The Desolate Era (Web Novel)

Swoosh. A black vessel was flying at through the skies at high speed, with Ji Ning and the others atop the flying vessel. The vessel sometimes slowed down but sometimes sped up. Every so often, it would twist and turn.

“We’re too far away, and the ninth layer is filled with far too many dangers. It’ll probably take us seven or eight months before we reach that mountain. By then, the Voidsea Jadeseal would’ve been taken long ago.” The Ninedust Sectlord was rather anxious.

“We still have a shot,” Ning disagreed. “My heartworld projection has been keeping watch on the world. Winesage, Sectlord Timedream, Fiendqueen Dustrain, and the others are much farther away than we are. They’re furiously trying to get there as soon as they can as well. All of the Daolords close to the mountain are frantically trying to get inside the mountain. No matter who ends up with the Voidsea Jadeseal, it won’t be easy for them to escape.”

“Agreed.” The nearby Daolord Badlands had been seated with his eyes closed as he engaged in some Numerancy. He suddenly opened his eyes and nodded slowly. “I’ve finally finished my divinations.”

“You’ve finished your divinations?” Ning, Ninedust, and Solesky turned to look at him, their eyes lighting up.

“I can vaguely ‘see’ the insane battle which is about to erupt. One Daolord after another will perish,” Daolord Badlands said. “The struggles over this Voidsea Jadeseal will be incredibly intense and lethal! No one will be able to leave with it with ease.”

“Good.” Ning and the others were actually delighted by this. Many Daolords would die? Who cared! All of them wanted to acquire one of the jade seals.

“Hahaha, we might actually be able make it in time after all.” Solesky was excited.

“Considering the size of the ninth layer, our group is actually fairly close to that mountain. Daolord Skyaxe and big brother Soleman are more than ten times as far away as we are,” Ning said. “And we’re much closer than Winesage as well.”

The closer you were, the better your chances would be.

……

Within the mountain. Daolord Redgem had been the first to charge in. He swept the area with his gaze, only to see nothing in the surrounding mountains.

“Where is the Voidsea Jadeseal? Where?!” Daolord Redgem was frantic. He knew that every single second he wasted might result in his death. “Come out!” He swept out his godsense, but the barriers within the mountain range made it so that he was unable to find it at all.

“Break! Break! Break!” The anxious Daolord Redgem manifested a total of eighteen arms, sending all of them to strike out at the nearby mountains in a wanton fashion. Boom! Boom! Boom! Stones split apart and shattered. In virtually just the blink of an eye, every part of the entire mountain range had been blasted and struck. Deep within the mountain, a stone pillar suddenly revealed itself as the surrounding stones were blasted apart. The stone pillar held atop of it a milky-white jade seal that was round and glowed with light. The jade seal was absolutely beautiful and intoxicating to behold.

“My Voidsea Jadeseal!” Daolord Redgem was incredibly excited. He instantly charged forwards as he sent all eighteen of his arms to smash against the stone pillar. BOOM! An enormous sound could be heard as the formations protecting the pillar were destroyed. In truth, the formations on the stone pillar were meant to hide it, and they themselves weren’t all that powerful.

“Ahahah! The Voidsea Jadeseal is mine!” Daolord Redgem grabbed the round seal. It looked like nothing more than an unusual piece of jade. Its surface glowed with incredibly pure light and no runes or patterns could be seen atop it. When Daolord Redgem grabbed it, he sent just a tendril of his Immortal energy into it and instantly could sense that was beginning to form an ‘illusory body’ within the jade seal that was absolutely identical to his true body.

Daolord Redgem immediately put the seal away. He suppressed his joy, his gaze turning cold and baleful. “Now, I need to come up with a way to immediately escape the Waveshift Realm! The realm is protected by the Grand Waveshift Formation, making it impossible for me to use any sort of temporal or dimensional escaping method. If I want to escape this place, my only choice is to physically fly out of it.”

“I’ll go back the same way I came in. I remember the exact path I took, so I won’t run into any dangerous regions. Time to go all out!” Daolord Redgem gritted his teeth, then took out an escape-type Dao-seal and shattered it.

He was an unremarkable figure within the Waveshift Realm, but he was still a second-tier Daolord who was on the same general level as Kongsan or Ji Ning. He had more than ten protective treasures on him, and escape-type treasures were naturally included.

Swish! He instantly transformed into a streak of light and began to charge outwards. When he escaped the mountain, he instantly saw his four Daolord companions off in the distance. They were still being suppressed by Sectlord Timedream’s heartworld projection and thus were unable to fly at as much as 1% of their normal speed. They still had yet to even reach the mountain!

