Desolate Era Book 34, Chapter 24 - Invitation

“Here’s our chance.” The three clan leaders had been following Ji Ning this entire time, never letting him get too far away from them. Now, they all excitedly charged straight towards him.
“Slow him down.”
“If we can tie him down for a short period of time, he’ll be doomed.” The three clan leaders were filled with confidence, because it was quite easy for them to tie down Daolord Darknorth.
Boom! The short spear had already arrived in front of Ning. Ning produced a golden gem in his hand. The golden gem had strands of golden silk within it. He instantly crushed it, causing a wave of awesome power to spread out and cover his entire body as it was surrounded by layers of silken gold light. This was one of Ning’s life-preserving treasures, and it was designed to allow one’s speed to skyrocket!
“Die!” The skinny silver man shot straight towards Ning with his sharp spike in hand.
Whoosh. Ning moved in a ghostly manner, instantly skyrocketing beyond a hundred times the speed of light and only leaving a golden streak of light behind him. He was simply too fast! With the treasure supporting him, he was able to move even faster than the Radiant King.
The short spear still arrived in front of Ning; it had actually been able to change direction mid-flight. Clang! Ning didn’t dare to take it lightly. He used all six Northbow swords to block simultaneously, only to sense a powerful surge of might transmit to him from the strike. Ning couldn’t help but stumble a few steps backwards as he hurriedly retreated, transforming into a streak of golden lightning that fled.
As for the short spear, the collision knocked it to one side. It went flying straight towards the Fumo clan leader, forcing the muscular silver man to hurriedly dodge to one side.
“Don’t let him escape!”
“Slow him down.”
“How can he be this fast?” Although the three clan leaders were extremely anxious, they could do nothing but watch as Ning transformed into an incomprehensibly fast speed of golden light that seemed to be even faster than the four figures chasing behind it.
Swoosh! Ning pulled farther and farther away as he flew off into the distance.
“He actually escaped.” The three clan leaders exchanged glances, feeling anxious, angry, and helpless. They knew that given their own speed, they stood no chance of catching Ning at all.
Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. The four figures flew towards them and came to a halt, watching with ugly looks on their faces as Ning fled off into the distance.
“You three useless pieces of trash.” One of the figures glanced disdainfully at the three clan leaders. “You couldn’t even handle such a simple task. If you were able to slow him down for just a few seconds, we would’ve been able to surround and kill him for sure! Hmph. Any of the Silver Daolords of the old, true Sithe were far more powerful than you. You are the weakest Silver Daolords we brothers have ever encountered.
Not just every Sithe was permitted to become a Silver Daolord. One had to first reach the supreme Daolord level. Given Sithe training methods, they proportionally had far more supreme Daolords than the cultivators. The three clan leaders’ weakness was their low level of understanding of the Dao. If they were at the supreme Daolord level, Ning would’ve been finished long ago.
The three clan leaders smiled ingratiatingly and didn’t argue, but in their hearts they secretly grumbled. These four were nothing more than golems. By what right did they act so arrogantly?
Indeed. These four figures were all Emperor-class golems, but they were noticeably much more powerful than the others. Every single one of them was on par with a lord of the Sacred Cities! Although Ning had just barely reached that level as well, he was still lacking in many respects; if he was to actually fight against a real lord of a Sacred City, he would be completely dominated. These four golems, however, were each capable of fighting a Sacred City lord to a standstill.
“Four seniors, Daolord Darknorth has barged into our forbidden grounds and should be killed,” the silver-haired man said. “We should hunt him down and kill him.”
“Our responsibility is to watch over and guard this forbidden region. Since he has already escaped and left this region, we naturally will not pursue him any further. If you wish to do so, that is your business.” The four figures glanced coldly at the three clan leaders, then turned and flew away. They truly did look down upon these three clan leaders. Although they were members of the Sithe thanks to having undergone the Ritual Sacrificium, they were really far too weak when compared to true Sithe experts!
“Those four idiots.” The three clan leaders ground their teeth in rage.
“They are nothing more than golems. They shall forever do nothing more than obey the orders of the Sithe race. This area has clearly been completely destroyed, but they continue to guard it and regard it as a restricted area. Why bother getting angry with golems?” The three clan leaders turned and left.
The Emperor-class golems they had caught in recent years were all fairly weak ones that were comparable to supreme Daolords. They wouldn’t dare to even fight against the four strongest golems, much less capture them and bind them by force.
……
Thanks to the speed boost provided by the treasure, Ning quickly outstripped his pursuers.
“Oh, they actually didn’t chase?” After fleeing quite a distance, Ning turned to see the four figures chatting with the three clan leaders, followed by the four figures returning to the core areas.
“Judging from what I saw, those four figures should’ve been golems.” Ning nodded. “Golems actually managed to become this powerful… the Sithe’s mastery over golems far surpassed ours.” Based on the golems the six powers in the Endless Territories had acquired, it seemed as though there were different levels of power amongst Emperor-class golems. The ones he had fought had all been weak, while this time he had finally stumbled across strong ones.
“I’ve already found four of those onyx humanoid corpses here. These things held an advantage over Hegemons in single combat!” Ning sighed with amazement. “Even Crimsonwave Temple merely had two of these Hegemon overseers protecting it, but I count four dead ones here already!”
