The Desolate Era

Ji Ning’s powerful divine sense thoroughly investigated the entirety of the mountain, inside and out. “Senior apprentice-brother Ji Ning, what’s the situation?” Mu Northson asked.

Ning cracked a smile, then looked at Northson. “Junior apprentice-brother Northson, need you ask? This mountain really does have quite a few monsters within it. Based on the aura of these monsters, there should be a single Wanxiang monster and around ten or so Zifu monsters. There are also some Xiantian monsters that can transform into human form, as well as a crowd of lesser monsters.”

“Just one?” Northson chewed on his lips. “That’s it? There’s two of us though.”

“Thus, your idea was the right one. We first find a seemingly-ordinary mountain of monsters, with the expectation that the monsters within won’t be too powerful,” Ning laughed. “A mountain like this, the two of us can flatten when we charge in. However, this is the wild marshes of the Gaol Mountains. Let’s be a bit cautious.”

“I’ll listen to you in all things, senior apprentice-brother,” Northson nodded. “Let’s go. Let’s sneak up the mountain.” Ning pointed upwards.

Northson said, worried, “There should be formations, right?”

“Although there are formations on these monster mountains, with my divine sense spread out, I can see everything.” Ning had quite some experience in analyzing formations, after all, while his Uncle White was a Godbeast Whitewater Hound which was legendary for its intelligence and which was a master of formations. Ning would often chat with Uncle White; naturally, he would gain some pointers from him. Occasionally, Ning’s own thoughts would cause Uncle White to gain certain insights as well.

“Let’s go.” Swoosh! Swoosh! The two stealthily slippd upwards through the wild grass, moving closer and closer to the mountain at high speed.

A black-faced, muscular fellow was seated in the lotus position atop a jade bed, looking quite like an Immortal practitioner. The black-faced fellow suddenly opened his eyes, and a baleful aura shot out from his eyes, but then was quickly retracted.

He stared towards the stone door in the distance. With but a thought, he made the stone door rumble open. Immediately, a small figure charged in from outside. It was a skinny underling, who knelt down and said, “Congratulations, Majesty, for having finished your meditations!”

“Mm.” The large, black-faced man let out a grunt. “Go. Have the Madame come, and arrange for a table of food to be prepared.”

“Yes.” The skinny little figure respectfully departed at high speed.

The black-faced man left his jade bed, walking leisurely out of the hall of his cavern estate and moving outside the stone door. Standing outside, he seemed to be able to see all sorts of sights in the vast marshes outside, and a killing desire filled his eyes. “Humans often come in batches to attack these wild marshes of our the Gaol Mountains. the Gaol Mountains’s marshes belong to us monsters. If a human comes, we will kill him. Mm...it’s been quite a long time since humans have come to my place.”

The wild marshes of the Gaol Mountains were simply too vast. There were quite a few human Immortal cultivators who came to this place, but they were all spread out extremely sparsely throughout the wild marshes. A monster would only occasionally run into a human Immortal cultivator.

“Thirty years ago, that human monster offered me quite the amount of liquefied elemental essence and magic treasures, which I traded for liquefied elemental essence as well. It allowed me to shave two centuries off of my training, while my power increased greatly.” The black-faced man was quite eager. “I wonder when I’ll met yet another foolish human.”

Those who dared to crown themselves kings of a mountain in the wild marshes of the Gaol Mountains naturally laid down many traps around their nest, making it so that any humans who arrived would be unable to leave!

“Your Majesty!” Suddenly, a soft voice rang out. The black-faced man turned to look. A seductive, green-clothed, devilish woman entered, carrying a jade platter with a beautifully carved beasthead goblet of wine, as well as a perfectly made bottle of wine.

“Madame.” The black-faced man smiled. “Your Majesty, you’ve been training for many months now. You’ve worked very hard. This is the wine which I personally brewed, the ‘Immortal Moonspirit wine’.”

