The Desolate Era

“Ahaha!” The golden-armored warrior laughed. “Fine, I misspoke.”

“Sometimes, I really envy you cultivators. There is a stupid large number of you. You guys are absolutely everywhere. Every single territory has you cultivators in them.” The black-haired man sighed and shook his head. Suddenly...

“THAT BRAT! Is he trying to die?!” The black-haired man’s eyes suddenly bulged out. Two streaks of golden light shot out of his eyes, passing through the barriers of spacetime and reaching a distant figure in a distant place.

......

The Astral Islands.

“What just happened?” Ning’s entire body had turned stiff. He felt as though an utterly terrifying presence had suddenly taken notice of him. However, that terrifying sense of danger quickly dissipated.

“Who was that just now?” Ning guessed that it had to have been an incredibly powerful figure who was scrying upon him, a figure that didn’t even bother to hide his aura. If he had, there was no way Ning would’ve been able to sense him.

“That sense of danger... it was second only to the sensation I felt when I encountered that terrifying behemoth that brought me here,” Ning mused to himself.

The terrifying behemoth that had devoured him and brought him to this place was the most terrifying thing Ning had ever encountered in his life. It vastly surpassed any and all experts Ning had encountered in the past.

The Brightshore Kingdom was an organization that was on the same general level of power as the entire Dao Alliance itself. The Dao Alliance was unfathomably powerful, while the Brightshore Kingdom was very secretive and quite powerful as well.

“Doesn’t matter, I guess. Either of them can crush me like a bug.” Ning couldn’t be bothered to worry about it. The point of the almighty Hegemon bringing them here was to raise a crop of powerful cultivators. Even the most powerful of organizations would need constant injections of fresh blood, after all.

No matter how powerful their elite experts were, only their Eternal Emperors would live eternally. Samsara Daolords who did not succeed in the Daomerge would all perish eventually. Thus, they needed to ensure a constant, steady stream of new blood.

Ning was one of them, a future expert of the Brightshore Kingdom.

“Mm. Fortunately, Youji is still alive.” Ning flipped through the golden book again, then let out a sigh of relief.

“Eh? Someone just challenged me?” Ning frowned. One of the talented geniuses of the fifth stratum had just issued him a challenge. It must be understood that the twelve members of the fifth stratum had been on that stratum for a long period of time. They were all definitely superior to Sabafalle in power.

Ning had been forced to pull out his Elementum Waterflame Gourd for the sake of defeating Sabafalle.

“I’m currently protected by the Astral Islands. Even if I lose, I would at most lose some legacy treasures. However... I need to make sure this set gets to Su Youji first. If too much time passes, something unexpected might happen.” Ning didn’t dare to be too arrogant.

Ning waved his hand. Whoosh! Three hundred and twenty legacy treasures suddenly appeared before him. These were all fiery red leaves. The fiery leaves were all gathered together, and Ning could immediately sense the tremendous amount of information they contained, as well as that blazingly powerful aura of fire.

This was a legacy pertaining to the Dao of Fire. Sabafalle, Ning’s previous opponent, had walked the Dao of Fire. The reason he had kept these legacy treasures with him was so that he could be in constant contact with the blazing will they contained. However, the treasures had now fallen into Ning’s hands.

All he had to do was swear a lifeblood oath and he would immediately be able to study this legacy.

Ning did end up learning it, but he simply memorized its contents. This legacy was indeed quite profound and remarkable. Just by reviewing the entire legacy from start to finish, Ning’s insights into the Dao of Fire increased substantially, reaching a level of near-parity with his Dao of Water or his Dao of Lightning.

“Possession of a legacy really does make a big difference,” Ning mused to himself. “Still, my Dao is the Dao of the Sword. I can’t waste my time and energy on fire.” Ning quickly buried this legacy into another corner of his mind. He had simply memorized it to gain a bit of additional experience, as all Daos shared certain commonalities. This legacy contained many abstruse mysteries that would be of some use to Ning in his mastery of the Dao of the Sword.

“Time to challenge her.” After looking through the legacy treasure, Ning nodded silently to himself. Su Youji was quite talented in the Dao of Fire. If he gave this to her, it would be of tremendous benefit to her in mastering the Dao of Fire. She would improve quite quickly.

Ning sent Su Youji a challenge.

“I hope she accepts. She has to accept.” Ning was rather worried and nervous.

He had learned the location of Su Youji’s astral island from Daolord Flameflow, but Su Youji didn’t know that Ning had reached the fifth stratum. If she suddenly saw someone from the fifth stratum challenge her, would she accept?

If she did not, then Ning would have to accept this duel from Kilostar, his fifth stratum challenger. If he won, that was one thing, but if he lost... his legacy treasures would all be gone as well.

