Desolate Era

Within the Sithe ruins.

“That ‘Ninedust’ fellow is much weaker than Darknorth. Its been a few million years, but he hasn’t been able to catch any of us.”

“That’s normal! Did you think that every Daolord was as much of a freak as Daolord Darknorth is?”

The Emperor-class golems were excited to battle against Ninedust. Ninedust had indeed improved, and quite a bit at that! But with the Emperor-class golems all helping each other out, Ninedust had not been able to catch any of them during the past few million years.

“Endless.” Ninedust spun the longstaff in his hands, his staff surrounded by thousands of whirlpools as it furiously swept towards the four Emperor-class golems attacking him. Two of them had assumed invisible forms which tied Ninedust down, while the other two fought Ninedust head-on.

“Traceless!” Ninedust let out a furious shot, his longstaff dramatically expanding in length as he lashed downwards at the warhammer-wielding golem in front of them. The golem hurriedly lifted its warhammer up above its head, seeking to block the attack.

Boom! The longstaff twisted slightly in an almost whip-like fashion as it smashed towards the warhammer. An invisible ripple of power was transmitted from the longstaff to the warhammer, slamming directly into the golem’s body. Instantly, the golem’s entire body trembled as it was sent stumbling backwards, then fell into a seated position on the ground.

“Careful, Warsky!” Another one of the Emperor-class golems hurriedly ran over to help.

It was one against four, but Ninedust wasn’t at any disadvantage at all! The two sides had battled evenly for quite some time, with Ninedust clearly being much more powerful than before.

“Haha…” Ninedust suddenly began to laugh loudly as a formation-diagram suddenly appeared with his palm. The formation-diagram quickly flew out and expanded in size to cover an area of ten million kilometers!

“What?!”

“We’ve been trapped.”

“A formation?”

The four Emperor-class golems were all shocked. As for the distant golems who were just watching, they were stunned as well. Ninedust had battled against them for many years, but he had never used such an insidious technique like this before! It was rare for them to encounter a worthy opponent, and so they quite enjoyed the chance to battle against Ninedust… but who would’ve thought that they’d suddenly fall into a trap?

“Daolord Ninedust, I didn’t realize you were such a despicable person.”

“Damnit.” The four golems were incomparably enraged. In the past, they had heard Ning address the Ninedust Sectlord as ‘Ninedust’, and so they naturally believed that Daolord Ninedust was his proper title. Ninedust himself naturally didn’t bother to explain or correct the misunderstanding.

“Despicable? Hah! How am I despicable? Because of the orders the Sithe gave you, you’ve been stuck here guarding this rubble for countless aeons. Aren’t you bored out of your minds yet? When the three clan leaders caught your comrades, they would wipe out your golem-spirits and instill new ones. I, however, can guarantee that I won’t wipe your spirits out when I take you out of here,” Ninedust said loudly. “You’ll be able to see a much more colorful world. It’ll be a helluva lot better than guarding this place for sure!”

“Don’t waste time talking to him.”

“Come on then.”

“Get ready to die!” The golems were blindly loyal and devoted; although they were curious about the outside world, as golems they would never think to disobey the orders of their masters. This was the tragedy of golem lifeforms… and if their new masters chose to wipe out their souls, their end would only become even more tragic. It was a form of death, with the new golem-spirit representing a completely different and new sentience.

“Darknorth!” Ninedust called out loudly. Swoosh! The distant Ning had already transformed into a streak of light that was flying towards this place at high speed. Although he was hundreds of millions of kilometers away, he moved faster than a hundred times the speed of light and thus was quickly able to reach and move into the formation area, passing through the barriers with ease.

“You finally made your move,” Ning said with a laugh.

“Hurry up and help me catch them!” Ninedust urged.

The two would naturally be able to capture these four Emperor-class golems much more quickly if they worked together. Two of the golems had invulnerable forms and would be a bit tougher to deal with, but Ning’s attacks were now so powerful that he was able to deplete their energy stores quite quickly. Before the formation even had a chance to dissipate, they had already been exhausted and captured ‘alive.’

After putting away the golems, Ninedust willed the formation around them to dissipate.

“Look at those golems over there.” Ning pointed off into the distance, where a number of golems were hiding behind a barrier. The golems were staring towards the two of them with mixed looks in their eyes; their gazes were filled with eagerness, anger, and indifference.

“In their heart of hearts, they would love to leave this place with us.” Ninedust nodded as well. “But they are not only afraid of having their spirits wiped out, they are also bound by their original orders to stay at this place. Alas…”

“If they continue to hide inside, there’s certainly no way for us to take them out of here.” Ning shook his head. As Ning and Ninedust saw it, they were helping these golems out by taking them away from this place! Eventually, Ning and Ninedust would die after they most likely failed their Daomerges, but the golems possessed perpetual life; they would be given to new masters and would continue to live exciting lives. To be trapped here within the Sithe ruins was far too meaningless an existence.

