The Desolate Era

“I have a request to make. I know it is a bit excessive, but I truly am out of options.” The Paragon of Pills looked at Ji Ning. “I have no choice but to shamelessly ask you to help me out, Darknorth. Please ask an Autarch to revive those three brothers of mine.”

The Paragon of Pills rarely begged others. She was, by nature, an extremely proud person. However, reviving her three brothers was virtually her entire reason for existence, something which she wanted above everything else. It was much like how Ning desperately wished to be able to revive his wife Yu Wei!

The Paragon of Pills had repeatedly risked her life in diving into the Sithe ruins, but she still wasn’t even close to having as much treasure as the Autarch had demanded for his aid. The Autarch had asked for a thousand realmships worth of treasure! This was an incredible request, so high as to cause her to feel despair. This was why she had become even more crazed in her pursuit of treasure.

Now, she was able to sense hope when she looked at Ning. She viewed Ning as she would a son, and in her heart she truly didn’t want to ask this of him. However, she really was out of options. Thus, she had ‘shamelessly’ begged him for help.

“Mistress.” Ning knew how the Paragon of Pills felt. He smiled. “Mistress, don’t worry. I’ll definitely go ask the Autarchs to help out. I can’t speak on their behalf, but I can say that there is a 90% chance they’ll agree.”

“90% chance?” The Paragon’s heart swelled with indescribable excitement. Even her face turned ruddy.

She had been waiting for far, far too long. For the sake of this goal, she had nearly driven herself insane. In pursuit of this goal, she had accomplished many things which were viewed as miracles. When she had first gained eternity, she was an ordinary Eternal Emperor, not a Hegemon... but she had managed to slowly train to the Hegemon level, then reach incredibly high levels of skill in many different Daos. All of this was for the sake of reviving her three brothers.

Ning smiled upon seeing this. The reason why he had said there was a 90% chance was merely because he hadn’t actually asked any of the Autarchs yet. In truth, Ning knew that the Autarchs were desperately looking for ways to help him out in order to express their gratitude. Bring something back to life? This was a fairly minor ask. So long as it was possible, the Autarchs would definitely agree!

“Once we leave the Sithelands, I’ll immediately ask the Autarchs to help out,” Ning said.

“Darknorth.” The Paragon of Pills’ entire aura seemed to have transformed. In the past, she was incomparably cold and remote... but now, a hint of lively fire seemed to course through her.

“Haha. Now, Mistress, can you go ahead and choose the treasures you want?” Ning said.

“I already have multiple Sithe weapons. A few more won’t make much of a difference,” the Paragon refused. She felt that she had already taken too much advantage of Ning. She couldn’t accept any further gifts.

Seeing this, Ning nodded. “Ah, but you don’t have a realmship yet, right?”

The Paragon blinked.

“Realmships make life much more convenient. Take this one.” Ning waved his hand, sending a realmship to float in front of the Paragon of Pills.

The Paragon of Pills no longer held back. She immediately said, “Fine, I’ll accept this.” She truly did feel as though destiny was a marvelous thing. When she had led Ning to the Trileaf Realm, he was just a child... and now, this child had completely changed her destiny.

“This suit of armor can be used to cover your entire body. It is highly defensive, but it’ll also increase your attack power dramatically. It’s quite multifunctional. With this by your side, you should be able to survive even an enraged Otherverse Lord.” Ning waved his hand, choosing a heavy suit of coppery red armor and sending it over to Azurefiend.

Azurefiend was rather stunned. He truly did badly desire a Sithe treasure, but he himself felt that he had done too little for Ning to warrant one yet. He felt a bit embarrassed to be given one.

“Master, I’ll accept it.” Azurefiend had a solemn look on his face. “I’ve been alive for so many years, but I never had a Sithe weapon to call my own. I, Azurefiend, shall never forget your benevolence, Master.”

In his heart, Azurefiend silently decided that although his master would one day perish, he would continue to safeguard his master’s family and friends.

“It is just a toy to me. No need to get too emotional.” Ning waved his hand, collecting all of the other treasures. He didn’t really care about them, because his original plan had been to wait until the later stages of his truesoul’s disintegration before doing a bit of adventuring in the Sithelands. Since he was already here, he was going to continue wandering through the Sithelands after asking the Autarchs to revive the Paragon of Pills’ three brothers.

In other words, he would have plenty more treasures coming his way! Hegemons might have to risk their lives to acquire Sithe treasures, but Ning was able to acquire them with ease.

......

