Desolate Era

by RWX

  It was similar to mortals walking on Ning’s old world of ‘Earth’. No matter how much time they spent walking on Earth’s surface, they would never be able to move any closer to Earth’s core. By the same principle, Ning was completely unable to move closer to this hidden region.

  “It is absolutely perfect. Although I can vaguely sense that it is here, I can’t find any flaws in its creation at all which would allow me to lock onto it,” Autarch Mogg said. “If the teleportation formation was to activate again and bring another outsider here, I would be able to detect its location during the teleportation process and then open a dimensional tunnel to it. Right now, though, it is completely hidden and sealed away from us. There’s nothing I can do.”

  “I have to somehow activate it a second time?” The black-robed Ning felt a bit frustrated.

  “This dimensional tunnel has completely blocked off karma itself. I can’t locate Darknorth’s true body through karma either.” Autarch Titanos looked at Ning. “Darknorth, I’m ashamed to say this, but neither of us will be able to solve this problem in a short amount of time. I’ll have Ekong and the others come test it out as well. Perhaps one of them will succeed.”

  “It’ll be fine even if you cannot. I might be trapped inside, but not just anyone can bring harm to me,” the black-robed Ning said. “I’ll figure something out.”

  “Be careful.” Autarch Titanos and Autarch Mogg felt rather guilty. They knew that if even the two of them were helpless, it was unlikely the other four would succeed; Autarch Skyfeeder was skilled in the Dao of Time, Autarch Ekong was skilled in the Dao of Destruction, Autarch Bolin was skilled in the Dao of the Claw, and Autarch Stonerule was skilled in the Dao of Illusions.

  “The reason my true body entered the Sithelands was to save someone; the Paragon of Pills,” Ning said. “The Mistress wishes to revive her three brothers, one of whom is a Hegemon of the Dao of the Sword.”

  “Oh, the Paragon of Pills? I know of her.” Autarch Titanos nodded. “She sought me out, and I told her to come back after she had a thousand realmships worth of treasure.”

  Ning said, “Autarch Titanos, I’d like to ask you to help the Mistress complete this dream of hers.”

  “A minor matter,” Autarch Titanos said. “But the otherverse she resides in was created by Autarch Skyfeeder. I’ll have her handle this personally. It’ll be much easier for her to keep that otherverse safe while reversing spacetime to revive those three.”

  This task was indescribably difficult for Hegemons, but to Autarchs it was nothing more than a bit of extra effort.

  “Darknorth, you have to be careful inside there,” Autarch Mogg said solemnly. “We originally thought that we had taken full control over the Sithelands’s perimeter, sealing away the few places we didn’t breach… but clearly, we were wrong. There are hidden areas we were not aware of! I imagine that the Sithe have been watching us in secret, biding their time.”

  “Don’t worry. Even if a Sithe Exalt comes, I’ll kill him with a blow from my sword,” Ning said with a smile.

  ……

  Within that blurry, cloud-filled region. The white-robed Ning said to the Paragon of Pills, “Mistress, I’ve already spoken to the Autarchs. Autarch Skyfeeder will personally revive your three brothers.”

  Tears appeared in the Paragon’s eyes, and her entire body began to tremble. Finally, two tears fell down… but a smile was on her face.

  This solitary, glacially cold woman was actually, finally smiling. Her smile was radiant and beautiful, and even Ning was rather stunned by it. This was beauty that stemmed from the depths of a soul, beauty and joy which was truly infectious.

  “Thank you, Darknorth.” The Paragon of Pills looked at Ning.

  * * *

  Book 41, Chapter 14 - The Island Battle

  Many people knew of the ‘Mad Paragon of Pills’, including Azurefiend, Hegemon Tia, Hegemon Flameleft, and Lord Annihilation. They all knew how frenzied she could be in the pursuit of her dream… and now, it was finally going to be realized. They could imagine the emotional upheaval she felt! This was a happier moment for her than succeeding in the Daomerge had been. The joy she felt surpassed even life and death!

  “Congratulations, Paragon of Pills!” Lord Annihilation said with a laugh.

