Desolate Era (Book 28 - Book 30)

“GRAAAH!”


Two illusory figures suddenly swooped up from the infinitely deep abyss of darkness below the chains. The two moved incredibly fast, traversing a thousand kilometers in a single flicker as they charged towards Heartlord Solewind. One phantom was of a grim-faced man who wielded a warblade, while the other was of an ugly alien creature who wielded nine whips in its nine arms.

Solewind’s gaze grew cold as he saw those two phantoms strike towards him. A series of magic treasures that looked like fiery lotuses began to bloom behind him, and as they bloomed they immediately began to transform into blazing firebirds. There was a total of 391 firebirds in the skies, and they all radiated with blazing auras that easily dissipated the attacks coming from those two phantoms.

Ning and the others frowned upon seeing this. Were these the ‘wraiths’? Why did they seem like cultivators?

“Those are all cultivators who died long, long ago.” Daolord Owlbath explained, “After they died their truesouls were destroyed, but their power was transformed into these strange wraiths. Because you are at the World level, World-level wraiths shall be sent to attack you. If a Daolord attempted to pass… things would be far more frightening.”

Ning and the others nodded.

“Many of them failed while attempting to pass through the primessence chains, and some of them were truly dazzling figures of their time. Later on, these wraiths will group together and attack en masse.” Daolord Owlbath sighed. “To go through the primessence chains and reach the Prime Reaches. Oh, that’s gonna be tough, tough, tough.”

……

Heartlord Solewind continuously advanced while controlling his magic treasures, using it to break apart all impediments.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The primessence chains themselves were trembling slightly, sending out multiple strange ripples of power. Ning was able to physically see those ripples emanating out, each expanding to become thirty meters in size. Heartlord Solewind had to rely on the power of the chains to fight back against the devouring power of the abyss, but by doing so he ended up being restricted by the power as well.

“Hmph.”

Heartlord Solewind advanced with cool calmness, using his magic treasures to slaughter all of the attacking wraiths. As he continued to advance, more and more wraiths of increasingly greater power began to charge out of the abyss below the Prime Reaches.

As a Heartforce Cultivator, he was naturally quite skilled in controlling magic treasures from afar. These wraiths, as of right now, were not able to force him into close combat.

……

“Five hundred kilometers. He’s made it pretty far, pretty fast.” Daolord Owlbath stared in boggled amazement. “This young fellow is way too powerful, and he has an incredibly strong mind and heart.”

“He isn’t even swaying a bit?”

“He’s completely ignoring the effects of the primessence chains?”

The twelve World-level cultivators who had already tried and failed in the past also stared in amazement. The mental influence of the primessence chains would grow increasingly strong, and at five hundred kilometers the influence was now incredibly strong. Generally speaking, even those who were able to endure the mental attacks would feel quite miserable. Heartlord Solewind, however, had an extremely calm look on his face. He looked as though he was simply strolling through the streets. He made it look easy.

Ning and the others all revealed smiles.

“Only one in a hundred can succeed? Hmph. Let them compete with us,” Prince Greatjoy sent to Ning and the others in an extremely smug manner.

“Right.”

“Brother Solewind is making it look easy.”

Although Ning and the others weren’t the arrogant type, they agreed with what Greatjoy said. In terms of all-around ability, the five of them truly did surpass the vast majority of the other World-level cultivators in the Genesis Lands. These were the most elite geniuses of the geniuses of the Brightshore Kingdom, after all!

Heartlord Solewind continued to advance. Six hundred kilometers. Seven hundred. Eight. Nine…

Daolord Owlbath and the others watched with slack jaws as this happened. Howevere, towards the end Heartlord Solewind was also forced into close combat, and a look of seriousness appeared on his face for the first time as his movements noticeably slowed down. Still, he gritted his teeth and continued to advance.

Whoosh. Over a thousand wraiths were attacking him now. Heartlord Solewind fought his way through them, then reached the end of this primessence chain and entered the Prime Reaches.

“Ahahah!”

“Excellent.”

“Congratulations, brother Solewind.”

“We’ll join you in a bit, Solewind!”

Greatjoy, Ning, Skyfire, and Firesurge were in superb moods. For the first person from their side to challenge this trial and succeed naturally pleased them greatly.

“How is this possible?”

“He succeeded, just like that?”

Daolord Owlbath and the others couldn’t even believe it. Passing through the primessence chains was supposed to be incredibly difficult, right? But just now, that bald red-robed kid seemed to have breezed right through it.

“Darknorth, Greatjoy, Skyfire, Firesurge.” Solewind stood at the other end of the chains, staring at them from afar as he called out loudly, “The mental influence of the primessence chains is terrifingly strong, far more so than the attacks of the wraiths. You must be careful!”

“Understood!” Ning and the others grinned back at him in response.

“Which of the three of us shall be the next to give it a try?” Greatjoy turned his gaze towards Ning and Firesurge.





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Book 28, Chapter 22 - Heavens Moat


According to what JiNing and the others had planned, the four ‘protectors’ would first make their attempts, followed by Skyfire Brightshore. Only then would the retainers Su Youji, World Goddess Skywolf, and Chaos Immortal Swallowback make their attempts.

“I’ll go next. I’m still quite confident in my chances.” Firesurge revealed a smile. Because he had a cold and forbidding aura to begin with, his smile looked rather sinister.

“Alright.” Ning and Greatjoy nodded, then watched as Firesurge walked over towards the chains, then stepped onto them.

The gazes of Ji Ning, Greatjoy, Skyfire, the retainers, Daolord Owlbath, and the twelve other World-level cultivators were all focused on this youth dressed in deep blue robes as he advanced through the chains.

“The Prime Reaches. I have to enter them.” A terrifying, baleful aura could be seen in Firesurge’s eyes. “Nothing and no one will stop me.”

Firesurge’s path of cultivation had been a path filled with many setbacks and pitfalls. When he had been a weak mortal cultivator, he had lived in a world that had been controlled by ten mighty demonic sects! The demonic sects were filled with guile, treachery, and internecine murder. Every single powerful expert rose to power by trampling across the corpses of others… and Firesurge became the most powerful cultivator of this entire mortal world.

He had continued his path without remorse, eventually entering the greater primordial chaos and then being recruited into the Palace of Kindwater of the Twelve Palaces of Brightshore.

And now, he had been given the chance to join Ning and the others and adventure through the Genesis Lands of this Archaeus region in this alternate universe.

“I had to use every scrap of power I had, but was just barely able to claw my way into fourth place.” Firesurge strode forwards as waves buffeted the area around him. “Solewind, Greatjoy, Darknorth… all three of them are somewhat stronger than me, to say nothing of the most dazzling figures of the Brightshore Kingdom, Bertulu and Eastcult!”