The Desolate Era

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?”

“So in the end, I still failed…” Ning opened his eyes, and a peaceful look was in them. His eyes, his skin, his body… every inch of him began to crumble apart and vanish away like sand blown away by the wind.

All the remaining fragments of his truesoul finally and truly broke apart in a complete and utter collapse. Tountless spots of light which began to fly out of Ning could be seen with the naked eye… and then, Ning’s entire body transformed into an enormous, human-shaped mass of light.

“Daolord.” When the white-haired estate-spirit saw this, a look of grief appeared in his eyes. A truly peerless Daolord, the very first Daolord to master an Eternal Omega Dao, had just passed away.

“Master.” The six sword-spirits stared frantically at the humanoid mass of light.

It was like a dazzlingly beautiful flame… but hidden behind its beauty was the sorrow of a peerless Daolord’s passing.

Whoosh! Ning’s light-body split apart into countless specks of light that quickly began to shoot out in every direction.

“No…” the sword-spirits sobbed.

……

Within that ancient temple located in the outer perimeters of the distant Sithelands. Autarch Mogg and the avatars of the other Autarchs remained gathered here as always. Suddenly, all of them fell silent and began to exchange glances with each other.

“Darknorth.” The six of them could sense through their message-talismans that the one belonging to Daolord Darknorth had just lost its master.

……

The Three Realms. Nuwa was responsible for administering many matters here, while Subhuti spent most of his time training by himself within his Daoist monastery inside Mount Innerheart.

Brush. Brush. Brush. Subhuti was sweeping the floor of his monastery. He was the only person in this entire monastery. Not even the two novices stationed outside would enter without a very good reason.

Subhuti had already trained to an extremely profound level, and he put particular emphasis on training his Dao-heart. In this, he was second only to Ning and Nuwa.

After he finished sweeping the floor, he entered another room and began to wipe down the pillars and the tables. As he did so, he raised his head to glance at a lamp located atop the highest table. The light of the lamp blazed away like a tiny little bead of flame.

This was a heartlamp, Ning’s heartlamp! In all the Three Realms, only he and Nuwa had a way to know whether Ning was alive or not. Ning’s parents, Brightmoon… their Dao-hearts were too weak. Ning was worried that if they found out that he died, they wouldn’t be able to keep it completely secret.

“Mm.” When Subhuti saw that the heartlamp was still lit, he couldn’t help but smile. He usually cultivated in this very room. That way, he could glance at the heartlamp whenever he wished. Whenever he saw that the heartlamp was still lit, he would feel a sense of relief in his heart.

After wiping down the tables, he turned to sit down upon a nearby prayer mat and began to meditate. But just a short while after he began his meditations…

“Eh?” Subhuti suddenly shuddered. He quickly opened his eyes and turned to look at the highest table, as though he could sense something was amiss. The light coming from that heartlamp was quickly dwindling away… and the sight of it disappearing was like a bolt of thunder that came crashing into Subhuti’s mind, completely stunning him.

“Subhuti!” Nuwa’s slightly frantic voice echoed within his mind: “Ji Ning, he…!”

“My student…” Subhuti’s old eyes began to redden as a hint of tears appeared.

He had accepted many disciples in his time, and some had caused him quite a bit of trouble. Ning had been a fairly unremarkable disciple, one who Subhuti hadn’t spent too much effort on. Ning’s later accomplishments, however, had truly impressed Subhuti. Subhuti had come to view this disciple as he would his own son. He knew that this disciple of his had worked many miracles in the past, and he had felt so certain that another miracle was in the making…

“Ji Ning,” Subhuti murmured softly. The old man shut his eyes as tears began to fall down his face.

But… right at that moment. ‘Pop’. The heartlamp had clearly been extinguished… but suddenly, flickers of flame began to appear within it as it lit up once again.

Subhuti was a Daolord of the Fourth Step. He was able naturally able to sense what had just happened, and he immediately opened his eyes, not quite daring to hope that his senses were telling him the truth. That heartlamp… it remained lit, as it had been over the course of countless aeons. It was as though it had never dimmed at all.

“B-b-b-b-but…” Subhuti was completely stupefied. He had never imagined that a heartlamp could be extinguished, then reignited!

Once the truesoul was destroyed, the heartlamp would no longer be able to sense it, at which point it would become extinguished. Now, however, it had been reignited. This meant that the truesoul was back to normal again, but… how was this possible?

“Subhuti, did your heartlamp suddenly light up again?” Nuwa sent mentally. She was in a state of joy mixed with disbelief as well.

“It is lit! Lit!” Subhuti sent frantically.

……

Within the second hall within the Azureflower Estate.

Rumble… countless specks of light began to gather together, coming to form a humanoid shape.

In the instant of his truesoul’s destruction, Ning finally felt what true death was like. All of his truesoul fragments had completely dispersed, losing all cohesion.

He felt nothing but emptiness… as though he was drifting within a world with no time, no space, and no color.

The various ‘Void Everlasting’ techniques he had theorized in the past were not able to allow Ning’s truesoul to resist the call of the prime essences, but they had still strengthened Ning’s consciousness dramatically. Even as his truesoul broke apart, he didn’t immediately lose all consciousness the way an ordinary Daolord might. Instead, his consciousness entered an extremely faint and sluggish state. He couldn’t sense either space or time… all he could sense was completely and utter nothingness, the emptiness of the void.

“This is what the void truly is…” Suddenly, Ning’s sluggish consciousness was awakened to the truth. In this instant, he truly understood what ‘emptiness’ meant, what the ‘void’ truly meant. Only now was he able to understand how to entrust his consciousness to the void, and his [Void Everlasting] technique immediately transformed on its own accord. At the same time, Ning’s feeble consciousness immediately began to pull at his countless dispersing truesoul fragments. As he continued to follow the principles of the [Void Everlasting] technique, his consciousness suddenly began to grow much more powerful, skyrocketing to unprecedented heights.

“VOID… EVERLASTING!” A powerful will suddenly manifested, and it let out a psychic scream of such power that it could actually be heard audibly. It was a cry filled with power, a cry of indomitable resolve.

When this shout rang out within the room, it caused the sorrowful white-haired elder and the six sword-spirits to all stare in astonishment. They watched as the countless specks of light which had been flying every which way to suddenly freeze in midair as a powerful force suddenly pulled at them, connecting them together. The countless specks of light seemed to come alive as they came forward to form a complete whole.

They no longer had a truesoul holding them together in an established framework, but they somehow still remained bound to each other!

“MERGE!” Yet another shout echoed within the room.

Those frozen countless specks of light instantly began to gather together once more. They quickly reformed into a humanoid blob of light, and that blob of light quickly crystallized in appearance.

Once again, the white-robed Ning appeared within the room. He carefully inspected everything around him, then gently reached out to touch the table next of him. The cool, slick touch of the table made him smile.

The white-haired elder and the six sword-spirits were all unspeakably excited. His truesoul was now Everlasting… which meant that ‘Daolord Darknorth’ was about to become ‘Emperor Darknorth’!