The Desolate Era

Book 10, Chapter 17 - One Instant, A Thousand Years

Ji Ning, Adept Vastriver, Yu Wei, Ninelotus, Mu Northson, and Xue Hongyi were all incomparably nervous.

As for Yu Wei, a dim spot of light appeared in her forehead.

Ning’s elemental ki had already seeped into his storage-type magic treasure. Within it, there was a green leaf that was covered with gray runes, causing it to appear unfathomably mysterious This was one of the two life-saving treasures which Ning had acquired within the underwater estate, the one meant for defense.

“Hm?” Ninelotus clenched her fist as well, and the skin on her arm began to vaguely emanate with white lotus flowers.

All of them were preparing to activate their life-saving treasures at a moment’s notice. They stared towards the warship nervously, watching the shuddering, fluctuating golden barrier of light.

BOOM!

A massive, savage wave viciously struck against the barrier of light. The warship flipped over, but then continued to charge forward.

Despite the warship flipping over, Ning and the others all stood firmly on the floor of the warship, as though rooted to it. Their eyes couldn’t help but suddenly widen as they all stared at the warship.

Crack crack rack...

A series of shuddering cracks rang out from inside the warship, the golden barrier of light began to dim.

“AAAAARGH! Damn you, damn you, DAMN YOU!” Youngflame Nong let out a throat-rending howl. A rolled paper scroll suddenly appeared within his hand. The scroll seemed quite ordinary; although paper was relatively rare in the Ji clan’s territory, in Stillwater City, it was still quite common.

This seemingly ordinary scroll, however, had a single, large character written atop it.

LOCK!

“Lock!” The gazes of Ning and everyone else were completely captivated by the ‘lock’ character on the paper scroll. It was an extremely simple character, but it emanated with the aura of a vast Dao, far broader and wider than the Dao of Rainwater and the Dao of the Inferno which Ning normally meditated on. In fact, Ning even felt a desire to submit and kowtow towards it.

Rumble!

The ‘lock’ character atop the scroll suddenly began to glow with light. It emanated a blurry radiance which spread out to the sourrounding area, and the surrounding Seawave Dao-soldiers were caught by it as well.

In this moment... the wind halted. The water halted.

It was as though the world had frozen.

Ning and the others, however, were completely unaffected. All of them couldn’t help but feel astonished.

“What, what, what was that?!”

“Wait. Those Seawave Dao-soldiers are still moving, only... they are moving extremely slow.” Ning’s group immediately realized that the massive, surrounding wave hadn’t actually frozen; it was just advancing at an extremely slow pace.

Swoosh!

Without the Seawave Dao-soldiers blocking the way, the warship instantly traversed the final ten kilometers.

“Open!” The ashen-faced Youngflame Nong activated the key, and an illusory palace door instantly appeared in front of him. The warship immediately flew into the illusory gate, and then the gate swung shut.

Whoosh...

As Youngflame Nong and the others entered the illusory gate, the massive wave, which had seemed to be almost frozen in place, suddenly came crashing down.

“How can... how can that have happened?” The leader of the Seawave Dao-soldiers, Daoist Zhenbao, stared in disbelief at the distant, already-shut palace door. “Just now, just then...”

He would never forget that feeling.

He clearly had already unleashed the full power of the Seawave Dao-soldiers, and had been attacking at high speed, but... how could the enemy warship have suddenly increased in speed by ten thousand times or a hundred thousand times? It was precisely because the enemy’s speed had suddenly increased by an utterly ridiculous amount that he had been unable to control the wave and unleash an attack. Thus, the enemy had passed straight through his Dao-soldiers and entered the illusory palace gate.

“Master, they... how did they suddenly move so fast? I was completely unable to block them,” Daoist Zhenbao sent mentally.

The distant Immortal Duohe, who had been dealing with Fiendgod Xiangliu Fang in the distance, had actually been paying attention to the battle over here as well. After all, the humans aboard the warship were what mattered the most.

Just now, he had been completely stupefied as well.

“It wasn’t that they were fast; it was that you were slow,” Immortal Duohe sent mentally. “All of the Dao-soldiers, in that instant, seemed to be crawling even slower than a baby turtle.”

“How can that be? I didn’t feel as though my speed lessened, and none of the Dao-soldiers under my command felt that their speed had lessened,” Daoist Zhenbao said frantically.

“That’s because... time changed for you. You should have heard the saying, ‘a day in the Deva realm, a year in the mortal realms’, right? This is because time passes at different rates in the Deva realm and in the mortal realms. Perhaps in the Deva realm, you might only feel as though a day had passed, but in the mortal realm, a year might have passed. This is exactly what happened just now. You felt as though just an instant had passed, but in reality, an extremely long period of time had passed, and the enemy warship flew more than ten kilometers away.” A hint of despair was in Immortal Duohe’s eyes. “These humans were actually able to produce such a treasure... can it be that the Heavens themselves wish to destroy those of us in this Immortal estate world?”

Daoist Zhenbao now understood as well. So it was time. Time had changed for them.

It was as though an instant had passed for him, but thousands of years had passed for them; when time flowed at completely different rates, what happened just now would occur.

“There’s actually a treasure like this...” Daoist Zhenbao murmured to himself.

“Hahaha... you aren’t capable of stopping my young master. You aren’t capable of it!” The distant Fiendgod, Xiangliu Fang, had already begun to flee. As he did so, his laughter echoed out in the heavens.

The Seawave Dao-soldiers were completely unable to catch him with their attacks. When Xiangliu Fang completely focused on running away, they weren’t able to catch up to him at all.

