by RWX
After fighting for a long period of time, Ning’s divine power was close to being depleted.
“It seems you still aren’t good enough.” Snowfiend chuckled to himself, his staff completely suppressing Ning.
As for Ning, he continued to launch attacks at a frenetic pace. Suddenly…one of the six swords exploded forth with shocking amounts of power.
“Heartforce yet again?” Snowfiend didn’t feel any concern at all. Although this sword-strike of Ning’s was even stranger and more unfathomable than before, and although his sword had managed to draw close to Snowfiend’s body due to the sudden increase in power, Snowfiend was still able to clip the side of Ning’s sword with his staff, knocking it aside. Ning was only able to leave a slash on Snowfiend’s flank.
However, right at this moment, one of Ning’s hands suddenly released a sword. The hand suddenly increased in size as it clawed towards Snowfiend.
This attack was simply too sudden. The heartforce-filled sword had been nothing more than a decoy; Ning’s true goal was to ensure that this hand of his would be able to close in on the enemy! In the same instant that the sword’s attack ‘failed’, Ning released the sword and let his hand become his true weapon.
“Eh?” Shocked, Snowfiend hurriedly moved backwards. His movement techniques were quite marvelous as well, and Ning’s clawing attack was only able to latch onto one of Snowfiend’s arms.
“Sever!” Snowfiend let out an uncaring chortle. He was formed from snow, and his body could manifest or dissipate as he willed it. The loss of an arm was nothing to him.
One of his arms had been seized by Ning, but the other sword continued to wield the long staff and battle against Ning’s other five swords.
BOOM!
A bloody sword-tip suddenly pierced out of Snowfiend’s forehead.
Snowfiend revealed a look of shock. He…he had actually been stabbed in the head?
Whoosh.
Moments later, Snowfiend’s body completely dissipated, reforming off to the side a few moments later. He stared in disbelief at the direction from which he had been attacked; a second Ji Ning was standing there!
“Two?” Snowfiend stared at the two white-robed Ji Nings.
“Just now, when you released your sword and grabbed me, it was all for the sake of giving your other clone a chance?” Snowfiend looked at Ning.
“Yes.” Ning nodded. “You are indeed strong enough to outmatch me; I’m not your equal at all. Thus, I had to play a small trick on you.”
“First, you filled your sword with heartforcce, then you released the sword to attack me with your hand. That hand of yours is no weaker than your sword,” Snowfiend said.
“Correct. To be precise, my hand is actually a bit more powerful,” Ning said.
Ning’s [Starseizing Hand] had made his hands comparable to supreme Protocosmic spirit-treasures. Although they weren’t sword-shaped, they were still comparable in might to high-grade Protocosmic swords. Naturally, his hands would be a bit more powerful than the swords he was using.
“Although my palms are a bit more powerful, and although my attack came quite suddenly, your agility techniques are simply too impressive; I was only able to grab onto your arm.” Ning shook his head.
“You released the sword so that you could attack with your hand, but even if the hand succeeded, you would still have the option of using your second body, which is just as strong as your first body.” Snowfiend shook his head. “I was tied down by you for a moment; that sudden attack caught me offguard, rendering me unable to dodge. I am thoroughly convinced by my defeat.”
“I wasn’t strong enough, so I had no choice but to use trickery,” Ning said.
If he had started the battle with two clones, the ape would’ve been prepared for it. Given how overwhelmingly powerful Snowfiend was, if that happened the outcome could be summarized in one word: LOSE.
Thus, Ning’s second clone would only appear at a critical moment, unleashing a sudden attack that would gain him victory.
“It was because you have other clones.” Snowfiend shook his head. “You actually have two true bodies, and both are Empyrean God bodies. It seems that you must’ve trained in some sort of special divine ability. Generally speaking, this sort of divine ability should allow you to create quite a few clones, correct?”
Ning chuckled. Indeed; [Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods] allowed for a total of eighteen clones.
“You win.” Snowfiend hefted the golden staff onto his shoulders, then turned and left. Snow fluttered around him, and he quickly disappeared into the snow.
