The Desolate Era

Book 24, The Starlord of Fogstone, Chapter 11 – The Sixth General

Only when competing against a grandmaster of the sword would one truly be able to see one’s own weaknesses.

Although Ji Ning’s ‘Sword Realm’ was very formidable, allowing him to perfectly control every single sword-strike he used, its weakness was that it was too balanced. His sword wasn’t fast enough, unpredictable enough, savage enough…it was lacking in many respects. When World God Blackmist used his sword-arts against Ning, Ning was completely suppressed in every respect. Blackmist’s sword-arts were truly terrifying and contained an entire system within it.

The Sword World level represented a systemized understanding of the true essence of the sword, allowing one to form an entire world with it. World God Blackmist clearly had already reached that level.

Slash.

Swish.

“That’s how it should be.”

“The second stance of the [Nameless] sword-art…no wonder I always felt something was off.”

“Right…”

During this battle, many of the questions and mysteries that had puzzled Ning were dispelled one after the other, causing Ning to feel quite excited. In his homeland of Earth, there was a saying; ‘Listening to a word of wisdom from a master is more effective than ten years of reading.’ When competing against such a formidable master of the sword such as World God Blackmist, Ning found that he was improving at a shocking rate. He had trained for many years but had never encountered someone as terrifyingly formidable in the Dao of the Sword before.

World God Blackmist had clearly suppressed his own level of power, allowing just a little bit of it to be put on display. If he was to allow the power of his Sword World to fully explode, it would be effortless for him to destroy an entire chaosworld.

Although Ning continued to make improvements, he was still very puny compared to the true might of this Sword World.

“A killing stance…”

“Right. This stance doesn’t focus on stability; it focuses on attacking and killing.”

Ning slowly began to understand.

[Nameless] sword-art, first stance – Heartsword stance.

[Nameless] sword-art, second stance – Killsword stance.

“He truly is talented in the Dao of the Sword.” Immortal Abyssus watched from on high as World God Blacklist dueled against Ji Ning. Every single streak of sword-light from Ji Ning was more powerful and fiercer than the last as his Dao of the Sword noticeably grew sharper and deadlier.

“He is improving quite quickly. My guess is that Darknorth hasn’t been training for that long,” the Starlord of Fogstone said with a smile.

“Agreed.” Immortal Abyssus nodded.

If one didn’t reach the World-level in a single chaos cycle, it was almost guaranteed that one would never reach that level.

For Ji Ning to improve so quickly when dueling with a master of the Dao of the Sword meant that he was clearly still in his early growth period. And in truth, the reason why his rate of improvement was this fast was primarily because he had never before had the chance to duel such an expert of the sword.

“B-but…” As the red-robed disciple of Immortal Abyssus watched this fight, he felt more embarrassed than anyone else.

“Now do you understand the difference between the two of you?” Ancestral Immortal Imperius laughed.

“Please don’t make fun of me, eldest apprentice-brother.” The red-robed youth said hurriedly, “Only now do I realize that Elder God Darknorth was taking it easy on me. If he had revealed such terrifying sword-arts from the very start, I probably would’ve been instantly defeated. His sword-arts have completely eclipsed the sword-arts of so-called ‘supreme Elder Gods’. He should be comparable to our five generals. Most likely you, eldest apprentice-brother, are the only one who is definitely capable of defeating him.”

“If eldest apprentice-brother fights, of course he’ll win.”

“No question.”

All of the fellow disciples agreed on this.

Chaos Immortal Abyssus had only joined this place after adventuring for many years in the outside world, and as he did so he was accompanied by his eldest disciple, Ancestral Immortal Imperius. Imperius was unfathomably strong, but he had never joined the Fogstone Army. He was a very low-key figure, but the disciples of Chaos Immortal Abyssus and the high-level members of Fogstone all knew that the most powerful figure below the World-level on this planet was actually Imperius. In fact, the five generals had once joined together to challenge him in secret, but all five of them had been defeated.

Imperius was simply a low-key man who didn’t like to fight.

Because he had been training for far more than a chaos cycle, his master and the Starlord didn’t force him to go out and adventure, allowing him to live his low-key life on Fogstone.

“Beating him wouldn’t be easy.” Imperius watched as Ning continued to battle against World God Blackmist. “All of you are underestimating him. When World God Blackmist first used an incarnation to fight, his sword-arts were actually incredibly powerful. Despite that, he still wasn’t able to do anything to Darknorth. World God Blackmist has now used his Sword World, but Darknorth is still able to keep fighting. Although World God Blackmist is taking it easy on him, Darknorth’s defensive sword-arts truly have reached a terrifying level.”

“He’s too stable.”

“His defense is airtight and completely flawless. The other five generals each have their own special techniques, but when faced with Darknorth’s airtight defense…eventually, all of them will be defeated. Even I am not confident in being able to defeat him,” Ancestral Immortal Imperius said.

“Completely flawless?” The other disciples, all of whom worshipped their eldest apprentice-brother, were all shocked.

