Desolate Era

by RWX

  “Darknorth’s been here countless times. Let’s remind him of just how fearsome we can be.” The four figures had been thoroughly pissed off by Ning quite some time ago.

  Ning and Ninedust stood shoulder-to-shoulder. “You ready?” Ning sent mentally.

  “No worries,” Ninedust replied. “I’m more than ready.” In truth, Ninedust was feeling quite nervous as well.

  “We’ll succeed,” Ning said. He was a bit anxious as well.

  Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! The four golems howled through the air, moving at different speeds but all surpassing a hundred times the speed of light.

  “This is the perfect moment. Attack!” Ning shouted mentally. A black rune-diagram suddenly appeared within Ning and Ninedust’s palms. This was a single-use formation treasure! An enormous black whirlpool appeared and rapidly expanded, with over a thousand layers of energy swirling around it. Every single layer of energy was filled with countless complicated formations, and the entire black whirlpool quickly covered the two golems who were the fastest and had charged closest to them.

  Ning and Ninedust both used one of the black formation-diagrams, which meant two of the black whirlpools had appeared. One was aimed inwards while the other was aimed outwards, simultaneously trapping and repelling their foes.

  “Go!” Ninedust then took out normal formation-diagram treasure, the single-use one he had acquired from the ancestral Hegemon of the Ancients which could only be used after charging.

  Boom! An enormous formation that was round within and square without suddenly appeared, filled with countless layers of dense barriers. This formation immediately surrounded the outermost black whirlpool barrier.

  A total of three formations were being used to trap these two Emperor-class golems!

  * * *

  Book 34, Chapter 31 - The Estate-Spirits Treasures

  “Damn!”

  “Formations?”

  “Break! Break! Break for me!” The two trapped golems bellowed with rage as they furiously assaulted the formation. Multiple layers of formations began to tremble, with a few of the innermost layers actually beginning to split apart. However, they quickly managed to regenerate.

  Ninedust was stunned by what he saw. He sent mentally, “They really are strong. Darknorth, these two golems are way too strong.”

  “That’s why I came up with the idea of using a trifecta of formations against them. We need to trap them there for as long as we can. Speed is the name of the game here!” Ji Ning stared at the two slower golems who were charging straight towards them. He certainly didn’t dare to trap all four golems at once, because they had a way to merge their power together. In that situation, the formation would probably last only ten to twenty percent as long as it should!

  “Let’s go!” Ning roared angrily. Swoosh! He charged forwards by himself, moving towards the tall, skinny golem wielding a pair of enormous scimitars.

  Clang! Clang! Clang! Ning immediately began to battle against the tall, skinny golem. Saber-light flashed everywhere, and each blow was incredibly heavy. Ning couldn’t help but feel a sense of extreme pressure.

  “You won’t be able to stop us, Daolord Darknorth!” The fourth and slowest golem was a muscular golem who wielded an enormous greataxe, and he came charging straight towards Ning.

  “Go!” Ning willed it. Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! A total of twelve Emperor-class golems suddenly appeared in the empty void next to him. These were all the Emperor-class golems Ning currently owned. As for Ninedust, he also let out a furious shout as he released his four Emperor-class golems. Although he had six total, two of them had other assignments to take care of.

  Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Ning’s twelve golems and Ninedust’s four launched a simultaneous attack against the greataxe-wielding golem. Swoosh! Five of the sixteen golems had invulnerable forms, and they transformed into a five-colored rope that began to coil around the greataxe-wielding golem. As for the other eleven, they began to surround and attack it as well.

  ……

  Ning was able to fight against thirty-two Emperor-class golems simultaneously thanks to his Shadowless evasion art, his Soleheart stance, and his Yin-Yang defenses. This greataxe golem, however, relied primarily on brute force! Thus, the sixteen Emperor-class golems were actually able to tie it down once they entered battle against it.

  “Ninedust, hurry up and go get those treasures!” Ning sent mentally.

  “Leave it to me.” Ninedust immediately charged towards the core regions with his two remaining golems by his side.

