The Desolate Era

Every part of this golden region was filled with those strange runes, with the golden throne being at the center of it all.

“What’s going on?” Ji Ning frowned. “Previously, Daolord Thunderheat told me that if you defeat all the soldiers and reach the golden throne, you would gain a legacy... but this doesn’t look like the mere transmission of a legacy. Was Daolord Eastroad lying to Daolord Thunderheat? Or was he lying to me?”

“It seems as though the Ninedust Sectlord knows something. Not only is he not worried, he actually looks excited.” Ning glanced at the nearby Ninedust Sectlord.

The Ninedust Sectlord was indeed excited after having heard that ancient, distant voice ring out from the golden globe of light.

“Ninedust, what is going on exactly?” Ning asked.

“Hmph.” The Ninedust Sectlord glanced sideways at Ning, then smiled coldly. “Do you really think I’ll tell you?”

“If you won’t, then you can forget about achieving whatever goals you have here.” As soon as Ning said these words, he sent a surge of sword-light towards the Ninedust Sectlord, the sword-light seemingly filled with the power to destroy all Daos that stood in its path.

“Stop, stop!” The Ninedust Sectlord called out frantically. The white-robed Daolord in front of him was extremely powerful, on the same level as him; if he wanted to cause trouble, something bad really might happen.

“Speak!” Ning barked. “What secrets does this Void Pathway hold?”

“I don’t know either,” the Ninedust Sectlord said hurriedly.

“Are you screwing around with me?” Ning was about to continue his attack.

“I really don’t know!” The Ninedust Sectlord hurriedly dodged, not daring to fight back for fear that the shockwaves from their battle would cause a disaster to unfold. “I’m not lying to you. I really don’t know!”

Just as Ning was attacking and the Ninedust Sectlord was dodging...

BOOM!

The ringed curtains of golden light emanating from the golden throne suddenly retracted, like the petals of a flower suddenly be drawn back into the pistil. Swish!

A streak of golden light suddenly tore through spacetime. Whoosh! Ning and the Ninedust Sectlord had both been covered by that curtain of golden light, and they instantly disappeared without a trace, leaving only the golden throne behind.

No other living beings remained within the Void Pathway.

Rumble...

More and more power emanated from that golden globe, bathing the entire golden region in a layer of golden light.

......

Whoosh. A golden ripple of power suddenly spread out from one of the decorative ‘mountains’ within the Eastroad Sect. Moments later, it completely vanished without a trace.

“What?!” Daolord Thunderheat had been watching carefully from a safe distance. When he saw this, his face instantly turned pale. He appeared within that courtyard in a flash. “Where’s the Void Pathway? Where’d it go? Why did it suddenly vanish?! His godsense had been infused into the formation protecting the sect, and so was able to cover and scour every inch of the region. And yet, he was no longer able to find that decorative mountain.

“Daolord Darknorth and the Ninedust Sectlord have both vanished as well?” Daolord Thunderheat was starting to panic. “I always felt certain that the Void Pathway was holding certain mysteries. Those thirty thousand soldiers were unreasonably powerful, especially the final two; those two were on par with Patriarch Eastroad himself. I imagine that when Daolord Darknorth and the Ninedust Sectlord battled within the Void Pathway, they must have activated some of its secrets.”

“Well... now what should I do? Daolord Darknorth suddenly vanished. If he died, then...” Daolord Thunderheat felt rather guilty, because he did have a trump card which he hadn’t used yet. Still, he couldn’t be blamed for holding it back; the Eastroad Sect would need to conserve all the resources it had if it wanted to survive. It looked as though Daolord Darknorth was strong enough to hold back the Ninedust Sectlord; Thunderheat naturally hadn’t been willing to use up his one and only trump card.

“Daolord Darknorth asked for nothing; he whole-heartedly wished to help my Eastroad Sect. And now, his whereabouts are unknown.” Daolord Thunderheat had a complex look on his face as he murmured softly, “I promise the Eastroad Sect will never forget your benevolence.”

As for the disappearance of the Void Pathway? Daolord Thunderheat felt a bit of regret, but he didn’t care all that much. For it to be able to vanish despite local spacetime being completely distorted thanks to the Eastroad Sect’s formations meant that it was a treasure that was beyond the Eastroad Sect’s ability to control.

If it stayed here, it would only cause more trouble in the future. It was a disaster waiting to happen, not a blessing!

......

Outside the Eastroad Sect. The Ninedust Shrine continued to hover there in the empty skies.

Within the Ninedust Shrine. Daolord Graceful had already fled all the way back into the shrine. Both he and Daolord Clevermind were standing in front of its gates, staring towards the distant Eastroad Sect.

“Eh?” Daolord Clevermind’s face suddenly paled. “Not good.”

“What’s wrong?” Daolord Graceful immediately asked.

“I can no longer sense the Sectlord’s presence.” Daolord Clevermind said frantically, “The Sectlord has one of my talismans on him; I can sense him from several territories away. But now, I can no longer sense his presence at all.”

“What?!” Daolord Graceful’s face paled as well. Daolord Clevermind’s position within the Ninedust Sect was second only to the sectlord’s himself, which was why he was on very good terms with the sectlord. Each had given talismans to the other.

“The Sectlord should still be be alive, but I can no longer sense him.” Daolord Clevermind said frantically, “The Sectlord is probably in a very, very distant place. Alternately, he might be trapped in a dangerous place which prevents any information being transmitted outwards. However, a site capable of blocking off my senses would definitely be an incredibly dangerous place. There shouldn’t be any such place within the Eastroad Territory.”

