Desolate era, p.954
Desolate Era, page 954
“There’s no way the Sithe would just sit idly and watch our Chaosverse grow that much.” Autarch Stonerule frowned.
“Screw them. We’ve locked them all away!” Autarch Ekong said. “Sure, we suspect that they might be able to escape our seal, but even if they have, the fact that they have still been biding their time instead of attacking means that they are planning something else. Let’s start teaching these techniques to as many deserving cultivators as we can. If we can produce more and more powerful experts, the Sithe will grow restless and might end up launching their attacks ahead of schedule, before they are truly ready.”
“I agree. Let’s force their hand,” Autarch Titanos said. “If they really are sealed away, we’ll have nothing to fear and can use this opportunity to grow stronger; if they aren’t, we’ll disrupt their plans. Either way, we win.”
It didn’t matter if the Sithe were truly sealed away or not. They could not delay the teaching of the ‘Truesoul Everlasting’ technique any longer.
“For Daolords who have failed the Daomerge, the sooner they begin using the ‘Truesoul Everlasting’ technique the better,” Ning said. “If they wait until their truesoul actually breaks apart before trying to fuse the pieces together, it’ll be extremely difficult.”
Ning was the creator of the technique and understood it better than anyone else. He also had a perfect Dao-heart. This was why he had been able to reverse even the complete collapse of his truesoul! The vast majority of Daolords, however, had far weaker Dao-hearts than Ning. If their truesouls collapsed, not even the [Truesoul Everlasting] technique would necessarily be able to save them.
“Haha, I don’t think anyone would be dumb enough to actually wait until their truesoul collapsed before using the technique, right?” Autarch Titanos said.
……
Ning and the others eventually went their separate ways, returning to their various residences. Ning went back to the Three Realms, living a life of ease and comfort. He didn’t spend too much time analyzing the Dao of the Sword. Instead, he emptied his mind and purified his soul, spending his time on calligraphy, art, and gardening.
After 1,200 chaos cycles… Ninedust attempted the Daomerge. He succeeded on his very first try! He didn’t even need to use the ‘Truesoul Everlasting’ technique Ning had prepared for him. Ninedust had built up an incredibly deep and stable foundation before attempting the Daomerge. Not only had he used a Voidsea Jadeseal, Ning had also given him many techniques and an Incense-Spirit Fruit!
Ning quietly went to visit Ninedust by himself, offering his congratulations. The fact that he was still alive remained a secret! Ning’s success meant that their Chaosverse had just gained two new Autarch-class combatants due to Ning having such a powerful avatar. More importantly, Ning was different from the other Autarchs in that he was skilled in many different areas. He had his Spacetime Sword Dao, his Karma Sword Dao, his Cycle Sword Dao, his Numerancy Sword Dao, and more.
This made Ning practically flawless, able to cope with any situation. Two new Autarch-class combatants who had no flaws at all… once they were unleashed, they would definitely give the Sithe a nice big ‘surprise’.
After congratulating Ninedust, Ning went back to the Three Realms and continued his relaxed life. The Otherverse Lords and Hegemons in every single realmverse were all granted the ‘Truesoul Everlasting’ technique, and they were told to secretly teach the technique to deserving Daolords who had failed the Daomerge. Without exception, they were admonished to try and keep this hidden as best they could. The longer they could hide this from the Sithe, the better!
Time slowly continued to flow on… but roughly 3,100 chaos cycles after Ning’s return to the Three Realms, the peace within the Chaosverse was shattered at last!
Book 43, Chapter 15 - The Engine of Destruction
Within Autarch Titanos’ residence. Nine strange parts were hovering in the air within his private study, and Autarch Titanos was frowning thoughtfully as he analyzed them. Even the two fleshy antennae on top of his head were drooping in a pensive manner.
Autarch Titanos had spent more time studying and understanding Sithe treasures than anyone else in this entire Chaosverse! He knew more than any other cultivator, and he had created quite a few weapons based off of those treasures, some of which were suitable for cultivators to use. Autarch Titanos was eagerly anticipating the creation of even more. “Harrumph! We are no longer the cultivators of old. We have many unique weapons of our own now, and even our ordinary Emperors are far more difficult to deal with than the ones of the past.”
