Desolate Era

by RWX

  But of course, what the Nuwa Alliance had, the Seamless Alliance also had.

  “That disciple of yours has formidable heartforce,” Fuxi said. “If he can break through to the fifth stage of heartforce, he’ll instantly have the power of a elite Daofather as well.”

  “It’s not that easy. Eastflower only succeeded because he’s been building up a foundation for countless years. Honestly, if it wasn’t because he was simultaneously training in so many things at once, he probably would’ve become a Daofather long ago. Eastflower is simply too ambitious, which is why it took him this long to make his breakthrough.” Subhuti shook his head. “As for Ji Ning, he hasn’t trained for long enough. It’s far too difficult for anyone to reach the fifth stage of heartforce. To be honest, I’ve always felt that his talent lay more in the sword than in anything else. To this very day, I feel that way. Compared to the Dao of the Sword, heartforce is too ephemeral and formless a path.”

  Fuxi nodded in agreement. “How’s he doing in his Dao of the Sword?”

  “He’s still building up his experiences,” Subhuti said.

  “Oh, right. Here’s the formation I promised Ji Ning.” Fuxi waved his hand, producing a bamboo scroll. “I brought it along with me to give to you.”

  ……

  The Seamless Gate was naturally aware of Lu Dongbin’s breakthrough. All they could do, however, was gnash their teeth in silence.

  The Nuwa Alliance had gained yet another powerful ally! In truth, they had wanted to get rid of Lu Dongbin long ago, but he was the True Immortal which the Daoist Path cared about the most. Everyone knew that given Lu Dongbin’s cultivation path, he would become incredible as soon as he made that final breakthrough, and so the Daoist Path had treated them as a precious treasure. In addition, Lu Dongbin hadn’t been as suicidal as Ning, and so the Seamless Gate had never had the chance to do anything to him.

  “For him to make his breakthrough just as the storm arrives…Lu Dongbin is going to be a threat. Still…in the end, victory will be decided in the Endwar.” The Godking was absolutely furious, but on the whole was still calm and level-headed about it.

  In this war between the two alliances, the addition of a single elite Daofather was something they could still handle. If, however, an overlord-level Daofather was to appear within the Daoist Path…he really would go crazy with shock and rage.

  As for Ji Ning?

  The Godking had all but forgotten about Ji Ning by now. Based on Ji Ning’s current actions, it seemed as though Ning was completely focused on training in swordplay and was no longer going to ambush the Seamless Gate. “Ji Ning has finally wised up.”

  ……

  The news that a new Daofather had been born was mainly circulated amongst the major powers themselves. Very, very few Empyrean Gods and True Immortals knew of this matter. Because Ning was completely focused on his training with the sword, Subhuti didn’t tell him about this matter. In fact, he wasn’t even in a rush to give Fuxi’s formation to Ning. “It’ll be easy for him to learn this formation. This disciple of mine is currently wandering the Three Realms, training in the sword like a madman. It’s best if I don’t bother him for now. After he’s completed his training, I’ll give it to him.”

  Subhuti’s judgement was quite accurate.

  Ning had indeed entered a berserk state. When he had mastered the Dao of the Sword, he had just reached the first stage of swordforce. Upon reaching the second stage of swordforce, a new world had opened up before his eyes. And so, Ning wandered the Three Realms, constantly training and competing against others in swordplay. He began to gain an increasingly clear picture of the path he had to take. As for all the insights he gained, he merged all of them into those five stances he had visualized.

  As Ning saw it…

  “The essence of all sword-stances in the world, including those of the [Five Treasures], can be merged into these five stances.”

  “This sword-art that I, Ji Ning, will create…let it be called the [Brightmoon] sword-art. In the many years to come, I will spend much of my time constantly improving and perfecting these five stances.”

  This was what Ning’s idea, for these five sword-stances to encompass all the mysteries of swordplay which the Three Realms contained.

