The Desolate Era

by S.H.A aifu

Fate had never been kind to Ji Ning. Wracked by illnesses and infirm his entire life on Earth, Ning knew early on that he would die as a teenager. What he didn’t know was that there really was such a thing as life after death, and that the universe was a far larger place than he thought. A lucky twist of fate (one of the few in Ning’s life) meant that Ning was reborn into a world o

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Book 38, Daomerge, Chapter 31 – A Distant Journey

Finally, this great Flamedragon Realmverse event came to an end. The Hegemons and Emperors all departed one by one, with the Vastheaven Everworld regaining its usual calm.

Within Vastheaven Palace.

"Greetings to you, senior apprentice-brother Darknorth." Ten World-level cultivators were present. There were youths, elders, aliens, Aberrant special lifeforms, and even an Ancient cultivator. They all bowed respectfully, their gazes filled with unabashed excitement. They had finally been selected! It must be remembered that there were some geniuses who took part in this competition that were just as talented as them. A few were even more talented!

"From this day forth, you are now honorary disciples of Emperor Mirrorsnow," Ning said. "Our master, Emperor Mirrorsnow, has long ago departed from the Flamedragon Realmverse and gone off adventuring, which is why I shall teach you in his stead. However, in the end cultivation must come from the self. Thus, I will only provide each of you with ten sessions of individualized guidance. After the ten sessions are over, I will not provide you with any further guidance until you become Daolords. Understood?"

"Understood." Although these World-level cultivators were all secretly surprised, they remained quite calm. They were all geniuses and all quite proud. They usually weren't all that impressed by most major powers, but they were filled with almost fanatical devotion towards Daolord Darknorth. This was why they had striven so hard to become apprenticed to him. It certainly wasn't because of 'Emperor Mirrorsnow'! Not even the chance to become Emperor Mirrorsnow's personal disciples, rather than just honorary disciples, was nearly as attractive as the chance to have Daolord Darknorth personally instruct them.

Ten sessions? They felt certain that there was a reason why Daolord Darknorth had said this!

"Good." Ning smiled upon seeing their reactions. "The ten of you are all extremely talented in the Dao of the Sword. Three of you have fused Supreme Daos together, while the other seven have all mastered multiple individual Supreme Daos. All I really need to do is provide you with some guidance. In the end, it will be up to you to walk the path between life and death as you become Samsara Daolords."

Disciples weren't necessarily capable of learning everything a teacher had to offer; in life, you had to make do with what materials you had to work with. Every single Samsara Daolord had to find his or her own Dao. Ning felt that it would be quite incredible if even a single one of his personal disciples or 'junior apprentice-brothers' and 'junior apprentice-sisters' ended up embarking on the path of an Omega Dao. The far more likely result would be that none of them would find that path.

The Omega Dao simply couldn't be taught. You had to go find it on your own! As a wise teacher, Ning knew that all he could do was guide them on their paths. Fortunately for them, Ning's own path was that of the Omega Sword Dao. His Dao was like a tall, sturdily-built house, and his guidance was the best guidance possible.

"This is the world of the Sword Shack." Ning waved his hand, causing ten black loops that glowed with runic lines to fly towards the ten.

"The Sword Shack is filled with countless sword-arts. Aside from the [Heartseal] sword-art of our master, Emperor Mirrorsnow, it also includes all foundations for the Dao of the Sword," Ning said. In other words… it contained the foundations for his own Omega Dao. This was why he dared to make the claim that it contained 'all foundations for the Dao of the Sword'.

"You can train in seclusion within the Sword Shack, but you must be tempered via adventuring through the outside world. Perhaps you will then be able to understand and find a path which truly belongs to you."

"Thank you, senior apprentice-brother." The ten disciples were all delighted.

"You are the only ones permitted inside the Sword Shack. If anyone else tries to bind it, the estate-world inside will be automatically destroyed," Ning said. "Thus, you must not give it to anyone else."

"Understood." Many of the ten mused that only a fool would give something like this to another!

Ning waved his hand again, causing a number of Dao-seals to fly out towards the ten as well. "These are Dao-seals which I personally forged. Some involve the Dao of the Sword, some involve the Dao of Space, some involve the Dao of Time, some involve heartforce, some involve the Dao of Karma… each of you shall have nine seals total, and they come in varying levels of power. Some are meant for escape, some are meant to kill foes, and some are used to scout and explore. Just three of them can be used to attack foes head-on," Ning said. "When you go out adventuring, you must be careful and also conserve your Dao-seals. If you use them all up, I'm not going to just remake them for you."

These ten disciples were all overjoyed, but they also felt stunned. Daolord Darknorth had personally forged them? Forging Dao-seals was fairly easy, and many major powers were capable of it, but the cost was quite high as only valuable materials could be used to store such incredible levels of power. And… more importantly, the creator of the Dao-seal had to understand the Daos he was infusing into each seal.

In other words… if their senior apprentice-brother Darknorth created that many Dao-seals for them, he must have reached inconceivable heights in the Dao of the Sword, the Dao of Space, the Dao of Time, the Dao of Karma, and multiple other Daos!

"Here are a hundred million cubes of chaos nectar for each of you." Ning waved his hand, causing a few more storage-type treasures to fly out.

"Here are some top-grade Eternal swords which have been made in accordance with your own specific insights into the Dao of the Sword. Each of you can have six." Ning waved his hand again, causing a total of sixty swords to fly out towards the ten.

Top-grade Eternal treasures? Ning had a literal mountain of these things. In truth, every single Hegemon had piles and piles of top-grade Eternal treasures. Ning was far wealthier than most Hegemons. Not only had he blackmailed multiple Hegemons and killed Hegemon Winterflame, he had also accumulated a terrifying amount of treasure when he had swept through the Jadefire Realm. He had a total of six Universe treasures! Alas, none of them were swords.

"I've already given you everything I can and should. Sword-arts, divine abilities, secret arts… you'll find them all within the Sword Shack," Ning said. "If you want to earn them, go into the Sword Shack and fight for them. Go now. I've already set up estates for you within Vastheaven Palace. Calm your minds and train hard. You can come find me if you have any questions… but remember, each of you will only have ten opportunities!"

"Understood." The ten fellow disciples all departed excitedly.

"What an absolute fortune."

"Each of us was given a hundred million cubes!"

"Perhaps ordinary Daolords of the Fourth Step might feel pain at giving away a billion cubes of chaos nectar, but senior apprentice-brother treats with Hegemons as equals. He's able to toss out such sums without batting an eye."

"Ah! The Sword Shack has a prayer mat inside. When my Primaltwin sat down upon it, its cultivation speed increased dramatically. This thing is far more valuable than the cubes of chaos nectar!" While journeying towards their estates, these ten 'fellow disciples' began to discover how marvelous the prayer mat was. All of them were stunned by it. There were many Eternal Emperors who would be envious of such a treasure!

Most of the treasures which Ning had prepared for his fifth disciple Boundless and his sixth disciple Muse were on par with what the other ten had been given. The only difference lay in the Sword Shack.

"Before you become Samsara Daolords, the two of you shall also have ten chances to come ask me for instruction," Ning said. "Therefore, you should train hard within the Sword Shack. Do your best to resolve your questions on your own. If you find that you can make no progress at all, come find me."

"Understood." Boundless and Muse were incredibly respectful.

"You can go now," Ning instructed, and the two immediately departed obediently.

Upon seeing everyone finally leave, the nearby Hegemon Azurefiend finally spoke up: "Darknorth, don't you think you are just a bit too casual when it comes to teaching your students?"

"I can guide them, but providing them with overly detailed tutelage will actually constrain their growth," Ning said. "It'll be far more helpful for them if they can find answers to their questions on their own, rather than come to me for everything. Besides… the 'Sword Shack' I created for them can be viewed as half a teacher as well."

"You might be overestimating your disciples a bit. Most of them have merely devised multiple Supreme Daos and have yet to even fuse them together. Not everyone is as freakishly talented as you, you know." Azurefiend shook his head.

"Well… if they just can't progress, then they can live in mediocrity." Ning smiled. By its very nature, the Dao of the Sword required one to advance without looking back and to act in accordance with one's own nature. How could one possibly become a major power if someone was always yammering at him about what he should do? Even though he was their teacher, he couldn't interfere too much in their choices.

Besides… the more famous a teacher was, the greater his influence would be on his students. He had to be careful, and he couldn't provide them with excessive guidance. If he did, he might end up causing his students to depart from the path which actually suited them the most. The path which was best for Ning wasn't necessarily the path which was best for his students.

However… just letting them roam freely wasn't an option either. This was why Ning had chosen to create the Sword Shack, which he had infused with the foundations of virtually all paths one could take in the Dao of the Sword. He would let his disciples choose the path which suited them the most.

Although it looked as though Ning was acting in a casual fashion, in reality he had put a lot of effort and consideration into how he was going to teach the disciples he had chosen. This was true for both his personal disciples and the disciples he had chosen on behalf of Emperor Mirrorsnow. Yes, he was technically just their 'senior apprentice-brother', but in reality he was like their master. This was why Ning had worked so hard to create all those different types of Dao-seals for them, which would be enough to allow them to deal with all sorts of strange predicaments. They were more than enough for the types of adventures which World-level cultivators would get into.

After having accepted all these disciples, Ning led Flamewing, Azurefiend, and Whitethaw in departing from the Flamedragon Realmverse once more. This time, they were going to go on a very distant journey to a place outside the demesnes of the Sixteen Realmverses Alliance.

As for his disciples? Ning's avatar would be permanently stationed at Vastheaven Palace and would keep on eye on everything which happened in Flamedragon Realmverse. Thus, it could also teach and guide the disciples.

Whoosh. The realmship continued its advance through the endless Great Dark. Inside the realmship, Azurefiend and Flamewing were gorging on a veritable sea of food, while Whitethaw quietly stood guard over Ning. Ning, in turn, was pondering while holding onto a jade slip.

Realmslord Windgrace had given him this slip, and it included all the information he had acquired regarding the dangerous place he was about to visit.

"The Icewind Sea?" Ning mused silently. The Icewind Sea was a place which Realmslord Windgrace and his peers had scouted out in the place, and they were the ones who had chosen this name.

The Icewing Sea could be described in one word – cold! However, it was a place which gave birth to quite a few fire-aligned treasures, with the Daomerge Firecloud Flower being one of them. This was also the treasure which Ning valued the most highly.

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Book 38, Daomerge, Chapter 32 – Icewind Sea

"Realmslord Windgrace and his peers have ventured inside the Icewind Sea in the past, and they encountered a Sourcewalker who was at the Otherverse Lord level of power when they were there." Ji Ning nodded. "Within the realms of what we can handle. Although he's beyond myself and Azurefiend, so long as we have Flamewing with us we can deal with him with ease. However, this Sourcewalker has lived within the Icewind Sea and is able to make use of its local environs. It'll be quite difficult to deal with."

"We have to be careful. If we let it catch us offguard and ambush us, both I and Azurefiend will both be at risk of dying," Ning mused.

The realmship warped through spacetime for over half a million years before finally reaching the distant 'Icewind Sea'.

"How beautiful." Ning, Azurefiend, Whitethaw, and Flamewing stood within the realmship, staring in amazement at the beautiful scenes outside.

The endless Great Dark should be filled with nothing but darkness. It was an empty, lonely place without even a hint of light… but now, an enormous silvery-white vortex-world had appeared before them. A fierce, icy gale was howling throughout the region, forming an icy maelstrom of absolutely inconceivable size around it Although Ning's group was able to see it with the naked eye, they were actually still extremely far away from it. This vortex had to be comparable in size to an entire territory!

"The Icewind Sea," Ning murmured softly.

"What an enormous sea of cold energy. I feel as though endless amounts of freezing energy have gathered around this area,"Azurefiend said with an amazed sigh. "Although I've visited many realmverses and seen quite a few dangerous places, this truly is my first time seeing such an enormous conglomeration of cold energy."

Ning concurred, "Normal realmverses are filled with lightning, wind, light, darkness, and all types of other energy. That's why life is able to flourish and take root! In addition, the various streams of energy will be fairly docile and not too agitated… but the cold energy here has spread out to cover an entire territory in size! We could take all of the cold energy out of the Flamedragon Realmverse and put it here, and it still wouldn't be as dense as this."

"Weaker Eternal Emperors would probably be frozen to death," Azurefiend said with a laugh. "That's why this place, filled with such freezing might, is capable of giving birth to so many inconceivable treasures. Realmverses are quite plain and ordinary by comparison, which means they are unable to give birth to truly remarkable treasures."

"I don't like this place," the nearby Flamewing muttered.

"We'll leave right after I harvest the Daomerge Firecloud Flower," Ning consoled.

Whoosh. The realmship began to engage in short-distance warps. It soon arrived at the borders to the Icewind Sea.

Slash. Slash. Slash. The furious wind howled against the realmship, striking against it as though it was formed from icy knives. The realmship was in peak condition and thus was able to endure the attacks with ease, but its flight path became slightly twisted.

"This wind is far too powerful," Azurefiend muttered.

"We learned long ago from this jade slip that we must pass through this tempest layer if we wish to reach the continent inside the Icewind Sea," Ning said.

The Icewind Sea was called a 'sea' but it wasn't an actual sea. It was actually an absolutely enormous iceberg which naturally attracted all of the surrounding cold energy of the Chaosverse in an extremely large area. This was why such a terrifying vortex had appeared around it. This terrifying vortex was capable of killing even weaker Eternal Emperors. This sort of extreme environment was highly inhospitable for ordinary lifeforms to enter or live in.

Only Hegemons and Otherverse Lords and other major powers on or above their level would dare to enter a place like this.

There was no way to teleport through spacetime within the tempest layer. The only option was to slowly fly through it.

Under Ning's control, the realmship slowly stabilized as it followed the wind inwards. Given Ning's mastery over the Dao of Wind and the Dao of Thunder, the realmship was able to maintain its incredible speeds as it pressed onwards. Alas, the tempest layer was simply so vast that flying through it would take time.

They flew at top speed for over ninety thousand years.

"Look! There's a planet up ahead," Azurefiend called out.

"A planet?" Flamewing turned to look, then smirked. "That's not a planet, that's just a hunk of ice." Indeed, it was a piece of ice that was billions of kilometers in diameter which was flying through the tempest layer at high speeds.

"Let's move over and take a look. According to Realmslord Windgrace's records, these planet-sized hunks of ice all broke free from the main Windsea 'continent' and often have marvelous treasures hidden within them." Ning smiled. "If we're lucky, we might even find a Daomerge Fircloud Fruit." Ning and the others were quite patient; even if they spent a few dozen chaos cycles hunting for the Daomerge Firecloud Fruit, it would be fine.

Rumble… as the realmship drew closer, a wave of chaotic force suddenly swept across the realmship, causing it to tremble. It took Ning nearly an hour before they were finally able to successfully land on the ice 'planet'.

This ice planet had its own gravitational field which repelled the tempest outside of it. As a result, things were quite calm on the surface of the planet.

"Whew. We finally made it out." Azurefiend flew out, rather excited. Ning put away the realmship and then descended as well. This was a world of nothing but ice; even the 'ground' was solid ice!

"The ice…?" Ning made a casual grabbing motion towards the ground, causing a claw-shadow to sweep out against the icy ground. He wanted to forcibly tear out a chunk of it, but the only result was a clacking sound as a few scratches appeared on the ice.

"It's that tough?" Ning was rather amazed. It looked as though he would have to put some real effort into it. He waved a finger, causing a streak of sword-light to fly out and carve a large hole in the ground, digging out a large chunk of ice. The ice then flew straight towards Ning, who reached out to touch it. He could sense the terrifying cold within the ice.

Ning couldn't help but feel speechless. This was far colder than some of the famous types of mystic ice which existed in the Flamedragon Realmverse, and it was far tougher as well. His claw-strike had failed to pull anything out of it. In the end, he had been forced to exert 50% of his full power to carve this piece out.

Azurefiend's voice suddenly rang out from off in the distance: "What the hell type of ice is this? It's incredibly tough! I'm a freaking Hegemon, but I wasn't able to break it apart by stomping on it!"

"This ice is everywhere. Don't worry about it for now. Hurry up and search this place. Let's see if we can find any treasures," Ning said.

"Yes, Master," Whitethaw said.

"I'll go search as well." Flamewing returned to his usual form, excitedly spreading his wings and then flying into the air. It had been quite some time since he had flown about in such a manner.

As for Ning, he began to search this place using his powers over spacetime. Godsense was of no use; every part of the Icewind Sea was filled with such an overwhelming aura of limitless cold that even godsense was suppressed, making it impossible for him to search too far with it.

"Eh?" Ning scanned the area, his gaze seeing past space and time as he scoured the place. "That's a lot of treasure." Ning quickly found certain treasures which lay within some fairly well-hidden places.

He saw a completely crystalline-looking tree of ice, a warm jewel, a fiery-red clump of grass, and more. Ning was able to name some of them, but most were completely foreign to him. All of them were clearly quite valuable. However, Ning was so incredibly wealthy by now that he didn't really care about these treasures. Most likely, all of the treasures he had discovered would be at most compared to the networth of an ordinary Eternal Emperor. Still… this was a testament to what an incredible place the Icewind Sea was and how many treasures it held!

However, this was a place so dangerous that even someone like Realmslord Windgrace would only enter after calling a few friends to help out.

"Master! Master!" Flamewing let out an excited cry, his voice forcibly tearing through the suppressive effect of the terrifying aura of cold. Ning was able to hear him clearly from afar.

"Flamewing, what happened?!" Ning immediately moved, transforming into a streak of light as he flew straight towards Flamewing. Flamewing was standing within an icy gorge.

"Master, take a look! Do you see that?" Flamewing was rather excited, and he flapped his wing a few times as he pointed towards the front.

Ning hurriedly looked, only to see a series of long slender green leaves that were each three meters long. They were all growing slanted alongside the distant, icy-jade walls of the gorge. There had to be hundreds of those leaves, and there was a fruit at the very center of them. This fruit was completely azure in color, and it emanated a particularly pungent smell.

"Incense Spirit-Fruit?" Ning was rather amazed. This fruit was the second-ranked Daomerge treasure, but it clearly wasn't ripe yet. Fully ripened Incense Spirit-Fruit was flecked with red and would emanate an absolutely alluring aroma which would cause even Hegemons to drool. For many major powers, Incense Spirit-Fruit was primarily considered a delicacy to be eaten. How many Daolords could possibly procure such a treasure, after all?

"So the Icewind Sea has Incense Spirit-Fruit within it?" Ning was very surprised. When Realmslord Windgrace had come here, he hadn't found any Incense Spirit-Fruit. However, the Icewind Sea was a very large place; there had to be many places here which the Realmslord had yet to visit.

"Haha." Hegemon Azurefiend flew over as well. He stared at the Incense Spirit-Fruit, then laughed, "Darknorth, your luck isn't bad. We've just entered the Icewind Sea and haven't even landed on the main continent, and you've already discovered some Incense Spirit-Fruit on an iceberg planet floating at the very outskirts. Given your crazy luck, you will probably be able to find the Daomerge Cloudfire Flower after all."

"Right." Ning nodded. Judging from the information Realmslord Windgrace had provided, Incense Spirit-Fruit would probably be of very limited use to him. However, it was still far more valuable than a Voidsea Jadeseal and still could be considered a valuable treasure.

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Book 38, Daomerge, Chapter 33 – Descending Upon the Continent

After an hour, Ji Ning and his team had finished fully scouting out this ice planet. They didn't find any Daomerge Icecloud Flowers, while they only found a single Incense Spirit-Fruit. They did find quite a number of other marvelous items.

"There was nothing?" The Flamewing God continued to fly about the skies like a streak of light, unwilling to admit defeat as he continued the search.

"Forget it, Flamewing. This ice planet was nothing more than a tiny fragment of the Icewind Sea continent. We should feel lucky that we even found a single Incense Spirit-Fruit," Ning called out loudly.

Whoosh. Flamewing descended and transformed into human form. He stared at the floating azure fruit before them, then muttered, "It isn't even ripe yet. I wonder how long it would take for it to fully ripen."

"Judging from the looks of it, it'll take roughly ten thousand chaos cycles to fully ripen," Ning estimated with a smile. "But that's simple." Ning stepped forward to set up a formation around the spirit-fruit, causing spacetime to accelerate. As time began to speed up around the spirit-fruit, it began to absorb increasingly greater amounts of energy from the surrounding area.

Ning couldn't just harvest it right away, as fruits like this could only develop in highly specific environments! Even if Ning moved it over to another part of the Icewind Sea, he still might not be able to ensure its survival.

"I'll accelerate time around it by a rate of 3000x. If I increase it any further, the rate of energy absorption will destroy the entire frozen gorge," Ning said. Powerful cultivators were living beings, making it extremely difficult to accelerate time for them. The Incense Spirit-Fruit, however, was just a type of unique vegetable. Given Ning's mastery over the Dao of Time and the Dao of Formations, he would be able to easily accelerate time by even a rate of 10,000,000x. Slowing down time wasn't too hard either. His main worry was that if he accelerated time too fast, the environment wouldn't be able to provide the Incense Spirit-Fruit with enough energy.

"Thankfully, the Incense Spirit-Fruit will maintain its potency indefinitely after ripening." Ning shook his head. "If it was like the Daomerge Firecloud Flower, which must be used within a thousand years after it ripens, it would be a pain to deal with."

"The Daomerge Firecloud Flower has a far more powerful effect. Of course it also comes with more stringent requirements," Azurefiend said.

Ning scanned the area one final time, then said: "Let's go. If we have enough time, we can come back after a few chaos cycles." Ning and the others boarded the realmship, then departed from this ice planet and entered the tempest once more.

Because Ning had personally set up a formation on the planet, he was able to sense its location even as they flew farther and farther away from the ice planet.

Whooooosh. A wild wind howled ravenously through the void, causing even Ning and the others to have a limited field of vision. All of them were staring at the outside, but there was nothing but a haze blocking their sight.

Still, judging from how powerful the infinitely cold aura radiating from icy sea of energy was in each direction, they were able to sense the general direction of the main continent.

Time flowed on, one year at a time. The realmship continued to fly forwards at maximum speed, while Ning and his team remained within the warm interior, eating and drinking. Ning and Azurefiend often discussed the Dao with each other. Ning's advantage was that he was skilled in many Daos, while Azurefiend was a Hegemon. They occasionally gained insights from their discussions with each other.

They spent over 150,000,000 years slowly flying through the tempest. During this time, they only encountered one additional ice planet. Alas, this one didn't have any treasures which intrigued Ning at all, and the total value of the materials they found on it was perhaps at most comparable to an Archon's networth. Ning naturally didn't care at all.

"Here we are." Ning revealed a smile as he rose to his feet.

"We've made it already?" Flamewing, Azurefiend, and Whitethaw all looked otwards the outside, only to see an utterly vast iceworld that was a bit hard to make out due to the storm. This was a world that was unfathomably vaster than the two planet-sized pieces of ice they had encountered previously.

"Starting from today, all of us must be careful. Especially you, Flamewing; don't cause any trouble!" Ning instructed. "The Icewind Sea is quite massive; so long as we remain cautious, we might be able to avoid detection by Sourcewalkers."

"What have we to fear?" Flamewing was unhappy. "Master, based on what Realmslord windgrace told us, the Sourcewalkers of the Icewind Sea are at most comparable to Otherverse Lords in power. I can beat the crap out of any of them!"

"Obey my commands." Ning frowned. He was afraid of Flamewing causing trouble. Azurefiend was a Hegemon; he would definitely be extremely cautious in such a terrifying place as the Icewind Sea. The Protector Whitethaw went without saying; he would obey all orders unquestioningly. Flamewing, however… Ning might have tamed him, but he was still like a child. He might just go crazy and start causing chaos.

Flamewing lowered his head and started to mumble to itself.

"The Sourcewalkers might be a bit weaker than you, but they've lived in the Icewind Sea for an extremely long period of time and understand it much better than us. They might use the local environment against us. If Azurefiend and I aren't careful, they might end up ambushing and killing us before you can do anything," Ning explained.

"I'll make sure to protect you and keep you safe, Master," Flamewing said hurriedly.

"Also keep in mind that Realmslord Windgrace and the others only explored a small part of the Icewind Sea. There might be other unknown dangers here," Ning said seriously. "That's why you have to obey my orders."

"Oh." When Flamewing saw the serious look on Ning's face, he nodded obediently. "I'll do exactly what you tell me to do. If you tell me to fly, I definitely won't walk on the ground. If you tell me to walk on the ground, I definitely won't fly."

Ning secretly let out a sigh of relief. Without Flamewing, he and Azurefiend would never dare to enter a place like the Icewind Sea. That's why he had to make sure that Flamewing obeyed all of his orders; if they weren't careful, they could very well die.

"Come, let's keep going," Ning said.

"The Icewind Sea!" Azurefiend was quite excited as well.

By now, the realmship had already landed upon the infinitely vast continent of ice. Ning and the other three flew out, then scanned their surroundings.

As far as they could see, the vast icy world around them seemed quiet and calm. However, a few vortexes rising into the skies could occasionally be seen. Given their ocular prowess, they were able to see to a distance of a trillion kilometers. Even there, they saw over ten thousand vortexes spiraling into the skies and merging into the tempest layer above.

"Scout the area out and find all treasures that are hidden here. Remember, stay close to each other and don't run around," Ning said. The four began to scout the place carefully by themselves…

This vast continent of ice had gorges, canyons, mountains, and more. However, everything was completely made out of ice!

The ice continent was almost as large as an entire territory in size. As a result, it had its own systemized 'laws', to the point where it had its own prime essences! Much like how the (much-smaller) everworlds had their own laws and essences, this vast continent did as well. Although it was merely the size of the Badlands Territory or Vastheaven Territory, its total energy levels surpassed that of entire otherverses!

It had its own laws and its own prime essences. Once a cultivator took control over the prime essences of an otherverse, that cultivator would become known as an 'Otherverse Lord'. However, there was no way for anyone to take control over the prime essences of the Icewind Sea. Not even the Sourcewalkers who had lived in here since time immemorial were capable of it! The Sourcewalkers had merely been blessed by the prime essences of the Chaosverse, who had been enraged by the manner in which the Sithe had invaded and looted so many sacred sites. As a result, the Sourcewalkers were able to borrow some of the power from the sacred sites, causing the Sithe to suffer great losses as a result.

"If a Sourcewalker was able to take control over the entire Icewind Sea, then even Flamewing would be of no use. It might be able to stay alive, but the rest of us would probably be wiped out instantaneously." After wandering the Icefire Sea for just a single year, Azurefiend found enough treasures to rival an ordinary Hegemon's networth. This caused him to feel stunned as to how marvelous the Icewind Sea was.

"The Sithe were too proud and too ravenous, causing even the prime essences of the Chaosverse to feel enraged. That's why the Sourcewalkers were granted power from these sacred places." Ning smiled. "Ever since the Sithe were destroyed, there have been no further tales of Sourcewalkers being able to control such power."

Suddenly, Ning's Immortal energy flared out. Swish! It grabbed the other three, then brought them with Ning as he warped to the edges of a distant gorge.

Even ice planets had their own chaotic gravitational fields, preventing Ning and the others from warping through spacetime. The great ice continent, however, was extremely stable and had its own system of laws. The only places where things were chaotic were those vast vortexes which rose into the skies; there, warping through spacetime was impossible. Thus, Ning and the others engaged in fairly short warp teleports, ensuring that they were able to avoid those places. This process was still far faster than flying normally.

"Hm?" When the four arrived in the air above the canyon, they all peered downwards into it.

"I don't see a Daomerge Firecloud Flower." Azurefiend shook his head.

"I don't sense any Fire-type energy at all," Flamewing agreed.

This gorge was the place where Realmslord Windgrace and the others had discovered that Daomerge Firecloud Flower. Ning and the others had been making haste towards it, although of course they would've been pleased to find another flower midway.

One years… two years… three years. Ning and his team continued to advance through the Icewind Sea, searching for the flower Ning needed. They encountered and picked up a number of valuable fruits, but most were unripe. In addition, they were afraid to harvest too much, for fear of being discovered by the Sourcewalkers.

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Book 38, Daomerge, Chapter 34 – Sourcewalkers

Another 129 years went by in the blink of an eye.

Whoooosh. A vortex could be seen rising into the skies in the distance, causing spacetime to be twisted and distorted. Ji Ning and the other three were in a cave close to the margins of the vortex, peering towards it.

Azurefiend murmured softly, "According to what Realmslord Windgrace said, the most precious materials are all located deep inside the vortexes, which connect to the very deepest underground tunnels. Darknorth, shall we go in and take a look?"

"No need. Our target is the Daomerge Firecloud Flower! There's no need for us to enter the depths of those vortexes," Ning said. "If we do go in, we would be easily discovered by the Sourcewalkers."

"Alright." Azurefiend didn't argue, even though he really did want to go in and give it a try. They hadn't picked up many treasures in the past few years, as they were afraid that scouring too much would result in them being discovered, but even so the few treasures Azurefiend had picked up were worth two or three times more than his previous networth. Thus, he wanted to go into the depths of the abyss and search for even rarer treasures… but the only way he could do that was if he relied on Ning's Flamewing God.

"The other valley Realmslord Windgrace mentioned isn't too far away. We should be able to reach it in around thirty years," Ning said. "Let us continue."

Daomerge Firecloud Flowers were simply too rare. They had searched for many years but found nothing at all. They did find another Incense Spirit-Fruit, but unfortunately it was yet another unripened one.

Ning and the others had only walked for the time needed to boil a kettle of tea when suddenly… boom! A blurry black light suddenly appeared beneath their feet, oozing out of the icy ground and forming into curved lines that stretched out trillions of kilometers.

"Not good. That's a formation." Ning's face tightened. "An alarm formation."

"We've been discovered." Hegemon Azurefiend was shocked as well.

Rumble… an enormous earth-shaking boom rang out in the distance as the ground began to crack apart. A titanic mountain-sized ice humanoid emerged from the ground, using his two hands to tear through it as rose from the depths.

Ning's gaze narrowed. The ice here was so tough that if he didn't use his Darknorth swords, he'd need to use roughly 50% of his full power to break through it. Most likely, fairly powerful Archons would have to use 100% of their full power to just barely break through the ice. This person, however, had been able to instantly tear through the ground with his bare hands. This terrifying level of strength alone showed that this creature was vastly stronger than Hegemons. Most likely, he was at the Otherverse Lord level of power.

"That's the Sourcewalker," Ning sent mentally.

"Sourcewalker?" Azurefiend's face turned pale.

"He finally came!" Flamewing, on the other hand, was excited. It really hated the Icewind Sea, as every single part of this place was filled with uncomfortable icy energy. When it saw the Sourcewalker, it instantly grew excited.

The Sourcewalker before them was covered in a layer of extremely thick ice which served as a form of icy armor which glowed with azure light. His head was covered with a helmet that had two icicles protruding from it, and he had long azure hair which fell down to his waist. He had an great deal of facial hair, and his gloomy azure eyes were filled with rage and violence.

"More of you thieves, come to steal my treasures!" The Sourcewalker let out a furious bellow, his voice transforming into a wind of terrifying power which swept out in every direction. The endless might in his voice alone caused Ning and Azurefiend to quail. The difference in power was simply too great.

"We ran into a Sourcewalker before we even found a Daomerge Firecloud Flower. What terrible luck." Ning felt rather resigned. They hadn't even gone into any of the vortexes or deep underground, where the treasures were more abundant and more valuable. That was where the Sourcewalkers usually resided.

"Sourcewalker," Ning called out loudly, "We've come here just for the sake of finding a Daomerge Firecloud Flower! Its not all that valuable, and we're willing to use our own treasures to trade for one. We'll leave immediately after acquiring the flower."

Daomerge Firecloud Flowers were incredible treasures for Daolords, but they were fairly ordinary when compared to the other treasures of the Icewind Sea. There were treasures here which would drive even Hegemons and Otherverse Lords mad with excitement.

"A Daomerge Firecloud Flower?" The ice-armored Sourcewalker was 540,000 meters tall. It stared downwards at Ning's group and said angrily, "You can forget about taking away so much as a piece of ice from my turf! All you cultivators are nothing more than damnable thieves. This is my territory!"

"We can trade for it with our treasures!" Ning said frantically.

"Treasures? What use do I have for your miserable treasures?" The Sourcewalker took a furious step forwards, then shot forwards through the air: "Just die instead!"

Ning felt speechless. This Sourcewalker was just as Realmslord Windgrace had described; a berserker!

Whoosh. The Sourcewalker wielded a long frozen halberd which gleamed with azure light, sweeping it towards Ning's group with such power that Ning had no choice but to instruct Flamewing to defend. "Flamewing, go!"

"Haha… I was at the verge of losing my patience!" The chubby Flamewing instantly let out an excited cry as it reverted to its true form, transforming into the titanic Flamewing God. Its giant flaming wings spread out fully as its body became bathed in furious flames that were so powerful, even the frigid energy of the surrounding area was pushed away. Everything within ten billion kilometers began to grow blazingly hot.

Otherverses had their own prime essences, as did the Icewind Sea… and in a sense, the Flamewing God itself had its own prime essences! Its energy levels truly were virtually inexhaustible, and its body was virtually indestructible. Ever since it was born, it had wandered the Chaosverse and had devoured entire realmverses with ease. Truly, its power was inconceivable. Its only weakness was that its level of insight was extremely, extremely low. If it was just a bit more clever, it would be able to massacre even Otherverse Lords with ease.

Still, all things came in balance. There was no way even the prime essences of the Chaosverse could give birth to creatures as powerful as Chaos Primordials which also had the comprehension skills of Sourcewalkers. This was completely impossible.

"A Chaos Primordial?" The attacking Sourcewalker was rather stunned when it saw those vast wings unfurl and the flames spread out in every direction around the Flamewing God.

"Haha, I've never eaten a Sourcewalker before!" Flamewing howled through the skies, while Ning, Azurefiend, and Whitethaw all immediately moved to hide within the realmship. They weren't qualified to get involved in a battle of this magnitude.

"This is my first time meeting a Chaos Primordial as well. Let's do this!" The Sourcewalker was just as eager to do battle, and he valiantly charged forwards with his halberd at the ready.

Swoosh! His halberd suddenly pierced forwards, howling through the skies with incredible speed… but Flamewing was even faster! The strike missed, just barely managing to scrape past Flamewing's claws but not injuring Flamewing in the slightest.

"Up you go!" The Sourcewalker suddenly changed his stance. Previously, he had been using the halberd to 'stab' at Flamewing; now, he suddenly lifted it upwards!

This was a strike that seemed to split even the heavens in twain. Not even Flamewing was able to avoid this strike… but of course, Flamewing wouldn't deign to do so.

Boom! Flamewing had already been flying through the air; this strike sent it stumbling a few hundred kilometers higher.

The Sourcewalker was shocked. When he had used this killer technique against the cultivator Otherverse Lords he had fought, they had all been knocked backwards and suffered heavy injuries. The Chaos Primordial had merely stumbled a bit?

"Grwaaaar!" Flamewing excitedly flapped its wings, instantly charging downwards while using its enormous and thick claws to strike at the Sourcewalker. The Sourcewalker hurriedly brandished his halberd, spinning it into a circle that defended against the approaching attack.

Flamewing completely ignored the profundity of his opponent's attack, just striking down with its claws in an absolutely savage blow. BOOM! An enormous collision rang out as the earth itself began to split apart. As for the Sourcewalker, half of its body had just been hammered into the ground from this collision.

"I ablated over 90% of its power, but it still suppressed me completely?" The Sourcewalker was rather speechless at this result. Moments later, the look within its eyes grew even more frenzied. "Again!"

