The Desolate Era (Web Novel)

“Let’s go.” Upon seeing the message talisman shatter, a cold light flashed through Celestial Immortal Violetgrass’ eyes. She immediately gave the order.

Whoosh!

Eighteen figures flew towards Stillwater City at high speed, riding the clouds. They were hidden fairly close to Stillwater City to begin with. Once they reached a distance of three thousand kilometers away from Stillwater City, their faces all changed.

“Coresense!”

“A Celestial Immortal from Stillwater City is keeping watch with coresense.”

“We’ve been discovered!”

The eighteen Celestial Immortals all had a bad feeling. They had guessed that Celestial Immortal Unity would be very cautious, but they had never expected this! It had been more than half a year since the final note had been sent…could it be that Celestial Immortal Unity had been maintaining his coresense watch for all that time?

In truth, even though Immortal Diancai, the Rainbowflame Fairy, and Celestial Immortal Unity rotated through this duty, it was still exhausting. Thus, they didn’t cover too much area with their coresense, just the entirety of Stillwater City and three thousand kilometers around it!

It must be understood that given how strong Celestial Immortals were, even the weakest of them would be able to easily stretch their coresense out to a hundred thousand kilometers. But of course, that could only be maintained for a short period of time.

“Although Celestial Immortal Unity is being quite cautious…that is as we expected,” Violetgrass sent mentally.

“Right.” The other Celestial Immortals weren’t worried.

“Let’s attack from here. No need to advance any further.” Violetgrass gave the order, and the eighteen Celestial Immortals descended from the skies into the desolate wilderness.

Violetgrass released her own coresense, reaching out to touch the coresense of the Celestial Immortal within Stillwater City. Since they had been discovered, there was no need to hide themselves any further. “Unity, our Seamless Gate has arrived. Hurry up and surrender!”

……

Night.

Stillwater City.

“The Seamless Gate has arrived!” Yu Wei sent this mental message through coresense. Instantly, two other figures flew into the skies and towards her at high speed. One was Celestial Immortal Unity, who flew out from the Marquis Estate; the other was Immortal Diancai. As for Ji Ning…he had been with Yu Wei this entire time.

The entire Stillwater City was merely nine thousand kilometers long, and the Marquis Estate was fairly close to the Black-White College; they were able to instantly assemble.

“They came?” Celestial Immortal Unity landed, his eyes filled with a shocking desire for battle.

“Right. They are three thousand kilometers away from the east gate of Stillwater City,” Yu Wei said. “Once they saw my coresense, they immediately landed. They haven’t advanced any further.”

Celestial Immortal Unity laughed, his laughter filled with a savage killing intent. “Three thousand kilometers? That’s enough! They’ve already entered the range of our formations.”

“Fellow Daoist Unity,” Immortal Diancai said hurriedly, “The actual city of Stillwater City was created by the Grand Xia Dynasty; it innately contains tremendous power, and is also filled with many formations. If they don’t enter the city proper, there’s no way for us to use the innate formations that are built into the city; we can only use the formations which the Northmont clan have laid down. Those formations are significantly weaker; at most, we’ll be able to slow them down a bit.”

“That’s already enough,” Celestial Immortal Unity said with a laugh. “The Seamless Gate is very cautious; there’s no way they’d be so stupid as to rush straight into the city proper. Activate the formations right now and take control over them.”

“Alright.” Yu Wei and Immortal Diancai both nodded.

Both of them were Celestial Immortals; when one used Celestial Immortal-level power to activate a formation, the strength of the formation would increase markedly.

……

Celestial Immortal Violetgrass and the other seventeen Celestial Immortals stood there within the wilderness, quietly staring at that massive city. Although they were three thousand kilometers away, they could still see it with the naked eye.

Rumble…

Suddenly, the world itself seemed to change.

Although it was night…an enormous cloud of fire suddenly appeared in the air above the entire city of Stillwater. Immediately afterwards, the world itself shook. First, an enormous barrier of light appeared, covering the entirety of Stillwater City as well as a region of nearly nine thousand kilometers around it! This grand sealing formation had a diameter of eighteen thousand kilometers!

