Desolate Era Book 22, Chapter 15 - That Tiny Wave

Empress Xi only noticed the attack after the strange object had torn through all those layers of protection. Her face instantly changed. “Not good!” She hurriedly dodged while brandishing her sleeves to block. Clang! The sharp object struck against her sleeves, then flew off towards another direction.
“Be careful, everyone.” Empress Xi said hurriedly, “It is too fast; you can’t let yourself be caught offguard!”
“Xingtian, do you have any more shield-type treasures?” True God Luwu asked hurriedly.
“I do.” Xingtian produced a small buckler in his hand, then sent it flying towards True God Luwu. It rapidly increased in size, becoming nearly half his height. True God Luwu grabbed the buckler with one hand, using his other to continue holding onto his metal whip.
Xingtian was similarly holding a buckler in one hand and his Heaven Punisher Axe in the other. He hurriedly asked, “Anyone else need a buckler?” As he spoke his gaze couldn’t help but turn towards Ning, located in the center of the formation.
Of the seven, Kuafu was the strongest. Xingtian and Empress Xi were next, but Xingtian already had a buckler while Empress xi was skilled in using her sleeves.
Next came Graceful Peacock, Windfate, and Luwu. Luwu had already acquired a buckler, while Daofather Windfate used his fan. The fan could also be used as a shield, and Daofather Windfate would actually be able to unleash more power with his fan than with a buckler. As for Graceful Peacock, her ‘body’ had been forged from a peacock feather that was comparable to a top-grade Protocosmic spirit-treasure. She was actually safer than any of them.
As Xingtian saw it, Ji Ning was a wielder of the sword. The sword was an offensive weapon; defensively speaking, it was comparatively lacking. He felt that Ji Ning would most likely need a buckler.
“I don’t need one just yet.” Ning smiled and shook his head.
“Be careful,” Xingtian warned, then fell silent.
Attacks continued to rain down upon them from those invisible objects. The six True Gods all guarded carefully against the attacks, and they even decided to shrink the perimeter of their formation so as to better protect Ji Ning within it.
The six Fiendgods worked together to defend against nineteen waves of attacks. Ji Ning, by contrast, had things easy; protected in the center of the formation, he didn’t suffer any attacks at all.
“Eh? It seems to have ended,” Graceful Peacock said softly.
“The cries of the earth are growing softer,” Kuafu agreed.
Thump. Thump.
The heartbeat ringing out from deep underground had indeed grown quieter.
“After a period of time, the sound will grow louder again and the attacks will start anew,” Kuafu said. “Let’s rest for now and prepare to deal with the next wave of attacks.”
“Right.” The Fiendgods all had rather ugly looks on their faces.
The invisible attacks were simply too powerful, and they were also extraordinarily unpredictable. During the nineteen waves of attacks, True God Luwu had been injured three times, Daofather Windfate had been injured twice, Empress Xi and Xingtian had each been injured once, while Kuafu, Ning, and Graceful Peacock were uninjured. Each time they suffered an injury, they had to use a large amount of divine power to heal it.
Using divine power to heal one’s body was extremely taxing. As more time passed the divine power would be used up, at which point they wouldn’t even be able to maintain the formation! The reason why they had been able to survive the nineteen waves of attacks was because the formation served to weaken the power of those attacks. If they were to face those attacks head on, even Kuafu would be in danger of dying.
Everyone could sense death impending. The atmosphere naturally turned quite grim.
“This guy Ji Ning…all of us are so nervous, but he’s actually daydreaming?!” True God Luwu gave Ning, still located at the center of the formation, a hard look. Ning stood in the center, eyes completely blank. Clearly, his mind was elsewhere and he was completely preoccupied.
“Ugh.” True God Luwu was an amiable and honest fellow. He didn’t say anything. “We’ll do our best. If we can protect Ji Ning, we will. If we end up dying, there will be nothing more that we can do. He’s just too young.”
