Desolate Era

by RWX

  Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. The four figures flew towards them and came to a halt, watching with ugly looks on their faces as Ning fled off into the distance.

  “You three useless pieces of trash.” One of the figures glanced disdainfully at the three clan leaders. “You couldn’t even handle such a simple task. If you were able to slow him down for just a few seconds, we would’ve been able to surround and kill him for sure! Hmph. Any of the Silver Daolords of the old, true Sithe were far more powerful than you. You are the weakest Silver Daolords we brothers have ever encountered.

  Not just every Sithe was permitted to become a Silver Daolord. One had to first reach the supreme Daolord level. Given Sithe training methods, they proportionally had far more supreme Daolords than the cultivators. The three clan leaders’ weakness was their low level of understanding of the Dao. If they were at the supreme Daolord level, Ning would’ve been finished long ago.

  The three clan leaders smiled ingratiatingly and didn’t argue, but in their hearts they secretly grumbled. These four were nothing more than golems. By what right did they act so arrogantly?

  Indeed. These four figures were all Emperor-class golems, but they were noticeably much more powerful than the others. Every single one of them was on par with a lord of the Sacred Cities! Although Ning had just barely reached that level as well, he was still lacking in many respects; if he was to actually fight against a real lord of a Sacred City, he would be completely dominated. These four golems, however, were each capable of fighting a Sacred City lord to a standstill.

  “Four seniors, Daolord Darknorth has barged into our forbidden grounds and should be killed,” the silver-haired man said. “We should hunt him down and kill him.”

  “Our responsibility is to watch over and guard this forbidden region. Since he has already escaped and left this region, we naturally will not pursue him any further. If you wish to do so, that is your business.” The four figures glanced coldly at the three clan leaders, then turned and flew away. They truly did look down upon these three clan leaders. Although they were members of the Sithe thanks to having undergone the Ritual Sacrificium, they were really far too weak when compared to true Sithe experts!

  “Those four idiots.” The three clan leaders ground their teeth in rage.

  “They are nothing more than golems. They shall forever do nothing more than obey the orders of the Sithe race. This area has clearly been completely destroyed, but they continue to guard it and regard it as a restricted area. Why bother getting angry with golems?” The three clan leaders turned and left.

  The Emperor-class golems they had caught in recent years were all fairly weak ones that were comparable to supreme Daolords. They wouldn’t dare to even fight against the four strongest golems, much less capture them and bind them by force.

  ……

  Thanks to the speed boost provided by the treasure, Ning quickly outstripped his pursuers.

  “Oh, they actually didn’t chase?” After fleeing quite a distance, Ning turned to see the four figures chatting with the three clan leaders, followed by the four figures returning to the core areas.

  “Judging from what I saw, those four figures should’ve been golems.” Ning nodded. “Golems actually managed to become this powerful… the Sithe’s mastery over golems far surpassed ours.” Based on the golems the six powers in the Endless Territories had acquired, it seemed as though there were different levels of power amongst Emperor-class golems. The ones he had fought had all been weak, while this time he had finally stumbled across strong ones.

  “I’ve already found four of those onyx humanoid corpses here. These things held an advantage over Hegemons in single combat!” Ning sighed with amazement. “Even Crimsonwave Temple merely had two of these Hegemon overseers protecting it, but I count four dead ones here already!”

  “That means this place is probably even more important than Crimsonwave Temple!” Ning was intrigued. Given how much combat power had been focused on this place by the Sithe, it probably held treasures which were far more valuable than the treasures inside Crimsonwave Temple!

  “However… this place seems to have been wrecked by that claw-attacker. He butchered countless Sithe and probably took away the most valuable treasures,” Ning mused privately. “I hope he left a few things behind.” He didn’t even consider the possibility that the claw-attacker had died, as anyone capable of easily ripping those onyx humanoids in half had reached a level of power that was far beyond his imagination.

  Hegemons definitely weren’t capable of thus. Then… Otherverse Lords, perhaps? Or even… the legendary Autarchs?

