The Desolate Era

The Hiddenfiend Realmverse. The Blacksun.

An old man was seated atop an extremely slick boulder within a secluded courtyard. This old man had a large, tousled beard and mussed-up hair. His eyebrows were so messy that they were growing into a unibrow, giving him a very unkempt appearance. However, his face was extremely calm. His eyes were closed, and he just sat there silently in the lotus position. Each time he entered this form of silent meditation, it would last for varying amount of times. Sometimes, he could sit there for more than ten thousand chaos cycles.

Realmslord Windgrace enjoyed sitting quietly like this. When meditating, his spirit felt free and unencumbered. All sorts of thoughts and insights flowed through him. It was like both thinking and not-thinking at the same time.

At his level of insight, treasures which assisted in cultivation were of no further use. He had simply been training for far too long; he had already made breakthroughs in everything he possibly could. Right now, what he needed was a true epiphany... but true epiphanies could not be achieved via any treasures at all. The Autarch’s stone dais which Ning used simply allowed him to emulate a quasi-epiphany state that allowed him to train at incredibly faster speeds, but there was nothing it could do to allow him to breach a true bottleneck.

Once one had reached a bottleneck, no treasures would be of any use in assisting you in the breakthrough. Only insights and epiphanies would suffice.

“Eh?” An invisible tendril of power suddenly snaked its way through his empty spirit like a premonition. Realmslord Windgrace suddenly opened his eyes, a hint of surprise within them. Moments later, he regained his usual calm, but he frowned in thought: “I have the feeling that a terrifying force has just emerged, one which even I am incapable of controlling. And yet, I can sense that it should be connected to me. Is it within the Hiddenfiend Realm? Or is it elsewhere in the Sixteen Realmverses Alliance?”

The Sixteen Realmverses Alliance was his territory. Even a force as arrogant as the Icepeak Army wanted to first verify that Daolord Darknorth didn’t have a connection to Realmslord Windgrace before taking action. Even then, they chose to sneak into the Flamedragon Realmverse and would only act against Ji Ning and Ji Ning alone! They didn’t want to cause too much trouble. This was a testament to what a preeminent power Realmslord Windgrace was.

Generally speaking, the likes of Realmslord Windgrace or the Lonely King wouldn’t get involved in minor squabbles. Avoiding causing too much trouble was the key!

“If even I am incapable of controlling it... what could it be?” Realmslord Windgrace was puzzled. He immediately began to engage in some Numerancy divinations.

He had been a Hegemon for far, far too long; he was far more ancient that even Hegemon Brightshore. He had been a legendary figure even during the Dawn War, and he had been given guidance by more than one Autarch. He had reached an incredibly high level of insight into multiple Daos, and had mastered three Hegemonic Daos! However, the Dao of Numerancy was simply far too difficult to master. He had yet to reach even the Archon level in Numerancy; in fact, he was far from it. Most likely, he was merely on par with the level which Daolord Badlands would reach once the latter became a Daolord of the Fourth Step. Still, he was able to divine a few things.

“It is connected to me, and it is indeed something within the Sixteen Realmverses Alliance. However, no further details can be divined.” Realmslord Windgrace frowned. The uneasy feeling in his heart made it impossible for him to meditate calmly any further.

“I have no idea where Emperor Waveshift is. My only choice is to ask Blackwood to help out,” Realmslord Windgrace mused. Emperor Waveshift had obviously reached terrifying heights in the Dao of Numerancy; he had actually reached the Hegemon level in this Dao! Although he was a bit weak in actual combat, he had reached the apex of Numerancy for anyone aside from the Autarchs! Thus, not even the likes of Realmslord Windgrace or the Lonely King were willing to offend Waveshift. Everyone treated him with the utmost of respect.

Realmslord Windgrace’s first reaction was to seek out Waveshift... but alas, he was unable to find him and thus could only ask Blackwood for assistance. Although Hegemon Blackwood only trained in Numerancy as a secondary Dao, he had at least reached the Archon level in Numerancy and thus was still incredibly skilled.

......

A planet that was 900 million kilometers in diameter. This planet was surrounded by eight gigantic azure wooden boards, each of which was 1.8 billion kilometers tall, 36,000 kilometers wide, and 9000 kilometers thick.

There were no living creatures on this planet, just a single bearded man who was seated on the vast earth. This was Hegemon Blackwood.

Rumble... the eight titanic wooden boards slowly swiveled around the planet. They moved like the functioning of the cosmos itself, carrying a strange, unique cadence to them.

Whoosh. Hegemon Blackwood suddenly opened his eyes. His face was a bit ashen. The eight azure wooden boards surrounding the planet quickly flew towards him and landed on his back.

“My calculations are complete. It happened in the Flamedragon Realmverse.” Hegemon Blackwood nodded slowly. “A terrifying new power has emerged, so strong as to be completely impossible. My subconscious is warning me that it is even more dominating than Realmslord Windgrace himself.”

