Desolate Era (Book 19 - Book 21)

Ning nodded.

He knew that during the Primordial Era, Xia Yu had tamed the floods with his divine abilities, blessing the lands with kindness and benevolence. Even the Three Sovereigns acknowledged him and supported him, causing his rule to become even more stable and firm. And of course, Xia Yu himself possessed tremendous power. How could someone be considered an ‘Emperor’ of the human race be weak? Even Ning’s own senior apprentice-brother, Sun Wukong, had acquired the golden staff he used from Xia Yu, who had made it for him. [1. This is the legendary Ruyi Jingu Bang which Sun Wukong used in Journey to the West.]”

“Thus, in terms of major worlds…the major worlds which are controlled by the Primordial Imperial Clan are all extremely powerful. The Seamless Gate has stationed many troops in those worlds, and the battles between the experts there are all incredibly savage. If you attack, the Seamless Gate will immediately send their vast armies to tie you down. I recommend that you do not go there,” Subhuti said.

Ning understood. The battlegrounds between the Primordial Imperial Clan and the Seamless Gate were some of the most terrifying places of the entire Three Realms. Both sides had concentrated enormous amounts of power there.

“The realms ruled over by the other four Emperors, however, are comparatively much weaker. But of course, they are still much stronger than the Crimsonbright Realm,” Subhuti said. “Which of the realms ruled over by the other four Emperors would you like to go to?”

“Which one? Any one of them works,” Ning said hurriedly. He just wanted to kill the Seamless Gate’s people. The location didn’t really matter.

“One of the major worlds under Emperor Zhuanxu, the Winterherald world, holds Youngflame Freak within it. He has a total of eighteen clones spread throughout the Three Realms, with sixteen of them being within the Winterherald world,” Subhuti said. Although Youngflame Freak’s life-preserving methods were formidable, they were nothing to Subhuti.

Ning’s eyes lit up. “Does the Winterherald world have many Empyrean Gods and True Immortals within it?”

“Although war has yet to come to the Winterherald world, the Seamless Gate has a total of nine Empyrean Gods and True Immortals already stationed there,” Subhuti said.

Ning sighed in amazement.

Emperor Zhuanxu was one of the Five Emperors who had once ruled over the human race. Naturally, he had many powerful human experts following him. He himself was also exceedingly powerful, and in truth, the ‘Kindwater’ [3. In Chinese, ‘Kindwater’ was ‘Zhuanshui’] clan was a branch of Zhuanxu’s clan. But of course, the Kindwater clan was on a lower level than the Xiamang clan, much like how Emperor Zhuanxu was on a lower level than Emperor Xia Yu.

“Nine Empyrean Gods and True Immortals…fine. I choose this world.” Ning nodded.

“This is a map of the forces of the Seamless Gate that are spread throughout the entire Zhuanxu Realm.” Subhuti handed over a furled scroll to Ning, then instructed, “But you must not tarry overlong in each battle!”

“Your disciple understands.” Ning nodded.

“Hurry up and look at it, then destroy it,” Subhuti instructed. Ning immediately opened up and began to memorize the contents of the scroll.

The scroll had very detailed notes regarding the disposition of forces of both sides across the thirty-nine major worlds of the Zhuanxu Realm. The locations of the sixteen clones of Youngflame Freak were all marked out as well.

Whoosh. Ning flared the divine power in his hands, reducing the scroll to dust.

“Good.” Subhuti nodded, then disappeared into thin air.

A hint of a killing intent flashed past Ning’s eyes. “The time has finally come.”

“Ninefangs.” Ning’s form blurred momentarily, then he appeared next to Ninefangs, who was napping next to a nearby thatched cottage.

“Manorlord.” Ninefangs hurriedly woke up and rose to his feet.

“Go back to the Starseizer world for now,” Ning instructed, “And carry out the plan as we previously discussed.”

Ninefangs instantly understood what Ning was planning.

“Yes,” Ninefangs said respectfully. He then allowed Ning to pull him directly into the Starseizer world. By now, after Ning had completely mastered and bound the Starseizing Manor, Ning realized that the Starseizer world was actually hidden within a special region of the Starseizing Manor. Mother Nuwa had actually created the Starseizer world in that region.

He was now completely capable of drawing others straight into the Starseizer world or teleporting people out from it. There was no need to go through the Starseizing Manor first, though of course this was only possible because he had already fully bound it.

……

The Zhuanxu Realm. The Winterherald major world.

Winterherald was the world where the great army which Emperor Zhuanxu had once used to unify the human race, the Winterherald Army, was stationed. The various matters of the Winterherald world were all decided upon by the general and the deputy general of the army. Normally, this was quite a peaceful world, but ever since the Seamless Gate had begun to infiltrate it, a large number of minor clashes had begun to erupt, causing the Winterherald world to become rather chaotic.

But of course…

These were all small-scale battles. They were still far away from launching the campaign against this major world, to say nothing of launching a Realmwar. A war against Emperor Zhuanxu, one of the Five Emperors of the Primordial Imperial Clan, would definitely come towards the very end of the campaign against the three thousand major worlds. The only thing the Seamless Gate was doing right now was tying down his forces, preventing him from being able to easily reinforce the other Daofathers.

“This really is a different place.” Ning stood atop a mountain peak, staring at the vast world. His heartforce had spread out to cover it long ago.

Heartforce, ephemeral and invisible…one had to reach the fourth stage to be able to cover an entire world with it. Most importantly of all, there was almost no way to sense someone else’s heartforce, as it was completely traceless; the only possible way was to possess heartforce on the same level. For example, when Ning had made his breakthrough on the Grand Xia, he had unconsciously spread his heartforce out to cover the entire Grand Xia without Daofather Ink Bamboo or Daofather Crimsonbright noticing it. This was because, although they were born as a True God and a True Fiend of tremendous power, they weren’t particularly strong in heartforce. Neither had reached the fourth level.

Old Man Yuan and some of the supreme major powers, in turn, had only reached the fourth stage of heartforce.

Only Houyi had ever reached the fifth stage.

Of course, the Godking of the Seamless Gate would’ve been able to notice that Ning had spread his heartforce out, but the Godking had been in the Fifth World, not the Grand Xia. He was able to watch the battle and mentally converse with Daofather Ink Bamboo through sending his coresense out through the Void and into the Grand Xia, but coresense alone wouldn’t be able to discover heartforce.

“The Winterherald world is actually very tightly governed and ruled. The Celestial Immortals and Fiendgods are all arranged into armies,” Ning sighed internally. “The Grand Xia only formed Immortal armies when forced to do so, but the army of Emperor Zhuanxu has existed since the Primordial Era. I imagine that their teamwork is far superior as well.”

“Right. First, I’ll go wipe out the sixteen clones of Youngflame Freak.”

“Youngflame Freak truly is a cautious fellow. On the surface, he appears to be accompanying Azurefox in the Crimsonbright Realm, but his other bodies were squirreled away here at the Zhuanxu Realm.” Ning’s body transformed as he used the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art], instantly becoming a bit taller. He now had the aura of a Celestial Immortal.

Swoosh.

Ning disappeared into thin air.