  Whoooosh. The three clan leaders flew towards Ning from afar. “Those three fellows have come to cause trouble again.” Ning frowned, then began to dart forwards while maintaining as much distance from the three clan leaders as he could.

  While flying, Ning continuously scanned through the towering palace ruins around him. He didn’t dare to fly about randomly, for fear of accidentally activating some traps or mechanisms the Sithe had left behind. Thus, the three clan leaders were able to quickly catch up to him.

  Ning gave them a sidelongs glance.

  “Count yourself lucky for having escaped that,” the muscular silver man said with a cold laugh.

  “You survived once, but you won’t survive every time. I urge you to leave our ancestral grounds immediately. Otherwise, you’ll probably die here. The Sithe left behind many terrifying barriers and guardians. Although the vast majority were ruined and only a few survived, any of them would be enough to claim your puny life. Leave the ancestral grounds and live for a bit longer,” the skinny silver man said.

  Ning completely ignored them. He might not be able to beat them, but they weren’t able to do anything to him either. “I just need to stay careful at all times. Can’t give them any opportunities.” Ning carefully scrutinized his surroundings, visualizing how the palace ruins must’ve looked in the past and thus predicting where certain treasures might lay.

  “Judging from the layout, there should’ve been a secondary nexus over there.” Ning continued his search, quickly discovering a bestial stone statue within a pile of rubble. This stone statue looked rather similar to a three-headed lion!

  “Eh? The style of this statue seems rather different from that of the Sithe buildings.” Ning was puzzled. He stared carefully and cautiously at the stone statue as he slowly moved towards it.

  Whooosh. The central head of the three-headed lion statue suddenly opened its mouth. Its mouth seemed to be filled with an infinite universe in it, and an awe-inspiring amount of power suddenly swept out from the lion’s mouth.

  Boom! A terrifying sucking power was applied to Ning, who was shocked to find that he couldn’t resist it at all. He felt like an ordinary mortal who had been trapped in an ocean whirlpool as he was drawn inexorably into the lion’s mouth. Ning shrank in size as he was drawn in closer and closer before finally becoming ant-sized as he entered the lion’s mouth.

  “He went inside.” The three clan leaders who had been following Ning were shocked, and they hurriedly went over to inspect the lion.

  “Such incredible power. There has to be a major treasure inside.”

  “The Sithe left many hidden rooms with countless treasures. This place has to be one of them.”

  “Daolord Darknorth didn’t seem to be attacked; it looks as though he’s just flying deeper inside.” They could clearly see from outside the lion’s mouth how Ning was continuously flying deeper and deeper.

  “We can’t let Daolord Darknorth acquire those treasures. He’s already incredibly powerful; if he acquires even better treasures, we’re going to be doomed.”

  “We’re the Sithe! Sithe treasures belong to us.”

  “Come, let us go inside.” The three hesitated for a while outside before transforming into streaks of light that flew towards the lion. They did this partially because they naturally felt the need to prevent Ning from acquiring any more treasures, and partially because they d
idn’t really worry about danger. They were Sithe! Even if they entered some incredibly important restricted areas, they would at most be unceremoniously kicked out. Over the course of all these years, not a single clan leader had perished within the ancestral grounds.

  “Where am I?” Ning stared at the rainbow region around him. The aura emanating from this region was incredibly exalted, and the power flowed everywhere. Clearly, this truly was an exceptional place.

  “Eh?” Ning’s face suddenly tightened as he glanced backwards. “They came inside as well.”

  The three silver men flew over, excited looks on their faces. As soon as they sensed the aura and power held within this region, they understood that this was an extraordinary place.

  “Daolord Darknorth, all thanks to you!”

  “If it wasn’t for you, we never would’ve discovered this place.” The three clan leaders were quite smug.

