The Desolate Era

Atop a mountain that hovered within the vast Void outside the Three Realms.

This towering mountain was a million kilometers long. This was the abode of Daofather Crimsonbright.

An old man with long azure hair was seated in the lotus position. Below him stood a large group of powerful Empyrean Gods and True Immortals, a clone of the black-robed Xia Emperor among them.

“That Fiendgod army is finished.” Daofather Crimsonbright let out a soft sigh.

A round mirror of light was hovering in the air, allowing them to view the results of the battle. Daofather Crimsonbright had personally cast this technique.

“It’s finished.”

“One of the three Fiendgod armies is about to be used up.”

“If this continues…”

The Empyrean Gods and True Immortals were all incredibly nervous. As for the clone of the black-robed Xia Emperor, he just watched with an icy look on his face.

“Senior apprentice-brother Xiamang, our major worlds were all defeated…can it be that your Grand Xia is going to be defeated as well?” A burly Empyrean God who had the head of a bear spoke out anxiously.

“Our side has lost some Fiendgods, true, but Empyrean God Coldsavage is still alive, at least.” The Xia Emperor said coldly, “Our losses aren’t that severe, and the Seamless Gate has lost eight of their Bloodcloud golems.”

“Senior apprentice-brother Xiamang, no need to be reluctant to admit to the truth,” the nearby Sword Immortal Evergreen said calmly. “By now, I imagine you must be able to see that the Seamless Gate has clearly seized the upper hand. As this battle continues, your side will suffer even heavier losses! Although the Seamless Gate has lost eight Bloodcloud golems, the eight of them caused you to lose a Heaven Punisher and a Fiendgod army. The strong will grow stronger, while the weak will grow weaker; the distance in power between you and the Seamless Gate will continue to grow, until the end comes where your Grand Xia is unable to keep fighting and completely collapses!”

The Xia Emperor frowned.

Sword Immortal Evergreen’s words were unpleasant to hear, but he spoke the truth.

True Immortal Whitepole of the Seamless Gate had been tying down the Fiendgod army led by Empyrean God Coldsavage, and so when the new White-Faced Flood Dragons arrived, Whitepole had immediately ordered them to assault Coldsavage’s Fiendgod army. An entire host of Bloodcloud golems had thrown themselves into the fray as well. They had focused all of their extra power on that single Fiendgod army.

Just a short while later…after suffering the loss of four Bloodcloud golems, making for a total of eight losses in this battle, the Seamless Gate succeeded.

The only thing the Xia Emperor had been able to do was to take out a Protocosmic spirit-treasure, a red gourd, and draw all of the fleeing Fiendgods into his gourd. However, there were still many Fiendgods who ended up being massacred by the Bloodcloud golems.

“Am I going to lose?” The Xia Emperor sighed to himself.

Right now, the only idea he had was to ask his master, Crimsonbright, for help. He could also ask for Daofather Raindragon or the Primordial Imperial Clan to intercede.

However, the entirety of the Three Realms was in quite an ugly state. Would the Daofathers be willing to intercede and send out their own forces? The Xia Emperor didn’t feel certain of the answer. Daofather Crimsonbright and Daofather Raindragon had to know of his needed, but whether or not they would help out…that was their decision.

“If Master, my big brother, and the Primordial Imperial Clan all refuse to intervene, then this war will have been lost.” The Xia Emperor was unwilling to accept this outcome.

He truly was not.

This was a world which he had established. It was the foundation he had built after he had set up his Xiamang clan. Was he now going to be kicked out, like sorry-looking mutt being beaten off by a stick?

“Senior apprentice-brother Xiamang still has a very important military force on his side.” A muscular, golden-eyed man dressed in dragon robes looked towards the midair mirror of light, pondering to himself. “The most powerful Heaven Punisher, the one Ji Ning leads. All by himself, he can deal with two White-Faced Flood Dragons at the same time. However, he’s been forcibly restrained by True Immortal Crimsonjoy. Senior apprentice-brother Xiamang, those black chains trapping Ji Ning…is there no way to break them?”

