Desolate Era

After verifying that Nuwa of the Bluesky Realmverse was indeed the same person Daolord Darknorth was seeking, Hegemon Goodsong felt both delight and nervousness. “I need to hurry up and notify Realmslord Windgrace of this. If I’m too slow, someone else might report it ahead of me! Ugh… we’re incredibly far away from Realmslord Windgrace’s territory. It won’t be easy to get this information over to him.”

The Bluesky Realmverse was indescribably far away from Realmslord Windgrace’s ‘Hiddenfiend Realmverse’. Even though word of Ji Ning and his request had spread like wildfire, it had still taken sixty million years before Hegemon Goodsong had found out and then been the first to locate Nuwa. If he had to fly over to the Hiddenfiend Realmverse via realmship, just passing through the numerous special zones of the Chaosverse which lay between them would probably take several billion years! This was probably more than enough time for another major power to also discover Nuwa and then notify Windgrace.

“Realmslord Windgrace is quite famous. He rendered incredible merits during the Dawn War and has been taught by numerous Autarchs,” Hegemon Goodsong mused. “He’s even able to contact the legendary Autarch Titanos. Grand Emperor Skydeep is the closest person to the Bluesky Domain who is also able to contact Autarch Titanos. I should be able to quickly notify Realmslord Windgrace through him.”

“Grand Emperor Skydeep… I need to hurry up and go visit him.” Hegemon Windgrace used his hired realmship to hurry towards Grand Emperor Skydeep’s residence.

……

Contacting an Autarch was an extremely difficult task. All of them were mysterious and hard to locate; most Hegemons were incapable of reaching out to them. The only one who permanently resided in his own estate was Autarch Titanos, who was the easiest one to contact. However, even then the only ones who were able to reach out to him were supremely powerful figures who were favored by the Autarch due to having rendered great merits in the past! For example, even though Ji Ning had met Autarch Titanos in person, he didn’t have any way to reach out to the Autarch.

The Lonely King was extremely strong, but he still wasn’t able to contact Autarch Titanos. If he wished to do so, he would have to ask other major powers to send word on his behalf.

Only those who had rendered truly great accomplishments in the past, such as Realmslord Windgrace, Grand Emperor Skydeep, or God Emperor Helong were able to reach the Autarch. But of course, even then they would only reach out to the Autarch’s personal disciples! That was equivalent to reaching the Autarch himself.

In the end, there were very, very few people who had rendered great enough deeds that they gained access to an Autarch.

Hegemon Goodsong had to fly for over fifty million years before reaching God Emperor Skydeep’s abode! In contrast, the Flamedragon Realmverse was much farther away; it would’ve taken him billions of years to reach it.

And so, roughly 120 million years after Ning had made his Daomerge attempt, Hegemon Goodsong managed to send word to Realmslord Windgrace via Grand Emperor Skydeep.

……

In truth, roughly 90 million years after Ning’s Daomerge attempt, word of ‘Daolord Darknoth slaying the Lonely King with one strike of the sword’ and ‘Daolord Darknorth is searching for Nuwa’ had already finally made its way to the Bluesky Realmverse, and thus to Nuwa in the Blazesun Domain.

Within the Blazesun Domain.

Rumble… a series of explosions could be heard coming from that distant, blazing star as countless flaming meteors continuously blasted out from its surface.

A silvery-white ship was flying through the void with five figures within it. All five had extraordinary auras, with the most extraordinary auras belonging to an old man and a young man. The old man had long, fiery red hair, a stooped body, and was dressed in robes made out of fiery leaves. He had a fiery tree branch growing out of his head as well. This was the awesome, legendary Patriarch Treewind.

As for the young man, he looked extraordinarily cold and remote. He was dressed in beautiful robes, and he was known as Imperator Jade Rainbow. He was the only person in this squad who was the equal of Patriarch Treewind. For him to style himself as ‘Imperator’ rather than merely ‘Emperor’ was a testament to his arrogance and self-confidence… but right now, his eyes were filled with smoldering rage.

“Our luck has been terrible. We fought for so long and that otherverse was almost in our grasp… but we ended up being ambushed by Palegrace and an entire host of Hegemons. This pisses me off.” A furry alien youth let out a low growl, his entire body crackling with fiery power. He was a Hegemon as well.

“Master.” A woman was located right next to Patriarch Treewind. She was dressed in unusual green robes which were also covered with leaves, but her leaves were all green. Her master’s robes were covered in red leaves. She was incredibly beautiful, and when she smiled anyone who saw her would feel their hearts grow peaceful.

“If we lost, we lost. We ran into that otherverse by accident anyhow,” Nuwa said with a laugh. “Besides, an extra otherverse wouldn’t make much of a difference to our upcoming explorations.”

