Desolate Era

by RWX

“Haha, thank you for your advice.” Ning smiled and nodded, then began to walk towards the centermost region of this field of flaming light.

  Nuwa, Su Youji, and Azurefiend all watched as he left. Flamewing hesitated for a bit, in the end deciding not to follow. In its heart, it couldn’t help but feel a bit of aversion towards Sithe Exalts.

  ……

  This field of flaming light had accumulated all of the fire elemental energy of the surrounding area, concentrating it into a series of terrifying attacks at the center.

  “Every single one of these strikes surpasses the maximum power of the Blazesun Ruler… but the Sithe Exalt is able to endure them with ease. No matter how I inspect him, I keep on having the feeling that he should be stronger than the Blazesun Ruler… but everyone in the outside world agrees that the Blazesun Ruler is on par with Sithe Exalts in power.” Ning stared at the Exalt, his heart filled with suspicions. Suddenly, his gaze focused upon the incredibly complicated formation-diagram that covered the area of ten thousand kilometers around the seated Sithe Exalt. That formation-diagram was the center and core of this entire field of flaming light!

  The exposed parts of the Sithe Exalt’s skin were also covered by identical imprints of that formation-diagram.

  “Now THAT is a nasty trick!” Ning sucked in a cold breath. “The person who set up this formation-diagram vastly surpasses me in the Dao of Formation.” Ning continued to stare. “And… this formation-diagram includes the Dao of Fire, the Dao of Illusions, the Dao of Darkness, and many other instruments of torture. Many are meant to attack the soul and truesoul. In all the Chaosverse, only the Autarchs could possibly set up a formation-diagram which contains so many Daos.”

  Autarchs were at the Daobirth level, where ‘one Dao births many Daos’. Autarch Bolin had reached Autarchy via the Dao of the Claw, and he had also reached Hegemony in all of the other Daos! Formations, illusions… even Daos he had never trained in; he had reached Hegemony in all of them upon gaining Autarchy! Thus, Autarchs were naturally able to employ many different Daos in setting up formation-diagrams. The person who had set up this formation had mixed the various Daos together perfectly. It seemed as though the Autarchs weren’t just the strongest cultivators in the Chaosverse, they were also the most terrifying torturers.

  “How much hatred must the Autarchs hold towards them? Why is it that they continue to torment the Sithe Exalts, even after the war has come to an end?” Ning mused to himself, “And this punishment is eternal and unending… wouldn’t just killing them be easier? Why spend so much time and effort in creating these formation-diagrams?”

  “Or perhaps… the Autarchs have plans of their own?” Ning mused. As he pondered this question, he continued to draw closer to the Exalt. Eight million kilometers. Five million kilometers. Three million kilometers. Two million kilometers. One million kilometers…

  Ning didn’t hesitate at all as he advanced. Although he was now within the range of the Sithe Exalt’s attacks, he didn’t worry at all. Even though he had the feeling that the Sithe Exalt was more powerful than the Blazesun Ruler, Ning had outstripped the Blazesun Ruler in both power and insight into the Dao. He was probably at the Autarch level of power, and if it wasn’t for the fact that his truesoul was continuously crumbling, Ning would’ve dared to actually take an Autarch on in a sparring match. How could he possibly fear an imprisoned Sithe Exalt?

  “Eh?” The Sithe Exalt, seated in the lotus position with his head lowered, finally let out a little snort. The gray armor covering his body seemed rather rusted and old. He raised his head up, the curved horns on his head looking wicked sharp as he glared intently at Ning. A rumbling sound rang out from his throat: “You actually dare to approach me?”

  “Why wouldn’t I dare?” Ning continued to walk towards him, only halting when he was roughly a hundred thousand kilometers away. At this distance, the two were able to clearly see each other’s features.

  “Hah! You truly are someone who has mastered an Eternal Omega Dao. Haha… I, Dauber, feel admiration towards very few members of your cultivator civilizations. You’ve just joined that list.” The Sithe Exalt stared intently at Ning, his features occasionally twitching from pain but his voice quite calm and steady. “A pity that you failed the Daomerge. Death will be coming for you soon. A true pity. You are the first member of your civilization to master an Eternal Omega Dao, but you are about to die soon.”

