Desolate Era

by RWX

  “When you meditate on the Dao, you meditate on the prime essence and primal nature of a thing. You should focus on simplicity, rather than complexity! If your Dao gets more and more complex, eventually you will lose yourself within it! Your Dao can appear to be complex to others, but to you it must be as clear and bright as a mirror.” Daolord Solesky had looked at Ning. “Remember this. This is very important.”

  “Also – all techniques spring from the same source! If you reach a bottleneck that you cannot overcome in the Dao of the Sword, you can switch to other tasks such as calligraphy. I saw that your calligraphy isn’t bad, and you can infuse it with your Dao of the Sword. This is something that is quite different from using it to fight. However, these two things will share many commonalities, and both have their strengths with regards to helping you understand the Dao. Based on what I know, the majority of Samsara Daolords who focus on the Dao of the Sword also enjoy painting and calligraphy. I imagine there has to be a good reason for this.”

  “I can also see that you have high affinity towards water, lightning, and space. Don’t discard or abandon these insights. Focus on them as well. There are commonalities between every single Dao. For example, although I’ve never focused on the Dao of the Sword, if I spent four or five days on it my mastery over the Dao of the Sword would become comparable to that of some weaker Samsara Daolords who do focus on the sword.”

  Ning had felt as though a brand new gateway had just appeared before him, one which had brought him a completely new way of looking at the Dao of the Sword.

  Ning had never intended to give up on water, lightning, space, or any of his other Daos. He did understand that all Daos shared certain commonalities.

  As for calligraphy, he had always felt that that writing calligraphy was very pleasing and relaxing. However, only after listening to Daolord Solesky’s words did he truly understand how helpful it could be.

  A new world had truly opened up before him.

  “Right. Long, long ago, one of the first creatures of the primordial chaos created the very first ‘sword’. Ever since then, countless living beings have used his ‘sword’. Their techniques constantly improved until it all reached the level of a Dao unto itself that only became more and more powerful. Only then did the Dao of the Sword, a Dao feared by countless cultivators, come into existence.”

  “The tip of the sword…the edge…the double edge…the flat…”

  Ever since that day, the way in which Ning viewed the sword completely changed.

  In the past, he had always felt that the Dao of the Sword was truly unfathomably profound, and he had dedicated himself to piously and slowly understanding all of its mysteries.

  Now, Ning had a different view of the sword. Although the Dao of the Sword was indeed profound, its fundamental essence remained quite simple; it lay in the sword itself. If you could truly understand the structure of a sword, you would be able to quickly grasp the essence of the Dao of the Sword itself.

  Ning now viewed the [Brightmoon] sword-art and the [Nameless] sword-art in completely different ways. He immediately began to retrofit them, making the ‘Blood Drop’ stance purer, the ‘Soleheart’ stance more ephemeral, the ‘Yin-Yang’ stance more chaotic, the ‘Heavenbreaker’ stance more dominating, and the ‘Shadowless’ stance slightly less unpredictable but even faster than before.

  In fact, he split the Heavenbreaker stance into two different stances. The first used the edge of the sword to attack and was known as the ‘Heavenbreaker Hacker’; the other used the flat of the blade to attack and was known as the ‘Heavenbreaker – Eliminator’.

  The power of the [Brightmoon] sword-art had suddenly increased more than twofold, just because he now had a completely different way of viewing the sword. In the distant future, Ning would understand how tremendously beneficial this new way of thinking would be for him and also feel even more gratitude towards Daolord Solesky for advising him.

  “Mm.” Daolord Solesky was currently seated off in the distant, leisurely sipping some wine and watching as Ji Ning worked on his calligraphy within that levitating wooden study. Daolord Solesky couldn’t help but nod slowly.

  “This Ji Ning really does have some talent.”

  The Dao was not to be transmitted casually!

