The Desolate Era

This was a fairly small base, with just a single Celestial Immortal protecting it – Youngflame Freak. It was similar to the Myriad Demons Cavern base which Ning had rescued Mu Northson out of; that place also had just a single Celestial Immortal within it.

This was on purpose. The relative weakness of each base made it easier for them to relocate as necessary, without paying much of a price.

“Who is it?”

There were groups of roving guards within the base, as well as some black-robed figures in the distance. The black-robed figures all had auras at the Loose Immortal or Earth Immortal level. For ordinary Immortal cultivators, a place like this was an absolute devil’s den...but to Ji Ning, this place normally wouldn’t be worth his time at all.

His target was the guardian of this base...Youngflame Freak!

“An enemy has barged in!”

“Attack!”

“It’s a Celestial Immortal.”

“Surround and attack him!”

The base was tightly guarded, and as soon as Ning used a Greater Teleportation to bypass the formations, he was instantly discovered.

“Attack!” The group of black-robed figures instantly set up a great formation, beginning to attack Ning en masse. All of them were Loose Immortals, and some of them were comparable in power to Loose Immortals who had survived for a million years. If they joined forces, they were absolutely capable of battling a Celestial Immortal.

“Unfortunately for you, I’m not a Celestial Immortal,” Ning sighed to himself.

Whoosh. A giant flag appeared in Ning’s hands, brimming with menace. This flag was a transformation of one of the Thirty-Six Heavens created by the 3600 stargold beads. This Protocosmic spirit-treasure could change form at well, and it possessed tremendous power; Ning enjoyed using it very much.

“Attack!”

“Tie him down! Once Immortal Bloodfiend arrives, he’ll be dead!”

“Right. Immortal Bloodfiend is incredibly powerful; no ordinary Celestial Immortal can match him. Tie him down!” The black-robed figures were all valiant and fearless. They formed together into an enormous black dragon, attempting to tie Ning down for now.

Ning held up the giant flag, pointing the tip of the flagpole towards them.

“Such hollow, meaningless attacks.” Ning stood there in the air, moving lightning-fast as he charged into the base. The flag in his hands swept outwards like an Immortal sword, causing golden light to appear in the skies. As for the black-robed figures who were in formation? Every single one of their chests was pierced straight through.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

As Ning advanced, the flag in his hands stabbed through the chests of nine of the black-robed figures. They were crushed like ants, all nine of them dying on the spot. The great formation was instantly dispersed.

“Who dares to barge into the forbidden grounds?!” An ugly old man charged out with a hideous roar, surrounded by the stench of blood.

“Milord.”

“Milord.”

The surrounding guards felt as though their savior had come. They all called out hurriedly towards him. They had been utterly terrified just now; the only reason they had dared to battle Ning was because they had a formation, but even the formation was useless against him. Faced with such a supremely powerful ‘Celestial Immortal’, they no longer dared to fight back at all.

“Name yourself!” The ugly old man said coldly.

Ning stood there in midair, staring at the ugly old man. He recognized him as Youngflame Freak right away; he had personally seen Youngflame Freak before, after all. Ning laughed coldly, then said angrily, “The Seamless Gate killed my loved ones. Now that my power has increased, I’m going to wipe you all out! If I find one, I’ll kill one; if I find two, I’ll kill a pair. I’ll make the Seamless Gate regret what it did!”

“All by yourself?” The ugly old man snickered. “The Seamless Gate isn’t something the likes of you can offend. I urge you to leave right away. Otherwise...don’t blame me for showing no mercy.”

“Leave? In your dreams!” Ning charged straight towards Youngflame Freak.

In his heart, Youngflame Freak was cursing to himself. “What horrible luck. I actually ran into a madman who wants revenge. The Seamless Gate has harmed countless people throughout the Three Realms; there are far, far too many people with grudges against it. This is a Celestial Immortal who I’ve never even seen before. He must’ve been harmed by the Seamless Gate in the past. Now that he’s broken through to become a Celestial Immortal, he’s gone mad for revenge. There are so many bases in the Winterherald world...why the hell did he have to choose mine? What horrible luck!”

