Desolate Era

by RWX

  “It’ll be up to the two of you.”

  Dreamlore and the others had to give up, even though they didn’t wish to.

  “Let’s go find the Radiant King, Daolord Feich, and the others. The final Voidsea Jadeseal is on Daolord Feich,” Daolord Dreamlore ordered. He immediately led Owlblack, Skyshatter, and King Paleos as well as the other Daolords in leaving. These nine supreme Daolords began to charge towards the other passageway in search of Daolord Feich.

  ……

  Everything fell silent.

  Dustrain, Tigrone, and the rest of the supreme Daolords were all focused on the [Daoheart] technique. As for Ninedust, he had already reached the altar. He first used the temporal acceleration treasure to cover the entire thing, then began to assault the 9000 barriers.

  “No one’s coming?” Ning’s life was now quite relaxed. “Maybe I should go take a look and see how the other passageway is doing.” Ning flew towards the direction of Winesage’s passageway. When he reached the edges of the passageway, he stared at the distant islands.

  “Wow!” Ning was stupefied by what he saw.

  The situation in this passageway was far more chaotic. Winesage, Dawnstar, Cloudwalker, and Ninestone were at the peak of the altar, working together to assault the 9000 barriers while also assaulting each other.

  As for the situation on the levitating stone island in front of the second abyss? It was even more chaotic! The Radiant King, Daolord Snowjoy, Daolord Shaka, the Starking, Daolord Feich, and a number of other supreme Daolords were battling each other, with Daolord Snowjoy and Daolord Shaka working together but being surrounded and assaulted by the other five.

  “Daolord Feich!” A furious shout rang out, followed by King Paleos, Daolord Dreamlore, Daolord Owlblack, and Daolord Skyshatter arriving. They easily traversed the seven-colored chains and joined the wild melee.

  “Damn.” The faces of the Radiant King and the others turned pale.

  ……

  It really was a wild, chaotic battle. The wild battle at the top of the altar was over the third command seal in that passageway, while the wild battle in front of the second abyss was over the Voidsea Jadeseal.

  The only peaceful place was at the outermost region, where the supreme Daolords were all trying to calmly train in the [Daoheart] technique and thus couldn’t be bothered to fight with each other.

  “This passageway really is quite chaotic.” Ning stood at the intersection between the two regions, keeping a watch on both sides. He couldn’t be bothered to take part in the battle, as once he did everyone would be wary of him. In fact, they might gang up on him!

  ……

  Time flowed on. In the blink of an eye, another year went by. The wild battle continued, with two more supreme Daolords perishing. Both were fairly weak ones, and both died by Daolord Dreamlore’s hands. His bloodblade was simply too vicious and cruel.

  Boom! A sonorous explosion rang out as the 9000 barriers atop the altar simultaneously shattered. Ninestone howled with rage as he charged towards Winesage. Much like Tigrone, Ninestone possessed terrifying defensive abilities.

  “Get it!” Cloudwalker and Dawnstar simultaneously charged forwards as well.

  “Beat it.” Winesage was doing the same.

  BOOM!

  “Hahaha… brother Winesage, you’ve already acquired the other two command talismans in this passageway. You are being a bit too greedy, don’t you think?” Palace Lord Dawnstar was the one to seize it, delighting Cloudwalker, Ninestone, Snowjoy, and Shaka. The five of them were part of the same team; they had agreed long ago to split the fruits they acquired evenly!

  “Damn.” Winesage frowned. He had been the first to arrive and had long ago mastered the [Vitalis] art and acquired the first command talisman. He had also been able to master the [Daoheart] technique with a single try, as the tempering process the Dark Kingdom subjected its Daolords to was utterly terrifying. Given that he was also a Heartforce Cultivator who had been alive for an extremely long period of time, his Dao-heart was indeed superior to Ning’s. This was why he had been the one to acquire both of those talismans.

  However, the 9000 barriers were simply too difficult to deal with.

  Dawnstar, Cloudwalker, and Ninestone had quickly arrived at the altar as well. By then, Winesage had already shattered the first 8000 barriers… but alas, in the end it was Dawnstar who picked up the trophy.

