The Desolate Era

Book 44, The Dusk War, Chapter 20 – Grasslands

Atop a tall mountain located within a desolate, barren planet. At the peak of this mountain there was a stone house. In front of the stone house was a white-haired, dispirited-looking man who was seated by himself and drinking some wine.

This was one of the most supreme leaders of this entire Chaosverse… Autarch Bolin.

“Desolation… destruction…” The white-haired man stared at the vast world before him. He suddenly splashed the wine in his cup towards the world, sending it splattering outwards like a fine drizzle which moistened the earth before him. Slowly, plants began to grow out from the earth, including trees and grass which caused the planet to turn green with life.

The white-haired man frowned slightly as he watched. “The color of life… can it be that an Autarch is only able to control a single Daobirth Essence?” He shook his head. “There should be at least a tiny chance of controlling two.”

He felt certain that he had already reached an incredibly high level of insight into the cycle of life and death; in fact, it wasn’t too far off from his Claw Daobirth Essence in terms of profundity. And yet… no matter how he tried, he remained unable to form his Samsara Daobirth Essence.

“Death and life. Life is absolutely marvelous and intoxicating in its grandeur.” Autarch Bolin watched as the planet transformed, smiling respectfully as he watched life rise in all its awesome grandeur. Suddenly, his face tightened and he turned to stare at the empty void beyond the planet.

The space around the chaos planet had suddenly changed. An enormous being had just appeared within the empty space, and compared to it even the chaos planet was nothing more than the size of this creature’s fist. This creature looked like a giant gray bear, and it stared coldly at the planet and Autarch Bolin with its single cyclopean eye.

“An Autarch-class void dweller?” Autarch Bolin murmured softly to himself. “And it seems spacetime has been sealed.”

“Cultivator, you shall be the first person I kill within this Chaosverse!” the giant gray bear boomed loudly. It reached out with its giant paw to swat at Bolin. These void dwellers were born with tremendous natural gifts and they each had their own specialties. As for this giant bear, its specialty lay in its terrifying raw strength. Of the various Autarch-class void dwellers Iyerre had caught in the Infinite Void, it was without a doubt the physically strongest.

Riiiiip! The planet was surrounded and protected by many formations, but the giant bear paw caused them all to instantly crumble.

Autarch Bolin stared at the incoming paw coldly, a giant golden bridge with a tower on it appearing before him. Autarch Bolin himself moved to stand in front of the tower.

This was indeed the same type of protective treasure which Autarch Mogg had used, a Golden Bridge of Freedom. Since its existence had already been revealed, Autarch Bolin chose to use it right away as he could sense that this was a dangerous situation he was in.

“Die!” The giant paw came crashing down upon the golden bridge, tearing through its aura of power.

“Playing around with claws in front of me?” A hint of a cold smile flickered across Autarch Bolin face as he manifested six arms. All six of his hands arced into a claw and then tore at the giant furry bear paw slamming down towards him.

These strikes were so ferocious as to cause even the frozen spacetime around them to twist. Autarch Bolin’s claws were filled with unfathomable power. They seemed very ordinary, but they also seemed to contain countless transformations within them.

Boom! Autarch Bolin’s six claws clashed head-on against that giant bear’s paw.

Autarch Bolin couldn’t help but take two steps backwards, while the gigantic Autarch-class void bear stumbled backwards as well. It stared at Autarch Bolin with some astonishment.

“You aren’t too shabby, cultivator. Die!” The giant bear began to go berserk, roaring as it pounced at Bolin. It sent out consecutive blows with its two giant paws, which came crashing down like two vast celestial objects with so much pressure that even spacetime was completely flattened. This attack was so powerful that Autarch Bolin had no choice but to defend himself using the might of the Golden Bridge of Freedom.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The giant Autarch-class void bear continued to furiously assault Autarch Bolin for three full seconds, but it remained unable to do anything to him.

“Vilesky, you aren’t going to be able to kill this cultivator as long as he is standing on that golden bridge,” a loud voice boomed out. “Give up on trying to do it yourself. You need our help.”

Autarch Bolin’s face tightened slightly as he turned to stare into the distant void. He barked from the golden bridge, “Show yourselves!”

“Haha, ‘show yourselves’? You are ordering us around?”

