Desolate Era

by RWX

  The third tree was the smallest one, so small it could simply be described as a sapling. It was roughly just three meters tall, and it looked semi-translucent and as cold as ice. Every single leaf was like a work of art, while the sparse branches held nine fruit that glowed with light. Each fruit was like a miniature sun that glowed dazzlingly.

  “Is that one of the eight sacred bloodfruits, the ‘skyjewel bloodfruit’?” When Ning’s gaze fell upon the two blood-red fruits located on the second (and largest) tree, he couldn’t help but feel stunned. This was insane. Insane!

  The eight sacred bloodfruits… most likely, people like Daolord Solesky had never even heard of them. Ning only knew of them because of the [Seven Leafpill Chapters]. The [Seven Leafpill Chapters] had contained a great deal of information regarding rare ingredients, including the eight sacred bloodfruits. Every single one of the eight was incomparably rare, and a single sacred bloodfruit tree would drive Eternal Emperors wild with lust and could incite warfare amongst Hegemons.

  “Skyjewel bloodfruit… that means this is a sacred bloodfruit tree?” Ning stared at the awesomely large tree before him, then turned to look at the other two. The first tree was the one with a twisted trunk that looked like a coiling dragon, while the other tree was the sapling. However, Ning had the feeling that the aura of power emanating from these two trees was every bit the equal of the central sacred bloodfruit tree.

  “I only recognize the skyjewel bloodfruit.” Ning shook his head. “I don’t recognize the other two at all.” The only reason he even recognized the former was because of the [Seven Leafpill Chapters]. Otehrwise, he wouldn’t recognize any of them at all.

  “I wonder… can I take them away?” Ning could feel his heartrate speed up. “Won’t know until I find out.” Ning walked over, quickly arriving at the large tree at the very center. Ning reached out with his right hand, which expanded to become so large that it blotted out the skies itself. His hand was now a million kilometers in size, and it reached out and grabbed the tree by the main trunk, seeking to uproot it! Ning’s movements were very slow; if any danger appeared, he would have ample time to react.

  BOOM! Suddenly, a surge of power emanated from the surface of that tree, knocking Ning’s hand aside.

  “Seems I can’t take it with me after all.” Ning actually laughed. This was as he had predicted; these three trees had clearly been planted here by the major power who had set up the Azureflower Estate, after all. How could that major power have allowed others to so easily rob him of his trees?

  “I wonder if I can harvest the fruit or not.” Ning then reached out to one of the fruits. He was able to easily harvest a completely blood-red fruit. Pop! The fruit fell into his hands.

  “So one sacred bloodfruit has fallen into my grasp, just like that?” Ning was rather amazed. He had just wanted to give it a try; he hadn’t expected to actually succeed. “What about another one?” Ning reached out to try and harvest the other bloodfruit, but this time a wave of power swept out from the sacred bloodfruit tree’s trunk, preventing Ning from succeeding. “So stingy! Still, one is enough. Thank you, senior.”

  The sacred bloodfruit tree was currently sending surges of power to the location where the first bloodfruit had been harvested, and the power was slowly taking the form of a bloody ball of mist. Clearly, the tree was beginning to give birth to a new fruit.

  A single sacred bloodfruit tree could at most give birth to two fruits at once. Now that Ning had harvested one, it could give birth to a second one, but of course that would take quite some time.

  The value of a single fruit was naturally much lower than that of the actual tree, which would be capable of giving birth to sacred bloodfruit over and over. Despite that, it was still a rare reassure worth over twenty million cubes of chaos nectar. Treasure like this could be pined for but never planned on!

  “What about the other two trees?” Ning headed over to try his luck with harvesting once again.

  ……

  Uprooting the trees? Impossible. He couldn’t break as much as a single twig on the trees. These three ancient, mysterious trees seemed to possess sentience; they would only permit Ning to harvest a single fruit each! After that, they wouldn’t even let Ning draw near them.

