Desolate Era

by RWX

  A short moment later, the giant sword flew out from the grayish clouds and escaped from the Grassland World.

  Iyerre raised his head, glaring. If he had poured in all of his power he would’ve been able to prevent that sword from escaping, but there was no point. That sword had simply consisted of energy and some Universe treasures. Ning and the others could’ve quickly forged more Universe treasures to replace them.

  “I should keep my true killer attacks hidden until the very end. It isn’t worth exposing it on just a few Universe treasures.” Iyerre raised his head, staring at the formation-incarnation in the skies.

  The incarnation was staring at Iyerre as well. Moments later, it waved its arm and then retreated from the clouds as well. Whoooosh! The gray clouds quickly closed over, allowing the Grassland World to grow calm again.

  ……

  The outside world. The great formation continued to cover the entire vast area surrounding the Grassland World.

  Ji Ning, Titanos, Mogg, Bolin, Skyfeeder, Ekong, and Stonerule felt both sorrow and anger as they stared at the ovaloid Grassland World before them. Three of the five avatars they had just lost were peak-strength avatars, but they had been wiped out in just a twinkling. This taught them a lesson with regards to just how powerful Iyerre was once he joined together with the Grassland World.

  In truth, Iyerre had carried the Grassland World with him in his mission to kill Ning. Alas, Ning managed to escape before he reached that temple! Thus, Iyerre had chosen to separate from his Grassland World and gone Autarch-hunting! Autarch Mogg had managed to survive thanks to his Golden Bridge of Freedom, while Autarch Bolin had nearly died while only barely surviving thanks to comprehending the Samsara Daobirth Essence at the critical moment.

  “Iyerre and the Grassland World combine to form a much more deadly opponent,” Titanos said.

  “He has a far higher level of insight than us.” Stonerule slowly shook his head.

  “So what if he does? We’ll kill anyone who dares to invade our Chaosverse, even if it costs us our very lives.” Autarch Stonerule gritted his teeth.

  Right at this moment… boom! The ovaloid ‘Grassland World’ quickly shrank in size inside the formation. Moments later, a spacetime rift appeared next to it. Swoosh! It flew straight into the spacetime rift. This caused Ning and the others to feel their hearts lurch. They had suspected all along that their formations were unable to bind Iyerre, but seeing it with their own eyes was still rather demoralizing.

  “Wait, he didn’t leave yet!” Ning and the others turned to stare at the rift which had just appeared outside the reach of their formation. The ovaloid Grassland World had actually just flown out there!

  “Cultivator leaders, did you think that I had fled? No, no. How could I flee?” Iyerre’s voice echoed throughout every inch of the void. “ Let’s see just how powerful your formations are.”

  “BREAK!!!” Iyerre let out a furious shout, and those nine violet-gold chains suddenly appeared on the surface of the ovaloid object. The violet-gold chains expanded in size, each becoming a trillion kilometers in length as they swept through the void with ineffable majesty. With Iyerre in control of them and with the ignited quintessence strengthening them, they began to furiously smash down upon Ning’s enormous formation! Iyerre was able to immediately see the flaws in this formation and so his every attack was aimed at a weak spot.

  Boom! Boom! Boom! The entire formation immediately began to shudder as a level of power comparable to the divine sword’s began to hammer down upon its various weak spots. This wasn’t a defensive formation; there was only so much punishment it could take!

  “Let’s leave for now.” Ning and the others were all quite patient. All of them had prepared escape-type treasures, and they had also opened up a spacetime tunnel within the formation itself.

  Whoosh! Ning and the others immediately flew into the spacetime corridor and departed.

  1. In China, the plum blossom symbolizes perseverance, hope, and beauty.

  Book 45, Chapter 2 - Weakness, Hunt

  Now that Ji Ning and the other Autarchs were no longer actively maintaining the grand formation which covered this region, it quickly crumbled beneath the strikes of the violet-golden chains.

  A short while later, four figures emerged from the grayish clouds which constituted the surfaced of the ovaloid Grassland World. It was Iyerre and his three allies.

