The Desolate Era (Web Novel)

“Impossible. There’s no way he can be an Empyrean God or True Immortal. If he had already overcome his tribulation…there’s no way he could’ve hidden it past us, the Seamless Gate!” Violetgrass and the rest of the twelve surviving Celestial Immortals began to flee in terror. Ji Ning’s tremendous power was great enough for them to feel that he was an Empyrean God or a True Immortal…but that didn’t make sense!

It wasn’t possible!

Ji Ning had the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] and was capable of masking an Immortal aura, but he still had to undergo the Celestial Tribulation; there was no way something like that could’ve escaped the eyes of the Seamless Gate! In fact…no tribulation of any living creature in the Three Realms could escape the eyes of the Seamless Gate!

“Ahhh!” A fleeing Celestial Immortal with a big bushy beard attempted to use a large gourd to block, but Ning’s sword-finger knocked it flying away, then executed him. He perished and his Dao came to an end.

“How could Ji Ning be this powerful?!” The various Celestial Immortals all let out agonized cries of grief and rage. Sword-fingers criss-crossed the skies with annihilating, slaying power.

“The intelligence reports were wrong. WRONG!”

“What the hell?!”

“I can’t believe this!”

These Celestial Immortals were all elites of the Seamless Gate. They normally only acted after they were given very accurate intelligence reports; as the saying went, only when one knew one’s self and one’s foes could one be the victor in every battle. A major error like this…it had truly never happened before! At their level, once one made a single error of this magnitude, the penalty would be one’s life!

Ning executed [Three Heads, Six Arms]. His six sword-fingers assaulted six different Celestial Immortals…but these six strikes only used the [Starseizing Hand] and swordforce. His seventeenth stage [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens] power, combined with the Fourth Cycle of the [Starseizing Hand], was already comparable to that of supreme Celestial Immortals. If he added swordforce to it as well…his power was definitely no longer than that of Celestial Immortal Unity’s.

In other words…Ning’s six sword-fingers were like six Celestial Immortal Unity’s.

Right now, the enemy formation had already been shattered. They were all fleeing; there was no need for him to add his heartforce into the mix. Heartforce was far too tiring, and each full-strength blow from his sword used up a fifteenth of it. He could only use it for fifteen strikes; naturally, Ning was going to save it for the most critical moments.

“Hmph.” A cold light flashed through through Ning’s eyes. He showed no mercy at all with his killing blows.

His six sword-fingers instantly slaughtered five of the Celestial Immortals. One of them had been aimed towards the woman…and this one failed.

“Eh?” Ning glanced towards the woman in surprise. A thick layer of azure light had appeared around her body. This azure light was protecting her, having blocked Ning’s earlier sword-finger.

……

“Too powerful. Our intelligence reports were completely wrong.” Violetgrass was still terrified. A pair of talismans appeared in her hands, as well as a Dao-seal. The Dao-seal was a Greater Teleportation Dao-seal…however, using it would require time. Given Ning’s attack speed, that period of time would be more than enough for him to launch more than ten attacks.

Crack! Crack!

Shattering the talismans could be done near-instantly. Violetgrass immediately shattered the two talismans belonging to the two powerful experts capable of saving her.

Her status in the Seamless Gate was extremely special, and she was protected by several major figures. Aside from the supreme Celestial Immortals such as Celestial Immortal Blackheaven, there were two True Immortals as well; the Gatemaster of the Seamless Gate and her brother-in-law, True Immortal Gaudy.

……

The distant Fifth World.

Within one of the towering edificies, the Gatemaster of the Seamless Gate, the Cavemaster of the Myriad Demons Cave, and the Hallmaster of Bloodcloud Hall were staring at many mirrors that were hanging in midair. The mirrors had many different images within them; these were their various gathering spots within the world of the Grand Xia. They were using Pure Yang treasures to keep watch over the battles in those areas and also transmit the images back.

Many of the images would often flicker through various locations. There were ten-plus water mirrors, however, which had stable images within them. This was because these ten-plus water mirrors were keeping watch over missions where the goal was to kill the foes.

“Not good.”

“Something unexpected has just happened at Stillwater city.”

“It’s Ji Ning!”

The faces of three leaders changed dramatically as they turned to focus on one of the water mirrors. The water mirror displayed the image of a youth soaring into the heavens. His sword-finger chopped through the heavens and broke apart the Turtle-Snake Formation. The cold look on the youth’s face, that heart-stoppingly sharp aura and pose, and the sharp silvery-white light at the tip of the sword-fingers all caused them to shudder in amazement.

