The Desolate Era

Ji Ning and the Ninedust Sectlord instantly disappeared from the cave. Only then did the bald, black-robed youth slowly shake his head. “Although Redwater and Master had very similar Daos and both specialized in staff-arts, Redwater is just a bit too vicious and cruel. I don’t like him. In fact, he hadn’t even become a Daolord of the Fourth Step yet. Forget it. I’ll just wait for a while longer.”

Universe treasures possessed tremendous patience. They truly were eternal and undying, and so they were able and willing to wait extremely long periods of time before accepting a new master. They would rather go without than choose someone who wasn’t a perfect fit.

......

Whoosh. Ning and the Ninedust Sectlord felt the world around them blur. Moments later, they found themselves within a dark, empty region of space.

“We’re out.” Both of them revealed looks of delight. They could now both sense the locations of their avatars.

“I can finally sense my avatar and my Primaltwin again.” Ning relaxed slightly. So long as he could sense them, he would be able to orient himself. Moments later, he frowned. “Why do I feel as though they are very, very far away?”

He was separated from his avatar by an incalculable amount of distance. He had previously travelled to Eastroad Territory, one of the border territories of the Endless Territories, and that was already very far away from Vastheaven Territory. However, compared to his current distance that was absolutely nothing.

“I can sense that the distance between myself and my avatar is greater than the size of the entire Endless Territories.” The distance was so great that his senses were rather foggy, but Ning was certain that the distance was definitely vaster than the Endless Territories themselves.

“We...” The Ninedust Sectlord’s face turned pale.

“Ninedust?” Ning looked at him.

“We are in the Terror Starsea.” The Ninedust Sectlord’s face was ugly to behold. “And we are very, very deep inside of it. Extremely deep.”

“Extremely deep?” Ning’s face turned pale as well. Deep inside the Terror Starsea? The Terror Starsea was the most dangerous place that they knew of. In size alone, the explored parts of it already surpassed the size of the Endless Territories! In addition, Ning had learned while in the ‘cave’ that the Terror Starsea was actually the battlefield of the Dawn War, with numerous Hegemon-level figures having died there. The place was filled with countless wards and dangers that were originally meant to kill Hegemons, making them incredibly dangerous.

“Are you sure we are deep inside the Terror Starsea?” Ning immediately asked. He quickly scanned his surroundings. They were in the dark emptiness of space, with a few glimmers of light off in the distance.

“I’m certain, because I’ve been to the border worlds near the Terror Starsea,” the Ninedust Sectlord said. “I’ve travelled and adventured through its outer regions, and we are very, very far away from those outer regions. Based on the distance from my avatar... my best judgment is that we are more than half the size of the entire Endless Territories away from the outer regions. We’re definitely deep inside.”

Ning’s heart turned cold. The Terror Starsea was deadly even for Eternal Emperors, while even Hegemons would tread carefully here for fear of dying. Generally speaking, even the most powerful of Daolords wouldn’t dare to venture too deep inside this place. As for their current location? This place definitely qualified as not just deep, but ‘incredibly deep’.

The two stood there within the endless darkness of space, both rather nervous. It would be impossibly difficult to escape the Terror Starsea and go home.

“We still have hope.” The Ninedust Sectlord knew more about the Terror Starsea than Ning. He said seriously, “Darknorth, your sword-arts have transcended space itself. You can easily use it to tear open a dimensional gate and escape incredibly far distances.”

“Yes.” Ning nodded. He could indeed slice open dimensional passageways, then travel tremendous distances through them. It wouldn’t be difficult for him to create a dimensional passageway that could traverse more than ten territories. This was far faster than even using spacetime transfer arrays!

In truth, it made sense. Given Ning’s current sword-arts, so long as he was able to lock onto an enemy he would be able to slay that enemy from over a territory away! Spacetime transfer arrays would normally be needed to merely traverse such a great distance, a testament to how terrifying and important the Dao was.

The Brightshore Kingdom’s Hegemon was another good example. He was able to easily appear anywhere within the Endless Territories, an ability that was far superior to Ning’s.

“The explored regions of the Terror Starsea are vaster than the Endless Territories themselves! Since we are only over halfway in, that means that some Hegemons or ancient Eternal Emperors might’ve been here before,” the Ninedust Sectlord said.

“Would you be able to ask one of those ancient powers to come guide us out?” Ning asked.

“None of them would care about Daolords like us,” the Ninedust Sectlord said. “At most they would give us a star map.”

“Agreed. At most, we’d get star maps.” Ning was worried as well. “We’d know what was around us, but we’d still have to face any danger on our own. The two of us would only be considered second-tier even amongst Daolords. To travel such a great distance and escape the Terror Starsea... even though my sword-art transcends space, it’ll be far too difficult.”