“There’s no way.” The Xia Emperor shook his head, resigned. “Both sides are battling all out right now; the amount of help we can provide Ji Ning is limited. Unless we can send out an overwhelming amount of power, there’s no way we can break through those black chains.”

“What spell is that? How can it be so powerful?”

“Right, those black chains…I’ve never even seen such a spell.”

“Nor have I.”

“They seem like the black chains that are anchoring the Seamless City in the air, but I always thought that those were just part of that war-city. I didn’t expect that there was a similar sort of spell as well.”

The many Empyrean Gods and True Immortals present had been gathered here from the dozens of major worlds commanded by Daofather Crimsonbright.

They collectively possessed tremendous experience, but none of them had ever seen this.

The Xia Emperor just closed his eyes.

This was agony.

He didn’t want to take another look. His true body was within the field of battle; he knew exactly what was going on. The situation was turning increasingly grim. The enemy was strong, while his side was slightly weaker…which meant that the enemy would reap further and further rewards, causing the disparity in power to grow until one side perished.

“Master…big brother…what are you thinking, right now?” The Xia Emperor groaned mentally to himself.

“Senior apprentice-brother Xiamang, this Ji Ning…is he the one you wanted me to take on as an apprentice, all those years ago?” Sword Immortal Evergreen suddenly asked.

The Xia Emperor gave him a glance. “Yes.”

“I completely forgot about that.” Sword Immortal Evergreen laughed, “I just remembered…I heard that this Ji Ning took on a Daofather as his master. As the disciple of a Daofather…although he’s merely a Celestial Immortal and a bit weak, he’s still been an extremely useful general under your command.”

“He might be a Celestial Immortal, but he’s not weak.” The Xia Emperor shook his head. “He’s trained for a very short period of time, after all; his potential is truly extraordinary.”

“Potential?” Sword Immortal Evergreen said calmly, “There are many in the Three Realms with tremendous potential who have nonetheless been trapped at the Celestial Immortal stage for countless years. It’s not so easy to become an Empyrean God or a True Immortal!”

The Xia Emperor’s face sank. This junior apprentice-brother of his, Sword Immortal Evergreen…if one wanted to put it nicely, he was a figure who transcended worldly concerns, but if one wanted to put it bluntly, he was incredibly selfish! He didn’t care about the feelings of his fellow disciples at all; he said what he wanted to say, not caring about their face at all. In a normal situation, everyone was magnanimous about it, but this was during a time of war, and the Xia Emperor’s Grand Xia was about to be destroyed.

Although Evergreen’s words were true…why did he have to insist on saying such depressing things? Didn’t he know that the Xia Emperor had a belly full of fire right now?

“Oh?” The Xia Emperor said calmly, “Then junior apprentice-brother Evergreen, when you were merely a hundred years old, had you already become a Celestial Immortal?”

Sword Immortal Evergreen’s face instantly changed, but he then smirked. “What’s the point of putting up a tough verbal façade? Senior apprentice-brother Xiamang, it’s time to face reality.”

The Xia Emperor was currently in a terrible mood. He couldn’t be bothered to reply.

“The Grand Xia…”

The Xia Emperor felt miserable in his heart. “Is it really finished?”

……

As Daofather Crimsonbright led his Empyrean Gods and True Immortals in watching the battle from outside the Three Realms, a massive, black-robed figure was also silently watching from a completely different location. The Godking was paying very close attention to this fight.

“We are going to win.”

The Godking gently tapped on his armrest with his left hand. A mirror of mist was in front of him, revealing the battle in its entirety.

……

At this moment, neither the Godking nor Daofather Crimsonbright could see inside the body of Ning’s Heaven Punisher. None of them could see the change in Ji Ning, Immortal Darknorth.

Within the world of the Grand Xia. Whitepole Commandery.

The savage battle had been kicked in overdrive as both sides assaulted each other with abandon. The Seamless Gate’s side was especially eager, while the Grand Xia’s side clearly seemed a bit dispirited. Everyone could tell that from the moment that the Fiendgod army led by Empyrean God Coldsavage was destroyed, the difference in power between the two sides had grown. The Grand Xia was almost unable to hold on any longer.

