The Desolate Era

“Soon, many Daolords will be charging to this sector,” Daolord Badlands said solemnly. “If my true body remains here, I might very well fall. However, so long as I leave and ensure they cannot find my true body, they won’t dare to cause our Badlands Court any trouble. In the end, my Dao of Numerancy is a Dao for divination, not battle. My skills lie in avoiding trouble and finding fortunes.”

“Mm.” The beautiful woman nodded.

“Let’s go. Right away.”

A short while later, Daolord Badlands and his wife silently departed from the Badlands Everworld, leaving only an avatar behind to guard over the Badlands Court.

The Dao of Numerancy was indeed an extremely troublesome Dao for everyone, but it was highly unsuited for actual battle. Daolord Badlands himself almost never went out adventuring or into battle. As a Daolord of the Third Step who had reached an extremely high level in the Dao of Numerancy, he logically should’ve been on the same level as the likes of Ninedust (at the third step) or Kongsan, but in reality he was much weaker in combat. He was just barely on par with the likes of Solesky and Clearwind.

This was his greatest weakness. However, his skills lay in avoiding trouble; when he encountered enemies he was unable to defeat, he’d quickly move to avoid them.

In the end, the Dao of Numerancy was about divination, not omniscience. As a result, he had suffered greatly for his overconfidence alongside Daolord Solesky in the Waveshift Realm. Clearly, even he fell for the traps left behind by Emperor Waveshift, and so he hurriedly slunk away from his own everworld.

......

“Nine beams of light have appeared in the skies over the Waveshift Realm?”

“Something big just happened.”

No matter what, the Badlands Everworld was still the core of this territory. The Dao Alliance had stationed a number of cultivators here who were responsible for diplomacy with Daolord Badlands and watching over the various treasure auctions! In addition, some of the supreme organizations within the Endless Territories had inserted scouts to watch over the Waveshift Realm. Although these scouts weren’t that powerful, they were only required to keep a long-term watch over Waveshift City. Waveshift Realm was simply an incredibly famous place of the Endless Territories.

“Hurry up and send a report.”

“Something big has happened in the Waveshift Realm.”

The scouts had been waiting here for far too long with nothing to report. Some had been waiting for tens of thousands of chaos cycles, and it was all for the sake of critical moments like this. Thus, none of them dared to slacken off.

......

Soon, the news spread from the Badlands Territory to the rest of the Endless Territories.

A dazzlingly beautiful green planet. This world had countless cultivators living within it. In one corner of this vast world, there was an ordinary wooden house that merely had a single old man seated within it. The old man had curly green hair and a pair of horns on his head, and his eyes were lidded. He had been seated here for more than ten thousand chaos cycles.

He had been alive for far, far too long.

“Patriarch! Patriarch!” A voice rang out from afar. The green-haired elder opened his eyes, and they seemed to contain the boundless vastness of the universe itself within them. His gaze was gentle as he stared outside.

A golden-robed figure was leading a green-haired man who had an exalted aura towards the patriarch. The green-haired man landed, then said respectfully, “Patriarch.” He had become a lord of a Sacred City, and in power he was roughly on par with this particular Patriarch, but he still showed the old man the utmost of respect. The old man had shown him great kindness. Although they weren’t master and disciple, he owed the old man as much as any master. The old man had also done much for their entire homeland, far more than anyone else. Without the Patriarch, their lineage would’ve been wiped out long ago.

“Qixiao, why have you come back to our homeland to meet with me?” The green-haired elder smiled.

“Patriarch.” Emperor Qixiao said seriously, “Do you still remember Emperor Waveshift?”

“Remember him? Of course I remember him.” A nostalgic look appeared on the old man’s ancient face. “After I became an Eternal Emperor, I spent countless years studying the Dao of Numerancy myself. I had once believed myself to be a pre-eminent master of this Dao in the Endless Territories, but after meeting Waveshift and testing myself out I realized that I wasn’t even close to being a match. His skill in Numerancy vastly, vastly surpassed my own.”

“You are being too modest, Patriarch. Emperor Waveshift relied on the Dao of Numerancy to become an Emperor; of course he was skilled in it! You, on the other hand, only started studying it after becoming an Emperor. He’s left the Endless Territories long ago. In the present day, you are number one in this Dao,” Emperor Qixiao said.

