by RWX
“Mm. Although they use similar techniques, it seems as though there are some differences.” Ning realized that there was something off with these three volcano titans. One of them was faster and more explosive while the second always attacked with both hands. As for the third, he was the slowest of the three; he would spend quite a bit of time building up power before each attack, but the attacks he unleashed were incomparably devastating.
“Although their attacks aren’t exactly the same, they seem to share certain similarities.” Ning was slowly mesmerized by the possibilities. From their attacks, he was able to see some of the things he himself had been searching for but unable to truly master.
Slowly, as the battle continued Ning began to gain a few insights into the various battle stances that the three volcano titans used. But of course, he was only able to gain a few. The three volcano titans were very crude in using these techniques, after all.
“The Heavenbreaker stance…”
Right now, the only stance remaining was the Heavenbreaker stance!
The five stances of [Brightmoon]. He had already developed Supreme Daos based on the other four stances. Only the Heavenbreaker stance was left.
The Heavenbreaker stance was the most ferocious of stances, containing truly wild and berserk levels of power. It used overwhelming power to crush all foes and was Ning’s most physically powerful attack. It was the perfect solution for dealing with foes whose defenses simply couldn’t be pierced through or penetrated.
The Shadowless stance focused on being fluctuating and unpredictable; this naturally caused the power of the actual attacks to be somewhat weaker.
The Blood Drop stance destroyed everything in its path, letting it pierce through all which would oppose it.
These two stances had both reached the apex in their respective fields… but both had made sacrifices in terms of total, raw power! Only by focusing in one area could one reach the apex in that area, after all.
The Heavenbreaker stance didn’t have a terrifying penetrative ability, nor was it unpredictable in the slightest. It was simply an awesome, direct attack that contained the strongest levels of power possible.
“Mm… ah! Is that how it is?” Ning’s battle against the three volcano titans grew increasingly frenzied, and he continued to secretly learn from their striking techniques.
This furious battle persisted for roughly the amount of time needed to boil a kettle of tea.
“Time for the final attack.” The distant azure-armored figure and white-robed figure both let out soft sighs. They had grown accustomed to seeing this long ago. The strongest attack which these three volcano titans had was actually a single attack that was combined from three different attacks. Once they joined together to form the final attack, they would be able to unleash the most powerful killing strike they were capable of.
The power of that attack was terrifyingly great! If you did not have a truly perfect Dao, it was all but guaranteed that you would perish from it. And even if you did have a perfect Dao… it was likely that their ‘big brother’ would personally attack and kill you!
……
After battling furiously for the time needed to boil a kettle of tea, the movements of the three volcano titans suddenly changed.
“Eh?” Ning’s face tightened slightly.
Whoosh! One of the volcano titans suddenly lifted up his enormous stone hands, preparing to slam downwards towards Ning. The second volcano titan slowly advanced, both hands in front of his chest as he prepared to make a shoving motion. The final volcano titan began to prepare to swing his arms towards Ning…
The rhythm of the battle had changed. The attacks of the three volcano titans had joined together to form a whole, and the power of their attacks actually began to rise.
Ning instantly understood what he was seeing. This was much like how he perfectly merged his six Eternal swords together when using the Soleheart sword-intent. In this moment, the three volcano titans had truly merged together, and the power of this attack would definitely be ten times greater than their previous ones. Ning had already been at a complete disadvantage. For their attack power to increase tenfold… he was going to get crushed!
“AH!” Ning’s eyes suddenly lit up. “T-this… this is how the Heavenbreaker stance should be!” A look of wild joy suddenly appeared within his eyes as he stared at the three volcano titans.
In truth, the three volcano titans were using one of the techniques which the Hegemon had developed. This technique was 70%-80% similar to Ning’s Heavenbreaker stance.
When Ning had watched and sparred with the volcano titans, he had gained a number of new insights. Given that his Heavenbreaker stance had already reached a bottleneck and only needed one final push to break through to a new level… once the three volcano titans joined forces, Ning suddenly understood it all.
A warhorse needed enough space to gallop before it could reach its maximum velocity.
A bow needed to be drawn to a full arc before it would reach maximum power.
Hints of the truth to this Dao could be seen throughout the mortal world.
The Heavenbreaker stance… if you wanted to release the full, terrifying level of power it contained, you would need to first build up power! For example, in archery you would build up power by drawing your bow… and then let it explode forth with its full might, like a volcano erupting! Only by building up enough might would you be able to unleash the full power of your attack! But just as importantly, the moment you unleashed your power had to be fast, fierce, and compressed into a short instant.
This… this was what a Heavenbreaker stance should look like.
“Heavenbreaker.” Ning made his move. He raised all six of his arms high into the air, filling his Violetjewels with his divine power and causing them to instantly skyrocket in weight.
Ten times. Ten thousand times. A trillion times…
The six Violetjewels each became as heavy as a chaos star! This was approaching the maximum level of weight which Ning was currently able to control. The Heavenbreaker stance was ideally executed with extremely heavy weapons, such as the deep blue greatsword of the deceased Hegemon. That was actually an incredibly dense and unique weapon which was perfect for using the Heavenbreaker stance.
