Desolate Era

by RWX

  Ning’s face tightened. Ancestral proscriptions?

  “But we’ll make it up to you in other ways.” The Fumo clan leader suppressed his rage as he spoke: “First, as you’ve requested, we agree to live in peace with you. Second, you must leave our ancestral lands. We will never allow anyone who is not a member of our three clans to enter this place. Third, we’ll give you a gift of three Emperor-class golems in compensation. In return, we wish to regain our clansmen.”

  “How generous,” Ning said dryly. “Three Emperor-class golems.”

  “Our three great clans have only acquired a few of these golems despite having spent countless eras scouring this place. To trade you three golems for the lives of our clansmen is a show of great sincerity,” the skinny silver man, the Juwah clan leader, said in a sharp and shrill voice.

  “I agree that you are being quite sincere… but unfortunately, my goal is the Sithe treasury.” Ning shook his head. “Emperor-class golems? I really don’t care too much about them.”

  His ultimate goal was a treasure that could intrigue even an Autarch; only then would he have a chance at reviving Yu Wei. He needed treasures on par with Crimsonwave Temple in value. Emperor-class golems weren’t even close! It must be remembered that the two overseers who had stood guard over Crimsonwave Temple were Hegemon-class figures!

  “There is no way we’ll permit anyone outside of our three clans to enter the ancestral grounds,” the silver-haired man said in a cold voice.

  “Absolutely not.” The muscular silver man’s voice was ice-cold as well. “I strongly recommend that you accept our conditions…”

  “So I should go ahead and kill them?” Ning asked.

  “Kill them.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “They are just Daolords; even if all of them died, we’d be able to raise a new generation of them in time.” The three silver men didn’t hesitate at all.

  The ancestral grounds served as the foundation for the entire clan. There was an enormous treasury here, and despite having spent countless years scouring the place they had only acquired a fraction of the treasures in the outermost layer. If Daolord Darknorth entered, he might find things that were even better than what they had acquired. He might’ve sworn an oath not to kill them, but his descendants might use those treasures to wipe out the three great clans.

  Why were the three great clans so formidable? It was because of the three silver men, right? But the treasury held things that were even more terrifying and powerful than the silver men! If Ning acquired them, he would be able to establish a clan that was even more terrifyingly powerful than theirs.

  “So I really should go ahead and kill them?” Ning’s voice was cold as well. Swish! The Daolord who was located closest to the three clan leaders instantly had his truesoul snuffed out. His eyes turned completely blank and dead.

  “You-!” The three clan leaders were instantly driven into a state of fury.

  “The two of us will hold him back. You go and rescue as many of our clansmen as you can.” The muscular silver man and the skinny silver man howled with rage as they charged towards Ning, while the silver-haired man turned to fly deep into the mountain, seeking to pull away the Daolords.

  “Too late.” A flicker of something baleful flashed through Ning’s eyes. If their negotiations had fallen through… then so be it. Let them die. Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! One truesoul after another was extinguished by Ning’s [Heartforce Eradicator]. Not a single person was able to withstand this attack.

  In the blink of an eye, every single one of the Daolords had perished.

  “Daolord Darknorth, you are dead meat!”

  “Die, Darknorth! Die!” The two clan leaders went berserk. In the past, they had always been the ones to hold the power of life and death over others. There had never been a situation where so many Daolords of their clans had been instantly annihilated by others.

  “Even all three of you working together weren’t able to do anything to me. What’s the point of even trying with two?” Ning manifested three heads and six arms as he drew his six Northbow swords. With his heartworld projection and his nine novessence arts swirling around him, he was able to defend against the attacks of the two clan leaders while moving deeper and deeper into the mountain. Although the two clan leaders managed to slow him down greatly, he was still able to move deeper within.

  “Hm. The Nonti clan leader flew out of the range of my heartworld projection?” Ning frowned. His heartworld projection merely covered part of the mountain; deep within the mountain, there was some sort of unknown energy which was able to resist his heartworld projection. The third silver man had flown deeper into the mountain and outside of the range of Ning’s scans.

  * * *

  Book 34, Chapter 23 - Another Onyx Humanoid

  The silver-haired Nonti clan leader ventured deep into the mountain by himself. When he flew beyond the range of the heartworld projection, he roared angrily, “All of you, come back! Come to me and stay away from the heartworld projection!”

  “Understood.”

  “Coming.”

  Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Five figures flew straight towards him, moving quite fast as they retreated from the depths of the mountain.

  The silver-haired man looked at the five Daolords in front of him, sighing secretly to himself. These five were the only Daolords left of the many who had entered the ancestral grounds… and that was counting all three clans! Even if they factored in the ones standing guard over their clans, each clan now had just two or three Daolords left.

  “What happened, clan leader?”

  “What’s going on with that heartworld projection?” They couldn’t help but query him.

  “It’s Daolord Darknorth. He’s already wiped out all of the other Daolords in the ancestral grounds.” The silver-haired man’s voice was cold as ice. “Enough, there’s no time for questions. The other two clan leaders and I will join forces to kill him inside the ancestral grounds. Since he came here, he has only himself to blame for his death.”