  “The eighth command seal has already fallen into the hands of Palace Lord Dawnstar.” The towering image of a white-robed man appeared above the chaotic battlefield, staring down at the Daolords as his voice echoed throughout the Crimsonwave Temple. “At present, only a single command talisman remains unclaimed, the seventh talisman. Daolords, this is the last one! If you miss it, you probably won’t have another chance like this.”

  ……

  When Ning heard the realmsoul’s voice, he hurriedly looked towards Ninedust’s passageway. Right now, Ninedust, Daolord Tigrone, and a little-known Daolord were simultaneously attacking the 9000 barriers together. Ning truly hadn’t expected that Daolord Tigrone and that fairly weak first-tier Daolord would both have such powerful Dao-hearts.

  These command talismans mattered to Ning more than anything else right now. He had already done everything he could for Ninedust. The rest would be up to him.

  “Ninedust…” Ning watched anxiously. These fruits would be the basis for his negotiations with the major powers. The more he could acquire, the better.

  ……

  Thankfully, Winesage and the others didn’t take part in the fight over the final command talisman. In truth, there was no way for them to take part even if they wished to. Every single Daolord could only choose a single passageway, after all.

  In their eyes, the Voidsea Jadeseal mattered the most!

  “The Voidsea Jadeseal.”

  “Quick.”

  “Go for it!”

  As if by silent agreement, Winesage, Dawnstar, Cloudwalker, and Ninestone all hurried onto the tri-colored chains and charged back to the flying stone island in front the second abyss, taking part in the wild battle.

  Of the five Voidsea Jadeseals, one had been used up by Emperor Solesky, one had been used up by the Radiant King, and one had been used up by Ninedust. Only two remained untouched. One was in Winesage’s hands; everyone knew that there was no way to take it from him. The last one was in Daolord Feich’s hands.

  “Go for it!”

  “Kill him!”

  The more chaotic a battle became, the more berserk the weaker Daolords grew. They knew that their only chances would be during wild battles like this. As supreme Daolords, they all had tough life-preserving abilities, ensuring that if they acquired the seal they would stand a good chance of keeping it.

  ……

  Time flowed on and the battle continued.

  Daolord Feich was indeed good at staying alive. He was aided by the fact that some of the Daolords had long ago sworn oaths to join into true alliances together and help each other resist their foes, no matter who won the seal. Thus, even though another five supreme Daolords perished, Daolord Feich remained alive.

  Boom!

  The altar within Ninedust’s passageway. By now, a total of four supreme Daolords were assaulting the 9000 barriers. Finally, with a loud explosion, the barriers came crashing down.

  Whooooosh. A flood of water instantly swept towards the talisman.

  “Ahahaha!” Ninedust roared with laughter, his voice echoing in the world around him. “Darknorth, I have it!”

  When the distant Ning saw this, he was so excited that his aura flared mightily, causing energy waves to appear around him. He laughed loudly, “Haha, the heavens have chosen to aid me! The heavens have chosen to aid me!”

  * * *

  Book 33, Chapter 21 - Harvesting the Fruit

  Given Ji Ning’s personality, he generally wouldn’t lose control of himself like this. The fact that he did was a testament to how excited he was. Ninedust had been competing against three
other supreme Daolords; there was a very high chance that he would fail. Of course Ning was excited by his success!

  “He was actually the one to obtain it?” Daolord Tigrone was so angry he gnashed his teeth.

  “I was just about to stop him when he transformed into an endless wave.” Fiendqueen Dustrain ground her teeth angrily as well. She had arrived at the altar at just the nick of time, but she still hadn’t been able to intervene.

  Whoosh. After acquiring the talisman, the Ninedust Sectlord transformed into a vast wave that surged out and reformed into human form atop the tri-colored chain. He endured the pain as he quickly walked across the tri-colored chains to the seven-colored chains where Ning was awaiting him.

  “I didn’t let you down, Darknorth. Haha! I, Ninedust, am quite capable,” Ninedust said smugly. As he spoke, he handed the three command talismans he had in his position over to Ning. “Here, take’m.” Ninedust was in an excellent mood right now. He had owed Ning a huge favor when the latter had let him take the Voidsea Jadeseal; given his arrogant temperament, he really felt rather uncomfortable owing Ning so much. Now that he was able to make some reparations, he immediately felt much better.

