Desolate Era

by RWX

  He had felt despair upon being trapped, had quietly waited and fought for eighteen years, felt utter despair again upon being captured alive, felt shocked and overjoyed at the appearance of the seven Empyrean Gods, once more felt despair upon seeing how powerful the three Queen Mother clones were…and now, his master had appeared, said the words ‘vile creatures’, and completely killed all three Queen Mother clones.

  In fact…in his heart, Ning felt as though the entire universe had suddenly changed.

  The Void remained the Void…but Ning now felt that the Void was a beautiful, beautiful place.

  “Respectful greetings to you, Old Patriarch.” The Empyrean God of the Seven Planets broke apart into seven Empyrean Gods, all of whom spoke out respectfully.

  “Not bad.” Patriarch Subhuti lightly nodded.

  The seven Empyrean Gods felt a joyful feeling in their hearts.

  They understood the true meaning behind Patriarch Subhuti saying the words, ‘not bad’. Per Daoist Threelives’ orders, if his heir had not reached the Empyrean God level, the seven of them didn’t have to care about whether or not his heir lived or died. However, as Patriarch Subhuti saw it, Ji Ning was his own disciple as well as Threelives’; thus, Subhuti felt quite pleased that the seven of them had chosen to come out and protect Ning.

  “Disciple.” Patriarch Subhuti looked towards Ning. He took a single step forward, displacing himself through space and appearing before Ning.

  “Master.” Ning hurriedly called out to him with respect, tears having appeared in his eyes. “Thank you, Master…”

  “Hahaha…” Subhuti laughed. “Come. It’s time to go back.”

  “Right.” Ning nodded heavily.

  “Why haven’t the seven of you returned yet?” Subhuti glanced backwards.

  The seven Empyrean Gods hurriedly flew over. They first saluted towards Subhuti respectfully, and then they disappeared into nowhere. Clearly, they had returned to the Starseizing Manor…but the ‘master’ of the manor, Ji Ning, didn’t feel a thing. Clearly…he had yet to fully master this Starseizing Manor.

  Ning raised his head, giving the infinite Void a final glance.

  This Nihilum Zone…

  It had proven to be a testing ground for him. In this place, he had first overcome the karmic sinflames, had reached the ‘ruler’ level in heartforce, had come up with a way to apply heartforce to his sword-fingers, and had mastered a tiny amount of swordforce…

  Fortune and disaster often came hand-in-hand.

  Whoosh. That spatial vortex once more appeared next to Patriarch Subhuti, looking just like an oceanic whirlpool. Patriarch Subhuti guided Ning into the spatial vortex…and then it all completely disappeared from the Nihilum Zone.

  The Primordial Ruinworld. The Snaphorn world.

  Within a field of endless darkness.

  Three minds were conversing with each other…and their thoughts were full of terror.

  “Who was that old man?”

  “We’ve never seen him before. We didn’t even see him in that great war, all those years ago.”

  “If we had encountered him in that war, we probably would’ve died long ago.”

  “By the looks of him, he appears to be one of the humans of the Three Realms. From the fact that he attacked us, we can tell that he should belong to the side of the Three Realms.”

  “Logically speaking, it should be impossible to teleport through the space of the Nihilum Zone…but he was able to do it! And in addition, he was able to annihilate our three clones simply through his mastery over spacetime. Abilities like these are utterly inconceivable.”

  The three Queen Mothers were all restless and uneasy.

  He had been too powerful.

  His power had completely eclipsed theirs. In that great war, the three of them had been small-time players; they had only survived due to luck. Any one of the truly powerful figures of that great war could’ve crushed them to death with ease. Clearly, this old man was comparable to one of those truly powerful figures! A supreme power who was capable of impacting the entire course of that war!

  “I wonder if that old man of the Three Realms has left or not.”

  “I hope he leaves right away.”

  “I hope he never comes to our Snaphorn world again.”

