Desolate Era

by RWX

  “The Seamless Gate has grow more and more bold.” Immortal Diancai’s eyes were filled with anger…but he then shook his head and sighed. “However, they are indeed formidable. They were actually able to cause the Northmont clan of Stillwater to fracture internally. So many high-level members of the Northmont clan actually desired to throw their support to the Seamless Gate…but fortunately senior Unity was enraged and moved to slaughter them.”

  Just two hours ago, this very day, Celestial Immortal Unity had struck out in rage, wiping out more than half of the Void-level experts of the Northmont clan! All the traitors were killed!

  “After senior Unity made his move, the Seamless Gate sent a diplomatic note; if he doesn’t throw his support to the Seamless Gate, then they shall become mortal enemies.” Immortal Diancai looked at Yu Wei. “Yu Wei, what do you think we should do?”

  “It doesn’t really matter what we think; the one which the Seamless Gate truly cares about is senior Unity. According to the stories, senior Unity has power comparable to that of a Pure Yang True Immortal,” Yu Wei said. “And this is precisely the reason why the Seamless Gate has spent so much effort on our Stillwater Commandery; they want to pull senior Unity over to their side.”

  “The Seamless Gate truly has spent quite a bit of effort on us. The other commanderies might be in a state of chaos, but they aren’t nearly as bad as our Stillwater Commandery is. Still…senior Unity truly is resolute and decisive. The Northmont clan had fractured to the point where nearly half wanted to surrender to the Seamless Gate; even Celestial Immortal Hunchmont ended up being abducted by the Seamless Gate! He actually slaughtered more than half of his Void-level kinsmen. Even if it meant Hunchmont’s death, he still insisted on standing by the side of the Xia Emperor.” Diancai sighed. “Now that the Seamless Gate has sent that diplomatic note…a disaster is about to befall Stillwater Commandery.”

  When he thought about this disaster…Immortal Diancai thought of Ji Ning.

  That disciple of his who had wrought so many miracles.

  That peerless disciple of his who had assaulted the headquarters of the Youngflame clan, slaughtered two mighty Celestial Immortals, and was capable of resisting karmic sinflames.

  “I wonder how Ji Ning is doing. It has been eighteen years, but he still hasn’t returned.” A hint of urgency was in Immortal Diancai’s eyes.

  “Eighteen years.” Yu Wei looked at the bright moon in the night sky, her heart filled with countless thoughts.

  Junior apprentice-brother…

  When will you return?

  “It’s better for him to return later; he might be able to dodge this storm.” Immortal Diancai was still angry. “The Seamless Gate is acting with such wild abandon, and senior Unity continues to stand by the side of the Xia Emperor, but the Xia Emperor hasn’t even come to help out.”

  “The entirety of the Grand Xia is in a state of chaos. Every area is asking for his help. How is he supposed to accomplish it all?” Yu Wei sighed. “In addition..how do you know, uncle-master, that the Xia Emperor hasn’t been helping out in secret?”

  ……

  It had only been eighteen years…but the situation of the Grand Xia was more than a hundred times worse than it had been when Ning was present.

  When Ning had been present, although the various commanderies throughout the Grand Xia all saw some disturbances, on the whole things were still fairly calm. But soon after Ning slaughtered the two Celestial Immortals of the Youngflame clan, a series of Celestial Immortals began to perish throughout the world of the Grand Xia. It was either done by the Seamless Gate, or by the Xia Emperor in his furious reprisals.

  All sorts of battles were carried out in secret!

  One Celestial Immortal after another perished!

  The Grand Xia’s various marquisdoms, supreme clans, and major sects also began to engage in reprisal killings!

  The storm was growing more and more violent. Even the number one assassin’s guild of the Grand Xia, ‘Bloodcloud Hall’, had revealed its true face. It struck out time and time again, assaulting and killing some of the tougher foes of the Seamless Gate!

