by RWX
“According to our star maps, our current location is quite a long ways off from the Archaeus region. Let us head off, gentlemen,” Waterlord Firesurge said.
“Yes, time to head off.”
“Our journey is a long one. Our most important mission right now is to reach the Archaeus region safely.”
“Let’s go.”
Although the five were all very confident, and although their chances of reaching the Archaeus region were quite high, they didn’t dare to be reckless. The distance between their location and the Archaeus region truly was quite great, as the Archaeus region was the core of this entire alternate universe and was truly, indescribably vast.
According to their star maps, it would take Ning’s group at least 1500 years to go from the transversal conduit to the Archaeus region. They would have go to through more than three thousand territories! World-level cultivators would almost never be willing to take on a journey of such distances, as it would be simply far too dangerous. Who knew when they would perish?
It took them two months to go to the nearest spacetime transfer array. The spacetime transfer arrays here were quite similar to the ones in the Endless Territories. Clearly, the two universes had very similar systems of cultivation.
Be it by flying, teleporting, or using spacetime transfer arrays, the group advanced through the alternate universe for more than a hundred years. Finally, they reached a specific chaos planet that was the core of a spacetime transfer array they had to pass through.
Deep within a gorge on this planet, there were a series of estates where other World-level cultivators resided.
Crackle. Pop.
A figure was seated in the lotus position by the banks of a lake, his entire body wreathed in flames that didn’t cause any damage to the nearby mud or grass at all.
Swoosh.
A streak of light flew towards him from afar. It was a green-haired World God who was carrying a greataxe on his back and radiated an aura of great strength.
“Five World-level cultivators arrived,” the green-haired World God growled.
“Oh? Five dared to trespass in our territory? Do they have extraordinary backgrounds?” The flaming figure asked.
“They should be outsiders. I’ve never seen them before,” the green-haired World God said.
“Never seen them before? Mm. We should know all of the World-level cultivators in the ten or so territories around us. If we don’t know them… they must have come from very far away.” The flaming figure let out a hoarse chuckle. “Inform the other leaders. Begin our preparations for killing these outsiders. We discovered them, so I insist on getting a full share.”
“Understood,” the green-haired World God said respectfully.
“By now, we’ve killed more than three hundred World-level cultivators. Still… that’s not enough. We aren’t even close to our quota of a thousand,” the flaming figure mused softly.
* * *
Book 27, Chapter 27 - Ambushed
Ji Ning’s squad of five descended upon this chaos planet.
They were able to see the heart of the spacetime transfer array far off in the distance. Here in this alternate universe, cultivators also used chaos nectar and chaos jewels for bartering.
“Halt!”
An Elder God standing in front of a beautiful palace suddenly bellowed at them. Although the five before him were all World-level cultivators, and although he was merely an Elder God, he was a representative of a universe-wide organization which dominated this entire universe, the Church of Annihilation. Every single spacetime transfer array in this alternate universe was governed by the Church of Annihilation.
No major powers would dare to challenge the might and prestige of the Church of Annihilation! In this universe, the Church of Annihilation was an utterly exalted and supreme organization!
“We are going to the star of Cricket,” Heartlord Solewind said with a smile. Here in the alternate universe, it was usually Solewind’s responsibility to meet and speak with the locals.
“The spacetime transfer array is currently under maintenance. It’ll be half a month before it can be activated,” the Elder God said.
“Half a month?” Ning and the others looked at each other, feeling quite helpless. Spacetime transfer arrays did indeed require maintenance and repairs. If they were not given the proper maintenance, these ancient devices would slowly begin to break down. Ning’s group had no choice but to leave for now. They travelled a few hundred kilometers away and landed within a beautiful mountain valley.
“Let’s wait here for half a month,” Heartlord solewind said.
“The Church of Annihilation truly is incredible. It was actually able to take complete control over this entire alternate universe. The Endless Territories is just one part of our own universe, but it’s still divided up into many different organizations,” Prince Greatjoy sent mentally. He couldn’t help but sigh. “In the Endless Territories, more than 99% of the people belong to the Dao Alliance, but the Dao Alliance is dispersed into many different locations. Everyone operates independently, with some training and some fighting. As for the spacetime transfer arrays, the local schools and sects are allowed to run them.”
Ning chuckled as well. The Dao Alliance was quite relaxed… but that was why Ning liked it. It granted freedom and governed on a principle of non-governance.
“Cultivators, by our very nature, wish for freedom,” Solewind said. “The reason why the Brightshore Kingdom is so unified is because the almighty Hegemon is so strong as to completely overpower everyone else! The reason why the Aeonians are so unified is because if they aren’t unified, they’ll be wiped out as a race! The Dao Alliance is simply too strong, forcing them to be unified if they wish to survive. The reason why those other top-tier organizations are unified is also because they are few in number. They can’t not be unified.”
“And this alternate universe?” Firesurge asked.
Ning was curious as well. “For this universe to be completely unified is truly inconceivable.”
