Desolate Era Book 22, Chapter 7 - Darkstill World

The Nihilum Zone of the Primordial Ruinworld. The waves of the Void continuously came crashing through this region.
Whoosh. A spatial whirlpool appeared within the Void, and from it emerged a white-robed youth. He stood there in the Void, staring towards the infinitely vast realm that was before him.
“According to what Master said, right now Fuxi and Tathagata’s squads are around the Darkstill world.” Ning’s eyes were blazing with torch-light, allowing him to clearly see the enormous, distant realm of the Primordial Ruinworld. He was quickly able to identify the region that was known as the Darkstill world.
The Primordial Ruinworld had been divided up into many parts by various alien Outsider organizations into many different ‘worlds’. The closer these worlds were to the core, the more powerful they were.
The ‘Snaphorn’ world was one of the outermost border worlds of the Primordial Ruinworld. Comparatively speaking, it was fairly weak. The most powerful members of the Snaphorn world were those three Queen Mothers, and strictly speaking they weren’t really at the level of True Gods or Daofathers! Empyrean God Redsnow, when commanding a Seven Planets God, had been able to battle against all three of them for a long period of time. Patriarch Subhuti had been able to easily annihilate all of them with a single palm. From this, one could see how weak the Snaphorn world had been.
The Darkstill world was far more powerful than the Snaphorn world.
……
The Primordial Ruinworld. The Darkstill world.
Riiiiiip.
Space was forcibly torn apart, allowing a white-robed youth to fly to this location atop a boat.
“The Darkstill world…it really is a dark, silent place.” Ning swept the area with his gaze. Even the skies were grey and dark. Everything seemed to be covered by a hazy layer of gray fog, and it was completely silent here.
“I wonder where Fuxi, Tathagata, and the other Daofathers are.”
Ning’s Primaltwin was still in the Crescent world. Ning had made a special Primaltwin incarnation to accompany Brightmoon, with the incarnation being able to converse with Patriarch Subhuti whenever necessary. According to what he had heard, Fuxi, Tathagata, and their squads were currently located at the Darkstill world, but it would be hard to find their exact locations without being there.
The main reason was because spacetime was in a state of chaotic flux here. One could set clear target coordinates for teleportation, but upon actually arriving one might be ridiculously far off from the original target!
This was why Subhuti had sent Ning to the Nihilum Zone, then told Ning to board his Voidship and fly from the Nihilum Zone to the Darkstill world.
“Let me search for them.” Ning immediately sent out his heartforce. Whoosh! His heartforce rippled out like the waters of a lake, spreading out in every single direction. This was a little trick which World God Northrest had taught him. With this technique activated, no one in either the Three Realms or the Primordial Ruinworld would be able to escape his detection.
His heartforce quickly spread out to encompass an enormous region. It spread out past tall mountains, deep lakes, and quite a few alien Outsiders. Those alien Outsiders were all quite weak. They weren’t even close to becoming Celestial Immortals.
“Eh?” Ning suddenly frowned. There were some regions where both space and time were both so badly shattered that not even Ning’s heartforce could see past them.
“I’m only able to scan a region of a few hundred thousand kilometers. There’s no way to scan any further.” This was Ning’s first trip into the actual Primordial Ruinworld itself, and it was the fairly stable Darkstill world. He immediately understood why this place was known as the ‘Ruinworld’! Such a dire, inhospitable environment simply wasn’t suitable for life to flourish on a large scale.
“I wasn’t able to find Fuxi and the others…however, towards the east I can see some signs of a battle.”
Swish. Ning immediately transformed into a black lightning serpent, instantly flying more than two hundred thousand kilometers east towards the region which had been scarred by battle.
By ‘east’, Ning was referring to the direction from which the Solar Star would rise. Thus, in the Three Realms and in the Primordial Ruinworld, east meant a different direction for different worlds.
“Here?” Ning stood there in midair, staring down at the vast basin below him. The basin was shaped like an enormous palm print that was more than a thousand kilometers wide, and the ground below it was completely scorched black. “A palm? Could it be that Tathagata launched a strike?”
