Desolate Era (Book 19 - Book 21)

A confluence of memories!

His two clones had been completely separated from the rest after they had entered Undermoon Lake, and so there was no way for their memories to join together. Upon exiting Undermoon Lake…instantly, the memories of the two clones once more connected together with the memories of all the other clones, joining together into a confluence.

Part of the memories were formed from his six hundred years in Undermoon Lake and his time spent studying World God Northrest’s many sword-arts, which allowed Ning to understand and master the number one sword-art of the Three Realms.

The other part of his memories were formed from his experiences of roaming the Three Realms, watching many events happen and gradually learning to understand the human heart. They also included his experiences and battles in Prisonworld 17.

The two different memories began to collide against each other, merging into one whole.

Different insights into the sword.

Different insights into the heart.

They continued to collide, merge, and fuse together…





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Book 21, Chapter 10 - The Return


Although the core of the blazing star was incredibly hot, the flames on its surface were at most capable of harming Void-level Earth Immortals and Loose Immortals.

The white-robed youth stood there, not moving at all. Six hundred years worth of memories were fusing together nonstop.

It could be said that in Undermoon Lake, Ji Ning was completely and utterly infatuated with and devoted to the sword. All of his efforts had been spent on it, and his heart had barely changed at all. But in the outside world, Ning’s heart had changed on a fundamental level. He had spent six hundred years dominating and soulscouring the prisoners of the prisonworld and had seen so many memories. Memories of darkness, of madness, of love, of betrayal…

Every time he soulscoured someone, the memories he saw would affect him slightly. If an ordinary person was to see someone else’s memories, it was entirely possible that the memories would all bleed into each other and intermingle. Of course, this wouldn’t happen for someone on Ning’s level, but generally speaking it wasn’t uncommon for shadows to be cast over one’s mind. If one could endure it, however, it would serve as a form of tempering.

For someone like Ning, the backlash caused by soulscouring really wasn’t worth mentioning. However, his heart had still slowly evolved, becoming as bottomless as an endless abyss, capable of holding anything within its depths.

As for the time he spent wandering the Three Realms and meditating on the Nine Chaos Seals, it had continuously tempered and refined Ning’s heart even further.

One side had reached an astonishing level in the sword.

The other had seen a transformation of the heart.

Even mortals had the saying, ‘put your heart into it’. Two experts might be at the exact same level of sword-arts, but they would be able to produce completely different results based on the level of their heart.

“My sword was always a bit too excessively sharp; it wasn’t quite stable and steady enough. In Undermoon Lake, I was never quite able to make a breakthrough in this regard,” the white-robed youth mumbled. He suddenly pointed forward with his finger. At the tip of his finger suddenly appeared a swirling whirlpool that was formed from diametrically opposed types of power. Swish! The Void itself was pierced through.

“Now…I’ve finally made a bit of a breakthrough.” Ning nodded slowly.

During the past six hundred years in Undermoon Lake, Ning had almost completely focused on the sword. This became even more the case after he had viewed the ninety-eight stone steles which World God Northrest had left behind. They revealed a brand new path for Ning. Ning had wanted to reach the fifth level of swordforce very much, but going from the fourth level to the fifth level was as hard as ascending to the heavens. It was much like how only the great divinity Houyi had ever managed to reach the fifth level of heartforce; the number of fifth-level swordforce experts in the Three Realms could be counted on one hand.

To break through and reach the fifth stage of swordforce with just a few short centuries of training was simply far too difficult. Ning had always worked very hard, and although he hadn’t made a breakthrough in swordforce, he had learned much and actually been able to embark upon a different path. He had slowly gained insight into yinforce and yangforce, and had even been able to join them together into infiniforce. Ning was able to infuse many of his insights regarding World God Northrest’s sword-arts into his infiniforce technique.

World God Northrest’s sword-arts actually contained many different types of force, including swordforce, infiniforce, spacetime-force…

But clearly, when training with the sword, Ning had gained more insights into Yin and Yang, resulting in him comprehending the essence of infiniforce. In truth, during his early years at Swallow Mountain, Ning had simultaneously trained in two mighty sword techniques, one of fire, the other of ice. When he trained in using ice and fire at the same time, he was unconsciously training in the basics of Yin and Yang as well. However, Ning had only spent so many years training, and most of those years had been focused on the Dao of the Sword and the Grand Dao of the Waterdrop. He was completely unwilling to divide his attention towards other Daos.

In Undermoon Lake, Ning didn’t train in any other Daos at all, only training in the sword.

And so…in the end, had gained insight into infiniforce.

After three years, he had gained a basic level of insight into infiniforce. Srictly speaking, in the outside world it could be said that he had already gained insight into the Grand Dao of Infinity.

After twenty years, his infiniforce had reached the second level.

After less than a century, it had reached the third level.

And yet…he had yet to be able to reach the fourth level.

However, upon leaving Undermoon Lake and reconnecting with the memories from the outside world, his heart began to change. He drew upon the many insights regarding the sword he had gained during six centuries of roaming the Three Realms…and so, naturally and unconsciously, Ning reached the fourth level of infiniforce as well. But most importantly of all, because Ning’s insights were derived from World God Northrest’s sword-arts, his infiniforce and his swordforce began to join together into a perfect, flawless whole.

“The fifth stage of swordforce…” Ning could sense it much more clearly now than before.

“It seems the experiences of my predecessors were correct.” Ning nodded mentally to himself.

World God Northrest had left behind many bamboo scrolls. Aside from containing techniques, some contained knowledge and guidance for training in general, as well as information regarding the endless primordial chaos. Alas, World God Northrest had fled in a blind panic, and so even he wasn’t certain how many different regions and dimensions of spacetime he had traversed before reaching the Three Realms. Thus, the few maps he had regarding the primordial chaos were all useless to Ning.

The knowledge and guidance for training in general, however, was very useful.