  Right at this moment, a humanoid figure suddenly coalesced in the center of this bright ranbow region. This figure was dressed in long black robes, was pale-faced, had blood-red eyes, and looked both handsome and evil. He stared at the three clan leaders, an icy look on his face as his voice boomed out, shaking the entire world: “I invited this cultivator to come in, but how dare you three Sithe barge in as well! Do you think you are worthy of entering an Autarch’s territory? Die.”

  Boom! Suddenly, a ripple of spatial power swept across the three silver men. They instantly turned pale, but before they could so much as say a word their bodies were split in half at the waist. A heartbeat later, their eyes turned dull as they perished.

  The six parts of the three silver men’s corpses just hung there in midair.

  * * *

  Book 34, Chapter 25 - Autarch Bolin

  Ji Ning was rather stunned when he saw this. Those three silver men had been incredibly strong… how had they been so easily slain?

  Still, when he thought of the three words ‘an Autarch’s territory’ he began to understand. Anything that had even the most tenuous of connections to an Autarch was guaranteed to be extraordinary. Autarchs were the most supreme leaders of the entire cultivator civilization! They were even able to create those alternate universes which Eternal Emperors fought over like rabid dogs, seeking to take control over them and become Otherverse Lords!

  Those otherverses were nothing more than constructs devised by the Autarchs. This was a testament to how mighty the Autarchs were.

  “Senior.” Ning stared at the wicked black-robed figure. He couldn’t help but ask, “This place is an Autarch’s territory? Are you saying that one of the legendary Autarchs set this place up?”

  “Correct.” The black-robed man revealed a hint of a smile as a flicker of pride appeared in his eyes. “My master was named Bolin. The countless cultivators of the Chaosverse reverentially refer to him as Autarch Bolin. Aside from the few other Autarchs who stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him, there is no one in all the Chaosverse who is his equal. Young fellow, you are currently just a Daolord; you can’t even imagine just how powerful an Autarch is.”

  Ning could sense the benevolent intentions radiating from this man. In truth, when he heard the words ‘I invited this cultivator to come in’ Ning immediately realized that this person was a friend, not a foe. Given how he was able to annihilate the three clan leaders with ease, there was no need for him to deceive Ning.

  Ning couldn’t help but ask, “Senior, are Autarchs capable of reversing the flows of spacetime within a chaosworld to revive a Celestial Immortal whose truesoul was destroyed?”

  “Of course! Forget about Celestial Immortals, even World-level cultivators can be rescued if the Autarch was willing.” The black-robed man shook his head. “However, being ‘able’ to do so is one thing; being ‘willing’ to do so is another. Reversing spacetime to revive someone will cause the Autarch to endure a backlash from the prime essences of the entire Chaosverse. Not even an Autarch would suffer something like this lightly. You would have to pay a high price, a price which would sway even an Autarch.”

  Ning nodded slowly.

  “Come with me,” the black-robed man instructed. He glanced sideways at the corpses of the three silver men. “Right, go ahead and collect those corpses. They probably have a few treasures on them.”

  “Alright.” Ning waved his hand, collecting all three corpses.

  “Instead of being actual cultivators, they chose to undergo the Ritual Sacrificium and serve as the pawns of the Sithe.” The black-robed man shook his head. “And the most unsightly Sithe pawns I’ve ever seen.”

  “The most unsightly?” Ning was surprised.

  The black-robed man nodded. “True Sithe are extremely powerful! Generally speaking, the stronger a Sithe is, the more unwilling he is to undergo the Ritual Sacrificium. Although the ritual will allow them to rapidly increase in strength within a short period of time, they lose all hope of making any further breakthroughs. This is why strong Sithe disdain such an act.”

  “As for these three fools? They can’t even compare to real Silver Daolords in power, while Silver Daolords represented the most common footsoldiers in the Sithe army. During that great war, Hegemons served as the mainstays in each army! Long ago, our five Autarchs united the forces of all cultivators in the entire Chaosverse to fight that great war. The Autarchs served as the vanguard, the edge of the blade that tore through all of the important Sithe locations,” the black-robed man said. “For example, this entire thing was once a Sithe warship.”