“This Ji Ning’s aura is far more terrifying than it was eighteen years ago.”

“Is that…swordforce coming from his sword-fingers?”

“Can it be that he’s mastered the Dao of the Sword?”

The three leaders were truly rather stunned. They had guessed long ago that Ji Ning, having survived the descent of the karmic sinflames, would have grown somewhat more powerful but…in the Nihilum Zone, there was no way to sense any of the Grand Daos! Logically speaking, Ji Ning shouldn’t have improved much with regards to the Daos. Given that he had yet to overcome his tribulation…there should’ve been a limit to how much he could’ve grown stronger. However, Ji Ning had just slapped their expectations in the face!

They could never have guessed that Ji Ning would’ve been able to come up with a way to apply heartforce, all on his own!

“Azurefox, what should we do?” The Cavemaster of the Myriad Demon Caves and the Hallmaster of Bloodcloud Hall both looked towards the Gatemaster of the Seamless Gate.

The azure-robed woman said softly, “The results of that battle have already been determined. There’s no way to change things. Still…Violetgrass has True Immortal Gaudy standing behind her. If she’s in any life-threatening danger, she’ll definitely break the talisman which Gaudy gave her. I trust that Gaudy will definitely intervene to save her. If Gaudy goes, that’ll be enough. Right now, the question in my mind is…what are we supposed to do about this Ji Ning?”

“Ji Ning…” The fire-robed man and the skinny elder both began to frown.

“I guessed long ago that he would eventually become an impediment to our subjugation of the Grand Xia, but I didn’t expect that he would become so powerful even prior to overcoming his tribulation. If we wait and let him overcome his tribulation and become an Empyrean God…that’s not acceptable!” The azure-robed woman shook her head. “I really wonder who the hell his master is, for him to produce a monster like this…”

For a peerless monster like this to be forged, not only did the ‘raw materials’ have to be superb, the master had to be good as well. They had no idea…that behind Ji Ning stood the most mysterious Daofather of the Three Realms, Patriarch Subhuti, as well as the already-deceased Daoist Threelives, the creator of the [Starseizing Hand], the supreme divine ability that had shaken the Three Realms.

As the saying went, the master could show the way but the student had to walk the path. Still…the master showing the way came first! Ning was indeed born to be a peerless Sword Immortal, but if he didn’t have the [Starseizing Hand] divine ability, there’s no way he could’ve become as monstrous as this. If he hadn’t learned [Houyi’s Archery], he probably wouldn’t have been able to come up with a way to apply heartforce. He would only be a ‘normal’ but powerful Sword Immortal. But of course…a good master and a good student made for a good pair; both were necessary! Several people had the chance to learn the [Starseizing Hand], and quite a few had learned [Houyi’s Archery], but how many of them had ever reached Ning’s level?

……

“Inconceivable.”

Celestial Immortal Unity, having dodged a disaster, was stunned by Ji Ning. For a moment, he had many complicated, strange feelings in his heart.

“Where do you think you are going?” Unity quickly came back to his senses. Letting out an angry roar, he immediately controlled his Supreme Immortal Sword to go slaughter the fleeing Celestial Immortals.

Yu Wei and Immortal Diancai, who had been chasing after Ning from behind, were both stunned as well.

They felt both shock and joy.

Shock…because Ji Ning was this powerful! Too powerful!

Joy…because the more powerful Ji Ning was, the better!

The entire situation had been completely changed. Those eighteen Celestial Immortals had been dominating Unity, but now they were being chased and slaughtered.

“KILL!” Ning showed no mercy whatsoever. Moments ago, he had used a single full-force sword-finger to wipe out six Celestial Immortals. Just now, he had killed five more…leaving only seven survivors.

[Three Heads, Six Arms]! [Starseizing Hand]!

Six sword-fingers once more streaked through the heavens in every direction.

“Die!” Unity also controlled his Supreme Immortal Sword to chase after and slaughter the remaining foes.

“The storm has come. Yesterday, I killed others; today, others shall kill me.” As a skinny Celestial Immortal’s magic treasure was knocked flying away, he shut his eyes. The only thing that had been in his eyes was tranquility. A calamitous storm had swept the entire Three Realms, and even the likes of Ji Ning, Celestial Immortal Unity, Yu Wei, and the others had all mentally prepared themselves for death.

