The Desolate Era (Web Novel)

Within the Immortal estate world.

The three thousand meter tall Hydraga Fiendgod, warship in hand, once more used his evasive techniques to move towards a third palace.

“These local monsters…” Youngflame Nong stared coldly into the distance. Of the five Skypillars of golden light, two of them were tightly surrounded by dense clusters of Dao-soldiers. “After I bind this Immortal estate, I am definitely going to summon the clan’s army and enslave all of these local monsters. They will forever serve our Youngflame clan in battle.”

The local monsters of this Immortal estate were all exceptionally powerful. Even after binding the Immortal estate, Youngflame Nong wouldn’t be able to do anything to these powerful monsters. Still, behind him, there was the even more powerful Youngflame clan.

“Senior apprentice-brother, what method do you think young master Youngflame will use in order to bind the final two palaces? It seems quite difficult to me. The monsters present really are a bit too powerful,” Mu Northson sent mentally.

“Don’t underestimate Youngflame Nong. He is one of the ‘Four Dukelings’ of the imperial capital; since he has dared to come accept this trial, he definitely has many things up his sleeve,” Ji Ning sent back.

Swoosh! Soon, Ning’s group entered a new palace.

……

In the midst of the sky-covering Titanwave Dao-soldier formation. The leader was a silver-haired, feather-robed, middle-aged man. His eyes flashed with electricity, and his bearing was graceful and leisurely. He was the the most powerful and longest living figure within this Immortal estate world; Immortal Duohe.

“Everyone, the moment has come for the destinies of all of us within this world to be changed. I won’t try to invade or to assimilate you.” Immortal Duohe stared into the distance. Right in front of him, there was another massive wave. This was a wave formed from one of the lesser monstrous powers of this world; all of the weaker monsters had been invited to come over as well.

The Immortal estate world was simply too small; it was very easy for them to gather together.

“I can even swear an oath to the Dao of the Heavens that I am willing to enter an alliance with you to work together against that Fiendgod and those humans,” Immortal Duohe said. “We have to acquire that key. As long as we can acquire the key…all of us who live within this Immortal estate world can leave and go to the wider world.”

“Immortal Duohe, you might not act against us, but what about the Witchriver clan?”

“Don’t worry. Witchsui and I have already sworn an oath to the Dao of the Heavens. At a moment like this, why should we engage in internecine strife?”

The decision came very quickly.

This was because all of the monsters present shared the same goal – to go to the greater world outside. Since they were all sincere in their desires and had no wish to squabble, the leaders naturally decided to swear oaths to the Dao of the Heavens.

Although these loose, scattered powers were seemingly small and weak, if one added them all up, they were definitely not any weaker than the ten thousand-plus Dao-soldiers which Immortal Duohe himself commanded.

“Witchsui, your Witchriver clan is a bit stronger than my forces. Let these monsters stay with me and stand on guard here,” Immortal Duohe said.

“That’s fine.”

The proud Witchriver clan disdained from allying with the other monsters. With a teleport, Immortal Witchsui once more departed, returning to his own Yaksha Dao-soldier formation.

……

Ning and the others had no idea at all that the monsters outside had finally accomplished a miracle which had not been seen in all the countless years after Immortal Witchriver’s death…absolute unity!

The Dao-soldiers which Immortal Witchriver had left behind consisted of two types; the ‘Seawave Dao-soldiers’ and the ‘Yaksha Dao-soldiers’. The Seawave Dao-armors were extremely numerous. As for the more elite Yaksha Dao-armors, he had left them to his own Witchriver clan.

Now, under Immortal Duohe’s command, all of the Seawave Dao-soldiers had been gathered in one place, forming a power that was no weaker than the Yaksha Dao-soldier formation! These Seawave Dao-soldiers tightly surrounded one golden Skypillar of light, while the other Yaksha Dao-soldiers tightly surrounded the other one.

“Swoosh.”

Ning’s group flew into the palace. This was an extremely large hall, almost identical to the Immortal Grass Palace. Within the hall were many, many corpses.

“Those are Dao-soldier armors.”

“Dao-soldier armors!”

