Desolate Era Book 22, Chapter 20 - Reinforcements

The Allclans Palace. Everyone was in a state of panic.
“These three golden-armored Outsiders that we’ve never seen before have actually managed to stop Fuxi in his tracks.” Daofather Subhuti frowned. “Where did such powerful enemies come from?”
Fuxi was a Human Sovereign, and he had True Gods and Daofathers in his squad. And yet, they had all been completely stymied by these three alien Outsiders.
“Such powerful individuals shouldn’t be completely unknown figures.” Tathagata laughed calmly. “No need to panic. Although I’m being attacked by many, my true body is present; although these alien Outsiders are formidable, they won’t be able to do anything to me.”
“Right.” Daoist Three Purities nodded. “I feel slightly better that you are the one trapped there.”
“Hm?” Tathagata’s face suddenly changed.
“What’s wrong?” All the major powers in the hall looked towards Tathagata.
“My Great Sun Buddha body has been injured.” Tathagata said in a low voice, and his customary smile was no longer on his face. Instead, he looked as calm and tranquil as the deep seas. “I sensed long ago that things in the Primordial Ruinworld wouldn’t be as simple as we thought them to be, but…the one-armed golden-armored figure who injured me just now is definitely no weaker than I am.”
“No weaker than you?” All the major powers in the hall were stunned.
Tathagata had reached the overlord level of power back in the Primordial Era, and his defensive prowess was number one in all the Three Realms.
“Yes. He’s extremely powerful,” Tathagata said softly. “He’s definitely an overlord. My only option is to focus entirely on defense for now.”
“Hold on as long as you can,” Daoist Three Purities said hurriedly. “Houyi and Suiren are on the way. Once they get there, this crisis will be resolved.”
“Buddha Leafswirl’s true body has just been destroyed.” Tathagata’s face suddenly changed yet again.
“Buddha Leafswirl’s true body has been destroyed?”
Everyone cried out in shock as they turned to look at a woman located in the corner.
Buddha Leafswirl was an incredible figure of the Buddhist Sangha. She was born a True God, and when Tathagata became an overlord-class figure and established the Buddhist Sangha during the Primordial Era, she had joined him! When she had seen how much suffering there was amongst the common people of the Primordial World of Pangu, she had decided to truly become a mortal herself and join them. She would start as a mortal and train to become a Buddha from scratch so that she might truly experience and understood the sufferings of mortals. That way, she would also be able to better understand the profound mysteries of Buddhism.
She had shattered her own soul and sent her truesoul to be reincarnated. She had experienced countless tribulations, but her truesoul was that of a True God, after all; she had incredibly high talent, and she actually ended up establishing her own Buddhist school, the ‘Leafswirl Sect’. She now had the power of an elite Daofather, and she had both a true body and a Primaltwin. It was her true body that had ventured into the Primordial Ruinworld for this campaign.
“Our foe is very powerful. With a single claw-strike, he was able to break through our protective formation and slay me,” Buddha Leafswirl said.
The atmosphere in the palace instantly grew heavy.
Lord Tathagata said slowly, “Two terrifyingly powerful Outsiders have appeared. Both are overlord-class experts. I’ve already stowed Maitreya and the others into my [Buddha-Realm Within the Palm], and I’m now fighting off all of these fiends by myself. Given how strong my golden body is, they won’t be able to do anything to me within a short period of time.
Lord Tathagata’s golden body was so formidable that it could be said to be number one in all the Three Realms.
“Be careful,” Daoist Three Purities urged nonetheless. The two of them were the leaders of Buddhism and Daoism. Upon seeing Tathagata fall into such dire straits, Daoist Three Purities couldn’t help but feel frantic as well.
However, he had already sent out Suiren and Houyi. The remaining forces they could use to protect the Three Realms were now clearly weaker than before. No matter what, they had to conserve enough power so that they could deal with the Seamless Gate. If all of them left the Three Realms, the Seamless Gate would probably seize the opportunity to completely destroy the Nuwa Alliance’s foundation and truly take over the Three Realms.
When that happened, the war for karmic luck would definitely be completely lost.
“We’ve done what we can. I hope Houyi and Suiren will be able to make it in time.” Daoist Three Lives let out a soft sigh.
“As long as they can make it, there won’t be any problems at all,” Shennong agreed quietly.
“Two overlord-class experts. The Primordial Ruinworld actually has a pair of overlord-class experts…” Daofather Subhuti shook his head. “And extremely powerful ones at that.”
……
The Primordial Ruinworld.
The Sakyamuni body of Lord Buddha was seated in the lotus position, golden light radiating from his body. He had actually manifested a total of eighteen arms, and those eighteen dazzling golden arms were striking out in every single direction.
For now, the many alien Outsiders assaulting him were unable to do anything to him.
“This weak little aboriginal has actually managed to train a protective divine ability to such a level.” The distant Godfiend Witherspike was watching from afar, his tail slowly swaying in the air.
“His protective divine ability is extremely formidable, and his divine body is definitely comparable to a top-grade Protocosmic spirit treasure.” The one-armed man next to him spoke out in agreement. “And his palm-arts are also quite formidable. They fill the skies and leave no openings whatsoever! I’m able to occasionally land a saber-blow on him, but it’s still very hard to injure him. If he completely focuses on defense…all we can do is exhaust his store of divine power. Once he is out of divine power, he’ll die.”
