The Desolate Era

Book 28, Chapter 16 - Emperor Trisilk

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Ji Ning and the rest of the five all immediately teleported closer towards that fiery-red mountain.

The entire place was filled with blazing streams of energy, but they weren’t nearly as dangerous to Ning and the others as the spatial tempests around the Mortal Realm had been. Despite the harsh environment, Ning and the others were actually able to engage in spatial teleportation here.

“Am I seeing this? Is this actually an entire mountain of darkspace flamestone?” Prince Greatjoy raised his head to stare at the towering mountain, unable to maintain his usual calm. A stunned look was on his face. “Am I asleep? Am I dreaming...?”

“An entire freaking mountain? Completely comprised of darkspace flamestone?” Solewind was dazed as well.

“By my calculations... every ten thousand kilograms of that mountain can be refined into one kilogram of pure darkspace flamestone.” Ning mumbled to himself, “The entire mountain stretches out to cover more than a million kilometers. How much darkspace flamestone is that? How much is it worth? I can’t... I can’t even calculate...”

“Insane. Absolutely insane!” Firesurge and Skyfire were both stunned as well.

This was an incalculably valuable treasury, one which Eternal Emperors go berserk over!

Darkspace flamestone was an extremely valuable type of mineral which could be used in many different ways. It could be used to forge golems and magic treasures, and there were even certain secret arts and divine abilities that made use of it. Generally speaking, it could be discovered in certain unique environments, but it was generally discovered in meter-sized amounts or even less.

An entire mountain that was over a million kilometers in size? This was a veritable quarry of darkspace flamestone! In fact, Ning and the others suspected this of being the largest deposit of darkspace flamestone in this entire alternate universe!

But of course, the primordial chaos often gave birth to many types of unique treasures. In the Endless Territories, the Brightshore Kingdom had taken sole ownership over Hydragon Mountain. Although the quality of ore was inferior to the darkspace flamestone here, the total amount of ore it possessed was a million times greater, making Hydragon Mountain far more valuable than this one.

Still... no matter what, this was an enormous mountain with more than a million kilometers of darkspace flamestone. Most likely, only Hegemon-level figures would be qualified to own such a place without fearing that others would seek to seize it. Generally speaking, Eternal Emperors who discovered such a fortune would mine in secret. They simply weren’t strong enough to openly claim sole ownership over such a fortune.

“No wonder. No wonder Emperor Trisilk sent his disciple to stand guard over this place,” Solewind mumbled. “No wonder he was willing to attack us, even though he knew that we all had extraordinary backgrounds. They really can’t risk letting the secret of this mountain get out.”

Bang! Bang! Bang! A deep sound rang out. Skyfire Brightshore had picked up an axe-shaped treasure and was using it to hack away at the mountain in front of him. Alas, he was only able to leave a few white marks behind on the fiery ore.

“Can’t hack it apart.” Skyfire blinked a few times as he muttered softly to himself.

“Wake up, guys! Wake up!” When Ning heard Skyfire mumble those words, he shivered then began to call out to them.

The other four stared at Ning.

“Stop daydreaming. This is an entire mountain of darkspace flamestone. We can’t even cut into it, much less mine it.” Ning shook his head. “I’d imagine only Daolords of the Third Step would be strong enough to just barely excavate some of the ore, and only at a very slow speed at that. This entire mountain is a million kilometers in size, and there’s no way for us to teleport it away. There’s nothing we can do at all.”

They all understood. There was literally nothing they could do.

Forget about them; not even Eternal Emperors or the almighty Hegemon would be able to do anything to such a vast mountain of precious minerals! Thus, Emperor Trisilk had elected to send a powerful Daolord and golems here to slowly mine away at the ore.

Every single piece of ore was a priceless treasure. A mountain of ore which was a million kilometers in size naturally was filled with certain arcane powers. In fact, it was being reinforced by some of the prime essences of this entire alternate universe. If you wished to move it by just a few kilometers... most likely, there were incredibly few figures in this entire alternate universe who would be capable of such a thing. To store it away into an estate-world? Completely impossible.

Think about Hydragon Mountain. The almighty Hegemon was incredibly skilled in the Dao of Spacetime, but even he was forced to resort to sending subordinates to slowly mine away at the ore.

“What should we do?” Skyfire Brightshore stared at Ning and the other three.

“We can only look, not touch.” Ning shook his head.

“There really is nothing we can do.” Solewind shook his head as well.

“All we can do is stare. And drool.” Firesurge licked his lips.

“At least we had the chance to see such a mountain of ore,” Prince Greatjoy said.

The five of them just stared at that mountain, their gazes blazing with lust. They were like five ordinary mortals who encountered an enormous mountain that was completely made out of gold. Although there was no way to move it, just staring at it was still a stunning experience.

“Let’s go,” Greatjoy said. “If we waste too much time and end up being caught by Emperor Trisilk, we’ll be in trouble.”

“Let’s go.”

“In the end, this isn’t something which we are qualified to own.”

Ning and the others were all men of talent. Although they were temporarily stunned by this sight for a time, they quickly came to the decision to leave.

Whoosh. Prince Greatjoy took control over their flying vessel, and they left this place at high speed.

If you wanted to take possession over such an inconceivably valuable place, you had to have the corresponding level of power! If you weren’t strong enough, then you would have to do what Emperor Trisilk did; secretly mine away without anyone knowing about it.