“We aren’t strong enough yet.” Ning shook his head. “We can’t help them.” Ning had tested himself against the barriers long ago, but even though only a few fragmented barriers remained, the likes of him remained unable to damage them in the slightest.

“Right. I haven’t had a chance to congratulate you on finally mastering those ultimate attacks of yours,” Ning said. The plan he and Ninedust had settled upon was for Ninedust to first use these golems to temper his staff-arts. Only after truly mastering his new ultimate attack would Ninedust actually move to capture them.

“I came up with a few killer attacks back in Crimsonwave Temple, but each had their own flaws. After having a chance to view the Autarch’s Daos, I was able to perfect those killer attacks and then come up with my three ultimate attacks: ‘Boundless’, ‘Endless’, and ‘Traceless’. These three ultimate attacks of mine are just as strong as the three ultimate attacks used by the Radiant King… and perhaps they are stronger!” Ninedust said confidently, “Who knows? I might be able to defeat Daolord Dreamlore and be ranked as the third Daolord in all the Endless Territories.”

Ning nodded. He agreed with this assessment. Ninedust definitely was on the same level as Dawnstar and Dreamlore by now. As for who would win in an actual fight? That could only be determined on the field of battle.

“Rest for a bit. After your formation-treasure has regenerated its power, we’re going to go attack the core regions of the ruins,” Ning said.

“Agreed.” Ninedust turned solemn. Attacking the core region would be extremely dangerous, the entire reason they had come here was in search of a Sithe fortune to claim. They had gained quite a bit from the Autarch’s Dao, but that wasn’t the reason they had come here.

……

Another three days went past. Finally, Ning and Ninedust simultaneously arrived at the outer borders to the region which held the core Sithe residential ruins.

“No one is permitted to trespass within Sithe territory! Daolord Darknorth, you’ve already trespassed repeatedly… and now, you are bringing another Daolord with you?” The four figures flew over, eyes filled with murder. These were the four golems comparable to the lords of the Sacred Cities. These were the four most powerful golems in all the Sithe ruins.

However, this wasn’t always the case. Long ago, these four golems were nothing more than ordinary guard-golems stationed to the core regions. Those onyx humanoids had Hegemon levels of power and were the mainstays in battle! Alas, the strongest had been either completely destroyed or taken away by the Autarch. In the end, only four of the ordinary guard-golems were able to slowly repair themselves and recover. These four ‘ordinary’ golems, however, posed an enormous degree of danger to Ning and Ninedust. They were on the level of the lords of the Sacred Cities, after all!

“Daolord Darknorth, you’ve always been quite careful.”

“You’ve never dared to truly risk it all.”

“How about this? Only two of us four will participate in this battle. You can fight us in a two-on-one fight, but we’re going to fight over there, rather than here in the border areas,” the four golems said. By now, they knew Ning far too well.

Ning just shouted back, “The four of you are extraordinarily strong. I really need to act with more caution instead.” The four golems were truly strong; even when Ning was focusing on defensive sword-arts, he could easily die from their blows. Thus, he only challenged them in the outer regions where he could immediately retreat once things started to go south.

“Attack!”

“Kill Darknorth’s companion first.”

“Darknorth’s been here countless times. Let’s remind him of just how fearsome we can be.” The four figures had been thoroughly pissed off by Ning quite some time ago.

Ning and Ninedust stood shoulder-to-shoulder. “You ready?” Ning sent mentally.

“No worries,” Ninedust replied. “I’m more than ready.” In truth, Ninedust was feeling quite nervous as well.

“We’ll succeed,” Ning said. He was a bit anxious as well.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! The four golems howled through the air, moving at different speeds but all surpassing a hundred times the speed of light.

“This is the perfect moment. Attack!” Ning shouted mentally. A black rune-diagram suddenly appeared within Ning and Ninedust’s palms. This was a single-use formation treasure! An enormous black whirlpool appeared and rapidly expanded, with over a thousand layers of energy swirling around it. Every single layer of energy was filled with countless complicated formations, and the entire black whirlpool quickly covered the two golems who were the fastest and had charged closest to them.

Ning and Ninedust both used one of the black formation-diagrams, which meant two of the black whirlpools had appeared. One was aimed inwards while the other was aimed outwards, simultaneously trapping and repelling their foes.

“Go!” Ninedust then took out normal formation-diagram treasure, the single-use one he had acquired from the ancestral Hegemon of the Ancients which could only be used after charging.

Boom! An enormous formation that was round within and square without suddenly appeared, filled with countless layers of dense barriers. This formation immediately surrounded the outermost black whirlpool barrier.

A total of three formations were being used to trap these two Emperor-class golems!

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