by RWX
The voice was like the voice of the Dao itself.
Whoosh.
An enormous, pitch-black hole that was over a million kilometers in size suddenly and silently opened above that chaos star. A titanic head slowly emerged from within the hole, and it stared with its two blazing sun-like eyes towards the cultivators below it.
“What the…”
The hundred-plus World-level cultivators were disturbed from their reverie. They had been consumed by delight upon encountering this tremendous karmic fortune, but they now all stared upwards in shock at the terrifying head that had just appeared. Their truesouls were all shaking in terror!
Whoosh.
The enormous head opened its lips and inhaled, an enormous pitch-black spatial corridor appearing within its mouth. The hundred-plus World-level cultivators atop the chaos star were all drawn towards it, unable to resist its power in the slightest. They were all sucked into the spatial corridor, and even the rhombus jewel that had been planted onto the star was drawn in as well.
Gulp. The enormous head shut its mouth, then retreated back into the pitch-black hole which closed behind it.
Utter stillness was left behind in its wake.
……
The Gelian Territory. This was one of the territories located beyond the control of the Dao Alliance. The Aeonians were in control of this territory.
Two beautifully dressed major powers were striding through the chaos of space.
Spacetime twisted and distorted around them. They seemed to be moving slowly, but each step they took allowed them to travel a far greater distance than World-level cultivators travelled through teleportation.
“Gorsch, you were actually willing to let little Gorho become apprenticed to me? That means if he becomes Awakened in the future, he’ll be considered at least partially my subordinate.” A dazzling beautiful woman dressed in long green robes chuckled merrily as she spoke.
“In all my years, I’ve never seen any descendants of mine who have more potential than Little Gorho. Although he is currently just a World-level cultivator, I’ve raised him and taught him so that he is capable of battling against Daolords of the First Step. And that’s not even his limit! His greatest skill lies in the Dao of Spacetime… and you are one of the top two masters of spacetime in our entire Aeonian race. Only by apprenticing himself to you can he truly reach the greatest heights possible in the Dao of Spacetime.” The silver-haired, middle-aged man had a look of desire in his eyes.
The silver-haired man continued, “The stronger one is prior to being Awakened, the more they will benefit after their Awakening, and the more potential they will have! I’ve watched as little Gorho grew up and taught him step-by-step. It is true that as your disciple, he’ll be considered as half your subordinate… but for the sake of his future growth, I decided to let you take advantage of me.”
“You are making it sound as though I’m taking huge advantage of you.” The green-robed woman laughed. “I’ll have to spend a lot of effort in teaching him, you know?”
“There aren’t many of us Aeonians, and there are even fewer descendants with as much potential as this child. Little Gorho can Awaken himself whenever he wishes, but been intentionally suppressing himself. Don’t pretend you haven’t won the lottery by gaining a disciple of such potential,” the silver-haired man said.
“Let’s make things clear from the get-go. Since he is going to be my disciple, I’m going to keep him by my side for a full chaos cycle,” the green-robed woman said. “You are not permitted to interfere.”
“Fine.” The silver-haired man assented.
The two chatted and laughed as they strolled through the void of space, quickly reaching a different chaosworld.
“Eh!?” The green-haired woman’s face tightened. A speck of golden light appeared in each of her eyes that shone down upon the surrounding region of spacetime. A solemn look on her face, she immediately said, “The spacetime in the surrounding area has been forcibly distorted.”
“Forcibly distorted?” The silver-haired man’s face tightened as well. He immediately sent out his senses to scan the entire chaosworld.
“Where’s little Gorho?”
“Why is he missing?”
The silver-haired man was stunned. “Why are even his servants… wait, even the protectors of this chaosworld are missing?” According to the rules he had set down, the protectors were absolutely forbidden from leaving without his permission as this was an incredibly important part of the territory of King Gorsch.
But now, all of the World-level cultivators had gone missing from this chaosworld, including his most cherished descendant Gorho.
“My subordinates would never leave without my permission. Someone must’ve slaughtered them or captured them.” Flames began to flicker around the silver-haired man’s body, and his eyes became filled with a murderous look. “If spacetime has been distorted here, we should be able to trace the ripples of spacetime to locate the person who did this. I’m going to kill him. I’m going to KILL HIM.”
“You can’t kill him…” The green-haired woman had an ugly look on her face.
“Eh?” The silver-haired man turned to look at her.
“I can’t find any traces at all. The person who twisted spacetime here is even stronger than me in the Dao of Spacetime,” the green-haired woman explained. “There’s no way at all for you to stop him if he chooses not to fight you.”
“Even stronger than you in the Dao of Spacetime?” The silver-haired man could hardly believe it.
“Who on earth did this?” The green-robed woman frowned. “Could it be the Dao Alliance? There’s only a few members of the Dao Alliance capable of doing such a thing, but would they really lower themselves to act against little Gorho? They wouldn’t, right…?”
……
A blazingly hot chaos star. An enormous pitch-black hole suddenly appeared above it, followed by that gigantic head slowly emerging from within it. It opened its mouth and began to suck in the entire chaos star. The chaos star transformed into a blazing beast of fire with an aura of incredible power. Struggling to break free, it let out a furious roar: “Who are you?!”