  “Stop! STOP!” The two golems trapped within the formation-diagram were enraged.

  “You won’t be able to escape.” Ning continued to battle against the tall, skinny golem. These golems all had their own strengths and weaknesses, and Ning had incorporated them into his calculations for this plan! The slow, greataxe-wielding golem was the strongest, and thus Ning left it up to his sixteen golems to fight against it. This was because all Emperor-class golems had incredibly tough bodies and didn’t fear brute-force attacks; what they truly feared were sly, crafty attacks.

  Ning, for example, was dealing with just that as he fought against the golem wielding two giant scimitars. Saber-light was flying everywhere in an unpredictable manner! Sixteen golems probably wouldn’t be enough to tie it down, and so Ning had taken on that responsibility fearlessly.

  Slash! Slash! Slash! Sword-light and saber-light clashed against each other repeatedly. Ning’s sword was faster and more unpredictable, but it was slightly weaker. However… he was using a total of six swords! Thus, he was able to tie this tall, skinny golem down and ensure that it was tied down as well and unable to escape.

  ……

  With the formation-diagrams, Ji Ning, and the sixteen Emperor-class golems working in harmony, all four guardian golems were temporarily tied down. Right at this moment, Ninedust led his two golems in search of treasures.

  “Go over there!”

  “Try over here.”

  “Smash that apart!” Ninedust gave out one order after another, sending his golems into the more dangerous areas he encountered. The golems were all top-grade Eternal treasures and weren’t easy to damage.

  “Haha! Nice treasure.”

  “This treasure is actually able to affect spacetime?”

  “Take this one with us.” The central residences were littered with formation-diagrams, strange gemstones inlaid in stone pillars, and strange mechanisms which had unknown purposes. The Ninedust Sectlord took every single thing he saw! It didn’t matter if he saw an immediate use for them or not; he’d worry about that once they got out of this place. For now, his goal was to take away everything he could.

  After just twenty seconds, Ninedust had swept away virtually all of the items in the territory protected by the four golems, with the exception of two places which were protected by residual barriers and which couldn’t be entered.

  Swoosh! Ninedust immediately fled at maximum speed. “Darknorth, let’s go!” Ninedust’s voice echoed within the ruins.

  “Haha, thanks for everything!” Ning led his sixteen golems in a rapid retreat. Although the two golems attacking him tried to pursue him, there was simply no way for them to catch up. After Ning fled out of the central regions, the golems immediately halted their attacks and went to help their other comrades break free from the three layers of formations.

  By now, the formations had already been mostly destroyed. With all four golems working together, it took merely five seconds to completely wreck it.

  “Daolord Darknorth ended up getting what he wanted.” The four golems all sighed amongst themselves.

  “The Sithe in this place died out long ago; those treasures weren’t doing any good. If he took them, he took them.”

  “Ugh. We’re supposed to guard this place, but what are we guarding? Our masters died long ago…”

  The four golems had to guard this place and follow the final orders they were given, which was why they had repeatedly intervened to stop
Ning. In truth, they personally didn’t care about the treasures at all. In fact, they had long ago felt that their solitary life was boring and pointless.

  “Life had been much more interesting lately with Darknorth around.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Now that he has the treasures he wants, he’s probably going to leave. We’re about to go back to our normal, boring life.”

  “I thought that we’d be able to hold him back and we’d fight each other for a couple thousand chaos cycles. Who would’ve thought he’d get the treasures so soon?” The guardian golems all felt rather regretful. It had been a long, long time since they had felt challenged.

  ……

  The Sithe who had been living in the ruins had died long ago, with the golems bound by the final orders they had given before dying. Only if someone was able to forcibly abduct and bind the golems would their destinies be changed.

  The lion statue’s mouth suddenly opened. Ning and Ninedust flew into the mouth, entering the beastworld within.

  “Greetings, senior.” Both Ning and Ninedust bowed respectfully towards the black-robed man standing in the void before them.

