Desolate Era (Book 25 - Book 27)

At this moment, Daolord Fudan hurriedly ran over and said with great respect, “Greetings, Lord Woodflower.”


“Lord?” Ning was stunned.

“Junior apprentice-brother Darknorth, Daolord Woodflower is a Vice Palace Lord of our Sword Palace.” Daolord Fudan sent a hurried mental message to Ning.

Although Ning didn’t know the names of the various Daolords in the Sword Palace, he knew the general rules of the Twelve Palaces. The strongest member in every single palace was given the title of Palace Lord. Vice Palace Lords were the next most powerful! But of course, there were exceptions such as the Palace of Radiance, which had two powerful Daolords who were roughly on par with each other, which was why both were referred to as Palace Lord. Thus, the Radiant Palace had two Palace Lords.

Generally speaking, Palace Lords and Vice Palace Lords had the power to battle against Eternal Emperors. This was especially true in a place like the Sword Palace, which focused on combat.

“Greetings, Palace Lord,” Ning said hurriedly.

“Simply address me as senior apprentice-brother Woodflower.” The decadent-looking man chuckled. “I watched the battle between you and Bertulu. You aren’t bad at all. Actually, your sword-arts are quite similar to those of Daolord Everstarter. If he is still alive, he should be an Eternal Emperor by now. Given how strong he was as a Daolord, as an Eternal Emperor he would probably be alive to this very day and might be willing to give you some personal pointers.”

Ning nodded.

A Daolord who was able to defeat an Eternal Emperor of the Ancients and who was acknowledged as the undisputed number one Daolord of the Endless Territories of his time… if he was to become an Eternal Emperor, killing him would be almost impossible.

“Senior apprentice-brother Woodflower,” Ning said hurriedly, “Can it be that he doesn’t have an avatar here? Why is it that we don’t know if he is alive or not?”

When Ning had entered Undermoon Lake, he had been quite weak, but his clones in the outside world could sense if he was alive or dead. Once his clones in Undermoon Lake perished, he would be able to recreate the clones in the outside world. This was an easy way to judge if he was dead or not.

Daolords, however, would generally leave avatars in their homes when they were entering dangerous regions. If not, they would leave behind other special techniques or spells. Generally speaking, it wasn’t too hard to know what was happening or if they were still alive.

“The primordial chaos is vast and endless. Even the almighty Hegemon, who is older than the Twelve Palaces, wouldn’t dare claim that he knows everything which happens within it,” Lord Woodflower explained. “In the endless primordial chaos, there are indeed some places which will result in you being completely cut off from the outside world once you enter. There would be no way whatsoever to ascertain if you were alive or not.”

“Given that we have heard no word from him in countless years, it is very likely that he is dead. However, there’s no way to verify it, and so we generally will list these elders as ‘status unknown’ rather than ‘deceased’ on their Sword Pagodas,” Lord Woodflower explained.

Ning nodded.

After chatting a bit about Daolord Everstarter, Lord Woodflower said, “Darknorth, as a new member of the Sword Palace, you are able to choose a single divine ability, secret art, or legacy from the Pavilion of Mysteries. But of course, some Daolords restricted their legacies, only permitting juniors who passed the trials they set down to make use of those legacies. Generally speaking, the more valuable a legacy, the more common this practice is.”

Ning naturally understood this principle. His Mirrorsnow Paintings had trials as well. Actually procuring all four paintings was a major trial in and of itself, and of course he had to defeat the four experts within the four paintings.

“I’ll go take a look first,” Ning said.

“I’ll lead the way.” Lord Woodflower waved his hand, sending a surge of Immortal energy to surround Ning.

Sword-light flickered around them, resulting in them disappearing into the skies.

Daolord Fudan raised his head to watch them leave, a look of envy in his eyes. He murmured softly, “Lord Woodflower is quite nice to him. It seems he views Darknorth with great favor.” As he spoke, he walked back to the outskirts of the Forest of Sword Pagodas.

“Who was that person who just flew away with my master?” Su Youji immediately asked.

“That was Lord Woodflower of our Sword Palace. Although he behaves in a very casual, laid-back manner, he’s a very discerning man. It isn’t easy to attract his attention. It seems he quite likes your master,” Daolord Fudan said. “Let us wait for him here.”

“Alright.” Su Youji smiled. The better Ning’s live here was, the happier she would be. She felt absolutely delighted by this.

……

The Pavilion of Mysteries was located at the top of a mountain, surrounded by clouds and mist.

A streak of sword-light flickered and descended in front of the pavilion. Daolord Woodflower and Ji Ning both appeared once more.

“That was fast.” Ning was secretly shocked.

“Greetings, Vice Palace Lord.” Suddenly, a fiery red golem at the entrance to the pavilion rose to its feet and called out respectfully. Its entire body was made from magic treasures; a simple glance was enough to tell that it wasn’t an actual living creature.

“Swordthree, I’m going to take this new arrival of ours, junior apprentice-brother Darknorth, in for a look.” Daolord Woodflower smiled towards Ning. “This is Swordthree, the overseer of the Pavilion of Mysteries. He’s been guarding this place for an extremely long period of time, much longer than any of our Daolords have been alive. He is ranked the third most powerful golem in the Sword Palace, and so we just call him Swordthree. You can call him the same.”

“Swordthree,” Ning said hurriedly.

“Darknorth.” The fiery golem cracked a friendly smile towards Ning.

“Follow me inside.” Lord Woodflower led Ning inwards.

Within this bamboo hall, there were a series of jade slips. There were also stone steles, statues, books, paintings, leaves, wine gourds, and all sorts of other items. They all looked quite ordinary, as though this was a flea market filled with many miscellaneous objects.

“This place holds many divine abilities and secret arts,” Lord Woodflower said. “All Twelve Palaces share more or less the same divine abilities and secret arts. Our legacies, however, belong to us alone.”

Lord Woodflower continued, “There are differences amongst the legacies. Some are more profound, some are less. Some were left behind by fairly ordinary Daolords, some were left behind by awe-inspiringly powerful Daolords who were as strong as Eternal Emperors, and some were left behind by actual Eternal Emperors. There’s no need to pass any trials to use the divine abilities or secret arts; all you need to do is choose one and you will be able to train in it. Legacies, however, generally come attached with trials and conditions.”

“The legacies left behind by Eternal Emperors are the most valuable. Here within this bamboo hall, there are five legacies that were left behind by Eternal Emperors.” Lord Woodflower explained, “Here in the Sword Palace, we have an additional requirement. World-level cultivators have to become acknowledged as ‘Swordlords’ by the Sword Pagodas before they are qualified to select a legacy left behind by an Eternal Emperor… but of course, they still need to pass the trials which the Eternal Emperor set down.”