Each Autarch followed a different, separate path. Autarch Titanos was the master of the Karma Daobirth Essence, which was arguably the most difficult Dao aside from the Omega Daos. As a result, he was the best-suited for ruminating on difficult, complex mechanisms. He spent his time creating many unusual weapons, allowing their Hegemons and Emperors to unleash tremendous power in battle This would make it much more difficult for the Sithe to slay the Emperors of this Chaosverse.
If he could raise the overall power of their forces, they would have a greater chance at gaining victory in the upcoming war… and the countless aeons he had spent in research had resulted in many splendid achievements indeed!
“Eh?” The two fleshy antennae on top of Autarch Titanos’ head suddenly shot up straight, and a sharp look flickered through his eyes. “This is…” Autarch Titanos could vaguely sense that the entire Quintessence was somehow in grave danger. An invisible, destructive force had suddenly cast a shadow over the entire Chaosverse.
“Destruction… the destruction of the entire Chaosverse?” Autarch Titanos turned slightly pale. “The source of this destruction is coming from that direction!”
Long ago, the Quintessence had sent a similar warning to all of the Autarchs, ensuring that they knew how dangerous the ‘Sithe’ were. Now, for the second time, they had received this warning!
“Could we be facing a new threat, something aside from the Sithe?” Autarch Titanos was slightly panicked. There was no way the Quintessence’s warning could possibly be in error, and so he abandoned all of his experiments and immediately exited his laboratory, then tore a tunnel through spacetime towards the source of the danger.
……
The handsome but sorrowful-looking white-haired Autarch Bolin was standing in a wild, untamed land. He stared at the earthen dwelling before him and the mortals inside of it. There were a total of three children within.
“Now these kids are rather interesting. Are you ready? Ready to transcend life and death and become a brand new, powerful type of creature?” Autarch Bolin looked at the oldest child, the nine-year-old, with a hint of anticipation in his eyes. He had just prepared a new… experiment.
Autarch Bolin had spent many aeons treading the line between life and death, scrying the mysteries of this great cycle. He hadn’t come close to mastering the Samsara Daobirth Essence, but he had other plans he was focused on.
He wanted to create a truly perfect lifeform! The Aeonians had been one of his many experiments, but they weren’t truly perfect. He wanted to create perfect beings which were on par with Sourcewalkers and Chaos Primordials in might. If the cultivators could produce a large number of ‘perfect’ beings and allowed them to propagate, they would have gained a powerful new army which made battling against the Sithe easier.
Suddenly, Autarch Bolin’s face turned pale. “Danger?” He immediately abandoned his new experiment. He could sense on a subconscious level that the entire Quintessence was shivering in terror, as though a terrifying destructive force had just appeared in front of it which could tear it apart.
The prime essences of the Chaosverse were awesome and powerful, but they were also quite weak. This was because they weren’t truly sentient, nor were they able to defend themselves. Thus, they had to rely upon the Autarchs and the cultivators to protect them against the Sithe. Once the cultivators were defeated, the Quintessence would be like meat on the chopping block for the Sithe to butcher as they pleased.
Whoosh. Autarch Bolin immediately tore through spacetime and departed.
……
Within the Three Realms. Brightheart Island. Ning was seated facing Autumn Leaf. The two were playing chess, while Brightmoon was watching from nearby.
“Hm.” Autumn Leaf pondered her next move.
Ning held a small black gourd in his hand. Every so often, he would take a swig from it. After Autumn Leaf finally made her move, he casually made his own move as well. After mastering the Numerancy Sword Dao, Ning was arguably the number one master of Numerancy and divinations in the entire Chaosverse. Perhaps Autarch Titanos, who was the master of the Karma Daobirth Essence, might be on par with him, but no one else! Chess? Of course Ning couldn’t play too seriously. If he did, it’d ruin the whole game.
