Desolate Era

by RWX

  “It really is Ji Ning.” Windfiend’s divine sense instantly spread out across all the Three Realms, discovering the black-robed Ning standing in the void of the Three Realms. He could sense that stately, awe-inspiring aura of majesty radiating out from Ning.

  “Let’s go.” Subhuti waved a finger, causing a spatial vortex to appear next to them. Whoosh! The two both entered the spatial vortex, then hastened towards Ning.

  ……

  “The River of Destiny froze?”

  Mt. Ling, in the eastern lands of the Celestial Realm.

  Buddha Maitreya sat above all others. He was now the new Lord Buddha of the Buddhist Sangha. He had always had a very high level of enlightenment, being just slightly inferior to Lord Tathagata himself. Ever since Ji Ning had transmitted many new techniques to the Three Realms, he had grown much more powerful and was second only to the likes of Subhuti and Windfiend.

  ……

  Fruit-Flower Mountain.

  “Heeeey, it’s my junior apprentice-brother!” The Monkey King had been munching away at his food when he suddenly froze, then revealed a look of delight. “Time to go take a look!”

  Sun Wukong was an incredibly talented figure, and he was now one of the top ten figures of the Three Realms.

  ……

  Daoist Jade Cauldron, Kuafu, Holyflame, Bloodswan, Amitabha, and the other experts of the Three Realms all sensed the ripples and immediately hastened over there as well.

  ……

  The black-robed Ning stood there amidst the void of the Three Realms. He could sense space rippling in the area around him as one figure after another began to emerge.

  His master, Subhuti. His senior apprentice-brothers Sun Wukong and Silvermoon. Buddha Maitreya. Buddha Amitabha. Jade Cauldron. Bloodswan. They all began to appear, one after another, and Ning nodded in their direction. As for these Immortals and Fiendgods, they just watched afar, not moving to intervene. Ever since Ning had broken through to the World level, he had continuously transmitted techniques back to them.

  In truth, Ning was quite amazed. The cultivators of the Three Realms weren’t necessarily all monstrous geniuses, but on the whole they were clearly far more talented than cultivators from other chaosworlds! The Three Sovereigns of Mankind, Daoist Three Purities, Tathagata, Houyi… without any guidance or legacies, they had reached such astonishingly great heights in enlightenment that they were able to battle against Elder Gods despite merely being at the True God level! This meant they were at a far higher level of enlightenment than most Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals.

  If they were given good techniques or good teachers… the Three Sovereigns of Mankind, Daoist Three Purities, Lord Tathagata, Houyi, and the others all could’ve become World-level cultivators! It must be understood that Buddha Jueming originally hadn’t been a particularly impressive member of the Buddhist Sangha; his innate talent was far inferior to the likes of Daoist Three Purities, Tathagata, and the others. It had been very hard for him to even reach the True God level! However, after spending many arduous years in Undermoon Lake as an Empyrean God, he had received the legacy techniques of World God Northrest and had thus been able to reach the Elder God level.

  This was a testament to how important good techniques and good teachers were.

  It wasn’t just the Three Realms; even the experts of the Seamless Chaosworld, such as Everwood, Demonheart, Devilhand, and Windfiend were also extremely spectacular figures who were comparable to Daoist Three Purities and Lord Tathagata.

  “The Pangu Chaosworld and the Seamless Chaosworld… the cultivators who arose from it are all far more talented and impressive than the cultivators in other chaosworlds.” Ning was secretly amazed. “There has to be a reason behind it.”

  The endless primordial chaos was filled with mysteries and secrets. No one would ever dare claim that he or she fully understand it. Not even the almighty Hegemon could make that claim, and so Ning didn’t spend too much time on this question.

  “I’ve now perfectly joined five Supreme Daos together. After I become a Daolord, I’ll become much more powerful. By then, I should be able to buy some truly precious legacies and techniques, then transmit them to the Three Realms and strengthen it,” Ning mused to himself.