Boom. Boom. Boom! The Sourcewalker was incredibly valiant. At first, it chose to meet all of Flamewing's attacks head on, but later on it began to choose to dodge instead in an effort to win through technique. In terms of comprehension, it was already at the Archon level of insight. Due to its innate gifts, this level of insight was already enough for it to unleash the Otherverse Lord level of power in battle! Supposedly, the legendary Sourcewalkers who could fight even Sithe Exalts were actually just at the Hegemonic level of insight.

Then again, the Hegemonic level of insight was an incredibly high level. Realmslord Windgrace, the Lonely King, and the other major powers were all at this level of insight. The only thing above this level was Autarchy.

Every so often, the Sourcewalker was sent slamming into the nearby mountains, hammered into the ground, or smashed so hard that it created deep craters and gouges in the earth beneath it.

Clearly, after Flamewing became a bit more accustomed to the way in which the Sourcewalker fought, Flamewing became able to completely dominate it in battle. The Sourcewalker had even lots his helmet, and his azure hair fluttered about wildly. He continued to roar with fury, but it was clear that he was being crushed in this fight. However, the icy armor that covered his upper body remained completely unscathed. It was quite a marvelous item.

"Darknorth, the Sourcewalker can't hold back Flamewing." Azurefiend chuckled merrily as he watched from within the realmship. "The Sourcewalker will probably retreat soon. If this fight continues, it'll be nothing but bad news for him."

Ning smiled and nodded as well. He was still going to be able to find the Daomerge Firecloud Flower.

Boom! Boom! Boom! At first, the Sourcewalker had been filled with a towering desire to do battle, but after being dominated for so long it was beginning to feel rather miserable. It had been a long, long time since it had felt this miserable.

His body wasn't nearly as tough as a Chaos Primordial's, but it was still vastly better than the bodies of cultivators. Thus, when he encountered cultivators like Realmslord Windgrace, he was able to chase down the cultivators and beat them down as he pleased. It had been quite some time since it had suffered in a fight like this.

After being slammed into a mountain yet again, the Sourcewalker angrily raised his head. His long azure hair fluttered in the wind as he roared, "Big brother! Hurry up and come out, I'm getting killed here!" His roar was like thunder, and it shook the world around them.

"Big brother?" Within the realmship, Ning and Azurefiend's eyes both bulged out. "He has a big brother?" Ning couldn't help but feel rather dazed.

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Book 38, Daomerge, Chapter 35 – Clash

"I thought you enjoyed fighting and causing a ruckus. Why are you asking me for help this time?" An icy voice rang out, shaking the world around them as the icy ground off in the distance suddenly split apart. An enormous crevice appeared, followed by a similarly towering figure emerging from it. This figure was dressed in long black robes that had silver patterns embroidered on them. His black hair fell down to his waist. He looked fairly handsome, but his eyes were ice cold. It felt as though there was nothing capable of stirring or shaking his heart.

He slowly walked over, causing an invisible wave of pressure to push down upon Ji Ning and Azurefiend. Both turned pale.

"This black-robed Sourcewalker is far more powerful than the other one," Ning mused.

"Gwaaaaar! Another one? I'll eat this one, then I'll eat you!"

The fire blazing around Flamewing's towered ever-higher as the boundless sea of flames around him swept outwards. He flapped his wings, once more charging towards the increasingly-battered armored Sourcewalker.

"Big brother!" The armored Sourcewalker was terrified, hurriedly dodging while flying towards his big brother. The black-robed Sourcewalker took a single step forwards, moving to block in front of his little brother.

"Fuck off!" The black-robed Sourcewalker stretched out both hands simultaneously, causing a strange, gloomy black light to appear from his palms which seemed capable of devouring everything in the world. As for Flamewing, he continued to charge forwards with brute force as he sent his giant fleshy claws towards the black light.

BOOM! The twin palms met the twin claw head-on. Both were extremely confident in their abilities.

The black-robed Sourcewalker's face tightened slightly as he hurriedly took a few steps back, each step causing the icy ground beneath him to crack and shatter. He had to retreat a total of eight steps before coming to a halt. As for Flamewing, it was also knocked flying backwards. It had to hurriedly flap its wings a few times before stabilizing itself in midair.

"What?! He's actually able to fight Flamewing head-on to a standstill?" Ning, watching from within the distant realmship, felt rather stunned. Although Flamewing seemed to have a slight advantage, the difference in power was clearly minimal.

"This Sourcewalker is as powerful as that?!" Azurefiend was shocked as well. "Chaos Primordials can effortlessly dominate even Otherverse Lords and Golden Emperors! It took three Sithe Exalts working together to catch the Flamewing God. For this Sourcewalker to be able to fight Flamewing to a standstill means that it is probably quite close in power to the Sithe Exalts."

"Be careful, Flamewing!" Ning immediately sent mentally. "Don't be overconfident."

"Wow!" Flamewing let out a strange cry in midair, the scales on its body standing up like the hair on a cat. An excited look was in its eyes as it howled, "You are pretty strong, Sourcewalker! The only foes I've ever met who are stronger than you were those Sithe Exalts. However… you still aren't a match for me!"

"I've long heard of how powerful Chaos Primordials are… but now, it seems, you aren't all that impressive." The black-robed Sourcewalker remained quite confident in his chances. He leapt forwards, once more charging towards Flamewing.

Swish! Swish! Swish! Both transformed into blurs as they fought against each other at high speeds. The black-robed Sourcewalker had clearly chosen to stop using the clumsy method of meeting Flamewing blow-for-blow, as that was simply too exhausting. Unlike the Chaos Primordial, he didn't have endless reservoirs of energy. However, he clearly was highly superior on a technical level, and so he chose to use his superior techniques to deal with Flamewing, using all sorts of defensive techniques to ablate and draw away Flamewing's power, causing Flamewing to begin to struggle a little bit.

"You still aren't a match for me!" Flamewing let out a loud bellow as it finally went crazy. SWISH! Its speed instantly skyrocketed to its absolute maximum.

"That's fast." The black-robed Sourcewalker's face tightened.

Riiiiip! Flamewing pounced towards its foe at terrifying speeds, its fierce claws tearing through the air. The black-robed Sourcewalker hurriedly moved to defend. Just as it was about to counter-attack, Flamewing suddenly flew away, then arced back from afar to once more assault him.

Swish! Swish! Swish! The skies became filled with countless streaks of flaming light. Flamewing was so incredibly fast that this was all that could be seen of him. There was no need for it to allow the black-robed Sourcewalker to fight back against it. It relied on its raw speed to launch repeated and unanswered attacks, causing even the black-robed Sourcewalker to feel quite frustrated. Flamewing was simply too fast!

Flamewing's speed vastly surpassed the speed of any Hegemon. Even Hegemon Thunderstar, who was extremely skilled in speed, was far from being a match for Flamewing; only when Hegemon Thunderstar was riding in his realmship was he able to just barely surpass Flamewing in speed. As for Ning, he was slower than Flamewing even in a realmship.

"It's too fast. Although I have a realmship, I still wouldn't be able to outpace it," the black-robed Sourcewalker mused. In the end, it had yet to reach Hegemony in terms of its insights. In contrast, Hegemon Thunderstar had become a Hegemon via the Dao of Thunder.

"Master! Master!" Flamewing sent mentally to Ning, "This Sourcewalker is a pain to deal with. I've yet to harm him at all, despite hitting him with everything I have. It doesn't look like he's using up too much energy. If this continues, he'll probably be able to continue holding on against me."

Although Flamewing had the initiative thanks to its speed, the black-robed Sourcewalker had reached such a high level of insight that he was still capable of protecting himself.

Ning instantly began to frown. What were they to do? Flamewing was extremely strong, having completely the first armored Sourcewalker and injuring him, causing his energy to deplete rapidly. As a result, the first Sourcewalker chose to flee after a brief bout! But this black-robed Sourcewalker… its only weakness lay in its speed. In all other aspects, it was Flamewing's equal; in fact, it actually had an advantage in close combat.

"You are pretty strong after all, Chaos Primordial. You'll make a good mount for me!" The black-robed Sourcewalker suddenly let out a laugh. "Arise!"

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Light began to shine all around them as power began to circulate through the area. Countless runic lines appeared in the icy earth around them as an enormous formation began to reveal itself. The entire area became blanketed in blurry light; clearly, this was a trapping formation.

"If I had to deal with you anywhere else, it'd probably be quite hard… but this is my turf. Admit defeat, Chaos Primordial." The black-robed Sourcewalker was extremely self-confident.

"Retreat, Flamewing," Ning sent mentally. Flamewing immediately flapped its wings and charged back towards Ning.

"Store the realmship into your estate-world, then obey my orders with regards to breaking this formation apart," Ning sent.

"Alright, Master." Flamewing was quite unhappy after having been trapped within the opponent's formation. It didn't really understand formations, given how low its level of insight was. All it could do was try to overwhelm the formation with raw power! Given that it was strong enough to dominate even Otherverse Lords, ordinary formations were no match for it. However, this was a formation that was controlled by a Sourcewalker that was every bit as strong as Flamewing; overpowering it probably wasn't an option.

Whoosh. Flamewing put away the realmship. Even though Ning was now within Flamewing's estate-treasure, his gaze was still able to see past the dimensional barriers and into the world outside. This was primarily because Flamewing was in control of the estate-treasure. It didn't move to oppose Ning, and so Ning was able to see what was happening outside.

"This trap formation is a bit interesting, but defeating it won't be hard. Flamewing, given how strong you are, this is actually going to be easy." Ning felt quite confident. "Obey my commands."

The Dao of Formations was an incredibly difficult one, but Ning had reached terrifying heights in it. In all the Sixteen Realmverses Alliance, there was probably no one superior to him in this regard! When he had first unlocked the secrets behind the Jadefire Realm's formation-diagram, he had already reached the Archon level in the Dao of Formations. He had then spent another long period of time studying formations in order to unleash Flamewing, and as a result his insight into the Dao of Formations had deepened even further.

Swish! Flamewing transformed into an arced streak of light, flying through the blurry formation at high speed. It repeatedly changed directions, sometimes choosing to ram through certain points with raw force.

To break the entire formation through raw power was impossible for Flamewing, but Ning's level of mastery over the Dao of Formations was so high that he was able to find its weak spots with ease. To locate and then break through those weak spots was naturally quite simple.

Boom! Boom! Boom! A number of explosions could be heard in succession. The formation which the black-robed Sourcewalker had spent quite a bit of time setting up was instantly disrupted, and the surrounding area returned to its usual appearance. It was once again possible for everyone to clearly see the vast, icy world around them.

"Why did it break?! Big brother, your formation was so powerful than when I was trapped inside it, I had no idea how I was supposed to escape. How was it breached like that?!" The armored Sourcewalker was rather dazed.

"You idiot. All you know how to do is fight. You know nothing of formations." The black-robed Sourcewalker stared towards the fleeing Flamewing, his eyes shining. "It was actually able to disrupt my formation in the blink of an eye. There's no way that Chaos Primordial could've accomplished it on its own; those things are legendary for their stupidity. That means that it had to have been one of the two cultivators in that realmship. So one of them is actually a grandmaster in the art of formations!"

After breaking through the formation, Flamewing instantly grew excited. It let out an earth-shattering roar, then said: "Hey, Sourcewalker! Wasn't your formation supposed to be really awesome? Why don't you activate a few more and let's see how they do?!"

Formations had to be set up in advance. The black-robed Sourcewalker had detected Ning's group early on and thus had set up this formation before revealing himself. How could he suddenly manifest another powerful formation out of thin air?

"Gentlemen." The black-robed Sourcewalker had an excited look in his eyes, and he said with a smile: "Do you think you can escape simply because you breached my formation?"

"Without your formations, do you think you can stop me?" Flamewing howled back, "Be good and hand over the Daomerge Firecloud Flower. Otherwise, I'm going to loot the entire Icewind Sea completely clean."

"This place is my territory. You should play nice and listen to what I have to say." A strange, rhomboid-covered globe suddenly flew out from the black-robed Sourcewalker's forehead and into the air. Boom! A strange power which belonged to the Dao of Space suddenly swept out and covered the entire area, moving at such incredible speeds that it completely covered a trillion kilometers in the blink of an eye.

The entire region covered by this power completely changed. It had transformed into a world of the starry skies, with Flamewing and the two Sourcewalkers both located within it.

"This is a weapon which I acquired from a Sithe who once attacked this place." The black-robed Sourcewalker's voice echoed throughout every part of the starry skies.

"Flamewing." Ning immediately issued an order from within the estate-wrold: "War machines might be powerful, but activating them uses up an enormous amount of energy. Don't worry about him. You have a virtually indestructible body and limitless energy; focus all of your efforts on tearing through this astral world. Rip it to pieces with your power!"

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Book 38, Daomerge, Chapter 36 – Easily Accomplished

"Yes, Master." Ji Ning's command was perfectly suited to the Flamewing God's temperament. It immediately unleashed an earth-shaking howl as it flapped its wings, leaving behind a jagged scar in the air as it soared towards the limits of this astral world.

The black-robed Sourcewalker simply watched calmly: "The forceful response, eh?"

BOOM! The 'membranes' of this astral world rumbled as the charging Flamewing's giant fleshy claws slammed into them, with the explosion filling the entire starry realm. However, this astral world remained quite stable; it didn't even budge in the slightest. Instead, it was Flamewing who was knocked flying backwards by tens of thousands of kilometers.

"Sithe war machines truly are impressive," Ning sent mentally. "This black-robed Sourcewalker may be far more powerful than most Hegemons, but there's no way it can possess limitless power like you, Flamewing. Ignore all else and just launch repeated attacks. A hundred attacks, a thousand attacks, ten thousand attacks… I want to see how long the Sourcewalker can resist you!"

"Fine." Flamewing's confidence was soaring thanks to its master's words, and it once more sent itself slamming into the edges of the realm.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Flamewing used all of its power to slam into the edges of the realm, moving in a fairly rhythmic manner. Seeing this, the black-robed Sourcewalker slowly shook his head.

Whoosh. The Sourcewalker willed it, and the strange energy that had covered this area of a trillion kilometers instantly dissipated, flying back into the globe in front of the Sourcewalker. The world around them once more reverted to the normal icy world.

"He gave up." Ning felt a sense of delight.

"Don't misunderstand. I'm not afraid of you." The black-robed Sourcewalker's voice boomed out, echoing through the skies: "The dimension formed by this Sithe war machine is incredibly stable and is not easily breached. I, Daoist Towerdawn, have wandered the Chaosverse for countless years and have many tricks up my sleeve. Even if I cannot kill you, it would be very easy for me to keep you trapped here! If you wish to leave this place, you must go through the tempest region. Even if no one is bothering you, it will take you a hundred million years to fly through it! If I chose to interfere, you might be able to stay alive but you'll never be able to escape."

Ning's heart sank. Indeed, the only way out was to slowly fly out rather than warp through spacetime. The black-robed Sourcewalker was probably telling the truth. However, thanks to Flamewing's power it wouldn't be that easy for him to trap them either.

Whoosh. The realmship appeared next to the Flamewing, with Ning, Azurefiend, and Whitethaw inside of it. They didn't dare to leave it, for fear of being ambushed.

"You talk a big game," Azurefiend called out. "Why did you put away that Sithe weapon, then?"

"Haha…" Daoist Towerdawn actually let out a rare laugh. This caused the armored Sourcewalker to stare at him in astonishment. His big brother almost always had an icy look on his face, and he rarely laughed.

"You were able to defeat my formation with ease. I refuse to believe this Chaos Primordial learned the art of formations! That means one of you two has to be a formations expert." Daoist Towerdawn's gaze was cold and calm as he stared at Ning's realmship. "That's why I feel that there's no need for us to fight."

"All you want is a Daomerge Firecloud Flower, right? Those things are of no use to us at all. I want your help in breaching a formation. If my guess is correct, you need the flower for the white-robed Daolord inside the realmship, yes? So long as you help me breach that formation, I'll gift the flower to you! Not just that; I'll give you other Daomerge treasures as well, like the Spirit Incense-Fruit. I'll give them all to you!"

"But big brother! The Spirit Incense-Fruit is delicious!" the armored Sourcewalker couldn't help but interrupt. Daoist Towerdawn cast him a cold gaze, causing him to instantly shut his mouth and fall silent.

"Breach a formation?" Ning and Azurefiend were both intrigued as they considered this from within the realmship. If they could avoid a fight, they would prefer to do so. Clearly, this Sourcewalker wasn't easy to deal with! Azurefiend sent mentally, "Darknorth, the Daomerge Firecloud Flower and the Spirit Incense-Fruit are only useful to Daolords; they aren't all that valuable to Sourcewalkers or Eternal Emperors! He probably won't try to cheat you."

"This works for me. However, you must swear a lifeblood oath on this," Ning said.

"Very well. However, I do want to let you know something; the entire Icewind Sea only holds a single Daomerge Firecloud Flower, and it is still growing. I estimate that it'll take tens of thousands of chaos cycles before it ripens! Even if you accelerate time, you'll only be able to accelerate it by a ratio of 1000x; otherwise, you'll impact its growth cycle. In other words, you'll have to wait a minimum of a few dozen chaos cycles before you can actually obtain it."

"That's fine." Ning had suspected this would be possible, as Daomerge Firecloud Flowers had to be used within a thousand years of ripening. Thus, any ones he encountered were likely to be unripe. These marvelous flowers needed extremely long periods of time to grow. A few dozen chaos cycles… this was a fairly long period of time, but he needed to make other preparations for his Daomerge as well. Once the flower bloomed, he would need to immediately begin the Daomerge.

"Very well. I need you to unlock the restrictive seals covering this shield." Daoist Towerdawn waved his hand, causing a bronze shield which was roughly nine meters long to immediately appear before him. This shield had the enormous face of a beast as its motif, and it emanated a mysterious yet dominating aura.

"This is something I came across by accident when I was wandering the borders of the Sithe homelands, but I've been unable to defeat the formations sealing it," Daoist Towerdawn said.

"The Sithe homelands?" Ning and Azurefiend were both surprised.

"Yes, the homeland of the entire Sithe race," Daoist Towerdawn said. "Don't ask any more questions; the only task before you is for you to unlock these seals."

Ning and Daoist Towerdawn both swore lifeblood oaths. Only then did Ning exit his realmship.

Whoosh. Daoist Towerdawn rapidly shrank in size from 540,000 meters to a height equivalent to Ning's. He glanced at the armored Sourcewalker, who obediently shrank down as well.

Ning, Azurefiend, Whitethaw, and Flamewing all walked over as well.

"What cowards," the armored Sourcewalker mumbled.

"They are simply being cautious," Daoist Towerdawn said, then glanced at Ning and the other two. "If you can breach the restrictions covering this shield, it shall be as I swore. If not, you can forget about acquiring those treasures."

Ning walked straight over to the shield as he said, "Don't worry, if I can't break it we can just keep fighting if that is what you wish. There'll be plenty of time for that."

"Grr…" Flamewing let out a low growl towards the two Sourcewalkers.

"Hah! You really do have a Sithe treasure here." Ning nodded. "It is actually covered with seven layers of restrictive seals. This has to be an extremely important treasure."

"Early on, one of my friends guessed that since it is shaped like a shield, it is probably meant for defense," Daoist Towerdawn said. There were many types of Sithe war machines. Some were strong, some were weaker. The chains which Ning had acquired had suppressive effects and could absorb energy, while the one Daoist Towerdawn had just used was able to create a dimension of its own. Realmslord Windgrace's 'Blacksun' was capable of allowing instantaneous teleportation across great distances and also had incredibly powerful attacks. The Realmslord's single war machine was so powerful that it could influence entire sectors, making it incredibly precious.

Ning nodded, then lowered his head to carefully inspect the shield. He smiled. "Interesting. The person who set down this formation can be considered an expert, I suppose."

The formations over the shield served to suppress and seal its power, making it quite similar to the chains which had imprisoned the Flamewing God. However, it was clearly much less complicated. The Flamewing God had been incredibly important to the Sithe; they had sent three Sithe Exalts to capture it, then had fashioned the chains which kept it imprisoned. There was no way this buckler was equivalent to a Chaos Primordial in value, and the person who created the seals over it hadn't been at the Sithe Exalt level.

The seals over the chains that had been around the Flamewing God? Now those had been complex! If it hadn't been for the fact that Ning had a detailed library of many Sithe formations, there was no way he would've been able to solve them.

He had been at a very high level of insight into the Dao of Formations, and also had many detailed guides. Despite that, he still had to spend hundreds of chaos cycles analyzing the chains before managing to succeed.

In comparison, the formations before him were far simpler. Ning had reached a high level of mastery over Sithe-style formations, and the formation before him was actually something which was written down within that library of Sithe techniques.

"No need to rush things. Let's take it slow. So long as you can finish before the Daomerge Firecloud Flower ripens, it'll be fine. You have dozens of chaos cycles," Daoist Towerdawn said.

"Dozens of chaos cycles? I'm gonna take a nap, big brother. Wake me when it's over." The armored Sourcewalker turned, preparing to go take a nap.

"No need for all that trouble." Ning simply reached out and gently tapped the surface of the buckler. Instantly, a unique type of Immortal energy flowed out from Ning's finger and began to silently break through the layers of formations covering the shield. In just the blink of an eye, all seven layers of formations were instantly breached. The azure shield immediately began to emanate with a terrifying aura that seemed to have the weight of mountains. Ning himself felt as though he could use all his power but still be completely unable to budge the shield at all.

"…big brother, didn't you say that the formations were really tough?" The armored Sourcewalker stared in shock.

Daoist Towerdawn was rather surprised as well. Moments later, an overjoyed smile appeared on his face, and he actually slapped Ning on the shoulders in a very friendly manner. This caused Ning to feel rather surprised himself.

Daoist Towerdawn said with a joyful laugh, "You aren't bad, you little Daolord tyke! I thought it was the skinny old man standing behind you who was the one skilled in formations. When I saw that it was you, I actually lost hope. I never would've imagined you'd break it almost instantly! You really are incredible. Feel free to take the Daomerge Firecloud Flower and the Incense Spirit-Fruit! Haha. Oh, right. I have a few other Incense Spirit-Fruits here in my estate-treasure. I was planning to serve them to any friends who came calling, but I'll just give them to you instead."

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Book 38, Daomerge, Chapter 37 – Fifty Chaos Cycles in the Icewind Sea

Daoist Towerdawn waved his hand as he spoke, causing a jade green box to open in front of him. Within the box was five fiery red fruits that emanated such succulent auras, Ji Ning couldn't help but begin to drool.

"Thank you." Ning gladly waved his hand and accepted them all. Although these fruits might be of limited use to him, they would be of tremendous use to the likes of his good friend Ninedust or his master Subhuti when the time came for their Daomerge.

"No need for thanks. This is just like candy to me; the only thing it is good for is the taste. It's only useful to you Daolords." Daoist Towerdawn's attitude towards Ning had clearly improved quite a bit. "Come, let me take you to the Daomerge Firecloud Flower."

Ning's eyes lit up. He immediately led Flamewing, Azurefiend, and Whitethaw to follow Daoist Towerdawn and the armored Sourcewalker in quickly delving deep underground.

The depths of the Icewind Sea were filled with frozen tunnels. Daoist Towerdawn quickly led Ning's group before a spacetime formation.

"This realm of mine has many tempests within it, causing spacetime to be unstable. Even I am unable to warp through spacetime," Daoist Towerdawn said. "That's why I spent quite a bit of effort in setting up all these formations to stabilize spacetime in certain areas. I was able to create a total of eight stable spacetime tunnels that allow me to travel to various parts of the Icewind Sea quite quickly."

"Prior to this, we were forced to slowly fly normally," Azurefiend said with a laugh.

"Haha, when cultivators see us they are usually terrified and will flee immediately," Daoist Towerdawn laughed. "Very few are unafraid of us. Come, let us enter the formation."

Whoosh. The formation stabilized spacetime, creating a stable spacetime tunnel that allowed Ning's group to be quickly transported to a different part of the Icewind Sea. Soon, Daoist Towerdawn led them to the location which held the Daomerge Firecloud Flower.

Deep within the earth, there was a freezing pool of water that glowed with azure light. At the very center of the pool was a flower that was slowly swaying. The flower had yet to bloom, but it was already tinged with a pink color. It had three leaves, and all of them were a fiery red color and seemed to be kissed by flames.

"That right there is the Daomerge Firecloud Flower." Daoist Towerdawn pointed as he spoke: "Once the Daomerge Firecloud Flower blooms, it'll be truly magnificent."

"So this Daomerge Firecloud Flower is located underground?" Ning was rather startled. "Daoist Towerdawn, is it really true that there are no other Daomerge Firecloud Flowers in the Icewind Sea?" The one which Realmslord Windgrace has spoken of was located in a valley. But of course, that was a long, long time ago; that flower had long ago bloomed and been harvested. Still, Ning felt that there should be others above ground as well.

"Daomerge Firecloud Flowers are very unique, and only a place as unique as the Icewind Sea can give birth to them. More importantly, the Icewind Sea can only give birth to one at a time." Daoist Towerdawn laughed. "Sometimes, it'll bloom underground; other times, it'll bloom on mountain peaks or halfway up a mountain. It can bloom anywhere in the Icewind Sea, but only one can ever exist at any point in time! This is my territory, and I know it quite well."

"It's true, there's only one at any point in time," the armored Sourcewalker agreed. "And it causes quite a disturbance when it blooms. There's no way we'd miss the telltale signs of it. My big brother is often roaming the outside world, but I always reside here in the Icewind Sea. I've seen hundreds of Daomerge Firecloud Flowers bloom, and each time the process is the same."

Ning nodded. Even if they had been able to sneak in undetected, they wouldn't have been able to find the flower even after scouring the entire surface of the Icewind Sea. As for the underground area? The frozen underground tunnels were all incredibly winding and complex; it'd be even harder to find the flower down here, and their chances of being discovered would increase dramatically.

It seems that them being discovered early on and being forced into battle against Daolord Towerdawn was actually a good thing. It ensured they didn't waste too much time, at least!

"It only has a bud and stem; it'll be tens of thousands of chaos cycles before it blooms." Daoist Towerdawn looked at Ning. "Will you set up a formation, or shall I do it for you?"

"Allow me." Ning immediately stepped forward.

"Your formations are stronger than mine, and you are more detail-oriented as well." Daoist Towerdawn smiled merrily as he watched from nearby. He normally always had an icy look on his face, but today he was in an exceptionally good mood. This Sithe weapon which had puzzled and frustrated him for countless aeons had finally been unsealed! He had already bound it in secret and now knew how it was used. With this weapon at his disposal, he was now significantly more powerful than he had been in the past, and his status amongst his friends and peers would probably rise a bit.

Ning carefully and attentively set up a temporal acceleration formation around the entire freezing pool. Although Daoist Towerdawn had stated that the maximum was 1000x temporal acceleration, Ning only gradually and carefully increased the temporal acceleration rate.

100x… 300x… 500x…

Ning was afraid that he might disturb the Daomerge Firecloud Flower's growth patterns, but in the end Daoist Towerdawn was right; Ning was able to upgrade the temporal acceleration all the way to 1000x without any instability at all.

"Whew." Ning let out a sigh of relief. The Daomerge Firecloud Flower was at hand. For now, he could think of nothing else he needed for his preparations. As far as external sources of support went, he had the Autarch's stone dais, the Stonefire Pearl, and a Daomerge Firecloud Flower. It could be said that his preparations were perfect.

Ning temporarily took up residence in the Icewind Sea. Daoist Towerdawn and his brother welcomed him warmly, and eventually Ning learned that the armored Sourcewalker's Daoist title was 'Fireflame'. The Sourcewalker had clearly chose to live in a place like the Icewind Sea, and yet chose 'Fireflame' as his title. Ning really didn't know whether to laugh or to cry.

Ning ended up spending more than fifty chaos cycles in the Icewind Sea! This was an extremely long period of time for Ning. His Primaltwin continued to remain within the Azureflower Estate, maintaining a 100x rate of temporal acceleration atop the Autarch's stone dais as he meditated on one technique after another, wasting not even a single moment of time. He spent a total of over 5000 accelerated chaos cycles in training.

In truth, given Ning's mastery over spacetime, formations, karma, and his Omega Sword Dao, it was quite easy for him to study other techniques. Even the most difficult of Daos, the Dao of Numerancy, Ning managed to learn after spending less than half the time he had needed for the Dao of Karma. This was because the Dao of Formations and the Dao of Karma both had many links to the Dao of Numerancy.

In truth, there were many Daos which overlapped with each other in important ways. For example, the Dao of Ice and the Dao of Water! 'Ice' was considered part of the Dao of Water, but the Dao of Ice was a purer extension of it which would allow one to walk farther along this path.

One Dao after another… Ning reached the Archon level in many of them, allowing him to gain many new insights as to how the vast Chaosverse functioned. However, as he suspected, he was unable to gain even a single new insight into his Omega Sword Dao.

There was no technique, no cultivation path, no insights which would be of use to him in his Omega Sword Dao.

"I am making no progress whatsoever. All I can do is throw everything into the Daomerge," Ning mused.

The many years he spent in the Icewind Sea served to temper his heart, making his Daoheart even purer than before. All other thoughts had fled from him; his only thoughts were of the Daomerge.

Ning, Daoist Towerdawn, the Flamewing God, and the others had all assembled deep underground next to the flaming pool.

"Almost. It's going to bloom at any moment." Daoist Towerdawn and Daoist Fireflame, the two Sourcewalkers, watched with looks of expectation in their eyes.

Ning stared intently at the flower in the middle of the pool. It was in the process of budding. Compared to before, the amount of marvelous energy gathering inside it had grown markedly more dense, almost as though it was about to explode at any moment.

Whoosh! Suddenly, without any preamble, the flower bloomed. Flaming energy swirled out around the surrounding area, forming a beautiful flaming flower.

Flaming clouds circled the area, ensconced by leaves. The flower had bloomed, releasing its beauty unto the world for all to see.

"The Firecloud Flower." Ning murmured softly, "The Daomerge Firecloud Flower."

"Hurry up and harvest it, Darknorth!" Daoist Towerdawn said.

Ning immediately stepped forwards and dispelled his formation, then sent his Immortal energy towards the flower. It easily covered the entire Firecloud Flower and then pulled it out by the roots. At the same time, Ning caused a jade box to manifest in front of him. The jade box opened, and Ning placed the flower into the box while setting up a temporal deceleration formation over it.

The flow of time continued to slow. Once it reached the rate of a millionth of the normal rate of time, Ning realized that the amount of energy it took to maintain the formation suddenly skyrocketed to the point where even he couldn't endure it.

"Don't try to force it," Daoist Towerdawn said. "Once the Daomerge Firecloud Flower blooms, it has to be used within a thousand years. Otherwise, its marvelous energies will completely evaporate. You can cause time to slow down around it, but its energies will naturally try to resist. That's why it's impossible for you to completely freeze time around it."

Ning nodded in understanding. It was impossible for anyone to completely stop the Daomerge Firecloud Flower's energies from dissipating. If one could simply stop time around it, then it would be easy to harvest and then store Daomerge Firecloud Flowers for Daolords to use. However, at most one would be able to slow down time to a millionth the normal rate; in other words, at absolute most the flower could be preserved for roughly a billion years. No major power, no matter how mighty, would be able to accumulate a large supply of Daomerge Firecloud Flowers."

"It's enough. I'll have enough time to bring it back to my homeland." Ning smiled as he looked at Daoist Towerdawn. "Brother Towerdawn, I've bothered you quite a bit in recent days. It is time for us to leave."

"The Daomerge is the greatest obstacle you cultivators must face. You must be careful. If you succeed, we'll be able to meet again in the future," Daoist Towerdawn said.

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Book 38, Daomerge, Chapter 38 – The Night Before the Daomerge

Back down on the vast ice continent, Daoist Towerdawn and Daoist Fireflame stared with heads raised as the realmship rapidly advanced into the great tempest high up in the skies.

"Big brother, do you think he will succeed in the Daomerge?" Daoist Fireflame asked.

"He trains in one of the legendary Omega Daos. His Daomerge will be very difficult." Daoist Towerdawn shook his head. During the many chaos cycles Ji Ning had spent in the Icewind Sea, the two had naturally discussed the Dao with each other. "He is the only Daolord friend I have ever made. I hope he succeeds in his Daomerge."

Ning's group spent more than a hundred million years in slowly flying through the tempest layer, then began to hasten back to his homeland.

The Daomerge Firecloud Flower was the most important treasure Ning had acquired in the Icewind Sea. However, he had also acquired fifteen Incense Spirit-Fruits on top of that!

The Flamedragon Realmverse. Vastheaven Territory. Vastheaven Palace.

Whoosh. A realmship passed through the barriers protecting the palace, then descended upon the Darknorth Estate. Usually, the only people in the Darknorth Estate were Su Youji and Pillsaint. Ning's disciples generally didn't dare to come disturb them.

"Ji Ning."

"Master." Emperor Solesky, Su Youji, and Pillsaint all came out to greet him.

Ning and the others flew out of the realmship. Ning stored the realmship away, then turned and smiled. "Big brother. Youji. Pillsaint."

"You succeeded?" Emperor Solesky asked expectantly.

"I found the Daomerge Firecloud Flower," Ning said. "I'm planning to spend the next year preparing for it. I'll also remake the formations and barriers protecting Vastheaven Palace! After that, I plan to initiate the Daomerge."

"The Daomerge?" Solesky, Su Youji, and Pillsaint were all shocked.

"Master, you are going to attempt the Daomerge this soon?" Su Youji said frantically, "Master, you aren't even close to your lifespan limits yet. There's no need for you to rush! You can wait another hundred thousand chaos cycles before attempting the Daomerge."

"What you don't realize is that the Firecloud Daomerge Flower must be used within a thousand years of harvesting it," Ning said. "More importantly… even if I delayed for a while longer, it wouldn't be of any benefit to me in the Daomerge."

There were literally no improvements he could make. He couldn't even get a hint of a new insight with regards to the Omega Sword Dao. Waiting would be a pure waste of time. In addition, Ning knew just how difficult the Daomerge for the Omega Sword Dao would be. He had to be completely decisive and resolute in facing it; he couldn't show the slightest bit of cowardice. His only chance was in charging through remorselessly and then succeeding!

"Master, you…" Su Youji's eyes were filled with concern. "Be careful." She had wanted to attempt the Daomerge alongside Ning, but she herself had just recently become a Daolord of the Fourth Step. Her Dao wasn't all that strong, and as a result she hadn't even reached the Verge of the Daomerge yet. Pillsaint was also a Daolord of the Fourth Step, but he also needed a great deal of time to prepare for it.

"Don't worry." Ning looked at Su Youji. "Youji, let me know when you are planning to engage in the Daomerge. I'll have a present waiting for you."

Ning could sense who truly cared about him. This was even more true now that he had reached such great heights in the Dao of Karma. Of the three present (Solesky, Pillsaint, Su Youji), without a doubt Su Youji cared about Ning the most, and the karmic lines binding the two of them were extremely deep. She probably wouldn't even hesitate to sacrifice her own life to protect him, and so Ning naturally felt closer to Su Youji.

"Ji Ning, should we tell Hegemon Brightshore and the others that you are attempting the Daomerge?" Solesky asked. "All three Hegemons have requested me to inform them in advance if you are planning to engage in the Daomerge."

"No need to tell them." Ning shook his head. "I don't want to cause too much of a fuss."

"Fine. It'll be as you choose." Solesky nodded. Solesky knew that there were two reasons why Hegemon Brightshore and the others wished to be notified of Ning's Daomerge attempt. The first reason was because Realmslord Windgrace had requested it. The second was because they wanted a chance to prepare themselves! Once a Daolord failed his Daomerge, his truesoul would begin to disintegrate, but this was a fairly slow process. The more powerful a truesoul was, the more time would be needed before it fully disintegrated.