  “Where there is life, there is death.” Ning smiled. “There’s no reason to fear death, and death is far better than what awaits you. You literally are living a life worse than death.”

  “Damn you.” The Sithe Exalt let out a low growl, his eyes flickering with savage light. “Kill me, Daolord. Kill me. I know you have the power to kill me.”

  “The Autarchs must have imprisoned you for a reason. Why should I interfere and cause trouble?” Ning shook his head. “Besides… the Sithe are the mortal enemies of us cultivators. I am a Daolord who has failed the Daomerge; if I was to kill you, I’d have to use up my own lifespan. There is no relationship between the two of us which would impel me to make such a sacrifice.”

  The Sithe Exalt was intrigued. It seemed as though this terrifying Daolord didn’t know why he had been imprisoned.

  “Graaaaaah!” The Sithe Exalt let out a short, ragged growl of pain. Clearly, he was in a great deal of agony. A short while later, he suppressed the agony and continued to speak: “We Sithe were defeated, true. This was a war of civilizations, a war to the death; either you had to die, or we would die! We lost the war, and I’m willing to accept death as being the result of that. Why must you torment me like this?!”

  Ning just listened silently.

  “If I, Dauber, had been free and up to my own devices, I never would’ve wanted to launch such a cruel and deadly war. There was no way to avoid this war; if you cultivators remained in power, then we Sithe would’ve perished. That is why I HAD to take part in the war. Both our sides suffered greatly in the war. Why must you feel such hatred for me? Why must you torment me so?”

  “Kill me. Grant me release. I’ve had enough of this endless torment.” The Sithe Exalt Dauber stared intently at Ning, his eyes filled with anticipation.

  Ning couldn’t help but feel a sudden impulse to charge over and kill the man, releasing him from his torment. However, Ning quickly regained his usual calm.

  “He was actually able to affect my thoughts?” Ning glanced at the Sithe Exalt, secretly shocked. From a certain perspective, the Sithe was telling the truth. Even Ning himself felt that wiping out the enemy after winning the war was enough; there was no need to perpetually imprison and torment the survivors. However, the reason why Ning had felt that sudden impulse was primarly because the Sithe Exalt’s voice had managed to bewilder him. This Sithe Exalt had definitely reached a terrifyingly profound level in the art of bewilderment; Ning had a truly perfect sword-heart, but he had still been briefly influenced by the Exalt’s voice, even though he had quickly recovered from it.

  A hint of disappointment flickered through the Sithe Exalt’s eyes. He gritted his teeth and said resentfully, “Are you really not going to grant me release?”

  “The Autarchs must have imprisoned you for good reason. They are the leaders of the cultivator civilizations, and they could well have done this because of some secret they know which has a major impact on the war between our two civilizations. There’s no way I would intervene,” Ning said.

  “Damnit. I was so close.” The Sithe Exalt Dauber instantly grew even more berserk and growled, “This is unfair. UNFAIR! An Eternal Omega Dao? If I had also embarked upon the path of the Omega Dao long ago, then regardless of whether I succeeded or failed I never would’ve ended up like this. My destiny would’ve been completely changed. This is utterly unfair!”

  Ning could feel the deep emotions which filled the man’s roar. It was a feeling of deep and intense regret, mixed with resentment! Ning couldn’t help but mumble to himself, “So what if you had embarked upon the path of th
e Omega Dao? Even if you had embarked upon the path of the Omega Dao, you still would’ve taken part in this war as a member of the Sithe.”

  Whoosh! Suddenly, the growling Sithe Exalt reached out with both hands. His arms expanded dramatically in size, causing even the formation-diagram imprints on them to twist and distort. As he attacked, he finally spat out a murderous, hate-filled cry: “If you don’t help me, you can go die.”

  The two arms almost instantly expanded to become over a hundred thousand kilometers long. His hands were filled with tremendous power, and he reached out to tear Ning apart. As they swept out towards Ning, they were infused with such strange, profound mysteries that Ning wasn’t even able to dodge them; it seemed as though he absolutely had to face this attack head-on.

