The Desolate Era

“I wasn’t too late. That young brother of mine hasn’t been killed yet.” The raggedy old man’s gaze pierced through all obstructions as he stared at the great battle being fought.

“Let’s go take a look.”

He sauntered forward through the air. Although his body touched some of the lotus flowers, they slid right through him as though his body was illusory, having no effect on him at all.

He looked as though he was walking quite slowly, but with each step he moved millions of kilometers.

......

The battle was still continuing.

Ji Ning, the Starlord of Fogstone, Immortal Abyssus, and the others had been completely surrounded by the endless black lotuses. There was no way out whatsoever.

“I never would’ve thought that I’d end up dying here.” Immortal Abyssus let out a soft sigh. “For me to die is one thing, but my disciples...” Although some of the disciples remained behind on the planet of Fogstone, once the World-level experts died the planet of Fogstone would fall into the hands of God Emperor Blackstone. Not a single living being would be able to escape.

“How could this God Emperor Blacklotus be so strong?”

“My luck is horrid. I’ve been in seclusion for so many years, and the very first time I leave it to take part in a fight, I end up running into someone as frightening as him.”

“I know. His insights into the Dao are profound, his forbidden secret arts are incredibly powerful, and he even has an Eternal weapon! Even when I roamed about the primordial chaos, I almost never encountered people as terrifying as him.”

The various World-level experts could do nothing but sigh. Their hearts were filled with resentment and an unwillingness to give up, but they could read the situation. Whether they lived or died was now completely up to God Emperor Blacklotus.

“Second Uncle.” The Starlord lowered his head and saw World God Blackmist continuing to furiously fight back against World God Blackmist. Tears appeared in the Starlord’s eyes. “Second Uncle, forget it. Forget it. We’ve lost.”

The fourth stage of the [Fogstone Apocalypse] was indeed terrifyingly powerful, but it used up divine power at an even more terrifying rate. Soon, the very last bit of Blackmist’s divine power would be used up.

“Ahahaha...Blackmist, I have to say that even I admire your tenacity. To show my respect for you, I’ll allow all of these World Gods and Chaos Immortals to join you in death.” The God Emperor’s mocking voice rang out in the skies. “After all of you die, I’ll come up with some other ideas for acquiring your divine abilities and techniques from within the planet of Fogstone.”

“There’s no way you’ll succeed,” World God Blackmist growled, his eyes filled with savagery and pain.

He wasn’t afraid of death.

What he feared was dying while failing to protect the Starlord.

“If I succeed, I’ll be happy. If I don’t, it won’t make much of a difference. Blackmist, I’m curious as to how long your divine power will be able to hold out.” God Emperor Blacklotus was quite relaxed. He held the absolute upper hand and was launching attacks with impunity. “You can fight for as long as you wish, but in the end the result will still be death.”

World God Blackmist’s eyes were filled with resentment.

He was continuing to fight, only because he truly wasn’t willing to give up.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Suddenly, a series of echoing booms began to ring out in the heavens.

Serpent-shaped streaks of lightning began to cascade down from the heavens. It looked as though trillions of lightning chains had manifested, wantonly crashing downwards against the earth. The countless black lotuses were all wiped out, and even some of the black lotuses that weren’t directly struck by the lightning bolts saw sparks of lightning crackle around them, wiping them out.

One moment ago, the entire world was filled with countless black lotuses. Now...they had all vanished. The mountains, the skies, the seas...the mighty divine runes that filled this world had all been shattered as well.

“What...”

“What just happened?”

The seven thousand Elder Gods that had been struggling to defend were all stunned. The Starlord, Immortal Abyssus...all of them were stunned.

Vanished?

The countless black lotuses which they had been struggling to push back had all just...vanished?

“Impossible. That’s impossible.” God Emperor Blacklotus blanched. He no longer paid any attention to World God Blackmist as he frantically scanned the world around him. He knew exactly how strong this forbidden art of his was, because he had to prepare it in advance by filling the entire chaosworld with many formations.

When all of the formations were unleashed, they were almost comparable to his full power when he used his Eternal weapon.

A forbidden art of such power had been instantly defeated? By lightning? Who could do such a thing?!

“Uh...so did you guys think the lightning looked really pretty?” A voice suddenly rang out by the ears of the Ji Ning, the Starlord, God Emperor Blacklotus, and all the other cultivators.

A barefoot old man dressed in tattered robes walked towards through the air from afar, the trillions of lightning bolts parting before his path.

