Desolate Era Book 25, Chapter 5 - The Underground Hallway

The stone titan said hurriedly, “These twelve disciples were not favored by the Daolord and weren’t acknowledged by him. However, although the Daolord had a rather strange temperament, he would still work hard to cultivate and rear powerful subordinates. Thus, the stronger ones were all expelled and driven away once the Daolord returned to his home. The ones who were required to follow him to this place were the ones who didn’t have much potential.
“Didn’t have much potential?” Ning immediately asked, “Did World God Cavecry have an Eternal weapon?”
“He did not.” The stone titan shook his head.
Ning felt a bit of disappointment. When he had heard that the lord of this island was World God Cavecry, who had two Chaos Immortals serving him, he had thought that Cavecry had to be a truly incredible figure. Who would’ve thought that he didn’t have so much as a single Eternal weapon?
“Eternal weapons are extremely valuable. Not even Daolords can just toss them around casually, and the Daolord preferred for his disciples to adventure for their treasures rather than just wait for him to hand them out,” the stone titan said. “Based on what I know, only nine of the Daolord’s disciples had Eternal weapons. Most of them acquired them on their own. The Daolord doted dearly on his first disciple and his second disciple, and he only bestowed Eternal weapons upon the two of them.”
“None of the twelve disciples who accompanied him in death had Eternal weapons.”
“However, quite a few of his hundreds of slaves had Eternal weapons. They had acquired those weapons by chance as they had accompanied the Daolord in his adventures,” the stone titan said.
Ning nodded slowly.
“Don’t feel disappointed, Master.” The stone titan said hurriedly, “As I recall, before World God Cavecry died he would often spend his time staring at that painting. My master said that painting is equal to an Eternal weapon in value.”
“Painting?” Ning suddenly remembered that Daolord Windsource had bestowed a painting upon World God Cavecry, promising to release him if Cavecry was able to comprehend it.
Alas…World God Cavecry was unable to do so.
“Are you familiar with the palace?” Ning pointed at the Immortal estate before them.
“Of course. Follow me, Master,” the stone titan said.
The stone titan shrank down to a size of three meters, then walked down the mountain alongside Ning and entered the palace.
“Master, you must be careful. World God Cavecry was a cruel, narrow-minded, vicious man who was exceedingly selfish,” the stone titan warned. “Even though he knew he was going to die, he still didn’t wish for others to be able to acquire his treasures. His extreme selfishness was the true reason why Daolord Windsource disliked him. Early on, he improved incredibly fast as a cultivator, and so the Daolord held high hopes for him. However, later on he stopped improving. Given how selfish he was…the Daolord ended up choosing him to be one of the twelve to accompany him in death.”
Ning nodded as he gripped Violetjewel carefully in his hand.
“He spent most of his time within the underground study, focusing on the painting,” the stone titan said. “Daolord Windsource’s death came suddenly. As a result, World God Cavecry died in that underground study, and his corpse remains there.”
When Daolord Windsource died, his twelve disciples and many servants all died as well.
The servants and disciples all knew that his death was impending, but none of them knew exactly when it would occur. There was of course no way that Daolord Windsource himself could send them a mental message warning them that he was about to die.
Rumble…
The stone titan led the way, pushing aside a stone wall in a practiced manner and revealing a stairway leading downwards.
The stone titan walked in front while Ning walked behind him. The two advanced down the stairway.
It was fortunate for Ning that the stone titan was very familiar with the Immortal estate. Otherwise, given how he couldn’t even scan the place with coresense or heartforce, it would’ve been extremely difficult for Ning to locate the door behind that wall.
“Careful, Master. We are now very close to that private study. There might be danger,” the stone titan said as they advanced through the dark hallway.
“Right.” Ning remained on high alert.
The underground hallway was extremely dark, with just the divine runes etched into the sides of the corridor providing a dim amount of flickering light.
The stone titan and Ning continued their advance.
“Come here, Master!” When they reached a turn, the stone titan suddenly sent a mental message to Ning. At a time like this, the stone titan was quite cautious as well.
Ning silently moved to stand next to the stone titan and peered down the hallway.
A figure in blood-colored robes was seated on the ground, slumped against the walls.
“That was Immortal Bloodpool.” The stone titan sent mentally to Ning, “Immortal Bloodpool was probably walking through this hallway when his truesoul was suddenly extinguished, which is why he is half-sitting, half-slumping.”
“Right.” Ning felt a bit of eagerness.
