Book 35, The Aeonian Race, Chapter 11 – Autarch’s Blood
Ji Ning felt as though he was an ant who was facing the vast, starry night sky. Ning instantly turned pale, finding it hard to breathe as that aura of power swept outwards. It was simply terrifying. The aura of that glob of blood… it vastly surpassed the auras of any of the Hegemons Ning had met thus far! Although Hegemons had incredible auras, they couldn’t even compare to the blood-red ‘sun’ that was glowing before him.
At Ning’s current level of power, he was strong enough to smile and jest in the presence of Hegemons. But when faced with this pool of red blood, he felt utter terror from every fiber of his very being!
“What is that?!” Ninedust came charging over. He had been planning to take Ning away and flee, but he was instantly dazed when he saw that large pool of blood-red liquid, roughly thirty thousand meters in size.
“Darknorth, my young friend… it is useless for you to take away that omnigeddon bloodfruit tree.” The sea dragon leader began to laugh. “The reason why that tree was so marvelous was all due to this drop of blood.”
Ning and Ninedust stood next to each other. They could leave this world whenever they wished, and so they were in no haste to flee just yet.
“I uprooted the bloodfruit tree. Don’t you care?” Ning asked.
“Why should we care?” The sea dragon leader laughed, “Long ago, this world didn’t even have the bloodfruit tree in it. For you to uproot it does nothing to us at all.”
“If this world originally didn’t have a bloodfruit tree in it… where did it come from?” The nearby Ninedust asked, “And… did you just say that this giant pool of liquid is a drop of blood?”
“Yes, a drop of blood. This is a drop of blood which Autarch Bolin created after pouring tremendous amounts of work and essence into it, and it is filled with boundless mysteries,” the sea dragon leader said.
“An Autarch’s blood?” Ning and Ninedust were enlightened. This wasn’t just a random drop of blood from Autarch Bolin; it was something which Autarch Bolin had spent tremendous effort in refining. No wonder it was so terrifying!
“Long, long ago, Autarch Bolin left behind this drop of blood. We have been here on the Autarch’s orders, and we are to prevent all cultivators from reaching it. Daolords, Emperors… everyone must pass the trials before gaining access to this drop of blood,” the sea dragon leader said. “Later on, the Aeonians discovered this place and came here.”
“They realized that the Autarch’s blood was simply too powerful! Thus, they came up with a way to graft the omnigeddon bloodfruit tree, a tree with tremendously strong vital energy, on top of it. The tree naturally rooted itself around the Autarch’s blood, and over the course of many years it began to slowly evolve and transform before it finally managed to draw some of the essence from the blood.”
“After absorbing some of the Autarch’s blood, it began to grow larger and larger while giving birth to more and more fruit. Now, it has finally reached a size of three million kilometers and can give birth to a crop of thirty-six fruit at a time,” the sea dragon leader said. “Every single fruit is far more special than ordinary omnigeddon bloodfruit, because they were grown from an Autarch’s blood.”
“This tree has spent more than thirty million chaos cycles absorbing the blood and has already transformed. It shall always produce thirty-six fruits with each harvest. However, now that you have uprooted it, it no longer has access to the Autarcvh’s blood and so the fruit it produces shall most likely be nothing more than ordinary omnigeddon bloodfruits. That makes the value of this tree much lower than before.”
Ning’s face tightened. True. Ordinary omnigeddon bloodfruit trees produced three fruits per harvest, while this one produced thirty-six! This made it comparable to twelve ‘ordinary’ bloodfruit trees. However, the fruit only possessed miraculous properties due to having absorbed blood from the Autarch. That was the reason why the tree could be described as having a hundred times the value of an ordinary tree!
“Just ten or so times?” Ning knew that he couldn’t be too greedy, but he still felt rather disappointed. This sort of treasure was not nearly enough to ask an Autarch to help out.
……
The sea dragon leader suddenly said, “The Autarch said that if one day, someone arrives who is capable of taking away this drop of blood, our two races shall regain our freedom. Darknorth, my young friend, you can try for yourself whether or not you can take the Autarch’s blood away.”
“Yes, if you can take it away, we shall regain our freedom.” The flaming equine leader grew excited as well, as did the hundreds of beasts within the world. Life here was simply too boring. Many of them had been born here, but the oldest ones had been sent here by Autarch Bolin himself. They knew just how lively the outside world was, whereas this place was incredibly dull and lonely.