  In truth, sword-arts were quite simple when broken down. The most fundamental sword-stances were to chop, pierce, scrape, sweep, break, tap, cleave, support, intercept, twist, lift, draw, and sheath. Although they were seemingly simple…like the Dao itself, these simple concepts gave birth to countless different things, and were capable of transforming into infinitely powerful sword-arts.

  Based on his own experiences, Ning had come up with five all-encompassing stances. Strictly speaking, these five stances represented five different types of sword-intent; what mattered the most was the intent, not the actual technique.

  The fifteenth year of Ning’s training with the sword.

  “Careful!” A Primal-level Fiendgod roared as he charged towards Ning.

  Ning was using Zifu-level strength to fight back with a sword in each hand. When his sword struck out, it was like a black hole had been created, draining and weakening his opponent’s massive strength. No matter how fast the opponent attacked, he remained unable to escape.

  Bang!

  In fact, the Fiendgod’s own power was beginning to work against him. He couldn’t help but stagger back by two steps.

  “The five stances of the bright moon…I didn’t expect that the first one to take form would be this one. I shall call it ‘Soleheart’.” Ning nodded slowly.

  The [Brightmoon] sword-art.

  He had named it after his daughter. His decision to do so reflected the fact that to Ning, she was that which he had to protect above all others!

  The ‘Soleheart stance’ of the five stances of the bright moon was a sword-art that was meant for defending in a one-on-one battle. It represented the most profound insights Ning had gained in defensive sword-arts. When his sword struck out, it was as though a black hole had formed that would absorb and trap the enemy’s strength. But of course, this sword-art was still very crude and unfinished…but it was still the most powerful sword-art which Ning currently possessed.

  In this moment…

  Ning silently and soundlessly reached the third stage of swordforce. However, Ning actually didn’t care too much about that. The only thing in his heart right now was his [Brightmoon] sword-art. This sword-art represented the crystallization of all his blood, sweat, and effort. This would be the true foundation of his sword-arts in the future.

  Only after creating all five sword-stances would Ning rest.

  “Eh? I’ve finally subdued that True Immortal Winterpeak.” Ning suddenly cracked a smile.

  ……

  Within an ice-locked stone stele that was located deep within a gorge of an icy star that was within the infinite primordial chaos.

  Prisonworld 17.

  Eight lotus petals were high in the sky, facing the ground as they continued to unleash eight streams of truefire. The streams of truefire completely filled the ground beneath the lotus petals, blazing away at a bowl-shaped treasure.

  A white-robed youth was located outside the restrictive formation, eyes closed as he continued to meditate on his sword-arts. Every so often, he would add in a little bit more energy to keep the treasure active.

  Although his opponent was ‘only’ a Pure Yang True Immortal, this sort of top-tier True Immortal was comparable to the Daofathers of the Three Realms! Once he hide himself under the bowl-shaped magic treasure and began to fill it with his energy to defend against the eight blazing streams of truefire…he had been able to hold on for fifteen full years.

  “I-I…admit defeat.” The embarrassed, enraged, and resentful voice of True Immortal Winterpeak finally rang out from underneath the bowl-shaped treasure. His energy and his pills had all been used up. He would at most be able to endure for another three days.

  * * *

  Book 19, Chapter 40 - R
aking It In

  Ji Ning waved his hand, and the eight downward-facing petals instantly withdrew their streams of truefire. The eight petals then shrank in size and flew back into Ning’s hands.

  “Heh, as the saying goes, it looks like you ‘wouldn’t shed tears until you saw your coffin’. You knew that you were eventually going to die if you fought against me, but you still just had to fight against me until now.” Still, Ning had to sigh at how strong his foe was. Ning had eight types of truefire to rely on, while the enemy had to actively control a magic treasure to defend; this True Immortal was using up far more energy than him, but thanks to his Daofather-equivalent level of power, he had been able to survive for fifteen years!

  From this, one could see how vast a gulf in power there lay between Ning and a Daofather. If it wasn’t for the fact that this person was imprisoned, there was no way Ning could’ve forced him to bow his head.

