The Desolate Era

The black-robed Ji Ning’s gaze was focused upon a river that flowed through the void. This river... was the River of Destiny.

Destiny was omnipresent. All living beings had their own destiny. Even powerful cultivators like Ning or mighty Eternal Emperors had their own destinies as well. So long as you were alive, you would have a destiny all your own! These countless destinies came together to form an endless Sea of Destiny, with the destiny of the living beings of the Three Realms being merely a small rivulet of that endless sea.

This void river was all but indetectible to ordinary living creatures, but Ning was able to see countless truesouls flowing through that great river.

Whoosh. Ning swept the river searchingly with his gaze.

“Father. Mother!” Ning suddenly revealed a look of excitement on his face. He had discovered two truesouls which were located right next to each other, rising and falling through the ‘waves’ of the river together. Ning was very familiar with the auras given off by those two truesouls. He would never be able to forget them.

Those truesouls were the truesouls belonging to his father and his mother.

Only major powers who had personally seen Yuchi Snow and Ji Yichuan would be able to locate their truesouls within the endless flow of truesouls in the River of Destiny.

“Freeze!” Ning sent out his will. Rumble... an invisible, powerful stream of sword-intent that was as gentle as water instantly encompassed the entire River of Destiny, causing it to come to a complete halt.

Merely seeing the River of Destiny was easy, but to draw truesouls out from within it and then revive them was incredibly difficult. This was because such an action represented going against the will of the heavens and changing the flows of destiny; it went against the very laws of the Three Realms themselves. However, Ning was now powerful enough to annihilate the Three Realms with ease; he was naturally able to easily accomplish a task like this.

Still... if Ning’s parents had perished in an Everworld, there would be no way for Ning to retrieve their truesouls from that Everworld’s River of Destiny! This was because the repercussions of breaking an Everworld’s laws were far greater. Most likely, only Eternal Emperors and outlandishly strong Daolords would be able to resist those repercussions.

......

The River of Destiny had been frozen in place. None of the countless mortal denizens in the Three Realms could sense the laws of the Three Realms trying to fight back, but the more powerful Immortals and Fiendgods of the Three Realms could.

The Crescent world. Mount Innerheart. Two figures were seated opposite of each other, holding a casual conversation regarding the world and the Dao.

“Eh? The River of Destiny just came to a halt?” The bearded, azure-haired man suddenly let out a surprised call.

“Most likely, only my disciple Ji Ning is capable of forcing the River of Destiny to come to a halt.” Opposite the first man was a white-haired, white-bearded old man – Subhuti.

These two were currently the two strongest members of the Three Realms. One was Ning’s master, Subhuti, who had been ranked the top master of the Dao of Spacetime in all the Three Realms. Ever since Fuxi, Shennong, Suiren, Daoist Three Purities, Lord Tathagata, Houyi, and the others had all sacrificed themselves in the Endwar, Subhuti had become the number one expert of the entire Nuwa Alliance. But of course, that was excluding Ji Ning, who had long ago reached the World level.

The other man was the Lord of All Fiends of the Seamless Gate. He was now their sole leader, ‘Windfiend’... and he had long ago surpassed the limits of the Heavenly Daos in movement speed.

Both were at extremely high levels of enlightenment and were far superior to most Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals in this regard. Ever since Ning had reached the World level, he began to transmit many techniques back to the Three Realms! With those techniques guiding them, they instantly became far more powerful than they had been in the past. At present, they had reached such a high level of insight that they were able to break through to the World level whenever they wished. This was why they often sat together to discuss the Dao with each other. When all of their arrangements and preparations were complete, they would break through to the World level.

“It really is Ji Ning.” Windfiend’s divine sense instantly spread out across all the Three Realms, discovering the black-robed Ning standing in the void of the Three Realms. He could sense that stately, awe-inspiring aura of majesty radiating out from Ning.

“Let’s go.” Subhuti waved a finger, causing a spatial vortex to appear next to them. Whoosh! The two both entered the spatial vortex, then hastened towards Ning.

......

“The River of Destiny froze?”

Mt. Ling, in the eastern lands of the Celestial Realm.

Buddha Maitreya sat above all others. He was now the new Lord Buddha of the Buddhist Sangha. He had always had a very high level of enlightenment, being just slightly inferior to Lord Tathagata himself. Ever since Ji Ning had transmitted many new techniques to the Three Realms, he had grown much more powerful and was second only to the likes of Subhuti and Windfiend.

......

Fruit-Flower Mountain.

“Heeeey, it’s my junior apprentice-brother!” The Monkey King had been munching away at his food when he suddenly froze, then revealed a look of delight. “Time to go take a look!”

Sun Wukong was an incredibly talented figure, and he was now one of the top ten figures of the Three Realms.

......

Daoist Jade Cauldron, Kuafu, Holyflame, Bloodswan, Amitabha, and the other experts of the Three Realms all sensed the ripples and immediately hastened over there as well.

......

The black-robed Ning stood there amidst the void of the Three Realms. He could sense space rippling in the area around him as one figure after another began to emerge.