He felt extremely unhappy, but since his foe was already attacking, Youngflame Freak didn’t dare to take him lightly. He produced a blood-colored horsetail whisk in his hand, then swept the whisk forward, transforming it into three thousand blood serpents that surged towards Ning.

Whoosh! The giant flag in Ning’s hands fluttered. The flagpole was still merely as thick as a palm, but suddenly it expanded to become three thousand meters long. It struck out lightning-fast, stabbing straight into Youngflame Freak’s chest with a piercing sound! As for those three thousand blood serpents...how could they possibly stop the might of this ‘Banner of the Heavens’?

“You...you...” Youngflame Freak’s eyes bulged out as he stared towards Ning in disbelief. His heart was filled with utter rage. “He’s close to a Pure Yang True Immortal in power? He absolutely is extremely close to that level. Why is my luck so horrible! A random attacking Celestial Immortal ends up having close to the power of a Pure Yang True Immortal. His treasure is an extraordinary one as well; it has to be a Protocosmic spirit-treasure.”

“What horrible luck.”

“Thank goodness I have many other clones. He shouldn’t be able to find the place where my other clones are hidden.”

Youngflame Freak gave Ning a cold glare, then died.

“Milord!”

“Quick, flee!”

“His lordship is dead!”

Everyone began to panic.

The giant flag in Ning’s hands swept forward. Boom! The Flag of the Heavens contained a world within it, and he immediately dragged all of the servants of the Seamless Gate’s base inside that world. In fact, he even absorbed some of the local palaces and structures into the Flag of the Heavens.

Within the world inside the flag.

“What is this place?”

“Where are we?”

This was an empty world. The Immortal cultivators and Fiendgods of the Seamless Gate were all terrified.

Rumble...

Two vigorous streams of power surged through the skies, forming a pair of enormous millstones above and below them. These two giant millstones began to grind down towards the people between them!

As the spatial millstones began to crush down...

Splat! Splat! Splat!

The servants all perished. Even the Fiendgods were completely slain and destroyed...and one of the bracelets worn by one of the Fiendgods was completely smashed apart. That Fiendgod’s other treasures, however, were left unharmed.

“What’s going on?!”

One old man after another began to appear. Each of them had different appearances, but their auras were all identical to Youngflame Freak’s aura. There was a total of fourteen of them.

Youngflame Freak’s fourteen clones stared at their surroundings. Instantly, the looks on their faces changed.

“My fourteen clones have been captured.” Youngflame Freak instantly understood...then began to panic. “How is this possible? That Fiendgod was just an ordinary Fiendgod, and his bracelet was just an ordinary Heaven-ranked storage treasure. Generally speaking, powerful Immortals wouldn’t deign to act against such puny Fiendgods. Even if they did, they wouldn’t go so far as to destroy a Heaven-ranked treasure.”

But of course, he had no idea...that Ning knew exactly where he was. Patriarch Subhuti had told Ning long ago. Thus, there was no chance for Youngflame Freak to escape at all.

Boom! The millstones once more came smashing down...and so the fourteen Celestial Immortal clones were all crushed within this supreme Protocosmic spirit-treasure. It must be understood that Ning was using his True Immortal energy in controlling these treasures; even Empyrean Gods and True Immortals would perish if they were trapped within this stargold bead, to say nothing of Youngflame Freak!

The internal crushing power of the Stargold Beads of the Heavens was no lower than the power of the Eight Fires Qiankun World. Most importantly of all, once you entered it, there was no way out. Empyrean Gods might be able to endure the crushing power for a period of time, but they wouldn’t be able to endure it forever.

......

The Winterherald world. Within Ironsoldier Hall, one of the three major headquarters of the Seamless Gate.