  It wasn’t just that his guidance was incredibly valuable or precious. His avatar in Vastheaven Palace was capable of giving good guidance to every single member of Vastheaven Palace…and yet, every single cultivator had their own firm beliefs. If your guidance was very different from what they believed or what their own insights were, they would reject your guidance on an intrinsic level. Or worse; because they trusted in the Daolord and felt certain that his words had to be right, they might end up questioning their own Dao and losing their own way. That would be even worse!

  Thus, each person’s Dao truly was different.

  It wasn’t easy for a master to find a good disciple! When Ning had created his [Brightmoon] sword-art, he had already drawn the rough sketches of his own personal understanding of the Dao. When Ning had been in the Three Realms, he had proudly and foolishly believed that he could infuse the entirety of the Dao of the Sword into his five stances. What he didn’t realize was that all five stances were just variations on the prime essence of the sword.

  He had already reached out to the prime essence of the sword. He just didn’t understand that he had done so.

  Daolord Solesky’s guidance helped him to see past his own preconceptions, allowing him to see the truth. Since this was the path he had already chosen, the guidance he was given was enormous beneficial and helped him to understand his path more clearly than before.

  “Ji Ning.” Daolord Solesky rose to his feet.

  “Big brother.” Ning put down his brush and hurriedly walked out of the study. Elder God Wilddog was on duty, awaiting his commands.

  “I am going to go to the Waveshift Realm now,” Daolord Solesky said. “After I leave, it’ll all be up to you.”

  “Don’t worry about me, big brother. When you go to the Waveshift Realm, you need to be careful and stay safe.” Ning was worried as well. During the past three years, Ning had gotten a better sense of how dangerous the Waveshift Realm was. It was unfathomably more dangerous than the Windsource Ruins had been, and even Daolord Solesky would be in danger of dying in there.

  “Ahaha! This old man plans to succeed in the Daomerge. How could I possibly let myself die in the Waveshift Realm?” Daolord Solesky laughed loudly, then strode away into the skies. An azure-robed figure was already waiting for him high in the air. This was Daolord Badlands’ avatar.

  “Sorry for the trouble, brother Badlands,” Daolord Solesky said.

  “Haha, I’ve never gone into the core regions of the Waveshift Realm either. Now that you are here, I can do a bit more exploring than I’ve done in the past.” Daolord Badlands’ avatar smiled.

  “Let’s go.”

  “Let’s.”

  The two transformed into streaks of light, disappearing into the horizon.

  Ning just watched them from afar. After having spent three years with Daolord Solesky, he knew that the man truly did view him as he would a brother.

  “Come back alive, big brother.” Ning murmured these words softly to himself.

  Daolord Solesky had said that if everything went perfectly smoothly in the Waveshift Realm, he would be able to return in four or five years. If he ended up trapped, it could easily be hundreds of millions of years or even a hundred chaos cycles before he managed to escape.

  Ning, the Flamefairy, and Elder God Wilddog continued to live within the Badlands Court. They slowly became familiar with the other cultivators who lived here, and Ning would even spend some time dueling with other cultivators of the Dao of the Sword. One of the competitions resulted in quite a bit of hubbub, because every single Elder God and Ancestral Immortal sword-wielder of the Badlands Court ended up being defeated by Ji Ning.

  It must be understood that all of them used extremely ordi
nary swords and very little force; it was merely a contest of Daos.

  In the end, even World-level experts got interested and involved. Now that Ning had begun to understand prime essence of the sword, only World-level experts who were truly skilled in the Dao of the Sword were able to suppress him…and they were only able to suppress, not defeat. The cultivators of the Badlands Court couldn’t help but sigh to themselves, “Brother Darknorth is most likely going to become a World God through the Dao of the Sword.”

  Life was relaxed but quite fulfilling. Time passed on, year after year.

  Three years. Five years. Ten years. Fifty years. A hundred years.

  Ning continued his quiet life here at the Badlands Court, but Daolord Solesky still had yet to return.

  * * *

  Book 25, Chapter 13 - The Mysterious Treasure Auction

  “Ji Ning.”

