Desolate Era

Ji Ning and the others began to work hard to produce a plan which would be perfectly tailored to dealing with this terrifying new threat, the ‘Grassland World’. Everyone including Ning knew deep in their hearts how important this battle would be. In fact, it could be said that if they won this battle they would probably have won the entire war! If they lost, then they would probably have lost the war as well.

The price of defeat was simply too great. All of the countless native lifeforms of this entire Chaosverse, from the lowliest of ordinary mortals to the most exalted of Hegemons and Autarchs, would be completely exterminated! Not a single one of them would be left alive! The entire Chaosverse would be completely remade into one which was suitable for the Sithe and inimical to all others.

Ning knew that they couldn’t afford to lose this battle! By now, the Sithe Hegemons and Emperors no longer posed much of a threat. It was up to the final battle between the supreme elites of each side.

“We destroyed one of those temples and trapped four of them! Even if Iyerre gets personally involved, we should be able to withstand him via the Golden Bridges of Freedom. Right now, the only thing the Sithe have which poses a threat to us is that world of grass. In truth, it is an apocalyptic danger,” Autarch Titanos said. “It only needed a fraction of its power to kill Bolin. Even though Bolin now controls two Daobirth Essences, he’s still forced to hide via the ‘false death’ technique and doesn’t dare to face it head-on! In other words, none of us are a match for that world of grass in sole combat.”

Ning agreed with this assessment. The terrifying power which the world of grass had displayed previously was enough to cause even Ning to shiver with fear.

“We’ll never have a better chance than this,” Autarch Titanos said. “We are hidden in darkness, while they stand revealed to us! We can make all preparations necessary and focus all of our power against the world of grass.”

“When Iyerre ambushed Mogg, he didn’t produce anything even as remotely terrifying as the world of grass,” Autarch Bolin said. “That was his ‘big reveal’, so he definitely would’ve gone all-out in that attack. For him to not use a ‘world of grass’ leads me to suspect that the entire Sithe race only has a single such weapon. I’m sure that it wasn’t easy for him to make such a terrifying weapon. Hell, I’m amazed they were able to create it at all!”

“Right. If Iyerre didn’t carry one, that’s probably because there only IS one.”

“If we can defeat the world of grass, we would’ve gotten rid of our greatest threat and essentially won this war,” Autarch Stonerule agreed. “This is now our last, best chance to gain victory.”

“We have to win.”

“We must win!” The seven strongest members of the cultivator civilizations were filled with determination to win.

Ning and the others were going to put everything they had into this fight. Every single one of them was going to take part, and so they began to hasten towards the Nine Cicadas Temple from their respective stations throughout the Chaosverse. Autarch Stonerule was the slowest when it came to travel speed, and so Autarch Skyfeeder actually went to him to ‘carry’ him with her.

Just a bit over a month later, they all reunited near the Nine Cicadas Temple. As for the Grassland World, it was still on its way. It wasn’t quite up to par with Autarchs when it came to warping through spacetime.

“We still have nearly a month left.”

The bulky Nine Cicadas Temple hung there in the void of space, the nine Sithe Exalts still focusing on defending it from within. Ning and the others wouldn’t be able to breach its defenses anytime soon, so they simply left it trapped within their formations.

The Autarchs were located in a region of empty space outside the formations sealing the temple away. Autarch Titanos’ two fleshy antennae were standing up straight, quivering with killing intent. He began to make the arrangements: “During this next month, we need to finish setting up any and all helpful formations. We don’t have much time. Move fast, everyone.”

“Alright,” Ning, Bolin’s avatar, Autarch Skyfeeder, Autarch Ekong, Autarch Stonerule, and Autarch Mogg all chorused in unison.

Time began to flow in a rapidly accelerated pace around them. Autarch Skyfeeder was responsible for keeping time sped up, while Ning and the others were responsible for setting up the formations. They already knew exactly where the Grassland World would be arriving, and so they would set up the grand formation there! The entire formation covered a huge area, as it was meant to encompass the entire Grassland World.

In order to make the formation as strong as possible, they even infused some of the mysteries of the Golden Bridges into the formation. When the time came, the formation would be ready to accumulate an enormous amount of the Chaosverse’s power.

The formation was divided up into two different parts. The outer formation would be maintained by Ning, Bolin’s avatar, and the true bodies of the Autarchs. The inner formation would be maintained by the other five Autarch avatars. The inner formation would serve as the vanguard for doing battle against the Grassland World; if they suffered any casualties, the inner formation would be the first to go.