This was a massive, towering edifice that was completely built using enormous swords, sabers, staffs, and other weapons. It had the appearance of a countless number of weapons plunged deep into the earth, but in reality all of the ‘weapons’ were parts of a single titanic formation. They were shaped as weapons for cosmetic purposes only.

“Eh?”

“Immortal Bloodfiend suffered an attack.”

Within the main hall of Ironsoldier Hall. This was a grand hall that was shaped like an enormous axe. A middle-aged man was solemnly staring at a midair mirror as two other Empyrean Gods and True Immortals hastened over.

“Immortal Bloodfiend suffered an attack. These are the scenes from just now. Take a look.” The leader of Ironsoldier Hall, ‘True Immortal Ironsoldier’, spoke out. His power was significantly stronger than the power of the other two, so he naturally became the temporary leader of the group. However, each headquarters only had a total of three Empyrean Gods or True Immortals, and so there really wasn’t much of a difference in status.

“Oh?” The other two consisted of a male golden-armored Empyrean God and a female pink-robed True Immortal. The two appeared to be quite intimate with each other; clearly, they were a couple. They were known as the ‘Goldred Couple’, and they had a bit of a reputation in the Three Realms. They were fairly average in terms of power, but had a bit of a reputation for a rather unsavory reason. Empyrean God Goldspear had thousands of concubines, while True Immortal Redflower had more than ten thousand male lovers. The two of them really were a perfect pair for each other.

The Goldred Couple stared towards the midair mirror, which was replaying the scenes from earlier.

“The Seamless Gate killed my loved ones. Now that my power has increased, I’m going to wipe you all out! If I find one, I’ll kill one; if I find two, I’ll kill a pair. I’ll make the Seamless Gate regret what it did!” The mirror-Ning’s eyes were filled with madness...and then he immediately attacked Youngflame Freak.

It took only one stance...and Youngflame Freak was wiped out.

He then completely uprooted and destroyed the entire base.

“I’ve never seen this Celestial Immortal before, but he’s quite handsome.” True Immortal Redflower nibbled her lips, an interested look in her eyes.

“Yes, he’s new. He must’ve come out from some backwater place. Most likely, he just broke through from being a Void-level Earth Immortal...but for him to have such power means that he must’ve had some special encounters. That flagpole is particularly powerful; it may well be a Protocosmic spirit-treasure,” Empyrean God Goldspear evaluated. “In short, this is just a person who deeply hates our Seamless Gate, and who was lucky enough to break through to become a Celestial Immortal. He doesn’t really matter. Immortal Bloodfiend can only curse his own terrible luck, for him to have been chosen by this Celestial Immortal.”

“He has close to the power of a Pure Yang True Immortal. Can’t be too overconfident in dealing with him,” True Immortal Ironsoldier said.

“Agreed. Want me to go capture him?” True Immortal Redflower had a greedy look in eyes. She stared at the image of Ning as though she wanted to devour him.

“He’s already left that base. For now, his whereabouts are unknown,” True Immortal Ironsoldier said. “If I use coresense to search for him, I’ll probably disturb the Winterherald Army! Let’s just watch for now. Now that we are on guard, if we notice this Celestial Immortal attacking any of our other bases...Goldspear, you are an Empyrean God. Teleport straight to him and execute him.”

“It’ll only take me a single spear-strike to kill him.” Empyrean God Goldspear laughed in a disdainful manner.

True Immortal Ironsoldier felt resigned. It was his bad luck to have been assigned into a team with these two. Still...this was what his superiors had arranged. There was nothing he could do.

......

“How did you find me?!” Youngflame Freak stared in terror at the Celestial Immortal in front of him. Just now, his other fifteen clones had been slaughtered by this Celestial Immortal. He had a total of sixteen clones within this world, with only Immortal Bloodfiend being a public figure; the other fifteen had all been hidden. The fourteen hidden within the magic treasure were all dead...and now, even the last one had been located.”

“Youngflame Freak...you are the reason I am here.” A cold voice rang out.