Desolate Era (Book 31 - Book 35)

Daolord Mistbearer stood there in the skies, surrounded by endless surging waves of blood, the stone globe held up high and flaring in one final warning. For the sake of the Daomerge, he wouldn’t show any mercy at all.

“But…” Solesky, Battlemaster, and Brightfish all turned pale. As for Ning, he had a complex look on his face.

“Everyone shares the same concern – the Daomerge. Why must we be like this? This stroke of Daomerge-related fortune belongs to my big brother. Today, you come to pressure him; tomorrow, others will do the same. Are we to repeatedly give way and just hand this opportunity over to others?” Ning shook his head. “You two should leave. If you refuse to leave, I’ll have no choice but to attack.”

“Attack?” The two distant Daolords were both startled.

Ning’s face gradually turned cold. “Leave.”

The faces of the two distant Daolords turned grim. They were slowly beginning to sense the threat that Ning posed them. Previously, Ning had not yet wished them dead… but now that he did, the sense of danger radiating from him grew significantly stronger. Ning’s avatar was roughly on par with them; if his true body was here, the sense of danger would have been much stronger.

“No one can bar my path to the Daomerge.” Daolord Mistbearer and Daolord Soletruth shared a glance, but neither hesitated.

“Hand over the report or prepare to do battle!” Daolord Mistbearer roared.

A flicker of a murderous light flashed through Ning’s cold eyes. An invisible surge of power instantly sprang out, separating into two streams that smashed directly against the souls and the truesouls of the two Daolords.

Heartforce Eradicator!

“This…” A hint of terror and disbelief flashed through Daolord Mistbearer’s eyes before his gaze turned completely dull and lifeless. His corpse began to fall down from the skies.

“He’s a Heartforce Cultivator!” The gray-robed Daolord Soletruth’s face turned bone-white, but he was able to endure the [Heartforce Eradicator] attack. He stared at Ning in horror. That heartforce attack had been absolutely terrifying; it was only thanks to his strong Dao-heart that he had managed to survive! However, he knew that Heartforce Cultivators possessed many strange and unpredictable techniques, and they didn’t really rely on such brutish attacks. They primarily relied on illusions and bewildering spells… and if this Daolord’s brute-force attacks were already this powerful, how devilish would his illusions be? Even an instant of distraction could very well prove fatal!

“Hurry up and flee.” Daolord Soletruth no longer cared about anything else. He hurriedly waved his hand. Whoosh! A dazzling rainbow dimensional tunnel instantly appeared next to him, and he hurriedly dove into it and began to flee.

……

A tear in space appeared within a region of primordial chaos more than twenty territories away. Moments later, the gray-robed and rather bedraggled-looking Daolord Soletruth jumped out of it, a stunned look on his face. “He’s actually a Heartforce Cultivator. The newest Daolord of Vastheaven Palace, Daolord Darknorth… a completely unremarkable person I’ve heard almost nothing about… is actually a Heartforce Cultivator. And a terrifyingly strong one at that! He was able to kill brother Mistbearer with a thought. Ugh. Brother Mistbearer’s Dao-heart was rather lacking, due to his excessively murderous impulses.”

“I never would’ve imagined that the most powerful member of Vastheaven Palace would be Daolord Darknorth, rather than Daolord Solesky.” Daolord Soletruth let out a soft sigh. “Things are going to be complicated now. Everyone thought that Vastheaven Palace would be easy to deal with, but who would’ve thought such a terrifying figure would exist within it?”

Everyone agreed that Heartforce Cultivators were notoriously difficult to deal with. Unless absolutely necessary, no one would willingly make an enemy out of one.

……

Outside Vastheaven Palace.

The corpse of Daolord Mistbearer continued its descent through the skies. As for Daolords Solesky, Battlemaster, and Brightfish, all three of them stared at Ning in disbelief.

“All this is due to the Daomerge…” Ning shook his head, then waved his hand and collected the falling corpse of Daolord Mistbearer. Ning then turned around, only to see the other three staring straight at him. “Something wrong? I’m just collecting his corpse. We can split the treasures later,” Ning grinned.

“Stop joking.” Daolord Solesky flew straight towards Ning, then grabbed him by the shoulders. “Ji Ning, y-you… you are a Heartforce Cultivator?”

“Right. You are actually a Heartforce Cultivator?” Battlemaster and Brightfish were quite excited as well.

“Yes.” Ning nodded. “Right! Previously, I’ve been spending all my attention on strengthening my avatar. As soon as I left seclusion, this happened. I didn’t even have a chance to talk to any of you. However, better late than never!”

“Not late. Not late at all!” Daolord Brightfish was quite excited. “I never imagined that Vastheaven Palace would produce a Heartforce Cultivator! Haha. Who in the outside world would dare to belittle us in the future?”

“I always thought that you were a genius of the Dao of the Sword.” Daolord Solesky stared intently at Ning, also quite excited. “I never would’ve imagined that you’d actually be a Heartforce Cultivator, and that you’d be even more formidable in this area than you are in the Dao of the Sword. You slew Daolord Mistbearer with just a glance!”

Ning couldn’t help but say, “Actually… my Sword Dao is slightly stronger than my heartforce.”





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Book 31, Chapter 20 - Daolord Darknorths Name


“Your Sword Dao is stronger than your heartforce?” Daolord Solesky stared at Ji Ning in astonishment. He couldn’t help but ask, “Ji Ning, what level have you reached, exactly?!”

“I might not be able to beat the most powerful Daolords, but escaping them should be no problem at all,” Ning said. In truth, Ning now stood at the very peak of power amongst second-tier Daolords. He was now much stronger than Kongsan had ever been.

Even if he fought against first-tier Daolords like King Gorsch, he might win if their Dao-hearts were weak! If their Dao-hearts were weak and they were trapped by his illusions, then he would have a chance of beating them as well. However, the vast majority of supreme Daolords had extremely powerful Dao-hearts, and so he would be unable to do anything to most of them.

Still, Ning had his Hegemon armor and was extremely skilled at staying alive. He also had his nine novessence arts, his heartworld projection, his ability to transcend space, and more. There really were few to no Daolords who could do anything to him.

“B-but…” Daolord Solesky was rather flabbergasted.

“Darknorth, how did you suddenly become a Heartforce Cultivator?” Daolord Battlemaster was quite curious.

“Early on as a cultivator, I actually improved even more quickly in heartforce than I did in the Dao of the Sword.” A reminiscent look was in Ning’s eyes. “Afterwards, some events cast a shadow over my heart, resulting in me being unable to improve my heartforce at all. This time, I had some lucky encounters and was able to break through in heartforce and establish a heartworld. As a result, my heartworld naturally began to expand and grow, allowing me to reach my current level of power.”

“A master of both the Sword Dao and heartforce. Impressive, truly impressive,” Daolord Brightfish said as he sighed in amazement.

Heartforce Cultivators were famous for their bizarre, nerve-wracking techniques. If a Heartforce Cultivator was also skilled in close combat, he’d become absolutely terrifying to deal with. This was just the type of person Ning was.