Desolate Era (Book 41 - Book 45)

……

Ning and the others were all anxiously awaiting news from Autarch Mogg. All of them were worried about him.

“I’m fine, I’m fine!” Autarch Mogg quickly sent word back to them. Only then did they let out sighs of relief.

“That Iyerre fellow really was powerful. Even though I had the Golden Bridge of Freedom, he was still able to overwhelm me! However, he wasn’t able to actually kill me. When he saw this, he chose to leave instead of continuing the fight,” Autarch Mogg said.

“Tell us a bit about the fight against Iyerre,” Autarch Titanos said.

“Very well.” Autarch Mogg began to narrate the battle in detail. Ning and the others listened attentively, working together to analyze what had happened. In truth, it had been a fairly simple battle. Iyerre had only struck a few times in an effort to conserve energy.

“I can’t believe Omega Autarchs are still this powerful when they are being suppressed and unable to use any of the power of the Dao.” Autarch Titanos let out an amazed sigh. “So the Sithe invaders are definitely led by an Omega Autarch. This is terrible news… and judging from how Iyerre simply left, it’s clear that he has other tricks up his sleeve and hasn’t been driven to the brink just yet.”

“We can’t let our guard down until we win the final battle,” Autarch Ekong said.

“I’m sorry, friends. I had no choice but to reveal the Golden Bridge of Freedom. Now he knows our most powerful defensive technique,” Autarch Mogg said.

They had prepared some trump cards of their own for the final war, but the Golden Bridge of Freedom was their strongest defensive trump card. If even it had been unable to withstand Iyerre’s power, they would’ve been in serious trouble.

In a war, using unexpected trump cards at a critical moment to catch an opponent offguard could produce some truly incredible results! Thus, trump cards generally were saved for the very end. When Ning and Ekong had been trapped within their respective temples, they had faced several dangerous situations but hadn’t been driven to the point of revealing their Golden Bridges of Freedom.

In addition, those bridges had a weakness – they could only be used for defensive purposes! Using them within the temples wouldn’t have helped Ning or Ekong actually escape!

“Mogg, if you didn’t use the Golden Bridge you would’ve died. Our side would’ve lost two Autarch-class combatants! That would’ve been a far greater loss,” Autarch Skyfeeder said.

“Be careful, everyone. Iyerre has failed in his first attempt, but he’ll probably prepare something even more deadly next time.”

“So long as we keep the bridges active, they probably won’t be able to do anything to us.”

……

Within the darkness of space. Iyerre stood there in the void by himself, his body covered with a layer of ripples which blocked the Chaosverse from detecting him.

Whoosh. A blurry pillar of light appeared before him which slowly resolved into a trio of figures. These were the three powerful subordinates he had sent out earlier.

“Iyerre, why have you contacted us?” The two men and the woman looked at Iyerre.

“Have you fought against any of the cultivator leaders yet?” Iyerre asked.

“We’re still searching for them. The Chaosverse is simply too large; just finding them is a task in and of itself,” the silver-robed woman said.

“I need to warn you that they have something akin to a Daoguard Tower they can use,” Iyerre said. “Trap them before attacking them.”

“Alright.” The three were shocked by this news.

Iyerre nodded then broke the connection.





Book 44, Chapter 20 - Grasslands


Atop a tall mountain located within a desolate, barren planet. At the peak of this mountain there was a stone house. In front of the stone house was a white-haired, dispirited-looking man who was seated by himself and drinking some wine.

This was one of the most supreme leaders of this entire Chaosverse… Autarch Bolin.

“Desolation… destruction…” The white-haired man stared at the vast world before him. He suddenly splashed the wine in his cup towards the world, sending it splattering outwards like a fine drizzle which moistened the earth before him. Slowly, plants began to grow out from the earth, including trees and grass which caused the planet to turn green with life.

The white-haired man frowned slightly as he watched. “The color of life… can it be that an Autarch is only able to control a single Daobirth Essence?” He shook his head. “There should be at least a tiny chance of controlling two.”

He felt certain that he had already reached an incredibly high level of insight into the cycle of life and death; in fact, it wasn’t too far off from his Claw Daobirth Essence in terms of profundity. And yet… no matter how he tried, he remained unable to form his Samsara Daobirth Essence.

“Death and life. Life is absolutely marvelous and intoxicating in its grandeur.” Autarch Bolin watched as the planet transformed, smiling respectfully as he watched life rise in all its awesome grandeur. Suddenly, his face tightened and he turned to stare at the empty void beyond the planet.

The space around the chaos planet had suddenly changed. An enormous being had just appeared within the empty space, and compared to it even the chaos planet was nothing more than the size of this creature’s fist. This creature looked like a giant gray bear, and it stared coldly at the planet and Autarch Bolin with its single cyclopean eye.

“An Autarch-class void dweller?” Autarch Bolin murmured softly to himself. “And it seems spacetime has been sealed.”

“Cultivator, you shall be the first person I kill within this Chaosverse!” the giant gray bear boomed loudly. It reached out with its giant paw to swat at Bolin. These void dwellers were born with tremendous natural gifts and they each had their own specialties. As for this giant bear, its specialty lay in its terrifying raw strength. Of the various Autarch-class void dwellers Iyerre had caught in the Infinite Void, it was without a doubt the physically strongest.

Riiiiip! The planet was surrounded and protected by many formations, but the giant bear paw caused them all to instantly crumble.

Autarch Bolin stared at the incoming paw coldly, a giant golden bridge with a tower on it appearing before him. Autarch Bolin himself moved to stand in front of the tower.

This was indeed the same type of protective treasure which Autarch Mogg had used, a Golden Bridge of Freedom. Since its existence had already been revealed, Autarch Bolin chose to use it right away as he could sense that this was a dangerous situation he was in.

“Die!” The giant paw came crashing down upon the golden bridge, tearing through its aura of power.

“Playing around with claws in front of me?” A hint of a cold smile flickered across Autarch Bolin face as he manifested six arms. All six of his hands arced into a claw and then tore at the giant furry bear paw slamming down towards him.

These strikes were so ferocious as to cause even the frozen spacetime around them to twist. Autarch Bolin’s claws were filled with unfathomable power. They seemed very ordinary, but they also seemed to contain countless transformations within them.

Boom! Autarch Bolin’s six claws clashed head-on against that giant bear’s paw.

Autarch Bolin couldn’t help but take two steps backwards, while the gigantic Autarch-class void bear stumbled backwards as well. It stared at Autarch Bolin with some astonishment.