The Desolate Era

Book 42, The Five Truncheon Chapters, Chapter 1 – Hawkfang

“Exalt, who in the world is this white-robed Daolord? Why must we sacrifice everything for the sake of killing him?” One of the many Hegemons below the Exalt, a Sithe descendant, couldn’t help but ask this question. To this very day, the Sithe descendants had no idea what ‘a Daolord who has mastered an Eternal Omega Dao’ truly represented for the Sithe. In truth, the Sithe didn’t dare to tell their descendants too much either!

In the end, their descendants were native to this Chaosverse and had grown up here. Strictly speaking, it was destined for them to be unable to walk the same path together, and so they were purposefully kept in the dark regarding many things. As a result, they now felt that this was completely incomprehensible and not worth them losing their lives over!

“Right, Exalt! We had thought that killing him would be very easy, but Purgatory was defeated even after we gave it a pair of Apocalypse-class treasures. This Daolord is too powerful! Aside from the three Elder Halls, we don’t have any treasures that are superior to the ones we already sent down, but the three Elder Halls are immobile. If we want to proactively attack him, we’ll be at a huge disadvantage. Many of us will probably die.”

“We can simply keep him exiled in Purgatory and wait for his truesoul to collapse. He’ll still die, right? Why is it necessary for us to pay such an enormous price?”

“Why do we have to fight with him to the death?”

“Is such an enormous price truly worth it?” The Sithe descendants voiced their arguments, one by one. The true Sithe were silent. They knew the details behind this, but they didn’t dare to expose them! They had been ordered long ago to restrict the amount of contact between them and their descendants, for fear of their descendants learning the ‘truth’ and losing faith.

“Worth it?” The blue-haired youth, ‘Exalt Bowenya’, let out a soft sigh from atop his throne. “Yes… I, too, feel that it isn’t worth it.” Exalt Bowenya stared downwards. “But I’ve already told you everything I can. The things I have left unsaid, I have done so because I am not permitted to! If I told you the truth, I would be violating Sithe laws and my truesoul would be annihilated.”

“All you need to know is this! Our dimension may seem large, but we are nothing more than a small part of the Sithe race and empire. This is nothing more than a small part of Sithe territory.” Exalt Bowenya waved a finger, causing an image to appear in midair of the white-robed Daolord. “As for him… he is of grave importance to the entire Sithe civilization. We have to destroy him and then capture his truesoul. This will be an enormous accomplishment for our race! Sacrificing our entire hidden dimension will be worth it, yes. Even if the sacrifice was greater, it would still be worth it.”

Everyone below fell silent. The Sithe descendants also knew that they were nothing more than a small part of the massive Sithe empire as a whole.

“If we go against our orders, our entire dimension will be punished and annihilated. All of us, including myself, will be put to death.” Exalt Bowenya’s voice was glacially cold, and the Hegemons below him all felt an invisible sense of oppression. If they tried to find a way out, the only result would be death.

“There’s no way out. We have to kill him. If we kill him, we’ll all be rewarded heavily. If we do not… we will all die! If you must blame someone, blame that Daolord for having come to our home,” Exalt Bowenya said. “Now… obey my orders.”

None of the Hegemons voiced any further complaints. The true Sithe knew that there was no way to avoid this, while the Sithe progeny all knew that shirking back meant death.

“Jonnbech,” Exalt Bowenya called out. An extremely muscular four-armed man with curly hair who was three meters tall had been standing close to the front of the throng of Hegemons. He stepped forward and said respectfully, “Exalt.”

“Jonnbech, it is now time for war. We are throwing everything we have into this battle against that Daolord. You have past experience with controlling an Elder Hall, and so from this day forth you shall be the controller of the ‘Iceland’ Elder Hall.”

“Understood.” Jonnbech was a true Sithe and was second only to the Exalt in power. He had a perfect Dao-heart and was highly venerated amongst the Sithe.

“Hawkfang.” Exalt Bowenya’s gaze turned towards another man. Instantly, the entire hall began to stir. Some of the true Sithe began to frown, while others remained quite calm. Most of the Sithe progeny, however, grew excited. Hawkfang was a leader amongst the Sithe descendants and extremely powerful.

“Exalt.” Hawkfang bowed respectfully. His face was calm, and he was dressed in long black robes. His eyes seemed to contain an endless universe of space and time within them.