  “Eh?!” Ning turned ashen, and his heart shook with shock. Ever since he had mastered an Eternal Omega Dao, he had always had a feeling that he was in complete control of his surroundings. Every so often, something would surprise him, but nothing truly caught him off-guard.

  In this moment, however, Ning truly felt stunned, so stunned that his heart was shaking. Even his sword-heart had become rather unsteady. It was as though he had seen something that was completely impossible before him.

  “But…” Ning had no time to think this matter over, because those two giant palms had already reached him.

  * * *

  Book 40, Chapter 4 - Completely Stunned

  Boom!

  With but a thought, Ji Ning immediately summoned the awesome Sword Dao domain around him. Countless streams of sword-light descended upon this place, filling it with attacks that were all comparable to full-strength blows from Otherverse Lords. The sword-light quickly moved in a marvelous way to block the murderous palms that were crashing down towards Ning, doing their best to slow the palms down.

  Each of the fingers on the twin palms began to slowly change, as they changed they caused spacetime to change with them. Boom! Boom! Boom! Every single finger completely suppressed the streaks of sword-light that they touched!

  This was a truly ferocious attack from the Sithe Exalt. If Ning wished to merely rely on his Sword Dao domain to defend against it, he would have to use the principles of using ‘four grams of force to redirect a thousand kilograms of power’. However, his opponent was clearly at a far higher level of insight than the Blazesun Ruler was; thus, Ning’s attempted block didn’t truly succeed.

  Riiiip! The twin palms appeared in front of Ning and then slammed straight through Ning’s body, tearing it apart into two pieces. Ning’s body gradually faded away into nothingness, followed by a white-robed Ning reappearing over a million kilometers away.

  “He’s fast!” Exalt Dauber immediately halted his attacks, because Ning had already moved past his maximum attack range. Due to the suppressive effects of the formation-diagram, he was only able to launch attacks to this distance.

  “The Eternal Omega Daos truly are impressive. I can’t help but envy his incredible speed. It would’ve been wonderful if I managed to master an Eternal Omega Dao.” Exalt Dauber couldn’t help but let out a sigh. “To be honest, I knew I wouldn’t be able to kill you. I just wanted to lessen your lifespan by a bit. Unfortunately, I wasn’t even able to force you to draw your sword.”

  Ning stood a million kilometers away, a solemn look on his face. “I didn’t draw my sword, but I had to use up a bit of divine power in using that evasion-art.”

  Eternal Omega Daos were as profound as the Daos of ordinary Autarchs. Thus, Ning actually had access to many truly incredible techniques, techniques which one would naturally gain access to upon reaching certain levels of insight. For example, when Ning had become a Daolord of the Fourth Step, he had reached such a high level of insight into the Dao of the Sword that he had gained natural mastery over the ‘Shadowless form’, an invulnerable form. His Dao of the Sword had gained the power to pierce through spacetime and sever karma, and he had reached incredible heights in many different areas.

  Nowadays, Ning’s abilities were even more unbelievable than before. If he was truly willing to exhaust his life energy, he could increase his speed to truly unbelievable heights. For example, when Ning had killed the Lonely King, he had taken a single step to move an extremely great distance to slay the Lonely King without the latter even being able to react! This was a testament to Ning’s true speed. Similarly, he had been able to heavily injure the Blazesun Ruler with one strike, and the Blazesun Ruler hadn’t been able to block at all!

  As far as warping through spacetime went, if Ning chose to use his sword to tear through spacetime, he would actually be able to travel a greater distance than even the Blacksun was capable of! The Autarchs were able to easily tear through spacetime and warp tremendous distances… but alas, these incredible techniques all consumed enormous amounts of energy. Ning had to be extremely stingy with his energy usage.

  Every single scrap of energy and power represented his vital energy. Just now, he had simply used an evasion-art to dodge a single step backwards, ensuring that the Sithe Exalt wasn’t able to touch him. This didn’t take up too much of his divine power, but it still wasn’t nothing.

  ……

  “What?!”

  “The Sithe Exalt just attacked Daolord Darknorth!” The distant cultivators and the creatures serving the Blazesun Ruler all stared in astonishment.

  The Sithe Exalt’s attack was as savage and overbearing as ever. It was strange. The Blazesun Ruler and the Sithe Exalt were clearly on the same level of power, but when they saw the Sithe Exalt attack, they felt a much greater sense of fear!

