Desolate Era

“Helping you make a trip is a minor matter,” Hegemon Thunderstar said. The Hegemons and Emperors of the Sixteen Realmverses Alliance had been in a race against time to reach the Flamedragon Realmverse first, which was why they had all been forced to pay exorbitant prices! Going by normal prices, travelling the great distance from the Skywolf Territory to the Flamedragon Realmverse was still going to be quite expensive, but it was nothing to someone like Lord Wulf, who had massacred and looted countless people.

“All Black Emperors, assemble and move out alongside me!” Lord Wulf ordered. “We are going to the Flamedragon Realmverse to take that realmship.”

“Acknowledged!”

“Let’s take that realmship.” A total of nine onyx humanoids flew out from Mount Doom by his side.

Aside from their supreme leader, the Lonely King, the Icepeak Army only had a total of three generals! These three generals each commanded a total of twelve Black Emperors. Normally, they would each have six Black Emperors accompanying them. The other six would be assigned into two squads responsible for patrolling the Chaosverse. Once they heard anything important, they were to immediately come and report it to their general!

The three generals and the Lonely King operated in the same way. They would have part of their soldiers with them, with the rest patrolling the Chaosverse on a long-term basis. This ensured that the Icepeak Army had a strong information network and was able to get involved in any of the momentous events within the Chaosverse on short notice.

This time, Lord Wulf had the three returned patrolling Black Emperors and his six personal Black Emperors with him, making for a total of nine Black Emperors.

“One Golden Emperor and nine Black Emperors. A force like this is enough to massacre the Flamedragon Realmverse ten times over.” Hegemon Thunderstar mumbled to himself, “All I’m doing is earning a bit of treasure by sending them over. Even if I declined, there would be other Hegemons willing to help out. Daolord Darknorth, you are nothing more than a Daolord but you dare to make an enemy out of the Icepeak Army. I admire you for your courage… but the reason why the other major powers were unwilling to act as you do is because the consequences are too terrifying to bear.”

Hegemon Thunderstar couldn’t help but sigh a bit. He felt as though he could see the end of the line for this genius Daolord. Golden Emperors were all at the Otherverse Lord level of power! Nine Black Emperors working in concert were equivalent in power to an Otherverse Lord as well! How could the Flamedragon Realmverse possibly withstand this level of power?

……

The Flamedragon Realmverse remained as calm as always. Ning didn’t make public the fact that he had faced off against three Black Emperors belonging to the Icepeak Army. There was no point. Hegemon Brightshore and the others wouldn’t be of any use, and so it was best not to bother them about it.

The Terror Starsea. The Jadefire Realm.

“Darknorth, it’s been twenty million years. The Icepeak Army could arrive at any moment. How much longer is it going to take for you to break these formations?” The skinny old man, Hegemon Azurefiend, was seated in the lotus position on the deepfire blackstone floor, a frantic look on his face.

“I was just estimating the time earlier!” Ning was standing atop the Flamewing God’s back, focusing his efforts on the black chains in front of him. “I wasn’t exactly sure as to how long it would take for me to break these formations. I thought it would be quite fast, but I ran into a few problems. Don’t be impatient and relax! The Icepeak Army hasn’t even arrived yet. By the time they do arrive at the Jadefire Realm, I’ll first use its defenses to tie them down for quite some time.”

“This is Lord Wulf we are talking about! He’s supposedly a Golden Emperor with an entire group of Black Emperors serving him. Your flaming passageways won’t be able to withstand a force like his,” Hegemon Azurefiend said hurriedly. “Why don’t we leave the Jadefire Realm for now? Once you’ve fully mastered the formations, we can return here. Otherwise, we’ll be caught here with nowhere to run.”

“Just look at how freaked out you are. You are a Hegemon!” Ning raised his head to glance sideways at Hegemon Azurefiend. “You look scared out of your mind!”

“I’m just trying to be cautious,” Azurefiend immediately rebutted.

“Don’t worry. The flaming passageways might not be able to kill them, but they’ll definitely be able to slow them down.” Ning smiled. “When I’m in the flaming passageways, I’ll be able to travel unimpeded. I can shake them off with ease and escape as I please.”

Ning no longer paid any further attention to Auzrefiend, focusing all of his efforts on the countless formations covering the black chains before him. Although he had memorized them all long ago, when he viewed them in person and saw how the formations changed and flowed, it was still of some help to him.