Ning’s group, upon entering, was immediately stunned by the many corpses on the ground. And then, they noticed those Dao-armors.

BOOM! The Fiendgod Hydraga once more stretched out his two massive hands. With inexorable power, he snatched up the the magic treasures around two corpses that were covered with Dao-armors that were nearly translucent and which glowed with black light. These two Dao-armors both emanated incredibly powerful ripples; although they were inferior to Immortal-ranked magic treasures, they vastly surpassed the other Dao-armors.

After collecting these two Dao-armors and sets of magic treasures, the Fiendgod, Xiangliu Fang, once more returned to stand on the warship next to Youngflame Nong, acting as though nothing had happened.

“This guy…”

Ning’s group was completely helpless.

They had no time to waste for words. All of them transformed into streaks of light, beginning to frantically collect the treasures lying on the ground. The entire, massive hall had to have at least hundreds of skeletons littering it, all of which were covered by Dao-armors. These Dao-armors varied in strength; some were suitable for the Zifu level, some were suitable for the Wanxiang level, and some were even suitable for Primals.

“Those two that glowed with black light were probably meant for Loose Immortals or Earth Immortals to wear,” Ning and the others mused silently to themselves.

Soon, Ning’s group had completely swept through this entire hall.

This palace didn’t have any private rooms; it was just a massive, empty palace.

Swish. The Fiendgod, Xiangliu Fang, pointed off into the distance. A black surge of divine power landed on the distant walls of the palace, and three characters instantly appeared on the wall – DAO SOLDIER PALACE.

“This is the Dao Soldier Palace,” Youngflame Nong laughed. “However, Immortal Witchriver had too many Dao-soldiers, so most remained in the outside world. Only a small number of them remained in here…just now, the two Dao-armors which Uncle Fang collected can only be considered top-grade Heaven-ranked treasures; they are far from being at the level of Immortal-ranked treasures. If they were Immortal-ranked treasures, then they probably would have manifested treasure-spirits.”

Ning and the others understood that Youngflame Nong was trying to console them.

Within the wide palace, there were also a series of extremely large pillars. One of them, covered in decorative carvings of a divine, coiling dragon, was the core of this palace. Youngflame Nong thus sat down in the lotus position in front of the pillar, beginning to bind it.

Ning and the others could do nothing but wait patiently to one side.

“Senior apprentice-brother, that’s amazing,” Northson said, seated next to Ning. He chortled, “Just now, each of us only managed to acquire a few of the treasures from those hundreds of Dao-soldier corpses, but you, senior apprentice-brother…with two spirit-beasts helping you, it was as though there were three of you scavenging at the same time. And that Azure Skysnake in particular…with a blink, she moved from corpse to corpse at astonishing speed.”

Earlier, it had primarily been Ji Ning’s group, Xue Hongyi, the Whitewater Hound, and Little Qing who had been scavenging the corpses. Ning, Uncle White, and Little Qing had thus made up three of the eight scavengers!

“Hmph. He ended up with the most Dao-armors as well. Still, I acquired an Immortal-ranked magic treasure; it’s even better than a thousand or ten thousand Dao-armors.” The nearby Xue Hongyi mused silently to himself, but he didn’t dare to say anything aloud.

“Right, right. Junior apprentice-brother Ji Ning, after we go to the next palace, you need to take it easy,” Adept Vastriver laughed.

“Him? Take it easy?” Yu Wei laughed as well.

“It is your own fault for not having spirit-beasts.” Ninelotus spoke up in Ning’s defense.

Adept Vastriver sighed, “Everyone wants good spirit-beasts. If, for example, a Redscale Salamander was willing to submit to me, of course I would accept it. Unfortunately, there’s no way I can even get close to that sort of Godbeast; as soon as the mere hint of one appears, supremely powerful clans like the Youngflame clan will immediately capture it. Even your Azure Skysnake, junior apprentice-brother Ji Ning…Azure Skysnakes are extremely skilled at finding treasures and fortuitous legacies. They are extremely rare and hard to find; to take in one as a spirit-beast is quite hard as well.”

“Azure Skysnake, come, take me as your master,” Northson called out.