  Ji Ning was seated atop a levitating wooden bridge, lazily fishing. A voice suddenly rang out, badly startling him. He hurriedly turned his head, realizing that an azure-robed figure had just appeared next to him.

  “Ji Ning greets you, Daolord.” Ning hurriedly rose to his feet. It was Daolord Badlands! Ning’s heart clenched. After having spent more than a hundred years here at the Badlands Court, he had grown quite used to this place and become very familiar with many of its World Gods, Chaos Immortals, Elder Gods, and Ancestral Immortals. However, he had never met Daolord Badlands a second time.

  He knew that Daolord Badlands rarely showed his face in the Badlands Court. Millions of years often passed without a single appearance! However, he was actually one of the more visible Daolords. Some Samsara Daolords would only reveal themselves within their own clans a single time during each chaos cycle.

  When there was such an absolute disparity in power, it became hard for people to become friends and hold conversations.

  “Brother Solesky asked me to pass you a message.” Daolord Badlands looked at Ning. “He probably won’t be able to make it out of there any time soon. Your return to Vastheaven Palace will be up to you.”

  “He won’t be able to make it out of there any time soon?” Ning was startled. He asked nervously, “Daolord, my big brother…”

  “You don’t have to worry.” Daolord Badlands smiled. “He isn’t in much danger, but both him and my avatar are going to be trapped for a while. It’ll probably take at least a million years to make it out of the formation we are currently trapped in, and there will be more dangers to come!”

  Ning nodded slowly.

  “Catch.” Daolord Badlands tossed a black talisman over.

  Ning accepted the talisman. This talisman only had two rippling waves carved onto it. One wave looked fast while the other looked slow and calm.”

  “This is the Badlands insignia,” Daolord Badlands said. “I’ve set down restrictive spells upon it, ensuring that it can only be bound once. Anyone who has the Badlands insignia is equivalent in status to a formal member of the Badlands Court. In the Badlands Territory, it’ll be of some use to you.”

  “Thank you, Daolord.” Ning hurriedly expressed his gratitude.

  He had naturally heard of the Badlands insignia before.

  With this insignia in hand, not even figures like God Emperor Blacklotus would dare to touch him. Although his status as a disciple of Vastheaven Palace was even more incredible, Vastheaven Palace was too far away. Almost nobody in the Badlands Territory even knew what Vastheaven Palace was. In fact, not even many of the disciples of the Badlands Court knew about it.

  Similarly, not many of the members of Vastheaven Palace had ever heard of the Badlands Court. The Daolords of each organization generally wouldn’t give the other members such detailed maps, for fear that they might end up running too far away and getting lost, never to be able to make it back.

  But of course, the powerful Daolords of Vastheaven Palace, the Badlands Court, and other similar organizations all knew each other. Thus, many Samsara Daolords would be unwilling to attack Ning once they realized who Ning was.

  Powerful World-level experts generally weren’t afraid of other World-level experts. If they weren’t able to win, they would be able to flee! They only feared Samsara Daolords…and that’s when having a powerful organization as a backer made all the difference.

  However, you also had to understand what the relationship was between your enemy and your own organization. God Emperor Blacklotus had foolishly reported that he was the disciple of Daolord Seven Sovereigns, but what he didn’t know was that Daolord Seven Sovereigns was mortal enemies with Daolord Solesky…and had been so terrified by Daolord Solesky that he had fled long ago. Blacklotus reporting his affiliation only resulted in him dying even quicker.

  Time passed on, day by day.

  Ning continued to live within the Badlands Court. He was in no rush to go out adventuring, because he was currently growing stronger at a break-neck pace.

  The Seventh Cycle of the [Starseizing Hand] had started to take form long ago. Thanks to Daolord Solesky’s guidance, it had truly come into being.

  After using up a few dozen cubes worth of chaos jewels and the Heavengazer Tower, Ning had already mastered the middle portion of the [Golden Idol] as well. His body was now comparable to a top-grade Chaos treasure, the same level which World God Northrest had reached all those years ago.