  “These three fruits…?” Ning waved his hand, causing three fruits to appear and float in the air in front of him. The first was the completely blood-red skyjewel bloodfruit, the second was a snow-white fruit that was covered by swirls of blue energy, and the third was the fruit that shone like a miniature sun. “The major power who built the Azureflower Estate was quite generous. I won a fortune as soon as I entered this place!

  Ning put away the fruit and continued his explorations. Soon, he saw an utterly beautiful arch bridge, below which was a wide stream of flowing water. The water was clear and pristine, but radiated an aura of iciness which caused a layer of white steam to appear above it.

  Ning walked onto the arch bridge. He immediately saw that on the other end, atop the distant grasslands a pair of old men were seated facing each other, a chessboard and some chess pieces before them.

  “T-there are other cultivators here?!” Ning was stunned. However, the two old men were dressed in exactly the same clothes; both wore grayish-black robes, and they both turned their heads to stare towards Ning’s bridge.

  “Seniors.” Ning immediately bowed towards them. The two elders had restrained their auras, making it so that Ning couldn’t secretly investigate them, but when Ning looked at them he fel a sense of incredible danger from them. He knew that if they were to fight, he would probably be at danger of losing his life.

  “An outsider has actually arrived in the estate.” One of the two gray-robed elders chuckled as he looked at ing through his two silver eyes. “It’s been quite some time since I’ve seen an outsider.”

  “Hmph.” As for the other gray-robed elder, he had a pair of blood-red eyes. Ning was looking right at him as he stared at Ning, and when their gazes intersected Ning suddenly felt as though he was seeing an endless sea of murder and blood! Ning’s heart shivered when he saw that unfathomable amount of hatred and slaughter. Thankfully, Ning’s heartforce was quite strong and just a step away from sixth-stage heartforce, and so he was able to safeguard his own heart.

  “A mere Daolord of the Second Step?” The blood-eyed elder laughed coldly as he swept out with his sleeves.

  BOOM! His sleeves suddenly stretched out through the skies, seeming able to sweep away all things and moving so fast that Ning was unable to dodge it before it reached him and struck at him.

  “What’s going on?!” Ning had no time to spare. His body immediately blurred as he manifested [Three Heads, Six Arms], and all six of his arms gripped a Northbow sword. His sword-light flashed, then transformed into an enormous black hole. The sky-blotting sleeve lashed down upon Ning’s sword-light, and Ning’s sword-light began to crack as the black hole tottered.

  BOOM!

  Ning could sense a terrifyingly strong concussive force be applied to his entire body, a force so strong as to completely stun Ning. He flew backwards uncontrollably, flying millions of kilometers past the arch bridge before slamming into the ground with a loud booming sound. He actually rolled over a few times on the ground before slowly beginning to regain consciousness.

  “W-what…” When Ning came to his senses, he was terrified by the implications of what had just happened. “Even though I had the Hegemon armor protecting me, I was knocked completely senseless for a few moments. Thankfully, my divine body is comparable to a low-grade Eternal weapon. Otherwise, I probably would’ve died even through the Hegemon armor.” Ning couldn’t help but celebrate his survival. The Hegemon armor had once again weakened the attack to one thousandth of its full power, but that old man had been far more powerful than Patriarch Clearwind when the latter had used his forbidden secret arts!

  Ning’s guess was that this had been the attack of someone on the Eternal Emperor level. Ordinary Daolords of the Fourth Step would pr
obably be instantly slain by it! Ning himself was only able to survive because of both the Hegemon armor and the fact that his body was incredibly tough as well. Despite that, he had been instantly stunned and dazed by that attack.

  “Eh?” Moments ago, the blood-eyed elder had been smirking. Now, however, he revealed a look of astonishment. “He didn’t die? How?! How could a Daolord of the Second Step withstand my killing strike?”

  “Kid, get over here. Let me get a good look at you,” the blood-eyed elder spoke out.

  “Stay away!” The silver-eyed old man immediately said. “No matter what, don’t step onto that bridge. The area beyond the bridge is forbidden to me and this old man. If you move past it, he’ll definitely attack you again.”

  “Big brother!” The blood-eyed elder said angrily, “Whose side are you on?”

