The Desolate Era

Book 11, Chapter 34 - A Gathering of Heroes

Immortal Goldcrow could sense a powerful beckoning coming from his subconscious, from deep in his soul.

“Why do I suddenly have such a powerful premonition?” Immortal Goldcrow was stunned; as an Immortal cultivator, he placed a great deal of faith in his subconscious premonitions. “It seems as though this Conclave of Immortal Destiny will be very important to me... as though it is calling for me to attend...”

“Master, your disciple isn’t that bad. If I truly am unable to win it, then I will immediately give up and admit defeat.” The senior disciple, unhappy, hurriedly added, “This Conclave of Immortal Destiny will see countless geniuses from this major world gather together. A chance like this will probably only come once in a lifetime.”

Immortal Goldcrow, whose mind had been wandering, quickly returned to his senses. “Enough!” Immortal Goldcrow snapped with a frown, still seated at the front of the hall. “That little bit of talent you possess; you think that’s ‘not bad’? You have always stayed in a distant island and your experiences are very shallow. You’ve only heard of the Conclave; you have no idea how formidable the geniuses participating in the Conclave truly are. This is a report from the Heavenly Treasures Mountain regarding the previous Conclave; go ahead and read it.” As he spoke, he produced a book in his hand, then tossed it out. His senior disciple hurriedly caught it.

“To enter the Conclave without having at least a bit of ability... you won’t even have a chance to admit defeat.” Immortal Goldcrow rose to his feet. Whoosh. He transformed into a rainbow, disappearing from their sight.

“Eldest apprentice-brother, you angered Master.”

“Eldest apprentice-brother, let me take a look at this book as well. How formidable are the participants of the Conclave?” The other junior apprentice-brothers and junior apprentice-sisters all crowded around as well. As for Immortal Goldcrow, he had already arrived within his own Immortal estate.

This Immortal estate could not be carried away, but it had tremendous power.

No one else was inside the estate.

Immortal Goldcrow quickly entered a pavilion, within which sat a black-robed man. The black-robed man and Immortal Goldcrow appeared nearly identical; only, Immortal Goldcrow had a stronger and more bloodthirsty aura.

“It seems as though the reason I had that premonition is because my true body is still at the peak Wanxiang level.” The black-robed man rose to his feet. “Although I have already had a stroke of great fortune, from my subconscious premonition... it seems as though this Conclave is going to be an extremely important one. I might be able to truly soar into the heavens at this Conclave.”

“If I, Bu Yi, wish to become a Celestial Immortal, it seems that my chance will come through this Conclave of Immortal Destiny.” The black-robed man continued to mutter to himself.

He had been the son of a fisherman. In his youth, he accompanied his father out to sea to catch fish, but because of a great storm, the waves had caused the ship to capsize. He had passed out, and by the time he had woken up, he had found out to his astonishment that he had entered an estate in the bottom of the sea.

This was an estate left behind by a powerful predecessor, and was filled with many cultivation techniques, arts, divine abilities, and even some supreme visualization techniques, along with magic treasures and curious items. There had even been an amount of liquefied elemental essence which had accumulated over the course of years within the estate, forming a giant pond with at least five million kilograms. Amongst the various precious treasures, he had also discovered a Golden Crow’s egg. His youthful self had settled down in the estate, focusing on his training.

Most likely, he had been a cultivator in his past life as well; his soul was innately powerful to begin with, and with the aid of the supreme visualization techniques, when his true body had reached the Wanxiang level, he had split his soul, using the created half to possess the Golden Crow’s egg. Afterwards, the egg had hatched, and the Golden Crow had been born.

This Golden Crow had an extremely pure lineage; only after training to the Void level had he been able to transform into human shape.

Over the course of many long years, Bu Yi had wandered the great Darknorth Sea, experiencing many life-and-death dangers. Thanks to the Golden Crow Primaltwin body he had acquired through his great stroke of fortune as a youth, he had managed to overcome those dangerous situations and profit from them. After his Primaltwin had experienced the Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations, he had decided to break through to become a Void-level Earth Immortal. He had more than two hundred years before the next calamity descended; for Bu Yi, this was more than enough time.

