Desolate Era

by RWX

  Reviving an Exalt was incredibly difficult, but the Sithe Lord of Chaos was capable of it. However, this would cause a degree of injury to the prime essences of that Chaosverse; generally speaking, a Lord of Chaos would be unwilling to make that sort of sacrifice.

  However… if one accomplished great deeds, one had to be rewarded for it! Killing someone who was in control of an Eternal Omega Dao was viewed as a slightly greater deed than even killing an Autarch would be! If they were successful, then the Exalt would not only be brought back to life, he would be given many gifts as well. It truly would be a case of him rising to preeminence.

  “Unfortunately, that Daolord is terrifyingly strong. Otherwise, we’d charge out and kill him ourselves.”

  “Yes, he’s absolutely terrifying. Not even the Exalt dares to challenge him. He’s in control of an Eternal Omega Dao, and this is his Chaosverse. With the support of the Dao, he’s virtually invincible.”

  “Thankfully, his truesoul is crumbling away! The more he fights, the faster the truesoul will break apart. That’s why the exiles in Purgatory have a chance.”

  “However, the Exalt was quite odd about this. Why did he say that the person who killed the white-robed Daolord would be allowed to take control over an Elder Hall? Many of the exiles were local natives. Is he really going to let a local take control over an Elder Hall? They might be our progeny, but they were born in this Chaosverse, not our own; that makes them native to this Chaosverse, and they are born with power over the Dao. If we let one of them take control over an Elder Hall, that person might become a source of trouble.”

  “Don’t worry, our progeny swore long ago not to betray us. And… in the end, they are our children. They share our blood. Why would they view us as enemies?”

  “They are still natives; they aren’t true Sithe like us. They belong to this Chaosverse, while we belong to a different one. In the end, this is an insurmountable difference.”

  “But we Sithe gave birth to them!”

  “Enough, enough. Let’s not argue about this.” These two Hegemons were not native to this hidden dimension. Rather, they had invaded this Chaosverse alongside the grand Sithe army.

  Clearly, the true Sithe viewed the ‘Sithe progeny’ in this hidden dimension as being different from them.

  * * *

  Book 41, Chapter 19 - Inside Purgatory

  Purgatory. Many exiled major powers were here, many of whom were Hegemons or Emperors. Although there were many Daolords who would be exiled here, the vast majority of them would fail the Daomerge and die! They might be Sithe progeny, but they were born within this Chaosverse and thus incapable training in true Sithe techniques. The Sithe, in turn, were unable to create a set of perfect training techniques that was suited to this Chaosverse. They were diametrically incompatible with it, after all. They would constantly be suppressed and weakened by the local prime essences, making it hard for them to comprehend the Dao here.

  All the Sithe could do was bestow some local cultivator techniques to their Sithe progeny while giving them some advice and guidance.

  The skies were dark and gloomy, with some fiery red light off in the horizons. A total of three figures were standing within a wilderness area.

  “Haha, our chance has come!” The leader of the three was a black-robed man who had a large amount of grass covering his head, and his ‘beard’ was formed from grass as well. His eyes were dark, green, and grim. “The Exalt has bestowed powerful treasures upon us. If we can kill that white-robed Doalord, we’ll skyrocket in status and even be able to control one of the Elder Halls.”

  “Big brother… it is clear from the many gifts the Exalt has offered that he truly wishes to kill that white-robed Daolord. But why, then, would he rather give us so many treasures and so many benefits rather than do it himself? None of those fools in the Sacred Realm wish to take part either! There’s only one possible answer to this – the white-robed Daolord is so terrifyingly strong that even Exalts fear him and are unable to beat him.” An ugly old lady said in a hoarse voice, “We need to treat this white-robed Daolord as we would an Exalt, or perhaps someone even more terrifying than an Exalt.”

  “Second sister, you speak sense,” the chubby man by her side said immediately.

  “Of course I know how terrifying he has to be… but in the end, he’s still failed the Daomerge. We have a chance! Come, let us first go find that white-robed Daolord,” the black-robed man said with a growl. “I’ve had enough of life in Purgatory anyhow. I’d rather die fighting for this opportunity.”

