The Desolate Era (Web Novel)

“Come aboard the carriage.” Northmont Baiwei pulled Ning up onto the carriage. The carriage was roughly fifteen or sixteen meters long; naturally, the insides of the carriage were extremely comfortable and spacious. Baiwei and Ning entered, then Baiwei hurriedly said, “Sit, sit.”

“This carriage is quite comfortable.” Ning couldn’t help but sigh as he spoke; there were twelve seats within the carriage, and the seats were all covered with incomparably soft furs, making sitting on them very comfortable. “Young master Baiwei, the flames that cover this carriage…?” Just now, he hadn’t sensed any particular power or presence from the flames.

“It’s just an appearance generated by an emanation of elemental energy.” Baiwei smiled as he spoke, then gave instructions to the outside: “Go to the Carefree Caverns.” “Yes, young master.” The woman outside immediately replied respectfully.

Whoosh. The flaming carriage immediately began to move forward at high speed. “Have you noticed? This female servant of mine, along with the carriage…both of them are constructs.” Baiwei smiled delightedly. “Ah?” Ning was surprised. “Constructs?” He really hadn’t noticed. After all, they were in the Northmont clan’s territory; Ning hadn’t dared to casually release his divine sense to investigate anything in depth.

“Right.” Baiwei said delightedly, “That female servant is a golem which my father bestowed upon me. It can explode forth with the combat power of a peak Wanxiang Adept…and it is completely fearless. It is the best guard one can ask for.” Ning nodded.

“As for this carriage, the carriage is named the Ninestar Immortal Carriage.” Baiwei’s face was covered with smugness. “Once it starts flying, not even a Primal Daoist can catch up to it; in addition, it also holds within it the Celestial Ninestar Flames. Once it unleashes those flames…it can incinerate anything and everything. Even some weaker Primal Daoist will be burnt to death by it!”

“What?!” Ning, hearing this, was shocked. Celestial Ninestar Flames? Capable of burning Primal Daoists to death? Even if it was ‘only’ capable of burning and killing some weaker Primal Daoists, this was still inconceivable. After all, it was nothing more than a precious construct.

“Haha.” Baiwei laughed, then said, “My father personally bestowed that female guard upon me, but I’m just temporarily borrowing this Ninestar Immortal Carriage. This Ninestar Immortal Carriage is the personal carriage of my father; even if I sold off all of my treasures, I wouldn’t be able to afford even the slightest part of it. I’m only permitted to borrow and use it within the borders of Stillwater City.”

Ning now understood. So this was the personal carriage of Northmont Blacktiger! This couldn’t help but make Ning sigh at how deep the roots of the Northmont clan were, here in Stillwater; even Northmont Blacktiger had a carriage as astonishing as this.

“A treasured construct on the level of this Ninestar Immortal Carriage actually possesses sentience.” Baiwei stroked the carriage, clearly quite fond of it. “Just now, when I gave instructions to go to the Carefree Caverns, I was actually speaking with the Immortal Carriage itself. This Ninestar Immortal Carriage will automatically lead us there.”

Ning had to admit; this really was incredible and impressive! One did indeed gain great face when riding in this Immortal Carriage, capable of resisting even Primal Daoists. This made Ning fully understand how wealthy and luxurious a lifestyle the Northmont clan of Stillwater was.

“Look outside.” Baiwei pointed towards the outside world. Ning looked through the windows. This Ninestar Immortal Carriage moved extremely rapidly, and the streets of Stillwater City were incomparably wide; the scenes of the outside world passed by in a flash.

“The most mysterious, inscrutable part of the entire Stillwater City is the west city.” Baiwei pointed towards the outside. “After entering Stillwater City, you should’ve seen a book describing Stillwater City. Although the book has the names and signs of the various estates, have you noticed something?”

“I’ve noticed that the Northmont Blacktiger Estate is quite large,” Ning laughed. “Haha, there are a total of more than a thousand estates with the name ‘Northmont’ in front of them. All of them are the estates of members of the Northmont clan with some status. The estates are divided into three sizes; with a perimeter of ten kilometers, a perimeter of one kilometer, and a perimeter of three hundred meters.” Baiwei smiled. “But if you were to believe that these are the estates of the powerful members of our Northmont clan, you would be completely wrong.” “Eh?” Ning was puzzled.

