Desolate Era Book 33, Chapter 3 - Separate Paths

“I’ve said everything I came to say.” The golden-furred alien rose to his feet. “I’ll be waiting for you outside the Waveshift Realm, Darknorth.” He then turned and took a single step forwards, space twisting and distorting about him as he completely disappeared.
Ji Ning was quite shocked. This sort of dimensional teleportation was something vastly beyond his capabilities. He mused to himself, “This Eternal Emperor named Goldisle has to be at least on the same level as the eight lords of the Sacred Cities.”
“However… I really will have to acquire as many of the fruits within Crimsonwave Temple as I can. My protective divine ability, the Sword Hegemon’s secret art, and the ingredients I need for the Northbow swords… most likely, I’ll have to rely on the Crimsonwave Temple’s fruits to procure what I need for them.” Ning calculated silently to himself, “I need to upgrade my protective divine ability a bit more, while the Northbow swords are currently only providing a significant enhancement to the Blood Drop stance. My weaknesses are quite glaring. A true Universe treasure is perfect in any manner.”
“And the Hegemon’s secret art. My nine novessence arts are no longer cutting it; they are of increasingly limited use to me,” Ning mused.
The nine novessence arts had been created by Daolord Allgod. When Ning had been at the first step, he had no access to any formations and thus used them in brute-force attacks of incredible power.
Upon becoming a Daolord of the Second Step, Ning’s Omega Sword Dao – Yin-Yang became of tremendous use to him. Even when Ning didn’t actually use the nine novessence arts, the sword-intent of the Omega Sword Dao – Yin Yang had reached twenty to thirty percent of the power of the arts.
Now that he was a Daolord of the Third Step, the might of his Omega Sword Dao – Yin-Yang was roughly at sixty to seventy percent of the power of his nine novessence arts.
As Ning’s level of insight increased, his Omega Sword Dao – Yin-Yang would grow increasingly powerful. The nine novessence arts themselves, however, wouldn’t change at all. He’d eventually have to discard them.
“I’m already a Daolord of the Third Step! For now, the nine novessence arts are still of use to me, but once I become a Daolord of the Fourth Step… by then, they’ll be of negligible use,” Ning mused. “I need stronger secret arts.”
“My protective divine ability… the Sword Hegemon’s secret arts… the Northbow swords… all of them require rare materials!” Ning felt rather eager. “Perhaps these fruits might even move me closer to reviving my wife.”
Reviving Yu Wei. This was what Ji Ning truly wanted above all else.
……
The Waveshift Realm. Ning, Ninedust, Winesage, Dawnstar, and Badlands made for a truly formidable alliance. With Daolord Badlands helping guide them away from many dangerous areas, they were actually the first group to arrive before Crimsonwave Temple.
“There it is. Crimsonwave Temple.” Ning and the other four raised their heads to look at the ancient temple before them. The temple was a mixture of gold and black, and they could sense the aura of age which emanated from it. Three strange characters hovered in the air above the temple, and they seemed quite similar to the azureflower seal script as well as the Dreamdust script. Anyone who saw them would immediately understand that the three characters represented the name ‘Crimsonwave Temple’.
Ning stared at the three characters for a long period of time. He could sense that every single character contained boundless mysteries within them.
“The azureflower seal gave me access to the azureflower mist energy. The Dreamdust script was of assistance to my mastery over illusions. As for the Crimsonwave Temple… I can sense that these three characters are also filled with endless mysteries. Analyzing them, however, will be quite taxing.” Ning carefully examined them. The ‘crimson’ character seemed to fill the skies with a blazing red aura. The ‘wave’ character made Ning feel as though he saw an endless sea of waves. The ‘temple’ character seemed to emanate an extremely solemn and stately aura, almost as though Ning was standing at the helm of an endless swarm of soldiers.
This script was an extremely advanced, high-level one that was far more advanced than any language which was commonly used in the Endless Territories. Every single one of these three characters contained extremely high-level mysteries of the Dao within them.
“So we were the first to reach Crimsonwave Temple.” Ninedust roared with laughter. “Everyone, I imagine you all know by now how precious the fruits within Crimsonwave Temple are! We Ancient cultivators also wish to acquire these fruits. I hope that you’ll be willing to sell us any of the fruits you find, but of course it’ll all be up to you.”
“Everyone seems to want the fruits within the Crimsonwave Temple.” Palace Lord Dawnstar said casually, “But for us Daolords, what really matters is still the Voidsea Jadeseals.”
“Agreed.” Ning, Winesage, Ninedust, and Badlands all nodded. The fruits were probably of grave importance to Eternal Emperors, but Ning and the others here were all Daolords! To them, the supreme Daomerge treasure known as the Voidsea Jadeseal was what truly mattered.
