Desolate Era

Crunch! The Flamewing God’s giant maw came crunching down upon the blackflame serpent. As Flamewing began to chew, the blackflame serpent’s writhing body suddenly began to erupt with flames. Soon, it became burnt to ash.

This sight completely terrified the other blackflame serpents in the flaming river.

“Chaos Primordial, hurry up and leave our territory!” an exceptionally large blackflame serpent roared furiously, but it didn’t step forward. It knew that perhaps the only members of the race who would survive a fight against Flamewing would be him and the other two leaders. The others were completely incapable of battling against a Chaos Primordial. If an actual battle erupted, they would simply be throwing their lives away.

“Grrr…” Flamewing let out a loud and smug growl.

“Impressive. If I tried to go up by myself, I’d definitely be surrounded by them,” Hegemon Goodsong said enviously. Flamewing had a virtually indestructible body and possessed incredible speed; surrounding it was useless. Most likely, only Sithe Exalts would be able to effectively surround and threaten it.

“Let’s leave.” Seeing this, Ning knew that the blackflame serpents would no longer try to bar their path.

……

With Hegemon Goodsong and the Flamewing God clearing a path for them, their journey was simple and uneventful. Ning didn’t need to intervene a single time.

They did encounter several unique and bizarre types of lifeforms, all of whom were birthed from within the Quintessence of the Chaosverse! The most powerful creatures birthed from the prime essences were the Chaos Primordials and the Sourcewalkers, but both were incredibly rare. Chaos Primordials were born with immense power, while Sourcewalkers were a bit weaker but had incredible powers of insight and thus had more room to grow.

The other creatures born from the prime essences were blessed with far less power than the Chaos Primordials and far weaker levels of insight than the Sourcewalkers. They were much more numerous, but on the whole the Sourcewalkers remained the most powerful creatures birthed from the prime essences! This was because the most powerful Sourcewalkers were actually comparable to Sithe Exalts in terms of power.

For example, the Blazesun Domain had one of these supreme Sourcewalkers within it who was comparable to Sithe Exalts in power! But of course, he was the only one in the entire domain who had reached such a level of power.

……

520,000 years went past in the blink of an eye.

“Master, Houwu City is up ahead,” Azurefiend called out as he controlled the realmship.

“Houwu City?” Ning stared at it from afar. This was a city covered in countless mysterious runes that levitated within the emptiness of space. It rippled with formations, and it was surrounded by numerous levitating continents as well.

“Daolord Darknorth,” Hegemon Goodsong said quickly, “We cultivators only have this single city in the entire Blazesun Domain! This is a place where we can hide and rest while we are adventuring through this region. The entire city itself is actually a powerful Sithe war-fort and it is capable of easily defending against any dangers, so long as the Ruler of the Blazesun Domain doesn’t come and attack in person.”

“The Ruler of the Blazesun Domain?” Su Youji couldn’t help but ask, “Who is that?”

“Youji,” Ning smiled as he explained, “The term ‘Ruler of the Blazesun Domain’ refers to the most terrifying Sourcewalker located in the Blazesun Domain. The legends say that he is as powerful as a Sithe Exalt. His overwhelming power means that he is honored with the title of ‘Ruler of the Blazesun Domain’. However, in the end he’s still just a Sourcewalker; he won’t get involved in the affairs of the cultivator civilizations.”

“Right. So long as you don’t offend the Blazesun Ruler, he won’t make trouble for us either,” Hegemon Goodsong said. “After all… we have the invincible Autarchs on our side! As a result, the supreme Sourcewalkers don’t dare to go too far. Even if he does become so crazy as to assault the city of Houwu, the city should be able to hold on for a while albeit at great cost. Given enough time, most of the cultivators should be able to flee.”

As they spoke, the realmship continued to move towards the levitating city at high speeds.

“Halt!” a loud shout rang out. The city’s entrance was guarded by a golem guard.

“Hurry up and send word,” Hegemon Goodsong barked back, “That Daolord Darknorth has arrived!”

“Daolord Darknorth?” The golem guard was shocked. “I’ll send word to Master right away.”

……

The entire city of Houwu was in a state of uproar. News spread quite quickly amongst cultivators, and just a few seconds later the news that Daolord Darknorth had arrived at the city was known by a majority of the cultivators here. The Hegemons and Eternal Emperors, as well as the few fearless Samsara Daolords who had chosen to adventure in the Blazesun Domain, all came flying out to see what the legendary Daolord Darknorth looked like.

“Daolord Darknorth has arrived?”

“Where is he?”

“Look over there! Daolord Darknorth is flying within the realmship above the city.” More and more cultivators came pouring out from every direction, and they all hastened to stare at the main gates in front of the city.

