The Desolate Era

Three months later.

A white-robed youth and a fat man whose eyes brimmed with flames were striding shoulder-to-shoulder across the surface of a lake, advancing across the waves as they departed from the Badlands Court.

“Brother Ji Ning, you picked something of a bad time.” The pudgy man chatted to Ning as they continued their journey forwards. “Quite a few people came back to the Badlands Court to take part in the treasure auction, but once it ended all of them quickly headed out to go adventuring. If you had spread the word right after the treasure auction that you had chosen to head to the Allgod Estate, at least four or five World-level experts would’ve chosen to go with you. But you instead chose to wait for more than two hundred years!”

The pudgy man chuckled. “Most of the people who wanted to go out already have.”

This pudgy man was quite an amiable fellow, even though he looked rather ugly due to the jagged scars and tattoos that lined his face. His eyes brimmed with flames, and his skin was suffused with a faint red color as well. Even when he was smiling, he still looked quite frightening.

“I still have you, senior apprentice-brother Dragonbinder.” Ning laughed.

“I purchased a treasure during the auction and spent a bit of time binding it. I was just about to head out anyhow. Our timing was perfect,” the pudgy man said.

The two moved across the ground, their bodies flickering like illusions as they advanced nonstop.

Ning had waited three months for word of his journey to spread, but only a single member of the Badlands Court had chosen to journey with him – the pudgy fellow next to him, World God Dragonbinder!

They entered the spacetime transfer array and left the Badlands Everworld. They then boarded a flying ship, flew for several months, then finally reached the Allgod Estate.

The Allgod Chaosworld was an oceanic world. There were two great continents and a vast ocean that covered everything else. One continent held countless living beings while the other held the Allgod Estate.

Whooosh.

A cloud was floating through the skies. Ning and the pudgy man were standing atop the cloud, staring down at the vast world before them. They could vaguely make out the outlines of a towering edifice far off in the distance. That distant sight was enough to cause both Ning and World God Dragonbinder to feel breathless, as though they were staring upwards at something supreme.

“The Allgod Estate!” The pudgy man’s eyes blazed with fire as he stared at the great edifice. He said in a low voice, “Brother Ji Ning, we’ve been fairly relaxed on the way over. Now that we are about enter the Allgod Estate, though...I want to make a few things clear to you! Once we go in, we need to do exactly as we discussed. You can’t act rashly! If you do, then I’ll have to part ways with you.”

“Acting rashly in a place like this is suicide. Don’t worry, senior apprentice-brother Dragonbinder,” Ning said.

“Good.” The pudgy man nodded. In truth, he felt certain that Ning wouldn’t be so foolish. At the same time, he knew that unexpected things would sometimes happen! As a member of the Badlands Court, he was naturally quite a talented figure. He hadn’t trained for very long, but he had already become a master-class World God. If he was to lose his life due to an act of foolishness on the part of Ji Ning, how lamentable that would be!

“The Allgod Estate was created by Daolord Allgod,” the pudgy man said. “Daolord Allgod was an incredibly powerful Daolord. Although he failed his Daomerge, based on what I’ve learned I believe that he was a thousand times more powerful than other Daolords who were on the Verge of the Daomerge.”

“That much more powerful?” Ning was shocked. A thousand times?

This was insane!

Daolord Solesky himself had admitted that he was vastly inferior to Daolord Allgod. However, Ning didn’t understand exactly how much more powerful Daolord Allgod had been. Even now, he could hardly believe what World God Dragonbinder was telling him. The difference in power was simply too great! If this was true, then it meant that Daolord Allgod had the power to easily slay other Daolords who were at the Verge.

“I’m not exaggerating. Although he failed his Daomerge, he once attacked and chased after an Eternal Emperor who had successfully completed his Daomerge. He pursued the man for multiple chaos cycles, and to this very day no one knows what happened to that Eternal Emperor.” The pudgy man looked at Ning.

“He was really that powerful?!” Ning felt rather stunned. He only spent a brief period of time by Daolord Solesky’s side and had spent most of his time at the Badlands Court in seclusion. Thus, he knew very little information regarding these mysterious, powerful figures. However, World God Dragonbinder was a true disciple of the Badlands Court who often conversed with his fellow cultivators. He knew quite a bit of ‘secret’ information.

“It is true. I once discussed this with our eldest disciple at the Court.” World God Dragonbinder let out a sigh. “And...you should know that Daolords generally are afraid to try to enter the Allgod Estate.”

The Allgod Estate was an extremely strange place.

30% of Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals were able to survive it, 50% of World-level experts were able to survive it, but...of the Daolords who dared to enter it, less than 10% would be able to emerge! This was an incredibly high casualty rate, making it so that not many Daolords dared to even attempt it.