“Come, let’s go take a look.”
“We are the first to arrive. We need to seize this opportunity to find the seals.”
“First come, first serve.”
They all laughed merrily as they entered Crimsonwave Temple.
……
Crimsonwave Temple was an incredibly vast place. As soon as the five of them entered, they turned pale.
Right in front of them sat two incredibly large corpses, each 540,000 meters tall. Their enormous black feet were pointed directly at the group, the toenails looking dagger-sharp. The two corpses were completely black in color and completely nude, covered only in light green fur. Their faces were very ugly, while their eyes were flecked with a dark-gold color. The skin on their heads, however, looked almost like a strange hat formed by scales. The awesome auras emanating from the two corpses were so powerful as to cause Ning and the others to tremble.
“These are Hegemonic auras!” Ning, Ninedust, Dawnstar, Winesage, and Badlands traded glances, their faces pale.
“Were the two of them Hegemons?” Ninedust spoke out.
“The auras are so strong that even in death, they bring me a sense of pressure.” Ning said solemnly, “They should be Hegemons.”
“Why don’t they have any armor or clothes on them at all?” Dawnstar was puzzled.
“Were they perhaps looted?” The nearby Winesage chuckled. “The armor used by Hegemons are undoubtedly extraordinary.”
“Something’s wrong.” Daolord Badlands frowned. “These two corpses look absolutely identical!”
“Right.” Ning and the others noticed this as well. There were some members of the same race who looked very similar to each other, and thus Ning and the others hadn’t paid too close attention to their appearances. But as Daolord Badlands had pointed out, these two corpses truly were absolutely identical. Even the wrinkles on their faces were identical!
Whoosh. Suddenly, a streak of rainbow light appeared in front of the entrance to Crimsonwave Temple, reforming into a towering white-robed man’s figure.
“Realmsoul Polo.” Ning and the others turned to look at him.
“Your group was the first to reach Crimsonwave Temple.” Realmsoul Polo weighed Ning’s group with his gaze, then pointed to the two corpses. “As for these two corpses… if you wish to call them ‘Hegemons’, I suppose they could just barely qualify as having reached that level. They are very close to being comparable to Hegemons in power, after all. On the other hand, they truly can’t be considered ‘real’ Hegemons! This is because they are the most powerful guardians which were produced by the Sithe race. The Sithe created them at enormous expense to watch over important locations, with Crimsonwave Temple definitely being one of them. That’s why it had two of these guardians here! They were eventually slain and Crimsonwave Temple was conquered. After a series of twists and turns, it ended up in my master’s hands.”
Ning and Ninedust were secretly startled. These were the most powerful guardians produced by the Sithe? It was possible to create Hegemon-level guardians?!
Ninedust and Ning couldn’t help but think back to that corpse they had seen within that cave in the Terror Starsea. That corpse had been filled with countless stone tunnels and many powerful planets. For the sake of killing that thing, two of the Hegemons of the Endless Territories had fallen!
“This is the most valuable possession my master has ever acquired, and he only gained it after experiencing countless dangers and hardships.” Realmsoul Polo looked quite proud. “The other organizations of the Endless Territories could work together and still fail to acquire this Crimsonwave Temple.”
“Alright. Now look over there.” Realmsoul Polo pointed off into the distance.
Whoosh! Previously, the palace interior had been so dark that they were unable to see what lay at the other side of it. Crimsonwave Temple was extremely large, after all, and it was filled with many regions. Now, three tunnels filled with dark blue light suddenly appeared.
“These three tunnels lead to three different locations within Crimsonwave Temple. You can try them out for yourself… and if you are lucky, perhaps you’ll be able to obtain the fruits within Crimsonwave Temple.” Realmsoul Polo said calmly, “However, acquiring those fruits is extremely difficult, just as difficult as acquiring the Voidsea Jadeseals will be.”
“Let’s go.” Ning and the other four didn’t hesitate at all, immediately moving towards the three tunnels. For now, it was still the Voidsea Jadeseals which truly enticed them.
“Everyone, we should part ways here. Otherwise, if we jointly acquire the jade seals, there will be no way to divide them up,” Winesage said. “I’ll choose this tunnel.” He chose one of the three and moved towards it.
“It’ll be up to your own respective skills.” Palace Lord Dawnstar chose the leftmost tunnel.
“Ninedust, let’s take the right one,” Ning said.
Ninedust hesitated. “Darknorth, there should be a Voidsea Jadeseal in each tunnel. If we go together, how should we split it?” They were good brothers, but they had to agree on something in advance. Otherwise, this might end up harming their relationship.