“Who does this new force represent? Can it be that a Hegemon has discovered yet another Sithe war machine?” Hegemon Blackwood couldn’t help but come to this conclusion. Terrifying Sithe war machines were capable of terrifying amounts of power. Some were stronger, some were weaker; for example, although Ning’s chain weapons had incredible suppressive and absorptive powers, they had to first be wrapped around a cultivator successfully. This meant that they were fairly unique, but of limited use in combat.

The Blacksun, however... it was just a single item, but it was capable of changing the results of an entire battlefield during the Dawn War. Realmslord Windgrace had just one Sithe war machine while the Lonely King had several, but the two were equal in status. This was why.

......

“The Flamedragon Realmverse?” After Realmslord Windgrace received Hegemon Blackwood’s response, he immediately sent a message: “Brightshore, Netherlily, Windrain, I believe a terrifying new force has emerged within your Flamedragon Realmverse, one which is beyond my abilities to control. You need to keep a close eye on your realmverse. Once anything unusual happens, you need to immediately inform me and I’ll head there right away.”

“Understood.”

“We sensed something as well, a terrifying sense of pressure.”

“We’re already searching for it.” After receiving the word from Realmslord Windgrace, all three Hegemons felt slightly more confident. If even Realmslord Windgrace was able to sense it, then that meant that they could ask him to intervene and help out if something happened.

And so Brightshore, Netherlily, and Windrain, alongside the Dao Alliance (which also received orders from Realmslord Windgrace), began to scour the Flamedragon Realmverse in an attempt to find any hints about what the premonitions entailed. Alas, the Flamedragon Realmverse remained extremely peaceful. Nothing happened at all.

......

Time flowed on. More than six million years went by after the Flamewing God’s release.

Whoosh. A realmship suddenly appeared at the borders of the Flamedragon Realmverse. Just one person was within the realmship. This person was dressed in azure robes and stood tall. He didn’t have any weapons on him at all, and his gaze was warm and calm, seemingly capable of seeing through to the truth of everything. When he saw the Flamedragon Realmverse appear before him, he revealed a hint of a smile: “I’m back. Flamedragon Realmverse... I, Waveshift, am back!”

This was the legendary Emperor Waveshift! In the vast Chaosverse, his web of connections was far superior to even Realmslord Windgrace. Although Windgrace was much stronger than him, the major powers located in distant realmverses and otherverses didn’t care about Windgrace at all because they would probably never meet the man! There would never be anything they would need from Realmslord Windgrace... but there were many who needed favors from Emperor Waveshift.

“The feeling of coming home...” Emperor Waveshift commanded his realmship forwards, joy in his heart as he stared at the Flamedragon Realmverse.

Emperor Waveshift had a very unique aura. It was quite transcendent, almost as though he was a spectator viewing the vast Chaosverse from a lofty height.

“I never would’ve imagined that my homeland, the Flamedragon Realmverse, would’ve produced such an incredible figure that even I would sense it from afar.” Emperor Waveshift had a smile on his face. He had reached such incredible heights in the Dao of Numerancy that he would have premonitions whenever anything momentous happened in his homeland, the Flamedragon Realmverse. He could sense when a new Hegemon was born, and could also sense when the Flamewing God came out alongside Ning.

“Time for me to visit this incredible newcomer.” Emperor Waveshift smiled. Swoosh! His realmship tore through spacetime and began to advance towards Vastheaven Palace.

Given Emperor Waveshift’s skills in Numerancy, he was able to divine where the terrifying new force was currently located. Thus, he was able to continuously move closer towards it with ease! He couldn’t even be bothered to engage in repeated divinations. Instead, he tore through spacetime and went straight to the Vastheaven Everworld. He used the information he knew regarding the entire Flamedragon Realmverse to engage in reverse-divination, skimming through the countless lines of karma to find what he wanted to know.

“It is highly probable that this incredible newcomer is that genius Daolord, Daolord Darknorth, who has managed to develop an Omega Dao.” Upon reaching the Flamedragon Realmverse, Emperor Waveshift quickly came to a few rough conclusions. If his conclusions were wrong, he would then engage in a few more divinations to come to a more detailed level of understanding.

Emperor Waveshift stood there within the void outside the Vastheaven Everworld, staring at everything within it. “Ah. My guesses were correct.” Emperor Waveshift nodded slowly.

The Chaosverse was filled with countless lines of karma. Although Ning was able to ‘see’ karma, it must be remembered that even ordinary mortals were bound by countless lines of karma. Think about how many people lived in everworlds! Everworlds were filled with so much karma, they were like seas of smoke; there was simply no way to make anything out clearly. Emperor Waveshift, however, was different. When he viewed the Waveshift Everworld, he knew that his guesses were correct.

“This new power is indeed within the Vastheaven Everworld. Daolord Darknorth, eh? I want to see just how terrifyingly powerful this new force is.” Emperor Waveshift took a single step forwards and entered the Vastheaven Everworld.

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