Desolate Era

Iyerre could sense that two of the Exalts in control of the Eight Revolutions Spacetime Temple had just been slain. Clearly, the situation had just taken a turn for the worse. Generally speaking, so long as the formation protecting the temple was undamaged the Exalts in control wouldn’t be killed.

A short while later, he could sense that the other six Exalts had all died as well.

“All eight of them died. All they needed to do was trap Emperor Darknorth for eighty-two days. They just needed to hold out for a few more days… those useless idiots!” Iyerre felt rage blazing away at his chest. He had been preparing for countless aeons. Victory had been within his grasp… but at the most critical moment, his servants had been unable to keep Emperor Darknorth confined. How could he not be angered by this?

“If I can’t kill Emperor Darknorth, I’ll have to switch to the second plan and start killing off the other Autarchs one-by-one.” Iyerre nodded slowly.

This was a more difficult prospect. Killing Emperor Darknorth would have given him a 99% chance of success. Now that Ning had escaped, his chances of success had just dropped sharply. Still, he remained confident in his overall chances. He knew what forces he had available and what his opponents were capable of, which was why he felt so confident.

Iyerre suddenly waved his hand. Whoosh! Three figures suddenly appeared by his side. Their auras were all tremendously powerful, far more powerful than the auras of ordinary Sithe Exalts. All three of them appeared humanoid, and it looked as though two were male while one was female. The first man was dressed in black robes, while the second was dressed in red robes. As for the woman, she was dressed in dazzlingly beautiful silver robes and had a soul-stirring smile on her face.

“Iyerre.” The three bowed fractionally to show respect, but they addressed him simply as ‘Iyerre’ rather than giving him the title of ‘almighty Iyerre’ as most Sithe Exalts did.

“It is now time for the three of you to take action,” Iyerre said.

“You need to remember your promise,” the black-robed man said sinisterly.

“Don’t worry. After this battle is over, I’ll give you your freedom and also give you treasures as a form of thanks. My master himself has personally attested to this. Are you really worried that I would go back on my word?” Iyerre said.

The three traded glances, then nodded.

“Starting today, we shall operate in two groups,” Iyerre said.

“Eh? What’s this? You won’t be needing us to help you against Emperor Darknorth after all? Oh, I know. Those useless subordinates of yours weren’t able to tie him down for long enough, right?” the silver-robed woman laughed. The two men next to her had mocking smiles on their faces as well.

Iyerre frowned slightly, then continued: “Yes. They weren’t able to tie him down. Emperor Darknorth has already escaped! Our only choice is to carry out our second plan. The four of us will work separately, with you three in one team and me by myself. The cultivators don’t even know that we exist, so if we are careful we might just be able to ambush and kill two of their leaders at once.”

“Agreed.” The three all nodded.

“Remember, once we separate you need to hide behind the treasure I gave you. Don’t reveal any hint of your aura at all. Once the Chaosverse discovers any traces of your auras, the cultivator leaders will also be instantly warned as to how dangerous you are,” Iyerre said.

Iyerre was at such a high level of enlightenment that he could cut off all detection from the Chaosverse by himself, but the Sithe Exalts and the three people before him could not. Thus, they had to use the treasure which Iyerre had given them! This was the reason why Ning and the others hadn’t noticed any of the hidden dimensions prior to them disgorging their contents at the start of the war.

“Don’t worry. We won’t make such foolish mistakes,” the red-robed man smirked.

“This is your first time entering a different Chaosverse. It is best to be cautious, as you are unable to use the power of the Dao here. You’ll be much weaker than you are used to,” Iyerre warned. These three weren’t his subordinates, and so he could not command them. All he could do was offer them warnings, for fear of them making a mistake and revealing themselves before they managed to kill a native Autarch. If that happened, this war would become even more difficult to win.

The cultivator Autarchs were in their own Chaosverse and backed by the boundless power of the Dao. All of them were mighty beyond measure, and the only way to kill them was to catch them off-guard! Once Iyerre revealed himself, the cultivator leaders would be able to quickly flee and hide from him.

As for Emperor Darknorth… he was the most powerful of the local cultivators. If Iyerre had to fight him by himself, victory was far from assured. Iyerre was still being suppressed by this Chaosverse, after all! That was why he had brought his second trump card as well. He had been planning to work alongside those three powerful experts. Together, they would’ve spelled certain doom to Ning.