It must be remembered that even World God Northrest's truesoul managed to survive for nearly a chaos cycle before disintegrating. Given Ning's current level of insight, even if his truesoul did disintegrate it would probably be able to last for an extremely long period of time. Given that he was guaranteed to die and given how much time he had, who knew what he might do? Would he cause any trouble?

Many Samsara Daolords who failed the Daomerge would lose themselves and do as they pleased, doing some things which they normally would never dare to do. Some would become so crazy that they would massacre people in great numbers.

It must be remembered that Ning had the Flamewing God on his side. The more powerful a Daolord was, the more terrifying that Daolord could be when he went crazy. If Ning failed the Daomerge and truly became a demonic figure, then led the Flamewing God on a rampage… who could possibly stop him?

"All I wish for during my Daomerge is peace and quiet," Ning said calmly. "I know exactly what Realmslord Windgrace is attempting, as well as the 'Lonely King' of the Icepeak Army who has been slowly biding his time. However… I shall be the one to decide who I will give Flamewing to, if I give it to anyone at all."

Ning knew that both were waiting for him to fail his Daomerge and then die! In truth, in his heart, Ning wasn't willing to actually force Flamewing to serve someone else in the event that he failed his Daomerge and died. He wanted for Flamewing to be able to make a choice for itself.

"We'll wait and see." Ning had made some decisions regarding this long ago. If he failed his Daomerge and began to die, he would become an object of terror to others. If he succeeded? The results would go without saying.

"I don't need to worry about any of that. I only need to do one thing… complete the Daomerge!" Ning was filled with a terrifying degree of focus on the Daomerge.

Ning had mastered many different Daos during the chaos cycles he had spent in the Icewind Sea, including the Dao of Numerancy. He had also spent a great deal of time further perfecting the Dao of Formations for the sake of the Three Realms and Vastheaven Palace. He had studied many formations from both the Sithe as well as the cultivator civilizations, then used them as references in order to perfect a terrifying complicated grand formation.

This grand formation was formed by a total of fifty-two separate formations. Ning was preparing to set it up in both Vastheaven Palace as well as the Three Realms. This grand formation was incredibly profound; most likely, even a Hegemon who had reached that level via the Dao of Formations would not find it easy to reach this formation. This was because this was a formation that combined the essences of many ancient grandmasters; Ning was just setting them up in accordance with their wisdom, then using his own insights to merge all fifty-two of them together.

These two different schools of formations were like Yin and Yang, merging together to form a whole. Even a Hegemon of the Dao of Formations who wished to technically solve and then breach it would find it to be quite difficult; most likely, he would need an extremely long period of time before succeeding.

As for using raw force to overpower it? Ning had so many treasures that he was certainly using only the finest energy sources for these formations. These tremendously powerful energy sources, when matched with these mighty formations, would ensure that not even ten Hegemons working together would be able to shake this formation. Ning himself was at the Hegemonic level of power, and so he knew just how strong this formation was.

However, Ning wasn't confident in his formation being able to stand up to Realmslord Windgrace's legendary 'Blacksun' weapon. The Blacksun was able to easily connect two extremely distant places together and was also able to unleash attacks of incredible power.

"The location and existence of the Three Realms has always been a secret. Everyone who knows of it has long ago sworn a lifeblood oath not to divulge its location," Ning mused. "If I fail the Daomerge, I'll do my best to leave behind something else for the Three Realms. However, there's a limit to what I can do. The rest will be up to future generations."

Ning felt quite calm and relaxed about this. He had seen both great joy and great sorrow. If he failed the Daomerge, he would die. The future of the Three Realms would indeed be up to the cultivators of the Three Realms themselves.

Time flowed on, one day after another. Ning established formations in both Vastheaven Palace and the Three Realms, with the materials and energy sources he used being equivalent in value to the networths of three Hegemons! To Ning, however, these things weren't really all that important.

The atmosphere within the Darknorth Estate in Vastheaven Palace was extremely quiet and peaceful. Su Youji, Pillsaint, Hegemon Azurefiend, and even the normally-rambunctious Flamewing were all exceptionally quiet. All of them knew that Ji Ning was going to attempt the Daomerge the following day.

"Tomorrow…" Ning raised his head to stare into the night sky. "Flamewing."

"Master." The chubby Flamewing immediately walked over.

"Tomorrow, I shall attempt the Daomerge. If anything happens or if anyone comes to interrupt me, take me into your estate-world treasure," Ning said.

"Understood." Flamewing immediately said, "Don't worry. I'll eat anyone who tries to cause trouble."

Ning smiled. This was nothing more than a backup plan. In truth, it was his Primaltwin which would be the most important part of his Daomerge, as it was in the Azureflower Estate and would be completely safe. It also had the Autarch's stone dais and the Stonefire Pearl; that meant its chances at the Daomerge would be the highest. Ning had even sent over the Daomerge Firecloud Flower to his Primaltwin. Since his Primaltwin and his true body were all part of one whole, they would both engage in the Daomerge together. Thus, if anyone came to bother Ning's true body it actually wouldn't make much of a difference.

"Alright." Ning stared into the night sky, his heart feeling exceptionally at peace. After his experiences in the Icewind Sea as well as the year he had spent quietly preparing formations, he had focused his entire Dao-heart upon the Daomerge.

Suddenly, a certain desire flashed through his heart; before he began the Daomerge, he wanted to take a look at the Three Realms. He decided to follow through on this desire.

"I'm going on a small trip. No need for you to follow me," Ning said. He then took a single step forwards and vanished without a trace.

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Book 38, Daomerge, Chapter 39 – Seclusion

Ji Ning arrived at the Three Realms by himself. Given his mastery over the Dao of Karma and the Dao of Numerancy, it was virtually impossible for anyone to see him if he did not wish to be seen.

"The Three Realms." The white-robed Ning sat there within the void in the lotus position, staring off into the distant emptiness of the primordial chaos. Long, long ago, the original 'Three Realms' had been located here. However, the 'new' Three Realms had been destroyed and reborn numerous times by now as a complete chaosworld. It was never again divided into the Celestial Realm, Mortal Realm, and Netherworld Kingdom, or the three thousand major worlds and trillion minor worlds.

Ning sat there in the lotus position, staring silently into the void. His spirit, however, was pulsing rapidly. He felt as though he could see the Three Realms of old. Countless scenes flashed through his mind.

His thoughts turned to how the Netherworld Kingdom had suffered an attack from the Seamless Alliance, resulting in Ning being reborn into the world without having drunk from Granny Meng's soup. He had been born into the Ji clan…

He had been born to his father Ji Yichuan and his mother Yuchi Snow. He had then become apprenticed to the Black-White College, met his first master Immortal Diancai, befriended Mu Northson, then met Ninelotus and Yu Wei.

Ninelotus was a straightforward person who dared to choose the person she loved for herself, but she was also a person who was extremely decisive. The problems with the Youngflame clan had resulted in them separating, while Yu Wei had always silently supported him.

During the Conclave of Immortal Destiny, Lu Dongbin and the Xia Emperor, along with countless other Immortals and Fiendgods, all watched as Ning and Yu Wei finally ended up being together.

Alas, shortly afterwards Ning had been taken to the Tristar Crescent Abode of Mount Innerheart, where he had entered the tutelage of Patriarch Subhuti. By the time they next met, the Seamless Alliance and the Nuwa Alliance had already launched a furious war against each other…

"Yu Wei." Ning continued to reminisce on the past. He truly did feel great sorrow and pity for his departed wife.

Those days, Ning had roamed and dominated the Three Realms. During the Endwar, he had personally reversed the entire outcome of the war, then departed the Three Realms to continue his adventures elsewhere. He had now reached such heights within the vast Chaosverse that even Hegemons felt dread towards him. Not only had he taken on a Hegemonic retainer, he had even tamed a Chaos Primordial and had Hegemonic power as a Samsara Daolord.

Given all of this, Ning could truly be described as a dazzling figure. He was far more dazzling than Emperor Heartsword or even Hegemon Brightshore had ever been!

But his wife? Her destiny had been far more calamitous and pitiful. During her previous life, she had been born into a minor grasslands tribe. Calamity had descended upon that tribe, resulting in her suffering endless torments which had transformed her into a female asura-demon. She had lived a hellish existence, with the Godking secretly manipulating her from afar. Although she was reborn as an Immortal in her next life, her soul had remained under the Godking's control. She had been his pain, and as a result her heart had been filled with such worry and fear that she initially had been afraid to even confess her love to Ning.

In the end, Ning had come to her. Yu Wei had decided that she would rather accept her soul being shattered than bring harm to him, and so the two had ended up together.

Alas, the Godking had continued to threaten and coerce her. Yu Wei knew that she would eventually be exposed, and so she had a child with Ning. Soon after that child had been born, Yu Wei had been consigned to the hells and eventually had her truesoul extinguished.

Her life had been a calamitous, miserable one. The only bright spot in her life had been the time she had spent with Ning and her giving birth to a daughter for him. Unfortunately, that moment of happiness had been a brief one.

Ning spent that night seated by himself within the emptiness of space, quietly thinking back to days past. His thoughts were chiefly of the time he had spent with his wife, Yu Wei.

As a powerful cultivator, he was able to remember every single one of his previous memories with perfect clarity. Not even the passage of time could dim them in the slightest.

He didn't feel too many complicated or mixed emotions. All he felt was a tinge of heartache for his wife.

Whoosh. Ning rose to his feet, then turned to stare at the enormous flaming ball off in the distance. This was the Solar Star, and its light illuminated Ning's face.

"Senior apprentice-sister… I have already come this far on my path of cultivation. Today, I shall begin my Daomerge. This shall be my last gambit. Wait for me. One way or another, we will be together again," Ning murmured softly.

His Dao-heart, the entirety of his soul and truesoul… all of it was waiting in peak condition. The night he had just spent in solitary, silent reflection had caused them all to reach the greatest apex possible.

Riiiiip. Ning tore through spacetime and took a single step forwards, disappearing from the Three Realms.

Dawn. Vastheaven Palace. The Darknorth Estate.

Emperor Solesky, Hegemon Azurefiend, the Flamewing God, Su Youji, Pillsaint, and Whitethaw were all up. None of them had rested the previous night. All of them were waiting, and the more they waited the more nervous and impatient they became. All sorts of mixed emotions filled their hearts, as all of them knew what the Daomerge represented for any Daolord.

Whoosh. Ning appeared out of thin air, manifesting within the Darknorth Estate.

"Ji Ning."

"Master."

"Darknorth." All of them rose to greet him.

Ning swept them with his gaze, then revealed a smile: "All of you came? What's with all the long faces? It's like I already failed the Daomerge!"

"Master, you'll definitely succeed in the Daomerge!" Flamewing was rather teary-eyed. Of the people present, it had the least amount of control over its emotions. It emotionally relied on Ning much like how a child would rely upon a parent. It hurriedly said, "Master, you are much more powerful than any and every Daolord I've ever encountered, and more of a genius than any of those Hegemons. An Omega Sword Dao is nothing to you. You'll definitely succeed!"

"Flamewing." Ning walked over, patting Flamewing on the head. When he had first tamed Flamewing, his only thought had been to acquire a powerful servant. However, as time had passed and as the two got to know each other over the course of many chaos cycles, Ning had realized how implicitly the beast trusted him. Flamewing truly was like a child and was incapable of complex schemes. After so much time, Ning felt a deep sense of affection for Flamewing… and as a result, he felt a degree of revulsion towards Realmslord Windgrace and the Lonely King for harboring designs on Flamewing.

"Darknorth, you must succeed in the Daomerge! I swore an oath to follow you for a thousand chaos cycles. It has only been a hundred! We're not even close to being done with each other." Hegemon Azurefiend's wizened old face smiled, causing even more wrinkles to appear.

"Don't worry. Once the thousand chaos cycles are over, you'll probably be begging and crying for the chance to continue following me," Ning said with a laugh. "When the time comes, I'll have to think long and hard on whether or not I want you."

Ning turned to look at Emperor Solesky, Su Youji, Pillsaint, and Whitethaw. He smiled once more. "Alright, no need to waste time on words. I'm going to go into seclusion and initiate the Daomerge," Ning said.

"You are much more formidable than me. You'll definitely succeed," Emperor Solesky said immediately.

"Master…" Su Youji said hurriedly, "I want you to be by my side when I attempt my own Daomerge in the future."

Ning nodded. He then patted Pillsaint and Protector Whitethaw on their shoulders, then turned and entered his estate. Pillsaint didn't know what to say, while Whitethaw just watched silently. Although he was just a golem, he was sentient and extremely intelligent.

All of them watched as Ning's figure disappeared past the great gates of the estate. Rumble! The gates to the estate swung shut, sealing it completely.

Flamewing transformed back into its true form, that of an enormous, flaming, winged ursine: the 'Flamewing God'. It lay down in front of the estate, continuously sweeping the area with an icy cold look in its eyes. Clearly, it had chosen to immediately carry out Ning's order to protect the estate! Starting from this moment, it wouldn't permit anyone to disturb Ning's Daomerge.

"Youji, relax a little. Being nervous isn't going to help Master at all," Pillsaint said consolingly. "It'll all be up to him now. Supposedly, a Daomerge can last for a total of nine years."

"Yes. It'll all be up to Master now." Su Youji sat down in the lotus position, closing her eyes and taking up a silent vigil.

Solesky, Whitethaw, and Azurefiend all began to wait as well. To them, waiting for nine years was an extremely short period of time.

Within the estate.

The white-robed Ning was seated in the lotus position atop a golden altar. This magic altar was something which Ning had poured all of his efforts into after researching the Autarch's stone dais to the best of his ability. It was all thanks to Ning's mastery of the Dao of Formations that he was able to emulate the stone dais as much as he had, and he had paid a fortune in treasures as well. Despite his efforts, success in the Daomerge would still primarily be up to his Primaltwin.

His Primaltwin had the original stone dais, the Stonefire Pearl, and even the Daomerge Firecloud Flower. It was far better resourced than Ning's true body, but of course Ning did his best to outfit his true body as well. That way, his chances at the Daomerge might be slightly improved. He had given his true body some valuable spirit-pills, as well as the Stone Censer of Reunion. Perhaps his true body was only going to be 0.1% as effective as his Primaltwin, but every little bit helped.

But of course, once the Daomerge actually began the insights and experiences shared by the two sides would be identical. The two were two parts of a whole, and their souls, truesouls, and memories were all as one. As far as the Daomerge was concerned, there was no difference between a true body and a Primaltwin.

If he succeeded in the Daomerge, his true body and his Primaltwin would both gain eternity at the same time. If he failed, his truesoul would begin to crumble.

The white-robed Ning sat there atop his altar, while the black-robed Primaltwin Ning sat upon the Autarch's stone dais in the distant Azureflower Estate. As for Ning's two avatars, they went into silent seclusion as well. An avatar contained part of the truesoul and godsense as well; if the Daomerge failed, the godsense within the avatars would quickly begin to crumble, causing the avatars to perish. However, since the true body and the Primaltwin both had complete souls and truesouls, they were able to ensure that the process of decay was dramatically lessened.

"Let it begin," the white-robed Ning and the black-robed Ning both said at the same time.

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Book 38, Daomerge, Chapter 40 – The Daomerge Begins

Within the Azureflower Estate.

The elderly white-haired spirit of the estate watched silently, feeling both worried but hopeful: "I hope this kid can succeed. If he can succeed in the Daomerge with the Omega Sword Dao, he will have achieved something which no one has ever done before. Perhaps Master's final wishes will then be completed."

The Autarch's wishes were simply too hard to achieve. After becoming an Autarch, Awakener had reached a level of tremendous insight and understanding, and he had many treasures aiding him. He had been alive for unfathomably more times longer than Ji Ning had, and he had reached incredible heights in his mastery of the Nine Chaos Seals.

There were a total of ninety-nine layers to the Heart of Eternity!

Even after having returned from the Icewind Sea, Ning had only been able to solve the first twenty-two layers of the Heart. He was far, far away from being able to completely solve it! In truth, the spirit of the estate also knew how unlikely it was that Ning would succeed, because even the other dazzling geniuses who had come before Ning had fallen far short of the mark of completing Autarch Awakener's wishes.

"The Daomerge Firecloud Flower." The black-robed Ning waved his hand, causing a jade box to appear before the stone dais. The jade box opened on its own, followed by a perfect Daomerge Firecloud Flower that was still attached to its roots and leaves to fly out.

"Let the Daomerge begin!" The black-robed Ning closed his eyes. Over in Vastheaven Palace, the white-robed Ning in Vastheaven Palace swallowed his own spirit-pills, activated the incense from the Stone Censer of Reunion, and then closed his eyes.

He began to visualize the inside of his divine body, formed from a total of 108,000 godgems. Each godgem contained his divine power, his soul, his truesoul, and more. They also contained Ning's insights into his Omega Sword Dao.

Ning visualized the Dao-tree within his Jindan chaos region. The towering Dao-tree's branches and leaves were the material representations of Ning's insights. Countless insights began to resonate through his mind and soul.

What he needed to do was to gather together all of these insights, then transform them all and cause his Dao-tree to give birth to a beautiful Flower of Eternity! His divine body would then transform to become a truly eternal body. If he became an Eternal Emperor, every single one of his godgems would transform into a Worldheart, even if his truesoul was somehow extinguished. The godgems would forever give birth to new chaosworlds.

"The Flower of Eternity… an eternal body…" Ning exerted his will. Boom! Every single godgem in his body began to tremble. The godgems, previously coalesced with his fourth-step Daolord energies, began to disassemble and then advance to a completely new level of existence! The towering Dao-tree within his body was shaking as well, as all of the insights represented by those branches and leaves began to gather together.

If someone was standing nearby, that person would quickly discover that the white-robed Ning and the black-robed Ning were both beginning to glow with blurry sword-light. Countless streaks of sword-light emanated from Ning with such power as to cause even Hegemons to shudder. This was the light of the Dao! Or to be precise, this was the light of the Omega Sword Dao, and its power was covering him and protecting him.

Every single Daolord would emanate the light of the Dao when they began the Daomerge. This would be the most dazzling moment of their life, and it was only in this state that the Daomerge would even be possible. This was also the state one needed to be in order for the Daomerge Firecloud Flower to unleash its true potential.

"Arise." The black-robed Ning opened his eyes, staring at the Daomerge Firecloud Flower within the jade box.

The blurry sword-light emanating from Ning's entire body illuminated the Daomerge Firecloud Flower, causing it to levitate into the air. Guided by Ning's will, the flower began to be surrounded by clouds of fire that gathered together into a half-translucent humanoid figure directly above the flower. This figure looked identical to Ning.

"My incarnation! The incarnation formed by the Daomerge Firecloud Flower." Ning immediately took control over the flow of time, having the incarnation complete a simulated Daomerge as quickly as possible.

If a Daolord like Ninedust used the Daomerge Firecloud Flower, a total of nine incarnations would be formed. In other words, one would have nine chances to simulate a Daomerge! If one took control over the flow of time and accelerated time for the incarnations, these nine simulated Daomerges would at most take perhaps two or so hours, at which point the Daolord could begin the true Daomerge.

"I hope this incarnation can last long enough to attempt a complete Daomerge." Ning felt hopeful. "Let's begin." The incarnation immediately initiated a simulated Daomerge, with a towering Dao-tree appearing within its body. The reason why it didn't form a complete divine body was because Ning wanted to conserve power; there was a limit to how much energy the Daomerge Firecloud Flower held within it.

Time passed, one day after another. The incarnation continued to carefully carry out the Daomerge, with the Omega Sword Dao insights embodied by the Dao-tree all slowly gathering together. Finally, a series of thick trunks began to emerge from the very center of the Dao-tree. These trunks began to manifest a total of two new leaves. One of the two leaves emanated an incredibly profound and abstruse aura, while the other emanated an aura that was incredibly titanic and vast.

Between these two leaves, an unremarkable little flower bud began to emerge as well. The flower bud began to slowly grow larger and larger…

"So far, so good. My path is the correct one. This is just how it should be." Ning felt a tremendous sense of confidence in himself and how things were progressing. The Autarch's stone dais and the Stonefire Pearl helped ensured that he was in absolute peak condition for this Daomerge, and he was in a prajna-like state of epiphany. All sorts of scattered insights were rapidly coming together to form a perfect whole, with no flaws that could be discerned whatsoever.

One year. Two years. Three years. By now, the flower was so large that it could no longer grow any further. All of Ning's insights into the Omega Sword Dao, as well as the other scattered insights he had gained, had been infused into the flower bud.

"Time to let it bloom." Ning knew that the blooming process was the most dangerous part of the Daomerge. Many, many Daolords had attempted to make the Flower of Eternity bloom, only to see it wither halfway through.

Suddenly, his incarnation began to tremble.

"Eh?" Ning's face tightened slightly. Only now did he turn his attention to the Daomerge Firecloud Flower. He realized that the flaming clouds around it had almost all vanished. As the final cloud was depleted, the materialized incarnation suddenly vanished as well. As a result, the simulated Daomerge came to an end as well.

"Its over? The energies were all used up?" Although Ning was briefly startled, he quickly regained his equanimity. "Omega Daos truly are the hardest of Daos. I wasn't even given a chance to attempt to cause the Flower of Eternity to bloom via a simulated Daomerge," Ning mused. The Daomerge Firecloud Flower had enough power to allow a Daolord who had fused multiple Supreme Daos to simulate the Daomerge nine times, but he hadn't even been able to do it a single time! This had at most been half of a simulated Daomerge… and strictly speaking, it was the simpler first half. Even if Ning hadn't had a Daomerge Firecloud Flower, Ning wouldn't have made any mistakes during the first part.

"However… it still helped me save three years of time." Ning didn't let himself feel dispirited. Saving three years of time meant that his chances at succeeding in the Daomerge had increased considerably.

"And so… let the true Daomerge begin!" Thanks to the wonders of temporal acceleration, the three years of time which the simulated Daomerge had taken had, in reality, been nothing more than a few minutes for Ning's true body and Primaltwin.

The white-robed Ning and the black-robed Ning simultaneously began to speed up the Daomerge process. Whoosh! The transformation process of the godgems began to speed up rapidly, advancing in the blink of an eye.

As for the Dao-tree in his body, it began to give birth to a new trunk upon which two leaves grew. A flower bud quickly appeared and began to grow larger, and it quickly reached its maximum size in just a few seconds. Now, it was ready to bloom whenever Ning chose.

"Let it bloom…" Ning knew just how the Daomerge worked. The Flower of Eternity was safe when it was merely a bud. Once the initial blooming process began, it was extremely easy for cultivators to make mistakes… and a single mistake would result in a failure in the blooming process, causing the flower to wither away! That would represent the Daomerge having failed. The truesoul would immediately begin to crumble.

If the initial blooming process was successful, the flower would slowly bloom more and more. This middle part would be comparatively safer, and the Flower of Eternity would grow more and more beautiful. When it reached its most dazzlingly beautiful form, it would gain true eternity for itself! This final part of the blooming process was the most difficult part of the Daomerge.

Ning had met Daolord Laya in the Starflow River. When Daolord Laya had failed the Daomerge, he had failed during the initial blooming process; in other words, the Flower of Eternity hadn't been able to bloom at all.

In truth, the blooming represented the process by which Daolords crossed beyond that final threshold to become Eternal Emperors! That moment when the Flower of Eternity reached maximum beauty was the moment in which both it and the Dao stabilized. This represented success, with the Daolord having become an Eternal Emperor.

Whoooosh. The petals slowly began to extend up the stem of the Flower of Eternity, laboriously seeking to reach out and bloom. As for Ning himself, he began the process of leaping into a new level of existence.

BOOM!!! The Dao-light surrounding both the white-robed Ning in Vastheaven Palace and the black-robed Azureflower Estate began to dramatically increase in intensity. The countless streaks of sword-light began to skyrocket in power, instantly ascending beyond Hegemony. In just the blink of an eye, it actually surpassed even the Otherverse Lord level of power!

Rumble…

This terrifying aura of power instantly swept through all that sought to contain it. The formations around Vastheaven Palace were completely incapable of containing this terrifying aura, a supreme aura of power that vastly surpassed that of Hegemons and even Otherverse Lords. This was the most terrifying aura generated by the Dao of the Sword which had ever appeared in the Chaosverse… the aura of an Eternal Omega Sword Dao!

Emperor Solesky, Su Youji, Pillsaint, Azurefiend, Whitethaw, and everyone else all felt so terrified by this aura that their hearts trembled. It was as though every single cell in their bodies were screaming in fear.

Even the Flamewing God felt a sense of fear when this mighty aura swept past it!

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Book 38, Daomerge, Chapter 41 – The Critical Moment

Within the Azureflower Estate.

Boom! The black-robed Ji Ning was seated in the lotus position. Suddenly, the sword-light coming from his body dramatically increased in luminosity and power! The might of his aura spread out in every direction, causing even the elderly white-haired spirit of the estate who was watching nearby to feel a tinge of fear. The spirit couldn't help but lower his head and hunch over. This was an intrinsic fear that came from the very core of his being. In truth, estate-spirits could be considered a special type of lifeform.

"Such power…" the white-haired elder tamped down his fear and struggled to raise his head to look at Ning.

The black-robed Ning was emanating countless streams of sword-light that were filled with an aura of utter dominance and exaltedness. The only time the long-lived white-haired elder had ever seen anyone like this had been when he had served his almighty master, Autarch Awakener.

"The Omega Daos live up to their reputation. If he succeeds in the Daomerge, perhaps the only people who will be a match for him in the entire Chaosverse shall be the Autarchs," the white-haired elder mused silently.

Once an Omega Dao became eternal, how powerful would it become? No one knew. This was because no one thus far had ever been able to accomplish such a thing. The vast Chaosverse had given birth to numerous Autarchs, but it had never given birth to an Emperor of an Omega Dao!

The Hegemons and Otherverse Lords, no matter how talented, were at most only at the Hegemonic level of insight. Beyond that was the level of Autarchy! However, one who made an Omega Dao eternal would surpass all Hegemons in terms of profundity of insight into the Dao!

"Only two beings can surpass Hegemony. The first are the Autarchs; the second would be an Omega Eternal Emperor." The white-haired elder stared rather eagerly at the black-robed Ning, who continued to glow with that aura of infinitely awesome light. "Darknorth, there has never been an Eternal Omega Dao before! If you succeed, all of Master's efforts would've been worth it."

The Azureflower Estate had been the Autarch's personal, private training grounds. It was filled with barriers and restrictions of such might that it naturally was able to block out all auras, including that of Ning's Daomerge.

Vastheaven Palace, however, was completely incapable of the same. The white-robed Ning within the Darknorth Estate of the Vastheaven Palace was also emanating blinding amounts of sword-light, and the power from his aura surged straight out of Vastheaven Palace and reached out to spread across the entire Vastheaven Everworld. In fact, the ripples spread out into the vast void outside as well. However, the farther the ripples spread, the fainter and harder-to-detect the ripples became. They quickly spread out to cover the entire Flamedragon Realmverse and then spread out into the endless Great Dark as well.

"What's going on?"

"What is this sense of awe and pressure?"

The countless living beings within Vastheaven Palace, from the mortals and animals to the Eternal Emperors, all felt a sense of terror stemming from the very fiber of their being.

None of these living beings were injured, but in this instant the entire everworld fell completely silent. All of them instinctively knelt down towards the direction from whence this aura came, almost as if they were prostrating themselves and displaying submission towards an emperor.

This aura was the aura of an Eternal Omega Sword Dao! No one would dare to stand against this terrifying aura.

"Such power! Such might! This aura is far more powerful than mine. Not even the Sithe Exalts were this powerful!" Flamewing was able to instinctively judge the power of this aura. There had never been an Emperor who reached that level via an Eternal Omega Dao. Someone who did would be more powerful than Otherverse Lords, Sourcewalkers, and even Sithe Exalts! Only the unfathomably powerful Autarchs would be on this level of power.

"So this is the power of the Eternal Omega Sword Dao?" Emperor Solesky, Azurefiend, and the others all felt completely stunned. This level of power was far beyond the Hegemonic level of power.

Whoosh! A dimensional tear appeared at the very margins of the Vastheaven Everworld, followed by a snowy-robed, white-bearded old man appearing. This was Hegemon Brightshore. A heartbeat later two more tears appeared. A man with long green hair and a green beard emerged from the first, while a dazzlingly beautiful scepter-wielding woman appeared from the second. They were Hegemon Windrain and Hegemon Netherlily.

Riiiiip. Another dimensional tear appeared off in the distance, followed by five figures emerging. The first was a golden humanoid figure, while the other four were all onyx humanoid figures. This was Lord Wulf of the Icepeak Army and four of his Black Emperors.

"Such power." Everyone's gazes were focused towards the distant Vastheaven Palace. Vastheaven Palace was the source of this incredible, exalted aura. Simply looking at Vastheaven Palace caused them to all feel a sense of tremendous pressure! If Ning himself appeared, staring at him would cause them all to feel a sense of terror. This was something you would innately feel when you encountered someone who was at a higher level of existence than you.

"So this is the power which comes from an Omega Dao which has gained eternity?" Hegemon Brightshore murmured softly, "This aura is utterly terrifying. I've never sensed anything as terrifying as this."

"Daolord Darknorth's 'Flower of Eternity' has probably already begun to bloom," Hegemon Windrain said. "If he can succeed in making it fully bloom, he'll gain true eternity."

"Will he be dazzling for an instant, or dazzling for all eternity? The answer will come soon," Hegemon Netherlily said.

They had witnessed many Daolords undergone the Daomerge and thus they understood the process. The aura of the Eternal Omega Sword Dao which they could all sense wasn't being consciously produced by Ning; rather, it was something which naturally manifested as the Daomerge began. Only if he succeeded in the Daomerge and truly gained a complete Eternal Omega Sword Dao would he gain control over that terrifying level of power! If he failed? Everything would disappear like mist, and his brief moment of brilliance would amount to nothing more than a testament to how powerful an Eternal Omega Sword Dao truly was.

"He has begun the Daomerge." Lord Wulf stared from afar, a look of dread in his eyes. "How terrifying. If he succeeds in the Daomerge, not even the Lonely King would stand any chance against him."

"There's no way something as unearthly powerful as this can exist," one of his Black Emperor subordinates said.

"Agreed. If he succeeds in the Daomerge, he'll probably be invincible unless an Autarch intervenes," Lord Wulf murmured softly. "But if he fails… that'll be when he becomes truly troublesome. No one can guess what a Daolord who has failed the Daomerge would do. More importantly, the Lonely King also will be competing against Realmslord Windgrace. The struggle over the Flamewing God will probably be the greatest battle which our Icepeak Army has ever engaged in…"

Although the Icepeak Army had taken part in numerous great wars, it had never faced off against an opponent of Realmslord Windgrace's caliber. In addition, there was a third party to this conflict… Ji Ning and the Flamewing God who served him. Lord Wulf spoke the truth when he described this conflict as the 'greatest battle' the Icepeak Army would have ever engaged in.

"Daolord Darknorth won't go crazy, right?" The four Black Emperors were rather nervous. They had all witnessed the Flamewing God's power.

"Who knows what a Daolord who has failed the Daomerge might do?" Lord Wulf stared at the distant Vastheaven Palace. "However… we must give it our best shot, no matter how dangerous it is! There's no way Realmslord Windgrace or our Lonely King would give up a chance to control the Flamewing God. They'll throw every resource they have into it."

The Flamewing God was more valuable than all the combined value of all the treasures Realmslord Windgrace and the Lonely King possessed. There was a limit to how powerful a Sithe war machine could be, after all… and the greater the power, the greater the cost of activating it. Each time Realmslord Windgrace wished to use the Blacksun to fire off an attack, he had to pay an enormous price. But Flamewing? It had a virtually indestructible body and could fight without rest. The Flamewing God was more valuable than the entire Icepeak Army.

However, only the likes of the Lonely King and Realmslord Windgrace were actually interested in trying to take control over Flamewing. The ordinary soldiers and generals of the Icepeak Army, along with the likes of Hegemon Brightshore, simply felt fear! This was because no one could predict how wide-ranging and destructive such a war would become. A war on this level could easily result in the deaths of Hegemons and Black Emperors. Even the likes of Lord Wulf would perish under the might of a fully-powered Blacksun!

The only ones who stood a good chance at surviving were the Lonely King, who had numerous Sithe war machines at his disposal, and Realmslord Windgrace, who had his Blacksun. Everyone else could very well perish!

Oh, right. Daolord Darknorth would be safe, as he could hide behind the Flamewing god. However… if Daolord Darknorth had failed the Daomerge, he might go crazy and become an even greater threat than Windgrace or the Lonely King.

"Ugh."

"Let's pray that he succeeds in the Daomerge." In truth, some of the Black Emperors were silently hoping for Ning's success. They would be nothing more than cannon fodder in a battle at this level, after all. Still… all of them knew in their hearts how unlikely it was that Ning would succeed.

The white-robed Ning in Vastheaven Palace and the black-robed Ning in the Azureflower Estate meditated silently as the Flower of Eternity began to bloom with excruciating slowness.

"This is correct. No errors thus far." Ning was being incredibly careful. As soon as the flower had started to bloom, his Eternal Omega Sword Dao had begun to take form. Everything seemed so perfect and flawless… but if he made so much as a single mistake, the Flower of Eternity would instantly begin to wither and his truesoul would begin to crumble away.

He couldn't afford a single mistake! Thus, Ning proceeded very slowly with the Daomerge.

Time passed on, one day after the other, and more Eternal Emperors appeared around the Vastheaven Everworld. Ning's exalted aura had covered all of the Flamedragon Realmverse and had even stretched out into the Great Dark. Although the aura grew increasingly weak with distance, the majority of Eternal Emperors in the Flamedragon Realmverse were able to sense it. However, realmverses were so far from each other that the aura spread just a comparatively short distance into the Great Dark before becoming completely indetectable.

"Eh?" Roughly half a year after the Flower of Eternity began to bloom, the faces of the white-robed Ning and the black-robed Ning simultaneously turned pale.

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Book 38, Daomerge, Chapter 42 – Sword-Heart

"Now this is a deadly problem." Ji Ning had just encountered the greatest obstacle within the Daomerge thus far.

Why was it that Daolords all wished for the chance to completely simulate the Daomerge? It was so that they would have sufficient experience for the real thing. A mistake in the simulated Daomerge could be fixed in the real one.

Alas, even the Daomerge Firecloud Flower could only simulate a partial Daomerge for an Omega Dao. It could only simulate the Daomerge up to the point where the bud first formed! In other words, the only real benefit it brought to Ning was that it had saved him three years worth of time; it hadn't given him a chance to actually compensate for any mistakes or errors! And now, as a result, the completely unprepared Ning now encountered an enormous problem which he had to resolve.

"If I wish to succeed in the Daomerge for the Omega Sword Dao, I must also master the fifteenth stance of the [Heartsword] art!" After spending half a year slowly blooming his Flower of Eternity, he immediately realized this problem.

Ning had originally thought that the [Heartsword] art was just a type of special technique that combined heartforce, divine power, and Immortal energy. He didn't believe that it had anything to do with his Omega Sword Dao… but now that he had actually initiated the Daomerge, he realized that he was wrong!

It was connected! In fact, it was connected in a very important way!

Ordinary Emperors and even Hegemons didn't need to worry about techniques like the [Heartsword] art during their Daomerges, but Ning was different; his path was that of the Omega Sword Dao!

