Chapter 3 – Miserable

Book 44, Dusk War, Chapter 3 – Miserable

The warship was in control of spacetime in the surrounding area, making it impossible to warp through spacetime once you entered the range of a hundred billion kilometers around it.

“Eh? The warship actually blocks out heartforce?” Ji Ning had been planning on using his ‘Heartforce Eradicator’ technique to kill them, only to find that it wouldn’t go through the hull of the ship.

“Quick, let’s flee!”

“Run away!”

“Give him a blast first!”

Boom! A terrifyingly large dimensional blade shot out through space, smashing at Ning with Autarch-level power.

Ning immediately transformed into a storm of wind and lightning, instantly traversing the distance of a hundred million kilometers in a ghostly, unpredictable manner. The giant dimensional blade which had shot out of the warship couldn’t even come close to touching him, and just a heartbeat later Ning had reached the warship itself.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Hegemons and Emperors had begun to appear outside the vast warship. They were beginning to scatter and flee in every single direction. Every single person who survived would represent a ‘win’ for them.

“Die.” Ning swept them with his cold gaze, and an invisible surge of power instantly swept across them. This powerful heartforce assault instantly wiped them out.

“In I go.” Ning touched the outer hull of the warship, instantly blinking inside.

“Ahhh! Not good! The Autarch has come inside!”

“Doomed. We’re doomed.” The Hegemons and Emperors inside the warship all discarded any notions of escaping, because it was now clear that certain death awaited them outside as well.

“Revered Autarch, are you willing to spare these weak children?”

“Spare us! We were forced to do this.”

“Cultivator Autarch, you can kill us, but I would like to ask you to spare our children. They belong to your Chaosverse and are part of it.”

Some of the Hegemons begged for mercy, while some accepted death but asked for mercy for their descendants.

As soon as Ning had entered, he had immediately been able to scan every inch of the warship with ease via heartforce! With but a thought, he would wipe out all of the Sithe present. This was what made heartforce so deadly! If Autarch Bolin or Autarch Ekong had arrived, they would’ve had to waste time breaking through the various defenses. Heartforce cultivators, in contrast, were able to wipe out large numbers of opponents from afar.

“Get in here.” Ning flickered past over a hundred Hegemons and Emperors who had already given up. With a wave of his hand, he drew them into his estate-world.

With another flicker, Ning arrived at the centermost region of this entire warship. A large number of Sithe descendants lived here. Once the war had begun, the various hidden dimensions were exposed and no longer safe. Over the course of countless aeons, those hidden dimensions had produced many Sithe descendants. They naturally had to accompany the warships in leaving.

“These Sithe descendants…” Ning shook his head slowly, then waved his hand and drew in all the thronging masses of Sithe descendants as well.

“The rest can die.” There were a number who were still struggling to flee. They were scattered throughout the warship, and Ning had no time to waste on capturing them one-by-one. He simply cast his ‘Heartforce Eradicator’… and with a thought, all of them were slain!

In truth, Ning knew that many of the Sithe warriors had been forced into this war. However, this was a clash of civilizations that would result in the destruction of one! Ning’s time was extremely precious. He was willing to capture and imprison a few Sithe instead of killing them if it didn’t take up too much time, but if it did? He’d rather just wipe them out.

“In you go.” After exiting the warship, Ning collected both the warship as well as several realmships floating around next to it.

Generally speaking, the warships which Ning or Autarch Stonerule were responsible for attacking would be captured in perfect condition. Autarch Ekong and the others mostly used highly destructive attacks, resulting in the warships being damaged or destroyed. As for this particular warship Ning had captured, it was a transport warship that had been filled with many artifacts and treasures that hadn’t even been used yet.

……

“Twenty-six different battlefronts are under attack. They are located…”

New information came from Ning’s Autarch message-talisman. As one of the supreme leaders of the cultivators, Ning naturally knew where all their forces throughout the Chaosverse were located. Thus, he immediately knew which ones were under attack.

“I’m very close to the Springsea battlefront. I’ll head there immediately,” Autarch Stonerule sent to the other six. The Autarchs were all exchanging information with each other, ensuring that they were on top of the situation overall.

……

Time flowed on. More and more battlefronts became embroiled in war. Given how far the various battlefronts were from each other, the Autarchs and Ning were all separately responsible for different theaters and could only do their best to cause as much damage as possible.

“That’s one of the native Autarchs!”

A dazzling figure of golden light suddenly appeared. The Sithe Hegemons and Emperors who were assaulting the battlefront were all stunned. They knew that encountering a native Autarch represented doom.

