The Desolate Era

“You are on par with us in power. If you became an Autarch through an Omega Dao, you would probably become far, far more powerful than the rest of us, and far more powerful than Entropos and Awakener were. Awakener, Entropos, Skyfeeder... all of them sensed that they had a chance. An Omega Autarch would probably be able to easily annihilate the entire Sithelands with ease! If you also had control over the full power of the Chaosverse, you would become completely invincible.” Autarch Titanos looked at Ning. “And that is what we need your help for.”

“Me? But... I’ve already failed my Daomerge,” Ning said.

“Ah, but you’ve mastered an Eternal Omega Dao,” Autarch Skyfeeder said.

“With your Eternal Omega Dao, I feel confident that our civilization will soon give birth to a true Omega Emperor! There are no lethal pitfalls between the ‘Emperor’ stage and the ‘Autarch’ stage, which means that given enough time that person would have a chance. Even if he remained at the ‘Emperor’ stage, he would still be on par with the five of us in power.” Autarch Titanos said eagerly, “In the past, we’ve actually worked to hide the existence of the Omega Daos, preventing word of them from spreading. This was because this path was so difficult, we were afraid that many of our most talented geniuses would die when attempting to trod it.”

“Consider many of the current Hegemons. Imagine if they had known of the existence of Omega Daos when they were at the World level, and even had techniques to guide them! Given their talent and given enough time, many of them would stand a good chance in embarking upon the path of the Omega Dao... but what would the end result be? They would fail the Daomerge, then die!”

“Your chances at the Daomerge are much better if you train by yourself, rather than receive fragmented guidance from others. Those who are good enough to blaze a trail for themselves stand the best chances of all,” Autarch Titanos said.

Ning agreed with this assessment. When you had no guidance, cultivation would be extremely difficult... but as a result, those who nonetheless succeeded were generally possessed of incredible comprehension abilities! The Three Realms was a good example of this. They originally had no legacies or techniques to guide them, making it hard for them to even reach the World level... but those who succeeded were all truly incredible figures!

This was doubly true for the Omega Daos. If you were given guidance, you might be able to embark upon a path you would never have been able to discover on your own... but in the end you would still fail before the Daomerge.

Those who were able to embark upon this path on their own would naturally be blessed with tremendous talent and insight! In all the Chaosverse, only a pitiful handful of people were able to even reach the Fourth Step of an Omega Dao. Every single such person was an incredible genius, and they had a good chance at the Daomerge. Even though they all failed, it merely represented a fairly small loss of life; it wouldn’t have much of an impact on the Chaosverse as a whole. But if cultivators began to train in the Omega Dao on a wide scale? Many geniuses would perish on this path, resulting in the Chaosverse having fewer experts and becoming weaker as a whole.

“But now, things are different!” Autarch Titanos said. “Now that we have an Eternal Omega Dao, we have a complete path which future cultivators can follow.”

“That means we can now truly publicize the existence of the Omega Daos, allowing many cultivators to embark upon this path at the World level. With your Daomerge experiences guiding the way, they won’t make any unnecessary mistakes. Their chances at success will instantly increase a hundredfold or more!” Autarch Titanos explained.

Ning sighed. If a senior had blazed a path for him and let him know what was needed, he himself probably would’ve succeeded. Now that he had become the trailblazer, future cultivators would have a clear understanding of what they needed to do. With enough experience and enough preparation, they would stand a far better chance than cultivators did in the past.

“We need your help,” Autarch Titanos said solemnly. “We would like to ask you to entrust your Eternal Omega Dao to us. We will then impart it to the juniors who have become Daolords of the Fourth Step in an Omega Dao... but of course, we’ll also ask them to swear lifeblood oaths to enter your school and become known as the honorary disciples of Daolord Darknorth.”

“Darknorth.” Autarch Bolin, Autarch Skyfeeder, Autarch Stonerule, Autarch Ekong, and Autarch Titanos all looked at Ning, hoping to hear his answer. However... they also knew that cultivators guarded their supreme techniques with extreme jealousy, treating them as their babies.

Ning had experienced so many setbacks and sorrows. He had experienced countless dangers and seen many things before finally managing to devise his [Eternal Omega Sword Dao], his most supreme technique. Any major power would feel a tremendous sense of attachment to a supreme technique like this! They had sacrificed far, far too much for the sake of their Daos; it could be said that they had poured their entire lives into their Daos.

This is why there was a saying that ‘the Dao is not to be transmitted lightly’. The five of them were asking for Ning to just give his Dao to them in all of its entirety, allowing every single Fourth Step Omega Daolord to train in it!

“...Very well.” Ning nodded, and looks of delight instantly appeared on the faces of the five Autarchs.

“Thank you, Darknorth.”

“The cultivator civilizations will never forget you.” All of them were tremendously excited. They were afraid that Ning would be stubborn and selfish. If he refused to transmit his Dao to them, there would be nothing they could do.