“Quick! Quick! Brother Treewind, Brother Jade Rainbow, Nuwa… all of you, hurry over here and accompany me in meeting with Daolord Darknorth!” Lord Houwu was the most impatient of them all. Patriarch Treewind and Nuwa had been meditating silently, but they were immediately startled awake and hurriedly came running over.

“Hurry up and go welcome them!”

“Daolord Darknorth has arrived?”

Patriarch Treewind, Imperator Jade Rainbow, and Nuwa all grew nervous right away, with Nuwa being the most nervous of them all. Daolord Darknorth had come all the way here from the distant Flamedragon Realmverse for the sake of meeting her!

The green-robed Lord Houwu was the first to fly into the skies, with Patriarch Treewind, Imperator Jade Rainbow, Nuwa, and the others all following by his side. The cultivators around the gates all parted before them, not daring to bar their path.

Lord Houwu was at the head of the delegation. Behind him was Patriarch Treewind and Nuwa, and at the very rear were the other Hegemons and Emperors. They exited the city gates in an awesome procession. Houwu City, as a war-fort, was covered with barrier spells. Generally speaking the barriers would remain sealed, preventing people from simply flying out.

Above the city hovered that realmship.

“I am the Governor of Houwu City, and I respectfully welcome Daolord Darknorth!” The green-robed Lord Houwu immediately bowed respectfully, his face covered with joy. His Daoist title was ‘Houwu’, and so he had named this war-fort after himself after acquiring it.

“We respectfully welcome Daolord Darknorth!” The surrounding Golden Emperors, Otherverse Lords, Hegemons, Eternal Emperors, and Samsara Daolords all bowed respectfully as well.

Faced with the legendary Daolord Darknorth, these major powers were as nervous as Ning himself had been when he had first met Autarch Titanos. The difference in power was simply too great! Even the most powerful person here would probably be slain by a single blow from Ning’s sword. How could any of them dare to show the slightest bit of incivility towards him?

“Who is this Daolord Darknorth?” Nuwa was standing behind Lord Houwu. She stared into the skies, her heart filled with curiosity.

“No need to stand on ceremony.” A wave of power surged out, pressing against Nuwa’s arms and preventing her from bowing down.

For the others to show Ning such respect was one thing, but Nuwa was different. Ning felt a sense of tremendous respect for Mother Nuwa. Perhaps he was now much stronger than her, but Patriarch Subhuti was his master. Mother Nuwa had shown great favor to Patriarch Subhuti in the past, and indeed had done great things for the entire Three Realms. How could he possibly allow Nuwa to bow towards him?

“This aura…” Nuwa was secretly startled. In fact, all of the cultivators were shocked. For his aura alone to be so powerful meant that Daolord Darknorth lived up to his reputation.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Three additional figures came flying out from the realmship. The first was the chubby Flamewing, the second was the red-robed Hegemon Goodsong, and the third was Hegemon Azurefiend. After flying out, they stood slightly behind the white-robed youth who bore the black sheath on his back. In addition, Ning was flanked by the simple, muscular Protector Whitethaw and the dazzlingly beautiful Su Youji.

This white-robed youth had appeared with his entire entourage. His aura wasn’t all that powerful, and his truesoul was slowly fragmenting and dissipating. If he was an ordinary Daolord who had failed his Daomerge, these major powers wouldn’t care about him at all… but he wasn’t. This white-robed youth caused all of them to feel nervous and breathless due to the great difference in power between them!

“Lord Houwu, sorry for the trouble.” Ning stepped forward, landing on the ground and smiling.

“It was nothing more than conveying a message. It was my honor to be able to serve you, Daolord Darknorth,” Lord Houwu chortled. A thought came to his mind, and he hurriedly turned to glance at the nearby Nuwa: “Daolord Darknorth, this is Nuwa.”

Ning’s gaze turned towards Nuwa as well. In truth, he already knew for certain that she was the person he sought, as there was no way to fake the karma ties between them. When he saw her just now, he felt absolutely convinced… because he was very familiar with her appearance. He had spent his entire youth visualizing the [Nuwa Painting], which was a depiction of Nuwa. How could he NOT be familiar with her?

The woman before him was the legendary Mother Nuwa of the Three Realms.

Ning stared at Nuwa, and she stared at him as well, her heart filled with many questions. She had the vague feeling that there had to be some sort of connection between them, but she simply couldn’t remember ever having met this Daolord Darknorth before.

“Darknorth greets you, Nuwa.” Ning smiled.

Nuwa was startled. For the legendary Daolord Darknorth to speak so courteously to her had caught her offguard.

Ning chuckled, and as he did a voice suddenly rang out within Nuwa’s mind: “Pangu established Heaven and Earth, while Nuwa repaired the heavens!”