Desolate Era

by RWX

  “Given how strong your Dao-heart is, Mistress, there is no way the Sithe would’ve been able to convert you.” Ning glanced at the palace. “I can sense that this palace holds quite a few prisoners inside. Almost all of them are Daolords who refused to obey orders, which is why they were imprisoned and tortured by that short Sithe. I can also sense that a Hegemon has been imprisoned there as well. Most likely, the taming process failed with him.”

  * * *

  Book 41, Chapter 12 - Grand Dimensional Formation

  Ji Ning waved a finger from afar. Rumble… Ning’s Sword Dao Domain actually forcibly excavated the entire prison beneath the palace, causing it fly outwards before settling upon the ground with a boom. The prison cages all shattered apart, revealing the imprisoned Daolords who were inside, all of whom looked to be in terrible shape.

  The largest cell had been used to imprison a black-haired man who had a single horn on his head. His hair was tousled, and his entire body was covered with a spiderweb of countless scars.

  The black-haired man raised his head and stared towards Ning. His gaze was cold and resolute, as though nothing could shake his will at all.

  “Eh?” A puzzled look appeared in his eyes. “The Paragon of Pills? Hegemon Tia?” the black-haired man said in a low, hoarse voice. He recognized these two ‘madwomen’ who often visited the Sithelands.

  “Brother Flameleft?” Hegemon Tia was startled.

  “Flameleft, you are still alive?!” The Paragon of Pills was shocked as well.

  Ning glanced at the mechanisms and barriers used to chain the black-haired man. He immediately sent out streaks of sword-light that quickly shattered them to bits. With those barriers gone, Hegemon Flameleft regained his power and the wounds on his body quickly vanished. Black robes appeared over his body, and he turned to stare at Ning in a rather puzzled manner.

  He could sense that this white-robed Daolord in front of him was incredibly terrifying; the sword-light the Daolord had created was capable of slaying him with ease. And yet, the man was clearly just a Daolord who had failed the Daomerge!

  “Hegemon Flameleft, this is Daolord Darknorth,” Lord Annihilation said hurriedly. “We all owe our very lives to Daolord Darknorth. He is so strong that he treats with Autarchs as equals; not even the Sithe Exalts can compare to him in power.”

  Hegemon Flameleft instantly realized just how incredibly powerful Daolord Darknorth was.

  “Flameleft thanks you, Daolord, for saving my life.” Hegemon Flameleft hurriedly bowed respectfully, a grateful look in his eyes. “Flameleft shall never forget the grace you have shown me today.”

  No one would ever know how much torment and misery he had suffered. On multiple occasions, he had very nearly broken down. All the others who had been captured had committed suicide early on. Those who didn’t commit suicide in time would see their divine power and Immortal energy sealed away, making future suicide impossible! They were imprisoned and suffered countless torments that were truly indescribable.

  Suicide was no longer an option, and they had only two options before them. The first was to submit and become a puppet. The second was to continue resisting. In the end, the only one who managed to continue resisting was Flameleft.

  The Autarchs who had seen this in the past actually drew from it, using it as an inspiration for their idea of torturing Sithe Exalts in the hopes that they would finally give up and allow their truesouls and souls to be infiltrated. That way, once the Sithe Exalts died, their truesoul fragments would be absorbed and swallowed by Ning’s Chaosverse.

  The Sithe Exalts had nearly been driven mad from the torture, but they clearly were still capable of enduring it.

  ……

  “Flameleft, were any of your weapons stolen by the Sithe? I already killed the Sithe who ran this place and have all of his treasures,” Ning said. He felt a great deal of admiration for Hegemon Flameleft; the man had been able to endure for so very long, even though there was no visible hope whatsoever! This was no easy feat.

  “I didn’t have many powerful weapons,” Hegemon Flameleft said. “The only good weapon I had was that axe I always used.”

  Ning immediately waved his hand, causing a series of axes to appear before him. There were six in total, and one of them voluntarily flew over to Hegemon Flameleft. Hegemon Flameleft excitedly grasped the axe. The axe itself was shivering!