“The book should also have quite a few estates which only have a name and no clan, such as ‘Kind Waters Estate’, ‘Universal Light Estate’, etc…” Baiwei looked at Ning, who nodded. There were indeed some estates like this. He didn’t know what the origins of these estates were.

“These are all the private estates of Primal Daoists, as well as some Immortals.” Northmont Baiwei looked at Ning. “Even some of the Immortals of our Northmont clan, due to having lived extremely long lives, no longer use the ‘Northmont’ name in titling their estates. This makes it so that it is very hard for outsiders to truly understand how many Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals our Northmont clan of Stillwater has.” Ning was secretly surprised upon hearing this.

“Many of the estates are empty.” Northmont Baiwei very calmly discussed these rather secretive matters. “In the vast, endless lands of the Grand Xia Dynasty, there are some extremely mighty powers. If they pay a visit to our Stillwater City, our Northmont clan will gift them with a private estate. Although they will come visit only very occasionally, we will always keep these estates in good condition.”

“And so…West Stillwater City is truly a place where fish and dragons swim together. The more mysterious and unknown the owners of an estate are, the less you can afford to offend them,” Baiwei said. “As for North Stillwater City, many of the estates there have been taken over by the Raindragon Guard.”

“Raindragon Guard?” Ning said in surprise, “I heard that the Raindragon Guard’s headquarters in Stillwater Commandery is atop an incomparably towering mountain.”

“Right. It isn’t too far away; its name is the Crimson Dragon Mountains.” Baiwei shook his head and laughed. “The full members of the Raindragon Guard are all quite free and unrestrained; who would be willing to remain atop that desolate mountain? Given how bustling and lively Stillwater City is, and how they also have responsibility for maintaining oversight over the various major powers within Stillwater City, the Raindragon Guards naturally have occupied quite a large amount of land.” Ning nodded.

“Most of the north city is occupied by the Raindragon Guard. In the south city, most of the residences are occupied by the Immortal practitioners that make up the soldiers of our army.” Baiwei laughed. “This is something of an open secret, but naturally, this won’t be recorded in those simple information pamphlets given to everyone who enters the city.”

“Only the east city has many major trading unions and guilds, along with Loose Immortals, who gather there.”

……..

As they continued to advance forward, Baiwei told Ning about some secrets, but only those which many people would learn upon reaching a certain leve. This truly broadened Ning’s horizons.

As for the east city, there were many places for entertainment present. The most famous of those places was the Mountain of Heavenly Treasures! “The Mountain of Heavenly Treasures takes up an area of six hundred kilometers. It is a mountain located within the city itself, and the entire mountain is hollow. There are countless treasures within, along with merchants selling spirit-beasts and slaves, and all sorts of gambles and battles…in short, any sort of entertainment you can think of, the Mountain of Heavenly Treasures has it.”

Baiwei shook his head and said resignedly, “However, this Heavenly Treasures Mountain has the imperial clan of the Grand Xia Dynasty standing behind it! In this vast world, every single commandery city has a Heavenly Treasures Mountain within it. I can’t even imagine how much wealth they have accumulated for the Grand Xia Dynasty.”

“The place I’m taking you to, right now, is named ‘Carefree Cave’.” Baiwei winked towards Ning. “The two most exquisite entertainment venues in the entire Stillwater City are the Heavenly Treasures Mountain and the Carefree Cave.”

“The Heavenly Treasures Mountain is something that can be seen throughout the Grand Xia Dynasty. But the Carefree Cave is unique to our Stillwater City, and it was established by three Celestial Fox Immortals.” Baiwei chortled, “But of course, it also has the support of our Northmont clan of Stillwater. After all, we can’t let the Heavenly Treasures Mountain make all the money, right?” Ning laughed as well.

“Young master. We are here.” The voice came from outside. As it did, the speed of the Ninestar Immortal Carriage quickly dropped as well. Baiwei led Ning out of the carriage, then pointed to an incomparably vast edifice in front of them. “This is the Carefree Cavern.”

Ning instantly grew rather stunned. He saw, far away, an enormous, incomparably beautiful, dream-like edifice. It was shaped into the form of a titanic fox; this was a giant building that appeared like a fox that was hundreds of kilometers long. Its entrance was the mouth of the fox, which had its head resting against the ground. The dense natural elemental energy in the surrounding area made Ning feel incomparably comfortable.

