The Desolate Era (Web Novel)

Within a private room.

A single candle had already been lit. A fragrant smoke was drifting about, filling the entire room. Azurefox was seated in the lotus position, and she slowly closed her eyes, gradually entering the realm of slumber and dreams.

……

Azurefox appeared within the vast world of darkness. At the center of the world of darkness, a towering figure suddenly appeared atop a towering throne that was at least thirty thousand meters tall, a figure that was covered in black robes.

“You lost?” The Godking looked downwards calmly, his voice reverberating within the entire world.

“Forgive me, Godking.” Azurefox immediately fell to her knees. She said hurriedly, “We’ve already done everything we can, and everything unfolded as we expected, but…who would’ve thought that Ji Ning, who clearly was just a Celestial Immortal, would become the most powerful force on the side of the Xia Emperor? It is very taxing for us to withstand just his Heaven Punisher alone. We truly have no other options…”

The Godking just looked at her silently.

Azurefox knelt there, not daring to lift up her head.

“I was watching the battle between you and the Grand Xia this entire time,” the Godking said calmly. “Ji Ning’s rate of improvement truly is quite fast…but in addition to that, each of you were cowardly and feared for your lives. Whitepole, in particular…has truly disappointed me! I bestowed a Dao-fruit of primordial chaos upon him, but he still wasn’t able to gain victory.”

“Forgive us, Godking,” Azurefox said nervously.

The Godking strummed his throne’s armrest with his hand, having fallen silent.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

The only sound in the entire world was the sound of him tapping against his armrest, and it echoed nonstop within the darkness.

Azurefox didn’t dare to make a sound. She knew that the Godking was pondering…was deciding.

To reinforce them? Or to not reinforce them?

……

Eight Dragons Cloudcity.

The entire situation had been reversed, and they had gained a major victory. The Xia Emperor had just summoned his Empyrean Gods, True Immortals, and Celestial Immortal commanders to the main hall to engage in a discussion.

Within the military camp of the Darknorth army.

“That really felt excellent.”

“I felt so stifled for so long, trapped by those black chains. Immortal Darknorth was truly formidable; he actually led us to break those chains apart and kill that so-called ‘True Immortal Crimsonjoy’. We even killed that White-Faced Flood Dragon and sent the Seamless Gate scurrying.”

“He’s simply incredible. Not even the Heaven Punishers controlled by an Empyrean God or a True Immortal can be this powerful.”

The Celestial Immortals and the countless Loose Immortals within the camp all chatted excitedly amongst themselves. The amount of power their Heaven Punisher had suddenly wielded in the end was incredibly stimulating to them.

“Rainbowflame Fairy.”

“Fairy.”

Upon seeing Yu Wei pass by, all of them were very respectful. They all knew that Yu Wei and Ji Ning were Dao-companions, and the bulge in Yu Wei’s belly was already quite noticeable. Everyone could tell that she was pregnant. The child within Yu Wei’s belly most likely had to be the child of their commander, Immortal Darknorth; naturally, these Celestial Immortals and Loose Immortals were extremely careful and respectful of Yu Wei.

Yu Wei smiled and nodded towards them, replying with a few pleasantries before turning and entering her residence to prepare some dishes for Ning.

A short while later, Ning returned.

“Senior apprentice-sister.” Ning entered the room.

Yu Wei was carrying a platter of food outside as he entered. Smiling, she said, “I heard that you achieved a grand victory today. You even killed a True Immortal, a True Immortal Crimsonjoy?”

“You’ve heard already?” Ning sat down, surprised.

“Everyone in the camp is talking about it. How could I not know?” Yu Wei poured some Immortal wine for Ning.

Ning nodded and smiled. “Right. I was fairly lucky. Without planning on it, I ended up killing True Immortal Crimsonjoy in one blow. But alas…I was just a step too slow. If I made my breakthrough slightly earlier, our side probably would’ve lost even fewer forces.” When Ning thought of his sixth brother, Celestial Immortal Rainbow, he couldn’t help but feel a bit of misery. His Dao-heart, however, allowed him to quickly smooth over and settle down his emotions.

“You made a breakthrough?” Yu Wei said, surprised.

“Right.” Ning nodded lightly, then said, “I’ve made a breakthrough in my soul heartforce technique.”

His master, Subhuti, had instructed him long ago that he was not to casually inform others of his breakthrough to the Pure Yang True Immortal level. He was not to tell Yu Wei or Uncle White, who he held complete faith in, about it! If he told a single person, the Seamless Gate would have a chance to find out about it.

