Desolate Era

The Sithe Exalts seated on top of the eight stone pillars stared intently at the glowing humanoid before them. None of them could clearly see who that person was.

Who was the seventh leader of the cultivator forces? Was it a new Autarch, or was it an Emperor Darknorth?

This was a question the Sithe paid close attention to. Even Iyerre wanted to know the answer for sure! They would rather see a new Autarch rise than for Daolord Darknorth to have mastered a ‘Truesoul Everlasting’ technique and become an Eternal Emperor! Someone who was so incredibly talented as to be able to produce a ‘Truesoul Everlasting’ technique would be extremely dangerous to the Sithe. The pressures of war might well result in him breaking through to becoming an Omega Autarch!

“Why don’t you guess.” Ning laughed loudly as he transformed into a streak of light that shot off into the distance.

Just as Ning moved, the vast grayish-white temple suddenly burst with power. The eight Sithe Exalts had activated it, causing spacetime to twist and distort around Ning. Ning could sense his surroundings changing, transforming to become a dazzlingly beautiful world of white clouds and fragrant flowers. Ning stood in the center of all of it… and a strange little smile was on his face.

“An illusory formation?” Ning mused. “Playing around with illusions in front of a Heartforce Cultivator… what a joke!” He was both a formations expert and a Heartforce Cultivator. With the aid of his heartforce, he was easily able to understand some of the secrets behind how this formation operated.

Although Ning was completely confident in his chances, he was still very careful and immediately went into his three-headed, six-armed mode with all six Northbow swords at the ready.

“Break!” Ning’s sword-light lashed out, and it cut cleanly through the beautiful illusory world as though the formation was nothing more than tofu. Just like that, the seemingly-formidable formation was defeated! Ning then transformed into a storm of lightning and wind as he flew off into the distance.

“Haha, impressive! You actually defeated our illusions with ease. Of the six known Autarchs in your civilization only Autarch Stonerule, the master of the Illusion Daobirth Essence, would be able to accomplish this. However, we already know that Autarch Stonerule is quite far from here… which means you are most likely Emperor Darknorth,” an ancient voice said.

“Emperor Darknorth, we merely cast those illusions so that we could be sure of your identity. Did you really think you’d actually be able to escape so easily?”

“Await death, Emperor Darknorth.”

“Seal!”

With a rumbling sound, the titanic grayish-white temple complex began to swivel in place, its outer walls rising upwards while its heart sank downwards. Ning had transformed into a storm of lightning and wind, seeking to escape, but just moments later the entire temple had completely transformed in shape. It was now shaped like a hemispheric prison cell that had been completely sealed off, trapping him inside.

He was completely locked into this place. Ning glanced at the securely-fashioned hallway which imprisoned him, then reached out to touch the walls while following his senses.

“Eh?” Ning frowned. “Yet another spacetime-sealing formation?” With but a thought, Ning blinked past the wall and appeared outside… only to see a vast region of empty space. The only thing within this void was many miniature spacetime continuums. The large ones were ten billion kilometers in size, while the small ones were merely tens of thousands of kilometers in size. All of them came together to form an extremely complicated sealing formation that locked away spacetime! There was no way to simply fly out of this place. If he wanted to escape, he would have to first solve the formation.

“Sealed spacetime…” Ning’s head hurt. In the Annihilation Hive, he had encountered countless spacetime bubbles which were linked together into a complicated formation that was used to devour energy from his Chaosverse! It didn’t have much of a bewildering or trapping effect, as that wasn’t its primary purpose. This one, however, existed solely for the purpose of trapping powerful foes.

“Then I’ll destroy spacetime here!” The three-headed, six-armed Ning sent six streams of sword-light flooding through the area, using his Spacetime Sword Dao to assault and destroy one spacetime bubble after another. Alas, the destroyed ones were quickly replaced by others.

“I can’t do it by force. I have to understand the mysteries behind this formation, then breach it.” Ning began to consider his next steps.

……

The eight Sithe Exalts seated on the stone pillars all exchanged a glance. They could see and sense everything Ning was doing inside their formation.

“Anything involving Emperor Darknorth is extremely important. Report this to our superiors immediately,” one Exalt said.

“Alright.” A black-haired man nodded as he produced a silvery formation-base before him. This formation-base had a total of three loops above it which were slowly spinning in place. Gradually, a blurry pillar of light appeared within the loops which resolved into a humanoid figure. A second later, the blurry figure completely solidified into the tall, muscular, gray-robed Iyerre.