“Die.” Ning swept his gaze across the Sithe. In order to keep his true identity hidden, during battle he intentionally kept his aura flared to the max, making it impossible for the Sithe to know who he was.

An awesome wave of heartforce immediately spread out, covering an area comparable to more than half a realmverse. With but a thought, Ning eradicated over 99% of the Sithe who were spread out throughout the battlefront, even the ones who were located within forts and castles! Only the few who were lucky enough to be inside castles and warships which blocked out heartforce were able to survive, but Ning simply spent a few more seconds mopping them up.

“The Sithe in the Rearlake battlefront have all been exterminated.” Ning sent word to the other six Autarchs, then hurried to his next destination.

……

The Autarchs and Ning seized every moment, continuing hastening across the Chaosverse continuously scanning for threats. Every so often, they would make a stop at a nearby battlefront that had already been embroiled in war! As for the more distant ones, they wouldn’t be in a rush to go to them.

The war began to expand in both scale and ferocity. By now, there were multiple battles going on throughout the Chaosverse at every moment.

Things weren’t so bad for Ning and Autarch Stonerule, as they were able to use their heartforce powers to instantly exterminate large numbers of Sithe! The other Autarchs had a much rougher time of it. Many of the Sithe were protected behind castles or formations, and these Autarchs had to go through the time-consuming process of breaking through those defenses.

“Keep on killing them for all I care. How many can you possibly get rid of, Autarchs?” Iyerre sat upon his throne. He was quite calm despite the many messages he received from the squads he had sent out. “I have far, far more warriors under my command than your civilization does, and I have far more powerful treasures as well! Even if you massacre half of them, the other half is more than enough to ensure that countless Hegemons and Emperors belonging to your Chaosverse will die.”

Iyerre didn’t care at all about the casualties his subordinates had suffered. Even if they died, their truesoul fragments would return to the Sithe Chaosverse; there was no permanent loss at all.

However, when the native Hegemons and Emperors perished their truesouls would be devoured by Sithe techniques, resulting in this Chaosverse being weakened. Eventually the sheer magnitude of deaths would result in the Chaosverse being so weak that he, Iyerre, would have a very good chance of becoming the Lord of Chaos for this Chaosverse.

“Just keep fighting.” Iyerre was in full control of the war. He knew exactly how many losses he had suffered and the cultivators had suffered.

……

Ji Ning was feeling increasingly anxious. He killed at a very fast pace, but the majority of his time was spent traveling. The Chaosverse was simply too vast! The Sixteen Realmverses Alliance was only possible because those sixteen realmverses were quite close to each other. There were many realmverses which were extremely far from each other, which was why the empty space between realmverses was known as the ‘Great Dark’ to many. Ning would usually need anywhere from half a day to two days to travel from realmverse to realmverse.

The more he and his six peers slew, the fewer of their own Hegemons and Emperors would die. But if things continued the way they currently were, they were going to suffer enormous losses in Hegemons and Emperors on their own side as well.

“The Skywitch battlefront is in desperate need of assistance.”

“The Ninelamps battlefront is in desperate need of assistance.”

“The Dragoncaller battlefront is in desperate need of assistance.”

One report came after another. A total of twenty-six battlefronts were in dire straits right now. They had achieved great successes in some battlefronts, but these twenty-six were in grave danger! The Sithe had their own ‘elite squads’, and these squads were extraordinarily powerful.

There was nothing Ning could do. All twenty-six of these battlefronts were very far away from him. It would take him over half a month to reach even the nearest one.

“I’ll go to the Dragoncaller battlefront,” Autarch Skyfeeder replied. “I’ll need three days to get there.” She was the only one who could go respond. None of the other Autarchs would get there in time.

‘Desperate need of assistance’ meant that the situation was so grim, they wouldn’t be able to last much longer without help. In the end, they were only able to preserve half their forces in the Dragoncaller battlefront. They lost everyone else in all twenty-five of the other battlefronts! Clearly, while the Autarchs were busy massacring the Sithe they found, their own Hegemons and Emperors were being slain on the field of battle as well. This was a truly ruinous war of attrition.

Many Sithe died, but at least they would have a chance at being brought back to life! Those native cultivators who had been slain, however, could never be brought back if the soul-eater technique was used after their deaths. They became true martyrs for this war.

Ning had no choice but to suppress the rage he felt. Early on, he imprisoned as many of the Sithe as he could… but now, he was beginning to kill more and more of them!