Desolate Era

by RWX

  Hegemon Brightshore was the number one Hegemon of the Flamedragon Realmverse, yes, but there were other realmverses and otherverses to worry about. There were still many who were stronger than him.

  ……

  The white-robed Ji Ning was the only person left within the skies above the Sacred City. Ning swept the area with his gaze, then glanced in a certain direction. He could vaguely sense that it was most likely Hegemon Brightshore who was hiding over there, and that there were a number of other major powers watching from the shadows.

  “Silksnow Fiend Palace.” Ning’s gaze finally turned to the towering palace which was the seat of Silksnow Fiend Palace.

  Boom! Ning suddenly transformed to become a three million meter titan. He reached out with his two hands to claw at Silksnow Fiend Palace, trying to tear it upwards. This instantly caused many runes to light up as the barriers around the palace sought to protect it. When the runes lit up, Ning began to analyze them carefully. The reason why he was using brute force at first was so that he would have a chance to better analyze all of the mysteries contained within the barriers. That would make it easier for him to defeat the barriers and then annihilate the entire Silksnow Fiend Palace.

  “Wow.”

  “Daolord Darknorth is trying to uproot Silksnow Fiend Palace.”

  “Is he really going to tear out the entire palace?” The countless cultivators of the Sacred City only grew even more excited. Low-level cultivators like them naturally delighted in chaos; to them, the more Emperors died, the more interesting topics of conversation they would have.

  Rumble… as Ning tugged at Silksnow Fiend Palace, he manifested three heads and six arms. Four of those arms wielded Northbow swords as he prepared to breach the barriers through raw power.

  “Daolord Darknorth.” A voice rang out. The titanic three-headed, six-armed Ning raised his three heads to stare into the skies. A furry gold alien had appeared in the skies. The alien’s entire body was covered with glowing golden fur, and his aura was so mighty as to be on par with Ning’s.

  “Emperor Goldisle,” Ning said.

  “Daolord Darknorth, you killed many Emperors and sent Silksnow and Bloodcloud fleeing… that’s enough,” Emperor Goldisle said. “There’s no need for you to annihilate Silksnow Fiend Palace. It is, after all, one of the eight organizations which rule over the eight Sacred Cities in accordance with the pact they made with the Dao Alliance. Even though you have defeated them, if you fail your Daomerge then 108,000 chaos cycles from now they will once again rise to power.

  Ning frowned. He wasn’t certain of his Daomerge chances. If he failed his Daomerge, he would eventually die… and indeed, Archon Silksnow and the others would once more reappear.

  “Whether Silksnow Fiend Palace rises or falls 108,00 chaos cycles from now… is something for them to worry about 108,000 chaos cycles in the future.” Ning’s voice was sonorous, shaking both Heaven and Earth: “So long as I, Darknorth, am alive I shall be working to destroy Silksnow Fiend Palace! If I hear word that anyone dares to proclaim himself as a disciple of Silksnow Fiend Palace, I’ll definitely kill him and show no mercy.”

  “So long as I, Darknorth, am alive I shall be working to destroy Silksnow Fiend Palace!” These words echoed throughout the world around them. Ning was openly proclaiming the decision he had just made. He was now someone who stood at the very apex of power in the Flamedragon Realmverse. Not even Hegemons would be able to do anything to him! Few would be willing to challenge his decisions, and that only after careful consideration.

  “Alas.” The midair Emperor Goldisle shook his head slowly upon seeing this. “If you’ve already made up your mind, then I won’t try to dissuade you. Let me remind you, however, that Silksnow Fiend Palace still has a large number of Eternal Emperors within its ranks. You might be able to kill a few, but many are scattered throughout the territories. They can avoid you while you are in your prime, but once you die your children will probably be in danger…”

  A cold light flashed through Ning’s eyes. Archon Silksnow and his Emperors were all devils! If Ning was to die, they would come for revenge… and they would most likely take their vengeance upon the Three Realms and Vastheaven Palace.

  Still, the reason why Ning dared to do this was because he didn’t fear these devils. First of all, the Three Realms were hidden quite securely. Its location had never been made public, and no one knew that his Three Realms was his homeland.