Immortal Origination had quite a few treasures on him. What did Immortal Bloodpool have?
“Let me take a look first, Master.” The stone giant stepped forwards. As a golem, his task was to charge forward and absorb the blows as the vanguard. His body was comparable to a Dao weapon in strength; he would be able to withstand even a blow from most Samsara Daolords! His ability to stay alive was far greater than that of almost any World-level expert.
Only when the stone titan was unable to discover any danger around Immortal Bloodpool’s corpse did Ning step forward as well.
Immortal Bloodpool was quite handsome, but his robes and his hair were all blood-colored, giving him a rather evil aura.
Whoosh. Ning waved his hand, causing Immortal Bloodpool’s body to be drawn into his estate.
After inspecting the man’s possessions, Ning found a few pleasant surprises. Although Immortal Bloodpool had slightly fewer treasures than Immortal Origination did, the difference wasn’t that great…and one treasure was particularly useful to Ning.
“A suit of Dao armor.” Ning waved his hand, causing a glittery suit of silverscale armor to appear in his hands. This was most likely a high-grade Dao armor of tremendous worth. The Fogstone Dominion only gave the generals of the Fogstone Army suits of top-grade Chaos armor, while the Blacklotus Emperor didn’t even give the Mindlord or his other generals such precious equipment.
Armor was incredibly rare and expensive! Even a ‘mere’ high-grade Dao armor was worth more than a hundred cubes of chaos nectar.
“Bloodcloud Seat, Five Elements Bloodflame Needles.” Ning nodded.
Immortal Bloodpool had a total of three sets of Dao treasures.
The armor was worth over a hundred cubes of chaos nectar. However, there was no way Ning would be willing to sell it. He focused on close combat and was in dire need of such a strong suit of armor.
The Bloodcloud Seat was an extremely bloodthirsty type of Dao weapon that was worth more than fifty cubes of chaos nectar.
The Five Elements Bloodflame Needles were a set of five needles that were also worth more than fifty cubes of chaos nectar.
Whoosh. Ning quickly bound the suit of armor to himself and put it on.
He now had a suit of Dao armor protecting his body, and his body was itself comparable to a Chaos treasure. Ning could now withstand even a full-force blow from an elite World God. But of course, although Ning could ‘withstand’ such a blow, he would still be easily captured and then killed in other ways. Naturally, Ning wouldn’t be so foolish as to actually get into a real fight against an elite World God.
“It seems as though after we leave this place, I’ll have to find an opportunity to sell off these treasures,” Ning mused to himself. Ning had no use to the treasures which Immortal Origination and Immortal Bloodpool had loved the most.
“Keep going forwards, Rocky,” Ning instructed.
“Yes, Master.” The stone titan advanced fearlessly. A short while later, he came to a halt. He then stretched out with his massive hands and pushed at a section of the wall. That section of the wall looked plain and ordinary, but when he pushed at the section it immediately swung open.
“World God Cavecry is inside there,” the stone titan sent mentally.
“Right.” Ning immediately walked to the entranceway and stared into the study.
The private study was quite large. It was completely silent here.
A black-robed figure was seated in the lotus position, an enormous banner placed behind him.
The ripples of divine power emanating from the black-robed man’s corpse were indeed that of a deceased World God. He was facing a wall which was covered by a painting, and the painting was the most eye-catching thing in the entire study.
The entire scroll emanated a towering aura of sword energy!
The sword energy filled the entire study. In fact, it was so powerful that it went through the entire Immortal palace and soared high into the heavens. Ning and Daolord Solesky had both been immediately able to discover the sword energy soaring out of this particular island.
“So the sword-ki came from this painting.” Ning stared at the painting. Because the banner behind World God Cavecry partially blocked his vision, he was only able to see that it appeared to be a painting of mountains and rivers.
“Should I enter, Master?” The stone titan knew that he shouldn’t act rashly at a time like this.
“Yes, but be careful,” Ning instructed.
The stone titan carefully crept into the study, walking towards the seated black-robed corpse. When he was roughly thirty meters away from the black-robed corpse, circles of divine runes suddenly began to manifest around corpse. The divine runes glowed with dazzling, beautiful light, forming an enormous hemisphere of light that surrounded and protected the corpse. Even the faintly glowing runes located on the walls of the corridor began to grow dramatically brighter!
BOOM!
A terrifying power suddenly burst forth. Ning was only able to use his sword to block from one direction, while the omnidirectional burst of power struck at his body from every other direction…