Ning continued to stand there, pondering to himself. “Each time there is an attack, especially when the attack draws close, I can dimly sense a hint of a ripple spread out. Clearly, the power of the attacks is so great that at a close distance, there’s no way for it to completely avoid my senses. However, I can just sense a tiny wave each time. There’s no way for me to completely verify the exact location the strange object is coming from.”
Those ripples were perhaps coming from the strange objects, but when those invisible things attacked they instantly arrived before their target, giving the defenders no time to spare.
“I need to verify and track the direction from which each attack is going to come.”
“Given how powerful these attacks are, they have to cause at least a tiny bit of spatial disruption.” Ning stared at the thickets around them. “Still…the illusions around us are simply too realistic, and the area around us is filled with multiple ripples that mask the ones coming from those strange objects.”
“What I need to do is to separate the ripples caused by the illusions from the ripples caused by the strange objects.”
Ning had been watching closely during the last ten-plus attacks, but he was still unable to ascertain exactly where each attack was going to come from.
Thump! The heartbeat coming from deep beneath the earth suddenly began to grow stronger once more.
Thump! Thump! Thump! The heartbeats began to quicken and strengthen.
“Be careful, everyone. The next wave of attacks from Earthmoan Mountain is about to begin,” Kuafu barked.
“Right.” The other five True Gods hurriedly acknowledged him. They pumped more energy into their formation, staying on maximum alert.
As for Ning, his eyes were lidded as he circulated his soul heartforce technique, using it to attune himself to all the many varied ripples that that were occurring around them. There were ripples caused by the wind, by light, by spatial movement, by scent…Ning was able to separate out the spatial ripples, but what he needed to do right now was to identify the specific spatial ripples being generated by those strange objects.
Even for a major power like Ning, this was incredibly difficult!
Even Daoist Three Purities had ended up spending more than three thousand years before accomplishing this. Ning’s advantage lay in the formidable techniques taught to him by World God Northrest!
Whoosh!
Swish!
Slash!
The invisible attacks began to descend upon them once more.
Kuafu, Xingtian, and the rest all did their best to defend against the attacks, using all of their power.
“That seems…to be a spatial ripple caused by those strange objects…” Ning remained inside the formation, eyes half-lidded as he continued to carefully attune to the surrounding area.
“Ji Ning, I really think you should enter an estate-treasure,” Xingtian bellowed. He was fairly close to Ji Ning on a personal level. Ning, however, didn’t respond to him, instead continuing to sweep the area with his senses.
……
The Three Realms, the Allclans Palace of the Primordial Imperial Clan. Many major powers were gathered in this place.
“Hurry.” Graceful Peacock frantically rose to her feet and said, “This is the third time Earthmoan Mountain is attacking us. True God Luwu has been gravely injured, and his divine power is almost used up. Once he’s completely dry, there will be no way for them to maintain the formation. Kuafu and the others are about to die in Earthmoan Mountain!”
“Tathagata.” Daoist Three Purities looked towards him.
“I’m working on breaking the formation,” Lord Buddha said hurriedly. “This should be a formation which Keeper Everwood spent enormous amounts of effort on. He’s used the countless mountains in the area to serve as his formation-bases. Although I’m breaking it apart as fast as I can, I still need more time.”
“There are no other options.” Tathagata shook his head. “Even if all of you head there right away, you’ll first have to reach their location. By the time you get there, I would’ve broken through the formation long ago.”
Daoist Three Purities nodded. It was true. Thousand Mountains world was a place filled with countless dangers. There was no way to teleport through the Void to arrive at at that place. Ji Ning, Tathagata, Fuxi, and the others had all been forced to slowly fly their way there.
“Fuxi is the best at defeating formations, but he’s been tied down by those alien Outsiders of the Primordial Ruinworld,” Graceful Peacock said hurriedly. “There’s no way for him to get there in time either.”
“Everwood…” The seated Daofather Subhuti had an ugly look on his face.
In war, one of the most terrifying possibilities was fighting in an arena of your enemy’s choosing.
