The Desolate Era (Web Novel)

Seated aboard the Voidboat, Ji Ning shuttled through the primordial chaos, quickly arriving at the icy star which contained the stone stele for the prisonworld.

Swoosh.

A black lightning serpent suddenly appeared, covering the Voidboat around it. In a flash, it moved millions of kilometers to reach a desolate plain which was covered with pristine, untouched ice. Ning put away his Voidboat, landed atop the plain, then laughed as he looked at the ground. “Come out.”

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Three streaks of light shot out from the icy ground, then flew towards Ning. It was a trio of divine swords.

“Master.”

“Greetings, Master.”

“Master, are you going to take us into battle now?”

Three black-robed children appeared atop the three swords. They looked to be four or five years of age. Each of them was very handsome, with adorable faces that were just asking to be pinched. However, the black robes they wore gave them a cold, severe aura…and yet, their words were filled with excitement and liveliness.

Ning grinned.

These three swords were the Darknorth swords! Ning had kept the Darknorth swords within the prisonworld this entire time. Quite a few alien Outsiders had died by Ning’s hand within the prisonworld, and even a first-tier True Immortal who was equivalent to a Daofather of the Three Realms had been slain. The amount of baleful energy generated by their deaths was enormous. The [Armaments of Sin] technique had been applied to the Darknorth swords, and all three of them had broken through the apex of the Pure Yang level to become Protocosmic spirit-treasures.

Once top-grade Pure Yang treasures advanced to become Protocosmic spirit-treasures, they would immediately become high-grade Protocosmic treasures.

The three Darknorth swords were now all high-grade Protocosmic spirit-treasures. However, Ning could sense that they were very close to becoming supreme Protocosmic spirit-treasures. The amount of baleful energy generated by the death of that female True Immortal within the prisonworld had been truly enormous. Ning was going to deal with the Seamless Gate again, but he didn’t have any particularly powerful swords with him, which was why he had sent one of his incarnations to go and bring out his three Darknorth swords.

Ning had to be very careful during this extremely dangerous period of time. There was no way that he would go to the stone stele’s location without a very good reason. It was entirely possible that one of these days, a major power might be following him or spying on him. If he was followed when pulling out treasures from the stone stele, resulting in the stone stele being discovered, he would be in serious trouble! Thus, he had already secreted his treasures in the surrounding area. That way, even if someone followed him to this star, they wouldn’t know about the stone stele.

But of course…given that Ning had fourth-level heartforce, it would be extremely, extremely difficult to follow him without him noticing. The Seamless Gate did have some individuals who were capable of it, but for now at least Ning wasn’t important enough for those figures to lower themselves to sneak after him.

“Of course I’m talking you battle. Number One, Number Two, Number Three…this time, we’re going to let the Seamless Gate get a good taste of your power!” Ning laughed.

“Those Seamless Gate imbeciles…they are so dead.”

“We definitely have got to let them know our power!”

“Right on.”

The three little fellows were all extremely excited. The process of gaining a soul via the [Armaments of Sin] upgrade was a fairly slow one, and the Darknorth swords hadn’t been with Ning for that long to begin with. Sufficiently old Pure Yang treasures would be able to gain souls even without any special techniques. Now that these three had all broken through to become Protocosmic treasures, they all gained spirits of their own.

In truth, Protocosmic spirit-treasures could be considered living creatures. They could exist on their own, and they could even engage in cultivation.

The big bear of the Starseizing Manor, for example. Ning had seen it cry, which had made him feel as though the bear was an actual, living being. And it was true; thanks to his extreme age, the giant yellow bear had long ago broken through and had begun to cultivate on his own. After Ning had barged into the ‘underwater estate’ and become the heir to Daoist Threelives, the giant yellow bear had naturally wanted to take care of him. Prior to Ning becoming an Empyrean God, though, the giant yellow bear refused to let him completely bind the estate.

This was the reason why, when Ning had taken on Subhuti as his master, Subhuti had said that it was not yet the right time for the giant yellow bear to leave the manor. It was because once the bear escaped the manor and lived on his own, there would be no way for Ning to control it.