  They had already witnessed the Sithe Exalt attack on numerous occasions, and several cultivators had died as a result. Daolord Darknorth, however, was naturally different. He took just a single step back and was able to dodge with ease.

  “One side struck with full power, the other dodged with calm and unhurried grace. Daolord Darknorth truly is more powerful!”

  “Incredible,” the cultivators murmured. As for Nuwa, Su Youji, and the others who were close to Ning? They only felt nervous. Given how fast Ning had just moved, it was obvious that he had been forced to use some of his own power.

  ……

  “I was only able to force you to use an evasion-art. How much energy could that possibly consume? You’d probably have to use it to take ten steps back in order to match the amount of energy you would use up from a sword-strike,” Exalt Dauber said coldly.

  Ning’s face remained as solemn as ever. He stared intently at the Sithe Exalt, as though he was trying to see through to some hidden truth. After staring for several long seconds, Ning finally said, “The claw-arts you just used…”

  “Ahaha! So you noticed, eh?” The Sithe Exalt laughed madly. “Ahaha, it makes sense… you are someone who has mastered an Eternal Omega Dao. Of course you would be able to notice!”

  “Tell me everything.” Ning stared at him.

  “Haha… the only thing I’ll tell you is that you saw exactly what you thought you saw.” The Sithe Exalt, Dauber, continued to laugh with wild abandon. “I won’t tell you anything else, ahaha! I’ll let you worry away and wrack your brains trying to find an answer. Hah! I’m having fun just thinking about it. To be able to mystify the very first master of an Eternal Omega Dao in this Chaosverse… what a wonderful feeling!”

  Ning frowned upon hearing this. The Sithe Exalt continued, “Unless… you were willing to kill me and grant me release. Only then would I tell you everything.” Exalt Dauber stared hungrily at Ning.

  “Impossible.” Ning shook his head. After seeing the Sithe Exalt’s claw-arts, he felt increasingly certain that there was an enormous secret behind the Exalt’s imprisonment. The Autarchs had to have imprisoned them for an extremely important reason.

  “Then you will NEVER know the answer,” Exalt Dauber said viciously.

  “Tell me… do you think the Autarchs know the answer?” Ning suddenly smiled.

  “You…!” The Sithe Exalt was stunned.

  �
�I’ll go and ask the Autarchs. I was planning to visit them a final time before dying anyhow,” Ning said. He then turned and left.

  Exalt Dauber gnashed his teeth as he watched Ning leave, but there was nothing he could do. Use an illusion? That terrifying Daolord had an incredibly powerful Dao-heart, one which was truly perfect. It was already quite incredible that the Sithe Exalt had been able to have even a slight effect on Ning earlier; there was no way he would actually be able to actually influence Ning’s actions. Other methods would be equally futile; there was no way such a major power as Ning would succumb to the likes of mere curiosity.

  “I’m going to be imprisoned here forever… tortured forever…” Dauber raised his head, his azure eyes staring into the endless fiery light in the skies. His gaze was filled with hatred and regret… and then he mumbled with a hint of exhaustion, “When will it come to an end? I really don’t want to hold on any longer…”

  ……

  Ning turned and left, returning to Nuwa, Patriarch Treewind and the others with a belly full of suspicions. The images of the Sithe Exalt using claw-arts to assault him continually replayed in his mind.

  “How is it possible… how could that be? Is this the real reason why the Autarchs have imprisoned them?” Ning continually pondered this question.

  Suddenly, Ning’s face turned slightly pale as he raised his head and stared towards the skies. Whoosh! A bolt of thunder suddenly appeared, tearing through the heavens and warping through spacetime, causing a stable but temporary passageway to form.

  Right at this moment, eight towering figures appeared within the bolt of thunder, with one being the muscular black-armored Blazesun Ruler. The other seven all had different auras; one was as cold and remote as an endless sea of ice, a second seemed to represent the destruction of space itself… but all of them were of equal magnitude.

  “The eight Domain Rulers!!!” Ning’s face turned completely pale. “Have they gone mad? The Blazesun Ruler must be insane!”