Desolate Era (Book 16 - Book 18)

“My brothers all died in battle…was it all for nothing?”


“My Skysong clan’s Heaven Punisher was destroyed. We had twelve Celestial Immortals in our ranks, but I was the only one lucky enough to survive. I had thought that after our grand victory, I would spend some time having our clan rest and rebuild. But now…”

Pain. Heartbreak.

The Crimsonbright Realm was their home. Their foundation. The place where countless generations of their clan members had toiled over, shedding blood and sweat. They were willing to die for their homeland; they were even willing to accept the deaths of their brothers, masters, and disciples if it meant winning this battle. It would all be worth it! But…they weren’t going to be able to win. They were going to lose!

……

Ning was by himself atop the city walls.

“Ji Ning.” The red-haired Empyrean God Redsnow had arrived. He gently patted Ning on the shoulders. “Bestir yourself. This is nothing more than one of many pitfalls you shall encounter on your Immortal path.”

“I understand.” Ning nodded.

“Once you move past it…you will see that the seas and the skies remain as vast as they ever were.” Empyrean God Redsnow looked at Ning, hope in his eyes.

“Just give me a little more time to think things over,” Ning said softly.

“Alright.” Empyrean God Redsnow didn’t try to force things. He knew very well what sort of a person Ji Ning was. That was why he liked Ji Ning so much, supporting him and believing him to be the most suitable successor to the Starseizing Manor! Only a man who cared deeply about relationships would win the trust of his comrades. Selfish individuals like Sword Immortal Evergreen…how many would truly be willing to trust and befriend him?

However, people who cared deeply about relationships would also be deeply wounded by them.

In fact, even some of the major powers of the Three Realms had been deeply wounded in their relationships…and despite the passage of countless eras, they remained unable to truly heal from those wounds.

Empyrean God Redsnow left.

“Move past it?” Ning murmured to himself, “How can I move past it?”

Ning had felt tremendous despair when he saw Yu Wei die.

But now that he knew that Yu Wei wasn’t dead…he was momentarily overjoyed, then forced to make a choice. He had chosen to personally consign Yu Wei to the Infinity Hells. This caused Ning to feel even greater heartbreak.

Although his body remained in the mortal world, his heart had already entered Hell.

Guilt.

Pain.

Ning wanted to force them all down, to suppress them, to move past it all…but how could he possibly suppress them all?

“I confidently viewed myself as a favored son of heaven, as a formidably talented figure. But I was wrong. I was wrong. She’s now suffering endless torment in the Infinity Hells, but there’s nothing I can do. Not a damn thing.” Ning stared at the desolate landscape, which had long ago become utterly ruined and ravaged by the wars between the Immortals and Fiendgods. “I’m just like this landscape here. Like the grass atop the ground. In the face of the Immortals and Fiendgods who do battle…the only thing the grass can do is be trampled upon and destroyed, because it can’t fight back at all.”

“Weak.”

“I’m still puny and weak.”

“Formidably talented? No matter how talented I am, it will be a long, long time before I can possibly be a match for the Godking. In the here and now…I remain very weak. Faced with the Godking’s power, all I could do was to let it all happen. I wasn’t able to stop him, to push back at all.”

The utter despair he felt…what he witnessed first-hand was what caused it to be etched into his bones and imprinted into his soul.

The Godking made Ji Ning choose.

Ji Ning had no choice but to choose!

He could only watch as the Godking sent Yu Wei into the Infinity Hells! The only thing he could do was to kneel down and hope that he could move the Godking with his words…but alas, it was useless.

He was powerless!

Everything was under the Godking’s control. The only thing Ning could do was accept it all.

Ning stared at the wild grass atop the ravaged landscape. He felt like he was the grass; there was nothing he could do but be trampled upon, be broken, be attacked, be destroyed…the only thing he could do was to accept it!

As Ning was staring at the grass vacantly…

Ning’s heart suddenly became completely calm, empty, and ephemeral.

The countless strands of grass…the dust…it seemed to spread into Ning’s very heart, and Ning’s heart itself was expanding as well to accommodate them. In fact, even the skies themselves seemed to extend into Ning’s heart. Slowly, the entirety of Whitepole Commandery was contained within Ning’s heart, which continued to grow and grow…

His heart was endlessly vast. As vast as Heaven and Earth, all of which was contained within his heart.

Ning’s heart had reached out to encompass all 3600 commanderies. In fact, it reached out to cover even the vast and massive seas. The entire world of the Grand Xia, protected by the planar membrane, was like a giant oval spheroid…and the entire vast spheroid had already become one with Ning’s heart.

In fact, his heart was still trying to continue to expand, to stretch out to the vast, vacant Void itself.

It was a powerful, innate desire of his heart.

Ning sat there atop the city walls. He said softly to himself, “Though I come from the mortal dust, my heart still soars towards the heavens.”





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Book 18, Chapter 51 - Heartforce, Stage Four


Ji Ning wiped the tears from his eyes. He understood that these were tears of joy, an uncontrollable joy that had come out upon his heart becoming one with Heaven in Earth.

“So…in the past, I was wrong, ridiculously wrong.”

“No wonder the truly supreme divine archers of the Three Realms are all so low-key.”

Ning finally understood the true nature of the fourth stage of heartforce, ‘mortal dust’.

It was like the grass upon the desolate battlefield…

It had to struggle to emerge from the dirt and grow up. It fought for every ray of sunshine, every drop of rain, because it wanted to grow higher and higher. It might be very low-key and unremarkable…but not even the most exalted major powers of the Three Realms could stop the will and the heart of the grass. The heart was infinite and unlimited; even a beggar could have the heart and ambitions of an emperor.

The power of the heart was invisible and formless…but it was incomparably marvelous.

Even mortals who had sufficiently powerful hearts and wills could create miracles. They would become heroes!

As for Immortal cultivators…

The number in the Three Realms who were able to reach the fourth stage of heartforce, ‘mortal dust’, was incredibly low! The number who managed to reach this fourth stage when at the Empyrean God or True Immortal level could be counted on one hand. Even amongst the exalted True Gods and Daofathers, the fourth stage essentially represented an absolute limit. Only one person had ever broken past this limit…Houyi!

Houyi was the only person to ever reach the fifth stage of heartforce, and he even left behind a systemized technique for training in it. His power was acclaimed at all, but he had long ago disappeared.

From this, one could tell how incredibly difficult it was for one to reach the fourth stage of heartforce.

“I’m like the wild grass. I’m nothing more than an unremarkable blade of grass. In the face of the Godking, in the face of the major powers…I’m unbelievably weak.” Ning had been seated atop the city walls, but he now rose to his feet and stared towards the skies. “But I want to walk further along my path, to make it to greater heights, to become even more powerful than the Godking. In fact, I want to reach Pangu and Nuwa’s level…and then surpass them!”

“No matter how lowly a person might be, his heart is limitless.” Ning felt very moved.