"The [Heartsword] art focuses on training the heart, the heart of the sword. The more sincere one's heart is towards the sword, the more perfectly one can merge heartforce, divine power, and Immortal energy. I was only able to master the fourteenth stance of the [Heartforce] art because I realized that Yu Wei would not come back to life, and thus I came to understand the essence of 'Remorseless Unto Death'. I poured everything into the sword without any remorse… but that isn't enough. Although a sword-heart like this is enough to merge divine power, heartforce, and Immortal energy to a very high degree… it still isn't enough."

"I need a truly perfect and complete sword-heart! Only then can I also have a perfect, Eternal Omega Sword Dao."

He only came to understand this during the Daomerge itself. The many insights he had gained into the Dao of the Sword would form the 'body' of his Eternal Omega Sword Dao, while his perfect sword-heart would form its 'soul'. Only then would it be fully formed! Only then would it become a true and truly terrifying Eternal Omega Sword Dao.

This was why the [Heartsword] art was so marvelous, and why it allowed for one to merge all types of energy together, resulting in every single attack increasing explosively in might.

"There's a limit to how long the Daomerge can take. I have to comprehend the fifteenth stance of the [Heartsword] art. If I cannot, I'll definitely fail the Daomerge." When Ning came to understand this, his face instantly turned pale. There wasn't enough time! The fifteenth stance of the [Heartsword] art was incredibly difficult.

In truth, the [Heartsword] art was just a sword-focused energy-combining technique which Emperor Heartsword had created. There had been other major powers in the vast Chaosverse who had done the same. Ning didn't really need the technique itself; what he needed to do was to truly perfect his sword-heart.

Whoosh. One technique after another flickered through Ning's mind. These were the various similar techniques which had been created by the cultivator civilizations as well as the Sithe.

"What should I do? How should I make the breakthrough to the next level?" Although the state he was in during the Daomerge allowed breakthroughs to come much more easily, he still wasn't able to find the key to the fifteenth stance.

"Wrong. Wrong. Wrong! The [Heartsword] art and the other techniques all came as a result of the unique hearts and minds produced by the experiences these various major powers had." Ning's eyes suddenly lit up. "In the end, they reached perfection… but they each walked their own paths! Every single cultivator will have different mental and spiritual experiences. If you try to force yourself to emulate their paths, you might be able to reach an extremely high level but you'll never reach perfection."

"This is why, despite the passage of so many chaos cycles, there has been no one save Emperor Heartsword who was able to master the fifteenth stance of the [Heartsword] art. That's because one has to find one's own sword-heart in order to reach this stance!"

The prajna-state Ning was currently in was an extraordinary one, and he was able to quickly identify where the problem lay.

In the early stages, the [Heartsword] art might've allowed him to walk faster along his path, but the farther along the path Ning went, the more of an obstacle the [Heartsword] art became. Thus, he had to discard it… because it represented Emperor Heartsword's sword-heart!

"Then what of my own sword-heart?" Ning began to reminisce about all the experiences he had undergone through countless years of cultivation, as well as the many times he had trained in the sword.

Slowly… Ning began to understand.

One day. Two days. Three days. One month. Two months. One year. Two years…

The Daomerge allowed for a Daolord to enter the most incredible and marvelous meditative state known to cultivators. This wasn't the first time Ning had thought back to his memories and his life, but now that he was in the middle of the Daomerge the insights he gained were naturally different.

"Yes… long, long ago, I once lived a life that was without worries and carefree. That was back when my mother and father were teaching me. In the West Prefecture City of the Ji clan, I trained with them in sword-arts. I was so happy back then. I simply loved sword-arts; that was all there was to it.

"When did it all change? All kinds of different competing desires arose in my heart and in my cultivation of the sword. I sought to train in the sword to take revenge for my parents, to become famous in the Grand Xia, to kill the Godking and take my revenge, to revive Yu Wei… I entrusted all of my hopes to the sword, wishing to use it to make all of my hopes real. In doing so, my sword-heart actually became impure."

"Even when I reached the stage of 'Remorseless Unto Death', my remorselessness stemmed from my emotions and my love of Yu Wei, not for the love of the sword itself. But…

"In truth, I really do love the sword as well."

If he didn't love the Dao of the Sword from the very depths of his being, there was no way he could've embarked upon the path of the Omega Sword Dao and reached his current heights. However, all of the many hopes and fears he had entrusted to the sword had resulted in his sword-heart becoming impure.

Ning suddenly thought of something which Autarch Titanos had told him: "Foolish child… sometimes, you have to learn when to let go. On the path of cultivation, excessive obsession can sometimes result in self-destruction."

Ning had suddenly awoken to the truth. It was a true moment of epiphany! After spending three years of the Daomerge going through his many memories, he felt as though he had revisited his entire life… and as a result, he had truly awoken.

"Even if I cast aside everything, including all of my hopes and fears, I would still love the sword. I love it simply because I love it; there's no need for any other reason. The Dao of the Sword is a vast and boundless one which allows me to experience many new things. Of course I love it. Why wouldn't I?"

Both the white-robed Ning and the black-robed Ning opened their eyes to stare forwards.

In front of each of them, a stream of sword-light manifested. The sword-light flew out in a beautiful, natural, and transcendent way. There were no strong emotions attached to it, no grief, no sorrow, no madness… it simply flew forward, illuminating everything around it with its brilliance.

"One Sword, One World." Ning smiled. He knew that his sword-heart had reached the level of true perfection. In fact, he now suspected that Emperor Heartsword himself must have mastered the 'One Sword, One World' stance during the Daomerge as well. For those who had chosen a weaker Sword Dao, simply possessing a perfect sword-heart would allow for one to succeed in the Daomerge, even if one's Dao of the Sword was flawed!

Emperor Heartsword's Sword Dao wasn't a particularly impressive one, but he had a perfect sword-heart and as a result had succeeded in the Daomerge.

Ning now had a perfect sword-heart as well… but he was attempting to master an Eternal Omega Sword Dao. A perfect sword-heart was just one component!

"My sword-heart has been perfected." Ning immediately continued to the next stage of his Daomerge, causing the Flower of Eternity to continue its blooming once more. Now that he had a perfect sword-heart, the Flower of Eternity seemed to have gained a spirit, and it rustled in his soul much like a true flower would in the outside world.

"It's nearly been nine years."

"The Daomerge can at most last for nine years. Daolord Darknorth's Daomerge must be coming to an end soon."

"I wonder if he will succeed or fail." Within the Vastheaven Everworld, the Hegemons and the Icepeak Army were all waiting. The other Eternal Emperors, such as Daoist Bluestone, Emperor Goldisle, and Emperor Blackcloud were all waiting nervously as well.

It had indeed been nearly nine years since Ning had unleashed that wave of terrifying presence.

"Perhaps the Daomerge time limit for Omega Daos is longer than normal?" Hegemon Netherlily suggested curiously.

"Who knows?" Hegemon Brightshore shook his head.

"Let's just wait. We'll see a result soon," Hegemon Windrain said.

All of the Hegemons and Emperors were waiting, as were Hegemon Azurefiend, Flamewing, Emperor Solesky, Su Youji, Pillsaint, and Ning's disciples and fellow apprentices within Vastheaven Palace. All of them were extremely nervous.

"I'm almost out of time." The white-robed Ning in Vastheaven Palace and the black-robed Ning in the Azureflower Estate both knew that they only had nine years for the Daomerge. The Daomerge Firecloud Flower had saved them three years of time, but they had wasted three more in perfecting the Dao-heart.

The Flower of Eternity slowly continued to bloom. There could be no mistakes at all right now.

"Time for the final push." Ning could sense the growth of the Flower of Eterniety within the Dao-tree in his body, and could also sense how his godgems had reconfigured themselves. It was time to take the final step.

In his heart, he already had a complete structure for his Eternal Omega Sword Dao. Whether or not it was the correct one could only be ascertained through actually using it in the Daomerge.

"There are no mistakes. Such a perfect Dao has to be worthy of eternity." Ning was filled with confidence, but since he hadn't had the chance to simulate a Daomerge he had to be absolutely correct in order to succeed. The slightest of errors would result in failure.

"I'm out of time. There's no way to stop the Daomerge. Time for the final step!"

Ning willed it, and with a rumble his Flower of Eternity went into full bloom, revealing dazzling amounts of radiance. The godgems in his body instantly went into a brand new configuration as well.

Would the result be eternity? Or a withering?

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Book 38, Daomerge, Chapter 43 – The Curtain Falls

The Flower of Eternity bloomed with incandescent light, striving to achieve eternity… but then, its light began to slowly shudder. The transformed and reconfigured godgems also sought to stabilize, but they slowly began to tremble as well.

The awesome aura of the Eternal Omega Sword Dao emanating from Ji Ning's body suddenly began to decay, with Ning's own life aura weakening as well.

"No! I was too hasty!" In the final instant that his Flower of Eternity fully bloomed, Ning immediately understood where the error lay in his Eternal Omega Sword Dao

If he had been given a chance to simulate the Daomerge, he would've been able to actually test out some of the assumptions regarding his Dao and discover its flaws. But he hadn't had that chance, and so he had to forge ahead without it!

Samsara Daolords took a total of four steps, and each step represented them treading the line between life and death! However, these four steps were all fairly short steps. They only led the Daolord to rise to a slightly higher level each time, which was why almost all of the truly talented Daolords were able to reach the fourth step. However, the Daomerge represented an enormous chasm!

Even when ordinary Daolords succeeded in the Daomerge, their power would rise by two full levels. As for supreme Daolords like Ninedust or Winesage, they'd immediately become Hegemons. Those slightly weaker would still reach the Archon level of power.

Ning's Omega Sword Dao would have an even more incredible result. The mysteries of the Sword Dao alone would result in him improving by two full levels of power, but he also needed to infuse it with a perfect sword-heart. In other words, advancing from the fourth-step Daolord Omega Sword Dao to an Eternal Omega Sword Dao would result in an increase of more than three full levels of power!

This was an enormous step he had to take, and there was no chance at all to test it out in advance! Even though Ning's preparations had been quite plentiful, in the end he had still made a tiny mistake.

"This must be the true Eternal Omega Sword Dao." Ning opened his eyes. In front of him was a faint sheen of sword-light. It looked very ordinary, with nothing special about it at all. It seemed to have no aura, no presence… nothing.

Rumble…

Unfathomably far away from the Flamedragon Realmverse, there existed a place. This place was where the prime essences of the entire Chaosverse were located, including the prime essence of the Dao of the Sword.

"So this is the prime essence of the Dao of the Sword?" Ning's mind could clearly and distinctly sense it from afar… and it was identical in nature to the Eternal Omega Sword Dao he had just understood.

Suddenly, a surge of invisible power swept out and surrounded Ning's consciousness. This power was vast and overwhelming but also as gentle as a mother's embrace.

Ning instantly understood. This surge of power was the power of the prime essences of the Chaosverse. The power was embracing his mind and… comforting him. It was as though the Chaosverse itself felt a sense of regret and sympathy towards this cultivator.

"So I am the only one who has ever comprehended an Eternal Omega Dao?" Ning understood what the Chaosverse was whispering to him.

There had been others who had embarked upon the path of the Omega Dao, but all of them had failed during the Daomerge! The vast majority of the failures didn't even have a technique like the [Heartsword] art available to them. Much like Ning, they had only realized how stringent the requirements for their Dao-hearts were during the actual Daomerge itself. Most of them had failed due to this. Occasionally, there were a few incredibly talented Daolords who did in fact have perfect Dao-hearts, but in the end there were quite a few errors in the Eternal Omega Dao they devised. Even though they eventually realized what their mistakes were, there was no way for them to discover what the right answer was.

Ning had the Autarch's stone dais, the Stonefire Pearl, the Daomerge Firecloud Flower, and other external sources of support. He also had a perfect sword-heart and was at a level of talent that was every bit the equal of anyone who had come before him.

In the end, he had still failed the Daomerge… but immediately afterwards, he had instantly realized what the true Eternal Omega Sword Dao was. Alas, it was too late! He was now in control of and the master of the Eternal Omega Sword Dao, but he had already failed his Daomerge. Each person would only have one chance at the Daomerge. If you failed it, you failed it. Even the prime essences of the Chaosverse couldn't help but sigh on his behalf. Alas, there was nothing they could do; all they could do was function in the way their nature instrinsically demanded. Everything they did was simply an expression of their intrinsic nature, and in truth they weren't fully 'sentient' by the normal definition of the word.

All they could do was feel and express an innate sense of sorrow and sympathy for this poor soul.

The Flower of Eternity withered away, its petals crumbling apart and falling.

It had been just a single tiny mistake, but that mistake was still enough to cause everything to crumble. There was no way for it to gain eternity.

Divine power and Immortal energy could be instantly recovered; they didn't count for much. The truly lethal aspect of failing the Daomerge was the dissipation of the soul and truesoul. There was no way at all to halt or reverse the crumbling of a truesoul. No one was capable of it whatsoever. Not even Autarchs were able to do this!

The white-robed Ning within Vastheaven Palace and the black-robed Primaltwin in the Azureflower Estate were both filled with Ning's truesoul. Their failure in the Daomerge caused the truesoul to begin to crumble. Ning's soul and truesoul had become incredibly powerful over his countless years of cultivation, and the Nine Chaos Seals technique had further strengthened it to the Archon level… but it was of no use.

Hairline fractures had already appeared throughout every part of Ning's truesoul.

Crack! A tiny, crystalline piece of truesoul broke free. This fragment was translucent and dazzlingly beautiful, but as it floated away it gradually disappeared into nothingness, returning to the prime essences of the Chaosverse. Those who had their truesouls destroyed in a chaosworld would see their soul fragments be reclaimed by the prime essences of the Chaosverse. Those who failed the Daomerge would see their truesouls slowly and naturally fragment apart, also to be reclaimed by the Chaosverse. When the final pieces of truesoul were gone, they would die.

They could do nothing but watch as they slowly died. This was a very cruel end, and there were some Daolords who would be driven mad as a result.

The aura of life disappeared from both of Ning's avatars, and the truesoul within Ning's main body and Primaltwin both began to crumble…

Ning arose from the altar. Even before the Daomerge had began, he had already prepared himself for the possibility of failure.

"For one who has found the Dao in the morning, death in the evening is nothing. I may have failed, but my failure has allowed me to find the true Eternal Omega Sword Dao. Compared to many other cultivators, I'm quite lucky. Nothing in the universe will go exactly as one hopes." Ning's gaze was distant. He murmured, "Yu Wei… sorry. I still failed in the end…"

Ning didn't care too much that he had failed the Daomerge and would perish. Given how long he had cultivated for, why would he fear death? As for his family, he had already spent an extremely long period of time by the side of his parents and his daughter. The only one he felt a debt towards was his wife, Yu Wei.

"I thought that I was invincible, that I could do anything and everything. But in the end, there was a limit to what I could accomplish. My road has come to an end." Ning waved his hand, causing a black jade stone to appear before him. This jade stone had already been cut to be roughly as tall as Ning himself.

Ning stretched out his right hand, gently stroking the surface of the jade. Sword-light appeared from the tips of his fingers, and as it swept past the jade, tiny bits of jade dust flew everywhere.

Slowly, the figure of a black-robed maiden became formed from the jade stone. Her features truly were dazzlingly beautiful, and her aura was quite extraordinary.

A hint of a smile appeared around Ning's lips. His wife, Yu Wei, truly had been a dazzling and beautiful person. She had been the most beautiful member of the Black-White College.

Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. Ning's fingers continued to flicker across the jade stone, causing the sculpture to become more and more distinct. The jade Yu Wei's hair seemed to flutter, and her eyes stared lovingly at Ning.

Suddenly, Ning came to a halt and stepped back.

The white-robed Ning and the black-robed Yu Wei stared at each other, their gazes meeting in the air. It was almost as though she was still alive.

Moments later, Ning regained his composure. With but a thought, he caused the sculpture of the black-robed Yu Wei to fly towards him while shrinking to become palm-sized. As it flew towards Ning's chest, a string suddenly appeared out of nowhere and pierced through it. It hung inside Ning's clothes like a necklace, pressed against his bosom.

Ning gently stroked his chest. "Yu Wei… accompany me on the final steps of my journey." Ning then waved his hand, causing all six Northbow swords to appear before him.

"Quintessences, arise!" With but a thought, Ning transformed the quintessences within his six Lifeblood weapons, upgrading them from the fourth-step Daolord-level Omega Sword Dao to the Eternal Omega Sword Dao.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! The six Northbow swords all emitted a keening sound as sword-light flared around them, revealing a terrifying sharpness. The light circulated across them, revealing that each and every one of them was changing and evolving from inside out. They immediately skyrocketed to the Universe treasure level! A good while later, the light completely vanished from them. Their power was now so reserved that they were like ordinary pieces of wood… but in truth, they had already become the deadliest weapons in all the Chaosverse.

This was because the quintessence cores within them had been created by the Eternal Omega Sword Dao, something which had never existed before. The Dao of the Sword was a Dao meant for battle and slaughter. In terms of killing power, these six swords had already vastly outstripped all other Universe treasures.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! All six swords flew back into the sheath on Ning's back.

Vastheaven Palace.

"That aura of might is weakening."

"How can this be?"

"But…" Emperor Solesky, Hegemon Azurefiend, the Flamewing God, Pillsaint, and the others were all shocked. Su Youji's face was completely ashen and devoid of all color.

"Master."

"Senior apprentice-brother." Ning's students and 'fellow disciples' were all frantic as well.

In the air outside Vastheaven Palace were Hegemon Brightshore, Hegemon Windrain, Hegemon Netherlily, Lord Wulf, the Black Emperors, Daoist Bluestone, Emperor Goldisle, and the other Eternal Emperors. Some sighed. Some shook their heads. Some smiled with delight. Some had ugly looks on their faces.

All of them had their own thoughts and considerations… but all of them knew that Daolord Darknorth had just failed the Daomerge.

They had seen far too many Daolords attempt the Daomerge. If a Daolord succeeded, there was no way his aura would plummet like that. In addition, they would also sense an aura of true eternity about that cultivator.

"Darknorth, a dazzling and peerless Daolord, has come to an end just like that." Hegemon Brightshore shook his head and sighed.

"Daomerges for Omega Daos are simply too difficult," Hegemon Windrain said.

"Go ahead and report it to Realmslord Windgrace," Hegemon Netherlily said.

The three of them had long ago received orders from Realmslord Windgrace to monitor the situation, and so they all began to send word back.

"Hurry up and inform his Majesty that Daolord Darknorth has already failed the Daomerge." The distant Lord Wulf could already foresee the grand war that was about to erupt, but he didn't dare to delay in the slightest.

The Hiddenfiend Realmverse. The Blacksun.

A bearded, disheveled-looking old man walked out of a courtyard. He raised his head to stare into the void, his eyes filled with light. "Daolord Darknorth… he was such an incredibly talented figure, but he still failed. The war against the Lonely King shall come next."

The endless Great Dark.

A large group of onyx humanoids were clustered together within a realmship. Alongside them were two golden humanoids who were standing to each side of a silver throne… and a third golden humanoid dressed in silver robes who was seated on that throne.

His gaze was as cold as ice, and the blood-red diamond in his forehead was beginning to change.

In truth, this man had long ago led the entire Icepeak Army to a place within the Great Dark that was extremely close to the Flamedragon Realmverse. He had been silently waiting for the signal, as he knew that if he was to fight against Realmslord Windgrace he couldn't afford to get there late.

"Your Majesty, Lord Wulf sends word. Daolord Darknorth has failed the Daomerge!" a gray-robed Emperor said respectfully.

"As expected, he failed." The Lonely King rested his arms on the armrests of his throne, then said softly, "Windgrace… let's see if you win or if I win."

"Head out!"

BOOM! The realmship tore through spacetime and immediately began to warp towards the Flamedragon Realmverse.

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Book 39, Nuwa, Chapter 1 – A Daolord Who Failed the Daomerge

Vastheaven Palace. The Darknorth Estate.

Emperor Solesky, Su Youji, Hegemon Azurefiend, and the Flamewing God were all staring at the sealed gates to Ji Ning's estate.

Rumble… the gates to the estate swung open, followed by a white-robed youth with a black sheath on his back emerging from within.

Everything seemed so ordinary, as though nothing at all had happened… but Solesky, Azurefiend, and the others all sighed silently. All powerful experts were able to sense the tiny ripples generated by a decaying truesoul. Even though the ripples were incredibly minute, they were constant and continuous. Even though Ning's truesoul was unfathomably more powerful than an ordinary mortal's, given enough time it would still be extinguished.

"Master." Flamewing raised its giant head to stare at Ning rather desperately.

"Darknorth." Solesky and Azurefiend wanted to say something, but both hesitated. Su Youji's eyes were completely red, and she was using her Immortal energy to evaporate her tears as soon as they appeared.

"Look at all of you." Ning laughed. "Everyone who has chosen the path of cultivation knows how difficult a path this is. The Daomerge for an Omega Dao is the most difficult of all! I've failed my Daomerge, but I was mentally prepared for that long ago. It is no big deal."

"Good." Azurefiend's eyes lit up and he called out, "Darknorth, you have only trained for a fairly brief period of time, but I must confess that my Dao-heart is inferior to yours. If I had failed my Daomerge, I wouldn't have been able to endure it. Given my temperament, I probably would've gone crazy. Even if I managed to eventually calm down, it would've only happened after I vented for an extremely long period of time. I can't promise anything else, but I'll definitely continue to serve you. So long as you are alive, I will follow you and be by your side. I'll also carry out to the absolute best of my ability any tasks you wish me to do in the future."

"Thank you." Ning smiled. Some people who were forced to become retainers would feel resentment, but Ning and Azurefiend had known each other for so long that Azurefiend knew what type of person Ning was. Ning was an open, straightforward man who was benevolent to his friends and terrible to his foes. Azurefiend enjoyed his relationship with Ning, and he couldn't help but feel heartache upon seeing Ning fail the Daomerge. He couldn't help but sigh at how such a peerless Daolord was about to vanish from this universe.

"Darknorth, your students and fellow disciples are all waiting outside. Shall you…?" Solesky spoke out.

"Don't worry about them. This can be considered a lesson to them as to how cruel and brutal the Daomerge is," Ning said with a laugh. "Come, come! All of you, sit and drink with me. We'll have guests arriving soon."

"Guests?" Azurefiend and Solesky were briefly startled, but then they immediately understood. The Lonely King and Realmslord Windgrace had been biding their time. Now that Ning had failed the Daomerge, they would probably make their move.

"We'll drink over here while awaiting our guests." Ning turned to stare towards the outside, where a number of figures were flying over to Vastheaven Palace. He smiled. "Brother Brightshore, since you've arrived, share some wine with us."

Whoosh. The protective barriers around Vastheaven Palace split apart, allowing Hegemon Brightshore, Hegemon Windrain, Hegemon Netherlily, Daoist Bluestone, Emperor Goldisle, Emperor Blackcloud, and some other Hegemons and Emperors who were on good terms with Ning to fly inside. Everyone knew each other and could be considered friends. Now that Ning had failed the Daomerge, all of them felt great regret and wished to meet with him.

When they saw how the white-robed youth greeted them all with a smile, the Hegemons and Emperors couldn't help but secretly sigh once more. How many of them would be able to so quickly regain their calm after failing the Daomerge and suffering the most grievous blow a cultivator could possibly suffer? No wonder Daolord Darknorth had reached such impressive heights.

A pity. Such a pity.

His path was that of the Omega Dao. If he had chosen a simpler path, such as fusing multiple Supreme Daos, he probably would've already become a Hegemon.

"Let's not chit-chat too much today. Drink up!" Ning said.

Hegemon Brightshore and the others all understood. An expert like Ning didn't need the pity of others. "Alright, let's just eat and drink!"

"Darknorth, don't blame me if I end up cleaning your entire stock of wine!"

"Drink as much as you like. Our guests will probably interrupt us soon and prevent us from drinking," Ning teased.

"Guests?" Hegemon Brightshore and the others all quivered. They knew that Ning was referring to Lonely King and Realmslord Windgrace. They couldn't help but sigh. The only ones present who could truly maintain their uncaring calm were Flamewing and Ning himself.

The Hegemons, Emperors, Su Youji, Pillsaint, and Flamewing all casually sat down alongside each other. Some sat down on the grass, some sat down on the stone bridge, some sat down within the pavilion. Everyone had a wine-laden table before them, and the estate was filled with the sound of jesting and laughing.

Just a short while later, a rumbling sound could be heard. Ning raised his head fractionally, glancing off into the distance. His gaze pierced through the void and allowed him to see a streak of azure light that had just reached the Vastheaven Everworld and making its way over here. This streak of azure light was the bearded, disheveled old 'Realmslord Windgrace'.

No one aside from Ning noticed the Realmslord's arrival.

"The Blacksun truly is remarkable. The Hiddenfiend Realmverse and the Flamedragon Realmverse are quite far away, but he was able to arrive in an instant." Ning couldn't help but sigh. "The Sithe truly are remarkable."

Realmslord Windgrace walked through the air within the Vastheaven Everworld, quickly arriving outside Vastheaven Palace. "My young friend Darknorth." His voice suddenly rang out from outside.

"Realmslord Windgrace has arrived. Come and share a few cups of wine with us," Ning said. The barriers parted before the Realmslord, giving him a passageway inside. Realmslord Windgrace walked through the skies, following the passageway into Vastheaven Palace.

The Hegemons and Emperors within the Darknorth Estate all rose to their feet. Even the irascible Hegemon Azurefiend rose. The only ones to remain seated were Ning and Flamewing. "Greetings, Realmslord Windgrace," everyone said respectfully.

When Realmslord Windgrace saw that Ning remained seated, he felt quite intrigued. His face, however, remained completely unruffled.

"Realmslord Windgrace. Please have a seat." Ning pointed at a table located atop a patch of grass.

"This wine certainly smells nice." Realmslord Windgrace walked over to the table, then sat down in the lotus position. He picked up the gourd of wine and began to guzzle it down. "Delicious, delicious! Darknorth, my young friend, I hurried here as soon as I heard that you failed the Daomerge. Alas… the Daomerge for an Omega Dao must have been incredibly difficult. The Autarchs once told me that no one has ever been able to succeed in the Daomerge with an Omega Dao."

The entire area quickly fell silent. The many Hegemons and Emperors no longer dared to say a word. Su Youji and Pillsaint both sensed how oppressive and gloomy the atmosphere had become! For Realmslord Windgrace to immediately raise the topic of Ning failing the Daomerge meant that he had clearly come on business.

"I imagine you already know why I have come here, my young friend Darknorth." Realmslord Windgrace looked at Ning. "It would be very difficult to convince the Flamewing God to willingly serve me… but if you, his master, agreed to help out then things would be much simpler. I won't force you to agree; in the end, it will be your own choice. If there's something you desire from me, you merely need to let me know what you want! I, Windgrace, will definitely do everything within my power to accomplish it. In fact, I can even swear a lifeblood oath on it."

"Even if you do agree, I won't take the Flamewing God away immediately. I'll wait until you die and your Dao vanishes before doing so." Realmslord Windgrace looked at Ning.

"GWAAAAAAR!" Ning was quite calm, but the happily-eating Flamewing was enraged upon hearing this. It let out a vicious roar as it transformed into its true form of a winged, flame-bathed bear, then moved to charge straight towards Realmslord Windgrace.

"Be good, Flamewing." Ning's voice caused Flamewing to come to a sudden halt. It turned to look rather unhappily at Ning. "Maaaaster!"

"Be good. Just keep eating. Don't worry about this stuff," Ning said.

"Oh." Flamewing once more transformed into human form, then sat down and began to eat. Just two mouthfuls in, he once more turned his head to stare at Ning. "Master, the only one I'll follow is you. I don't like any of the others."

"WINDGRACE!!!" A cold, clear voice filled with frigid might suddenly rang out, shaking the skies above Vastheaven Palace.

Ji Ning, Realmslord Windgrace, and the others all turned to look. They saw an enormous rift in spacetime appear in the skies above, with an entire host of figures flying out of it. There were more than fifty of the titanic onyx humanoids, and they were lined up in orderly rows. At their head was a pair of golden humanoids, who stood to each side of a giant, levitating silver throne.

A silver-robed golden humanoid was seated atop the silver throne. He stared downwards at the distant Vastheaven Palace with a cold look in his eyes, and the blood-colored diamond in the middle of his forehead glared like an icy third eye.

Lord Wulf led his four Black Emperors to immediately reunite with the others. Lord Wulf couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. Thankfully, his Majesty had arrived quite quickly. If he had been just a few minutes slower, things would've become troublesome.

"You came quite fast." Realmslord Windgrace's voice echoed within the skies above the palace. "And you brought the entire Icepeak Army! It seems you must've been waiting outside the Flamedragon Realmverse for quite some time now. But… 'Lonely', you should probably know that the soldiers of the Icepeak Army would be throwing their lives away if they got involved in this. You should have them hide and avoid getting involved in this."

"And who would take their lives? You?" The Lonely King stared down at him from atop his throne.

The Hegemons and Emperors inside Vastheaven Palace, the disciples of Vastheaven Palace, the Eternal Emperors who were watching from within the Vastheaven Everworld… all of them were completely stunned. Nobody dared to make a move.

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Book 39, Nuwa, Chapter 2 – Struggle

"T-that many legendary Black Emperors?!" The Eternal Emperors who had simply been drawn over by the aura Ji Ning had emanated during the Daomerge were utterly terrified out of their wits when they saw the Icepeak Army appear. Even the basic soldiers were all at the Hegemonic level of power, capable of wiping out the ordinary Emperors with ease… and the three generals had also come, alongside their leader the Lonely King himself!

"Is that the legendary leader of the Icepeak Army, the Lonely King?"

"I heard that Daolord Darknorth led the Flamewing God in attacking and killing quite a few Black Emperors of the Icepeak Army! However, the Icepeak Army hasn't responded at all. Now, the Lonely King has finally appeared."

"Both the Lonely King of the Icepeak Army and Realmslord Windgrace of our Sixteen Realmverses Alliance has appeared as well. Hmph… they must have all come for the Flamewing God."

"It is a legendary Chaos Primordial. Who WOULDN'T want it? Daolord Darknorth is just a Daolord, but no one would dare to offend him with the Flamewing God by his side. Now that he has failed his Daomerge, the Lonely King and Realmslord Windgrace have come out to fight over the beast." This was what the Eternal Emperors were whispering mentally to each other.

In truth, they all wanted to just flee, but they were simply too slow. As for tearing through spacetime? The Icepeak Army emanated invisible ripples of such incredible power that they simply didn't have the courage to do so, for fear that the Icepeak Army might kill them out of irritation.

"Long ago, during the Dawn War, I encountered and fought far more Sithe than you have in your puny little Icepeak Army. If I activate the Blacksun, I'd massacre them all." Realmslord Windgrace's voice was filled with danger: "Lonely, if you are also interested in the Flamewing God, let's sit down and have a peaceful little competition over it. But for you to bring the entire Icepeak Army… if we actually got into a fight, it'd probably impact the entire Vastheaven Everworld. If we aren't careful, the shockwaves might hit Vastheaven Palace."

"Don't worry. If I wasn't able to control my power, there's no way I would've been able to live as long as I have." The Lonely King continued to sit atop his throne as he said coldly, "As for massacring my Icepeak Army? The only reason you were able to render so many merits during the Dawn War was because you had many other major powers helping you out and fighting alongside you."

"Gentlemen, let's sit down and talk this over," Ning said, wine cup in hand. His voice echoed out and shook the air above the everworld, but did so via riding alongside the natural ripples of the Dao. He would no longer use divine power or Immortal energy unless truly necessary.

"Don't get involved. Windgrace and I will decide amongst ourselves who is superior," the Lonely King replied coldly. "Come on out, Realmsgrace. If you don't come out, I'm going to batter my way inside."

"Hmph." Realmslord Windgrace let out an angry snort, then rose to his feet. "Darknorth, my young friend, let me shoo the Lonely King away."

"Go ahead." Ning didn't stand on ceremony. Wine cup in hand, he simply watched as Realmslord Windgrace flew away.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The Lonely King's silver throne suddenly glowed with dazzling light which flew out towards the right and left sides of his throne. There, a second and third Lonely King appeared, all seated on silver thrones of their own. There were now three Lonely Kings seated on three silver thrones, and they all looked identical and had identical auras.

"Assemble the formation!" the Lonely King ordered. Whoosh! The silver diagrams covering his three Gold Emperor generals all lit up, as did the silver diagrams covering the many Black Emperors. They had always emanated dense, frigid auras, but now the aura swept out to form an entire silver-white wave of ice which roared out in every direction. The three generals and the many soldiers came together to form a strange silver formation-diagram, with their bodies being covered by a layer of silver armor.

"Come. Let's see if my Icepeak Army is stronger or if you are, Windgrace," the Lonely King said coldly.

Realmslord Windgrace strode out of Vastheaven Palace, his eyes narrowing slightly. In truth, he was quite wary of the Icepeak Army. It wouldn't be too hard for him to deal with the Lonely King, but the Icepeak Army represented an enormous number of opponents. If he wanted to deal with them, he'd have to activate the Blacksun multiple times! In addition, to actually kill a Black Emperor would require the Blacksun to unleash a high level of power each time… and this would cost him greatly.

He felt a 50% degree of confidence in dealing with the Lonely King and was 100% certain in being able to stay alive… but now that the entire Icepeak Army was here as well, his chances of victory were 10% at best, while his chances of staying alive dropped down to 80%-90%. Fortunately for him, the Lonely King felt rather nervous when faced with the Blacksun as well. This was why the Lonely King had immediately used a protective ability to divide himself into three.

"You split yourself into three bodies? So long as I wipe out all three of you, you'll probably die," Realmslord Windgrace said.

"Kill me? Go ahead and try." The Lonely King's voice remained as arrogant and domineering as ever. As soon as he spoke, the blood-red diamonds in his three foreheads simultaneously shot out rays of light.

Swish! Swish! Swish! The three blood-red rays of light flew even faster than Flamewing as they struck out towards Realmslord Windgrace.

Realmslord Windgrace remained quite calm. In front of him, a small fist-sized planet suddenly appeared out of nowhere. This planet was covered with countless runes, and it rapidly expanded to become thirty meters in diameter. Boom! Boom! Boom! It effortlessly deflected the attacks of the three blood-red rays of light. Realmslord Windgrace then walked straight inside the small planet.

"The Blacksun." The Lonely King couldn't help but feel frustrated. He had more treasures, but Realmslord Windgrace's Blacksun was a terrifying war machine which had allowed the Sithe to influence and control an entire sector of the battlefield. The controller of the Blacksun could remain hidden within it in perfect security.

"He might have the Blacksun, but he isn't an actual Sithe; he doesn't have their limitless reservoirs of energy. I, on the other hand, have many tricks up my sleeve. I can have the entire Icepeak Army attack him. So long as they can surround and entrap the Blacksun, even if he remains hidden inside it'll be like he's in a prison. The only result will be death," the Lonely King mused. However, he also knew that his chances of actually killing Realmslord Windgrace were quite low, while the cost would be quite high.

"So long as I can force Realmslord Windgrace to flee with the Blacksun, I'll have won." The Lonely King knew exactly what he needed to do. If the Realmslord fled, he felt certain that Daolord Darknorth would know what decision to make.

"Attack!" the Lonely King commanded.

Boom! The three Lonely Kings on the three silver thrones began to build an aura of increasing and terrifying power. This aura was so strong that even Ning, who was calmly drinking wine below them, to grimace slightly. He raised his head to stare into the skies, then murmured softly, "The legends say that the Lonely King was once able to annihilate an entire otherverse. Was this the technique he used? I can't let them continue like this. If this fight progresses, they might accidentally destroy the Vastheaven Everworld."

"Halt!" Ning shouted as he rose to his feet, his voice tinged with a hint of anger.

