Desolate Era

Anywhere from 30,000 chaos cycles to 100,000 chaos cycles? Ji Ning and Ninedust exchanged a glance, the same thought running through both their minds: when the competition over the Voidsea Jadeseals concluded, the two of them would definitely have to do their best to acquire some of the fruit.

Ji Ning felt particularly eager. Although the Voidsea Jadeseal was perhaps more valuable, Ning also knew that it would be of limited use to him. The Daomerge for his Omega Sword Dao was simply going to be so incredibly difficult that he felt zero confidence in his abilities to succeed in it. As a result, he viewed the fruits with great importance as well.

Given how badly the various Hegemons and the Dao Alliance wanted the fruits, they might be of use to him in reviving his wife. As for the Daomerge? If he failed, he’d die. By now, Ning had seen past both life and death. If he could revive his wife and then happily live together alongside her and their daughter Brightmoon for over 100,000 chaos cycles, he really wouldn’t mind failing his Daomerge. His greatest wish was to bring his wife back. Ordinary mortals were only able to live for a hundred years; to be able to spend over 100,000 chaos cycles alongside his loved ones was a true blessing. What did he have to complain about?

“Dare I ask, senior,” Ning said, “How many of those fruit-picking command seals are there?”

“A total of nine in total, and they are each attuned to one of the nine regions,” the black earth golem said. “Each of the nine regions holds a different types of tree within them. Once you earn a command seal, you’ll be able to see all of the divine trees and fruits located within a certain region.”

“How much fruit is within each region?” Ning and Ninedust were surprised.

“Well… let’s use this current region, the third region, as an example. If you can acquired the third command seal, then I’ll harvest all 108,000 fruits on your behalf and give them to you,” the black earth golem said.

Ning immediately decided that he had to do his absolute utmost to acquire the command seals! Every single command seal represented an enormous number of fruits.

“Senior,” Ninedust immediately asked, “What good are these fruits? What can they be used for?”

“Pill-making!” The black earth golem explained, “They can be used to forge certain legendary pills that will drive any Eternal Emperors mad with desire.”

Ning asked, “Senior, which of the fruits in the nine regions are the most valuable?” Since there were nine command seals in total, he’d definitely have to try and find the most valuable one.

“Hey, this kid’s pretty smart.” The black earth golem chortled. “Then I’ll go ahead and tell you – the ninth command seal is the most valuable one. The fruits in the ninth region ripen once every 100,000 chaos cycles! The sixth, seventh, and eighth command seals are equivalent in value; those fruits ripen once every 90,000 chaos cycles! The third, fourth, and fifth command seals correspond to fruits that ripen once every 60,000 chaos cycles, while the fruits for the first and second command seals are the least valuable, ripening once every 30,000 chaos cycles.”

Ning’s eyes lit up as he memorized this. “Thank you, senior.”

“Darknorth, if we join forces we should be able to seize at least a few of those command seals,” Ninedust said.

“Haha…. quite a few supreme Daolords will be taking part in this. Count your blessings if you can even seize one of them,” the black earth golem laughed merrily. He then quickly dissipated, his body reverting to chunks of dirt that fell down to the ground.

“That little chat with the Grovekeeper really brought my spirits up,” Ninedust chortled. “Let’s keep charging.”

“Right.” Ning was filled with eagerness as well. “Attack!” The two charged forwards, side-by-side.

After chatting with the Grovekeeper, Ning now understood more about this place. This was a place which the Sithe had used to train their Daolords and give them more combat experience, helping them discover flaws in their techniques. Naturally, there was no way they would allow heartworld projections or secret arts to be used, as that would defeat the entire purpose.

From this alone, it seemed clear that the many varied techniques these warriors used would indeed give Ning many new insights into his Omega Sword Dao.

……

At the entrance to the Crimsonwave Temple.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! One figure after another charged through the entrance, not even wanting to waste time admiring the characters ‘Crimson’ ‘Wave’ ‘Temple’ above them.

“Eh?” There were seven figures in total, and they all stared in shock at the two hideous, towering, black-skinned, green-furred, golden-eyed figures in front of them. The aura in particular caused all seven of these supreme Daolords to shudder.

“Hegemons?” All seven of them were stunned.

Streams of rainbow light manifested next to them, resolving into a white-robed man who smiled at them. “Do not be alarmed. These two are not Hegemons, but they did have power comparable to a Hegemon’s. They are the most powerful guardians which were produced by the Sithe race, who created them at enormous expense to watch over Crimsonwave Temple. However, the two of them were killed and Crimsonwave Temple ended up in my master’s hands.”

The seven supreme Daolords were just as stunned as Ning had been when he had heard this information. Realmsoul Polo couldn’t help but feel smug; he was extremely proud of his master.

“Where are Winesage and Darknorth?” A silver-robed figure amongst the seven spoke out. This was Palace Lord Cloudwalker.