  “Thank you.” Ning immediately accepted all three talismans without being shy. They truly were quite important to him.

  Whoosh. Rainbow light appeared in the skies above them, condensing into the towering and white-robed figure of Realmsoul Polo. The realmsoul stared down at them and boomed, “Daolords, the Voidsea Jadeseals and the command talismans needed for harvesting the fruit have all been taken. If you wish to fight each other for them, feel free. Those who wish to harvest the fruit can take the command talismans to the corresponding Grovekeepers, who have already come. If you wish to leave, you can do so upon exiting the Crimsonwave Temple. I’ve already set up a spatial tunnel outside Crimsonwave Temple that lets you exit from the Waveshift Realm.”

  “We have to be careful. Let’s go trade for the fruit right away,” Ning said cautiously.

  “Yes, let’s go.” Ninedust nodded.

  ……

  Ning’s worry was that everyone else would fight him over his command talismans, as he had a total of six of them. However, his guess was wrong. Those weaker supreme Daolords were not capable of tying him down; they simply weren’t powerful enough to take things from him. As for the stronger ones, all of them went to fight over the Voidsea Jadeseals.

  “So even the final command talisman has been taken? I need to speed this up.” Winesage frowned. A large number of Daolords had gathered atop the stony island before the second abyss, including the likes of Palace Lord Dawnstar, Palace Lord Cloudwalker, Ninestone, Snowjoy, Shaka, King Paleos, Daolord Skyshatter, Daolord Owlblack, Daolord Dreamlore, and even the Radiant King, who had returned to try his luck.

  In short, a large group of the most elite Daolords in the Endless Territories had arrived.

  Boom!

  Winesage had been shoved to the sidelines. He was so powerful that no one else wanted to work with him, putting him in an awkward situation.

  “This is the right moment!” Winesage suddenly produced an extremely ordinary-looking dart that was roughly half the size of his palm. The dart didn’t seem unusual in any way; in fact, none of the battling Daolords sensed anything amiss at all.

  Swish!

  The dart suddenly shot out, bringing with it a terrifying aura of power that caused all of the many battling supreme Daolords to feel their hearts tremble.

  “Not good.”

  “Careful.”

  “Dodge!” The subconscious terror they felt caused all of them to know that something bad was happening. By now, all of them saw the object which had inspired terror in them… that streak of dazzlingly fast light.

  As soon as the dart had shot out, Winesage had shot out as well behind it.

  “No!” Daolord Feich’s face turned ashen as he stared at the terrifying dart fly towards him. He almost instantly produced a round, glowing mirror in his hands. Crack! The surface of the mirror shattered, causing a much larger mirror to appear right in front of him.

  Ever since he had acquired the Voidsea Jadeseal, he had been hunted by others. Although the Radiant King and the other Daolords in his group had all sworn lifeblood oaths to defend each other regardless of who acquired the seal, there was a limit to how hard they had to fight. As a result, Daolord Feich had encountered quite a few dangerous situations. This was his very last life-saving treasure.

  Swish! The streak of light shot into the mirror. The mirror instantly cracked and then completely shattered into tiny pieces. The streak of light continued to shoot forwards, stabbing straight into Daolord Feich’s body.

  Whoosh. Daolord Feich’s immediately transformed into a mass of gray mist.

  “Ahhhhhhh! W-what the hell is this?!” An agonized scream rang out from the gray mist, followed by the mist reforming into a corpse. Daolord Feich’s corpse.

  Winesage had been flying directly behind that streak of light. As soon as Daolord Feich’s corpse appeared, Winesage waved his hand and immediately collected it.

  “Hmph. You should feel proud to have died to my ‘cycleseed dart’.” Winesage hadn’t really been willing to use this treasure, as it was the most powerful killer weapon he had at his disposal. Even people as powerful as the eight lords of the Sacred Cities would probably be heavily wounded if struck! After he acquired the Universe treasure in the Terror Starsea, the Universe treasure had guided him to another ancient battle-site of the Dawn War, where he had acquired two mighty relics. The ‘cycleseed dart’ was one of the two, and it was an extremely venomous and insidious treasure.