“Aunt Autumn Leaf, that’s not right! If you do that, you are going to be in serious trouble.” Brightmoon shook her head, reaching out to prevent Autumn Leaf from making the move she wanted to make.
“Then what should I do next?” Autumn Leaf immediately pulled her chess piece back.
“Ahem! For a bystander to remain silent is the way of gentlemen.” Ning glanced sideways at Brightmoon, then looked at Autumn Leaf. “And since when did we allow take-backs in chess?”
“I didn’t put my piece down yet. It doesn’t count as a take-back,” Autumn Leaf said immediately.
“And I’m not a gentleman, I’m a woman!” Brightmoon rebutted.
Speechless, Ning chose to continue drinking his wine instead of arguing. The two of them would wrack their brains over every move while he just played casually, but he’d still win nine out of ten games. This was on purpose, of course. If you won every time, who would be willing to play with you?
“Brightmoon, when are you planning to begin your Daomerge?” Ning asked.
“Not anytime soon,” Brightmoon said. “It’ll definitely be after Patriarch Subhuti.”
“After we finish this game of chess, I need to talk to you about something,” Ning said. He was planning to transmit the ‘Truesoul Everlasting’ technique to her. Right now, they were extremely cautious and careful in transmitting this technique, generally only teaching it to the most incredibly talented Daolords of the Fourth Step. In each case, they would require the Daolord to swear a lifeblood oath which would cover many things.
For example, the Daolord could only attempt the Daomerge in a place where his or her aura would be completely hidden. That way, in the event that the Daolord failed the Daomerge and had to use the ‘Truesoul Everlasting’ technique to repair his truesoul, no one would be the wiser. In fact, no one would even know that he had attempted the Daomerge! This was the best way to keep things secret.
In short, they did everything they could to keep this hidden from the Sithe. They’d hide it for as long as they could! They knew that once the Sithe spies found out that the cultivators possessed the ‘Truesoul Everlasting’ technique, they would immediately be able to guess that Ning was still alive.
There was really nothing they could do about this. They couldn’t keep the ‘Truesoul Everlasting’ technique hidden from all cultivators just to ensure that Ning’s continued survival remained a secret, right? This was a technique which would strengthen civilization as a whole.
“Eh?” Ning suddenly frowned midway through his next move. Given the power of his godsense and his connection to the prime essences of the Chaosverse, he was naturally able to sense a terrifying danger suddenly manifest… a danger which could very well destroy the entire Quintessence itself.
“What’s going on? Has another civilization aside from the Sithe invaded us as well?” Ning turned pale.
Whoosh! The golden-robed Ning which had been roving the outside realm almost instantly tore through spacetime and hurried towards the source of the danger. The golden-robed avatar now had only 80% of the true Ning’s power, but it must be remembered that when compared, Ning was now at least 60% stronger than he was back when his truesoul was crumbling! This was because he had first gained Emperor-class energy, then transformed it into mana! After another six million chaos cycles of cultivation, he had infused many new Daos into his Sword Dao. As a result, the avatar-Ning was now much more powerful than ‘Daolord Ning’ had been.
In terms of raw power, Ning was ranked at the top of the list amongst the Autarchs. Even Autarch Titanos was slightly inferior to him, as Titanos wasn’t as well-rounded as Ning was! Ning’s avatar was terrifyingly strong.
……
The weaker cultivators felt nothing at all; the only people in the Chaosverse who sensed the danger were Ning and the six Autarchs, and all of them arrived. Autarch Mogg sent his avatar as he needed to stand guard over the Sithelands. The other five Autarchs all left their avatars in the Sithelands and came in person. Ning was extremely confident in his own power, and so he sent his avatar as well.
In truth, Autarchs would generally send their avatars to deal with any dangerous situations. This was because if the avatar died, they could easily remake a new one! If their true bodies died, the Autarchs would be dead for good.
Riiiiip. Ning tore through spacetime and arrived in a place within the Great Dark. He immediately saw Autarch Ekong.
“Darknorth.” The muscular Autarch Ekong was dressed in his usual loose robes. He had been the first to arrive, as he had been the closest to this location. Ning was the second to arrive.