“Woody, you blockhead, you think you are worthy of being my master?” Little Qing, coiled around Ning’s arm, raised her serpentine head and spoke out in the human tongue, clearly filled with disdain.

“You, you Azure Skysnake, I’m still your master’s brother, you know!” Northson stared at him.

“I only acknowledge my master. You? Go sit in the corner somewhere,” Little Qing said with tremendous arrogance.

“You…!” Northson, utterly infuriated, was only able to let out a snort. “You know what? I’m not going to squabble with a little snake like you.”

He had never been able to win a verbal victory over Little Qing.

Ning, watching this, began to laugh. Actually, the likes of Yu Wei and Adept Vastriver, both reincarnated Immortals, trained at extremely rapid rates. Thus, they generally would not acquire spirit-beasts, because their spirit-beasts wouldn’t possibly be able to keep up with them! As for some truly powerful Godbeasts…they weren’t so easily acquired.

For example, the Redscale Salamander; everyone wanted them, but they weren’t so easily acquired.

Although the Azure Skysnake was a bit weaker in power, it was still extremely talented in seeking out fortuitous legacies and treasures; generally speaking, Immortal cultivators would all be willing to tame one. Unfortunately, they were too rare, and also very skilled in escape.

As for Whitewater Hounds? By comparison, they were actually a bit inferior. Their strengths mainly lay in their intelligence and their comprehensive abilities. Still, to Ning, the Whitewater Hound was his Uncle White, like a parent or an elder in the family. He had also once saved both Ning and Ning’s mother, and had always quietly supported Ning in his endeavors.

Still, it had to be said that Uncle White was indeed quite accomplished in the art of formations; he had been the main problem-solver in the Vault of Treasures.

……

Youngflame Nong rose to his feet. He had already bound the core of this palace, but there wasn’t a hint of joy on his face. Ning and the others weren’t smiling either.

This was because…they had now completely bound three of the palaces; the Vault of Treasures, the Immortal Grass Palace, and the Dao Soldier Palace. Two more palaces remained…and one was under heavy guard by the Yaksha Dao-soldiers, while the other was under heavy guard by the Seawave Dao-soldiers. If they wanted to enter, they would have to fight. There would be no way to avoid them!

Those terrifying monstrous Dao-soldiers were so powerful that they had beaten even a Fiendgod like Xiangliu Fang into a constant retreat. If Ning and the others were to engage them in battle, they would probably be effortlessly slaughtered!

Compared to Xiangliu Fang, they were in a position of extreme weakness, to say nothing of those Dao-soldiers.

The threat of imminent death…it caused all of them to have ugly looks on their faces.

“Everyone.” Youngflame Nong swept Ning and the others with his gaze. “I have the key to the estate, and can open a corridor to leave from any location within this Immortal estate. If we truly encounter a great danger that we simply cannot withstand…I’ll lead you all in fleeing this Immortal estate. Don’t worry; I’m still confident in my abilities to escape.”

“However, everyone, you need to be very careful; I don’t wish for any of you to end up being killed by the monsters,” Youngflame Nong said.

Ning and the others all understood that there was no way out now.

However, none of them had thought that challenging a Celestial Immortal’s estate would be an easy task. Danger was expected and normal. Ning and the others all had their own life-saving measures, none of which had been used yet.

“Very good. Let’s head out,” Youngflame Nong ordered.

……

All of the monsters of this Immortal estate world had been divided into two forces. One was the Witchriver clan’s Yaksha Dao-soldiers, while the other was the Seawave Dao-soldiers. They were each guarding one of the palaces.

In air, far away, a large warship suddenly appeared. Waves of energy rippled out from it as it cruised forward, flying through the air at high speed and heading directly towards the Seawave Dao-soldiers, led by Immortal Duohe.

“They are coming.”

“That Fiendgod and those humans are coming.”

“Duohe, it’s up to you,” Immortal Witchsui sent mentally from far away.

Immortal Duohe had more than twenty thousand monstrous Dao-soldiers under his command. They formed into an incomparably titanic wave that covered the skies, and all of them stared coldly towards the large warship flying towards them.