“Agreed.” Patriarch Treewind nodded slowly. “Although it was disappointing and frustrating, to see an otherverse be stolen from right in front of us, Nuwa is right. Brother Jade Rainbow and I already have otherverses, while Nuwa has a Sithe weapon. This otherverse wouldn’t have made too much of a difference to us. We’ve joined forces to enter the Blazesun Domain, and our true goal is the Sithe armory Nuwa spoke of! That otherverse was nothing more than something on the side.”

“Forget it.” The dazzlingly handsome Imperator Jade Rainbow still had a cold look on his face as he snorted, “I’ll spare that stupid bitch Palegrace this time. Next time I see her, I’ll teach her a lesson. Nuwa, how far are we from the Sithe armory?”

“When I discovered that Sithe armory, I was still just a World-level cultivator,” Nuwa said. “I was lucky enough to somehow survive, but I only have a vague idea of where it was located. Based on what I know, we should be fairly close to it now.”

Nuwa had appeared in the Blazesun Domain as a World-level cultivator. Back then, she had discovered a Sithe armory but was too weak to fully obtain it. She had barely managed to drag away a single treasure, then had immediately fled. She had nearly died on multiple dangerous occasions before eventually running into Patriarch Treewind, who had taken her on as his disciple. He had led her out of the deadly Blazesun Territory and over to the Bluesky Domain.

Nuwa had never truly understood what the ‘Sithe armory’ she had discovered truly represented. Only when she became a Daolord of the Fourth Step did she understand, but she didn’t dare to make it public. Only when she succeeded in her Daomerge and became a Hegemon did she mention it, electing to invite a large number of Hegemons to join forces and search for those treasures.

“Eh?” Imperator Jade Rainbow suddenly revealed a look of shock as his face actually turned pale.

“What’s wrong, brother Jade Rainbow?” Patriarch Treewind was rather surprised. What could have happened, for the perpetually cold and arrogant Imperator Jade Rainbow to lose control of his emotions like that?

“Something huge just happened.” Imperator Jade Rainbow was no longer as cold and grim as he usually was. Even his voice was rather shaky.

“Something huge?” Nuwa listened with curiosity. She had trained for the shortest period of time out of the five, and she was filled with great admiration towards Imperator Jade Rainbow, who was as strong as her master. Without question, he was an incredible figure.

“Old man Treewind, you know the Lonely King of the Icepeak Army?” the Imperator asked.

“I know of him.” Patriarch Treewind nodded.

“He’s dead.” Imperator Jade Rainbow said somberly, “He was killed by a single sword-strike from a terrifying person known as Daolord Darknorth.”

“What?!” Patriarch Treewind revealed a look of shock. “How is that possible?”

“Wait, there’s more. I don’t know the full details yet. Give me a moment,” the Imperator said. His Primaltwin was in another extremely distant place, and it was chatting with some other major powers about Daolord Darknorth. Eventually, the Imperator was given the full story… and then he heard that Daolord Darknorth was searching for Nuwa.

“Huh?!” Imperator Jade Rainbow turned to stare at Nuwa in astonishment.

Nuwa blinked, puzzled at the look on the Imperator’s face as he stared at her.

“What’s going on, brother Jade Rainbow? What’s the story behind Daolord Darknorth? The Lonely King used the Ritual Sacrificium to become a Golden Emperor; his body was tougher than even yours, and he was protected by multiple Sithe war machines. Most likely, the only cultivators capable of killing him in one blow are the legendary Autarchs.”

“Daolord Darknorth is very powerful.” Imperator Jade Rainbow stared at Nuwa as he continued to speak: “Based on what my friends have deduced, he has most likely managed to master the Eternal Omega Dao of the Sword! He’s at an unfathomable level of might. The Lonely King died before even being able to react to that single sword-strike from him.”

Patriarch Treewind was stunned upon hearing this.

“Darknorth?” Nuwa had never heard this name before, but for some reason she had the vague feeling that he was connected to her in some way. It was as though some blurry lines of karma were linking them together. Alas, Nuwa’s skill in the Dao of Karma simply wasn’t strong enough for her to fully investigate every single karmic thread attached to her… but she was still able to at least sense it.

“He’s been publicly acclaimed to be second to only the Autarchs amongst the cultivators of the Chaosverse. He’s so powerful that he can wipe the two of us out with just a wave of his hand.” Imperator Jade Rainbow stared at Nuwa. “And… he’s currently looking for a cultivator named Nuwa.”

“Nuwa?” Patriarch Treewind and the other two Hegemons all turned to look. Now, all four of them were staring at Nuwa.

“He said that Nuwa is an incredibly talented female cultivator who has probably trained for roughly a hundred chaos cycles. He said that she is either a freakishly powerful Daolord or possibly an Eternal Emperor.” Imperator Jade Rainbow stared intently at Nuwa.

“That’s a huge coincidence.” All of them were stunned by this. As for Nuwa herself, she didn’t say anything, but a puzzled look appeared in her eyes.