The Desolate Era

The three most powerful Emperors of the Aeonian race were all covered in blazing flames which began to reach out and connect to each other, slowly forming a strange diagram of a giant claw-shaped hand. This looked like the technique which Autarch Bolin had left behind in that beastworld.

Rumble. The flames from the ignited Aeonian blood instantly reached out to cover all three Emperors. Swoosh! They were teleported straight into the estate-world.

“Let’s move as fast as we can.” The three Emperors stared at the void around them, then turned to look at the astral river. They knew that they had already arrived, and Emperor Anchen shouted anxiously, “If we’re late, things will be even more difficult.”

“Let’s go.” Whoosh! Emperor Anchen generated a dimensional wave and led the other two Emperors with him as he instantly vanished.

This world was extremely stable; not even Hegemons would be able to forcibly tear through spacetime, much less them! However, mere dimensional teleportation was much simpler, as it was merely an evasion-art which rode dimensional waves across fairly short distances.

“There we are.” After the third dimensional wave, they appeared in the skies above that enormous, strange planet within the astral river.

“No...!” Emperor Islehide’s face instantly turned pale, and his scarlet eyes instantly turned blood-red. “The tree! Our omnigeddon bloodfruit tree has vanished!”

Emperor Anchen and Emperor Duug stared as well. They saw that off in the distance, there were ripples of energy spreading outwards and pushing aside the surrounding mist. The three of them were able to see that nothing more than a giant crater was left where the omnigeddon bloodfruit tree had been, and within the crater was a giant figure which was holding onto the Autarch’s blood and seeking to take it away.

“Not only did he take away our omnigeddon bloodfruit tree, he also wants to take away the Autarch’s blood?” Emperor Anchen was so enraged that he ground his teeth to the point of shattering.

“That’s Daolord Darknorth and the Ninedust Sectlord!” Emperor Islehide immediately recognized that Ji Ning was the one holding onto the Autarch’s blood, while the figure next to the crater was that of Ninedust. Emperor Islehide had met the two of them after the Waveshift Realm adventure, and he had even purchased some fruit from Ning. Now, however, they had become mortal enemies!

“These two are nothing more than Daolords... yet they dare to try and steal one of the foundations of our Aeonian race?” Emperor Anchen only grew even angrier. “Kill!”

“Kill them both,” Emperor Duug growled as well.

“Kill.” Emperor Islehide felt just as murderous as the others. They held these two Daolords in no regard at all. They were the three most powerful Emperors of the Aeonian race! They normally viewed Daolords as young children; they were so powerful that eating Daolords was of very little help to them. Weaker Emperors like Melobo, however, did like to eat the Daolords of the Dao Alliance, as did the other Daolords of the Aeonian race. This was why the Dao Alliance and the Aeonians were mortal enemies.

......

Ning had transformed to become utterly titanic, and his six arms had reached out to grab the drop of Autarch’s blood as he sought to seize it. With each attempt, he saw those countless connecting lines appear throughout this entire world.

“These threads?” Ning stared at them carefully. He wanted to try and discern just how this drop of Autarch’s blood was connected to the rest of the world and how he could separate them. If he could come up with a way to sever the connection, it would be much easier for him to take away that drop of Autarch’s blood.

Ning had spent over 10 million years breaking through those 80,000+ formations. He had already grown accustomed to analyzing and dissecting his problems.

“The Aeonians!” Ninedust let out a startled cry from the skies above Ning.

Ning was startled upon hearing this. He turned his head, only to see three figures charging through the skies towards him with looks of absolute murder on their faces. Ning immediately recognized one of the three as Emperor Islehide, who had negotiated with him previously. Although he had never met the other two before, he had learned of them long ago and knew them to be extremely powerful Emperors of the Aeonian race named Emperor Anchen and Emperor Duug.

Emperor Islehide, Emperor Anchen, and Emperor Duug. These three were all comparable to the eight Archons of the Sacred Cities. But of course, much like ‘first-tier’ Daolords there were differences in power within this general stratum and amongst these three Aeonian Emperors.

Different weapons, different secret arts, different ultimate attacks... in short, there were many things that could cause a difference in power. Thanks to their Aeonian bloodlines, all three of these Aeonian Emperors were extremely strong. The youthful-looking black-robed Emperor Anchen was the strongest of the three, the most powerful member of the Aeonian race! Supposedly, his techniques were incredibly frightening and he had access to a Universe treasure. He probably wasn’t much weaker than a Hegemon in might.