“Given how terrifying his sword-arts are…if he was to acquire a Dao sword…” Ancestarl Immortal Imperius shook his head. “That would make him truly dangerous.”

“Agreed.” All of the other disciples nodded.

Darknorth was already incredibly powerful and an expert of the Dao of the Sword. If he had a Dao sword as well…how deadly would he become?!

Ning’s ‘Heartsword Realm’ was a technique allowing him absolute control over himself and his sword. Even those more powerful than him would find it difficult to break his sword stances, unless the difference in power was truly enormous.

The [Nameless] sword-art was simply too formidable.

Even someone like World God Northrest, who had access to the resources of the mighty Vastheaven Palace, had been smitten by this sword-art. And even to the very day of his death, he had still been far from completely mastering the entire [Nameless] sword-art.

Whoosh.

World God Blackmist ceased his attacks.

Ning stood there, his face covered with sweat. His eyes, however, were blazing with excitement. He had been mentally exhausted just now, but he didn’t care at all. This was his first time fighting against such a formidable master of the Dao of the Sword; Ning naturally valued and cherished this opportunity.

“Thank you, senior,” Ning said gratefully.

Ning truly was extremely grateful.

It had been a long battle. At first, his sword-arts had continuously improved, but towards the end he was unable to improve any further. He had already made full use of all the insights and experiences he had gained during six thousand years of meditation in the Three Realms. No rate of explosive could be maintained forever. Clearly, the insights Ning had gained in recent years weren’t enough to allow him to truly master the ‘Killsword stance’ just yet.

However, he now comprehended the majority of the ‘Killsword stance’. The parts he had yet to comprehend were the hardest parts…but of course, the power of Ning’s sword-arts had increased significantly as well.

“It’s rare to encounter someone on Fogstone who understands the Dao of the Sword. You can come seek me out whenever you wish,” World God Blackmist said with a smile.

“Understood.” Ning was overjoyed.

Although Blackmist had said ‘whenever you wish’, Ning wouldn’t be so foolish as to actually seek him out all the time. When training in the sword, one had to have both insights and actual combat experience! Only when he had enough insights would he seek Blackmist out for another duel.

“Based on how quickly I’m improving…I should be able to master the second stance in about ten thousand years.” Ning mused to himself, “If I use the Heavengazer Tower, it should only take me a few centuries.”

If it wasn’t for World God Blackmist, Ning would probably need a hundred times as much time in order to succeed. In fact, it was entirely possible that Ning would encounter a bottleneck that would stymie him, no matter how hard he tried to breach it. With a capable teacher providing guidance, he would be able to easily make his way past those bottlenecks. A good teacher could make a tremendous difference.

“Darknorth.” The Starlord of Fogstone spoke out as Immortal Abyssus and World God Blackmist both looked towards Ning.

“Starlord.” Ning looked at him respectfully.

“You are quite strong indeed. Fogstone has a total of five generals. As of today, you are now the sixth.” The Starlord smiled.

Ning was slightly startled. ‘General’ was an important rank; not only did one have to be powerful, one generally also needed to have rendered accomplishments for the organization.

“Understood,” Ning hurriedly said.

“Since you are a general, we won’t place too many restrictions on you,” the Starlord said with a smile. “If my guess is correct, you probably haven’t been training for too long.”

“Right,” Ning said.

“Mm. Since you’ve only trained for a short period of time, I imagine you are definitely working hard to try and break through to the World-level.” The Starlord continued, “That means in the future, you’ll go out adventuring. This is the lifeblood oath I need you to make in order to join the Fogstone Army. It is a fairly loose one.” As he spoke, he waved his hand, causing a scroll to fly down towards Ning.

Ning accepted the scroll. Anyone who wished to join an organization would have to swear a lifeblood oath. However, if one merely joined as a ‘guest retainer’, the terms of the lifeblood oath would generally be much looser.

Ning glanced through the scroll. Indeed, this lifeblood oath was a fairly relaxed one. It placed almost negligible constraints on Ning, only requiring him to be loyal to Fogstone.

“Starlord,” Ning said respectfully. “Can we make a slight alteration to this oath?”

“Alteration?” The Starlord frowned. This oath was already an extremely loose one. “What part needs altering?”

“In the future, my journeys will most likely take me beyond the Badlands Territory,” Ning said respectfully.

“Leave the Badlands?” The three World-level experts were all puzzled.

The Badlands Territory was a vast place with many World-level experts. A territory of this size was more than large enough for an Elder God or Ancestral Immortal to adventure through.

“I don’t have a choice. I’m bound by another lifeblood oath. In the future, I’ll definitely have to leave the Badlands Territory and seek out a place known as Vastheaven Palace.” Ning immediately asked, “Might I ask the three of you, seniors, if you know where Vastheaven Palace is?”

There was no need for him to hide the fact that he had to seek out Vastheaven Palace.

These three World-level figures were all much more experienced than him. Perhaps they might know where Vastheaven Palace lay.