Thus…they had to seize every opportunity that appeared before them. When slaughtering weak foes, no mercy was to be shown.

Kill! Kill! KILL!

One Celestial Immortal after another died. One of Ning’s six sword-fingers once more struck towards the fleeing Celestial Immortal Violetgrass.

BOOM! The azure light around Violetgrass was actually able to endure the blows, but it was now clearly shuddering.

However…this time, Ning’s six sword-fingers only managed to slay three Celestial Immortals. Aside from Violetgrass, two others had managed to survive as well.

“I have to survive. I have to!” A Celestial Immortal with triangular pupils had a twisted look on his face and a terrifying look in his eyes. He manifested an Immortal estate out of nowhere, then disappeared into it.

The other Celestial Immortal had also hidden into an Immortal estate.

“Kill!”

The Supreme Immortal Sword slaughtered another Celestial Immortal.

By now…

Only three of the original eighteen Celestial Immortals were left. They were Celestial Immortal Violetgrass and the two who had hidden themselves within their Immortal estates.

……

“Idiots!” Violetgrass, seeing this, couldn’t help but curse to herself. Their intelligence reports had stated that one of the two Celestial Immortals of the Youngflame clan which Ji Ning had slain was Celestial Immortal Goldclock. As a result, his divine greatclock had fallen into Ji Ning’s hands. Given that Stillwater City was in a dangerous situation…as long as Ji Ning wasn’t stupid, he would have given it to his Dao-companion or his master. That divine greatclock was capable of suppressing and binding!

……

“Senior apprentice-sister,” Ning roared mentally towards her.

“Get in here.” Yu Wei waved her hand, and the divine greatclock flew out. It quickly expanded in size until it became the size of a small mountain. It hung there in the skies, and the space at the base of the greatclock began to twist and distort. The two Immortal estates were immediately sucked into the greatclock without being able to resist at all…then the divine greatclock once more shrank down and flew back to Yu Wei’s hands.

Ning laughed.

This divine greatclock was one of the most important, clan-protecting treasures of the Youngflame clan. Aside from the Worldhold Pagoda, it was the most important treasure the entire clan had. However, only Celestial Immortals were capable of wielding a Pure Yang treasure. Given that Stillwater City was facing a crisis and that a storm was approaching the Three Realms, how could Ning have been so selfish as to only think of himself? He naturally wanted to come up with ways to help the people he cared about grow more powerful, and so he had given the divine greatclock to Yu Wei.

Those two Celestial Immortals had hidden themselves within their Immortal estates in the hopes of buying themselves some time to use Greater Teleportation Dao-seals. If Ning’s group didn’t have the divine greatclock, they actually might’ve managed to escape; after all, there was no way for them to destroy those Immortal estates. Those Immortal estates were meant to save the lives of those two Celestial Immortals and were quite sturdy.

However, Ning’s group DID have that divine greatclock. The Immortal estates themselves were not capable of resisting such an effect, and so as soon as those two Celestial Immortals had hidden themselves within their estates, their estates had been effortlessly sucked into the divine greatclock. The divine greatclock possessed a completely independent dimension within it; once one was suppressed inside it, there was no way to escape at all.

This was why Violetgrass had called them fools.

However…how could the two not have realized this? They were already faced with certain death, and so they had no choice but to make this gamble. Their gamble was that Ning was a very selfish person who hadn’t been willing to give the divine greatclock to others.

……

“You are the last one left.” Ning’s gaze turned towards Celestial Immortal Violetgrass. All six of his sword-fingers stabbed through the skies towards Violetgrass. Although all of this had taken time to describe, the exchange of attacks had actually happened very quickly, as fast as lightning.

“You can’t kill me!!!” Violetgrass was utterly terrified…but how could she possibly flee faster than the speed of those sword-fingers?

Those six sword-fingers flew through the skies, piercing through space and converging upon the same point.

“STAY YOUR HAND!”

A roar rang out, filled with the power of Pure Yang-level energy.

BOOM!!!!

The grand sealing formation outside was blasted apart, and the enraged roar echoed within the ears of Ning and the others.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!!!!

The six sword-fingers simultaneously struck Celestial Immortal Violetgrass. The azure barrier was no longer able to endure any longer. It blew apart into tiny pieces…and under the blows of the six massive sword-fingers, Violetgrass’s body was instantly reduced to dust. She perished, her Dao coming to an end!