Book 44, Chapter 18 – Golden Bridge of Freedom
An ordinary chaos planet. A white-robed Ji Ning was seated in the lotus position atop a boulder, surrounded by a 100x temporal acceleration field. He was trying to deconstruct and solve the formations protecting the temple which had been sealed away by Autarch Stonerule! It remained a source of potential trouble and Ning felt that it was best to get rid of it.
“Eh?” Ning’s face suddenly tightened. He could sense that a new, terrifying danger had just appeared far in the distance. This danger was so great that Ning could sense his heart clenching. It was every bit as dangerous as the Annihilation Hive.
“What’s going on?” Ning was puzzled by this, as were the other Autarchs. Everyone could sense this terrifying new threat.
As soon as Iyerre had attacked Mogg, the prime essences of the Chaosverse had immediately detected and locked onto him. This was their first time ‘finding’ him and realizing what a terrifying threat he posed.
Perhaps he wasn’t an immediate a threat as the Annihilation Hive had been, but he was an expert who had reached incredible levels of insight. So long as he was alive, he would cause endless troubles for this Chaosverse. He could even create new Annihilation Hives! Strictly speaking, he was more dangerous than anything else around.
Suddenly, Ning could sense a message coming from Autarch Mogg: “I just suffered an attack from a Sithe expert. He attacked me by himself, and he was able to completely bypass all of the formations and seals I set down around myself. He even managed to invade my domain while influencing me so that I didn’t notice in the slightest. Thankfully I was able to recover in time, but even so he was able to deal me a heavy injury in our first head-on clash. He’s too strong, far stronger than me and significantly stronger than even Darknorth. If I had to fight him head-on, I’d probably die after just a few rounds of battle.”
“What?!” Ning was shocked, as were the other Autarchs who were receiving this information at the same time.
Since when had the Sithe become so powerful as to be able to overwhelm an Autarch in sole combat? In all these years, it was an ironclad rule that Autarchs were completely invincible in sole combat.
“What type of treasures did he use?” Ning immediately asked. Autarch Titanos and the others were asking the exact same question as well.
“Nothing. He didn’t use any treasures at all. He didn’t even use a weapon. His hand alone dealt me a grave wound! And… he said his name is ‘Iyerre’!” Autarch Mogg said.
“He didn’t even use a weapon, but was still able to heavily injure Mogg in just one clash?” Ning was stunned. “I can’t believe such a powerful figure managed to remain hidden for so long. He must have been biding his time for aeons… and now that he’s revealed himself, he’s definitely going to launch an all-out attack. Why doesn’t he use a weapon? Is it perhaps because weapons are essentially meaningless to him? Or is it perhaps that his hands ARE his weapons? Either way, he’s relying on his own power!”
The information which Autarch Mogg had sent over caused many different thoughts to flicker through Ning’s mind.
“The Sithe are suppressed by our Chaosverse and unable to use any of the power of the Dao at all! For him to be this powerful while suppressed, how powerful would he be if he could use the Dao?” Ning mused to himself, “There’s no way he’s an ordinary Autarch, nor can he be merely an Omega Emperor! It is highly likely that he is actually an Autarch of an Omega Dao!”
An Omega Autarch! This was the only possibility Ning could come up with which could explain this person’s strength. Ning wasn’t the only one to come to this conclusion; the other Autarchs did as well.
In truth, they had suspected this possibility long ago. They had long postulated the possibility that the real instigator of the Sithe incursion was an Omega Autarch, but all of them had believed that someone who had reached such an invincible level as the Sithe Lord of Chaos wouldn’t have taken the risk of entering a ‘foreign’ Chaosverse. Once he came in, he would lose his connection to his own Chaosverse and be suppressed by the ‘foreign’ Chaosverse, resulting in him being so dramatically weakened that he could very well perish.
In the outside world, a Lord of Chaos was completely invincible. Why take the risk? But now, a Sithe named Iyerre had appeared. Could it be that he was a second Omega Autarch of the Sithe Chaosverse?
“This person named Iyerre,” Autarch Mogg continued, “Is overwhelmingly powerful. I’m absolutely certain that he is an Omega Autarch. I can think of no other possibilities! He’s reached incredible levels of insight and is able to suppress spacetime with ease, and he’s even better at it than me. My insights into the mysteries of space are like a joke to him. They are completely ineffective. He’s definitely surpassed me in the Dao of Space!”
“An Omega Autarch!” Ning and the others instantly were certain of this. This ‘Iyerre’ had a higher level of insight than the Autarchs and was superior to Mogg in the Dao of Space, which was Mogg’s specialty. He had to be an Omega Autarch!
“Be careful, Mogg,” Ning sent back. There was nothing they could do to help, because they were all too far away. It would all be up to Autarch Mogg himself.
