Desolate Era

by RWX

  One only became a true Heartforce Cultivator upon being able to establish a heartworld. Heartforce Cultivators were incredibly rare! A powerful Daolord who also trained as a Heartforce Cultivator? He would definitely be dreaded by the vast majority of other Daolords.

  “Yes.” Ning didn’t hide it from them, because they were his retainers. In the future, they’d be able to notice when he used his Heartforce Cultivator abilities to kill his foes.

  “Do not disturb me.” Ning waved his hand, causing the temporal acceleration cottage to appear. He then stepped into the cottage.

  “A Heartforce Cultivator. Master has become a Heartforce Cultivator.” Su Youji was rather stunned.

  “T-this is incredible.” Pillsaint, Daolord Bruteflame, and Daolord Naia could scarcely believe it. What none of them knew was that in the Three Realms, Ning had actually been even more formidable in heartforce than he had been in the Dao of the Sword. Even Subhuti had suspected for a time that he had misjudged his disciple. Was it possible, Subhuti had wondered, that his disciple was actually more suited to the path of heartforce?

  And now, he had finally established his own heartworld.

  ……

  Within the thatched temporal cottage. Ning sat down in the lotus position. The task before him was for him to fully construct the heartworld. The larger the heartworld, the more powerful his heartforce would be.

  The creation of a heartworld was an extremely intricate task. When he had been next to the white-robed Hegemon’s corpse, he had been constantly assaulted by the illusions and so naturally chose to move away from its area of influence before beginning this task.

  “My own heartworld.” With a thought, Ning began to visualize the heartworld inside himself. Although it looked like nothing more than a tiny dot on his forehead, it contained an entire world within itself. The amount of space that could be held within that dot was theoretically limitless; it was entirely possible for it to grow to become greater than even the Badlands Territory. Ordinary Verge-level Heartforce Cultivators would generally have heartworlds that were on par with an ordinary territory in size.

  If you wanted to know how powerful a heartforce cultivator was, you could find out by looking at his heartworld. The heartworld of a master-class World-level cultivator would merely be roughly comparable to a chaosworld in size! However, Ning’s Dao was that of a Samsara Daolord’s, and thus he was able to break through and make it far larger.

  Right now, his heartworld was a blurry, foggy region.

  “Arise.” A voice rang out within the world, causing the mists to begin to vanish. A continent began to emerge and spread out within the void, and a sky began to appear above it which grew higher and higher…

  At the same time, his heartworld began to continuously draw in more and more chaos energy. Ning’s chaos jewels continuously replenished his supply of power. Relying on chaos energy from the outside world would be too slow, and he had more than enough chaos jewels. The amount of chaos energy needed to make this breakthrough was nothing to him.

  Soon, the world halted its expansion. The heart world was now over ten billion kilometers wide, covering an absolutely enormous amount of space that was comparable to a chaosworld. This entire world brimmed with sword-ki, as this was a world of the sword.

  “Grow further.” Ning poured his first-stage Omega Sword Dao into the heart of this heartworld, using it to try and further expand his heartworld.

  Rumble… the world seemed to change in color and darken. The land mass at the very center of the heartworld began to bulge upwards as the tallest mountain within this world climbed ever-higher, stabbing like a sword into the skies from within the very center. This enormous sword emanated the aura of the Omega Sword Dao, and it was also the physical representation of this Dao. It was now more than ten billion kilometers tall, and the might of its aura washed out throughout the heartworld.

  The heartworld continued to expand at a furious pace, growing to be a hundred… a thousand… ten thousand times larger than before. The rate at which it was growing was truly staggering.

  “It seems as though my Omega Sword Dao is quite well-suited for the creation of this heartworld.” A figure suddenly appeared at the top of the enormous sword-mountain. It was a white-robed Ning, formed by the manifestation of his will. “A world created using the Omega Sword Dao as the core is extremely stable, making it much easier for it to grow and expand.”

  “Mm. It finally hit the limit.” Ning halted the expansion. This vast, endless world was so great in size that Ning couldn’t even see to the end of it.

