The Desolate Era (Web Novel)

The Flamewing God’s entire body was rippling with flames, but its gaze was a bit distant, almost as though it hadn’t completely woken up yet.

“Fuck off and don’t bother me,” the Flamewing God barked irritably. But then, its blurry gaze suddenly focused and narrowed as it glared intently at the Sithe Protector, Whitethaw, standing in front of Ji Ning. The scales on the creature’s body seemed to stand up, and its gaze became filled with rage as it ground out the word: “SITHE!”

“Not good.” Azurefiend paled as he hurriedly moved to stand in front of Ning as well.

“Be careful, Master!” Whitethaw had a solemn look on his face.

Boom! The Flamewing God moved to charge forwards, sweeping out with its giant paws. Its massive bear-shaped body was filled with such power that a wave of terrifying pressure was generated by the most basic of movements. All spacetime ripples came to a complete, frozen halt. Ning even felt as though his thinking speed had turned sluggish, and an inexplicable sense of fear filled his heart.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The six black chains around the Flamewing God instantly began to tighten from the strain. The charging Flamewing God was instantly pulled back into its original position by the power of the chains.

“GRWAAAAAH!” The Flamewing God let out a frustrated howl, furiously struggling to break free. Its wings were fluttering, and its entire body was trembling. The six black chains clanked furiously, but no matter how hard the creature tried to struggle the chains didn’t suffer the slightest bit of damage. The Sithe had put quite a bit of effort into building these chains and ensuring that this place would be able to draw from this Chaos Primordial’s energy.

“Damn you, Sithe! Damn you! Damn you! You’ve once more appeared before me, you damned Sithe!” The Flamewing God’s eyes were bloodshot with absolutely berserk rage.

Ning and Azurefiend both let out sighs of relief. “Thank goodness those chains are binding it. Otherwise, we would’ve been in serious danger.” Ning still felt a sense of fear. Chaos Primordials were terrifying creatures that were capable of devouring entire realmverses with ease. Even Otherverse Lords were unable to defeat them; they would at most be able to survive the creatures with difficulty. If Hegemon Azurefiend was to actually attempt to battle one, the end result would be him being smashed to death.

“Too terrifying. A mere wave of its claws caused me to feel as though I was in mortal danger,” Hegemon Azurefiend said with some lingering fear. “In the past, I’ve only heard of these creatures; I’ve never seen one of them in person. Now, I finally understand just how terrifying Chaos Primordials are.”

“Don’t let your guard down, Master.” The Sithe Protector continued to stand protectively in front of Ning.

The furious howls of the still-struggling Flamewing God echoed throughout the entire hidden region. Suddenly, it opened its mouth and spat out a ball of dark-red fire. The fire shot through the air and swept out to encompass all three of them.

“Not good!” Ning instantly felt a sense of nervousness. His subconscious was screaming to him that he was in danger, letting him know that even a supremely talented Daolord like himself would immediately perish if he let that dark-red fire touch him! Not even his invulnerable form would be able to save him.

Whoosh. Whitethaw’s body suddenly expanded dramatically in size as his body seemed to liquefy, allowing him to transform to become a giant metal barrier that completely covered Ning and Hegemon Azurefiend.

Whoooosh! The dark-red flames swept over every inch of the golem, but the barrier-shaped Whitethaw was able to block out every single flame. The fire continued to blaze away against him, but he was able to endure it.

“Whitethaw,” Azurefiend called out, “Are you going to be able to hold on?”

“Don’t worry. These flames cannot harm me.” Whitethaw’s voice echoed inside the protected region.

“Impressive, impressive!” Azurefiend sighed in amazement. “Sithe Protectors truly are incredible. There’s no way we cultivators can compare to you golems in terms of toughness. Although I have a formidable divine body, I wouldn’t dare to make the claim that I could face those flames and be completely unscathed.”

Ning nodded and smiled. “Any halfway-decent golem is comparable to top-grade Eternal treasures, while my own body is currently only comparable to high-grade Eternal treasures at best. As for Whitethaw… he is a Protector golem designed and created by the Sithe, an extraordinary golem that is both tough and flexible. It is very difficult to damage him.”

“Master.” Whitethaw’s voice echoed within the barrier once more. “If the Flamewing God wasn’t chained down, it’d probably be able to rip me apart with ease, given how strong it is. But since it thankfully is chained down… if all it has is these flames, it won’t be able to harm me at all.”