……
Autarch Mogg was continuing to flee through space.
“Autarch Mogg!” the pursuing Iyerre suddenly roared from behind.
Boom! An invisible wave of force instantly surged into Autarcoh Mogg’s body. Autarch Mogg felt as though the world around him had changed, transforming into a dazzlingly beautiful ocean while he himself had become a seagull soaring through the skies above it.
“Break!” Autarch Mogg had a perfect Dao-heart and a powerful truesoul. This mighty shout allowed his tremendous willpower to instantly tear the illusion to shreds.
The casting of the illusion and the breaking of the illusion had happened almost instantaneously. “Your illusions are a bit tougher than Stonerule’s, but they still don’t amount to much,” Autarch Mogg replied, his voice echoing in the emptiness of space.
“Damn.” Iyerre frowned when he saw this. In a foreign Chaosverse, he was unable to use the power of the Dao and was suppressed as well, but in at least one area he remained at peak power – illusions! This was because illusions were aimed directly at the soul and truesoul. The greater your insights into the art of illusions were, the more powerful your illusions would become. The Dao had little to do with it. Alas, Iyerre was an Omega Autarch but had not reached Autarchy through the Dao of Illusions.
If Ning for example became an Omega Autarch, it would be through the Omega Sword Dao. His specialty would still be the sword! The same was true for Iyerre, who was skilled in the Dao of Light.
“You won’t be able to escape.” Iyerre gritted his teeth, unleashing one of his ultimate attacks.
Anywhere else, he could use any techniques as often as he pleased. Here in this Chaosverse, however, he had to consider how much energy these techniques would take up. His energy consumption was commensurate to his vast insights, and replenishing energy was extremely difficult for him.
“Omnipresent Light!” Iyerre’s body suddenly began to release a vast amount of light. Countless rays of light soared out in every single direction, illuminating every part of the vast void around them. The rays of light illuminated even Autarch Mogg himself, and when they shone upon him he felt them pressing down upon him with terrifying power, trying to force him to kneel down. This tremendous pressure caused him to slow down dramatically.
This was the most powerful domain-type technique which Iyerre had created after becoming an Omega Autarch. Wherever his light reached, all had to submit to him!
In the outside world, his light alone could actually kill ordinary Autarchs. Here in this Chaosverse, it was dramatically weakened and so only served to generate a suppressive effect.
“How could there be such a powerful binding effect? It’s far stronger than any of my domains!” Autarch Mogg was shocked. The suppress effective was so powerful that his speed had been nearly cut in half.
Whoosh! Iyerre flew towards Autarch Mogg, his entire body glowing with boundless light and a sympathetic smile on his face. “Why must you fight this, Autarch Mogg? You must be tired.”
“Truly impressive, Iyerre. You should be an Omega Autarch of the Sithe race. I’m thoroughly impressed. Even without being able to use one whit of the power of the Dao, you still possess incredible power.” Autarch Mogg smiled coldly. “But this is our homeland. Do you really think you can kill me? Hmph!”
Boom! An enormous golden bridge that was a million kilometers long suddenly appeared behind Autarch Mogg. The bridge even had a refined, three-story tower next to it, and Autarch Mogg was standing right at the entrance to the tower. He smiled coldly as he stared at the distant Iyerre: “Iyerre, dare you step onto my bridge?”
“What is this?” Iyerre’s face turned grim. He could clearly sense that this vast golden bridge was emanating an aura of terrifying power, power which came from the prime essences of this Chaosverse.
“You Sithe have your trump cards, but so do we! Did you think we had none? Did you think we spent all these countless aeons just waiting for death like fools?” Autarch Mogg stood there atop his bridge at the entrance to the tower: “This should be the final, last-gasp attempt by you Sithe to take over our Chaosverse. We had been planning to reveal the Golden Bridge of Freedom during the final battle, but you unexpectedly drove me to the brink of death and forced me to reveal it now.”
“Golden Bridge of Freedom? It uses the power of the prime essences of this Chaosverse…” Iyerre had an ugly look on his face.
“Yes. As you suspect, it is modeled after your Daoguard Towers!” Autarch Mogg smiled coldly. “We’ve been analyzing your Daoguard Towers for countless aeons now. Although the Golden Bridge of Freedom isn’t quite as marvelous as your Daoguard Towers, it is still able to make use of some of the power of the Quintessence.”
The cultivator leaders had known for many years that calamity could spring upon them anew, and so they had been laboring without pause to prepare for this day. A Golden Bridge of Freedom had some of the effects of a Daoguard Tower. While one was standing atop the bridge, one would be virtually invincible. This was one of the trump cards the Autarchs had been preparing for this war.
