by RWX
“Where is the world of grass right now?” Ning asked.
“It’s been advancing at high speed for quite some time. Judging from its path, it should be headed towards the ‘Nine Cicadas Temple’,” Bolin said.
Ning and the others were all enlightened. Of the temples the Sithe had sent out to attack the Autarchs, one had been defeated by Ning while four had been sealed away. The Nine Cicadas Temple had been given that name by the Autarchs because it was covered with extremely strange carvings of nine cicadas on them. The temple was controlled by nine Sithe Exalts, the most of any temple they had encountered thus far.
“If it is flying towards the Nine Cicadas Temple, it is probably planning on rescuing those Exalts,” Ekong said.
“We can’t let them join forces!” Ning said hurriedly.
“The Sithe have repeatedly taken advantage of their higher level of insight to ambush us!” Autarch Titanos said. “Now, thanks to Bolin, we know the exact path this world of grass is taking. That means we can set a trap for it and play a nasty little trick on that terrifying weapon.”
“Right. Let’s set up a trap!” Ning’s eyes lit up.
“Let’s give them a good hard beating,” Autarch Mogg agreed hurriedly. He had been ambushed not too long ago and was itching for revenge.
“Hopefully, we’ll destroy the entire thing,” Bolin said.
The prospect of giving the Sithe a taste of their own medicine was making their blood pump with excitement!
Book 44, Chapter 24 - An Autarch Task Force
Ji Ning and the others began to work hard to produce a plan which would be perfectly tailored to dealing with this terrifying new threat, the ‘Grassland World’. Everyone including Ning knew deep in their hearts how important this battle would be. In fact, it could be said that if they won this battle they would probably have won the entire war! If they lost, then they would probably have lost the war as well.
The price of defeat was simply too great. All of the countless native lifeforms of this entire Chaosverse, from the lowliest of ordinary mortals to the most exalted of Hegemons and Autarchs, would be completely exterminated! Not a single one of them would be left alive! The entire Chaosverse would be completely remade into one which was suitable for the Sithe and inimical to all others.
Ning knew that they couldn’t afford to lose this battle! By now, the Sithe Hegemons and Emperors no longer posed much of a threat. It was up to the final battle between the supreme elites of each side.
“We destroyed one of those temples and trapped four of them! Even if Iyerre gets personally involved, we should be able to withstand him via the Golden Bridges of Freedom. Right now, the only thing the Sithe have which poses a threat to us is that world of grass. In truth, it is an apocalyptic danger,” Autarch Titanos said. “It only needed a fraction of its power to kill Bolin. Even though Bolin now controls two Daobirth Essences, he’s still forced to hide via the ‘false death’ technique and doesn’t dare to face it head-on! In other words, none of us are a match for that world of grass in sole combat.”
Ning agreed with this assessment. The terrifying power which the world of grass had displayed previously was enough to cause even Ning to shiver with fear.
“We’ll never have a better chance than this,” Autarch Titanos said. “We are hidden in darkness, while they stand revealed to us! We can make all preparations necessary and focus all of our power against the world of grass.”
“When Iyerre ambushed Mogg, he didn’t produce anything even as remotely terrifying as the world of grass,” Autarch Bolin said. “That was his ‘big reveal’, so he definitely would’ve gone all-out in that attack. For him to not use a ‘world of grass’ leads me to suspect that the entire Sithe race only has a single such weapon. I’m sure that it wasn’t easy for him to make such a terrifying weapon. Hell, I’m amazed they were able to create it at all!”
“Right. If Iyerre didn’t carry one, that’s probably because there only IS one.”
“If we can defeat the world of grass, we would’ve gotten rid of our greatest threat and essentially won this war,” Autarch Stonerule agreed. “This is now our last, best chance to gain victory.”
“We have to win.”
“We must win!” The seven strongest members of the cultivator civilizations were filled with determination to win.
Ning and the others were going to put everything they had into this fight. Every single one of them was going to take part, and so they began to hasten towards the Nine Cicadas Temple from their respective stations throughout the Chaosverse. Autarch Stonerule was the slowest when it came to travel speed, and so Autarch Skyfeeder actually went to him to ‘carry’ him with her.
Just a bit over a month later, they all reunited near the Nine Cicadas Temple. As for the Grassland World, it was still on its way. It wasn’t quite up to par with Autarchs when it came to warping through spacetime.
“We still have nearly a month left.”
The bulky Nine Cicadas Temple hung there in the void of space, the nine Sithe Exalts still focusing on defending it from within. Ning and the others wouldn’t be able to breach its defenses anytime soon, so they simply left it trapped within their formations.
The Autarchs were located in a region of empty space outside the formations sealing the temple away. Autarch Titanos’ two fleshy antennae were standing up straight, quivering with killing intent. He began to make the arrangements: “During this next month, we need to finish setting up any and all helpful formations. We don’t have much time. Move fast, everyone.”
“Alright,” Ning, Bolin’s avatar, Autarch Skyfeeder, Autarch Ekong, Autarch Stonerule, and Autarch Mogg all chorused in unison.