“A sealing formation?” Celestial Immortal Violetgrass swept it with a glance; this grand formation had trapped the nearby mountains, forests, and wilderness as well. Since they were three thousand kilometers away from the city, they were naturally included within the formation.

Whoooosh.

Fog began to billow out.

Space began to distort.

The eighteen Celestial Immortals, however, remained quite calm. Violetgrass had seen many things and had an extraordinary status, while the other seventeen had engaged in wars of conquest across other major worlds; they had plenty of experience in these things. They could immediately tell that this sort of grand formation would at most be able to slow them down a bit, but wouldn’t be able to have much of an impact. In truth, it wasn’t too likely that clans like the Northmont clan of Stillwater could have excessively powerful formations!

“There’s no need for us to take things head-on for now,” Violetgrass sent mentally. “Given how proud Celestial Immortal Unity is…once he’s trapped us here, he’ll definitely take the initiative to attack us. If he truly is so cowardly as to refuse to come out…then we’ll use our formation to break through his formation with overpowering force.”

“Right.”

“Don’t worry.”

These Celestial Immortals were neither overconfident nor in a rush.

For the sake of killing Celestial Immortal Unity, they had made very detailed preparations. However, at their level…in the end, what mattered the most was power! Thus, the eighteen which the Seamless Gate had gathered here today had more than enough power to slay Celestial Immortal Unity and give him no way to escape.

……

The walls of Stillwater City.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Four figures descended upon them; Celestial Immortal Unity, Immortal Diancai, Ji Ning, and Yu Wei. Through their control over the formation, Ji Ning and the others were able to see through the bewildering fog and find those eighteen distant Celestial Immortals, even though those eighteen themselves couldn’t even tell north from south.

“There’s actually eighteen of them?” Immortal Diancai was startled. He gave Unity a glance. “Fellow Daoist Unity, last time you defeated a combined team of thirty-six Celestial Immortals. This time, even though they know that my disciple Ji Ning has returned, they actually have only sent eighteen? It seems as though these eighteen are definitely extraordinary Celestial Immortals.”

Ning said, “Fellow Daoist Unity, the Seamless Gate has come with ill intentions. The two of us should fight together; I’ll fight in close combat, while you attack from far away. If we join forces…”

“No need.” Unity shook his head.

Years ago, when Ning had first met Unity, he had referred to him as ‘senior’. However, now that Ning was famous for having fought nine Celestial Immortals head-on and killing two of them, Ning clearly had power comparable to that of a supreme Celestial Immortal. When also factoring in the fact that the Black-White College was his principle source of assistance in dealing with this assault from the Seamless Gate…Unity was naturally no longer willing to allow Ning and the others to refer to him as ‘senior’.

However, in their hearts, Ning and Immortal Diancai continued to feel great reverence for this senior of theirs, Unity.

“No need?” Ning was surprised.

“This battle today is primarily the culmination of my feud with the Seamless Gate,” Unity said. “Your Black-White College has already helped me by maintaining a coresense watch for half a year, and you are helping me right now by maintaining this formation. I already feel very grateful for all of this. In this battle with the Seamless Gate…there’s no need for you to intervene! The Seamless Gate has definitely prepared many techniques to deal with me, and they must feel confident in their chances. Then if you were to go…I don’t want to sound rude, but if you go, your chances of death are very high.”

Immortal Diancai and Yu Wei both nodded slowly.

Right.

They knew exactly how formidable Celestial Immortal Unity was; he was almost as strong as a Pure Yang True Immortal! To kill someone like this…the Seamless Gate had to prepare an even more powerful force. If the two of them went, they truly might die if they weren’t careful.

“But isn’t that going to make things even more dangerous for you, fellow Daoist?” Immortal Diancai asked hurriedly.

“Hahaha, they have their tricks…but so do I!” Unity said confidently, “They’ve never forced me to the point of going all out before.”

