The Desolate Era (Web Novel)

The green-haired man’s eyes were like those of a starving hawk’s as he glared at Ji Ning. He said hoarsely, “If I submit to you…what do you wish of me?”

Ning laughed. Clearly, the man was considering submitting. However, he was also a True God; if Ning went too far in humiliating him, he’d probably rather die than submit. Ning explained, “I need the treasures that you have on you. Here in this prison, your treasures are of no use to you anyhow. You might as well give them to me. Also – I need to search your memories…”

“Memories?” The green-haired man’s face changed.

“To you, I’m an alien. To me, you are an alien.” Ning smiled. “Your personal secrets might be very important to you, but they are completely meaningless to me. Don’t worry; I won’t tell anyone about them.”

The green-haired man stared at Ning.

“I guarantee,” Ning said, “That these two requests are all I want! If you accept, you continue living a peaceful life here. In addition, I’ll provide you with spirit-pills to ensure that you’ll be able to continue to survive. If you stay alive, you’ll have a chance to leave the prisonworld in the future.”

“Fine!” The green-haired man said hoarsely, “I accept.”

Ning was pleasantly surprised by how forthright the man was in accepting.

The green-haired man shut his eyes, continuing to sit there within the formation. Ning reached out with his right hand from outside the formation, his arm instantly expanding to become hundreds of kilometers long. His palm pressed down against the top of the green-haired man’s head as he sent his soul energy forward, beginning to execute the soulscouring technique. The green-haired man didn’t attempt to fight back at all. If he did, there was no way Ning would be able to accomplish the soulscouring.

This True God had an awe-inspiringly large number of memories. Countless thought-bubbles filled his mindspace, each of which represented major memories. Some of the bubbles were covered with complicated seals, none of which Ning was able to see through. Empyrean Gods, Celestial Immortals, True Gods, and True Immortals all had to swear life-oaths after learning powerful spells and techniques. Even if they wanted to teach them to others, they wouldn’t be able to.

“No wonder he was willing to submit…”

“So he harbors such tremendous enmity in his heart…and his foes are all Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals. Even if Pangaea really was destroyed, some of those Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals must have been able to successfully flee.” After searching through the memories, Ning understood who this True God was and the hatred this True God harbored.

This man wanted to leave, to find his foes, to kill them all! Even if Pangaea was destroyed, he would still search its ruins to find his foes. He wouldn’t feel satisfied until he was certain they were all dead.

Ning didn’t pay too much attention to the exact details of this feud. He discarded that information, focusing his attention in a different direction…

Whoosh.

After Ning’s soul energy entered a particularly thought-bubble, a profound technique suddenly entered his mind.

……

Sword Immortal world. The Five Treasured Peaks.

A white-robed Ning was seated within the thatched cottage, meditating on sword-arts. He was suddenly startled awake as the information pertaining to that technique entered his mind.

……

“Master, Brightmoon is causing trouble again. She saw injustice occurring and insisted on intervening, resulting in her offending several Immortal cultivators. After she beat them up, their elders came. She just went ‘kill, kill, kill’ and ended up slaughtering quite a few of them. She’s in real trouble now; the Patriarch of their clan is a Celestial Immortal. I’m not worried about his flunkies, but if he personally appears we’re going to be in serious trouble. Neither I nor Autumn Leaf have undergone our tribulations!” Little Qing frantically reported the above to the black-robed Ji Ning.

“Oh? It’s fine. Don’t worry.” The black-robed Ning nodded. “Brightmoon has a kind heart. It’s good to let her experience more of the world. Still…keep a close eye on her. Don’t let her embark upon the path of evil.”

“Don’t worry, Autumn Leaf and I are keeping a close watch on her.” Little Qing nodded repeatedly. “Alright, I’m going to go back now.”

Swoosh. She disappeared into thin air, teleporting away.