  “Agreed.” Both his companions turned solemn as well. Life in Purgatory truly was a living hell. There was little life here, and it was a dry, desolate place. The environment was extremely inhospitable, forcing even Hegemons to tread carefully. Worse, even if you stayed in one place and didn’t move, some danger would usually descend out of nowhere. Every day spent here was a day spent in fear. This was a miserable life indeed.

  ……

  Ji Ning continued to fly through the realm-seam, inspecting everything in his path as he flew past the eight realms. Six mortal realms, the Sacred Realm, and Purgatory – by now, Ning had located all of them. However, all seven of the other realms were completely locked; only the gates to Purgatory remained open to him. There was no way to enter the others at all!

  “So they left just one door open to me?” Ning chuckled after a moment. “It seems the controllers of this hidden dimension have set up a few traps for me. Fine, fine. I’ll go play with you.”

  Swoosh. Ning flew over to the Purgatory Realmgate, then gave it a glance. Ning was rather surprised: “No living beings are around it?” There was no way his senses could be off; clearly, there really were no living beings next to the Realmgate at all. What he didn’t realize was that everyone who had been driven into Purgatory was an exile; they were all extremely crafty and selfish. No one wished to be the first to attack, and so they all hid far away, using various scrying methods to watch the action at the Realmgate.

  Completely unmolested, Ning slipped through the Realmgate and arrived at the vast world of Purgatory behind it.

  “What an impressive ‘Purgatory’ this world truly is!” The white-robed Ning descended upon the dark, foul-looking earth. The world around him was covered in darkness, with some flames flickering far off in the distance that were blindingly bright. Around him were many howling tornados that quickly appeared and then dissipated, while space and time were rippling behind him.

  “It really is quite chaotic here. This ‘Purgatory’ is filled with countless natural calamities. Even Hegemons would have to tread carefully here, while Daolords are constantly at risk of imminent death.” Ning chuckled. “But it’s better than the realm-seam, at least.” The realm-seam was even more chaotic, to the point where there was nothing stable there at all. At least this place had an environment.

  Flames illuminating the distant horizons… this did make for an eerily beautiful sight. The destructive tornados that constantly swept through this place did as well. As for the evil miasmatic aura of this place that give birth to vilefiends? It was nothing but a bit of amusement to Ning.

  “Now this place is rather intriguing. I’m almost finished merging the Dao of Wind into my Eternal Omega Sword Dao. I might as well train here for a time.” Although Ning was surrounded by danger, he remained completely relaxed. He immediately sat down in the lotus position.

  The white-robed Ning sat down there on the foul ground, his Sword Dao Domain covering the entire area around him, preventing the various types of natural dangers from moving close to him. The place where Ning sat had become sacred grounds, untouched by the filth of Purgatory.

  Whoosh. The wind blew past Ning jubilantly, occasionally revealing a few sparks of sword-light which gathered together, eventually transforming back into wind once more.

  Ning had reached the Hegemonic level in the Dao of Wind long ago. Now, what he needed to do was to infuse it into his Sword Dao and create his Wind Sword Dao!


  Time passed, one day after another.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Why has that Daolord sat down without even moving an inch?” The exiles who were scrying this place from afar were all puzzled.

  “I have to say, that Daolord is pretty powerful. He didn’t have to do anything; his domain alone was able to block out all the local dangers. The chaotic environment of Purgatory is absolutely nothing to him.”

  “He’s probably trying to buy time.”

  “If he wants to drag this out, I’m more than happy to oblige. I’ve already been trapped here for over eight million chaos cycles. Let’s see who can last longer! I have plenty of patience.”

  “Yes, let’s wait.” The exiled powers were all waiting for the right moment to attack.

  The years continued to flow on. In the blink of an eye, over half a million years had gone by. All of the exiled powers continued to wait patiently for a good opportunity. Although they all had powerful Sithe weapons and were confident in their abilities, life in Purgatory had long ago ensured that they had become slippery and crafty.