  The techniques he had previously transmitted were all fairly ordinary. He had also transmitted a few ordinary techniques left behind by Northrest. As for the more valuable legacies? Ning had learned quite a few! He had learned from Emperor Mirrorsnow, had viewed the eighty thousand-plus sword-arts in the sword pagodas of the Sword Palace, and had acquired the legacy of a deceased Hegemon as well as the [Seven Leafpill Chapters]. However, he had sworn lifeblood oaths to never divulge any of them to others. Even though he was able to teach the first chapter of the [Seven Leafpill Chapters] to others, that chapter only pertained to the Dao of Alchemy. How many cultivators truly focused in this Dao? Too few!

  If you wished to truly strengthen an organization, you needed all types of techniques and legacies, especially powerful ones. This was no easy task.

  “Prior to today, I’ve only been able to transmit fairly ordinary techniques back, but the Three Realms has already strengthened dramatically. Master and Windfiend are about to break through to the World level at any moment, while Maitreya and the others might succeed as well. If I was able to transmit better techniques to them… my homeland might give birth to an entire crop of World-level cultivators.”

  Ning eagerly awaited such a day, the day when the Three Realms truly skyrocketed in prominence.

  ……

  Ning continued to focus upon the River of Destiny. His gentle sword-intent moved with incredible softness, but it contained unbelievable power! The gentle sword-intent carefully embraced those two truesouls within its grip.

  Rumble…

  The entire River of Destiny began to roil about in protest as a backlash began.

  Ning was incredibly careful. He obviously didn’t care about the backlash, but he was worried that it might cause collateral damage to his parents’ truesouls. Even the slightest bit of damage might cause those frail truesouls to instantly disintegrate.

  “Hmph.” Ning’s sword-intent wrapped those two truesouls in protective layers as it slowly drew them both from the depths of the River of Destiny.

  Rumble… the backlash from the River of Destiny grew increasingly powerful. Towards the end, the entire river began to writhe about as it fought to hold onto those two truesouls. Ning’s sword-intent, however continuously protected the truesouls with layers of barriers, taking on the full force of the backlash head-on.

  Whoosh! Finally, the mass of sword-light flew out from within the River of Destiny. The River of Destiny had failed, and so it quickly regained its normal calm and continued to function stably as it had in the past.

  “Success.” Subhuti, Windfiend, Sun Wukong, Jade Cauldron, and the others all revealed looks of delight when they saw this.

  “Darknorth, congratulations.”

  “Ji Ning, congratulations.” They all called out to express their congratulations. Now that the truesouls had been drawn out, the next step of restoring their souls and manifesting bodies would be easy.

  Ning couldn’t disguise his own excitement either.

  * * *

  Book 29, Chapter 11 - Heartforce, Level Five

  Ji Ning suppressed his excitement, then gently waved a finger and sent two streaks of chaos nectar outwards.

  His Primaltwin didn’t have much chaos nectar, as it had been here defending the Three Realms this entire time. It did, however, have at least a few drops. Since Yuchi Snow and Ji Yichuan’s souls and bodies weren’t particularly powerful, a single drop of chaos nectar each was more than enough.

  Whoosh. Whoosh. The two drops of chaos nectar flew towards the two different truesouls. The two drops quickly encompassed the two souls, then immediately and naturally began to build a soul around each truesoul. Although it was also possible to use the Six Paths of Reincarnation to form souls and bodies, those
bodies and souls would be of fairly low quality; at most, they would allow the reincarnated individuals to at most be equivalent to natural-born Xiantian lifeforms.

  But if one directly used chaos nectar to rebuild a body and soul, it would result in the creation of a completely perfect body!

  The souls were now fully formed.

  Instantly, the two souls rose up to stand there within the emptiness of the void. One soul was of Yuchi Snow, the other was of Ji Yichuan. The two had completely regained consciousness, and Ning was using his Immortal energy to help them awaken the memories locked within their souls. At his current level of power, Ning was able to help them reawaken their memories with nothing more than a thought, even though Yuchi Snow and Ji Yichuan had actually died two lives ago.

  “Ning. Son.” The two stared at Ning in disbelief.