  “Again.” Ning began the final expansion, pouring his second-stage Omega Sword Dago into the core of this world. The heartworld had already been terrifyingly large in size, and now it grew even larger. The heavens grew vaster, while the earth grew deeper. The world stretched outwards unto infinity as the enormous sword-mountain increased in height as well. It rumbled as it stretched upwards until it finally reached a height of more than a hundred billion kilometers.

  Ning’s chaos jewels were being depleted at a furious pace as they provided sustenance for his heartworld’s expansion. Thankfully, this wasn’t a real world, and so the amount of chaos jewels used up was still fairly negligible to Ning. If he had to create an enormous real world of this size, even a hundred million cubes of chaos jewels would be far from enough.

  After another period of time passed, everything fell still once more.

  “T-this is c-crazy big…” Ning himself was shocked as his mental projection stood there atop the giant sword-mountain, staring at this seemingly infinitely large world. Thankfully, he was the creator of this heartworld and knew everything within it… which was why he knew that the heartworld was roughly comparable to a full territory in size!

  How vast was a normal territory? You’d generally have to traverse it through relying on spacetime transfer arrays. A single territory was far larger than the entire Brightshore Kingdom! The Badlands Territory had roughly a hundred thousand chaosworlds within it, but the chaosworlds were all extremely distant from each other. As a result, the size of a territory was truly staggering.

  “Arise.” Ning pointed off into the horizon, where a heavenly pillar suddenly began to take form. “Arise.” Ning pointed to the other direction, with yet another heavenly pillar taking shape.

  Here, Ning was able to create anything at all with his will alone. Soon, five celestial pillars had appeared at the ends of this vast world, and they embodied his Blood Drop sword-intent, his Shadowless sword-art, his Yin-Yang sword-intent, his Soleheart sword-intent, and his Heavenbreaker sword-intent.

  “Come forth.” Ning smiled as he stared off into the distance. The earth rumbled as chaos nectar began to appear, quickly pooling together into a lake.

  Ning just laughed. He knew that all of this was imaginary, not actual chaos nectar. “According to the legends, when Heartforce Cultivators reach the true apex, their heartworlds shall transform into true worlds. When that happens, the treasures within their heartworld will become actual treasures. If you form a heartforce Eternal weapon, that Eternal weapon can be taken out from your heartworld and used in combat. You could even create precious ingredients and make them real,” Ning murmured softly.

  This was the goal of every Heartforce Cultivator… however, thus far no one had ever been able to accomplish it! In truth, the goal was absolutely ridiculous and unbelievable.

  ……

  This heartworld formed by his second-stage Omega Sword Dao was actually the size of an entire territory. In truth, this stunned and delighted Ning considerably, as only Verge-level Heartforce Cultivators were supposed to be able to accomplish this.

  Still, it made sense. The heartworld didn’t really require a powerful Dao, it required a stable one! The more stable the Dao, the better. The more stable the Dao, the larger the heartworld!

  There were many powerful Daolords who had incredibly powerful and fierce Daos, but those Daos wouldn’t be a good fit for establishing a heartworld
. The toughness of a chain depended on the strength of the weakest link! If a heartworld was to be stable, it couldn’t afford to have any weak links at all.

  Many Hearrtforce Cultivators often wandered the universe, seeking ways to further stabilize and perfect their Daos. When Ning had come up with five Supreme Daos and linked them together, he had already formed an extremely stable Dao. Now that he had truly fused them into a single Dao, the Omega Sword Dao, he had created the most perfect and stable Dao possible!

  The Omega Sword Dao was not only a truly ultimate Dao, it was also the most stable of Daos! It represented the absolute limit with regards to the Dao of the Sword, and it had no flaws whatsoever. A mere second-stage Omega Sword Dao was already comparable in stability to the Daos of many Verge-level Heartforce Cultivators. The third stage of this Omega Dao would most likely put Ning at a level comparable to the most supreme Heartforce Cultivator Daolords in existence.