“What’s going on?” Ning strode through the void towards him.
“There’s no one here save us.” Autarch Ekong pointed off into the distance. “The danger is coming from over there.”
Ning could sense it as well. Far off in the distance, there was an enormous silver vortex that was slowly swiveling in place. This silver vortex was so gigantic that it was vastly greater than an ordinary realmverse in size. Ning was able to see through to the very center of the silver vortex, where he saw a giant, ancient sphere-shaped object that was the size of a realmverse. It was riddled with countless holes, but Ning was unable to see through them to the insides of this sphere. All he could sense was that it was filled with boundless danger.
The giant sphere simply sat there in the darkness, furiously devouring the primordial chaos around it. The silver vortex around it represented all of the energy which it was draining from the surrounding area. Even the endless darkness itself was being swallowed up by it.
Just looking at the thing caused Ning and Autarch Ekong to feel a sense of dread.
Book 43, Chapter 16 - Going Inside
“Where did this thing come from?” Ji Ning stared at the titanic sphere located at the very center of that giant silver vortex. At his level, he was able to see at a glance that this terrifying celestial object was the source of the threat to the entire Chaosverse.
Everything within the Chaosverse, be it the emptiness of space, the endless Great Dark, or the countless living beings, were all part of the Chaosverse. In life and in death, they remained parts of the Chaosverse. Their deaths would not weaken the Chaosverse.
However… if their energies were somehow swallowed away, this would in fact harm the prime essences! The Sithe, for example, wanted to kill as many Autarchs and Hegemons as possible, then draw away their truesoul fragments and cause the prime essences to weaken. After the Chaosverse was weakened to a sufficient extent, the Sithe would have a chance at binding and controlling the entire Chaosverse.
All things were part of the Chaosverse. Destroying and devouring the souls of ordinary mortals would also weaken the Chaosverse, but doing this would be too slow and inefficient! The Sithe soul-eater technique could only be used to swallow truesouls that had been destroyed in extremely close proximity. It would probably take the Sithe tens of millions of chaos cycles to slowly do this to the countless living beings in a single realmverse!
This was why they had chosen to act against the Autarchs and the Hegemons instead. And now? This hole-riddled, realmverse-sized sphere was swallowing away even the darkness of the Great Dark! It was somehow devouring the darkness in a way that completely destroyed it, causing the Chaosverse to forever lose its energy.
This wasn’t an issue in the short term, but given enough time it would cause the Chaosverse to suffer grave injuries, and possibly even weaken the prime essences enough for the Sithe to bind them.
“Where the hell did this terrifying celestial object come from? Who made it?” Ning was puzzled.
……
Eventually, the other Autarchs began to arrive as well. All of them stared at the behemoth sphere for a long period of time.
“Its enormous and riddled with holes, almost like a beehive,” Autarch Titanos said. “Its powerful aura reminds me of the aura of the Sithe heartlands! It was that very aura of danger which made us hesitate to go inside and instead opt to seal it away. This thing reminds me of it.”
“Yes, but there are some differences between it and the Sithe heartlands,” Autarch Stonerule said. “The Sithe heartlands hold an energy generator which powers many of their Daoguard Towers. This mysterious hive, however, is continuously swallowing and destroying the energy of the surrounding area! The more it swallows, the more our Chaosverse loses and the weaker our Chaosverse becomes.”
“Why did it suddenly appear here? There’s no way our Chaosverse would’ve naturally given birth to such a terrifying thing,” Autarch Skyfeeder said.
“This is a Sithe trump card,” Autarch Titanos said.
“The Sithe?” Ning and the others all turned to look at Autarch Titanos.
“Are you absolutely certain?” Ning asked. “Can it possibly be from another civilization?”
“It is Sithe,” Autarch Titanos said with absolute certainty. “I’ve spent countless aeons analyzing Sithe weaponry. As soon as I took a close look at it, I could tell that this behemoth hive is actually a single vast weapon! It was created for the express purpose of devouring and destroying the energy of the Chaosverse, which would cause the Chaosverse to weaken.”