  Nine years ago…

  A dangerous situation had appeared within one of the headquarters of the Northmont clan; even Loose Immortals who went to investigate would perish. Celestial Immortal Hunchmont and Yu Wei had gone together to investigate; logically speaking, if they joined forces, the two of them should be able to escape from any danger without problems. However…the Seamless Gate had actually paid an enormous price to trap them there. Yu Wei, by using an escape technique which Patriarch Lu had bequeathed unto her, had been lucky enough to escape…but Celestial Immortal Hunchmont had been captured alive!

  By the time Sword Immortal Unity learned of this, it was too late; Celestial Immortal Hunchmont had been sent off to the ‘Fifth World.’

  In fact, it was the capture of Celestial Immortal Hunchmont that truly caused the Seamless Gate and Stillwater Commandery to begin fighting.

  “Everyone in the Three Realms believes me to be dead, but the Seamless Gate actually knew that I am alive.” Sword Immortal Unity had a bad feeling as well; the Seamless Gate was even harder to deal with than he had expected. They used all sorts of methods to try and influence Sword Immortal Unity, be it through tribes, territory, or other methods.

  However…given that Sword Immortal Unity had the mental fortitude to hide himself away for so many years, how could the Seamless Gate possibly change his mind so easily as this?

  You want to seduce the kinsmen that I favor?

  Seduce away the Void-level Earth Immortals that I wanted to teach?

  Fine. All traitors…die!

  Hunchmont? If you want to kill him, then kill him, Seamless Gate!

  Sword Immortal Unity seemed to be without any weaknesses whatsoever. Over the course of nine years, they had engaged in several major battles, and even Yu Wei and Immortal Diancai had encountered grave danger. At the same time…the news that Yu Wei had become a Celestial Immortal finally began to spread out, and her strength became publicly acknowledged. However…when assaulted by the Seamless Gate, Yu Wei and Immortal Diancai received aid from Sword Immortal Unity as well!

  Unity was indeed incredibly powerful.

  He, all by himself…had forced thirty-six Celestial Immortals of the Seamless Gate to flee in disarray! This was what it meant to have power close to a Pure Yang True Immortal’s!

  Ever since Sword Immortal Unity had revealed his sharpness, not even the Youngflame clan had dared to cause trouble in Stillwater Commandery any longer. Although Immortal Venomfreak was also quite famous for his power…his strength lay in his cunning, in subertfuge, and in his many clones. As for Unity, known as the Supreme Sword Immortal, he had truly astonishing close combat power.

  ……

  Within the Nihilum Zone.

  “The sword…so it is as simple and pure as this.” Ning was currently battling against one of the violet-caped warriors. His sword-fingers dimly glowed with a sharp, silvery-white shine. Clang! Clang! Clang! Ning’s sword-fingers collided with the foe’s greataxe, but actually knocked it flying back.

  His sword-fingers now glowed with that sharp, silvery-white light…

  This was the other thing Ning had gained during these eighteen years of battle, aside from learning how to use heartforce!

  These eighteen years had resulted in hundreds of more battles than Ning had experienced in all his previous decades of life combined! This was because all of his time was spent either replenishing his divine power or fighting. Repeated battles. Endless battles! And there were no Daos present; in fact, not even the Dao of the Sword was present to influence him. Ning didn’t have to think about what was the best way to summon the most amount of natural energy.

  He didn’t have to consider these things; all he had to think about was honing his instincts and using them to apply his sword-arts in battle.

  And so…Ning’s sword-arts had become more and more pure.

  T
hey guided to the very essence of swordplay itself!

  * * *

  Book 16, Chapter 19 - At The Scrolls End, the Dagger Appears

  [Note – This chapter’s title comes from a Chinese idiom which essentially means ‘true intentions revealed in the end’; it comes from a famous historical story where an assassin attempted to assassinate the Qin Emperor by hiding a dagger within a scroll that the Qin Emperor wanted. The Qin Emperor accepted the scroll and and began to unfurl it, and at the the very bottom/end of the scroll, the dagger appeared; the assassin immediately grabbed the dagger and used it to make the assassination attempt. Thus, the saying ‘at the scroll’s end, the dagger appears’ refers to true intentions being revealed]

  His swordplay became so pure that one day, the tips of Ji Ning’s sword-fingers began to glow with that sharp, silvery-white aura. This silvery-white aura caused his sword-fingers to become even sharper and fiercer! They were now sharper and more penetrating than even actual swords!

