Desolate Era

“And why the hell should I transmit my Dao to you?” Ji Ning’s icy voice continued to echo within the silent hall.

The atmosphere within the entire hall seemed to have frozen over. The other major powers were secretly speechless at how rash Lord Houwu was behaving! Although Daolord Darknorth was supposedly an amiable person, he was still a figure of terrifying power who could wipe them out with ease. How could someone behave so impetuously before a person like him?

None of the major powers here would dare to do such a thing. Only someone who was as crazy as Lord Houwu would!

Lord Houwu continued to kneel there on the ground, his heart shaking. He was rather afraid as well! He was afraid that Daolord Darknorth would kill him… but he still chose to take this action. By his very nature, he was a risk-taker. That was why he had established a city for cultivators within the Blazesun Domain!

The entire Blazesun Domain only had a single city in it. Logically speaking, someone who had acquired a Sithe war-fort would put it within his own citadel or realmverse; that was normal and made sense. Lord Houwu, however, had insisted on putting it within the Blazesun Domain instead. This was a testament to his personality and the type of person he was; he dared to do the things which others did not!

As Lord Houwu saw it, even if he failed in his request, the warm way in which he had welcomed Daolord Darknorth should at least ensure that he wouldn’t be killed out of hand.

Lord Houwu knelt there, suppressing his terror as he spoke, “Daolord, I haven’t been able to improve in the Dao despite the passage of countless years. I simply cannot accept this. Now that you have appeared, I finally see hope. I am willing to give up everything for this opportunity.”

“Give up everything?” Ning’s face had been icy cold, but now a hint of a smile played across the corner of his lips. The kneeling Lord Houwu, however, was unable to see it. “Very well. Give me your city and all of your treasures, including your Universe treasures. Only then would I accept you… and even then, I’ll only teach you whenever I’m in the mood. Do you accept?”

Lord Houwu was stunned. He was to give up everything? He had risked his life countless times to acquire his treasures, to have the foundation and fortitude needed to establish a city here in the Blazesun Domain. Without his Sithe treasures, he would merely be an ordinary figure amongst the other major powers. Lord Houwu’s body felt limp and weak. Was he really able to give up all of these things?

He was not! Even if he did acquire the Eternal Omega Sword Dao, he wouldn’t necessarily be able to improve all that much. He would, however, lose all of his Sithe treasures. He simply couldn’t accept this.

“Clearly, you aren’t able to ‘give up everything’.” Ning calmly rose to his feet, then began to walk towards a side room. “There’s no need for any of you to follow.” As he spoke he nodded towards Nuwa, who immediately moved to enter the side room with him.

Only after Ning left did sound return to the hall.

“Whew.”

“Brother Houwu, you truly are bold. I’d never dare to act as you just did.” Some other major powers walked over, while Lord Houwu rose to his feet.

“You dummy.” The only person in the hall who was still eating was the Flamewing God, and it raised his head to glance at Lord Houwu.

“Dummy?” Lord Houwu looked back at Flamewing.

“I know exactly what type of person my master is. There’s no way he’d take advantage over one of his students like that! If you really said that you were willing to offer everything to Master and obey him in all things, I can guarantee that there’s no way he’d actually take your crappy treasures.” Flamewing snickered as it shook its head. “A pity. You missed your chance, and you won’t get another one.”

“Ah?!” A look of regret and sorrow appeared on Lord Houwu’s face. Alas, he wasn’t really familiar with the type of person Daolord Darknorth was, and he truly wasn’t able to give up all of those treasures.

Most importantly of all, when Ning spoke he had infused his voice with a sort of natural illusion which ensured that Lord Houwu would be completely focused on this choice. If he truly was determined in pursuing the Dao at any cost, Ning probably would’ve nodded and accepted him. However, he had failed the test. This was proof that his Dao-heart was insufficiently resilient.

……

Within the side hall. Only two people were here; the first was Ning, while the second was Nuwa.

“Sit. We can speak at length now.” Ning felt rather emotional as he stared at the woman before him.

Nuwa… she was a legend to the Three Realms. But of course, Ning himself was now a legend of the Three Realms as well. Back when he was very young and weak, his first step on the path of cultivation had been him visualizing the [Nuwa Diagram]. Now, the two most dazzling cultivators of the Three Realms had come together in the Blazesun Domain, a place which was incomparably distant from the Three Realms. Destiny truly was a marvelous, unfathomable thing.

“Daolord Darknorth, can you tell me where the Three Realms is located?” Nuwa asked the question which she wanted to ask above all others. Cultivators were blessed with long lives, but spending all that time without even knowing where home was located was a source of pain and torment.

If she had been born a Chaos Primordial, a creature who was born into solitude and lonely wanderings, that would’ve been one thing… but she had been born into the Pangu Chaosworld and then lived in the Three Realms. She had fought for that place, and that was where all of her friends were.

