The Desolate Era (Web Novel)

They were surrounded by fog. Ji Ning and the giant yellow bear stood above the fog, and the previously contorting space and time had calmed down. “That is…!” Ning stared towards the front. Far away, in the distant corners of that boundless gray fog, there was a towering building that flashed with eye-catching golden light. It was like an altar. From the distance, one could see that it had layers of stairs, which led towards the very top of this building.

“Why are you standing here like an idiot?” The giant yellow bear grabbed Ning by the elbow, then walked forward, traveling multiple kilometers with every single step. The distant, towering edifice became clearer and clearer, and its golden light became more and more dazzling. At the same time, the boundless majesty it emanated caused Ning’s heart to tremble.

Moments later, Ning arrived at the very lowest step of this towering edifice. Raising his head, he stared upwards at the various steps. He could immediately tell that there were most likely thousands of steps, from the ground to the peak.

“Go.” The giant yellow bear raised his head, looking towards the peak of the altar as well. “Follow the steps to the very top, and accept the divine ability which Master left behind.”

“Yes.” Ning nodded. This was his stroke of good fortune! An incomparably precious stroke of good fortune! This divine ability had been left behind by one of the great powers of the Three Realms which had been created after Pangu established the universe! After learning it, he would be able to kill Adept Xu Li and save his father and family members.

“Father. Wait for your child a few moments longer.” Ning immediately began to run up the steps. But as soon as he stepped atop the first one….

BANG! It was as though the world had collapsed. Ning sensed his entire soul tremble and rumble. At the instant when Ning’s right foot landed on the first stair, it was as though he had been fused with the entire altar, and ancient, long-gone information began to transmit directly into Ning’s soul, burrowing into his memories.

The transmission had begun! Ning hadn’t expected that he would begin to receive the transmission of the divine ability upon stepping onto the very first step…although he was caught somewhat off-guard, Ning quickly began to submerge himself in understanding the ancient information that was being sent towards him.

After a few moments, Ning stepped onto the second stair, and more of that ancient information flooded towards him. One step, another step, yet another step…this ancient, profound information slowly entered Ning’s soul, having been divided into countless little bits and pieces, so as to allow Ning to adapt to this process. As this was a truly, incredibly powerful divine ability, if all the information regarding it had been instantly sent into Ning’s soul, even though Ning’s soul was powerful, he would’ve instantly been rendered an idiot.

“It has begun.” From the below the altar, the giant yellow bear lifted his head, watching as Ning took one step after another atop the altar. His eyes held a very complicated look within them; excitement, anticipation, and wistfulness. “The divine ability which Master left behind has finally found an heir.”

“Master…are you still alive?” A hint of tears appeared within the giant yellow bear’s eyes. In his heart, he only had a single, true master. That was the first master of the estate. The four masters who had come afterwards, including Ji Ning, were in reality the heirs to the first master, but unfortunately, the second, third, and fourth masters hadn’t been able to acquire so much as a single one of the divine abilities. Naturally, they couldn’t be considered true successors. But now, Ji Ning was finally beginning to receive this divine ability.

“Master’s successor.” The giant yellow bear’s had a lost look in his eyes, and his thoughts were whirling about. When the first master had left behind this estate then left, the giant yellow bear had known…that the first master had gone to deal with a tremendous tribulation. Precisely because even the first master wasn’t absolutely confident in his ability to survive the tribulation, he had created this estate, as he was unwilling to permit the divine ability he was proudest of to simply disappear with him.

Countless years had passed…the Three Realms had become fixed and orderly. The three thousand major worlds and the trillions of minor worlds had been born. But his master had never returned to this estate. This filled the giant yellow bear’s heart with unease. Was his master still alive? Although he worried about his master in his heart, he continued to obey his master’s order, and treated finding a successor as the most important matter of all.

……….

One step. Then another step. Atop the towering, lofty edifice, Ning continued to slowly advance upwards. He didn’t know how much time had passed, but finally, he had reached the top.

Only now did Ning awaken from his trance. The primordial, ancient divine ability’s information as well as tricks and knacks had all been infused into his soul. They were like words that had been printed atop his soul itself; even if Ning wanted to forget them, he wouldn’t be able to. And even if someone used a technique to search his soul, they wouldn’t be able to find anything.

“The divine ability…[Starseizer Hand].” Ning murmured gently to himself. He could clearly see one image after another in his mind. There was a vast, boundless void, and within it, there was a giant hand that seemed to be countless kilometers in length. The giant hand passed through the endless void, actually snatching at one of the stars within the void and easily crushing it into dust.

Under the strikes of that infinitely large hand, the vast, towering bodies of a countless sea of Fiendgods who were shouting boastfully were all smashed into nothingness.

That giant hand cupped a world within it, and trapped within the world was a fiery Fiendgod who radiated flames. With a gentle pinch of the giant hand, the world was shattered and the Fiendgod perished.

……

“Beyond the Three Realms, there is the infinite void. The void contains the Solar Star and the Lunar Star, the two most exalted of celestial bodies, as well as numerous other powerful stars. These stars are infinitely majestic and powerful, and even Celestial Immortals would find it difficult to do anything to them. Some of the bits and pieces of rubble which fall down from these stars, after passing through the endless, infinite void, might land on various worlds, where they will be treated as precious materials for forging magic treasures. And yet, my master’s divine ability is named the ‘Starseizer’; from this, one can imagine how infinitely powerful it is.” The giant yellow bear appeared by Ning’s side.

Ning nodded lightly. After having received this divine ability, he could clearly sense how terrifyingly powerful it was. It’s power completely surpassed his imagination. Ning understood, now, why the giant yellow bear had wanted for him to wait five years…why he had felt that it would be better to let Ning’s father and family die, rather than lose the chance to acquire this divine ability.