  “Understood.” The other five Daolords were shocked and enraged. They all ground their teeth and nodded, filled with hatred towards Daolord Darknorth and faith in their clan leader. This was because the ancestral grounds truly were terrifyingly dangerous.

  The silver-haired man waved his hand, collecting all five of them. As of right now, the three great clans had almost no Daolords left; every single one of them was a precious resource.

  ……

  Ning continuously moved deeper and deeper into the mountain. Soon, the silver-haired man returned and joined forces with the other two clan leaders in attacking Ning. Alas, it was useless; they hadn’t been able to do anything to Ning even when they had eight Emperor-class golems assisting them. Their chances were even slimmer now!

  “They are more familiar with this place than me. I can’t let them trick me.” Ning was secretly on maximum alert as he slowly delved deeper into the mountain. Palaces and other buildings gradually began to appear within the mountains, a mixture of black and gold elegance. However, the buildings were all completely shattered and destroyed, with giant claw marks occasionally seen. It was as though a single sharp set of claws had been used to tear through these buildings.

  “We saw these claw marks in the outer layer of the Stone Hellephant Wall as well,” Ning mused. “It seems as though the same person fought his way all the way here. This should be the true core of the Stone Hellephant Wall.”

  Those elegant palaces had some treasures floating in the air above them. Although the treasures and the palaces had both been wrecked, they still emanated auras of incredible power.

  The three clan leaders had originally been launching attacks nonstop against Ning. They gradually began to slow their attacks, but they continued to circle around him with smirks on their faces as they looked at him.

  “We have visited the ancestral grounds countless times over the course of countless generations. This Daolord Darknorth truly is courting death, for
him to dare barge into this place.”

  “We have to kill him as soon as we can. Once more time passes and he grows familiar with this place, it’ll become much harder to scheme against him.”

  “Yes, let us kill him quickly.” The three clan leaders secretly planned out their next stratagem, allowing Ning to advance as he pleased in the meantime. As for Ning, he remained vigilant; he wouldn’t dare to be overconfident here in a Sithe relic site!

  Boom! Boom! Ning used his nine novessence arts to attack the surrounding area with wild abandon. If there were any traps here, he wanted to use his nine novessence arts to activate them at a distance!

  Boom! Whoosh! Some barriers did indeed flare with power, but Ning’s nine novessence arts had activated them from ten million kilometers away and so they didn’t harm Ning in the slightest.

  “Daolord Darknorth is being quite careful. By relying on his secret arts, he’s able to avoid many dangerous places.” The three clan leaders were so angry their teeth hurt.

  “It’s fine. Once he goes deeper inside, his heartworld projection and his secret arts will be useless,” the skinny silver man said through clenched teeth.

  ……

  “What’s this?” Ning suddenly saw a corpse that had been split in half. The corpse was so large, it was like a pair of mountains lay there amidst the palatial rubble.

  He saw a pitch-black humanoid figure whose midsection had been sliced in half. Judging from how the wound had been torn open, the person had clearly been torn in half by a pair of sharp claws. Ning could even see the many countless stone passageways located deep within the body itself. He could immediately recognize that this bisected onyx humanoid was the same as the onyx humanoid he had seen in the Terror Starsea, the one which had caused the deaths of two Hegemons of the Endless Territories in the Dawn War. Their auras were absolutely identical and gave Ning the same sense of pressure and might.

  “He was a-actually torn in half?” Ning was stunned. “This creature was capable of bringing down Hegemons with it! Even the Ancient Hegemon was only able to just barely pierce a hole through that onyx humanoid’s chest… but this one was actually torn in half?”

  Ning clearly remembered just how terrifyingly powerful the first one had been. The golden sand from the planet within its body had been enough to cause his Northbow swords to evolve and transform!

  Whoosh. Ning reached out to grab at the upper half of the black humanoid’s corpse.

  “Hmph.” The three clan leaders circling around him didn’t move to stop him. They just watched with cold smiles.

  Ning felt like he was an ordinary mortal seeking to move a mountain; there was no way for him to budge the corpse in the slightest.

  “This thing is dead; perhaps its core regions are damaged as well. Last time I encountered one of these things, my Northbow swords were able to drink from the golden sand to evolve. This corpse might have a similar effect on my swords.” This was the thought that flashed through Ning’s mind… but a heartbeat later, he understood that with the three clan leaders present, there was simply no way he’d be able to slowly upgrade his Northbow swords and let them feed.

  “When I have a better opportunity, I should come back and explore the insides of this corpse.” Ning continued his advance, leaving it behind.

  ……

  The vast, palatial ruins must have had many living creatures within it in the past, but all of that was gone now. Ning wasn’t sure as to how many corpses had been destroyed and how many had been carted off by the three great clans. Perhaps the only immovable one was this onyx humanoid corpse.

  After spending half a day, Ning finally reached the core regions of this enormous palace complex.

  Rumble… a surge of unkwown power was flowing through this place. It completely blocked off Ning’s secret arts and heartworld projection, making it impossible for them to spread out.

