Book 35, The Aeonian Race, Chapter 1 – Realms.h.i.+p
Within the Endless Territories.
A dimensional gateway was suddenly torn in the empty void open next to an enormous, blazing star. A white-robed youth and a silver-robed man stepped out from within it.
“We’re back! Haha, we’re back in the Endless Territories.” Ninedust laughed jubilantly, “We travelled through the Great Dark for so long without seeing any other living creatures at all. We didn’t even see any stars or chaosworlds. That sense of loneliness was truly stifling and oppressing. I can’t help but s.h.i.+ver when I think about how those Eternal Emperors choose to spend a million years traversing the Great Dark enroute to another realmverse.”
“Once we succeed in our Daomerges and gain eternal life, perhaps we might come to the same decision.” Ji Ning smiled.
“Yes… we have to succeed in the Daomerge. We have to! We made a killing off our visit to the Stone h.e.l.lephant Wall; to me, this place was just as beneficial as the Waves.h.i.+ft Realm was.” Ninedust was in high spirits.
Ning nodded as well. He had indeed gained greatly from this trip. The greatest benefit lay in how they had the chance to memorize the Dao-guidance left behind by that Autarch. Next came the verdant azuresoul Ning had acquired and those six Emperor-cla.s.s golems… and then there were the various Sithe relics they had swept out of the Sithe ruins.
“Unfortunately, that realms.h.i.+p we found was damaged. Otherwise, we really would’ve won a fortune,” Ninedust sighed.
“It wasn’t just damaged, it was in pieces. It would’ve been wonderful if Autarch Bolin had held back just a little bit and didn’t destroy the shuttle.” Ning sighed as well. “Still… if he really hadn’t destroyed it, he probably would’ve taken it with him when he left.”
“Yes.” Ninedust felt resigned as well.
Realms.h.i.+ps… according to what the golems Ning had captured and bound had told them, these were flying shuttles that had been created by the Sithe which allowed them to travel between realmverses. Using these vessels, it was possible to spend less than a hundred thousand years in travelling from one realmverse to another! To powerful cultivators, this was a negligibly short period of time.
Even Hegemons found the trip from one realmverse to another a taxing one which required an extremely long period of time. Realms.h.i.+ps, however, were able to accomplish it in a fraction of the time. They truly were incredibly fast, which meant they were incredibly precious as well!
There had been more than thirty thousand Sithe within the Stone h.e.l.lephant Wall, but only the two highest-ranking Sithe owned realms.h.i.+ps, one each. One had been taken away by Autarch Bolin, while the other had been destroyed in the fierce fighting. Because realms.h.i.+ps possessed regenerative capabilities, some of its parts had managed to slowly recover… but alas, the other parts were so totally trashed that they were completely unable to heal.
There were two parts of the shuttle which were in fairly good shape. Ning and Ninedust had each taken one of the two parts.
“A pity how severe the damage was. Less than half of it was remaining. There’s no way to use it at all.” Ning shook his head.
“We would’ve struck it rich if it was usable,” Ninedust sighed.
“Let’s not get too greedy,” Ning replied. The two continued to chat while separating themselves from the surrounding area, ensuring that no one was able to hear their conversation.
The golems they had bound had all existed since the days of the Sithe. They naturally knew a great deal about the Sithe race! Ning and Ninedust learned a great deal after interrogating the golems, including many Sithe secrets. At first, they hadn’t really even understood how important the realms.h.i.+p fragments they had collected were; it was only after the golems helped them sort through the treasures that they knew what a realms.h.i.+p was.
“Darknorth, didn’t we agree to go to the Aeonian Kingdom? This doesn’t seem to be the right way,” Ninedust said with some surprise.
“We’re taking a slight detour,” Ning said. “It’ll only take a day or two.”
“Something you need to take care of?” Ninedust asked.
“The two of us have been visiting some truly extraordinary places recently. Although we’re both confident in our skills, it’s also true that we can die at any moment.” Ning sighed. “I’m planning to leave a few of these Emperor-cla.s.s golems behind in my homeland. That way, even if I do fail my Daomerge and perish, my homeland will be at least somewhat protected with those Emperor-cla.s.s golems present.”
Ninedust felt a mixed bag of emotions upon hearing this. He asked, “Darknorth, is your homeland very weak?”
“Yes. I can be considered the strongest person from my homeland, I suppose,” Ning said.
The Three Realms… hundreds of millions of years had gone past, and it had grown quite a bit… but it was still quite young in the grand scheme of things. Thus far, it didn’t even have any other Samsara Daolords aside from Ning himself! How could Ning not focus his attention on it?
“That’s quite a heavy burden to bear.” Ninedust sighed. “I’ve never had that sort of experience before. Although I acquired six Emperor-cla.s.s golems, they really don’t mean that much to the Ancient cultivators as a race. These are all fairly weak Emperor-cla.s.s golems, after all.”