  Second, he was planning to make another visit to the Stone Hellephant Wall and take away those four Archon-class golems as well as some of the Sithe discs. He was going to place them all in the Three Realms.

  No matter what… if he truly did fail in his Daomerge and perish, he would ensure that things were taken care of. As for Vastheaven Palace? There was no need for him to worry about it. Emperor Solesky’s greatest forte was his invulnerable aquaform; not even Archons would be able to do anything to him.

  “Take revenge upon me?” Ning looked at Emperor Goldisle. “If they want to take revenge… they need to stay alive until the day I die.”

  Emperor Goldisle’s eyebrows raised slightly. He couldn’t help but sigh in amazement: “Daolords! Most of them really don’t care about life and death, and they are absolutely crazy. I pity Silksnow Fiend Palace for having offended Daolord Darknorth, the poor bastards.”

  Ning’s eyes were filled with coldness. He had certain options available to him. He had only trained for a brief period of time and had already reached his current level of power. It wouldn’t necessarily be impossible for him to succeed in the Daomerge! Besides, his [Heartsword] art had more room for improvement, as did his heartforce secret arts. It must be remembered that his heartforce illusions were actually still weaker than the Daolord Featherdress’; the reason his heartforce attacks had already become this powerful was purely due to how strong his heartforce was.

  Once he upgraded his heartforce and secret arts further… Ning’s heartforce abilities would definitely inspire terror in countless Eternal Emperors. If they were attacked by Hegemons, they might be able to flee… but once they were trapped in Ning’s illusions, they would have no chance to escape. This was what made Eternal Emperors who were Heartforce Cultivators so terrifying.

  “I’ll take things one step at a time.” Ning was quite relaxed, continuing to try and uproot Silksnow Fiend Palace with two of his arms as countless runes flickered over its surface. As for his other four arms, they wielded the Northbow swords, executing sword-arts as Ning started to break the formations and barriers apart.

  By now, not a single Emperor remained within Silksnow Fiend Palace; all of them had fled. If an Emperor was left, it probably would’ve been a bit more difficult for Ning to break these barriers apart… but since no one was actively managing them, Ning was able to forcibly tear through them with his overwhelming power.

  Whoosh! Boom! A large number of formations began to be torn apart by force.

  Rumble… the servants and retainers throughout Silksnow Fiend Palace began to flee in terror as Ning began to rip the palace out from its foundation. After just ten or so breaths of time, Ning’s Northbow swords managed to tear apart all of the formations.

  Whoosh. Ning managed to uproot the entire Silksnow Fiend Palace just like a giant carrot.

  The three-headed, six-armed Ning was over three million meters tall, and the sight of him uprooting Silksnow Fiend Palace caused all of the countless cultivators in the Sacred City to sigh in amazement. They would probably never be able to forget this sight… and they would forever celebrate the fact that they had witnessed this with their own eyes. This was, without question, the most freakishly powerful and talented Daolord who had ever existed in the annals of history.

  “Come here.” With but a thought, Ning drew Silksnow Fiend Palace into his estate-world. The Sacred City of Silksnow looked just as peaceful and calm as before… but the place where Silksnow Fiend Palace had once been was now completely empty.

  “Silksnow Fiend Palace is fin
ished.”

  “They’re doomed.”

  “No one will dare to claim membership in Silksnow Fiend Palace for at least 108,000 chaos cycles.” The cultivators all sighed with emotion. Most of the members of Silksnow Fiend Palace were ordinary cultivators, after all; there were only thirty or so Emperors to begin with! Eight had died today, leaving only twenty-plus Emperors. The rest were all Daolords or World-level cultivators, but there was no way they would be able to live past 108,000 chaos cycles.

  Thus… for the vast majority of cultivators, the formerly awe-inspiring Silksnow Fiend Palace was truly and completely finished, its foundation destroyed. Only the Emperors were left, but all of them had gone into hiding in fear of Ning discovering them.

  ……

  The skies above the Sacred City. Ning, who had just uprooted Silksnow Fiend Palace, was standing face-to-face with Emperor Goldisle. “Daolord Darknorth, please follow me,” Emperor Goldisle said.

