Desolate Era (Book 19 - Book 21)

Witherdragon said, “Brother Darknorth, do you know that there are treasures on the third island? If you can make it there, you can acquire treasures.”


“Treasures?” Ning’s eyes lit up.

“The sea yaksha, Snowfiend, and Purgatory God – these are three of the guardians which the creator of Undermoon Lake left behind. If you can make it past the three of them, you’ll be able to acquire treasures. And of course, the fourth and fifth islands all have treasures as well.” Witherdragon looked at Ning. “But…do you think those treasures are so easily acquired? You can probably guess at how powerful the Purgatory God is.”

Ning immediately began to listen carefully. Only by understanding both one’s self and one’s enemies would one be able to win all battles.

“On the other side of Volcano Island, you’ll be able to see yet another floating wooden bridge. This floating wooden bridge will pass through an endless sea of fire…and within the sea of fire lives a Fiendgod known as the Purgatory God.” Witherdragon continued, “The Purgatory God is formed by countless flames that gather together. He wields a pair of halberds, and he is incredibly powerful, close to a True God in might. Although he flies quite slowly, his twin halberds attack at an utterly incredible speed. His infiniforce has even reached the fourth stage! Compared to Snowfiend, he’s stronger, has faster attacks, and is even more skilled. When those twin halberds of his start to chop about…he’s an utter nightmare.”

Ning was secretly shocked by what he heard. Even stronger and even faster than Snowfiend? This meant that this Purgatory God’s underlying foundation was superior to Snowfiend’s!

“The seven of us know exactly how powerful he is. Honestly, we hope for your success, as that way we’d be able to follow you through, but…” Witherdragon shook his head. “He’s far too powerful. If you aren’t strong enough, you will likely die.”

“The seven of you entered long ago during the Primordial Era.” Puzzled, Ning said, “If you wanted to follow a powerful Empyrean God to the next island, you probably could’ve done so long ago. You should’ve run into quite a few by now.”

“Right.” Voidragon, the only female of the seven, nodded. She said in a clear voice, “Your words are correct. From the Primordial Era to the present day, we’ve encountered more than ten who we were absolutely certain had the power to pass through. However, all of them came a long, long time ago. When the seven of us work together, even when the Purgatory God attacks the island he is unable to do anything to us. We were patient enough to keep waiting and training, hoping that we’d be able to break through by relying on our own power.”

“However…roughly thirty million years ago, the Purgatory God told us that we have almost spent an entire chaos cycle in Undermoon Lake. After a hundred million years, he would use his full power to wipe us all out.” Voidragon’s gaze turned dim. “Only then did we realize that there was a limit to the amount of time which Undermoon Lake gave us.”

“If the Purgatory God really was to attack at full-power and press us nonstop…our divine power would rapidly deplete, and when we use it all up, we’ll die. We’ve never heard of the term ‘chaos cycle’ before, but we understand that it has to be a period of time which the major power that created this world uses.”

“A chaos cycle?” Ning was startled. A chaos cycle had already passed since the Primordial Era?

Ning had felt all along that Undermoon Lake was a place that was meant to cultivate Empyrean Gods through particularly ruthless methods. However, a chaos cycle was enough; if one wasn’t able to make any real breakthroughs in an entire chaos cycle, they generally wouldn’t be able to make any more breakthroughs at all.

“We only have seventy million years left.” Tyranodragon’s deep, sonorous voice boomed out. “We absolutely aren’t willing to just admit defeat. We want to keep living, so our only hope right now is to find a powerful Empyrean God who can bring us along with him. But alas, no such figure has appeared recently.”

Ning nodded. During the past ten million years, he had been the only person to even enter.

“Although we truly wish to leave this place and aren’t willing to just die here…Ji Ning, you really are not yet strong enough.” Tyranodragon continued, “Please don’t blame me for saying something unpleasant, but the Purgatory God truly is incredibly powerful. Your third-stage swordforce…it’s far from being enough. You don’t have much of a chance to make it past him. To make it past him, you generally have to reach the fourth stage of thunderforce, taiji-force, infiniforce, heartforce, etc.; you have to reach the fourth stage to have any hope of succeeding.”

“And of course, if you are particularly skilled in a battle-type force, such as swordforce or saberforce, you’ll be completely capable of succeeding.”

Tyranodragon looked at Ning. “Brother Darknorth, you should wait until you have at least a decent chance before making the attempt. Otherwise…you’ll be gambling with your life. If you are lucky, you might escape, but if you aren’t, you’ll die there.”

“Junior apprentice-brother Darknorth, it’s best if you wait patiently for some time. You aren’t like us; a long path still lies ahead of you,” Roughpeak said. “Honestly, I’m already quite content with being able to see Volcano Island.”

Ning was speechless.

Third-stage swordforce?

Why did they believe him to be at the third stage of swordforce?





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Book 20, Chapter 15 - Iceheart Pith


“Stop!” Ji Ning hurriedly called out.

The Seven Dragon Gods and Empyrean God Roughpeak paused their protestations, looking at Ning. Truthfully speaking, they didn’t really want to say these words either, but they also didn’t wish to see Ning die in the hands of the Purgatory God.

“You, uh…who told you that my swordforce is at the third stage?” Ning laughed.

“Eh?” The other eight were all startled. Judging from Ji Ning’s words…it seemed as though he wasn’t at that stage?

“I did.” Roughpeak looked at Ning, puzzled. “Was my guess wrong?”

“Oh!” Ning now understood. Laughing, he explained, “When I first encountered you, senior apprentice-brother Roughpeak, I was indeed just at the third stage of swordforce.”

These words instantly caused the eight to reveal looks of surprised delight.

“You broke through?”

“You made a breakthrough when fighting Snowfiend?”

“Have you reached the fourth stage of swordforce?” All of them looked eagerly and excitedly towards Ning.

Ning smiled, then nodded. At the same time, he waved a finger, causing a loop of extremely sharp black sword-light to circle around it.

Upon seeing the black, sword-shaped swordforce, the Seven Dragon Gods and Roughpeak felt extremely excited, but they also didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry.

Roughpeak finally said, “Junior apprentice-brother Darknorth, I…uh…”

“I understand,” Ning said hurriedly. “Senior apprentice-brother Roughpeak, you believed that I had fought against Snowfiend for an extremely long period of time, and so you naturally came to certain conclusions based on that. It’s my fault for not having explained it to you.”

“How can it be your fault? Who would be so foolish as to blurt out exactly how strong they are?” The nearby Empyrean God Tyranodragon boomed with laughter. “Excellent. It seems as though the seven of us aren’t destined to die just yet. Given how powerful you are, brother Darknorth, it should be easy for you to overcome the Purgatory God. Come, come, come! Let’s make haste towards the next island. Our chances of leaving will be greater as well.”

“We’ve been in Undermoon Lake for countless years. Oh – according to what the Purgatory God said, we’ve been here for nearly a ‘chaos cycle’. I wonder what the next island is like?”

“I’m rather curious.”