Desolate Era (Book 19 - Book 21)

He was surrounded by a seemingly endless sea. Its waves continuously washed across the scorched stone.

A bright moon hung high in the sky, its cold and clear moonlight shining down upon the entire sea.

“This…” Ning stared at this in astonishment. Ahead of him was a floating wooden bridge. At one end of the bridge was this scorched stone he was standing upon, while the other end stretched far off into the horizon, where sea met sky. Not even Ning could see to the end of the bridge with his eyes alone.

“How long is this floating bridge?” Ning was speechless. He immediately sent out his heartforce to take a look. Ning had already grown accustomed to using heartforce in dangerous areas, because it was even more unfathomable and mysterious than coresense. True Gods and Daofathers who were weaker than him in heartforce wouldn’t even notice him scanning them. But of course, they in turn would be able to scan him with coresense without him noticing.

“Eh? My heartforce…?” Ning’s heart clenched. He had clearly spread out his heartforce, but he wasn’t able to find anything at all.

“Coresense.” Ning immediately sent out his coresense to investigate as well, but as he had expected, even coresense was unable to detect a thing.

Ning’s face changed. Very, very few in the Three Realms were capable of blocking out coresense and heartforce.

“That bright moon in the skies…where is that moon from?” Ning raised his head to stare at the moon. “Can it be the star outside this world?”

Swoosh! Ning soared into the skies, flying higher and higher. He flew for hundreds of thousands of kilometers before, with a thud, he rammed into an invisible barrier. A series of concentric ripples spread out from the part of the barrier which Ning struck. As for the bright moon, it was still far, far above him in the depths of the sky. There was no way to move any closer to it at all.

Ning pondered carefully for a moment, then elected to once more return to that floating wooden bridge. He advanced rapidly, because he had the feeling that the reason why this bridge existed was to serve as a guide for people to know where to go.

“Thousands of Empyrean Gods have entered Undermoon Lake since ancient times. Why haven’t I encountered any of them?”

Ning stood there atop his Ruyi Soulsnake Shuttle. The shuttle followed the floating wooden bridge forward, advancing at a rapid pace. It flew for millions of kilometers, but still the only thing to be seen was the endless sea and that lonely little bridge. The only sound that could be heard was that of the water slapping against the sides of the bridge.

This made Ning even more wary.

“Although Buddha Jueming successfully escaped this place, he refused to say anything about it. Even when other major powers asked him, he still refused to say a thing. As for the thousands of other Empyrean Gods…” Ning frowned. “Are all of them dead?”

The thought of how thousands of Empyrean Gods might have perished here made Ning even more nervous.

Whoooosh. He continued to fly forward, the shuttle advancing at an astonishing pace. He had flown for more than a hundred million kilometers, but there was still nothing besides the endless bridge.

Suddenly, far off in the distance, an ugly green head suddenly popped out from beneath the surface of the sea. The head stared at the distant white-robed youth aboard the shuttle. Because Ning was only able to see with his eyes, he wasn’t able to discover the appearance of this creature.

“Here comes another one,” the jade-green head mused softly, eyes filled with an excited gleam of bloodlust.





* * *





Book 20, Chapter 7 - Yaksha


The Ruyi Soulsnake Shuttle followed the floating bridge forward, flying at high speed. Ji Ning, however, maintained a vigilant watch. He continued to have the feeling that the seemingly-peaceful world of Undermoon Lake was hiding a terrifyingly lethal danger within it.

Deep within the depths of the sea.

A completely jade-green human-shaped figure, steel warfork in hand, was drawing close to Ning at high speed. Every so often, he would vanish and reappear more than a hundred thousand kilometers away. Soon, he stealthily arrived in an area located in front of Ning. His dark-red gaze pierced through the water, seeing the distant shuttle fly forward at high speed along the bridge’s path. His long tongue licked his lower jaw as he murmured to himself, “It’s rare for new prey to come. I hope this one is strong. Otherwise, it’ll be quite boring.”

“Ah, here he comes. Attack!”

The jade-green humanoid suddenly burst out from the surface of the sea, transforming into a green blur that streaked towards Ning.

“Eh?” Although he had been flying for a long period of time, he hadn’t relaxed at all. Ning was rather shocked. “He was able to get so close to me without me noticing at all.”

Ning’s pupils were filled with torchlight, and he used the [Torch Dragon’s Eye] to see his foe clearly.

This was an oceanic creature that looked rather like a yaksha-demon. The yaksha had a pair of dark-red eyes that were filled with a baleful, murderous aura, and it was wielding a steel warfork that it stabbed straight towards Ning.

“I need to capture him and take a good look.” Ning stretched out with his arm, and it instantly expanded, transforming and becoming enormous enough to cover the skies themselves as his fingers reached out to the jade yaksha. This was Ning’s [Starseizing Hand] divine ability. The yaksha sensed a tremendous amount of danger from this attack, and it immediately roared in a shrill voice, “BREAK!”

“Eh? This jade yaksha speaks in the language of Pangaea?” Ning murmured to himself. However, he showed no mercy at all.

BOOM!

Although the steel warfork stabbed into his palm, the enormous star-seizing hand still wrapped itself around the jade yaksha, capturing it. No matter how it struggled, it was unable to escape.

“Tell me, what exactly is going on in this world? And what happened to the thousands of Empyrean Gods who came before?” Ning barked coldly, his hand still wrapped firmly around the creature.

“Heh heh, so you have a bit of talent after all. How unexpected.” The captured yaksha actually let out a shrill laugh, dark-red eyes staring weighingly at Ning. “Interesting, quite interesting. It’s been a long time since I’ve encountered a formidable opponent. You were able to capture my clone in just a single exchange…this will be fun. Fun!”

“Clone?” Ning was stunned.

“Kid…this was just the start.” The green-haired yaksha laughed savagely, then suddenly transformed into a stream of liquid that quickly flew out from Ning’s palm.

“Transformed into water?” Ning barked coldly, “Even if you transform into a damn ghost, you still won’t escape!”

Boom! Yet another enormous palm came sweeping over.

Ning’s left and right hands seemed to have transformed into two enormous black stormclouds. They viciously clapped against each other. BOOM!!!! The stream of water that was caught between those two enormous hands was instantly and completely destroyed, leaving behind only a shrill voice reverberating in the empty skies: “Ahahaha…how intriguing…how intriguing!”

After slaying the yaksha, Ning once returned to stand within his Ruyi Soulsnake Shuttle. The sea wind blew past him, causing his white robes to flutter.