His master, Subhuti. His senior apprentice-brothers Sun Wukong and Silvermoon. Buddha Maitreya. Buddha Amitabha. Jade Cauldron. Bloodswan. They all began to appear, one after another, and Ning nodded in their direction. As for these Immortals and Fiendgods, they just watched afar, not moving to intervene. Ever since Ning had broken through to the World level, he had continuously transmitted techniques back to them.

In truth, Ning was quite amazed. The cultivators of the Three Realms weren’t necessarily all monstrous geniuses, but on the whole they were clearly far more talented than cultivators from other chaosworlds! The Three Sovereigns of Mankind, Daoist Three Purities, Tathagata, Houyi... without any guidance or legacies, they had reached such astonishingly great heights in enlightenment that they were able to battle against Elder Gods despite merely being at the True God level! This meant they were at a far higher level of enlightenment than most Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals.

If they were given good techniques or good teachers... the Three Sovereigns of Mankind, Daoist Three Purities, Lord Tathagata, Houyi, and the others all could’ve become World-level cultivators! It must be understood that Buddha Jueming originally hadn’t been a particularly impressive member of the Buddhist Sangha; his innate talent was far inferior to the likes of Daoist Three Purities, Tathagata, and the others. It had been very hard for him to even reach the True God level! However, after spending many arduous years in Undermoon Lake as an Empyrean God, he had received the legacy techniques of World God Northrest and had thus been able to reach the Elder God level.

This was a testament to how important good techniques and good teachers were.

It wasn’t just the Three Realms; even the experts of the Seamless Chaosworld, such as Everwood, Demonheart, Devilhand, and Windfiend were also extremely spectacular figures who were comparable to Daoist Three Purities and Lord Tathagata.

“The Pangu Chaosworld and the Seamless Chaosworld... the cultivators who arose from it are all far more talented and impressive than the cultivators in other chaosworlds.” Ning was secretly amazed. “There has to be a reason behind it.”

The endless primordial chaos was filled with mysteries and secrets. No one would ever dare claim that he or she fully understand it. Not even the almighty Hegemon could make that claim, and so Ning didn’t spend too much time on this question.

“I’ve now perfectly joined five Supreme Daos together. After I become a Daolord, I’ll become much more powerful. By then, I should be able to buy some truly precious legacies and techniques, then transmit them to the Three Realms and strengthen it,” Ning mused to himself.

The techniques he had previously transmitted were all fairly ordinary. He had also transmitted a few ordinary techniques left behind by Northrest. As for the more valuable legacies? Ning had learned quite a few! He had learned from Emperor Mirrorsnow, had viewed the eighty thousand-plus sword-arts in the sword pagodas of the Sword Palace, and had acquired the legacy of a deceased Hegemon as well as the [Seven Leafpill Chapters]. However, he had sworn lifeblood oaths to never divulge any of them to others. Even though he was able to teach the first chapter of the [Seven Leafpill Chapters] to others, that chapter only pertained to the Dao of Alchemy. How many cultivators truly focused in this Dao? Too few!

If you wished to truly strengthen an organization, you needed all types of techniques and legacies, especially powerful ones. This was no easy task.

“Prior to today, I’ve only been able to transmit fairly ordinary techniques back, but the Three Realms has already strengthened dramatically. Master and Windfiend are about to break through to the World level at any moment, while Maitreya and the others might succeed as well. If I was able to transmit better techniques to them... my homeland might give birth to an entire crop of World-level cultivators.”

Ning eagerly awaited such a day, the day when the Three Realms truly skyrocketed in prominence.

......

Ning continued to focus upon the River of Destiny. His gentle sword-intent moved with incredible softness, but it contained unbelievable power! The gentle sword-intent carefully embraced those two truesouls within its grip.

Rumble...

The entire River of Destiny began to roil about in protest as a backlash began.

Ning was incredibly careful. He obviously didn’t care about the backlash, but he was worried that it might cause collateral damage to his parents’ truesouls. Even the slightest bit of damage might cause those frail truesouls to instantly disintegrate.

“Hmph.” Ning’s sword-intent wrapped those two truesouls in protective layers as it slowly drew them both from the depths of the River of Destiny.

Rumble... the backlash from the River of Destiny grew increasingly powerful. Towards the end, the entire river began to writhe about as it fought to hold onto those two truesouls. Ning’s sword-intent, however continuously protected the truesouls with layers of barriers, taking on the full force of the backlash head-on.

Whoosh! Finally, the mass of sword-light flew out from within the River of Destiny. The River of Destiny had failed, and so it quickly regained its normal calm and continued to function stably as it had in the past.

“Success.” Subhuti, Windfiend, Sun Wukong, Jade Cauldron, and the others all revealed looks of delight when they saw this.

“Darknorth, congratulations.”

“Ji Ning, congratulations.” They all called out to express their congratulations. Now that the truesouls had been drawn out, the next step of restoring their souls and manifesting bodies would be easy.

Ning couldn’t disguise his own excitement either.

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