The Desolate Era

Mu Northson turned to look towards the direction which the child was pointing at, while Ning went to hug the child. “Let’s go. I know where it is!” His divine sense covered the entire monster mountain. How could Ning not know?

Swoosh! Swoosh! The two transformed into streaks of light, vaulting through the mountain. The many monsters within the mountain had all been utterly terrified and had gone into hiding. Ning’s group quickly arrived within a deep gorge within the mountain.

“Ah?!” Northson stared downwards, and what he saw made his face changed. Ning stared down silently as well. Below the gorge, there was an extremely deep crevice that was roughly three hundred meters long. Within the crevice were humans, their bodies covered just by tree leaves and bark. All of them were either children or youths; there wasn’t a single old person there. They lived there in the deep crevice, numb to life. Above the crevice, there was a net made from steel which completely covered and sealed the crevice.

“They are being...raised here?” Northson’s body began to tremble slightly. Grinding his teeth, he said, “These monsters truly deserve to die. They deserve to die!”

Swoosh! Northson leapt downwards. There were some lesser monsters standing guard within the deep crevice; they didn’t know that their king had already perished.

“Who goes there! This is Elephant-King Mountain!” A tall, horned monster with a trident in its hands roared angrily, while the group of lesser monsters behind him howled in support.

“Hmph!” Northson let out an enraged snort. The area around him instantly transformed into the darkness of the night. The night sky was filled with dazzling stars, and the sun and the moon hung there amongst them. From within the dazzling sun, a giant hand suddenly stretched out, seizing the suddenly-terrified monsters who were trying to flee, pale-faced. Trapped by that giant hand of golden light, the monsters all felt their hearts shudder.

“Why are they here?” Northson thundered. As for Ning, he just stood to one side, quietly.

“Mighty Immortal, are you referring to these human slaves?” The horned monster, captured by the hand of golden light, hurriedly explained, “These human slaves were brought here long, long ago by his Majesty, who found them elsewhere and decided to raise them here. The big ones birth little ones, and when the little ones grow up, they can birth more! His Majesty delights in eating human flesh, and so the younger, tender ones are for his Majesty to eat. As for some of the older slaves, their meat isn’t as delicious, and so we’ll be given some of it to taste.”

Even Ning’s face turned ashen as he heard this.

“You deserve death!” Northson let out a thunderous roar, and his Manifested hand clenched. Instantly, those monsters, howling in agony, were crushed into meat sludge. Even that horned monster who had transformed back into his original form was crushed into mincemeat by that Manifested hand.

“Clank!” The Manifested hand then clawed downwards, ripping apart those locked steel chains. With a explosive sound, the many chains were instantly shattered into small pieces, and then were tossed to one side.

The many humans who were living within that deep crevice were trembling. They all moved closer to each other, staring upwards in terror.

“They’ve been raised as animals for too long; their slave-mentality has been deeply imprinted upon them.” Ning shook his head and let out a soft sigh, then lowered his head to look at the child next to him. “Only the smaller, younger children might be able to recover.”

“Senior apprentice-brother.” Northson looked at Ning. “Let’s help them out, okay?”

Ning nodded. “Of course we’ll help them. To us, it’s just a little bit of extra effort, but to them...it means the changing of their destinies.”

“Right.” Northson nodded, then said with frustration, “But we must stay within the wild marshes of the Gaol Mountains for three months. We can’t be taking care of them for this entire time. What should we do?”

“If we encounter any danger, we can’t look after them as well as ourselves. Let’s deliver them straight to the Raindragon Guard,” Ning said. “That is the only safe place within the wild marshes of the Gaol Mountains. As for whether or not the Raindragon Guard will accept them...let’s discuss that if it comes to that. Even if the Raindragon Guard aren’t willing to take care of them, we can give these humans some food and let them survive for three months.”

“That’s something,” Northson nodded. Rumble! The giant hand of golden light pressed downwards, and instantly a deep passageway appeared at the margins of the crevice, leading from it to the outside world.

“From now on, you are no longer slaves!” Northson stared at the humans within the corral as he called out to them in a loud voice.

These humans had always lived together, and so they had naturally managed to teach each other and pass down the human language. Naturally, they understood. However, their simple minds made it so that they remained rather uneasy. They stared, frightened, towards the two youths standing in the distance; one a fur-clad youth, while the other was a white-robed youth.

Still...even after the passage of many years, they would never be able to forget this life-altering moment. They would never be able to forget these two youths.

“Junior apprentice-brother Northson, let them board the warship,” Ning said. “Right.” Northson nodded, then waved his hand. Instantly, the Azure Dragon in the sky quickly transformed into a dragon-headed warship which landed on the ground.

Ning barked out, “All aboard the ship!” At the same time, he used his divine sense to invisibly influence them. Although Ning had not learned the [Soulcharmer Art], he had still viewed the abridged version of the technique and had learnd some of the most basic, elementary secrets of it. By using his powerful soul to emit the slightest hint of a soul-ripple, he was able to nudge these numb slaves to all shuffle towards the warship.

“Mommy.” The child next to Ning ran straight towards his mother.

“Let’s go.” Ning raised his head, staring towards the sky. “There are other Wanxiang monsters coming.”

“Good.” Northson, however, was filled with a surging killing intent. But Ning shook his head. “Don’t push it. We attacked that elephant monster, and two more Wanxiang monsters suddenly popped up out of nowhere. And now, four more Wanxiang monsters are attacking...if this continues, who knows how many Wanxiang monsters will arrive. I imagine that these monsters must have formed an alliance long ago, and they might even have Primal monsters supporting them.”

