Desolate Era (Book 41 - Book 45)

Similarly, during the era of the Three Realms, its most talented experts such as Nuwa and Ning would all be blessed and reinforced by the power of the Three Realms. The same was true for the Chaosverse as a whole. The most talented denizens of the Chaosverse would be blessed with tremendous karmic luck. This was true for both the Autarchs and Ning! If any of them were slain and their truesouls devoured, it would be a tremendous blow to this Chaosverse as a whole!

If Ning had died under ordinary circumstances, such as his truesoul naturally dissipating, then his truesoul fragments would make their way back into the prime essences of the Chaosverse. But if he was killed by the Sithe, then had his truesoul fragments devoured in accordance with those secret Sithe truesoul-swallowing techniques, there would be no way for his truesoul fragments to go back to this Chaosverse.

This was why Bowenya had to kill Ning, rather than just trap him and let him slowly die a normal death. And… killing Ning would be an even greater accomplishment than killing an ordinary Autarch!

This was because the Sithe leadership knew that while ordinary Autarchs were unable to improve any further, those who were in control of an Eternal Omega Dao could very well take that final step and become an Omega Autarch, resulting in a new Lord of Chaos being born. The Sithe would stop at nothing to kill Ning! Even though he had failed his Daomerge, they would still be worried that someone as brilliant as him might be able to come up with a way to devise a ‘Truesoul Everlasting’ technique.

The sooner they killed him, the better.

……

After capturing Jonnbech and the others, Ning inspected all of their memories. However, the only unexpected surprises came from Jonnbech himself. Jonnbech actually had a perfect Dao-heart, and so the illusions formed from the Sword Dao Domain were not enough to control his mind. Ning was forced to use some of his own power and use a secret art in order to draw Jonnbech into an illusion, then rifle through his memories.

Ning was quite delighted by what he found. Jonnbech, as someone who had a perfect Dao-heart, was a very high-ranking Sithe. He was far more important than the vast majority of Hegemons, and was given the best resources in the hope that he would become an Exalt! As a result, he had viewed many different techniques which were meant to aid Hegemons in breaking through to Autarchy. Some required lifeblood oaths to be sworn not to divulge them to outsiders, while others Jonnbech had found on his own. The latter didn’t require any oaths, and so Ning managed to uncover quite a few techniques which not even Autarch Titanos or Autarch Awakener had been able to acquire.

“This is an unexpected surprise. And… it seems that Jonnbech’s home truly had many powerful experts within it.” Ning found quite a few memories pertaining to the Sithe Chaosverse as well. There, the ‘Exalts’ were truly Autarchs in power.

But of course, there were differences in power amongst the Autarchs as well. Some reached Autarchy as Heartforce Cultivators, while others reached Autarchy through the Dao of the Sword, the Dao of Spacetime, the Dao of Space, and more. Some reached Autarchy through the Dao of Metal, while other reached Autarchy through the Dao of the Five Elements.

Different Daos would result in different levels of power. Those who reached Autarchy via the Dao of Space, for example, would be a bit weaker than those who reached Autarchy via the Dao of Spacetime. In turn, those who reached Autarchy via the Dao of the Five Elements would be even more powerful.

Alas, all memories pertaining to the secrets of the Omega Daos were sealed by lifeblood oaths. Even so, Ning’s horizons were considerably expanded. He actually gained new insights into his own path of cultivation as well.

“I don’t have enough time as a cultivator of the Dao of the Sword. Reaching Autarchy via my Omega Sword Dao before my truesoul crumbles is nothing more than a vain dream. I don’t have nearly enough time; in fact, I probably won’t even be able to finish my Karma Sword Dao! I need to focus all of my efforts on creating the ‘Truesoul Everlasting’ technique.”





Book 42, Chapter 15 - Deadlock


Crunch. Crunch. Clack!

Within a gorge inside the Sacred Realm. Ji Ning was standing next to the Iceland Elder Hall, using his Sword Dao Domain to break it apart and deconstruct it. The Iceland Elder Hall was devoid of all power, and so he was able to break it apart quite quickly.

“Daolord Darknorth, why are you wasting time breaking apart a useless Daoguard Tower? Is it perhaps because of how pathetically impoverished all you cultivators are? During the last war we fought against you cultivators, your kind did the same thing in frantically scavenging for any scraps you could find.” The heavens echoed with a cold, mocking laugh.

“I’m in no rush,” Ning murmured calmly.

“Hmph. Then go ahead and keep on breaking it apart,” the icy voice replied coldly.

That was exactly what Ning did. He continued to break the Daoguard Tower apart piece-by-piece, and he carefully scrutinized every inch of it. This was the first time he had a chance to inspect an Exalt-class Daoguard Tower up close! His next action was to enter Exalt Bowenya’s Elder Hall. Given that all Daoguard Towers shared certain commonalities in construction, deconstructing and inspecting this one was a form of preparation for him.

As the saying goes, if you knew yourself and knew your enemies, you would be blessed with victory in all of your battles. The deconstruction of the Iceland Elder Hall was part of Ning efforts to know his enemies.

“A pity that the Flameland Elder Hall was virtually annihilated,” Ning mused to himself.

Twenty-six days went past in the blink of an eye before Ning had finally finished carefully tearing apart the entire Iceland Elder Hall. During this process, he had also discovered a strange beast which had been slumbering deep within a prison inside the tower. Ning had used his Sword Dao Domain to pick up the sleeping beast, toss it far away, and then use illusions to mask his own location.

As for what happened once the beast woke up? Ning really didn’t give a damn.

He had considered drawing it away into his own estate-world, but the creature was too overwhelmingly powerful. Ordinary estate-worlds wouldn’t be able to contain its might! It would probably be able to tear through Ning’s estate-worlds with ease. Yes, some of the Sithe treasures Ning had might be able to contain it, but Ning didn’t want to go through the trouble of doing so. An insane beast was of little value to him.

“Hm.” Ning stood within that empty gorge, the Iceland Elder Hall having been completely deconstructed and then put away within an estate-world.

“Exalt-class Daoguard Towers truly are marvelously built up. They require an utterly inconceivable amount of expertise with regards to manipulating space and time. I wager that the blueprints for Exalt-class Daoguard Towers were created by the Sithe Lord of Chaos.” Ning was secretly shocked by what he had found. The Iceland Elder Hall had been devoid of all power, and so many of its powerful functions had become inert and hidden… and yet, Ning was still able to see how incredibly powerful and complex it was based on how it had been created.

“Now what should I do? Given my current level of power, if I actually tried to barge my way inside one of these things, my chances would be quite low.” Ning was quite worried. He had never entered a Daoguard Tower before! Now, however, if he wanted to leave this place he would have to pass through the center of this hidden dimension… and that center was located within that Daoguard Tower! He had to enter it… but if he did, he would be in incredible danger.

……

Ning transformed into a streak of light as he quickly flew towards that final remaining Elder Hall.

Exalt Bowenya stood within that Elder Hall, staring intently at the streak of light flying towards him. He murmured softly, “He’s coming. Good. My only fear was that you wouldn’t come.”