The almighty Hegemon was a good example. The first to discover Hydragon Mountain wasn’t actually him, it was a group of adventuring World-level cultivators. In the end, there had been a grand battle, resulting in the almighty Hegemon taking sole ownership over Hydragon Mountain.

The Church of Annihilation, in turn, had taken completely control over this entire alternate universe, becoming its paramount power.

In the end, power was what mattered the most!

Ning and the others advanced at maximum speed, relying on Prince Greatjoy’s mastery over spacetime to flee as fast as they could.

However... this time, their guess was wrong. Right now, Emperor Trisilk was in no mood to search for them.

......

Deep within another part of the Archaeus region.

Rumble...

Space was in chaos here, and spacetime itself trembled.

This was an extremely inhospitable environment. Not even major powers would come here, but a translucent, virtually invisible drop of water was floating through this region of chaotic spacetime.

Within that drop of water, there was an estate.

“Shit, shit.” A sinister-looking youth with nine malignant tumors on the top of his head was seated in the lotus position, grinding his teeth. “That old bastard Maniseal really is like a ghost that just won’t go away. It’s been nearly nineteen chaos cycles, but he’s still chasing after me. Is he never going to get tired of this? Shit, shit, shit! I really regret pissing him off. Who would’ve imagined that the silent old fellow would be this powerful? If I knew, I would never have pissed him off. If it wasn’t for the fact that I, Trisilk, am skilled at staying alive, I would’ve died by his hands long ago.”

He truly felt regret.

Emperor Trisilk was consumed with regret. He was a lawless figure who had committed countless sins. He was willing to do anything if it meant growing more powerful!

Emperor Maniseal was an extremely low-key Eternal Emperor. He was known as a very good man who spent all his time training his disciples within his own territory. He was often taken advantage of by others in the Church of Annihilation, but he didn’t really care too much. Emperor Trisilk had thought Emperor Maniseal to be a complete pushover, and so when he heard that Emperor Maniseal had bestowed an incredibly valuable treasure known as the Violetbolt of Icy Flames to his second disciple, Trisilk had decided to take it. He had slain Emperor Maniseal’s beloved second disciple, then stolen the Violetbolt of Icy Flames.

This was a treasure that was used to meditate on the Dao. When you kept it by your side, your heart and mind would become extremely calm, making it much easier and faster for you to comprehend the Dao.

One of the reasons why Emperor Maniseal had been able to succeed in his Daomerge was because of this treasure! His second disciple was a Verge-level Daolord as well, and so he had chosen to give his disciple this treasure. Who would’ve thought that it would end up in that disciple being killed?

He had been enraged. For the first time in many years, Emperor Maniseal had been truly enraged!

His second disciple was the disciple he loved the most. His eldest disciple had long ago perished while adventuring, which meant his second disciple had been by his side the longest. He treated this second disciple as he would a son. Emperor Maniseal spared no expense to investigate the matter, in the end discovering that it had been Emperor Trisilk who had been the culprit! Emperor Trisilk had been too arrogant, feeling that Emperor Maniseal would not pose any threat to him. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been discovered to be the culprit with such ease.

Once Emperor Maniseal discovered who the murderer was, he left his home and began to chase after Emperor Trisilk.

This chase...

Stunned this entire alternate universe! Only now did they understand how terrifyingly strong Emperor Maniseal was. He was close to being on par with the sixteen Starkings! If he was just a tiny bit stronger, he probably would’ve been bestowed with the formal title of ‘Starking’ by the Church of Annihilation.

With such a powerful figure pursuing him, Emperor Trisilk was forced to use up two of his most valuable life-saving treasures. He had even tossed the Violetbolt of Icy Flames over to Emperor Maniseal and asked other major powers to intercede on his behalf, but it was all to no avail. The kindly, good-natured Emperor Maniseal had been truly enraged. He had chased after Emperor Trisilk for nineteen entire chaos cycles, and he still continued the chase without relenting in the slightest.

“Ten chaos cycles, a hundred chaos cycles, or a thousand chaos cycles... so long as I, Maniseal, am still alive, I swear I shall one day slay Trisilk.” These were the words which Emperor Maniseal had said long ago.

All Emperor Trisilk could do was hide as best he could.

The universe was a vast place. If an Eternal Emperor wished to hide, it would be very difficult for anyone to find him. However... by the same principle, for a major power like Emperor Maniseal to unrelentingly search for and chase after you was an utter nightmare.

“What horrible luck. Even my mountain of darkspace flamestone was discovered?” Emperor Trisilk muttered angrily to himself. He could sense his disciple’s death, but he didn’t dare to go and investigate what had happened. “My disciple had the power of a peak Daolord of the Third Step. With my formation supporting him, not even Verge-level Daolords would be a match for him. I wonder who killed him? Maybe that old bastard Maniseal knows about it as well.”

......

Ning and the others, however, didn’t know any of this. Terrified of being discovered, they quickly moved towards the core parts of the Archaeus region.

“Do you think Emperor Trisilk will be able to invert the flows of spacetime to find our tracks?”

“Don’t worry. The Archaeus region is huge! It won’t be that easy for him to find us.” Ning and the others didn’t dare to relax in the slightest... but they had no idea that Emperor Trisilk was in no position to worry about anything besides keeping himself alive.