After fully looting the Daoguard Tower, Ning turned to stare at the many dimensional hallways barring their path. “These dimensional hallways have been completely sealed off. For now, there’s no way out. If I used all my power, it would take me ten or twenty sword-strikes to carve a path open for us, but it really isn’t worth it. Now that the Daoguard Tower has been destroyed, they no longer have a power source and will quickly use up the little energy they have.”

Rumble... his awesome Sword Dao Domain descended and began to furiously smash against the distant dimensional hallways. The criss-crossing hallways were able to endure the assault, but flickers of light began to appear on their surfaces. Clearly, they were using up a great deal of power to resist.

“Master, how long will it take?” Azurefiend asked curiously.

“How should I know?” Ning laughed. “Less than a chaos cycle.”

Ning was able to keep his Sword Dao Domain continuously activated. It drew from the power of the Chaosverse itself; not one iota of Ning’s own energies were consumed. It would last for as long as he wanted it to last! While doing so, Ning began a period of silent meditation and cultivation, as did the Paragon of Pills and Azurefiend.

Time flowed on, one year after another. The dimensional hallways continued to hold firm; clearly, they had been infused with quite a bit of power. Over eight million years went by in the blink of an eye.

Rumble... a ripple suddenly spread out with Ning at its center. The Paragon of Pills and Azurefiend were seated in the lotus position atop boulders within the tower ruins, and they both opened their eyes as the ripple washed past them. They both felt a thrill of fear go down their spine, and both sighed at how incredible Darknorth was! One was Ning’s retainer, while the other was essentially one of Ning’s teachers, but both marveled at how unfathomably powerful he had become.

At their level, they couldn’t even truly understand how terrifying Ning’s Sword Dao was. Just the tiniest bit of leakage from its aura was enough to cause them to feel fear. When that invisible ripple washed past them, they felt as though invisible blades were slicing at their bodies.

“The Space Sword Dao.” Ning opened his eyes, then reached out with his hand. Whoosh! An ethereal sword appeared above the palm of his hand, emanating ripples of dimensional power.

Prior to coming here, Ning had spent three thousand chaos cycles wandering the Chaosverse with his daughter and had nearly finished infusing his Dao of Space into his Eternal Omega Sword Dao. After seeing the dimensional hallways, he gained new insights into the Dao of Space. This sped up the infusion process, allowing him to break through and master his Space Sword Dao.

The Space Sword Dao was highly suited for dimensional travel, allowing him to tear through space like it was nothing more than tofu.

From this day forth, the amount of distance he could travel when he used his sword to tear through space would skyrocket. The Autarch of Annihilation, ‘Autarch Ekong’, was not particularly skilled in the Dao of Space, and so he wouldn’t be able to travel as far or as fast as Ning!

Ning had reached the Hegemonic level in the Dao of Space long ago, after all. Now, he had infused it all into his Sword Dao and formed the Space Sword Dao.

“Mastering the Space Sword Dao clearly took much more time than the Lightning Sword Dao or the Five Elements Sword Dao.” Ning shook his head to himself. “But the further down this road I go, the more time will be needed. I just don’t have enough time.”

With each improvement, Ning could sense that his foundation was broadening and that he was getting slightly closer to success. Ning felt certain that if he had enough time, he had a very good chance of reaching the ultimate pinnacle via this route.

......

Another half-million years went by after Ning mastered the Space Sword Dao.

Finally... Crack! Crack! Crack! The dimensional hallways that had been for many years just barely able to endure Ning’s sword-light finally began to twist, shudder, and crack.

Looks of delight appeared on the faces of Ning, Azurefiend, and the Paragon of Pills.

“Haha, we’ve finally broken through!” Azurefiend grinned. “I thought that we’d actually spend an entire chaos cycle here.”

“I’m impressed it managed to last as long as it did. I kept my Sword Dao Domain active this entire time, assaulting them without pause, but they still managed to last for many years. Honestly, if I used the brute-force method, I don’t think twenty blows of the sword would’ve been enough. I probably would’ve had to kill myself,” Ning said with a laugh. As he spoke, some of the dimensional hallways began to completely break apart and collapse.

Countless dimensional hallways began to break apart and crumble. The Dimensional Hallway Lock was an extremely complicated technique which not even Ning could solve, despite his mastery of the Space Sword Dao... but now that its energies had been exhausted, it was still going to crumble.

Soon, all of the dimensional hallways vanished without a trace, leaving behind just a few pocket dimensions which hovered in the skies like lonely little islands.

Thanks to the karmic lines tying them together, Ning knew exactly which pocket dimension Lord Annihilation was in.

“Let’s see what the other dimensions hold,” Ning said with a laugh. With but a thought, he sent out countless streams of sword-light to surround and assault the hundreds of pocket dimensions, piercing through them to reveal what lay within.

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