“Reverse.” Ning immediately willed a temporal inversion to begin.
In places like the Primordial Ruinworld where the Heavenly Daos did not exist it was extremely difficult to use temporal inversion techniques. However, as Ning had slowly gained more insight into the Nine Chaos Seals, he was instantly able to see into the past history of most mortals. He had gained the ability to easily seeing into the past, which was really the fundamental essence of how the ‘temporal inversion’ technique worked.
Thus, Ning was able to easily accomplish the temporal inversion.
Whoosh. Whoosh.
Many images of the past began to flash past Ning. Soon, time had ‘inverted’ back to a point where four major powers had appeared in this place.
Those four major powers were led by the smiling yellow-robed Lord Buddha, Tathagata. By his side were three other Buddhas, each of which glowed with boundless holy light.
“Darkstill, you think to stop us with small tricks such as these?” Tathagata flew forward atop an auspicious cloud, a smile on his face as he spoke. “Hurry up and show yourself. Otherwise…your Darkstill world won’t exist for much longer.” As he spoke, he stretched out his hand. Shining with golden light, his hand descended from the heavens and smashed downwards towards the land.
The ground trembled violently as a massive palm-sized basin was imprinted deep into the earth.
“Tathagata!” An ear-piercing screech rang out, but it was quickly silenced.
“Thearch Darkstill is one of the most famous major powers of the Primordial Ruinworld. We’re destroying the various formation bases located throughout his world, but he still refuses to show himself? He must be scheming something big,” Tathagata said.
“Lord Buddha, there’s no need to worry about his plots and schemes. Let us continue to destroy their worlds, one by one.”
“Let’s go.” Tathagata nodded, then led his three mighty Buddhas to continue forward to their next destination, flying off on that auspicious cloud.
A short while later.
Swoosh. Swoosh. Swoosh. One gray-skinned, gray-cloaked alien Outsider after another descended from the heavens. They landed within the basin, then exchanged glances with each other, their eyes filled with cold rage. They then flew off as well, heading in the same direction which Tathagata and the others had just gone.
……
After Ning finished viewing what had happened here roughly two hours ago, he nodded slightly. “The leader of the Buddhist Sangha and Human Sovereign Fuxi became overlord-level figures during the Primordial Era. Even though they haven’t broken through to become Elder Gods, their techniques have surely become much better. With them in command, and with their forces split up into four squads…no single world in the Primordial Ruinworld can possibly withstand all of them at once.”
Swoosh. Ning also flew towards the direction where the others had gone.
……
Although the Darkstill world was located in a region of relatively stable spacetime, there were still many regions in it where spacetime was distorted. The alien Outsiders who lived here were used to these regions and knew them well. There were some regions where only they dared traverse, and they were only able to do so because generations of predecessors had sacrificed their lives to help their race accumulate experience.
“Someone’s coming.”
“A white-robed youth.”
“He’s hesitating a bit. Oh, he’s actually come inside.”
Three alien Outsiders were gathered together within a region of distorted spacetime, staring past a restrictive formation at the white-robed youth who had just flown in from the outside world.
“Captain, the Buddhist leader of the Three Realms, Tathagata, has led three of his Daofathers to attack this world. Why has this white-robed youth appeared?” These three alien Outsiders had pale white skin, handsome faces, and were dressed in gray cloaks. All of them were top-tier Empyrean Gods in power, and they were skilled in fleeing through space.
“Judging from his appearance…it should be Sword Immortal Darknorth of the Three Realms, Ji Ning.” The alien captain frowned. “Sword Immortal Darknorth, Ji Ning…his sword-arts are extremely profound, said to be the best in the entire Three Realms. However, he himself is just a True Immortal, and his true body has already been destroyed by the Seamless Gate. The one who just appeared should be his Primaltwin. Judging from his aura, he should still be just a True Immortal. But I’m puzzled…why would a True Immotal dare to brave our Primordial Ruinworld by himself? Is he planning to just rely on his Rahu Formation? The Heavenly Daos do not exist in the Primordial Ruinworld; there’s not much natural energy for the Rahu Formation to make use of. It won’t be nearly as powerful as it was in the Three Realms.”