* * *
Book 28, Chapter 34 - Sword Dao Samsara
Ji Ning’s six Violetjewels all chopped towards his opponents at the same time, and as they moved forwards they crushed everything in their path, causing space itself to tremble and distort. They moved forwards in seemingly slow arcs, but their power only continued to grow until they reached a crescendo of might, then slammed head-on into the giant stone fists of a volcano titan.
The power now contained with every single one of Ning’s six swords was stronger than when he previously used all six swords combined to execute the Blood Drop stance. This was the difference between the Heavenbreaker stance and the Blood Drop stance!
In terms of penetrative power, the Blood Drop stance was far superior to the Heavenbreaker stance… but it was still useless against these volcano titans, who had bodies that were comparable to precious treasures. But in terms of raw power, the Heavenbreaker stance was similarly far superior to the Blood Drop stance. It was perfect for head-on clashes!
BOOM!
The enormous volcanic body of the volcano titan shuddered violently, and he couldn’t help but stumble back quite a few steps. Even his giant stone hands were visibly trembling.
“Kill!”
“Kill!”
Ning was clearly much faster and more agile than the volcano titans. He only had to deal with one of them each time.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A series of explosions rang out as the towering volcano titans were knocked stumbling backwards one by one, thanks to Ning’s overwhelming power. Although the volcano titans bellowed furiously and charged forwards repeatedly, Ning was able to beat them back each time. Ning was physically much smaller than them, but the power of his Heavenbreaker sta
nce allowed him to completely outstrip them and shut them down.
“Eh?” An odd, surprised look appeared on the formerly emotionless face of the muscular, greatsword-wielding man who stood in front of the distant shrine.
“Is that…?!” The white-robed man and the azure-armored man next to him both revealed looks of joy.
“Big brother, that Sword Dao… isn’t that just like the Dao of the Hegemon, a Dao that overwhelms and crushes all foes in a straightforward manner?” The azure-armored man saif hurriedly, “Darknorth is a perfect fit for learning the Hegemon’s Dao of the Sword.”
The muscular man calmly shook his head. “Although he’s developed five Supreme Daos, he hasn’t been able to link them together in a perfect manner. He’s not even qualified to become my master’s honorary disciple.”
The deceased Hegemon would only accept one personal disciple and two honorary disciples. Not even that now-deceased World-level genius who had perfectly fused an offensive Supreme Dao with a defensive Supreme Dao had been able to qualify as an honorary disciple. In fact, the muscular man had personally slaughtered him!
“Big brother, your requirements are too stringent. The Sword Dao this kid has come up with is extremely similar to that of the Hegemon’s,” the azure-armored man said frantically. “There are incredibly few such geniuses of the Dao of the Sword. If you kill him, who knows how long it will be before we encounter another one?”
“I’d rather have no successors at all than poor ones.” The muscular man shook his head. “If I am to choose a successor, I will only choose a perfect one.”
“A perfect one?”
“Big brother, you… ugh.”
The white-robed man and the azure-armored man both shook their heads. But right then, both their bodies trembled. Even the muscular man was somewhat astonished as he stared at what was happening.
“What?!” The white-robed man and the azure-armored man called out this word at the same time.
“How could he have made yet another breakthough so quickly?” A look of true astonishment was on the muscular man’s cold features as well.
After Ning developed the Heavenbreaker stance, he immediately found the battle against the three volcano titans was now much easier than before. Thanks to the Shadowless evasive skill and the Blood Drop evasive skill, he was far more agile than his opponents. Defending was inherently easier than attacking, but now his attacks carried crushing power as well.
It was an absolutely delightful feeling. But just as Ning was battling to his heart’s content, he suddenly had the vague feeling that his five sword-intents could actually be linked together in some manner.
“Is this…” Ning suddenly realized that there were certain aspects of his five sword-intents that resonated with each other and attracted each other. They made up for each other’s weaknesses, and in fact it could be said they all stemmed from the same source.
The Dao of the Sword…
Although it was awesomely vast, different aspects of it could lead to different directions of development. Ning’s starting point was the essence of the sword itself, and he had divided it up into five different aspects that he believed included all types of sword-arts the Dao of the Sword could contain. His five aspects were the Blood Drop sword-intent, the Shadowless sword-intent, the Heavenbreaker sword-intent, the Yin-Yang sword-intent, and the Soleheart sword-intent. These five types of sword-intent, when separated thusly, truly did encompass all possible elements and aspects of all sword-arts.
These five types of sword-intents were, in truth, five parts of the complete Dao of the Sword.
When Ning had developed his first, second, third, and fourth sword-intents, he hadn’t realized this. But now that he had developed his fifth sword-intent, this battle instantly caused him to realize that there were deep, inextricable connections between his five sword-intents.
“The five sword-intents can be completely joined together.” And so, Ning naturally began to do just that.
……
He was unlike all other geniuses. Bertulu, Eastcult, Prince Greatjoy… they hadn’t actually truly understood or mastered all aspects of their chosen paths.
