by RWX
World God Blackmist’s entire body had turned a stony gray color and emanated a dazzling white light. Clearly, he had gone all out.
“What should I do? What should I do?!” World God Blackmist was beginning to panic.
He had managed to stop God Emperor Blacklotus, yes. But God Emperor Blacklotus was also an incredibly talented Ki Refiner. This entire chaosworld had become completely filled with black lotuses, all of which were surrounding and suppressing the cultivators of the Fogstone Dominion, making it so that there was no way they could escape.
……
“Eh?”
A crack suddenly appeared in the membrane protecting the chaosworld, and a barefoot, sloppy-looking old man dressed in tattered robes walked out from the crack, staring downwards with curiosity.
“What’s with all these black lotuses? Oho! An Eternal weapon? Isn’t that interesting.” The raggedy old man’s forehead creased as he smiled.
* * *
Book 24, Chapter 48 - You Dared Attack One of Mine?
“I wasn’t too late. That young brother of mine hasn’t been killed yet.” The raggedy old man’s gaze pierced through all obstructions as he stared at the great battle being fought.
“Let’s go take a look.”
He sauntered forward through the air. Although his body touched some of the lotus flowers, they slid right through him as though his body was illusory, having no effect on him at all.
He looked as though he was walking quite slowly, but with each step he moved millions of kilometers.
……
The battle was still continuing.
Ji Ning, the Starlord of Fogstone, Immortal Abyssus, and the others had been completely surrounded by the endless black lotuses. There was no way out whatsoever.
“I never would’ve thought that I’d end up dying here.” Immortal Abyssus let out a soft sigh. “For me to die is one thing, but my disciples…” Although some of the disciples remained behind on the planet of Fogstone, once the World-level experts died the planet of Fogstone would fall into the hands of God Emperor Blackstone. Not a single living being would be able to escape.
“How could this God Emperor Blacklotus be so strong?”
“My luck is horrid. I’ve been in seclusion for so many years, and the very first time I leave it to take part in a fight, I end up running into someone as frightening as him.”
“I know. His insights into the Dao are profound, his forbidden secret arts are incredibly powerful, and he even has an Eternal weapon! Even when I roamed about the primordial chaos, I almost never encountered people as terrifying as him.”
The various World-level experts could do nothing but sigh. Their hearts were filled with resentment and an unwillingness to give up, but they could read the situation. Whether they lived or died was now completely up to God Emperor Blacklotus.
“Second Uncle.” The Starlord lowered his head and saw World God Blackmist continuing to furiously fight back against World God Blackmist. Tears appeared in the Starlord’s eyes. “Second Uncle, forget it. Forget it. We’ve lost.”
The fourth stage of the [Fogstone Apocalypse] was indeed terrifyingly powerful, but it used up divine power at an even more terrifying rate. Soon, the very last bit of Blackmist’s divine power would be used up.
“Ahahaha…Blackmist, I have to say that even I admire your tenacity. To show my respect for you, I’ll allow all of these World Gods and Chaos Immortals to join you in death.” The God Emperor’s mocking voice rang out in the skies. “After all of you die, I’ll come up with some other ideas for acquiring your divine abilities and techniques from within the planet of Fogstone.”
“There’s no way you’ll succeed,” World God Blackmist growled, his eyes filled with savagery and pain.
He wasn’t afraid of death.
What he feared was dying while failing to protect the Starlord.
“If I succeed, I’ll be happy. If I don’t, it won’t make much of a difference. Blackmist, I’m curious as to how long your divine power will be able to hold out.” God Emperor Blacklotus was quite relaxed. He held the absolute upper hand and was launching attacks with impunity. “You can fight for as long as you wish, but in the end the result will still be death.”
World God Blackmist’s eyes were filled with resentment.
He was continuing to fight, only because he truly wasn’t willing to give up.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Suddenly, a series of echoing booms began to ring out in the heavens.
