Desolate Era (Book 22 - Book 24)

“No need to worry about me, fellow Daoist Kuafu. When my true body was destroyed by the Seamless Gate, I still ended up surviving, right?” Ning looked at Kuafu.

Kuafu was briefly startled, then nodded. “If you aren’t willing to hide, fine. How about this? Stay inside of our formation. If there any attacks come your way, the formation will be able to help you block a few blows. This formation protects against external attacks but not internal attacks. You’ll still be able to fight back from inside the formation.”

“Alright.” Ning nodded in acceptance.

Kuafu, Xingtian, Empress Xi, Windfate, Graceful Peacock, Luwu. These six True Gods were sharing their divine power with each other. Rings of golden light were surrounding them, helping to defend against any dangers, and Ning was located within the formation itself.

The six True Gods exchanged glances with each other, feeling quite resigned. As they saw it, this Sword Immortal Darknorth was being far too rash and arrogant. Earthmoan Mountain was such an incredibly dangerous place that even the six of them had to be extremely careful. In fact, they had even asked Lord Buddha to come rescue them. Ji Ning, however, insisted on staying outside…ugh! This overconfidence stemmed from the fact that he simply hadn’t trained for long enough!

Thump! Thump! Thump! Suddenly, the ‘pulse’ began to quicken.

The illusions around them began to change as well. Previously, they had been surrounded by endless tides of foul water. Now, it suddenly changed to a dense thicket of trees. Ning and the six were all standing within the thicket.

“Hurry up and leave. Fly out of the thicket,” Kuafu said hurriedly.

Swoosh! All seven of them strove to fly out, but no matter how hard or how quickly they flew, they remained trapped within the thicket.

“We won’t be able to fly out. Without being able to see through the illusions of Earthmoan Mountain, there’s no way we can leave it at all.” Daofather Windfate shook his head after taking another look. “When Daoist Three Purities was trapped here, he was able to rely on his incredible power to survive against the dangers present. Despite that, he was still trapped here for more than three thousand years before he was able to see the true face of Earthmoan Mountain and leave it.”

“These are all illusions.” Graceful Peacock was worried as well.

“We aren’t able to see through them and see the true face of Earthmoan Mountain,” Xingtian said with concern.

Ning carefully inspected the surrounding area as well.

Earthmoan Mountain was extremely famous. Once you entered it, you would face countless changing illusions and be perpetually trapped by them. Major powers might try to fly out with all their might, but they would remain within Earthmoan Mountain, unable to escape.

There were only two methods for leaving this place. The first was to rely on overwhelming raw power to annihilate the entire Earthmoan Mountain! However, not even Daoist Three Purities had been able to destroy this bizarre place. Most likely, only World Gods like Mother Nuwa would be able to accomplish it. There was no chance whatsoever that Ning’s group would be able to do it.

The second method was to do what Daoist Three Purities did; to see through the illusions and see the truth of Earthmoan Mountain. It would then be possible to fly out!

Lord Tathagata the Buddha was extremely skilled in seeing through illusions. The Buddhists were all quite skilled in illusions to begin with.

Bang! Suddenly, a terrifying attack descended, stabbing straight towards True God Luwu. The layers of golden light protecting True God Luwu were instantly pierced through! Judging from the way in which the piercing occurred, it appeared as the attack came from an awl-shaped object.

True God Luwu was so frightened that he immediately lashed out with his whip to block while frantically dodging.

Slash!

True God Luwu’s flank was sliced open. A large bloody wound appeared on his side, but his divine power quickly healed it.

“Everyone, be careful. Earthmoan Mountain’s attacks are very powerful,” True God Luwu said hurriedly. “The formation is unable to completely block it. However, the formation is still able to whittle away at its power a bit. If it wasn’t for the formation, I wouldn’t have merely lost a chunk of flesh; I would’ve been ripped in half.”

“Be careful,” Daofather Windfate said solemnly. “It looks like we are surrounded by a thicket of trees, but all of that is illusory. The true scene is that of those strange objects flying towards us and attacking us.”

Ning frowned as well.

Despite being weakened by their protective formation, that strange object was still able to easily wound a True God. This was simply far too terrifying. The worst part of it was…they had no idea where it had come from. By the time they were able to notice it, its attack would have already arrived as well.

“What should I do?” Ning carefully scanned his surroundings, his eyes blazing with torch-light. He used the [Torch-Dragon’s Eye] to carefully scan the area, but the only result was that the trees and the leaves around them became even sharper and more in-focus. He could now even see the leafy veins! But alas, he couldn’t find any traces of an illusion at all.

“To see through the illusions and see the truth…”

“How am I supposed to do that? When Daoist Three Purities was trapped here, he was also unable to leave until he saw through the illusions and saw the truth.” Ning frowned. “But how?”

Ning was carefully inspecting his surroundings with his physical vision, his coresense, and even his heartforce. All his senses, however, were ‘seeing’ exactly the same things his eyes were seeing. It was as though the trees and the thicket around them actually were real. In truth, it made sense; even Daoist Three Purities had been trapped here for three thousand years before being able to escape. Seeing through the illusions would be no easy feet!

Rumble…

Ning’s heartforce rippled out from him in a series of waves as Ning used the heartforce scrying technique which World God Northrest had transmitted to him, causing his heartforce scanned through every inch of space around him. This scanning technique could be said to be the most detailed such technique in the Three Realms. It truly surpassed all other similar techniques; Ning had searched the memories of the Fiendgods and Immortals of the Pangaea prisoners but was still unable to find any heartforce scrying technique that could compare to his.

Suddenly, his rippling heartforce seemed to detect a slight wave of motion.

Bang!

An invisible object once more stabbed straight through the layers of golden light and pierced towards Empress Xi.





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Book 22, Chapter 15 - That Tiny Wave


Empress Xi only noticed the attack after the strange object had torn through all those layers of protection. Her face instantly changed. “Not good!” She hurriedly dodged while brandishing her sleeves to block. Clang! The sharp object struck against her sleeves, then flew off towards another direction.

“Be careful, everyone.” Empress Xi said hurriedly, “It is too fast; you can’t let yourself be caught offguard!”

“Xingtian, do you have any more shield-type treasures?” True God Luwu asked hurriedly.

“I do.” Xingtian produced a small buckler in his hand, then sent it flying towards True God Luwu. It rapidly increased in size, becoming nearly half his height. True God Luwu grabbed the buckler with one hand, using his other to continue holding onto his metal whip.

Xingtian was similarly holding a buckler in one hand and his Heaven Punisher Axe in the other. He hurriedly asked, “Anyone else need a buckler?” As he spoke his gaze couldn’t help but turn towards Ning, located in the center of the formation.