  The three Queen Mothers conversed hopefully to each other, their courage having been completely shattered by the two words ‘vile creatures’. All they wanted right now was to never encounter that old man again.

  “What the…”

  “Oh no!”

  “He’s here!”

  The three Queen Mothers had covered the entire Snaphorn world with their minds long ago. They kept an extremely tight level of control over the world, and so if any powerful figure intruded within it, they would immediately notice.

  ……

  The Snaphorn world was located at the margins of the infinitely vast Primordial Ruinworld. It was a world in its own right and was extremely vast. There were countless horned warriors who lived in this place….but at this moment, all of them could sense their entire world shaking. The ground itself was trembling, and the mountains were beginning to collapse.

  “What is going on?”

  “What is this?”

  The countless horned warriors raised their heads to stare towards the skies. Some of these Snaphorn citizens were merely youths, not yet qualified to join the army; they had to reach at least the most basic level, the Earth-level, before they could become warriors. At this moment, every single person in the entire world, including the Elders of the Palace of Elders as well as every single army squad were staring at the skies with raised heads.

  Rumble…

  From beyond the Snaphorn world…a single, utterly gigantic palm had appeared.

  This palm was nearly half as large as the entire Snaphorn world itself. When it slapped downwards through the Void of space towards the Snaphorn world…

  Crackle, crackle, crackle…

  The protective formations covering the Snaphorn world began to crack apart, and even spacetime itself was compressed so tightly that it began to shatter. And the strangest thing was…spacetime within the Snaphorn world began to compress into multiple layers of density, and the layers of spacetime came crashing downwards.

  As the palm came slamming down, the layers of spacetime began to split apart.

  “No!”

  “Flee!”

  “FLEE!”

  Three utterly enormous creatures had suddenly charged out from deep within the Snaphorn world.

  They, too, had incomparably massive bodies with pitch-black scales, but compared to the ordinary horned warriors, they were were much, much fatter. At first glance…one would see that their bellies took up nearly half the size of their entire bodies. Their ugly little eyes emitted rays of dark light that attempted to tear a hole through space.

  Whoooooosh…

  That enormous palm continued to descend, causing spacetime to continue to compress and shatter apart, layer by layer. The spacetime at the very bottom had become incredibly dense, making it so that the three mighty Queen Mothers were completely unable to tear a rift through space and flee, no matter how they tried.

  “Spare us.”

  “Spare us.”

  “Spare us!”

  All three Queen Mothers called out loudly, their voices reverberating through the entire Snaphorn world.

  But that massive palm continued to coldly, emotionlessly continue its downward smash.

  “No…” The countless horned warriors were all completely stunned. They felt terror, a terror that came from their very souls. This was all completely beyond their expectations. That giant palm which they could see with the naked eye…it was a palm of infinite size, a palm that was more than half as large as their entire world itself. Even if Ning were to use his [Torch-Dragon’s Eye], he still would find it hard to see the complete palm.

  They could see the massive, canyon-like fingerprints and palm-print of that mighty palm.


  BANG! BANG! BANG! An incredible amount of pressure had already been brought down to bear. The countless horned warriors of the Snaphorn world began to explode into green-colored bits of blood and gore. Only a very small number of violet-caped warriors and golden-caped warriors were able to just barely stay alive…but their bodies were also slowly beginning to crack.

  “Old bastard…are you trying to start another war?!”

  “Damn you, you old bastard!”

  “Damn you!”

  Asking for mercy was useless. The three Queen Mothers went mad, beginning to curse in utter despair, using every imprecation in the book. They weren’t even able to flee…all they could do was face this terrifying palm as it came down.

  BANG! BANG! BANG! The palm had yet to make contact, but the pressured, fractured spacetime that came before it had caused the bodies of even the golden-caped warriors to completely blow apart. The only ones left within the Snaphorn world were those three mighty Queen Mothers. Their hideous bodies began to crack as well. Slowly, the cracks grew larger and larger, and the three Queen Mothers began to curse and scream in an even louder manner.