  “Congratulations, congratulations.” Azurefiend chortled as well.

  Hegemon Tia smiled as she looked at them, but a hint of sorrow flickered in her eyes. The Paragon’s brothers were about to come back to life, but her beloved, the one who she viewed as more important than life itself? It was completely impossible for that person to be brought back to life. Grief had killed her heart long ago, and the only reason she hadn’t killed herself was because she had promised to keep living. Ever since that day, however, she had no longer truly cared about life, and thus she had dived into one dangerous location after another, earning the nickname of ‘Mad Hegemon Tia’ in the rest of the Chaosverse.

  “I’m feeling a bit excited.” The tears quickly dried on the Paragon of Pills’ face, and she smiled brightly. “I was so worried. I feel much better now that I know Autarch Skyfeeder has agreed.”

  “Haha, Mistress, once we manage to leave this secret dimension, Autarch Skyfeeder will go with you to the otherverse and reverse spacetime to revive your three brothers,” Ning said.

  “Once we leave?” The Paragon suddenly frowned. “Darknorth, didn’t you say this place is incredibly dangerous? Not even the Autarchs will be able to enter here.”

  Ning nodded. “Don’t worry. I’ll do everything in my power to get you out of here, Mistress.”

  “No, that’s not what I meant. I trust you. But, it’s not guaranteed that we’ll be able to escape this place,” the Paragon said. “If I die here, my avatar will die immediately as well. I’ll never be able to see the three of them again. Even though I know Autarch Skyfeeder will still reverse spacetime to revive the three of them, if I’m not able to see it in person… I really can’t accept this.”

  “I understand.” Ning nodded. “Then what are you suggesting, Mistress?”

  “My avatar is alongside Tia and Annihilation’s avatars. I can give you the location. I’d like to ask Autarch Skyfeeder to go find my avatar, then take it with her when she revives my three brothers. Is that acceptable?” the Paragon asked.

  “Might as well.” Ning didn’t refuse, because he himself wasn’t completely confident that they’d be able to escape this place. He had been forced to use his own sword-arts multiple times in the Daoguard Tower area, and they were now in a place that was so mysterious the Autarchs couldn’t even locate it. This was definitely a far more dangerous place than the first Daoguard Tower.

  Ning immediately sent a message to Autarch Skyfeeder, asking for her help. She agreed, her true body exiting the Quintessence. However, the Chaosverse was so very large that it would take a bit of time for her to go find the Paragon of Pills.

  “Let’s scout the surrounding area for now, but make sure to be careful. Let’s not take any risks just yet. We’ll save that for after your three brothers are revived,” Ning said with a laugh. The Paragon of Pills, Hegemon Tia, and the others all acknowledged.

  Whoosh. Ning flew into the skies by himself, quickly reaching an altitude of over a hundred million kilometers.

  “Eh?” The skies above him were like an enormous azure bowl. Ning frowned when he stared into them, and he released his Sword Dao Domain to apply some pressure to the heavens. Alas, the heavens were incomparably resilient, and they actually pushed back and down against Ning.

  “It really is quite stable. It seems there is no chance at all that I might be able to tear through this place through raw force.” Ning quickly came to this determination. As soon as he had arrived here, he had suspected that this might be the case. This was because even the ‘Dimensional Hallway Chains’ formed by a single Daoguard Tower had been incredibly stable. This place was clearly much more dangerous; there was no way he would be able to break through this place with ease. In
deed, his test confirmed his suspicions.

  Whoosh. Ning flew back down, descending to rejoin Azurefiend, the Paragon of Pills, Hegemon Tia, and the others.

  “What should we do, Daolord?” Lord Annihilation asked.

  “There’s no way to break through via brute force,” Ning said with a chuckle. “We’ll need to find some weaknesses in this dimension and then break through via them. For such a large dimension to be so stable means that it has to have an internal energy source of some kind or a formation keeping it together. We’ll be able to escape by destroying either of them.

  “I can vaguely sense some living creatures off in the distance.” Ning pointed towards the horizon ahead of them. “Very weak creatures. Let’s go take a look.”