Ning let out a sigh of relief. “Good heavens.” Ning felt a spike of fear for what had almost happened.
“Although I knew that Snowfiend had to be powerful…he was way too powerful! I threw everything I had at him, and my first clone used up almost all of its divine power and heartforce. If my final ploy had failed, my only option would’ve been to try and flee back to the island.”
The reason why Ning had battled ineffectively for so long as to make the ape ‘accustomed’ too him. Everything lay in that final attack.
First the sword, then the hand, then the second clone! If he failed, he would’ve fled back to the island. Just like Roughpeak, he would train for a few more years before making any further attempts.
“Success! Finally, I succeeded.”
Although Ning celebrated his victory, he still felt a sense of pressure. This journey involved a total of five islands; his defeat of Snowfiend only allowed him access to the second island. This battle, however, had already forced him to reveal his trump card and use all the tricks he had available. Would he be able to overcome the upcoming challenges?
Whoosh.
The Ruyi Soulsnake Shuttle followed the floating wooden bridge, rapidly advancing towards the horizon.
While flying, Ning pondered the previous battle nonstop. Just now, when he had been battling so frantically, he had a vague feeling that he was about to completing the third chapter of the [Five Treasures] sword-art, which he was still a hairs-breadth away from mastering. However, because he was in a life-and-death battle, he didn’t have any time to think about the sword-art.
Now, Ning began to think back to the previous battle and carefully analyze it.
After flying for half a day, another island appeared before Ning. This island had a massive volcano in the center of it. Boom! Boom! Boom! The volcano constantly belched forth lava and ash, sending them flying into the skies and turning the entire island red.
“A volcano island?” Ning no longer pondered his sword-arts. Instead, he rapidly flew forward and landed atop the volcano island.
This was the second of the five islands.
“Eh?”
At the end of the wooden bridge, Ning sat a giant, vertical stone stele, with the stone stele covered by an enormous diagram of a bellowing ape. This ape looked rather similar to Snowfiend, and he was roaring at the heavens.
As soon as Ning saw it, his mind was drawn into the diagram’s depths.
He saw the illusion of an ape, twirling a longstaff in its hands as it trained in a staff technique. The ape started with the simplest techniques, then proceeded to the advanced ones, his staffwork growing increasingly marvelous. A short while ago, Ning had battled against Snowfiend for a long period of time. Now that he was able to carefully see each of the illusory ape’s separate techniques in detail, he instantly felt enlightened regarding his previous experiences. Only after a long period of time did the display of techniques come to an end.
“Eh?” Ning’s consciousness returned to his body.
“What a marvelous staff technique. A pity that my path is the Dao of the Sword.” But suddenly, Ning’s entire body turned stiff as he just stood there blankly.
He had been trapped at a bottleneck in the [Five Treasures] for some time now. Upon viewing that complete staff technique, it was as though a ray of sunlight had suddenly pierced through a covering of dark stormclouds, illuminating a world that had previously been cas
t in shadow.
Ning stood there silently and unmovingly. Both him and his second clone were completely absorbed in the [Five Treasures] sword-art. They were gaining continuous insights into the third chapter, and in the end the bottleneck was no longer able to impede Ning’s progress. The bottleneck shattered, and all of his insights became completely linked together, merging to form a perfect whole. The entire third chapter was completely mastered…and Ning’s swordforce silently advanced to the fourth stage as well.
Swordforce, stage one – Silver Moon.
Swordforce, stage two – Dazzling Sun.
Swordforce, stage three – Imperial Ruler.
Swordforce, stage four – Sword Heart.
“Sword Heart…” Ning murmured to himself, then flicked out with his finger in a slow arc. A black streak of sword-light appeared, swirling around it.
When he had created the very first stance of the [Brightmoon] sword-art, Ning had already reached the third stage of swordforce. Nearly a century had passed, and over the course of this period of time Ning had completed the [Brightmoon] sword-art, battled against many Empyrean Gods and Celestial Immortals in the prisonworld, and even sparred against True Gods and True Immortals there. However, he had been unable to make that final breakthrough. Only after sparring against Snowfiend and after his consciousness was drawn into the stone stele did he finally break through the last bottleneck and reach the fourth stage of swordforce.
