Desolate Era (Book 16 - Book 18)

This was even more difficult than a breakthrough in training in a Dao.

For Immortal cultivators, the most important thing of all was the Dao-heart. Next came one’s insights into the Dao. Last of all was one’s cultivation base!

If one’s Dao-heart was insufficient…no matter how high your cultivation base was or how many Daos you had comprehended, you would still end up deviating and going berserk. The more powerful you were, the more likely you would die, in fact!

The Dao-heart had to be powerful. Only with a powerful Dao-heart and enough insights into the Dao should a person break through to the next cultivation level. For many peerless geniuses and reincarnated Immortals who had awakened their memories, they had strong enough Dao-hearts and enough insights into the Dao that they could simply use liquefied elemental essence and spirit-pills to increase their cultivation base to the level they wanted it to be at. However, no matter what they did, they wouldn’t raise it to a level which was beyond what their Dao-hearts or cultivation bases could handle.

One could rapidly increase one’s cultivation base, but there was no shortcut to strengthening the Dao-heart or comprehending the Dao.

“Despite all this, I was still unable to reach the ‘ruler’ level. What a pity. If I had reached it…I would have become a truly supreme divine archer of the Three Realms,” Ning sighed.

[Houyi’s Archery] divided heartforce up into five major levels.

The third level was the ‘ruler’ level; at this level, one could be considered one of the supreme divine archers of the Three Realms.

The fourth level was the level which the absolute best divine archers of the current Three Realms had reached.

As for the fifth level…this was Houyi’s level. However, this divine archer of the Primordial Era, Houyi, had disappeared for countless years. Some claimed he was dead, while others said that he had secluded himself somewhere. However…what was undisputed was that he had gone missing for far, far too long. It was very rare for an expert to be patient enough to go into hiding for that long without interacting with any other major powers, and so quite a few suspected him of being dead.

Ning had nearly perfected the second level of heartforce, ‘iceheart’. His heartforce was so powerful that he could now be considered one of the top divine archers of the Three Realms.

Before this, Ning had merely reached the basic level; this had been only enough to let him be ranked amongst the divine archers.

Rumble…

A voidwave swept across Ning, pushing him thousands of kilometers away and bringing him to his senses.

“What a powerful wave. If I hadn’t trained in the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art], I would’ve died long ago.” Only now did Ning leave his state of pensiveness and come to his senses. He began to inspect his surroundings. He was within an utterly dark void, and he could vaguely make out voidwaves and voidwinds rage about. “What is this place? Uh…why isn’t there any natural energy here at all?”

Ning discovered to his astonishment that there was no natural energy of Heaven and Earth here. Immortal cultivators needed to absorb and refine natural energy in order to replenish their elemental ki, while Immortals needed it to replenish their Immortal energy.

“And…where is the Dao?”

“The Dao of the Heavens?”

In the past, he could clearly sense the Grand Dao of the Sword, the Grand Dao of the Waterdrop, as well as many other Daos…but Ning discovered to his amazement that now none of them seemed to exist. He couldn’t sense them at all. The Dao of the Heavens was missing…which meant that no matter how he infused his swordplay with the profound mysteries of the Dao, he wouldn’t be able to summon any of the power of the natural world at all.

“No natural elemental energy…and not even the Dao of the Heavens exists?” Ning stared into the black, dark void around him in disbelief. “Where…where is this place?!”





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Book 16, Chapter 6 - Wandering


“A place like this actually exists? Not even the Dao of the Heavens is present…then, this means that all of the mysteries and intricacies of the Dao are useless here.” Ning waved his hand, instantly producing a Darknorth sword. He immediately waved the sword out. Swish! Sword-light flashed…but nothing else happened. It must be understood that at Ning’s current level, any casual sword blow was capable of summoning the power and majesty of Heaven and Earth; for example, the ninth stance of the [Three-Foot Sword] could transform the sword into a divine black dragon!

But right now…no matter how Ning swung his sword and no matter what sword-arts he used, the only thing that accompanied his sword was a flash of sword-light…and the flash came from light reflecting off the Darknorth sword!

“It doesn’t matter how deep my insights into the Dao are?”

“What the hell sort of a place is this?” Ning was mystified…but then he had a thought. “Can this be the legendary…Primordial Ruinworld?”

Ning had heard of the Primordial Ruinworld when he had been at Mount Innerheart. It was the most dangerous place that he knew of, a place that existed within the Void that was beyond the Three Realms.

According to the legends…

After Pangu’s World shattered, the Three Realms were born…but the ‘skeleton’ of Pangu’s World remained. These remnants were known as the Primordial Ruinworld! The Primordial Ruinworld was not a complete world; it was a shattered world, making it even more terrifying. Space and time were in a state of chaos here, and dangers abounded.

Even True Gods and Daofathers risked death by coming here.

“Wait, that’s not right.” Ning shook his head. “The Primordial Ruinworld should be akin to a collection of shattered worlds; why is it that I’m within a region that is surrounded by voidwinds, as though I was within a completely empty area?”

“Senior bear, Rahu Bow,” Ning suddenly called out.

Whoosh! A black-robed youth appeared next to him; it was the Rahu Bow.

“Senior bear?” Ning called out again.

“It’s dangerous in the outside world; I cannot emerge.” The giant yellow bear’s voice rang out within Ning’s mind.

“Dangerous? Aren’t you the spirit of the underwater estate?” Ning was puzzled.

The black-robed youth said, surprised, “Master, don’t you know? Senior bear, through cultivation as the spirit of the underwater estate, has long since transcended being a mere treasure. He is now a true, living being.”

“What?!” Ning was stunned.

“You damned bow…I haven’t even told him yet, and you went and blurted it out,” the giant yellow bear sent mentally.

Ning called out in surprise, “Senior bear, you…you’ve already…” Ning had naturally heard that treasure-spirits could cultivate, and that spirits of Protocosmic spirit-treasures could even become Immortals, completely escaping the confines of their treasure-body and existing on their own!

“I wasn’t in a rush to tell you, but I didn’t expect this Rahu Bow to blurt it out. Yes…Master treated me with tremendous kindness. In the Three Realms, there have always been Protocosmic spirit-treasures who have trained to become Celestial Immortals; in fact, some have even become Daofathers! After forging me, Master taught me cultivation methods suitable for treasure-spirits. Over the passage of countless years, I’ve naturally been slowly training in these methods. I’ve long ago become a true, living creature. However…my level of cultivation isn’t high enough, and I cannot yet completely escape the Starseizing Manor,” the giant yellow bear said.