Desolate Era (Book 41 - Book 45)

“We’ll do it here in the Quintessence, where the energy reserves are limitless. It’ll cost me half of my energy reserves, but I’ll be able to maintain a rate of 1000x temporal acceleration for you.” Autarch Skyfeeder looked at Ning, then smiled: “The rest of us have long ago hit our limits. There’s no way for us to grow stronger, but you are a different story. If you can improve, you need to do so as quickly as possible. None of us can be sure when the Sithe will launch the final war.”


“Alright.” Ning nodded. If he was given 1000x temporal acceleration, he would have more than enough time to achieve his goals.





Book 43, Chapter 13 - A New Type of Energy


Rumble…

The awesome energy of the prime essences was pooled here in vast, interconnecting lakes. There was a lake filled with the prime essence of lightning, a lake filled with the prime essence of destruction… the different lakes all represented different prime essences, and together they formed the vast sea.

The power here was truly limitless.

A white-robed youth was standing in the center, surrounded by the lake filled with the prime essence of water. Boundless amounts of energy poured towards him and were all absorbed in turn.

“Stonerule, Darknorth’s heartworld is probably on par with yours,” Autarch Ekong chuckled. The six Autarchs were standing next to each other and watching from afar.

“His heartworld was formed using the Eternal Omega Sword Dao as the focus. Of course it is in par with mine!” Autarch Stonerule said. He was the only one of the six who had an Autarch-class heartworld.

“I really envy you guys,” Autarch Titanos sighed.

“You? Envy me? I envy you!” Autarch Stonerule smirked.

“Titanos, at least you once were a Heartforce Emperor! The rest of us weren’t able to truly stabilize our heartworlds at all,” Autarch Skyfeeder said. “And you control the mighty Karma Daobirth Essence; in terms of power, you are the strongest of us six. How can you have the audacity to say you envy us? I’m hurt! Hurry up and bring out your finest food and wine as compensation.”

Autarch Titanos stared at her wide-eyed. “Are you kidding? It took me ages to build up my collection. Don’t even think of touching it.”

Heartforce Cultivators had to follow a different path in making their breakthroughs. Those who followed other Daos would reconstitute their divine power and Immortal energy, but Heartforce Cultivators relied on expanding their heartworlds. The more stable a heartworld was, the larger it could become and the more powerful the Heartforce Cultivator would be.

Once the entire heartworld became large and stable enough to become perpetual, the Heartforce Cultivator would be able to step into the Emperor level! This was why almost all Heartforce Emperors had reached Hegemonic levels of power. Stabilizing a heartworld enough to make it eternal was extremely difficult! The ones who succeeded were almost all Hegemons, with just the tiniest of fractions being at the Archon level of power.

Of course, there were many who dabbled as Heartforce Cultivators. Bertulu, Winesage, Ning… all of them trained both as normal cultivators and as Heartforce Cultivators. This was generally true for all truly talented cultivators!

Early on, Autarch Skyfeeder had trained as a Heartforce Cultivator as well. However, after she completed the Daomerge and gained Hegemony via the Dao of Time, she discovered that her Dao of Time was not a Dao that could produce a stable, perpetual heartworld. She had thus been forced to abandon the path of heartforce, and after 108,000 chaos cycles her unstable heartworld came to a natural end.

Of the living Autarchs, Autarch Titanos was the most powerful. He had reached Hegemony via the Dao of Karma, and his Dao of Karma was capable of allowing his heartworld to become eternal. In other words, he had been both a Karma Hegemon and a Heartforce Hegemon! Alas, when he made the breakthrough which enabled him to become an Autarch, his heartworld wasn’t able to expand alongside any further. He too was forced to abandon the path of heartforce as he allowed his Dao of Karma to transform into the Karma Daobirth Essence.

“Omega Daos really are the best,” Autarch Titanos sighed. “Only Omega Daos can be considered truly perfect Daos. Even the heartworlds formed by them are the best.”

“Yes, only Omega Daos can allow for truly perfect heartworlds,” Autarch Stonerule said. His Illusion Daobirth Essence allowed for his heartworld to reach the Autarch level, but his heartworld still couldn’t be considered ‘perfect’. This was why he remained slightly weaker than Autarch Titanos.

The Azureflower Estate was floating right next to Autarch Skyfeeder’s wood cottage within the vast sea of prime essences. Autarch Skyfeeder had begun the process of keeping time accelerated at a rate of 1000x for the entire Azureflower Estate, while Ning trained within the second hall inside.

He had already finished his heartworld breakthrough. Now, it would be a slow process of training.

……

Back in the Three Realms.

“Whew. I’ve finally finished.” The golden-robed Ning stared at the six golden swords before him, a pleased smile on his face. He had spent over fifty thousand years to create these swords, and the materials he had used were superior to the ones which had been used to create the original Northbow swords! Back then, Ning had been comparatively weak; how could he possibly acquire as many precious materials as he had now? The materials he now had were far superior to what was available back then. If Ning wasn’t such a perfectionist, he would’ve been able to complete these six Universe weapons within just a thousand years.

“Unfortunately, they haven’t been developing by my side for countless aeons like the Northbow swords. I’ve done as much as I can, but they are still a teensy bit weaker than the Northbow swords.” The golden-robed Ning smiled. “Still, they are more than good enough for killing Sithe. From this day forth, you shall be named… the Northmoon swords.”

Swish. Swish. Swish. All six golden swords flew into the sheath on Ning’s back. He was now dressed in golden robes, carried golden swords on his back, and had a body formed from so many precious materials that it was comparable to Universe treasures in strength.

“Time to expand my heartworld.” The golden-robed Ning took a single step forwards, then departed from the Three Realms and reappeared within the Great Dark just outside the Flamedragon Realmverse.

Although the Great Dark was quite distant from the Three Realms, the golden-robed Ning still released his godsense and kept it spread across the entire Flamedragon Realmverse. The Sithe danger was all-encompassing, and Ning didn’t want to let his guard down.

“Let it begin.” The golden-robed Ning began to expand its heartworld as well. Here in the Great Dark, he was able to draw upon a large amount of energy from an extremely wide region with impunity. Ning had already scanned this part of the Great Dark to ensure that there were no living creatures here.

“At this rate of absorption, it’ll take me roughly thirty billion years to finish expanding my heartworld.” The golden-robed Ning sat down within the endless Great Dark, beginning to slowly train as he absorbed power from within it.

……

Time flowed on like water. Over 120 chaos cycles went past in the blink of an eye.

“I’ve finally completed the Tenth Chaos Seal.” The white-robed Ning had a smile on his face as he turned to glance at the nearby white-haired elder: “Autarch Awakener would probably be ecstatic, were he still alive.”

“Master’s final wishes have finally been completed.” The white-haired elder was extremely excited.

“Let’s start.” Ning immediately began to use the perfect, complete technique on himself. The previous azureflower technique he had used was incomplete and flawed. Autarch Awakener had actually fixed those flaws in his private version, but had intentionally released a flawed version in order to separate the gold from the dross.