The Thousand-Life Heart Trial; Awakening in the Void

The most terrifying tribulation of Karmic Hellfire was this Thousand-Life Heart Trial. It was like a thousand cycles of reincarnation; if one’s Dao-heart was even slightly lacking, they would likely become lost in it. For a cultivator, living through life after life could blur the memories of the past, the accumulated personalities of a thousand lifetimes merging together and confounding the original persona.

The sheer experience of a thousand lifetimes was enough to cause many Loose Immortals to sink into depravity, after which the Karmic Hellfire would burn their souls to cinders.

Moreover, the Thousand-Life Heart Trial was not a simple possession and reincarnation a thousand times. For Ji Ning, each of the thousand individuals he possessed resonated with him, each one causing him to feel regret and self-blame. If it had been a random reincarnation, such as possessing a group of villains, it likely wouldn’t have shaken Ji Ning’s Iceheart Realm at all.

But these were the experiences of people whose inner hearts overlapped with Ji Ning’s own, and they gradually infiltrated his true nature.

When it all converged!

The surging emotions of over a thousand lifetimes erupted in an instant, reaching an inconceivable intensity. This was the final, most terrible strike of the Thousand-Life Heart Trial. Who knows how many peerless figures had fallen at this step.

“Boom~~~” The Iceheart Realm was completely submerged. Ji Ning could no longer maintain his state of icy clarity.

“You deserve to die.”

“It’s all your fault.”

“Die. Die.”

“Go and die.”

“I want you dead.”

“Avenge A’Fu.”

The figures of a thousand possessed lives appeared before him, roaring, their faces twisted with malice.

“It’s all my fault. All me, all me. If I hadn’t shattered that Universe Pearl back then, they all could have lived. They had children, wives, parents, masters, brothers. If not for me, they could have all lived happily.” Ji Ning was entirely consumed by the endless flood of emotions, falling into a demonic trance.

“Dying is release. I have failed them. I have no face to face them. Only death remains…”

…

In the Realm of Annihilation, amidst the endless, dark void tides, Ji Ning drifted with the currents, tossed about by the waves of the void, sent floating in all directions.

He floated, eyes closed, lying in the void.

If Uncle White, Qingqing, or the others had been there, they would have immediately noticed that Ji Ning’s aura was rapidly weakening, declining at a shocking speed. This was the true moment of the Thousand-Life Heart Trial’s final eruption.

…

“Almost seven days.”

“The seven days are almost up. Master must live. He must.”

In the Yan Mountains, the Whitewater Hound, Qingqing, and Mu Northson all waited in silent hope. The Whitewater Hound had stopped drinking his wine in solitude. Mu Northson had stopped his self-pity. Qingqing, even more so, was muttering prayers over and over.

They were hoping…

At this moment, seven days prior, the Karmic Hellfire had descended.

At this moment, seven days later, was Ji Ning’s most dangerous hour.

“He must live.”

…

In the void tides of the Realm of Annihilation, Ji Ning’s aura indeed decayed rapidly. But when it weakened to an extremely faint, residual thread, it could no longer decline. It was as if something hard and unyielding had propped up his Dao-heart from below, preventing it from truly collapsing.

Within Ji Ning’s mind.

All was dark.

When the Thousand-Life Heart Trial struck, Ji Ning’s Dao-heart weakened to its extreme, plunging into a darkness of absolute despair. Logically, he should have sunk. But he did not.

“I want great freedom and great ease!”

“I want to hold my fate in my own hands, not be toyed with by destiny!”

“I don’t want everyone I love to leave me…”

When his Dao-heart reached its most fragile point, a voice sounded from the deepest part of his mind. It was Ji Ning’s most resolute voice, the most persistent cry of his soul.

On Earth, in his past life, Ji Ning had already made such a cry.

In this life, seeing his mother and father depart one by one in the Yan Mountains, he had felt the same longing.

When he had realized his own Sword Heart, Ji Ning’s dao-heart was to achieve true great freedom and great ease, to control his own fate!

This was the voice from the very depths of Ji Ning’s heart.

“I…”

“I am Ji Ning.”

“What I seek is great freedom and great ease. Fate should be controlled by me, not me controlled by fate.” Ji Ning’s Dao-heart began to concentrate and rise rapidly. The aura of the body floating in the Realm of Annihilation also began to surge.

Ji Ning gradually regained his clarity, and reason slowly returned.

The conviction in his heart before was pure instinct, not reason.

But as reason returned, Ji Ning’s Dao-heart recovered even faster, and at this moment, it was even more refined. “Their deaths were indeed my fault, but since they are dead, it is already in the past. Time cannot flow backward; the past cannot be changed. To punish myself for things that cannot be changed is to be toyed with by fate—how foolish! The one who truly masters myself is none other than me!”

Swoosh.

The youth floating in the void tides of the Realm of Annihilation suddenly opened his eyes. His eyes were brilliant like stars, profound and endless.

“I made it through. The Karmic Hellfire… I survived it.” The youth murmured softly.