“I really like lightning, you know.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t have much talent for it. I lived in the Grand Lightning Sea for ages, but in the end I was still able to master just one stage of its lightning. It is pretty weak, but its not bad when you just want to mess around.” The raggedy old man beamed as he spoke, then waved his hand, causing the trillions of lightning bolts to vanish from the heavens.

The battle between the two sides had come to a complete halt. action

The Fogstone Dominion’s major powers were filled with excitement, believing that perhaps they might be able to survive after all.

God Emperor Blacklotus began to worry.

“Greetings, senior.” Immortal Abyssus was the first to react.

“Greetings, senior.” All of the cultivators of the Fogstone Dominion bowed respectfully, including World God Blackmist.

“Greetings, senior.” God Emperor Blacklotus and the World-level experts on his side, as well as all of the Elder Gods, also bowed respectfully.

None of them were fools. What they had witnessed just now spoke volumes. This person had easily, casually wiped out God Emperor Blacklotus’ terrifying forbidden art. Most likely, only someone on a completely different level of power could accomplish this...a Samsara Daolord!

According to the stories, Samsara Daolords walked at the borders between life and death. Each time they traversed this samsara cycle of life and death, they would grow dramatically more powerful. If they failed...then they would die.

Every single one of them was inconceivably powerful.

There were legends of monstrous Elder Gods who could slay World-level experts! However, even the most monstrous of World-level experts would only at most be capable of dealing with newly ascended Samsara Daolords. Any Samsara Daolord who had been alive for just a bit of time had the power to utterly crush any World-level expert, and the longer they stayed alive the more powerful they became. According to the legends, an enraged Samsara Daolord who was about to die might wipe out entire territories in their death throes!

And those legends were true!

Only those who had actually encountered a Daolord would understand how terrifying they were.

“Mm.” The raggedy old man swept the Fogstone Dominion’s experts with his gaze, revealing a smile.

The experts of Fogstone all felt a surge of joy.

The experts of the Blacklotus Empire all felt their hearts tremble.

“You actually dared to attack one of mine.” The raggedy old man looked towards God Emperor Blacklotus, a smile still on his face. “You really are quite bold.”

God Emperor Blacklotus quivered, his body turning soft.

He had experienced many things while roaming through foreign territories, and he had encountered quite a few Samsara Daolords. He knew exactly how terrifying a Samsara Daolord could be.

“Great!”

“It looks like he’s on our side.”

“Didn’t you hear the Daolord say ‘one of mine’ just now? Does he belong to us? Starlord, could he possibly be one of the ancient seniors of the Fogstone lineage?” Every member of Fogstone was jubilant, and Ning let out a sigh of relief as well.

The Starlord was also puzzled. He sent back, “I don’t know. Fogstone does have quite a few ancient cultivators who are roaming the outside world. It is possible that one of them broke through to become a Samsara Daolord, I suppose...but I don’t recognize this man.”

“Blackmist, do you recognize him?”

“I don’t recognize this senior either.” World God Blackmist flew towards them, his skin still that grayish-white color. “If he’s a Samsara Daolord, he must have been training for an extremely long period of time. He probably left Fogstone long before I even started to cultivate. It’s also possible that he’s completely unrelated to Fogstone.”

Fogstone’s experts were musing over who this Daolord was, while the experts of the Blacklotus Empire were filled with terror upon realizing that he was an enemy.

“You attacked one of mine, so...I have to kill you.” The raggedy old man continued to smile in a jolly fashion, but his words were utterly terrifying. He waved his finger, causing an enormous illusory finger of lightning to shoot out towards God Emperor Blacklotus.

“My master is Daolord Seven Sovereigns!” God Emperor Blacklotus had a look on his face as he screamed, “Daolord Seven Sovereigns is my master!”

God Emperor Blacklotus wanted to flee, but spacetime was sealed off in this area. He had nowhere to run or hide.

The finger of lightning tapped him on his body.

Whoosh! One moment, a look of terror was on God Emperor Blacklotus’ face. The next moment, he had been completely transformed into dust.

The entire world was silent.

Ning and the others hadn’t even had the chance to digest the fact that Blacklotus was a disciple of this ‘Daolord Seven Sovereigns’ before Blacklotus died.

“Seven Sovereigns?” The raggedy old man spat. “Seven SOVEREIGNS? More like seven bugs! He hides from me like a bug. This old man wanted to kill him before my Daomerge, but he actually abandoned his home and went scurrying off to some godforsaken place.”