Serpent-shaped streaks of lightning began to cascade down from the heavens. It looked as though trillions of lightning chains had manifested, wantonly crashing downwards against the earth. The countless black lotuses were all wiped out, and even some of the black lotuses that weren’t directly struck by the lightning bolts saw sparks of lightning crackle around them, wiping them out.
One moment ago, the entire world was filled with countless black lotuses. Now…they had all vanished. The mountains, the skies, the seas…the mighty divine runes that filled this world had all been shattered as well.
“What…”
“What just happened?”
The seven thousand Elder Gods that had been struggling to defend were all stunned. The Starlord, Immortal Abyssus…all of them were stunned.
Vanished?
The countless black lotuses which they had been struggling to push back had all just…vanished?
“Impossible. That’s impossible.” God Emperor Blacklotus blanched. He no longer paid any attention to World God Blackmist as he frantically scanned the world around him. He knew exactly how strong this forbidden art of his was, because he had to prepare it in advance by filling the entire chaosworld with many formations.
When all of the formations were unleashed, they were almost comparable to his full power when he used his Eternal weapon.
A forbidden art of such power had been instantly defeated? By lightning? Who could do such a thing?!
“Uh…so did you guys think the lightning looked really pretty?” A voice suddenly rang out by the ears of the Ji Ning, the Starlord, God Emperor Blacklotus, and all the other cultivators.
A barefoot old man dressed in tattered robes walked towards through the air from afar, the trillions of lightning bolts parting before his path.
“I really like lightning, you know.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t have much talent for it. I lived in the Grand Lightning Sea for ages, but in the end I was still able to master just one stage of its lightning. It is pretty weak, but its not bad when you just want to mess around.” The raggedy old man beamed as he spoke, then waved his hand, causing the trillions of lightning bolts to vanish from the heavens.
The battle between the two sides had come to a complete halt.
The Fogstone Dominion’s major powers were filled with excitement, believing that perhaps they might be able to survive after all.
God Emperor Blacklotus began to worry.
“Greetings, senior.” Immortal Abyssus was the first to react.
“Greetings, senior.” All of the cultivators of the Fogstone Dominion bowed respectfully, including World God Blackmist.
“Greetings, senior.” God Emperor Blacklotus and the World-level experts on his side, as well as all of the Elder Gods, also bowed respectfully.
None of them were fools. What they had witnessed just now spoke volumes. This person had easily, casually wiped out God Emperor Blacklotus’ terrifying forbidden art. Most likely, only someone on a completely different level of power could accomplish this…a Samsara Daolord!
According to the stories, Samsara Daolords walked at the borders between life and death. Each time they traversed this samsara cycle of life and death, they would grow dramatically more powerful. If they failed…then they would die.
Every single one of them was inconceivably powerful.
There were legends of monstrous Elder Gods who could slay World-level experts! However, even the most monstrous of World-level ex
perts would only at most be capable of dealing with newly ascended Samsara Daolords. Any Samsara Daolord who had been alive for just a bit of time had the power to utterly crush any World-level expert, and the longer they stayed alive the more powerful they became. According to the legends, an enraged Samsara Daolord who was about to die might wipe out entire territories in their death throes!
And those legends were true!
Only those who had actually encountered a Daolord would understand how terrifying they were.
“Mm.” The raggedy old man swept the Fogstone Dominion’s experts with his gaze, revealing a smile.
The experts of Fogstone all felt a surge of joy.
The experts of the Blacklotus Empire all felt their hearts tremble.
“You actually dared to attack one of mine.” The raggedy old man looked towards God Emperor Blacklotus, a smile still on his face. “You really are quite bold.”
God Emperor Blacklotus quivered, his body turning soft.
He had experienced many things while roaming through foreign territories, and he had encountered quite a few Samsara Daolords. He knew exactly how terrifying a Samsara Daolord could be.
“Great!”
“It looks like he’s on our side.”
“Didn’t you hear the Daolord say ‘one of mine’ just now? Does he belong to us? Starlord, could he possibly be one of the ancient seniors of the Fogstone lineage?” Every member of Fogstone was jubilant, and Ning let out a sigh of relief as well.