The Karmic Hellfire had already become ethereal, invisible to the naked eye, detectable only through divine sense or heartforce. The ethereal flames still surrounded Ji Ning, but the various heart-tribulation illusions—the Soul-Extermination Tribulation, the Mortal World Tribulation, the Thousand-Life Heart Trial—would not appear again. Yet the ethereal flames continued to burn his soul, causing him pain. This pain could not compare to the Soul-Extermination Tribulation, which was a pain of the heart that could climb infinitely. The pain of burning the soul was destined to be limited.

But burning the soul was far more painful than burning the physical body.

“No wonder it’s said that only those who can endure Karmic Hellfire and yet not die are true, peerless great demons,” Ji Ning sighed. “A great demon who actively slaughters countless beings, attracting Karmic Hellfire… if they can survive the Thousand-Life Heart Trial, the strength of their heart must have reached an inconceivable level.”

“I have passed through the Hellfire. I have reached the Iceheart Realm, and I even nearly reached the Mastery Realm.” Ji Ning mused secretly.

His awakening in the final moment, breaking through the shackles, was because of the deepest obsession within him… This obsession awakened him, consolidated his Dao-heart, and made him understand that the master of himself must be himself. Even if he were to die, he could only die if he himself was willing. As for anything else that wanted him dead? That was a dream.

But understanding this and truly achieving it were two different things. Ji Ning was clear that he had not yet reached the Mastery Realm.

The heartforce levels of the Houyi Archery Art: the first realm was Entry, the second was Iceheart, and the third was Mastery!

Once the Mastery Realm was reached, the master of one’s heart was oneself!

Nothing external could shake it. If one truly reached the Mastery Realm, neither the Mortal World Tribulation nor the Thousand-Life Heart Trial could cause Ji Ning’s aura to decline in the slightest, because such external emotional assaults would be completely ignored by him.

If the Iceheart Realm was about isolating the inner heart from the external world, maintaining a state of icy clarity, then…

The Mastery Realm was a state of transcendence. Blocking is not as good as channeling. A Heartforce expert who had reached the Mastery Realm would not deliberately suppress emotions or desires, nor would they even resist them in the deepest part of their heart. They would allow all emotions to surge through them… just like the Great Yu taming the floods, allowing the rivers and seas to surge, yet everything remained under their control.

“Still a bit short.”

“The final Thousand-Life Heart Trial perfected my Iceheart Realm, bringing it close to perfection. I am very close to the Mastery Realm.” Ji Ning also understood that although he could conceptualize it, having even faintly sensed a trace of the Mastery Realm in that final moment of despair, truly breaking through to that level was still a distant prospect.

A breakthrough in the heart…

Is harder than comprehending the Dao.

For cultivators, the Dao-heart is the most important, followed by comprehending the Dao, and finally, cultivation level!

If the Dao-heart is insufficient… no matter how high your Dao comprehension or cultivation level, you will fall into Qi Deviation. The higher your strength, the more cleanly you will die.

The Dao-heart must be strong enough, and then the Dao comprehension must reach a certain level, before one can break through to a certain realm. For many peerless geniuses, even reincarnated Immortals who awakened their past life memories, their Dao realm was already very high, and their Dao-heart was also very strong. They could then use Primordial Liquid or spirit pills to raise their cultivation level. But even so, their cultivation level could not surpass the limit their Dao-heart and Dao comprehension could bear.

Cultivation level can be raised quickly, but Dao-heart and Dao comprehension… cannot be faked.

“Even so, I couldn’t reach the Mastery Realm. What a pity. If I had, I would be considered a top-tier divine archer in the Three Realms.” Ji Ning sighed.

The Houyi Archery Art divided Heartforce into five levels.

The third level, the Mastery Realm, reaching this level qualified one as a top-tier divine archer in the Three Realms.

The fourth level was the level currently reached by the few strongest divine archers in the Three Realms.

The fifth level was the level of Houyi himself. The ancient great god Houyi had disappeared for so long that no one knew where he was. Some said he was dead, some said he was in seclusion somewhere. But he had been gone for far, far too long… A strong man rarely has the patience to disappear for so long without contacting other major powers. Thus, many speculated that Houyi was dead.

Ji Ning’s current Heartforce level was the second level, Iceheart, nearing perfection. His Heartforce was strong enough to be considered a first-rate divine archer in the Three Realms.

Before, he had only just entered the door, which merely qualified him as an archer.

“Boom~~~”

A wave of void tide crashed into Ji Ning, sending him flying thousands of li away, startling him back to full awareness.

“Such a powerful impact. If I hadn’t trained in the Eight-Nine Arcane Art, I would have been finished.” Ji Ning finally shook off his contemplations and began to observe his surroundings. Endless, dark void, with faintly visible storms of void tide. “Where is this? And… why is there not a trace of natural energy?”

Ji Ning was shocked to find there was no natural energy. Cultivators needed to refine natural energy to replenish their Yuan power, and Immortals needed to replenish their dharma power.

“And what about the Dao?”

“What about the Heavenly Dao?”

Ji Ning was horrified to find that the Sword Dao, the Dripping Dao, and all the other Daos he could once clearly sense had vanished. Everything was gone. He could sense nothing. Without the Heavenly Dao, even if his sword techniques contained the profundities of the Dao, they could not draw upon a shred of heavenly might.

“No natural energy, no Heavenly Dao?” Ji Ning stared in disbelief at the boundless, dark, annihilated void around him. “Where… where in the world is this?”