The Desolate Era

“They can try.” Ji Ning really wasn’t afraid at all. He then raised his head to look at the realmsoul and asked, “Senior, how am I to return to the second world?”

“Simple. Every single world has a map diagram covering the ground.” Realmsoul Polo pointed towards the great floating island Ning had started off on. It was true that the floating island did indeed have a inky circular diagram that was roughly nine meters in diameter, and the diagram was covered with black runes that seemed quite mysterious.

“Just step into that diagram. In ten breaths worth of time, you’ll be transported straight to the throne of the second world. The second world and the first world both have similar diagrams in them,” Realmsoul Polo said.

“Oh?” Ning thought back to what he had seen. Indeed, it was true. However, since Crimsonwave Temple was covered with so many sculptures, paintings, and diagrams, at the time Ning hadn’t realized the inky circle had meant anything.

“To the second world, then.” Ning put away the ninth command talisman, then immediately transformed into a streak of light as he flew down the dais. He first walked past the tri-colored chains, enduring the pain they brought him, then continuously shifted his truesoul aura as he walked past the seven-colored chains.

“The last Voidsea Jadeseal has been seized by Daolord Feich!” Realmsoul Polo’s voice reverberated throughout every inch of Crimsonwave Temple. “All three of the remaining Voidsea Jadeseals have been collected. Daolords, hurry up and do your best to acquire the command talismans. They are far more valuable than the Voidsea Jadeseals, and every single talisman is more than valuable enough to drive Eternal Emperors mad with desire. They represent enormous amounts of valuable fruits... and right now, only five of them remain!”

Ning was still walking on the seven-colored chains. When he heard Realmsoul Polo said this, he couldn’t help but feel so angry that he ground his teeth until they nearly broke. The realmsoul really wanted to just see the world thrown into chaos!

However, the realmsoul had merely spoken the truth. The fruits truly were more valuable than the Voidsea Jadeseals! Even Hegemons grew excited over these fruits, while the Dao Alliance was dazzled by the prospect of acquiring them. In terms of price and value, they were indeed far more valuable than Voidsea Jadeseals! To Daolords, however, supreme Daomerge treasures were naturally more important than anything else, no matter how valuable.

“Only five of the command talismans remain? It seems Ninedust has acquired one as well.” Ning had been planning to head to the second world, but after exiting the seven-colored chains he immediately flew like a streak of light towards the Ninedust Sectlord’s location.

......

Whoosh. “Ah, good. They haven’t arrived yet,” Ning mused to himself as he reached Ninedust’s passageway.

At present, the only person within the passageway was Ninedust and Ninedust alone! What Ning didn’t realize was that when Realmsoul Polo had publicly announced that he had acquired the ninth command talisman, all of the supreme Daolords who had been fighting over the Voidsea Jadeseal in the second world began to grow anxious. “That means Darknorth is probably going to come here and fight with us over the Voidsea Jadeseal as well. His assassination arts are extremely terrifying to deal with. We need to end this faster!”

The battle had already been ferocious to begin with. Once word that Ning might be arriving spread, the battle reached a fever pitch before finally Daolord Feich ended up seizing the Voidsea Jadeseal.

Although he had managed to acquire it, he was a low-key supreme Daolord who was only on par with Fiendqueen Dustrain and the others. The other Daolords weren’t willing to accept this result and so the battle continued.

“Eh?” Ning arrived at Ninedust’s passageway. He immediately saw the rhomboid stone pillar and the words atop of it introducing the [Vitalis] art. When he then looked at the seven-colored chains and the tri-colored chains, he immediately understood that all of the passageways contained the same techniques with them.

Ning had been hoping that perhaps the three passageways would all contain different techniques!

“Ninedust is still inside.” Ning stared at the temporal acceleration cottage in front of the tri-colored chains. Ninedust was inside that cottage. “It seems he has yet to master the [Daoheart] technique.”

In terms of Dao-heart strength, Ning was indeed significantly superior to Ninedust; Ning was a Heartforce Cultivator, after all!

......

The third world, Ninedust’s passageway. Ning sat there on the rocky ground in the lotus position by himself. Due to the barrier in front of him, there was no way for him to step onto the rainbow chains. Each supreme Daolords was only permitted to choose one passageway; there was no way to enter the other ones.

After waiting for four full hours, Ning suddenly opened his eyes.

Whoosh! A streak of light flew towards him, resolving into the form of a black-robed figure who looked at the seated Ning. The black-robed figure said, “Brother Darknorth, I must congratulate you. If I had known things would end up like this, I would’ve joined you in fighting over the command talismans.”

“Brother Winesage, my guess is that most of the other supreme Daolords have joined forces.” Ning rose to his feet. “It looks as though you are still on your own. Why don’t you join forces with me and Ninedust?”