  “You’ve both improved quite a bit, especially you Darknorth. There’s a limit to how strong Daolords can be, and you had already reached an extremely high level of power… and now, you’ve made great gains yet again. Impressive,” the black-robed man nodded in praise. Although he had been left behind by the Autarch to safeguard this beastworld, he had never heard of an Omega Sword Dao and thus had reached a wrong estimation of Ning’s abilities.

  Once Ning became a Daolord of the Fourth Step, he would become truly powerful.

  “I’ll give each of you a treasure.” The black-robed elder waved his hand, causing a blood-red medallion with the imprint of a claw atop it to appear.

  “Ninedust, this is for you.” The black-robed elder handed the item to the Ninedust Sectlord.

  “Thank you, senior.” Ninedust excitedly accepted the strange blood claw-medallion, but once he gained it he couldn’t find anything special about it no matter how he scanned it. He glanced at the black-robed man with some confusion: “Senior, might I ask what this treasure…?”

  “Haha, I’ll also give you a copy of a chaos star map.” The black-robed man waved his hand, causing an astral scroll to appear. He unfurled the astral scroll, which mapped out an enormous region of darkness as well as three realmverses around it.

  “Here are the three closest realmverses,” the black-robed man said. “This is the Multilight Realmverse. This is the Redcastle Realmverse. And this is the Flamedragon Realmverse. This Sithe warship we’re in has been drifting through the Great Dark for endless ages. Based on the trajectory and speed at which we were moving, I imagine we should be close to these three realmverse by now. The two of you should be from one of these three realmverses, right?”

  “Senior, how is it that you know we are from the outside and are not cultivators local to this planet?” Ninedust asked curiously.

  “Haha, as soon as you broke through the outermost layer of deepfire blackstone surrounding the vessel, I was able to sense you.” The black-robed man nodded and smiled.

  Ning and Ninedust now understood. “We came from the Flamedragon Realmverse; this place is fairly close to the Flamedragon Realvmerse,” Ninedust said.

  “What a coincidence. The Flamedragon Realmverse has a special place within it that was created and left behind by my master.” The black-robed man continued, “If you bear this medallion… so long as you are close enough to that place, you’ll be able to sense it through this medallion. You’ll be able to use it to teleport yourself directly inside.”

  “Where is it?” Ning and Ninedust were both curious.

  “Around here.” The astral map rapidly zoomed in on the Flamedragon Realmverse, revealing a specific place.

  “Is that…?” Ning and Ninedust were both shocked. “Inside the Aeonian Kingdom?!”

  Both of them had extraordinarily high statuses within the Endless Territories. Thus, they naturally knew where the headquarters of the Aeonians, one of the six great powers of the Endless Territories, was located! The place the black-robed man had just marked out was within the Aeonian Kingdom. The Aeonian Kingdom was an incredibly mysterious place; although there were very few Aeonians, especially strong ones, the Aeonian Kingdom allowed them to sit securely as one of the six major powers of the Endless Territories.

  * * *

  Book 34, Chapter 32 - Verdant Azuresoul

  Ninedust said helplessly, “Senior, you might not know this, but the place you just pointed out is within an inconceivably powerful treasure known as the ‘Aeonian Kingdom’! The Aeonian Kingdom is an extremely dangerous place; not even Hegemons dare to charge into that place.”

  The Dao Alliance and the Aeonians were mortal enemies; Aeonians relied on devouring countless Daolords to awaken the Aeonian blood within their veins! The more they devoured, the more powerful they would become! If it wasn’t for the fact that they could take shelter within the Aeonian Kingdom, the Aeonians would’ve been completely genocided by the Dao Alliance long ago!

  “Haha…” the black-robed elder laughed. “It doesn’t matter how dangerous it is; you don’t need to worry at all. This medallion will tear straight through spacetime and teleport you directly inside. If the situation turns grim, you can use it to immediately tear through spacetime and leave again. This medallion was personally forged by my master, Autarch Bolin. Not even Hegemons would be able to trap you.”

  Ninedust let out a sigh of relief, then immediately asked, “Would I be able to bring Darknorth with me?”