Now, Ning had complete control over the manor. But since they were in dangerous, stormy times, the giant yellow bear was willing to remain as the spirit of the treasure, accepting Ning as his continued master. If he was to venture out alone, his chances of dying would be too high.

“Let’s go.” Three Darknorth swords in hand, Ning headed out.

Upon returning to the Three Realms, Ning immediately used his talisman to contact his master. He then returned to the Crescent major world.

Mount Innerheart. The Daoist monastery.

“Master,” Ning said respectfully.

Subhuti looked at Ning.

“Master, please take a look.” Ning handed a furled scroll over to his master.

“Can it be yet another technique?” Patriarch Subhuti chuckled upon seeing this. Still, he accepted the scroll with a smile. He immediately sent his coresense into the scroll…and then he fell silent.

Ning just stood there quietly, waiting.

Finally, Patriarch Subhuti couldn’t help but let out a surprised sigh. Scroll in hand, he said, “A fine divine ability. A fine divine ability! Even I want to train in it after reading it. Alas, the requirements of this divine ability are extremely hard to meet. Transforming the divine body, then taming a Ninehorn Lightning Serpent…all of this is extremely difficult.”

“Right. Disciple, I heard that you paid a visit to Exalted Celestial Thundergod. I was wondering why you went to seek him out…but upon seeing this technique, I imagine that you must’ve sought him out for the sake of acquiring a Ninehorn Lightning Serpent, yes?”

“Yes.” Ning nodded.

“Ugh. To Thundergod, those serpents are as important as his life.” Patriarch Subhuti shook his head. “Thundergod has a foul temper. During the Primordial Realm, when all the powers were struggling for domination, Thundergod became legendary for his temper and for being a solitary figure. He offended quite a few major powers. The only reason why he was able to survive was because he was extremely powerful and didn’t take part in any of those wars. That temper of his…even if the Human Emperors, Tathagata, and Daoist Three Purities visited him, it’d be useless.”

Ning laughed. He had personally witnessed the legendary temper of Exalted Celestial Thundergod! In truth, if Thundergod was a good-natured person, he could’ve simply spent a few extra moments explaining the situation to Ning, and Ning naturally would not have pressed him further. However, Thundergod had instead turned immediately hostile, shouting for Ning to leave. Clearly, Thundergod really did have an arrogant, foul disposition that made it so that he didn’t even wish to waste time explaining.

“This divine ability really is excellent.” Subhuti couldn’t help but praise it again. “Right now, in the Three Realms, the fastest person is the Lord of All Fiends of the Seamless Alliance. Daofather Goldcrow is on our side and he is ranked second.”

Ning knew this quite well. Daofather Goldcrow was the sole Golden Crow that had survived Houyi’s slaughter of the ten. Mother Nuwa had saved the Golden Crow from Houyi. Back then, he had merely been an Empyrean God, but by now he had become a Daofather. By relying on his Golden Sunstreak divine ability, he was tremendously powerful and fast. However…the Lord of All Fiends was even more formidable.

At the end of the war that destroyed the Primordial Era, Mother Nuwa had broken through to Pangu’s level and slaughtered the Lord of All Things, then forced the ‘king’ of the Seamless Gate into merging himself into the Heavenly Daos in order to survive. The Lord of All Fiends, however, had rescued and led away many of the powerful experts of the Seamless Gate. They had fled without a trace! To be able to escape the clutches of a Pangu-level deity…from this, one could see how formidable the Lord of All Fiends was.

“The major powers of the Three Realms have tried to come up with an ability like this long ago, but none of them were successful. Only the Golden Crows are born with this sort of innate ability. These alien Outsiders…they truly are formidable figures. Although the body transformation process of this divine ability is quite difficult, there should be some major powers in the Three Realm who are capable of succeeding in it. However, taming Ninehorn Lightning Serpents is another matter. Thousandrot Godfruit, Myriad Thunders Godgem, chaos nectar…I’ve heard of all three of them, but the Three Realms doesn’t have any of them at all.”

