Desolate Era

by RWX

An azure-robed Daolord Badlands was staring towards the light, a complex look on his face. He shook his head slightly. “I was too proud and rash, too certain in my Numerancy skills. Compared to Emperor Waveshift, I’m still lacking by quite a bit. I just caused a bit of a catastrophe. I don’t think there will be any way to hide this. Ugh. I only have my avatar inside, but big brother Solesky will be in trouble.”

  “Caused a catastrophe?” The beautiful wife asked worriedly, “Will it impact our Badlands Court?”

  “The two of us should leave the Badlands Territory for now and hide for a time. For now, let us just leave an avatar behind to watch over things,” Daolord Badlands said.

  “Hide?” She had never imagined that things would be so grave that they would have to flee and hide somewhere else.

  * * *

  Book 31, Chapter 15 - Voidsea Jadeseal

  “Soon, many Daolords will be charging to this sector,” Daolord Badlands said solemnly. “If my true body remains here, I might very well fall. However, so long as I leave and ensure they cannot find my true body, they won’t dare to cause our Badlands Court any trouble. In the end, my Dao of Numerancy is a Dao for divination, not battle. My skills lie in avoiding trouble and finding fortunes.”

  “Mm.” The beautiful woman nodded.

  “Let’s go. Right away.”

  A short while later, Daolord Badlands and his wife silently departed from the Badlands Everworld, leaving only an avatar behind to guard over the Badlands Court.

  The Dao of Numerancy was indeed an extremely troublesome Dao for everyone, but it was highly unsuited for actual battle. Daolord Badlands himself almost never went out adventuring or into battle. As a Daolord of the Third Step who had reached an extremely high level in the Dao of Numerancy, he logically should’ve been on the same level as the likes of Ninedust (at the third step) or Kongsan, but in reality he was much weaker in combat. He was just barely on par with the likes of Solesky and Clearwind.

  This was his greatest weakness. However, his skills lay in avoiding trouble; when he encountered enemies he was unable to defeat, he’d quickly move to avoid them.

  In the end, the Dao of Numerancy was about divination, not omniscience. As a result, he had suffered greatly for his overconfidence alongside Daolord Solesky in the Waveshift Realm. Clearly, even he fell for the traps left behind by Emperor Waveshift, and so he hurriedly slunk away from his own everworld.

  ……

  “Nine beams of light have appeared in the skies over the Waveshift Realm?”

  “Something big just happened.”

  No matter what, the Badlands Everworld was still the core of this territory. The Dao Alliance had stationed a number of cultivators here who were responsible for diplomacy with Daolord Badlands and watching over the various treasure auctions! In addition, some of the supreme organizations within the Endless Territories had inserted scouts to watch over the Waveshift Realm. Although these scouts weren’t that powerful, they were only required to keep a long-term watch over Waveshift City. Waveshift Realm was simply an incredibly famous place of the Endless Territories.

  “Hurry up and send a report.”

  “Something big has happened in the Waveshift Realm.”

  The scouts had been waiting here for far too long with nothing to report. Some had been waiting for tens of thousands of chaos cycles, and it was all for the sake of critical moments like this. Thus, none of them dared to slacken off.

  ……

  Soon, the news spread from the Badlands Territory to the rest of the Endless Territories.

  A dazzlingly beautiful green planet. This world had countless cultivators living within it. In one corner of this vast world, there was an ordinary wooden house that merely had a single old man seated within it. The old man had curly green hair and a pair of horns on his head, and his eyes were lidded. He had been seated here for more than ten thousand chaos cycles.

  He had been alive for far, far too long.

  “Patriarch! Patriarch!” A voice rang out from afar. The green-haired elder opened his eyes, and they seemed to contain the boundless vastness of the universe itself within them. His gaze was gentle as he stared outside.

  A golden-robed figure was leading a green-haired man who had an exalted aura towards the patriarch. The green-haired man landed, then said respectfully, “Patriarch.” He had become a lord of a Sacred City, and in power he was roughly on par with this particular Patriarch, but he still showed the old man the utmost of respect. The old man had shown him great kindness. Although they weren’t master and disciple, he owed the old man as much as any master. The old man had also done much for their entire homeland, far more than anyone else. Without the Patriarch, their lineage would’ve been wiped out long ago.