“Absolutely.”
The five of them were all extraordinary figures. In the future, if they worked hard in their cultivation, they would become truly monstrous Daolords. They were all very proud individuals, but they felt the utmost of admiration and awe towards this organization which had dominated and unified an entire universe.
The five of them continued to wait there quietly, drinking while chatting. But of course, when they discussed sensitive matters they sent mental messages to each other.
“Eh?” Their faces tightened at the exact same instant.
Boom!
The world around them changed as countless roaring waves came crashing out towards them in an apocalyptic scene. The waves swept straight towards the five of them, and at the edges of the endless waves there were a number of World-level cultivators who were riding the waves forward. They stared at Ning’s group of five, their eyes filled with murderous intentions.
“We’ve just been waylaid.” Ning’s group knew what was happening.
“Elder brothers, let me handle these waves.” Firesurge was dressed in deep blue robes and his face was grim and cold. He was quite humble when speaking to Ning and the other three, but he was filled with nothing besides icy contempt towards these attacking cultivators. He waved his hand. BOOM! A ring of seemingly ordinary black water began to spread out in every direction around him.
The ring of black water was able to easily defend against the roaring waves.
“What?”
“The ‘Empyrean Divine Water Formation’ we set up using 109 World-level cultivators was blocked with such ease?” The attackers were all horrified and shocked.
“Break!” Firesurge let out a cold snort, and the roaring waves of water suddenly were pushed backwards, causing the entire formation to collapse.
“It was only meant to bind and capture them anyhow. If we can’t capture them, we will just kill them.” A golden-winged World God issued mental orders to the o
thers. Although he could tell that Firesurge wasn’t an easy person to deal with, he was very confident in his groups abilities. Given their overwhelming advantage in numbers, he truly felt no concern whatsoever.
The awe-inspiring horde of World-level cultivators suddenly switched to a different formation, causing blurry light to spread out amongst their ranks. All of them were now reinforced by the formation they were using, and they charged towards Ning’s group.
“They really are courting death.” Prince Greatjoy let out a cold laugh as he slapped out with his left hand. His left palm instantly expanded to become thirty thousand meters in size, and it emanated an aura of dazzling golden light. This dazzling golden palm moved terrifyingly fast as spacetime twisted and distorted in front of it. It was clearly quite far away from the attackers, but it somehow appeared directly in front of them in an instant.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Every single World-level cultivator touched by the golden palm was reduced to dust.
“Is that a Daolord?!”
“That has to be a Daolord!”
“What the hell is going on? He clearly has the aura of a World God.”
“He’s actually a Daolord pretending to be a World God!” The attackers were instantly scared silly.
Skyfire Brightshore let out a laugh. “There are quite a few attackers. Let me handle them.”
“GWAAAR!” Skyfire opened his mouth and let out a loud, furious roar as flames began to belch forth. The flames instantly covered the entire area and began blasting out in every direction. It must be understood that although Prince Greatjoy was very strong, each of his palm-strikes was only able to kill roughly ten or so World-level cultivators at once. This ring of fire, however, spread out in every direction. There was no way for anyone to run at all.
“Ahhhhh!” Some of the weaker Chaos Immortals were instantly burnt into dust. Even the World Gods with weaker bodies were burnt to ashes.
“Run away immediately!”
“These five World-level cultivators are way too strong.”
“They are probably all transcendent World Gods!”
“Why is our luck such shit?”
Some of the strongest World Gods, along with ones who had access to decent protective divine abilities, were able to endure the roaring flames. Just over twenty of them were able to survive and quickly began to flee in every direction. Although some of them were incredibly strong, they no longer wished to continue this fight against Ning’s group.
Ning nodded as he watched. The flames which Skyfire Brightshore had unleashed seemed to be slightly more powerful than his Chaos-level [Novessence Thunder] technique had been.
“Skyfire, let me give you a hand.” Ning let out a chuckle.
Whoooosh.
Seven streaks of Dao lightning and seven streams of Dao water instantly spread out to cover an area of a million kilometers, catching all of the fleeing World Gods within their area of effect. The Dao lightning and the Dao water were simply too fast; there was no way for them to escape.
The lightning and water all transformed into enormous greatswords that danced through the skies. The entire region of a million kilometers became transformed into an enormous domain of chaotic might. The terrifyingly powerful sword-intent filling this domain tore at the bodies of every single World God, resulting in many of them ground to dust by the clashing and grinding power of the lightning sword-intent and water sword-intent.
It was like an enormous millstone had ground them to bits!
The Yin-Yang Sword Domain, at maximum power, was something which quickly cause even Daolords of the First Step to perish! Even if Ning expanded the zone to cover an area of a million kilometers, Daolords of the First Step would still suffer very heavy injuries, to say nothing of these World-level cultivators.
“Brother Darknorth, your domain truly is formidable. Let me finish the stragglers.” Heartlord Solewind let out a laugh, then turned his gaze to the two World Gods who had made it very far away and were still struggling to flee.