“It seems as though the Eastroad Sect holds certain mysteries within it,” Daolord Graceful said softly. “That white-robed Daolord was incredibly strong. Now, even our Sectlord is in trouble.”

“Mm.” Daolord Clevermind turned to stare at the Eastroad Sect with great trepidation.

“Let’s keep waiting here for the Sectlord to return,” Daolord Graceful said.

And so, the Ninedust Sect permanently stationed itself outside the Eastroad Sect. They would wait for their sectlord’s return... but even after waiting more than a hundred thousand years, their sectlord still did not return.

......

Ning and the Ninedust Sectlord were both rather nervous as the streak of golden light grabbed both of them and sent them hurtling through spacetime.

“Where in the world are we going?”

“How could a spacetime teleportation last for this long?” Ning kept his [Three Heads, Six Arms] divine ability active, and he continued to warily wield all six Northbow swords in his hands. It was extremely difficult to use spacetime teleportation across such a great distance. Even spacetime transfer arrays were all fairly close to each other, allowing the various formations to interlink and send people from one territory to another. The spacetime tunnels created by the almighty Brightshore Hegemon and the Paragon of Pills covered a much greater distance, but this golden spacetime tunnel? Based on Ning’s perception regarding spacetime, they should be hurtling towards an incredibly distant place.

“Ninedust, do you really have no idea where we are being sent to?” Ning glanced at the nearby Ninedust Sectlord.

The Ninedust Sectlord glanced at Ning, then let out a cold snort. “No idea.”

Ning didn’t doubt this at all, because he could sense how nervous the Ninedust Sectlord was.

The two just stood there calmly, neither daring to move. If they got into a fight and disturbed the flows of spacetime around them, who knew where they would end up? They might disappear into the endless Great Dark, where they could fly for thousands of chaos cycles without seeing a single other living being. That would be horrifying.

Whoosh.

The changing flows of spacetime around them suddenly came to a halt, allowing them to vaguely make out what was hidden outside the field of golden light.

“We’ve arrived.” Both Ning and the Ninedust Sectlord were even more cautious now. The golden light slowly dissipated, allowing them to clearly see an enormous stone passageway in front of them. A number of boulders were levitating within the stone passageway, which was brimming with blazing flames.

“Eh?” Both Ning and the Ninedust Sectlord stood there in midair. A curtain of water emerged from the Ninedust Sectlord’s body, blocking off the flames. As for Ning, the nine novessence arts appeared and swirled around him, defending him from the fire.

“Such powerful fire. I imagine these flames would roast Daolords of the Third Step to death.” Ning was rather amazed.

“What type of fire is this?” The Ninedust Sectlord was puzzled as well. He had seen many things, but still had no idea what these flames were.

“And those boulders?” Both of them turned their attention towards the levitating boulders. These flames were capable of killing Daolords of the Third Step, but weren’t able to damage these boulders at all. Those boulders were definitely extraordinary items.

“Those things have to be treasures.” Both Ning and the Ninedust Sectlord immediately charged forwards. Ning stabbed out with his sword, seeking to carve out a large boulder from the crooked, curved ‘walls’ of the stone corridor. As for the Ninedust Sectlord, he swung his longstaff and delivered a fierce below to the stone walls of the passageway.

Bang! Boom!

Two explosions rang out against the stone walls, which rumbled as invisible ripples spread out across its surface. BOOM! A shockwave burst out and struck Ning, knocking him flying backwards. A second shockwave was applied to the Ninedust Sectlord, whose body seemed to shudder and briefly transform into a flowing stream of water as he flew backwards.

“Such incredible power. The shockwave generated by me stabbing at the sword seemed to be several times stronger than my blow.” Ning rose into the air once more, a nervous feeling in his heart. “And it seems as though all of the stones within this stone passageway are part of one entity.” When he had stabbed out with his sword, he felt as though the entire stone wall had joined together to unleash a surge of counter-force.

“Damn.” The Ninedust Sectlord rose into the air as well. For a moment, his body had transformed into a human-shaped pool of water, but he now returned to his normal appearance as he glanced at the distant Ning. “The kid actually managed to endure that counter-force with such ease? It seems as though he has a protective divine ability that is just as tough as mine.”

Ning and the Ninedust Sectlord both had rather blazing looks in their eyes. Both were amongst the ranks of the most talented of Daolords, on the same level as Kongsan... and yet, they weren’t even able to harvest any rocks from this stone wall. This meant the stone here was definitely quite extraordinary... and the more marvelous an item was, the more valuable it was.

Swoosh. Ning and the Ninedust Sectlord immediately charged towards the floating boulders and bits of stone, waving their hands and collecting as much as they could.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Although it was quite difficult to collect each of those rocks as they were all incredibly heavy, in the end it was still possible to store them within an estate-world.

“Master! Master! I can no longer sense my clone!” The servant within Ning’s estate-world who was responsible for maintaining contact with the Brightshore Kingdom suddenly sent a frantic mental message to Ning.

“Right.” Ning, however, was quite calm. He had sensed long ago that this was an extraodinary place; in truth, as soon as the teleportation had begun he almost instantly lost contact with both his Primaltwin and his avatar. The last time something like this had happened, he had gone into the alternate universe!

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