The Desolate Era

Dong One and Redbud were both outside the formation, waiting. “Eh?” The two of them, as though having sensed something, turned to look behind them, only to see in the gloomy darkness a massive, muscular figure surging towards them.

This was a giant figure that was two stories high. Clearly, this wasn’t a body which a normal human being could possess, and it wasn’t attempting to hide whatsoever the savage, monstrous aura which poured out wantonly from it. Its two sinister green eyes seemed to carry a lofty, arrogant look within them.

“Who are you?” Redbud barked. But Dong One said cautiously, “Monster, hurry up and leave. We don’t want to kill any monsters right now.”

“You don’t want to kill monsters, but I want to kill humans right now.” The Dragonwhale King was incomparably relaxed right now; a sort of relaxation that came only when one had an absolute advantage in power.

“Kill humans?” The faces of Dong One and Redbud changed.

“If you want to blame someone, blame that brat, Ji Ning.” After finishing his words, a giant black sword, wreathed by a river of golden flames, stabbed directly towards Redbud and Dong One.

“Ji Ning?” The two of them were completely baffled, but in the face of this attack from the giant black sword, they didn’t have any time to ponder; they hurriedly prepared to battle the enemy.

“Hmph.” The black-robed woman, Redbud, suddenly waved her hand, and two blood-red silk ribbons slashed through the air. While flying, they appeared to be two dragons of blood, and emitting draconic roars, they swept towards that giant black sword.

“Freeze.” Dong One pointed towards the distance, and his dire-ice swept forward, preparing to freeze and lock that giant sword.

“BANG!” Like a hot knife going through butter, the giant black sword easily dispersed both of the blood dragons. The golden flames on the surface of the giant black sword appeared incomparably brilliant...they effortlessly dissipated the dire-ice, and in an instant, appeared in front of the body of the bald, black-robed Rosebud.

“How can this be?!” Redbud hurriedly leapt backwards, transforming into a streak of light and about to retreat as an azure bell suddenly appeared in her hands. However, the golden flames on that giant black sword suddenly expanded, and with a boom, it instantly enveloped Redbud. “No!!!” A miserable, agonized scream. Bathed in golden flames, Redbud howled in agony, and then her body was instantly charred to ash. Even her divine soul was burnt into nothingness.

“What sort of earthfire is this?!” Dong One was so terrified, his face changed.

“Junior apprentice-sister!” Adept Redleaf, within the formation, heard that miserable scream coming from the outside. He grew frantic. “Dong One, what happened to my junior apprentice-sister?”

“Haha, earthfire?” The Dragonwhale King let out a cold laugh. “This is Primal Fire!” Dong One’s face completely changed, and the face of Adept Redleaf, within the formation, changed as well. Primal Fire?

Just from looking at the surface of the flames, it was hard to tell; after all, there were more than a hundred types of earthfire, including gold, white, green, and all sorts of other flames. It was quite hard to differentiate them. Primal Fire, however...was the flame which the Primal Turtle-Snake naturally generated. Its power was tremendous; most likely, earthfire would have to be cultivated to the third grade before being able to compete against it.

“She’s dead. Now, you can die as well.” With but a thought, the Dragonwhale King sent his flying sword chopping towards Dong One. This was a Heaven-ranked flying sword, which it had acquired by luck. Given its power, acquiring an ordinary Heaven-ranked flying sword wasn’t too difficult. Although it wasn’t very skilled at using flying swords, since it had become a Primal Daoist, it was able to fill this flying sword with his Primal-level elemental ki, and also fill it with his Primal Fire. Thus, the power of this attack was absolutely comparable to the power of his Fiendgod divine ability attacks.

“Last time, I ran into a disciple of the Black-White College who could use a divine will attack. This time, I ran into a Primal Diremonster. Why am I so unlucky?!” Dong One’s face was ashen. Gritting his teeth, he instantly transformed into a streak of bloody light. Swoosh! He quickly moved far away with an evasion technique, moving so fast that even the Dragonwhale was slightly surprised.

