Desolate Era (Book 25 - Book 27)

“There’s no need for me to be so stubborn about a mere duel in the Astral Islands.” Bertulu laughed calmly.

“But… you are an Aberrant! You haven’t even revealed your true form.” Ning couldn’t help but argue back.

He had battled against quite a few Aberrants in recent years. He knew that these Aberrants had all used shapeshifting techniques to take a humanoid form. Cultivators were generally humanoids, and they were the most numerous living creatures in all the Endless Territories. However, Aberrants who were in human form were often only able to unleash perhaps ten to twenty percent of their true power. Once they revealed their true forms, they would become far more powerful.

If they also possessed powerful innate abilities, they would become even more freakishly strong once they assumed their true forms.

“My true form?” Bertulu laughed as he glanced at Ning. “I’ve never shown my true form in the Astral Islands.”

“Exit,” Bertulu called out. Instantly, spacetime twisted around him and caused him to vanish.

Ning just stood there blankly, that white plume in his hands. He had won, right? Then why did he feel so pissed off? He hadn’t even had the chance to see Bertulu’s true form.

……

The bottom of the dark abyss. The ancient powers were still watching.

“I once saw Bertulu’s true form. The first time I saw him, I misidentified him as an Ancient cultivator.” Daolord Thousand Waves let out a loud laugh. “This kid has never used his true body in any of his duels in the Astral Islands. Each time, he’s only used his human form.”

“Given the level of his insights, if he uses his true form he would probably be able to slay Daolords of the First Step right now.”

“He should be at the absolute maximum level of power, theoretical or otherwise, for any World-level cultivator.”

Ancient cultivators as well as the Brightshore Imperials represented the ultimate heights of racial power. They were very rare in number, but they possessed utterly unearthly levels of power. Waterwalker was an Aberrant who was comparable to Ancient cultivators in power, while Bertulu possessed similarly strong innate gifts. If he truly did reveal his true body, he would instantly become more than ten times as powerful!

“Alright. Bertulu has already decided to leave the Astral Islands.” The white-bearded elder laughed merrily. “It will be up to the two of you to convince him to join either the Palace of Radiance or the Palace of Heartforce.”

Laughing, the white-bearded old man turned and walked away, disappearing into the darkness.

“Time to go.”

“Hurry!”

“Daolord Thousand Waves, the Heartforce Palace really does need more Daolords! We don’t have enough!”

The many Daolords quickly flew out of the dark abyss and towards the astral islands in the sky.





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Book 26, Chapter 46 - Heartforce Legacy


“How is this possible?” Kilostar stared in astonishment from within his own astral island. The highest astral island, the island within the sixth stratum, was actually descending?

“No way.”

“How can this be?”

“How could Bertulu have lost?”

“Darknorth beat Bertulu? Is this some kind of joke?”

All the other defeated geniuses, be they cultivators, Aeonians, or Aberrants, were all in a state of disbelief. They all knew how powerful Bertulu was, which was why they completely refused to believe that he could’ve been defeated!

Hundreds of thousands of cultivators watched as Bertulu’s island descended from the exalted sixth stratum. All of them were equally stunned.

There were currently two islands that floated within the fifth stratum. Ji Ning was seated within his own island, and he was mumbling to himself. “He lost on purpose? Did he think I’d be really happy once I won? I didn’t even get to see his true form…” Ning didn’t feel any excitement at this ‘victory’, because he knew his opponent had thrown the fight.

“Still… I didn’t expect to get a copy of the heartforce legacy before leaving.” Ning waved his hand, causing that white plume to appear.

The white plume was incredibly beautiful. This single feather was actually formed from 3600 strands of silk. Ning sent his senses into it, discovering the legacy hiding within it.

“Although I didn’t expect to acquire it, being able to learn it is a decent stroke of luck.” Ning immediately swore the oath required of him, allowing an enormous flood of complicated information to flood into his mind.

Although Ning had some talent for the water, lightning, and heartforce, he hadn’t really been planning on spending too much effort on them. There was a limit to how much energy he had, and he had chosen to pour it all into his Dao of the Sword. His advantage in this field was far greater than in the other fields, and he naturally wanted to focus more on it.

As for those other Daos, once he had some more leisure time or once he reached an unbreachable bottleneck in the Dao of the Sword, he would slowly spend some time getting his other Daos up to speed. Daolord Allgod was a good example. Only after becoming a Verge-level Daolord had he chosen to start studying the Dao of the Sword. By then, his overall level of understanding regarding the Dao was so great that he was able to train quite quickly in his secondary or tertiary Daos.

Once Ji Ning became a Verge-level Daolord, he would probably be able to reach the early Daolord level in water in just one day. After that, his training would also proceed quite quickly. It was entirely possible that he’d be able to progress to the Verge in water as well. But of course, if his innate affinity for a Dao was low, training in it would be extremely slow. Daolord Allgod had spent an tremendous amount of effort in order to upgrade his skill in the Dao of the Sword to the early Daolord level, which was why he himself had declared that he simply had no talent for the Dao of the Sword at all.

“I would probably have to spend a hundred times as much effort in training in the Dao of Water in order to make it comparable to my Dao of the Sword, and it wouldn’t even help me that much. If I put all that work into the sword instead, I’ll improve far more.” Ning understood this quite well.

A long period of time passed. Finally, Ning finished memorizing the heartforce legacy. It truly was the top legacy of the ninety-ninety legacies of the Astral Islands, and it contained a correspondingly enormous amount of information.

“So this is what being a true Heartforce Cultivator is all about.” Ning was stupefied.

He finally understood.

Heartforce could be divided into six stages. The first five stages were essentially the stages which Houyi had described.

The first stage was the elementary level. It was extremely hard to reach the first level; if you couldn’t succeed in it, you would have no hope of progressing as a Heartforce Cultivator.

The second stage, ‘iceheart’.

The third stage, ‘ruler’.

The fourth stage, ‘mortal dust’.

Ning had reached the mortal dust level long ago during the Crimsonbright Realmwar. Even though the Endwar and its various battles had an enormous impact on Ning, and he had reached the threshold of the fifth stage after seeing so many of the major powers of the Three Realms die. Alas, he still stubbornly clung on to certain things and was unable to truly let go.

The fifth stage, ‘truth’. This was a very high level of heartforce for most cultivators. To reach this level was extremely difficult! Strength didn’t have much to do it with it. Although many powerful cultivators had gained their power through enormous mental tempering and stress, resulting in them possessing powerful hearts, there were many Aberrants such as Waterwalker who were born with incredible power but who had very weak hearts. Waterwalker hadn’t even reached the elementary stage of heartforce.