The Desolate Era (Web Novel)

The Blacklotus Chaosworld. A giant warship with an aura of awe-inspiring majesty was forcing its way straight through this world.

The warship was ten thousand kilometers long, and at its prow stood nine World-level experts. Behind them stood a dense cluster of seven thousand Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals.

“This chaosworld is the home of God Emperor Blacklotus.” The Starlord’s face was icy and solemn. “There’s no way for us to escape his notice after we enter his chaosworld. Still…there’s no need to keep it hidden. It’ll be too late for him.”

Whoosh.

The great warship disappeared in a teleportation. When it reappeared, it was over the clouds that were above an enormous city that was shaped like a black lotus with nine petals.

Rumble…

A ripple of power spread out from the Blacklotus imperial capital. The ripple of power spread out to cover the entire chaosworld, seeking to completely seal it off from the space around it, but it was too late.

“This is the imperial capital of the Blacklotus Empire?”

“A city shaped like a nine-petal black lotus…it has to be it.” Only now did most of the Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals aboard the ship understand who their target was. It was actually the Blacklotus Empire! All of them felt both excited and nervous. If they were by themselves, they would never dare to cause trouble here…but now there were seven thousand of them as well as nine World-level powers!

This filled all of them with excitement and eagerness.

“Assemble the formations,” the Starlord commanded.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The seven generals, including Ji Ning and Imperius, immediately began to assemble their formations. In almost an instant, all seven thousand of the Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals were in place.

“Not a single one moved to flee?” The Starlord sat at the very front of the prow, staring downwards at the vast city below them. The entire chaosworld was now sealed so tightly that not even an ant could escape from it.

“Perhaps they feel that they are strong enough to leave when they please, if they feel the need to do so later,” Chaos Immortal Abyssus said with a chuckle.

“Hmph.” The Starlord laughed coldly. “They won’t be able to.”

Whoosh.

The Starlord swept open his astral robes. Instantly, an enormous planet suddenly appeared in midair. It was the planet of Fogstone! Fogstone was kept to a size of merely ten million kilometers, roughly the same size as the nine-petal black lotus below it, but Fogstone was emanating ripples of utterly terrifying power. And then…

Whoooooosh.

It shot out countless specks of astral light.

The starlight spread out to cover trillions of kilometers, completely illuminating the city beneath it, the nearby mountains and lakes, and the distant seas themselves as well as many mortal cities. In fact…its light spread out to cover this entire chaosworld.

“Ah?!”

“W-what’s…”

The countless living beings within this chaosworld, mortals and beasts included, all stared in puzzlement at the starlight that had just appeared everywhere.

The starlight felt very comfortable to them.

“What’s going on?” A cultivator suddenly realized, to his shock, that it was now impossible to engage in teleportation here.

“The ripples of spacetime have become completely locked.”

Within the black lotus city.

Inside the God Emperor’s estate.

Six figures were standing shoulder-to-shoulder, staring upwards at the skies. When they saw the enormous planet of Fogstone suddenly appear and radiate starlight in every direction, their faces all paled.

“Damn.” A chubby, ruddy-skinned alien with just one vertical eye let out a growl. “The Starlord of Fogstone has actually moved his headquarters, the planet of Fogstone, to this place. According to the stories, the planet of Fogstone is actually the legacy treasure of the entire Fogstone lineage. When it spreads out its astral light, it will completely suppress the local ripples of spacetime, causing every single region to be completely locked down. There’s no way for us to escape, even if we wished to do so.”

“They actually brought their entire planet with them?”

“There’s not much of a feud between us and Fogstone. We have the occasional border skirmish, but none of our World-level powers have ever feuded against theirs. Why would the Starlord be so crazed as to move his entire planet here for this attack?”

The six were all quite puzzled. God Emperor Blacklotus was puzzled as well!

The Fogstone Dominion was of an ancient lineage, and its legacy treasure was the planet of Fogstone itself. In addition, every single Starlord of Fogstone was a terrifying figure. Even if a person was once nothing more than an ordinary World-level power, upon assuming the mantle of ‘Starlord of Fogstone’ that person would transform into an utterly terrifying figure. This was all because of the legacy treasure known as the planet Fogstone.

Fogstone could be used to attack…and if one paid an incalculable price, one would be able to unleash utterly ruinous power from it. The planet itself was filled with countless dangers and traps, making it so that very few organizations would dare to raid it or launch attacks within it.

When used as a defensive structure, World-level experts had virtually no chance of breaking through into Fogstone.

When used to trap foes, the astral light it radiated would make it so that even World-level experts would move much slower!

Every single Starlord of Fogstone had the power to command and control the planet of Fogstone. This naturally made them some of the most troublesome opponents a World-level expert could face!

“Starchild.” A cold voice rang out, echoing within the prow of the incoming warship. “I don’t believe my Blacklotus Empire has ever offended you…and yet, you’ve actually gone so far as to move your legacy treasure, the planet of Fogstone, to my territory.”

“Blacklotus.” The Starlord stared downwards from his position at the prow, then said in a calm voice, “It is true that no grudges exist between the two of us, and I have no desire to engage in a war against you.”