  Whoosh. The bowl-shaped magic treasure disappeared, and True Immortal Winterpeak reappeared. A hint of anger and humiliation was in his eyes as he stared at Ning. “I admit defeat. I…I’m willing…to serve…”

  Anger.

  Humiliation.

  All sorts of complicated emotions filled his mind. For him to prostrate himself before Ji Ning was like having Ji Ning prostrate himself before a Celestial Immortal! Experts had their own pride and arrogance. Fortunately, he had been imprisoned here for many chaos cycles, which had whittled it away a bit; otherwise, he would probably would’ve chosen to die rather than to bow his head. Even the current-him had spent fifteen years resisting before submitting after realizing that he had already reached the end of the line.

  “There’s no need to feel so upset,” Ning said. “I’m unable to allow you to leave your prison cell, and so you’ll continue to live here as before.”

  Winterpeak knew that Ning was trying to ‘console’ him and make him more pliable and less resistant. He said calmly, “What do you wish for me to do? Do you want magic treasures? Or to ask me certain questions? I can give you any treasures you desire; imprisoned here, they are of no use to me anyways.”

  “I need you to not resist me whatsoever. Open up your soul to me. Let me see your memories,” Ning said.

  “You…” Winterpeak’s face completely changed. “Overseer, don’t go too far.”

  “It’s a mere memory search,” Ning said.

  Winterpeak ground his teeth as he stared at Ning. “Impossible! I can give you all of my magic treasures, but a soulscouring…impossible!”

  To completely open up his soul meant that this person would know everything about him. He wouldn’t be able to fight back against a Chaos Immortal or World God who wished to do this to him, but this person was far weaker than he was. To completely expose himself in such a manner to a weakling? An expert like Winterpeak truly couldn’t accept it.

  “To you, I’m nothing more than an outsider,” Ning said. “Those private memories of yours are useless to me.”

  Winterpeak shut his eyes. Memories and scenes began to flash through his mind.

  “Junior apprentice-brother.”

  “Grandfather.”

  “Disciple.”

  He would never be able to forget these people. These were the most important people in his life.

  Perhaps the Pangaea chaos-kingdom had truly been destroyed, but even so, perhaps some of the important people in his life were still alive. He wanted to go see them, go search for them.

  “Fine.” Winterpeak opened his eyes. He looked coldly at Ning. “I accept…but I imagine you wouldn’t dare to come inside and soulscour me.”

  “Haha…” Ning chuckled, then immediately stretched out his arm.

  Whoosh! His arm instantly expanded to become hundreds of kilometers long, stretching out to land on Winterpeak’s head.

  “Coward,” Winterpeak sneered. “Even after training in the [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods], you are still so cowardly.”

  “If a prisoner like you was to suddenly wipe out one of my clones in a desperation attack…that really wouldn’t be worth it for me.” Ning stood there outside the formation, but his incredibly long arm had reached Winterpeak.

  Even if his foe wanted to suddenly counter-attack, Ning could instantly and voluntarily separate that arm. The severing of an arm would only result in the loss of some divine power, and in fact some of the divine power from the arm would make it back to him.

  “Come, then.” Winterpeak shut his eyes, still seated in the lotus position.

  Ning’s hand was pressed against the top of Winterpeak’s head. He began to invade the man’s soul…and Winterpeak didn’t fight back at all.

  Instantly, magnificent scenes of an expert’s rise to power began to appear before Ning. As a top-tier True Immortal, Winterpeak’s life experiences had been far more exciting than those of the Empyrean Gods and Celestial Immortals, and his status had been much higher as well.

  A full day and a night passed before Ning withdrew his hand. He closed his eyes in thought.

  “It seems…there really is no hope of gaining a top-tier Jindan.” Ning sighed to himself.

  Although he had expected this, after searching through Winterpeak’s memories Ning became certain of it. To form a first-class Jindan, one of the prerequisites was that a Chaos Immortal had to be by your side, assisting you. In addition, in Pangaea the technique of forming a first-class Jindan was only known to the three World-level experts! Not even Elder Gods or Ancestral Immortals were qualified to learn this technique.

