The Desolate Era

Lord Tathagata the Buddha and his three companions were flying through the air like an enormous streak of golden light as they rapidly advanced towards Earthmoan Mountain.

“Graceful Peacock, can they keep holding?” Tathagata sent mentally.

There were countless beings living in Tathagata’s [Buddha-Realm Within the Palm], with one of Graceful Peacock’s clones being there as well.

“The heartbeat sounds are rapidly becoming stronger and louder. When the sounds reach a crescendo, the attacks will begin. Right now all of us are waiting carefully, but we have yet to be attacked,” Graceful Peacock replied from within the Buddha-realm.

“You have to be careful.” Tathagata said a few more words, then turned to the three Buddhas by his side. “You should also enter my Buddha-realm for now as well. I’ll be able to travel more quickly that way.”

“Yes, Lord Buddha,” the other three Buddhas replied. Tathagata was the undisputed leader of the Buddist community.

Tathagata waved his hand and collected those three Buddhas. Immediately after doing so, the midair golden streak of light surrounding him became even quicker as it flew towards Earthmoan Mountain.

......

Within the castle located deep inside the Primordial Ruinworld.

“Master, success! Kuafu’s squad has already been lured into Earthmoan Mountain,” the skinny elder said jubilantly.

Godfiend Witherspike, seated atop his throne, let out a soft chuckle. “When we make a move, we have to make a big one! We let these bumpkins from the Three Realms have too easy a time of it earlier. Now, it’s time to give them a hard hit.”

“The Thousand Mountains world is a world which both we and the Seamless Gate have spent enormous time, effort, and resources building up. The entire world is a huge trap. The Nuwa Alliance obviously knows that, but they still have to charge straight inside.” The red-bearded elder let out a laugh. “They can’t locate us. All they can do is wreck the entire Primordial Ruinworld in their hunt. They have to assault and destroy every single world. It’s very possible that we’ll be able to wipe out two or three of their squads here at Thousand Mountains world.”

“Kuafu’s squad should be done for, at least.” Godfiend Witherspike nodded slowly. “As for the other three...let’s see how talented they are.”

“Ji Ning.” Celestial Immortal Blackheaven remained standing on his feet, staring at the scene being played out in midair. It was a scene showing Earthmoan Mountain, with Kuafu’s squad having already been trapped inside of it. Celestial Immortal Blackheaven let out a cold laugh. “Now that you’ve entered Earthmoan Mountain, I want to see just how you’ll survive this one!”

“Master, Buddha Tathagata is advancing rapidly towards Earthmoan Mountain,” the towering, muscular, golden-armored figure suddenly said.

“Hmph. Keeper Everwood personally set up the formations around Earthmoan Mountain, and the formations are already activated and constantly transforming. Once Tathagata charges into the formation, he’ll virtually have no chance of locating Earthmoan Mountain unless he actually destroys the formation itself. Given his power, he might actually be able to do that...but he’ll need time. By the time he succeeds, Kuafu’s squad would’ve died long ago.” Godfiend Witherspike smiled, licking his lower lips with his bright red tongue.

He, the exalted Godfiend, had been biding his time for far too long. This title, ‘Godfiend’...it was a title that had been won through countless seas of blood and mountains of severed flesh!

......

Within Earthmoan Mountain.

THUMP!

An extremely loud heartbeat rang out from under the ground, and the sound seemed to smash against the hearts of Ji Ning and the others. The entire team floated in midair, carefully watching their surroundings.

“Ji Ning, the six of us have set up a formation; we can work together to defend against any sneak attacks. You, however, don’t have anything protecting you. I think you should enter an estate-treasure for now. After we escape from Earthmoan Mountain, you can come out once more.” Kuafu’s group of six had already joined together into an enormous formation, and they were sharing their divine power with each other. All of them were surrounded by rings of golden light.

“No need.” Ning shook his head.

Kuafu frowned slightly upon seeing this. “This is a critical situation. You can’t be headstrong, Ji Ning.”

“No need to worry about me, fellow Daoist Kuafu. When my true body was destroyed by the Seamless Gate, I still ended up surviving, right?” Ning looked at Kuafu.

Kuafu was briefly startled, then nodded. “If you aren’t willing to hide, fine. How about this? Stay inside of our formation. If there any attacks come your way, the formation will be able to help you block a few blows. This formation protects against external attacks but not internal attacks. You’ll still be able to fight back from inside the formation.”

“Alright.” Ning nodded in acceptance.

Kuafu, Xingtian, Empress Xi, Windfate, Graceful Peacock, Luwu. These six True Gods were sharing their divine power with each other. Rings of golden light were surrounding them, helping to defend against any dangers, and Ning was located within the formation itself.