Up above him were Realmslord Windgrace, the Lonely King, and the Icepeak Army. They were just about to engage in combat, but all of them turned to stare blankly.

"Are you afraid?" The three Lonely Kings stared downwards and laughed coldly: "Realmslord cannot kill me, and he doesn't even know all the tricks I have available. Faced with my Icepeak Army, he'll probably have no choice but to flee. Thus, Daolord Darknorth… I recommend that you simply go ahead and hand the Flamewing God over to me and let it serve me. I am the most appropriate master for it."

Although the Lonely King had heard of the Blacksun long ago, when he actually saw Realmslord Windgrace produce it he couldn't help but feel uneasy.

The same was true for Realmslord Windgrace. When actually faced with the entire Icepeak Army, he could sense that this would be a truly vicious battle. It would be best for them to end this without a fight. Once Daolord Darknorth came out to openly support one side, the battle would becoming meaningless, because the side who had the help of the Flamewing God would be the side to win. The Flamewing God was virtually indestructible, and nothing could withstand its charge. Even the Blacksun would be knocked aside, while the Icepeak Army would be torn asunder.

"Darknorth, you can choose for yourself." Realmslord Windgrace looked at Ning.

"Hmph. Windgrace made you some promises, I expect?" The Lonely King said coldly, "But you should know what type of a person I am. No one can stop me from doing what I want to do. If anyone offends me, I'll pay any price needed to exact my revenge."

The entire area descended into a deep silence. All of the Hegemons and Emperors were quivering inside. They all knew of the Icepeak Army's brutal reputation. The Lonely King truly was a terrifying figure when angered.

"I've been waiting a long, long time for that Flamewing God," the Lonely King said coldly. "You have failed the Daomerge. Even if you live with the utmost of caution, you will still be nothing more than a puny Daolord with at most a thousand chaos cycles of longevity left. If you make an enemy out of me… I swear that I will annihilate any friends or family who have any connection to you whatsoever, and I'll wipe out your homeland as well. Based on the reports I uncovered, you first appeared within the Badlands Territory, yes? Back then, you were just an Elder God! I imagine a puny Elder God couldn't have travelled all that far, which means your homeland should be near the Badlands Territory. Given my power and the power of the Icepeak Army, we'll definitely be able to locate it."

The three Lonely Kings stared intently at Ning, the diamonds in their foreheads glowing with that eerie, evil blood-red light.

"I trust you know what the right choice is." The Lonely King all but palpitated with malevolence.

Originally, Ning had been quite calm… but when he heard the Lonely King threaten to 'annihilate any friends or family who have any connection to you whatsoever' and say that Ning's 'homeland should be near the Badlands Territory', a cold look flashed through Ning's eyes.

Snick. Ning drew a sword from the black sheath on his back.

"What, are you about to go crazy? I hear that some Daolords who failed the Daomerge will cast caution to the wind and go berserk… but not even your Flamewing God is able to harm me in the slightest. No matter what, I'll be able to annihilate everyone and everything you care about!" Murder all but radiated from the Lonely King's eyes.

Whoosh. Ning took a single step forwards, his body flickering as he moved so fast he vastly surpassed both the Flamewing God and the light which had shot out of those blood-red diamonds. He appeared right next to the left-most Lonely King, and he delivered a casual chopping blow with his Northbow sword.

Swish. It was an ordinary strike which even the distant Hegemons and Eternal Emperors were able to see with clarity. It seemed so very slow, but it sliced through the Lonely King's neck with ease, cutting through his silver robes and even his golden body as though they were made out of tofu. The cut was so clean that one couldn't even see a wound actually appear on the Lonely King's neck.

The attack looked slow, but that was just a deceptive illusion caused by the temporal disruption inherent to this strike. In truth, it was so fast that no one was able to react at all.

"Y-you…" the Lonely King's eyes bulged out. An invisible power struck at him through karma, instantly wiping out his soul.

At his current level, Ning didn't need to worry about which of the three was the 'real' one; Ning's sword was connected to karma itself. Even if the 'true' Lonely King was hidden away in a completely different realmverse or otherverse, he still would have perished.

The Lonely King's bulging eyes suddenly softened. A look of release appeared in his gaze, and his lips actually curved upwards in a smile. Moments later, his aura completely vanished.

All three Lonely Kings slumped downwards. Two of them completely vanished, while the other lay fallen atop his silver throne.

Ning glanced sideways at the already-perished Lonely King, then murmured softly, "You are right. As a Daolord who has failed the Daomerge, there's a limit to how long I can live. I really didn't want to use up any energy… but once you made those threats, I had no choice but to respond."

Snick. Ning resheathed the Northbow sword back into the scabbard on his back.

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Book 39, Nuwa, Chapter 3 – Accept Punishment

Ji Ning stared weighingly at the Lonely King's silver robes, his blood-red diamond, and the silver throne he had been seated on. These were all extremely powerful Sithe weapons. They were of little use to him, but of incalculable value to others. He immediately waved his hand, collecting the Lonely King's corpse, throne, and treasures.

The entire area was completely silent. The skies above Vastheaven Palace had previously been the arena for the face-off between Realmslord Windgrace and the Icepeak Army. Moments ago, their auras had been flaring… but now, all of them held their breaths.

The terrified Emperors who were watching from afar were all staring in disbelief. Even the people inside Vastheaven Palace such as Emperor Solesky, Hegemon Azurefiend, and the Flamewing God all stared with heads upraised.

In this moment, every single cultivator's attention was completely focused upon the white-robed youth with the black sheath on his back.

His aura was quite ordinary, the aura of a Daolord. One could even sense that his truesoul was continuously crumbling away in tiny amounts. He was nothing more than a pitiful Daolord who had failed the Daomerge, but…

They all watched blankly as the white-robed figure collected the Lonely King's Sithe weapons. No one dared to stop him, even though they were deeply interested in those treasures.

"Master… h-he…" Su Youji stared with her head raised. Her eyes were brimming with tears, and her face was red with excitement.

She felt excited for Ning! She could still remember the first time they had met. Back then, he had been an Elder God while she had been an Ancestral Immortal. She had already been incomparably beautiful, with many cultivators wooing her in the hopes of becoming her Dao-companion. When she had met Ning, she had watched as Ning battled above his class against World-level cultivators, and thus she had immediately chosen to voluntarily join him as his retainer.

She had followed him, watching him grow from up close. He had become increasingly dazzling, becoming the number one Daolord in all the history of the Flamedragon Realmverse. He had taken on a Hegemonic retainer and even tamed the Flamewing God… but in the end, he had still failed his Daomerge.

She felt a sense of great heartache and sorrow as she watched her master's truesoul slowly but surely crumble away… but then she saw that single, dazzling sword-strike. The Lonely King, someone who even Hegemons viewed with reverence, had collapsed supinely beneath that strike. First, Su Youji had felt stunned. Then, she had felt a true sense of excitement and delight for her master.

"Even though he has failed the Daomerge, he'll become the most dazzling star in all the night sky. Even though he will one day perish, his light shall illuminate countless realmverses and otherverses, and be forever whispered unto the end of time. He shall become one of the most unbelievable of legends." Su Youji stared upwards at him, her eyes blazing with eagerness.

"Such power! H-how could he have… how…" Emperor Solesky mumbled nonsensically to himself as he stared.

"The Lonely King? Finished with just one strike of the sword?" Hegemon Azurefiend's wizened old face was contorted with shock. "I've wandered the vast Chaosverse for many years, but I've never even heard of such a thing. Most likely, only the exalted Autarchs or perhaps the supreme members of the Sithe race, those Exalts, would be capable of such a thing."

In the cultivator civilizations, the only ones capable of such an act were the Autarchs. Although the Sithe Exalts were weaker than the Autarchs, they were still definitely above the Otherverse Lords in power. They were unfathomably powerful and even faster than the Flamewing God. In a direct clash, the Flamewing God would be suppressed by a Sithe Exalt even though Flamewing had an indestructible body! Three Exalts working together had actually managed to capture it alive. In the cultivator civilizations, only Autarchs were capable of capturing Chaos Primordials.

Now… a Daolord who had failed the Daomerge had actually reached that same, terrifying level of power?

How powerful was he? Was he comparable to those Sithe Exalts, or was he even stronger than them and close to the Autarchs in might? The Hegemons and Emperors had no idea, and it didn't really matter. The only thing that mattered was this truth: Hegemons and Otherverse Lords would all perish with just one strike from Ning's sword.

After Ning collected the Lonely King's treasures, he swept the area with his gaze, then smiled. "Realmslord Windgrace and the Icepeak Army, please follow me. As for the other Emperors and Hegemons, you'll have to pardon me; I won't be able to accompany you for now."

"You are being far too courteous, Daolord Darknorth." The ordinary Eternal Emperors off in the distance all felt surprised and delighted by his courtesy. They all relaxed quite a bit. Normally, they had to behave with great reverence when they were in the presence of Hegemons. This truly peerless Daolord had just slain the Lonely King with ease and was so powerful that even Hegemons wouldn't dare to breathe too loudly in front of him, and yet he spoke with such courtesy!

"Daolord Darknorth, I truly have never even heard of sword-arts like yours."

"Impressive, truly impressive. I, Daoist Violetstar, have truly been enlightened today. I've wandered for over ten million chaos cycles and visited many realmverses, but I've never been as stunned as I am right now. Even if I died the very next instant, I would still feel that it would all have been worth it."

"Daolord Darknorth, we won't bother you any further."

"We'll leave now." The Emperors still felt a mixture of reverence and fear. Right now, they were even more nervous when facing Daolord Darknorth than they had been when facing Realmslord Windgrace or the Lonely King.

Ning simply smiled, watching as the Emperors all departed.

Hegemon Brightshore, Hegemon Windrain, Hegemon Netherlily, Daoist Bluestone, and a number of others all flew over. The others all felt rather nervous, but Hegemon Brightshore had always been on very good terms with Ning. As a result, he felt a bit more relaxed. His ancient eyes were filled with a look of amazement, and he let out a sigh: "Darknorth, after seeing your sword… I still feel panic in my heart."

"I didn't want to draw my sword," Ning said. "But the Lonely King was protected by Sithe artifacts. If I didn't draw my sword, I wouldn't be able to kill him. Using my weapons and exerting my energy will result in my truesoul crumbling even faster."

"Correct." Hegemon Brightshore nodded. "From now on, you should avoid fighting whenever possible. Your sword-arts truly are dazzling to behold! A pity that we won't be able to see it too many times in the future."

"You win some, you lose some. All you can do is meet it with a calm heart," Ning said with a smile.

"Darknorth?" Daoist Bluestone smiled. "You said that you had to draw your sword if you wanted to kill the Lonely King. Are you saying that you wouldn't even need to draw your sword to deal with us?"

Ning nodded. "Correct."

"You might not need to draw your sword, but you'd still need to use up a bit of energy to deal with us," Emperor Goldisle said with a chortle. "So it's best if you don't just go crazy and start killing everyone, Daolord Darknorth."

"Goldisle, I won't go crazy anytime soon, but… generally speaking, I should be able to kill my foes just by activating the might of my Dao. There's no need for me to actually use up any of my divine power or Immortal energy," Ning said. If one didn't use one's weapons, divine power, or Immortal energy, the amount of power that one could summon simply from the might of his Dao itself was quite low.

But… Ning's Dao was the Eternal Omega Sword Dao, and it represented the true prime essence of the Dao of the Sword itself! The domain generated by his Dao might not be able to kill the likes of the Lonely King, nor would it be enough to kill Otherverse Lords who were protected by the prime essences of their own otherverses, but it was more than capable of killing ordinary Hegemons. Ning wouldn't need to use up any of his own power at all.

"You…!" A sour look appeared on Goldisle's face. "Can't you let us save just a tiny bit of face?"

"Haha, enough chit-chat. I need to go speak with Windgrace and the Icepeak Army," Ning said.

"Right. We'll head off then."

"If there's anything you need, just send word. We'll definitely help out."

"We're off." The supreme powers of the Flamedragon Realmverse began to leave, their hearts filled with mixed emotions.

In truth, by now they were able to guess that the reason why Ning was so strong was most likely due to him being in control of the Eternal Omega Sword Dao. But… he had also failed the Daomerge. There was no doubt about that.

"What a true pity. A peerless major power is going to slowly fade away, and there's nothing anyone can do." Hegemon Windrain sighed.

"We won't be able to see his dazzling sword-arts many more times in the future. It will eventually become nothing more than a myth," Hegemon Netherlily said.

Ning simply stood there. It was for Realmslord Windgrace and the Icepeak Army to come meet him.

"Daolord Darknorth." A look of shock was in Realmslord Windgrace's eyes, and he actually bowed slightly. "I truly am stunned by the sword-arts I just saw. The Autarchs might be powerful, but their power comes from their Daobirth, where 'one Dao births many Daos'. As far as the pure Dao of the Sword goes… you, Daolord Darknorth, are number one in all the Chaosverse. I was a bit too arrogant when I came and asked for the Flamewing God; I'd like to ask you to pardon me. If there's anything you need, just let me know. If you wish to punish me for my impertinence, I'm willing to accept it."

Ning nodded. No one had ever gained eternity for an Omega Dao in all of history; he was the first. That meant he was naturally the first to be the master of an Eternal Omega Sword Dao. He truly was the number one master of the sword in the entire history of the Chaosverse!

"Windgrace. Icepeak Army." Ning's gaze turned to the nearby members of the Icepeak Army. The three Gold Emperors and the many Black Emperors of the Icepeak Army all felt very nervous.

"Respectful greetings, Daolord Darknorth. We truly are ashamed to have offended you by our actions, and we too are willing to accept any punishment you may mete out. Now that you have slain the Lonely King, we actually feel a sense of gratitude in our hearts," Lord Wulf said respectfully. "Myself, brother Wei, and brother Solefinger, along with the many Black Emperors under our command… although we gained the power of Gold Emperors and Black Emperors and became much more powerful, we lost something as well. Our lives fell under the complete control of the Lonely King, and we have never dared to oppose his commands. Now that you have slain the Lonely King, we have finally been released."

Ning nodded. "I won't punish any of you… but there is something I need you all to do for me."

"Please tell us what you need, Daolord Darknorth." The three generals and the many Black Emperors all respectfully awaited Ning's orders.

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Book 39, Nuwa, Chapter 4 – Searching For Nuwa

"I wish to find a female cultivator," Ji Ning said.

"Find a female cultivator?" The three generals and the Black Emperors were all rather puzzled, as was the nearby Realmslord Windgrace. They all knew that Ning had trained for a fairly brief period of time and hadn't travelled to many places; it should be easy for him to find a female cultivator. There was no need to send the entire Icepeak Army to carry out a task like this.

"Her name is Nuwa," Ning said. "She hasn't trained for very long either, and she should be incredibly talented. She might be a Daolord, but she might also have become an Eternal Emperor. She is most likely located in a place which is extremely far away from the Flamedragon Realmverse."

Ning hadn't visited too many places, but he had accumulated records on all the Daolords and Emperors of the Sixteen Realmverses Alliance. There had been no records of Nuwa at all!

Clearly, ever since Nuwa left the Three Realms she had never again appeared within the territory of the Sixteen Realmverses Alliance. After Ning had mastered the Eternal Omega Sword Dao, he had reached an inconceivably high level of insight. He was now in control of one of the prime essences of the Chaosverse, the prime essence of the Dao of the Sword. In other words, he now had a vague understanding of how the entire Chaosverse itself functioned, giving him a greater degree of insight into fate! Mother Nuwa and Ning were connected to each other by karma, because the very first step Ning had taken as a mortal… was to study the [Nuwa Painting]!

After Ning had completed and mastered the Eternal Omega Sword Dao, he was able to sense through the whispers of fate that Nuwa was still alive in an extremely remote part of the Chaosverse!

"Nuwa?" The three generals, Realmslord Windgrace, and the Black Emperors all revealed puzzled expressions.

"None of you have heard of her?" Ning couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed when he saw the looks on their faces. Realmslord Windgrace had many friends but was permanently stationed in the Hiddenfiend Realmverse; it wasn't surprising that he hadn't heard of Nuwa. The Icepeak Army, however, roved the Chaosverse and visited many places. Ning had thought that they might have heard of her, especially since Ning felt certain that Nuwa's level of talent must have led her to accomplish great things!

It must be remembered that when the Pangu Chaosworld and the Seamless Chaosworld collided, that represented the smashing together of two Autarch-level godgems. In the resulting battle, Nuwa had broken through to the World level! Karmic luck had descended upon her, resulting in a great deal of the essence fragments of the Autarch's godgems to swirl around her as well.

It was incredibly rare and marvelous for a cultivator to break through to the World level without any guidance whatsoever. Even Ning had merely been at the Elder God/Ancestral Immortal level when he left the Three Realms. True, Ning had only trained for a fairly brief period of time… but Mother Nuwa was definitely in a class of her own during the 'Primordial Era' of the Pangu Chaosworld. She had definitely surpassed the Three Sovereigns, Tathagata, Three Purities, and Subhuti, and she was the unquestioned leader of the Nuwa Alliance. By now, even Subhuti and Windfiend had fused multiple Supreme Daos together. Ning felt certain that Nuwa wouldn't be inferior to any of them.

That meant that Nuwa would probably be quite famous in the region she was currently in! If the Icepeak Army had visited her region, it was highly likely that they would've heard mention of the name 'Nuwa'.

"Haven't heard of her." Lord Wulf shook his head, then turned and barked, "Have any of you heard of a 'Nuwa' before?"

"No."

"We've roamed through many places, but we've never heard of a powerful female cultivator named Nuwa."

"Haven't heard of her." They all shook their heads.

Ning turned to look at Realmslord Windgrace, who immediately shook his head. "I haven't heard of her either. Daolord Darknorth, the Icepeak Army has visited many places. If even they haven't heard of her, she's not going to be easy to find."

Ning frowned. "Nuwa has only trained for a short period of time; perhaps she isn't well-known yet. Icepeak Army, the mission I have for you is for you to ride realmships to one realmverse after another. Spread the word on my behalf! Say that I, Daolord Darknorth, am searching for a female cultivator named 'Nuwa'. She should have only been training for roughly a hundred chaos cycles of 'normal' time. You can also make it known that I, Daolord Darknorth, will owe a debt to the first person to find Nuwa for me. I can use treasures to pay off my debt, but I can also help deal with someone… such as the Lonely King, who I slew!"

"This…" Realmslord Windgrace and the Icepeak Army were shocked. This offer was a crazy one. The Lonely King had been an incredible figure in the Chaosverse, a mighty ruler in his sector. Daolord Darknorth's promise was definitely enough to drive many major powers wild with excitement.

A favor from Daolord Darknorth was definitely something worth having!

"Hurry up and spread the word to as many realmverses as you can. This is the only task I have for you," Ning said. "Once I find Nuwa, you'll gain your freedom. If I cannot find her, then you'll be released from this oath after I die and my Dao vanishes."

"Very well."

"Don't worry, Daolord Darknorth." The three generals and the Black Emperors all immediately agreed. This was an incredibly simple task; all they had to do was serve as a messenger! Daolord Darknorth wasn't going to be around for much longer; at most, he'd survive for another thousand chaos cycles. This was quite easy. The Icepeak Army immediately swore the requisite lifeblood oaths.

"Go now. If anyone discovers Nuwa, they can immediately inform Windgrace. When he knows, I'll know," Ning said. In the end, he himself simply didn't know enough people. Even if someone did locate Nuwa, it would be quite difficult for that person to find Ning. Windgrace, however, had a wide network of friends; it would be far easier for others to reach him.

"Understood." The members of the Icepeak Army all assented to his order, then excitedly departed.

How could they not be excited? This wasn't the calamitous punishment they had expected; in fact, it was a huge blessing in disguise! Now that the Lonely King was dead, their lives were their own again. They would truly be free once more. How many major powers were truly willing to serve as pawns and footsoldiers for another? Long ago, they had been weak and thus lusted after the power which becoming a Black Emperor or Gold Emperor would grant them, which was why they had gritted their teeth and accepted servitude.

Now? They didn't lose any of the power they had gained, nor was their fate in the hands of another. They were all free. Wasn't this a wonderful thing? And once they helped Daolord Darknorth locate 'Nuwa', they would become truly and perpetually free.

"Windgrace." Ning looked at Windgrace. "You can probably guess what I need you to do."

"A simple task. I'll send the word out as widely as I can," Realmslord Windgrace said.

"Good." Ning nodded. "Sorry to trouble you, Realmslord."

"Tis nothing at all." Realmslord Windgrace secretly let out a sigh of relief as well. Daolord Darknorth truly was an easy-going person. Many cultivators in his position would behave much more ruthlessly! Given that Ning had already failed the Daomerge, no one would've been surprised if he had turned ruthless and chose to simply kill Windgrace. If that happened, Windgrace wouldn't even have had a chance to feel regret! Thus, he had waited nervously for Ning's judgment, not daring to argue in the slightest. But now, it seemed, Ning's request was quite simple. All he had to do was to spread the word.

The story of the legendary battle which occurred after Daolord Darknorth's attempted Daomerge was quickly spread by Realmslord Windgrace, the Hegemons and Emperors of the Sixteen Realmverses Alliance, and the Icepeak Army. The latter rode realmships in every direction, spreading the news far and wide. As a result, word spread like a tempest!

Although the Chaosverse was so vast that spreading information was usually quite difficult, this particular bit of news was utterly astonishing, especially given how famous the Lonely King was. As a result, news truly did spread quite fast.

"Old man! Old man! A giant foot came crashing down through the clouds and slamming against the surface of an enormous planet, causing the earth to tremble. The towering figure to which the giant foot belonged continued to bellow, "Hurry up and wake up, you blind old man!"

"FUCK OFF!" a hoarse, ear-piercing voice rang out from deep underneath the earth.

"Hurry up and wake up! Something big just happened. Stop sleeping! This time, the towering figure stomped down on the ground using his two bare feet, causing the earth to shudder and shake.

"One day, I'm going to EAT you," the hoarse, unpleasant voice said. A boom rang out, followed by the entire planet exploding as an ugly black bird appeared in its center. This bird had just a single eye, but the eye was shut. It looked rather like an owl, but it had a pair of extremely large black wings.

"I've got some good news for you, you blind old man! A while ago, the Lonely King sent the Icepeak Army after you and forced you into fleeing, right?" The speaker was an alien Hegemon dressed in simple armor and who had two furry heads. "The Lonely King died!"

"Why are you mentioning this again? I TOLD you to never… huh? Did you just say the Lonely King died?" The black avian let out a startled, ear-piercing screech.

"It's true! Word has spread to our Fivebug Realmverses. You're probably the only one who doesn't know because you spend all your time sleeping!" the two-headed Hegemon said.

"How'd he die?" the black avian immediately asked. "Given how strong the Lonely King was, so long as he didn't do anything suicidal there shouldn't be anyone capable of killing him."

"Heh heh heh… I have to tell you a story about someone truly remarkable named Daolord Darknorth." The two-headed Hegemon immediately began to narrate the story.

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Book 39, Nuwa, Chapter 5 – Arrangements

In a different, incredibly distant part of the Chaosverse.

A vast layer of golden clouds could be seen here within the emptiness of space. Above the clouds, there were many divine palaces that emanated rays of golden light. The palaces were all connected together and emanated such incredible light that it illuminated the cosmos.

Within a side room inside the tallest, most towering palace. A white-winged man was standing by himself, staring into the endless darkness outside his window. He said calmly, "Demon Empress, why have you come here?"

Another person was within the room, a blood-winged woman with a single horn. She had a smile on her face that was filled with strange, beguiling charisma. "God Emperor Helong, we were once Dao-companions. Why must you be so heartless to me? For the sake of your Dao, of your [God Emperor's Apocalypse, you were willing to give up even your Dao-companions. Even if you do succeed in becoming an Autarch, would it all be worth it?"

"Karma brought us into each other's path, then took us away from each other. Our ties are ended," God Emperor Helong said calmly. "No need to waste time on such nonsense. Why have you come here?"

"You've always thought of yourself as being an extraordinary figure," the blood-winged woman smirked, "But have you heard of someone known as 'Daolord Darknorth'?"

"Daolord Darknorth. A Daolord?" God Emperor Helong was puzzled.

"Hmph. I knew you wouldn't know." The blood-winged woman said, "While meeting with a few of my friends, I heard some interesting news. You should've heard of the Lonely King of the Icewind Army, yes?"

God Emperor Helong said coldly, "He was destroyed by his love and went insane. He's not worth discussing."

"But he was still fairly strong," the blood-winged woman laughed. "Are you able to kill him?"

"He engaged in the Ritual Sacrificium to become a Golden Emperor, and is also protected by multiple Sithe war machines. I heard that he once destroyed an otherverse. I admit that he's quite strong. Killing him would be very difficult… but someone like him, who purely focuses on power, will have a Dao-heart which is riddled with flaws," God Emperor Helong said disdainfully.

"The Daolord Darknorth I just mentioned to you? He killed the Lonely King with just one swing of his sword," the blood-winged woman said.

"Impossible!" God Emperor Helong's face completely changed. "Impossible. There's no way it could be done with one strike, and no way it could be done by a Daolord! One would at least have to have the power of a Sithe Exalt to accomplish this!"

The blood-winged woman said, "Let me finish. Daolord Darknorth is an incredibly talented figure, and he trains in one of the legendary Omega Daos. He convinced a Hegemon to follow him as a retainer, and also tamed a Chaos Primordial! Not long ago he finally attempted the Daomerge! Although he failed in the Daomerge, the failure allowed him to truly understand and comprehend the Eternal Omega Sword Dao, and so he used just one strike of his sword to slay the Lonely King, who had come to take his Chaos Primordial from him. Realmslord Windgrace and the Icepeak Army were so terrified that they immediately moved to obey all his commands."

"Eternal Omega Sword Dao?" God Emperor Helong was stunned.

"There's always someone stronger than the strongest! Even in the cultivator civilizations, there are now those aside from the Autarchs who are more powerful than you, such as Daolord Darknorth." The blood-winged woman smirked. "Do you still think you are all that extraordinary? You aren't even close to being his equal."

"An Omega Dao can actually be perfected into eternity?" A stunned look was in God Emperor Helong's eyes. "Incredible, simply incredible. I truly am not a match for him. I, Helong, have only ever admired the Autarchs. Now, I also feel admiration for Daolord Darknorth."

The woman was stunned. She had wanted to use the story of Daolord Darknorth to belittle the endlessly arrogant God Emperor. Who would've thought that Helong would immediately begin to feel admiration for Daolord Darknorth?

"If I could borrow his Eternal Omega Sword Dao and study from it, how wonderful that would be!" the God Emperor murmured softly, eagerness in his eyes.

"Stop dreaming. The Dao is not to be casually taught to others, and only Daolord Darknorth has ever successfully mastered the Eternal Omega Sword Dao! You can stop dreaming about it," the woman mocked. However, she didn't see any anger or frustration on God Emperor Helong's face. This displeased her greatly, causing her to turn and leave. Still… at least she had achieved her goal of mocking the man.

The Twelve Palaces of Brightshore, especially the Sword Palace, were filled with just as many excited discussions as the outside world.

"I heard that our Palace Lord Darknorth has already been praised as the number one expert of the Endless Territories."

Right. The Eternal Emperors all seem to be talking about this. Palace Lord Darknorth failed in the Daomerge, but he has actually reached an inconceivable level of power as a result of it. Even Hegemons are far beneath him!"

"Even Hegemons are far beneath him? How powerful must he be?!"

Although the Daolords of the Sword Palace didn't really know the details or what the Icepeak Army was, there had been so many Emperors present watching the battle that details of it had quickly leaked. Thus, the Daolords all knew one thing – Daolord Darknorth might have failed the Daomerge, but he was so powerful that he surpassed even the Hegemons by a great amount. He was able to kill Hegemons with a flick of his wrist! This caused the countless Daolords to feel stunned, and the Daolords of the Sword Palace were especially proud.

"Even Hegemons are far beneath him?" The Universe treasure within Armaments Gorge, the broken sword, suddenly manifested a pink-robed woman above the sword. She was the sword's spirit, and she couldn't believe this news. "How can someone be more powerful than a Hegemon? Are we talking about that silly Daolord who visited me twice?"

"Hmph. Even if it's true… so what? He failed his Daomerge, which means he will die soon," the sword-spirit murmured to herself. "Besides… given how he asked me to join him last time, he probably still doesn't have any Universe treasures. Hmph."

The many major powers in the vast Chaosverse, including the Hegemons, the Emperors, and other incredibly famous ancient figures who were on par with Realmslord Windgrace and the Lonely King, were all stunned by the news they heard regarding this 'Daolord Darknorth'.

The weaker ones were able to gain a general sense of how terrifying Daolord Darknorth was… but only the strongest ones truly understood what the 'Eternal Omega Sword Dao' truly represented! All of them knew that Daolord Darknorth was most likely second only to the Autarchs in all the parts of the Chaosverse ruled over by the cultivator civilizations! Even though he failed the Daomerge and his life would be brief as a result, no one would dare to challenge him so long as he was alive.

The legend of Daolord Darknorth only continued to grow… as did a second person's name. 'Nuwa'.

Daolord Darknorth was searching for a female cultivator called Nuwa. The first person to find her and send word of her to Daolord Darknorth would be owed a favor by the Daolord! Such a favor had tremendous uses and implications.

"Nuwa?"

"Have you heard of a powerful female cultivator named Nuwa?"

"An incredible Daolord or a powerful Hegemons? Never heard of her."

"Based on what Daolord Darknorth has told us, Nuwa has probably only trained for a hundred chaos cycles or so. She can't be all that strong. Maybe she's already dead?"

"Impossible. Think about the level which Daolord Darknorth has reached; he's second only to the Autarchs! How could he be mistaken about her being alive?"

News continued to spread.

The Flamedragon Realmverse.

Rumors continued to bubble and froth in the outside world. By now, Vastheaven Palace had become something of a holy place, the most unique power in all the Sixteen Realmverses Alliance.

Ning, however, was busy taking care of many things he had to handle.

Whoosh. Ning and his team rode the realmship into the Terror Starsea.

"Master?" Flamewing looked at Ning, puzzled.

"Here we are." Ning stared up front.

"Here we are?" Hegemon Azurefiend stared towards the front as well, puzzled. The only thing in front of them was an area of jumbled primordial chaos. "There's nothing in front of us."

"A cave is hidden there," Ning said with a laugh, "And it holds a world where my third disciple, Skywind, resides. I'll go in first." As he spoke, he took a single step forwards and disappeared from the realmship.

Ning's mastery over the Dao of Spacetime was such that he was able to easily enter the cave within that hidden pocket of spacetime, while his sword-light was even more easily capable of cutting a hole into it.

"Same old cave." Ning swept the area with his gaze. He saw the two Hegemon's corpses as well as the Black Emperor's corpse.

"Disciple." Ning stared into the Black Emperor's corpse. His gaze pierced through the dimensions, allowing him to see Daolord Skywind within a planet inside that corpse.

"I have several disciples… but you, alas, have the toughest destiny," Ning sighed softly. His mastery over the Dao of Karma had long ago reached the Archon level. Now that he had mastered the Eternal Omega Sword Dao, he was able to see even farther into the future.

The future was in a constant state of flux, but he was now able to see the vast majority of possible futures. Now that he had failed his Daomerge, he turned to focus on preparing things for his family and friends. As for the Three Realms, he had naturally spent even more effort there. He was searching for Nuwa for the sake of the Three Realms. As Ning saw it, Mother Nuwa had to be fairly powerful and was most likely capable of helping out and protecting it. Ning was planning to give the Sithe war machines he had acquired from the Lonely King over to Nuwa.

As for his disciples? His first disciple, Bluecliff Xiaoyu, lived a carefree life, but as a result she had accomplished the least. There was no need to discuss her.

His second disciple was 'Green Bamboo' Yang Quding. Ning had engaged in some divinations on his behalf and had discovered that Yang Quding was a person of remarkable mental prowess. He would be able to solve even the most dangerous of problems, and he was surrounded by great luck. His future potential was virtually limitless; most likely, he would become the most accomplished of Ning's disciples.

His third disciple was Skywind. Skywind was the best-suited to the Dao of the Sword, but he was stubborn and antisocial, and he was the most vicious of his peers. That stubborn, eccentric personality would bring him many problems. Ning had scried the future, and it appeared as though Skywind would be incredibly dazzling amongst the other Daolords of the Fourth Step, but he would be constantly surrounded by trouble. The ties of karma surrounding him indicated that he would actually fail his Daomerge without question.

This was much like how Emperor Waveshift had once divined that Ning would definitely fail the Daomerge.

His fourth disciple… to this very day, no one had acquired the legacy Ning had hidden, the legacy which would result in that person becoming Ning's fourth disciple. Ning had the vague feeling that his fourth disciple would not be born for a long, long time.

His fifth and sixth disciples were both at Vastheaven Palace and so were blessed with many advantages. There was no need for Ning to worry about them.

"Skywind," Ning murmured softly, "Everyone chooses their own paths in life. The only thing I can do to help you is this."

Ning waved a finger. Countless streams of sword-light began to gather together, coming to form a formation. Ning placed some presents inside the formation, which had many illusions and other tempering techniques within them. It also included various techniques involving the Dao of the Sword, some spirit-fruits and treasures, as well as treasures which were unremarkable to Ning but which would be of tremendous help to Skywind.

"Of all my disciples, the one I worry about the most is you." Ning shook his head slowly. "However… in the end, I'll still have to eventually let go."

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Book 39, Nuwa, Chapter 6 – Nuwa's Trail

There was a limit to how much longer he would live. He certainly wouldn't be able to hold on until Skywind's Daomerge.

The Lonely King had said that if Ji Ning was extremely careful, he'd be able to live a thousand chaos cycles… but in truth, Ning knew that his Eternal Omega Sword Dao was actually the same thing as the prime essence of the Dao of the Sword, one of the prime essences of the Chaosverse. This Dao had a nurturing effect on his soul, which meant that the truesoul's crumbling speed would be fairly slow.

Different Daos would have different effects. For example, those who trained in the Dao of Water would have stronger protective abilities and invulnerable forms. In turn, the destructive Daos such as the Dao of the Sword were superior in offensive power.

Different Daos had different strengths. Although the Eternal Omega Sword Dao was quite incredible, it still represented the Dao of the Sword and thus it didn't have an exaggeratedly massive effect on the soul. Still, there was something else that was special about Ning – the azureflower mist energy! This was a very unique type of energy which Autarch Awakener, the master of the Azureflower Estate, had devised based on the cultivation methods of the Sithe race. It was a technique that allowed for divine power, Immortal energy, and heartforce to all be transformed into azureflower mist energy. It had marvelous effects on the truesoul and made it much stronger.

"If I can avoid using up my energy, I can live a maximum of eight thousand chaos cycles," Ning mused. "But if I have to use my energy, my lifespan will dramatically lessen to just three or four chaos cycles."

Ning spent the rest of his time in Vastheaven Palace training his students and fellow disciples. Every so often, he'd go roaming through the Three Realms.

While he wandered through the many chaosworlds of the Three Realms, Ning ended up choosing a seventh disciple. His seventh disciple was an Ancestral Immortal who had been known as 'Grand Immortal Almonder', and who had been a plant-spirit who had trained to the point of understanding the Dao.

It must be remembered that after such a long period of development, the Three Realms now had so many chaosworlds and experts that a single Ancestral Immortal truly didn't count for much. Grand Immortal Almonder had a very eccentric personality who rather reminded Ning of his old friend, Patriarch Lu Dongbin… because the man loved to play matchmaker!

He tweaked events to ensure that lovers met with each other, and when he encountered people he didn't like he would play all sorts of tricks on each other. In fact, he would sometimes make people he truly disliked end up attached to each other.