  The local environment here was bizarre but beautiful in a twisted way, and the flames flickering off in the distance caused Ning’s face to flicker with reflected light. Suddenly, Ning’s lips curved upwards slightly, and he slowly opened his eyes. A smiling look was in his gaze.

  Ning took a sudden, deep breath, causing the wind streams around him to begin to howl.

  “GRAAAAAH!” Suddenly, Ning seemed to let out an enormous roar.

  In truth, this was nothing more than a single deep breath, but the breath was so ferocious that it generated a terrifying howling sound which shook the earth. It sounded like the bellowing of a thousand terrifying beasts, and it unleashed countless twisting tornados that were formed from countless streaks of sword-light. The howling wind was like the waves of the ocean, crashing out every which way.

  The howling wind shattered everything in its path like a giant shockwave, crushing mountains to dust and shattering even the distant flames. The wind wave spread out with terrifying speed, moving so fast that even Sith Exalts would be caught offguard by it.

  This was Ning’s Wind Sword Dao! The terrifying gust of wind caused even spacetime to shudder.

  “Flee!”

  “Run away!”

  Ning’s breath was actually aimed at the five Emperors who were located closest to him. They were hundreds of billions of kilometers away from him, but it wasn’t enough. The Dao of Wind was a fast Dao to begin with, and the Wind Sword Dao in the form of a howling tempest moved with indescribable speed. Hundreds of billions of kilometers was nothing to it! Although those five Emperors frantically sought to flee, spacetime was suppressed here. There was no way to warp through spacetime, and so they could do nothing save just watch as the terrifying wind howled through the heavens and moved towards them with incomprehensible speed. There was nowhere for them to hide at all.

  “Ahhhh!”

  “Attack!”

  “Impossible.”

  “Go all-out against him!” The five Emperors felt a sense of despair. Some attempted to use Sithe weapons to fight back, but wind by its very nature is a formless thing. The attacks of the Sithe weapons flew straight through the wind, completely incapable of affecting the wind at all.

  The wind swept through the lands like a giant broom, wiping out everything in its path. Those five Emperors were instantly ground to dust, with just a few of their top treasures and Sithe weapons managing to survive.

  An area of over three trillion kilometers to Ning’s left had been completely swept clean in a fan-shaped manner. The entire world seemed to have become incredibly, perfectly flat.

  The other exiles who were watching this from afar were all scared out of their minds. “He did that with just a shout? H-how powerful is he?!” The exiles were starting to tremble with fear.

  * * *

  Book 41, Chapter 20 - Broken One By One

  What they didn’t know was that Ji Ning didn’t actually ‘shout’. He had just mastered his Wind Sword Dao, and had given it a little test by blowing some air out of his lungs, but the air had quickly moved at such incredible speeds that all of the exiles were absolutely stunned and terrified by it.

  “He’s terrifying.”

  “He was able to slay Hegemons with ease from a distance of hundreds of billions of kilometers. He truly is unfathomably powerful. All the Hegemons and Emperors in Purgatory combined might stand a chance, but if we were to fight separately we would be defeated one-by-one.”

  “Join forces. Our only chance is to join forces.” The exiles were all extraordinarily talented figures; they instantly knew what they had to do. But… it was already too late!

  “Now that I have mastered the Wind Sword Dao, it is time to make my move. I certainly can’t win a war of attrition against them.” Ning rose to his feet, taking a single step forwards and warping torwards to the location where the five slain Hegemons had been at. He waved his hand, collecting all of the fallen treasures and Sithe weapons. These were all fine treasures that he could either leave to the Three Realms or gift to his disciples and friends.

  Next, Ning took another step forwards and reappeared next to a lake which was hundreds of billions of kilometers.

  Two Emperors were by the lakeside, carefully scrying the area where Ning had been just a moment ago. Suddenly, a dimensional ripple appeared next to them, followed by a white-robed Daolord appearing from it. His appearance terrified the two Emperors so much that their legs went soft. “How is this possible? How did he find us? We set up formations early on to track from very far away if anyone moves close to us. It didn’t look like the Daolord made any preparations either. How did he do this?!”

