Desolate Era (Book 19 - Book 21)

Whoosh. The white-robed youth and the bald old servant disappeared into thin air.

“B-but…” Bu Feng was incredibly agitated. This bottle of pills was probably comparable in value to the entire fortune of an average Primal Daoist. This would give him the resources he needed, and the mysterious, profound sword-stances had had managed to memorize would serve as lamp-posts that would guide him on his Immortal path! He would be able to able to walk much farther along his path, and would be able to make his dreams a reality.

“Father?” The mud-splattered youth looked at Bu Feng.

“Let’s go home, right away!” Bu Feng said hurriedly. He immediately pulled his son back into their home within the village. He wanted to immediately and fully memorize and record the many sword-arts he had seen during the battle, for fear that he might forget them.

In the days to come, Bu Feng continued to teach his son sword-play. Eventually, he would manage to gain a basic level of insight into the Grand Dao of the Sword. Sixteen years later, when Bu Feng returned to his former school, he was already an expert of the Dao of the Sword.

Atop a wooden boat within the river.

“Manorlord, the techniques you put on display came from the [Five Treasures] sword-art, a technique that surpasses the Heavenly Daos which was created by the number one Sword Immortal in the history of the Three Realms. Learning even the tiniest little morsel of that sword-art represents a tremendous stroke of karmic luck for that Zifu Disciple,” Ninefangs said. He had personally witnessed the mighty power of the [Five Treasures] sword-art. Generally speaking, not even Celestial Immortals could endure seeing the power and majesty contained within the full sword-art. As for a few scattered techniques and stances…even if they saw it, they wouldn’t be able to understand it.

Ning had personally put the sword-art on display, and had sparred with Bu Feng for a long period of time, which was why Bu Feng had managed to understand how truly formidable these sword-stances truly were. Naturally, it had been much easier for him to understand them than others.

“I gained some insights of my own,” Ning chuckled.

In truth, after spending just an hour sparring against Bu Feng, Ning had already been able to completely understand and defeat all of Bu Feng’s stances. The reason why Ning had spent a full day and night fighting against him was because he was testing new ideas and gaining new insights.

“Three thousand kilometers from here, there’s a Zifu Disciple who is quite skilled in longsword techniques. Come.” Ning’s heartforce had already discovered a Zifu Disciple three thousand kilometers away who was training in quite an extraordinary flying sword technique.

……

Atop a distant mountain peak. A scarred, gray-robed woman was standing here, controlling a flying sword from afar.

Suddenly, a white-robed youth and an old, bald servant appeared next to her out of thin air.

“Eh?” The scarred woman was badly shocked, but she hurriedly said respectfully, “Respectful greetings to you, senior.”

“Use your flying sword to attack me at full force,” the white-robed youth said.

“Uh?” The scarred woman was stunned. This mysterious figure was very strange! Still, she didn’t dare to refuse, and so she immediately began to attack.

……

Time flowed on, day after day.

The Seamless Gate’s Godking continued to maintain a close watch over Ning, taking a look at him every so often. After half a month of doing so, the Godking finally ran out of patience. To him, Ji Ning wasn’t a true threat, after all, just a troublemaker. The truly dangerous figures in the Three Realms were the True Gods and Daofathers of the Nuwa Alliance, as well as the many preparations they were making in secret for the Endwar.

“Ji Ning is actually dueling some laughably weak cultivators in order to train in the sword? What a joke. Even if he gains any insights, how strong could they be?” The Godking could no longer be bothered to pay any more attention.

Day after day. Month after month. Year after year…

Ning roamed the Three Realms. Although low-level Zifu Disciples and Wanxiang Adepts were weak, different places had different battle styles. In the trillion minor worlds in particular, the differences in combat styles were particularly noticeable. In fact, there were certain sword-art techniques which caused even Ning to feel tongue-tied and speechless.

Ning sparred against countless combatants and against countless styles. He never used any of his Immortal energy, his heartforce, his swordforce, or anything else. He simply relied on his Houtian-level strength to battle against the Zifu Disciples, and on Xiantian-level strength to battle against the Wanxiang Adepts.

This caused Ning to gain quite a few more insights into the [Five Treasures] sword-art. His many clones were all focused on meditating and visualizing new techniques, extracting the essence of his insights from battle.

Nine years later.

Ning was within a beautifully scenic minor world. This minor world was in a very remote region, but occasionally Immortals and Fiendgods of the Three Realms would pass by here, as did Ning. However, this was a place with many people; in terms of population size, it was comparable to Ning’s previous home of ‘Earth’. Here, experts were divided into several different ranks; Mortal-rank, Earth-rank, Heaven-rank, and the Legend-rank. In truth, this was essentially equivalent to the Houtian, Xiantian, Zifu, and Wanxiang levels.

The energy cultivation methods in this world were extremely coarse. Anyone who was able to reach the ‘Legend’ level was actually comparable to the Primal Daoists of the Grand Xia in terms of their insights into the Dao. In fact, some Legends had even mastered a complete Dao. It was precisely because they had such deep insights into the Dao that they were able to forcibly train their way into the Wanxiang level, despite having such terrible energy cultivation methods.

Swordforge Mountain Villa. This was viewed as a sacred place within this minor world.

The lord of the Swordforge Mountain Villa was given the exalted title of Sword Saint! He was a Legend, and the entire world only held three Legends. Sword Saint, however, was publicly acknowledged as the most powerful of the three.

“Master.”

Thirteen disciples were standing there respectfully. In front of them was a middle-aged man dressed in simple clothes who was seated in the lotus position. This middle-aged man was Sword Saint! The number one expert of the world!

These thirteen disciples were thirteen of the ‘Fifteen Celestial Swords’ of Sword Saint’s school.

“Number six, you first,” Sword Saint said.

“Yes, Master,” the sixth disciple said respectfully.

Right at this moment…

Whoosh.

A white-robed youth and an old, bald man suddenly appeared next to them. Because Sword Saint was seated facing them, he was the first to see them appear out of nowhere. His face instantly changed. “How could they have suddenly appeared here without me detecting them?”

Upon seeing the look on Sword Saint’s face, the thirteen disciples all followed his gaze. They also saw the youth and the old servant, and they too were startled. However, although they were startled, they didn’t panic. This was because everyone knew that Sword Saint was the undisputed number one expert in the world. Still, it was true that there were some people who were especially skilled in stealth.

The sixth disciple instantly barked, “This is a restricted area of the Swordforge Mountain Village. Who are you two! Report your names!”

The white-robed youth, however, just looked towards Sword Saint. “I heard that you are the strongest person in this world, and that your sword-arts are the best. Use your sword and display your strongest sword-arts.”

“Didn’t you hea-” The thirteen disciples all grew angry…but Ninefangs just glanced at them, then said softly, “Sleep.”

Thud. Thud. Thud.