  “Qixiao, why have you come back to our homeland to meet with me?” The green-haired elder smiled.

  “Patriarch.” Emperor Qixiao said seriously, “Do you still remember Emperor Waveshift?”

  “Remember him? Of course I remember him.” A nostalgic look appeared on the old man’s ancient face. “After I became an Eternal Emperor, I spent countless years studying the Dao of Numerancy myself. I had once believed myself to be a pre-eminent master of this Dao in the Endless Territories, but after meeting Waveshift and testing myself out I realized that I wasn’t even close to being a match. His skill in Numerancy vastly, vastly surpassed my own.”

  “You are being too modest, Patriarch. Emperor Waveshift relied on the Dao of Numerancy to become an Emperor; of course he was skilled in it! You, on the other hand, only started studying it after becoming an Emperor. He’s left the Endless Territories long ago. In the present day, you are number one in this Dao,” Emperor Qixiao said.

  “For now, I suppose. There’s a young fellow named ‘Daolord Badlands’ in the Badlands Territory who is even more talented than Emperor Waveshift was in Numerancy. He’s a Daolord of the Third Step but is already incredible at Numerancy. Once he becomes a Daolord of the Fourth Step, he’ll probably surpass me in that Dao and become a king of the Endless Territories.” The old man shook his head. Moments later, his face tightened slightly as the illusion of the cosmos within his eyes suddenly vanished. He raised his head to look at Emperor Qixiao. “Have you come here because of the Badlands Territory… no. To be precise, you have come because of the Waveshift Realm?”

  “Impressive, Patriarch.” Emperor Qixiao said hurriedly, “I have indeed come because of the Waveshift Realm! Just now, I received word that something major has happened there. Nine streaks of light shot out from the Waveshift Realm and went through the entire Badlands Everworld.”

  “That’s quite a commotion. Can it be… that the Voidsea Jadeseals have emerged?” The old man was stunned.

  “That was my first reaction as well. Before Emperor Waveshift departed, he fashioned multiple Voidsea Jadeseals. However, he only left one of them to the Dao Alliance. He put the other five within his own Waveshift Realm,” Emperor Qixiao said.

  The old man nodded. “Back then, brother Waveshift told me that if any Eternal Emperor dared to forcibly enter his realm, all five seals would instantly be destroyed. Only Daolords would be permitted to acquire them.”

  “Patriarch, these seals are supreme Daomerge treasures!” Emperor Qixiao said hurriedly, “If we can acquire those five seals, we might be able to produce one or two formidable Eternal Emperors for our race.”

  “Yes.” The old man nodded. Voidsea Jadeseals… they were described as supreme Daomerge treasures because they were publicly acknowledged as being the best treasures for assisting cultivators in the Daomerge. No treasures surpassed them!

  Voidsea Jadeseals were single-use items. After you acquired them and as you prepared for your Daomerge, you could form an illusory body within the seal, then use that illusory body to test out the Daomerge. The process would be identical to that of the actual Daomerge you would undergo! Even if you failed your Daomerge, it wouldn’t harm your true body in the slightest! It was equivalent to giving you an additional shot
at the Daomerge.

  This additional experience was more than enough to drive any Daolord mad with lust.

  Why was the Daomerge so terrifying? It was precisely because the Daomerge was a one-time event. If you were even slightly lacking, you would fail and never have another shot at it. If you had multiple shots at it, then obviously your second attempt would benefit from your previous experience and give you a far better chance at succeeding in the Daomerge!

  However, given how incredible the Voidsea Jadeseals were, they were naturally incredibly rare as well. They could only be fashioned through the usage of a strange treasure known as voidsea jade, and they could only be fashioned by Emperor Waveshift, who had reached truly inconceivable heights in the Dao of Numerancy. Prior to his departure, he had used up his entire supply of voidsea jade to create these six seals.

  He had left one seal with the Dao Alliance and the other five at the Waveshift Realm. This was why so many generations of Daolords had ventured off into the Waveshift Realm, but thus far none of them had been able to find the Voidsea Jadeseals.