  Daolord Feich hadn’t been strong enough, and so he had almost instantly died once hit.

  “For the sake of the Voidsea Jadeseal, everything is worth it.” Winesage only felt a sense of jubilation. He had been alive for far too long, over a hundred thousand chaos cycles. He had braved many dangers over these years for the sake of his Daomerge! Now that the Voidsea Jadeseals had appeared, he would be willing to pay any price to acquire them.

  “With the help of two Voidsea Jadeseals, my chances at succeeding with the Daomerge shall be greatly improved.” Winesage turned to sweep his gaze across the many Daolords. All of them, including Dawnstar, the Radiant King, Dreamlore, and Paleos were all staring at him nervously.

  That treasure he had displayed was far too terrifying! Although Daolord Feich only had an imperfect ‘invulnerable form’ which had merely been on par with that of Timedream, one must remember that Ning had spent an inordinate amount of time before he had killed Timedream! Just now, however, Daolord Feich had been slain in an instant. How could everyone not feel stunned?

  “It’s impressive that he had even a single treasure like that. I refuse to believe Winesage has another one,” the Radiant King sent mentally.

  “Right.”

  “And we’re much stronger than Feich.” Daolord Owlblack’s eyes glowed with savage light.

  “I would’ve knocked that streak of light aside with just a single strike.” Daolord Dreamlore’s eyes gleamed with madness as well. “Winesage has TWO of the Voidsea Jadeseals, and he hasn’t had the chance to use any of them. Both of them are still on him. Attack!”

  “Attack!”

  “Kill him.”

  All the Daolords moved at the same time. They didn’t care about Ji Ning at all right now. Six command talismans? Even if Ning had all nine, they would still view a single Voidsea Jadeseal as being far more valuable… and Winesage had two of them!

  “They actually are attacking?” As soon as the Daolords began to attack, Winesage gritted his teeth and began to flee.

  ……

  A black earth golem was chatting with Ning and Ninedust.

  “Senior, here is the ninth command talisman.” Ning produced the relevant talisman.

  “Yes.” The Grovekeeper lowered his head to look at it, then reached out to accept it. Instantly, one arm after another began to emerge from the vast black earth back in
the first world and started to harvest the fruits from the many large, semi-translucent trees nearby. The black arms pulled the fruit into the earth, then caused them to reappear next to the Grovekeeper. Every single tree only had a single fruit. The fruit was semi-translucent as well, with a faint reddish tinge to them. When Ning and Ninedust looked at the red glow, they felt their hearts grow peaceful.

  “A total of three hundred fruits.” The Grovekeeper looked at Ning. “These are known as the coldflame cauldron fruits, and they are priceless beyond compare. Even in unique places like Crimsonwave Palace, they take 100,000 chaos cycles to ripen.”

  “Understood.” Ning stared at the three hundred fruits flying towards him, then waved his hand and collected all of them.

  “Come, let’s go over there.” Ning led Ninedust towards yet another one of the Grovekeepers who had appeared in the third world.

  ‘Darknorth, look over there!” Ninedust hurriedly pointed off into the distance.

  “Wow.” Ning was surprised. “What’s going on with Winesage? How’d he piss off all the Daolords and get them to attack him?”

  Every single Daolord was pursuing and attacking Winesage! This was primarily because Winesage had never chosen to ally with any of the other Daolords. Ning had once invited Winesage to join forces with him, but Winesage had been too proud to do so.

  Poor Winesage.

  “Forget him. Let’s go harvest that fruit,” Ning said. As he spoke, he and Ninedust flew towards the seventh Grovekeeper and asked him to harvest the fruit from the seventh command talisman.

  Boom! Winesage was incredibly strong, and his Universe treasure gave him the strength he needed to endure. With each clash, four or five supreme Daolords were sent flying. However, the other supreme Daolords continued their pursuit, even tossing out Dao-seals and other treasures.

  “I have to stand within this diagram for ten seconds before I’ll be sent back to the second world?” Winesage ground his teeth. “Why do I have to wait this long?”

  “Winesage, there’s no chance you’ll be able to stand there for ten seconds.”