Desolate Era (Book 36 - Book 40)

“Master, what is it?” Flamewing was rather puzzled.

“These ripples…” Ning closed his eyes, sensing as those faint ripples washed over him. These ripples were constantly changing and transforming, but on the surface they seemed quite ordinary. Given how much fire elemental energy the Blazesun Domain held, for there to be a few energy ripples was quite normal. “These ripples… in this area, they’ve actually scattered apart into a total of over three hundred million ripples, but they should all come from the same source.”

Ning murmured softly, “Vast, ancient, and powerful…”

The nearby Patriarch Treewind, Nuwa, Azurefiend, Goodsong, and other Hegemonic figures were all puzzled. They could hear what Ning was murmuring, but they didn’t sense anything at all.





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Book 39, Chapter 21 - The Path to Becoming the Strongest Autarch


“Listen to my commands.” Ji Ning opened his eyes, which were shining brightly. He used his left hand to point towards a certain direction: “Advance towards that direction.”

“Understood,” Hegemon Azurefiend acknowledged.

The Blazesun Domain was filled with too many dangers. Not even a realmship could be used to engage in long-distance warps through spacetime; at most, only short warps were possible. Sometimes, ordinary flight was necessary as well.

“Now this direction.” Ning’s finger suddenly moved to point a different location. “Now over there.” Ning followed his senses, and as they moved closer he continuously had them change directions.

Whooooosh. A strange but subtle sound, almost like the roaring of the waves of a river, was beginning to pervade this entire region. Although everyone within the realmship remained puzzled, the sound of the ‘roaring river’ was enough to let them know that Ning was leading them to some sort of secret place.

“It continually shifts through spacetime, moving from one continuum to another. Its almost like a maze…” Ning smiled. “It’s hidden quite well, but it still won’t be able to evade my senses. Advance!”

Ning continued to point, guiding the realmship to fly up, left, down, right… the direction constantly changed, and every so often they would even warp into a different continuum. As time flowed on, the echoing sound of the ‘river water’ began to grow increasingly loud as well. Five months went by in the blink of an eye, and by now the sound roared like thunder.

BOOM! The realmship suddenly rammed into an invisible barrier, which bulged inwards. The realmship continued to press inwards, quickly piercing through the invisible membrane. As it did so, the environment around it completely changed.

“Wow.”

“What in the…” The cultivators in the realmship were all stunned, as was the Flamewing God. Su Youji’s eyes turned completely round with shock. The calmest was Ning, but even he narrowed his eyes as he stared at their new surroundings.

They were now in the midst of an enormous, fiery-red sea. If one took a close look at the fiery liquid within the sea, one would see that it was actually composed of incredibly dense and concentrated flames! The countless flames all flowed together like a liquid, coming together to form an indescribably vast sea. At the very center of this sea was an enormous whirlpool that was continuously twisting and churning, causing all of the fiery ‘liquid’ within the sea to move and generate those rumbling roars. This was a sound that surpassed the limits of spacetime and spread out in every direction.

“What in the world IS this place?” Hegemon Azurefiend sighed with astonishment. “This entire sea is composed of countless flames that have been… liquefied? And the flames… I feel as though they are on par with the flames which Flamewing belches out.”

“Yeah… what is this place? How is it that a place like this can exist in the Blazesun Domain? I’ve never even heard of it!” Patriarch Treewind didn’t understand either.

“I like this place, Master! I want to dive right in.” Flamewing looked excitedly at Ning.

“Go ahead.” Ning smiled and nodded.

Swoosh! Flamewing immediately exited the realmship and transformed into his true form, then dove straight down towards the flaming sea. Even in his true form, it was nothing more than a tiny little dot in the great sea. Plop! It plunged into the flaming sea, kicking up some ‘spray’! As the ‘water’ shot up in Flamewing’s wake, it quickly dissipated into flames.

“Whoah. Whoaaaaah! This is nice! Ahahaha! This feels great!” Flamewing delightedly swam through the flames, growling and howling happily, “Master, come and try it out for yourself! It feels great! The last time I felt this comfortable was when I was born.”

Ning and the others all flew out of the realmship, then stood in the empty void and stared at the great sea. “When it was first born?” Ning’s face twitched. “Flamewing was born in the Quintessence of the Chaosverse. That means that this place is actually quite similar to the Quintessence? But there’s no way this place can be the location of the prime essences.”

Ning’s will was able to maintain constant contact with the prime essence of the Dao of the Sword, and so he had a rough idea as to where the prime essences were located. This place was not it.

“Such an enormous amount of fire energy… I’ve never seen anything like this,” Hegemon Goodsong mumbled.

“If my guess is correct,” Imperator Jade Rainbow said, “This place should be the true nucleus of the Blazesun Domain.”

“The true core?”

“Are you saying that the entire Blazesun Domain in all its vastness… originated from this place?” they all spoke out simultaneously.

Ning continued to scrutinize the place carefully. His gaze fell upon the very center of the giant whirlpool, seeing through it as he scanned the many traces and scars within. They actually brought Ning many new insights, and he immediately said, “Jade Rainbow speaks the truth. This place is indeed the wellspring of the Blazesun Domain! The reason why the Blazesun Domain has such an enormous amount of energy within it is because of this place. It all stems from here. Stay here; I’m going to go take a look. No one is to disturb me.” As he spoke, he flew straight towards the whirlpool.

“Be careful, Master,” Su Youji called out with worry.

“Just wait for me here. I’ll be fine.” Ning’s voice echoed in the air, while he himself had already reached the area directly above the giant whirlpool.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The giant whirlpool was filled with limitless amounts of power, and the rumbles emanating from it were especially loud here.

The region around Ning began to be filled with his Sword Dao domain, which served to protect him. It must be remembered that Ning’s domain was able to slay even Hegemons with ease; to use it to repel the ‘water’ of the whirlpool was quite easy.

Whoosh. As Ning slowly descended, the Sword Dao domain ensured that the liquid flames were repelled and pushed aside.

“So that’s how it is.” Ning slowly sank deeper into the whirlpool. The region around him for three hundred meters was completely empty, with the liquid flames unable to move into it. The deeper Ning sank, the more stunned he felt as he saw how the giant whirlpool had been formed.

“So fire in liquid form can possess such tremendous power…” The more Ning saw, the more thoughts filled his mind. His Primaltwin had temporarily returned to the Azureflower Estate, and was making use of the Autarch’s stone dais to completely focus on understanding the profound mysteries behind the whirlpool.