The Desolate Era

Nine more days went past before the Dragonwing Governor finally found traces of Immortal Slowseal.

“Master.” The Dragonwing Governor hurriedly came running to report to Su Youji, Ji Ning, and the Ninedust Sectlord. “Immortal Slowseal is currently a guest at the Hiddensea Palace, roughly a hundred million kilometers from this place. He’s quite some distance away. It’ll probably take us some time to get there, and so I’ve made the arrangements for transport birds and mounts to be prepared for us. We can head out whenever.”

“We’ll head out right now.” Ji Ning rose to his feet, then waved his hand and caused a black flying vessel to appear next to him.

“We’ll fly over?” Skywind and the Dragonwing Governor were rather speechless when they saw the vessel. It must be understood that this planet was bound by the edicts of an Eternal Emperor, and the invisible laws made it so that only Samsara Daolords were just barely able to fly. Samsara Daolords, however, were incredibly rare. Neither of the two had ever truly flown in the air before using magic treasures before; at most, they had flown on the backs of giant birds.

“Move it!” Ning, Su Youji, and the Ninedust Sectlord were already aboard the vessel, and they barked impatiently to the others.

“Y-y-yes.” The Dragonwing Governor excitedly followed after them, and Skywind was similarly unable to disguise his excitement.

Swoosh. The black vessel burst into the skies, then immediately disappeared without a trace.

......

Ning and the others had long ago acquired a local map of this planet from the Dragonwing Governor. They knew where the Hiddensea Palace was located, and the planet itself wasn’t that large; at most, it was a bit over one billion kilometers in diameter. The ordinary mortals on this planet were fewer in number than even in the Three Realms, but on average they were more impressive as the rate at which they gave birth to Immortals and Fiendgods was far higher.

Swish! Just a few heartbeats later, the black vessel had already left the Dragonwing Governor’s estate and arrived directly above the top of a cloud-piercing snowy mountain.

“Here we are,” Ning said. “Hiddensea Palace is right below us.”

“What? We arrived?” The Dragonwing Governor and Skywind stood at the prow of the ship, staring in astonishment at the scene below them. The mountain peak below them was covered with snow, with an ordinary-looking palace buried below it. This was Hiddensea Palace.

“We made it there in one breath.” The Dragonwing Governor and Skywind exchanged glances. Both of them felt stunned. That had been simply too fast! To them, Hiddensea Palace was an extremely distant location that would only be reached through riding birds or mounts. The path was a dangerous, twisty one that needed careful navigation, and it would take them at least half a month to reach it.

The nearby Ninedust Sectlord chuckled. “This ship can move at a hundred times the limits of the Heavenly Daos. A hundred million kilometers is nothing to it. You! Whats-your-face, Dragonwing Governor, right? Hurry on down and lead us to Immortal Slowseal.”

“Understood. Skywind, follow me and stay behind me. As for the three of you?” The Dragonwing Governor hesitated.

“We’ll go with you,” the Ninedust Sectlord said calmly. “No one in this puny little palace can possibly see through our illusions.”

“Understood.” The Dragonwing Governor acknowledged the order.

......

The Dragonwing Governor led the party while the other four temporarily followed behind him as he entered Hiddensea Palace. The former was a World-level cultivator, after all. He was on the same level as the Palace Lady and so was received with great courtesy.

“Dragonwing.” The Palace Lady was a black-robed woman who looked quite ordinary but who had an extraordinary demeanor.

“Hiddensea.” The Dragonwing Governor hurriedly rose to his feet.

“What suddenly brings you to my place? Dragonwing City is quite distant from my palace. To think that you made the long, hard trek here in person... might I ask, what is the reason behind this?” The Palace Lady smiled. Her gaze just briefly lingered on Ning and the rest of the four behind the Dragonwing Governor. She noticed nothing remarkable about them at all; the difference in power between them was simply too great.

The ‘long, hard trek’? The Dragonwing Governor couldn’t help but sigh to himself. It had all been done in the twinkling of an eye. However, he didn’t expose this. “Hiddensea, I’ve come to meet with fellow Daoist Slowseal.”

“Meet Slowseal?” The Palace Mistress frowned. “Immortal Slowseal is a rather bad-tempered person. If I didn’t have something important I needed him for, I would never have invited him over. Why are you causing problems for yourself?”

“I have something important to discuss as well,” the Dragonwing Governor said.

The Palace Mistress gave him a hard look, then nodded. “Fine. I’ll help you send word, but you know what Slowseal is like.”

“I do.” The Dragonwing Governor nodded.