“You’ve finally made a breakthrough in your soul heartforce technique?” Yu Wei said joyfully, “Wonderful. A breakthrough in soul heartforce will allow you to control even more power from your Heaven Punisher, making it even mightier. Right now, in the war for the Grand Xia, there’s not many on the side of the Seamless Gate who are a match for you.”

“Haha. For now, at least, there’s no one who can deal with me. True Immortal Whitepole, Gatemaster Azurefox, and the White-Faced Flood Dragon which is under the command of an Empyrean God all had to join forces together against me, and they still weren’t a match.” In front of Yu Wei, Ning did something he rarely did; he bragged a bit.

“I knew you’d be incredible.” Yu Wei was very happy.

The more powerful Ji Ning was, the greater the chances of his survival would be.

Yu Wei and Ji Ning enjoyed this meal very much. Shortly after they finished…

“Eh?” Yu Wei suddenly felt a dizzy spell strike her.

“The Godking?” Yu Wei’s heart clenched as she realized that it was the Godking forcibly summoning her.

The Godking had left his imprint upon her soul. There was no way she could refuse his summons at all. When Azurefox wanted to reach Yu Wei, she had to wait for Yu Wei to fall asleep first…but the Godking could forcibly reach out to her, not needing to wait for her to go sleep.

Yu Wei didn’t dare to hesitate at all. She immediately said, “Junior apprentice-brother, I’m full. I’m a bit tired; I’m going to take a nap.”

“Go ahead and get some rest,” Ning immediately said. She was currently pregnant; he didn’t dare to negligent of her health.

Yu Wei moved into a nearby room, lay down on the bed, then shut her eyes.

……

Within a vast world of darkness.

Yu Wei appeared out of nowhere, and as soon as she did she saw that massive royal throne hovering in the middle of the endless darkness, as well as the towering figure of the Godking seated upon the throne. She also saw Gatemaster Azurefox kneeling before the Godking. Yu Wei immediately knelt down as well. “I prostrate myself before you, Godking.”

“Yu Wei,” the Godking said, “The great battle the Grand Xia Dynasty just fought against our Seamless Gate…are you aware of it?”

Yu Wei was somewhat startled. She immediately nodded. “I do.”

“The Seamless Gate suffered a major loss,” the Godking said. “The Grand Xia won a great victory. Do you know why the Grand Xia won?”

Yu Wei hesitated a moment, then said, “Because of my junior apprentice-brother, Ji Ning.”

She knew very well that the Godking had to be aware of all the details regarding the battle. There was no way any of it could be hidden from him.

“Right. Because of Ji Ning.” The Godking slowly tapped his fingers against his armrest, a hint of doubt in his voice. “How could your Dao-companion, Ji Ning, have increased his power by that much? Did he become a Pure Yang True Immortal? Or is it because he’s mastered the heartforce techniques which Old Man Yuan transmitted to him?”

“Your subordinate doesn’t know,” Yu Wei said respectfully.

“You don’t know?” The Godking gazed downwards towards her.

Yu Wei’s heart shook, but she forced herself to remain calm.

“I believe he must have become a Pure Yang True Immortal,” the Godking said.

Yu Wei was surprised. The Godking already knew the answer?

“There is no way you can lie in my presence,” the Godking said calmly. “I’ve summoned you and asked you simply because I wanted to test you…but in the future, if I ask you for any information regarding the Grand Xia and you dare to hide anything…then I will exile you into the Infinity Hells. When that happens…there will never be a chance for the child of yourself and Ji Ning to enter this world!”

Yu Wei’s heart shook yet again. This was what she feared the most. The thing she wanted above all else was to survive until her child was born.

“Forgive me, Godking,” Yu Wei said hurriedly.

The Godking just gave her a glance.

Whoosh. Yu Wei disappeared into thin air.

“Godking?” Azurefox raised her head to look at the Godking with a belly filled with questions.

“It seems that Ji Ning did not lie to Yu Wei,” the Godking said slowly. “Ji Ning has indeed come up with a soul heartforce technique. If he is allowed to grow unimpeded…I’m afraid that the Nuwa Alliance of the Three Realms shall soon gain yet another hard-to-deal-with Empyrean God or True Immortal.”

Azurefox was even more puzzled.

“Ji Ning told Yu Wei that he made a breakthrough.” The Godking gave his most devoted of servants an explanation. “A breakthrough in a soul heartforce technique! However, before this I was concerned that Ji Ning might have been lying. The best judge of whether or not he was lying would be Yu Wei, his Dao-companion; she knows him better than any others. If he lied, Yu Wei should be able to detect it. I could sense, however, that Yu Wei also believes that Ji Ning has indeed made a breakthrough in his soul heartforce technique.”

