Desolate Era (Book 41 - Book 45)

“This grand seal is marvelously made and it can launch a total of 352 explosive attacks before the energy in it is used up, followed by the seal itself dissipating. In the end, I was forced to transform into my invulnerable form in order to endure the terrifying destructive power of the seal’s attacks. Otherwise, I would’ve been crushed to dust and my truesoul annihilated.”


Ning frowned when he heard this. So it was just a giant seal which came smashing at you? But the problem was that when you were trapped in the hallway, there was nowhere to run at all. You had to take those attacks head-on. Autarch Ekong was being treated as a punching bag!

“If I was attacked by three or four of these things in a row, I’d definitely be doomed,” Autarch Ekong said.

“Don’t worry too much,” Autarch Ekong said. “The Sithe are different from us. They are foreigners to our Chaosverse. We can endlessly replenish our energies from our Chaosverse, but they cannot; if they try to take power from the outside world by force, the process will be incredibly slow. They must have prepared many different energy-generating treasures, and each time they use such a powerful attack it will cost them greatly. Most likely, a single giant seal is their absolute limit. There’s no way they can just generate four of them in a row without resting. If they could, they would’ve done so long ago.”

“Hah! Killing an Autarch won’t be that easy,” Autarch Ekong laughed.

As more time passed, the Sithe used many different techniques in an effort to kill Autarch Ekong. They first started with grand seals, then switched to insidious and strange techniques. However, the only ones which truly brought him to the brink of death had been that grand seal and a strange tentacle-attack.

On the twelfth day, Autarch Titanos’ avatar finally arrived. He was unable to breach the formations from outside, and so he had no choice but to charge into the temple.

……

“Immediately report to our superiors that we’ve already tied down two Autarch-class combatants. One of them is Autarch Ekong, and it appears to be his true body! If we can kill them, it’ll be the equivalent of reducing three Autarch-class combatants from the ranks of the native cultivators. Our temple is mainly meant for trapping foes, which means its attacks aren’t quite strong enough. Hurry up and tell our superiors to send us more forces to wipe the two of them out.” The seven Exalts within the vast temple were all extremely excited.

……

Ning and the others continued to stand guard over their respective zones, catching and wiping out Sithe Hegemons and Emperors. The overall situation in the Chaosverse had taken a turn for the better, with the native Hegemons now being under much less pressure. However, there were still a number of formidable Sithe warships roaming about.

Five days after Autarch Titanos’ avatar joined Autarch Ekong inside that formation.

“Die!” Ning had just discovered a vast black warship which was suppressing spacetime in the surrounding region. However, Ning transformed into a storm of wind and thunder as he shot towards the warship, intending to blink inside and slaughter the Sithe within.

“Not good! That’s an Autarch!”

“Flee, quick!” The Sithe Hegemons and Emperors in this warship were members of an elite squad. They had survived the first waves of the war and had achieved many accomplishments, destroying a total of three cultivator battlefronts.

Swoosh! After blinking into the warship, Ning showed no mercy at all to these ‘successful’ Sithe warriors. Their ‘accomplishments’ came from murdering local Hegemons.

“All of you can die.” A vast wave of heartforce instantly swept out, causing the many Sithe to perish.

Suddenly, Ning’s face turned grim and he immediately blinked outside the warship. There, he discovered that the outside world had just changed. He was now within a vast grayish-white temple complex, and there were a total of eight stone pillars surrounding the temple at its margins. A figure was seated in the lotus position atop each of the stone pillars. Although their mighty auras were inferior to Ning’s, Ning knew without a shadow of a doubt that these were all Sithe Exalts. There were eight of them!

“Judging from how you Autarchs have been sweeping through our Emperors, it would seem that you have a total of thirteen Autarch-class combatants! If we factor in the one within the Annihilation Hive, that means you have fourteen in total.” A tall, thin Sithe Exalt who was seated atop one of the stone pillars stared at Ning with glowing eyes. “If each of you has one true body and one avatar… that means you have a total of seven Autarchs! Six we already know about. Now… who is the seventh? Is it a newly promoted Autarch, or is it an Emperor Darknorth who had used a ‘Truesoul Everlasting’ technique?”





Book 44, Chapter 9 - Iyerre’s Response


The Sithe Exalts seated on top of the eight stone pillars stared intently at the glowing humanoid before them. None of them could clearly see who that person was.

Who was the seventh leader of the cultivator forces? Was it a new Autarch, or was it an Emperor Darknorth?

This was a question the Sithe paid close attention to. Even Iyerre wanted to know the answer for sure! They would rather see a new Autarch rise than for Daolord Darknorth to have mastered a ‘Truesoul Everlasting’ technique and become an Eternal Emperor! Someone who was so incredibly talented as to be able to produce a ‘Truesoul Everlasting’ technique would be extremely dangerous to the Sithe. The pressures of war might well result in him breaking through to becoming an Omega Autarch!

“Why don’t you guess.” Ning laughed loudly as he transformed into a streak of light that shot off into the distance.

Just as Ning moved, the vast grayish-white temple suddenly burst with power. The eight Sithe Exalts had activated it, causing spacetime to twist and distort around Ning. Ning could sense his surroundings changing, transforming to become a dazzlingly beautiful world of white clouds and fragrant flowers. Ning stood in the center of all of it… and a strange little smile was on his face.

“An illusory formation?” Ning mused. “Playing around with illusions in front of a Heartforce Cultivator… what a joke!” He was both a formations expert and a Heartforce Cultivator. With the aid of his heartforce, he was easily able to understand some of the secrets behind how this formation operated.

Although Ning was completely confident in his chances, he was still very careful and immediately went into his three-headed, six-armed mode with all six Northbow swords at the ready.

“Break!” Ning’s sword-light lashed out, and it cut cleanly through the beautiful illusory world as though the formation was nothing more than tofu. Just like that, the seemingly-formidable formation was defeated! Ning then transformed into a storm of lightning and wind as he flew off into the distance.

“Haha, impressive! You actually defeated our illusions with ease. Of the six known Autarchs in your civilization only Autarch Stonerule, the master of the Illusion Daobirth Essence, would be able to accomplish this. However, we already know that Autarch Stonerule is quite far from here… which means you are most likely Emperor Darknorth,” an ancient voice said.

“Emperor Darknorth, we merely cast those illusions so that we could be sure of your identity. Did you really think you’d actually be able to escape so easily?”

“Await death, Emperor Darknorth.”

“Seal!”

With a rumbling sound, the titanic grayish-white temple complex began to swivel in place, its outer walls rising upwards while its heart sank downwards. Ning had transformed into a storm of lightning and wind, seeking to escape, but just moments later the entire temple had completely transformed in shape. It was now shaped like a hemispheric prison cell that had been completely sealed off, trapping him inside.