by RWX
Boom! Boom! Boom! The giant Autarch-class void bear continued to furiously assault Autarch Bolin for three full seconds, but it remained unable to do anything to him.
“Vilesky, you aren’t going to be able to kill this cultivator as long as he is standing on that golden bridge,” a loud voice boomed out. “Give up on trying to do it yourself. You need our help.”
Autarch Bolin’s face tightened slightly as he turned to stare into the distant void. He barked from the golden bridge, “Show yourselves!”
“Haha, ‘show yourselves’? You are ordering us around?”
“Do you really think you are worthy of giving us orders?”
“You are too weak.” Multiple voices rang out from the empty space around the world.
Moments later the vast void itself seemed to change, transforming into an even vaster grasslands that had a white layer of clouds in the skies above it. As for Autarch Bolin himself, he was now standing atop the grasslands.
“Eh?” Autarch Bolin stared at the grasslands which had just appeared around him. He inspected it closely, carefully attuning himself to the vital energy contained within every single stalk of grass. “This is an actual, real grassland?”
“Why does it seem as though the grasslands extend off into infinite?” Autarch Bolin inspected the world around him clearly. There were clouds above him, but the grasslands seemed to have no end, stretching off as far as he could see. Despite his power, he still wasn’t able to see just how vast this world was! Was this a joke? He could even see to the ends of a realmverse!
“Break!” Autarch Bolin continued to stand atop his golden bridge as he reached out to tear at the skies, seeking to tear them apart.
Slash! His two hands clawed at the layers of clouds. Autarch Bolin felt as though the clouds were incredibly tenacious. He was able to tear through a few of the clouds, but he wasn’t able to break through all of them!
“I refuse to believe this.” Autarch Bolin began to furiously attack with all six arms, using them to tear at the clouds in the skies.
This was what the cultivator Autarchs usually did. They had such boundless amounts of power that they didn’t fear exhaustion, and so using a furious barrage of attacks to crush one’s foes was usually the best method.
After the time needed to boil a kettle of tea, Autarch Bolin finally managed to completely tear through the final layer of clouds, pulling open a giant gaping hole in the skies.
Swoosh! The golden bridge beneath him rapidly shrank in size as he rode it through the gaping hole.
After flying through the gaping hole, Autarch Bolin first stared downwards at the many clouds he was standing upon, then upwards at the many clouds which still filled the skies above him.
Suddenly, a hoarse voice filled the skies: “Haha, keep clawing your way through. This isn’t like those puny ‘temples’! Although there are only nine layers to this world of grass, each layer is thicker than the last. You have no chance at all of breaking through the final layer of clouds… and you won’t even be able to get there. The shifting fields of spacetime here will ensure that you are forever trapped within the first layer of clouds above the grasslands.”
“Who are you? A Sithe Exalt?” As soon as Autarch Bolin had sensed how spacetime had been suppressed in this area, he had known that the danger was tremendous.
“Don’t compare me to those pitiable fools. I’m not one of Iyerre’s subordinates,” a clear voice suddenly rang out in response within the clouds.
“Grr…” Far away, the clouds suddenly parted to reveal an enormous figure. This was the giant cyclopean bear which had attacked Autarch Bolin earlier.
Riiiip. Autarch Bolin immediately turned to stare at two other directions. The clouds parted in two separate places, revealing two different creatures which began to fly towards him. The first was a red-eyed, white-furred humanoid whose body was covered with a bloody red miasma that radiated a demonic aura. Autarch Bolin couldn’t help but shudder slightly – this creature seemed to have been born out of pure malice and spite!
As for the second creature, it was like a giant stormcloud. Its body was blurry and indistinct, but one could vaguely make out hundreds of evil-looking eyes as well as countless tentacles reaching out from the clouds.