“Do you really think you are worthy of giving us orders?”

“You are too weak.” Multiple voices rang out from the empty space around the world.

Moments later the vast void itself seemed to change, transforming into an even vaster grasslands that had a white layer of clouds in the skies above it. As for Autarch Bolin himself, he was now standing atop the grasslands.

“Eh?” Autarch Bolin stared at the grasslands which had just appeared around him. He inspected it closely, carefully attuning himself to the vital energy contained within every single stalk of grass. “This is an actual, real grassland?”

“Why does it seem as though the grasslands extend off into infinite?” Autarch Bolin inspected the world around him clearly. There were clouds above him, but the grasslands seemed to have no end, stretching off as far as he could see. Despite his power, he still wasn’t able to see just how vast this world was! Was this a joke? He could even see to the ends of a realmverse!

“Break!” Autarch Bolin continued to stand atop his golden bridge as he reached out to tear at the skies, seeking to tear them apart.

Slash! His two hands clawed at the layers of clouds. Autarch Bolin felt as though the clouds were incredibly tenacious. He was able to tear through a few of the clouds, but he wasn’t able to break through all of them!

“I refuse to believe this.” Autarch Bolin began to furiously attack with all six arms, using them to tear at the clouds in the skies.

This was what the cultivator Autarchs usually did. They had such boundless amounts of power that they didn’t fear exhaustion, and so using a furious barrage of attacks to crush one’s foes was usually the best method.

After the time needed to boil a kettle of tea, Autarch Bolin finally managed to completely tear through the final layer of clouds, pulling open a giant gaping hole in the skies.

Swoosh! The golden bridge beneath him rapidly shrank in size as he rode it through the gaping hole.

After flying through the gaping hole, Autarch Bolin first stared downwards at the many clouds he was standing upon, then upwards at the many clouds which still filled the skies above him.

Suddenly, a hoarse voice filled the skies: “Haha, keep clawing your way through. This isn’t like those puny ‘temples’! Although there are only nine layers to this world of grass, each layer is thicker than the last. You have no chance at all of breaking through the final layer of clouds… and you won’t even be able to get there. The shifting fields of spacetime here will ensure that you are forever trapped within the first layer of clouds above the grasslands.”

“Who are you? A Sithe Exalt?” As soon as Autarch Bolin had sensed how spacetime had been suppressed in this area, he had known that the danger was tremendous.

“Don’t compare me to those pitiable fools. I’m not one of Iyerre’s subordinates,” a clear voice suddenly rang out in response within the clouds.

“Grr…” Far away, the clouds suddenly parted to reveal an enormous figure. This was the giant cyclopean bear which had attacked Autarch Bolin earlier.

Riiiip. Autarch Bolin immediately turned to stare at two other directions. The clouds parted in two separate places, revealing two different creatures which began to fly towards him. The first was a red-eyed, white-furred humanoid whose body was covered with a bloody red miasma that radiated a demonic aura. Autarch Bolin couldn’t help but shudder slightly – this creature seemed to have been born out of pure malice and spite!

As for the second creature, it was like a giant stormcloud. Its body was blurry and indistinct, but one could vaguely make out hundreds of evil-looking eyes as well as countless tentacles reaching out from the clouds.

“Three Autarch-class void dwellers?” Autarch Bolin remained quite calm. “These Autarch-class void dwellers might be on par with me in strength, but that’s only due to their natural abilities. Their insights into the Dao are laughably low, while I have the Golden Bridge of Freedom protecting me. I should be able to keep myself completely safe… but the world of grass which has imprisoned me is quite marvelous. The grass should all be real, and it has nine layers of clouds as well as three Autarch-class void dwellers protecting it. Thus far, the only place we have seen three Autarch-class void dwellers has been that behemoth hive. None of the temples had any inside.”

The Eight Revolutions Spacetime Temple which had trapped Ning had only held Sithe Exalts. The same was true for the other temples. None of them had Autarch-class void dwellers!

The Annihilation Hive, however, had three. Now that three more had appeared within this world of grass… Autarch Bolin had the feeling that this grassland world was probably far more dangerous than any of those other temples.

What he didn’t know was that the world of grass was arguably the most deadly weapon which the Sithe had prepared for this invasion.