“They’ve gone inside to seek out the Voidsea Jadeseals. These three corridors head to three different places, and there is a Voidsea Jadeseal at the end of each.” Realmsoul Polo pointed towards three deep blue hallways that appeared at the other side of the temple. The seven supreme Daolords instantly turned anxious upon hearing this. The realmsoul continued, “But don’t be impatient; the Voidsea Jadeseals are not so easily won. Although you’ve arrived nearly a year later than them, you still stand a very good chance at earning the seals. But of course, that’s only if you work together.”

“Which tunnels did they choose?” Daolord Dreamlord, bloodblade in his arms, spoke out in a cold voice.

“They separated and chose to go through all three tunnels,” Realmsoul Polo said. “The rest is up to you and luck.” After finishing his words, he dissipated.

The seven supreme Daolords in the temple exchanged a glance. “Damn the two of them. Winesage and Darknorth repeatedly used their heartworld projections to slow us down, forcing us to gather together to resist them in unison. Otherwise, we would’ve reached Crimsonwave Temple long ago.”

“Let’s cut the crap. What should we do next?”

“Have you decided where we should go?”

“We arrived later than them to begin with. If we work by ourselves, we won’t have any chance at all.”

The seven supreme Daolords weren’t fools. They quickly decided to separate up into two squads. The first squad consisted of Ninestone, Palace Lord Cloudwalker, Shaka, and Snowjoy.

The second squad consisted of Dreamlord, Tigrone, and Skyshatter.

“Which one should we choose? They’ve already gone up ahead of us. I wonder which path Winesage choose?” Both squads worried the most about running into Winesage. Even someone as incredibly powerful as Ning, who was able to suppress the ‘old’ Winesage in might, had been completely crushed by Winesage when the latter had used his Universe treasure. Ning’s only choice had to been to rely on the speed and concealing properties of his Shadowless evasion art in order to escape.action

“If we run into Winesage, we’ll be in serious trouble.” This is what both squads were worried about.

“Based on my understanding of Winesage…” Daolord Skyshatter had an ugly scar on his face, and his voice was very cold. “Although he looks calm and collected, he’s an extremely arrogant and domineering person who views himself as without peer amongst Daolords! Now that he has a Universe treasure, he’s only going to feel even more arrogant than he did in the past. He would naturally choose the central hallway.”

“Mm. Then let’s avoid that one.” There really was no other options; the Waveshift Realm placed tight restrictions on spacetime techniques, and the situation inside Crimsonwave Temple was even worse. It was completely impossible for them to use temporal inversion to see what happened here.

“Then we’ll take the left,” Palace Lord Cloudwalker said.

“We’ll take the right,” Daolord Dreamlore said.

……

The dimensional walkway of the first world inside the Crimsonwave Temple. Ning and Ninedust had already battled their way past countless warriors, but more waves of those warriors continued to assail them. Right now, there was a total of twenty-nine warriors surrounding and assaulting them.

Whoooosh. The Ninedust Sectlord transformed into an enormous wave of water, his invulnerable aquaform having transformed into a vast sea. If he so chose, he would be able to easily transform into a sea that covered hundreds of millions of kilometers, if not more. The vast sea swept through all of the warriors, slowing them down and making it difficult for them to effectively work together.

In terms of impeding these armored warriors, the Ninedust Sectlord’s ‘invulnerable aquaform’ was far superior than the techniques Ning had available to him. No matter how strong Ning was, he was only able to block a few of the warriors at once, whereas Ninedust’s invulnerable aquaform was able to have an impact on all of them.

“Kill!”

“Kill!” This was a site which the Sithe had used to train their Daolords; a mere ‘invulnerable aquaform’ wouldn’t be able to defeat it that easily. The warriors moved closer to each other and the golden light in their eyes shone even more brightly, causing golden light to spring up amongst them and cause them to join together into a whole. This caused the impact of the vast waves to be greatly lessened.

As for Ning, he remained the mainstay in this fight. He furiously and laboriously seeking out opportunities to smash one warrior after another off of the dimensional walkway, despite the formation the warriors were using.

“Eh?” After knocking yet another warrior off, both Ning and Ninedust noticed something behind them. Three more figures had suddenly appeared at the other end of the dimensional walkway.

The first figure was a red-robed youth who was carrying a bloodblade in his arms, surrounded by a towering, baleful aura. This was Daolord Dreamlore, a man who had been very low-key up until he had defeated the Radiant King in his first major battle.

The second man was a muscular man dressed in extremely thick gray armor whose eyes glowed with green light. This was the most powerful Daolord the Aberrants had, Daolord Tigrone. His divine body was so tough that not even King Gorsch had been able to injure him in the slightest. Daolord Tigrone had been the main reason why King Gorsch had died.

The last one was an insidious, scar-faced man who looked extremely mysterious. All Ning knew was that he was a Daolord of the Dark Kingdom known as Daolord Skyshatter. His real level of power was a mystery.

“Darknorth!”

The gazes of Daolord Dreamlord, Daolord Tigrone, and Daolord Skyshatter all fell upon Ning.