Desolate Era

Deep within the palace located in the depths of the Grassland World. The silver-robed woman waved her hand, causing an image to appear next to her which displayed what was happening in the world outside. “All of you look so nervous. Fine. We’ll let you see what’s happening outside. That way, you can tell Iyerre that the three of us are being diligent in our efforts.”

The three Autarch-class void dwellers and the Sithe Exalts all stared at the images next to her. They saw a towering, seven-faced titan dressed in just a fur loincloth reach out with fourteen arms. The arms were filled with absolutely unearthly power as they tore apart the ninth layer of clouds and then kept the rift open.

Aside from the titan, there was also the giant black serpent and the gigantic sword. The black serpent was under assault by nine violet-gold chains. The serpent was clearly finding it rather hard to endure the assault, even though streaks of sword-light were assisting it in resisting the chains.

As for the giant sword, it had pierced through the eight layers of clouds and was slamming against the runes and glyphs surrounding the conduit formation.

Slash! Slash! Slash! It was clear to everyone that by the time the sword had pierced through the eight layers of clouds, it had virtually exhausted all of its power and posed very little threat to the divine glyphs and runes. They didn’t even tremble!

“We’re in no danger.”

“After we ignited the quintessence core, these cultivators are no longer a threat to us,” Boweyna and the other Exalts agreed.

“The only thing they have which could threaten us is that titan. It has to be a formation-incarnation! Given its power, I imagine the cultivator leaders are located right inside of its body,” a skinny Sithe Exalt said. “We’ve ignited the quintessence core, but it’s still able to handle the ninth layer of clouds with ease. That means it has to be even more powerful than the sword!”

“Kiblo is right. Our greatest threat right now is that formation-incarnation,” another Sithe Exalt immediately agreed.

The two men and the woman at the front of the temple let out cold chuckles. The silver-robed woman explained, “Actually, our only worry is that the formation-incarnation will NOT come inside. If it dares to do so, we’ll be ready to launch a full-strength counterattack against it. We’ll do everything possible to cut off its connection to the outside world! Once that happens, it’ll no longer be reinforced by the might of the outside formations, at which point the incarnation, the black serpent, and the giant sword will all be dramatically weakened. Their fates will be in our hands!”

“Iyerre has already issued orders,” the black-robed man continued coldly, “To seize this opportunity to trap them inside the Grassland World. Once Iyerre arrives, we’ll launch our final killing strokes and annihilate them all.”

“But what if they don’t come inside?” a Sithe Exalt said.

“That’s why we aren’t attacking yet,” the black-robed man said. “The more power we display, the more vigilant they will be. Let’s just wait patiently. They’ll begin to grow impatient once they realize they cannot destroy the Grassland World, at which point they might charge inside.”

The Sithe Exalts below all murmured amongst themselves. These three clearly had completely different attitudes. The Exalts had to risk their lives and do everything in their power to fulfill Iyerre’s commands, while these three simply had to ‘do enough’. Still, this was indeed a good plan to lure the cultivators inside.

……

The outside world. As predicted, Ji Ning, Titanos, Stonerule, and the others were all feeling extremely anxious. They had already done everything they could, save for sending in their formation-incarnation, but they remained unable to destroy the formation.

“What should we do? If we continue like this, we stand no chance of victory at all,” Autarch Ekong said anxiously. “Should we take the risk of charging inside?”

“We cannot!” Autarch Skyfeeder immediately refused. “Right now, we hold the upper hand. It is the Sithe who cannot afford to waste time. They need to force a final battle as soon as possible. We, on the other hand, shouldn’t take on unnecessary risk!”

“Actually, we are drawing closer and closer to victory,” Autarch Titanos said suddenly.

“Eh?” Ning and the others were all startled.

“What is the greatest flaw which all powerful Sithe weapons share?” Autarch Titanos asked. “Energy! This Grassland World has to be using up an absolutely enormous amount of energy. You all saw how, after we destroyed the first conduit formation, the power of the entire Grassland World suddenly skyrocketed. Even the air itself is glowing with blue light, and we can all sense how much power that light holds within it.”

Ning and the others all nodded.

“Clearly, the energies of the Grassland World are being depleted at an incredible rate. In fact, it is literally leaking power!” Autarch Titanos continued, “When we first started to cause damage and attacked the conduit formation, the Grassland World didn’t have this sort of crazy response. Why? Precisely because of how much energy it would consume. They weren’t willing to pay such a heavy price unless absolutely necessary!”

“If we can force the Grassland World to continue depleting its energies at this rate, it’ll soon break apart on its own,” Autarch Titanos said with a smile.

“Right.”

“Once its energy source is gone, even the most powerful of weapons will become nothing more than a pile of refuse.”

“Let it continue using up its power source then.” All the other Autarchs agreed with this idea.