“Haha, I’m done.”

“The formation’s been set up.”

Ning and the others had worked hard and quickly. In the end, they managed to finish the entire grand formation with two days to spare.

“I’ll take the Dust-1 position.” Ning stood there within a specific part of the formation. Boom! The overwhelming power of the Chaosverse instantly crossed an infinite distance to appear in the region around him. Ning’s location seemed to have transformed into an endless vortex of darkness which devoured all of the power of the prime essences!

This grand formation had two ‘poles’ which represented Yin and Yang. Ning was responsible for one of them while Titanos was responsible for the other, as the two were both skilled in formations.

As for the other five, they were responsible for helping and strengthening the power of the formation.

“The formation is complete. All of us are now much more powerful than we are normally. With so many empowered Autarch-class combatants working together and joining forces, we’ll definitely be able to destroy the Grassland World.” Autarch Titanos let out a loud laugh, completely confident in their chances.

“Right. The chains that attacked me were powerful,” Bolin’s avatar agreed, “But we have so many Autarch-class combatants that we would have more than enough power to each take on a single chain without being affected.”

“Unfortunately, two of the five avatars at the vanguard are very weak. My avatar and Skyfeeder’s avatar were both destroyed and had to be remade, and so they are only at half-strength. Even with the formation supporting them, they are just barely as strong as they would be at their peak.” Autarch Titanos shook his head.

“It is enough. The true bodies will be launching attacks from afar in support, right?” Mogg laughed as well.

Although they spoke confidently, all of them remained quite cautious. They had an enormous advantage in this battle as they had chosen the battlefield and prepared formations for it, ensuring that they could unleash the absolute maximum power possible! However, they didn’t dare to truly go all-out and leave themselves with no way out. If they really did die, the cultivators would never again have a chance of reversing this defeat. Thus, if this battle really did end up poorly then the true bodies who were located in the ‘outer’ part of the formation would be able to flee at any time.

The reason why Bolin’s avatar was also located in the ‘outer’ part was to keep his continued existence a secret. Otherwise, the Sithe would immediately find out that Bolin hadn’t really died.

A total of twelve Autarch-class combatants had gathered together within the formation, and they were empowered tremendously by it. They were right to speak with confidence, but also right to be wary of this terrifying ‘Grassland World’ weapon the Sithe had devised.

“They are about to arrive.” Autarch Bolin’s true body was in constant contact with them. “Five more warps through spacetime and they’ll arrive.”

“Make your preparations, everyone,” Autarch Titanos said. “Hide the formation’s power. Don’t make your moves until they enter its range.”

Titanos had been alive for longer than any of the others, and he had been the most powerful before Ning’s rise to power. Everyone was accustomed to him giving the orders, and he had been the one to devise the majority of the components of this formation. Ning and the others had only played a supplementary role.

Silence. The entire formation fell completely and utterly silent.

Ning and the others all stared intently, nervously awaiting the most critical battle of them all.

……

“According to the information almighty Iyerre gave us, they should be arriving soon. We’ll be able to escape.” The nine Sithe Exalts within the Nine Cicadas Temple were all seated in the lotus position, eagerly awaiting the Grassland World’s arrival. They had felt extremely restless and uneasy after being sealed away here, as all they could do was passively watch and wait for the cultivators to eventually breach the formations protecting them.

“They should arrive in just another day or two.”

……

Rumble… a dimensional rift suddenly appeared just a hundred billion kilometers away from the Nine Cicadas Temple, followed by a silvery-white ship flying out of the rift. This was an ordinary-looking realmship, while the person commanding it was nothing more than an ordinary Hegemon.

However… the twelve Autarch-class combatants hidden within this region all knew the truth. They knew that the Grassland World was hidden within that realmship, because Autarch Bolin’s true body remained trapped inside.

“They’ve entered the net.” Autarch Titanos’ eyes shone with baleful light. “Activate.”

“Activate.”

Ning and Titanos were in control of the Yin-Yang poles, and they simultaneously activated the formation with the other five working in concert with them. Rumble… an utterly apocalyptic amount of power instantly filled a vast region of ten trillion kilometers. The mere flow of power caused the void of space itself to be ground into countless sand-like particles, instantly disintegrating the silver realmship. As for the Sithe descendant who was commanding it, he stared in terror as he himself was disintegrated into dust.

The only thing left behind was a strange ovaloid object.

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