  “The power of the Voidsea Jadeseals is enough to allow a Daolord who has a single Supreme Dao to undergo a single full Daomerge attempt. However, if that Daolord has perfectly fused multiple Supreme Daos together, he’ll only be able to make it halfway through the Daomerge before the power of the seal is used up.” The old man sighed.

  This was the limit to what the Voidsea Jadeseal could accomplish. If someone who had joined together multiple Supreme Daos together succeeded into the Daomerge, that person would become a Hegemon! There was no way a Voidsea Jadeseal could fully divine such a process.

  However, a Daolord who had a single Supreme Dao would be able to try out an entire complete Daomerge.

  It must be remembered that there were incredibly few figures in the Endless Territories who were capable of comprehending and mastering multiple Supreme Daos. Thus, these seals were more than enough for the vast majority of Daolords. Even the most ungodly powerful of Daolords would be able to at least divine half of the Daomerge process.

  “Patriarch, can you verify that the disturbance in the Waveshift Realm was indeed caused by the emergence of the Voidsea Jadeseals?” Emperor Qixiao asked.

  “Let me take a look.” The old man closed his eyes and began to engage in Numerancy calculations as strange ripples of power appeared around him.

  A long time later, the old man opened his eyes and nodded. “Tell the younger members of our race that the Waveshift Realm truly has unleashed its Voidsea Jadeseals. I imagine that brother Waveshift did this deliberately to draw many Daolords to his realm, which is why he didn’t hide anything and allowed me to calculate it all with ease. Any of the top ten Numerancy experts in the Endless Territories is capable doing the same.

  “Voidsea Jadeseals?” Emperor Qixiao’s eyes lit up. “If we’re certain, then we have to get them for ourselves.”

  * * *

  Book 31, Chapter 16 - Everyone Gathering

  Within a region of space that was completely cut off from the rest of the universe. This was a region that was filled with endless blood flames that seemed to form an entire ocean. Every single flame possessed awesome might and was capable of easily incinerating a Daolord of the Fourth Step. At the very center of the flames, there was an imperial throne that seemed to have been carved out of white bone. The enormous white bone throne hung there, and above it stood a silver-haired man whose hands were resting on the armrests. The man stared at the endless flames, and his heart and mind seemed to be completely one with the world.

  “Gorsch.” A voice suddenly rang out within the empty region. “Come forth.”

  The silver-haired man was startled. Ever since learning that his most talented progeny, Gorho, had been recruited by the Brightshore Kingdom, he had felt much at ease. He had temporarily chosen to enter their racial lands to train; why was it that he was now being ordered to come out?

  “Coming,” the silver-haired man said respectfully. Whoosh. He disappeared from atop the throne of white bone, which continued to eternally hang there above the endless sea of blood flames.

  ……

  The silver-haired man appeared within a beautiful, ancient palace. The throne of this palace was occupied by an exceedingly handsome youth who was dressed in gaudy black robes and whose eyes seemed to contain the vast cosmos within them.

  “Emperor,” the silver-haired man said respectfully.

  “Gorsch, I just received word that Voidsea Jadeseals have appeared within the Waveshift Realm of the Dao Alliance’s Badlands Territory.” The icy-faced black-robed youth spoke in an extremely calm voice. Although he looked very young, he was actually the oldest and most venerable Eternal Emperor of the entire Aeonian race. He was perpetually stationed within the core palace of the Aeonian Kingdom, and it was his responsibility to watch over their ancestral lands.

  “Voidsea Jadeseals?” The silver-haired man revealed a stunned look.

  “You’ve reached the Verge of the Daomerge long ago, and you are fast approaching the great limit,” the black-robed youth said coldly. “You are, at present, the most powerful Daolord of our race! Although the jade seals are not strong enough to allow you to fully experience the complete Daomerge, you’ll at least be able to experience part of it. This is a rare opportunity for you and your Daomerge. However, word of this has already spread and all six of the major powers of the Endless Territories have been informed. I trust that many Verge-level Daolords are already on their way. What’s worse, you are an Aeonian while Emperor Waveshift was of the Dao Alliance. It is entirely possible that he might’ve prepared something nasty for our race there. If you go, you’ll take on a certain degree of risk.”

