Desolate Era (Book 6 - Book 10)

BANG! It was as though the world had collapsed. Ning sensed his entire soul tremble and rumble. At the instant when Ning’s right foot landed on the first stair, it was as though he had been fused with the entire altar, and ancient, long-gone information began to transmit directly into Ning’s soul, burrowing into his memories.

The transmission had begun! Ning hadn’t expected that he would begin to receive the transmission of the divine ability upon stepping onto the very first step…although he was caught somewhat off-guard, Ning quickly began to submerge himself in understanding the ancient information that was being sent towards him.

After a few moments, Ning stepped onto the second stair, and more of that ancient information flooded towards him. One step, another step, yet another step…this ancient, profound information slowly entered Ning’s soul, having been divided into countless little bits and pieces, so as to allow Ning to adapt to this process. As this was a truly, incredibly powerful divine ability, if all the information regarding it had been instantly sent into Ning’s soul, even though Ning’s soul was powerful, he would’ve instantly been rendered an idiot.

“It has begun.” From the below the altar, the giant yellow bear lifted his head, watching as Ning took one step after another atop the altar. His eyes held a very complicated look within them; excitement, anticipation, and wistfulness. “The divine ability which Master left behind has finally found an heir.”

“Master…are you still alive?” A hint of tears appeared within the giant yellow bear’s eyes. In his heart, he only had a single, true master. That was the first master of the estate. The four masters who had come afterwards, including Ji Ning, were in reality the heirs to the first master, but unfortunately, the second, third, and fourth masters hadn’t been able to acquire so much as a single one of the divine abilities. Naturally, they couldn’t be considered true successors. But now, Ji Ning was finally beginning to receive this divine ability.

“Master’s successor.” The giant yellow bear’s had a lost look in his eyes, and his thoughts were whirling about. When the first master had left behind this estate then left, the giant yellow bear had known…that the first master had gone to deal with a tremendous tribulation. Precisely because even the first master wasn’t absolutely confident in his ability to survive the tribulation, he had created this estate, as he was unwilling to permit the divine ability he was proudest of to simply disappear with him.

Countless years had passed…the Three Realms had become fixed and orderly. The three thousand major worlds and the trillions of minor worlds had been born. But his master had never returned to this estate. This filled the giant yellow bear’s heart with unease. Was his master still alive? Although he worried about his master in his heart, he continued to obey his master’s order, and treated finding a successor as the most important matter of all.

……….

One step. Then another step. Atop the towering, lofty edifice, Ning continued to slowly advance upwards. He didn’t know how much time had passed, but finally, he had reached the top.

Only now did Ning awaken from his trance. The primordial, ancient divine ability’s information as well as tricks and knacks had all been infused into his soul. They were like words that had been printed atop his soul itself; even if Ning wanted to forget them, he wouldn’t be able to. And even if someone used a technique to search his soul, they wouldn’t be able to find anything.

“The divine ability…[Starseizer Hand].” Ning murmured gently to himself. He could clearly see one image after another in his mind. There was a vast, boundless void, and within it, there was a giant hand that seemed to be countless kilometers in length. The giant hand passed through the endless void, actually snatching at one of the stars within the void and easily crushing it into dust.

Under the strikes of that infinitely large hand, the vast, towering bodies of a countless sea of Fiendgods who were shouting boastfully were all smashed into nothingness.

That giant hand cupped a world within it, and trapped within the world was a fiery Fiendgod who radiated flames. With a gentle pinch of the giant hand, the world was shattered and the Fiendgod perished.

……

“Beyond the Three Realms, there is the infinite void. The void contains the Solar Star and the Lunar Star, the two most exalted of celestial bodies, as well as numerous other powerful stars. These stars are infinitely majestic and powerful, and even Celestial Immortals would find it difficult to do anything to them. Some of the bits and pieces of rubble which fall down from these stars, after passing through the endless, infinite void, might land on various worlds, where they will be treated as precious materials for forging magic treasures. And yet, my master’s divine ability is named the ‘Starseizer’; from this, one can imagine how infinitely powerful it is.” The giant yellow bear appeared by Ning’s side.

Ning nodded lightly. After having received this divine ability, he could clearly sense how terrifyingly powerful it was. It’s power completely surpassed his imagination. Ning understood, now, why the giant yellow bear had wanted for him to wait five years…why he had felt that it would be better to let Ning’s father and family die, rather than lose the chance to acquire this divine ability.

However, what was meant to be would be. Although Ning had stubbornly insisted on immediately challenging the Divine Abilities Hall, in the end, he had still acquired this divine ability.

“In the end, you still learned this divine ability.” The giant yellow bear looked at Ning. “If it weren’t for the fact that your soul had reached the ‘divine will’ level, even five years later, you would only have had a good chance at acquiring the first divine ability…even I didn’t imagine that your soul would be able to make a breakthrough.”

“Oh?” Ning was shocked. “Is it truly so difficult to acquire the first divine ability? I felt as though, after my soul made a breakthrough, I completely dominated the enemies to the point of annihilating all of the strongmen.”

The giant yellow bear glanced sideways at Ning. “If you didn’t have your divine will, even after five years, would your divine power have lasted long enough for you to annihilate that many strongmen?”

Ning came to his senses. Right. He had relied on his divine will to control nearly a hundred swords to dominate and slaughter those strongmen. This didn’t use up any of his divine power. But if he didn’t have divine will, and had relied on close-quarters combat…he would have used up an astonishing amount of divine power! For example, when he had reached the later stages of the test of the Divine Abilities Hall, he had less than 20% of his divine power remaining, while the strongmen had only grown more and more powerful.

“No matter what, in the end, you succeeded and acquired this. This divine ability.” The giant yellow bear pointed at a giant, distant prayer mat. “Go to that prayer mat. To kneel and pay your respects to Master.”

“Right.” Ning nodded The benevolence a master showed in teaching his art was as weighty as the heavens themselves. Ning walked forward, then immediately fell to his knees before the prayer mat.

As soon as he knelt down, instantly, at the top of the altar, directly in front of Ning, a towering figure suddenly appeared, at least three thousand meters in height. He had ancient, bronze skin, a glowing face, and wore roughly sown beastial furs as clothes. His appearance was similar to humans, with the only difference being that he had only a single arm! He had only a single right arm, and did not have a left arm.