“That means this place is probably even more important than Crimsonwave Temple!” Ning was intrigued. Given how much combat power had been focused on this place by the Sithe, it probably held treasures which were far more valuable than the treasures inside Crimsonwave Temple!
“However… this place seems to have been wrecked by that claw-attacker. He butchered countless Sithe and probably took away the most valuable treasures,” Ning mused privately. “I hope he left a few things behind.” He didn’t even consider the possibility that the claw-attacker had died, as anyone capable of easily ripping those onyx humanoids in half had reached a level of power that was far beyond his imagination.
Hegemons definitely weren’t capable of thus. Then… Otherverse Lords, perhaps? Or even… the legendary Autarchs?
Whoooosh. The three clan leaders flew towards Ning from afar. “Those three fellows have come to cause trouble again.” Ning frowned, then began to dart forwards while maintaining as much distance from the three clan leaders as he could.
While flying, Ning continuously scanned through the towering palace ruins around him. He didn’t dare to fly about randomly, for fear of accidentally activating some traps or mechanisms the Sithe had left behind. Thus, the three clan leaders were able to quickly catch up to him.
Ning gave them a sidelongs glance.
“Count yourself lucky for having escaped that,” the muscular silver man said with a cold laugh.
“You survived once, but you won’t survive every time. I urge you to leave our ancestral grounds immediately. Otherwise, you’ll probably die here. The Sithe left behind many terrifying barriers and guardians. Although the vast majority were ruined and only a few survived, any of them would be enough to claim your puny life. Leave the ancestral grounds and live for a bit longer,” the skinny silver man said.
Ning completely ignored them. He might not be able to beat them, but they weren’t able to do anything to him either. “I just need to stay careful at all times. Can’t give them any opportunities.” Ning carefully scrutinized his surroundings, visualizing how the palace ruins must’ve looked in the past and thus predicting where certain treasures might lay.
“Judging from the layout, there should’ve been a secondary nexus over there.” Ning continued his search, quickly discovering a bestial stone statue within a pile of rubble. This stone statue looked rather similar to a three-headed lion!
“Eh? The style of this statue seems rather different from that of the Sithe buildings.” Ning was puzzled. He stared carefully and cautiously at the stone statue as he slowly moved towards it.
Whooosh. The central head of the three-headed lion statue suddenly opened its mouth. Its mouth seemed to be filled with an infinite universe in it, and an awe-inspiring amount of power suddenly swept out from the lion’s mouth.
Boom! A terrifying sucking power was applied to Ning, who was shocked to find that he couldn’t resist it at all. He felt like an ordinary mortal who had been trapped in an ocean whirlpool as he was drawn inexorably into the lion’s mouth. Ning shrank in size as he was drawn in closer and closer before finally becoming ant-sized as he entered the lion’s mouth.
“He went inside.” The three clan leaders who had been following Ning were shocked, and they hurriedly went over to inspect the lion.
“Such incredible power. There has to be a major treasure inside.”
“The Sithe left many hidden rooms with countless treasures. This place has to be one of them.”
“Daolord Darknorth didn’t seem to be attacked; it looks as though he’s just flying deeper inside.” They could clearly see from outside the lion’s mouth how Ning was continuously flying deeper and deeper.
“We can’t let Daolord Darknorth acquire those treasures. He’s already incredibly powerful; if he acquires even better treasures, we’re going to be doomed.”
“We’re the Sithe! Sithe treasures belong to us.”
“Come, let us go inside.” The three hesitated for a while outside before transforming into streaks of light that flew towards the lion. They did this partially because they naturally felt the need to prevent Ning from acquiring any more treasures, and partially because they didn’t really worry about danger. They were Sithe! Even if they entered some incredibly important restricted areas, they would at most be unceremoniously kicked out. Over the course of all these years, not a single clan leader had perished within the ancestral grounds.
“Where am I?” Ning stared at the rainbow region around him. The aura emanating from this region was incredibly exalted, and the power flowed everywhere. Clearly, this truly was an exceptional place.
“Eh?” Ning’s face suddenly tightened as he glanced backwards. “They came inside as well.”
The three silver men flew over, excited looks on their faces. As soon as they sensed the aura and power held within this region, they understood that this was an extraordinary place.
“Daolord Darknorth, all thanks to you!”
“If it wasn’t for you, we never would’ve discovered this place.” The three clan leaders were quite smug.
Right at this moment, a humanoid figure suddenly coalesced in the center of this bright ranbow region. This figure was dressed in long black robes, was pale-faced, had blood-red eyes, and looked both handsome and evil. He stared at the three clan leaders, an icy look on his face as his voice boomed out, shaking the entire world: “I invited this cultivator to come in, but how dare you three Sithe barge in as well! Do you think you are worthy of entering an Autarch’s territory? Die.”
Boom! Suddenly, a ripple of spatial power swept across the three silver men. They instantly turned pale, but before they could so much as say a word their bodies were split in half at the waist. A heartbeat later, their eyes turned dull as they perished.
The six parts of the three silver men’s corpses just hung there in midair.