“Clan leaders,” Ninedust sent anxiously, “You said that any cultivators who come here must pass your trials. The three Emperors of the Aeonian race should also have to pass the trials, right?”

“Of course.” The sea dragon leader nodded.

“Agreed.” The flaming equine leader nodded its massive head as well.

The sea dragon leader flew into the skies, coiling around itself in midair as it let out a deep, rumbling bellow: “Halt, Emperors.”

“If you do not halt, you shall be attacked by both of our races at the same time.” The flaming equine stood there on the ground, its entire body blazing with flames as it let out a furious, awesome roar.

“HALT!” There were nearly two hundred beasts in this area, and they roared out this word in unison with unstoppable majesty.

Swish! Swish! Swish! The three Emperors who had been diving downwards through the skies came to a screeching halt, ugly looks on their faces.

“He’s uprooted our omnigeddon bloodfruit tree, and now he wants to take away the Autarch’s blood!” Emperor Anchen stood there in the skies, staring angrily at the distant sea dragon leader as he bellowed, “We Aeonians are definitely going to kill these two thieves! Daolord Darknorth, Ninedust Sectlord... the two of you really are quite bold! How DARE you steal treasures from the ancestral grounds of the Aeonian race?!”

“Ancestral grounds?” Ning flew over to Ninedust, and the two stared back at the three Emperors. With the two races of beasts standing guard over them, they didn’t panic.

“Our two clans are here on the Autarch’s orders to protect this place. Anyone who wishes to benefit from the Autarch’s blood must first pass our trials. Our young friend Darknorth has done so, which means that we are in compliance with the Autarch’s orders. Even if he wishes to take the blood away, there’s nothing wrong with that,” the sea dragon leader said. “But you three? If you also pass the trials, we won’t interfere if you want to kill these two... but if you cannot, we have no choice but to protect our young friends.”

“B-but...” Emperor Islehide spluttered furiously.

“Just pass the trials. Easy, right? Come one at a time and defeat both of our races, that’s all you have to do,” the sea dragon leader said.

Emperor Anchen and the others had ugly looks on their faces. Defeat the two races in succession? Every single one of the flaming equines and sea dragons had reached the Archon level, with the clan leaders being even stronger. Only a true Hegemon would have a chance at surviving an assault from so many of these creatures. Emperor Anchen had already given it a try long ago, but he wasn’t even close to being able to succeed.

“But we are the Aeonians. This is our territory!” Emperor Anchen said furiously.

“No, this is the AUTARCH’S territory. The only thing we know and care about is the Autarch’s command,” the sea dragon leader said.

“B-b-but... but that omnigeddon bloodfruit tree belongs to our Aeonian race!” Emperor Anchen said.

“Hahaha! You were all too weak and unable to make much use of the Autarch’s blood, which was why you planted that omnigeddon bloodfruit tree here all those years ago. Over the course of countless aeons, you have harvested countless fruits from this tree... and the value of those fruits vastly exceeded the value of the original tree itself.” The sea dragon leader continued, “You’ve earned enough. Since our young friend Darknorth has passed our trials, he gets to decide what to do with the omnigeddon bloodfruit tree, not you.”

“But its ours! It belongs to the Aeonians!” Emperor Islehide was growing anxious as well. The omnigeddon bloodfruit tree had undergone a thorough transformation. Even if it lost access to the Autarch’s blood, it was still comparable in value to twelve ordinary trees. It truly was a marvelous treasure.

Most importantly of all... when it was able to absorb essence from the Autarch’s blood, the unique fruits it gave birth to were more than ten times more valuable than normal ones, making the tree close in value to Crimsonwave Temple! The Aeonians absolutely viewed it as important as life itself. Once they lost this tree, they’d have to wait millions of chaos cycles before any new tree they planted over the blood would have absorbed enough essence to transform.

But... in roughly a million chaos cycles, the Yin-Yang Samsara Wheels would destroy the Endless Territories! There was no way they could rear a second tree. This marvelous tree was literally one of a kind. They had already started to accumulate fruits long ago, as once the Yin-Yang Samsara Wheels destroyed everything this entire world would probably be devoured and destroyed as well. They would no longer have access to any more fruits! In the final million chaos cycles, they were planning to absorb as much of the essence from the Autarch’s blood as they could... and they were even planning to shatter the tree apart and drain the essence the tree had taken in from the Autarch’s blood.

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