The Desolate Era (Web Novel)

“The Saber Palace won’t push for too much. Two slots is enough.”

“Yinwind, there’s only four slots total. Your Saber Palace wishes to take half of them?”

“We might even take three.”

The twelve golden-armored powers began to chat amongst themselves while they evaluated the sixty-six figures that had appeared in midair. They were actually quite familiar with most of the stronger World-level cultivators in every palace… and it was true that the Saber Palace held the most outstanding World-level cultivators of this generation! Prior to Bertulu’s arrival, Eastcult of the Saber Palace had been the indisputably most powerful World-level cultivator in the Twelve Palaces. As for the other Saberlords, they were all shockingly powerful as well.

When the Vice Palace Lord of the Saber Palace, Daolord Yinwind, spoke of possibly taking three slots… he wasn’t exaggerating!

There was a reason why this generation of World-level cultivators in the Saber Palace were all so strong. It was because the current Palace Lord of the Saber Palace… was Palace Lord Dawnstar! Lord Dawnstar was indisputably the most powerful expert amongst all the Daolords of the Twelve Palaces. In fact, even if you looked at all of the Daolords belonging to the various organizations of the Endless Territories, Lord Dawnstar would rank in the top three.

He was such a freakishly strong figure that he had needed just three strokes of his saber to slay an Eternal Emperor. He was also a Verge-level Daolord, and one could imagine how difficult the Dao he had chosen was. To successfully Daomerge would be incredibly difficult, and so he focused almost all of his efforts on it. However, for a period of time he had actually chosen to teach the World-level disciples of the Saber Palace in an extremely earnest, diligent manner.

Those World-level cultivators had all received the personal, attentive guidance of Lord Dawnstar! He had spent ten million years educating them, then had left the Brightshore Kingdom and gone off to adventure through other places.

To teach others was also a form of training, in and of itself. To Lord Dawnstar, it was just one of many things he was doing to prepare for his Daomerge, but to those World-level cultivators it had been a stroke of tremendous karmic fortune. Lord Dawnstar was definitely one of the top three experts of the Dao of the Saber in all the Endless Territories, even if one factored in the various Eternal Emperors.

And thus…

This generation of World-level experts in the Palace of the Saber all became incredibly strong, and the geniuses among their ranks became even more dazzling.

……

The Palace of the Sword.

“Palace Lord.” Three World-level cultivators bowed respectfully.

Lord Woodflower was seated in the lotus position as he looked back at the three of them. His true body was here in the Sword Palace; the one which had been in the imperial palace was merely an incarnation.

“A great opportunity has come before you,” Lord Woodflower said.

“Oh?” Swordlord Wildfire, Swordlord Yicheng, and Swordlord Graceless’s eyes all lit up.

“The other three Swordlords are returning from elsewhere in the Brightshore Kingdom. The six of you will need to make some immediately preparations,” Lord Woodflower said. “Bertulu and Eastcult aside, all of the World-level cultivators acknowledged by the pagodas shall have a chance to win this chance. However… in the end, only four will succeed.”

Swordlord Wildfire and the others were all surprised upon hearing this.

Those acknowledged by the pagodas were all capable of breaking through to become Daolords at any time… and they would all become extraordinary Daolords! If only four were to be chosen… what sort of opportunity was this?!

“Make your preparations. I hope that at least one of the four will be from our Palace of the Sword.” Lord Woodflower sighed.

“Don’t worry, Palace Lord.”

“We will all work hard.”

The three Swordlords present were all filled with resolve and determination.

However, Lord Woodflower knew that determination alone wasn’t enough. Everyone acknowledged by the pagodas was filled with determination. In the end, strength was what would matter. Alas, this generation of World-level experts from the Palace of the Saber were simply too strong.

In the following days, those who had been acknowledged by the pagodas were all secretly summoned back from throughout the adventuring areas within the Brightshore Kingdom by the various leaders of the Twelve Palaces.

……

The Palace of the Sword. The Daolord Cloudworld.

Whoosh.

A white-robed youth appeared out of nowhere within the skies of the Daolord Cloudword. He looked quite bedraggled, and his body was covered with bloody scars. However, he quickly became clean once more after a bit of light flashed over his body. Ji Ning hadn’t even heard the news about this exciting opportunity. As a result, he continued to live a relaxed and happy life.

Life really was quite relaxed and exciting. The reason why Ning had focused on the Dao of the Sword for so long was because he truly did love training with the sword. This was a love that came from the bottom of his heart, and the feeling of continuing to improve with the sword was absolutely intoxicating for him.

As for the Sword Palace, it was a holy land for sword practitioners.

