Desolate Era (Book 41 - Book 45)

The first technique seemed ineffective, while the second one did have some effects. Which one should he choose?

Ning gritted his teeth. “To completely prevent the prime essences from devouring my truesoul fragments would be to go against the natural order of the Chaosverse! The only reason why my technique seems to be effective is because right now, this Chaosverse has no Lord governing it.” Ning shook his head. “However, my chances of completely halting this process remain very low.”

He understood this point from the very beginning. To go against the natural order of the Chaosverse was not a wise option. The only reason he had yet to abandon it was because it did seem to at least have some effect.

“I can’t leave things to luck, nor can I try and have ‘backup’ options. Void Everlasting it is!” Ning made his final decision, deciding to focus all of his efforts on embarking upon the path of the Void Everlasting.

……

The [Void Everlasting] technique was a completely self-reliant technique. It required him to be able to maintain a ‘void will’. Only then would he have successfully acquired a ‘Truesoul Everlasting’!

What did the phrase ‘void will’ mean? The word ‘will’ referred to his mind, to his consciousness! For ordinary mortals, possessing a soul meant possessing consciousness. Powerful cultivators understood that only possessing a complete truesoul represented having consciousness and the capability for true thought.

As for the most supreme of major powers? Even if their truesouls were fragmented and shattered, they would still be able to maintain consciousness! A major power’s mind and consciousness would only come to a halt when the final fragments of his truesoul completely collapsed. When Ning’s original body had perished, he had experienced this process of his truesoul breaking apart and his consciousness dimming away. The reason that consciousness vanished was because its most fundamental vessel, the ‘truesoul’, had completely broken apart.

To have a ‘void will’ meant that even after your truesoul completely broke apart, you would still be able to maintain consciousness, housing it within the emptiness of the void itself! Imagine what a powerful will one would need in order to be able to accomplish such a thing!

If his will was sufficiently powerful, he would be able to play tug-of-war with his truesoul fragments, forcibly latching onto them even after his truesoul had broken apart and preventing them from dissipating. He would draw them together into a new whole! In order to accomplish this, the power of his will would have to surpass the absorptive power of the Chaosverse itself. Only then would one have a ‘Truesoul Everlasting’!

Chaos Everlasting required one to be able to convince the Chaosverse to temporarily halt the absorption process, while Void Everlasting required one to use one’s will to overpower the energy-sucking strength of the Chaosverse.

“Willpower strong enough to exist independently of body and soul… to accomplish this, I will need to truly perfect the [Void Everlasting] technique,” Ning mused to himself.

……

Ning was going all-in on this final gamble, and he completely threw himself into researching this technique.

Time continued to flow on. He continuously tested out new theories, but each time he failed. There was no effect at all on the dissolution of his truesoul, but he didn’t let himself grow dispirited. Instead, he drew from these experiences and continued to perfect this technique, pushing in one new model after another.

He failed a billion times. Ten billion times. A trillion times. If he was a mortal, he would’ve abandoned himself to despair long ago.

Ning, however, remained as calm as a still pond of water. Everything was as he had expected.

A thousand chaos cycles went by in the blink of an eye, and he was getting close to the very end. A million years. A hundred thousand years. Ten thousand years. A hundred years. One year. One month…

He now had very, very little time remaining.





Book 43, Chapter 10 - The Final Gamble


One month. Ten days. One day. One hour…

Ji Ning learned from each of his failures, drawing upon those experiences as he worked hard to further perfect the technique. Slowly, the ‘Void Everlasting’ technique began to take some effect, dramatically strengthening the power of his consciousness. However, he still wasn’t even close to being strong enough for his truesoul to resist the siren song of the prime essences of the Chaosverse.

“Northbow.”

Ning was seated next to a table, pouring himself a cup of wine. He had chosen to spend his last hour of life drinking wine and relaxing, releasing all of the tension that had built up over a thousand chaos cycles in one fell swoop.

“Master.” Sad-faced children had appeared on the surfaces of all six Northbow swords. They looked despondently at Ning.

“Number one, number two, number three, number four, number five… and number six.” Ning called them all by ‘name’, then smiled: “After I finish this cup of wine, I’ll go try one last time. If I fail, it’ll all have been for naught. The six of you are, without question, the deadliest swords in all the Chaosverse, the only swords powered by the Eternal Omega Sword Dao. Once I’m gone, you will be ownerless. Go and find owners which suit you.”

“Master.”

“We won’t choose anyone else! We only want you, Master.”

“You’ll definitely survive, Master.” All six of the sword-spirits were unwilling to part with Ning.

“You can also choose to take human form and just rove the Chaosverse,” Ning said. Given how powerful the Northbow swords were, they could easily choose to take human form, while their natural power was enough to heavily injure even Hegemons. If they wanted to flee from someone, not even an Otherverse Lord would be able to catch them. Bind them by force? That would be even harder!

“No.”

“You’ll definitely succeed, Master. We want to stay by your side forever.” All six of them were crying.

Ning looked at the six little children, a smile playing on his face. “When I see the six of you, I feel satisfied with what I accomplished in my life.”

Ning lifted up the tankard of wine, drinking it all down in one gulp before rising to his feet.

“Let me congratulate you in advance, Daolord, for you shall surely complete the technique and gain a Truesoul Everlasting.” The white-haired spirit of the estate had been watching silently this entire time. Upon seeing Ning rise, he came forward and bowed respectfully.

“Complete the technique and gain a Truesoul Everlasting!” all six sword-spirits chorused.

“Haha. Yes, a Truesoul Everlasting! I shall indeed.” Ning walked over to the Autarch’s stone dais, then sat down in the lotus position. His truesoul was on its last legs now, and he didn’t have any time to waste. The remaining fragments of his truesoul were so weak that they could very well completely collapse as soon as Ning attempted to use this truesoul technique!

“The final gamble! If I fail, I die. If I succeed… a new world will begin.” Ning closed his eyes and began to ruminate on ways he could further perfect the [Void Everlasting].

Just ten seconds later…

Rumble… Ning’s shuddering truesoul began to come together in a final attempt. Ning’s powerful consciousness reached out, seizing to forcibly pull the dissipating truesoul fragments back into shape… but the call of the prime essences was simply too hard to resist. Alas… this final attempt caused the final shards of his truesoul, which had been just barely able to hold onto a basic framework, to finally and completely break apart!

“I failed?”