Desolate Era (Book 19 - Book 21)

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Book 21, Chapter 27 - Eldest Disciple


“Unruly monkey!” Daomother Devilhand glanced sideways at him. She didn’t hold the King of Flower-Fruit Mountain in any regard, but she still halted her assault on Ji Ning and instead waved her hand towards the Monkey King, intending to deal with him first.

Daomother Devilhand stood there in midair, one palm clashing with the oncoming blow from Lord Tathagata the Buddha, the other smashing towards the Monkey King.

THUD!

A deep, dull sound rang out. It was the sound of the gleaming golden staff colliding with Daomother Devilhand’s ivory-white hand. Daomother Devilhand’s hand actually came to a halt. It was actually forced to a halt by that staff!

“Eh?” Daomother Devilhand’s face changed as she stared at the distant Monkey King.

“My junior apprentice-brother has only trained for a few short centuries, but he’s reached an incredible level of power. It’s been countless years since the war that ended the Primordial Era. Did you think that I, ol’ Sun, wouldn’t have made some improvements of my own?” The Monkey King sped through the air, closing in on her with his staff in his hands, filled with an unearthly aura of battle.

“The monkey has reached such a level of power as well…our Seamless Gate has been hiding some of our forces, and now it seems the Nuwa Alliance has hidden quite a few of theirs as well.” The Lord of All Fiends secretly sighed to himself.

The war that ended the Primordial Era had occurred far, far too many years ago, after all. It had been more than half a chaos cycle.

After so many years, it was entirely possible that a formerly ordinary True God or Daofather could suddenly reveal the power of a elite Daofather, or perhaps even an overlord-class Daofather. Both sides would only reveal their final trump cards in the final instant, at the critical moment which would determine victory or defeat, life or death. Trump cards that were left hidden were the most dangerous cards of all.

During the Endwar, a single slip-up or a single unexpected power-up by a major power could have a huge impact on the outcome of the war. Thus, both sides were hiding their true power. Even when they were forced to fight, they would only reveal the powers that the other side already knew about.

“Back then, although the monkey was favored by Nuwa, he was still merely a elite Daofather. But now, he’s close to being an overlord-class Daofather,” the Lord of All Fiends mused to himself.

Sun Wukong, the King of Flower-Fruit Mountain. The shadow of Mother Nuwa could be seen behind him on his path to power.

He had been born from the only piece of stone that Mother Nuwa had used to repair the heavens. How could she possibly not pay attention to him?

He won his treasures from the Dragon Palace, apprenticed himself to Subhuti, was tempered by the Buddhist Sangha, and in the end was provided with the personal tutelage of Mother Nuwa herself. It could be said that Mother Nuwa focused more on training this monkey than she had on anyone else. During the war that ended the Primordial Era, the Seamless Gate had been quite wary of this monkey, as they were afraid that he might possess a terrifying amount of power. However, the reality was that although the monkey was extremely skilled in battle and had many magical treasures on him, he was fairly weak with regards to his insights into the Dao, and so was just barely at the level of elite Daofathers in strength.

Now, half a chaos cycle had gone past. The Monkey King had truly transformed, and this was one of the reasons why Subhuti had summoned him.

Subhuti had summoned three of his main disciples. The eldest disciple, the woodcutter; the second disciple, Crazy Ji; the sixth disciple, Sun Wukong. In truth, Subhuti actually had another Daofather under his command; his twelth disciple. However, his twelfth disciple was merely an ordinary Daofather who wasn’t strong enough to get involved in battles at this level, and so Subhuti did not summon him.

“This monkey is quite hard to deal with.” Daomother Devilhand immediately gnashed her teeth after their initial clash. “Before Nuwa left the Three Realms, she definitely provided this monkey with some assistance.”

Although Devilhand was skilled in battle, she was different from Everwood; Keeper Everwood was able to simultaneously tie down multiple overlord-class experts thanks to his defensive prowess, while her skills revolved around attacks! If she spent enough time and effort, she’d be able to wipe out the monkey, but time was a rare and limited commodity right now. The more time passed, the more major powers would make it to this place.

Their target for this mission was Ji Ning!

Although the monkey was formidable, he had long ago become a True God and Daofather; there was no way he could get involved in the war for karmic luck. Ji Ning was clearly just an Empyrean God and True Immortal, but he was able to unleash an utterly unearthly level of power. Now that he had an Envoy of All Things, he was actually able to unleash a level of power that was close to that of an overlord-class Daofather. A monster like this…no matter what, they could not permit him to live.

“Darklight, Shadowless, stop this monkey for me. Leave Ji Ning to me.” Daomother Devilhand instantly sent mental instructions to the other two. She didn’t want to allow the monkey to be able to distract her.

“Alright.” Swordfather Darklight had been airborne this entire time. With but a thought, he caused the black, sword-shaped stream of light under his control to switch directions, striking towards the Monkey King that was charging towards them from afar. The Monkey King had no choice but to use his power to defend against the sword-light. No one would dare to be overconfident when faced with Swordfather Darklight’s sword.

Swish. Daofather Shadowless quickly withdrew as well, turning to charge towards the distant Monkey King.

“Ji Ning. Die.” Daomother Devilhand was still using one hand to clash against Lord Tathagata. With her other, she struck out from hundreds of thousands of kilometers away towards Ning.

“Daomother Devilhand.” Ning felt breathless upon seeing this palm crash down towards him.

If he was in the Rahu Formation, he would probably be instantly annihilated. However, using the Envoy made him much more powerful; more than ten Rahu Formations would be needed to match its power.

“Soleheart stance.” Ning’s twin swords simultaneously unleashed his most powerful supreme defensive technique. A pair of sword-light black holes appeared before Ning. When the terrifying, ivory-white palm lashed out towards him, it was blocked by the black holes. Daomother Devilhand could clearly sense that her hand was being repelled by multiple layers of strange energy that were furiously ablating the power of her strike.

“Eh?” Daomother Devilhand frowned. “Leafseizer.”

Her ivory-white hand suddenly changed, unleashing an even more intricate and terrifying palm-art. Her forefinger, middle finger, and thumb drew close to each other, as though she was holding a leaf between them.

Whap!

The five fingers of her palm danced their way into Ning’s sword-light black holes. And then, following a series of exploding sounds, the black hole vanished, with the fingers latching onto Ning’s Darknorth swords.

“Impossible.” Ning stared in disbelief, his heart filled with shock and dread. Daomother Devilhand’s seizing technique had been simply too dazzling and beautiful. It was a technique that was so complicated as to cause one to feel almost uncontrollably intoxicated upon seeing it. In fact, the technique was even more complicated than Ning’s sword-arts, which was why it had been able to break through it.

Perhaps Ji Ning was the number one expert of the sword in the Three Realms…but in palm-arts, Daomother Devilhand was number one. Even Lord Tathagata, who also specialized in palm arts, was slightly weaker than her.