The Desolate Era

Ji Ning stared at Archon Silksnow’s corpse as it lay there in the air above the flaming passageway. Ning would never have been able to feel at ease, knowing that some a crazed demon was still around and alive... but after actually killing him, Ning didn’t feel much much joy, only a sense of relief.

At least one potential future source of trouble had been gotten rid of.

“One of the eight lords of the Sacred Cities,” Ning murmured softly, “Just died in this place.” The eight Archons of the Sacred Cities... they were figures of legend. The first time Ning had visited a Sacred City, he had felt a sense of awe, admiration, and veneration. And yet, one of the awe-inspiring Archons had died, just like that. True, he had technically committed suicide, but in reality he had been forced to do it.

“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” Ning waved his palm gently. It looked like a casual strike, but it actually encompassed the power of his Omega Sword Dao – Heavenbreaker. The power of the strike was like a wave of water that swept across the entire corpse. With no treasures protecting it, it was easily crushed into dust by the power of Ning’s palms.

Ning waved his hand again, collecting all of the treasures which Archon Silksnow had left behind. Ning revealed a smile. He wasn’t particularly happy about killing Archon Silksnow, but he was excited and delighted by the fact that he had just acquired a realmship.

“An unexpected benefit. This has now become the most valuable treasure I own.” Ning waved his hand, causing the realmship to be pulled into it. After acquiring the realmship, Whitethaw had naturally handed it over to his master immediately.

The realmship was now within Ning’s hand, and it was merely the size of a palm. It looked quite shabby and ordinary, and it was covered with marks and scars. In fact, someone who merely looked at it would probably doubt if it could even fly! However, Ning had chased after Archon Silksnow for quite some time, and he knew that it could indeed fly.

“Time to bind it.” Ning sent a strand of godsense into the realmship. It was now ownerless and thus he was able to bind it with ease.

“Master! Master!” The vessel-spirit immediately sought to ingratiate itself with Ning, for fear that Ning would kill it. This was the sad fate which awaited some treasure-spirits and golem-spirits and made them rather pitiable.

“Given the amount of damage this realmship has taken, is it capable of teleporting through spacetime?” Ning asked. The damage really did look quite severe, causing him concern.

“It can!” The vessel-spirit said hurriedly, “It’s completely capable of teleporting through spacetime, but it can’t go too far. It’ll take many blinks to move within a single realmverse, primarily because it has suffered quite some damage. Although the core components are in good shape, many of the other parts have suffered varying amounts of damage. Some parts are completely missing, which is why the ship can only unleash a low level of power.”

Ning nodded. He didn’t feel disappointed. If the realmship had been completely undamaged, Archon Silksnow would’ve escaped long ago. There’s no way Ning would’ve been able to tie him down, resulting in him eventually falling into a trap and being unable to escape.

“Master, I can sense you have a component on you which I desperately need,” the vessel-spirit said quickly.

“Oh?” Ning laughed and waved his hand, causing a part which was more than sixty meters long to appear next to him. This part was a strange component made up of multiple layers of metal that had many divine runes carved within it. It was vastly more complicated than any Hegemon-class golem, and as someone who didn’t understand the Dao of Artificing, Ning didn’t understand it at all.

“Wow, this piece is huge!” The vessel-spirit grew excited. “Master, can I swallow it?”

“Go ahead.” Ning nodded.

Whoosh. A wave of invisible power instantly swept across the sixty-meter component, which rapidly began to shrink until it was just thumb-sized. While it shrank, it flew towards one of the damaged areas of the realmship. The part was pulled into the realmship, followed by the realmship’s surface instantly beginning to glow. The surface of the realmship began to spread out, with some of the damage being automatically healed.

“Realmships possess regenerative powers, but there are certain important core materials they need. With this fairly complete part added into me, some of the other formerly-missing components can be used to regenerate and repair some of other parts.” The vessel-spirit was extremely excited. “Master, now that I’ve been able to repair a critical component, many of the minor damages are being healed as well. I can now move nearly a hundred times farther than in the past. Now, I can teleport through more than half a realmverse with just one blink!”

Ning stared at the realmship in his hand. It now looked much better than it had in the past. Although it still was covered with scars and wounds, it didn’t look as ragged as it had.

A single blink to teleport through more than half a realmverse? This was simply shocking.

“How far are you from perfect status?” Ning asked.

