Desolate Era (Book 41 - Book 45)

“Forget about it! This continent belongs to us Sithe! We would never allow a vilefiend like yourself to run rampant here!” The leader of the three was a six-armed man who was furiously attacking with six giant warhammers. Alas, the vilefiend was far too fast and nimble; if it wasn’t for the other two party members, the leader would’ve been defeated long ago.

The second member of the party was a red-haired man who wielded a warblade and whose entire body was bathed in flames. He howled furiously, “The valiant men of the Sithe shall never succumb to a vilefiend like yourself!”

The final member of the party was a gray-robed woman, and she had an icy look on her face as she controlled her magic treasures to attack from afar. She said in a frozen voice, “We Sithe would rather all die in battle than submit to a vilefiend like yourself.”

Ning, the Paragon of Pills, Azurefiend, and the rest all watched from high up in the skies, rather shocked by all of this.

“The ‘valiant men of the Sithe’?” Ning blinked. “Why does that phrase feel so… odd?”

“The ‘Sithe would rather all die in battle than submit to a vilefiend’?” Azurefiend mumbled to himself, “That’s a pretty determined statement! I had no idea the Sithe were so intrepid.”

The three humanoids below them were merely of the Elder God/Ancestral Immortal level, while the vilefiend was an extremely weak member of the vilefiend race. There was an enormous degree of difference between it and the vilefiends Ning encountered near the Daoguard Tower.

This was nothing more than a battle at the Elder God level. To the likes of Ning, the Paragon of Pills, Azurefiend, Lord Annihilation, Hegemon Flameleft, or Hegemon Tia, these four were all very puny! And yet, they were the most powerful beings on this island. Ning was telling the truth earlier when he said that they were ‘very weak’.

“Haha!” Lord Annihilation laughed as well. “To us cultivators as a whole, the Sithe are a calamity, a nightmare, a blight on existence! The Sithe, however, also have weak members of the race who are akin to our mortals. Perhaps they find pride in being Sithe.”

“They call themselves Sithe, but they aren’t actually true Sithe,” Ning said.

“They aren’t true Sithe?” Everyone present stared at Ning, puzzled.

“Master, how is it that you know this?” Azurefiend asked.

Ning didn’t explain any further, because this involved many hidden secrets that would only cause Azurefiend and the others to feel unnecessary consternation.

If they were true Sithe, they would be rejected by all the prime essences of the Chaosverse, making it impossible for them to use the power of the Dao! However, all three of the humans below them were infusing the Dao into each and every strike. They weren’t rejected by the prime essences!





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Book 41, Chapter 15 - Filthy


“Did you hear that? That little vilefiend just said he’s wiped out all life on this island several times,” Azurefiend said.

“Unsurprising,” Ji Ning replied. “This hidden dimension is within the Sithelands, which means that vilefiends can arise here! Although they are fairly weak without the power of a Daoguard Tower behind them, they are still enough to be absolute catastrophes for islands like this. In addition, vilefiends have essence springs located in other places. I can kill them with my sword and then locate and destroy their essence springs via karma, but the living beings on this island can only use all their strength to fight and kill the vilefiend time and time again without being able to truly exterminate it. Given enough time, the vilefiend will rise to power once more and then cause yet another calamity to descend upon this island.”

The Paragon of Pills sighed. “Vilefiends are nothing to us, but they represent apocalypse to the countless beings on this island.”

Hegemon Tia said, “Perhaps this is a method the Sithe use to train and temper the members of their race.”

“…Yes, that’s extremely possible.” Ning’s eyes lit up. Applying pressure via vilefiends could result in more powerful experts arising more frequently.

As they spoke, Ning and the others descended onto the island.

“Attack!”

“Let’s launch an all-out assault!” The three humans were beginning to unleash their desperation attacks.

“Hahaha… desperation attacks? I’ll give you one final blow and annihilate any hope that you might still harbor. I’m looking forward to those looks of despair on your face, the despair that stems from the very depths of your soul… I can’t help but feel excited when I see those looks!” The vilefiend was actually shaking from anticipation.

Suddenly… slash! A streak of sword-light sliced through the vilefiend.

The vilefiend’s face still had that look of twisted joy on it, but a heartbeat later it completely disintegrated into dust. Ning’s sword followed the karma lines attaching it to its essence spring, destroying that as well. From this day forth, the vilefiend which had troubled this island and its many living beings for countless generations was no more.

“Helping you kill that vilefiend is a form of recompense for rifling through your memories.” Ning began to search through the memories of those three ‘Sithe’ humans. The fact that their attacks were infused with the power of the Dao meant that they were also natives of this Chaosverse, and so Ning treated them as humans rather than as Sithe. This was why he wished to ‘repay’ them for what he was doing.

“Master, now that you’ve killed that vilefiend, this island won’t suffer any more attacks. Doesn’t that mean that the tempering trial the Sithe set up is over?” Azurefiend asked.

“I don’t give a shit,” Ning said casually.

Azurefiend blinked. The Paragon of Pills, Hegemon Tia, Hegemon Flameleft, and Lord Annihilation all stared at Ning in shock. ‘I don’t give a shit’… how could words like this have come from the mouth of the peerlessly dazzling ‘Daolord Darknorth’?

There were many Emperors and Hegemons with foul dispositions and even fouler language. However, to the people present, Darknorth was a person of incomparably exalted stature, someone who was very nearly a peer of the Autarchs. They couldn’t help but feel a bit uncomfortable when they heard Ning say this.

In truth, Ning had a completely perfect Dao-heart. He’d say whatever he felt without needing to disguise it.

“Um. So what have you discovered?” the Paragon of Pills asked.

“They are just Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals. They know very little… but their memories do contain information regarding a legendary and ‘invincible’ figure who controls all sixty-three islands in this vast territory. That person is known to them as Archfiend Huabo, and he is so ‘unfathomably powerful’ that he has never been defeated and can wipe out an entire island with a wave of his hand.” Ning snickered. “Their memories indicate that Archfiend Huabo should know more about this place than them.”

Ning and the others left, and as they did the three humans regained consciousness.

“What just happened?”

“What’s going on?”

“Where’s the vilefiend?” All three of them were completely puzzled. When Ning had rifled through their memories, it hadn’t had a negative impact on them at all. It was like a brief moment of unconsciousness.

……

Archfiend Huabo was the ruler of sixty-three islands, and in truth he was a Daolord of the Fourth Step. In this era and amongst these weak cultivators, he truly was ‘invincible’! But to Ning and his team? A Daolord of the Fourth Step was still extremely weak, so weak that he could be exterminated with just a breath!

Archfiend Huabo was seated on his royal throne. Below him was a large number of beautiful women who were dancing for him, while at each side of the hall there were many chained beings who were being tortured and tormented.