Desolate Era

The black-robed Daolord sat within that fiery stone cave. Suddenly, he turned his gaze towards that levitating passageway. Deep within it, a bulky and muscular creature was crawling across the fiery stones. The creature was brandishing an enormous greataxe, chopping downwards with it time and time again. Just looking at this muscular creature, one would easily be able to tell what tremendous power this greataxe held within it. However, the greataxe was just barely able to split the blazing stones apart, and it took dozens of blows from the greataxe in order to ‘harvest’ a single piece.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The reverberations were quite weak by the time they made it to the black-robed Daolord.

“Moksha.” The black-robed Daolord called out to the creature. “Come here.”

“Yes, Master.” A rumbling voice rang out from below.

Whoosh.

A streak of light flew out from the depths of that levitating passageway, then landed within the fiery stone cave. This was a strange, incredibly muscular thing whose unclad body radiated a metallic light. Clearly, this was not a normal living creature. The creature held a black greataxe in its hands that was almost as long as he was tall, and upon entering he immediately knelt down respectfully. “Master, what is your bidding?”

The black-robed Daolord nodded. “Five World-level children have entered the Sacred Immortal Realm. Although they were merely at the World level, all of them can be said to have reached a level of power comparable to that of Daolords of the Second Step. The five of them have already entered my estate, and they are continuously advancing in this direction! I order you to go and wipe them out. Remember… no matter what, do not let them damage my ‘Prismatic Kiloleaf Flower’.”

“Moska understands,” the towering creature said respectfully.

“Then go,” the black-robed Daolord ordered.

The muscular creature instantly departed through the passageway as he continuously flew upwards. Soon, he reached the entry point to the bottommost layer of the estate.

The black-robed Daolord nodded slightly. He really didn’t care much about the death of that retainer, as the retainer had been someone who had only been able to break through thanks to a Pseudo Samsara Pill. His only real job was to assist the black-robed Daolord in torturing those mortal cultivators. Someone like the black-robed Daolord wouldn’t want to lower himself or waste his energy on tormenting mortals. He would simply order his subordinates to do it for him.

“Five absolutely incredible World-level cultivators. They most likely stand a good chance of becoming absolutely incredible Daolords. A pity.” The black-robed Daolord let out a soft sigh. “Why did you have to come here?”

……

Deep within the Daolord’s estate.

Ji Ning and the rest of the five were still advancing forwards.

“There has to be a tremendous secret deep hidden within this path,” Prince Greatjoy said. We’ve already encountered eight different restrictive seals on this path, and it took us tremendous amounts of effort to break through them. Why would they put this many seals here if this wasn’t an important place?”

“We’ve broken quite a few seals in the estate, but no foes have emerged to face us. There probably really aren’t any Daolords here,” Solewind laughed. “I hope everything will continue to be this easy. That would be just wonderful.”

“I hope that is the case as well.”

They advanced through the passageway, delving deeper and deeper through the various layers of the estate. Suddenly, an enormous stone door appeared at the end of the path before them. This stone door was covered by strange carvings which emanated a dark, sinful aura. Just looking at it made the five of them uncomfortable. In truth, they had all noticed that it seemed as though the entire estate was filled with the aura of hatred and sin, with the aura being especially pronounced in certain areas.

Crackle, crackle, crackle. Solewind’s heartworld projection and Ning’s sword-intent domain both slammed into the stone door.

Golden runes immediately appeared on the surface of the stone door and began to flow across it. The runes were incredibly powerful, and they weren’t damaged in the slightest by the attacks.

Heartlord Solewind carefully inexpected the formation which had just appeared atop the stone door. Of the five, Heartlord Solewind possessed the highest level of skill in the Dao of Formations. He spent quite a bit of time, head upraised, as he stared at the stone door.

“Do as I say,” Heartlord Solewind instructed. “Brother Ji Ning, strike out with your sword using maximum force and destroy the runes over here.”

His heartworld projection immediately caused a particular part of the runes to light up.

“Brothers Firesurge and Skyfire, the two of you shall attack these two places.” Heartlord Solewind once more left behind sparkles of light atop the stone door, this time pointing out two areas with runes at the very top and very bottom of the stone door.

“Brother Greatjoy, all you need to do is to launch full-strength blows against this door,” Solewind laughed. “Leave the rest to me.”

To use raw, brute force to breach the formations would be incredibly difficult. If you were skilled in the art of formations, things would be much easier. Even if you weren’t able to overcome the formation by yourself, if you could point out certain critical areas and then focus your efforts on those areas, it would be hundreds of times easier than simply trying to brute-force the entire thing.