The Whitewater Hound leapt out of the carriage as well. Staring at this alongside Ning, it too had a look of shock in its eyes.

“Young master Baiwei, please, come, come.” Instantly, a tall, muscular, ox-horned man ran over. His aura rolled out in waves, startling Ning; this monster clearly wasn’t hiding its aura at all, which allowed Ning to verify that it should be at the Wanxiang Adept level.

“Mmm.” Northmont Baiwei nodded casually. “And this one is…?” The Diremonster looked towards Ning. “This is my good friend, young master Ji Ning.” Baiwei explained. The Diremonster hurriedly nodded. “Is this your first time, young master Ji Ning?” Appearing quite courteously, he led the way forward.

Ning swept his gaze forward. He quickly discovered that there were many people who had entered the Carefree Caverns to enjoy themselves; however, most didn’t have any attendants come welcome them. Although some occasionally did, most of the attendants were at the Xiantian lifeform level, or at most at the Zifu Disciple level. Only Northmont Baiwei had a Wanxiang-level Diremonster welcome him.

Ning and the Whitewater Hound followed Northmont Baiwei forward. The wide, spacious corridor was beautiful and almost dreamlike. Soon, they exited it and arrived at an enormous hall. At the left side of the main hall was a row of individuals who were either monsters or beautiful female Immortal practitioners. To the right, there was a row of individuals who were either monsters or handsome male Immortal practitioners.

“We respectfully welcome young master Northmont and young master Ji.” In unison, the individuals all bowed with respect, their sleeves drooping to the ground.

Upon being welcomed so respectfully by so many monsters and Immortal practitioners, and especially upon hearing them all call out loudly, Ning was instantly stunned. Fortunately, his soul was very strong, and so he quickly came to his senses.

“How incredible. The Carefree Caverns really live up to their reputation as a place established by three Celestial Fox Immortals and the Marquisate of Stillwater.” Ning sighed in amazement.

There were currently many guests seated within the main hall, and amongst them were four people Ning knew quite well.

……

Meng Jun, Meng Roch, and Meng Xin had been led by the uncle of their clan into the Carefree Caverns as well. That balding, middle-aged man had said, “The Carefree Caverns are the most top tier of top tier entertainment sights. In terms of sheer pleasure, it is actually superior to the Heavenly Treasures Mountain. There are delicacies here which those of you back in the clan would never be able to even imagine. You will soon enter various schools, and so today, I’ll show you around here and broaden your horizons.”

“Is this the silverpike of Jimin?” Meng Jun ate while sighing in praise. As for Xin and Roch, they were clearly also eating quite happy.

Next to them was a Xiantian monster who had transformed into a beautiful woman, who was dancing about gracefully. There were also human Xiantian maidens who were playing the zither…

“Eh?” The balding, middle-aged man suddenly turned his head. Through another corridor of the main hall, a group of beautiful women suddenly appeared, either emanating a monstrous aura or an Immortal practitioner’s aura. A similar group of men appeared as well. They divided up into two rows, as though respectfully awaiting someone’s arrival.

“A major figure has arrived.” The balding, middle-aged man said hurriedly. “What’s that?” Roch turned to look, puzzled. Xin called out in surprise, “All of them are releasing their auras. It seems they are all Zifu-level Diremonsters or Immortal practitioners.”

“Wow, what sort of a person are they here to welcome?” Meng Jun’s eyes began to shine. If he was able to make friends with this major figure, wouldn’t he instantly rise to the heavens? Suddenly…

The two rows of stunningly beautiful and handsome men and women, who lined up deep into the recesses of the corridor, all said with great courtesy, “We respectfully welcome young master Northmont and young master Ji.” Their voices echoed within the main hall.

“Young master Northmont?” The balding, middle-aged Third Uncle immediately said in a low voice, “This is someone from the Northmont clan of the Marquisate of Stillwater, and definitely someone in the main lineage with a high status. Otherwise, there is no way the Carefree Caverns would treat him with such great ceremony. But who is this young master Ji?”

“Let’s see what sort of major figure of Stillwater City this is.” Meng Jun immediately looked over carefully. In fact, quite a few people were looking towards the distant corridor.

A youngster dressed in a black uniform and a crown walked in. By his side was a youth clad in fur. Behind them was a Godbeast Whitewater Hound, along with a female servant.

“Brother Ji Ning?” Meng Jun, Meng Xin, and Meng Roch were all completely stunned.