* * *
Book 20, Chapter 13 - Volcano Island
“The Dao of the Sword…” Ji Ning shut his eyes.
Slowly, an invisible surge of power began to manifest in the area around Ning. It formed into the blurry image of a black sword which covered Ning and swirled around him.
Normally, those who mastered the Dao of the Sword would be referred to as Sword Immortals…but this was actually just the beginning of the Sword Immortal path! Only by comprehending swordforce would one be able to pursue the true essence of the sword itself.
“It is alive.” Ning opened his eyes, staring at the blurry, illusory black sword around him. This manifestation of fourth-stage swordforce allowed Ning to clearly sense the childish playfulness of the illusory sword. It was like a little child that absolutely loved to stick closely to Ning, causing Ning’s own heart to be filled with joy.
Sentience. Life.
The first three stages of swordforce only involved the rigid application of power, but the fourth stage of swordforce actually gained both life and sentience. Although the level of intelligence was very low, it was still enough to truly stun Ning.
Prior to this, before his heartforce had actually reached the fourth stage, Ning had never sensed this from his swordforce. As for heartforce, it came from himself; it was the power of his own heart. Swordforce, however, came from an arcane, inexplicable, unfathomable essence of the sword itself. The path that Ning was pursuing was the path of finding the original essence of the sword.
Whoosh.
Ning rose to his feet. He waved his hand, and the black swordforce responded accordingly.
“Such tremendous power. Prior to this, I was a bit weaker than senior apprentice-brother Silvermoon and Redsnow, due to me not having trained for long enough. Although my heartforce is formidable, it’s consumed far too quickly in battle. When I want to beat down on those weaker than me, it’ll allow me to gain victory in just one or two blows, but when fighting against experts of the same level, it simply won’t last. Swordforce, however, doesn’t use up any divine power, and it comes in a steady, unbroken stream.” Ning was absolutely delighted.
Upon truly comprehending swordforce, even a mortal commoner would be able to infuse his punches and kicks with fourth-stage swordforce.
“I can vaguely sense that the power of this swordforce is roughly equal to 80% of the power unleashed when I use my heartforce to maximum ffect.” Ning sighed in amazement. Although it was ‘only’ 80%, it could be used in every single strike and blow; in a protracted battle, it would be far more useful to Ning than heartforce would be.
“From this day forth, in a one-on-one battle, I am now the equal of senior apprentice-brother Silvermoon and Redsnow.”
After calming himself, Ning took a look at the volcanic island. This island had a towering volcano in the center that was occasionally belching forth plumes of lava. However, because the sea around the volcanic island was completely frozen with countless snowflakes falling all around it, the borders of the volcanic island were at a perfect temperature, with only the volcano itself being blazingly hot.
Whoosh. Ning willed it, and a second person appeared next to him. It was Empyrean God Roughpeak.
“Junior apprentice-brother Darknorth.” Roughpeak immediately smiled and called out to Ning upon stepping out…but upon seeing his surroundings, he was instantly stunned.
The volcano belching fire…
It was a sight completely different from that of the snowy island.
“Th-this place is…” Roughpeak stuttered.
“This is the second island. I call it ‘Volcano Island’,” Ning said.
“You actually su-succeeded. Ahahaha…wonderful! Wonderful!” Roughpeak turned his head to look at Ning with eyes full of excitement. “Junior apprentice-brother Darknorth, to tell you the truth, I didn’t really think you’d be able to succeed. In fact, after spending a few days in your Immortal estate, I was truly afraid that you had already failed. But you actually succeeded! Wonderful, simply wonderful.”
Roughpeak truly didn’t have that much faith in Ning. He had watched as Ning killed the Snowfiend clone on the snowy island, and had seen that Ning’s sword-arts were only at the level of third-stage swordforce. However, Ning’s sword was quite shockingly fast, which was why he thought that there might be a chance that he would be acknowledged by Snowfiend! It wasn’t necessary to actually defeat Snowfiend in order to go past him; if one fought him for long enough and was acknowledged by him, one would be allowed past.
