The Desolate Era

Book 21, The Bloodlotus Blooms, Chapter 8 – Descent

Daomother Devilhand stood atop the castle walls, the black-robed Godking next to her.

They stood shoulder-to-shoulder, staring at the distant wilderness. The army of the Seamless Gate was there, calling out for battle.

“Are you sure that they haven’t found out that you brought an Envoy of All Things?” Daomother Devilhand asked.

“Don’t worry, aunt-master,” the black-robed Godking said hurriedly. “I personally went to collect the Envoy of All Things. How could I possibly allow the Nuwa Alliance to find out about it? In addition, the Envoy only requires a single Empyrean God/True Immortal in control. While I was in the Allfiend world, I also brought along Empyrean God Bloodwave. This, too, was kept a secret. Empyrean God Bloodwave is extremely skilled in close combat; he was our number one choice for controlling an Envoy during the final war for karmic luck. With him in control, the Envoy will be able to unleash more than enough power and be capable of rivaling top-tier Daofathers.”

“Although their Pangu Genesis Formation is quite powerful, it’s one of the three protective formations left behind by Nuwa! All three of them have tremendous power, but in order to unleash it they need a True God or Daofather to serve as the core of the formation. They have True Immortal Jimin, who mastered the [Five Treasures], serving as their core, which means that the size, scale, and power of the formation is much weaker now. It is just barely a match for top-tier Daofathers; there is still a significant gap in power between it and our Envoy of All Things.”

“The sudden appearance of the Envoy of All Things will immediately disrupt the balance of the battlefield. Don’t be fooled by how seamless Xuan Yuan appears to be in moving around his forces; once a collapse starts, it will be complete and total.” The black-robed Godking was quite confident.

“Mm.” Daomother Devilhand nodded. “I hope this Envoy of All Things truly is as formidable as you say.”

The Envoys which the Lord of All Things had created were indeed quite powerful; they had proven their strength during the war that ended the Primordial Era. But the Envoys created by the Seamless Gate were developed by Grandmaster Blackheaven. Grandmaster Blackheaven was a peerless talent in the Dao of Golems who the Lord of All Things had found in some unknown place. He was actually also capable of creating these Envoys, and the power of his Envoys seemed to be equivalent to those which the Lord of All Things had made.

“They are coming out.” The black-robed Godking’s eyes lit up.

“They finally came out. Xuan Yuan…” A hint of a cold light flickered through Daomother Devilhand’s eyes. “This time, I’m going to make you crumble.”

Boom! Boom!

Both armies once more charged towards the other.

The Nuwa Alliance’s army had a slight edge to begin with. With Xuan Yuan’s truly superb military skills, the Nuwa Alliance’s advantage was even more apparent. Although Daomother Devilhand was also skilled in commanding her troops, occasional setbacks still occurred for her forces.

It was just like all their previous clashes. Each time, the Seamless Gate’s forces would be whittled away slightly.

“Hmph.” Atop the castle walls, Daomother Devilhand sent a mental order. “Release the Envoy of All Things.”

……

On the field of battle, the Pangu God and the two Infinity Fiendgods battled with the most ferocity.

The Pangu God formed by the Pangu Genesis Formation held an utterly enormous sword in its hands, executing sword-arts that all exceeded the limits of the Heavenly Daos. It naturally possessed nigh limitless power. As for the two white-haired, red-eyed Infinity Fiendgods, they were quite powerful as well. The Infinity Fiendgod Formation had been developed by Keeper Everwood, after all, and he had poured endless amounts of blood and sweat into it. Both Infinity Fiendgods were dressed in incomparably precious Protocosmic spirit-armors, which they relied on to defend against the Pangu God’s terrifying sword-arts. Both Infinity Fiendgods supported each other at all times, and so although they were at a disadvantage, they were still able to hold on against their foe.

“Kill.” The Jimin-Pangu was extremely calm. He was waiting…waiting for his foes to make a mistake!

No matter how well those two Infinity Fiendgods fought together, they were still commanded by two different people, not one. In a frenetic, high-powered battle, it was inevitable that they would eventually commit mistakes. Once they made a mistake, he would seize the opportunity to wipe out one of them. Once one was destroyed, the other would not be of any concern at all.

“What’s that?!” The Jimin-Pangu was shocked to discover that behind the two Infinity Fiendgods, an ape-shaped figure had suddenly appeared out of thin air without any warning. This creature’s entire body was wreathed in flames, and its aura was so powerful as to instantly stun the Jimin-Pangu. In fact, the subconscious sense of danger emanating from this creature was so strong that he couldn’t help but mentally shiver.

“Jimin, be careful! That’s an Envoy of All Things.” Xuan Yuan’s voice immediately rang out. “Ignore those two Infinity Fiendgods; I’ll send people to help you block them. Focus on defending against the Envoy!”

“Alright!” The Jimin-Pangu instantly understood. He had heard of these Envoys long ago, but he had never seen one of them in person before.