  “They fled,” the silver-robed woman murmured softly. “Iyerre, this is their homeland. These cultivators can fight or flee as they please. If we aren’t able to trap them, we won’t be able to kill them at all.”

  “They are all extremely wily. As soon as the odds turn against them, they immediately flee.” The red-robed man frowned as well.

  “I agree with everything you two just said.” Iyerre nodded. Killing Ning and the Autarchs would be very difficult, because they all fled at the first sign of bad news! Iyerre was constantly being suppressed by this local Chaosverse, and so once they fled in unison he wouldn’t be able to chase them down.

  He could suppress spacetime to make it impossible for them to flee, then warp through spacetime after them… but as he tried to warp close enough to do this, ripples would be generated. Once Ning and the others sensed this, they would instantly flee far away. Iyerre still wouldn’t be able to catch them.

  The reason why he had been able to do this to Mogg was because he had gotten close enough to use something akin to a domain-field to prevent Mogg from escaping. Now that Ning and the others were all together and working in concert, Iyerre’s domain would no longer be able to bind them any longer.

  In other words… neither speed, suppression of spacetime, nor domains would work. There was nothing which could actually trap Ning and the others. They could come and go as they pleased! It must be remembered that the native Autarchs were in no hurry to conclude the war right away. The longer it dragged on for, the better. If it somehow dragged on for a few million chaos cycles, their Chaosverse would have given birth to another batch of experts that might include new Autarchs or Omega Emperors!

  Now that the cultivators had the ‘Truesoul Everlasting’, the rate at which they produced Autarchs would naturally increase significantly.

  “They are slippery and cautious. They won’t give us a chance to catch them,” Iyerre said. “Our plan was to use the sudden appearances of myself and the Grassland World to achieve dramatic successes, but in the end both failed. However… in the end, none of it matters. I’ve fully mapped out all possibilities for this entire war. They won’t be able to escape their fate. In the end, we shall still win this war.”

  His three allies were rather puzzled. Such self-confidence… where did it stem from? If they couldn’t even catch or hunt down their foes, how were they supposed to beat them?

  “Let me repeat myself. I’ve fully mapped out ALL possibilities for this entire war,” Iyerre said with a smile. “Have you forgotten that I sent out the Annihilation Hive at the very beginning of this war?”

  “The Annihilation Hive?” The three were startled.

  “Haven’t the cultivators already discovered a way to counteract the Annihilation Hive? It’s no longer functioning, right?” the silver-robed woman asked curiously.

  “Imbecile.” Iyerre glanced sideways at her. “I released the Annihilation Hive for two reasons. The first was on the off-chance that I might be able to gain total victory if it succeeded in devouring a great deal of this Chaosverse’s energies and caused it to weaken enough for me to take over. This objective failed… but the second objective was the true objective.”

  “I sent it out to make it the most lethal weak point in this entire Chaosverse for the cultivators!” Iyerre’s eyes flashed coldly. “Right now, a single one of their avatars is responsible for maintaining the formation that is tying down the Annihilation Hive. All we need to do is charge towards it and destroy the avatar inside the Annihilation Hive, at which point it will start to function again!”

  “The Annihilation
Hive will once more begin to devour the energies from the Chaosverse, causing it to weaken! The cultivator leaders will be forced to try and stop us. They can’t just sit back and watch as their Chaosverse wastes away… which means that so long as we wait for them at the Annihilation Hive, they’ll be forced to come to us! They’ll obediently step into the battlefield we have parepared.” Iyerre smiled.

  The silver-robed woman and the other two revealed looks of delight. They had thought that the Annihilation Hive was of no further use now that it had been counteracted. They hadn’t fully thought through all the other implications.

  “Impressive. So long as the Annihilation Hive continues to function, the cultivators will be forced to come and assault it no matter how reluctant they may be. We don’t need to do anything at all. They’ll come to us!” the red-robed man chuckled.

  “Let’s go wipe them out in the battlefield of our choosing,” the black-robed man said grimly.