Time continued to flow on. Azurefiend could do nothing but wait. The feeling that the Icepeak Army was about to arrive at any moment was quite an uncomfortable one. “Actually fighting to the death would be better than just waiting here like this,” Azurefiend muttered.

“Not even my master is as worried as you,” the nearby Whitethaw said.

“You…!” Azurefiend glared at him. “H-he’s completely focused on his formations, while I have nothing to do. Of course I’m going to be miserable!”

“To put it plainly, you are a coward. You are scared.” Whitethaw glanced sideways at Azurefiend.

“Puny golem, how dare you mock me!” Azurefiend glared at him. Whitethaw just shut his mouth, paying Azurefiend no heed. Azurefiend was so angry that his teeth hurt. Whitethaw only obeyed Ning’s orders and didn’t seem to care about Azurefiend at all. There really was nothing Azurefiend could do to the golem. He might be able to completely dominate Whitethaw in a fight, but he wasn’t able to actually injure Whitethaw.

……

Ning’s true body and Primaltwin were both consumed with their meditations. Countless formations were flashing through their minds, circulating nonstop and merging together. Some of the formations would then vanish, replaced by other formations.

The art of formations relied heavily upon visualizations and divinations! This was why the Dao of Formations was a legendarily complex one. Anyone capable of becoming a Hegemon via the Dao of Formations would definitely have a far higher level of status than ordinary Hegemons.

Whoosh. The countless formations were tweaked again and again. Suddenly, the black-robed Ning in the Azureflower Estate and the white-robed Ning within the hidden room in the Jadefire Realm both opened their eyes. Their eyes were gleaming with shocking levels of light.

“I understand!” Ning murmured softly, his voice filled with suppressed excitement. “These Sithe elders truly were incredible. They actually managed to use formations in such a manner! Even though I had all those Sithe techniques to serve as references, it still took me an incredibly long period of time to understand and solve these formations.” The more Ning researched the Sithe, the more impressed he felt, even though he was currently just focusing on formations. No wonder the Sithe had been so daring as to try and enslave all the cultivator civilizations!

“How is it?” The distant Azurefiend had been taking a nap while seated. He opened his eyes to look at Ning, a hint of excitement in his gaze. “Have you solved it?”

“Master?” Whitethaw looked at Ning as well.

“I think I have.” Ning nodded.

“What do you mean, you THINK you have?” Azurefiend stared at him.

“My mental visualizations should be correct, but I need to actually try them out.” Ning took a deep breath, manifesting three heads and six arms as his aura grew markedly more powerful. All six of his arms expanded in size as they simultaneously reached out to the six black chains.

Each of the fingers on Ning’s six hands turned crystalline in color as he drew hand-seals with them. His fingers began to naturally come together into a series of formations. The formations around his six palms began to naturally merge together, almost like a marvelous mechanism that was coming together in layers. Then, Ning’s six hands separated to touch the black chains on six different spots. Some moved slowly, some moved quickly, but there was a certain natural beauty to the cadence.

Clack! One of the black chains let out a series of clattering as it began to move. The black chains began to undergo certain changes, transforming to become significantly thicker in size. The thickened black chains began to reach out towards one direction, moving alongside the Flamewing God’s leg.

Clack! The black chain covering the leg suddenly expanded and then naturally separated from the others. Once this happened, the second black chain began to stretch out as well…

All six black chains seemed to be influencing each other. In the end, all six of the chains imprisoning the Flamewing God began to naturally separate from each other.

“Get over here.” Ning reached out with all six hands, his crystalline fingers once more tapping the six chains on six different locations. Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. All six black chains were released from their void anchors and flew over towards Ning. Ning dispelled the [Three Heads, Six Arms] technique. He reached out with his right hand, causing all six chains to become very fine and delicate as they coiled obediently around his arm like a bracelet.

“This is a fine treasure, a unique weapon which the Sithe used in war.” Ning smiled. “Once these chains coil around someone, they can fully suppress it. Even Chaos Primordials can be suppressed by them! Most likely, anyone below the Autarch level of power who is trapped by them would be unable to break free.” However, Ning also knew that no one would be so stupid as to allow the chains to just coil around them.

“Flamewing. Flamewing!” Ning lept off the Flamewing God’s back and moved to stand in front of it, then gave one of its paws a little kick.

“Eh?” The slumbering Flamewing God opened its gigantic bleary eyes, then stared downwards at the tiny white-robed figure standing in front of it. Rather unhappy, it said, “Master, I’m still sleeping! Call me once you break the formations.”