  “It wasn’t easy for you to stay alive,” Ning said with a laugh. “Stay safe and avoid the Sithelands unless you have a compelling reason to be here.”

  “Understood.” Hegemon Flameleft was the type of person who always repaid his debts to others. Ning had saved his life, and so he privately swore that he would definitely do everything he could to repay Ning.

  “This bracelet is an interesting Sithe trinket. It won’t make you much stronger, but it’ll be useful to you whenever you need to flee.” Ning waved his hand, tossing out a Sithe bracelet. “Don’t be shy and just take it. I feel quite a bit of admiration for you, to tell you the truth.”

  Hegemon Flameleft hesitated slightly.

  “Brother Flameleft, just accept it,” Hegemon Tia said, as did the Paragon of Pills. Both of them knew that Daolord Darknorth had completely surpassed all other cultivators and was virtually a peer of the Autarchs. Most Sithe artifacts were truly useless to him, while the Three Realms only needed some of the more important ones.

  Besides… if Ning really did need Sithe weapons, he could go to any of the ruins and acquire a mountain of them.

  “Thank you, Daolord.” Flameleft wasn’t the wishy-washy type, and so he offered a simple thanks while firmly engraving Ning’s kindness into his heart.

  “It’s time for us to leave.” Ning glanced at the surrounding area. Daoguard Towers were absolute nightmares for other cultivators, but they wouldn’t be that bad for him if it wasn’t for the fact that his truesoul was constantly crumbling. He had been forced to attack several times here, resulting in his lifespan lessening by quite a bit.

  Whoosh. Ning and the others immediately soared into the skies, flying into the endless black mist outside the lonely dimensional islands. After flying for a short period of time, they flew out of it and reached the empty void outside of it.

  Ding!

  An extremely pleasing sound suddenly spread out from very far away in spacetime. Ning’s face hardened slightly as he swept the area with his gaze. Ever since he had mastered the Space Sword Dao, his attunement towards space had become extremely acute. He saw that far off in the distant, there was a total of nine ‘corners’ which held enormous hidden regions within them. Now, all nine corners had suddenly begun to emanate dazzling light.

  “What’s wrong, Darknorth?” The Paragon of Pills, Azurefiend, and the others were all puzzled.

  “Let’s get out of here right away!” Just as the words were leaving Ning’s lips, space began to twist around them.

  Whoosh! The nine distant ‘specks’ of light resonated together to generate a grand dimensional formation that instantly swept across the region Ning was in, forming a black hole that sucked all of them inside.

  A heartbeat leater, everything grew calm again. Aside from the fact that Ning’s group had just vanished, everything seemed completely ordinary and unpertubed.

  ……

  Ning’s group reappeared within a blurry region filled by clouds and mist.

  “Where are we?” the Paragon of Pills said as they all scanned the region.

  “My godsense has been suppressed. I’m unable to see anything at all,” Lord Annihilation said hurriedly.

  Ning scanned the area silently. His face was even more solemn than it had been during their battles at the Daoguard Tower.

  “What a terrifying formation, and what a terrifying level of mastery over the Dao of Space!” Ning murmured softly. Just now, he had been able to witness with great clarity how they had been forcibly teleported into this place. Those nine incomparably distant and vast dimensions had joined together into an enormous formation of dazzl
ing profundity. This was a level of mastery over space which left Ning breathless. Nobody in their entire Chaosverse was capable of such a thing!

  “Darknorth, where are we?” the Paragon of Pills asked.

  “Still in Sithe territory,” Ning said heavily. “But this place is probably a hundred times deadlier than the Daoguard Tower we were in.” Although they had arrived just a short while ago, the hints which Ning saw allowed him to quickly understand how dangerous a situation they were in.

  “Autarch Titanos. Autarch Ekong…” Ning immediately began to reach out through the message-talismans to all six Autarchs.

  “Darknorth.”

  “What’s wrong, Darknorth?”

  The Autarchs scattered throughout the Chaosverse all immediately responded to Ning, including Autarch Mogg who was responsible for standing watch over the Sithelands. This was the very first time Ning had ever used the message-talisman to contact them.