Time began to flow in a rapidly accelerated pace around them. Autarch Skyfeeder was responsible for keeping time sped up, while Ning and the others were responsible for setting up the formations. They already knew exactly where the Grassland World would be arriving, and so they would set up the grand formation there! The entire formation covered a huge area, as it was meant to encompass the entire Grassland World.
In order to make the formation as strong as possible, they even infused some of the mysteries of the Golden Bridges into the formation. When the time came, the formation would be ready to accumulate an enormous amount of the Chaosverse’s power.
The formation was divided up into two different parts. The outer formation would be maintained by Ning, Bolin’s avatar, and the true bodies of the Autarchs. The inner formation would be maintained by the other five Autarch avatars. The inner formation would serve as the vanguard for doing battle against the Grassland World; if they suffered any casualties, the inner formation would be the first to go.
“Haha, I’m done.”
“The formation’s been set up.”
Ning and the others had worked hard and quickly. In the end, they managed to finish the entire grand formation with two days to spare.
“I’ll take the Dust-1 position.” Ning stood there within a specific part of the formation. Boom! The overwhelming power of the Chaosverse instantly crossed an infinite distance to appear in the region around him. Ning’s location seemed to have transformed into an endless vortex of darkness which devoured all of the power of the prime essences!
This grand formation had two ‘poles’ which represented Yin and Yang. Ning was responsible for one of them while Titanos was responsible for the other, as the two were both skilled in formations.
As for the other five, they were responsible for helping and strengthening the power of the formation.
“The formation is complete. All of us are now much more powerful than we are normally. With so many empowered Autarch-class combatants working together and joining forces, we’ll definitely be able to destroy the Grassland World.” Autarch Titanos let out a loud laugh, completely confident in their chances.
“Right. The chains that attacked me were powerful,” Bolin’s avatar agreed, “But we have so many Autarch-class combatants that we would have more than enough po
wer to each take on a single chain without being affected.”
“Unfortunately, two of the five avatars at the vanguard are very weak. My avatar and Skyfeeder’s avatar were both destroyed and had to be remade, and so they are only at half-strength. Even with the formation supporting them, they are just barely as strong as they would be at their peak.” Autarch Titanos shook his head.
“It is enough. The true bodies will be launching attacks from afar in support, right?” Mogg laughed as well.
Although they spoke confidently, all of them remained quite cautious. They had an enormous advantage in this battle as they had chosen the battlefield and prepared formations for it, ensuring that they could unleash the absolute maximum power possible! However, they didn’t dare to truly go all-out and leave themselves with no way out. If they really did die, the cultivators would never again have a chance of reversing this defeat. Thus, if this battle really did end up poorly then the true bodies who were located in the ‘outer’ part of the formation would be able to flee at any time.
The reason why Bolin’s avatar was also located in the ‘outer’ part was to keep his continued existence a secret. Otherwise, the Sithe would immediately find out that Bolin hadn’t really died.
A total of twelve Autarch-class combatants had gathered together within the formation, and they were empowered tremendously by it. They were right to speak with confidence, but also right to be wary of this terrifying ‘Grassland World’ weapon the Sithe had devised.
“They are about to arrive.” Autarch Bolin’s true body was in constant contact with them. “Five more warps through spacetime and they’ll arrive.”
“Make your preparations, everyone,” Autarch Titanos said. “Hide the formation’s power. Don’t make your moves until they enter its range.”
Titanos had been alive for longer than any of the others, and he had been the most powerful before Ning’s rise to power. Everyone was accustomed to him giving the orders, and he had been the one to devise the majority of the components of this formation. Ning and the others had only played a supplementary role.
Silence. The entire formation fell completely and utterly silent.
Ning and the others all stared intently, nervously awaiting the most critical battle of them all.
……
“According to the information almighty Iyerre gave us, they should be arriving soon. We’ll be able to escape.” The nine Sithe Exalts within the Nine Cicadas Temple were all seated in the lotus position, eagerly awaiting the Grassland World’s arrival. They had felt extremely restless and uneasy after being sealed away here, as all they could do was passively watch and wait for the cultivators to eventually breach the formations protecting them.
“They should arrive in just another day or two.”
……
Rumble… a dimensional rift suddenly appeared just a hundred billion kilometers away from the Nine Cicadas Temple, followed by a silvery-white ship flying out of the rift. This was an ordinary-looking realmship, while the person commanding it was nothing more than an ordinary Hegemon.
However… the twelve Autarch-class combatants hidden within this region all knew the truth. They knew that the Grassland World was hidden within that realmship, because Autarch Bolin’s true body remained trapped inside.
“They’ve entered the net.” Autarch Titanos’ eyes shone with baleful light. “Activate.”
“Activate.”
Ning and Titanos were in control of the Yin-Yang poles, and they simultaneously activated the formation with the other five working in concert with them. Rumble… an utterly apocalyptic amount of power instantly filled a vast region of ten trillion kilometers. The mere flow of power caused the void of space itself to be ground into countless sand-like particles, instantly disintegrating the silver realmship. As for the Sithe descendant who was commanding it, he stared in terror as he himself was disintegrated into dust.