  Second-class Jindans…there were quite a few who knew the technique for this, including True Gods and True Immortals. Winterpeak, however, was not one of them.

  This made sense. The Jindan-creation techniques were only needed by mortals who wanted to train to become Celestial Immortals! Ji Ning, for example, had long ago become a Pure Yang True Immortal; these techniques really were of no use to him. The reason why Ning had searched for more information about them was so that he would be able to transmit them to Brightmoon and the others, assuming they all survived this great storm.

  “And there truly are very few ways of upgrading a True Immortal’s Jindan.” Ning shook his head. A Jindan upgrade method was what Ning truly want. However…

  In truth, these upgrade methods were also fairly valuable as well. This was because there were some Immortals in backwater regions who were incredibly talented, but who had already become Celestial Immortals or True Immortals using inferior methods. The various powers in the Pangaea chaos-kingdom would often recruit them, then work with them to upgrade their Jindans. Still, since even the best techniques only allowed them to upgrade the Jindans to the second tier, they weren’t THAT valuable.

  Almost all the True Gods and True Immortals imprisoned here possessed the most elite level of power at their rank. They had incredibly high statuses, and so there was a chance that some of them knew these techniques. The chances that an Elder God or an Ancestral Immortal knew these techniques were even higher, but alas there was nothing Ning could do to any of them.

  “Let’s take it slow. If I can’t find it from one True Immortal, I’ll go find a second True God or True Immortal. Ten…a hundred…I’ll just keep searching. Eventually, I’ll definitely succeed.” Ning then looked towards Winterpeak.

  “Did you find what you wanted?” Winterpeak looked at Ning.

  “Give me your ‘Flashing Skystars’,” Ning said.

  Winterpeak ground his teeth. “You’ve already soulscoured me. Now, you want my Protocosmic spirit-treasure?”

  “Hand it over,” Ning said.

  “Hmph.” Winterpeak truly didn’t want to give it up, but he waved his hand. Instantly, a large amount of eight-cornered, deep-blue stars appeared in midair. There were a total of ninety-nine of them, and each of them seemed to contain the vast skies within them. This was the most important treasure which Winterpeak possessed, a Protocosmic spirit-treasure set.

  “Take it.” Winterpeak dispersed his soul imprint on the treasure set, then tossed it towa
rds Ning.

  Ning’s hand expanded to become three hundred meters in size as he caught the various treasures.

  “Here is a bottle of Immortal pills and a message talisman. The pills should be enough for you to stay alive for a period of time. If there’s anything urgent, you can shatter the talisman to summon me.” Ning waved his hand, tossing our these two items. Winterpeak immediately accepted them. He had completely used up his spirit-pills; this was exactly what he needed right now.

  “Hmph.” Winterpeak gave the items a look, then snorted.

  Ning knew that this person was feeling rather frustrated after having been soulscoured, then forced to hand over his most powerful treasure. Thus, Ning didn’t quibble about his attitude, instead transforming into a streak of light and departing.

  “Judging from True Immortal Winterpeak’s memories, hierarchical stratification is extremely strict in Pangaea.” Ning flew forward atop a cloud, thinking to himself. “True Gods and True Immortals all generally use Protocosmic spirit-treasures, but only first-class True Immortals like Winterpeak are allowed to use entire sets of Protocosmic treasures, such as these ninety-nine stars.”

  “Most importantly of all, Pangaea actually has methods of producing even higher-class treasures.” Ning sighed in amazement.

  In truth, it was actually quite simple to upgrade the power of a Protocosmic spirit-treasure. The method was to add more seals into the treasure itself!

  His own Goldstar Beads of the Heavens, for example, had the nine chaos seals infused into them. This was a method strengthening spirit-treasures…but of course, you had to be capable of binding and infusing the necessary seals! Or, for another example, Daoist Three Purities had devised his Immortal Slaying Swords’ sword-diagrams using a total of seven seals. The more profound the seals were, the more powerful they would be.