The Desolate Era

Book 28, Archaeus Region, Chapter 17 – A Group of Eight

After leaving the Sacred Immortal Realm, Ji Ning and the others spent three hundred years in flight. Only after they felt that had fled a sufficiently long distance did they begin to divide up their loot.

A flying vessel was lazily drifting through the void of the Archaeus region. Ning and the rest of the five were seated within the vessel, counting their earnings.

“That weak Daolord actually had quite a few treasures, including two Prismatic Kiloleaf Flowers. If we add those two to the one which we harvested, that means we have three! He also had an Archaeus medallion as well as these other treasures…” Heartlord Solewind had placed the many treasures he had found across the deck of the vessel.

“That’s quite a lot.”

“Ahaha! That weak Daolord certainly had quite a lot of treasures.” Ning and the others were all pleasantly surprised by this. What they didn’t realize was that the stooped, green-robed Daolord had been assigned all of the more taxing tasks, such as tormenting the cultivators and taking care of the flowers. The actual planting and nurturing of a Prismatic Kiloleaf Flower was an extremely exhausting job, and each time a flower grew to maturity he would head over and harvest it. Although the harvested flowers were temporarily left with him, once their group left the Sacred Immortal Realm he would’ve had to hand it over to the black-robed Daolord.

“How should we split these things up?” Skyfire Brightshore asked hurriedly.

“You are an honorable prince of the Brightshore Imperials. Why are you trying to haggle over treasures with commoners like us?” Firesurge teased him.

“How about this? Let’s consider the three flowers as three ‘portions’ of treasures, an Archaeus medallion as one portion, and all of those other treasures as a fifth portion. Each of us will get one portion, and we can choose as we please,” Heartlord Solewind said.

Ning and the others all nodded.

The stooped Daolord truly did have quite ac ollection of treasures, including a bit of darkspace flamestone. Although he didn’t have that much of the flamestone, the amount he did have was still worth close to a million cubes of chaos nectar.

“I want the Archaeus medallion,” Prince Greatjoy said.

“I want…” Ning spoke out at the same time, then paused, slightly stunned. He wanted the Archaeus medallion as well! Su Youji had been a master-class Chaos Immortal when she first acquired the legacy of Feixian the Exalted. Feixian the Exalted had been an extremely powerful Daolord, and his legacy was very well-suited for Su Youji. As a result, she now had the power of a supreme Chaos Immortal. This opportunity in the Archaeus region wasn’t to be missed!

If she was given an Archaeus medallion, she would be able to journey alongside the five. She might grow a bit more stronger, in which case she could very well be able to break through to become a Samsara Daolord herself! A Samsara Daolord who knew the secrets arts of Feixian the Exalted would be a terrifyingly strong assistant, and Su Youji herself was actually an extremely talented individual as well.

She had relied on techniques she herself had come up with to reach the apex of the Ancestral Immortal level. She had needed only one further step to reach the World level, and after she joined Ning she had indeed broken through to that level during their adventures within the Allgod Estate! She had been improving at an incredibly fast rate. Although she was inferior to Ning, she was still quite dazzling. Ning naturally was willing to spend time and effort on helping build her up.

“Brother Darknorth, you want it as well?” Prince Greatjoy was startled.

“The two of you really are generous. We’re valuing these medallions at around a million cubes each.” Firesurge chuckled as he picked up a Prismatic Kiloleaf Flower. “I’ll simply choose this pretty little flower.”

“I have no retainers. I’ll choose one of the flowers as well.” Skyfire Brightshore also choose to acquire one of the flowers.

“Darknorth, if you also want an Archaeus medallion, the answer is simple. Give me your portion of the spoils and I’ll give you one of my medallions.” Solewind smiled. “After the black-robed Daolord died, I found two of the medallions on his corpse.”

The black-robed Daolord himself had a medallion, and he had kept another one of them stored inside his storage treasure.

“Alright.” Ning nodded. “Thank you.”

“No need for thanks. I’m not giving it to you, I’m selling it to you for a million cubes,” Solewind said. “Although I have quite a few retainers, there is only one worth me spending time on.”

Ning, Solewind, and Greatjoy each had a few retainers. Firesurge actually did as well, but he didn’t feel any of them had that much potential and so he wasn’t willing to spend much effort on them. As for Skyfire Brightshore… he had originally been a lone wanderer before he was abducted to the Birghtshore Kingdom. Even in the kingdom, he was a lonely and solitary figure who had no retainers at all.

……

After splitting up the loot, Ning’s group once more continued on their journey.

Within Ning’s estate-world. Su Youji and World God Pillsaint, along with the other World-level retainers, were sparring against each other.

Whoosh. A pair of dazzlingly beautiful wings of fire suddenly appeared behind Su Youji. Light shone from her eyes, causing the muscular World God facing her to grow rather dazed. An indecisive look of struggle appeared on his face, and quite some time passed before he was able to come back to his senses.

“The Flamefairy’s mastery over the arts of charm is growing more and more formidable. I, Qiyang, am full of admiration for you.” The muscular World God hurriedly spoke out in praise.