  “Very weak?” Azurefiend was startled. “How could a terrifying place like this have weak creatures within it?”

  “But they really do seem to be extremely weak. I could probably wipe them out by breathing on them,” Ning said.

  Since he had already promised that they wouldn’t do anything dangerous before reviving the Paragon of Pills’ brothers, Ning was going to play it safe for now. Given his current level of insight into the Dao, he was able to sense and avoid danger while seeking out good fortune! However, the central controls or other critical points in a hidden realm like this would generally be extremely dangerous, and so there was no way to ‘avoid danger’ here.

  Sometimes, you knew the road ahead of you was dangerous but you still had to take it, because only then would you have a chance at survival!

  Whoosh. The group quickly flew into the air. Below them was a vast sea of water that seemed to be truly boundless and without end.

  “Right here!” Ning quickly came to a halt and stared downwards. Beneath him was an ‘island’ that was tens of millions of kilometer in size. Actually, in most places it would have been described as a ‘continent’, but this dimension and the sea it held was so incredibly vast that this island was nothing more than a tiny little speck. It wouldn’t be wrong for major powers like Ning to refer to it as an ‘island’.

  This island had countless living beings thriving within it. Ning stared downwards, his gaze quickly locking onto the most powerful being in this entire island.

  Within a wilderness region, three humanoids were battling against a vilefiend who was dressed in long black robes. He was fairly handsome and exuded an aura of charisma, but in battle he was indescribably ferocious and savage.

  “You humans have killed me many times, but you’ll never be able to kill me permanently. I’ll come back to life time and time again! Ahaha! I can fail any number of times, but you cannot fail even once… because if you do, I’ll butcher every living person on this entire continent. Ahahaha! Want to know a little secret? I’ve actually already done it on five different occasions in history!” The vilefiend’s voice was sharp and shrill. “This will be my sixth time. If you want to survive, you should bow down to me. I need a few lackies, after all. I don’t like you, but you are fairly strong.”

  “Forget about it! This continent belongs to us Sithe! We would never allow a vilefiend like yourself to run rampant here!” The leader of the three was a six-armed man who was furiously attacking with six giant warhammers. Alas, the vilefiend was far too fast and nimble; if it wasn’t for the other two party members, the leader would’ve been defeated long ago.

  The second member of the party was a red-haired man who wielded a warblade and whose entire body was bathed in flames. He howled furiously, “The valiant men of the Sithe shall never succumb to a vilefiend like yourself!”

  The final member of the party was a gray-robed woman, and she had an icy look on her face as she controlled her magic treasures to attack from afar. She said in a frozen voice, “We Sithe would rather all die in battle than submit to a vilefiend like yourself.”

  Ning, the Paragon of Pills, Azurefiend, and the rest all watched from high up in the skies, rather shocked by all of this.

  “The ‘valiant men of the Sithe’?” Ning blinked. “Why does that phrase feel so… odd?”

  “The ‘Sithe would rather all die in battle than submit to a vilefiend’?” Azurefiend mumbled to himself, “That’s a pretty determined statement! I had no idea the Sithe were so intrepid.”

  The three humanoids below them were merely of the Elder God/Ancestral Immortal level, while the vilefiend was an extremely weak member of the vilefiend race. There was an enormous degree of difference between it and the vilefiends Ning encountered near the Daoguard Tower.

  This was nothing more than a battle at the Elder God level. To the likes of Ning, the Paragon of Pills, Azurefiend, Lord Annihilation, Hegemon Flameleft, or Hegemon Tia, these four were all very puny! And yet, they were the most powerful beings on this island. Ning was telling the truth earlier when he said that they were ‘very weak’.

  “Haha!” Lord Annihilation laughed as well. “To us cultivators as a whole, the Sithe are a calamity, a nightmare, a blight on existence! The Sithe, however, also have weak members of the race who are akin to our mortals. Perhaps they find pride in being Sithe.”

  “They call themselves Sithe, but they aren’t actually true Sithe,” Ning said.

