Desolate Era (Book 31 - Book 35)

“Come, let us go inside.” The three hesitated for a while outside before transforming into streaks of light that flew towards the lion. They did this partially because they naturally felt the need to prevent Ning from acquiring any more treasures, and partially because they didn’t really worry about danger. They were Sithe! Even if they entered some incredibly important restricted areas, they would at most be unceremoniously kicked out. Over the course of all these years, not a single clan leader had perished within the ancestral grounds.

“Where am I?” Ning stared at the rainbow region around him. The aura emanating from this region was incredibly exalted, and the power flowed everywhere. Clearly, this truly was an exceptional place.

“Eh?” Ning’s face suddenly tightened as he glanced backwards. “They came inside as well.”

The three silver men flew over, excited looks on their faces. As soon as they sensed the aura and power held within this region, they understood that this was an extraordinary place.

“Daolord Darknorth, all thanks to you!”

“If it wasn’t for you, we never would’ve discovered this place.” The three clan leaders were quite smug.

Right at this moment, a humanoid figure suddenly coalesced in the center of this bright ranbow region. This figure was dressed in long black robes, was pale-faced, had blood-red eyes, and looked both handsome and evil. He stared at the three clan leaders, an icy look on his face as his voice boomed out, shaking the entire world: “I invited this cultivator to come in, but how dare you three Sithe barge in as well! Do you think you are worthy of entering an Autarch’s territory? Die.”

Boom! Suddenly, a ripple of spatial power swept across the three silver men. They instantly turned pale, but before they could so much as say a word their bodies were split in half at the waist. A heartbeat later, their eyes turned dull as they perished.

The six parts of the three silver men’s corpses just hung there in midair.





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Book 34, Chapter 25 - Autarch Bolin


Ji Ning was rather stunned when he saw this. Those three silver men had been incredibly strong… how had they been so easily slain?

Still, when he thought of the three words ‘an Autarch’s territory’ he began to understand. Anything that had even the most tenuous of connections to an Autarch was guaranteed to be extraordinary. Autarchs were the most supreme leaders of the entire cultivator civilization! They were even able to create those alternate universes which Eternal Emperors fought over like rabid dogs, seeking to take control over them and become Otherverse Lords!

Those otherverses were nothing more than constructs devised by the Autarchs. This was a testament to how mighty the Autarchs were.

“Senior.” Ning stared at the wicked black-robed figure. He couldn’t help but ask, “This place is an Autarch’s territory? Are you saying that one of the legendary Autarchs set this place up?”

“Correct.” The black-robed man revealed a hint of a smile as a flicker of pride appeared in his eyes. “My master was named Bolin. The countless cultivators of the Chaosverse reverentially refer to him as Autarch Bolin. Aside from the few other Autarchs who stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him, there is no one in all the Chaosverse who is his equal. Young fellow, you are currently just a Daolord; you can’t even imagine just how powerful an Autarch is.”

Ning could sense the benevolent intentions radiating from this man. In truth, when he heard the words ‘I invited this cultivator to come in’ Ning immediately realized that this person was a friend, not a foe. Given how he was able to annihilate the three clan leaders with ease, there was no need for him to deceive Ning.

Ning couldn’t help but ask, “Senior, are Autarchs capable of reversing the flows of spacetime within a chaosworld to revive a Celestial Immortal whose truesoul was destroyed?”

“Of course! Forget about Celestial Immortals, even World-level cultivators can be rescued if the Autarch was willing.” The black-robed man shook his head. “However, being ‘able’ to do so is one thing; being ‘willing’ to do so is another. Reversing spacetime to revive someone will cause the Autarch to endure a backlash from the prime essences of the entire Chaosverse. Not even an Autarch would suffer something like this lightly. You would have to pay a high price, a price which would sway even an Autarch.”

Ning nodded slowly.

“Come with me,” the black-robed man instructed. He glanced sideways at the corpses of the three silver men. “Right, go ahead and collect those corpses. They probably have a few treasures on them.”

“Alright.” Ning waved his hand, collecting all three corpses.

“Instead of being actual cultivators, they chose to undergo the Ritual Sacrificium and serve as the pawns of the Sithe.” The black-robed man shook his head. “And the most unsightly Sithe pawns I’ve ever seen.”

“The most unsightly?” Ning was surprised.

The black-robed man nodded. “True Sithe are extremely powerful! Generally speaking, the stronger a Sithe is, the more unwilling he is to undergo the Ritual Sacrificium. Although the ritual will allow them to rapidly increase in strength within a short period of time, they lose all hope of making any further breakthroughs. This is why strong Sithe disdain such an act.”

“As for these three fools? They can’t even compare to real Silver Daolords in power, while Silver Daolords represented the most common footsoldiers in the Sithe army. During that great war, Hegemons served as the mainstays in each army! Long ago, our five Autarchs united the forces of all cultivators in the entire Chaosverse to fight that great war. The Autarchs served as the vanguard, the edge of the blade that tore through all of the important Sithe locations,” the black-robed man said. “For example, this entire thing was once a Sithe warship.”

“Warship?” Ning had never imagined that the ‘Stone Hellephant Wall’ was actually a warship!

“Well, I suppose it would be more appropriate to describe it as a terrifying war-fortress! It was capable of easily tearing through spacetime and going from realmverse to realmverse. This warship was so powerful that it was able to slay Hegemons in the blink of an eye,” the black-robed man said.

“Not even a squad of ten Hegemons working together were able to fight this thing to a standstill. Thus, when my master discovered this thing he continued to pursue it without pause. It fled at high speed, tearing through spacetime repeatedly as it tried to escape, but my master was able to enter it and then slaughter a path through it. He ruined this entire warship, slaying more than thirty thousand Sithe and destroying all of the golems. He destroyed everything, leaving nothing behind!”

Ning was breathless upon hearing this. So this was how powerful an Autarch was?! “All the golems were destroyed?” Ning was puzzled. “But I still saw plenty of Emperor-class golems outside.”

“To my master, those golems posed no conceivable threat at all. He let out a casual strike, destroying all the golems and then immediately departing this place. He had to hurry off to a different battlefield and continue the war against the Sithe,” the black-robed man said. “In truth, however, these Sithe golems all possessed self-repair mechanisms.”

“They looked like they had been destroyed, but some were able to regenerate. As more time passed, some were able to slowly rebuild themselves. Some actually scavenged for parts from other golems that had been destroyed. Thus, a fraction of the golems are still alive, but they pose no real danger at all.”

Ning was speechless. ‘No real danger at all’? He had been forced to flee in pathetic fashion by those four Emperor-class golems which were comparable to the eight lords of the Sacred Cities. Still, it made sense; to Autarch Bolin, those creatures were nothing more than ants. Any Hegemon would’ve been able to destroy them with ease. They really didn’t pose any danger to the cultivator civilization in general.

“Follow me,” the black-robed man instructed as he flew forwards.

“Yes.” Ning followed from behind.

……