  “Second brother, he’s just a young Daolord of the Second Step. He can help relieve our boredom for atime. Why must you move to kill him?” The silver-eyed elder was irritated as well. “We are Eternal Emperors, after all. For you to ignore your own status and try to kill a Daolord of the Second Step… have you not noticed that you are going crazy?”

  “Emperors? We aren’t even cultivators any longer. Emperors? Ahaha…” The blood-eyed elder laughed wildly. He laughed like a madman, and his laughter was filled with endless hatred and pain.

  * * *

  Book 29, Chapter 27 - Withdrawal

  The silver-eyed elder’s body trembled when he heard this, and a hint of sorrow appeared in his eyes as he let out a sigh. “We still have a chance at gaining our freedom. In addition, the person who caused us to fall to such a state was the master of this estate. It had nothing to do with this young Daolord of the Second Step! Why must you get him involved?”

  “The master of the estate? Yes, he’s the one who caused all this,” the blood-eyed elder howled, “And I know that he’s the one we should hate, but what can I possibly do to him? We stand no chance against him whatsoever. He captured us as easily as capturing ants, then transformed us into our current state. I want to take revenge, but I have no chance of succeeding whatsoever. He said that he would give us our freedom once he returned, but how long has it been?! He left more than thirty million chaos cycles ago. He’ll probably never be back!”

  ……

  On the other side of the arch bridge, Ji Ning was speechless when he heard the conversation between the two. Thirty million chaos cycles? That was an incredibly long period of time! Even Samsara Daolords were only able to live for 108,000 chaos cycles. Eternal Emperors truly were special, capable of living nearly forever.

  And, based on the conversation between those two, it seemed as though they had been effortlessly captured by the master of the estate. As they had put it, he had been able to capture them as easily as capturing ants.

  “As expected of someone who created the Nine Chaos Seals,” Ning mused. “He really is unfathomably powerful and inscrutable. If he was able to so easily capture Eternal Emperors, he probably is at least at the Hegemon level of power. Is it possible that there’s an even higher level which he was at?”

  ……

  “Kill. KILL. KILL!!! I’ve fallen so hard, why should I show pity for any others? To be able to discover this estate is indeed a tremendous blessing, but I’m going to make sure all of those lucky Daolords end up as dead Daolord!” The blood-eyed elder’s eyes were blazing with that bloody light as his murderous aura surged towards the skies. “That kid had better never step foot on the bridge again. Otherwise, I’ll definitely slaughter him!” His gaze was focused on the distant Ning, and he didn’t disguise his murderous intent at all.

  “You… ugh. What’s the point?” The silver-eyed elder sighed when he saw this. As for the blood-eyed elder, he simply snorted.

  “Leave, kid. Given that you were able to stay alive when my second brother delivered a killing blow towards you, you probably are one of the most freakishly talented Daolords of your generation.” The silver-eyed elder instructed, “My second brother wishes to stop you, but given your talent you might be able to defeat him once you become a Daolord of the Fourth Step. However, this estate is filled with layers of danger and is much more dangerous than my second brother. I strongly recommend for you to return only after you become an Eternal Emperor yourself.”

  Ning stared at the two from the other side of the bridge. Both his azureflower seal and his azureflower region were shaking from the powerful resonance. Clearly, the thing which was calling to them was emanating from deep within this estate. But given that two Eternal Emperors were guarding the bridge, and that one was filled with the desire to kill him…

  “The difference in power is too great. If I tried to force my way through, he’d probably bind and capture me.” Although Ning deeply esired to enter the depths of the Azureflower Estate, the difference in power was quite apparent.

  “Go, go,” the silver-eyed elder said.

  “Kid, even the outside perimeter held three sacred trees. There are even more treasures inside the estate. Don’t you want to go in? Ahaha, I’m sure you must.” The blood-eyed elder stared at Ning intently. Ning hesitated for a moment, then turned and left. He soon departed from the main gates of the Azureflower Estate.

  The blood-eyed elder and the silver-eyed elder both watched as Ning disappeared off into the distance. “The kid is pretty decisive,” the silver-eyed elder praised.

