The Desolate Era (Web Novel)

“Now this is an unexpected surprise!” Due to his repeated failures, Ji Ning was already at the verge of abandoning all hope of finding the nine special techniques. He was simply rifling through the rest of Hawkfang’s memories out of a sense of caution. Who would’ve thought that such an unexpected surprise would pop out!

After Hawkfang’s father had accompanied the Sithe army in their first invasion of the Chaosverse, he began to live here within this hidden dimension. Later on, the supreme Sithe leaders sent orders for the Sithe to begin to propagate within this land. As for Hawkfang’s father, he was an Exalt, but the one and only child he had upon reaching this level was Hawkfang. He began to put all of his efforts into rearing his son.

Hawkfang was incredibly talented in every respect, and he skyrocketed in power with no pause at all! However… he was still just a Sithe descendant. The true Sithe couldn’t help but feel a sense of caution towards these descendants, and so they weren’t willing to pass down any information or guidance regarding Omega Daos! If one of their children managed to reach Autarchy via an Omega Dao, it would be their children who would become the rulers of this Chaosverse… which meant that it would still be suited for the current cultivators, not the Sithe.

The Sithe descendants were much like the local cultivators, after all. They were born and bred under the current conditions.

In addition, if someone reached Autarchy via an Omega Dao, not even a lifeblood oath would be able to restrain or affect him. The Sithe were afraid that they would no longer be able to control such a person, and so they didn’t pass down any Omega daos.

Hawkfang was incredibly talented. Guided by the Sithe away from the Omega Daos, he succeeded in the Daomerge and became a mere Hegemon.

In truth, this was perhaps a lucky thing for Hawkfang. Ning didn’t have any guidance as he walked the path of the Omega Sword Dao, but the difficulty of the Daomerge resulted in him failing at it.

Becoming a Hegemon… it was hard to say if it was a ‘good’ thing or a ‘bad’ thing for Hawkfang. After becoming a Hegemon, he had quickly reached Hegemony in five other Daos. His speed of advancement was so shockingly fast that it had amazed the entire Sithe race! Even the highest ranking members of the Sithe paid close attention to him.

Later on, the Dawn War began! Hawkfang’s father, as an Exalt, was required to lead the Sithe forces into battle! Hawkfang insisted on accompanying his father into battle. As one of the most favored Sithe descendants, he had a somewhat special status, and so the highest level Sithe reluctantly agreed to his request. However, they only agreed to let him send his avatar, as they knew the war would be so fierce that Hawkfang could very well die in it.

The entire Sithe race was eagerly awaiting an Autarch arising from within the ranks of their children!

During the war, Hawkfang’s avatar accompanied his father in battling against the cultivators. He saw many things… and slowly, he began to realize the truth!

“You imbeciles! Can’t you feel it? Can’t you sense the difference between you and the Sithe? It was this vast Chaosverse which gave birth to you, nurtured you, supported you! The primordial chaos of this universe accepts you but rejects the Sithe, because the Sithe are foreign invaders and enemies. You are helping your own enemies!

“You are cultivators! Why do you willingly serve the Sithe?!”

Autarch Bolin had charged towards them, roaring with accusation and fury. Hawkfang had long ago suspected the truth… and on that day, he became certain of it.

“Fang, my son.” His father had sought him out that day. “We’re quite unlucky to have run into one of the cultivator Autarchs so soon. We’re going to die today. I’ll destroy your avatar to ensure that this Autarch won’t be able to kill you. Every single one of his strikes is filled with the binding power of karma. If he kills you, he’ll use karma to destroy your true body as well.”

“Father… I am a cultivator, not a Sithe. Right?” Hawkfang asked.

Ning was looking through Hawkfang’s memories and could see through Hawkfang’s eyes. He saw the look on the face of Hawkfang’s father… and that look shook even Ning’s own heart.

Hawkfang’s father had fallen silent for a moment. He then looked at his son, his eyes filled with mixed emotions. Heartache, love, worry, hope…

These were the pure emotions a dying father would feel when gazing at his son.

Hawkfang’s father had then said softly, “I might as well tell you. I was bound by oaths not to reveal this to you, but now you already know the truth. I… I didn’t have a choice. I had to take part in this war and just hope for the best. You don’t have a choice either. The two of us, father and son… we certainly share a sorry fate.”