  “No rush.” Iyerre smiled. “A war must be carried out step-by-step. You might see an occasional setback, but if you fully planned for all possibilities then you’ll still end up the ultimate victor.”

  “Right now, what we need to do is strengthen our forces! Let’s go rescue those trapped Exalts first,” Iyerre said.

  Slash! Violet-gold chains began to fly out towards the still-trapped Nine Cicadas Temple. The sealing formation surrounding it was nothing more than a joke to Iyerre. A mere heartbeat later the seemingly-complicated formation had been completely undone, granting the nine Sithe Exalts freedom once more.

  The nine Exalts immediately flew over. When they saw Iyerre standing atop the distant gray clouds, they hurriedly bowed: “Almighty Iyerre!”

  “Come here. We shall head to the next location.” Iyerre nodded. The Sithe Exalts immediately put away the Nine Cicadas Temple and flew into the Grassland World.

  Moments later, the Grassland World once more tore through spacetime and vanished. As soon as it did, a group of figures suddenly appeared off in the distance. It was Ji Ning, Autarch Titanos, and the others. The seven of them hadn’t fled too far through spacetime. They had quickly warped back in secret to scry this place from nearby.

  Their movements didn’t cause any disturbances, because they were protected rather than rejected by the Chaosverse. In fact, they were even able to borrow the Chaosverse’s energies to ‘watch’ their opponents from afar!

  It was Ning’s primary responsibility to ‘watch’ them, as he was extremely skilled in spacetime and well-rounded in many other areas. Given that he was within his own Chaosverse, simply keeping watch on someone from afar was quite simple.

  “We were ambushed by them previously. There’s no way we’re going to let them just disappear again. We have to keep tabs on their location at all times,” Autarch Titanos said. “All of our avatars have been destroyed, which means we have no choice but to simply send our true bodies to carry out this task. Darknorth, for now we’ll have to trouble you to carry this out as the rest of us work on remaking our avatars.”

  “Alright.” Ning nodded. The others had all lost their avatars, while his was still in the Annihilation Hive and in peak condition.

  Ning could still sense them from afar. He could follow the ripples generated by the Grassland World warping through spacetime and ‘see’ where it was heading.

  Whoosh! Ning began to warp through spacetime with the other six in tow, maintaining a distance of roughly a realmverse from the Grassland World. To Ning, a realmverse of distance was nothing at all. His godsense alone vastly outstripped this, and when he relied upon the powers of the Chaosverse and his link to the prime essences he was able to ‘watch’ from an even more ridiculously great distance.

  So long as the two sides maintained a distance of just a realmverse away, Iyerre wouldn’t be able to easily detect Ning thanks to the Chaosverse constantly suppressing his powers.

  While Ning continued to pursue the Grassland World, Titanos and the others created their new avatars. These avatars merely had 50% of their true power, which was the best they could do on such short notice.

  “Judging from the direction they are taking, they should be going to go rescue another temple,” Ning sent.

  “Then let us destroy it in advance,” Autarch Titanos said. “Given our power, we are completely capable of working together to destroy the temples in a short period of time.”

  Previously, they hadn’t considered the temples to be much of a threat. They didn’t want to attack the temples and reveal the techniques they could use when fighting together, as this would give their opponents a chance to prepare for them in the future. The reveal had to be reserved for the Grassland World… and in the end, they had successfully destroyed one of the conduit formations and forced the ignition of its quintessence core!

  “Let’s keep following the Grassland World. Whenever it tries to rescue a temple, we’ll fly up ahead and destroy that temple,” Autarch Ekong said with a cold smile. “We warp through spacetime far faster than that thing does.”

  Ning and the others held a significant advantage in both flying speed and warping speed. Even Iyerre was able to just barely meet Autarch standards of speed in warping through spacetime, but of course this was because he was being heavily suppressed by the local Chaosverse.

  ……

  The cultivators spent nearly a month travelling at high speed. In about six or so days, the Grassland World would reach a new temple.