  “Eh?” Ning could vaguely see a few golems flickering around in front of him. Clearly, they had retreated into this place.

  “The Emperor-class golems are all here?” Ning stared at the unknown power flowing through this area. He could sense, however, that the power was quite weak. He stared off into the distance, where a series of enormous pillars could be seen generating waves of power that fed this unknown energy. Many of the pillars had toppled or been destroyed, and many more were damaged as well. Only a tiny fraction were undamaged.

  “They are of no threat to me. They shouldn’t be able to harm me.” After testing things out, Ning stepped straight into the region.

  The three clan leaders exchanged a glance, then followed Ning in. They didn’t even attack Ning, just followed him from behind. As for Ning, he ignored them. There was no point in fighting them, as he was always on the defensive.

  “This Daolord Darknorth is quite a cautious man.”

  “All the caution in the world won’t do a damn thing for him.”

  “He’ll be dying soon enough.” The three clan leaders continued to plot against Ning.

  As for Ning himself, he carefully inspected the surrounding area. From the looks of it, this was once an enormous Sithe palace complex! The residences of the highest-ranking members should’ve been in the centermost area, and that was where the defenses should’ve been tightest. Only, everything along the way had been destroyed by that claw-attacking figure.

  Soon, Ning reached the very center of this palace complex.

  “What’s that?” Ning stared off into the distance, through a number of shattered walls. He was able to see a hill-sized onyx humanoid corpse lying slumped on the ground… in fact, Ning saw a total of three of them.

  “Three more onyx humanoid corpses?” Ning was awestruck. This place was definitely an extremely important place for the Sithe!

  Suddenly… swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!!! Four figures suddenly flew towards him at high speed from afar. Each of the four moved faster than a hundred times the speed of light, causing Ning to turn pale! It must be remembered that the three clan leaders themselves merely moved at a hundred times the speed of light. Ning himself had yet to breach this limit! Even amongst Eternal Emperors, moving faster than a hundred times the speed of light was incredibly difficult.

  However, the four figures attacking Ning had each surpassed this limit. Ning immediately sensed his subconscious screaming at him about the danger he was in. He understood that these four figures were far more powerful than the three clan leaders.

  “Any outsiders who barge into Sithe lands shall be slain without exception!”

  “Kill!”

  “The three of you, help us stop this intruder!” The four figures called out commands as they flew towards Ning at high speeds.

  “Yes, milords!” the three silver men called back. They had become members of the Sithe race after undergoing the Ritual Sacrificium and thus had been acknowledged by the Sithe; this was why they weren’t attacked.

  “Kill!” One of the figures was completely gray in color, and he wielded a short spear in his hands. Swirls of gray light manifested at the tip of the spear as he arched his entire body backwards, then threw it forwards furiously.

  Swoosh! The short spear shot through the air, moving far faster than the four figures themselves and carrying a terrifying level of power within it as it shot straight towards Ning. Ning instantly understood that if he allowed himself to be surrounded by these foes, he would definitely die.

  * * *

  Book 34, Chapter 24 - Invitation

  “Here’s our chance.” The three clan leaders had been following Ji Ning this entire time, never letting him get too far away from them. Now, they all excitedly charged straight towards him.

  “Slow him down.”

  “If we can tie him down for a short period of time, he’ll be doomed.” The three clan leaders were filled with confidence, because it was quite easy for them to tie down Daolord Darknorth.

  Boom! The short spear had already arrived in front of Ning. Ning produced a golden gem in his hand. The golden gem had strands
of golden silk within it. He instantly crushed it, causing a wave of awesome power to spread out and cover his entire body as it was surrounded by layers of silken gold light. This was one of Ning’s life-preserving treasures, and it was designed to allow one’s speed to skyrocket!

  “Die!” The skinny silver man shot straight towards Ning with his sharp spike in hand.

  Whoosh. Ning moved in a ghostly manner, instantly skyrocketing beyond a hundred times the speed of light and only leaving a golden streak of light behind him. He was simply too fast! With the treasure supporting him, he was able to move even faster than the Radiant King.

  The short spear still arrived in front of Ning; it had actually been able to change direction mid-flight. Clang! Ning didn’t dare to take it lightly. He used all six Northbow swords to block simultaneously, only to sense a powerful surge of might transmit to him from the strike. Ning couldn’t help but stumble a few steps backwards as he hurriedly retreated, transforming into a streak of golden lightning that fled.

  As for the short spear, the collision knocked it to one side. It went flying straight towards the Fumo clan leader, forcing the muscular silver man to hurriedly dodge to one side.

  “Don’t let him escape!”

  “Slow him down.”

  “How can he be this fast?” Although the three clan leaders were extremely anxious, they could do nothing but watch as Ning transformed into an incomprehensibly fast speed of golden light that seemed to be even faster than the four figures chasing behind it.

  Swoosh! Ning pulled farther and farther away as he flew off into the distance.

  “He actually escaped.” The three clan leaders exchanged glances, feeling anxious, angry, and helpless. They knew that given their own speed, they stood no chance of catching Ning at all.