Ning had spent a long period of time analyzing the stone stele. Although Ning had felt that only a brief moment had passed, in truth he had spent more than two days on it.
After waiting for so long within the Immortal estate, Roughpeak felt that the reason why Snowfiend had let Ning pass was because the two had fought for so long that Snowfiend had acknowledged Ning’s power.
Ning chuckled. “Luck was part of it.”
“Being able to pass Snowfiend proves your power.” Roughpeak sighed. “No matter what…we’ve finally left the island of snow. I’ve had more than enough of that place.”
“The island was actually quite pretty,” Ning said.
“When you’ve spent countless terrified years by yourself in one place, it’ll turn into hell for you, no matter how ‘pretty’ it is.” Roughpeak said hurriedly, “Let’s go! Let’s not chat here; let’s take a look at what’s up ahead! Let’s see if there are any other Empyrean Gods on this island. The further along we go, the stronger any surviving Empyrean Gods must be. Even if they aren’t able to make it to the next island, they should be able to stay alive for quite some time.”
“Yes, let’s take a look.” Ning nodded.
Ning and Roughpeak walked through the volcanic island, taking in the sights. A short while later, they found a winding series of spiky palaces.
“Over there. If there are any surviving Empyrean Gods, they should be living there.” Roughpeak hurriedly pointed towards the palaces.
As soon as his words came out…whoosh! A fur-clad, muscular, bronze-eyed man appeared at the entrance to one of the palaces, glancing outside. He instantly saw both Ning and Roughpeak.
“Eldest brother! Second brother! Third brother! Fourth brother! Fifth brother! Seventh sister!” The muscular man instantly called out in a loud voice.
Swish! Swish! Swish! One figure after another began to charge out from the other palaces. They all congregated together, staring towards the two newcomers.
Six were men, one was a woman. All of them were dressed in furs.
“Is that my young friend Roughpeak?” Suddenly, a wrinkle-faced man called out to the two.
“Seven Dragon Gods…all of you are still alive?” Roughpeak began to roar in laughter.
“The Seven Dragon Gods of the Primordial Era?” Ning was truly shocked as well.
Before coming to this place, he had naturally read up on the Empyrean Gods who had entered Undermoon Lake. The Seven Dragon Gods had entered Undermoon Lake during the Primordial Era! Countless years had passed since then, and during his conversation with Roughpeak, Ning had learned that the island of snow had suffered attacks every thousand years. The same was most likely true for the other islands as well.
To be able to live for even a hundred million years in Undermoon Lake was a marvel. To be able to survive from the Primordial Era to the modern day?!
“Young friend Roughpeak, why have you come to this damned hellhole? We should never have come to this damned place.” The oldest-looking man spoke out as Ning and Roughpeak walked towards the seven.
“Too late for regrets. I’m already here.” Roughpeak let out a sigh. “I was trapped on the snowy island for more than a hundred million years, but the seven of you entered during the Primordial Era. I’m in complete awe of you; you were actually able to survive for so long!”
“Ahahaha…and who is this new friend?” A fiery-haired man looked towards Ning, a friendly look in his eyes. “Although I don’t recognize him, I can sense that he’s one of my brothers, a human.”
“Let me make the introductions.”
Roughpeak smiled as he looked towards Ning. “Junior apprentice-brother Darknorth, I trust that you must have guessed by now, but these seven are the Seven Dragon Gods who once followed Human Sovereign Suiren in his campaigns across the world. In the past, as our human race just began its rise to prominence, we were still testing out many different cultivation paths. Human Sovereign Suiren once harvested draconic blood from a True God and used it to qualitatively change a human’s body and allow them to train in superior Fiendgod techniques. However, he discovered later that this sort of forced transformation had an impact on both the body and the soul, resulting in most being unable to progress past the Empyrean God level.”