  Ning was rather excited. He immediately said, “Father. Mother. Don’t worry about me right now. Let your fleshly bodies be remade first. All you need to do is wish for it to happen. The chaos nectar around you has marvelous properties and is capable of forming all things.”

  Flesh and even clothes were beginning to form in the empty area around their souls; there was of course no way Ning would leave them unclad. Gradually, Ji Yichuan and Yuchi Snow were able to see many figures off in the distance. Soon, the two had fully materialized. Clad in snowy white furs, the two stood there in the emptiness of the void.

  The thing was, Ji Yichuan and Yuchi Snow actually had an additional set of memories. This set came from the life they had spent as Willowriver Chuan and Eastflow Snow.

  “Snow.” Ji Yichuan looked at his wife.

  “Yichuan.” Yuchi Snow stared back at him.

  They had been together in both the past life and the present life. During her life in Swallow Mountain, Yuchi Snow had died due to illness. Ji Yichuan had suffered heavy wounds as well. In the end, he felt he had nothing else to live for and so had perished as well. The next life had been an even sadder one; in the end, the curs of the Seamless Gate had captured everyone in their city and used them to refine magic treasures, resulting in their souls being shattered.

  Ji Yichun and Yuchi Snow held each other’s hands.

  “Ning. Son.” They turned their gazes towards Ning.

  “W-what’s going on?” Yichuan was completely puzzled. The area around them was filled with empty space, and they were even able to see figures who radiated auras of incredible power off in the distance.

  Snow was both excited and puzzled. She had died, as had Yichuan, right? And how was it that they were able to stand there within the emptiness of space as easily as standing on flat land? What was supporting them? But they felt certain that this all had to do with their son.

  “Father, Mother. All those bad things have come to an end. Nothing will be able to separate us ever again.” Ning’s voice was trembling slightly as he spoke.

  Snow’s eyes immediately reddened and she walked straight forwards to embrace Ning. Ning hugged his mother back as well.

  His mother’s embrace… it was as warm as it had been in his memories.

  Ning suddenly raised his head. His father, Yichuan, had walked over as well, and Ning reached out to include his father in their joint embrace.

  Their family of three was together again.

  As for Subhuti, Windfiend, and the other nearby figures, they all sighed as they watched with looks of envy. Many of them had been born from the primordial chaos or from Heaven and Earth; they had never had parents before. However, they could sense how deep the relationship between Ning and his parents were.

  ……

  As he embraced his father and his mother, the tension which had been within his soul for so many years was able to finally be released. And in this moment… Ning’s heartforce broke through to the fifth stage and began to rapidly expand in power.

  The Endwar of the Three Realms had resulted in Ning finally understanding the Heartsword Realm and using it to slay Old Man Yuan. Logically speaking, he should’ve been able to step into the fifth stage of heartforce at that time. However, he had too many things weighing down his heart, causing him to be stuck at that bottleneck.

  After leaving the Three Realms, he had entered the Endless Territories. He had experienced many things in the Brightshore Kingdom and the alternate universe, eventually linking five Supreme Daos together in a perfect manner. His mind and his heart had both been strengthened tremendously, but he still remained stuck at that bottleneck.

  His heart had never been able to see through to the ‘truth’ of life. Now, after reaching Vastheaven Palace and rescuing his parents truesouls from the River of Destiny, Ning was finally able to truly relax. As a result, he naturally reached the ‘truth’ level of heartforce.

  Ning did have another firm desire in the deepest parts of his heart… reviving Yu Wei! However, he knew exactly how difficult that would be. Even the number one expert in the Dao of Seals in the alternate universe, Emperor Maniseal, had been unable to revive his own disciple. Ning had never heard of someone successfully doing such a thing, which was a testament to how difficult it would be. But precisely because it was so difficult, Ning was able to face it fairly calmly.

  Boom! His heartforce massively expanded. The many things he had experienced in recent years caused Ning’s heartforce to instantly skyrocket and reach the apex of the fifth stage. His heartforce and his sea of consciousness joined together, causing certain changes to arise.