Immortal Diancai nodded slowly. Right. Unity had hidden himself away for countless eons, and almost everyone in the Three Realms had thought him to be dead. How strong, exactly, had he become over the course of so many years? Aside from Unity himself, most likely no one else knew.

“Fellow Daoist Unity, even a lion fighting against a rabbit should use all his might,” Ning said hurriedly. “The two of them are Ki Refiners, but I am a Fiendgod Body Refiner…”

“No need.” Unity frowned. Upon seeing Ning persevere, he added, “If you go, you’ll actually slow me down.”

Ning blinked.

“Friends of the Black-White College, just watch me butcher them.” Unity immediately transformed into a streak of white light as he flew far away.

“Ji Ning, the reason why senior Unity spoke so rudely was because he doesn’t want you to go,” Immortal Diancai said. “He’s a proud, solitary figure by nature; we’ve already helped him a lot, and he doesn’t want to accept our help any further.”

“I understand. I’m not angry at all.” Ning stared off into the distance. “Let’s watch senior Unity battle the Seamless Gate first. If he really does fall into a dangerous situation, I can intervene then.”

“Junior apprentice-brother, don’t be rash. Watch first.” Yu Wei stared off into the distance as well. “Get a sense for exactly how strong they are. If the Seamless Gate is too powerful…there’s no need for us to throw our lives away.”

“I understand.” Ning nodded.

……

Violetgrass and the other seventeen Celestial Immortals completely ignored the surrounding fog, as well as the illusory images that appeared around them. Suddenly…Violetgrass frowned slightly.

“Assemble into formation,” Violetgrass sent mentally. “Baxia.”

Instantly, the eighteen Celestial Immortals moved into formation. Six floated in the air while the other twelve remained standing on the ground. At the same time, they began to use their Immortal energy to manifest black tattoo lines. The lines quickly intersected, causing black runes to levitate into the air. Instantly, a blurry light began to cover the eighteen, slowly solidifying into the form of an enormous black Dragonturtle. The Dragonturtle lay there on the ground, raising its head upwards and letting out a ferocious howl.

Roaaaaaar!

The draconic roar echoed throughout the world, causing even the surrounding mist to somewhat disperse.

“Baxia the Dragonturtle, one of the Nine Sons of the Dragon?” A clear voice rang out as the mist part in front of them. Space solidified, and a long-haired man appeared standing in the air. He no longer looked as ordinary and low-key as he usually did; rather, he looked like a sharp, unsheathed sword that had revealed its fierceness. The long-haired man roared with laughter, “The Baxia Dragonturtle Formation, a formation that manifests one of the Primordial Godbeasts…quite a formidable formation, and one that is suited for defense. This is the perfect counter for me.”

“Unity, you still have a chance to join our Seamless Gate,” Violetgrass said coldly.

“Oh?” Unity shook his head. “As a person…I really hate it when others try to force me to do something. I’d rather die standing than live kneeling. Come, then…receive a blow from my sword!”

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh

Six streaks of sword-light shot out from Celestial Immortal Unity’s head. As they flew through the air, the six streaks began to merge together. Countless runes of light sparkled and flashed as the six Immortal swords completely fused into a single massive broadsword. The broadsword flashed with a white light that caused the hearts of those who saw it to turn cold; this was was the legendary ‘Supreme Immortal Sword’.

“Arise.” Unity had an icy look on his face as he unleashed a sword-art that he had never before used in battle.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Suddenly, within a hundred kilometers of this area, five pillars of light appeared and soared into the skies. These five pillars of light were gold, green, blue, crimson, and yellow, while above the enormous Supreme Immortal Sword appeared two enormous clouds, one white and one black. These two clouds circled and swirled around each other, looking like an enormous Taiji symbol.

The power of this stance was so great that the faces of Violetgrass and the eighteen Celestial Immortals all changed.

“The intelligence report never mentioned such a powerful sword-art!” One of the Celestial Immortals couldn’t help but sent a frantic mental message to the others.