Desolate Era (Book 31 - Book 35)

“Ninedust is still inside.” Ning stared at the temporal acceleration cottage in front of the tri-colored chains. Ninedust was inside that cottage. “It seems he has yet to master the [Daoheart] technique.”


In terms of Daoheart strength, Ning was indeed significantly superior to Ninedust; Ning was a Heartforce Cultivator, after all!

……

The third world, Ninedust’s passageway. Ning sat there on the rocky ground in the lotus position by himself. Due to the barrier in front of him, there was no way for him to step onto the rainbow chains. Each supreme Daolords was only permitted to choose one passageway; there was no way to enter the other ones.

After waiting for four full hours, Ning suddenly opened his eyes.

Whoosh! A streak of light flew towards him, resolving into the form of a black-robed figure who looked at the seated Ning. The black-robed figure said, “Brother Darknorth, I must congratulate you. If I had known things would end up like this, I would’ve joined you in fighting over the command talismans.”

“Brother Winesage, my guess is that most of the other supreme Daolords have joined forces.” Ning rose to his feet. “It looks as though you are still on your own. Why don’t you join forces with me and Ninedust?”

“Haha, why should I join forces with anyone?” Winesage scanned the area. “Darknorth, can you tell me which passageway still has all of its command talismans?”

“That one.” Ning pointed towards the third passageway.

“Thank you.” Winesage immediately flew in that direction.

Just a short while later, Ning saw a large group of individuals be teleported into the third world atop the stone island before him. There were a total of twelve supreme Daolords, with the leader being a devilish violet-robed figure whose eyes gleamed with violet light and who had long, unbound black hair. The other eleven supreme Daolords were clearly following him.

“Darknorth?” When the violet-robed devil saw Ning, he smiled a cold smile. “What a coincidence. We actually ran into Daolord Darknorth.”

“King Paleos?” Ning was surprised. After entering the Waveshift Realm, he had never heard anything that indicated King Paleos was a particularly powerful Daolord. King Paleos was a member of the Aeonian race! He was very low-key, and everyone in the outside world believed him to merely be a second-tier Daolord. The most famous Daolord of the Aeonian race had been King Gorsch… but now, it seemed, King Paleos was also quite powerful.

Boom! Rainbow light swirled around the air above them, forming into the towering figure of a white-robed man.

“All surviving Daolords have reached the third world. Let me explain… the third world has a total of three passageways! Every single Daolord is only permitted to challenge a single passageway. Originally, each passageway held three command talismans within them, with the total value in each being roughly the same! But of course, only five command talismans remain.” Realmsoul Polo’s voice echoed throughout the world.

As the realmsoul was speaking, Ning received certain news from the Brightshore Kingdom. “What?!” Ning was shocked. The Dao Alliance had issued a new Daolord ranking!

In recent years, the Daolord rankings had changed to a shocking degree.

“Daolord Dreamlore ranks number three?”

“King Paleos ranks number six?”

“Daolord Skyaxe died?”

“King Cliffbank died?”

Ning was completely stunned when he saw the new rankings. A total of six supreme Daolords had died in the fight over the final Voidsea Jadeseal, and the Daolord rankings had completely changed. The first was Winesage, the second was Darknorth, the third was Dreamlore, the fourth was Palace Lord Dawnstar, the fifth was the Radiant King, the sixth was King Paleos, the seventh was Daolord Owlblack, the eighth was Ninestone, the ninth was Daolord Skyshatter, and the tenth was Daolord Tigrone…

A brand new group of supreme Daolords had arisen! Many had been very low-key in the past and not very well known, but in the fight over the Voidsea Jadeseal they had revealed their fierceness.

……

King Paleos’ violet eyes were focused on Ning. He said coldly, “Only five of the nine command talismans remain. You, Darknorth, should’ve acquired three of them. Your ally, the Ninedust Sectlord, seems to have acquired one as well… but the twelve of us haven’t acquired so much as a single one, nor have we acquired any Voidsea Jadeseals. Daolord Darknorth, don’t you think this is a bit unfair?”

“Daolord Darknorth.” Fiendqueen Dustrain was behind King Paleos, and she spoke out in a similarly cold voice, “We don’t ask for much. We can forget about the other two talismans, nor will we force the Ninedust Sectlord to hand over his. The ninth command talisman, however… you must hand it to us! Hand us the ninth command talisman and we won’t cause you any trouble.”

“Hand over the ninth command talisman.”

“Hand it over, Daolord Darknorth.”

“Not even Winesage is a match for us. Darknorth, you should go ahead and hand it over.”

King Paleos and the other supreme Daolords all stared at Ning. They were all supreme Daolords. If they were in a smaller group of just four or five, they might be very nervous when facing Ning, but there were twelve of them right now; they wouldn’t be afraid of even Winesage! In fact, they had already battled against Winesage earlier. Why would they fear Daolord Darknorth?

Thus far, the twelve of them had acquired nothing at all. If they were able to harvest the fruits of the ninth command talisman, they would be able to split the harvest and trade for some rare materials from the various Hegemons or the Dao Alliance. In that way, at least, their visit to the Waveshift Realm wouldn’t have been in vain.

Ning frowned. The command talismans represented the fruits of the Crimsonwave Temple, so valuable that the Dao Alliance and the Hegemons were going crazy over them. The ninth command talisman was the most valuable and an absolutely priceless item. Ning was planning on using them to rescue Yu Wei!

Clang! Clang! Clang! Ning’s body blurred as he manifested three heads and six arms. Six streaks of golden light immediately shot out from his back and landed in his hands.

The three-headed, six-armed, white-robed youth stared coldly at the supreme Daolords, six Northbow swords at the ready. “Cut the crap, you pack of fools. Come and die!”





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Book 33, Chapter 17 - Furious Battle


“Quite bold. Daolord Skyaxe was similarly bold when facing me… but in the end, I killed him. A pity. I haven’t had the chance to battle against the Radiant King or Dawnstar yet. If I had, I wouldn’t be ranked merely number six. Come and show me how strong you are, oh mighty second-ranked Darknorth.” King Paleos manifested six arms as well, each arm wielding a strange sawtoothed weapon.

“Surround him and kill him,” Fiendqueen Dustrain barked coldly.

“Darknorth doesn’t have an invulnerable form; it’ll be much easier to kill him.”

“Since he’s courting death, let us give it to him. Once we kill him, we’ll be able to take all of his command talismans.” The supreme Daolords were all boiling with the desire to kill.

Ning’s face tightened as a fierce light shone from his eyes. He glared at King Paleos and said coldly, “So you were the one to kill Daolord Skyaxe?”

“Yes. Otherwise, how would I be ranked at number six?” King Paleos asked.

“Damn you.” Ning was infuriated. There were very few supreme Daolords he was friends with, but Daolord Skyaxe was one of them. When he had been weak and besieged by Daolord Shaka outside Skywood City, one of the eight Sacred Cities of the Dao Alliance, he had begged the Brightshore Kingdom for aid. Palace Lord Soleman and Daolord Skyaxe had immediately come to his aid, and as a result Ning had become friends with both of them.

Although the relationship naturally wasn’t nearly as deep as the one he shared with Ninedust, who he had shared life-and-death experiences with, they were still good friends.

“Afraid?” King Paleos smirked.