Northson instantly came to his senses. “Senior apprentice-brother, your words are correct.” He nodded his head. “We already have enough Wanxiang monster corpses. There really is no need to kill any more.”

Swoosh! The dragon-headed warship quickly soared into the skies, flying into the distance.

.......

Right at this moment, an incomparably beautiful woman, along with two men and a second woman, arrived in sequence outside the demolished ruins of the cave estate. “I can no longer sense the auras of big brother, third brother, and fifth brother,” the beautiful woman said with a frown.

“Ninth Sister, can it be that that big brother and the others have already died?”

“We already came quite fast. They’ve only fought for a short period of time. The three of them were all Wanxiang monsters.” The other Wanxiang monsters didn’t dare believe it.

The beautiful woman shook her head. “Look at the bloodstains. Look at the auras left behind. Big brother and the other two are probably already dead.” But suddenly, she lifted her head. A streak of light was soaring into the skies, rapidly charging into the clouds. That streak of light was a dragon-headed warship.

“A warship.”

“The warship of an Immortal cultivator.”

“It must be the one which killed big brother and the others. Ninth Sister, let’s attack and get revenge for big brother and the others.” The other monsters immediately began to clamor out. Eighteen of them had joined into an alliance...but in terms of power, their ninth sister, the peacock monster, was the most powerful of them all.

The beautiful woman remained silent for a moment, then said, “If they were able to kill big brother and the other two in such a short period of time, even if we charged over to gain revenge, most likely more than half of us would die. But if we were to wait for the other monsters to come...they will have fled long ago. Let’s go. We can only blame big brother and the others for having terrible luck.”

The other monsters were only calling out in bravado anyhow. Upon hearing the words of the peacock monster, they all nodded quite quickly.

“Let’s go.”

“Let’s go.”

They all transformed into streaks of light, departing from Elephant King Mountain.

Three of the eighteen Wanxiang monsters had died; this made the peacock monster and the other monsters feel as though their forces were not strong enough. Thus, they decided that they were going to ally with some of the other nearby Wanxiang monsters as well. In fact, they even began to wonder if they should try to recruit some of the solitary wanderer Wanxiang monsters as well.

.......

Within a deep mountain cave in the wild marshes of the Gaol Mountains.

“Slither, slither...” A small azure serpent was swimming about in a pool of water within the cave. The water of this pool emanated an azure light and a freezing aura, and there was a block of ice emerging from the center of the pool. If an Immortal cultivator saw it...they would instantly recognize this piece of ice as being a piece of ‘ancient glacial ice’. It would only be formed in places where the elemental energy was extremely, extremely cold.

“How truly comfortable. The wild marshes of the Gaol Mountains really are wonderful. This dangerous, mysterious place is filled with many treasures, but I can easily slip past all of them using my Void Blink.” The little azure snake wriggled about in delight, frantically absorbing the energy from this freezing pool. “Compared to before, my homeland of Swallow Mountain is an utter wasteland. There’s almost no treasures there at all.”

“Wheeeeee. Wonderful, wonderful!” The little azure snake was incomparably delighted. “It seems as though the masters were correct in having me come here to the wild marshes of the Gaol Mountains.” The little azure snake’s little head swung to wrap around the piece of ancient glacial ice. Pulses of cold energy flowed into its body. “My power is rising incredibly quickly. When I first arrived at the Gaol Mountains, I was just at the peak Zifu level. Now, three short years later, I’ve risen to the middle Wanxiang level.”

“However, I’m still much weaker than the Patriarch. How long will it be before I, too, will become a monster Immortal? By then, I’ll be able to take up a large reach of land for myself as well and style myself the Immortal master of the region.” When the little azure snake thought about the Patriarch, its eyes couldn’t help but be filled with envy.

“No.” The little azure snake’s eyes suddenly radiated a cold light. “After leaving the Gaol Mountains, I need to make a trip back to Swallow Mountain to take care of some things. In particular, that Ironwood Zhan who pursued and attacked me...I was in such a miserable state back then. I must kill him and annihilate the entire Ironwood clan!” When it thought about its hated foe, Ironwood Zhan, the little azure snake also thought about someone else.

It was the very young human youth, the one who always dressed in fur clothes. That fearless, yet monstrously talented youth who always addressed it as ‘little snakey-snake’.

“Alas. I only know that you are of the Ji clan. I don’t even know your name.” The little azure snake muttered to itself, “You and I fought multiple times, and it was only as a result of those fights that I comprehended the ‘Void Blink’’ technique. However, back then, I wasn’t able to save you. Don’t worry. When the time comes, I’ll take revenge on behalf of you as well. I’ll annihilate that Ironwood Zhan.”

“If you are still alive...given your talent, you must be very powerful by now.” The little azure snake began to mumble to itself again. “But definitely not as powerful as me. I have the Void Blink technique and have gained many marvelous legacies.”

Right at this moment...a hundred kilometers outside the cave...

There were two Immortal cultivators, moving like streaks of light, who had stealthily landed on the mountain.

“You aren’t mistaken, are you?” One of them, a gray-robed Immortal cultivator, said in a low voice.

“Absolutely not. When I tortured those Zifu monsters, they definitely wouldn’t have dared to lie to me. They all said that in recent days, a lone wanderer has appeared in this region; an Azure Skysnake monster which had even fought multiple times against their king,” the white-robed Immortal cultivator said.

The gray-robed Immortal cultivator nodded. “After we kill this Azure Skysnake, we’ll have enough Wanxiang monster corpses. Supposedly, this Azure Skysnake isn’t that powerful, but we need to beware of its innate ability. Don’t let it use the Void Blink technique to escape.”

“Naturally.” The white-robed Immortal cultivator nodded.