“Everyone… attack!” Heartlord Solewind barked.

Swish!

Ning struck out with his sword.

The sword struck out without creating any sound, but in the instant that it stabbed against the divine runes, its might was fully unleashed along with a terrifyingly strong penetrative power. If Ning wished it, he would be able to tear space apart and enter a completely different spatial dimension. The runes were completely pierced through and ripped apart by Ning’s strike, resulting in the formation covering the stone door to begin to tremble.

In truth, a small part of such a large formation being destroyed normally wouldn’t have much of an impact. Only a critical part of the formation being destroyed would.

“Good.” Heartlord Solewind revealed a look of delight.

Ning’s sword was indeed quite terrifying. Previously, as they had been breaching one sealed barrier after another within the estate, they had encountered a particularly nettlesome barrier that not even Prince Greatjoy had been able to break. In the end, it was Ning who had stepped up and used his sword to stab through a critical part of the formation. All of them had been stunned by how terrifyingly strong Ning’s sword was.

In terms of raw, overwhelming attack power, Prince Greatjoy was the strongest of the five.

In terms of viciousness… Ning’s sword was the deadliest.

“Attack!” Skyfire Brightshore and Firesurge simultaneously attacked, the former using fire and the latter using water. These two were diametrically different types of energy, and they were equal in power. As a result, when they joined forces they resulted in an absolutely explosive amount of energy being unleashed. Skyfire had truly grown much stronger in recent years, perhaps because the twelve scrolls of the [Sutra of Eternity] was indeed an incredible technique. By now, Skyfire was just as strong as Firesurge, who had been the weakest member of the four elites of the Twelve Palaces.

“Break.” Prince Greatjoy sent his enormous golden palms crashing downwards towards the two sides of the closed stone door.

Rumble…

The sealing barrier twisted, no longer able to endure the surging power that had been brought to bear against it. With a rumbling sound, the closed stone door began to swing open as the barrier naturally broke apart.

The two sides of the stone door were smashed open by the twin palms, revealing an empty pavilion behind them.

“So we have reached the end of this passageway?” Ning and the others were all stunned. They had encountered multiple barriers on the way over and had felt certain that there would be another passageway beyond the stone doors. Who would’ve thought that it would instead be a pavilion?

Ning and the other four advanced with caution, surrounded by the heartworld projection and the sword-intent domain. They walked through the stone door and into the pavilion.

The empty pavilion was roughly thirty thousand meters in size. An extremely muscular form was seated within the pavilion. The creature was completely crimson in color, and even its eyes were blazing with fire. It didn’t look like an ordinary living creature at all.

“A golem?” Greatjoy frowned.

“What a powerful golem.” Solewind’s face tightened as well.

“The Daolord we killed was merely at the first step. Why is there such a powerful golem here?” Ning’s heart sank. They could all tell that this was nothing more than a powerful golem, but it was different from those weaker golems that had existed in the Sacred Immortal Realm. Those golems were at the Elder God level of strength at most. This one… it was at the Daolord level.

Its aura was so weighty and dense that there was no way an ordinary Daolord could match it in might.

Whoooosh. There was another stone door on the other end of the palace. That tightly sealed stone door was covered with a layer of deep green energy that radiated hatred, with the hatred so dense that furiously roaring faces would constantly appear on its surface. Unfathomable amounts of dense elemental energy were being gathered from the surrounding areas, then channel into and through the stone door.

“The hatred and malice is all gathering here? What on earth is behind that stone door?” Ning realized that they were getting very close to uncovering some of the secrets behind the Sacred Immortal Realm.

The five of them exchanged a glance, their hearts sinking. They all knew that this would most likely be the most deadly battle yet in this alternate universe… and that it was possible they might die here.

“We have entered the Archaeus region on the orders of our master. I’d like to ask for you to give way and release the five of us from this Sacred Immortal Realm,” Solewind said. “If there is anything you want from us, just tell us.”

The massive golem, seated in the lotus position, slowly raised his head and stared at Ning’s group with his fiery eyes. His lips parted in a savage smile as he rose to his feet, then stretched out his left hand. Instantly, an enormous black shield appeared within it. He then stretched out his right hand, causing an enormous greataxe to appear.

A shield in one hand, a greataxe in the other… and his aura completely exploded forth, sweeping through the entire palace and causing it to echo and thunder.

“I want…” The massive golem’s voice boomed forth, “For you all to die!”

BOOM!

The golem transformed into a streak of light as it charged straight towards Ning’s group.

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