Desolate Era

“What?” The Daolords of Vastheaven Palace, including Ji Ning, Daolord Battlemaster, Daolord Solesky, and Daolord Brightfish were all shocked. They stared intently at the stone globe held in the hands of Daolord Mistbearer. All of them could sense the faint aura of terrifying power emanating from the stone globe.

“This Daolord Mistbearer actually has an item like this?” Daolord Solesky and the others turned pale.

There were actually quite a number of Dao-seals and other strange curios which had been created by Eternal Emperors and had slowly accumulated over time. This was particularly true for the Terror Starsea, which had been the battlefield of the Dawn War. There were many, many treasures there that were capable of unleashing terrifying levels of power. However, acquiring these treasures was quite difficult. Most Daolords of the Fourth Step did not have access to such treasures.

Daolords on the level of Solesky, Patriarch Clearwind, and Daolord Mistbearer had been alive for quite some time. If they dared to go out adventuring and lived to tell the tale, they would generally end up with one or two of them.

Experts on the level of Kongsan had been alive for even longer. They would generally have nine or ten such items on them.

As for the likes of King Gorsch or Palace Lord Dawnstar, the most powerful of Daolords? They were capable of slaying ordinary Eternal Emperors with ease. A casual blow from them was more than enough to annihilate Vastheaven Palace and held as much power as those strange artifacts and Dao-seals. Thus, those things were of very little use to them! Only precious Hegemon-created items were of interest and use to them, but those were incredibly rare.

These curios were divided into many different types, such as defensive, fleeing, karmic, illusory, offensive, and more.

“Daolord Mistbearer actually has a treasure meant for attacking.” Daolord Solesky was rather anxious now.

“This treasure is very important to Daolord Mistbearer. The handsome Daolord Brightfish sent mentally, “But for the sake of the Daomerge, he’s gone berserk. He really would be willing to use this treasure up! Everyone, what should we do?”

“Let me give it a try first,” Daolord Battlemaster said.

……

The four Daolords of Vastheaven Palace stared at the two enemy Daolords.

“Fellow Daoists.” Daolord Battlemaster called out in a loud voice, “I imagine you have also received word that Daolord Badlands has left the Badlands Court long ago! Vastheaven Palace isn’t staffed by fools either; our brothers have also left long ago. The four of us are merely avatars! Even if you use up that treasure and destroy Vastheaven Palace, you’d at most be able to destroy our avatars. We’re more than capable of enduring such minor losses.”

Daolord Mistbearer and Daolord Soletruth radiated surging, murderous auras from their position in the skies. Daolord Mistbearer said coldly, “The creation of Vastheaven Palace involved you spending enormous amounts of effort in setting up its protective formations. The materials needed to create four avatars were also extremely costly, not to mention the time spent in nurturing them. Would you really just give them up like that?”

“For the sake of the Daomerge, we are indeed willing to give them all up.”’ Daolord Battlemaster smiled. “I have an idea. Let us have both sides take a step back.”

The distant Daolord Mistbearer and Daolord Soletruth exchanged a glance. “Speak!” Daolord Mistbearer commanded coldly.

“Vastheaven Palace is willing to hand over an intelligence report containing information regarding the Waveshift Realm,” Daolord Battlemaster said. “While it won’t include everything big brother Solesky knows, it’ll still be far more than what the rest of the universe knows about the Waveshfit Realm. What do you think? If the two of you accept, we’ll give you the report right away.”

“It has to include everything Daolord Solesky knows!” Daolord Mistbearer shouted coldly. As his voice boomed out, an infinitely vast wave of blood appeared out of nowhere, sweeping through the skies and surrounding the entirety of Vastheaven Palace.

Daolord Mistbearer’s murderous aura flared as he roared, “If you refuse, die!”

“Solesky, stop struggling,” Daolord Soletruth barked as well.

“You are going too far!” Daolord Battlemaster said coldly, “My big brother and Daolord Badlands experienced countless travails in order to find this information. You want them to hand it all over? Impossible!”

“Do you take the two of us for fools? Emperor Waveshift was the creator of the Waveshift Realm. He was and remains the most skilled expert in the Dao of the Numerancy the Endless Territories has ever seen. The Waveshift Realm is filled with many dangers and is incredibly complex. If you just give us a portion of your information, it’ll be of negligible use to us.” Daolord Soletruth said coldly, “Battlemaster, stop playing games with us. We aren’t fools. You have two options before you. To hand it over, or to not hand it over.”

“I will claim the life of anyone who dares to bar my Daomerge!” The distant Daolord Mistbearer raised the stone globe up high with one hand, his voice filled with murder. “I’ll give you three seconds to consider this. If you refuse, I’ll wipe you out!”

“Three!”

“Two!”

Daolord Mistbearer stood there in the skies, surrounded by endless surging waves of blood, the stone globe held up high and flaring in one final warning. For the sake of the Daomerge, he wouldn’t show any mercy at all.