“This is absolutely wonderful. I can spend a few hundred years meditating in the Forest of Sword Pagodas and gain many new ideas, then enter the Daolord Cloudworld and use them in actual battle to further verify and refine my sword-arts.” Ning flew through the skies in a very pleased manner. It had been twenty years since he had entered the Sword Palace, but his temporal acceleration treasure made it so that he had actually engaged in two thousand years of cultivation. He had already tried out the Daolord Cloudworld on numerous occasions by now.

“Youji still isn’t back?” Ning glanced sideways at his distant estate at the peak of the mountain. Su Youji still had yet to return. “It seems she has completely set her mind upon entering the Palace of Fire.”

Suddenly…

“Junior apprentice-brother Darknoth! Junior apprentice-brother Darknorth!” Shouts rang out from afar.

Ning turned his head, only to see a tall, muscular, heavily-bearded Daolord dressed in black armor fly towards him.

“Senior apprentice-brother, you are…?” Ning truly didn’t recognize this person. The Sword Palace had quite a few black-armored Daolords, and Ning had spent most of his time training and very little time in making friends. He truly didn’t know many people in the Sword Palace.

“My name is Jiwang,” the black-armored Daolord said. “Swordfive of Armaments Gorge asked me to send word for you to go meet him.”

“Swordfive?” Ning’s eyes lit up. Swordfive was a golem. Golems focused exclusively on their duty, which meant Swordfive wouldn’t summon him without a reason. Ning had long ago purchased the [Novessence Water], which meant the only thing still pending at the Armaments Gorge was his request for them to help him purchase the fourth Mirrorsnow Painting.

“Thank you, Daolord Jiwang,” Ning said, then immediately flew away from his estate.

Ning descended upon the Armaments Gorge, then immediately turned to look at Swordfive and Swordsix. They each stood to one side of the entranceway.

“Darknorth.” Swordfive nodded at him.

“Is it the Mirrorsnow Painting?” Ning couldn’t help but blurt out.

“Aren’t you the impatient one.” Swordfive chuckled.

Ning grinned as well. “How can I not be? When I joined the Sword Palace, I didn’t choose a legacy.” Because Ning already had access to Emperor Mirrorsnow’s legacy, the other legacies in the Sword Palace really weren’t of interest to Ning. Although the Sword Palace did have legacies left behind by Eternal Emperors, they could only be chosen after Ning was acknowledged by the Sword Pagodas and passed the trials the Eternal Emperors had left behind. Ning clearly didn’t fulfill these requirements at present… and the other legacies were clearly inferior to Emperor Mirrorsnow’s.

“You were wise not to choose,” Swordfive said. “Your luck wasn’t bad. We didn’t need to spend too much effort in finding this fourth painting. However… the other party probably was able to guess that you care deeply about this painting, and so he gave a rather high price. You have to pay three hundred thousand cubes.”

Ning nodded. The Twelve Palaces had certain rules governing them. If you sent out word through the Twelve Palaces that you wished for the Daolords to help you find a certain item, there would be many Daolords who would help out. However, only the person who successfully located the treasure you wanted would be given a commission in thanks, as well as the Daolord who helped escort the treasure back to the palaces. The total commission given would be 10%. The other Daolords would have done all their work for nothing.

“Here are the three hundred and thirty thousand cubes.” Ning handed a gourd over to Swordfive, who accepted and inspected it.

Whoosh. Swordfive waved his hand, causing a painting which emanated sword-ki to fly out from deep within the Armaments Gorge. This painting depicted an image of an icy, snowy land.

“Take it.” Swordfive handed it over to Ning.

Ning couldn’t disguise his excitement as he accepted this painting of an icy snowland. Finally. He finally found it! Emperor Mirrorsnow had never accepted any true disciples, and so before he decided to go off adventuring he had produced these ten sets of paintings and spread them out into the universe. Those World-level cultivators who collected a full set of four and overcame his trials would become his personal disciples!

“A personal disciple of an Eternal Emperor? Since he dared make the claim that those who acquired a full set would become his personal disciple, I imagine I won’t be disappointed by the legacy he left behind.” Ning was filled with eagerness.

Some legacies merely involved individual techniques or abilities. Others had more thought put into them, such as World God Northrest who had worked hard to set up those ninety-eight stone steles to guide Ning.

As for the best ones… they included divine abilities, treasures, secret arts, and more. Daoist Threelives was a classic example. He had left behind everything for his successor.

“I wonder what Emperor Mirrorsnow left behind. Now that I have the full set, all I need to do is pass the fourth and final trial. I’ve already passed the first three trials; only the last one remains.” Ning immediately picked up the painting and put it away.

“Thank you.” Ning expressed his thanks to Swordfive and Swordsix, then transformed into a streak of light and disappeared.

Ning quickly returned to his own Immortal estate.

Swoosh! He flew into his estate, then shut the gates with a loud bang! No one would be able to bother him now. Even if Su Youji returned, she would have to stay outside and wait for him. Ning absolutely would not let anyone disturb him at all right now.