“The Ancients are one of the six major powers of the Endless Territories. If you had to be responsible for the entire Ancient race, you would have to at least be a Hegemon,” Ning teased. “If the Three Realms could ever rise to become one of the top organizations of the Endless Territories, I would feel plenty proud.”
Whoosh. Ning and Ninedust emerged from yet another void tunnel, with a black-robed Ning standing at the other end of it.
“What’s this?” Ninedust stared at the distant black-robed Ning with surprise.
“My Primaltwin,” Ning explained. Not even the Dao Alliance or the Brightsh.o.r.e Kingdom knew that he had a Primaltwin; Ning had never made it public before! However, Ninedust was his friend for life; why should he hide it from Ninedust?
“Primaltwin?” Ninedust was stunned. “You have a Primaltwin? I’ve never heard of this before.” Moments later, he felt extremely moved; the existence of a Primaltwin was definitely a huge secret which generally wouldn’t be made public.
“You hid this very well indeed! I really can’t help but envy you. We Ancient cultivators are never able to have a Primaltwin,” Ninedust said.
“Primaltwins can only be created when you start cultivating as a mortal. All of you Ancient cultivators are born at the World level; how could you possibly have one?” Ning sighed. “Countless mortal cultivators would dream of one day reaching the World level, but you start off being born at this level with bodies comparable to Daolords… and you complain about envying us?”
As Ning spoke, he flew towards his black-robed Primaltwin. He sent a jade gourd flying out towards the Primaltwin. His Primaltwin accepted it, turned and tore open a s.p.a.cetime tunnel, then departed.
The jade bottle held a total of six Emperor-cla.s.s golems, the Sithe disk, and some other treasures. Emperor-cla.s.s golems were of some use to Ning, after all, which was why he kept half for himself and gave half to the Three Realms.
After spending thirty more years traversing through the Brightsh.o.r.e Kingdom’s pathways, Ning and Ninedust finally reached the Aeonian Kingdom.
“The Aeonian Kingdom.”
Ning and Ninedust stood atop a chaos planet, staring off into the distance. At the opposite end of the vast void was an enormous, roling sea of blood. Above the sea of blood was an enormous citadel that glowed with dazzlingly beautiful golden light. This castle had to be trillions of kilometers in size and emanated an aura of unspeakable power that washed out in every direction. Even at Ning and Ninedust’s current level of power, they felt a breathtaking sense of pressure.
This… this was the Aeonian Kingdom! It was this great castle which had kept the Aeonians alive for so long. Not even Hegemons would dare to barge into the Aeonian Kingdom, the homeland of the Aeonians!
“I’ve always heard of how mysterious the Aeonian Kingdom is, but I’ve never had a chance to actually enter it,” Ninedust snickered. “I now finally have a chance.”
“Is the Autarch’s medallion resonating with anything?” Ning asked.
“It started to do so half a year ago,” Ninedust laughed.
“Why didn’t you tell me? I kept on pulling you closer and closer through s.p.a.cetime teleportation.”
“I wanted to get an up-close view of the Aeonian Kingdom with my own eyes. It really is rather stunning.” Ninedust stared at the view before him contentedly.
“So I spent the past half year doing all that for nothing, eh?” Ning enjoyed the view as well. The Aeonian Kingdom truly was a stunning and beautiful site to behold. The two viewed it carefully for quite some time before deciding to go inside.
Swoosh. Ninedust waved his hand, pulling Ning into his estate-world. He then held the Autarch’s medallion up high as he activated the power within it.
Boom! An exalted aura of blood-colored power covered Ninedust. Swoos.h.!.+ It tore straight through s.p.a.cetime, causing him to instantly disappear.
The Aeonian Kingdom was a place filled with many secrets. The most mysterious, secretive place was within a certain world. This was a place which even the Aeonians found difficult to enter… and each time they did manage to enter, they had to first pay an enormous price.
A rift suddenly appeared in the void above this mysterious world. Swoos.h.!.+ The Ninedust Sectlord’s figure flew out from the rift.
“We arrived.” Ninedust scanned his surroundings, rather puzzled. His face suddenly tightened. He waved his hand, causing a white-robed youth to appear next to him. “We’ve already been teleported inside, Darknorth. Look over there, quick!” Ninedust pointed off into the distance.
Ning followed his gaze, only to see an absolutely enormous and dazzling astral river. There was a flying vessel within the flows of the astral river, and in front of the vessel was a strange tower-shaped flying object. At the very tip of the tower there were three royal thrones and three onyx humanoids seated atop them. The tower had a total of nine levels, and each level had silver-robed Daolords standing on them.
A total of three hundred of those silver-robed Daolords could be seen!
“The Sithe?” Ning was rather surprised.