“Why are they this powerful?!”
“Even our transcendent World Gods were wiped out?!”
“B-but…”
“Where the hell did these five come from?!”
The two World Gods who had managed to survive the Yin-Yang Sword Domain were terrified senseless by now. Of the two, one was a transcendent World God while the other was merely a supreme World God. The one thing they shared in common was that both had incredibly powerful protective divine abilities. There was no way for them to actually escape the domain itself, but their bodies were tough enough to let them survive for a moment longer.
“What is going-….”
“I…”
“Ahaha… death, sweet death! Once I die, I’ll have no more worries.”
Boom! Boom!
The two World Gods simultaneously fell to the ground, completely lifeless.
Heartlord Solewind’s lips curved upwards slightly.
“Those two were both elite World Gods, but you were able to make them both commit suicide, Solewind. Admirable, admirable.” Ning nodded.
“They were utterly terrified and driven to the brink of despair by your attacks, my friends. That’s why it was so easy for me to deal with them.” Heartlord Solewind smiled.
Ning and the other three, however, were still shocked by what had happened.
The ability to force a World God to commit suicide? Although the four of them were impressive, none of them were capable of such a thing. True Heartforce Cultivators really were terrifying.
The five of them quickly cleaned up the battlefield, getting rid of the corpses and dividing up the spoils.
“These World-level cultivators weren’t bad. They were fairly strong.” Prince Greatjoy frowned. “There were actually more than ten supreme World Gods and three or four transcendent World Gods! It doesn’t really make sense for there to have been that many transcendent World Gods, does it?”
* * *
Book 27, Chapter 28 - The Reason
“The alternate universe is fairly similar to our own.” Ji Ning also felt that something was off. “Logically speaking, less than one in a thousand World Gods would have reached a transcendent level of power. For this group of a hundred World-level cultivators to have so many supreme World Gods and three or four transcendent World Gods doesn’t make sense. Where the hell did they come from?”
Ning and the other four had effortlessly dominated the group, not giving them any chance to fight back before perishing. Thus, Ning’s group was only able to come to a general approximation regarding how strong they were.
“Let me take a look.” Skyfire Brightshore immediately soared into the skies, then cast his gaze down upon the entire chaos planet as his eyes blazed with fire.
“Hm. Let me take a look on the other side of the chaos planet.” The chaos planet was a sphere, and on the other side of the planet they ended up finding a large number of estates.
“They should be residing in that place.” Solewind cast his gaze downwards. “And… I see quite a few restrictive formations. There’s no way to use godsense to scan the place.”
“We killed 126 World-level cultivators, but there are nearly 150 estates there.” Ning frowned. “Are there still others?”
“Even if there are, they would’ve fled,” Prince Greatjoy said.
This guess was correct.
……
A group of nineteen World-level cultivators were hiding within an empty part of the primordial chaos. All of them had ugly looks on their faces as they traded glances. In their eyes could be seen both terror and joy.
“Thank goodness we were responsible for keeping watch over the headquarters.”
“That was terrifying.”
“All those life tablets went poof in an instant. None of them survived!”
When they thought back to the sight of all those life tablets shattering at the same instant, they couldn’t help but be seized by terror once more.
The World-level cultivators had a
ll left behind life tablets so that the others would know if they were alive or not. Just now, when this group had been convening in their headquarters, they realized to their astonishment that a total of 126 life tablets had shattered apart in the same instant. Even the life tablets of the terrifyingly strong transcendent World Gods who they had dreaded were quickly shattered.
It had been a complete massacre!
Although they didn’t personally witness the battle, the wholesale annihilation of the life tablets was enough for them to guess at what had happened. They had been so terrified that they immediately fled from their headquarters and used a spatial teleportation to escape.
“Some of them had extremely powerful protective divine abilities. Logically speaking, even if they were attacked by Daolords they would’ve merely been captured and drawn into magic treasures to be slowly ground down. But… all those life tablets shattered in almost the blink of an eye.”
“What the hell did they run into?”
“Those five World-level cultivators… was a major power hiding amongst their ranks?”
The lucky survivors speculated wildly, but were unable to go beyond speculation. They would never dare to return to that place.
And so, just like that this formidable local organization disappeared, never to be heard of again.
This group of World-level cultivators truly had been quite powerful. Unfortunately, they had run into Ning’s group of five. These five were the most freakishly talented of the freakishly talented. Anyone besides the five of them would’ve found it extremely difficult to deal with this group.
For fear that this matter might have unexpected repercussions, Ning’s group decided to temporarily hide within a vacant region of primordial chaos as Prince Greatjoy stealthily investigated the matter. “Given my abilities, not even Daolords would be able to detect my actions unless they are even stronger than I am in the Dao of Spacetime.” In terms of mastery over spacetime, Prince Greatjoy’s level of expertise was superior to even that of many Daolords of the Second Step who specialized in the Dao of Spacetime.