“Yes, yes it will.” The Ninedust Sectlord felt an enormous sense of pressure as well. He then muttered, “Why did the Universe treasure send us here?”

“You can’t blame him for that.” Ning shook his head. “The Dawn War was carried out in the Terror Starsea; that cave we were in is probably located deep within the Terror Starsea as well. It might be somewhere right next to us, in fact. The treasure was only able to send us here. No matter what, we can’t just give up and lay down to die. We have to fight our best. Right now, we should first acquire star maps. Perhaps a good star map will be able to guide us through a fairly safe path.”

The Ninedust Sectlord laughed. “Right. Patriarch Vulturas, one of the oldest members of my race, probably came here once as well. He obviously was able to return. I’ll send my avatar to find a star map first, while you should acquire one from the Dao Alliance. The Dao Alliance has the most complete star maps.”

“Look over there!” The Ninedust Sectlord suddenly pointed off into the distance, a complicated look on his face. “I think I already know where we are in the Terror Starsea.”

“What is it?” Ning followed the Ninedust Sectlord’s finger with his gaze. Off in the distance, there was a circle of green light.

“Let’s go over there,” the Ninedust Sectlord said softly. “Darknorth, this part is up to you.”

“Alright.” Ning drew his Northbow sword, then with a flicker of sword-light created a dimensional passageway before them. The Ninedust Sectlord and Ning both entered the beautiful rainbow dimensional passageway.

They flew side-by-side through this different spatial continuum, advancing rapidly towards their target.

“Time to exit.” The two flew out from the glowing dimensional passageway, having arrived at another patch of empty, blank dark space. They were already more than ten territories away from their previous location.

“Eh?” Ning stared forwards in astonishment. Up ahead was an enormous green whirlpool that was surrounded by layers of green light. The green light was filled with boundless vitality, and the rocks and boulders that flew close to it quickly turned white in color, then disappeared into nothingness. Next to the green whirlpool there was a similarly sized black whirlpool which was devouring everything nearby it, sucking all stones, shattered corpses, and various items that flew nearby into itself.

A green whirlpool and a black whirlpool. The former was filled with life energy, but it sucked all the life from the surrounding area and destroyed it. The latter was filled with death energy and devoured everything around it.

The two seemed to be parts of a whole. Although they were diametrically different, neither interfered with the other at all.

“What are those?” Ning could hardly believe it. He could sense that they were still very far away, but the two whirlpools looked absolutely enormous. Ning’s best guess was that these two whirlpools were each roughly the size of a hundred territories.

“This is the one thing in the Terror Starsea which terrifies all six organizations... the Yin-Yang Samsara Wheels,” the Ninedust Sectlord said softly. “Do you know? Long, long ago, the Yin-Yang Samsara Wheels was smaller than a single territory.”

Ning’s face turned pale. “Are you saying that it is growing?”

“Yes. It is growing.” The Ninedust Sectlord nodded. “The Yin-Yang Samsara Wheels... the life wheel draws away all vital energy, while the death wheel devours and destroys all. They are stealing and devouring all the life and matter from the area around them, and as they do so they continuously grow larger and larger. The rate at which they are growing is only increasing. In the future, they will grow to encompass the entire Terror Starsea. In fact, they’ll swallow the entirety of the Endless Territories and destroy all within it. It is destined for the Endless Territories to be destroyed one day.”

“What?!” Ning could hardly believe it. The Endless Territories were doomed to destruction?

“When the six powers originally discovered the Yin-Yang Samsara Wheels, they immediately began to panic. All three Hegemons sought to work together to destroy it.” The Ninedust Sectlord shook his head. “Unfortunately, any attacks launched against it were all swallowed. The energy of the attacks just made it grow bigger. There was simply no way to harm it in the slightest.”

“The most supreme Emperor-class cultivators and a few of the most powerful Daolords all know of this.” The Ninedust Sectlord looked at Ning. “Given your power, I imagine the Dao Alliance would soon inform you of this.”

Ning stared at the distant Yin-Yang Samsara Wheels.

They’d continuously grow until the day they wiped out the Endless Territories?

“This is something which was naturally born from the endless primordial chaos. There is no way cultivators can possibly resist something like this,” the Ninedust Sectlord said. “However, there’s no need for us to worry too much. Based on our current predictions, it’ll be more than a million chaos cycles before it starts to destroy the Endless Territories. As Daolords, if we fail our Daomerge we’ll definitely die within 108,000 chaos cycles. Let the Hegemons and Emperors deal with this problem.”

Ning stared at the distant Yin-Yang Samsara Wheels, still unable to believe what he was hearing. “The Endless Territories... are doomed to be destroyed?”

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