“I really hate those with strong protective divine abilities like this.” Godfiend Witherspike frowned.
“Are the T’ya brothers able to hold on?” Godfiend Witherspike suddenly asked.
“They are skilled in defense, and the three of them fight as if they were one. When they join together in their formation, they are easily capable of holding down Fuxi’s group. Fuxi’s skill mainly lies in formations; he’s a bit weaker in actual combat,” the one-armed man said calmly.
“Master, Daoist Jade Cauldron is about to arrive.” The red-nose elder flew over and bowed respectfully as he spoke.
“Oh?” Godfiend Witherspike nodded. “I almost forgot about Jade Cauldron’s squad and Darknorth’s squad. Let the Four Thearchs take control over twelve True Gods and bar their path! Stop Jade Cauldron and Darknorth’s squads.”
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Soon, a number of True Gods and Daofathers who had been assaulting Tathagata retreated, the Four Thearchs amongst them. They headed off to stop Daoist Jade Cauldron and Ji Ning.
“The Nuwa Alliance sent out two overlord-class experts. One is Tathagata, and his defensive skills are formidable. The other is Fuxi, who is even more formidable in the art of formations. Both are extremely skilled in dealing with large groups of attackers.” Godfiend Witherspike gritted his teeth. If it had been Daoist Three Purities or Suiren, things would actually have been much easier. Experts skilled in defense caused quite the headache.
“Saber, come up with a method to defeat his palm-arts.” Godfiend Witherspike looked at the one-armed man. “Let’s join forces to suppress him, then deal with him.”
“Alright.” The one-armed man nodded.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Godfiend Witherspike and the one-armed man instantly charged towards Lord Buddha. Lord Buddha continued to sit there calmly, his eighteen golden arms blocking attacks frome very direction. He completely focused on defense. His goal was not to win; it was only to avoid making any mistakes.
As for Ji Ning, he was advancing at high speed through the [Ninehorn Lightning Serpent] technique. However, his squad had been the farthest up ahead; the entire reason why they had been planning to wait for a day was to give the other three squads enough time to catch up.
Thus, Daoist Jade Cauldron and his Chaos boat was the first to arrive at Tathagata’s location.
“Jade Cauldron’s squad has already arrived.” Graceful Peacock spoke out to Ning from with his estate-treasure.
“Not good. The Four Thearchs have all appeared, as well as twelve other alien True Gods. They are able to easily block Jade Cauldron’s path. In fact, they are actually suppressing him.”
Ning frowned upon hearing this, but there was nothing he could do aside from continuing to advance at high speed while using the [Ninehorn Lightning Serpent].
The Four Thearchs were all elite Daofathers. They also had twelve other alien True Gods supporting them, while Daoist Jade Cauldron’s team consisted of just seven individuals! The Four Thearchs would indeed have the power needed to suppress Daoist Jade Cauldron’s squad.
“Darknorth, the Four Thearchs have a total of sixteen in their squad! Jade Cauldron only has seven, while we only have seven as well. The Four Thearchs have more than enough power to completely tie our two squads down,” Xingtian sent mentally. “I think we should move to avoid the Four Thearchs and instead go assist Fuxi.”
“No. Jade Cauldron’s been surrounded as well; if too much time passes, his squad will also be in danger of losing their lives.”
Kuafu and the others had become rather frantic as well. The Primordial Ruinworld’s forces now held the absolute upper hand. Tathagata was in danger, Fuxi had been tied down, and Jade Cauldron had been surrounded!
“They hid their true power quite well. They forebore from striking for a long time, but as soon as they did they immediately knocked us off-balance.” Ning mused to himself, “Fortunately, Three Purities and the others were worried about something like this happening, which is why they sent Fuxi and Tathagata. Those two are very skilled in defense.”
Tathagata relied on his powerful body to defend.
Fuxi relied on his formations to defend.
Both were very skilled in delaying and buying time for themselves.
“According to what Graceful Peacock is telling us, two new overlord-class figures have appeared in the Primordial Ruinworld?” Ning’s eyes flashed with sharp light. “Weren’t the most powerful figures here supposed to be those Four Thearchs? Where did these two overlords come from? Such powerful figures can’t possibly be nameless and unknown…but no one has any idea as to who they are. They must have come from the primordial chaos, then.”
Alien Outsiders from the primordial chaos…
Multiple such figures had invaded during the Primordial Era, but the Three Realms era had been much more peaceful. Although there had been a few invasions, those figures had all possessed low levels of strength. They weren’t as terrifying as Rahu or the Lord of All Things had been. So in truth, powerful alien Outsiders had arrived long ago! They had simply chosen to hide within the Primordial Ruinworld instead.
“It seems this divine sword of mine is going to see blood soon.”
Swoosh!
The black lightning serpent streaked through the skies, moving towards the direction of a major battle. It was a battle between Daoist Jade Cauldron’s group and the alien Outsiders commanded by the Four Thearchs.
“It is Darknorth. Darknorth has arrived. The six of you, follow me. We’ll stop Darknorth!” Instantly, two of the Thearchs and six True Gods turned to charge towards Ning.