The green-clothed, devilish woman walked over while speaking. Monsters, after becoming Xiantian lifeforms, would gain intelligence equivalent to a human’s. This green-clothed, alluring woman was a Zifu monster, while the black-faced man was a Wanxiang monster.

Training took up quite a time...and these monsters knew how to enjoy themselves. They, too, need companions. Although in this part of the world, the monsters were tremendously powerful, it was still the Grand Xia Dynasty which had truly unified the world, a dynasty of humans. Many of the major powers amongst the monsters had official positions within the Grand Xia Dynasty. This was actually the reason why monsters continued to exist.

However, although the high-level individuals were on fairly good terms with each other, generally speaking, human Immortal cultivators and monsters fought quite fiercely against each other.

A sumptuous feast of delicacies had been prepared, including meat, fruit, and wine. The black-faced man picked up a piece of meat and began to chew it, then frowned and barked towards the outside, “Go, go to rear mountains and to the place where we are raising humans. Catch a tender one and send it over. This meat is tasteless. Human flesh is much better.”

“Yes.” The monster outside immediately replied in a high-pitched voice.

“Those humans eat the flesh of us monsters, and in fact, some major power even created a ‘spirit-beast seal’ and other things to forcibly enslave us.” The black-faced man let out a cold snort. “We monsters naturally can eat humans as well, and in fact, we should enslave them as well! Since there’s a spirit-beast seal, why can’t there be a ‘human-slave seal’?”

The alluring, green-clothed poured a goblet of wine for her king. “Your Majesty, I heard that beyond the greater worlds, there is are major powers amongst the monsters, capable of dominating the Three Realms, who are indeed capable of creating a method for enslaving humans. But unfortunately...in our greater world, the world is formally ruled over by the Grand Xia Dynasty. How can they possibly permit a technique allowing monsters to enslave humans be spread out?”

“Madame, is there truly a method by which monsters can enslave humans?” The black-faced man stared at the alluring, green-clothed woman.

“That’s just a legend.” The alluring woman shook her head. “How would I, a minor Zifu-level monster, know about such things?”

The black-faced man let out a cold snort. “After I become a monster Immortal one day, I will definitely...not good!” The black-faced man suddenly rose to his feet, staring outside the stone door.

“Your Majesty?” The alluring woman was shocked. The look on the black-faced man’s face had changed, and he slapped the table, which with a shudder disintegrated into white dust. He roared with fury, “Since you dare come, why haven’t you shown yourself?”

“Your Majesty, we caught a delectable human child for you.” A terrified voice rang out from afar. And then...“AHHH!” A miserable scream, and then the terrified voice was cut off.

The alluring woman in the cavern estate knew that something was amiss. Terrified and restless, she said, “Your Majesty, what is going on? What is happening? Has a human Immortal cultivator come? Don’t we have layers of formations and restrictive spells here? How could the human cultivators made it all the way here?”

The black-faced man just stared fixedly towards the outside. “They are formations experts,” he said, gritting his teeth. What he didn’t realize was that...

Ning had actually gone around quite a few of his formations while avoiding activating the others. Ning had thus gone straight through, not setting off any alarms at all. In the end, Ning had been forced to break through the bewildering formation which was always active and protecting the caverns; this was why the black-faced man was suddenly shocked into wakefulness.

“Don’t cry, don’t cry. In a short while, Big Brother will help you slaughter that monster.” Three human figures walked over. Walking in front was a fur-clad human youth, while behind was a white-robed youth who was holding the hand of and comforting a toddler who was dressed in just leaves.

“Waa, waaaaaa.” The toddler sobbed, tears still cascading down. Just now, the monster had instantly been chopped into mincement, which had utterly terrified the toddler.

Northson, enraged, pointed straight at the black-faced man. “Monster, the day of your death has come.”

“Hahaha, it’s been quite some time since I encountered any human Immortal cultivators. You dared to come to my place? Today shall be the day of your deaths.” The black-faced man suddenly produced two massive black scimitars, then let out an angry howl. “DIE!”