  “And what good is that? The master of this estate left behind many fortunes, but he also left behind many dangers. The two of us were nothing more than ants to him, and it was so easy for him to capture us and put us here to serve as his guards. Some of the other Eternal Emperors he caught were much more powerful than us, but all of them were assigned to the deeper parts of the estate.” The blood-eyed elder smirked.

  The silver-eyed elder nodded. When he thought about what had happened all those chaos cycles ago, he couldn’t help but once again shiver in fear. They had been the two weakest Eternal Emperors which the master of the estate had caught.

  “But that kid was quite talented as well. If he can become an Eternal Emperor, he might just be able to defeat all of the servants which the master of the estate left behind,” the silver-eyed elder said.

  “Keep dreaming. Do you know how hard it will be for a freak like him to gain eternity? Hell, if he succeeds he’ll probably become a Hegemon!” The blood-eyed elder shook his head.

  ……

  Outside the Azureflower Estate. Ning emerged from the estate feeling both excited as well as impatient. He really wanted to delve deeper into the estate and find the true source of that resonance with his azureflower seal! Alas, he couldn’t even handle the two Eternal Emperors at the outside perimeter.

  “I wish to save Yu Wei, but that path will be a difficult one. This estate, however, might just prove to be one of the major fortunes which I will need to succeed.” Ning turned to stare at the azure flower image once more.

  This place was indeed a source of tremendous fortune. Ning’s subconscious was whispering to him that if he succeeded in traversing this place, he would undergo a truly earth-shaking transformation. This place might enable him to ask the most ancient of powers to come and bring Yu Wei back to life.

  “Can’t be impatient. Time spent sharpening the axe will be earned back with interest when you go out to chop the wood. I’ll return once I become a Daolord of the Fourth Step,” Ning mused. He didn’t have any confidence in being able to become an Eternal Emperor! This didn’t have anything to do with a weak Dao-heart; rather, it was because far, far too many freakishly talented Daolords had failed in this final step. Ning knew exactly how difficult it was, and it would be even harder for him because his path was that of the Omega Sword Dao. Most likely, it would be far more difficult than the paths which Bertulu, Solewind, and the others were going to walk. For peerless geniuses like them, becoming an Eternal Emperor was incredibly difficult. If they succeeded, they would become Hegemons.

  Ning was in control of an Omega Sword D
ao. How difficult would his path to eternity be? Still, he was fairly certain in his ability to become a Daolord of the Fourth Step. By then, challenging the Azureflower Estate would be much simpler.

  “At least…” Ning stared at the azure flower image floating in front of the gates. “Here, at least, I can see a hope of saving her. The next time I come here, I’ll definitely make it into the depths of the estate.”

  Ning left, but when he left his heart was filled with hope.

  ……

  The void of the primordial chaos. A flying vessel was advancing through the chaos once more, with Ning seated in the lotus position atop the deck of the vessel, attuning himself to the surrounding area while recording down the various danger zones on the star map in his hands.

  Su Youji was seated next to Ning and was pouring his wine for him, a lovely smile on her face. Although trailblazing was somewhat dangerous, it really wasn’t that concerning for someone on Ning’s level. That trip to the Azureflower Estate had been far more dangerous! When Ning had returned from the estate, Su Youji had asked about what he had found. Ning’s response was this: “I nearly died in there.”

  Su Youji and the others still felt twinges of fear when they thought back to that answer. Now that Ning was back by her side once more, she felt at peace.

  “Master, that place was far too dangerous. In the future, you should avoid places that are excessively dangerous,” Su Youji said.

  “Don’t worry. I probably won’t go back for a long time,” Ning said.

  “You shouldn’t go at all,” Su Youji said hurriedly.

  “Next time, I’ll be confident in my abilities to survive. For now, I’m not good enough.” Ning shook his head. In the Endless Territories, he was definitely one of the major powers now; he had even been able to survive a killing blow from an Eternal Emperor, after all! If word of this spread, his reputation would definitely increase dramatically. However, Ning’s goals were much higher than merely this. Not even the most freakishly strong of Daolords would be able to revive an extinguished truesoul, after all.