only the most supreme of Daos, the Heavenly Dao of Primordial Chaos, is present here. The Dao of Primordial Chaos is the most exalted of Daos. Both the Infinite Land and the Three Realms were born from the primordial chaos…and anything born from the primordial chaos is subject to the Dao of Primordial Chaos. However…anyone capable of understanding the Dao of Primordial Chaos, even just a tiny part of it, would be considered one of the most supreme figures of the Three Realms. This little fellow shouldn’t be that strong.”

“Right.” The nine Elders all nodded.

The Dao of Primordial Chaos…

They had heard of it before. It was the most exalted of Daos, the most powerful of Daos! If one could summon the limitless power of the Dao of Primordial Chaos, even the killing of Daofathers would be accomplished with ease.

“Hear and obey,” the Queen Mother’s voice rang out, having grown deeper. “Fully activate the entire Third Void Sector. This human absolutely must not escape.”

“Send out all of the commando squads of the Third Void Sector to capture this human.”

“Send out the entire First Army of our border armies. This human must be captured!”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

The nine Elders all assented with respect.

……

“The Queen Mother commands the alien to be captured. We shall fully mobilize.” A horned, violet-caped warrior let out a bellow.

“For the Queen Mother!” The dense cluster of a thousand-plus black-caped warriors all called out in unison.

……

“The Queen Mother commands that our First Army fully mobilize at once to capture this alien.” A horned warrior with an extremely powerful aura let out a roar. This horned warrior wore a golden cape which was covered with black tattoos at the base.

“For the Queen Mother!”

The group of horned, violet-caped warriors below him all called out with respect and ardor.

They immediately began to summon their squads and units. Soon, the most powerful army of the border armies, the First Army, flew out from the Infinite Land. They boarded their enormous spaceships and flew into the Void, towards the direction of Ji Ning.

……

Within the darkness of the void.

Three powerful minds were communicating with each other, one of which was the Queen Mother who had just given the order.

“Elder sister, why have you awoken us?”

“It isn’t time for us to wake up yet.” The two other minds each released their own queries.

However, the mind of the Queen Mother said: “In the space around our Snaphorn world, a human has appeared.”

“A human?”

“What? A human?”

The two other terrifying minds instantly trembled. They would never be able to forget that terrifying war. The tremendous power of the human race had been completely engraved into their minds. Even though countless eras had passed since then…they could never forget. That had been a true nightmare. That terrifying entity had countless experts, and the humans were the most powerful of them. Those utterly enormous, so-called ‘formations’…those blazing infernos that had been birthed from the Solar Star…those staves, those trees, those swords, those weapons…they had exterminated countless individuals that the three of them had venerated. They all felt tremendously grateful for having been able to survive that great war.