When Hawkfang’s father had said these words, his eyes had become filled with resentment. He had then let out a sigh: “If you can become an Autarch, the Sithe wouldn’t dare to mistreat you. You’d be considered one of their important thugs… but if you fail to make that breakthrough and remain a mere Hegemon, you wouldn’t even be considered a thug, just a disposable pawn. I was able to protect you, but I’m going to die soon. I won’t be able to protect you any longer. If you ever have the chance… flee. Escape and go to the cultivator civilizations.”

Hawkfang had been stunned. He never would have imagined that his father would tell him to go flee to the cultivators.

“Alright. We’re out of time.” Hawkfang’s father had then reached out and pressed his hand against Hawkfang’s chest, destroying Hawkfang’s avatar with one blow… and that was the last memory Hawkfang had of his father.

The end result of that battle… was Autarch Bolin exterminating the entire squad led by Hawkfang’s father.

……

Eventually, the Dawn War came to an end. Hawkfang continued to live within the Sacred Realm inside the hidden dimension. At first, the Sithe continued to pay close attention to him… but the shadow that had been cast over his heart made it so that he would be unable to cleanse his Dao-heart of all flaws.

He was a cultivator, but he was also a descendant of the Sithe. If the Sithe had treated him with sincerity, he wouldn’t feel so torn… but in reality, he now knew that they were nothing more than cannon fodder and pawns. Even if he worked extremely hard and became an Autarch, he’d be viewed as nothing more than a useful thug.

What was the point of cultivating?

And… he was forever unable to forget his father’s final words: “I didn’t have a choice. I had to take part in this war and just hope for the best. You don’t have a choice either. The two of us, father and son… we certainly share a sorry fate.”

This words tore at his heart. Ever since his mother had died due to her lifespan coming to an end, his father had become the person who he cared about above all others. His father, in turn, had cherished him and loved him.

Only when he heard those words did he realize how miserably unhappy his father had been. His father had the exalted title of ‘Exalt’, but he had been given no choices either. He had only come to take part in this war because he had to, and his fate had been left up to luck.

“Sithe…”

“SITHE!!!!” Hawkfelt began to feel hatred towards the Sithe race, which treated both himself and his father as disposable pawns. This hatred cast a shadow over his heart, preventing him from perfecting his Dao-heart. He knew that he had to become more powerful and become an Autarch, as it would give him a better chance of escaping and taking revenge upon the Sithe… but he could no longer perfect his Dao-heart. In fact, he couldn’t improve at all.

……

After no longer being able to progress on the path of cultivation, Hawkfang eventually began to give up on his hopes of Autarchy. However, he then came up with another idea for taking revenge upon the Sithe!

He knew that the Sithe had long ago transmitted nine special techniques to their descendants, wanting to make cultivation easier for them. These techniques allowed divine power and Immortal energy to be merged together, theoretically ensuring that even Daolords would no longer face mortal danger as they took their various steps. Even if you failed in the Daomerge, you would be able to quickly recover and then attempt it again! This was the reason why the Sithe were able to produce so many Hegemons, Emperors, and Exalts.

“The Sithe continuously improved as they created these nine techniques, with the ninth being much better than the first. But in the end? Even the ninth and ultimate technique remained flawed. It only allowed for one to become a Daolord of the First Step, at which point the body would crumble and the truesoul would vanish.

“I can sense that these techniques are somewhat rejected by the natural ‘Dao’ of this Chaosverse. If I can retrofit them, I should be able to produce something better.”

True Sithe were unable to sense or make use of the Dao of this Chaosverse… but Hawkfang could!

It was absolutely incredible that the Sithe Lord of Chaos was able to create a technique which would allow a local cultivator to safely become a Daolord, even though the Lord of Chaos himself was unable to sense the Dao here. Hawkfang had personally viewed all nine of the techniques in the past, and he had watched as the almighty Sithe Lord of Chaos had slowly improved and perfected them. Hawkfang had gained many new insights as he had watched… and so, he had chosen to make use of those insights into creating his own techniques.

He had felt certain that all nine Sithe techniques contained fundamental, foundational errors. The only reason why those errors weren’t apparent early on was because when one was weak, there was a great deal of margin for error.

For example, consider mortal cultivators. ‘Foundation level’, ‘Golden Core level’, ‘Nascent Soul level’… ‘Mortal-ranked’, ‘Earth-ranked’, ‘Heaven-ranked’… ‘Wanxiang Adept’, ‘Primal Daoist’, ‘Void level’… all sorts of techniques and styles could be used, because the weaker you were the less of an impact the Chaosverse’s Dao would have upon you. But the closer to the peak you were, the more demanding the Dao would become.