  “There is something I need some assistance with,” Ning sent through the talisman. “I am in the Sithelands and broke through a Daoguard Tower to save some cultivators, but just as I was about to leave I was forcibly teleported elsewhere by a formation of incredible power. This formation was established by linking together nine enormous dimensions and was incredibly complex; I believe it has surpassed the limits of what cultivators in our Chaosverse can accomplish. My companions and I are now trapped here, and we are afraid to recklessly move around.”

  “Darknorth, stay right where you are.”

  “Stay there and don’t move.” The Autarchs quickly began to send their replies. In dangerous places, the more you moved around the quicker you would die.

  “Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere. I could sense danger as soon as I arrived. If I tried to escape on my own, I’d probably end up dying here. I don’t really care about my own life, as my truesoul is already breaking down, but someone extremely important to me is here as well as a few other cultivators,” Ning sent. He truly didn’t wish for the Paragon of Pills to die.

  “Our avatars are all standing watch over the Sithelands,” Autarch Titanos said. “I’ll have my avatar meet up with Mogg’s and we’ll work together on this.”

  Autarchs had incredibly powerful avatars, as they were generally outfitted with many mighty weapons. Most Autarch avatars had nearly 80% of the true body’s power!

  * * *

  Book 41, Chapter 13 - The Hidden Dimension

  Although the Sithe heartlands had been completely sealed off, they continued to represent a disaster waiting to happen to the cultivator civilizations! Thus, Autarch Mogg eternally stood watch over this place, as did his avatar and the avatars of all five other Autarchs.

  Riiiip! Space twisted, resulting in a dazzling tunnel of light appearing. Two figures emerged shoulder-to-shoulder from this tunnel of light, with one being the bald red-robed avatar of Autarch Titanos, and the other being a Tall, skinny, azure-robed man who had some scales on his cheeks. The second man was Autarch Mogg, and his eyes were flecked with azure light.

  The two stepped out of the tunnel of light and entered normal space. “Darknorth, we’ve already arrived. Let Mogg and I investigate this place first.” Autarch Titanos glanced at the distant region, filled with a billowing black fog which surrounded many pocket dimensions that floated in the air. This was the place where the Paragon of Pills had been trapped previously.

  “Alright.” Ji Ning waited from the separate dimension he had been teleported to. Now that the two Autarchs had arrived, he felt a sense of hope.

  The reason these two had arrived was because of the specific Daos they followed. Autarch Mogg walked the path of the Space Daobirth Essence and was the Autarch with the greatest amount of control over space. This was why he was responsible for standing guard over the Sithelands; if anything happened, he would be able to sense it thanks to his dimensional mastery.

  As for Autarch Titanos, his path was that of the Karma Daobirth Essence, an even more incredible Dao! He had met Ning twice, and as a result the two were connected by karma. It was possible that he would be able to sense Ning’s location thanks to the karma which bound them together.

  The avatars of Autarch Mogg and Autarch Titanos scanned the area vigilantly. “Mogg, what do you think?” Autarch Titanos asked.

  “Wait a moment,” Autarch Mogg said, his azure eyes scanning the void around them. Although the grand dimensional formation was now dormant, there were still some traces of its previous activation which allowed Autarch Mogg to calculate some of the secrets behind it.

  Space trembled and rippled before his gaze. Suddenly, he stared off into the distance, then turned to look at several other locations as well. Frowning, he said, “Darknorth was right. This formation was activated from nine separate locations, each of which is incredibly far away. This formation is marvelously intricate, and its usage of dimensional mastery far surpasses my own.”

  “I cannot find the dimension Darknorth and his team have been teleported to.” Autarch Mogg shook his head. “What about you, Titanos?”

  “Darknorth’s too far away. I can’t find him via just karma alone.” Autarch Titanos frowned as well.

  ……

  Clouds lazily drifted nearby. Ning’s group remained atop the clouds, not daring to move about rashly.

  “Darknorth, we’re unable to find the exact place you have been trapped,” Autarch Titanos replied. “Our only option is to have your Primaltwin come over here as well. Your Primaltwin should be able to sense your true body, allowing it to find you.”