  “The medallion can only be used by one person,” the black-robed man said. “It can also only be used to bring one person in escaping from that place.”

  “Ah?!” Ninedust was startled.

  “Buuut, you can pull Darknorth into your estate-world before using the medallion. That solves, it yes?” The black-robed man laughed.

  Ninedust immediately looked at Ning. “Darknorth, things are going to be quite dangerous inside the Aeonian Kingdom. Accompany me?”

  “For sure.” Ning knew that in truth, Ninedust was actually helping him out rather than vice versa. With that medallion in hand, Ninedust wouldn’t need to even fear an entire host of Hegemons. What sort of ‘danger’ would he be afraid of?

  “Right. You must remember this.” The black-robed man said sseriously, “The power contained within this medallion is only enough to activate it twice in a row; after that, the power will be used up and it’ll shatter. Thus, the medallion is only good for a single entry and exit. Treasure this opportunity and do not waste it.”

  “It’ll be exhausted after just two uses?” Ninedust was started, but he then let out an uncaring smile. “A single such opportunity and blessing is already more than enough.”

  The black-robed man nodded slightly. He was quite approving of Ninedust’s attitude. He then turned to look at Ning. “I didn’t expect for you to be able to improve so dramatically, given how powerful you already were. Even I am now eager to see what you will be like if you succeed in your Daomerge. Given your power, once you suceeed in the Daomerge you will definitely surpass any ‘ordinary’ Hegemon. You’ll probably be on par with Otherverse Lords.”

  “Are Otherverse Lords very powerful?” Ning asked curiously.

  “Yes. They are in control of alternate universes and are assisted by the prime essences of those universes. How can they NOT be strong?” The black-robed man continued, “And you helped me out as well. Given how much you improved… let me think about what I should give you…”

  “Helped you out?” Ninedust glanced at Ning, puzzled. Ning was puzzled as well; since when did he help this estate-spirit out?

  “You didn’t know this,” the black-robed man explained, “But when my master Autarch Bolin entered this place, he used an evasion art to directly bypass the deepfire blackstone and enter the vessel. He furiously massacred all of the Sithe, wrecking all of their def
enses and destroying everyone and everything here. Afterwards, he tossed me here and then immediately tore through spacetime to depart. He was hurrying off to other regions to take part in the battles there.”

  “But… Master forgot that the entire vessel was encased in a shell of deepfire blackstone. There was no way for me to leave!” The black-robed man said helplessly, “Ugh… master created so many beastworlds and he scattered them casually throughout the Chaosverse. He probably didn’t think too much of it when he tossed me here, and he had to seize every moment because war had spread throughout the realms. He didn’t take the time needed to actually break through the deepfire blackstone, as it would take some time even for someone as strong as him to tear through it by force.”

  Ning and Ninedust now both understood. Deepfire blackstone was almost indestructible; even Hegemons like Hegemon Welkin were completely unable to do anything to it. It would take even an Autarch some time to forcibly break through the outer ‘wall’ protecting this Sithe warship. Autarch Bolin wasn’t willing to waste any time and so had used an evasion art to teleport straight inside.

  “Darknorth, when you used your lifeblood weapon to drain away the deepfire blackstone, you also gave me the chance to leave.” The black-robed man smiled. “That naturally means you helped me out. I’ll now be able to move through spacetime to visit other places and search for other lucky people to bestow good fortune upon.”

  “Mm…” The black-robed man was silent for a moment. “And you really have improved dramatically. I suppose giving you that treasure would be a decent choice.”

  Whoosh. A round, fist-sized object suddenly appeared out of nowhere within the black-robed man’s hands. It looked like a giant egg, and it emanated strange ripples that caused both Ning and Ninedust to feel entranced by it. Their Dao-hearts were both influenced by this effect, causing them to feel the urge to devour the thing.

  “My master, Autarch Bolin, has left behind some treasures in each beastworld… and this is the most valuable of the treasures I have.” The black-robed man looked at Ning. “This is known as a ‘verdant azuresoul’! Any and every Hegemon would go absolutely crazy over this.”