Desolate Era

“The Dao Alliance covers too much territory. It has a total of eight Sacred Cities and is led by the Dao Alliance’s Palace of Immortals,” Daolord Solesky said. “Daolords normally head to the nearest Sacred City. This makes travel much simpler.”

Ji Ning nodded. The distance between each of the cities was incredibly far, and the journey would be filled with many dangers. To physically travel all the way from one Sacred City to another one across so many territories was simply too taxing.

“The closest Sacred City to us… given that you fly a bit faster than me, you should be able to make it there in around a thousand years,” Daolord Solesky said. “I’ve already reported the addition of a new Daolord within Vastheaven Palace to the Dao Alliance. Once you reach the Sacred City, first go and retrieve a Dao Alliance medallion. Otherwise, there will be many places within the Sacred City which you cannot enter.”

“Understood.” Ning nodded. The Dao Alliance did have enemies, such as the Dark Kingdom. There were many places within the Dao Alliance which outsiders simply were forbidden from entering!

“You can enter all eight of the Sacred Cities. The Dao Alliance’s Palace of Immortals, however, is our true core. No one is permitted to enter unless they are invited by the palace itself. Only then can they enter,” Daolord Solesky said. “Generally speaking, fairly powerful Daolords of the Fourth Step stand a good chance at receiving an invitation. Given how formidable you are, Ji Ning, you should be able to get an invitation in the future as well.”

Ning nodded.

The headquarters of the six major forces were all mysterious, inscrutable places. The Palace of Immortals was the most mysterious and the most powerful of the six. Supposedly, it held the secrets behind the reason why the Dao Alliance had been able to maintain supremacy for so long without falling. However, very few knew the truth behind those secrets.

“There’s one more thing I need to warn you about.” Daolord Solesky suddenly seemed to remember something. He immediately warned solemnly, “The Dao Alliance is simply enormous, and so it is quite chaotic as well. It holds many different organizations within it, and the eight Sacred Cities are all led by different organizations. Every single Sacred City has certain ancient, powerful freaks ruling them from the shadows. No matter what, you must not let yourself get dragged into the internal battles of the Dao Alliance. My guess is, once your true power is revealed, they’ll definitely try to recruit someone as talented as you into their fold.”

“The eight Sacred Cities all belong to different organizations?” Ning was amazed. “So there are at least eight different competing ‘branches’?”

“Nine main ones, actually. There are also many smaller organizations as well. To put it succinctly, the Dao Alliance is incredibly chaotic,” Daolord Solesky said. “Supposedly, this involves some of the deepest secrets of the Palace of Immortals. Daolords of the Fourth Step like me and Battlemaster would never dare to get involved in these matters. Only those old freaks and some truly unearthly Daolords would dare to get involved. Even if you do wish to get involved, you should only do so after becoming a Daolord of the Fourth Step yourself. Otherwise, you’ll end up dying without even realizing what is happening. The civil wars that erupt within the Dao Alliance are more vicious than anywhere else.”

Ning was speechless.

The reason why the civil wars within the Dao Alliance were so frenzied was actually because the other five major forces in the Endless Territories were too weak; they might occasionally take a few provocative actions against the Dao Alliance, but they would never dare to launch any large-scale wars.

……

Whoosh.

A vessel was soaring through the space of the primordial chaos. Atop the flying vessel were Su Youji, Daolord Pillsaint, and the white-robed Ji Ning.

They had already departed from Vastheaven Palace and had embarked upon an even greater journey.

“Master, this doesn’t seem to be the way to the Sacred City, is it?” Pillsaint was puzzled.

“We’re going to take a detour first. We’re going to my homeland first.” Ning smiled. “It isn’t too far away. We’ll go to the Sacred City of the Dao Alliance after that.”

“Your homeland?” Su Youji was curious. “Where is it?”

“You’ll know when you get there.” Ning chuckled. “However, you aren’t allowed to tell others as to where my homeland is located.”

“Understood,” Su Youji and Pillsaint both said. Ning nodded.

It would take a thousand years to get to the nearest Sacred City. By comparison, heading back to the Three Realms, given his current speed, would only take a century!

“Master and Windfiend are planning to leave the Three Realms after making their breakthroughs. They wish to go explore the Endless Territories and gain a better understanding of the greater world outside.” Ning frowned. “The spatial tunnel leading from the Badlands Territory to my homeland isn’t very stable, and there are many dimensional tears within it. If they aren’t lucky, they might end up being sucked into one of the tears and be teleported to who-knows-where.”

“It has been so many years, but I’ve heard no news of Mother Nuwa at all. I’m afraid that she must have been trapped within one of those tears and was teleported away.” This was Ning’s hypothesis.

That unstable vortex passageway was extremely dangerous. Given Ning’s level of power, he could use his sword-intent to suppress and stabilize the vortex, but how could Subhuti and the others possibly be strong enough to do the same?

“It seems I’ll have to engage in a bit of trailblazing. I’ll have to establish a safe and secure route from the Badlands Territory to the Three Realms,” Ning mused.

The many ‘safe routes’ on the star maps of the Endless Territories had all been discovered by countless generations of exploring cultivators.

