Desolate Era (Book 28 - Book 30)

The world seemed to break apart.

Ning was completely blown backwards. His six Eternal weapons were completely unable to defend against this attack, and all of his stances collapsed at first contact. In fact, two of his Violetjewels were actually knocked out of his grip and sent flying.

Rumble…

The ground beneath him shuddered as everything within a region of several hundred thousand kilometers was reduced to dust by the shockwave ripples.

Ning lay there in the giant crater, his fingers twitching numbly. He had been able to just barely keep a hold over four of his Eternal weapons. The other two had been knocked flying.

“Receive my second chop!” The azure-armored figure said coldly.

But Ning actually had a look of delight on his face… because he had finally realized what that elusive flash of inspiration was. “The sword… in the end, you can’t hold up a house on a single pillar of wood. It needs to be part of a whole…”

“Haha… so that’s how it is! I’m most skilled in defense, but my Soleheart stance has been trapped in a bottleneck for some time now. I’ve come up with two offensive Supreme Daos, but I haven’t been able to truly upgrade my Soleheart stance. Haha…” Ning laughed. His talent for defensive techniques was extremely high, and so he had reached a bottleneck a long time ago during his journeys through the alternate universe.

His offensive techniques had improved nonstop, to the point where he had developed two Supreme Daos for them. And yet, his Soleheart stance had come to a screeching halt.

When Ning first saw his opponent utilize that barrier of sword-light, he had the vague feeling that he had stumbled into a tremendous stroke of luck. Alas, he wasn’t able to truly grasp what he was seeing. As the battle progressed, Ning finally was able to do so.

“A single chopstick can be easily snapped in half. An entire bundle of chopsticks is almost impossible to chop.” Ning couldn’t help but laugh at himself. Sometimes, this was how things worked. Once you were able to see through to the true nature of things, you couldn’t help but marvel at how simple the principle was.

The reason why Ning’s Soleheart stance wasn’t truly able to evolve into a Supreme Dao was because his Soleheart stance was a single-target defensive technique. Ning would use each of his swords to defend, and was able to use a maximum of six swords in this manner at the same time. Each of the six swords worked independently. Of course there was a limit to how much power they could unleash! True, they were cooperating to a certain extent and in the past, Ning had thought that they were working ‘as one’, but now he realized he was wrong. When he saw his opponent use that defensive sword-art, he realized what it truly meant to be working ‘as one’!

He had to do the same thing, to truly fuse everything together. His opponent’s nine blood-colored swords were able to easily merge together to form that barrier of sword-light. When his opponent chose to attack, they were able to easily merge together into an enormous greatsword.

That was what ‘working as one’ truly meant!

“Soleheart stance.”

Ning’s hand swept out, causing the two Eternal swords that had been knocked out of his hands to come flying back to him at high speed.

The six Eternal swords moved simultaneously, each of them exerting the Soleheart stance and beginning to link together. Slowly, the six Eternal swords began to transform and harmonize little by little. Ning had personally watched his opponent use a similar technique and had clashed against him multiple times, allowing Ning to learn some of the key elements. To truly merge the stances together wasn’t as simple as to have all six swords use the exact same stance. Rather, they had to be responsible for different parts of it.

This was much like how a ‘complete’ man would have a nose, a mouth, two eyes, and other body parts.

Ning furiously pulled backwards, doing his best to stay away from his opponent as he tested this new idea out.

BOOM! Ning’s six swords suddenly transformed into a single black hole that completely surrounded Ning, and at the edges of the black hole there was something that looked like a rippling barrier.

“This is the true Soleheart stance. This is finally something worth of being described as a Supreme Dao of defense.” Ning revealed a smile. His Yin-Yang Sword Domain was superb at dealing with groups of attackers, but the Soleheart stance was much better for dealing with a single foe of tremendous power!

Ning had finally comprehended and mastered his Soleheart sword-intent, the fourth sword-intent of his five stances of [Brightmoon]!





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Book 28, Chapter 30 - Stop Him!


“Chop!” The azure-armored youth transformed into an enormous streak of sword-light, forcibly shattering a path through Ji Ning’s Yin-Yang Sword Domain. Ning couldn’t help but feel a sense of despair when he gazed upon the sword-light. This was what happened when there was a tremendous disparity in insight and comprehension. The sword-intent of an Eternal Emperor… this really was completely unfair.

Although Ning was mentally shaken, he was still able to stay calm and alert as he unleashed his six swords into the Soleheart sword-intent he had just developed.

Whooooooosh.

It was like a peacock spreading its feathers, or like leaves swirling in the wind. The six swords moved in unison like a perfect whole, naturally coming together to form a terrifying black hole, with each of the swords playing a specific role in the black hole’s creation.

Boom!

The azure-armored figure’s terrifying sword-light chopped directly against that black hole. Tchtchtch!!! Ning poured all of his power, comparable to that of a Daolord of the First Step, into his new Soleheart sword-intent, allowing it to unleash a simply terrifying level of force that furiously ground away at his opponent’s stance.

BANG!

His opponent’s sword-light began to shudder and twist as it immediately began to fall in power, causing the azure-armored figure to become visible once more. At this moment, the azure-armored figure didn’t hesitate at all, immediately choosing to retreat at high speeds.

The figure stood there in the distance, staring at Ning with some surprise.

“I succeeded. This… this is the true Soleheart stance.” Ning’s heart was filled with joy. This was the true Soleheart stance he had wanted all along. Six swords striking out in unison, as if they were a part of a single, indivisible whole. If he fought anyone on the same level of power as him, he would be able to completely shut down their attacks.

Even those who were stronger than him and who had a higher level of insight into the Dao would see their attacks dramatically weakened by this defensive technique.

“Hmph.” The distant azure-armored figure let out a cold snort. “Don’t get too smug. You were only able to block me once thus far. Now… take a look at my third chop!”

……

Although the azure-armored figure was quite physically weak, his sword-arts were at a terrifyingly high level. Ning had to use all of his power to deal with every single strike, and as a result he was able to increasingly perfect his Soleheart stance.

The two battled for the amount of time needed to boil a kettle of tea, but the azure-armored figure was still unable to do anything to Ning.

“Hey kid. Tell me your name.” The distant azure-armored figure suddenly spoke out in an icy voice.

“I am Darknorth.” Ning smiled as he spoke. He was naturally in a wonderful mood, now that he had developed a new sword-intent.

“Darknorth? Mm. You’ve reached the apex of perfection when it comes to defensive prowess,” the azure-armored figure said. “When you have that sword-intent domain active and spread out, I have to first endure its power if I wish to attack you. This distracts me, resulting in me only being able to unleash 60%-70% of my full power.”