“Take it away?” Ning and Ninedust were intrigued.
“It was created by the Autarch, who poured all of his effort into its creation. It is incomparably precious, far more than a hundred times more valuable than the tree you just uprooted. Most likely, even other Autarchs would very much desire to acquire this drop of blood and learn some of Autarch Bolin’s secrets from it.” The sea dragon leader continued to describe how valuable this drop of blood was, causing Ning to feel even more eager.
“Darknorth, give it a shot.” Ninedust looked at Ning and sent mentally, “You’d definitely be able to revive your Dao-companion if you acquire this drop of special Autarch’s blood.”
“I’ll give it a shot.” Ning didn’t hesitate at all, immediately flying into that enormous crevice. As he moved closer to it, he saw that the round pool of blood was beginning to swivel and emanate auras of increasing power. Ning had to clamp down upon his fear.
Although he couldn’t prevent himself from feeling terrified, he didn’t feel any sense of danger at all. This meant that this blood drop wouldn’t cause any harm to him. Autarch Bolin had left it behind for future generations of cultivators to benefit from, not die from.
Whoosh. Ning exerted his will, causing a divine power clone to appear next to the pool. The clone reached out with its right hand to touch the giant pool of blood. Ning wanted to be careful; this way, he would at most lose a bit of his divine power rather than his own life.
“Eh?” The drop of blood was incredibly cold, but it didn’t cause Ning’s clone any harm at all. “Arise.” The divine power clone tested out applying a bit of power to it.
Rumble… the drop of blood immediately began to shake and shudder. Silken lines began to appear all across this entire vast planet, with all of the lines converging upon the drop of blood. Ning’s divine clone was completely unable to move it at all.
“Arise!” Seeing this, Ning moved his true body over to the pool. He manifested three heads and six arms, then reached out with all six arms while using his Hegemon armor to cover and protect his hands as they delved into the pool of blood.
Ning pulled, hard. Boom! It was like an ant trying to shake a tree; the countless lines across the world connecting to this blood drop fought against him. If Ning wanted to move this blood drop, he would have to be able to overcome the might of this entire planet.
“Lift it up! Move it away!” The two clan leaders and the hundreds of beasts all watched eagerly. The day this drop of blood was taken would be the day they completed their responsibility to test the cultivators who came to this place. Only then would they be able to leave.
“Arise. Arise. Arise!” Ning did his utmost, but there was no way he could overcome the full power of this entire planet. This was an estate-world which had been created by an Autarch, after all; it was incredibly stable and not something which the likes of him could shake.
……
Inside the Aeonian Kingdom. There was a beautiful, ancient palace here which served as the central temple for the entire kingdom.
A handsome youth was seated atop the royal throne within the temple, dressed in elegant black robes. His aura was awe-inspiring and remote. He was the true supreme leader of the Aeonian race… Emperor Anchen. He had been protecting this place since time out of mind, because this temple was connected to the five most important ancestral grounds of the Aeonian race. Every single one of the five was extremely important… but of course, the most important was the ‘first ancestral ground’. This was because it had been left behind by Autarch Bolin himself.
Rumble… suddenly, a tremor swept through the palace. Emperor Anchen was connected to all five ancestral grounds as their protector; he naturally noticed it and immediately turned pale. “The first ancestral ground! Its shaking!?” This was a world which had been created by Autarch Bolin, and the Aeonians knew it well; the only thing which could cause that entire world to shake was if someone was acting against the Autarch’s blood, the most important treasure of all.
“Emperor Islehide, Emperor Duug, there may be invaders within the first ancestral ground. Come right away!” Emperor Anchen sent frantically.
Just a few seconds later… swoosh! Swoosh! Two figures simultaneously appeared. One was the handsome, red-haired Emperor Islehide; the other was the tall, skinny, and pale-faced Emperor Duug. The two had been shocked by what they had just heard and had immediately hastened over.
These three were the three most powerful Emperors of the Aeonian race here in the ‘Endless Territories’.
“There are invaders in the first ancestral ground?” Emperor Islehide and Emperor Duug were both anxious and filled with murderous intent.
“Yes, go in right away,” Emperor Anchen shouted.
“Let’s go.”
“Let’s go.” The bodies of the three Emperors began to blaze with flames. These flames were generated by the igniting of the Aeonian blood. To open the link to the first ancestral ground was extremely difficult; an enormous price would have to first be paid. However, now that something strange was going on inside they could no longer afford to worry about it.