“Three Autarch-class void dwellers?” Autarch Bolin remained quite calm. “These Autarch-class void dwellers might be on par with me in strength, but that’s only due to their natural abilities. Their insights into the Dao are laughably low, while I have the Golden Bridge of Freedom protecting me. I should be able to keep myself completely safe… but the world of grass which has imprisoned me is quite marvelous. The grass should all be real, and it has nine layers of clouds as well as three Autarch-class void dwellers protecting it. Thus far, the only place we have seen three Autarch-class void dwellers has been that behemoth hive. None of the temples had any inside.”
The Eight Revolutions Spacetime Temple which had trapped Ning had only held Sithe Exalts. The same was true for the other temples. None of them had Autarch-class void dwellers!
The Annihilation Hive, however, had three. Now that three more had appeared within this world of grass… Autarch Bolin had the feeling that this grassland world was probably far more dangerous than any of those other temples.
What he didn’t know was that the world of grass was arguably the most deadly weapon which the Sithe had prepared for this invasion.
Book 44, Chapter 21 - Bolin’s Death
A giant one-eyed bear, a red-eyed white-furred humanoid, and a giant stormcloud! The three Autarch-class void dwellers circled Autarch Bolin and his golden bridge from three different directions.
Autarch Bolin didn’t panic in the slightest. He had experience in dealing with Autarch-class void dwellers, as he had worked with the others to kill two of them during the Dawn War. Later on, Ji Ning and Autarch Mogg had captured two in the Annihilation Hive and then negotiated with the strongest one to have it leave their Chaosverse. Thanks to these experiences, Autarch Bolin knew two important things about these void dwellers.
First, there was no way to compel Autarch-class void dwellers to swear lifeblood oaths – they had simply entered verbal agreements with the Sithe which they could renege upon at will. Second… they could be negotiated with!
“Gentlemen,” Autarch Bolin sent to the three, “We cultivators have fought against you and your fellow void dwellers on multiple occasions. During the last war we killed two of your kind, and just recently we fought against three more in the behemoth hive the Sithe constructed. We ended up capturing two of them, while the other one decided to work with us and so we granted it safe passage out of our Chaosverse.”
“Hrm?” The three Autarch-class void dwellers circling around Autarch Bolin were slightly startled. They knew that others had been captured by the Sithe, but the three didn’t know what had happened to them.
“We have a decided advantage against the Sithe in this war!” Autarch Bolin said persuasively, “Not a single one of us Autarchs have perished in either the Dawn War or this war, while the Sithe have suffered heavy losses and countless casualties. We’ve captured and slaughtered a large number of their Exalts! I would wager that the one you fear the most is their leader, ‘Iyerre’, right?”
“Heh. Iyerre should be an Omega Autarch. He’s very powerful, and outside this Chaosverse he would vastly outstrip us in might. However, this is our home! The Chaosverse rejects him, preventing him from using any of the Dao’s power. He’s merely on the same level as us in power! He tried to ambush Autarch Mogg earlier, but in the end he had to retreat with his head hanging low.”
“They’ve suffered catastrophic losses, while not even Iyerre is able to do anything to us. All of us are alive and well. Our side stands a much greater chance of winning this war!” Autarch Bolin continued, “I know that you have been forced to take part in this war. If you insist on battling us to the death, once we win there’s no way we will spare you!”
“However, if you choose to betray
them and work with us instead, we’ll help you out. Afterwards, I’ll send you out of our Chaosverse and grant you your liberty. I can swear a lifeblood oath on this,” Autarch Bolin said.
“Betray them and join you?”
“Impossible!” The three Autarch-class void dwellers instantly sent messages of rejection.
“Haha, fine. I won’t force you to actually betray them. All you need to do is to pull your punches during these battles. Both of us will hold back by 50%! All we need to do is put on a show for the Sithe to watch. I, Bolin, will definitely remember your show of friendship and can swear an oath that once the war concludes, we won’t make things difficult for you. We’ll send you out of our Chaosverse.”
Although the three Autarch-class void dwellers had many misgivings about this, a short while later they sent back a response: “Fine.”