The black-robed Ning just chuckled. After so many years, Brightmoon had become much more mature than before. In fact, she didn’t like to roam about in her natural childlike form, and so changed her appearance into that of a young woman. In addition, she had been blessed with talent by her parents. Given that Patriarch Subhuti doted on her as well, she had long ago reached the Void-level. However, due to her extraordinary background, it was guaranteed that her Celestial Tribulation would be an extraordinary one. Thus, she was still building up power in preparing for it. Ning allowed Brightmoon to roam the outside world, only asking that she keep Little Qing and Autumn Leaf by her side.

In truth, there was something which none of the three realized…

Ning’s Primaltwin had been split into eighteen clones, and one of them was hidden within an ordinary-looking jade talisman which Brightmoon was carrying. In reality, this jade talisman was a Pure Yang treasure, one which Ning had gone to Mount Innerheart to ask his senior apprentice-brother Lord Jiang to forge. Lord Jiang had set up seals atop this jade talisman, making it look like an ordinary item that was completely unremarkable.

After binding the jade talisman to himself, Ning had gifted it to his daughter. It was very rare for Ning to give her gifts, and so Brightmoon loved this one and carried it with her at all times. What she didn’t realize was that this ‘ordinary’ jade talisman was actually a Pure Yang treasure which contained a pocket dimension inside it. Within that pocket dimension was a clone of Ji Ning which primarily focused on meditating and training in sword-arts while being prepared to protect his daughter at all times.

However, Ning didn’t want his daughter to know that he was with her. Once she knew, this adventure would no longer be much of a ‘tempering’ for her, and she would probably be angry with him as well.

“Brightmoon is really…sheesh.” Whenever he thought of his daughter, he couldn’t help but smile…but then the look on his face froze.

A profound technique had suddenly filled his mind.

……

Eighteen clones of his true body. Eighteen clones of his Primaltwin.

Every single clone learned this technique at the same instant…and all of them were stunned. Ning had spent more than ninety years sweeping through the prisonworld, dealing with more than eight hundred Empyrean Gods and Celestial Immortals, as well as three True Gods and True Immortals. Upon soulscouring this True God…finally, Ning gained something of true value.

……

Within the prisonworld.

After completely learning and memorizing the entire technique, Ning suppressed his excitement and continued to search through the rest of the True God’s memories. Only after finishing his search did he stop the soulscouring.

A look of delight and joy was in Ning’s eyes. His body was actually quivering slightly, and he murmured to himself, “Great fortune…a great fortune…”

“The heavens are helping me.”

“The heavens are helping me!!!” Ning’s eyes were filled with blazing excitement.

Ning had always believed the Pangaea chaos-kingdom to be even more formidable than the Three Realms, which meant that it had to have some truly powerful divine abilities and spells. The Three Realms had the [Starseizing Hand], the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art], and other techniques. Logically speaking, Pangaea should have techniques which were even more powerful. And it was true; Pangaea did indeed have formidable divine abilities at its disposal, but the ones which Ning had discovered thus far had all been sealed away with life-oaths, preventing him from ‘reading’ them.

This time, however, Ning had finally acquired a technique…and it was a technique which he deeply desired.

“The [Ninehorn Lightning Serpent] evasion technique,” Ning murmured softly to himself. “Within the primordial chaos, there are seas of lightning, and within those lightning seas there are spirit-snakes with nine horns on their heads…”

“I can train in this.”

“I can absolutely train in this. This is something that can be used in the Three Realms.” Ning hadn’t expected that he would encounter such a tremendous stroke of fortune.

In the Three Realms, evasion techniques were extremely important. The more formidable an evasion technique, the faster one would be able to move. The most famous techniques in the Three Realms included the [Somersault Cloud] of his senior apprentice-brother, Sun Wukong, as well as the [Wings of the Garuda] of the great golden-winged Roc. These were some of the most supreme evasion techniques of the Three Realms. When one reached the apex of the [Somersault Coud] or [Wings of the Garuda], one would be able to move a hundred and fifty thousand kilometers in a single instant! This was a level of speed which even many True Gods and Daofathers found difficult to reach.

Ning, however, knew the truth…that the truly supreme, number one evasion technique of the Three Realms was a legendary technique known as the [Golden Sunstreak]!