“Break! Break! Break!”

Ning, trapped by those black chains, felt a frantic feeling in his heart.

His heart was filled with rage as well.

Why…

Why couldn’t he break these damned chains?

His brothers and sisters were fighting for their lives. Ning truly was anxious to join them.

Despite his anxiousness, he was still able to maintain complete control over himself. His icy calmness and his frantic impatience co-existed without any conflicts at all.

Rumble…

Suddenly, Ning’s heart shook.

He was stunned.

And then…he was overjoyed.

He could now completely sense that vast, boundless Grand Dao, the Dao of the Sword. All of the mysteries of the Dao of the Sword were now within Ning’s heart. It was different from the past; when Ning was attuning to the Dao, enormous ripples would manifest. Now, the Dao of the Sword was like an obedient little child, not resisting or hiding anything from Ning.

This was because Ning had completely mastered and was in complete control of it. Naturally, he wouldn’t release even the slightest of Dao-ripples to the outside world unless he chose to.

“So this…is the Dao of the Sword?”

“So the only thing I lacked was a surge of true Sword Immortal ki?” After breaking through the final bottleneck, Ning instantly understood where his problem had lain.

In truth, when one reached a bottleneck in mastering a Grand Dao, one’s insights into that Grand Dao were almost complete and perfect.

The only thing that was lacking was the final merging and fusing of all those insights, to blend them all together into one thing…the entire Dao of the Sword.

This sort of fusion required an insight that was extremely difficult to comprehend. However, Ning had a very pure sword-heart, and had even mastered a strand of swordforce. In addition, he had once had a chance to personally sense the entire Grand Dao of the Sword, thanks to the [Thousand Year Dream]. Thus, the only thing Ning lacked was that final surge of ki, the Sword Immortal ki which every single peerless Sword Immortal possessed.

Every single Sword Immortal had their own special qualities to them.

Lu Dongbin was transcendent and non-interventional.

Sword Immortal Evergreen was supremely self-centered, viewing everything through the cold lens of pragmatism. He didn’t deign to cloak his words in pleasantries when dealing with people of the same level. He knew that his words were unpleasant to hear, but he didn’t care. Perhaps he might be respectful when in the presence of a Daofather, but he couldn’t be bothered to do so for other Empyrean Gods and true Immortals. He knew very well the thing which mattered the most to him was his own strength.

Ji Ning, sword in hand, chopped through all thistles and thorns that sought to bar his path as he walked towards the true peak of power. Although he knew everything, simply put, Ning was missing that final surge of ki.

However, Ning had been tempered and trained through years of battles. In fact, black chains were surrounding and assaulting him right now, giving him tremendous pressure. As a result…the pressure caused a rebound effect, allowing Ning to seize the opportunity to make a breakthrough.

Upon making the breakthrough…

The look in Ning’s eyes changed.

Although his eyes looked similar to how they did in the past, deep within them one could see a sword-intent that was absolutely harrowing.

“The Dao of the Sword is now complete!”

“As for manifesting the five types of ki within my chest…I’ve always been able to do that,” Ning murmured to himself.

What were the five types of ki? Metal, wood, water, fire, earth; the Five Elements! The most important part of a Celestial Immortal becoming a Pure Yang True Immortal lay in the mastery of a Grand Dao. A secondary component was in separately mastering five ordinary Daos of the Five Elements. These Daos of the Five Elements could allow one to link together with the infrastructure of Heaven and Earth, because the Three Realms were themselves formed from the Five Elements.

When manifesting the five types of ki within the body, one would receive a resonance with the essential Five Elements of the universe itself. After the Jindan absorbed an enormous amount of elemental energy, it would then evolve and transform into a Pure Yang Jindan. Only then would it possess Pure Yang power, allowing one to become a true Pure Yang True Immortal.

“We’re in a fight right now. I don’t have the time to slowly absorb elemental energy.” Ning immediately pulled out an enormous amount of Pure Yang Immortal pills, throwing all of them into his mouth. Right now, his Jindan needed to absorb a nigh-infinite amount of elemental energy, and so there was no worry at all about an accidental self-detonation due to excess power.

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