  Within the underwater estate.

  The black-robed Ning was currenty asking the giant yellow bear some questions. “Senior bear, do you know what the sharp lights surrounding my fingers are?”

  “You don’t know?” The giant bear was puzzled. “You know about heartforce, so how can you not know about…oh, right. Most likely, Patriarch Subhuti was worried that you would set your sights too high, and so he didn’t tell you right away.”

  “What do you mean?” Ning asked.

  The giant bear explained, “For Sword Immortals, fully mastering the Grand Dao of the Sword isn’t the end of the road. After you completely master the entire Grand Dao of the Sword…you’ll begin to focus on understanding the essence of the sword itself. When using sword-arts, your blade will naturally emit this sort of sharp light. This sort of sharp light is also referred to as ‘swordforce’; generally speaking, peerless Sword Immortals who have thoroughly mastered the Grand Dao of the Sword will begin to slowly discover and cultivate this power. You’ve just barely touched upon it; I imagine you are at the lowest, most basic level of swordforce.”

  “Swordforce?” Ning now understood. “So that’s how it is. When I was in Mount Innerheart, I saw some books which made note of the fact that when one completely mastered the Grand Dao of Taiji, one would begin to attune to the very essence of the Taiji itself, at which point a strange type of power would slowly be developed; taiji-force! It seems my swordforce is quite similar to this taiji-force in nature.”

  “Right.” The giant bear smiled and nodded.

  Ning now completely understood.

  Taiji-force, swordforce…generally speaking, those who completely mastered the Grand Daos of Taiji or the Sword would be able to slowly work on controlling this type of power. It could be considered an additional supplement, making one a bit more powerful in battle.

  “One of the greatest dangers for Immortal cultivators is being overly ambitious.” Ning let out a sigh.

  For example, when he first entered the Black-White College, the Primal Daoists, Loose Immortals, and Earth Immortals wouldn’t even tell him that the Dao was divided up into Heavenly Daos, Grand Daos, and ordinary Daos. This was precisely because they were worried about their disciples being excessively ambitious, resulting in them accomplishing nothing whatsoever! The same was true for Patriarch Subhuti; if he had told Ning about swordforce all along, it might’ve caused Ning to deviate when attuning to the Dao of the Sword, which would actually negatively impact his insights.

  “I haven’t even fully mastered the Dao of the Sword yet, but I’ve actually begun to be able to use a slight amount of swordforce already.” Ning laughed in a gratified manner.

  “The number of battles you have engaged in during the past ten-plus years was far more than the total number of battles you engaged in before you arrived here in the Nihilum Zone. The Dao of the Sword is an attacking Dao to begin with; if the Dao of the Sword or the Heavenly Daos were present here, I imagine that you would’ve advanced quite astonishingly fast in the Dao of the Sword.” The giant bear added, “Since this place does not have the Dao of the Sword, you haven’t been able to advance in the Dao of the Sword at all…which means you accidentally focused on attuning to the essence of the sword and ended up controlling a tiny thread of swordforce. This can be considered an unexpected benefit for you. I trust that in the future, the fact that you have started your quest for the essence of the sword will be of tremendous help to you in comprehending the Dao of the Sword.”

  “Right.” Ning nodded lightly.

  ……

  “Monster. A true monster.”

  “No wonder Lu Dongbin felt so certain that he was born to be a peerless Sword Immortal, and even Patriarch Subhuti felt that he was extremely talented in this regard. Even before mastering the Dao of the Sword, he’s already taken control of a tiny amount of swordforce. Clearly, he has an incredibly, unbelievably high level of aptitude towards the sword.”

  Within the blurry, void-like region within the underwater estate. The giant yellow bear had told them about his conversation, and the seven Fiendgods all signed in amazement.

  However…Ning had only mastered the most basic, elementary level of swordforce at present; there was a limit as to how much it could help him. By comparison, his ruler-level heartforce had helped Ning increase his power much more.