The Starlord was also puzzled. He sent back, “I don’t know. Fogstone does have quite a few ancient cultivators who are roaming the outside world. It is possible that one of them broke through to become a Samsara Daolord, I suppose…but I don’t recognize this man.”
“Blackmist, do you recognize him?”
“I don’t recognize this senior either.” World God Blackmist flew towards them, his skin still that grayish-white color. “If he’s a Samsara Daolord, he must have been training for an extremely long period of time. He probably left Fogstone long before I even started to cultivate. It’s also possible that he’s completely unrelated to Fogstone.”
Fogstone’s experts were musing over who this Daolord was, while the experts of the Blacklotus Empire were filled with terror upon realizing that he was an enemy.
“You attacked one of mine, so…I have to kill you.” The raggedy old man continued to smile in a jolly fashion, but his words were utterly terrifying. He waved his finger, causing an enormous illusory finger of lightning to shoot out towards God Emperor Blacklotus.
“My master is Daolord Seven Sovereigns!” God Emperor Blacklotus had a look on his face as he screamed, “Daolord Seven Sovereigns is my master!”
God Emperor Blacklotus wanted to flee, but spacetime was sealed off in this area. He had nowhere to run or hide.
The finger of lightning tapped him on his body.
Whoosh! One moment, a look of terror was on God Emperor Blacklotus’ face. The next moment, he had been completely transformed into dust.
The entire world was silent.
Ning and the others hadn’t even had the chance to digest the fact that Blacklotus was a disciple of this ‘Daolord Seven Sovereigns’ before Blacklotus died.
“Seven Sovereigns?” The raggedy old man spat. “Seven SOVEREIGNS? More like seven bugs! He hides from me like a bug. This old man wanted to kill him before my Daomerge, but he actually abandoned his home and went scurrying off to some godforsaken place.”
* * *
Book 24, Chapter 49 - The Daolords Brother
After killing God Emperor Blacklotus the raggedy old man waved his hand, collecting the treasures which Blacklotus had left behind. He singled out the giant crystal scimitar in particular, picking it up and giving it a close look. He mumbled to himself, “Huh, this Eternal weapon isn’t bad.” Watched by all of the cultivators, the old man put the scimitar away.
The raggedy old man wasn’t the slightest bit self-conscious about looting Blacklotus’ items.
“He’s crazy powerful.”
“He squashed God Emperor Blacklotus like a bug.”
“Didn’t you hear? This senior even wishes to kill that ‘Daolord Seven Sovereigns’.” The cultivators of Fogstone felt their hearts shudder as they contemplated this. Samsara Daolords were figures that vastly surpassed them in power. However, their innate fear didn’t prevent them from also feeling gratitude and veneration towards this raggedy old man who they had just met for the first time. They all hoped that one day they might also reach his level.
The entire purpose of cultivation was to go out and see more things and experience greater things, to possess more formidable techniques and divine abilities.
“Let’s go down,” the Starlord sent.
Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.
Thousands of figures descended from the skies. Now that nothing was around to interfere with their movements, they moved quite quickly as they descended upon the enormous nine-petal black lotus which was now bereft of all buildings. A day ago, this black lotus was a city. After being activated as a treasure, some of the buildings that lay atop it had been put away while the rest had been crushed into dust.
“Greetings, senior.” The Starlord stepped forward and bowed. “Thank you for saving us, senior.”
“Thank you for saving us, senior.” The thousands of cultivators behind him all bowed as well.
As for the surviving Elder Gods and World-level cultivators of the Blacklotus Empire, all of them were feeling rather uneasy. They didn’t even dare to try and flee, nor did they dare to go forward and speak to the Daolord. They were afraid that he’d wave his finger at them and kill them all.
