Desolate Era

“Did you hear that? That little vilefiend just said he’s wiped out all life on this island several times,” Azurefiend said.

“Unsurprising,” Ji Ning replied. “This hidden dimension is within the Sithelands, which means that vilefiends can arise here! Although they are fairly weak without the power of a Daoguard Tower behind them, they are still enough to be absolute catastrophes for islands like this. In addition, vilefiends have essence springs located in other places. I can kill them with my sword and then locate and destroy their essence springs via karma, but the living beings on this island can only use all their strength to fight and kill the vilefiend time and time again without being able to truly exterminate it. Given enough time, the vilefiend will rise to power once more and then cause yet another calamity to descend upon this island.”

The Paragon of Pills sighed. “Vilefiends are nothing to us, but they represent apocalypse to the countless beings on this island.”

Hegemon Tia said, “Perhaps this is a method the Sithe use to train and temper the members of their race.”

“…Yes, that’s extremely possible.” Ning’s eyes lit up. Applying pressure via vilefiends could result in more powerful experts arising more frequently.

As they spoke, Ning and the others descended onto the island.action

“Attack!”

“Let’s launch an all-out assault!” The three humans were beginning to unleash their desperation attacks.

“Hahaha… desperation attacks? I’ll give you one final blow and annihilate any hope that you might still harbor. I’m looking forward to those looks of despair on your face, the despair that stems from the very depths of your soul… I can’t help but feel excited when I see those looks!” The vilefiend was actually shaking from anticipation.

Suddenly… slash! A streak of sword-light sliced through the vilefiend.

The vilefiend’s face still had that look of twisted joy on it, but a heartbeat later it completely disintegrated into dust. Ning’s sword followed the karma lines attaching it to its essence spring, destroying that as well. From this day forth, the vilefiend which had troubled this island and its many living beings for countless generations was no more.

“Helping you kill that vilefiend is a form of recompense for rifling through your memories.” Ning began to search through the memories of those three ‘Sithe’ humans. The fact that their attacks were infused with the power of the Dao meant that they were also natives of this Chaosverse, and so Ning treated them as humans rather than as Sithe. This was why he wished to ‘repay’ them for what he was doing.

“Master, now that you’ve killed that vilefiend, this island won’t suffer any more attacks. Doesn’t that mean that the tempering trial the Sithe set up is over?” Azurefiend asked.

“I don’t give a shit,” Ning said casually.

Azurefiend blinked. The Paragon of Pills, Hegemon Tia, Hegemon Flameleft, and Lord Annihilation all stared at Ning in shock. ‘I don’t give a shit’… how could words like this have come from the mouth of the peerlessly dazzling ‘Daolord Darknorth’?

There were many Emperors and Hegemons with foul dispositions and even fouler language. However, to the people present, Darknorth was a person of incomparably exalted stature, someone who was very nearly a peer of the Autarchs. They couldn’t help but feel a bit uncomfortable when they heard Ning say this.

In truth, Ning had a completely perfect Dao-heart. He’d say whatever he felt without needing to disguise it.

“Um. So what have you discovered?” the Paragon of Pills asked.

“They are just Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals. They know very little… but their memories do contain information regarding a legendary and ‘invincible’ figure who controls all sixty-three islands in this vast territory. That person is known to them as Archfiend Huabo, and he is so ‘unfathomably powerful’ that he has never been defeated and can wipe out an entire island with a wave of his hand.” Ning snickered. “Their memories indicate that Archfiend Huabo should know more about this place than them.”

Ning and the others left, and as they did the three humans regained consciousness.

“What just happened?”

“What’s going on?”

“Where’s the vilefiend?” All three of them were completely puzzled. When Ning had rifled through their memories, it hadn’t had a negative impact on them at all. It was like a brief moment of unconsciousness.

……

Archfiend Huabo was the ruler of sixty-three islands, and in truth he was a Daolord of the Fourth Step. In this era and amongst these weak cultivators, he truly was ‘invincible’! But to Ning and his team? A Daolord of the Fourth Step was still extremely weak, so weak that he could be exterminated with just a breath!

Archfiend Huabo was seated on his royal throne. Below him was a large number of beautiful women who were dancing for him, while at each side of the hall there were many chained beings who were being tortured and tormented.

He had an extremely strange personality and temperament. He was the undisputed hegemon of these sixty-three islands, and countless living beings had been tortured to death by him. He delighted in torture, in hearing their final screams and cries. This was what made him smile, and was the reason why he was known as the ‘Archfiend’.

A smile on his face, he watched the beautiful women dance while listening to the viperous curses and blubbering wails of his prisoners.