“Let’s go, all of us.” Immortal Duohe had the appearance of a middle-aged man, but in that instant, he seemed to have aged significantly.

Rumble...

The two Seawave Dao-soldier formations reformed into one, and the massive seawave flew at high speed towards the distance.

A short period of time later, the massive Seawave Dao-soldiers reunited with the Yaksha Dao-soldiers.

“You actually failed? Failed?!” Immortal Witchsui sent a mental message over, and the other members of the Witchriver clan looked at them as well.

“Failed.” Immortal Duohe said hoarsely, “These humans actually held an inconceivably powerful treasure.” Earlier, the two sides had been separated by ten thousand kilometers, and so the Witchriver clan hadn’t been able to clearly watch the exchange of battle.

“What sort of treasure was it, for it to be able to break through your defense?” Immortal Witchsui asked.

“A treasure capable of affecting time itself,” Immortal Duohe said, shaking his head.

“Time?” Immortal Witchsui was shocked as well. He was, after all, of the Witchriver clan; he knew some secrets. Generally speaking, it was fairly common for Celestial Immortals to encounter treasures that affected time itself. For Celestial Immortals, it was a common type of attack. But it was rare for even even one out of ten thousand Earth Immortals to become a Celestial Immortal...

Treasures capable of influencing the flow of time, to Loose Immortals, were incomparably powerful. The Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals of the outside world might have witnessed such treasures before, but these two Loose Immortals of the Immortal estate world had only heard of them.

“Don’t worry,” Immortal Witchsui sent mentally. “It is already incredible that the human had even one such treasure. I refuse to believe he has a second one.” Immortal Duohe nodded as well.

“Duohe, we have no way out now. This is the last palace. We have to guard it! This is our last chance to acquire the key to the Immortal estate,” Immortal Witchsui said. “The dream which those of us within the Immortal estate have held for countless generations... this is our very last chance.”

“Not just our last chance at leaving,” Immortal Duohe said hoarsely. “Our last chance at survival as well.”

“Survival?” Immortal Witchsui was startled... and then, his face turned completely pale.

“Someone capable of having a treasure like this, and having a Fiendgod serve as a guard... these humans definitely have an extraordinary background.” Immortal Duohe’s voice echoed out in the minds of every single Dao-soldier. He slowly said something which caused terror in every single monstrous Dao-soldier’s heart. “After he completely binds this final palace, then he will be in complete control of the entire Immortal estate. By then, he can do whatever he wants to us; everything will be under his control. He can also summon an army from the outside world, or he can also destroy the environment of this Immortal estate world, causing our descendants to not even have anything to eat or drink, starving them to death. In short... if he binds this Immortal estate, he will have countless tools at his disposal.”

All of the monsters were terrified. Right. If the enemy was to control the Immortal estate, he could launch sneak attacks from anywhere in the estate. If he were to toss out some powerful, deadly poisons...

It would be too simple to destroy an area of mere tens of thousands of kilometers. Some terrifyingly powerful poisons were capable of causing an area of tens of thousands of kilometers to be completely poisoned, where not even a blade of grass would grow.

Creation was hard. Destruction was easy. After destroying the environment of this Immortal world, a few tens of thousands of years later, most likely almost no one would be left alive within it.

“This is our last hope.”

“This is our last chance.”

“We have to fight.”

“We have to seize the key to the Immortal estate.”

“Even if all of us die, we cannot let them bind this final palace!!!” Immortal Duohe’s voice rang out in the skies.

“Fight.”

“Fight!”

“FIGHT!”

All of the monsters howled in anger. All of them brimmed with eagerness for battle. This was no longer a battle for freedom; it was a true battle for survival!

......

Within an ancient palace.

The warship had charged in, and as soon as it did, the golden glow around it completely vanished. The mysterious, powerful aura that had previously permeated the warship was completely gone; it seemed completely inert and lifeless.

“The formation-diagrams finally collapsed.” Northson shook his head. “Towards the end, the warship was just flying forward on momentum. A Heaven-ranked construct-warship, just like that, was destroyed.”

“The Heaven-ranked construct-warship was nothing.” Adept Vastriver shook his head, gesturing with his eyes. “Take a look at young master Youngflame.”

Ning and the others had noticed as well. Youngflame Nong was currently clutching that paper scroll, staring fixedly at the ‘lock’ character atop it. Alas, the ‘lock’ character now seemed completely ordinary. There was nothing special about it at all.

“One Instant, A Thousand Years,” Yu Wei said softly. “This sort of treasure, when used, can virtually guarantee the death of a Loose Immortal. Although this sort of treasure isn’t Immortal-ranked, it isn’t too far from it in value.”

Ning and the others were puzzled. The nearby Ninelotus, seeing the look on Ning’s face, sent mentally to him, “One Instant, A Thousand Years – this name symbolizes the ability of this sort of treasure to affect the rate of time. For you, it might feel as though an instant had passed, but for the enemy, more than a thousand years would have passed. But of course, that’s only an extremely, overly extravagant description. In short, when the rate of time is flowing at very different speeds, a Primal Daoist is capable of killing a Loose Immortal. From this, you can tell how precious this treasure is.”

Ning understood.

Originally, when he had received the [Starseizing Hand] transmission in the transmission space of the underwater estate, he had spent months within, but time in the outside world had barely moved. This was indeed far more incredible than a mere scroll.

“Damn. Damn.” Youngflame Nong stared at the scroll in his hand, grinding his teeth.