The most supreme of stars, the Solar Star, would give birth to a type of Godbeast known as the Golden Crow! Only Golden Crows which were completely born from the energy of the Solar Star were considered true, perfect Golden Crows. As for lesser Golden Crows that had mixed heritage or which were born after true Golden Crows copulated with other living creatures, there was no way their bloodlined could ever reach the level of perfect purity.

During the Primordial Era, the Solar Star had once given birth to ten Golden Crows at the same time. These ten Golden Crows all possessed incredible power. By relying on their innate divine abilities, they were able to roam the Primordial World without fear. One of them actually reached the True God level, and was given the respectful title of ‘Emperor of Monsters’. The ten Golden Crows all radiated infinite amounts of blazing heat. They were like ten suns that baked the Primordial World, causing the entire world endless amounts of anguish.

In addition, all ten of them had an incredibly powerful evasion technique…the [Golden Sunstreak]! The power of a True God, combined with the [Golden Sunstreak] divine ability…not even Mother Nuwa and the other Elder Gods had been able to catch them.

And then…Houyi had acted.

Houyi was just as terrifyingly talented as the Golden Crows, and he possessed a level of power that was enough to stun and shake the Primordial Era. His arrows were the fastest in the world, and they possessed enough power to cause even major powers to feel fear. Of course…not even Houyi was certain that he would be strong enough to slay the Golden Crow that had been titled the ‘Emperor of Monsters’. Thus, Houyi had spent quite a long period of time producing ten arrows of incredible power…and then, Houyi had struck! It was as though spacetime was completely incapable of impeding his arrows. Even the ‘Emperor of Monsters’ had been unable to escape and had perished to his first arrow. As for the remaining nine? Although they were ridiculously fast, there was no way they could escape Houyi’s arrows. Houyi slew eight of them. In the end, Mother Nuwa interceded, resulting in the last one being spared. 1

However…the fact that they died didn’t mean that the [Golden Sunstreak] was a weak divine ability!

The [Golden Sunstreak], in truth, simply converted the user into a streak of light! Its speed was the speed of light itself! Once one merged one’s body into the [Golden Sunstreak], the body would go wherever that streak of light went. As for the speed of this technique…it allowed the user to travel three hundred thousand kilometers in an instant! This was the absolute limit in terms of raw speed. Not even major powers were able to surpass the speed of the [Golden Sunstreak]. Their only options were to use their control over spacetime or certain treasures and spells to slow down the Golden Crows, causing them to fly slower; only then would they be able to catch up.

None of them, however, were capable of catching up to the Golden Crow that had reached the True God level. Not even Houyi! Houyi had to produce special arrows of terrifying power in order to catch them and kill them with his shots.

[Golden Sunstreak]…the speed of light!

This was definitely a technique that allowed one to move faster than any other living creature of the Three Realms. Ning’s third apprentice-brother was a Golden Crow that had been birthed from the Solar Star during the era of the Three Realms, and he was a master of this divine ability.

Many majors powers deeply desired to train in it, but…only Golden Crows that were born from the Solar Star could do so!

“[Ninehorn Lightning Serpent]?” Ning was incredibly excited.

This technique was an evasive divine ability that was on the same level as the [Golden Sunstreak].

The [Golden Sunstreak] involved a streak of blazing light that only Golden Crows could control.

The [Ninehorn Lightning Serpent], in turn, involved a bolt of living lightning!

It was incredibly difficult to train in, and in fact it could be said that cultivators had a 90% chance of dying when attempting to train in it. Upon mastering it, however, one would be able to enter the lightning serpent and move far away in a single lightning bolt. The speed of this lightning bolt was just as fast as the speed of light; both had reached the utter limit of speed possible.

“If I was to master this technique, I’d be able to roam the Three Realms and attack the Seamless Gate’s bases as I pleased. They wouldn’t be able to catch me!” Ning knew that this evasion technique was extremely difficult to train in, but he instantly decided that he was going to master it, no matter the cost!

1. The legend of Houyi shooting down nine of the ten suns is one of the more famous Chinese legends, and is in fact the principle legend of Houyi and the reason why he is a legendary Chinese archer.