“Although my Primaltwin’s body is that of a Golden Crow and is extremely powerful...” the black-robed Bu Yi shook his head. “But the body is a possessed one. I’m a human, whereas Golden Crows are monsters. Although I possessed the egg... I was at most able to complete a 70% or 80% fusion with it. Training to the Void level is most likely my limit. To overcome the tribulation and become a Celestial Immortal? There’s no hope at all!”

Possessing a Golden Crow’s egg was a stroke of tremendous fortune. When he had been very weak and young, he hadn’t hesitated at all to make this choice.

However, a Primaltwin acquired through possession wouldn’t be sufficiently well fused together, and becoming a Celestial Immortal was difficult to begin with. Even creatures such as a Golden Crow Godbird with exceedingly pure Golden Crow lineages would find it hard to overcome the Celestial Tribulation. He, whose soul and body had only fused 70% or 80%, had almost no chance of overcoming it at all. He knew this quite well.

“I can sense that this Conclave of Immortal Destiny is a chance for me.”

“I, Bu Yi, have roamed and dominated the Darknorth Seas. It has always been my Primaltwin, ‘Immortal Goldcrow’, who was famous. This time... my true body shall reveal its own brilliance as well at this Conclave of Immortal Destiny.” The black-robed Bu Yi felt tremendous eagerness.

Three days later.

Immortal Goldcrow gave instructions to his disciples to train hard, stating that he was going out for some wandering... and then quietly left, heading towards the imperial capital.

......

A small ship was flying through the misty clouds, atop which was a black-robed man seated in the lotus position, a sharp, saber-hacking aura emanating from him.

“Eh?” The black-robed man suddenly opened his eyes. Previously, his eyes had been closed as he was meditating, but the Conclave of Immortal Destiny had suddenly come to his mind, and as it did, his subconscious began to whisper to him.

“After bidding Master farewell, I began to rove through the various major worlds to adventure and train. This world of the Grand Xia Dynasty is already my ninth major world. I completely have no interest in this so-called ‘Conclave of Immortal Destiny’; after all, I apprenticed myself to Master long ago. But why is it that I suddenly have a feeling... as though I should go participate? It seems as though if I don’t go, I’ll miss something or will lose something.” The black-robed man was mystified.

However, he didn’t doubt the premonitions of his subconscious.

“If that’s the case... then I might as well make a trip to the imperial capital of the Grand Xia and participate in the Conclave of Immortal Destiny. I want to see how formidable the geniuses of this major world are.” The black-robed man willed it, and the air around the small ship began to shimmer. It then disappeared completely; he had used a void teleportation technique to head directly towards the imperial capital.

......

An ordinary tavern within a commandery city of the Grand Xia. A dirty-looking maiden was completely drunk, and there was even some straw in her hair. She continued to call out loudly, “More wine, quick, more wine!”

“Miss, you’ve used up all your money already,” the tavern waiter hurriedly said.

The dirty-looking maiden opened her eyes. “Used up?”

“Listen up, all of you. I’ll let you guys hit or kick me as you please; I definitely won’t fight back at all. Buuut, you have to help me pay some money for wine. You don’t need to pay too much; just a gourd’s worth of wine is enough. Just let me fill up my gourd,” the dirty-looking maiden called out.

“Beat you as I please?” Instantly, a newcomer was intrigued.

“Heh, yet another poor bastard is going to fall for it.”

“That gourd just won’t fill up no matter how you try.”

Some of the regulars were secretly muttering to each other. The guest who had wanted to give her a kick for fun felt that something was off and immediately stopped himself.

The dirty maiden, holding that gourd of wine, looked around herself. No one had come to hit her.

“I’ll let you hit or kick me as you please. I definitely won’t fight back,” the dirty maiden called out.

“...ugh. It seems I need to switch places again. I can’t swindle too much in a little place like this anyhow. Why don’t I go to a larger place... say, the imperial capital, the largest city of them all?”

The maiden was suddenly stunned.

Her blurry, drunken eyes suddenly grew clear.

“The Conclave of Immortal Destiny?”

She could feel a powerful call from it.