“Time to come home, child.” The gigantic beast-head gave a simple reply, then sucked the blazing creature towards the pitch-black spatial corridor that had appeared in its mouth.
Whoosh. The blazing creature wasn’t able to fight back at all. It flew closer and closer towards the spatial corridor, shrinking in size as it did before finally being completely sucked in.
The gigantic head retreated from the black hole, which quickly closed behind it.
……
“How diverting.” A human-shaped figure that was completely formed out of water was seated in the emptiness of space, staring curiously at the world around it.
Whoosh. A pitch-black hole appeared next to it, followed by the emergence of that titanic head.
“Little newborn child…”
The titanic head opened up its mouth and began to draw in the watery figure.
“Uh? Eh?” The watery humanoid figure found itself irresistibly pulled towards that spatial corridor. It watched with curiosity, not trying to fight back at all. This was because it didn’t sense even the slightest bit of enmity or hostility from the seemingly terrifying creature before it.
……
During this period of time, many powerful creatures mysteriously vanished from throughout the Endless Territories.
When Ji Ning and the other cultivators aboard the flying vessel were drawn into the spacetime corridor, they could sense space and time twisting around them. It was quite similar to the feeling of being transported through a spacetime transfer array.
“This is a spacetime transfer. Where are we being transferred to?” Ning and the other cultivators were all filled with unease. The behemoth which had sucked them in was simply too powerful.
Whoosh. Spacetime suddenly stabilized once more.
“Where are we?” Ning could now see t
hat there were at the peak of a towering mountain. They had been teleported to this incredibly large mountain, and there were many other living beings here already. More than half were cultivators, and there had to be over a thousand cultivators gathered here.
Ning and the other ninety-seven cultivators first put away the flying vessel, then looked around cautiously.
“What is this place?”
“Fellow Daoists, where are we? How do we leave this place?” World God Xiang Lu immediately queried the cultivators who had arrived here before them.
A black-robed cultivator glanced at World God Xiang Lu, then slowly shook his head. “There’s no way to leave. This mountain peak is surrounded by restrictive spells. You won’t be able to take so much as a single step off of the mountain. As for the mountain itself, we aren’t able to damage it in the slightest. To tell you the truth, we just got here a few hours before you did.”
When Ning and the others heard this, their faces tightened slightly as pensive looks appeared in their eyes.
Right at this moment, yet another hundred-plus cultivators suddenly appeared out of nowhere. All of the cultivators looked quite lost and uneasy.
* * *
Book 26, Chapter 25 - The Most Powerful Kingdom
Ji Ning stared at his surroundings. Many of the cultivators who had arrived alongside him tested out the borders of the mountain peak, only to find that it was indeed surrounded by invisible restrictive spells. As for flying upwards, they were only able to fly roughly three hundred meters into the air before being unable to move another inch.
“What sort of restrictive spell is this?” Ning gave the invisible barrier in front of him a push. Even when Ning applied his azureflower mist energy, he was completely unable to budge the barrier in the slightest.
“That mysterious behemoth felt absolutely terrifying. Not even big brother Solesky or Daolord Badlands gave me a sensation of such absolute terror.” Ning was still amazed by this. Both Daolord Solesky and Daolord Badlands were extremely powerful Daolords of the Endless Territories. “Perhaps it was because the two of them were very kind towards me, which was why I didn’t sense much danger from them.”
“Master! Master!” Su Youji appeared by Ning’s side.
“Mm?” Ning looked at her.
Su Youji said urgently, “Master, I heard some of the cultivators say that they are from the Springman Territory and appeared here after being swallowed by that behemoth. Other cultivators said that they were from the Vastheaven Territory before being swallowed…”
Ning was startled.
The Springman Territory? Never heard of it.
The Vastheaven Territory? That was where he was headed towards.
They had all been swallowed by that behemoth? For a single behemoth of such terrifying power to exist in the Endless Territories was already quite impressive. Ning refuse to believe that multiple such beasts existed.
“After the behemoth swallowed us, it formed a spatial corridor within its mouth.” Ning reflected on this. “It would appear as though this mysterious behemoth is extremely, extremely skilled in the Dao of Spacetime. This might be the reason why it was able to appear within so many places in the Endless Territories in such a brief period of time.”
“Perhaps it isn’t actually that much more powerful than my big brother Solesky. It is probably just incredibly talented in spacetime.” This was what Ning told himself to console himself, but he also understood just how terrifying this creature had to be in order for it to appear in so many places at once.
It must be understood that Daolord Solesky had to physically, laboriously travel all the way from the Vastheaven Territory to the Badlands Territory, making usage of many spacetime transfer arrays on the way! The ability to effortlessly appear throughout the Endless Territories was an utterly inconceivable ability.
Ning consoled himself, telling himself that it was possible that the mysterious behemoth wasn’t really that powerful. If this was the case, his chances of escaping would be a bit better. And yet, deep in his heart he knew the truth…
That the more likely possibility was that this mysterious behemoth was extremely, extremely powerful! Far more powerful than Daolord Solesky! It must be understood that Daolord Allgod was an example of someone who vastly outstripped Daolord Solesky. In fact, he had even been capable of chasing down and assaulting Eternal Emperors!
