Desolate Era (Book 31 - Book 35)

By now, the three great clans were in a state of utter panic. Although they had been extremely stunned by the deaths of so many Daolords, they still felt fairly calm because they knew that the Silver Daolords were the true foundation of power for them! Every single clan leader was able to inherit the legacy of a Silver Daolord.

But now…

“How is this possible?”

“The clan leaders died?”

“How could they have died? How could the clan leaders have died?”

“Impossible. No clan leader has ever been killed since the establishment of the three great clans.”

They were all completely dumbfounded. The three great clans didn’t even know what they should do next, because they had never encountered a situation like this since they had been created. Clan leaders always died when their lifespans came to an end! None had ever been killed. Now that they had been killed, the ‘Silver Daolord’ legacy had clearly been lost as well. How would they be able to protect themselves without any Silver Daolords?

“What should we do? The entire Fumo clan only has a single Daolord left!” They were all utterly terrified.

“Go to the ancestral grounds! Go now and seize back the Silver Daolord legacy!”

“You idiot! Seize it? Seize it how?! All three clan leaders were slain; if I went, I would be instantly annihilated by Daolord Darknorth!”

“We can’t afford any further losses at all.”

“Everyone… the three great clans have been defeated. Defeated! The only thing we can do is protect our clan as best we can, using the Sithe disks and the many barriers left behind by our ancestors! So long as Daolord Darknorth can’t breach our barriers, he won’t be able to enter. All we can do is delay as long as we can. Once Daolord Darknorth’s lifespan comes to an end and he dies, we’ll use our Emperor-class golems to rise to power once more.”

“Yes, delaying is all we can do.”

The three great clans simultaneously came to this same decision. Right now, they each only had one or two Daolords left. It must be remembered that only Daolords were capable of syncing with the Sithe disks that maintained the clan barriers. Once the clans lost their Daolords, they would be completely doomed!

……

The black-robed man flew into the sky, leading Ning behind him.

“During that great war, the Autarchs made contingency plans in the event of defeat,” the black-robed man said. “If they were defeated, we would need to be able to raise a new ‘crop’ of experts who would continue the struggle against the Sithe. Thus, my master Autarch Bolin set up many beastworlds. He put estate-worlds in every single beast statue, and the Daos he put into them were Daos which could lead to Autarchy!”

“Lead towards Autarchy?” Ning’s heart trembled.

“Don’t get too excited. It only ‘leads’ towards Autarchy, but actually reaching the Autarch level is far too difficult.” The black-robed man laughed. “Although the Sithe were extremely powerful as a group, they didn’t have any individuals who could match our Autarchs in power, which was why they were defeated in the end. Autarchs are just too powerful. Just look at this warship! It was incredibly powerful, but it was viewed as nothing more but a plaything by the Autarchs.”

“Generally speaking, only Eternal Emperors are qualified to enter these beastworlds. I generally have no interest in Daolords at all, and they aren’t qualified to enter.” The black-robed man smiled. “But just now, I noticed that you were actually able to battle those three pathetic Silver Daolords to a standstill. I was quite surprised by this. You were just a Daolord, after all, and I can tell that you aren’t wielding a Universe treasure. For you to be able to unleash such might is quite rare indeed, which was why I permitted you to enter. I hope you will not disappoint me.”





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Book 34, Chapter 26 - Daobirth


“Here we are.” The black-robed man pointed off into the distance. Ji Ning followed his gaze, only to see a Daoist altar hanging in the air with nine pillars above it.

“How odd. This region is enormous, but it is completely empty. This Daoist altar is the only thing here.” Ning was rather puzzled, but he still followed the black-robed man as they flew towards the altar.

Whoosh. As soon as they landed atop the altar, Ning immediately smelled a certain fragrance pervade his nostrils. His mind grew sharper, and even his thinking speed began to quickly skyrocket. This was a marvelous effect that seemed quite similar to the Stone Censer of Reunion.

“This altar has the effect of helping you focus your mind and meditate on the Dao,” the black-robed man said. “An Autarch’s Dao is unfathomably profound and mysterious, after all. It would be extremely difficult for Eternal Emperors to even memorize it without help.”

“Sit here in the lotus position within the center of that circle.” The black-robed man pointed towards a circle that was roughly nine meters in diameter. “Sit in the lotus position there and view the surrounding area. There you shall find the Autarch’s Dao.”

“Yes, senior.” Ning felt his heartrate speed up. There were very, very few things which could make him feel so nervous and so eager. He walked into the circle, sat down in the lotus position, then stared at his surroundings.

“Eh?” Ning turned pale. The vast region around him, which had formerly been empty and devoid of all things, suddenly began to manifest traces and vestiges of a Dao.

Boom! A fiery red bird suddenly appeared in the empty void in front of him, spreading its wings and soaring towards the skies. Its Dao was vast and awe-inspiring, burning through all things and reducing them to ash. Nothing could withstand such a thing! This was a physical manifestation of a Dao.

In the past, Ning had once seen something similar when he had seen Daolord Windsource’s ‘Hundred Streams of the Windsource’. Compared to this firebird manifestation of the Dao, however, it was unfathomably punier. If the visualization of the ‘Hundred Streams of the Windsource’ was like a stream, then the fiery bird was like an endlessly vast sea!

“What’s that?” Ning turned his head slightly to glance towards a different direction. There he saw a pitch-black long saber that was extremely thin and sharp. The blade was aimed towards the heavens, and the saber was so vast that it was on par with that giant fiery bird. Its power was stately and reserved, but the edge of the blade seemed to be brimming with explosive power. This was a Saber Dao which inspired utter terror in Ning, a Dao that was just as capable of annihilating all in its path.

“The Sword Dao?” Next to the ‘Saber Dao’ hanging in the air, Ning also saw a similarly massive sword. This was a strange rapier-like sword that had had no blade at all, just an incredibly sharp tip. This rapier was massive and also pointed straight towards the heavens. This was a Sword Dao that focused on one aspect of the sword to the extreme. Given Ning’s mastery of the Dao of the Sword, he was immediately able to recognize that this ‘Rapier Dao’ was a path that represented the fusion of his Blood Drop stance and his Soleheart stance, and in both the wielder had completely eclipsed Ning’s current level of mastery. It represented an absolutely incomparable level of might.

……

A giant flaming bird, a long black saber, a rapier, a black mist, a feather, a blood-colored stream, a golden sun, a vast gray sky, a dazzling rainbow… these were the nine manifestations of the Daos that appeared in the vast void. All of these Daos were on par with each other.

“This is…” Ning raised his head to stare towards the skies above him.

In the heavens above him, he saw an incomparably massive hand. The fingers on this hand were extremely slender, while the fingernails were extremely sharp. The hand was formed into a claw-stance! This great claw was filled with an incomparably exalted and absolutely tyrannical aura that filled the heavens themselves. Ning could feel his very truesoul shuddering when he simply looked at the thing. Compared to that single massive hand, the other nine Daos were unfathomably weaker.