  “Skyfeeder, Mogg, the two of you should have your avatars continue to track the Grassland World’s movements. Make sure you know where it is at all times. Don’t lose sight of it!” Out of an abundance of caution, Autarch Titanos gave this task to Skyfeeder and Mogg. The two of them were skilled in time and space, respectively. “The rest of us will head out and move towards the nearest temple at maximum speed and use all our power to destroy it.”

  “Alright.” The avatars of Mogg and Skyfeeder were both extremely confident.

  Book 45, Chapter 3 - Skycleaver Stance

  A great star-like temple was silently floating within the Great Dark, surrounded by formations and flowing barriers that surrounded it and kept it completely sealed away.

  Riiiip. A rift in the darkness appeared, followed by Ji Ning and the rest of the seven emerging from within it.

  “Let’s begin.” Ning, Titanos, and the others exchanged smiling glances.

  “This will be the first time we have the Sword Titan release its full power in battle,” Ning said with a laugh. All of them began to pour energy into the formation-bases they were holding. Boom! They quickly summoned the awesome power of the Chaosverse, which began to swiftly condense into the form of a nearly nude giant who was clad in just a fur loincloth. This titan stood there in the Great Darkness, his long dark hair spilling across his shoulders.

  He had two arms and a face which looked similar to Ning’s but had more of the cold, pure remorselessness of the Dao of the Sword.

  The Sword Titan had two different ‘modes’. The first mode was the seven-faced, fourteen-armed mode they had used previously. This mode used up more energy but it had so much power that the other six Autarchs could each be responsible for controlling two arms as well.

  The second mode was this mode. It had just a single face and two arms.

  Ning and the others had already concluded that they would have to fight together during the final battle. If they had enough time, they would of course set up formations to prepare the battlefield. Before the battle near the Nine Cicadas Temple, they had actually spent nearly a month setting up that grand formation (the ‘real’ time they spent was 100x as much). However, oftentimes battles would break out suddenly and without warning, giving you no chance to slowly establish the formations you needed.

  During such times, they would need to make use of mobile formations they could carry with them. They would have to shrink the size of the formation while preserving as much of its power as possible… and so they developed the ‘second mode’ of the Sword Titan!
>
  The second mode was activated by the various formation-bases which Ning and the others carried with them at all times. It allowed them to summon the power of the Chaosverse and then materialize this body. Given that it had access to less power, they had to be a bit more sparing with their energy usage and so they only kept the two strongest arms which Ning controlled.

  The two arms which Ning was in control of was where most of the power of the entire Sword Titan was concentrated. More than 90% of the power was there!

  “Gentlemen, let us use the Skycleaver stance in cracking this temple,” Ning said.

  “Alright.” The other six understood and agreed.

  Rumble… the loincloth-clad Sword Titan strode through the void, a longsword appearing within one of its hands. This was one of Ning’s Northbow swords.

  Autarch Titanos, Autarch Skyfeeder, Autarch Mogg, Autarch Stonerule, Autarch Ekong, and Autarch Bolin were inside the Sword Titan. They immediately unleashed their various techniques, filling the Sword Titan’s body with their six roaring streams of energy. Under Ning’s guidance, all of the different energies merged perfectly into the Omega Sword Dao, allowing the Sword Titan to unleash the most powerful of its many fusion attacks – the Skycleaver stance!

  Whoosh! The Sword Titan’s two hands came together to grasp the Northbow sword in a double grip, then lifted it high into the air. A heartbeat later, it brought the Northbow sword down in an utterly indomitable chop towards the trapped astral temple before them.

  Boom! Crack! The entire astral temple began to shudder. This strike destroyed three of the six formations protecting it, and even the remaining three formations were shuddering as explosions rang out across the temple.

  “What in the world is happening outside?”

  “Didn’t almighty Iyerre say that he’s about to arrive and save us? Why are our formations collapsing?!” The seven Sithe Exalts inside all felt quite terrified, but the formations sealing them in here prevented them from seeing what was happening outside. All they could sense was that just now, an incomparably sharp power had come crashing down upon them and had nearly blasted the entire temple apart.