“Deal.”
“We’ll believe you for now.”
These void dwellers might look stupid, but in truth the Infinite Void they wandered through was unfathomably vaster than any Chaosverse. The Chaosverses were merely the largest celestial bodies that existed within the Infinite Void! The Infinite Void was so vast that it contained truly innumerable lifeforms. As creatures who rose to reach Autarch-levels of power, they naturally were quite crafty and understood how to balance pros and cons.
They harbored great hatred for the Sithe, but Iyerre was so overwhelmingly powerful that there was no way for them to fight back against him. Still, Bolin’s words had indeed convinced them. There was no guarantee that the Sithe would truly win this war, and so they wanted to prepare a way out for themselves.
“Attack!”
The mental conversation had been an extremely quick one. Anyone watching from the outside world would have simply seen a brief staredown, followed by immediate combat. The three Autarch-class void dwellers began to launch a frenzied series of blows against Autarch Bolin. Even though they were holding back on their strikes, they were still forceful enough to cause spacetime to twist and distort around them.
Autarch Bolin was at a complete disadvantage and had been completely suppressed, but his six arms were able to work together in marvelous fashion, allowing him an airtight defense that completely protected him against their attacks.
Both sides were holding back by 50%, but no one watching from the outside would be able to notice anything at all.
……
“These creatures of the Infinite Void do not train in the Dao. They have low levels of insight, rendering their incredible natural gifts completely useless. They clearly have Autarch levels of power and are able to overpower Autarch Bolin, but they aren’t able to kill him even though they outnumber him three-to-one.” Three people were conversing via godsense in the void beyond this battle.
“We’re simply using them to tie him down. They serve well as brutes and foot soldiers. It’s enough for them to have completely suppressed him.”
“In the end, it’ll be up to the three of us.”
“Let’s find a chance to make our move.”
……
Autarch Bolin continued to fight from atop the Golden Bridge of Freedom. He seemed to be using all his strength to resist the combined attacks of these three Autarch-class creatures, and in truth these void dwellers had been blessed with ridiculous strength and innate power. They might not have trained in the Dao, but they could break almost anything with raw power! Mogg had found it quite difficult to handle just one of them in the Annihilation Hive. Bolin now had the aid of the Golden Bridge of Freedom, but he still found defending against them difficult even though both sides were holding back.
The reason why he had asked for both sides to hold back was so that he would have the capacity to deal with something unexpected.
Autarch Bolin stood there atop the golden bridge, both himself and the bridge being sent staggering downwards by the force of the void dwellers’ blows. Both were sent smashing into the thick clouds below them.
Suddenly…
Whoooosh! An iridescent violet-gold chain suddenly shot out of the clouds, moving as agilely as a snake as it lashed at Autarch Bolin.
“Huh?!” Autarch Bolin turned pale. This whipping motion from the violet-gold chain had a strange cadence and gave off a strange sensation. Only someone who had reached an incredibly high level of insight into the Dao would be able to unleash such a strike. Without question, this was an Autarch-calibre technique… and the power rippling from the chain surpassed even Autarch Bolin’s own level of power!
Boom! One of Autarch Bolin’s six arms instantly expanded in size, and he reached out with a claw-hand to try and seize that chain.
Faced with Autarch Bolin’s full-strength claw attack, the violet-gold chains suddenly switched from a lashing motion to a coiling motion, seeking to wrap themselves around him.
Clang! Autarch Bolin missed with his grab, but one of his fingers manage to land a clawing blow upon the chain. However, the chain managed to easily deflect the power of his blow and continued with its coiling attack.
Whoosh! Right at this moment, yet another violet-gold chain appeared from the skies above Autarch Bolin. This one descended towards him with overwhelming power, dealing a furious lashing blow against him.