  “Alright.” Ning nodded.

  “Mogg will head straight to the Flamedragon Realmverse and bring your Primaltwin over here,” Autarch Titanos stated. “The place you have been imprisoned in is most likely an extremely important Sithe nexus point. Given that we didn’t even know it existed, it has to be an incredibly dangerous place to be in. Don’t move about rashly; just stay there and wait for us.”

  “Don’t worry, I’m not so rash as to run around wildly,” Ning sent back. The two sides then broke off the connection.

  Ning was starting to feel rather grim. Autarch Titanos was skilled in karma, while Autarch Mogg was skilled in space, yet neither was able to locate him. This meant the formation which teleported him here was truly incredible!

  “How did it go, Darknorth?” The Paragon of Pills looked at Ning.

  “Don’t worry, everything will be fine. We’ll wait right here. The Autarchs are already on their way, but the place we’re in is fairly stable. It’ll probably take them a bit of time,” Ning said.

  Hegemon Tia, Hegemon Flameleft, and the others were all secretly astonished. Daolord Darknorth truly was incredible; as soon as he was trapped here, Autarchs hastened over to help him out. The words ‘the Autarchs are already on their way’ clearly indicated that more than one Autarch had come. Since when were Autarchs so amenable to helping out ordinary cultivators?!

  “Why did the Sithe establish this secret location?” Ning glanced at the surrounding area. Thanks to his incredible insight, he was able to vaguely see a vast sea off in the distance. He was quite curious as to what this realm contained, but he knew that if he indulged it too much it would be the death of him. He couldn’t be rash; it was best to wait for the Autarchs to come.

  ……

  It took Autarch Mogg a mere month to find Ning’s black-robed Primaltwin, then bring it all the way over to the Sithelands.

  The black-robed Primaltwin Ning was currently standing next to Autarch Mogg and Autarch Titanos in the air.

  “My true body and the other cultivators were teleported away from that location right there.” The black-robed Ning pointed to an area of space, then pointed towards nine different directions. “The nine different sources of that dimensional formation came from those nine directions. All of them were located extremely far away.”

  “That’s exactly what I sensed as well.” Autarch Mogg nodded. He had been in a rather contemplative state ever since he had discovered the dimensional formati
on. Clearly, he had been pondering over this formation.

  “Darknorth, where is your true body?” Autarch Titanos asked.

  “I can sense its location.” Ning noded. “I’d like to ask you to help me lead the way, Autarch Mogg.”

  Autarch Mogg led the way in carving through space, while Ning’s Primaltwin guided him in his path. After spending the time needed to boil a kettle of tea, they had traversed the equivalent of five or six realmverses.

  “Halt!”

  They had reached a region of empty darkness which held nothing at all. The black-robed Ning stood there in the void, slowly moving forwards and warping through ten billion kilometers of space with each step he took.

  Forward. Back. Up. Down. Ning seemed to be walking in circles, while the avatars of Autarch Mogg and Autarch Titanos watched from afar.

  “Now that’s odd.” The black-robed Ning scanned the area. “Autarch Mogg, Autarch Titanos, I can clearly sense that my true body is within a hundred billion kilometers of us! And yet, I’ve discovered that no matter where I go, I cannot move any closer to it. Just now, I even tried to enter other dimensional continuums but still remained unable to move closer to my true body.”

  “A hundred billion kilometers?” Autarch Titanos glanced at Autarch Mogg. “Mogg, what do you think?”

  A hundred billion kilometers was a very short amount of distance to figures like Autarchs and Ning; a single step through spacetime was more than enough to traverse such a distance. And yet, Ning’s Primaltwin was able to sense his true body’s location but was completely unable to move any closer to it.

  “There is an enormous hidden dimension here.” Autarch Mogg scanned the area, his eyes shooting out rays of blurry azure light which caused space to twist and distort. He said calmly, “This gigantic dimension is extremely well-made and perfectly separated from the outside world. No matter what you try, you won’t be able to move a single step closer to this dimension.”