  Still…that tiny bit of mastery over swordforce was a testament to the fact that Ning truly was an unbelievable talent as a Sword Immortal.

  “No matter how talented he is, it won’t matter unless he can escape this Nihilum Zone.” A muscular man whose entire body was red in color let out a sigh. “To date, the Snaphorn world hasn’t truly gone all out against our young master…but if push comes to shove, then we will be forced to intervene. By then, we will have to deal with the master of the Snaphorn world…and we have no idea as to if we can beat him or not.”

  “The real question is, has the master of the Snaphorn world reached the Daofather level yet?”

  “If not, he won’t pose a threat.”

  “But if he is at the Daofather level…we’ll probably be doomed.”

  “We have nowhere to run. Even if we don’t move to rescue our young master, the master of the Snaphorn world will eventually discover the Starseizing Manor. After discovering the Starseizing Manor…if he is at the Daofather level, he’ll definitely be able to find our world. By then…we’d still have to fight him.”

  Technically speaking, Ning had yet to become an Empyrean God, and per the orders of Daoist Threelives, they weren’t supposed to save him; they were supposed to leave Ning’s fate up to himself, and if he died they were to go find another successor. Alas…they were now trapped within the Nihilum Zone and unable to depart from it, much less find another successor.

  This day, Ning engaged in dozens of battles before coming to a halt, acting as though he needed to replenish his divine power. In reality, Ning still had half of it left; after all, now that he had reached the seventeenth stage of the [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens], his divine power was much thicker than it had been in the past. For the sake of being prepared for all eventualities, he always came to a halt when he only had half of his divine power left.

  In turn, the violet-caped warriors always let him replenish his divine power as needed.

  As he replenished his energy…three mighty minds were conversing within the darkness of the Void.

  “Ever since this human began fighting against our Firstborn, he’s continuously improved his mastery over his heartforce. Less and less of it leaks out, and the ripples it causes are harder and harder to discern. Recently…he’s leaked out no heartforce in his battles whatsoever. Although we can vaguely sense that he is using it, we are unable to sense any of the heartforce ripples now. This poses no use to us in our attempts to develop a heartforce technique at all.” The first Queen Mother’s thoughts held a hint of resentment.

  “Two elder sisters, what should we do?” The third Queen Mother asked.

  �
�During this period of time, tens of thousands of battles have been carried out. We’ve developed a few ideas, while you, little sister, have actually managed to coalesce some heartforce. You’ve developed a basic level of skill in heartforce; this can be described as a merit for this human.” The second Queen Mother continued, “However, our elder sister and I have yet to be able to coalesce heartforce, much less figure out a way to apply it.”

  “Although I’ve managed to coalesce heartforce, I still need to slowly work away at a method for applying it.” The third Queen Mother’s thoughts held a hint of resentment as well. “If he continues to leak heartforce…a few more centuries of battle should be enough.”

  A hundred years, a thousand years…these were very short periods of time for them.

  Alas, Ning had only given them eighteen years of ‘bliss’. By now, Ning had very perfect control over his heartforce. When using his sword-arts, his heartforce didn’t leak outwards at all; the Queen Mothers knew that Ning was using heartforce, but there was no way for them to analyze it. After all, the more that leaked out, the more easy it was to analyze.

  “But we aren’t able to hypnotize him…and he’d rather die than let us search his memories. Let’s kill him,” the second Queen Mother said.

  The third Queen Mother opposed this. “Let’s capture him alive first, then imprison him within our bodies. Let us slowly torment him, slowly torture him…and perhaps one day we’ll be able to search his memories.”

  “Capture him and imprison him within third sister’s body.” The first Queen Mother agreed as well.

  “Fine.” The second Queen Mother accepted this outcome.

  And so…

  They gave the order.

  The Nihilum Zone. The golden-caped general and violet-caped warriors of the Snaphorn world were all relaxing and chatting amongst themselves. Although they had always felt that letting this alien stay alive wasn’t really in keeping with their nature, and they truly wanted to slaughter him…how could they dare disobey the orders of their Queen Mothers?