“Unfortunately, I prepared a spacelock sealing formation long ago.” The Dragonwhale King shook its head and laughed coldly. With but a single step, it moved tens of kilometers.

...........

As the Dragonwhale King went chasing after Dong One, Adept Redleaf, within the formation, had an ugly look on his face. “Junior apprentice-sister died? A Primal Diremonster appeared?”

Within the fog, Adept Redleaf gritted his teeth, then produced a long, black weaver’s shuttle in his hands. This black shuttle emanated an evil, ancient aura; this was a treasure for escape which Adept Redleaf had discovered when adventuring, which had been passed down from the Fiendgod Era. Its name was the ‘Lightspeed Shuttle of the Nine Heavens and Ten Hells’. Upon using it, one’s speed would become incredibly fast, and the tips of the shuttle itself were extremely, shockingly strong as well, capable of effortless piercing through even a towering mountain.

However, after using it a single time, the shuttle’s power would be exhausted, and he would have to wait ten more years before the power would regenerate.

“No other choices.” Adept Redleaf immediately willed it to activate. Swoosh! The evil black shuttle suddenly increased massively in size, while the Adept himself hid himself within it. Swish! The long black shuttle instantly transformed into a streak of light, moving with such astonishing speed that the tiny bewildering formation wasn’t able to impede it in the slightest. It easily passed through the formation...and then, moving like a streak of black lightning, it effortless pierced through the rocky mountain, then stabbed against the edges of the sealing formation.

Crunch! It pierced directly through...and then, moving at high speed, disappeared into the distant wilderness.

......

Dong One, who had been hoping to flee, stared at the grand sealing formation. Instantly, he despaired; he had already tried to attack it twice, but hadn’t been able to do anything to it at all.

“You won’t be able to escape.” The Dragonwhale King suddenly appeared. Its two dragon-whiskers suddenly appeared, wreathed in blazing embers of Primal Fire as they swept towards Dong One.

A look of utter despair was on Dong One’s face. Although he had protective treasures, they would only be able to endure for a brief moment. If he wasn’t able to escape this formation, the end result was still a single word; death!

“If you have to blame someone, blame that brat, Ji Ning,” the Dragonwhale King said with a cold laugh. “You are just the starting courses...eh? One of you actually fled? What sort of a treasure was that long shuttle? It was so fast.”

Despite his extensive experience, even he had never heard of this ancient treasure which had been passed down since the Fiendgod Era, the ‘Lightspeed Shuttle of the Nine Heavens and Ten Hells’.

“Why should I blame Ji Ning?” Dong One roared in fury, “If I have to die, let me die knowing why.”

The Dragonwhale King stared in astonishment at the human cultivator before him. “Can it be that you don’t know that the person within the formation is that brat, Ji Ning?”

“Ji Ning is inside the formation?” Dong One stared. But...but but...

If he had known that it was Ji Ning inside the formation, he would have immediately fled without saying a second word. Last time, the six of them, despite joining forces, had all fallen to Ji Ning and his fellow disciple. Why would he try to act against Ji Ning yet again? But Ji Ning hadn’t said a single word...

“You damnable, detestable Ji Ning! In this life, you doomed me, but in the next life, I’ll take my revenge!” A wild, berserk look appeared on Dong One’s face. BOOM! As the dragon-whiskers swept forward, his entire body instantly blew apart.

He knew that the opponent was a Primal Daoist, and had no intentions of allowing the Primal Fire to burn him to death, because if it did, even his divine soul would be burnt to ashes. That meant his soul would be destroyed! If he committed suicide, at least he would be able to rejoin the cycle of reincarnation!

“A straightforward death.” The Dragonwhale King actually didn’t care at all. With a wave of its hand, it collected the treasures which Dong One had left behind, but it couldn’t be bothered to actually flip through them. With a leap, it once more charged towards Ning.

Ning was seated there in the lotus position, one wisp of earthfire after another being absorbed into his Zifu. His absorption speed was so fast that the nearby Qingqing and Northson both felt their hearts race.