The only thing left behind was a strange ovaloid object.
Book 44, Chapter 25 - Snake and Sword
This ovaloid object was the most powerful Sithe weapon… the Grassland World.
“We’ve been traped!”
“What’s going on? How could there be a trap here? We cut off all connections to the outside world and are undetectable. There’s no way the cultivators could’ve tracked us here. How could they have set up a trap in advance?!” The black-robed man, the red-robed man, and the silver-robed woman were standing atop the clouds, staring at the outside world. They were able to see past the Grassland World’s dimensions with ease.
The world outside had been transformed into a writhing realm of primordial chaos, filled with such power that even they shuddered at it.
“Did they perhaps manage to guess that we were going to come and rescue the Exalts and so set up a trap in advance?” the silver-robed woman asked, puzzled.
“They trapped a total of four temples. How could they be sure that we would come to the Nine Cicadas Temple first?” the red-robed man boomed.
“Could they have set up traps around all four temples?” the black-robed man asked in his icy voice.
“Impossible. You can see how much power the formation outside is using. The ambient power alone is enough to annihilate realmships with ease. The cultivators must have poured all their power into creating a formation of such power,” the silver-robed woman said. “There’s no way they could simultaneously maintain four or five formations of such power.”
The red-robed man shook his head. “In the end, this is their Chaosverse. They must’ve come up with some other way of tracking our whereabouts. No time to waste on wondering how they did it! Right now, our biggest problem is that we’ve already been trapped.”
“Then what should we do?” the black-robed man said with a frown.
Unlike the other Sithe Exalts, they weren’t truly Iyerre’s subordinates. Thus, they didn’t really care too much about whether Iyerre won or not. They had only taken part because they had been required to, while the promised rewards ensured that they weren’t excessively opposed to helping out! However, when they could sense that they were in mortal danger, there was absolutely no way they would throw away their own lives for the sake of this war.
Outside this Chaosverse, they could kill these Autarchs with ease. Here in this Chaosverse, these local Autarchs were terrifyingly powerful. Now that they had joined forces and used a mighty formation, the three felt even more nervous.
“We can’t risk ourselves. Absolutely not. If Iyerre wants to take risks, let him do it,” the black-robed man muttered.
“Let’s see just how strong the grand formation is. Let the fools go,” the silver-robed woman said. “We ourselves can just stand back.”
“Fine.” The black-robed man and the red-robed man both agreed. By their very nature, they looked down upon those three ‘fools’.
“Hey, idiots! Hurry up and get over here!” the silver-robed woman shouted.
Soon, three enormous creatures emerged from beyond the clouds. The first was the giant cyclopean bear, the second was the red-eyed white-furred humanoid, while the third was the tentacled stormcloud. These Autarch-class void dwellers were extremely displeased at the contempt which these three powerful Sithe displayed towards them. They could sense it keenly, but they were weaker than the three Sithe and so there was nothing they could do.
“What do you want?” the giant cyclopean bear rumbled unhappily.
“We have business for you, of course,” the silver-robed woman snapped. “The Grassland World has already been trapped by the cultivators! We don’t know anything at all about the situation outside, and so we need you to help investigate it for us.”
“Investigate?” The three Autarch-class void dwellers were filled with both rage and fear. They knew just how powerful these three Sithe were… and yet, the Sithe were too afraid to go outside and so were sending them out?
“The three of you are skilled at staying alive.” The silver-robed woman’s eyes flashed coldly. “I suggest y
ou go immediately. Don’t force our hand.”
They had to go, whether they wanted to or not! The three Autarch-class void dwellers exchanged glances, communing in secret.
“We can go if you want,” the red-eyed, white-furred humanoid said hoarsely, “But we’ll need to keep part of our bodies within the Grassland World. We’ll only let parts of ourselves go outside! That way, we can be sure to keep ourselves alive. If you want us to completely depart from the Grassland World, we’d rather die than comply! It’d be death either way.”
“Right!” the cyclopean bear and the tentacled stormcloud both chorused.
“Haha, so you three idiots aren’t as dumb as you look?” the silver-robed woman snickered. “Don’t worry. We don’t stand to benefit from your deaths. All we want to do is to use you to investigate the outside world. We can agree to your terms… now hurry up and go! Find out what’s going on outside so we can take the appropriate counter-measures.”
The three Autarch-class void dwellers could no longer refuse, and so they immediately soared upwards through the clouds. They went through one layer of clouds after another. The clouds were normally quite resilient, but when they flew through them the clouds all parted before them. Soon, they reached the ninth and final layer of clouds.
“Be careful, everyone.” They exchanged glances, then nervously began to fly through the ninth layer as the two men and one woman below them watched intently.
……
Ning and the others were using the formation to blanket and smother this entire region with their power. After trapping that ovaloid object, they quickly saw it dramatically expand in size. Boom! Boom! Boom! It grew to be ten thousand kilometers in size… a hundred thousand kilometers… a million kilometers… ten million kilometers… a hundred million kilometers…
“Suppress it!” Autarch Titanos commanded. Ning and the others began to pour the power of the formation into doing just that.