The Desolate Era

A giant black warship hovered in the empty silence of space, completely unmoving. A white-robed figure was standing directly above the giant black warship. He seemed tiny in comparison, but his aura was utterly overwhelming and his eyes were ice-cold.

“It’s just too big. The Chaosverse is too damn big.” Ji Ning felt a sense of powerlessness.

More than half a year had gone past since the war had erupted. During this half year, all seven of the most powerful leaders of the cultivators civilizations had been scouring the Chaosverse for any and all traces of the Sithe, but the Chaosverse was simply enormous! Usually, battlefronts would consist of groupings of at least ten different realmverses, sometimes even more! Every single battlefront was very far away from the others, and the Sithe warships were just as sparse and hard to find.

The Sithe were constantly making adjustments as well. Each time Ning and the other Autarchs attacked a location, the Sithe would adjust for it and make it even harder for the Autarchs to find their other warships.

The warships were doing their best to avoid the Autarchs, while Ning and the others were doing their best to find them!

“The Tongwu battlefront is in desperate need of assistance.” Yet another report came flying in.

“The Tongwu battlefront?” Ning sighed to himself. “It is too far away. It would take me twenty days at maximum speed to get there!”

“Time to continue.” Ning waved his hand, collecting the warship and then continuing to warp through space and search for the Sithe. It was like searching for a needle in the bottom of the sea. This was a very robotic and numbing process; the Autarchs were relying on their overwhelming strength to scan large areas and ‘fish’ out a warship or two! This process was clumsy, yet it was also the most efficient process available.

“Have you noticed? This war has been quite odd,” Autarch Titanos sent to the other six. “The war has gone on for over half a year and the battles have been fierce. Now that the Sithe know where we are, it has become harder and harder for us to find their warships. All of this is expected, but... we haven’t encountered any Sithe Exalts at all!”

While hunting and killing, the Autarchs continued to exchange messages with each other. The hunting process wasn’t all that mentally taxing, after all.

“Right. I haven’t found any Sithe Exalts,” Autarch Ekong agreed.

“I haven’t found a single one of them either. Judging from the various reports which have been sent by cultivators throughout our Chaosverse, no Sithe Exalts have appeared at all,” Autarch Stonerule said.

“I haven’t found any either. Logically speaking, the Sithe should have many Exalts ready to fight,” Ning replied.

“They’ve lain dormant for aeons... I wouldn’t be surprised if they had dozens of Exalts ready to take part in this battle. But, they haven’t deployed a single one. This is extremely odd. Everyone, while hunting down the Sithe you need to constantly stay on your guard! I’m worried that there’s some sort of a plot behind the Sithe Exalts remaining in hiding,” Autarch Titanos sent mentally.

Autarch Skyfeeder agreed, “Perhaps they don’t know that Darknorth has become an Emperor, but they know that we have an Eternal Omega Sword Dao! Thus, the Sithe should know very well that this war against us is their final chance. If they lose, we’ll only grow even more powerful in the future and they won’t stand any chance against us. By all rights, they should be throwing everything they have against us! As soon as that behemoth hive appeared, I could tell that the Sithe had made extraordinary preparations for this war. For no Exalts to have appeared a full half-year after the war began... we really do need to be careful.”

“Agreed.”

“Stay on your guard.”

“Keep scanning at all times. Don’t let yourself fall into a trap.”

The six Autarchs and Ning were all quite confident in their abilities. They weren’t like the Sithe, who suffered from rejection by the Chaosverse and were unable to use the Dao! Ning and the Autarchs had access to virtually limitless amounts of power. During the previous war, not a single Autarch had fallen.

“The Purejade battlefront is in desperate need of assistance!” Suddenly, another report arrived.

“The Purejade battlefront?” Ning was startled. He reflexively scanned his mental map of the Chaosverse, mentally placing the Purejade battlefront. It was fairly close to him. “I need two days. I’ll go right away.”

“Alright, Darknorth. I’ll leave it to you. I’ll tell them to hold on until you arrive,” Autarch Stonerule said.

Swoosh! Ning began to fly at maximum speed towards the Purejade battlefront.

If he spent these two days slowly scanning, he might be able to locate one or two Sithe warships... but rescuing more of their own cultivators was more important than killing the Sithe! This was because when their cultivators died, their truesouls would be devoured by the Sithe soul-eater technique. This would harm the Chaosverse itself and make it impossible to revive them.

“I hope they can hold on until I arrive,” Ning murmured softly. The leaders in a battlefront would only beg for assistance when they could sense that they really weren’t able to hold out for much longer. This would generally only happen once the enemies revealed their full power and launched a final, all-out attack! Thus, the battlefronts were usually lost shortly after the distress calls were sent.

Sometimes, the cultivators would last for four or five days. Other times, the cultivators would be wiped out before a single day passed.

......

The Purejade battlefront. This was a place where an awesome astral river flowed through the region in multiple looks, almost like a snake coiling around itself. At the very center of the coiling flows of the river was an enormous castle, and the castle held over a hundred figures within it.

Nearly half were Hegemons, while the rest were all normal Emperors. They poured all of their Immortal energy into maintaining this powerful castle, which was the core of the mighty defensive formation which protected them. Many of their avatars and comrades were situated throughout the astral river, where they were responsible for protecting important spots and were fighting against the Sithe.