While wandering the Three Realms, Ning stumbled upon this 'Grand Immortal Almonder'. He followed Almonder in secret, watching for some time. Almonder seemed to be eccentric and rather lazy when it came to cultivation. It seemed obvious to many that he would have no future prospects, which was why none of the Daolords or World-level cultivators of the Three Realms had taken him on as a disciple or had taught him.

However, Ning had the feeling that this 'Grand Immortal Almonder' was an extraordinary figure. When Ning scried his future, Ning came to understand that Almonder truly was a piece of unpolished jade. Given that Ning had slowly grown fond of the young fellow, Ning chose to take him on as a seventh disciple.

News that Daolord Darknorth had taken on a seventh disciple, 'Grand Immortal Almonder', stunned the Three Realms and caused quite a few Immortals and Fiendgods to stare blankly in confusion.

Ning lived a relaxed life, waiting for news of Nuwa.

Roughly 69 million years after Ning's Daomerge attempt. Within an alternate universe.

A giant boulder was levitating within an empty patch of space. Two major powers were seated in the lotus position atop this boulder, drinking wine and making merry. The empty area around them was displaying images of various things occurring within this otherverse.

"Isn't Daolord Darknorth just incredible?" the muscular man with tousled golden hair said with a sigh.

"He really is. If you didn't tell me about him, I wouldn't even know about it. I really cannot imagine that someone was able to kill the legendary Lonely King of the Icewind Army with just one blow of the sword. He truly is incredible." The bald, red-robed Hegemon Goodsong nodded and sighed, "I was stunned when I heard this. I wish I was there to witness it all in person! Haha."

"Haha, Daolord Darknorth is in the Flamedragon Realmverse. That place is way, way too far away from us. You'd have to travel through several incredibly vast stretches the Great Dark to get there. I'm surprised the news even made it this far. I'm an Otherverse Lord with quite a few friends, which is why I heard about this," the muscular man said.

"It really is far." The bald, red-robed man nodded. Some realmverses were fairly close to each other; realmships could allow you to travel between them in just a few tens of thousands of years. Others were hundreds of times farther away, separated by that endless darkness with no realmverses inside which many cultivators referred to as the Great Dark. To Emperors who weren't willing to pay for travel via realmship, traversing the Great Dark would simply take too much time; tens of millions of chaos cycles, or even longer! Most weren't willing to travel too far.

"Oh, right! There's something I forgot to tell you. Daolord Darknorth is searching for someone called Nuwa." The muscular man laughed. "He said that he would owe a favor to anyone who does find Nuwa. He'd be willing to hand over a treasure, or even help carry out a task… including a task like killing major powers on the level of the Lonely King."

"Nuwa? Who is Nuwa?" Hegemon Goodsong asked.

"A female cultivator who supposedly has only trained for a hundred chaos cycles. Daolord Darknorth says that she's probably an incredibly talented Daolord or an Eternal Emperor," the muscular man said.

"Oh." Hegemon Goodsong began to feel excited.

One hour later, the red-robed Hegemon Goodsong left the otherverse and reached another realmverse which was connected to the former via a spacetime tunnel. By now, he was no longer able to suppress his excitement.

"Nuwa? A female cultivator who has only trained for a hundred chaos cycles?" Hegemon Goodsong narrowed his eyes. "Last time, when I met with Patriarch Treewind of the Bluesky Realmverse, he brought a female disciple named 'Nuwa'. Back then, he praised her multiple times and described her as being incredibly talented. She was just a Daolord of the Third Step back then; I wonder how she is doing now."

"I'll go and take a look. She's probably the person Daolord Darknorth of the Flamedragon Realmverse is searching for." Hegemon Goodsong immediately went off to go hire a realmship.

Realmship owners generally charged the same for a hundred million year flight as they would a hundred thousand year flight. They were only hired every so often, after all; they had to make the most of it. Thus, this trip 'merely' cost Hegemon Goodsong roughly 30% of his networth. Although he felt sorrow over the cost, it was within the limits of what he could accept.

"Hegemon Goodsong, we just reached the Bluesky Realmverse."

"Wait for me here as I go test out the information I heard."

"Don't worry. It only took me three million years to get here; I'll fly you around until the hundred million years are up." The Hegemon in command of the realmship was quite relaxed; to earn so much treasure in exchange for merely a hundred million years of his time was an absolute steal.

Hegemon Goodwong went off searching. Soon, he found Patriarch Treewind's residence. A handsome young disciple was in front of Patriarch Treewind's tree palace, and this disciple respectfully welcomed Hegemon Goodsong inside.

"Hegemon, the Patriach has gone off on a trip to the Blazesun Domain," the disciple said respectfully. "His avatar has left this place to go meet with the avatars of his friends to ensure that they are in constant contact. Almost all of them have gone off to the Blazesun Domain."

"The Blazesun Domain? Your Patriarch is quite bold. Where is that female disciple of his, 'Nuwa'?" Hegemon Goodsong immediately asked.

"Senior apprentice-sister Nuwa?" The youth was startled. He immediately responded. "Don't you know? Half a chaos cycle ago, she completed her Daomerge and became a Hegemon. It was her recommendation that they visit the Blazesun Domain. After the Patriarch and the other major powers agreed, they joined together to accompany her there."

"She became a Hegemon?" Hegemon Goodsong's eyes bulged out. "But she's so young! She hasn't been training for too long, has she?"

"Senior apprentice-sister Nuwa's experiences have been extraordinary. Supposedly, the Patriarch discovered her in the Blazesun Domain and brought her back here," the disciple said. "I've only known her for around a hundred chaos cycles."

"A hundred chaos cycles?" Hegemon Goodsong felt a sense of excitement. He asked curiously, "You say that she was discovered in the Blazesun Domain?" This was new to him.

"Yes. Many people know this. For her to appear there means that she probably has an extraordinary background. She truly is a monstrously talented figure. She became a Hegemon in just a hundred chaos cycles! This is unbelievable even to me," the disciple said.

The more Hegemon Goodsong heard, the more excited he became. This was right, this was definitely right. The legendary Daolord Darknorth said that Nuwa was either an incredible Daolord or had succeeded in the Daomerge. No wonder he had spoken with such certainty! Nuwa truly was incredible… but Daolord Darknorth was even more incredible. He had killed the Lonely King as if the latter was just a chicken, which meant that in the cultivator civilizations he was second only to the Autarchs.

"I was right. She's the one. She's an incredible figure, but Daolord Darknorth is even more incredible. There's no way this could all be a coincidence. It has to be her!" Hegemon Goodsong mused silently, "And she actually came from the Blazesun Domain. It seems that she and Daolord Darknorth must know each other."

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Book 39, Nuwa, Chapter 7 – First Mention of Darknorth

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.

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Book 39, Nuwa, Chapter 8 – One Last Thing

Who was this 'Daolord Darknorth'? She definitely didn't know him… but how could he possibly know that she had trained for roughly a hundred chaos cycles? She had encountered many profound encounters; when factoring in temporal acceleration, the actual amount of time she had spent training was far longer than just a hundred chaos cycles. And yet, it was true that she had only spent a hundred chaos cycles of 'normal' time in training!

"Daolord Darknorth is incredibly talented," Imperator Jade Rainbow continued, "And based on what I know, he should have trained for roughly the same length of time as you have, Nuwa! Unfortunately, he failed his Daomerge. He must have immediately mastered the Eternal Omega Sword Dao after failing the Daomerge. His sword-arts are unequalled throughout the entire Chaosverse. Nuwa, he knows you and has trained for roughly the same length of time as you. Do you know him?"

Nuwa frowned slightly.

"Nuwa," the nearby Patriarch Treewind asked hurriedly, "Do you know Daolord Darknorth or not?"

"I've never heard of him. There's no way I can be mistaken about this. None of the old friends I used to know were named 'Darknorth'." Nuwa slowly shook her head.

"Odd." Patriarch Treewind was puzzled. "Is it possible that the 'Nuwa' he is looking for is someone else?"

"There are countless beings with same names, but the chances are very low that there is a second person who just so happens to be Nuwa who is also incredibly talented and has trained for just a hundred chaos cycles." Imperator Jade Rainbow was puzzled as well. "Is it possible that this really is just a crazy coincidence? Is there really a second incredibly talented female cultivator named 'Nuwa' out there?"

Nuwa pondered silently to herself. She had the strange feeling that the person this 'Daolord Darknorth' was searching for was her, even though they had never met before. "Daolord Darknorth… who is he?" Nuwa mused to herself.

The Flamedragon Realmverse was indescribably far away from the Blazesun Domain. A white-robed Ji Ning was seated in the lotus position atop a solitary mountain within Vastheaven Palace. In front of him was a table, while the red-robed Su Youji was by his side, pouring his wine.

Ning gulped down one cup of wine after another, a hint of a smile on his lips as he analyzed the boulders placed in front of him. Some were jagged, some were slick, and some had plants growing next to them. There was even a little bug that was clambering up a plant quite slowly, even though it was furiously working its tiny little claws.

"Haha…" Ning watched as the beetle managed to climb atop one of the leaves. Its weight caused the leaf to droop downwards, resulting in the beetle falling back down to the ground again. Ning couldn't help but laugh when he saw this.

"Master, you seem to be quite happy just watching the bugs." Su Youji continuously poured wine for Ning.

Ning smiled as he pointed at the bug. "Bugs need to fight for food and mates. Their lives are short, but spectacular. Ordinary mortals might live for a bit longer, but they generally only last a hundred years. I seem to have been sitting here drinking some wine for quite a long period of time."

"Master, you've already been drinking wine here for exactly 32,822 years," Su Youji said.

"Oh." Ning laughed. "I'm a Daolord who has failed the Daomerge. All the Eternal Emperors sigh at how short my life will be, but I still have thousands of chaos cycles left. I have far, far more time than those bugs or those ordinary mortals. Hell, ordinary chaosworlds rise and fall within the span of a single chaos cycles. If you look at it from that perspective, I actually have a lot of time left. I wonder, though… will I be able to last long enough to find any word of Nuwa?"

"You definitely will, Master," Su Youji said hurriedly.

"Mm." Ning nodded. Ever since he had failed the Daomerge, he had focused his efforts on making preparations for the people he cared about. He had mostly finished his preparations for his disciples; the rest would be up to them. Success or failure, life or death… it would all be based on their own efforts. As the saying goes, the master can show the way, but the student must walk it himself.

Right now, Ning still worried about the Three Realms more than anything else! This was because the Three Realms held his parents, his daughter, his master, his fellow disciples, and many of his good friends. It was also his homeland!

"The final task I have is to find a good protector for the Three Realms." In the past, he had borne this burden by himself. Alas, he didn't have much time left. Ning was entrusting all of his hopes to Nuwa.

If he couldn't find Nuwa, he was entirely capable of forcing a few major powers to swear lifeblood oaths to protect the Three Realms! However, someone who was doing something willingly would be far more effective than someone who was acting out of compulsion. There was a limit to how effective a compulsory lifeblood oath would be; the best solution was for him to find someone who truly cared about the Three Realms and would be willing to sacrifice for it.

Ning trusted Nuwa. She had once been the true leader of the Three Realms, with the Three Sovereigns, Lord Tathagata the Buddha, Daoist Three Purities, and the others all serving by her side. This was a testament to her personal charisma.

Whoosh. Ning could sense a ripple manifesting outside. He turned to stare, his gaze piercing through the dimensional walls and allowing him to see a streak of azure light descending into the emptiness of space outside the Vastheaven Everworld. Realmslord Windgrace had arrived via the Blacksun!

"Daolord Darknorth." Realmslord Windgrace quickly arrived at Vastheaven Palace. He descended, then walked over to face Ning.

"Sit," Ning said calmly.

"Daolord Darknorth, we've found Nuwa," Realmslord Windgrace said.

Ning's eyes instantly shone with utterly dazzling light. The entire world around him seemed to have been bathed in infinite joy, and even Realmslord Windgrace couldn't help but be caught up by it.

"Where is she?" Ning asked.

"She's currently in the Blazesun Domain, but she was previously living in a realmverse," Realmslord Windgrace said. "That realmverse is extremely far away from us. It's actually fairly close to the Quintessence of the Chaosverse! Its name is the Bluesky Realmverse."

"It's fairly close to the Quintessence of the Chaosverse?" Ning was rather surprised. His will was connected to the incomparably distant prime essence of the Dao of the Sword, and thus he knew just how incredibly far away it was.

Realmslord Windgrace nodded. "Oh, right. Nuwa is a Hegemon of the Bluesky Realmverse. She recently succeeded in her Daomerge and gained Hegemony, and is the disciple of Patriarch Treewind. She's only trained for a hundred chaos cycles, yet has already reached Hegemony; in terms of talent, she is probably second only to you yourself!"

Ning felt even more excited upon hearing this. Nuwa had become a Hegemon after training for just a hundred chaos cycles! This had to be her! And she was a Hegemon? That meant she would be capable of truly protecting the Three Realms. Weaker cultivators weren't capable of using the Sithe weapons Ning had acquired from the Lonely King.

"Why is she all the way over there?" Ning was puzzled. He immediately asked, "Do you know anything about her?"

"I heard that she first appeared in the Blazesun Domain, all by herself. She experienced many dangers before being discovered by Patriarch Treewind, who accepted her as his disciple. Thus, she's technically a foreigner and not native to the Bluesky Realmverse," Realmslord Windgrace said.

"A foreigner?" Ning now felt absolutely certain it was her… and his subconscious was whispering the same. She was Mother Nuwa of the Three Realms!

"You said she is currently in the Blazesun Domain?" Ning frowned. "Why is she in the Blazesun Domain?"

"I heard that she is accompanying Patriarch Treewind and several other major powers in an alliance to explore its depths," Realmslord Windgrace said. "I heard this information from someone named Hegemon Goodsong."

Ning frowned. "The Blazesun Domain… that's one of the Eight Domains next to the place where the prime essences of the Chaosverse are located."

The prime essences of the Chaosverse were located in a marvelous place known as the Quintessence. You couldn't simply find them through normal means; not even Hegemons or Otherverse Lords were able to locate them by simple 'searching'. The Quintessence was the font for all things in spacetime, and it resided in the very core of the Chaosverse itself. Only those who were at a sufficiently high level of enlightenment would be able to find them! Autarchs were able to locate the Quintessence, but Hegemons were not. Ever since Ning had taken control over the prime essence of the Dao of the Sword, he knew that he too would be able to discover the location of the prime essences of the Chaosverse.

The land of the prime essences… the Quintessence was a truly marvelous place, capable of giving birth to Chaos Primordials, Sourcewalkers, and many other living beings.

Chaos Primordials were born as gluttonous wanderers. They would slowly drift away into the vast Chaosverse, making it quite rare for someone to encounter one… but Sourcewalkers were different. They were highly intelligent and thus generally preferred to stay in the general vicinity of the prime essences! The region around the prime essences would be naturally blessed with an incredible density of treasures, and every so often even armories of Sithe weapons left over from the Dawn War would appear, as well as otherverses.

The eight domains around the Quintessence with the highest concentration of treasures were all incredibly famous. Ning had never been there before, but he had heard of them long ago.

"If Patriarch Treewind, Nuwa, and the others have joined forces, they should be able to keep themselves safe," Realmslord Windgrace said. "According to the legends, those eight domains are incredibly dangerous to us but of no danger at all to the Autarchs. I imagine they should be of no danger to you either, Daolord Darknorth."

"Agreed." Ning nodded. "If Nuwa is at the Blazesun Domain, then I'll go pay it a visit."

"The Blazesun Domain is far too distant from us. It'll take you several billion years to get there by realmship," Realmslord Windgrace said. "Although my Blacksun is able to tear open spacetime tunnels and allows for instantaneous transportation, there's a limit to what it can do. The farther the tunnel must stretch, the greater a cost must be paid… and at a certain point, it just can't stretch any farther."

"I understand." Ning smiled. "If that wasn't the case, the Sithe would've been able to spread out throughout the Chaosverse without any limitations."

"If it takes a few billion years, it takes a few billion years. Doesn't really matter." Ning was in a superb mood. He had found Nuwa and had discovered that she was a Hegemon! This absolutely delighted Ning. He now had a chance to bring a final resolution to the last thing he was worried about.

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Book 39, Nuwa, Chapter 9 – Travelling Together

At the peak of that solitary mountain. Ji Ning and Realmslord Windgrace remained seated facing each other, while Su Youji poured their wine.

"Master," Su Youji suddenly said.

"Hm?" Ning turned to look at her.

"I'm going to go with you on this trip to the Blazesun Domain," Su Youji said hurriedly. She knew that since Ning had failed the Daomerge, there was a limit to how much longer his lifespan would be. He might end up in a battle, resulting in his lifespan depleting even more quickly. She wanted to accompany Ning in his final days for as long as she could.

Ning hesitated for a moment. He knew what Su Youji was thinking. In the end, he nodded: "Very well. However, you need to stay with me and listen to my orders."

Su Youji immediately smiled radiantly. "Alright."

"Daolord Darknorth, shall I use the Blacksun to help speed you on the first part of your journey?" Realmslord Windgrace was rather hesitant.

"If you poured in all the treasures you own, how far would you be able to send me via the Blacksun?" Ning said with a laugh.

"Tearing through space consumes an enormous amount of energy! The Hiddenfiend Realmverse is fairly close to the Flamedragon Realmverse, which makes things easy for me. But if I did that a few hundred times, I'd completely use up all of my treasures," Realmslord Windgrace said.

Ning was surprised: "A few hundred times? Not bad! You live up to your reputation, Realmslord Windgrace. I didn't realize you had that much treasure."

"I probably don't have as much as you, Daolord Darknorth," Realmslord Windgrace said with a laugh. "The Lonely King plundered his way through the Chaosverse. He had many foes, but he also had many more treasures than I do."

Ning admitted to it. The Lonely King had an entire army pillaging on his behalf, and had killed three Otherverse Lords. He had also acquired a complete Sithe armory… and now, all of it belonged to Ning.

"In other words, even if you used up all your treasures on the Blacksun, it'd only save me less than a hundred million years of flight time via realmship." Ning shook his head. "This trip to the Blazesun Domain will take billions of years. Saving a bit of time won't be of much use."

His lifespan was limited, but it was still calculated in chaos cycles. 'Short' was relative to the lifespans of Eternal Emperors and Daolords!

"Thank you, Daolord Darknorth," Realmslord Windgrace said gratefully. He couldn't help but feel rather nervous before Ning, who was capable of killing him with ease. He previously had designs on Ning's Flamewing God, after all!

The next day, Ning led Flamewing, Hegemon Azurefiend, Protector Whitethaw, and Su Youji in boarding his realmship and departing from the Flamedragon Realmverse. They were heading off to the distant Blazesun Domain.

Within the endless Great Dark. Hegemon Azurefiend was helping to steer the realmship. There were two ways to ensure that a realmship could continue to proceed at incredible speeds. The first was to use chaos jewels to replenish it's power; the second was to have a Hegemonic figure use his Immortal energy to keep it activated! This journey would last billions of years, and they'd be travelling every day. It would be quite hard to come up with enough chaos jewels to meet the consumption need.

Hegemons, however, could constantly replenish their Immortal ki and were completely capable of restoring it at a rate which surpassed what the realmship used up.

"Thank goodness we have Azurefiend." Ning stood there, staring into the endless Great Dark.

"Haha." Azurefiend squeezed an exaggerated smile onto his withered, gnarly old face. "It is my honor and my blessing to be able to serve the almighty Daolord Darknorth. Other Hegemons would beg for this opportunity on their knees, to no avail. O, almighty Daolord Darknorth, if you were willing to give me just a few pointers, I would benefit endlessly from your wisdom."

"Knock it off," Ning said with a light groan.

"Heh heh heh," Azurefiend snickered.

"Your smile looks ugly as all hell," Flamewing said, casting a sidelong glance at Azurefiend while eating.

Azurefiend's old face tightened as he pointed at Flamewing: "You glutton, it's none of your business if I wish to flatter my master!"

"What's that?" Flamewing glared at him. "Azurefiend, you wanna go outside the ship and have a little sparring competition?"

"I'm just kidding with you!" Azurefiend immediately shifted tacts and smiled ingratiatingly at Flamewing. By now, everyone had known each other for quite some time. At the beginning, Azurefiend would never have dared to jest with Flamewing like this. By now, they were just teasing each other. Everyone understood everyone else.

Su Youji smiled as she watched from nearby. As for Whitethaw, he stood by Ning's side with that honest look on his face as always.

"Enough. I'll give you some guidance on our way over. Focus on controlling the realmship," Ning said. His mastery over the Eternal Omega Sword Dao had allowed him to reach a brand new level. All other Daos instantly seemed so much simpler to Ning! Ning's insights into the other Daos were continually increasing. He didn't have to train like crazy; all he had to do was spend the occasional period of time in meditation, and he would begin to skyrocket in his understanding of those Daos.

It must be remembered that Autarch Bolin, as a Hegemon, had to spend an extremely long period of time before managing to upgrade all those other Daos to the Hegemonic level. Ning was now far more powerful than Autarch Bolin had been as a Hegemon, and it could be said that there was now only a small difference in insight between himself and the Autarchs.

The Autarchs were born off the principle of 'One Dao Births Many Daos'. Ning, in contrast, was a pure ruler of the Dao of the Sword. In terms of the Sword Dao, he was the absolute number one expert in all the Chaosverse. Given enough time, it wouldn't be too hard for him to reach Hegemony in the Dao of Water, the Dao of Lightning, the Dao of Formations, and his other Daos. Alas, there was a limit to how long he would be alive for and thus there was no way he could study the other Daos as he pleased.

"Don't worry, Master," Azurefiend chortled. By now, he also addressed Ning as 'Master', and even he didn't notice the change. Ning was simply so powerful that Azurefiend no longer felt the slightest bit of pride when facing Ning. All he felt was a sense of submission. By now, there were probably many Hegemons who would be willing to serve him. A casual bit of tutelage from Ning would represent an enormous karmic blessing for those Hegemons.

Time flowed on. More than 3.9 billion years went past in the blink of an eye. Ning had acquired a detailed star map from the treasures he had taken from the deceased Lonely King, and he had also gotten another star map from Realmslord Windgrace. Although it was impossible for anyone to fully map out the entire Chaosverse, he now had fairly complete records on most of the places cultivators had visited.

On this journey, Ning had continuously used the Dao of Numerancy to divine the most appropriate paths forward, as well as the safest route through some places with distorted spacetime. This allowed them to easily pass through even the most dangerous of environments.

"Master! Master!" Azurefiend said hurriedly, "The Squaremix Realmverse is up ahead. That's the place Hegemon Goodsong asked to meet with us. He should be in the 'Grand Void Canyon' of the Squaremix Realmverse."

"Hegemon Goodsong?" Ning nodded slowly. "He informed me of Nuwa's location. I owe him a debt and should go repay it."

"Hmph. I'm sure he wouldn't dare to ask for too much," Azurefiend said with a cold snort.

"If he does, I'll eat him!" Flamewing called out, his mouth covered with grease.

"Enough, you two. Pipe down," Ning said. "Let's go meet Hegemon Goodsong."

Swoosh. Just a short while later, the realmship arrived in the 'Grand Void Canyon' of the Squaremix Realmverse. This was a very unique place with distorted spacetime that came together in layers, forming an enormous spatial canyon that could be seen with the naked eye. The depths of the canyon led to another mysterious realm that was filled with tremendous danger. This was a place that had been created during the Dawn War, and the depths of the canyon were filled with many relics. However, by now Ning didn't care about such relics or legacies.

"Here they come." A bald, red-robed man was standing directly above the Grand Void Canyon, scanning the area anxiously. Moments later, a spacetime rift appeared and a realmship came sailing out of it. The red-robed man was overjoyed and immediately flew over to welcome them.

Several figures came flying out of the realmship. The leader was a white-robed youth who had a black sheath on his back. Others could dimly sense that his truesoul was slowly but surely fragmenting apart, generating unique ripples as the fragments disappeared into the void. Next to him was the furry Sithe Protector Whitethaw, as well as a peerlessly beautiful woman. There was also a skinny, shriveled old man and a fatty who was holding onto a haunch of meat.

The fatty was Flamewing. It was a born glutton who was capable of devouring entire realmverses with ease. It truly did have a terrifying appetite… and it suddenly glanced sideways at the bald, red-robed man.

"Eek!" The red-robed man instantly quivered as his subconscious screamed to him that he was in terrible danger. He knew that the fat man was the legendary Chaos Primordial which Daolord Darknorth had tamed, a creature which could kill Hegemons like him with ease.

However, Hegemon Goodsong also knew that the most terrifying member of this team wasn't the Chaos Primordial. Rather, it was the harmless-looking white-robed youth standing in front of him.

"Goodsong greets you, Daolord Darknorth." Hegemon Goodsong bowed respectfully, not daring to show the slightest bit of disrespect.

"I have to thank you, Hegemon Goodsong. Thanks to you, I finally know where Nuwa is. If I didn't find her, I would probably harbor regrets until the day of my death." Ning smiled. "I promised long ago that I would owe a favor to the first person to help me locate her. What do you wish of me, Hegemon Goodsong? I'll do anything I'm capable of doing."

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Book 39, Nuwa, Chapter 10 – Request

Hegemon Goodsong instantly began to grow nervous. The moment of truth had come! He had spared no expense and even hired a realmship, all for the sake of this favor! If Daolord Darknorth hadn't been willing to offer anything at all, it wouldn't matter how strong he was; no one would've been willing to work so hard for him!

However, Hegemon Goodsong couldn't help but feel nervous. He was worried that his request would be too excessive and anger Daolord Darknorth.

In the end, a favor was just that; a favor. If Hegemon Goodsong asked Ji Ning to do something that would result in Ning's truesoul crumbling even faster, Ning would probably refuse immediately. Thus, there was a limit to what he could ask for. Hegemon Goodsong himself was rather nervous, but he had long ago decided on what he needed. He felt certain that Daolord Darknorth wouldn't attack him.

"Daolord Darknorth," Hegemon Goodsong said respectfully, "I reached the level of Hegemony long ago, longer than even I can remember. I have many friends, and a good number have become Otherverse Lords! But I remain a mere Hegemon, unable to improve in power."

Ning continued to listen.

"Daolord, as you know, we are quite close to the Eight Domains. Although Hegemons are quite powerful, there are also many people here who are stronger than Hegemons," Hegemon Goodsong said sadly.

Ning had to agree. This was a place that was completely unlike the Sixteen Realmverses Alliance he resided in. The Eight Domains… they were closer to the prime essences of the realmverse than any other place. Aside from the prime essences themselves, which were almost impossible to find, the Eight Domains represented the most central region of the entire Chaosverse! It was filled with countless treasures and experts, which was the major powers of neighboring realmverses would often go exploring and adventuring within them. Many major powers had died in the Eight Domains, but some would successfully acquire the treasures they sought.

Every so often, an otherverse would appear within the Eight Domains, as would Sithe weapons and other things. Even Nuwa, who had merely been at the World level, had somehow reached the Blazesun Domain from the Three Realms, then stumbled across a Sithe weapon there. The Blazesun Domain was one of the Eight Domains, and it truly was a special place.

In comparison, the Flamedragon Realmverse was extremely far away from the prime essences. It could be viewed as something of a peripheral backwater, a place where very few Otherverse Lords resided. It was simply too far away from the core!

"So what are you asking for exactly?" Ning said.

Hegemon Goodsong gritted his teeth. "Daolord, I wish to increase my power to the Otherverse Lord level!"

"Hah! You actually dared to make a request like this?" The nearby Hegemon Azurefiend let out a cold snicker. "Generally speaking, there are three ways in which one can reach the Otherverse Lord level of power via external methods. The first is to take control of an otherverse! However, the appearance of every single otherverse will result in a frenzied struggle and competition that is far more cruel than you can imagine. The second is to obtain a 'Golden Emperor form' and to use it via the Ritual Sacrificium to become a Golden Emperor… but do you know how rare and valuable those things are? Even the Lonely King chose to transform himself into a Golden Emperor. Who the hell are you and why do you think you deserve one?"

"The final method is to acquire extremely powerful Sithe weapons that can let you unleash the power of an Otherverse Lord. Some Sithe weapons are strong, some are weak. A Sithe weapon that will increase your power to the Otherverse Lord level is probably going to be just as valuable as a Golden Emperor form!"

Ning frowned as well. Could he accomplish this? He could! The Lonely King had a total of six extremely powerful Sithe weapons, but he himself normally only used three of them. The most valuable of the six was the silver throne, which could create illusory dopplegangers and allow one to flee by warping through spacetime. It could also build up power to unleash an attack that was so terrifying it could destroy an entire otherverse.

The other Sithe weapons were a bit weaker, but they were still enough to raise a Hegemon to the Otherverse Lord level of power… but Ning was planning to give them to Nuwa and the Three Realms.

"I'm a cultivator. My only goal is to increase my personal power as much as I can. Aside from this, there truly is nothing else that I need." Hegemon Goodsong looked at Ning.

Ning was silent for a long moment, then said: "Otherverses are blessings that can only be hoped for, not counted on. I can't just find one for you! Sithe weapons… although I have some, I already have plans for them. As for Golden Emperor forms, I don't have any." The Lonely King had long ago used up all of the Golden Emperor forms he had acquired.

"Daolord Darknorth, you might not have one… but someone nearby known as Divine Sovereign Goldsun does," Hegemon Goodsong suddenly said.

"Divine Sovereign Goldsun?" Ning frowned.

"Are you asking my master to go and get it from him?" Azurefiend stared.

"If Daolord Darknorth went to ask for a Golden Emperor form, I imagine Divine Sovereign Goldsun wouldn't dare to decline," Hegemon Goodsong said.

Ning began to ponder on this. Although the star map which Realmslord Windgrace had provided Ning was fairly incomplete, it did record information about the supreme powers of various regions.

The Sixteen Realmverses Alliance was something of a backwater, but the area around the Eight Domains could be considered part of the core of the Chaosverse. Experts were incredibly common here, and the people who were able to become local rulers were all extraordinary. Divine Sovereign Goldsun was someone who was unquestionably as powerful as the Lonely King. If the Lonely King could be described as a madman, then Divine Sovereign Goldsun was like an emperor who had unified this entire region under his rule.

Divine Sovereign Goldsun controlled a total of eight nearby realmverses. He himself was an Otherverse Lord, and he also had acquired Sithe armories in the past! He had once bestowed two Golden Emperor forms to his subordinate Hegemons, and had promised that anyone who had rendered great merits would be given one as well.

"You are quite daring," Ning said. "But aren't you afraid that Divine Sovereign Goldsun would come for you later?"

"No." A frenzied look appeared in Hegemon Goldsun's eyes. "Once I become a Golden Emperor, it'll be very hard for anyone to kill me. I have no kith or kin who can be used against me, and I'll be far more powerful than I was in the past. What do I have to fear?"

"Very well." Ning nodded. "I owe you a favor. I'll go pay Divine Sovereign Goldsun a visit." As Ning saw it, visiting the Divine Sovereign might end up being a good thing.

"Let me lead the way!" Hegemon Goodsong was delighted. It was incredibly difficult for a Hegemon to increase another level in power. For the sake of becoming more powerful, many Hegemons would be willing to risk their lives. Alas, very few would have a chance like this. Hegemon Goodsong had successfully grasped his!

It took them more than five million years to fly from the Squaremix Realmverse to the Goldsun Realmverse, the central region of Divine Sovereign Goldsun's rule.

Whoosh. Before them was an enormous flaming star that was emanating endless amounts of heat and light. The surface of this fiery star was actually covered with many beautiful palaces. This was the Goldsun Palace of Divine Sovereign Goldsun, and there were more than ten Hegemons who resided here! There were also two Golden Emperors and sixteen Black Emperors.

"This flaming star is actually a marvelous Sithe weapon as well," the white-robed Ning evaluated as he stared at the star. They had used the realmship to warp through spacetime and come to this place. "The formations covering this entire cluster of palaces is quite abstruse and profound. It won't be easy to attack this place."

"But it would be nothing for you, Daolord Darknorth," Hegemon Goodsong flattered.

"Come, let us go meet with Divine Sovereign Goldsun. I'm quite curious about him." Ning had a rather favorable impression of Divine Sovereign Goldsun, as the man was truly committed to the Dao. He clearly had access to Golden Emperor forms, but he didn't undergo the Ritual Sacrificium; from this, one could see that he was still committed to attempting to become an Autarch.

Whoosh. Ning immediately flew out towards the surface of the fiery star with Su Youji, Whitethaw, and the others by his side. Right as they landed…

"Halt!" A loud shout rang out, followed by an onyx humanoid flying over in a fierce manner. When he saw Ning's group, he barked, "This place is the Goldsun Palace. Trespass is not permitted!" As a guard of the Goldsun Palace, he had long ago grown accustomed to behaving arrogantly in carrying out his duties.

"Hmph." Flamewing let out a cold snort. Its aura flared malevolently, causing the guard to instantly feel a terrifying sense of danger.

"Send word to Divine Sovereign Goldsun. Tell him that Daolord Darknorth has come to visit him." Ning smiled.

"Daolord Darknorth has come to visit him?" The guard stared blankly for a moment. In the next moment, his face turned completely ashen. When he thought of the many rumors swirling around this man, his voice began to quiver as he said respectfully, "Please wait a moment, Daolord Darknorth. I'll go send word right now."

Ning nodded, and the guard instantly flew off.

"Master, why are you so courteous to him? Just fly right on in. I'd like to see what Divine Sovereign Goldsun would do about it!" Hegemon Azurefiend said.

"I already have an overwhelming advantage in power. There's no need to use it to bully others." Ning shook his head.

Within the Goldsun Palace. Divine Sovereign Goldsun was being waited upon by two female attendants. He held a jade slip in his hands and was viewing and meditating upon it.

"Divine Sovereign! Divine Sovereign!" A frantic cry came from outside as the Black Emperor guard came rushing into the room.

"Hrm?" A hint of annoyance could be seen in Divine Sovereign Goldsun's eyes as he glanced at the guard. The Divine Sovereign was someone who cared tremendously about propriety and status. He naturally felt rather irritated that this guard actually dared to barge into his private meditation room.

"Divine Sovereign, Daolord Darknorth has arrived!" the guard called out frantically.

Divine Sovereign Goldsun snapped, "And so what if Daolord Da-… eh? Did you say Daolord Darknorth?" His face instantly turned ashen, and his heart began to quiver. He naturally didn't feel the slightest bit of pride or arrogance when faced with someone who could slay him with ease. In fact, he felt a hint of terror. Why had Daolord Darknorth suddenly come to visit him without any preamble? Could it be that Daolord Darknorth had come to kill him and take his treasures?

"Where is he?" Divine Sovereign Goldsun could feel that his heart was shaking.

"He's right outside the palace gates," the guard said.

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Book 39, Nuwa, Chapter 11 – Houwu City

"You WHAT? You actually had Daolord Darknorth wait outside the palace gates?" Divine Sovereign Goldsun instantly cast the guard a furious glare as he hurriedly rose to his feet. Swoosh! He instantly disappeared without a trace.

Ji Ning, Su Youji, Whitethaw, the Flamewing God, Azurefiend, and Hegemon Goodsong were all waiting outside the gates to the Goldsun Palace.

Swish! A figure suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It was the beautifully dressed Divine Sovereign Goldsun. His face was now covered with smiles. As soon as he saw Ning, he could immediately sense that this Daolord whose truesoul was slowly splintering apart had to be the legendary Daolord Darknorth! This was because Divine Sovereign Goldsun could sense that unique aura emanating from this white-robed youth, an aura that was profounder than profound.