  These two accomplishments had been relatively simple ones.

  The reason why Ning continued to live peacefully here at the Badlands Court was because he now had a completely different way of viewing the Dao of the Sword. He was improving incredibly fast and had yet to encounter a bottleneck! Generally speaking, cultivators would only go out adventuring when they had reached a bottleneck in their cultivation. Only by seeing and experiencing more things would they be able to more easily break through those bottlenecks.

  “Darknorth, senior apprentice-brother Threecold is planning to pay a visit to the Azuresky Territory’s Startower region and give it a go. Anyone who wants to go with him can go seek him out. Any interest?”

  “The Azuresky Territory? The Startower region?”

  “Yes. It’s not too far away from our Badlands territory. The legends say that the Startower region was created when an ancient power tossed out a tower-shaped magic treasure and left it there in the primordial chaos. The tower drew in energy from the primordial chaos, creating an entire region of incredible power around itself. I hear that even Samsara Daolords will visit that place in the hopes of finding and acquiring that magic tower. Unfortunately, none of them have been able to master it to date. The treasures and techniques it contains are enough to satisfy World-level experts like us. Want to go? Senior apprentice-brother Threefrost is very powerful. If we go with him, it’ll be much safer.”

  “I don’t wish to leave for now. Thank you for asking, brother Sevencolor.”

  “Oh. Alright.”

  Immortal Sevencolor exchanged a few more words with Ning, then departed.

  Ning couldn’t help but sigh to himself.

  As the most powerful organization within the entire Badlands Territory, the Badlands Court was quite strict on accepting new disciples. New disciples had to be tremendously talented, and most were World-level experts. The Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals who made it in were all monstrously talented, and so most of the World-level experts of the Badlands Court were able to reach the level of full mastery and become master-class World Gods.

  Upon reaching this level, the next breakthrough would result in them becoming Samsara Daolords!

  There were many independent World-level experts in the outside world, but only a few of them would ever reach the level of full mastery. However, the vast majority of the disciples of the Badlands Court would become master-class World Gods! Thus, all of them were filled with exuberance and valor. They wished to go out and adventure, in the process discovering their own Daos and becoming Samsara Daolords.

  “Almost everyone at Fogstone had given up and had chosen to live a peaceful, comfortable life. Everyone
in the Badlands Court, however, is still fighting hard for their dreams.”

  Ning couldn’t help but sigh.

  And yet, what he didn’t understand was that in truth there were also some members of the Badlands Court who had fought long and hard, yet remained unable to break through and so had given up. They were tired. They had lost their energy, their passion, and so they chose to leave the Badlands Court and find another place where they would live in peace. Those who decided to remain in the Badlands Court were the ones who were filled with energy and motivation.

  This was the real reason why so many members of the Badlands Court would often venture out into new places. Each time they did so, they would usually announce it to their peers and try to recruit others to go with them. If four of five of them joined forces, they would stand a much better chance of surviving their adventures! Brothers from the same organization were more unified and generally more trustworthy than outsiders, after all.

  “I’m beginning to solve the riddle of the third stance of the [Nameless] sword-art, the Great Firmament stance.”

  “I’m improving very rapidly. When I reach a bottleneck or when I master this third stance, I’ll travel to the Allgod Estate. When I do that, I’ll let everyone in the Badlands Court know and invite some of them to accompany me,” Ning mused to himself.

  The Allgod Estate…

  Aside from the Windsource Ruins, the only place in the entire Badlands Territory which had a copy of a Mirrorsnow Painting was the Allgod Estate.

  A hundred and sixty-one years after Ning arrived at the Badlands Court.

  “Treasure auction.”

  “They are about to start a treasure auction.”

  The news quickly spread throughout the entire Badlands Court, causing quite a stir.

  “Master! Master!” Flamefairy Su Youji came running into the room.

  “What is it?” Ning was in the middle of practicing some calligraphy and meditating on his sword-arts. He put down his quill, looking up towards Su Youji.