  “They aren’t true Sithe?” Everyone present stared at Ning, puzzled.

  “Master, how is it that you know this?” Azurefiend asked.

  Ning didn’t explain any further, because this involved many hidden secrets that would only cause Azurefiend and the others to feel unnecessary consternation.

  If they were true Sithe, they would be rejected by all the prime essences of the Chaosverse, making it impossible for them to use the power of the Dao! However, all three of the humans below them were infusing the Dao into each and every strike. They weren’t rejected by the prime essences!

  * * *

  Book 41, Chapter 15 - Filthy

  “Did you hear that? That little vilefiend just said he’s wiped out all life on this island several times,” Azurefiend said.

  “Unsurprising,” Ji Ning replied. “This hidden dimension is within the Sithelands, which means that vilefiends can arise here! Although they are fairly weak without the power of a Daoguard Tower behind them, they are still enough to be absolute catastrophes for islands like this. In addition, vilefiends have essence springs located in other places. I can kill them with my sword and then locate and destroy their essence springs via karma, but the living beings on this island can only use all their strength to fight and kill the vilefiend time and time again without being able to truly exterminate it. Given enough time, the vilefiend will rise to power once more and then cause yet another calamity to descend upon this island.”

  The Paragon of Pills sighed. “Vilefiends are nothing to us, but they represent apocalypse to the countless beings on this island.”

  Hegemon Tia said, “Perhaps this is a method the Sithe use to train and temper the members of their race.”

  “…Yes, that’s extremely possible.” Ning’s eyes lit up. Applying pressure via vilefiends could result in more powerful experts arising more frequently.

  As they spoke, Ning and the others descended onto the island.

  “Attack!”

  “Let’s launch an all-out assault!” The three humans were beginning to unleash their desperation attacks.

  “Hahaha… desperation attacks? I’ll give you one final blow and annihilate any hope that you might still harbor. I’m looking forward to those looks of despair on your face, the despair that stems from the very depths of your soul… I can’t help but feel excited when I see those looks!” The vilefiend was actually shaking from anticipation.

  Suddenly… slash! A streak of sword-light sliced through the vilefiend.

  The vilefiend’s face still had that look of twisted joy on it, but a heartbeat later it completely disintegrated into dust. Ning’s sword followed the karma lines attaching it to its essence spring, destroying that as well. From this day forth, the vilefiend which had troubled this island and its many living beings for co
untless generations was no more.

  “Helping you kill that vilefiend is a form of recompense for rifling through your memories.” Ning began to search through the memories of those three ‘Sithe’ humans. The fact that their attacks were infused with the power of the Dao meant that they were also natives of this Chaosverse, and so Ning treated them as humans rather than as Sithe. This was why he wished to ‘repay’ them for what he was doing.

  “Master, now that you’ve killed that vilefiend, this island won’t suffer any more attacks. Doesn’t that mean that the tempering trial the Sithe set up is over?” Azurefiend asked.

  “I don’t give a shit,” Ning said casually.

  Azurefiend blinked. The Paragon of Pills, Hegemon Tia, Hegemon Flameleft, and Lord Annihilation all stared at Ning in shock. ‘I don’t give a shit’… how could words like this have come from the mouth of the peerlessly dazzling ‘Daolord Darknorth’?

  There were many Emperors and Hegemons with foul dispositions and even fouler language. However, to the people present, Darknorth was a person of incomparably exalted stature, someone who was very nearly a peer of the Autarchs. They couldn’t help but feel a bit uncomfortable when they heard Ning say this.

  In truth, Ning had a completely perfect Dao-heart. He’d say whatever he felt without needing to disguise it.

  “Um. So what have you discovered?” the Paragon of Pills asked.

  “They are just Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals. They know very little… but their memories do contain information regarding a legendary and ‘invincible’ figure who controls all sixty-three islands in this vast territory. That person is known to them as Archfiend Huabo, and he is so ‘unfathomably powerful’ that he has never been defeated and can wipe out an entire island with a wave of his hand.” Ning snickered. “Their memories indicate that Archfiend Huabo should know more about this place than them.”