“For now, I suppose. There’s a young fellow named ‘Daolord Badlands’ in the Badlands Territory who is even more talented than Emperor Waveshift was in Numerancy. He’s a Daolord of the Third Step but is already incredible at Numerancy. Once he becomes a Daolord of the Fourth Step, he’ll probably surpass me in that Dao and become a king of the Endless Territories.” The old man shook his head. Moments later, his face tightened slightly as the illusion of the cosmos within his eyes suddenly vanished. He raised his head to look at Emperor Qixiao. “Have you come here because of the Badlands Territory... no. To be precise, you have come because of the Waveshift Realm?”

“Impressive, Patriarch.” Emperor Qixiao said hurriedly, “I have indeed come because of the Waveshift Realm! Just now, I received word that something major has happened there. Nine streaks of light shot out from the Waveshift Realm and went through the entire Badlands Everworld.”

“That’s quite a commotion. Can it be... that the Voidsea Jadeseals have emerged?” The old man was stunned.

“That was my first reaction as well. Before Emperor Waveshift departed, he fashioned multiple Voidsea Jadeseals. However, he only left one of them to the Dao Alliance. He put the other five within his own Waveshift Realm,” Emperor Qixiao said.

The old man nodded. “Back then, brother Waveshift told me that if any Eternal Emperor dared to forcibly enter his realm, all five seals would instantly be destroyed. Only Daolords would be permitted to acquire them.”

“Patriarch, these seals are supreme Daomerge treasures!” Emperor Qixiao said hurriedly, “If we can acquire those five seals, we might be able to produce one or two formidable Eternal Emperors for our race.”

“Yes.” The old man nodded. Voidsea Jadeseals... they were described as supreme Daomerge treasures because they were publicly acknowledged as being the best treasures for assisting cultivators in the Daomerge. No treasures surpassed them!

Voidsea Jadeseals were single-use items. After you acquired them and as you prepared for your Daomerge, you could form an illusory body within the seal, then use that illusory body to test out the Daomerge. The process would be identical to that of the actual Daomerge you would undergo! Even if you failed your Daomerge, it wouldn’t harm your true body in the slightest! It was equivalent to giving you an additional shot at the Daomerge.

This additional experience was more than enough to drive any Daolord mad with lust.

Why was the Daomerge so terrifying? It was precisely because the Daomerge was a one-time event. If you were even slightly lacking, you would fail and never have another shot at it. If you had multiple shots at it, then obviously your second attempt would benefit from your previous experience and give you a far better chance at succeeding in the Daomerge!

However, given how incredible the Voidsea Jadeseals were, they were naturally incredibly rare as well. They could only be fashioned through the usage of a strange treasure known as voidsea jade, and they could only be fashioned by Emperor Waveshift, who had reached truly inconceivable heights in the Dao of Numerancy. Prior to his departure, he had used up his entire supply of voidsea jade to create these six seals.

He had left one seal with the Dao Alliance and the other five at the Waveshift Realm. This was why so many generations of Daolords had ventured off into the Waveshift Realm, but thus far none of them had been able to find the Voidsea Jadeseals.

“The power of the Voidsea Jadeseals is enough to allow a Daolord who has a single Supreme Dao to undergo a single full Daomerge attempt. However, if that Daolord has perfectly fused multiple Supreme Daos together, he’ll only be able to make it halfway through the Daomerge before the power of the seal is used up.” The old man sighed.

This was the limit to what the Voidsea Jadeseal could accomplish. If someone who had joined together multiple Supreme Daos together succeeded into the Daomerge, that person would become a Hegemon! There was no way a Voidsea Jadeseal could fully divine such a process.

However, a Daolord who had a single Supreme Dao would be able to try out an entire complete Daomerge.

It must be remembered that there were incredibly few figures in the Endless Territories who were capable of comprehending and mastering multiple Supreme Daos. Thus, these seals were more than enough for the vast majority of Daolords. Even the most ungodly powerful of Daolords would be able to at least divine half of the Daomerge process.

“Patriarch, can you verify that the disturbance in the Waveshift Realm was indeed caused by the emergence of the Voidsea Jadeseals?” Emperor Qixiao asked.

“Let me take a look.” The old man closed his eyes and began to engage in Numerancy calculations as strange ripples of power appeared around him.

A long time later, the old man opened his eyes and nodded. “Tell the younger members of our race that the Waveshift Realm truly has unleashed its Voidsea Jadeseals. I imagine that brother Waveshift did this deliberately to draw many Daolords to his realm, which is why he didn’t hide anything and allowed me to calculate it all with ease. Any of the top ten Numerancy experts in the Endless Territories is capable doing the same.

“Voidsea Jadeseals?” Emperor Qixiao’s eyes lit up. “If we’re certain, then we have to get them for ourselves.”

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