Desolate Era (Book 19 - Book 21)

Ning’s Starseizing Tattoo and the rune merged together.

Whoosh! The formation simply disappeared, as though having been blown away by a gust of wind. Ning immediately saw the wooden door in front of him.

He walked forward, immediately pushing it open. Creaaaaak. The door swung open.

“Big bear, let’s go in together.” Ning turned to look at the giant yellow bear.

“No, no. Master’s orders were explicit; only the new Manorlord is allowed to enter.” The giant bear shook his head. “Those treasures aren’t for me anyhow. After you come out, just tell me what they are and let me take a look at them. I’ll be satisfied with that.”

Ning nodded, then stepped inside the room without any further attempts at persuasion. As he entered…his surroundings changed.

“Eh?” Ning was stunned. This was a very ordinary little room. Within the room was a prayer mat, and atop the prayer mat sat a bald, one-armed man who was dressed in fur clothes. He looked towards Ning with a hooded gaze. Ning could immediately recognize this man; it was Daoist Threelives. When Ning had been taught the [Starseizing Hand] divine ability, he had personally seen Daoist Threelives’ appearance.

“You have arrived.” The man spoke.

Ning instantly understood that this was nothing more than part of the spell left behind by his teacher. These words had been spoken by Daoist Threelives long ago.

“For you to enter this place means that you have already mastered the Fifth Cycle of the [Starseizing Hand]. I, Threelives, finally have a successor.” A calm, distant look was in Daoist Threelives’ eyes. “When I was alive, I wasn’t able to find a good successor. For me to find one after I die…it is enough. I don’t have any requests to make of you. I only ask that you treat with kindness those who have decided to continue to protect the Starseizing Estate. I suspect that Redsnow will stay behind, but I am uncertain about the rest. The heart is hard to fathom, after all. When I was alive, they were loyal to me…but after I die, it’s hard to say. As for the guardians…I hope that you will treat them kindly. If there are any Pure Yang treasures within the Treasures Hall which suit them, please give them to them.”

“As for you…I have prepared these three top-grade Protocosmic spirit-treasures for you. I hope that you will survive to make yet another breakthrough, becoming a True God and a Daofather. Let my [Starseizing Hand] truly become renowned throughout the Three Realms.”

“I was able to develop the [Starseizing Hand] due to a series of lucky karmic encounters. Alas, although I am a True God, I was unable to master a Heavenly Dao and become a Daofather. Otherwise, my [Starseizing Hand] would become even more powerful.” Daoist Threelives shook his head. “But of course, that’s nothing more than a bit of empty pride. As for the path you shall take in the future, that will be entirely up to you. Even if you want to dissolve the Starseizing Manor and let everyone go their separate ways, that’s fine. I only ask that you treat the guardians of the Starseizing Manor with kindness.”

“Redsnow, Eastbreak, Primelight, Dragonsong…how many of them are willing to stay behind, I wonder?”

Daoist Threeelives then shook his head and chuckled. “Forget it, forget it.”

Whoosh.

His figure disappeared into thin air.

Ning was stunned for a moment…then he hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed heavily. He kowtowed in thanks for Daoist Threelives having shown him such kindness in transmitting the Dao to him. If it hadn’t been for the legacy of Daoist Threelives, Ning probably wouldn’t have been able to become as accomplished as he now was.

“Although many of the Immortals and Fiendgods under your command have left, there were still some who resolutely stood guard over the Starseizing Manor. Don’t worry about the seven of them. I will definitely treat them well,” Ning said solemnly. This was a solemn oath. No one had been around to force the seven of them to wait there patiently for so long. None of them had any idea as to how long they would have to wait, but they had been willing to do so. In truth, Ning himself felt tremendous admiration and respect for those seven Empyrean Gods.

Ning rose to his feet.

He waved his finger. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! The lids atop the three boxes in front of the prayer mat all opened.

Within the box on the left was a large amount of beads, each of which emanated an utterly shocking aura.

The second box in the middle contained a small, seemingly-ragged wooden boat that was the size of his palm.

The third box on the right contained a small golden pagoda.

“So you are the new Manorlord of the Starseizing Manor?” A small bald monk dressed in golden robes emerged from the surface of the small golden pagoda. “You’ve finally come. We’ve been trapped here forever. I’ve gotten sick of this place long ago.”

“What’s the rush? Take things slow.” An old man dressed in simple clothes appeared from the small wooden boat. He looked like an old farmer.

“Finally.” A slender, handsome-looking child appeared in the air above the countless beads, seated in the lotus position. His gaze, however, was the fiercest and sharpest of the three.

“Go ahead and introduce yourselves, the three of you,” Ning said with a laugh.

“Old man, you speak first,” the handsome child said.

The simple old man nodded. “This old man is the spirit of this raggedy old boat. This boat is known as the Voidboat. Long ago, when Heaven and Earth were established, a bead of pure energy was formed from the essence of Heaven and Earth. After 84,000 years, this bead gave birth to the boat. It can shatter the Void itself. It moves so fast that in terms of speed, it was ranked as one of the top five treasures of the Primordial Era.”

“The Voidboat is very fast,” the handsome child said calmly. “During the Primordial Era, there were only two Chaos treasures that were suited for high-speed movements. One was in Mother Nuwa’s hands, while the other is in Daoist Three Purities’ hands. In the entire Primordial Era, only those two treasures surpassed the Voidboat. Based on what Threelives’ said, he prepared the Voidboat for you as a life-saving treasure.”

“I am meant for use in fleeing as well.” The small bald monk standing atop the small golden pagoda laughed merrily. “This little pagoda was formed from some unique treasures of the primordial chaos. It is extraordinarily profound and arcane, and was titled by Threelives as the ‘Nine Lives Pagoda’. Once you bind this little tower to yourself, you can tap into the profound energy within the tower to create nine incarnations of yourself. These nine incarnations will all have power equal to your own. They can use fleeing divine abilities to flee at high speed, but when they do, they’ll use up the energy inside of them. Once the energy is all used up, the incarnations will dissipate.”

“Not even True Gods or Daofathers will be able to tell any of the nine incarnations apart from each other. However…you absolutely cannot allow these incarnations to actually fight people. Once they do, then the enemy will realize that the incarnation is not using divine power or Immortal energy and instantly realize that it isn’t ‘real’.”

“The nine incarnations are principally meant to allow you to flee and to distract the enemy, not for you to use them in combat. Their value lies in the fact that if they don’t engage in battle, there’s simply no way to tell which is real and which is not. Not even Mother Nuwa was able to tell them apart.” The bald little monk said confidently, “Daoist Threelives had been wondering as to whether or not to bring me into the war, but he heard from Nuwa that there would be extremely terrifying figures in this battle, and that the Nine Lives Pagoda wouldn’t be of much use within it. Thus, he left it behind.”