The Heartforce Awakening

“Hmph.” The commander in the violet cloak could sense the growing restlessness within this foreigner. He had a faint feeling that this was the other side’s final struggle. “It seems he can’t hold on much longer.”

“DIE!”

Suddenly, Ji Ning let out a furious shout.

He no longer conserved his divine power in the slightest. Instead, he madly channeled it into his hands, pouring in every last ounce of strength! At the same time, he used a secret art to fuse the Primal yuan power within his body into his palms in a single surge. At this moment, Ji Ning had only one belief: to disregard all consequences and unleash his ultimate peak of power.

Even with this frenzy, his strength had only increased by about thirty percent.

“BREAK!”

With six arms, Ji Ning unleashed six streaks of sword-light.

Even his usually calm eyes now held a faint glow—the burning radiance of a life at its final moment. All of Ji Ning’s heart and mind converged into his sword.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Four simultaneous explosions rang out.

When Ji Ning’s six sword-fingers stabbed out, four of them collided with the four silver whips. With a loud blast, the silver whips were actually sent flying back. Yet Ji Ning’s fingers continued to thrust forward.

“What?!” The eyes of the violet-cloaked commander bulged wide. “How is this possible?”

“Impossible!”

The thousand-plus black-cloaked, horned soldiers watching from afar were also stunned by the sight. They could all sense that Ji Ning was in his death throes, completely suppressed. How could he suddenly unleash an attack that surpassed their commander’s, defeating his weapon in a head-on clash?

…

“This… how could this be?” The yellow-furred bear within the ethereal, empty space of the aquatic palace was also utterly astonished as he watched the scene unfold.

If anyone was most familiar with Ji Ning’s strength, it would be the yellow-furred bear.

He was very clear on Ji Ning’s capabilities. What Ji Ning had shown before was already his limit. Even at the cost of his life, he could increase his power by at most twenty to thirty percent, still far from matching the violet-cloaked commander. How could he have suddenly shattered the other’s silver whip?

“How is this possible?”

“It doesn’t make sense.”

“There’s no way.” The yellow-furred bear couldn’t understand. “This isn’t the Three Realms. There’s no way to comprehend the Dao. So even if his Dao-realm improved, it wouldn’t help his combat power. And he’s in the middle of a life-or-death battle, consuming vast amounts of divine power. There’s absolutely no way he could break through to the 17th stage of the Crimsonbright Diagram. He only recently reached the 16th!”

A breakthrough in his divine body? Impossible.

A breakthrough in his Dao-realm? Useless even if it happened.

The Starseizing Hand was already at the fourth cycle!

“How?” The yellow-furred bear was baffled.

…

Within the golden warship of the frontier army’s First Army, which was rushing over at full speed and was now not far away, the ruling stratum of the First Army was also staring at the images displayed in the mirrors before them.

“Eh?”

“Strange.”

“What’s going on? What technique does this foreigner possess?”

None of them understood.

The general in a black-lined, gold cloak laughed heartily, “Good! The longer he drags this out, the better. We’ll be there soon. Haha, it seems we’ll have to make a move to capture this foreigner ourselves.”

…

These experts of the Broken Horn World didn’t understand, and neither did the yellow-furred bear. None of them could even guess the reason.

In the endless darkness.

Three streams of divine will were colliding and communicating.

“Second Sister. What is happening?”

“Big Sister, what’s wrong?”

The three Mother Queens had given birth to many children. Those they spawned were considered the ‘first generation.’ Nearly half of the ruling stratum of the First Army were first-generation. Anything the first generation saw or sensed, the three Mother Queens could also see and sense! Thus, they were fully aware of the battle’s events.

The commander of the special task force of the third void ring, ‘Benar,’ was a child of the Second Mother Queen. His fight with Ji Ning was as if the Second Mother Queen herself was fighting him.

“This is…”

“Heartforce?”

“Yes. Heartforce. It’s HEARTFORCE!!!” The Second Mother Queen’s powerful will suddenly rippled with intense excitement. “This human’s attack just now contained Heartforce!”

“What? Heartforce?”

“Heartforce? He has actually mastered Heartforce?”

The First Mother Queen and the Third Mother Queen also became excited.

“Yes, there is absolutely no mistaking it. I have even descended a sliver of my will directly onto my child, Benar.” The Second Mother Queen said excitedly, “We exchanged another blow. There’s no mistake. This human’s attacks contain Heartforce. His control over it is not yet perfect; it’s still quite crude. But I can feel that mysterious, powerful Heartforce.”

“This is our opportunity.” The Second Mother Queen was incomparably agitated. “This human knows how to condense Heartforce and how to use it! He has mastered the method of Heartforce! This is a truly top-tier power. We can obtain from this human the secrets of how to condense and use Heartforce!”

“Yes, we can obtain the Heartforce method.”

“This is our chance.”

The other two Mother Queens were also intensely excited.

They had experienced that great calamity long ago. As survivors, they were well aware that ‘Heartforce’ was one of the most supreme types of power. Mastering Heartforce meant treading upon the path to becoming a peak expert of the endless primordial chaos! It was a path with the potential to surpass the level of True Gods and Daofathers!

“This is our opportunity, but we must not act recklessly.” The First Mother Queen’s will clashed with the other two. “The Heartforce method is definitely a top-tier secret that is not passed on lightly within the Three Realms. This human youth must have an extraordinary background to have learned such a technique. However, with such a method, he must have sworn a life oath never to teach it to others. If we force the issue, there might be some self-destruct mechanism within his soul.”