“You were dazed long enough for her to kill you a hundred times over.”

“The Flamefairy really is incredible.”

The World-level retainers were the ones who Ning had captured during his invasion of their branch of the Bluegrace Sect. They all knew that Flamefairy Su Youji had gained the legacy of Feixian the Exalted, and ever since then she had only become more and more mesmerizing. The charm which she naturally extruded was now so dazzling that weaker World-level cultivators would be uncontrollably smitten by her. Even the stronger cultivators would be dazed for a while then they saw her.

It must be understood that in a life-and-death battle, a single instant of befuddlement which came at a critical moment could result in immediate death.

None of the other supreme World-level cultivators under Ning were a match for Su Youji at all. This was how formidable a powerful legacy could be! But of course, it was also partially due to the fact that Su Youji’s Dao was quite a good match for the Dao of Feixian the Exalted, making it easy for Su Youji to train in her skills.

Because of her alluring charm, all of these World-level cultivators couldn’t help but flock around her. In fact, some of them secretly fantasized about one day becoming Dao-companions with her. Alas, Su Youji was not interested in them at all.

“Youji.” A voice suddenly rang out.

“Master.” A look of pleased surprise appeared on Su Youji’s face as she turned to look, only to see a white-robed Ning appear off in the distance. This was a divine power incarnation of Ning’s.

“Master.” The other World-level retainers all called out respectfully as well, looks of dread appearing on some of their faces. They had seen Ning attack before, and they knew that he was only a completely different level compared to them.

“Follow me,” Ning instructed.

“Yes.” The Flamefairy immediately moved towards Ning, following right behind him. Soon, the two moved into a copse of trees.

“A great opportunity has come,” Ning said, looking at Su Youji. “If you can grasp it… it could propel you to become a Samsara Daolord.”

“A Samsara Daolord?” Su Youjij was stunned. Although she had been improving rapidly in the arts of charm, illusion, and control, she wasn’t even close to becoming a Daolord just yet.

“This opportunity is something which people like us can only hope for, not count on.” Ning waved his hand, causing a dark-red circular disc to within it. “This is an Archaeus medallion. Bind it and carry it with you. If you don’t keep it with you, you won’t be able to leave this estate-world. If you tried, you would be crushed to death by the power of the Archaeus region.”

“An Archaeus medallion?” Although Su Youji was puzzled, she felt absolute faith in Ji Ning. She obediently bound the Archaeus medallion, then took it into her possession.

She had no idea what an enormous opportunity this was.

In this alternate universe or in their own universe, even the most talented of geniuses, the ones who could become Samsara Daolords whenever they chose, all dreamed of being able to acquire one of these medallions.

“Alright. Now follow me out,” Ning instructed.

……

Ning’s group of five had just become a group of eight! Ji Ning, Greatjoy, and Solewind had each arranged for one retainer to join their group. They were Su Youji the Flamefairy, World Goddess Skywolf, and Chaos Immortal Swallowback.

World Goddess Skywolf was the retainer of Prince Greatjoy. Although her Daoist title was ‘Skywolf’, she was actually an icy, grim woman of incredible beauty who was surrounded by a strong aura of death.

Chaos Immortal Swallowback was the retainer of Solewind and looked like a young child.

World Goddess Skywolf and Chaos Immortal Swallowback had both reached extremely high levels of insight into the Dao. Both of them could become Daolords whenever they chose, and both were formal members of the Twelve Palaces! Although they hadn’t been acknowledged by their respective pagodas, they were still extraordinary figures.

Su Youji was the weakest of the eight, but just like Ning she had only been training for a very brief period of time. She was also the personal disciple of Feixian the Exalted and had tremendous potential.

After the three ‘newcomers’ joined the squad of five, they all swore oaths not to divulge any information regarding their own universe.

……

The estate-world within the Mirrorsnow Painting.

Ning’s divine power incarnation descended upon this world, then turned to stare at the muscular golem.

The golem stared at Ning with its blazing eyes as it growled, “You killed Master?”

The black-robed Daolord was its master. As soon as the Daolord had died, the golem had regained its freedom. It naturally understand what this meant.

“Yes.” Ning nodded. “Now… are you willing to submit?”

The towering golem gritted its teeth, then knelt down and said respectfully, “Moksha pays his respects to you, Master. Please don’t wipe out my mind.”

The reason why he previously hadn’t been willing to submit was because he felt certain that his master, the black-robed Daolord, would be able to defeat Ji Ning and the others. Now, his original master had perished… and this white-robed youth before him was unquestionably an incredible genius who could easily become a Daolord in the future. By then, the youth could use his Daolord-level energy to bind him by force. In fact, if Ning was irritated enough he could wipe the golem’s mind clean.

Anything which possessed intelligence and sentience, be it a golem or a magic treasure, would not wish for its mind to be wiped clean.

“Alright.” Ning revealed a smile. Just like that, he had gained an obedient golem that was the equal of a Daolord of the Third Step.