Although Yu Wei hadn’t said it, the Godking could completely see through all of Yu Wei’s thoughts.

However…

What the Godking didn’t realize was that Ning hadn’t told anyone at all that he had broken through to become a Pure Yang True Immortal. Ning had indeed lied to Yu Wei. His heartforce was incredibly strong, and so he was able to reveal no flaws at all when lying. In addition, although Yu Wei had some vague guesses in her heart, she still had complete faith in Ning. Ning was the most important person in her life, and so harbored no doubts about his words at all.

After speaking with and querying Yu Wei, in the end the Godking decided that Ji Ning had to have truly made a breakthrough in heartforce.

Azurefox hurriedly said, “That’s good. At least he hasn’t become a Pure Yang True Immortal yet.”

“Good?” The Godking gave Azurefox a sideways glance. “You still don’t understand what it means for him to have made a soul heartforce breakthrough. In the Three Realms, there are many who have become Empyrean Gods or True Immortals, but the number of individuals who have developed soul heartforce techniques can be counted on two hands.”

Azurefox was shocked.

“Old Man Yuan transmitted his teachings to Ji Ning, but I didn’t expect him to have mastered them in just three years.” The fog around the Godking’s black robes seemed to crackle with light. “Ji Ning has long ago mastered a thread of swordforce, and he has a deep level of insight into the Dao of the Sword. There is nothing impeding him from mastering it and becoming a Pure Yang True Immortal; this is just a matter of time.”

“Mastering a soul heartforce technique, however, is extremely difficult.”

“He’s already accomplished the most difficult task before him,” the Godking said. “He’s completely mastered a soul heartforce technique, which means his control over his Heaven Punisher and the amount of power he can command has instantly increased tenfold or twentyfold. Once he also becomes a Pure Yang True Immortal…the power of his Immortal army will explosively increase yet again.”

“When that happens…he will have become incredibly hard to deal with. The Nuwa Alliance will have gained yet another lethal weapon.”

The Godking was hesitant, not sure what to do next.

The battle between the two alliances was a slow, drawn-out battle where each side was fighting for every bit of land!

Each time, they would whittle away a little bit of their enemy’s strength, but over the course of many battles, the accumulated amount of damage they had done would allow them to gain a great advantage! At present, the True Gods and Daofathers on each side were all unwilling to intervene, because they knew that once one side intervened, the casualties would instantly skyrocket. This storm, however, was unavoidable; they had to fight at some point. At the start, however, they were going to conserve their strength as much as they could.

The Empyrean Gods and True Immortals struggled for karmic luck.

But towards the end…when one side realized that they no longer had any chances at all to improve their karmic luck…they would most likely launch their most frenzied, berserk of assaults!

That would be when the final battle would occur.

Right now, however, both sides felt that they had opportunities to improve their karmic standings, to improve their karmic luck. If they were able to do so, then Heaven and Earth would be on their side.

And in this battle for karmic luck…some extremely special Empyrean Gods or True Immortals could be tremendously effective in this regard, such as Lu Dongbin and his Eight Immortals of the High Caves, or the terrifying divine archers. If Ji Ning was to master a soul heartforce technique and become a Pure Yang True Immortal, the army he commanded would be able to become an important variable that had a major influence on the entire war.

……

Time flowed on.

The Godking’s left hand slowly but continuously tapped against the armrest of his throne. Tap. Tap. Tap. Azurefox felt as though each tap was a tap striking upon her very heart.

Suddenly, the Godking’s left arm came to a halt.

Azurefox lifted up her head. She could feel as though the entire world of darkness had just solidified.

A flash of lightning seemed to have appeared within the Godking’s eyes. He said coldly, “Sooner or later, we will need to fight a decisive final battle against Crimsonbright. Then…let this final battle’s location be the world of the Grand Xia. Make your preparations. I will summon the power of the Fifth World and send them to descend upon the Grand Xia. We’ll prepare for a Realmwar and get rid of Ji Ning at the same time.”

“Realmwar?” Azurefox was shocked.

Sometimes, the war against a major world would explode beyond one’s expectations. The major powers on both sides would constantly reinforce their subordinates, resulting in a massive war which the majority of Empyrean Gods and True Immortals within that realm would participate in, along with a truly countless number of the realm’s Celestial Immortals and True Immortals. This sort of war…was known as a Realmwar.

“Hurry up and prepare,” the Godking ordered.

“Yes,” Azurefox said respectfully. She immediately departed from the world of darkness.