“Actually, the simplest method is to subject him to soul-slavery… but he is a Fiendgod Body Refiner of the human race. His soul and body are perfectly fused and extremely stable. Moreover, since he cultivates the Heartforce method, his will is certainly incredibly strong. I estimate it would be very difficult to enslave him.”

“We have to try.”

The temptation of Heartforce was too great!

Heartforce…

was an ethereal, intangible power, unlike divine power, yuan power, or dharma power, which were visible to the naked eye. Yet, ‘Heartforce’ was incredibly powerful. The threshold to enter it was extremely high. Back in Mount Innerheart, Ji Ning, who already had a high level of insight, had spent over three years of bitter training in archery before he could just barely be considered to have entered the gate of Heartforce.

Yet the power of Heartforce was immense. The ancient god Houyi, relying on his powerful Heartforce, had become the number one divine archer of the Three Realms, with Daofathers and True Gods falling to his arrows.

Ji Ning was also stunned. The power of his sword-fingers had actually suppressed the whip of that violet-cloaked commander?

“This is… Heartforce?” Others might have to guess, but Ji Ning was well aware that in his most desperate strike just now, without any stray thoughts, with all his power gathered into a single blow… his Heartforce had unconsciously permeated his attack.

How was Heartforce to be used? This had always been a mystery.

Within the Three Realms, there existed a very detailed set of methods for using Heartforce with archery, created and systematized by the great god Houyi! It was thanks to Houyi’s systematic method of using Heartforce that the status of some terrifying divine archers in the Three Realms had risen so rapidly. However, there was still no systematic method for using Heartforce with other weapons.

A sword? How to attach Heartforce to it?

A saber?

A spear?

A staff?

As for these weapons, how could one attach Heartforce to them to dramatically increase their power? Since it worked for arrows, there was no reason it shouldn’t work for other weapons. However, in terms of ‘Heartforce,’ the highest achiever in the Three Realms was Houyi. Houyi had reached the pinnacle in archery, so he had created a systematic method of use for it. As for other weapons? Some other mighty figures might have discovered some crude methods of use, but these were far from being systematic methods that anyone could learn.

“I actually managed to use Heartforce on my fingers, executing a sword technique?” Ji Ning was utterly amazed.

An ordinary arrow was average in power.

But once infused with Heartforce, it became a nightmare for the enemy. Its power underwent a terrifying leap.

“However, it seems only a small portion of my Heartforce truly took effect just now.” Ji Ning was very clear. That small portion of Heartforce had been consumed. The rest had not been used. As a cultivator who had reached the third stage of Heartforce, ‘Dominion,’ Ji Ning’s Heartforce was very powerful. Even that small portion had been enough to raise the power of his sword technique by a level, enough to suppress his opponent.

“Foreigner! You still have tricks up your sleeve? Let me see just how strong you really are!” The violet-cloaked commander let out a loud shout and sent another whip lashing out. This time, the Second Mother Queen’s will had already descended upon this commander.

“Go.”

Ji Ning extended a single hand.

His finger thrust out!

Heartforce once again attached itself to his finger. Following the feeling from before, a small portion of the Heartforce he released truly merged completely with his finger.

BOOM. The several-hundred-zhang-long finger collided with the whip!

The whip was once again sent flying back.

“Yes, this is the feeling.” Ji Ning had already faintly discovered the trick. But compared to the method of applying Heartforce in the ‘Houyi Archery Art,’ this was far inferior. In the Houyi Archery Art, one could perfectly align their Heartforce with the arrow. A full-power arrow would probably consume ten to twenty percent of one’s Heartforce. After just a few full-power arrows, one’s Heartforce would be nearly depleted.

Using his sword-fingers, he could probably use them a thousand times before his Heartforce ran out.

Clearly, his trick was still very crude, incomparable to the Heartforce methods of the Houyi Archery Art. But that was an archery Heartforce method. Ji Ning could only use it as a reference, trying to find a way to make his sword-fingers stronger.

“Eh?” Ji Ning suddenly noticed that the violet-cloaked commander in the distance had stopped.

RUMBLE~~~

A powerful wave emanated in all directions. Ji Ning saw, in the distant void, massive ships, tens of thousands of li long, flying towards him. Dense ships stretched out, seemingly endless.

“How many warships is that?” Ji Ning shuddered.

The hatches of these massive ships opened, and countless horned warriors flew out. Among the countless warriors were also black-cloaked fighters! In a single glance, there were probably millions of ordinary horned warriors alone. And from the golden warship at the forefront, a group of violet-cloaked warriors flew out. Finally, a figure emerged, wearing a black-lined, golden cloak, whose aura alone inspired a sense of utter despair within Ji Ning.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! …

A stream of wills suddenly descended.

The three Mother Queens sent down several hundred wills, each descending upon that general as well as many of the violet-cloaked warriors.

“Don’t act rashly yet.” The Mother Queen’s voice rang out in the general’s mind.

“Yes, Mother Queen.” The general immediately replied internally.

…

“Big Bear, what’s going on out there? Has our young master’s divine power still not run out? I think we should act now, we can’t delay any further.” The black-armored, seductive woman ‘Snow Scorpion’ within the aquatic palace spoke up.