Desolate Era (Book 28 - Book 30)

“I do.” Moksha nodded. “However, a good deal of it was taken away by my previous master. I only have on me the ore which I mined in the last nine chaos cycles. Take a look, Master.” As Moksha spoke, he waved his hand and caused fist-sized chunks of fiery-red rocks to appear on the ground. Strange spatial ripples began to fill the surrounding area as well.

He waved his hand three times in total, causing the fiery-red rocks to pile up into a small mountain that was three thousand meters tall. By this point in time, space had begun to completely twist and distort, causing shimmering ‘curtains’ of folded space to appear in the surrounding area. Because the chunks of stone were all fist-sized, it wasn’t too hard to store them away in that estate-treasure. If this had been a single massive slab of darkspace flamestone, most likely only an Eternal Emperor would’ve been able to store it away.

“You mined that much?” Ning’s eyes nearly popped out.

Although golems that were as strong as Daolords of the Third Step were valuable, the amount of ore this particular golem was carrying was even more valuable.

“So much darkspace flamestone…” Ning swept it with his godsense, carefully calculating how much was present. “This has to be worth nearly ten million cubes of chaos nectar!”

“My former master had roughly twice as much as this,” Moksha said. “Early on, I wasn’t that skilled in using axes and so was rather slow in my mining. It took about twenty chaos cycles before I got better, and all of the ore I mined during that period of time I gave to my previous master. This pile here consists of the ore I mined during the past nine chaos cycles.”

“I’m more than satisfied with this.” Ning grinned.

This ore had to be worth nearly ten million cubes of chaos nectar. As for the twenty million cubes which the black-robed Daolord had, that all belonged to Solewind. In order to save them, Solewind had used up a powerful Dao-seal that was so valuable, it would be almost impossible to find on the open market. Ning naturally didn’t feel any jealousy or envy whatsoever. For him to suddenly earn so much darkspace flamestone was already a stroke of tremendous fortune.

“What do you know about Emperor Trisilk?” Ning asked. The five of them still felt worried about this matter.

“Emperor Trisilk has an odd temper and is incredibly savage,” Moksha said. “You must be careful, Master. Based on what I know of the Emperor, he’s the type to avenge every single slight, no matter how petty. Once he locates the five of you… I guarantee he won’t let you off easily.”

“Oh?” A solemn look appeared on Ning’s face as he nodded.

But of course, the two of them had no idea that Emperor Trisilk was currently in a far more miserable situation than they were.

“What about the Genesis Lands? What do you know about that place?” Ning asked.

“The Genesis Lands is where this entire universe sprang from. All combat is forbidden there,” Moksha said. “When I served the Emperor, I once spent a very long period of time in the Genesis Lands.”

Ning asked, “Who issued the order forbidding all combat in that location?”

“The order came from the Church of Annihilation,” Moksha said. “Daolords generally do not dare to violate the commands of the Church. But of course, if someone really does go crazy, they can still choose to break this law. I once saw it happen with my own eyes. A Daolord, for the sake of evading an enemy, chose to hide within the Genesis Lands. However, his enemy was so enraged that he ignored the rules and chased the Daolord into the Genesis Lands, then killed him there! But of course… later on, the killer was wiped out by the Church of Annihilation!”

Ning nodded.

“Still… the Paladins of the Church of Annihilation aren’t afraid to violate this law. They are members of the Church itself, after all. Even when they break this law, they will at most suffer some non-lethal punishments,” Moksha said. “I once heard Master say that if the sixteen Starkings were to violate this law, no punishment would be given. Not even the ruler of the Church of Annihilation would choose to offend and act against his Starkings without a very good reason.”

“Oh.” Ning chuckled. This golem knew quite a bit!

Actually, the almighty Hegemon had given them some information regarding this alternate universe before sending them into it, but the amount of information was pitifully small. All Ning knew was that the Archaeus region was filled with danger, but once they reached the Genesis Lands in the center they would be fairly safe. Although the Genesis Lands held its own dangers, all violence was supposedly prohibited there. Supposedly, there was no need to worry about any World-level cultivators or Daolords you encountered within the Genesis Lands.

Upon hearing the golem speak at length, Ning couldn’t help but sigh.

A ‘prohibition’ against violence?

In the end, there was a limit to how far that prohibition would stretch. Suicidally fearless cultivators would violate that prohibition, as would the Paladins and Starkings of the Church of Annihilation, thanks to the extremely high positions they held within the Church.

“Still… Paladins will be punished if they violate this prohibition. They won’t attack us without a good reason.” Ning nodded slowly. “As for Starkings… I imagine we aren’t even qualified to attract the attention of a Starking, much less offend one.”

“Our entire universe only holds sixteen Starkings, and almost none of them are in the Archaeus region,” Moksha said. “I heard Emperor Trisilk once say that even he himself has only met three Starkings in his lifetime.”

……

Moksha had been Emperor Trisilk’s golem for quite some time, and thus knew many of the Emperor’s secrets. He had even been in the Genesis Lands, and thus he was able to give Ning a good deal of information regarding that place.

Time slowly flowed on, and Ning’s group of eight continued their careful advance. The rest of their journey was fairly uneventful, and they did not encounter any more Daolords! In truth, the odds of encountering a Daolord in the Archaeus region were incredibly low to begin with.

By now, they had spent over 8922 years in the Archaeus region, and they had encountered many dangerous situations and locales. Still, in the end they were able to safely reach the Genesis Lands. All eight of them survived this journey.

“The Genesis Lands.”

A flying vessel was soaring through the emptiness of space.

Ning and the rest of the eight were aboard the vessel, and their heads were raised as they stared at an utterly enormous floating world which was in front of them. This was the Genesis Lands! This was the wellspring of this entire alternate universe, from which all things originally arose.

“That aura of power…” Ning and the others were all quite shaken.

An invisible field of power covered the entire Archaeus region. Without an Archaeus medallion, even the likes of Eternal Emperors would be instantly crushed to death! The Archaeus region was almost as large as their homeland, the ‘Endless Territories’. It was incredibly vast, and that field of power stretched out to cover every inch of the region.

And yet… the incredibly vast world in front of them was the source of that field of power. One could imagine how much might it contained! Not even someone as powerful as the almighty Hegemon could compare to the might of the Genesis Lands of the Archaeus region.

“Come. Let us enter the Genesis Lands,” Ning said.

“Brother Darknorth, you told us earlier that the elementary trial we need to pass in order to enter the Genesis Lands is a trial of resolve, correct?” Greatjoy asked.

“That is what my golem told me. I think he was telling the truth,” Ning said.

Not just anyone was permitted to enter the Genesis Lands.