Desolate Era (Book 36 - Book 40)

The second knot was what truly surprised Ning. It was his promise to slay Emperor Melobo.

When Ning had first left the Three Realms and was merely an Elder God, he had visited the Allgod Estate. He had been bestowed with the [Novessence Thunder] technique by the formation-spirit, which was one of the nine novessence arts. As the formation-spirit had put it, it was ‘sowing the seeds of good karma’ with Ning. It had said to Ning: “I won’t force you to do it; I merely hope that you can help,” and had also said that “I’m just planting seeds to sprout in the future. I don’t expect all of them to blossom.”

Back then, the formation-spirit would never have dared to imagine that one of its many seeds would blossom in such a manner. It only hoped that if Ning did become powerful in the future, that he would slay Emperor Melobo.

Ning had felt this to be an impossible and impossibly distant task, but he had still been rewarded the [Novessence Thunder] technique.

“I’ve now reached the Hegemonic level of power; killing Emperor Melobo would be extremely simple,” Ning mused. “Indeed, now that I think back to it, I do owe both the formation-spirit and Daolord Allgod! During my Daomerge, even the slightest of karmic debts can cause me to be negatively impacted. An Omega Daomerge cannot accept even the slightest of such impacts. It would definitely cause me to fail.”

“Right. I absolutely must complete these two tasks before the Daomerge.” Ning nodded. “It’ll take time for me to track down Emperor Melobo, and it’ll also take time for me to accept ten honorary disciples,” Ning mused. “I’ll go visit Realmslord Windgrace first, then take care of these two matters.”

……

“Sorry for the trouble, Hegemon Brightshore.” Ning had come to ask Hegemon Brightshore to assist him in tracking down Emperor Melobo. Hegemon Brightshore was the number one Hegemon of the Flamedragon Realmverse, after all, and he was skilled in the Dao of Spacetime. He also had a strong web of relationships. It would be easy for him to locate Melobo.

“A minor matter,” Hegemon Brightshore replied casually.

“Please keep this secret. Don’t let Melobo find out and then flee the realmverse,” Ning said.

“Don’t worry. I’ll handle this matter personally and will ensure that no mistakes happen. If you don’t mind, I can help you kill him,” Hegemon Brightshore said.

“It would be best if I did it personally,” Ning said.

“Mm, very well. Go ahead and visit Realmslord Windgrace. By the time you are back, I’ll have handled everything.” Hegemon Brightshore was quite confident. He knew that Emperor Melobo was definitely within the Flamedragon Realmverse. Where, exactly? He didn’t know, as it was difficult to find where an Emperor was hiding… but if Hegemon Brightshore personally investigated this matter, he would definitely be able to find Melobo within a hundred thousand years.

……

After having asked Hegemon Brightshore for help, Ning, Flamewing, Azurefiend, and Whitethaw rode the realmship out of the Flamedragon Realmverse and towards the Hiddenfiend Realmverse.

These two realmverses were fairly far away from each other. The realmship needed to engage in extremely long-distance spacetime teleports, and it needed as much time as was needed to boil a kettle of tea in order to build up energy between each teleport.

Sixty thousand years later. Whoosh. A realmship suddenly appeared from a spatial tear within the void outside the Hiddenfiend Realmverse.

“And here we are.” Ning stared at the world outside the realmship, his eyes lighting up. This was his first time visiting another realmverse. In contrast, Whitethaw, Azurefiend, and Flamewing were all quite calm. They had all visited many places; Ning was the only inexperienced one present.

“Mm. This place is fairly close to the Blacksun. A single teleport will take us there.” Ning had already acquired a star map of the Hiddenfiend Realmverse prior to arriving.

One more spacetime teleport later, Ning found himself staring at a beautiful and distant star. To be precise, it was an absolutely enormous war machine that was riddled with channels and canals that made up complicated rune-paths. The Blacksun was a terrifying war machine that was capable of changing the destiny of entire realmverse sectors. Just by looking at it, Ning felt an ancient aura of power sweep across him, pressing down upon him like an invisible threat.

“Fellow Daoist Darknorth.” A voice rang out, followed by a chubby youth appearing on the Blacksun who stared in Ning’s direction. Although they were over a hundred billion kilometers away, the two were able to see each other with ease.

“Hegemon Wuye.” Ning put away his realmship.





* * *





Book 38, Chapter 26 - Jade Slip


Prior to visiting Realmslord Windgrace, Ji Ning had long ago sent word via the Sixteen Realmverses Alliance that he would be coming. Realmslord Windgrace was quite willing to meet with Ning as well.

The Blacksun. Ning’s group of four was led to a courtyard within it.

Hegemon Wuye smiled: “Master has been waiting for quite some time. When he heard that you were coming, he was quite excited. I felt quite eager as well. I’ve heard of your illustrious reputation long ago, Darknorth, and I’ve also heard of Flamewing God the Chaos Primordial. Today, I’ve finally met you two.” He was unable to disguise his interested glance towards the nearby Flamewing.

Flamewing was quite chubby, but was much larger than Wuye. When he saw Wuye, he mumbled, “He looks yummy.”

Hegemon Wuye’s face turned pale and he hurriedly pushed the door open and called, “Master!”

There was a withered tree inside the courtyard. Below it was a prayer mat, with a disheveled-looking old man seated atop it. The old man’s eyebrows looked quite messy, but his gaze was extremely calm. He had a smile on his face, and he pointed to the prayer mats next to him. “Darknorth, my young friend. Sit.”

“Thank you, Realmslord Windgrace.” Ning walked over and sat down on a prayer mat. Azurefiend and Whitethaw did the same, while Flamewing lazily sauntered over to a boulder and lay down on it while shaking his rump.

“Chaos Primordials truly are extraordinary,” Realmslord Windgrace praised. He then glanced at Ning. “Darknorth, my young friend… I’m sure you didn’t come to visit me just to show off your Chaos Primordial.”

“There is indeed something I wish for you to help me with, Realmslord,” Ning said.

“Go ahead and explain.” Realmslord Windgrace was quite willing to help Ning out; the more he helped Ning out, the greater his chances of acquiring the Flamewing God after Ning failed the Daomerge would be.

“I’ve heard legends of two marvelous items that are of tremendous use during the Daomerge. One is known as the Daomerge Firecloud Flower, while the other is known as the Incense Spirit-Fruit,” Ning said. “Are you aware of them, Realmslord?”

Realmslord Windgrace looked at Ning in astonishment, then sighed. “Impressive, truly impressive. Daolord Darknorth, how is it that you know of such incredibly rare items? Even I only learned of them due to a lucky encounter.”

Ning was delighted. He immediately asked, “Realmslord, do you know where they can be found?”