  Ning turned to glance at him. He saw a gold-colored world rapidly expanding within the void, and within it Ning was able to vaguely make out the forms of Hegemon Brightshore, Hegemon Nightlily, Hegemon Windrain, and a number of other figures who emanated auras of incredible power.

  “The three Hegemons and quite a few of the more reclusive Emperors have all shown up. They wish to meet with you, Darknorth.” Emperor Goldisle smiled. “You truly are the most powerful Daolord to ever exist since the ancient days. All of these old fellows wish to meet you.”

  “I do indeed need to meet them.” Ning nodded.

  “Come on over, Darknorth. There’s nothing for you to worry about,” the distant Hegemon Brightshore sent mentally from within that golden world. No matter what, Ning was a member of the Brightshore Kingdom; as the Brightshore Hegemon, he was definitely going to stand on Ning’s side.

  “Coming.” Swoosh. Swoosh. Ning and Emperor Goldisle immediately flew towards the golden world. As the two flew inside, the golden world became completely sealed off. The world had been established just a few billion kilometers outside the Sacred City of Silksnow, but ordinary Eternal Emperors would never be able to discover it.

  * * *

  Book 36, Chapter 16 - The Great Flamedragon Conference

  Ji Ning swept the golden world with his gaze after entering it. In front of him were nine clouds, and each cloud had upon it a table covered with precious Immortal wine and fruit.

  Seven of the clouds were occupied by seven major powers who were seated in the lotus position. They included the white-robed, white-bearded Hegemon Brightshore, the green-haired Hegemon Windrain, the dazzlingly beautiful Hegemon Netherlily, and the black-robed, black-haired Emperor Blackcloud of the Dao Alliance. As for the other three, Ning had never met them before. Their auras, however, were quite extraordinary.

  “Incredible.” Ning’s heart clenched. “The reclusive old experts of the Flamedragon Realmverse have probably all come out.”

  “Darknorth, sit.” Emperor Goldisle pointed at the two clouds which were still empty.

  “After you, Emperor Goldisle,” Ning said modestly. Emperor Goldisle was one of the two leaders of the Dao Alliance, after all. The two flew forwards together, then parted to sit down atop each of their respective clouds. Now, all nine major powers were present.

  “Haha… it’s rare to have such a lively gathering.” Emperor Goldisle swept the others with his gaze after sitting down, then let out a ringing laugh: “It has been a long time since I’ve seen my old friends here… and now, I’ve seen you all.”

  “It has indeed been quite some time.” A gold-haired, gold-robed man seated off in the distance smiled. “It is all thanks to fellow Daoist Darknorth that all of us have a chance to meet today. Haha… I suppose we can consider this a new Great Flamedragon Conference.”

  “Of course it is. All of the major powers who usually take part in the conference have all gathered here today.” Emperor Blackcloud nodded and smiled. “All of you normally spend your time in seclusion; it isn’t easy to meet you! Today, however, all of you have come on your own volition.”

  “Given how impressive fellow Daoist Darknorth is, how could we not come out to meet him?” The graceful, noble-looking woman smiled as she spoke.

  “Of course we came for the sake of fellow Daoist Darknorth. I’ve seen your tired old faces plenty of times already,” a silver-haired, black-robed youth said.

  Emperor Goldisle turned to look at Ning, then smiled. “Darknorth, let me make the introductions. I’m sure you already know the three Hegemons over here: Hegemon Brightshore, Hegemon Windrain, and Hegemon Netherlily. I don’t need to introduce Emperor Blackcloud either…”

  Ning nodded, continuing to listen.

  “This gentleman,” Emperor Goldisle pointed towards the gold-robed, gold-haired man, “Is pretty much the longest living Emperor of the Dao Alliance. His name is Emperor Goldface, and long ago he was once an Archon of a Sacred City! However, he later gave it up and retreated into seclusion. He now rarely shows himself, and very few people even know about him.”

  “Emperor Goldface!” Ning immediately said, “So you are Emperor Goldface. Although Darknorth has heard of you before, I knew very little about you. Today, I finally have the chance to meet with you.”

  Emperor Goldface was definitely an awesomely famous Emperor. He was the most dazzling figure of an era, the most illustrious Emperor of his time. Later on, for some unknown reason, he had become a very low-key figure and had disappeared without a trace. He was so ancient and long-lived that he was already quite famous when the Dawn War first began.