Ning stared through the semi-translucent metallic barrier towards the distant Flamewing God. The Flamewing God was clearly still in a berserk state as it continued to furiously belch out those terrifying flames.

This creature had the power to annihilate entire realmverses with ease, and even its flaming breath was enough to inspire dread in Hegemons. It took three Sithe Exalts, the most powerful members of the Sithe race, working together to capture it.

“What an irritable creature. It seems it truly does hate the Sithe,” Ning mused.

The Flamewing God continued to belch fire for a full hour before coming to a halt after realizing that it wasn’t damaging the barrier in the slightest.

Whoosh. Whitethaw returned to his normal form and reappeared next to Ning.

“I remember you, you Sithe!” The Flamewing God bellowed once more as it glared intently at Whitethaw.

“Wait a moment!” Ning hurriedly called out.

“Eh?” Only then did the Flamewing God turn its attention towards Ning and Hegemon Azurefiend. “A cultivator? A cultivator who serves the Sithe?” The Flamewing God seemed to grow even angrier.

“Flamewing God, the Sithe were wiped out countless aeons ago,” Ning said hurriedly. “After the Sithe were defeated, their treasures and relics fell into the hands of our cultivator civilizations. As for this Protector golem, it fell into my hands and is now my servant. I have no connection to the Sithe at all.”

“The Sithe? Wiped out?” The Flamewing God was startled, a look of puzzlement within its narrowed eyes.

Once, it had lived a carefree life of freedom… but then a nightmare had descended out of nowhere. Three Sithe experts had appeared, and they were simply far too powerful. The Flamewing God had sought to fight back, but the three worked together to capture it. From that day forth, it had lost its freedom! In the end, it had been imprisoned here and every so often its energy would be extracted. Although it was not very intelligent, it would never forget the hatred it felt towards the Sithe. When it saw Whitethaw, it immediately recognized the golem. Its intelligence level was low, but its memory was perfect.

“Yes, wiped out. The Sithe have already been wiped out,” Ning said hurriedly.

“Wiped out ages ago. Haven’t you noticed that you’ve been sleeping for an extremely long period of time without any Sithe bothering you?” Hegemon Azurefiend said.

“Uh…” The Flamewing God blinked. “I really did take a very, very long nap this time.”

“It’s been a long time since those six chains have drained a significant amount of your flames, right?” Ning said.

“Right!” The Flamewing God’s eyes turned round with surprise as it nodded seriously, then gave the black chains binding it a hateful glare. “Long, long ago, these chains would constantly drain large amounts of my flames. Each time, they would drain so much that I would feel extremely miserable. But ever since that last nap I took… it is true that they haven’t drained anything from me for quite some time. And now, two cultivators come to visit me… does this mean the Sithe truly have been wiped out?”

“They really have been wiped out,” Ning and Azurefiend said simultaneously.

“But the Sithe were really powerful. There’s no way they would’ve been wiped out that easily,” the Flamewing God mumbled to itself. Having suffered quite a bit at the hands of the Sithe, it continued to harbor a healthy dread of them.

……

Ning and Azurefiend were both cultivators, and so the Flamewing God didn’t feel much enmity towards them. Although it had been quite some time since any Sithe had come to visit it, the creature still harbored doubts about whether or not the Sithe truly had been wiped out.

“Let’s sit and chat, Azurefiend.” Ning suddenly waved his hand, causing two wine-laden tables to appear before them. Ning sat down before one of the tables.

Azurefiend was rather puzzled. Why did Ning suddenly want to eat and drink? Still, Azurefiend was a bit of a glutton to begin with, and so he didn’t complain. He immediately sat down in front of his own table and picked up a large haunch of meat with one hand and a goblet of wine in the other.

“Darknorth, why did you suddenly want to feast?” Azurefiend said while munching away.

“I’ve spent chaos cycles meditating on formations. It’s been ages since I’ve had anything nice,” Ning said. He then smiled as he glanced off into the distance: “Flamewing, you need anything to eat or drink?”

His real goal right now wasn’t to eat or drink… it was to tame this Flamewing God! He needed to come up with a way to convince the Flamewing God to eat the verdant azuresoul. He would never be able to forgive himself if he didn’t at least try to tame the Chaos Primordial trapped before him.

“I already have food.” The Flamewing God sat back down, then waved a paw. This paw had a bracelet around it, and the bracelet suddenly lit up.

Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. Basins of delicacies began to fly out, including both meats as well as spirit-fruits.

The Flamewing God gave Ning and Azurefiend a smug glance, then began to chomp down on its own food.