“Captain, he’s advancing quite quickly. He’ll be past our observation range soon,” one of the alien Outsiders quickly reminded.
It was extremely hard to set up an observation formation within a field of distorted spacetime. There was no way to make it have an extremely long detection range.
“Let’s go test him out.” Beneath his gray cloak, the alien captain had a cold look on his face. “Let’s see how powerful this Pure Yang True Immortal is.”
The three of them quickly flew out in pursuit.
……
A few moments later, all three of them were dead.
Ning stood quietly within the Void, giving each of their corpses a glance. “Chase me?” He was a half-step Elder God. How acute were his senses? As soon as those three alien Outsiders had gotten slightly closer to him, he had immediately discovered them. These three puny Empyrean God pawns…Ning had easily killed two of them, then heavily wounded the third one. He had planned to soulscour the third one, but alas the alien had voluntarily destroyed his own soul.
……
Deep within the Primordial Ruinworld, within a round castle that glowed with dark golden light.
An alien major power was seated atop a throne here. He had a long green tail, a bald head, and handsome features. He was resting his head on his one hand, contemplating as he tapped the armrest of the throne with his free hand. Six golden-armored figures stood solemnly at attention before him, each of which radiated auras that were far superior to the auras of ordinary Daofathers.
“These aboriginals really are quite something.” The alien Outsider seated atop the throne let out a congratulatory chuckle. “They actually destroyed twelve of my worlds. The Seamless Gate really is useless. They created all those formations, but not a single one of the True Gods or Daofathers of the Three Realms have died to them. It seems we can’t simply rely on those fools after all. In the end, it’ll be up to us.”
“Master, this chaosworld has given birth to a World God. We cannot be overconfident.” One of the golden-armored figures standing below him gave a respectful reminder.
“The ‘Lord of All Things’…it’s all his fault for being an idiot!” The seated alien Outsider laughed coldly. “He spent quite a bit of time roving about the primordial chaos and has seen quite a few chaosworlds. Back then, when Nuwa had yet to become a World God, he should’ve immediately attacked. Instead, he set up a stupid scheme to have the two chaosworlds fight against each other? How bored was he? Why didn’t he just destroy one chaosworld, then destroy the other? Instead, he started a war that caused these primitives to give birth to a World God. Before she left, she definitely left behind some techniques for her allies.”
“A chaosworld that had given birth to a World God is not so easily conquered. That’s the reason why I’ve acted so carefully and waited for the perfect opportunity.”
“Master…how about we just go back for now? Let’s build up our forces before we return. We know exactly where this place is now. When we are more powerful, we can return!” A skinny golden-armored figure suggested.
Whap!
The seated alien Outsider’s long green tail suddenly swept out and knocked the golden-armored figure flying.
The seated alien Outsider pointed at the golden-armored figure and cursed, “You fool! We barely survived the trip here; you really want us to risk the trip back? Unless we make a major breakthrough in strength, if we go back the same way we came in, we are almost guaranteed to die. It’s better for us to join forces with the Seamless Gate and slowly grind down the Nuwa alliance.”
“Master! Almighty Master!” A voice suddenly called out from outside.
“Darkstill?” The alien Outsider chortled merrily. “Let him in.”
Instantly, a gray-skinned, golden-robed man strode in, emanating an aura of great power. It was the master of the Darkstill world, ‘Thearch Darkstill’. He respectfully fell to his knees. “Almighty Master, my minions just discovered that yet another invader with the power of a Daofather has entered the Darkstill world.”
“Another enemy Daofather has come?” The seated alien outsider frowned. “Who?”
“He belongs to the Nuwa Alliance of the Three Realms,” Thearch Darkstill said respectfully. “Sword Immortal Darknorth, Ji Ning!”