It wouldn’t be too hard for Ning to get another set of legacy treasures, but to get another set that was of the Dao of Fire which Su Youji could use would be quite difficult. In addition, if too much time passed... Su Youji might perish.

......

The bottom stratum of the hundreds of thousands of astral islands. One of the islands was covered with plants and flowers. This was a very beautiful island.

Su Youji, dressed in fiery red robes, was lying within the grass, staring at the skies. A look of exhaustion was on her face.

“If this keeps up, I really won’t be able to endure for much longer. Master... I probably won’t be able to accompany you for much longer.”

Su Youji lay there in the grass, utterly exhausted. She truly had almost no energy left.

Ji Ning had given her his bugbeasts and his set of Hellwind Golems. At first, she had indeed been able to win quite a few battles in a row with ease. On the first stratum, there really weren’t that many who were a match for her.

But soon, trouble began to appear.

News that she had many bugbeasts and a set of Hellwind Golems quickly began to spread. There were many powerful World-level cultivators who wanted those bugbeasts and those powerful golems!

For example, there wasn’t a significant difference in power between cultivators on the third stratum and those on the fourth stratum. If they had a set of Hellwind Golems helping them out, a third stratum cultivator might be able to charge into the fourth stratum and have a chance at acquiring a full legacy.

Especially for those who specialized in close combat, a set of Hellwind Golems and a host of bugbeasts would allow them to become far stronger.

Many of the World-level cultivators who had been living here at the Astral Islands for a long time knew each other. At critical times, they would issue each other challenges to avoid dangerous battles. Thus, in the end there were three powerful World-level cultivators who found out about the golems and the bugbeasts.

Two of these three came from the third floor, with one coming from the fourth floor. All of them furiously challenged Su Youji day in and day out. Su Youji did her best to avoid them. When she could not, she would go fight the ones on the third floor.

“I was able to hold on for a few times... but how much longer will I be able to hold?” Su Youji mumbled to herself. She had been here for more than half a year, and the past few months had been an utter nightmare.

Rumble...

Sudenly, an island ascended from the fourth stratum to the fifth stratum.

“The fifth stratum?” Su Youji’s eyes lit up. “A cultivator reached the fifth stratum? Could it be Master?” She deeply hoped that it was Ning, but she knew that there were many individuals of tremendous talent and skill amongst the fourth stratum.

“I hope it is Master. So long as Master can stay alive... that is enough.” Su Youji prayed silently. She didn’t hope for Ning to rescue her. Logically speaking, there was no way for Ning to even find out which island she was on.

Just as her thoughts were racing, suddenly...

“A challenge?” Su Youji could sense that yet another challenge had been sent to her golden book. She remained quite calm, because she received challenges every single day. Her bugbeasts and golems were simply too irresistible.

“A challenge from the fifth stratum?” Su Youji was badly shocked.

Her bugbeasts and golems were indeed attractive, but it made no sense for those protected freaks on the fifth stratum to take an interest in them. Prior to this, the highest-level challenge had come from someone on the fourth stratum, and that had been her only challenge from that stratum.

“Eh? It seems... to be from that person who just made it to the fifth stratum?” Su Youji quickly noticed this. Every day, she would go through the golden book, and she recognized the twelve markers that originally belonged to the fifth stratum islands. Given her memory as a Chaos Immortal, she was naturally able to memorize those twelve at once. The person who had just challenged her was not one of the twelve.

“This person challenged me immediately after reaching the fifth stratum? If this person has already received protection, it makes no sense for him to be interested in my bugbeasts and golems. Could it... truly be Master?” Many thoughts flashed through Su Youji’s mind.

She didn’t dare to believe it.

She felt that it was all wishful thinking.

However... she also had the vague feeling that it really could be her master. Logically speaking, there was no reason for a newly ascended fifth stratum expert to immediately issue a challenge to her.

“Could it be that Master had a way to discover the astral island which I am on?” Su Youji hesitated for a long moment.

“Screw it. I’m at the brink of collapse anyhow. Even if it really is an enemy, I’d be satisfied with my defeat coming at the hands of someone on the fifth stratum.” Su Youji gritted her teeth, then accepted the challenge.

She quickly entered a room in her island covered by divine runes. As the runes lit up and activated, spacetime began to twist around her as she was teleported off of the astral island.

This was yet another oceanic island. There was a volcano on this island that was belching lava and flames, causing the island to be covered with a layer of grimy soot.

Su Youji appeared out of nowhere. She immediately saw a figure off in the distance.

A white-robed figure.

A figure carrying a sword on his back.

“Master...” Su Youji’s body trembled slightly as she murmured these words.

“Youji.” The figure turned and looked at her.

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