Ning smiled. “Autarch Awakener and the others have all sacrificed their lives for this, and Autarch Mogg has sworn to eternally stand guard over the Sithelands. I, Ji Ning, have nothing of value to offer; the only thing I have is my Eternal Omega Dao. How can I complain about offering it up? However, I do want to add in a rule; it is not to be transmitted to those who are wicked of heart.”

“There’s no need to worry about that,” Autarch Titanos said hurriedly. “What we’re trying to do is produce a Lord of Chaos who will be in charge of our Chaosverse. How could we possibly dare to let an evil person take that role? He could well become a calamity unto all of civilization!”

“The only reason we even allow those evil cultivators to exist is to ensure that the cultivator civilizations remain in a state of constant combat, which helps to temper cultivators and allow for more powerful cultivators to arise. If it wasn’t for that, I personally would’ve wiped out many of the vilest cultivators long ago,” Autarch Skyfeeder said coldly. By her very nature, she was someone who felt extreme hatred for evildoers.

Ning nodded.

“Haha... now that you’ve agreed, Darknorth, things will be simple.” Autarch Titanos beamed merrily.

“We’ll immediately send word throughout the Chaosverse of the existence of Omega Daos. We’ll even give copies of the various Fourth Step Omega Dao techniques we already possess to the Hegemons of the various realmverses and let them impart them to those they favor.” Autarch Ekong smiled. “We have quite a few Fourth Step Omega Dao techniques. Once one of them becomes a Daolord of the Fourth Step, we’ll transmit your Eternal Omega Dao to them, Darknorth.”

“Very well. I’ll immediately record a copy and also include all the many experiences I had and insights I gained during the Daomerge process,” Ning said.

“Darknorth.” Autarch Bolin looked at Ning. “In doing this, you will have contributed far more to this Chaosverse than any of us ever have. Tell me, is there anything you need? We’ll do whatever we can to help you.”

“Yes, what do you desire?” Autarch Titanos and the others all looked at Ning. They knew that Ning had already failed his Daomerge and wouldn’t have much time left to live. Most likely, he had certain things he wished to ensure were taken care of.

Ning was briefly startled by this. “My greatest desire...” Ning’s mind instantly became filled with images of his homeland, of his wife Yu Wei.

His homeland was the place he cared the most about, a source of warmth... while his wife, Yu Wei, was the person he would never be able to forget about.

“Unfortunately, we aren’t able to reverse spacetime to revive your Dao-companion.” Autarch Titanos let out a sigh.

Ning chuckled. “There is one thing that worries me... the safety of my homeland! But I’ve already sent Nuwa to stand guard over it. If something truly dangerous happens, I’ll have Nuwa ask you to help out, Autarchs.”

“A minor matter.”

“That’s a miniscule request.” The five Autarchs all felt that this was very simple.

“There IS one more thing, but it’ll be a bit trickier,” Ning said. “My homeland is located within the Flamedragon Realmverse! Thus, I don’t wish to see the Flamedragon Realmverse be destroyed. The Terror Starsea is close to the Flamedragon Realmverse, and it has a slowly-growing pair of Yin-Yang Samsara Wheels. I’m fairly strong, but I can’t last too long in combat; if I tried to destroy the Yin-Yang Samsara Wheels, I’d probably die in the attempt due to my truesoul collapsing. Thus, I would like to ask you to help destroy the Yin-Yang Samsara Wheels.”

“I’ll handle this one,” Autarch Ekong said immediately. Although destroying the Yin-Yang Samsara Wheels would be rather taxing even for the Autarchs, it still wasn’t an excessively major request.

Of course, they normally wouldn’t intervene in this manner as they would allow the Chaosverse to develop in its own natural manner! There was no point in them exerting so much effort for something of little benefit... but now that Ning had made the request, they immediately accepted.

“Anything else? These are all simple tasks.” Autarch Titanos smiled. “To be honest, the five of us feel like we have wronged you and owe you a tremendous debt. You have blazed a trail for us and brought hope to our Chaosverse, after all.”

“I really can’t think of anything else for now,” Ning said with a laugh.

His greatest desire was to revive his wife. If he could somehow manage to reach Autarchy with his Omega Dao before his truesoul disintegrated, he’d probably be able to avoid dying... but that was nothing but a foolish dream! The Autarchs weren’t capable of reviving his wife, while Ning himself didn’t have enough time. There was no way he could upgrade his Omega Dao to Autarchy.

“I heard that you were searching for Nuwa,” Autarch Skyfeeder said suddenly. “You’ve now arranged for her to safeguard your homeland. The more powerful she is, the more effective she will be in this task. Based on what I know, she hasn’t become an Otherverse Lord yet, right? There are some unbound otherverses within the Eight Domains. I’ll gift one to Nuwa and let her become an Otherverse Lord.”

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