  “You can choose for yourself whether or not you wish to go,” the black-robed youth said.

  “Everyone in the outside world refers to me as King Gorsch, but in the end I’m just a king, not an emperor.” The silver-haired man said in a low voice, “My limit approaches, and I have no confidence in my Daomerge chances at all. Although this opportunity is filled with peril, I still have to give it a try. If I can acquire one of those seals, my chances at the Daomerge shall become much greater.”

  “Right.” The black-robed youth nodded.

  ……

  The Brightshore Kingdom.

  A figure suddenly appeared out of nowhere atop an ordinary-looking wasteland. It was a white-bearded old man who was dressed in snowy white robes and who had six horns on his head. He stood there atop the lands, then opened his mouth: “Ninestone.”

  Rumble… the vast wilderness began to shake as the earth itself began to bulge upwards. An enormous four-legged stone behemoth that was covered in countless sharp spikes emerged from beneath the ground, leaving behind an enormous crater that was over a hundred million kilometers in circumference. The Brightshore Imperials were all Chaos Godbeasts, and they were legendary for their size.

  “Hegemon.” The four-legged stone behemoth stared at the almighty Hegemon.

  “You merged yourself into the earth itself to better understand the Dao of Earth. Of the Brightshore Imperials, you are closest to the lifespan limit. Are you confident in your Daomerge chances?” the Brightshore Hegemon asked.

  In truth, the almighty Hegemon was quite worried. Although the Brightshore Imperials had many generations of Chaos Godbeasts, thus far only a single one had become a Hegemon – himself. Fortunately, he was powerful enough all by himself to overawe the entire Endless Territories. However, the fact that his race had yet to produce a second emperor meant that he was forced to continuously kidnap some of the geniuses of the other races of the Endless Territories.

  Palace Lord Dawnstar, Bertulu, Ji Ning… all of them had been kidnapped. They now belonged to the Twelve Palaces of Brightshore, which were actually more powerful than the Brightshore Imperials themselves. But of course, they were no match for the Hegemon.

  “I am not confident,” Ninestone rumbled softly.

  “Voidsea Jadeseals have appeared w
ithin the Waveshift Realm of the Badlands Territory! You might have a shot at one of them,” the almighty Hegemon said. “However, this will be filled with danger. These seals were fashioned by the most skilled Numerancy expert the Endless Territories has ever seen, Emperor Waveseal, and he had to use up his supply of voidsea jade in order to create them. There’s only a few of the seals, and they’ve aroused the attention of quite a few Verge-level Daolords. Many reclusive, normally low-key Daolords have all made their appearances.

  “You can choose for yourself whether or not you wish to go.” The almighty Hegemon disappeared into thin air after speaking.

  “Waveshift Realm of the Dao Alliance?” Ninestone’s body blurred as he transformed into a human shape. He now looked like an incredibly muscular black-armored man whose eyes were as still as a pool of dead water.

  Ninestone was known amongst the Brightshore Imperials as the Ninth King.

  ……

  “Voidsea Jadeseals have actually appeared?” Daolord Skyaxe and Daolord Soleman were seated within a flying vessel in the void.

  “What’s this?” Daolord Soleman called out with surprise.

  “Voidsea Jadeseals have appeared in the Waveshift Realm,” Daolord Skyaxe said. “I just received word of this. I imagine the Brightshore Kingdom should receive word soon as well.”

  “Let me ask.” Daolord Soleman nodded, then soon nodded a second time. “The Twelve Palaces have just received word as well. The jade seals really have appeared.”

  “Shall we go?” Daolord Skyaxe looked at Soleman.

  “Of course!” Soleman nodded. “This is our best shot at the Daomerge.”

  “Let’s go.”

  The two immediately changed their plans, turning around their flying vessel and sending it towards the Waveshift Realm instead.

  ……

  Within an ordinary mortal city. Countless mortals lived in this region for up to a hundred years. They lived ordinary lives and had to work hard for their living.