Exalt Bowenya couldn’t help but secretly sigh to himself when he saw this. Hawkfang was a descendant he held in high regard, and was the son of a friend. The man was extremely talented and had reached Hegemony in a very short period of time. He stood a very good chance of becoming an Autarch in the future! Even the supreme leader of the Sithe paid a great deal of attention to Hawkfang.

Alas, during the Dawn War, Hawkfang’s father (another Exalt) died in battle. Ever since then, Hawkfang seemed to have become filled with many thoughts and worries, resulting in him being unable to progress any further in his path of cultivation. The entire Sithe race sighed at the loss.

It must be remembered that if Sithe descendants became what the locals called ‘Autarchs’, then as natives to this Chaosverse they would gain full control over the power of the local Dao. An extra ‘Autarch’ on the side of the Sithe would be of enormous assistance to them.

As the supreme leader of the Sithe once said: “Hawkfang simply hasn’t experienced enough. The only place he has ever lived is that single small dimension. The death of his father caused his heart to be filled with turmoil. He is unable to perfect his Dao-heart and he no longer has any chance of reaching Autarchy! If he had been able to spend more time wandering the universe, his father’s death wouldn’t have dealt such a deadly bow to his psyche. Now that a shadow has been cast over his heart, it will be very difficult for him to perfect his Dao-heart!”

He had been such a promising figure, but now he was destined to be mediocre! Still… in this dimension, Hawkfang remained the most talented member of the Sithe descendants, and he had reached Hegemony in a total of six Daos!

“Starting now, Hawkfang, you shall be in control of the same Elder Hall your father controlled – the ‘Flameland’ Elder Hall,” Exalt Bowenya said. “Your father died a glorious death in battle for the sake of the Sithe. I hope you will prove to be as fearless as your father was and destroy this Daolord for the Sithe.”

“Understood.” Hawkfang remained completely expressionless as he bowed respectfully.

“Jonnbech, Hawkfang, the two of you should immediately go to your respective Elder Halls and take control over them. Once you do so, the three of us shall decide on a strategy for dealing with this Daolord,” Exalt Bowenya instructed. “As for the other Hegemons, await your deployment orders.”

“Understood.” The throng of Hegemons and Emperors all acknowledged the order.

……

The three Elder Halls were all glowing with white light. One of them was shining brighter than the other two, which were slightly dimmer. They had lain untouched for many years, after all; they were simply functioning on auto-mode.

Whoosh. The black-robed Hawkfang suddenly flew through the air, moving towards the towering, twelve-storied tower which emanated a scorching aura. When he arrived before it, he raised his head and stared upwards, a lost look in his eyes.

“Father,” Hawkfang murmured softly. He still clearly remembered his father bringing him here when he was young. This was his father’s Daoguard Tower, and they had played together here. Life back then had been truly carefree, and he had been so incredibly talented that he had succeeded in everything he tried. His father had arranged him to experience a few setbacks to temper him, but they barely slowed him down at all. He had reached the Daomerge with incredible speed, then completed it and reached Hegemony.

“It’s been so long, but I’ve come again.” Hawkfang reached out to touch the tower. He could still remember that battle clearly.

During the Dawn War, his avatar had accompanied his father in their grand campaign. Towards the end of the war, they had fallen into dire straits. His father had personally destroyed his avatar, not wishing for his avatar to fall into the hands of their cultivator enemies. If the Autarchs managed to capture his avatar, they were completely capable of using karma to slay his true body as well! In contrast, when his father killed his avatar it would have no impact at all. Avatars didn’t matter too much to Hegemons, as they could simply remake them after they were destroyed.

In the end, his father had died during that battle. He had died at the hands of a cultivator known as ‘Autarch Bolin’.

“The cultivators…” Hawkfang mused to himself, “Am I a Sithe, or am I a cultivator?” Hawkfang shook his head. “Let us fight, then. If you can’t even stop someone like me, then you deserve to die. Even if I really am a cultivator, killing some of them in Father’s memory isn’t that big a deal.” He stepped into the tower.

“Young master.” A black golem instantly appeared on the first floor of the great tower, and it bowed respectfully: “I’ve already received orders to hand the entire Daoguard Tower over to you.”

“Mm.” Hawkfang nodded. He immediately took control over the entire Elder Hall and began to make plans to deal with the white-robed Daolord based on the various tricks and traps the hall contained.”