Desolate Era (Book 16 - Book 18)

Lu Dongbin had always felt that this disciple of his had been hiding something. However, although he had even sought out Judge Cui and read her past life’s history within the Book of Life and Death, he had still been unable to uncover anything.

Still…his subconscious continued to tell him that something wasn’t quite right.

The power of a Celestial Tribulation was determined by the cosmos themselves; naturally, there had to be a reason behind all of this!

“In an hour, the thunder tribulation shall arrive.” Lu Dongbin no longer dwelled on the question, just watching quietly.

……

The Nihilum Zone, beyond the Primordial Ruinworld. Ning was currently flying forward at high speed, continuing to pull away from that distant land. That earlier, sudden attack had caused him to feel that something was wrong…especially when those foes had claimed to be from the Snaphorn world and that this space region belonged to their Snaphorn world.

Ning instantly understood that these creatures must have come from the Primordial Ruinworld…and that he had been discovered.

Flee!

Flee at top speed!

The Primordial Ruinworld was a place which not even True Gods or Daofathers would dare trespass. Ning naturally wasn’t willing to interact with the Primordial Ruinworld in any way.

Rumble…

Suddenly, layers of light began to appear within the formerly dark emptiness of the Void. It was a golden light. The Third Void Sector of the Nihilum Zone had nearly ten thousand bases within it which were connected to each other like nodes! Every single node was a critical point within an utterly enormous formation…and in an instant, an enormous net that spanned tens of millions of kilometers was instantly formed.

“But, but…” Ning was stunned by the sight before him.

His eyes were already blazing with torch-light. He had immediately used the [Torch Dragon’s Eye] and hurriedly scanned his surroundings, but no matter where he looked, he saw the golden light seemingly stretch off to infinity. If he looked carefully enough, he could see countless patterns and ripples within the golden web, while the nodes were particularly eye-catching and brilliant.

“A grand sealing formation that covers many tens of millions of kilometers?” Ning mumbled to himself, “This is crazy. The entire Stillwater Commandery is only a few million kilometers in size.”

A region of many tens of millions of kilometers in size was comparable to a hundred ordinary commanderies of the Grand Xia world.

An utterly enormous formation like this truly was astonishing.

“It seems the power of this Snaphorn world is far beyond what the likes of myself can handle. What should I do? What should I do?” Ning instantly began to consider his next options. Although he was shocked by this enormous formation, Ning wasn’t an inexperienced bumpkin; for example, in the Crescent world, Patriarch Subhuti had secretly set up many enormous formations, some of which were able to cover an entire continent, which was equivalent to a third of the world of the Grand Xia. Those formations were far larger than the grand sealing formation before him.

And the Celestial Court!

The formations of the Celestial Court covered the entirety of the region they controlled.

There were many formations within the Three Realms that were far, far larger than this grand sealing formation! However…generally speaking, only Daofathers were capable of setting up those titanic formations! Most likely, not even Pure Yang True Immortals would be able to set them up, unless they were Pure Yang True Immortals who were extremely skilled in the art of formations, or supreme True Immortals like Lu Dongbin.

In addition, this enormous space formation was merely one of the defensive formations of this Snaphorn world; it probably didn’t represent the complete, full power of the Snaphorn world.

Still…its appearance was enough to cause Ning unease.

An individual capable of establishing this sort of enormous formation definitely wasn’t someone which the likes of Ning, who hadn’t even undergone the Celestial Tribulation yet, could overcome.

“And…aren’t the Heavenly Daos gone from this place? How, then, can formations be used?” Ning guessed, puzzled, “It seems I truly do know far, far too little about the Primordial Ruinworld.”

Indeed, Ning truly knew too little.

Of the ten Heavenly Daos, Primordial Chaos was the most supreme. Life and Destruction were matched, while Yin and Yang were also matched; these four were preceded only by Primordial Chaos. As for the Five Elements of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth, they served as the foundation for the entirety of the Three Realms…but they were on the third tier. Ning had an extremely deep level of insight into the Grand Dao of the Waterdrop, which was why he could vaguely sense the existence of the Heavenly Dao of Water, but here within the Nihilum Zone, he was completely unable to sense it…and so he had believed that the Heavenly Daos did not exist here!

In reality, however, only nine of the Heavenly Daos were missing from the Nihilum Zone of the Primordial Ruinworld. The Heavenly Dao of Primordial Chaos continued to exist; any place which was born from the primordial chaos was a place where the Heavenly Dao of Primordial Chaos would exist.

“No matter what…I need to give it a try.”

Swoosh!

Although Ning knew that it was unlikely that he would be able to break through this terrifying formation, he couldn’t just give up and wait for death. He didn’t want to be captured by the Snaphorn world.

The part of the net of light closest to Ning was merely a few million kilometers away. After using the [Obscuring Wind of the Nine Heavens], Ning’s movement speed was extremely fast; it was a flying technique, after all, and once one used it to fly, one could rely on momentum and thusly limit the amount of divine power that was consumed. It wasn’t like the [Starseizing Hand] or other divine abilities which consumed an enormous amount of divine power.

“Here I am.” Ning stared at the distant net of light, now only a few tens of thousands of kilometers away. The Rahu Bow appeared within his hands. He immediately nocked it, pulled it to a nearly full circle, circulated his divine power, then utilized [Houyi’s Archery].

“Go!”

Light flashed around him, quickly passing through him to the bow, then condensing within the arrow.

At the same time…Ning filled all of his heartforce, now nearly at the peak of the ‘iceheart’ level, into the arrow.

Twang!

A brilliant, fiery red streak of light pierced through the heavens.

As the arrow flew forward, the light around it grew more and more dazzling, and its power grew greater and greater. In the end, it seemed to have transformed into an enormous, fiery red comet. Generally speaking, thanks to [Houyi’s Archery], the farther the arrow flew, the more powerful it would become, until it reached peak power. Within the Three Realms, the usage of this technique would be even more incredible, because as the arrow flew it would constantly draw in the power of the natural world! Right now, since it was unable to do so, its power wasn’t increasing at too ridiculous a rate.

Still…the power of this arrow had still surpassed that of Ning’s close combat ability.

BOOM!

The fiery red comet struck against the net of light…and the net of light just rippled slightly, then turned calm once more. As for Ning’s arrow, it had been knocked flying away.

“As I thought, I failed.” Ning wasn’t surprised at all. If he truly was able to pierce this terrifying sealing formation that was tens of millions of kilometers in size through using just a single arrow…only then would he be surprised! However…he truly didn’t wish to accept this!

“What should I do?”

“All space within this region has been completely locked. There’s no way for me to flee.” Ning felt frantic inside. “The Youngflame clan really was quite vicious in sending me here.”