Eastcult had merely come up with a single offensive Dao and a single defensive Dao. When he managed to join them together in a perfect manner, his power increased dramatically! But of course, joining together two Supreme Daos was incredibly difficult.
The same was true for Prince Greatjoy. He too had only comprehended a pair of Supreme Daos, eventually joining them together here in the Genesis Lands of this alternate universe.
As for Bertulu, he was a bit stronger than the other two, having mastered and joined together a trio of Supreme Daos.
But…
Imagine a porcelain plate which had been shattered into five bizarrely-shaped pieces. Eastcult and Greatjoy had merely mastered two of those pieces. Thanks to their tremendous intelligence and wisdom, they had managed to find a way to jam these two pieces together into a complete whole, albeit with great difficult, and use the joined pieces to form their Daos.
Bertulu had been able to take control over three pieces, and had also had to work incredibly hard to join them together.
But Ji Ning?
He had mastered all five pieces, allowing him a degree of understanding of every single aspect of the Dao of the Sword. It was as though he had acquired all five pieces of that shattered porcelain plate. He didn’t need to waste time and effort finding out a way to make them fit together; they fit together in a natural manner, because they represented the five parts of the full Dao of the sword.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Ning’s sword… began to change. It was no longer limited to any specific stance.
Whoosh. He unleashed a sword that was almost invisible to the naked eye, a traceless and shadowless sword. And yet, when it appeared before the volcano titan it suddenly transformed into a swirling black hole of sword-light that dragged the volcano titan sideways. This had all happened too suddenly, and the volcano titan couldn’t help but stumble off-balance.
It was like he was toying with a child.
Boom. Whoosh! Boom.
Ning strode amidst the three volcano titans, his five mighty sword-intents having joined together to form a cyclical sword-intent, a Samsara sword-intent. His five mighty sword-intents were like five wooden spokes that now came together to naturally form a perfect wheel! This naturally-forming cycle allowed the different types of sword-intent to mutually reinforce and strengthen each other.
For example, Ning could first initiate the Heavenbreaker sword-intent. Once he built up enough power, he could suddenly transform it all into his Blood Drop sword-intent, giving it an even more terrifying degree of penetrative power.
The Blood Drop sword-intent’s incredible speed, in turn, could be transferred into the Heavenbreaker sword-intent, giving its ponderous strike a terrifying level of speed that only made it even more powerful than before.
Ning’s five mighty sword-intents flowed in a perfect cycle. As the saying goes, where water flows a canal shall naturally form. Just like that, the five mighty sword-intents easily came together to form a perfect cycle, the Samsara sword-intent.
……
“Five Supreme Daos? Just like that, he merged them together?” The azure-armored man muttered to himself, “Don’t you dare fight with me over him. Please oh please, don’t fight with me over him. He’s going to be my master’s personal disciple!”
“Third brother, Darknorth didn’t choose to leave when he reached the twenty-fourth floor. Clearly, he gave up the right to become your master’s disciple. As per the rules that were set down, you are responsible for the first twenty-four floors while our big brother and I are responsible for the final twelve floors,” the white-robed man said immediately. “Our big brother is incredibly strict when it comes to choosing a successor. So what if this kid has perfectly joined his Supreme Daos together? There’s no way our big brother will be interested in him. So, I think the best solution is
to have him become my master’s personal disciple.”
Countless aeons ago, those three grandmasters of the Dao of the Sword had perished. For endless years, the three of them had abided by the orders of their master and had waited here in the hopes of finding successors.
However… finding suitable successors was simply far too difficult. Although Ji Ning had displayed a certain degree of talent, none of the three had been truly impressed by him. He hadn’t even been able to perfectly join any of his Supreme Daos together! Give him the treasures left behind by their Eternal Emperors masters? Preposterous!
But now, Ning had perfectly joined together FIVE different types of Supreme Daos! Looks of blazing desire instantly filled the eyes of the white-robed man and the azure-armored man. If looks could release energy, their gazes were so heated that Ji Ning would’ve instantly melted into a puddle.
“Hmph.” The muscular man let out a cold snort.
“Big brother, I’m certain that there’s no way someone as strict as you would be interested in him,” the white-robed man said hurriedly.
“So what if he has five Supreme Daos? So what if he’s perfectly joined them together? In the end, he’s still nothing more than a World-level cultivator.” The muscular man continued coldly, “The more difficult a Dao one choses, the more difficult the path a Samsara Daolord shall have. With each step, a Samsara Daolord must straddle the line between life and death. This is especially true with regards to the Daomerge. Every era has given birth to monstrously powerful Daolords, but how many of them have been able to gain eternity and become Hegemons? Don’t be fooled by how talented this Darknorth kid seems to be; I’m afraid that he has almost no chance of succeeding in his Daomerge in the future.”
There were many monstrously powerful Daolords; every single generation would give birth to a few. But…
Even the Endless Territories had only given birth to three Hegemons over the course of its entire history. The muscular man’s words were spot-on; to succeed in the Daomerge and gain true eternity was simply far too difficult for these monstrously talented geniuses.