However, what was meant to be would be. Although Ning had stubbornly insisted on immediately challenging the Divine Abilities Hall, in the end, he had still acquired this divine ability.

“In the end, you still learned this divine ability.” The giant yellow bear looked at Ning. “If it weren’t for the fact that your soul had reached the ‘divine will’ level, even five years later, you would only have had a good chance at acquiring the first divine ability…even I didn’t imagine that your soul would be able to make a breakthrough.”

“Oh?” Ning was shocked. “Is it truly so difficult to acquire the first divine ability? I felt as though, after my soul made a breakthrough, I completely dominated the enemies to the point of annihilating all of the strongmen.”

The giant yellow bear glanced sideways at Ning. “If you didn’t have your divine will, even after five years, would your divine power have lasted long enough for you to annihilate that many strongmen?”

Ning came to his senses. Right. He had relied on his divine will to control nearly a hundred swords to dominate and slaughter those strongmen. This didn’t use up any of his divine power. But if he didn’t have divine will, and had relied on close-quarters combat…he would have used up an astonishing amount of divine power! For example, when he had reached the later stages of the test of the Divine Abilities Hall, he had less than 20% of his divine power remaining, while the strongmen had only grown more and more powerful.

“No matter what, in the end, you succeeded and acquired this. This divine ability.” The giant yellow bear pointed at a giant, distant prayer mat. “Go to that prayer mat. To kneel and pay your respects to Master.”

“Right.” Ning nodded The benevolence a master showed in teaching his art was as weighty as the heavens themselves. Ning walked forward, then immediately fell to his knees before the prayer mat.

As soon as he knelt down, instantly, at the top of the altar, directly in front of Ning, a towering figure suddenly appeared, at least three thousand meters in height. He had ancient, bronze skin, a glowing face, and wore roughly sown beastial furs as clothes. His appearance was similar to humans, with the only difference being that he had only a single arm! He had only a single right arm, and did not have a left arm.

This majestic figure stared at Ning, a faint look of pleasure on his face. He said softly, “You have already received the divine ability. Once you overcome your Celestial Tribulation and become a Celestial Immortal, you can be considered the disciple of myself, Daoist Threelives. Do not be negligent and lazy, and thus lower my prestige.” And then, the massive, single-armed figure gently pointed with his right hand towards Ji Ning.

Whoooosh. Five rays of light instantly shot towards Ning…and then, the towering figure suddenly disappeared. A look of surprised joy on Ning’s face, Ning instantly sat down in the lotus position. The five rays of light quickly flooded into Ning’s body, and slowly, ripples began to appear on Ning’s form as well.

“Master.” The giant yellow bear saw the towering, one-armed figure appear, then vanish. He couldn’t help but mumble to himself. He knew…that the illusion was nothing more than something his master had left behind. Anyone who received his master’s divine ability and who came to the top of this altar and knelt down before this prayer mat would cause illusion to appear.

Ning was seated in the lotus position, and his two hands were currently emanating five-colored lights. Ning’s hands seemed to have transformed into some sort of precious treasures. The five-colored lights swirled about them, then slowly began to fuse together into a chaotic color.

“Whew.” Everything fell silent, and Ning’s hands returned to normal as well. Ning opened his eyes, then lowered his head to look at the palms of his hands. With but a thought, the palms of his hands manifested a complicated, circular divine tattoo. “Divine Starseizing Tattoo! The Starseizer has six cycles, and I’ve already successfully completed the first one.” And then, the divine tattoos faded away, no longer visible to the naked eye.

Every single divine ability required tremendous amounts of time to train in. They wouldn’t be mastered in one go. Even techniques like the [Heavenly Transformation] or the [Windwing Evasion] had to be trained in multiple stages.

As for this divine ability, [Starseizing Hand], the way in which it was trained in was known as the [Six Cycles of the Starseizer]. Only upon reaching the Zifu level as a Fiendgod could one train in the first cycle! At the Wanxiang Adept level, one could train in the second. As a Primal Daoist, one could train in the third.

With each breakthrough into a completely new level as a Fiendgod, one could train in the next cycle. This divine ability placed tremendous pressure on the divine body, and if it wasn’t strong enough, there was no way it could be trained.

“The teachings you received of the divine ability [Starseizing Hand] are the original teachings.” The giant yellow bear said. “Even if you train all the way to the first master’s level, this divine ability will still be enough for you to use. As for the [Windwing Evasion] you trained in, that was only the simplified version.”

“Simplified?” Ning was startled. “How could the divine abilities that the primordial Fiendgods used to dominate the Three Realms be so casually taught to others?” The giant yellow bear shook his head. “Shortly after Pangu established the heavens, one of the primordial Fiendgods, a giant Roc, developed a type of flying evasion technique. With a single sweep of his wings, he could traverse a hundred thousand kilometers. This flying technique is the divine ability…[Garuda’s Wings]! I imagine some great power must have watched the Roc fly. After meditating on it for a long period of time, he wrote down this book known as the [Windwing Evasion].”

Ning nodded slightly. So this divine ability, [Windwing Evasion], was just actually the simplified version of the [Garuda’s Wings].

“If you had the original teachings of this technique in book form, you could spend thousands of years reading it.” The giant yellow bear said. “You spent many months memorizing Master’s [Starseizing Hand], even though it was directly sent into your soul. How could the original copy of a true divine ability be so easily memorized?”

“I spent months traversing those steps?” Ning was shocked. “Only an instant passed in the outside world. No need to worry about your father.” The giant yellow bear said.

Ning nodded, then said solemnly, “Senior, dare I ask, who exactly is this master of mine, ‘Daoist Threelives’?” Just now, that giant, towering illusion had only referred to himself as ‘Daoist Threelives’. Ning knew nothing else of him.