  “Not worth mentioning, not worth mentioning.” Emperor Goldface felt quite smug, but he spoke in an artificially humble manner.

  “Let me make another introduction…” Emperor Goldisle pointed at the graceful and noble-looking woman. “This is Empress Jade Phoenix. She is actually the youngest member of of our little group.”

  “Greetings, Empress Jade Phoenix,” Ning said.

  “No need to be courteous, fellow Daoist Darknorth.” Empress Jade Phoenix nodded and smiled at him.

  Finally, Emperor Goldisle looked at the silver-haired, black-robed youth. “This is Daoist Bluestone. He is, without a question, the number one expert of our Dao Alliance.”

  “You praise me too much,” the silver-haired, black-robed youth said.

  Ning was briefly startled. Bluestone? He couldn’t help but think back to Spring Grass and her little brother, but in the next instant he focused on what Emperor Goldisle had just said. The number one expert of the Dao Alliance? If he was making that claim in front of all these people… it was probably true.

  Ning suddenly heard the voice of Hegemon Brightshore ring out in his mind: “Darknorth, all of these ancient members of the Dao Alliance have gathered here today because of you. That’s why you need to be careful. Emperor Goldface and Empress Jade Phoenix are nothing to worry about, but you have to be wary of Daoist Bluestone. He is incredibly strong. Although he’s not a Hegemon, he’s strong enough to stand as equals to the three of us.”

  Ning was rather shocked upon hearing this. “Then why have I never heard of Daoist Bluestone before?” Ning sent back.

  “Because of the five Emperors of the Dao Alliance before you, Daoist Bluestone has the best temperament and is the most low-key. He doesn’t care about empty titles and reputation; his focus is purely on the Dao. Although he is the undisputed number one figure within the Dao Alliance, there are very few who even know about him. That’s why, although you need to be careful with you, you don’t need to worry too much. He’s an extremely even-tempered and amiable man,” Hegemon Brightshore sent.

  “He’s not a Hegemon. Why is he able to stand alongside Hegemons in power?” Ning sent back.

  “Daoist Bluestone rose to power as a mortal cultivator, and so he has both a true body and a Primaltwin. After succeeding in his Daomerge to become an Emperor, he focused all of his efforts on secluded meditation and training, resulting in him becoming one of the most elite members of the Dao All
iance. He sent his true body roving through the outside world… and roughly three hundred thousand chaos cycles ago, he found a Sithe relic site. He allowed his Primaltwin to undergo the Ritual Sacrificium, converting it into one of the Black Emperors of the Sithe race while his true body remained ‘normal’.”

  “Now, his true body continues to train in seclusion while his Black Emperor Primaltwin goes out exploring. He has more treasures than anyone else in the entire Dao Alliance. You absolutely cannot make an enemy out of him. He might be an extremely amiable person, but if you really do manage to somehow piss him off, the consequences would be absolutely unimaginable.”

  Ning was speechless. Black Emperor? That referred to those onyx humanoid figures, right? Those things definitely had Hegemonic levels of power! During the Dawn War, a single one of the onyx humanoids had been enough to drag two Hegemons to their deaths. Daoist Bluestone had converted his Primaltwin into one of them? No wonder he was able to sit alongside the three mighty Hegemons as peers!

  ……

  The two communicated in secret quite quickly, and now Ning had a better understanding of those who were before him.

  Emperor Goldface looked at Ning, a smile on his face: “Fellow Daoist Darknorth, you truly are impressive. You were able to defeat over twenty Emperors as a Daolord! Even when Silksnow and Bloodcloud joined forces, they still weren’t able to withstand so much as a single blow from you. I’ve never even heard of a Daolord like you. I rarely admire others, but I have to say that I truly do admire you, fellow Daoist Darknorth.”

  “You praise me too much,” Ning said.

  “No need to be humble, Darknorth.” Hegemon Netherlily spoke out in praise as well. “You are indeed the most powerful Daolord I have seen or even heard of. My horizons have truly been broadened. I now know that even Daolords can reach such an incredible level of power.”