“What should I do? How should I leave this place?” Ning began to grow restless and nervous.
Was he supposed to just give up on his true body? Should he allow his clone in the Badlands Territory to once more work on rebuilding his main true body? It would be easy for him to rebuild his true body, but all of the treasures it was carrying… the six Eternal swords, the three Mirrorsnow Paintings, the Elementum Waterflame Gourd… there was no way to get them back.
“Where there is a will, there is a way.” Ning decided to just wait patiently. “Since the behemoth went to the trouble of pulling us to this place, it won’t just kill us for no reason.”
Time flowed on, day by day.
One day, two days, three days… more and more cultivators appeared on the mountain peak, as did many other types of living creatures.
Twelve days passed in the blink of an eye.
More than thirty thousand cultivators were now present at the mountain peak, as well as many other living creatures that were usually quite rare. There were plant-based lifeforms, flame-based lifeforms, stone-based lifeforms, and more. All of them were incredibly powerful, and there were thousands of them gathered here. These were some of the rarest types of lifeforms in the Endless Territories!
“Master, it seems as though no one else is coming.” Su Youji whispered softly to Ning from her position by his side.
“Yes. Half a day has gone by without any additional newcomers. I imagine we shall soon discover why we have been brought to this place.” Ning continued to wait and watch patiently.
More time passed, enough to brew a kettle of tea.
Whoosh. Whoosh.
Two streaks of light suddenly appeared in the skies, moving towards the mountain peak with terrifying speed.
“What terrifying speed.” The many cultivators and other creatures on the mountain peak were all stunned. Those two streaks of light were simply too fast. Ning had previously witnessed other fast creatures such as the golden Oddbat, but there was simply no comparison!
Boom! Boom!
The two streaks of light landed onto the mountain peak, causing the entire mountain to tremble. Only now could everyone see them clearly.
It was a pair of powerful experts garbed in silver armor, one male and one female. The silver-armored man’s armor was covered with the imprint of a thunderbolt, whereas the silver-armored woman’s armor was covered with the imprint of a sword. Both emanated auras of tremendous power and majesty, causing the thirty thousand cultivators and other lifeforms to feel as though they could hardly breathe.
“Such power.” Ning could sense incredible danger radiating from the two. Although the two didn’t radiate as much danger as that mysterious behemoth, he was still certain that they could easily wipe out everyone present.
Behind each of the silver-armored duo was a pair of black-armored retainers.
The four black-armored retainers also had auras of tremendous power… and their aura was that of Samsara Daolords! Still, the auras weren’t that powerful; Ning felt as though they didn’t seem significantly stronger than the aura the golden Oddbat had.
“You have been selected by the almighty Hegemon from throughout the Endless Territories and delivered to this place. Quite a few of you possess tremendous potential.” The silver-armored man’s voice was deep, and it shook the entire mountain when he spoke. “Do not panic. For you to have been brought here, to the most powerful kingdom of the entire Endless Territories, is something of a tribulation, but it is an even greater blessing.”
When Ning and the others heard this, they all felt stunned.
Selected by the a
lmighty Hegemon?
Was that mysterious behemoth this so-called almighty Hegemon? Ning suspected that this silver-armored man was an incredibly strong Daolord. For him to refer to someone else as an ‘almighty Hegemon’ was rather incredible. Still, when Ning thought about how that mysterious behemoth had been able to bring so many living beings from throughout the Endless Territories to this place, Ning felt that it made sense.
“The most powerful kingdom of the Endless Territories?” Ning muttered softly, “Can it be even stronger than the Aeonian Kingdom of the Aeonians?”
“Tremendous potential? Was our flying vessel captured because of me?” Ning mused to himself. He wasn’t being narcissistic; he was indeed an incredibly talented figure amongst his World-level peers. Even the amount of power he had revealed thus far was already quite shocking.
“Although you have been brought to this place, you are not yet citizens of the Brightshore Kingdom, the most powerful kingdom there is.” The silver-armored man said, “If you cannot become one of our citizens, you shall perish! If you wish to survive, you must become one of our citizens.”
“I am willing,” a cultivator immediately cried out. ‘I’m willing to become a citizen of the Brightshore Kingdom!”
Some of the cultivators who had been abducted to this place were incredibly talented monsters like Ji Ning and Gorho, but even more were ordinary cultivators. For example, most of the cultivators who had been on Ning’s vessel had wanted to take on Daolord Nihilate as master. They could tell that this mysterious Brightshore Kingdom was incredibly powerful. Most likely, joining it would be every bit as beneficial as becoming apprenticed on Daolord Nihilate.
“Not just anyone is qualified to become a citizen of the Brightshore Kingdom.” The silver-armored man glanced sideways at the cultivators as he spoke in a calm voice.
“There are five ways in which you can become a citizen of the Brightshore Kingdom. The first method and best method is to break through to become a Samsara Daolord. If you do so, you can become one of our citizens.”
Ning and the others were rendered speechless upon hearing this.