The six True Gods exchanged glances with each other, feeling quite resigned. As they saw it, this Sword Immortal Darknorth was being far too rash and arrogant. Earthmoan Mountain was such an incredibly dangerous place that even the six of them had to be extremely careful. In fact, they had even asked Lord Buddha to come rescue them. Ji Ning, however, insisted on staying outside...ugh! This overconfidence stemmed from the fact that he simply hadn’t trained for long enough!

Thump! Thump! Thump! Suddenly, the ‘pulse’ began to quicken.

The illusions around them began to change as well. Previously, they had been surrounded by endless tides of foul water. Now, it suddenly changed to a dense thicket of trees. Ning and the six were all standing within the thicket.

“Hurry up and leave. Fly out of the thicket,” Kuafu said hurriedly.

Swoosh! All seven of them strove to fly out, but no matter how hard or how quickly they flew, they remained trapped within the thicket.

“We won’t be able to fly out. Without being able to see through the illusions of Earthmoan Mountain, there’s no way we can leave it at all.” Daofather Windfate shook his head after taking another look. “When Daoist Three Purities was trapped here, he was able to rely on his incredible power to survive against the dangers present. Despite that, he was still trapped here for more than three thousand years before he was able to see the true face of Earthmoan Mountain and leave it.”

“These are all illusions.” Graceful Peacock was worried as well.

“We aren’t able to see through them and see the true face of Earthmoan Mountain,” Xingtian said with concern.

Ning carefully inspected the surrounding area as well.

Earthmoan Mountain was extremely famous. Once you entered it, you would face countless changing illusions and be perpetually trapped by them. Major powers might try to fly out with all their might, but they would remain within Earthmoan Mountain, unable to escape.

There were only two methods for leaving this place. The first was to rely on overwhelming raw power to annihilate the entire Earthmoan Mountain! However, not even Daoist Three Purities had been able to destroy this bizarre place. Most likely, only World Gods like Mother Nuwa would be able to accomplish it. There was no chance whatsoever that Ning’s group would be able to do it.

The second method was to do what Daoist Three Purities did; to see through the illusions and see the truth of Earthmoan Mountain. It would then be possible to fly out!

Lord Tathagata the Buddha was extremely skilled in seeing through illusions. The Buddhists were all quite skilled in illusions to begin with.

Bang! Suddenly, a terrifying attack descended, stabbing straight towards True God Luwu. The layers of golden light protecting True God Luwu were instantly pierced through! Judging from the way in which the piercing occurred, it appeared as the attack came from an awl-shaped object.

True God Luwu was so frightened that he immediately lashed out with his whip to block while frantically dodging.

Slash!

True God Luwu’s flank was sliced open. A large bloody wound appeared on his side, but his divine power quickly healed it.

“Everyone, be careful. Earthmoan Mountain’s attacks are very powerful,” True God Luwu said hurriedly. “The formation is unable to completely block it. However, the formation is still able to whittle away at its power a bit. If it wasn’t for the formation, I wouldn’t have merely lost a chunk of flesh; I would’ve been ripped in half.”

“Be careful,” Daofather Windfate said solemnly. “It looks like we are surrounded by a thicket of trees, but all of that is illusory. The true scene is that of those strange objects flying towards us and attacking us.”

Ning frowned as well.

Despite being weakened by their protective formation, that strange object was still able to easily wound a True God. This was simply far too terrifying. The worst part of it was...they had no idea where it had come from. By the time they were able to notice it, its attack would have already arrived as well.

“What should I do?” Ning carefully scanned his surroundings, his eyes blazing with torch-light. He used the [Torch-Dragon’s Eye] to carefully scan the area, but the only result was that the trees and the leaves around them became even sharper and more in-focus. He could now even see the leafy veins! But alas, he couldn’t find any traces of an illusion at all.

“To see through the illusions and see the truth...”

“How am I supposed to do that? When Daoist Three Purities was trapped here, he was also unable to leave until he saw through the illusions and saw the truth.” Ning frowned. “But how?”

Ning was carefully inspecting his surroundings with his physical vision, his coresense, and even his heartforce. All his senses, however, were ‘seeing’ exactly the same things his eyes were seeing. It was as though the trees and the thicket around them actually were real. In truth, it made sense; even Daoist Three Purities had been trapped here for three thousand years before being able to escape. Seeing through the illusions would be no easy feet!

Rumble... action

Ning’s heartforce rippled out from him in a series of waves as Ning used the heartforce scrying technique which World God Northrest had transmitted to him, causing his heartforce scanned through every inch of space around him. This scanning technique could be said to be the most detailed such technique in the Three Realms. It truly surpassed all other similar techniques; Ning had searched the memories of the Fiendgods and Immortals of the Pangaea prisoners but was still unable to find any heartforce scrying technique that could compare to his.

Suddenly, his rippling heartforce seemed to detect a slight wave of motion.

Bang!

An invisible object once more stabbed straight through the layers of golden light and pierced towards Empress Xi.