Clank! Clank! Clank! Three more violet-gold chains suddenly appeared from the clouds above, the clouds below, and to his left. Every chain was attacking in a manner which was difficult to defend against! At peak power Autarch Bolin was able to fight with six arms, but he still had to use at least three of them to defend against the three Autarch-class void dwellers while pretending to be wounded by them. And this was with the void dwellers holding back; if they weren’t, he would’ve suffered a truly heavy injury!
Use three arms to fight back against five of those violet-gold chains? He was caught flat-footed and knew that he wouldn’t be able to hold on for much longer.
Whoosh! Finally, yet another violet-gold chain appeared to his right. This time, Autarch Bolin wasn’t able to defend at all. The chain violently lashed Autarch Bolin across the chest, catching him completely off-guard. Bang! His entire body caved in then completely imploded from the power of this strike, but a heartbeat later his body transformed into countless specks of light instead. He had just used his invulnerable form and was trying to heal.
“Haha, still trying to survive?”
“Your body’s been destroyed. Struggling is useless. You are dead.”
Those six violet-gold chains flew out with incredible speed and power, showing no mercy at all as they furiously assaulted those specks of light. Autarch Bolin’s dispersed energies were being repeatedly annihilated, and just a short while later his fleeing form had been completely annihilated.
He had been completely suppressed in power. Autarch Bolin had been slain just a heartbeat after the six chains had appeared! He had simply been overwhelmed by the number of enemies he faced.
The power quickly fled from the levitating golden bridge, and it came crashing down into the deep clouds below it. It tumbled across the clouds, with even the tower being twisted by the collision.
The sounds of battle finally fell silent, while the six chains disappeared back into the clouds once more.
“Well. That’s certainly a shame.” The three Autarch-class void dwellers stared at the fallen golden bridge which now lay atop the clouds, feeling rather regretful. They didn’t like the Sithe one bit, and they couldn’t help but feel a bit unhappy that the native Autarch they had just reached a pact with moments ago had perished almost immediately afterwards.
“Let’s go.” The three void dwellers quickly departed into the clouds as well, leaving behind just the fallen golden bridge and a few scattered treasures.
Book 44, Chapter 22 - Message
Moments later, a willowy, silver-robed woman suddenly stepped out of the silent clouds and moved to stand next to the fallen Golden Bridge of Freedom.
“This weapon Iyerre fashioned is certainly powerful. We were able to crush and kill this native Autarch
with ease.” The silver-robed woman waved her hand, collecting the fallen treasures and estate-worlds which lay strewn across the clouds, then gave the bridge a close look. “I imagine Iyerre will be interested in taking a closer look at this pseudo-Daoguard Tower.”
Whoosh. With a wave of her hand, she collected the golden bridge as well. She then scanned the surrounding area, a delighted smile on her face: “That was pretty easy.” She then stepped away into the void and vanished without a trace.
……
Within a vast sea of fire located within the Great Dark. Many spacetime rifts could be seen at the borders of this sea of fire, and Iyerre was walking through it barefooted. He was hastening towards his proudest creation, the Grassland World… but suddenly, he came to a halt.
“Eh?” An eager look appeared on his face. “It seems they have something to report.” A blurry pillar of light appeared in front of him, quickly resolving into three figures. It was the two men and the woman he had sent off earlier. The silver-robed woman was holding a miniaturized golden bridge in her hands, and she was casually flipping it up and down.
When Iyerre saw the golden bridge, he couldn’t help but smile: “You succeeded?”
“It was very easy.” The silver-robed woman raised an eyebrow. “That native Autarch named ‘Bolin’ died before we even had to go all-out against him.”
“Autarch Bolin?!” Iyerre was unspeakably delighted by this.
Although he was quite confident in the Grassland World, the most powerful weapon he had ever created, he had still been worried that something unexpected might happen. Now that he knew the results, he finally managed to relax. It made sense. The Grassland World was overwhelming powerful, and he had to come up with a way to compel those three into coming here and helping him take control over it. It really wouldn’t have made any sense if they had failed.