“How is my senior apprentice-brother doing? Is he alright?” Northson was worried. Qingqing looked towards Ning as well. “Master wishes to finish implanting the earthfire as quickly as possible.” And indeed, Ning was going all out.

Previously, during the last three days, he had already absorbed quite a bit of the earthfire. Just now, when Adept Redleaf and the others had come to break the formation, Ning had immediately begun to accelerate the absorption process.

“I finally have enough earthfire.” Ning could no longer be bothered with anything else. “Condense!” The thousands of stars, the Jade Rabbit, and the Golden Crow within his Zifu region all emanated countless rays of light which descended upon the earthfire island, as though creating a giant barrier which completely covered all of it. The earthfire quickly began to swirl and merge into the runes atop it, causing them to transform into gold. Crackle! Atop the earthfire island, a tiny little golden flame was suddenly born.

“Success.” Ning let out a sigh of relief. Opening his eyes, he glanced at his junior apprentice-brother and Little Qing. Ning’s forehead and back were all covered with cold sweat. Towards the very end, he really was going all out in absorbing earthfire. That sort of absorption speed was truly deadly; it was as though he had been dancing atop a steel wire. The slightest mistake, and he’d fall off. However, with a Primal Diremonster outside, Ning had no other choices.

“Senior apprentice-brother, what’s going on outside?” Northson hurriedly asked, “I saw that Adept Redleaf, who had been in our bewildering formation, has already escaped, and there was a battle outside.”

“It’s the Dragonwhale,” Ning said grimly. “Dragonwhale?” Qingqing said, shocked, “The Dragonwhale Diremonster we ran into last time? But just now, I heard the words ‘Primal Fire’ coming from outside; can it be that the Dragonwhale has already broken through to become a Primal Direfiend?” Ning nodded.

Qingqing and Northson’s hearts instantly turned cold.

Unlike Adept Redleaf, Ning and Northson had just left their schools; they had spent very little time adventuring outside, and the treasures they had on them were limited to what their schools had given them. They didn’t have any strange treasures, like the ‘Lightspeed Shuttle of the Nine Heavens and Ten Hells’.

“The grand sealing formation is still just an Earth-ranked magic treasure,” Ning sent mentally. “Although it is now a Primal Diremonster and has activated it with Primal-level elemental ki...there is a limit to the power of the seals. If I strike it at full power, I might be able to break through.”

“Senior apprentice-brother, I have a guardian construct which Master gave me; it can burst forth with the power of a Primal Daoist for a short period of time. It should be able to break through the formation. However, this guardian construct can only battle for ten breaths, after which it will instantly disintegrate, because the materials it was made out of were ordinary,” Northson said.

Ning felt relieved. It made sense; his own master, Immortal Diancai, had also given him two protective items. Daoist Jadefine doted even more dearly on her apprentice, Northson. In addition, she specialized in the Dao of Constructs...some truly monstrous constructs were capable of battling opponents at a higher level. It was only natural for his junior apprentice-brother to have some protective treasures as well.

“Hahaha...” A deep voice laughed out. “Ji Ning, brat, you were so smug and brash last time; did you think that a day like this would come? Ten thousand years of training...it all came to a head, and I broke through to the Primal level. Now, killing you will be much easier.”

“Kill me? When we battled, you survived because of how fast you fled,” Ning said coldly. “Although you have become a Primal, you’ve only recently broken through; I imagine your power isn’t too ridiculously great yet. I still am capable of killing you! We disciples of the Black-White College specialize in battling those at a higher level than us.”

“The Black-White College?” The Dragonwhale King was slightly startled, but then it sneered. It had a Fiendgod’s body, a divine ability, and was a Primal Diremonster that had exceptionally superlative talents. Why would it worry about a Wanxiang Adept?

“If you leave now, you can keep your life. Otherwise...” Ning stared towards the outside; the Dragonwhale King was standing right outside the formation. To the two of them, both of whom possessed the divine sense, bewildering formations were completely useless.