“He was simply way too powerful!” World God Dragonbinder looked at Ning and smiled. “Although he’s a bit ruthless towards other Daolords, he’s quite benevolent towards World-level experts, Elder Gods, and Ancestral Immortals. He left behind more than ten thousand treasuries at the ‘Ten Thousand Mountains’ alone! Come, it is time for us to enter.”

“Alright.” Ning smiled as well.

Whoosh. Whoosh.

As the two simultaneously charged downwards, they suddenly encountered a region of twisted space. Moments later, both of them vanished.

Ning could sense space twisting around him. Moments later, he reappeared in the air with World God Dragonbinder next to him.

“How beautiful.” Ning saw a long, winding series of majestic mountains located in front of him. The mountains were all interconnected and seemed to form a long, sinuous coiling dragon.

“The Ten Thousand Mountains of the Allgod Estate,” World God Dragonbinder said softly.

“Right.” Ning stared at them from afar as well.

There were countless mountains before them. At the end of the mountains there was a region of endless mist...and beyond the ‘endless’ mist there was an utterly dazzling, eye-catching estate of vast proportions. This estate was simply too vast. Even though they were very far away, they could still make out its details quite clearly.

“I can sense it...” Ning could sense the Mirrorsnow Painting within his Jindan region was calling out joyfully, having sensed a faint resonance nearby.

“It should be up ahead. According to what big brother Solesky said, it should be within the center of the Fog Sea.” Ning stared at the endless Fog Sea located past the great mountains.

The outermost layer of the Allgod Estate consisted of the Ten Thousand Mountains. There were exactly ten thousand mountains in this region!

The second layer was the Fog Sea!

The core region was the actual, towering edifice known as the Castrum Divinitus.

“Brother Ji Ning.” World God Dragonbinder looked at Ning. “Let’s try out the Ten Thousand Mountains first. After that, I’ll go to the Fog Sea by myself. You shouldn’t go there; it is far too dangerous a place for you.”

“Alright.” Ning nodded.

He had come here mainly because he wanted to acquire the Mirrorsnow Painting. Since the painting was located within the Fog Sea, he naturally had to enter it! However, he knew that World God Dragonbinder was looking out for his best interests. According to what the vast majority of cultivators had experienced, although Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals had a good chance of surviving the mountain region, they would almost certainly die upon entering the Fog Sea.

However, World-level experts stood a very good chance of surviving the Fog Sea.

“Let’s go,” World God Dragonbinder said.

Whoosh. Whoosh.

The two flew through the air towards the nearest mountain.

Based on what past cultivators had discovered, there were two fairly safe paths that could be followed through the Ten Thousand Mountains.

After the two landed atop the mountain, they began to advance through its forests. Watery waves spread out in constant ripples around them as they kept a close eye on their surroundings.

They travelled through one mountain after another.

They travelled cautiously and didn’t move too quickly. More than ten days passed in the blink of an eye, and they saw a number of Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals on their journey. However, all of them were so frightened upon seeing Ning and Dragonbinder that they immediately fled. Naturally, the two of them paid these minor figures no heed.

“Ji Ning, did you know? Every single mountain here holds the grave of a World-level expert,” World God Dragonbinder said.

“I’ve heard.” Ning nodded. “According to the stories, after Daolord Allgod failed his Daomerge he began to wander through the Endless Territories as he searched for cultivators who had committed many grave sins. More than ten thousand World-level experts died by his hand! Every single mountain is the rest spot for at least one of those evil cultivators.

“My guess is that Daolord Allgod wanted to kill as many sinners as he could to accumulate more karmic virtue, hoping that he might be able to find a way to survive.” World God Dragonbinder sighed. “But once you fail your Daomerge, your death becomes an inevitability. Many powerful experts have tried using various methods to stay alive...but alas, all of those efforts came to naught.”

The two continued to walk while chatting.

“Eh?”

“Eh?”

Ning and World God Dragonbinder both came to a halt. They raised their head to stare off into the distance. The forest here was blocking their vision, but they were able to see a half-opened door that was covered with some divine runes and inscriptions.

“Is that the treasury?” Ning and Dragonbinder exchanged a curious glance.

Every single mountain of the Ten Thousand Mountains held the corpse of a sinful cultivator as well as a treasury! This meant that there were ten thousand treasuries here...but the treasuries were tightly guarded and not easily accessed. This mountain, however, had a great gateway carved into it, and the runes covering the gateway were even more profound than the ones used to forge Dao weapons. Clearly, this had to be a treasury!

“Let’s go in and take a look,” Dragonbinder sent mentally. “We’ve found the treasury, but we won’t necessarily be able to take it with us. Plus, the ‘real’ treasury might be inside there.”

“Alright. Let’s go.” Ning carefully scrutinized the great door as well.”

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