“If some of the most top-tier major powers on our side were to master this technique, they might become comparable to the Lord of All Fiends in speed.” Subhuti let out a long sigh.

Although Daofather Goldcrow had the assistance of his Golden Sunstreak divine ability, in many other areas such as the Heavenly Daos he was far inferior to the Lord of All Fiends.

“A pity. A pity.” Subhuti shook his head and sighed.

Ning, however, handed Subhuti six little black bottles.

“Eh?” Subhuti was startled. Ning just looked at his master, not saying a word.

A thought suddenly entered Subhuti’s mind. A stunned look appeared in his eyes, and he hurriedly accepted those six black bottles and sent his coresense into them. The black bottles all contained drops of chaos nectar that seemed to contain countless tiny worlds within them. Although he had never seen chaos nectar before, since the various powers of the Three Realms had slain and soulscoured many alien Outsiders, they had acquired books and records that taught them how to identify it.

Upon his coresense sensing how unfathomably profound and mysterious the liquid was, and how it contained the aura of chaos…Subhuti instantly knew that it had to be chaos nectar.

“You…” Subhuti looked at Ning, feeling shocked and stunned. He had a very complicated feeling in his heart.

A supreme treasure like this…this was something the major powers of the Three Realms weren’t able to acquire, no matter how hard they tried, because they simply weren’t able to produce it. To harvest chaos nectar required setting up enormous formation. Even the King of Pangaea had to work laboriously in order to acquire and set up this formation…and then, extremely long periods of time had to pass for the nectar to be harvested. The Three Realms neither had the formation, nor had a person to set up the formation, and of course it didn’t have enough time.

Chaos nectar could transform into almost anything. For example, the bodies of the second-stage [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods] were all formed through the power of chaos nectar. It was also usable for taming Ninehorn Lightning Serpents and many other things as well.

A treasure like this…Ji Ning had actually given it up, just like that?

If he hadn’t, no one would’ve known that he was in possession of such a treasure.

It must be understood that the path of Immortal cultivation was inherently a path that was against the will of Heaven. Only by seizing enough essence and power from the world could one walk farther along this path. Although Subhuti cared deeply Ning highly, that was only because he cared deeply about every single one of his disciples. He didn’t expect that Ning would offer up such a huge gift! This was a gift that would have an enormous impact on the entire Nuwa Alliance.

If the supreme figures of the Three Realms such as Suiren were to master this divine ability, then when the Endwar finally arrived, Suiren would be able to attack and withdraw as he pleased. This would have an enormous impact on the entire war.

This divine ability, all by itself, was more important to the Nuwa Alliance than the birth of one or two new True Gods or Daofathers. But of course, this would only be true if it were the likes of Suiren and Daoist Three Purities who ended up training in this divine ability. If a weaker cultivator was to train in it, the benefit of the technique would become much lower to the alliance.

“From this day forth…” Subhuti looked at Ning, sending him a mental message. “As far as everyone is concerned, it was I, your master, who discovered this treasure of yours. Understood?”

Ning was startled.

“Foolish child!” Subhuti looked at Ning. “If everyone knows that you discovered this treasure…once the word spreads, even some of the major powers of our own Nuwa Alliance might begin to have evil designs upon you. They might have the idea of trying to get even more treasures out of you.”

“Although we are all in the same alliance…during the Primordial Era, we still killed each other. Think about what sort of personality Thundergod has. And he’s not even that bad! Our alliance has some truly demonic figures and some truly vile miscreants. The only reason why we are ‘allies’ is because we are fighting on the same side in the war.” Subhuti looked at Ning. “You absolutely can’t let people know about any treasures that you have. Now, I’m just telling you this out of an abundance of caution. In reality, it should be fine as I’ll only speak to the likes of the Three Emperors of Mankind and Daoist Three Purities about this treasure. All of us will sit down and discuss this, then decide jointly as to who should be the one to cultivate this divine ability. All of them have excellent temperaments and they won’t act against a junior like you.”

Subhuti looked at Ning. He was beginning to like the kid more and more.

This contribution Ning had just rendered to their alliance was truly an enormous one.