  “There are differences in power even amongst Verge-level Heartforce Cultivators. Daolord Soleman, for example, is much weaker than the Palace Lord of the Heartforce Palace,” Ning mused to himself. “Daolord Featherdress, for example, was known as the most powerful Daolord of the Endless Territories during his time.”

  When Ning had first been captured and sent to the Astral Islands, he had learned of the ninety-nine legacies it held. The top-ranked legacy was the heartforce legacy of Daolord Featherdress. Daolord Soleman couldn’t compare to Daolord Featherdress in power; the later was once known as the number one Daolord of the Endless Territories! It must be remembered that not even the current Palace Lord of the Palace of the Heart was ranked number one in all the Endless Territories.

  Clearly, there could be great differences in power amongst Heartforce Cultivators.

  “My Omega Sword Dao is virtually flawless. The third stage might put me close to Daolord Featherdress’ level.” Ning was delighted. In the past, Daolord Featherdress’ legacy was useless to him… but now, he could make use of those heartforce secret arts.

  ……

  As a Heartforce Cultivator, he was on roughly the same level as Daolord Soleman. Even if he was a bit weaker, he wouldn’t be that much weaker. He could be considered a second-tier Heartforce Cultivator Daolord.

  In close combat, his sword-arts and his Northbow swords ensured that he stood at the very peak of power amongst second-tier Daolords.

  When you combined the two…

  Ning knew very well that there were now very, very few Daolords who could match a freak like him.

  ……

  Time continued to flow on. After Ning became a Heartforce Cultivator, he began to train in the terrifyingly powerful heartforce arts which Daolord Featherdress had left behind. His heartworld was built around his Omega Sword Dao, making his heartforce incredibly pure and possess strong offensive powers. Daolord Featherdress’ legacy was a bit softer and more subtle by comparison, and so Ning used the information he gained from it to create some heartforce arts of his own.

  In the blink of an eye, more than sixty thousand additional years went past.

  “Hahaha…” A loud laugh rang out as the Ninedust Sectlord emerged, appearing to be in an excellent mood.

  Ning had been meditating silently within his temporal acceleration cottage. He now opened his eyes.

  “Haha, Darknorth, were you in training? I’m really sorry that the ancestor left no legacies behind for you. You waited for me all this time for nothing.” The Ninedust Sectlord smirked.

  “It seems you had a fruitful experience.” Ning walked out of his cottage.

  “The ancestor’s path was that of the Dao of Water, and he also used staff-arts. I benefited greatly.” The Ninedust Sectlord was extremely smug. “Jealous, Darknorth?”

  “Maybe just a bit.” Ning nodded. “This Patriarch of the Dao Alliance left something for me as well.”

  “The Dao Alliance?” The Ninedust Sectlord turned his head, puzzled, to look towards the white-robed Hegemon’s corpse. “That one over there? He left something for you?”

  “Yes.” Ning nodded.

  “But our Ancient Hegemon took all of his treasures. There shouldn’t have been anything left for you.” The Ninedust Sectlord was confused.

  Ning just shook his head. If it hadn’t been for the white-robed Hegemon, it would’ve taken Ning much, much longer to become a Heartforce Cultivator. Although he had been at the cusp for some time, it was quite normal for someone to remain on the cusp for a full chaos cycle or even longer.

  “Time to leave, Ninedust.” Ning waved his hand, collecting the distant Su Youji, Pillsaint, Daolord Naia, and Daolord Bruteflame.

  “Agreed.” The Ninedust Sectlord didn’t ask Ning about what he had gained. He instead turned to look at the Universe treasure, that dark-red longstaff, then said respectfully: “Senior, please send us away.”

  Whoosh. A streak of light flew out from the dark-red longstaff and transformed into the bald, black-robed youth.

  The youth gave Ning a long look. The Ninedust Sectlord had been undergoing the trials and so did not know what had happened, but the youth knew exactly what Ning had been up to. Darknorth of the Dao Alliance had actually established his heartworld. The Universe weapon couldn’t help but sigh. The Dao Alliance truly did have countless geniuses within its ranks.

  “I’ll send you off,” the youth said. He waved his hand, causing a wave of power to surround Ning and the Ninedust Sectlord.

