The Desolate Era

Book 16, Chapter 10 - Grand Space Formation

“This human is still very weak, and I’ve already sent out the entire First Army of the border armies after him. Within the First Army, there are at least a few ‘Firstborn’. I’ll be able to see everything they experience and will be able to more closely inspect this human who has arrived,” the Queen Mother’s mind sent.

“Your actions are correct, elder sister.”

“Keep a close eye on this human.”

The Snaphorn world, in truth, was ruled over by these three Queen Mothers. They were the founders of this world; naturally, they vastly outstripped Ji Ning in power. However, they were wary of the humans which Ning represented, and so they didn’t dare to be the slightest bit arrogant.

These three Queen Mothers had, long ago, given birth to a group of children.

Their children had continued to give birth to children of their own...

And so, one generation after another, this continued...

The original source for all of the citizens of the Snaphorn world was this trio of Queen Mothers! Those who had been born from the Queen Mothers were known as the ‘Firstborn’, and they had the greatest potential. The children of the Firstborn were the Secondborn, and their potential was second only to that of the Firstborn. The children of the Secondborn were the Thirdborn, and so on and so forth.

For example, of the nine Elders in the Palace of Elders, eight were Firstborn while one was Thirdborn!

The Queen Mothers who had given birth to the Firstborn were able to know everything they experienced.

......

Within a beautiful world of flowers.

Perhaps fate was indeed meddling in subtle ways, for just as Ji Ning encountered this new danger, the day of Yu Wei’s Celestial Tribulation had begun.

“Disciple, you were very powerful in your past life, and in this life you accepted me as your master...which means that this Celestial Tribulation will be incomparably shocking in power. I’m not able to help you too much in dealing with this tribulation. All I can do is help guard you from outsiders. As for the tribulation itself...it’ll be up to you.” Lu Dongbin, his Immortal sword on his back, looked towards the black-robed Yu Wei.

“Your disciple understands,” Yu Wei said respectfully.

“Go, then.” Lu Dongbin nodded lightly.

Yu Wei immediately flew to the peak of a distant island mountain. As for Lu Dongbin, he continued to watch from his current location atop the peak of a nearby mountain. Lu Dongbin was in complete control of this minor world; it was his personal, secret abode. He had even set down layers of formations, ensuring that even True Gods or Daofathers who wished to barge in would have to spend a significant amount of effort.

The wind tribulation, the fire tribulation, the thunder tribulation, the demonheart tribulation...the four great tribulations of the Celestial Tribulation.

Yu Wei was indeed extremely powerful. She had been very powerful in her past life, and with Patriarch Lu’s guidance in this life, she had reached an extremely high level of insight into the Dao. She was thus able to smoothly sail through the wind tribulation and the fire tribulation.

“Not good.” The distant Lu Dongbin frowned slightly as he looked towards her. “Although the wind tribulation and the fire tribulation have both ended...both were clearly more formidable than the ones which most of the disciples under my command experienced. In fact...they were close in power to the wind tribulation and the fire tribulation which I myself experienced so long ago.”

Lu Dongbin had been Emperor Eastflower in a past life; after he had reincarnated and become Patriarch Lu, his tribulation had definitely not been a simple one!

Although he was a Ki Refiner, in the face of the thunder tribulation of his Celestial Tribulation...he inconceivably encountered nine nine-sets of thunder tribulation! However, Lu Dongbin had the benefit of a solid foundation provided by his past life. How could the soul of Emperor Eastflower be so easily dealt with? In addition, his master was a superb one, one of the truly supreme figures of the entire Three Realms. Thus...despite being a Ki Refiner, he had managed to force his way through the nine nine-sets of thunder tribulation.

By now, he had already reached the absolute peak of power possible for a Pure Yang True Immortal. He was publicly acclaimed within the Three Realms as the True Immortal with the highest chance of becoming a Daofather, and in fact he had already stepped halfway into the realm of becoming a Daofather.

“Judging from that wind tribulation and that fire tribulation...my disciple’s thunder tribulation probably won’t stop at six nine-sets.” Lu Dongbin frowned. “Her experiences in her past life were ordinary, and I’m the only master she’s taken on in this life. Normally speaking, most Ki Refiner disciples of Daofathers will only experience six nine-sets. Why in the world is her Celestial Tribulation this deadly?”

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.”

The Primordial Ruinworld’s Nihilum Zone was indeed an awe-inspiringly famous danger zone. Not even many Empyrean Gods or True Immortals would be able to escape from it, much less the likes of Ji Ning.

As for the even more deadly Primordial Ruinworld...naturally, the Youngflame clan would’ve liked to send him to that place, but alas, even the Protocosmic spirit-treasure, the Worldhold Pagoda, was only able to tear open the fabric of space to send Ning into the Nihilum Zone. It was unable to send him to the Primordial Ruinworld.

“Eh?” Ning suddenly turned his head to look.

From far away, within the distant void of space, an enormous ship had suddenly appeared. This titanic ship was ten thousand kilometers long; it was like one of the continents of Earth! Earlier, it had been completely invisible, but now it had materialized out of nowhere. The entrance to the ship opened, and a series of massive, towering, blood-red horned, golden-eyed, black-caped warriors came flying out. The many warriors all radiated utterly astonishing auras.

“So the army of the Snaphorn world of the Primordial Ruinworld have arrived.” Ning’s pupils contracted.