  They couldn’t understand it at all. In truth, this enormous hidden dimension did put Ning under quite a bit of pressure. Godsense was blocked out; his only choice was to use his eyes. However, his vision was also impaired by many types of invisible energy, limiting the distance at which he could see.

  “I spent half a million years training next to the Realmgate mastering the Wind Sword Dao, just for this moment,” Ning mused.

  If he remained far away from his enemies and was unable to locate them, he would end up in a passive situation where he could only endure attacks from them. This was why he chose to sit down and master his Wind Sword Dao. Ning had previously spent three thousand chaos cycles training in various Daos; if he had chosen to focus on the Wind Sword Dao, he would’ve completed it long ago. However, he had not; he had let things happen normally, preferring to spend more of his time on the more-difficult Space Sword Dao. There was no need to focus that much on a fairly simple Sword Dao.

  In Purgatory, he was completely unable to locate any of his foes, and so he chose to focus on the Wind Sword Dao. The wind was something without form or shape, but it blew across the entire world. Thanks to the Wind Sword Dao, Ning was able to ride the wind with his senses and accurately locate every single one of the Hegemons and Emperors! He might not be able to see them with the naked eye, but he could sense them with the wind!

  “Flee!” The terrified Emperors hurriedly sought to flee, but Ning glared at them. His gaze seemed to solidify and transform into two streams of wind. At first, the wind seemed quite gentle, but when it blew past the two Emperors it transformed into a raging gale. The two Emperors tried to flee, but the gale was composed of countless tiny streaks of sword-light that effortlessly ground them into dust.

  “Next.” Ning didn’t even waste time on picking up their treasures. Instead, he immediately warped through space towards the next squad of enemies.

  ……

  If Ning wanted to actually use some of his energy, he could actually use a Northbow sword to pierce through spacetime and slay them from afar. However, that took up too much of his power. He wasn’t willing to resort to this. If he wanted to kill them while conserving his energy, he had to kill them at close range.

  This was because this hidden dimension had a su
ppressive effect on his Sword Dao Domain, preventing it from expanding to its usual size. When Ning had used his Wind Sword Dao to form a Sword Dao Domain that used a howling wind to assault his foes, he had only been able to strike from a distance of a few hundreds of billions of kilometers. At this distance, Ning was able to use his Wind Sword Dao to suppress spacetime and prevent his foes from fleeing.

  The problem was, there were other foes who were trillions of kilometers away. Some were even more distant! Ning was unable to suppress spacetime at such a great distance! When his enemies saw him attacking, they would be able to escape via blinking away. That’s why he had to get close to them, then attack!

  ……

  “The white-robed Daolord is attacking us!”

  “He’s warping through space to attack us. Hurry up and join forces! If we stay separated like this, we’re all going to die.” The exiles were absolutely terrified by now.

  Whoosh. Ning appeared before yet another squad. This squad had a total of three Emperors. When they saw the white-robed Daolord appear, their hearts were filled with terror. They didn’t hesitate at all, immediately unleashing their most powerful Sithe weapons to battle against Ning. They knew that escape was completely impossible; they had no chance of successfully fleeing at all.

  Two of the Emperors each wielded a strange scepter which glowed with a blurry light that swept out to cover Ning. Not even Ning’s Sword Dao Domain was able to block this blurry light, as it was formless and incorporeal. It completely covered Ning.

  The third Emperor wielded a longspear. He suddenly threw it forwards, sending it howling through the air like a stream of light that shot through the Sword Dao Domain and stabbed at Ning.

  “What a powerful illusion! My Dao-heart is perfect and I have reached a high level of mastery over illusions, but I was still slightly affected by it. It seems I need to upgrade my Dao of Illusions to Hegemony as soon as possible. When I ran into that Sithe Exalt Dauber, I was slightly affected by him as well.” Ning couldn’t help but sigh. The Sithe truly had reached incomprehensible heights in every single Dao.