Desolate Era (Book 36 - Book 40)

“Right!” The Flamewing God’s eyes turned round with surprise as it nodded seriously, then gave the black chains binding it a hateful glare. “Long, long ago, these chains would constantly drain large amounts of my flames. Each time, they would drain so much that I would feel extremely miserable. But ever since that last nap I took… it is true that they haven’t drained anything from me for quite some time. And now, two cultivators come to visit me… does this mean the Sithe truly have been wiped out?”


“They really have been wiped out,” Ning and Azurefiend said simultaneously.

“But the Sithe were really powerful. There’s no way they would’ve been wiped out that easily,” the Flamewing God mumbled to itself. Having suffered quite a bit at the hands of the Sithe, it continued to harbor a healthy dread of them.

……

Ning and Azurefiend were both cultivators, and so the Flamewing God didn’t feel much enmity towards them. Although it had been quite some time since any Sithe had come to visit it, the creature still harbored doubts about whether or not the Sithe truly had been wiped out.

“Let’s sit and chat, Azurefiend.” Ning suddenly waved his hand, causing two wine-laden tables to appear before them. Ning sat down before one of the tables.

Azurefiend was rather puzzled. Why did Ning suddenly want to eat and drink? Still, Azurefiend was a bit of a glutton to begin with, and so he didn’t complain. He immediately sat down in front of his own table and picked up a large haunch of meat with one hand and a goblet of wine in the other.

“Darknorth, why did you suddenly want to feast?” Azurefiend said while munching away.

“I’ve spent chaos cycles meditating on formations. It’s been ages since I’ve had anything nice,” Ning said. He then smiled as he glanced off into the distance: “Flamewing, you need anything to eat or drink?”

His real goal right now wasn’t to eat or drink… it was to tame this Flamewing God! He needed to come up with a way to convince the Flamewing God to eat the verdant azuresoul. He would never be able to forgive himself if he didn’t at least try to tame the Chaos Primordial trapped before him.

“I already have food.” The Flamewing God sat back down, then waved a paw. This paw had a bracelet around it, and the bracelet suddenly lit up.

Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. Basins of delicacies began to fly out, including both meats as well as spirit-fruits.

The Flamewing God gave Ning and Azurefiend a smug glance, then began to chomp down on its own food.





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Book 37, Chapter 29 - You Are The Best


“Darknorth, the stories say that Chaos Primordials wander through the cosmos by themselves. They are fairly dumb and are easily angered… and the only thing they like to do is eat!” Azurefiend sipped his wine, glancing sideways at the distant Flamewing God as he spoke mentally to Ji Ning. “These things supposedly will eat almost anything. When they run into a realmverse, they’ll go so far as to slowly work its way through and devour the entire realmverse and everything within it. While they wander the Chaosverse by themselves, they’ll generally create their own estate-treasures and put living creatures inside, having those creatures provide food and wine for them to eat and drink whenever they so desire.”

Ji Ning nodded. He knew all this, of course. Ever since he had acquired the verdant azuresoul, he had immediately searched for every scrap of information regarding Chaos Primordials that he could find. How could he possibly not know that Chaos Primordials loved to eat? This was the reason why Autarch Bolin had modified that verdant azuresoul with the goal of using it to control a Chaos Primordial.

“Brother Azurefiend, I acquired many different types of spirit-fruit and rare delicacies from the Hegemons and Emperors who came to the Jadefire Realm last time. Want to try some?” Ning said.

“You’d be willing to share?” Azurefiend’s eyes lit up. Rare spirit-fruits and delicacies were of tremendous interest to major powers, but many were so rare that major powers would only eat them sparingly. They would generally unwilling to eat them casually and in large amounts.

“Of course! Come, sample some of this wine. This came from Hegemon Blackwood,” Ning said as he picked up a large gourd and unstoppered it.

Whoosh. An aroma of fragrant wine immediately spread out to fill the entire hidden region. Hegemon Azurefiend’s eyes gleamed with a greedy light as he stared at the gourd. “Haha, it seems that looting from Hegemons and Emperors really is the fastest way to acquire treasures. I’ve only tasted this ‘Six Bandit Caves’ spirit-wine a single time in the past. Hegemon Blackwood truly is impressive in the Dao of Numerancy; someone must have asked him for help and used this wine in trade. Quick, let me taste some of it!”

“I don’t have much of this wine. You have to drink it slowly! Once we finish this gourd, we won’t have any more left,” Ning said.

“Heh heh, I’ll definitely savor it.” Hegemon Azurefiend was truly excited. He really was a glutton.

The distant Flamewing God sniffed the air, then lifted its head and turned to stare in their direction. A chunk of meat fell out of its open mouth and onto the ground, but it didn’t even notice. It stared intently at the gourd of wine on Ning’s desk, the smell of the wine driving it crazy.

Although its estate-treasure held many living creatures inside who were devoted to providing it food and drink, only ordinary types of sustenance could be provided. Truly rare spirit-fruits and delicacies could only be harvested from extremely unique environments, as they were formed based on drawing upon various unique types of energy from the Chaosverse. How could an estate-treasure possibly create good food?

“We each drink one glass at a time. Take it slow and don’t even think about trying to hog it for yourself,” Ning said in a stingy manner.

“Fine, fine!” Hegemon Azurefiend was feeling quite impatient. Ning nodded, pouring them each a glass. Whoosh. A deep red liquid that was almost ruby-colored came dribbling out of the gourd and into the two wine glasses. It looked absolutely mouth-watering.

“Eh?” Ning suddenly seemed to sense something, and he turned to stare off in the distance. The Flamewing God’s mouth was open, and it was literally drooling onto the floor.

“T-this wine…” The Flamewing God swallowed, then immediately said: “Can I have some of it?” It was born with a love of food and wine, but it had been ages since it had enjoyed such fine wine. It was completely unable to resist the urge.

“No way! We only have just one gourd. There’s not even enough for the two of us,” Hegemon Azurefiend said hurriedly.

“You aren’t going to share?” The Flamewing God was growing rather angry.

“Stop trying to scare me. You are bound inside that cage, and your flames can’t harm us at all.” Hegemon Azurefiend was a glutton as well. There was no way he was going to share the little wine they had.

“Y-you…!” The Flamewing God’s eyes turned round with indignation. It wasn’t very intelligent, and it usually just took whatever it wanted! Now that it was trapped, however, taking by force was no longer an option… but it really did want to drink some of that fine wine!!! When it smelled that wine, it no longer had any appetite for the basins of food that lay in front of it.”

“Azurefiend, this is our first time seeing a Chaos Primordial. To be able to eat and drink with one of them is a lucky event. Let’s not be stingy,” Ning said with a laugh.

“Right, right!” The Flamewing God instantly grew excited.

“What’s the point of feeding it? It’s pointless! Better to feed me instead,” Azurefiend argued.

“YOU…!” The Flamewing God glared furiously at Azurefiend, feeling an increasing level of distaste towards that skinny old man. It said furiously, “I’ll EAT you!”

“Come and try,” Azurefiend snickered.

“Enough, enough. Let’s not fight. Flamewing was captured by the Sithe, while we cultivators fought a bloody war against them. If you view it from that perspective, we’re actually all on the same side,” Ning said.