Desolate Era Book 27, Chapter 27 - Ambushed

Ji Ning’s squad of five descended upon this chaos planet.
They were able to see the heart of the spacetime transfer array far off in the distance. Here in this alternate universe, cultivators also used chaos nectar and chaos jewels for bartering.
“Halt!”
An Elder God standing in front of a beautiful palace suddenly bellowed at them. Although the five before him were all World-level cultivators, and although he was merely an Elder God, he was a representative of a universe-wide organization which dominated this entire universe, the Church of Annihilation. Every single spacetime transfer array in this alternate universe was governed by the Church of Annihilation.
No major powers would dare to challenge the might and prestige of the Church of Annihilation! In this universe, the Church of Annihilation was an utterly exalted and supreme organization!
“We are going to the star of Cricket,” Heartlord Solewind said with a smile. Here in the alternate universe, it was usually Solewind’s responsibility to meet and speak with the locals.
“The spacetime transfer array is currently under maintenance. It’ll be half a month before it can be activated,” the Elder God said.
“Half a month?” Ning and the others looked at each other, feeling quite helpless. Spacetime transfer arrays did indeed require maintenance and repairs. If they were not given the proper maintenance, these ancient devices would slowly begin to break down. Ning’s group had no choice but to leave for now. They travelled a few hundred kilometers away and landed within a beautiful mountain valley.
“Let’s wait here for half a month,” Heartlord solewind said.
“The Church of Annihilation truly is incredible. It was actually able to take complete control over this entire alternate universe. The Endless Territories is just one part of our own universe, but it’s still divided up into many different organizations,” Prince Greatjoy sent mentally. He couldn’t help but sigh. “In the Endless Territories, more than 99% of the people belong to the Dao Alliance, but the Dao Alliance is dispersed into many different locations. Everyone operates independently, with some training and some fighting. As for the spacetime transfer arrays, the local schools and sects are allowed to run them.”
Ning chuckled as well. The Dao Alliance was quite relaxed… but that was why Ning liked it. It granted freedom and governed on a principle of non-governance.
“Cultivators, by our very nature, wish for freedom,” Solewind said. “The reason why the Brightshore Kingdom is so unified is because the almighty Hegemon is so strong as to completely overpower everyone else! The reason why the Aeonians are so unified is because if they aren’t unified, they’ll be wiped out as a race! The Dao Alliance is simply too strong, forcing them to be unified if they wish to survive. The reason why those other top-tier organizations are unified is also because they are few in number. They can’t not be unified.”
“And this alternate universe?” Firesurge asked.
Ning was curious as well. “For this universe to be completely unified is truly inconceivable.”
“Absolutely.”
The five of them were all extraordinary figures. In the future, if they worked hard in their cultivation, they would become truly monstrous Daolords. They were all very proud individuals, but they felt the utmost of admiration and awe towards this organization which had dominated and unified an entire universe.
The five of them continued to wait there quietly, drinking while chatting. But of course, when they discussed sensitive matters they sent mental messages to each other.
“Eh?” Their faces tightened at the exact same instant.
Boom!
The world around them changed as countless roaring waves came crashing out towards them in an apocalyptic scene. The waves swept straight towards the five of them, and at the edges of the endless waves there were a number of World-level cultivators who were riding the waves forward. They stared at Ning’s group of five, their eyes filled with murderous intentions.
“We’ve just been waylaid.” Ning’s group knew what was happening.
“Elder brothers, let me handle these waves.” Firesurge was dressed in deep blue robes and his face was grim and cold. He was quite humble when speaking to Ning and the other three, but he was filled with nothing besides icy contempt towards these attacking cultivators. He waved his hand. BOOM! A ring of seemingly ordinary black water began to spread out in every direction around him.
The ring of black water was able to easily defend against the roaring waves.
“What?”
“The ‘Empyrean Divine Water Formation’ we set up using 109 World-level cultivators was blocked with such ease?” The attackers were all horrified and shocked.
“Break!” Firesurge let out a cold snort, and the roaring waves of water suddenly were pushed backwards, causing the entire formation to collapse.
“It was only meant to bind and capture them anyhow. If we can’t capture them, we will just kill them.” A golden-winged World God issued mental orders to the others. Although he could tell that Firesurge wasn’t an easy person to deal with, he was very confident in his groups abilities. Given their overwhelming advantage in numbers, he truly felt no concern whatsoever.
The awe-inspiring horde of World-level cultivators suddenly switched to a different formation, causing blurry light to spread out amongst their ranks. All of them were now reinforced by the formation they were using, and they charged towards Ning’s group.