Bang! Above the hall, one bright star after another, and within this sea of stars, there was even a brilliant moon.

“Kill!” The black-faced man’s face was savage. As for Northson, he howled in anger, “Senior apprentice-brother Ning, hand this monster to me.”

Northson was comparatively immature in terms of personality. Upon learning that this child was about to be eaten by this old monster...his belly had instantly become filled with rage.

“Alright.” Ning nodded, standing to one side, but prepared to attack at any moment.

While Northson howled in range, the skies above him also became filled with stars. Amidst the sea of stars, both a brilliant moon and a blazing sun appeared. The sun and the moon hung in the skies...this caused the face of the Wanxiang monster to change. Only extremely talented humans with significant backgrounds were capable of manifesting such a Manifestation.

“Die.” Northson gnashed his teeth. Swish! Swoosh! Two black lights began to gather in Northson’s hands. He opened them, and the two rays of black light shot out, forming two massive water-snakes within the air.

The two Manifestations struggled against each other, but the Wanxiang monster’s was clearly struggling.

“Bang!” “Bang!” The two giant water-snakes directly clashed in the air with the two giant black scimitars which the black-faced man had unleashed. The power of the collision was so great that even the nearby woman’s face changed dramatically. Instantly, she transformed into a white-furred fox, wanting to flee. However, a cold light flashed through Northson’s eyes, and one of the water-snakes swept out with its tail, smashing directly against the fleeing white-furred fox’s body. Crunch. The white-furred fox spirit was crushed into meat paste.

Ning stood there watching. He nodded to himself. “My junior apprentice-brother has the upper hand. He lives up to his reputation as a genius of the Dao of Constructs who entered the Black-White College at age fourteen. Formidable.”

He had joined the Black-White College at age fourteen, and had been completely absorbed in his meditations in the Black-White Diagram. If it hadn’t been for Ning eclipsing everyone else, Northson would have been a dazzling, eye-catching genius. Only, because he walked the Dao of Constructs, many of his senior fellow disciples weren’t able to truly comprehend what a monstrous genius Northson truly was.

“Halt!” The black-faced man immediately bellowed. He had the sense that things were not right at all. In the past, he had once killed a human Wanxiang Adept. How was this seemingly soft, weak, white-robed youth so strong? In addition, the fur-clad youth standing behind the white-robed youth seemed to be even more dangerous.

“Too late to feel regret!” Northson snapped coldly.

“Why haven’t they arrived yet? Why haven’t they arrived?” The black-faced man struggled to endure. Although his power would increase dramatically once he transformed into his real form, if he truly did that, this would truly become a battle to the death. What he needed to do, right now, was to delay.

“I shattered the talisman earlier. My Third Brother and Fifth Brother are located the closest; with their movement techniques, they should have arrived by now.” But suddenly, a hint of joy appeared on the face of the black-faced man.

He could sense something. Although the formations he had set around the mountain hadn’t been able to detect these two humans, they had detected the arrival of his two good brothers.

“Just you wait. My Third Brother and Fifth Brother will suddenly ambush you, and with me joining forces...the two of you will definitely die,” the black-faced man mused to himself. At the same time, he continued to furiously struggle to resist the attacks.

At this moment, Ning, standing behind Northson, had a changed expression n his face. With a cold snort, he said, “Old monster, so you actually have reinforcements coming.”

The black-faced man’s heart instantly clenched. How had this Immortal cultivator found out? Could it be that this Immortal cultivator had also set down a formation in the area, and so had discovered his allies coming?

No longer considering anything else, he immediately roared loudly, “Third Brother, Fifth Brother, attack together and kill these two Immortal cultivators!”

Northson also let out a wild howl. “Two more coming? Wonderful! We were complaining about there not being enough Wanxiang monsters!”

Ning looked towards the stone door outside the cavern estate, a faint sword-light flashing through his eyes.