  Finally…it all came to an end.

  The three Queen Mothers had been completely blown apart, having transformed into dust.

  BOOM!

  The giant palm finally came to a halt.

  An ancient voice rang out. “Start another war? Nothing more than three little worms!” And then…the enormous palm completely vanished.

  Everything turned silent.

  The entire Snaphorn world…had become transformed into a massive planetary basin with a giant, palm-shaped impression caved into it.[1. To get a sense of what this looks like…take a look at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99yqtxKhOCc. Start at the 2 minute mark.]

  * * *

  Book 16, Chapter 23 - The Return

  There were white clouds in the skies. A spatial vortex suddenly appeared within them, followed by an old man in Daoist robes emerging alongside a youth.

  Ji Ning looked downwards.

  He immediately saw Mount Innerheart…and he was even able to see the many disciples of the Mount Innerheart League, living their peaceful lives there.

  “Let’s go.” Subhuti led Ning in flying downwards. They quickly arrived at the most central area of Mount Innerheart – the Tristar Crescent Abode, that seemingly ordinary-looking Daoist monastery. This was the place where Patriarch Subhuti normally trained in; disciples like Ning and the others wouldn’t dare to go disturb him without cause.

  Within the Daoist monastery.

  Subhuti landed, then took a high seat in the lotus position.

  Ning respectfully bowed. “If it hadn’t been for your aid, Master, your disciple would have most likely never been able to return to the Three Realms. Your disciple feels ashamed for having forced you to exert yourself, Master.”

  Subhuti laughed. “Sit.”

  Ning selected a prayer mat and sat down beneath him.

  “How did the karmic sinflames taste?” Subhuti asked.

  “I don’t wish to experience them again,” Ning said. “The karmic sinflames are now ever-present around me. Although the burning sensation is agonizing…I can endure it. The descent of the karmic sinflames…although it was a tribulation for me, I gained quite a bit from it.”

  “Fortune and calamity ride together,” Subhuti said with a laugh. “What level has your heartforce reached?”

  “The third level,” Ning said.

  Subhuti nodded and smiled. “I noticed that when you were fighting those aliens, your application of heartforce through your sword-fingers had reached a level where none of it leaked out whatsoever. It seems you’ve also developed an actual technique for applying heartforce through your fingers.”

  “I did indeed learn a few things from my eighteen years of battle,” Ning said.

  “Do you know why those aliens did not kill you, and instead chose to battle with you for eighteen years?” Subhuti asked.

  Ning was startled. He shook his head. “Those aliens said that they were going to use me for target practice to train their warriors, but…I keep on having the feeling that this was perhaps not the actual reason.”

  Subhuti nodded gently. “Your feelings were correct. You are in control of heartforce, and also know a way to apply it. Heartforce…it is an extremely mysterious type of power, one which even True Gods and Daofathers ponder on. There are five levels of heartforce. Although it is very weak in the early stages, as you go farther along this path and rise in levels, it will undergo an utterly earth-shaking transformation! The third level of heartforce is already quite astonishing. By using your third level heartforce, you have already reached the minimum threshold of an Empyrean God in power.”

  Ning understood this to be true.

  The first level was fairly weak; the amount of benefit it brought was almost negligible. The second level represented a clear, explosive increase in power…and the third level allowed one’s previous level of power to skyrocketed. The fourth level was the level of the most powerful divine archers of the Three Realms, and as for the fifth level…it was the level of the long-vanished Houyi.

  “Heartforce is very powerful. If you can reach the fifth level, then even as a mere Empyrean God, you would have the combat power of a Daofather or a True God.” Subhuti looked at Ning. “The peak power of heartforce is far greater than your [Starseizing Hand]. You must not be lazy in making use of your talent for heartforce.”

  “Your disciple understands.” Ning nodded.

  But how could the fifth level of heartforce be so easily accomplished?