But of course… that was only if Ning had remained trapped inside the temple! Outside the temple, Ning could flee whenever he wanted to. It was very difficult to kill anyone who was of the same level of strength.

“Let’s head out,” Iyerre instructed.

Whoosh! An ordinary-looking realmship suddenly appeared next to him with a Hegemon in control of it. This Hegemon was a Sithe descendant who had been born into this Chaosverse, and so his aura was identical to that of an ordinary cultivator’s.

The Hegemon was responsible for control of the realmship and sending it hurtling through the Chaosverse, while the three experts would remain hidden within a treasure the Hegemon carried.

“Very good.” Iyerre watched as the realmship departed, cold light shining in his eyes. “Thus far, the cultivators have only lost a few avatars. None of them have actually perished! I’ll wager that they have no idea that the temples were only meant to confuse them, making them lower their guard once they ‘knew’ what they were up against. Those weren’t my real trump cards at all.”

“Come, then. Let’s see who shall be the first ‘Autarch’ I kill once I reveal my presence.” Iyerre waved his hand, causing a white lotus to appear in his palm.

Rumble… Iyerre’s energy flowed into the white lotus, quickly spreading out to cover an extremely vast area that was a hundred times greater than the area Ning could scan using his godsense! Iyerre could accomplish this because he had vastly surpassed all the others in terms of insight, even though he was being suppressed by the Chaosverse. As for the white lotus, it was an incredibly valuable scanning treasure which his master had helped him forge.

“So… who shall be the first to die?” Iyerre smiled as he stepped into a spatial rift, hurtling through spacetime. He moved to one region after another, wandering through many different regions. Ever since the temples had appeared, the cultivator Autarchs had stopped attacking in person and had only sent out their avatars to do battle. Thus, actually locating one of them was no easy feat.

……

Time flowed on, one day after another. In the end, Autarch Skyfeeder and Autarch Bolin’s trapped avatars all ended up perishing in battle. However, the temples ended up being trapped by the other Autarchs who cast giant formations around them, making it impossible for them to flee!

Thus far, the Sithe had revealed a total of five temples. These temples had cost the cultivators three Autarch avatars belonging to Bolin, Skyfeeder and Titanos. As for the temples themselves? Ning had captured one, while the other four had been sealed and rendered immobile.

The cultivators had lost three peak power avatars, but they quickly began to remake new ones, even though the new ones would be significantly weaker for quite some time.

……

Over two months after Ning had escaped the Eight Revolutions Spacetime Temple.

Whoosh! Iyerre’s muscular form suddenly exited a spacetime rift and appeared within a realmverse. He continued to hold that white lotus in his hands as he carefully scanned the vast area around him. “Eh?” Iyerre revealed a look of delight.

During the past two months, he had been searching for the Autarchs in a manner that was reminiscent of looking for a needle in a haystack. Thankfully, he was able to warp through spacetime just as fast as the Autarchs were, while his scanning treasure completely surpassed Autarch-level capabilities! During the past two months, he had managed to discover Autarch Stonerule’s avatar… but to reveal himself in exchange for just an avatar? There was no way Iyerre would make that type of trade!

“I’ve finally found one of the actual Autarchs. Hm… this aura seems familiar. I encountered it countless times over the aeons. Isn’t this Autarch Mogg, who stood guard over our ‘sealed’ lands for all those years?” Iyerre revealed a smile. “Perfect. Autarch Mogg… I’ll use your life and your blood to anoint my war-banner.”

……

A mountain peak which was floating in space. There were some ordinary-looking log cabins at the top of this mountain, and a tall, skinny, black-robed figure was seated in the lotus position within one of those cabins. His face was covered with scales, and his eyes were shut.

The temples were all quite troublesome to deal with, and so the Autarchs had chosen to draw back all of their true bodies and only permitted their avatars to roam the outside world.

This mountain peak might look ordinary, but it had been personally fashioned by Autarch Mogg for him to cultivate in. Without his permission, not even the other Autarchs would be able to approach without him noticing.

But… right at this moment a barefoot and gray-robed figure suddenly appeared before the mountain peak. This figure had a benevolent, sympathetic smile on his face.

It was Iyerre!