Desolate Era (Book 41 - Book 45)

“The Daoguard Tower…” Ning had a rather ugly look on his face. “It is literally the most dangerous type of location the Sithelands has.”


As soon as Ning saw the Silver Goldhorn, his heart had turned cold. He knew that the situation was even worse than he had thought. Golems like the Silver Goldhorns were extremely powerful, and they were only possessed by Daoguard Towers! Now that he knew that this world was where a Daoguard Tower was located, he knew just how difficult this journey would be.

The Daoguard Tower… as the name implied, it was meant to guard a certain area. Even beings as powerful as the Sithe needed to train and cultivate, and so the most powerful Sithe would generally pay absolutely enormous prices to construct extremely safe, secure, and stable places where they would live and train. These places were known as Daoguard Towers! The powerful Sithe would use everything available to them to reinforce the Daoguard Tower, using it to fight back against foes.

Even the most powerful of foes would generally find it very hard to breach the defenses of a Daoguard Tower, but they did have a weakness – they were completely immobile!

In the Sithe Chaosverse, Daoguard Towers were able to draw upon the natural energies of that Chaosverse. In Ning’s Chaosverse, the Sithe were unable to do the same, and so they had to first pay an absolutely enormous price to set up this place, the ‘Sithelands’! This was a place which held an enormous energy generator within it.

For the Sithe, the ‘Sithelands’ actually served as a ‘miniature’ Chaosverse in many ways. They were able to make use of the energy generator and then build Daoguard Towers throughout the area. Once they were built, they could no longer be moved; this was their main weakness. However, they were tremendously powerful and were perfect for protecting important locations!

Every single Daoguard Tower was extremely difficult to deal with, with the best Daoguard Towers capable of claiming the lives of even the Autarchs! This was why the Autarchs hadn’t fought their way inside. Every single Daoguard Tower represented extreme danger! But of course, they also had a correspondingly great amount of treasure inside of them. It could be said that Daoguard Towers were literally built out of a giant mound of treasures.

“Silver Goldhorns generally are used to patrol the area outside a Daoguard Tower and locate enemy intruders,” Ning said. “As soon as we ran into those Silver Goldhorns, the master of this Daoguard Tower was probably alerted to our presence as well.”

“Alerted?” Azurefiend was worried.

“Yes. In other words, we are now in a great deal of danger.” Ning smiled. “I might not be able to protect you, in which case your avatar will be finished.”

“Don’t worry about me, Master. I would at most lose the materials needed for an avatar,” Azurefiend said.

“Let’s continue.” Ning didn’t waste any more time on words as he led Azurefiend towards the other end of the karmic lies tying him to Lord Annihilation and the Paragon of Pills.

……

Deep within the heart of this planet, there was indeed a tower that was protected by many layers of traps and barriers. This tower had a total of eight levels to it.

A short creature that was merely one meter tall was seated on an altar inside the tower. He was a true Sithe, but he merely had the power of an ordinary Eternal Emperor.

The short creature opened his eyes, staring at the images which had begun to appear in front of him. The images displayed two Silver Goldhorns battling against Ning and Azurefiend. In the end, the two Silver Goldhorns were captured and taken away.

“Cultivators?” The short creature frowned when he saw this. “How odd. Both of these cultivators are odd. One is a Hegemon, but the white-robed cultivator with that black sheath… he looks to be a Daolord. In addition, his truesoul is actually crumbling away, which makes him a Daolord who has failed the Daomerge. What’s going on? From the looks of it, the Hegemon is actually subservient to him.”

“And what’s with that odd domain? It was able to defeat those Silver Goldhorns with ease.” The short creature had the feeling that something was off.

“Ugh. Ever since the barriers were breached, Master slipped away and ordered me to stand guard over the Daoguard Tower.” The short creature gritted his teeth, rather unhappy. He had originally been a mere retainer of this Daoguard Tower’s owner. Once the barrier had been opened, it was guaranteed that this tower would eventually be conquered by the cultivators, and so the master of this tower had fled, leaving him behind to stand guard.

“Given how easily they dealt with the Silver Goldhorns, I have to be careful with them. Hm… yes, I’ll put them in the ‘secondary dimension’.” The short creature immediately began to activate the power of the Daoguard Tower.





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Book 41, Chapter 5 - Hope of Release


The short creature was unable to disguise the excitement in its eyes. Each time he took control of the Daoguard Tower and used it to deal with powerful figures, he felt extremely happy.

This was because if he truly engaged in a ‘fair fight’ against those powerful cultivators, he would probably be annihilated with ease. But with the Daoguard Tower at his disposal, he was able to toy with them instead! By now, this was the only bright spot in his life, the reason for him to keep living. The Sithe had been defeated, after all, and his master’s orders meant he had to stay here forever. His life was one of solitude and despair. If he didn’t have the occasional bit of entertainment, how could he have possibly been able to stay alive? His Dao-heart probably would’ve crumbled long ago, resulting in suicide.

“Those two are the most powerful cultivators I’ve ever encountered. I have to be careful. They won’t be beaten as easily as other cultivators.” The short creature took control over the Daoguard Tower’s powers, watching the scenes of Ji Ning and Azurefiend advancing at high speed.

……

After dealing with the Silver Goldhorns, Ning and Azurefiend continued to advance at nearly maximum speed.

“What’s that?” Ning soon saw some scattered weapons and armor.

“Master, is this connected to the Paragon of Pills’ team?” Azurefiend asked.

“This belonged to their slain comrade.” Ning scanned the area, his gaze causing time to flow backwards. Soon, Ning was able to see the scene of the Paragon of Pills, Lord Annihilation, a short, fat old man, and a silvery-haired woman fight against a total of four Silver Goldhorns.

The four Silver Goldhorns were overwhelmingly powerful. Although the Paragon of Pills and the others had many tricks up their sleeves, their techniques were blown away in the very first exchange. The short and fat old man was the closest to the four and the first to die, while the other three scattered and fled.

The four Silver Goldhorns were about to pursue, but all of a sudden they gave up the pursuit and left. Ning narrowed his eyes. “As I thought. This Daoguard Tower has someone controlling it.”

The Dawn War had ended long ago, and the barrier sealing the Daoguard Tower had also been breached quite some time ago. Logically speaking, the powerful Sithe who owned this Daoguard Tower had probably slipped away long ago, and so Ning had harbored the faint hope that this Daoguard Tower was now unmanned! However, he knew that even if the Sithe who owned this tower had fled, he might’ve arranged for a servant or a golem to control it in his stead.

Ning knew that the chances of this Daoguard Tower being unmanned were slim… and now, his hopes were crushed entirely.

“I hope the controller of this Daoguard Tower is a wise man.” Ning shook his head slightly, then waved his hand and collected the armor and weapons lying on the ground.

“Master, where should we go next?” Azurefiend asked.