A few moments passed as she conversed with Immortal Slowseal. “Let’s go. I just checked and Slowseal agreed to meet with you. I’ll take you to him.” She led the Dragonwing Governor deeper into the palace.

A short while later, they arrived within the most beautiful courtyard within the Hiddensea Palace. A horned, black-haired elder was seated within it, drinking some wine. When the Dragonwing Governor brought Ning and the others in, the black-haired elder’s eyes twitched. He glanced sideways at the four, then frowned and barked at the Palace Mistress, “Hiddensea, bringing in Dragonwing is one thing, but why have you brought in a group of juniors?”

“I’m to blame for that.” The Dragonwing Governor hurriedly smiled. “It has nothing to do with Palace Mistress Hiddensea.”

The Palace Mistress just stood there silently. She knew quite well that Immortal Slowseal was doing this to knock the Dragonwing Governor down a few pegs.

“Hmph.” The black-haired elder let out a snort. “Throw these juniors out.”

“But...” The Dragonwing Governor was stunned. As for Ning, Su Youji, and the Ninedust Sectlord, they revealed looks of resignation.

“Ugh.” The Ninedust Sectlord let out a sigh, and as he did an invisible aura of power blasted out from around him, causing Skywind, the Dragonwind Governor, the Hiddensea Palace Mistress, and Immortal Slowseal to all feel their hearts quiver. The entire world seemed to have turned silent. Heaven and Earth had both vanished, leaving nothing else save his voice.

“I wanted to resolve this peacefully and have a nice chat with Immortal Slowseal’s master.” The Ninedust Sectlord shook his head. “I didn’t imagine him to be such a fool. It seems we’ll have to do things the hard way.

Ning and the others had indeed been planning on doing things peacefully. This planet was mysterious and inscrutable; they didn’t want to accidentally kick over a hornet’s nest. Unfortunately, this Immortal Slowseal was a bit too arrogant.

“What’s going on? Why is this happening? W-who are they?!” Immortal Slowseal was panicking, and the Hiddensea Palace Mistress was amazed as well.

“Slowseal actually has a Daolord as his master. It’s fine for him to be proud, but his pride goes too far.” Ning shook his head slightly as well. People truly did act differently once they had a powerful backer. In the Badlands Territory, if you encountered a disciple of the Badlands Court you generally wouldn’t dare to attack even if you were much stronger! As for the likes of the Skykwood Sect of Skywood City, one of the eight Sacred Cities? Whenever the weakest members of Skywood Sect so much as mentioned their sect, World-level cultivators and weaker Daolords would be utterly terrified.

This was the good part of having a strong backer. This was why so many World-level cultivators wanted to join major schools, but the Badlands Court and Vastheaven Palace had very high standards. As for the Skywood Sect and other sects on its level, their standards were even more excessive. Thus, the World-level cultivators who weren’t able to join the major sects were forced to hide in one place. When trouble came knocking, they had no choice but to fight head-on... and if they failed, they would die.

If you had a powerful background, even if you couldn’t win the fight you could report your name and thus stay alive in that way.

It was much like what the Paragon of Pills had told Ning: “If you ever find yourself in a life-threatening situation, you can use my name!” Her being his backer would overawe many attackers.

“W-who are you?” Immortal Slowseal was rather panicked. “My Master is Daolord Feng Xian.”

“Kid...” The Ninedust Sectlord’s face was dark, and his voice was cold and grim. Waves suddenly arose in the area around him, swirling around him with torrential voice and filling Immortal Slowseal’s entire field of vision, making him feel as though they were about to drown him. The power held within the waves caused Immortal Slowseal to feel a sense of endless terror. Horrified, Slowseal immediately produced a jade talisman, then crushed it with a cracking sound.

“My master is going to arrive soon! Don’t do anything crazy!” Immortal Slowseal said, terrified.

“Hahaha...” The Ninedust Sectlord started to laugh.

“Haha...” Ning started to laugh as well. “Ninedust, I thought we’d have to threaten him a bit before his master would arrive. I never would’ve thought he’d panic so badly that he’d immediately crush a Dao-seal to summon his master.”

“I was planning to torment him a bit. Now, it seems, he’s quite a clever boy.” The Ninedust Sectlord let out a chuckle as the waves around him all vanished.

Everyone else, including Immortal Slowseal and Palace Mistress Hiddensea, felt their hearts quiver as their legs turned to jelly. Prior to this, Ning’s group had shown them no enmity and had completely masked their auras, making it so that Immortal Slowseal could sense no power at all. Now that they fully released their auras, they felt an instinctive, bone-deep terror in their hearts!

“W-where did all these terrifying figures come from?” Immortal Slowseal felt misery in his heart.

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