Desolate Era (Book 22 - Book 24)

This would cost a hundred bottles of chaos nectar for short distances and even more for longer distances. Thus, not even World Gods or Chaos Immortals would do so lightly. Generally speaking, only the most top-tier of World-level experts would ever choose to have the spacetime transfer arrays activated for them on an individual basis. They often travelled throughout the outside world, after all, and constantly went from one array to another. If they had to pay for a personal activation each time, the costs would be quite staggering. Thus, it was quite rare for even the caretakers of the spacetime transfer arrays to see a cultivator have the array activated on an individual basis. This was especially true for a lesser-travelled location such as Sevenwater Star.

As for this old man’s strange appearance, that didn’t really matter. Cultivators dressed and acted as they pleased. They could all tell that this barefoot old man had an extraordinary demeanor. None of the caretakers even dared to breathe loudly in front of him.

“Ugh. Finally made it to the Sevenwater Star of the Badlands Territory.” The raggedy old man stepped out of the formation and into the skies. He muttered to himself, “If Daolord Windsource was going to die, he could’ve just died somewhere convenient. Why the hell did he have to run all the way over here, to the Badlands Territory? This old man is dog-tired from the journey.”





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Book 24, Chapter 39 - The Battle Begins


“The Windsource Ruins. Mm. Thank goodness Daolord Windsource set up an estate just before he died. All of his treasures should probably be inside that place. I hope my information is correct and the talisman is truly inside there as well!”

The raggedy old man took another step through the void of space, then completely disappeared.

……

The Blacklotus Chaosworld.

Above the city shaped like a black lotus with nine petals was an enormous planet that glimmered with boundless amounts of astral light.

The two forces faced each other watchfully.

Within the God Emperor’s estate.

“What do you think we should do, everyone?” God Emperor Blacklotus glanced at the other four World-level experts.

“Help me out, everyone.” Chaos Immortal Owlsoar looked at the other four as well, a hint of ill-disguised entreaty on his face. At a time like this, face no longer mattered. If God Emperor Blacklotus and the other five weren’t willing to stand up for him and he was forced to face the might of the entire Fogstone Army by himself, he would most assuredly perish.

“Owlsoar, you…ugh. Forget it. It is far too late now.” A man dressed in a white robe embroidered with flowers shook his head.

“What, are all of you shrinking back already? The Fogstone Dominion isn’t that much more powerful than us. If they force us to bow our heads this time, how will we ever be able to raise our heads again when meeting the other World-level powers of the Badlands Territory?” An alien covered in oily black armor spoke out, his golden eyes filled with anger.

“The entire reason we all joined together in an alliance was so that we could jointly deal with any threats, right? It’s also been a long time since I’ve had a good fight. My hands itch.” The chubby cyclopean alien spoke out in concurrence.

A look of delight and gratitude appeared on Immortal Owlsoar’s face.

“I’ll listen to what Blacklotus says,” the bald, gray-robed elder said calmly.

“Blacklotus…” All of them turned to look at God Emperor Blacklotus. Immortal Owlsoar had a hopeful look on his face.

God Emperor Blacklotus gave Immortal Owlsoar a glance, secretly shaking his head. He had always felt rather contemptuous towards Immortal Owlsoar. Immortal Owlsoar had only been able to break into the World-level due to a stroke of tremendous luck, not talent. After breaking through to this level, it had become extremely difficult for him to improve any further at all. Thus, Immortal Owlsoar had chosen to embark upon an evil path…and yet, despite having chosen this path, Immortal Owlsoar was always worried about the consequences of his actions. As a result couldn’t be considered a truly demonic figure.

Based on what God Emperor Blacklotus knew…

The truly demonic figures of the legends were able to throw an entire territory into utter turmoil despite merely being World-level figures! They would cause all the living creatures of tens of thousands of chaosworlds to perish for the sake of refining a single terrifying sin-treasure. Compared to those figures, Immortal Owlsoar was quite lacking.

“Everyone, I agree with what you said.” God Emperor Blacklotus nodded. “Since we’ve chosen to stand together, we need to remain unified.”

Immortal Owlsoar was delighted upon hearing this.

“In addition…although Starchild claims that he holds a huge grudge against Immortal Owlsoar, who knows if he’s even telling the truth?” God Emperor Blacklotus laughed coldly. “He might have simply come up with a random excuse to force us to give up Owlsoar. After he kills Owlsoar, what’s to stop him from coming up with another random excuse to kill another one of us? Are we supposed to give up our fellows one after the other? By then, we’ll be even weaker before. They’d probably be able to wipe us out at one blow.”

“Right, right! This is probably a plot!” Immortal Owlsoar said hurriedly.

“Enough! Shut your damn mouth. I only said he ‘might have’.” God Emperor Blacklotus cast him a cold glance. “The more likely answer is that he really does hold a grudge against Owlsoar. To engage in such a large battle for just a bit of territory wouldn’t really be worth it. It is very possible that his Dao-companion truly was killed by Owlsoar.”

Immortal Owlsoar nervously bit his lips.

“Still…for him to force his way to our doorstep is a sign of completely disrespect towards me and towards all of you.” God Emperor Blacklotus said calmly, “They have nine World-level experts while we only have six, but we also have the protective formations surrounding our imperial capital. How dare they act so brashly?”

“Agreed.”

“They really are holding us in no regard whatsoever.”

“They’re actually kicking in our doors. Let’s have a fight with them and see who is really stronger.”

……

Atop the warship in the air.

The Starlord of Fogstone and the rest of the nine World-level experts were waiting quietly. The stick of incense hovering in midair continued to slowly burn, with less than half of it remaining.

“Starchild.” A voice rang out from below.

“Have you made your decision?” The Starlord of Fogstone replied coldly.

“You say you wish to kill Immortal Owlsoar, and so I must let you kill him? What if you then demand to kill my other World-level experts? Am I supposed to offer them up as well?” God Emperor Blacklotus’ voice was icy cold as well. “In the end, I’ll be all by myself…and then you’ll just gang up on me and kill me, right?”

The Starlord frowned then sent back, “Blacklotus, if you don’t believe me, I’m willing to swear a lifeblood oath.”

“No need for a lifeblood oath. Even if Owlsoar truly did kill your Dao-companion, he is still a Chaos Immortal of my Blacklotus Empire! All of us have joined together in an alliance, precisely because we saw the value of joining together against powerful enemies.” God Emperor Blacklotus’ voice grew even colder. “If you leave right away, I’ll forget about your affront and your invasion of my territory. If you do not…then I have no choice but to let this be settled through combat.”

“A true pity.” The Starlord waved his hand, causing the half-burnt stick of incense to disappear.

“It seems we will still have to face them in combat.”

“We expected that.”

The others, including Immortal Skyram and Immortal Abyssus, all glanced at each other. All of them had suspected that Fogstone wasn’t powerful enough to force the Blacklotus Empire to surrender without firing a single shot. Thus, they were already prepared to storm this city by force. The reason why they had acted in such secrecy was to ensure that the Blacklotus Empire wouldn’t have the chance to purchase any Elder God Formations of their own.

“Seven formations, attack!” The Starlord commanded.

“Acknowledged!” Ning and the rest of the six called out in unison.

“Let’s go,” Ning ordered. He led his 999 Elder Gods to fly out of the great warship, and the other six armies flew out alongside them.

“Spread out,” Ning sent mentally.