Iyerre was seated upon his throne, eyes closed in meditation. Only after fully manifesting did he open his eyes.

“Almighty Iyerre.” The black-haired man remained seated, but he still bowed downwards in respect.

“What is it?” Iyerre glanced down at the man from his throne.

“The eight of us have captured an Autarch-class combatant using the temple you gave us! We suspected that this person is the mysterious ‘seventh Autarch’, and so we first used illusions to test him out. He almost instantly defeated our illusions, and so we now believe that there is at least an 80% chance he is Emperor Darknorth,” the black-haired man said respectfully. “We know just how major this is, so we immediately decided to report it to you.”

“Emperor Darknorth?” Iyerre’s previously placid gaze suddenly shone with terrifying light. This was the variable which worried him above all others!

Iyerre had made many, many preparations for this war! The Sithe Hegemons and Emperors he had poured into the vanguard had been nothing more than cannon fodder. Iyerre didn’t feel the slightest bit of guilt over their deaths, because they had no impact at all. So long as they died killing native Hegemons and Emperors, it could be said that they had succeeded in their purpose! Only when he sent out the Sithe Exalts would the final battle have truly begun.

If it wasn’t for Emperor Darknorth, Iyerre was certain that he had over a 99% chance of success! This was why he hadn’t shown himself a single time. He was confident enough to continue lying in wait, biding his time. Once he did finally reveal himself, it would be in a way which shocked everyone.

However… Emperor Darknorth worried Iyerre. Someone who had failed the Daomerge and yet was able to devise a ‘Truesoul Everlasting’ technique before dying was undoubtedly a figure of absolutely unearthly talent! If Emperor Darknorth took that one final step, he would become an Omega Dao Autarch! Omega Autarchs in their own Chaosverses were absolutely invincible.

“An 80% chance it is him?” Iyerre murmured softly. “Good. Very good. My first target shall be him, then! Use everything you have to keep him trapped and wait for my arrival! I’ll head there at maximum speed and kill him myself.”

“You are coming in person?” The black-haired man was shocked. Iyerre had yet to personally take part ever since they had entered this Chaosverse and launched the war against the local cultivators. They all knew how powerful Iyerre was! Although he was unable to summon the power of the Dao in this Chaosverse and was rejected by it, he had prepared many trump cards for this war. Once he made his move, he would undoubtedly be able to kill this ‘Emperor Darknorth’.

“Understood. We’ll use every tool at our disposal to keep Emperor Darknorth contained,” the black-haired man said.

“Very well. I’m heading out right away.” The pillar of light began to vanish, and the last thing they saw was a fuzzy image of Iyerre rising from his throne.

Iyerre still wasn’t completely sure if the seventh native ‘Autarch’ was Emperor Darknorth or not. Even if it was someone else, killing a trapped Autarch wouldn’t be a complete waste of his time. If it really was Emperor Darknorth, things would be perfect!

Thus, to make sure that nothing unexpected might happen, Iyerre elected to personally deal with this new variable.

……

Ning stared at the countless spacetime bubbles in the void. He was able to almost instantly tell that he wouldn’t be able to solve this formation right away, and so he quickly sent word to the other six.

“Gentlemen, I’ve also become trapped within a Sithe temple. Mine has eight Sithe Exalts controlling it,” Ning sent via the message-talisman. “I’m now trapped within a spacetime formation. It’ll take me some time to break out of it.”

“What?! Darknorth, you’ve been trapped as well?”

“Darknorth, I’m not too far away from you. I’ll come help out,” Autarch Stonerule replied immediately.

“No need. I’m quite skilled in both spacetime and formations. I’m better suited for dealing with this type of formation than anyone else,” Ning sent back. “Don’t worry too much. I’m about to start meditating on how to deconstruct this formation. I’m just giving you all a head’s up! For both myself and Ekong to be trapped in short succession means that the Sithe have probably prepared squads of Exalts for all of us. Don’t let yourselves be trapped as well.”

“Alright.” The other six Autarchs all felt a sense of pressure. Ekong had been trapped in a temple commanded by seven Exalts, while Darknorth had been trapped by a grayish-white temple controlled by eight. The Sithe most assuredly had more Exalts under their command than simply fifteen!