“Redgem!” Their eyes turned red as they glared at him.

“Hmph. Gentlemen, I found the Voidsea Jadeseal so it naturally belongs to me.” Daolord Redgem’s body was still protected by that barrier of black light. Now that he had also used an evasion-type Dao-seal, he was moving more than a hundred times the speed of light.

Swish! Daolord Redgem completely ignored his compatriots as he hurriedly moved to flee.

“You want to run?” An enraged roar rang out from off in the distance as a figure completely bathed in crimson flames charged towards him, radiating an aura of overwhelming power.

Rumble… the crimson flames suddenly spread out, giving Daolord Redgem no chance to dodge as they instantly surrounded him.

“King Gorsch?” Daolord Redgem’s face tightened slightly, but his eyes were filled with madness. “No one can stop me!” The Dao-seal he had used to resist the heartworld projection still had some power left and thus it was also able to resist the terrifying crimson flames.

Swoosh! Daolord Redgem was simply too fast. Although he was weaker than King Gorsch, in a real battle there was no way King Gorsch would be able to stop him through speed alone.

“Halt!” King Gorsch let out an enraged roar as he waved his hand. Instantly, an enormous illusory formation descended to cover an area of a hundred million kilometers, with Daolord Redgem naturally being caught inside.

“No…” A look of despair appeared on Daolord Redgem’s face when he saw the formation descend, and he let out an enraged howl.

“Did you really think a Voidsea Jadeseal would end up with someone like you?” King Gorsch smirked, his hands suddenly expanding to become incredibly vast. His hands were so large as to blanket the skies, and he delivered a smashing blow towards Daolord Redgem. His hands were so vast that there was no way for Daolord Redgem to dodge at all.

BOOM! As the enormous palms came smashing down, they crashed straight against Daolord Redgem! The barrier of black light surrounding Daolord Redgem’s body began to tremble.

“Die for me.” King Gorsch launched one frenzied attack after another, and Daolord Redgem was able to do nothing but endure the blows despite his despair. Alas, King Gorsch’s attacks were simply far too strong. Sectlord Timedream’s heartworld projection and King Gorsch’s crimson flames were already comparable to full-force attacks from second-tier Daolords, but the actual, frenzied strikes of King Gorsch were a full level higher!

Boom! Boom! Boom! After taking a total of twenty-one palms, the black light covering Daolord Redgem’s body finally began to dim and fade.

“No…” Daolord Redgem clutched the seal tightly, his eyes filled with despair and resentment. “If I can’t have it, no one can!”

He wanted to shatter it… but alas, he wasn’t able to damage it in the slightest! This was an item created from the incredibly precious material known as voidsea jade, a priceless treasure. Even Emperor Waveshift had been forced to rely on secret smithing techniques to forge it and had been just barely able to slice it apart. There were no Daolords who were capable of actually destroying this thing!

BOOM! Yet another massive palm came crashing down. This time, Daolord Redgem died almost instantly, with both his soul and truesoul being completely extinguished.

“Haha, it’s mine!” King Gorsch waved his hand, collecting all of Daolord Redgem’s treasures and grabbing the Voidsea Jadeseal. He poured just a bit of his Immortal energy into it, verifying that it was indeed what he sought.

“The Voidsea Jadeseal is mine!” King Gorsch’s eyes turned mad with excitement. “No one can take it from me!”

“Time to go!” King Gorsch didn’t waste any time at all, immediately departing from this area.

……

“King Gorsch has already acquired the Voidsea Jadeseal.” The Heartforce Cultivators within the Waveshift Realm were all chatting mentally with each other and thus quickly learned this information.

Although Sectlord Timedream was using his projection to suppress that region, making it impossible for Ning and the others to investigate the area, Sectlord Timedream had to tell all the other Heartforce Cultivators what was going on. Otherwise, they would use their own heartworld projections to cause trouble and interfere with his actions.

“It fell into the hands of King Gorsch?” The Ninedust Sectlord began to worry. “He’s incredibly powerful, and a member of the Aeonians. Once the Aeonians activate their Aeonian bloodlines, they can become even more powerful. It’ll be incredibly hard for anyone to seize the seal from him.”

“Don’t worry. Sectlord Timedream and the others won’t let King Gorsch just do as he pleases,” Ning said.

In truth, Ning was worried as well… but all they could do for now was to hurry.

……

Boom!

Just as King Gorsch was fleeing, a terrifyingly strong heartworld projection came crashing down upon him, suppressing him. Right at this moment, the four Daolords who had been accompanying Daolord Redgem suddenly felt the pressure being lifted off of them, allowing them to instantly relax.