Desolate Era (Book 36 - Book 40)

“Understood,” the Emperor-class golem responded.

“But of course, he’s so terrified of dying that I expect he won’t move around.” After making the necessary arrangements, Ning relaxed slightly. “This place is now in your hands. Azurefiend, Whitethaw, let’s go.”

Ning didn’t feel the need to hold things back from Azurefiend, as the lifeblood oaths binding a retainer were quite strong. He had to go back to the Flamedragon Realmverse, which meant he couldn’t continue to use a divine power clone to maintain the formation-diagram. As a result, his only option was to rely on his golems. Emperor-class golems were extremely intelligent, and it wouldn’t be hard for them to control some basic formations. It must be remembered that when major powers died, they’d often use formation-spirits, treasure-spirits, or powerful golems to control their legacy sites and await their successors.

Golems had infinite lifespans and would never betray their master unless they were forcibly bound. Thus, both the Sithe and the cultivators delighted in using golems.

……

After having finished with his other arrangements, Ning led the two in flying in the realmship and departing from the flaming passageways. The Jadefire Realm simply had far too many of those flaming passageways, and they were all extremely long. Even though the realmship had been repaired and was able to fly quite quickly, it still took them two days to pass through the flaming passageways.

“There’s the exit.” Ning was quite familiar with the formation-diagram and thus knew where the breaches in the Jadefire Realm were. It had been thoroughly wrecked, after all. Ning was able to easily exit while following the breaches.

Swoosh. The realmship charged through the flames, quickly discovering a giant, cavernous gap which it was able to exit through. After flying for roughly an hour and repeatedly changing directions, they managed to leave the Jadefire Realm.

“We need to get back to the Flamedragon Realmverse as soon as possible. Autarch Titanos could come at any moment.” Ning was so excited that his eyes were slightly bloodshot. This was the most important goal in his path of cultivation, after all.

“Hey kid! Calm down, there’s no rush.” A voice suddenly rang out by his ears.

Ning had just flown out of the Jadefire Realm. He couldn’t help but turn his head, startled, only to see a bald black-robed elder standing in the void in front of him. This bald old man had a pair of golden eyes and two fleshy antennae growing out of his head. The antennae waved at him in an amused fashion, while the old man had a smile on his face as well. Anyone who saw him would feel the urge to laugh.

Whoosh. The bald old man suddenly vanished into thin air.

“Eh?” Ning was startled. “Where did he go?”

“I’m right here,” the bald old man said merrily.

Ning turned his head, only to realize that the bald old man was standing right next to him. Ning couldn’t help but feel speechless. The old man had been able to enter the realmship without him even realizing it… this was a level of ability that vastly outstripped Ning’s imagination. It must be remembered that he was the master of the realmship, and that he was in complete control of it… and yet, this person had suddenly appeared right before him inside of it.

“Darknorth greets you, Autarch.” Ning hurriedly bowed respectfully.

“Azurefiend greets you, Autarch,” Hegemon Azurefiend said respectfully as well.

Whitethaw stood right next to Ning. He bowed respectfully as well, but he didn’t say a word.

Both Ning and Azurefiend were major powers of extraordinary power ability. They had seen far more than most, and they naturally saw right away how terrifying this bald old man was. For example… they couldn’t see any lines of karma binding this bald old man at all. It must be remembered that any cultivator who was alive would be linked to others by karma, but they weren’t able to sense any karma lines at all on the old man. This was absolutely inconceivable.

“Quite clever.” The bald old man chortled as he turned his gaze towards the Jadefire Realm. “The Seven Flaming Hells. Truly impressive. The Sithe truly were formidable, to be able to capture a Chaos Primordial and use it as their energy source for this facility and then absorb its power with such ease. Judging from that Chaos Primordial’s truesoul… it should already have a master. Is it you, kid?” The bald old man looked at Ning.

Ning was stunned. He had always heard of how incredible Autarchs were, but he never would’ve imagined that an Autarch would be able to simply glance at the Jadefire Realm and immediately know that there was a Chaos Primordial there, AND know that Ning was its master. No wonder even the mighty Sithe had ended up falling before the Autarchs and the cultivator civilizations. The Autarchs were simply incredible. They had all reached utterly inconceivable levels of power.

To Autarchs, even Chaos Primordials were nothing. They were capable of slaying the creatures with ease.

“Yes, I am its master,” Ning said.





* * *





Book 38, Chapter 2 - Nings Nervousness


“Chaos Primordials are born from within the prime essences of the vast Chaosverse. They are blessed by the prime essences and born with tremendous karmic luck. The vast majority of cultivators will never have a chance to even encounter one of these creatures.” The bald old man looked at Ning, a smile on his face as he offered his congratulations: “Although you also have tremendous karmic luck, you still can’t compare to that Chaos Primordial. I imagine it wasn’t easy for you to run into it.”

Ji Ning was briefly startled, but he quickly understood. It was indeed true that running into Chaos Primordials was incredibly rare, due to how much the prime essences of the Chaosverse doted upon them. Indeed, Ning himself had entered the Jadefire Realm many chaos cycles ago, but he had to undergo countless hardships before managing to solve the formation-diagram and thus have the chance to meet the Chaos Primordial.

However, from another perspective, this was also proof that in the long run, being ‘blessed with karmic luck’ and ‘beloved by the prime essences’ didn’t count for THAT much. The Chaos Primordial had still been trapped by the Sithe for countless years, right?

“I had to solve the Jadefire Realm’s formation-diagram before I was able to meet the Chaos Primordial,” Ning said.

“Treat it well. It will be of great help to you. Come, let us go to your homeland,” the bald old man said.

Whoosh. As soon as these words came out, spacetime twisted around them and everything became illusory and dreamlike. By the time spacetime went back to normal, Ning immediately saw a chaosworld off in the distance.

“We’ve already left the Terror Starsea?” Ning was immediately able to sense the location of his avatar and Primaltwin and thus knew where he was. He couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe, but he was able to keep his expression calm.

“I’ll take you to my homeland right away, senior,” Ning said.

“Wait, wait. Not just yet. I teleported your realmship here because there’s a young fellow that needs rescuing,” the bald old man immediately called out. With a swoosh, he flew out of the realmship and towards that distant chaosworld.

“Needs rescuing? Needs rescuing by an exalted AUTARCH?!” Ning and Azurefiend shared a glance, both feeling rather puzzled.