Desolate Era (Book 36 - Book 40)

“It truly is perfect. Just a small amount of power is needed. Once the insides of the globe continuously guide the power and transform it, its able to unleash absolutely terrifying levels of destructive power. Sithe frabrication techniques were simply incredible. Although we had an overwhelming advantage in individual power during the Dawn War, we still nearly ended up being defeated by the Sithe. The Sithe truly were and are incredible. To this very day, I still don’t fully understand their technologies.” The bald old man stared greedily at the orb, as though he was staring at the person he loved the most.

“Heh heh… last time, I wasn’t careful and put in too much power, wrecking this treasure. Thank goodness that I, Titanos, am awesome. Although I still don’t fully understand this thing, I was still able to repair it! Ahahaha…” The bald old man stared at the continuously changing runes on the surface of the globe, feeling increasingly delighted as he did so. His gaze was able to see through everything, allowing him to observe the intricate transformations occurring within the gray globe.

These transformations were absolutely beautiful to him. Suddenly, the gray globe lifted up into the air and floated in front of him. The fleshy antennae on top of the bald old man’s head reached out to gently stroke the globe.

“Although I managed to successfully repair one, I’m still not able to create them from scratch.” The bald old man shook his head. “The Sithe’s underlying foundation of knowledge remains far superior to that of our cultivator civilizations. I can’t even imagine how long it would take for us to fully repair all of their shattered treasures.”

The bald old man waved his hand, causing the gray orb to vanish into thin air. Whoosh. He pushed open the door to the private room, then strolled out with his long black robes dragging behind him.

“Master.” When he reached the palace gates, an azure-robed youth immediately came to greet him. The youth said joyfully, “Master, you repaired it?”

“Of course! When have I ever failed? Don’t you know who I am? I’m an Autarch!” the bald old man said smugly.

“Right, right,” the azure-robed youth said hastily.

“Xian, my boy… that Daolord Darknorth from the Flamedragon Realmverse asked me to help out just a few dozen chaos cycles ago, yes? I told you I’d be done soon!” the bald old man said smugly.

“It was pretty quick, this time.” The azure-robed youth nodded. This was one of the faster response times for Autarch Titanos.

“Well, I’m off to the Flamedragon Realmverse,” the bald old man said, then waved his sleeves. Whoosh. Space rippled before him like water. The bald old man stepped into the rippling space, then disappeared without a trace.





* * *





Book 38, Chapter 1 - First Autarch Meeting


Vastheaven Palace.

Ever since the Jadefire Realm affair had concluded, the disciples of Vastheaven Palace had returned to their headquarters. Vastheaven Palace was now even more bustling than it had been in the past.

“Ji Ning.” Emperor Solesky called out as he hurried towards Ning’s residence. Emperor Solesky’s true body was now within the Dao Alliance’s Palace of Immortals as one of their members, and he was on quite good terms with Emperor Goldisle and Emperor Blackcloud.

“Big brother Solesky, what has you in such a rush?” The golden-robed Ning was fishing relaxedly by himself.

“Something big just happened!” Emperor Solesky’s eyes were huge and round as he whispered, “The Dao Alliance just received word and told me to inform you about this right away. Autarch Titanos has already left his estate and is heading towards the Flamedragon Realmverse. He could be arriving any moment now!”

“WHAT?!” Ning’s entire body trembled for a moment before he came back to his senses. He tossed down the fishing rod, jumped to his feet, then said frantically: “When is Autarch Titanos arriving and where?”

“We can’t be sure. His estate is extremely far away from us, but as an Autarch he moves incredibly fast. No one knows how long it would take him to get here!” Emperor Solesky continued, “He might appear in the next instant, but if he takes a few detours on the way it might take him a few chaos cycles.”

Ning felt his entire body tense up. Even though his Dao-heart was tremendously resilient, he still felt extremely nervous. “He’s finally coming.” Ning let out a long breath, his eyes filled with excitement. “I’ve waited so long and fought so hard. Finally, this day has come.”

Not even the Daomerge would’ve inspired such excitement in Ning. He truly was eager to be able to bring Yu Wei back to life and reunite with her. With his wife by his side, he would be more than satisfied with living a life of a hundred thousand chaos cycles. This would be far better than an endless life of loneliness.

“Right, right! The realmship.” Ning suddenly came back to his senses. “I need to go bring the realmship back and be ready for him at any moment.” Autarch Titanos needed Ning to give him the realmship in exchange for his help. It would be extremely awkward if Ning didn’t have the realmship on him!

……

The Terror Starsea. The Jadefire Realm. The Flamewing God remained trapped within the second hidden room, while Ning, Azurefiend, and Whitethaw were by its side.

“Flamewing,” Ning called out.

“Master,” Flamewing responded obediently. After spending five chaos cycles with Ning, it had grown accustomed to addressing Ning as ‘master’.

“I need to go out and handle some business. It shouldn’t take too long,” Ning said.

“You are going to come back, right?” Flamewing felt a strong sense of attachment towards Ning.

Ning couldn’t help but feel a bit of a headache. The legendary Chaos Primordial was like a child! All Ning could do was to say, “Don’t worry, I’ll definitely come back. Just take a quick nap. I’ll be back by the time you wake up. The next time I see you, it’ll be time for me to deal with those chains of yours.”

“Alright.” Flamewing nodded repeatedly.

“We’re off.” Ning immediately turned and left through the giant, ancient copper gate, with Azurefiend and Whitethaw flying out by his side.

Flamewing watched as Ning left. Once the great gate swung shut, it finally sat back down once again. However, it had long ago grown accustomed to loneliness, and so it quickly shut its eyes and entered a state of slumber once more.

A short while later, Ning, Azurefiend, and Whitethaw reached the other hidden room within the Jadefire Realm.

“So this is the Jadefire Realm’s formation-diagram?” Hegemon Azurefiend stared at the enormous flower-like formation-diagram on the altar.

“Yes. What, are you capable of understanding and mastering it?” Ning laughed.

“I don’t understand it at all. This formation seems very odd; it’s completely different from the other formations I’ve analyzed.” Hegemon Azurefiend shook his head.

Ning smiled. The Sithe had indeed embarked upon a unique path with regards to the art of formations, a path that was very different from the ones which cultivators walked. Without knowing the proper techniques, it truly would be extremely difficult to even understand how these formations worked.

Whoosh. Ning waved his hand, causing a stream of fire to instantly descend from him and form into the body of an Emperor-class golem. This was one of the many golems which Ning had acquired from the Sithe ruins in the Stone Hellephant Wall.

“This is the control technique which governs the flaming passageways and the outermost areas in the Jadefire Realm.” Ning tossed a jade slip over. “Hurry up and master it. Once you do, take control over the Jadefire Realm for me.”

“Yes,” the flaming Emperor-class golem said respectfully. Ning had only given it the most basic of control techniques. Now that Ning fully understood how the technique worked, it was easy for him to develop a new control techniques of his own. However, this technique could only be used to control the outer perimeter and the flaming passageways. The techniques governing the prison regions were all quite complex. For now, not even Ning was able to tell them apart.

“Remember, there is a Hegemon within the flaming passageways.” Ning pointed at a tiny little dot located in one of the countless passageways. “Keep a close watch on him! Once he starts to run around, immediately activate some of the most powerful mechanisms and kill him, or at least trap him and send him into the prison regions.”