“Haha, why should I join forces with anyone?” Winesage scanned the area. “Darknorth, can you tell me which passageway still has all of its command talismans?”

“That one.” Ning pointed towards the third passageway.

“Thank you.” Winesage immediately flew in that direction.

Just a short while later, Ning saw a large group of individuals be teleported into the third world atop the stone island before him. There were a total of twelve supreme Daolords, with the leader being a devilish violet-robed figure whose eyes gleamed with violet light and who had long, unbound black hair. The other eleven supreme Daolords were clearly following him.

“Darknorth?” When the violet-robed devil saw Ning, he smiled a cold smile. “What a coincidence. We actually ran into Daolord Darknorth.”

“King Paleos?” Ning was surprised. After entering the Waveshift Realm, he had never heard anything that indicated King Paleos was a particularly powerful Daolord. King Paleos was a member of the Aeonian race! He was very low-key, and everyone in the outside world believed him to merely be a second-tier Daolord. The most famous Daolord of the Aeonian race had been King Gorsch... but now, it seemed, King Paleos was also quite powerful.

Boom! Rainbow light swirled around the air above them, forming into the towering figure of a white-robed man.

“All surviving Daolords have reached the third world. Let me explain... the third world has a total of three passageways! Every single Daolord is only permitted to challenge a single passageway. Originally, each passageway held three command talismans within them, with the total value in each being roughly the same! But of course, only five command talismans remain.” Realmsoul Polo’s voice echoed throughout the world.

As the realmsoul was speaking, Ning received certain news from the Brightshore Kingdom. “What?!” Ning was shocked. The Dao Alliance had issued a new Daolord ranking!

In recent years, the Daolord rankings had changed to a shocking degree.

“Daolord Dreamlore ranks number three?”

“King Paleos ranks number six?”

“Daolord Skyaxe died?”

“King Cliffbank died?”

Ning was completely stunned when he saw the new rankings. A total of six supreme Daolords had died in the fight over the final Voidsea Jadeseal, and the Daolord rankings had completely changed. The first was Winesage, the second was Darknorth, the third was Dreamlore, the fourth was Palace Lord Dawnstar, the fifth was the Radiant King, the sixth was King Paleos, the seventh was Daolord Owlblack, the eighth was Ninestone, the ninth was Daolord Skyshatter, and the tenth was Daolord Tigrone...

A brand new group of supreme Daolords had arisen! Many had been very low-key in the past and not very well known, but in the fight over the Voidsea Jadeseal they had revealed their fierceness.

......

King Paleos’ violet eyes were focused on Ning. He said coldly, “Only five of the nine command talismans remain. You, Darknorth, should’ve acquired three of them. Your ally, the Ninedust Sectlord, seems to have acquired one as well... but the twelve of us haven’t acquired so much as a single one, nor have we acquired any Voidsea Jadeseals. Daolord Darknorth, don’t you think this is a bit unfair?”

“Daolord Darknorth.” Fiendqueen Dustrain was behind King Paleos, and she spoke out in a similarly cold voice, “We don’t ask for much. We can forget about the other two talismans, nor will we force the Ninedust Sectlord to hand over his. The ninth command talisman, however... you must hand it to us! Hand us the ninth command talisman and we won’t cause you any trouble.”

“Hand over the ninth command talisman.”

“Hand it over, Daolord Darknorth.”

“Not even Winesage is a match for us. Darknorth, you should go ahead and hand it over.”

King Paleos and the other supreme Daolords all stared at Ning. They were all supreme Daolords. If they were in a smaller group of just four or five, they might be very nervous when facing Ning, but there were twelve of them right now; they wouldn’t be afraid of even Winesage! In fact, they had already battled against Winesage earlier. Why would they fear Daolord Darknorth?

Thus far, the twelve of them had acquired nothing at all. If they were able to harvest the fruits of the ninth command talisman, they would be able to split the harvest and trade for some rare materials from the various Hegemons or the Dao Alliance. In that way, at least, their visit to the Waveshift Realm wouldn’t have been in vain.

Ning frowned. The command talismans represented the fruits of the Crimsonwave Temple, so valuable that the Dao Alliance and the Hegemons were going crazy over them. The ninth command talisman was the most valuable and an absolutely priceless item. Ning was planning on using them to rescue Yu Wei!

Clang! Clang! Clang! Ning’s body blurred as he manifested three heads and six arms. Six streaks of golden light immediately shot out from his back and landed in his hands.

The three-headed, six-armed, white-robed youth stared coldly at the supreme Daolords, six Northbow swords at the ready. “Cut the crap, you pack of fools. Come and die!”action