Their enemies had already made complete preparations in the Primordial Ruinworld. The Nuwa Alliance knew that…but no matter what, they wouldn’t be willing to give the Primordial Ruinworld the chance to ambush the victors of the Endwar. If for no other reason than to uproot an ally of the Seamless Gate, they had to wipe out the Primordial Ruinworld! However, they were indeed worried about the deadly environment and illusions located within the Primordial Ruinworld, which was why they had only sent two of their overlord-class figures in this campaign. The other major powers would all remain on guard in the Three Realms. If something unexpected happened, they would be able to handle it.
“I’ve already unleashed all of my dharma-bodies. I’ll be able to break the formation soon,” Tathagata said with a solemn look on his face.
……
Lord Buddha’s squad truly had gone all out.
The other three Buddhas who had come with him had assembled into a formation. Their holy light spread out in every direction as they launched all sorts of attacks against the land, each strike filled with the power to shatter the heavens and wreck the earth.
As for Lord Buddha, he had switched into a different form, unleashing all three of his bodies.
These three bodies were his Sakyamuni body, his Great Sun Buddha body [1. The Sanskrit name is ‘Vairocana’], and his Medicine Buddha body [2. The Sanskrit name is Bhaisajyaguru]. The three of them sent their mighty Buddha-palms smashing down from the skies, shattering apart one mountain range after another with each blow. However, each time some of the mountain ranges would once more be reborn from the natural energy of Heaven and Earth. This was clearly the power of the formation at work.
Tathagata had been born a True God of Primordial Chaos.
During the Primordial Era, he had shattered his own soul, leaving behind just a tendril of his truesoul to be reincarnated into the human race. He had become Sakyamuni, and as a result had been truly reborn. He finally was able to reach the pinnacle of power, fully mastering the five Heavenly Daos of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. This allowed him to manifest five mighty dharma-bodies! However, actually using these five dharma-bodies consumed a terrifying amount of energy. He would only activate them all when he was truly going all-out.
He had brought three of his five dharma-bodies in this campaign against the Primordial Ruinworld, leaving behind two of them to guard the Three Realms.
Daoist Three Purities had his ‘Three Pure Ones’ technique. Tathagata, in term, had five dharma-bodies, with the most powerful naturally being his true Sakyamuni body.
……
“Tathagata’s quite powerful.” Godfiend Witherspike let out a sigh as he saw the scene playing out of Tathagata breaking apart the formation with utterly ruinous power. “These aboriginals only have inferior Ki Refining techniques; they are clearly Ancestral Immortals, but only third-tier ones! And yet, despite that, the most monstrously talented amongst them have gained incredible insights into the Dao.”
“Fuxi’s been tied down for now as well.”
“Keeper Everwood’s formations are quite formidable. Even if other major powers were to make their way over, they would still need to spend a considerable amount of time to break through the formation. After doing so, they would then need to actually enter Earthmoan Mountain! Earthmoan Mountain is filled with countless illusions; to actually locate Kuafu’s squad will require time as well. I estimate that Kuafu’s squad should already be at the verge of breaking down,” Godfiend Witherspike mused softly to himself.
“Given how furious and frantic Tathagata is in trying to break through the formation as quickly as possible, Kuafu’s squad should be close to being done for,” Celestial Immortal Blackheaven said with a laugh.
All of them were just guessing, of course. Earthmoan Mountain was one of the most hazardous of regions that had been naturally created from the Primordial Ruinworld. Even the alien Outsiders were unable to scry inside of it to see what was happening.
……
The situation inside Earthmoan Mountain truly had turned grim. True God Luwu and Daofather Windfate had ashen looks on their faces, and their bodies were covered with bloody wounds. They no longer had enough divine power to repair and heal their bodies.
Swish! Yet another ruthless, cruel attack by an invisible object.
Ning’s eyes had been lidded this entire time, but now they suddenly opened. His eyes sparkled like the stars as he murmured softly to himself, “I finally found it.”