Desolate Era (Book 11 - Book 15)

“Is this all he has…this disciple which Grand Emperor Xuanwu took such a fancy to?”


He can’t even defeat an unaffiliated cultivator like Adept Ninedeaths?” The True Immortals at the front of the Skylight Palace were all quite puzzled. As they saw it, given Grand Emperor Xuanwu’s status, his disciple should naturally be extraordinary. Otherwise, that would be an utter loss of face for Grand Emperor Xuanwu.

Lu Dongbin, by contrast, was staring far into the distance. Smiling, he said, “This battle is interesting. This Adept Ninedeaths has an extremely deep level of insight into the Grand Dao of Mortality; in fact, I even suspect that she has memories from several previous lives…she is definitely extremely strong. Can it be that the Sloppy Daoist is actually going to lose to her?”

“It wouldn’t be strange if he did,” Truelord Chiji agreed.

“Just because someone is going to become a Celestial Immortal in the future doesn’t mean they cannot lose a battle in the present.” Sovereign Hao shook his head.

All of the Pure Yang True Immortals felt that the outcome of this battle was now in doubt.

Based on their judgement, both the Sloppy Daoist and Adept Ninedeaths had used all of the powers available to them. The Sloppy Daoist had am impregnable defense, and his attacks were absolutely savage as well…and yet, he remained unable to do anything to his opponent. This was indeed quite dangerous for him.

……

The Sloppy Daoist suddenly took a break from his frantic attacks, beginning to launch a different tempo of strikes.

“This is…?!” Adept Ninedeaths face suddenly changed. The Sloppy Daoist was currently very calm; his six arms moved in unfathomable ways, and at almost all times four of them were defending while two of them were attacking! They felt like the waves of the sea. Each successive wave was increasingly powerful, and the same was true for the Sloppy Daoist’s attacks. When defending, he was accumulating power…and when attacking, he would let it erupt forth!

Accumulating power, then unleashing it!

This sort of strange tempo caused the Sloppy Daoist’s attacks to slowly become increasingly ferocious. One wave after another continued to merge into each other, causing Adept Ninedeaths to feel increasingly stifled.

“What what what…what is this?!” Adept Ninedeaths couldn’t understand it at all. The waves were growing increasingly savage in power!

BOOM!

The Sloppy Daoist suddenly struck out with all six arms. They all struck out as fists with a power that felt faintly similar to an enormous black tortoise slamming against the pillars of heaven. Boom….Adept Ninedeath blocked the blows, but was knocked flying backwards. Her body had split open at many places from the force of the collision, and blood was flowing from the wounds nonstop.

Whoosh. The Sloppy Daoist took a single step, appearing before Adept Ninedeaths. His six fists once more moved to strike out.

“I admit defeat.” Adept Ninedeaths discontented voice rang out. She was now using all her efforts to dodge. Only now did the Sloppy Daoist come to a halt. The turtle-shell runes covering his body disappeared as well as he returned to normal.

The dirty face of Adept Ninedeaths was filled with resentment and an unwillingness to accept this. She looked towards the Sloppy Daoist: “Sloppy Daoist; your level of comprehension of the Dao is limited, and whether I am attacking or defending, I can handle you. So why is it that this last technique of yours became increasingly hard for me to withstand…until in the end, I had to admit defeat?”

The Sloppy Daoist just laughed. This was a battle technique he had developed after gaining insight into the Grand Black Tortoise divine ability. When he had been transmitted this Grand Black Tortoise divine ability, he had sworn an oath to the Dao of the Heavens that without permission, he absolutely wouldn’t teach anyone any part of it at all. This technique involved some of the profound mysteries of the Grand Black Tortoise divine ability; naturally, he couldn’t teach it to anyone else.

“What is the name of this sort of battle technique?” Adept Ninedeaths quickly asked.

“Wavefolding!” The Sloppy Daoist responded to her.

“Wavefolding…one wave after another, folding onto each other…I was trapped within the waves, and death was the only way out…I clearly wasn’t weaker than you, but I was still defeated…wavefolding…wavefolding…” Adept Ninedeaths walked away, murmuring the word ‘wavefolding’ to herself. She even had a sudden feeling…that if she could comprehend the mysteries of this ‘wavefolding’, then she would have a chance to overcome the Celestial Tribulation and become a Celestial Immortal!

This was a stroke of luck for her! But if she was unable to comprehend it, then in this life, her ninth life, she would probably once more fail the tribulation!

……

Within the Skylight Palace’s main hall. The nearly thousand-strong Celestial Immortal Patriarchs were all frowning. Although they were very experienced, even they couldn’t understand what had just happened. Clearly, these two were both on par with each other in terms of divine abilities, comprehension of the Dao, and Fiendgod Body Refining techniques. In fact, Adept Ninedeaths was even at a slight advantage. So why, in the end, had she been defeated like this?

It had seemed as though Adept Ninedeaths had walked into an endless tide; no matter how much she struggled, it was useless. In the end, the tide had completely drowned her.

“What was that?”

“How could that have happened?”

“I don’t understand.”

The Celestial Immortals all felt that there were strange mysteries to what had just happened. It should have been some sort of battle art they just saw, but none of them could comprehend it.

“He truly lives up to being the disciple of Grand Emperor Xuanwu.” This was the only thing they could come up with.

……

“Wavefolding!” The Xia Emperor and the rest of the nine Pure Yang True Immortals all revealed a look of surprise and amazement.

“I sigh in amazement. I sigh in amazement!” The Immortal Elder of the Northlands shook his head and sighed with emotion, “This Sloppy Daoist truly has astonishing comprehension abilities. He was even able to comprehend some of the true exquisiteness of this secret art of Grand Emperor Xuanwu’s…when I watched that battle just now, I was even reminded of that scene from back when I was listening to Grand Emperor Xuanwu expound on the Dao.”

“Truly incredible!” Lu Dongbin sighed in disbelief as well.

“Formidable.” The Xia Emperor seemed to show a hinit of envy.

“Grand Emperor Xuanwu…he truly is a major power!” Truelord Chiji’s eyes were filled with admiration.

At their level, they actually all understood the profound principles behind the Sloppy Daoist’s ‘wavefolding’ technique. This was a technique that constantly circulated and accumulated waves of power; the longer the power was stored up for, the more terrifying the final explosion of power would be! But even if one was taught this technique and completely understood its principles, that didn’t mean one would necessarily be able to use it. This was a matter of heart, a matter of comprehension.

They all understood some of the profound underlying principles, but as the saying goes, some things are ‘easy to understand, but hard to do’! Understanding was one part; actually executing the technique was something else entirely.

“We can comprehend the mysteries of this Sloppy Daoist’s ‘wavefolding’ technique, but when the Grand Emperor personally executes it, the profound mysteries are countless times more complicated,” Lu Dongbin sighed. “Grand Emperor Xuanwu’s ‘Grand Black Tortoise’ divine ability…its true exquisiteness lies in a single word; the so-called ‘folding’.”