“The Three Realms is located in the Flamedragon Realmverse,” Ning said.

“So it really is there!” Nuwa nodded. “When I heard that you came from the Flamedragon Realmverse, Daolord Darknorth, and that you were searching for me, I immediately began to suspect that the Three Realms might be located there. However, the Flamedragon Realmverse is extremely far away from the Blazesun Domain. When I left the Three Realms, I encountered a spatial tempest within that dimensional corridor and ended up being lost. I appeared here within the Blazesun Domain. I never would’ve dared to imagine that I had drifted so far from home.”

Ning was rather surprised: “Really? So you really did lose your way within the dimensional passageway and end up arriving in the Blazesun Domain?” It took billions of years when travelling by realmship to cross such a great distance. How could she have ended up in such a distant place just because she was ‘lost’? This was crazy.

“Yes.” Nuwa nodded. “Back then, I was merely a World-level cultivator. How could I, all by myself, have travelled from the Three Realms to the Blazesun Domain?”

“The Blazesun Domain…” Ning was intrigued. “Actually, on this journey to the Blazesun Domain I had the vague feeling that this place is truly quite extraordinary. Now that you tell me that you came here from the Three Realms after being lost in space… the secrets within the Blazesun Domain are most likely even greater than I suspected.”

“Secrets?” Nuwa was curious.

“If I can discover them, I’ll let you know,” Ning laughed. “I’ve failed my Daomerge, after all. That means I’m going to die. There’s no need for me to hold anything back from you.” Ning had already decided that Nuwa would be the one to protect the Three Realms on his behalf.

“Daolord Darknorth… can you tell me who you are, exactly?” Nuwa couldn’t help but ask, “Why is it that you know of me?”

“Haha…” Ning laughed. “My master is Patriarch Subhuti of the Tristar Crescent Abode of Mount Innerheart.”

“Subhuti?!” Nuwa was stunned. “Y-you are Subhuti’s disciple?!”

“Yes.” Ning nodded.

“I n-never would’ve imagined that you…” Nuwa had a complex look on her face. She remembered those years, those battles she had experienced alongside those lifelong friends. Back then, none of them had any guidance from the outside world at all. They had to blindly find their own paths for cultivation. Pangu had perished after establishing Heaven and Earth, and so Nuwa had become the leader of the group.

“Subhuti, Three Purities, Tathagata, Suiren… are they doing well?” Nuwa asked.

Ning blinked, then shook his head. “My master Subhuti is still alive, but Daoist Three Purities, Lord Tathagata the Buddha, Suiren, Shennong, Fuxi, as well as many of the other Immortals and Fiendgods of the Three Realms have perished, as have Keeper Everwood and Daomother Devilhand of the Seamless Gate.”

“What?!” Nuwa was stunned. She had been born from the primordial chaos itself. To her, those ancient Fiendgods were her family, her kith and kin who she had fought alongside. How was it that they had all died?

“There were two instigators behind their deaths. The first was Patriarch Demonheart,” Ning said, “While the other was Old Man Yuan.” Ning immediately narrated the tale of what had happened during that era.

Nuwa was surprised to hear that the number one Sword Immortal of the Three Realms, Daofather Fuju, had actually been World God Northrest. She was enraged to hear of what the Seamless Gate did! She felt regret that she hadn’t slain Patriarch Demonheart, while she felt pain over Houyi’s death. Most of all, she felt incredible sorrow when she heard of how many of her old friends in the Three Realms had chosen to perish via self-detonation in an attempt to take out Old Man Yuan. Tears began to fill her eyes.

“Alas.” Nuwa let out a gentle sigh.

“That battle truly was a calamitous one,” Ning said softly. “I simply hadn’t been training long enough back then. In truth, I’ve always been hoping to be able to revive them all in the future as well… but when they self-detonated, their souls and truesouls were shattered. To bring them back to life is far, far too difficult.”

Ning didn’t go into detail as to why. If even a Celestial Immortal like Yu Wei was very difficult to revive, Three Purities and the others would be nearly impossible to bring back. All of them had been incredible figures who had been blessed with the essence of Autarch Awakener’s godgems. How incredibly hard would it be to revive them?!

“In the end, I failed my Daomerge. I failed by just a thread.” Ning shook his head. “Ever since I failed the Daomerge, I’ve been wanting to find news of you. I could sense that you were still alive! I’m going to die, and the one thing I cannot help but worry about is the Three Realms. I wish to find a protector for the Three Realms, but I just cannot trust anyone else with it. But if you, Nuwa, were present… I wouldn’t feel nearly as worried as I do currently.”

As Ning spoke, he waved his hand. A series of treasures appeared before them, with the most important one being a jade slip. This jade slip emanated a terrifying aura of power even though it simply levitated there in the air, and its aura was so strong that Nuwa could barely breathe.