Desolate Era (Book 19 - Book 21)

Blacktiger?

Twelfth apprentice-brother Blacktiger referred to himself as ‘Great King Blacktiger’. When Ning had been studying and training at Mount Innerheart, Blacktiger had actually come to visit him and had even sparred with him. Ning had never imagined or had any inkling at all as to how powerful this man really was! The feeling that Blacktiger had given him was that he wasn’t even as powerful as Silvermoon. Who would’ve thought that was all just a show…that he was at the True God/Daofather level!

“The other disciples, including Ji Ning, are all at the Empyrean God/True Immortal level,” Subhuti said. “The two of you must not be lazy. The great storm has descended upon us; if you can train to the True God/Daofather level, you’ll have a greater chance of surviving it.”

“Your disciple understands,” Ji Ning and Redsnow said respectfully.

“Good.” Subhuti nodded, then smiled. “You now know how powerful your fellow disciples are. As for some of the secrets of the Three Realms…Redsnow may know a few, but because Ji Ning was previously weak, I hadn’t spoken to him about them. Let me narrate some of them in detail. I will tell you what happened during the destruction of the Primordial Era. I trust that after you listen to me, you’ll fully understand what the Seamless Gate truly is.”

Ning and Redsnow both listened attentively. Not even Redsnow knew much about the war which destroyed the Primordial Era.





* * *





Book 19, Chapter 2 - The Secret History of the Three Realms (2)


A reminiscent look was in Subhuti’s eyes. He said softly, “Let us start the tale from the dawn of the primordial chaos. Long ago, before the Primordial Era began, our ‘Three Realms’ was located in a region of complete primordial chaos. The primordial chaos, in and of itself, is an incomparably marvelous thing. It began to give birth to Elder Gods, True Gods, and Empyrean Gods. Due to them having been birthed within the primordial chaos, they styled themselves the same way, calling themselves the ‘Elder Gods of Primordial Chaos’ and so on.”

“Elder Gods?” Ji Ning was instantly stunned by his master’s words.

“The Daos contained within this region consisted of ten Heavenly Daos, eighty-one Grand Daos, and 108,000 lesser Daos.” Subhuti continued, “The ten great Elder Gods were born with control over a Heavenly Dao.”

“Pangu, born with control over the Heavenly Dao of Primordial Chaos.”

“Nuwa, born with control over the Heavenly Dao of Life.”

“Fuxi, born with control over the Heavenly Dao of Destruction.”

“The Phoenix, born with control over the Heavenly Dao of Yin.” [1. Readers may be surprised that the phoenix has control over ‘Yin’, when it is normally considered a creature of fire. The answer is that in traditional Chinese culture, the phoenix is the ultimate symbol of feminity, with the dragon being the ultimate symbol of masculinity.]

“The Ancestor Dragon, born with control over the Heavenly Dao of Yang.”

“As for the Heavenly Daos of the Five Elements, they were controlled by Firegod Zhurong, Watergod Gonggong, Metalgod Rushou, Woodgod Jumang, and Earthgod Houtu.”

“These ten were all born with innate control over the Heavenly Daos. Pangu was the greatest of them!” [2. Every single one of the deities listed here come from actual Chinese myths and legends.]

Subhuti looked towards Ji Ning. “Disciple, you seem to have many questions for me.”

“Yes. Elder Gods…your disciples has never heard of such a thing.” Ning was stunned. “Your disciple always believed that the True God level represented a limit.”

“Very few in the Three Realms know of them, and I’ll explain the reason for that later. Pangu, Nuwa, and the others are not like us. They were born with control over the Heavenly Daos, and they are innately more powerful than us,” Subhuti said. “In addition to them, the primordial chaos also gave birth to powerful True Gods who were born with control over a Grand Dao! I was one of them, as were Threelives, Crimsonbright, Daoist Three Purities, Lord Tathagata the Buddha, and the Welcomer Buddha. All of them are True Gods.”

“On a still lower level were the 108,000 Empyrean Gods who were born with control over an ordinary Dao.”

Subhuti continued, “These are the Elder Gods, True Gods, and Empyrean Gods who were born from the primordial chaos.”

“The most exalted and most powerful of the gods was Pangu, born with control over the Heavenly Dao of Primordial Chaos. Although Pangu was extremely powerful…the invisible hands and machinations of fate worked through him.” Subhuti let out a sigh. “He was born with the destiny of establishing our world. He was the last to be born, and when he emerged from the primordial chaos, he came out with his great Pangu Axe in hand. He cleaved apart the primordial chaos itself, separating Heaven from Earth, burning up his very lifeforce and dying in the process. As a result…the utterly enormous Primordial Pangu’s World was created.”

“After being established…the Primordial Pangu’s World began to give birth to many different lifeforms, all of whom were born from Heaven and Earth. The strongest were born at the Empyrean God level, while the weakest were at least at the Xiantian level.”

Ning listened carefully.

“Heaven and Earth gave birth to so many incomparably exquisite things. Those of us who emerged from the primordial chaos were filled with curiosity towards this new world.” Subhuti sighed. “Some of us took over territories for our own use, while others went into seclusion. As Pangu’s World gave birth to more and more living creatures, the world itself became an increasingly exciting place to be in. People like Threelives began to create their own kingdoms, as did several of the Elder Gods…and thus war began to erupt, with many being slain.

Ning nodded.

It was very common for wars to erupt due to conflicting ambitions.

“The various major powers even created Ki Refining techniques for the countless living creatures of Pangu’s World,” Subhuti said. “In fact, Tathagata even created a completely separate system called ‘Buddhism’, which in reality can be considered a variation on the Ki Refining system. The various True Gods such as myself and Tathagata then were able to train to become Daofathers, using the Ki Refining techniques we developed.”

“Mother Nuwa was the first to break through,” Subhuti said. “Mother Nuwa possessed tremendous willpower and wisdom. After gaining insights into the Heavenly Daos of Yin and Yang, her power instantly increased explosively, and she then created the human race. Only then did all the major powers of the Primordial Era understand that one’s power could increase to a higher level once one comprehended a set of Heavenly Daos.”

“And so, the major powers of Pangu’s World all began to focus on training…but they then discovered that once you mastered a particular Heavenly Dao, mastering the opposite Heavenly Dao would be incredibly difficult. For example, if someone who had already mastered the Heavenly Dao of Life wished to then meditate on its opposite, the Heavenly Dao of Destruction, the Heavenly Dao of Life itself would forcefully disturb him. There was simply no way to gain insights at all.”

“For a very long period of time, no one aside from Mother Nuwa was capable of gaining insights into a matching set of Heavenly Daos.”

“But then…Daoist Three Purities appeared.”

“Daoist Three Purities was born a True God of Primordial Chaos; his original name was Yuanshi! He was extremely talented, managing to first master the Heavenly Dao of Yang, then the Heavenly Dao of Destruction. However, he was never able to succeed in mastering the Heavenly Dao of Yin or the Heavenly Dao of Life, the complimentary Daos to what he already had. And so…he steeled his mind and made a major decision.”

“He killed himself.”