Originally, in accordance with the way she trained her Dao, she shouldn’t have participated in the Conclave at all. But her subconscious premonition couldn’t be wrong.

“As soon as I had the idea to go to the imperial capital, I immediately felt a strong premonition regarding the Conclave of Immortal Destiny... it seems as though I truly will have to go attend. Perhaps this Conclave of Immortal Destiny will be of help to me in overcoming the tribulation and becoming a Celestial Immortal. I’ve reincarnated nine times now... if I fail again, then I truly will have no more hope for the future.”

Whoosh. The drunken woman suddenly disappeared from within the tavern. As for the ordinary mortals within the tavern, they didn’t notice anything at all. It was as though this maiden had never appeared in their midst before at all.

......

The truly formidable figures who had secluded themselves throughout the vast Grand Xia Empire, including some truly peerless monsters who had originally disdained from attending the Conclave, all felt a call from their subconscious. All of them changed their minds, hastening towards the imperial capital.

The imperial capital. King Yan’s Estate. Ji Ning’s Immortal estate. There was a lake in front of it, and atop the lake, there was a small ship. Ning was lying down in the middle of the ship, allowing it to drift where it pleased.

Perhaps because he had grown into a habit of drifting on a boat at Serpentwing Lake, when Ning lay down in a boat and let it drift where it please, his soul felt exceptionally calm and empty. It was even often of benefit to him in pondering secret arts.

“Young master Ji Ning.” A maidservant, standing at the side of the lake, called out.

A handsome, slender, fur-clad youth suddenly stood up from within the distant wooden boat. With a single step, he disappeared from the boat and reappeared on the shore.

“Young master Ji Ning,” the maidservant said respectfully, “A group of people are at the royal estate and wish to meet you.”

“Meet me? Who are they?” Ning asked.

“They say... that they are your fellow disciples from your school, or something like that,” the maidservant said.

Ning’s eyes lit up. He immediately transformed into a gust of wind, howling through the air as he disappeared.

King Yan’s Estate’s front gate. A gust of wind blew past, and Ning appeared at the entrance.

“Senior apprentice-brother Ji Ning!” A white-robed youth ran over excitedly.

“Junior apprentice-brother Northson.” Ning, upon seeing his junior apprentice-brother, felt extraordinarily happy as well. The two of them clutched each other in a bear hug before letting go.

Ning had long ago begun to view Northson as he would a true little brother.

“Senior apprentice-brother, you truly are amazing. You actually produced a Primaltwin and even killed Immortal Floatcloud.” Northson was extraordinarily excited. “When I was in the Black-White College, I heard the news and was absolutely tickled. Hahaha, you killed Youngflame Nong and that Fiendgod, and then you caused even a Deathsworn sent out by the Youngflame clan to perish. Hehehe, I wonder how infuriated the Youngflame clan is right now?!”

“Hopefully, they’ll die from their anger,” Ning said. And then he looked at the other three in front of him. “Senior apprentice-brother Vastriver, senior apprentice-sister Yu Wei, and eldest apprentice-brother... why have you all come?”

The figures in front of him were the Sloppy Daoist, Yu Wei, Vastriver, and Northson.

Yu Wei laughed, “Both myself and our eldest apprentice-brother are participating in this Conclave. Senior apprentice-brother Vastriver and junior apprentice-brother Northson are here to watch. I imagine that once the Conclave truly begins, quite a few other disciples of the Black-White College will come to watch as well. After all, actual participants are quite few in number, but quite a few spectators will be present.”

“Eldest apprentice-brother, you are attending as well?” Ning was surprised. When he had chatted with Yu Wei and the others about the Conclave, it seemed as though the only member of the Black-White College to attend would be Yu Wei. The others wouldn’t participate, and the leader of the third generation disciples, the Sloppy Daoist, wasn’t planning to attend either.

“What should happen, will happen,” the Sloppy Daoist said with a laugh.

“This time, our Black-White College will have a total of three participants in the Conclave of Immortal Destiny. Senior apprentice-sister Yu Wei, senior apprentice-brother Ji Ning, and eldest apprentice-brother. Our Black-White College is definitely going to be famous!” Northson was filled with anticipation.