  * * *

  Book 31, Chapter 1 - Terror Starsea

  Ji Ning and the Ninedust Sectlord instantly disappeared from the cave. Only then did the bald, black-robed youth slowly shake his head. “Although Redwater and Master had very similar Daos and both specialized in staff-arts, Redwater is just a bit too vicious and cruel. I don’t like him. In fact, he hadn’t even become a Daolord of the Fourth Step yet. Forget it. I’ll just wait for a while longer.”

  Universe treasures possessed tremendous patience. They truly were eternal and undying, and so they were able and willing to wait extremely long periods of time before accepting a new master. They would rather go without than choose someone who wasn’t a perfect fit.

  ……

  Whoosh. Ning and the Ninedust Sectlord felt the world around them blur. Moments later, they found themselves within a dark, empty region of space.

  “We’re out.” Both of them revealed looks of delight. They could now both sense the locations of their avatars.

  “I can finally sense my avatar and my Primaltwin again.” Ning relaxed slightly. So long as he could sense them, he would be able to orient himself. Moments later, he frowned. “Why do I feel as though they are very, very far away?”

  He was separated from his avatar by an incalculable amount of distance. He had previously travelled to Eastroad Territory, one of the border territories of the Endless Territories, and that was already very far away from Vastheaven Territory. However, compared to his current distance that was absolutely nothing.

  “I can sense that the distance between myself and my avatar is greater than the size of the entire Endless Territories.” The distance was so great that his senses were rather foggy, but Ning was certain that the distance was definitely vaster than the Endless Territories themselves.

  “We…” The Ninedust Sectlord’s face turned pale.

  “Ninedust?” Ning looked at him.

  “We are in the Terror Starsea.” The Ninedust Sectlord’s face was ugly to behold. “And we are very, very deep inside of it. Extremely deep.”

  “Extremely deep?” Ning’s face turned pale as well. Deep inside the Terror Starsea? The Terror Starsea was the most dangerous place that they knew of. In size alone, the explored parts of it already surpassed the size of the Endless Territories! In addition, Ning had learned while in the ‘cave’ that the Terror Starsea was actually the battlefield of the Dawn War, with numerous Hegemon-level figures having died there. The place was filled with countless wards and dangers that were originally meant to kill Hegemons, making them incredibly dangero
us.

  “Are you sure we are deep inside the Terror Starsea?” Ning immediately asked. He quickly scanned his surroundings. They were in the dark emptiness of space, with a few glimmers of light off in the distance.

  “I’m certain, because I’ve been to the border worlds near the Terror Starsea,” the Ninedust Sectlord said. “I’ve travelled and adventured through its outer regions, and we are very, very far away from those outer regions. Based on the distance from my avatar… my best judgment is that we are more than half the size of the entire Endless Territories away from the outer regions. We’re definitely deep inside.”

  Ning’s heart turned cold. The Terror Starsea was deadly even for Eternal Emperors, while even Hegemons would tread carefully here for fear of dying. Generally speaking, even the most powerful of Daolords wouldn’t dare to venture too deep inside this place. As for their current location? This place definitely qualified as not just deep, but ‘incredibly deep’.

  The two stood there within the endless darkness of space, both rather nervous. It would be impossibly difficult to escape the Terror Starsea and go home.

  “We still have hope.” The Ninedust Sectlord knew more about the Terror Starsea than Ning. He said seriously, “Darknorth, your sword-arts have transcended space itself. You can easily use it to tear open a dimensional gate and escape incredibly far distances.”

  “Yes.” Ning nodded. He could indeed slice open dimensional passageways, then travel tremendous distances through them. It wouldn’t be difficult for him to create a dimensional passageway that could traverse more than ten territories. This was far faster than even using spacetime transfer arrays!

  In truth, it made sense. Given Ning’s current sword-arts, so long as he was able to lock onto an enemy he would be able to slay that enemy from over a territory away! Spacetime transfer arrays would normally be needed to merely traverse such a great distance, a testament to how terrifying and important the Dao was.