……

As soon as the Envoy appeared, Xuan Yuan’s face instantly changed. However, he remained cool and collected as he quickly began to redeploy his forces, squeezing out every drop of power he could to relieve the pressure on the Jimin-Pangu, so as to let him fight against the Envoy without worrying about anything else. That way, the Jimin-Pangu would have at least a sliver of a chance of defending against the Envoy of All Things.

However, if the white-haired, red-eyed Infinity Fiendgods were allowed to join forces with the Envoy, then the Jimin-Pangu would definitely suffer a swift defeat. And once he collapsed…the entire field of battle would collapse.

“Stop them.”

“The five of you, go block the Seamless Infinity Formation closest to you.”

“The two of you, retreat and stop that group of golems!”

Xuan Yuan was processing many things in parallel, sending simultaneous orders to all the major formations as well as the Seven Planets Gods.

The entire battlefield suddenly transformed in a chaotic, disastrous way.

Atop the city walls. Xuan Yuan was watching over the entire battlefield here, quickly redeploying his forces. Next to him were Subhuti and Suiren, and their faces had turned grave.

Ji Ning and the other disciples standing behind them were even more frantic than the three.

“Not good.” Ning instantly saw the situation turn grim for their side. “In order to allow the Jimin-Pangu to safely focus on dealing with the Envoy of All Things, he’s sending the Sidereal Star Formations and Myriad Immortals Armageddon Formations to keep the Infinity Fiendgods tied down. Although this will make things a bit easier for the Jimin-Pangu, that means everyone else will now be under much greater pressure.”

Their strongest asset on the battlefield was the Jimin-Pangu. Before the appearance of the Envoy, the strongest assets the enemy had were those two Infinity Fiendgods! Defending against the two of them put enormous pressure on the rest of the army.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The distant Jimin-Pangu was exchanging blows with the Envoy of All Things.

“AWUUUU!!!!” The fiery, ape-like Envoy of All Things raised its head, bellowing with utter madness as it lashed out with its long claws.

Clang!

The Jimin-Pangu landed a piercing blow on the Envoy with a streak of sword-light, but the only result was a clear, ringing sound. The blow didn’t manage to penetrate through at all! The Envoy, however, became even more savage, its sharp claws filling the skies with endless attacks, with the lashing whip-strikes from its simian tail also possessing astonishing power. The Jimin-Pangu was at a complete disadvantage in this battle.

“They are beginning to retreat.” Ning, watching from far away, was immediately able to notice that their entire army was moving backwards, receding slowly as a whole, like the receding ties of the sea.

“What an incredible figure Xuan Yuan is.” Ning couldn’t help but feel admiration for him. If an ordinary commander was in charge, once their side was unable to withstand the enemy attacks, they would begin to crumble and break apart; it would be extremely hard for the army to retreat intact. But despite the adverse battlefield situation, Xuan Yuan was able to silently, perfectly coordinate a wholesale withdrawal. Although the Seamless Gate realized this, there was nothing they could do; they were already fighting with all their strength.

Boom! Ning’s face suddenly changed. He stared towards the distance, where a distant Seven Planets God just crumbled. A chain reaction began to occur, with the five Seven Planets Gods next to him being thrown into grave danger as well.

As the withdrawal continued, more and more Seven Planets Gods began to suffer damage.

Xuan Yuan was still quite calm as he continued with his arrangements. Clearly, in the eyes of Yellow Emperor Xuan Yuan…the loss of twenty-seven Seven Planets Gods wasn’t too heavy a price to pay. If any of their nine major formations were destroyed, their losses would be devastated. As he saw it, to suffer some casualties during a retreat was unavoidable. All he could do was minimize their losses as much as he could.

“Kill! Kill! Kill!”

Some of the Seven Planets Gods were especially dazzling. One of them, a Seven Planets God who wielded a pair of scimitars, was particularly outstanding. It was the Seven Planets God commanded by Ning’s senior apprentice-brother, Empyrean God Silvermoon.

Silvermoon had exploded forth with truly astonishing combat power. The missions which Xuan Yuan had given him were all quite complicated, but he still carried them out to perfection. He was as effective as three Seven Planets Gods, all by himself.

The withdrawal continued, and their side continued to suffer losses.

Boom! Finally, a Myriad Immortals Armageddon Formation suffered a collapse from all the attacks it had sustained.

A hundred True Immortals, a hundred thousand Celestial Immortals, and more than a hundred million Loose Immortals instantly began to be massacred. Faced with the terrifying, horde-like army of the Seamless Gate, they weren’t able to fight back at all. Even their formation had been destroyed; how could they possibly withstand these attacks?

Xuan Yuan’s face slowly turned ashen.

“Not good.” Ning suddenly discovered that Silvermoon’s dazzling, berserk Seven Planets God was in a dangerous situation. His earlier performance had been simply too showstopping; clearly, he had drawn the attention of the Seamless Gate’s army, which viewed him as a tough-to-chew bone that they had to get rid of as soon as possible. Thus, the True Immortal controlling the nearby Life and Death Twin Realms Calamity Dragons Formation suddenly pointed towards him.

Rumble…

The black dragons in the sky began to streak downwards, flocking towards Silvermoon’s Seven Planets God.