  The only one who was publicly known within the Three Realms to have reached this level was Houyi. Perhaps some supreme Daofathers or True Gods might have secretly reached this level without telling anyone or using it…but still, one could clearly tell that reaching the fifth level was unbelievably hard.

  “The reason why the aliens of the Snaphorn world did not kill you was precisely because the mind and thought-strands of the masters of the Snaphorn world had descended upon the bodies of those warriors. Through battling with you repeatedly, they would be able to sense the ripples of your application of heartforce in detail, and thus be able to develop a heartforce technique,” Subhuti said. “I imagine that the past eighteen years have brought insights to the owner of the Snaphorn world! Heartforce…it is a technique which is unique to our Three Realms. It absolutely cannot be taught to outsiders.”

  “They have insights into it? It can’t be taught to outsiders?” Ning was shocked. “I…”

  “I’ve already annihilated the entire Snaphorn world, and the masters of the Snaphorn world are dead. Even if they did come up with a bit of information on heartforce, it is of no use now,” Subhuti said.

  Ning let out a sigh of relief…and then stared in amazement.

  The Snaphorn world had been annihilated?

  This entire time, from rescuing him to bringing him back to Mount Innerheart, his master had been by his side. Somehow, without Ning even having the faintest clue about it, he had annihilated the entire Snaphorn world, including even its masters? Ning had been able to tell from the battle between the seven Empyrean Gods and the three Queen Mother clones that the masters of the Snaphorn world had to be very strong.

  “My master truly is unfathomable,” Ning secretly mused to himself.

  “Right. That Dao-companion of yours, that Yu Wei,” Subhuti said, “She’s already overcome her tribulation and become a Celestial Immortal. Did you know about this?”

  “Senior apprentice-sister became a Celestial Immortal?” Ning was both delighted and surprised.

  He was surprised because his senior apprentice-sister had actually become a Celestial Immortal before him. Before she had left to go accompany Patriarch Lu, her power as displayed within the Conclave of Immortal Destiny hadn’t been particularly eye-catching. Who would’ve thought that in just a few short decades, she would’ve become a Celestial Immortal, even before Ning himself had?


  “When is your Primaltwin going to undergo the Celestial Tribulation?” Subhuti asked. The questions which any master cared the most about were naturally the ones related to the disciple’s tribulation. This was the most difficult calamity for any Immortal cultivator to face.

  “Very soon,” Ning said.

  “You need to ponder on the application of heartforce to your Immortal swords,” Subhuti said. “Your experiences and background are all quite extraordinary. Even though your Primaltwin is a Ki Refiner…the power of this tribulation will definitely be significant. If you can completely apply your heartforce to your Immortal swords, your power shall be greatly improved. I trust that your chances of overcoming your tribulation shall thus be much greater. The technique you’ve developed during the past eighteen years is for applying heartforce to your sword-fingers. There isn’t a huge difference between your sword-fingers and your swords…I trust you can make it work.”

  “Yes.” Ning understood that his master was expressing concern and care for him.

  And indeed…his Primaltwin could also use heartforce when executing the [Greater Thousand Swords Formation], at which point his power would rise by a shocking amount. This would indeed give him a much better chance at overcoming his tribulation.

  “Your disciple shall definitely first develop a way to apply heartforce through physical swords before attempting the tribulation,” Ning said.

  “As for your true body…ideally, you should only attempt the tribulation to become an Empyrean God after you have completely mastered the Grand Dao of the Sword,” Subhuti added.

  “Complete mastery?” Ning was stunned.

  Although he was at a very high level in the Dao of the Sword, he was still quite a ways off from completely mastering it. In addition…generally speaking, the closer one was to mastery, the harder it would be to break through the next bottleneck.

  “You are capable of wielding swordforce; it can be said that you have already touched upon what the essence of the sword is. You should be completely capable of mastering the Dao of the Sword at the void-level, which will give you a decent chance.” Subhuti looked solemnly at Ning. “I’m not too worried about your Primaltwin’s tribulation. But your true body’s tribulation…you have to be careful, careful, careful!”