  If his heartforce was a bit stronger, the fusion between his heartforce and his sea of consciousness would’ve allowed him to establish a heartworld. Only by establishing a heartworld would one be truly considered a Heartforce Cultivator, and those were truly, incredibly frightening figures. Heartforce Cultivators who had reached the Verge as Daolords would have heartworlds that were as vast as an entire territory. At this point, the descent of their heartworld projection alone would benough to easily crush to death an ordinary Verge-level Daolord.

  But using a heartworld projection was merely the crudest way of fighting with heartforce.

  True Heartforce Cultivators had certain mysterious secret arts which were truly formidable. Bertulu, Eastcult, and Greatjoy had all mastered and joined multiple Supreme Daos together, but Bertulu was a Heartforce Cultivator! In an actual battle, he would’ve been stronger than both of the others.

  If Bertulu had managed to fully learn the [Heartsword] sword-art and learned how to perfectly mesh his heartforce with his close combat abilities, his powers would’ve skyrocketed even further. Alas, the [Heartsword] sword-art was extremely difficult. Ning himself was a sword cultivator who was also skilled in heartforce, which was why he had been able to reach a basic level of skill in it, but Bertulu was not!

  ……

  The void above the Three Realms.

  Yichuan and Snow both released their son, then smiled as they gazed at him.

  “Ning, son. Tell us what in the world is going on. Your mother and I are both completely confused,” Yichuan said.

  “The story is a long one. I trust both of you know about the Seamless Gate,” Ning said.

  “The Seamless Gate.” Yichuan and Snow both turned very solemn. “We’ve heard of them. The stories say that they are the ones causing chaos throughout the Three Realms.” The two of them had died due to the machination of the Seamless Gate.

  “Right. That had been a true tribulation, and many of our seniors perished during it,” Ning said softly. He couldn’t help but think back to that grand final battle and those figures who had calmly sacrificed their own lives. “But that war ended long ago. The Three Realms is now peaceful once more. I was bound by a lifeblood oath and so I wasn’t able to retrieve your truesouls from the River of Destiny until today. Only then could I bring you back to life.”

  “River of Souls? Truesoul?” Both Yichuan and Snow were a bit dazed. Neither of them had reached high levels of cultivation in either of their two lives. They had no idea that someone whose soul had been shattered could be brought back to
life.

  “Father, Mother. We can discuss these things later in the privacy of our home.” Ning smiled, then turned and looked at the nearby figures. He called out, “Master.”

  Subhuti flew over.

  “Ji Yichuan and Yuchi Snow. The two of you certainly gave birth to a wonderful son,” Daofather Subhuti said with a laugh.

  “Father, Mother, this person here is my master, Patriarch Subhuti,” Ning said. “If it hadn’t been for Master’s guidance, I never would’ve reached my current heights.”

  “Ahaha! Ji Ning, your accomplishments were due to you and you alone. I didn’t help much,” Subhuti immediately said.

  Ning continued, “And that gentleman over there is the leader of the Seamless Gate, the Lord of All Fiends.”

  The distant Windfiend nodded towards Ning’s parents. With a flicker, he appeared next to Patriarch Subhuti as well. “I was wracked by guilt when I learned that Ji Ning’s parents died due to the actions of my Seamless Gate! Although it was Demonheart who instigated that calamity, I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t act to stop him.”

  “The leader of the Seamless Gate?” Yichuan and Snow were both stunned. The Seamless Gate was the major force behind the chaos that had swept the Three Realms. Supposedly, not even the leaders of the Daoist Path or the Buddhist Sangha were able to do anything to them. How was it that their son knew people like this? How powerful had their son become, exactly?!

  When the two of them had first perished, Ning hadn’t even gone to the Black-White College.

  “This person is Buddha Maitreiya of the Buddhist Sangha. This person is Daoist Jade Cauldron of the Daoist Path…” Ning began to introduce the nearby Immortals and Fiendgods to his parents.

  Yichuan and Snow were growing increasingly confused. Although they hadn’t heard of most of these figures, they had heard of a few of them and knew them to be figures whose reputations shook the Three Realms.