“But…” Solesky, Battlemaster, and Brightfish all turned pale. As for Ning, he had a complex look on his face.

“Everyone shares the same concern – the Daomerge. Why must we be like this? This stroke of Daomerge-related fortune belongs to my big brother. Today, you come to pressure him; tomorrow, others will do the same. Are we to repeatedly give way and just hand this opportunity over to others?” Ning shook his head. “You two should leave. If you refuse to leave, I’ll have no choice but to attack.”

“Attack?” The two distant Daolords were both startled.

Ning’s face gradually turned cold. “Leave.”

The faces of the two distant Daolords turned grim. They were slowly beginning to sense the threat that Ning posed them. Previously, Ning had not yet wished them dead… but now that he did, the sense of danger radiating from him grew significantly stronger. Ning’s avatar was roughly on par with them; if his true body was here, the sense of danger would have been much stronger.

“No one can bar my path to the Daomerge.” Daolord Mistbearer and Daolord Soletruth shared a glance, but neither hesitated.

“Hand over the report or prepare to do battle!” Daolord Mistbearer roared.

A flicker of a murderous light flashed through Ning’s cold eyes. An invisible surge of power instantly sprang out, separating into two streams that smashed directly against the souls and the truesouls of the two Daolords.

Heartforce Eradicator!

“This…” A hint of terror and disbelief flashed through Daolord Mistbearer’s eyes before his gaze turned completely dull and lifeless. His corpse began to fall down from the skies.

“He’s a Heartforce Cultivator!” The gray-robed Daolord Soletruth’s face turned bone-white, but he was able to endure the [Heartforce Eradicator] attack. He stared at Ning in horror. That heartforce attack had been absolutely terrifying; it was only thanks to his strong Dao-heart that he had managed to survive! However, he knew that Heartforce Cultivators possessed many strange and unpredictable techniques, and they didn’t really rely on such brutish attacks. They primarily relied on illusions and bewildering spells… and if this Daolord’s brute-force attacks were already this powerful, how devilish would his illusions be? Even an instant of distraction could very well prove fatal!

“Hurry up and flee.” Daolord Soletruth no longer cared about anything else. He hurriedly waved his hand. Whoosh! A dazzling rainbow dimensional tunnel instantly appeared next to him, and he hurriedly dove into it and began to flee.

……

A tear in space appeared within a region of primordial chaos more than twenty territories away. Moments later, the gray-robed and rather bedraggled-looking Daolord Soletruth jumped out of it, a stunned look on his face. “He’s actually a Heartforce Cultivator. The newest Daolord of Vastheaven Palace, Daolord Darknorth… a completely unremarkable person I’ve heard almost nothing about… is actually a Heartforce Cultivator. And a terrifyingly strong one at that! He was able to kill brother Mistbearer with a thought. Ugh. Brother Mistbearer’s Dao-heart was rather lacking, due to his excessively murderous impulses.”

“I never would’ve imagined that the most powerful member of Vastheaven Palace would be Daolord Darknorth, rather than Daolord Solesky.” Daolord Soletruth let out a soft sigh. “Things are going to be complicated now. Everyone thought that Vastheaven Palace would be easy to deal with, but who would’ve thought such a terrifying figure would exist within it?”

Everyone agreed that Heartforce Cultivators were notoriously difficult to deal with. Unless absolutely necessary, no one would willingly make an enemy out of one.

……

Outside Vastheaven Palace.

The corpse of Daolord Mistbearer continued its descent through the skies. As for Daolords Solesky, Battlemaster, and Brightfish, all three of them stared at Ning in disbelief.

“All this is due to the Daomerge…” Ning shook his head, then waved his hand and collected the falling corpse of Daolord Mistbearer. Ning then turned around, only to see the other three staring straight at him. “Something wrong? I’m just collecting his corpse. We can split the treasures later,” Ning grinned.

“Stop joking.” Daolord Solesky flew straight towards Ning, then grabbed him by the shoulders. “Ji Ning, y-you… you are a Heartforce Cultivator?”

“Right. You are actually a Heartforce Cultivator?” Battlemaster and Brightfish were quite excited as well.

“Yes.” Ning nodded. “Right! Previously, I’ve been spending all my attention on strengthening my avatar. As soon as I left seclusion, this happened. I didn’t even have a chance to talk to any of you. However, better late than never!”

“Not late. Not late at all!” Daolord Brightfish was quite excited. “I never imagined that Vastheaven Palace would produce a Heartforce Cultivator! Haha. Who in the outside world would dare to belittle us in the future?”

“I always thought that you were a genius of the Dao of the Sword.” Daolord Solesky stared intently at Ning, also quite excited. “I never would’ve imagined that you’d actually be a Heartforce Cultivator, and that you’d be even more formidable in this area than you are in the Dao of the Sword. You slew Daolord Mistbearer with just a glance!”

Ning couldn’t help but say, “Actually… my Sword Dao is slightly stronger than my heartforce.”

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