This aura actually had a whiff of the prime essence of the Dao of the Sword itself. Ning wasn't trying to hide his aura, but even so ordinary Hegemons would not be capable of detecting it. Divine Sovereign Goldsun was focused on becoming an Autarch and had trained for many years. He had reached an extremely high level of power and had gained tremendous insight into many different Daos. As a result, his senses were even more acute than the likes of God Emperor Helong.

"Goldsun greets you, Daolord Darknorth." Divine Sovereign Goldsun instantly bowed respectfully, then said with a smile, "I never would've imagined that you'd come to visit me. I'm absolutely overwhelmed and delighted."

"I've come here because there's something I need to trouble you about, Divine Sovereign," Ning said.

"Please come in first. We can discuss it shortly," Divine Sovereign Goldsun said hurriedly. "If there's anything I can help you out with, I'll do everything I can. Daolord Darknorth, please come in."

Ning followed him inside. Su Youji and Whitethaw followed from behind, with Flamewing, Azurefiend, and Hegemon Goodsong bringing up the rear. Hegemon Goodsong felt particularly delighted, while Flamewing gave Divine Sovereign Goldsun a provocative stare.

"What a savage, bloodthirsty aura! It is probably just as strong as I am. This should be that legendary Chaos Primordial." Divine Sovereign Goldsun glanced at Flamewing as well, but continued to warmly guide Ning deeper into his estate.

He had long ago ordered for his subordinates to prepare a banquet. A feast had been laid out at the main hall of the Goldsun Palace, with many servants and maids all waiting to serve them.

Ning and Goldsun sat down in the lotus position in the highest seats. Divine Sovereign Goldsun intentionally set his table slightly lower than Ning's.

"I've heard of your illustrious name long ago, Daolord Darknorth. I've always admired you, but I live too far away from the Flamedragon Realmverse. I've regretted being unable to visit you, but today you've overwhelmed me with delight by coming to visit my Goldsun Palace instead." Divine Sovereign Goldsun smiled. "Come, come! Let us share a few toasts first. I wish to celebrate your visit to my palace."

The other major powers of Goldsun Palace all raised their cups in unison as well. Ning smiled and lifted his own cup, downing it on the spot.

"Mm. Fine wine," Ning couldn't help but speak out in praise. When he drank the wine, he felt as though a ball of fire was going all the way down his throat into his belly. The tremendous heat instantly filled his entire body to the point where he felt it was going to burst out of his skin. Moments later, a cool and refreshing feeling spread out from his stomach and encompassed his entire body. This alternating process of heat and cool resulted in him feeling as though his body had just undergone a baptism of sorts, almost as though it had been transformed and remade.

"This is a special product of the Goldsun Palace, the 'Triflame Jewel Brew'. I have quite a bit of it stockpiled away in my palace. If you like it, Daolord, you can take some with you and enjoy it in the future as well," Divine Sovereign Goldsun said with a laugh. He knew very well that he had to be extremely careful when dealing with someone like Daolord Darknorth, who now stood at the very apex of power in the cultivator civilizations… and who had failed his Daomerge! The slightest bit of discourtesy could result in irreversible repercussions.

Ning smiled and said, "Then I'll accept some. Divine Sovereign Goldsun, I've come because there is something I need to bother you about."

"Pray tell, Daolord," Divine Sovereign Goldsun said hurriedly. The entire room turned silent, with Hegemon Goodsong listening the most attentively.

Ning waved his hand, causing a storage bracelet to appear. He handed it over and said, "I wish to use some of the treasures within this estate-world to trade for a Golden Emperor form from you, Divine Ruler." Ning had quite a few treasures by now. He had looted the Jadefire Realm clean and had stripped the Lonely King of all his treasures. Ning had left behind the ones he thought would be of great use to the Three Realms, then chose some other rare materials that were of limited use to him right now. There were around ten or so which, all combined, were more or less equal in value to a Golden Emperor form.

"Is that it? A Golden Emperor form? Daolord, for you to visit me in person and show such courtesy shows that you hold me in esteem. How could I possibly be so stingy as to hold back a Golden Emperor form from you?" Divine Sovereign Goldsun waved his hand as he spoke, causing a head-sized ball of golden liquid to immediately fly out. This golden liquid was shaped like a perfect globe, and it was covered by a layer of continuously flowing light. It seemed quite mysterious.

"As for your treasures, Daolord, I don't need them." Divine Sovereign Goldsun said hurriedly, "This Golden Emperor form is my gift to you, Daolord."

He was able to bestow these things to even his subordinates. To him, a Golden Emperor form actually wasn't all that valuable. He cared far more about the Sithe weapons he used to keep himself safe. He actually felt relieved that Daolord Darknorth had merely asked for a Golden Emperor form; the loss wouldn't have any impact on his own personal power.

Ning waved his hand to accept the golden globe of liquid, then smiled: "Go ahead and take it." The storage bracelet continued to hover in front of Divine Sovereign Goldsun.

"Umm…" Divine Sovereign Goldsun hesitated for a moment, then said, "Daolord Darknorth, there really isn't any need for you to give me the treasures inside this bracelet. I have cultivated for many years and have many treasures; a few more really won't make any difference to me. But… Daolord Darknorth, would you be willing to perhaps give me some guidance?"

The Dao was not to be casually transmitted to others. Divine Sovereign Goldsun didn't dare to ask Ning to actually transmit the Eternal Omega Sword Dao to him; all he asked for was some guidance.

Ning nodded. "Very well. I'll give you three days worth of guidance in order to repay you."

Within a vast hallway, Divine Sovereign Goldsun manifested a pair of wings and wielded a semi-translucent saber in each of his two hands. The sabers were as thin as the wings of a cicada.

Ning stood off in the distance, facing him. A single streak of sword-light manifested in the air between them. This sword-light was generated from the external manifestation of the aura of the prime essence of the Dao of the Sword. Unless absolutely necessary, Ning wouldn't use any of his own divine power or Immortal energy.

Swish! Swish! Swish! Sword-light danced in a ghostly, dream-like manner, almost like moonlight playing across the darkness. Divine Sovereign Goldsun fought with tremendous savagery and in an extraordinarily dominating style, but faced with Ning's sword-arts his stances became filled with countless flaws. Each time, Ning was able to break apart his attacks with ease.

Whoosh. The sword-light came to a halt right in front of Divine Sovereign Goldsun's forehead, causing him to awkwardly halt his attacks.

"I lost again." Divine Sovereign Goldsun shook his head and sighed. "I always thought that my saber-arts were impressive. I've never suffered such catastrophic losses after becoming a Hegemon."

He had been completely outclassed in a battle of technique! Autarchs could do this as well, but Autarchs couldn't be bothered to guide him. Generally speaking, they would only provide a bit of guidance to figures who they liked AND who had rendered great merits.

By now, there were countless Hegemons who deeply desired to be given a bit of guidance by the peerless Daolord who had mastered the Eternal Omega Sword Dao, but this required luck and karma. Divine Sovereign Goldsun had decisively rejected any treasures and instead asked for guidance from Ning.

"These past three days have been more helpful to me than the past ten million chaos cycles of solitary training. I now realize that my saber-arts are actually flawed in many ways." Divine Sovereign Goldsun said gratefully, "Thank you, Daolord Darknorth."

"Since the three days have come to an end, it is time for me to leave," Ning said.

After spending three days with Ning, Divine Sovereign Goldsun no longer felt as much fear as he had in the past. He now had the feeling that Ning was quite easy-going. He said warmly, "Daolord Darknorth… dare I ask, have you come here from the distant Flamedragon Realmverse because you are searching for Nuwa?"

"Yes." Ning didn't deny it. Word of his search for Nuwa had long ago spread to countless places.

"If you wish to find Nuwa, I should be able to help out a bit," Divine Sovereign Goldsun said with a laugh.

"You can help out?" Ning was surprised.

"Daolord Darknorth, you are probably aware that Nuwa is currently accompanying her master, Patriarch Treewind, and other major powers in a journey through the Blazesun Domain," Divine Sovereign Goldsun said. "But… you probably don't know that Nuwa, Patriarch Treewind, and the others are currently within the city of Houwu in the Blazesun Domain."

Ning's eyes lit up when he heard this. The city of Houwu? The Blazesun Domain was enormous; it would actually be quite tricky to locate Nuwa within it. He had been planning to first locate Nuwa and Patriarch Treewind's avatars, then find them in person.

"Haha, I have a bit of a reputation in the area around the Blazesun Domain," Divine Sovereign Goldsun said with a laugh. "I'm kept quite up to date with news in this area, and I'm good friends with Lord Houwu. All I need to do is send word to Lord Houwu and ask him to inform Patriarch Treewind and Nuwa and have them wait for you in Houwu City! That way, you can just meet them there and save yourself some trouble."

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Book 39, Nuwa, Chapter 12 – Blazesun Domain

"They are currently at Houwu City?" Ji Ning was delighted. This really would make things much simpler.

"I received this information just a short while ago. Usually, cultivators will spend an extended period of time resting at Houwu City once they reach it. Let me reach out to Lord Houwu once more." Divine Sovereign Goldsun immediately sent out his godsense to contact with one of his subordinates: "Help me immediately contact Lord Houwu and ask if Nuwa and Patriarch Treewind are still at Houwu City. If they are there, I would like to ask Lord Houwu to keep them here! Tell them that Daolord Darknorth will be arriving in around twenty million years and wishes to meet Nuwa."

"Yes, Divine Sovereign." This Hegemon servant of his had a Primaltwin in the distant city of Houwu.

Houwu City. Within the Blazesun Domain.

Houwu City was an enormous levitating city that saw several estates sprinkled throughout the city. Very few cultivators came here; generally speaking, only Eternal Emperors would ever dare to come here.

"Haha…" Loud laughter rang out, followed by a green-robed elder and two retainers flying into the skies above an estate.

"Brother Treewind! Brother Jade Rainbow!" the green-robed elder called out loudly, his voice shaking the entire estate. Soon, a total of five figures came flying out from within the estate, including Patriarch Treewind, Imperator Jade Rainbow, and Nuwa.

"Lord Governor, why have you come to our residence? If there's anything you need from us, all you needed to do was send word." Patriarch Treewind and the others were all quite courteous, and they hurriedly moved to welcome their guest.

The green-robed elder chortled as he turned his gaze towards Nuwa: "I come on important business, after all. This must be Nuwa?"

Nuwa said, "Nuwa greets you, Lord Governor."

"Impressive, truly impressive. You were able to complete the Daomerge and reach Hegemony in just a hundred chaos cycles," the green-robed elder praised. "No wonder Daolord Darknorth has come to seek you out."

"You praise me too much. I made use of temporal acceleration treasures when I trained. My actual amount of time spent cultivating was far more than a hundred chaos cycles," Nuwa said with a smile.

"Mm." The green-robed elder said, "I've come to help Daolord Darknorth send you a message."

"Help Daolord Darknorth send a message?" Nuwa, Patriarch Treewind, and Imperator Jade Rainbow were all stunned.

"Daolord Darknorth has sent word to me via Divine Sovereign Goldsun. He hopes that you will remain at Houwu City, because he'll be arriving soon. Daolord Darknorth shall be descending upon Houwu City in person in twenty million years to meet with you, Nuwa." The green-robed elder looked at Nuwa and smiled. "Nuwa, congratulations. Countless Hegemons and Emperors desperately desire to have a chance to meet with Daolord Darknorth, but never will. For you, however, Daolord Darknorth has flown all the way here from the incredibly distant Flamedragon Realmverse. It seems that he views you as being incredibly important! Haha, even I can't help but envy you, Nuwa. If I need to ask for your help in the future, I hope you won't refuse me."

"I'll do everything in my power to assist you." Nuwa was rather puzzled. "I'm embarrassed to admit this, but… I don't believe Daolord Darknorth and I know each other."

"Haha, if you don't know each other, why would he go to such great lengths to meet with you? I imagine you'll know who he is once he actually arrives." The green-robed elder continued, "Alright, I've already conveyed his message. Just wait for him here in Houwu City; you'll only need to pause for a few tens of millions of years! Also… please don't make things difficult for me. Since Daolord Darknorth asked for me to keep you here, I wouldn't dare to let you leave."

"Don't worry. We'll wait at Houwu City for Daolord Darknorth," Imperator Jade Rainbow said immediately.

"Good!" Lord Houwu smiled and nodded. "I'm off, then." Patriarch Treeind, Imperator Jade Rainbow, and Nuwa all watched as Lord Houwu left.

"It seems we have to stay here for a time," Patriarch Treewind said with a chuckle. "If we tried to leave, Lord Houwu would probably trap us here by force."

"Hmph." Imperator Jade Rainbow smiled coldly. "Lord Houwu has always been an arrogant and overbearing bully. He only spoke to us with courtesy for the sake of Daolord Darknorth. He wouldn't dare to refuse to convey Daolord Darknorth's message."

"We were planning to hide in Houwu City for a time anyhow," Patriarch Treewind said. "Let's make use of this opportunity to meet with the legendary Daolord Darknorth. Nuwa, when that happens I might need to ask you to say a few words on my behalf."

Nuwa said self-deprecatingly, "I still have no clue who this Daolord Darknorth really is."

"Don't be impatient. A mere twenty million years will go by like nothing. You'll know soon enough," Imperator Jade Rainbow said.

Time flowed on. Ning's team left the Goldsun Palace and began to advance through the endless Great Dark. After a total of over twenty million years, they finally reached the Blazesun Domain.

Whooosh. Endless flames were flying through this entire region, as were blazing rocks. In front of them was an incredibly vast and dazzling realmverse which was filled with planets and stars that all looked like giant balls of fire.

"The Eight Domains." Hegemon Goodsong was dressed in red robes, and his entire body gleamed like gold. He smiled and immediately began to introduce the place: "In the vast Chaosverse, there are many sacred places which are formed by the convergence of certain types of energy! This place is the closest region to the Quintessence of the Chaosverse, and it is divided into eight incredibly marvelous domains. The Blazesun Domain is filled with the power of countless flames.

Ning nodded while the nearby Azurefiend said, "The 'Icewind Sea' we visited in the past was a place which was formed from a convergence of freezing energy that was roughly comparable to a territory in size! The Blazesun Domain, however, is unfathomably vaster in size and scope than the Icewind Sea. It is one of the Eight Domains, the most supreme of sacred lands, and it is comparable in size to more than half of a realmverse."

The Icewind Sea was an 'ordinary' sacred land, while the Eight Domains were the most supreme sacred lands of the entire Chaosverse. All sorts of unique living beings had gathered here, including Sourcewalkers, the occasional Chaos Primordials, and more.

"Daolord," Hegemon Goodsong said warmly, "There are two ways for us to travel into Houwu City. The first way is fairly safe; it involves us avoiding many dangerous locations, and it'll take us tens of millions of years to get there. The other method is to just blaze our way straight through. We might run into quite a great deal of danger in doing so, but we'll only need five hundred thousand years or so."

"We'll go straight through," Ning said.

"Right on!" Hegemon Goodsong continued hurriedly, "We might encounter some danger when going straight through, but I should be able to resolve any dangers myself. If we encounter something really serious, we can then have the Flamewing God intervene as well. There should be no need for you to personally intervene, Daolord."

"Alright." Ning nodded. Goodsong was now a Golden Emperor; between him and the Flamewing God, the vast majority of dangers could be easily resolved.

Whoosh. The realmship flew straight into the Blazesun Domain, charging towards Houwu City at maximum speed.

The Blazesun Domain was a place where an incredibly vast amount of flaming energy congregated. Its vast size actually gave it superior stability, resulting in it being a world unto itself. It was filled with fire, but there are also places with earth, water, stone, and more. There were many empty pockets of space where the temperature was a bit higher than in 'normal' realmverses, but Celestial Immortals and Empyrean Gods would still be able to survive.

The more stable a region was, the more hospitable for life it would generally be.

But of course, the Blazesun Domain also had some incredibly dangerous places within it, places which were far deadlier than the Icewind Sea. The Icewind Sea merely had two Sourcewalkers in it; the Blazesun Domain had far more! However, they were scattered throughout the entire domain, making chances of running into them quite low.

Whoosh. A dark-red river could be seen surging through the emptiness of space, stretching off into infinity. This dark-red river had to be many millions of kilometers long, and it emanated an aura of endless heat. Every so often, a few serpentine beings could be seen swimming through the river.

"Gwaaaaar!" A long black serpent lifted its head and half of its enormous body above the surface of the river, focusing its flaming gaze on Ning's realmship, which was advancing through the region at high speeds. Its eyes were filled with malevolence, and it raised its serpentine head high as it let out an earth-shaking roar.

The roar actually generated a ripple of power that caused space around it to twist and distort. Instantly, additional giant blackflame serpents lifted their heads up as well. Cultivators were actually trespassing here? They were courting death!

The environment here was extremely inhospitable to ordinary life. There was no way to warp through spacetime here, and so Ning's group had to physically fly through this region. If they wanted to avoid it, they would have to take a detour that would last millions of years.

"Blackflame River has dozens of these giant blackflame serpents living within it. All of them are unique creatures born from the Quintessence of the Chaosverse, but only three of them have reached the Otherverse Lord level of power. Most of the others are Hegemons; they are of little danger," Hegemon Goodsong immediately explained. "Once Flamewing appears, they'll be so terrified that they won't dare to move."

"Mm." Ning said, "Flamewing, go out with Goodsong and give these little black snakes a good scare."

"Heh heh heh… they look delicious, actually." Flamewing immediately flew out of the realmship, letting out an excited howl as it transformed into its true form. Bathed in flames, the Flamewing God flapped its giant wings and immediately swooped down towards the nearest blackflame serpent. Clearly, Flamewing enjoyed being in the fiery environment of the Blazesun Domain. Being here excited it, and as a result it moved with such incredible speeds that the giant blackflame serpent was terrified. Its malevolent aura vanished and it immediately moved to flee… but how could it possibly escape?

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Book 39, Nuwa, Chapter 13 – They Finally Meet

Crunch! The Flamewing God's giant maw came crunching down upon the blackflame serpent. As Flamewing began to chew, the blackflame serpent's writhing body suddenly began to erupt with flames. Soon, it became burnt to ash.

This sight completely terrified the other blackflame serpents in the flaming river.

"Chaos Primordial, hurry up and leave our territory!" an exceptionally large blackflame serpent roared furiously, but it didn't step forward. It knew that perhaps the only members of the race who would survive a fight against Flamewing would be him and the other two leaders. The others were completely incapable of battling against a Chaos Primordial. If an actual battle erupted, they would simply be throwing their lives away.

"Grrr…" Flamewing let out a loud and smug growl.

"Impressive. If I tried to go up by myself, I'd definitely be surrounded by them," Hegemon Goodsong said enviously. Flamewing had a virtually indestructible body and possessed incredible speed; surrounding it was useless. Most likely, only Sithe Exalts would be able to effectively surround and threaten it.

"Let's leave." Seeing this, Ning knew that the blackflame serpents would no longer try to bar their path.

With Hegemon Goodsong and the Flamewing God clearing a path for them, their journey was simple and uneventful. Ning didn't need to intervene a single time.

They did encounter several unique and bizarre types of lifeforms, all of whom were birthed from within the Quintessence of the Chaosverse! The most powerful creatures birthed from the prime essences were the Chaos Primordials and the Sourcewalkers, but both were incredibly rare. Chaos Primordials were born with immense power, while Sourcewalkers were a bit weaker but had incredible powers of insight and thus had more room to grow.

The other creatures born from the prime essences were blessed with far less power than the Chaos Primordials and far weaker levels of insight than the Sourcewalkers. They were much more numerous, but on the whole the Sourcewalkers remained the most powerful creatures birthed from the prime essences! This was because the most powerful Sourcewalkers were actually comparable to Sithe Exalts in terms of power.

For example, the Blazesun Domain had one of these supreme Sourcewalkers within it who was comparable to Sithe Exalts in power! But of course, he was the only one in the entire domain who had reached such a level of power.

520,000 years went past in the blink of an eye.

"Master, Houwu City is up ahead," Azurefiend called out as he controlled the realmship.

"Houwu City?" Ning stared at it from afar. This was a city covered in countless mysterious runes that levitated within the emptiness of space. It rippled with formations, and it was surrounded by numerous levitating continents as well.

"Daolord Darknorth," Hegemon Goodsong said quickly, "We cultivators only have this single city in the entire Blazesun Domain! This is a place where we can hide and rest while we are adventuring through this region. The entire city itself is actually a powerful Sithe war-fort and it is capable of easily defending against any dangers, so long as the Ruler of the Blazesun Domain doesn't come and attack in person."

"The Ruler of the Blazesun Domain?" Su Youji couldn't help but ask, "Who is that?"

"Youji," Ning smiled as he explained, "The term 'Ruler of the Blazesun Domain' refers to the most terrifying Sourcewalker located in the Blazesun Domain. The legends say that he is as powerful as a Sithe Exalt. His overwhelming power means that he is honored with the title of 'Ruler of the Blazesun Domain'. However, in the end he's still just a Sourcewalker; he won't get involved in the affairs of the cultivator civilizations."

"Right. So long as you don't offend the Blazesun Ruler, he won't make trouble for us either," Hegemon Goodsong said. "After all… we have the invincible Autarchs on our side! As a result, the supreme Sourcewalkers don't dare to go too far. Even if he does become so crazy as to assault the city of Houwu, the city should be able to hold on for a while albeit at great cost. Given enough time, most of the cultivators should be able to flee."

As they spoke, the realmship continued to move towards the levitating city at high speeds.

"Halt!" a loud shout rang out. The city's entrance was guarded by a golem guard.

"Hurry up and send word," Hegemon Goodsong barked back, "That Daolord Darknorth has arrived!"

"Daolord Darknorth?" The golem guard was shocked. "I'll send word to Master right away."

The entire city of Houwu was in a state of uproar. News spread quite quickly amongst cultivators, and just a few seconds later the news that Daolord Darknorth had arrived at the city was known by a majority of the cultivators here. The Hegemons and Eternal Emperors, as well as the few fearless Samsara Daolords who had chosen to adventure in the Blazesun Domain, all came flying out to see what the legendary Daolord Darknorth looked like.

"Daolord Darknorth has arrived?"

"Where is he?"

"Look over there! Daolord Darknorth is flying within the realmship above the city." More and more cultivators came pouring out from every direction, and they all hastened to stare at the main gates in front of the city.

"Quick! Quick! Brother Treewind, Brother Jade Rainbow, Nuwa… all of you, hurry over here and accompany me in meeting with Daolord Darknorth!" Lord Houwu was the most impatient of them all. Patriarch Treewind and Nuwa had been meditating silently, but they were immediately startled awake and hurriedly came running over.

"Hurry up and go welcome them!"

"Daolord Darknorth has arrived?"

Patriarch Treewind, Imperator Jade Rainbow, and Nuwa all grew nervous right away, with Nuwa being the most nervous of them all. Daolord Darknorth had come all the way here from the distant Flamedragon Realmverse for the sake of meeting her!

The green-robed Lord Houwu was the first to fly into the skies, with Patriarch Treewind, Imperator Jade Rainbow, Nuwa, and the others all following by his side. The cultivators around the gates all parted before them, not daring to bar their path.

Lord Houwu was at the head of the delegation. Behind him was Patriarch Treewind and Nuwa, and at the very rear were the other Hegemons and Emperors. They exited the city gates in an awesome procession. Houwu City, as a war-fort, was covered with barrier spells. Generally speaking the barriers would remain sealed, preventing people from simply flying out.

Above the city hovered that realmship.

"I am the Governor of Houwu City, and I respectfully welcome Daolord Darknorth!" The green-robed Lord Houwu immediately bowed respectfully, his face covered with joy. His Daoist title was 'Houwu', and so he had named this war-fort after himself after acquiring it.

"We respectfully welcome Daolord Darknorth!" The surrounding Golden Emperors, Otherverse Lords, Hegemons, Eternal Emperors, and Samsara Daolords all bowed respectfully as well.

Faced with the legendary Daolord Darknorth, these major powers were as nervous as Ning himself had been when he had first met Autarch Titanos. The difference in power was simply too great! Even the most powerful person here would probably be slain by a single blow from Ning's sword. How could any of them dare to show the slightest bit of incivility towards him?

"Who is this Daolord Darknorth?" Nuwa was standing behind Lord Houwu. She stared into the skies, her heart filled with curiosity.

"No need to stand on ceremony." A wave of power surged out, pressing against Nuwa's arms and preventing her from bowing down.

For the others to show Ning such respect was one thing, but Nuwa was different. Ning felt a sense of tremendous respect for Mother Nuwa. Perhaps he was now much stronger than her, but Patriarch Subhuti was his master. Mother Nuwa had shown great favor to Patriarch Subhuti in the past, and indeed had done great things for the entire Three Realms. How could he possibly allow Nuwa to bow towards him?

"This aura…" Nuwa was secretly startled. In fact, all of the cultivators were shocked. For his aura alone to be so powerful meant that Daolord Darknorth lived up to his reputation.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Three additional figures came flying out from the realmship. The first was the chubby Flamewing, the second was the red-robed Hegemon Goodsong, and the third was Hegemon Azurefiend. After flying out, they stood slightly behind the white-robed youth who bore the black sheath on his back. In addition, Ning was flanked by the simple, muscular Protector Whitethaw and the dazzlingly beautiful Su Youji.

This white-robed youth had appeared with his entire entourage. His aura wasn't all that powerful, and his truesoul was slowly fragmenting and dissipating. If he was an ordinary Daolord who had failed his Daomerge, these major powers wouldn't care about him at all… but he wasn't. This white-robed youth caused all of them to feel nervous and breathless due to the great difference in power between them!

"Lord Houwu, sorry for the trouble." Ning stepped forward, landing on the ground and smiling.

"It was nothing more than conveying a message. It was my honor to be able to serve you, Daolord Darknorth," Lord Houwu chortled. A thought came to his mind, and he hurriedly turned to glance at the nearby Nuwa: "Daolord Darknorth, this is Nuwa."

Ning's gaze turned towards Nuwa as well. In truth, he already knew for certain that she was the person he sought, as there was no way to fake the karma ties between them. When he saw her just now, he felt absolutely convinced… because he was very familiar with her appearance. He had spent his entire youth visualizing the [Nuwa Painting, which was a depiction of Nuwa. How could he NOT be familiar with her?

The woman before him was the legendary Mother Nuwa of the Three Realms.

Ning stared at Nuwa, and she stared at him as well, her heart filled with many questions. She had the vague feeling that there had to be some sort of connection between them, but she simply couldn't remember ever having met this Daolord Darknorth before.

"Darknorth greets you, Nuwa." Ning smiled.

Nuwa was startled. For the legendary Daolord Darknorth to speak so courteously to her had caught her offguard.

Ning chuckled, and as he did a voice suddenly rang out within Nuwa's mind: "Pangu established Heaven and Earth, while Nuwa repaired the heavens!"

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Book 39, Nuwa, Chapter 14 – Transmitting the Dao

Nuwa instantly trembled. She stared with disbelief at the white-robed youth standing before her.

"H-he…" Waves of emotion rippled through Nuwa's heart. She instantly understood that Daolord Darknorth knew of her past! Either he came from the Three Realms or he knew of its history; in short, Daolord Darknorth definitely knew where the Three Realms was located! Nuwa had been searching for many years to return to the Three Realms, but she still had no idea where it was located!

Which realmverse was the Three Realms in? She had no idea! She spent a great deal of time searching, but the Bluesky Domain was simply too far away from the Flamedragon Realmverse. Even a trip via realmship would take billions of years; even Otherverse Lords and other major powers would rarely drift to such a great distance. Such a journey would entail many dangers, after all, and they could easily get lost or even die. Unless there was an extremely compelling reason, few would venture to such a great distance.

"Haha, it seems as though this Nuwa before us must be the person you are searching for, Daolord Darknorth." Lord Houwu immediately laughed and said, "To be able to meet at last after being separated by such a great distance is a joyful thing indeed. There's no need for us to speak here outside the city; let's hurry on inside! I've already prepared a fairly humble banquet to welcome you, Daolord Darknorth. I hope you'll show me a bit of face and sit down for a time."

Ning nodded. "Very well." Since he had found Nuwa, there was no need for him to rush into a conversation with her right in front of the gates.

"You…" Nuwa stared at Ning, her heart filled with both excitement and confusion.

"We can chat at length later. You have many things to say to me, and I have much to say to you," Ning said.

"Disciple, let's invite Daolord Darknorth into the city first. There'll be plenty of time to chat with him later." Patriarch Treewind and Imperator Jade Rainbow both behaved with great friendliness as well.

"Understood." Nuwa was able to make herself be patient.

Led by Lord Houwu and surrounded by many major powers, Ning entered Houwu City and travelled to the Lord Governor's estate. The palace had already prepared a banquet for them, with the maids quickly assembling and making themselves up in order to welcome Daolord Darknorth.

"Please come in, Daolord Darknorth." Lord Houwu immediately led Ning to the highest seat.

Ning didn't decline, walking up and sitting down in the lotus position. He smiled: "Gentlemen, please be seated."

"Nuwa, you can sit over here." Lord Houwu spoke with great friendliness, arranging for Nuwa to in the first seat located directly to Ning's left. As for Lord Houwu himself, he sat in the first seat to Ning's right.

It must be remembered that multiple Otherverse Lords were present. Lord Houwu himself was an Otherverse Lord; for him as the Lord Governor to be seated second only to Ning was one thing, but for Nuwa to be seated similarly? Some of the major powers present couldn't help but mumble to themselves, "Lord Houwu truly is going out of his way to curry favor with Daolord Darknorth." These major powers were all treating Ning the same way they would treat an Autarch… and in truth, many of them had never even met an Autarch in all their lives!

Ning was close to an Autarch in terms of insight, and he had failed his Daomerge. It was guaranteed that his life would be a brief one, and so they wanted to seize this chance to befriend him. If they missed this chance, they would probably never get a second one. Some simple pointers from Ning would probably be more effective than countless chaos cycles of training on their own. Most of them had been trapped at the Hegemon level for many years without making any improvements at all.

"My friends, you have all come here to welcome Daolord Darknorth." Lord Houwu's face was all smiles as he spoke: "As a result, Houwu City has also been given a chance to host a truly rare banquet. To be able to meet with Daolord Darknorth is our good fortune. If it wasn't for the fact that he was searching for Nuwa, we would probably never have a chance like this. Let us first offer a toast to Daolord Darknorth in honor of the karma which brought us together."

"A toast to the Daolord!" Instantly, all of the major powers lifted up their cups.

Patriarch Treewind and Imperator Jade Rainbow were considered ordinary powers here. Only those who were at least at the Hegemon level of power were seated, while the weaker ones weren't even permitted to take part. But of course, Daolord Darknorth's retainer Su Youji was able to take part. She was even seated close to the front.

Ning lifted up his own wine cup, downing the wine before replying with a smile, "No need to be so courteous. Everyone, be more relaxed and casual. This is my first visit to the Blazesun Domain, which is filled with countless dangers, many strange lifeforms, and Sourcewalkers of incredible power. It isn't easy for cultivators to stay alive here, and I've long heard that the one and only city which we cultivators have here is the city of Houwu. This place is a place where we cultivators can rest and be sheltered, and now that I'm here I can tell that it truly is extraordinary."

"It is nothing more than a resting stop," Lord Houwu said humbly. "In the end, we're still the weaker party here. Everyone still acknowledges that the Blazesun Ruler is still that Sourcewalker."

The major powers all chatted in high spirits during this banquet, telling Daolord Darknorth of all the marvels they had encountered within the Blazesun Domain. Ning was quite curious as well; although he had heard of some of the Blazesun Domain's secrets from Hegemon Goodsong and Realmslord Windgrace, he still knew very little. As he listened to one secret after another, he began to gain a clear understanding of just how marvelous the Blazesun Domain was. As the major powers continued to converse, they all gradually began to grow more familiar with each other as well.

"What?! A Sithe Exalt is trapped here?" Ning said in shock.

"Just so." Lord Houwu laughed, "The Blazesun Domain does indeed have a Sithe Exalt imprisoned within it. An Autarch captured him during the Dawn War and sent him into the Blazesun Domain, where he has suffered all sorts of torment ever since."

"Not just the Blazesun Domain; five of the other seven domains all have a Sithe Exalt within them!" Next to Lord Houwu was a silver-browed old man who held a fan in his hands, and he said with a smile, "A total of six Sithe Exalts have been trapped in the Eight Domains. All of them were captured during the war and have been tormented ever since."

"Oh?" Ning truly was surprised by this. He had heard long ago from Emperor Waveshift that there were Sithe Exalts trapped somewhere, but he never would've imagined that six of the Eight Domains each had a Sithe Exalt imprisoned within them!

"Do you know why the Autarchs captured them instead of killing them?" Ning asked, puzzled.

"No idea."

"The Autarchs must have their own plans."

"However, the Sithe Exalts truly are being constantly tortured. They suffer a fate worse than death and constantly let out miserable bellows," the major powers reported.

Ning nodded slowly when he heard this.

"Daolord, if you wish to pay a visit, when you are free I'll lead you there myself," Hegemon Goodsong said. "Although I've never visited myself, I know where it is."

"Very well." Ning did indeed wish to pay a visit. He had the feeling that there had to be a profound reason behind the Autarchs imprisoning the Sithe Exalts here. In fact… why didn't the Autarchs imprison them within their own estates rather than in the Eight Domains?

"Perhaps I'll know once I visit them," Ning mused. The other major powers weren't able to see through the secrets behind the Sithe Exalts, but Ning was at a much higher level of insight than them. Perhaps he would be able to see through to the truth that they could not.

Ning glanced at the nearby Nuwa. This entire time, Nuwa didn't seem to really care for the food she was eating. This entire time, she was trying to guess just who Ning was. Ning laughed, then said in a loud voice, "I think we should call it a day."

Lord Houwu was caught offguard. He hurriedly rose to his feet and said, "Daolord, there's one thing I would like to ask of you."

"Pray tell, Lord Governor," Ning said.

"I've heard long ago that your Dao of the Sword is unfathomably profound and abstruse, Daolord," Lord Houwu said. "I, Houwu, am focused on cultivation. I go out adventuring and brave many dangers, all for the sake of finding new insights. I wasn't able to become much more powerful, but I did find this city! To me, however… what I truly desire is to be able to walk farther along the path of the Dao. I've always wished to become apprenticed to an Autarch, but never had the chance. Now that you are before me, Daolord, how could I give up a chance like this?"

As Lord Houwu spoke, he immediately knelt down and kowtowed towards Ning, then said respectfully, "Houwu is willing to follow you, Daolord, and obey your orders. I only beg that you are willing to transmit the Dao unto me and let me see a vaster, more profound Dao."

"Transmit the Dao?" Everyone in the hall fell silent. All of the major powers turned to stare at Lord Houwu in a rather unhappy manner.

If Lord Houwu had merely asked for Ning to provide him with some guidance, that would be fine. It was a bit much for him to curry favor with Ning in order to gain from it, but Ning would've been alright with that. The problem was, Lord Houwu had actually requested that Ning 'transmit the Dao' to him!

What did 'transmit the Dao' mean? It meant for Ning to actually transmit his full Dao to Lord Houwu in its entirety!

Divine Sovereign Goldsun had given Ning a Golden Emperor body, and even then Ning had only given him three days of guidance without actually transmitting his Eternal Omega Sword Dao to him. This was the only Eternal Omega Dao which had ever existed in the entire Chaosverse; its value was truly incalculable! Daoist Bluestone had paid an enormous price just to view the Daolord-level Omega Sword Dao… and now, Ning had upgraded it to become an Eternal Omega Sword Dao! How was it that Lord Houwu even dared to make a request like this?

Ning sat there on his seat, staring down at the kowtowing Lord Houwu. His gaze grew cold. "And why the hell should I transmit my Dao to you?"