“Those fools. All of them ran off to the Sacred Realm, and for what? The Sacred Realm has many powerful experts there; we’d be nothing more than the crust on their boots,” Archfiend Huabo mused. “Staying behind is a much better decision. I’m virtually invincible here and can do whatever I want. Isn’t that wonderful? As for the Daomerge… hmph! Did they really think they would succeed in the Daomerge just because major powers in the Sacred Realm will provide them guidance? I hear that their success rates remain pitifully low.”

“Staying behind is definitely the better choice, ehehe… tomorrow, I’ll go capture a few more people. The ones in the prison have almost all died out by now.” Archfiend Huabo was in a superb mood. As for the beautiful dancers, all of them were quivering in fear, even if none of them dared to reveal it. They did their best to please the almighty Archfiend, for fear of being tortured to death as well.

Suddenly, a total of six people walked into the hall. The dance came to a halt, and the smile on Archfiend Huabo’s face suddenly froze. Even the steam coming from the cup of mulled wine by his side froze in midair. Time itself seemed to stop.

The six figures walking in were Ji Ning, the Paragon of Pills, Azurefiend, Hegemon Tia, Hegemon Flameleft, and Lord Annihilation.

Ning’s Sword Dao Domain had sealed down spacetime itself, causing time to freeze completely. The dancers and the Archfiend would have no recollection at all of what happened in this moment.

“Let’s take a look at their memories.” Ning was able to easily rifle through this Daolord’s memories. He finished after a few moments, then fell completely silent.

“How does it look?” The others all looked at Ning.

“This is going to be troublesome,” Ning said, then chuckled. “But we knew that from the beginning. Simply put, this Daolord’s memories indicate that this hidden dimension has a total of six ‘realms’ where mortals live, as well as an exalted ‘Sacred Realm’ and an evil, desolate ‘Purgatory’.”

“Together, the six mortal worlds, the Sacred Realm, and Purgatory form this entire hidden dimension,” Ning said. “At least, that’s what he believes and his memories indicate.”

“The six mortal realms are all extremely vast and are filled with countless mortals and many cultivators. However, only cultivators who become Samsara Daolords are qualified to enter the Sacred Realm! Of course, there are many Samsara Daolords who choose to stay behind in the six mortal realms instead, but if they DO succeed in the Daomerge and become Eternal Emperors, they are required to enter the Sacred Realm,” Ning said. “If they do not, then major powers shall descend from the Sacred Realm to capture and then punish them.”

The Paragon of Pills frowned: “It seems as though the ‘Sacred Realm’ is where all the major powers of this hidden dimension are gathered. What of this ‘Purgatory’, then?”

“The Purgatory is the place where extremely evil people and people who are being punished by the major powers shall be exiled to! That place is both dangerous and desolate,” Ning said. “My guess is that the most important parts of this dimension reside within the ‘Sacred Realm’!”

The most powerful people present in the six mortal realms were Daolords of the Fourth Step. The Sacred Realm was where the true major powers had gathered, which meant that there was a 99% chance that the core control mechanisms of this hidden dimension were located there as well.

“Are the countless living beings of this dimension truly Sithe progeny? And what is the history of this place?” Hegemon Flameleft asked.

“That’s not information a Daolord of the Fourth Step like him would know,” Ning said with a chuckle. “What we need to do is to head into the Sacred Realm!”

The Sacred Realm… it was undoubtedly filled with many major powers and terrifying Sithe traps. Ning wouldn’t be surprised if it had ten Daoguard Towers within it! Once they headed off to the Sacred Realm, a war would probably break out.

“How can we get there?” Azurefiend asked.

“Through the ‘Realmgate’,” Ning said. “However, now is not yet the time. Let’s wait for the Mistress’ three brothers to be revived before we head off to the Realmgate and enter the Sacred Realm.”

The Paragon of Pills smiled.

“Let’s go.” Ning glanced at Archfiend Huabo, who was still seated on his throne with a frozen grin on his face, then waved a finger. A streak of sword-light shot out, passing through the Archfiend’s skull and destroying his soul and truesoul. From this day forth, Archfiend Huabo, who had been the hegemon of these sixty-three islands for countless years, died as a result of people who literally came out of nowhere. Even as he died, he had no idea what was happening or who was killing him.

“M-master… you already looked through his memories. Why’d you kill him?” Azurefiend stared.

“It was precisely because I looked through his memories that I killed him.” Ning shook his head and muttered, “Absolutely filthy. I really couldn’t help myself.”

Ning’s group quietly slipped away, leaving behind a palace in a state of chaos.