“Besides, Ekong,” Autarch Titanos continued, “Skyfeeder, Darknorth, and the others are unwilling to take the risk of going inside because they can sense that something isn’t quite right. When we first started to attack the world of grass, they initially sent out those three Autarch-class void dwellers to fight back against us. After those three fled, not a single Sithe has come out to stand in our way.”

“Do you really think such a vast world of grass wouldn’t have someone in control of it? Even ordinary temples have several Sithe Exalts and powerful golems protecting them. Does this world of grass really just have a few chains guarding it?” Autarch Titanos said.

“Yes, I have the feeling that something is off,” Ning said. “There’s no way such a powerful weapon would only be defended by a few chains.”

Autarch Titanos nodded. “That’s why I have the feeling that they are intentionally holding back to lure us inside. Once our true bodies go through the clouds, they’ll be ready to show their daggers. This would instantly become the final battle of this war… but the final battle has to be on a battlefield of our choosing, not this world of grass!”

“Agreed.” They would rather give up this opportunity than take on such enormous risk. So long as they remained alive, they were still ‘winning’ and would have a chance to gain a final victory in the future.

……

Ning and the others were of the same mind on this, and so they quickly calmed down. They continued to use the black serpent and the divine sword to assault the conduit formation, forcing the Grassland World to pay a heavy price in energy and keep the quintessence core ignited.

The Sithe continued to wait from their hiding place deep beneath the grass, waiting impatiently for the formation-incarnation to come inside… but the Autarchs simply refused to do so!

Time flowed on quickly. A full day went past in the blink of an eye.

The ignited quintessence core was consuming energy thousands of times more quickly than it normally would. This single day had cost it the equivalent of dozens of years of energy! This was an absolutely shocking rate of energy consumption, which was why the three had been so hesitant to ingnite the quintessence. This single day had caused the quintessence core to shrink by one full size.

Whoosh! A tall, barefoot man was striding through spacetime rifts, frantically advancing through the void. “I’m almost there.” Iyerre was both anxious and furious. His calculations indicated that the ignited quintessence core could only last for around three days. Normally, it would have been able to last for over a century! Now, however, it had lost nearly 40% of its power. How could he not be impatient?

“Damnit. They still haven’t gone inside!” He had paid such a heavy price, but with nothing to show for it! If the cultivator leaders had barged into the Grassland World, he would’ve ordered his subordinates to launch the final battle in order to keep them trapped there at all costs. By the time Iyerre himself reached the Grassland World, he would kill them all! Iyerre was absolutely certain of being able to kill them when the battlefield was within the Grassland World itself.

And yet… a full day had gone past. The cultivators had to know that they weren’t able to break the formation apart, but they refused to go inside!

Slash! After yet another warp through spacetime, he finally arrived at the scene of the battle. This entire region was covered by an enormous formation, but Iyerre appeared directly within its borders. As he did so, Ning and the others instantly sensed Iyerre’s appearance.

“It is Iyerre!” Ning and the others were all shocked.

“He’s simply incredible. Our formation should’ve suppressed spacetime, but he was able to tear through our suppression and warp through spacetime. The suppression was useless!”

“No wonder our seal against the Sithelands was completely useless.” Ning and the others were all stunned by Iyerre’s might. Omega Autarchs truly did surpass their insights by far too much.

“Hmph.” Iyerre stepped forward, tearing through spacetime once more and appearing in the grayish clouds which served as the outermost layer of the Grassland World. He then easily passed through the clouds to go inside.

Moments later, a wave of power swept across the entire Grassland World, including Autarch Bolin’s avatar which was hiding within via his ‘false death’ state.

“Neither dead nor alive? Is that Autarch Bolin? So my foolish subordinates weren’t able to kill you after all. It must have been you who revealed the Grassland World’s location.” As Iyerre’s voice rang out, he himself appeared on the first layer of clouds. He immediately reached out towards a patch of empty space, forcing it to suddenly reveal the avatar of Bolin which immediately began to flee.

Boom! The blue light of the Grassland World covered Iyerre, illuminating his body. Iyerre simply waved his hand, commanding the blue light to shoot out. When Ning and the other Autarchs fought, they could command the power of the Dao… and here in the Grassland World, Iyerre could command the power of that miniature quintessence. Although it couldn’t compare to the actual Quintessence of the Chaosverse in power, it was still enough to dramatically strengthen Iyerre.

Iyerre swung out a palm which surpassed both spacetime and the cycle of life and death. Bolin’s avatar had nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, and it was instantly splattered into nothingness by that giant palm.

If Bolin had been here in person, he might’ve been able to endure for two or three strikes before falling. This avatar, however, was newly made and very weak. In the Grassland World, it was unable to withstand even a single blow from the empowered Iyerre.