“They really are courting death.” Prince Greatjoy let out a cold laugh as he slapped out with his left hand. His left palm instantly expanded to become thirty thousand meters in size, and it emanated an aura of dazzling golden light. This dazzling golden palm moved terrifyingly fast as spacetime twisted and distorted in front of it. It was clearly quite far away from the attackers, but it somehow appeared directly in front of them in an instant.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Every single World-level cultivator touched by the golden palm was reduced to dust.
“Is that a Daolord?!”
“That has to be a Daolord!”
“What the hell is going on? He clearly has the aura of a World God.”
“He’s actually a Daolord pretending to be a World God!” The attackers were instantly scared silly.
Skyfire Brightshore let out a laugh. “There are quite a few attackers. Let me handle them.”
“GWAAAR!” Skyfire opened his mouth and let out a loud, furious roar as flames began to belch forth. The flames instantly covered the entire area and began blasting out in every direction. It must be understood that although Prince Greatjoy was very strong, each of his palm-strikes was only able to kill roughly ten or so World-level cultivators at once. This ring of fire, however, spread out in every direction. There was no way for anyone to run at all.
“Ahhhhh!” Some of the weaker Chaos Immortals were instantly burnt into dust. Even the World Gods with weaker bodies were burnt to ashes.
“Run away immediately!”
“These five World-level cultivators are way too strong.”
“They are probably all transcendent World Gods!”
“Why is our luck such shit?”
Some of the strongest World Gods, along with ones who had access to decent protective divine abilities, were able to endure the roaring flames. Just over twenty of them were able to survive and quickly began to flee in every direction. Although some of them were incredibly strong, they no longer wished to continue this fight against Ning’s group.
Ning nodded as he watched. The flames which Skyfire Brightshore had unleashed seemed to be slightly more powerful than his Chaos-level [Novessence Thunder] technique had been.
“Skyfire, let me give you a hand.” Ning let out a chuckle.
Whoooosh.
Seven streaks of Dao lightning and seven streams of Dao water instantly spread out to cover an area of a million kilometers, catching all of the fleeing World Gods within their area of effect. The Dao lightning and the Dao water were simply too fast; there was no way for them to escape.
The lightning and water all transformed into enormous greatswords that danced through the skies. The entire region of a million kilometers became transformed into an enormous domain of chaotic might. The terrifyingly powerful sword-intent filling this domain tore at the bodies of every single World God, resulting in many of them ground to dust by the clashing and grinding power of the lightning sword-intent and water sword-intent.
It was like an enormous millstone had ground them to bits!
The Yin-Yang Sword Domain, at maximum power, was something which quickly cause even Daolords of the First Step to perish! Even if Ning expanded the zone to cover an area of a million kilometers, Daolords of the First Step would still suffer very heavy injuries, to say nothing of these World-level cultivators.
“Brother Darknorth, your domain truly is formidable. Let me finish the stragglers.” Heartlord Solewind let out a laugh, then turned his gaze to the two World Gods who had made it very far away and were still struggling to flee.
“Why are they this powerful?!”
“Even our transcendent World Gods were wiped out?!”
“B-but…”
“Where the hell did these five come from?!”
The two World Gods who had managed to survive the Yin-Yang Sword Domain were terrified senseless by now. Of the two, one was a transcendent World God while the other was merely a supreme World God. The one thing they shared in common was that both had incredibly powerful protective divine abilities. There was no way for them to actually escape the domain itself, but their bodies were tough enough to let them survive for a moment longer.
“What is going-….”
“I…”
“Ahaha… death, sweet death! Once I die, I’ll have no more worries.”
Boom! Boom!
The two World Gods simultaneously fell to the ground, completely lifeless.
Heartlord Solewind’s lips curved upwards slightly.
“Those two were both elite World Gods, but you were able to make them both commit suicide, Solewind. Admirable, admirable.” Ning nodded.
“They were utterly terrified and driven to the brink of despair by your attacks, my friends. That’s why it was so easy for me to deal with them.” Heartlord Solewind smiled.
Ning and the other three, however, were still shocked by what had happened.
The ability to force a World God to commit suicide? Although the four of them were impressive, none of them were capable of such a thing. True Heartforce Cultivators really were terrifying.
The five of them quickly cleaned up the battlefield, getting rid of the corpses and dividing up the spoils.
“These World-level cultivators weren’t bad. They were fairly strong.” Prince Greatjoy frowned. “There were actually more than ten supreme World Gods and three or four transcendent World Gods! It doesn’t really make sense for there to have been that many transcendent World Gods, does it?”