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Book 39, Nuwa, Chapter 15 – Private Talks

"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 been 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.

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Book 39, Nuwa, Chapter 16 – Soldiers Descend on Houwu City

A total of four treasures were hovering in front Ji Ning. The first was a silver throne, the second was a set of beautiful silver robes, , the third was a blood-colored diamond, while the fourth was a jade slip. The first three were the Sithe weapons which the Lonely King had often used.

"These three Sithe weapons, I acquired after I slew the Lonely King of the Icepeak Army," Ning said with a laugh. "The silver robes are protective in nature, while the blood-colored gemstone can instantly unleash attacks of incredible power which are so fast that even Otherverse Lords might perish if caught off-guard! In fact, there truly have been Otherverse Lords who have perished to the Lonely King as a result of this gemstone. The silver throne, however, is the most important treasure. It allows one to warp through space, create multiple illusory clones, and even launch attacks. At full power, its attacks can destroy an entire otherverse."

Nuwa was shocked upon hearing this. These three treasures truly were extraordinary! If all three were used together, even most Otherverse Lords would feel a sense of fear. The Lonely King had relied upon them more than anything else.

"Starting today, these three Sithe treasures shall belong to you." Ning looked at Nuwa.

"I can't accept this," Nuwa rejected instinctively. Although they had adventured to a Sithe armory and she had acquired a treasure, any of the treasures which the Lonely King had used to dominate the Chaosverse was vastly superior to hers.

"Don't decline. I've failed the Daomerge and won't use energy without a good reason," Ning said. "And… a casual blow from me would be more powerful than these treasures by far. In the Three Realms, my master Subhuti and the others are incapable of using these treasures. The only person in the Three Realms who can use them is you, Nuwa! With these treasures, you'll be strong enough to protect the Three Realms. Accept them."

Nuwa wasn't the wishy-washy type. She immediately nodded: "Very well. I'll accept them. The Three Realms is my home; of course I'll protect it!"

Ning smiled. "As for this slip, it contains my Eternal Omega Sword Dao. I've recorded it all here, and no one has ever viewed it before." Ning chuckled. "Take a look and see if it can give you a few new ideas."

"Eternal Omega Sword Dao?" Nuwa stared at the levitating jade slip. Its aura continued to cause her to feel a sense of shock. She knew that compared to the first three treasures, the jade slip was the most valuable treasure of them all!

"Thank you." Nuwa didn't decline, nor could she decline. She reached out to gently touch the jade slip, then instantly sent out her godsense.

A flood of information entered her mind. The first thing Nuwa did was to swear a lifeblood oath that she could only allow members of the Three Realms to study the Eternal Omega Sword Dao. But of course, if she herself was able to glean certain insights from the Eternal Omega Sword Dao she wouldn't be limited in her ability to transmit them to others.

"This Sword Dao…" Nuwa was stunned when she sensed how vast and overwhelmingly powerful the Eternal Omega Sword Dao was.

"Accept the jade slip. You can view it and ruminate on it as you please," Ning said. The Eternal Omega Sword Dao was simply far too profound; not even a direct transmission into one's mind could allow one to brute-force memorize it all! If you read through it quickly, you'd soon begin to forget it all. Your memories would grow blurry… because this was something which vastly surpassed your ability to understand it! You had to have the jade slip by your side and constantly meditate on it and study it. As a result, the jade slip itself was incredibly important. This was why Ning had requested that Nuwa only allow the members of the Three Realms to be trained in it.

"Alright." Nuwa accepted the jade slip, then sat down in the lotus position and began to meditate on it. She was completely consumed by it, completely intoxicated by this truly grand Dao. As for Ning, he sat down next to her as well.

"Darknorth, this sword-art seemed to have its own spirit. Why is it that it is so marvelous and agile?" Nuwa raised her head and asked, her fingers demonstrating as she spoke.

Ning began to demonstrate his sword-arts while answering each of her questions. Ning held nothing back from Nuwa at all, because once he died and his Dao vanished, Nuwa would become the most powerful expert of the Three Realms.

Ning had been able to vaguely scry parts of the future. He was able to see that Nuwa would indeed continue to safeguard the Three Realms and that she was definitely worthy of his trust. But of course, there were many other images that had appeared as he scryed the future. In the end, the future was in a state of flux. Since it had yet to actually happen, all things were technically possible.

In the blink of an eye, Ning had spent more than half a year guiding Nuwa as she trained. Nuwa was completely absorbed with training in the Eternal Omega Sword Dao, and for Ning to personally instruct her and resolve her questions was a truly rare opportunity. Ning wouldn't even be this detailed when teaching his own students! As for Lord Houwu or Patriarch Treewind, none of them dared to disturb the two.

Rumble… a terrifying wave of power suddenly spread out into the city from afar. Ning frowned and rose to his feet. He walked over to the entrance to take a look towards the distant horizons. He could sense that a vague, malevolent aura was surging towards them from afar.

"What's going on?" Nuwa rose to her feet and walked over to the entrance as well. "Something feels wrong."

"I can sense that a force is drawing near," Ning said. "And it is quite strong. Let's go take a look." Ning and Nuwa flew out side-by-side. In truth, figures were flying out from residences throughout Houwu City. These Hegemons, Emperors, and Samsara Daolords could all sense the increasingly powerful ripples generated by the encroaching power.

"Master." Flamewing, Su Youji, Whitethaw, Azurefiend, and Hegemon Goodsong all immediately flew towards Ning.

"Daolord." Lord Houwu flew out as well, behaving as warmly as before.

"Lord Governor," Ning asked, "What's going on?"

Lord Houwu hesitated slightly. Suddenly, a figure appeared at the horizons. This was something who had four hooved legs but the upper body of a human. This strange creature was as crimson as blood, and it galloped through the skies. These creatures were wielding all sorts of weapons, including greataxes or heavy warhammers. They all radiated auras of tremendous power.

"Crimson bloodfiends?" Lord Houwu growled, "Over a hundred crimson bloodfiends have appeared at the same time?"

Rumble… the hundred-plus crimson bloodfiends galloped towards them. Moments later, towering eight-armed giants whose bodies were as white as snow suddenly began to appear as well. The many eight-armed giants each had just a single eye, and they let out furious roars as their awesome auras spread out as well.

These were all unique lifeforms… but what truly surprised Ning was that all the members of these two races had reached the Hegemon level.

"These are incredibly powerful races… and for the two to appear at the same time?"

Ning was surprised. "Lord Houwu, does this happen often here?"

"No. We rarely see such powerful beings." Lord Houwu was puzzled as well.

Suddenly, the two races of creatures split apart into two sides, revealing three figures in their midst.

To the left was a towering crimson bloodfiend whose entire body was covered with golden armor. The fiend wielded a double-edged battleaxe which was covered with runes and emanated a shocking aura of power; clearly, this was a very unique Sithe weapon.

To the right was an eight-armed giant who was holding a set of fiery chains. Most of the fiery chains were wrapped around him, and his aura was just as terrifying as the fiend's.

Finally, there was a red-robed maiden in the center.

The faces of quite a few cultivators turned gray when they saw these three appear. "Them?!" Lord Houwu's face tightened as well. "Where did they come from?"

Ning frowned as well. Although he didn't know who these three people were, he could roughly estimate how strong they were. The three leaders… two were unique lifeforms, while the other was a Sourcewalker. All three of them were extremely strong, significantly stronger than most Otherverse Lords.

The red-robed maiden stepped forward to stand in front of her allies. She said: "All cultivators of Houwu City, hear my commands!" Her voice was ice cold and it shook every part of the region.

"I have come on orders from the Ruler of the Blazesun Domain. I have come to Houwu City to capture five cultivators." The red-robed maiden waved her hand as she spoke, causing a scroll to instantly unfurl and reveal a total of five images. These were images of Patriarch Treewind, Imperator Jade Rainbow, Nuwa, and the other two. In the images, Patriarch Treewind and the others were advancing carefully.

"Same rules as always." The red-robed maiden actually glanced at Patriarch Treewind, then at Nuwa who stood behind Ning. "Hand the five of them over and we won't harm anyone else. If you dare to refuse… then that means Houwu City shall enter yet another war against us!"

A total of more than two hundred Hegemonic creatures were hovering in the air behind the three leaders. The pressure they brought upon the cultivators was quite enormous… and they were backed by the even more powerful Blazesun Ruler. This was a threat which another type of civilization was levying against the cultivators… and here in the Eight Domains, the cultivator civilizations were clearly the weaker party.

"Walker Scarletbind," Lord Houwu called out loudly, "Can you tell us how they have offended the Blazesun Ruler?" The Blazesun Ruler was one of the most supreme of Sourcewalkers, comparable to Sithe Exalts in power. So long as an Autarch didn't intervene, these creatures were invincible.

"Hmph. These five thieves actually dared to barge into one of the Ruler's hidden residences. They caused an enormous amount of damage and wiped the place clean. They even destroyed one of the Ruler's favorite treasures, the Jadeheart Lamp! The Ruler was infuriated by this, and so he sent the order to capture them and bring the back. They are to be tortured to death! Otherwise, there's no way he can give vent to his rage," the red-robed maiden said angrily.

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Book 39, Nuwa, Chapter 17 – Battle Erupts

Patriarch Treewind, Imperator Jade Rainbow, Nuwa, and the others all turned pale.

"A fine disciple you have, Treewind!" Imperator Jade Rainbow instantly sent a frantic mental message: "A 'Sithe armory'? It was actually one of the Blazesun Ruler's hidden estates. We're in serious trouble now!"

"What's the use of saying all of this now? When we broke through layers of formations and penetrated to the very depths of the estate, we already suspected that this was actually a place which belonged to the Blazesun Ruler, right? You still chose to take the Sithe treasures away with you. The entire reason we chose to hide within Houwu City was because we wanted to see what would happen next!" Patriarch Treewind said angrily.

"Damnit." Imperator Jade Rainbow was extremely nervous. He glanced at the white-robed youth standing next to Lord Houwu, then sent mentally, "Old man Treewind, do you think Daolord Darknorth would be willing to help us out? And… do you think he can beat the Blazesun Ruler?"

"Hard to say," Patriarch Treewind sent back. "If he was in perfect shape with unfettered access to his divine power and Immortal ki? Given how he was able to slay the Lonely King with just one strike, he definitely wouldn't need to fear the Blazesun Ruler. Even if he wasn't able to win, Daolord Darknorth would definitely be able to defend against him! The problem is that he has failed his Daomerge, which means he can't battle for too long. It'll probably be very hard for him to fight against the Blazesun Ruler, who is in perfect shape."

"Ugh." Imperator Jade Rainbow said nervously, "I hope Daolord Darknorth cares about Nuwa to defend her."

Ning frowned. Of course he had to protect Nuwa! He'd protect her even at the cost of his own life.

"Flamewing, release a bit of your aura," Ning sent.

"Need me to attack?" Flamewing asked rather eagerly.

"Don't be impatient," Ning instructed.

"Fien!" Flamewing immediately flew into the air while returning to his true form. The enormous, flame-bathed body of the Flamewing God appeared in the skies, emanating an aura of inexhaustible power. As a Chaos Primordial, its energy stores were virtually limitless, and its body was all but indestructible. Even Sithe Exalts had to attack in numbers; a single one wouldn't be able to do anything to it.

"A Chaos Primordial!" The mighty experts serving the Blazesun Ruler were all shocked, while the three leaders felt a sense of trepidation.

"Chaos Primordial, why are you standing with cultivators?" the crimson bloodfiend leader roared angrily.

"We've come on orders from the Blazesun Ruler. Are you going to make an enemy out of him?" the eight-armed chain-bearing giant roared angrily as well.

"You two idiots," the red-robed maiden muttered.

"Who the hell is the Blazesun-whatever? I don't know him!" Flamewing bellowed back.

The red-robed maiden secretly felt helpless. All Chaos Primordials had the intelligence of children, and they were born completely fearless. Nothing and no one could control them! Yes, the Blazesun Ruler might have the power of a Sith Exalt and was indeed stronger than Flamewing… so what if he was? He still wouldn't be able to capture Flamewing, much less kill it! There was nothing the Blazesun Ruler could do to this troublemaker.

"Chaos Primordial, why must you interfere? This is an affair between us and these cultivators," the red-robed maiden said.

"What's with all the questions?!" Flamewing bellowed.

Ning said, "It is true that the five of them offended the Ruler by trespassing on his estate, but they weren't aware that it belonged to him. They thought that it was a relic site of some sort. Although they are in the wrong, capital punishment would not be fitting. I'll have them return all the treasures they took to the Blazesun Ruler and have this matter be brought to the end. Is that acceptable?"

"Is that a puny little Daolord speaking?" the red-robed maiden glanced downwards with a smirk. "And one who failed the Daomerge at that. You actually dare to speak?"

"He's my master!" Flamewing bellowed, turning to look at Ning. "Master, let me eat them!"

"Don't be impatient." Ning continued, "A minor matter like this isn't worth starting a war with us over."

"Hmph. A Daolord was actually able to tame a Chaos Primordial? This Chaos Primordial truly is a fool." The red-robed maiden chuckled. "As for this being a 'minor matter'? Hmph. The Jadeheart Lamp was something which the Ruler loved dearly. If all they had done was steal a few treasures, this matter would be at an end after they returned them… but they caused a large amount of wanton destruction and even wrecked the lamp! No one can save them now. Lord Houwu, don't hide in the back! Speak! Are you going to hand them over or not? If not, we're going to attack."

"B-but…" Lord Houwu turned frantically towards Ning. Based on how he normally handled things, he would lower his head and endure the threats while trying to come up with a way to let Patriarch Treewind and the others flee. As for whether or not Patriarch Treewind would perish during their flight, that was up to luck.

"Make your choice!" the red-robed maiden barked coldly, while the two leaders by her side emanated auras of murderous malice.

Seeing this, Ning frowned. He immediately instructed, "Flamewing, attack with all your power."

"Hahahaha!" Flamewing had been waiting for just this order. Delighted, it immediately charged forwards while belching out that dark-red fire from its mouth. The flames covered the entire region, spread out in every direction.

The crimson bloodfiends and the eight-armed giants were all instantly swept up within the flames. Although it felt rather painful, they were still in fine shape. These special beings were born with more powerful bodies than cultivators, after all! More importantly, they had always lived within the Blazesun Domain and thus were born with a fondness and affinity to fire. As a result, fire wasn't all that harmful to them.

Their bodies were extremely sturdy, but they would still die if the fire made its way inside of them. But of course, there was no way they would allow the flames to enter their bodies.

"Stop that Chaos Primordial!" the red-robed maiden commanded.

"Alright!"

"Leave it to us!" The crimson bloodfiend leader and the eight-armed giant leader both charged forwards, but they were clearly quite a bit slower and wouldn't be able to catch up to Flamewing.

Slash! Slash! Two of the eight-armed giants were torn into tiny pieces in the blink of an eye, the pieces then burnt to ashes by the flames.

"Damnit!" The two leadesr were stunned and enraged.

"It is quite fast, much faster than the last Chaos Primordial I saw." The red-robed maiden frowned slightly as a semi-translucent dirt-colored gemstone appeared in her palm. She waved her hand, casuing a series of black tentacles to appear out of nowhere and reach out towards Flamewing. These black tentacles were incredibly tough and took no damage from the flames which Flamewing belched out. A total of eight tentacles were created, and they came from all directions, making it impossible for Flamewing to avoid them.

Riiiiip! Flamewing used its sharp claws to tear them apart by force while also biting at them. One tentacle after another was severed, but they continued to tighten around them. Flamewing had so much brute force that it was still able to split the tentacles apart, but they would then regrow to coil around it once more. This caused Flamewing's speed to drop drastically.

"Damn Sourcewalker!" The enraged Flamewing moved to pounce towards the red-robed maiden.

"Stop it in its tracks," the red-robed maiden instructed.

Boom! The crimson bloodfiend leader struck out with its giant double-bladed battleaxe towards Flamewing, while the eight-armed giant sent its chains flying out and lashing towards Flamewing like a whip.

Boom! Bang! The crimson bloodfiend leader and the eight-armed giant leader continuously attacked Flamewing, while the red-blooded maiden continued to use her tentacles to bind and slow Flamewing down. For a time, Flamewing found itself surrounded and unable to break free.

"Goodsong, go and help Flamewing out," Ning instructed.

"Got it." Hegemon Goodsong was filled with the desire for battle, and he transformed into a streak of golden light that flew straight towards the four. However, halfway there he was slapped back by a black tentacle. That single black tentacle was enough to completely tie him down for a time. Hegemon Goodsong was just barely able to break it apart, but it then quickly regrew. Clearly, he was still quite a bit weaker than the Sourcewalker was.

Ning frowned when he saw this. The two armies of strange creatures had yet to attack. If all of the cultivators of Houwu City all took part in this fight, they would naturally be able to defend against this attack! However, their foe still held the upper hand in the Blazesun Domain. If the Blazesun Ruler gave the order, even more Sourcewalkers and strange creatures would appear.

"Darknorth," Nuwa sent mentally, "Perhaps we should back down and pretend to negotiate with them, then immediately flee. Given our fleeing abilities and your assistance, we should be able to escape."

"This is the Blazesun Domain. The Blazesun Ruler's influence is too great," Ning sent back. "Even if you are able to temporarily flee, you'll probably be caught soon. Resolving this matter here is the best solution."

Right at this moment, the red-robed maiden glanced downwards and shouted, "Did you think you'd be able to resist us just because you have a Chaos Primordial? The Blazesun Ruler has always been courteous to you cultivators, but do you really think that he is someone to be trifled with? You wrecked his estate and destroyed his beloved lamp. The five of them have to die! Obey my orders and attack!"

"Attack!"

"Attack!" The crimson bloodfiends and the eight-armed giants simultaneously let out earth-shaking bellows, then began to swoop down from the skies. An aura of endless might enveloped the entire city of Houwu.

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Book 39, Nuwa, Chapter 18 – Ji Ning Attacks

When the cultivators inside Houwu City saw that swarm of creatures swooping down towards them, they couldn't help but start to panic slightly. In truth, they were unwilling to fight with these creatures to the death. According to the customary rule, everyone would just help out a bit to give the person who caused the problem a chance to flee; that was as far as everyone was willing to go.

The problem was, this time the one standing behind Patriarch Treewind and Nuwa was Daolord Darknorth. Thus, they hesitated.

"All of you, enter the city!" Lord Houwu immediately barked mentally, then turned to look at Ning desperately. "Daolord Darknorth, what should…"

If it wasn't for Ning, Lord Houwu would've followed the usual rule. There was no way he would be hesitating for this long.

Ning raised his head to stare upwards at the throng of creatures swooping down towards them. Suddenly, the 'ordinary' aura surrounding Ning began to dramatically skyrocket in power!

Boom! Boom! Boom!!! The skies above the city of Houwu began to shake as countless streams of sword-light appeared out of nowhere. Many millions of swords manifested with Ning at the center, and all of them hung up high. In a single instant, the entire region had transformed into a world of swords.

The creatures which had been furiously swooping down towards Houwu City came to a sudden, startled pause. The crimson bloodfiends and eight-armed giants stared at the sword-light in terror, not daring to move at all. They could sense how sharp the sword-light was, and in fact some of them were nicked by the sword-light, causing wounds to appear on their bodies.

They all understood that the omnipresent sword-light was able to annihilate them all with ease.

"This…"

"This is…" the crimson bloodfiend leader, the eight-armed giant leader, and the red-robed maiden were all stunned as they stared at the countless streams of sword-light in the world around them.

This was a world of the sword. Some of the sword-light seemed lively and joyful, some seemed moody and ghostly. Some were filled with malevolence, others were ephemeral and drifting. The countless streams of sword-light combined to form a perfect world of the sword.

"Commander?"

"Clan leader!" The crimson bloodfiends and the eight-armed giants all turned to stare at their leaders. They were filled with terror that sprang from within their very bones.

The red-robed maiden swallowed, hard. Her face was rather ashen, and she stared with a degree of fear at the white-robed youth who continued to stand there calmly. "He's too terrifying. He hasn't even attacked; all he's done is unleashed his domain, and it's already terrifying. T-t-this domain… most likely, there's no way Hegemons can survive it at all. They'd be wiped out instantly."

This was indeed Ning's Sword Dao domain! Or, to put it another way, this was a domain formed by the prime essences of the Dao of the Sword! Anyone who wasn't powerful enough would be slaughtered with ease by this domain. Ning didn't wish to intensify the problems between him and the Blazesun Ruler; otherwise, the terrified creatures would've all been wiped out long ago, save for perhaps those three leaders. It wouldn't have cost him a single scrap of his own power.

This scene stunned all of the cultivators within Houwu City.

"So this is the power of the Eternal Omega Sword Dao?" They stared at the omnipresent streaks of sword-light in the skies. They could sense how terrifyingly powerful the sword-light was. Daolord Darknorth had reached such a terrifying level of power that he didn't even need to personally strike; his domain alone could effortlessly annihilate anyone below the Otherverse Lord level of power.

"Now THIS is the real Daolord Darknorth!" Patriarch Treewind said with a sigh.

"It seems we'll survive this," Imperator Jade Rainbow said, still filled with awe and fear.

Lord Houwu raised his head to stare at the skies, his gaze filled with envy. "If Daolord Daolord was willing to transmit the Dao to me…"

"Master."

"Darknorth." Right now, there were two people who cared about Ning the most. The first was Su Youji, while the second was Nuwa.

The two of them truly cared about Ning's life. For him to merely release a Dao domain was one thing, but if he truly wished to kill the three leaders he would have to use his own energies… which was akin to Ning using up his own lifespan! Su Youji's feelings towards Ning went without saying, and while Nuwa had only met Ning a short while ago she already viewed him as one of her closest friends.

Her homeland had produced such a dazzling genius… someone who, even after failing the Daomerge, cared enough to then seek her out to ensure that she would safeguard the Three Realms. Nuwa felt a sense of admiration towards Ning; she naturally didn't wish for Ning to use up any more of his life energy. This was doubly true because Ning was getting into this dispute for her sake!

The two hundred-plus Hegemonic reatures all stood in midair, terrified. None of them dared to move at all.

"S-s-s-senior!" The double-bladed battleaxe-wielding crimson bloodfiend leader was the most frightened of them all. Even his voice quavered when he spoke.

Ning turned to sweep them with his gaze, and as he did the three leaders felt a sense of terror rise in their hearts. This Dao domain had completely enveloped the surrounding area and suppressed everything here.

"Scram!" Ning barked coldly, his voice echoing for countless kilometers around. The crimson bloodfiend leader lowered his head and gulped, so terrified that he immediately turned tail and fled. As for the other crimson bloodfiends under his command, they all followed him in fleeing.

The ashen-faced red-robed maiden took two steps back. She was hesitating. As a Sourcewalker, she was extremely intelligent and possessed tremendous skills of comprehension. She could naturally tell how terrifying this Daolord was… but the Blazesun Ruler truly was extremely angry. She wanted to try and negotiate and see if a better resolution was possible.

As for the eight-armed giant, he stared intently at Ning without backing down in the slightest.

The red-robed maiden spoke out: "I am Walker Scarletbind, and I serve the Blazesun Ruler. Dare I ask who you are, senior?"

"Darknorth," Ning said.

"Scarletbindgreets you, Daolord Darknorth." For the first time, the red-robed maiden bowed her head with great respect. She showed nothing but disdain when meeting with other cultivators, but as soon as she saw the sword-light flooding the skies she understood just how terrifying this cultivator Daolord was, and how worthy of respect he was. His skill in sword-arts alone vastly surpassed the Blazesun Ruler she served.

"Walker Scarletbind." Ning nodded. "I imagine you understand what I am intending. I do not wish for a battle to arise between the Blazesun Ruler and myself. A minor matter like this isn't worth it."

"I do understand," the red-robed maiden said respectfully, "But… this time, the Ruler is extremely angry. I'm afraid that he won't just let things rest."

"Scarletbind, why are you wasting time on him? You there! Cultivator Daolord!" The eight-armed giant let out an earth-shaking shout: "What technique did you use to unleash this domain of swords? However… this thing isn't a threat to me at all! Your sword domain is harmless to me. I'll kill you with one lash of my chains. Let's see how long you can maintain your arrogance then!"

"Eight-Armed Hill, do NOT be rude," the red-robed maiden said frantically.

"Don't be fooled, Scarletbind! This cultivator Daolord is just putting up an false front of bravado. Cultivators love to lie, cheat, and steal, but all of them are very weak. He's just a Daolord! How strong can he be?" The eight-armed giant leader forced down the fear he had felt earlier, transforming it into rage at the thought of having been deceived by Ning.

"DIE!" the eight-armed giant leader howled as he ran through the air towards Ning.

"You…!" The red-robed maiden hurriedly waved her hand, sending out one of the black tentacles and intending to use it to catch the eight-armed giant. However, the eight-armed giant's chains began to clatter and clack, smashing the black tentacles apart. The eight-armed giant howled loudly, "Scarletbind, do you think I don't know all your little tricks?"

The eight-armed giant turned towards Ning once more. "DIE!" His chains clanked with terrifying power that was nearly equivalent to the Flamewing God's as he struck out at Ning.

The red-robed maiden felt both frantic and helpless. These creatures all had a far lower level of intelligence. Chaos Primordials weren't so bad; they simply had childlike personalities. These creatures, however, had personalities as bizarre as their appearances. Some were sly, some were sinister, some were stupid, some were brutish… and as for this eight-armed giant, he was famous for his explosive temper. He easily went berserk… and now, he had just gone berserk again.

"Master, I'll go stop him!" Flamewing moved to charge out.

"Leave it to me!" Ning commanded coldly. Flamewing stared wide-eyed at Ning, as did Nuwa and Su Youji from behind.

"Do not!" Nuwa said hurriedly.

"Flamewing won't be able to dispose of him. It'll keep causing trouble for us." Ning stared at the distant eight-armed giant, which had almost instantly charged towards him. A murderous look was in Ning's eyes which caused all the major powers present to hold their breaths. At his current level, Ning was invincible in all the Chaosverse against everyone save the Autarchs. How could he not feel a degree of pride in himself?

Whoosh. Ning stepped forward as well. All the cultivators in Houwu City raised their heads to look, with Patriarch Treewind and Nuwa staring particularly intently.

In this instant, time itself seemed to have froze. Ning stepped forward in a graceful and casual manner, and as he did so space itself seemed to have shrunk between him and the eight-armed giant. He instantly appeared in front of the giant, whose eyes had been filled with berserk savagery… but in the next instant, the look in the giant's eyes was replaced by a hint of shock.

Swoosh. Ning struck out with his sword. All of the cultivators present were able to see with clarity how Ning drew a single black sword from the sheath on his back, and then as part of the same motion delivered a chopping blow downwards.

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Book 39, Nuwa, Chapter 19 – Blazesun Ruler

The godlike sword carved through the air, leaving behind streaks of sword-light that looked like petals frozen in the air. The streaks of sword-light then all connected to each other into a beautiful arc, and it was as though the dazzling, snow-white sword-light had come alive. It was like a dazzling snow flower that had bloomed with breathtaking beauty, and the petals of that flower just so happened to pass through the eight-armed giant's body, leaving behind a single giant wound.

Ji Ning's sword-intent spread out through the power of karma, instantly annihilating every scrap of truesoul the eight-armed giant possessed. The giant's life energy instantly vanished… but the dazzlingly beautiful snow flower of sword-light continued to hover there in the air.

Clink! Ning once more returned his sword into the sheath on his back… and with that, time seemed to return back to normal once more.

"Ah?!"

"This…"

"He twisted time?"

"That scene… it's been forever burned into my memories." The cultivators of Houwu City were all shocked. That sword-strike had been so beautiful! In addition, they had been able to see everything with perfect clarity. The drawing of the sword, the chopping, the flower of sword-light, the re-sheathing… it had all been clearly visible.

It must be remembered that it was extremely difficult to see the attacks of Hegemons with clarity! And to be precise, it wasn't that they had really seen Ning's attacks clearly; rather, Ning's sword-arts had emblazoned themselves into their memories, making it impossible for them to forget any detail.

Boom! The eight-armed giant fell down from the skies, landing on the ground below.

"It has a Sithe treasure on it!" Quite a few cultivators instantly grew excited. Everyone could tell that those chains were quite extraordinary… but none of them dared to go and take it.

"Ugh. A major power like him would never suffer insults lightly." The red-robed maiden couldn't help but sigh as she watched from afar. She had wanted to stop the giant, but failed. "They are fine when calm, but when angered the end result shall be calamity. He had always been an idiot, but how could he be such an idiot in front such a major power?"

It was much like how no one would dare to offend an Autarch, or even an Autarch's friends, family, and servants. There was no one who could endure the consequences of enraging an Autarh! The red-robed maiden could see that Daolord Darknorth was also someone who couldn't be offended by the likes of her.

"The Eight-Armed Hill was simply too stupid. He deserved to die for offending you, Daolord Darknorth," the red-robed maiden said hurriedly. "As for those cultivators the Ruler seeks to capture… Daolord, what do you think?

"There's no way I can hand them over to you," Ning said. "Go ahead and tell the Blazesun Ruler that there's no way I'll hand them over. That's my bottom line! Anything else is negotiable, but if we cannot come to an agreement and he insists on killing them… then there's nothing I can say or do. Your Ruler can come by himself or bring his army; I, Darknorth, will be waiting for him."

The red-robed woman's heart trembled. What a fierce thing to say. There really were very few cultivators who would dare to say something like this to the Blazesun Ruler.

"I'll inform the Ruler about this. I'll be leaving now, then," the red-robed maiden said. As she spoke, she turned and immediately departed alongside the remaining creatures under her command. No one paid any attention to the eight-armed giant's corpse, nor did they dare to go pick up the Sithe weapon he had left behind.

Ning watched from afar as those creatures hurriedly departed into the horizons.

"Darknorth," Nuwa said, a hint of apology in her eyes, "Because of me, you…"

"Haha, I'm someone who failed the Daomerge. Even if I'm extremely careful, I only have a few thousand chaos cycles left. A few less years won't make any difference," Ning said with a laugh.

"Then what of the Blazesun Ruler?" Nuwa was worried.

"Daolord, the Blazesun Ruler is a truly supreme Sourcewalker," the nearby Hegemon Goodsong said.

Ning slowly nodded. "The Blazesun Ruler's power cannot be underestimated. If we can avoid battle, that would be the best solution. Everyone, make your preparations. This very day, we shall depart from Houwu City!"

"Alright."

"We'll head out today." Patriarch Treewind and Imperator Jade Rainbow had come over as well, and they fully supported Ning's decision. Although they knew Daolord Darknorth was incredibly powerful, they still felt a degree of fear towards the Blazesun Ruler! It was better to avoid battle.

That very day, Ning led Nuwa, Patriarch Treewind, and the others in departing from Houwu City.

"Be careful on your journey, Daolord." Lord Houwu watched from afar as the realmship vanished from his demesnes.

"Lord Governor, you were far too rash! If you had merely asked Daolord Darknorth for some pointers, he would've agreed to give you some guidance," the nearby silver-browed elder said.

"Forget it. That ship has already sailed. Just being able to witness that dazzling sword-strike was all worth it," Lord Houwu said. "That sword-strike… I will probably never be able to forget it. It was simply too incredible."

That dazzling, snowy-colored, flower-like sword had already surpassed the limits of sword-arts. It truly was unsurpassably beautiful.

The Blazesun Domain was a truly mysterious place. It was filled with many Sithe treasuries, Sourcewalkers, Chaos Primordials, strange creatures, and multiple otherverses. It was one of the most marvelous places of the Chaosverse, one of the Eight Domains.

Swoosh! The red-robed woman and the crimson bloodfiend leader flew through the void side-by-side, finally landing upon a long walkway of frozen ice.

For a walkway of frozen ice to appear within the blazingly hot Blazesun Domain was truly a marvelous thing. Thanks to its vast size, the Blazesun Domain was a self-contained system unto itself that was extremely stable, and filled with places that had both mud and water. Ice, however, was still very rare, much less an entire walkway made out of ice.

The frozen walkway was semi-translucent and stretched off for countless kilometers. It was lined with stone columns to each side, and each column had a ball of fire blazing on top.

The red-robed maiden and the crimson bloodfiend leader walked across the walkway of ice. After walking for a time, they saw an enormous altar that had been sculpted out of ice. It had many layers of frozen steps which led to a frozen throne at the very top.

Atop the frozen throne sat a muscular man whose entire body was black. He was dressed in black armor, and his eyes were two blazing balls of fire. He rested his jaw on one hand as he stared downwards and said calmly, "The Eight-Armed Hill's lifestone has shattered, which means it is dead. How did it die? I do not believe the Lord Governor of Houwu City has the courage to launch a war against me! In addition, I've never humiliated or made things too difficult for their city. This time, they went too far in destroying something which I loved."

The crimson bloodfiend leader shivered, not saying a word. The red-robed maiden, however, bowed respectfully: "Ruler, we went on your orders to apprehend those five cultivators. As you said, the Lord Governor of Houwu City would never dare to make an enemy out of you… but those five cultivators have a powerful backer."

"A backer?" The muscular black figure stared downwards at them.

"Yes." The red-robed maiden said hurriedly, "Their backer is named Daolord Darknorth!"

"A Daolord?" The muscular black figure was instantly astonished. In truth, neither the red-robed maiden or the Blazesun Ruler had heard the name 'Daolord Darknorth' before! Although the legend of Ning had spread quite far by now, it had only spread amongst the cultivators. No one would go out of their way to share news like this to Sourcewalkers or the other civilizations! In addition, the Sourcewalkers were located quite far away from each other; it was generally quite hard for them to send word to their fellows. Thus, there were very few Sourcewalkers who knew the legend of Daolord Darknorth.

"Are you joking with me?" the Blazesun Ruler said coldly.

"I wouldn't dare."

"We would never dare to lie to you, Ruler!" the crimson bloodfiend said hurriedly. "It truly was a Daolord, an extremely powerful one. He didn't even use any techniques at all; he simply manifested countless streaks of sword-light in the world, and every single streak of sword-light was capable of slaying Hegemons with ease! He was utterly terrifying. I was completely dazed when I saw this."

"What? He manifested countless streaks of sword-light, each of which could slay Hegemons?" The Blazesun Ruler rose to his feet in shock.

"Yes." The red-robed maiden said hurriedly, "It should've been a domain formed by the Dao of the Sword! A terrifying one at that. The Eight-Armed Hill, that fool, actually thought that Daolord Darknorth was just faking it and putting on a false front, insisting on charging towards Daolord Darknorth and attacking him. I couldn't even stop him! Daolord Darknorth used just a single blow of his sword to kill the Eight-Armed Hill. In addition, Daolord Darknorth is a Daolord who has failed the Daomerge. I can sense that his soul and truesoul were slowly dissipating with every passing breath."

The Blazesun Ruler murmured softly, "I've never even heard of such a terrifying Sword Dao domain. Can it be… a legendary 'Eternal Omega Dao', one of the sword?"

Omega Daos were all legends. The Blazesun Ruler knew of them, but he also knew that no one had ever succeeded in the Daomerge for an Omega Dao, and that no one had ever mastered an Eternal Omega Dao! But when he heard of how Ning had created such a terrifying Sword Dao domain, and that Ning was a Daolord who had failed the Daomerge… save for the Eternal Omega Sword Dao, the Blazesun Ruler couldn't think of any other possibility.

"Interesting." The Blazesun Ruler's eyes lit up, and the flames that served for his eyes suddenly glowed brighter. "A Daolord who has failed the Daomerge but mastered the Eternal Omega Sword Dao? I've never heard of such a thing. Finally, something interesting has appeared to break up the monotony of life."

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