“Extremely far.” The vessel-spirit instantly appeared to be rather deflated. “Although I’m at 90% condition, some of the minor parts which I’m missing are having a major impact on me as a whole. That’s why I’m still not able to teleport nearly as great a distance as I would if I was at 100%.”

Ning couldn’t help but nod in agreement. When he had been a Daolord of the Third Step, he was comparable to supreme Daolords as well as fairly powerful Emperors. Back then, it would take him roughly a million chaos cycles to move via teleportation from one realmverse to another realmverse! Even Hegemons needed to spend extremely long periods of time. Realmships, however, merely needed a few myriads of years.

A few tens of thousands of years... to travel a distance which Ning normally needed to spend a million chaos cycles to traverse? Its teleporting powers were unfathomably superior to Hegemon Brightshore’s.

“However, Master... I can sense that not too far away from me is another important component which I need desperately. If I can absorb it, I should be able to repair a great deal,” the vessel-spirit said immediately.

“That’s a part which my friend has.” Ning nodded, then waved his hand and put the realmship away for now.

Whoosh. Ning bound and scanned all of the treasures which Archon Silksnow had left behind. Although there were a few valuable things, none of them were of much interest to the current Ning.

Despite that, Ning still felt quite excited. A single realmship was more than enough! “This realmship has to be far more valuable than even Crimsonwave Temple. It’s enough to ask an Autarch to help out.” Ning was extremely excited. “Autarchs possess incredible power and can create even alternate universes with ease. They are more than capable of reversing spacetime to rescue Yu Wei.”

“With this realmship, I can bring her back to life. Hahaha... finally, finally, finally! I’ve finally done it!” Ning stood there within the twisting flaming passageway, so excited that his blood was boiling. The excitement he felt was simply indescribable.

Trading away the realmship to revive Yu Wei... Ning wouldn’t even hesitate to make this choice!

Although a realmship would allow him to travel from one realmverse to another with ease, doing so by himself would be far too boring. This was something which Emperors who had lost all their loved ones and who were curious about the outside world would choose! Ning had been training for a much shorter period of time. There were many, many places just within the Flamedragon Realmverse which he had never visited. And, as a Daolord, his lifespan was limited to just 108,000 chaos cycles. There was simply no need for him to wander about other realmverse and enjoy the sites there.

If he could revive her... if he could speak with her once more... that would the happiest moment of his life. He had no interest in wandering the outside world by himself. The realmship was meaningless to Ning; the only thing it was good for was in trade for asking an Autarch to help him out.

“I’ll have to ask Emperor Goldisle and Emperor Blackcloud to help out and invite an Autarch over,” Ning mused. The Dao Alliance had certain links to the other realmverses. Through the Dao Alliance, he would be able to send word to an Autarch.

“I’ll go visit Ninedust first.” Ning suppressed his excitement and led Whitethaw to continue the advance. Thanks to the realmship resonance, Ning knew the rough area Ninedust was in and thus was able to find him fairly quickly.

......

Things were quite calm on Ning’s side... but a storm was about to erupt within the Endless Territories. All the major powers, reclusive Emperors, and countless Daolords had just received word of something absolutely shocking... one of the eight lords of the Sacred Cities, Archon Silksnow, had perished!

Archon Silksnow had been one of the eight lords of the Sacred Cities, which meant he had a lifeblood tower within the Palace of Immortals of the Dao Alliance. In the exact instant that Ning had forced him to commit suicide, his lifeblood tower had crumbled! This news quickly stunned the entire Palace of Immortals, and word quickly spread out.

There was no need for this news to be suppressed or hidden. All the Emperors found out, as did the countless Daolords.

Archon Silksnow had died? An exalted Archon of the Sacred Cities... it was possible to beat them, but to kill them was far, far too difficult. Even Hegemons found it extremely hard to kill one of them.

Who killed him? How did he die? The entire Endless Territories was in a state of turmoil.

......

Ning didn’t care about any of this. He continued to advance through the Jadfire Realm, following the realmship resonance. Finally, he passed through the flaming tunnels and reached the prison region, arriving directly at Ninedust’s prison.

“Ninedust.” Ning immediately saw a silver-robed man seated in the lotus position within a cage of flames. It was the Ninedust Sectlord. Ning couldn’t help but to laugh loudly and call out to him.

“Darknorth.” When Ninedust opened his eyes and saw Ning, he immediately revealed a look of delight.

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