“Autarch Stonerule sent word,” a red-bearded Hegemon roared. “Two days! In just two days, an Autarch will arrive to save us!”

“What?!”

“We’re saved!” Some of the Hegemons and Emperors who had been on the verge of despair instantly grew excited. This was just a second-class battlefront! They didn’t expect that one of the extremely powerful Sithe elite squads would attack this place. At first, the Sithe had hidden their true power. They had first battled for more than a month to verify the defensive strength of the local cultivators, then had revealed their true prowess and launched a final assault.

Once the Sithe revealed their true power, the cultivators were instantly beaten backwards and forced to retreat to their final defensive lines within and around this castle. All they could do was try to delay as long as they could.

“Two days! Just two days! If we can hold on for just two days it’ll be the damn Sithe who die, not us!” the red-bearded elder howled.

“My brothers and sisters, fight on! If we can hold for two days, we’ll all make it out alive!” The voice rang out from the castle and echoed in the minds of the Hegemons and Emperors who were stationed within the astral river which coiled around the castle.

“Hold on! We must hold on!”

“We only need to hold on for two days.”

The battle continued. The Sithe furiously pressed the assault, while all of the defenders were equally frenzied in resisting. Even so, more and more of the defenders were defeated. First, it was their avatars which were destroyed. After that, it was up for them to use their true bodies to endure and fight on.

“Remember, even if you know you are going to die, you need to try and stay a safe distance away from them. Avoid that truesoul-eating technique or you’ll never have a chance of being brought back!”

“If you are out of options, self-detonate after you reach a sufficient distance.”

Bang! One defensive formation after another began to collapse, with most of the various Hegemons and Emperors electing to self-detonate. In doing so, their truesoul fragments blasted outwards and then quickly vanished. The Sithe soul-eater technique was limited in range, and self-detonation often caused some of the truesoul fragments to blast so far out that they returned to the Chaosverse.

“Hurry up! It’s been two days. Hurry up and come!”

“Why hasn’t he arrived yet?!”

The Hegemons and Emperors were still fighting back, hoping beyond hope...

BOOM! Suddenly, a figure stepped out of nowhere in the empty space above the coiling river. His entire form was blazing with energy, making it impossible to see him clearly.

“AUTARCH!!!!” All of the surviving cultivators let out cries of joy and excitement.

“That’s one of those native Autarchs! Quick, flee!” The Sithe who had been pressing the assault using their many treasures were stunned by the Autarch’s arrival. They had been trying to wrap things up as soon as possible, so that they could immediately depart and move to the next target. It would be quite hard to locate them after they left... but unfortunately, a cultivator Autarch had made it here in time!

The dazzling golden figure above them stared downwards coldly. Boom! A wave of invisible energy instantly swept across the region, extinguishing the auras of the attacking Sithe. Only a tiny percent of the Sithe who had been inside heartforce-proof warships managed to survive, but just a heartbeat later all of them died as well. The only ones Ning spared and took away with him were the ‘lucky’ Sithe descendants.

“Thankfully, at least half have survived.” Ning surveyed the castle below him, nodding to himself when he saw how many Hegemons and Emperors had made it.

“Thank you, Autarch!” The Hegemons and Emperors all felt excitement and gratitude. They knew that the vast majority of distress calls went unanswered, as the Autarchs simply couldn’t make it in time.

Ning nodded, then turned and left. He didn’t take any of the warships with him, electing to leave them behind with the survivors in a bid to strengthen their decimated forces.

......

After saving that battlefront from defeat, Ning began to patrol the cosmos once more. Every so often, he’d exchange a message with the other Autarchs.

“The Hiddencloud battlefront is in desperate need of assistance.” Yet another report came. This time, it caused Ning to blink. The Hiddencloud battlefront? Wasn’t... wasn’t that the place where the disciple he was proudest of, his second disciple ‘Green Bamboo’ Yang Quding, was located?

Few of Ning’s friends were taking part in this battle, and those few that did take part were the ones in the Sixteen Realmverses Alliance, such as Nuwa. As for ‘Green Bamboo’ Yang Quding, he was fighting alongside his own friends in the Hiddencloud battlefront. Ning had naturally memorized his location.

“That’s more than twenty-six days away from me.” Ning’s heart turned cold. He couldn’t help but send mentally to the other six, “Can any of you make it there? My disciple Green Bamboo is there.”

“Your disciple, Darknorth?” At a time like this, no one would bother accusing Ning of selfishness. Who could be truly and completely selfless?

“I can’t make it in time.”

“That’s too far away.”

“The closest ones to it are the two of us, Darknorth,” Autarch Skyfeeder replied. “I need nineteen days to get there. That’s too much time, and they won’t be able to hold out for that long. Thus far, the maximum survival time after sending a distress call has been just barely ten days.”

Ning fell silent. There was nothing he could do... Nineteen days... Autarch Skyfeeder could probably wipe out over ten warships during that period of time. It wasn’t worth it to give that up just to try and save the Hiddencloud battlefront, especially seeing as how that battle would almost assuredly be completely lost after nineteen days.

Ning wasn’t just Green Bamboo’s master. He was also one of the seven most powerful leaders of this Chaosverse, responsible for safeguarding every part of it!

“Nineteen days is too long,” Ning replied softly. “Considering the grand scheme of things, it isn’t worth it. Forget it.”

Ning said nothing else. He went back to hunting for Sithe in the Great Dark.

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