  “Warship?” Ning had never imagined that the ‘Stone Hellephant Wall’ was actually a warship!

  “Well, I suppose it would be more appropriate to describe it as a terrifying war-fortress! It was capable of easily tearing through spacetime and going from realmverse to realmverse. This warship was so powerful that it was able to slay Hegemons in the blink of an eye,” the black-robed man said.

  “Not even a squad of ten Hegemons working together were able to fight this thing to a standstill. Thus, when my master discovered this thing he continued to pursue it without pause. It fled at high speed, tearing through spacetime repeatedly as it tried to escape, but my master was able to enter it and then slaughter a path through it. He ruined this entire warship, slaying more than thirty thousand Sithe and destroying all of the golems. He destroyed everything, leaving nothing behind!”

  Ning was breathless upon hearing this. So this was how powerful an Autarch was?! “All the golems were destroyed?” Ning was puzzled. “But I still saw plenty of Emperor-class golems outside.”

  “To my master, those golems posed no conceivable threat at all. He let out a casual strike, destroying all the golems and then immediately departing this place. He had to hurry off to a different battlefield and continue the war against the Sithe,” the black-robed man said. “In truth, however, these Sithe golems all possessed self-repair mechanisms.”

  “They looked like they had been destroyed, but some were able to regenerate. As more time passed, some were able to slowly rebuild themselves. Some actually scavenged for parts from other golems that had been destroyed. Thus, a fraction of the golems are still alive, but they pose no real danger at all.”

  Ning was speechless. ‘No real danger at all’? He had been forced to flee in pathetic fashion by those four Emperor-class golems which were comparable to the eight lords of the Sacred Cities. Still, it made sense; to Autarch Bolin, those creatures were nothing more than ants. Any Hegemon would’ve been able to destroy them with ease. They really didn’t pose any danger to the cultivator civilization in general.

  “Follow me,” the black-robed man instructed as he flew forwards.

  “Yes.” Ning followed from behind.

  ……

  By now, the three great clans were in a state of utter panic. Although they had been extremely stunned by the deaths of so many Daolords, they still felt fairly calm because they knew that the Silver Daolords were the true foundation of power for them! Every single clan leader was able to inherit the legacy of a Silver
Daolord.

  But now…

  “How is this possible?”

  “The clan leaders died?”

  “How could they have died? How could the clan leaders have died?”

  “Impossible. No clan leader has ever been killed since the establishment of the three great clans.”

  They were all completely dumbfounded. The three great clans didn’t even know what they should do next, because they had never encountered a situation like this since they had been created. Clan leaders always died when their lifespans came to an end! None had ever been killed. Now that they had been killed, the ‘Silver Daolord’ legacy had clearly been lost as well. How would they be able to protect themselves without any Silver Daolords?

  “What should we do? The entire Fumo clan only has a single Daolord left!” They were all utterly terrified.

  “Go to the ancestral grounds! Go now and seize back the Silver Daolord legacy!”

  “You idiot! Seize it? Seize it how?! All three clan leaders were slain; if I went, I would be instantly annihilated by Daolord Darknorth!”

  “We can’t afford any further losses at all.”

  “Everyone… the three great clans have been defeated. Defeated! The only thing we can do is protect our clan as best we can, using the Sithe disks and the many barriers left behind by our ancestors! So long as Daolord Darknorth can’t breach our barriers, he won’t be able to enter. All we can do is delay as long as we can. Once Daolord Darknorth’s lifespan comes to an end and he dies, we’ll use our Emperor-class golems to rise to power once more.”

  “Yes, delaying is all we can do.”

  The three great clans simultaneously came to this same decision. Right now, they each only had one or two Daolords left. It must be remembered that only Daolords were capable of syncing with the Sithe disks that maintained the clan barriers. Once the clans lost their Daolords, they would be completely doomed!

  ……

  The black-robed man flew into the sky, leading Ning behind him.