“Senior.” The man dressed in white floral robes gritted his teeth, then said respectfully, “We have nothing to do with this matter. The Starlord came here to take revenge on Chaos Immortal Owlsoar, who is now already dead. We were just defending ourselves and were the weaker side until the God Emperor revealed his true power in an attempt to wipe out the Fogstone lineage…but that was him, not us. We just stayed on the sidelines and didn’t get involved at all.”
“Right right right! We didn’t get involved at all, nor were we strong enough to get involved.”
“Please show mercy, senior.”
The four remaining World-level experts and the Elder Gods all waited nervously.
The raggedy old man waved his hand dismissively. “Beat it, beat it! All of you, beat it.”
The survivors of the Blacklotus Empire were stunned for a moment, then revealed looks of joy.
“Thank you, senior.”
First, they bowed respectfully. And then…swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! All of them flew into the skies and departed. The Starlord didn’t dare to stop them; he even withdrew the astral light that had been emanating from the planet of Fogstone. If the Daolord had granted them permission to leave, how could he possibly dare to stop them?
After waving the survivors off, the raggedy old man turned to smile at the cultivators of the Fogstone Dominion who were standing closest to him.
“He’s looking at us.”
“He’s staring at us.”
“He’s smiling!”
“So what if he’s smiling? He smiled when he wiped out God Emperor Blacklotus with a finger, didn’t he?”
“What are you talking about? The Daolord already said that he was on our side.”
“We have no idea who he is. He might be an ancient member of Fogstone who left long ago but made a breakthrough to become a Daolord.” Everyone present was secretly speculating, but they all knew that actually breaking through from the World level to become a Samsara Daolord was incredibly difficult. The Fogstone lineage was an ancient one, but it had only produced a fairly small number of World-level experts. For it to give birth to a Samsara Daolord was extremely unlikely, unless one of them had a stroke of absolutely tremendous luck.
The raggedy old man walked towards them.
The Starlord and the others all bowed respectfully while secret
ly feeling eager to find out exactly who this old man was.
“Mm.” The raggedy old man glanced at them, then turned his gaze to…Ji Ning.
“The Fogstone lineage, eh?” The raggedy old man nodded slowly, turning his gaze back to the Starlord. “Fogstone deserves to be thanked for its efforts in taking care of this young brother of mine.”
“Young brother?” The Starlord and the others were all stunned.
Ning was also stunned.
Brother?
The raggedy old man winked at Ning, then sent mentally, “What is your name? Who gave you the talisman of welcome?”
Ning immediately understood.
Talisman of welcome?
The Vastheaven Palace’s talisman of welcome? This was a talisman which World God Northrest had prepared for his heir before he died. Every single formal member of Vastheaven Palace was given a single opportunity to welcome and recruit a new member into their ranks. Anyone welcomed in such a manner would be allowed to enter Vastheaven Palace with no need for any testing. Thus, the formal members of Vastheaven Palace wouldn’t casually bestow their talisman of welcome to others. They were generally extremely exacting in their standards, and some of them would never use the talisman a single time in their entire lives.
“My Daoist title is Darknorth, while my personal name is Ji Ning. This talisman of welcome was given to me by World God Northrest,” Ning sent mentally.
“Northrest?” The raggedy old man blinked, then the look in his eye changed. “Do you know how he died?” Vastheaven Palace had known of Northrest’s passing in the moment of his death. It had investigated the cause of his death but had been unable to discover anything.
“Yes.” Ning nodded.
“Let’s chat about that in a bit. Also, there’s no need for you to stay here on Fogstone any longer. Return to Vastheaven Palace with me,” the raggedy old man said. “Vastheaven Palace is much more powerful.”
“Understood,” Ning said.
The lifeblood oath he had sworn to Fogstone had been a fairly loose one, as Ning was planning all along to spend the next chaos cycle searching for Vastheaven Palace. In addition, since this raggedy old man was able to immediately recognize that Ning had a talisman of welcome, he was most likely a member of Vastheaven Palace as well. In fact, it was entirely possible that he was one of their highest ranking members! Only a fool would refuse to join such a powerful organization.