“My Primaltwin is in the Three Realms, while I am outside of it. I can sense its rough location,” Ning mused to himself. “If I continue to go forwards, I’ll reach it sooner or later, and the path I cleared would be safe for future travelers. Since I’m as strong as a Daolord of the Fourth Step and have the Hegemon’s armor on me, a bit of trailblazing shouldn’t be too difficult.”

……

A hundred years later, they reached the borders of the Badlands Territory.

“Forward ho!” The flying vessel ventured deep into the unknown, unexplored parts of the endless primordial chaos.

Trailblazing was quite a dangerous decision, as you might encounter certain dangerous locations along the way. Ning only dared to do this because of how powerful he had become.

Ning sat there in the lotus position on the deck of his vessel. He could sense some of the dangers that were located within a certain distance from him. He was the master of the Omega Sword Dao, which was why he could in fact be titled as the ‘master of the Dao of the Sword’. The prime essence of the Dao of the Sword filled every inch of the universe, and it served as Ning’s ‘eyes’. The stronger Ning’s soul became and the higher level his insights into the Dao of the Sword reached, the greater distance he would be able to ‘see’ using the Dao of the Sword.

After much nurturing from the azureflower mist energy, Ning’s soul was now comparable to that of most Daolords of the Fourth Step.

Ning raised his head to stare off into the distance. “There is some danger roughly sixty trillion kilometers away from us. Most Daolords who enter that place will perish.”

A star map was located across Ning’s legs. Ning put down a marking on that star map.

He was marking down the various chaos stars and dangerous areas he encountered and saw on this journey. That way, those who used this map wouldn’t worry about getting lost.

……

To travel from the Badlands Territory to the Three Realms was quite a long journey. The trailblazing ended up taking more than three hundred years, but along the way Ning was able to sense only one place of incredible danger. The other areas, a bit of vigilance would suffice. But of course, that was only true for someone like Ning; for World-level cultivators, those places were all deathtraps!

“Haha, we’re almost there. We are about to reach the Three Realms.” Ning could sense that his Primaltwin was fairly close now, and he revealed a smile. “We should make it there in just a few more decades.”

Establishing a safe passageway out would benefit the members of the Three Realms for countless years to come. So long as this passageway was kept secret, outsiders would have no idea how to enter and exit the Three Realms securely. Not even Daolords of the Fourth Step would have a way to locate the Three Realms with ease; Ning was only able to accomplish it thanks to his Primaltwin serving as a guidepost for him. He was able to sense where his Primaltwin was at all times, thus ensuring that he wouldn’t get lost.

“Master, in the past three hundred years we’ve discovered quite a few dangerous areas.” Su Youji couldn’t help but raise this issue. “The area around your homeland is a bit too dangerous, isn’t it?”

“It is rather dangerous, yes.” Ning nodded. He too felt that the density of dangerous areas around the Three Realms was abnormally high.

“The universe is vast and mysterious. All things are possible.” Ning smiled. Moments later, his face suddenly turned pale as a strange look appeared on his face.

“Eh?” Ning turned to stare in a certain direction.

“Master?” Su Youji and Pillsaint both noticed that something was off with Ning.

Ning just stared intently off into the distance, and the outlines of the azureflower seal actually appeared on his forehead. The azureflower seal was currently resonating with a distant location. Even the azureflower region with his body was resonating!

“Something actually caused a resonance with the azureflower seal!” Ning was both shocked and nervous.

He had encountered quite a few fortuitous benefactors, such as the Paragon of Pills and the almighty Brightshore Hegemon. Both of them were Hegemon-level figures! He had also received the legacy of the deceased Hegemon of the Dao of the Sword. By now, Ning was a very experienced man… but the [Nine Chaos Seals], its azureflower region, and the azureflower mist energy it generated all remained completely outside of Ning’s level of understanding.

In addition, it had been Daoist Three Purities who discovered the Nine Chaos Seals floating outside the Three Realms. This entire time, Ning had felt certain that the primordial chaos around the Three Realms had to contain many secrets within them. And yet, all these years he had never been able to discover them.

But now… while he was trailblazing a path to the Three Realms, he had encountered something which resonated with his azureflower seal.

“Let’s head over there and take a look,” Ning said. Swoosh! The flying vessel began to fly towards the direction where the resonance was coming from.

“What is it, Master?” Su Youji couldn’t help but ask.

“From this moment forwards, the two of you need to obey every single word that I say.” Ning had a solemn look on his face. The closer they moved towards that location, the stronger the resonance with his azureflower seal became.

After flying for a few dozen days, the primordial chaos in the surrounding area completely vanished, revealing a patch of pure, pristine space. There was no energy at all in this region of space; in fact, even the power of the universal prime essence of the Dao of the Sword had been suppressed and rendered unable to enter this region. And it wasn’t just the Dao of the Sword; none of the other universal prime essences were able to enter this place at all.

“Is that…” Ning stared at the vast patch of empty space before him. It was completely pure and pristine, and at its very end he was able to see some golden mist. Upon seeing that golden mist, Ning had a sudden feeling of incredible danger.

“Youji, Pillsaint, the two of you must wait here. Do not move any closer,” Ning barked.

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