“No desire to engage in a war? Then why have you come in such force?” The voice of the God Emperor rang out once more, causing the very air above the imperial capital to tremble.

“I’ve come here today solely for the sake of Immortal Owlsoar,” the Starlord said calmly. “After killing Owlsoar, I’ll immediately lead my forces away and also offer valuable treasures to make up for the offense.”

Everyone fell silent.

“I’ll give you as much time as is needed for a single stick of incense to be burned. Afterwards, if you choose to continue to protect Owlsoar, I’ll have no choice but to press the attack.” As the Starlord spoke, he waved his hand. A stick of gray incense instantly appeared in the air then self-ignited, emitting a calming and fragrant aroma. This was a precious treasure which cultivators used, known as the ‘Three Zens Incense’. Once it was lit, the cultivator would become extremely calm and be able to much more easily sense the Dao. This was of great benefit. When Ning trained in the [Solitary World God], what he needed to break through to the next level was to have his heart be completely calm.

“What’s this all about?”

“Owlsoar, the Starlord of Fogstone did all this just to kill you?”

“What sort of grudge exists between the two of you?”

The other five, including God Emperor Blacklotus, turned to stare at Chaos Immortal Owlsoar.

Immortal Owlsoar was a jade-eyed elder who had a divine blood tattoo on his forehead. His oily jade eyes inspired terror in all who saw him. He frowned and said in a low voice, “I don’t think there is any enmity between the two of us. Don’t be impatient. Let me ask him about this.”

“Starlord of Fogstone.” Immortal Owlsoar’s cold voice rang out towards the great warship in the skies. “I don’t know how I’ve offended you. Is it possible that there has been some sort of a misunderstanding?”

“Haha…misunderstanding?” The cold voice that rang down from above was filled with endless hatred. “Were you the one behind the great massacre that occurred within the Blackcold Chaosworld?”

Immortal Owlsoar’s face immediately changed upon hearing this.

For the sake of forging a mighty sin-treasure, he had once butchered countless living creatures. However, although he had slain many individuals, he had been careful not to slay any creatures who were protected by other World-level experts. However, he knew that this sort of butchery would naturally stir revulsion amongst certain noble-minded figures and possibly result in them attacking him, which is why he had immediately joined God Emperor Blacklotus after finishing the refining process.

“Was there a connection between the creatures of that chaosworld and you?” Immortal Owlsoar still couldn’t believe it. By his calculations, when he wiped out the Blackcold Chaosworld the Starlord of Fogstone, Starchild, had been nothing more than a young fellow. Back then, the Starlord had actually been Starchild’s father.

“Haha…” A frenzied, frozen laughter was torn from the Starlord’s throat. “My Dao-companion was located on the Blackcold Chaosworld!”

“What?!” Immortal Owlsoar’s face completely changed.

Back then, Starchild truly had been nothing more than a young fellow, and his Dao-companion was nothing more than a weak female Immortal.

All those years ago, in the face of the power of a Chaos Immortal like Owlsoar, they were nothing more than dust in the wind. But now…the weak little Starchild had come for revenge in his capacity as the Starlord of Fogstone.

“Blacklotus.” Immortal Owlsoar hurriedly turned his head to look at the frowning God Emperor Blacklotus. He said frantically, “Blacklotus, we aren’t that much weaker than them. There’s no need for us to be afraid of Starchild.”

“Hmph.” God Emperor Blacklotus glanced sideways at him and let out a cold snort. Clearly, he was quite unhappy at the trouble which Immortal Owlsoar had brought to his doorstep.

God Emperor Blacklotus had quite an unpleasant look on his face, and he felt quite unhappy that the Starlord of Fogstone had come to his very doorsteps.

……

At this very moment. The spacetime transfer array of Sevenwater Star.

A barefoot old man dressed in ragged clothes suddenly appeared within the array.

The Immortals and Fiendgods responsible for protecting the array stared at the old man in astonishment. “H-he…actually paid the fee to have the array be activated for him ahead of schedule?”

This would cost a hundred bottles of chaos nectar for short distances and even more for longer distances. Thus, not even World Gods or Chaos Immortals would do so lightly. Generally speaking, only the most top-tier of World-level experts would ever choose to have the spacetime transfer arrays activated for them on an individual basis. They often travelled throughout the outside world, after all, and constantly went from one array to another. If they had to pay for a personal activation each time, the costs would be quite staggering. Thus, it was quite rare for even the caretakers of the spacetime transfer arrays to see a cultivator have the array activated on an individual basis. This was especially true for a lesser-travelled location such as Sevenwater Star.

As for this old man’s strange appearance, that didn’t really matter. Cultivators dressed and acted as they pleased. They could all tell that this barefoot old man had an extraordinary demeanor. None of the caretakers even dared to breathe loudly in front of him.

“Ugh. Finally made it to the Sevenwater Star of the Badlands Territory.” The raggedy old man stepped out of the formation and into the skies. He muttered to himself, “If Daolord Windsource was going to die, he could’ve just died somewhere convenient. Why the hell did he have to run all the way over here, to the Badlands Territory? This old man is dog-tired from the journey.”