Desolate Era (Book 16 - Book 18)

However, the distant violet-caped warrior who had been battling Ning actually retreated.

The group of horned, violet-caped warriors began arguing amongst themselves.

“Tonto finished his contest; let me go next.”

“No, let me go.”

“Why should you be the one to go?”

“It’s rare for us to encounter an alien that can’t be killed, no matter how hard we hit him. This is a perfect chance for some training and tempering. Let’s take it slow. Don’t be in a rush!” The golden-caped general added, “And it looks to me like the alien is pretty much exhausted. Let him rest for a bit. After he recovers, you can go challenge him one-by-one. As long as he doesn’t die, you’ll all have a chance.”

Ning was speechless.

He had thought that he was definitely going to die…but they were going to let him recover?

“The warriors of the Snaphorn world…really like to fight. Are they…are they treating me as a training dummy?” Ning was puzzled.

The general and his violet-caped warriors, however, were quite resigned.

Liked to fight?

Yes, they liked to fight. However, their innate nature was such that they would generally slaughter their foes; why would they let a fight drag on like this? However, this was the order of the Queen Mother, and in fact the Queen Mother’s mind was riding with them, ordering them to fight against Ji Ning one by one. How could they possibly dare to disobey?

“Forget them. Every extra day alive counts.” Ning stood there within the vacuum of space, immediately beginning to attune himself to those two supreme stellar bodies in the deepest reaches of the Void, the Solar Star and the Lunar Star. He began to draw energy from them, converting it into divine power.

Within the underwater estate. A black-robed Ning sat there in the lotus position. Suddenly, the giant yellow bear appeared, then hurriedly said, “Ji Ning, Ji Ning!”

“Senior bear.” The black-robed Ning looked at the giant yellow bear.





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Book 16, Chapter 17 - The Seventeenth Stage of the [Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens]


“What happened just now?” The giant yellow bear immediately asked, “I clearly sensed that you were at your limit, but were still unable to defeat that violet-caped fellow. How is it that suddenly…?”

The black-robed Ji Ning knew what the big bear was asking. He didn’t seek to hide anything from the big bear; after all, there were a good number of individuals in the Three Realms who used heartforce. He immediately replied, “Senior bear, previously, when my divine power was almost used up, I felt as though things were hopeless. Ignoring all else, I poured everything into executing my most powerful sword-arts…but who would’ve thought that the power of my sword-arts would exceed even my own expectations? Only then did I realize that my heartforce had actually flowed into my sword-arts and had been slightly depleted.”

“Heartforce?” The giant yellow bear was surprised. “You were able to use your heartforce through your sword-fingers?”

“Yes.” Ning nodded.

“But but but…” The giant yellow bear didn’t dare believe it.

In truth, the giant yellow bear actually knew less about heartforce than Ning himself did. Ning, after all, had trained in [Houyi’s Archery], and had read a good number of books at Mount Innerheart regarding the Three Realms. As for the giant yellow bear, all he knew, he had learned while accompanying Daoist Threelives.

“You…you were able to use your heartforce through your sword-fingers…but you haven’t even undergone your tribulation, right…?” The giant yellow bear was still in a stunned state. Within the Three Realms, those who could control heartforce were all quite famous; every single one of them was a terrifying force, generally at the True God or Daofather level. Even the weakest of them were generally at least Empyrean Gods or True Immortals.

“It has nothing to do with the tribulation.” The black-robed Ning shook his head. “It has everything to do with your level of insight into heartforce. According to the system which mighty Houyi established, heartforce can be divided into five levels. Thanks to the descent of the karmic sinflames, as well as the experiences I have undergone here in the Nihilum Zone…my heartforce actually ended up reaching the third level, ‘ruler’. Given that I’ve been training in [Houyi’s Archery] almost every day for the past half year while floating about in the Nihilum Zone, my mastery over my heartforce has been improved. Perhaps because I established a foundation through training [Houyi’s Archery], as well as due to my heartforce reaching the third level…I was lucky enough to execute the technique successfully.”

“The third stage?” The giant yellow bear didn’t really understand; he didn’t have any insight into Houyi’s systemized levels for heartforce.

“However…what’s the usage?” The black-robed Ning shook his head. “Even if I do understand how to apply heartforce to my sword-fingers…I still haven’t undergone my tribulation. I’m completely unable to defeat this Snaphorn world of the Primordial Ruinworld, much less escape the Nihilum Zone.”

“Don’t be discouraged,” the giant yellow bear said. “You’ve gained quite a lot, learning how to apply heartforce through your sword-fingers.”

“I’m not depressed.” The black-robed Ning was actually quite calm.

“Right; that massive army of the Snaphorn world has arrived, and they can easily capture you. Why aren’t they attacking? Why are they letting you recover?” The giant yellow bear was puzzled by this.

The black-robed Ning shook his head. “I don’t know the answer either. From the sound of it…they seem to want to use me as a target dummy for training. Perhaps there is another reason as well…but who cares? As long as I have a chance to stay alive, I’ll take it. The longer I can stay alive, the better a chance Master might have to find me. This is a chance to survive…I naturally have to seize it.”

“Right.” The giant yellow bear nodded as well.

……

Within the misty, void-like region within the underwater estate.

The giant yellow bear had just returned here. He looked at the seven powerful experts.

“Well?” The beautiful, black-armored woman asked impatiently.

“Ji Ning says that the reason why the army of the Snaphorn world has only trapped him rather than killed him is because they apparently want to use him as a training dummy to temper and train some of their more powerful warriors.” The giant yellow bear continued, “However…the reason really isn’t worth over-analyzing. What matters is that Ji Ning is currently not in a life-or-death situation. There’s no need for you to reveal your presences for now; let’s just wait patiently. The longer this drags out, the better; if Patriarch Subhuti is able to find Ji Ning, then everything will be well.”

The seven Fiendgods all nodded in agreement.

“There’s one other important matter. Ning said that he’s been able to develop a way for him to apply his heartforce through his fingers,” the giant yellow bear suddenly said. “That’s why his power increased so dramatically.”

“A way for him to apply heartforce?!”

All seven of the Fiendgods simultaneously cried out in shock.

Red-hair said in disbelief, “He…he…you said heartforce…heartforce!!! How could he have developed…”

“Ji Ning trained in [Houyi’s Archery], and so he had a set of heartforce techniques to begin with. Perhaps this helped inspire him? In addition, his heartforce has reached the third level,” the giant yellow bear said. “He said something about the third level of heartforce, with Houyi having divided it up into five levels, but I didn’t really understand it.”

“The third level?”

“What a monster.”